Should Parents Be Accountable?

That's what this piece suggests. If teachers are to be fired based on test results, what do we do about parents who can't get their kids to school? Should they be fined? Should their names appear in the NY Post so their neighbors can shun them and they can fear leaving their homes?

Probably not. Who knows why kids do what they do? They don't, in fact, come with guarantees. I know some great parents who wind up with extremely problematic kids. Of course, there is such a thing as negligence, and we ought not to accept that from parents, teachers, or anyone. In NY, parents who won't come to school to discuss their kids are negligent.

Teachers who won't help those kids are negligent too. But all the help in the world won't help a kid who, for whatever reason, is not prepared to learn. As an ESL teacher, I see kids who've been dragged from their countries and cultures and really don't want to be here. Kids like that cling to their cultures and refuse to learn English. When kids come from homes characterized by poverty and despair, teachers can't push a button and get them up to speed.

Parents have more influence over their own kids. But kids, despite our best efforts, have minds of their own. If parents do their jobs, they'll try very hard to steer kids in the right direction. They will not always succeed. If teachers to our jobs, we'll try to make kids understand and excel. But we won't always succeed either.

It's not a coincidence that so-called failing schools invariably contain high concentrations of ESL and special education students. It turns out, remarkably, that kids who don't know English have a tougher time passing tests. Furthermore, kids with learning disabilities often take longer to pass said tests. "Reformers" shout "no excuses," but these are not excuses. They are facts.

Of course parents should be accountable for responsible parenting. And of course teachers should be accountable for responsible teaching. But no one should be asked to perform miracles. I don't, for example, expect politicians to magically erase poverty. But it's absolutely unacceptable they ignore it and lay its consequences on working teachers, unions, parents, or anyone.

Pogo (pictured above) was right. We're all responsible for our society, and if we're going to change it for the better, we'll have to do more than simply point fingers at one another.

Take this Job and Shove It

So sang Johny Paycheck, in a massive crossover country hit that resonated loud and large with the American public.    How many of us harbor secret longings to let it all out?  How many injustices have we suffered?  How many unreasonable demands?  How many smiles have we offered when we intended daggers?

This week, Steven Slater, the real life embodiment of this fantasy, is an internet hero.  He’s Johny Paycheck.  He’s Popeye, who had all he can stands and can’t stands no more.  How many timid Americans go home and dream about doing the same?

I haven’t got an opinion about Mr. Slater one way or the other, but I can’t help but wonder what would happen if a teacher were to do the same thing.  What if I, for example, the next time a student requested I perform some unnatural act or other, were to drop my chalk and walk out?  Would someone put up a Facebook page offering to help me out?

I think not.

Recently, in fact, a teacher allegedly faked a fall down a stairway to avoid an observation.  (I’ll readily grant that this is not the sort of thing that makes people stand up and cheer.)  The New York Post determined this meant we need stricter accountability measures for teachers.  To me, it’s incredible anyone would come to such a conclusion based on the actions of one individual.  Should we judge all the members of that teacher’s religion, sex, or skin color based on her actions?    If we’re willing to stereotype her profession, why not go all the way? 

I can’t help but notice the Post hasn’t yet made any determination about flight attendants, or how they should be treated on the basis of the actions of a single individual.   But in these United States, in 2010, it's socially acceptable to stereotype teachers.

There are different expectations for us than for the rest of humanity.  We, apparently, are saints.  Politicians aren't.  At the last Democratic convention, GW Bush was not invited to speak.  Nor was Sarah Palin. Rush Limbaugh raised no objection, as far as I know.  The most I ever listen to Rush is never, so if anyone knows better, feel free to correct me.  But I’m pretty sure neither Rush, nor Sean Hannity, nor Glenn Beck said word one on that topic.

Yet Bill Gates spoke at the AFT convention, and not only to teacher-bashers see it as perfectly appropriate, but AFT bigshots think so too.  I’ve read in the comments at GothamSchools that this was by way of ongoing dialogue, that it’s important to keep contact with a personage of such influence.  I agree completely with the second part of that statement.  Of course we should talk to Bill Gates.  We’d be stupid not to.  Perhaps we could persuade him to stop talking such baseless nonsense.  Stranger things have happened.

Making him the featured speaker of our convention, however, sends quite a different message.  First of all, with no Q and A, it’s not a dialogue or negotiation in any sense.  More importantly, allowing someone to speak at a convention indicates respect or approval of that person’s policies.  And sure, if you’re a fan of school closings, merit pay, “value-added” assessments, mass firings of teachers, public schools being replaced with non-union charters, and all the other great ideas Bill has, invite him to speak.

If not, converse with him in private.  Try to get him to see the light.  I won't object.

Still, I'd advise you not to hold your breath waiting for Bill's moment of revelation.

No Clean Air For You

That's a photo of the cafeteria at P.S. 256 in the Rockaways, a school for children with developmental difficulties, autism or severe emotional disorders.

According to a report in the NY Daily News, the rest of the school building isn't in much better condition than the cafeteria. The peeling paint, crumbling plaster and broken tiles in the building contains asbestos, lead and other dangerous substances.

Now I'm no scientist, but if the rest of the building looks even half as bad as the photo of the cafeteria, I'd have to say the place sure isn't safe for use.

Apparently the Department of Education doesn't feel the same way, however. The Daily News says education officials "toured" the building in July and "made note of the disrepair" but continued to allow 60 staff members and 120 children to finish out the summer session at P.S. 256, which ended on August 15.

Gee, that makes sense. Kids with developmental disabilities need continuity, you know? You wouldn't want to upset them by moving them midway through the summer session.

DOE officials haven't decided what to do with the school yet, but the Daily News says they are meeting today to "review the situation."

I suspect now that the News has done the story and the photos have made it into the press, the school will be closed for a bit and the kids and staff will be moved somewhere else.

But you know that if the story hadn't made it into the papers, Chancellor Jolly Joel Klein and Mayor Moneybags could have cared less if kids and staff at P.S. 256 were breathing in asbestos every day and carrying the fibers home on their clothes to friends and family.

Now if these kids were attending a charter school or one of Bill Gates' small schools, that's a different story. As NYC Educator noted yesterday, the DOE has been pushing regular schools out of spaces in their buildings in order to place newly formed charter schools.

You see, all school students are equal, but charter school students are just a little more equal than others and charter schools must always receive precedence over the needs of regular schools.

After all, this is the mayor's reputation as an "education reformer," we're talking about here, and given the mayor's desire to break term limits and run for a third mayoral term, he's got to continue to show "accomplishments" to make an effective case to voters.

So charter schools must be given every opportunity and every resource necessary to make the mayor and the chancellor (and perhaps Bill Gates or some other corporate "education reformer") look good at year's end. Whatever it takes - space, money, clean air - nothing's too good for those charter school kids (see here for the latest charter school p.r. extravaganza/exercise in self-aggrandizement by Jolly Joel and Mayor Moneybags.)

But you kids and staff at P.S. 256, stop whining and finish your summer session - you're lucky you have environmental contamination at your school. If your school had been safe and clean, they would have stuck a charter school where you are and put you guys into a series of broom closets in the basement.

This is serious stuff, of course. Health problems related to lead show up pretty quickly, but health conditions related to asbestos do not show up for decades, so by the time any of the kids, family members of kids, or staff members are diagnosed with cancer as a result of their exposure to the contaminants at P.S. 256, the DOE and city officials responsible will be long gone.

Nonetheless, if that building at P.S. 256 contains exposed asbestos and DOE officials avoided doing anything about the problem until forced to by negative press reports, they will be guilty of murder when kids, family members of kids and staff members start dying from asbestos-related conditions decades from now.

There ought to be a study set up to track the health conditions of all the people exposed to that building, including family members (even people who have not been exposed to the contaminated site can be in danger because asbestos can be carried away from a contaminated area on clothing and other personal articles.)

The study ought to track how many of these people come down with health problems that can be traced to asbestos and/or lead exposure. That way we will know just how many people were harmed by this mess.

But I bet those will be the one set of statistics that normally stat-happy Jolly Joel or Mayor Moneybags won't want tracked.

New Visions /Garbage Diplomas

The New York Post reports that D.C.-based Policy Studies Associates compared 10 traditional public schools with 10 New Century high schools that are operated by the education reform group New Visions for Public Schools.

The comparison found that while the New Century high schools had a higher graduation rate than the traditional public schools (78.2% to 60.6%), more than half of the students who graduated from New Century schools received "local diplomas," which require a score of 55 on state Regents exams rather than 65.

In contrast, only about 30% of the students who graduated from the traditional public schools received local diplomas.

New York State is scrapping local diplomas next year. At the school where I teach, nearly every student we graduate receives a Regents diploma, even if that means we have to test students 2, 3 or 4 times on a Regents exam after extensive tutoring to help them get a score of 65 or higher.

I know this because I often teach the remedial ELA Regents class for students who have sat for the Regents and received a score between 55 and 64.

You see, the administration where I teach believes the "local diploma" (which most 4 year colleges outside of the proprietary variety will not accept) is essentially worthless.

Apparently the education reformers at New Century schools and New Visions for Public Schools don't quite see it that way, however.

The Post reports that New Century supporters acknowledge that their schools need to prepare more students to graduate with Regents diplomas but they say they are helping more kids to graduate than traditional public schools.

And that is true - the Policy Studies Associates' report found that 17% of students left the traditional public schools without graduating in 2006 while only 3% left New Century schools without a diploma.

But what good is graduating students with a worthless diploma that the state is scrapping next year and reputable colleges won't accept for admission?

I don't think it's any good at all, but what do I know?

Unlike the people in the education reform business at New Visions for Public Schools, I actually spend my day in the classroom trying to help students who haven't been able to score a 65 on a Regents exam achieve that benchmark.

Later today, I will be tutoring a student who has sat for the ELA Regents twice and failed to reach 65. I also will be teaching at least four Support Services students who could easily graduate with IEP diplomas, but my administration believes they can and should try for Regents diplomas.

It's not easy trying to help some students pass all 5 Regents exams with scores of 65, but if a school administration and staff really tries, it can be done.

Apparently, the education reform people at New Visions for Public Schools (who have opened 83 schools in New York City since 2002) don't think it can.

Otherwise, they'd be doing it instead of touting the percentage of students they graduate with garbage diplomas.

H/T: DR

Holding Charter Schools Accountable

As I noted yesterday, the NY Post reports that Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein have decided that New York City's charter schools do not have to operate under the same accountability rules as New York City's public schools.

While all of the city's 1,224 public schools either received a report card or will receive one in the very near future based upon a complex combination of test score progress, student/parent satisfaction with the school and graduation rate, the city's 60 charter schools will not.

According to the Department of Education, charter schools cannot be judged by the same accountability rules as public schools because "they don't measure student, teacher and parent satisfaction using the same Department of Education surveys."

Even some charter school advocates say the DOE's failure to issue report cards for charters makes it look like the charter's have something to hide.

Other charter school advocates dismiss the criticism, noting that the high level of accountability built into charter school contracts serves as enough of a public record.

But if that's so, then why not hand out the DOE surveys to parents, teachers, and students at charter schools the way they were handed out at public schools and grade charters under the exact same accountability standards as the public schools?

If charter schools operators and advocates want to be taken seriously in this debate, then they need to force the DOE to issue report cards using the same ridiculous accountability measurements for charters as they used for public schools (see here for just how ridiculous the standards used are.)

Eva Moskowitz, former mayoral candidate and current charter school operator, said as much to the Post:

"There's no reason we couldn't fill [the survey] out. We'd be happy to do that," said Eva Moskowitz, CEO of Success Charter Network, which operates a school in Harlem. "If you were a charter-school operator and the chancellor asked you to fill out a survey, would you do it? I would.

And Merryl Tisch, vice chancellor of the state Board of Regents, noted that not issuing report cards for charters makes the whole movement look suspicious:

"I think it's a mistake not to assess them the same way public schools are assessed. "There have been charter schools that have really struggled along the way," she said. "What's wrong with letting people know that?"

Indeed.

While charter schools in New York City are being given a pass by city officials, Ohio officials, led by Democratic Attorney General Marc Dann and Democratic governor Ted Strickland (pictured above), are cracking down on poor quality/failing charter schools.

You see, in Ohio, any idiot who wants to operate a charter school can get one.

Republicans, friendly to charter schools, ran all the statewide offices in Ohio for a very long time and helped license tons of charters since 1998.

According to the NY Times, Ohio has over 70 groups, including universities, nonprofits and many unconventional agencies, who can authorize charter schools.

Major Republicans donors, former Ohio football stars and lots of other people with no experience or knowledge of education have been allowed to open charter schools in Ohio.

As you can imagine, many of these schools are not so good.

William Peterson, a former University of Dayton football star with no experience in school administration, opened four charter schools.

All are now in "academic emergency" and the state's attorney general is suing to close at least one of them.

Commercial companies run plenty of charter schools in Ohio as well.

The Times reports that David Brennan, an Akron industrialist and a major donor to Republican candidates, has been authorized by the state to run 30 charter schools.

Most of his 30 charters are on academic watch or academic emergency.

In 2007, the state’s school report card gave more than half of Ohio’s 328 charter schools a D or an F.

Before 2007, little oversight was done to assure that failing charters either improved or closed.

It's probable that failing charters would have continued to be given free passes by Republican officials in Ohio, but last year's election swept most of them out of office.

Corruption scandals involving stolen pension funds regulated by the former state attorney general Ken Blackwell and pay-for-play episodes involving the former governor Robert Taft helped end the GOP's decades-long reign of Ohio.

At the federal level, Ohio Republican Congressman Bob Ney was sentenced to 30 months in jail in the Jack Abramoff scandal.

Democrats took five out of the top six offices in the state and began exerting oversight powers upon the state's charter schools.

The NY Times reports that Attorney General Dann is suing to close down three failing charter schools and is investigating dozens of others.

According to the Times, it is the first effort by any state attorney general to close down failing charter schools.

Governor Strickland has backed Dann up in his efforts:

“Perhaps somewhere, charter schools have been implemented in a defensible manner, where they have provided quality,” he said. “But the way they’ve been implemented in Ohio has been shameful. I think charter schools have been harmful, very harmful, to Ohio students.”

Charter school advocates are not sitting still as their beloved charter school movement comes under assault. They are alleging that the attorney general's attempts to close failing charter schools are a political attack:

“These suits are the latest in a long line of Democratic assaults on the charter school program in Ohio,” said Terry Ryan, a vice president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, which sponsors several Ohio charter schools. Mr. Ryan said it was hypocritical to sue failing charters without moving against Ohio’s scores of failing neighborhood schools.

The Times says that a pro-charter group is helping to pay the legal fees for the three failing charter schools that Attorney General Dann is trying to close down.

Attorney General Dann dismisses charter school proponents' criticism that he is launching a political attack against charters, saying that he simply is using oversight powers to regulate charters more vigorously than did his Republican predecessors:

“We’re already changing behavior,” he said. “If you think all the other failing charter schools aren’t trying to figure out how to improve their academic performance, you’re mistaken.”

He added, “There are some great charter schools in Ohio that fill a gap in our education system.”

Perhaps there are some great charter schools in Ohio.

But with at least half of them given D or F grades and with charter school advocates supporting all charter schools whether they are successful or not and helping to provide legal fees to keep failing charter schools opened and operating, it looks like the great ones are being swamped by the tons of bad ones.

I'm all for closing truly bad public schools.

I do not believe the 50 public schools Mayor Bloomberg is threatening to close here in New York City all deserved to be closed.

For example, PS 35 in Staten Island has 98% of students passing the math test and 86% passing the reading test, yet the school received an F from the DOE in the latest assessment.

Clearly, PS 35 should not be considered a failing school, nor should it be a candidate for closure.

I am sure, however, that there are a few schools in that list of 50 F's that have chronically bad records and ought to be closed down.

You can be sure that the charter school advocates like the folks at the Fordham Foundation will be screaming bloody murder if they are not closed down.

And yet those same charter school advocates aren't screaming bloody murder that charter schools aren't being held to the same accountability standards as public schools by the NYCDOE and they certainly aren't screaming bloody murder to have failing charter schools in Ohio shut down.

Instead charter school advocates are defending those failing charter schools and providing money for legal fees and lawyers to help keep those failing charter schools opened and operating.

As I said yesterday, all schools are created equal, but charter school seems to be just a little more equal than others.

Mr. Klein Investigates

It's clear as day. The AP changed the grades. The principal covered it up. The report says so.

Wait a minute. It's the teacher's fault. He made them write that report. The new report says so. Let's tell that AP she's no longer banned from working in the city. Dump the teacher into the rubber room.

But wait a minute--what if the new report is wrong and the old report is good? Maybe we should do yet another investigation to investigate the investigators.

No worries. Rest assured the city team will do as many investigations as necessary to find out who's accountable.

Where Does that Buck Stop?

The Daily News offers more detail on the short piece I posted the other day.

The UFT has stopped the science teachers involved from speaking with the DoE. Good move.

So who will Mike "Accountability" Bloomberg blame for this? Will it be supervisors who told the teachers to change grades? Can the teachers prove this was done?

Or will the teachers take the rap entirely, a la Abu Ghraib, where no higher-ups got more than a slap on the hand?

One thing's for sure--it isn't Mayor Mike's fault, and it has nothing whatsoever to do with the mania over standardized testing. Despite his very public request that we judge him on school progress, we've all come to learn that nothing is his fault, or Chancellor Joel Klein's fault either.

It appears they're congenitally incapable of error.

Thanks to Schoolgal

Oopzie!

As you may have read here or elsewhere. Mayor Mike "Accountability" Bloomberg left back 339 kids by mistake. At first, he'd thought he'd passed too many kids.

Odd behavior indeed from an administration that maintains test scores have nothing whatsoever to do with anyone except teachers. Before, a DoE spokesperson said "This is not really a case of anyone dropping the ball."

The Daily News, though, reports otherwise.

State officials said the preliminary results were never meant to be the final arbiter on promotion.

"It was for the city to use along with its own indicators like teacher observations and grades," said state Education Department spokesman Tom Dunn.

That explains why New York City is the only district in the state to have this problem. Let's see how long it takes them to blame teachers for it.

Thanks to Schoolgal

Ooops!

Goshdarnit. Chancellor Klein left 339 kids back by mistake (On Thursday, the city claimed it had promoted too many kids). How could such things happen in the world of non-educators who know everything about education?

Now, after the schoolchildren and their parents have suffered the humiliation and frustration of failing an entire grade, the chancellor is generously giving them the choice of staying or moving up after three weeks of school. No doubt it'll be simple for marginal students to catch up and this will have no enduring effect on them whatsoever.

Notice also there's no mention of "accountablity" in the article. That applies exclusively to unionized employees.

Update: The Daily News covers this story with a great quote from a DoE wonk:

"This is not really a case of anyone dropping the ball."

Try telling that to these kids and their parents. So much for accountability.

Thanks to Schoolgal.