External Support for Pro-Education (Anti-Reform)

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Education and Democracy (San Francisco)

• URL: http://educationanddemocracy.org/ [not sure if this site is still active]
• Website of researcher/author Dr. Kathy Webster [email link], blogger on Education Justice blog;  
• "Welcome to our website! Are you interested in promoting democracy? Have you lost influence over educational policy? Need help in fending off the high-stakes testing agenda? This web site provides analysis and curriculum materials that can help community-based movements implement democratic goals in our public schools.

NCLB has go to go

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On this strand, http://saveseattleschools.blogspot.com/2009/11/proposals-on-table-for-mlk-building-and.html,  11/5/09 5:11 PM  seattle citizen said...

I'm just starting to figure out that while teh Supreme Court ruled two years ago (in the Ballard/Kentucky co-case) that schools can't use race as a tiebreaker in assignment, evidently race CAN be used in closing schools: NCLB uses "failing school" designations to target schools, and those are based on race categories.

Likewise, where the district closes a school using WASL scores as one of the deciding factors, it is using race as a means to close the school.

(If the school were then sold to a predominantly white private school then that would be just the icing on the cake, eh?)

NCLB has to go, as does the use of race categories in WASL result grouping. It's, well, racist.

SPS has a weak school board as of Nov. 2007

Go to Pillars of Strong Schools and Strong School Districts  [parent index] |   Table of Contents

What follows is a paraphrase of comment I submitted Nov. 6 to the Blog Entry titled "School Board Elections" on the SPS community blog -- URL http://saveseattleschools.blogspot.com/2009/11/school-board-elections.html.


Dorothy wrote "I will do my part and let the board know that my decision on the levy vote will be directly related to this issue."


Dorothy's comment has inspired me to suggest the following:

Tell the board that we will organize to raise strong public opposition to the upcoming levy UNLESS the Board agrees to adopt John Carver Policy Governance Model.

The John Carver Policy Governance Model is a brilliant strong-board model. It eliminates micro-manageing by the Board (if it is implemented with high fidelity). and hold the chief executive officer (that would be MGJ in SPS) accountable for upholding Board policy.


I think many of the problems in SPS are related to our having as of Nov 2007 a majority on the Board that favors a weak school board. I include Harium Martin-Morris in the group that favors a weak board. I am happy to explain my reasoning if any one cares to ask. Furthermore, Michael DeBell seems to me to be the strongest advocate for a weak school board.  [But see the original post at http://saveseattleschools.blogspot.com/2009/11/audit-and-finance-committee-mtg-11509.html for an account of M.DeBell being very conscientious in interrogating the District about Meg Diaz' report.]

A weak school board does not enforce policy, rubberstamps the Superintendent's actions and decisions, and acts as a buffer between the Superintendent and the Public. In the weak board construct, the main purposes of the Board are to promote the Superintendent's policies, act as the community-engagement intermediary, and take the heat for unpopular actions of the Superintendent.

I talked to Sally Soriano today. I understand from her that prior to 2007 policy was quite important to the Board. That certainly isn't the case now.

•Did you know that as of a policy revision in Jan 2008, the Board no longer requires the Sup. to uphold Board policy?

•Did you know that the Broad Foundation (and Gates,too, no doubt) favors the Superintendent to have more authority than the Board, and to be the chairman of the board? The evidence for this is at http://www.broadprize.org/resources/tools/district/new_york.html. Click on the heading "Setting and Implementing Board Policy," read the brief text there, and then look at just the first several clauses of the downloadable pdf of the NY district bylaws.

•Did you know that The Broad and Gates Foundations have paid for/are paying for our Directors to attend trainings that are designed to get the Board to put more and more weak policies in place, and to teach the Board how better serve the promotional and buffering purposes of a weak school board?

•Did you know that currently there is no limit on the amount that individuals may contribute to school board campaigns, and a few wealthy individuals account for most of the extraordinary funding that Carr, Maier, Martin-Morris, and Sundquist received in 2007?

•Did you know that the Broad Foundation (and Gates,too, no doubt) favors mayoral appointment of school district directors?

•Did you know that Mayoral Candidate Mick McGann favors mayoral appointment of school district directors?

Authentic Assessment

Go to Table of Contents_19
See also High Stakes Testing

Authentic Assessment and Accountability

• Authentic Accountability (external link to FairTest.org) Accountability means informing parents and the public about how well a school is educating its students and about the quality of the social and learning environment. Too often, accountability has been reduced to standardized tests that measure a limited range of academic skills, thereby narrowing curriculum and teaching. This approach has been used to attack rather than help educators, parents and students. FairTest supports authentic accountability systems that provide a rich array of information on academic and social aspects of education to parents and the public, and use that information to improve schools
• Empowering Schools and Improving Learning (external link). Initiative released by Forum on Educational Accountability, chaired by FairTest, and signed by 84 national education, civil rights, religious, disability, parent and civic organizations. It calls for a thorough overhaul of NCLB.

District-induced Instability

 

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See also Importance of Stability (internal link)


Closures of failing schools leading to charters: "In 2009, Philadelphia schools Superintendent Arlene Ackerman introduced a five-year plan that calls for up to 35 underperforming schools to be shut down and reopened as district authorized charters or privately managed schools. The first 10, which have not been selected, will convert in 2010."  http://reason.org/files/annual_privatization_report_2009.pdf (p. 93")

Denver: "The district has also used school closure as an accountability mechanism. In 2007, the school board approved closing eight schools that were under-enrolled and lower-performing. The board projected that moving students from these schools to higherperforming schools would save $3.5 million annually. That money is being used to improve the education of students who will be affected by the school closures, deliver additional resources to underperforming schools and to make money available for new schools and new programs." http://reason.org/files/annual_privatization_report_2009.pdf (p. 94")

NCLB

  

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Article:  NCLB has go to go!  (internal link)
Major elements of NCLB

• Assessment and Accountability (internal link)
• Highly Qualified Teacher (internal link)
• Supplemental Educational Services (SES) (internal link)

Foundation abandonment of charter demonstration projects

  
Go to Importance of stability (parent link) |  Pillars of Strong Schools and Strong Districts  | Table of Contents


Case Study:  T.T. Minor K-5, Seattle Public School.  (19xx - 2009)

These comments copied from the Seattle Public Schools Community Blog (and then rearranged) (http://saveseattleschools.blogspot.com/2009/10/open-thread_30.html)

• 10/31/09  uxolo said...  The[Sloan] foundation's commitment to T.T. Minor was for eight years and ended in 2006....TT Minor had part of their building's programs operated by funds from the Foundation. It was not a good thing for those who were not provided with their dollars. Where were those dedicated Sloan/New School people once the funding ended? Did they lobby to keep TT Minor open? Did they admit failure? I don't think so....The [Sloan foundation's] commitment to The New School is for ten years and is scheduled to end in 2012." What's the point? Is this foundation trying to prove that if every school has a bunch of outside donors and can get the supt or other political figures to enroll their kids that the school will work and/or be protected from the idiocy of the central district decision making?
  
• 11/1/09 1:21 PM adhoc said... So, what happens to New School if the grant isn't extended? How do they fund all of the "extras" without the private dollars? Do they all just go away, and New School becomes just like every other public school? And are parents who enroll aware that this could happen?
  
• 11/2/09 9:00 AM  Charlie Mas said... There was a reluctant admission of failure at T T Minor, but there was also a lot of blamestorming.The Sloan people blamed the district and the school, the school blamed the district and the Sloan people, the district blamed the Sloan people and the school. None of them ever acknowledged that they did anything wrong. The school was torn apart in every possible way. Then it was isolated from its community. Then enrollment was messed with. Then it was abandoned. Then it was closed.