THE PERIMETER PRIMATE: Duncan’s Shaky House of Sticks

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Duncan’s Shaky House of Sticks

Some people will believe anything. For instance,

and

Go From 'Flat Broke' To Making $100,000 a Month in Less Than a Year!

and

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan may well be one of these gullible people, or maybe he is being assisted with what to say by his friend Tom over at Vander Ark/Ratcliff.

VA/R provides the following services to assist with the destruction of the U.S. public education system:
- Strategic Consulting
- Research
- Branding
- Marketing
- Communications
- Public affairs
- Creative Services

One of this company’s claims to fame is establishing the Broad Education Foundation communications office. No more needs to be said.

Fortunately, Parents United for Responsible Education, a group of Chicago public school parents and activists are totally on top of Duncan’s lies, and have been for some time. They've produced a wonderful fact sheet. It will take some time, but David will indeed slay the mighty corporate-steroid-fedGoliath.

PURE FACT SHEET “Dodge-ing the truth”

Arne Duncan, National Press club, May 29, 2009

“And so we have to stop lying to children. We have to tell them the truth. We have to be transparent about data."

What Secretary Duncan says:

“Chicago success proves that we as a nation can expect dramatic and quick turnarounds in our lowest-performing schools.” Education Week essay, June 12, 2009

What the data show: Research shows that Chicago's new schools perform only “on par” with traditional neighborhood schools. Rand Corporation (2008), SRI International (2009)

What Secretary Duncan says:

“We had a school that we did -- we turned it around. The students left -- they came back – (Dodge) was one of the worst schools in Chicago; that in the third or fourth year of the turnaround had the highest gain of any elementary school in the state. National Press Club, May 29, 2009

What the data show: Only 12 students who were enrolled at Dodge when it was closed in 2002 were still there in 2005. Memo, CPS Research Dept., 3/20/2006

What Secretary Duncan says:

“With a new high school in North Lawndale where 95 percent of the children graduate...I am convinced we can finally get to what Dr. King talked about." National Press Club, May 29, 2009

What the data show: Graduation rate for North Lawndale College Charter High School is 46.8%. 2008 Illinois school report card

What Secretary Duncan says:

“In every elementary and middle school we turned around, attendance rates improved.” Education Week essay, June 12, 2009

What the data show: Attendance at the 2007 “turnaround model,” Sherman Elementary, dropped from 91.4% the year prior to the takeover to 90.6% in the first year of the takeover. Attendance nearly recovered its pre-takeover rate at 91.3% in 2008. Illinois Interactive Report Card aggregate data

What Secretary Duncan says:

"What we did in Chicago is we moved the adults out. We kept the children, and brought in new teams of adults. Same children, same families, same socioeconomic challenges, same neighborhoods, same buildings, different set of expectations, different set of beliefs. And what we saw was dramatic change." National Press Club, May 29, 2009

What the data show: Other post-turnaround data for “turnaround model” Sherman are even more troubling. By 2008, the data show a 20 percent drop in enrollment, a 10 percent drop in the number of low-income children, and a 17% increase in the mobility rate. True, that's dramatic change, but not in a good way! 2008 Illinois school report card

Over at Education Notes Online, Norm writes that Jerry Bracy is making an offer to buy dinner for the first person who is actually able to pin Duncan down on something specific. I'm thinking of taking that notion a bit farther by taking up a collection to pay for ads which challenge Duncan to engaging in a public duel of minds with Gerald Bracey.

7 comments:

Dewey said...: These "lies" that you are trying to point out don't seem very dramatic, or significant.

For example your first quote says that Chicago turnarounds prove what's possible, and then your "refutation" quote says that the new schools perform on par with traditional schools. What kind of a refutation is that? The quotes barely speak to one another.

Likewise your point about only 12 students being enrolled 3 years later at Dodge elementary seems frivolous. 12 out of how many? After 3 years, 3 full grades of the students will have necessarily left. You give us no point of comparison. How many students were the same after one year? (a much more meaningful number). How many students were the same at similar school that had no intervention after 3 years? That a school has high turnover after 3 years doesn't on the face of it tell us anything.

You seem to be grasping at straws here.; June 24, 2009 at 12:14 PM
nikto said...: A Los Angeles Charter High School Valedictorian runs into the inescapable reality of Charter Schools:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-valedictorian25-2009jun25,0,3843783.story

And of course the inevitable...

"...in recent years, what was once a collaborative environment rich with teacher and parent input has given way to top-heavy management that is not responsive to parents and students and is no longer transparent in its decision-making."

"We, as students, we feel like we are not being heard," Ponce (the student valedictorian) said. "The administration treats us like we're ignorant."

Sound familiar?

There's much more at the link.

Enjoy!

(And God Bless that wonderful student, and her cool blue hair!)

It may be easy to fool some of the young---But NOT the ones
who are awake.; June 25, 2009 at 1:59 PM
nikto said...: More tawdry goings-on in the world of Charter Schools. This is from the LA Times article, 6-25,
(4th story down):

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-briefs25-2009jun25,0,6823903,full.story

==================================
LOS ANGELES-San Fernando Valley

Charter school is
searched in probe

Investigators fanned out amid multiple campuses of Ivy Academia, a high-performing charter school in the San Fernando Valley, and executed search warrants as part of an investigation by the district attorney's Public Integrity Division, authorities said Wednesday.

It was not clear what the target was or what crimes are being investigated. Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the district attorney's office, would say only that a series of warrants were executed Tuesday morning "as part of an ongoing investigation."

Jerry Thornton, inspector general for the Los Angeles Unified School District, said his office assisted in the investigation. Tatyana Berkovich, founder and president of Ivy Academia, said she didn't know what the investigators were after. "We are confident that any inquiries that they have will showcase what a superior educational program we have," she said.

In 2007, Thornton's office issued an audit critical of the school's accounting and payroll practices, and said the not-for-profit charter was commingling funds with other, for-profit ventures. The report said the school promised to change some practices but disagreed that others were problematic.
-- Mitchell Landsberg; June 25, 2009 at 2:07 PM
nikto said...: It's a big day today in the LA Times for Education.

Eli Broad can't be too happy with today's reading. The following editorial contains some good nuggets of reality. Some efforts are made to smooth things over, but to me, the clear implication at the end of this editorial is that the 9th Grade Green Dot Academies will re-train the kidz to be perfect little drones for the later grades.

Uh huh.

Also implies (to ME, from what I have actually seen happen), is the idea that certain (incorrigible) kidz will be culled in the 9th grade & dumped back into Public School, while "better" drones will be actively recruited as Charter replacements.

That is a typical Charter school modus operandi.

But... YOU decide.

Here it is:

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-locke25-2009jun25,0,1915462.story; June 25, 2009 at 2:17 PM
caroline said...: Good research, Nikto!

That Accelerated charter outfit was reported in 2007 as defaulting on a $9.9 million loan from LAUSD -- I can't find any updates on that online at all. Interesting about Ivy Academia, which I've only seen previously on the receiving end of glowing coverage.

(When will the press learn: DON'T GUSH!? I wondered this while reading the New Yorker profile of Angelo Mozilo, disgraced head of disgraced Countrywide Mortgage -- which quotes some of his previous glowing press coverage.); June 25, 2009 at 8:09 PM
The Perimeter Primate said...: I told you so!

http://michaelklonsky.blogspot.com/2009/06/civic-committee-stabs-duncan-in-back.html

"He toiled faithfully on their plantation for 10 years before going to D.C. to serve as Obama's education chief. He did all their bidding without question, closing dozens of schools in under-served communities to make way for gentrification and privatizing much of the system.

But now the Chicago Civic Committee, the city's ruling elite, has turned on Arne Duncan and in a report released yesterday, titled "Still Left Behind," attacked the Duncan-led Chicago school reform as an "abysmal" failure. Ironically, it was the Civic Committee that designed and financed the Mayor's Renaissance 2010 plan--the very plan that Duncan was hired to implement and enforce."

Read the rest!!!

http://michaelklonsky.blogspot.com/2009/06/civic-committee-stabs-duncan-in-back.html; July 1, 2009 at 12:06 PM
nikto said...: And here's an LA Unified HS with the District's biggest campus, a real prize, in the midst of a vicious fight with Charterizers.

This time, the Charterizer/Privatizers want THE ENTIRE SCHOOL, rather than just a piece of it (which is the Charters' usual strategy).

Even Sacha Baron Cohen is involved in this strange tangle.

Clearly, the much of District leadership is down on the Charter movement (although there are still too many many Charter supporters and moles at high levels), and is trying to hold it back somewhat, but the charter-monster has teeth, and bites.

For Birmingham High, this one's for all the marbles:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-charter1-2009jul01,0,2937592.story; July 1, 2009 at 10:42 PM

Inform yourself about the Gulen movement!

1. WATCH the Gulen Movement 101: Session One webinar presentation (1/22/2014)
2. READ the "Expose the Gulen Movement" report.
3. LISTEN to my interview with At The Chalk Face , slide marker to 32:00 min. (5/19/2013)
4. WATCH the 60 Minutes segment "U.S. charter schools tied to powerful Turkish imam" broadcast. (5/13/2012)
5. READ my response to the 60 Minutes piece.
6. READ my guest article about Gulen charter schools published by The Washington Post. (3/27/2012)
7. WATCH my interview talking about Gulen charter schools, or my presentation at LaborFest (segment between 49:18 min. & 1:07:36 min.)
8. READ my postings labeled "Gulen movement" HERE.

As one observer tweeted, "U.S. media have focused too much on the Islamic nature of the Gulen movement. Real concern is its shady dealings and improprieties."

Please be aware that Gulenists have created a large number of anonymously-operated damage control websites. They started to appear a few months after publication of Greg Toppo's article in USA Today (August 2010).

WE CAN DO IT!

Jim Hightower on populism:

"... what populism is at its essence is just a determined focus on helping people be able to get out of the iron grip of the corporate power that is overwhelming our economy, our environment, energy, the media, government."

Jim Hightower on plutocracy:

"Plutocracy and democracy don't mix."

More Jim Hightower HERE.
Read his Lowdown newsletter HERE.

Plutocracy is rule by the wealthy, or power provided by wealth. In a plutocracy, the degree of economic inequality is high while the level of social mobility is low.

On Bill Gates' ed reform

Joel Shatzky's comment on Huffington Post:

The inferior "test-prep" agenda which bases the pedagogically fraudulent "data" standardized test scores serves as a way of diverting the concerns of working parents who hope that better test scores will lead to better job opportunities for their children. If they realized that they were being given a con job, they might consider other, more "active" forms of political and social protest than simply lobbying for more money for charter and public schools.

New wealth gap report

Research and Policy Brief from the Institute on Assets and Social Policy, Brandeis University, May 2010:

"New evidence reveals that the wealth gap between white and African-American families has more than quadrupled over the course of a generation."

You absolutely must click on this link to view the graph.

Now compare that graph to the one you'll see here.

Now read this entry.

And if you are a person who blames the schools, or believes they are responsible for fixing these problems, you can stop that type of thinking right now.

A Keeper

Posted on the Oakland Public School Parents listserv by a member:*

As a public health nurse, I am working with a generation of young parents who were drug-exposed, who are now having children who are drug-exposed, and it's a whole new ballgame. Many who were premature and will carry some deficits for life.

There are also many other families who have several generations of all kinds of abuse, not enough to eat, violence in and out of their homes, as well as chronic exposure to pollution and nutritional deficits. And there are regular people in the same neighborhoods who are just trying to live, but are poor and can't get ahead.

And there is major grief, and continuous LOSS. So many folks have lost so many folks, people around them dying, of one thing or another, every month almost. Young people (cousins, brothers, friends) dying from violent means, the elders dying too young of chronic disease and disparities in health care, among other things.

What we know about learning and development is that stressed nervous systems CANNOT learn, and that's what we have. Children with many major stressors. Abandonment, attachment disorders, fear, post traumatic stress, sadness, inability to trust or sleep. Many children. Many.

Resulting in: Lack of impulse control, lack of executive function, difficulty in expressing and controlling emotions, difficulty in sleeping, holding still, and paying attention, not to mention following directions and prioritizing tasks.

Our teachers will (perhaps already do) need more training, support, and smaller class sizes. They need major support and help with mental health issues. We really need some kind of expanded vocational track for those who can't perform even at the community college level.

We can't expect teachers to undo years and years of living. The availability of universal preschool would help. Sometimes a classroom is the first kindly, safe, structured, stimulating environment a child encounters.

Wise insights such as these are never uttered by people like Eli Broad, Joel Klein, Michelle Rhee, Arne Duncan, Joe Williams, or any others who are of this type of school reform ilk. And this is why I know for certain that they just don't "get it." Maybe they don’t want to, OR maybe they don’t care.

* Thank you, B.R.

What Children Need

From Playing to Learn by Susan Engel (New York Times, 2/1/2010):

"Our current educational approach — and the testing that is driving it — is completely at odds with what scientists understand about how children develop during the elementary school years and has led to a curriculum that is strangling children and teachers alike.

…Simply put, what children need to do in elementary school is not to cram for high school or college, but to develop ways of thinking and behaving that will lead to valuable knowledge and skills later on."

And to tag onto that, check out this video about the wood shop at one of Oakland's middle schools.

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Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Duncan’s Shaky House of Sticks

7 comments: