THE PERIMETER PRIMATE: 2009 archive

2009 archive

Chicago & Oakland: Bits and pieces which compare the two cities and their school districts
It's just not enough: Comparing teacher salaries in neighboring school districts
Reflecting on longevity: Comparing teacher turnover in neighboring districts and honoring the teachers I’ve known
Charter-mania!: About OUSD’s charter schools
My new hero: Superintendent Kevin Skelly is willing to say that educators are deluding themselves when they claim that they will be able to close the achievement gap on their own.
National Model or Temporary Opportunity?: Insights about the Oakland reform movement from the reformers’ point of view, presented by the Center for Education Reform
Seeking Your Perspective Re: K-12 Education Reform + Update: Elijah Anderson confirms the nature of the low-income African American parents who place their children in charter schools
Hey Oakland, you’re being duped!: The forces at work behind the recent transformation of Oakland’s school district
Change.org, and Billionaire Miscellany: A vehicle for communicating about change, and a closer look at the relative wealth of the billionaires pushing today’s ed reform
A NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION ON BEHALF OF OUR NATION’S PUBLIC SCHOOLS: Proposing a national event to Susan Ohanian
Joel Klein and the Billionaires: Linking the players who are behind the “reforms” in NYC and elsewhere.
Wishing I Was a Fly: An exchange with another Oakland parent about education reform.
The National Scene on a Local Scale: New Leaders for New Schools gives an award to a charter school in Oakland connected to the Rogers Foundation, which has in turn made large donations to NLNS.
Is it Fiction, or Not? Not.: The message from an Oakland government insider who reveals the nature of meetings going on behind the scenes.
The Battle Begins: The charter blitzkrieg and a look at the board of directors for two local CMOs: Aspire and Education for Change
If I Was a Billionaire: Alternative ideas for education reform
In Mourning…: A shocking tragedy for my community when four Oakland police officers were killed while on duty one Saturday
A Challenge to Charlie Rose: A response when I learn that one of my favorite PBS shows has been bought off to spread education reform propaganda
Which Crisis Where?: Racial disparity data from the Kirwan Institute, and two opposing factions: the Education Equality Project and the Broader Bolder Approach
Charter School Tactics: Comparison of the demographics of Oakland’s charter vs. traditional middle schools reveal that the charters have a more educated parent body
Getting Rid of Those Bad Teachers: Based on my observations over the years
The Scheming Called "Venture Philanthropy": Revelations from reading Janelle Scott’s report, “The Politics of Venture Philanthropy and Advocacy”
Where Sociology, Criminology, and Charter Schools Converge
Pimping for Privatization: A piece by Steve Miller
Oligarchs, Crime, the Underclass, Neglected Schools, and more: Link to Bill Moyer’s interview with David Simon discussing America’s abandoned underclass, oligarchy, and apathy.
Why Not a Charter System for Police Departments? : Police aren’t called selfish, lazy failures when cities have high crime rates
Who's in the Driver's Seat: Ideas for improvement from the people who know the conditions in schools are ignored, and the business schemers are instant know-it-alls.
The Disadvantages of an Elite Education: Former Yale professor William Deresiewicz offers insights into the mentality of people like Whitney Tilson.
It's Time To Drive These People Out: A look at the management culture produced by Harvard Business School, and other MBA programs, and its impact on public education policy.
Linda Darling-Hammond Didn’t Play Basketball: Who is responsible for the charter school push in California and basketball’s role in influencing US public education policy.
School Board Members in the Old Days: The ruling class, colonialism, and school boards
The Cliff: Charles Payne on how Chicago reform eroded social capital by marginalizing parents.
Dear Mr. Finn: David Whitman and Chester Finn at the Fordham Institute need more information about the American Indian Public Charter School
The Same Old Mud Pies: On the school closure epidemic in Oakland
Blah, blah, blah...: A canned response from the US Department of Education and on the self-selected charter school family type
Wanted: A Leader for My Daughter's School: A crisis in the availability of experienced, strong principals, and the inadequate training substitute, New Leaders for New Schools.
Duncan, Robber Barons, and Victims: Duncan is a lightweight. The oligarchs are really the ones in charge.
Duncan’s Shaky House of Sticks: Tom Vander Ark helps with the spin, but Parents United for Responsible Education released a fact sheet that presents the truth.
Brilliance Emitted from the Roots of Grass: Henry Hitz, a local parent activist, clearly knows what will help children do better in school
A History Lesson About the Sandia Report: Why an important report was suppressed so it wouldn’t interfere with the school privatization agenda of the corporatocracy
Valuable Skills for the Rising Generation: Diane Ravitch outlines the skills that are really needed
Teacher Man: A tribute to Frank McCourt, a NYC public school teacher, who could recognize nonsense and was willing to write about it.
The Big Nut to Crack: The challenges of negative school climates, and how they connect to street culture and the “incarcerated class.”
Power Hoarding Billionaire Buddies: Billionaire Gates quietly pays $4 million to help Billionaire Bloomberg maintain mayoral control over NYC public schools
Our Omnipotent's Dream: The wealth of a few billionaires simply overwhelms everyone else.
The School as a Staging Area: Elijah Anderson explains how some students don’t look at school as a place to learn, but as a place to accomplish something else.
Under Seige: Neo-liberalism’s strong ties to today’s education reform movement
Gates-Induced Wariness: Chester Finn and the Global Health Watch are both concerned about the harmful influence of a powerful, unregulated institution: the Gates Foundation
A High School Teacher Responds: A piece by Steve Miller which presents Gerald Bracey’s insights about the education lies we constantly hear as they relate to the workforce
My, Oh My, He’s a Cunning Fox: The chronically undisclosed details behind the American Indian Public Charter School’s success
Introducing "The Broad Report": This new Web site serves as a depository for information about Eli Broad, and his intense stealth manipulation of public education through the work of his foundation
Paving the Way to Privatization of the School Lunch Program: A guest post by Caroline Grannan about Revolution Foods
What’s Going On in LA & Eli’s Cake: Green Dot and Parent Revolution called out for their dirty tactics, and a story about Eli Broad squirming out of paying his fair share of taxes.
More Clues About Good Teaching: An experienced teacher tells the Cornell community why she is skeptical about Teach for America
Kudos to the Philadelphia Student Union: Students confront Duncan, Gingrich, and Sharpton in Philadelphia
Jerry Brown’s Two Pet Charter Schools: Part One: Enrollment comparison between these schools and the traditional OUSD schools, and how funding for Brown’s schools seems suspicious
Jerry Brown’s Two Pet Charter Schools: Part Two: Demographic and test score comparisons reveal that Brown’s schools aren’t doing all that well in comparison to the traditional public schools
Obvious Conflicts of Interest: Guest poster Caroline Grannan discredits Jay Mathews’ KIPP propaganda and his confessions of love for those schools
"Get It While The Gettin’s Good": A parent confesses that her attraction for charter schools is because of all the extras they get, and Andy Smarick’s 2008 piece outlines the pro-charter force strategy to destroy public school districts
The Perry Preschool Project & Reflections on Play: My experience with my daughter’s preschool, and a story on the Perry Preschool’s positive impact, now being analyzed by Nobel prize-winning economist James Heckman.
Comparing Education Reform to Health Care: What we can learn from a physician’s approach for making a change which was featured in the New York Times magazine.
Calling Clever Wordsmiths!: The resistance needs to organize a public relations campaign
OUSD Expenditures Per Pupil: Charter vs. Traditional Public Schools: Analysis of spending documented on official School Accountability Report Cards
A Real Crisis: The trends in improving racial disparity in education attainment have been steadily improving, but incarceration rates have skyrocketed and are continually ignored
Geoff Berne & the Privatization of Public Education: The privatization of public education is now well underway, and Arne Duncan is in total cahoots.
Why Urban School Districts Make Easy Targets: Annette Lareau’s findings on parenting approaches of low income families explains the reason that privatization forces aren’t resisted as they infiltrate their schools
Education For Change?: A closer look at one of Oakland’s local charter management organizations
Predatory Pseudo-Philanthropy: In stealth and by trickery, members of the corporatocracy are using their powerful foundations to determine the course of public policy by keeping the public out of the loop
Poetry: Reading Hayden's Frederick Douglass to the Dealers: On learning how to tie a tie

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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2009 archive