I did hear from others later that there are inaccuracies in the story, that the State is intervening to provide support but that a full takeover is not taking place, which seems consistent with certain information in the article. For instance, the so-called takeover is described as “friendly,†and the Board of Education and superintendent have not been removed. I spent part of my evening texting teachers and administrators in town, and we all have been emailing the article’s writer, Grace Merritt, asking for sources and/or clarification, but I, for one, can’t get her to respond to my emails. Perhaps time will tell.
In the meantime, I’m waiting to see if there will be a government shutdown over the budget. Even though the National Writing Project is currently not in the FY11 budget, I suppose there is still hope so long as there is no selesai budget. But with the Republicans in the House clamoring for some $51 billion in additional cuts, I’m not very hopeful that the NWP will make its way back in. As someone from the NWP national offices said to me at the Spring Meeting in DC last week, all these literacy programs were the low hanging fruit. We can’t expect to command enough respect to get reinstated into the budget.
From my conversations with people from the national offices, as well as from conversations with the legislative aides of our senators and congress people, the most likely scenario involves a series of events. Once the budget is finally passed, the legislature will have to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (affectionately known for the last several years as No Child Left Behind), and reauthorize the NWP within this act. Then we have to hope that the administration and the legislature provide competitive grant funds in this act. Before this shut down crisis, the Obama administration had been floating the ajuan of about $340 million in competitive grant funds, which is nice but will hardly replace the $4 billion worth of cuts already made to literacy programs. But at least it’s something.
But then one last thing has to take place, and that is that congress has to provide a more precise and accurate definition of what an earmark is, and/or redefine what large national programs like the NWP are, so that the NWP and other programs such as Reading Is Fundamental or Teach for America can compete for these grants. As things stand now, the NWP is being treated as an earmark just as if it were some senator’s local pet project (like the proverbial bridge to nowhere in Alaska), and those competitive grant funds are only intended for states, not national organizations (or earmarked programs). So we would really benefit from a redefinition of earmarks as well as a redefinition that would allow national organizations to compete with states for grant funds.
I also wanted to note a few interesting things I read on the train ride back to Hartford from DC. A couple weeks ago I sat on a discussion panel that followed a screening of Waiting for Superman. That documentary lionizes former DC Chancellor of Schools Michelle Rhee, Mike Feinberg and David Levin’s KIPP schools, and Geoffrey Canada and the Harlem Children’s Zone. Basically, these individuals and institutions are celebrated for having improved student success by busting teachers unions.
But the truth appears to be much more complicated than the notorious documentary makes it appear. The Washington Post has now reported that Michelle Rhee’s proclaimed successes may have been a result of deliberate fraud, that during her controversial tenure as Chancellor of Schools for Washington, D.C. there was widespread cheating on standardized tests. This cheating was not done by students but was done by administrators and/or staff members in administrative offices throughout more than 100 schools who allegedly changed answers on students’ tests. Erasure rates on these tests were statistically “too high.â€
The Post also reported that the success of the KIPP schools has less to do with union busting and more to do with significant private funding, student attrition, and low rates of enrollment for disabled students and English Language Learners. For starters, the KIPP schools receive about $5000 in private funds per pupil beyond what the average public school student receives. Second, when students leave a KIPP school, they are not replaced, which lowers class sizes and increases per pupil spending. And most significantly, KIPP officials have admitted that they have significantly fewer students with disabilities and limited English proficiency than comparable urban public schools.
Similar findings have been made regarding the Harlem Children’s Zone, which received some $90 million dollars in start-up funding from the Gates Foundation, and last year raised approximately $36 million in private donations, thus dramatically raising per pupil spending beyond what it is in nearby public schools. And like the KIPP schools, the Children’s Zone enrolls few disabled students or English Language Learners. In fact, the ELL population at the Children’s Zone is only about 1% despite its location on 125th Street, which is one of the defining borders of the area known as Spanish Harlem.
Tell you what, here in Windham I will gladly keep all the Special Education and ELL students, as well as the collectively bargained rights of teachers, but give me an extra $5000 per student, and I bet we can improve those test scores.
Meanwhile, the House and the Supreme Court in two separate cases have provided the means for public dollars to go to religious schools. The House passed a measure (not law yet) that would allow vouchers to be used to send DC public school students to Catholic schools. And a couple days later the Supreme Court ruled that an Arizona law that allows tax credits to be used to send students to parochial schools is constitutional. The court was predictably split 5-4 on that ruling.
What a time to be a teacher.
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