Obama's 'Race To The Top' Drives Nationwide Wave of School Closings, Teacher Firings

[HiPointDem]

Last edited Tue Jan 15, 2013, 05:49 PM - Edit history (1)

A nationwide epidemic of school closings and teacher firings has been underway for some time. It's concentrated chiefly in poor and minority communities, and the teachers let go are often experienced and committed classroom instructors, and likely to live in and near the communities they serve, and disproportionately black...

The current wave of school closings is latest result of bipartisan educational policies which began with No Child Left Behind in 2001, and have kicked into overdrive under the Obama administration's Race To The Top..Under Race To The Top states and school districts are forced to bid against each other for many of the same education dollars they used to receive as a matter of course. The winning districts are those who apply Race To The Top's four official solutions to their so-called “failing schools.” Race To The Top's four federally mandated “solutions,” which are never spelled out by corporate media news outlets, are “school transformations,” “school turnarounds,” “school restarts,” and “school closures.”

Race to the Top defines a “school transformation,” its first remedy, as firing the principal and up to 50% of teachers...

Race To The Top calls its second remedy “school turnaround.” Turnarounds are exactly the same as school transformations...except that transformations fire up to 50% of school staff, but to be called a turnaround schools must fire at least 50% of school staff.

“School restarts,” are the third Race To The Top solution. In a “restart” you close the public school and reopen a new school with new staff...

Race To The Top's fourth remedy is “school closure.” You fire the staff, padlock the school doors and let families take their chances on the free market... The states and school districts quickest to carry out the most transformations, turnarounds, restarts and school closings are the ones who get to keep or increase their levels of federal funding. Those who drag their feet lose federal education dollars. That's why it's a race, but not exactly to the top...

http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/obamas-race-top-drives-nationwide-wave-school-closings-teacher-firings


Just to make it clear how it works: to get rttt funds districts must identify their lowest-achieving schools & use one of the 4 plans above to 'fix' them, all of which involve firing teachers a/o closing schools.

they must do this every time they apply for rttt funds. and since once the first group of 'low-achieving' schools are shut down, that means a new group of schools become the 'low-achieving schools,' the process goes on indefinitely.


The people criticizing this OP don't address the specifics of RTTT (because it does exactly what's claimed.)

They resort to smearing me or smearing the person who wrote the OP.

They got nothing but smear.

[Riley18]

1. So basically for poor schools it is now a

race to extinction, but for wealthy schools it is a journey to "excellence" - only now their kids won't have pesky competition.

The end result the government and their wealthy backers are aiming for is to end free education. An extra bonus is to take hold of one of the last remaining pots of money they could not get their hands on. So corporate charter school get tax money without accountability - sort of what the banks got - only not so much in a direct sum like the bailouts. Although most of those schools do keep most of the money since they work for profit. They may call their profit salary, but those high salaries never reach teachers. They are annual workers with no say or control over instruction. Instead of successful public school models of instruction being copied by corporate charter schools, Race to the Top forces public school to copy the corporate school model.

[HiPointDem]

2. yes.

[HiPointDem]

3. and kick

[HiPointDem]

4. kick

[DogPawsBiscuitsNGrav]

22. My cousin is a teacher, she makes about 50 grand a year. She's afraid that they'll start firing

teachers just to hire them, or another for half the salary they were being paid. In her case she would only be making 25 grand a year and her mortgage was obtained on a 50 thousand dollar salary. She literally couldn't live on 25 or 30 thousand a year.

[SidDithers]

5. Black Agenda Report...

Hannah, you're a riot.

Sid

[Lars39]

6. What's your problem with the source?

[SidDithers]

7. It's one of the premiere "from the left" anti-Obama sites on the 'net...

and Bruce Dixon was advocating for voting against Obama and for Jill Stein in October.

http://blackagendareport.com/content/why-black-man-watching-debates-and-voting-green

We don't allow anti-Obama screeds from Republicans at DU, why should we allow anti-Obama screeds from Greens? Both are working toward the same purpose - to defeat Democratic candidates.

Sid

[bighart]

8. What is your take on the content of the cited material?

[hay rick]

16. Shooting the messenger is so much easier. nt

[leftstreet]

13. Correction. Obama is anti-Left

BAR has always been pro-Left regardless of which politician inhabits the WH

[SidDithers]

15. Uh huh...

Sid

[OldDem2012]

34. Right. You still on that kick? nt.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

89. So, who'd you vote for last year?

[DogPawsBiscuitsNGrav]

24. I'd personally rather see the truth even if it's an ugly one so I know how best to proceed from

there by what's in the best interests of my family. The truth doesn't make it anti Obama. It is what it is. It doesn't do any of us any good to pretend it's not an issue. We can't make issues go away by pretending they aren't there but we can take note, contact our representatives, and ask our family and friends to do the same. We should hold all government accountable, not just the ones we don't like because they aren't part of our team.

[roody]

26. And why is Obama working to bust teacher's unions

and close poor neighborhood schools?

[Autumn]

35. Sorry Sid, Obama is not a Democratic candidate. The election is over and he won.

And his record on Education is very poor.

[SidDithers]

37. We don't allow Republican bashing of Democrats...

And we shouldn't allow Green bashing of Democrats.

Sid

[Autumn]

38. Green Democrat or whatever. Doesn't matter. This isn't about the Party or the man.

In the case of their stance on Education which is just Bush's stance on steroids, ANY Democrat who supports this should be bashed.

[SidDithers]

40. Bruce Dixon is part of the Green Party of Georgia...

Bruce A. Dixon is managing editor at Black Agenda Report, a state committee member of the GA Green Party, and a partner in a technology firm.

Why should his opinion of Obama be any more welcome here than Jonah Goldberg, or Ann Coulter?

Sid

[Autumn]

41. I don't know who Bruce Dixon is and I don't care, if as you say he's a member of the

Green Party I would assume he's a politician or has a political back ground. Goldberg, or Coulter are nothing more than "worthless republican media hounds. In Education, Obamas stance is more or less Bushs stance, and some of us are not fine with it and we will criticize it. Some things we fought when Bush did it don't have to support it just because Obama does it.

[DevonRex]

9. OMG. LOL!!!!

[SidDithers]

10. Heheh...

Sid

[DevonRex]

11. ...

[madfloridian]

51. Ganging up some?

On a post that is quite true?

[msanthrope]

72. Ganging up on whom, madfloridian? The Black Agenda Report is certainly deserving of scorn, and

anyone who thinks they are a source of anything other than farthest-left lunacy has been eating too much firebagger catfood.

Barack Obama is the antithesis of Black Power, a man who promises with every word he speaks, with every nuance of phrase and body language, and through his voting record as a U.S. Senator, that he personifies the definitive end of Black organized struggle in the United States - a unilateral surrender to white racism. This is his appeal to the white masses: that they will no longer be challenged to confront history, or to relinquish privilege in the present.

Obama's siren song to African Americans is of an entirely different nature. He does not have to sing it; we provide the music, ourselves. The lyrics and melody are actually alien to Obama, but he has heard them off and on in his strange sojourn through life, and senses their power to sway us. He understands that most of us will demand nothing from him - not even elemental allegiance. His "Black" flank, he knows, is covered, while his white "progressive" flank is neutralized and confused by Black failure to recoil at his betrayals of the most basic elements of social democracy. The field is wide open to the greatest opportunist to emerge from melanin-rich ranks in the New Millennium.

Obama has already cashed in on his "Race, but not really, Card" - to the tune of $25 million dollars in contributions in the first three months of this year, three-quarters of it from corporations. This does not happen by accident. Since setting foot in the U.S. Senate, Obama has directed his entire message machine to the task of convincing corporate America that he is a friend who can be counted on to leave the actual Power Game in their hands. One of his first votes was to transfer most class action suits to federal courts, where multi-billion-dollar companies found guilty of race, gender or general employee abuse are fined the equivalent of the millionaire CEO's latest weekend at the casinos in Monaco. In the process of taking class action suits out of state courts, where the penalties to offending corporations have historically been much harsher, Obama voted against an amendment to put a cap of 30 percent on credit card debt charges. A fraction of that multi-billion dollar gift to the most unproductive sector of the economy wound up in his campaign coffers.

http://blackagendareport.com/content/why-barack-obama-needs-whuppin%E2%80%99-honest-abe-he-ain%E2%80%99t

This is what the OP's source wrote about the Democratic President of the United States. This isn't critique, nor 'holding his feet to the fire.' No--this is sheer, off-the-wall nutbag lunacy that ought not to be given the time of day on this site.

Are you defending this outrageous source?

Are you honestly suggesting that a single DUer ought to consider a single thing written on that website seriously?

No--this is only deserving of the same type of scorn usually reserved for WSWS--does that ring a bell for you?

[madfloridian]

74. "this is only deserving of the same type of scorn usually reserved for WSWS"

Your "scorn" seems only for the news outlet. I have a problem with that. The other day someone jumped all over me for using Huff Post as a source. Another time I had a post locked because I used an Alternet link. Fortunately an appeal to admin got that one unlocked at DU2.

It's quite common to attack sources here now.

I don't hold your scorn for WSWS. I don't use it as a source because it would cause too much controversy.

I am not African American. I do know there are many of them who do not feel Obama works in their interest. That is their decision, not mine to make.

I know he does not work in the best interest of teachers and students, and I will speak out about that.

I do know a true article when I read one. .

[msanthrope]

77. What is true about an article that claims of "waves of firings" due to RTTT, but fails to

name any? When I asked a poster downthread to show the waves of firings, they went strangely silent.

You wrote:

I am not African American. I do know there are many of them who do not feel Obama works in their interest.

That line speaks for itself.

[msanthrope]

17. Can pictures of smiling North Koreans be far behind? nt

[SidDithers]

18. Just don't mention Baltimore...

oh, shit.

Sid

[msanthrope]

21. Or how Detroit is going to be cleared and farmed by yuppies. nt

[dionysus]

36. Ha- ... oh shit...

comrade is back?

[SidDithers]

39. She's not the only one...

sonoman / TomInTib
chlamor / jcrowley / Orwellian_Ghost
walldude

It's a zombie apocalypse!

Sid

[Follow The Money]

12. they are cheating and lying for their own purpose, they just use this to bully good teachers/schools

With a D- in student achievement, an F in funding, Florida makes Top 10 in nation's schools.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022190685

[CommoFreq]

14. It's a witch hunt

Anything that can be done to avoid the blame.

[juajen]

19. I believe this comes under the heading "Drivel".

[HiPointDem]

42. rebut it if you can.

[HiPointDem]

44. no rebuttal yet? i'll be here when you're ready.

[HiPointDem]

54. still waiting...for the fact-filled rebuttal, you know...

[HiPointDem]

87. never came back...guess you *can't* rebut the truth...lol

[Initech]

20. It's a race to the top if someone gets rich off it. Otherwise...

[Lars39]

23. Funny how those trying to misdirect aren't refuting

what the article is claiming is happening.

[msanthrope]

30. Nothing to refute...the author claims waves of firings but fails to prove that.

When unsupported claims are made, one need not refute them.

[Lars39]

31. Chicago is facing up to 140 school closings....perhaps you haven't kept up.

[msanthrope]

33. Prove that's due to RTTT. Looks like it's declining population---

The district's enrollment has fallen nearly 20 percent in the last decade, mainly because of population declines in poor neighborhoods. The district said it can accommodate 500,000 students, but only about 400,000 are enrolled.

About 140 schools are half-empty, according to the district. The union said 86 Chicago public schools have closed in the past decade, but the district could not confirm that number.

Urban school districts around the country are grappling with the issue of declining enrollment, including in Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Detroit, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C., according to a study last year on school closings by the Pew Charitable Trust.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/28/cps-school-closing-deadline-extension_n_2206804.html



Chicago Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett Monday revealed plans to close under-used schools and “right-size’’ a district with about 100,000 empty seats by fall, then declare a five-year moratorium on school closures.

The move would allow Chicago Public Schools to put the “angst’’ of closings behind it by next opening day, and give parents “peace of mind’’ afterwards that their school would not be on any chopping block for five years, Byrd-Bennett said.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/education/16634981-418/byrd-bennett-proposes-5-year-ban-on-cps-closures-after-this-year.html

100k empty seat will force closures.

[HiPointDem]

47. yes, indeed. hard to refute the truth.

[Jefferson23]

27. This is so sad, the demise of public education by a Democrat no less. n/t

K&R

[Speck Tater]

28. The idea that civilization will collapse in the near future is nonsense.

Civilization is already collapsing, right before our eyes!

Education, the post office, the safety net, the middle class, the growing ranks of the homeless, the average person priced out of health care, all the things that make up a civilization are crumbling right here and now. This "race to the top" is just another element of the race to the bottom.

[DonViejo]

29. The Four Turnaround Models (in full)

The federal government is requiring LEAs to use the following four turnaround models in order to qualify for RTTT and SIG funding:

Turnarounds. Replace the principal and rehire no more than 50 percent of the school’s staff; adopt a new governance structure; provide job embedded professional development; offer staff financial and career-advancement incentives; implement a research-based, aligned instructional program; extend learning and teacher planning time; create a community-orientation; and provide operating flexibility.

Case Example: Highland Elementary School in Montgomery County, Maryland, replaced its principal and half its staff, as well as introduced new instruction methods, data analysis for student instruction, and staff accountability for student achievement. As a result of this intervention, the school performed strongly enough to receive the 2009 National Blue Ribbon awarded for placement in the top 10 percent of state assessments or dramatic improvement in assessment scores over a five-year period.23

Restarts. Transfer control of, or close and reopen, a school under a school operator that has been selected through a rigorous review process. A restart model must enroll, within the grades it serves, any former student who wishes to attend.

Case Example: Mastery Charter School Shoemaker Campus in West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was taken over by Mastery Public Charter Schools in 2006. Mastery’s model includes a strong focus on individualized instruction, teacher coaching and professional development, a culture of high expectations, rigorous academic standards, and problem-solving and socialemotional skills. In three years, the school more than tripled reading scores from 20 percent proficient to 71 percent proficient and raised math scores from 15 percent proficient to 88 percent proficient — completely closing the achievement gap and even outperforming state averages.24

Transformations. Replace the principal (no requirement for staff replacement); provide job embedded professional development; implement a rigorous teacher-evaluation and reward system; offer financial and career advancement incentives; implement comprehensive instructional reform; extend learning- and teacher-planning time; create a community-orientation; and provide operating flexibility and sustained support.

Case Example: Benwood Schools in Chattanooga, Tennessee, introduced merit-pay plans, teacherlinked data collection, teacher evaluation, embedded professional development, teacher coaching on using student data, and leadership development. As a result, the percentage of thirdgraders scoring proficient or advanced in reading jumped from 53 percent in 2003 to 81 percent in 2007, and the Benwood schools outgained 90 percent of all schools on the state’s value-added test scores.25

School Closures. Close the school and enroll students in other, higher-achieving schools.

Case Example: In 2007, the Denver Public School District (DPS) closed eight schools due to underenrollment and poor student performance, relocating 2,000 students to three schools within DPS. The closures generated $3.5 million in savings, of which $2 million was directed to the three middle schools where students were relocated. The 2008-2009 Colorado Student Assessment Program indicates that the relocated students are showing increased academic growth in their new schools, although not to the extent the school district had hoped.26

http://www.wallacefoundation.org/Pages/federal-funding-school-turnaround-field-guide.aspx#four_turnaround_models

[reteachinwi]

67. The Wallace Foundation

The legacy of Reader's Digest, claims to find best practices based on "real world evidence," read as test scores. The critique of NCLB and now Race to the Top is that test score metrics are an overly narrow measure of student progress. We have taught them to be good test takers. Anything else? Do we know? The language reads like ad copy rather than real assessment.

Measurement hasn’t tamed politics. Politics has seduced measurement.

A foundation like Wallace must then pursue its knowledge agenda under circumstances that are severely constraining and delimiting.

http://www.nonprofitquarterly.org/philanthropy/19421-mesmerized-by-metrics-is-philanthropy-engaging-in-magical-thinking.html

[onpatrol98]

32. Sounds a bit unbelievable...

I heard nothing of this during the election season. But, perhaps it was because Romney's plans would have been even worse. To my knowledge, teachers were among the President's largest supporters. So, perhaps if this plan is true, it's working. He made no promises (to my knowledge) to change anything...if anything it was full steam ahead. So, it must be all good.

I trust the President to do what he said he would do, myself and the millions that put him back in office. He must know what he's doing. Why would he have gotten such overwhelming support if the above post was his plan for improving education? I don't think he would have. So, I just doubt it's true. Perhaps there is a misinterpretation of his intention. Or, perhaps there is a misapplication of his intention, I don't know.

I never thought Arne was a sound choice to lead the Dept. of Education. Apart from being a great basketball pal and appointed as head of the Chicago Public School District by another pal, I didn't see anything in his list of qualifications that suggested he was even remotely competent or adequate for the position. It was like hiring the gardener to fix a problem with the electrical wiring.

I also never thought the President had a great love for public education. To my knowledge, he's never attended a public school and neither has Arne.

But, I also don't believe either is interested in the demise of public schools. So, again, the President must know what he's doing.

[HiPointDem]

43. he's closing schools & firing teachers, that's what he (or rather, his Ed Dept) is doing. Mandated

under race to the top.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2191929

which does basically the same as Bush's No child left behind, only quicker.

[madrchsod]

62. yup...

this has been an on going discussion here at du even before duncan was appointed.

[madfloridian]

48. I and others have posted about this over and over. It's quite true.

The president's policy is Race to the Top. The article is exactly right about what that entails.

It means closing low performing schools that have had money taken from them to give to charters, then turning them into charters which are usually grabbed off by private companies.

What Obama is doing is privatizing education. It is Bush's policy, he is growing it.

[madfloridian]

49. HiPointDem, don't let them get to you.

No matter what link I choose someone criticizes it. You are right about the article, it is a true one.

You are being attacked en masse....been there done that.

responded to wrong post, but my meaning is clear.

[HiPointDem]

53. i understand the motives of the critics here. & i think anyone who reads their comments can

understand too.

they offer nothing but smear tactics.

[madfloridian]

56. The only reason most leave me alone now is because they have blocked me.

I am up to 16 blocking me already in the short time I've been back at DU.

[madrchsod]

63. is`t wonderful to feel wanted.......

[madfloridian]

65. Oh, yeh.

[amandabeech]

66. The President is not all-knowing.

He has absolutely no experience in public education, except what Michelle might tell him about her experiences many years ago.

When in this country, the President attended a prestigious prep school and has enrolled his daughters in similar places.

Arne Duncan had no experience in education until his powerful friends appointed him to run the school in Chicago. His record there was not outstanding, but Obama appointed him to run the U.S. Department of Education anyway.

Thinking seriously about public education just doesn't seem to be one of the President's priorities.

To me, it seems like the only thing that the President really cared about was health care, and he managed a start in that field.

Perhaps the President will turn his attention to education and bring in people with non-corporate agendas who have been in the educational trenches. But it doesn't look like he's going to.

There is no doubt that our President is very intelligent, but that doesn't mean that he has directed his considerable intelligence to all matters.

[SidDithers]

45. Kick for lulz...nt

Sid

[bighart]

46. What is your take on the content of the cited material?

[knitter4democracy]

50. I teach in a transformational school. The article's accurate.

We're just starting the process, and, yes, it's all about RTTT and the money. Constant threat of losing my job, constantly rising expectations with fewer resources to meet those expectations, and constant stress. That's what it's like to teach these days, and Obama's not helped that at all but instead made it worse.

I refused to give a dime in his reelection, and I made sure all those phone bankers knew why. Teachers were thrown under the bus and then expected to work to get out the vote. No one I work with helped. Not one. We're all too angry at what his administration is doing to public education.

[HiPointDem]

52. thank you.

[madfloridian]

55. Yes, it is quite true. The poster is being bullied for criticizing Obama's policy.

But it is a true article.

[knitter4democracy]

57. Anyone with half a brain should criticize the policy.

It's all about making sure a few get richer, power gets consolidated, teachers' unions are broken, and ultimately that kids end up as cannon fodder. It's disgusting is what it is.

[HiPointDem]

59. +1. but to the extent that it's even mentioned in the media it's disguised as something else:

'firing bad teachers,' 'fixing failing schools,' etc.

if the general public understood it as a resource grab by the superrich they wouldn't support it.

thus, the smear tactics.

[reteachinwi]

69. When I got asked for money

I told the caller that the President would have to fire Arne Duncan first.

[knitter4democracy]

73. Amen. I usually included that.

All I need to know about Obama's education policy lies in his decision to keep Duncan on.

[madfloridian]

58. Okay who's in line to say Democracy Now not a good source.

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/9/3/educators_push_back_against_obamas_business

"JUAN GONZALEZ: —- comparing not only what’s happening here in the United States, but around the world, in terms of these so-called reform initiatives. Could you talk about that?

LOIS WEINER: Absolutely. And I think it’s important to understand that Race to the Top is not unique to the United States, and what Arne Duncan did in Chicago is not unique to Chicago. And in fact, the contours of this program were carried out first under Pinochet in Chile. And this program was implemented by force of military dictatorships and the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in Latin America. And the results have been verified by researchers there. They produced increased stratification. So I think what we’re seeing right now are the results of that increased stratification, a stratification, inequality of results, because if you think about it, No Child Left Behind is almost a decade old. And what are the results? The results are a growing gap between poor minority — achievement of poor minority kids and those kids who come from prosperous families who are — who live in affluent suburbs and in those suburban schools.

And I think it’s also very important to understand that this focus on educational reform is replacing, is a substitute for, a jobs policy. We need to understand that. Education can democratize the competition for the existing jobs, but it cannot create new jobs. And when most jobs that are being created are by companies like Wal-Mart, education cannot do anything about that. So, we need to — we really need to look critically at Race to the Top and understand the way that it fits into this new economic order of a so-called jobless recovery and that what’s really going on is a vocationalization of education, a watering down of curriculum for most kids, so that they’re going to take jobs that require only a seventh or an eighth grade education, because those are the jobs that are being created in this economy. "

[woo me with science]

78. This post should be an OP.

Thank you.

[madfloridian]

80. It was one in 2010.

It was moved from GD to Education which broke the link and took it off front page.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/6664

[madrchsod]

60. well he appointed duncan so what would anyone expect?

duncan did nothing to help public education in chicago and in many ways made it worse.

obama does`t give a shit about public education. his silence betrays him

[madfloridian]

61. Arne took his failed Chicago policies and spread them nationwide.

And the president appears to approve.

[lunasun]

82. +1

[HiPointDem]

64. "his silence betrays him" = +100. along with the silence of most of the so-called 'progressive'

media.

[madrchsod]

68. here`s an excellent blog from the belly of the beast..chicago.

http://michaelklonsky.blogspot.com/

http://michaelklonsky.blogspot.com/


i do`t know if you have ever read this...

.https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CD4QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.soilandhealth.org%2F03sov%2F0303critic%2F030301studentasnigger.html&ei=9e_1UOSAO8bCigLUyYDwDA&usg=AFQjCNF7USTWRw5CuePUmVHa53g7VhqmIw&sig2=i4r24KsnvsXc33sTbr3Vog&bvm=bv.41018144,d.cGE

i bought this in 69 when i was going to community college. my english 101 teacher told me that i should go back and write like i did in 8th grade because that is what the englisg 101 demanded. he appreciated my thought process but....

as the singer poet Donovan once wrote..."beatniks are out to make it rich..oh no! must be the season of the witch"

[JReed]

70. I think the opener says it all

From article:

Among Obama supporters, the gap between popular perceptions of the president's policies and the actual content of those policies is nowhere wider than in public education.

[madfloridian]

75. Good point.

[PufPuf23]

71. The policy is self-fulfilling by structure to be negative to the public school system

and benefit privatization for profit and propoganda.

Poor children.

Bad for society.

[idwiyo]

76. K&R

[woo me with science]

79. K&R

[NashvilleLefty]

81. Uh, NO. The closings and firings are because of

budget cuts at the local level and have absolutely NOTHING to do with RTTT.

This article is nothing more than a hatchet job.

[HiPointDem]

83. Yeah, just because RTTT *mandates* that state ID their lowest 5% of schools & submit them to

Last edited Wed Jan 16, 2013, 04:19 AM - Edit history (1)

remediation plans that all involve firing teachers & closing schools -- doesn't mean it's actually happening...

Right.

Rhode Island:

Rhode Island teacher firings, a Race to the Top case study

One of the first high-profile examples of President Obama's public education reforms comes from Rhode Island, a participant in Race to the Top (RttT). Superintendent Frances Gallo, overseeing the persistently failing Central Falls High School, decided to fire all the school’s teachers after the teacher union proved to be the road block to reform... Because the intervention plan was refused, the superintendent had to resort to a different model of school reform – the turnaround model -- which involves firing the majority of the faculty and staff... The mass firings came about because of Rhode Island’s participation in RttT. Such bold moves are required of the states participating in the RttT...

http://www.examiner.com/article/rhode-island-teacher-firings-a-race-to-the-top-case-study


Tennessee (for *you*, "nashville lefty&quot

Tennessee, as part of the state’s winning Race to the Top application, created the Achievement School District (ASD) in 2011 to turn around the state’s bottom 5% of schools. With 69 of the 85 schools in the bottom 5% located in Memphis...

http://turnaroundzone.org/

The state-run Achievement School District is preparing to take over 10 more Memphis City Schools and has released a list of 14 it will choose from. WREG reports the ASD will decide by December which schools will be run by it or by partnering charter school organizations... ASD — which has a stated mission to move the bottom 5 percent of schools in the state to the top 25 percent — took over five Memphis City Schools at the beginning of this school year...

http://www.bizjournals.com/memphis/blog/morning_call/2012/11/state-preps-to-take-over-10-memphis.html

Between 130 and 150 Memphis City Schools teachers are being recommended for termination for poor performance ....Principals identified the poor performers based on the teacher evaluation process instituted this year, plus three years of student test data.

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2012/may/16/up-to-150-city-teachers-face-firing/

Six Memphis Schools Added to State Turn-Around Effort
Friday, December 14th, 2012, by Daniel Potter

The state will take control of six more schools in Memphis, and try to turn them around after years of dismal test scores. The move doubles the number of schools in Tennessee’s Achievement School District. The ASD aims to take schools steadily ranked in the state’s worst 5 percent, and make them among the best in just a few years. In Metro a half dozen schools were eligible, along with about 70 in Memphis – all with lots of poor students...Today state officials announced they’ll turn several schools nearby into charters...

http://wpln.org/?p=43916


Between 16 and 31 MCS Schools to Close Next Year

The Achievement School District is closing 10 schools. They won't really say that's what they're doing, and they would argue that the school buildings will be in use to educate children. But the ASD's "takeover" of 10 schools means that the staffs of 10 schools will be applying for new jobs for the 2013-14 school year.

The TPC recommended that the Shelby County School Board close 21 schools. That would bring us to 31, and that is, admittedly, unlikely. But Superintendent Kriner Cash has been clear that he thinks he will propose about a third of that number to be closed. That puts us in the 6-8 range.

So while 31 closed Memphis schools would be an unlikely outlier, this community is looking at between 16 and 18 schools worth of staff looking for jobs. That's a huge number of schools to close, and an unfortunate number of solidly middle class folks getting nervous...

http://schoolingmemphis.blogspot.com/2012/11/between-16-and-31-mcs-schools-to-close.html

I am a teacher at one of those schools in Frayser, a neighborhood the Achievement School District (ASD) seems to have targeted since they took over three schools there last year. The article notes that 6 of the 10 schools taken over will be run by charter operators.

I attended the meeting last night at Pursuit of God in Frayser, an impoverished and predominantly black neighborhood. The crowd was angry that their children’s teachers were going to be fired and that their children would have to adapt to a whole new school. They spoke about the great current teachers in their schools. They wanted to know what was going to make these schools better, and there was no one from the ASD who could explain that.

I expected an article in the local paper to mention the atmosphere at the meeting. The media ran this segment:

http://www.wmctv.com/story/20049306/tn-asd-getting-set-to-take-over-more-memphis-schools

And the paper did not report on the events of the meeting. The shot of the crowd was purposefully taken while most of them were in the other room getting refreshments. There was no other coverage of the meeting in the media.

http://dianeravitch.net/2012/11/10/a-teacher-describes-parents-reaction-to-privatization-in-memphis/


You notice how they never say "we're closing these schools/laying off these teachers because of the RTTT mandate"?

But in fact, it was RTTT that set the whole process in motion. TN got RTTT money; the identification of 5% low-performing schools is mandated by RTTT, & these schools were put into the newly-created "Achievement School District". The new teacher evaluation system was a RTTT mandate (it's the way they ID the 'bad teachers' so they can fire them.)

Some schools were given to charter schools (=layoffs of staff already there); some are slated for closure (=layoffs); some are in turnaround or transformation (=layoffs), and some are still awaiting their fate.

RTTT is driving layoffs, school closures, and the turnover of public schools to private charter operators. Absolutely, unquestionably.

But the media doesn't make that clear.

Gee, I wonder why.


You can go to any state that has applied for RTTT funds (not even *won* them, merely applied, because you have to change state laws & start putting systems in place just to *apply*) -- and note the consquences.

[HiPointDem]

84. Here's what's happening with one of those great charter schools that replaced a Memphis public

Last edited Wed Jan 16, 2013, 04:37 AM - Edit history (2)

school:

The Lester Community Center bristled with anger Wednesday as Binghamton leaders demanded Achievement School District leaders explain why they were not part of decisions regarding Lester School.

One mother brought her small daughter to the microphone to tell ASD Supt. Chris Barbic that she wet her pants twice because teachers would not let her use the restroom and then had to wear the same clothes until school was out. The child also said teachers took her shoes and made her walk barefoot, apparently because she failed to ask permission to tie her shoes.


"The teachers in this school are causing the kids to do one of three things," said Chan Douglas, community leader. "Fear the teachers, hate the teachers or kill the teachers."

Last winter, Barbic and his team selected Cornerstone as the charter that would take over Lester under the authority of ASD... The decision regarding Cornerstone was final.

This is the first public blowup over the ASD's role at Lester. There were outbursts in November when the ASD announced 10 of 14 additional city schools were in line for takeover...

The ASD's mission is to take schools from the bottom 5 percent to the top 25 percent in five years.

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2012/dec/19/memphis-parents-lash-out-against-achievement/

Cornerstone Preparatory School, a startup charter school chosen to turn around low-performing Lester School, a semester later sits in an uneasy alliance with the Binghamton families it serves.

School administrators are at odds with parents and community leaders over a host of issues, including claims that children are denied bathroom breaks and that children's shoes are taken away as punishment. An internal audit of school practices released last week found no instances of child abuse at the school, but teachers interviewed by the auditor said they had taken children's shoes away to keep them from playing with them in class.

Across the nation, charters are having similar flare-ups in the inner-cities where they are trying to change school cultures by replacing faculty, changing traditions and cracking down on discipline. "The kind of reaction you are seeing is not uncommon. There are many communities where that has occurred," said Pedro Noguera, executive director of the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education at New York University. "It's more likely to happen in charters because charters are often not designed with the focus of being responsive to parents, the community or the culture of the children."

The traditional means of recourse — complaining to the school board or running for school board — don't work because charters don't have elected school boards. Cornerstone does not hold public meetings. Outside of principal Lisa Settle,its seven-member board is all white; the school is predominately black.

Cornerstone, formerly a faith-based private school at Christ United Methodist Church, took over Pre-K through third grade last fall. Last month, the ASD announced that Cornerstone would expand through the sixth grade next year. And in the fall of 2014, it will be completely in charge. Problems started to bubble up soon afterward with allegations that the teaching staff, now more than 75 percent white, was twisting students' arms, forcing children to spend the day in wet clothing after bathroom accidents and taking their shoes.

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2013/jan/14/charter-schools-face-backlash-in-inner-cities-to/

I remain hopeful that a full investigation of all of the allegations will take place, though it does not appear to be part of Cornerstone's "audit" by a local accounting firm. The audit report has not been made public, though some results were disclosed to the Commercial Appeal last week.

Instead of making the report publicly available on its website, as would be expected by a government organization engaging in transparent behavior, Cornerstone has adopted a public relations plan that involves letting the information trickle out, a little bit at a time. That might reduce the impact of any single story, but it will continue to keep them in the news...

So here's today's little trickle of information, and it's a doozy! It's pretty well buried, but it's there! Those children who alleged that their shoes were taken away as punishment? They were totally telling the truth! "An internal audit of school practices released last week found no instances of child abuse at the school, but teachers interviewed by the auditor said they had taken children's shoes away to keep them from playing with them in class." Does Cornerstone have a policy that this is good classroom management? What about the part where the students had to walk around in their socks for the rest of the day...? Perhaps this is among the "best practices" that ASD Supt. Chris Barbic promised that Cornerstone would bring to the ASD table.

Child abuse because of shoe confiscation? No. There are much worse allegations being made against the teachers and adminstration of Cornerstone - allegations that Cornerstone is apparently leaving to Child Services to investigate. But this kind of behavior by these alt-certified teachers is exactly the kind of behavior that would not fly in middle class schools, or even in real public schools.

http://schoolingmemphis.blogspot.com/2013/01/cornerstone-audit-results-continue-to.html

[HiPointDem]

85. Another one of those superior Memphis charters:

Eskew and another kindergarten teacher called the meeting to explain why they had resigned from Omni Prep...only eight weeks before the end of the academic year. The following Monday, April 4th, three more teachers would resign...by the time the story broke, five of the six lower school teachers at Omni Prep, which includes kindergarten and first grade, had tendered their resignations — including one Teach for America Corps member.

News outlets and Omni Prep administrators alike reported that the five teachers left because Omni Prep told teachers in mid-March that they would only receive one-third of their paychecks. (This was not the first time Omni Prep had been unable to pay teachers; they skipped a pay period in July...) But the former teachers have since come out in defense of their resignations, citing a host of concerns about the overall functioning of the school....

"I think the fact that I started to work for a school that had no students — that was my first moment of doubt," Eskew says. "We were told, Training is stopping because we don't have our quota. We asked, How many students do we have? They said five. And two of them were one of the principal's own kids..." "In the days leading up to the school opening, Memphis City Schools were doing their registration, and we were asked to stand across the street, off of school properties, and flag down cars to give them a flyer and the elevator speech about Omni Prep," Eskew says. "We didn't have an address... The school site wasn't confirmed until August 7th, two days before opening. That was the day we were allowed to start decorating our rooms."

Teachers also expressed concern over not being fingerprinted, a standard safety procedure for working with children in the Memphis City Schools system. They were similarly uneasy about their training being cut short. "We were promised a month of training," says Felice Ling... "We got a week or two of fluff."

No books, no curriculum, no consistency, and no recourse for their concerns were among the top grievances... Students were regrouped again in January and again the week before Eskew resigned. "I was informed that I would be receiving new students to work with in the last two months of school. And I would not necessarily be working with the students I had had since January," she says. "I did not leave only because I wasn't getting paid, but also because I was informed that I could potentially not be working with my students for the remainder of the school year."

Eskew recalls when a potential donor came to visit the school and sat down with teachers. She asked them specifics about the curriculum. "Our response was, We have no curriculum... Booker doesn't agree that the school had no curriculum. "We started out with a plan for teacher-created curriculum," he says... According to former teachers, however, after being tasked to create a "teacher-created curriculum" they received little or no guidance. "They sent us a link to Tennessee grade level standards, and said, Use this... You have the Internet, go and use it." As a result, teachers say they relied heavily on a colleague, Molly Logan, the one kindergarten teacher with experience. "Molly was aware of what a kindergarten curriculum should look like," Eskew says. "She was our only real resource. She also resigned."

http://www.memphisflyer.com/memphis/schools-out/Content?oid=2725952


AND IT'S STILL IN BUSINESS!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Omni-Prep-Academy-North-Pointe/143837249014873

[HiPointDem]

86. And it's not only RTTT that carries out this 4-part program -- it's also SIG -- School Improvement

Grants:

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan today announced that Pennsylvania will receive $141 million to turn around its persistently lowest achieving schools through the School Improvement Grants (SIG) program. These funds are part of the $3.5 billion that will be made available to states this spring from money set aside in the 2009 budget and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

"When a school continues to perform in the bottom five percent of the state and isn't showing signs of growth or has graduation rates below 60 percent, something dramatic needs to be done," said Duncan. "Turning around our worst performing schools is difficult for everyone but it is critical that we show the courage to do the right thing by kids."

School districts will apply to the state for the funds this spring. When school districts apply, they must indicate that they will implement one of the following four models in their persistently lowest achieving schools:

TURNAROUND MODEL: Replace the principal, screen existing school staff, and rehire no more than half the teachers; adopt a new governance structure; and improve the school through curriculum reform, professional development, extending learning time, and other strategies.

RESTART MODEL: Convert a school or close it and re-open it as a charter school or under an education management organization.

SCHOOL CLOSURE: Close the school and send the students to higher-achieving schools in the district.

TRANSFORMATION MODEL: Replace the principal and improve the school through comprehensive curriculum reform, professional development, extending learning time, and other strategies.

http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/pennsylvania-receive-141-million-turn-around-its-persistently-lowest-achieving-s

Pennsylvania got more SIG money the next year, too:

http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/pennsylvania-receive-215-million-turn-around-its-persistently-lowest-achieving-s

And here's how that played out in Philadelphia:

On January 27, 2010, the School District of Philadelphia launched the Renaissance Schools initiative. The initiative is aimed at bringing transformative changes to the District’s lowest performing schools in order to bring about dramatic improvement in student achievement.

Now in its third year, the Renaissance Schools initiative is aimed at bringing transformative changes to the District’s lowest performing schools by working with school communities to recruit and select individuals and organizations that have proven track records of operating and supporting high-achieving schools. (NOTE: IN OTHER WORDS, BY TURNING THE SCHOOLS OVER TO CHARTER OPERATORS)

There are three major components of the Renaissance Schools initiative:

- Identifying chronically low-performing District schools (Renaissance Alert Schools) that are not likely to achieve dramatic improvements without transformative change

- Identifying individuals and organizations that are capable and prepared to turnaround around failing schools in Philadelphia

- Empowering school communities to play an active role in the turnaround and ongoing support of their schools

In April 2012, the School Reform Commission (SRC) authorized The School District of Philadelphia to match Renaissance Schools with the following Turnaround Teams:

Cleveland Elementary = Mastery Charter Schools Inc.

H.R. Edmunds Elementary = String Theory Schools

Jones Middle School = American Paradigm Schools

Thomas Creighton = currently under review

http://webgui.phila.k12.pa.us/offices/r/renaissance-schools


And Pennsylvania got RTTT money TOO:


New turnaround target: 76 schools by 2012

Pennsylvania's application for a piece of the $4 billion federal Race to the Top money calls for Philadelphia to "turn around" 76 low-performing schools by 2012-13 -- eight schools in 2010-11, 40 the following year, and 28 in 2012-13. That is close to a third of all schools in the District.

Such schools will be required to adopt one of four drastic reform strategies approved by the US Department of Education...The mildest of these strategies calls for removal of the principal and intensive staff training. But no more than half of the schools in Philadelphia can use this model, according to federal guidelines. The harshest is closure. In between is "turnaround," replacing the principal and 50 percent of the teachers, and "restart," or hiring outside providers to run the school...

The District was scheduled to release details of the Renaissance plan this week, including a "request for proposal" for potential providers that want to operate "restart" schools. But that was postponed until after the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers votes Thursday on the tentative agreement reached between the District and the union. Turnaround and other aspects of Race to the Top have a huge impact on the contract, including aspects of how teachers are evaluated and compensated.

http://thenotebook.org/blog/102116/philly-set-get-least-118-million-if-pa-wins-rttt-competition

Harrisburg – Governor Tom Corbett today announced that Pennsylvania has been awarded $41,326,299 under the federally-funded “Race to the Top” grant program.

http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=7234&PageID=1005857&mode=2&contentid=http://pubcontent.state.pa.us/publishedcontent/publish/cop_hhs/pde/single_web/no_workflow_requried/news_and_media/articles/governor_corbett_announces__41_3_million_federal_education_grant.html


Teacher layoffs in Philadelphia? You betcha!

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/09/15/04pbnk_tfa.h31.html

School closings? Damn right!

http://articles.philly.com/2012-12-15/news/35822509_1_school-closings-neighborhood-high-schools-ken-trump

No money my ass. Between June 2010 & December 2011 the feds gave Pennsylvania AT LEAST $400 MILLION -- ALL OF IT DIRECTED TOWARD THE ULTIMATE GOAL OF FIRING TEACHERS, CLOSING SCHOOLS, & CHARTERIZING SCHOOLS.

[madfloridian]

88. Good comment. Great research.

Thanks.