A Thin Line Between Love & Hate

It's been a fascinating 48 hours in the life CPS: three cash-starved schools privatized, other neighborhood schools praised for improving a never-before tracked statistic called Freshman On Track, and the Northside discovering they are, yet again, the lucky recipients of a new Selective Enrollment school to be named after Barack Obama. Do CPS & Rahm love students, families, and teachers or do they hate students, families, and teachers?

Though our heads our spinning, let's take a deeper dive into the data, shall we?

• The three turnaround schools--Dvorak, Gresham, and McNair--will all be run by AUSL despite strong community protest. Up until 2009, David Vitale, current Board of Ed. president was also the chairman of AUSL's board. Conflict of interest, anyone, anyone?

• While the turnaround schools were starved of cash, AUSL gets a one time profiteer fee of $300,000 for each school they improve implode. It makes one wonder how CPS can suddenly find close to $1 million dollars to give to AUSL, but couldn't find that money to fund these schools at a functional level. Yep, that goes in the hate column.

• WCT hates to nay-say, but it's pretty suspicious that University of Chicago's Consortium on Chicago School Research "discovered" the Freshman On Track metric, and also published the study declaring such a metric, "the key to solving the dropout crisis." Sort of like a doctor diagnosing you with an unheard of ailment and then restoring you to health. Rahm Emanuel, too, was all emboldened talking about a new Chicago of neighborhood schools that can get the job done. So, we'll take the love where we can get it.

• Barack Obama College Prep will be built near the former Cabrini-Green public housing complex. The area is now described as burgeoning and will not be a school open to the neighborhood, but instead a $60 million TIF-financed selective enrollment. Rahm has been intractable about touching TIF funds for schools, but suddenly he can loosen the purse strings for a school in Lincoln Park. The irony is lost on no one that these funds could be used to keep teaching positions at schools that serve the other 99% of Chicago. It also seems undeserving to name a school after the president who's let Arne Duncan try to dismantle what's left of the public school system. This action has to go in the psychological warfare column since they're spending money on schools, but not in any areas that are in dire need.

Emanuel, touting the big turnaround  in Chicago education, offered former Secretary of Education William Bennett, "a one way ticket" back to Chicago to see the progress.  Instead, we'd like to offer Rahm, B3, and the entire Board of Education a one way ticket away from our schools.

Duncan's Bashfest

WCT hopes that Arne Duncan avails himself of the Federal Employees Health Benefits program and seeks mental health services. While the rest of us are stuck negotiating prescription coverage, allowed procedures, and general well-being care, FEHB members "enjoy the widest selection of plans in the country." Certainly, whatever choice-y plan Duncan has, can help him recognize and understand his pattern of Employee Emotional Abuse (EEA). 

Duncan's January 13th speech reveals he suffers from a serious case of EEA. Symptoms include: "repetitive, targeted, and destructive communication by more powerful members toward less powerful members in the workplace." EEA is also known as: bashing others, blame-shifting, and finger-pointing. How else to explain his statement that, "...a significant portion of new teachers come from the bottom third of their college class, and most new teachers say their training didn't prepare them for the realities of the classroom." We can file this away as yet another example of teacher-bashing by the Secretary of Education. Thanks, Arn.

Nevermind that Duncan doesn't use any real data besides "significant" and "most" when he belittles and shames working teachers everywhere not only for the job they are doing now, but for the grades they earned in the past. Since Duncan keeps preaching 21st century solutions to teaching problems, you'd think he'd ditch the 18th century solutions of admonishments and shame for every conceivable ill. 

Does Duncan have a solution to combat the bottom-dwellers permeating the U.S. schools? Why, yes reader, he does:

• High expectations!
• Raising voices for excellence!
• Shake things up! 
• Challenge the status quo! 
• Walk the walk!
• Stop settling for less!

Embedded in these phrases are criticisms of everyone--parents, teachers, politicians--except: Duncan's office, those with corporate reform agendas, and Amanda Ripley. 

Platitudes don't equal solutions. So while a robust array of platitudes are on offer, the solutions are more than a little, ahem, lacking. 

Perhaps we will know Arne has sought help when he starts to accept some of the blame for the problems that he sees, and stops bashing those whom he serves.

Wanted: Extra Large Desk for 6'6" 3rd Grader

Arne Duncan's been busy walking back his statement from Friday about his fascination with white suburban moms and their hesitance to embrace Common Core. In his opinion, their resistance stems from the fact that it might make their kids seem less brilliant and that's scary. We suspect of all the things moms find scary, their child's brilliance and its relation to Common Core is not one of them. 

You can read reactions to his statement here, here, here, here, and here. It seems people, and not just white suburban moms, are mad. 

Duncan's apology is wrapped in the guise of high standards for everyone, everywhere. So take that suburbia! Or is it the inner city! We're not sure. But, he wants everyone to sit down and have a difficult conversation about:

• Improvement for everyone!

• Bringing about individual brilliance!

• The educational reality we've been hiding (we've always assumed the educational reality we've been hiding is poverty, but Duncan thinks it's a lack of high standards)

The solution to all of this is, of course, Common Core! Since Duncan is its biggest fan, we thought we'd evaluate his initial statement and subsequent apology according to the standards he's advocating for.

We made the mistake and started with the 12th grade standards for Literacy, and then began crossing out the attributes Duncan couldn't demonstrate:

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.1a Come to discussions prepared, having read and researched material under study; explicitly draw on that preparation by referring to evidence from texts and other research on the topic or issue to stimulate a thoughtful, well-reasoned exchange of ideas. (Points for showing up for speech!)
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.1b Work with peers to promote civil, democratic discussions and decision-making, set clear goals and deadlines, and establish individual roles as needed. (Duncan does work effectively with education profiteers)
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.1c Propel conversations by posing and responding to questions that probe reasoning and evidence; ensure a hearing for a full range of positions on a topic or issue; clarify, verify, or challenge ideas and conclusions; and promote divergent and creative perspectives. (He sure has generated some conversations!)
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.1d Respond thoughtfully to diverse perspectives; synthesize comments, claims, and evidence made on all sides of an issue; resolve contradictions when possible; and determine what additional information or research is required to deepen the investigation or complete the task. (He did "apologize.")

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.4 Present information, findings, and supporting evidence, conveying a clear and distinct perspective, such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning, alternative or opposing perspectives are addressed, and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and a range of formal and informal tasks. (Oops! Reteach!)

His apology indicates he may be ready to attempt 3rd grade standards (no offense to 3rd graders):

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.3.1a Come to discussions prepared, having read or studied required material; explicitly draw on that preparation and other information known about the topic to explore ideas under discussion. (Duncan: "Research demonstrates that as a country, every demographic group has room for improvement. Raising standards has come with challenging news in a variety of places; scores have dropped as a result of a more realistic assessment of students’ knowledge and skills.")

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.3.1b Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., gaining the floor in respectful ways, listening to others with care, speaking one at a time about the topics and texts under discussion). (Duncan: "A few days ago, in a discussion with state education chiefs, I used some clumsy phrasing that I regret.")

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.3.1c Ask questions to check understanding of information presented, stay on topic, and link their comments to the remarks of others. (While he still needs improvement in this area, we're confident he can improve with practice!)

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.3.1d Explain their own ideas and understanding in light of the discussion. (Duncan: "I want to encourage a difficult conversation and challenge the underlying assumption that when we talk about the need to improve our nation’s schools, we are talking only about poor minority students in inner cities.")

Readers: if you know of a good 3rd classroom for this student, please let us know, he'd be an ace on the basketball team!

Nov. 18th Means No Thanks to Plutocrats

147.9 million reasons to say no to CCSS

Fellow blogger Mercedes Schneider carefully details all of the philanthrocapitalist dabbling Bill Gates has engaged in to develop Common Core. WCT took the weekend off and we're a little foggy today, but it seems like Bill Gates-- as 21st century plutocrats are wont to--attempted to cloak his involvement in CCSS by throwing gobs of money at the four organizations who coordinated this state-led Gates-led effort:

• The National Governors Association
• Student Achievement Partners
• The Council of Chief State School Officers
• Achieve

Schneider points out that these four organizations have received $147.9 million dollars from Gates. Cha-ching! 

With all of that money, you'd think these organizations would ensure quality curriculum instead of this:

• Choose the number sentence that shows the story (what's a number sentence?)
• Write a number sentence that shows the missing number of marbles (is this English or math?)
• Which is a related subtraction sentence? (The Pearson people are sure obsessed with sentences!)

One of Bill Gates' partners in plutocracy is Arne Duncan. Common Core has falsely been promoted as state-led, when in fact Duncan and the federal government are the brains of the operation. However, we can infer from Duncan't most recent comment that he doesn't have a brain:

"It's fascinating to me that some of the pushback [against Common Core] is coming from, sort of, white suburban moms who--all of a sudden--their child isn't as brilliant as they thought they were and their school isn't quite as good as they thought they were..."

Consider Duncan's inane, insulting, race-bating statement reason number 157 million to say no to CC.

Calling all armchair pundits

Stay in D.C., bubble boy

Arne Duncan, our current Secretary of Education, best known here for his stint as one of many CPS CEOs (and his mad b-ball skillz), seems frustrated and confused.

In his state of education in America speech on October 1st, Duncan helpfully divides anyone
involved in education as either "in the bubble" or "outside the bubble." He lashes out at the bubble-dwellers, who include:

• Armchair pundits who say our schools are doomed to fail.

• Armchair pundits who say our schools are fine.

• Overconfident inhabitants of alternate universes (don't fret, he means D.C.) who are unable to listen to opposing viewpoints.

• Those who might be, "...advancing false narratives about a federal takeover of schools by mind-controlling robots." Armchair punditry alert: we hope this is Duncan being facetious.

Duncan places himself squarely in the real world, and begins to shower praises on those brave enough to survive outside the bubble, who include:

• Courageous reformers.

• People raising expectations! People raising standards!

• Real-time data gatherers who will help inform whether the courageous reforms are working.

Finally, he admonishes anyone who feels poverty and education are inextricably linked, and we're guessing a large percentage of us outside the bubble believe this. According to Duncan, those people use poverty as, "a catch-all excuse to avoid responsibility." In Arne's world, the virtuous and responsible path is to continue trying to solve poverty by throwing money at the problem. Anecdotally, it doesn't seem throwing government money and resources at poverty has ever worked. So who's living in the bubble, Arne? Teachers, law-enforcement, and social service providers see first-hand the effects of poverty: agitated, weary students; absent parents; neighborhoods overrun by gangs.

Duncan shows he's doesn't have a foot on planet Earth by suggesting that those who choose to disagree with him are wrong and irresponsible, while those that do agree with him are courageous realists who are willing to overlook the beast that is poverty.