A Real MisMatch

Hey, David Kirp, you left something really important out of your article about Foreman High School: any mention of real teachers working at the school! The exclusive focus on Match Education and their tutors' alleged lone efforts to improve student achievement in math would lead the casual reader to believe there aren't 15 math teachers already on staff at the school.

Match Education's tutoring program uses, "intensive support, providing a safety net for students who have fallen far behind." Hmm, that description sounds suspiciously like what teachers would do, were it not for overflowing classes and days of test prep, or if they were employed at the Lab School where there's a 10:1 student-teacher ratio. We're told Match Education's tutors even, "individualize instruction." Again, much like a teacher. What else do these latter day Miracle Workers do? They also are, "not only trained to teach math but also in how to relate to these teenagers." Teaching and relating to teens are also what our counselors do.

The real allure of Match Education for Mayor Rahm Emanuel: cha-ching! The tutors earn $16,000 year plus benefits, that's just above the 2014 poverty line. And, no nasty, complicated unions to deal with either. 

Another bonus for Rahm is that Match Education is the brand name of several different entities all aimed at privatizing public education, most notably Match Charter Public Schools, currently invading Boston. Looks like the Chicago invasion has begun since Match tutors already work at Foreman and Match Board member Matthew Vettel used to work for Bruce Rauner's $6 billion dollar a year private equity firm GTCR. 

Chicago's Newest Grinch: Mary Weaver

 

The above pictures bear a striking resemblance to each other, don't you think? While one of these images is a fictitious character described as, "a bitter, grouchy, cave-dwelling creature, with a heart two-sizes too small..." the other is an image of an actual bitter, grouchy, cave-dwelling creature with a heart two-sizes too small (no, not Rahm Emanuel) who resides not on Mount Crumpit, but at Scammon Elementary. 

The alleged grinchiness of Scammon's principal, Mary Weaver, was outlined today in a Federal complaint charging the Board of Education with discrimination based on pregnancy. The complaint alleges that Weaver targeted teachers who became pregnant with lower evaluations and derisive remarks, such as: "I can't believe you are doing this [having a baby] to me!" While WCT tires of the Chicken Soup for the Soul at Work bullshit we're treated to on a regular basis, this seems a little too angry parent.

Eventually, the teachers either quit or were fired. We wonder if this behavior falls under Pillar Four--Committed and Effective Teachers, Leaders & Staff-- of CPS's five pillars? If so, much like the ousted teachers, we'd have to E3 Ms. Weaver's entire tenure at the school.

Weaver is just one of many bully principals within CPS who intimidate employees at their whim to remain in positions of power and to win high ratings within a discredited system.

We'd suggest some reading for Weaver and her ilk which suggests being a nice boss is better than being a horrible boss, but something tells us photo-ops with Rahm far outweigh any need to be liked.

Auction-Rate Education

Nothing will ruin a perfectly fine day away from school faster than another phone call from your delusional principal reading the Chicago Tribune's exacting, hair-raising reporting of David Vitale's investment follies on behalf of CPS. To use Common Core parlance, Vitale and the Board's investment in auction-rate bonds and interest-rate swaps could be described as robustly complex. You see, reader, auction-rate bonds are bonds that go to the lowest bidder and whose interest rates are regularly reset. This practice has been so successful the SEC issued a Cease and Desist order to stop such *innovation* and a basic Wikipedia search notes these markets have largely been frozen since 2008. No matter, nothing like using an untested, risky means of finance to needlessly expand the district.

Unfortunately for tax-payers and public school students, such robust complexity may end up costing the district $100,000,000 more than necessary upon repayment. One can safely assume the Board's, "unanimously approved contracts...that didn't even specify exact costs," will benefit Wall Street grifters and not any students. 

If terms like auction-rate bonds and interest-rate swaps don't readily roll off your tongue, the Tribune describes such deals variously as: exotic, unconventional, flavor of the day, and risky. If these articles were not so finance-laden one would think you were reading about CPS education policy. 

Using another refrain that could be a blanket statement for most CPS decisions, Jackson Potter of the CTU puts it best when he says, "It did not have to be this way." 

You Quazy Quazzo

Although Deborah Quazzo's Board of Education stint has been covered here, here, and here, it's time for a refresher on this appointed school board member.

Touted with a total lack of irony in Rahm's press release as both a "small business owner" and as a founder and manager of GSV Advisors, a company whose investment portfolio includes forty-nine (49) of, "...the most important private companies in the world," WCT thinks Ms. Quazzo might pull in slightly more than the average small-business owner's salary of $78,241.

Additional dispatches from the Doublethink Department:

• The "strong voice" for the Board of Ed is frequently missing or rubber stamps items with the rest of Rahm's appointees. 

• Quazzo's kids are products of the private and pricey Latin School. While Latin teachers are "the heart of the school...who provide context and coherence" for students, Quazzo's Board embraces churn by ensuring CPS teachers who might provide context and coherence are priced out of their jobs.

• While sitting on a Board which ostensibly oversees public education, we learn that Quazzo is also a connoisseur of all things charter. Her reformy resume includes affiliations with: New Schools for Chicago and Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship.

• Not content to infiltrate charters and public schools, Ms. Quazzo also sits on the Board of the other-worldy GEMS World Academy where tuition for Junior Kindergarten (or as the rest of us call it: pre-school) will run you a cool $31,000.

When do we get that elected school board again?

Rahm: (Another) Renaissance Man

Chicago mayors have a penchant for the Renaissance. Be it Mayor Daley who piloted the now-failed Renaissance 2010 as the cure for the failing CPS, or most recently, Rahm Emanuel who believes he is leading Europe's Chicago's charge out of the Dark Ages with his newly launched CPS arts initiative: Be Creative (this could well be the title for Chicago's history with voting, pensions, and budgets). 

Tuesday's announcement asks, "Chicago's business, civic, cultural and philanthropic leaders to help raise $38 million dollars in private donations..." to fund arts programming which will, "create a robust experience...to nurture the next generation of innovators and creative thinkers." And so it is that Rahm the benefactor has bestowed the arts upon all of CPS, at least until 2018 - 19 when the public will assume funding this initiative. How the public will do this is unclear, but until then, let there be arts! 

With Rahm's grand talk of the arts and its patrons you'd think we were in Renaissance Italy.

A quick history lesson tells us: 

• Wealthy Florentines flaunted their money and power by funding the arts.

• Wealthy patrons like the Medici family feuded with other families to gain political influence and power.

• Those living during this time believed they were undoing the backward thinking of the past.

Chicago's current cultural and political landscape tells us:

• Wealthy Chicagoans flaunt their money by funding the arts.

• Wealthy patrons like the Prtizker family hold sway politically and culturally, but without the warfare.

• We are living in enlightened times, or so says B3, "The arts opens the door to new ways of thinking and learning, of imagining creative solutions in fields of study across the curriculum..."

WCT is left to wonder if teachers--technology and modern conveniences aside-- in 2014 Chicago are not so unlike peasants 1420 Italy: grateful the arts are being funded, but frustrated this is a ploy to buy votes, placate the masses, and another opportunity for the monied to pat themselves on the back (and perhaps buy an indulgence for Heaven).

Spotlight on Angela Schiavitti!

Move over, Myles Mendoza – WCT’s spotlight is on Angela Schiavitti!

Myles Mendoza’s organization, One Chance Illinois, offers abundant opportunities for socialites, educational profiteers and aspiring politicians to congratulate themselves on solving poverty through promoting urban charters and vilifying the unions who protect teachers' due process rights.

Let’s shine some light on Mendoza's pick for Board Member: Angela Schiavitti!

• Years spent as an urban teacher:  0
• Years spent as an urban administrator: 0
• LinkedIn Professional Description:  "Independent Education Management Professional"
• LinkedIn evidence of any experience in any field relating to directly educating children: 0
• One Chance Illinois:  Board of Directors - Community Leader
• Community of Residence:  Hinsdale, IL
• Average home value in Hinsdale IL:  $767,500
• Description of Ms. Schiavitti's Hinsdale home:  6 bedroom, $ 2.4 million dollar value
• School where her children likely attend:  Hinsdale Central High School (neighborhood public school)
• Alternative charter choices to Hinsdale Central High School: 0
• Sample of English courses offered at Hinsdale Central High School: Rhetoric, Discussion & Debate
• Ironies hopefully apparent to Hinsdale Central high school students enrolled in Discussion & Debate:
• Non-educator using vast wealth to advise in favor of limiting due process rights for public teachers
• Community Leader for urban education reform residing in 2.4 million dollar home in an exclusive and elite community insulated from all factors causing dysfunction in urban schools
• Community Leader advocating for replacing neighborhood public schools with charters -- except in her community

We're baaaack.

Much like meaningless edu-acronyms, buildings with cockroaches a-creepin',  and babble from Rahm & B3, WCT is back!

Blaine's principal Troy LaRaviere proudly states in a SunTimes article that neighborhood schools aren't has-beens, "Public school students learned far more in one year than charter school students did." He helpfully provides our mayor with some next-steps, "In the face of these results, the mayor’s next press conference on schools should be much different from his last. He should announce that CPS will cease its effort to divert funding from public neighborhood schools into his failed charter experiment. An immediate surge of investment in public neighborhood schools should follow." We couldn't agree more.

It's a good thing we didn't spend our weekend waiting for such an announcement. Instead, B3's bleh email arrived to our inboxes this morning with this rousing fact: "Their [teachers] success in the classroom is evidenced by a slew of recent data, including improved NWEA scores, rising attendance levels, and a District-high graduation rate of X percent, all of which moves us closer to our goal of preparing every student for success in college and beyond." X percent? That's quite a feat!

Further, we were informed of, “...the investments we have made in your schools, including facility upgrades, increased technology, and expanded programs like STEM and IB will provide you with the supports you need to rase [sic] the bar higher and help students thrive.” WCT has heard of lots of malfunctioning copiers, computers, and unusable facilities, all in time for the first day. That must be what B3 means when she issues this spoiler alert: “It [teaching] requires maximum effort and can be fraught with daily challenges. Yet the rewards are staggering…”  We hope to be around to see such staggering rewards if only CPS let’s us do our jobs correctly in the first place.

To the teachers who succeed in the face of all that’s happening in CPS: right on! It’s good to see you in the hallways and classrooms again this year!