NYT Ignores AFT Survey Results

The American Federation of Teachers conducted a survey of about 30,000 teachers nation-wide.  Survey results, which were recently published, indicate many teachers feel that teaching sucks:

• 86% do not trust their administrator or supervisor
• Only 1 in 5 feel respected by government and media
• 78% feel physically and/or emotionally exhausted by the end of the work day
• 87% say job demands interfere with family life
• Greatest workplace stressors: new initiatives without training, mandated curricula, standardized tests

The NYT recently published an article highlighting the nation-wide teacher shortage. In California, for example, the amount of people entering the profession has dropped more than 55 percent from 2008 to 2012. 

However, the NYT bungles the reason for the teacher shortage, describing it as "a result of the layoffs of the recession years combined with an improving economy in which fewer people are training to be teachers."  So there's a teacher shortage because fewer people are training to be teachers?  Wow. Insightful. 

If the NYT had talked to any teachers or to any unions that represent teachers, they might have realized that many teachers think that their current jobs suck.  We don't know any current teacher, at least in CPS, who would recommend entering the profession to their kids, their nieces and nephews, their younger siblings, their younger cousins or their friends' kids. Correct us if we're wrong.

Hypocrite Spotlight: Henry Bienen, Effete Union-Hater

Henry Bienen, outgoing CPS Board Member, ex-President of Northwestern and interim head of the Poetry Foundation, recently discussed his thoughts on CPS and the CTU.  In response, WCT turns our spotlight on Henry Bienen:

Bienen's thoughts on CPS during Rahm's 1st term:  "The schools improved, no doubt about it..I can't see that it comes from any lowering of standards in any way."

Chance that Bienen understands the realities of grade/attendance manipulation: 0

Amount of regular CPS teachers spoken to by Bienen while serving on BoE:  0

Opinion of CTU:  "There are very few places that have as good a deal as the CTU."

Assessment of his own wealth: "I'm not that rich."

Value of his 161 E. Chicago Ave. condo:  $1.3 M

Percentage of CPS teachers eligible to collect Social Security: 0

Percentage of retired CPS teachers collecting less than $3,000/month pension: 42%

Percentage of retired CPS teachers collecting less than $2,500/month pension: 27%

Opinion of elected CPS School Board: "Poor idea."

Bald-faced lie:  "I believe in democracy."

Effete false-modest musings on new poetry job: "When I was a freshman at Cornell, my poetry teacher was W. D. Snodgrass, a great poet.  I met my wife in his class...I had lunch with Snodgrass, who was a very wonderful guy, very informal.  He said to me, "Henry, either you have a very complicated ear for poetry, or..." And the 'or' just hung there."

Behavior during CPS Board Meetings:  "When parents would come before the board with questions, he never even made eye contact, like, 'I have to endure these unwashed masses in front of me.'"
-Karen Lewis

Wife Leigh Bienen's job:  Law Professor at Northwestern, special interest in capital punishment reform

Likelihood that Northwestern's Innocence Project sent an innocent man to jail: 100%

Probability that Henry and Leigh Bienen are clueless about life in Chicago: 100%

Triple Digit NOLA Murders Despite Charter Proliferation

Laissez les bon temps roulez!

Nearly a decade ago, Hurricane Katrina killed more than 1,000 people and rendered thousands more homeless, leaving large areas of the city without schools.  At the time, 2/3 of New Orleans public schools were deemed "failing."  Sniffing opportunity, charter profiteers descended.

Currently, 92 percent of NOLA students are enrolled in a charter school.

Ironically, New Orleans just hit triple digits in murders 55 days sooner than in 2014.  Furthermore, NOLA's solve rate for homicides has slipped to 50 percent. Detectives in 2015 are handling 30% more cases than in 2014, with a homicide unit that is 25% smaller than 2014.  These troubling statistics are vaguely explained as resulting from various form of [police] attrition.  What could be sapping the strength of NOLA police officers?

And noxious ed reformers, where is the excellence you promised?  Where is the turn-around? Where is the college and career readiness? Where are the bright futures?

Rahm Skips Chiraq for Aspen

Rahm Emanuel had a busy week: funding CTU's pension, laying off 1,400 CPS employees, and then borrowing $500M back from the pension to pay to keep schools open. Whew! After all of that, one might expect him to keep a low profile, or be around for the 4th of July weekend since in Chiraq it will mean bodies piling up. Nonsense, readers! Rahm jetted right to Aspen to be interviewed at the 2015 Aspen Ideas Festival.

The Aspen Ideas Festival is billed as, "the nation's premier, public gathering place for leaders from around the globe and across many disciplines to engage in deep and inquisitive discussion of the ideas and issues that both shape our lives and challenge our times." People who live on planet Earth have *ideas festivals* all the time and they're called conversations. Aspen's fresh mountain air and spectacular vistas must make it a special place for plutocrats and profiteers of all stripes to exchange trade secrets.

Rahm Emanuel felt the need to announce, "I am not an education reformer. My job as mayor is to make sure you have quality."

Here are some key issues of education reform and Rahm's stance:

School choice: The more, the better. Words like excellence, rigor, and tran$formation are regularly bandied about. Headline after Rahm won his second election: "A victory for Rahm Emanuel is a victory for school choice."

Teacher tenure: It is lazy, complacent teachers who are the ruin of the school system. The Reader's Ben Joravsky points out that CPS has in effect abolished tenure by redefining positions and creating other bureaucratic workarounds to the union contract.

Teachers' Unions: It is union teachers who make it impossible to effectively teach the 21st century student. Chicago's 2012 strike, massive school closings, and teacher layoffs indicate Rahm agrees.

Privatization: The free-market, corporate-driven policies of ed reform will cure all education ills. Rahm and his elected school board recently privatized school nurses who work in our buildings, the janitorial staff in our schools, and have funded a wealth of external partners to come into our schools and indoctrinate staffs in corporate edu-speak.

Rahm fully embraces every tenet of education reform, but he's not a reformer. He's the quality guy. WCT can only guess what the Doublethink Dept. will come up with when, in several months, schools open with an unparalleled level of chaos and a dearth of funds to actually accomplish anything. Will he then say he's the austerity guy?

Ed Reform in Chiraq?

The Illinois Network of Charter Schools glibly states, "We know all children can achieve academic success and have bright futures!"  As actual Chicago public school teachers, we at WCT would, of course, like to believe the same.  CPS has certainly supported INCS's ed reform tran$formation efforts, with $442 million of tax-payer money given to charter schools in 2015.

But will busting unions ed reform really provide bright futures to all children? What are some other factors that get in the way of children's bright futures besides unions lack of charter schools?

Yesterday's Trib published two interesting op-eds on Chicago's violence problem:

• In the first, Robert Milan, Cook County State's Attorney, asks that the National Guard be called in to protect Chicago.  Milan notes that "CPS's regular school year is over and thousands of teenagers are now on the streets."
• In the second, Cook County Commissioner Richard Boykin calls for 1. strict curfew enforcement 2. prosecution of gangbangers as domestic terrorists 3. increased presence of Cook County Sheriff's police 4. an increase in parenting/drug rehab/work training programs.

These op-eds, plus the ongoing debate over Spike Lee's new film, provisionally titled "Chiraq", warrant a review of Chicago crime data:

• A person is shot every: 3.22 hours
• A person is shot and killed every: 19.21 hours

In other words, a Chicago student, parent, cousin, aunt, uncle, grandma, grandpa, brother or sister commits, witnesses, or is the victim of an act of gun violence every 4 hours.  And that's just guns.

So, Illinois Network of Charter Schools and ed reformers everywhere, we ask you:  How are you so sure that all children can have bright futures if only unions are busted and education is privatized?

Perhaps Ken Griffin and his ilk can get moving on some lucrative corporate police reform.

CPS Waste, Exhibit C: Charter Payments [Update]

While the political stalemate drags on in Springfield between Mike Madigan, Rahm Emanuel, and Bruce Rauner, CPS's fate hangs in the balance. No matter the outcome, increasingly toxic comments will populate every article written about CPS, which boil down to: 1) teachers are greed crazed loons, 2) let the greedy bastards go bankrupt, and 3) fire all the greedy, lazy teachers.

At no point during this time has there been any discussion of what suppliers are doing business with Chicago and how much they're getting paid. 

Here are some payment highlights from the FY 2015 report (this report is no longer online, but a cached version can be viewed by cutting and pasting this link into your browser: http://web.archive.org/web/20150402185313/http://www.csc.cps.k12.il.us/purchasing/supplier_report_2015.xml).

Noble Street Charter School:                              $111,428,107.00

Chicago Charter School Foundation (CICS):         $88,695,497.00

UNO Charter School Network:                              $79,868,697.00

Youth Connection Charter School (YCCS):            $47,987,585.00

LEARN Charter School:                                        $28,308,409.00

Perspectives Charter School:                                $22,617,774.00                          

University of Chicago Charter School Corp.:          $16,637,216.00

Urban Prep Academies:                                       $13,332,826.00 

KIPP Chicago Schools:                                       $10,015,987.00

North Lawndale Charter School:                           $8,762,081.00

Chicago Virtual Charter School:                             $7,362,227.00

Concept Schools:                                                 $7,247,686.00

Total payments to listed schools:                     $442,264,142.00

Total overdue pension payment:                      $634,000,000.00

Payments to charters as % of overdue pension payment:  70%

Projected layoffs as a result of pension payment:  1,400 employees

This doesn't include payments to any charter raking in less than $5M, assorted other profiteers who are consultants, or various small-time kickback artists. 

This yearly spending is 70% of the overdue pension payment. It should be noted that as of April 2015 there are 13,000 empty charter seats.

Where are the calls for mass closures, investigations into who the money is really going to, and the accusations of the greed crazed loonies running these schools? In short, why is this spending going unchecked, while a constitutional obligation like a pension payment is suddenly debatable?

Update: Rahm Emanuel dutifully funded the pension obligation and directed more money to buddy Ken Griffin whose company, Citadel, manages a portion of CTU's pension. As a result, Emanuel projects 1,400 employees will lose their jobs with CPS.

The above questions still apply, and questions about mass closures and greed crazed loonies running our schools now apply directly to Jesse Ruiz and Rahm Emanuel. Their Wednesday press conference to explain exactly how all this happened will likely be an Orwellian display of epic proportions.

Finally! Ed Reform Gets An Ally! [Update]

Readers: if you didn't realize that the education reform movement was on the brink of extinction, don't feel bad. Neither did we. The narrative that ed reform needs saving is just what Commentary Magazine and Peter Wehner would like people to believe based on the recent headline, "Education Reform Gains An Organizational Ally." The ally is former CNN anchor Campbell Brown, and the knowing gaze in her eyes comes from calculating all of the many dollars she can direct into the pockets of charter operators and choice profiteers everywhere.

Let's quickly examine existing ed reform allies to see if Peter Wehner's claim that ed reform needs "a shot in the arm," is true. A revealing article from 2011 provides the following information:

The Bill and Melinda Gates education endowment: $33,000,000,000. (With an additional $30,000,000,000 on tap from Warren Buffet).
Vacuous mi$$ion: High quality education for all and innovative solutions to education problems. We ask again, what about small brains?

The Walton Family Foundation education endowment: $2,000,000,000.00
Vague mi$$ion: Choice, access, and more public charter options.

The Broad Foundation education endowment: $1,400,000,000.00
Scary mi$$ion: infiltrate urban school districts everywhere.

Yes, those are all figures in the billions of dollars. There's enough money to balance the budget of CPS many times over, and yet it's reform movement that's faltering. Last we checked charter operators and profiteers were not being called swine, greedy pigs, or thugs in any comment section of any newspaper anywhere. Instead, readers of the Tribune were being chastised for not welcoming a charter school into their neighborhood because they did not want to reduce enrollment at neighborhood schools.

But yes, let's breathe a sigh of relief that someone is finally here to save ed reform.

Update:

A June 30th article reveals the Federal government may just be the charter movement's biggest supporter, at least in Colorado. The government has awarded Colorado charter operators $46,000,000 in federal funds because Colorado charters are free to hire and fire unlicensed, unqualified teachers. That must be a real, "shot in the arm," to all of those licensed teachers working at public schools.

Reminder: Its All About the Children.

Although ed reformers haven't yet figured out how to revise the lifeless language that their brand of orthodoxy requires, they have mastered one integral part of their message:  It's All About the Children.

Let's have a look at the yearly salaries of some well-known charter operators in their $ervice of children:

• NYC Success Academy CEO Eva Moskowitz:  $567,000.00
• Washington D.C. Friendship Charters CEO Donald Hense: $356,478.00
• New Orleans Lusher Charters CEO Kathy Reidlinger: $316,306.00
• Detroit Cornerstone Schools CEO Clark Durant: $450,000.000

As a basis of comparison, nurses in Chicago Public Schools make, on average,  $49,000.00 per year, or 24 dollars per hour, which is 9 more dollars per hour than the 15 dollar per hour minimum wage that many fast-food workers are currently advocating for.

In Chicago, the most politically corrupt city in the U.S., it easier for charter operators to keep their profits private.  In fact, reporters at the Chicago Reader sent FOIA (Freedom Of Information Act) requests to 34 of the biggest Chicago charter operators.  Unlike Trib reporters, Reader reporters were curious about Chicago charter salary and payroll information.  Not surprisingly, the Reader's request for information yielded zero results.

This is very reassuring to all Chicago ed profiteers, including One Chance Illinois, the Chicago Public Education Fund, and uber-profiteer Ken Griffin.  Because, as we know, their efforts are All About the Children.

CPS Waste: The Talent Office Pt. 2

Recent reporting by the Trib refers to CPS's financial crisis as "appalling."  We find much that is appalling in CPS, including the Newspeak renaming of the Human Resources office as the "Talent Office."

More appalling facts:

• Number of employees at CPS's Talent Office:  206
• Combined salaries of all Talent Office employees:  14, 436, 239.00  
• Notable Broad Resident Profiteer currently at CPS Talent Office:  Traci Thibodeaux
• Ms. Thibodeaux's prior corporate experience:  Sales Finance Manager at Frito Lay
• Frito Lay's former blunder:  Olestra fat substitute
• Unpleasant Olestra side effect:  anal oil leakage

Clearly, Ms. Thibodeaux's Frito Lay experience will assist her and her ilk in their continued cornholing of CPS teachers and students.

CPS Waste, Exhibit A: The Talent Office

While the media's solution to everything CPS revolves around: 1) declaring bankruptcy or 2) massive layoffs of the teaching and support staff in schools, we humbly suggest all reporters examine the CPS Talent Office (Newspeak for HR) for some possible places to save money.

According to their own website they have no accomplishments to date.

For a department that doesn't hide their uselessness, they are certainly well staffed. 

We took a "deep dive into the data," as our Thought Partners are wont to say and discovered the following:

• 4 Broad Center residents on staff at $95,000 each. The Broad Center bills itself as tran$formative by pushing for charter expansion and merit pay. Broadies actively perpetuate the notion that urban school systems can only succeed by removing the teaching staff and replacing them with disruptive leaders from outside the education field.

• An Orwellian Education Pioneer Analyst fellow apparently on staff to explore the uncharted territory of data as a profiteering mechanism. The Education Pioneers have investors from the plutocrat hall-of-fame including: the Gates Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation, the Broad Foundation and a donor from Chicago named Anonymous (Bruce Rauner or Ken Griffin is that you?)

• Numerous Talent Generalists, Talent Specialists, and Executive Directors who collect 6-figure salaries.

• Managers of managers of managers who oversee the up-and-coming profiteers earning close to 6 figures.

Potential candidates report months long waits for returned calls, convoluted steps in the hiring process, and no answers to questions.  Clearly, the Talent Office is hard at work ignoring qualified candidates and soliciting those who only see teaching as a stepping stone on the way to something better. This tidily continues the urban district-as-failure myth (No qualified candidates, better privatize!) whilst lining the pockets of numerous profiteers.

WWJT of Pastor Corey Brooks?

Several months ago, Corey Brooks, pastor of the New Beginnings mega-church, baffled Southsiders by lending his support to billionaire Bruce Rauner's purchase of the position of Governor of Illinois.  Perhaps Mr. Brooks was seduced by a glass of merlot from Rauner's exclusive wine club?  Unlike Jesus Christ, though, who turned water into wine at no cost, Bruce Rauner pays $100,000 per year for his wine, an expense that's twice the average Chicago household income.

We've also noticed that Pastor Corey Brooks has taken a $pot on the Board of Directors at One Chance Illinois, aligning himself with Myles Mendoza's anti-union plutocrats, socialites and ed reform profiteers.  More recently, Bruce Rauner has named Mr. Brooks to $erve on the Illinois Tollway Board.  Cha-ching!

This makes us wonder:  What Would Jesus Think?

• According to Mark, Jesus said, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God."
• And according to Matthew, Jesus said, "You cannot serve both God and money."

The Language of Ed Reform: Vague, Vacuous, Insipid and Boring

From George Orwell's essay Politics and the English Language, written in 1946:

• Political writing is bad writing.
• Orthodoxy, of whatever color, seems to demand a lifeless, imitative style.
• Political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible.  Thus, political language has to consist of euphemism, question-begging, and sheer cloudy vagueness.
• The great enemy of clear language is insincerity.

The future is now:

Perspectives Charter Schools' Mi$$ion:  All Perspectives Charter Schools will provide students with a rigorous and relevant education based on the principles of a disciplined life, preparing them for life in a changing world and helping them to become intellectually reflective, caring and ethical people engaged in a meaningful life.

Noble Charter Network Mi$$ion:  Noble prepares low-income students with the scholarship, discipline and honor necessary to succeed in college and lead exemplary lives, and serves as a catalyst for educational reform in Chicago.

KIPP Charter Foundation Vi$ion:  Our vision is that, one day, all public schools will help children develop the knowledge, skills, character and habits necessary to achieve their dreams and make the world a better place.

One Chance Illinois Mi$$ion:  OCI believes that children only get one chance at a high quality education. [Our] mission is to advance public policy that expands quality educational options for Illinois' middle and low-income families.

Alert! Profiteer Gets Feathers Ruffled!

Apparently Myles Mendoza's only quibble with our June 7th post is the observation that the organization he heads up--One Chance Illinois--is anti-union. Our one measly observation that ed-reformers are only anti-union in urban areas seems like chump change compared to the notion that OCI is a self-enriching organization fueled by elitist guilt that peddles unproven initiatives. But, okay, let's talk about how not anti-union OCI is.

Surely, if One Chance Illinois were not anti-union there would more than just established and up-and-coming profiteers on their advisory board. These people are policy advisors who, "assist One Chance Illinois in setting its policy agenda...and provide national perspective on effective policy making." Certainly, an organization whose philosophy claims to, "...not favor one type of school over another..." would have a robust collection of advisors to reflect all of the many educational choices they keep shoving down the public's throats.

Let's examine this Team of Rivals One Chance has established:

Thomas B. Fordham Institute (Chad Aldis) - A conservative, education policy think tank whose mission describes students being held hostage by, "...adult interest groups, including but not limited to, teacher unions." No mention of mandated tests like PARCC that literally held students hostage for hours this winter and spring.

The Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation (Michael B. Horn) - Paging George Orwell! After we consulted our Newspeak dictionary, we found this non-partisan think tank refers to products, services, brick-and-mortar schools, and customer needs. Not one mention of students or teachers.

DFER Illinois (Rebecca Nieves Huffman) - An organization notorious for union bashing. In September 2012, a Tribune article linked DFER as a sponsor of anti-teacher ads during the teachers' strike. Most recently, DFER-Illinois put money behind aldermanic candidates in wards with CTU candidates running.

Digital Learning Now (John Bailey) - A national initiative of ExcelinEd whose goal is to, "...create a high-quality digital learning environment." No mention of providing students with high-quality educators.

We will spare you the rest of the organizational profiles of this twenty-nine member panel. The lone representative of public education is the Debate Director from Evanston Township High School. Hopefully his expertise in making a reasoned argument is used to advocate for equitable funding and experienced teachers in all of our schools so students and families are protected from the whims of education reformers who feel emboldened by their moral crusading for the civil rights issue of our time.

Oh, and the intent of this blog should be clear from the previous 90 posts WCT has published: we are public educators who are disgusted with the corruption, insincerity, and sanctimony of the education reform movement. 

New Name, Same Profiteers: One Chance Illinois

When we last left Illinois' choiceist reformers--Myles Mendoza (plutocrat), Angela Schiavitti (socialite), and fellow profiteers Kevin Chavous (parental choice crusader), Jack Buck (instigator, professional powerhouse, and positive change agent)--they were busy at Choice4kids.org peddling tran$formation, innovation, and the sorry state of traditional public schools.

In 2015, Choice4kids re-focu$ed and re-branded as One Chance Illinois-- a vast army of elitist guilt--amping up the public school desperation. Their mission trumpets, "There are no do-overs...we must do everything we can to ensure Illinois's children get the education they need and deserve." No shit. Every parent, teacher, and citizen-with-a-pulse agrees: education is a big deal. And yet. Bruce Rauner is merrily defunding public education while ed-reformers have the luxury of an ever-expanding contingent of converts who believe that choice, a non-unionized workforce and a robust array of unproven initiatives that are financially self-enriching will save the day. Cha-ching!

Behold: One Chance Illinois. An army of plutocrats who influence policy enough to make failed education initiatives like vouchers sexy all over again when re-branded as "access." 

Let's take a look at where a few One Chance Board members live and the charter/"access" choices that those communities offer:

Jack Buck, Winnetka:  Winnetka charter/"access" choices = 0

Bob Huffman, Northbrook: Northbrook charter/"access" schools = 0

Bob Birdsell, Wilmette: Wilmette charter/"access" schools = 0

Angela Schiavitti, Hinsdale: Hinsdale charter/"access" schools = 0

Conclusion:  Public education with a unionized teaching staff is good for the students of Winnetka, Northbrook, Wilmette and Hinsdale.  But not for students of Chicago.

Further conclusion:  Winnetka, Northbrook, Wilmette and Hinsdale offer limited opportunities for educational tran$formation.  But Chicago?  Cha-ching!

Further, further conclusion: When your local government shutters schools and intentionally creates edu-chaos, of course "access" and groups like One Chance seem like the saviors du jour.

31 & Done: B3's Long Haul

Buh-bye, B3

Barbara Byrd-Bennett, October 12, 2012: "I'm not sure if it's 8 years, it could be 10, it could be 12, but I'm here. I don't intend to go anywhere. I don't know what you do, other than sign in blood. I mean, I'm here and I am not going. I'm here for the long haul."

Barbara Byrd-Bennett, May 29, 2015: "I write to submit my resignation from the position of Chief Executive Officer of the Chicago Public Schools...effective June 1, 2015."

***

Rahm Emanuel, October 12, 2012: "Most importantly, she [B3] understands the essential quality of accountability in the system...she needs to institute a culture of accountability."

Rahm Emanuel, June 1, 2015: "I am saddened by the circumstances that have led to Barbara's resignation and I wish her well."

***

In these reform-y times, WCT doesn't know what constitutes "the long haul," but 31 months seems short even by the staunchest reform-y standards. Then again, when one presides over a litany of school closings, awarding of no-bid contracts, and the proliferation of charter schools, maybe 31 months is an eternity.

Beat It, Purv!

That’s purvy

The Sun Times Natasha Korecki proves just how much Gov. Rauner loathes both public school teachers and anyone who requires help with a hidden disability like autism or epilepsy. Elizabeth Purvis, a bonafide profiteer cloaked in academia, is one of Rauner's highest paid employees whose salary is drawn from a state agency experiencing massive cuts in the name of austerity:

"In March, Rauner tapped Beth Purvis, a former charter school director, as his education secretary at an annual salary of $250,000.

At the time it was the highest-paid position in the governor’s cabinet.

But her contract, signed March 13, indicates that she’s being paid out of the Department of Human Services, even as it indicates she will “report directly to the governor’s chief of staff or designee.”'

Somewhere between Ms. Purvis’ years as teacher of the blind and her stint at University of Illinois at Chicago, she must have gotten the sweet taste of charter money. Chicago International Charter Schools received $62,966,609.00 from CPS last year, with a management strategy that some CICS teachers call divisive.

Rauner’s perversion in funding this newly created bureaucratic position is obvious. Ms. Purvis must hope her five years in the classroom and polished academic record will confound people enough to overlook her search for the cha-ching.

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.

Thanks Karen, Again.

Last week, in typical CPS fashion, B3 issued a statement angering many parents and teachers. B3 kinda, maybe said parents could choose to opt their kids out of tests. That is only if parents talked to the principal and realized that by opting out they'd damage their child's future and the school's ranking. And probably make those testing companies less profitable with a bunch of unused tests sitting around. 

Some would call B3's statement an exercise in false choice, we'd agree. 

Less than a week later, Karen Lewis and the CTU have responded to Bennett's threatening, huffy email with good sense and logic for parents choosing to opt their kids out of tests:

• "The ‘low stakes’ test is administered over the course of eight days in all elementary schools. Formerly used to help qualify 7th grade students for selective enrollment high schools. The district recently issued a memorandum to teachers stressing the value of “rigorous, high-quality assessments,” in measuring student progress. The ISAT, however, is not aligned to any CPS curriculum, and in Chicago, it is no longer used to measure student progress, school performance, promotion, or for any other purpose."

CPS demands students use over a week and a half of school days to take a test that isn't aligned to any CPS curriculum nor will be used for measurement of any sort? Shocking. Good thing CTU provides the money trail for us:

• "Illinois paid over $18 million this year to Pearson Corporation for the ISAT. The portion attributed to CPS is roughly $3.4 million, impacting over 171,000 students. The total cost of administering the tests are the untold hours of preparation for the exam, and the loss of valuable instructional hours that could be spent on real learning."

$18 million dollars would certainly provide real learning opportunities in the form of smaller class sizes, adequate staffing so teachers can provide meaningful help to students, and quality materials with which to teach.

Thanks again Karen for standing up for the families of CPS.

Gettin' Testy!

WCT thinks we hear the distant sounds of trumpets in the air and the hounds a-barkin'. Yes, B3's system-wide email today with the tell-tale words, "rigorous" and "increased expectations" heralds the beginning of "testing season," and what a season it will be--if parents choose not to opt their kids out.

Uh-oh, looks like B3 is suffering from test anxiety:

• "Students must score at or above the 24th percentile on NWEA MAP to qualify to take the selective enrollment exam.  I know that questions regarding opting out of NWEA MAP have been raised, so let me be clear: CPS students without an NWEA MAP score will not be eligible for selective enrollment or promotion in grades 3, 6, and 8. In addition, SQRP ratings will suffer for test participation rates of less than 95%."

Gee, it seems like B3 is trying to intimidate parents. Dangling grade promotion over parents' and students' heads is mental warfare. Also, B3 shows she's firmly in Camp Arne by giving parents--the people to whom a child's welfare is entrusted--no credit for making the decision to opt their child out of one of the 10 tests (down from 25!) that are given. This memo puts principals and teachers in the roles of enforcer issuing the not-so-gentle-reminder that a school's performance rating will suffer if test participation lags below 95%. Not only must the principal now serve as chief truant officer and miracle-worker on testing days, they must also force participation. Where's the choice love, B3?

And then:

• "Parents requesting to have their children opt out of the NWEA MAP must first have a conversation with the principal to discuss the consequences to their children. If after this conversation they still wish to opt out, they must make their request in writing.   Parents should be informed that there will be no alternate instruction given during the assessment and that children who are not being assessed will be required to engage in a silent, self-guided activity while their peers are being tested."

Parents must? Of all the things parents must do, talking to the principal about a decision they're making, is not one of them. Most parents would say they must: keep their kids safe and healthy;  listen to their kids; pay the bills; provide their kids with food, clothing, and shelter; and save for college. Nowhere on this list is making an appointment for a stern talking to by a principal.

B3 must be awfully nervous that the $4,003,553.00 contract (cha-chiiiiing!) CPS has with NWEA will go to waste if enough parents choose to opt out. Or that without sufficient standardized testing CPS will not be able to deem schools as failing and close them. Or that parents, teachers, and principals may have had enough.

Parents and teachers, what do you think? Leave a comment or send an email to wct.tips@gmail.com.

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.