Ed Reform Fails to Cure Youth Disconnect

The Social Science Research Council recently published a project called Measure of America which, among other things, defines and analyzes youth disconnect.  

Youth disconnect: "Youth between the ages of 16-24 who are neither working nor in school.  Disconnected youth are adrift at societies margins, unmoored from systems and structures that confer knowledge, skills, identity and purpose."

National average of youth disconnect: 14.7%

Ed reformers promise excellence, college readiness, bright futures, disciplined lives, meaningful lives, intellectual growth and the ability to make students' dreams come true.

Let's compare U.S. cities with the most charters to rates of youth disconnect (YD) in those cities:

CITY                       % of Charters            Black YD        Latino YD        White YD

NOLA                      92                              27.5                 n/a                     10.5

Detroit                     51                              25.3                 19.2                   13.5

D.C.                         43                              19                    11.7                   7

Indianapolis           28                              22.3                 n/a                     14

Philadelphia           28                              19.7                 19                      8

Phoenix                  27                              28.2                 23.5                   13.3     

We can conclude that ed reform doesn't seem to be working.  Perhaps this is because ed reform emphasizes an elitist college-for-all agenda which demonizes teachers and unions in the process.

Instead, ed reformers should consider following Measure for America's suggestions, which include providing wrap-around services for disconnected youth, such as medical care and therapeutic counseling.  Another Measure for America suggestion is to bring back vocational training in schools. 

But can you imagine Campbell Brown advocating for shop classes?  The horror!        

CPS's Acute Case of Confusion Concern

According to Transparency International, "As a principle, public officials, civil servants, the managers and directors of companies and organisations, and board trustees have a duty to act visibly, predictably and understandably to promote participation and accountability and allow third parties to easily perceive what actions are being performed." Right on! 

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You might wonder what the principle of transparency has to do with anything, at least in Chicago. A reader emailed to let us know our links to the CPS Supplier Reports were not working. Sure enough, there's not one CPS Supplier Report to be found online. These reports list listed awards to vendors not found in the Contract Award Report. WCT enjoyed browsing the vendors in the Suppliers Doing Business with the Chicago Public Schools Report because it was a clear list of how much money was going to which profiteer, kick-back artist, and scammer cashing in on CPS and taxpayers. Thanks to such reports, it was obvious who the biggest and best shakedown artists infiltrating CPS were. 

Let's time travel, reader. In 2011 Rahm Emanuel made a transparency pledge to, "...make the city government more accessible to everybody," and, "to create the most open, accountable, and transparent government the City of Chicago has ever seen." Ironically, any evidence of Emanuel speaking these words has been removed from the internet, so WCT has to rely on references to this statement. WCT also assumes the transparency pledge was strictly a first-term pledge.

In a February 2012 Tribune interview, Rahm Emanuel used some form of the word transparent 19 times. A sample:

" I did talk about transparency and I feel — to what I said — I am achieving it. Achieving, not achieved. And I don't put any period at the end of the sentence. This is only nine months into it [Emanuel administration], but there is no doubt given the backlog of potentiality from a transparency standpoint, I am making government information available, I am making sure people have access to it, I am bringing back a level of trust."

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Let's see where Rahm's "backlog of potentiality from a transparency standpoint" has brought us. In August 2015 the city finances are shredded, Chicago Public Schools in disarray, and pensions disappeared. Residents would like to know exactly how the city has accrued such a sizable debt, where the money went, and why it keeps going. Documents, like the Supplier Report, while maddening to read, clearly show whose pockets are getting lined. 

Harkeing back to Rahm's transparency pledge, WCT emailed the CPS Purchasing Department inquiring about the missing reports.

The legalese response: "This report used to be required by a city ordinance, but that ordinance was repealed and the report is no longer legally required.  We actually took the link down from the website quite a while ago after the ordinance was repealed, but we learned recently that the direct link still worked, even though the data was stale or incorrect.  We recently have removed the old file to eliminate the confusion, as it was not accurate." 

Accuracy! Obeying the law! Non-confusion! Suddenly, City Hall and CPS have taken it upon themselves to not confuse people who are seeking day-ta, stale as it might be. Yes, let's remove the information so nobody is confused. Let's get all revisionist and hide information, substituting one piece of nonsense for another. God forbid anybody know anything in case they ask questions or attempt to hold the people doling out the money accountable. 

This must be an acute onset of Confusion Concern, as there is a long history of Chicago's confusion-inducing decisions:

October 16, 2009 headline: Calendar confusion--Or Citywide Chaos

May 23, 2013 headline: Confusion follows CPS school closing decision

February 24, 2015 headline: Confusion continues over standardized-testing in Chicago

May 24, 2015 headline: CPS forgot 22 schools in estimate for Aramark at a cost of $7M

Fortunately, for those of us who don't mind being confused, the internet is crawled frequently and pages cached (saved). As our Thought Partners would chirp, "daaay-ta!" Here are the cached Supplier Reports (copy and paste into browser) so you may be predictably, visibly, and understandably angered:

http://web.archive.org/web/20150402185313/http://www.csc.cps.k12.il.us/purchasing/supplier_report_2015.xml

http://web.archive.org/web/20150402182046/http://www.csc.cps.k12.il.us/purchasing/supplier_report_2014.xml

http://web.archive.org/web/20150530200734/http://www.csc.cps.k12.il.us/purchasing/supplier_report_2013.xml

http://web.archive.org/web/20141111132437/http://www.csc.cps.k12.il.us/purchasing/supplier_report_2012.xml

http://web.archive.org/web/20120107043404/http://www.csc.cps.k12.il.us/purchasing/supplier_report_2011.xml

RiShawn Biddle: Evangelizing School Reform

RiShawn Biddle, an attention hungry ed reformer, has no actual teaching experience but frequently touts his communications and marketing experience on his self-serving website rishawnbiddle.org. Biddle is a self-proclaimed tiresome tireless advocate of ed reform (his Twitter profile notes he's chronicling America's dropout crisis, though the dropout rate has fallen 3% since 1990) and his advocating is that of the door-knocking proselytizer seeking anyone who will listen.

His recent Dropout Nation podcast takes an evangelical tone with a rambling 18 minute entry on the 5 Commandments of School Reform (if Biddle is such a believer, he would do well to note God's brevity in issuing forth the 10 Commandments).

Biddle, an example of your typical ed reformer, shows the high opinion they have of themselves and the crusades they undertake with the pretense of $aving $ouls. The entire podcast is linked above and the "commandment$" require embracing every en vogue reform orthodoxy from the tired proclamation that students only have one chance at learning to demonizing police.

Here is a handy boiled-down version:

1. Stand for all children no matter who they are or where they live. We must be good to all of God's children...because Our creator favors doing good and healing, not just following the law. Reminder: We must start from the "cold-blooded premise" all students are geniuses.

2. Fight for better futures for all students. Put families at the head of education decision making. Reminder: laws and institutions cannot love, only people can.

3. We must never stay silent. We must engage in conflict. Reminder: conflicts create cultures of genius.

4. Approach reform with mind and heart. We must be creative radicals who help our students become literate and numerate. Reminder: be aware that accountability matters.

5. Constantly remember why we are school reformers. Reminder: we need a revolution, not an evolution.

WCT notes Biddle is reaching way back to education in colonial times with the overt religious nature of his reformy call to arms. Beyond that, a few other sticking points we have with these "commandment$":

1. All students are not geniuses. Even given the varying definitions of what genius means, we encounter students who, for a variety of reasons, don't possess the intellect, energy, or self-determination necessary to be thinkers and learners of such an elevated level. Labeling everyone as a genius seems disingenuous at best, and also is directly at odds with the idea that students have individual needs.

2. The loving people who run many urban districts believe parents are idiots. CPS has such a low opinion of parents they don't believe they can procure needed school supplies for their children. Instead, teachers have been asked to donate supplies, or better yet, cash directly to schools.

3. Constant conflict does not create a genius factory. The last 5 years in CPS have seen the following ongoing conflicts: teachers vs. administrators, Chicago Public Schools vs. Chicago Teachers Union, Rahm Emanuel vs. the 99%, profiteers vs. families/students/teachers. None of this has created a culture of genius, and has instead brought the school system to a screeching halt.

4. Teachers are already held accountable. State tests, federal tests, local tests, evaluations, endless day-ta analysis. Teachers are well-versed in accountability and must answer for such confounding variables as a student's life outside the classroom, too. Yet, charters continue to open unabated despite the crippling debt cities like Chicago face.

5. Yes, let's have a revolution. Let's be like Jesus and be radically inclusive and fund all public schools equitably, admit there are issues teachers can't control, and see what happens.

Forrest Claypool, Liar

Forrest Claypool -- Rahm's new appointed CEO of CPS and former President of the CTA (during the diastrous 2013 Ventra rollout) -- sent CPS teachers and staff a recent email.  As teachers, we feel compelled to make a few corrections:

Claypool writes: "We are honored and humbled to lead this tremendous team as we work together to make sure every child from every community in Chicago gets the opportunity for a great education."

• Should read:  We are gratified to have the opportunity to work with Rahm's appointed business-people to make sure that every racketeer from every ed tran$formation project in Chicago gets the opportunity to generate profit and to vilify the CTU while remaining free from the meddling of actual public educators.

Claypool writes: "CPS students have made enormous progress in the classroom over the last four years, and our students are improving because you have dedicated your professional life to ensuring that they reach their full potential."

• Should read: CPS students have remained the same in the classroom over the last four years, and yet are able to provide the illusion of enormous progress because of effective grade and attendance manipulation.

Claypool writes:  "Our current fiscal crisis is the direct result of an unfair state pension system."

• Should read:  Our current fiscal crisis is the direct result of the theft of teachers' pension funds -- funds which teachers themselves dutifully generated for over 20 years -- and of intentionally creating lucrative debt to benefit our cronies.

Forrest, you and Rahm go together like peas and carrots.

 

Ed Reform's BFF: U.S. Murder Rates

Ed reformers love to bang the gong of U.S. educational crisis:

But if we compare international educational performance with international murder rates, the day-ta is strikingly similar:  

Even a student with below-average PISA scores could probably conclude that nations with higher rates of crime produce students who perform lower on standardized tests.  

We at WCT have to conclude that U.S. murder rates are the BFF of ed reform philathro-capitalists and all who $wallow their bullshit. For if U.S. murder rates were on a par with Japan or Finland, profiteers who conceal their financial ambition and improve their public image via ed reform efforts would have to find another venue.

Next thing you know, ed reformers will be pinning the blame for American crime on failing schools, bad teachers, and greedy unions.  Oh wait...

Ed Reform Truth Deniers

Campbell Brown offers us a simpering smile and feeble "inspiring stories," such as her recent lame tweet about students who lined up to get a janitor's autograph before he left their school for greener pastures.

Nevertheless, her non-profit (wink-wink), The Seventy Four, seeks to undermine the foundations of American public education through the usual means; charter profiteering, vilification of labor unions, teacher-bashing, and reliance on the old hoary failing schools myth.  Like all philanthro-venture-investment-capitalist ed reformers, Campbell Brown and her ilk remain silent on the unpleasant and politically tricky truths that shape the lives of many inner-city students.

For example, 10 people are dead and 35 are wounded after the usual violence in Chicago last weekend.  In fact, 1495 people have been shot in Chicago this year to date. Think this might affect student performance?

More $$ Nonsense

Reporters for major Chicago newspapers are giving us some confusing information.  First, the Sun-Times reports that spending at neighborhood schools will drop by $60 million.  Next, the Trib reports that CPS plans to spend $500 million that the district does not have.

We have become somewhat immune to the power of big numbers.  $85 billion in Illinois unfunded pension liability?  Yup.  $443 million to charter schools in 2015?  Got it.  $9 million to CPS Network Instructional Leaders?  Whatever.

The "takeaway," as our loathsome U. of C. thought partners are wont to say, is that money does not solve the academic problems of our CPS students.  As we discussed in a recent truth alert, many of our students come to school with issues that schools cannot solve.

Minor Cornholer Alert: Jim O'Connor

Since June 6th (official date for teacher cornholing) is rapidly approaching, we at WCT have been turning the spotlight on Illinois cornholers big and small.  Like dandelions and ants, ed reform cornholers seem to turn up everywhere.  Let's turn the spotlight on a minor cornholer from Oak Park:  Jim O'Connor!

First, though, a review of the qualities many ed reform cornholers have in common:

• Few to no years of actual teaching
• Strong aversion to due process and collective bargaining rights
• Passion for corporate lingo and funding
• Reluctance to live in the disenfranchised communities they $erve
• Need to disguise ego and financial ambition as quest for social justice

Now, a closer look at Jim O'Connor:

Actual teaching experience:  2 years of requisite resume-padding with TFA; 2 years of requisite charter ass-kissing at Noble Charter

Administrative experience: 7 years as principal at a KIPP charter, notable for high teacher turn-over, reluctance to enroll children with disabilities, avoidance of outside analysis of their data, and passion for "grit."

Current Alliance:  Advance Illinois, whose mi$$ion is to "improve Illinois' persistently below-average academic performance" and to ensure that public teachers' collective bargaining and due process rights are diminished

Current "Elected" Position:  Oak Park Elementary School District 97, purchased with $18,000 worth of lawn signs and junk mail funded by Washington D.C.- based Leadership for Educational Equity, a TFA cabal whose website is so boring we can't be bothered provide the link 

Problem:  Oak Park District 97 is 77% proficient on ISAT scores; Jim O'Connor's opportunities to $erve the disenfranchised of Oak Park will be impeded.

Solution:  Jim O'Connor is advised to submit a charter proposal to CPS where there are enough vendors, kick-back artists, educational profiteers, number crunchers, media specialists and poor children available for him to enjoy a long and lucrative career.

Rock on, Jim O'Connor!

Who's up for some cornholing?

Although the kind folks at CFE probably meant to say "toasting and bean bags," there are a few other people who aren't offering any beer with their cornholing.

 BBB has been effectively cornholing educators and taxpayers nation-wide for years, along with Deb Quazzo and her gang of thieves, SUPES big shots, Aramark head honchos, and a wide variety of hedge fund managers, charter profiteers, vendors, philanthro-capitalists, and kick-back artists.