Alliance for Education Annual Report

The Alliance for Education has released their annual report for 2012.

Let's have a look.



First the Alliance notes that graduation rates are way up and that Seattle schools outscored the state averages. Then they say that the same 74% 4-year graduation rate they just crowed about is no good at all, that a (not entirely coincidental) 74% of third graders read at grade level, and that only 67% of seventh graders passed the math MSP. I wonder why they didn't choose to report the 64% of eighth graders instead. They also note that "Unconscionable achievement gaps between student groups persist."

On the next slide the Alliance describes itself as a "critical friend" to the district and lists their achievements for the year.

They enrolled 92% of eligible 8th graders into the Washington State College Bound scholarship program.

I had no idea that it was the Alliance that did that. That only leaves 8% of them to be enrolled by everyone else.

They also take credit for handling other people's money. They don't say that they did a very good job of it, but I guess that's what critical friends do - they handle other people's money. They take credit for "managing" $1.4 million in direct gifts to schools as the fiscal agent for PTAs and booster groups. They don't tell you that these groups get a 0% return on the money that the Alliance manages for them.

They give themselves credit for promoting themselves through the Our Schools Coalition and for acting as a leader to launch the Seattle Teacher Residency program.

To me, it looks like a pretty short list of actual accomplishments by the Alliance. Instead, it looks like the Alliance is trying to take credit for a lot of work by other people.

The third slide is about all the money they raised, only they never mention how much money they raised. By the way, there is a surprising correlation between the corporate donors they list here and their Board of Directors.

The money raised appears on the next slide: $3.9 million. It doesn't say if this includes the donations to groups for whom the Alliance acted as fiscal agent. Sources are given in percentages and the Endowment is listed as 5%, so this doesn't tell us anything about their financials at all.

After several slides with a lot of self-congratulatory blah, blah, blah, they announce their priorities for 2013:

"We will continue to lean in - with out heads and our hearts - to the success of our public schools."

Wow. Impressive priorities. Definitely what I would call "mission-driven", "bold", and "outcome oriented".

What pointless blather.

Comments

mirmac1 said…
Gee, I could do a helluva lot with $$$M of Gates money. And I think I could claim credit for lots of stuff, too.
Anonymous said…
They emailed a link to me, I guess because I gave money to the Nathan Hale Annual Fund. I concur Charlie, the report was a waste of time to read. It did not look grass roots but rather very corporate driven and full of mindless corporate speak.

HP

Popular posts from this blog

Tuesday Open Thread

Why the Majority of the Board Needs to be Filled with New Faces

First Candidates for Seattle School Board Elections 2023