New Jersey Governor's School Privatization Plan
From Reuters.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie announced a pilot program on Thursday that would allow private companies to run public schools in some of the state's chronically underperforming school districts.
The public-private partnership would authorize school management organizations to operate five schools, and would target some of the 100,000 New Jersey students now enrolled in 200 chronically failing schools, the governor's office said.
Comments
As long as the Kopp-Kipp syndicate gets a 7, 8 or 9 figure contract,
as long as everyone getting over a 6 figure a year salary has some fancy degrees,
what's the beef?
Le Boeuf
So where is the data on the effectiveness of this in 31 states and 700 schools. ?????
Does Christie have anything other than propaganda to push this proposal?
Look at all the States that have TfA .... does that indicate that TfA is appropriate for Seattle?
Perhaps given Christie's track record and thinking, UW CoE Dean Stritikus should run for WA Governor.
Surely with Stritikus's TfA agenda, he could develop similar proposals. He could raise generous donations from members of the ruling oligarchy to back his candidacy.
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The above strategy worked well for the SPS Board elected in 2007....
prior to 2007 no director spent more than $38,000 on a campaign...
The Times predicted the winners in 2007 might spend as much as $50,000
The amounts for 2007 fundraising:
Peter Maier...$166,699.72
Sherry Carr $157,535,88
Steven Sundquist... $111,189.94
Harium Martin Morris...$70,070
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Stritikus for Governor in 2012 ..
Go Tom you can do it.
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"To improve a system requires the intelligent application of relevant data"
"To win an election the intelligent application of data to solving real problems is not required .. as posturing, polling, and propaganda will do it."
Elect No SPS incumbent running in 2011
Replace the wizards of the 3 Ps with a focus on
"improving Seattle Schools through decision-making that intelligently applies relevant data"
All we have to do is continue, as taxpayers, is show that public schools work if you get rid of the the corrupt administrators who are more worried about their own aspirations, instead of the education of the kids. Continue to expose those who don't have the kids best interest at heart, and that is a majority of the downtown administration.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/11/chris-christie-schools_n_875262.html
http://www.nea.org/home/40991.htm
Strategies for Reform
Because of these trends, many people have turned to Finland for clues to educational transformation. As one analyst notes:
"Most visitors to Finland discover elegant school buildings filled with calm children and highly educated teachers. They also recognize the large autonomy that schools enjoy, little interference by the central education administration in schools’ everyday lives, systematic methods to address problems in the lives of students, and targeted professional help for those in need." (Sahlbert, 2009, p. 7)
Leaders in Finland attribute the gains to their intensive investments in teacher education—all teachers receive three years of high-quality graduate level preparation completely at state expense—plus a major overhaul of the curriculum and assessment system designed to ensure access to a “thinking curriculum” for all students. A recent analysis of the Finnish system summarized its core principles as follows:
-Resources for those who need them most.
-High standards and supports for special needs.
-Qualified teachers.
-Evaluation of education.
-Balancing decentralization and centralization. (Laukkanen, 2008, p. 319)
Linda Darling Hamilton wrote:
How America’s Commitment to Equity Will Determine Our Future,
Clearly there is a lot more going on than just distributing finances. What does that word "equity" actually mean? Equal opportunities or Equal results?
A few points:
#1 Nations will need to focus on providing the opportunity for each child to maximize their learning. (not equal outcomes, which produce a lowest common denominator effect)
Finland has certainly produced a system in which more students stay in school k-12 and finish than in WA state which now has a lower graduation rate than most states.
While Finland has produced high graduation rates and excellent PISA test scores .. is Finland optimizing each students learning?
In math Finland did extremely well on the PISA test given to 15 year olds across a huge number of nations.
PISA picked 15 years-old as in most nations students are required to be in school until age 16. Note PISA tests by age not by grade level. 15 year olds are tested regardless of what grade they may be in.
In math the PISA test is not a real test of rigorous mathematical skill. Finnish University Professors in technical fields find entering students are under prepared in mathematics. Finland's focus on the kind of everyday mathematical usage likely to be used by most of the population likely produces the mathematical weaknesses seen by University professors as well as high PISA Math scores.
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The USA spends a lot on k-12 education .... but the USA has a large tendency to ignore what works successfully elsewhere.... USA Education is driven by politics and rarely by educational reasoning based on relevant data. (See SPS for excellent example of continual faulty decision-making.)
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The weather sucks in Finland in the winter ... may as well study ... and get ready to design the "next Nokia product".
Ah yes... the GOP's grand plan for public education.
1- Starve public schools of adequate funding for years
2- Make sure class sizes are prohibitive to quality education
3- Cry about under performing schools
4- Profit
Wall Street Journal, 6/12/2011, STEPHANIE BANCHERO and LAURA MECKLER
According to the Wall Street Journal, "Mr. Duncan is promising to waive specific requirements of the [NCLB] law in exchange for states agreeing to adopt other efforts he has championed, such as linking teacher evaluations to student achievement, expanding charter schools and overhauling the lowest-performing schools. Effectively, he's warning Congress that if it doesn't overhaul the nine-year-old law, he'll bypass lawmakers to get his way.
Republicans who want federal government's role in K-12 education reduced are pushing back against Obama and Duncan. Both Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin (chairman of the Senate education committee) and Rep. John Kline, (Republican chairman of the House education committee) have expressed concern over Duncan's plan to go outside of the legislative process.
Mr. Kline is particularly hostile to Race to the Top...Jennifer Allen, Mr. Kline's spokeswoman, said the Congressman didn't know details of Mr. Duncan's recent waiver promise, but said, "Chairman Kline remains concerned about any initiative–including waivers–that would allow the secretary to pick winners and losers in the nation's education system."
-a reader