Seattle Schools Community Forum

You may recall our discussion about whether charter schools are really public schools ?  This particular thread was around rights students/staff may have under the U.S. Constitution and the Ninth Circuit Court ruled that for staff, charters aren't public schools. Now, there is yet another case - this around the public funding of charters - out of California.  Here's the headline from Ed Week's " Living in Dialogue " - Charter School Defenders Insist They are "Private Entities." A California couple, Yevgeny "Eugene" Selivanov and Tatyana Berkovich, who were convicted in April of multiple counts of fraud related to their practice of using their charter school bank account for personal expenses and thousands of dollars worth of meals.   According to the LA School Report ,  The couple is appealing their conviction, however, asserting that this amounts to a misunderstanding over the nature of charter school finances. An amicus brief ...

You may have heard of the Partnership for Learning, yet another business-based ed reform group.   They have just put out a document called Examining Charters: How public charter schools can work in Washington State.   It "examines" charters in other states and comes to the astonishing conclusion that we need them here in Washington State. However, upon a quick read, I came upon a troubling issue. It was written with the help of UW's Center on Reinventing Public Education.  Actually, the whole thing was written by CRPE's staff.  Why is this a problem? Because they reference I-1240 about 10 times as a good charter law and the entire document promotes charters.  That would seem to be UW endorsing I-1240.   Why is a publicly-funded university promoting an initiative?  That would seem to be a misuse of public funds especially since the entire promotional document was written by UW employees. Something to ask the State Auditor about, I th...

As you recall, CRPE's Robin Lake had invited us all (well, most of us) to come for a discussion over coffee today.  I attended part of the discussion as did a couple of SPS parents, two administrators from other districts and a colleague of Ms. Lake's.   I can't tell you what the discussion was about because I was asked not to. I can tell you that it seems apparent that not everyone knows this initiative as well as you might think.   And, it certainly help me see that CRPE is not exactly neutral on this topic of charter schools. But honestly, how could they be?  A large portion of their research is about charters and how great they are and how to grow them.  They are funded (and have been funded) for years by the Gates Foundation which also loves charters. I can only say that while I would never challenge their expertise about charters, I'm not sure I would believe everything they say is neutral or balanced.  In the coming months as we bat...

Over at UW's Center for Reinventing Public Education, they wrote a one pager about "lessons for Washington State" on getting high-quality charter schools.  I have to laugh as I wonder if they even read I-1240. Highlights: • Strong authorizing is key to quality o Districts cannot be only authorizer, but authorizers need to build competency o Weak or negligent authorizing leads to many low-performing schools - Promote authorizer clarity/accountability in law, implementation  So the CRPE must be against I-1240 because: - the Charter Commission does NOT have to be pre-authorized in the same way School Boards do.  It seems odd that an elected board would have to go through a process that the members of the Charter Commission don't.  (This isn't explained in the initiative.) - also, CRPE doesn't like " weak or negligent " authorizing?  Well, unfortunately, the Charter Commission has no oversight, elected or otherwise AND there's no way to...

A recent round of public disclosure documents tells me that I'm not wrong about the tsunami effect of ed reform that is likely headed our way.  Frankly, I think that the state-supported Center for Reinventing Education is really nothing but a think-tank for ed reform.  They likely get at least half their grant money from the Gates Foundation.  I see almost no research on anything else but charters, CMOs, TFA starting a principal TFA (a number of you saw that coming), etc.  I don't mind it so much when it's a privately-funded right-wing think tank but it is depressing to see your tax dollars at work for a one-sided effort.  The current push on ed reform: something called a " fiscal analytics center" that Paul Hill at CRPE was pushing before he left there recently.  It appears to be a souped-up benefit-cost ratio idea. using CRPE as a "lead" for any state-driven research so that the research looks more nationally-based.  This was discussed in an e...

Paul Hill, director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington, Bothell, wrote a guest column for the Seattle Times, Other cities might help Seattle close achievement gaps among black students I've met Dr. Hill and we've had some interesting conversations. He is well-known as a charter school advocate. I strenuously oppose charter schools. So you might be surprised to learn that we actually had gotten along very well - we agree on nearly everything. We share the same set of facts. We both follow them down the same line of reasoning. But then, at the very end, we reach opposite conclusions. In the end, we both see that schools need to change. We agree on many of the needed changes. We both see that the resistance to that change is not in the classroom or even, in most cases, in the principal's office, but primarily in the district offices (and, in some cases, in state laws). His solution is to create schools that are free from the distr...

The Times' article this morning on the reversal of the Floe firing has some great quotes.  This from Paul Hill of the Center for Reinventing Public Education: "It kind of gives a blueprint for resistance," said Paul Hill, director of the University of Washington's Center on Reinventing Public Education. "It invites a political response to every action." He said it also suggests that Enfield didn't realize Floe could mount a strong political response to what she likely viewed as a straightforward personnel decision. Boy, Professor Hill makes a lot of assumptions.   Blueprint for resistance?  You mean like calling your School Board member, creating a Facebook page, going old school with a peition and talking to the Superintendent?  That kind of scary blueprint? Also, people act like somehow parents are now going to get listened to more often by the Superintendent and staff.  One half-way success does not make parents any more powerful than the...

In the P-I from the AP, an article about how great it is that Seattle is 'fessing up and releasing so much useful data. I might have to let this reporter know of this great irony about data in our district. Some choice quotes and see if you get the direction the quotes are pointing to (please, do not read when drinking; you might do a spit take): One of the authors of the report done by the Center for Reinventing Education: "I think the district really deserves some credit for day-lighting their data," said the lead researcher on the report, Christine Campbell. "I really would love for Seattle to use this as a chance to really do something." Really do something? I wonder what CRE can mean given that 90% of their work is around charters. The district: District spokeswoman Patti Spencer said the district has been targeting schools with extra help and guidance throughout this research process and some of the schools exhibiting the most growth we...

This map comes to us from the UW's Center on Reinventing Public Education using the School Reports. It doesn't break out by type of school but by ranking but it's interesting to view.