Part 3: Has Corporate Education "Reform" Earned Another 25 Years to Complete the Resegregation and Privatization Agendas?

Part 1 here and Part 2 here:

The continued hydroplaning of NAEP scores nationally allows the world to see what the corporate education losers will not admit: the 3rd generation of test based accountability is not working. 

Rather than moving beyond corporate ed reform's status quo (oxymoron alert), however, Duncan and the shrinking elements of the corporate media that still print the CorpEd news releases point, instead, to the RTTT grant winners where scores rose in math and reading for both 4th and 8th graders: DC and TN.  Ignored are the 17 RTTT grant-winning states where they did not (full list here).  

We might expect a bit more for three and half billion public dollars, but with losing corporate welfare schemes put in place with NCLB's and RTTT, we have to wonder if Duncan did not experience a sigh of relief when scores did not go down.  Yet.  

And even though Jane Roberts wrote for the Memphis Corporate Commercial Appeal that TN's Gov. Haslam and Kevin Huffman were taking victory laps last week, they have probably not forgotten the NAEP story from 2011:

The state dropped from 45 to 46 in the nation in fourth-grade math; 39 to 41 in fourth-grade reading; 43 to 45 in eighth-grade math; and 34 to 41 in eighth-grade reading. Twenty-six percent of fourth-grade students are proficient in reading, and 30 percent are proficient in math. Twenty-seven percent of eighth-grade students are proficient in reading, and 24 percent are proficient in math.

When 2013 scores are compared to 2009, we see, in fact, that Tennessee actually lost ground this year in 4th grade reading (3 points) and 8th grade math (3 points).  Easy come, easy go. 

We should not forget, either, Tennessee's overarching First to the Top goal that it announced in 2010, when TN won the $501 million in RTTT cash: to have all students college and career ready.  I don't know about career ready, but if we use the metric that TN uses for college readiness, the ACT, then Tennessee has a long way to go.  In 2013, Tennessee ranked 47th in college readiness, just behind Mississippi, Louisiana, and North Carolina:

One more chart from ACT that shows 5 year trends for average scores and percentage of students ready for college:

The big NAEP story this year that no one is paying attention to is the continuing progress made by the Dept. of Defense schools (DOD), where there is no RTTT teacher evaluation system based on test scores, where standardized tests don't dominate the schools, where teachers are respected and provided real professional developement, where resources are plentiful and classes small, and where minorities aren't segregated in corporate charter schools.  The DOD school students, in fact, are 40% minority and 50% qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.   

Below is a summary comparison of TN, DC, and DOD, with an added category that averages the black-white achievement gaps for 4th and 8th grade Math and Reading:

Note that DOD has higher average scores for both math and reading in 4th and 8th grades.  Also note the black-white average score gaps are much lower at DOD schools than either TN or DC (same is true for Hispanic-White achievement gaps, too).

Michael Winerip did a story on DOD schools for the NYTimes in 2011 NAEP scores were released.  Here is a clip.  Please do read it:

. . . .It has become fashionable for American educators to fly off to Helsinki to investigate how schools there produce such high-achieving Finns. But for just $69.95 a night, they can stay at the Days Inn in Jacksonville, N.C., and investigate how the schools here on the Camp Lejeune Marine base produce such high-achieving Americans — both black and white.

They would find that the schools on base are not subject to former President George W. Bush’s signature education program, No Child Left Behind, or to President Obama’s Race to the Top. They would find that standardized tests do not dominate and are not used to rate teachers, principals or schools.

They would find Leigh Anne Kapiko, the principal at Tarawa Terrace Elementary, one of seven schools here.

Test preparation? “No,” Ms. Kapiko said. “That’s not done in Department of Defense schools. We don’t even have test prep materials.”

At schools here, standardized tests are used as originally intended, to identify a child’s academic weaknesses and assess the effectiveness of the curriculum.

Ms. Kapiko has been a principal both inside and outside the gates and believes that military base schools are more nurturing than public schools. “We don’t have to be so regimented, since we’re not worried about a child’s ability to bubble on a test,” she said.

Military children are not put through test prep drills. “For us,” Ms. Kapiko said, “children are children; they’re not little Marines.”

Under Mr. Obama’s education agenda, state governments can now dictate to principals how to run their schools. In Tennessee — which is ranked 41st in NAEP scores and has made no significant progress in closing the black-white achievement gap on those tests in 20 years — the state now requires four formal observations a year for all teachers, regardless of whether the principal thinks they are excellent or weak. The state has declared that half of a teacher’s rating must be based on student test scores.

Ms. Kapiko, on the other hand, has discretion in how to evaluate her teachers. For the most effective, she does one observation a year. That gives her and her assistant principal time for walk-through visits in every classroom every day.

“We don’t micromanage,” said Marilee Fitzgerald, director of the Department of Defense Education Activity, the agency that supervises the military base schools and their 87,000 students. “Individual schools decide what to focus on.”

The average class in New York City in kindergarten through the third grade has 24 students. At military base schools, the average is 18, which is almost as good as it is in the private schools where leaders of the education reform movement — Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York; the former education chancellor in New York City, Joel I. Klein; and Bill Gates of Microsoft — have sent their children.

A 2001 study on the success of the military base schools by researchers at Vanderbilt University cites the importance of the smooth relations between the teachers’ union and management, and Ms. Fitzgerald said that continued to be true.

Helping children succeed academically is about a lot more than what goes on inside the schools. Military parents do not have to worry about securing health care coverage for their children or adequate housing. At least one parent in the family has a job.

The military command also puts a priority on education. Bryant Anderson, a petty officer who is stationed at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, Va., is given time off from work to serve as president of the base’s school board and coach middle school basketball and track teams.

Parents with children at the civilian schools where Ms. Kapiko has been the principal have not received that kind of support from their employers. “If Dad works in a factory, he gets three absences and he’s fired,” she said.

A family’s economic well-being has considerable impact on how students score on standardized tests, and it is hard to make exact comparisons between military and public school families. But by one indicator, families at military base schools and public schools have similar earnings: the percentage of students who qualify for federally subsidized lunches is virtually identical at both, about 46 percent.

What is clear is that the base schools have made impressive progress in narrowing the achievement gap.

In the last decade, the gap in reading between black and white fourth graders at base schools has decreased to 11 points this year (233 compared with 222), down from a 16-point difference in 2003 (230 compared with 214), a 31 percent reduction. In public schools, there has been a much smaller decrease, to a 26-point gap this year (231 compared with 205) from 30 points in 2002 (227 compared with 197), a 13 percent reduction.

The military has a far better record of integration than most institutions. Almost all of the 69 base schools are in the South. They were opened in the 1950s and ’60s because the military was racially integrated and did not want the children of black soldiers to attend racially segregated schools off base. . . 

The Gray/Henderson Social Justice Minstrel Show

Since Mayor Gray was brought to office last November by angry voting parents and teachers disgusted with the arrogant puppets, Fenty and Rhee, he has gone from sounding tough on the corporate oligarch containment and control plan for poor children to performing a deep bow to the billionaires who have let him know who runs DC and DC Schools.  In January, Gray was critical of the Gates-Broad teacher evaluation scheme based on test scores, but now, not so much. Not nearly so much, as Bill Turque at WaPo reports:

Gray said at a forum on school reform Jan. 15 that there was a significant difference between teaching at Stanton Elementary in Southeast Washington, where 90 percent of the 269 students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch (a common barometer of household poverty), and Horace Mann Elementary in Northwest Washington, where none of the students meet the guidelines for subsidized lunch.

“That’s a very different challenge,” he said then. “And frankly, I’m not convinced that we have figured out yet how, with an evaluation system that covers all teachers across the city, that you account for the social challenges that inevitably are to be addressed.”

Asked Wednesday whether he had followed up with Henderson, Gray said he had but deferred to her.

She said that under no circumstances would she support changes to IMPACT that would hold teachers to different standards if they worked in schools with high concentrations of children from low-income homes.

“We will never support an evaluation system which allows teachers in challenged areas to teach less than teachers in other areas,” said Henderson, who took a leading role in shaping IMPACT as Rhee’s deputy for “human capital.” “In fact, we owe it to those students to ensure that we maintain a high standard,” she said.

Asked whether he was “on board” with Henderson’s view, Gray said: “I’m on board with supporting the chancellor.”

Does Henderson and her corporate brain trust believe that people are so stupid as to believe that maintaining high standard for all children means we can expect all children to perform the same to the same standard?  Are we to give blind students books for the sighted simply because seeing children use them to their benefit?  Are we to believe, as Plato did in ancient Greece, that women may become guardians and warriors only if they can demonstrate the same physical strengths as men?  Or should we return to the day when we told girls that they can play varsity basketball if they make the boys' team?

When we look at Civil Rights history, including Title IX, we see repeated examples of the Courts and other sane people deciding that in order to treat people equally, we sometimes must treat them differently.  Or as John Dewey said, it says nothing about the deficiency of beef steak that we do not feed it to infants.

And yet, that is exactly what Henderson would have teachers to do.  And if the children whose unique disability that results from soul-and-body corroding poverty do not respond like the pink-cheeked children of the leafy suburbs, then it is the teacher and the children who are to be blamed.  The end result: the behavioral screws are tightened on children as they sink deeper into docile failure, and teachers are turned into goats and/or prison guards.  What could be more socially just than that for an out-of-control capitalist regime that must keep urban America entirely diverted by a manufactured failure based on entirely phony measurements? 

Henderson and Gray have defined their roles as just another pair of puppets dancing a minstrel show of social justice in blackface, whose strings are managed by the anti-democratic forces that must be sent packing if America and the world are to survive.

Parents and teachers of DC:  say yes to humane schools, and no to the penal pedagogy plan that continues under the new puppets.

DC's Non-Search for Rhee's Replacement

In a city where the mayor acts as Dictator of Public Schools, the thing that got the previous mayor into the weeds with parents was acting like the dictator he was.  From the current "process" underway now to ensure the continuation of the Rhee regime, minus the radioactive personality, it would appear that Mayor Gray has learned nothing. 

Instead of conducting a national search, Gray has allowed the Eli Broad stooges from CityBridge Foundation to put together a "search committee" to hold a praise session for the only applicant, Kaya Henderson.  Oh yes, there were ideas galore for how the new chancellor could "communicate" better, such as bowing as she presents the Broad Boys' plans to the parents, and smiling rather than snarling and snapping at microphones. 

Why, they filled up numerous "20 easels of paper" with ideas on how the new chancellor, whomever that could be (wink, wink), could be more collegial than commandant-ish. 

At the end of the 5 hour meeting, not even a vote was taken as to whether the Mayor's only choice (as if he had one) would be chosen.  The backroom Billionaires have already decided.

Another charade for the parents and teachers of DC to reject outright.  Let the Spirit of Cairo continue to remind us there was once a democratic government throughout the Land.  From Bill Turque at WaPo:

Mayor Vincent C. Gray, who plans to name a permanent schools chancellor this week, said Monday that he was “comfortable” with a search process that has focused on just one candidate: Interim Chancellor Kaya Henderson.

Gray (D) would not confirm a Post report that he is about to name Henderson, 40, who has held the job on an interim basis since former chancellor Michelle A. Rhee resigned in October. But he has left little doubt that he is sold on Rhee’s former top deputy. The advisory committee he appointed last month to evaluate candidates in whom he has interest has met just once and discussed only Henderson.

Asked if he owed the city a more thorough search for a schools leader — given the importance of the position and in light of recent disclosures about his administration’s vetting and hiring practices — Gray said: “I think what we owe to citizens is to select the person who is best suited to lead the D.C. public schools.”

Without mentioning Henderson, who was standing behind him, Gray told reporters at a press briefing at D.C. Prep Edgewood Middle Campus, a public charter school in Northeast, that the best vetting process is watching someone serve in the position.

“Frankly, if we’ve got someone who has a track record, someone who we know, I think that benefits a vetting process,” he said. “Someone who we’ve seen in operation, someone whose leadership skills have been demonstrated and who has lived in the city for some time. So I’m comfortable with the process we’ve used.”

But there remains some skepticism about the pro-forma nature of the search. While Gray satisfied the letter of the 2007 law requiring establishment of a search committee with a cross section of teachers, parents and community leaders, some said that, given the stakes, the effort lacked rigor.

“If you’re going to do the process, do it and do it right. Otherwise, it’s window dressing and make-work,” said Terry Lynch, a parent at School Without Walls High School and executive director of the Downtown Cluster of Congregations. Lynch was a Rhee supporter.

Washington Teachers’ Union President Nathan Saunders, a member of the search advisory panel, said over the weekend that Henderson was unacceptable because of her close philosophical ties to Rhee.

The co-chairs of the panel defended its work Monday. “A lengthy search process, in my view, would have been both a distraction and unnecessary,” said Michael Lomax, CEO of the United Negro College Fund.

He said he understood that those who crossed swords with Rhee, especially the union, consider Henderson too closely aligned with her predecessor. But he said: “In my view, Kaya is her own person. She is tough, she is committed and absolutely thoughtful. She will do this work very differently than it’s been done in the past.”

In addition to Saunders, the panel included four teachers, who were named by the city; four parents; two students; and two principals. It met for about five hours on Feb. 24 at the Reeves Center. Co-chair Katherine Bradley, president of the CityBridge Foundation, served as a facilitator for the discussion, which participants said was broken into two basic parts: what residents wanted to see in the next chancellor, and whether Henderson fit those criteria.

“We must have filled up 20 easels of paper,” said Daniel Holt, head of the PTA at Brent Elementary in Ward 6. He said panel members were essentially seeking someone “with deft communications skills, the ability to make decisions and to tell people bad news in a way that they are willing to receive it.”

Holt said no formal vote was taken but that closing statements made by each member reflected a heavy consensus for Henderson. In the end, he said, he was comfortable with the process.

Oligarchs Pay For Evaluation of Oligarchs' Teacher Evaluation System

When Arne Duncan came out publicly in support of Kaya Henderson as Chancellor of DC Schools, it was a clear sign that the same failed approach that led to Wonderwoman's departure would remain in place as long as Henderson was ostensibly in charge.  From Rhee's sordid history in DC, we know that she was a cartoon super-heroine, with scripts provided by the Broadies and Waltons. 

That arrangement continues, with DCPS announcing that an "independent" evaluation of the pay per score evaluation system called IMPACT will be undertaken by Harvard's most famous tenured panderer to the Oligarchs, Roland Fryer. Ha ha, ha ha ha. Excuse me. 

Will Mayor Gray continue to allow this charade?

From Bill Turque at WaPo:

By Bill Turque

The Harvard think tank that experimented with paying D.C. middle schoolers for good grades and behavior will also study the IMPACT teacher evaluation system.

DCPS confirmed late Wednesday that the Education Innovation Laboratory at Harvard University, aka EdLabs, is the mutual selection of the District and the Washington Teachers' Union to conduct an independent evaluation of the evaluation. EdLabs is headed by Roland G. Fryer Jr., the economics professor who has been studying the effects of cash awards on students in D.C., Chicago, Dallas and New York.

An independent look at IMPACT is provided for in a side letter to the collective bargaining agreement signed last year by DCPS and the union, which has major objections to the system.

I might be missing something, but on the surface at least, Fryer seems like a peculiar choice. He's clearly a rising star--one of the youngest Harvard profs to win tenure--but much of his published work involves the achievement gap and race-based economic and social issues. His papers include "An Empirical Analysis of Acting White" and "The Causes and Consequences of Distinctively Black Names."

The other issue is EdLabs "partners," or financial backers. They include at least two of the private foundations providing some of the tens of millions for the performance pay bonuses that are a central element of IMPACT. They include the Eli and Edy Broad Foundation, and the John and Laura Arnold Family Fund. They might like IMPACT just the way it is.

Fryer's voicemail at Harvard is full and not taking messages, and I'm scheduled to speak with WTU president Nathan Saunders later today. Whatever DCPS's reasons for wanting Fryer, it is keeping them to itself for the moment.

"We won't be saying anything more about Fryer at this time," said spokeswoman Safiya Simmons. That includes any details about exactly how deep Fryer will be diving or how long he'll take. It matters because the issue is heating up politically, given Mayor Vincent C. Gray's recent comments questioning IMPACT's fairness to teacher in high-poverty schools.

The cash-for-grades initiative, called Capital Gains, ran for two school years (2008-09 and 2009-10) and involved about 3,000 middle schoolers, who earned up to $100 a month. Fryer's assessment of the first year found that the money led to higher reading test scores for Hispanics, boys and students with behavior problems. But the overall effect, however, was less significant and Fryer acknowledged that the relatively small sample made it difficult to draw strong conclusions.

Former Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee, who brought Fryer to D.C., said she liked the program but that budget issues made it difficult to continue. Cap Gains is not running in the current school year, although DCPS has never formally announced that it has been discontinued.

DC Mayor Says Oligarchs' VAM Has "a long way to go to be a fair evaluation of our teachers."

From WaPo:

By Bill Turque

As a candidate, Mayor Vincent C. Gray treaded cautiously when it came to questions about the IMPACT teacher evaluation system, arguably former Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee's signature initiative. The Washington Teachers' Union, a major financial supporter, has big issues with the system, which uses growth in student test scores as part of the basis for assessing some educators. Rhee supporters -- including the philanthropic community that is investing tens of millions of dollars in DC schools -- see it as the heart of her program because it holds teachers more accountable than ever for what their students learn. Low IMPACT scores led to the dismissal of 126 teachers last year.

But on Saturday, at a panel on school reform and poverty at Adas Israel synagogue, Gray offered the most explicit criticism of IMPACT I've heard from him, asserting that the system is unfair to teachers in high-poverty schools. It is also the first substantive evidence that Gray and Interim Chancellor Kaya Henderson -- looked to by Rhee supporters as the keeper of the reform flame -- are not quite on the same page:

"It's better than what we had, but it certainly hasn't arrived," he said of IMPACT. "One element of it that I'm still unsatisfied with is. ... It's not the same to teach in Horace Mann [Elementary in Northwest] as to teach in Stanton Elementary School [in Southeast]. That's a very different challenge. And frankly I'm not convinced that we have figured out yet how, with an evaluation system that covers all teachers across the city, that you account for the social challenges that inevitably are to be addressed by a teacher at Stanton Elementary School in ways that are different from those at Horace Mann.

"So I guess I would say at this stage... it's a step in the right direction, but it's got a long way to go to be a fair evaluation of our teachers. And frankly any system that isn't sensitive to the differences in challenges of the kids in the schools only encourages teachers to teach in one part of the city and not in the other parts."

This is a direct challenge to the philosophical core of Rhee's vision: that really good teachers can reach kids no matter what their social or economic backgrounds. It also addresses a central teacher complaint about IMPACT. Many educators objected bitterly to a Nov.13 story I wrote, reporting that just 5 percent of the 636 teachers found to be "highly effective" under IMPACT in the 2009-10 school year work in Ward 8, while 22 percent work in Ward 3. They argue that many highly effective teachers in Northwest would see their IMPACT scores plummet if they worked with students in Wards 7 or 8.

All of this raises the more practical question of what will happen to the approximately 700 teachers who received "minimally effective" IMPACT scores last summer. Under the rules as written, they have until the end of the current school year to raise their scores or face dismissal. Gray did not address this Saturday. His education position pape says he wants to "move swiftly" to implement the independent study of IMPACT. . . .

George Parker, Corporate Ed Reform Quisling, Voted Out As DC Union Head

The teachers and parents of DC Schools have another reason to celebrate this season: the Oligarchs' union pawn has been voted out by DC teachers, and a new president will take the lead in dismantling the system of teacher evaluation quackery put in place by the Broadies under Rhee.   One can imagine Rhee's lieutenant, Kaya Henderson, working on her resume this morning.  Are you listening yet, Weingarten?

From Bill Turque:

George Parker, who negotiated a contract that left D.C. teachers better paid but less secure in their jobs, has lost the presidency of the Washington Teachers' Union to General Vice President Nathan Saunders by a vote of 556 to 480.


The total vote represents less than a quarter of the of the union's 4,200 members. But Saunders,who will be installed as president effective tomorrow, said the result reflects deep unhappiness with the new IMPACT evaluation system and Parker's lack of commitment to union democracy.

The new system, introduced by former Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee in 2009, holds some teachers accountable for growth in student test scores. All teachers must meet a series of criteria for classroom performance outlined in a detailed new framework. More than 120 teachers were dismissed last summer for low IMPACT scores. Saunders has vowed to pursue all judicial, legislative and lobbying efforts to address what he considers IMPACT's unfairness.

"The teachers are very clear about what they want," Saunders said Tuesday evening. "Clearly this is a race about job security and about IMPACT. It is also a race about teachers being participatory in the process and not just reactive."

Reached at WTU offices, a subdued Parker said he accepted the results and planned no legal challenge . . ..

Teachers Need to Finish the Job in DC: Put George Parker on the Same Rail with Michelle Rhee

From the WTU website:

Washington Teachers’ Union

Important Run-Off Election Information

The WTU is conducting a run-off election to determine the officers and members of the Executive Board. No candidate (with the exception of treasurer) received a majority of votes in the first round of voting.

Please click here to review a sample ballot of the candidates for office.

Ballots for the run-off election are being mailed to WTU members on Nov. 15, 2010.

Your ballot must be placed in the reply envelope and mailed so that it is received no later than 4 p.m., on TUESDAY, NOV. 30, 2010.

IF YOU NEED A DUPLICATE BALLOT for any of the following reasons:

• you have not received a ballot by Nov. 19, 2010;

• the ballot package you received is incomplete; or

• your ballot has been lost, damaged or spoiled;

Please call Maria Landi, American Arbitration Association, at 800/273-0726. If you call after hours, you may leave a message with your address and a ballot will be sent to you.

Questions about the WTU elections?

Contact Al Squire, WTU administrator

202/393-5673 • asquire@aft.org

The voters have done their part in DC by voting out Fenty/Rhee.  Now it is the teachers' turn to finish the job. 

George Parker was able to elbow his way to the corporate welfare feeding trough when he acquiesced to IMPACT, the pay-for-test-score evaluation scheme put together for Rhee by the Broadies and the Waltons, along with prostisuits from the AFT who have turned their backs on DC teachers and the students who need teachers who teach, rather than test. 

Parker's ethically-challenged history of bowing to the corporate foundations should be swept out of DC Schools with the Fenty-Rhee clan, and new blood should be brought in to quash the unworkable and morally-bankrupt evaluation scheme that has no scientific basis and no educational value. 

Send a message to the new Mayor that education is the goal in DC Schools, not more test and punish by the Billionaire Boys' Club.

You have a choice in DC.  Clips from Turque's WaPo story:

Michelle A. Rhee is no longer chancellor of D.C. schools, but her presence still looms large over a Washington Teachers' Union election that is entering its final contentious days.

Incumbent President George Parker faces a stiff reelection challenge from Nathan Saunders, the union's general vice president, who contends that Parker was too pliant in his dealings with Rhee. He cites the collective bargaining agreement Parker negotiated with Rhee, one that weakens traditional seniority and other job protections for teachers. Union members approved the contract in June.

Saunders also pledges to pursue legal, legislative and lobbying efforts to undo Rhee's signature initiative, the new IMPACT evaluation system that links some teacher appraisals to student test scores and can trigger dismissals for educators who don't meet certain classroom performance criteria.

"I know what it takes to be the leader of a labor union," said Saunders. "We've had too much strength by the chancellor and not enough strength by the union and the community."

Should Parker lose when mail ballots are counted on Tuesday, he would join Rhee and Mayor Adrian M. Fenty as the third major figure in the 2007-10 school reform movement to leave office this year.
. . . .
But getting rid of it[ IMPACT), Parker said, is not an option.

"You look at where the country is going, and we have to get in front of a document like IMPACT and make it a fair document," he said.

Have your votes counted on Tuesday, DC teachers.  Parents, children, and other teachers around the country are counting on you. 

Which Eli Broad Leech Will Seize on Mayor Gray?

Rumor has it that Michelle Rhee will decide to spend more time with her family after her repudiation in Tuesday's DC mayoral election.  She may be the first individual in history to lose a city-wide election without being on the ballot.  If you haven't read Courtland Milloy's assessment of last Tuesday's vote, it is posted in its entirety below.  A remarkable piece.  Even more remarkable is that he could get it published in the Washington Post.


So whose names are in circulation as the Rhee replacement?  Bill Turque has this:

. . . .There is support on the D.C. Council for Rhee to remain until the end of the school year or beyond, but speculation about possible successors has begun. Former city administrator and D.C. Board of Education president Robert C. Bobb, currently the emergency financial director for the Detroit public schools, was a conspicuous presence at Gray's election night celebration.

Other names that have been mentioned include Barbara Byrd-Bennett, the former chief executive of the Cleveland school system who works in Detroit as chief academic and accountability auditor; Deborah A. Gist, Rhode Island education commissioner and former D.C. state schools superintendent; and Rhee's predecessor, Newark Superintendent Clifford Janey, who is expected to leave his post next year.

It is also possible that Gray might opt for an interim schools leader while he pursues a broad national search. Although much of Rhee's senior staff would probably leave with her or follow quickly, Gray is said to have good relations with two of Rhee's deputy chancellors, Kaya Henderson and Richard Nyankori. . . .

Who is Robert Bobb?  Bonus Bob is a Broad Academy alum (Class of '05) who was sent to Detroit to dismantle the public schools there.  He has spent an inordinate amount of time in court trying to hang on a $145,000 in bonus pay from the Broad Foundation for his work in Detroit.  He has six months left on his contract before he is run out of town.  The Michigan Citizen concludes that "he has all but destroyed the district."

Deborah Gist is another Broad alum (Class of '08) who was behind the firing of the teachers in Central Falls, Rhode Island.  She is now State Superintendent in Rhode Island, but she is on the What's Hot list of the Billionaire Boys' Club. A replacement for Arne Duncan in an imaginary second term for Obama?

And Barbara Byrd-Bennett?  She is unpopular wherever she goes unless we're talking about a corporate board room.  She shows such fealty to the education business that she is Superintendent-in-Residence (whatever that means) at Harcourt.  Oh yes, did I say she works for Bonus Bob in Detroit?

The blood suckers are definitely on the hunt, and you can bet that the Broad-Gates-Walton team is planning the next strategic move.

Finally, as promised, Courtland Milloy.  Thank you, sir:

By Courtland Milloy
Thursday, September 16, 2010; B01

In a stunning repudiation of divisive, autocratic leadership, District residents Tuesday toppled the city's ruling troika: Mayor Adrian Fenty, Attorney General Peter Nickles and Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee. All busted up. The trio's contempt for everyday people was handed back to them in spades at the polls.

Payback is a . . . well, you know what they say.
 
And people who need more time to gloat and wave their fists, take it. I know that the presumptive mayor-elect, Vincent Gray, is calling for healing, as he promised on the campaign trail. And that's all good.

But Fenty was a cruel mayor. He inflicted deep hurts, not little boo-boos that you kiss and blow to heaven and make feel okay overnight.

Air out those wounds.

Having taken office promising to cradle the most vulnerable residents, Fenty set out almost immediately shooting the wounded. Closing homeless shelters. Forgetting about job-training programs. Firing city workers with the wave of a callous hand -- black female heads of households more often than not.

Fenty boasted of being a hard-charging, can-do mayor. But he couldn't find time to meet with 98-year-old Dorothy Height and 82-year-old Maya Angelou. Respect for elders -- that's too old school for Fenty. Dis the sistas -- his supporters will understand.

Watch them at the chic new eateries, Fenty's hip newly arrived "creative class" firing up their "social media" networks whenever he's under attack: Why should the mayor have to stop his work just to meet with some old biddies, they tweet. Who cares if the mayor is arrogant as long as he gets the job done?
Myopic little twits.

And lordy don't complain about Rhee.

She's creating a "world-class school system," they text. As for you blacks: Don't you, like, even know what's good for you? So what if Fenty reneged on his promise to strengthen the city from the inside by helping the working poor move into the middle class. Nobody cares that he has opted to import a middle class, mostly young whites who can afford to pay high rent for condos that replaced affordable apartments.

Don't ask Fenty or Rhee whom this world-class school system will serve if low-income black residents are being evicted from his world-class city in droves.

You blacks, always playing the race card.

A word of advice to Gray: Do not overlook the bile on the ballot. The disappointment, anger, feelings of betrayal that propelled the D.C. Council chairman to victory have not burned out. Not quite.

What happened Tuesday involved more than just the unseating of a mayor with an abrasive style. It was a populist revolt against Fenty's arrogant efforts to restructure government on behalf of a privileged few. The scheme was odious: re-create a more sophisticated version of the plantation-style, federally appointed three-member commission that ruled the city for more than a century until 1967.

The Fenty troika eerily mirrored the old antebellum system of control, which featured a chairman for public works, which is what Fenty was, in essence; a chairman with expertise in legal maneuverings, Nickles; and a chairman for education and welfare issues, Rhee.

It all makes for a kind of friendly fascism in which D.C. government serves the interest of business leaders and landed gentry. Remarkably, his approach became much ballyhooed: Fenty, his supporters raved, was making the trains run on time. That people were falling off the caboose and being railroaded out of town was just the price of progress.

D.C. Council member Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3) actually used the term "lawless" to describe the Fenty regime. "He's broken the government and built in obstacles to any future success," she told me. It was going to be virtually impossible for Fenty to sustain what progress he'd made -- unless Congress crowned him king of the city.
Gray, as council chairman, called Rhee's budgeting practices "opaque," to put it mildly. Nickles, the council said, had a penchant for "stonewalling." Out in the neighborhoods, Fenty's long-standing moniker, "arrogant," was joined by others, such as "dictator" and "Napoleon wannabe" who allowed Nickles to "walk all over us" and who let Rhee "spit in our faces."

So people went to the polls and politely delivered a message: Most residents actually believe in representative democracy, thank you very much, messy though it may be.

You did it, D.C. And if it makes you want to holler, go right ahead.
E-mail: milloyc@washpost.com.

D.C. Voters Poised to Send Historic Message to Oligarchs Who Manage Fenty/Rhee

Does it come as a surprise that the wealthy districts of DC are the only places where Fenty is polling ahead of Gray?  If your entire arrogant administration has been executed to serve power and privilege and to arrogantly throw a few crumbs elsewhere, could it not be predicted that the chickens would come home to roost in a city short on privileged voters?  A few clips from WaPo's piece today:

. . . .With early voting beginning Monday in the Sept. 14 primary, Gray is clearly ahead, leading Fenty 49 to 36 percent among all Democratic voters surveyed. Gray's advantage swells to 17 points, 53 to 36 percent, among those most likely to vote in the primary. . . . .

. . . .Education is the top voting issue in the poll and one that works toward Fenty's advantage, particularly among whites. White voters overwhelmingly see the District's schools as better than they were four years ago. But black voters are as apt to say schools have deteriorated as improved.

Talk of Rhee's performance and future is a constant on the campaign trail, but the deep polarization over the chancellor does not give either candidate a clear advantage. In the latest poll, 41 percent of Democrats say her record is a reason to vote for Fenty; 40 percent say it is a factor against Fenty. Among white voters polled, 68 percent say Rhee is a reason to support Fenty, but 54 percent of African Americans consider Rhee a strike against him.

Marilyn Barrette, 43, a Capitol Hill resident with three children in public schools, said she will vote for Fenty because of the work he has done on education. "I've seen some improvements in the facilities themselves. As far as the curriculum and bringing in Michelle Rhee, things are moving in the right direction," said Barrette, an elementary school teacher in Prince George's County who has taken time off to be with her children.

But McDonald said Fenty lost her vote after Rhee fired 266 teachers and gave what she considered a misleading reason for their dismissal. "He really plucked my nerves when he messed with the schools and fired the teachers," said McDonald, who holds Fenty and Rhee responsible for the firings.

Beyond the schools, Gray wins among voters who emphasize most other issues, including the economy and jobs. . . .

Rhee Hires More Chiefs for Bloated Central Office

Never mind that the District's CFO has found overspending at Rhee's Central Office as one of the reasons she has come up short on money to fund a new teacher contract. And never mind that Rhee's new covey of TFA alums will be hired even if they have never been school administrators--@ $120k to $150k. It's all a part of the new top heavy order for running corporate schools--a house full of scraping sycophants and a bare-knuckled megalomaniac at the top. From Bill Turque at WaPo:

By Bill Turque
Sunday, May 9, 2010; C01

Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee is more than doubling the number of senior managers who oversee the District's 123 public schools, a move intended to put more muscle behind her efforts to raise teacher quality and student achievement.

Openings for 13 "instructional superintendents," with annual salaries of $120,000 to $150,000, were posted on the D.C. schools Web site late last month. Instructional superintendents directly supervise school principals, overseeing academic performance while troubleshooting personnel and student discipline issues.

The move comes as the school system deals with serious budget pressures. Rhee and District Chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi continue to search for an additional $10.7 million to fully fund the proposed $135.6 million teachers contract. Rhee also faces, according to Gandhi, about $30 million in projected overspending, some of it because of the salaries of school-based special education aides, overtime and severance payments.

But Rhee said in an interview Thursday that the new administrators, who will be hired at an estimated cost of $2 million in salary and benefits, will not increase spending. Cuts to staff working under the existing six instructional superintendents, she said, will make the expansion "budget neutral."

"We're not growing the number of people," Rhee said.

The District now has five instructional superintendents assigned to clusters of 16 to 30 schools, organized in part by grade level. A sixth oversees eight alternative schools, including programs for incarcerated and at-risk youths.

Rhee said the clusters are too large for the instructional leaders to effectively oversee principals and their schools.

"They just couldn't provide the depth of support we wanted the schools to have. They were just spread too thin," she said.

In an e-mail to principals, interim chief academic officer Michael Moody said the school system is making the change based in part on concerns expressed by them.

"We believe that this new structure will better facilitate the type of management and support that you need to drive the type of change you want in your schools," Moody wrote, adding that the goal is to "fully transition to the new cluster structure by July 1." The job postings recommend -- but do not require -- that candidates have a minimum of three years' experience as a principal with a track record of success improving student achievement.

Moody's e-mail said creating smaller clusters would foster more collaboration and sharing of best practices. Moody also said that with the addition of the new superintendents, certain jobs, such as principal coaches and instructional specialists, "will no longer exist in the cluster offices." Rhee said some employees will be reassigned to other jobs.

The expansion would give each of the new instructional superintendents six or seven schools in the 45,000-student system. Fairfax County, the region's largest school system with 197 schools and 175,000 students, has eight assistant cluster superintendents. Montgomery County, with 200 schools and 142,000 students, has six community superintendents. But Rhee noted that the staffs under the cluster leaders are probably larger than those in the District.

Waltons and Broad to DC Schools: No Rhee, No Funding

You might say that the attempted corporate coercion of public institutions has just been kicked up a notch. If DC teachers are stupid enough to approve the contract put together for them by Walmart lawyers with its $65 million in corporate sweetener, then they are stuck with Broom Michelle for as long as the oligarchs want her as their boardroom conduit. Simply put: A vote for the contract is a vote to keep Rhee at least for 2 more years and the oligarchs in control.

From Bill Turque at WaPo:

By Bill Turque
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 27, 2010; 5:19 PM

Private foundations pledging $64.5 million for raises and bonuses in the District's proposed contract with the Washington Teachers' Union have attached a series of conditions to the grants, including the right to reconsider their support if there is a change in the leadership of the D.C. school system.

The leadership condition, set by the Walton Family Foundation, the Robertson Foundation, the Laura and John Arnold Foundation and the Broad Foundation, makes it clear that they could withdraw their financial support if Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee leaves or is fired through the funding agreement's expiration in 2012.

"Implementing this contract will require significant support and leadership from DCPS' executive leadership," wrote Buddy D. Philpot, executive director of the Walton Family Foundation, in a March 17 letter to the D.C. Public Education Fund, the nonprofit group that coordinates private donations to the school system. "As such, the Foundation reserves the right to discontinue support for this initiative if there is a material change in DCPS' leadership."

Walton is the largest single donor to the contract, promising $25 million. Robertson has pledged $19.5 million; Arnold and Broad have pledged $10 million each.. . . .

And from the letter itself (click to enlarge).

Turque Interviews Rhee: Listening to a Liar Lie

From Bill Turque at WaPo (with my comments interspersed):

I spoke to Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee Tuesday afternoon, a few hours after she told the D.C. Council that a $34 million surplus in the DCPS budget would help pay for teacher salaries under the new proposed labor contract. Rhee said evidence of the extra money--which is expected to decrease the District's reliance on private funds--was discovered by a senior aide in late February, three months after she laid off 266 teachers. The layoffs were driven, she said, by budgetary forecasts supplied to her last summer by the office of D.C. Chief Financial Officer (OCFO) Natwar M. Gandhi.

Here are excerpts from the 30-minute conversation:

BT: When did you learn about the $34 million?
MR: Late February.
BT: Did you share this with anybody? At the bargaining table? The council?
MR: No.
BT: Do you think in retrospect it might have been better to share this?
MR: Why? What do you mean?

BT: There was so much anxiety about the private funding....
MR: Let me say this. I thought it was good news. The good news was that we were going to be able to allay the fears a lot of people had about the fact that [the contract] was going to be all funded by external dollars and that this wasn't sustainable in the long term. And so in my opinion it was good news.
BT: So why not share the good news?
MR: Because we were in the middle of negotiations....There's sort of a time and a place for all of this.

Comment: So Rhee discovers an extra $34 million in late February. The "good news," however, cannot be shared until the middle of April, after a tentative agreement has been reached. Why now? Part of it has to do with the skepticism expressed by teachers and DC citizens that $65 million from the Oligarch fund would go unpaid, and part of it has to do with the disgust among the citizenry that Broad, the Waltons, and Gates are running DCPS. Not even the stone-headed Eli Broad could have missed the surprise registered by DC residents who have not been keeping up with the public school takeover by the Billionaire Boys Club (BBC). So Broad had no choice but to make public now what Michelle has known since February. To do otherwise would be to surely lose the PR battle and the tentative agreement, itself--especially if the Gift of the Oligarchs got tied up in legal wrangling or procedural uncertainty. After all, it is Rhee who must now go before the microphone to lie and dissemble her way out of this.

BT: This revives all the old charges and suspicions that you manipulated and gamed the budget process to get here. To get to this contract.
MR: I understand that there is a group of conspiracy theorists out there...All I can do is go back to facts. So people can conjecture all they want on hearsay and happenstance...What I think is important though is that the [d.c. chief financial officer] and the agency do not report to me. They are an independent agency. These are not DCPS numbers. These are OCFO numbers. So I think it is unfortunate. We had originally thought we needed to raise more [private] money for this contract...It was this huge concern about it not being sustainable in the long term. Now it's fortuitous, a situation that allows us to pay more city dollars. Now we're getting crap for that.
BT: [Paraphrasing critics] All of a sudden at this point, this very sensitive point, on the table is this $34 million surplus...Where did this come from? Why are we hearing about this at this sensitive moment?
MR: Realize that we didn't know about this until very late in the game.
BT: That was the end of February. It is now mid-April.
MR: So the end of February we got the first numbers. They sort became got more firm and finalized through the beginning of March. Then once we kind of had all those numbers we came to agreement with the union and came to agreement with the funders....But I'm baffled as to what people think I should have been telling someone and who I should have been telling.

Comment: This is clearly a lie, and it is not just sort of a lie. If Rhee had shared "all those numbers" prior the agreement, there would not have been an arrangement for the BBC to pay $65 million into the settlement. It was only after the tentative agreement was signed (yesterday, in fact) that "all those numbers" were shared, so that the BBC is now on the hook for $7 million, rather than $65 million.

MR cont'd: When in fact this was all a part of the process we were going through to get to the stage where we have the tentative agreement.. Now what I think is fair is if I'd known [about the surplus] for a year or had this information when we did the [layoffs]. Which was not the case. Or if I'd found this out in February or March and we were heading into budget cycle without a tentative agreement. Then we'd have to share that information.

Comment: Do you mean, Michelle, that you would have to share the information that you said that you did share just two sentences back?

BT: People say it doesn't pass the smell test.
MR: The people who are sort of saying this, they want to jump to conclusions. They want to assume that somehow we have manufactured this. Again, we have all the documentation that shows that we at every single point were only making decisions based on the information we had in front of us.

Comment: Yes, the information in front of Rhee was being prepared for her by the lawyers of BBC, and as the dependable, unrepentant face of authoritarian corporate education, she is just following orders. And she sees no reason to apologize or to feel bad about that.

BT: Do you have any remorse? Do you feel badly for these teachers [who were laid off just before a surplus emerged]
MR: I think it was unfortunate. And that's why we specially negotiated [a retroactive payment for the fired teachers] with [teachers union president] George [Parker]....I think it was important to George and we thought it made a lot of sense that [laid off] teachers receive a retroactive payment.

Read the rest here if you have the stomach for it.

Rhee "Finds" $34 Million and Loses Last Cent of Credibility

With her Walmart approved contract and its corporate underwriting becoming the albatross that could sink hers and Fenty's political futures, the Not Ready for Prime Time Players in Michelle Rhee's office suddenly announce the digging up in Februrary, no less, of 34 million extra dollars that can now go to reduce the Oligarchs' promised contribution to the tentative teacher contract--a planned contribution that has now shrunk from $65 million to $7 million. Miraculous, or as Councilman, Jim Graham, more aptly said yesterday "curiouser and curiouser."

It was only last Fall that Rhee suddenly misplaced $43 million, enough to warrant the firing of 266 teachers and 300 other school employees. Meanwhile, prostisuits Randi Weingarten and George Parker continue, unbelievably, to urge teachers to ratify the shell game contract that is not worth the paper that it is written on. With broad powers given to Rhee by the contract to handle cases of financial necessity, all she will need to do to get Broad's way cleared for charters and TFAers is to continue the fraudulent form of leadership already deeply documented. If teachers ratify this contract, they will have acknowledged they are not nearly smart enough to teach.

From Bill Turque:

By Bill Turque
Wednesday, April 14, 2010; B01

Teachers union leaders angrily accused D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee of unethical behavior Tuesday by failing to disclose the discovery of a $34 million surplus in the school system budget in February, three months after laying off 266 teachers because of what she described as a budget shortfall.

News of the surplus comes at a critical time for Rhee and the teachers union, who just last week announced a tentative contract agreement that ended more than two years of often rancorous bargaining. The two sides were close to a deal late last summer when union anger over Rhee's plans for layoffs delayed its completion.

. . . .

"We got this information very late in the game," Rhee said. "The most important thing is for people to look forward."

Tuesday's meeting started with what appeared to be heartening news for the council, which had raised numerous questions at a Monday budget hearing about how the proposed contract -- which promises teachers a 20 percent pay increase over five years -- would be financed in a tight fiscal environment.

Rhee said that raises in the first two years of the five-year agreement, which are retroactive base salary increases of 3 percent each for 2008 and 2009, would be paid for by $22 million in unspent federal funding. She said the third year of the pact, which calls for a 4 percent raise in the current fiscal year, would be financed by a $34 million surplus and $7 million from private foundations.

Council members, led by Chairman Vincent C. Gray, expressed astonishment at the sudden windfall. Gray, who is challenging Rhee's boss, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, in the Democratic mayoral primary in September, said that if he were a laid-off teacher, he'd be livid. "I'd be about ready to put my hands around somebody's throat," he said.

He added: "People lost their jobs under a budget deficit that didn't exist. That's what I heard today."

"It's just too convenient," said council member David A. Catania (I-At Large), who likened the school system's budgeting process to a "three-card monte game."

"This just gets curiouser and curiouser," council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) said.

Council member Michael A. Brown (I-At Large) asked Rhee whether she would be willing to consider reinstating the laid-off teachers in light of the new budget situation. Rhee said no.

"Because we are in a completely different situation now," she said.

Members also were upset with Gandhi, who made no mention of the surplus at Monday's hearing, which lasted more than five hours.

Gandhi did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday. Through his spokesman, David Umansky, he said: "All of the facts, figures and information concerning the finances of the teachers contract will be released when the CFO's analysis of the contract is made public."

Will DC Teachers Approve a Union Contract Endorsed by Walmart and Michelle Rhee?

The corporate media echo chamber has been working overtime since a tentative DC teacher contract was approved by Eli Broad's thug lawyers and the prostisuits who run the AFT and their DC affiliate. WaPo's Metro columnist, Robert McCartney, hailed the new deal as a sign that, three years after her hiring, Rhee has finally arrived:

It took her nearly three years, but D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee has finally achieved something important enough to actually merit all the praise and hoopla that have made her the nation's most celebrated schools chief.

McCartney, of course, would never acknowledge that a tentative settlement was reached despite the fuming, arrogant, and spiteful Rhee, not because of her. If it had not been for former Baltimore mayor, Kurt Schmoke, there would be no agreement yet, tentative or otherwise.

McCartney also takes the opportunity to promote the false notion that the contract represents a windfall for teachers by claiming that "teachers receive a 21 percent increase in base pay." What McCartney does not note, of course, is that the 21 percent is spread over 5 years, going back to 2008. Nor does McCartney talk about the tenuous, and perhaps imaginary, nature of the funds to provide the raises. From the picture that is beginning to emerge now, it could be that any such promised raises would require further firings and layoffs. Would you believe in a union contract supported by the Waltons, Broad, and Bill Gates?

From Bill Turque (my bolds):

Does contract math add up?

Although it's been less than a week since Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee rolled out their tentative contract agreement with the Washington Teachers' Union, bumps are starting to appear on the path to closing the deal. Disputed math, election-year tensions and the complexities of marrying private dollars to public budgets are all part of what's becoming a problematic mix.

Rhee said last week that the total cost of the new contract was $140 million. But at Monday's D.C. Council hearing, where Fenty spent more than three hours at the witness table in front of his September primary opponent, Chairman Vincent C. Gray, a different picture emerged. By Gray's calculations, there's not nearly enough money in Fenty's proposed FY 2011 budget to pay for what the contract promises. Gray puts the price tag for the contract at $161 million, including $100 million for retroactive and current year salary increases.

"It's an enormous amount of money. I can't find it," Gray said.

Fenty said he'd get it for him later.

Gray placed District Chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi, city administrator Neil Albert, acting DCPS chief financial officer George Dines and Gandhi deputy Gordon McDonald under oath to ask whether there was currently money in the budget to underwrite the contract. Dines said no. Gandhi and McDonald said they didn't know. And Albert said he hadn't looked.

The other fuzzy area involves the $64.5 million in private dollars pledged by the Broad, Walton, Robertson and Arnold foundations. Before either the WTU or the council can vote on the contract, Gandhi must sign off on the pledges as fiscally sound -- meaning that the District won't be left on the hook during the life of the agreement, which runs to 2012.

Last week, word was that Gandhi's examination wouldn't take more than a few days. But on Monday Gandhi said the process would take "weeks," not days. This was not welcome news to the council, which has a budget to complete by June.

"What I see as a potential effect here is that that we don't have the information Dr. Gandhi is reviewing until after the budget process much farther down the road," said Council member David A. Catania (I-At Large) "This seems to be very tricky."

Catania went so far as to say that given the current funding uncertainties, the financial package promised in the contract could only be realized with new teacher layoffs.

"I don't see how it's done with[out] some reductions in force," he said. "That may be the answer to how do we give a raise."

Trickier still for the council is how the foundations do business. The money will not be officially in hand until the union ratifies the deal, which will only come after the green light from Gandhi. Cate Swinburn, president and executive director of the D.C. Public Education Fund, the non-profit set up by Fenty's political supporters to handle private donations for school reform, said Monday that while the award letters under review by Gandhi are "very firm," only after union ratification will they become "formal grant agreements."

Rhee is scheduled to brief the council Tuesday morning at its monthly administrative meeting.