Duncan Gets Questions From Senators: Uh-Oh

The Ed Week Blog, which is a much better publication than Ed Week, by the way, has news on Arne's trip to Capital Hill today to answer question on the ED budget. First good question from Senator Patty Murray on the pay-per-score plan that Duncan calls the Teacher Incentive Fund, and the second from Senator Tom Harkin. Just wish I could have heard the responses. You can here: Webcast of June 3 Labor HHS Subcommitte Hearing Featuring Secretary Duncan. Read on:

. . . another Obama proposal looks like it’s going to be a tough sell with some committee Democrats: the mega-increase for the Teacher Incentive Fund program. Obama’s budget seeks to boost funding for the TIF, which doles out grants for pay-for-performance programs from $97 million in fiscal year 2009 to $487.3 million in fiscal year 2010. That major hike would come on top of $200 million for the TIF in the stimulus.

But Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., asked Duncan whether he could point to any studies that demonstrate the TIF’s effectiveness.

Duncan kind of tap-danced on that one, talking about his very positive experience with a TIF grant in Chicago. He said the grants only went to schools where 75 percent of teachers said they wanted them.

But Murray didn’t sound assuaged. While she said the program’s purpose “sounds good when [Duncan] says it,” she wants to make sure there are safeguards in place to make sure that the money isn’t used for programs that give out “subjective rewards” to educators. She said she’s particularly worried because the program has never been authorized by Congress.

Duncan said the grants wouldn’t go to schools that “pit teachers against each other” and said he’d work with Murray on his plan for the program. Still, that exchange has me wondering whether the Obama administration will get the full increase it is seeking for the fund.

Harkin also expressed some skepticism about the administration’s proposal to shift the Pell Grant program from the discretionary to the mandatory side of the ledger, where it wouldn’t be subject to the whims of the appropriations process (and incidentally, not under the subcommittee’s jurisdiction).

“There are reasons on both sides,” Harkin said. “There a lot of others ways that we can make sure that kids keep up their grades and keep up the work” to get a college education.

And it doesn’t sound like Harkin was too thrilled with Duncan’s suggestion that he would consider whether a state has caps on the number of charter schools in doling out the $4.35 billion in Race to the Top funding.

“Are charter schools a litmus test?” Harkin asked. . . .

Duncan's Chicago Miracle Turns Mirage

On January 2, I laid out some evidence that showed Duncan and Congressman Miller were reading from the same script on the Chicago Mirage. Others have come forward with evidence, too, about Duncan's claims, but Duncan has offered no corrections. Instead, he has continued to repeat the same set of lies. Why wouldn't he continue to lie, when education "reporters" never bother to do a fact check.

Here is, yet, another big chunk of a major defibrilizer, and a good one, offered by Mathew Blake. Will one reporter ask Duncan a question about any of this?

. . . .Nowhere to go But Sideways

Duncan’s reputation and reform efforts, though, coexist awkwardly with students’ actual performance during his time as Chicago school CEO. One metric that compares students across the country is the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) test administered by the Department of Education. NCLB requires that in order to receive Title 1 funds –federal money sent to the states and intended to go to the neediest schools – each state must test 4th and 8th graders every two years in math and reading. NCLB also created a “Trial Urban District Assessment” that compiled a record of math and reading scores in 11 cities, including Chicago, scores that now include tests from 2002, 2003, 2005 and 2007.

The NAEP records show that CPS student performance was very poor in 2002 and did not improve by 2007. On the NAEP reading test, scored from 0-500,, Chicago 8th graders got an average score of 249 in 2002. In 2007, they got an average score of 250. The nationwide average in 2007, by contrast, was 261.

In 2002, 15 percent of all Chicago 8th graders were judged “proficient” at reading. In 2007, that number had increased by all of two percent — 17 percent of all Chicago 8th graders were judged proficient. Nationally, for 2007, 29 percent of all 8th graders were deemed proficient at reading.

Chicago 4th graders not only fare worse than the national average in reading – they do worse than other urban school districts. In 2002, Chicago 4th graders scored an average of 193. In 2007, the average did jump to 201. But this score was not just significantly lower than the national average but the average among the 11 assessed urban districts, which was 208. The percentage of Chicago 4th graders who scored at the proficient level in 2007 was 16 percent compared with 22 percent in other urban districts. Only Cleveland and Washington, D.C. did worse. Moreover, the gap in scores between poor students – defined as those eligible for the federal school lunch program – and the rest of the district actually increased between 2002 and 2007. . .

NAEP Math tests were another area where Chicago students fared poorly. Fourth grade math scores made the modest jump from 214 to 220 between 2003 and 2007. But just 16 percent of CPS 4th graders were judged proficient in Math compared with 28 percent in other urban schools districts and 38 percent nationally. The story is the same for 8th graders: scores made a modest climb from 254 to 260 between 2003 and 2007. But in 2007, 13 percent of CPS fourth graders were proficient compared with 22 percent in other urban school districts and 31 percent nationally.

There are standardized tests besides NAEP, but unfortunately, CPS students have done poorly on those as well. In June 2007, the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research looked at scores on the Illinois Standardized Assessment Test. The consortium praised CPS for narrowing the reading gap between 8th graders, but noted that even these eighth graders, the highlight of Chicago’s results, were still more than a grade behind their peers across the state. “One still cannot escape noticing the very large gaps between Chicago and the rest of the state,” the study concluded.

Is it fair to hold Duncan accountable for these test scores? “I think you can absolutely hold the CEO and the school board accountable for these students because they have a huge impact on where the resources are spent,” says Linda Lenz of Chicago Catalyst. “The CEO is the one who needs to push things in the right direction. They’re the one who pushes the city for more after school programs. The change and ideas for schools often come at the local not the state or national level.” Don Moore, executive director of the Chicago-based education advocacy and research group Design for Change, takes a somewhat different view. “In CPS, Mayor Daley calls the shots,” Moore says. Julie Woestehoff, executive director of the Chicago group Parents United for Responsible Education, agrees. “Key decisions are made on the fifth floor of City Hall (the Mayor’s office),” Woestehoff wrote in an email, “not the fifth floor of CPS (the CEO’s office).” But these arguments concede that it is city government that primarily shapes CPS policy and performance. And even if Mayor Daley really called all the shots, Duncan is now taking these reforms – be they his or Daley’s or someone else’s – national.

The better defense of Duncan is that his reforms need more time. This was the crux of the University of Chicago school research consortium’s argument about Renaissance 2010. U of C studied the first 23 schools that opened under the program, the majority of them charters, and found that “the overall academic performance of the average student in Renaissance School Fund-supported schools is very low, as it is at most schools in the district.” But the study reported that, “It is unusual for students to demonstrate large learning gains on standardized tests during the first few years of a school development.”

But a RAND study published earlier this year – and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which gave $21 million to the Renaissance 2010 Fund – found that, nationally, charters don’t make a difference. “In a majority of cases,” the study’s authors concluded, “The results suggest that differences in the performance of charter schools and traditional public schools are small or nonexistent.” The study admitted that methodologies for school comparisons are not a perfect tool, especially when looking at elementary schools. But it more confidently compared students at public middle schools and high schools to those at charters: “Non-primary charter schools are producing achievement gains that are approximately equivalent to those of traditional public schools.”

“We have an opportunity before us to lay the foundation for a generation of education reform,” Duncan said at Brookings, “And it requires us to hold each other accountable both for what we do and for what we say.” In the context of Duncan’s CPS record that’s a frustrating comment – When, and to what extent, should he be held responsible?

Duncan stresses data. But while other policymakers, like Bush’s first Education Secretary Rod Paige, looked at students, schools and state-wide performance, Duncan is more focused on how data evaluates the effectiveness of teachers. He won praise for improving the aptitude and preparedness of Chicago teachers, but this hasn’t, yet, translated into better students or a better school district. People made fun of George W. Bush for promising that NCLB would lead to every student scoring proficient in NAEP reading and math tests by 2014—a tidy six years after the end of his second term. But no one can say when data that keeps teachers on their toes will actually benefit students and heal a school system.

Arne over America

Nobody was a bigger winner from the stimulus bill than the Department of Education. A federal agency with an annual budget of about $45 billion, DOE saw $115 billion in stimulus money. The money is mostly for perennially under-funded long-time programs like Head Start and money to stabilize state budgets. But it also included outlays like a $4.3 billion in “Race to the Top” funds. There is also a $545 million school improvement program that Duncan can spend how he wishes. Duncan hasn’t yet allocated this money – yet more discretionary cash will come from the 2010 fiscal-year budget and maybe also a re-authorized NCLB.

But he has spelled out in the past two weeks – at Brookings and then in Michigan, California, Vermont, and West Virginia – what he wants the Race to the Top and capital improvement money spent on: States should come up with sophisticated data systems that can hold teachers accountable for student performance. This data should also track students from kindergarten through not just twelfth grade but college graduation. Duncan is also advocating for “turnarounds” at the 5,000 worst schools in the country, which he calls “drop out factories.” In San Francisco this week, Duncan blasted California as currently unworthy of Race to the Top funds because the state was not using student achievement data to evaluate teachers. “The data doesn’t tell the whole truth,” Duncan said. “But the data doesn’t lie.”

Wall Street Accounting Practices in Main Street Charter Schools

While the new post-partisan ED putsch steamrolls across America with the Oligarchs driving this unfriendly corporate takeover of American schools, the evidence is already in on what happens when you offer corporations public education dollars with no oversight. When will Obamaites and Dumcan come to the realization that this could easily be a bigger scandal than the thievery that NCLB enabled? Where is the public commitment to public schools???? If 83% of Minnesota public schools had financial irregularities in the state audits, do you think that Sam Dillon or Maria Glod would not be all over it?? Damn!

Are those Eli Broad and Bill Gates political contributions really worth the total corruption of the American public school system? Even when the test scores aren't even any better??? And often worse?? ht to Sharon Higgins, from Minnesota Public Radio:

Report: Most charter schools mismanage finances

by Elizabeth Baier, Minnesota Public Radio

June 2, 2009

St. Paul, Minn. — The progressive think tank Minnesota 2020 has released a new study suggesting the majority of charter schools in the state do not follow basic financial guidelines and, in some cases, violate state law.

The study describes the charter school movement as "rife with mismanagement." It found financial irregularities in 121 of the state's 145 charter schools during an audit of the fiscal year that ended on June 30, 2007.

The study, "Checking in on Charter Schools: An examination of Charter School Finances," was released at a press conference Tuesday morning in Minneapolis.

"Charter school directors cannot handle simple financial accounting practices, nor do many charter schools have an interest in allowing the public to be aware of their machinations," the report concluded.

The organizations said it reviewed financial audits of 145 charter schools for the fiscal year that ended on June 30, 2007. The reports were filed with the Minnesota Department of Education.

The report identified five charter schools among the biggest offenders. They included two Minneapolis schools: the Aurora Charter School, where 98 percent of the students are Hispanic, and Heart of the Earth Charter, a Native American school that closed last summer after its executive director, Joel Pourier, was accused of embezzling more than $1.3 million.

The report also identified the Recovery School of Southern Minnesota in Owatonna, the Duluth Public Schools Academy in Duluth, and the E.C.H.O. Charter School in Echo as having the most financial offenses in their 2007 audits.

Among other trends in charter schools around the state, according to the report:

• 83 percent had at least one financial irregularity;
• 29 percent did not comply with the law regarding board meeting minutes;
• 55 percent had limited control of the school's funds;
• 26 percent didn't have proper collateral for their bank deposit insurance;
• 51 percent of those with problems identified on their 2007 financial audits had the same problems in the 2008 audits.

The study recommends the state reconsider renewing charters with schools that cannot successfully pass financial audits or provide board meetings minutes. It also suggests revoking charter with schools that have long-standing financial problems.

In a statement, the Minnesota Department of Education said both school districts and charter schools frequently have "findings" in the financial audits they submit to the state. Districts and charter schools are required to submit plans to the Education Department to correct their financial shortcomings, but the department said it's up to the local school districts and charter school boards to make sure corrective action is taken.

The think tank report follows a 2008 report by the state auditor which also raised questions about financial management at charter schools. In that report, the auditor's office recommended that charter school board members be required to attend financial management training. It also found that charters were roughly comparable to district schools in terms of financial health.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report)

Plenty of Money for Tests

Here is perfect example of what is happening all across the country as scarce resources are being funneled from taxpayers to fund more tests while good teachers are being laid off and class sizes are increasing. Meanwhile, with more testing, we can see which kids are the biggest losers - where is the outrage? Looks like some legislators are standing up - let them know the madness has to stop.! Speak up. It's time for ACTION.

Senate panel shoots down new Pa. graduation exams
Tuesday, June 02, 2009

By Tom Barnes, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

HARRISBURG -- The state Senate's Education Committee today dealt a serious blow to Gov. Ed Rendell's plans to develop new Graduation Compentency Assessment tests for high school students.

Both Democratic and Republican senators angrily complained that the administration signed a $201 million, seven-year contract to develop the tests without sufficient input from the Legislature.

"This is a shot across the bow of the executive branch,'' said Sen. Jane Orie, R-McCandless. "It says they can't just ramrod education policies without input from the Legislature.''

The panel voted 11-0 to approve Senate Bill 281, a bill she introduced that blocks development of the assessment tests, formally called Keystone Exams, unless the Legislature votes specifically to approve them.

The bill, which goes to the full Senate next week, "prohibits the Department of Education from developing any new statewide public high school graduation requirements unless established by an act of the General Assembly.''

Ms. Orie accused state Education Secretary Gerald Zahorchak of "arrogance'' in signing a $201 million contract with Data Recognition Corp. of Minnesota to develop 10 tests, in subjects such as math, science, reading and others, for high school students to take to gauge their knowledge. She said many educators don't think the new tests are even needed.

"This is a terrible time to be signing a $201 million contract, when the state faces a $3.2 billion budget deficit,'' complained Sen. David Argall, R-Schuylkill. "The deficit is a black cloud over us.''
Mr. Zahorchak said the contract would cost the state only $8 million in the current 2008-09 fiscal year and $21 million in fiscal 2009-10, which starts July 1, which he said is only a tiny part of the department's $10 billion budget. He said that if the Legislature kills the contract, the private firm wouldn't be owed any money.

He said the assessment exams are important because many high school students are now graduating without sufficient knowledge in reading, math and other basic areas, which will hurt them both in their college years and their eventual search for jobs.

He said he has worked hard to keep senators in the loop on development of these tests and denied acting arrogantly. He said local school districts could use the state-developed tests for their students, or develop their own tests, but that would cost local districts considerable money.
Ms. Orie said the state already uses Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests to measure progress of students in several grades, including 11th. Mr. Zahorchak said some students do poorly on the PSSAs but are allowed to graduate anyway, which does them a disservice.

With Democrats and Republicans upset about not knowing enough about the Graduation Competency Assessment tests, Ms. Orie thinks the House and Senate will approve her bill. If Mr. Rendell vetoes it, she would work to override the veto.
More details in tomorrow's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Bureau Chief Tom Barnes can be reached at tbarnes@post-gazette.com or 717-787-4254.
First published on June 2, 2009 at 11:55 am
Read more: "Senate panel shoots down new Pa. graduation exams" - http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09153/974446-100.stm#ixzz0HNRmRNGp&A

The New Teacher Project and New Democrats

     The New Teacher Project, the fast-track teaching program founded by former TFAer and curent DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee, just released a report about fundamentally altering the teaching profession.  This unfolds in an era when test scores are equated with learning, No Child Left Behind exacerbates problems in education, various for-profit companies can hawk their canned curriculum (touted as "scientifically-based"), and alternative path programs like TFA and TNTP have been able to throw untrained and ill-prepared teachers into the classroom. 

     Andrew J. Rotherham, co-founder of Ed Sector and blogger at Eduwonk, would seriously disagree with my characterization of this "era."  Rotherham continuously takes an anti-union stance, insists the teaching profession is staffed by incompetent ignoramuses, and suggests merit-pay should stay and tenure should go.  Make these changes and - viola! - we'd have a much better education system.  Of course, Rotherham also serves on the board of Democrats For Education Reform (a group recently profiled in the Nation), works with the Gates and Broad foundations on various projects, and has played a key role in Democratic education politics.  He's a big fan of No Child Left Behind, even claiming that, aside from vouchers, "Mr. Bush's education agenda is largely a New Democratic one"(right from the DLC's webpage).  Take a peek at his blog and read the last few entries (June 2nd on down): praises Duncan for leveraging the $5 billion "Race to the Top" fund in an attempt to get Tennessee to change their charter school law; comes out in favor of national standards but fears the current attempt will fail (wait, is this the Fordham guys?!); praises The New Teacher Project research; and throws in a few pro-TFA pieces.  

     But back to the New Teacher Project publication.  Here's the opening paragraph of TNTP's press release about the document:

Nation's Schools Failing to Assess Teacher Effectiveness, Treating Teachers as Interchangeable Parts

Study Describes “Widget Effect,” Which Prevents Schools from Recognizing Excellence, Providing Support, or Removing Ineffective Teachers

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen, U.S. Representative George Miller (D-CA) Join in Call for Overhaul of Teacher Evaluation Systems and Policies Governing Use of Evaluation Ratings

The New Teacher Project

NEW YORK, NY – America’s schools operate in a policy environment that assumes all teachers are the same, according to a comprehensive study by The New Teacher Project (TNTP), a national nonprofit dedicated to ensuring that all students get excellent teachers. Though a teacher’s effectiveness is singularly important to student success, schools do not distinguish great teaching from good, good from fair, or fair from poor, and a teacher’s effectiveness in helping students to succeed academically almost never factors into critical decisions such as how teachers are hired, developed or retained.

     In case you missed it, "a teacher's effectiveness is singularly important to student success," thus eliminating all other factors in education quality and equality.  Those schools with low test scores just have terrible teachers - fire 'em (or close the school), bring in new teachers (from where?), adopt our new national standards, and open new charter schools with non-union labor.  Remember back when Gates gave his speech at TED back in February?  Eradicate malaria, AIDS, pnuemonia, and "bad" teachers.  Surprise, surprise: Gates is one of the primary high-profile donors of this anti-teacher project.  

     And who is listening?  From Duncan's blog at Ed.gov:

The New Teacher Project

June 2, 2009 – 4:39 pm

“Effective teachers who are fairly compensated are vital ingredients in the reforms our schools need,” Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in response to a new study by The New Teacher Project.

The study found that U.S. schools in effect treat all teachers the same and “do not distinguish great teaching from good, good from fair, or fair from poor, and a teacher’s effectiveness in helping students to succeed academically almost never factors into critical decisions such as how teachers are hired, developed or retained.”

“Schools need to have evaluation systems that fairly and accurately identify effective teachers,” Duncan said.

For information about the report — “The Widget Effect: Our National Failure to Acknowledge and Act on Differences in Teacher Effectiveness” — see http://www.tntp.org/newsandpress/060109_TNTP.html.

The Race to the Top - National Standards

What we've all been waiting for - it's going to be paid for by Duncan's "The Race to the Top Fund."

From the Baltimore Sun::

Md., 45 other states to develop national education standards

Pact calls for common curriculum, testing from kindergarten to high school

By Liz Bowie | liz.bowie@baltsun.com

12:09 PM EDT, June 1, 2009

Maryland and 45 other states announced Monday that they will develop common national standards for what should be taught in classrooms from kindergarten through high school in reading and math.

The agreement marks a major shift away from local control over curriculum, which allowed every school district to decide what was taught, to national standards and national tests. State Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick said both she and Gov. Martin O'Malley have signed the initiative, announced Monday by the National Governor's Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers.

Eventually, the state will replace its Maryland School Assessments with a national test that is developed by the states collectively, Grasmick said; however, the High School Assessments would likely stay in place for the time being.

The historic shift comes as reports have shown that American students have educational deficits compared to their counterparts in other nations where national standards and national tests have been in place for years.

Arne Duncan's New Math

The nation’s education czar is about to get a slam dunk when it comes to having the nation’s lowest performing public schools turned over to the privatizers and the corporations that are about to get another HUGE WINDFALL from the ramp up in the Data Quality Campaign (DQC).

This is how it works – more unemployment, layoffs, foreclosures, state budget shortfalls and hoops for states to jump through in order to receive their piece of the pie EQUALS larger class sizes = lower test scores = more failing schools = 1,000 schools per year to be turned around = 1,000 more charter schools = Kipp Schools = Green Dot Schools = less democratically elected public school boards = less public schools = more money for Microsoft and Dell shareholders and the testing companies.

One of the four pillars of Obama and Duncan’s education reform policy that will be “the key to our long term economic success” was mentioned last in Duncan’s testimony before Congress but it certainly is not the least.

The Data Quality Campaign founded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and their altruism towards educating our nation’s youth, will be an integral part of requiring that “states must build data systems that can track students from one year to the next, from one school to another.”

Here’s a hot stock tip for all you teachers who are being laid off, can’t find employment or can’t afford to pay your mortgage--invest in technology companies.

The Duncan-Obama education reform is all about economic success and that’s the only way you are going to get there.

Duncan Lies, Press Nods

From PURE:

Duncan tells some whoppers to National Press Club

"And so we have to stop lying to children. We have to tell them the truth. We have to be transparent about data."

So says Fed Ed Head Arne Duncan, in the bully pulpit calling for national standards (and, of course, the inevitable national standardized tests for all).

Well, it's also wrong to lie about children. Yet a few moments after he made the statement above in a speech at the National Press Club on May 29, Duncan told at least three major whoppers about his time in Chicago (check out the speech for yourself to see if you can find more!)

Whopper #1: "What we did in Chicago is we moved the adults out. We kept the children, and brought in new teams of adults. Same children, same families, same socioeconomic challenges, same neighborhoods, same buildings, different set of expectations, different set of beliefs. And what we saw was dramatic change."

Here are the Facts: There was not and has not been dramatic change. In fact, the research shows that there has been little if any change for all of Duncan's "reforms".

What school is he talking about in Whopper #1? Well, at this point, all of Duncan's "turnaround" schools seem to have blended into one magical place we might call "Dramatically Better Elementary," but in this case we think he might be talking about Sherman, the turnaround model for 2007 (Chicago has a new model every year). Yet, if he is to be truly "transparent about data," Duncan would have to admit that, after the turnaround, Sherman actually performed worse on standardized tests than several schools CPS proposed to close for poor performance in 2009. And there were other troubling data at Sherman: student enrollment plummeted, the mobility rate skyrocketed, parent involvement went down, and science scores tanked after the turnover.

Whopper #2: "We had a school that we did -- we turned it around. The students left -- this is (inaudible), came back -- that was one of the worst schools in Chicago; that in the third or fourth year of the turnaround had the highest gain of any elementary school in the state. Went from being one of the worst to having the greatest gain of any elementary school in the state of Illinois."

Here are the Facts: We know he is talking about Dodge, which did get that "greatest ISAT gain" nod. But he is lying about who the students are at Dodge, as he has been doing for several years now. In fact, the original Dodge students DID NOT COME BACK, according to CPS's own report, which states that only 12 students who were enrolled at Dodge when it was closed in 2002 were still there in 2005.

Whopper #3: "But with new opportunities, with new expectations, with a new high school in North Lawndale where 95 percent of the children graduate, and 90 percent of those who graduate go on to college, I am convinced we can finally get to what Dr. King talked about."

We know he's talking about North Lawndale College Prep, a charter school which, excuse me, actually has a graduation rate closer to 50%, so low that the school just landed on the NCLB restructuring list (so that it has to be - what? -- turned into a charter school?). The lie about North Lawndale's graduation rate has been perpetuated by Duncan and others - I even got the Tribune to print a correction on just this issue a while back.

So, what are we going to do about Duncan's lies, besides ask our fairy godmother to make his nose grow every time he does it?

Just keep telling the truth, I guess.

Ohio Republicans Rally to Protect Corrupt, Incompetent Charter Schools

Ohio Republicans are vigilant watchdogs of the public coffers until their right-wing benefactors' corrupt business opportunites are threatened by some real oversight by Governor Strickland. The White Hat charters in Ohio have been a scandal for years, yet Republicans in the Ohio Senate continue to stand in the way of bringing some oversight and accountability to David Brennan's gravy train. From the AP:

DAYTON, Ohio (AP) - The fate of many of Ohio's charter schools rests in the hands of state lawmakers who will soon begin negotiating a compromise on the two-year state budget.

Gov. Ted Strickland and the Democrats who control the Ohio House want to cut funding for the state's roughly 320 charter schools by more than $200 million. They also want more accountability and oversight, and want to make it easier for the state to close schools that aren't performing well.

The Republicans who control the Ohio Senate, however, released a budget plan last week that restores funding for the schools, which receive taxpayer money but are free of many of the regulations attached to traditional public schools. Lawmakers from both chambers will meet over the next few weeks to work out a compromise to send to Strickland before July 1.
Charter schools are just another sticking point in a disagreement between the parties about whether to fundamentally change the way schools are funded.

The Democratic plan would tie funding for charter schools to their performance.

"My hope is in the Senate they'll continue down that path of finding (incentives for) good charters, rather than perpetuate the bad ones," state Rep. Stephen Dyer, an Akron-area Democrat, said earlier this month.

The Republican plan kept standards for charter schools where they are currently, instead of increasing them. The Senate also wants the state to treat public schools the same way it treats charter schools that aren't performing well - by closing them down if they are deemed to be in academic emergency for three consecutive years.

Dyer said taxpayers have contributed $3.4 billion to charter schools since 1998, but only 8 percent of them are rated "effective" or better on the state report card for school performance. . . .

What Will Happen When Gates Leaves Town?

What will happen to North Carolina's East Wake High School when grant funds disappear?  Test scores, the gold standard of the oligarchs and psychometricians, failed to skyrocket after the foundation gave North Carolina $11 million to carve up large high schools into smaller learning communities.  Gates, of course, has deemed the "small schools" model a failure while jumping on the charter school bandwagon.  The fate of the school - which relies on philanthropic funding for its continuation unless the district or state pony up additional funding - remains in question despite popularity among students, teachers, and parents (although they admit some kinks, like access to higher level courses, need to be worked out).  From the News & Observer (North Carolina):

Wake to weigh 'small schools'

BY T. KEUNG HUI, Staff Writer

WENDELL - Four years ago, then-Gov. Mike Easley was billing East Wake High School as a leader of high school reform that would "provide high-level skills necessary to compete for health-related jobs in our rapidly changing economy,"

Now, Wake County school board members are looking at East Wake's low test scores and asking whether the decision to divide the campus into four small schools was the right call. It's a discussion that could result in a decision, as early as Tuesday, to discontinue the small schools program after a grant runs out in June 2010.

"It has not shown the advancement that I thought it would have over a four-year period of time," school board member Patti Head said. "But you've seen the pleas of parents, students and teachers."

School board members know that eliminating the small schools would draw an angry response from passionate supporters who have rallied in recent weeks to save a program designed to promote a tighter bond between teachers and students and help improve academic performance and graduation rates.

"Do you wish to bring mockery to your community because you've lacked the effort to continue this positive work?" East Wake parent Theodore Smith asked the board.

East Wake is the only school in the Triangle to operate entirely as separate small schools. Two Durham high schools, Southern and Hillside, have each split off part of their campuses into a small school.

Every East Wake student is a member of the School of Health Science, the School of Information Technology, the School of Engineering Systems, or the School of Arts, Education and Global Studies.

Until 2005, East Wake High was a traditional high school. School board members said they felt pressured to do something to help East Wake, which has suffered over the years from low scores and an image problem in the community.

This made the school system receptive to a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to redesign East Wake from a traditional high school with 1,600 students into four schools with 400 students each. The state chipped in with funding at East Wake and other high schools around the state that have split into smaller schools.

The idea of smaller schools is to build closer relationships between staff and students in hopes that these bonds will help improve academic achievement over time. More than 50 supporters attended a recent school board meeting to say how much better things are now.

"There is no hiding in a small school," teacher Kelley Yonce told the board. "There is no anonymity. There is no option with getting away with dropping out and not being at school."

But test scores haven't improved at East Wake, and some parents have complained that operating as four small schools has made it harder for their children to take advanced courses and electives.

Tony Habit, president of the New Schools Project, which is administering the state's small schools effort, attributed the lack of test gains to the delays in implementing the concept at East Wake. Its first small school started in 2005, but the last two didn't begin until 2007.

Habit said the school district should wait three more years so that all the small schools will have had at least five years in operation. He said things will get better, especially after the New Schools Project increased the amount of coaching assistance for teachers.

"We're beginning to see teachers who are more confident in their work," Habit said. "This will be reflected in increased gains in the next few years."

Grant running out

But the grant will dry up at the end of June 2010. Board members say they want to make a decision soon about whether to continue the program once the grant money runs out.

A similar discussion took place in Granville County, where funding will also run out in 2010 for two small schools created through a Gates Foundation grant. Gus Gillespie, a Granville schools spokesman, said the district agreed to keep the schools running but asked them to work with individual students to help with scheduling the courses they want, similar to the concerns that have been raised at East Wake.

"There are some kinks that we need to work out," Gillespie said. "The school board feels there's enough to keep it going."

Supporters of East Wake's small schools may be greatly aided by the change of heart by school board member Lori Millberg, previously the most vocal critic of the school's low test scores and lack of academic offerings.

But Millberg said she was impressed by the vocal support for the program, especially from teachers. She said she favors giving more time to see how the latest small schools are doing.

"I was blown away by all the support," Millberg said.

If things work out, Giovanni Leon's wish will come true for future East Wake students to benefit from small schools. He credits the small school concept with helping him get access to research opportunities and internships that helped pay his way to Wake Forest University.

"I've done extremely well at the School of Health Science," said Leon, 18, an East Wake senior. "Why shouldn't other students have those opportunities as well?"