Posted on in Education

Success Academy Teacher Degrades First Grader, Maskowitz Defends

The New York Times published a video of Charlotte Dial, a Success Academy teacher, rip up a six year old’s work, while yelling at the girl in front of her whole class. The video shows a softspoken girl answering a question incorrectly, which caused Dial to explode. Dial sends the girl to a time-out chair, isolating the student from everyone else. The student calmly and respectfully listens to her teacher.

You’d think from Dial’s  disgusting tone of voice that the girl used profane language or coughed in her face. What’s more is that the girl wrote the right answer on her sheet but did not express that to her classmates when Dial requested. Dial could have easily said to the girl, “Sweetie, I know you know the right answer. I saw your work and I am proud of it. Can you please explain to the class how you did it? We’d all love to hear your explaination.” Even if the student contitnued to not give Dial the right answer, Dial could have said, “That’s okay. We’ll come back to you next time.”  Dial could have proceeded to have a side conversation with the student and her parent about her public speaking abilities.

In repsonse to the video, Eva Maskowitz, President of the 30+ Success Academy Charter network, held a press conference and went as far as saying that she was not going to throw Dial under the bus. Some may not find that disturbing, but the Times‘ video was secretly recorded by Dial’s former teacher assistant, who said that Dial behaved in a belittling and condescedning manner quite often. Maskowitz, at the conference, in her typical manner, disregarded the assitant’s direct experience with working with Dial, and insisted that this was a one time mistake for Dial. Maskowitz even went as far as calling out the NYT,  using a sign on the speaker’s podium that read: The New York Times: #StopBashingTeachers

 I think that it is shocking that when a newspaper distributes clear proof of what is said to be happening in some successful charter schools, one should not blame the publisher or its source for doing their job. Regardless of whether it was a one time incidient or not, she should pay the consequences for her ill-behavior and take responsibility for her wrongdoing. Besides, is it teacher bashing when the teacher clearly degraded a smart child in front of her entire class? Sounds to me like it is the other way around.

While Maskowitz talked about all of the pain Dial is going through as a result of her getting caught treating a child with such low regard, no one talked about the trauma the smart girl must have felt when her teacher publicly bashed her  for her shy ways…it pains me how Maskowitz completely misses the point of the NYT article.

Charlotte Dial (soft pink blazer), who teared at the conference but did not speak, was merely suspended for a week.
Posted on in Education

Elizabeth Warren on Lack of Enforcement of Major Breaches

You gotta love Elizabeth Warren! Her January NYT article reviews some of the biggest breaches of law that our government actively fails to enforce, even when millions of dollars have been knowingly tossed away for the sake of profit. She gives examples where companies out right commit fraud and are only given fees that the companies have no issue with paying–often times, the profits they reaped from breaking the law these companies far more money than the fine they had to pay.

While her examples are aimed a financial institutions, she makes sure to point out how mismanagement, distribution of inaccurate information and the loss of millions of dollars were occurring in both the pharmaceutical and educational industries.

She gave used EMC as an example:

When the Education Management Corporation, the nation’s second-largest for-profit college, signed up tens of thousands of students by lying about its programs, it saddled them with fraudulent degrees and huge debts. Those debts wrecked lives. Under the law, the government can bar such institutions from receiving more federal student loans. But EDMC just paid a fine and kept right on raking in federal loan money.

As I always say, I’m deeply troubled why anyone would think for-profit schools can effectively work in favor of their students when they make financial promises to shareholders.

Posted on in Uncategorized

Jersey Testing Standards Are More Effective Than Common Core

A recent study shows that New Jersey’s Core Curriculum Content Standards prove to be more effective than Common Core standards when it comes to teaching higher-order thinking. A year or two after Common Core was implemented, studies like this should have been conducted for all states to determine the effectiveness of Common Core against the State’s previous standards. It was exceptionally silly to think that Common Core was one size fits all system. Here’s the abstract:

The creators and supporters of the Common Core State Standards claim that the Standards require greater emphasis on higher-order thinking than previous state standards in mathematics and English language arts. We used a qualitative case study design with content analysis methods to test the claim. We compared the levels of thinking required by the Common Core State Standards for grades 9-12 in English language arts and math with those required by the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards in grades 9-12 English language arts and math (used prior to the Common Core) using Webb’s Depth of Knowledge framework to categorize the level of thinking required by each standard. Our results suggest that a higher percentage of the 2009 New Jersey high school curriculum standards in English language arts and math prompted higher-order thinking than the 2010 Common Core State Standards for those same subjects and grade levels. Recommendations for school administrative practice are provided.

Posted on in Uncategorized

Reblog: You Must Sit Down and Watch This Video

What is up with politicians that they can’t admit when they are blatantly wrong? Parents should see this video of John King, Secretary of Education, and watch how he protects one of his top, money sucking, unethical education officials.

dianeravitch's avatarDiane Ravitch's blog

I posted this earlier, but I had not watched the entire video, just a snippet. I just watched the full video, and I couldn’t stop watching. This is the video of the Congressional grilling to the U.S. Department of Education’s Chief Information Officer Danny Harris and Acting Secretary of Education John King.

The entire discussion is startling. I won’t say anything more. Just watch it. If you stay for ten minutes, you won’t want to stop.

Rep. Chaffetz’s (R-Utah) grilling of John King is relentless. Despite his ethical “lapses,” Danny Harris received $230,000 in bonuses over time for his work, in addition to his $183,000 in salary, and $15,000 from Howard University. Plus, he ran two businesses on the side. And at one point, he consulted with the Detroit public schools. The point was made by Congresspersons again and again, that the Department of Education had one of the lowest…

View original post 164 more words

Posted on in Education

CT Governor Cuts $52 Million From Pub School Funding

Hey, I have a great idea: lets substantially decrease funding where it’s needed most and increase it where more funding can be provided by ready and willing philanthropists! Or, we can take the Governor of Connecticut’s lead:

Charter schools have escaped Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s budget knife and are slated for a $9.3 million boost in his newly proposed state budget.

But the Democratic governor also wants a $52.9 million [emphasis mine] cut in funding for special education, after-school programs, reading tutors and other services in low-performing public schools across the state.

Read the full article here.

Posted on in Education

School Uses Time to Create Positive Culture

Great post on the MindShift blog. During a student’s advisory time, she sits with a group of her peers and has the opportunity to discuss everything from current school assignments to dealing with stress. This practice would be great to introduce on the first day of high school (or any K-12 grade) because the students start to develop a sense of community and hopefully understanding and awareness of their other classmates concerns before they get too caught up in their own high school life. More importantly, it turns the attention from what a student does/doesn’t know to what she needs to express. Students are in school five days a week, eight hours a day. At some point in their school, they should have a moment to slow down and work their projects and concerns out in that same environment, so that the school environment becomes a place where support, on multiple levels, can occur. This kind of group practice acknowldegs that students are more than their school work and that other students have similar concerns but dont know how/if it’s okay to express them. The school should act as a facilitator because teenagers are still growing into themselves. Schools should lead by example and understand that This kind of positive atmosphere, I’m sure, gets carried over to other classes, if only for a few students.

Posted on in Education

Video: “Shake Off Those Charter Chains!”

I’m not entirely against charter schools. In part, I simply wish that they acknowledged they are doing harm to the public school system and that the public school system should remain relevant.

We are giving up our tax dollars to not elect those who run our schools. How can that be right? I agree with advocates for charter schools when they say the bureaucracy in the public school system needs to change. But I don’t think we should give the public school system to a system that, say for example, doesn’t give teachers any kind of union protection. What’s more is that there are politicians, like governor John Kaisch of Ohio, who ignore the fact that students are failing in some charter schools but continues to give those schools more tax dollars AND not require that these schools be subject to public audits…there’s obviously a motive that does NOT favor the children of Ohio.

Schools are schools and one system should NOT actively hurt the other…there’s something morally wrong about that. Instead, they should be working as a community.

With that said, take a look at this  exaggerated-not-so-exaggerated-video on how charter schools have a negative impact on public schools:

Posted on in Education

DOE Denies 2 For-profit Schools Financial Aid

Computer Systems Institute and Marinelli School of Beauty, two for-profit networks, were denied financial aid funds for their gross financial misconduct.

…why are for-profit schools able to soak up federal funds to begin with? There’s no way a school can do the best for there students while trying to please miney hungry shareholders.

Click here for more.

Posted on in Education

On Flint’s Water Crisis and Education

What is happening in Flint, Mchigan is an awful example of how some elected officials treat the children they represent. It’s not just in the schools system but in other aspects of their lives, as well. Why would we expect the governor of Michigan to care about the quality of public school education when he knowingly acted against their health, of all critical aspects of a persons life.