Liars! How The Tikun Olam Charter School Got A $600,000 Federal Grant

by: Chris Rodda

Fri Jan 27, 2012 at 02:38:06 PM EST

Cross-posted from The Public Record.

Question: How does a charter school whose multiple applications have been riddled with lies and misrepresentations and has been rejected three times by a state education department get approved for a $600,000 grant from the federal government?
Answer: The federal government admittedly does not routinely fact-check grant applications for charter schools, and does not allow the private consultants it hires to look at the grant applications to look at any information other than what's in the grant application.

That's right, an applicant for a federal grant for a charter school can say whatever they want to in their application, true or false, and nothing they say will be questioned, even if their application has already been exposed as a work of fiction.

This is what's going on right now with the proposed Tikun Olam Hebrew Language Charter High School, and the epicenter of the fight to stop this school from being approved or getting any federal grant money is my own little town, Highland Park, NJ.

Bold Ideas Lead to Great Schools: The Future of Education Reform

by: A New Jersey Farmer

Fri Dec 09, 2011 at 06:20:33 AM EST

Sometimes an idea, or set of ideas, comes along that's so clear and sensible, it makes you stop and wonder why we haven't implemented it. Then again, some ideas are so ineffective, it's a wonder they haven't been buried in an avalanche of criticism.

Such is the state of public education reform in the United States at this moment. Governors throughout the country have tried, and in some cases succeeded, in forcing their versions of school reform in their states with little or misguided thought and a jaundiced eye towards the teachers who will need to carry it out. They eschew collaboration for rigidity, cooperation for coarseness, and conversation for calumny. Theirs is a corporate model based on competition, but that's not necessarily how schools work. So far, this top-down approach has done little for education, but has done a great deal to sour relations between the adults who need to implement the changes and the politicians who want votes.

The key to real, lasting, effective reform in this country lies in a partnership between the state governments and teachers, parents and students, and the most effective reforms will focus their energies on people working together. That's why the ideas in the article, Taking Teacher Quality Seriously: A Collaborative Approach to Teacher Evaluation by Stan Karp of Rethinking Schools Blog, are so vital. They are aimed at improving education and student performance without sacrificing the rights and concerns of teachers. As Karp says:

One promising model is the Montgomery County, Maryland Professional Growth System (PGS), which has taken a collaborative approach to improving teacher quality for more than a decade. Several defining features make the Montgomery model very different than the test-based "value-added" or "student growth" approaches. The Montgomery Co. professional growth system:

  *was negotiated through collective bargaining rather than imposed by state or federal mandate.
   *is based on a clear, common vision of high quality professional teaching practice.
  * includes test scores as one of many indicators of student progress and teacher performance without rigidly weighted formulas.
   *includes a strong PAR (peer assistance and review) component for all novice and under-performing teachers, including those with tenure.
   *takes a broad, qualitative approach to promoting individual and system-wide teacher quality and continuous professional growth.

But perhaps the best part of the system is that it's not SDOT (Shoved Down Our Throats) by politicians who have little, if any knowledge of what works best in classrooms. It's teacher-centered; and that's the correct approach because teachers are the ones best qualified to carry it out.

The PGS also addresses another concern that the public has about education, and that's teacher quality. As Karp notes:

In 11 years, the PAR process has led to some 500 teachers being removed from the classroom in a countywide system of about 150,000 students with approximately 10,000 teachers and 200 schools. Over the same period, nearly 5,000 teachers have successfully completed the PAR process.[ii]

But PAR is only part of a professional growth system designed to improve teacher capacity throughout the system, not just identify and remove ineffective teachers. It's a qualitative approach growing out of a shared vision of high quality professional practice. The PGS begins with "six clear standards for teacher performance, based on the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards" and includes "performance criteria for how the standards are to be met and descriptive examples of observable teaching behaviors."

You can read the standards in the article. It's refreshing to see that every one of them begins with the word, "Teachers."

There's more to like in the explanation of the process that teachers and administrators use to evaluate the program and each other. Teachers and principals are equally represented on a panel that determines if a teacher is effective. There's an appeals process if a teacher is given a negative recommendation, and the system is based on documentation at every level of evaluation and appeal. This is a far cry from what happens at many public schools, especially here in New Jersey, where many teachers are observed once or twice per year and documentation is cursory, general or incomplete.

In the end, it's the words the participants use to describe the process that show how effective the program can be. Here are some examples:

"It wouldn't work without the level of trust we have here," MCEA president Doug Prouty told the NY Times.

"(G)ood teaching is nurtured in a school and in a school system culture that values constant feedback, analysis, and refinement of the quality of teaching."

While the system is spelled out in detail, what really makes it possible is the level of trust and cooperation that grew out of years of developing a collaborative approach to issues of teacher quality.

In Maryland, they seem to be on the right track.

In New Jersey, we might be moving in that direction.

On December 1, State Senator Barbara Buono introduced two education bills. The first would establish a teacher residency program to replace the present student teaching requirement.

Under the bill, all fourth-year students would be placed in a school district five days per week for a full-semester under the supervision of a district mentor teacher. The students would also take a seminar course during this period that provides a collaborative learning experience and peer discussion with other residency students and with faculty.

The bill would also create teacher mentor positions in each school district. These master teachers would then serve to introduce the teacher residents into the profession over the course of the full semester. It would be a collaborative program and would recognize excellent teachers.

The second bill would require each school district to develop a set of standards by which all teachers would be evaluated, by both peers and principals, based on district curriculum standards. They would be observed four times per year and be required to submit a portfolio of their work. There is no mention of standardized tests, and this process would be determined through collective bargaining. Those are good things. The bill also mentions collaboration and cooperation. Senator Buono's bills will not be the final word on these issues, but they are a welcome addition to the debate.

The current reform models that rely on threats and stare-downs might make for exciting videos, but they are terrible public policy. If more Governors and Commissioners of Education would commit to the cooperative, collaborative ethic, they would find that educators would more readily commit to implementing bold reforms enthusiastically.

For more bold, enthusiastic ideas, visit facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives

Education Reform: For Profit, Not For Progress

by: Marie Corfield

Tue Dec 06, 2011 at 08:44:27 PM EST

Before the end of the year Governor Christie wants the legislature to pass the remainder of his property tax ‘tool kit’ including his education ‘reform’ agenda. And the fate of one of the nation’s best public education systems and thousands of its students hang in the balance.

Out of over twenty four hundred schools in this state, about two hundred are not doing a good enough job educating their students. These schools are mostly in the former Abbott districts, some of the poorest cities in this country, where the Black unemployment rate is almost double the state average, and one in five children live in poverty.

The governor and Acting Education Commissioner Chris Cerf, along with their education advisors, Better Education for Kids (B4K) and Excellent Education for Everyone (E3), do not address this almost criminal disparity of wealth despite the fact that one of the DOE's earlier Abbott district reports cites poverty as a major roadblock to student achievement:

Latino Action Network Opposes Opportunity Scholarship Act

by: NJAgitator

Tue Dec 06, 2011 at 12:33:30 PM EST

Last month, Governor Christie called on the New Jersey lawmakers to pass his version of education reform during the lame duck session of the legislature.  The governor listed four bills as crucial to his reform agenda.  Among those bills was the controversial 'Opportunity Scholarship Act' which would provide corporations a 100% tax credit for contributions made to a state run voucher program, which would then distribute the funds.  This legislation would divert from $360 million to over $1 billion in tax dollars away from the public education system to private and religious schools.  As a result of the governor's announcement, voucher proponents have renewed their efforts to get this bill passed claiming that vouchers would help poor children in New Jersey.

The Latino Action Network opposes the publicly funded voucher bill because we see it as a big gimmick that benefits corporate interests that would do nothing to help poor children stuck in failing school districts.  Not one penny of corporate money would fund the scholarships established by this misguided legislation.

Latino Action Network Announces Opposition to Opportunity Scholarship Act

by: NJAgitator

Mon Dec 05, 2011 at 11:39:08 AM EST

For Immediate Release: December 5, 2011
Christian Estevez, Chair, Education Committee - 973-418-7012
Daniel Santo Pietro, Chair, Public Policy Committee - 732-496-9628

The Latino Action Network [LAN] today announced its opposition to the Opportunity Scholarship Act because it would drain money away from public education and give it to corporate interests so it could be doled out to private schools.

"The Opportunity Scholarship Act is a big gimmick that benefits corporate interests that would do nothing to help poor children stuck in failing school districts," said Christian Estevez, Executive Vice President of the Latino Action Network and Chair of the Education Committee.  "Not one penny of corporate money would fund the scholarships established by this misguided legislation. The state would take money from our public schools and hand it to the corporations, who would then claim corporate philanthropy with our tax dollars."

Estevez concluded: "This is an educational gimmick of the worst sort. This legislation does nothing to address the core issues of housing and educational segregation. We pledge to work with legislators to address the real issues that hurt so many children of low and moderate-income families."

Below is the official policy statement of the Latino Action Network with regards to the Opportunity Scholarship Act:

(More Below)

Awesome Last-Minute GOTV Call in LD-16

by: Rosi Efthim

Tue Nov 08, 2011 at 07:57:01 PM EST

Voter: OK, OK. I need some info. Which are the candidates who want to take the money and channel into charter schools and which are the ones that are going to keep our money in the public schools.

Us: Well, let me tell you a little about public school teacher Marie Corfield ...

State Street Juxtaposition: "Fair School Funding" & Occupy Trenton

by: Rosi Efthim

Mon Oct 24, 2011 at 12:43:05 PM EDT

They just turned their camera around when a podium made its appearance across the street in front of where the New Jersey legislature does their business. They're catching on camera a press conference. It's hard to hear, as you pick out words behind the buses, cars and street traffic of West State Street. But I believe we heard Senator Mike Doherty talking about his "Fair School Funding Plan". Chiusano and Cardinale were also mentioned, and it's possible they spoke. It may be their entire GOP stable. Somebody just mentioned Senator Loretta Weinberg in no doubt unflattering light.

What's ironic is that the start of this press conference is that Mike Doherty's school funding ideas are simply dripping with economic resentment that the "Abbott districts" are eating school funding that Doherty and other GOP reps of the wealthy suburbs think should be flowing to the suburbs. Got to have balls to make an economic resentment argument 50 feet from Occupy Trenton, which   is making a more credible argument of real economic malady affecting millions, not the mere slight of wealthier suburbs helping to underwrite the needs of school kids elsewhere in our state. Families that probably fit closer into that 99%.

Below's a screen capture. Here's Occupy Trenton's live feed:

Where GSE gets it wrong: thoughts on Viki Knox, part I

by: Scott Weingart

Tue Oct 18, 2011 at 10:57:10 PM EDT

Viki Knox's illegal conduct in the classroom raises substantial doubts about her fitness as a teacher. She ought to be fired. At the very least, she should be suspended for a prolonged period of time and must not set foot in another classroom until she understands that she needs to set her personal views aside and follow the laws of New Jersey, the policies of her school district, and the instructions of her superiors.

October, as many Blue Jersey readers know, is LGBT history month. To commemorate the occassion, Union Township High School set up a photo display featuring several famous gay and lesbian celebrities and historical figures.

Yet, this evening, Garden State Equality has organized dozens to protest a meeting of the Union Public School District Board of Education. GSE is not satisfied with school's affirming message to gay and lesbian students. It wants the district to fire a schoolteacher who responded to the display with homophobic Facebook posts of the sort that one would expect from, say, the Westboro Baptist Church.

Make no mistake, Union Township High School special education teacher Viki Knox's comments were reprehensible; Ms. Knox calls homosexuality a "perverted spirit" and compares it to cancer and alcoholism. But there are at least two problems with Garden State Equality's impulsive response to these posts. First, in its hasty reaction to the teacher's posts, the organization stubbornly refuses to acknowledge the competing values at stake. Second, GSE is doing a disservice to gay and lesbian students at Union Townshsip High School and across the state by passing up more effective responses to this controversy.

The First Amendment gives Viki Knox the right to express her opinions, asinine and offensive as they may be. As I will show below the fold, whether the school district may fire or otherwise discipline her is a close question that will probably turn on facts to be uncovered by investigation.

This Saturday: Anti-Bullying Week of Respect Kickoff

by: Rosi Efthim

Thu Sep 29, 2011 at 04:22:52 PM EDT

Last weekend, Garden State Equality hosted a 3-mile Equality Walk fundraiser that was well-attended and a good way to see Maplewood and S. Orange. Proud to say Team Blue Jersey was the 4th-highest fundraiser (thank you, all) and that we also won the just-for-fun pub quiz afterwards.

This Saturday kicks off what GSE's calling a Week of Respect aimed at acclimating students to the best ways to handle challenging bullying situations kids  face every day, and to empower them in an informal, supportive environment with tools to become anti-bullying leaders in their own schools.

Week of Respect Kickoff - Anti-Bullying
Saturday (11am-1pm)
John H. Walker Middle School, 325 Franklin Ave. Nutley
Questions/RSVP Shannon at (646) 228-4438 or kirk@gardenstateequality.org

Activities are pitched toward fun, and it's free of charge. There will be quiz games, skits & role-playing. Plus some brainstorming of how kids can go back to their own schools and help create their own Week of Respect. Snacks will be provided, and all kids will earn a Student Anti-bullying Specialist Certificate.

This is a joint effort of Garden State Equality and the GSE Youth Caucus. Disclosure: I'm a GSE board member, and I write for a blog that strongly supports kids & all efforts to keep them happy & safe.

Anti-Bullying Education Grant: Building on efforts students are making to support each other through adolescence and the sometimes-tough experience of growing up, there's also a chance to apply for an Anti-Bullying Education Grant. That's $200 for your school, your Gay-Straight Alliance or another student organization. Funds are from the parent of a bullied student, to help empower other kids to educate peers and make their school a safer place to learn.

Want details? Jump with me:

Economy, Environment

by: lfurman

Mon Sep 19, 2011 at 05:03:23 PM EDT

Tax the wealthy. For one thing, they have money. They are the only people with money. And for another, it's not as if they don't reap any benefits from living in society. Wealthy people get sick - and can afford health care.

During the Depression, Roosevelt and Keynes saw that while business owners could hire people they wouldn't risk capital making widgets they were not optimistic that people would buy. In economic times such as these it is only the government that is both able and also willing to hire. That's why the austerity programs in Europe are backfiring. We need government programs.

But they must make sense.  

"Choices"

by: Jersey Jazzman

Sun Sep 18, 2011 at 04:16:42 PM EDT

The school spent $10,000 on hotel fees for a staff junket to Atlantic City, $5,600 on a year-end staff party at KatManDu restaurant, and $38,000 on flower boxes and campus landscaping. Visiting DOE staff also found "a weak educational program, lacking in rigor and not meeting the goals set forth in the school's charter," a spokesman said.

After a period of probation, the school was finally pressured to give up its charter in May, and the New Jersey State Police opened an investigation into school spending practices.

It wasn't the first charter school failure in New Jersey, or in Trenton. Forty charter schools have seen their licenses revoked, denied or surrendered since the much vaunted alternative education program began more than a decade ago. This year both Capital Prep and Trenton Community Charter were targeted for closure by the DOE.

In the case of Trenton Community, the DOE found students simply were not making sufficient academic progress and concluded school officials had not come up with an acceptable turnaround plan.

Don't these kids understand that this is the market in action? That "choice" makes everything so much better? For every one of these failing schools, I'm sure there's quite possibly maybe another school that could be performing on average - or maybe (perhaps) better!

In the market, there are losers and winners. These kids lost. But their schools before were bad, so it's not like they did any worse. We just have to keep opening and closing charters over and over and over again until we find the magic formula for the right charters. It's certainly a better plan than taxing rich people and using the money to build up both their schools and their communities, right?

(Oy...)

Meanwhile, in sports:

QoTD: Christie goes to school

by: Rosi Efthim

Wed Sep 14, 2011 at 01:28:54 PM EDT

It is great to see the governor visiting the wonderful schools in Bergenfield, home to the outstanding music program where Frankie Valli got started.  But somehow we get the feeling the governor forgot to mention to the students and teachers at Roy W. Brown Middle School that he has shortchanged them over $1.7 million in state aid since he came into office.  He probably didn't mention the 16,000 millionaires in New Jersey that he further enriched at their expense either.  But hey, what's another teacher, a few more school books, or an outstanding music program when you can give someone on the Mets a tax break?

OK, Smart Guy - What Would YOU Do?

by: Jersey Jazzman

Mon Sep 12, 2011 at 01:00:00 PM EDT

But all of this leads to a question: what should we do instead?

It's a fair question. Even though this notion of an education "crisis" has been blown way out of proportion, I do believe that we could make things better. And I do believe that the continued achievement gap is a serious problem that needs to be fixed once and for all if we're ever going to live up to our promise as a nation.

But let's not destroy what already works. Let's not come in with cheap gimmicks that will wreck great schools like "merit pay" and "tenure reform" and "charter schools" and all that other reformy jive. Let's instead come up with a serious plan for serious reform.

Here then are the key points of the Jazzman Reform Plan:

Ed Reform 101: Summary Edition

by: KendalJames

Tue Sep 06, 2011 at 10:34:28 AM EDT

Standardized testing is generally bad for students, expensive, unreliable and biased. It is a terrible tool for evaluating teacher effectiveness. No parent would ever want their child's entire academic identity to be boiled down to one single test on one single day. Who even likes these tests? Not the administrators. Not the teachers. Not the students. But despite that, stacks of bubble sheets, in all of their irrelevance, should be used for making staff decisions in our schools? Even though the folks who design the tests explicitly say that they should not be used for that purpose? And what about those who teach art, music or physical education? The question itself is arbitrary and absurd: "What percentage of teacher evaluation should be based on standardized test scores?" The clear answer for any serious educator or statistician is "zero."

Ed Reform 101: Charter Schools & Vouchers

by: Jersey Jazzman

Sun Sep 04, 2011 at 09:15:00 AM EDT

Charter schools have taken on an almost mythic quality. Touted by politicians, the subject of Hollywood films, the darlings of Wall Street: listening to the marketing, you would think charter schools were the saviors of American children.

Don't believe the hype. While there may well be a place for charter schools, they are not the miracles their sellers would have us believe. They vary greatly in quality, don't serve the same populations of students, and are not subject to the same oversight taxpayers demand from public schools.

Neither charter schools - nor vouchers to private schools - will solve the problems of poverty that plague 20% of our children and lead to gaps in school achievement. Neither is a substitute for a real education policy.

And yet they remain at the center of Chris Christie's "reform" agenda. That's a shame when you know the facts.

What you should know about charter schools & vouchers:

Ed Reform 101: Teachers Unions

by: Jersey Jazzman

Fri Sep 02, 2011 at 09:15:00 AM EDT

Governor Christie's attacks on teachers unions have been simply astonishing. Rather than reach out to unions to work for real educational progress, Christie has instead demonized unions to the point that he would rather give up federal funds than work with the NJEA.

What Christie ignores in all of his bluster, however, are a few important facts. Teacher pay has not kept pace with the average pay for all workers in the state. Teachers do not get "Cadillac" benefits, and they pay for those benefits themselves. And the teachers unions have supported meaningful versions of some of his reforms.

It appears that Chris Christie is more interested in making teachers unions the enemy than working with them. Let's take a look at some of the myths about unions and teacher pay that Christie continues to sell to New Jersey.

What you should know about Teachers Unions:

Ed Reform 101: Merit Pay, Seniority & Tenure

by: Jersey Jazzman

Thu Sep 01, 2011 at 09:15:00 AM EDT

As with so many other parts of the corporate "reform" agenda, adherence to merit pay and abolishing tenure is more a matter of faith than reality.

The truth is that there is no evidence that radically changing how we fire, layoff, and pay teachers will have any positive effect on student learning. There are, however, many reasons to believe that instituting merit pay and getting rid of tenure will harm students and the interests of taxpayers.

We also know that the difference between high-performing and low-performing schools is not whether they have merit pay schemes, or tenure, or lay offs based on seniority; why impose these changes on schools that are doing a great job educating kids?

What you should know about merit pay, seniority & tenure:

Ed Reform 101: Teachers

by: Jersey Jazzman

Wed Aug 31, 2011 at 09:15:00 AM EDT

Everyone knows that teachers are important (even if politicians like Chris Christie don't always show it.). Everyone knows there are great teachers and bad teachers. Everyone knows that a teacher can change a child's life.

But some corporate "reformers" take this notion about the importance of the teacher way too far. They claim the teacher is the most important factor in determining students' success, ignoring the role privilege, poverty, and parents play in a child's life. And they foolishly believe figuring out who teaches well is a simple matter of test scores: it isn't.

One of the consequences of Christie's war on the NJEA is a false view of teachers and the processes used to evaluate them. If we are ever going to have a serious conversation about education in New Jersey, we need to get past the myths he perpetuates about teachers.

What you should know about teacher quality:

Ed Reform 101: Testing

by: Jersey Jazzman

Tue Aug 30, 2011 at 09:15:00 AM EDT

In the world of the corporate reformer, standardized testing drives everything.

Judging teachers, principals, schools, and students; merit pay, tenure, and layoffs; allocating money; granting charters... it all starts with standardized testing. And it's an article of faith among the corporate "reform" set that standardized tests are fair, accurate, inexpensive, and good for students.

The people who actually study this issue and work with children, however, know that nothing could be further from the truth.

There is a place for standardized testing in New Jersey, but it is inappropriate to use standardized tests in high-stakes decisions that affect teachers and students. We can't measure a child's learning or a teacher's effectiveness when we put so much emphasis on secretive tests that are flawed in their construction, administration, and grading.

Yet almost every proposal put forward by the corporate reformers relies heavily on children filling in bubbles on a sheet of paper. So let's start this series by taking apart the myths about standardized testing.

What you should know about standardized testing:

Ed Reform 101 Starts Tomorrow

by: Jersey Jazzman

Mon Aug 29, 2011 at 04:30:00 PM EDT

But things won't be the same when the school doors open this year. New Jersey's education system - in many ways, the envy of the nation - has come under severe assault. Budgets slashed, unions attacked, school leaders demonized... even the teachers themselves are under fire. Parents are growing concerned about their children's future; citizens are wondering if we are on the brink of destroying one of New Jersey's greatest assets.

At the center of it all stands Chris Christie, a Republican with clear national ambitions who has staked his reputation on a war with teachers and their unions. He has surrounded himself with some of the leading lights of what education historian Diane Ravitch calls the "corporate reform" movement: Michelle Rhee, Chris Cerf, and Derrell Bradford, among others.

These "reformers" have filled the airwaves and newspapers with tales of "failed" schools and wildly successful "reform" schemes. They've spent untold sums of money buying advertising to sell their vision of education; a vision that will radically change even the best performing schools.

The corporate "reformers" have campaigned for merit pay and vouchers and charter schools and standardized tests like magical elixirs, capable of curing the persistent inequality, racism, and poverty that have plagued this state and this nation for far too long.

But are they right? Do they have the facts on their side?

It's time to find out. Join us this week for a special series: Ed Reform 101: Understanding the Future of New Jersey's Public Schools. We're going to get past the hype and get to the truth about education, reform, and the future of New Jersey's children.

Because on this test, everything counts.