Blogger looking for New Orleans whistleblower about charter school problems.

[madfloridian]

There are appropriate questions to ask whenever charter schools start boasting about their test scores. Ask them about their attrition rate. Ask them about the students they counsel out, sometimes early on in the year. Remind them it's easy to keep test scores high if you send the students with difficulties back to public school.

I have quoted this blogger before. He is a TFA blogger who seems concerned about the direction of the group and about education reform overall.

From August:

Looking for a whistle blower in New Orleans

I heard a rumor today which I can’t confirm, but hope that this post helps confirm or deny it. New Orleans, though it is being hailed as a miracle district after the restructuring after Katrina, seems to be an unregulated mess of charter schools doing whatever they want.

So the story I heard was that at a charter school they held their yearly open admissions lottery. Now, after the lottery is held the winners don’t have to go there, but they have the ‘choice’ (as reformers like to say) so they meet with the school who explains to them what to expect.

I’ve heard that this is an opportunity for the charters to counsel out a kid or family who don’t seem like a good fit. One way to do this is to tell the family of a student with special needs that they don’t have the support for that child. Perhaps that child needs to be in a class with just 12 kids, and they don’t have a class like that — oh, and can we have that lottery ticket back?

But that’s not the big story I heard. This story, if true, is truly sickening. What I heard is that the charter school was explaining the schools expectations to parents who were not very educated themselves and didn’t really have their act together. They lived several miles from the school (another problem with choice) and the charter told the parent that if the student was late for school more than some number of times, the charter would call Child Protective Services and report the family. Of course this means that there could be the risk that the kids are taken into foster care.

That's a terrifying thing to say to a family. There is some discussion of this issue in the comments following the story. Here is one which found an interesting statement:

Actually, this is from the Achievement First Brownsville Charter School Family Handbook 2010 – 2011:

“Nine Absences in a Year: If a student is absent nine times in a year, the student is considered
a truant and is at risk of not being promoted to the next grade. The parent/guardian will be
called to the school to meet with the Dean of Students and Principal. The Principal reserves
the right to retain any student who misses more than nine days of school. In addition, a
report may be filed with the appropriate child services agency.”

So… there it is.

From the comments

Earlier this year in June, the same blogger wrote about expulsions from New Orleans charters.

Expulsions from charters

I recently read a report from a program called Research On Reforms, which investigated several charter schools in New Orleans, including KIPP Central City Primary, which serves children in kindergarten through 2nd grade. The report shows that charter schools have a disciplinary consequence that is not available to regular public schools — easy expulsion. It seems that they can just write their ‘zero tolerance’ rules right into their charter. Regular public schools are handcuffed by things like the law, which makes it extremely difficult to expel a student. This report has obtained copies of the handbooks to reveal how the schools treat expulsions. Here’s a paragraph from the KIPP primary school handbook.



I’ve known the two founders of KIPP, Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin for nearly 20 years (I was Houston ’91 and they were both Houston ’92). I like them both. About 10 years ago, I almost worked for them as a Chess teacher. Even more recently, I had emailed Dave Levin since my wife, who is a social worker, was looking for school social work jobs and he got back to me about 3 minutes, which I really appreciated. If either of them should see this post, I hope they understand that my critique of KIPP does not mean that I don’t like them personally. They are some of the hardest working people I’ve ever met. When they were teachers, they were great teachers. And for the kids that make it through their schools, they do come out with a greater chance of having a successful future. These are things to be proud of.

I just don’t like what KIPP has come to represent in the current destructive education reform movement. I feel like Mike and Dave are victims of their own success. First they needed to highlight their successes and they developed good PR. Then they were on Oprah and met Presidents and have become celebrities. They also have a lot of funders so they have to keep highlighting the successes they have. Certainly it is not their job to point out their own weaknesses — like their attrition. But what I wish Mike and Dave would realize is that they have the power now to really influence politicians and lobbyists like Michelle Rhee. If Mike and Dave were to issue a statement saying that they fully agree with Diane Ravitch’s recent Op-Ed in The New York Times — that even they have not found a way to overcome poverty without doing things that regular public schools are not permitted to, it would completely deflate the likes of Rhee. They could also stop claiming that it is just their hard working teachers since this fuels the current teacher witch hunt. I’m sure that they do a lot with all their private funding to help with some of the effects of poverty — tell everyone about that so we can stop putting all the blame on teachers. It would take a lot of guts to do that, but it’s not impossible since these are two very gutsy guys.

There is really a mess going on in the school systems now. There is confusion and disorganization because there is deregulation of the charter schools which are formed when public schools don't do well.

Deregulation, New Orleans Schools, and the Kindness of Strangers

In the meantime, the small change merchants of greed have come to New Orleans and other urban centers, where charter schools are replacing most of the public schools that were blown up by natural disasters (Katrina) and by manmade disasters (NCLB). These bottom-feeding greed merchants of the ed industry have been handed the schools to exercise their marketing savvy and their business acumen, where oversight of accounting practices (test scores) are non-existent and protection of consumers (children and parents) is nowhere to be found. And, of course, due process and decent benefits for workers (teachers) is a thing of the past.

As reported in the Times-Picayune, edu-entrepeneurs are out canvassing the Wal-Mart parking lots around New Orleans looking for families with children of school age, preferably non-poor 6th graders without learning difficulties or other special needs. And no one wants fourth graders or eighth graders in particular, since children in these grades have to take the high-stakes LEAP test, and where the peristaltic bulges of failed children are the largest.

I think the school leaders realize that what is going on is not working. However, since the reforms are top down there is not much those on the lower end of the scale can do.

It's Arne's policy. In fact he once said that Katrina was the best thing to happen to New Orleans schools.

"ABC News' Mary Bruce Reports: Education Secretary Arne Duncan said today that Hurricane Katrina was "the best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans" because it gave the city a chance to rebuild and improve its failing public schools.

In an interview to air this weekend on "Washington Watch with Roland Martin" Duncan said "that education system was a disaster. And it took Hurricane Katrina to wake up the community to say that we have to do better."

He seems unlikely to try and fix what he is breaking.

[xchrom]

1. Recommend

[XOKCowboy]

2. K&R

[EFerrari]

3. K&R, marking to read more later.

[madfloridian]

4. I had forgotten the SPLC filed complaint about New Orleans in behalf of special ed students.

http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/news/splc-complaint-children-with-disabilities-face-discrimination-in-new-orleans-schoo

"In the years following Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans public school system has been transformed, resulting in 47 charter schools operating in the city as independent school districts, 23 schools operated by the state under the Recovery School District (RSD) and 16 schools operated by the Orleans Parish School Board. The complaint describes how the state education department’s failure to fulfill its obligations has resulted in systemic violations documented in more than 30 of these schools, including 17 charter schools.

Students at these schools have been either completely denied enrollment as a result of their disability or forced to attend schools ill-equipped or entirely lacking the resources necessary to serve them. These are both clear violations of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the federal law intended to ensure that all children with disabilities are provided a free and appropriate education.

“As the five-year anniversary of Katrina approaches, we need to take stock of where we are,” said Davida Finger, assistant clinical professor at Loyola University Law Clinic. “We’re rebuilding our schools but leaving behind our most vulnerable children. The Louisiana Department of Education has a legal and moral duty to intervene.”

The complaint triggers a formal administrative process during which the parties will attempt to negotiate a settlement. The plaintiffs are seeking, among other things, the appointment of a special master to ensure that New Orleans schools are properly serving children with special needs. If no agreement can be reached, the plaintiffs could then file suit in federal court."

[bertman]

5. REC and KICK. nt

[msanthrope]

6. New Orleans public schools now involve law enforcement for habitually truant kids.. Why blame the

charters for doing what they have been directed to do by the School District? Paul Vallas implemented a strict truancy policy for public schools.

Here's an extensive PBS story on how truancy prosecution of parents is up, and why.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/education/jan-june09/nolaschools_02-03.html

That took me five seconds on Google to find. Why blame charters for following the District lead?


As for children being counseled out of charters, well, yes. Not all charters are equipped to deal with all students. It's up to each family to decide if they can obey the rules regarding conduct, attendance, and the like. I think it's great if parents understand what the rules are early in the process, rather than later. Charters are a choice.

If you have parents who can't figure out that they are responsible for making sure that their kids show up to school, it's possible they don't belong in certain charters.

[madfloridian]

7. If charters get public taxpayer money, they must take and keep all comers.

Just like public schools do.

The utterly misleading policy of telling the public that charter schools can outdo public schools, then taking away the funding of the public schools, giving it to charter management companies, and leaving the public schools to die......is something I never never never would have thought I would see from a Democratic administration.

Not even Bush took it that far.

They are destroying public education as they fund charter schools, which are not regulated by school boards locally.

And the worst part is that people at a Democratic forum still defend it as necessary because of all the BAD teachers.....Arne has done a heck of a job.