Crazy Normal – the Classroom Exposé

Remember all the bold promises about Common Core? Remember the claims that it would increase achievement for all students and close the achievement gap? That’s what David Coleman (architect of the Common Core and now president of the College Board, maker of the SAT) claimed, along with a plethora of Gates-funded advocates for Common Core.

Never happened. National NAEP scores flatlined, and scores for the poorest kids dropped.

Here is the latest from New York, which embraced the Common Core wholeheartedly.

Since the introduction of the Common Core, the proportion of students in New York who scored zero on the state writing tests has doubled. In addition, the achievement gap has grown.

An alarming number of NYC students have scored three or more “zeroes” for their writing answers on the statewide English exams, a new study reveals.

On the English Language Arts exams between 2013 and 2016, in addition to…

For the future of American education, the most consequential election this November will take place in California, where charter school champion Marshall Tuck faces off against pro-public school candidate Tony Thurmond.

The billionaires and the Republican Party have joined forces behind Tuck.

The California Teachers Association and the state Democratic Party Support Tony Thurmond.

Both men are Democrats, but Thurmond received the votes of 95% of delegates to the annual meeting of the state Democratic Party. Tuck has been endorsed by Arne Duncan.

Marshall Tuck was in the financial industry, then took over the Green Dot charter chain, then ran Mayor Villagairosa’s chain of schools. Thurmond is a social worker and a state legislator.

The billionaires have donated nearly $14 million to Tuck’s campaign, compared to the nearly $4 million that the CTA has given Thurmond.

Erika Jones writes here about Marshall Tuck’s claims to fame, and how he raised…

It’s very simple: expel all of the students except those who are EXTREMELY compliant.

John Merrow has provided the SA disciplinary code, which is draconian in the extreme. The following are their LEVEL TWO infractions:

• Failing to follow directions

• Failing to complete work
• Being off-task
• Arriving late to school/class and/or violating school attendance policy

• Violating the Dress Code
• Being unprepared for class (which includes, but is not limited to, failing to bring a pencil, not completing homework, etc.)”

Level ONE infractions include :

“Slouching/failing to be in “Ready to Succeed” position (SPORT or Magic 5 position)

• Calling out an answer
• Chewing gum or bringing candy to school
• Minor disrespectful behavior”

I taught 7th, 8th, and 9th graders for about 30 years. I think I could count on one hand the number of kids who never, ever violated any of those.

In fact I am quite sure I violated a good…

The Clayton Valley Charter High School was audited, and the results were appalling. Actually, they were what you would expect when a private organization gets public funds and is unsupervised and when the state law ignores conflicts of interest and nepotism.

The article appears in the Mercury News Behind a paywall. It begins like this:

CLAYTON — The married top leaders of Clayton Valley Charter High School raked in almost $850,000 in less than two years before leaving the school last spring, a county investigation found.

The probe also revealed that the couple misused school funds, hired people in secret and created positions without the school board’s approval.

An audit report released Friday evening as part of the agenda for the Contra Costa County Board of Education’s Oct. 3 meeting states that the charter school “has not been following best practices” when it comes to “management hiring practices, vendor service…

Mercedes Schneider will lead a workshop at the Network for Public Education conference in Indianapolis on Oct 20-21 about how to be a financial sleuth. Find out who is funding the “rephormers” in your state or community.

In this post, she gives a lesson and unmasks TFA’s drive for political power.

Teach for America presents itself as a wholesome charity and raises money to send fresh-faced, inexperienced young college graduates into needy schools. At its inception, it was supposed to fill vacant positions, but now TFA will cheerfully replace experienced teachers for districts trying to save money. TFA is also the labor force for non-union charter schools (i.e. scabs), with the energy to work 70-hour Weeks and no family obligations.

TFA has a political arm, which is not so well known. It is called Leaders for Educational Equity (LEE),which is deceptively named, like all rephorm groups (which swear they are…

I think we are beginning to understand the real purpose of Corporate Reform. The 1% and their minions repeat ad nauseum that school choice will fix all education problems, lift the poor out of poverty, and no new taxes are needed. Indeed, they have pushed for tax cuts and cheered on deep cuts to public education. We are watching a generation of defunding public schools, refusing to invest in teachers’ salaries, and a massive transfer of resources from the public sector to private institutions.

Jeff Bryant explains it here.

“Recent news stories about wealthy folks giving multi-million donations to education efforts have drawn both praise and criticism, but two new reports by public education advocacy groups this week are particularly revealing about the real impact rich people have on schools and how they’ve chosen to leverage their money to influence the system.

‘The Education Debt’

“The first report, “Confronting…

On September 10, 2018, the Network for Public Education (NPE) released a valuable report years in the making, Hijacked by Billionaires: How the Super Rich Buy Elections to Undermine Public Schools.

The full report is 103 pages long and includes 9 case studies that are accompanied by 10 interactive maps (two for Louisiana):

• Newark, New Jersey: New York Billionaires Flood a New Jersey Mayoral Election with Cash (map)
• Washington State: Charter Advocates Refuse to Take “No” for an Answer (map)
• Los Angeles, California: Charter Advocates Buy Majority Board Control (map)
• Perth Amboy, New Jersey: Big Money Floods a Small School Board Race (map)
• Louisiana: Jeb Bush Calls and Billionaire Dollars Follow (map1 and map2)
• Rhode Island: Anti-Pension Texas Billionaire a Major Player in Rhode Island Governor’s Race (map)
• Minneapolis, Minnesota:…

The destroy public education (DPE) movement is the fruit of a relatively small group of billionaires. The movement is financed by several large non-profit organizations. Nearly all of the money spent is free of taxation. Without this spending, there would be no wide-spread public school privatization.

It is generally recognized that the big three foundations driving DPE activities are The Bill and Melinda Gate Foundation (Assets in 2016 = $41 billion), The Walton Family Foundation (Assets in 2016 = $3.8 billion), and The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation (Assets in 2016 = $1.8 billion).

Yesterday, the Network for Public Education published “Hijacked by Billionaires: How the Super Rich Buy Elections to Undermine Public Schools.” This interactive report lists the top ten billionaires spending to drive their DPE agenda with links to case studies for their spending.

These Images Come from the New NPE Report

Short…