Friday, July 10, 2020



Charter Schools and Their Enemies

Thomas Sowell has just published “Charter Schools and Their Enemies.” He presents actual test scores of students in traditional public schools and charter schools on New York State Education Department’s annual English Language Arts test and its mathematics test.

Sowell gives the results of student tests in charter schools such as KIPP, Success Academy, Explore Schools, Uncommon Schools, Achievement First, as well as the traditional New York City public schools.

On the English Language Arts test, a majority of charter school students, most of whom were black or Hispanic, tested proficient or above. Their achievement ratio was nearly 5-to-1. On the mathematics test, 68% of charter schools’ 161 grade levels had a majority of students testing proficient. In the traditional public schools, 177 grade levels, just 10% had a majority of their students testing proficient.

In April 2019, The Wall Street Journal reported that 57% of black and 54% of Hispanic charter school students passed the statewide English Language Arts compared to 52% of white students statewide. On the state math test, 59% of black students and 57% of Hispanics at city charter schools passed as opposed to 54% of white students statewide.

Sowell says:

In a realm where educational failure has long been the norm—schools in low-income minority neighborhoods—this is success, a remarkable success. What is equally remarkable is how unwelcome this success has been in many places. What has been especially remarkable is that it has been the most educationally successful charter schools that seem to have drawn the most hostility, both in words and in deeds.

The most common form of that hostility are simple legal limits set on the number of charter schools permitted without regard to whether charter schools are producing good or bad educational outcomes.

The education establishment, having the nation’s most powerful labor union, has the ears of political leaders. They see a huge loss potential if more parents are able to opt out of poorly achieving public schools.

For example, in New York City there are more than 50,000 students on waiting lists for admission to charter schools. The per-pupil expenditure tops $20,000 a year. If all the students on the waiting list were able to be admitted to charter schools, that would translate into a billion-dollar loss by the traditional public schools.

A substantial decline in traditional public school attendance would mean fewer teachers employed. That would mean declining union dues since most charter school teachers are not union members.

Charter schools’ rate of growth since the 1990s has been significant. From 2001 to 2016, enrollment at traditional public schools rose 1% while enrollment in public charter schools rose 571%.

Sowell points out that not all charter schools are successful. Failing charter schools can have their charters revoked, cutting off access to public funds. That is in stark contrast to failing and corrupt traditional public schools that continue to dine at the public trough.

Successful charter schools are the real threat to traditional unionized public schools. No charter school in Sowell’s study has been more successful than Success Academy charter schools in Harlem, Bedford-Stuyvesant, and the South Bronx—and none has been more viciously attacked in words and in deeds.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio explicitly campaigned against charter schools, saying: “I am angry about the privatizers. I am sick and tired of these efforts to privatize a precious thing we need—public education.

In another venue, Sowell said: “We keep hearing that ‘black lives matter,’ but they seem to matter only when that helps politicians to get votes, or when that slogan helps demagogues demonize the police. The other 99% of black lives destroyed by people who are not police do not seem to attract nearly as much attention in the media.”

At a 2016 meeting, the NAACP’s board of directors ratified a resolution that called for a moratorium on charter schools. Among the NAACP’s reasons for this were that it wanted charter schools to refrain from “expelling students that public schools have a duty to educate” and “cease to perpetuate de facto segregation of the highest performing children from those whose aspirations may be high but whose talents are not yet as obvious.”

That is a vision suggesting that no black children receive decent educations until all black children receive decent educations. Black people cannot afford to entertain such a vision and other attacks on educational success.

SOURCE 






Teacher Blames 'Western Imperialism,' 'Colonization' for Concept of 2+2=4

Brittany Marshall, a self-described teacher and Ph.D. student, took to Twitter this past weekend to voice her displeasure about the concept of 2+2=4, saying the “idea” of the simple math equation is merely “cultural.”

1984 called. It wants Room 101 back.

“Nope the idea of 2+2 equaling 4 is cultural and because of western imperialism/colonization, we think of it as the only way of knowing,” wrote Marshall (HT: Disrn). Never mind that the Arabic numeral system we use is not, you know, “Western.”

Marshall goes by the pronouns “she/her” and describes herself on Twitter as a “teacher, scholar, social justice change agent, Chicagoan, PhD student, architecture enthusiast, wannabe math person, BLM always…”

Just the kind of person you want teaching your kids, right?

Her Twitter and LinkedIn accounts have been set to private, but a bio included in a directory of Rutgers Ph.D. candidates says that her area of specialization is “Mathematics Education.”

SOURCE 






Betsy DeVos Takes on Dems and COVID-19 Science-Deniers in the Teachers' Union to Reopen Schools

Education Secretary Besty DeVos said she expects schools to be fully operational for the 2020 fall term. It is not the first time she has opposed teachers’ unions and Democrat politicians. However, this time DeVos has science on her side.

While I am a big fan of local control of education and school operation, I have to support Secretary DeVos here. There is so much disinformation about COVID-19 and political maneuvering that state and local governments must understand the accurate data regarding the virus and children. DeVos’ declaration may serve to elevate this conversation as the corporate media will have to cover it.

In an appearance on Tucker Carlson Tuesday night, Secretary DeVos echoed comments made by President Trump earlier in the day. The president expressed his desire to have schools open, noting both the declining death rate and the recovering economy:

Both the president and Secretary DeVos have science on their side. They are also demonstrating more concern for children than the teachers’ unions or Democrat leaders. In her interview, DeVos called out adults who are engaged in fear-mongering and correctly said there was no scientific basis to keep children out of school.

“We are looking at this very seriously, this is a very serious issue across the country,” DeVos said. “Kids have got to continue learning and schools have got to open up. There’s got to be a concerted effort to address the needs of all kids, and adults who are fearmongering and making excuses simply have to stop doing it and turn their attention to what is right for students and for their families.”

She took note of Florida, where the State Education Commissioner has given parents and students a wide range of options, including full-time in-person instruction for the coming school year. She also echoed the position of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), which advocated for schools opening and offered guidance to do so. Their colleagues in the United Kingdom’s Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health agreed, with 1500 members signing a letter stating that continued closures risk “scarring the life chances of a generation of young people.”

The AAP guidance is far less restrictive than what the CDC  put out and is based on what we have learned about the virus and children. However, even the AAP’s recommendations are far more stringent than what other nations are doing based on the available data.

Research shows that children play a small role in the transmission of COVID-19. This was confirmed by a study from the Netherlands Ministry of Health:

Worldwide, relatively few children have been reported with COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Data from the Netherlands also confirms the current understanding: that children play a minor role in the spread of the novel coronavirus. The virus is mainly spread between adults and from adult family members to children. The spread of COVID-19 among children or from children to adults is less common.

Based on their contact tracing and research, the agency put out the following guidelines:

Children up to and including 12 years of age do not have to keep 1.5 metres apart from each other and from adults. This also applies to childcare and primary education.

Young people aged 13 until 18 years old (i.e., 17 years old and younger) do not have to stay 1.5 metres apart from each other. In secondary schools, this applies to all pupils, regardless of their age.

In secondary vocational education (MBO) and higher education, all students should stay 1.5 metres apart, regardless of their age.

Since adults play a greater role in the spread of the novel coronavirus, teachers need to stay 1.5 metres apart from others as often as possible.

Author Alex Berenson also appeared on Carlson’s show. Berenson has been following the science since the beginning of the pandemic and is also a vocal supporter of schools resuming operations. He told the host it was challenging to find a data point that supported keeping schools closed or the type of pandemic theater the CDC recommends.

Berenson believes a primary concern of school districts in reopening is legal liability. He noted there had been some idiosyncratic deaths among children, 29 according to the CDC, but that COVID-19 will be a target for lawyers. He supported a proposal by GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) that included liability protection for schools made before Berenson’s appearance on Carlson’s program.

While he noted that the political environment might impede this legislation, Berenson said the same type of liability was extended to vaccine makers because of rare fatal events in children. He indicated that it would make sense in this case as well.

During the opening segment, Carlson noted how many other countries are opening their schools with the leadership of the medical community. German and Australian medical experts have called for reopening schools. Both countries have done so, Germany with no restrictions. Likewise, France has reopened with no pandemic theater. The host and Berenson reviewed several other countries that opened schools, including Sweden, whose primary schools never closed. To date, there has been no significant outbreak related to transmission in school, even when there are no restrictions.

In June, 56% of parents favored children returning to school full time this fall. If parents understood the very low risk returning to the classroom represented for their children, that percentage would likely rise. Not only for the educational benefits but the social and mental health benefits as well.

Tucker Carlson notes American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten’s opposition to reopening. He explained that this opposition will prevent some schools from opening. This is both tragic and unnecessary according to the data from around the globe. Same for Democrat politicians who are impeding the process. He asserts, looking at the data, that this can only be attributed to Democrat electoral politics. And as he noted, your children are paying the price.

SOURCE 

No comments: