Chicago Bombshell! TFA Plans to Staff 52 New Charters as 50 Public Schools Die

TFA has officially reduced themselves to a scab temp agency helping privatizers wring as much profit out of poor children as possible in the name of progressive causes. I feel pretty confident that Martin Luther King would be marching with the teachers unions and families and against the TFA privatizes and their ilk who seek to “help” (exploit) children of color (whether they want it or not) – to line their pockets.

Diane Ravitch's blog

Edushyster obtained internal planning documents from Teach for America in Chicago.

The document displayed on her website shows plans for 52 new privately-managed charters that will open over the next five years.

These charters will be staffed largely by TFA’s young recruits, with five weeks of training.

Just weeks ago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel closed 50 public schools, claiming they were “underutilized.” But the school closures presented an opportunity to expand the charter sector.

EduShyster notes that the plan is symbolic of TFA’s new role:

“TFA has largely abandoned its earlier mission of staffing hard-to-fill positions in public schools, serving instead as a placement agency for urban charters. In Chicago, however, TFA’s role appears to go far beyond providing labor for the fast-growing charter sector. An internal TFA document indicates that the organization has a plan to dramatically expand the number of charter schools in the city.”

TFA has become the…

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John White Shoots Self in Foot with Loaded SLTs

Circumstancial proof John White may be insane, but proof positive that SLT are a complete farce. Many thanks to Herb and Mercedes for documenting this latest pantload of ridiculousness.

deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Former-TFAer and Broad-trained Louisiana “Superintendent” John White must broadcast something data-ish to demonstrate that He Is Right and Reforms Are Working. Mind you, his reforms are not working; they are a repeatedly demonstrated con perpetrated on Louisiana’s education system. Nevertheless, White insists on issuing the following press release regarding the “usefulness” of Louisiana’s first student learning target (SLT) result. White actually released this statement. I bolded the Dodo-race nonsense White promotes as Proof That the Reforms Are Working:

The Department of Education today released a list of schools across the state that had successful student outcomes and set a high bar for what students would learn during the school year. Yesterday, the Department released a list of schools with a high bar for excellence in classroom teaching, and today’s release highlights schools that have made a similar commitment to setting a high bar for the progress students are…

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Who Dat Say?: New Orleans Ed Reform Unmasked

I’ve been slowly working on my own post about the reform network based on Kristen’s Excellent work which I just got ahold of this weekend. In the meantime I strongly encourage you to read this great synopsis of her analysis and findings.

Cloaking Inequity

Who is really behind NOLA education reform? Let’s unmask them. Last year, the charter school incubator New Schools for New Orleans published a Guide for Cities that touted New Orleans school reform as a national model. In fact, a barrage of reports has been issued since 2005 that make the same claim. The Guide for Cities was delivered by Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu to policymakers in Washington, DC. She proclaimed,

Through relentless focus on accountability, human capital, and charter school development, New Orleans has become a national leader in education reform.

An important question to ask is: Who says so? Who is really behind the reform?

This question was posed in my new peer-reviewed article published in the Berkeley Review of Education, which critiques the Guide for Cities and presents the testimony and experiences of those left out of mainstream discussions on New Orleans school reform—namely, black teachers, students…

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