With a controversial film about the “parent trigger” as a backdrop, the school choice advocacy group Center for Education Reform has issued a new Parent Power index assessing in which states parents have “access to quality educational options and are provided with good information to make smart decisions about their children’s education.”

Florida ranks second only to Indiana, by just a tiny bit (84 percent to 83 percent on the group’s rating system). What does Florida have going for it? According to the CER:

“This state ranks consistently in the top ten for its charter laws. Florida also has been a leader in providing educational options for children with broad school choice programs. More than 22,000 children with special needs use private schools. Another 38,000 receive tax credits. Parents will find state websites easy to navigate to learn about their schools and the options available to them. Florida also is the top scorer on Digital Learning Now’s index for online learning opportunities. While there is no parent trigger available and much work still to be done, Florida ranks high in affording parents power.”

What makes Indiana better?

“Indiana has been called the “reformiest” state for good reason. A much tested and improved charter school law offers a wide variety of options. A path-breaking, statewide school choice program has attracted thousands of parents who have chosen private schools for their children. Indiana also offers more digital learning elements than 45 other states and can boast a pretty decent record of teacher quality measures that put the public in the drivers seat. These are just a few of the critical pieces that leaders have put in place to ensure that parent power in Indiana is more than a dream.”

ee the group’s Florida report here. (Hat tip to Redefined.)

A parent revolution is underway, and most Americans don’t have a clue it’s happening. That’s because most of us – concerned as we are about the environment, jobs and our own family’s sustainability – think education is someone else’s responsibility. And the self-perceived “owners” of the traditional education system – The Blob – stand in the way of virtually all meaningful education reform and work hard to give you the sense that everything is under control.

But reality has a way of intruding. Parents are waking up to the disturbing reality that they have no influence over where and how their children are educated. With eyes increasingly opened, they seek out others who have similar epiphanies and band together to change things. And then, like something out of a bad movie (cue creepy music) The Blob kicks into gear. The moment these parents gain any traction for real change, they find information that confirms they are not alone and they are off. And then, they are immediately maligned by phony Blob front groups portraying themselves as parent-friendly.

Case in point: As I was sitting at home on a recent Friday night, bracing myself for the week ahead when I’d be dropping my two youngest at college, I decided to tweet my pleasure over Teachers Rock, a solid hour on prime time TV whose star studded cast paid tribute to rank and file teachers. Such teachers move mountains for children and defy the status quo, often at great personal cost. This is illustrated by the upcoming feature film Won’t Back Down, which chronicles the efforts of a parent and teacher to transform their failing school. As it was advertised during the show, parent groups began praising what they saw, only to be attacked, as I was, for applauding what they watched. “Shame on you for supporting a movie that sensationalizes locking kids in dark closets as ubiquitous ‘punishment,’” bellowed someone named Colum Whyte, just one of hundreds of venomous tweets I began to witness. (An earlier version of this op-ed attributed the previous quote to Stephanie Rivera who was part of the Twitter assaults on parent trigger that night but it was not her tweet.) “A ploy against teachers and public education,” said another. By nights end there’s were more than 100 tweets attacking us, with childish name-calling to boot. These Twitter bullies are typical of what happens when the status quo feels threatened. They seek and lash out at anyone who posits things could be better, who espouses parental choice, or who suggests that the unions and The Blob might be standing in the way of real reform.

Who are they and where did they come from? Responding to a decade of major, transformative changes in public education, The Blob helped organize a new group called Save our Schools (SOS). It masquerades as a parent effort to improve education but only backs reforms that the status quo embraces – more money and lower class size, neither of which has been shown to improve education. They neither address better ways to spend money, nor ensure accountability. They just want more of one, less of the other and oppose the same reforms the teachers unions fight daily.

SOS chapters across the country have long protested the creation of charter schools, bullying anyone who endorses them and stampeding statehouses to strong-arm legislators, too many of whom irrationally fear this vocal, extremist minority. They oppose testing and loathed NCLB, the nation’s first federal attempt to tie federal spending to accountability. SOS and The Blob successfully convinced the nation’s lawmakers that NCLB was hurting schools, though it was actually the flawed implementation by school districts that did so by imposing wildly unpopular rigidity in instructional delivery that was neither the intent nor requirement of the law.

SOS eventually took to marching to Washington where some mistook it for a true grassroots movement of ordinary citizens. What a put-up job! I saw the buses roll in, the professional signs waving, the well-funded tents, and the polished speeches. I listened to people as they talked about how they had been bused in by their unions. Ordinary people? No, these were people whose livelihoods depend on the status quo, joined by some parents, deluded into believing the fight is about “equity,” when it’s actually about power — theirs, not ours; and certainly not parents’.

Real parent power ensures that choosing a school for your child doesn’t get restricted because of one’s zip code. It allows someone with a child in a failing school to change it or have access to other options – like using technology to educate their kids.

That’s the centerpiece of Won’t Back Down, which stars Viola Davis and Maggie Gyllenhaal. It is brought to you by the same company that gave us Charlotte’s Web, Amazing Grace, and Holes. It is based on the experience of real people, and on real facts. SOS and its new allied group, Parents Across America, are doing all they can to keep you from seeing the film.

The heroic effort depicted in Won’t Back Down is becoming more common today in the 42 states with charter school, parent trigger or school choice laws. The real heroes of today’s revolution are the parents and teachers who, in the name of their children and students, fought to enact policies empowering them take back control from The Blob. Most of these heroes have neither the time nor the money to march on Washington or their statehouses, or to hang around Twitter casting aspersions. But they are out there, and they will persevere, driven by a clear and compelling need: to save their kids.

Jeanne Allen is President of the Center for Education Reform, which has been the leading voice and advocate for lasting, substantive and structural education reform in the U.S. since 1993. CER will release a Parent Power Index this fall as part of its Taking America Back to School on Education Reform campaign.

Jeanne Allen weighs in on parent power, education reform & the elections on WSJ Opinion Journal.

In politics, poll results are often fleeting, but they are paid much attention as a gauge on public attitudes and often influence how a candidate or leader might tackle a particular issue. With convention season here and all eyes on the presidential candidates, anyone interested in education — and the economy (which should be everyone) — should take heed to view some polls with a grain of salt.

Last week, an annual survey of public attitudes toward the schools was released by the Gallup Organization in partnership with an ivory tower group called Phi Delta Kappa. It provides additional evidence that our task is a daunting one, for despite the popularity and importance of programs that support and advance parental choice and accountability in education, this poll’s findings would have you believe otherwise.

Respondents are questioned without being given critical facts, data, and context, resulting in responses that contradict today’s current climate and demand for reform. For example, while support for scholarships (aka vouchers) increased in this year’s poll, its findings mask the true strength of public support, evidenced by other polls, by using a question that is factually incorrect and contains a built-in bias against such programs. Gallup asked if respondents favor parents being able to choose a private school “at public expense.” But parents who use scholarships to move a child from a public school (failing to meet their needs) to a private school (that will meet those needs) are certainly part of the “public!” They are targeting funds designated to educate their child to a school that will actually do so.

With nearly 6,000 charter schools in existence in 41 states and the District of Columbia, and credited with a competitive push that has finally made school districts begin to address decades-old failures, PDK says that support for charter schools is falling. Our own polling shows that when people have a full and accurate definition of public charter schools, they overwhelmingly support them as an option for families. Thankfully, it’s those families and their lawmakers who govern what occurs with this public education reform and not the ivory tower!

Demonstrating that art can indeed influence reality, we are glad to see the poll recognize the growing importance of parent trigger laws to education reform. The upcoming, much publicized feature film, “Won’t Back Down,” chronicles the story of two moms who use a kind of parent trigger to improve their children’s school. Support for a parent trigger was 70%, yet another signal of the high demand for more choice in education. However, the poll question presented just one option: removing leadership of a failed school. Support would likely have been even higher had the poll included other options available to parents, such as taking over their school, or turning it into a charter school.

There are more issues that the Gallup organization surveyed which are legitimate and important to the improvement of US schools. When it comes to teacher evaluations, most people get queazy. We know people love their teachers. We do, too, but that’s not really the point. Even teachers we really like can be bad at their jobs. That’s why strong evaluations of teacher performance are a key to addressing our education crisis. The poll asks simply whether student performance on “standardized tests” should be part of teacher evaluations. Yet evaluating teachers is not just about test scores. It’s about how well students are performing against a variety of measures of academic performance, and whether a teacher is actually increasing student achievement. Had the question been posed in that way, support for teacher evaluations would be near unanimous. Indeed what effective schools offer parents is not only an extraordinary group of teachers, proficient in their field, but the confidence to know that when their kids have problems, they will be acted upon, even if that means an adult needs to be moved out.

The bottom line is parents want and need power and most states do a poor job of providing it. Parent power in education is not only a matter of public interest, but it’s a matter of public right. It’s also the only thing that is going to fix our economic problems for good. As NBC’s Rehema Ellis put it in her own Huffington Post piece this time last year, “What is surprising is that we, as a nation, aren’t fully making the connection between education, local, state and federal budget matters, and the economy.” Polls and survey aside, let’s hope that these next two weeks of convention mania yield the understanding that education reform is central to our future solvency.

FAILURE TO LAUNCH. For all the rhetoric whirling out of the mouths of GOP leadership in Pennsylvania these days over choice as a civil rights issue or blasting educational destiny based on a zipcode, a scholarship bill that would save the educational lives of needy children and shore up a mainstay of urban education, Catholic schools, continues to languish in Harrisburg. Fingers point at both Governor Corbett and Majority Leader Turzai for holding up the bill for reasons that certainly don’t stack up when compared to the educational blight, particularly in Philadelphia, that blankets the state. Other states have stood up and delivered on vouchers – Louisiana and Indiana. And, GOP Presidential candidate Mitt Romney has placed choice front and center in his education platform. Even the White House has done a turnaround, reaching agreement with Congress to expand D.C.’s Opportunity Scholarship program. So what’s the hold up? Pennsylvania’s leaders are beginning to give new definition to Keystone Cops when it comes to school vouchers.

MAYORS PULL TRIGGER. No equivocating here. At the National Conference of Mayors parent trigger received unanimous support. Bi-partisanship was in high gear as Democratic Mayors Michael Nutter (Philadelphia), Antonio Villaraigosa (L.A.) and Kevin Johnson (Sacramento) helped lead the effort. Union efforts to stranglehold Democratic votes against the measure failed to make a dent and, as written by Reuters reporter Stephanie Simon, is a “sign of the unions’ diminishing clout” within the ranks of their traditional allies. Brown University Professor Kenneth Wong is quoted on his view that mayors have become more “consumer oriented,” which is one reason they may back a parent trigger. Looks like all the efforts to put children and families first when it comes to improving education is having an impact on those in charge of running our cities.

BANKING ON CHARTER SUCCESS. PNC Bank designed a new fund to loan money to charters that plan to expand enrollment. Charters must demonstrate a proven track record, both in academics and finances. Funds can be applied to an existing facility, or to the purchase of a new building. Greg McKenna, managing director at PNC Capital Markets, is right on the mark when he says that “facility ownership and ability to expand is crucial to charter schools seeking to grow their enrollment . He adds that the new fund “is a convenient option for schools seeking growth in the near-term, but lack the necessary funds to move forward.” Good news for charters, not just in securing funds needed for facilities, but to legitimize their success and staying power.

NO CREDENCE FOR CREDO. Minnesota Public Radio cited an unnamed study (but we know it’s CREDO) that is methodologically flawed and has been challenged since it first was released in June 1999. Read CER’s Jeanne Allen’s statement to get the story straight on CREDO and charters.

WELCOME NINA. The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools warmly greets Nina Rees as its new president and CEO. Mashea M. Ashton, board chairman for NAPCS, says the group is “pleased to have found such a high-caliber individual in Nina to take the reins as leader of the nation’s charter school movement.” Rees was the first head of the Office for Innovation and Improvement at the U.S. Department of Education, where she was responsible for spearheading innovative federal programs that included charter schools. She outlines her focus to be “to help replicate effective models, attract new education entrepreneurs and further garner bipartisan support.” She notes the staying power of charters, which “after two decades, it’s clear that charter schools can help preserve the American ideal of a quality public education.” Read more about Nina here.

IN MINNEAPOLIS? Visit CER and the Media Bullpen at the National Charter Schools Conference. We’re at booth 2211.

CORBETT’S CRUSADE? Many are asking the big question- how is it that a candidate who ran and won on making school reform his first priority hasn’t been successful in achieving real reform since he’s taken office? Meanwhile, the Governor has weighed in on the debate on online schooling, criticizing the notion that online schools should be well-enough funded to provide choices that hundreds of parents use and demand. For almost 18 straight months the Corbett team has permitted the Republican House to ignore SB 1, a pathbreaking school choice bill that passed last year. Then, an effort to improve the state’s charter law to incorporate higher education in authorizing has been stalled by the status quo supporting school districts. The Governor is now taking aim at cyber charters as if cutting their funds will close the state budget gap. As Governor Corbett himself said at a school choice forum during the campaign, good education is the key to economic solvency. The Pennsylvania House adjourns June 30 but there is still time to do a real reform package, if the will is there.

“TEAR DOWN THIS WALL.” Today is the anniversary of the famous Reagan challenge to Gorbachev at the Bradenberg Gate, calling on the Russian leader to destroy the Berlin Wall that separated a country and kept half in abysmal conditions. How fitting that a similar wall holds back kids in the U.S. from social justice parity and, in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, stands as tall and solid as it was when many who were elected and promised to fight the status quo two years ago.

SWIFT BOAT OF REFORM. With far too many schools drowning academically, especially in Detroit, no wonder parent trigger is winding its way through the Michigan Legislature in order to make swift changes to boost achievement. Critics fire off that parent trigger is a draconian move that thwarts real progress to be made in the schools. The point they miss is that students just don’t have the time to wait around until adults work through the bureaucracy, bear a teacher strike, or deal with ineffective after ineffective school leader to come up with a solution for failing schools. A trigger says, to lift from the 1976 film Network, “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!” A perfectly fitting response for a parent whose child doesn’t have time to waste getting a dead-end education.

MODELING CHARTERS. The Faison K-5 school in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania’s, Homewood neighborhood was failing to provide adequate, let alone exceptional, education opportunities for its students. Just to illustrate, in 2007, 95 percent of fifth-grade students fell below proficient in math and 88 percent in reading. This year, though, Faison is looking to turn itself around, with a teacher-led drive to bump up achievement. And who did they look to for a model? The John B. Stetson Charter School in Philadelphia. At first a small group from Faison visited Stetson, but soon after brought a larger group to view how the charter, located in a similarly disadvantaged community with kids who previously struggled to learn, created an environment that encouraged and inspired success. Charter success breeds success, even among traditional public schools when they have thoughtful leaders.

INVESTING IN REFORM. Bond investors are careful to analyze financial and operational assumptions of any investment before they jump in. So their increasing willingness to back charter schools is another indication of a reform that is here to stay.

SAVING CATHOLIC SCHOOLS. Catholic schools, most known for their dazzling success with inner-city students, are making a comeback as vouchers edge into the education scene. St. Stanislaus, for example, in East Chicago, Indiana, had enrollment jump nearly 40 percent in 2010 due to the state’s voucher program. Nationwide, the dip in enrollment of Catholic schools is slowing, showing “signs of growth even in cities without vouchers.” It’s no coincidence that Indiana, the state with the most expansive voucher program, also shows the most dramatic enrollment increases in Catholic schools. But, as the Wall Street Journal notes, Catholic schools in states without vouchers can benefit from wealthy Catholic business leaders who donate to keep the school up and running. Catholic schools nationwide certainly fill a niche, provide an environment conducive to learning at high levels and offer values, religious or not, that allow all students to feel safe, act responsibly and with care in the classroom.

UNION BEHAVIOR. Success for the Chicago Teacher’s Union is not assessed these days by improving student math skills and more, but by reaching the magic 75 percent figure in a vote to authorize a strike. The authorization vote is the first step for the union to call for a strike vote in the fall, should contract negotiations hit an impasse. An impasse is likely, since the union has batted heads with Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his plan to lengthen the school day, install teacher evaluations with teeth and pass tenure reform. It’s not that Emmanuel’s proposals are particularly bold, either. Student growth will count for a mere 15 percent of a teacher’s evaluation in year one, increasing to only 25 percent by year five. But as CER’s Jeanne Allen says in the Tribune, Emanuel has been “clear that notions like ironclad tenure and seniority should not be a proxy for a teacher’s performance.” Still there’s no guarantee he’s willing to fight them to the finish line, but at least it’s a start.

STRIKES COST. Teachers on strike cost, not only in days students loose in learning, but in real dollars. In Pennsylvania’s Neshaminy school district, teachers went on strike, although returning a day later due to a judge’s order. There may still be a risk that a strike goes into effect and, if they do, just as in Chicago, an increase in the average salary and benefit cost per teacher may just knock a fatigued economy into a flatline. Taxpayers for a Fair Neshaminy School Budget recently put together a chart that shows exactly how much the true cost is of teachers in that district. Of course, paying well for top teachers is essential, but in Neshaminy just as in Chicago, there is no guarantee that money goes for excellence nor that the union is considering, at all, the fiscal responsibility of the state.
]]> http://www.edreform.com/2012/06/june-12-2012/feed/ 0 http://www.edreform.com/2012/03/adelanto-school-board-blocks-parent-trigger/ http://www.edreform.com/2012/03/adelanto-school-board-blocks-parent-trigger/#comments Thu, 29 Mar 2012 21:19:48 +0000 admin http://www.edreform.com/?p=7222 The first parent trigger attempt in Compton, California, failed, but that hasn’t stopped Desert Trails elementary parents from pursuing better educational opportunities for their kids.  The “trigger parents” plan to take the matter to court after the Adelanto school board unanimously rejected parents’ request to turn around the failing elementary school.

The basis for litigation is that the district came to the denial decision based on allegedly forged documents. The opposition tried to get parents to rescind signatures, but the original author of the parent trigger bill says this issue isn’t even addressed in legislation.  Not to mention, the turnaround petition held signatures well over the required 51% majority, even after the opposition attempted to fight back. Turnaround parents are outraged that the district didn’t even consider taking a peek at the original petition to compare to see if original documents were indeed modified.

The Mercury News duly notes that this law is proving difficult to enforce “as school districts and teachers unions have balked at the parent petitions. “Defenders of the status quo do not cede power easily,” said Ben Austin, executive director of Parent Revolution, the nonprofit spearheading the parent trigger movement.

Check back here as this story unfolds, and be sure to follow Parent Revolution on Twitter to stay up to speed as they fight for parents to have a say in their kids’ future.

Mojave Desert school officials late Wednesday denied a petition by parents to overhaul their children’s failing school, dealing a major blow to forces aiming to win the first reform under the state’s pioneering parent trigger law.

Adelanto school board members unanimously rejected the petition to turn Desert Trails Elementary into a charter campus, finding that it failed to win the support of parents representing at least half of the school’s 642 students, as the law requires. The school has the lowest standardized test scores in Adelanto, with fewer than half the students proficient in math and English.

Petition supporters, who allege that opponents doctored documents to sink their campaign, said they would challenge the board decision in court.

“While we are disappointed and outraged, we are hardly surprised by the board’s decision tonight to rely on fraud and forgery to defend the status quo,” said Doreen Diaz of Desert Trails Parent Union, which launched the petition campaign.

But Lori Yuan, a parent leader on the other side, expressed relief: “Now we can focus on making actual improvements to the school rather than be distracted by outside issues.”

The vote capped weeks of mounting conflict and mutual charges of deceit between two groups of parents, one assisted by the California Teachers Assn., a union, the other by Parent Revolution, a Los Angeles nonprofit that lobbied for the parent trigger law.

The 2010 law allows parents representing at least half the students at low-performing schools to close their campus, transfer management to a charter operator or change the staff and curriculum.

In Adelanto, parents representing what they said was 70% of the school’s students submitted a petition in January asking for a charter school. But the board rejected it last month, saying it fell 16 students short of the required threshold after dozens of parents complained they were confused about the campaign and rescinded their signatures.

Under the campaign’s strategy, two petitions were circulated — one for district reforms and another for a charter school. Supporters told parents they preferred the first option but submitted the second one as leverage, they said, to press school officials to carry out their desired reforms.

Board President Carlos Mendoza, among others, has criticized the two-petition strategy as confusing and on Wednesday called the rescissions “justified.”

But Parent Revolution, in examining the rescission documents, uncovered evidence that at least four of them had been doctored. The group, joined by several state legislators, has called for an investigation into possible fraud, a complaint under review by the San Bernardino County district attorney’s office.

A bill that would let parents “trigger” a turnaround plan for failing schools would cause disputes and dissension in Florida’s public schools, opponents said Monday.

That’s yet to be proven, but it is causing plenty of turmoil in the Florida Legislature as it has in California, where the idea originated.

The Florida PTA and other bipartisan opponents held a news conference Monday to criticize not only the bill that’s supported by former Republican Gov. Jeb Bush but the way it’s been ramrodded through the GOP-controlled Legislature.

School officials would be required to adopt a turnaround plan if a majority of parents sign a petition.

Supporters say the “parent trigger” is a way to empower parents and encourage them to participate in school affairs. Critics contend it’s a ploy for handing public schools to private management or charter school companies.

“It has everything to do with laying the groundwork for the hostile, corporate takeover of public schools,” said Senate Democratic Leader Nan Rich of Weston. “Parents will divide against parents and even children will divide against children.”

Florida PTA Vice President Dawn Steward said corporations put the stockholders’ interest first.

“Their stockholders aren’t going to necessarily be children,” Steward said. “My stockholders are children and I’m a volunteer and I represent 330,000 voices.”

The trigger bill is being pushed by Bush’s Foundation for Florida’s Future and the California-based Parent Revolution. The group contends the legislation is not intended to promote charters, although that’s one turnaround option.

Parent Revolution spokeswoman Linda Serrato said it actually would add another step – the parents’ petition – to existing procedure for creating charters, which get public funding but are run by entities other than elected local school boards.

“So to put it in context, I’m a big bad for-profit charter school and I’m hell-bent on making millions of dollars,” Serrato said. “If that’s my objective, right now it’s much easier for me to just go through the normal Florida charter school law.”

The House already has passed a trigger bill (HB 1191), and what’s expected to be a close vote could come in the Senate as early as Tuesday.

One reason opponents are suspicious of Parent Revolution and its paid staffers is it initially received funding from a charter school company, Green Dot Public Schools.

Serrato said Green Dot no longer provides funding, which currently comes largely from foundations.

Another organization that’s promoting trigger bills is the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council.

“We can’t control what other people promote,” Serrato said. She said her organization has also drawn support from liberals in California.

The California law, though, is proving difficult to implement, causing acrimony on school campuses and legal fights.

The first parent-trigger campaign in Compton last year was defeated because of petition technical errors after a court battle with the school district and allegations of threats and harassment of parents by teachers, who stood to lose their jobs if the school was converted into a charter.

In Adelanto, about 90 miles northeast of Los Angeles, a similar scenario looms. Teachers mounted a vigorous campaign to counter the petition to convert Desert Trails Elementary School into a charter. There were problems with 121 signatures and dozens more parents rescinded their signatures, leaving the petition without the needed majority.

Serrato said some of the signatures had been illegally forged, which is something that cannot be blamed on the trigger law. Opponents say that’s what would happen in Florida, too, because the bill lacks petition-gathering safeguards.

“There’s a lot of room in this bill for some real shenanigans,” said Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland.

Critics also contend Florida has plenty of opportunity for parental empowerment through laws that allow students to transfer out of failing schools or obtain vouchers to attend private schools. Schools also have parent advisory councils and PTAs.

That’s not enough, Shirley Ford of Parent Revolution told the Budget Committee.

“When I was a PTA mom, it served its purpose,” the Los Angeles woman said. “We baked cookies, we raised money and all those things, but no real meaning to it.”

PTA officials said there’s much more to it in Florida, including advocating before local school boards and state lawmakers.

“We don’t need to import people from California,” Steward said. “Are they a good model?”