Iannuzzi & Alligner Hiding from New Covenant Members

Today's New York Times has an article on the pending decision by the SUNY Board of Trustees next week to close the New Covenant Charter School in Albany. The SUNY Charter Schools Committee already has voted to close the school at the end of the year, following the closure recommendation by the SUNY Charter Schools Institute staff.

The full board will decide March 23rd if it agrees with the committee and the institute. Considering the direct and unusual involvement of the SUNY Board chairman, Carl Hayden, in the committee's deliberations, I do not see the full board reversing the committee's action.

The Chalkboard has written on New Covenant several times and NYCSA's position is the school should not be renewed. This organizational position is explained at length here. Still, this is a tough call to make as the school has made important academic gains under the management of its school leader, Jecrois Jean-Baptiste and Victory Schools, Inc.

What remains palpable, as the article points out, is that the parents of New Covenant do not want their children to return to Albany's district schools. However, the article also referenced that the school has had a high degree of student turnover which was a nugget raised by Chairman Hayden at the committee meeting last month.

NYSUT AWOL on New Covenant
Nowhere in the coverage of the New Covenant saga is the voice of the New York State United Teachers (NYSUT). This is especially odd since the statewide organization, headed by the normally loquacious Richard Iannuzzi, directly represents New Covenant's faculty since they joined the union in 2001.

As The Chalkboard pointed out just yesterday, Mr. Iannuzzi never fails to talk--and talk some more--about charter schools to the press when he can trash them. Yet, with New Covenant on the brink, his voice has fallen silent as though he's hiding under a rug somewhere. Isn't he suppose to advocate for his member teachers at New Covenant--being their "voice?" You know, the same teachers who paid him dues for the last nine years? Why isn't he talking about New Covenant's turnaround publicly, if at all? How come the management company is doing all the work to save the school--and the teachers' jobs--and not the union?

At the SUNY committee meeting February 23rd, held in public, representatives from New Covenant made their case to keep the school open, including the principal, the management company and even the bondholders for the school's building. NYSUT was AWOL. No Mr. Iannuzzi and no sign of NYSUT's verbose chief lobbyist, Steve Allinger, who can talk the ear off a statue. When their member teachers needed them the most, they skipped.

NYSUT Deep-Sixed Charter Teachers for the District
How and why would NYSUT sell-out its own charter teacher members this way? It's simple: NYSUT's more numerous membership employed by the Albany City School District want this school closed - period. Charter teachers who buy into NYSUT's sales job are missing this salient point: you're outnumbered by your district brethren who compete for the same public funding. When the teacher union has to choose, the charter teachers always will be on the losing end.

If I missed NYSUT's advocacy for New Covenant and its member teachers, please let me know and I will stand corrected. Meanwhile, teachers note well: when the union promises "job security" in its organizing effort, don't believe it. In reality, the charter school's performance, not the union, determines job security. Even worse, when the chips are down, NYSUT will be hiding in the tall grass, as the New Covenant experience shows.

Peter Murphy
for The Chalkboard
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The Western New York Maritime Charter School in Buffalo is being investigated by the state Education Department for tampering with high school Regents exams, as reported in today's Buffalo News.

Some perspective is in order. Maritime itself discovered the test tampering and reported to the state Education Department. The Department had Erie 1 BOCES superintendent Donald Ogilvie investigate. He faulted the school for "almost fundamental mismanagement of test administration." But, Supt. Ogilvie believes the school is committed to correcting the problems. Note, for example, that the two staff at the school that were responsible for administering the test have since "resigned." There is no "rubber room" at Maritime.

WNY Maritime Charter School opened in 2004 and had a host of problems early on, which are recounted in the News. The current head of school, retired Marine Colonel Larry Astyk, began in 2007 as the fourth leader. He is responsible for the school's remarkable turnaround, and is credited by the Education Department for the school's improvements. The Regents last December granted a four-year renewal of its charter.

The test tampering case is a setback for the school from a public relations standpoint, even though it acted correctly and forthrightly to correct the matter. NYSUT president, Richard Iannuzzi made sure to exploit the situation. In fact, it's uncanny how the head of a 600,000-member statewide teachers union in nearly 700 school districts gets so preoccupied with piling on a negative charter school story. The Buffalo News story alotted him plenty of space to do so.

Mr. Iannuzzi asserted to the News that there are supposedly severe weaknesses in the monitoring and licensing of charter schools and that test tampering improprieties were "uncovered much more rapidly" at traditional public schools. This is bloviating, but also an acknowledgement from the NYSUT president that indeed the same problems have occurred in district schools. As to the charter oversight and renewal process, a school district would cringe at the thought of having to undergo the rigor of what charter schools endure from the state; if they did, Iannuzzi could not make such an assertion with a straight face.

Has NYSUT Ever Been to Uniondale or Yonkers?
On the subject of test tampering, has Mr. Iannuzzi ever been to Uniondale, Long Island? How about Yonkers? Those are two of several school districts that had major test tampering investigations in the last few years. Was Mr. Iannuzzi on his soapbox then, wringing his hands over the laxity in those places involving district officials and faculty?

Contrary to Mr. Iannuzzi's sanctimonious claims, there is not a single proposed change in the state's charter law having to do with "transparency and accountability" that that would have affected or prevented what occurred at Maritime, especially since charter schools have as much or more transparency and accountability than any district school. That won't stop Mr. Iannuzzi from making baseless assertions since he will exploit any bad charter press as a reason to advance his negative legislative agenda to shackle charter schools.

Ultimately, issues of test tampering require conscientious faculty and leadership to report wrongdoing, which is what occurred at Martime and in the Yonkers school district, for example. When the discussion involves charter schools, it is too much to expect Mr. Iannuzzi to be conscientious about anything when the opposite comes so naturally to him.

Peter Murphy
for The Chalkboard
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Will Sen. Perkins follow this man?

State Senator Bill Perkins, who The Chalkboard recently discussed following a profile by the New York Times, is at it again. His office announced this evening that he's conducting a public hearing to "look at the books of companies affiliated with charter schools."

When the state's economy and fiscal condition is hemorrhaging jobs and revenue, and the state budget is a colossal mess with no chance of being adopted by the April 1st deadline, not to worry: Bill Perkins is hard at work against charter schools and the organizations that support them.

The question is: Is Bill Perkins on a witchhunt?

Teacher Union Inspiration
Not to let Sen. Perkins off the hook, but don't think for a minute he's doing this alone. His pursuit has the full backing of the United Federation of Teachers, which has it out for charter schools and demagogues them as "charter corporate." This is not a coincidence.

Charter schools are under tremendous scrutiny. Every partner organization and management company undergoes a rigorous review as part of the charter approval process of the Regents and State University of New York which authorize charter schools. What is so ironic about this upcoming Perkins hearing is that these companies have accomplished so much good for children in this state to the point where objective outside studies have shown that charter schools are an academic success, particularly in Sen. Perkins' own backyard in upper Manhattan.

Several charter support organizations and management companies sprang up from New York, others came to our state from other states where they were successful. They should be welcomed, not harassed by a politician with a gavel.

If there is to be a modicum of fairness with Sen. Perkins, he should investigate the UFT in the same manner that he is charter organizations. Otherwise, his hearing will come off as a McCarthyite pursuit that attempts to smear good people and accomplishes nothing for students.

Peter Murphy
for The Chalkboard
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The state Senate this evening unanimously passed "The School Paperwork Elimination and Reduction Act of 2010" (S.3874).

This bill, sponsored by Sen. Suzi Oppenheimer, the chairperson of the Education Committee, would consolidate or eliminate a number of reports required to be submitted by school districts and boards of cooperative education services to the state Education Department.

This is all well and good. Streamline reporting, mandate relief, paperwork reduction, etc.

Sen. Oppenheimer's counterpart in the Assembly, Education Committee Chairperson Catherine Nolan, has introduced the same bill, with no action to date.

Paperwork Reduction-Mandate Relief: An Old Saw
As Jason Brooks of the NY Foundation for Education Reform and Accountability pointed out earlier this month (here), this bill has been around a long time and dates back to 2002. The legislation came out of a directive of the legislature to the Education Department, which studied the issue of streamlining paperwork burdens on school districts, and proposed legislation accordingly. The Senate has since passed this bill several times while the Assembly has continually balked.

Maybe things will finally come through this year, as school districts and charter schools need all the help they can get - except this bill only helps districts. By contrast, there is a push to impose more paperwork and burdens on charter schools by the same Sen. Oppenheimer in the name of "accountability and transparency."

In addition to the inconsistent treatment between charters and school districts, there is another, larger issue at play, as Brooks points out: why does it take six to eight years and counting for the legislature to pass a bill like this, especially one supported by the Education Department? About the only argument against the bill is that it should go further; but it's a start.

The moral of the story is that any charter schools or school districts hoping the state will lighten your administrative burdens - consider it hope-less, if they can't even get this done after all this time.

Peter Murphy
for The Chalkboard
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The latest Forbes magazine has an article (here) that discusses the Harlem Children's Zone, founded and operated by Geoffrey Canada. HCZ has been in operation since 1994 and has expanded its reach in the community with programs serving children from birth to college.

Mr. Canada founded two charter schools, Harlem Children's Zone Promise Academy I and II, which opened in 2004 and 2005, respectively. Both schools outperform their respective community school districts on the state's English and mathematics exams. In a study last spring Harvard researches found that Promise Academies closed the racial achievement gap by scoring in the 79th percentile among New York City students and outscoring the City's white students.

Forbes reports that the charter schools operate on $19,200 per student when including the private donations raised by Mr. Canada, making it difficult to replicate in other cities. However, public school districts in New York State typically spend more per student, much of which goes toward building costs and public guarantee-benefit pensions.

Accountability Hard To Replicate in District
A greater impediment against replication of HCZ, or the charter model in general, is the accountability that characterizes charter schools. In short, they don't have to finance rubber rooms for teachers. Promise Academy I had replaced its teachers at a much higher "turnover" rate than any district school could every attempt under the typical union contract. Half its faculty was replaced after the first year; another third was changed over in the second year. Student scores have risen because the right teachers were rewarded for better results.

Very few charter schools can raise the money and afford the breadth of services offered by HCZ Promise Academies. But charter schools can and do offer more instructional time and can hold teachers accountable and reward them for student success in ways beyond a school district. Moreover, Geoff Canada has leadership qualities beyond being an exceptional fundraiser, and harnessing those qualities is essential to success in charter and district public schools.

Peter Murphy
for The Chalkboard
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The Superintendent of the Buffalo Public Schools is having a difficult time with the state Commissioner of Education's statistics on the city's graduation rate.

Supt. James Williams took umbrage at Commissioner David Steiner for speaking the bland truth about Buffalo's graduation rate: It ain't changed much in the last four years, the commissioner said yesterday (more eloquently than I just recounted, of course).

Dr. Williams sounded off on the commissioner, as though Steiner was questioning his manhood. He told the Buffalo News (today): "I think [State Ed] want(s) to paint the picture that urban schools don't know what they're doing so that he can bring in charter schools and privatize public education."

Does Dr. Williams really believe this paranoia, like there is a charter school under every rock? Besides, in January the superintendent himself publicly rebuked (here) his own Board of Education for balking at supporting the state's Race to the Top application because it proposed raising the cap on the number of charter schools allowed.

Barely Half of Buffalo Students Graduate On Time
The state reported that Buffalo's graduation rate in 2009 was only 53.1 percent of students entering 9th grade four years prior, which is up from two years ago when it was 45 percent. However, the rate is only 1.3 percentage points higher than it was in 2005. Commissioner Steiner described this four-year change as "modest," which is being kind. The reality is that since Superintendent Williams assumed office, Buffalo's graduation rate remains abysmal, with barely half the students graduating on time.

The state Education Department can hardly be accused of making the Buffalo school district look bad. Thousands of Buffalo parents already know that without being told, no matter the superintendent's attempt at spin, which is why they steadily have moved out or enrolled their children in charter schools.

There is more. Dr. Williams paints a picture of a state education bureaucracy last week "scrambling" to get district graduation numbers by repeatedly calling his staff at City Hall. There doesn't appear to be any "scrambling" going on in the Buffalo district bureaucracy since it appears it was in no hurry to return calls to the State Ed with the information being requested.

Dismal Statistics Demand Real Change
Dr. Williams does no service to Buffalo by lashing out with his Do-You-Know-Who-I-Am? reaction toward the state for presenting the truth about the Buffalo school district. Rather, he should use these dismal realities in the school district in order to create a bold agenda for improving it. That would be more productive. The realities and needs of Buffalo's students matter more than the superintendent's ego.

Peter Murphy
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Longtime author and education historian, Diane Ravitch, has come full circle on education reform. Once its champion who supported school choice using charter schools and increased accountability, her new book, "The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education," now makes her a fierce critic of education reform.

Dr. Ravitch discusses her new book in today's Wall Street Journal (here) in overwrought fashion by writing the "current emphasis on accountability has created a punitive atmosphere in the schools" and accuses the Obama administration of believing the solution is to "fire teachers and close schools." She also faults the Bush era No Child Left Behind Act as imposing "draconian penalties" on schools failing to make AYP. This would be news to many, including the Journal, which was a critic of Bush Education Secretary Margaret Spellings' refusal to actually impose penalties on states that receive billions in federal education aid without enforcing the corrective actions required of failing schools.

She also attacks charter schools as ineffective and failing in their promise, while acknowledging they remain only 3 percent of the total number of public schools. Dr. Ravitch's criticisms of charters mirror many of Michael Mulgrew's UFT talking points. The Chalkboard previously pointed out her "negative waves" about charters here. What she omits is that the charter laws in many states themselves are ineffective and permit not much more than district-type schools.

Coming Full Circle to Conventional Thinking
Dr. Ravitch, for all her knowledge and experience, comes off with her latest treatise as oh-so-conventional by falling back on the same shibboleths and excuse-making typical of so many urban school districts. She even dusts off that golden oldie: blaming "poverty" for low student academic performance, rather than the adults in charge of the school systems doing such a disservice to so many young people in need. Weak-kneed public officials and stultifying teacher union contracts she finds no fault, even as Time magazine's Joe Klein (here) and Newsweek's Evan Thomas (here) challenge this ongoing education malpractice.

For a more detailed critique of Dr. Ravitch's book, see Tom Carroll's review in the Huffington Post (here).

Not only is Dr. Ravitch the latest and consummate champion of conventional thinking in public education, but she's a vapid one at that. She opposes charter schools, and federally-inspired testing and accountability, yet is bereft of anything thoughtful or useful in their place. Instead, Ravitch presents bland truisms like supporting "coherent curriculum" and that the "government should commit a good school in every neighborhood in the nation." (Wow.) Incidently, isn't that precisely what Chancellor Joel Klein--with whom Ravitch sharply disagrees--has been trying to do by approving new charter schools all across New York City?

In some ways it's pathetic to observe Dr. Ravitch revert to something so opposite of what she herself was for many years: innovative and willing to try new things. Perhaps that field got too crowded in the last two decades; now, she's the latest critic, making a new splash. Her criticisms should come with more than prosaic drivel.

Peter Murphy
for The Chalkboard
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It's not often the New York Times decides to profile an individual state legislator. After all, there are 212 of them, most of whom are relatively obscure individuals, even within their own districts they represent. How many of you, for instance, can name your state senator and member of the Assembly?

Sen. Bill Perkins (D-Harlem) got the attention of the Times, which can be a big plus in terms of exposure. The article from Sunday's Times (here) by journalist, Jenny Medina, presents someone at war with many of his own constituents over his opposition to charter schools, of which more than two dozen are located in Harlem. (The article includes input from me.)

Sen. Perkins in January opposed raising the charter cap to allow more such schools, even though it weakened the state's chances of getting up to $700 million in new federal education money from the Obama administration's Race to the Top program.

Wielding Influence in a Slim Majority
Since the Senate majority Democrats have a minimum number of 32 members to constitute a majority (of 62 seats), a single senator can thwart anything he or she doesn't like - and threaten to rebel on more issues if the leadership tries to get bipartisan by securing Republican minority votes for a given issue. This is more or less how the Senate ended up negotiating a charter school bill that was worse than doing nothing, which explains Sen. Perkins' support for a sham charter cap lift in January. Fortunately, enough charter supporters among the Senate Democrats refused to go along with turning back the clock to damage charters that a stalemate resulted and no bill was passed.

"Separate but Equal" Nonsense
Strangely, Sen. Perkins has come up with all kinds of excuses to oppose charter schools, including the most inane and senseless that I've heard, to wit: charter schools represent a new "separate but equal" system that basically segregates students of color in public schools. This attack is so warped as it compares schools of choice by parents, including to the point of having thousands of students on waiting lists; to an ugly, government-sanctioned system of racial discrimination in public schools from yesteryear.

Also interesting was Perkins' status as a founding trustee of the Sisulu-Walker Charter School in Harlem, the very first to open back in August 1999. Then a city councilman, Perkins basically lent his name to the effort and, as the Times writes, never attended any meetings and soon vacated the board. Sisulu-Walker Charter School (as in Rev. Wyatt T. Walker, a former chief of staff to Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.) has been a high-performing school and last fall celebrated its 10th anniversary. There is no "separate but equal" canopy there or in any other charter schools in Harlem, which are thriving, as the Wall Street Journal discussed recently. Moreover, the student body in charters, not surprisingly, resembles every other district school in Harlem.

Doing the Teacher Unions' Bidding - Against His Community
The simple reality is that Sen. Perkins opposes charters because the teacher unions oppose them. It's not complicated. He speaks from the union's cue cards. What is unusual is how publicly hostile he is to the point where his own constituents (fellow African-Americans) booed him off the stage at Charter School Advocacy Day in Albany in early February. Note: they only booed him after he told them from the podium that he opposed charters - his version of "welcome to Albany."

The United Federation of Teachers, of course, looms large in New York City. Legislators naturally do its bidding and many tread carefully on the charter school issue. For most legislators with large charter constituencies, they walk a fine line by generally supporting both means of public education. Not Sen. Perkins, hence, a case study worthy of examination.

Peter Murphy
for The Chalkboard
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