Category: Barbic

How much to they earn?

4/7/2015

Did you know???

...Chris Barbic makes a larger salary than Candice McQueen?

...Chris Barbic makes a higher salary than Governor Haslam?

...Candice McQueen makes less salary than former Commissioner of Education, Kevin Huffman made?

SALARIES:

Chris Barbic (Superintendent TN ASD) = $215,000
Candice McQueen (current TN Commissioner of Education) = $200,004
Kevin Huffman (former TN Commissioner of Education) = $208,280
Bill Haslam (Governor of TN) = $184,632 + money through his family's business
Jamie Woodson (CEO of SCORE) = $329,156
Average salary of a teacher in TN = $45,891
Salaries of government employees can be found HERE. Nonprofit organizations' 990 tax records are public and can be found through many online sites including Guidestar.org.

As you consider merit pay for "effective" employees and the very lucrative privatization of public education, we'll just let the above salary numbers sink in...

Experimenting on poor kids

4/1/2015

A "Petri Dish." That is what Chris Barbic, Superintendent of the TN Achievement School District, compared the Achievement School District to during an interview with Nashville Public Radio where he pleaded for more time. He said,

"There's [sic] 22 bills that have been filed right now to either try to kill this thing or pull it apart, and this thing hasn't even gotten out of the Petri dish."

Just last week, the YES Prep Charter Chain abandoned the TN ASDbecause things weren't looking as profitable as they'd planned. YES Prep (which is a charter chain conceived and birthed by Chris Barbic himself in Texas), at the last minute, pulled out of the Memphis ASD, leaving the local school district scrambling to accommodate students.

YES Prep was quoted as saying to the Commercial Appeal,

“We are not going to experiment at the risk of Memphis students. That is not fair to them,” said Bill Durbin, superintendent of Yes Prep Memphis. After hiring staff for the coming year and spending the better part of two years laying groundwork in Memphis, Yes Prep is leaving. It has no intention of returning."

Even more interesting was Chris Barbic's response to YES Prep abandoning the ASD,

"ASD Supt. Chris Barbic minced few words in reaction to the charter firm’s decision, saying Yes Prep apparently was not serious about the difficulty of the work in Memphis and that it was a significant hardship to deal with a pullout this late in the game. "This is the big leagues. If you want to play in the big leagues, the work is difficult, in the public and there is lots of scrutiny and pressure. Some organizations will hear that and say, ‘We want to step up to that challenge and make it happen.’ If you want to play single- and double-league ball, maybe Memphis is not for you,” he said.

So this is a GAME???

The University of Memphis has plans to "experiment" and profit from poor kids, too. Rich white philanthropists like Pitt Hyde gave a whole lot of money to start the RELAY program at the University of Memphis. This will create a supply of fast-tracked, temporary teachers for the ASD and charter schools in the poorest areas of Memphis. They claim it is to fill the teacher shortage, but the truth is there is no teacher shortage. In fact, hundreds of excellent teachers last year were "excessed" in that district. (Excessed means "not rehired.")

The leaders and philanthropists naively think that these young, fast-tracked RELAY teachers will increase test scores of students. In truth, these temps will lower costs of labor and replace experienced, lifelong educators like Meghan Vaziri, who was a level 5 teacher in a school that the ASD took over. (Level 5 is the top score you can get as a teacher in Tennessee). According to the former Memphis City Schools, level 5 is considered an "irreplaceable" teacher, yet Vaziri has been replaced by a temporary Teach For America teacher who only had 5 weeks of training over the summer. Meghan Vaziri is now self-employed as a freelance artist and web developer, but she would love to teach in public schools again. Since witnessing firsthand the ASD's failure with the students and the school she once worked in, she has been an advocate fighting against the ASD's future takeover of public schools. She attends every public meeting she can, and she bravely speaks up. She knows that the ASD is not working, that the average test scores of the ASD after 2 years are still not as high as they were when the schools were public schools. About losing her job, she says she is okay, that "really the only people who were truly hurt were the children who already have too much chaos in their lives to have lost their long time teachers."

When asked for proof that this new RELAY program would work, President Rudd of the University of Memphis could give no proof and honestly admitted in a public meeting this RELAY program is "an experiment." The faculty at University of Memphis is outraged that this Relay program arrangement was brought to their public University in secret, and is proceeding despite their arguments and logic, despite the fact that the University of Memphis already has an outstanding teacher training college that this RELAY program will undoubtedly harm, and despite the fact that President Rudd keeps cancelling public meetings and rescheduling them at inconvenient times for people to attend. President Rudd has now formed a "task force," to "study" the issue, but we've heard his wife has been appointed to serve on it. Everyone knows what the "task force" is intended to do. They are not dumb.

Why don't these leaders and philanthropists "experiment" on their own children in private schools? African American leaders and parents should be outraged, especially the pastors in their communities who one would think would be fighting for justice and equality for the children in their neighborhoods... but, oddly, many are not. Why is this? African American pastors are targeted by reformers and hailed as "visionaries" to promote vouchers for the children in their communities. Don't be surprised when branches of private schools suddenly find building space in those African American pastor's churches and provide a lucrative rent income to their struggling congregations with your public tax dollars. Money speaks. Like charter schools, the private schools are not equipped to handle students with special needs, disabilities, or handicaps. They are not prepared to handle the needs of high-poverty students. Schools will be segregated even more with vouchers. This has happened in other states, and Tennessee will be no exception.

Tennessee Parents have an important message that needs to be heard:

Poor children are NOT an experiment.
Poor children are NOT a game.
Poor children are NOT a petri dish.
They deserve quality public schools in their communities.
Stop screwing around with their education!
Stop listening to overpriced consultants!
Stop listening to overpaid lobbyists!
Stop giving away our public education dollars to private entities to profit from!

Lest you think, "well, those schools deserve to be taken over by the state because they were in the bottom 5%," think about this: There will ALWAYS be a bottom 5%. Even if every student in the state bubbles every single question on the TCAPs correctly this spring, there will still be a bottom 5% of schools. Cut scores on high-stakes tests are intentionally set to have a failing percentage of students. Middle and upper class students have a clear advantage when it comes to testing. Tennessee Education Report rightly calls TCAP the "Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment of Poverty," for that is the data that TCAP truly shows. This system is rigged!

Can public schools do better? Absolutely, with support they need, they certainly can! Have they been starved of funding and resources? Yes!!! The BEP has not been fully funded by the State in our children's lifetimes, so local school boards have struggled for yearswith inadequate funding to pay for never-ending mandates from the state such as expensive testing, computer requirements, and RTI2. Across the state, and especially in poorer areas, class sizes have increased, extra-curricular programs have been slashed, and corners have been cut to make dollars stretch.

Schools in the bottom 5% especially need additional support that they aren't getting. They take children where they are, and they do their best to make them better. Give them smaller class sizes and guidance counselors and watch the children flourish! Make sure that every student's face and name is known and cherished by a staff member in their school building. Don't let those children slip through the cracks! Yes, this takes an investment of money. But we can either pay for it now when the children are young and it will make a positive difference in their lives, or we will be forced to pay doubly for it in the future if those children enter the school to prison pipeline and taxpayers are forced to fund the high cost of incarceration.

Rich people and politicians often say that we "shouldn't keep throwing money at schools" and that "local districts need to better manage their money." Ironically, their own children are in private schools with millions of dollars in endowments where they pay $30,000+ per year tuition without blinking. Our districts in TN are educating children with a third of that or less, while PTAs and PTOs diligently try to fill in the difference through bake sales and car washes. Before those rich people and politicians cast a stone and dismiss public education as wasteful, they should take a look at the boulder in their own eye. What is good for their own precious upper class children is no less than what middle-class and poor children also need... small class sizes, enrichment through the Arts and sports, safe school facilities, no common core, and no excessive standardized testing.

Show us a failing school in a middle or upper class neighborhood. You can't. They don't exist. They are all in the poorest neighborhoods in the state. Poverty is the common factor in failing schools. Fix it, and the precious test scores will rise in Tennessee. Treat children with respect, and not as a commodities. Children need stability and real teachers, not charter vultures, not more testing, not common core, not temporary untrained teachers, and certainly not vouchers to mediocre private schools.

Tennessee, we can do this!!!

Alarming ASD Problems

3/2/2015

Have you seen TN Comptroller's Audit of the Achievement School District? The audit was quietly filed away until a parent did a FOI request, finally obtained it, and shared it on the internet.

Click HERE to read the State Comptroller's findings and see for yourself how the ASD mismanaged money, including:

The Achievement School District inappropriately charged the School Improvement Grants program for expenditures incurred before the award was effective and failed to adequately review invoices paid to Charter Management Organizations, resulting in federal questioned costs of $193,241 (p.32-33)
The ASD Failed to Adequately Review CMO Invoices (p.33-34).
The ASD Accounting Manager and Accounts Payable Clerk processed 5 invoices, totaling $477,166.14, without the documented approval of the Public Grants Manager. (p.34)
$66,366.18 in unsupported expenditures charged to School Improvement Grants, resulting in questioned costs for personnel, textbooks, travel costs, benefits overpayments, and salary miscalculations. (p.34)
On 2 invoices, a CMO billed ASD for expenditures before the vendors were paid. (p.34)
The ASD blamed some of these errors on "high turnover in its Public Grants Manager position during the fiscal year." The State Comptroller determined that "when the position was vacant, no other employee assumed the role of reviewing and approving invoices in order to mitigate the risk of paying inaccurate, unsupported, or fraudulent invoices. By not ensuring that invoices are properly reviewed, approved, and adequately supported, ASD runs the risk of paying CMOs for activities that are not allowed under federal program requirements." (p.35)

The ASD clearly mismanaged taxpayer money.

The ASD has LOWER TCAP test results than when those schools were public schools.

Now, read how the ASD wants to enroll students from outside ASD zones to boost test scores and get even more money...

Tennessee Achievement School District (ASD) Superintendent Chris Barbic, like other reformers, often talks about creating opportunities for students "trapped in failing schools.” But this week Barbic is pushing legislation that would allow Barbic to recruit students from high-performing schools INTO schools the state has identified as “failing." Barbic told Tennessee legislators on Wednesday that parents are beating down his door to get into ASD charter schools that are some of the worst performing schools in the state, according to the state’s highly touted accountability measures.

However, Barbic failed to mention that parents have submitted a petition with 78 pages of signatures to the Memphis school board asking them to remove their school from Barbic’s expanding charter school empire. Parents aren’t “voting with their feet” to attend charter schools after all.

Parents are smart to avoid ASD-operated charter schools. ASD schools are under-performing district-run schools in Memphis (http://www.bluffcityed.com/2014/09/just-facts-asd-vs-izone-performance/). Even the ASD’s most touted school in Nashville, Brick Church Middle, is under-performing its district-run counterpart, and it’s clear from an independent report that the ASD takeover of Brick Church created a terrible environment for the students and staff alike.(http://www.tennessean.com/story/opinion/contributors/2014/12/22/asd-riles-parents-community-school-takeover/20648199/) Furthermore, a recent audit shows that the ASD has been mismanaging public funds, including federal money.(https://norinrad10.wordpress.com/2015/02/23/time-to-end-the-asd-fiasco/) But the ASD continues to expand over parent protest, most recently by cherry-picking the highest performing priority school in Nashville to help boost its own miserable test scores.

The ASD was supposed to be a boon for national charter school operators like Rocketship. Barbic and Kevin Huffman recruited Rocketship and others to Tennessee with the promise of dozens of schools that they would take over. Tennessee has rigged its accountability system to place over 80 schools on a “priority school” list that charters can target for takeover. So far they’ve taken over 22 schools in Memphis. But students zoned for those schools taken over by Barbic's charter school cronies have stayed away in droves, most opting to stay with schools run by the local school board. This has upset private operators who were promised full schools if they came to Memphis.

In order to fill up the empty seats, Barbic wants to take kids out of schools that are performing well and put them in the state’s worst performing schools, all to protect the bottom lines of charter school operators. Students abandoning ASD schools are also impacting Barbic’s own bottom line. He can’t afford to hire enough teachers to comply with the state class size requirement, but he has found a way to solve this problem by increasing class sizes at ASD schools. He was recently was granted a class size waiver by the newly appointed Commissioner of Education, Candice McQueen. This week, he testified at the legislature that the ASD class sizes are 14-15 students, but the waiver allows him to expand his class sizes far beyond this number.

In Tennessee schools must be held accountable to some of the highest standards in the country - unless there is a profit motive involved - and then the powers-that-be not only look the other way, they actually work to create more opportunities for students to attend schools that the state has labeled “failing"!

If Barbic is working to place students enrolled in high achieving schools into “failing” ASD schools, he is obviously not concerned about the best interests of Tennessee’s students. He is concerned about the best interests of his charter operator buddies and his own bottom line.

- written by a TN parent and published on Diane Ravitch's blog 3/2/15

NOTE: TN House Bill 508 filed by Representative Mitchell is a logical bill to eliminate the wastefulness, churn, manipulation, and failure of the TN ASD. It would abolish the ASD after 2015-16 and return local control to communities. hank you to the legislators that have agreed to support this much-needed bill!

Bad year for the ASD

12/23/2014

As many of you know by now, the Achievement School District (ASD) in Tennessee has not had a very good year. Students, parents, teachers, and community members are revolting against the hostile takeovers of their beloved neighborhood schools in Memphis and Nashville. For a summary of what has been happening with the ASD recently, visit the following links:
http://www.mommabears.org/blog/who-loves-ya-baby http://www.mommabears.org/blog/everybody-hates-chris

In addition, elected officials in both cities—including state legislators, city council representatives, and school board members—are expressing their discontent with the ASD. To read an excellent op-ed by Amy Frogge and Jill Speering of the Metro Nashville school board, visit this link:
http://www.tennessean.com/story/opinion/contributors/2014/12/22/asd-riles-parents-community-school-takeover/20648199/

The ASD has been rife with problems and controversies, including:

poor student test outcomes (http://www.bluffcityed.com/2014/08/just-the-facts-a-longitudinal-analysis-of-asd-schools-before-and-after-takeover/)
apparent disregard for local-control and community input (http://tnedreport.com/?cat=211&paged=2),
employment of poorly-trained Teach for America (TFA) corps members as “teachers”.
use of charter schools that impose extreme discipline on children. (http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/local-news/charter-schools-face-backlash-in-inner-cities-to)
Happy Hour parties, funded by our tax dollars, to recruit TFA teachers to the ASD. (http://memphis.eventful.com/events/asdtfa-happy-hour-/E0-001-061481853-1)

But just when you thought there couldn’t possibly be any more bad news for the ASD, the press recently announced that Tennessee’s Race to the Top grant money is about to run out. That’s a problem for the ASD because part of that grant money goes to fund their administrative costs. So what does Chris Barbic, the almighty leader of the ASD, decide to do? Instead of admitting that the ASD has been a failed experiment that has made life miserable for countless Tennesseans, he decides to push forward by—hold on to your hats—making up for the loss of administrative funding by taking money from per pupil funding. (http://nashvillepublicradio.org/blog/2014/12/22/race-top-money-dries-tennessees-achievement-school-district-forced-find-new-funding/).

As mentioned above, the ASD's overall test scores are not good. Not good at all. Yet now they plan on trying to run their organization with even less money. Using basic logic, we can assume that their scores are going to drop even further. So why do they keep trying to expand in Nashville and Memphis, especially when parents, community members, and elected officials are in a full revolt against the addition of ASD schools in both of these cities? The ASD believes that the corporate model works for education, but how many corporations continue expanding when:
1) they are losing money,
2) their return on investment is abysmal, and
3) the community doesn't want them around?

I guess we really shouldn’t expect anything less from a man who recently claimed that he could convert all 85 priority schools to the ASD if he gave the word. (http://tnedreport.com/?cat=211&paged=2)
Oh, and from a man who founded the YES Prep charter chain that, not so coincidentally, will be opening its first TN ASD charter school in 2015.
(http://yesprepmemphis.com/2014/12/12/yes-prep-public-schools-matched-with-airways-middle-school-for-the-2015-16-school-year/)

Which makes one wonder — is Chris Barbic still leading the ASD because he really believes it is making a positive difference in Tennessee? Or is he so personally invested in this scheme that he is unwilling to acknowledge reality? Regardless of his reasoning, it’s time for all of us who see through this scam to contact our legislators and let them know that it’s time to put an end to this madness.

Go to this link (http://www.capitol.tn.gov/legislators/), get the contact information for your state representatives, and then email/call them. And feel free to use the following text in your message:

Dear Senator _________ and Representative __________,

I urge you to please put a stop to the Achievement School District, which takes over the “bottom 5%” of TN schools, during the 2015 legislative session.

The ASD:

1)   Has poor test scores.

2)   Shows disregard for the wishes of community members and locally elected politicians.

3)   Employs poorly trained Teach for America corps members who generally do not stay in the teaching profession for longer than 1-2 years.

4)   Uses charter schools that often employ extreme disciplinary tactics.

5)   Holds “Happy Hour” events with taxpayer money.

6)   Plans to use a charter chain that was founded by the current ASD leader, Chris Barbic.

7)   Has lost its funding from Race to the Top and will now be using per pupil funding, which should be going to teach its students, to support its administrative costs.

The ASD experiment has gone on long enough and it must stop. And if our district has not yet been tapped by the ASD, it’s just a matter of time before it will be--because there will always be schools in the bottom 5%.

Sincerely,

Wait, who is the real bully here? and who is the victim?

12/15/2014

Chris Barbic published an op-ed article in the newspaper today that portrays his actions as noble... except some teachers and parents are being meanies. They won't let him steal their neighborhood schools and give them to charter operators (who have dismal results). Um, really? Who is the real victim in this?

Even though the main-stream newspapers won't publish these responses, we felt the need to share the truth with our readers:

DEAR ASD, ITS NOT THE TONE THAT’S THE PROBLEM
- written by a Nashville Dad who supports public education

Chris Barbic of the Tennessee Achievement District has been out making the interview rounds of late. One of his primary themes has been the tone surrounding the conversation on education. People have lost sight of the kids and how they are the only ones that matter. People just say awful things about reformers and himself. Of course, there is not a single mention of the role the tourists, as I’ve not taken to calling reformers, play in this conversation.

Peter Greene was brilliant in labeling the reform movement as tourists.(http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2014/12/homeostasis-tourists-stability-and-feds.html?spref=tw) Just like tourists they go into an area and impose their agenda and views on the natives and then get indignant when the natives snap back. Think about how the French react to American tourists. Where do you think the term “ugly American” originates? Instead of trying to understand the ire of the native, the tourist just labels them as uncooperative and hostile. Hmmm…sound familiar?

The other caveat in the tone discussion is the lack of honesty on the tourist side. I get labeled as obtuse and acting like a bully on occasion but the truth is I’m just tired. I’m tired of the condescending rhetoric. I’m tired of the parlor tricks and most of all I’m tired of the lying. Sorry Chris, but you just happen to be one of the worst offenders.

Lets take a look at this past week. The ASD was set to announce their next round of takeovers. Do they do it on a Monday morning when we can all read about it and discuss? Do they even do it in the middle of the week? No, they do it on a Friday at 5pm, a time traditionally reserved for delivering bad news. The reason being that nobody reads the paper over the weekend and by Monday something else has replaced the story in the news cycle. Hence the name, Friday afternoon news dump. You’re not supposed to know that though.

How about Chris’s lament about not focusing on the kids enough. It wants you to forget a few things. Public education is not just about immediate needs i.e. reading on grade level, generating test scores etc. Schools should be reflections of our society. If schools are being rigged so that society is further stratified how are we watching out for the kids? If we demand that all kids go to college even though the job market doesn’t support that, how are we watching out for the kids? If we narrow their focus to just the measurable and deny them the life broadening experiences of art, music, industrial arts, how are we watching out for the kids? All you’re supposed to know is that he cares and the rest of us are out representing “adult interests”.

Their is another part of Peter Greene’s article that really hit home for me, the part about reform is being about leaving something behind. Charter’s constantly tout themselves as a means to leave poverty behind but what happens to what’s left behind? Are those communities left to languish? Do we use our commitment to the kids as an excuse to do nothing about the ever widening income gap in America? Its interesting that in underdeveloped countries we focus on educating females because they will stay in the village and raise the level of education for all while in America we preach abandonment.

Barbic says its all about the kids, but the ASD is only taking over one class a year starting with the incoming class of fifth graders. So all those kids who he’s lamenting that we’ve failed, he’s just written off. The only kids the ASD is concerned about are the ones coming in that can generates numbers to justify his savior complex. The others will be left to languish and try to find their own way. MNPS probably won’t divert more resources to their school because, well that’s an ASD school now. Forgot to mention that part huh?

I was always taught not to judge people on how they interacted directly with you but to judge them on their interactions with others when they thought you weren’t watching. Barbic has touted LEAD schools for their experience with the EL population. Well I was at the Neely’s Bend meeting and not only was there an insufficient number of translators but initially they were very selective with what they translated. None of the speakers that were critical of the ASD were translated. Hmmm…is this a sample of that LEAD school experience or just something else that was forgotten?

In a recent Op-Ed piece Barbic called out critics for misleading people about Charters being privateers.

We saw fliers handed out with false data about ASD schools. We heard charters being called profiteers, even though all of our charters are nonprofit public schools. State law prevents for-profit charters from serving students. This false information leaves parents angry and confused, and even sadder, it drowns out parent voices.

Well lets look closer. Rocketship is an ASD partner right?(http://tn.chalkbeat.org/2014/09/08/rocketships-nashville-debut-highlights-tennessees-place-in-the-charter-landscape/#.VI8G62F0xnI)
Rocketship buys buildings under a private corporation that in turn leases to the “school”.
(http://www.shesellsnashville.com/2014/12/11/andre-agassis-fund-acquires-murfreesboro-pike-building-murfreesboro-tn-real-estate/)
They kind of move the money around a bit so they look like non-profits.(http://www.tnledger.com/editorial/article.aspx?id=72653)
So Chris is this another something you forgot or….oh yea I’m working on tone.

Lastly but certainly not least, is the ASD’s focus on data. Chris is out championing his data but when confronted with it, well it doesn’t exactly tell the complete story. Both School board Members Amy Frogge and Jill Speering confronted the ASD on their data at the recent meeting. By the way Chris, this is what elected officials do. They dig into arguments and make sure that the people who elected them have their voice heard. This democracy thing is really a pain in the butt.

Well the scores the school board member’s presented didn’t jibe with the ASD’s. Barbic’s answer. Frogge and Speering were using the raw scores. You didn’t get an accurate picture until you added some good old value added voodoo, which by the way has proven to be highly unreliable. (http://nepc.colorado.edu/blog/problem-value-added-measures ) Oh well, so much for data.

Are you starting to get the idea of why the tone has gotten so ugly? If you had a friend who was constantly giving false information and when confronted about it just shifted the parameters of the conversation, would you spend much time hanging out together? Would you continue to give them the benefit of the doubt when they spoke? Would you introduce them to new people? Its time to supply the same criteria to Chris Barbic and the Tennessee Achievement School District and actually the whole tourist movement. Stop lying and we may want to hang out more.

I don’t think that’s going to happen though. At least not with out the intervention of elected officials. Chris Barbic doesn’t believe that he has to answer to anyone. He believes that he has unchecked power to take what ever school he wants and the only accountability is internal “We’re going to hold ourselves accountable for results. There will be no such thing as slow failure in the ASD. If after three years our schools are not improving at an acceptable pace, we will replace them.” That’s not acceptable and we should demand that our lawmakers review the ASD’s Charter. That’s what I’m going to do and I hope all of you will join me. This predatory entity needs to be reigned in.

Originally published HERE. Shared with permission of the author.

Response by Jill Speering, Metro Nashville School Board Member, District 3:

I find it interesting that Chris Barbic, Superintendent of the Achievement School District, stated that elected officials who attended the Madison "parent" meetings had an "agenda". So I've been thinking.... what's my agenda?

Why am I working so hard for such a small salary? Why am I so passionate about this work? What's the bottom line? What am I trying to achieve? Why do I believe that Neely's Bend Middle should be left in the hands of the current principal and staff rather than turning it over to Chris Barbic?

What's my agenda? As a retired career educator of 35 years, I know the importance of motivation in the learning process. I have had years of experience watching kids, talking to kids, listening to kids about what's important to them. In the many classes I've taught through the years, I've found this paramount to teaching. As I discovered the interests of my students, I could mold my curriculum and my teaching around those interest in such a way that school doesn't feel like "school". My classroom transformed into a place where everyone was learning at their own pace in their own ways about the same and different things. No one wanted to miss a day in fear they would miss some exciting science experiment or the gerbil babies might be born or they wouldn't get to hear the new book written by their favorite author.

There are many outstanding teachers who have this magic. But unfortunately we have focused so much on test scores that these magical moments are being lost.

In fact, the focus on test scores has become so important that our state makes decision about which schools should be turned over to an agency that is charged with improving the education of children. But the educators in ASD schools are often Teach For America (TFA) teachers who are motivated to put in a minimum of two years and then move on to more important work with the potential to make much higher salaries.
The ASD is run by an alumni of TFA. I remember my early years of teaching. I was wet behind the ears. I had so much to learn and it took years and advanced degrees to become the magical teacher I became. However, experience and advanced degrees don't seem to be important to TFA or ASD.

So what does the ASD offer instead? Teaching to the test. Skill and drill; drill and kill. Extended days: some weekend work. Students are taught strict compliance to rules. And if they don't follow those rules or if they don't seem to be making progress in this environment, they are encouraged to find another educational opportunity in a district run school.

Why I oppose ASD coming to Madison. Neely's Bend Middle already outperforms the ASD. Two low-performing charters already closed in Madison. Of course those kids were sent back to district schools which lowered the achievement of Madison schools. There is a new principal and motivated teachers at Neely's Bend Middle. Let's give them a chance. Let's support our schools, our students. Let's help our teachers and principals. MNPS needs to offer more wrap-around services to support impoverished kids. Let's not turn our backs on our students. Tell the ASD to go away. Embrace your schools. It's our community!

What's my agenda? Children who are happy, cooperative, able to think, discern, morally responsible with developed consciousness, who are becoming independent learners and the future of Madison!

ASD in Ashes: ASD Achieves Revolts

10/29/2014

Tennessee's Achievement School District has achieved something alright... a flat out citizen's revolt and not even offers of free pizza from the ASD could calm the crowds.

This week, the ASD is holding a series of public meetings at schools targeted for takeover in Shelby County. They were not welcomed and faced strong community opposition. On the north side of town, parents and teachers protested the ASD takeover at Raleigh Egypt High School. At American Way Middle School in south Memphis, the audience shouted down ASD charter school representatives forcing them off the stage. Then last night at the Shelby County School Board meeting, so many people spoke against the ASD school takeovers that public comments were limited to 90 seconds. More opposition to ASD takeovers is expected at the upcoming meetings scheduled for later this week.

Parents Don't Trust the ASD

Parents have seen the ASD's dismal record on student achievement and they want better for their children. The new unified Shelby County School system has shown that is a stronger district and capable of raising student achievement. The citizens of Shelby County are insisting that their school system be given an opportunity to teach their children without the ASD's interference.

ASD charter schools have WORSE test scores than Shelby County School

ASD schools are now scoring even LOWER than before the takeover

ASD plays games in selecting schools for its priority list:

Click HERE to see how the ASD manipulated its own numbers.
See HERE how the ASD literally changed report card grades to a new scale to make failing students pass (*A=90-100, B=71-89, C=59-70, D=47-58, F=0-46).
Click HERE to see how the TDOE "messed up" the lists of failing, priority, & focus schools and was called out by a district.
Click HERE to see how the ASD cherry picked schools and manipulated data last year. Is the ASD targeting the "top of the bottom" schools to try and "cream" the best for their portfolio?
Click HERE to see why American Way Middle shouldn’t be on the ASD list at all.

ASD contracts with problem charter chains:

Green Dot's failure in California
YES Prep's cronyism and connection to the ASD Superintendent, Chris Barbic. Coincidentally, Barbic is being sued for unfairly picking his YES Prep charter chain to operate in the ASD.
Libertas' non-existent track record
KIPP's method of kicking out students before TCAP testing
A former Memphis KIPP teacher speaks up about the high teacher turnover and cult-like environment.

Parents Don't Want to be Disenfranchised by the ASD

Another problem that these communities are having trouble digesting is the loss of elected representation. No one on the school board represents the ASD schools. Public parents demand to have an elected official to turn to when they or teachers have concerns. They pay taxes for public education and they want elected school board members to have authority over their public schools. But instead, their tax dollars are paying for charter schools. Sounds a lot like taxation without representation where public dollars are controlled by private interests. Parents don't like putting their children in the hands of those who are there (and let's be honest) because their profit potential is huge.

Parents appreciate House Representative Antonio Parkinson and Shelby County School Board Member, Stephanie Love, for speaking up for the teachers, students, and communities at the Raleigh Egypt High meeting. That is elected leadership representing their constituents. We hope other elected officials join their efforts.

Parents Don't Like the ASD's Back Room Dealings

A Memphis blogger talked to Stephanie Love about this "hostile takeover" and Love felt the community was being left out of the process. “People are meeting behind closed doors about our children and our communities who don’t know anything about our children, don’t ask us question about what’s best for our children and our communities.” Even though Love is the elected school board member for Raleigh-Egypt's district, she had never been included in the meetings. The blogger goes on to say that Love "would rather see those schools being taken over included in [Shelby County School's] iZone. Love agreed that these schools need extra support but she urges support be given within the current framework of SCS." Unfortunately, this is not an option with the ASD because the ASD has made it clear that it works with charter school operators, not Shelby County School Board nor their constituency. And they are more interested in making money than being popular with the voters. A recent Commercial Appeal article said, "State Rep. Antonio Parkinson suggested it was time to follow the money, noting that charters aren’t interested in taking over small schools, suggesting they don’t offer enough cash."

Parents Don't Want the ASD to Say Goodbye to Teachers & Staff

When these communities realize that their school's teachers and staff will likely be replaced with unqualified, inexperienced staff, they're not so keen on the idea. They like their teachers. They are invested in the community. One news station reported how Green Dot brought some of their current ASD students to talk to people at Raleigh Egypt High School, but one of the Green Dot students admitted that the staff at her high school had changed drastically when the ASD took over, saying "probably 10 teachers that I recognize from last year" are still at her school this year.

Even though Superintendent Dorsey Hopson co-authored a letter in the local newspaper just a few months ago with ASD Superintendent Chris Barbic, Hopson is now saying he is opposed to giving the schools to the ASD. In fact, the SCS Board is considering a moratorium on ASD takeovers, citing that it is achieving better results with its own iZone schools, which pour more resources and qualified teachers into struggling schools.

Parents Don't Forget the ASD's Broken Promises

Children in Memphis’ Coleman neighborhood are not allowed to attend their neighborhood ASD school that is blocks away from their home. Despite the law that said ASD must take zoned neighborhood children, children are being bussed an hour away to another ASD school across town because Aspire Charter Chain says they have no capacity for them. But here’s the thing: Coleman Elementary had 515 students in 2012-13, but now they are maxing the school out at 380 students as a new ASD school? This is not acceptable. Parents do not want their children riding on a school bus 2 hours a day or sent to a failing school across town. This is not good for children. Some speculate it is about money and raising the scores of the school across town.
Parents were told that two veteran charter school operators, KIPP and Freedom Prep were chosen by the ASD to takeover their schools. But these charter chains recently decided to pull out of the ASD market in Memphis. They said it was to focus on their current schools but at least one of them is eyeing new charter schools in Nashville leaving parents to wonder if it truly about children or about profits.
And the biggest broken promise of all... our schools taken over by the ASD aren’t anywhere near reaching the top 25% of the state like ASD Superintendent Chris Barbic has repeatedly promised parents.

Local news coverage in Memphis:

Memphis isn't the only pocket of resistance. Nashville is simmering, too. This strongly worded press release below from East Nashville United shows that parents are not willing to give in. They clearly do not like back-room deals being made regarding their children or their community's schools between politicians and venture capitalists:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: John Haubenreich
haubenreich@gmail.com
October 28, 2014

EAST NASHVILLE UNITED BLASTS REGISTER’S INGLEWOOD DECEPTION

Nashville, Tenn. -- East Nashville United is calling on Jesse Register to back away from his back room deal to hand over the management of Inglewood Elementary School to KIPP, a local charter school operator.
On September 24th, Nashville Schools Director Jesse Register hosted a community meeting at Inglewood Elementary to discuss his recently announced East Nashville schools’ plan. Nearly every parent at the meeting voiced unbridled support for their zoned school, prompting Register to tell the Nashville Scene that he was not inclined to hand over Inglewood to KIPP.
“It sounds like this community does not want this school to convert to a charter school. So, we need to hear that,” said Register. “I would be very hesitant to recommend a conversion here. There are some other places where a conversion might work, but I don’t think so in this community.”
On Monday, however, it was revealed that Register had already made a deal with KIPP for Inglewood Elementary, despite repeated assertions to the community that “there was no plan” and statements to Inglewood Elementary parents confirming that he was not going to convert the school to a charter. Recently released emails confirm that the district’s central office had already settled on Inglewood as a location for the next KIPP location, weeks before Register announced his 3rd Way Plan to the school board.
“We made it very clear to Dr. Register that we were not in favor of a charter conversion and he appeared to listen,” says Jai Sanders, an Inglewood parent and one of the founding members of East Nashville United. “But now it’s clear that the fix was already in to flip our school to KIPP and that his meeting with parents was a charade.”
Although East Nashville United has repeatedly signaled its support for the existing charter schools in the Stratford and Maplewood clusters, John Haubenreich, the chair of the parent-led group, affirmed yet again that his group’s opposition to the district’s dealings is not over the role of charter schools in public education.
“Had the parents at Inglewood expressed any interest in handing over their school to KIPP, we would not oppose a charter conversion,” Haubenreich says. “But the parents made it clear that they did not want a charter to run their school. What they wanted--and still want--is for their zoned school to stay intact, only with MNPS providing it with the resources it needs to succeed.”
Haubenreich says he is mystified how Register could hedge his position after hearing from so many Inglewood parents.
“Our message all along has been that any East Nashville plan can be created only after listening to parents and educators,” he said. “We thought that’s the direction we were all headed, but now it appears we’re back to square one, fighting a cram-down scheme concocted in back rooms by people who don’t live in our neighborhoods and don’t have kids in our schools.”

Ruth Stewart, the vice chair of ENU, says that the recently released emails raise serious questions about whether Register has any plans to listen to the community task force. The task force, pushed for by East Nashville United, was supposed to help devise a plan by listening to parents and educators and researching the best options for each school. Stewart, however, says the recently released emails suggest that district officials and charter officials were already engaged in serious policy discussions well before anyone else knew an East Nashville plan was afoot.

“We were told over and over that there was no plan, but the emails show the exact opposite.” Stewart says. “Before the task force begins its work, we want to know details of this secret plan. We’re not sure what the point of having a task force is if the district is already making decisions behind closed doors, with no community input. Who knows what else they’ve already decided and haven’t told us about.”

As Jim Horn eloquently wrote on his blog:

"Parents and teachers, however, are not nearly as uninformed as county officials who are doing the Gates dirty work believe. In fact, they know how the charter school takeover cycle works. They know that first you need public schools isolated by years of neglect, segregation, and poverty--schools that everyone outside the affected communities would rather forget about. Memphis has an ample supply of these schools in the poorest neighborhoods, and politicians are eager to make them someone else’s responsibility.

These neighborhood schools make easy targets for profiteers and politicians convinced (or pretending to believe) that these public schools have low test scores because of lazy teachers, public bureaucracy, unconcerned parents, unions, or other reasons having nothing do with the reality of poverty, racism, or a sordid history of inequality.

I am glad they are among those who have been awakened to the threat to their neighborhood schools by corporate takeover, as they have decided to SKIP the KIPP and offer a loud NO to YES Prep and put a big red light in front of the Green Dot.

Frederick Douglass knew that power concedes nothing without a demand. It is time for Shelby County to concede what these teachers and parents demand, and that is nothing more or less than quality public schools for all children."

The Achievement School District Farce: Don't believe the lies

9/17/2014

Legislators and school leaders need to know these facts so that they are not fooled by slick-talkers who twist the bad data to make themselves look good. These are CHILDREN's lives and their neighborhood's schools that are impacted. Please read and make sure your legislators know the truth:

Frayser 9GA, the miracle school of the Achievement School District
by Gary Rubenstein, originally posted on September 11, 2014 at Gary Rubenstein's blog

The Achievement School District of Tennessee, or ASD, was modeled after the Louisiana Recovery School District, or RSD. The superintendent of the ASD is a friend of mine from my days as a TFAer in Houston, Chris Barbic. The goal of the ASD is to take over the schools in the bottom 5% in terms of test scores in the state and within five years get the scores up so those same schools are in the top 25%. The schools, as I originally understood it, would have the same zoned students after the were taken over by (they use the euphemism ‘matched with’) the usual suspects of TFA charter chains, like KIPP and Rocketship. The first cohort of the ASD was 6 schools started in the 2012-2013 school year. This grew to 17 schools in 2013-2014, and now 23 schools for 2014-2015. I was skeptical of this plan from the beginning. As I wrote to Chris in one of my open letters, still unanswered, I felt like this was a goal that can only be achieved by some sort of cheating or lying. One cheat that is happening is that many of the charter schools did not take over existing schools but became new schools which phased in one grade at a time. This makes it pretty hard to say that a school that never existed was originally in the bottom 5% of schools.

As reformers are all about accountability and data, the ASD, of course, issues yearly reports about the progress that it is making toward the goal of moving the schools in the bottom 5% to the top 25% in five years. This year Tennessee has been very slow in releasing their state test scores. In early July they first released data for the State. On these, the average scores in the state were not very good. On average, as I wrote about here, 3-8 math scores went up by a percent while 3-8 reading scores went down by a percent. At the end of July they released the data for the individual districts. In that release, we learned that the ASD scores increased more than the state averages. I wrote here, about how that really wasn’t saying very much, particularly since the 4% the ASD reading scores had gone up by still meant that the 2013-2014 reading scores were lower than the 2011-2012 ASD reading scores. Then, in August, they finally released the final part of their data, the ‘growth’ scores of the districts and the test scores and growth scores for the individual schools.

A year ago the ASD, despite the fact that their reading scores dropped by almost 5%, somehow scored the highest possible score, a 5 out of 5 on the Tennessee ‘growth’ metric. This was, they said, a sign that things were moving in the right direction. This year, however, despite the fact that at the end of July we learned that the ASD ‘grew’ better than the state did in general, the final report in mid-August revealed that the ASD didn’t get another 5 in ‘growth.’ For the 2013-2014 school year, they got the lowest possible growth score, a 1.

You’d think that this would damper their spirits, but as they’ve got to show that they’re still on track to reach the goal of moving the schools from the bottom 5% to the top 25%, they released a report highlighting some of their successes. It turns out that some of the schools are doing quite well while others are bringing down the growth average.

They even produced this nifty scatter plot showing how some of the schools are well on their way to cracking the top 25%.

So, according to this graph, there are four schools that are really moving up the charts, and one of them, oh my! Frayser 9GA is way up there, having moved from the bottom 5%, apparently, to nearly the top 50%! Most of of the other schools haven’t made much movement, however. In the ASD report, there were some graphs showing how different schools ‘grew’ from last year to this year.

So there are schools getting it done, like Frayser 9GA, and other schools that are still failing, like, say, Westside Achievement Middle School, with its declining scores in both categories.

So I did what no Tennessee education reporters have the ingenuity to do, I did some research and analysis. The first thing I noticed was the fine print at the bottom of the scatter plot showing the movement of some of the schools.

Notes: 1-yr success rates; 2014 percentile calculations based on 2013 data; Carver and Frayser HS used for historical data for GRAD and F9GA, respectively.

Hmmmmm. What does that mean? So I investigated further. What I learned is that Frayser 9GA isn’t, technically, a school for which it is possible to calculate the growth between 2013 and 2014. Also, it is debatable, if it can be counted as a school at all. Here’s why:

Westside Achievement Middle school, the one that had the dropping scores in the bar graphs above, serves students in grades 6-8. They were one of the original 6 ASD schools in 2012-2013. Rather than send their eighth graders to Frayser High School in 2013-2014, they decided to expand Westside Achievement Middle school to have a 9th grade in their building. They enrolled 99 students and called the ‘school’ Frayser 9GA for ‘9th Grade Academy.’ 2013-2014 was the first year that this school existed, which is why comparing their scores for their 99 9th graders to the scores of already existing Frayser high school is not a fair comparison. This article from the local Memphis newspaper explains that 85% of the 8th grade class at Westside Achievement Achievement Middle School wanted to continue at that school for the new 9th grade program.

Now in the 2013-2014 school year, Westside Achievement Middle School dropped from a 5 on their ‘growth’ to the lowest possible 1.

But the ASD decided to call the 9th grader program at Westside Achievement Middle School, all 99 students there, its own ‘school’ rather than what it actually is, a grade in the school. It is not playing by the rules to pick a grade out of a school, call it its own school and then plot it on a graph as if it was an actual school that was once in the bottom 5% of schools and that with the help of the ASD catapulted to the top 50%. So the question is, how is it that this school is failing to grow their 6th, 7th, and 8th graders in 2013-2014, yet they are getting miraculous results with their 9th graders? And what would the score for this school be if they counted the four grades as one school rather than pulling out the 9th grade class and calling that its own school? Arne Duncan was in Tennessee today and spent time with Chris Barbic and even took a selfie with him. Tennessee and the ASD are favorites of Duncan to tout his success.

It is fortunate for Duncan that he will be out of office when the house of cards that is the ASD comes tumbling down, three years from now. I’ve noticed that many reformers have been going into hiding lately: Wendy Kopp stepped down from being CEO of TFA. Michelle Rhee stepped down from being CEO of StudentsFirst. Others will surely follow into the safety of their underground bunkers. Duncan will leave office and will surely find a safe place to hide from all the questions as the reform movement continues to collapse. What will happen to my old friend Chris Barbic when this all goes down? He’s always been a decent guy. I worry he might be the only one with enough principle to go down with the ship while the others cowardly abandon it.

This is not the first time that TN Parents has reported major problems with the ASD. Read much more about the failures of the ASD by clicking HERE.

Be sure to click HERE to see an enlightening video of how the ASD recruited teachers at Bardog Tavern in Memphis. Yes, at a bar with free alcohol, appetizers, and a photobooth. And now Chris Barbic is throwing those same young teachers he recruited under the bus by saying that the problem with the ASD is the teachers (that HE hired).

Guaranteed student success: Return the ASD schools to the districts and communities they were stolen from. Give those students real, experienced, honest-to-God teachers with much smaller teacher:student ratios. Put support staff in their schools including counselors and classes for music, art, and sports. Yes, it will cost more, but this ASD system is clearly not working. Give students what they need to suceed, not what lobbyists and out-of-touch politicians think they should have.

It's a Dog Eat Dog World: Charter school attacks Huffman & Barbic with a multi-million dollar vengeance

9/9/2014

A MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR CIVIL LAWSUIT HAS BEEN FILED AGAINST KEVIN HUFFMAN, CHRIS BARBIC, TENNESSEE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, TENNESSEE ACHIEVEMENT SCHOOL DISTRICT, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CHARTER SCHOOL AUTHORIZERS AND YES PREPARATORY ACADEMY

Rodney O. Ursery, J.D. and Clara D. West, Ph.D. are the Plaintiffs Who Filed the Lawsuit In Pro Se

Memphis, TN (September 8, 2014) – Rodney O. Ursery and Clara D. West, two former applicants for a charter operator’s authorization for the 2014/2015 school year, have filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Kevin Huffman, Commissioner of Tennessee Department of Education (“TDOE”); Chris Barbic, Superintendent of the Tennessee Achievement School District (“TASD”); as well as the TDOE and TASD; along with two other defendants: the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (“NACSA”) and YES Preparatory Academy (“YES Prep”).

Among the thirteen causes of action, the complaint alleges unfair business practices, violations of Tennessee Consumer Protection Act, civil conspiracy, and violations of constitutionally protected rights. The lawsuit seeks a court order prohibiting YES Prep, a charter school enterprise headquartered in Texas, from opening schools that it illegally obtained in Memphis, Tennessee. The civil action, which also requests a jury trial, was filed in the 30th Judicial District Chancery Court, Shelby County, Tennessee.

Ursery states, “For far too long, it has been recognized and stated in the court of public opinion that Huffman and Barbic have utterly abused the power of their positions when it comes to regulating the Tennessee's school system. Now, I’m confident that their reign of terror, which has been plagued with conspiracies among crooks and cronies, will finally be revealed in a court of law, that is, if justice prevails.” West added, “It's as if we have to fight Brown v. Topeka Board of Education again. Our proposal offered equity in education through student-centered learning using individualized learning plans and iPads, just like the countries that consistently outrank the U.S. in education. We were unfairly denied the opportunity to help educate the lowest-performing students, who the system has already left behind and identified as the future prison population. It's all about leveling the playing field.”

According to the complaint, the defendants deliberately designed and implemented discriminatory selection and approval practices, customs and procedures to deny Plaintiffs’ application. The lawsuit further alleges that during the time when TASD solicited Requests for Qualification to apply for a charter operator’s authorization for the 2014/2015 school year, Barbic, TASD and NACSA conspired to approve charter operator’s authorization(s) for the 2015/2016 school year, an opportunity, which was made available only to YES Prep. It is alleged that Barbic, founder and former Chief Executive Officer of YES Prep, illegally authorized YES Prep to seize nearly 6,000 elementary school students in Memphis, TN.

Moreover, the lawsuit alleges that NACSA, who “partnered with” TASD to provide support and management services for the application process, is not a “professional” organization. NACSA does not have any government-approved, professional standards of operations; nor state licensing or certification; and it is not subject to any government agency, review board or code of ethics to govern its acts. Finally, the lawsuit states that Huffman and TDOE enacted a regulation which granted Barbic and TASD carte blanche to deny due process to applicants who are denied charter operator’s authorizations as there is absolutely no redress, grievance or appeal process to review any of the defendants’ actions.

For more information, contact the plaintiffs at: ru4justice@facebook.com or 901.300.0162.

This lawsuit is brought by two individuals claiming $10 million in damages because they were denied charter operator authorization by the ASD. $10 million dollars!!! Those damages are a clear-cut case for how profitable a charter operator authorization can be.

Interesting how a potential charter school is suing some big guns in TN over unfair business practices, isn't it?

We've heard for years how there is a severe case of the good ol' boys club, "I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine," nepotism within the TN DOE between other self-serving high-dollar organizations like the Chamber of Commerce and SCORE.

It is hard to ignore the evidence of that nepotism when you read how:

TN pays more than any other state for Teach for America temporary teachers through a $6+million NO-BID contract signed by Kevin Huffman, who formerly had a cushy job at Teach For America.
Our public schools are strangled, teachers and administrators are cut, and then the students, buildings, and tax dollars are handed over on silver platters along with generous grant dollars and tax incentives to their buddies' charter chains (like YES Prep, where ASD Superintendent Chris Barbic has very close ties and has richly profited from).
The ASD schools have worse results than the public schools they killed ever did, but the ASD schools aren't feeling the wrath of the TNDOE's micromanaging and bullying like the public schools.
Charter schools are making some people very, very rich.
Charter schools get preferential treatment within districts and the state:

charters are exempt and/or given waivers from TCAP score accountability (especially if they are friends and/or donors to politicians)
charters are exempt from giving the expensive and time-consuming benchmark RTI2 assessment tests that public schools are now being forced to do by the TNDOE.

When we allow corporate greed to infect public education, it is to be expected that profiteers will attack each other over business practices. We hope that this lawsuit will shine a light on these shady practices.

Perhaps this isn't "dog eat dog" but more like a pack of dogs attacking public schools. If the plaintiffs win, where will that $10 million come from? Public school funding???

Winners = lawyers + charter operators
Losers = students

Interesting legal tidbit: This suit has been filed in Shelby County in the 30th Judicial District Chancery Court. Jim Kyle, former TN Senator, is a new chancellor in that court. A new chancellor will be appointed to fill in for Kenny Armstrong, so there is quite a bit of turnover in that court right now.