0 1st Quarter Massachusetts Education Recap 2015

Though quiet for awhile now, I have not been absent or ignorant of what has been happening in my beloved school district and the state. Unfortunately, having to search for and then get up to speed in a new job, and because it has been a hard year for my daughter and that, along with high school applications and auditions for my younger daughter, has led to my silence over the past few months. Whether you considered it a nice break (yes, I know some did), or missed my voice and insights - plus the knowledge gained over 22 years as a Boston Public School parent - I am here to say I am back to help keep folks informed and educated. We all need to be aware of what is going on, because if we aren't I daresay by the time my youngest graduates, Boston Public Schools will become the Boston Charter School District, standardized testing will be the only thing our students do in school and the Olympics will be on the way here.

Since I last posted a lot has happened, but the most important to me are as follows: our new Governor, Charlie Baker, took office, a new Education Secretary was appointed, James Peyser, who is a champion for charter schools - no conflict of interest there, right? and a new Superintendent for Boston Public Schools, Tommy Chang from LA, was selected. Each of these on their own is concerning to me, but put together with a Boston Mayor who has made it clear that the only campaign promises Mayor Walsh will keep are those to the Unions and big money donors, it is downright alarming. I'm still waiting to be called for that Charter School Accountability Task Force Mayor Walsh promised the Boston Student Advisory Council (BSAC) and Boston Educational Justice Alliance (BEJA) he would establish to happen. 

The trend toward further privatizing our public schools continues in our state legislature, where talk of charter schools and lifting the cap on them continues despite the clear voices of thousands of families across the state having already told elected officials that this conversation is premature until we fix the issues with our public education districts by investing more in them instead of draining funds out of them and into schools that: selectively enroll and push out many students who don't test well, schools which claim 100% of their graduates go on to college without clarifying that of the many 9th graders who start at their schools very few are left to graduate from their 12th grade classes (a traditional public school would be closed due to those results) - and most of the students who do are white, unlike the marketing done by charter schools claiming they are successful for students of color or from low-income families. And let's not forget, there is no transparency regarding the money charter schools take in - whether public or private - they tend to refuse to open their books to auditors of all levels. 

And of course, let's not forget the battle waging across our state and the nation: MCAS, Common Core and PARCC assessments being used to deem a student able to graduate and public schools failing by a "deeply broken system" (Mitchell Chester re: MCAS) and before most students have had more than a year or two of the Common Core curriculum taught in their schools. This testing battle has been heating up and gaining momentum not just across this rebellious state, but the entire nation, and it seems, much to ed reformers horror everywhere, that legislators from city to federal levels are starting to realize that families are fed up with their students being taught to take tests so are opting their students out of those tests and the legislators are now making moves to change the way tests are being used to assess students, educators and schools. 

Never fear my ed reform readers, for if the legislators fail you again here in Massachusetts, the education reform groups like Families for Excellent Schools, Stand for Children, Mass Charter Public School Association, Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) and the many others backed by the ed reform conglomerates like the Walton Foundation, Gates, Broad et al, are diligently working toward putting in place a Ballot question for 2016 (and funding the campaign work necessary to push it through of course) by selling you the same old lie: that our public education systems do not work and we must privatize our public schools. After all, if you don't buy what they are selling, how can they make the $500 Billion dollar profits they gain from their New Market Tax Credit (NMTC) they invest in in the name of helping our low-income, urban and students of color?

Isn't it interesting that despite the horrible conditions our public school students endure here in Massachusetts (you know, those rowdy demanding educated parents and students, teachers unions, groups like Citizens for Public Schools that fight to protect our public schools, schools built before WWII, allowing students from low-income families or with language and special needs to attend our schools), our public schools in Massachusetts still rank 1st in the nation on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) for the 5th year in a row? Huh, imagine what we could do with more funds invested in them?

Does this mean we are perfect? No, we still have a lot of equity, opportunity and achievement gaps to overcome, especially in an urban district like Boston. But when has defunding something we are trying to fix ever been the right solution? Great example of this is our latest winter and what happened with the MBTA - for years multiple experts and groups told the legislature and voters that we needed to maintain, upgrade and invest in our public transit system, yet no one wanted to spend their money on a system that is integral to the future of our state's economy because "I don't use the T", and so, many had no way to get to work and lost wages. 

Similarly, we hear the same type of argument from folks: "I don't have children" or "My children go to private schools, why should I pay more money for public schools I do not use?" The simple answer: funding public education, like our transit system, is integral to every single voter in Massachusetts as it impacts our future, economically, socially and as a true democratic state and nation. 

And, no, the Olympics coming to Boston is NOT the answer to either our transit or our education needs - in fact, it will drain even more from our citizens and their families, so I hope you haven't bought into that lie!

All in all, it has been a busy few months for Governor Baker and Mayor Walsh, and those who assisted them into office. And it seems no matter what the constituents want, both of them will insist on continuing to ignore the voters of Massachusetts in favor of the corporations, lobbyists and education reform operators who pull their strings. 

Unfortunately for them, I am happy to report that unlike just two short years ago, more families are becoming aware of the differences between our traditional public schools and "charter public schools," more educators and families are saying that standardized testing is not the answer to what ails our public education systems, and more citizens are standing up to voice their objections to the privatization of our public education system. And the voices of these educated citizens are being heard by the legislators at the city, state and federal level. It really might be time for Governor Baker's and Mayor Walsh's advisers to clue them both in that they may very well be assuring that they each only have one term in their respective offices. 

The best evidence for why we all need to pay attention to what is happening with our public schools comes from the ultimate consumers of education services: our students, so please be sure to read EduShyster's article "Students say the darndest things."

Have questions or just want to see what I am working on? Feel free to email me at karen.kastmcbride@gmail.com or follow me via Twitter: @BPSNightmare. 

2 Massachusetts Public Education: Are Students Really Winning?

Right now in Massachusetts the battle over public education, and the tax dollars (and tax credits!) associated with it, is coming to a head in the form of legislation, H4108: And Act Relative to Improving Student Achievement, at the state house which would raise the cap on charter schools. 

Terms like "school choice", "poor and under-privileged students", "failing schools" and more are thrown around to scare the general public into believing that our traditional public schools are failing our children and the only solution is to open more charter schools. Unfortunately, for some reason our local mainstream media outlets continue to perpetuate the misinformation campaigns through multiple articles which utilize data to prove their case, even after that same data and the reports they reference have been proven to utilize faulty data and analyses and show no significant difference in performance by charter school students over traditional public school students. 

If you are a parent, family member, friend, community member, student or concerned citizen here are some things you should be asking regarding the education that your favorite student(s) are receiving right now:

When there is no significant difference in the test scores for charter school students vs. public school students, then why are there so many corporations, political groups, politicians and individuals pushing for more charter schools instead of investing in our traditional public schools? Hint: the public education industry is approximated at $500Billion dollars.

Why are we allowing our tax dollars to become corporate profits for some of the richest companies in the world (who receive tax credits, breaks also) instead of investing them into our traditional public schools? Read: Sacrificing Our Children

When it has been proven that charter schools are not actually educating the students who have significant needs, those who live in poverty and/or with language and disability needs, how can we even compare the two drastically different populations and claim one is doing better than the other? Charter Schools and Students with Disabilities Report, Pgs 26-34

Why are we allowing one type of assessment system that utilizes high-stakes tests to determine our schools and students' success levels which feeds into education policies? For more info regarding high-stakes testing, check out Fairtest.

Why are we allowing politicians, corporations and billionaires with no education background to determine the best methods to educate our children without listening to the stakeholders' voices? Read: All Change is Not Growth

Why are so many sitting silently by and allowing our legislators, and those who finance their campaigns, to push agendas and make decisions that allow our children to be used as guinea pigs? Hint: Most of the educational policies being pushed as "education reform" have never been proven to increase educational outcomes for all students.

Why do we allow our politicians to make decisions that are better for corporations than for the constituents who voted for them, and why do we keep voting them back into office? See the interview with Diane Ravitch and then read her blog! 

Who really wins when we allow public education to become a profit tool and tax credit for the Walton Family Foundation (Walmart), which has specifically targeted Boston Public Schools as one of their "target districts" to start more charter schools, and others like it who won't even pay their own employees a living wage? It is not our students who win, and the winners laugh all the way to the bank.

Think corporations and those who run them care about your children or their education? Think again. Our students education has been co-opted and is now seen as another way for shareholders, companies and foundations to make a profit at the expense of our children's future, especially for those who live in poverty, with language or disability needs, and many of our children of color. 

"College and Career Readiness" is a term that sounds great, but is used primarily to push for more charter schools, high-stakes testing and - the new favorite: school autonomy by those who want families and politicians to buy what they are selling in order to acquire more public funding that will increase their profits. These savvy corporate players know that every parent dreams of their child's future which college and careers are a part of, so it is easy to take advantage of this by corporate education reform backers. 

But is that really all you want for the children you love? I bet you are saying "No, it isn't." As someone who loves that child, you want the world for them: maybe they will invent the newest "big thing," maybe they will become a teacher, lawyer, doctor, engineer, city planner, or do something in the public sector where they help our city and country become better - maybe even President. You most likely want your students to be able to make good decisions and choices, be happy, experience love, have a family of their own - whatever that may look like, be involved in their community and engaged as a citizen and live life successfully as a well rounded person. And yes, this includes being ready to access either higher education or careers once they finalize their K-12 experience, but how can students do that if most of what they are taught revolves around the importance of taking tests?  

Additionally, what are the odds that your child will actually attain the goal of "college readiness" by graduating high school at a charter school here in Massachusetts? Not as high as they would be at your good old traditional public schools because charter schools have higher attrition and suspension rates and lower graduation rates than our traditional public schools. Unfortunately, you won't read about or hear these facts through any of our major Boston news sources. 

Luckily, we have alternatives for news like Edushyster whose article "Charter Cap 'n Gown" highlights the issue of graduation rates in Boston charter schools. Facts to think about: here in Boston, Codman Academy Charter School had only 6 boys graduate out of the 19 students who graduated in 2013 (9th grade incoming class of 53 students); City On A Hill had only 4 boys graduate of the 31 students who graduated (9th grade incoming class of 130 students); and Match Charter School also had only 6 boys graduate out of the 23 students who graduated (9th grade incoming class of 72 students.) More data to come on this VERY soon!

Corporate education reform is brought to you by those who helped bring about our latest recession: the hedge fund managers, investment brokers, corporations and the big banks involved with them. What "readiness" seems to mean for the corporations is ensuring that they have someone ready in the future to work for them and increase their profits. While they are pouring money into education reform, political and media campaigns designed to make you believe their front-men are looking out for your children's best interest (Stand for Children is a good example of this), they refuse to pay their own employees a living wage, yet continue to reap the profits associated with loans, tax credits and helping to sell products needed for MCAS or PARCC, and by the way, very few of their own children are affected by any of it as they attend private schools. 

Education in the US has historically been about educating the citizenry and ensuring democracy along with giving every child the ability to live the "American Dream." Unfortunately, for those of us immersed in education policy, what we have seen, over the past 10 years especially, is that what backers of corporate education reform and bills like H4108 really want to ensure is their own bottom line by "educating" our children to conform, be complacent and make these foundations and shareholders richer.

All of the above was only further solidified a week ago, when despite my attempt to get away from the entire education debate by relaxing a bit, that hope was dashed while watching NECN Business on Sunday. Paul Guzzi, President of the Boston Chamber of Commerce, and Peter Howe, NECN Business Editor, insisted that the Massachusetts House of Representatives passage of H4091 which would allow the proliferation of charter schools to continue with no increase in true accountability and oversight is the best answer for students in "horrible situations" who attend "terrible school districts" - primarily meaning Boston. Both Mr. Guzzi and Mr. Howe urged the Senators, who now have the bill in their hands as H4108, to also vote to lift the cap on charter schools in Massachusetts. If you are like me, you are asking yourself: why are the business leaders of Boston pushing for more charter schools?  I bet you know the answer!

The education of our students is the biggest responsibility we as parents, family, community members, and citizens have, yet we are failing our students every day that we remain silent and allow their education to be co-opted by businesses, corporations, organizations and billionaires who only see the profit they can make using our children now and in the future. We are failing our students by continuing to allow politicians to make choices based on campaign dollars instead of the welfare and future of our students, families, cities, states and the nation. We cannot afford to fail our students any longer.

Students, parents, families, educators, city and school leaders, politicians and citizens across the state and the country are coming together to insist that all of our students receive the quality education they deserve by investing in all of our students and schools equitably and fairly. Many of us in Massachusetts are emailing, calling, meeting with and visiting our state legislators to ask that they vote NO on H4108 and work with us to ensure more equitable funding formulas for all of our public schools, better oversight of charter schools to address all areas of concern, and to stop the over-testing of our children. 

Each of us alone has power when we raise our voice, collectively we can be truly unstoppable and the time to raise your voice, as a parent, as a family member, as a student, community member, politician or educator to ensure the educational rights of all of our students is NOW. This is not something you can put off if you want to ensure that your children, and all of our students, do not pay the ultimate price while those pushing the corporate agenda of corporate education reform turn our tax dollars into private profits.

To get involved with the fight for our students and public education, please:

Call, email, write and visit your state Senator and Representative;
Join myself and others throughout Massachusetts by:
Contacting me via email or Twitter @bpsnightmare, Mary Lewis-Pierce via email or Twitter @Googiebaba, and/or Kristin Johnson via email or Twitter @KrissyCabbage!

Also, if you use social media, be sure to check out and "Like" the Facebook page for "Keep The Cap on Charter Schools Massachusetts" and follow @KeepTheCapMass on Twitter.

0 Open Letter to Massachusetts Representatives Regarding House Bill 4091 "An Act Relative to Improving Student Achievement"

House Bill 4091 will be voted on by the Massachusetts Representatives during their session beginning at 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday, May 21, 2014! Please email your Massachusetts Representative with the title Vote NO on H4091! 




Dear Representative:

Education reform, as developed over twenty years ago, initially had the right idea: ensure that every child, regardless of need, ability or socio-economic status was truly being educated. Many of us applauded that finally schools and districts would be held accountable for educating our special education and ELL students to ensure that they were not, as was the norm, just being pushed through the schools without actually being educated. Many also applauded the idea of creating a few schools where innovative ideas for educating all students could be piloted without the normal red-tape that often made it impossible for our educators, administrators and district personnel to try something new, especially since the idea was that then the "best practices" from these "innovation schools" would be shared and used in ALL of our schools to enhance our students' education and ensure that every student received a top-quality education. These are just two of the premises of the original education reform law here in Massachusetts. 

The first sign, for many of us, that something had gone terribly wrong with education reform came when MCAS was introduced and we were told that by 2014 if your 10th grade student failed to pass this test they would not receive a diploma but instead, a "Certificate of Attendance" even if they passed every other requirement for graduation. FYI - my own son was in one of the "pilot" 4th grade classes for MCAS, my middle child is in 10th grade this year and just finished taking the 2014 "no opt out" 10th grade MCAS. 

With the creation of MCAS, the public was told that this one test would determine whether a school was succeeding or failing, which seemed irresponsible to me - how can one measure adequately assess anything or anyone? As a parent and advocate I am well aware that it takes multiple measures and tools to assess whether a person has special needs or is gifted - and the usual process is to schedule the student for 2-3 sessions of testing or observation in order to ensure that the "snapshot" of that student is as accurate as possible in determining need and not just the result of a bad or good day - so how can we possibly assess something as complex as a school, made up of multiple types of students, as succeeding or failing based on one measure?

Quickly, other signs that our education reform laws and regulations had taken a twisting turn toward something never envisioned followed, more each year, and each time, much more worrisome to many of us: 

• We have watched as our schools have become test factories, our educators and students becoming so stressed about how their performance would be evaluated based on a single assessment system, that some of our best educators often leave public schools after only a few years, taking with them the experience that we need our staff to have in order to educate every student; and how our students (and their families) have become so stressed out about testing that we are now dealing with epidemic levels of depression, anxiety, self-injurious behaviors and more in our student populations;
• We have watched as many families who are able to move out of Boston, Worcester, Lowell, Lawrence, et al to the suburbs because of the lack of support for our urban public schools, often deemed "failing" due to one test score, by our elected officials;
• We have also watched as the "innovation" schools, aka charter schools, which in the beginning took sweat, tears and hard-work to raise any funding necessary in order to open one, have become yet another way for billionaires and their foundations to utilize tax breaks and reap more profits using our students and schools to suck tax dollars away from the neediest communities - despite the high suspension, attrition and low graduation rates at these "innovation" schools;
• We have watched as more and more of our federal and state education funding is tied to initiatives that are untested and unproven which force schools and districts to jump through hoops for short-term funding with no long-term plans for continuation beyond the 3-5 year grant period (even if the practices did work) while foundations like the Waltons, Gates', Broad and others reap the benefit of a 39% tax credit (New Market Tax Credit which can double their investment!) at the expense of taxpayers as well as students across the country. Often, these same initiatives (MCAS vs. PARCC; state frameworks vs. Common Core) are eventually deemed to not be the answer to education issues as promised, yet our elected officials continue to vote the newest idea into law without full understanding of exactly what they are voting on or regard for the possible ramifications they will have.

Today many of you are trying to determine whether to vote to pass H4091 "An Act Relative to Improving Student Achievement" during Wednesday's scheduled vote on same. The purpose of H4091, despite the nicely worded title, is primarily to lift the cap on the amount of charter schools allowed to exist in Massachusetts and open the door to allow those behind corporate education reform to increase their own profits. 

One of the main concerns many have with H4091 is that it still does not address any of the equity issues which have been brought to the attention of all of our Representatives and Senators. Despite assertions that the previous bill's proposals, as H425 (recommended ought NOT to pass by Joint Education Committee in March 2014) and later as H3984, would address the reimbursement and some of the equity issues, neither went far enough in addressing the concerns, inequities and segregation issues brought to your attention previously. 

In essence, H4091 is the failed H425 bill, but not only does this new iteration of the bill not address the issues which the compromise proposed by Rep. Holmes and Sen. Chang-Diaz attempted minimally to do, but in fact, H4091 has the potential to do much more to harm all of our students as an end result of it being approved.

Other areas of concern include, but are not limited to:

• Further decimation of a district's budget by allowing payments to charter schools to exceed 18% of the district budget;
• Allowing school boards/committees to include people who also sit on the board of a charter school (including founders and CEOs) - this is a clear conflict of interest by any definition of the term;
• Instead of protecting our students and public schools and allowing some form of autonomy to our individual districts and schools, H4091 seems to be written to limit the oversight of a school committee or board (most of which are elected members by the residents of that city aka your constituents) in several areas, not the least of which occur when a school is under review as possibly under-performing and in the school committee's oversight of spending on behalf of a school designated as under-performing and turned over to a "receiver;" 
• In essence this bill will increase the power of the Commissioner of Education without ensuring that stakeholders have a voice in what happens with a school or their district; and,
• Requires that districts "shall prior to consideration of any other disposition of the identified excess capacity, make a good faith offer to sell or lease in whole or in part at fair market value the identified excess capacity to a commonwealth charter school" which has several ramifications for all of our Massachusetts school districts. With this language in place districts' could be forced to sell or lease to a charter school company despite the possibility of better offers elsewhere. Across the country such leases have already caused countless issues for many school districts as often the bulk of the cost for maintenance and upkeep in lease agreements with charter schools are still the responsibility of the school district the charter school is leasing space from which is why Elgin City Council tabled entering into such an agreement in April, 2014.  

As H4091 was only released Monday night, many of us are still in the process of fully reviewing all of the possible ramifications of this proposal. Despite the short time for review, it is absolutely clear that "An Act Relative to Improving Student Achievement," H4091, is more likely to have the opposite effect by further widening the gaps we see in achievement and opportunity while also re-segregating our students not only by race, but also ability levels, language and special needs with what appears to be less oversight and more public funding paying to privatize our public education systems.

I strongly urge you to vote NO on H4091 and look forward to working with you to ensure that all of our students receive the high-quality education they deserve without further eviscerating our traditional public schools.

Karen Kast-McBride

To my readers: Please check out the Press Release from QUEST members regarding H4091 and please help us defeat this procedural end-run by calling and emailing your Representatives today. 

I will be live-tweeting from the State House with the hashtag #KeepTheCap if you would like to follow what is going on!

Have questions or just want to see what I am working on? Feel free to email me at karen.kastmcbride@gmail.com or follow me via Twitter: @BPSNightmare. 

0 Calling all 6 - 9th Grade Students: Your Voice, Your Future

Are you a sixth, seventh, eighth or ninth grade Boston student, or have one in your life? Want to be able to share your vision for Boston's future and possibly help the new mayor make those visions a reality? Want to meet a surprise celebrity guest, have some fun, enjoy entertainment, refreshments and an ice cream social while sharing your thoughts with Mayor-Elect Walsh?

If the answer is yes, than what are you waiting for? Get signed up now for the first of its kind Inaugural Youth Summit hosted by Mayor-Elect Marty Walsh this Saturday afternoon, January 4th! The Youth Summit will be held at Roxbury Community College in the Media Center, 1234 Columbus Ave., Roxbury, from 3:00 - 6:00 p.m. If you need transportation or want more information, please call 617-357-5777 x215.  Click here to RSVP! 

The goal of the Summit is for Mayor-Elect Walsh to hear the hopes and dreams of Boston’s youth and inspire our youth to achieve those dreams and play a part in Boston’s future by becoming involved themselves. Mayor-Elect Walsh realizes that our youth are our future leaders and citizens, so he hopes to see many of our awesome Boston students on Saturday!

I have to admit, with a celebrity guest, all the socializing, entertainment and refreshments, it definitely sounds like a fun event for sixth through ninth grade students to be attending on Saturday after being out of school for a couple of weeks, and possibly cooped up due to the snowstorm! (I am kind of jealous - maybe this should be the format for all school committee meetings? Hint Mayor-Elect Walsh!)

I know this will be a fun event for Mayor-Elect Walsh also and kind of wonder if he requested that the committee have an ice cream social. What? I am pretty sure he hasn't had much time to enjoy ice cream since his campaign started, and let's face it, listening to our youth has got to be more relaxing than what he has been doing for the past year!

Whether you are a student who is just curious about the event and come for that reason, or are concerned about things like education, the environment, making sure your voice is heard, jobs, or you have ideas and suggestions that can help move Boston forward, make sure you come to the youth summit on Saturday. Only you can make sure that Mayor-Elect Walsh knows what the youth of Boston want to see happening in their city, now and in the future!

My own daughters, 12 and 15 years old, were very involved throughout the election process so will be at the youth summit Saturday. They have a lot of ideas to share with Mayor-Elect Walsh regarding Boston's future. Of course, I am 90% sure that the promise of food, meeting other students, fun and the ice cream social factored into their decision to go also!

Want to see if friends are going or connect with others who are attending? You can check out the youth summit event page on Facebook too!

And, if you are the parent or friend of one of the students who decides to attend and want to hang out and wait for your fabulous student, please consider volunteering to help out, that's what I will be doing! (Otherwise I am sure my girls will think I am "watching" them - which no teen ever wants their parent doing while they socialize!) 

Also, please mark your calendars now for the Walsh Transition Committee's Youth Public Hearing on Thursday, January 9, 2014, 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at English High School, in the Auditorium, 144 McBride St. Jamaica Plain, MA 02130.

Have questions or just want to see what I am working on? Feel free to email me at bpsnightmare@gmail.com or follow me via Twitter: @BPSNightmare.