NEWS
- Tree of Life PCS faces the Public Charter School Board [Tree of Life PCS and Dorothy I. Height Community Academy PCS mentioned]
- New Mexico lawmakers confirm Jeb Bush protégé as education secretary
Tree of Life PCS faces the Public Charter School Board [Tree of Life PCS and Dorothy I. Height Community Academy PCS mentioned]
The Examiner
By Mark Lerner
February 18, 2015
With all the talk of the potential closing of the Dorothy I. Height Community Academy Public Charter School it was easy to miss the fact that there is another school facing a decision in the coming days that may required it to wind down its operations. Last week there was an informal public hearing before the DC Public Charter School Board regarding the 15 year renewal of Tree of Life PCS.
Tree of Life is a Pre-Kindergarten through eighth grade charter currently enrolling approximately 311 students located in Ward 5. Founded in 2000, the charter has an exceptionally poor academic record. The history of scores on the Performance Management Framework of 33.9 percent, 35.5 percent, 40.5 percent, and most recently, 31.1 percent are dismal. It now ranks as one of only four Tier 3 schools. These results are particularly disturbing because an academic goal of the school is to reach a PMF result of 41 percent.
It appears that the Tree of Life board of directors recognizes the bind that the school is in. Their application for charter renewal asks that it be permitted to eject grades three through eight and that it become a Pre-Kindergarten 3 through second grade institution. This is an interesting move considering that the charter uses the AppleTree Institute’s Instructional Quality Team to manage its early childhood education program.
Although the early childhood education part is going well, any advantage gained by the use of AppleTree is diluted by the time the student body reaches the third grade. The 2014 DC CAS average reading proficiency rate was just 28.6 percent, 15.3 percent below the DC average of 43.9 percent. On math the variance from the state mean was smaller with Tree of Life students having a proficiency percentage of 47.1, while the city scored at 47.1 percent. However, to be fair, these scores have been climbing over the last three years.
I'm not a fan of charter schools reducing their grade levels in order to protect their survival. I know the charter board has gone along with it in several cases, most often in eliminating high school programs. While I find that avenue at least plausible, I cannot support a shrinkage of 55 percent of a school's grades. After all, there is a specific concept that defines the meaning of the Tree of Life Public Charter School.
Although on the night of the hearing the school's multipurpose room was filled to the brim with those testifying in favor of keeping it open, and in spite of strong arguments by representatives of the charter that included a well-produced promotional video, I believe that in the end the renewal application will not be approved. Here we will have another prime opportunity for a Tier 1 school to takeover these classrooms.
The board will make its decision known at next Monday's regularly scheduled monthly meeting.
New Mexico lawmakers confirm Jeb Bush protégé as education secretary
The Washington Post
By Emma Brown
February 17, 2015
The New Mexico Senate voted Monday to confirm Jeb Bush protégé Hanna Skandera as the state’s secretary of public education, handing a defeat to Democrats and teacher unions in what had become a four-year political fight.
Monday’s vote means that Skandera can continue doing the job she has been doing in an acting capacity since 2011, when Gov. Susana Martinez (R) appointed her to the helm of the state’s Public Education Department. Skandera’s confirmation had stalled repeatedly as Democratic lawmakers challenged her qualifications and criticized the sweeping Bush-style changes she brought to the state’s K-12 schools.
Five Democrats crossed party lines to join all of the Senate’s Republicans in voting to confirm Skandera 22-19.
“I’m humbled and excited all at the same time,” Skandera said Monday, according to the Albuquerque Journal, which reported that Skandera vowed to “stay the course” on her policy agenda.
Skandera, who worked at the Florida department of education when Bush was governor of that state, has stirred controversy in New Mexico as she has worked to import Bush’s “Florida formula” for education: Installing an A-through-F school grading system, expanding charter schools and virtual schools and pushing for a requirement that third-graders pass a reading test before they can be promoted to fourth grade.
Skandera also introduced a new teacher evaluation system that is tightly linked to student test scores and that has drawn criticism from teachers and unions for being unfair and riddled with problems. The American Federation of Teachers filed a lawsuit on Friday to try to stop the evaluations.
Senate Democrats have long argued that Skandera is not legally fit for the state’s top education job, citing a provision in the New Mexico constitution that requires the secretary of education to be a “qualified, experienced educator.” Skandera has never been a teacher, though she has worked as an education policy advisor for years, including for the U.S. Department of Education during the George W. Bush administration and for former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
“Ms. Skandera’s tenure has been characterized by divisive partisanship and a failure to listen with respect to teachers, parents and school districts,” Senate Majority Leader Michael S. Sanchez (D-Bernalillo & Valencia) said in a statement. “It’s a shame Governor Martinez refuses to give New Mexico a leader of public education who understands the needs of the classroom.”
Senate Republicans and state business leaders who supported Skandera said that New Mexico needs her aggressive approach to improve struggling public schools. New Mexico has long been one of the lowest-ranked states on many measures of academic performance, including graduation rates and national reading and math tests.
“I want someone who is tough, someone who is going to fight for our kids,” said Sen. John Ryan (R-Albuquerque), according to an Albuquerque Journal report.
“Congratulations to @HannaSkandera on her confirmation as NM Secretary of Education! She’s taken courageous stands for kids,” former D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, who preceded Skandera as a nationally known education-policy lightning rod, wrote on Twitter.
Skandera has maintained her connection with Bush over the years, most recently as chair of Chiefs for Change, an organization of state superintendents that Bush set up to advocate for his education agenda. Chiefs for Change works with Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education to change education laws around the country, a relationship that “has been criticized as a back-door vehicle for major corporations to urge state officials to adopt policies that would enrich the companies.”
Bush resigned from the foundation in late December as he prepared for a 2016 presidential bid.
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