The Center for Education Reform, Author at The Center for Education Reform

Barbara Dreyer – “A Beacon of Inspiration”

September 2, 2014 By The Center for Education Reform

Our world lost another wonderful soul today, and the reform movement, an incredible and, relatively speaking, unknown pioneer.

I am not only sad for her, her family, her friends and her closest associates, but angry. I am angry that Barbara Dreyer, the original innovator is gone, and that I have personally lost another ally in the battle for better lives for our children, and thus citizens for our country. God has once again taken a foot soldier whose sheer presence and determination kept others on their toes. I am angry, because every time we lose someone like this, our education reform movement, which has the muscle memory of a frog, forgets what the purpose was, and is.

When I think of Barbara Dreyer I think of John Walton, who was bigger than life, more humble than the most humble among us, and a tireless warrior who didn’t let popularity, money, power or statistics drive his work or his (and his foundation’s) giving. Barbara Dreyer, as CER said in its tribute to her almost a year ago now, was a champion, and as such, I put her right up there with Joe Robert, who let nothing stand in his way when it came to securing local, state, national and federal bipartisan support to give kids a chance with parental choice.

Barbara was a younger version of Fannie Lewis, another pioneer the reform movement has lost. A City Councilwoman turned reform agitator, Fannie united strange bedfellows, and men and women of all stripes fell in behind her to help turn her native Cleveland around.

These and a dozen or so late, great innovators did not worry about what battles they were picking – they picked them all. When causes needed funding, they wrote checks or took up the cause if they themselves were not funders. That’s what leaders and fighters do, and that’s why reform has gotten so far, so fast; but alas, education reform is losing steam because its newest actors don’t know – and some of those who’ve been around a while forget – that doing what’s right means you’re most often not in line with the majority view, and that finding common ground is not an end in and of itself.

Indeed, Barbara Dreyer, like those she will no doubt unite with soon in Heaven (yes Heaven, and I won’t be politically correct about it!) knew that resiliently fighting for what is right – even if it makes people uncomfortable (friends included) – was worth it.

That millions of children and adults are now learning because of technology-driven, online solutions is owed largely to the path-breaking work Barbara started nearly 20 years ago. If you didn’t know that, or know her, I am so sorry. As her longtime friends and colleagues at Connections Education wrote today, she was “a beacon of inspiration.”

With respect and gratitude for Barbara, reformers – no, revolutionaries – must be inspired by people who led the way so they can do what they are doing today. There is so little time to do so much. Allow the passing of someone great, even if you didn’t know her, to make you work a little harder, buck a little more convention, resist the temptation to hold others to double standards, and acquiesce less because it’s more convenient.

We must step on the shoulders, not the feet, of giants like you, Barbara.

Until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of His hand.

Jeanne Allen

Senior Fellow and president emeritus

Filed Under: Opinions

NEWSWIRE: September 3, 2014

September 2, 2014 By The Center for Education Reform

Vol. 16, No. 34

A BEACON OF INSPIRATION. The world lost a stalwart leader and, relatively speaking, an unknown pioneer in the education reform movement yesterday. That millions of children and adults are now learning because of technology-driven, online solutions is owed largely to the path-breaking work Barbara Dreyer started nearly 20 years ago. Barbara knew that resiliently fighting for what is right – even if it makes people uncomfortable (friends included) – was worth it. As her longtime friends and colleagues at Connections Education wrote, she was “a beacon of inspiration.”

“UN”COMMON GROUND. Hats off to Mike Petrilli and Neal McCluskey, themselves on either side of the Common Core issue, for nobly transforming a misinformed debate into a thoughtful one. Separating fact from fiction on the Common Core is the first step in addressing the more important issues at stake. As proficiency rates on the Nation’s Report Card continue to be eye-opening and serve as a catalyst for change, we should be talking about how best to bring about that change. This editor of Newswire has maintained that the entire discourse around the Core has been a distraction, not because I’m against standards, but because I agree with my colleagues that we must dial down the rhetoric and allow cooler heads and proven reforms to prevail. Rigorous standards, whether Core or certified “college- and career-ready”, are a moot point without creating the conditions where good schools and great educators have the autonomy to flourish. We must start raising the bar on standards and start with the premise that ALL kids can learn given the right environment. Improving education in the U.S. includes setting high expectations, expanding educational choice, and ensuring accountability for parents and students.

LAWSUIT MADNESS. New Hampshire families won big when the state Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the state’s tax credit scholarship program. In addition to reinforcing the constitutionality of choice, the ruling gives credence to the upward popularity of tax credit scholarships, now second only to charter schools in terms of student enrollment in a school choice program. As if this is a game of whack-a-mole, legal challenges to tax credit scholarships (and other school choice programs like Opportunity Scholarships in North Carolina) are popping up across the nation, this time in Florida. The lawsuit mounted by the Florida School Boards Association makes no qualms about its true motive of stifling choice, contrary to the one back in July disingenuously based on protecting the integrity of the legislative process. True intentions aside, it’s a shame unions in places like Florida still feel compelled to obstruct programs designed for parents and students.

ELECT EDREFORM. The oncoming gubernatorial debate in California will no doubt cover a wide range of issues, during which time parents will hopefully have the chance to hear substantive positions and perhaps – with the help of CER’s forthcoming updated Ed50 resource – spot a real reformer that truly has student outcomes in mind. Parents deserve to hear what candidates have to say on education, and whether parental input and influence in education will be a priority in the next administration. As retired state Senator Gloria Romero points out, education makes up nearly half of the state’s budget, and with only 28 and 29 percent of CA eighth graders proficient in math and reading, respectively, there absolutely needs to be a focus on student outcomes and California’s lack of return on investment. Between the ongoing battle to secure an achievement-based system that respects educators and students, the outrageous parent trigger suspension in several California districts, and measurable charter school improvement, there is no shortage of items to talk about in the upcoming election.

A FIRST FOR WASHINGTON. The first day of school always brings a series of new beginnings, whether that means a new grade, a new teacher, and of course new knowledge. For Washington State, there will be another kind of first when First Place opens its doors today as a charter school. This will be the first test for Washington’s new and publicly approved charter school law. Once schools are opened, only then can the strength of the state’s law truly be assessed as to whether or not it’s providing the best environment for allowing charter school options to flourish for children. Washington still has a lot of work towards incorporating best chartering practices and bolstering Parent Power, but this is nevertheless a start in building schools for kids in need of learning alternatives.

BACK TO SCHOOL BOOK REPORT. Two must-read books out this month, A Light Shines In Harlem by Mary C. Bounds and Howard Fuller’s No Struggle, No Progress, provide distinct, yet intertwining glimpses into the how the modern-day education reform movement came to be.

ARE YOU OUR NEXT INTERN? Are you ready to make a difference in the U.S. education system? Do you want to gain knowledge about education policy and put that into practice to create better education opportunities for all children? Do you have a knack for research and strong writing and communication skills? If so, you would be a great fit at CER, where our interns won’t be fetching coffee, but rather working in all aspects of education policy, such as research, advocacy, legislative affairs, and public relations. Apply today!

Filed Under: Newswire Weekly, Newswire

Indiana’s school voucher program the best in the country, study says

September 2, 2014 By The Center for Education Reform

J.C. Lee, The Elkhart Truth

A new study named Indiana’s school voucher program the best in the country, Indiana Public Media reports.

Indiana ranked the highest among 15 states with school voucher programs, which are state-funded scholarships that pay for students to attend private schools instead of public schools, according to a study by the Center for Education Reform.

Indiana’s program is the most inclusive, Center for Education Reform president Kara Kerwin told Indiana Public Media. The program accepts any students who meet its financial requirements and not just those who come from failing schools.

But the report criticized the requirement for certain content to be taught at schools that accept vouchers.

Despite only being three years old, participation in Indiana’s program has increased each year with a current total of 19,000 enrolled students.

Read about how much the state pays for the voucher program on Indiana Public Media.

Filed Under: CER in the News

Revolutionizing Education in America – Common Core and National Standards

September 1, 2014 By The Center for Education Reform

CER President Kara Kerwin and Bob Bowdon of Choice Media join The Blaze for a Real News Education Special on the condition of K-12 education in America.

Filed Under: CER in the News

Back to School Book Report

August 28, 2014 By The Center for Education Reform

Reality Check-In, with Jeanne Allen
Huffington Post

It’s not often two books come out at roughly the same time that, together, provide a true glimpse at the critical and largely unknown story of how the modern day education reform movement came to be.

The first is inspired by the work of Dr. Wyatt T. Walker, former chief of staff to Dr. Martin Luther King. Mary C. Bounds’ A Light Shines in Harlem begins in NY in 1998 as the state’s charter school law is being debated —or should I say — battled into existence, and still one of the most memorable policy events in history with which I’ve been involved.

The Sisulu-Walker Charter School was born out of a match between Walker the civil rights icon, and a Wall Street investor seeking to provide equitable access for all children. Their alliance produced the first charter school in NYC. To say it wasn’t easy, during that tumultuous political environment when the education establishment still vigorously defended the city’s status quo, is an understatement. And the round the clock work – literally – put in by the people who banded together with the founding principal, would not see a real break for years. That is an incredible story in and of itself. But this book is not so much a story about how one school was founded, but how a movement in one of the world’s greatest cities began, and lit fires in dozens more. A Light Shines in Harlem tracks the tenacity and heroism of a few of the reform movement’s earliest and lesser known pioneers, in standing up to those who refused to give up their power to allow new lights to shine, no matter how successful they were.

Speaking of power, the person who has literally written the book on educational empowerment for the poor has produced his own story, and path breaking insights into how a black man, who started his student activism and career crusading for black power would come to understand the importance of once-untenable alliances and spawn a new movement of real equity and justice for kids that unites people across all the traditional dividing lines.

Howard Fuller’s No Struggle, No Progress is not just a personal history and a chronology of one man’s journey, but a reminder of what it really means to be in a country that offers opportunity — but not without struggle. And no matter what one’s race, class or point of view is on issues, or how far apart our numerous cultures sometimes are or seem, Howard shows us that it is nevertheless possible to be aligned in support of policies that truly yield great education for everyone, which can only happen when power truly is extended to the powerless.

Extending power to others to control their own educational destinies more often than not requires one to ignore old alliances and comfortable relationships in favor of giving parents and children the choice to leave the majority of failing schools ill-serving the least advantaged among us. Howard shows us that you can’t see the reasonable course to take if the only people you are listening to are those who agree with you and those who are protecting what you yourselves have had. To truly embrace progress, you need to review who you are, and why your allegiances are what they are.

If you’re a union person (which Howard Fuller once was), it means recognizing that there are some things you just can’t abide in your union. If you’re a black person who is used to being told by the typical civil rights groups that respecting traditional federal state and local governments to do the job for your kids is the solution, it takes looking at the data and the cause yourself to understand what Howard and scores of people of color – the majority, in fact — understand; that if the current situation is not working for your kids TODAY, you should have access to something that does. And if you’re a white, elite, defender of the status quo because it worked for your kids, your community and is reinforced throughout the news media daily, it takes looking at what got you to where you are to become part of the solution.

That’s the vision Wyatt T. Walker had in co-founding the Sisulu Charter. That’s the eye that Steve Klinsky had as that Wall Street investor-turned charter school crusader who recognized that without educational excellence, civil rights is a hollow term. And that’s the view Howard Fuller had as he looked back on his life and the conditions that made him who he was – a strong family infrastructure despite being broken and poor; a school foundation (Catholic, though he wasn’t) that held him to high expectations; college and career environments that showed him that people from other races and religions have good ideas and not all people from one’s own race are right just because they look the same; and an appreciation of the need to dig into social injustice and understand why the best country on earth can still produce some of the worst schools in the world.

And so, Howard Fuller has devoted his life to correcting that failure, which was at heart of the movement that created that light in Harlem, and went on to influence an entire state, and a city that once was considered to be one of the top failures in the country and is now more competitive educationally, economically and socially than most other major cities where little or no reform has taken place.

How this happened is a critical lesson for anyone who claims to care about education. Caring is not about writing a check or supporting the local PTA. Caring is not about voicing support for teachers or sending supplies to a poor school. Caring is actually about doing something: changing a law, starting a school, changing the culture.

The nation’s schools have improved — from New York to Washington to Milwaukee and hundreds of places in between —not because of federal or local policy but because of education reforms and reformers that put people and results first. They are better because educational choice – and the freedom in guiding one’s own education — is the necessary precondition for power. Make no mistake: that power once extended to people in and around our schools, with accountability for how that power is used, is the leverage that has caused the traditional system and its stewards to morph, albeit slowly, toward a more consumer centric, accountable model of schooling.

We have a long way to go, and yet these history lessons can help us accelerate the pace of reform that is critical to the United States of America once again being a beacon of education for all, which is inextricably linked to righting so many wrongs and deficiencies in our communities.

Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it. You cannot repair what you do not understand and you cannot know how to do so unless you know what works. Those who have paved the way can teach us, however, with their mistakes and their successes. That the same battles Fuller, Klinsky, Walker and the Sisulu charter school team fought are somehow still at play some 18 years later, is exhausting. Mayor Bill de Blasio’s words of anger and criticism today are almost identical to the hyperbole spewed when Walker and Klinsky first engaged in education reform. Similarly, the claims that Howard Fuller heard as he began to take up new solutions to solving the education crisis for poor children are as common as weeds these days, despite being patently false.

As I often say, it’s like a passing parade, and just when you think everyone has seen the elephants, there’s a whole other crowd of people just coming to the parade that are seeing them for the first time.

That’s why we engage, it’s why we fight, and it’s why we must be thankful for those who took the time to write books like No Struggle, No Progress and A Light Shines in Harlem. Read them and turn to them often, like you would a Wikipedia search. Only remember that the richness of the realities you’ll find in these books is foundational, and can actually change lives.

Jeanne Allen, Senior Fellow and president emeritus

Filed Under: Opinions

Louisiana school voucher program makes C on Center for Education Reform report card; state bristles

August 28, 2014 By The Center for Education Reform

Danielle Drellinger, The Times-Picayune

Louisiana’s high-profile school voucher program made a C on a national report card Wednesday, ranking seventh among 15 states. The report by the Center for Education Reform faulted Louisiana for imposing “excessively burdensome” financial requirements and state tests on schools, and for restricting eligibility to low-income students from low-performing school systems.

Louisiana tied with Florida in the rankings. Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin earned an A; North Carolina, Arizona and the District of Columbia, B.

Gov. Bobby Jindal has fought for the Louisiana Scholarship Program against state and federal lawsuits. It lets low-income children attend participating private schools at public expense if the students come from C-, D- or F-graded schools or are entering kindergarten.

Voucher schools may not reject scholarship applicants, who take the same tests as their public school peers. The award is capped at about $8,500 this year. About 8,700 Louisiana students have been awarded scholarships for the new school year.

The Center for Education Reform takes issue with all of Louisiana’s provisions. It wants voucher programs to be open to as many children as possible, and to leave the private schools free to educate and operate as they wish.

However, Louisiana’s program “has such significant regulatory intrusion on private school autonomy – including required open enrollment for voucher students, mandatory state testing and exclusion of new private schools from participating – that the program falls fast and hard in this ranking,” the authors write. The state earned 23 points of a possible 50.

Education Department spokesman Barry Landry defended Louisiana’s methods, saying, “We stand by a program that gives access to all low-income Louisianans and that requires high levels of accountability when accepting the taxpayer dollar.”

He noted that the report did not mention the state’s tuition donation rebate program, a second, smaller scholarship that families may use for selective-admission schools.

“Our program is working,” said Jindal spokeswoman Shannon Bates. “More than 7,000 students are now attending better schools instead of being stuck in failing or underperforming schools.”

Indeed, public debate in Louisiana around vouchers has generally demanded more accountability and safeguards. Last year, critics were outraged when almost no voucher schools could account for how the money was spent. The Louisiana legislative auditor said the program needed stricter oversight.

The oversight question is being debated nationally. Countering the Center for Education Reform position, the Fordham Institute praised Louisiana last year for requiring tests. A North Carolina judge halted that state’s program last week, in part because of its minimal requirements for private schools.

Filed Under: CER in the News

Report: Indiana Has Top School Voucher Program In The U.S.

August 27, 2014 By The Center for Education Reform

Ray Steele, Indy’s News Center 93.1FM

A new report says Indiana has the best school voucher program in the country, though the report probably will not silence the critics of school choice.

Almost 20,000 students participated in Indiana’s Choice Scholarship program last school year, where students received a taxpayer-funded voucher to pay a portion of their cost for private school. Indiana’s program scored 31 points out of a possible 50 in the first ever rankings from the Center For Education Reform, a pro-school choice group based in Washington. “Indiana really has become the reformiest state when it comes to addressing the needs of students and their families,” said Kara Kerwin, the Center’s president. “With the universal voucher program that’s open to all students, it ranks really, really high.

Indiana’s score narrowly edged voucher programs in Ohio and Wisconsin, which each scored 30. Voucher programs in Washington D.C., North Carolina and Arizona were next at 27 points each.

Indiana received high marks for making school vouchers available to a large number of potential students. The state allows families making up to 150-percent of the income level to qualify for free or reduced-price lunch to qualify for a voucher – 200-percent for families with a special needs student or for those who received a voucher the year before. Unlike some states, children do not have to be assigned to a failing school or school district to qualify, and Kerwin believes school choice is helpful even in areas with highly rated public schools. “One size does not fit all. Our children really do learn differently, so it’s important that our students have opportunities so they can excel no matter where they are.

The main area where Indiana received low marks from the reform group was on providing autonomy for private schools. The Center’s report criticized the state for what it said was “mandating such things as course content and insisting on allowing government observation of classes.” “The beauty of independent schools and private schools and the reason why so many parents want to send their children there is the autonomy,” Kerwin said.

Teresa Meredith, president of the Indiana State Teachers Association and longtime critic of school vouchers, says it sounds as if private schools getting voucher money don’t want any accountability from the state. She also cited a recent Department of Education report that said the voucher program cost the state $16 million last school year, though that figure was disputed by school choice supporters. “Our local schools are feeling the effects, the results of moving so much money out of the school funding piece over to vouchers,” Meredith said. Just under $81 million in voucher money was distributed by the state in the 2013-14 school year.

Filed Under: CER in the News

Report ranks Indiana No. 1 in school voucher programs

August 27, 2014 By The Center for Education Reform

Anne Kelly, The Indy Channel

INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana has taken the top spot in a report that focuses on school voucher programs.

The 18-page report released this week from the Center for Education Reform looks to answer one question: Why are so few families across the country taking advantage of school voucher programs?

The programs allow parents to choose what school they want their child to attend and have the state pay for it. The report shows just 10 percent of available vouchers are actually being redeemed.

The report looks at two dozen voucher programs in 14 states and found Indiana is doing the best job in terms of providing a voucher program that is accessible, empowers parents and reaches students in need.

Nearly 20,000 children in Indiana take part in voucher programs, but the report says Indiana needs to grant private schools more autonomy.

Indiana made the No. 1 spot in the list of states included in the report, nabbing an “A” grade. The other states’ rankings and letter grades they received were:

Ohio: A
Wisconsin: A
Washington D.C.: B
North Carolina: B
Arizona: B
Louisiana: C
Florida: C
Georgia: C
Oklahoma: C
Colorado: C
Utah: C
Mississippi: C
Vermont: D
Maine: D

Filed Under: CER in the News

Louisiana Voucher Law Rated C by Pro-school Choice Group

August 27, 2014 By The Center for Education Reform

Will Sentell, The Advocate

Louisiana’s controversial school voucher law got a C rating from a pro-school choice group called the Center for Education Reform, according to a report issued on Wednesday.

Vouchers allow some students who attend public schools rated C, D and F, and who meet income rules, to attend private schools with the tuition and some fees paid by the state.

A total of 6,775 students did so during the 2013-14 school year, and 8,800 vouchers have been awarded to students for the current school year, according to the state Department of Education.

The group that did the rating says its mission is to “accelerate the growth of the education reform movement” to give families more choices.

Indiana got the top ranking, and the organization praised that state’s law for making vouchers available to all students.

Louisiana was given 23 out of a possible 50 points.

“Our program is working and it has grown by thousands of students since it went statewide. The results speak for themselves,” Gov. Bobby Jindal said in news release late Tuesday. “The number of failing schools in our state has been cut in half, and the high school graduation rate has reached an all-time high.”

However, the state was faulted for having “significant regulatory intrusion on private school autonomy,” which hurt its grade.

The group criticized the requirement that voucher students take the same assessments as public school students.

That rule was added to Louisiana’s law amid arguments that taxpayers were entitled to see how state-funded voucher students were faring on key assessments.

In a report issued in May, state officials said 69 percent of students scored at grade level or above on the LEAP and iLEAP exams while just 45 percent of voucher students did so.

A spokesman for the state Department of Education said at the time that, in 2010, only 30 percent of voucher students scored at grade level on the two tests.

Barry Landry, a spokesman for the state Department of Education, disputed criticism in the report that said Louisiana prohibits new private schools from qualifying for voucher students.

Landry noted that state law says schools approved by the state for less than two years are only banned from having voucher students make up more than 20 percent of total enrollment.

Louisiana’s voucher program was made statewide in 2012 after initially being limited to New Orleans.

The expansion was pushed by Jindal, who said the law would give families needed options to escape troubled public schools.

Opponents argue that vouchers are a drain on state resources and that some schools are too dependent on voucher revenue for their operations.

The report noted that Louisiana’s voucher law sparked national attention last year when the Justice Department filed legal papers that said vouchers risked upsetting federal desegregation orders.

Jindal called the accusations absurd and a bid to kill the program through excessive regulation.

“Even while confronting a legal challenge from President Obama’s Department of Justice, Louisiana’s recently-expanded statewide voucher program has tripled the number of students served since 2012,” according to the report.

Filed Under: CER in the News

Indiana Tops New Ranking of School Voucher Programs

August 27, 2014 By The Center for Education Reform

Arianna Prothero, Education Week

Indiana leads the country in terms of the best school voucher programs while Maine earned the worst marks in a new ranking by a research and advocacy group.

Looking at both the design and implementation of state school-choice systems, the Center for Education Reform analyzed over two dozen voucher programs across 14 states and the District of Columbia, giving each state a grade between A and D. (As this is the first year the D.C.-based center is ranking state voucher programs, it declined to give any state an F grade.)

Although Indiana earned the highest marks, Ohio and Wisconsin (the birthplace of modern vouchers) were not far behind with both earning A’s as well. Vermont joined Maine at the bottom of the pack with a D grade. Both of those states have legacy programs (Vermont’s dates back to the 17th century) which offer vouchers to students in towns that don’t have any district schools.

Of course, all rankings are based on your definition of what’s good. The CER defines a successful voucher program as one that allows all students in a state to qualify, has no caps on the number of vouchers that can be awarded, allows full public funding per student to be portable, and preserves the autonomy of the participating private schools.

With that in mind, here’s the full ranking of states with voucher laws based on a scale of 50 points:

Indiana (A grade with 31 points)
Ohio and Wisconsin (A grade with 30 points each)
District of Columbia, North Carolina, and Arizona (B grade with 27 points each)
Louisiana, Florida, and Georgia (C grade with 23 points each)
Oklahoma (C grade with 22 points)
Colorado (C grade with 20 points)
Utah and Mississippi (C grade with 19 points each)
Vermont (D grade with 18 points)
Maine (D grade with 17 points)

It’s important to note that voucher programs are separate from educational tax-credit scholarships and several of these states, such as Louisiana and Florida have both. The CER ranked the latter set of programs in a June report, so while Florida, for example, earned a C in this report for its voucher programs, it earned an A for its tax-credit scholarships.

The CER estimates that out of 3 million combined voucher and tax-credit scholarships available to students nationally, only about 10 percent have been used.

Filed Under: CER in the News

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