Joshua Moore

The story about Noble Charter Schools’ “secret sauce” – their ridiculous and costly discipline policies — that PURE first brought to light has made it into Education Week. Called “Charter Discipline: A Tale of Two Students,” the story details the way Joshua Moore, son of PURE member Donna Moore, was systematically harassed and ultimately pushed out of the school by the discipline code.

A demerit for not looking at the teacher after being reminded. A detention for drawing on a desk. An out-of-school suspension for dozing off instead of doing homework.

Donna Moore, whose son, Joshua, 17, left the Noble system after repeated disciplinary incidents, sees the…policies as petty and subjective. She says they make it more likely that some students will drop out of school.

(Joshua) now attends Olive Harvey Middle College Campus, an alternative school. He spent two years as a freshman at Gary Comer High School, a Noble charter school, and, in that time, amassed hundreds of detentions—298 during the 2011-12 school year alone—and dozens of suspensions.

Education Week has allowed access to the full article without the usual cost.

Some bills to contact your Illinois House members and Senators about:

Please support SB 637 as amended: This bill requires charter schools to waive fees for low-income families and was introduced to address the outrageous fees charged by the Noble Charter School Network for minor infractions such as eating chips and failing to track the teacher with your eyes.

From Raise Your Hand (with a few informational comments I added in italics)

Please support Recess Bill – SB636, Amendment 2: This bill requires a 20 minute recess for all Illinois Pre-K– 5th graders and allows districts to implement recess for grades 6-8. Next year CPS schools will have a much longer day. Every child deserves a break during the day! Support this bill.

Please support Reduced Class Size Bill SB3362 and HB4455: Lowers class size to 18 for Pre-K -3rd, 22 students for grades 4-8 and 25 students for 9th grade – 12th. Lower class size is one of only four strategies identified by the Institute of Education Sciences as evidence-based reforms that have been proven to increase student achievement.

Please support Anti-Bullying Bill HB5290: This bill requires the Illinois State Board of Education to develop a model bullying prevention policy for schools.

Please support Moratorium Bill SB3239/HB4487: This legislation stops school (closure) actions for the school year 2012-2013 while school districts establish policies that improve academic performance at low-performing schools. CPS’s school closing processes so far have been disruptive, have sent children to worse schools, are contributing to increased youth violence in our communities, and unfairly put experienced, dedicated, qualified teachers and other staff out of work during a time of economic difficulty. In doing so, CPS has ignored students, parents, teachers, the community and the facts. A sounder, community-inclusive plan must be put into place before more damage is done.

Please support HB4246 (Barbara Flynn Curie amendment): This legislation requires the State of Illinois to pay for the normal costs of Chicago Teachers Pension Fund benefits earned from 2013-2059. State support for CTPF has fallen in recent years: CTPF received $34.5 million in 2011, compared to the $2.5 billion plus received by districts outside of Chicago. This bill includes a state appropriation of $191M to CTPF in 2013.

Raise Your Hand also opposes HB 4277 (see below).

Finally, this from CTU

Please oppose HB 4277 and the associated Amendment #1.

This bill would force school districts to divert more funds from neighborhood public schools to charter schools. While public schools are funded almost entirely by taxes, charters receive private money from corporate privatization proponents.

This Charter School Bill (HB4277) is not about reform or the betterment of our communities. It is about transferring a public good—Education—to private non-profits, where taxpayers and parents have NO recourse or chance for accountability. In addition, most charter schools do NOT offer a better education for students (2009 Stanford/CREDO study).

CPS faces a $712 million deficit due to the serious fiscal crisis as federal, state, and local revenues have decreased. By increasing the required funding for charters, the state would decrease the amount available for neighborhood public schools that serve the vast majority of CPS students.

The FY 2012 budget already includes a funding increase in 2011-12 for charter schools. Charters already receive:

• $348 million in annual support for charter and contract schools
• $9.7 million in new funds to open 4 new charter schools in 2011-2012
• $6.7 million in new funds to support 1,000 expanded slots for new students at currently operating schools in 2011-2012
• $22 million in new funds to add additional grades for 3,000 students in 2011-2012

Because of the district’s financial crisis, CPS reneged on a negotiated 4% pay increase for teachers and other staff, saving a mere $100 million. CPS, per state statute, will be required to implement a longer school day, a new teacher evaluation system, and the new Common Core State Standards. These new responsibilities beg the question: how will CPS fund these new initiatives while at the same time increasing funds for the Charter Schools?

Negotiated Charter legislation that passed in 2008 included a moratorium on new charter laws specific to Article 27A of the school code, which includes statutes on local and state finance for charters, until June 30, 2013.  The proposed legislation is a significant change to charter law, thus violating the spirit and intent of the agreement.

Students protest Noble's "secret sauce" discipline policy

Coming on the heels of State Senator William Delgado’s bill calling for an end to charter school discipline fees is this opinion piece by Congressman Danny Davis in today’s Catalyst.

Last summer I met with Congressman Davis’s education aide, Jill Hunter-Williams, as part of Parents Across America’s Lobby Day, the day before the SOS March. Among other things, I raised the issue of charter schools. She told me that they were aware of the unimpressive results of charter schools in general, but that they were very impressed with Noble Network of Charter Schools, which made the Congressman think that it made sense to expand such “good” charter schools. I told her what we knew at the time about Noble’s discipline policy . She was very interested and wanted more information, which I sent on to her.

It’s great to see that Congressman Davis has done his own investigation into Noble and found, as we did, that there are some very disturbing aspects to its discipline policy. He writes:

I found that in 2009:

• Noble Street suspended 51 percent of its students out of school at least once – almost 3 times the 18 percent rate of Chicago Public Schools (CPS).

• Although Noble Street has a lower percentage of African American students than CPS – only 30 percent in the sample – 53 percent of students suspended at least once were African American.  Moreover, nearly all African American students – 88 percent– were suspended out of school at least once, compared to only about one-third of African American students in CPS.

• Noble Street suspended out of school 68 percent of its students with disabilities and 48 percent of its students without disabilities, compared to the respective CPS rates of 38 percent and 15 percent.

These statistics clearly demonstrate a striking, systemic problem with the Noble Street discipline practices.

There is more to this story, too. Stay tuned.

“I don’t like what’s happening in Chicago.”

                                 Ed Schultz, MSNBC

Yesterday’s “Ed Show” featured our Tribune Op Ed on Noble charter’s discipline policy, along with parent Donna Moore, and Advancement Project Co-Director Judith Brown Dianis on “The Big Finish”.

On his show last week, Ed brought in Karen Lewis to talk about the Board of Education’s decision to close and turnaround a bunch more schools. Ed concluded, “This is all about the money. And this is all about the wealthy and the charter schools. I`m not going to let this story go.”

So, this week he followed up with The Noble story: “Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is praising his city’s charter schools, but one school’s policy of fining students for offenses like slouching or chewing gum has people asking questions.”

The show’s caption was: Public Education Disaster.”

I’m guessing that Noble won’t add that to the press page on its web site.

The Tribune agreed to allow PURE and VOYCE to submit our own op ed in response to what amounted to the Ttrib’s personal attack on me last week over the Noble charter discipline  issue.

I think our letter shows a lot more thought than theirs, don’t you?