Meg Whitman funds charters
Up to $5 million for 10 more Summits
GOP gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman vowed to promote the growth of charter schools. Private citizen Whitman made good on the promise Tuesday, donating $2.5 million to Summit Public Schools to start 10 more high-performing charter high schools in low-achieving areas in Silicon Valley, with a promise to double that amount if other tech titans match her $2.5 million.
For Whitman, who spent $144 million of her own money in losing to Jerry Brown in 2010, the donation marks the first sizable gift from The Whitman-Harsh Family Foundation, which she established five years ago with her husband, physician Griffith Harsh. Last week, she also donated $500,000 to Los Angeles Unified to extend web-based math instruction software created by Mind Institute, a nonprofit in Southern California, to 10 additional schools.
Meg Whitman and some of Summit's San Jose ninth graders. Click to enlarge. (Fensterwald photo)
Summit currently operates four high schools, two in Redwood City and two in East San Jose, which opened last month. The potential $7.5 million in donations would fund strictly start-up costs for the new schools, not operating costs. Summit schools are budgeted to run on state funding, said Diane Tavenner, Summit’s founder and CEO.
With 10 more schools, Summit would serve 6,000 students in what Whitman is calling the Silicon Valley College Ready Corridor, a 50-mile stretch from South San Francisco to San Jose; 53 percent of students in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties graduate from high school unqualified for a four-year college, and many of those live east of Highway 101.
Speaking to 200 ninth graders of Summit’s new San Jose schools, Rainier and Tahoma, on the lawn at their interim home, National Hispanic University, Whitman said, “I am proud to be an advocate and an investor in great futures for each and every one of you.”
Whitman, right, became Summit founder and CEO Diane Tavenner's personal coach this year. Click to enlarge. (Fensterwald photo)
Whitman’s investment comes nine months after she met Tavenner and, at the suggestion of one of Summit’s board members, invited her to lunch. (Whitman joined the Summit board in April.) Whitman, the former CEO of eBay during its boom years, became Tavenner’s personal coach, helping her with the challenges of doubling the size of the faculty, introducing technology to the organization, and creating an investment campaign. “I wanted advice from someone who had grown an organization,” Tavenner said. (Update: On Sept. 22, two days after she announced her gift in San Jose, Whitman was named CEO of HP, the world’s largest computer company.)
Since it opened its first high school in 2003, nearly all of Summit’s graduates have been accepted to a four-year college or university. All students take a college prep curriculum, including six AP classes, and a two-month exploration of college and career goals though a program known as intersession.
The student demographics are representative of the surrounding districts: Sequoia Union High School District in Redwood City and East Side Union High School District in San Jose, which is heavily low-income Hispanic and Vietnamese.
Whitman was also attracted to Summit’s increasing use of technology. Online learning will be integrated, particularly in the new schools in San Jose. For math, Summit’s Rainier and Tahoma are pilot schools for Khan Academy, a free online instructional video library and management system that lets students master skills at their own pace and allows teachers to track the progress in real time.
Largely antagonistic to charter schools for years, San Jose has become a hub of charter school activity, led by a charter-friendly Santa Clara County School Board. Palo Alto-based Rocketship Education has a countywide charter for nine elementary schools and is seeking approval for 20 more. KIPP opened a high school in East San Jose last year, and Downtown College Prep, the region’s first charter, opened a grades 6-12 school in East San Jose last month. This month, the board of the Alum Rock Union School District approved Alpha Middle School, whose founder was an administrator at the American Indian Public Charter in Oakland, against the district staff’s recommendation.
I’m sure Whitman was appreciative when Escondido Charter High School held a special rally for her and other Republican GOP gubernatorial candidates in May 2010. ECHS even had their school mascot dress up in a “Friends Don’t Let Friends Vote Democratic” t-shirt. See how charter school support produces useful secondary effects?
I suspect that what ECHS did was not legal, esp. in few of the fact that they check “No” to the Form 990 question”Did the organization engage in direct or indirect political campaign activities on behalf of or in opposition to candidates for public office.” (EIN 330841097)
This piece by a local parent explains more:
http://www.k12newsnetwork.com/2011/09/gop-tea-party-influence-permeates-local-charter-school/
I don’t recall Jerry Brown using his charter schools to host political rallies for Democrats.
Report this comment for abusive language, hate speech and profanity
Can’t wait to see all these charter schools fighting for students.
Are these schools even sustainable without private donations in the long run?
Online learning, another silver bullet, who is going to make sure there is not cheating or plagarism going on?
Anyone could run a school and have class sizes with 50 to 60 students if parents and students are highly motivated!
Let’s see how it plays out in the long run when charters finally attract the best students, and other charters are left with the rest; RSP, SDC and emotionally and behaviorally challenged students which we all know cost a lot more than regular students.
It will be a landscape of haves and have not’s, just the way these players want it to be.
Report this comment for abusive language, hate speech and profanity
This is a great investment. Diane Tavenner, her school leaders and teachers are doing extraordinary work.
Report this comment for abusive language, hate speech and profanity
The re-segregation of our schools began with NCLB. Now wealthy corporate philanthropists are cutting their share of the pie. Education was the last untapped market in America. Now our kids are becoming more a part of the corporate bottom line. We do a great disservice to our youth by allowing them to be bar- coded and their education sold.
Readers may be interested in another side of this picture about charters. Go see the movie “The Inconvenient Truth About Waiting for Superman”–which probably isn’t in a theater near you. It was made by parents and teachers from NY who have first-hand experience with the Charter take-overs. If you need a link, go to http:/gemnyc.org or waitingforsupermantruth.org
Instead of supporting charter movements with all of that money, Meg should encourage fellow philanthropists to work on a model for free universal preschool sites. The people who go to work each day in businesses and corporations should have free childcare and preschool available at, or near, the workplace. Communities could develop tax incentives for this approach. Not only would this encourage families to move to a community, the family structure could be strengthened, and children could be provided with an appropriate preschool experience so that they are ready when it is time to begin their public schooling.
None of this will make much difference, charters or not, unless Californians decide that their children are the most important asset that this state has. The kids don’t grow taller just by being measured.
Report this comment for abusive language, hate speech and profanity
Well, the “billionaire boys’ club,” as Diane Ravitch would put it, now has a parallel “billionaire ladies’ club.” Striking a blow for gender equity, if not education. Would that these folks could find some other “hobby” rather than messing around with schools. Of course, the tax advantages and undermining public services are also no doubt part of the mix.
Report this comment for abusive language, hate speech and profanity
Now our kids are becoming more a part of the corporate bottom line.Plasma
Report this comment for abusive language, hate speech and profanity
OK, can some Summit fan explain how — if AP classes are college-level classes intended for exceptional students — a school that purports not to screen applicants can require all students to take six AP classes?
Logically, that can only happen in a few ways:
– The requirement self-screens for students who are prepared to take six AP classes.
– Summit is incredibly, magically able to lift a normal cross-section of students to the level where everyone one of them can take six AP classes.
– The students who can’t cope with six AP classes leave the school.
– The AP classes are incredibly watered down.
It has to be one or more of those. John, Chris Bertelli, other Summit fans, please fill us in.
Report this comment for abusive language, hate speech and profanity
My high school didn’t even offer 6 AP classes when I was a student.
If someone takes 6 during high school, what is the typical breakdown? Something like 1 sophomore, 2 junior, 3 senior year?
Report this comment for abusive language, hate speech and profanity
Actually, John and Kathryn, I suggest that this might be a post of its own. How does this work? Perhaps Diane Tavenner could even be asked to write it.
Report this comment for abusive language, hate speech and profanity
You don’t really need to use charter schools when you have the California Teachers Association bankrolling your campaign, now do you…
And if you don’t think public school teachers don’t actively play politics on campus, with taxpayer funds, you’d be mistaken.
Kudos to Whitman and Summit. You can’t rain on the school and students’ success.
Report this comment for abusive language, hate speech and profanity
Dear Caroline,
I am happy to have the opportunity to fill you in on why the Summit model is so successful. Since our mission is to prepare a diverse student body for success in college and beyond, we are devoted to the idea that all students can learn, and that, in the words of UCLA professor Mike Rose, “students will rise to the bar you set.” The AP sets a high bar. Research conducted at the University of Texas (Austin) found that students who took AP courses—whether they passed the exam or not—were more prepared for university-level courses than their peers. Such research led the AP to propound “the power of the 2,” meaning that students who take AP courses in high school but fail to earn a 3 (the score most universities accept for credit) still benefit from the experience.
Such a benefit is due to a focus in AP classrooms “not on memorizing facts and figures [but engaging] in intense discussions, solv[ing] problems collaboratively, and learn[ing] to write clearly and persuasively” (AP Central). Such higher order thinking should be available to all students, and placing a diverse group of individuals into a rigorous classroom is not magic, as you suggest. Or, perhaps it is. Perhaps what happens at Summit Public Schools is the ordinary magic of holding all students to the highest expectations every day, and offering the support to prepare them for university. We believe that our mission is integral to a functioning democracy, and thank you for raising this question.
All the best,
Adam
Report this comment for abusive language, hate speech and profanity
Well, it’s not that I don’t agree that AP courses are beneficial to students, but you’re also confusing correlation and causation here:
Research conducted at the University of Texas (Austin) found that students who took AP courses—whether they passed the exam or not—were more prepared for university-level courses than their peers. Such research led the AP to propound “the power of the 2,” meaning that students who take AP courses in high school but fail to earn a 3 (the score most universities accept for credit) still benefit from the experience.
But none of that answered my question. Which of the factors that I listed is/are in play? Are you saying that Summit is able to lift all students, from a full cross-section, to the point where they can cope with six AP courses, or is there self-selection going on?
Report this comment for abusive language, hate speech and profanity
There is not the general agreement about the educational value of AP classes that is suggested here. They are an example of almost a pure quill “teaching to the test.” Universities are questioning if AP classes are, indeed, a substitute for real university level work. This may be self-serving as, obviously, it cuts into the number of classes ($$$) that students need to take at the university. Hard to tell, as the research isn’t in.
Teaching to a high-quality, performance based, critical-thinking focused, problem-solving requiring, assessment can be a good thing. CA passed up that opportunity when it switched to the STAR system. Whether or not AP meets those criteria remains to be seen, and it may well be on a subject-by-subject basis.
“Raising the bar” has always been an interesting metaphor for education. It was borrowed from horse-jumping competition. It may well tell us something about the conventional wisdom of what education should look like. And, of course, our attitudes toward children.
Report this comment for abusive language, hate speech and profanity
The more I think about the topic of charter schools and self-selection and the like, the more I think that instead of expecting/forcing/requiring charter schools to have the same students as every other school in the district, that maybe we come to peace with the idea that schools can be different and serve different populations. There is value in having an attractive school where all the kids are expected to take those AP classes if they want to stay. And there is value in separating the kids who want to learn away from the kids who are not currently interested in academic work – and then providing quality education to both groups playing to their strengths and needs. Naturally test scores for one group will not match the other… and naturally they will benefit from different approaches to make every student successful and career ready.
If we can stop making this a zero sum game, and crush this meme that there is one magic bullet that will make every kid above average, we might get somewhere.
Report this comment for abusive language, hate speech and profanity
I took a quick look at the statistics for AP taking at some of the higher scoring public high schools. For example, at Lynbrook High in San Jose there are <2 AP exams taken per student enrolled in the 11th and 12th grades. So until shown otherwise I’ll believe that 6 AP classes per student is a real outlier. Although I would suggest that there is another alternative not in Caroline’s list. Perhaps the demand for AP classes in the some high schools is greater than the supply. I’ve heard that AP classes are restricted at the higher performing high schools.
@el, excellent technical idea. Now, do we know how to build that kind of trust? We can really be impressed with ourselves when we achieve that!
Report this comment for abusive language, hate speech and profanity
The problem with El’s soloution is that the charters with the “kids not interested in the academic work” still have to meet all the academic requirements put for by NCLB and the State.
How is this group of diverse students ever going to reach those goals? The answer is they won’t, and never will.
Which means that those charter schools will be labelled as failures and be shut down, staff replaced and then re-converted to another charter school with an impossible mission. Now, all those charters with high scores will have waiting lists a mile long, and never approach educating all students equitably.
Can’t play the shell game forever, and it is obvious that there will be lip service stated for fairness, but we all know better.
Do not need to look far for outcomes, just look at our failed corporate models…
Report this comment for abusive language, hate speech and profanity
This is in reply to el (John, how come the replies don’t show up as replies and just wind up at the bottom of the thread — am I doing something wrong?)…
Yes, I agree with this comment:
“There is value in having an attractive school where all the kids are expected to take those AP classes if they want to stay. And there is value in separating the kids who want to learn away from the kids who are not currently interested in academic work – and then providing quality education to both groups playing to their strengths and needs. Naturally test scores for one group will not match the other… and naturally they will benefit from different approaches to make every student successful and career ready.”
We have Lowell High School here in San Francisco, based on the same general concept.
The difference is that Summit can’t be honest about that — or Meg Whitman wouldn’t donate $2.5 mil — otherwise she might just donate it to Lowell, which essentially does the same thing only honestly, and more successfully.
Report this comment for abusive language, hate speech and profanity
@Caroline, I was thinking that only John’s replies show up under the original comment. However, in a recent comment I thought I saw another posters comment as a reply. So there may be some exceptions but it’s not clear how it works.
Report this comment for abusive language, hate speech and profanity
@Elvis, that’s exactly my point – recognize that those kids have different needs and interests, and find a way to evaluate those programs in a more appropriate way. Are the kids in that school on a task, and is the task worthwhile? Can we find exciting things for those kids to do, sneak in some math and academic rigor, redirect the ones that learn to find value in academic work back into an academic path, and value the rest for the important and highly skilled but perhaps non-academic jobs they can excel at? Can we give them a base so that if they want to go back to college later they can, and in the meantime go after their talents as mechanics, with textiles, in agriculture? Do those kids graduate and get stable jobs and careers?
And some kids may not get it together before age 18. We need to do our best by those kids, reach them any way that we can. Pounding them with four years of enrollment in Algebra 1 may not be the right way.
I want each child in California to have the best possible education that that child is willing and able to take on. Sometimes that means different kids should get different programs. Gifted kids benefit from different strategies, and the fact that a school concentrated on gifted kids has very high scores doesn’t mean my average child will get high scores if she goes there.
The current strategy seems to be to dilute the kids we fail with among the more successful kids. If we’re doing that because we think that works and improves everyone’s education, that’s what we should do. If we’re doing that to satisfy an artificial numbers game, that’s horrible.
Cherry-picking is bad because we’re pretending all the populations are equal, and that the difference is some brilliant teacher or the extra computer or the precise shade of blue on the school walls. It might not be bad if we can admit that it’s easier to get high test scores from some students than others.
Mostly I’m just challenging my own assumptions here. I’m not sure I have a conclusion today.
Report this comment for abusive language, hate speech and profanity
Add another high profile name of tech oligarch’s funding advocacy and operation of charter schools. Meg Whitman joined the Gates Foundation, and growing club who are trying to shape the tax supported public schools who are standing in line to sell themselves to highest bidders while betraying their accountable to taxpayers. Whitman didn’t succeed in “buying” the governorship with self funding her campaign to the tune of $140 million (charter schools were one of her main campaign issues) , but now more money directly to charter schools to further the agenda.
On the heels of the charter school gifting, the CEO musical chairs in Silicon Valley are in motion again. Meg Whitman is assuming the post with HP. Remember Carly Fiorina? After some years of a big splash as HP CEO she was fired and ran for Senate in the same election as Whitman. Both lost. How many remember Fiorina at the height of her celebrity speaking at a Progress and Freedom Foundation Summit in Aspen,CO, August 19/2001, in which she praised the Hegelian Dialectic Process which she said she used daily. In that speech which is still available on “google”, she conjectured that charter schools might be the synthesis coming out of so called “traditonal schools” and something yet to come. The agenda is still on track. Charter schools are a bridge to to the “something yet to come”. There is indeed an agenda, and the underlying issue of taxation with representation, is not being addressed.
Philanthropy ceases to be philanthropy when financial largess is used to circumvent elected representation and influence public policy. In a sane world it would be called, “bribery” or “influence peddling” to further a contested idea.
Report this comment for abusive language, hate speech and profanity
Name a few extraordinary things that Ms Tavenner is doing and show that that has anything to do with providing a well-rounded education for teens. What these Charter schools are doing is buying future employees.
One should reconsider this “new” approach to education. Training hundreds if not thousands of Irish to be tech experts has done nothing for them now. They can’t get work over in Ireland since the bottom dropped out of the financing.
Report this comment for abusive language, hate speech and profanity