 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Since December 22, 2004 |
Business as Usual: Issac Haqq and the Tragedy of Oakland's University Prep
The ambitious promise of getting students from impoverished backgrounds admitted to four-year universities has become a charter school mission statement cliché found in brochures and home pages across the United States. This promise of a magic bullet solution to improving urban education—one that has eluded most traditional public schools for decades—provides political ammunition for public education’s ardent foes who tout charter schools as a solution to a failed system. In spite of mounting evidence that charter schools do not supply superior academic preparation (read here:
), rumors of escalating violence and poor performance understandably force desperate parents to seek alternatives to their traditional neighborhood school.
University Prep, a charter in the heart of Oakland, California, made that promise, boasting that the school “prepares motivated urban students to compete for top tier colleges and universities throughout the United States” (NOTE: Their website has been removed). A scandal erupted earlier this month that invalidates that promise, exposing the myriad of corrupting influences like autocratic leadership and political cronyism that led to the school’s founders’ fall. Moreover, the U Prep story exposes how the drive to reform public education through emulating private sector practices ultimately leads school administrators to engage in the ethical lapses of the corporations they model: random firings, increasing profits, and cooking the books to create a false perception of success.
On Thursday, July 12, 2007, Uprep’s principal and founder Isaac Haqq abruptly resigned amid charges that he personally altered California state achievement exams two years in a row in order to inflate the school’s Academic Performance Index (API) ranking. The San Francisco Chronicle detailed Haqq’s history of alleged tampering with state exams. This year, state officials seized illegal photocopies of the unreleased 2005 state exam used for student preparation. Last year, an investigation found that someone had changed hundreds of incorrect answers on student exams before forwarding the tests to the CDE. (read here:) To make matters worse, at the same time the state began investigating the testing irregularities, eight former Uprep teachers issued a 27-page report to state and Oakland Unified officials detailing what the Chronicle calls “a culture of cheating” under Haqq’s leadership. According to the teachers’ report, Haqq encouraged teachers and other school personnel to falsify student grades, alter course titles so students could take easier state exams, and bar lower-scoring students from taking the exam.
Prior to his resignation, Haqq denied the accusations. However, there was no denying Haqq valued the state’s API school accountability and ranking system. Haqq promised Uprep’s former testing coordinator Mike Schwartz a $500.00 bonus for every point above 700 the school achieved on the API. Haqq would conveniently exploit this bonus to levy blame on Schwartz when state officials discovered that Haqq had kept state exams in his office for twelve days after their submission deadline. High test scores would give the school a marketable statistic that, used effectively, could increase enrollment and generate more per-pupil revenue for the school.
As more information surfaces, the fraud used to bolster the school’s image becomes Enronesque. Not only did Haqq alter by hand state examinations, evidence shows that someone at Uprep directly altered student transcripts. The Chronicle reports that one student who received D’s and F’s from his teachers received a report card showing C’s and D’s. To make matters worse, that same student’s transcript was altered again before arriving to CSU admission officials, reflecting a strong B average (read here:).
Haqq appears to have wanted a high college acceptance rate to further improve the school’s marketability.
The corporate mentality guiding the daily governance of the school didn’t end with marketing considerations. Further investigation by Oakland Unified and state officials revealed that Uprep staff forged attendance documents to increase average daily attendance (ADA) revenues. (read here:). The preponderance of evidence suggests Uprep’s goals emphasized improving the bottom line over the education of its students. A quick look at the U Prep website supports the profit motivation claim. Haqq intended to open other U Prep schools around the state, if not the nation. Why else would a school with only one location proclaim on their website that “The U Prep program is based on our Oakland campus model” (read here:)?
The most disturbing revelations, however, had to do with Haqq’s past history, leaving one to wonder how a man with such a questionable record of public service was ever allowed to run a school. The Chronicle provides an excellent timeline of Haqq’s disturbing behavior, a list that runs longer than Lindsey Lohan’s substance abuse record. As a high school student, Haqq was expelled from three schools, but he would later go on to earn an MBA from Columbia University. He returned to his hometown of Pasadena, and served as the local chapter president of the NAACP. Around the same time, his sister filed a restraining order against him, alleging violence. He eventually won a seat on the Pasadena city council, where his antics earned him a reputation for being “fiery,” “controversial,” and “hot-headed” in the Pasadena press. For example, when the council voted in favor of a housing project Haqq opposed, he turned to Housing Director Phyllis Mueller and said, “I’ll get you for this. Fuck you!” Haqq’s former colleague Bill Crowfoot described moments when Haqq would swear out loud while Crowfoot made public statements during council meetings. Haqq also stole Crowfoot’s campaign signs. (read here:)His behavior on the council was nothing short of obnoxious. He read War and Peace to filibuster a council proposal. Others accused him of sexual harassment. (read here:) Haqq’s brief tenure on the city council earned him three censures in five years.
Haqq also had a colorful arrest record during his tenure on the city council. In 1992, Haqq waved a gun at a group of boys. In 1993, a woman claimed Haqq tried to attack her due to a cocaine-induced rampage. Two days later Haqq checked into a treatment facility and the woman decided not to press charges. In 1995, Haqq was given three years probation for driving with a suspended license, throwing sunglasses at a bus and cursing out the bus driver. While on probation, Haqq punched the brother of a city council candidate and broke his nose. In 1997, Haqq was arrested for allegedly smacking a woman with a telephone, but he was released due to lack of evidence. (read here:)
Sometime between throwing sunglasses at a bus and purportedly hitting a woman with a telephone, Haqq discovered he “got bit by the education bug.” (read here:)
Haqq’s statement implies he turned over a new leaf, one that accommodated his conversion to Islam (his name was Isaac Richards prior to his spiritual awakening). Yet it seems there were too many leaves on this dysfunctional tree for the coke snorting, gun-wielding, foul mouthed Pasadena councilman to turn. According to the report filed by the teachers, “Haqq bullies and humiliates students and teachers alike, yelling at them and seizing control of classes in mid-lesson.” The bullying and humiliation included placing a student in a darkened room, forcing a teacher to give a “thumbs up or down” on expelling a kid in front of his classmates, shaking a student around by the backpack for taking a test too quickly, as well as a pattern of random firings and withholding paychecks. As a former U Prep teacher succinctly put it, “He was the worst employer I’ve ever had.” (read here:)
Haqq’s list of crimes and abuses fail to support the implied spirit of altruism that led him to found the school. His entrepreneurial motivation to profit off California’s lax charter laws allowed him to exploit an opportunity. This is the dot the Chronicle did not connect: Haqq received approval for his charter during the tenure of Oakland Unified’s former appointed state administrator Randy Ward. Last summer we did an extensive expose on the financial connection between O’Connell, Ward, and billionaire land developer/education reformer Eli Broad (read here:). For more information on the extent of Eli Broad’s corporate influence on reform and education politics, read this excellent article by Susan Ohanian: (read here:). It’s fairly apparent that Ward followed the lessons learned at the Broad Foundation school for school administrators to the letter. Adopting Broad’s business reform philosophy, Ward allowed a man whose arrest record alone would keep him from earning a single-subject teaching credential to operate his own school based solely on the business plan Haqq submitted.
Had this scandal been discovered prior to Haqq’s resignation from U Prep, he would have won a Kiko award from the Unruly Advocate editorial board. Instead, the scandal he created serves as a solemn reminder that there are some things in this world the free market cannot solve. The complex challenges in public education require solutions more courageous than those offered in a cliché-ridden business plan written by an entrepreneurial coke-addled ex-con, approved by an autocratic state administrator, who trained for his position under the devious guidance of a self-serving billionaire land developer’s “foundation”, all with the approval of a career-conscious state education secretary busily calculating his next move up the political ladder.
U Prep's Story in the San Francisco Chronicle |
||
| July 8, 2007
School mired in claims of cheating Former University Prep teachers issue scathing report -- state clamps down |
July 11, 2007
School denies cheating Governing board hits back at report |
July 11, 2007
To catch a cheater |
| July 13, 2007
Oakland principal in cheating stink quits |
July 14, 2007
Oversight boards were blind to charter school's troubles |
July 17, 2007
Troubled school has new head: Respected leader takes temporary post at Uprep |
| July 19, 2007
OAKLAND: District gives Uprep a month to prove itself |
July 23, 2007
Transcripts show grades doctored at charter school: Teachers' record, report card and transcript are all different |
July 25, 2007
Parents of scandal-plagued school want to keep it open: Uprep's board takes no stand, leaves academy in limbo |
| August 1, 2007
Students' stolen dreams: In surprise meeting, board votes to shut Uprep after Chronicle reports that grades, test scores, attendance figures were changed |
||
RECENT ISSUES |