Is tomorrow’s Citywide Education Summit an example of “astroturfing,” as per PURE?  (Or as Mike Klonsky puts it, “Power philanthropy still rules the roost of top-down school reform.”)  Several well-regarded community organizations are participating in the effort, which is funded by the Joyce and Gates Foundations, which are major proponents of charter schools and “turnarounds.”

Many if not all of the community groups participating are recipients of Gates Foundation money, including through Communities for Public Education Reform (pdf).  One of them, Target Area Development Corporation, launched an education campaign called Parents and Residents Invested in School and Education in 2007, planning to work in the Far South Side area where they’re based. But Gates provided funding, and directed them to the West Side, to build support for the “turnaround” at Orr High being undertaken by another Gates fundee, Academy for Urban School Leadership, as Catalyst reported last year.

Now PRISE seems to have morphed into the Citywide Education Organizing Campaign.  (Is this the Gates Foundation’s response to the Grassroots Education Movement, which mobilized parents against school closings last month?) They’re releasing the results of a survey of parents tomorrow.

Interestingly, several years ago Gates funded a parent survey by PURE (pdf), which found a high level of interest in involvement among parents of both traditional and non-traditional schools.  It also found a correlation between higher student achievement and greater opportunities for parents to volunteer and to participate in decision-making in their kids’ schools. 

That report recommended more suport for home learning activity, for school volunteer programs, and for parent involvement in school governance.

Tomorrow’s report is less likely to stress the last point — given the lack of response from Orr/AUSL to attempts by parents there to get an elected LSC, according to  Cecile Carroll of Blocks Together.

With reports of declining enrollment at Sherman Elementary (20 percent) and Harper High (30 percent), both AUSL “turnarounds,” Carroll says parents are concerned about “push-outs” at Orr.

Don’t imagine that will show up in tomorrow’s report, either.

Check GatesKeepers, a blog featuring “civil society voices on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.”   Via GatesKeepers, here’s a Seattle Times piece on the foundation (and Seattle knows Gates), gently suggesting a need for greater accountability.