Tag Archives: usa

14

Feb. ’17

Happy Valentine’s

Red_Bow_with_Heart_Decor_PNG_Clipart_Picture.pngSaint Valentine’s Day (Italian: San Valentino, Latin: Valentinus), commonly known as Valentine’s Day, or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is observed on February 14 each year. It is celebrated in many countries around the world, although it remains a working day in most of them.

The day was first associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished. By the 15th century, it had evolved into an occasion in which lovers expressed their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards (known as “valentines”). Valentine’s Day symbols that are used today include the heart-shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid. Since the 19th century, handwritten valentines have given way to mass-produced greeting cards.

Here are beautiful happy hug day images for Valentine’s day. Enjoy the day!happy-valentines-day-3

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Reform Sasscer Movement for Prince George’s County wishes everyone a Happy Valentine’s day.

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11

Jan. ’17

Democrat Michael Vaughn of Prince George’s resigns from state legislature

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Maryland state Del. Michael L. Vaughn (D-Prince George’s), shown standing at right, has resigned his seat. (Steve Ruark/Associated Press)

Longtime state Del. Michael L. Vaughn (D-Prince George’s) resigned Wednesday morning, less than an hour before the official start of the 2017 legislative session, citing health reasons.

His departure is the latest blow to Maryland Democrats, who have become embroiled in a long-running bribery and corruption investigation that U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein says involves “more than one” current lawmaker.

On Tuesday, Rosenstein announced that former Prince George’s council member and state delegate William A. Campos (D) had pleaded guilty to accepting bribes in exchange for official favors as part of that investigation.

Last week, federal authorities reported the arrests of a Prince George’s County liquor board commissioner, the executive director of that board and two liquor store owners, who are accused of paying bribes to influence state legislation and secure grant money and favorable regulatory decisions.

Vaughn’s two-sentence resignation letter was delivered to the office of House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel) Wednesday morning, shortly before the noon opening of the General Assembly’s annual legislative session.

There was no indication in the letter that Vaughn’s decision to leave the legislature was connected to the probe.

But the court filings from last week said that one elected official accused of accepting bribes, who is not named in the documents, voted in a 2015 House Economic Matters Committee hearing for a bill expanding alcohol sales in Prince George’s.

Eighteen members of the committee voted in favor of the bill, including Vaughn. Vaughn was the only Prince George’s lawmaker to vote yes. The court papers do not specify the lawmaker’s jurisdiction.

Vaughn has listed on state ethics disclosures that he receives income from the Joseph Smith and Sons scrap yard in Capitol Heights, Md., one of several locations where FBI agents searched for evidence last week.

Vaughn, 59, has not returned repeated calls or messages left at his home in Mitchellville in recent days. Numerous members of the Prince George’s delegation said they have sent him messages of support as word spread that his resignation was imminent, but had not spoken to him directly.

A spokeswoman for Busch declined to say Wednesday whether Vaughn’s resignation was linked to the investigation. In a statement released Tuesday night, after Campos’s guilty plea was announced, Busch said that he was “painfully disappointed that any member of the House of Delegates would compromise this institution and the public trust.”

“There is no room for this type of behavior in the House of Delegates,” his statement said. “Each of us needs to redouble our efforts to rebuild the trust with our constituents that has been compromised by the actions announced today.”

Vaughn was born in Tuskegee, Ala. He attended DuVal High School in Prince George’s County before receiving a bachelor’s degree from Southern University.

Since taking office in 2003, he has served on the Economic Matters Committee, which deals with bills that regulate alcohol, as well as banking, economic development, insurance and utilities. He has chaired the business regulation subcommittee for Economic Matters since 2007. In 2006, he was House deputy majority whip.

Vaughn supported 2015 legislation authorizing Sunday liquor sales in Prince George’s County, and a follow-up bill in 2016 that limited an expansion in the number of Sunday licenses to five.

The federal investigation unveiled last week accused David Son, a longtime Prince George’s liquor regulator who worked for his county’s senators in 2015, of arranging bribes from two liquor store owners to two elected officials for their work on the bills.

Del. Jay Walker (D-Prince George’s), the chairman of the county’s delegation, said in a statement that the lawmakers were “deeply disappointed” in the federal allegations of corruption and the assertion that current or former lawmakers were involved.

“The Prince George’s Delegation strives to meet the highest standard of legislative ethics,” Walker said. “These allegations should not reflect on the hard working members of the Prince George’s Delegation who are deeply committed to representing their constituents with integrity and independence.”

Walker said that he has not spoken to Vaughn in recent days.

Before being elected to the House, Vaughn worked in banking and finance, according to his official House of Delegates biography. He came under scrutiny for falsely claiming on his campaign website that he played football for the Dallas Cowboys for three years, which he retracted in 2010 after questioning from a Washington City Paper reporter.

He also worked in sales for Marriott Corporation and the Hilton Washington Embassy Row for a year. Vaughn currently owns ADDR Properties, a real estate company in Mitchellville, according to Maryland assessment records.

via Washington post

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18

Dec. ’16

The big problem with early childhood education

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In this Washington post, which appeared on Valerie Strauss’s “Answer Sheet” blog, Nancy Carlsson-Paige explains that the biggest problem in early childhood education today is the erosion of time for play.

Carlsson-Paige is an emeritus professor at Lesley College, where she taught teachers of early childhood. She explains in this post that the changes in the recent past have damaged children and their classrooms.

She said, in a recent speech:

For the last 15 years or so, our education system has been dominated by standards and tests, by the gathering of endless amounts of data collected to prove that teachers are doing their job and kids are learning. But these hyper requirements have oppressed teachers and drained the creativity and joy from learning for students. Unfortunately, this misguided approach to education has now reached down to our youngest children.

In kindergartens and pre-K classrooms around the country we’ve seen a dramatic decrease in play. There are fewer activity centers in classrooms and much less child choice, as well as less arts and music. At the same time, teacher directed instruction has greatly increased, along with more scripted curriculum and paper and pencil tasks.

Play is very important in child development, she says:

Children all over the world play. They all know how to play, and no one has to teach them how. Any time we see a human activity that is wired into the brain and accomplished by all children worldwide, we know it is critical to human development.

So much is learned through play in the early years that play has been called the engine of development. Children learn concepts through play; they learn to cope and make sense of life experiences; and, they develop critical human capacities such as problem solving, imagination, self regulation and original thinking.

She notes that early childhood educators were never at the table when government officials, think tanks, testing companies, and standards writers decided that play didn’t matter. It does matter, and strangely enough, we need to fight to defend the right of children to play.

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18

Dec. ’16

PGCPS system looks for answers to Mt. Rainier enrollment woes

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Thomas Stone Elementary is nearly 200 students over capacity. The school is slotted to hold 574 students, but currently enrolls 746. That puts the elementary school at nearly 130 percent utilization.

MOUNT RAINIER – A major problem faces one small city in Prince George’s County as it tries to tackle the tale of two elementary schools.

Mount Rainier, in Northern Prince George’s County, is in the middle of a problem that is not uncommon for the northern area: overcrowding. However, while one elementary school, Thomas Stone Elementary, struggles with finding room to place more students, across town Mount Rainier Elementary is dealing with an issue that is quite the opposite. Mount Rainier Elementary is in the midst of an enrollment decline.

According to number provided by the school system, Thomas Stone Elementary is nearly 200 students over capacity. The school is slotted to hold 574 students, but currently enrolls 746. That puts the elementary school at nearly 130 percent utilization. In contrast, Mount Rainier Elementary can hold 406 students but currently has 315 students, making the school 78 percent utilized.

Rhianna McCarter, a pupil accounting and school boundaries staffer, spoke with a group of about 30 parents with the help of translator to inform the families of both elementary schools about the options Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) has to balance enrollment in the area.

“The last time (Mount Rainier Elementary) had a boundary change was in 2003 and that was when Cottage City was reassigned to Rodgers Heights (Elementary). Thomas Stone in 2006 had a boundary change,” McCarter said.

Elizabeth Chaisson, a planner with PGCPS, said part of the reason for the urgent need to address the overcrowding issue is the lack of boundary changes over the past several years. She said PGCPS has hesitated to make changes because residents and political leaders alike recoil at the mention of boundary changes.

“People get very upset. They feel, ‘I moved to this neighborhood. This is my school. Don’t change it,’” Chaisson said. “The bottom line is we’re here tonight to talk about boundaries and people don’t like boundary changes, so we’re here to get your feedback about what the best change is for your community.”

The school system has slotted Thomas Stone for renovation in phase two of its 20-year capital improvements plan, but that is approximately six years away from initial discussions of funding, and both Chaisson and McCarter said a solution is needed in the meantime.

Previously PGCPS held a meeting on several different enrollment issues in the northern area of the county at Bladensburg High School on Oct. 28. Approximately five residents from Mount Rainier attended that meeting and requested a follow up.

As a possible interim measure, McCarter said, PGCPS has opened up the possibility of families volunteering to transfer from Thomas Stone to Mount Rainier, though it has not been effective.

“As we look toward possible solutions, one of them is the idea of getting students to volunteer to transfer,” she said. “Right now there is fewer than 20 students that have taken advantage of that opportunity. So, that hasn’t really been an effective solution so far.”

However, McCarter said the school system is currently looking at three different options to solve the enrollment issues at the two schools, but also said PGCPS is open to, and really wants input and ideas from the community.

The three ideas presented to those gathered all dealt with ways to increase numbers at Mount Rainier and decrease those at Thomas Stone and include: 1. creating a major boundary change to reroute the eastern-most portion of the city (the Kaywood Gardens Apartments and surrounding areas), areas of Brentwood essentially between the midsection of the town and Route 1 and all of North Brentwood to Mount Rainier Elementary, and moving all sixth grade students to their boundary middle school, 2. moving pre-k and Early Start classes to Mount Rainier, or 3. making a minor boundary adjustment to reroute Kaywood Gardens to Mount Rainer, which McCarter said would have “no material impact on enrollment at either school.”

All of the homes in Mount Rainier, Brentwood and North Brentwood are within the “walk zone” for Mount Rainier Elementary, meaning they are within 1.5 miles and transportation would not be provided for the students to get to school.

At the end of the meeting, parents and community members were given a feedback sheet to rank the three options and provide their ideas for more options. Several residents asked for another follow-up meeting held at Mount Rainier Elementary.

McCarter said PGCPS would try to schedule another meeting before Kevin Maxwell, chief executive officer of PGCPS, presents his recommendation to the school board on Jan. 19. A public hearing for the changes is anticipated on Feb. 2, 2017.

via prince George’s county sentinel

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Mount Rainier Elementary can hold 406 students but currently has 315 students, making the school 78 percent utilized. The school is less than a mile from Thomas Stone Elementary.

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12

Nov. ’16

A Look at How PGCPS Executives transferred Corruption to Tennessee.

One of the most frequently voiced objections to school choice is that the free market lacks the “accountability” that governs public education. Public schools are constantly monitored by district administrators, state officials, federal officials, school board members, and throngs of other people tasked with making sure that the schools follow all the rules and regulations governing them. That level of bureaucratic oversight does not exist in the free market, and critics fear choice-based education will be plagued by corruption, poor-quality schools, and failure. In case you are new to the game, back in July,  Prince George’s county Public Schools (PGCPS) Executives led by Dr. Shawn Joseph left the county for greener pastures in Tennessee. Specifically, Nashville got a new Director of Schools, and while there was a sigh of relief that he wasn’t of the reformer ilk, he’s raised plenty of other red flags since he started work there which amounts to transfer of corruption from PGCPS. This is so because, these are the same issues we complained about  long ago within the Prince George’s County  schools. Recently, This past week, even more started to pop up. According to blogger Dad Gone wild, you cannot simply bottle up the truth. >>>Read more here. 

Due to blogging posts in Nashville Tennessee, Phil Williams, an investigative local journalist with Channel 5 News, has begun asking many of the same questions that the bloggers had been asking in the last few months. In an attempt to preempt the potential damage, Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) released a series of communications. The first was under the guise of a“fact checking” sheet. Everybody loves a fact checker these days, but the problem is, this one didn’t counter any facts. Instead, it confirmed that the Chiefs were driving luxury vehicles and commanding much larger salaries than last year. Salaries that were not designated in the budget that was approved just a few months ago. Here’s another hint: justifications that involve how special you are as opposed to everybody else will usually fall on deaf ears.

According to the information received from Nashville School District, Each of the chiefs are also supplied an automobile. In this case, a Chevy Tahoe. A vehicle with a price tag similar to the salary of an MNPS teacher with 7 years of experience and a Master’s degree. District officials, when questioned, claimed that these vehicles were previously used by other administrators in the past. Which would beg the question of who was using them because the previous director drove a Ford Edge and his Number 2 used his own car except on rare occasion. It is also extremely fortuitous that we had 5 Tahoes already in the fleet given that the “Chief” positions are all new positions. Any keen observer will say this opens a lot of questions about their fleet management. It appears as though some of these Chiefs may have returned their Tahoes to the fleet. If true anyone can reading this can  ask, why did they wait until people raised a fuss?

Here is a chart of current salaries for the new Chiefs from PGCPS and Montgomery County  (the 4th Chief began her job after my FOIA request) and the Executive Officers, all of whom are making significantly more than their predecessors:

CHIEF – ACADEMIC OFFICER 7/1/16 185,000.00
CHIEF – FINANCIAL OFFICER 7/1/02 185,000.00
CHIEF – SCHOOLS 7/1/16 185,000.00
EXEC OFCR – SUPPORT SERVICES 8/26/92 159,120.00
EXEC DIR – TALENT STRATEGY 1/22/13 155,000.00
EXEC OFCR – CHARTER SCHOOLS 7/1/16 155,000.00
EXEC OFCR – EQUITY & DIVERSITY 7/1/16 155,000.00
EXEC OFCR – HS 7/21/04 155,000.00
EXEC OFCR – LEADERSHIP DEVELOP 6/1/10 155,000.00
EXEC OFCR – MS 8/9/99 155,000.00
EXEC OFCR – PRE-K & ES 7/15/13 155,000.00
EXEC OFCR – PRIORITY SCHOOLS 7/1/16 155,000.00

Each of the chiefs are also supplied an automobile. In this case, a Chevy Tahoe. (similar to the ones pictured below).  A vehicle with a price tag similar to the salary of an MNPS teacher with 7 years of experience and a Master’s degree. District officials, when questioned, claimed that these vehicles were previously used by other administrators in the past. Which would beg the question of who was using them because according to the records supplied by bloggers there, the previous director drove a Ford Edge and his Number 2 used his own car except on rare occasion. It is also extremely fortuitous that they had 5 Tahoes already in the fleet given that the “Chief” positions are all new positions. Any keen observer would say this opens a lot of questions about their fleet management. It appears as though some of these Chiefs may have returned their Tahoes to the fleet. If true they need  to ask, why did they wait until people raised a fuss?

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Here’s what the previous organizational chart looked like from September 2015:

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Here’s what a new one looks like from August 2016:

In looking at the two charts above, anyone can see there is not a lot of shrinkage happening. In fact the opposite of what the board in that District had been calling for seems to have happened. As any keen observer can see the news reporters in Nashville are not arguing for justification, and shrinking central office may have been the wrong directive, but where is the money coming from? And why is it necessary to pull people from outside of the district to fill those new positions? Did they not have nobody competent enough who was working previously in Nashville? Because that’s the impression being given. It seems like no one in Nashville is good enough, and that is ridiculous considering that there was some exceptional work taking place before Joseph was hired. Pre-K, the Academies, English Language instruction, budget presentation, all were winning national accolades that are now going unrecognized by the current administration in Nashville according to bloggers in that District.

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Director of Schools Dr. Shawn Joseph – He was  Deputy Superintendent of Schools in PGCPS.

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Sito Narcisse, Ed.D was the Associate Superintendent for High School Performance in PGCPS before he left for Tennessee. He left in the middle of the night with Maritza Gonzalez to become the new chief of Schools in the Metro Nashville Public Schools after engaging in misconduct within PGCPS.

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Monique Felder, Ph.D was the Executive Director, Office of the Deputy Superintendent for Teaching and Learning in PGCPS. She is now the Chief Academic Officer in the Metro Nashville Public Schools.

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Moreno E. Carrasco came from Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland, where he worked in the Office for School Support. He is now the Executive Officer for Priority schools in the Metro Nashville Public Schools.

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Maritza González  is now married to Sito Narcisse – She previously worked in a key position of Officer for Diversity, Latino/a Affairs in PGCPS. After illicit affair,  She now serves in a similar role as an Executive Officer for Diversity and Equity in the Metro Nashville Public Schools.

Each of the chiefs are also supplied an automobile a Chevy Tahoe at the cost of $55,000 as shown above.

From PGCPS to Metro Nashville Public Schools.

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19

Oct. ’16

Ethics complaint filed against PGCPS board members

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Segun Eubanks appears to have  steered a contract to a friend for personal gain which he now denies. He ought to resign based on these illegal activities.

LARGO, Md. – An ethics complaint filed in the Prince George’s County school district alleges impropriety regarding a parent opinion survey.

A D.C. communication firm headed by a former board member was slated to do the work – a survey on why parents aren’t choosing Prince George’s County Public Schools. With focus groups priced at $10,000 a piece, the total survey was set to cost taxpayers $122,500.

There was no open bidding process for the contract. Instead a board subcommittee chaired by board member Curtis Valentine chose the firm out of two possibilities. Board chair Dr. Segun Eubanks then put the study on the budget consent agenda in an effort to get approval by the full school board.

“It just didn’t smell right,” said Patricia Fletcher, who filed the complaint.

Fletcher is also a former school board member and pointed out another possible problem with the arrangement – a policy that states that former board members are not supposed to be hired by the district for a year after they have left.

Daniel Kaufman, who heads Widmeyer Communications, left the school board in June 2015 and records show he had prepared the proposal for the survey in April 2016.

Valentine and Eubanks are both named in the ethics complaint with Fletcher writing, “Mr. Valentine and Chair Eubanks actions to get this sole-sourced contract to Widmeyer Communications awarded as a budget consent item troubles me greatly … I am deeply offended that Dr. Eubanks and Mr. Valentine worked to pay one of their former colleagues more than $100,000 of taxpayer money to find out why parents don’t choose Prince George’s County Public Schools.”

The proposal for the parent survey was ultimately tabled at an April board meeting when two board members questioned why the study was necessary and why district employees couldn’t perform the work.

Fletcher said the issue should be concerning to taxpayers because it is part of a bigger problem she recognized when she was on the board.

“Political favors,” she said. “Because a lot of people who were getting huge contracts, you dig deep, do a deep dive, and you would see that either they are a family member of someone who made big campaign contributions to an elected official.”

In a written statement Dr. Eubanks said: “Any suggestion that I attempted to steer a contract to a friend is patently false. The parent survey was reviewed and recommended by the Board’s Family, Parent and Community Engagement Committee, of which I am not a member. Board of Education policy does not exclude no-bid items from the consent agenda. In regards to this matter, the Board voted to take no action on the proposal after several members requested additional research. No action has been taken since then.”

Prince George’s County Public Schools has an ethics committee that reviews complaints like Fletcher’s.

via Fox 5 DC

Read more>>> BOE political cronyism-nepotism refresher

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There was no open bidding process for the contract. Instead a board subcommittee chaired by board member Curtis Valentine (shown above) chose the firm out of two possibilities in clear case of conflict of interest.

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Mr. Daniel Kaufman, who heads Widmeyer Communications, left the school board in June 2015 and records show he had prepared the proposal for the survey in April 2016.

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30

Sep. ’16

US Department of Education Releases Another $245 Million for Privatization of Public Schools

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John King, who stepped in as education secretary Jan. 1, spent his free time in college designing curriculum modules on Puerto Rican history. As New York state’s education commissioner, he came under withering criticism for aggressive reforms that many teachers and parents said steamrolled their concerns.

John King awards $245M to charters incl $8M to the Uncommon Schools charter chain, a chain he previously ran that is known for outrageously high suspension rates. Jersey Jazzman called him the King of Student Suspensions. (His own children never attended a no-excuses charter school; when he lived in New York, they were enrolled in a Montessori school.)

http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2015/10/john-king-new-seced-is-king-of-student.html?m=1

Research accumulates that charters don’t necessarily outperform public schools. That they drain resources from public schools, thus harming the great majority of children who attend public schools. That they fail to be accountable or transparent. That their sponsors and advocates are funded by billionaires and hedge fund managers. That even the best of them, according to a new study by Dobbie and Fryer, have no long-term effects. That they open and close with alarming frequency. That many are abject failures.

Yet John King is using his brief tenure to hand over hundreds of millions to continue the Public School Demolition Derby.

http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-department-education-awards-245-million-support-high-quality-public-charter-schools

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09

Aug. ’16

Bipartisan group of state lawmakers calls for big changes to improve U.S. public schools

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A new federal law has returned considerable power to shape public education to the states. 

By Emma Brown August 9 at 12:11 PM

What will it take for U.S. schools to improve — not incrementally, but dramatically?

That’s the question that a bipartisan group of state lawmakers from around the country set out to answer two years ago, when they embarked on a study of the world’s highest-performing school systems. They compiled their answers in a report released Tuesday at the annual summit of the National Conference of State Legislatures.

“The bad news is most state education systems are falling dangerously behind the world in a number of international comparisons,” says the report. “The good news is, by studying these other high-performing systems, we are discovering what seems to work.”

The group examined 10 nations that fare well on international comparisons, including China, Canada, Singapore, Estonia, Japan, Poland and Korea, and discovered common elements: strong early childhood education, especially for disadvantaged children; more selective teacher preparation programs; better pay and professional working conditions for teachers; and time to help build curriculum linked to high standards.

It also says that high-performing countries tend not to administer standardized tests annually, as the United States does, but instead at key transition points in a student’s career. The assessments emphasize essays over multiple-choice in an effort to gauge students’ complex thinking skills, according to the report. And the tests cost more than states are used to paying for standardized tests, but “these countries prioritize this investment as a small fraction of the total cost of their education system, knowing that cheaper, less effective, less rigorous assessments will not lead to world-class teaching or high student achievement.”

The report — which comes as a new federal education law returns considerable power to shape public education to the states — urges state lawmakers to build a coherent vision for better schools instead of adopting piecemeal reforms.

“Education is first and foremost a state responsibility. Each state can develop its own strategies for building a modern education system that is globally competitive, similar to the approach taken by other high-performing countries,” the report says. “But we must begin now. There’s no time to lose.”

The report does not address some of the more controversial and partisan issues that state legislatures face, such as the role of charter schools, vouchers and other school-choice initiatives.

The report’s findings echo many of the ideas that teachers unions support. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, praised the bipartisan committee, saying it had “set aside political ideologies to work together for what’s best for students and educators.”

The new federal education law, the Every Student Succeeds Act, “creates an educational reset, with the states now being the movers and shakers,” Weingarten said. “This is a rare opportunity in the United States to look at some of the best international practices and apply them here.”

Here are the members of the committee that worked on the report:

State legislators
Rep. Robert Behning, Ind.
Rep. Harry Brooks, Tenn.
Rep. Tom Dickson, Ga.
Rep. Ken Dunkin, Ill.
Sen. Joyce Elliot, Ark.
Sen. John Ford, Okla.
Rep. Eric Fresen, Fla.
Rep. Lynn Gattis, Alaska
Rep. Mary Stuart Gile, N.H.
Rep. Wendy Horman, Idaho
Rep. Betty Komp, Ore.
Sen. Peggy Lehner, Ohio
Sen. Rich Madaleno, Md.
Sen. Luther Olsen, Wis.
Rep. Alice Peisch, Mass.
Sen. Robert Plymale, W.Va.
Rep. Sharon Tomiko Santos, Wash.
Rep. Jacqueline Sly, S.D.
Sen. David Sokola, Del.
Sen. Howard Stephenson, Utah
Rep. Roy Takumi, Hawaii
Sen. Joyce Woodhouse, Nev.

State legislative staff
Ben Boggs, legislative analyst, Ky. legislature
Todd Butterworth, senior research analyst, Nev. legislature
Rachel Hise, lead principal analyst, Md. legislature
Julie Pelegrin, assistant director of the office of legislative legal services, Colo. legislature
Phil McCarthy, senior analyst, Maine legislature
Anita Thomas, legal counsel, N.D. legislature

NCSL education staff
Julie Davis Bell, group director
Michelle Exstrom, program director
Lee Posey, federal affairs counsel
Madeleine Webster, policy associate
Barbara Houlik, staff coordinator

Project partners
Daaiyah Bilal-Threats, National Education Association
Dane Linn, Business Roundtable
Scott S. Montgomery, ACT
Chris Runge, American Federation of Teachers
Adrian Wilson, Microsoft Corp.

National Center on Education and the Economy
and Center on International Education Benchmarking Staff:
Marc Tucker, president
Betsy Brown Ruzzi, vice president and director of CIEB
Nathan Driskell, policy analyst

via Washington post

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25

Jun. ’16

Three TFA Teachers Removed from RI Charter School

...for Texting Disparaging Comments about Students

AR-160629824Three Teach for America teachers at Blackstone Valley Prep School in Rhode Island resigned after they were discovered to have texted each other with disparaging comments about their students.

In the expletive-ridden messages, teachers spoke casually about students, calling them “idiots,” and “dumb [expletives].”

The school head denounced their actions and brought in counseling for students and teachers. He said this “very tragic thing” would not happen again.

The teachers who resigned were trained by Teach for America (TFA), an alternative teacher training program that places young adults in schools across the country. They were suspended by that program.

Teach for America offers five to seven weeks of summer training before someone is hired by schools. Typically, these students are recent college graduates. TFA requires a two-year commitment.

No experienced teacher would have done something so stupid that you cannot even fathom it. 01 newport ri coastline credit onne van der wal

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Posted by . Categories: Three TFA Teachers Removed from RI Charter School for Texting Disparaging Comments about Students, Uncategorized. Tags: , , . 1 Comment

15

Jun. ’16

Idaho: Boise Superintendent Stands Up to the Privatizing

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Dr. Don Coberly, the superintendent of the Boise, Idaho,

Dr. Don Coberly, the superintendent of the Boise, Idaho, school district,wrote a blunt letter to the district’s staff telling them not to believe the smears disseminated by the rich and powerful Albertson Foundation. This would be like the superintendent of Los Angeles telling Eli Broad to take his money and go away. Or the superintendent of any district including Prince George’s County to turn down a bribe from the Gates Foundation to open more charters.

The Albertson Foundation has been pushing charters and virtual charters. It doesn’t like public education. It is running an anti-public school campaign called “Don’t Fail Idaho” in that state.  It is about time that an educators with guts started a campaign calling out the Albertson Foundation for their anti-public school propaganda. Call it the “Albertson Foundation Fails Democracy” campaign.

Superintendent Coberly wrote:

Dear Boise School District staff member:
It’s been a while since we have communicated directly with you in an update. We wanted to take this opportunity to address an important issue.
Over the last few weeks you may have heard or seen the latest advertisements from the J.A and Kathryn Albertson Foundation’s “Don’t Fail Idaho” campaign.  Perhaps the most controversial claim is that four out of five Idaho students are not prepared for life after high school.  There are four facts we want you to understand about this campaign:
  1. It promotes an agenda that is designed to undermine public schools.
  2. It is highly inaccurate.
  3. It offers no real solutions to increasing post-secondary readiness.
  4. It is a disservice to the work you do every day for the youth of this district.
Undermining public schools
 
Why would someone want to undermine public education in Idaho?  The motive is quite clear. At a recent Downtown Rotary Club meeting, the executive director of the Albertson Foundation stated that the goal of the Foundation is to increase charter school seats by 20,000 in the next few years. That will only happen if Idahoans lose faith in their public schools.
Predicting college success
 
Now let’s set the record straight.  The data in question have been spun to create the illusion that 80% of Idaho’s high school graduates are not prepared for college. The source of the data is the 2015 SAT test, administered to juniors in Idaho’s high schools last April. The criteria used by the Foundation? A score of 500 on each of the 3 sections of the test, and an overall score of 1550, adopted by the Idaho Board of Education as an indicator of college success.
The creator of the SAT indicated that achieving this score provides a 66% chance that a freshman will achieve a grade average of B- in the first semester at a four-year college. While this may be one predictor of success in college, it clearly does not reflect other factors that often are more important. High school grades are more predictive than SAT scores. Experience in Dual Credit and Advanced Placement courses are more important. Enrollment and success in Professional Technical coursework, such as Welding or Auto Body, is more important.
Among members of the Boise District high school graduating class of 2009 who have graduated from college, nearly 40% did not achieve the benchmark when they took the SAT or its competitor, the ACT. According to the Foundation, it must be a miracle they graduated from college.
Additionally, we know that only 1 in 10 Boise District students entering Boise State University require remediation in math and reading. This is direct evidence that at least 90% of District students are prepared for college – and that’s due to the tremendous work you do with our students.
 
  Our commitment to post-secondary readiness
 
The ad is just one more indication that the Foundation is out of touch with where Idaho is going. For the first time in nearly a decade, The Governor, State Board of Education, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, State Legislature, ISBA, IASA, and the IEA are working together to build up our public education system, funding schools more properly and making teacher salaries more competitive in order to improve the economy and develop a more educated citizenry. The Albertsons Foundation is trying to tear it down.
Your efforts are appreciated
 
In spite of the disheartening rhetoric that the Albertson Foundation is promoting, we know that the community supports and recognizes the work that all of you do daily to prepare our students.  We will continue to oppose any effort to undermine your dedication, our students’ successes and the role public schools play in creating a vibrant, healthy city and state.
Please feel free to share the information contained herein with parents and community members who might have questions for you about the negative campaign being waged across the state by the Albertson Foundation. We value your service to the community and to our students, and we know that parents and community members do, as well.
Our District’s mission is to “graduate each student prepared for college, career, and citizenship”. Thanks so much for all you do to help us achieve this mission.
Sincerely,
 
Dr. Don Coberly
Superintendent
Boise School District  boise

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Downtown Boise – Idaho

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