This teacher, who requests anonymity for obvious reasons, has noticed a peculiar tendency on the part of editorial boards and business leaders to shower praise on educational leaders who act brusquely, with a maximum show of contempt for those they lead. He calls this the “Dick Cheney” style of leadership. Those of us in New York have recently seen this kind of leader in our State Commissioner John King. He recently showed disdain for parents by lecturing them for over an hour at what was billed as a “dialogue about the Common Core,” then–after he was booed and hissed by those parents– insulted them as having been manipulated by “special interests.” The state board of Regents affirmed their support for him, even though he lacks the support of parents and teachers. They actually like the idea that they have a leader who is willing to bulldoze parents and educators. That was the style that didn’t win in Iraq. It certainly won’t “win” in the field of education, where collaboration is needed among parents, students teachers, principals, district leaders, and state agencies. Braggadocio and swagger work in penitentiaries and in the military: not in education.
Here is a letter from a Los Angeles teacher:
In today’s LA Times, the editorial board came out in support of LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy and his iPad roll out with recommended modifications. http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-ipads-lausd-deasy-20131020,0,7789669.story
The editorial begins: “John Deasy, the superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, can be impatient and stubborn, qualities we often admire in him. It takes a sense of urgency to get things moving in L.A.’s schools, as well as a willingness to stand against the forces that resist change.”
And here lies the problem.
They still talk with school girl crush admiration about this man. Other big city newspapers also use this IDENTICAL language to support their Superintendents who come in with their agenda to bulldoze the system.
I have been trying to think who John Deasy is.
He’s Dick Cheney brought in to run the school system.
They both share the same headstrong “sense of urgency” (for the love of God, can we PLEASE RETIRE THIS CLICHE!) and intolerance for those who stand in their way. They both listen almost exclusively to people who have never been in the classroom while totally ignoring the advice from the “boots on the ground.” They both push their positions without a trace of self-doubt or humility, completely disdaining the “status quo wimps” who dare ask them for real world rationales. They both believe what they believe not requiring a trace of hard evidence to support their positions while utilizing aggressive, angry, bullying tactics to get their way.
Both Cheney and Deasy’s “plans” have been developed in secret and then sprung on the public with an intense PR pressure for everyone to get with their program. They are backed by powerful money forces that have vested interests in their decisions. The hubris and over confidence and righteousness in their edicts is designed to intimidate their critics. In the system, very few feel free to speak out against them for fear of reprisal and both Cheney and LAUSD proved quite adept at meting it out (Ask Valerie Plame or many of the politically active teachers in LAUSD’s jail).
Worse, I fear, they are NEVER held accountable for the wreckage they have wrought. In fact, they just move on without reflection. John Deasy will one day move on. But we will be stuck with it.
Deasy has always enjoyed tremendous support from the LA TIMES editorial board. If you read their editorial, their admonishment of Deasy with his iPad initiative is very mild and timid. They still support the decision and don’t address some or the critics biggest complaints about it.
Whether it is John Deasy, D.C.’s Michelle Rhee, Philadelphia’s Mark Hite, Dallas’s Mike Miles, Bridgeport’s Paul Vallas or Chicago’s CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett the main editorial boards of each of these cities have supported the Cheney-model management style they have brought to their positions.
Although he is no longer publicly embraced as the Genius he carried himself as, Cheney enjoys a lucrative retirement and is still treated with deference and respect by many of his true believers. The swagger has worn off but look at the cost of what Cheney was allowed to get away with.
The kids would be far better off if the press were a tad more skeptical and aggressive toward those people in power who push their School Reform. The fawning coverage Deasy has received from the LA Times and this most recent excuse-making for them does not serve the greater education community.
And the LA kids are the collateral damage.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Thank you for printing this. I read the editorial with the same disbelief in the faith they maintain in the current leadership of LAUSD. When so many other needs are unmet at my school, basic and important to success type of needs, I am bewildered by the rush to get an I-pad into everyone’s hands. The infrastructure can’t support it. There are cheaper models. We are spending millions and millions on technology that is ALREADY becoming dated. We pulled a bait and switch on our generous taxpayers, who dug in their own pockets to approve a bond measure for building and maintaining the physical buildings. I strongly disagree with the Times editorial board.
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You’re so right about the LA Times support of this deformer. Here is my reply to their editorial, The LAT as usual does not get the problem that the majority of taxpayers have with this ill-conceived ipad purchase and the LAUSD leadership. We don’t want a reboot of this program, we want it stopped. We don’t want the 30 year plan for this technology when it is too expensive and not educationally useful for our students. We want this program discontinued and we want the leadership, specifically, John Deasy and his senior staff discontinued also. Too many bad decisions, complete disregard for teacher, parent, community input. LAT, get your lips off of LAUSD’s butt and advocate for the community for a change.
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John Deasy has made LAUSD the laughing stock of educators and technology experts all across this country. Major newspapers and tech magazines have unanimously decried his plan.
When will he be held accountable for such careless actions?
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Deasy and his fellow Cheney/Broad clones nationwide, and their Mayor supporters such as former LA Mayor Villaraigosa, all use the lexicon of the Broad Academy. This can be found online. The use of the word “rapidly” permeates every talk they give, every conversation they have. Deasy said to me, personally, that he would shut down “under performing schools rapidly” and he and Tony had just said this to their audience at UCLA last winter. “Rapidly” is the key.
The Times sometimes seems to be on the Broad payroll. They only report in glowing terms on charters, not on the many wonderful and successful public school programs and teachers that function in LAUSD. It is only “bad teachers” that they report on, and “wonderful TFA teachers”…an oxymoron for these young kids with no real teaching experience.
Howard Blume seems to be the key reporter of fact…when allowed to write truth, not glitz. Today, the front page story by Watanabe on ELL is filled with
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Please note…Diane…it impossible for me to read my full post and to edit it. Can your IT folks improve upon this?
Continuing…parent protest, hopefully not leading to a parent trigger, which she seems to love. These Latin parents have a real concern for the mid semester changes for their children to language level grouping. I have worked on this issue for decades and consistently longitudinal studies show that ELL students do best when taught their core subjects in their first language, but also keeping them with native and other English speakers for all other classes. Watanabe finally presents that in her 3 page article, but only in her at the bottom of her final paragraphs. It should have been the lead paragraph.
This paper slants the news repeatedly. I hope the parents who are holding up signs continue to fight this new edict from Deasy on high.
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Ellen Lubic: thank you for your comments.
A key facet of the whole “education reformer” shtick is stated in blazing letters on the website of the leader of the Billionaire Boys Club:
“Impatient Optimists — Bill & Melina Gates Foundation” — and don’t take my word for it: http://www.impatientoptimists.org
English-to-English translation: fast, dirty and short-lived is always preferable to thoughtful, sustainable and life-affirming.
Notice that the Broad Academy and TFA [to mention only two of the most prominent] churn out educrats who prove by their actions and their words that they believe mindlessly frenetic activity devoid of ethical purposeful movement is the be-all and end-all of managing.
Not all those who are, or have been, in leadership positions have taken that approach:
“You don’t lead by hitting people over the head – that’s assault, not leadership.” [Dwight D. Eisenhower]
Remember also: point out the proven failures and broken promises of the win-at-any-cost self-styled “education reformers” — well, “shrill” and “strident” are two of the nicer terms they use to describe Diane Ravitch and other critics of the education establishment. Then there’s the more plain-talking, from the heart rheephormers like Dr. Steve Perry, “America’s Most Trusted Educator”—
Link: http://jonathanpelto.com/2013/10/20/blogger-edushysters-article-steve-perry-talks-white-people/
Their greatest fear is being described, simply and directly, for what they are.
That’s where this blog gets its power. And part of that power is in postings like yours.
Thank you.
🙂
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Thank you for the compliments. Your extended comments give more depth to my observations. This is the core of educators working cooperatively to a worthwhile result. Sadly, Deasy has never learned this, nor has the Broad Academy which specializes in “rapid” fixes. We who have been in the midst of the education world for so many decades have insight into how to lead to critical thinking, and it is not with a quick fix.
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“Your extended comments give more depth to my observations. ”
Yes, every time KTA comments.
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My comment that I posted:
“Some teachers appear to like the educational software being purchased from Pearson Education, which was pre-loaded onto the iPads.”
Where did the above information come from? My understanding is the Pearson software is only 25% completed and, therefore, not on the iPads. When will it be? We don’t know. We’re paying full price without the Pearson software which is supposedly what the iPads are for. The public needs MUCH MORE information.
And I want to know about the tracking – who is being tracked, where that information is going, what policies does the district have for the data mining of all the information they are collecting? Will it be passed on to for profit companies to market their products to the children? Will the military have access to it? These must be answered in writing.
The LA Times might call his behavior “impatient” and “stubborn” and for some reason think it’s attractive but not only is it inappropriate for his position, I would characterize his behavior as reckless – and simply disdainful and dismissive towards anyone that disagrees with him. This is not appropriate for someone making billion dollar decisions about the public’s money on how to educate our children.
There are so many questions I still have but only so many characters left to comment here. The LA Times should be asking many more questions as well.
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Kim…the only LASD teachers I have met with lately who approve of CC, are a few who are getting paid extra to teach the system to their peers. This does not appear to be working well for reasons you mention, and because the CC trainers of these district trainers seem not to have a handle on the system nor on the materials. It is rather like dancing in the dark…but after a dose of LSD.
What I hear in meetings is spin…magical thinking. And from what I read here and on other teacher blogs, that seems to be a similar experience for teachers nationwide who have been teaching core subjects for many years with wide success, as witness the volumes of students who go off to college. We only hear about those students who drop out or do not attend college however.
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“. . . but after a dose of LSD.”
Careful, Ellen, you’re getting into my territory now-HA HA (with that HA HA said in a most trippy way-HA HA!!)
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Our Public School System and the Edmund Fitzgerald have one thing in common, but hopefully that is all they have in common! We now have a National Public School System called Common Core which was implemented without any research showing it is going to work or any Pilot testing done to even give us an idea of how it may turn out in regard to student success or improvement in outcomes. This is what they have in common as the naval architect, Raymond Ramsey, a member of the design team for the Edmond Fitzgerald stated later. “The Fitzgerald’s long ship design was developed without the benefit of Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation Principals” and he indicated that the Fitzgerald was NOT seaworthy at the time the ship sank to the bottom of one of the Great Lakes! Is this the Goal behind the Common Core, to sink the Public School System so we privatize ALL schools for Greater Corporate Profits. Let us hope this is not the second thing the schools have in common with the Edmond Fitzgerald! Anyway,
I thought this all started with TIMMS and comparing how we are doing with
Finland, Singapore, or Germany? Do any of you know how many tests are given to students in countries like Finland or Germany? I talked with some students and teachers from those countries and found out. Finish students do not take a single standardized test. I wonder how they evaluate their teachers? Germany limits the number of tests each semester to three for high school students. These tests include classroom tests and any type of “standardized” test, so if a teacher gives three unit tests a semester, the maximum has been reached and no “standardized” test could be given. The students and teachers said most of their work is judged by their class participation, both oral and written. They also indicated they get graphing calculators issued with their math textbooks and are expected to use them when needed including during a Test. When are we going to start to do what these successful countries do for our students? Please. Learn from a Real International Education Expert.
Finland’s Pasi Sahlberg is one of the world’s leading experts on school reform and the author of the best-selling “Finnish Lessons: What Can the World Learn About Educational Change in Finland?” In this piece he writes about whether the emphasis that American school reformers put on “teacher effectiveness” is really the best approach to improving student achievement.
He is director general of Finland’s Centre for International Mobility and Cooperation and has served the Finnish government in various positions and worked for the World Bank in Washington D.C. He has also been an adviser for numerous governments internationally about education policies and reforms, and is an adjunct professor of education at the University of Helsinki and University of Oulu. He can be reached atpasi.sahlberg@cimo.fi.
By Pasi Sahlberg
Many governments are under political and economic pressure to turn around their school systems for higher rankings in the international league tables. Education reforms often promise quick fixes within one political term. Canada, South Korea, Singapore and Finland are commonly used models for the nations that hope to improve teaching and learning in their schools. In search of a silver bullet, reformers now turn their eyes on teachers, believing that if only they could attract “the best and the brightest” into the teaching profession, the quality of education would improve.
“Teacher effectiveness” is a commonly used term that refers to how much student performance on standardized tests is determined by the teacher. This concept hence applies only to those teachers who teach subjects on which students are tested. Teacher effectiveness plays a particular role in education policies of nations where alternative pathways exist to the teaching profession.
In the United States, for example, there are more than 1,500 different teacher-preparation programs. The range in quality is wide. In Singapore and Finland only one academically rigorous teacher education program is available for those who desire to become teachers. Likewise, neither Canada nor South Korea has fast-track options into teaching, such as Teach for America or Teach First in Europe. Teacher quality in high-performing countries is a result of careful quality control at entry into teaching rather than measuring teacher effectiveness in service.
In recent years the “no excuses”’ argument has been particularly persistent in the education debate. There are those who argue that poverty is only an excuse not to insist that all schools should reach higher standards. Solution: better teachers. Then there are those who claim that schools and teachers alone cannot overcome the negative impact that poverty causes in many children’s learning in school. Solution: Elevate children out of poverty by other public policies.
For me the latter is right. In the United States today, 23 percent of children live in poor homes. In Finland, the same way to calculate child poverty would show that figure to be almost five times smaller. The United States ranked in the bottom four in the recent United Nations review on child well-being. Among 29 wealthy countries, the United States landed second from the last in child poverty and held a similarly poor position in “child life satisfaction.” Teachers alone, regardless of how effective they are, will not be able to overcome the challenges that poor children bring with them to schools everyday.
Finland is not a fan of standardization in education. However, teacher education in Finland is carefully standardized. All teachers must earn a master’s degree at one of the country’s research universities. Competition to get into these teacher education programs is tough; only “the best and the brightest” are accepted. As a consequence, teaching is regarded as an esteemed profession, on par with medicine, law or engineering. There is another “teacher quality” checkpoint at graduation from School of Education in Finland. Students are not allowed to earn degrees to teach unless they demonstrate that they possess knowledge, skills and morals necessary to be a successful teacher.
But education policies in Finland concentrate more on school effectiveness than on teacher effectiveness. This indicates that what schools are expected to do is an effort of everyone in a school, working together, rather than teachers working individually.
In many under-performing nations, I notice, three fallacies of teacher effectiveness prevail.
The first belief is that “the quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers.” This statement became known in education policies through the influential McKinsey & Company report titled “How the world’s best performing school systems come out on top”. Although the report takes a broader view on enhancing the status of teachers by better pay and careful recruitment this statement implies that the quality of an education system is defined by its teachers. By doing this, the report assumes that teachers work independently from one another. But teachers in most schools today, in the United States and elsewhere, work as teams when the end result of their work is their joint effort.
The role of an individual teacher in a school is like a player on a football team: all teachers are vital, but the culture of the school is even more important for the quality of the school. Team sports offer numerous examples of teams that have performed beyond expectations because of leadership, commitment and spirit. Take the U.S. ice hockey team in the 1980 Winter Olympics, when a team of college kids beat both Soviets and Finland in the final round and won the gold medal. The quality of Team USA certainly exceeded the quality of its players. So can an education system.I
The second fallacy is that “the most important single factor in improving quality of education is teachers.” This is the driving principle of former D.C. schools chancellor Michele Rhee and many other “reformers” today. This false belief is central to the “no excuses” school of thought. If a teacher was the most important single factor in improving quality of education, then the power of a school would indeed be stronger than children’s family background or peer influences in explaining student achievement in school.
Research on what explains students’ measured performance in school remains mixed. A commonly used conclusion is that 10% to 20% of the variance in measured student achievement belongs to the classroom, i.e., teachers and teaching, and a similar amount is attributable to schools, i.e., school climate, facilities and leadership. In other words, up to two-thirds of what explains student achievement is beyond the control of schools, i.e., family background and motivation to learn.
Over thirty years of systematic research on school effectiveness and school improvement reveals a number of characteristics that are typical of more effective schools. Most scholars agree that effective leadership is among the most important characteristics of effective schools, equally important to effective teaching. Effective leadership includes leader qualities, such as being firm and purposeful, having shared vision and goals, promoting teamwork and collegiality and frequent personal monitoring and feedback. Several other characteristics of more effective schools include features that are also linked to the culture of the school and leadership: Maintaining focus on learning, producing a positive school climate, setting high expectations for all, developing staff skills, and involving parents. In other words, school leadership matters as much as teacher quality.
The third fallacy is that “If any children had three or four great teachers in a row,they would soar academically, regardless of their racial or economic background, while those who have a sequence of weak teachers will fall further and further behind”. This theoretical assumption is included in influential policy recommendations, for instance in “Essential Elements of Teacher Policy in ESEA: Effectiveness, Fairness and Evaluation” by the Center for American Progress to the U.S. Congress. Teaching is measured by the growth of student test scores on standardized exams.
This assumption presents a view that education reform alone could overcome the powerful influence of family and social environment mentioned earlier. It insists that schools should get rid of low-performing teachers and then only hire great ones. This fallacy has the most practical difficulties. The first one is about what it means to be a great teacher. Even if this were clear, it would be difficult to know exactly who is a great teacher at the time of recruitment. The second one is, that becoming a great teacher normally takes five to ten years of systematic practice. And determining the reliably of ‘effectiveness’ of any teacher would require at least five years of reliable data. This would be practically impossible.
Everybody agrees that the quality of teaching in contributing to learning outcomes is beyond question. It is therefore understandable that teacher quality is often cited as the most important in-school variable influencing student achievement. But just having better teachers in schools will not automatically improve students’ learning outcomes.
Lessons from high-performing school systems, including Finland, suggest that we must reconsider how we think about teaching as a profession and what is the role of the school in our society.
First, standardization should focus more on teacher education and less on teaching and learning in schools. Singapore, Canada and Finland all set high standards for their teacher-preparation programs in academic universities. There is no Teach for Finland or other alternative pathways into teaching that wouldn’t include thoroughly studying theories of pedagogy and undergo clinical practice. These countries set the priority to have strict quality control before anybody will be allowed to teach – or even study teaching! This is why in these countries teacher effectiveness and teacher evaluation are not such controversial topics as they are in the U.S. today.
Second, the toxic use of accountability for schools should be abandoned. Current practices in many countries that judge the quality of teachers by counting their students’ measured achievement only is in many ways inaccurate and unfair. It is inaccurate because most schools’ goals are broader than good performance in a few academic subjects. It is unfair because most of the variation of student achievement in standardized tests can be explained by out-of-school factors. Most teachers understand that what students learn in school is because the whole school has made an effort, not just some individual teachers. In the education systems that are high in international rankings, teachers feel that they are empowered by their leaders and their fellow teachers. In Finland, half of surveyed teachers responded that they would consider leaving their job if their performance would be determined by their student’s standardized test results.
Third, other school policies must be changed before teaching becomes attractive to more young talents. In many countries where teachers fight for their rights, their main demand is not more money but better working conditions in schools. Again, experiences from those countries that do well in international rankings suggest that teachers should have autonomy in planning their work, freedom to run their lessons the way that leads to best results, and authority to influence the assessment of the outcomes of their work. Schools should also be trusted in these key areas of the teaching profession.
To finish up, let’s do one theoretical experiment. We transport highly trained Finnish teachers to work in, say, Indiana in the United States (and Indiana teachers would go to Finland). After five years–assuming that the Finnish teachers showed up fluent in English and that education policies in Indiana would continue as planned–we would check whether these teachers have been able to improve test scores in state-mandated student assessments.
I argue that if there were any gains in student achievement they would be marginal. Why? Education policies in Indiana and many other states in the United States create a context for teaching that limits (Finnish) teachers to use their skills, wisdom and shared knowledge for the good of their students’ learning. Actually, I have met some experienced Finnish-trained teachers in the United States who confirm this hypothesis. Based on what I have heard from them, it is also probable that many of those transported Finnish teachers would be already doing something else than teach by the end of their fifth year – quite like their American peers.
Conversely, the teachers from Indiana working in Finland–assuming they showed up fluent in Finnish–stand to flourish on account of the freedom to teach without the constraints of standardized curricula and the pressure of standardized testing; strong leadership from principals who know the classroom from years of experience as teachers; a professional culture of collaboration; and support from homes unchallenged by poverty.
Do you honestly think our educational problem is the curriculum and standards are not rigorous enough for our current students?Please go to your local school and talk with the teachers or read some of the students comments on facebook. If you live in an area of higher socioeconomic means, then your school is performing above average due to many factors such as parent support for learning and checking to see that their children are completing their homework or immediatley getting the help they need. Parents of students who attend “good” schools do not want endless tests that are meaningless to their childrens future and a huge waist of resources that should be used to improve the school learning environment by purchasing needed technology and up to date instructional materials. Maybe the new standards could be helpful, but teachers have a shorter, more limited amount of time to cover more curriculum than before due to earlier testing periods and more testing. Futhermore, how are students held accountable for doing their best on these tests? Is the test result used to help calculate the students grade or do they need a proficient score to earn a diploma or get accepted for college or … If the test has no student accountability component why would they even care about doing well. I would focus on preparing for my immediate class grade to improve my GPA and SAT exams or preparing for a big game or musical performance. I could use this test as a way of getting back at a teacher who is asking me to do more than I want to do because I have other interests. Are only math, science, and English teachers being judged by these tests or is there a test to judge a PE teacher or Art/Music teacher or Elective teachers? I wonder how long it will be before we find no one willing to interview for a math teaching position at a low performing school. I do not see how spending ALL this money on testing is changing anything except creating a National Curriculum and telling low performing schools that they continue to be low performing schools and they need to replace their teachers with better ones. It seems like I have been hearing this same argument for the past 50 years. Yes, I am a senior citizen who cares about real changes that will improve educational opportunities for the students who need an environment that is conducive to learning. Why are we spending money we do not have on schools that are already achieving and trying to have a one size fits all system because this is not why Americans create so many new things and come up with so many new ideas. If we are trying compete with Finland and Singapore, then we need to make serious structural systemic changes to our schools and do what they do or do not do in their schools. NO more football programs or other sports in our high schools and most electives would also have to be eliminated. I am a Finlander, but we live in a much different country in America and we have very different values. When the well-educated parents of public school children start to understand that a large part of schooling has changed from learning and developing critical thinking to preparing students to do well on a test that most people never have time to analyze and use as a resource to improve the educational experience for children, then they will either place their children in a school where real learning is the priority or they will get involved in changing our new system of schooling. I cannot call this system a system for learning because time and testing are not and should never be factors in a learning environment that promotes creativity and critical thinking (testing without student accountability is meaningless). These two goals are what made America great and created jobs, and they do not happen in a specific amount of time because each of us is unique and we do things at different rates. And futhermore, testing has never been shown to improve either of these factors unless the tests are used to diagnose student deficiencies in their prerequisite knowledge needed to expand their understanding using this knowledge. Even then, most school systems do not give teachers adequate time to analyze the testing data so it an exercise in wasting valuable learning time. Critical thinking and creativity are factors that need to be encouraged and nurtured from Pre-K on. To flourish, they need a stress free environment so students can open up their thoughts and dream up new ideas. It seems ironic that many of the people who were allowed to be raised in this type of environment, open, creative, and stress free, are the same people who are now paying for and pushing for a more controlled and structured environment, but not for their own children? What about Bill Gates and Mark Zutterburg? Are these the experts on College Readiness? Really! So we want college students who drop out after a year or two? Really!!!
Thank you for reading and pray for your grandchildren’s future. I know We have been praying for ours way before our friends in Utah asked us to pray and if praying is not your thing, then get actively involved in some other way. Maybe we should all start by READING the new common core standards and MORE IMPORTANTLY LOOK AT THE NEW TESTING QUESTIONS starting in grade 3 and see how many of the 11th grade questions you can answer. This may be an eye opener? REMEMBER, the tests will drive the curriculum and what is and is not taught and how it is taught. The tests will determine the level of difficulty and the amount of time available to teach and learn all concepts and not the students rate for understanding of the curriculum. This means if the student is a “late starter or late bloomer”, then you would be better to place them in a Private School that does not expect ALL students to learn at the exact same pace. Please God Bless America now more than ever or whatever your belief system, someone better be looking out for our children and grandchildren’s future.
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Here is the background for this editorial:
Newspapers are in big trouble financially. The Los Angeles Times, I was told by one of their journalists, is in bankruptcy. Because of this, these newspapers need to represent the position of their corporate masters who are paying the bills. That’s why “everyone” is saying more or less the same thing.
There are usually grave consequences for middle and low income people when there is a severe economic downturn. As a result of the Great Recession, middle income workers such as teachers have been demonized, and the press has lost much of its independence.
The good news: John Deasy, the arrogant fool, will be gone soon. Just give it time.
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I thought he was supposed to be replaced once Ratliff was elected.
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Ho hum. All the debate and chatter over Deasy and the ipad debacle. LAUSD is designed for profiteering. Naturally, anyone with ethics and half a brain is a threat to the plutocracy, which explains how administrators manage to get their high paying jobs. For all the talk about teachers and students, they are merely yesterday’s garbage to Deasy and the Broad of Education and are served on a platter for the illbred and semi-literate readers of the LA Times.
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Deasy and many of the current administrators who are following his direction to demonize and blame teachers for the failures in the education system need to be replaced with competent leaders and administrators. Please teachers and our supporters, simply do not subscribe to the Los Angeles Times. I stopped years ago when I started noticing all of the bad publicity to blame teachers. I do not see how it is legal to place teachers accused of inappropriate behavior in a “teacher jail” without an administrative hearing immediately, so that innocent teachers are returned to the classroom without delay. The administrative hearing is so expensive that no teacher could afford the legal fees without exhausting their retirement and saving accounts. We should not have to pay for an administrative hearing, that is a sure way to get rid of innocent professional who can not afford to defend themselves. I noticed that the number of teachers applying for credentials have dropped by two thirds in the past five years. This is definitely related to all of the bad publicity showing the world how badly teachers are treated, thanks in part to the Los Angeles Times. This is one of the reasons that the LA Times is going bankrupt.
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I have the documents and the world wide research on not only Apple but Microsoft, Amplify and others and the super high prices up to in Texas with Amplify of $2,538 each and in one year they shut it down. In England one year, 1/2 did not work. Amplify in another situation, they lease at high prices mostly and the screens were breaking at about $180-200 each, because they did not meet spec with the special Gorilla Glass. This is constant. All I do is type in terms like these: School prices for iPads, problems with iPads, problems with electronic devices, problems with iPads world wide, Amplify and schools. Is this simple enough? And yet, all these district highly paid EXPERTS, CONSULTANTS, and MANUFACTURER SALES PEOPLE do not know the difference and cannot find what this low life can. Make any sense to you?
Now, let’s just talk about LAUSD and electronic devices and what happened. In 2011-12 school districts start buying these things for really high prices and it does not work out. So about a year after others start buying the tablets LAUSD starts looking or they come to them somehow with the wine and dine at luxury places in Cuperitno which is their favorite place to suck them in and make them feel so very special. All a part of their psychological warfare on the simpleton educrats, which most really are. They show LAUSD how much more all the others are paying and what a good deal we will give you, ha-ha. We will only charge you $1,600 each and those succors paid up to $2,500 each, such a deal. The Citizens Bond Give the Money Away to our Friends Committee approves $1,598.57 each with, again, the support of the PTA.
The representative of the PTA, Scott Folsum, has approved over the years 2-3 times the normal rate of cost in L.A. County for bond expenditures in construction. And let us not forget that fake civil rights attorney Connie Rice who was also on the Bond Oversight Give Away the Money Committee and helped give away maybe $8 billion, we have the proof with her votes and with the fact that we have told them for years about this waste and fraud. That is not a civil rights attorney who is out to protect children or the public. Total inconsistency.
One of the proofs is my spreadsheet in 2003 of their own Strategic Execution Plan (SEP) for bond money and what has happened documented since then and the California Office of Public School Construction (OPSC) Jan, 2008 study on school construction costs in California and when you use the costs for L.A. County that is what you get. Also, both bibles of the construction industry say the same thing and I have checked in other areas of the country and the costs are the same except for labor. As soon as I produce that spreadsheet here is what happens. Immediately, to this day, no longer are the numbers for: property acquisition, design, construction and other. Now, they only give you the total cost with no breakdown and pretty color pictures to lure you in, Thanks Scott Folsum, Connie Rice and their overpaid consultant, Tom Rubin, who gives them illegal advice constantly. Go ahead and sue me so I can set myself up pretty for life by taking you down with your personal finances also. Do you all know that the truth is the perfect defense on libel and slander. Go do your law research. I did a long time ago, in fact, I had to show it to attorneys and have the case law as until then they did not know like you fake people.
So, then, one month later, Jaime Aquino, who replaced the corrupt Judy Elliott as Sup. of Instruction, and we have the documented proof of that also, on Feb 12, 2013 does his power point which has 5 prices from $200 with a 5 year guarantee to $1,598 for the same thing. Nice, isn’t that. On page 16 he says we will not pay more than $200 with a 5 year guarantee. Also in there is the 40 schools used to test and of the 40 only 8 are not Apple products. Fair test right.
So, instead of reading and comprehending the power point the board votes to approve $1,000 each for iPads. Then we start our fun with them and you are starting to see the blowback.
Two of us drove Marshall Tuck out of PLAS, Villaraigosa’s schools, for stealing 1/2 of Roosevelt and Santee High Schools Budget, we have the documents. Then after CORE-CA, myself presenting, and the California Title 1 Parent Union leaders Yolande Beckles and Walter Richardson, who has been at this for 55 years, throw the board on Tuesdays board meeting into a tizzy with the revelations of the Title 1 law breaking with the letter from DOE to the effect and I hammer the iPads.
At the same weeks Thursday Committee meeting Yoland Beckles from the California Title 1 Parent Union gives it to them at the Committee meeting again with documents and the law breaking. Obviously, Aquino saw the end of this life and career coming to an end as Deasy, Gates, Broad, Walton had convinced him if he does their bidding all will be well. Well, he got the message they were setting him up to take the fall. So, he freaks our and within two hours of Yolande Beckles and the California Title 1 Parent Union presentation at the Committee meeting he resigns. At 10:00 the next morning we receive an email that he resigned. By 11:00 we have confirmed this with Vladavic’s Chief of Staff. By 1:00 CORE-CA is writing a letter to the Board of Education stating the need again for the public process such as we had in 1997 for Rubin Zacarias to become superintendent. No one can say this is a new idea and we still have the original documentation.
That night Celes King IV, whose family has over 115 years of continuous civil rights and started CORE-CA, sends the letter to the Board. By the way, CORE-CA is the only old civil rights group in the U.S. who is not financially controlled by billionaires and corporations. Just go to any group and look at who their donors are and then compare them to the old ALEC list. That is always fun for me with unbelievers.
That night we put out on the Ravich Blog this process and the next day also and then response started for others to want the public process also. The public process is the one thing the billionaires have no way of defending their position. For the first time they did not have an advantage and from then on we control the agenda not the billionaires and we are moving so fast now there is no way for them to keep up. Art of War, never give a succor an even break when they are evil and on the run, in fact, turn up the heat on them.
You will not believe what is coming next. This is just a small taste of the totality of what we have and continue to gain everyday.
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Deasy must go.
k12newsnetwork.com/blog/2012/04/02/lausd-superintendent-of-schools-john-deasy-must-go/
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IPADS, common core and Pearson are all tied into the same thing down the road. This is the evolution we will see that has already been rolled out in Jr. Colleges that teach remedial Math and English. 1) Establish a national standard for each thing they want learned. 2) Get a committee of master teachers to sit down and figure out what to teach and how to teach it. 3) Film Dr. Fischer (fictitious name) teaching the standard. 4) Figure out how to question if the material was learned. 5) Design re teach loops to teach that which is not learned. 6) Have every student from Rhode Island to Kansas watch the same program and take the same standardized tests. The biggest cost of education is the teacher. Get rid of the majority of teachers and teach what doesn’t work this way with real teachers. This is the brave new world of teacher reform. LAUSD already has a company named Two Bit Circus designing such programs. After all Rupert Murdoch has said the next big frontier to making money is in Education. That does not bode well for teachers who will become as relevant as horse and buggy are in the USA.
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Sadly, George slips in and out of a palpable reality with all his hyperbole. Some of it is valuable info which he should expand, such as the snippet about Judy Elliott. Most people do not know anything about her and her tenure running the Title 1 program.
But to be believable, credible, to professional educators, to the Bd. of Ed., and to the public, it is important to know the cast of characters. Continually quoting Yolande Beckles, whose creds are alarming at best, showing her to be a British subject who fled to the US steps ahead of the law, and having her shown as an international ‘con’ woman on websites devoted to discrediting her, she does not seem to be a credible spokesperson for Title 1 which is such an important program for students living in poverty.
Many people wonder how this non-US citizen with legal charges pending against her in her home country, Britain, and now new charges against here in LA, can have a Green Card to work at all in the US, muchless at a government paid job in LA and an office on Wilshire Blvd. How did she get into the country in the first place, and how and why can she now represent Title 1 parents? Did she come here to go on the dole? Is she here legally? George, let us know her status please.
Whose version of truth is an absolute defense? CORE is certainly a valid and long time civil rights group, but George wrote me long ago that he broke with them to form CORE-CA., seemingly his own invention.
I am sorry to add this, but his long diatribes, full of sound and fury signifying not much, too often get the attention of educators nationwide who wonder what the hell he is ranting about.
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One of the reasons I stopped getting the LA times was there usual anomosity toward LAUSD teachers . You could always count on negativity from the editorial board,
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Howard Blume is not a good reporter, you just think so because you know nothing about what goes on there. We have had too many reporters in private tell us “If we write those stories we will never work again.” An example: I was with 10 people when we met Amy Pyle, former education reporter for the L.A. Times. I presented to her the data I had from the LAUSD Superintendents Budget and the Audited Actuals for 10 years. It took a year before she called and said bring the information to the Times building downtown. When she saw the stack of papers she about died. So, back then they did real reporting, and she wrote the story called “In a Book Bind.” For 10 years the district budgeted and did not spend $250,000,000/year for a total of lost $2.5 billion. Wonder why you did not have textbooks and instructional materials and supplies teachers.
Now there is the interesting thing just before they printed the story. I was in my shop in Pacoima and the phone rings and it is Amy. Here is the conversation “Hi Amy, how’s it going. George, the top brass told me I had to call you before we print the story and ask this. OK, what is it. They told me that if you wanted your name or your non profit 501 (C)(3), The Association for Accountability and Equitable Education (AAEE) in the article we will not publish. OK, Amy, just publish. OK, what happens next is it hits so big that Schiff and Bustamente, legislators, pick up on this and we have the landmark legislation which puts an extra $1.5 billion on top of the regular textbook funding over 3 years through what is known as the Schiff-Bustamente legislation which is famous. We are about “Outcomes” so it was OK.
Another time a new Times reporter does a 1/2 page on my former non profit and they do different versions depending on which area they were printing for. Not long after the reporter disappears and to this day we don’t know what happened. This is how it rolls when you do what we do against the biggest power there is. You must expect serious things to happen when you step on their stealing and fraud.
You see when you sit as an academic in the ivory tower how are you supposed to know what is happening? Can’t happen. If the academics were doing their job would we find out from the Attorney General of California, Kamala Harris, about the truancy of elementary children? Academics didn’t care or they would have found this a long time ago. Why should I trust them? If you are me with what I know and they do not how would you look at them. To me, failures. We produce the information. In Title 1 it is the California Title 1 Parent Union who is saving Title 1. Without Yolande Beckles and Walter Richardson there would never be a $2.5 billion lawsuit for the district lawbreaking especially by Deasy, Aquino and Maria Cassillas. As a result of the constant work by Yolande and Walter the top person on Title 1 at the DOE wrote a letter to the district telling them that they have been out of compliance with the Federal Law. They have been privately presenting all the documentation to board members. Board members are not very happy with what they see in documents with those peoples names on them. About a week ago Steve Zimmer had the first Title 1 meeting in a long time. Thank you Steve. Even though the schools were supposed to send out notices to parents Deasy et al made sure it did not happen and there were only 30 people there. Now we know what happpened and there is going to be another meeting in the middle of November. Board member Zimmer is stepping up to the plate for parents and students. Please back him in this endeavor. This is how it rolls when you play in the “Big Leagues.” So we are no nothings and do nothings, right? Come to our playground and see what it is like and if you can take the heat.
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http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3owTITgjJbM&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D3owTITgjJbM
Now watch this You Tube and see who defends teachers. Think, Ellen, who you are messing with. Watch their faces. Listen to the clapping and audience. Think of the content. Watch and listen to Lenny who speaks first who is the only person now taking those calls except for a few that come my way and I immediately send them to Lenny as he has the data base and we want it all in one place. You can see what Lenny is all about at perdaily.com. He has over 400 posts on that site on LAUSD. Do you really want to take this on????? Who got to you. We know the game there and the players. Do you know? Just busted Ann Arbor tonight for a commenter. Only took about 1/2 hour.
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Almost all of the Superintendents listed are graduates of the Broad Superintendents Academy.
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