Lee Barrios is a retired Nationally Board Certified Teacher in Louisiana.
Open letter to BESE –
Occasionally, albeit rarely, I receive confirmation that I am not only NOT crazy but that I am correct. Because I always base my actions on evidence and am always open to correction, it doesn’t really surprise me and I sleep well at night.
This BESE, on the other hand, ( 8 of you to be exact) have proven that you have personal agendas and are determined to support the lies of Supt. White and his well known cadre of business and political promoters. You are all very intelligent individuals and have ample opportunity to seek out and understand the truth. I give you no benefit of the doubt.
As I have said repeatedly, you are complicit as proven by your actions. However it is never too late to redeem a modicum of respect and honor by standing up and admitting you have been duped. It appears that now is an appropriate time to do that.
You all and John White have created chaos, pain, suffering, loss of excellent teachers, embarrassment for our state, and REAL damage to the education and lives of our children. You must understand that there can be NO test this spring and that the whole high stakes testing accountability must be overhauled and transformed from a purely punitive weapon to some kind of constructive process. Get rid of all the TFA junkies in LDE and replace them with education experts so that can be accomplished! Begin with Supt. White!
Lee P. Barrios, M.Ed., NBCT
Secondary English, Journalism, Gifted
178 Abita Oaks Loop
Abita Springs, Louisiana 70420
http://www.geauxteacher.net
“If a child struggles to clear the high bar at five feet, she will not become a “world class” jumper because someone raised the bar to six feet and yelled “jump higher,” or if her “poor” performance is used to punish her coach.” – – CommonSense
http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/The-Myth-of-Average-Todd-Rose-a
“I believe in standardizing automobiles. I do not believe in standardizing human beings. Standardization is a great peril which threatens American culture.”—— Albert Einstein
Diane Ravitch's blog 
” Get rid of all the TFA junkies in LDE and replace them with education experts so that can be accomplished! Begin with Supt. White!”
Beware of Koch-veeps bearing gifts:
Teach for America: Trojan Horse Among Ferguson Activists?
http://blackagendareport.com/node/14566
TFA seems to be a training program for corporate reform advocates. It is how they keep the reform agenda leadership pipeline full of trainees so they can privatize public education one school and one state at a time by placing their people in positions of power. They were recently exposed again on Al Jazeera. http://goo.gl/UORhau where they interviewed an actual TFA teacher who said she felt incompetent.
Just a note that this letter was in response to the revelation that John White is administering a test under contract with Data Recognition Corporation NOT Pearson but is calling it PARCC and making every attempt to make it appear to be PARCC.
White and BESE have also remained mum since the contract with Pearson for PARCC entered into by New Mexico on behalf of the consortium was revealed.
Click to access NM-PARCC-Contract.pdf
When BESE member Dr. Lottie Beebe addressed the issue with White at the Board’s December meeting, White again attempted to do his usual muddying of the waters. Then White publicly refused to response to my questions during my public comment. Governor Jindal followed two days letter with this letter detailing his Office of Administration position on the possibility of a back door procurement of PARCC through DRC:
Click to access ltr_to_bese_12-4-14.pdf
For the full follow of this latest faux pas from White and his compliant BESE, see Mercedes Schneider’s blog which reveals more shenanigans on a daily basis. Here is her latest followed by the entire collection.
https://deutsch29.wordpress.com/2014/12/12/pearson-holds-all-parcc-consortium-developed-items/
My position, which I will express next Wednesday before a joint meeting of our House and Senate Education Committees hearing White’s annual reports, will be that ANY test now administered in Louisiana has been rendered invalid because teachers and students have been and continue to be directed to PARCC preparation.
You might also be interested in White’s bogus textbook evaluations which resulted in only two Curriculums being awarded his highest Tier 1 label – Eureka Math developed by CommonCore and Core Knowledge for ELA developed by his mentor Joel Kline’s group Amplify. Conflicts of interest may prove to be Superboy White’s fatal flaw.
http://www.geauxteacher.net/2014/11/john-whites-bogus-textbook-evaluations.html
Your efforts are heartening, geauxteacher. Love your quotes at the end of the letter, especially the one attributed to…”common sense.” Please keep us posted.