Leonie Haimson reports here on the parent revolt against the Summit platform, pushed now by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.
One of their biggest concerns is data privacy and the lack thereof.
Haimson writes:
Over the course of the 2016-2017 school year, parents throughout the country rebelled against the platform, both because of its lack of privacy but also because they experienced its negative impact on their children’s learning and attitudes to school. In addition, Summit and the schools using the platform are no longer asking for parental consent, probably because so many parents refused or resisted signing the consent forms.
After the Washington Post article appeared, I expanded on the privacy concerns cited in that piece, and pointed out additional issues in my blog. I included a list of questions parents should ask Summit to clarify their data-sharing plans. Parents who sent them to Summit informed me that Summit failed to answer these questions. (I later expanded on these questions, and Rachael Stickland, the co-chair of the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy, submitted them to Summit representatives after personally meeting them at SXSW EDU conference in March. She also received no response.)
Meanwhile, the list of Summit schools, both public and charter, that had allegedly adopted the platform last year was taken down from the Summit website sometime between February 15 and February 18, according to the Wayback Machine – making it even more difficult to ascertain which schools and students are were actually using it. The archived list is here.
On March 3, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported on the experience of parents in Boone County, Kentucky whose schools had adopted the platform– many of whom did not want to consent to their children’s data being shared with so little specificity and so few restrictions:
At the beginning of the school year, parents had to sign a permission slip allowing Summit to access their child’s profile information. Summit uses the info to “conduct surveys and studies, develop new features, products and services and otherwise as requested,” the form states. The agreement also allows Summit to disclose information to third-party service providers and partners “as directed” by schools. That, perhaps, is the biggest source of contention surrounding Summit. … “It’s optional. Nobody has to do Summit, [Deputy Superintendent Karen] Cheser said… Summit spokeswoman declined to speak on the record with The Enquirer.”
Yet within weeks of the publication of this article, at about the same time that the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative took over, someone involved in the Summit initiative decided that parents would no longer be granted the right of consent – either for their children to be subjected to the Summit instructional program or for their data to be shared according to Summit’s open-ended policies. In fact, Summit claimed the right to access, data-mine and redisclose their children’s data in the same way as before – yet now, without asking if parents agreed to these terms.
As she notes, Summit no longer considers it necessary to get parental consent before they collect and use student data.
Zukerberg and his wife, Chan, can KISS my rear end. They are USERS.
Zuckerberg and Chan, Jobs’ wife Lorene, Bill and Melinda: the country cannot sustain so much invasive tech billionaire “help….”
I might be concerned about this but Leonie is so busy telling me how terrible and awful Mayor de Blasio has been for NYC public schools that I need to put my energy into getting Mayor de Blasio defeated so we can get someone who really cares about kids like Mayor Bloomberg. I read the “failing” report card she approved.
Thanks, Leonie.
(If I sound cynical, it is because I am. While Mayor de Blasio is not perfect, neither has any politician I have ever met been perfect. I think the Mayor has done a more than decent job trying to improve public schools and address integration and direct funding toward the renewal schools where I think it belongs. Characterizing his education policy as a complete failure is about the biggest exaggeration I have ever heard. So pardon me if I don’t trust Leonie’s take on education issues anymore. I think Mayor de Blasio, while not perfect, has been pretty darn good for NYC public school students and is trying to make things better for ALL of them. Leonie tells me he is a failure. Why would I vote for a failure?)
NYC PSP,
I don’t know how Leonie Haimson will vote, but I assure you that she was the most articulate critic of the Bloomberg regime.
She is a stalwart advocate for student privacy and reduced class size.
I defend her right to voice her views because I know her to be an honest and dedicated critic.
She is not an enemy of de Blasio. She is a champion of children.
Working hard to get Mayor de Blasio defeated because he isn’t doing everything you want him to do on the issues that you happen to care the most about does not make you a champion of children. It makes you a champion of the issues that affect the children you care the most about. Eva Moskowitz is also a champion of children. It’s all how you define children.
I am also a stalwart advocate for student privacy and reduced class size. As a parent, I certainly don’t love seeing my kid in large class sizes without lots of privacy regulations.
Despite that, I can see beyond my own selfish desires to understand that governing is about choices and not every choice is going to immediately benefit my child or whatever issue I care most about. That means that I can understand that just because a politician doesn’t fall exactly in line with my choices I don’t characterize him as corrupt or crooked or failures.
(I have explained this to Joel Herman who despises my POV. Bernie Sanders often doesn’t fall in line exactly with what I want him to do.
But I would never call him corrupt or crooked or attack his character just because everything he does isn’t 100% what I want him to do. I can understand that prioritizing one thing over another when I prioritize the other does not mean a candidate is corrupt and a failure.)
Leonie could find nothing good in anything the Mayor did for public schools. He was a complete and utter failure. Except he wasn’t. He did MANY good things. You only have to read Juan Gonzalez, former NY Daily News reporter’s account of everything that the Mayor has done to recognize it.
de Blasio just failed in whatever issue Leonie decided was most important to her and she decided — in an extremely selfish manner — to tarnish every good thing he did. Because if he is defeated by another “reformer” it won’t be HER children who suffer. And she seems to believe that if de Blasio is defeated his replacement will miraculously make things better for all the children Leonie says she cares most about. Because the Mayor just doesn’t prioritize or care about what Leonie says he should care most about, so he is a complete and utter failure. And replacing him with someone out will miraculously lead to everything Leonie wants to get done.
There is a way to criticize a politician without attacking them as completely failures or corrupt or dishonest. That is how President Obama was always criticized. He wasn’t an abject failure although you could certainly cherry-pick a few items that are most important to you as Leonie did and give him Fs and Ds and talk about what a corrupt and dishonest person President Obama was. You could attack his character. You could make sure everyone understood there was absolutely nothing good about him to talk about — just his failures.
If this were Andrew Cuomo, I could understand. If this were Rahm Emanuel I could understand. If this were someone who used his political capital to help privatize public education as Mayor Bloomberg did I could understand. But I don’t understand the de Blasio hate coming from Leonie as if he has done nothing good for public schools. As if he was the failure that Leonie says he is. As if no public school parent in his right mind should vote to re-elect him and we should all work very hard to defeat him. That’s certainly what Leonie just told me to do.
^^I defend Leonie’s right to attack de Blasio as a complete and utter failure and work very hard to convince public school parents that we should help defeat him because he was so terrible for public education. But I don’t agree with it. If and when she gets her way and there is a right wing pro-charter replacement, it won’t give me any comfort at all to know that Leonie will also be criticizing the new guy as he helps dismantle as many public schools as he can to help the reformers. But no doubt she will feel as smug as the people who helped defeat Hillary did that she was merely telling it like it is and making sure all public school parents knew what an abject failure Mayor de Blasio is.
Never let the perfect be the enemy of the good. That was the mistake the Bernie people made after the convention. You should not make it now.
Perhaps I am making that mistake now with Leonie. But I’d argue that Leonie is making that mistake with Mayor de Blasio. And while my mistake will have little impact, Leonie’s will have much more.
Here are what NYC voters making decisions about the Mayoral election are reading today thanks to Leonie’s report:
DNA Info headline: “De Blasio Gets Failing Marks on School Policies from Parent Group”
NY Post headline: “School advocates give de Blasio an F”
ChalkbeatNY headline: “Advocacy group gives de Blasio failing grades on NYC education report card”
I know these are the headlines because Leonie so helpfully linked to them.
I read them just like she wanted me to.
Diane, as you know I am a public school parent who cares about public education. Can you think of a single reason to make me vote for Mayor de Blasio’s re-election when the person who you just told me is the “champion of children” and “an honest and dedicated critic” just told me what a failure he has been?
If I care about public education, the LAST person I would ever vote for is Mayor de Blasio. He is a failure through and through. Even a Republican can’t get any worse.
I’m abandoning the Mayor and voting for anyone who runs against that complete and utter failure. He had a chance and failed and he has to go. Leonie told me what a failure he is and while I would be inclined not to trust her, you’ve just explained how honest and concerned she is and how she is a champion for public school kids.
How can I not listen to her and help defeat such an utter failure as she has identified? Can you give me a single reason?
And if you think I am being facetious, imagine all the public school parents reading the news today who now understand that the Mayor who they thought supported public schools has in fact has enacted policies that demonstrate instead that he has utterly and completely failed them. Anyone but de Blasio because he had his chance and failed completely.
That single reason depends on who De Blasio is running against.
Instead of reading all these criticisms of De Blasio, have you checked BIll de Blasio’s political summary on Vote Smart.org that is based only on the facts and not what someone else thinks?
https://votesmart.org/candidate/80257/bill-de-blasio#.WbBhZtHauUk
If you can’t find what you want to know there, then try PolitiFact’s file on Bill de Blasio.
http://www.politifact.com/personalities/bill-de-blasio/
Or this one
http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2015/mar/23/greg-gutfeld/nyc-mayor-de-blasio-responsible-uptick-murders-and/
Or this one from FactCheck.org
http://www.factcheck.org/person/bill-de-blasio/
Campaigns are so dirty and confusing, that we can not accept most if not all of what we read in the media without attempting to discover how accurate what we read was.
Thanks, Lloyd. I try to follow what is going on in NYC public schools pretty closely.
I don’t expect the politicians I vote for to be perfectly aligned with my views. But I can tell the difference between a complete sell-out (Cuomo, Emanuel) and one who shares my values and is trying to make the right choices even though every position they hold does not mirror mine exactly (de Blasio, Hillary Clinton, Sanders, Warren, Tim Kaine and even Obama despite his failings on education).
I understand that there are trade-offs that every politician — yes, even Bernie — makes. It doesn’t make them evil or corrupt. I also understand that some politicians like Andrew Cuomo who call themselves Democrats have NO values because their main interest is in getting re-elected and pleasing the donors who will get them re-elected. There are some politicians whose values I know very little about because they work on issues that aren’t as important to me.
I realize that there are people like Joel Herman who will tell me I am wrong about Hillary and she belongs in the category of Democrats who have no values and it is important to “educate” every voter about her corruption and lack of values before the election. And I realize there are people like Leonie who will tell me I’m wrong about Mayor de Blasio and he also belongs in the category of politicians who have been complete and utter failures and it is important to “educate” every voter about his rampant failures when it comes to public education before the election.
I know exactly how dangerous having supposed Democrats giving the right wing the ammunition they need to paint a politician that I do NOT believe is corrupt and a total failure as corrupt and a total failure. I think those Democrats are just as big of liars as the right wing are. Characterizing the Mayor’s policies as total failures as Leonie has done is entirely dishonest. And now that I know that Leonie is willing to be dishonest to pursue her goals, I don’t trust her on anything. I’m sorry to say I don’t. Which is a shame because I used to.
I always believed Leonie was a thoughtful advocate for NYC students. But there was absolutely nothing thoughtful or intelligent about this report card. As the news headlines that Leonie is so very proud of note: She wants to make sure NYC voters understand that Mayor de Blasio is a complete and utter failure when it comes to NYC public schools. And as a NYC parent, I happen to know that is a reprehensible lie. I’m not sure why Leonie felt she needed to make sure voters understood just how much of a complete and utter failure Mayor de Blasio has been when it comes to public education. But no doubt she is delighted that she hit the Mayor where it hurt the most.
And I suspect she will be just as smug as the Bernie voters were when their non-stop attacks on Hillary’s corrupt and dishonest nature got Trump elected.
Laura H. Chapman may think this is off-topic, but if we keep defeating progressive politicians and do the right wing’s dirty work for them, who exactly is supposed to stop what is happening with regards to privacy?
Take a guess who said the following this summer, “Working hard and leveraging the opportunities you are GIVEN (my caps), not leveling the playing field (describes what the base wants)”. That statement after 40 years of economic losses for labor- the middle class and poor! The author of the quote, Priorities USA Chairman, Guy Cecil.
Bernie supporters are not the reason Hillary lost. And, they were not the reason 1000 seats were lost over the past 8 years when few Americans outside of Vermont even knew who Bernie was. Why couldn’t Hillary state unequivocally, “There will be no cuts to Social Security”?
Dem politicians can’t take advantage of opportunities to win because they live in glass houses. Kamala Harris let Goldman Sachs’ Mnuchin off the hook. Tech oligarchs (with the help of Podesto) drafted the Dems education policy. Michael Bennett, Corey Booker, Gina Raimondo and Jared Polis never met an agenda for the rich that they didn’t want to advance….and on and on.
Yes, Republicans are worse. Death by a thousand cuts is hard to stomach, though.
You’re aware CAP’s president was quoted in the media as saying, the Dems planned to once again become a party of opposition. Is there any defense for that?
I don’t know, Linda.
Maybe you can tell me. Is there any sense to the Democrats pandering to racist white working class voters by pretending that Black Lives Matters and and gay rights are just “pandering to cultural elites”?
Is there any sense for the so-called Independents like Bernie Sanders to endorse the DFER Democrat for Governor in the one state where those sell-out, corrupt Democrat Governors that progressives hate succeeded in protecting public education instead of undermining it?
Is there any sense for the progressives like Bernie NOT to make public education an issue but instead to ignore it or support DFER candidates?
Is Tim Kaine entirely a corrupt tool of Wall Street because he is more conservative on some issues but he strongly stands up for public education against those very same interests that supposedly own him?
Is there any reason that a right wing Wisconsin Senator who has done nothing but sell-out to corporate and right wing interests would defeat a progressive and get lots more votes than Donald Trump did? Same people but they like the right wing anti-working class Republican who hates feminists, gays, immigrants and all non-Christian non-whites more than they like Trump and more than they like the progressive talking about the working man?
Is there any sense for Leonie Haimson to be the source for at least 3 news articles — many more to follow — in which a progressive Mayor is shown to be a complete and utter failure who has done absolutely nothing for public schools? Even the progressives know what a failure this Mayor is. There is absolutely nothing good about him at all.
With dishonest “friends” like these, is it surprising that progressives keep losing? Their “friends” can’t make honest assessments of the good and the bad and acknowledging what the candidate has been fighting for for the last 4 years. Nope, their “friends” tell voters what complete and utter failures they are. When “even the progressives” know there is absolutely nothing worthwhile about a democratic candidate and work very very hard to make sure the voters know how useless and failing the candidate is, how likely do you think it is that the candidate wins? And do you think that is HONEST? Because I find it as dishonest as anything the Republicans have said about Mayor de Blasio. It is a lie. And it should be called out even if it is a “progressive” working so hard to promote the lie.
^^^and I repeat: these are the headlines that Leonie so proudly links to today. Her hard work characterizing Mayor de Blasio as a complete and utter failure is a huge success! She should feel very proud.
DNA Info headline: “De Blasio Gets Failing Marks on School Policies from Parent Group”
NY Post headline: “School advocates give de Blasio an F”
ChalkbeatNY headline: “Advocacy group gives de Blasio failing grades on NYC education report card”
It would take SO LITTLE for the arrogant in the national Democratic Party leadership to stop shooting the party in the foot. If they had a national platform that advocated for America’s most important good against a venal enemy- tech industry oligarchs and Wall Street cannibals and, if they beat the drum of concentrated wealth’s disastrous effect on democracy and economic growth, then down ballot candidates (like de Blasio) could get traction.
But, Cecil is as tone deaf as Mnuchin’s wife and, the political casualties, including good men like de Blasio, mount.
Is Hillary blaming Biden and Bernie for her loss? She was given the nomination on a silver platter. Then, Moore, Ravitch, Sanders, etc. tried to carve some dignity for her with the public, out of a CAP/Podesto/Bloomberg- created PR nightmare. Next time Clinton gets the Dem Party endorsement she can bring Louise Linton on board instead of Bloomberg and CAP’s President who are all cut from the same cloth. The son of venture capitalists, who attended the most expensive school in Cincy, who got cushy jobs for he and his wife as chiefs of staff in D.C. government offices (he helped Pres. Obama win), was sent to economically-depressed Ohio as Hillary’s state campaign chair. Same cloth.
Linda,
I repeat, these are the headlines NYC voters are reading today thanks to the “progressives” who smugly believe they are “helping” making America better as they lie — yes, I say LIE — and smear Democrats with whom they may have a difference of opinion with on SOME issues but who are basically fighting for the same things.
DNA Info headline: “De Blasio Gets Failing Marks on School Policies from Parent Group”
NY Post headline: “School advocates give de Blasio an F”
ChalkbeatNY headline: “Advocacy group gives de Blasio failing grades on NYC education report card”
This is what you call “legitimate criticism” of a progressive. So does the right wing. As “progressive” Leonie tells NYC voters, this Mayor is a complete and utter failure who has wasted 4 years doing absolutely nothing for the school children of NYC.
That is a lie. And there is no one to blame for that lie but the person who lied. Certainly Trump likes to blame other people when he lies. It’s all Hillary’s fault he had to claim to have Obama’s Kenyan birth certificate. And the progressives who smeared Hillary and corrupt and dishonest by misleading the public about her were also lying. They don’t get a pass either. They don’t get to blame Hillary for their own dishonest characterization of her. They chose to lie and characterize her as a dishonest and corrupt sell-out just waiting to enact the Wall Street agenda. That is on the liars. Not on Hillary.
Do you condone me saying that Bernie Sanders is a lying sell-out who has done nothing but fight gun control and endorse candidates like Tom Perriello who also fought gun control? Do you condone me saying that Bernie Sanders has done nothing but fight against public schools by claiming there are terrific public charters and refusing to work to regulate them (despite sitting on the committee) while at the same time endorsing the DFER candidate for Governor in Virginia who has been honored by DFER for all his hard work in enacting their agenda?
Of course you wouldn’t. Because I would be lying about Bernie. I would have taken the two issues where his views didn’t exactly align with mine and smugly decide that it was okay to smear him as someone who was entirely owned by DFER and CAP and would do nothing but promote their agenda and work to eliminate all assault weapon restrictions and turn all public schools into charters. As if nothing else he had done in 20 years had ever happened.
And if I lied like that, you should rightly call me out. And you would.
I would be absolutely wrong if I lied and characterized Tom Perriello as a dishonest corrupt DFER candidate who can’t wait to sell out public schools and turn them into charters just because he doesn’t support public schools the way I want him to. If my lies about Perriello made the public believe that he was the lying corrupt DFER candidate with no redeeming qualities that I wanted them to believe, then he would have every right to blame me for working so hard to convince voters of an outright lie. I shouldn’t get a pass for lying.
Just like the progressive who lied about de Blasio and Hillary were absolutely wrong. And yes, they are to blame for helping to undermine those candidates with lies. They don’t get a pass for lying.
By the way, Jon Podesta endorsed Perriello who formerly worked for CAP. By your standards we are supposed to say that Perriello is corrupt, aren’t we? Perriello was also endorsed by the NRA because he voted AGAINST an assault weapons ban. Do you excuse it because Bernie Sanders endorsed this NRA favorite? If Bernie’s candidate won would it be very important for me to keep telling voters that he was corrupt and a tool of the NRA and CAP and there was absolutely nothing good about him like the progressives did to Hillary and as some are trying to do to de Blasio? You think that is how progressives win? That we lie about the Democrat who doesn’t agree with us on whatever issue we decide is most important and claim that they are entirely corrupt and dishonest and plan to sell out America?
It is fine to point out the issues that you disagree with. It is NOT fine to lie and claim that the candidate is corrupt and a sell-out to the NRA (Perriello and Bernie Sanders), CAP (Perriello and Hillary), Education reformers (de Blasio) just because they vote differently than you do.
Corporations won. Louise Linton probably voices support for the pro-feminism, anti-racism and anti-gay messages of the Dem party just like the hedge funds of DFER and tech oligarchs claim they do.
The election of Pres. Obama proved there aren’t enough bigoted voters to elect a President. The main point, evidence of party convergence to help the rich, is on full display in Cecil’s statement.
Progressives, if they think democracy can triumph over colonialism, should take a look at New America and CAP, neither of which are shunned by either party. Adding nails to the progressives’ coffin, like the Dem party hierarchy is orchestrating, is abuse of a corpse.
Linda,
No matter how many times I ask you, you haven’t explained to me why as a progressive you think that if you destroy Mayor de Blasio with attacks to get him defeated so he can be replaced with someone who is a tool of the pro-reform education movement who will work to privatize the NYC public education system you are doing something good for the progressive agenda.
I am a progressive and I can tell you that you are wrong. Attacking a progressive as a complete and totally corrupt sell-out or a complete and utter failure — when it is an outright lie and ignores every good and progressive action that progressive politician took — gets you Trump.
Being an HONEST critic helps. Lying doesn’t. And if you are going to sit here and tell me that progressives are allowed to lie about any candidate they want because there is a greater good, then I want no part of that fake progressive movement. Real progressives aren’t liars and they don’t condone liars in order to get their way.
Colbert’s interview with Sanders last night explained that the Dems were a party of “can’t be done” and acquiescence to the corporate agenda. Given the evidence that supports that point, progressives can die by a thousand cuts or say wake the h_ll up, you’ve lost 1000 seats in 8 years.
BTW- the talking point, “you can’t have everything you want”, which Dem Party soldiers use to shame people back into the party, is at this point, so ubiquitous it’s obviously PR messaging. What are DFER and the funders of CAP and New America giving up?
Maybe di Blasio can have a bonding moment with Helmsley when he answers that question.
Linda, with an alleged progressive like you, the Democrats don’t stand a chance against the fascist GOP and its endless lies and manipulation as the Republicans continue to dismantle the Constitutional Republic that the Founding Fathers created.
I don’t think you are a progressive or a liberal. A nest of termintes pretending to be a tree, yes.
If a termite, I should have my sense of direction adjusted. Last summer, on the hottest days of the year, I canvassed for the Democrat running as my local representative. A few winters ago, I and the friends I encouraged, froze demonstrating in Cols. against ALEC’s right-to-work legislation. And, that was one of many 2 hr. trips to the Capitol and countless efforts for my county’s Democratic Party. Sen. Sherrod Brown’s office wrote they were unaware that Gates’ was an investor in Bridge until I wrote them. And, that’s one of hundreds of letters I’ve sent to get traction for the protection of common goods and democracy. This year I’ve attended resistance rallies at every opportunity. I came close to being arrested at a demonstration against the Walton heirs’ Walmart.The reason my family’s e-mail boxes are flooded with donation requests from Democratic organizations and politicians and no Republicans is that my extended family and I have voted and contributed to Democrats in every election for generations. I raised a Democrat and converted her husband and I’m working on their son who is still a kid.
Now tell me what CAP and New America staff, who steer the Dem. Party have done that wasn’t promoted by the funders who reward them richly?
Guess who the Ohio Democratic Party Chair described as the future of the Democratic Party…Corey Booker.
Linda,
Stay involved, keep fighting. If there were many more like you, we can take our country back.
This is the first time I noticed this attack on me by name from an anonymous person called “NYC public school parent” above and below, which recurs 8-9 times at length on this blog post. This person’s concerns seem to relate to the NYC Kids PAC report card on the Mayor which gave him mostly low grades, released last month and posted here: http://nyckidspac.org/2017-mayoral-report-card/
I am not going to defend or argue for any of these assessments on a wide range of topics, as I think the document speaks for itself.
What I am going to say is that the equation of NYC Kids PAC with me as one individual is completely in error.
The Kids PAC board that deliberated and decided on these grades is made of well-respected and assertive parent leaders in NYC, with years of experience fighting for their own kids and all the kids in the public school system, giving up their time for no pay and little recognition, including several former presidents and current members of Community Education Councils and Citywide Councils, as well as parent leaders in the fight for more accountable charter schools and the Mayoral appointee to the Panel on Educational Policy.
The grades we awarded the mayor were developed through a process of outreach to experts, discussion and consensus, and not one of them was the result of a decision made solely or primarily by me. You can see the list of names of the KidsPAC board members here:http://nyckidspac.org/who-we-are/
By ignoring all these other strong leaders, the person who commented above and below is doing a grave disservice to them, and revealing a disturbing lack of respect for their contributions.
I would like to hear any substantive critique based on evidence that challenges any of the grades we gave the Mayor in any of the categories. We asked for specific feedback previously; it can be posted here, or sent to info@nyckidspac.org. Thanks!
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” – Thomas Jefferson
Is it time yet?
I am sorry that the topic of this post–eliminating student privacy–has been pre-empted with an extended rant about Mayor de Blasio.
The issue of privacy of students’ personal information and that includes SS numbers, school disciplinary records, and much else is really important. Every one of the twelve privacy notices for online platforms or systems that I have examined is riddled with loopholes and legal language that makes the data gathered by so-called personal learning management systems (platforms) a total farce. The Summit+Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is just one of those in need of criticism as is, and as it evolves and precisely because parental consent is being bypassed.
The vendors of software to schools really do not want privacy laws to interfere with their data mining. They keep up the drumbeat for data-driven instruction as if that is some sort of panacea. They are aided in this marketing of tech and data by many private foundations created as tax havens for tech gurus and entrepreneurs.
In reality, the people who are designing software for use in schools depend on weak or easy-to-breach privacy rules in order to tweak their algorithms and “tailor” products for various markets.
“Personalized” instruction through technologies usually means that instruction is outsourced to software engineers, “quants,” and technicians who want courseware and assessments to be fully programmable and be capable of producing a learning profile for every student and an effectiveness profile for every teacher.
Whenever I hear the name “Summit Charter Schools”, I’m instantly reminded of a rancid situation that recently took place at their San Jose, California franchise
Let’s just say that it involved a different kind of … uhhh … “personalized learning” that one of their teachers, Zachary Drew, engaged in for several months with a female student, and which the Summit Tahoma Charter School’s principal-equivalent (executive director) Nicholas Kim, upon learning of this, engaged in a massive cover-up, the blame of which Kim now pins, in turn, on his higher-ups at the national Summit office, and their legal team who advised him to bury this incident, and not report it to authorities, as is his legal duty as a mandatory reporter.
I’m sure that if Chan or Zuckerberg might be singing a different tune if they had a teenage daughter who was, over the course of several months, statutorially and repeatedly raped by a Summit teacher — as this girl was, since all concerned, including Kim and everyone at Summit now admittedly and freely concede this to be the case.
The fact that Kim and rapist Drew were friends in their late 20’s, and Kim had not been certified or received any degree in administration — the absence of such training playing a role in his bone-head move not to report Drew’s on-going rape of one of Summit’s students.
It’s quite a yarn.
https://seattleducation2010.wordpress.com/2016/03/16/no-rules-charter-schools-summit-public-charter-school-teacher-arrested-for-allegedly-having-sex-with-a-student/
(NOTE: In what follows BELOW, I’m supplementing the above article with details I picked up at the July 2016 NEA-RA teacher convention in Washington, D.C., while talking to delegates from northern California.)
Summit Tahoma’s charter’s principal and the teacher-pervert were both friends in their mid-to-late-20’s, so when the principal found out about his friend boinking a student — including the name of the victim — the principal allegedly covered it up, telling both the victim and the pervert to just clam up forever, and it will all go away.
Kim defended himself later by claiming that he’d conducted his own investigation and concluded his friend was innocent, and claimed his higher-ups at Summit as well as their legal team instructed him to do so..
Uh huh.
There’s just one problem with that. He totally violated California’s laws on mandatory reporting. Any school employee, once he has been made aware of evidence, has no such discretion to investigate on his own, and then keep mum about it. Imprisonment and hefty fines awaits violators.
The story gets wilder. Rumors found their way to parents, who then demanded the police get involved, which they did.
When the principal was out of the building, another administrator allowed the police to interview the victim in an office. The principal returned to find that the interview was underway. He then barged into the room and demanded that the police stop the interview and leave.
The police ordered him to leave the room.
The principal then called the national office of Summit Charter Schools, who told him what to do. The principal, Nicholas Kim, barged in again, and said that a lawyer at the national charter office just told him that he had the legal right to throw the police out of the school, so scram!
In an angry tone Kim then allegedly ordered the victim, “Don’t say another word.”
The police said that if Kim did not leave the room immediately, they would cuff him and arrest him for interfering with an investigation.
The victim then clammed up, and said nothing more.
Whew! That was a close one.
Ehh .. not so fast.
The police later re-interviewed the victim at her home, and — with her parents encouragement and with no Summit administrator attempting to intimidate her into silence — the victim then blabbed the whole story, whereupon all hell broke loose in the community over the whole debacle, in particular, the principal’s covering up pedophilia at the behest of his national charter school office.
In case you’re interested, here’s the mugshot of that loser, child molesting teacher Zachary Drew:
http://www.sjpd.org/iNews/viewPressRelease.asp?ID=2273
*** LATEST UPDATE *** : on the Summit Tahoma molestation and cover-up story
Apparently, the victim and her parents are currently suing Summit Tahoma Principal (Executive Director) Nicholas Kim and the Summit Charter Schools national organization for covering up teacher Zachary Drew’s molestation of a victim with the initials “N.V.”
I just found this:
(I presume that “N..V.”( are the initials of Drew’s victims in the case titled
“N.V. vs. Summit Public Schools et al”)
https://www.docketalarm.com/cases/California_State_Santa_Clara_County_Superior_Court/16CV302178/N.V._vs_Summit_Public_Schools_et_al/
Summit hired lawyer high-powered Huntington Beach lawyer Gregory Wille to defend the Summit organization:
http://www.dbtlaw.com/About/Gregory-A-Wille.shtml
Meanwhile, the parents of victim with the initials “N.V” has hired high-powered San Jose personal injury lawyer B. Robert Allard to sue Summit
http://www.cmalaw.net/attorneys/b-robert-allard
Allard is no slouch in winning in court and getting large settlements in such cases, as the following story indicates. Allard won a $2.75 settlement against a different school for different incident of teacher molestation Is this what awaits Summit? The case (BELOW) has the same exact elements as the Summit case, including school administrators failing to report, and covering up the incident, and thus allowing the molestation to continue.
http://www.cmalaw.net/san-jose-personal-injury-attorneys/allard-settlement-school-molestation-case
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“Attorney B. Robert Allard Finalizes Settlement in School Molestation Case
Posted on April 03, 2017
“When you send your child to school every day, you do so with the expectation that your child’s school, teachers, and administration will do everything possible to keep him or her safe. Accidents, however, do happen, and your child may come home with a bruise or a scraped knee.
“But what if your child came to you and said that he or she was being sexually abused by a teacher? Assuming the allegations are proven to be true, could the school bear any responsibility for allowing such abuse to occur? A tragic case from the San Jose region recently posed that exact question.
“Patterns of Sexual Abuse
“In the fall of 2015, a Bay Area teacher was sentenced to 40 years in prison after pleading no contest to charges that he molested four fifth-grade girls, including three at Paradise Valley Elementary School in Morgan Hill between 2012 and 2014. The fourth victim was a student at a school where the teacher worked in 2005. According to reports, the teacher isolated his victims, locking them inside a classroom with paper-covered windows during recess and lunch periods.
“Potential School Liability
“While the teacher must now face the criminal consequences of his actions, the case raised critical concerns about the policies and behavior of school administrators. Attorney B. Robert Allard, a partner at Corsiglia McMahon & Allard, L.L.P. and lead counsel for the victims and their families, said that parents repeatedly reported the teacher’s behavior to three different principals in the Morgan Hill Unified School District between 2009 and 2013, but the complaints never went any further. Allard indicated that the police were not notified and no records of the reports were forwarded to the school district.
“Multi-million Dollar Settlement
“As a result of the failures by the school and the district, Allard helped the families file a lawsuit against the district for failing to protect the children under its care.
“Last month, the two sides reached a settlement agreement in the district will pay each of the three victims $2.75 million. The fourth victim could not seek civil damages due to the California statute of limitations. In addition, the school district will be required to implement staff training to identify sexual predators and a sexual abuse prevention program for students.
“Reading Between the Lines
“The settlement agreement contains the expected provision stating that the payments are not a formal admission of any liability. According to Allard, however, the amount of the payments makes a strong statement nonetheless. He said the sums to be paid would not have been on the table unless the district knew that evidence would show a clear failure to protect the young victims.
“ ‘The money speaks for itself in that regard,’ Allard said.
“A Better Road Ahead
“At present, teachers in districts throughout the state are required to undergo mandatory reporter training, but Mr. Allard believes that it is not enough. Educators may have an obligation to report suspected abuse, but ‘the hole in that is they’re not trained to know what to look for as part of that suspicion,’ Allard said. He maintains that predator identification training is a vital part of preventing sexual abuse, and he is currently working with lawmakers to implement more comprehensive training programs statewide.
“Call Us for Help Today
“If you or your child has been the victim of sexual abuse by a teacher, babysitter, or any other authority figure, criminal justice is not always enough. Contact Mr. Allard and his team of compassionate San Jose personal injury attorneys to learn about your options for seeking civil damages. Call 408-289-1417 for a free, confidential consultation today.”
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I got a little more to say on this Summit Charter School Rape-gate.
I spoke with an attorney friend about this, and he shared his opinions and speculations.
The story broke in the news in February 2016, but the lawsuit wasn’t filed until November 2016.
Therefore, it’s almost certain that the victim’s family and Summit Charter Schools, Inc. both lawyered up and attempted a settlement of some kind during that time period of February-thru-November 2016.
Indeed, it’s in Summit’s interest to put this baby to bed and settle this, to avoid any further publicity, and prevent more public details of this whole thing from leaking out in lawsuit filings, depositions, and trial testimony, which in California would be videotaped and available to the media and to the public (a la the Vergara hearings.), and posted on the internet.
Furthermore, anything which that numbskull Principal (Executive Director) Nicholas Kim said under oath could open him up to criminal charges in the molestation case, and to perjury charges, should he perjure himself. The same goes for any and all of the Summit officials who told Kim to cover the whole thing up.
Well, apparently, the two parties could not arrive at a mutually agreeable dollar amount to effect such a settlement, so Summit is preparing to go for a full-on scorched earth strategy, and engage in a no-holds-barred legal battle against the victim and her family.
Perhaps Summit’s final offer may have been … say … $100,000, but the victim’s parents wanted a minimum of … say … $1,000,000 and neither side would budge.
By the way, this is all guess work. Summit may have offered $ 00.00, and the victim’s parents may have asked for $10 million. Who knows? What we DO know is that both sides could not reach a settlement, and are now prepared to take this all the way to trial, as they are both well on the way to do so.
Since they haven’t settled by now, my lawyer friend insists, this could get particularly ugly. As this link BELOW shows, the two sides are already duking it out over procedural matters:
https://www.docketalarm.com/cases/California_State_Santa_Clara_County_Superior_Court/16CV302178/N.V._vs_Summit_Public_Schools_et_al/
For example, Summit’s legal team could claim the underaged victim was some kind of deliberately seductive Lolita, a brazen nymphette who mesmerized and hypnotized the teacher into participating in the affair. They could dig up other students to testify to her sexual history in a sort of “She was already a slut, anyway, so she didn’t suffer THAT much” strategy to get a jury to not find anyone at Summit liable, or if they did find Summit liable, lessen the dollar amount of the award. This is a common and despicable strategy that school districts engage in.
Summit also has the Santa Clara County D.A. on their side, who incredibly declined to prosecute Principal Nicholas Kim for not following his mandatory reporting legal requirements. I’m still gobsmacked by that one.
It’s quite possible that prosecutors the state level could still over-rule the Santa Clara County D.A.’s decision not to criminally prosecute Kim and Summit, and take over the case, then put all the evidence in front of a grand jury to see if they could get indictments against Kim and Summit.
If enough public pressure is brought to bear, this very well may happen.
Summit likely has already spend a mid-six-figure amount so far in legal fees. Should this go all the way to trial, Summit’s lawyers will rack up a good $1-2 million in bill-able hours … at least. They obviously think — or their money-motivated lawyers are influencing them to think — that they can win at trial, or that going to trial will be the least expensive course of action.
Furthermore, their insurance carrier could be pushing them to take this course of action, to minimize the dollar amount the insurance company pays out. (which they may believe would be for far more than the $1-2 million in legal costs to fight it out in civil court.)
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(That’s if the Summit Charter Schools organizations actually HAS an insurance carrier. If not, they could really be in financial jeopardy… and explain their go-for-broke strategy of not settling, and putting this in front of a jury.
… but hey, maybe Chan and Zuckerberg could pony up the cash for any future civil settlement and Summit’s legal fees. Those two idiots are used to wasting insane amounts of money on corporate ed reform folly.
Witness their $100 million hare-brained attempt to (COUGH! COUGH!) reform the schools of Newark, New Jersey. Mr. and Mrs. Z, blew all that money, and none of it got to the classroom. None of it was spend on … say … class size reduction, school psychologists, arts programs, music programs, college counselors.
Naah, most of it was vacuumed up by huckster “educational consultants” who didn’t contribute a damn thing to the students of Newark, New Jersey. Those two ass-clown educational amateurs make mega-ditz corporate puppet Cami Anderson look brilliant by comparison.
A good book was written about this by someone who was an embedded observer of the whole reform-Newark fiasco. Its name escapes me at the moment.)
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Enough digression.
Back to the Summit debacle.
On the other hand, the victim’s lawyer, B. Robert Allan, got $2.75 million for his client for a case involving mere “fondling”. (SEE POST ABOVE FOR DETAILS)
Therefore, what do you think that Allan can get — or that he and the Summit victim’s parents think THEY can get — for full-on sexual intercourse/rape and oral sex the victim suffered over a period of several months at the hands of a Summit teacher — the latter period of victimization possibly enabled by Summit administration?
One more thing: where the-hell is media in all this? When this broke, the story was huge — in newspapers, TV, the internet — and suddenly … NOTHING … like the turning off of a blowtorch. If this case involved a teacher perpetrator and administrators covering up things AT A TRADITIONAL PUBLIC SCHOOL, I’m guessing we’d know by now the disposition of Zachary Drew’s criminal case.
(Did Drew cop a plea? If so, what crime did he plead guilty to, and what was his sentence?)
Had this happened at a traditional public school, there would also be coverage of the upcoming civil trial, while there’s none in the case when a charter school is involved. This absence of coverage in the media emboldens Summit not to settle, as they’ve got nothing to lose in terms of bad publicity.
Why HAS the media stopped covering this? Who is making that call?
Where the hell is Campbell Brown, that self-appointed protector and avenger of children abused at the hands of teachers? Nowhere, of course, as she must not speak ill of anyone involved in the charter school industry — ideology trumps concern for abused children.
Furthermore, when the Summit honchos found out about this, they knew that, once the police and prosecutors got involved, this could end up costing them mega-millions, so they went for broke and engaged in a Catholic Church, Penn-State-with-Jerry-Sandusky cover-up… crossing their fingers and hoping for the best.
Also, the charter chain’s reputation would also be at stake, so they attempted to bury the raping — in vain, it turns out, as this post makes painfully clear.
The problem with this strategy is that, once uncovered, it could mean criminal prosecutions, not just for the teacher-rapist, but also for the administrators who covered it up.
Furthermore, it’s very possible that Kim’s and Summit’s premeditated cover-up may have led to the victim being further raped in the interim between Kim’s discovery of the raping, and before the victim finally, and at long last, blabbed the story to the police — again, a revelation that occured no thanks to the intimidation on Kim and Summit’s parts directed towards the victim to clam up.
In short, Summit Charter Schools higher-ups and on-site administrator Nicholas Kim did what the Catholic Church and Penn State did — they put the reputation of Summit Charter Schools, its financial well-being (avoiding millions in a civil judgment) and the well-being of the teacher-rapist-friend-of-the-principal Zachary Drew AHEAD OF THE WELL-BEING OF THE UNDERAGE VICTIM, AND ANY OTHER POTENTIAL VICTIMS THAT TEACHER-RAPIST ZACHARY DREW MIGHT ALSO HAVE PREYED UPON.
Stay tuned for more on this.
Privacy issues aside, Haimson’s piece offers a scathing indictment of computer-based instruction from a purely pedagogical point-of-view. Here’s one of many negative reviews from parents:
“My objection to this [Chan-Zuckerberg personalized learning] program is lack of teacher instruction, lack of class discussion where students can process as a whole — learning from the questions their peers may have and of course their amount of screen time. I knew the content of the curriculum wouldn’t be perfect, but had no idea how disengaged this program would have my daughter from school…. She has always been an easy kid that enjoys school. This year? Mornings are tough…she doesn’t want to go. It’s booorrriiinnnggg. She needs that teacher engagement to hold her attention. Computer screen doesn’t cut it.”
Sadly this crap is sweeping the nation. Textbooks seem to be passe; all curriculum will be digital henceforth.
Here’s some visuals of the various players in the
Summit Charter Schools’ Rape-gate scandal:
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Nicholas Kim
Rape-gate‘s on-site enabler and cover-up artist — though he claims the Summit higher-ups and legal team told to do this.
Kim is Summit Tahoma’s Executive Director (principal equivalent, as they like to use business-ish names, as to them schools are .. ya know … just a business):
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholas-kim-14638b90
Did Nicholas Kim’s friendship with rapist Zachary Drew (both in their late 20’s) partially motivate his covering up of the rape?
Why Summit officials allow Kim to still remain in charge of a school is a question that boggles the mind? His actions will, at best, end up costing the organization $1-2 million in legal fees—should they prevail in the civil lawsuit which the parents have brought … and millions more if they lose.
Who knows? Maybe he’s blackmailing the Summit leaders into letting him stay on in his position, with fear that Kim might drop a dime on them, and blab their involvement in the alleged cover-up.
The man has no administrative degree or credential or training. Had he had some, he might never have handled things the way he did — i.e. put the victim’s and other students’ well-being ahead of the Summit charter organization’s well-being.
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Zachary Drew,
Rape-gate‘s … well… rapist (statutory) teacher
(To Zachary Drew, if you’re reading this:
Dude, seriously. Lose the goatee! It doesn’t make you look tragically hip; it makes you look like a rapist!)
Here’s Drew’s mugshot from the San Jose Police website:
http://www.sjpd.org/iNews/viewPressRelease.asp?ID=2273
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You know all this talk about students’ privacy and expectations of privacy regarding student data… that’s all great and everything, but, for the love of God and all that’s holy ….
… Shouldn’t there ALSO be an expectation that if you send your under-aged daughter to a Summit Charter School, that she won’t end up getting raped by some goateed creep-of-a-teacher there, and that after she’s raped, the administrators won ‘t cover up the whole thing, and pressure her to stay silent about it?
Just sayin’.
Finally, here are Summit California’s Board of Directors, who most likely have made the decision to keep Nicholas Kim in his posItion as “Executive Director of Summit Tahoma” (in San Jose):
(quite a list of movers and shakers in the Silicon Valley area business community… ahh, but only two have ever taught in a classroom or worked in education in any capacity)
http://summitps.org/whoweare/board-of-directors
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Summit Public Schools:
California Board of Directors
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Diane Tavenner
Diane Tavenner is the Founder and CEO of Summit Public Schools (SPS), a leading charter management organization serving California and Washington State. Summit’s graduates are completing four-year college degrees at twice the national average. Newsweek and US News & World Report have ranked Summit among the top public schools in the nation. In partnership with Facebook, Summit is currently working to scale personalized learning by making its Personalized Learning Platform (PLP) available to schools across the country for free through the Summit Basecamp program.
Diane serves as the Board Chair of the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA) representing the majority of California’s 1,300+ charter schools. Diane also serves on the board of Transcend, The Primary School and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning. Diane is a member of the Spring 2013 cohort of the Pahara-Aspen Education Fellowship, a leadership program within the Aspen Institute and a fellow in the Broad Academy.
Prior to Summit, Diane was a public school teacher, administrator and leader in traditional urban and suburban public schools throughout California. She holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and sociology from the University of Southern California and a master’s degree in administration and policy analysis from Stanford University.
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Diane!!! Why is Nicholas Kim still in charge of Summit Tahoma? What have you done or what steps have you taken to prevent more teachers from raping students???!!
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https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.charitybuzz.com/images/122714/original.jpg?1392676689
Robert J. Oster
Chairman of the Board — Summit Public Schools
A private venture investor since 1987, Mr. Oster has worked with both institutional and other private investors in all phases of venture investing. Prior to venture investing, he worked as a professional economist and in several high-level finance positions, the last being Vice President of Finance and Administration for Oracle Corporation, where he spearheaded Oracle’s initial public offering. In addition to chairing the SPS Board, Mr. Oster is Vice-Chairman of the Board and Chairman of the Nominating Committee of the Board of Overseers of the Hoover Institution of Stanford University. He received his BA in economics with honors from Occidental College and an MA and PhD in economics from the University of California at Berkeley.
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Robert!!! Why is Nicholas Kim still in charge of Summit Tahoma? What have you done or what steps have you taken to prevent more teachers from raping students???!!
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Diego Arambula
Arambula was a member of Summit’s faculty for over a decade, before shifting his focus towards creating transformative change in his hometown of Fresno, CA. He joined Summit Preparatory Charter High School as a social science teacher at the beginning of its third year of operation and taught for six years. After stepping out of the classroom, Arambula helped launch Summit’s first high school that integrated a blended learning model, Summit Public School: Rainier, in East San Jose.
After a year as the founding Executive Director of Rainier, he moved into the role of Chief Growth & Innovation Officer, helping to expand Summit schools and infuse innovation throughout the organization. Prior to coming to Summit Public Schools, Arambula served as Communications Director for Congressman Cal Dooley, after serving as Deputy Campaign Manager. He holds a BA in Government, with honors from Harvard University and a MA in Education from Stanford University.
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Steven Humphreys
Mr. Humphreys has served as CEO or President of four high technology companies, some of which he grew from early-stage. Most recently he served as CEO of Kleer Semiconductor Corporation, growing its revenues more than 10 times in 18 months. He began his career at General Electric Company where he worked in a variety of manufacturing and information technology positions. In addition to serving on the board of Summit Public Schools, he is a trustee of the Portola Valley School District, Chairman of the Board of Organ-I AB and Organ-I, Inc., and a member of the Board of Directors of Identive Group, a publicly traded information security company. Mr. Humphreys received a BS from Yale University and an MS and MBA from Stanford University.
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Robert G. O’Donnell
Mr. O’Donnell recently retired from Capital Research and Management Company, investment manager for the American Funds, where he was a Senior Vice President and Director. Bob was an equity portfolio manager and had primary responsibility for overseeing the American Balanced Fund, a $100 billion mutual fund. He is the Chairman of the Board of the Sequoia Hospital Foundation and a member of the Board of Governors of the San Francisco Symphony. Bob also serves as an Overseer of the Hoover Institution, a director of the Berkeley Endowment Management Company, and a member of the investment committee of the James Irvine Foundation. He is a member of the faculty at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, where he teaches a course in investment strategy. Bob was honored with the Chancellor’s Award from UC Berkeley in 2008 and the Haas Business Leader of the Year Award in 2011. He received his bachelor’s degree summa cum laude from UC Berkeley and holds an MBA from Berkeley and an MLA from Stanford.
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http://www.svpartners.com/dyna-builder/user_images/blake.jpg?img_id=32&sbid=11486
Blake Warner
Mr. Warner is a Founder and Managing Partner of Silicon Valley Partners LLC, a firm that provides strategic merger and acquisition advisory services focused on the growth sectors of the digital economy. Prior to this, he spent ten years at Thomas Weisel Partners LLC, where he provided investment banking services for the software, media, and communications sectors. In addition to serving on the SPS Board, he is currently the Chairman of the Governance Council of Everest Public High School, providing oversight as well as helping set strategic goals and operational objectives. Mr. Warner received his BA from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and his MBA from the University of Southern California.
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Meg Whitman
Ms. Whitman is one of the most highly regarded businesswomen in the United States; she has also been involved in state and national politics, most recently having run for the office of Governor of California. From 1998-2008, she served as CEO of eBay, growing the iconic Silicon Valley company from $4 million to $8 billion in revenues. Before eBay, she worked as a high level executive at several other well-known companies including Stride Rite, Hasbro, and the Walt Disney Company. She was inducted into the U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 2008 and more than once was named one of the “Top Five Most Powerful Women in Business” by Fortune Magazine. Ms. Whitman is currently a member of the Boards of Directors of Hewlett-Packard, Procter & Gamble, Teach for America, SIEPR and Zipcar. She received her BA from Princeton University and her MBA from Harvard Business School.
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Andy Thompson
Mr. Thompson is President, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Proteus Digital Health. He is a veteran of Silicon Valley bio-medical startups, formerly serving as President, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of FemRx and Chief Financial Officer of CardioRhythm. As a consultant and venture capital investor he contributed to several successful healthcare companies including Cell Genesys, Cytotherapeutics, Northstar Neuroscience and QRx Pharmaceuticals. He holds an M.A. in engineering from Cambridge University and was a United Kingdom National Engineering Scholar from 1982 to 1985. He also holds an M.A. in education and an M.B.A. from Stanford University. Mr. Thompson was a founding board member and Foundation President of Summit Preparatory Charter High School.
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Summit Chartter Schools’ “Rape-gate” gets more interesting all the time.
For example, according to her bio, Summit California’s CEO and Founder, Diane Tavenner, is the “Chair of the California Charter Schools Association, a member of the Spring 2013 cohort of the Pahara-Aspen Education Fellowship, (a leadership program within the Aspen Institute), and also a graduate of the Broad Academy.”
Hey Diane! If you’re reading this, I have some questions for you:
At which of those places did they teach you how to cover up the raping of students at the hands of charter school teachers— which you then pass on to Executive Directors such as Nicholas Kim?
Is what Zachary Drew perpetrated on an innocent child just a different and special kind of “personalized learning” that your teachers provide for students?
Does the Broad Academy offer a class in that kind of money-motivated damage control? (In business, it all comes down to a hard numbers cost-benefit analysis after all.)
Also, your bio claims that you are “currently working to scale personalized learning by making its Personalized Learning Platform (PLP) available to schools across the country for free through the Summit Basecamp program.”
Along with “personalized computer learning,” are you also going to scale these charter school management techniques in rape cover-up on a national level?
Hechinger’s Report recently added Chan-Zuckerberg to its list of funders.
The recent firings at New America Foundation suggests a possible truth. “Independence” can be financially perilous if a donor disagrees.
Should readers have faith in firewalls between donors and staff or should they discount the contrivance as PR, an inducement for staff to cleverly disguise bias, a salve, ____?
Ask Chan and Zuckerberg:
What about Rape-gate?
What about Rape-gate?
What about Rape-gate?
Why are Mr. and Mrs. Z. supporting a charter school chain that covers up one of their teachers raping a student, and that shows an appalling disregard for the well-being of underaged girls, and protects a rapist?
What about Rape-gate?
What about Rape-gate?
What about Rape-gate?
Again, here’s the story:
https://seattleducation2010.wordpress.com/2016/03/16/no-rules-charter-schools-summit-public-charter-school-teacher-arrested-for-allegedly-having-sex-with-a-student/
and here’s the local press coverage:
http://www.mercurynews.com/2016/02/26/police-san-jose-principal-failed-to-report-sex-abuse-claim-before-arrest-charge/
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2016/02/29/police-investigate-whether-sj-principal-broke-law-in-teacher-sex-case/
Here’s the latest on the civil lawsuit:
https://www.docketalarm.com/cases/California_State_Santa_Clara_County_Superior_Court/16CV302178/N.V._vs_Summit_Public_Schools_et_al/
You should also direct your righteous indignation at “The 74” and Campbell Brown. Ms. Brown has made lurid but vague and unsubstantiated accusations of teachers molesting students in NYC. One has to wonder if an actual case that is headed for trial such as the Summit Charter one merits any of their attention since they are all in on charters and choice. Continued silence from “The 74” would speak volumes on their hypocrisy. I predict that if they ever decide to weigh in, it will be to praise Summit et al with faint damnation.
Actually, I did mention Brown a few posts back
(the post mention Brown has the date/time marked :
“Jack Covey, September 6, at 8:45 pm”)
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“Where the hell is Campbell Brown, that self-appointed protector and avenger of children abused at the hands of teachers? Nowhere, of course, as she must not speak ill of anyone involved in the charter school industry — ideology trumps concern for abused children.”
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For more on this, go to Jennifer Berkshire’s article here:
http://haveyouheardblog.com/will-the-74-investigate-charter-scandals/
SUMMARY:
A journalist friend of Jennifer’s contacted Jennifer about her experience interviewing for a job with Campbell Brown’s “The74”. The friend claimed that she was told by the interviewer that, as condition of employment, all reporters for “The74” were barred from writing anything critical or derogatory towards charter schools. For example, should there be a charter school scandal that gets covered by the mainstream media, the interviewer told her, reporters must cover their eyes and ears as those Buddhist monkey statues do.
However, when it comes to the traditional public schools, they wanted all the dirt that’s fit to print — the more the better.
Jennifer called up “The74” (which was/is run by the Mercury P.R. group) to confirm this, and she was met with quite a bit of hostility, and a demand that she cough up the name of her friend/reporter who blabbed the details of her interview. Jennifer resisted their demand, claiming that this would be “career suicide” for her friend.
It’s quite a good read, what with Jennifer’s snarky prose style.
(The Mercury group is party of Walmart’s union suppression apparatus, which swings into action and crushes any attempt to unionize. In this capacity, they once got caught posing as journalists to obtain intelligence, but that’s another story.