With A Brooklyn Accent: How Age and Race Discrimination Laid the Groundwork for the California Teachers Shortage- A Report

With A Brooklyn Accent: How Age and Race Discrimination Laid the Groundwork for the California Teachers Shortage- A Report:

How Age and Race Discrimination Laid the Groundwork for the California Teachers Shortage- A Report

 March 4, 2016



Valerie Trahan
2045 Emerson St Lower
Berkeley, CA
Retired Teacher
Masters in Education; Harvard University
510-689-6123


To:  Dr.Linda Darling Hammond; Professor Emeritus Stanford University; (indadh@suse.stanford.edu)
 Dr. Louis Freedberg; University California at Berkeley  (lfreedberg@edsource.org)
Dr. Bill Koski; Stanford University; (bkoski@law.stanford.edu)


SUBJECT: A QUANTITATIVE AND STATISTICAL STUDY ON CALIFORNIA TEACHER SHORTAGES AND AGE DISCRIMINATION


Query: Is the California Teacher Shortage caused by an intentional age discrimination policy?

Subject Area 1: Referrals to the Commission on Teacher Credentialing for Discipline

Subject Area 2: Referrals to Peer Assistance and Review (PAR)

Subject Area 3: Los Angeles Unified School District Teacher Jail; Housed Teachers


This letter is in direct response to the Legislative Analyst Office Report on teacher shortages. This report was reported to media on March 1st, 2016.

http://edsource.org/2016/debate-surfaces-over-how-much-state-action-needed-to-ease-teacher-shortages/95302



1.The data used for this query was taken from Public Records Requests. The data acquired from the CTC is teachers referred for discipline between January of 2003 to August of 2014. On the list, their are 3771 teachers. We do not know why these teachers were referred or the disposition of their cases. However, we can do an empirical analysis and measure the probability that the demographics referred due to random or non random events. As a benchmark we will use the Biddle method(http://www.biddle.com/documents/twostats.htm). Utilizing the 1 Z proportion test or the binomial distribution test to measure the likelihood of the observed event. Methodology: I will perform the which is a recognized methodology to measure expected results vs. observed results. The also measures the actual standard deviation and whether the standard deviation meets the legal threshold for a prima facie case of discrimination. The 1 Z Proportion Test shows 6.54 standard deviations for teachers referred to the CTC over the age of 56. According to Biddle, (http://www.biddle.com/documents/twostats.htm) two to three standard deviations is used in Disparate Impact Cases and 5 Standard Deviations for Disparate Treatment Cases. I will use these recognized metrics for my

Our next test to probe discriminatory findings is the Heads or Tails Binomial Distribution Test. This test is also recognized to measure statistical discrimination as recognized by judicial courts. For the CTC Analysis (see attached) The heads or tails binomial distribution test shows 0.00 probability of a random event. This also is for teachers referred to the CTC for discipline over the age of 56.
2. Peer Assistance and Review. PAR is a popular teacher remediation program supported by School Districts and Unions to “improve teacher performance”. However, as you will see, persons referred to PAR have high degrees of education, thousands of hours of professional development, are above 50 years of age, and not coincidently the highest salaried teachers. We will begin with data on Los Angeles Unified School District’s use of PAR.
2A. Peer Assistance and Review Los Angeles Unified School District
2B and 2C Combined-Peer Assistance and Review San Francisco Unified School District and Oakland Unified School District
2C-1 Oakland Unified School District PAR- Binomial Distribution age 56 and over
3A. Teacher Jail Housed Teachers-Los Angeles Unified School District

Objective Findings:
1.The data from the Commission on Teacher Credentialing shows a bias towards persons over the age of 56 not explained by random events.
2A. The data regarding PAR from Los Angeles Unified School District shows racial discrimination towards African American Teachers and teachers over the age of 56. Again the numbers are not explained by random events, and suggest Disparate Treatment and Disparate Impact Discrimination.
2B and 2C. The data from San Francisco and Oakland Unified School District shows a bias towards teachers over the age of 56.
2C-1. The data from Oakland Unified School Districts use of Peer Assistance and Review in particular shows intentional age discrimination and not aWith A Brooklyn Accent: How Age and Race Discrimination Laid the Groundwork for the California Teachers Shortage- A Report:

Peggy Robertson opened the OPT OUT CONFERENCE with six minutes of an overview of where we are and what is next | Reclaim Reform

Peggy Robertson opened the OPT OUT CONFERENCE with six minutes of an overview of where we are and what is next | Reclaim Reform:
Peggy Robertson opened the OPT OUT CONFERENCE with six minutes of an overview of where we are and what is next

 United Opt Out National Conference: Transcending Resistance, Igniting Revolution spoke the reality of the corporate education reform and its primary purpose of stealing public education tax dollars for private profit.Politicians from both political parties support and spread the propaganda and the lying euphemistic jargon in exchange for campaign contributions and other forms of recently legalized corruption. As parents, teachers and neighbors, our children and their futures are of more concern us. When our children learn and flourish, they and the nation flourish rather than merely enriching a few multinational corporations and the hedge fund/venture fund managers who feed them.

Peggy Robertson, whose Peg With Pen blog has helped ignite the entire Opt Out movement, is one of the founders of UOO. She opened the conference with 6 MINUTES of essential information. View the beginning or the entire YouTube video HERE.

EXCERPTS: And we don’t negotiate with children’s lives in order to get-along and get-a-little…
Our goal has been to tear down the test-and-punish system. We must…
We should celebrate our success. We have made Opt Out mainstream…
Under ESSA, the Every Student Succeeds Act, there will be more testing than ever before…
And ultimately, many of the components of the ESSA will dismantle public education and the teaching profession…

Peggy Robertson opened the OPT OUT CONFERENCE with six minutes of an overview of where we are and what is next | Reclaim Reform:

Chicago teachers set April 1 for 'showdown' with schools - Yahoo Finance

Chicago teachers set April 1 for 'showdown' with schools - Yahoo Finance:
Chicago teachers set April 1 for 'showdown' with schools

 CHICAGO, March 4 (Reuters) - The head of the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) said on Friday that the district will hold off on a controversial cost-cutting move affecting teachers' pension payments to allow for the labor contract process to play out.

But that move will not stop the Chicago Teachers Union from taking action that could involve a strike on April 1.

Union President Karen Lewis told reporters that everything, including a strike over unfair labor practices, was on the table for what she called an April 1 "showdown" with the nation's third-largest public school system.

The cash-strapped district last month gave the union 30 days' notice that it aims to save $65 million by reducing its contribution to teachers' pension payments by 7 percent - a move condemned by the union, which in December overwhelmingly authorized a future strike.

While contending a teachers' strike was not legally possible until mid-May, CPS Chief Executive Forrest Claypool told reporters on Friday that the plan to end the so-called pension pickup was on hold until an independent arbiter completes a fact-finding report on April 18. That report is part of a process to reach a new contract with the teachers' union after the prior contract expired last year.

"We do not think it's appropriate to exercise our rights right now because we're still in negotiations," Claypool said, referring to the pension payment plan.

CPS is struggling with a $1.1 billion structural budget deficit, caused largely by escalating annual pension payments that will reach $676 million this fiscal year.

In the meantime, CPS on Thursday announced three unpaid furlough days for all of its workers to save an estimated $30 million for the $5.7 billion budget.

Claypool said CPS was trying to use every alternative to raise cash to make it through June 30, the end of fiscal 2016.

However, moves by Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner may choke off the district from loans on which it has depended for cash flow.

Claypool said the district is complying with a request from the Republican governor's state board of education to turn over information for a financial probe. But he disputed Rauner's contention that a finding of financial distress for CPS would allow the state to block the district from any further borrowing.

"Chicago is not part of the statute the governor keeps citing," Claypool said.

(Reporting by Karen Pierog; Editing by Matthew Lewis)Chicago teachers set April 1 for 'showdown' with schools - Yahoo Finance:

Everyone Loves the Idea of Preschool, So Why Don't All Our Kids Get to Go to One? | Mother Jones

Everyone Loves the Idea of Preschool, So Why Don't All Our Kids Get to Go to One? | Mother Jones:

Everyone Loves the Idea of Preschool, So Why Don't All Our Kids Get to Go to One?

What the studies say about early childhood education.

It's hard to think of another education reform idea that has garnered as muchsupport among advocates of various ideological stripes as early childhood education. California and New York liberals support it, and so do conservatives in Oklahoma and Florida. A 2015 national poll showed that 76 percent of voters support the idea of spending federal money to expand public preschool, and the new federal Every Student Succeeds Act includes more funding for early childhood. Helping the idea along is decades of research (which continues to pour in) that suggests effective preschools can benefit all children, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds. "We have better evidence that preschool works and has long-term effects than we do for any other social policy," David L. Kirp, one of our country's leading experts on early childhood education and a professor of public policy at the University of California-Berkeley, told Mother Jones.

But can we identify what a good preschool looks like and make that accessible to the kids most in need? That topic has been debated fiercely by parents, preschool advocates, and policymakers all over the country. This week, early childhood education experts and city chiefs of preschools came together in Sacramento, California, to talk about the latest research. As presenter Abbie Lieberman, an early-education policy analyst at New America, put it: "When we step into a preschool, how can we tell what is actually learning through play and what is true chaos?"

What the Studies Say:

The growing pile of evidence on the long-term benefits of high-quality preschool stretches all the way back to a 1961 Perry Preschool Study. Researchers at theHighScope Educational Research Foundation decided to follow 123 three- and four-year-olds from public housing projects in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Fifty-eight toddlers were randomly placed in a preschool class for two years; 65 kids from the neighborhood were left without preschool. Researchers then collected data on the students until they turned 40—an astonishingly long time in education research. They found that the kids in preschool were much more likely to have better grades and test scores and more likely to go to college, earn a higher income, and own a house. In fact, their income and other assets pushed them well above the poverty line, as Kirp documents in his book, The Sandbox Investment.

A similar study started in 1972, the Abecederian Project. It followed 111 infants in North Carolina until they turned 35. The results were similar, piquing the interest of economists. Steven Barnett, a professor of economics and the executive director of the National Institute on Early Childhood Research, eventually calculated that every $1 the government invests in high-quality early education can save more than $7 later on by boosting graduation rates, reducing teen pregnancies, and even reducing crime. Such arguments about long-term savings made preschool appealing to conservatives and big philanthropists in the business world.

More recently, other scholars were able to show the disparities between students who had some form of early childhood education and those who didn't. Jane Woldfogel, a professor of social work and public affairs at Columbia University and the author of Too Many Children Left Behind, looked at the test scores of 8,000 students in the United States and found there was a huge gap in reading abilities before kids even arrived at first grade. "If we are going to give teachers a fighting chance at narrowing our achievement gaps later in school, our kids have to come in more equally prepared," Woldfogel told Mother Jones.

So What Does a Good Preschool Look Like?

Marjorie Wechsler, an early-childhood-education researcher at the Learning Policy Institute, recently synthesized research from a number of preschool systems and identified 10 common foundational building blocks among programs that demonstrated positive impacts on a variety of measures. Wechsler, who presented her findings in Sacramento, found that the best preschools have college-educated teachers with specialized skills in child development; they also use curriculum that emphasizes problem-solving rather than unstructured play or "repeat-after-me" drills. Successful educators know how to teach cognitive, social-emotional, and physical skills. Plus, high-quality preschools support their teachers with experienced coaches, and classroom sizes don't get bigger than 10 kids for every teacher.

The Roadblocks:

While expanding preschool for low-income students might have garnered more advocates than almost any other school reform idea in the country, there are inevitable problems: Grover J. Whitehurst, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, has pointed out that studies like the Perry Preschool research have only looked at small school programs that are difficult to replicate on a large scale. Other opponents point to a recent large-scale study looking at the impact of Tennessee's Everyone Loves the Idea of Preschool, So Why Don't All Our Kids Get to Go to One? | Mother Jones:

Book club helps immigrant mothers find joy in reading and support their kids' education - LA Times

Book club helps immigrant mothers find joy in reading and support their kids' education - LA Times:

Book club helps immigrant mothers find joy in reading and support their kids' education

Cleotilde Flores, center, holds her favorite books that she has read with other mothers at the Bravo Medical Magnet High School literature club. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

 Maria Onate had not read a book until her son started high school.

Her illiterate parents ended her schooling when she was 15, informing her that she had to get ready for marriage and work to help support the family in their rancho in Puebla, Mexico.

More than two decades later, she was shocked when the parent center coordinators at her son's new high school, Bravo Medical Magnet, suggested she join a book club. She was there for her child's education. She thought it was too late for her own.

"I hated to read," Onate, 44, said in Spanish. "I read in elementary school, but I never read on my own."

Interested in the stories shaping California? Sign up for the free Essential California newsletter >>

On a recent morning, however, the mother of two was among the most outspoken of 15 Latina women energetically discussing a 600-page novel in a basement classroom at Bravo.

Twice a month the school's club de literatura meets as a way to encourage immigrant parents to become more involved in their children's education.

"I've seen it change parents," said Bravo Principal Maria Torres-Flores, who founded the club. "They now enjoy reading, and see it is something important for the kids — it's not just, 'You're wasting time because you don't want to do chores.' "

The women gathered to discuss the Mexican American saga "Rain of Gold," by Victor Villaseñor.

Torres-Flores was barely able to get a word in as the women's ideas flowed.

The bell rang, with announcements for students about opportunities at the USC biomedical lab and a request to be nice to counselors. The club members kept talking over the voice on the loudspeaker — dissecting how the author depicted mothers, comparing memories of courting rituals in their hometowns to those in the book and sharing the lessons they learned on how to talk with their children about sex.

"Rain of Gold" will soon be added to a list on the wall of more than a dozen completed books. Each holds a different lesson, notes club member Nereyda Arenas:

"Don Quixote" showed them "wisdom through his words, his advice, his poems."

"Steve Jobs" "was a little difficult but also a fascinating glimpse into the life of this man that had changed the lives of so many people with his technology."

And Anne Frank's "The Diary of a Young Girl" offered an example of the "strength of the spirit" — and for some women a symbol that even though many could not travel freely back to Mexico they were relatively free in the United States.

Many of the club members said it is a highlight of the week. Most are homemakers, but those who work outside the home have rearranged their schedules. One, a cook, told her boss she could not miss a meeting.

Onate is among those who travel by bus for more than an hour to attend.

"This is an opportunity for those of us who never had an opportunity to learn," said Elizabeth Villegas, who was wearing a black poncho against the cool weather. "Not every principal would spend time with us."

Torres-Flores started the club six years ago when she was attempting to increase literacy across the curriculum. She realized that key barriers to students' reading were often in the home.

So Torres-Flores began to focus on parents. "If I can get parents to want to read," she said, "those parents would see the value of reading and want the kids to read more."

Yet when Torres-Flores started the group, parents told her they did not think they would be able to read books, which were available in Spanish, at the grade level of their children. Only a handful showed up for the first meeting.

"Then I'd get another parent, and then another parent," she recalled.

The literature club soon grew to a core group of 15, sometimes up to 25. A few men Book club helps immigrant mothers find joy in reading and support their kids' education - LA Times:

Ed. Department Names ESSA Negotiators, Key Areas of Discussion - Politics K-12 - Education Week

Ed. Department Names ESSA Negotiators, Key Areas of Discussion - Politics K-12 - Education Week:

Ed. Department Names ESSA Negotiators, Key Areas of Discussion

By Alyson Klein and Andrew Ujifusa

UPDATED

Get ready, get set: Negotiate rules for the Every Student Succeeds Act!

Later this month, a group of negotiators (names below) will gather at the U.S. Department of Education to hash out regulations for certain parts of the newest version of the Elementary and Secondary Act. ESSA requires the department to go through the "negotiated rulemaking" process on three sections of the law—standards, assessments, and supplement-not-supplant, which deals with how states and districts spend their own funds in relation to federal money. The department is starting with assessment and supplement-not-supplant.

How does negotiated rulemaking work? The folks listed below essentially get together in a room and try to hammer out an agreement with the department. If the process fails, which it often does, the feds go back to the drawing board and negotiate through the regular process, which involves releasing a draft rule, getting comments on it, and then putting out a final rule.

Who is on the committee?

See below for the list of those who are on the committee and their organizational affiliations:

The department outlined some points that negotiators will consider in a set of discussion papersFriday. In general, the papers give background on key areas in supplement-not-supplant and assessments. In the papers, the department posed question for rulemakers to consider—they did not propose regulations in most cases, a department official said.

There is however, some proposed regulatory language in a few areas, including 8th grade math assessments (the department has already worked with states on that area through No Child Left Behind Act waivers), limited English proficiency, and computer-adaptive assessments. 

Assessments: ESSA keeps in place the annual tests in grades 3 through 8 and once in high school that were a hallmark of the No Child Left Behind Act. But it also adds some new twists on testing. Rulemakers may help clarify:

• How it will work for some districts to use a nationally recognized test instead of the state assessment for high schools. Department officials will need to decide what constitutes a "nationally recognized test." (Is it ACT and SAT and that's it? Could other tests—maybe even a brand-new test—count?) They'll also have to make sure that the tests can be easily compared to a state's assessment so that students in different districts within the same state aren't held to different standards. And they'll have to make sure students with disabilities and English-learners are given appropriate accommodations. 
• Computer-adaptive testing, a tough area for districts and states already. These types of tests can be faster and more efficient, but they also offer different questions to different students, depending on their achievement level. The department wants to know if ESSA makes it clear that states will still need to report whether students taking these tests are on grade level. After all, if tests focus just on whether students are making some incremental progress, students could graduate from high school without being prepared for college or a job. This is one of the areas where the department offered proposed language, and it's aimed at providing clarity on that issue. 
• 8th grade math tests. ESSA allows students who take advanced math in 8th grade, say Algebra 1, or geometry, to use a test in that subject for accountability purposes, instead of the state assessment everyone else takes. In high school, those students must then take a test that corresponds to whatever level of math they are in—so they might take the Algebra II test while most other kids take Algebra I. This something the department had already allowed, through a waiver, before ESSA passed. The department wants to make sure many more kids have access to those advanced classes and that the alternative, harder math tests are of high quality. The feds proposed language to make that happen. 
• Tests for students with disabilities.  ESSA requires that all assessments, to the extent it's possible, use universal design for learning (UDL) principles to support all students' learning needs. The department also addresses ESSA's requirement that accommodations are provided to students with disabilities as identified under the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act or other laws. The department asks negotiators, among other issues to consider, whether regulations should define "students with diabilities in a way that encompasses students who receive accommodations under the IDEA as well as those receiving accommodations through other Acts."
• Alternative tests for students with severe cognitive disabilities. ESSA says no more than 1 percent of students in a state can take an alternative test in any single subject for students with severe cognitive disabilities. But it's unclear how that will work on a district-by-district level. Among other issues, the department presents negotiators with the question of whether the regulations should define "students with the most significant cognitive disabilities." The department also says negotiators could consider how a state will be able to ensure that it does not assess more than 1 percent of children with the most significant cognitive disabilities with an alternate assessment in a given subject, since it is not able to limit the number of students assessed with an alternate assessment at the district or school level. 
• How English-language learners are going to be included in proficiency and academic assessments. (For the first time, ESSA calls for Englsh-language proficiency to be part of the accountability mix for the whole school.) Under ESSA, states must try to get a picture of how much newly arrived ELLs know by offering them tests in their Native language. That doesn't mean a state has to have a test available in every language under the sun, but they must have native language assessments on hand in any language that a "significant "number of kids speak, and make "every effort" to develop those tests if they don't exist. Those terms are obviously kind of vague, and the department wants negotiators to consider fleshing them out. 
• How states should use English-language-proficiency tests. ESSA is the first law to require states to measure English-language proficiency for accountability purposes. The department wants to make sure these tests meet high quality standards.

Supplement-not-supplant: The issue paper for supplement-not-supplant stresses that the federal Title I funds are intended "to provide the additional educational resources and supports that at-risk students need to succeed, instead of being used to simply make up for unfair shortfalls in state and local funding." [Text bolded in the original]

The paper outlines that under ESSA, the rule includes a single compliance test "that focuses on a district's methodology for allocating State and local funds." Specifically, it requires that a district "demonstrate that the methodology used to allocate State and local funds to each [Title I school] ensures that such school receives all of the State and local funds it would otherwise receive if it Ed. Department Names ESSA Negotiators, Key Areas of Discussion - Politics K-12 - Education Week

From the archive: The Bee’s 2012 report on Fresno Unified’s lease/leaseback contracts | Fresno Bee

From the archive: The Bee’s 2012 report on Fresno Unified’s lease/leaseback contracts | Fresno Bee:

From the archive: The Bee’s 2012 report on Fresno Unified’s lease/leaseback contracts

 Six months after passage of a $280 million bond measure in 2010, Fresno Unified School District changed the way many of its construction contracts were awarded.

The traditional practice of choosing the lowest bid was placed on the back burner. Moved to the front was a method called lease/leaseback that let the district simply pick the contractor it wanted.

One of two classroom buildings is shown under construction at Fresno High School in October 2012 – one of seven major Harris Construction projects in Fresno Unified in that era. CRAIG KOHLRUSS Fresno Bee file

Not unexpectedly, the dramatic switch has fans and critics.

Fresno Unified Superintendent Michael Hanson says that lease/leaseback has helped the district make good on its Measure Q promise of upgrading schools, stimulating the hard-struck Valley construction industry, hiring local workers and helping revive the city’s urban core.

But Ken Grey, co-owner of Selma-based BVI Construction Inc., sees things differently. He says the manner in which the school district devised the new system opened the door to influence-peddling.

“The district seems to have re-established the good old boys club,” said Grey, who is the mayor of Selma. “Contractors are making political contributions and they’re expecting payback in the form of being awarded contracts. I don’t think that’s a healthy thing for the public.”

Of this there is no doubt: Harris Construction Co. Inc., owned by Richard Spencer of Fresno, has received the lion’s share of Fresno Unified’s business since the method was changed in May 2011. Since then, Harris has received seven contracts totaling about $78 million. These contracts include building the new Rutherford B. Gaston Sr. Middle School and making major renovations at Fresno High School.

During the same time frame, five other projects totaling $51 million were awarded to five separate contractors using the new award system.

Flavoring the debate about lease/leaseback – particularly among Valley contractors – is the fact that Spencer, a longtime contributor to political campaigns at the local, state and federal levels, gave $25,000 to the Measure Q campaign. Harris Construction pitched in $5,000 more. These contributions made Spencer and his company the biggest donor to a campaign that raised about $259,000.

Now, with the upcoming school board election seen by some people as a referendum on Hanson’s performance, Spencer, his family members and employees of his companies contributed nearly $10,000 to the campaigns of three candidates supportive of the superintendent, according to elections records through Sept. 30.

***

The lease/leaseback method isn’t new. Originally it was intended as a way for cash-poorFrom the archive: The Bee’s 2012 report on Fresno Unified’s lease/leaseback contracts | Fresno Bee:

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/bill-mcewen/article64160562.html#storylink=cpy

Tindley charter schools chief’s exit didn’t solve woes | 2016-03-05 | Indianapolis Business Journal\

Tindley charter schools chief’s exit didn’t solve woes | 2016-03-05 | Indianapolis Business Journal | IBJ.com:

Tindley charter schools chief’s exit didn’t solve woes

Hoosier School Heist TV is Doug Martin's channel featuring videos of his book tour across Indiana speaking on the corporate takeover of public education. Order Hoosier School Heist at http://hoosierschoolheist.com/.

Follow Hoosier School Heist on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HoosierSchoolHeist

Tweet with Doug Martin at: https://twitter.com/DougMartinED

 The problems at Tindley Accelerated Schools didn’t go away when Chancellor Marcus Robinson resigned. If anything, the change served only to highlight the challenges still facing the once-lauded charter school system.

A cash crunch, substantial teacher and administrative turnover, missed enrollment targets and unfounded rumors about the possible closure of an elementary school—whispers that had the network scrambling to keep principals from leaving—continue to plague Tindley.

Concerns boiled over during a recent school board meeting at Charles A. Tindley Accelerated School.

Tindley parent Amelia Aguirre said she was pulling her son out of Tindley school because he had been without an algebra teacher for three months.

“I feel like Tindley has failed us,” Aguirre said at the Feb. 25 meeting, where Tindley leaders were meeting for a frank coversation about the homegrown network’s future.

Robinson

Now, without the direction of Robinson—one of the most prominent faces in the Indianapolis school reform scene—Tindley has to answer tough questions about the network’s size, financial position and how to move forward.

“I don’t think this is rocket science,” said board member Mark Bruin. “We grew too fast, too quickly. Looking back, I don’t know [that] some of this should be that big a surprise.”

The tumult in Tindley’s top administration has continued since Robinson’s sudden resignation on Feb. 8. IBJ reported in December that Robinson was under scrutiny following lavish hotel and travel spending that he charged to the Tindley credit card. In a press release about his resignation, Robinson said he was leaving to finish his doctoral degree.

Evan Hawkins, the network’s chief operating officer who joined Tindley in 2011, resigned at midnight Feb. 24 from the role as Tindley treasurer. The next day, the board appointed the network’s controller, Terri Anderson, as interim treasurer. Hawkins did not respond to IBJ’s request for comment.

Board members, meanwhile, have been scrambling to reassure principals across the network that they should stick with the schools. The board in late February renewed a lease for the space used by Tindley Summit Academy after some worried it would close at the end of just its second year.

“We’ve got to keep those principals and give them assurances,” board member John Neighbours said.

So far, board members say the plan is to “stay the course” and that they have no plans to close any schools.

“The only way we sustain that is to make sure we have the enrollment to support it,” said board member Adam Horst, vice president and controller of Indiana University Health. “It will help make sure we can keep the door open.”

Bruin

Still, Tindley continues to struggle financially.

The system finally tapped into a $750,000 line of credit from the Charter School Growth Fund, which it had previously considered using to make November 2015 payroll.

The network borrowed $250,000 from the fund in late December and then $750,000 from a new state-funded charter school loan program. Bruin said Tindley used the state loan to repay the $250,000 borrowed from the growth fund. The balance, he said, is being used for “working capital purposes.”

Tindley ended the year with a $187,119 negative cash balance. Projections prepared by the school board show the network’s cash balances swelled to $1.57 million in mid-February, but they are expected to drop to a mere $3,697 by the end of June.

“The projections show we may, and I stress may, need to borrow additional money in May [or] June,”Tindley charter schools chief’s exit didn’t solve woes | 2016-03-05 | Indianapolis Business Journal | IBJ.com: 

Teacher's note tells students they are more than their standardized test scores - TODAY

Teacher's note tells students they are more than their standardized test scores - TODAY.com:

Teacher's note tells students they are more than their standardized test scores

Standardized testing can fray the nerves of any student, but it was a letter sent by a teacher in advance of the tests that left an Indiana third-grader and his mom in tears.

Rylan Fallis, 9, admitted to his mother, Abby Fallis, that he was embarrassed for crying in class on Feb. 26 at Pleasant Crossing Elementary School in Whiteland, Indiana. The tears flowed for a good reason, however, as he said they were from a touching letter giving to him and his classmates by their teacher.

13 WTHR Indianapolis

13 WTHR Indianapolis

"The scores you will get from these tests will tell you something, but they will not tell you everything," the letter read. "These tests do not define you. There are many ways of being smart. YOU​ are smart! You are enough! You are the light that brightens my day and the reason I am happy to come to work each day. So, in the midst of all these tests, remember that there is no way to 'test' all of the amazing and awesome things that make you, YOU."

RELATED: Teacher's resignation goes viral: 'It is not the children who are disordered'

The letter was given out ahead of this week's ISTEP testing, an Indiana standardized test for students in third through eighth grade, as well as 10th-graders. The tests are used to assess students' progression as well as teacher performance. Rylan's teacher didn't want to reveal her name according to NBC affiliate WTHR in Indiana.

"Needless to say, when I read it, I cried too,'' Abby Fallis wrote in posting the letter on Instagram. "We need not just more teachers like her, but also more people like her in this world."

Teacher's note tells students they are more than their standardized test scores - TODAY.com:

share link

Letter sent to UK school student goes viral

PLAY VIDEO

 Teacher's note tells students they are more than their standardized test scores - TODAY.com:

Missouri bill guarantees opt-out ability for standardized tests | columbia missourian

Missouri bill guarantees opt-out ability for standardized tests | State News | columbiamissourian.com:

Missouri bill guarantees opt-out ability for standardized tests

JEFFERSON CITY — A Missouri lawmaker believes some statewide standardized tests should come with an explicit opt-out option, and on Monday he presented a draft of a bill that would do just that. 

House Bill 2315, sponsored by Rep. Kurt Bahr, R-St. Charles, would codify this right for statewide tests used to assess teachers and administrators, such as the Missouri Assessment Program, or MAP test. Normal course exams that are taken for the purpose of assessing students would not be affected.

Billie Wells, a Columbia mother with a child at Rock Bridge Elementary School, said standardized tests are helpful in evaluating a student's progress. But she was concerned about teachers' lack of control in determining how to best teach their students. 

When it came to Bahr's bill, Wells was supportive.

"I like the proposal," she said. "I think it should be the parent's choice if they want their child to take the test or not."

At a public hearing Monday evening, Bahr presented the bill before the House Committee on Elementary and Secondary Education.

Several other states have already adopted similar laws. This particular bill’s language is being modeled after a proposal passed in Oregon, Bahr said.

In addition to the new opt-out requirement, Bahr’s bill would also mandate that school districts send a letter to parents informing them of the test's benefits. Included in that letter would be a form to opt-out of the exam.

"We’re educating the parents as to why this test has value, but we’re also allowing the parents to Missouri bill guarantees opt-out ability for standardized tests | State News | columbiamissourian.com:

Parents Can Opt Out - United Opt Out National

Click Here to go to United Opt Out National: