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Wednesday, August 3, 2016

FIRED CTC ATTORNEY KATHLEEN CARROLL FINALLY GETS HER DAY IN COURT - Perdaily.com

FIRED CTC ATTORNEY KATHLEEN CARROLL FINALLY GETS HER DAY IN COURT - Perdaily.com:

FIRED CTC ATTORNEY KATHLEEN CARROLL FINALLY GETS HER DAY IN COURT


Fired California Teacher Credentialing (CTC) Whistleblower Kathleen Carroll's Lawyer Dan Siegel On Retaliation Witnesses-CTC Whistleblower Accused of Being Sexual Harasser And "Stalker" By AG Kamala Harris and Governor Brown
https://youtu.be/dLz13AlBQhk

Kathleen Carroll was a former lawyer at the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing who blew the whistle on the backlog of thousands of credentials that were being improperly withheld from teachers. She went to Senator Darrell Steinberg for a state audit and was fired by the Commission management in retaliation. The trial is now taking place in Sacramento Superior Court and her lawyer Dan Siegel was interviewed on August 1, 2016 about the witnesses, retaliation including workplace bullying and what happens to whistleblowers who try to protect the public and teachers. One of the CTC defense witnesses was Barbara Kilponen who was the vice chair of CTC and a board member from the Fullerton Joint Union High School District. She claimed that Kathleen Carroll had sexually harassed her and was asked by a CTC hired "independent" investigator about the backlog whether Carroll was the "stalker".
California Attorney General Kamala Harris and her lawyers are conducting the case against Kathleen Carroll and Governor Brown is in charge of the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing CTC.
Interview was done by Steve Zeltzer of KPFA Pacifica WorkWeek Radio.
Additional media:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ux7F71oUo0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLa6YCVB-8A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56SWb4z5-l4
http://www.upwa.info/documents/Carroll-v.-CTC.pdf
http://www.dailycensored.com/ca-state-whistleblowers-lawsuit-exposes-web-of-corruption-and-deceit-at-the-commission-on-teacher-credentialing-ctc/
http://www.ctc.ca.gov/audit/2010-119-BSA-report.pdf
Production of Labor Video Project
www.laborvideo.org
Preview YouTube video Fired CA CTC Whistleblower Kathleen Carroll's Lawyer Dan Siegel On Retaliation Witnesses & "Stalker"Preview YouTube video Fired CA Staff Attorney Kathy Carroll Exposes Corruption, Nepotism & Bullying At CTCPreview YouTube video Fired CTC Attorney Kathleen Carroll On Corruption & Privatization At CA Education AgencyPreview YouTube video Privatization & The War Against California Teachers-Fired CTC Attorney Carroll Speaks Out
If you or someone you know has been targeted and are in the process of being dismissed and need legal defense, get in touch:
Lenny@perdaily.com
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 FIRED CTC ATTORNEY KATHLEEN CARROLL FINALLY GETS HER DAY IN COURT - Perdaily.com:
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What if we gave all American kids the type of education that was given to the Clinton, Obama and Trump children? | GFBrandenburg's Blog

What if we gave all American kids the type of education that was given to the Clinton, Obama and Trump children? | GFBrandenburg's Blog:

What if we gave all American kids the type of education that was given to the Clinton, Obama and Trump children?



 This is an excellent question, one that begs being asked every time I pass by places like Sidwell Friends, The Bullis School, or Saint Albans School in and around DC, and mentally compare those wonderful facilities with the DC public schools that I and my children attended, and in which I taught and continue to volunteer.

Bottom line: tuition and fees at those tony private schools is about three or four times what we as citizens spend on kids attending DC public or charter schools. For example, the middle school nearest my house (Brookland MS) has no playground…
I took this article from Education Week. It’s behind a paywall.
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What if America Spent Per Student What Clinton, Trump Paid for Private Schools?

By Andrew Ujifusa on July 27, 2016 7:22 AM
Philadelphia
In his speech last week at the Republican National Convention, GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. noted that he and his siblings were fortunate to have options for their schooling: “We want all Americans to have those same opportunities.”
Fair enough. But Donald Trump Jr., along with his siblings and Hillary Clinton’s daughter Chelsea, went to private schools that weren’t cheap. And so have several other presidential hopefuls’ children, for that matter.
So we thought about the educational opportunity in monetary terms: How much would it cost to spend the same amount per public school student what it costs to send children to the same private schools attended by the offspring of GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump and his Democratic counterpart Hillary Clinton? And what if we tried to match the basic outlines of their children’s private school experience when it comes to teachers?
Fortunately, Michael Griffith, an independent school finance consultant, did his own analysis to try to answer those questions.
Outliers Out of Reach
First, Griffith compared the candidates’ private school tuition costs for the schools from which their children graduated to average per-student expenditures in public schools in the children’s home state: New York in three of the four Trump children’s case; California, in Tiffany Trump’s case; and the District of Columbia, in Chelsea Clinton’s case.
Average per-student spending at those schools attended by the five presidential candidates’ kids is $38,464. Nationwide, public school funding is $12,251 per student.
For the purposes of Griffith’s calculations, he used tuition costs at the Hill School in Pottstown, Pa., for Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr.; Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Conn. for Ivanka Trump; Viewpoint School for Tiffany Trump; and the What if we gave all American kids the type of education that was given to the Clinton, Obama and Trump children? | GFBrandenburg's Blog:
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A VISION FOR BLACK LIVES POLICY DEMANDS FOR BLACK POWER, FREEDOM & JUSTICE

The Movement for Black Lives:
A VISION FOR BLACK LIVES
POLICY DEMANDS FOR BLACK POWER, FREEDOM & JUSTICE





JOIN US

Will you endorse our platform and ask your friends to support these demands?


About Us - The Movement for Black Lives - https://policy.m4bl.org/about/ 
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Resignation, Red Tape, Renewal | BustED Pencils

Resignation, Red Tape, Renewal | BustED Pencils:

Resignation, Red Tape, Renewal


And so there you have it. I submitted my resignation this summer. If you are unfamiliar with my story check out my blog at www.pegwithpen.com. All future postings by me will be funneled through BustED Pencils – together we are stronger.
I’ve been MIA this summer via social media and pretty much any methods of contact. And I feel I owe quite a few folks in explanation – so here it goes.  On May 1st I received a phone call that my mother had fallen and broken both wrists. A social worker at the hospital proceeded to tell me that my mother would undergo surgery the following day and then be placed in rehab. My father would be placed in assisted living. My oldest sister (52) with special needs would be placed in a group home. I said  – no way in hell.
I got on a plane to Missouri and remained there all of May taking care of my family. One day I was completing what I believed would be my last year of teaching (actually testing) in the public schools and the next day I was officially done, prematurely, with my teaching career. There were no goodbyes. Just a void.
In June I returned to Colorado with my family and cared for them in my home with the help of my husband and my boys until early July. I know a lot about home health care now. I also know a lot about systems – systems to support my special needs sister, systems to help the elderly, the injured, and those with dementia.
Let me give you one example of  my new learning. I attempted to enroll my sister in a day program here in Denver because she is accustomed to working full-time in Missouri. We had done our  best to fill out the appropriate paperwork. Upon trying to enroll her they told my mother she had not done all the paperwork. Many of the items she needed to complete the process sat 12 hours away in a lock box in Missouri. As a result, we would have to pay a hefty daily fee if my sister was to attend. We decided to try one half day because she desperately needed the socialization. I dropped her off, and an hour later had a phone call from one of the staff members stating that my sister had flipped off the staff and tried to run away. Remember the kindergartner on the first day of school? Sometimes they throw a fit? This was the scenario in a sense. She was not invited back. If we had the paperwork done, they would have been required to adjust and evaluate how to help her transition into the program. Instead, with a very cold tone, I was politely told by the director not to come back.
There is red tape everywhere you go. Much of this red tape is harmful.
In rehab if my mom did not work hard enough, they said she would have to leave early. If she worked too hard, they would then release her early. It was a dance via insurance to keep her in as long as necessary to allow her to recover.
Red tape, connected to money, connected to systems, speak to a much more powerful entity, called capitalism, a system that many of us truly do not understand – specifically in re: to its methods of madness during a crisis. Trying to muddle through the red tape Resignation, Red Tape, Renewal | BustED Pencils:
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Cursive writing: Alabama law mandates handwriting in school - TODAY.com

Cursive writing: Alabama law mandates handwriting in school - TODAY.com:

Should kids still learn cursive? New laws mandate handwriting in school
Many schools now limit handwriting instruction, noting children are better off preparing for the real world, where nimble texting thumbs and quick typing fingers create most written communication.
But many kids are finding cursive firmly back on their lesson plan.
In Alabama, Lexi's Law — which requires public school students to be able to "write legibly in cursive" by the end of third grade — went into effect this week. State Rep. Dickie Drake sponsored the bill after he was struck by something his oldest granddaughter Lexi said.





Lexi Drake, an Alabama child, inspired a cursive writing bill
Courtesy Dickie Drake
A desire to learn "real writing" by Lexi Drake led her grandfather, state Rep. Dickie Drake, to sponsor a bill requiring public schools in Alabama to show they're teaching cursive.
"She was in the first grade and wanted to learn 'real writing,'" Drake told TODAY Parents. "After much research of schools in the state of Alabama, I found that it was not being taught all over the state — hit and miss. … This bill is for all my grandchildren and others just like them."
Cursive writing has always been a requirement in the state, but the new law calls for schools to certify they are meeting proficiency standards, said Erica Pippins Franklin, a spokeswoman for the Alabama State Department of Education. The goal is for kids to not only be able to write in script, but also to read historical letters and documents, she added.
There was a similar sentiment in Louisiana, where Gov. John Bel Edwards in June signed a bill requiring cursive to be taught in public schools starting in the 2017/2018 school year. Instruction must start by Cursive writing: Alabama law mandates handwriting in school - TODAY.com:

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School closures hit black, poor students the hardest - Houston Chronicle

School closures hit black, poor students the hardest - Houston Chronicle:

School closures hit black, poor students the hardest


By the time Ryan Middle School in the Houston Independent School District was at risk of being closed down the by the district, enrollment had dropped from more than 800 students to roughly 300 in a decade, according to numbers from the Texas Education Agency. The historic school that had long anchored the Third Ward community around it was still deemed academically acceptable by the state in 2012, but inside the brick walls, it was a different story, according to Arva Howard.
Staff turnover was high, teachers were often absent and the building that had housed one of the first schools for black children in the city now languished, according to Howard, a longtime member of the school's shared decision making committee that acts as an advisory group to the principal. Howard's son attended Ryan not long before the district first proposed closing it in 2012.
A painful fight ensued. Community members argued closing the school would only further what they saw as a pattern of under-investment in black schools and neighborhoods. At first, the school board decided not to close the school, but a year later, in 2013 with enrollment now around 270 — as still more parents chose to enroll their children at other schools and performance slipping lower — the board approved a plan that would transform the school from a traditional, neighborhood campus to a special magnet program.
That fall, the new school opened as the Baylor College of Medicine Academy at Ryan. By many accounts, the school is thriving. It earned every distinction possible by the state in its most recent accountability ratings. Students from all over the district are eager to attend the campus that once struggled to attract students. Hundreds of students are on a wait-list.
But outcomes are less clear for the students who once attended Ryan. Instead of Ryan, they're now zoned to Cullen, a middle school roughly four miles away that had only slightly higher test scores in the 2010-2011 school year. Between 2004 and 2011, Ryan had been ranked "academically unacceptable" by the state three times. Cullen: once. Neither was ever ranked anything above "acceptable," the lowest passing ranking the state offered. Shortly after Ryan closed, under a new set of state standards, Cullen was rated "improvement required" in state accountability ratings for the 2014-2015 school year.
The federal grant that helped fund the creation of the medical academy is meant to help districts desegregate their schools and reduce "minority group isolation." Indeed, the academy boasts diverse numbers; its student body is 11 percent Asian, 36 percent African-American, 45 percent Hispanic and 7 percent white. Cullen, where Ryan's overwhelmingly black student population was re-zoned to, is 84 percent African-American and 14 percent Hispanic, according to the district's numbers.
Most of the kids now zoned to Cullen, go to Cullen. Only 85 attend the magnet School closures hit black, poor students the hardest - Houston Chronicle:

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