It’s not who controls the schools that matters, it’s whether they care about equity - The Hechinger Report

It’s not who controls the schools that matters, it’s whether they care about equity - The Hechinger Report:

It’s not who controls the schools that matters, it’s whether they care about equity
New Orleans has had plenty of school choice in the last decade, but vulnerable students have been left behind

 On President’s Day, a town hall was convened by the Orleans Parish School Board to update the community on its efforts to take nearly 50 schools back into its fold by July 2018. The schools had been taken over by the state-run Recovery School District in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The school superintendent talked about the unification process and whether the district incorporated community feedback, but the question that kept surfacing was about who really controlled the school district.

New Orleans still has over a year before that question needs to be decisively answered but perhaps more important for concerned parents is not the question of control, but one of equity.

Equity in education refers to the concept of fairness, meaning that students at different levels of learning are offered the resources they need to succeed. As an educational term, it’s not as well known as school autonomy — the extent to which a school leader can make decisions about his or her school— or the ability to enroll a child in a school of one’s liking, also known as choice. New Orleans has been branded a “choice system” primarily because it has maximized these two principles of school autonomy and choice more than any other district in the county, using charter schools, a voucher program and a computerized enrollment system. That bundle of choice is credited for the rise in test scores post-Hurricane Katrina.

But for all their choice, New Orleans schools are also known for allowing their most vulnerable students to fall through the cracks. Systemic failures allowed special needs students to not receive services, led to severe reductions in black teachers from 74 percent before the storm to 51 percent in 2012, in a city that’s 63 percent black, and inconsistent delivery of basic services like transportation, not to mention over-the-top disciplinary practices.

Join the conversation later on Andre Perry’s radio show, “Free College,” hosted Tuesdays on WBOK1230 in New Orleans at 3pm Central/4pm Eastern 504.260.9265.

It is the pursuit of equity in New Orleans post-Katrina that is credited for reducing the still-high suspension and expulsion rates as well as ensuring that special-needs students are educated. But lawsuits have pushed equity when independent schools were slow to act. For example, in 2010, the hate watch group the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and other advocacy organizations filed a federal lawsuit against the Louisiana Department of Education. The SPLC sought corrective action to their findings that students with special needs were denied services; schools didn’t apply consistent policies It’s not who controls the schools that matters, it’s whether they care about equity - The Hechinger Report:

Op-Ed: What Regaining Full Control of Schools Means for the People of Newark - NJ Spotlight

Op-Ed: What Regaining Full Control of Schools Means for the People of Newark - NJ Spotlight:

OP-ED: WHAT REGAINING FULL CONTROL OF SCHOOLS MEANS FOR THE PEOPLE OF NEWARK

Students will be counting on us — the parents, residents, teachers, and leaders — to create a school environment that prepares them to succeed as adults

Shanell Dunns

Since 1995, the state of New Jersey has held full control of our local schools. The state has chosen our leaders, managed our school district, and drafted our school policies — leaving many residents who use the school system feeling voiceless in decision-making that impacts their very own neighborhood.

The announcement that full control will return to Newark through elected school board officials and the mayor’s office is a chance for us to have a say in the future of our students once again. The transition should be complete by the 2017-2018 school year and will give people invested in local school performance more open access to school district leadership.

Taking back local control of our schools is great news. It’s something Newark has been fighting to regain for years. But it also means the responsibility for improving the performance of our schools falls on our shoulders, and that’s a responsibility we can’t take lightly. Students are counting on us — the parents, residents, teachers, and leaders — to do what’s in our power to create a school environment that prepares them to succeed as adults.

The big question is — How? How are we going to initiate a transition that will benefit our students?

First, we must always focus on the quality and experience of the candidates we appoint to school administration. We need to choose leaders who have the right skills for the job at hand such as experience managing a billion dollar budget and engaging directly with the Newark community. We must also be open to shake-ups in leadership and willing to embrace new talent when necessary. Our current administration has discussed the importance of having qualified people sit on the board which is a sign that we’re moving forward in the right direction.

Next on the list is taking the time to develop teachers and to create an engaging curriculum to improve attendance and graduation rates. The purpose of our school system is to encourage graduation and usher students into college or careers. Although test scores over the past 21 years have increased slightly under state control, our schools still suffer from chronic absenteeism. When control returns to our hands, we need to pay close attention to factors causing students to become disengaged or unable to attend school.

Aside from leadership responsibilities, Newark residents and parents hold power during this transition as well. Your voices need to be heard. Instead of the transition happening to us, our thoughts and ideas need to be included in the planning process. If you’ve previously felt silenced, the transfer of administrative control is the call to get involved once again. This means voting, participating in discussions about local education, and promoting literacy in your neighborhood.

For support, parents and guardians should turn to their community organizations and political leadership for resources and guidance. Organizations like the Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO) advocate on behalf of families in Newark. Ultimately, the goal is to educate parents from underserved neighborhoods and Op-Ed: What Regaining Full Control of Schools Means for the People of Newark - NJ Spotlight:

Teachers of color: Student diversity is up but not educators | ABC10.com

Teachers of color: Student diversity is up but not educators | ABC10.com:

Teachers of color: Student diversity is up but not educators

As an African-American teacher, David Joiner is a rarity in education. Growing up in Louisiana, Joiner said he didn’t see many teachers who looked like him. Instead, he saw what many students see: a teaching workforce that has not kept up with the ever-changing diversity of the classroom.

Despite studies that show students of color prefer teachers who share similar backgrounds, Joiner is part of just four percent of African-American teachers in both Sacramento and California, according to data compiled by ABC10 from the California Department of Education.

“I know it’s difficult for a lot of kids to connect with teachers when you don’t really have teachers that look like you in the classroom,” Joiner told ABC10. “So I thought that, you know, teaching could be something that I could really impact a lot of kids with.”

Joiner works at Sacramento City Unified School District’s Accelerated Academy, a credit recovery program for students who, for various reasons, have fallen behind their peers.

Last year, Joiner, a recent graduate of Grambling State University, was one of six African-American teachers recently recruited from Historically Black Colleges or Universities (HBCU) by SCUSD as part of the district’s efforts to fill teaching vacancies and increase diversity at the same time.

The district, like many others in the state, are hiring more teachers every year to adhere to policy that would make the student-teacher ratio in kindergarten to third grade classrooms 24 to one by the end of 2021.

According to Tiffany Smith-Simmons, a Human Resources Director with the SCUSD, the district wanted to reach that ratio sooner.

“About this time last year, I got curious,” Smith-Simmons explained. “I wanted to know howTeachers of color: Student diversity is up but not educators | ABC10.com:

School Asks Teachers To Take Down Pro-Diversity Posters, Saying They're 'Anti-Trump' | The Huffington Post

School Asks Teachers To Take Down Pro-Diversity Posters, Saying They're 'Anti-Trump' | The Huffington Post:

School Asks Teachers To Take Down Pro-Diversity Posters, Saying They’re ‘Anti-Trump’

Now, the students are fighting back.

WASHINGTON ― School administrators in a 93 percent white Maryland county recently asked high school teachers to take down pro-diversity posters from classrooms because they perceived them as “political” and “anti-Trump,” a school spokesperson told The Huffington Post.

Teachers at Westminster High School had put up the posters, which depicted Latina, Muslim and black women and were designed by Shepard Fairey, the artist who created the “Hope” posters featuring President Barack Obama in 2008. The women are rendered in patriotic colors, with messages like “We the people are greater than fear.” The teachers put up the posters as a “show of diversity,” said Carey Gaddis, a spokeswoman for Carroll County Public Schools.

At least one staff member complained about the posters, and the teachers were “asked to take them down because they were being perceived as anti-Trump by the administration,” Gaddis said.

After taking the posters down, the teachers were initially allowed to put them up again. But the administration did some further investigation online and determined that the posters could be seen as political. The school does not allow teachers to put up political posters in their classrooms “unless it’s part of a curriculum and they represent both sides,” Gaddis said. (The story was first reported by the Carroll County Times.)

President Donald Trump took office vowing to crack down on immigration and ban Muslims from traveling to the United States, promises that he has already tried to fulfill. His administration is also stacked with anti-immigration hard-liners, and his campaign won early support from prominent white nationalists, whom Trump has unconvincingly sought to disavow.

The art recognizes groups that may feel marginalized under the Trump administration. But it is “definitely NOT anti-Trump in nature,” said Aaron Huey, a photojournalist whose organization collaborated with Fairey on the posters.

Fairey told HuffPost in an emailed statement that the idea behind the “We the People” campaign is that, “equality, respect, and religious freedom are unassailable American values and non-partisan.” He added, “I find it very disturbing that someone could find those ideas specifically, and by extension inclusion in general, to be partisan or problematic.” 

The campaign was intentionally designed not to refer to any president or political party, according to Huey. “Anyone who believes that these messages are dangerous or divisive needs to check themselves,” he said.

Carroll County’s school system has struggled to attract more diverse staff, according to a report filed with the school board last year, and only about 4 percent of its employees identify as minorities. Jim Doolan, who was board president at the time, told the Carroll School Asks Teachers To Take Down Pro-Diversity Posters, Saying They're 'Anti-Trump' | The Huffington Post:

NYC Educator: Fordham U and Me

NYC Educator: Fordham U and Me:

Fordham U and Me

Last night I was honored to be included in a panel at Fordham University discussing mostly the welfare of our students. There was great discussion from both the panelists and the audience. In retrospect, it probably would've been smarter to write about this before it happened so more people would know about it. But better late than never.

I had an interesting experience in listening to a Leadership Academy Principal who seemed passionate and sensible. He started to talk about how the system was designed for adults rather than children. I was thinking about disagreeing when he gave examples that kind of turned my head around. He said his teachers had a lot of trouble parking and it affected their jobs because they had to focus on nonsense rather than what they needed to do. It was the first time I heard that line used with explanations that actually supported working teachers.

A man in the audience complained that teachers used to call him when necessary, but now they called him all the time for no reason at all. Several of us on the panel were able to explain that teachers were now required to do parental contact, and that it was entirely possible they were sitting around on Tuesday Teacher Torture forced to make calls whether they were needed or not.

There were several questions about what we could do to change the system. Moderator Mark Naison made a plea for being crazy, and actually asked the students who the craziest teacher they knew was. I was struck by this, because I always pride myself on being the craziest teacher my students know. But I also believed that being crazy was a great motivating factor. It's what's helped me to help my school in a number of ways. You also have to be crazy to run for chapter leader. You have to be crazy to oppose the Unity Caucus. You have to be crazy to love your job no matter what the geniuses in Tweed, Albany, and DC toss at you.

There was also a lot of talk about overcoming fear and perhaps placing your job at risk. I don't know exactly when I stopped being afraid. When I first started this blog it was anonymous. I later started writing elsewhere under my real name. At some point I realized it didn't really make any difference. Maybe it was the day my principal walked up to NYC Educator: Fordham U and Me:

Clueless Betsy DeVos Blames School Teachers, Doesn’t Get that Test-and-Punish Is Core Problem | janresseger

Clueless Betsy DeVos Blames School Teachers, Doesn’t Get that Test-and-Punish Is Core Problem | janresseger:

Clueless Betsy DeVos Blames School Teachers, Doesn’t Get that Test-and-Punish Is Core Problem

After our new U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos visited a Washington, D.C. middle school last week, she insulted the teachers there.  She said the teachers were “in receive mode,” and continued: “’They’re waiting to be told what they have to do, and that’s not going to bring success to an individual child,’ DeVos told a columnist for the conservative online publication Townhall. ‘You have to have teachers who are empowered to facilitate great teaching.’”

Let me point out that I have not noticed this “receive mode” among the teachers I know here in Ohio. Just last week Melissa Cropper, President of the Ohio Federation of Teachers (OFT), sent out a call for “activism now.”

Ohio requires far more testing than the annual test that was mandated by No Child Left Behind.  The new Every Student Succeeds Act  offers a way for states to develop their own accountability plans and a way to reduce—at least somewhat—over-reliance on test-and-punish.  Cropper is protesting the inaction of the Ohio Department of Education, which has just provided evidence that it will ignore the opportunity for states to have more latitude for shaping their plans for educational accountability rather than just have punitive sanctions imposed on them by the federal government. Patrick O’Donnell of the Plain Dealer reports: “Ohio’s proposed new state education plan under ESSA… avoids making any changes in state tests or even any recommendations, despite complaints of excessive testing of students dominating surveys and feedback sessions across the state.”  O’Donnell adds that Ohio’s draft plan isn’t final.

Cropper castigates the draft plan: “This plan is devoid of an overall vision for education and Clueless Betsy DeVos Blames School Teachers, Doesn’t Get that Test-and-Punish Is Core Problem | janresseger:

 

Data driving me crazy. | Fred Klonsky

Data driving me crazy. | Fred Klonsky:

Data driving me crazy.

As an artist and retired art teacher I believe that classrooms, like all the built environment, should reflect good design principles.

But what are those?

A tweet by Michael Antonucci intrigued me.

 Follow

Mike Antonucci @UnionReport74

Is Your Classroom Overdecorated? http://www.eiaonline.com/intercepts/2017/02/21/is-your-classroom-overdecorated/ …

9:52 AM - 21 Feb 2017

 
•  Retweets
 
•  likes

Some of you may know Antonucci as a guy obsessed by teacher unions and a writer on the same topic. As you might guess, he is critical of the NEA. Not like I’m critical. I believe in the value of teacher unions. He thinks they are an assault on individual liberty. We have met a few times at NEA national meetings, which he covers for his web site and other outlets. I enjoyed our conversations even though we rarely agreed on the main stuff.

Antonucci rarely gets into teaching practice which is why I was intrigued by the tweet.

I went to the source.

Two researchers at Carnegie Mellon did a funded research study comparing test success in a sparsely decorated classroom as compared to highly decorated classroom.

Students did better in a sparsely decorated classroom.

You can see the picture of the sparsely decorated classroom in the video. It Data driving me crazy. | Fred Klonsky:

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: More on Betsy DeVos' love affair with Florida's charter school system

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: More on Betsy DeVos' love affair with Florida's charter school system:

More on Betsy DeVos' love affair with Florida's charter school system

Here's a follow-up on yesterday's post about Betsy DeVos' love affair with Florida's "choice" system, a system of charters and vouchers that she's practically paid for. DeVos recently named Florida's "choice" system as her "model" or "blueprint" for the rest of the country. Republicans are currently drafting legislation that would take the state's tax-credit (voucher) system nation wide.

But a closer look at that system exposes it as part of the problem rather than a solution for failed schools.

Let's start with DeVos' faulty premise that school vouchers (tax credits to pay for private and religious school tuition) and the state's vast network of privately-owned charters are needed as escape routes from the state's "failing" public schools.

Failing schools in Florida's racially-segregated school system, means those schools graded F, based on student FCAT scores. Since those standardized test scores correlate more with concentrated poverty that anything going on in the classrooms, "failing" has become a code word for poor, black or Latino. The A-F grading system in turn, drives the state's real estate market, pushing up home prices around high-scoring schools and reinforcing segregation in both schools and housing.

Sociologists call it social-reproduction, a system that replicates and widens racial and class Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: More on Betsy DeVos' love affair with Florida's charter school system:

Louisiana Research: When Tenure Ends, Teachers Leave. | deutsch29

Louisiana Research: When Tenure Ends, Teachers Leave. | deutsch29:

Louisiana Research: When Tenure Ends, Teachers Leave.

In 2012, the Louisiana legislature passed Act 1, commonly known as the “teacher tenure law.” Moreover, the Louisiana State Department of Education (LDOE) has translated Act 1 into an evaluation system whereby 50 percent of a teacher’s evaluation is connected to “student learning”– the bottom line of which is student test score outcomes.

Act 1 began in 2012 as House Bill 974. The reason it is called Act 1 is that the 2012 Louisiana legislature rammed it though as the first act, with calculated speed, amid an atmosphere dripping with then-Governor Bobby Jindal’s business-and-industry-backed intention to bring “accountability” in the evaluating of the state’s teachers.

Once 2012 hit, Louisiana teachers began considering how and when to leave the profession. And each year beginning with 2012, Louisiana’s teacher workforce has experienced a noticeable exit of many experienced, seasoned teachers who otherwise would not have likely chosen to leave the profession so soon.

Thus, it comes as no surprise to me that a February 22, 2017, study by the Education Research Alliance (ERA) for New Orleans has found that based on teacher data from 2005 to 2012, Louisiana teachers did indeed begin leaving at a more notable rate, with those retirement-eligible comprising the greatest number of exiters.

Having 25+ years of employment, this group also happened to be the most experienced.

Moreover, it should come as no surprise that schools graded “F” lost the highest number of teachers in the post-Act-1 exit.

And the zinger, to quote from the study:

Though we cannot address the effects of this policy change on its main target, teacher quality, these effects on turnover rates are important in themselves. [Emphasis added.]

In short, the foolish assault on teachers and the asinine practice of trying to measure their worth in the lives of their students, schools, and communities via idolized test score gains has produced the critical side effect of crippling the teacher work force– with a built-in incentive for districts to hire cheaper, less experienced replacements– if they can continue to find them.

From the study discussion:

Our estimates suggest that the tenure reform is responsible for the exit of 1,500 to 1,700 teachers in the first two years after the removal of tenure 

Louisiana Research: When Tenure Ends, Teachers Leave. | deutsch29:

Population Puzzle Problems Beyond Kasich Razzle Dazzle:

Population Puzzle Problems Beyond Kasich Razzle Dazzle

Ohio’s 69th governor has left the state again, this time to hop the pond for a few days to schmooze with German and English businesses. Odds are slim that the 64-year old supply side governor will learn anything about how important unions are to German companies.

Called co-determination, it’s not uncommon in Germany for unions to hold seats on corporate boards, which helps explain why German union workers have such high wages compared to American unions which are routinely denigrated by Republican governors like Mr. Kasich, who may have a chance to sign a right-to-work bill that guts union power in Ohio. Right-to-work allow workers to opt out of paying union dues or fees.

The collapsed Catholic boy from Pennsylvania wants another shot at telling a rarified business audience just how cool Ohio is before he wanders off the political stage in two years when his second term as CEO ends.

Gov. John Kasich spent many months in 2016 traveling to states other than Ohio to sell himself to Republican primary voters as a candidate for president. But those voters weren’t buying what the performance politician had to sell, which a Toledo Blade editorial aptly noted couldn’t out poll “none of the above.”

JobsOhio will cover the travel tab for Kasich and a few aides, even though the group is thought by many to be unconstitutional. Ohio’s Republican-controlled supreme court performed a great service to the governor by keeping JobsOhio from facing any constitutional test. The costs of Kasich’s trip overseas, unlike the millions spent on protection costs while he was campaigning for president, must be disclosed to the public at some point, in spite of JobsOhio’s structure that protects it from normal public records laws.

7th Worse State For Business

For all his budgeting and management razzle dazzle, Ohio has been stuck in low gear throughout the six-plus years of Kasich’s tenure as governor. His often ballyhooed claim about Ohio’s new business-friendly attitude took a big hit with the announcement by 24/7 Wall St. that the Buckeye State ranks seventh this year in “Worst States for Business,” largely based on the state’s shrinking working-age population.

Ohio’s workforce has been shrinking as the governor can’t produce enough jobs Population Puzzle Problems Beyond Kasich Razzle Dazzle:

 

W.E.B. DuBois and Dual Consciousness For Teachers of Color | The Jose Vilson

W.E.B. DuBois and Dual Consciousness For Teachers of Color | The Jose Vilson:

W.E.B. DuBois and Dual Consciousness For Teachers of Color

In The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. DuBois posits:

It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his two-ness,—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.

DuBois left nuggets for decades on end, many of them still consumable to present-day. Conversations around codeswitching and multiculturalism come full circle for people of color in this country. In order to survive the schooling system in this country, they must work tirelessly to hold onto their home cultures and snap back into what the schooling process requires. In college, we’re asked to let our guards down, but the seduction of looser schedules and the ivory tower aesthetic only serve to remind so many of us that we have no stake in the institutions we hope will recognize our credentials.

What’s more, a handful of us are then allowed to become the teachers charged with carrying this discordant ideology forward, usually to students who look like us and share similar cultures, a generation removed.

People often ask, “What, to America, is a teacher of color?” There have been plenty of studies in the last few years suggesting a level of desire for recruiting teachers of color. So far, I have respected the efforts of local and national W.E.B. DuBois and Dual Consciousness For Teachers of Color | The Jose Vilson:

Bad News for the Office for Civil Rights and the Students It Serves? - Education Law Prof Blog

Education Law Prof Blog:

Bad News for the Office for Civil Rights and the Students It Serves?

A Chronicle of Higher Education story indicates the likely nominee for the Assistant Secretary for the Office for Civil Rights will be Gail Heroit, who may take the Office in an entirely new direction.  As discussed here and here, the Office has recently done incredible work.  It seems that the task of the new Assistant Secretary is to undo substantial portions of it.  The Chronicle writes:

Leading conservative activists are predicting that the Trump administration will put a prominent critic of the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights in charge of it, to scale back its efforts.

Although the White House has yet to tip its hand on its pick as the department’s assistant secretary for civil rights, speculation among plugged-in Republicans whose views have influenced other cabinet picks centers on two well-known conservative figures: Gail Heriot and Peter N. Kirsanow. Both Ms. Heriot and Mr. Kirsanow are members of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights who recently have accused the department of overreach in dealing with sexual assault and the rights of transgender students on college campuses. Both also have been vocal critics of colleges’ consideration of race in admissions and student housing.

Of the two, Ms. Heriot, a professor of law at the University of San Diego, may be most likely to get the nomination. That’s partly because Mr. Kirsanow, a labor lawyer in Cleveland, has a broad background that places him in the running for an array of other federal positions. That Ms. Heriot is a woman also could work in her favor, as the Trump administration might see her sex as giving her a measure of political cover in carrying out one of its top priorities for the civil-rights office — reducing the office’s guidance on Title IX, the federal gender-equity law.

More than 240 activists and college faculty members, nearly all conservative or traditionalist in their views, have joined the National Association of Scholars and six other organizations in sending Trump-administration officials a letter endorsing Ms. Heriot as assistant secretary.Education Law Prof Blog:

Wisdom from the Sage of Mount Vernon – Live Long and Prosper

Wisdom from the Sage of Mount Vernon – Live Long and Prosper:

Wisdom from the Sage of Mount Vernon

Words of wisdom appropriate to our time.

…from George Washington, America’s first President, on the occasion of his 285 birthday.

ON EDUCATION

“A primary object should be the education of our youth in the science of government. In a republic, what species of knowledge can be equally important? And what duty more pressing than communicating it to those who are to be the future guardians of the liberties of the country?”
– Eighth Annual Message, December 7, 1796

“There is nothing which can better deserve our patronage than the promotion of science and literature. Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness.”
– First Annual Message to Congress on the State of the Union, January 8, 1790

ON PATRIOTISM AND CAUTION

“Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.”
– Farewell Address, Sep. 17, 1796

ON THE CURRENT CABINET

“Associate yourself with men of good quality, if you esteem your own reputation; for ‘tis better to be alone than in bad company.”
– Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation

ON BLAMING OTHERS

While we are contending for our own liberty, we should be very cautious not to violate the rights of conscience in others, ever considering that God alone is the judge of the hearts of men, and to him only in this case they are answerable.
– letter to Benedict Arnold, Sep. 14, 1775

ON THE EXPECTATIONS OF LEADERSWisdom from the Sage of Mount Vernon – Live Long and Prosper:

Feds won't file charges after investigation of LAUSD iPad program | 89.3 KPCC

Feds won't file charges after investigation of LAUSD iPad program | 89.3 KPCC:

Feds won't file charges after investigation of LAUSD iPad program
Federal investigators have closed their inquiry into the Los Angeles Unified School District's troubled iPad program without charging any of the current or former district officials involved, according to a statement from the head attorney for the school system.

The decision ends a probe that officially opened in 2014 — within months of a KPCC investigation —into L.A. Unified officials' troubled $1.3 billion attempt to supply every student in the nation's second-largest school district with a tablet computer.

"Since then, the District had been fully cooperating with the federal government’s investigation," read the statement from L.A. Unified attorney David Holmquist.

(Related: 'LAUSD iPads: Timeline of a troubled program')

The iPad effort was the brainchild of former L.A. Unified Superintendent John Deasy, who saw the marriage of Apple technology and software developed by publishing giant Pearson as a new opportunity for students to learn. In 2013, with officials estimating the effort would cost around $500 million, L.A. school board members gave the program the green light.

But many L.A. residents balked at the program's ballooning cost. For example, original projections did not take into account how much it would cost to equip every school with the wireless internet needed to operate the iPads. 

The district purchased the iPads using bond dollars, which left some voters, who felt they had been approving bond measures to build new classrooms to relieve overcrowding, feeling misled.

It also became clear the Pearson software pre-loaded on the iPads wasn’t even finished. A KPCC investigation, published in Aug. 2014, revealed Deasy had close Feds won't file charges after investigation of LAUSD iPad program | 89.3 KPCC:

Actions Speak Louder than Words – Have You Heard

Actions Speak Louder than Words – Have You Heard:

Actions Speak Louder than Words

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos says she wants to empower teachers to make them great. Detroit teacher Stephanie Griffin isn’t buying it… 

By Stephanie Griffin
When teachers in Detroit organized sick-outs last year, we weren’t in *receive mode,* as Betsy DeVos would say, waiting to be told what to do. The protests came about because no one would listen: not the school district, not our union, not our political representatives, and not the state that has been running the Detroit Public Schools for nearly two decades, during which conditions for teachers and students have gotten progressively worse. And our protests weren’t *sponsored and carefully planned.* My school, Cass Tech, is one of the best schools in the city, but teachers here believe in solidarity, and we knew that our only hope of drawing attention to the plight of teachers and students in Detroit was to join the protests. So we joined in, along with teachers from 90 other schools, and we ended up getting national attention.

After teachers at the Washington DC school Betsy DeVos visited last week challenged her depiction of them, she clarified her remarks and tried to paint herself as a champion of teacher voice and empowerment. Don’t believe it for a minute. DeVos is a champion of diminishing teacher voice and above all, weakening teacher unions. That’s why the politicians she funds were so quick to try to take teacher certification from teachers who participated in the *sick outs.* Public school teachers still have unions, which means you can’t just run roughshod over them. If DeVos and her allies can’t take our unions away from us, what they can do is try to come up with new ways to silence us. What teacher who loses his or her certification is going to choose to remain in the profession?

As for DeVos claiming she just wants to empower teachers, don’t believe that either. The goal is to have teachers who do what they’re told to do, even when the directives don’t make sense. They want robots. In the charter schools that DeVos wants more of, teachers are overwhelmingly *at will* employees, meaning that they can be dismissed for any reason, including Actions Speak Louder than Words – Have You Heard: