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Friday, June 20, 2014

Geaux Teacher!: Revisiting LDOE "Crimes and Misdemeanors"

Geaux Teacher!: Revisiting LDOE "Crimes and Misdemeanors":



Revisiting LDOE "Crimes and Misdemeanors"




In the aftermath of Governor Jindal's proclamation that John White/LDOE/BESE must halt their intention to contract for PARCC assessments, and in light of his additional announcement that LDOE contracts and procedures will be audited, I returned to past concerns that I have expressed regarding  what I consider to be a most important problem - the calculation of school performance scores. 

School Performance Scores are calculated by a metric controlled solely by John White.  White has been accused of manipulating those calculations for several years.  SPS scores have monetary consequences for schools and involve both federal and state taxpayer dollars.  It is inconceivable to me that warnings and pleas by me and several other Louisiana teachers, backed up with evidence, have been ignored by all parties noted.  

Here is one example of circumstances I encountered back in January of 2013.  You decide if this doesn't represent a clear violation of trust. John White has threatened legal action (paid for with taxpayer money and education dollars) if Gov. Jindal follows through on his proclamation to halt PARCC.  I hope he does push his luck so that the truth can be revealed during those proceedings.  I really can't imagine that White would be that foolish.  

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Jan. 12, 2013 Letter I sent to all district superintendents 


Ladies and Gentlemen:
Tuesday, Jan. 8,  I attended the Superintendents' Advisory Council meeting in Baton Rouge.  Superintendent John White presented and discussed two documents as per the agenda. http://www.boarddocs.com/la/bese/Board.nsf/files/93QSAP713F3C/$file/SAC_Agenda_0113.pdf
Prior to that meeting, I sent you several documents representing analyses of the Louisiana VAM as used for COMPASS, SPS score inflation, and scoring bias authored by Dr. Mercedes Schneider and Herbert Bassett.  I and others present at the SAC meeting had expected to offer valuable testimony regarding Supt. White's proposals for "adjustments" to COMPASS and SPS calculation. 
Unfortunately, Chairman Faulk refused to accept public testimony as required by the state public meetings laws. http://www.boarddocs.com/la/bese/Board.nsf/files/93QSAP713F3C/$file/SAC_Agenda_0113.pdf   As a result, SAC "received" the documents and they will be considered this Tuesday at the BESE meeting.  
After the SAC meeting I requested, in person at Supt. White's office,  copies of the two documents (PowerPts) as  presented by Supt. White at the meeting.  None was proferred.  I followed up by immediately filing a FOIA with LDE.  In spite of repeated requests, I have been denied access to these public documents.

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Ms. Barrios,
Please be advised that the requested documents are not final and are shared with SAC in anticipation of the final versions Geaux Teacher!: Revisiting LDOE "Crimes and Misdemeanors":


Jindal Takes Action to Stop Common Core
Re posted from Mike Deshotel's blog:Louisiana EducatorJindal Takes Action to Stop Common CorePosted: 19 Jun 2014 11:57 AM PDTGovernor Jindal took several executive actions Wednesday, June 18 to pull Louisiana out of the Common Core State Standards. This included a challenge to the legality of the state contract for PARCC testing which he states was done in violation of the competitive bidding law,