Friday, March 12, 2010

Both sides agree to delay in L. Merion computer case | Philadelphia Inquirer | 03/11/2010

Both sides agree to delay in L. Merion computer case

By Joseph Tanfani

Inquirer Staff Writer

The parents of the high school sophomore captured on a school laptop's Web cam have agreed to a delay in their legal fight against the Lower Merion School District, signaling a possible quick settlement of the dispute.

Lawyers for the school and the family yesterday agreed to freeze the case for 30 days while computer experts from both sides determine how often the school used the remote tracking software, and how many students were photographed.

"The parties are hopeful that this information will enable an expeditious and cost-effective resolution of this action," said the order, signed yesterday by U.S. District Judge Jan E. DuBois.

The order also makes it easier for school officials to make statements about the case, and to update the software on the school-issued Apple laptops.

"The goal is to reach an outcome that benefits the families and taxpayers of Lower Merion," said school spokesman Douglas Young.

Mark S. Haltzman, attorney for 15-year-old Blake Robbins and his parents, said the family's goal was only to find out how many times the district used the software and to put in new safeguards. "After that, we'll be able to work with the school district [on] a resolution that makes sense," he said. "The Robbins family, like everybody else, is concerned. They don't want the school district wasting money in litigation when it's not necessary."

The Robbins family filed suit last month, saying the school violated the boy's privacy by triggering remote tracking software to snap his picture and capture an image of his computer screen.

The school's technical staff turned over the images to the administration. An assistant principal confronted Blake Robbins in November, in part because of an image of him holding something that looked like pills, according to the family. The teenager said it was candy.

District officials maintain they turned on the software not to spy on him, but because Robbins was taking home a laptop without paying the required $55 insurance fee.

After the suit, the district said it had turned on the software 42 times this school year, but only to find lost or stolen laptops. It said it recovered 18.

School officials promised to quit using the theft-tracking feature and acknowledged that they made a mistake when they failed to put students and parents on notice about it.

Since then, the district has hired the law firm of Ballard Spahr and the computer-forensics firm L3 to conduct an internal investigation. Meanwhile, the two technical employees authorized to turn on the software have been placed on paid leave, though the district says there is no sign they did anything wrong.

Phila. principal defended; cartoon denounced | Philadelphia Inquirer | 03/11/2010

Phila. principal defended; cartoon denounced

By Kristen A. Graham

Inquirer Staff Writer

In strong terms, a broad coalition of supporters publicly championed controversial South Philadelphia High School principal LaGreta Brown yesterday. Brown also spoke out for the first time, defending her leadership.

Many of the 10 who spoke before the School Reform Commission also denounced an Inquirer editorial cartoon that portrayed Brown as asleep behind her desk while the school was in turmoil.
The work by Inquirer editorial cartoonist Tony Auth appeared Tuesday. The cartoon commented on a story Sunday that described the school's leadership as having been in disarray on Dec. 3, when Asian students were beaten in a series of racially motivated attacks.
The attacks drew attention from the city and state human relations commissions, and spurred a federal civil rights complaint.
J. Whyatt Mondesire, head of the Philadelphia chapter of the NAACP, called the cartoon "disgusting. It is a lie. It is offensive. The Inquirer should be ashamed of what it did to Mrs. Brown."
Michael Lerner, the head of the city's principals union, said the cartoon was "a cheap shot" at a "dedicated educator."
"In his drawing, the cartoonist, Tony Auth, has suggested the most simplistic explanation of an unbelievably complex situation, a problem that has existed at South Philadelphia High School for years," said Lerner, leader of the local chapter of the Commonwealth Association of School Administrators.
Auth said his cartoon responded to news coverage portraying "confusion and strained communications and inept behaviors that were going on that day on the part of school administrators."
Harold Jackson, editor of the editorial page, said "the cartoons are Tony's point of view - they don't necessarily represent the views of the Editorial Board." Auth is a member of the board.
Brian P. Tierney, publisher of The Inquirer, said Auth was doing his job in commenting on the day's events and drawing strong reactions, positive and negative.
Sometimes he has agreed with Auth's cartoons and sometimes he hasn't, Tierney said, "but I've always respected where Tony's coming from. He is one of the greatest cartoonists in America."
Tierney went on to say of the Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, "In a battle of credibility between Jerry Mondesire and Tony Auth, I'm going to go with Tony Auth all the time."
Mondesire - who also publishes a weekly newspaper, the Philadelphia Sunday Sun, and is a former

Texas educators take aim at ‘left-wing’ curriculum with opt-out plans - Times Online

Texas educators take aim at ‘left-wing’ curriculum with opt-out plans

The late Charlton Heston, a vociferous president of the National Rifle Association, which could become compulsory study

Giles Whittell, Washington

Higher Ed job security bill meets unexpected opposition

Higher Ed job security bill meets unexpected opposition

March 11, 8:17 PM

Chico Continuing Education Examiner

Pamela Hanford

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Robert Yoshioka, CPFA Legislative Analyst

David Milroy

A bill which costs the state and the taxpayers nothing and is so innocuous that none of its sponsors would have imagined any opposition at all now faces criticism from an unexpected source.

AB 1807, the part-time faculty job security bill which was composed by and vetted via representatives from every faculty group in California**, now may find opposition from the Community College League: a group of college trustees, administrators, and district CEO's.

Scheduled for hearing before the Assembly Higher Education Committee on March 16th, the bill was so carefully crafted that most insiders considered its passage a slam dunk.

Now they're not so sure.

The CCL has murmured its discontent over several minor issues which have nothing to do with quality of education or student equity and everything to do with "convenience" for community college districts. These issues include a claim of hidden district "costs" related to maintaining a employment preference list, and a complaint that the bill is "too prescriptive."

Part-time faculty leaders who spent weeks crafting the bill gave extensive consideration to language, taking special note of most community college districts' continuing failure to comply with the California Education Code section 87482.9 regarding discussion of "annual reappointment rights" at the bargaining table.

"This issue has clearly been a matter of law since 2002, but the Ed Code failed to bring the issue home," says Robert Yoshioka, Legislative Analyst for CPFA.** "Districts are often happy to discuss the issue in order to comply with the law, but few remotely consider giving reappointment rights to

WORLD Magazine | Star power | Marvin Olasky | Mar 27, 10

Star power

Watch this poor California district and its reborn challenger | Marvin Olasky

HANDOUT

This year's campaign for Congress looks to be the liveliest since 1994's "Contract with America" explosion. And, unless she has a last-minute change of heart and mind, Star Parker, president of the Coalition on Urban Renewal and Education, is announcing this month her candidacy to represent a poor, heavily Democratic, majority-black congressional district just east and south of Los Angeles.

Parker, born in 1956, is a Republican who hasn't held political office before, but we joked last month that she had a ready reply if attacked on grounds of inexperience:You're wrong. I've stolen. I've lied. I know how to do wrong. Indeed she does. Drugs, armed robbery, four abortions: "I was very flirty and promiscuous, and several bouts with sexually transmitted diseases didn't stop me."

ARTICLE CONTINUES

USC Provost C.L. 'Max' Nikias to succeed Steven Sample as president - latimes.com

USC Provost C.L. 'Max' Nikias to succeed Steven Sample as president

Nikias, the second in command, will become the university's 11th president in August.

C. L. "Max" Nikias, 57, will succeed Steven B. Sample as USC president in August. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

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Profile of USC's next president

By Larry Gordon

March 12, 2010

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C. L. "Max" Nikias, USC's provost and second-in-command, will become its next president, succeeding Steven B. Sample on Aug. 3 at the helm of the 34,000-student university, school officials announced Thursday.

Nikias, a Cypriot-born electrical engineer with expertise in radar and sonar, was long mentioned as the leading candidate to become USC's 11th president, so much so that some trustees reportedly argued against conducting a national search. But the board went ahead, considering 75 other educators before returning to a man well-known and well-liked on campus.

A former dean of USC's school of engineering, Nikias, 57, said Thursday that he hopes to build on Sample's accomplishments, by intensifying fundraising efforts. He plans to announce, early on, a major campaign aimed at doubling USC's endowment in the next 10 years.

"It's not a change of direction but an acceleration," he said in an interview. "This university is on the ascent under President Sample for 19 years. We can move the needle and move this university into what I call the pantheon of undisputed elite universities." Among other goals, he said, was improving the academic standings of USC's medical school and hospitals.

He also said he plans to strengthen USC's already extensive ties to Asian nations and colleges, beyond the large number of Indian and Chinese graduate students the university enrolls. "Our vision is that we want USC to become the university of the Pacific Century, the intellectual and cultural center of this world tied to the Pacific Century," Nikias said, his Greek-Cypriot accent still

5 Bay Area schools off worst-in-state list

Jill Tucker, Chronicle Staff Writer

Friday, March 12, 2010

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Two San Francisco high schools were removed from the list of the 5 percent lowest-performing schools in the state Thursday - a welcome reprieve, but one that will cost them up to $6 million each.

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Burton and Thurgood Marshall academic high schools were dropped from the list after a California Board of Education vote Thursday allowing a technical change in how middle and high schools were chosen.

Of the 188 schools originally on the list released Monday, 37 were removed and replaced by 37 other schools, the vast majority in Southern California. The change leaves San Francisco with 10 district schools that are designated as among the worst in the state.

"I am completely euphoric," said Thurgood Marshall Principal Guillermo Morales, adding that his staff members cried when they learned earlier this week that they were on the list. "You take it very personally."

The schools on the state's final list will have to implement one of four drastic reform options: closure, conversion to a charter, replacement of the principal and half the staff, or a massive makeover starting with a new principal.

FAME School Gets Extension of Its Charter Despite Audit - NYTimes.com

FAME School Gets Extension of Its Charter Despite Audit

Brian L. Frank for The New York Times

Shikeba Mehmood, center, takes a break with her friends during recess at the FAME charter school, which serves many Muslim students.

By CAROL POGASH

Published: March 11, 2010

REPRINTS

A Fremont charter school that was the subject of a highly critical state audit will be allowed to operate, despite a continuing review by the Alameda County district attorney’s office.

This article is part of our expanded Bay Area coverage.

The Bay Area Blog features coverage of public affairs, commerce, culture and lifestyles in the region. We invite your comments atbayarea@nytimes.com.

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Jim Wilson/The New York Times

Maram Alaiwat, the director of FAME, has come under scrutiny.

The Alameda County Board of Education voted 5 to 0 Tuesday night, with two members absent, to extend the school’s charter for five years, regardless of the concerns expressed by the Alameda school superintendent that the school’s director may have engaged in unethical and inappropriate behavior.

Those facts, seemingly at odds, underscore the unusual status of charter schools. Intended as laboratories for educational innovation, they have broad latitude in many of their operations, and the authorities are often unclear or in disagreement about the extent of their oversight powers. The case of the FAME Public Charter School — its formal name is Families of Alameda for Multi-Cultural/Multi-Lingual Education — illustrates the bureaucratic no man’s land occupied by the schools.

Last year, state auditors pinpointed dozens of irregularities, including unusually high compensation of more than $336,663 for FAME’s director, Maram Alaiwat, for whom the school also bought a $75,000 Mercedes. In interviews with The New York Times, former employees have described a climate of intimidation punctuated by capricious firings, and a purchasing process so haphazard that textbook

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Friday, March 12, 2010