Monday, December 8, 2014

Has anyone seen anything like this? Charter requiring parents to pay $$$$ in lieu of required volunteer hours. In the words of Jerry McGuire:

Show me the money!

Apparently the California Charter School Association hasn’t heard of such a thing happening in practice or charter school policy, even though Public Advocates delivered the evidence to the public via parent whistleblowers and publicly available policy documents. Public Advocates’ report documented its year-long investigation into an inequitable and illegal practice by some of California’s charter schools, and calls for charter schools to end requiring payment in lieu of volunteer hours. Public Advocates is demanding that the state take immediate action to stop the practice and increase its oversight of charter schools more generally.

Of course we know that there are lots of bad apples in the charter movement. The way that charters have used to limit equity and access have been discussed extensively on Cloaking Inequity. (For all posts on charters click here). See for example Breaking News: Kevin Welner’s Charter School Dirty Dozen and Colonizing the Black Natives: Reflections from a former NOLA Charter School Dean of Students and Don’t Trust Charters More than a Sweaty Used Car Salesman (A Citizen Research Template) Do I believe that ALL charters are bad apples? No. For example see The Gem on the Hill: How to Create a Community-Based In-District Charter However, based on my peer reviewed research on charters over the past five years, I posit that Travis Heights is the exception, not the rule.

Back to Show me the Money!… The San Francisco Chronicle covered the Public Advocates report:

At least 170 California charter schools are violating the state Constitution by requiring parents to volunteer up to 100 hours a year if they want their kids to participate in field trips and other activities or remain enrolled in the school, according to civil rights lawyers in a report released Thursday.
A survey of 555 California charter schools — about half of all charters in the state — found that nearly a
Charters and $$$$: Has anyone seen anything like this? | Cloaking Inequity:

Sunday, December 7, 2014

TEN TEACHERS FROM ACROSS THE U.S. ANNOUNCED AS FINALISTS FOR SECOND ANNUAL MUSIC EDUCATOR AWARD

Grammy in the Schools:

TEN TEACHERS FROM ACROSS THE U.S. ANNOUNCED AS FINALISTS FOR SECOND ANNUAL MUSIC EDUCATOR AWARD™ PRESENTED BY

THE RECORDING ACADEMY^® AND THE GRAMMY FOUNDATION^®

Recipient and Finalists to Receive Cash Honorariums, with Generous Support and Resources Provided by the GRAMMY Foundation^®'s Education ChampionsConverse, Disney Performing Arts, Ford Motor Company Fund, and Journeys

Second Annual Award will be Presented at the Special Merit Awards Ceremony & Nominees Reception on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2015, during GRAMMY^® Week

WHO: A total of 10 music teachers from 10 cities across nine states have been announced as finalists for the second annual Music Educator Award™ presented by The Recording Academy^® and the GRAMMY Foundation^®. In total, more than 7,000 initial nominations were submitted from all 50 states.

WHAT: The Music Educator Award was established to recognize current educators (kindergarten through college, public and private schools) who have made a significant and lasting contribution to the field of music education and who demonstrate a commitment to the broader cause of maintaining music education in their schools. A joint partnership and presentation of The Recording Academy and the GRAMMY Foundation, this special award will be presented at the Special Merit Awards Ceremony & Nominees Reception (honoring recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award, Trustees Award and Technical GRAMMY^®Award) on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2015, during GRAMMY Week.

As announced on the 55th Annual GRAMMY Awards^® by President/CEO of The Recording Academy and GRAMMY Foundation Neil Portnow, TV and radio host/producer and GRAMMY Foundation Honorary Board Chair Ryan Seacrest, and nine-time GRAMMY winner Justin Timberlake, the award is open to current U.S. music teachers, and anyone could nominate a teacher — students, parents, friends, colleagues, community members, school deans, and administrators. Teachers are also able to nominate themselves, and nominated teachers are notified and invited to fill out an application.

Kent Knappenberger of Westfield Academy and Central School in Westfield, N.Y., was the recipient of the first annual Music Educator Award. Knappenberger was recognized during the 56th Annual GRAMMY Awards telecast in a segment featuring Portnow along with nine-time GRAMMY winner John Legend and Seacrest.

One recipient will be selected from 10 finalists each year, and will be recognized for his/her remarkable impact on students' lives. The 2015 winner will be flown to Los Angeles to accept the award, attend the 57th Annual GRAMMY Awards ceremony, and receive a $10,000 honorarium. The nine finalists will receive a $1,000 honorarium, and the schools of all 10 finalists also will receive matching grants. The honorariums and grants provided to the finalists and schools are made possible by the generosity and support of the GRAMMY Foundation's Education Champions Converse, Disney Performing Arts, Ford Motor Company Fund, and Journeys.

WHEN: A complete list of finalists is below. The winner will be announced in February. Applications for the second annual Music Educator Award are currently online; to nominate a teacher, visit GRAMMYMusicTeacher.com. The deadline to nominate a teacher for the 2016 Music Educator Award is March 15, 2015. The application process will adjust each year to allow the broad array of effective teaching styles and methods used in the discipline to be recognized and awarded.

First Name Last Name School City State

Steven Acciani Diamond Bar High School Diamond Bar CA

William Bennett Cane Bay High School Summerville SC

Jared Cassedy Windham High School Windham NH

Charles Cushinery Ed W. Clark High School Las Vegas NV

Krista Fanning Caddo Middle Magnet Shreveport LA

Richard Maxwell Arcadia High School Phoenix AZ

Debra Reilly Springhouse/Orefield Middle Schools Allentown PA

Huber Smith Maplewood Middle School Sulphur LA

Nancie Tobison Barrington High School Barrington IL

Danny Yancey Martin Gifted & Talented Magnet School Raleigh NC

Established in 1957, The Recording Academy is an organization of musicians, songwriters, producers, engineers and recording professionals that is dedicated to improving the cultural condition and quality of life for music and its makers. Internationally known for the GRAMMY Awards — the preeminent peer-recognized award for musical excellence and the most credible brand in music — The Recording Academy is responsible for groundbreaking professional development, cultural enrichment, advocacy, education and human services programs. The Academy continues to focus on its mission of recognizing musical excellence, advocating for the well-being of music makers and ensuring music remains an indelible part of our culture. For more information about The Academy, please visit www.grammy.com. For breaking news and exclusive content, follow @TheGRAMMYs onTwitter, like "The GRAMMYs" on Facebook, and join the GRAMMYs' social communities on Foursquare, GetGlue, Google +, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, and YouTube.

The GRAMMY Foundation was established in 1988 to cultivate the understanding, appreciation and advancement of the contribution of recorded music to American culture. The Foundation accomplishes this mission through programs and activities that engage the music industry and cultural community as well as the general public. The Foundation works in partnership year-round with its founder, The Recording Academy, to bring national attention to important issues such as the value and impact of music and arts education and the urgency of preserving our rich cultural heritage. In recognition of the significant role of teachers in shaping their students' musical experiences, The Recording Academy and the GRAMMY Foundation partnered to present their first Music Educator Award in 2014. Open to current U.S. music teachers in kindergarten through college, the second annual Music Educator Award will be presented at the Special Merit Awards Ceremony & Nominees Reception during GRAMMY Week 2015. For more information about the Music Educator Award, please visit GRAMMYMusicTeacher.com. For more information about the Foundation, please visit www.grammyfoundation.org. For breaking news and exclusive content, please like "GRAMMY in the Schools^®" on Facebook, follow the GRAMMY Foundation on Twitter (@GRAMMYFdn) and join us on Instagram (@GRAMMYFdn).

Converse Inc., based in N. Andover, Massachusetts, is a wholly owned subsidiary of NIKE, Inc. Established in 1908, the Converse brand has built a reputation as "America's Original Sports Company"^™ and has been associated with a rich heritage of legendary shoes such as the Chuck Taylor^® All Star^® shoe, the Jack Purcell^® shoe and the One Star^®shoe. Today, Converse offers a diverse portfolio including lifestyle men's, women's and children's footwear, apparel and accessories. Converse product is sold globally by retailers in over 160 countries and through 87 company-owned retail locations in the U.S. For more information, visit Media.Converse.com.

Disney Performing Arts unlocks student potential and helps young people make their own dreams come true — whether it's performing in front of an international audience of thousands at Disney theme parks and resorts or honing their craft in enriching workshops and clinics taught by entertainment professionals. Every year, thousands of vocal, instrumental, and other ensembles travel from around the world to participate in Disney Performing Arts programs at the Disneyland Resort in Southern California and the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. Disney delivers workshops and performance opportunities that enrich, inspire and often lead to life-changing personal achievement.

Ford Motor Company Fund & Community Services works with community partners to advance driving safety, education and community life. For more than 60 years, Ford Motor Company Fund has operated with ongoing funding from Ford Motor Company. The award-winning Ford Driving Skills for Life program teaches new drivers through a variety of hands-on and interactive methods. Innovation in education is encouraged through national programs that enhance high school learning and provide college scholarships and university grants. Through the Ford Volunteer Corps, more than 25,000 Ford employees and dealers work on projects each year that better their communities in more than 30 countries. For more information, visit www.community.ford.com.

Drive 4 UR School was developed as a fun, efficient way to help high schools raise money to support their sports and extracurricular activities while engaging with Ford vehicles. Ford dealerships partner with a local high school to conduct a test-drive fundraising event. For every valid test-drive completed, Ford Motor Company donates $20 to the participating high school, up to $6,000. Since 2007, Ford has donated nearly $25 million to high schools nationwide.

Journeys is a leader in the teen specialty retail scene, with more than 800 stores in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Canada. Journeys uses fashion savvy and merchandising science to keep in step with the fast-paced footwear and accessories market for 13- to 22-year-old guys and girls. Journeys offers a wide variety of trendy, relevant brands that cater to teens that seek the hottest, new styles. However, the Journeys store is more than a retail environment — it's an extension of the teen lifestyle. From the plasma TVs playing exclusive content and the latest music videos, to the visual merchandising strategy and promotions, to the employees whose image and style reflect the customers' lifestyle and attitude. In addition, Journeys reaches its customers through www.journeys.com, a mobile website, catalog, national advertising, strategic cross-promotions, social media and grass-roots events like the Noise Tour. Journeys — An Attitude You Can Wear! Journeys is a division of Genesco Inc.

Teachers union candidates win Jefferson Parish School Board majority | NOLA.com

Teachers union candidates win Jefferson Parish School Board majority | NOLA.com:

Teachers union candidates win Jefferson Parish School Board majority

The high-profile battle for control of the Jefferson Parish School Board reached a climax Saturday when candidates backed by the Jefferson Federation of Teachers regained a majority of the nine seats. Melinda Doucet andRicky Johnson, union picks in the 2nd and 7th Districts, defeated business-backed opponents in the runoff elections, putting organized labor candidates in five seats on the board that takes office in January.

Their victories mean that the union achieved the voting bloc that business activists won in 2010. For 2015, Doucet and Johnson join Ray St. Pierre, Cedric Floyd and Marion Bonura. The business-backed slate is comprised of Larry Dale, Sandy Denapolis-Bosarge and Melinda Bourgeois. Mark Morgan, the union-endorsed board president, has emerged as the swing vote.

The races was closely watched and financed by the American Federation of Teachers, and its president, Randi Weingarten, cheered the outcome on Twitter: "Public schooling won tonite" (sic). The national union funneled almost $650,000 into the races in recent months, with $200,000 of that coming just before the election.

Business interests, by contrast, contributed $400,000 to their candidates over two years. The spending disparity caused business leaders to charge that the national union was out to influence local politics.

Money wars aside, the two newly elected union-backed candidates have outlined their stances, to an extent, on key issues. Johnson has indicated that he would push for another collective bargaining contract with the union, after the School Board scrapped that contract in 2012. Doucet said she wouldn't push for collective bargaining, though she said teachers should be better treated.

Johnson has decried the board's move to close seven schools. Doucet has criticized its accounting practices.

No matter the politics, the School Board has some important decisions to make next year. Superintendent James Meza Jr. is on the verge of retirement, which means the search for a new leader is forthcoming. And a recent spike in Central American immigrant students has forced officials to find long-term funding and resources, especially for new students struggling to learn English.

The Jefferson Business Council's executive director, Tony Ligi, who has supported business-backed incumbents, said as much Saturday. "The bottom line, in whatever should happen, is we need to continue to improve the Jefferson Parish school system," he said. "Kids are depending on that."

Doucet and Johnson are not alone in their criticism of Meza and the School Board's reforms. Some teachers have loudly opposed the rejection of collective bargaining.

Ligi said that if a union contract is reinstated, he hopes for a "happy medium," chiefly one in which principals still have freedom to fire ineffective teachers. Teachers now work under individual contracts that are up for renewal at the end of each school Teachers union candidates win Jefferson Parish School Board majority | NOLA.com:

ALEC clears path for for-profit charter companies to cash in after school closures « Education Votes

ALEC clears path for for-profit charter companies to cash in after school closures « Education Votes:

ALEC clears path for for-profit charter companies to cash in after school closures

Posted March 23, 2014

TAGS: ALEC, American Legislative Exchange Council, for-profit charter schools, school closures

by Félix Pérez

Memphis, Tenn., is no stranger to school closures. The Shelby County School District closed four schools in 2012 and 2013 each. And the district, despite a wave of parent- and clergy-led protests and a petition that generated 6,000 signatures, voted last month to close nine schoolsand combine two others.

TAKE ACTION ›

Sign the petition to tell ALEC to stop cashing in on kids. CLICK HERE ›

At a recent school board meeting, the Rev. Dwight Ray Montgomery said, “If Dr. King were here today, he’d be standing where I’m standing today, unafraid.”

In Newark, N.J., parents and educators are organized and speaking out against a proposal by the state-appointed superintendent to close or consolidate more than a dozen schools.

Last week, special education teacher Marie Blistan, testifying before the state Legislature’s Joint Committee on Public Schools, called the plan “misguided, top-down and illegal.”

The proposal “poses a threat to the very notion of universal public education designed to serve every school-age child in New Jersey,” said Blistan, vice president of the New Jersey Education Association.

Whether in Memphis, Newark, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, or Chicago, communities hit by school closures bemoan the loss of a longstanding neighborhood asset. Residents say school board members and local elected officials give short shrift to displaced students, many of whom have to walk long distances through dangerous neighborhoods to reach their new schools, some of which have poor records on academics, discipline and safety.

In Chicago, where some 100 schools have been closed since 2001 and 88 percent of the affected students were black, students commute to their new schools through gang areas using “safe passage” routes designated by the police department.

Aside from the less-than-anticipated savings realized by school districts and the likelihood that many students are moved to academically underperforming schools, critics of school closures take issue with the influx of out-of-state for-profit charter school companies that benefit financially from distressed communities and siphon money from underfunded public schools. In many instances, these for-profit schools are not accountable to parents or school boards, have mixed records of academic success, and are exempted from many of the standards and requirements with which public schools must comply.

ALEC clears path for for-profit charter companies to cash in after school closures « Education Votes:

Friday, December 5, 2014

This Will Revolutionize Education | IFLScience

This Will Revolutionize Education | IFLScience:

This Will Revolutionize Education

December 3, 2014 | by Justine Alford

This new technology will revolutionize education” is a phrase that we have heard many times over the last century. The motion picture, radio, educational television, computers and tablet computers have all been heralded as the “next big thing” that could change education forever. While there have been many revolutions in the last 100 years, education has largely remained unchanged; we’re still taught in essentially the same way. And it doesn’t look like that is set to change any time soon. So why has technology not revolutionized education? According to Derek Muller from Veritasium, there’s two reasons: technology is not inherently superior to traditional teaching methods, and learning is a social activity.

Check out this video for more of his thoughts on the subject:

This Will Revolutionize Education | IFLScience:

David Coleman’s plan to ruin education | Al Jazeera America

David Coleman’s plan to ruin education | Al Jazeera America:

David Coleman’s plan to ruin education

The architect of Common Core must be stopped

December 5, 2014 2:00AM ET

by Nicholas Tampio @NTampio

In the summer of 2008, David Coleman changed the course of American education. For decades, reformers had argued that the country needed a national standards-based model of education to ensure economic prosperity. He helped make that a reality by convincing Bill Gates to support the Common Core State Standards initiative, to the tune of over $200 million.

In part because of his experience supervising the writing of the standards, Coleman became the head of the College Board, where his philosophy of education will further shape how U.S. high schools prepare students for college.

He has expressed this vision in an essay published by the College Board, “Cultivating Wonder.” With this document and the early results of the Common Core, it’s easy to see where his grand plans fall short.

Cultivating wonder

In “Cultivating Wonder,” Coleman unpacks several Common Core standards, shows how students may decipher classic works of literature and reflects on appropriate questions to ask students, revealing the philosophy of the Common Core and the College Board.

As a professor of political philosophy, I agree that education ought to cultivate wonder. The first book of political philosophy, Plato’s “Republic,” begins with Socrates experiencing wonder at a remark made by one of his interlocutors. Wonder is what compels us to keep investigating a question using every resource at our disposal.

Yet Coleman’s pedagogical vision stifles this kind of wonder by imposing tight restrictions on what may be thought — or at least what may be expressed to earn teacher approval, high grades and good test scores. He expects students to answer questions by merely stringing together key words in the text before them. This does not teach philosophy or thinking; it teaches the practice of rote procedures, conformity and obedience.

The first standard is the foundation of his vision. “Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it,” it reads, and “cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.” According to Coleman, the first standard teaches a rigorous, deductive approach to reading that compels students to extract as much information from the text as possible.

Throughout the document, he reiterates that students need to identify key words in a text. He analyzes passages from “Hamlet,” “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” the Gettysburg Address and an essay by Martha Graham. There is minimal discussion of historical context or outside sources that may make the material come alive. For instance, he suggests that teachers ask students, “What word does Lincoln use most often in the address?” rather than, say, discuss the Civil War. In fact, he disparages this approach. “Great questions make the text the star of the classroom; the most powerful evidence and insight for answering lies within the text or texts being read. Most good questions are text dependent and text specific.”

A recurrent defense of the Common Core is that the standards are good but the implementation has been bad.

As a professor, of course I demand that my students provide evidence to support their arguments. Coleman’s pedagogical vision, however, does not prepare students for college. He discourages students from making David Coleman’s plan to ruin education | Al Jazeera America:

'Mystery Parents' Test Charters' Enrollment of Spec. Ed., ELL Students - Education Week

'Mystery Parents' Test Charters' Enrollment of Spec. Ed., ELL Students - Education Week:

'Mystery Parents' Test Charters' Enrollment of Spec. Ed., ELL Students

By Arianna Prothero

Fielding phone calls from parents asking about enrollment is part of everyday business for schools, but for some charter schools, the person on the other end of the line may only be posing as a parent.

Modeled after “mystery” or “secret shopper” services used in retail, authorizers in the District of Columbia and Massachusetts are using a similar tactic to make sure the charter schools they oversee are not turning away students with more specialized needs, such as children with disabilities or who are still learning English.

This issue has long dogged the charter sector which nationally, some studies show, enrolls a lower percentage of students with disabilities compared to regular public schools. The discrepancy, some charter critics say, comes from the publicly funded but independently run schools turning away such students in order to improve test scores.

“We started this because there was huge a perception among the public that charters counseled out students with disabilities,” said Naomi R. DeVeaux, the deputy director for the District of Columbia’s public charter school board. “We wanted to know if this was true.”

How it Works

The board started its mystery caller program as a pilot in 2012 and then made it official board policy a year later. Staff members call every charter school in the city pretending to be a parent of a student with disabilities.

—iStockphoto

If the school answers all the questions about the enrollment process correctly, it passes. If the school answers any question inappropriately—for example, if it tells the “parent” that the school across the street is better suited for students with disabilities—the charter board calls back again at a later date. If the school gives a wrong answer twice, it gets a warning. And if it fails to address the problem, its charter could be revoked.

Before calling schools, the charter board’s staff members are handed a scenario and loose script to follow, but are told to come up with a name, age, and current school for their fictional child to customize the script in order to sound more natural. They also use cellphones or a Google Voice account so that the charter board doesn’t pop up on the caller ID of the target school.

“It’s something any authorizer can do and it’s kind of fun,” Ms. DeVeaux said.

And that’s one of the appeals of the mystery-caller program: it’s not a huge resource drain. Calls to the 100 schools that the charter board oversees are split among five staff members. Aside from a cellphone, a script, and the callers themselves, the only other necessary tool is a spreadsheet.

Although the calls are made by a mystery “parent,” the program itself is no secret. The city’s charter schools know the board will be making the calls during the enrollment period in early January. Charter board officials say they’re not trying for “gotcha” moments, but rather teaching moments.

The first year the charter board initiated the program, 10 schools failed. The following year, the number fell to eight, and last year, it dropped further still to two. Those cases, board officials said, had more to do with the schools not understanding the new citywide enrollment system than with anything discriminatory.

For the 2013-14 school year, special education enrollment in the District of Columbia’s charter schools was 12 percent, compared to 14 percent in the city’s traditional public schools.

Growing the Program

The District of Columbia board has been contacted by authorizers from other states asking about the program, including Massachusetts, which started its own pilot version 'Mystery Parents' Test Charters' Enrollment of Spec. Ed., ELL Students - Education Week:

Thursday, December 4, 2014

Can Schools Foster the Conversations Necessary to Create Justice? | John Thompson

Can Schools Foster the Conversations Necessary to Create Justice? | John Thompson:

Can Schools Foster the Conversations Necessary to Create Justice?

In 2000, Pat McGuigan, the conservative editor of the Daily Oklahoman, visited our high school Government class. This was an exciting time when a bipartisan school improvement coalition, MAPS for KIDS, was sponsoring an ongoing conversation between the full range of community stakeholders and our diverse student bodies.

The class challenged McGuigan regarding that day's editorial in the newspaper on community policing and crime sweeps in their neighborhood, the North Highlands. Pat described crime sweeps as irregular patrols of high-crime neighborhoods. From all over the room, the students retorted, "Yeah, every Tuesday and Thursday in the Highlands."

Pat then explained that sweeps had to be unpredictable or they would not be effective.

"Yeah, every Tuesday and Thursday!"

Pat added, "sweeps could not stop drivers just because of their race because that would be racial profiling..."

"Yeah, they also stop us for just walking!"

Pat shifted gears and listened to the true experts on community policing, crime sweeps, and racial profiling.

In the wake of the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases, that class discussion speaks to many aspects our society's racial polarization. Pat had always been open to interactions with all types of people, but the cross-generational, cross-cultural conversations of MAPS contributed to the journalist's decision to become a teacher at an alternative school for at-risk students.

Of course, my current students and I have been discussing the Brown and Garner cases in class. By the way, we have done so within the context of mastering our Social Studies Standards of Instruction.

If more adults could confront the anguish of poor children of color who are often seen as alien threats when just living in their home neighborhoods, we might overcome our reluctance to touch the issues of race, class, and segregation. If more adults could experience the joy of sharing a classroom with students who are empowered to question authority, study their history, contribute their insights, and debate the best ways to create equity and justice, I doubt we would have a teacher shortage in the inner city.

As usual, the poet/teacher Jose Luis Vilson, is more eloquent than I in expressing a similar insight. Vilson writes:

If you ever get the opportunity to talk to students who are most disenfranchised by Can Schools Foster the Conversations Necessary to Create Justice? | John Thompson:

Another Charter School bites the dust….after founder lies… - Wait What?

Another Charter School bites the dust….after founder lies… - Wait What?:

Another Charter School bites the dust….after founder lies…

At the same November meeting that the New York Board of Regents approved Capital Prep Steve Perry’s application to open a charter school in Harlem, they voted to grant a charter to Ted Morris Jr. and the Greater Works Charter School to open a charter school in Rochester, New York.

Days later, the Democrat and Chronicle newspaper of Rochester reported that the Greater Works Charter School “will no longer open in Rochester in 2015, part of the continuing fallout over lies in the resume of its 22-year-old founder.”

The newspaper, along with fellow education bloggers led by Mercedes Schneider, have been reporting on the school and its founder, Ted Morris Jr. who “represented himself to the New York State Education Department as a precocious businessman and educational adviser with bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees.”

However, it turns out that Ted Morris Jr. has no college degrees at all.

According to the Greater Works Charter School application,

“Ted [Morris Jr.] is the Lead Applicant for and Founder of GWCS. He is a life-long resident of Rochester, NY. Currently, Ted is an education consultant with the Morris Firm and has previously held positions such as the Director of Operations, Finance, Development, and Assistant CEO with various non-profit youth, education, and human service-related agencies. He has 7+ years of experience in these fields. Ted has a B.S. in Human Services, an M.S.W. in Non-Profit Leadership and is finishing up his Ed.D. in Administration.

But Morris doesn’t have a Bachelor’s Degree or a Master’s Degree nor is he finishing up his Education Doctorate.

In fact, at age 22, Morris doesn’t even have “7+ years of experience” in the education management field.

But the fact that his resume was obviously falsified and the charter school application was a fraud, Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Department of Education and Board of Regents Another Charter School bites the dust….after founder lies… - Wait What?:

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Dad Gone Wild | Coco for Cocoa Puffs

Dad Gone Wild | Coco for Cocoa Puffs:

COCO FOR COCOA PUFFS

Its been awhile since I’ve written anything. Partially because work has been overwhelming and partially because the education policy landscape in Tennessee and specifically Nashville has been overwhelming. These are some surreal times we are living in. You have the superintendent of Nashville schools retiring in June but acting like he’s going to be here for 10 more years. There’s a plan to turnaround the priority schools by employing a mythical band of turnaround specialists. The superintendent is planning to turn over a priority school to KIPP despite the overwhelming protests of local parents and community members. Last, but certainly not least, you’ve got the traveling comedy troop known as the ASD circling two Nashville schools that have better scores then theirs. Hey, thats one way to raise scores. Let’s see if I can break these down.

Dr Register is coming to the end of his tenure as superintendent of MNPS. I believe his contract expires in June. Now normally that would mean some house cleaning and getting things ready for the next guy or girl. However, even though they’ve ignored these schools for years we have a moral imperative to enact a plan now. I’ve actually heard him use those words. The best though is when he stated “I’m implementing this plan now so that when the next superintendent starts he can hit the ground running. He won’t have to waste time getting up to speed.” That sound you hear is a collective sigh of relief from all the potential candidates for the job.

I imagine that a few were wavering on the job because they might have to come up with a plan of their own, but now that Dr. Register has created one, I’m sure they’re just relishing to enter a job where their hands are tied for the first several years. It’s going to be hard enough as it is this year to find a rock star superintendent. Nashville joins Los Angeles, Austin, Boston, Seattle, Fort Worth, andAlbuquerque in looking for a new director. I may be wrong but I suspect that the highest qualified candidates are not looking at districts where they are going to start off with their hands tied. Nashville is currently known as one of the “it” cities in the country. That should be a huge recruiting benefit but not if whomever accepts has to disengage themselves from a number of short term plans. Perhaps it wouldn’t be a bad idea to focus on just gathering data, housecleaning and focusing on truly attracting the best candidate here.

Instead we get short sighted plans like the current recruiting pitch to hire 100 teachers in 100 days to focus on the priority schools. They’ve given the teachers a fancy moniker like the “turnaround squad” or something. (http://mnpschildrenfirst.com/2014/10/27/metro-schools-launches-campaign-to-recruit-100-turnaround-teachers/) Now the one thing that this plan gets right is the importance of teachers. Numerous studies show that the most important factor in the quality of a childs education is the quality of the teacher. What they leave out is the sentence “of in school factors”. That changes things a bit.

The whole turnaround concept baffles me. It gives the impression that these schools just happened to take a wrong turn somewhere and now we are going to get them on the right path with out acknowledging any of the challenges that got them there. Which begs the question, when is a school turned around? Is it after 2 years or 5 years or is it when the state takes it off the list and the administrator writes turn around specialist on their resume. I have a novel idea. Why don’t we just make all Dad Gone Wild | Coco for Cocoa Puffs:

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