Tuesday, December 31, 2013

School district, higher education turned upside-down | News | Palo Alto Online |

School district, higher education turned upside-down | News | Palo Alto Online |

School district, higher education turned upside-down

Federal investigation rattles Palo Alto school district


While Palo Alto residents took issue with the city over development and traffic problems, other disruptive forces turned local educational institutions on their heads this year, namely a lengthy and painful civil rights investigation at the Palo Alto School Union District and the shock waves felt from the rise of online-education.
Office for Civil Rights investigates district
A federal civil-rights agency disrupted life for leaders of the Palo Alto school district in 2013.
Spurred by the family of a disabled Palo Alto middle school student, the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights investigated the district's handling of the ongoing bullying of the student.
In December 2012, the agency -- which is charged with enforcing civil rights laws in schools and universities -- found that Terman Middle School administrators had violated the student's civil rights in their mishandling of the bullying. For nearly a year since then, the district has been struggling to reform its policies that deal with complaints of bullying. As of this month, however, it has yet to finalize new procedures, which was among the conditions it agreed to in order to resolve the federal case.
Had it not been for the student's family, who shared the resolution agreement with the Palo Alto Weekly, the public may not have known about the investigation and resulting conditions placed on the district. The Board of Education itself was largely unaware of the scope of the investigation and resolution agreement, having been told by Superintendent Kevin Skelly in December 2012 in such a perfunctory manner that the board didn't even discuss the report.
In February, Skelly apologized to board members for failing to inform them fully.
"When this thing came out I informed you about it, but I didn't give you the report or share the findings of the Office for Civil Rights group, and I should have done that, bottom line," he said. "From a transparency issue, I blew it."
Despite calls this year for a board discussion of "what went wrong" in the Terman case, such a discussion was never put on the agenda. Critics have accused the school board and Skelly of foot-dragging on revising its bullying policies and resisting the federal enforcement. The district has said it needs time to strike the right balance between protecting victims and not criminalizing matters that are properly resolved in the principal's office.
"The realm of incidents that used to be handled purely verbally and privately is shifting into a realm that's being recorded and tracked, so it's important to get it right," board President Barb Mitchell said.
The issue is set to be taken up again in January, either by the full board or by its two-member Policy Review Committee.
Meanwhile, other Palo Alto families have filed Office for Civil Rights complaints against the district, several of which remain pending.
In June, the Office for Civil Rights opened its own investigation at Palo Alto High School, saying it had "received information that (Paly) has not provided prompt and equitable response to notice of peer sexual harassment, including peer harassment related to sexual assault."
Though the agency did not specify what prompted its investigation, the notice followed the April publication of a six-part story in the student magazine Verde about a "rape culture" at Paly. The articles included anonymous accounts of two alcohol-fueled, off-campus sexual assaults of Paly students; interviews with victims of rape and other Paly students; discussion of Paly students; attitudes on victim-blaming and an editorial criticizing the mainstream media's "sympathetic" portrayal of high-school rapists in Steubenville, Ohio.
With concerns about bullying running high among some parents, Skelly and board members also have been charged with excessive secrecy in their work to satisfy the Office for Civil Rights.
Until the Weekly complained earlier this month, meetings of the board's Policy Review Committee, where proposed bullying policies are being hammered out, were not properly noticed to the public as required under the Brown Act, California's open meeting law.
Internet disrupts higher education
As surely as it has disrupted music, retail and journalism, the Internet in 2013 shook up education, with many of the disrupters emanating from the Palo Alto-Stanford area.
The year saw the term "MOOC" (for massive, open online course) grow increasingly common in general usage as online classes offered by local companies Coursera and Udacity, among others, attracted hundreds of thousands of students around the world.
Angling to stay on top of the fast-moving and hard-to-predict online education wave, Stanford poured resources and attention into university-wide efforts to test and measure new ways of teaching and learning online.
Education technology "is the beginning of a wholesale reorganization of teaching and learning in higher education," associate professor of sociology Mitchell Stevens said. "It will very soon be an un-ignorable phenomenon.
"This is not the sort of fringe activity of Cambridge and Silicon Valley. This is something that's going to be reorganizing the entire sector."
In July, more than a dozen presidents of colleges and universities -- including the Foothill-De Anza Community College District but not including Stanford -- gathered in Palo Alto to brainstorm the future. Schools represented ran the gamut from the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania to the large University of Wisconsin system to tiny Bates College in Maine to the upstart, all-online Western Governors University.
Foothill-De Anza Chancellor Linda Thor reported that the discussion at the gathering centered on how higher education needs to reorganize to serve students in traditional and new ways, given all the "drivers of change."
"We're moving away from having faculty that were the conveyers of content to -- now that there's so much more information available -- becoming more curators of the content, of helping guide all the sources," Thor said.
She also posed the question: "Are we moving away from students being associated with an individual institution to students aggregating their own educations from a whole variety of sources and players?"
Nobody knows for sure.
In an October discussion group on "education's digital future" at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, Stanford's Stevens introduced Foothill-De Anza's Thor as a pioneer in the field.
As president of Arizona's online-oriented Rio Salado Community College for 20 years, Thor "created the 25-year history of online learning that Stanford, Harvard and MIT just woke up to and decided they should enter," Stevens said.
Foothill College already offers 20 degrees that can be earned fully online, including associate's degrees in accounting, business administration, history, music technology, psychology and sociology.
In November, Foothill-De Anza was co-recipient of a $16.9 million state grant to pave the way for an online "education ecosystem" that would integrate all 112 of California's community colleges.
The initiative is part of Gov. Jerry Brown's push to expand online education as a way to boost access, degree completion and transfer to four-year universities for hundreds of thousands of students.
Under the envisioned system, California's 2.4 million community college students will be able to accrue credit through online courses at any number of different community colleges.
Regardless of the source of a class, a student's record will be kept in a single file, avoiding the need to petition for transfer credit.
A statewide portal for the classes will be operational by June 2015, with participation by individual community colleges on a voluntary basis.
"This will make the records student-centric rather than institution-centric and will automate and simplify the process of transfer, qualification for financial aid and things of that sort," said Joe Moreau, Foothill-De Anza's vice-chancellor for technology.
The new initiative, said Thor, "is a cutting-edge vision for California. I believe it will transform online learning for millions of community college students.
"

Monday, December 23, 2013

Cuomo OKs increased oversight of NY preschool special education programs after fraud reports (12/19/13 1:35 pm)

Cuomo OKs increased oversight of NY preschool special education programs after fraud reports (12/19/13 1:35 pm)

ACLU Suing Eureka City Schools for Racial and Sexual Discrimination | Blogthing | The Journal

ACLU Suing Eureka City Schools for Racial and Sexual Discrimination | Blogthing | The Journal

Native American and black students face racial and sexual discrimination from students and staff in Eureka and Loleta according to a federal civil rights lawsuit filed today by the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California and the National Center for Youth Law.

The suit alleges that top officials in the Eureka City Schools District “subject Black and Native American children to a racially hostile educational environment by allowing pervasive racial harassment to persist unchallenged,” according to a press release. The two groups also joined with California Indian Legal Services to ask the Office for Civil Rights to investigate racial discrimination in the Loleta Union School District. 

The groups allege that school officials in Eureka intentionally discriminate against black and Native American students, disciplining those students more harshly than white ones, subjecting them to a “racially hostile educational environment” and pushing them out of mainstream schools into alternative schools. They also say school officials tolerate weekly traditions such as “titty-twisting Tuesdays” and “slap-ass Fridays,” where, according to the press release, “students have their nipples, breasts and buttocks grabbed and hit in school hallways, locker rooms and other areas of district schools.”

Defendants named in the suit include members of the Eureka City Schools District Board of Education, District Superintendent Fred Van Vleck and other school officials.

The complaint against Loleta Union School District says the physical and verbal abuse levied at Native American students is perpetuating racist behavior in the region that dates back nearly 150 years. 

You can read the complaint against the Eureka City Schools District here. And here  is the Loleta complaint. The full press release is below.

Addendum: The Bear River Band of Rohnerville Rancheria passed a resolution supporting the Office of Civil Rights complaint. Read it here.
[jump]
SAN FRANCISCO – The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California and the National Center for Youth Law Wednesday charged that school officials in the Humboldt County towns of Loleta and Eureka, home to some of the state’s largest Native American communities, intentionally discriminate against Native American and Black students, and students with disabilities, levying disproportionate levels of discipline for minor infractions and forcing them out of mainstream schools at disproportionate rates.

In a federal civil rights lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the groups allege that top officials in the Eureka City Schools District subject Black and Native American children to a racially hostile educational environment by allowing pervasive racial harassment to persist unchallenged, intentionally pushing Native American students out of mainstream schools and into alternative schools, and teaching students racially-offensive and culturally-denigrating curricula. School district staff also witness without any intervention, and even participate in, what have become weekly traditions called “titty-twisting Tuesdays” and “slap-ass Fridays,” where students have their nipples, breasts and buttocks grabbed and hit in school hallways, locker rooms and other areas of district schools.

Also on Wednesday, the groups joined with California Indian Legal Services to file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education asking that the Office for Civil Rights investigate what the groups charge is ongoing racial discrimination against Native American students by Loleta Union School District employees. Filed on behalf of the Wiyot Tribe of the Table Bluff Rancheria and with the support of the Bear River Band of Rohnerville Rancheria, the complaint charges that staff at Loleta Elementary School physically assault Native American students, use racial slurs in front of Native American students and routinely suspend or expel Native American students for minor behavioral infractions.

“Black and Native American students in Eureka and Loleta are routinely subjected to unacceptable and unconstitutional racially discriminatory treatment,” said Michael Harris, senior attorney with the National Center for Youth Law. “All students in California, regardless of race or gender, must receive equal educational opportunity and the chance to reach their full academic potential.”

The lawsuit, which names as defendants the members of the Eureka City Schools District Board of Education and the district’s superintendent, among other school officials, charges that blatant racial harassment occurs regularly as white students frequently use racial slurs to refer to Black students and commit violence against Native American and Black students without ever being disciplined by school staff.

Native American and Black students are also disciplined differently and much more harshly than white students. According to school district data from the 2011-2012 school year, Black students were suspended from some Eureka schools at a rate as much as five times higher than their enrollment rate while Native American students were suspended from some schools at a rate three times higher than their enrollment rate. Comparatively, white students are suspended at or about their rate of enrollment in district schools. Additionally, Native American students are pushed out of mainstream schools and into county-run community schools designed for high-risk youth and which do not appropriately prepare students planning to attend college. The Native American population at the Eureka Community School was three times higher than their overall district enrollment rate in 2011-2012, district data shows.

District curriculum also ignores or actively affronts the racial and cultural history of Native American and Black students by utilizing materials that use the word “savage,” “negro,” and “nigger” without examining the offensiveness or historical context of those terms.

“Despite repeated complaints to school district staff and administrators, students of color in Eureka have continued to be subjected to racially and sexually hostile school climates,” said Jory Steele, managing attorney and director of education equity for the ACLU of Northern California. “It is imperative that school officials be held accountable for failing to uphold their constitutional obligation to ensure that all Eureka students are protected from harassment and discrimination.”

According to the Office for Civil Rights complaint, the physical and verbal abuse that Native American students in Loleta are subjected to is a perpetuation of a historical practice of Native American marginalization that dates back nearly 150 years. Modern day examples of Loleta students having their ears grabbed by the school superintendent who then exclaims, “See how red it’s getting?” or school district staff referring to Native American students during a school board meeting as “goats” and “sheep,” are reminiscent of the reports of pervasive physical abuse and malnourishment at the boarding schools Native Americans were sent to beginning in the late 1870’s.

American Indian and Alaskan Native students have less access to educational resources in California than students from any other ethnic group, according to a 2012 report, and Humboldt County reflects that disturbing trend: less than 10 Native American students in all of Humboldt County completed the course requirements necessary to gain admittance to a California State University or University of California school during the 2010-2011 school year.

“Eradicating all forms of discrimination from the school system in Loleta is key to ensuring that Native American students are able to achieve educational and professional success,” said Delia Parr, directing attorney for California Indian Legal Services. “Denying Native Americans equal educational opportunities only serves to ensure they will experience poorer educational and socioeconomic outcomes, and that is a cycle that must be broken.”

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Positively Autism: Developing Talents: Careers For Individuals With Asperger Syndrome And High-Functioning Autism

Positively Autism: Developing Talents: Careers For Individuals With Asperger Syndrome And High-Functioning Autism

Book Description (from Amazon.com): This updated and expanded edition considers the continuing dismal employment statistics for individuals with ASD. The authors take an in-depth look at entrepreneurship. Using real-life examples, they point out that many of the unique characteristics of individuals on the autism spectrum lend themselves well to entrepreneurial ventures. The book explores many unnoticed aspects of Vocational Rehabilitation programs that provide job training and placement for people with disabilities, as well as Social Security Administration programs that offer vocational assistance. Employment figures and prospects have been updated, and new jobs have been added that are well suited for those on the spectrum.

After Failing Math, Student Alleges Disability Discrimination - Disability Scoop

After Failing Math, Student Alleges Disability Discrimination - Disability Scoop

A college student is suing her Montana school in federal court arguing that her disabilities prevent her from completing two math courses required to obtain a bachelor’s degree.
Hannah Valdez says that Rocky Mountain College in Billings, Mont. should allow her to substitute two other courses for the math classes that are part of the general education requirements for her bachelor of arts degree.
Valdez has Asperger’s syndrome, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and a math disability, according to her complaint filed in U.S. District Court.
Despite multiple attempts, Valdez “cannot pass these math courses because of her mental disabilities,” the complaint indicates.
Valdez is accusing the school of disability discrimination and violating the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act by declining her reasonable accommodation.
In a response filed with the court, an attorney for the college said they attempted to work with Valdez and indicated that she is welcome to try the math classes again with additional accommodations that have been offered.
However, the school said that it is not obligated to “fundamentally alter its educational program or standards.”

Advocates Alarmed By 'Backtracking' On Teacher Standards - Disability Scoop

Advocates Alarmed By 'Backtracking' On Teacher Standards - Disability Scoop

Disability advocates are protesting a move by the U.S. Department of Education that they say could leave students in the hands of poor-quality teachers.
In a letter to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan this week, a coalition of almost 100 civil rights and disability advocacy groups including the Council for Exceptional Children, The Arc and the National Down Syndrome Society, among others, blasted federal education officials for what they called “apparent backtracking” on measures to ensure that all children have access to good-quality teachers.
The issue harkens back to a provision under No Child Left Behind requiring that children from poor and minority groups are not disproportionately taught by less-experienced or less-qualified educators. More recently, when the Education Department granted states waivers exempting them from some of the law’s obligations, the so-called “teacher equity” requirements remained.
However, members of The Coalition for Teaching Quality charge in their letter this week to Duncan that his department has done little to enforce the rule in recent years. They are further concerned by a letter from the Education Department to chief state school officers last month that backed off plans to require as a condition of the waivers that states use teacher-evaluation data to ensure that certain types of students are not disproportionately taught by ineffective teachers.
The current approach “misses a major opportunity to address one of the most significant issues facing public education,” the coalition said in its letter. “These waiver renewals are an excellent opportunity for the department to advance its equity agenda in a meaningful way.”
Children with disabilities and those from poor and minority backgrounds are least likely to be taught by the most qualified teachers, advocates say.

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Bill to Bar Educators From Political Activity Withdrawn by Missouri Senator - State EdWatch - Education Week

Bill to Bar Educators From Political Activity Withdrawn by Missouri Senator - State EdWatch - Education Week

Bill to Bar Educators From Political Activity Withdrawn by Missouri Senator

A bill introduced by a Missouri state senator that would have ultimately barred educators in that state from contributing to political campaigns has been withdrawn, after the legislation triggered a less-than-friendly reaction.
The now-dead measure, introduced by Sen. Will Kraus and pre-filed for the 2014 legislative session on Dec. 2, was an attempt to stop teachers and other K-12 and higher education officials from using public resourcesfor advocacy and campaign work, according to Kraus, a Republican. He also told a Missouri TV station, KMBC, that the bill was "a starting point," and that he felt he could work in a bipartisan manner to ultimately produce legislation that addressed the issue.
In many instances, fights over union's political clout deal with how people think union dues should and should not be used in terms of influencing policy and politics. But the language of what was initially tagged as Senate Bill 576 appeared to go beyond concerns about public resources being used for political campaigns. And the bill would have had a broad reach, since it wouldn't have affected just teachers, but other K-12 employees and school board officials as well. 
Here's the relevant language in the bill: "No officer, employee or agent of any school district, public school, school board, or public institution of higher education shall make any contribution or expenditure to advocate, support, or oppose any legislation, ballot measure, or candidate for public office."
The bill also states that teachers and other public school officials are banned from making an "expenditure of public funds" for political work, but there's no clear definition of "public expenditures." 
The reaction was swift and harsh. Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, indicated that the bill could have been "more artfully drafted." And Andrea Flinders, the president of the Kansas City Federation of Teachers, told the TV station, "What it does is silence the voices of the people that work with children."
There's a lot of tension in Missouri education politics. Some education officials are stepping up pressure on state education Commissioner Chris Nicastro, saying she should resign in the wake of emails revealing her plans for restructuring the Kansas City school system. (Flinders is quoted again in the piece for another TV station.) Nicastro also took some heat recently over allegations that she provided improper aid to a group seeking to end teacher tenure through a 2014 ballot initiative, although she has denied that she acted unethically, and the president of the state board of education has defended Nicastro's actions in that situation. (The story began with emails obtained by the National Education Association's Missouri affiliate describing Nicastro's interactions with the group pushing the initiative.)
It will be interesting to see if Kraus or another legislator makes another effort to try to limit educators' political power in some way.

Monday, December 16, 2013

SB576 - WITHDRAWN

SB576 - WITHDRAWN

SB 576 - The act bars political fund-raising activities from being held in buildings owned by the state or political subdivisions.
Officers, employees, and agents of public schools and universities are barred from making public expenditures to advocate, support, or oppose legislation, ballot measures, and candidates
Statewide elected officials and legislators shall not act as a paid political consultant for another statewide elected official or legislator or for a campaign committee, candidate committee, continuing committee, or political party committee.
Statewide elected officials and legislators and their staff, employees, and family shall not receive any lobbyist gifts with a value of over $50.
Legislators shall not lobby until 2 years after leaving office.
Appointees to boards and commissions are required to disclose 10 years of political contributions made be them, their spouses, and any business entity in which the appointee or the appointee's spouse has an interest.
Those who offer anything of value to any elected or appointed public official or employee of the state in exchange for an action affecting legislation or rulemaking and those who accept such value in such instances are guilty of a class D felony.
Gubernatorial appointees are barred from making political contributions to members of the General Assembly and statewide elected officials.
The act establishes campaign contribution limits for individuals and political party committees. The limits are as follows for contributions made by or accepted from any person other than the candidate in an election:
• $10,000 for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, Treasurer, Auditor, or Attorney General.
• $2,500 for Senators.
• $1,000 for Representatives.
• $600 any other office, including judicial office, if the population of the area is under 100,000.
• $1,000 any other office, including judicial office, if the population of the area is between 100,000 and 250,000.
• $2,000 any other office, including judicial office, if the population of the area is over 250,000.
The limits are as follows for contributions made by or accepted from a political party committee in an election:
• 10,,000 for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, Treasurer, Auditor, or Attorney General.
• $2,500 for Senators.
• $1,000 for Representatives.
• 10 times the allowable contribution limit for any other office.
This act is similar to HB 633 (2009), HB 687 (2009), SB 389 (2009), SB 270 (2009), HCS/SS#2/SCS/SB 577 (2010), SB 800 (2010), HCS#2/SB 844 (2010), SB 648 (2010), HB 1322 (2010), HB 1326 (2010), HB 1337 (2010), HB 1727 (2010), HB 1846 (2010), HB 2039 (2010), HCS/HB 2300 (2010), SB 75 (2011), HB 139 (2013),SB 526 (2012), SB 825 (2012), HB 1080 (2012), HB 1320 (2012), HB 1756 (2012), HB 1939 (2012), SB 92 (2013), and SB 181 (2013).
CHRIS HOGERTY

Superintendents pitch plan to aid struggling Missouri schools : News

Superintendents pitch plan to aid struggling Missouri schools : News

The Turner Report: Kraus withdraws bill, says he never meant to keep teachers out of politics

The Turner Report: Kraus withdraws bill, says he never meant to keep teachers out of politics

Today (12-13), Sen. Will Kraus, R-Lee’s Summit, comments about the recent withdrawal of his sponsored legislation, Senate Bill 576.
 “On Dec. 2, I prefiled Senate Bill 576 regarding ethics and campaign finance reform.  One section dealt with a prohibition on schools using public funds to campaign for or against issues or candidates.  Unfortunately, a drafting error in the first sentence of the bill makes it unclear.  As is evident in the second sentence, and in the summary of the bill posted online, the intent was to ban the use of “public” funds for campaigning.
 As a member of the military, I have fought for every American’s rights.  That includes the right of free speech and the right to participate in the political process.  My mother and several others in my family were teachers, and I would not ever consider inhibiting their right to speak out or campaign.   I regret that the error gave some that impression.
Rather than wait for an opportunity to fix the drafting error in committee, I have decided to withdraw SB 576.  In return, I will file another Senate bill, which will put public school districts and public institutions of higher learning under the same statute as political subdivisions.  They will be restricted from using public funds to advocate support or oppose any ballot measure or candidate.
I think most people would agree that taxpayer dollars should not be used to campaign.”

Bill would ban Missouri teachers from political activities | Watch the video - Yahoo News

Bill would ban Missouri teachers from political activities | Watch the video - Yahoo News

A bill filed by Missouri State Sen. Will Kraus would keep educators in Missouri from getting involved in any sort of political activity short of voting.

State auditor requests records from Missouri's education chief : News

State auditor requests records from Missouri's education chief : News
Missouri Auditor Thomas Schweich is weighing whether to launch an audit of the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education in light of recent controversies involving the education commissioner.
Schweich sent a letter to Education Commissioner Chris Nicastro this week stating his office is considering a probe into the very issues that have triggered calls for her resignation from teachers unions, more than a dozen lawmakers and even the St. Louis County Branch of the NAACP.
Schweich is requesting department documents relating to the development of a plan calling for a new statewide district for underperforming schools, which Nicastro is expected to unveil in January. He wants records concerning the process by which the department procured a contract with CEE-Trust — Cities for Educational Entrepreneurship — an Indianapolis-based firm that’s drafting an improvement plan for Kansas City Public Schools. Schweich also has requested any internal and external communications concerning the proposed constitutional amendment that would eliminate teacher tenure.
Last week, the storm developing around Nicastro intensified after a release of department emails triggered questions about how it entered into a $385,000 contract with CEE-Trust, whose bid was three times higher than the next-highest of four bidders.
The emails showed that Nicastro had been communicating with the firm’s executive director for four months before the contract was agreed upon in August by the state Board of Education.
They also show that she tried to give the contract to CEE-Trust without seeking other bids, until members of the state board raised concerns about circumventing the typical bidding process.
The contract is being paid by private dollars from two groups supportive of charter schools — the Kauffman Foundation and the Hall Family Trust.
Late last month, other department records that became public showed that Nicastro had been consulting with Kate Casas, the state policy director for the Children’s Education Alliance of Missouri, about how to craft a ballot initiative petition aimed at eliminating teacher tenure. Rex Sinquefield, the billionaire investor and school choice advocate, is a primary backer of the organization.
The auditor’s office is requesting the education department to provide the requested documents by Dec. 31. The education department is working to accommodate the request, a department spokeswoman said Friday.

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Criticism of Nicastro builds - Columbia Daily Tribune | Columbia Missouri: News

Criticism of Nicastro builds - Columbia Daily Tribune | Columbia Missouri: News

Missouri's top education official is increasingly becoming a flash point as the state wrestles with how to address its most troubled schools.
The pressure on Education Commissioner Chris Nicastro rose another notch yesterday as lawmakers and others criticized the way the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education hired a consultant to develop a turn-around plan for Kansas City Public Schools and other struggling systems across the state.
Their concerns followed the release of emails and a Sunday story in the Kansas City Star that showed Nicastro had been talking with a firm supportive of charter schools for several months before the Missouri Board of Education awarded it a contract to develop the Kansas City school improvement plan.
The firm, Indianapolis-based CEE-Trust, which stands for Cities for Educational Entrepreneurship, received the contract despite costing three times more than the next-highest bidder. The department attempted to hire the consultant without bids but then solicited other proposals after the Missouri Board of Education raised concerns about circumventing the typical process.
State board President Peter Herschend defended the hiring of CEE-Trust as "open and competitive."
"After more than 30 years of failure in" Kansas City schools, "we need to seize this moment to have a community conversation about how we educate our kids," he wrote in a statement. "We ask that you reserve judgment before any plan has been formulated or even ideas discussed."
The emails, obtained through the Open Meetings and Records Law, or Sunshine Law, by an interfaith social organization called More2 and provided to the Post-Dispatch, offer a glimpse into Nicastro's support for creating a statewide district that would operate some of the state's lowest-performing schools — a concept supported by many school superintendents.
The emails show that Nicastro met in August with Norm Ridder, the retiring superintendent of Springfield schools, about the establishiment of this special school district and the possibility of his leading the transition.
They also show that the department's determination to craft a new plan for the unaccredited Kansas City schools didn't waver, even when the district posted its best academic gains in years. The district's annual performance report in August put it in range of provisional accreditation.
In January, Nicastro is expected to present a long-range plan to the state Board of Education on how to address struggling schools. It will fold in recommendations from CEE-Trust and perhaps from school superintendents and school-choice advocates.
Also next month, lawmakers will begin debating potential changes to the school transfer law, which is allowing 2,200 children in the unaccredited Normandy and Riverview Gardens school districts to attend higher-performing schools. Normandy and Riverview Gardens are footing the bills.
At a gathering yesterday in north St. Louis County, some members of Metropolitan Congregations United said they've become increasingly disenchanted with Nicastro and the direction the state is heading in addressing the problems of struggling school districts.
The $385,000 contract with CEE-Trust is fully funded by the Kauffman Foundation and Hall Family Trust — two groups that are supportive of charter schools.
"They're totally about privatization," said Carolyn Randazzo, a former teacher who attended yesterday's rally. "Schools are not businesses and cannot be run as businesses."
A storm has been developing around Nicastro for weeks.
Late last month, other emails obtained by the Missouri National Education Alliance showed Nicastro had been consulting with Kate Casas, the state policy director for the Children's Education Alliance of Missouri, about how to craft a ballot initiative petition aimed at eliminating teacher tenure. Rex Sinquefield, the billionaire investor and school choice advocate, is a primary backer of the alliance.
The revelation led Sen. Paul LeVota, D-Independence, and state Rep. Genise Montecillo, D-St. Louis, to call for Nicastro's resignation. Yesterday, six more lawmakers joined them and called for an investigation into "potential bid-rigging" by Nicastro.
"It is imperative that she resign immediately as state education commissioner or, if she fails to do so, be removed from her post by the Missouri State Board of Education," said the statement signed by Montecillo; LeVota; Rep. Bonnaye Mims, D-Kansas City; Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal, D-University City; Rep. Judy Morgan, D-Kansas City; Rep. John Mayfield, D-Independence; Rep. Ira Anders, D-Independence; and Rep. Joe Runions, D-Grandview.
Chapelle-Nadal has filed legislation that would allow the Senate to fire the education commissioner with a two-thirds vote. Such a change would require a statewide vote to alter the Missouri Constitution. Currently, Nicastro works for the Missouri Board of Education, whose members are appointed by the governor.
But others came to Nicastro's defense yesterday.
At the rally, Rep. Tommie Pierson, D-St. Louis County, said the transfer situation and funding problems had created a tough political environment for Nicastro.
"A lot of my colleagues are calling for her dismissal," he said. "I hope she weathers this storm."
Herschend suggested the attacks were political. The board urged Nicastro last year "to act swiftly to institute change in unaccredited school districts," Herschend wrote, "but some groups are fighting even suggestions of change."
He said something different was needed. "Change is always hard, and many will oppose change, but what we are doing now is not working."

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Calls increase for termination of Missouri education commissioner - KansasCity.com

Calls increase for termination of Missouri education commissioner - KansasCity.com

Why aren't any Republicans calling for this?

The legislators asking for Nicastro’s firing or resignation:
Rep. Genise Montecillo, Democrat; Sen. Paul LeVota, Democrat; Rep. Bonnaye Mims, Democrat; Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal, Democrat; Rep. Judy Morgan, Democrat, ; Rep. John Mayfield, Democrat; Rep. Ira Anders, Democrat; Rep. Joe Runions, Democrat.




Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/12/09/4681182/calls-increase-for-termination.html#storylink=cpy

Proposed changes to teacher certification worry some - Columbia Daily Tribune | Columbia Missouri: Education

Proposed changes to teacher certification worry some - Columbia Daily Tribune | Columbia Missouri: Education

A proposed change to certification for early childhood and elementary school teachers has some local education experts concerned.
The proposal, which was developed by the Office of Educator Quality and is recommended by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, would remove kindergarten from the early childhood certification.
Right now, early childhood certification covers working with birth to third grade and overlaps with elementary certification, which covers grades 1-6. In the proposal, early childhood would be limited to birth to pre-K, and elementary would include grades K-6.
Kathy Thornbrook, a researcher for the Center for Family Policy and Research, doesn't think that is the right move.
"I think it would be a disaster for several reasons," Thornbrook said. "One, there would not be near enough pre-kindergarten teachers being trained" if kindergarten teachers no longer get early childhood training.
Overlapping early childhood and elementary certifications means more qualified preschool teachers, she said. That's important, she said, because there will likely be a need for more preschool teachers as federal and state funding increases.
But Thornbrook also stressed that education and development needs differ from kindergarteners to sixth-graders, which is why she suggests breaking up the early childhood certification into two categories, birth to pre-K and pre-K to third grade.
"I think we need to keep the notion of early childhood being birth through third grade and just have teacher training programs be split into those age groups," she said.
Thornbrook isn't alone in having concerns about the proposal.
Karla DeSpain, a former Columbia Board of Education member who now is involved with two early childhood initiatives, said she has mixed feelings about the proposal. She sees a need for more stringent requirements for certification but said she sees the point that fewer people might seek early childhood education certification if kindergarten is no longer a part of that certification.
"As a … community volunteer, I want to make sure we have the people trained and … educated to work with kids before they get to kindergarten," she said. "I'm not sure what's proposed is going to achieve that."
Peter Stiepleman, assistant superintendent of elementary education, said Columbia Public Schools sees some benefits in the changes, such as the opportunity for education majors in the elementary program to do their student teaching in a kindergarten classroom, which hasn't been possible in the past. But the district also has concerns, he said.
"There is a real concern about the level of training elementary teachers will get on early childhood development if kindergarten teachers are no longer a part of the early childhood certification," he said.
DESE spokeswoman Sarah Potter said the department is still gathering feedback on the proposal, but so far DESE is seeing "a lot of consensus" around keeping the birth-to-third-grade certification. She stressed that nothing has been decided yet.
"We put a proposal out there, but nothing is final until we've gathered all kinds of feedback," Potter said. "We've been really happy to get that feedback and really happy to get a consensus."

Missouri school district protects children from critically acclaimed books, but not from rape. | Sky Dancing

Missouri school district protects children from critically acclaimed books, but not from rape. | Sky Dancing

This is one of the most outrageous stories I have ever come across. Via Jezabel, the family of a girl in Springfield, Missouri has filed a lawsuitagainst the Republic School District, claiming the girl was harrassed, sexually assaulted, and raped by a male student on school property.
The suit, filed July 5, alleges when the girl — a special education student — told officials about the harassment, assault and rape that occurred during the 2008-09 school year, they told her they did not believe her. She recanted.
The suit also alleges that, without seeking her mother’s permission, school officials forced the girl to write a letter of apology to the boy and personally deliver it to him. She was then expelled for the rest of the 2008-2009 school year and referred to juvenile authorities for filing a false report.
The suit notes that school officials did not report the girl’s accusation to law enforcement officials, as they are mandated by law to do. Not only that, they apparently didn’t even read the girl’s psychological evaluation–in the school’s files–which described her as “conflict adverse, behaviorally passive” and likely to “forego her own needs and wishes to satisfy the request of others around so she can be accepted.”
In 2010, the girl was “allowed” to return to school, and the harrassment and assaults continued.
In February 2010, the boy allegedly forcibly raped the girl again, this time in the back of the school library. While school officials allegedly expressed skepticism of the girl, her mother took her to the Child Advocacy Center and an exam showed a sexual assault had occurred. DNA in semen found on the girl matched the DNA of the boy she accused, the suit says.
The boy was taken into custody in Juvenile Court and pleaded guilty to charges, the suit says. The specific charges are not stated in the suit.
So there is no question whatsoever that the second rape took place–in the school library! But the school district’s response to the suit claims that the girl’s accusations are “frivolous and have no basis in fact or law.” They further claim that the girl “failed to…protect herself,” and so whatever happened to her was her own fault.
Ironically, this is the same school district that recently banned Kurt Vonnegut’s brilliant novel Slaughterhouse Five and Sara Ockler’s Twenty Boy Summer from their school curricula and libraries. The books were banned by school board members all of whom except one had never read either book, but had been shocked by newspaper column by a Missouri State professor.
Wesley Scroggins, a business professor at Missouri State University, who also pioneered a movement to reshape middle school sex-education classes in Republic’s schools, wrote in a column last year that Vonnegut’s classic contained enough profanity to “make a sailor blush,” and warned that “Twenty Boy Summer” was similarly dangerous.
“In this book,” Scroggins wrote, “drunken teens also end up on the beach, where they use their condoms to have sex.”
Apparently books about consensual sex are wrong, but rapes that take place in the school library are just fine. And if a girl reports being raped, she’ll have to apologize to the boy who did it for speaking up.
This case is very reminiscent of the case of the cheerleader in Texas who was forced to pay damages because she refused to cheer for her rapist, a basketball player. It also reminds me of the case in Muncie, Indiana, in which a girl was raped on school property, and when she reported it, school administrators interrogated the girl and held her for hours in the principal’s office, refusing to report the crime to police.
What is it with school officials who refuse to protect girls from sexual harrassment and rape? The mother of the girl in Muncie is also suing the school system as well as the 16-year-old rapist’s family.
I hope both of these families are successful and that having the pay the settlements will force these school districts to get serious about sexual assault.
Meanwhile, Republic school superintendent Vern Minor should be fired immediately.

Group demands top educator to step down after alleged ‘misuse of power’ | fox4kc.com

Group demands top educator to step down after alleged ‘misuse of power’ | fox4kc.com

A coalition of Kansas City teachers, parents and lawmakers chanted in below-freezing temperatures in the Kansas City Power and Light District to shed some light on what they call “their fight for public education” and they want Missouri State Education Commissioner Chris Nicastro to step down.
“Nicastro must go, Nicastro must go!” shouted the group during their protest Monday near 13th and Grand.
They’re upset after they say Nicastro, in emails obtained by a group and detailed in Sunday’s Kansas City Star, shows support for a school reform agenda that strongly favors charter schools, run by private companies.
“She was wrong. She should be fired,” Amye Cooley, retired Kansas City teacher, said.
“She wasn’t upfront,” Andrea Flinders, president of the Teachers’ Union Local 691, said. “She wasn’t transparent and I just didn’t like the way it was done. It looks like she had a plan for us no matter how well we do with our scores.”
The teachers’ union and its supporters insist Nicastro has teamed up with CEE-Trust, an out of state consulting firm, to pave the way for a corporate takeover of the unaccredited school district at students’ expense.
FOX 4′s Robert Townsend couldn’t reach Nicastro on Monday in Jefferson City.  However, in a statement, State Board of Education President Peter Herschend said in part, “We as a state and the State Board of Education have to find better ways of helping students, schools, teachers and education leadership over the barrier of failing schools.”
Herschend added, “change is always hard and many will oppose change, but what we are doing now is not working.”
“We are committed to another year of showing improvement in the areas that we need to show improvement,” Dr. R. Stephen Green, the Superintendent of Kansas City Public Schools, said.
Meantime, Democratic State Senator Paul LeVota, from Independence, is one of eight Missouri legislators now calling for Chris Nicastro to step down.
“She’s misused her power. She’s done this in the past,” Senator LeVota said.

Monday, December 9, 2013

Anti-bullying presentation at S-C — Sedalia News Journal

Anti-bullying presentation at S-C — Sedalia News Journal

Tom Durkin, public education director for the State of Missouri Attorney General’s Office, came to Smith-Cotton High School on Tuesday to educate students on the importance of Internet safety.
He started off the presentation by stating just how much technology has progressed since he was a child, and how our uses of it have advanced over that time. But with that came the true meaning of the assembly when he began to talk about the consequences that evolved technology can bring.
The main idea behind his speech was that the Internet is a tool that can be used for good or bad intentions. Using this tool cautiously is the first step behind being safe on the global web. With his main point out on the table, Durkin shared several stories of web tragedies that have occurred in the past several years. These stories were all in the idea of informing the students to see just how much at risk they can be if they put themselves out there.
A few other topics were brought up, such as the damage to your future career that can be caused by doing something quite small on a social media site.
Student perception of this assembly was quite diverse. Ramey Baro said, “It was inspiring, humorous, and presented the information in a fun and relatable way.”
Durkin closed with stating his main and only goal: To instruct the student bodies of the world to be wise when it comes to interacting on the web.Photos courtesy Sedalia School District 200.

Chicago Tribune - More students switch to online schools to escape bullies

Chicago Tribune - More students switch to online schools to escape bullies

My son dropped out to avoid the psychological and emotional damages of adult bullying.

DAYTON, Ohio Krista Hooten saw "terror" in her daughter's eyes as they started back-to-school shopping for seventh grade.

Her daughter, Kelsey, had been bullied the previous year. It started emotionally: Other girls called her ugly and spread rumors about her. But it quickly turned physical: They pulled her hair on the bus and shoved her to the ground.

"It changed her personality," Hooten said. "It was a horrible, horrible year."

Hooten and her husband decided that night they had to make a change. They pulled Kelsey from public school and enrolled her online, through a charter school affiliated with the national education company K12.

Nearly a quarter of parents who enroll their children in K12 programs said bullying is a reason they removed their children from brick-and-mortar schools, according to a recent survey.

About 94 percent of those parents said going online helped address the issue, the survey commissioned by K12 found.

But bullying is a larger issue than that in America.

One-third of all children an estimated 13 million students nationwide are targeted each year, according to the White House. Those students are "more likely to have challenges in school, to abuse drugs and alcohol, and to have health and mental health issues." In some widely publicized cases, victims have committed suicide.

Krista Hooten said her daughter did not vocalize the extent to which she was bullied during sixth grade at Northeastern Local Schools district in Clark County.

Even when the attacks became physical, the Springfield teenager would "come home and not act like it was fine, but act like she was dealing with it and it wasn't that big a deal," Hooten said.

"All I knew at that point was she didn't want to go to the point where she would leave in the morning, she cried all the way to the bus stop," she said.

Hooten said she talked to her daughter's teachers and school administrators but, "their suggestion was: Just tell her to find another group of friends."

Now 16 and in 10th grade, Kelsey said she has been able to escape bullying since she started attending the Ohio Virtual Academy.

The academy now enrolls more than 12,600 students across the state, according to the Ohio Department of Education. It was given an "F" for the indicators it met on the latest state report card, which measures what percent of students passed achievement and graduation tests. About 42 percent of its students graduate in four years, according to its latest report card.

Students are given home computers, printers and a microscope and watch live videos and do chats with licensed teachers.

The online school was created in 2006, and has grown as an option for bullied students even as cyberbullying has become more prominent.

While bullying has always been an issue, one of the reasons it is more discussed today is the rise in activity online, said Susan Davies, school psychology program coordinator at the University of Dayton.

She trains school psychologists on how to recognize, react to and prevent it.

"Because of cyberbullying, students can't escape it," she said. "It's not something that's just happening at school. They're being targeted in their home when they're not even around other kids. That has become really difficult to address at the school level because there's kind of that question: Where does our jurisdiction end when it's our students that we're caring for throughout the day being bullied through the Internet?

"The kids are so savvy that they're kind of escaping notice of the adults in their lives. As soon as we get on whatever the next hot social media site is and start monitoring kids on Facebook. Well, Facebook isn't cool anymore, we're going to move to Twitter. And we're going to move to Instagram. It's hard for us to monitor them."

The Ohio Virtual Academy is not immune to cyberbullying, but does have a zero-tolerance policy, like many schools, said Kristin Stewart, senior head of school.

The school has expelled and suspended students in the past, though it's not common, she said.



The academy trains its teacher to look for signs of bullying, and Stewart said she thinks "in some ways it's brought to light even sooner because the teachers are online with students."

"Sometimes it takes these students a little bit to earn trust back," Stewart said. "But once they do, we have especially in middle school and high school we have blogs and Facebook where kids can go online and meet each other. They can approach getting back to school safely because they're in their homes and they're feeling safe. They can move at their own pace."

The school also offers extra curriculars, dances and other get-togethers for students.

Students also choose the school because they are struggling in certain subjects, because their families rely on them to work, because they have children of their own or because they want to challenge themselves, Stewart said.



Hooten's two other daughters also attend the Ohio Virtual Academy. Lexie, 14, started to give herself more time for her 20-hour-a-week dance commitment. Hannah, 11, enrolled because she was missing many days of traditional school due to her asthma.

Kelsey will begin next year taking college courses for free through the state's postsecondary enrollment option.

Her mother said the change in her personality was almost immediate after she left pubic school.

"She was just happier again," she said. "You just really underestimate, even though she's beautiful ... it's amazing what peers can do when they're telling you the opposite."