"OK, you win"

APS board chair agrees to step down | ajc.com

Atlanta school board Chairman Khaatim Sherrer El agreed Monday to step down from leadership.
El and other members sought assurances that the move would unify the board and assure city leaders of its intent to win favor with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), which put the district on probation.

I'm not prepared to say Mr El is correct in all things, but if the charge is "the board is contentious" and the response is "one person changes", I don't understand how that can possibly be enough. That would imply that Mr El is not merely a problem, not merely the biggest problem, but the only problem.

Oh, and while we're at it:

Atlanta superintendent acknowledges cheating | ajc.com

A month before retiring as Atlanta’s schools superintendent, Beverly Hall finally acknowledged this week that educators cheated to help students pass state-mandated achievement tests. And, she said, the findings of a criminal investigation into the matter will be “alarming.”

In the interests of accuracy, I should note she didn't say it would be "surprising". And I should also mention that if she'd said this a year ago, APS would not now be in the jam it's in. They'd still be in a jam, just a different, more reparable jam. And folks might, you know, trust them to fix it.

As it is, though, it just makes it look like Job One at 130 Trinity is to keep the wagons circled.

What does a librarian do?

Seth's Blog: The future of the library

I like Seth Godin, but...

Before Gutenberg, a book cost about as much as a small house. As a result, only kings and bishops could afford to own a book of their own.

No, neither kings nor bishops owned books. Why would a king want one? He couldn't read. It's only many decades after Gutenberg that the concept of "public literacy" gained any meaning at all.

Industrialists (particularly Andrew Carnegie) funded the modern American library. The idea was that in a pre-electronic media age, the working man needed to be both entertained and slightly educated.

Slightly educated? Slightly educated? Carnegie weeps.

Your kids need a place with shared encyclopedias and plenty of fun books...

Is that what you think a library is for? Carnegie wails.

Which was all great, until now. Want to watch a movie? Netflix is a better librarian...

You were talking about libraries, not movies. Carnegie gnashes his teeth.

Wikipedia and the huge databanks of information have basically eliminated the library as the best resource for anyone doing amateur research (grade school, middle school, even undergrad).

Oh, so that's where you were going. Why didn't you say so to begin with?

In any case, it's not so. Wikipedia didn't eliminate the library: Its creators simply responded to a need for a skill that students were no longer being taught. The ready reference librarians never went away: They are still there.

The library is still "the best resource for anyone doing amateur research". It's just that few people really do that any more, absent some classroom requirement. For decades, schools have taught and other media (okay, I'll say it: "television") have reinforced that only intellectuals read. Alphabetical order? Bibliographic citation? Scientific method? These are for elitists only, of no practical value to such as us. Anything worth knowing can be understood in ten words or less. (Never mind that that sentence is eleven words.)

They need a librarian more than ever (to figure out creative ways to find and use data). They need a library not at all.

The librarian was always the most valuable asset to be found in a library. Without her (so sue me: the vast majority of them are women), it's just a box of books. Even if the patron doesn't deal with the librarian personally, he benefits from her judgement in the criteria by which the collection is selected and maintained. She's an editor who culls the flawed and nonsensical, and recommends the more reliable sources, most likely to actually enrich your experience. (This is a function with which Wikipedia still struggles.)

Librarians that are arguing and lobbying for clever ebook lending solutions are completely missing the point.

Oh, really, Seth, that's a controversy you don't want to even brush up against in an article as short as this one. Publishers have always distrusted libraries (every book borrowed is a book not sold, they say, and from whence will the next book come if the previous book isn't profitable?), and ebooks embody everything they dislike about libraries. The librarian's goal remains unchanged: To get the information into the hands of the person who wants it. Librarians have no particular desire for "clever ebook lending solutions", they just want the damn books and have to compromise with the publishers who insist that access to those books be limited.

But, as I said, this is a discussion for another day.

The next library is...

The library today already is all of the things you want "the next library" to be.

But I think the next time you utter the phrase "dead paper", some librarian is going to grab the nearest, most bricklike stack of "dead paper" and throw it at you.

Whose 'Noles?

More universities haggling with high schools over trademarks

High schools that share logos with universities may soon find themselves shopping for new mascots.

Florida State, which last week reached a settlement with the Rockdale County Board of Education prohibiting Salem High and Memorial Middle from using the Seminoles logo, isn't the only university aggressively protecting its trademark.

The Atlanta-based Collegiate Licensing Company, acting on behalf of the University of Florida, sent a similar letter to two Palm Beach, Fla., high schools last fall. And the University of Mississippi forced a Tennessee high school to drop its mascot of 50 years, Colonel Reb, due to trademark infringement claims.

I've seen plenty of high school mascots and logos that were copies of collegiate or professional teams' logos. I, like most of you (I'm guessing), assumed the schools had actually asked. I should have known better.

The likely response is "but they're schools".

"It was a matter of principle for me," said [Rockdale] board vice chairwoman Jean Yontz, who cast one of two dissenting votes. "We're not making money off the the Seminoles, but now we're going to have to take money away from education to pay for this."

Making money is beside the point. If a logo has value to the high school, it seems disingenuous to claim that it doesn't have any to the college. In the eyes of the law (which must mean something), co-opting someone else's intellectual property is theft. It the intellectual property owner doesn't protect its right to control how its property is used, it loses that right and the material becomes public domain. The courts have been consistent over this point for decades.

This weekend at APS

What, more problems?

Beverly Hall closely tracked CRCT results

...E-mails, memos and other documents recently obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution provide the most detailed look to date at the intensity with which [Atlanta Public Schools' Superintendent Beverly] Hall followed the yearly CRCT results. She parsed scores in detailed exchanges with district researchers. She praised subordinates whose numbers improved. She kept business leaders and other supporters apprised of successes.
Nothing in the e-mails and other material suggests that Hall, Atlanta’s superintendent since 1999, ordered anyone to tamper with test papers or to behave illegally or unethically to achieve certain outcomes. How the district achieved its impressive 2009 scores is at the center of two criminal investigations.

I'm assuming everyone has noticed that reports keep leaning heavily on the item, paraphrased differently from story to story, that nobody is saying Hall knew. Neither am I -- but if she was qualified to sit in that chair, she must have suspected. The best possible spin that can be put on it is that she was too eager to believe unbelievable numbers. Villain or victim, though, she shouldn't become the CRCT scapegoat. There's plenty of clear deceptive intent to go around.

And now what?

APS underfunded its pension plan

The district has underfunded its pension for custodians, bus drivers and cooks by more than a half-billion dollars.
APS has the worst underfunding of any large public pension plan in the state, according to a recent state audit. While it is generally agreed that, at any given time, a pension plan should contain 80 percent to 90 percent of the money it is obligated to pay out, APS has assets to cover just 17.4 percent of its pension promises.
“It’s something that dates from long ago,” ...said Chuck Burbridge, the district’s chief financial officer.

How long? When did it begin? Nobody wants to say.

Most teachers are in a separate state-run plan that is much better-funded. 

Oh, well, then.

This week at APS

APS teachers’ contracts held amid cheating scandal

Atlanta Public Schools notified hundreds of educators last week that their future employment is uncertain, reigniting protests from state investigators who have repeatedly complained about intimidation of potential witnesses in their wide-ranging criminal inquiry into test tampering.
The investigators, appointed to examine cheating in Atlanta after the state found high numbers of suspicious erasures on standardized tests in 2009, told the school district Friday to immediately withdraw letters telling about 450 teachers their contract renewals are on hold.

Anybody besides me remember an old Pete Seeger song about being "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy"? Here in the Real World, of course, it's illegal to fire people for whistleblowing. I'm eager to hear why APS thinks this should not be so for them.

Reed wants to appoint some school board members

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed for the first time Monday raised the possibility he might try to seek special power to appoint city school board members, as he seeks to speed reforms mandated by the city system's accrediting agency.

I don't think the mayor actually intends to do this, but it must be frustrating dealing with the APS Board.

APS Ketchup

If we're not careful, the CRCT investigation is going to get misplaced.

Atlanta school board sets path to fix accreditation
Atlanta school board members voted Monday night to accept an accreditation report that put the school system on probation.

APS Put on Probation; Hall Vows to 'Secure' Status

SACS says the Atlanta school system must take six actions to avoid losing accreditation:

• Develop and implement a long-term plan to communication with and engage stakeholders in the work of the district and to regain the trust of parents and students.
• Secure and actively use the services of a trained, impartial mediator who will work with board members to resolve communication, operational and personal issues that are impeding the effectiveness of the governing body.
• Ensure that the actions and behavior of all board members are aligned with board policies, especially those related to ethics and chain of command.
• Review and refine policies to achieve the mission to educate students.
• Develop and implement a process for selecting a new superintendent that is transparent and engages public participation. The final choice of superintendent should be determined by more than a simple majority of the board.
• Work with the state of Georgia to address inconsistencies between the state charter for the school board and system policies.

Schools spent millions on now-optional new math
Some school systems invested millions of dollars in the new and soon-to-be-optional integrated math curriculum for high schools, a survey of metro districts by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution showed.

APS board members may pursue independent counsel
The motivation for board members Nancy Meister, Yolanda Johnson and Brenda Muhammad is unclear.

Hall's contract may face outside review
City school board Chairman Khaatim Sherrer El brought up the review in the waning minutes of a three-hour "emergency special" meeting, most of which was spent by members behind closed doors. He backtracked immediately afterward, however, as other members crowded around him to protest that the board neither publicly discussed nor reached any sort of consensus on the issue.

APS official believes she’s a scapegoat
The high-level Atlanta Public Schools official accused of telling principals to send "go to hell" memos to state investigators thinks she has become a scapegoat in a systemwide cheating scandal. ...[SRT-3 supervisor Tamara] Cotman was referring to an anonymous letter, sent to the school district in December, that alleged she discouraged a group of principals from cooperating with a criminal investigation of cheating on the 2009 Criterion-Referenced Competency Test. ...She said she did pass out blank "go to hell" sheets — but did not speak disparagingly of state investigators. She said she was right to encourage principals to vent their frustrations — but did not single out the investigators for condemnation.

Atlanta school board hires professional mediator

Mistake costs Atlanta schools $48 million, delays projects
An unintentional paperwork error by the Fulton County school system will cost Atlanta Public Schools $48 million and force the city to delay several school construction projects, in some cases indefinitely. Fulton officials didn't file a form that accurately reflected the enrollments of the city and county school systems, resulting in an overpayment to Atlanta from a 1-percent sales tax used for school capital needs.

ATL school board appoints community panel
The Atlanta school board has formed a community engagement committee to help gather ideas and offer feedback about how it communicates and engages the public. The move aims to help the board meet a mandate from the system's accrediting agency.

APS faces more than $30 million in 2012 cutbacks
Atlanta Public Schools expect budget cutbacks of more than $30 million next school year, resulting in cost-cutting moves that likely include another increase in class sizes (mainly in middle schools), a continued employee pay freeze and two days of involuntarily furloughs. However, officials said they did not anticipate layoffs or a property tax increase.

Group calls for APS board chairman to relinquish leadership role
An Atlanta parents group organized in the wake of the city system being put on probation said Friday that school board member Khaatim Sherrer El should step down in his role as board chairman and that new officers should be elected. The group, Step Up or Step Down, was reacting to e-mails published Thursday by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's "Get Schooled" blog in which a member accused El of making an offensive gesture at her, among other issues. El declined comment on the announcement. The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools put Atlanta on probation in January for reasons related entirely to the board's governance.

See also Step Up Or Step Down's Facebook page.

APS court-ordered to blink

Atlanta school system calls off its investigation | ajc.com

State investigators have won their fight with Atlanta Public Schools over whether the district should halt its inquiry into inflammatory comments by a high-ranking school official.
Fulton County Judge Doris Downs — and representatives of the district and state investigators — signed a consent order Tuesday in which the district promised to drop its investigation of allegations that Tamara Cotman, a regional superintendent, suggested a dozen principals tell GBI agents to “go to hell.”

So does that mean she goes back to SRT-4 (supervising principals), or she stays relocated to non-supervisory capacity in the "English as a Second Language" unit, or what?

What were they supposed to say?

Atlanta school district denies trying to obstruct

Lawyers for Atlanta Public Schools have sent state investigators a defiant letter, ratcheting up the tension in an already-strained relationship.

In a three-page letter, sent Friday and obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, district officials denied obstructing the state’s criminal investigation into test-tampering, as investigators alleged last week. The letter objected to accusations that school officials have for years systematically retaliated against employees who reported cheating on state tests.

The school system also refused to cease its internal inquiry into allegations that a high-ranking district official allegedly advised a dozen principals to tell GBI agents to “go to hell.”

Judge orders APS to halt investigation

A Fulton County judge has ordered Atlanta Public Schools to halt an inquiry involving a high-ranking school official after state investigators accused the district of misleading them, hiding evidence and retaliating against a witness, according to documents filed Monday.

The temporary restraining order — signed by Superior Court Judge Craig Schwall just before 10 p.m. Sunday — provided a sharp answer to the district’s defiant pledge Friday to continue its investigation of Tamara Cotman, a regional superintendent who is accused of commanding principals to tell GBI agents to “go to hell.”

The state investigators, appointed in August to examine evidence of widespread tampering with state tests in Atlanta schools, asked the district last week to stop internal investigations related to cheating. The district refused and the investigators took the matter to court over the weekend.

It is hard to interpret "go to hell" as an expression of wholehearted willing cooperation.

Administrative trivia

I have too many blogs and not enough time to maintain them all. Therefore, I've just merged my comic-book-specific blog, "An Ear--in the Fireplace!", back into this one. Scrolling down to Labels and choosing "comic books" will allow you to see only those incoming posts, although I can't think of any good reason why you would want to.

Why America's taxpayers are enraged

Bates School
Originally uploaded by Larry the Biker

Why America's teachers are enraged - CNN.com
I really shouldn't say anything: I have too many friends who are teachers.

The much-publicized film "Waiting for 'Superman'" made the specious claim that "bad teachers" caused low student test scores. A Newsweek cover last year proposed that the key to saving American education was firing bad teachers.

Yes, I've know how much public school teachers hate "Waiting for 'Superman'". I haven't seen it, so I won't defend it. But isn't it just a bit disingenuous for teachers to claim that they have nothing to do with students' low test scores?

And how can anyone say that it's a bad thing to fire bad teachers? Are they blithely asserting that there are no bad teachers? (I never met a teacher yet who thought so.) That there is no way to tell? (Likewise.)

In every other service career it's expected, in some cases legally required, that there will be some kind of evaluation of job performance. Criteria for success are clearly defined, transparent to the consumers of those services, and publicly available. I can't think of a single reason why teaching should be exempt from this. This is the flip side of desiring more commitment from your students' parents: You have to be able to prove that our children are actually better off spending eight hours a day with you than being home schooled, or even being locked in a cage in the basement.

Catching up

Here are a couple of news stories about the ongoing investigation of Atlanta Public Schools that I missed the first time around.

Whistle-blowing teachers targeted

Former teacher Sidnye Fells: “It’s just this thing that everyone knows is going on but nobody says anything.... It’s the elephant in the room. If you say anything, you lose your job.”

Education secretary to Atlanta board: Get your act together

Mayor Kasim Reed: “There are times when a mayor needs to be outraged. If I am not outraged, show me the person who should be. If I am not pushing for change and reform, show me the person who should be pushing for it.”
U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan: "What you have now, frankly, is you have adults who I think have lost sight of why they’re doing this work. It is what I call adult dysfunction."

Atlanta school board to meet on cheating response

Atlanta school board members will meet Monday with Superintendent Beverly Hall about how she and her staff handled both the system's response to an ongoing state cheating probe and actions by top aides that drew a piercing rebuke last week by investigators.
The meeting follows reports that two high-ranking Atlanta Public Schools officials have over the past several months disparaged the investigation, which involves possible widespread test-tampering in schools during the state's 2009 Criterion-Referenced Competency Test.
It also follows a sharply worded letter sent by the investigators that alleged a pattern of "intimidating, threatening and retaliating" against employees who report cheating or other improprieties.

As you were.

I'm shocked. Shocked.

AJC | State: Atlanta schools protect those who would intimidate whistleblowers
State investigators have uncovered what they call a pattern of “intimidating, threatening and retaliating” against Atlanta Public Schools employees who report cheating or other improprieties.

Imagine that.

See also Atlanta schools official reassigned pending "go to hell" investigation.
And Another APS official disparages cheating probe.

Wait, I can't let this go.

The “... calling in of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation is what, nothing short of horrific,” [Deputy Supt. Kathy] Augustine said in [the conference call with principals]. “It is extremely denigrating, it is extremely disrespectful, it is... it is just... it is just bizarre.”

...In her e-mailed statement Wednesday, Augustine elaborated: “My reference to “horrific” related specifically to the reaction of many educators to state [GBI] agents who normally investigate felony criminal activity going to schools in the middle of the day to question principals, teachers and staff.”

This says to me that, even now, they don't think they've done anything wrong. No, wait, that's not enough: That they don't think the charges against them are that serious. That even if they had done it, so what? It's not worth calling in the GBI. Anyone would think they were common criminals.

Make it so

Reflections [HDR] 
Originally uploaded by sibastiNo

APS suppressed scandal | ajc.com
Atlanta Public Schools officials, including Superintendent Beverly Hall, carried out a broad campaign over two years to suppress mounting allegations of widespread cheating on standardized tests, an investigation by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has found.

Hall, who built a national reputation on raising urban students’ test scores, worked with top aides and prominent supporters to minimize or conceal evidence that some of the district’s much-vaunted gains were not legitimate.

Read the whole article.

AJC report confirms Perdue decision to probe Atlanta Public Schools | ajc.com
State investigators took over a probe of Atlanta Public Schools in August after Gov. Sonny Perdue said he was concerned the search had been deliberately narrowed.

Monday, his spokesman said that decision appears to have been confirmed after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported local officials carried out a broad campaign over two years to suppress mounting allegations of widespread test cheating.

"That's why the state did what it did," Perdue spokesman Bert Brantley said.

The AJC compiled the report using hundreds of documents obtained through the Georgia Open Records Act. It said Atlanta Superintendent Beverly Hall and other system officials exerted far greater influence than previously acknowledged on a local investigation of 58 schools with suspicious test scores.

Looks like they're trying to hang Dr Hall for it. That answer is too easy, and won't address the greater problem.

Would you let your fourth-grader wear this backpack to school?

Backpack too racy for Pasco elementary school

[The child's father, Fred] Ferrer said Quentin, a fourth-grader, wore the backpack to school for about two years without any complaints. Last week, though, another parent noticed the illustration and complained to a secretary, who brought the backpack to the attention of teachers who told [Principal Ken] Miesner.

Read the article. Dad's a real piece of work.

Caution, meltdown in progress

Accreditation at risk for Atlanta Public Schools; lawsuit also filed | ajc.com

Atlanta Public Schools risk losing accreditation if their bickering school board cannot right itself and comply with the law, a key agency warned Wednesday in a formal threat of action.

The cautioning letter from Mark Elgart, president and CEO of AdvancED, came on the same day four dissenting board members filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the appointments last month of a new chairman and vice chairwoman. The plaintiffs said they had no other recourse after colleagues acted illegally and refused to change course.

...Members on both sides agreed as late as this week they should be talking to mediate their differences. But even with the threat of litigation looming, they still could not agree in which order.

Four members wanted the board to undo its actions that changed leadership first, saying it would bring the board into compliance with the law. The other five refused, saying that they were in compliance unless or until the courts ruled otherwise.

Well, it DOES say "Advertisement"

L.A. Times Replaces Front Page With Fake 'Law & Order' News; L.A. Times Readers Really Pissed - The Consumerist

An advertisement that appeared to be the front page of The Times took readers by surprise Wednesday morning. Many of them called or sent e-mails to protest the fake news reports of vandalism and murder at NBC in Burbank. As of noon, The Times had received 61 e-mails, all but one of them critical, and 51 phone calls.

Well, that adds up to a significant percentage of their readership these days, doesn't it?

The ad, which readers discovered after unfolding the page, was for the TV show “Law & Order Los Angeles.” The actual front page, with a lead story about the debate between gubernatorial candidates Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown, was just behind the ad.

Our top story tonight: Another TV show is set in Los Angeles. Film at 10:00 pm on NBC.

There, see how easy it was to spend $28 million?

Under new federal guidelines all New York City street signs will have to be made lower-case - NYPOST.com

Federal copy editors are demanding the city change its 250,900 street signs -- such as these for Perry Avenue in The Bronx -- from the all-caps style used for more than a century to ones that capitalize only the first letters.

Changing BROADWAY to Broadway will save lives, the Federal Highway Administration contends in its updated Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, citing improved readability.

At $110 per sign, it will also cost the state $27.6 million, city officials said.

Can you imagine what will happen when the fed'ral gummint discovers KERNING?

Technologies come together in unpredictable ways

Kinkajou Projector from GOOD.is on Vimeo.

Now tell me again how the Promethian board is absolutely necessary.

You can talk, you can talk, you can bicker, you can talk

WABE: State Investigators Warn Atlanta Public Schools to Stay Out of the CRCT Cheating Probe: A Conversation with State Investigator Bob Wilson (2010-09-16)

The investigators appointed by Governor Perdue to look into allegations of cheating on the Criterion Referenced Competency Test in the Atlanta Public Schools have rejected a request from Atlanta school officials who wanted to participate in the probe.

Former state Attorney General Mike Bowers and former DeKalb County District Attorney Bob Wilson have also warned the Atlanta schools against mounting their own investigation. APS already has the results of a probe by a blue ribbon commission appointed by the school board. But Governor Perdue called it "inadequate."

Well, that's what he calls it. You don't want to know what the teachers call it.

A-a-and here comes another layer of investigators

Feds probe Atlanta schools | ajc.com

Federal authorities are investigating whether Atlanta Public Schools committed fraud by illicitly boosting scores on standardized tests, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has learned.

...The CRCT provides a key measure of whether schools are meeting standards mandated by the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Meeting the standards can earn those schools additional federal money, which principals can spend for almost anything they wish.

But if the schools are found to have earned extra grants through inflated scores, officials could face criminal charges. The U.S. attorney’s office also could ask a judge to order the school district to reimburse the federal government. The bonus grants for Atlanta schools total nearly $360,000 a year.

This strikes at the core of the fiction that public schools are locally-run. "We can't just tell you what to do," says the Fed, "but we'll make it worth your while to do it our way, if you take my meaning." And the local school boards, for their part, will jump through any hoop the Fed puts in place to get that money. The idea of NOT doing so simply doesn't occur to them. "That's OUR money," the school board will say. It was written into the budget years ago.

"Bonus" grants? Hah!