Seattle Supe MGJ's New Technology connection

So in retrospect I was thinking about how the NTN $800,000 Contract proposal got this far along without absolutely any real research taking place prior to my efforts of January 16th and following.

I delegated responsibility to my unpaid but highly professional intern Pancho to figure this out.

Pancho is not a registered private investigator or paid researcher but he ain't bad.

Here is what Pancho found:

The president of the New Technology Network foundation is Monica Martinez. She and MGJ have some shared history. Enough perhaps for MGJ to believe NTN's product is so good that no one should ever investigate any of that vendor's claims.

Really I mean CAO Enfield tells us that all 41 NTN schools are successful and that should be good enough for anyone ... Right??

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Let us take a look.

The "National High School Alliance was founded by Monica Martinez
see her bio at http://www.kwfdn.org/press_room/bios/martinez.asp

for: “Monica founded the Washington, D.C.-based National High School Alliance”

Maria Goodloe-Johnson was on the board of this Alliance, as mentioned in several bios available, for example:
http://www.newschools.org/files/Fellows2008.pdf
http://www.seattleschools.org/area/m_news/Goodloe_Johnson_Appointed_Superintendent.pdf

The Reason that MGJ knows that Monica's stuff is excellent and does not need to be researched prior to school board rubber-stamp approval becomes evident in the
Phi Delta Kappan journal.

MGJ is listed as an "Editorial Consultant" to this journal
and Monica Martinez authored a series of articles beginning with Vol 91 No 1
a sample of this is available on line at:
http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/docs/Sample_Kappan.pdf

Ms. Martinez articles are in an Innovation section:

INNOVATION: Students as Smart Mobs
Phi Delta Kappan, Vol. 91, No. 1 (September 2009): pp. 74-75.

She is the author of the articles in the series in the next three editions:

INNOVATION: It's All About Me
Phi Delta Kappan, Vol. 91, No. 2 (October 2009): pp. 74-75.

INNOVATION: Becoming Green
Phi Delta Kappan, Vol. 91, No. 3 (November 2009): pp. 74-75.

INNOVATION: Urban Wilderness
Phi Delta Kappan, Vol. 91, No. 4 (December 2009/January 2010): pp. 68-69.

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Speaking of School Reform .... how about

National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform

Both MGJ and MM are listed as “members” and signatories on a statement issued in 2002;
http://www.nelms.org/pdfs/pos_statements/HighstakesTesting.pdf

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It would be nice to know if their are other connections between these two at other "foundations" that these two have associations with.

Is this the decision making by Club Ed Elites where the use of relevant data is discouraged because those connected know best? This seems to be a sort of in-bred club of some sort in at least a few ways.

MGJ loves to hire consultants, too. She was doing it in Texas, probably in SC, and now WA. If a real journalist wanted to dig in and follow the money, it might lead somewhere.

Chad Wick, head of Knowledgeworks foundations, once headed another "foundation" called "Rise Learning Solutions". Neither it or Knowledgeworks replied to requests from the Ohio Better Business Bureau, prompting them to label them as failing in the "transparency" department.

NTNetwork, of course, used to be NTFoundation, until absorbed by KWFoundation. NTN is clearly a for-profit firm. How can a for profit firm be part of a not-for-profit foundation????

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Well there is Pancho's report.