Wednesday, April 13, 2011

E2SHB 1443 ... Insanity reigns in the State Senate on 4/12
30 Senators go gaga over ed reform
Where is the evidence?

OMG this is beyond irrational .....

Get the complete scoop E2SHB 1443 on School-Truth here.

Remember WPPSS when there was an attempt to build 5 nukes without consideration of number of laborers in the trades and without ever building anything before... => result a massive BOND Default.

===========
Senators...... Anyone remember Washington Public Power Supply System (WPPSS) ?.... WPPSS tried to build five nuclear power plants simultaneously .... but failed to create any prototypes and the failure to build sequentially was an enormous mistake that had a huge negative impact upon the public well-being.

WPPSS has at least two too many parallels to the CCSS proposal.

(1) No orderly rational approach to the problem because states are in an Obama/Duncan Federal hurry …. thus no prototype is proposed {Fast Food like Test creation with 40+ franchises needed now, would you invest in this without even a single successful outlet in existence? Only RttT bribe money put this on the table.}.

(2) WPPSS had never built anything of any size before..... the testing consortia have never created anything before either.

It is way past time for the legislature to stop wasting resources on incomplete, defective education proposals. I figured that being out of money this session would lead to better decision-making. I’ve been wrong on that so far.

Monday, March 28, 2011

A whole new thought on Math Teacher Quality: Vern Williams in the NY Times
(fits with WA's CCSS collusion)

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/03/27/how-to-raise-the-status-of-teachers/let-us-teach

Looking at what is going on all around us in WA state, Mr. Williams has hit this Spot On.

Until practicing classroom teachers are allowed to make real decisions regarding curriculum, assessment, textbooks and professional development, the status of teachers will remain low.

At the moment, our profession seems to be in the hands of politicians, researchers, special interest groups, school system bureaucracies, unions, technology companies and textbook publishers. ...... Why should bright high school students decide to become teachers if they suspect that everyone will make decisions concerning their profession except them?


---------
Mr. Williams ...teaches honors math at Longfellow Middle School in Fairfax County, Va. He was named to the National Mathematics Advisory Panel in 2006.

Note Mr. Williams was the only k-12 classroom teacher on the NMAP.

The Washington State Board of Education selected a math advisory panel, which no longer meets.

Seattle MATH Court decision

In the Seattle Times:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2014623419_mathbook29m.html


Appeals court sides with Seattle schools over math text choice

The Washington State Court of Appeals has reversed an earlier decision in King County Superior Court that found Seattle's choice of a new high-school math series was arbitrary and capricious.

---- be sure and check the comments at the Times.

Here is the Court ruling:

http://www.courts.wa.gov/opinions/index.cfm?fa=opinions.showOpinion&filename=650360MAJ

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Friday, March 11, 2011

School-Truth.com is coming

Currently under-construction for initial issue on Monday March 14, 2011

School-Truth.com
for a new look at what is really going on in what is left of our republic.


A Tool for a more Open and Transparent Government.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

My Letter to School Directors in Seattle

Dear Seattle School Director,

It was extremely disheartening to see President Sundquist and Interim Superintendent Enfield so incredibly far off the Math Mark in the Seattle Times Editors 47 minute conversation with them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdAbbyM5ZLo

It is absolutely appalling after various members of the public spent years testifying coupled with 10 years of worsening math results for Educationally Disadvantaged learners, to find two high level District Decision-Makers so far out of touch with reality. Not to mention the public spending over $15,000 to take Math to Court, while the Board doles out $400,000 to two criminals.

As I said last board meeting: "I've spent a little over four years telling you that to improve a system requires the intelligent application of relevant data .... and you still don't get it."

Here is a little YouTube video I made... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEpbSicnvr4 quite some time ago.

WOW!!! Porter, McLaren, Mass, in court today .... and the former CAO is now interim Superintendent and both she and Pres. Sundquist could hardly be further removed from math reality.

Can someone explain to me why only 22 hrs. elapsed from Action proposing buy-out to buy-out school board meeting? {This will involve actually sending me an email or calling me at 360-920-0823)

I still find this 22 Hr. slam dunk move to be an action proposed by a Board President covering up really serious wrong doing, and giving away $400,000 in the process. Here look at the videos and what do you see?

Video presentation poor decision-making on parade Forgery ignored==>

http://mathunderground.blogspot.com/2011/03/forgery-ignored-in-buying-out-mgj-and.html

It is quite apparent that Board President Sundquist must have drifted off during several testimonies or else he is a blatant public liar.

Note what Steve Sundquist said in an interview with the Seattle Times editors here ==>
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiO_V-s9dU8


It is hard to believe he was at the Board meeting he presided over ... given his above comments on the Superintendent's wrong doing.

-- Don't forget to write

----

Director Sundquist, what literature are you referring in this supposed controversy over Math? Remember you were unable to read paragraph 27 on page xxiii in NMAP before voting for the Math adoption that significantly lowered OSPI math scores for grade 10 Black students and English Language Learners in spite of $800,000 in books and $400,000 in professional development. ... Seattle got the same results as Bethel with the same text series. This was hardly a surprise.

Please Director Sundquist resign as you are apparently unable to analyze data or tell the truth.
-----

Sincerely,

Danaher M. Dempsey, Jr.

HS Math Appeals Court hearing today in Seattle

Today the District goes to WA State Appellate Court Division I. THE SPS is attempting to keep another set of very poor textbooks that produced poor results at the end of year one.

Forgery Ignored in Buying Out MGJ and DK for $400,000

First of all Watch this 2 minutes ==>

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiO_V-s9dU8

of Board President Steve Sundquist narrowly focusing on only one area to say that the Board did not believe that the Superintendent was guilty of Malfeasance. Then below start watching the testimonies that Director Sundquist watched before his ridiculous statement that the Board thought the Superintendent innocent of any malfeasance.

My original Testimony Alerting the Board to their obligation to file a police complaint for forgery.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgcmSsrJ_c8


Ricky Malone on What did the Board members know and When?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkwzLiPFrNw

Followed by Eric Blumhagen on what the contract actually says. Without cause? How can this be?

Then my testimony on the Board's failure to see obvious and repeated wrong doing.
WOW!! 22 hours for the Cover up .... rather than actually looking for cause.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVXRdBouyCs

No transparency instead a whitewash. Who could miss the wrong doing? Apparently 7 Board members.

Then the fine testimony on the Board's many failures. David Edleman from Ingraham speaks. He finds a culture of School Board failure of oversight and failure to ask questions. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLvNYAFCVPE


Now it turns out that Sundquist and Martin-Morris were likely aware of wrong doing at least a year ago. How convenient to only have 22 hours for the public to react. Director Sundquist wrote the Action Reports on March 1 released at 8:00 PM for the Board meeting the next day March 2 at 6 PM to make the two Buy Outs.

THIS WAS A $400,000 attempted cover-up. Director Sundquist should resign ASAP.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Recall Petition served on SPI Randy Dorn through the Office of Secretary of State

The Recall process now shifts to Thurston County Superior Court for the Next Round.

I received the following March 3, 2011 from the Office of the Secretary of State:
http://www.box.net/shared/5b9ax43y6d

The relevant legal pieces are below.

Article 1 Section 33 of the Washington Constitution:


Recall of Elective Officers.

Every elective public officer of the state of Washington expect [except] judges of courts of record is subject to recall and discharge by the legal voters of the state, or of the political subdivision of the state, from which he was elected whenever a petition demanding his recall, reciting that such officer has committed some act or acts of malfeasance or misfeasance while in office, or who has violated his oath of office, stating the matters complained of, signed by the percentages of the qualified electors thereof, hereinafter provided, the percentage required to be computed from the total number of votes cast for all candidates for his said office to which he was elected at the preceding election, is filed with the officer with whom a petition for nomination, or certificate for nomination, to such office must be filed under the laws of this state, and the same officer shall call a special election as provided by the general election laws of this state, and the result determined as therein provided.

RCW 29A.56.110

Whenever any legal voter of the state or of any political subdivision thereof, either individually or on behalf of an organization, desires to demand the recall and discharge of any elective public officer of the state or of such political subdivision, as the case may be, under the provisions of sections 33 and 34 of Article 1 of the Constitution, the voter shall prepare a typewritten charge, reciting that such officer, naming him or her and giving the title of the office, has committed an act or acts of malfeasance, or an act or acts of misfeasance while in office, or has violated the oath of office, or has been guilty of any two or more of the acts specified in the Constitution as grounds for recall. The charge shall state the act or acts complained of in concise language, give a detailed description including the approximate date, location, and nature of each act complained of, be signed by the person or persons making the charge, give their respective post office addresses, and be verified under oath that the person or persons believe the charge or charges to be true and have knowledge of the alleged facts upon which the stated grounds for recall are based.

For the purposes of this chapter:

(1) "Misfeasance" or "malfeasance" in office means any wrongful conduct that affects, interrupts, or interferes with the performance of official duty;

(a) Additionally, "misfeasance" in office means the performance of a duty in an improper manner; and

(b) Additionally, "malfeasance" in office means the commission of an unlawful act;

(2) "Violation of the oath of office" means the neglect or knowing failure by an elective public officer to perform faithfully a duty imposed by law.

Sufficiency Hearing - RCW 29A.56.140

Within fifteen days after receiving the petition, the superior court shall have conducted a hearing on and shall have determined, without cost to any party, (1) whether or not the acts stated in the charge satisfy the criteria for which a recall petition may be filed, and (2) the adequacy of the ballot synopsis. The clerk of the superior court shall notify the person subject to recall and the person demanding recall of the hearing date. Both persons may appear with counsel. The court may hear arguments as to the sufficiency of the charges and the adequacy of the ballot synopsis. The court shall not consider the truth of the charges, but only their sufficiency. An appeal of a sufficiency decision shall be filed in the supreme court as specified by RCW 29A.56.270. The superior court shall correct any ballot synopsis it deems inadequate. Any decision regarding the ballot synopsis by the superior court is final. The court shall certify and transmit the ballot synopsis to the officer subject to recall, the person demanding the recall, and either the secretary of state or the county auditor, as appropriate.

-------

I believe that the State Attorney General writes the Recall Synopsis and then forwards that to the Thurston County Superior Court.

=========
Recall Petition filed March 1, with the Secretary of State for the recall of Mr. Randy Dorn from the Office of Washington State Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Seattle School Board Streaming available of 3/2/11 meeting

The FIRING of Seattle School Superintendent Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson and her crony Don Kennedy took place at this school board meeting.

The 20 testimonies are perhaps as a package the best ever from the Citizens of Seattle.

NOTE: THE SEATTLE HS MATH "Discovering" Adoption Appeals court hearing will be on MARCH 8, 2011

Here is the video of the Board meeting of 3/2/2011:

http://www.seattlechannel.org/videos/video.asp?ID=4794

Meeting Starts with 20 ... 3 minute testimonies

Noam Gundle begins at minute 7:00

Noam is the first Speaker mentioning Dr. Goodloe-Johnson and is Brilliant

10:30 Counselor Jennifer Greenstein speaks about RIFing and no money while spending $2 million on waste. Then yields time to C. Hewitt. "How about putting money where your sound bites are."

14:00 Omari Tahir

17:20 Chris Jackins

20:20 Ricky Malone (What did you know and when did you know it?)
& 1 minute of Jesse Hagopian at 22:20 (Don't try to pin all the corruption on MGJ there are many more Responsible)

23:45 David Edlemann from Ingraham HS..... offers constructive criticism. Failure of Board Culture .... SAO saw failure of Board oversight ... there was a Board failure to ask questions an amazing incuriousness to ask question while approving every "MGJ Proposal"

26:50 Eric Blumhagen -- firing without cause ... explains how bizarre that idea is ... without cause??? Eric read the contract ... The Superintendent has repeatedly lied to you and that is cause .... examples of her dishonesty goes on and on and on. Why are you wasting $400,000 on a BUYOUT.

30:10 Anastacia Samuelson ... goes through the big list of MGJ's failures.

33:33 Chris Stewart ... MGJ was trained at BROAD Academy ... explains all about that training. Tom Payzant facilitated Goodloe-Johnson's evaluation.
This like many other testimonies is a MUCH WATCH.

36:20 Dora Taylor ... on 17 reasons why the Superintendent should be fired with cause.
Time for listening and responding to the community not the corporations.

39:40 Dan Dempsey .. Evidence of the Superintendent's wrong doing is everywhere but the Board chooses not to look. The 22 hr. introduction/ Action item emergency at one meeting is clearly a white wash to hide from further thoughtful investigation. This $400,000 Buy Out looks like "HUSH" money.

7 more Speakers follow

42:00 Carlina Brown Pres. of RBHS PTSA speaks about good things happening at RBHS in spite of the District Administration.

45:20 Angie Wood, elementary counselor, yields to Wendy Harper, mom, attorney and PTA member speaking on the need for counselors.

48:45 Olga Addae president of the Seattle Education Association speaks

52:08 Don Alexander ... sees a problem with this action .... Media quasi-legal lynching.

56:05 Robert Femiano ... speaks on Network Capacity now needed for MAP testing ... (wasting time and frustrating students and teachers ... so when has that been a central office concern) ... Then goes to the topic of Punishing Whistle Blowers ... and the culture of intimidation ... whistle blowing is at your own risk.

59:30 Harriet Walden yields to Dorothy Hollingsworth, the first African American School Board member in Seattle.

64:05 Corey Goldstein, school counselor, (nonsense = school counselors are expendable) counselors save lives in many ways. 66:25 Quotes Dan Newell of OSPI.

67:32 Stanley Hoffman a maintenance employee and painter ... speaks about the enormous back-log of maintenance work. The maintenance of buildings is not being done adequately. When the District has problems with numbers financially ... the result is crumbling buildings. Note: the District spends an inordinate amount of funding on Central Administration.

At around minute 71:00 School Board President Director Sunquist begins the Spinning of Reality

===============

PI article on the interim Superintendent Enfield:
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/436424_enfield02.html

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Revised Filing for the Recall of Rep. Sharon Tamiko Santos

http://www.box.net/shared/6sjp3uttay

Likely to be filed on Friday. March 4, 2011

I am in favor of laws and in favor of recall and discharge for Rep. Sharon Tamiko Santos. (same for SPI Dorn)

Does any individual or institution care to read laws, observe them, or enforce them?

Clearly the Seattle School Board rarely has much interest, but does the media have any interest. The bigger question is now where elected officials and the courts stand on enforcement of existing laws or favor any accountability?

I know in regard to enforcement of RCW 28A 645.020 more than one superior court judge in King County ignores violations.

The huge question before our State now involves the adoption of the Common Core State Standards.

#1. Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn violated RCW 28A 655.071

#2. House Education Committee Chairperson Rep. Santos refused to schedule a hearing on HB 1891, a bill to delay the adoption of the CCSS for at least two years. In her opinion the Bill was not submitted in time to get a scheduled hearing.

Rep. Santos’ actions of ignoring Mr. Dorn’s above legal violation and her refusal to schedule an HB 1891 hearing may violate her oath of office to support the Constitution and Laws of the United States as well as the same for Washington State. Her suppression of substantive discussion on such an important matter is completely unjustified.

The adoption by Washington State of the Common Core State Standards could well be in violation of Federal Law. Major problems lie ahead for the CCSS based on Sec 103b of Public Law 96-88, which states the following:

(b) No provision of a program administered by the Secretary or by any other officer of the Department shall be construed to authorize the Secretary or any such officer to exercise any direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum, program of instruction, administration, or personnel of any educational institution, school, or school system, over any accrediting agency or association, or over the selection or content of library resources, textbooks, or other instructional materials by any educational institution or school system, except to the extent authorized by law.


The Smart and Balanced Assessment Consortium is not just designing assessments, they are designing curriculum which is specifically prohibited by law. While under present circumstances some people and many of Washington State’s elected officials may be ignoring this violation, this will likely not be sustainable over time as we see ever changing political climates. There could be a major change in attitude with regard to this issue in 2012. There is no justification to make this change “to the CCSS” because it will offer no permanent benefit to Washington students and is likely to end up in more chaos with substantial costs and unintended consequences. A two year delay in this decision would not preclude us from joining this effort in the future and a two year delay could save us from many huge problems that loom on the horizon. Rep. Santos is not acting to support either the laws or the Constitutions of the State and US with her refusal to allow discussion of HB 1891 through a public hearing.

While the assessment consortia PARCC and SMARTER involved with CCSS might be considered independent contractors to a federal governmental agency, their current work with state departments of education to develop curriculum frameworks on which to build out assessments, with state and federal funding, should follow legal and standard protocols vis a vis open meeting laws, good faith inclusive procedures, and abide state and federal divisions of power and decision making.

Curriculum frameworks are what Boards of Education are charged with developing, within a robust, open process, giving opportunity for public comment and engagement, and with eventual approval by majority vote.

It is not a process to be conducted behind the scenes as PARCC and Smarter and some participating states appear now to attempt.

A publicly funded body must abide law and regulations Activities and feedback must be available for inspection, (and FOIA); drafts and changes must be justified by the body itself.

The two testing consortia PARCC and Smarter should be themselves holding public meetings and should have a website for broad public comment and with their responses. This is not the case.

State boards of education should be engaged in good faith efforts to public engagement in the development of the all important "model curriculum frameworks." Engagement should include broad based expert input in the writing, expedition of distribution of drafts and opportunity for comment from the education community and general public across their state, and including the state legislature. There is little if any sufficient evidence this will occur.

The actions of Rep. Santos should encourage engagement, unfortunately her actions repress public engagement.

CCSS -
the attempted end run around THE LAW

From this LINK;

In creating the Department of Education, Congress specified that:

No provision of a program administered by the Secretary or by any other officer of the Department shall be construed to authorize the Secretary or any such officer to exercise any direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum, program of instruction, administration, or personnel of any educational institution, school, or school system, over any accrediting agency or association, or over the selection or content of library resources, textbooks, or other instructional materials by any educational institution or school system, except to the extent authorized by law. (Section 103[b], Public Law 96-88)
Thus, the Department does not

* establish schools and colleges;
* develop curricula;
* set requirements for enrollment and graduation;
* determine state education standards; or
* develop or implement testing to measure whether states are meeting their education standards.*

These are responsibilities handled by the various states and districts as well as by public and private organizations of all kinds, not by the U.S. Department of Education.

* Since 1969, the Department's National Center for Education Statistics has conducted the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). It is the only nationally representative and continuing assessment of what American students know and can do in major academic subjects and provides a wealth of data about the condition of education in the U.S. NAEP is not the same as testing done by each state to measure how well its students meet the state's academic standards; however, a large discrepancy between children's proficiency on a state's test and their performance on NAEP may suggest the state needs to take a closer look at its standards and assessments and consider making improvements.

=================

Through the "Race to the Top" funding and the support for the SMART and BALANCED ASSESSMENT CONSORTIA etc. ... the Secretary of Education and the US DoE are attempting an end run around the US Constitution and US Law.

------

The Common Core State Standards are poorly written, inferior to Washington's existing Math standards, will cost our state $182 million dollars to implement (mostly in unfunded mandates to local districts), and will result in more educational chaos in schools throughout the state. IMHO the worst thing about the CCSS is that they will essentially require that we give up our state sovereignty over education. Parents, Teachers, and the public at large will be removed from input about what our kids are learning in favor of a national one size fits all approach.

The Smart and Balanced Assessment Consortia is not just designing assessments, but they are designing curriculum which is specifically prohibited by law. While under present circumstances people may be ignoring this violation, this will not be sustainable over time as we see ever changing political climates. In fact, it wouldn't be far fetched to believe that there could be a major change in attitude with regard to this issue in 2012. There is no justification to make this change because it will offer no permanent benefit to Washington students and is likely to end up in more chaos with substantial costs and unintended consequences. A two year delay could save us from huge problems that loom on the horizon.

Don Knotts as Board President
Tim Conway as General Counsel
would have done better

Read the Seattle Superintendent's contract ==>
http://www.seattleschools.org/area/board/10-11agendas/030211agenda/GoodloeJohnsoncontract.pdf

See Section II C.

It hardly appears that the Superintendent is the employee of the Board and is under much supervision from the Board.

Next Read the Affirmation of Responsibility ==>
http://www.box.net/shared/jhirm392yz

Note: #6, #7, #8, & #14

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

About Superintendent's pay in NY state

From the NY Times article:

Mr. Cuomo’s proposal would tie superintendents’ maximum pay to the size of their school districts, with the leaders of New York’s largest districts limited to a salary of $175,000 and those in the smallest limited to $125,000. It would not affect the New York City school system, where the chancellor, Cathleen P. Black, earns $250,000 a year.

The bill was introduced after a month’s worth of sharp words from Mr. Cuomo aimed at school superintendents and their pay. He singled out administrative compensation as one area where districts could find savings as they worked to absorb his proposed $1.5 billion reduction in state school aid, which has drawn criticism from teachers’ unions and education groups.

Cuomo Seeks to Cap Pay for School Superintendents
By THOMAS KAPLAN
Published: February 28, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/01/nyregion/01superintendent.html?src=twrhp

My "To Do List for March 1, 2011"
at Secretary of State's Office
#1 Filing Recall of SPI Randy Dorn
#2 Filing Recall of Rep. Santos

Dan Dempsey's March 1, 2011 to do list:

#1 Filing Recall for SPI Randy Dorn

#2 Filing Recall for Rep. Sharon Tamiko Santos


Why can't elected officials follow the law?

A bunch of house cleaning needs to be done.

For that matter why can't Maria Goodloe-Johnson follow the law?

Oh right .... because the elected Seattle School Directors do not require her to do so.
========================

UPDATE I did make the filing for the Recall of MR. DORN at the Secretary of State's office on March 1.

I need to take the Santos recall to King County and have just revised that document.

Heading up to Seattle for the WED. NIGHT huge School Board Meeting.

The SPS may need to use the huge screen in Seahawk's Quest Field for The Crowd Overflow.

Arithmetic is Important
Hot off the Press

In Defense of Mathematical Foundations: Math Standards tend to short change Arithmetic. But mastery of Arithmetic is just what students need to succeed in Higher Level Math.

In Defense of Mathematical Foundations.

Educational Leadership,
68(6):70-73, March 2011
W. Stephen Wilson.

Here is the article link at Dr. Wilson's website:

http://www.math.jhu.edu/~wsw/ED/ramblepublished.pdf

Aren't the School Directors to Supervise the Superintendent?
My letter to the Seattle School Board

Dear School Directors and in particular President Sundquist,

Now Forgery is ignored by the School Board.

You have one employee to supervise. You have not done an adequate job of that. This inadequate job is continuing. Why?


Why am I the one contacting Sgt. Charles of Fraud and Forgery division of the Seattle Police Department? I've given you all the evidence and yet not a single director has been courteous enough to even reply.

Please see this posting
.

It is time for Directors to step up to the plate and require accountability. Begin by firing the Superintendent with cause. A buy-out will reek of more covering-up.

Step two for accountability would be for all four directors whose terms expire in November 2011 to announce they will not be filing and running for re-election.

Did any of you actually listen to my testimony at the last school board meeting?

It contained the following:

"In fact, the entire Board ignored the submission of forged documents submitted to the court by the Chief Academic Officer in an $800,000 contract approval for more discriminatory practices.

Board members: The Seattle Police Department will be happy to accept your complaint in regard to Class C felony forgery involving Seattle School District administrators. In fact your oath of office as Directors requires you to file that complaint against the administrators. Please support the constitution and laws of our state."



Why am I contacting Sgt. Charles and not Board President Sundquist?

Sincerely looking for better performance from ya'll.

Dan Dempsey
----------

See posting below for more information.

Monday, February 28, 2011

Forgery: the SPS Action Report for
New Tech Network $800,000 contract

Dear Sgt. Charles of the Seattle Police,

The following information will support my charge of forgery in decision making in the Seattle Public Schools.
The Superintendent Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson and the Chief Academic Officer produced an Action Report on March 12, 2010. This Action Report was introduced at the Seattle School Board meeting on March 17, 2010. It was based on a document masquerading as the original.

On Feb. 3, 2010, without intelligently applying any relevant data or common sense the Superintendent's proposal was approved by the Board for an $800,000 contract that did not match the action report. Upon the filing of an appeal on March 5, 2010, the Superintendent and the Board did a "nevermind" .... and introduced the NTN contract with a new Action Report, this one was based on a forged document. This NTN contract was approved by the Board on April 7, 2010.

Subsequently another appeal was filed and eventually the forgery discovered.

Here is the "Original Action Report" that was abandoned after appeal filed in Superior Court.

Here is the contract that the Board approved on Feb. 3, 2010 that did not match the above linked Action Report.


Action Report of March 12, 2010 introduced on March 17, 2010
the Board approved the contract on April 7, 2010.

Letter in which I received the Original Anderson Memo on which the Action Report was supposedly based.

The document that the SPS submitted to the Court that masqueraded as the original Anderson Memo.

---
Legal Affairs Officer Joy Stevens wrote:

The email from Susan Enfield to the School Board Directors with two attachments (January 29, 2010 memo from Eric M. Anderson to Dr. Goodloe-Johnson regarding Standards-based achievement results for New Technology Network (NTN) schools, and February 1,2010 memo from Dr. Susan Enfield and Michael Tolley to the School Board Directors regarding Comparisons between NTN, Project Lead the Way and other STEM Models) sent on February 2, 2010 at 7:31 AM

· The two attachments to the February 2, 2010 email as listed above (attached separately in case you had difficulty opening them)

· The January 29, 2010 memo from Eric M. Anderson to Dr. Goodloe-Johnson regarding
Standards-based achievement results for New Technology Network (NTN) schools that I sent to Dan Dempsey on March 16, 2010 in response to his request

You will note that the final version of the January 29, 2010 memo from Eric M. Anderson that I sent Dan Dempsey on March 16, 2010 is the exact same version that was sent to the School Board Directors on February 2, 2010. Any other versions of that memo would be draft versions created prior to finalization.

Please let me know if you have any questions or would like anything else.
Best regards,

Joy Stevens
Joy A. Stevens
Sr. Legal Assistant/Public Records Officer
General Counsel's Office
Seattle Public Schools
206-252-0117

-----

Note this version submitted to the court is missing the original's last paragraph:

The “Forgery” occurred in that the memo version used to write the Action Report and submitted as evidence to the court was NOT the memo sent to the Board. The memo MGJ used appears to be an earlier draft version. The memo used by MGJ was a less than complete version that omitted several important components of the Original Memo sent to the School Board on 2-2-10.

Among these significant differences was the omission of the entire last paragraph from the original Eric Anderson memo:

"Since the data is mixed, the primary question is whether Seattle Public Schools believes strongly in the Research based NTN learning model. Success will more than likely depend on the quality of program implementation. Knowing ahead of time that the NTN model does not guarantee strong results only enhances the degree to which the burden falls on the district and the schools to achieve success. (Bold and underline added)

How could a board member defend a vote for a non-competitive bid contract of $800,000 with that piece of evidence in the Action Report?

More importantly:

“How could the District successfully defend an appeal in Superior Court if the appellants used that piece of evidence?”


It appears that Superintendent Goodloe-Johnson and Chief Academic Officer Enfield had a solution.

Solution: Do not use that memo, but claim it was used, and then exclude it from the evidence provided to the court.


Here is CAO Enfield's May 20, 2010 documentation to the court in submitting the evidence. See page 3 and notice this submission contains "no certification" that this information is correct. The information provided to the court is not correct as it does not contain the memo Dr. Eric Anderson sent to the School Board.

-----

We eventually dropped the NTN legal appeal when we found out that the State Attorney General and the State Auditor will not act on actions that are in current litigation.

It has been a most bizarre series of events trying to get any accountability from anyone in investigating this Class C Felony Forgery issue.

RCW 28A 645.020 has requirements that the SPS Board continually fails to follow when appeals of their decisions are filed.

RCW 28A 645.020 states:
"Within twenty days of service of the notice of appeal, the school board, at its expense, or the school official, at such official's expense, shall file the complete transcript of the evidence and the papers and exhibits relating to the decision for which a complaint has been filed. Such filings shall be certified to be correct.

===============
Seven days after the Superintendent submitted the Action Report of March 12, 2010, she had little knowledge of much in regard to evidence on which the Action Report was based. LOOK HERE.

Here is a report from Dr. Eric Anderson on "The Correlates of High Achieving Schools", which the Superintendent and Board routinely ignore.

==============

Additionally Director Sunquist facilitated the approval of this $800,000 contract by stating that the school he visited in California, New Tech Sacramento, had an apparently high graduation rate. I had provided him statistics showing that the first two cohorts of graduates from NT Sacramento had graduation rates of 37% and 44% and yet he voted for the NTN Contract.

Additionally Director Martin-Morris stated that he was for the NTN contract in voting for the NTN contract on 2-3-2010 because of information he had about success at New Tech Hillsdale in Durham, NC. I provided then him with information that NT Hillsdale was in the lowest 19% of NC Schools. He ignored the relevant data, did not respond, and approved the NTN contract again on April 7, 2010, without comment.

==========

The above information is correct to the best of my knowledge. Should you need additional information, I can likely supply it. Please ask the King County Prosecutor to investigate this forgery.

Sincerely,

Danaher M. Dempsey, Jr.

Pottergate Poster

Here is a snappy poster (3.5 meg .pdf)

Featuring Fred Stephens, Silas Potter, and MGJ.

Common Core State Standards
SPI Randy Dorn
Violates State Law and
House Educ. Chair Santos gives her OK

Washington's possible adoption of the $183+ million dollar CCSS is not receiving a thoughtful discussion. .. Why??

RCW 28A.655.071 states clearly:

(2) By January 1, 2011, the superintendent of public instruction shall submit to the education committees of the house of representatives and the senate:

(a) A detailed comparison of the provisionally adopted standards and the state essential academic learning requirements as of June 10, 2010, including the comparative level of rigor and specificity of the standards and the implications of any identified differences; and

(b) An estimated timeline and costs to the state and to school districts to implement the provisionally adopted standards, including providing necessary training, realignment of curriculum, adjustment of state assessments, and other actions.

======
Superintendent of Public Instruction clearly violated the law by making the above submission....
.... on January 31, 2011 = .. 30 days late.
(See this from OSPI Public Records officer Wilson.)

There was a hearing on Feb 4, 2011. In response to that hearing of Feb 4, 2011, Representative Brad Klippert wrote HB 1891 to delay the CCSS adoption by at least two years. Rep. Klippert submitted that bill on Feb. 8, 2011. House Chair Santos never allowed that bill a hearing as she stated through her legislative assistant that HB 1891 was submitted too late for her to schedule a hearing.

The REALLY BIG QUESTION for House Education Chair Sharon Tamiko Santos is why Randy Dorn gets a complete pass for his flagrant 30 day violation of RCW 28A.655.071

============
It is my opinion that:

(1) the $183 million over 5 years should be headed to Washington Classrooms and not used as a stimulus act for more levels of administration.

(2) Arne Duncan's "Race to the Top" is little more than a "Race to the Bank" for privileged groups and corporations.

(3) The 37th District in Seattle has the lowest scoring schools in Seattle. Of 47 "failing schools" in the state, three are located in Seattle and two: "failing" Hawthorne and "failing" Cleveland are in the 37th. The Reps. from the 37th are Santos and Pettigrew. It is long past time for these two to begin assisting in creating a better learning environment for students in the 37th. Rep. Santos was an active supporter of Mr. Dorn in his 2008 election. Rep. Santos needs to now be supporting students in the 37th and the processes of a republic NOT Mr. Dorn's violation of the LAW.

----------------
Here is the Seattle Times Op-Ed from Dr. Cliff Mass on the Common Core Math Standards.

Is America's best high school soft on math?
Washington Post
Jay Matthews

Is America's best high school soft on math?

=======
Relates what happens when the primary goal of academic excellence is sacrificed to the goal of social transformation.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Seattle Times displays complete ignorance once again

Check it out and do not miss the comments.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorials/2014247489_edit17teachers.html

------------

OSPI has spent the last 14 years trying to make work, what they would like to have work and it has been almost a complete failure. Using what had been proven to work elsewhere was not going to happen with Ed leadership in WA State running the SHOW.

Now look at the Times. This article reports on what the Times Editorial Board would have liked to have happened at the hearing, as if it actually happened. Reporting what actually happened at the hearing is NOT going to happen, because its the Times.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

New TIMSS Video Public Use Website

Announcing Launch of New TIMSS Video Public Use Website

We are pleased to announce that the 53 public use lessons collected as part of the TIMSS video studies are now available for everyone on a new website, http://www.timssvideo.com/.

Users must register on the site to access the videos, but registration is free. In addition to the 53 full-length videos of eighth-grade mathematics and science lessons from seven countries, the site also provides full English-translation subtitles for each lesson, a searchable transcript, and a set of resources collected with each lesson such as scanned text materials and teacher commentaries. The site also includes a discussion forum where users can share ideas for how they are using the site, and suggest new features that might be added in the future.

The site is a project of UCLA and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Funding was provided by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

Please explore the site, and feedback is always welcome!

~Jim Stigler, UCLA

The Facts and CCSS ...
The public is getting shafted

The failure to delay the legislature's 2010 6696 approval of the CCSSI, done one year ago, will obligate the taxpayers to spend $183 million. Of this amount more than $160 million will come directly from local school districts.

If HB 1891 were passed to delay CCSS adoption for at least two years, then we could revise WA standards if needed.

Instead we will be forced to buy unproven brand X, yet again.


States are free right now to benchmark their standards to the CCSS. But that’s an option we retain only by rejecting or delaying adoption of CCSS. With the passage of 6696, legislators put themselves into the position that they must now take a position (vote) to either delay or reject CCSS, or we lose the option to benchmark our state standards by default.

Note there is no assessment scheduled of the CCSS until Spring 2015.

We are buying an expensive half-baked product prematurely.
Buying more nonsense is a fact, unless the legislature acts and fast. By Friday, if a bill to delay did not get a committee hearing, it will be too late.

Call 1-800-562-6000 NOW.

Reps. Pettigrew and Santos are failing to act in the best interests of students in the 37th. Why?


=============================

{more wisdom from Mike}

Note: There is scant evidence to support the CCSSI as likely to improve anything, except perhaps some corporation's bottom lines.

On the contrary, there is overwhelming evidence that the CCSSI is about the centralization of control coupled with the homogenization of education markets to benefit certain well-connected & organized companies from both the technology and publishing sectors.

Neither of these scenarios would be likely to occur absent the coercive reins of federal initiatives & dollars.

========

State officials were bribed to pass 6696 by the hope for "Race to the Top" dollars of which WA received none.

What is the excuse for folly this time? Perhaps head of House Education Committee Representative Sharon Tamiko Santos could explain.

Seattle School Board Testimony 2-16-2011 ... NSAP = increasingly separate and unequal schools ... Forgery Complaint Needed

Link to full testimony as .pdf ==>http://www.box.net/shared/oh1vp70qpe

Tonight we have a one meeting introduction/action item about the New Student Assignment Plan, which deals with an immediate need. Unfortunately it ignores the true NSAP emergency, the failure to have any mechanism to make every school a quality school.

Over four years ago, I began testifying here with the intent of improving school quality. I’ve submitted evidence, which has either been ignored or rejected in Board decision-making. The result is now greater math achievement gaps for all classifications of educationally disadvantaged learners. This is particularly true for Southeast Seattle’s Schools in the 37th District.

Yesterday OSPI Math Director, Greta Bornemann, wrote an email that states:
-----------------------
For far too long Special Ed and ELL students were ignored in the math world. There wasn’t good evidence for how to support teachers,

[ and quite frankly for many districts with limited funds, reading has been the focus. But much of that is changing. I believe, with all its faults, part of the reason people are paying attention is because of No Child Left Behind. We’ve always had a problem supporting teachers working with Special Ed and ELL kids,]

but we are beginning to shine a light on this issue.

Thankfully, we do have some new research to guide our work.


The National Math Advisory Panel (NMAP) is one such landmark document. I have a copy of the document close to my desk and use it constantly to guide my thinking.

------------------------

How shocking that the OSPI Math Director, who spoke to you for 11 minutes before your highly discriminatory High School math adoption approval now calls the NMAP new research. It was released in March of 2008, 14 months before your “arbitrary and capricious action”, which lowered Black student pass rates to 12.5%, increased that achievement gap to 55% and lowered ELL pass rates by 4.5% in a year when the state’s ELL rate went up.

The Superintendent’s response was to appeal the court ruling rather than to reconsider that decision and select suitable math materials. The Superintendent’s appeal was supported by four board members, who refuse to fulfill their obligation under the law to provide certified correct transcripts of evidence to the court, when board decisions are appealed.

In fact, the entire Board ignored the submission of forged documents submitted to the court by the Chief Academic Officer in an $800,000 contract approval for more discriminatory practices.

Board members: The Seattle Police Department will be happy to accept your complaint in regard to Class C felony forgery involving Seattle School District administrators. In fact your oath of office as Directors requires you to file that complaint against the administrators. Please support the constitution and laws of our state.

Get with it... start acting to close achievement Gaps not widen them.

Also please request a delay in the state approval of Common Core Standards if you wish to do anything positive about closing the achievements gaps your Superintendent so often acts to create.

Urge the passage of House Bill 1891. Complete information is available on my Blog The Math Underground. Please call 1-800-562-6000 urging passage of HB 1891 to delay passage of the Common Core Standards. It will stop the spending of $183 million on more levels of bureaucratic nonsense.

Thank you, Danaher M. Dempsey, Jr. http://mathunderground.blogspot.com/

Great News:
SPD will accept forgery complaint involving Seattle School Administrators

From the Office of the King County Prosecutor.

Mr. Dempsey,

I have had a chance to look into this issue. I spoke with an attorney in our Fraud Unit and she spoke with SPD. Sgt. Darrell Charles of SPD did not know why a report was not taken in response to your complaint. At this point he suggests that you contact SPD again and ask to file a report. If you are again told that a report will not be taken, please ask for Sgt. Charles.

I hope this information is helpful.

Janine Joly
Sr. Deputy Prosecuting Attorney
----

From: Dan Dempsey [mailto:dempsey_dan@yahoo.com]
Sent: Wednesday, February 09, 2011 9:18 PM
To: Joly, Janine

Dear Ms. Joly,

Our level of frustration with the laws and legal system of the city, state, and county has reached an extremely high level.

I will not go into great detail but get right to the heart of one matter.

The class C felony of forgery was committed by one or two Seattle Public Schools administrators involving an $800,000 contract.

I verbally reported this to the K.C. Prosecutor's office and was told no action would be taken without a police report.

I went to the Seattle Police and they told me they will not allow a complaint to be filed as this should be handled by the Attorney General.

I went to the AG and they will not act without a referral from a County Prosecutor, the Governor, or the State Auditor.

I went to the Governor's office and after three visits was informed it is the King County prosecutor's job to investigate this alleged felony.

In a review of the laws of the state I appears to me that the King County prosecutor is to investigate felonies.

So how do we get the King County Prosecutor to act?

Sincerely,

Danaher M. Dempsey, Jr. for the Seattle Shadow School Board

Note: we dropped an appeal of a school board decision that involved this forgery so the matter would no longer be in litigation and could be investigated and prosecuted.

These laws should not exempt public school officials from the law.

Do they?

Thoughts from Mike on Common Core Standards

Common Core State Standards will continue the "dumbing down" of Washington's Students. -- Dan Dempsey

The Rest is from Mike:

Paving the way for the redistribution of education resources (money & talent).

The “equity” versus “equality” debate is over (as if it ever really happened). We are on the path of government imposed “equitable” redistribution, and not nearly enough recognize it, much less question or resist. It is a lie… it will not work… it never has. The problem with any “equitable” redistribution model is that they’re based on the false assumption that the decision making collective (bureaucracies) are honest, benevolent, virtuous, and endowed with uncommon wisdom. Somebody must decide what is “fair”, and it won’t be you or I. It will be impersonal bureaucratic collectives. Nobel laureate Milton Freidman explained it much clearer than I can, 30 years ago to Phil Donahue. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjH4QBSwWlg&feature=related

Continuous ongoing violations of the law in the SPS need to STOP ... but do not look to the Directors to act.

It is the responsibility of the Seattle Police Department to investigate the Class C felony of Forgery that occurred in the construction of the New Tech Contract action report that resulted in an $800,000 contract award for a sub-standard product.

For the hearing on November 18, 2010 Directors Sundquist, Maier (a lawyer), Carr, and Martin-Morris submitted declarations for the Court in a recall sufficiency hearing in which each declared: that even though the law requires the board to submit a certified correct transcript in an appeal and this was not done. It was someone else's responsibility to do so ... staff's fault if there is any fault but not the fault of any director.

This is legally incorrect it is the Board's responsibility. STRIKE #1.

The oath of office clearly calls upon the Directors to support the US Constitution, the Washington Constitution, and the Laws of the State. They are not doing well there.

Hummm ... so how is it Directors have failed to report the failures to follow RCW 28A 645.020 and in particular the submission of forged evidence in the NTN contract approval decision. The forgery was used in the construction of the Action Report submitted to the Board by the Superintendent and CAO. The forged evidence was submitted to the court by the CAO, as if it was a correct original. Why have directors failed to report the Class C felony of Forgery committed by one or two administrators in the SPS to the Seattle Police Department? STRIKE #2

Do the Directors ever hold anyone accountable for anything?

Here comes a possible Strike #3.... Will any Director act to ask the Seattle Police to investigate this felony of forgery?

===================

Another answer to why the huge achievement gaps ... complete abdication of the responsibility to make evidence based decisions ... these folks make decisions using forged evidence and apparently could care less.

===============

New Student Assignment Plan ... every school a quality school ... what a joke.

Increased separation and increasingly unequal schools ... quite a plan.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

The Beatles, Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers, and the mess we are in.
Looking to John Lennon to save us.

Famous sociologist and thinker Malclom Gladwell tells us that to become an expert requires more than talent it requires practice and lots of it. 10,000 hours = 3 hrs. a day for 10 years. The exceptionally talented Beatles put in way more than 10,000 hours before their assent to stardom.

"The greatest athletes, entrepreneurs, musicians and scientists emerge only after spending at least three hours a day for a decade mastering their chosen field.

Ability, according to Gladwell, is just one factor in success. Work ethic, luck, a strong support base and even being born in the right year play a far larger role."


I bring this up because today I listened to a bill proposing to allow principals to have "NO" teaching experience. That makes them 10,000 short on grasping instructional expertise at the expert level.

As ridiculous as this bill sounds it has its genesis in the Race to the Top Turn-Around models. When "low performing schools" must fire their principals, where will the new replacements come from? ....

The answer is the military and corporate board rooms and those exiting the world of business. Yes the search is for executive decision-makers. Again it must be that "process trumps content" mindset.

Beats me how knowing "essentially zero about a field" allows one to be a competent decision-maker. I guess watching the legislators make decisions without evidence much of the time, perhaps they might extend their process to principals and figure that principals could likely make decisions without much evidence or background knowledge also.

Check the results!!! Educational decision-making is pathetic at almost every level in the USA. The results in Washington State are abysmal in many areas.

The biggest scam is painting this as all the teachers fault. WOW check the administrative decision-making!!! Next up is more pointless wasteful spending on a higher level of bureaucrats to order us around (to produce improvement -- I am totally serious ... that is the "for" argument.) .... Well I can see why Rep. Santos does not want HB 1891 out of committee and getting a hearing as then folks would need to actually try to make sense out of the next horrible idea, the CCSS, in order to get it approved. No hearing and this $183 million expenditure just slides on by.


Far too often "educational decision-makers" do not have the slightest understanding or ability or maybe interest in making an evidence based decision in regard to education.

To improve a system requires the intelligent application of relevant data. Thus we have no improvement. We listen to supposed educators who in many cases possess but one real skill.... how to rise high in a system based largely on politics not achievement.

Bush's Rod Paige and Obama's Arne Duncan spring immediately to mind.

Oh yes lets all Race to the Top, or Race to the Bank or whatever .... but why?

It seems when it comes to education one really bad idea deserves another.

I just watched Rep. Eric Pettigrew explain how HB 1609 will close the achievement gap by allowing districts to use tools that are not developed and are completely unreliable to be used to make RIF decisions. .. Huh???

The real voice of sanity was the School Board President that testified: We should be avoiding litigation not making decisions that will surely windup in court.

Typical high stakes testing scenario ... but this time someone would get to lose their job because of an insane system that would use defective tools to make decisions. It was really interesting watching people testify for this bizarre proposal.


Well the 37th in Seattle has a big number of "the supposed failing schools" and 2 of the 47 failing schools in the state. Its Reps are Pettigrew and Santos, good well intentioned hard working nice folks, who apparently have no idea how to close the achievement gaps.

Rep. Santos is apparently blocking HB 1891 from getting a hearing. Thus instead of spending resources on students.... We will be spending $183 million on the next too early half-baked idea.

Why wait for two years to see what is happening? We can jump right in and make a giant costly mistake right now.
And the Achievement Gap gets bigger and bigger and Washington is #49 out of 51 states + WA DC in class size ranking. Thank God for Utah and California..... and Santos is all for spending $183 million on more administration instead of students .... and all done without a hearing on HB 1891 because she is blocking the hearing.

Typical OSPI ... more than a day late
and Multi-Millions short

BIG ADVICE -- if you wish to decipher the mumbo-jumbo that flows forth in regard to education and the achievement gap etc. from OSPI, SBE, and various school board ramblings, then spend less than 40 bucks here. You will then understand how to make an evidence based decision. You will understand that the focus on differences of opinion is nonsense; the focus must be on facts. The system will not be improved without the intelligent application of relevant data. It appears there will be little if any improvement in the foreseeable future.

A couple years and $1.2 million later in the life of OSPI Math Director Greta Bornemann is the topic of this example of OSPI incompetence. Note the SBE had found "Discovering" to be mathematically unsound. Apparently Ms. Bornemann did not get it at that time. The SPS Black student pass rate was 12.5% on the grade 10 math HSPE in 2010. Limited English Speaking students state wide from 2009 to 2010 went up +1.20% in Math yet in Seattle $1.2 million later they went down -4.20%.

There was enough evidence available for Porter, McLaren, and Mass and friends to spend $15,000 so far appealing the Seattle High School ultra Discriminatory Math Adoption of May 2009 on behalf of Black Students and English Language Learners.

Clearly the night of the HS Math Adoption, May 2009 Greta did not understand much.
Her 12 minutes of advice begins here at 117:00. OR Just 14 minutes right here.

Here is my posting from June 2009 on NMAP and explicit instruction. You will note both OSPI and four Seattle School Board members blew it. We have a large achievement GAP in math in the SPS because leadership is completely unable to make evidence based decisions.

Now $1.2 million later and 21 months later Greta finally gets it. (see email below)
SBE's executive Director Edie Harding was opposed to McLaren et al. filing this legal appeal. I wonder if she gets it yet?

Any sign if the WA legislature will ever get it?

How about the Gov. and AG? They refuse to investigate felony Forgery by the Seattle Superintendent and CAO, will the Gov and AG ever get it?

UPDATE!! - I learned at 4:00 PM 2-15-2011, it is the job of the Seattle Police Department to investigate the forged document submitted in the $800,000 contract approval for NTN services by central office administration. The Gov's Office spoke with the AG and the SPD was wrong in saying not our job.
=========

Here is Greta's email:

From: Greta Bornemann [mailto:Greta.Bornemann@k12.wa.us]
Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2011 11:24 AM
To: 'katemartin@theseattlejournal.com'
Cc: Edie Harding
Subject: RE: National Panel on Math 2008 Report and OSPI work with districts on instruction


Hi Kate (and Edie),

This is a great topic. For far too long Special Ed and ELL students were ignored in the math world. There wasn’t good evidence for how to support teachers, and quite frankly for many districts with limited funds, reading has been the focus. But much of that is changing. I believe, with all its faults, part of the reason people are paying attention is because of No Child Left Behind. We’ve always had a problem supporting teachers working with Special Ed and ELL kids, but we are beginning to shine a light on this issue.

Thankfully, we do have some new research to guide our work.

{Unfreaking-Believeable NEW RESEARCH OSPI lives in a CAVE. The NMAP was released in March 2008. Hattie's Visible Learning in December 2008. Project Follow Through started in 1967 and was the largest study in Ed History and focused on Educationally Disadvantaged Learners K-3. Now OSPI's Greta is finding New Research after pushing Pointless ineffective Reform Math like all the UW cronies}

The National Math Advisory Panel (NMAP) is one such landmark document. I have a copy of the document close to my desk and use it constantly to guide my thinking.

{When did Greta start using NMAP to guide her thinking? Yesterday? Last week? or when she wrote this letter? How has it guided her thinking?}

We point to it when districts ask what research they should be reading. In fact, we are working on a document right now, the Mathematics Improvement Systems Framework, that gives support to districts in improving math achievement. It is just in draft form now, and our workgroups are working on providing more documents for implementation of the framework. We don’t have funding for this effort, so it is done by folks on their own time. We hope to have something final out by this summer.

If you look at the document you will find that we call out the NMAP research several times. And while ELL isn’t specifically attended to in this draft, we have received feedback from districts that they would like guidance on that topic as well. So we will be adding some guidance in our next draft.

You can find a link to the framework document at: http://www.k12.wa.us/Mathematics/pubdocs/MathImprovementFramework.pdf


I hope that helps answer your questions. If you have others, don’t hesitate to email me.

Thanks.

Take care.

Greta

Greta Bornemann

Math Director - Teaching and Learning
Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction
Email: greta.bornemann@k12.wa.us

============
============

THANKS to KATE MARTIN of the Seattle Journal for pursuing this issue long enough to finally get a response for completely irresponsible actions by OSPI and SBE. For years OSPI, SBE, and the SPS have failed to serve educationally disadvantaged learners, while mindlessly chanting "Achievement GAP" concern.

Look for the same from the FEDS, given RttT and actions by NSF/EHR and OIG NSF and US DOE's no response to discriminatory complaints about Seattle Schools.

================

From: Edie Harding
Sent: Wednesday, February 09, 2011 4:00 PM
To: Greta Bornemann
Cc: 'katemartin@theseattlejournal.com'
Subject: National Panel on Math 2008 Report and OSPI work with districts on instruction

Greta- Hello! I understand you are in Portland today thus this email. I received a call from a Seattle Parent, Kate Martin, who has some questions about how the state was working with districts on math instruction particularly in the areas of ELL and Special Ed. She cited the recommendations of the National Math Advisory Panel in 2008. She wanted to know how the state used their recommendations in working with districts. I know you are familiar with the report. Can you shed some light on what kind of math technical assistance you guys are doing on OSPI with school districts to help special ed and ELL kids and others close the achievement gap on math and whether you recommend pieces of the NMAP report? If you can respond to Kate and cc me that would be lovely! She is focused on the instruction part not standards or curriculum and understands that it is up to school districts to do instruction but wants to know if the state guides them in anyway.

Cheers, Edie


http://www2.ed.gov/about/bdscomm/list/mathpanel/report/final-report.pdf


Edie Harding

Executive Director - Washington State Board of Education.

Monday, February 14, 2011

2-15-2011 Public Hearing on HB 1609
at 1:30 PM

http://dlr.leg.wa.gov/billsummary/default.aspx?Bill=1609&year=2011

HB 1609 - DIGEST
Addresses school employee workforce reductions and assignments.

Brief Summary of Bill

#1 .. Instates a new performance based framework and procedures for reductions in force due to declines in enrollment or revenue losses.

#2 .. Provides for a school based hiring process that requires the mutual consent of both principal and teacher.

#3 .. Puts in place a displacement process governing situations in which a teacher or educational staff associate is displaced due to transfer, a drop in enrollment, phase out or reduction of a program, reductions in a building, or implementation of an accountability intervention model.
====================================

The Math Underground Analysis:

HB 1609 is a shockingly naive attempt to solve a problem. HB 1609 plans to use tools that are completely unreliable. The enactment of this Bill will enable administrators to get a far more compliant workforce but hardly an improved one. The near and long term effects will be a complete disaster.

Who would wish to teach under incoherent education leadership at nearly every level of government? Welcome to life in WA State.

======

My story: Hired by Fife SD to improve a math program at Fife HS in great need of improvement.

Created a highly effective program that greatly improved student learning (according to WASL math test data) and participation.

Fife wanted to abandon this program. I was encouraged to leave. Fife planned on implementing the OSPI WASL math modules the following year and did so.

Was there improvement? Of course not but they got someone a lot more compliant with OSPI math nonsense than me.

Here are the Scores for 5 years.... the 2 years before, my year, and the 2 years* after.

Educational decision making in WA State is an absolute fiasco. Look for the Feds to do even worse.

WASL all student pass rates grade 10 MATH Fife high school:

10th Grade Math Fife High School
Year .:. School .:. District .:. State :: diff from State
2001 .:. 41.70% .:. 40.30% : 38.90% :: +2.8
2002 .:. 45.10% .:. 44.50% : 37.30% :: +7.8
2003 .:. 54.70% .:. 53.20% :39.40% :: +15.3
2004* .:. 44.60% .:. 44.60% : 43.90% :: +0.7
2005* .:. 47.90% .:. 47.70% :47.50% :: +0.4

Students scoring at level 1 far below standard by percent + no scores.

10th Grade Math Fife High School
Year .:. School .:. State
2001 .:. 40.30% .:. 40.60%
2002 .:. 29.30% .:. 40.10%
2003 .:. 24.80% .:. 39.20%
2004* .:. 32.50% .:. 36.90%
2005* .:. 32.00% .:. 33.50%

Students scoring at level 4 above standard by percent.

10th Grade Math Fife High School
Year .:. School .:. State :: compare FHS results
2001 .:. 14.60% .:. 19.00% :: -4.4
2002 .:. 17.40% .:. 15.60% :: +1.8
2003 .:. 25.50% .:. 18.80% :: +6.7
2004* .:. 21.30% .:. 21.90% :: -0.6
2005* .:. 17.00% .:. 18.00% :: -1.0

* years OSPI Math modules used at Fife.

To improve a system requires the intelligent application of relevant data.

There are no short cuts via fairy-tales. It does not matter who tells the tales.


Without a significant improvement in instructional materials and practices (via Hattie's effect sizes in Visible Learning and using Project Follow Through results) ... look for hundreds of Millions of dollars to be misspent in WA state and Billions nationally.

Common Core Standards approach and Race to the Top are not based on an intelligent analysis of relevant data ==> They will not produce improvement.

===================

According to the Seattle Schools website, where they describe their strategic plan, "Excellence for All:" "Excellence for All is focused on what matters most: every student achieving, everyone accountable." Say what?


Checking the remediation data ... it seems they have a ways to go.

Fall 2009: Recent high school graduates enrolled in remedial pre-college courses..

North Seattle CC
English 51%
Math .... 66%


Central Seattle CC
English 31%
Math …. 69%


South Seattle CC
English 72%
Math …. 83%


Every student achieving, everyone accountable...... Sure thing spinners of baloney. How does forgery by likely the Seattle Schools Superintendent and the CAO enter this mix?

An unmonitored damaging whole school 3-year instructional experiment on a 50% Black student population
How long does it take to investigate?

"Shades of Tuskegee 1932" in Seattle:

Cleveland High School ==>
50% Black students and 70% low income students.

The results of a three year unmonitored math experiment done by UW, produced such low math scores Cleveland became one of 47 failing schools in the state.


The Seattle Schools adopted a similar set of HS math instructional materials in May 2009. These produced Black student Math pass rates of 12.5% for Black students on the 2010 math HSPE. The 10th grade White minus Black math achievement Gap in Seattle is 55.6%.

Porter, Mass, and McLaren appealed the "Discovering Math" adoption in Superior Court. SBE executive director, Edie Harding, faulted McLaren for bringing legal action instead of working to get better school directors in Seattle.

The adoption was ruled "Arbitrary and Capricious" on Feb. 4, 2010. The SPS appealed and changed nothing about its damaging approach to mathematics. Appellate Court hearing coming March 8, 2011.

Meanwhile the SBE no longer has its math advisory panel meet. An all volunteer panel is too expensive in budget restricted times. Yet there is $183 million that OSPI and the SBE believe should be spent to adopt the Common Core Standards.

Check these remediation rates from Seattle's three community colleges in Fall 2009.


Recent high school graduates enrolled in remedial pre-college courses..

North Seattle CC
English 51%
Math ....  66%

Central Seattle CC
English  31%
Math …. 69%

South Seattle CC
English  72%
Math …. 83%


NOTE:  In 2010 after the $1.2 million adoption of "Discovering" the Black student Pass rate for Grade 10 Seattle Students on the MATH HSPE dropped to 12.5%. What will the District do win or lose in Appeals Court after the March 8, 2011 hearing?

For The Common Core State Standards Initiative, WA is planning on spending $183 million to kick the can further down the road. The first CCSS assessment will be Spring 2015. OSPI, the SBE, and the Seattle Schools administration have done nothing to improve education for struggling students but they have increased the number of struggling students.

SBE Executive Director Harding is incredibly naive if she thinks new SPS School Directors can be elected to solve this problem. The SBE and OSPI are a major part of the problem. Note the four SPS Directors elected in 2007 spent almost $500,000 to win four unpaid positions. There are no campaign limits on contributions to School Directors.
===============

My last contact from the NSF investigator was July 2010.

My letter:

2-14-2011

To: The Office of the Inspector General of the National Science Foundation

Dear Dr. Scott Moore,

How long does an investigation take?

This is a fairly straight forward matter.

Lots of spending and no positive results.

This is often the case with Math Ed efforts from the UW. In fact negative outcomes are fairly common.

Note the following:

http://mathunderground.blogspot.com/2010/09/uw-professional-development-gone-bad.html

Thank You,

Danaher M. Dempsey, Jr.

========================

The result of this "Failing School" was turning Cleveland into an Option School using one of the "Race to the Top" "Turn-Around Models" and selecting the New Technology Network as a turn-around adviser for $800,000.

The Seattle Schools administration committed a class C felony of forgery, in construction of the action report used to facilitate the NTN selection. Note: NTN has an absolutely pathetic math model. The results from a multiplicity of NTN schools confirm this but the SPS Directors Sundquist, Carr, Maier, and Martin-Morris ignore those ongoing repeated failures.

The Governor, Seattle Police, King County Prosecutor, and the Governor's office have absolutely no interest in investigating this forgery crime. Certainly the Seattle School Directors have no interest.

What state constitution?

What State Laws?

There is apparently "Zero" accountability and zero enforcement. Rights and Laws are for those with money to go to court; free and reduced lunch students need not apply.

The Tuskegee syphilis experiment began in 1932. Seattle's version is still continuing in the 37th District on students.

Take a bow: UW, Seattle School Board, Rep. Santos, Gov. Gregoire, Attorney General McKenna, King County Prosecutor's office and Seattle police. These folks certainly deserve some credit.

Honorable mention goes to the US Department of Education and the Office of the Inspector General of the NSF for their assistance in continuing this disaster unchecked. Complaints have been filed and they go nowhere. Anyone who thinks Federal Involvement through Race to the Top or the Common Core Standards will be helpful is removed from reality.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuskegee_syphilis_experiment

This is absurd that "Disruptive Innovation" will improve education. To improve a system requires the intelligent application of relevant data. Apparently doing what has repeatedly been shown to work should not be done in WA State or the USA.

"Where's the Math?"
Opposes Common Core Standards

http://www.wheresthemath.com/Pages/Where%27s%20The%20Math.aspx

Check the "Where's the Math?" website above.

So "Where's the Money?"

Next Wave of Education Lunacy is proposed by Oregon Gov. .... and ...
It looks a lot like Gov. Gregoire's plan

http://blog.oregonlive.com/politics_impact/print.html?entry=/2011/02/gov_john_kitzhaber_plans_to_cr.html

Naturally it is all about control and based on more fairy-tale assumptions.

The intelligent application of relevant data to improve a system remains untried and unexamined.

Also Apparently unwanted by those in power.

My Letter to the Governor: so ....
Who needs to be recalled?

for failure to investigate.

Dear Ms. Younglove,

Here is my letter to the Governor.

==========

Dear Gov, 4:45 PM 2-14-2011

Ms. Melody Younglove, your Constituent Services Manager has been provided extensive proof of a class C Felony, Forgery, committed in the Seattle Public Schools, which is neither being investigated nor prosecuted. See has been given information on three separate occasions. The first two times she failed to contact me. Only on a third face to face visit did I have contact with her. It appears that she has no intention of following up on a felony committed by one or more Seattle School Administrators.

Do I need to file a recall action for the recall and discharge of a public official?

Should I begin recall action with the King County Prosecutor, the Attorney General, or the Governor?

Or recall action against all three?

Please advise.

Thanks,

Danaher M. Dempsey, Jr.

My letter to Susanna Williams, chair of 37th Dems

Dear Chairperson, 2-14-2011

I understand there is a meeting at 7:30 this evening at the Rainier Valley Cultural Center (3515 S Alaska St) in Columbia City.
(Social time begins at 7:00)

Please request Rep. Santos to have a hearing on HB 1891 to delay Washington's adoption of the Common Core Standards.

Four 4 years I and many others have worked diligently to attempt to improve education in the Seattle Schools and particularly the schools in the 37th.

I have zero to show for results.

The best thing about NCLB was that OSPI testing gives us results for each school by demographic category. That was about the only good thing that has happened for education in the 37th for the last 14 years under OSPI and Bush's NCLB.

I thought with a President, US Congress, Governor, and State House all under democratic party control for the majority of 2008-2011 things would be better. Unfortunately, the situation has not improved over the last two years and now the future for WA State Education is looking substantially worse.

Washington State's adoption of the Common Core State Standards promises to be more expensive kicking of the can down the road for many additional years.

The Four RttT "Turn around models" are incredibly poorly designed.

The Seattle Schools and the State regularly violate the State constitution.

Check out the two attached pieces of data. Why was this allowed to happen?

Why is Rep. Santos in favor of spending $183,000,000 on more pointless activity?

Note: Dec. 11, 2010 The Gov. and the Legislature decided to essentially steal $208,000,000 headed to help local school districts from the Feds and put it in the general fund. Now the adoption of more misdirection will cost $183,000,000 ...... WOW how will they misuse the other $25 million left over?

In depth information on the Governor's failure to act on Seattle School District forgery is attached (Melody Younglove).

A lot of additional information can be found on my BLOG.

In closing, let me say that both the Federal Dept of Education and the Inspector General's Office of the National Science Foundation have failed to act on substantive complaints. They are just as useless as the Governor in correcting our rampant education problems in the 37th. The Idea of Federal control of State Standards and curriculum is completely absurd ... take a look at the schools in the 37th ... how can that spending be a solution?

Thanks,

Dan Dempsey

Attached were these four:

37th District Schools in Seattle result from the SPS Scorecard.
http://www.box.net/shared/qots8cjhgk

Melody Younglove of Gov's Office apparently is opposed to enforcement of felony laws.
http://www.box.net/shared/p1flo9i49o

Overview of Seattle Community Colleges remediation Data for Fall 2009
http://www.box.net/shared/ts9pnvltaq

Remediation rates for several years.
http://www.box.net/shared/69rk11569d

===============

We are finishing the fifth week of the session, and heading into the year’s first legislative milestone – policy committee cut-off. After February 17, no further House bills can be voted out of policy committees this session. I’ve learned that there are many points in the legislative process where bills can die but no place that a bill can board an express train to passage. This committee cut-off is the first hurdle that will eliminate many bills from further consideration. The normally frenetic pace here will get even more hectic as this deadline approaches!

Delaware is just Like WA

from Transparent Christina: Community Crossfire
http://transparentchristina.wordpress.com/2011/02/13/community-crossfire-with-norman-oliver-21311/

Governor Markell has sold Delaware out to common core standards and has bought into corporate school reform,

which has at its core completely unproven methods to fix schools.


He has given us a bunch of trumped up, poorly attended roadshows to suggest that there is widespread support for Race to the Top when in fact there is just plain ignorance on Race to the Top.

The bankers and billionaires have control of the message and Gov. Markell appears to be the messenger.

To top off a "successful" 2010 for Gov. Markell, he is now proposing a 10% slash to transportation for schools and is also recommending the elimination of funding for bus routes deemed to be "unique hazards"

The Christina School District is actively seeking to make the Partnership Zone a wild success under the leadership of Dr. Lillian Lowery, but make no mistake about this: the Governor's support for failing ideas to fix failing schools will make this work very very hard in my opinion.

There is no doubt about it from where I sit: Governor Markell is bad for education in Delaware.


============

From where The Math Underground sits: Governor Gregoire is bad for education in Washington State.

February 17th is "D" day
Decision or Destruction?

If the Legislature does not schedule a hearing on a Bill "Delaying the Common Core Standards" on or before February 17, Randy Dorn will certainly spend $183,000,000 on the CCSS without anyone even taking a formal vote this legislative session.

It appears once again the fix is in.

It seems that Rep. Santos, the Seattle School Board, the Governor, or the legislature care much or do much about the ongoing failure to serve a huge number of students in the 37th district, ironically represented by Rep. Santos.

CCSSI likely putting Cart in Front of Horse
Another Fiasco

In response to this Article:

Education Week
Curriculum Matters
Can the Federal Government Fund Curriculum Materials?

Richard Innes of the Bluegrass Policy Institute writes:

This is a potentially huge deal.

How do you create tests if you don't have a good idea about the underlying curriculum?

Kentucky fell into precisely this same trap in 1990 when it started to create the state's first reform assessment, the Kentucky Instructional Results Information System (KIRIS).

KIRIS was created before the state even had decent education standards (which, for that matter, it still doesn't have), let alone a well-designed curriculum. Then, the state developed curriculum frameworks (just like the test consortia are proposing) that were supposed to improve KIRIS as well as instruction.

That didn't happen, either, and KIRIS crashed in 1998.

It's replacement, CATS, didn't make enough changes from KIRIS. It crashed in 2009.

If you are going to develop good state tests, you first have to start with very complete statements about what kids are supposed to know and be able to do at the end of the instruction. Those statements have to be set up in such a way that the goals and outcomes are measurable.

THEN, you design a curriculum to teach to those goals.

ONLY THEN, do you start to develop an assessment program.

Now, we are told that the two Common Core State Assessment efforts may, by law, have to leave out the essential curriculum step.

That's going to be really problematic.

To learn more about what happened with KIRIS, so you can better discuss why the Common Core State Assessments may be heading into serious trouble, trouble Kentucky already faced before, check out the reports on the Kentucky Education Reform Act at 20 Years, available here:

http://www.freedomkentucky.org/index.php?title=KERA_Portal

Saturday, February 12, 2011

SPS Class C felony Forgery update

A letter to the Governor's Office: 2-12-2011

Dear Ms. Melody Younglove,

I believe the misunderstanding that you refer to is your misunderstanding not mine. I want class C felony forgery investigated and prosecuted. Do you?

Complete communication as a .pdf is HERE.

Common Core Standards:
an early entry into expensive chaos
should be avoided

About the Common Core State Standards Initiative:
CCSSI is More of the Same: Spending Goes Up and Results will be Mediocre at Best.


Despite claims of data driven decision-making, there has been very little of such decision-making. To improve a system requires the intelligent application of relevant data. Effective and efficient system improvement is drastically needed but is nowhere in sight. Three sources of information of vital importance are continually neglected in WA State and most of the our nation.

#1. Project Follow Through results, which show exactly which of 9 methods of instruction is the most effective in meeting the needs of educationally disadvantaged learners in grades k-3. PFT was the largest most exhaustive educational research project in history. PFT began in 1967 as part of the efforts of LBJ's administration to serve disadvantaged learners. (Civil Rights Act passed in 1964) Most educational decision-makers have no idea of either the magnitude of this project or its results.
PFT info: here 1, : here 2, : here 3.

#2. Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement by John Hattie (December 2008). Dr. Hattie examines a large number of educational practices and not only described them but calculates effect size for each based on results from millions of students world-wide. Hattie’s table of effect sizes is extremely easy to use. Hattie’s analyses confirm that educational decision-making is not based on the intelligent application of relevant data.

#3. Foundations for Success, the National Mathematics Advisory Panel’s final report (2008). Specifically states that (page xxiii, paragraph 27) struggling students need increased explicit instruction.

OSPI, the Seattle School Board, and many other educational decision makers have missed all of the above. Additionally these decision-makers have also missed the preamble to article IX of the state constitution and additionally the Seattle Schools have ignored a variety of state laws.

Washington State’s involvement and spending of $183 million to join the Common Core State Standards Initiative will be more of the same. At a time when known proven educational practices and instructional materials need to be used, Race to the Top encourages disruptive innovation. CCSSI will likely do the same.

In the last hundred years, medicine made enormous strides by making decisions based on evidence. Education remains in turmoil and evidence based decision-making has yet to occur.

One only needs to look at:

A. the four RttT “Turn Around Models” together with results from

B. the last decade plus at OSPI,

C. 20 years of Math advice from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics leadership,

D. NSF funded development of math instructional materials (= approx. $100 million),

E. NSF spending to try to make those materials actually work ( > $100 million) and

F. the results of NSF funded UW math programs for Southeast Seattle schools.

to see a continuation of further expensive chaos with no accountability for past and continuing poor decision-making.


Why should the parents in 37th district, represented by Reps. Santos and Pettigrew, be asked to wait even longer for something positive and significant to actually happen?

See video clip of Yolanda Gill Masundire, speaking at Town Hall meeting =>(here) and data from Schools in the 37th District (here) as well as Seattle Community College remediation percentages (here 1) (here 2) for recent high school graduates.

Dr. Joseph Willhoft, the man primarily responsible for the incredibly expensive and ineffective WASL testing, will be heading the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium to construct Common Core assessments. First one is due in Spring 2015.

The State Board of Education’s Math Advisory Panel composed of volunteers no longer meets because of lack of available funds. $208 million Federal dollars headed to assist local school districts was taken via a one-day special session on December 11, 2010 and placed in the General Fund. Yet $183 million may be spent on an early entry into chaos instead of waiting and improving WA schools now, through data based decision-making for the first time.

HB 1891 needs to get out of Committee and have a hearing so that Washington’s adoption of the Common Core State Standards Initiative can be delayed or perhaps eventually cancelled. Currently representative Santos, who has among the worst performing schools in the state in her district, heads the committee that is failing to grant a hearing on HB 1891.

$183,000,000 for an early entry into more chaos. Administrators are always in favor of more spending on administration.
Note: Feb 4, 2010 The State was found in violation of the Constitution for failing to adequately fund education of students, which is the Paramount Duty of the State. The state appealed this decision. It seems that now the state legislators, Governor, and leaders of OSPI, SBE, PTSA, WEA, League of Education Voters are all in favor of more spending on administrative chaos at the expense of Washington's k-12 students.

==============
Please see Democracy Denied (so far) HERE
for what you can do about this deplorable situation.

=============
See "Where's the Money" at The Underground Parent.

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Link to Myth Busters Letter Exposing 11 Education Myths as complete nonsense.