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:
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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.
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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/