Wall Street bankers face no punishment, teachers go to jail.

Then today former C.I.A. director David Petraeus was given probation and a fine. His crime giving away classified information that could have put peoples lives in danger.

Some of the teachers in question did what they did to save their schools from the unrealistic expectations of a system that often turns a blind eye, others sadly did it to make a few extra bucks. I have no problem with them losing their jobs and never teaching again but jail time? F*&$%ing ridiculous.

And shameful when you consider above.

Gary Chartrand wants us to be more like China

First I will let his words do the talking for him and then I will comment.

From an article about bringing a non profit STEM institute to Jacksonville, in the Jacksonville Business Journal.

“There is a huge opportunity here,” said Chartrand. “We really do lag behind other countries in this area. ... They’re teaching [computer] coding in the first grade in China, so we’ve got a lot of catching up to do.”

http://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2015/04/22/gary-chartrand-calls-on-leaders-in-northeast.html?page=2

Um, parents how many of you want your six year olds to be writing code? 

Okay Gary Chartrand loves STEM, I believe its because of an article he read while waiting for a flight, or sitting in the john but regardless of its origin he loves it.  

Not wanting to be that guy that hates puppies just because he likes them, I looked into it and the results were decidedly mixed. Some people think the sky will fall unless we throw ourselves headlong into STEM while others think we have between plenty and way to many, while others want to add the arts to it and make STEAM. So unlike the grocer who runs our schools my jury is still out. 

So for a tie breaker I went to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics to see what the fastest growing jobs were. http://www.bls.gov/ooh/fastest-growing.htm

Well friends if you look you will see a lot of Ms but not so many S T and Es. That's right the medical industry is exploding while the rest of the parts of STEM are currently out of the top fifty and as you can see coding is nowhere to be found.

If Gary Chartand would have said, man I am getting old and I need somebody to take care of me then he would have been dead on but for him to say we should be more like China and the hellscape they have created for their six year olds, it shows once again how out of touch he is.

I will say it again, if he wasn't rich, nobody would not give him the time of day.

Let me explain to you how bad the Times Union is on education.

In the last week education editor Teresa Stepzinski has done two articles about the budget crisis in clay county. The long and short of it is they are in a deep financial hole and people are about to start losing jobs. In neither article did she mention the opening of a new charter school by a for profit company that is going to undoubtedly exacerbate the problem nor the financial contributions they made to two school board members. 

Befuddled, I wrote Stepzinsky and asked her:  No mention in your latest Clay County piece about the charter school set to open which is undoubtedly going to exacerbate the problem and it's financial connection to two SB members, it seems to me you could have thrown a paragraph or two in there. 

I really don't understand how it's now news or relevant, its almost like you want to keep the people in Clay County in the dark.

If you have a minute could you explain it to me.

My response thus far has been crickets. Am I missing something here are those not relevant facts to Clay County's financial crisis?

The local media has without a doubt been partly responsible for where our schools find themselves by either ignoring stories or allowing the district to get away with things. The Times Union is the worst of all because their editorial board is undoubtedly on the wrong side of every education issue. The next tough or probing question they ask will be there first in a long time.

So shame on you Teresa Stepzinski and shame on the Times Union too.

   

Scott Shine pushing Fischer for the worst school board member ever title.

From a Times Union article about the district losing millions to charter schools and cutting positions: Board member Scott Shine expressed concerns about what happens if charter school enrollment continues to grow.

“This is not a sustainable long-term plan,” Shine said. He suggested trying to craft a three-to-five year range plan to best handle the upward trend in charter schools.

http://jacksonville.com/news/schools/2015-04-21/story/charter-enrollment-could-cause-budget-issues-duval-schools

Um where was his three to five year plan when he was accepting money from charter school operators and thier friends or saying at last summers JPEF school board forum that the district needed more charter schools?

Now he's pretending to care? That makes him at best ignorant though I think it is more likely he is complicit because at this pace in three to five years there won't be much of a district left.

Now Duval County is worried about Charter schools?

What the beep?

It wasn't when the district was approving charter schools so fast that they have increased by about 300 percent over the last few years?

It wasn't when most of the school board members were accepting money from charter school operators or their friends?

It wasn't when they were applying for grant money to give to them, money other districts turned down?

It wasn't when Vitti who owes his job to charter school lover Gary Chartrand was attending conferences on how to bring charter schools to town?

It wasn't when charter schools realized they couldn't do anything in our poorer neighborhoods and started setting up shop down the street from A schools?

It wasn't when the board was allowing carters to open with dubious innovation, boards that weren't from Jacksonville or chains to expand when they had failing sister schools?

Now the board and super care?

http://jacksonville.com/news/schools/2015-04-21/story/charter-enrollment-could-cause-budget-issues-duval-schools

I believe the answer is they don't care not even now. They just have to appear to do so too keep the city in the dark as they work towards a completely privatized district. The board and super have had plenty of opportunities to say no and push back and every time they have done the opposite.

Wake up Duval before it is to late.

Some real leadership from the school board, not Duval County's mind you.

From the Orlando Sentinel: The Seminole County School Board wants to opt out of the state's new standardized test because members view the roll out of the Florida Standards Assessments as a "debacle."

 The leaders of one of the state's top-performing school districts agreed Tuesday to ask if they can skip the new FSA next year and give their students national tests, such as the SAT, instead. Computer problems marred the debut of the FSA, which has more online tests than its predecessor. There were more problems Monday, which delayed testing for thousands of students and further frustrated Seminole officials. 

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/education/school-zone/os-seminole-schools-skip-state-tests-fsa-post.html?fb_action_ids=493411244142078&fb_action_types=og.shares

You should really read the article, the school board members used words like debacle, unacceptable and not educationally sound. maybe if Duval County wasn't to busy giving away the district to charter schools they could be like Seminole and other counties and fight back against the out of control and not educationally sound testing policies Florida has going.  

Also from the article: Board Chairman Tina Calderone said the FSA was “not educationally sound” and the district needed to take a stand. “We’re offering a solution, and we’re willing to own that solution as a community,” she said. “Then we can allow our teachers to get back to what they do best, which is teach.”

In Duval unfortunately we're to busy bowing down to the corporate agenda that wants to destroy our schools.

Vitti's best friends the New Teacher Project blasted by the Marzano Center

I actually don't know if they are Vitti's best friends, that role seems to be reserved for Teach for America and Charter Schools but Vitti does go to the New Teacher Project whose overriding philosophy is you can fire teachers to improve school districts, whenever he wants some research done.

Yeah a group founded by Michelle "Fire them all" Rhee can't be biased or anything.

Well this is what the group out of Pasco county said about the New Teacher Project: Researchers for the Marzano Center blasted TNTP's methods, interpretations and findings in a 21-page document sent to the Gradebook on Tuesday. They suggest that TNTP failed to identify critical context, made inaccurate policy implications and relied on "factual errors and misleading misstatements." Moreover, the group noted that TNTP did not mention it is a competitor that could benefit from its recommendations.

Overall, the Marzano group called the TNTP paper "highly imbalanced" and insufficient to support its "high-stakes claims":

Recommendations based on incomplete reports can cause harm in such high-stakes situations. Educational researchers should hold themselves to the highest standards—making sure that data reported are accurate, without flaws, and able to be replicated. Scientific researchers are under an obligation to provide readers with sufficient information to make informed decisions. These are ethical obligations scientists share with their colleagues in the scientific community, even when findings may contradict the ultimate aim of the organization. Researchers should operate under circumstances where it is their duty to report negative findings, even when doing so does not benefit the organization responsible for implementing the study. 

http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/gradebook/marzano-group-takes-issue-with-tntp-report-criticizing-pasco-schools/2226399

I think doing research is important but why does the super keeping going to a self serving group that has a history of being biased against teachers?

Oh wait a minute, I think I know after all.

Florida's high stakes tests have little to do with testing.

The Tampa Times when talking about testing quoted Duval County’s Superintendent Vitti. "Please be advised that placement in remediation courses will be based on Achieve3000 Lexile Levels for the 2015-16 school year. The Florida Standards Assessment results will not be in until after the school year begins, thus not providing enough time to use for scheduling."

Um, if that’s the case then why are we spending hundreds of millions on testing. I mean why can’t we use achieve this or Lexile that every year? I am sure we could figure out a way to count thirty-three percent of a teacher’s evaluation on it too and who wants to bet districts believe they more accurately gauge how students are doing anyways?

My point is there are undoubtedly cheaper and better ways to know how students are doing than using the high stakes tests we have now which begs the question why do we have the tests anyways.

There is the obvious answer, follow the money. The Bush family made a lot off testing as have many of their supporters and friends. Then I believe it’s to punish teachers for dare having unions represent them. In Florida unions have become enemy number one despite their very limited power and if you want proof compare Florida’s teachers’ salaries to the rest of the nations. Then finally there is the privatization of our schools. The powers-that-be would love to replace public education with vouchers and charters, which as a group do worse than public schools but that doesn’t seem to matter.

Superintendent Vitti let the cat out of the bag. Districts have better and cheaper ways to know how students are doing and why we aren’t using them is the question we should all be asking.

More Florida testing woes

Pam Stewart, who said we were ready for this years standardized tests blamed the latest snafu on “…a technical change that was made to the Florida Standards Assessment testing system over the weekend that was not approved by the Department. This change was unnecessary to the administration of the Florida Standards Assessment and resulted in a disruption that hindered students from being able to log in to the system and take their test today.”

It seems to me that she thinks the company we have invested at least 220 million dollars in is just making things up as they go along.

What is it going to take for the governor to replace both her and the state board of education which is chaired by a campaign supporter of Scotts, grocer Gary Chartrand, who got us to this point and to say this year’s tests are null and void for student promotion and teacher evaluation purposes? If they aren’t ashamed or embarrassed shouldn’t they at least be worried about the validity?

Why is it so hard for them, when the stakes are so high to make sure we get things right? Often people say schools are failing society, I believe our leaders are failing our schools.

To read more, click the link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2015/04/20/computer-troubles-yet-again-create-havoc-on-testing-day-in-florida/

Clay County school board for sale, reasonably cheap too.

Clay County has announced that because of dwindling reserves and enrollment that they are cutting staff

http://www.news4jax.com/news/clay-county-schools-cutting-positions/32124746

At the same time the Times Union has reported a new charter school run by Charter Schools USA a for profit management company is opening.

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2015-04-05/story/charter-school-expansion-prompts-talk-goals-needs

A quick review of Clay County’s supervisor of election site finds that two Clay County School board members have taken thousands either directly from Charter Schools USA, a Charter School Lobbyist, Jim Horne or PACs which I can argue are laundering money for charter school interests.

http://www.clayelections.com/Candidates/Search-Financial-Records

Ashley Gilhousen charter schools USA 500

                The Horne Group 1000 

Betsy Condon Red Apple Construction x2 1000

                Charter Schools USA x2 1000

                Treasure Coast Alliance 1000

                Floridians for strong leadership 1000

                Jobs for Florida 1000

                Florida conservative alliance 1000

                Jim Horne 1000

Clay County cannot currently support what it has now. What’s going to happen when this new charter school that they don’t need, (enrollment has been dropping and Clay County has consistently been one of the state’s top performing district), siphons millions out of the district.

These two school board members took thirty pieces of silver and put the desires of their donors over the needs of their constituents and I find it shameful.