MISSION: EXPOSE SCHOOL CORRUPTION AND REFORM EDUCATION

We, the People of Santa Barbara,

in order to expose school corruption, reform education, and restore justice and democracy in our schools and community,

to establish the rights and responsibilities of parents, teachers, and students so that we may learn and grow together,

create an educational system that nurtures and engages our children's minds, bodies, and spirits, and empowers parents to communicate, collaborate, coordinate, and cooperate as educational partners,

provide for the common defense and advocacy of sane practices and democratic policies that support family values, promote domestic harmony, and ensure social justice,

and reweave the fabric of our society and thereby secure the blessings of love, health, and happiness for ourselves, our children, and our children's children,

do hereby pledge to EXPOSE THE EDUCATION-POLITICO-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX (EPIC), REVERSE THE SCHOOL TO PRISON PIPELINE, AND ESTABLISH DEMOCRATIC EDUCATION* WITHIN A PROPERLY-STRUCTURED SCHOOL SYSTEM.

*Democratic education is "engaged, relevant and socially-conscious curriculum in a cooperative and supportive atmosphere with an embrace of diversity, an accommodation of different learning styles, and a fair distribution of funds."

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Your Inspirational Quote
Friday October 23, 2009

"To control and sort young people for the sake of institutional efficiency is to crush the human spirit."

-- Ron Miller

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MISSION: EXPOSE SCHOOL CORRUPTION AND REFORM EDUCATION

"The education sector is the largest budget item in most countries.. Where corruption is rampant there is a great risk that the whole country may be undermined. When this happens, a central role of the education sector - namely the imparting of ethical values and behaviour - becomes impossible, resulting in corruption becoming the norm at all levels of society. Corruption takes various forms, some of which are not obvious." Corruption in the Education Sector at Anti-Corruption Resource Centre u4.no website


"Reform Education: Money is Not the Problem" by W. Norton Grubb: http://sbschooltalk.ning.com/group/padresunidoscalifornia/forum/topics/reform-education-money-is-not

REFORM EDUCATION! SLASH SCHOOL ADMINISTRATIONS. INVEST IN THE SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS, NOT THE SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS AND THEIR CORRUPT PROGRAMS, POLICIES AND PRACTICES.

Buddist Prayer:
"IN THIS TIME Of TURMOIL,
MAY OUR THOUGHTS BE CLEAR,
MAY OUR FEELINGS BE COMPASSIONATE,
MAY OUR NEEDS BE FULFILLED,
AND MAY WE CREATE PEACE."


The following documents are found in sbschooltalk FORUM (see toolbar at top of the page; click on SCHOOL CORRUPTION).

BATTLING CORRUPTION IN AMERICA'S PUBLIC SCHOOLS by Lydia Segal

http://books.google.com/books?id=cTPfk_7Lyt0C&dq=school+corruption&printsec=frontcover&source=in&hl=en&ei=S3-jSay-O5GUsAOOopSfAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=12&ct=result#PPT16,M1

Battling Corruption in America's Public Schools

By Lydia G. Segal, James B. Jacobs

Foreword by James B. Jacobs:

On the pathology of the urban school bureaucracy:

"Battling School Corruption in America's Public Schools" throws down the gauntlet to proponents of school reform. If the problem of school reform were not complicated and untractable enough, Professor Segal has illuminated protracted systemic corruption rooted deep in the structure, organization and operation of the nation's largest school system. Even worse, she shows how this systemic corruption distorts the school systems' priorities, putting children's education last. And the situation is exacerbated by certain centrally mandated anti-corruption controls that do not prevent---and perhaps generate---corruption while blocking initiative, creativity, and effective decision making at the individual schools.

This book forces us to consider whether urban public schools can be fixed. To be sure, more money will not cure the problems that Lydia Segal has exposed. As with foreign aid to many developing countries, the money never gets to the recipients for whom it is ultimately intended. Rather, it is siphoned off via corruption, waste, and abuse.

Professor Segal's recommendations for decentralization and reorganziation are sensible and surely worth trying. She suggests breaking up the urban school bureaucracy by essentially turning every school into a self-sufficient charter school free from bureaucratic mandates, reshaping the school system, and privatizing various operations.

Although, as she notes, the resistance to school reform of urban bureaucracies is formidable, the need for such radical structural change could hardly be more pressing.


James B. Jacobs,

Warren E. Burger Professor of Law
Director, Center for Research in Crime and Justice
New York University School of Law



BREAKING THE SCHOOL TO PRISON PIPELINE by Gunter and Kizzire

"Our juvenile prisons and jails are overflowing with children who simply don't belong there," said Southern Poverty Law Center President Richard Cohen. "These are the children who desperately need a helping hand. Instead, we're traumatizing and brutalizing them -- increasing the risk that they'll end up in adult prisons. It's tragic for the children and bad for the rest of us, because it tears apart communities, wastes millions in taxpayer dollars and does nothing to reduce crime.
Sending young people into the criminal justice system unnecessarily is a brutal form of abuse with consequences, for the child and for society as a whole, that can last a lifetime." (Posted in sbschooltalk's group: End the School to Prison Pipeline)

"DISMANTLING THE SCHOOL TO PRISON PIPELINE" naacp.org (googleable; also on sbschooltalk forum SCHOOL CORRUPTION.)

Decontructing the School to Prison Pipeline: New Directions for Youth Development by Johanna Wald and Daniel Losen
http://www.amazon.com/Deconstructing-School-Prison-Pipeline-Development/dp/0787972274

SCHOOL CORRUPTION: BETRAYING OUR CHILDREN & THE PUBLIC TRUST by Dr. Armand Fusco of yankeeinstitute.org

"ROAD TO NOWHERE: ILLUSIONS AND BROKEN PROMISES IN SPECIAL EDUCATION....." by Kalman Hettleman (sbschooltalk forum SCHOOL CORRUPTION)

"CORRUPTION IN OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS" by Neal McCluskey (sbschooltalk forum SCHOOL CORRUPTION)

"CORRUPTION AND ABUSE OF POWER IN SCHOOL ADMINISTION" by Duncan Waite and David Allen. (Contact information included: sbschooltalk SCHOOL CORRUPTION forum).

CORRUPTION FORMULA from the Rand Graduate Institute (see sbschooltalk/Forum/School Corruption) by Francis Tolentino

FIXING AMERICA'S BROKEN PUBLIC EDUCATION by Collete and Nicholas Gilroy (paste into browser http://www.educationreformnow.com/book.html)
(Read chapter summaries in the sbschooltalk FORUM: Education Reform. Discussion: Education Reform Now!)

EXCERPT: "In the 21st century, American resistance to genuine education reform is a self-indulgence that threatens the nation. The first step in achieving real education reform is a sober recognition of the phalanx of opposing forces -- a virtual Great Wall: teacher and administrator unions and associations as well as a variety of other professional education associations who see education reform as a threat to their personal and professional comfort; the plethora of commercial interests who fear education reform would disrupt their profits as suppliers to schools; laws on the local, state and national levels designed to thwart real/true substantive education reform; apathy on the part of too many citizens; an American cultural resistance to any substantive change in the way schools are structured and operated." ---Collette and Nicholas Gilroy"

"Set Up to Fail: 100 Things Wrong with America's Schools" by Dr. Kathleen Loftus is available from http://Amazon.com and http://BarnesandNoble.com.

Marian Wright Edelman's Children's Defense Fund: Dismantling the Cradle to Prison Pipeline: http://rehak.com/alf/90084%20ALF%20Report%2012.pdf
(copy and paste in your browser).

TOP U.S. SP.ED. LAWYERS FILE AGAINST CDE AND SUPERINTENDENT JACK O'CONNELL (googleable). State Superintendent Jack O'Connell is powerless to control the corruption in the school system; he told Joan Esposito that he was AFRAID of COE Superintendent Bill Cirone, who is the most corrupt/powerful superintendent in California AND THE UNITED STATES.

Jack O'Connell: INDICT BILL CIRONE FOR CRIMINAL ACTIVITY OR RESIGN!

AMERICA'S SECOND CIVIL WAR: The Public Employment Complex vs. The Tax Payer by Dr. Lewis Andrews, yankeeinstitute.org (Dr. Andrews will speak to you if you telephone him!)

RETALIATION BY ADMINISTRATORS AGAINST TEACHERS WHO STAND UP FOR STUDENTS HAS CREATED AN EPIDEMIC OF POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER AMONG EDUCATORS:

WHITE CHALK CRIME by Joseph and Rebajo Blase

BREAKING THE SILENCE by Karen Horwitz, Director of NAPTA, the National Association for the Prevention of Teacher Abuse. (Interviewed by Dr. Kathleen Loftus: sbschooltalk forum SCHOOL CORRUPTION article: "NAPTA".)

I HAVE A PLAN: SB EDUCATION CONFERENCE/JULY 1-5, 2009---FOUNDING FAMILIES CREATE A NEW SCHOOL PARADIGM!

"Decentralize the district to create child-centered, teacher-directed and parent-involved schools."

Our schools are in crisis. The reasons are complex but the solution is simple---staff and community must focus on rebuilding an efficient and effective operation by decentralizing the district to create child-centered, teacher-directed and parent-involved schools. Using school-based management, empowered teachers, parents, principals, community leaders, and students will transform every school into a successful and cooperative learning environment.

My experience as a teacher, parent advocate, community activist, and non-profit agency administrator qualifies me to serve on the Santa Barbara School District Governing Board. The Board must guide each school through the complexities of organizational change.

I believe in cooperation, collaboration, and coordination. We must form community within each classroom, grade level, and school. We must dismantle the present autocratic bureaucracy and replace it with democratic principles and procedures. We must work together to develop a modern curriculum, successful instructional techniques, and a comprehensive student assessment system.

I support a grass-roots movement calling for teacher support, administrative restructuring, and local autonomy so that parents and teachers are considered partners as opposed to enemies or slaves. I promise to create a grievance procedure so that concerns and opinions of parents, teachers, and students are heard, and to establish meaningful changes in the learning process.

--- Kate Smith, 2000 SBSD Board of Education, Candidate's Statement


KATE SMITH'S 2008 CANDIDATE'S STATEMENT VOWS TO EXPOSE SCHOOL CORRPUTION:


Students need and deserve child-centered and parent-involved schools with an engaged, relevant, and socially-conscious curriculum in a supportive and cooperative environment. Santa Barbara is blessed to have the SBCC Parent-Child Workshops and I support parent-cooperative schools "where parents and children learn and grow together." I support the development of high school academies and alternative educational models that accommodate a variety of learning styles and preferences.

Our democratic society depends upon the success of our educational system and I am passionate about school reform. I would increase teacher support and decrease the administrative bureaucracy. I would dismantle the Truancy Program, which criminalizes the low-performing high school students by placing them in the Juvenile Justice System, and I will expose wrong-doing in the Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA).

I have a California State Secondary Teaching Credential, and am currently the Santa Barbara School Districts' Parent Representative to the SELPA Community Advisory Committee.

My family is eternally grateful to Starr King (Hanne Sonquist and Rachel Johansen), Open Alternative School (Gwen Phillips), and San Marcos I-5 (Debbie Keys-Thomas and Mary De Smidt) and I would be honored to serve on the Santa Barbara School Districts' Board of Education.

(Kate Smith was illegally disqualified from the SBSD Board of Education ballot; there is abuse of power, school corruption, and severe retaliation against whistleblowers. The SELPA refuses to release the VISA Credit Card statements, 1998-2004. Help wanted here. katesmith2@earthlink.net)



ACLU: SCHOOL TO PRISON PIPELINE:

The Racial Justice Program is committed to challenging the "school to prison pipeline," a disturbing national trend wherein children are funneled out of public schools and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems. Many of these children have learning disabilities or histories of poverty, abuse or neglect, and would benefit from additional educational and counseling services. Instead, they are isolated, punished and pushed out.

"Zero-tolerance" policies criminalize minor infractions
of school rules, while high-stakes testing programs encourage educators to push out low-performing students to improve their schools' overall test scores. Students of color are especially vulnerable to push-out trends and the discriminatory application of discipline.

The ACLU believes that children should be educated, not incarcerated. We are working to challenge numerous policies and practices within public school systems and the juvenile justice system that contribute to the school to prison pipeline.

THE CHILDREN'S DEFENSE FUND HAS LAUNCHED A NATIONAL CAMPAIGN TO END THE SCHOOL TO PRISON PIPLELINE. JOIN sbschooltalk's END CRADLE TO PRISON PIPELINE GROUP and work to stop institutionalized racism and child abuse.

EDUCATION REFORM NOW! website (paste in browser): http://www.educationreformnow.com/chapter4.html

Educational administration is the most burdensome weight on American public education, the part of the establishment that stands most in the way of education reform.

The three basic paths to education administration are: 1) promotion of successful athletic coaches; 2) promotion of highly successful classroom teachers; 3) unsuccessful classroom teachers working their way into administration through the required courses in educational administration that will lead to official state certification in administration. And, of course, the 'old boy network' plays a significant role in smoothing those three paths for their favorite buddies.

None of those paths comes close to being an ideal means to choose administrators, but even if any of those paths does sometimes produce a competent administrator, that shouldn’t mask an unspoken reality: administrators in general are less competent to do their assigned job : administering, than teachers are to do theirs: teaching.

This is an inherently unhealthy situation: the less competent -- and more highly paid to boot -- exercising authority over the more competent. Proposals for education reform virtually never recognize, let alone attempt to address, this severe problem.

Attempting education reform without scrapping the prevailing top-down false industrial model of education, with teachers as assembly line workers on a factory floor, supervised by less-than-competent administrators, is fatuous. ---Collette and Nicholas Gilroy: FIXING AMERICA'S BROKEN PUBLIC EDUCATION

Stopping the School to Jail Pipeline in California
By Barry A. Krisberg
President
National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD)http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2008/09/stopping_the_sc.html


Recent media accounts have reported on the rising rates of school suspensions in California. Clearly, the problem is statewide, but is worse in neighborhoods already stressed by high rates of violence and poverty. We seem to be staring directly down the “school to jail pipeline”—meaning that youth that have behavior issues walk a fine line between school and the corrections system. Before we fall back on the hackneyed and disproven solution of more police (especially officers untrained to handle teens) or more punitive responses, we owe it to our youth to think carefully.

We have a right to ask a great deal of our schools; they must be safe, respond to the current realities of the families they serve, and strive for high student achievement. However, they need the tools and resources to do all we ask of them. School budgets are in dire straits. We have cut everything from music, sports, and after-school programs, to counselors and mental health services. Teachers lack training in handling difficult student behavior. They have less freedom to respond to the varied learning styles of their students and more pressure to conform to standardized tests. We must not resign ourselves to an increasingly harsh school culture. There are other, better options. First, the whole concept of the suspension should be called into question. Instead of removing the student from the school for what may be an entirely unsupervised or unstructured 3 days in which the “new teachers” are neighborhood gangsters, we should build the school’s capacity to focus even more on that student’s behavior.

Keep the student in school and address behavior directly. While some of the prohibited behavior is quite dangerous, such as bringing guns to class, the vast majority of suspensions and expulsions occur due to acting-out behavior. Indeed, according to the San Francisco Chronicle’s analysis, 51% of all suspensions statewide were for “disruption of school activities or willful defiance.” By contrast, 4% were for use of force or violence, and 2% were for firearms, knives, or other weapons. When you look at these cases carefully, it is clear that teachers lack the training to deescalate routine conflict situations. For example, a teacher questions a student’s dress style and the student responds with defensiveness and hostility, which is not uncommon in teenagers. If a teacher lacks the skill needed to resolve the situation, he may rely on threats of unnecessary sanctions helping to escalate the interaction.

The process for detentions and suspensions should be examined for fairness and due process. Studies have consistently shown that children of color are more subject to suspensions and expulsions than white youth. Let’s work toward eliminating the racial and ethnic bias that shows up in school disciplinary practice and juvenile justice systems. Objectively screening and assessing youth issues is crucial if we want real solutions to a problem situation. Due to their still-developing brains, teens sometimes engage in dangerous behavior without calculating the future consequences of their actions. The student with a gun in his backpack, brought to school to impress friends, may have a college scholarship in that same backpack. Our adult responses should be nuanced and measured, looking at the whole child.

A very positive alternative to pushing youth out of classrooms and to the streets is school health clinics. These can offer a range of services, and if well designed and well run, can be uniquely situated to address the immediate and compelling needs that young people have every day. There also are proven models for early interventions such as the Seattle Social Development Model, designed to begin as early as first grade to stop destructive and dangerous behavior. This program works simultaneously with teachers, parents, and students. Research has demonstrated both the short- and longer-term positive effects on school conduct, academic success, and peer acceptance. California schools need to look into how to replicate this proven model from Washington State.

It takes creativity and political will to change the balance of school safety, and schools can’t do it without support from families, legislators, districts, and the larger communities that surround them. Our research reveals that youth who disrupt schools and break the rules are often victims or witnesses of violence in the home or on the street. These youth too often suffer from the adverse effects of poverty, and they have not received the quality medical and mental health care they need. Although youth crime rates have been declining in California since 1995, school safety should concern us. We need a comprehensive approach that views these troubled and troublesome children as young adults who need to be embraced by the entire community, not banished to the mean streets or jail.

Barry A. Krisberg has been the president of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD) since 1983. He is known nationally for his research and expertise on juvenile and criminal justice issues and is called upon as a resource for professionals and the media. Dr. Krisberg received his master’s degree in criminology and a doctorate in sociology, both from the University of Pennsylvania. He has held several educational posts. He was a faculty member in the School of Criminology at the University of California at Berkeley. He was also an adjunct professor with the Hubert Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota and the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Hawaii. He is currently a lecturer in the Law School and Legal Studies Department of the University of California at Berkeley.

Dr. Krisberg was appointed by the legislature to serve on the California Blue Ribbon Commission on Inmate Population Management. Previously, he was asked by the Legislature to conduct a study on alternatives to prison commitments.








Dear CNN, ABC News, USA TODAY, Teacher Magazine, et al,

Thank you for your article on the Congressional Hearing of Special Education Child Abuse.

Santa Barbara is mobilizing to expose school corruption, reform education, and restore justice and democracy in our schools and society. School corruption is rampant and retaliation against parents and professionals is severe.

My tiny special-needs child was physically abused by the school, which was found guilty of child endangerment (and six other IDEA violations) by the California Department of Education in 1998.

When I told Principal Switack, "You can't hit my child," she replied, "If you don't leave now, I'll call the police."

When I complained to the assistant superintendent, Debbie Flores, that I was falsely arrested, she replied, "So sue us."

I spent $1.5 million on the nation's most expensive, most complex, and the Office of Civil Rights called it "the most pathetic case of administrative due process in the history of Special Education."

There were four false arrests and perjured declarations to obtain a restraining order.

I suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder from the illegal, unethical, and uncivil actions of the Education-Politico-Industrial Complex that has gripped Santa Barbara.

When SBSD Diana Rigby became the first school administrator to be found guilty of violations of ADA, she was promoted to assistant superintendent and awarded State Administrator of the Year by SBCOE Superintendent Bill Cirone, (chairman of the Awards Committee---and, at one time or another, every other school administration organization in the country.)

There is an unholy alliance between the schools, Juvenile Justice, law enforcement, and 47 non-profits that are feeding on the Public Funding Trough.

Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA) and ADA (Section 504) mandate that children be tested, diagnosed and treated for learning disabilities or emotional problems.

Instead, the low socio-economic sector of our community---children of color--- suffer institutionalized racism and child abuse as they are expelled for truancy, academic failure, negative behavior, or "zero tolerance" to improve test scores for No Child Left Behind.

The School to Prison Pipeline was created in Santa Barbara as the Truancy and Parent Accountability Program. (See Joan Esposito's Dyslexia Awareness Resource Center.org)

ACLU, NAACP, and Marian Wright Edelman's Children's Defense Fund have issued national calls to action.

Our schools have lost sight of the Educational Mission. SCHOOL CORRUPTION: BETRAYING OUR CHILDREN AND THE PUBLIC TRUST (Dr. Armand Fusco's book at yankeeinstitute.org)

Superior Court Judge Denise de Bellefeuille ruled that the local school administration colluded with the Voter Registrar to ILLEGALLY DISQUALIFY ME FROM THE SBSD SCHOOL BOARD BALLOT. And nobody cares.

We call for a formal inquiry into allegations of criminal activity within the SBCOE, SELPA, and SBSD in collusion and conspiracy with the D.A., law enforcement, and the Juvenile Justice System.

We have dozens of dead children and homeless people, and thousands of incarcerated Hispanic youth and mentally ill who are victims of a denial of rights under color of law. We are outraged and suffering.

CDE's Fiscal Crisis and Management Team (FCMAT) report states that SBSD Special Education is dysfunctional---there are systemic and systematic violations of IDEA, ADA Section 504, and FERPA.

FCMAT told us that the SBSD is the worst situation they have ever encountered; even though the scope of their evaluation didn't include IDEA compliance, nor would they deal with any complaint, page 20 describes a pattern and practice that is criminal and despicable.

SB COE, SELPA and SBSD are engaged in a Racketeering-Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO).

Contact Karolyn Renard, Esq.(805) 569-3111 or Maureen Graves, (949) 856-0128 .

I have a California Secondary Teaching Credential from UC Berkeley (1973) and a long story to tell.

Kate Smith 4 sbschooltalk.com

(God Bless America!)

k8longstory 4 applecorpspress

THERE IS AN UNHOLY ALLIANCE BETWEEN THE SCHOOLS, POLITICOS, THE JUVENILE JUSTICE SYSTEM, NON-PROFITS AND THE INDUSTRIAL SECTOR THAT FEED ON THE PUBLIC FUNDING TROUGH.

"Our juvenile prisons and jails are overflowing with children who simply don't belong there. These are the children who desperately need a helping hand. Instead, we're traumatizing and brutalizing them -- increasing the risk that they'll end up in adult prisons. It's tragic for the children and bad for the rest of us, because it tears apart communities, wastes millions in taxpayer dollars and does nothing to reduce crime.

Sending young people into the criminal justice system unnecessarily is a brutal form of abuse with consequences, for the child and for society as a whole, that can last a lifetime." ---Gunter and Kizzire's "Breaking the School to Prison Pipeline" posted in sbschooltalk's group: End the School to Prison Pipeline.



The school administration has lost sight of the Educational Mission; there is a veritable "PHALANX OF OPPOSING FORCES TO EDUCATION REFORM. "

"Our children and democratic society depend upon us" to end school corruption and "create the schools our children need and deserve," say renowned educators and professionals: Bank Street College Director, Jon Snyder, Howard Gardner, Linda Hammond-Darling, Alfie Kohn, Deborah Meier, Michelle Brittain-Bass, Gwen Phillips, Joan and Les Esposito, Karolyn Renard, Teresa and Benjamin Hernandez, Anne Zachary, Marcia Eichelberger, Betsy Combier, Peyton Wolcott, Sister Joan Chittister, Suzanne Riorden, Kim Morrell, Mary Collins, Senator Gloria Romero, and millions of Americans.

Stop the "blame game." Our teachers can't teach and our children can't learn within the present fascistic state.

"Rosa sat so Martin could walk.
Martin walked so Obama could run.
Obama ran so our children can fly!"

(From NPR Radio and A Female New Mexican's Point of View Blogspot---Mary Collins)

"There are two lasting bequests we can give our children:
One is roots, the other is wings."
----Hodding Carter


"Come to the edge," Life said. "We are afraid," they replied.

"Come to the edge," Life said. They came to the edge.

Life pushed us---and we flew.



There can be no education reform until there is school corruption exposure: abuse of power, abuse of process, retaliation, cronyism, nepotism, waste, fraud, and embezzlement are just the tip of the iceberg.

Elected oversight boards and appointed commissions are co-opted into approving and promoting illegal, unethical, and uncivil programs, policies and practices. The system is moribund; the "head" of the Body Politic is "brain dead."

The "achievement gap" and the high dropout rate are the result of institutionalized racism and insidious child abuse---the School to Prison Pipeline. There is a culture of initmidation; autocratic education in the classroom begets youth disenfranchisement and violence. Our society is in psychosis.

There are systemic and systematic violations of IDEA and ADA Section 504---a denial of rights under color of law.

School administrators wield power and prestige with obscene pleasure while classroom budget cuts negatively impact school success---student outcomes and teacher support---in deference to bureaucratic self-aggrandizement; tax-payer-paid lawyers retaliate, intimidate, and file Stategic Lawsuits Against Public-Parent Participation (SLAPP) against whistleblowers.

School district lawyers network with law enforcement and district attorneys; an Education-Politico-Industrial Complex (EPIC) has made a mockery of our nation's education and justice systems.

The retaliation against parents and teachers is severe---but it is also folly, as oppression and injustice breeds outrage and suffering which inevitably erupts into confrontation and conflict.

Parents and teachers are rising to expose the nation's greatest scandal: SCHOOL AND GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION.

AMERICA'S SECOND CIVIL WAR: THE PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT COMPLEX vs. THE TAX PAYER by Dr. Lewis Andrews (yankeeinstitute.org).

The South Coast Gang Task Force Leadership Council (google SB CITY COUNCIL for Power Point presentations) is guilty of TREASON against our children and communities---they called their practice VECTOR CONTROL against male Hispanic youth---SWAT teams and GPS monitoring devices "eradicate" youth violence! NOT!

Santa Barbara's "OLD BOY'S NETWORK" is ugly, sickening, and horrifying. This time around, de-segregation is going to be non-violent, swift, and easy. (FBI---investigate the credit card statements and ask administrators to leave their files intact and office keys on their desks.)

Police force Hispanic youth to register as gang members before they are allowed to go home from jail or juvie hall.

See the TARGET drawn in the city administration presentation? (The website charts haven't changed in the last eight months.) There is fascism in our Republic and the stench of corruption is pervasive.

THE SB COUNTY SARB---recently disbanded---is another list of a treasonous cabal.

CONTACT THE FRANKLIN COMMUNITY STAFF: RICHARD OR FERNAND and listen to our children for a change!

Dear CNN, ABC News, USA TODAY, Teacher Magazine, et al,

Thank you for your article on the Congressional Hearing of Special Education Child Abuse.

Visit sbschooltalk.com. Santa Barbara is mobilizing to expose school corruption, reform education, and restore justice and democracy in our schools and society. School corruption is rampant and retaliation against parents and professionals is severe.

My tiny special-needs child was physically abused by the school, which was found guilty of child endangerment (and six other IDEA violations) by the California Department of Education in 1998.

When I told Principal Switack, "You can't hit my child," she replied, "If you don't leave now, I'll call the police."

When I complained to the assistant superintendent, Debbie Flores, that I was falsely arrested, she replied, "So sue us."

I spent $1.5 million on the nation's most expensive, most complex, and the Office of Civil Rights called it "the most pathetic case of administrative due process in the history of Special Education."

There were four false arrests and perjured declarations to obtain a restraining order.

I suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder from the illegal, unethical, and uncivil actions of the Education-Politico-Industrial Complex that has gripped Santa Barbara.

When SBSD Diana Rigby became the first school administrator to be found guilty of violations of ADA, she was promoted to assistant superintendent and awarded State Administrator of the Year by SBCOE Superintendent Bill Cirone, (chairman of the Awards Committee---and, at one time or another, every other school administration organization in the country.)

There is an unholy alliance between the schools, Juvenile Justice, law enforcement, and 47 non-profits that are feeding on the Public Funding Trough.

Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA) and ADA (Section 504) mandate that children be tested, diagnosed and treated for learning disabilities or emotional problems.

Instead, the low socio-economic sector of our community---children of color--- suffer institutionalized racism and child abuse as they are expelled for truancy, academic failure, negative behavior, or "zero tolerance" to improve test scores for No Child Left Behind.

The School to Prison Pipeline was created in Santa Barbara as the Truancy and Parent Accountability Program. (See Joan Esposito's Dyslexia Awareness Resource Center.org)

ACLU, NAACP, and Marian Wright Edelman's Children's Defense Fund have issued national calls to action.

Our schools have lost sight of the Educational Mission. SCHOOL CORRUPTION: BETRAYING OUR CHILDREN AND THE PUBLIC TRUST (Dr. Armand Fusco's book at yankeeinstitute.org)

Currently, Superior Court Judge Denise de Bellefeuille is looking at evidence that the local school administration colluded with the Voter Registrar to ILLEGALLY DISQUALIFY ME FROM THE SBSD SCHOOL BOARD BALLOT.

JOIN ME FOR A MEETING WITH SUPERVISOR JOE CENTANO, CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS, ON TUESDAY, MAY 26, 2009 AT 1:00 PM (SB County Administration Office) to call for a formal inquiry into allegations of criminal activity within the SBCOE, SELPA, and SBSD in collusion and conspiracy with the D.A., law enforcement, and the Juvenile Justice System.

We have dozens of dead children and homeless people, and thousands of incarcerated Hispanic youth and mentally ill who are victims of a denial of rights under color of law, and thousands of damaged families.

CDE's Fiscal Crisis and Management Team (FCMAT) report states that SBSD Special Education is dysfunctional---there are systemic and systematic violations of IDEA, ADA Section 504, and FERPA.

FCMAT told us that the SBSD is the worst situation they have ever encountered; even though the scope of their evaluation didn't include IDEA compliance, nor would they deal with any complaint, page 20 describes a pattern and practice that is criminal and despicable.

SB COE, SELPA and SBSD are engaged in a Racketeering-Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO).

Contact Karolyn Renard, Esq.(805) 569-3111 or Maureen Graves, (949) 856-0128 .

I have a California Secondary Teaching Credential from UC Berkeley (1973) and a long story to tell.

Kate Smith 4 sbschooltalk.com

(God Bless America!)

k8longstory 4 applecorpspress


THE FCMAT REPORT (PAGE 20) OPENS THE WAY FOR A CLAIMS AND CLASS-ACTION AGAINST THE SBSCOE, SELPA, AND SBSD: FALSE CLAIM ACT (THE WEAPON FOR SCHOOL CORRUPTION EXPOSURE).

THERE IS AN UNHOLY ALLIANCE BETWEEN THE SCHOOLS, POLITICOS, THE JUVENILE JUSTICE SYSTEM, NON-PROFITS AND THE INDUSTRIAL SECTOR THAT FEED ON THE PUBLIC FUNDING TROUGH.

"Our juvenile prisons and jails are overflowing with children who simply don't belong there. These are the children who desperately need a helping hand. Instead, we're traumatizing and brutalizing them -- increasing the risk that they'll end up in adult prisons. It's tragic for the children and bad for the rest of us, because it tears apart communities, wastes millions in taxpayer dollars and does nothing to reduce crime.

Sending young people into the criminal justice system unnecessarily is a brutal form of abuse with consequences, for the child and for society as a whole, that can last a lifetime." ---Gunter and Kizzire's "Breaking the School to Prison Pipeline" posted in sbschooltalk's group: End the School to Prison Pipeline.



The school administration has lost sight of the Educational Mission; there is a veritable "PHALANX OF OPPOSING FORCES TO EDUCATION REFORM. "

"Our children and democratic society depend upon us" to end school corruption and "create the schools our children need and deserve," say renowned educators and professionals: Bank Street College Director, Jon Snyder, Howard Gardner, Linda Hammond-Darling, Alfie Kohn, Deborah Meier, Michelle Brittain-Bass, Gwen Phillips, Joan and Les Esposito, Karolyn Renard, Teresa and Benjamin Hernandez, Anne Zachary, Marcia Eichelberger, Betsy Combier, Peyton Wolcott, Sister Joan Chittister, Suzanne Riorden, Kim Morrell, Mary Collins, Senator Gloria Romero, and millions of Americans.

Stop the "blame game." Our teachers can't teach and our children can't learn within the present fascistic state.

"Rosa sat so Martin could walk.
Martin walked so Obama could run.
Obama ran so our children can fly!"
(From NPR Radio and A Female New Mexican's Point of View Blogspot---Mary Collins)

"There are two lasting bequests we can give our children:
One is roots, the other is wings."
----Hodding Carter

"Come to the edge," Life said. "We are afraid," they replied.

"Come to the edge," Life said. They came to the edge.

Life pushed us---and we flew.



There can be no education reform until there is school corruption exposure: abuse of power, abuse of process, retaliation, cronyism, nepotism, waste, fraud, and embezzlement are just the tip of the iceberg.

Elected oversight boards and appointed commissions are co-opted into approving and promoting illegal, unethical, and uncivil programs, policies and practices. The system is moribund; the "head" of the Body Politic is "brain dead."

The "achievement gap" and the high dropout rate are the result of institutionalized racism and insidious child abuse---the School to Prison Pipeline. There is a culture of initmidation; autocratic education in the classroom begets youth disenfranchisement and violence. Our society is in psychosis.

There are systemic and systematic violations of IDEA and ADA Section 504---a denial of rights under color of law.

School administrators wield power and prestige with obscene pleasure while classroom budget cuts negatively impact school success---student outcomes and teacher support---in deference to bureaucratic self-aggrandizement; tax-payer-paid lawyers retaliate, intimidate, and file Stategic Lawsuits Against Public-Parent Participation (SLAPP) against whistleblowers.

School district lawyers network with law enforcement and district attorneys; an Education-Politico-Industrial Complex (EPIC) has made a mockery of our nation's education and justice systems.

The retaliation against parents and teachers is severe---but it is also folly, as oppression and injustice breeds outrage and suffering which inevitably erupts into confrontation and conflict.

Parents and teachers are rising to expose the nation's greatest scandal: SCHOOL AND GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION.

AMERICA'S SECOND CIVIL WAR: THE PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT COMPLEX vs. THE TAX PAYER by Dr. Lewis Andrews (yankeeinstitute.org).

The South Coast Gang Task Force Leadership Council (google SB CITY COUNCIL for Power Point presentations) is guilty of TREASON against our children and communities---they called their practice VECTOR CONTROL against male Hispanic youth---SWAT teams and GPS monitoring devices "eradicate" youth violence! NOT!

Santa Barbara's "OLD BOY'S NETWORK" is ugly, sickening, and horrifying. This time around, de-segregation is going to be non-violent, swift, and easy. (FBI---investigate the credit card statements and ask administrators to leave their files intact and office keys on their desks.)

Police force Hispanic youth to register as gang members before they are allowed to go home from jail or juvie hall.

See the TARGET drawn in the city administration presentation? (The website charts haven't changed in the last eight months.) There is fascism in our Republic and the stench of corruption is pervasive.

THE SB COUNTY SARB---recently disbanded---is another list of a treasonous cabal.

CONTACT THE FRANKLIN COMMUNITY STAFF: RICHARD OR FERNAND and listen to our children for a change!

http://www.hgexperts.com/article.asp?id=5279

Child Development, Children's Mental Health and the Juvenile Justice System – Standford Law and Policy Review

by David E. Arredondo M.D.

The article by Dr. David E. Arredondo was published in the Standford Law and Policy review and explains principles of child development and discusses the various ways children of different developmental stages experience the same sanction. It goes on to describe different sanctions and their effects on children, and then to urge decision-makers to tailor sanctions to each offender’s individual developmental, emotional, and social circumstances.

Unfortunately, judges and attorneys can serve in delinquency court with essentially no training in principles of normal -let alone abnormal- childhood development. These principles are essential if one is to understand the requirements of normal neurobiological, psychological, social and moral development. An understanding of the principles of child and adolescent development and a consideration of children's mental health is useful to decision-makers at all levels of the juvenile justice system. Judges, prosecutors, and public defenders are routinely faced with offenders of both sexes who are psychologically very different than their adult counterparts.

Thus, there are several reasons why actors in our juvenile justice system should understand child development principles. Indeed, there may be paradoxical or untoward negative developmental consequences of incompetent or developmentally inappropriate sanctions by a juvenile court. Simply put, there is the very real risk that the system can do more harm than good to a child who is still in the process of neurobiological, psychological, social, and moral development. Because of this, the negative consequences of careless sanctioning may be more enduring for a child (and for society) than they might be for an adult. Childhood is an intense period of rapid development culminating in the tasks of identity formation and social integration. Other than infancy, no stage in human development results in such rapid or dramatic change as adolescence. These developmental tasks are exquisitely sensitive to environmental (peer, educational, familial, and social) influence. To complicate matters further, the teen years are also characterized by a struggle for autonomy from adults upon whom these youth must still depend.

These changes are accompanied by rapid neurobiological concomitants, which are reflected in cognitive, emotional, and abstract reasoning, as well as moral changes in development. According to some authorities, adolescence is an "important formative period in which many developmental trajectories become firmly established and increasingly difficult to alter . . . it is not an overstatement to say that it is much easier to alter an individual's life course in adolescence than in adulthood." The application of the child development considerations described in this paper should lead to decreased rates and durations of detention and decreased use of interventions with no positive evidence base for all detained youth. This will apply especially to children with mental disorders or mental retardation and for low- to moderate-level youthful offenders of all genders, races, and ethnicities. The purpose of this Article is to help lawyers, judges, and other juvenile justice policy-makers and decision-makers in prescribing more effective, developmentally appropriate, and humane remedies when designing alternative interventions and sanctions for juvenile offenders who are not seriously violent or sociopaths. The vast majority of youthful offenders are not dangerous, and this group will be the focus of this Article. Although extremely important, issues of diminished competence, capacity, and culpability will not be directly addressed.

Part I of this Article will reference principles of child and adolescent development and children's mental health. The concept that children of different maturational stages experience the same sanction differently will be explained. In Part II, examples will be offered to demonstrate how some sanctions are more conducive to a child's positive social development than others. The necessary balance between allowing some latitude for mistakes while providing a clear set of limits and consequences will be described. Inappropriate imposition of some sanctions and their possible deleterious effects on a child's relationship to society will be discussed.

Part II will conclude that decision-makers in the juvenile justice system, including the juvenile delinquency court, should be driven primarily by the developmental, emotional, and social needs of the individual offender, rather than the characteristics of the individual offense (the system should be offender driven instead of offense driven). The goal is to help the decision-maker obtain more clarity in the objectives to be obtained and to become more knowledgeable and effective in achieving those objectives.

Finally, in Part III, this paper will suggest specific sanctioning strategies in various "special" cases, including those of girls in the juvenile system, the incarceration of juveniles with mental health and neurodevelopmental problems (including learning disabilities), disproportionate minority confinement from a child's perspective, and trans-generational offenders and their families.

"SEARCH" FOR THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IS UPLOADED ONTO SBSCHOOLTALK.COM OR GO TO THE WEBSITE: HG Experts at

http://www.hgexperts.com/article.asp?id=5279








CALIFORNIA EDUCATION REFORM MELTDOWN

by K. LLOYD BILLINGSLY

March 21, 2007. http://www.campusreportonline.net/main/articles.php?id=1562

SACRAMENTO, CA ~Last week the capital was abuzz over Getting Down to Facts, the massive series of privately-funded education reports coordinated through Stanford University. The responses to these reports missed some key realities.

The reports confirm that California education is a mess, burdened with a complicated and counterproductive system of finance. To bring every student up to speed under current conditions would cost more than $1 trillion per year, according to one estimate from which the researchers have distanced themselves. According to another, to bring California students in line with the goals of the federal No Child Left Behind Act will require spending increases of 53 to 71 percent.

Press accounts hail the reports as proof of the need for at least a 40-percent increase in education funding. That came as good news to the axis of teacher unions, free-spending politicians and education bureaucrats whose single reform idea is more money. The researchers are divided about the need for spending but united on a key point.

Absent meaningful reforms, no amount of money would do the job, something even Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez seems to realize, "If money alone guaranteed a good education, then Paris Hilton would have a Ph.D.," he told reporters. (Ed. Note: Apologies to Paris---KPS). California now spends a total of $67 billion per year, all sources included, on K-12 education, and the reports confirm that a lot of it is misspent though wasteful categorical programs. That has also been known for a long time.

The standard response to the Stanford reports is that California needs both more spending and reform. A better response would be to take this data as the latest evidence that California's K-12 system is essentially unreformable. More evidence for that also came last Tuesday, before the Stanford reports were released, in a different report that did indeed get down to facts.

On March 13, the California State University system revealed the latest figures on remedial education. In fall 2006, a full 43.5 percent of incoming freshmen needed remedial English and 37.5 percent needed remedial math. In other words, nearly half incoming students are deficient in English and more than one third deficient in math.

These remedial students, it should be pointed out, are from the top third of their high-school class, with high GPAs of 3.15 in math and 3.18 in English. The picture for students in the bottom two thirds must be grim indeed. Nationally California ranks 48th in reading and math, despite spending, from all sources, $11,500 per student per year. The system leaves even the best students deficient in math and English, the most basic subjects.

Neither the CSU remedial figures nor Getting Down to Facts address the question of whether a K-12 system that produces such dismal results, at such high cost, deserves increased funding. There is no denying that the system has had the money: by law education is the biggest item in the budget. But it has failed to deliver and always comes back for more. But as legislators should know by now, the system is essentially unreformable. It works best as a means to transfer wealth from taxpayers to an insatiable bureaucracy. If California truly wants increased student performance, the state needs to take a different path.

Meaningful reform will only take place when individuals, rather than bureaucrats, make key decisions and funding goes to the student, not the institution. That choice needs to be extended to parents and students in K-12. Choice will give them right to, in effect, fire the lot of them and chart their own course.

The Governor's Committee on Education Excellence should take the Stanford reports and CSU figures as the latest confirmation of failure. Instead of parroting the latest demand for more money, the committee, the governor and the legislature, should pursue reform through full parental choice in education for all Californians as a matter of basic civil rights.

K. Lloyd Billingsly is the editorial director of the Pacific Research Institute. This article originally appeared as a PRI Capital Ideas feature.

To comment on this article, please e-mail mal.kline@academia.org



There are over 56 million entries online regarding school corruption and education reform. sbschooltalk is compiling the best articles as fast as we can:

"The education sector is the largest budget item in most countries.. Where corruption is rampant there is a great risk that the whole country may be undermined. When this happens, a central role of the education sector - namely the imparting of ethical values and behaviour - becomes impossible, resulting in corruption becoming the norm at all levels of society. Corruption takes various forms, some of which are not obvious." Corruption in the Education Sector at Anti-Corruption Resource Centre u4.no website


"Reform Education: Money is Not the Problem" by W. Norton Grubb: http://sbschooltalk.ning.com/group/padresunidoscalifornia/forum/topics/reform-education-money-is-not

REFORM EDUCATION! SLASH SCHOOL ADMINISTRATIONS. INVEST IN THE SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS, NOT THE SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS AND THEIR CORRUPT PROGRAMS, POLICIES AND PRACTICES.

Buddist Prayer:
"IN THIS TIME Of TURMOIL,
MAY OUR THOUGHTS BE CLEAR,
MAY OUR FEELINGS BE COMPASSIONATE,
MAY OUR NEEDS BE FULFILLED,
AND MAY WE CREATE PEACE."


The following documents are found in sbschooltalk FORUM (see toolbar at top of the page; click on SCHOOL CORRUPTION).

BATTLING CORRUPTION IN AMERICA'S PUBLIC SCHOOLS by Lydia Segal

http://books.google.com/books?id=cTPfk_7Lyt0C&dq=school+corruption&printsec=frontcover&source=in&hl=en&ei=S3-jSay-O5GUsAOOopSfAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=12&ct=result#PPT16,M1

Battling Corruption in America's Public Schools

By Lydia G. Segal, James B. Jacobs

Foreword by James B. Jacobs:

On the pathology of the urban school bureaucracy:

"Battling School Corruption in America's Public Schools" throws down the gauntlet to proponents of school reform. If the problem of school reform were not complicated and untractable enough, Professor Segal has illuminated protracted systemic corruption rooted deep in the structure, organization and operation of the nation's largest school system. Even worse, she shows how this systemic corruption distorts the school systems' priorities, putting children's education last. And the situation is exacerbated by certain centrally mandated anti-corruption controls that do not prevent---and perhaps generate---corruption while blocking initiative, creativity, and effective decision making at the individual schools.

This book forces us to consider whether urban public schools can be fixed. To be sure, more money will not cure the problems that Lydia Segal has exposed. As with foreign aid to many developing countries, the money never gets to the recipients for whom it is ultimately intended. Rather, it is siphoned off via corruption, waste, and abuse.

Professor Segal's recommendations for decentralization and reorganziation are sensible and surely worth trying. She suggests breaking up the urban school bureaucracy by essentially turning every school into a self-sufficient charter school free from bureaucratic mandates, reshaping the school system, and privatizing various operations.

Although, as she notes, the resistance to school reform of urban bureaucracies is formidable, the need for such radical structural change could hardly be more pressing.


James B. Jacobs,

Warren E. Burger Professor of Law
Director, Center for Research in Crime and Justice
New York University School of Law



BREAKING THE SCHOOL TO PRISON PIPELINE by Gunter and Kizzire

"Our juvenile prisons and jails are overflowing with children who simply don't belong there," said Southern Poverty Law Center President Richard Cohen. "These are the children who desperately need a helping hand. Instead, we're traumatizing and brutalizing them -- increasing the risk that they'll end up in adult prisons. It's tragic for the children and bad for the rest of us, because it tears apart communities, wastes millions in taxpayer dollars and does nothing to reduce crime.
Sending young people into the criminal justice system unnecessarily is a brutal form of abuse with consequences, for the child and for society as a whole, that can last a lifetime." (Posted in sbschooltalk's group: End the School to Prison Pipeline)

"DISMANTLING THE SCHOOL TO PRISON PIPELINE" naacp.org (googleable; also on sbschooltalk forum SCHOOL CORRUPTION.)

Decontructing the School to Prison Pipeline: New Directions for Youth Development by Johanna Wald and Daniel Losen
http://www.amazon.com/Deconstructing-School-Prison-Pipeline-Development/dp/0787972274

SCHOOL CORRUPTION: BETRAYING OUR CHILDREN & THE PUBLIC TRUST by Dr. Armand Fusco of yankeeinstitute.org

"ROAD TO NOWHERE: ILLUSIONS AND BROKEN PROMISES IN SPECIAL EDUCATION....." by Kalman Hettleman (sbschooltalk forum SCHOOL CORRUPTION)

"CORRUPTION IN OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS" by Neal McCluskey (sbschooltalk forum SCHOOL CORRUPTION)

"CORRUPTION AND ABUSE OF POWER IN SCHOOL ADMINISTION" by David Waite and David Allen. (Contact information included: sbschooltalk SCHOOL CORRUPTION forum).

CORRUPTION FORMULA from the Rand Graduate Institute (see sbschooltalk/Forum/School Corruption) by Francis Tolentino

FIXING AMERICA'S BROKEN PUBLIC EDUCATION by Collete and Nicholas Gilroy (paste into browser http://www.educationreformnow.com/book.html)
(Read chapter summaries in the sbschooltalk FORUM: Education Reform. Discussion: Education Reform Now!)

EXCERPT: "In the 21st century, American resistance to genuine education reform is a self-indulgence that threatens the nation. The first step in achieving real education reform is a sober recognition of the phalanx of opposing forces -- a virtual Great Wall: teacher and administrator unions and associations as well as a variety of other professional education associations who see education reform as a threat to their personal and professional comfort; the plethora of commercial interests who fear education reform would disrupt their profits as suppliers to schools; laws on the local, state and national levels designed to thwart real/true substantive education reform; apathy on the part of too many citizens; an American cultural resistance to any substantive change in the way schools are structured and operated." ---Collette and Nicholas Gilroy

"Set Up to Fail: 100 Things Wrong with America's Schools" by Dr. Kathleen Loftus is available from http://Amazon.com and http://BarnesandNoble.com.

Marian Wright Edelman's Children's Defense Fund: Dismantling the Cradle to Prison Pipeline: http://rehak.com/alf/90084%20ALF%20Report%2012.pdf
(copy and paste in your browser).

TOP U.S. SP.ED. LAWYERS FILE AGAINST CDE AND SUPERINTENDENT JACK O'CONNELL (googleable). State Superintendent Jack O'Connell is powerless to control the corruption in the school system; he told Joan Esposito that he was AFRAID of COE Superintendent Bill Cirone, who is the most corrupt/powerful superintendent in California AND THE UNITED STATES.

Jack O'Connell: INDICT BILL CIRONE FOR CRIMINAL ACTIVITY OR RESIGN!

AMERICA'S SECOND CIVIL WAR: The Public Employment Complex vs. The Tax Payer by Dr. Lewis Andrews, yankeeinstitute.org (Dr. Andrews will speak to you if you telephone him!)

RETALIATION BY ADMINISTRATORS AGAINST TEACHERS WHO STAND UP FOR STUDENTS HAS CREATED AN EPIDEMIC OF POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER AMONG EDUCATORS:

WHITE CHALK CRIME by Joseph and Rebajo Blase

BREAKING THE SILENCE by Karen Horwitz, Director of NAPTA, the National Association for the Prevention of Teacher Abuse. (Interviewed by Dr. Kathleen Loftus: sbschooltalk forum SCHOOL CORRUPTION article: "NAPTA".)

I HAVE A PLAN: SB EDUCATION CONFERENCE/JULY 1-5, 2009---FOUNDING FAMILIES CREATE A NEW SCHOOL PARADIGM!

"Decentralize the district to create child-centered, teacher-directed and parent-involved schools."

Our schools are in crisis. The reasons are complex but the solution is simple---staff and community must focus on rebuilding an efficient and effective operation by decentralizing the district to create child-centered, teacher-directed and parent-involved schools. Using school-based management, empowered teachers, parents, principals, community leaders, and students will transform every school into a successful and cooperative learning environment.

My experience as a teacher, parent advocate, community activist, and non-profit agency administrator qualifies me to serve on the Santa Barbara School District Governing Board. The Board must guide each school through the complexities of organizational change.

I believe in cooperation, collaboration, and coordination. We must form community within each classroom, grade level, and school. We must dismantle the present autocratic bureaucracy and replace it with democratic principles and procedures. We must work together to develop a modern curriculum, successful instructional techniques, and a comprehensive student assessment system.

I support a grass-roots movement calling for teacher support, administrative restructuring, and local autonomy so that parents and teachers are considered partners as opposed to enemies or slaves. I promise to create a grievance procedure so that concerns and opinions of parents, teachers, and students are heard, and to establish meaningful changes in the learning process.

--- Kate Smith, 2000 SBSD Board of Education, Candidate's Statement


KATE SMITH'S 2008 CANDIDATE'S STATEMENT VOWS TO EXPOSE SCHOOL CORRPUTION:


Students need and deserve child-centered and parent-involved schools with an engaged, relevant, and socially-conscious curriculum in a supportive and cooperative environment. Santa Barbara is blessed to have the SBCC Parent-Child Workshops and I support parent-cooperative schools "where parents and children learn and grow together." I support the development of high school academies and alternative educational models that accommodate a variety of learning styles and preferences.

Our democratic society depends upon the success of our educational system and I am passionate about school reform. I would increase teacher support and decrease the administrative bureaucracy. I would dismantle the Truancy Program, which criminalizes the low-performing high school students by placing them in the Juvenile Justice System, and I will expose wrong-doing in the Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA).

I have a California State Secondary Teaching Credential, and am currently the Santa Barbara School Districts' Parent Representative to the SELPA Community Advisory Committee.

My family is eternally grateful to Starr King (Hanne Sonquist and Rachel Johansen), Open Alternative School (Gwen Phillips), and San Marcos I-5 (Debbie Keys-Thomas and Mary De Smidt) and I would be honored to serve on the Santa Barbara School Districts' Board of Education.

(Kate Smith was illegally disqualified from the SBSD Board of Education ballot; there is abuse of power, school corruption, and severe retaliation against whistleblowers. The SELPA refuses to release the VISA Credit Card statements, 1998-2004. Help wanted here. katesmith2@earthlink.net)



ACLU: SCHOOL TO PRISON PIPELINE:

The Racial Justice Program is committed to challenging the "school to prison pipeline," a disturbing national trend wherein children are funneled out of public schools and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems. Many of these children have learning disabilities or histories of poverty, abuse or neglect, and would benefit from additional educational and counseling services. Instead, they are isolated, punished and pushed out.

"Zero-tolerance" policies criminalize minor infractions
of school rules, while high-stakes testing programs encourage educators to push out low-performing students to improve their schools' overall test scores. Students of color are especially vulnerable to push-out trends and the discriminatory application of discipline.

The ACLU believes that children should be educated, not incarcerated. We are working to challenge numerous policies and practices within public school systems and the juvenile justice system that contribute to the school to prison pipeline.

THE CHILDREN'S DEFENSE FUND HAS LAUNCHED A NATIONAL CAMPAIGN TO END THE SCHOOL TO PRISON PIPLELINE. JOIN sbschooltalk's END CRADLE TO PRISON PIPELINE GROUP and work to stop institutionalized racism and child abuse.

EDUCATION REFORM NOW! website (paste in browser): http://www.educationreformnow.com/chapter4.html

Educational administration is the most burdensome weight on American public education, the part of the establishment that stands most in the way of education reform.

The three basic paths to education administration are: 1) promotion of successful athletic coaches; 2) promotion of highly successful classroom teachers; 3) unsuccessful classroom teachers working their way into administration through the required courses in educational administration that will lead to official state certification in administration. And, of course, the 'old boy network' plays a significant role in smoothing those three paths for their favorite buddies.

None of those paths comes close to being an ideal means to choose administrators, but even if any of those paths does sometimes produce a competent administrator, that shouldn’t mask an unspoken reality: administrators in general are less competent to do their assigned job : administering, than teachers are to do theirs: teaching.

This is an inherently unhealthy situation: the less competent -- and more highly paid to boot -- exercising authority over the more competent. Proposals for education reform virtually never recognize, let alone attempt to address, this severe problem.

Attempting education reform without scrapping the prevailing top-down false industrial model of education, with teachers as assembly line workers on a factory floor, supervised by less-than-competent administrators, is fatuous. ---Collette and Nicholas Gilroy: FIXING AMERICA'S BROKEN PUBLIC EDUCATION

Stopping the School to Jail Pipeline in California
By Barry A. Krisberg
President
National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD)http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2008/09/stopping_the_sc.html


Recent media accounts have reported on the rising rates of school suspensions in California. Clearly, the problem is statewide, but is worse in neighborhoods already stressed by high rates of violence and poverty. We seem to be staring directly down the “school to jail pipeline”—meaning that youth that have behavior issues walk a fine line between school and the corrections system. Before we fall back on the hackneyed and disproven solution of more police (especially officers untrained to handle teens) or more punitive responses, we owe it to our youth to think carefully.

We have a right to ask a great deal of our schools; they must be safe, respond to the current realities of the families they serve, and strive for high student achievement. However, they need the tools and resources to do all we ask of them. School budgets are in dire straits. We have cut everything from music, sports, and after-school programs, to counselors and mental health services. Teachers lack training in handling difficult student behavior. They have less freedom to respond to the varied learning styles of their students and more pressure to conform to standardized tests. We must not resign ourselves to an increasingly harsh school culture. There are other, better options. First, the whole concept of the suspension should be called into question. Instead of removing the student from the school for what may be an entirely unsupervised or unstructured 3 days in which the “new teachers” are neighborhood gangsters, we should build the school’s capacity to focus even more on that student’s behavior.

Keep the student in school and address behavior directly. While some of the prohibited behavior is quite dangerous, such as bringing guns to class, the vast majority of suspensions and expulsions occur due to acting-out behavior. Indeed, according to the San Francisco Chronicle’s analysis, 51% of all suspensions statewide were for “disruption of school activities or willful defiance.” By contrast, 4% were for use of force or violence, and 2% were for firearms, knives, or other weapons. When you look at these cases carefully, it is clear that teachers lack the training to deescalate routine conflict situations. For example, a teacher questions a student’s dress style and the student responds with defensiveness and hostility, which is not uncommon in teenagers. If a teacher lacks the skill needed to resolve the situation, he may rely on threats of unnecessary sanctions helping to escalate the interaction.

The process for detentions and suspensions should be examined for fairness and due process. Studies have consistently shown that children of color are more subject to suspensions and expulsions than white youth. Let’s work toward eliminating the racial and ethnic bias that shows up in school disciplinary practice and juvenile justice systems. Objectively screening and assessing youth issues is crucial if we want real solutions to a problem situation. Due to their still-developing brains, teens sometimes engage in dangerous behavior without calculating the future consequences of their actions. The student with a gun in his backpack, brought to school to impress friends, may have a college scholarship in that same backpack. Our adult responses should be nuanced and measured, looking at the whole child.

A very positive alternative to pushing youth out of classrooms and to the streets is school health clinics. These can offer a range of services, and if well designed and well run, can be uniquely situated to address the immediate and compelling needs that young people have every day. There also are proven models for early interventions such as the Seattle Social Development Model, designed to begin as early as first grade to stop destructive and dangerous behavior. This program works simultaneously with teachers, parents, and students. Research has demonstrated both the short- and longer-term positive effects on school conduct, academic success, and peer acceptance. California schools need to look into how to replicate this proven model from Washington State.

It takes creativity and political will to change the balance of school safety, and schools can’t do it without support from families, legislators, districts, and the larger communities that surround them. Our research reveals that youth who disrupt schools and break the rules are often victims or witnesses of violence in the home or on the street. These youth too often suffer from the adverse effects of poverty, and they have not received the quality medical and mental health care they need. Although youth crime rates have been declining in California since 1995, school safety should concern us. We need a comprehensive approach that views these troubled and troublesome children as young adults who need to be embraced by the entire community, not banished to the mean streets or jail.

Barry A. Krisberg has been the president of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD) since 1983. He is known nationally for his research and expertise on juvenile and criminal justice issues and is called upon as a resource for professionals and the media. Dr. Krisberg received his master’s degree in criminology and a doctorate in sociology, both from the University of Pennsylvania. He has held several educational posts. He was a faculty member in the School of Criminology at the University of California at Berkeley. He was also an adjunct professor with the Hubert Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota and the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Hawaii. He is currently a lecturer in the Law School and Legal Studies Department of the University of California at Berkeley.

Dr. Krisberg was appointed by the legislature to serve on the California Blue Ribbon Commission on Inmate Population Management. Previously, he was asked by the Legislature to conduct a study on alternatives to prison commitments.

Posted on September 05, 2008
Comments
Barry: Excellent comments; I shared with you briefly last year in Austin that the Council on At-Risk Youth (CARY)goes into the public middle schools and works directly with the more abusive, aggressive and intimidating students who have been assigned to in school, or out of school suspension, or have been removed and reassigned to the Disciplinary Alternative Learning Center.

CARY MA level staff persons receive referrals meeting our aggressive admissions criteria from principals, asst. principals and counselors and conduct programming with students during elective classes. We work with this group of aggressive kids for a full year using the Positive Adolescent Choices Training (PACT is endorsed by CDC&P, USDeptEd, USDeptJust and Hamilton Fische as a best practice youth violence program) in small group settings for about 12 weeks, and follow up with individual behavioral counseling, community service learning projects and support work with families, again for a full year. Tex. A&M Inst.

Policy Research shows that one serious disciplinary report in public school is the most powerful predictor for future criminal involvement. Hence, the public school disciplinary setting is a very optimal environment to conduct meaningful delinquency and youth violence prevention programming, with high risk youth. Our results are significantly positive showing 50% reduction in serious incident reports with sustainable reductions for 18 months; we are now guaging impact to juvenile court referrals but our projection is that we will also duplicate the PACT program results with 50% reduction in juvenile court referrrals.

Of course the challenge for the non profit is gaining fiscal support for difficult kids. With a scant annual budget from the City and County and annual fund raisers, we serve 400 kids at six school sites. The State makes little or no investment is school based delinquency or violence prevention. We are calling for "an ounce of prevention" and suggesting that the equivalent of at least one percent of the $600,000,000.00 Travis County and Austin spends annually at the city, county and state level for criminal justice including law enforcement, courts, prosecution, public defense, jails, probation, prisons and parole be appropriated for prevention, for kids we know have high liklihood of graduating not from high school but directly to juvenile/criminal justice.

School personnel open their doors to us gladly and give the CARY program high ratings with high marks for the student participants, although 100% of the school budget goes to academics. We must discontinue growing our bloated juvenile and criminal justice system budgets and begin building capacity at the public school disciplinary system level to effectively reduce, crime, violence, drug abuse and delinquency. CARY's year long program costs $750.00 per student; compare to a year at state prison for $15,000.00, a year at County jail for $25,000.00 or a year at Texas Youth Commission for $100,000.00.

Effective prevention programming beats the 60% to 75% recidivism rates in correction before the fact, and it operates for a dime on each correction dollar spent. Effective prevention with high risk kids presents a successful roadblock to the "school to prison pipeline". Can NCCD assist in building this campaign to shift public policy in support for prevention? Regards, Adrian Moore www.councilonatriskyouth.org

Posted by: Adrian Moore at September 6, 2008 12:50 PM

School districts have come up with the universal tool for placing all handicapped children in one setting: emotionally disturbed classes. Mixing learning disabled, autistic and delinquent children sustains education's role in this problem.

While I agree that delinquent children do indeed need specialized support, we are up against family issues that compete with the school's time and resources differently than other populations, and there is no way a delinquent child is going to undergo some miraculous change of character through the use of a services model that does not address behavior learning needs.

Also, when such children in the mix with truly disabled students, they force their peers into an emotional freeze that prevents them from being able to learn. That would be denial of FAPE under ordinary circumstances, and hazing a harassment would be directed at intimidation because their peers are disabled.

You are an enabler.

Posted by: Mahlon Smith at October 4, 2008 01:15 PM



EXCERPT FROM "CORRUPTION AND ABUSE OF POWER IN EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION" by David Waite and David Allen:

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."(Lord Acton, 1887, Letter to Bishop Creighton)

The well-known quote above by Lord Acton suggests a relationship between
power and corruption.1 In this article we explore the manifestations of corruption in educational administration, both K–12 and in tertiary education, and the dynamic interrelationships between these two factors—corruption and abuse of
power, among others.

We explore each concept, problematizing the definitions,
our definitions, of each term. Since large-scale data on the individual phenomena
and on their interrelationships are unavailable, we rely on what little formalized
research exists, on newspaper accounts, on anecdotes, and on our personal
experiences to develop our thesis. The analysis we offer is informed by a crosscultural and intracultural comparison. In short, this article represents the first blush of an ethnology of corruption and abuse of power in educational administration.

The authors are affiliated with the Educational Administration and Psychological Services Department,Texas State University–San Marcos. Address correspondence to Duncan Waite, Educational Administration and Psychological Services Department, Texas State University–San Marcos, San Marcos, TX 78666;

e-mail: dw26@txstate.edu.

81 0042-0972/03/1200-0281/0  2003 Human Sciences Press, Inc.
282 THE URBAN REVIEW


EXCERPT FROM "CORRUPTION FORMULA:" by F. Tolentino.

Corruption loves multiple and complex regulations with ample and uncheckable official discretion. Corruption tends not to thrive where there is a democratic culture, competition and good system of control, and where people (employees, clients, overseas) have rights to information and rights of redress."

C=M+D-A

Corruption (C) equals monopoly of power (M) plus discretion of officials (D) minus accountability (A)

Using the above formula, if an individual (a comptroller, company president, school administrator, or a government official) has monopoly of power over goods or services, has the discretion to decide who gets to provide for (supply) the goods or services required or how much a person receives, and there is no system through which others may scrutinize how the individual arrived at the decision (meaning, no transparency), then we tend to find corruption.

sbschooltalk.com contends that the U.S. Education System is a corrupt monopoly; the school administrators control the money, positions, and abuse power; there is no transparency nor complaint procedure.

Visit sbschooltalk group "APPLE CORPS" or sbschooltalk forums on "DEMOCRATIC EDUCATION," and "EDUCATION REFORM" for more about----

Congressman Mike Honda Introduces Legislation to Address National Education Equity Issues

(View the legislation http://honda.house.gov/legislation/commission/commission-legislation.pdf)

His Twitter page reads:
Blog: My legislation to address disparities in our schools: The Educational Opportunity and Equity Commissi.. http://tinyurl.com/cp9ygn

Thursday, March 26, 2009

My legislation to address disparities in our schools: The Educational Opportunity and Equity Commission Act

Today I re-introduced legislation in Congress to overhaul the country's education system and finally address the disparities in America’s schools. My Educational Opportunity and Equity Commission Act attends to the President's concern regarding, in Obama's words, the "relative decline of American education," which is "untenable for our economy, unsustainable for our democracy, and unacceptable for our children."

Despite our best efforts, our children are not receiving an equitable education. There are vast disparities between the education provided by schools in different school districts, counties and states. Our current funding formulas are outdated, relying on factors such as average daily attendance, average costs for "regular" students, percentage of low-income students and concentrations of low-income students, special education students and English language learners. Funding formulas are based on a number of factors not necessarily correlated to the individual needs of the children in the school, and they vary from state to state.

The Educational Opportunity and Equity Commission Act creates a national commission charged with gathering public opinions and insights about how government can improve education and eliminate disparities in the education system. Importantly, the Commission’s composition would change the nature of the debate. Comprised of parents, teachers and experts on equity, civil rights, education policy, school finance, economics, and taxation — not merely state and federal legislators — the reform road map would be written by all users and beneficiaries of America’s education system.

This is a national problem demanding a national conversation. If fostered effectively, I believe that this dialogue can have a direct and positive impact on our nation’s economy and capacity to lead in the 21st century.

The bill has not yet been posted on Thomas, but you can view the bill text on my website and read what leading education organizations have said about the bill.

Posted by Mike Honda at 12:06 PM
Labels: education, sponsored legislation
Tags: and, california, commission, educational, equity, honda, mike, opportunity, padres, unidos

Comment by Teresa Hernandez

To Mike Honda from Padres Unidos California www.padesunidosca.ning.com and Hearts and Hands Elders www.heartsandhandselders.com

Finally, the Obama administration will address educational equity issues in California. The schools need to shift focus if the students are to succeed. I am an education activist for 30 years, currently in Silicon Valley. Latino parents insist on being part of the solution. Please contact us. Teresa and Benjamin Hernandez of Padres Unidos California.com


THANK YOU, TERESA AND BENJAMIN, FOR POSTING THIS AND CONNECTING WITH MICHAEL HONDA AS A POLITICAL ALLY.

CALL FOR A CONGRESSIONAL HEARING AND INVESTIGATION OF THE SCHOOL TO PRISON PIPELINE AND THE SCHOOL-POLITICO-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX.POWER TO THE PEOPLE!

Kate Smith

sbschooltalk.com





THERE IS AN UHOLY ALLIANCE BETWEEN THE SCHOOLS, POLITICOS, JUVENILE JUSTICE SYSTEM AND NON-PROFITS THAT FEED ON THE PUBLIC FUNDING TROUGH.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Money is not the problem; ARROGANCE, INCOMPETENCE, AND GREED----school administration corruption---are the culprits!

"Reform Education: Money is Not the Problem" by W. Norton Grubb: http://sbschooltalk.ning.com/group/padresunidoscalifornia/forum/topics/reform-education-money-is-not

"You cannot carry on forever squeezing the productive bit of the
economy (taxing businesses and The People) in order to fund an unprecedented engorgement of the unproductive bit (government and school administration),
You cannot spend your way out of a recession and you cannot borrow your way out of debt. More money will be spent on servicing the debt than on educating the children." (British Parliament to the Prime Minister.)

REFORM EDUCATION! SLASH SCHOOL ADMINISTRATIONS. INVEST IN THE SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS, NOT THE SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS AND THEIR CORRUPT PROGRAMS, POLICIES AND PRACTICES.


Who's In Charge: The Education Establishment
From The School Reform Handbook: How to Improve Your Schools
Published by The Center for Education Reform

Education is an industry. Like most major industries that grew out of the industrial revolution, it has its factory workers and their unions, its managers, its special interests and consumers. Over time, a productive business, whether the local bank or a large national corporation, downsizes to stay afloat. Not so with education. Education is bigger than ever. It has lost its friendliness and ability to respond. It has grown out-of-control; not because consumer satisfaction has allowed it to, but because of laws and regulations that stop schools from working.

Since 1945, the number of school districts has been consolidated from over 100,000 to just 15,173 school districts in 1992. Instead of locally run, the public school system has become more and more centralized, with power in the bureaucracy, not the community. State and federal education dollars carry layers of regulation and conditions. For example, the California State Education Code is over 6,000 pages long. In Indiana, a much smaller state, all state education codes amount to 1,250 pages. In the first half of 1994, the federal government passed nine new laws mandating how dollars are spent and how schooling should occur.

How did this happen? How did the business of schooling get so out of hand? The American tradition of schooling rests with the states, where it is delegated to individual communities. State Boards of Education and legislators are supposed to set the broad goals, and those closest to our children are supposed to decide and carry out what really happens. But as the layers of bureaucracy have increased, parents have been able less and less to make a dent in their schools in any basic way. Yes, a parent can volunteer in a classroom or library in some cases. And, she can probably help the teacher design a plan for her child's progress through history class — sometimes. At one time, that parent could have influenced the character of the school — its teaching methods, curriculum, and special programming — through her votes for the school board. Things are no longer that easy.

Why They Call it "The Blob"

Parents say they have little power to affect good things in their schools. They feel that no matter where they turn, they cannot get through the maze of bureaucratic rules. In some cases, even school personnel can be hostile to their concerns. And with the government dictating what they do, the schools are powerless to respond and build real partnerships with parents. Much of this has happened by sheer momentum. Much has been caused also by the very groups whose stated mission is to "better" our schools. These groups are the education establishment -- the blob. As a testament to their position, the National Education Association (NEA) president boasted to his board of directors in 1993: "NEA had unprecedented input into several key education issues including education reform legislation... NEA also played a major role as President Clinton began forming his cabinet and senior staff. NEA was directly involved in helping to build the best team possible for the U.S. Department of Education."

Including the NEA, the education establishment has over 200 groups with a vested interest in a particular aspect of the education industry. From the National Alliance of Business to the National School Public Relations Administrators, the blob now runs the schools because it is so influential in politics — both in school board races and lobbying state leaders and Washington. They have the money, the power and have been a political fixture for years. They not only have secured a safe haven for their own agenda but have severely limited the ability of individual communities to maintain input, much less control, over the schooling their children receive.

At the local level, parents are often paid lip service, and parents who ask a lot of questions are considered troublemakers. Administrators are now accountable to other administrators, not to the people. Parental involvement is often just window dressing. When a complaint or suggestion is voiced that is not consistent with the views of the education establishment, the parents are branded as "difficult" or worse. This has set up a situation that frustrates even the most enthusiastic supporters of public education.

The picture is bleak. Even the best spirit of cooperation in the most unified community will yield few results if those active in that community do not know the right questions to ask and what the obstacles are. As people's satisfaction with their schools has declined, the groups claiming to defend the schools cling tighter to the status quo and lobby harder and louder for more of those programs — many non-education in scope — that will protect their position. Sadly, the rank and file of any of these education groups are helpless to do anything about it. Teachers, the most important people in our schools, next to our children, have been left out in the cold.

Definitions of corruption are problematic. Agreed-on definitions are rare, and
definitions of corruption run the gamut from being too broad as to be rendered
relatively useless to being too narrow and thus be applicable to only limited,
rare, well-defined cases. Discussion of the issue seems to be entirely absent in
the literature on educational administration. Fortunately for us, other domains
and professions deal with the issue of corruption on a more regular basis. From
the literature on police corruption we have this definition, a relatively simple
one: corruption is “the misuse of public power for private and personal benefit”
(Palmer [1992] as cited in Sayed and Bruce, 1998b). This simple definition,
according to Sayed and Bruce, provides a good starting point, as it identifies
three critical elements in a consideration of corruption: what was done, how,
and by whom. The authors develop a much more strict definition of corruption
as it relates to police: “any illegal conduct or misconduct involving the use of
occupational power for personal, group or organizational gain” (Sayed and
Bruce, 1998b, p. 9). And while this particular definition has advantages over
the simpler one (for example, the addition of group and organizational gain—
which will be beneficial in the discussion of corruption in educational administration), its drawback for our purposes is the insistence on the illegality of thecorruption. Group and organizational benefit or gain were added to the simpler
definition of corruption to allow for individuals of a given profession (police)
or organization to act in concert to benefit individually and collectively through
the abuse of power and position.

As Sayed and Bruce (1998b) admit, there are several approaches to the discussion
and definition of corruption, one being the distinction between formal
(legal) and social approaches. Social approaches to the definition of corruption
permit a much broader conception, allowing, for example, moral considerations
to be applied to distinguish corrupt from noncorrupt acts. Sayed and Bruce
recognize that the legal definitions of corruption often are too narrow.
A broader social approach to the definition of corruption, according to Sayed
and Bruce (1998b), reflects “what is commonly meant by corruption, it places
the emphasis on morality and has its roots in classical conceptions of corruption
which sought not so much to identify behaviour, but to judge the overall political
health of a society and its institutions” (p. 3). For purposes of the present
analysis, then, what we intend by the term corruption is any use of power or
position through discrete acts or behavior(s) that benefit an individual, group,
or organization. Our definition must allow for states of corruption, that is, the
accrual of such acts over time as to constitute a state, climate, or culture of
corruption. The gains or benefits derived through corruption can be other than
financial. Our definition must also allow for a normative judgment or assessment
of corruption, one that is not based on strict legal interpretation but that
draws from more widely held, commonplace conceptions of corruption as the
deviation of a person, organization, or group from its purposes, such as when
self-interest influences decisions by administrators.

Consideration of well-documented, well-known acts should help define/refine
what constitutes corruption. The examples that follow—some of which
come from domains other than education and some of which are drawn from
other countries—may permit us, as theorists of educational administration and
practitioners, to perceive our actions, the actions of others, and even the actions
of educational organizations in which we work in a different light. Consideration
of the examples that follow and refinement of the notion of corruption promises
to affect our practice, we hope, for the better.

EDUCATION REFORM STATEMENT FROM PORTLAND, MAINE

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/7/23/61531/6495

Testing: an examination of its effects on one school

by teacherken

Testing: an examination of its effects on one school
Mon Jul 23, 2007 at 04:52:56 AM PDT

Let me start by noting that I am no fan of No Child Left Behind, and have opposed it since before it became law in 2002. I am actively involved in lobbying for major changes in the current efforts to reauthorize the law. As a high school social studies teacher I am not directly impacted by the law, because social studies does not count for Adequate Yearly Progress. I do have to prepare students for tests required for graduation, and I see the impact of NCLB in the lack of preparation in many of the students arriving at our high school. While I can write about my observations and describe what the literature is saying about the effects of NCLB, that probably does not give the full negative impact of the law, which is felt most fully in elementary and middle schools full of lower-income and minority students.

Linda Perlstein has written a book that gives as good a portrayal as I have seen of those negative impacts. In Tested: One American School Struggles to Make the Grade, Perlstein follows one elementary school in Annapolis for a full year as a means of showing us how school life and learning are changed by the need to meet AYP.

teacherken's diary :: ::

Perlstein is a former Washington Post education reporter, whose previous book, Not Much Just Chillin': The Hidden Lives of Middle Schoolers enabled readers to understand the perceptions and experiences of middle school students. In that work she closely followed 5 students at Wilde Lake Middle School in Howard County Md. For the current work she was given full access to Tyler Heights Elementary School in Annapolis. She was able to sit in on classes, talk with students, teachers, and administrators, observe faculty meetings and conferences. All of the school and district staff agreed to allow the use of their names, while pseudonyms are used for the students and their families.

The school was an interesting choice. Tyler Heights is the kind of school testing advocates and supporters of NCLB like to cite. The principal, Ernestine (Tina) McKnight had arrived in 2000 to a school in which only 17 per cent of the student performed satisfactorily on the state tests. By 2004-2005, the year before Perlstein spent in the school, the percentage of students scoring at least "proficient" (the euphemism for passing) was up to 85.7 in reading and 79.6 in math. On the surface, this was the kind of school that would seem to demonstrate the effectiveness of a high stakes approach. After all, it was not exactly full of white, middle class kids from stable families:

When Tina arrived at Tyler Heights, three in five of its students were under the poverty level or not far above it - a number that would increase within five years to 70 percent. - p. 34

Nearly one-fifth were children of immigrants, with the Hispanic population having grown from 85 to one-third, with many of these either not speaking English at home or before arriving at Tyler Heights at all. The overwhelming percentage of students were black, but of the classroom teachers one was half black and the ESOL teacher was Hispanic, while the rest were white. There were other blacks on staff, including McKnight.

Maryland has changed its testing program since I first began teaching in a middle school in 1995-96. In those days there was a program called MSPAP, for Maryland School Performance Assessment Program. The testing, which was in selected elementary and middle school grades, did not give individual student scores, and required integration of the four core subjects of English, Math, Science and Social Studies. NCLB required testing in Reading and Math only, but in all grades, 3-8 (and once in high school, for which the High School Assessments in English and Algebra required for graduation also serve as the tests to measure AYP). Schools in which students arrive at school with strong language skills, from upper middle class backgrounds, do not have to worry so much about their scores. In fact, unless they are designated as a Title I school (with a significant number of economically poor students) they have little to fear from the sanctions of failing to make AYP. Title I schools like Tyler Heights face significant sanctions should their students not continue on the eventually impossible task towards all student proficient by 2014. Yet describing the nature of the problem in general does not have the same impact as telling the story of one school and its students and staff: perhaps this is an ironic illustration of Stalin's famous statement that the death of one person is a tragedy, but the death of millions is just a statistic. And in the context of Tyler Heights, by the standards of NCLB the school is a success. What Perlstein is able to show us is that below the surface and behind the test scores, the cost of achieving that "success" is at least disturbing if not horrific.

The school system required the use of certain packaged curricula, Saxon Math and Open Court Reading. The latter has highly scripted lessons that the teachers are supposed to follow. Perlstein succinctly addresses this at the beginning of a chapter entitled "A Bank Teller Could Pick Up the Lesson"

Think about your favorite teachers from your youth: the ones who changed your life. The ones who taught you lessons you carry with you years later. Chances are, these were the teachers with a gift for improvisation, artists of the classroom who brought a spark of life to the most mundane subjects. Chances are, they didn't teach from a script. - p. 50)

This is illustrative of how Perlstein presents the reality of what she saw. She will weave in observations, extracts from research, and combine these with the detailed recording of the experience of those in the school, the staff and students. In the process she brings life to the issue in a way missing in many of the debates over educational policy. Thus in a discussion about how companies are profiting from No Child Left Behind, Perlstein recounts McKnight's experience at attending a presentation at a principals' conference of a vendor who had been brought into her school during the 2005-2006 year using the success of Tyler Heights in its promotion. She was furious because they were implying they were responsible for the success in 2004-2005:

Like these guys had anything to do with third-grade math proficiency jumping 24 points? Fourth-grade reading jumping 49? p. 195

She was too polite to make a public scene, even when the vendors pointed her out to the audience. This anecdote is presented at the end of a section where Perlstein has explored the costs of NCLB in transfers of funds to the private sector, starting with the gross costs in the billions, tracing through the connections of individuals like Neil Bush and people who had helped promote in implement NCLB in the government like Sandy Kress and Gene Hickok to the individual consultants and firms McKnight had had to hire under pressure from the school system. Thus the elements of distortion and possible corruption are placed in a context beyond that of the mere numbers of dollars.

Perlstein is a gifted writer. She also does a solid job of weaving the relevant professional literature into her story. My copy of the book is heavily annotated. Often we find examples of one sentence placing everything in context, and I can offer two examples from one page, 68. After a discussion of a guidance counselor attempting to help a child deal with his stress, Perlstein writes

But it's expecting heroics to ask a child who feels he doesn't matter - who leaks hope even at age seven - to derive enough solace from a tightly gripped tennis ball to change his world

Perlstein immediately follows this by beginning to analyze why some expectations of the reformers who insist on "no excuses" are unrealistic. Before getting to the specifics of the situation at Tyler Heights she notes

To deny what happens outside of school affects what happens inside is to deny reality

The reality is that the students at Tyler Heights do not come from middle class families, with all the support associated with such a setting. Parents may themselves lack literacy and organizing skills. They may not speak or read English, and thus be unable to assist with school work, or to check a school website for assignments. They may have a history of conflict with authority, or be unable to get to school because of work or lack of transportation to meet with teachers. And they may also lack parenting skills, so that their children arrive at school not only without sharpened pencils, but also without control of emotions and impulses, thereby severely complicating the the process of educating them and the other students in the classrooms they disrupt.

When you read this book, you cannot help but begin to grasp how narrow the education has become for the children at Tyler Heights. Until the MSAs are completed in March, their education has been restricted to little more than test prep. When reading instruction (including preparation to write the formulaic brief constructed responses required for the MSA) is expanded to 3+ hours of each school day, all McKnight (herself a former social studies teacher) can do is suggest that some of the reading passages be on science or social studies, since those subjects basically disappear from the school day - after all, they are not part of the testing for AYP. And the approach required in the mandated curriculum makes it even worse. Students learn key phrases and "hundred dollar words" that they are supposed to remember to include in their BCRS (brief constructed responses - about a paragraph). Perlstein is focused on the 3rd graders, the youngest children tested on NCLB. One teacher has them write 5 times "I know this is a poem because it has rhyme, rhythm and stanzas" but only write 3 poems. Again Perlstein is able to place all in the proper context (p. 128):

Even if the students were going to write a paragraph instead of a poem, why couldn't they have been given anything interesting to write, to stretch their minds. One week the Open Court reading passage told the story of a hallucinating cat who burst into verse upon sleeping in catnip and took a strange medicine from a witch - the tale was so kooky Miss Johnson could barely keep a straight face - and all the BCR asked was, "How do you know this is a poem?"
The Open Court Unit was Imagination.

I received the book unsolicited in the mail, accompanied by a note from the director of marketing. When I checked, I was informed although I have never met nor corresponded with Perlstein, she had placed my name on a list of people to whom she wanted the book sent in the hopes that I might write about it. The book is officially published this week. Tyler Heights would be considered a success by proponents of the high stakes testing approach of No Child Left Behind. Certainly under the leadership of Tina McKnight the school has produced test scores that are notable. What Perlstein is able to do is provide the reader with the reality of the cost of those scores. Most parents would probably recoil from having their students in such a restricted learning environment. And for many students they are able to succeed on the tests because of intense focus on test preparation without necessarily learning the underlying skills those tests are supposedly assessing. Given the pressures placed on educators this should not be surprising.

I have been involved with the issues around NCLB since before it became law, having even at the beginning of my career had to deal with earlier testing mandates. I found the time spent reading the book worthwhile, which is why I decided to write about it, although there was no obligation for me to do so. Because the book is new this may be your first encounter with it, and you may question how much reliance you wish to place upon my analysis and judgment. Perhaps the best way I can assure of the effectiveness and utility of the book is to quote the only blurb on the dustcover. It is written by someone with whose writings on educational matters I often have strong disagreements, E. D. Hirsch: that the two of us find ourselves concurring on something should by itself be worthy of note. So let me end by quoting his words:

If you want to know what is going on in our schools in the age of No Child Left Behind, this is the book o read. To the heroism of our overly-blamed teachers and to the cluelessness of our administrators and policymakers, especially those who have imposed unwise test regimens in response to the new law, Linda Perlstein's gripping story is an indispensable guide.

Peace.

Tags: No Child Left Behind, Linda Perlstein, Maryland, testing, schools, education, teaching (all tags) :: Previous Tag Versions

View Comments | 42 comments



These websites, listed on EDUCATION REFORM NOW! (linked in sbschooltalk forum EDUCATION REFORM WEBSITES) are a rich source of information, opinions and research findings on the wide range of issues and concerns involved in education reform:

The Center for Education Reform


Core Knowledge Foundation


School Choices


Education Reform Index: Arthur Hu Online


The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation


Heartland Institute


Pacific Research Institute





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DALAI LAMA

The O'Coilean (O'Collins)

'A great host with whom it is not fortunate to contend, the battle-trooped host of the O'Coileain."


Abraham Lincoln

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."


From NPR Radio:

"Rosa sat so Martin could walk.
Martin walked so Obama could run.
Obama ran so our children can fly!"


Ralph Waldo Emerson:

"I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new."



Unknown:

"Friendship is loving someone no matter what is in their past. It is accepting the fact that they are human and that they have made their share of mistakes over a life time. Trust is being able to tell your friend the most private secret knowing that they will not judge you. A life is not lived well without that one true and trusted friendship."



Mary Harris "Mother" Jones:

"My job is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable"



Albert Einstein:

"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."



Will Rogers:

"I don't belong to an organized party--I'm a democrat."



President John F. Kennedy, Democrat:

“If by a ‘liberal’ they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people—their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties—someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a ‘Liberal,’ then I’m proud to say I’m a ‘Liberal.’”



Martin Luther King Jr.:

"Faith is taking the first step, even when you don't see the whole staircase."


Lora O'Brien:

"All I can do is share one person's experiences on her own path, not tell you how to walk yours. If a guru is what you are looking for, find another! If I am a teacher, it is because I am already walking the path that you, Dear Reader, may wish to be on. Although each of us must make our own way, I can put up signs at least, and make the way slightly less hazardous for those who wish to walk a similar path."


C. S. Lewis:

"Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our lives."


A Female Democrat:

01/27/09 Will the AFT Union support a bill to give Instructional Support Staff paid annual leave and paid holidays like all the other staff or are we paying dues for a pipe dream that they could care less about supporting? Does the board support 2080 for low paid staff or is it all just a line to keep us from voting against them? Elections are February 3.


12/10/08 The board gave us a 0% pay increase and a week off. How sad can you get. Where did the 2% the state gave us go. Let's think about that for a minute since the president of the school got an 11% pay raise in June.

12/07/08 K-12 EAs have 5% pay raise. Instructional Support Unit at CNM 0% at present. Where is our seat at the local table?

Everyone should have a voice when it comes to the political process!

09/05/08 "No raise yet but my healthcare cost went up this month. "

"Karma has a way of coming back to bite people who mistreat others and I will see a few people on the golf course in the future of that I am sure."

How We Got in Over Our Heads

Update: A political economist argues our high levels of consumer debt derive more from political decisions than from economic conditions.

By: Tom Jacobs | April 23, 2009 |


http://www.miller-mccune.com/business_economics/how-we-got-in-over-our-heads-777


Blog PostsEdit
"HERE WE GO AGAIN...."
Branding Education, Government-Style

By Shawn Maureen Powers

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/07/31/37powers.h28.html

A Nation at Risk. No Child Left Behind. Race to the Top. These are a few of the headier titles and catchphrases found in federal education efforts over the last few decades. They inspire righteousness (No Child Left Behind), competition (Race to the Top), and fear (A Nation at Risk). They are provocative, arousing emotional responses to the holy grails of quality educati… Continue Posted by me on September 10, 2009 at 10:50pm
VOICES AND VERSES: TAKE HEART, MRS. PANKHURST!
Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness
because of my enemies;
make your way straight before me.
For there is no truth in their mouths;
their hearts are destruction;
their throats are open graves;
they flatter with their tongues.
Make them bear their guilt, O God;
let them fall by their own counsels;

Because of their many transgressions cast them out,
for they have rebelled against you.
But let all who take refuge in you rejoice;
let them ever sing for joy.
Spread your protection over them,
so t… Continue Posted by me on September 10, 2009 at 8:43am
There is no Half Exposing Corruption in Santa Barbara
John,
Thank You for taking the time and interest in our concerns here in Santa Barbara. I understand that everyone has personal interest in different arenas of the corruption that we are all trying to expose. You can start the list were ever you want. From the Schools system, Local Government, and of course Law Enforcement including the Courts. I hope those of you that show an interest in helping here understand one thing, an that is that there is no room for politics here. The corruption remind… Continue Posted by Larry Mendoza on September 8, 2009 at 2:11am
EXPOSURE----IT'S GONNA BE BIG! Letter to Journalist Jay Mathews of Washington Post
Dear Mr. Mathews,

Please visit sbschooltalk.com.

Santa Barbara is mobilizing to expose corruption, reform education, and restore justice and democracy in our schools and community.

John Jensen. (480) 588-6200, wrote "Finding Your Inner Lenin: Taking Responsiblity for Social Change" and has offered to help us ORGANIZE so that our reform efforts are effective.

Media coverage from you and your colleagues---(a consortium would be lovely)---would help our grass-roots movement grow.

So far, our a… Continue Posted by me on September 7, 2009 at 11:13pm
GETTING ORGANIZED FOR SPECIAL EDUCATION REFORM
Dear Karolyn,



Good one, Karolyn! Your comments are as articulate as they are astute---our written "dialogue" is an important part of our collective journey.



We have no"'WE" in education reform. SBSD's Machiavellian, intimidating and retaliatory tactics are effective: Board members are co-opted, whistleblowers are dismissed, advocates are ignored, activists are humiliated, and parents are assuaged by settlements and silenced by confidentiality agreements. And the schools' ability to "spin"… Continue Posted by Nancy Jacobson on September 6, 2009 at 10:29am
Terrorism in Santa Barbara (an old post) What it feels like to be me!
Terrorism in Santa Barbara Ca, (USA)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reply to: pers-315147337@craigslist.org
Date: 2007-04-19, 9:20PM EDT


I feel my comments yesterday were harsh to those (and I believe them to be the majority) of our Law Enforcement who protect and serve. How ever even with that being said I live in a prison. The type of prison I live in has no walls; yet you can not feel its boundaries. It has no bars yet it holds me down like… Continue Posted by Larry Mendoza on September 5, 2009 at 12:00pm
SpEd Parent-Teacher Association (SEPTA) IN EVERY SCHOOL
This topic is on the SBSD School Board agenda for Tuesday, September 8, 2009:

"Request by Karolyn Renard to Speak to the Board of Education Regarding her
Allegation of “Unethical and Illegal Behavior of the Santa Barbara School Districts’
Administration that FCMAT (Fiscal Crisis Management & Assistance Team) has
Refused to Deal With.”

I want to support Karolyn and the SpEd parents who have worked so hard (with little results---but hope springs eternal) to bring about education reform.


Th… Continue Posted by William Tell 4 applecorpsexpress on September 4, 2009 at 5:30pm
GRANT MONEY FOR INNOVATION: "Grab 'Em While You Can"
SPECIAL EDUCATION PARENTS: LET'S WRITE UP OUR SOLUTIONS AND SUBMIT THEM FOR FUNDING!

Innovation Grants—Grab 'em While You Can
By guest blogger Erik Robelen:

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2009/09/innovation_grants_revisited.html

As school districts, charter operators, and other nonprofits anxiously await further details from the Education Department on the $650 million Investing in Innovation Fund, Congress appears disinclined to pony up much, if any, extra money down the road t… Continue Posted by Ethel Thomas-Resolitzsky on September 2, 2009 at 12:26pm
ROOTS OF THE PROBLEM: THE CHANGING AMERICAN FAMILY (Since the early 1800's!)
The Changing Family: The Great Experiment

By Philip Elmer-DeWitt;Deborah Edler Brown/Los Angeles and Michele Donley/Chicago, with other bureaus

Thursday, Nov. 08, 1990

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,971603-3,00.html



In Houston a stay-at-home dad kisses his pregnant wife goodbye as she heads for the office, and then turns back to the task of getting their four children fed, washed and ready for… Continue Posted by Ethel Thomas-Resolitzsky on September 2, 2009 at 11:00am

GREAT SCHOOLS.NET: Lila Leff and Umoja Student Development
Brain food

A successful turnaround educator offers advice on how to bring out the best in your child.

http://www.greatschools.net/students/academic-skills/how-to-feed-young-minds.gs?content=1570&cpn=20090901weeklysendng
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Anne Marie Feld

When Lila Leff marched into the principal’s office at Manley Career Academy High School on Chicago’s West Side in 1995, two things stood out immediately — the soft brown cur… Continue Posted by Kelli Pomegranate on September 1, 2009 at 10:00am



DEAR ED HERON, SBSD SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER
Dear Ed Heron,



This is NOTHING NEW. Deborah Meier, Howard Gardner, Alfie Kohn, John Dewey, Loris Malaguzzi, Linda-Darling Hammond, and a few thousand educators have been SAYING the same thing for decades......GWEN PHILLIPS and Open Alternative School have been DOING THIS for decades.



("For that which we need to learn, we learn by doing." Aristotle)



We're mobilizing in Santa Barbara. We have the best schools, teachers, parents, and students----but we have THE WORST administrators. Will y… Continue Posted by k8longstory on August 31, 2009 at 12:30pm
EDWEEK.ORG: TURNAROUND SCHOOLS THAT WORK
Turnaround Schools That Work

By Richard D. Kahlenberg

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/09/02/02kahlenberg.h29.html?tkn=OZYFj3kR2pdcL1LxHclyoZAnm%2F17C8B9KFhT

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has courageously taken on the most important—and most difficult—problem in American education: turning around the country’s lowest-performing schools. Duncan has noted that for years districts allowed failing schools to slide, and has called, instead, for “far-reaching reforms” that fundament… Continue Posted by k8longstory on August 31, 2009 at 10:19am — 1 Comment

ARISTOTLE: "THAT WHICH WE NEED TO LEARN, WE LEARN BY DOING"
Education Needs to Be Turned on Its Head

Posted: 30 Aug 2009 05:27 PM PDT


“Our culture lies. They say they want to encourage and reward individuality and creativity, but in practice they try to hammer down the pointy parts, and shame off the different parts.” – Sandra Dodd

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.
Going through the traditional school system (in California, Washington and Guam) was never my favorite thing as a kid, but as a parent, I’ve grown to realize that the whol… Continue Posted by k8longstory on August 30, 2009 at 11:06pm — 2 Comments

D.A. SNEDDON IS A CRIMINAL---INDICT HIM AND LOCK HIM UP!"
Selective, Malicious Prosecution?

The district attorney of Santa Barbara, Tom Sneddon, has a perception problem partly because of his record for protecting his friends. What makes this perception more concrete is news out of Santa Maria yesterday (Jan 17). The Santa Maria Times is reporting that Sneddon has refused to prosecute a former deputy of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Dept. who admitted to fondling an under-aged girl and who may be guilty of doing more than that. The former detecti… Continue Posted by k8longstory on August 30, 2009 at 9:20pm — 1 Comment

TED KENNEDY: IN THE WORDS OF BARACK OBAMA


TEACHERS AND DOCTORS: BOTH ARE AT THE BOTTOM OF REFORM
DOCTORS AND TEACHERS MORE ALIKE THAN DIFFERENT

The Impact for Health and School Reform

http://www.ednews.org/articles/doctors-and-teachers-more-alike-than-different.html

By Dorothy Rich, Ed.D. - 8.28.09



It’s all very well to write policies for health and school reform. To carry these out, people have to do it. For health care, it’s doctors. For school improvement, it’s teachers.



What has surprised me (more than I realized) is how similar the situations of doctors and teachers have recen… Continue Posted by William Tell 4 applecorpsexpress on August 28, 2009 at 10:03pm

RESTORATIVE JUSTICE: SOLUTIONS TO THE AMERICAN INJUSTICE SYSTEM
Hello, Suzanne!



Julia Steiny contacted me months ago---she was contacted by President Obama to spread Vermont's RESTORATIVE JUVENILE JUSTICE SYSTEM around the country. Santa Maria's Judge Rogelio knows of her work. (But he DOESN'T know about the School to Prison Pipeline; his courts deal with ADULTS---Mentally Ill and Drug-Addicted.)



Marian Wright Edelman's organization, Children's Defense Fund, is a leading force against American Juvenile Injustice. (ACLU and NAACP are just as active---th… Continue Posted by William Tell 4 applecorpsexpress on August 28, 2009 at 4:54pm
BILL CIRONE BEGS FOR MORE MONEY: WASH YOUR BLOODY HANDS AND

GET OUT OF OUR SCHOOLS, BILLY!

BILL CIRONE AND HIS CRONIES ARE GUILTY OF CORRUPTION AND CHILD ABUSE. "Book 'em, Dano!"

GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER: DON'T GIVE THESE CRIMINALS ONE BLOODY DOLLAR!

http://www.noozhawk.com/bill_cirone/article/082609_bill_cirone_special_legislative_session_needed_on_education


Subject: California Commission for the Fair Administration of Justice



The above referenced state agency was created by state Senate legislation in 2006. They… Continue Posted by William Tell 4 applecorpsexpress on August 26, 2009 at 11:30am

TED KENNEDY: "Truth and Tolerance in America"
Added by William Tell 4 applecorpsexpress

SHIFT THE MOVIE
Added by Teresa Hernandez


Is Anybody Listening? A testament by Village Academy High School students on the economic crisis
Added by Teresa Hernandez

Bobby Kennedy Jr., Obama, Cesar Chavez
Added by Teresa Hernandez

Justin, before the nightmare
Added by WOUNDED Parents

A Vision of K-12 Students Today
Added by Teresa Hernandez


New School Dec. 18, 2008 part 1
Added by Teresa Hernandez


21st Century Pedagogy
Added by k8longstory

ROY ROMER ON TEACHERS
Added by k8longstory

ALARM BELLS: Our Schools Are Failing
Added by k8longstory

The State of American Schools
Added by k8longstory