L.A. Board 'doesn't believe' Deasy is crooked

From L.A. school board's statement on the departure of Supt. John Deasy:

The Board "does not believe that the superintendent engaged in any ethical violations or unlawful acts."

Not exactly the carefully-chosen words you want to see in a reference letter from a former employer. I mean, it should go without saying. Shouldn't it?

But if Deasy isn't greasy, why isn't the board sharing its internal probe of the iPad contracting process?

The L.A. school board votes against releasing a long-completed initial internal probe of the iPad contracting process.
— Howard Blume (@howardblume) October 15, 2014

Inquiring minds want to know.

And here we go with the third go-round of Ray Cortines, the 82-year-old, don't make waves, utility manager, who will keep the seat warm until Bill and Eli can find another hatchet man for LAUSD.

Fremont H.S. teachers say, enough is enough

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

L.A. Supt. Ray Cortines as he cuts more days from school year

"Our people will be asked to do more with less." (L.A. Times )

Herman Brewer, acting president and CEO of the Chicago Urban League

"These folks who have known nothing but prosperity are now in shock because all of a sudden the crisis they have generally associated with poor communities -- with the city of Chicago -- has hit them," Brewer said. "Our funding formula has created disparities so acute, people are starting to see it now." ("Layoffs could top 20,000 in school districts" Sun-Times)

FairTest's Lisa Guisbond & Monty Neill

George W. Bush’s education secretary, Margaret Spellings, often said we need to give state tests every year, because otherwise we would have no way of knowing if students were falling behind. But that’s hogwash, as any teacher, student or parent could have told her.In the classroom of any reasonably competent teacher, student progress is being evaluated constantly, each time he or she looks at classroom work, not to mention frequent quizzes, papers, projects, and discussions. (The Answer Sheet)

Dumb & a moron, both...

Look, down here there are these groups from the far left. Whatever we do, they want to make it look like we are dumb morons. They're very effective, dadgummit. Jefferson's name was taken out of a list of Enlightenment philosophers in world history because he didn't fit the period of the Enlightenment. (Texas school board member Don McLeroy in Globe & Mail)

IN THE MAILBOX

Hannah at L.A.'s Coalition of Essential Schools responds to my question:

Wasn't there a referendum where parents and communities voted overwhelmingly against turning schools over to charter operators and in favor of teacher groups?

Mike: there was a parent/community advisory vote (along with about 15 presentation sessions by the applicants to their communities throughout LA). In some areas, primarily in east Los Angeles, the vote was overwhelmingly for the teacher or district proposals...in other areas of the city (e.g., central and south LA) it was mixed. Charter groups such as Para los Ninos and Camino Nuevo Charter that are connected to their communities were supported in the vote, and had their proposals accepted; others such as Green Dot that have more problematic issues (moivng out or not admitting special ed kids; fudging data, etc.) or have not engaged into specific community building were rejected by those communities, for the most part, I believe. The vote seemed to come down to quality of the presentations (some of ones I saw by the teachers were brilliant) and relationships. It was only the third step in a five part process: step 4 was the recommendations by the superintendent to the LAUSD Board, and (step 5) Tuesday, the LAUSD Board made its decisions (in some instances, not following S. Cortines' recommendations). Hard to make generalizations about LAUSD. Hannah (LA-CES)

Don't get the wrong idea

It was last June when L.A. Supt. Ray Cortines declared that public schools needed to be run by a "benevolent dictator." My guess is that he wanted the dictator to be benevolent just in case he got caught double-dipping. Maybe things would go easier on him.

Well this week the other shoe finally dropped. L.A. Times reporter Howard Blume revealed that uber-reformer Cortines has been quietly pulling down $151K/yr. (on top of his $250K salary) working as a do-nothing consultant for Scholastic--the world's largest publisher of children's books and a major contractor with the district.

Today, under heavy criticism, Cortines left his job with Scholastic to "avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest." I guess he just didn't anyone to get the wrong idea.

The company has earned more than $5.2 million from the L.A. Unified School District since Cortines joined the school system as its No. 2 administrator in April 2008. He became superintendent in December 2008.

Yes, that's the same Scholastic that publishes Russo's TWIE blog and told Russo to censor Dean Millot's expose of conflicts-of-interest at Race To The Top.

Look who's bidding to run L.A. schools

It's none other than Paul Vallas' consulting firm, Synesi Assoc., bidding to run 35 (formerly) public schools. Former Daley-appointed schools CEO in Chicago, Vallas got booted in 2001. He then journeyed to Philly where he brought in Synesi as subcontractors under Princeton Review's contract with the district, before leaving with the district in economic shambles. Then he took over post-Katrina New Orleans schools where he abrogated the union contract and fired every teacher in the city. He then sub-contracted with Synesi to consult with 35 city schools.

Synesi describes itself as a "a boutique consulting firm." It's run by several of Vallas' old cronies like Gary Solomon and former intervention chief Phil Hanson, from the Chicago district who market Vallas' management talents with first-time-free consults, while feathering a nest for him once he leaves N.O.

Synesi Foundation is the non-profit arm of Synesi Associates, a school-management consulting firm based in Illinois. Gary Solomon, president of Synesi Associates, said his organization bid on all but one of the 36 schools as a way of developing a relationship with LAUSD, but ultimately may withdraw the bids and work with the district through other means. (Daily News)

Readers may recall my previous posts on how Synesi and Vallas moved on Rockford, Illinois.

Here's the list of bidders wishing to take over LAUSD schools. What's really funny (sad) is that even other California school districts are now bidding to run L.A. schools.

L.A.'s Cortines wants to be Supreme Leader

"It doesn't have to be me..."

What the system needs now, it doesn't have to be me, is a benevolent dictator, and it needs it for a period of time, probably 3 to 5 years and then you need to turn it back to the community.” (LA Magazine)

Latest from inside Chicago's school "Renaissance"

In Chicago, elementary schools and high schools are suspending and expelling students at alarming rates and African American male students are bearing the brunt of these punishments. (Catalyst)

No cigar for Russo

Russo thinks he found Duncan's exact "ton of bricks" quote. But he gets no cigar. The one he found is from March. I'm looking for the bricks he threw at last weekend's charter school conference in D.C. Anybody? Anybody?

Quotables

From the L.A. teachers' testing boycott

"My students would be tested on Mendelian genetics when we're just getting to how chromosomes separate," said Joseph Rowland, who taught science at Roosevelt High School for 22 years before moving to Franklin High this year. "It's ridiculous."

Joe, just forget about all that chromosomes stuff and get right to Mendel.

"We are supposed to be teaching, not testing," said Emerson English teacher Cecily Myart-Cruz. "We can come up with our own assessments in our classroom, and we do -- every day."

Yes, but if they let you do it, everyone will want to do it. Then where will we be?

Manual Arts High School English teacher Travis Miller said two rounds of his own class assessments did not count last year. Once, his tests weren't picked up on time, and once, he didn't receive all materials until the period for submitting them had closed.

Don't worry Travis. Just think of the testing madness existentially, or maybe as a way to prepare your students for life in the corporate world or in politics.

Supt. Ramon Cortines (Hey, at least he's still called a superintendent, not a CEO):

Cortines asserted that the assessments are part of teachers' assigned duties -- they are not optional. He also said he has and will amend aspects of the tests that need fixing. But he won't toss them out because, he said, they have contributed strongly to rising performance on the state's own annual tests.

Yes, the tests are important because they improve the scores on other tests, which in turn, improve the scores on other tests...

More Cortines:

"This is not to be onerous for teachers and principals and schools," Cortines said. "It is to be helpful."

No, superintendent. It's really onerous.

(L.A. Times)

Quotables

Small schools contend for space in N.Y.

New York was where the modern small-schools movement began. But Bloomberg/Klein’s version has turned a great idea into an ownership society quagmire with new small schools and charters run by management companies, competing with traditional neighborhood schools for space, autonomy, and shrinking resources.

From Sunday’s NYT :

Getting along is often complicated by a power imbalance between the “host” school and the newcomers. The hosts are often large schools in the process of being shut down after being branded failures, with teachers and students who resent being eclipsed by the favored new small schools.

Stuff Happens...

New L.A. Supt. Ramon Cortines, who replaces Admiral David Brewer, is interviewed in the L.A. Times:

You served as interim superintendent in Los Angeles for six months in 2000. During that time, you developed a decentralization plan that never really went into effect. What happened?

Where I was naive, and where the board was naive, is that when you decentralize -- and the board has approved it and all the unions have bought into it -- you think it will happen. And it didn't happen.

The Real Arne

Peter Campbell is a parent, educator, and activist, who served in a volunteer role for four years as the Missouri State Coordinator for FairTest before moving to Portland. He ponders, on the PPS Equity blog, “Who’s the Real Arne Duncan?”