Public School Systems Live By The Numbers

It has been a while since I have mocked the numbers that school systems use to justify their existence and importance. Just check out the label "numbers."

Ms. Sherri Akerman from The Tribune dutifully reports a number provided by our local education agency as the headline of her report. As I was reading the public comments, I started to wonder what type of number all involved were really smoking.

42% absentee rate reported in Hillsborough schools today:

My averaged number crunch based on reported absentee rate by others: 72.5%

Roll your own:

Beth Hamaker , Steinbrenner - her son told her no more than 250 of 1,100 students reported for class - 77.27%

Posted by (jmk22) on 04/02/2010 at 03:32 pm. - 55%

Posted by (silver_springs77) on 04/02/2010 at 04:21 pm.: "I only had a total of about 3-5 students in any one of my classes" ?%

Posted by (mrtdm1) on 04/02/2010 at 04:50 pm. "My Grand daughter is in the IB program at Hillsborough. She said she had at the most 5 to 10 kids in her classes. One homeroom had 1 child show." ?%

Posted by (wanna) on 04/02/2010 at 07:38 pm. :"I know at the high school today where I subbed - it had 235 out of 1610 students" 85.40%


(historyteacher) on 04/02/2010 at 07:42 pm.: "To those comments who suggest that it should have been a normal day for students in the classroom I would like to add that I wish it could have been too, but when you have three students in a class normally of 24 you are really left with no option. " 87.5%


(historyteacher) on 04/02/2010 at 07:42 pm.: "My school had over 50% of students stay home." 50%+

Posted by (Gigi1182) on 04/02/2010 at 07:43 pm.: "Freedom High school's enrollment is 1900. 400 of them showed up today." 78.95%

Posted by (unvme) on 04/02/2010 at 07:46 pm.: "I am a teacher in Hillsborough county and while my attendance was between 4 and 9 students per class,.." ?%

Making the PRO looking like he understands the game: "Posted by (pvmichaels) on 04/02/2010 at 08:31 pm.

The 42% is totally wrong! We, at my school, didn't take attendance the normal way (which is by the computer). I think some students weren't counted as being absent to make the number of students at school look better!"

Posted by (hiphugger67) on 04/02/2010 at 08:42 pm. "I went into school for 1st period... where there were 3 other kids in my class. I had 2 teachers come into my classroom, one of which had 1 student present, and the other who had no students present. That's not 42%!" ?% and 100% (absent)

Posted by (historyteacher) on 04/02/2010 at 09:01 pm.: "To janeyouignorantslot - I believe you assumed that I did not teach today - In fact I along with my students (35/121).. " 71.07%

Posted by (reptaddict) on 04/02/2010 at 10:10 pm.: "One last comment. I visited my son's high school today. The absentee rate had to be at least 75%, and that's being generous. It may very well have been worse."

When "individual" Meets "Statistics"

The title of the below post on The Gradebook got my attention. My attention is not about the politics or business aspects of education but rather what happens when parents clearly understand the premise that their child does not get another chance when it comes to dealing their child's individual educational setting.

When an educational setting goes wrong for an individual child, the advocating parent does not give a rodent's posterior if:

- the State, County or school site has an A rating.

- the Principal hand picked each of the teachers based on their level of competence

- how dedicated the staff is

- there is a red carpet at the front door

- the permanent teacher is out for the rest of the year

- the school does a great job and was ranked in some news magazine

- and all of the rationalizations used to bolster the system



A parent is responsible for their kid, and when things go wrong, telling them about what is great for all of the other kids is hardly reassuring.


*************************************

-
Florida students don't get another chance:

"We can't pull the rug out from under the people who depend on these services, especially those with the greatest needs. Children grow each day; their education can't wait. Illness doesn't follow economic trends; patients need help now. And our country's infrastructure must be modernized sooner than later."

When Mocking Makes Mincemeat

Thanks to Thomas Vaughn for the link.

Thomas correctly sees that I have a sense of humor. In reality, most of my friends look at me as if I were a mushroom - you know - a really "fun guy".

This episode of King Of The Hill is based on reality. If you were to read all of my posts labeled "numbers", I think you would see the connection to how our public school system is more about it's image based on numbers that are a variable the system can control and manipulate. The real task of educating has become too overwhelming due to the fact that there are so many variables that the system cannot control.

I will say that one has to watch the complete show to get the complete effect, otherwise the intended meaning is lost.

The ethos of the public education system as seen by "The King Of The Hill":



No Bobby Left Behind


Pee ess: (If you don't get the mushroom joke, close your eyes and say it slowly).

Oo ah oo ah oo oo, Kitty

....Tell us about the boy
From New York City
Oo ah oo ah come on, Kitty
Tell us about the boy
From New York City..." (The Ad Libs)

In case anyone missed the comments spread around on our blogs by Goader, I will post it again.


The subject of grade inflation should be taken seriously.
The subject of the credibility of public education should be taken seriously.

The slippery slope of public school systems that are more about image without substance should be taken seriously.

I know the public education system is not a business.....sort of. But what the public education system is selling and what the ignorant public is buying (talking generalities here) is "look how good our kids are doing because look how high their grades are". "There is a sucker born every minute".

It is my personal opinion that any "grading" of any "facet", (such as the FCAT, school site grades, District Grades, MAP grades, STAR grades etc) of the public school system has the same integrity as wholesale district grading curves. See here: Tampa Bay Online (note that the public comments were deleted); and here: Painted on The Wall; and here: Live again from New York with Matt Tabor.

To toot my own horn (that would be a trumpet or a sousaphone- treble or bass cleft), look here; and here; and here with Karl Marx

What I think is the basis of these inflated grades is that it is aimed at bringing the failing grades up- for the sake of money for the system or those within it. Inflated high GPA's can be used as a statistical means to camouflage "failing" students and school sites.


Here is the response to the criticism

I think this sentence speaks volumes about the issue: "Colleges recalculate GPAs to level the playing field."

A Jimmy Buffett Song Plays In The Background

"It's those changes in latitudes,
changes in attitudes
nothing remains quite the same.
With all of our running and all of our cunning,
If we couldn't laugh, we would all go insane." - Jimmy Buffett

I am not sure how many people are laughing about the situation with the HCPS. I think there are more than a few going insane. And I think that there is a lot of running and a lot of cunning in attempts to keep it together.

I was asked this question: "Is the school district too large to make the changes needed in response to the public who finance the operation and use the system?"

My short answer is "no". My long monotonous answer is "no" also. At one point in time back in the late '90's, I was involved in several different areas with the District, mostly revolving around ESE issues. I was attempting to address "systemic issues". As my knowledge and experience increased, my skills and ability to analyze different aspects of how the District operates also increased. I will admit, I was at times lacking of diplomacy when I was being fed a line of bull snot and expected to believe it. Hence, I was invited in for a conference more than once, which I talk a little about in this post: "It's Not What You Say, It's The Fact That You Said It."

I was disturbing the troops. Again, admittedly, some of the teachers and staff were "innocent victims" of the system and they were blindsided when someone came along and challenged the "propaganda". I can recount countless numbers of incidents where the information being given to parents in IEP meetings was easily demonstrated as wrong by simply asking the information giver to "let's just read this section of the procedural safeguards out loud". I was once threatened of being ejected from an IEP meeting despite the fact that I was right on two out of two challenges of how the ESE specialist was "explaining the parent's rights" incorrectly. I was later told by an administrator that I should have waited "until after the meeting" to address these issues. How many of you want to be told the truth about the contract you are negotiating "after" you have signed it?

In several settings, both in IEP meetings and out of them, I heard that "the District is too big for everyone to get the right information". I think it was in one of the Superintendent's Advisory Council on Special Education where I heard this excuse one more time and I responded with "Are we going to change the size of the District? If not, then I don't want to hear that as an excuse anymore."

I said all of that to say this - size doesn't matter. One, because it is not an option to change the size of the District and two, if the District wants to address communication issues or deal with issues succinctly, they can and will, in my opinion.

A large part of the problem is that the majority of the public has no clue about what goes on. I believe that apathy, ignorance and blind trust is why a majority of the public don't know. For the rest who see the challenges, just look how hard it is for the teachers to get attention to what is going on. Parents have the same difficulty. And "they are just parents".

Only recently has the media seemed to be more enlightening. Just look how many articles have come out in the last year. But, then read how Mr. Otto was challenged about what he writes. Considering his wife is a teacher, he surely wouldn't want to bite the hand that feeds her. And now there is blogging. I have already cited in my previous posts how blogging may accomplish change effectively, mainly because it cannot be controlled, even though "they" will try. Those who are entrenched in "how it used to be" won't be able to overcome the new technology and the information age.

So, in my humble opinion, it won't be a change in the size of the District, it will be a change in how it is administered.

Two Can Be As Bad As One

A little Three Dog Night to keep the home fires burning:

"One is the loneliest number that you'll ever do
Two can be as bad as one, its the loneliest number since the number one"

***********

As I play keyboard critiquing of the local HCDS, cultivated on years of resentment to unprofessional treatment, every once in a while I wonder if I truly did experience more than my share of "isolated incidents".

How would one know they were isolated if one wasn't keeping track? I know I started keeping track after six years. I know for six years I gave benefit of the doubt many many times, continuing to trust that I was being dealt with professionally.

I think school administrators are provided the "isolated defense" strategy in Administration 101 through Administration 599 under "Strategies to Minimize Credible Critiques."

Somehow I missed this post until today:

"......April, do not believe any number the county gives you. They skew exams to fit their agenda and this will be no different. ...." (anon - March 22, 2008 12:51 PM)

So now there are at least two of us on record for questioning the reliability of numbers.

I will continue to label my posts, but I have frequently written about my perception of how HCDS relates to "numbers", and of course this article fed right into my perception.

It may or not have any bearing on the subject, but a previous principal would have first hand knowledge of how "numbers" are generated and recorded. Therefore, if there were any shenanigans going on, a previous principal should know how to ferret it out.

What should be concerning for all of us is at what point do those who are tracking numbers and relying on their reliability know if and when to decipher fact from fiction?

I have written about how a lot of my personal experiences with the HCDS was like looking through smoke and mirrors or playing a shell game, and "the nailing jello to a wall" difficulty in trying to obtain accountability.

I know I was "just a parent" and had no business complaining about how the system operated, but I do wonder while professional decisions are being made about how to manage the "x" largest school district and one that claims it is a national model for some latest accolade, who knows what the real numbers are?

Feel Like A Number

"To workers I'm just another drone
To ma bell I'm just another phone
Im just another statistic on a sheet
To teachers I'm just another child
To IRS I'm just another file
Im just another consensus on the street
Gonna cruise out of this city
Head down to the sea
Gonna shout out at the ocean
Hey it's me
And I feel like a number" - Bob Seger

hghhhghgghhgggghh - not sure what "a number" really means, but I have a few hits on numbers when it comes to the HCDS.


Today, we have this article from the Tampa Tribune: Lack Of Students Makes 'Lonely' Day

While a lot of people can debate the issues of religion, I want to focus on an interesting phenonenon I see. When one makes statements about how well someone does something, how does one know? Is there scientific methodology or just a call for faith and good will -in other words "trust us".


This part got my attention:

"Student Numbers Not Precise

Principals were told to count heads Friday morning and reported those to the district as well as to reporters. By late afternoon when the district issued its official school-by-school count, some numbers didn't match.

For example: Durant High Principal Pam Bowden told a reporter Friday afternoon that 220 students showed up. The district numbers shows 611.

Also, Boldt's head count at Chamberlain shows 260. The district report shows 386.

"I wonder where they got that from," Boldt said. "It doesn't match my hand body count."

Shortly after being asked for a head count, principals were asked to send in the number of absences. Either way, Boldt said, he had 260 students and can't believe another 126 showed up later.

Every day, school personnel scan attendance cards collected from teachers. That number is the official count sent to the state for funding and other reports. Chamberlain does that during the second class period.

That could be the difference in those two counts on Friday, Boldt said, if fewer cards got scanned because they were locked in teachers' desks or substitutes didn't have access.

Lewis Brinson, the district's assistant superintendent for administration, also unofficially reported low numbers from high schools during the day. He said they came from principals.

Scanned numbers sent to the district mainframe "are as accurate as the person who was on the other end scanning," Brinson said. "Whether they're right or not, these are the official numbers."

"I don't know if scanning created this problem or not," he said. Then he promised, "We're going to get to the bottom of this."

I humbly ask - bottom of what and how will you know when you get there. And who will you tell, if and when you do?


"Numbers" that the District have, or don't have, seem to be a recurring issue. I guess it is based on trust.

I found a couple of hits right here:

Numbers and Coke Leave One Out of Touch with Reality

Footballs, Business Cards, Gavels and Scientific Method

Get Rid of the Good, Keep the Bad - Makes It All Ugly

I follow the local blogs on the discussion of how teachers try to gain respect and be called "professionals". For every anecdotal story one has about how great teachers are, I can provide an anecdotal story that happened to me that demonstrates how some teachers and administrators are not great. Some lie. Some falsify records. Some abuse their power to overcome legitimate criticism.

What was interesting to me is how this can go on without other school employees stopping it. I also have this vision that when people retire from the system, they will come out and publicly denounce what they tolerated for so many years.

"The Gradebook" provides a link (March 17 - Unions ruining our schools) to a story about teachers and unions. I once may a statement that there is no bigger business than public education and unions. The word business is still being defined.

Here is the story from the "The Examiner"

I frankly have no grudge against unions. But I do have a grudge against the public education system. It is fraught with deceit. Like boxing, it really doesn't matter the integrity of the individual boxer, it is the overall organization that is defective.

A signing student once needed a signing adult to help the student in a non-signing class. It was written into the IEP. The principal hired someone who did not sign, was in their last year of employment and up front said they would not learn to sign. My argument that this person did not meet the spirit of the IEP contract for service fell on deaf ears. The principal stated he had to hire from a pool. The fact that the kid's needs were not being met, as required by federal law, was blown off by local SP&P's. So, if you want to talk about professional actions with me, be prepared for me to be sceptical.

To illustrate that point, if the following statements are true, then it shows there is disregard for individual teacher performance.


"Though she was named Minnesota's Teacher of the Year, Cathy Nelson was laid off when her school's enrollment declined -- because of her union's contract, which required the most junior teachers to be canned first, regardless of ability.

Sarah Gustafson was laid off from her teaching job the day after she was named to the Florida Educator Hall of Fame - again, because her union contract valued seniority over talent.

Union blindness also protects some truly unfit teachers whom no one would want in a classroom. In most schools few teachers need to be replaced, but tenure laws keep the numbers down to very, very few indeed.

In Illinois, a recent study found that only two out of the 95, 500 union-protected, tenured teachers outside of Chicago are dismissed annually for poor teaching. Of the 21 school districts investigated by the Center for Union Facts, not a single one - including Boston, Columbus, Houston, Minneapolis, and Newark - had a tenured-teacher firing rate in excess of 0.5percent a year. Surely they can't all be that good, in light of our kids' demonstrated skill levels"

Now We Get To See Why Kids And Parents And Public Education Lose

Public Education is nothing if it isn't about big money. Bottom line.

Defending this money is a paramount goal. Statistically, the public systems protect each other. They have unlimited resources and expertise in strategies. What seems to never be of concern is that there is more to life than money. But at a $200,000 liability cap for public school systems, that is as insignifant as hiring a consultant.

I write frequently about the abuse of power by public school employees. They are afforded protections that most people don't get.

In this case, the charges against a teacher seem to fit with the physical signs of the kids. Goose egg lumps, busted lips, extracted teeth, and bruises are hard to fabricate.

I am not surprised in the least at how the defense is shaping up. It is the nature of the defense culture for public schools.

Another story is here :

Click here: HeraldTribune.com - News - News stories about Sarasota, Manatee and Charlotte counties in Florida, from the newspa

We have a time line:

"Two aides in Diana O'Neill's class started documenting instances in which they believed she abused students as early as October 2007. But it was three months later -- after more than a dozen instances -- before the police and the state Department of Children and Families were notified"

Some one had concerns, but if it isn't on paper, it didn't happen: "Police records also indicate that O'Neill, 45, had been "talked to" in the past for her behavior with her profoundly disabled students. But there is no record that any concerns were ever reported to the police or the school district to investigate."

We have a kid who has no chance of telling the truth so how could anyone believe anything about her wasn't done by herself:


"Tara, who cannot walk, talk or see, has been in O'Neill's class for eight years.

During that time she often came home with bruises, prompting Hatfield to go to the school and question the teacher. Every time, O'Neill had a different explanation that ranged from other children hitting her to her falling out of her wheelchair, Hatfield said."


A few details by the aides:

"Police identified four of O'Neill's five students as victims. With one child, aides reported that O'Neill parked his wheelchair against a wall and watched as the boy hit his head against it, sarcastically telling him, "Don't hit your head."

Aides also reported that O'Neill had kicked one girl in the legs, hit her in the head with objects, pushed her to the floor and used a "weighted blanket" and a "body sock" -- two therapy tools that restrict movement -- to punish her."

Setting up the need for understanding a unique situation:


"Educators and parents alike complain of little support from the rest of the school system, and even fewer resources. It is a pressure cooker that can pit teachers against parents, or unify them in the face of shared challenges.

Despite efforts to include students with disabilities in the regular school setting, at most schools these small classes stay clustered together, sharing resources and working as teams, creating a tight-knit community.

It is also a place where teachers employ unusual techniques to control their children's behavior and help them develop physically and mentally."

And then we have common place actions:

"For example, the aides reported an episode where O'Neill shoved a cloth into a child's mouth and then pulled it out so hard the child's tooth came out.

But Sloan said this is a common technique used to build the biting reflexes of students with disabilities. In this case, O'Neill accidentally knocked out a baby tooth, Sloan said."

And I wrote previously about how the system will make sure no one speaks out without themselves becoming liable:

"School Superintendent Gary Norris said the district would review not only the allegations against O'Neill, but also how the other employees responded."



And here comes the "defense of professionals":
"These charges were observed by aides who are not sufficiently trained to work with handicapped children," Sloan said. "This woman is completely professional.""

There is the "culture of defense" in a nutshell.

If these aides are lying, our kids will suffer yet another setback.

If these aides can not prove they are telling the truth, our kids will suffer another setback.

Afterall, it is about numbers. The fact that this is an isolated incident eases our anxiety.

Unless it was your kid.

But in that case, you would just be a parent.

Maybe It's Just Me

While my local school system is in the public throes of who is really running the show, I get stuck on the meaning of words.

Now that freedom of speech issues have finally reached the point that the HCDS police are called to action, I wonder where has everyone been all of these years.

I will always vividly recall the day at Mann Middle School when I was told by the principal that if I came on campus without checking in to her office first, I would be charged with trespassing.

The fact that I was making a big squawk about my repeated attempts to address issues with my son’s education and the fact that this threat came the day after I wrote a complaint letter gave me reason to believe that the 3 months of previous same actions on my part were now under a different line of scrutiny.

At least I didn’t have the security called on me. Instead, I called the Director of ESE while sitting in the office. I had the number saved because I used it a lot over the years. This may have saved my immediate arrest. It was a gutsy move on my part, because Directors have as much say over what a principal does or does not do as I did. But there is something to say about safety in numbers, and how many people know.

I was not accustom to this type of treatment, or rather, the treatment was getting worse. I did not think the setting was safe for my son. So when I said I was keeping him home until we could have another of those countless meanings, the veiled threat of truancy was thrown out. Knowing the absolute power of the school District, I made sure I obtained a Dr's excuse to protect me.

As the days and weeks played out, since I had become learned in the ways of paper warfare, my documentation along with proof that “they” had changed theirs, probably saved me from the usual bulldozed flattening that most parents end up with.

Taking on the system means that you must have documentation and make sure some one else has a copy of it too.

Yesterday I posted the link to some probable cause affidavits.

One of the sentences struck me as odd, so I revisited it today. On page two, it says that the teacher’s strikes (to the kid who was an “equivalent 11 to 14 month old reference motor skills”) “were often prompted by an incorrect answer to a question, not any disciplinary problem or wrong doing. In that sense, there was no legal justification for her to strike the child.”

And then on page 3, we find: the teacher’s statement of “you gonna kick me, I’m gonna kick you (pg 2),” “implies revenge as a motive and a desire to hurt of cause pain to … rather than any educational purpose.”

I am thankful that the writer was able to determine that there was no educational purpose for the actions the teacher took upon the kid. It must have been a tough legal decision to write that out.

Hey Mister Editor, May I Have A Job?

That's what I'm talking about.

Today in the Tampa Tribune, we have this: All Students, Athletes Included, Are Entitled To School Choice.

It restates what I said here: Footballs, Business Cards, Gavels and Scientific Method and bolsters the need for the District to pay attention to appropriate numbers that I mentioned here: Numbers and Coke Leave One Out of Touch with Reality.

This paragraph drew my attention: "It's interesting to note, however, that while Hillsborough coaches claim to know other coaches who have broken the transfer rules, none has the courage to report the details to the district for investigation. It's hard to have sympathy for coaches and schools unwilling to police themselves."

I was a founding member of the Superintendents ESE Advisory Council. While acting in the capacity as President of same, I was told straight forwardly by a District representative that the District did not need policing. I assume that those who are keenly aware of the difficulties facing all of those involved in ESE issues silently plead for some accountability.

It may be a complete surprise to some that I possess a degree in Sociology. The only time I used it for gainful employment was during my stint with the University of Miami. While I have retired a few times already, it would be fun to be an investigative reporter delving into the networking of the HCDS. Ferreting out how the District runs their business of education would be intriguing. Instead of me being a keyboard mocking critic, I could be a professional gumshoe.

So maybe I should put in a formal job application. I would of course have to become educated in writing. My participles not only dangle, most outright hang themselves. Commas and llamas all seem the same to me. The only ‘grammer’ I have ever known spent a lot of time in the kitchen baking pies.

And I could just imagine the look on the faces of all of those that I used to spend a lot of time with and know that I have seen the truth and don’t buy into their scripted rationalizations, such as “the District is too big for everyone to get the correct information.” I could provide the information for them, but no one is going to tell them what to do, much less how to do it.

Numbers and Coke Leave One Out of Touch with Reality

Listening to a school board meeting can be tasking, waiting to get to the good stuff.

Recently I have written about how the District seems to never know the numbers when asked publicly. One has to assume that they have the numbers, but it depends on who is asking.

I found it interesting that when the discussion of missing laptops came up, no numbers were given. We did hear the ever present positive spin that "it's getting better." Educators, teachers and business people should be curious how "better" is defined. Percentage better? Statistically significant better? Rumor mill finger-in-the-air better? How did someone know "it's getting better" if some numbers were not at least guessed at by someone.

When the discussion about coke machines coming up on the chopping block came up, it reminded me of the below post. It had to do with numbers, also.


Get Your Fat Ass Off The Bus -But Buy a Pepsi When You Get To School

Footballs, Business Cards, Gavels and Scientific Method

This article in today's Tampa Tribune enlightens us in to the daily struggles that face our public education system of today. These struggles probably have been going on for a while, but now that the stakes are higher, the faltering sense of control may be making the stirred muck more noticeable.

2 Districts Limit Athlete Transfers

I am becoming aware that within the public education system there are a few people who at least take education and teaching as a very serious matter. I imagine this is a reflection of how seriously they took their efforts to obtain a position within a public school system, and they are quick to defend any perceived unfair, and sometimes fair, criticism of the system.

What may be unfair to these real professionals is that there may be a belief by those who are in decision making positions that education and teaching just happens. Attention to processes and mechanisms that will ensure and promote education and teaching may not be a priority.

One who follows along various concerns about our local education system may recall that there have been concerns about teachers, nurses, school bus drivers, contracts, and athlete transfers. Each of these areas has at least two common components of numbers and money.

I will concede that education is not a business, 'cause I don't want to argue anymore. However, it is difficult to understand how education and teaching can be effective as a whole if someone isn't paying attention to how the business of the system is monitored.

Within the article, we find this paragraph:

"District coaches told The Tampa Tribune that shopping for an athletic program is common and increasing. But Hillsborough County officials said they do not know how many athletes in the district are on special assignments to schools outside their assigned boundaries or how many moved into a new boundary to play a sport."

The phrase "they do not know how many" seems to be a common denominator in all of the aforementioned issues. It brings reason to wonder just what numbers they pay attention to. I am sure it isn't Avagadro's.

Using special assignments as an example of how major decisions are made without any science of reasoning is almost laughable, if not so disconcerting. A student who is asking for a special assignment because the school they want to get into has a particular educational setting that they want or need might go far in enhancing the education and teaching purposes of the system. A student who is given a special assignment so they can hang out with "tbf" may in fact have a negative consequence on the education and teaching purposes of the system.

What I don't understand, again from a business perspective, is that there seems to be money and time spent in a decision making process that there appears to be no accountability for. If the one's with the gavel have to take time to confirm a decision made by a group that doesn't know if kids are going to the science lab or the football field, why bother.

PS or update or whatever - It should be of utmost importance to those who are serious about the serious goals of education and teaching, that the above example leans heavily towards a convincing argument that it is "who you know" instead of "how many" and other vital variables that one should know to make an educated decision, whether it be in the best interest of teaching or business. I have seen the rebuke from the dias by some when one questions "those who should know"'s knowledge of "how many", so maybe it truly is the "who".

Where is Dwight When You Need Him?

"Bus stop, wet day, she's there, I say
Please share my umbrella
Bus stop, bus goes, she stays, love grows
Under my umbrella" ...........The Hollies


Dwight D. Eisenhower had a vision that comprehended the need for adequate transportation as a function for the advancement of our society. It was called the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways.

This morning a life long friend of mine called me. As a native of the south east part of my county and a business owner for over 30 years, one gets to know a few people as over a half of century goes by.

This particular person knows of my trials and tribulations with the local school system that spanned over a decade. They wanted to ask me if I had any insight into an issue for them.

This particular person every morning waits at a bus stop with a large group of kids. The bus that comes to pick up the kids is a nice bus. The driver is very pleasant. The kids are eager to get on the bus. The bus is regular. It gets there everyday. It gets there about the same time everyday. Right at 8:00. Sometimes a few minutes before. Sometimes a few minutes afterward.

The place the kids get on the bus is about ten to fifteen minutes away from the school, depending on traffic. The school bell rings at 8:00. I was told that when the kids get to school, some go get their breakfast. These kids then take their breakfast to the classroom.

Conversations with the bus driver indicate that the bus driver is doing the best job they can do, yet has a sense of failure every day. Because the intent of the function is not happening, despite the rationalizations offered by all, the bus driver may not last long because most people don't like the sense of daily failure.

I am sure that it costs a lot of money to obtain the true function of public school transportation.

I assured the person that our school system was one of the best you could find across the nation. Don't worry about it because our kids are being looked after by the best that money can buy.

What would Dwight have done?

Bad Behaving Students Bring Out Bad Behaving Decision Makers

I write often about "behavioral issues" in school settings.

I have written about how almost impossible it is to change or overturn a school administrators' decision despite how wrong it may have been.

I have written about how administrators can use a student's behavior as an easy strategy to change the placement of the student and it is almost impossible to challenge even when this "administrative convenience" is ill founded.

I have written about how children with disabilities face these difficulties, despite the responsibility of the school system to positively address behaviors that are a manifestation of the disability.

Here is an article that speaks to these issues.

Before everyone jumps in to tell all of the stories about behavioral issues, this discussion is not about whether behavior is an issue. An interesting question to ask is how much money does our local school system allocate to real, professional behavioral specialists? I say "real, professional" because I don't count the check-mark smoke-and-mirror posturing of counting someone who sits through a three hour presentation and then be designated as a school site's "behavioral specialist". This looks good on paper, but it falls short of real function.


Try getting a police report when school based issue arises that is disputable.
Try getting a school generated incident report when the police are involved.



You can discount the message if you want, but somewhere lies the truth.


- "Florida police frequently skirt state and federal laws, or violate them outright, when questioning children at school"

- "Principals, the last line of defense for kids jeopardized by police misconduct, rarely challenge resource officers or other police who enter school to interrogate students."

-"And children are saddled with criminal records that can follow them for a lifetime."

-"But courts rarely scrutinize school interrogations."

-"In both Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, an unusually high number of kids were arrested at school and referred to court, according to the Department of Juvenile Justice. Hillsborough sent students at a rate of 21 per 1,000, while Pinellas sent 24, compared to a state average of 17"

-"In a recent study, the National Juvenile Defender Center described Florida's juvenile system as dangerously dysfunctional, with courts overloaded by low-bore school referrals"

-""We saw, in courtroom after courtroom, hundreds of school-based cases that had no business being there," said Patricia Puritz, the center's executive director. "There was no place where these kids were not being dumped into the juvenile court setting.""

-"But Florida police and principals frequently exploit loopholes in the law, said Gerard Glynn, associate professor of law and director of the juvenile law clinic at Barry University in Orlando. "




Compare and contrast these two statements:

1- -"Do principals have the right to monitor student interrogations?

Absolutely, said Tom Gonzalez, general counsel for the Hillsborough County School Board.

"If they ever get uncomfortable (with an interrogation), they should speak up and say, 'You know what, I think we should wait for that person's parent,'" he said.

Hillsborough, Pasco and Hernando policies require principals to always be present in loco parentis -- legally "in the place of the parent" -- when police question students as suspects."

2 - -"In some Florida districts, principals are "completely abdicating to the police" and turning over discipline to untrained SROs, said Evans, former chairman of an advisory committee to the Department of Juvenile Justice.

**** So, if the principal abdicates to the police, what happen to the "legally in place of the parent?"

If the media accounts were correct, recently a student was suspended because the school's efforts to get the parent to contact them failed. Perhaps they should have gone to the principal if the principal is legally in the place of the parent.


Click here: When students are suspects, lines blur

Sex - Can the Classroom overcome off campus Influences?

I am all for education. I am sure we have all heard the different myths that different cultures have about how girls get pregnant, home spun beliefs that certain positions and actions will prevent pregnancy and the same mis-guided beliefs to keep from getting STD's. Educated people recognize these false premises and think that proper education of these uneducated groups of people will have a significant effect on their sexual behavior.

I am all for education. But, from my understanding of history and when I continue to hear about current human sexual behavior that continues to occur even with strong outside influence to curb it, I must ask why.


I read this today: China Communists sacked for having too many children: state media

See article below.

While this article does not directly speak to the level of education of the people effected, one would think that in a group that contained "seven national and local lawmakers or political advisors" and "More party members, celebrities and well-off people", there would be a cursory level of sex knowledge.


But it does speak to a 30 year plus, "harsh punishments and brutal methods to enforce it", policy that for some reason "has been routinely ignored in recent years in rural areas, while increasing numbers of China's urban new rich have been able to afford the requisite fines for violating the rules."

When one looks at sexual behavior of groups of people, cultural, social and economic factors may have more influence than sex education.

Are we to believe that if these people that violated the government policy had more sex education, they would not have had more than one child?

Is one to believe that these parents were not educated in the policy? And, since education didn't work, harsher consequences and polices will follow.

Understanding true influences on sexual behavior may be a key on how to effectively address changing it.



Article in full:
"Authorities in a central China province have expelled hundreds of people from the Communist Party or their government posts for having more than one child, state media said Monday.
At least 93,084 people in Hubei province last year had more children than they were allowed under the policy of one per family, Xinhua news agency said quoting the provincial family planning commission.

They included 1,678 officials or party members, it added, saying about 500 had been expelled from the party and 395 stripped of their official posts.

Previous reports said the officials had also been fined.

The violators included seven national and local lawmakers or political advisors, Xinhua added.

"More party members, celebrities and well-off people are violating the policies... which has undermined social equality," commission director Yang Youwang was quoted as saying.

No information was given as to the punishments meted out to the more than 90,000 other people in Hubei who violated the "one-child" policy last year.

China's family planning policy began in the late 1970s as a way to control the world's largest population, now at 1.3 billion people.

Generally, urban families can have one child and rural families can have two if the first is a girl. About 400 million births have been averted thanks to the policy, the government has said.

But in recent years the policy has been routinely ignored in rural areas, while increasing numbers of China's urban new rich have been able to afford the requisite fines for violating the rules.

Chinese parents have traditionally favoured large families -- and sons, in particular -- to support them in their old age.

The policy has been notorious from the start for the harsh punishments and brutal methods used to enforce it, such as forced late-term abortions and the sterilisation of women.

Several areas of the poor southern province of Guangxi erupted in riots last year after officials launched a harsh crackdown to enforce the policy, with residents saying forced abortions were among the methods used by authorities.

When is a carrot unhealthy?

What do they know and how do they know it?

Hernando: Schools may drop merit pay

This article says it will cost $369,000 plus from the teachers so that the district can get the money and then the money will be given to up to %25 of a to-be-determined group based on a jello-consistency format.

It appears the power people involved look at this "free money" as having a price tag.

My question is, how much is the total gain for the %25 of teachers that get lucky.

It seems like %75 of the teachers paid for a pig in the poke. And helped %25 of their friends.

Sex in the classroom

There was a recent article in the Tampa Tribune about two parents that were pursuing legal action against the School Board over a teacher's behavior with their daughters. A wrinkle in the story was the teacher died a while back, and apparently the school board closed the case. So what is the function of the parents' suit? Some say money, some say because it's "what did the District know and when did they know it" and the resulting actions or inaction. Time will tell.

Interesting to note, within the last few days, an Associated Press report came out.
I have seen it online in many many newspapers. Again, interesting to note, I have not seen it in the St. Pete Times or the Tampa Tribune.

This is one site randomly picked:

Special AP Report: Sexual misconduct plagues U.S. schools
Martha Irvine and Robert Tanner - Associated Press National Writers
OneNewsNow.com October 20, 2007

http://www.onenewsnow.com/2007/10/special_ap_report_sexual_misco.php

"Beyond the horror of individual crimes, the larger shame is that the institutions that govern education have only sporadically addressed a problem that's been apparent for years."

If the statistics are true and the reported actions of the education system are true, then society should act. It is an abuse of power towards the kids.

*******************

In April 2005, there was this:

"According to a draft report commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education, in compliance with the 2002 "No Child Left Behind" act signed into law by President Bush, between 6 percent and 10 percent of public school children across the country have been sexually abused or harassed by school employees and teachers.

Charol Shakeshaft, the Hofstra University scholar who prepared the report, said the number of abuse cases—which range from unwanted sexual comments to rape—could be much higher.

"So we think the Catholic Church has a problem?" she told industry newspaper Education Week in a March 10 interview.

To support her contention, Shakeshaft compared the priest abuse data with data collected in a national survey for the American Association of University Women Educational Foundation in 2000. Extrapolating data from the latter, she estimated roughly 290,000 students experienced some sort of physical sexual abuse by a school employee from a single decade—1991-2000. That compares with about five decades of cases of abusive priests.

Such figures led her to contend "the physical sexual abuse of students in schools is likely more than 100 times the abuse by priests."

http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/4/5/01552.shtml

Again, if these figures are true, then society should act. It is an abuse of power towards the kids.

*****************
Recently a middle school in Maine authorized a policy that will provide birth control pills to the girls if they ask for them. The parents have to have signed some type of consent form previously, but the fact remains that when it comes to Birth Control, by law the school cannot tell the parents. The schools includes girls 11 to 13, plus older girls who were retained.

If this information is wrong, please correct it. I am not here to spin or twist information to further my beliefs. I am fully aware of how corrupt the media can be.

****************

My first question is how did a governmental education system ever been given the authority to address sexual behavior?

My next question is how does the School Board's responsibility to teach "Health Education" and the School Board's responsibility for sexual behavior fall under the same category.

Do Political Science classes take students to the poll to vote? Can't wait for this answer: "no, because they are too young to vote".

Do Science classes take students out to hunt cats or frogs?


Is there any other curriculum that conveys this much responsibility to a School Board?

I don't see School Boards providing cars or purchasing auto insurance for students in Drivers Ed.

Yet, it seems to be the "Group Think" thing to do for School Boards to take on the responsibility of student's sexual behavior.

Take each stated reason a School Board should have the power to monitor a student's sexual behavior and ask one question - "why isn't this the parent's responsibility"?

If parent's are irresponsible with their children, it certainly is a societal problem, but why are school's the next in line for being responsible?

My guess is it has something to do with power and money. What else could it be?

Sacred Cows and Unwritten SP&P's.

There are some things that happen in one’s life that one wants to forget. There are some things that happen in one’s life that one should forget and move on. The recent events revolving around the actions and comments of the HCDS’ Board has jostled my memory about past events that I would like to forget.
Blogging affords me the opportunity to present past events in a manner that gives some substance to why I have done the things I have done. One must read my adjacent blog as well. What those who read about me should understand that my cause is not about me, it is about the ethical people within the system, the parents and the students. I have repeatedly seen good hard working people doing the “right thing” be subverted by a system and the people who carry out the system’s desires.
Many pieces of the dysfunctional puzzle are shaped as unwritten SP&Ps within the realm of Special Education. When one has their finger on the pulse of the District, it is not difficult to recognize these unwritten SP&P’s. One of these unwritten policies was brought out as a finding in the Whitehead vs. HCDS case. The allegation was that the District had an unwritten policy to not write individual speech therapy into an IEP as a related service. My understanding is someone, who apparently did not know this unwritten policy, first wrote individual speech therapy into the IEP. Another IEP was convened soon after that to discuss something else, and when the IEP was updated, the individual speech therapy was removed from the new IEP, without discussion.

"66. Respondent violated the procedural requirements relating to the formulation and implementation of Andrew W.’s IEP by the following actions:
(a) Implementing a policy of omitting from IEPs specific speech/language services that will be provided to an individual, irrespective of the individual’s needs for specific speech/language services. '

One interested in learning the mechanisms of the system should read this case. The ensuing events cost the District a lot of money. Judging by the number of District personnel that were in attendance in the Federal court the day of the decision, one wonders what the toll was to the staff over the many years this case ran. Perhaps some were hardened to the process. The Whiteheads proved in Federal court the ensuing events were deemed to be retaliatory by the District.

Click here: Wrightslaw - The Division of Administrative Hearings

Most of the unwritten SP&P’s appear to revolve around clever ways to save money. Ignorance of the law contributes to them being carried out unwittingly by the one's lower on the chain. I remember seeing countless IEP’s that had signatures of staff who did not attend the IEP meeting. How can that happen unless it is part of the culture? The answer lies in the least expensive method for the system to be in compliance with their paperwork. To be morally and ethically compliant to the law and to student’s needs requires money and resources. The recent finding by the state of the unfulfilled OT/PT services should raise an alarm. However, with lack of sanctions, it is business as usual.

While none of us like to have a past of slamming doors, I can relate to the need to take actions that in hindsight are not the best choice, but something has to happen to stop the injustice. I know in the past I have said things that needed to be said, but it needed to be said to someone other than the person I said it to, and came off wrong.

What should now be coming to light is the hidden cost in saving money. While I will reserve my opinion of those who not only obfuscate the truth but defend the parsing to the hilt, what should be a concern for all of us is the impact it has on the quality of life for the employee’s who know the truth and have to live with the distortion. Keeping it from the parents is relatively easy, Having a chilling control on keeping teacher’s quiet is an issue of itself.

Sacred Cows and Unwritten SP&P’s, no matter how cleverly contrived, have a cost.

Looking Back On The Memories

As one who tries to be introspective regarding my outlook on many aspects of my life, there have been many times I have been accused by those who know me that I over analyze issues.
Having grown up in a very rural part of Hillsborough County, I have had the benefit of knowing many people who have been employed in the local school system over the last 50 years. Some of them were my school mates. Many of the ones who have risen to the highest ranks possible were teachers at the high school I attended. Some of them I knew, some of them I did not. I probably would have never recognized the significant number of how many future administrators were directly tied to that particular school had it not been for particular circumstances in my life that afforded me that information.
I fondly remember my days as a student. I believe I can still name all of my first 8 elementary school teachers and one of my principals. I remember the challenge through the years of trying to get the highest score on the tests. My rivals were a couple of girls. In the third grade, a boy from out of state moved in to our area, at which point I had a male rival.
My high school years were memorable. My attendance record for my 12 years in school was excellent and was close to perfect one year. Despite my relative lower economic status and family dynamics, I was able to participate in several extra curricular activities. I was involved in both academics and sports. I played baseball (12-0 in our conference in my senior year), 1st chair trumpet player and played bass clef sousaphone, was undefeated in 1st chair chess club, drum major and school mascot, 99 percentile in aptitude assessment, a two year member of NHS and was voted “most likely to succeed”.

One of my memorable days was a Saturday in which I played sousaphone in a Concert Contest at Chamberlain in the morning, played a baseball game at Turkey Creek in the mid day (knocked in the winning run either in the last inning or may have been an extra inning), and then went to Sarasota to fulfill my Drum Major duties in a night parade.

I say all of this because one would think that I would be an ambassador for the school system that did so much for me. I held the teaching profession and school administrators in high regard for many years when my kids entered the system. There was a period of about 10 years that I continued to see the professional behavior and mutual respect between parent and school personnel. In 1990, circumstances started to change.
Along with the continued professionalism by many, it took six years of repeated incidents that demonstrated to me that there were a few people who I had to deal with, regardless of which school my son was in that could not be trusted. Along with them, there unfortunately were different key people in three of the 4 sites that repeatedly demonstrated actions and words that were repeatedly shown to be disingenuous.
Despite my many efforts to collaboratively and honestly communicate, these efforts were not reciprocated. On December 16th, 2006, this group of which I was a part of hit rock bottom. The rest, as they say, is history.
As with any profession, I recognize there are levels of experience and capabilities. I had the expectation that if I voiced my concerns and demonstrated repeatedly what was happening that there would be attention paid to what I was complaining about. Instead, the focus was on me being a malcontent, troublemaker and naysayer.