26 July 2010

Insanity Beckons; Delaware Teachers' Union Votes on Contract Changes Via SURVEY MONKEY

Seriously...THIS is what the Union has been reduced to?  A bunch of Keystone Cops protecting our teachers by online proxy? 

DUhhhh...I know wat we cans do -let's vote on contract carve-outs on dat dere Survey Monkey on the interweb. 

Completely confidential, you say... Arne, here's your chance to really make a difference in our public schools!  Jack Markell - Get off your ass and get out the vote!  C'mon Esquire, you know you wanna still feel relevant.  Visit the Union's My Space page...I mean Survey Monkey poll.

You too, my little sheep.  We've all paid our dues (and then some!).  Get your two cents in, before the polls close.  When you're done monkeying around, make sure you bid on my Ebay auction before it closes - "One ounce of dignity" - absolutely priceless in Delaware!  (shipping and handling not included)  

http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00e54f8c25c988340133f292a625970b
July 26, 2010

Posted At: 04:59 PM
Author: Alexander Russo
Category: NCLB News , On Maryland Avenue , Teachers & Teaching


SIG: Computerized Voting To Change A Contract


"To vote for this school improvement plan, press 2." Well, almost. A Delaware district is asking teachers at three low-performing schools to vote on the district's $2 million SIG plan -- using Surveymonkey. But there's no differentiation among the three schools -- they're all lumped together for voting purposes -- the information provided is limited to time and pay issues not curriculum or other key issues, and it's not clear that the survey is open only to teachers at the schools (try it out, maybe you can enter your vote). One additional wrinkle: if the teachers vote the SIG plan down then the schools will may become part of a Mass Insight turnaround zone, in which case the options include also closing, firing staff, etc.

25 July 2010

Common Carrier/Out-of-State:  $363.55
Other Travel/Out-of-State:  $488.00
Hotels and Lodging:    $1681.44

Voting him out of office:  PRICELESS

Okay, folks, George Evans, of the Christina School District is an easy target.  And relatively irrelevant.  While he wasn't the only Christina Board member who spent money last year, he was by far the biggest spender.  And I can't help but wonder why, as Delaware School Board Association President, he charged back his expenses to the National Conference to the Christina District and not the school board association...

Take this for what it is, in a time when a school district is going broke (which it was, until a narrowly won referendum), we must hold our school board members accountible to ensure that they are not spending money that we (the tax payers of the district) don't have... 

The Evans Epilogue
GEORGE E EVANS 17 payments $2,759.42 Who knew that board members could charge back magazine subscriptions to the district?


BOBBY BENJAMIN 11 payments $499.01
COLONIAL SCHOOL DISTRICT OFFICE SUPPLIES 4/23/2010 $103.47  Not sure why this guy's getting reimbursed for office supplies...

I'm sure there are more curious charges... http://checkbook.delaware.gov/

15 July 2010

Update: Moyer Files OCR Complaint, last ditch effort

Moyer May Rise Again...

Well, folks, in a few short hours the deal will be done.  The building formerly known as Moyer will be sold to the state and Virginia-based K12 will move in for the kill.  Do I smell a sweetheart deal?  Who do we know who is also from VA?

So long, Moyer.  It was nice knowing you...

Looks like Moyer's going to pull on last ditch effort to free themselves from the grip of DOE -

PRESS RELEASE:
Don McQueen, National President

African American Association of Charter School Administrators
3211 Bramer Drive
Raleigh, NC 27604
(919)538-8060

The African American Association of Charter School Administrators (Association) has filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights against the Delaware State Board of Education and the Delaware Department of Education alleging that Maurice J. Moyer Academy (a Wilmington, Delaware based charter school) was discriminated against on the basis of the racial makeup of the school when the State Board of Education failed to renew its charter on allegations that the school did not meet state performance standards in violation of Title VI of Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Association has asked the Office of Civil Rights to take action to restore Moyer’s charter and allow it to continue to operate.

The Association asserts that Moyer outperformed the state composite score and the composite scores for Brandywine, Red Clay, Colonial, and Christiana School Districts (the surrounding regular public school districts) when the scores are controlled for race and income status. Moyer’s student population was 96.9 percent black, 2.2 percent Hispanic, and 22.5 percent Special Education. Moyer’s student population was 89.2 percent low-income. When you take the state composite scores which includes all sub-groups (white, black, Hispanic, Asian, American Indian, and so forth) and compare that composite to Moyer it appears that Moyer did not perform. However, then you isolate the scores and compare homogeneous subgroup to homogeneous subgroup Moyer significant outperformed the state and local school districts.

According to Don McQueen, National President of the Association "it makes absolutely no sense to close Moyer or remove its leadership when it was clearly doing a better job of serving its student population than the state and local districts. The data shows the students are better off under Moyer’s current leadership."

In May, 2010 the Association completed a report entitled: "Study of the Maurice J. Moyer Academy: Student Performance." The study notes that "The Delaware Department of Education did not make equitable comparisons and has reached an erroneous conclusion about the performance of Moyer Academy." The study also notes that "Across the nation States are attempting to carry out the President’s mandate to close low performing charter schools without developing fair and mathematically sound methods to determine whether African American, Low-income, and Special Education populations are better served by the Charter school than the traditional public schools. The result is states are closing Charter schools that serve special targeted populations that are outperforming traditional public schools due to erroneous information. This does a disservice to our educational infrastructure and to high risk African American students."

( Visit the Association on the Internet at : http:/!aaacharteradministrators.or~/default.aspx )

11 July 2010

Not everything you wish wasn't true is a MYTH!

Sorry, folks, I haven't had time to post in a while...

But, I'd like to thank Paul Herdman for the shout out tonight on Norm Oliver's Community Crossfire!  I hear ya, Dawg, but not everything you wish wasn't true is a myth.

For example:


Mr. RACE TO THE TOP





Public education was never meant to be a revenue-generating venture!  The only entity that should profit from the millions being spent in Delaware is our students.  Get that through your thick skull, peddle your wares elsewhere!