Felner: Piled Higher and Deeper

Guilty or innocent - one thing is becoming clear. Robert Felner made an impression on the people he came into contact with - and much of it was not good. Described to KSN&C as a "New York street fighter," it's becoming easier to see how he might have earned the moniker.

Jacob Payne continues to peel the onion at Page One Kentucky. Last week he noted that Felner had been targeted for ....what ....vandalism? ....revenge?

...we uncovered police reports that reveal that Felner has done some things so wrong (or right) that people were driven to vandalize his convertible BMW. On more than one occasion.

Sweet ride.

This week Jake picks up where he left off...digging his way through what he describes as hundreds of documents. Among them are grievances filed by U of L faculty. Apparently some Page One commenters had suggested that Felner was the most grieved individual on campus and the College of Education and Human Development led the university when it came to keeping the Faculty Grievance Officer busy.

In 2005 (PDF link) the College of Education and Human Development was responsible for 42% (13) of faculty grievance consultations. That’s six more than the School of Medicine at 23%.

Fine and dandy, right? Maybe. Until one examines the 2006 (PDF link) report from the Faculty Grievance Officer. That year 15 (56%) of the 27 grievance consultations that took place were within the CEHD.

Quite a number. So many, in fact, that that grievance officer Suzanne Meeks had this to add: "Due to the number of consultations from CEHD, and the level of negative affect associated with those consultations, I have worked with the Provost’s office to recommend that they use administrative mechanisms to restore morale, faculty governance, and collegial interaction there. Although I believe interventions have been attempted ....they have yet been effective."

Then there was this from Meeks:

Over the three years of my tenure as FGO, I have consulted with at least one-third of the CEHD faculty. Throughout this time, I have heard talk of retaliation against faculty members who file grievances or requests for mediation. The majority of those I have spoken with are not willing to file grievances because of this fear of retaliation, which extends to those who testify at grievance hearings as well. This situation demonstrates a significant weakness in the grievance system, in that there is no way to prevent such retaliation when one files a complaint against someone who has the power to determine work load agreements and salary increases, approve expenditures, and allocate resources.

Out in the world the Felner investigation has been expanded yet again. Gary Kunich of the Kenosha News revealed new information last Friday (print edition only) that federal "agents returned Thursday to the University of Rhode Island for more interviews, but declined to say if they took any paperwork with them."

Federal investigators have also begun to examine Felner’s non-profit organization at the University of Rhode Island.

The Kenosha News has learned that investigators are looking at millions of dollars in grants that Felner brought in while working at various universities throughout the United States, as well as a defunct non-profit that no longer exists in Rock Island, Ill.

Keep on keeping on, Jake.

At Magnet School, An Asian Plurality

This from The Washington Post:

Group Forms 45% Of Freshmen at Thomas Jefferson

Asian American students will outnumber white classmates for the first time in the freshman class at the region's most prestigious public magnet school this fall, a milestone reached as the number of African Americans and Hispanics has remained low and the Fairfax County School Board prepares to review the school's admission policy.

At Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in the Alexandria area this year, more than 2,500 applicants vied for 485 seats. Asian American students got 219, or 45 percent of the total, while white students got 205, or 42 percent. About 38 percent of the school's students were Asian American in the past school year.

T.J., as the school is known, draws students from several Northern Virginia jurisdictions. It ranks among the nation's top public schools in some surveys because of its rigorous curriculum and high-achieving students. Its average combined SAT score in 2007 was 2155, compared with 1639 countywide. More than 150 of its students that year were semifinalists for National Merit scholarships.

A plurality of Asian American students in a high school class would be an anomaly in the Washington region, where fewer than one in 10 residents is Asian American. In Fairfax, which supplies most of the school's students, people of Asian descent account for 16 percent of the population, census data show. That percentage has doubled since 1990 and is the highest in the area....

Student locator tags: Evil or helpful?

This from the Providence Journal:

PROVIDENCE — With an increased emphasis on school safety across Rhode Island, identification cards, metal detectors and campus police officers have become familiar sights. But do tracking devices that follow students’ every movement go too far?

When the Middletown School Department earlier this year piloted a program equipping elementary students’ backpacks with radio frequency locator tags, school officials promised improved safety for children in transit to and from school on buses.

“That’s Big Brother at its scariest,” said Steven Brown, president of the Rhode Island Affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, which strongly opposed the plan.

Brown wasn’t alone. The story made national news and House and Senate lawmakers, worried about privacy violations, passed legislation prohibiting the use of such tags to track students...

In Schools, How Tight Must Discipline Be?

This from the New York Times:

How far should a school go in disciplining an unruly student? And what responsibility do parents bear for that youngster’s behavior?

These are issues that American educators and parents perpetually wrestle with, and they have been debated around Westchester recently because of two incidents that have received attention not just in coffee shop chitchat but also in the news media.

In early June, a trustee of Ardsley’s school board resigned after other middle school parents expressed outrage at her 14-year-old son’s behavior. They accused him of bullying children and repeatedly threatening violence, including a massacre and bombing, and blamed the school for not stepping in sooner and more firmly. School officials, the parents contended, had been too tolerant of the boy’s belligerence because of his mother’s board position.

In the other incident, David Turano, 18, a senior at Briarcliff High School, hiked up his gown and flashed his naked backside to a graduation audience in late June. Embarrassed officials called the police, who charged the boy with exposing himself.

Parents and school officials are not always wise in such situations. More commonly, they agonize and improvise, trying to draw fine lines between offensive behavior and the natural need of teenagers to define themselves by testing limits...

Former state science director sues over intelligent design e-mail

This from the Dallas Morning News:

AUSTIN – A former state science curriculum director on Wednesday sued the Texas Education Agency and Education Commissioner Robert Scott, alleging she was illegally fired for forwarding an e-mail about a lecture critical of the movement to promote intelligent design in science classes.

Christina Comer, who lost her job at the TEA last fall, said in a suit filed in federal court in Austin that she was terminated for contravening an "unconstitutional" policy at the agency. The policy required employees to be neutral on the subject of creationism – the biblical interpretation of the origin of humans, she said.

The policy was in force, according to the suit, even though the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that teaching creationism as science in public schools is illegal.

"The agency's 'neutrality' policy has the purpose or effect of endorsing religion, and thus violates the Establishment Clause" of the U.S. Constitution, the lawsuit said.

Ms. Comer also said in her complaint that she was fired without due process after serving as the state science director for nearly 10 years....

Minnesota Study: Charter schools a mixed bag

This from Minnesota Public Radio:

Minnesota's Auditor evaluates the state's 143 charter schools

St. Paul, Minn. — Legislative Auditor Jim Nobles told a Minnesota Senate committee that charter schools have a mixed record of success.

"We found a mixed picture... improvement is needed" in Minnesota's charter schools, Nobles said..

The bottom line according to the report is that about half of charter schools make adequate yearly progress," a key measure of performance. That compares to about two-thirds of regular schools.

But the report also says that despite financial obstacles and uncertain oversight, charter school programs teach kids about as well as regular schools when you control for differences in race and income.

In the central cities, though, charter schools did better than the Minneapolis and St. Paul district schools.

Still, its clear that after nearly two decades, the charter school movement still has some "growing up" to do, Nobles told the committee.

The study's authors say Minnesota needs to make some key changes to regulations for charter school education to make them more accountable to taxpayers, parents and students. Those changes include:

* The Legislature should clarify the roles of the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) and sponsors with respect to charter school oversight by requiring the MDE to approve sponsors and increasing sponsors' authority.

* The Department of Education should implement standards for charter school sponsors and provide additional training to improve sponsor expertise.

* The Legislature should require all new charter school board members to attend financial management training within one year of being elected.

* The Legislature should expand the charter school board conflict of interest laws to parallel federal requirements.

* The Legislature should amend the charter school law to remove the requirement that teachers comprise a majority of charter school board members.

Lawmakers are getting a first look at the report at a Legislative Audit Commission hearing this afternoon at the Capitol.

Jenkins cancels coach’s contract

This from the Appalachain News-Express:

The Jenkins School System has nullified the contract it had to hire a former East Ridge High School teacher who has been charged with official misconduct.

Debby Watts, who began as superintendent of the Jenkins Independent School System Tuesday, said she had no part in the decision making process regarding the employment of Lincoln Shane Bentley, 32, of Neon, who had been hired as Jenkins High School’s football coach.

However, she did confirm that Bentley’s contract with the school system, which was to have begun on July 1, was nullified and he is not employed there.

“I just started yesterday and they basically told me they had (nullified the contract),” Watts said Wednesday.

Bentley was charged in April with two counts of official misconduct following two incidents at East Ridge. Police have charged that Bentley, on March 27 and 28, asked a 15-year-old female student to show him her breasts for a grade enhancement...

Who can afford a high quality US Education?

This from the Boston Globe:

Foreign students flock to the US

Surge in overseas applicants driven by weak dollar

The faltering US dollar, which has steadily lost value against major currencies around the world, has produced a silver lining for foreign students, and the American universities that recruit them.

With every dip in the exchange rate, the cost of college for many foreign students has dropped in kind, a discount that has contributed to a surge in demand for Boston-area colleges and universities, college administrators, consultants, and higher education specialists say.

"Everyone wants an American education, but for many families the cost has been prohibitive," said Marguerite Dennis, vice president for enrollment and international programs at Suffolk University, which attributes a sharp rise in international enrollment this fall to the exchange rate. "But now, the dollar has made coming here so much more attractive and realistic."

Widely considered the worldwide gold standard for higher education, American universities have suddenly emerged as a bargain for a growing number of international students, whose yen, rupees, and pounds go much further than they
used to. The influx is expected to reverse the declines in foreign student enrollment that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks...

Audit Finds Abuse of Education Dept. Credit Cards

I was once sat in on a petty theft case where a poor man who stole a $ .99 pack of potato chips and got a few months in jail. Occasionally you'll see bookkeeping types do time for kiting schemes - where government money is used "on the float" to pay personal expenses. They were going to pay it back....

This from The Washington Post:

U.S. Department of Education employees inappropriately used government credit cards to purchase $49,500 worth of goods and services, including meals, items at clothing stores and rental cars, for personal use, according to a review by the department's inspector general.

Auditors examining a sample of business travel expenses for fiscal 2006 found $18,256 in inappropriate charges made by 34 employees. The charges included payments to clothing retailers and restaurants near their homes or office.

Twenty-nine people used bank cards to withdraw about $17,600 more than allowed under the department's travel allowance for meals and incidentals. Four department workers made $13,570 in bank card withdrawals when they weren't on business travel. One logged 44 withdrawals totaling $8,560.

It could not be determined yesterday whether employees paid for the personal expenses they charged. The cards are issued to individual employees who are responsible for paying the bills but then seek reimbursement.

The July 1 report calls on the department to improve oversight of travel charge cards, which are only to be used for official travel, including to schools, conferences and training. "Inappropriate use of the travel card . . . represents abuse of a Government-provided resource, and compromises the integrity of the Department," the report says....

...The inspector general's office said the department failed to follow recommendations it laid out in a 2002 inquiry of the travel card program that also found lax controls. The new report noted that some employees who made inappropriate charges six years ago were flagged for problems this time.

..."We concur with the IG's findings and have a corrective action plan in place to address the IG's concerns," said Samara Yudof, spokeswoman for Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings....

It is unclear if the department's corrective action will include criminal charges for theft by unlawful taking.

F-word earns extra marks on Exam

This from the Mirror.co.uk:

You might think a pupil would be marked down for writing a note on their English exam telling tutors to "F**k off".

But one was rewarded with extra marks - because it was better than leaving the page blank and demonstrates "nominal skills".

The pupil was given 7.5 per cent by top marker Peter Buckroyd for leaving the expletive on his paper. And incredibly, the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA) chief examiner said adding an exclamation mark would have taken the score to 11 per cent by showing proper punctuation.

Mr Buckroyd said: "It would be wicked to give it zero, it does show some very basic skills, conveying some meaning and some spelling...

School Board Employees afforded same Immunity as Agency

This from Michael Stevens at Kentucky Court Reporter:

SOVEREIGN IMMUNITY:

School board employees afforded same immunity,

if any, to which agency entitled;

discretionary vs. ministerial acts are

not bright line and measured against Yanero

PENNINGTON V. GREENUP COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION
RENDERED: APRIL 11, 28, 2008; 2:00 P
PUBLISHED: AFFIRMING GREENUP COUNTY
DATE RENDERED: 4/18/2008

Parent of child who was mentally retarded brought action against school and his teacher when child fell and broke his ankle at school outing. The circuit court granted summary judgment to both defendants, holding that the Board of Education is protected from suit by governmental immunity and that Ms. Kelley (teacher) is protected by qualified immunity.

The issue presented on this appeal was whether or not the circuit court erred when it found that Tracey Kelley's actions in supervising Andrew were discretionary rather than ministerial in nature, resulting in the legal conclusion that Ms. Kelley is entitled to the protection of qualified official immunity. COA affirmed.

The child broke his ankle when he reached over and attempted to kiss another student.

The extent to which local school boards and their employees are protected from suit by governmental immunity is an area of law which has received considerable attention in Kentucky's appellate courts in recent years. Yanero v. Davis, 65 S.W.3d 510 (Ky. 2001), the most frequently cited recent Kentucky case relating to governmental immunity, involved a high school student who was injured when he was struck by a baseball thrown by another student on school grounds.

In Lamb v. Holmes, 162 S.W.3d 902 (Ky. 2005), our Supreme Court, relying on qualified official immunity, dismissed a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 “strip search” action against school employees.It is now familiar law in Kentucky that when an employee of a local board of education is sued in her representative capacity, her “actions are afforded the same immunity, if any, to which the agency, itself, would be entitled[.]” Yanero at 522.

Pixels or paper, truth doesn’t care

I'm going to chat through this insightful and honest bit from sportswriter/editor Dwight Jaynes at the Portland Tribune:

There’s something of a war going on right now between the mainstream media – particularly sports writers and columnists – and bloggers.

I have experienced this. Jake Payne over at Page One screams about it from time to time.

I guess bloggers are a threat. In one sense, we rip off legitimate news sources by reprinting their stuff under "fair use" provisions of the copyright act. In another sense, we generate buzz that usually gets picked up in the mainstream media somewhere - and sometimes break big stories the mainstream media misses.

Kentucky School News & Commentary conducted an extensive background search, then working directly with Dick Innes of the Bluegrass Institute, broke the Barbara Erwin story after Mark Hebert mentioned on his blog that the Commissioner's search was being conducted in secret and an anonymous commenter to the Courier-Journal suggested somebody ought to look into resume irregularities.

More recently, Jake broke the Robert Felner investigation story at U of L.

The way the world is going, people toiling for newspapers are feeling pretty threatened. The price of newsprint keeps going up, and the number of readers who appreciate the fine feel of a good paper in their hands is going down.

And newspaper employees are being offered buy-outs in budget reduction moves.

People can find their news on the Internet, television, radio or in free newspapers (shameless plug), and so they wonder why they ought to put a couple of quarters into a slot and pay for something that’s most likely yesterday’s news, anyway.

At the same time, those who write for newspapers have grown resentful that bloggers sitting at home in front of their computers – the well-worn cliché is that they’re in their mother’s basement in their underwear – may have increasing clout with readers.

I resent that. It's MY basement and I'm wearing pajamas.

After all, how can those bloggers – with no inside sources, no background and no journalism training, in many cases – have as much credibility as trained and experienced journalists? Who would even bother listening to those yahoos?

Excellent questions. As far as KSN&C is concerned...I've got more than a few sources, 36 years of background in the classroom, in the district office, in the school office, and at the university - public and private and religious. How many working journalists have that?

I also audited two journalism courses (News Editing and Opinion writing) at UK because I knew I wanted to write and I knew what I didn't know. I'd still like to take a Journalism Ethics course at some point.

Well, I’ll tell you what I think. And I’ll also explain how it’s led me to alter my approach to the way I do my job as a columnist, pushing me away from a
philosophy I held dear for decades in this business. I changed, though, because
the bloggers have taught me a lesson.

Really? Acknowledgement from the mainstream media is rare. I'd better enjoy this.

My guideline for years was that, as a beat reporter or a columnist, I would get to know my sources as best I could. I would be there constantly, in their face. I always felt I was impartial enough to write the truth no matter what. And my core values included being there the day after I wrote something negative about someone I covered – so they’d have their shot at me, their fair chance to confront me.

But along the way, at some point, the whole thing kind of went south. The problem with all that, I’ve come to realize, is that I got too close to the people I covered.

In the case of a beat reporter, you almost have to have a degree of that in order to come up with the constant flood of stories you need if you’re covering a beat like the [Portland] Trail Blazers.

Over time, you realize that in spite of all your attempts to know athletes and public figures, what you usually end up writing about them is the cover story – the half-true piece of semifiction that those people want the public to see. You begin to realize you’re usually getting played. And you sold your soul to get it.

Oh, when you get close to sources, you get access. You get inside information. At least you think you do. You get close enough to players and coaches that it’s a fan’s dream. Sources become something very close to friends, and, I confess, I’ve been down that road.

I'm glad to hear somebody else say this. When I began blogging it never occurred to me that I might be writing critically about people I knew and cared about. Pretty naive on my part - not to think about that - but nonetheless that's part of the deal if one chooses to write on public issues.

But by writing commentary and posting news stories on KSN&C I have "run into" Peggy Petrilli, Stu Silberman, Steve Beshear, Brad Cowgill, Fabio Zuluaga, Jon Draud, Elaine Farris, Ernie Fletcher (for whom one of my daughters worked) and many more unnamed persons. I have done stories on UK and EKU where I work - and given the nature of my employment after retirement, I've got to be the easiest guy to "let go" in either place.

I would be less than honest if I did not confess feeling a tug at the heart from time-to-time. For example, I initially came out soft on Draud's car looking for different explanations - only to be taught a lesson by a bunch of emails.

But I also know that when that happens, you’re probably not going to do your job as well as you should. Yes, I’m old school, and I think it’s the job of a columnist or a beat reporter to always tell the truth and be critical when merited, even about the revered home team.

But if you’re critical, you risk your access. Forget about the friendships – you often lose your sources if you offend them.

In the past few years, my job as editor of this paper has kept me from having the time to get the sort of access I used to have with a lot of athletes and coaches. Lately, I don’t have time to schmooz them at shootarounds and after practice. I can’t get on the phone and shoot the breeze with them.

Once in a while, it costs me a story. But you know what? As a columnist, I don’t feel I need their information or their admiration. And I certainly don’t need to worry about making them happy. I think I’m very fair to them. Some sources respect that fairness, and others would rather just own a piece of you.

Yes. We have this "thing" in our society about rank. The higher one's rank, the more those of us holding lower rank are expected to defer. That is counterbalanced by free speech in our democracy; but it doesn't make it any easier. Free speech is not free of cost.

I’m still accountable. The coaches and players know where to find me –as one did last season when he had a problem with something I wrote. I met with him for more than an hour and presented my side and listened to his.

He convinced me of a few things, and I didn’t buy into some other things. I stand
ready to be critical again if I think it’s merited.

The point to all this is simple. What I’ve done, I think, is become a blogger in columnist’s clothing. The secret to the blogosphere is that bloggers usually don’t have that proximity to coaches and athletes. They aren’t hindered by a need to get along
or kiss up to the people they write about. That affords them a certain freedom they can use or abuse.

Interesting observation. And, here I am trying to become a better journalist.

Don’t get me wrong – those trained, experienced journalists are still the backbone of this business and they shouldn’t be insecure about their role. The mavericks out there blogging provide a welcome supplement to their work.

Like the mainstream media, bloggers usually search for some version of the truth. Some are good at it. Some are not. On the whole, the best of them serve up fresh, creative, unvarnished, unrestricted and entertaining thoughts about the issues of the day.

I think that’s what columnists are supposed to do, too. If we do it the right way, we’re really not all that different.

A tip of the hat to Alexander Russo.

Reading First program could be on its last legs

This from USA Today, AP file photo 2004:

WASHINGTON — Is the federal government getting out of the reading business?

The Senate Appropriations Committee voted last week to eliminate funding for Reading First, the groundbreaking but controversial Bush administration program that has given states $1 billion a year since 2002 to teach low-income elementary schoolers to read. A House committee also had voted to eliminate funding; if money is not restored before the federal budget is approved in the fall, the program could end.

Democrats in Congress say the program was an unproven magnet for corruption. House hearings last year focused on financial ties between its top advisers and major textbook publishers, who account for a large share of materials schools use. A U.S. Justice Department investigation, begun last year, is still pending.

But many educators say the money — about $17.7 million per state in 2007 — was a godsend, allowing them to train teachers in scientifically based reading methods, buy quality supplies and help an estimated 1.8 million children learn to read...

Supreme Court Rules in Ky Age Discrimination Case

This from the Education Law Blog:

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last month in a decision under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967. The court ruled against a Kentucky worker by holding that certain disparities in that state's public-employee retirement system do not violate the federal law.

In Kentucky Retirement Systems v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (No. 06-1037), the justices ruled 5-4 that the state's retirement system does not discriminate based on age against certain workers who become disabled after becoming eligible for retirement.

The case arose over differences in the way the Kentucky retirement system compensates workers who retire for reasons of disability and those who retire because they have served the requisite length of time. In that state, public-sector workers can retire after 20 years of service or at age 55 with five years of employment.

A sheriff’s department employee who was 61 when he sought disability retirement was told he could only retire under the state’s regular retirement plan, which the employee contended resulted in a lesser benefit level. The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued the state on behalf of the worker, arguing that Kentucky’s plan provides lesser benefits to certain older workers who must stop working because of disability, and thus discriminates against them based on age. (I blogged about oral arguments in the case here.)

But in his opinion for the court, Justice Breyer said the disparities in Kentucky's
system hinged more on a beneficiary's pension status than his age.

"Kentucky's system does not rely on any of the sorts of stereotypical assumptions that the ADEA sought to eradicate," Justice Breyer said. "It does not rest on any stereotype about the work capacity of 'older' workers relative to 'younger' workers."

In an unusual lineup, Justice Breyer's opinion was joined by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices John Paul Stevens, Souter, and Thomas. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote a dissent joined by Justices Antonin Scalia, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Samuel A. Alito Jr.

Groups such as the NSBA and the National Council on Teacher Retirement had filed
friend-of-the-court briefs expressing concern about the possible effects of the case on public-employee retirement plans, which cover teachers and other school workers.

The NSBA, based in Alexandria, Va., expressed worry in its brief about the effect of the case on school districts’ early-retirement-incentive plans for teachers. The teacher-retirement council, a Sacramento, Calif.-based group representing 77 state and local teacher-pension plans, joined a brief on Kentucky’s side that had argued the EEOC’s position could lead to instability for public-retirement funds and would require changes to plans in “virtually every state.”

Debating National Standards, and more

It's debate time at EKU....at least, it is in my classes.

This summer I'm back with grad students and that allows me to push for a deeper exploration of topics that are of concern to the schools. It also means helping students to develop their leadership potential by finding/refining their "voices."

I've always encouraged impromptu debates among students, but over the next two weeks I'm test-driving a formal debate format between two two-member teams.

Our topics:
EMS 850 - Curriculum for Leaders in Education

• Direct instruction v. Student-initiated instruction
• Senate Bill 1
• National Standards (See below)

EGC 820 - Professional Studies I: Teachers, Schools and Society (Special Education Cohort)

• The use of aversive techniques for behavior management
• Direct instruction v. Student-initiated instruction

KSN&C readers may not be aware...but what happens in class sometimes influences which articles get posted. Students regularly scan the news for articles that confirm, confuse, amaze and dismay. We talk about the issues in class. I'm also very pleased to learn that other professors are starting to use the blog to bring current content into their classes. With all that in mind....

This from the Principal's Policy Blog:

Has the Time Come for Voluntary National Standards?

It’s a time-honored tradition in America that states and local districts should have control over our schools. But in the age of global competitiveness and student mobility, is it time to loosen the reigns of local control in favor of something more national?

This was the question addressed in a recent report by the Center for American Progress. The report’s author, Matt Miller, a senior fellow at the Center, argues that local control of education creates several major problems, including financial inequality, inconsistent standards and inadequate data, and a lack of education research and development. Miller contends that a more national approach to education would help solve many of these problems and calls for the establishment of national standards and increasing the federal government’s share of education funding from approximately 9% to 25 – 30%, with a portion of this increased investment going toward increasing funding for education research.

Miller argues that “it is only by transcending traditional local control, and by getting serious about a new national role in standards and finance, that we can at last create genuine autonomy for local schools.” In creating this “genuine autonomy” Miller also recommends eliminating school boards, which he believes are dominated by teacher unions that heavily influence the election of board members.

Not everyone is convinced this is the correct path to follow, however. At the release of the report, Reginald Felton, director of federal relations for the National School Boards Association, urged the American people to guard against the assumption that doing away with local control of education (and school boards) would remedy decades of neglect, or that a nationalization of education would immediately result in a spike in student achievement.

“One size does not fit all” agreed former Superintendent of Schools for the Los Angeles Unified School District Roy Romer. However, he pointed out that a local school board is not able to create a national math curriculum, and later expressed his support for national standards. Romer indicated that these standards should be
voluntarily adopted by states from the ground-up, instead of forced upon states by the federal government.

Earlier this year, the NASSP Board of Directors proposed a position statement on National Academic Standards in K-12 Education. In the statement, NASSP calls on Congress to “appoint an independent, diverse group of researchers, practitioners, advocates, and experts to develop a set of common national standards and authentic, reliable assessments beginning with Language Arts and mathematics in grades K-12 and examine the feasibility of national standards in other subjects.” NASSP also urges states to actively participate in the development and adoption of those standards, and for the federal government to provide grants to states to assist with the adoption and implementation of those common standards. NASSP invites members’ comments on the proposed statement through April 30, 2008.

There is little doubt that America has, and continues to be going through a period of flux. As Matt Miller concludes in his report, “Once upon a time, a national role in retirement security was anathema. Then suddenly, after the Depression, there was Social Security. Once a federal role in health care would have been damned as
socialism, yet federal spending now accounts for one of every two dollars devoted to health care in the United States, with more certain to come in the years ahead. When it comes to schools, there has likewise always been a tension between the desire to improve the life chances of more children by involving higher levels of authority, and the primordial American distrust of central government. But the truth is we started down this road even on schooling a long time ago. It’s time now to finish the job.”

Now, back to the topic of debate:

In addition to the blog content, students may received support in more traditional ways as shown by this topic outline from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Direct Instruction v Child-initiated instruction

Resolved: Direct Instruction is an educationally and socially justifiable instructional method.

A longstanding curriculum debate in early childhood education centers on whether early childhood education should follow the traditional academic model of education used with older students (that is, large group, teacher-directed, formal instruction) or whether learning experiences for preschool children should be informal and consist largely of child-initiated activities. Both approaches have pros and cons.

For example, when discussing children living in poverty, Schweinhart (1997) states that an approach that is primarily teacher-directed is likely to discourage children's social and emotional development, intellectual dispositions, and creativity, while an approach based exclusively on child-initiated activities may not sufficiently support children's academic development.

What are some differences between direct instruction and child-initiated learning?

Disputes concerning curriculum and teaching methods go back a long way in the field of early childhood education. Over the years, many different terms have been used to capture the opposing positions. In recent years, the term "academic" has come to describe those parts of the early childhood curriculum intended to help children master the basic skills involved in literacy and numeracy (Jacobson, 1996). Katz (1996) suggests that from the academic, or direct instruction, perspective, the young child is seen as dependent on adults' instruction in the academic knowledge and skills necessary for a good start for later academic achievement.

This perspective is in direct contrast with the child-initiated approach, which views young children as active constructors of knowledge who are not dependent on didactic instructional cues from a teacher. Child-initiated curricular techniques may utilize learning centers within a classroom, promote learning from play-based activities, or encourage child interaction and cooperation. Academic learning may certainly occur in child-initiated learning environments. However, this learning results not from teacher-led formal didactic (seat work, lectures, etc.) instruction, but from a variety of child-initiated learning activities (Katz, 1999b).

What does the research say about the advantages and disadvantages of each approach?

Three long-term preschool curriculum comparison studies began in the 1970s: the High/Scope Preschool Curriculum Comparison study (Schweinhart & Weikart, 1997a; Schweinhart & Weikart, 1997b), the Louisville Head Start study (Miller & Bizzell, 1983), and the University of Illinois study (Karnes et al., 1983). All three included the direct instruction model, which offered scripted, teacher-directed, academic instruction, and a nursery school model, in which children initiated their own learning activities with minimal teacher support. Additionally, the High/Scope study included the High/Scope model, in which children initiated learning activities with substantial teacher support. The Louisville and Illinois studies also included several additional teacher-directed models and the Montessori model, which encouraged child-initiated activities with didactic materials.

These three studies found that children in direct instruction programs intellectually outperformed children in child-initiated activities programs during and up to a year after the preschool program, but not thereafter. In the Louisville study, the nursery school children showed higher verbal-social participation and increased more in ambition and aggressiveness than did the direct instruction children, but both groups scored lower than their peers on inventiveness. In the Illinois study, 78% of the nursery school group that engaged in child-initiated activities with minimal teacher support graduated from high school, compared with only 48% of the direct instruction group (Karnes et al., 1983).

SOURCE: Early Childhood and Parenting (ECAP) Collaborative at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The ’60s Begin to Fade as Liberal Professors Retire

This from the New York Times photo by Andy Manis :

MADISON, Wis. — When Michael Olneck was standing, arms linked with other protesters, singing “We Shall Not Be Moved” in front of Columbia University’s library in 1968, Sara Goldrick-Rab had not yet been born.

When he won tenure at the University of Wisconsin here in 1980, she was 3. And in January, when he retires at 62, Ms. Goldrick-Rab will be just across the hall, working to earn a permanent spot on the same faculty from which he is departing.

Together, these Midwestern academics, one leaving the professoriate and another working her way up, are part of a vast generational change that is likely to profoundly alter the culture at American universities and colleges over the next decade.

Baby boomers, hired in large numbers during a huge expansion in higher education that continued into the ’70s, are being replaced by younger professors who many of the nearly 50 academics interviewed by The New York Times believe are different from their predecessors — less ideologically polarized and more politically moderate.

“There’s definitely something happening,” said Peter W. Wood, executive director of the National Association of Scholars, which was created in 1987 to counter attacks on Western culture and values. “I hear from quite a few faculty members and graduate students from around the country. They are not really interested in fighting the battles that have been fought over the last 20 years.” ...

UW-Parkside asked for Felner Resignation

UW System reviews UW-Parkside Chancellor search

In the wake of the Felner investigation the folks at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside are rethinking their search processes. Instead of making excuses they wasted little time identifying changes needed in the next search.

This from a UW-Parkside press release:

University of Wisconsin System President Kevin P. Reilly today announced that a detailed review of procedures used to recruit and screen candidates for the UW-Parkside Chancellor post is under way. Findings from that review will be used to improve future searches, including those at UW-Green Bay and UW-River Falls.

Over the past four years, the UW System has hired nine new Chancellors, employing a transparent, inclusive process that begins with a local search and screen committee comprised of faculty, staff, students and community members. The institutional committee recommends a slate of finalists, each of whom visits the campus and meets with various stakeholder groups. Based on information gathered through campus visits, interviews, public comments, professional references, and background checks, the UW System president and a select committee of Regents recommend a preferred candidate. Finally, the new Chancellor is appointed by the full Board of Regents.

UW System’s search method is an exceptionally open one, compared to most public- and private-sector organizations, including other institutions of higher education in the United States. It has resulted in the appointments of successful Chancellors who have led their institutions to record enrollment levels, higher national rankings,
successful fundraising campaigns, new research prominence, and other achievements. However, the failed search at UW-Parkside may provide insights about ways to improve future processes.

Following a competitive national search, Robert Felner was recommended as one of four finalists for the UW-Parkside post on April 30. His name, photo, biography and curriculum vitae were released and posted on a public Internet site. Members of the public were invited to hear his campus presentation and submit comments, as they were for three other finalists. Five weeks later, on June 5, the UW System Board of Regents approved Felner’s appointment. During this time, no information or public comments surfaced that warned of a current or pending investigation involving Felner.

On Sunday, June 22, Felner informed UW System leaders of an investigation at the University of Louisville that involved the College of Education and Human Development, where he served as Dean. On Monday, June 23, UW System officials learned that federal agents had visited UW-Parkside on Friday, June 20 to examine papers belonging to Felner. Within two days of the first notification, UW System requested and obtained Felner’s resignation in advance of his first day of employment in Wisconsin.

Upon learning of the Louisville investigation, the UW System immediately began reviewing available information about Felner during the UW-Parkside search.

Although none of the information pointed to any kind of improper activity, the UW System has identified a few areas where problems may have occurred. A review of these areas may help improve future searches:

• References – In the UW-Parkside search, much information obtained about Felner through professional references painted a very positive picture of his performance at both the University of Louisville and the University of Rhode Island. However, the number and type of references interviewed may have been insufficient, affecting the quality and breadth of information obtained. Information about a 2006 vote of no confidence by Louisville faculty was not shared with everyone involved in the Parkside hiring process.
• Roles and Relationships – Based on current information about the UW-Parkside search process, UW System will work to clarify roles, responsibilities, relationships and expectations for everyone involved in the search process. This will include clear guidelines and checklists for individuals, committee chairs, external search onsultants, UW System Administration staff and others. These written guidelines will provide clear procedures and mechanisms for gathering, verifying, analyzing and sharing all available information about candidates in a manner that ensures an unfettered, unbiased examination of each candidate’s strengths and weaknesses.
• Timelines – The timeline for the UW-Parkside search allowed roughly three months to recruit a pool of qualified candidates, evaluate applications, conduct preliminary interviews, check references, name finalists, schedule public presentations, interview finalists and appoint the new Chancellor. Compared to most Chancellor searches, this was a more compressed timeline – about two weeks shorter than the successful search for a new UW-Madison Chancellor. UW System officials will examine the impact of this shorter timeline on the search committee’s ability to fulfill its charge.

Reilly will ask a qualified independent consultant to explore these issues and related topics, with a goal of providing specific recommendations by mid-August. This will ensure that lessons learned can be incorporated into upcoming Chancellor searches at UW-Green Bay and UW-River Falls, as well as a new search at UW-Parkside.

Search committees have been appointed at UW-Green Bay and UW-River Falls, with the process of recruiting and screening candidates scheduled to begin in the Fall when students and faculty return to campus. This will allow sufficient time to complete the review of the search process and incorporate improvements into these institutional searches.

UW System will name an interim Chancellor for UW-Parkside before August 1, when Chancellor Jack Keating is scheduled to step down from his post after more than 10 years of service. Once that interim leadership is in place, and findings from this review committee are submitted, Reilly will work with campus leaders to identify a new campus search and screen committee to help lead a national search for a new Chancellor.

Here's a recap from Jennifer Oladipo in LEO. And more about the review of the search process in the Kenosha News and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Thanks to Jake at Page One.

Rhee Seeks Tenure-Pay Swap for Teachers

This from the Washington Post:

Giving Up Seniority Would Boost Salary If Benchmarks Met

D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee is proposing a contract that would give mid-level teachers who are paid $62,000 yearly the opportunity to earn more than $100,000 -- but they would have to give up seniority and tenure rights, two union members familiar with the negotiations said yesterday.

Under the proposal, the school system would establish two pay tiers, red and green, said the union members, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks are confidential.

Teachers in the red tier would receive traditional raises and would maintain tenure. Those who voluntarily go into the green tier would receive thousands of dollars in bonuses and raises, funded with foundation grants, for relinquishing tenure.

Teachers in the green tier would be reviewed yearly and would be allowed to continue in their jobs only if they passed an evaluation and boosted students' test scores, the union members said.

Under Rhee's proposal, raises to the green tier would be more than the 19 percent increase over five years she is proposing for all teachers, the union members said.

They said teachers are opposed to giving up seniority and tenure, no matter the size of their raise, and probably would reject such a proposal.

"You may be trading off your future, your tenure, your job security," a union member said. "When you trade that, it seems to me you're not getting much."

Rhee, who declined to comment yesterday because of the ongoing negotiations, has said she wants a contract that would "revolutionize education as we know it." She also has said she wants to improve instruction by ensuring that the District "has the most highly compensated and competent" teachers in the country....

School Superintendent's Lobbyist has lunch with the C-J

John Cooper shares the good, the bad and the ugly

of being a lobbyist

John Cooper: ...I don't have any advantage over a constituent that makes regular contact with a legislator. Do we have an advantage over people that don't involve themselves in the process? Sure.



Q: Don't legislative outcomes sometimes strike the public as having been determined solely by lobbyists?



Cooper: If the public reaches a critical mass on any issue, it tends over time to happen. They run over us. It's said that the worst day for a lobbyist is the day they actually get their legislation passed, because they might lose a high-paying client. Is there any truth in that?There's an old saying that you work yourself out of a job. But the truth is if you're successful and you pass legislation, other opportunities come along. So you really want to pass those bills...



Cooper: ...If you look to the future, just to fund the operation of state government with 120 counties, which are way too many, but who's going to have the guts to make that move to reduce that administrative overhead? It's such a radical idea in a state like this, but it's radical and practical at the same time. It's the root of a lot of our problems.



We've got school districts that have declining income, and this year that have to do a lot of road miles on buses that have very few kids to pick up and are burning all this diesel fuel. They're going to be laying off teachers to pay for fuel. It's really troubling. I come from one of those little counties. They have a lot of issues. There's a lot ahead of us....

Lawrence Co Board Chair gets Picketed, Parents want new Supt

This from Big Sandy News by way of KSBA:

...Before Monday's meeting, "concerned citizens" formed a picket line in front of the board of education office. When asked for a comment on the protesters, board member Maddlene Roberts said it was "concerned citizens standing up to give our kids a better education."

"It is not our teachers," Roberts said. "It is the administration. It all starts from the top. Lawrence County has wonderful teachers. The change is needed on a higher level. In my opinion, Mr. [Jeff] May has came in and spent all our money. Because of this, we are on state watch, financially, which means that the state can come into our school system and it will become a state-mandated school district, which would mean that the school would become part of the state and would not be about the needs of our children. We need to get rid of Mr. May, but the other board members do not want to pay the salary for another superintendent." ...

...On Tuesday, the protesters picketed the State Farm Insurance office in Louisa, where Parker, the chairwoman, works."This is not an attempt to single one person out," Stacy said Tuesday.

"We are starting with the chairperson of the board and will continue throughout the district, until the community is aware."May and Parker declined to comment on the protests.

Council for Better Education Launches Website

Roger L. Marcum, Superintendent of the Marion County Schools and President of the Council for Better Education announced CBE's new website today.

The website will allow CBE to share its analyses of Kentucky student achievement, school funding, and litigation issues, and will also link to valuable work by others on these topics.

Speaking of which...I'm pleased that CBE saw fit to include my study to their site:

Each Child, Every Child: The story of the Council for Better Education, Equity and Adequacy in Kentucky's Schools, by Richard Day

In announcing the site Marcum said, "We hope you find it helpful, and we invite your feedback on this new project."

Kentucky Makes Progress, Faces Challenges on Education Goals

Kentucky is among the nation's leaders in raising students' reading achievement in the early grades, but it needs to work harder to raise college graduation rates and other measures of education progress, a new Southern Regional Education Board report shows.

The in-depth report, released by SREB at its Annual Meeting here today, outlines the state's progress on the SREB Challenge to Lead Goals for Education. The goals were approved by a commission of the region's leaders in 2002 and call for major improvements in K-12 student performance, college readiness and other key areas of education in Kentucky and 15 other SREB member states.

"Kentucky is making solid progress in education, but just as in every state, much work remains to be done," said SREB President Dave Spence on the report's release.

Among many findings of the report:

Although Kentucky's high school graduates enroll in college at a higher rate than other U.S. graduates, only 47 percent of students who enter the state's four-year public colleges and universities graduate within six years - below the national average of 55 percent. As college costs climb, many students in Kentucky are having trouble paying for college, even after federal financial aid.

The proportion of children from low-income households is increasing in Kentucky, but their academic achievement also is increasing in some subjects. More than half of the region's fourth-graders from low-income families scored at or above the Basic level in reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress in 2007 - outperforming their peers in the nation. In Kentucky, 57 percent of fourth-graders from low-income families scored at that level in reading, up since 2003 and above the national percentage. "These results are remarkable," Spence said.

Most SREB states are requiring more high school students to take higher-level courses to better prepare them for college and career training and the job market. More states are requiring geometry and Algebra II for graduation. Beginning with the Class of 2012, Kentucky will require both courses for all students seeking a standard diploma.

 Kentucky’s public school enrollment increased from 1996 to 2006, and it is expected to increase from 2006 to 2016. About 685,000 students were enrolled in public schools in Kentucky in 2006.

 In 2006, Kentucky’s poverty rate among children was higher than the U.S. rate and the same as the rate for SREB median states.

 In 1990, 41 percent of children in Kentucky lived in low-income households. By 2006, the
percentage had climbed to 57 percent.

 The changes in the composition of the Class of 2021 in Kentucky will parallel those in the nation. Black and white students are expected to decline as proportions, and Hispanic students will grow as a proportion.

 Fall 2006 enrollment in Kentucky’s publicly funded pre-K programs (state-funded and Head
Start) was an estimated 174 percent of 4-year-olds living in poverty, the same percent as in fall
2004.

 In 2008, the National Institute for Early Education Research reported that Kentucky met eight of the 10 standards of quality for prekindergarten.

 In Kentucky, 68 percent of fourth-graders scored at or above the NAEP Basic level in reading in 2007, up since 2003.

 In 2007, 33 percent of fourth-graders in Kentucky students scored at or above the NAEP
Proficient level — a 2 percentage-point increase from 2003.

 In Kentucky, 79 percent of fourth-graders scored at or above the NAEP Basic level in mathematics in 2007, up since 2003.

 In 2007, 31 percent of fourth-graders in Kentucky scored at or above the NAEP Proficient level — a 9 percentage-point increase from 2003.

 The percentage of black fourth-graders in Kentucky who scored at or above the NAEP Basic
level in reading was 46 percent in 2007, up since 2003. In 2007, the percentage of white students who scored at this level was 71 percent, up since 2003.

 In Kentucky, 57 percent of fourth-graders from low-income families scored at or above the NAEP Basic level in reading in 2007, up since 2003 — and above the national and regional levels.

 In Kentucky, 72 percent of fourth-graders met state standards in reading in 2007 — close to the percent scoring at or above the NAEP Basic level (68 percent) but higher than the percent
scoring at or above the NAEP Proficient level (33 percent). This means Kentucky’s state
standards for fourth-grade reading appear somewhat low because they are set close to the
NAEP Basic level but much lower than the NAEP Proficient level.

 In Kentucky, 60 percent of fourth-graders met state standards in math in 2007 — lower than the percent scoring at or above the NAEP Basic level (79 percent) but higher than the percent
scoring at or above the NAEP Proficient level (31 percent). This means Kentucky’s state
standards for fourth-grade math appear about right because they fall between the NAEP
Basic and Proficient levels.

 In Kentucky, 73 percent of eighth-graders scored at or above the NAEP Basic level in reading in 2007, down since 2003.

 In 2007, 28 percent of eighth-graders in Kentucky scored at or above the NAEP Proficient level in reading — a 6 percentage-point decrease from 2003.

 In Kentucky, 69 percent of eighth-graders scored at or above the NAEP Basic level in math in
2007, up since 2003.

 In 2007, 27 percent of eighth-graders in Kentucky scored at or above the NAEP Proficient level in math — a 3 percentage-point increase from 2003.

 The percentage of black eighth-graders in Kentucky who scored at or above the NAEP Basic
level in math was 42 percent in 2007, up since 2003. In 2007, the percentage of white students
who scored at this level was 73 percent, up since 2003.

 In 2007, 37 percent of Hispanic eighth-graders scored at or above the NAEP Basic level in math in Kentucky.

 In Kentucky, 57 percent of eighth-graders from low-income families scored at or above the
NAEP Basic level in mathematics in 2007, up since 2003 — and above the national and regional
levels.

 In Kentucky, 65 percent of eighth-graders met state standards in reading in 2007 — lower than the percent scoring at or above the NAEP Basic level (73 percent) but higher than the percent scoring at or above the NAEP Proficient level (28 percent). This means Kentucky's state
standards for eighth-grade reading appear about right because they fall between the NAEP
Basic and Proficient levels.

 In Kentucky, 49 percent of eighth-graders met state standards in math in 2007 — lower than the percent scoring at or above the NAEP Basic level (69 percent) but higher than the percent
scoring at or above the NAEP Proficient level (27 percent). This means Kentucky’s state
standards for eighth-grade math appear about right because they fall between the NAEP
Basic and Proficient levels.

 In Kentucky, 38 percent of eighth-graders took Algebra I (or higher) in 2007, up 3 percentage
points from 2005.

 Kentucky’s eighth-grade enrollment in pre-algebra or Algebra I (or higher) was 70 percent, up 1 percentage point from 2005.

 In Kentucky in 2005, there were 13 more ninth-graders for every 100 eighth-graders in 2004.

 In 2007, Kentucky’s percentage of seniors taking the ACT and its recommended college-prep
courses exceeded the national percentage by 5 percentage points. Kentucky’s percentage rose
from 1997 to 2007, while the national percentage dropped.

 In Kentucky, the average composite ACT score in 2007 for graduating seniors who completed
the ACT-recommended courses was 21.4, compared with 19.4 for students who did not.

 In 2007, 20 percent of Kentucky’s graduating seniors took at least one AP exam, an increase of 9 percentage points from 2000.

 Kentucky’s average ACT score increased by 0.6 point from 1997 to 2007. Kentucky’s average
ACT scores were higher than regional averages and lower than national averages over the 10-
year period.

 In Kentucky, 75 percent of all graduating seniors in 2007 took the ACT, up 8 percentage points from 1997. Kentucky increased both the average composite test score and the percentage of students taking the test.

 The average salary for a beginning teacher in Kentucky was lower than the averages in all
bordering states, except Missouri and West Virginia, in 2005.

 From 2002 to 2006, Kentucky improved its rating on one indicator of developing a learning centered school leadership system, and it currently rates “promising progress” on one indicator.

 Kentucky is considered a “pacesetter” state in providing support for aspiring and newly
appointed principals. Admission to a principal preparation program requires that candidates have a signed agreement of district support. The state appropriates funding to provide a stipend for aspiring principals and their mentor principals to pay for substantial school-based learning
experiences. Newly appointed principals and assistant principals are provided with trained
mentors and ongoing training on school improvement.

 In Kentucky, two-thirds of GED credentials in 2006 were awarded to 16- to 24-year-olds, and
31 percent were awarded to adults ages 25 to 49.

 The GED pass rate in Kentucky was above the national and regional averages in 2006.

 In Kentucky, 14,211 adults — or 9 percent of 25- to 44-year-olds without a high school diploma — enrolled in adult education programs in 2005.

 In Kentucky, students from median-income families needed about $4,800 in state or institutional aid to afford college without loans in 2006.

 Kentucky’s college enrollment rate of recent high school graduates in 2004 was higher than the rate in the nation and the same as in SREB states.

 Kentucky’s college enrollment rate of recent high school graduates improved from 1994 to 2004.

 In Kentucky, the average faculty salary at four-year colleges and universities in 2006 was $6,722 lower than the national average and $2,890 lower than the SREB average.

 The average faculty salary at two-year colleges in Kentucky was $8,660 lower than the national average and $569 lower than the SREB average in 2006.

 In Kentucky, funding for public four-year colleges and universities increased by $426 million, or 43 percent, from 2001 to 2007. Full-time-equivalent enrollment at public four-year institutions increased by 15 percent. Total funding per full-time-equivalent student increased by $2,894 (25 percent), from $11,731 to $14,625. When adjusted for inflation at 4 percent per year,
Kentucky’s per full-time-equivalent student funding fell by $377 (3 percent). Kentucky’s funding increases for four-year institutions lost ground to enrollment growth and inflation from 2001 to 2007.

UW System to review botched chancellor search

This from H-L:

MADISON, Wis. --Insufficient reference checks and a compressed timeline may have hampered the process used to search for a new University of Wisconsin-Parkside chancellor, officials said Tuesday.

University of Louisville Dean Robert Felner was supposed to start leading UW-Parkside in Kenosha on Tuesday. He resigned the job last month after his lawyer disclosed he is at the center of a federal investigation into whether $500,000 in grant money was mishandled.

UW System President Kevin Reilly said Tuesday he would hire an independent consultant to study the failed search and make recommendations for improvements by mid-August.

He said the lessons learned will be used during pending searches for chancellors at UW-Green Bay and UW-River Falls, along with a second search for a UW-Parkside chief.

The consultant will review whether reference checks on Felner were insufficient, whether the three-month timeline for the search was too quick and whether the guidelines for vetting candidates are unclear, Reilly said.

The number and type of references interviewed by a campus search committee and an outside search firm may have led to an overly positive picture of Felner's performance at Louisville and the University of Rhode Island, he said...

Superintendent: Bad tenured teachers hard to fire

This from the AP by way of WTOP:

MIDDLE ISLAND, N.Y. (AP) - Few people know better than school superintendent Allan Gerstenlauer that disciplining a tenured teacher can be a long and expensive process.

An English teacher in his Long Island district remains on the payroll, earning an annual salary of $113,559, even after pleading guilty earlier this month to drunken driving charges _ her fifth DWI arrest in seven years.

The teacher will remain on paid leave at least until a disciplinary hearing in August, and it will be up to an impartial arbitrator to decide whether she needs to be fired as she faces a likely prison sentence.

"It is very frustrating that the process takes so long," Gerstenlauer conceded.

The case illustrates a nagging problem in school districts in New York and elsewhere around the country: firing bad teachers. It is also part of the ongoing debate over education reform and the role tenure plays in the process.

Advocates for reform cite a list of egregious examples they say demonstrate why teacher tenure rules need to be overhauled.

In New York City, it often costs taxpayers $250,000 just to fire one incompetent
teacher. Some teachers remain on the payroll even after being convicted of serious felonies, requiring districts to hold disciplinary hearings behind prison walls.

"Protecting jobs of adults without regard to how well their students perform almost certainly will lead to greater costs, stagnant academic achievement, and greater dysfunction of our public education system," says tenure foe B. Jason Brooks of the Foundation for Education Reform & Accountability.

Richard Iannuzzi, president of New York State United Teachers, counters: "Tenure provides the right to due process. It is consistent with the American way; a person is innocent until proven guilty."

The issue has been gaining attention in New York.

New York legislators and Gov. David Paterson agreed this month on a bill that will automatically revoke the certification of teachers convicted of sex crimes against students. The law would end what is now often a yearlong administrative process to revoke the licenses of teachers and other school employees convicted of sex crimes against students.

And earlier this year, the Center for Union Facts launched a $1 million ad campaign featuring a billboard in Times Square, offering $10,000 to what it considers the 10 worst teachers in the country to quit their careers. The group claims unions back policies that protect all but the worst teachers.

"Paying teachers and school administrators based on how well they do their job rather than how long they've had their job makes sense," said Brooks.

Because tenure laws are different in every state, comparisons on the time and expense involved in disciplining or firing teachers are difficult. In New York state, the process can take six to 18 months and can run into hundreds of thousands of dollars, including the teachers' pay and fees for lawyers, stenographers and arbitrators.

In New York City, the cost to fire one incompetent tenured teacher is about $250,000, said Education Department spokeswoman Melody Meyer. She said that of 55,000 teachers on staff, 10 were fired last year.

"The chancellor would prefer that teachers be taken off the payroll while going through arbitration," Meyer said. "If the decision is in favor of the teacher, that money would be paid back with interest."

Dave Albert, a spokesman for the New York State School Boards Association, said that from 1995 to 2005 there were 633 disciplinary hearings statewide, 60 percent of them in New York City. Of the 633 cases, 184 resulted in termination and 234 teachers were placed on unpaid suspension.

The Washington-based Center for Union Facts says that from 1995 to 2005, 112 Los
Angeles tenured teachers faced termination _ 11 per year _ out of 43,000. It also said 47 New Jersey teachers out of 100,000 were fired in a 10-year period.

New York teachers are granted tenure after three years. Before it is granted, Iannuzzi says, teachers undergo a constant series of reviews. "The reality is that during that process, all the cards are in the hands of the school district," he said. "When a teacher receives tenure, it is a real milestone. It is recognition that the person is qualified to be there."

Iannuzzi contends teachers should not bear all the blame. "Often the time and cost is the result of an excessive charge, or that the charges are baseless," he said. "It still takes a long time to weed through the case to learn this."

Gerstenlauer, the Longwood school superintendent, declined to discuss specifics in the case of the teacher with the drunken driving arrest, citing personnel confidentiality issues.

He said part of the reason for the drawn-out process is staff cuts in the state education department. Department representatives did not respond to calls seeking comment.

"I'm not looking to shortchange anybody's due process. I'm looking at a system that would allow us to move through at a reasonable pace, that would allow the district to move forward and the employee to move forward," the superintendent said.

Six States to Design Own Plans for Fixing Schools

This from the AP by way of Education Week:

Ohio and five other states are getting the OK to write their own prescriptions for ailing schools under the Bush administration's signature education law.

It's a softening from how No Child Left Behind currently works — with schools having to take certain steps at specific times for missing math and reading testing goals. Critics have complained that the approach is too rigid and treats schools the same regardless of whether they miss the mark by a little or a lot.

The other states getting more freedom under a pilot program are Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Illinois and Maryland. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings made the announcement during a speech Tuesday in Austin, Texas....

Felner troubles uncovered at U of Illinois U-C

Page One has uncovered information that suggests former UofL Dean Robert Felner’s troubles go back as far as the 1980s during his days at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC).

...Felner was a member of the Clinical/Community PhD program in the Department of Psychology at UIUC from roughly 1986 to 1990 and was the program’s director (Director of Clinical Training) from 1987 to 1989. Sometime during the late fall of 1989 that program’s faculty (who selects the DCT) asked Felner to step down.

The reasons include ... reports of attempts to interfere with the achievements of colleagues– or an attempt to keep someone from reaching tenure, allegations of sexual harassment, intimidation of students, inappropriate treatment of staff members and multiple allegations of direct and personal intimidation. There are multiple, specific incidences of each reported problem with the exception of the tenure situation...

...After Felner stepped down from his DCT position and was moved to the Institute of Government Affairs, there was an investigation undertaken by UIUC legal counsel ... University officials refuse to reveal the scope of the investigation to us but assure us that the department (and colleagues) Felner was affiliated with was exhonerated of whatever it was...

Felner, who has been described to KSN&C as "a New York street fighter" was also accused of retaliation against a colleague who wrote critically of one of Felner's programs.

In September 1991, Alonzo Mitchell published several articles in critical of another community-based research project headed by psychology Professor Robert Felner and subsequently found his own program cut. ...Mitchell reported directly to Julian Rappaport, a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University. Rappaport in turn reported to Emanuel Donchin, the head of the Department of Psychology at the University...

Rappaport cited severe budgetary constraints, the deteriorating physical facility, and the program's failure as a training ground for graduate students as reasons for terminating the program's funding. Donchin approved the termination.

On February 22, 1994, Mitchell filed a four-count complaint against several University of Illinois administrators and professors, not including Donchin and Rappaport. Pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, Mitchell alleged that the defendants violated his First Amendment rights by terminating the funding for Oasis Graphics Arts in retaliation for publishing articles in the Ground Level Critique critical of the New North Project and Felner. Mitchell supported his complaint with statements allegedly made to him by Rappaport that indicated that the named defendants were behind the decision to terminate the funding for Oasis Graphics Arts. Specifically, Mitchell alleged that Rappaport stated that he had strongly opposed terminating the funding for Oasis Graphics Arts, but that he had been overruled by the defendants. Mitchell further alleged that Rappaport told him that "it was that f..... Felner that's behind this. I know it is Bob Felner that caused this to happen." ...

District and appeals courts held for the defendants.

In Conversation With ...Kevin Noland

KSBA sat for a chat with outgoing KDE general counsel, former three-time interim commissioner Kevin Noland.

In Conversation With…features an interview between a leader or figure involved in public education and a staff member of the Kentucky School Advocate.

This month’s conversation is with Kevin Noland, Deputy Commissioner and General Counsel for the Kentucky Department of Education. Noland, who has been with the department since 1991. He has served three times as interim education commissioner, most recently from September 2006 through December, 2007. He is retiring July 31.

Q. You were in the interesting position of having helped draft the Kentucky Education Reform Act when you were with the Legislative Research Commission and then joined the department of education when it was being implemented. What was that like to be on both ends of this historic event?

A. It’s been a great experience to watch a massive change in education in Kentucky and be a part of helping to draft that and then being a part of helping to implement it. It has been amazing to me to see how hard people have worked and how successful they have been in trying to ensure that what we’re doing with education really makes a difference for the students and for Kentucky.

Q. Has KERA turned out the way you thought it would?

A. For the most part, yes. Any time you have a massive change and all the right intentions, there are unforeseen issues that require adjustments, and I think we should always be open to making improvements because we can’t anticipate all the potential issues and challenges that come with implementation. As knowledge is gained, as experience is gained, and as technology changes occur, I think the legislature and the department of education have been open to try to make adjustments when needed.

Q. If you had the chance, is there anything you would change now about KERA?

A. The one thing I would change is to ensure that there are adequate resources for teachers, administrators, local school boards and others to deliver the educational opportunities and to meet the needs of each child to reach his or her potential. I think originally one area that was not adequately funded was professional development for teachers, administrators and others to be able to learn, internalize and use the kinds of changes that were called for in KERA. It took several years for some initiatives to be institutionalized in our schools and school districts, and more money for professional development would have helped that.

Q. What has it been like to come to the department as general counsel and wind up serving three times as interim commissioner?

A. It has been an interesting learning process and quite a challenge. I feel like I have been the lucky one, getting to work with so many people who are dedicated to teaching and learning. I have seen over the years definite improvement in the function of school districts as well as the skills of the people in each role. Whether it be a teacher, principal, superintendent or local school board member, I have seen a change over time for the better. And what you hear discussed these days are issues related to student learning as opposed to other issues that we as adults can focus on sometimes.

Q. What has been the best thing about serving as interim commissioner and what has been the most challenging?

A. The best has been being able to serve in a role in which I could try to have an impact for the better for students and for school districts around the state. The most challenging has been to keep the focus on the most important issue, which is getting all students to proficiency and beyond and prepared for success, because we are often faced with putting out fires and being reactionary. It’s always a challenge, whether you’re a superintendent, school board member, a teacher, or an interim commissioner of education, to try to keep the focus and the majority of your attention on what moves us forward with student learning.

Q. In recent years there have been a number of retirements in the department, which has been a tremendous loss of experience, expertise and institutional memory. How has the department handled that challenge?

A. In the summer of 2007 we had quite a bit of turnover and several new people coming in, including three new associate commissioners and a new deputy commissioner. But all of these folks came with school district experience and have shown success in their roles in school districts. Those folks have a year under their belts, they have learned a lot and are great contributors. We are also facing quite a few retirements this year in the department and I think one of the most important things we can do is search out, recruit and hire the best people we can who have experiences that make a real difference for students in Kentucky.

With the budget cuts and having the challenge to replace persons as they retire, it is one of our major challenges because the people we have really make a difference although they have so much to do and with less staff. It’s critical that the new staff that we get on board have a short learning curve and are able to hit the ground running.

Q. Because of retirements, attrition and budget reductions, the department has had to streamline its programs. How have these reductions affected services the department can offer?

A. Over the last seven years I have seen a series of budget reductions in the department of education. In fact, when I came here in 1991 we had over 900 employees and now we’re down to around 640, which includes around 220 in our Kentucky School for the Blind and School for the Deaf.

We have seen a reduction in staff and yet over the years, we have had bills enacted
that require us to do more and more. The good thing about working here is that
we have a lot of dedicated people doing everything they can to help school districts to succeed.

The challenge has been that we are facing the reality that we can’t do it all. The last few cuts have seen us take a hard look at what we must give up, at what we can no longer do. That is a gut-wrenching process because when we get a call or e-mail wanting folks to do things, we want to help others, we want to do whatever we can. But we find ourselves in a position of trying to broker help from others and have found it very challenging sometimes to provide the direct services that we are asked to do.

Q. What is the department’s greatest need in terms of continuing to move students and schools toward proficiency?

A. I would say our greatest need is for more resources to enable highly skilled educators and other well-trained staff to be able to assist lower-performing schools and districts, especially the ones that have been low-performing for years. We need them to be able to go in and implement strategies we have found to be effective in high-performing schools and school districts.

That would be the greatest need because we know from early examples in Kentucky that getting students to proficiency is doable regardless of the challenges that are faced with certain students or certain areas of the state. It is doable, and we would like the resources to be able to provide more direct services in those lower performing schools and districts.

Q. How do you see the state of education in Kentucky today?

A. I feel great about what Kentucky educators and everybody involved in the process, including local school board members, have been able to accomplish since 1990. Kentucky used to rank near the bottom in a number of indicators. Just about a month ago, the Kentucky Long-Term Policy Research Center issued a report that showed that although Kentucky ranked 36th in the nation in per-pupil spending, the state ranks as high as eighth nationwide in the area of cost-effective educational spending. In other words, we are doing a lot with the money we have. With already tightened belts, we are making efficient use of the money we have. When you look at the indicators – NAEP, CATS, NCLB - Kentucky students have made significant gains in learning since the ’90s.

Folks are really focused, working hard and producing results and I feel good about it. I think our challenge is to continue and in some cases increase the momentum, and one of the biggest things we can do to accomplish that is to ensure there are adequate resources.

Quick Q and A with 5 KBE members from KSBA

This from KSBA:

What is the #1 problem facing Kentucky schools?

Can the state board as a body do anything about the funding situation?

A bill to scrap CATS failed in the 2008 legislative session. Do you feel there’s anything in CATS that needs to be changed?

Austin Moss, Steve Neal, Dorie Combs, Billy Harper and Brigette Ramsey chat with KSBA.