Good idea to get administrators back in the classrooms

Posted by Slim

The Las Vegas Review-Journal correctly pointed out the good idea of administrators spending a little time teaching. Many administrators are completely out of touch with teaching, or at least teaching in the environment which they currently oversee.

I remember one principal completely changed his tune about teaching a given population after just a few weeks of taking on a math class. This principal had a “what’s the problem” attitude regarding teaching them until he had to do it. Afterwards he became cognizant that the problems teachers had been telling him about for some time were valid obstacles to learning.

Given these same administrators evaluate teachers, are considered educational leaders, and are dealing with subjects, levels, and populations they often have no experience with, it seems reasonable to expect them to “show us” how they would do it. The administrators’ union spokesperson said a mouthful admitting many of his members have not taught in years.

Another issue is many students do not know who the principal is in the larger schools. Twice, with two different principals, in the course of a few years, students asked, “Who was that?” after the principal observed a class I taught. I’ve also seen the opposite, where the students did know the principal too well and disrespected him when he was around. In this case, the administrator actually avoided student contact as much as possible.

The arrogant remark from the administrators’ union spokesperson that legislators who passed this law should observe classrooms rather than the administrators who claim and get paid for educational leadership reveals some administrators talk a good talk, but will squirm and whine loudly if forced to walk the walk.

Sep. 23, 2007

Las Vegas Review-Journal

EDITORIAL: In the classroom

Compulsory attendance; administrators as teachers

The Clark County School Board last week moved to put in place a couple of changes approved by the Legislature earlier this year -- one that makes eminent sense, and one that doesn't.
First, the good news.

The board voted unanimously to implement a modest proposal to require that administrators actually spend some time in the classroom.

Under the plan, school district bureaucrats -- including Superintendent Walt Rulffes -- will teach or observe in a classroom for at least a half-day each school year.

No, a half-day isn't much, but it's a start toward recognizing complaints from teachers that administrators are out of touch with the day-to-day realities of the district's operations. And if administrators try to slide on this mandate -- for instance, by showing a video instead of actually trying to engage students -- let's hope teachers blow the whistle.

Predictably, Steve Augspurger of the Clark County Association of School Administrators union -- Question for another day: Why do bosses need a union? -- was whining about the requirement.

"If anybody should be observing classrooms, it should be the legislators who passed this law," he said. "We can't find enough qualified teachers. We can't find enough substitutes. So you exacerbate the problem by having administrators teach who may not have taught in a long time."

Forcing district desk jockeys to spend three hours a year in an actual classroom will cause problems? Boo hoo. Sell it to the rank and file.

Mr. Rulffes said he'd do his part, entering a classroom to teach algebra or maybe geometry. Perhaps he can concoct a formula to explain the relationship between school spending and student achievement.

Now, the bad news.

In approving the "administrators in the classroom" plan, the board also OK'd a provision raising the compulsory attendance age to 18 from 17. That means a student who hasn't yet completed his senior year in high school couldn't voluntarily leave until he turned 18.

Now, this isn't as bad as the plan floated earlier this year by the National Education Association to force kids to stay in school until the age of 21 -- really -- but it's certainly moving in that direction.

What exactly is the point? To lower the dropout rate? To encourage more students to attend college? Is there any evidence this will work? None that anybody offered to the board on Thursday evening.

And why do we want to clog up classrooms with 17-year-olds who obviously have no desire to be on campus? Is this good for the students who are truly trying to learn? How?
In fact, such students can cause disruptions that sidetrack teachers and distract other students.

Kids are already held in captivity by the public school system for 11 years. If the district hasn't succeeded by then in equipping a student with the basics he needs to survive in the real world, what good is another year going to do?

If this proposal is about easing the dropout rate or some other policy goal, it's doomed to failure. If it's a way for the district to secure funding by keeping more butts in the seats, it's shameful.

LV R-J article on Jasonek’s “side job”

Posted by Slim

Here’s another article about CCEA’s self-serving and arrogant leadership. Charges of gouging an education charity and not representing the interests of CCEA dues paying members may take its toll. Most teachers in the trenches will reconsider the wisdom of paying over $600 per year to such an organization. The CCEA can only hope members are too busy in the classroom to notice. This reminds me of the last chapter in Orwell’s “Animal Farm” with the leadership of the animals, the pigs, living it up in the farmer’s house while the other animals toil and live in squalor.

If just a little more than 3,000 teachers, over 5,000 are not currently members, say “enough is enough” and leave the CCEA, the union’s status as the sole bargaining unit will be lost.

Sep. 21, 2007

Union making play for teachers

Teamsters say CCEA representation lacking

By ALAN MAIMON

Las Vegas Review-Journal

Armed with a litany of complaints against the Clark County Education Association, a local Teamsters union is fighting to bring teachers into its fold.

For months, representatives of Teamsters Local 14 have scoured public records and crunched numbers in search of ways to discredit the union that represents teachers.

At a news conference this afternoon, they plan to share their findings.

The goal is to convince a majority of the district's 18,000 teachers that the Teamsters can provide more effective representation, said Ron Taylor, a school district teacher and Teamsters organizer.

It's new terrain for a local affiliate of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, a spokesman said.

Galen Munroe, who is based in the group's headquarters in Washington, D.C., said he isn't aware of any school district in the country whose teachers are represented by Teamsters.
Taylor, a computer science teacher at High Desert State Prison in Indian Springs, hopes that will soon change.

"The biggest concern is that an association that represents teachers isn't watching out for the concerns of teachers," Taylor said. "That's what we'll do."

Local 14, which was chartered in 1955 and represents about 3,300 blue- and white-collar workers in Southern Nevada, needs to win the support of more than half of all teachers in the district to oust the current union.

The Teamsters couldn't meet that threshold when it recently tried to take over representation of the school district's support staff.

It plans to make a formal challenge to the teachers union as early as November.
To help woo teachers, the Teamsters are targeting both the education association and a community foundation that partners with the union.

Union officials also have concerns about the solvency of the Teachers Health Trust and the relationship between the union and school district.

A common thread through more than 100 pages of public records compiled by the Teamsters is the activities of John Jasonek, executive director of the teachers union and community foundation.

The foundation uses government funding and private donations to administer grants and other education-related programs.

A Review-Journal analysis of documents independently obtained by the newspaper raises questions about Jasonek's roles in the organizations.

He received $129,000 for 12 hours of work per week at the foundation between Sept. 1, 2004, and Aug. 31, 2005, according to the foundation's most recently available federal tax forms.
Another official received $124,500 in compensation from the organization.

Those payments accounted for a large chunk of the $625,000 the foundation spent on overhead that year. The foundation administered $813,000 in program services, which accounted for only 57 percent of its overall expenditures.

Both Jasonek's salary and the amount the foundation spent on administrative costs are far above national averages, according to Charity Navigator, a New Jersey-based evaluator of charities.

Several larger foundations in school districts including Houston and Dallas have spent less than 10 percent on overhead in recent years, a Review-Journal analysis of tax forms shows. None of the officers in those foundations has made a penny for their work.

Jasonek said the Teamsters are looking only at salaries and ignoring the good work of the foundation.

"I'm a little bit tired of it," Jasonek said. "You end up with a lot of innuendo and no charges. ... If somebody thinks we're doing something wrong, they should take it to some agency. I'm not going to sit here and justify what we do."

Since forming in 2000, the foundation has launched several initiatives, including the Student to Teacher Enlistment Project (STEP), a program that pays for the tuition and books of a group of Nevada State College and College of Southern Nevada students who commit to teaching in the district for four years after graduating from college.

Jasonek said his foundation's 2004 tax return, which was submitted to the federal government after several delays, doesn't tell the whole story.

For one thing, he works more than 12 hours a week, he said.

"I don't know where that number comes from," he said.

Public records show Jasonek made another $134,000 in the 2004 tax year in his role as executive director of the teachers union. The foundation's tax return says the union and foundation "reimburse each other" for certain expenses.

Jessica Word, an assistant professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, who specializes in the management of nonprofit groups, said that line is troubling, "In general, if someone has decision-making authority over both sets of organizations and funding is passed back and forth, it's a basic conflict of interest," she said.

Taylor said he wants the teachers union and foundation to address his group's concerns. "Every time I confront anybody about this stuff, I get a different answer," he said. "I'd like to see them step up and explain what's going on."

CCEA Executive Director gets an extra $129K from a side job?

Posted by Slim

There’s something fishy in Denmark. In fact a Dane once told me a fish rots from the head. Hold your nose as you read the article below.

Charity gravy train:
A foundation run by the teachers' union helps instructors -- and enriches execs

by ANDREW KIRALY

September 20, 2007

Las Vegas CityLife

NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT: From September 2004 to August 2005, Clark County Education Association Executive Director John Jasonek picked up an extra $129,043 salary.

That's in addition to what he's already making in his official job as a top officer of the county teachers' union, for which Jasonek was paid $134,706 during the same period.

Jasonek's sweet little side gig is for the Clark County Education Association Community Foundation, a nonprofit charity run by the teachers' union. The foundation helps recruit minority teachers, tutors students in at-risk schools, doles out scholarships, and gives small grants to teachers to help out with everything from Elmer's Glue to buses for field trips. The foundation also operates a point-based, free classroom-supply store for teachers, who, with starting salaries of about $33,000, often find themselves dipping into their own wallets for classroom supplies. Need a new set of dry-erase markers, scissors or construction paper? The foundation is here.

"Some of these programs are nationally award-winning models," says Jasonek.

In the 2004 tax year, the latest for which information is available, the foundation spent more than $800,000 on these worthwhile endeavors. But the foundation has also proven to be a boon for people who run it. Also in the 2004 tax year, it spent more than $600,000 on overhead costs. Of that amount, about $400,000 went to salaries -- including Jasonek's -- which comprise about 28 percent of the foundation's expenses. It might make sense if those fat paychecks went for the long, grueling hours. The clincher is, it doesn't look like top brass is burning the midnight oil. On tax forms, Jasonek is listed as working 12 hours a week for the foundation.

"It's like working a part-time job at Subway," he explains.

But others can't help but wonder whether Jasonek -- and others -- are feasting on a foot-long greed sandwich. Indeed, Jasonek's not the only one who seems to be pulling down major bucks at the foundation these days. In the 2002 tax year, foundation Director Kevin Nielsen was paid about $58,000 from the charity coffers. Two years later, his salary from the foundation more than doubled; from 2004 to 2005 he pulled in nearly $125,000. Nielsen insists he's been earning roughly the same salary over the past few years, and says it's likely his salary was being split between the foundation and some other source -- which perhaps explains the puzzling language on many of the foundation's tax forms stating that "CCEA and the foundation reimburse each other for direct costs that each incur from time to time."

Rather than dredge up tawdry exposés of foundation salaries, Nielsen asks, why not focus on the programs? "I understand where people are coming from and how they might want to point fingers," he says, hinting at a mud-slinging campaign from the rival Teamster's union, which is currently vying to dislodge the teachers' union as the bargaining unit for the district's 18,000 teachers. "But the biggest secret out there is the Teacher's Aide Warehouse Store," the free classroom-supplies shop he runs for district teachers.

As the Teamsters ramp up its campaign, something else seems to be ramping up, too -- a tide of resentment against the teachers' union for netting classroom instructors little more in recent years than token raises. Teamsters organizers are hoping to tap into that resentment as they begin to wave around executive salaries -- and other numbers (see sidebar) -- to show the Clark County Education Association has lost sight of its core mission of representing teachers.

"When you've got pay increases that come out to that, you'd think they're doing a fantastic job for teachers, getting good contracts, and offering great representation," says Ron Taylor, a school district employee and teacher organizer for the Teamsters Local 14. "The truth is, they're not."

Jasonek balks at criticism of his side-job salary, explaining he's paid based on what money he raises. "What's dirty is that [the Teamsters] don't raise a legitimate issue," he says. "If it's about my salary, so be it. If they want to raise an issue about the programs, let them criticize us for funding minority students [to become teachers], or let them criticize us having a scholarship in the name of a lady who was in the plane that went into the Pentagon [on 9/11]."

The way Jasonek sees it, his extra $129,000 salary is an incentive to bring in money for the community foundation, and was a factor in its rapid growth since it began in September 2000 as a "little $25,000 grant program," he says. Compare that to its 2004 revenue of more than $1.6 million, thanks to help from top-drawer corporate donors such as Citigroup, Nevada Power and Advantage Financial.

"Am I supposed to be penalized for doing a good job?" Jasonek says. "If I go out and someone says, 'We'll donate $2 million,' am I supposed to say, 'We better not take that because it might report on my salary. Sorry, I'll have to let the kids do without'?"

It's a fair question, but there are at least a few indications the foundation is a bit top-heavy on the payroll side. According to a 2006 report on foundation salaries published by the Foundation Center, a New York-based organization that tracks and analyzes philanthropic groups, the median salary for executives heading up foundations with less than $10 million in assets was about $50,000.

The folks over at the Wall Street Journal are a bit more liberal in their estimation. If you plug the parameters into their Career Journal's "Salary Expert" website, you'll find that even by their lights, Jasonek's foundation could trim some fat. The site reports that a charitable organization director working in Nevada earns an average salary of $80,890. The high end of that? About $107,000.

Of course, it's assumed that's a full-time position, and not just, say, a dozen hours a week. Even Jasonek might agree: Part-time work is for sandwich shops.

TTNV SCOOP on CCEA drops & real number of members!

Posted by Slim

As originally reported by TTNV on August 28, there were 497 CCEA drops in July of 2007. Now available are other important numbers to put this in perspective. The average number of summer window CCEA drops over the last 5 years has been 245 teachers. The 2007 drop in members is double this average.

CCSD reports that there are currently 17,989 teachers in the district. 12,897 are members of the CCEA (71%). It is clear the CCEA completely relies on the very narrow 10-day drop period in July and misinforming new teachers to maintain its numbers. Until the membership drop period is expanded to anytime during the calendar year, the CCEA leadership will continue to put their interests over the interests of members.

Requiring CCEA recruiters to fully inform and disclose their limits in representing probationary teachers, the narrow union imposed drop period, Nevada is a Right to Work state (you don’t have to join), and the Association of American Educators (AAE) provides double the liability coverage for a fraction of the cost will allow new hires to make an informed decision, meaning most would not join.

Pass the word that 5,082 CCSD teachers (29%) have “Just Said NO” to the CCEA. If the need for liability coverage is an obstacle, check out the AAE Web site at www.aaeteachers.org. If you are tired of paying over $600 a year to a union that sells you out, there are options. If you’ve left the union and need coverage, check out what the AAE has to offer.

Questions arise about former CCSD police chief

Posted by Slim

Poor record keeping and favoritism raise eyebrows in the wake of Garcia’s departure as head cop for the Clark County School District.

September 19, 2007

Accounts questioned after chief leaves: Schools' top cop gave work to an associate, then quits and takes a job with him
By Emily Richmond

Las Vegas Sun

Three months before his departure as chief of the Clark County School District Police, Hector Garcia sent $11,750 in business to a longtime associate to evaluate the feasibility of metal detectors at a North Las Vegas High School.

Within weeks of his Aug. 10 resignation Garcia had new employment - as vice president of his associate's company, the School Safety Advocacy Council, which offers training and security assessments for school police and resource officers.

Now, an internal audit of the Clark County School District Police is being hampered by shoddy record-keeping and missing files.

Audits are common after department head s leave. But the examination of School Police operations is raising a number of concerns.

School Police Capt. Phil Arroyo, one of two veteran officers sharing interim chief duties, said he was surprised that all files were not readily available. Auditors are accessing the hard drives of the department's computers, but "the actual paper documents are not there," Arroyo said. "There's really very little to work with."

Arroyo declined to specify which files are missing.

Clark County Schools Superintendent Walt Rulffes said it would be inappropriate to comment on the audit until the report is complete.

Garcia told the Sun on Tuesday that no one from the district had contacted him for help in locating files.

"I would certainly help if I were asked," Garcia said.

Garcia said the only materials he took with him were personal copies of files and memorandums, all of which he said he thinks are duplicated on district servers and hard drives.
As the audit proceeds, Arroyo said , he is focused on straightening out the department's finances, including unpaid bills.

Among them: costs for attending a July conference in Las Vegas con-ducted by the School Safety Advocacy Council.

For the past two years the Florida-based company has held a conference in Las Vegas, drawing attendees from across the nation. In 2006 Garcia spent nearly $10,000 on registration fees to send 50 employees. A bill for the conference from July 2007, totaling about $15,000, remains unpaid while district officials resolve discrepancies over how many employees attended.

The company's executive director, Curtis Lavarello, worked in the Palm Beach County School Police Department in the 1990 s, at the same time as Garcia. And while Garcia was chief of Clark County School Police, he served on Lavarello's advisory board.

Garcia said sending department staff to the conference was a worthwhile expense, given the caliber of the guest speakers and workshops.

The district was charged for 81 attendees at the July conference. But Arroyo said department records show only about 45 people - including clerical and support staff - attended . He has asked the company to provide a sign-in sheet from the conference to clear up the discrepancy.
"We're still waiting for a reply," Arroyo said.

In May, at Garcia's recommendation, the district paid Lavarello $11,750 to study whether metal detectors were feasible at Canyon Springs High School in North Las Vegas. They money came from the region office responsible for Canyon Springs High , not School Police funds.

Because the consulting job was less than $25,000, the district was not required to put the job up for bid or get approval from either the superintendent or the School Board.
Still, Phil Gervasi, president of the Clark County School Police Officers Association, said he was bothered by Garcia hiring his associate as a consultant.

Lavarello did not return phone calls or e-mails from the Sun seeking comment.

Garcia said his decision to hire Lavarello to study metal detectors posed no conflict of interest. Lavarello was the most qualified and affordable consultant for the job, Garcia said. And Garcia emphasized that he did not become Lavarello's vice president until after he decided to quit as chief.

Rulffes said Garcia's decision to hire Lavarello for the consulting job "does rise to a level deserving some scrutiny."

Ronan Mathew, principal of Canyon Springs, said he requested the feasibility study after two incidents last year in which students brought loaded handguns to campus.

Lavarello spent about two hours touring the campus during a visit in May. In a 14-page report submitted to the district in June, Lavarello concluded that metal detectors were not feasible at the school. He made a number of suggestions for improved campus security, including better signs directing visitors to the appropriate entrances and increased staff visibility when students arrive in the morning and leave in the afternoon.

Garcia had spoken out against metal detectors at the district's high schools. Mathew said the former police chief chose a consultant he knew would share his point of view.

"It's my feeling that our concerns were not taken seriously," Mathew said.

The final months of Garcia's tenure were marred by complaints that he was rude during a negotiation session with the School Police union, making a derogatory remark about a federal mediator that was overheard by other participants in the contract talks. Rulffes said he considered that matter closed after Garcia apologized to the mediator and was removed from the bargaining table.

Garcia told the Sun that he is moving to Florida with his family and that serving as vice president of his associate's company is "one of my jobs . " He would not say how much he would be paid for the part-time job. Garcia said he will soon begin classes for his doctorate.

This is the second time in as many years that the School District has lost a police chief. Elliot Phelps, who became the district's first police chief when the department was created seven years ago, was fired in 2005 after it was discovered that he had not completed a state-mandated certification program.

Belgian teacher’s creative protest

Posted by Slim

Sadly, we can’t even give away the CCEA or the NSEA.

Disgruntled Voter Puts Belgium Up for Sale on EBay

Tuesday , September 18, 2007

Associated Press

BRUSSELS, Belgium —

The keys of the kingdom were posted on eBay.

Fed up with a three-month political standoff, a Belgian teacher posted an ad on the online auction site: "For Sale: Belgium, a Kingdom in three parts ... free premium: the king and his court (costs not included)."

Gerrit Six placed the advertisement on Saturday, offering free delivery, but pointing out that the country was coming secondhand and that potential buyers would have to take on more than $300 billion in national debt.

"I wanted to attract attention," Six said. "You almost have to throw a rock through a window to get attention for Belgium."

Like many of Belgium's 10 million citizens, Six is exasperated about a power struggle that has left Belgium in political limbo since the June 10 elections.

Demands for more autonomy from the Dutch-speaking Flemish are resisted by the French-speaking Walloons, making it impossible to form a government coalition and triggering concern the kingdom is on the verge of a breakup.

Six decided to vent his frustration through the ad.

"My proposal was to make it clear that Belgium was valuable, it's a masterpiece and we have to keep it," he told Associated Press Television News. "It's my country and I'm taking care of it, and with me are millions of Belgians."

EBay was happy to take the advertisement.

"It was a really fun listing made by a Belgian," Peter Burin, public relations manager of eBay Belgium. "This person, in a very funny way, reminded the Belgians what a great country Belgium actually is and it would be a shame to sell it."

However, the company decided to pull the ad Tuesday after receiving a bid of $14 million.

"We decided to take it down, just to avoid confusion," he told APTN.

Original article on union leadership chutzpah

Posted by Slim

Florida and Las Vegas have a lot in common. Here’s the original article from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

Broward Teachers Union negotiates big raises for vets, little for newcomers

By Jean-Paul Renaud | South Florida Sun-Sentinel

September 7, 2007

Broward County teachers today are voting on a contract that more generously rewards the top union officials who negotiated it than rank and file educators.

If it is approved, about two-thirds of Broward's 17,000 public school teachers will receive raises of 5 percent or less. The most substantial increases, as high as 17 percent, will go to the most senior teachers — less than a third of Broward's educators.

In contrast, more than two-thirds of the 22-member Broward Teachers Union executive board, which negotiated the contract, have the seniority to qualify for the most generous raises, records show.

"I'm not surprised at all because one would assume that the people at the top level are the ones that are on the negotiating team," said School Board member Stephanie Kraft. "I don't think that sounds right. I guess it would be nice if they would look after all the teachers equally."Several board members said the situation, though not unusual for a school district, reflects the power of unions. Some teachers said it shows union leaders are out of touch with the rank and file.

School districts across the state have a complicated system of setting salaries, mostly based on seniority levels that officials call "steps." In Broward, there are 22 steps, and teachers typically do not see substantial pay raises until they reach the 20th level — or their second decade educating children. All salaries are based on 196 days of work and can be increased if teachers obtain additional academic degrees and training.

The executive board of the teachers union helped craft the contract with the school system. The board includes 15 educators with more than two decades of service to the district. Union leaders say their board's makeup is dynamic and diverse, and this year members argued about how to divide the raises.

"It's become much more diverse," said Pat Santeramo, who as union president collects a $150,000 salary. "There are quite a few younger people. They are all very opinionated, similar to the School Board."

Teachers at the beginning and middle of their careers often complain about the salary system.

"Everyone should be taken care of across the board," said Denise Haltrecht, a first-grade teacher at Coconut Palm Elementary in Miramar. "One step should not be neglected over the other. We all work just as hard. Just because you're at year 20 doesn't mean you're working any more than a beginning-year teacher."

On her 13th year as a teacher, Haltrecht and her 467 colleagues on that step will receive a 4 percent raise.

Some School Board members say the system is unfair.

"Everybody should be treated equally," said Chairwoman Beverly Gallagher. "I didn't agree with the step system. But if we don't agree to the steps, then we would be at an impasse and nobody would get anything. Everybody would just be waiting."

But Santeramo said there should be rewards for "longevity, skills, knowledge."

"How we do that could be restructured," he said, adding that the union will sit down with school district officials in the new year to devise a less complicated way of doling out raises.

One person on BTU's board is on step 20. The 419 other teachers on that step will be paid a base salary of $53,377, a 7 percent raise.

Another board member is on step 21, along with 413 other teachers in Broward. Their salaries will jump to $62,677, a 17 percent increase over last year.

And 13 board members are on step 22 and will see their base salaries climb to $70,000 — a 12 percent increase that will make the 4,000 teachers with that seniority among the highest paid in the tri-county area.

"It's just another example of people who are not experiencing what most teachers are experiencing," said Donna Shubert, a kindergarten teacher at McNab Elementary in Pompano Beach. "They have the years in and they're negotiating with their own mind frame."

Shubert has been a teacher for nine years and will receive a 5 percent increase that will raise the salaries of educators on step 9 to $40,980.

Santeramo, however, says the makeup of the union's executive committee has little to do with the way senior teachers are compensated.

"We look at trying to provide a fair and equitable salary for all the employees," he said. "We represent all 17,000 teachers."

One School Board member has a solution for those teachers who think their union doesn't represent them.

"This is a perfect example of why beginning teachers and those that are a few years into their careers need to be more involved and engaged in their union," said Board Member Jennifer Gottlieb.

Jean-Paul Renaud can be reached at jprenaud@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4556.

Teacher union leadership selling out members is national in scope

Posted by Slim

I suspect teacher union leaders count on a combination of apathy and members being too buried in work to notice their self-serving activities. Arrogance and chutzpah also play a major role.

Teacher’s Union That Represents Few of Their Own Members

Union Negotiates Pay Raises… For Union Chiefs
Posted on September 14, 2007 at 9:30 am by WTH

I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised when union representatives negotiate themselves bigger raises than they do for their own membership. But, it still rankles every time it happens… and it happens almost every time!

In this case it is the Broward County, Florida teacher’s union that has fenagled a higher raise for the top earners in the District than those at the lower end of the pay scale. It seems they have invented an absurdly complicated “steps” plan (there are 22 of these “steps”) where folks at the low end will forever get smaller raises than folks at the high end. Naturally, the union reps are all at the highest end of the scale.

Big surprise, eh?

Broward Teachers Union negotiates big raises for vets, little for newcomers

“Broward County teachers today are voting on a contract that more generously rewards the top union officials who negotiated it than rank and file educators.

If it is approved, about two-thirds of Broward’s 17,000 public school teachers will receive raises of 5 percent or less. The most substantial increases, as high as 17 percent, will go to the most senior teachers — less than a third of Broward’s educators.”

I thought that unions were all for the ‘little people”? What happened to that whole egalitarian concept that unions claim is their chief motivation?

I guess where it concerns getting raises for union bosses, the little guy will have to wait!

You know, they are only out to “help” you, dontcha?

Illegal immigration and education

Posted by Slim

Schools have been caught in the middle of illegal immigration issues. School districts and the feds are coping with safety and legal rights.

Published in Print: September 12, 2007

With Immigrants, Districts Balance Safety, Legalities

By Mary Ann Zehr

Education Week

Amid stepped-up federal efforts to curb illegal immigration, some school districts with large numbers of immigrant students are crafting new policies intended to balance cooperation with federal officials, protection of student privacy, and the safety of students during enforcement operations.

In Albuquerque and Santa Fe, N.M., for example, school personnel are barred from putting information about a child’s immigration status in school records or sharing it with outside agencies, including federal immigration authorities. Personnel are also told to deny any request from immigration officials to enter a school to search for information or seize students. School officials—with the help of lawyers—instead would determine whether to grant access.

Meanwhile, some small communities with an influx of immigrants are weighing how best to respond if children are left stranded at school because family members have been detained in an immigration raid.

“There are schools with a high number of undocumented workers in their communities who are having to react to these issues, … whether it’s children being left without parents or [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] workers trying to get information from the schools,” said Cullen Casey, a lawyer for the National School Boards Association.

Making that task even more complex is the landmark 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Plyler v. Doe, in which the court ruled that children are entitled to receive a free public K-12 education in this country regardless of their immigration status.

That means, said Mr. Casey, that school officials are prohibited from asking for documentation of parents’ or students’ legal status in the United States, such as asking for Social Security numbers. Instead, they are allowed to ask about a student’s residency in a school district, which can be proved with a utility bill.

But Mr. Casey also warned that schools are not a sanctuary for undocumented students because in a school, as anywhere else, anyone could make a phone call to immigration authorities and report information about a particular person’s legal status.

Although the government has no official estimate of the number of undocumented children in schools, the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonprofit research organization in Washington, estimates that about 1.8 million children in the nation are undocumented.

Increased Enforcement

What seems to be a given is that increased federal enforcement of immigration laws will continue. Illegal immigration has heated up as a political issue over the past year or so, and President Bush, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, and Julie L. Myers, the assistant secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an arm of the Homeland Security Department, have all said that enforcement is a priority.

In fiscal 2006, which ended last Sept. 30, immigration officials arrested 3,667 people in workplace enforcement actions. This year, by the end of July, federal officials had already nearly matched that number of arrests, with two months to go in fiscal 2007.

Enforcement Rules On School Grounds

In a legal settlement, the Albuquerque, N.M., public schools adopted a policy last year on how to provide “safe schools” for immigrant students.

DISTRICT POLICY

“Any communication to an immigration agency or official initiated by a school or school personnel concerning any student in reference to his or her real or perceived immigration status is prohibited.”

“Any request by immigration officials for consent to enter a school to search for information or to seize students shall initially be denied and immediately conveyed to the school principal and/or the superintendent’s office.”

FEDERAL POLICIES

Excerpt from U.S. Border Patrol Handbook

“Policy requires written approval from the chief patrol agent or the deputy chief patrol agent prior to any enforcement-related activities at schools or places of worship. ...”
Excerpt from policy of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
“Arresting fugitives at schools, hospitals, or places of worship is strongly discouraged, unless the alien poses an immediate threat to national security or the community.”
SOURCE: Albuquerque Public Schools

“The very vulnerabilities that people use to get into this country … to take an identity to get work—all of that means vulnerability to the security of the United States,” said Pat A. Reilly, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.

Ms. Reilly said ICE agents are not interested in arresting minors but rather in going after “criminal-document users, identity-theft people, and employers and front-line supervisors whom we can prove knowingly hired illegal aliens and make it part of their business plan.”
She said that schools shouldn’t have to create special plans to care for children whose parents might be detained because, if a parent is arrested and says that he or she is the sole caregiver for a child or elderly person, federal officials release that person to go home and appear later in court.

But Steve Joel, the superintendent of the 8,000-student Grand Island school system in Nebraska, said that when ICE officials arrested undocumented people at a meatpacking plant in his community last December, he and his staff had to figure out what to do with 25 children who had had both parents detained.

When federal officials asked mothers who had been arrested if they had children at home, Mr. Joel said, “they would say no, because they didn’t want their children arrested.”

Dec. 12 turned out to be a very hectic day for Mr. Joel: He held several press conferences, and worked with school staff members to make sure that every child had a safe place to go after school. By 8 p.m., he said, a handful of children were still at school without a ride. In that case, Mr. Joel said, school officials put them in their own cars and drove them to the homes of relatives.

It’s that part of the response that has Mr. Joel—and his school system’s lawyer—concerned. “We have big-time liability if we put kids in our cars,” Mr. Joel recalled the lawyer telling him.

The raid in Grand Island prompted Robin R. Stevens, the superintendent of the 1,600-student school system in Schuyler, Neb., 100 miles northeast of Grand Island, to start planning for a response in the event of an immigration raid. Like Grand Island, Schuyler has a meatpacking plant that employs some students’ parents.

“We’re trying to be proactive and come up with a plan that will be in place that we’ll never have to use,” Mr. Stevens said. “We will emphasize from the get-go that [during an immigration raid] the safest place for those kids to be if they are in school is to remain in school.” He said the school district’s crisis team and safety committee are involved in making the plan.

Schools and Border Patrol

In Albuquerque, the “safe schools” policy addressing immigration issues resulted from a lawsuit involving Border Patrol agents, who work for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, a branch of the Homeland Security Department that is separate from ICE. Before the creation of the department, Border Patrol agents worked for what was then the Immigration and Naturalization Service, or INS.

Border Patrol agents are required to get prior approval from a supervisor before taking any enforcement action on school grounds. That requirement stems from a 1992 federal court ruling, in Murillo v. Musegades , in which a judge gave the El Paso, Texas, school system a temporary restraining order against INS agents who school officials claimed were intimidating students on school grounds. The Border Patrol issued a memo in 1993 stating that enforcement operations at schools by its agents had to be approved in advance by supervisors.
But in 2004, Border Patrol agents violated that policy in Albuquerque, said David H. Urias, a staff lawyer for the San Antonio office of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which later sued the agency, the school district, and the Albuquerque Police Department.

Two Albuquerque police officers who were assigned to work in public schools stopped and detained two boys—Sergio Gonzalez and Ruben Tarango—on the campus of their school, Del Norte High School, according to the lawsuit. They asked for identification, which one student did not have.

The police officers called Border Patrol agents, and an agent arrived on campus and questioned the two boys, the lawsuit stated. The suit went on to say that a Border Patrol agent then “unlawfully seized” Carlos Gonzalez, Sergio’s brother, who was pulled from class.
The MALDEF lawsuit, Gonzalez v. Albuquerque Public Schools, claimed that the boys’ rights had been violated.

All three boys, who were undocumented, agreed to return voluntarily to Mexico. But before they left the United States, MALDEF negotiated for them to stay. Currently, Sergio Gonzalez is a permanent legal resident, and Carlos Gonzalez has permission from the federal government, negotiated by MALDEF, to finish high school in the United States, according to Mr. Urias. The third youth eventually returned to Mexico.

The 89,000-student Albuquerque district settled with MALDEF last year and agreed to the new policy concerning immigrant students. Before that agreement, “I’m not sure there were clear lines of delineation on who could do what,” said Eduardo B. Soto, an associate superintendent for the school system. “Now it is clear.”

Last month, the Albuquerque Police Department reached its own settlement with MALDEF, agreeing to a new policy barring officers from “stopping, questioning, detaining, investigating, or arresting minor children (under 18 years old) on any immigration-related matter while on or immediately in the vicinity of public school grounds or property.” The policy also says that police officers are prohibited from assisting others in detaining or questioning children on immigration-related matters.

Other Incidents

The 12,000-student Santa Fe school system in June adopted a policy similar to Albuquerque’s, after a March 22 incident in which ICE agents arrested an undocumented man in a school parking lot when he was picking up his 4th grade daughter.

Theresa M. Ulibarri, the principal of Chaparral Elementary School in Santa Fe, where the incident took place, said the new procedures would give her more confidence in handling such a situation should it arise again.

“When you are presented with state police officers, ICE officers, you think it’s the government and they know the rules better than you do—that I should present them with what they are asking for,” Ms. Ulibarri said.

Now, she knows that she can insist that law-enforcement officials follow certain procedures. “I would make sure that they would need to reveal their identity, and not just with a flash of the badge,” she said. “I would make sure the child is safe. Not all police officers are tactful when dealing with children. I would ask to be present.”

Michael A. Olivas, a law professor at the University of Houston who is a MALDEF board member and helped draft the Albuquerque policy, said he is wary, however, about the prospect of a formal policy in every school district with a lot of immigrant students.

“Common sense would tell you that your training [for school personnel] ought to alert them to what the basic issues are,” he said. “You don’t need to codify this. … There ought to be basic do-no-harm rules.”

But in Albuquerque, said Rachel LaZar, the director of El Centro de Igualdad y Derechos, an immigrant-rights and advocacy organization there, the policy is needed not only because of “past mistakes,” but also because “there is an increased presence of federal immigration officials in our communities, and that’s having a chilling effect on parents and children in feeling they can access education.”

She added: “This is a policy that clarifies a protocol to staff, teachers, principals, and administrators. It sends a message to the community that their school is a safe place for all students.”

Another unintended consequence of NCLB

Posted by Slim

Not only have the feds marginalized subjects, but studies are showing NCLB is marginalizing some students too.

Published Online: September 10, 2007

High-Achieving Students From Lower-Income Families Fall Behind, Study Finds

By Catherine Gewertz

Education Week

The educational accountability movement’s keen focus on bringing all students to academic proficiency risks leaving behind a group of particularly promising students: high-achieving children from lower-income families, a report released today contends.

The study analyzes national data to track the school performance of about 3.4 million K-12 children who come from households with incomes below the national median but score in the top quartile on nationally normed tests. It finds that they start school with weaker academic skills and are less likely to flourish over the years in school than their peers from better-off families.

Civic Enterprises LLC, a Washington-based research and public-policy group, and the Lansdowne, Va.-based Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, which co-produced the “Achievement Trap” study, urged researchers and policymakers to better understand the dynamics that allow high-achieving, lower-income children to fall behind, and to focus concerted attention on ways to help them.

“By reversing the downward trajectory of their educational achievement, we will not only improve their lives but strengthen our nation by unleashing the potential of literally millions of young people who could be making great contributions to our communities and country,” the report says.

The report’s release coincided with testimony by one of its authors before the education committee of the U.S. House of Representatives on possible revisions to the No Child Left Behind Act. Joshua S. Wyner, the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation’s executive vice president, urged federal lawmakers to broaden the law’s focus so that schools are held accountable for improving the performance of higher-achieving as well as lower-achieving students.

Hobbled From the Start

Higher-achieving children from lower-income families enter school with a disadvantage that shows up in their national test scores, the report says. More than 70 percent of 1st graders who score in the top quartile are from higher-income families, and fewer than three in 10 are from lower-income families.

In the ensuing years, the higher-achieving lower-income children are more likely to lose ground, according to the study. For instance, 44 percent fall out of the top quartile in reading between the 1st and 5th grades, compared with 31 percent of high achievers whose family income is above the national median, which was $48,200 in 2006, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
They are also more likely to drop out of high school or not graduate on time than those from economically better-off families, the study found. The difference persists through college and graduate school, with lower-income students less likely to attend the most selective colleges or to graduate.

The report does offer some optimistic notes. Of the higher-achieving students, it says, 93 percent of those from lower-income families, and 97 percent of those from higher-income families, graduate from high school in four years. Those rates are much better than the 70 percent of all students on average that researchers estimate get their diplomas on time. But the data still show too many “unrelenting inequities” that harm the prospects of capable children from lower-income families, the authors say.

The data also suggest the distance still to be traveled in understanding and addressing the dynamics in racial achievement gaps.

Among lower-income students, Asians showed a significantly better chance of staying in the top quartile in math during high school than did other students, and African-American students were the least likely group to rise into that top tier in reading or math, according to the report.
Michelle M. Fine, a professor of social psychology and urban education at the City University of New York, said she welcomed the examination of how economic class can affect children’s education. But addressing the needs of all disadvantaged children, she said, entails a more nuanced examination of how race and class intersect to influence their performance.

“Something is clearly working for those lower-income Asian kids that isn’t working for the lower-income black kids,” she said, referring to the racial-performance breakdowns among lower-income students in the report. “A class-only analysis isn’t going to give us the whole picture.”
Solutions must go beyond the policy thrust advocated in the study, she said, to systemic improvements in districtwide school financing, equitable distribution of highly skilled teachers, and access to quality preschool.

Addressing unintended consequences of NCLB

Posted by Slim

It seems that NCLB reauthorization may address the disservice done to non-tested subjects.

Published in Print: September 12, 2007

House Plan Embraces Subjects Viewed as Neglected

By Kathleen Kennedy Manzo

Education Week

Advocates for broadening the curriculum hope a draft House proposal for reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act will give a boost to history, art, music, and other subjects that they believe have been marginalized in many districts under the 5½-year-old federal law.
The draft of changes to Part A of the Title I program , released by Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon, RCalif., and key colleagues late last month, features potential incentives for states to test students in core subjects other than those now required—mathematics, reading, and, beginning this school year, science.

“It’s a good start … and encouraging that Congressmen Miller and McKeon are showing sensitivity to the criticism that there has been a narrowing of the curriculum” under No Child Left Behind, said Jack Jennings, the president of the Center on Education Policy, and a former aide to House Democrats. “If school districts can include testing in other subjects [in gauging how well their schools are doing], it allows them to pay more attention to those other areas.”

A report released in July by the CEP, a research and advocacy organization based in Washington, found that most districts have significantly increased instructional time in reading and math in the hope of improving student achievement and helping schools meet goals for adequate yearly progress, or AYP, under the federal law. The law requires testing in those two subjects annually in grades 3-8 and once during high school.

As a result of that emphasis, nearly half the nation’s school districts pared down instructional time in other critical subjects by more than two hours each week, according to the report. ("Survey: Subjects Trimmed To Boost Math and Reading," Aug. 1, 2007.)
Other surveys and reports have confirmed that trend.

Grants and Measures
The preliminary House Education and Labor Committee plan would allow states to include student scores from state tests in history and other subjects as additional measures of how schools were performing. Those test scores would be given a fraction of the weight of math and reading results in determining AYP. The use of multiple measures would give states more information on school performance, said Mr. Miller, the chairman of the committee, whose ranking Republican is Mr. McKeon.

“We address the question that’s been raised, … whether NCLB is driving the narrowing of curriculum by school districts responding [to the law] simply by teaching to the test,” Mr. Miller said in a conference call with reporters last week. “Instead of using one multiple-choice test on one day,” he said, “we ought to allow schools to provide additional information that would give a more comprehensive and accurate picture of how schools are doing.”

The discussion draft also proposes a grant program for districts to strengthen instruction in “music and arts, foreign languages, civics and government, economics, history, geography, and physical education and health as an integral part of the elementary and secondary school curriculum.” It does not specify funding levels or say how many grants would be available.
According to Martin West, a professor of education at Brown University in Providence, R.I., who has studied the impact of the NCLB law and state tests on the school curriculum, the prospective grants would likely be less of an inducement to enhancing state testing programs than the multiple-measures provision.

“The testing proposal is potentially important to states that might want to consider testing in other subjects,” he said, “because doing so under the current NCLB creates a divergence between the state system and federal system.” The Miller-McKeon draft plan “would remove an important disincentive,” Mr.West said.

Some educators said they were encouraged by the plan.
“The notion that only very practical training equips you to deal with life and the world that we live in goes against every educational tradition for thousands of years,” said Theodore K. Rabb, a professor emeritus of world history at Princeton University and board chairman of the National Council for History Education, in Westlake, Ohio. Mr. Rabb asked the council’s membership this past summer to write Congress about their concerns over reductions in history education.
“This proposal is the most encouraging single thing that has happened lately,” he said, “that [lawmakers] are beginning to realize that there is a problem.”

NEA at odds with California Rep. Miller over merit pay

Posted by Slim

Leading Democrat criticized the NEA over its complete rejection of merit pay.

Published: September 11, 2007

Debate Over Merit Pay Heats Up

By The Associated Press in Teacher Magazine

Washington

The head of the nation's largest teacher's union and a top House Democrat had a testy exchange Monday over the inclusion of merit pay in an updated version of the No Child Left Behind education law.

California Rep. George Miller, chairman of the House education committee, criticized National Education Association President Reg Weaver for rejecting the merit-pay proposal.
The exchange occurred during a hearing into the renewal of the five-year-old education law, which requires annual testing in reading and math and imposes sanctions on schools that fail to hit progress goals.

Miller included the teacher pay plan in draft legislation circulating on Capitol Hill.
The proposal would give bonuses, worth up to $10,000 in most cases, to "outstanding" teachers. The proposal doesn't spell out who would be eligible for the extra money but says raising student test scores must be a factor.

Weaver said that level of detail should be bargained locally, not spelled out by Congress. The NEA has long opposed linking individual student scores to teachers' pay, though many local teachers unions across the country are agreeing to such proposals. Most notable is a popular plan in Denver.

Miller noted that Weaver previously supported teacher-related legislation that included the same merit-pay proposal, but Weaver said the union gave general support for that overall bill, not the pay plan specifically.

That nuance didn't sit well with Miller. Growing visibly angry, he said: "You can dance all around you want. You approved the language."

The union, which has more than 3 million members, is actively lobbying against the draft legislation. The union is influential, particularly with Democrats who often benefit from the NEA's political backing.

"Our members are united and will stand firm in our advocacy for a bill that supports good teaching and learning and takes far greater steps toward creating great public schools for every child," Weaver said during the hearing.

The draft bill also would change the law to allow schools to get credit for tests in subjects other than math and reading. And it would measure the performance of individual students over time rather than comparing the scores of students in a certain grade to students in that grade the year before, a change that is generally popular.

Miller said he hopes the full House will take up the renewal of the law this fall. Senate lawmakers also are in the process of writing legislation.

Is online learning the wave of the future?

Posted by Slim

Online learning is growing across the nation and in Nevada. Nevada Connections Academy has started its first year of statewide online instruction for grades 4 to 11, planning to add the 12th grade next year. Washoe County School District has started Washoe On-line Learning for the Future (WOLF) this year too. It is a good name choice given they are in Wolfpack country.

Many students, parents, and teachers report they like the online option and alternative. Traditional education environments will probably never be completely replaced, but changes in education delivery are taking place.

Published: September 7, 2007

Virtual Schools Growing

By The Associated Press in Teacher Magazine

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.

As a seventh-grader, Kelsey-Anne Hizer was getting mostly D's and F's and felt the teachers at her Ocala middle school were not giving her the help she needed.

But after switching to a virtual school for eighth grade, Kelsey-Anne is receiving more individual attention and making A's and B's. She's also enthusiastic about learning, even though she has never been in the same room as her teachers.

Kelsey-Anne became part of a growing national trend when she transferred to Orlando-based Florida Virtual School. Students get their lessons online and communicate with their teachers and each other through chat rooms, e-mail, telephone and instant messaging.

"It's more one-on-one than regular school," Kelsey-Anne said. "It's more they're there; they're listening."

Virtual learning is becoming ubiquitous at colleges and universities but remains in its infancy at the elementary and secondary level, where skeptics have questioned its cost and effect on children's socialization.

However, virtual schools are growing fast — at an annual rate of about 25 percent. There are 25 statewide or state-led programs and more than 170 virtual charter schools across the nation, according to the North American Council for Online Learning.

Estimates of elementary and secondary students taking virtual classes range from 500,000 to 1 million nationally compared to total public school enrollment of about 50 million.

Online learning is used as an alternative for summer school and for students who need remedial help, are disabled, being home schooled or suspended for behavioral problems. It also can help avoid overcrowding in traditional classrooms and provide courses that local schools, often rural or inner-city, do not offer.

Advocates say those niche functions are fine, but that virtual learning has almost unlimited potential. Many envision a blending of virtual and traditional learning.

"We hope that it becomes just another piece of our public schools' day rather than still this thing over here that we're all trying to figure out," said Julie Young, Florida Virtual's president and CEO.

Florida Virtual is one of the nation's oldest and largest online schools, with more than 55,000 students in Florida and around the world, most of them part-time. Its motto is "Any Time, Any Place, Any Path, Any Pace."

Struggling students such as Kelsey-Anne, who suffers from attention deficit disorder, can take more time to finish courses while those who are gifted can go at a faster speed.

Casey Hutcheson, 17, finished English and geometry online in the time it would have taken to complete just one of those courses at his regular high school in Tallahassee.
"I like working by myself because of no distractions, and I can go at my own pace rather than going at the teacher's pace," he said.

For all its potential, virtual schooling has its critics and skeptics.

"There is something to be said for having kids in a social situation learning how to interact in society," said state Rep. Shelley Vana. "I don't think you get that if you're at home."

But virtual students get a different kind of social experience that is just as valuable, said Susan Patrick, president and CEO of the North American Council for Online Learning in Vienna, Va.
"We should socialize them for the world that they live in," she said, suggesting that people spend much of their time interacting via computer these days.

Many policymakers approach virtual learning with dollar signs in their eyes, expecting big savings from schools that do not need buildings, buses and other traditional infrastructure.
"We should not, as stewards of public money, be automatically paying the same or even close to the same amount of money for a virtual school day as we pay for a conventional school day," said Florida Senate Education Committee Chairman Don Gaetz.

Florida Virtual this year is slated to get $6,682 for every full-time equivalent student, just slightly less than the average of $7,306 for all of the state's public schools. Young said her school has expenses that traditional schools do not.

"Our data infrastructure is our building," she said.

Teacher unions have opposed spending public dollars on some virtual schools, mainly those that are privately operated or function as charter schools.

Indiana lawmakers this year refused to fund virtual charter schools. Opponents argued they are unproven and would have siphoned millions of dollars from traditional public schools.

Florida Virtual's Young said she plans to recommend that her state follow the example of Michigan, which passed a requirement that students complete some type of online experience to earn a high school diploma.

If "we do not give them an opportunity to take an online course, we're doing them a tremendous disservice," she said. "It's become the way of the world."

CCEA is being challenged

Posted by Slim

Teachers4change is raising an excellent issue regarding CCEA abuses of members; the short, not advertised window to drop membership from only July 1 to 15 each year. You can join anytime of course. Challenging this short drop period has long been overdue, whether you opt for the Teamsters or the Association of American Educators.

Taken from the Teachers4Change Website

Teamsters Assist CCEA Drop

Several teachers have indicated that they missed the
open window to drop CCEA. Since CCEA does not actively
advertise this open window, it seems only fair
teachers should be given another chance to drop. While
CCEA spent thousands of dollars recruiting new
teachers, they neglected to tell them that as a
probationary teacher they can’t really represent them.
They also failed to notify new members and old of the
fact that dues are increasing. The Teamsters feel this
is a travesty and are willing to assist teachers in
dropping from CCEA.

Any teacher wishing to drop simply send an e-mail
indicating their desire to drop and Teamsters is
providing a lawyer to handle the case. Free of charge
to teachers, nope, you don’t even have to sign an
Authorization Card. We would prefer you did, but this
is too important and we feel this is a just cause.

Go to the Teachers4Change website to complete this
email.

We have also heard that some teachers who dropped
their membership in CCEA are still having their dues
taken from their paychecks. These folks need to send
Ron Taylor (at the T4C website) an email.....

Don't forget the Open House at the Teamsters Hall on
Saturday, September 15..... Many folks have questions
regarding the the Health Trust...... Be there!!!!!

Ken
CCTL Moderator

Utah is just saying NO to NCLB: Spellings spat with Utah

Posted by Slim

Our neighbor to the east has drawn Spellings' ire and fire.

KCPW in Utah reports:

Utah Continues to Draw Fire from Feds Over NCLB

Sep 06, 2007 by Julie Rose

(KCPW News) The top education official in the nation continues to use Utah's public school system as evidence that No Child Left Behind is necessary. In a speech yesterday, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings suggested that Utah officials oppose No Child Left Behind because it judges the state's public schools too harshly.

Associate State Superintendent Brenda Hales bristles: "Every state has a unique population and unique challenges," says Hales. "That's where you get in to trouble - when you have big government trying to dictate how states should perform. It almost becomes a 'Big Brother' situation."

Utah education officials and lawmakers have been vocal in their disdain for federal education mandates found in No Child Left Behind. Secretary Spellings yesterday said states need to embrace the goals of the law rather than making excuses for why it won't work. Hales says the basic goal of improving student performance is worthy.

But Utah officials take issue with the federal government claiming it knows best: "We've always felt like No Child Left Behind's goals are meaningful and essential, but how we meet them should be decided on a state level," says Hales.

Low-income and minority students in Utah continue to lag in basic skills, but Hales says the state is working to address the gap. Federal officials have denied many of Utah's requests for flexibility in how it qualifies teachers and handles school testing.

Utah Congressman Rob Bishop has vowed to fight reauthorization and revisions of No Child Left Behind set for debate next year.

Teachers4Change intercept internal district e-mail

Posted by Slim

Teachers4Change reports:

Last Wednesday Teamsters intercepted this e-mail to all principals in the Clark County School District. This message was sent by none other than Fran Juhasz, CCSD Human Resources. This mistake on their part will spark additional charges against CCSD and Fran Juhasz. This is clearly a scare tactic and will not be tolerated by Teamsters. There is no cease and desist order issued by any organization in Nevada. When C.W. Hoffman, chief counsel for CCSD, found out about this message he immediately responded with a 3 page document outlining what CCSD's position is on organizing activities. This too will be dealt with by Teamster lawyers. Seems the district wants to keep and protect CCEA, who didn't know that. The following is the message that Fran transmitted, at the bottom of the message is a link to Hoffman's response.

It has been reported that Teamsters representatives were handing out organizational/campaigning materials at one of our New Teacher Orientations. It is inappropriate for any labor organization to engage in campaigning activities on District property during District time, the representatives were directed to immediately case and desist. CCEA has since asked for confirmation that the District will prohibit such conduct now and in the future, and that confirmation has been given. Please make sure everyone with supervisory responsibility over personnel and/or District facilities knows that the District cannot and will not allow any labor organization campaigning activities on District property during District time.

CLARK COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT

LEGAL OFFICE

INTRA-OFFICE COMMUNICATION

August 30, 2007

To: Executive Cabinet

From: Bill Hoffman

Subject: Collective Bargaining Campaign Activities
__________________________________
I am informed that the incumbent bargaining agent which represents District licensed personnel is being challenged by at least one other bargaining agent to become the recognized bargaining agent. It appears that campaign activities are occurring in some school sites. Please distribute the following memo, which discusses campaign activities, to appropriate administrators:

1. Pursuant to Article 2-1 of the existing collectively bargained agreement (CBA) between the District and the Clark County Education Association, the Association is the exclusive representative of all licensed personnel employed by the District. The District may not condone or approve of practices which would undermine CCEA’s exclusive rights of representation.

2. Article 7 of the CBA grants to the CCEA specific contractual rights regarding the use of School District facilities which are not available to other persons, entities, businesses or non-recognized labor organizations.

The District has the right to restrict the use of its facilities in a manner consistent with the CBA and the District’s Policies and Regulations.

a. School Mailboxes, Interschool Mail Service, and Faculty Bulletin Boards. The Association shall have the use of school mailboxes and the inter-school mail service for the distribution of non-defamatory and non-campaign related material initiated by the Association. The Association shall have the use of faculty bulletin boards for posting of non-defamatory materials and non-campaign related materials.

Copies of all materials shall be given to the building principal. The material will be clearly identified and the

Association accepts the liability for such material.

District teachers shall be permitted use of School District mail services for district-related business, but not for campaign related materials. School facsimile machines and copiers may only be used for district-related business, but not for campaign related materials. School mailboxes, mail services, and faculty bulletin boards may not be used for campaign purposes.

b. InterAct. The Association, the Teachers’ Health Trust, and the CCEA Community Foundation shall have the use of the District’s electronic bulletin board/messaging system through InterAct for posting of non-defamatory and noncampaign related materials. In addition, there shall be a link through InterAct to the Association’s website. This link may not be used for purposes of soliciting membership.

Messages, materials and announcements posted on InterAct must be approved in advance by the Associate Superintendent, Human Resources Division, or her designee. InterAct may not be used for campaign purposes.

c. Facilities. The Association shall be allowed the use of school buildings and premises for association meetings and activities on regular school days as long as arrangements have been made with the principal of the building. Such activities shall not conflict with any regular or special educational activities and shall not involve additional or extra custodial services and/or other unusual expenses to the School District. Use of the buildings on other than school days requires the approval of the Superintendent in addition to the school principal. Any added expense resulting from the Association use shall be paid by the Association. Individual teachers will not be prohibited from the responsible use of the school facilities.

3. Access by non-employee representatives for purposes of campaigning. As a general proposition, the District may refuse to allow non-employee representatives from nonrecognized union organizations to have access to District property, provided there is an adequate opportunity for organizers to contact employees without entering District “Non-working time” means break times and duty-free lunch 1 periods as well as those periods of time before work and after work.

“Non working areas” means areas where employees are not 2 performing duties associated with their employment, for example, the teachers’ lounge and school parking lots.

Spellings vs. Miller spat over NCLB renewal

Posted by Slim

Nevada teachers appreciate Alexander Russo’s reporting as he provides detailed, up-to-date coverage of federal education issues.

Alexander Russo's inside scoop on education news.

Written by former Senate education staffer and journalist Alexander Russo, This Week in Education covers education news, policymakers, and trends with a distinctly political edge.

September 6, 2007

Spellings Letter; Teacher Quality Draft Later Today

Thanks to the Ed Trust, here's a PDF of the Spellings letter to Miller that she promised yesterday, listing problems she and others have with the M&M discussion draft. Speaking of which, Miller said that Title II and the rest would be posted sometime today, which will help us see whether the teacher quality elements of NCLB are going to be strengthened or -- is such a thing possible? -- weakened. (There's a nod to teacher quality in the form of an attempt to close the equitability loophole in Miller's Title I proposal, according to EdWeek's David Hoff, but if they couldn't do that in 2001 they don't seem likely to take care of it now.)

Weighing Miller's NCLB Proposal

Three different takes on how Cong. Miller's proposal is going over. Compare and contrast:

'No Child' Loopholes Decried Washington Post

Should suburban schools that barely miss federal learning targets be allowed to escape penalties, while inner-city schools that never even hit the dart board are required to give free tutoring and let students transfer to better schools?

Secretary of Education Criticizes Proposal NYT

The education secretary criticized a Congressional proposal to soften provisions of the President’s Bush signature education law.

Spellings Criticizes No Child Proposals AP

The administration and congressional lawmakers agree on one key change. They want schools to measure the performance of individual students over time rather than comparing the scores of students in a certain grade to students in that grade the year before.

New NCLB Bill "Isn't Wonkery," Says Chairman Miller;
Criticisms Are "Hokum"

The public mud-slinging between Spellings and Miller is really heating up. Makes you wonder what they say about each other behind closed doors. And, substantively, it bodes poorly for a strengthening of the current NCLB law.

Responding to Spellings' criticisms read to him by USA Today's Greg Toppo at a conference call with reporters today, Chairman Miller said that what he's trying to do with NCLB isn't just "wonkery" (as Spellings describes it) but rather much-needed changes to an imperfect law. "I know she wants to add confusion and doesn't like the debate," said Miller of Spellings. He also repeatedly mocked the "99.9 percent pure" claim Spellings once made (fire the writer who came up with that one), and called claims that multiple measures would muck up accountability "hokum."

Obviously, Miller's got to do what he's got to do, and -- this sentence is already so vague -- is going to go ahead and do it. But still it's sad to hear him denounce the current NCLB system which he created and defended for so long, now using much the same language as his detractors had (ie, a single test on a single day determining AYP). Such is politics. Somewhere, Joel Packer is smiling.

Words of warning!

Posted by Slim

Do not under any circumstances break test guidelines or security. CYA! Make sure administration assigns at least 2 teachers to monitor testing in each classroom. If you are assigned to test alone, you are vulnerable to potential allegations and should put in writing objections to administration before the scheduled testing.

September 06, 2007

Help with test may lead to suspensions

Teachers would get five days for reading questions to students

By Emily Richmond

Las Vegas Sun

Apparently believing their students were being set up to fail, two Clark County special education teachers refused to follow testing regulations and instead read aloud the questions on a statewide reading exam.

The state education department has recommended the teachers each be suspended for five days, even though Keith Rheault, Nevada's superintendent of public instruction, originally wanted them suspended for 30 days.

The incident took place March 22 at Doris French Elementary School during a standardized test used to measure student progress, as required by the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Schools that score poorly face progressively harsher penalties.

The suspensions must be approved by the State Board of Education, which oversees teacher licensing issues. Darrin Purana, assistant director of employee-management relations for the Clark County School District, said he could not discuss the specifics of the incident at French. However, his office conducts its own investigation when this type of situation arise s , and teachers can face penalties at the district level as well, Purana said.

Rheault said he supported the scaled-back sanctions after taking a closer look at the circumstances. He said it's possible the teachers were trying to spare the students from what was perceived as an unreasonable demand for performance, rather than attempting to inflate test scores.

Although the U.S. Education Department has expanded the list of how students with special needs can be accommodated in testing, teachers say the questions are still beyond the grasp of many of their pupils. Students not fluent in English also struggle with the tests.

In cases similar to what happened at French, teachers' actions, although misguided, are often an "act of caring," said Sue Daellenbach, testing director for the Clark County School District.
"Taking these tests can be a stressful thing for students, particularly those who are severely disabled," Daellenbach said. "Teachers are by nature caring people, and it's a tough thing to have to watch your kids struggle. But even if you think you're helping your student, you still have to follow the law."

At French, "the teachers admitted they were aware it is not permissible to read a reading test aloud, but believed they were acting in the best interest of the students," according to a state report summarizing the incident.

In addition to the suspensions, the state recommended a letter of admonition be placed in each teacher's personnel file.

The names of the teachers involved were not released by the district. Three other Nevada teachers were charged with improperly helping students with tests during the 2006-07 school year. Two teachers received 30-day suspensions, and the remaining case is to be heard next week.

Evolving use of technology to cheat

Posted by Slim

How widespread is cheating by students? Most of us are shocked by the lazy nature of it to avoid simply studying combined with the lack of remorse when we catch them.

September 06, 2007

For cheaters, iPods are playing their song

Students use devices to save answers, data for exam day, state report says

By Emily Richmond

Las Vegas Sun

Move over, cell phones and calculators. There's a new device joining the list of banned items for Nevada's test-taking students - the iPod.

The usual suspects - cell phones, passed notes and the good ol' peek over the shoulder - still lead the list of cheating techniques.

But the state education department's annual report on testing improprieties for the first time includes incidents of students sneaking iPods into exams. In some cases teachers allowed the devices to be used, apparently unaware they could help student s cheat.

"Kids are getting clever, aren't they?" said Sue Daellenbach, testing director for the Clark County School District.

Keith Rheault, Nevada's superintendent of instruction, said iPods may not seem like an obvious choice for cheaters. But "you can put anything on those things," Rheault said, including audio recordings of class lectures, recitations of mathematical formulas or other content that could help a student answer questions on an exam.

The report itemizes all testing mishaps and cheating reported by schools on the high school proficiency exams and standardized tests given in grades three through eight. The tests are used in part to measure student progress under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Students must pass the high school proficiency exam to graduate.

For the 2006-07 academic year, more than 300,000 students were tested at more than 600 locations. There were 130 reported irregularities, such as missing answer sheets, a 10 percent drop from the prior year.

The total includes 47 incidents of students cheating, a slight increase over the prior academic year but more than double the 23 incidents reported in 2004-05. Educators say the cheating figures for the past two years can be considered a trend, even though the raw numbers are low in the context of the number of tests taken.

Rheault said he wants schools to tackle the largest source s of problems - cheating with electronic devices, and teachers misunderstanding what kinds of extra help they are allowed to give students with special needs.

"We're still getting a lot of teachers who either didn't provide accommodations when they could have, or provided them when they shouldn't have," Rheault said.

Part of the problem is that Clark County, which accounts for about 70 percent of the state's K-12 students, has to train more than 2,000 new teachers annually in proper testing procedures and policy.

"There's a constant learning curve," Daellenbach said. "Even with the best training , there are going to be schools that have someone doing something for the first time, and there are going to be human errors."

Among the reported incidents:

• At an alternative high school in Carson City, a teacher's cell phone rang during the math proficiency test . He left the room to take the call. When later questioned, 15 students admitted either cheating or using their cell phones during his absence. The tests were invalidated.

• At Churchill County High School, two students turned in identical answer sheets on the math proficiency test after helping each other with the answers. They were also permitted to listen to their iPods during the exam.

• At the Clark County School District's Community College West High School, a student was observed using his cell phone during the 11th grade writing proficiency test. The student later admitted using the phone to look up a vocabulary word.

• Testing at four schools was interrupted by fire alarms. Three may have been caused by pranksters, but at Mt. Charleston Elementary School in Nye County, there actually was a fire.