Tech giants want boost in schools
Matthew Benson
The Arizona Republic
Jul. 22, 2007 12:00 AM
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. - The heads of two of America's titans of the high-tech economy, Google and AT&T, had a simple message when they met with the nation's governors Saturday: Get us a skilled workforce. And get out of the way.
As things stand, they say government regulations often hamper business investment. Qualified workers are in short supply.
Case in point: AT&T Chief Executive Randall Stephenson said his company is hard-pressed to find the 50,000 new hires it's seeking each year, including 4,000 positions that are returning to the United States from India. Part of the blame, he and Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt agreed, lies with an underperforming education system.
"They're graduating the same number of engineers in India that we are in the U.S., and their economy is 7 percent the size," Stephenson said. "In my opinion, our education system has fallen flat. We've gotten fat and lazy."
Their sobering assessment of the problem came before a panel of roughly three dozen governors gathered in this lakeside community for the 99th annual conference of the National Governors Association. Gov. Janet Napolitano, chairwoman of the association, is pitching her Innovation America initiative as part of the cure.
It includes a call for more rigorous K-12 education standards with a focus on math and science education. State universities are to be not only educational institutions, but also economic engines with the products of their research and development hitting the marketplace and spinning off companies.
It's no small undertaking, and Napolitano urged her gubernatorial colleagues to fend off inertia by using their office "as a bully pulpit to create a sense of urgency about this."
The watchword: Innovation.
It was on the lips of governors from Minnesota to Maine as they discussed how their states are trying to use what Napolitano calls "mental capital" to adapt to an increasingly competitive global economy and buffer against collapse in any single industry.
Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, a Democrat, offered her state as an example of the need: "Because of the challenges in our auto sector, we know the advantages of investing in the diversity of the economy."
'A real revolution'
That's the "why." The "how" is where it gets trickier.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a Republican and the incoming NGA chairman, suggested that classrooms leverage new technology and get away from the traditional blackboards-and-textbooks focus.
In Maine, high school students must now complete four years of math and science, up from two, and the state is working with its neighbors to become a hub for information technology.
"We are very much at the beginning of a real revolution in innovation, information and governing," Schmidt said.
In much of Arizona, of course, wireless-telephone service remains a pipe dream - let alone high-speed broadband with streaming video and the like. That's changing.
Just weeks ago, even the tiny central-Arizona town of Superior went digital by launching its own wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) network. Largely funded by a $270,000 federal grant, it's hoped that the high-speed Internet will create economic opportunities in the mining town. There are plans to allow local residents to access online business courses through Central Arizona College.
Expanding wireless and broadband reach across Arizona is key, Napolitano said, adding, "Ultimately, everybody needs to be linked."
Catching up
Arizona is pushing other efforts as well - raising academic rigor, increasing math and science requirements, reforming higher education. The state has pledged $100 million during the next four years to Science Foundation Arizona, an incubator for new biotechnology and research firms.
Just as important as reducing regulation and improving education is ensuring that Arizona's tax burden remains competitive, said Steve Voeller, president of the Arizona Free Enterprise Club. Arizona has cut hundreds of millions of dollars from its property- and income-tax rates in the past couple of years.
For now, though, the state struggles to churn out quality graduates in numbers that lure the highest-paying employers. Arizona State University President Michael Crow conceded that and said it's evident in struggles that he knows Google is having to secure a workforce for its new facility in Tempe.
"We're going to catch up," said Crow, who was at the conference. With the necessary reforms, he said, ASU and the state can begin to reach their new innovation economy within 10 years.
How will we know? "When we are one of the places that are consistently looked at by leading-edge industries."
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
DUH!
School board suspects fraud
Detroit officials question $46 million spent on contractors
July 31, 2007
An independent investigation into irregularities involving at least $46 million in wire transfers from the Detroit Public Schools has led the district to consider seeking criminal charges against current and former contractors and employees.
Detroit Board of Education President Jimmy Womack, speaking on behalf of the board, said Monday that a report generated by the investigation suggests individuals could have embezzled or otherwise skimmed some of the money from those payments, which were made over more than 3 1/2 years.
The board also will direct its attorneys to pursue whatever legal action -- civil or criminal -- it can against anyone it suspects misappropriated district money.
The payments, made to a number of vendors for insurance and consulting services, came from the district's Risk Management Department, which oversees such financial areas as workers compensation and insurance. Such payments typically are made by check.
The wire transfers are also under investigation by the FBI, board members confirmed.
Earlier this year, the district hired Miller Johnson, a Grand Rapids-based law firm with a wide-ranging practice including municipal law and fraud and embezzlement recovery, to conduct the investigation.
District sources familiar with the report spoke about its contents on condition of anonymity, citing the fact it has not been publicly released.
The report accuses at least one former district employee, whose name they did not disclose, of extorting at least $100,000 from a vendor who was paid by wire.
No board members or their relatives are named in the report as being suspected of wrongdoing, Womack said.
One of the companies that received money by wire was Long Insurance Services, a long-time DPS vendor that got a $550,000 contract last year to consult with the Risk Management Department, records show. Those transfers were highlighted in an internal memo in March that let district officials know an investigation was under way.
W. Lawrence Long, president and chief executive officer of the Detroit company, said he has nothing to hide.
"We've been forthright and compliant with all and any requests we received from DPS ... for documentation."
Womack said the board reviewed the 113-page report in closed session but did not get a copy. At least some of the report could be made public within two weeks, after district lawyers figure out what could be released without impeding any investigations, he said.
The board became aware of the wire transfers after board member Paula Johnson, head of its Procurement and Contracting Committee, raised the issue, Womack said.
District chief financial officer Dori Freelain was dismissed this spring by the board, which cited concerns over the appropriateness of the transfers to Long Insurance, which occurred under her watch in a department directly under her.
School board member Jonathan Kinloch, chairman of the Human Resources, Policy and Legislative Affairs Committee, said the board's lawyers will pass along the report to local and federal law enforcement after an official board vote.
"There was a general consensus that we would explore our various legal options to include civil and criminal actions," Kinloch said. "Whatever the resolve of the board is, it will require action of the board at a meeting to be held ... later."
The next regular board meeting will be at 6 p.m. Aug. 9 at Southeastern High.
Contact CHASTITY PRATT at 313-223-4537 or cpratt@freepress.com
Copyright © 2007 Detroit Free Press Inc.
The 6th Mind: "Priming the Pump" with Truth, Trust, Deeds!
Who’s Minding the Mind?
In a recent experiment, psychologists at Yale altered people’s judgments of a stranger by handing them a cup of coffee.
The study participants, college students, had no idea that their social instincts were being deliberately manipulated. On the way to the laboratory, they had bumped into a laboratory assistant, who was holding textbooks, a clipboard, papers and a cup of hot or iced coffee — and asked for a hand with the cup.
That was all it took: The students who held a cup of iced coffee rated a hypothetical person they later read about as being much colder, less social and more selfish than did their fellow students, who had momentarily held a cup of hot java.
Findings like this one, as improbable as they seem, have poured forth in psychological research over the last few years. New studies have found that people tidy up more thoroughly when there’s a faint tang of cleaning liquid in the air; they become more competitive if there’s a briefcase in sight, or more cooperative if they glimpse words like “dependable” and “support” — all without being aware of the change, or what prompted it.
Psychologists say that “priming” people in this way is not some form of hypnotism, or even subliminal seduction; rather, it’s a demonstration of how everyday sights, smells and sounds can selectively activate goals or motives that people already have.
More fundamentally, the new studies reveal a subconscious brain that is far more active, purposeful and independent than previously known. Goals, whether to eat, mate or devour an iced latte, are like neural software programs that can only be run one at a time, and the unconscious is perfectly capable of running the program it chooses.
The give and take between these unconscious choices and our rational, conscious aims can help explain some of the more mystifying realities of behavior, like how we can be generous one moment and petty the next, or act rudely at a dinner party when convinced we are emanating charm.
“When it comes to our behavior from moment to moment, the big question is, ‘What to do next?’ ” said John A. Bargh, a professor of psychology at Yale and a co-author, with Lawrence Williams, of the coffee study, which was presented at a recent psychology conference. “Well, we’re finding that we have these unconscious behavioral guidance systems that are continually furnishing suggestions through the day about what to do next, and the brain is considering and often acting on those, all before conscious awareness.”
Dr. Bargh added: “Sometimes those goals are in line with our conscious intentions and purposes, and sometimes they’re not.”
Priming the Unconscious
The idea of subliminal influence has a mixed reputation among scientists because of a history of advertising hype and apparent fraud. In 1957, an ad man named James Vicary claimed to have increased sales of Coca-Cola and popcorn at a movie theater in Fort Lee, N.J., by secretly flashing the words “Eat popcorn” and “Drink Coke” during the film, too quickly to be consciously noticed. But advertisers and regulators doubted his story from the beginning, and in a 1962 interview, Mr. Vicary acknowledged that he had trumped up the findings to gain attention for his business.
Later studies of products promising subliminal improvement, for things like memory and self-esteem, found no effect.
Some scientists also caution against overstating the implications of the latest research on priming unconscious goals. The new research “doesn’t prove that consciousness never does anything,” wrote Roy Baumeister, a professor of psychology at Florida State University, in an e-mail message. “It’s rather like showing you can hot-wire a car to start the ignition without keys. That’s important and potentially useful information, but it doesn’t prove that keys don’t exist or that keys are useless.”
Yet he and most in the field now agree that the evidence for psychological hot-wiring has become overwhelming. In one 2004 experiment, psychologists led by Aaron Kay, then at Stanford University and now at the University of Waterloo, had students take part in a one-on-one investment game with another, unseen player.
Half the students played while sitting at a large table, at the other end of which was a briefcase and a black leather portfolio. These students were far stingier with their money than the others, who played in an identical room, but with a backpack on the table instead.
The mere presence of the briefcase, noticed but not consciously registered, generated business-related associations and expectations, the authors argue, leading the brain to run the most appropriate goal program: compete. The students had no sense of whether they had acted selfishly or generously.
In another experiment, published in 2005, Dutch psychologists had undergraduates sit in a cubicle and fill out a questionnaire. Hidden in the room was a bucket of water with a splash of citrus-scented cleaning fluid, giving off a faint odor. After completing the questionnaire, the young men and women had a snack, a crumbly biscuit provided by laboratory staff members.
The researchers covertly filmed the snack time and found that these students cleared away crumbs three times more often than a comparison group, who had taken the same questionnaire in a room with no cleaning scent. “That is a very big effect, and they really had no idea they were doing it,” said Henk Aarts, a psychologist at Utrecht University and the senior author of the study.
The Same Brain Circuits
The real-world evidence for these unconscious effects is clear to anyone who has ever run out to the car to avoid the rain and ended up driving too fast, or rushed off to pick up dry cleaning and returned with wine and cigarettes — but no pressed slacks.
The brain appears to use the very same neural circuits to execute an unconscious act as it does a conscious one. In a study that appeared in the journal Science in May, a team of English and French neuroscientists performed brain imaging on 18 men and women who were playing a computer game for money. The players held a handgrip and were told that the tighter they squeezed when an image of money flashed on the screen, the more of the loot they could keep.
As expected, the players squeezed harder when the image of a British pound flashed by than when the image of a penny did — regardless of whether they consciously perceived the pictures, many of which flew by subliminally. But the circuits activated in their brains were similar as well: an area called the ventral pallidum was particularly active whenever the participants responded.
“This area is located in what used to be called the reptilian brain, well below the conscious areas of the brain,” said the study’s senior author, Chris Frith, a professor in neuropsychology at University College London who wrote the book “Making Up The Mind: How the Brain Creates our Mental World.”
The results suggest a “bottom-up” decision-making process, in which the ventral pallidum is part of a circuit that first weighs the reward and decides, then interacts with the higher-level, conscious regions later, if at all, Dr. Frith said.
Scientists have spent years trying to pinpoint the exact neural regions that support conscious awareness, so far in vain. But there’s little doubt it involves the prefrontal cortex, the thin outer layer of brain tissue behind the forehead, and experiments like this one show that it can be one of the last neural areas to know when a decision is made.
This bottom-up order makes sense from an evolutionary perspective. The subcortical areas of the brain evolved first and would have had to help individuals fight, flee and scavenge well before conscious, distinctly human layers were added later in evolutionary history. In this sense, Dr. Bargh argues, unconscious goals can be seen as open-ended, adaptive agents acting on behalf of the broad, genetically encoded aims — automatic survival systems.
In several studies, researchers have also shown that, once covertly activated, an unconscious goal persists with the same determination that is evident in our conscious pursuits. Study participants primed to be cooperative are assiduous in their teamwork, for instance, helping others and sharing resources in games that last 20 minutes or longer. Ditto for those set up to be aggressive.
This may help explain how someone can show up at a party in good spirits and then for some unknown reason — the host’s loafers? the family portrait on the wall? some political comment? — turn a little sour, without realizing the change until later, when a friend remarks on it. “I was rude? Really? When?”
Mark Schaller, a psychologist at the University of British Columbia, in Vancouver, has done research showing that when self-protective instincts are primed — simply by turning down the lights in a room, for instance — white people who are normally tolerant become unconsciously more likely to detect hostility in the faces of black men with neutral expressions.
“Sometimes nonconscious effects can be bigger in sheer magnitude than conscious ones,” Dr. Schaller said, “because we can’t moderate stuff we don’t have conscious access to, and the goal stays active.”
Until it is satisfied, that is, when the program is subsequently suppressed, research suggests. In one 2006 study, for instance, researchers had Northwestern University undergraduates recall an unethical deed from their past, like betraying a friend, or a virtuous one, like returning lost property. Afterward, the students had their choice of a gift, an antiseptic wipe or a pencil; and those who had recalled bad behavior were twice as likely as the others to take the wipe. They had been primed to psychologically “cleanse” their consciences.
Once their hands were wiped, the students became less likely to agree to volunteer their time to help with a graduate school project. Their hands were clean: the unconscious goal had been satisfied and now was being suppressed, the findings suggest.
What You Don’t Know
Using subtle cues for self-improvement is something like trying to tickle yourself, Dr. Bargh said: priming doesn’t work if you’re aware of it. Manipulating others, while possible, is dicey. “We know that as soon as people feel they’re being manipulated, they do the opposite; it backfires,” he said.
And researchers do not yet know how or when, exactly, unconscious drives may suddenly become conscious; or under which circumstances people are able to override hidden urges by force of will. Millions have quit smoking, for instance, and uncounted numbers have resisted darker urges to misbehave that they don’t even fully understand.
Yet the new research on priming makes it clear that we are not alone in our own consciousness. We have company, an invisible partner who has strong reactions about the world that don’t always agree with our own, but whose instincts, these studies clearly show, are at least as likely to be helpful, and attentive to others, as they are to be disruptive.
Monday, July 30, 2007
SMART SEATS + SMART BOARDS + SMART TEACHERS = SMART LEARNERS!
(JAY KARR/McClatchy-Trinbune)
Fifth-grader Paula Lusena touches her science lab Smart Board, an electronic blackboard that allows students and teachers to project and manipulate graphic displays by touching and moving items around.
High-tech teaching
Smart Boards engage students weaned on the Internet
July 30, 2007
HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. -- At the start of each school day, Bluffton Elementary science teacher Tara Crewe fires up her laptop and video projector and beams the day's agenda onto a big-screen version of a 21st-Century blackboard.
What happens next is mind-boggling. Using a new interactive electronic white board, Crewe taps a yellow sun on the screen, and a quiz appears.
When a student answers a question, Crewe swipes a dry eraser over a blank line on the screen, revealing the correct answer almost magically.
Welcome to the future of teaching.
As schools across the country try to find ways to reach tech-savvy children in the video-game and Internet-saturated Information Age, these new interactive Smart Boards have emerged as a tool for teachers to engage students.
"It's turned learning in the classroom into the interactivity and entertainment kids are used to at home," Crewe said. Using Smart Boards "has made me a better teacher and made the kids more motivated learners."
Most of Crewe's instruction time is spent in front of the Internet-connected touch-screen board, which is linked to her laptop computer.
It allows her to link to educational videos, Web sites, slide-show presentations and blank screens -- like traditional white boards -- that she can draw on, save and print.
She often invites students to come to the front of the class and reveal answers with a simple swipe of the hand.
This kind of hands-on involvement with each lesson is especially beneficial to students with learning disabilities, those who have a hard time staying focused and children who learn more efficiently through interaction.
Crewe, one of the first teachers in her area to use the technology, started teaching with the Smart Board in January, when Bluffton Elementary installed them in six classrooms. Twenty-four teachers there now use the boards.
In the next several weeks, the district will roll out 48 more boards to schools throughout the county. To buy the equipment, Bluffton Elementary used a combination of district money and federal Title 1 funds, said Principal Kathleen Corley.
Each board costs about $1,500. The total per classroom with installation is around $3,800, according to the school district.
The benefits of the technology far outweigh the costs, said Crewe, who added she'd pay money out of her own pocket if the boards weren't provided by the district.
In classrooms with Smart Boards, homework completion rates are up as much as 60%, Corley said.
"You can demand, you can beg them, you can punish them, you can reward them," she said. "But the biggest thing is motivating them. And that's what these boards do. They help engage students in active learning."
Copyright © 2007 Detroit Free Press Inc.
Joost in a Flash!
Joost gets Flash interface that runs in web browser
An independent developer has created a Flash version of the Joost interface that runs in any web browser. It is only a proof of concept but it shows what is possible. While it is a faithful representation of the Joost application, it also enhances some aspects of the interface.
The Flash interface has emerged as a demonstration project as Joost claims to have signed up over a million users prior to the launch of the broadband video platform.
Developer Paul Yanez from San Diego in California says he spent about a month building a browser-based interface for Joost in Flash.
Having tested the Joost application he was frustrated with having to download a new version every time it was updated. So he created a faithful facsimile of the Joost interface in Flash. It runs within a browser and can also be used in full-screen mode.
The aim was to build a web-based interface comparable to the Joost executable application that does not need to be downloaded and installed. His version is based on a single Flash file and a simple PHP back-end.
The Flash version is claimed to work in all browsers on all operating systems. Any enhancements and upgrades would be transparent to the user and any preferences would be retained since the application is hosted on a server.
The developer says he has improved on some aspects of the user interface to make it more consistent and more usable.
It is only an unofficial proof of concept and it does not support the proprietary peer-to-peer distribution used by Joost. Instead it streams Flash video from other online sites.
It certainly shows what is possible in Flash and shows what can be achieved by a talented individual developer. Paul Yanez is now planning to produce Apple TV and other skins for watching web video.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
AIM Mash-Up: Houston; AIM 2.0 for the FUTURE! (And the Future has Arrived!)
"As indicated by the lastest "polls"
some simply remain
"out of touch and CLUELESS!"
Welcome to the YouTube revolution
July 29, 2007
I can't predict the future, but I can tell you where you'll see it.
YouTube.
I have no doubt about this. Everything about our lifestyles screams it. We went from library books to microfilm to computers to Google. We went from letters to radio to TV to TiVo. Let's face it. We want to know more and more about this thing and that thing without ever leaving our chairs.
YouTube, the ultimate Web site for video, is the future of that. It takes Google one step further. You can type in a topic and look up things, but instead of reading, you can watch -- and we know what human beings do when given a choice between those two.
YouTube lets you see things that happened last month, yesterday, or in some cases, 5 minutes ago, simply by clicking your computer mouse. People around the world are feeding this monster with video cameras and cell phones. So are record companies, movie studios and anybody with anything to sell.
You want to see Paris Hilton let out of jail? Just click. Want to see the sports highlight you missed? Just click. YouTube -- which amazingly was formed less than three years ago and eventually sold to Google for $1.65 billion -- is rapidly becoming a seat on Mt. Olympus, from which you can watch the entire world.
Whether this is good or not -- you tell me.
Must-see politics
You likely read about -- or saw -- the YouTube clip of then-Virginia Republican Sen. George Allen's controversial remark to a young campaign aide working for Allen's opponent. "Let's give a welcome to Macaca, here," Allen said at a campaign rally.
He insists he meant nothing derogatory. But that moment was captured on video and posted on YouTube. Some viewed the "Macaca" reference as a racial slur -- and when the smoke cleared, Allen, a heavy favorite to win, had lost his seat. YouTube did him in.
Then there was last week's Democratic presidential debate. For the first time in history, the questions were posed from YouTube participants, who had their inquiries played on a big screen in front of the viewing world.
The opening statement came from a YouTube-er, a young man wearing a dark T-shirt, a baseball cap, some loose hair on his chin and an arm tattoo. He challenged the candidates not to "beat around the Bush, so to speak."
Then came the questions, from young and old. One came from a snowman.
Really. A snowman. It asked about global warming -- in a voice that sounded like Mr. Bill from the old "Saturday Night Live" skit -- and worried about the future for its "son," a mini-snowman.
Not exactly Walter Cronkite.
By the way, the Republicans have a YouTube debate of their own scheduled for September. A scarecrow may ask a question about farm subsidies.
The best way to be heard -- be sexy
And then there's "Obama Girl." In case you hadn't heard, this is the enormously popular music video in which a model writhes sexually in various states of undress while cooing about her crush on Barack Obama. She sings lyrics like, "you're into border security/let's break this border between you and me/universal health care reform/it makes me warm."
She also suggests -- in a cute play on words -- that he'll get oral sex in the Oval Office.
This video was followed by one featuring "Giuliani Girl," an equally fetching woman who takes on Obama Girl and coos of her favorite, Rudy: "I'm gonna be wife No. 4. He warms my globe just like Al Gore."
These videos have drawn far more viewers than your average local election. But when we dreamt about drawing young people into politics, is this what we had in mind?
The danger of an all-powerful video site is that each person needs to scream a little louder, be a little sexier, or act a little more controversial than the last to draw attention. With millions of postings on YouTube, you see how that noise rapidly adds up.
Some argue that YouTube is the ultimate in democracy. I don't know. It sure seems to favor the creative, the bored, the sexy, the rich, the brazen or the technically skilled.
But this part is undeniable: It is the future. And it's not coming. It's here.
Contact MITCH ALBOM at 313-223-4581 or malbom@freepress.com. Catch "The Mitch Albom Show" 5-7 p.m. weekdays on WJR-AM (760).
Copyright © 2007 Detroit Free Press Inc.
AIM for ACCOUNTABILITY!
"Criminal practices" plague DPS
By Diane Bukowski
The Michigan Citizen
DETROIT - According to a recently disclosed audit, questionable and possibly criminal financial practices by Detroit Public Schools administrators may involve more than the highly publicized wire transfers of $12.1 million to Long Insurance Services by former Chief Financial Officer Dori Freelain.
The transfers, involving risk management funds, took place from 2005 to 2007. They were allegedly made without evidence of contracts, purchase orders, or scope of services. Former DPS Superintendent William Coleman suspended and then terminated Freelain and a co-worker, cash manager Delores Brown.
Current DPS Superintendent Connie Calloway announced July 20 that a closed school board meeting will be held the week of July 23 "or as soon as possible" to discuss an internal "Detroit Public Schools Risk Management Investigation Report" related to the allegations. She said DPS General Counsel Jean Vierre-Adams had already met with board president Jimmy Womack to review the report.
"The Federal Bureau of Investigation continues to request information from the district without any indication of its intent for further prosecution in this matter," said Calloway in an earlier letter to the Board.
BUSINESS AS USUAL
Auditors KPMG issued a "Single Audit Report" for fiscal year 2006, and recently posted on the DPS website information indicating Freelain's alleged activities may have been nothing but "business as usual" for the Detroit Public Schools.
The report, in which KPMG reviews the district�s handling of federal funds, cites numerous irregularities. Chief among them are improper procurement practices.
"The School District's internal controls and system configuration are not designed adequately to verify that all purchases have a requisition and a valid purchase order prior to placing an order," said KPMG.
"Internal control procedures and the system configuration allow for a purchase order to be generated without a valid requisition being created first. [This] causes orders to take place without going through the proper procurement policies and exposes the School District to a greater risk of error and fraud."
DPS officials acknowledged the findings in the audit, saying, "The Department of Finance will work with the Department of Contracting and Procurement on eliminating this option from the departments that are able to do this function."
KPMG also noted, �There are various ways end users at the schools can override certain internal controls to expedite the procurement of goods and services.� It said those internal controls include "budget checks, proper approvals, and other edit checks to ensure that all information is complete and accurate."
NO CONTRACTS
The district replied, "The School District acknowledges this finding. The situation occurs when departments contract with vendors outside of the government process by discussing services with vendors directly or signing an agreement provided by the vendor without going through the proper procurement process. The school district will continue to communicate the procurement policies and procedures to internal departments as well as vendors to ensure compliance with policy."
In published remarks, Larry Long, CEO of Long Insurance, said he has not always had a signed contract because it was not the district's practice.
"Once you were the successful bidder, there was no contract," he told the Detroit News.
School board vice-president Joyce Hayes-Giles, who chairs the Finance Committee, and member Paula Johnson, who chairs the Procurement and Contracting Committee, had not responded to calls for comment before press time on what their committees have done to correct the practices noted in the audit.
CPA Greg Frazier is now in court demanding access to all DPS contracting and procurement documents for fiscal year 2006 under the Freedom of Information Act. He said his community-based audit would be a forensic audit, going beyond the scope of the KPMG financial audit. Both the Call -em Out Coalition and the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization are backing his lawsuit.
"We want to show what percentages of purchases were improperly approved and documented, and see who signed those checks," said Frazier.
NO FUNDS FOR SCHOOLS
He said it is ironic that KPMG issued its findings at a time when there is increased community concern about DPS financial practices, as 42 schools are slated to close to save only $16.8 million a year beginning in 2008. He noted that auditors are usually under "tremendous pressure" from the employer, banks and Wall Street rating agencies, to issue clean reports.
In other matters, the audit gave an "adverse rating" to the handling of funds for the Title I-A program. That program oversees parent participation and has generated numerous complaints from parents who say they are not allowed input into individual principals� handling of the funds. A federal government audit of that program is currently taking place.
KPMG gave a "qualified," or questionable rating to the district's handling of federal funds for Vocational Education, the 21st Century Community Learning Centers, the Reading First Program, the Special Education Cluster, and the Head Start program.
It also noted that the school district does not currently have an internal audit department, or a process for preventing, detecting and deterring frauds.
The internal audit department was abolished during the five-year state takeover of DPS, when Dr. Kenneth Burnley was CEO and had exclusive control over contracts. Burnley is reportedly the subject of a current federal grand jury investigation in Detroit.
Board member Ida Short has led the drive to re-establish the audit department under the office of an Inspector General, which the district says is expected to take place by the end of 2007. The district says in the audit that the internal audit department will establish a fraud monitoring process.
The audit also noted numerous other irregularities in handling workers compensation claims, expenditures of federal awards, bond covenants and proceeds, capital asset disposals and impairments, and cash receipts and reconciliations, among other matters.
The entire Single Audit can be viewed on the DPS website at:
http://www.detroitk12.org/data/finance/2006_Single_Audit_Report.pdf
Other financial documents including the complete 2006 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) are also available on the site.
By Diane Bukowski
The Michigan Citizen
DETROIT - According to a recently disclosed audit, questionable and possibly criminal financial practices by Detroit Public Schools administrators may involve more than the highly publicized wire transfers of $12.1 million to Long Insurance Services by former Chief Financial Officer Dori Freelain.
The transfers, involving risk management funds, took place from 2005 to 2007. They were allegedly made without evidence of contracts, purchase orders, or scope of services. Former DPS Superintendent William Coleman suspended and then terminated Freelain and a co-worker, cash manager Delores Brown.
Current DPS Superintendent Connie Calloway announced July 20 that a closed school board meeting will be held the week of July 23 "or as soon as possible" to discuss an internal "Detroit Public Schools Risk Management Investigation Report" related to the allegations. She said DPS General Counsel Jean Vierre-Adams had already met with board president Jimmy Womack to review the report.
"The Federal Bureau of Investigation continues to request information from the district without any indication of its intent for further prosecution in this matter," said Calloway in an earlier letter to the Board.
BUSINESS AS USUAL
Auditors KPMG issued a "Single Audit Report" for fiscal year 2006, and recently posted on the DPS website information indicating Freelain's alleged activities may have been nothing but "business as usual" for the Detroit Public Schools.
The report, in which KPMG reviews the district�s handling of federal funds, cites numerous irregularities. Chief among them are improper procurement practices.
"The School District's internal controls and system configuration are not designed adequately to verify that all purchases have a requisition and a valid purchase order prior to placing an order," said KPMG.
"Internal control procedures and the system configuration allow for a purchase order to be generated without a valid requisition being created first. [This] causes orders to take place without going through the proper procurement policies and exposes the School District to a greater risk of error and fraud."
DPS officials acknowledged the findings in the audit, saying, "The Department of Finance will work with the Department of Contracting and Procurement on eliminating this option from the departments that are able to do this function."
KPMG also noted, �There are various ways end users at the schools can override certain internal controls to expedite the procurement of goods and services.� It said those internal controls include "budget checks, proper approvals, and other edit checks to ensure that all information is complete and accurate."
NO CONTRACTS
The district replied, "The School District acknowledges this finding. The situation occurs when departments contract with vendors outside of the government process by discussing services with vendors directly or signing an agreement provided by the vendor without going through the proper procurement process. The school district will continue to communicate the procurement policies and procedures to internal departments as well as vendors to ensure compliance with policy."
In published remarks, Larry Long, CEO of Long Insurance, said he has not always had a signed contract because it was not the district's practice.
"Once you were the successful bidder, there was no contract," he told the Detroit News.
School board vice-president Joyce Hayes-Giles, who chairs the Finance Committee, and member Paula Johnson, who chairs the Procurement and Contracting Committee, had not responded to calls for comment before press time on what their committees have done to correct the practices noted in the audit.
CPA Greg Frazier is now in court demanding access to all DPS contracting and procurement documents for fiscal year 2006 under the Freedom of Information Act. He said his community-based audit would be a forensic audit, going beyond the scope of the KPMG financial audit. Both the Call -em Out Coalition and the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization are backing his lawsuit.
"We want to show what percentages of purchases were improperly approved and documented, and see who signed those checks," said Frazier.
NO FUNDS FOR SCHOOLS
He said it is ironic that KPMG issued its findings at a time when there is increased community concern about DPS financial practices, as 42 schools are slated to close to save only $16.8 million a year beginning in 2008. He noted that auditors are usually under "tremendous pressure" from the employer, banks and Wall Street rating agencies, to issue clean reports.
In other matters, the audit gave an "adverse rating" to the handling of funds for the Title I-A program. That program oversees parent participation and has generated numerous complaints from parents who say they are not allowed input into individual principals� handling of the funds. A federal government audit of that program is currently taking place.
KPMG gave a "qualified," or questionable rating to the district's handling of federal funds for Vocational Education, the 21st Century Community Learning Centers, the Reading First Program, the Special Education Cluster, and the Head Start program.
It also noted that the school district does not currently have an internal audit department, or a process for preventing, detecting and deterring frauds.
The internal audit department was abolished during the five-year state takeover of DPS, when Dr. Kenneth Burnley was CEO and had exclusive control over contracts. Burnley is reportedly the subject of a current federal grand jury investigation in Detroit.
Board member Ida Short has led the drive to re-establish the audit department under the office of an Inspector General, which the district says is expected to take place by the end of 2007. The district says in the audit that the internal audit department will establish a fraud monitoring process.
The audit also noted numerous other irregularities in handling workers compensation claims, expenditures of federal awards, bond covenants and proceeds, capital asset disposals and impairments, and cash receipts and reconciliations, among other matters.
The entire Single Audit can be viewed on the DPS website at:
http://www.detroitk12.org/data/finance/2006_Single_Audit_Report.pdf
Other financial documents including the complete 2006 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) are also available on the site.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
DO NOT Shoot the Messenger! AIM for Alignment!
(ELISHA ANDERSON/DFP)
"I didn't come here to do everyone's job for them," says Detroit Public Schools Superintendent Connie Calloway.
Calloway blasts district practices
She says Detroit system lacks order
July 28, 2007
Detroit Public Schools Superintendent Connie Calloway said Friday in a candid conversation with the Free Press that she inherited a system in which there are no administrative procedures in place for seemingly basic functions and rules are not respected.
She also said she was "utterly appalled" this month by the behavior at her first regular board meeting. Student protestors spoke without regard to the standard rules of order for public meetings, and alumni of Miller Middle School focused on what the school's closing meant to them instead of what keeping it open would mean for the children who would go there.
Also, Calloway said she has been shocked by the degree to which school officials do not follow proper procedures.
For example, Calloway said, she was surprised that officials started spending school funds on a $500,000 student-recruitment campaign without school board approval.
District officials have made stabilizing enrollment a priority this year, noting that if the number of full-time students drops below 100,000, state law opens the door for more charter schools to open. Those schools would compete with DPS for the same students and state money. The district has lost more than 60,000 students over the past decade, including 14,000 last year.
The door-to-door part of the project stalled and the campaign's future became uncertain once Calloway asked officials to provide her the costs and data showing why they think the effort will work.
"It never went through the proper channels," she said.
Ads have run on television, radio, in print and on three city buses, but the door-to-door component has not hit full stride and officials could not say when or whether it would.
Officials say that over two weeks, 17 attendance agents reenrolled 151 students headed to other schools in the fall and added 13 not in DPS last year, said district spokesman Lekan Oguntoyinbo.
District officials also met this week with the leaders of the dozen alternative schools that operated under contracts with DPS last year to discuss another procedural breakdown, Calloway said. She said some of the schools -- which the Free Press found to be operating with little or no oversight -- might operate again.
But part of the fault for the problems the contract schools faced lies with the district, she said. The contractors -- community and church groups -- were not properly trained in the state Department of Education's regulations, she said.
"I'm amazed that that wasn't clear," she said.
Calloway said she expects Detroiters to take part in fixing the district's problems.
"I didn't come here to do everyone's job for them," she said, adding that she doesn't want to be bogged down in political minutia. "I focus on the doughnut, not the hole," she said. "Children, children, children."
Board President Jimmy Womack said that while the enrollment drive is important, Calloway was right to demand accountability. "I think she's asking all of the appropriate questions, but here's the rub -- people want you to have that answer yesterday," he said.
Contact CHASTITY PRATT at 313-223-4537 or cpratt@freepress.com.
Copyright © 2007 Detroit Free Press Inc.
Job 1: Create dynamics for change
July 28, 2007
On the job for less than a month, Dr. Connie Calloway met Friday with the Free Press editorial board to discuss her impressions of what she has encountered so far and her vision for the district's future. Excerpts from that interview follow:
At the board meeting, I sat there utterly appalled. I saw 11 board members. They certainly had different agendas. I saw attorneys representing the district and attorneys representing the board. What does that suggest?
I also saw in the audience groups of adults who were desperately loyal to a school that is slated to be decommissioned, and their conversation was about the alumni, not about the displaced students. Not about the appropriateness of whether that building should remain commissioned or decommissioned.
I saw a group of adults who had bused in or brought by car a group of students who stood there and were disrespectful to adults -- board members -- and were talking about issues and civil rights. They stood for close to an hour belittling adults and board members with what were clearly prepared scripts for them.
There was another group that was there. They were there to support one board member.
So, I sat there and looked and said everyone has demands and wants something for the schools, but how many times that evening did I hear a conversation focused on what's best for the children?
In my more than 30 years working in schools, I have attended and participated in and organized more school board meetings than the law allows. I know the rules of conduct, and the structure and the laws governing them, and I am at a loss for words here. That's the best way to put it.
I first had to always acknowledge that this is the board, or eight of them at least, or six or whatever it was, that selected me. Which means they came and interviewed me. They met me. I spent three days here. They know who I am. They wanted someone who is honest, ethical, experienced and knowledgeable. They have checked into every crevice of my life. And they knew what they were getting. So, with that, I have to believe that they, too, want to change their governance structure.
We need governance that works in the best interest of children, all decisions. Governance that is fiscally responsible. We need governance that operates by some standard operating procedures so that there is consistency; governance where the roles are clear, because it is the responsibility of the school board to make policy.
It is the responsibility of the superintendent to operate the district. Governance that operates and conducts its affairs as does the governing board of any high-profile public entity, elected entity, with oversight for $1.4 billion of public money. Governance that operates by rules and procedure and that sets a model for what is expected for the organization.
I create successful dynamics that change the situation. If Detroit just demands that I push paper, that I try to carve out authority of the superintendent from the media, from governance, then it's squandered time in my opinion.
What I don't want to happen is everything is waiting on Dr. Calloway. At one of our committee meetings last night, I was asked what was I going to do about something that happened years ago. And this is what I said to them: "I'm not a magician. I'm not Jesus. I'm not a celebrity. I do not have the ability to put my hand into the past and fix it. I have today and tomorrow. If I did have the ability to put my hand into the past and fix it, I'd fix slavery. I'd go for a big one. So leave me today and tomorrow."
Copyright © 2007 Detroit Free Press Inc.
Fix hard truths about DPS
July 28, 2007
Connie Calloway has just one word to describe the bedlam, shouting and disrespect she encountered at her first Detroit Public Schools board meeting: appalling.
The new superintendent has a few more choice words to describe the sloppy, inefficient and unaccountable way that she has found the state's largest school district to be conducting most of its $1.4-billion-a-year business. The system, she says, seems "unaccustomed to process" of any kind.
It's the kind of thunderous, searing truth Detroiters need to hear about their public schools, all the better that it comes from a leader selected to move the district forward. Calloway, in a wide-ranging interview with the Free Press Friday, made clear that the city's public school system is broken and wretched, and that this community is responsible for letting it persist in that state.
Fundamental change -- in governance, expectations, accountability and just basic management -- is the only way forward, she says.
Anyone familiar with DPS knows she's right. The question now is how strongly the area's key leaders, institutions and community members support Calloway, to ensure that change really happens.
Detroit has failed leaders who speak truth before.
Think of Deborah McGriff, hired in the early 1990s to shepherd the school system through the early days of reform. She was blunt, too, about how awful she found things to be here, and she refused to back away from tough assessments or unpopular prescriptions.
She lasted less than two years, though, because those who don't want to hear the truth were allowed to cast her as the enemy. Nearly 20 years later, no one can credibly argue that things are better than they were when she left.
Detroit can't afford to fail Calloway in a similar fashion.
Just three weeks into the job, she is demonstrating a no-nonsense approach that's focused on bringing order, process and accountability to every aspect of the district.
A few examples: Calloway notes that Detroiters have argued for years over the way the school system doles out contracts. Rather than focus on the accusations, she has asked the district's procurement office to outline its standard operating procedures, so she can check to see that the proper safeguards are in place. She said she'll do the same with every department.
Calloway also halted the district's "Retain and Gain" program, aimed at stemming DPS's prolific population loss, because no one could tell her how successful the program had been. "Ask where the process was for Retain and Gain," she said Friday, noting that she couldn't even get a straight answer about how much the program was costing. "Even inconsistent process would be a step in the right direction."
Calloway has a steep learning curve, coming from a very small district with nowhere near the public spotlight she'll endure in DPS. She'll certainly make mistakes. She'll offer some ideas that won't work.
But she's saying the right things already, and that marks a great start. Everyone who believes this city can have world-class public schools ought to help her transform those words into action.
Copyright © 2007 Detroit Free Press Inc.
AIM Voyage (21st Century Digital Learning Environments 501)
ONE THOUSAND DAYS AT SEA
http://1000days.net/home/
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
EDUCATORS REVEAL SECRETS OF REFORM
http://www.eschoolnews.com Contents Copyright 2007 eSchool News. All rights reserved.
Educators reveal secrets of reform On lawmakers’ doorstep, savvy educators describe tested success strategies
By Meris Stansbury, Assistant Editor, eSchool News July 25, 2007
Educators--at least the savvy ones--know exactly what it takes to give high school students a genuine shot at academic success, and on July 23, some of the nation’s savviest came together to spell it out . . . right on Congress’s doorstep.
At least, that was the core message the nation’s lawmakers could have absorbed at a meeting convened in unison by the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) and the Alliance for Excellent Education (AEE). It was said to be the first joint program produced by the two organizations.
Here, as these educators described them, are the essential ingredients for high school reform: Effective technology, integrated by well-trained and competent teachers, and solid longitudinal data that provide not just accountability but also a compass by which to keep teaching and learning on a true course for each unique student.
SETDA Executive Director Mary Ann Wolf and former West Virginia Gov. Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education (AEE), introduced a panel consisting of local and state educators and a valedictorian from a District of Columbia high school to talk about programs proven effective over time in real-life schools.
“There are 20,000 high schools, and 2,000 of those 20,000 high schools account for a majority of the dropouts,” Wise declared. “So we know where the dropout factories are.”
The mission of AEE, he explained, is “to promote high school transformation to make it possible for every child to graduate prepared for postsecondary education and success in life.”
AEE seeks to replace those “dropout factories” with well-functioning, successful high schools. It’s critical that America do this, Wise said, because “some 7,000 students drop out of high school every day.” Meanwhile, 90 percent of the fastest growing careers “require a secondary education,” he said.
Wolf had worrisome statistics of her own.
Only 5 percent of U.S. students now go into math or science, she said, and between 1989 to 2001, U.S. patent applications from Asia grew 759 percent, while applications from the U.S. itself grew by only 116 percent.
Yet, Wolf expressed optimism. “It’s not too late to make a real difference for these students and our country,” she insisted, citing positive examples of effective ed-tech programs across the U.S., such as the Technology Immersion Pilot (TIP) in Floydada High School in Texas, where thanks to a successful combination of professional development, assessment tools, and integrated technology, test scores in language arts, math, and science among 10th graders grew 24, 26, and 34 percent, respectively, from 2005 to 2006.
Wolf pointed to legislation pending in the U.S. House of Representatives that she said could help educators replicate those kinds of gains. The bill, if passed, would be known as the Achievement Through Technology and Innovation (ATTAIN) Act.
Now, SETDA and AEE are encouraging lawmakers to introduce a version of that bill in the U.S. Senate. (See New bill would revamp ed-tech funding http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStory.cfm?ArticleID=7092)
With adequate support and proper implementation from a measure such as ATTAIN, the meeting organizers said, the reforms described by panelists at the Capitol Hill meeting would not be isolated triumphs but could be disseminated to high schools from coast to coast.
Panelists, such as Jeanie Gordon, superintendent of the New Franklin School District in Missouri, gave their personal examples of success. Gordon talked about the eMINTS program, which raised student test scores by as much as 15 percent compared with scores of students in classrooms without eMINTS. (See Study: Missouri’s ed-tech program pays off http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showstory.cfm?ArticleID=3673) eMINTS stands for Enhancing Missouri's Instructional Networked Teaching Strategies. Today, the program has blossomed in nine states.
Gordon emphasized that data are imperative for student achievement, saying “we need data to know where we need to make changes…. [S]tudent achievement has many variables, from attendance to learning style, from special needs to personal health, and we need data to vary teaching methods--methods that include the use of technology to help these students.”
Another panelist, Bruce Umpstead, director of educational technology and data for Michigan’s Department of Education, said “leadership and fundamental technology are critical” to student success. He gave examples of Michigan’s effort to support ed-tech and data through the Freedom to Learn Initiative.
Frances Bradburn, director of instructional technology for North Carolina’s department of public instruction, gave examples of success through her state’s Impact schools.
According to Bradburn, Impact schools, which offer technology tool sets and professional development training, turn at-risk students into bellwethers of success: “You can see [through students’ increased participation and enthusiasm for learning] that these tools are changing things.” Impact schools have “shown increased achievement levels in math and science, more than other schools, as well as a decreased dropout rate,” Bradburn reported.
Lan Neugent, Virginia’s assistant superintendent for school technology, spoke of the need to link statewide assessment to individual student assessment to ensure success. Neugent said a major component of improvement in Virginia is “24/7 student access to education” made possible through technology.
Perhaps the most compelling testament was given by Ciara Belle, a recent graduate of McKinley Technology High School in Washington, D.C. Belle, valedictorian of her class and a Gates Millennium Scholar, stressed classroom innovation. “When we talk about needing technology in the classroom, we’re not just talking about using a laptop to type a book report,” she said. “We’re talking about using outside-of-the-box thinking to foster learning.” Belle gave the example of a student learning math so he could develop a video game. “There’s a lot of geometry and physics involved in creating a video game,” she said. “If you want to design your own game, you have to know the basics.”
This year, Belle’s McKinley High School had the highest graduation rate in Washington, with over 90 percent of students graduating, she said.
Panelists gave many other positive examples of how data and technology can improve student achievement, but they also warned of the problems. Gordon cited the lack of financial support and an inadequate IT infrastructure as two significant obstacles. Umpstead said Michigan has “create[d] pockets of excellence based on Title II D, but lacks full funding in order to achieve statewide excellence.”
In response to those problems, panelists advised policy makers to support district-wide funding, try rolling out reform more quickly, focus harder on comprehensive teacher training and professional development, and get more students, not just adults, involved in future forums.
In summation, Wolf enumerated the common themes set forth by the panelists:
“As you look across these examples, you begin to see that this good teaching, this individualized approach using the resources that meet the needs of each student, the possibility of student-centered instruction--all lead to an increase in the skills needed for our students to graduate and be college- and work-ready.
Themes quickly emerge:
1. Leadership provides vision and support;
2. On-going professional development changes teaching and learning;
3. Data drive decisions;
4. High-quality resources and tools support engaged learning and high-quality teaching;
5. Communication across the district--with parents and all stakeholders--is key.”
In spite of the numerous and grave challenges confronting education, the meeting ended on an upbeat note. Every day, we are educating more children who need and deserve excellent education, Wolf pointed out. “We haven’t missed our opportunity.”
Links:
ATTAINhttp://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStory.cfm?ArticleID=7092
eMINTShttp://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStory.cfm?ArticleID=3673
TIP Floydadahttp://www.educ.ttu.edu/tip/
Freedom to Learn Initiativehttp://www.ftlwireless.org/
Impact Schoolshttp://www.impactschools.org/
PASS Schoolshttp://www.pen.k12.va.us/VDOE/SchoolImprovement/pass.html
Alliance for Excellent Educationhttp://www.all4ed.org/
SETDAhttp://www.setda.org/
www.eschoolnews.com info@eschoolnews.com 7920 Norfolk Ave., Suite 900 Bethesda, MD 20814 (800) 394-0115 - Fax (301) 913-0119 Privacy Policy Manage your FREE eSchool News eMail subscriptions here Contents Copyright 2007 eSchool News. All rights reserved.
Educators reveal secrets of reform On lawmakers’ doorstep, savvy educators describe tested success strategies
By Meris Stansbury, Assistant Editor, eSchool News July 25, 2007
Educators--at least the savvy ones--know exactly what it takes to give high school students a genuine shot at academic success, and on July 23, some of the nation’s savviest came together to spell it out . . . right on Congress’s doorstep.
At least, that was the core message the nation’s lawmakers could have absorbed at a meeting convened in unison by the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) and the Alliance for Excellent Education (AEE). It was said to be the first joint program produced by the two organizations.
Here, as these educators described them, are the essential ingredients for high school reform: Effective technology, integrated by well-trained and competent teachers, and solid longitudinal data that provide not just accountability but also a compass by which to keep teaching and learning on a true course for each unique student.
SETDA Executive Director Mary Ann Wolf and former West Virginia Gov. Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education (AEE), introduced a panel consisting of local and state educators and a valedictorian from a District of Columbia high school to talk about programs proven effective over time in real-life schools.
“There are 20,000 high schools, and 2,000 of those 20,000 high schools account for a majority of the dropouts,” Wise declared. “So we know where the dropout factories are.”
The mission of AEE, he explained, is “to promote high school transformation to make it possible for every child to graduate prepared for postsecondary education and success in life.”
AEE seeks to replace those “dropout factories” with well-functioning, successful high schools. It’s critical that America do this, Wise said, because “some 7,000 students drop out of high school every day.” Meanwhile, 90 percent of the fastest growing careers “require a secondary education,” he said.
Wolf had worrisome statistics of her own.
Only 5 percent of U.S. students now go into math or science, she said, and between 1989 to 2001, U.S. patent applications from Asia grew 759 percent, while applications from the U.S. itself grew by only 116 percent.
Yet, Wolf expressed optimism. “It’s not too late to make a real difference for these students and our country,” she insisted, citing positive examples of effective ed-tech programs across the U.S., such as the Technology Immersion Pilot (TIP) in Floydada High School in Texas, where thanks to a successful combination of professional development, assessment tools, and integrated technology, test scores in language arts, math, and science among 10th graders grew 24, 26, and 34 percent, respectively, from 2005 to 2006.
Wolf pointed to legislation pending in the U.S. House of Representatives that she said could help educators replicate those kinds of gains. The bill, if passed, would be known as the Achievement Through Technology and Innovation (ATTAIN) Act.
Now, SETDA and AEE are encouraging lawmakers to introduce a version of that bill in the U.S. Senate. (See New bill would revamp ed-tech funding http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStory.cfm?ArticleID=7092)
With adequate support and proper implementation from a measure such as ATTAIN, the meeting organizers said, the reforms described by panelists at the Capitol Hill meeting would not be isolated triumphs but could be disseminated to high schools from coast to coast.
Panelists, such as Jeanie Gordon, superintendent of the New Franklin School District in Missouri, gave their personal examples of success. Gordon talked about the eMINTS program, which raised student test scores by as much as 15 percent compared with scores of students in classrooms without eMINTS. (See Study: Missouri’s ed-tech program pays off http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showstory.cfm?ArticleID=3673) eMINTS stands for Enhancing Missouri's Instructional Networked Teaching Strategies. Today, the program has blossomed in nine states.
Gordon emphasized that data are imperative for student achievement, saying “we need data to know where we need to make changes…. [S]tudent achievement has many variables, from attendance to learning style, from special needs to personal health, and we need data to vary teaching methods--methods that include the use of technology to help these students.”
Another panelist, Bruce Umpstead, director of educational technology and data for Michigan’s Department of Education, said “leadership and fundamental technology are critical” to student success. He gave examples of Michigan’s effort to support ed-tech and data through the Freedom to Learn Initiative.
Frances Bradburn, director of instructional technology for North Carolina’s department of public instruction, gave examples of success through her state’s Impact schools.
According to Bradburn, Impact schools, which offer technology tool sets and professional development training, turn at-risk students into bellwethers of success: “You can see [through students’ increased participation and enthusiasm for learning] that these tools are changing things.” Impact schools have “shown increased achievement levels in math and science, more than other schools, as well as a decreased dropout rate,” Bradburn reported.
Lan Neugent, Virginia’s assistant superintendent for school technology, spoke of the need to link statewide assessment to individual student assessment to ensure success. Neugent said a major component of improvement in Virginia is “24/7 student access to education” made possible through technology.
Perhaps the most compelling testament was given by Ciara Belle, a recent graduate of McKinley Technology High School in Washington, D.C. Belle, valedictorian of her class and a Gates Millennium Scholar, stressed classroom innovation. “When we talk about needing technology in the classroom, we’re not just talking about using a laptop to type a book report,” she said. “We’re talking about using outside-of-the-box thinking to foster learning.” Belle gave the example of a student learning math so he could develop a video game. “There’s a lot of geometry and physics involved in creating a video game,” she said. “If you want to design your own game, you have to know the basics.”
This year, Belle’s McKinley High School had the highest graduation rate in Washington, with over 90 percent of students graduating, she said.
Panelists gave many other positive examples of how data and technology can improve student achievement, but they also warned of the problems. Gordon cited the lack of financial support and an inadequate IT infrastructure as two significant obstacles. Umpstead said Michigan has “create[d] pockets of excellence based on Title II D, but lacks full funding in order to achieve statewide excellence.”
In response to those problems, panelists advised policy makers to support district-wide funding, try rolling out reform more quickly, focus harder on comprehensive teacher training and professional development, and get more students, not just adults, involved in future forums.
In summation, Wolf enumerated the common themes set forth by the panelists:
“As you look across these examples, you begin to see that this good teaching, this individualized approach using the resources that meet the needs of each student, the possibility of student-centered instruction--all lead to an increase in the skills needed for our students to graduate and be college- and work-ready.
Themes quickly emerge:
1. Leadership provides vision and support;
2. On-going professional development changes teaching and learning;
3. Data drive decisions;
4. High-quality resources and tools support engaged learning and high-quality teaching;
5. Communication across the district--with parents and all stakeholders--is key.”
In spite of the numerous and grave challenges confronting education, the meeting ended on an upbeat note. Every day, we are educating more children who need and deserve excellent education, Wolf pointed out. “We haven’t missed our opportunity.”
Links:
ATTAINhttp://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStory.cfm?ArticleID=7092
eMINTShttp://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStory.cfm?ArticleID=3673
TIP Floydadahttp://www.educ.ttu.edu/tip/
Freedom to Learn Initiativehttp://www.ftlwireless.org/
Impact Schoolshttp://www.impactschools.org/
PASS Schoolshttp://www.pen.k12.va.us/VDOE/SchoolImprovement/pass.html
Alliance for Excellent Educationhttp://www.all4ed.org/
SETDAhttp://www.setda.org/
www.eschoolnews.com info@eschoolnews.com 7920 Norfolk Ave., Suite 900 Bethesda, MD 20814 (800) 394-0115 - Fax (301) 913-0119 Privacy Policy Manage your FREE eSchool News eMail subscriptions here Contents Copyright 2007 eSchool News. All rights reserved.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
AIM for Education Futures (ANYONE?)
eSN TechWatch: Redefining 'intelligence' -- July 23, 2007
http://www.eschoolnews.com
One "GIANT STEP" towards IRRELEVANCE and One "GIANT LEAP" for Democracy! YOU BE THE JUDGE!
(CNN via Associated Press)
YouTube contributors pose a question to the Democratic presidential candidates at the debate in Charleston, S.C., on Monday night.
Crackdown in the classroom
Use a cell phone in Plymouth-Canton schools and you can wind up suspended
July 24, 2007
Plymouth-Canton Community Schools is getting tough on students caught using cell phones or iPods in school, going further than most districts in the state by punishing them with automatic suspensions for breaking the rules.
It's an unpopular move with students, but one that the district says is necessary to address a surge in violations of rules. The district says it tackles growing concerns about safety, security and students using electronic devices to cheat during class. And they expect other districts to follow suit
Instead of having the items confiscated and/or serving a detention, students now will be suspended -- one day for a first violation and up to five days for four or more violations.
"Will we have some people who will object? My gosh, of course. But if you look at the statistics, clearly you can see we've got to do something," said Bob Hayes, director for student services.
"This was not done capriciously. It's easy to punish. And punishment doesn't teach. We want to teach people responsible use," Hayes said.
Most districts in metro Detroit have policies similar to the previous rules in Plymouth-Canton, allowing devices on campus as long as they're off and out of sight, but officials in this Wayne County district believe they have good reason to bring down the hammer and suspend students instead of simply taking the devices away.
Hayes said the number of violations of the old policy prohibiting the use of electronic communications devices increased from 563 in 2005-06 to 1,374 in 2006-07. The surge, he said, is a sign that the previous penalties weren't enough of a deterrent.
Dealing with cheating
Cheating is one of the major reasons cited in a letter the district sent to summer school parents, and it is an area of increasing concern.
The Josephson Institute for Ethics in Los Angeles, in its annual report on ethics among American youth, reported that 60% of the 36,000 students surveyed in 2006 said they had cheated during a test at school within the previous 12 months; 35% said they had done so two or more times.
How often students use electronic devices to cheat is unknown.
Patrick Fitzpatrick, an assistant principal at Salem High School, said about 4% of the referrals he gets about students violating the policy on electronic devices are because they've been caught using the devices to cheat. Fitzpatrick is one of six assistant principals at the district's three high schools who handle discipline.
Savvy students can have their cell phones in their pocket and text message test answers to a friend, or ask a friend to give them an answer to a question. An iPod also can be used to cheat. Hayes said he's heard of students downloading difficult math or science formulas onto their iPods, then listening to the formulas during a test.
How do they avoid getting caught? They can hide the iPod in a pocket or under their clothing, snake the earphone cord through their shirt and cover the earpiece with a shirt collar, a hoodie or their hand.
Students are mixed about whether cheating is enough of a concern to warrant tougher penalties. Jing Guan, 17, of Canton, a junior at Plymouth High School, said she's seen students cheat by text-messaging answers to a test.
"Some kids are guilty, but they're treating everyone like they're guilty," Jing said.
But Brad Sullivan, a junior from Canton, said he doesn't think electronic cheating is a problem.
"Normally people cheat the old-fashioned way," said Brad, 16.
Michigan used to make this issue easy for schools. Up until 2004, all electronic devices were banned. But in 2004, the state left it up to districts to decide.
Safety and security
Local school administrators know how distracting, and disruptive, the devices can be, particularly in the classroom. One district, Southfield Public Schools, has more severe penalties for students who have a device that goes off during a class.
Safety and security also are key issues, Hayes said. If there were an emergency at the three high schools, and all students used their cell phones to call home, emergency workers would have a difficult time getting through to communicate with administrators.
Another concern, Hayes said, is that students have used their phones to text message or call each other to meet up for an anticipated fight.
Students not happy about it
Students acknowledge there is a problem, but say suspension isn't the answer.
"They need to get more strict, but they're taking it too far," said Scott Dreaver, 17, of Canton, a senior at Salem High School. He said he's had five violations and thought that automatic suspension would mean students will miss out on classroom work.
Students routinely ignore the rules, which are spelled out in the student code of conduct. Some of the students interviewed said that they never turn their cell phones off, and some acknowledge that they answer calls or text-message during the day. Some of the violations have been from parents calling their children during the school day.
The new penalties kicked in for summer school, but because of the abbreviated nature of the summer classes, a first offense got a three-hour detention instead of suspension. But while the message has clearly been sent, many students are still angry about it.
"There's not a day that goes by that people don't complain about it," said Lexa Dilmore, 16, a junior at Plymouth High School.
Contact LORI HIGGINS at 248-351-3694 or lhiggins@freepress.com.
Copyright © 2007 Detroit Free Press Inc.
YouTube revolutionizes debate
Democrats field online questions
July 24, 2007
CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Young, Internet-savvy voters challenged Democratic presidential hopefuls on gun control, the military draft and the candidates' place in a broken political system, playing starring roles in a provocative, video-driven debate Monday night.
"Wassup?" came the first question, from a voter named Zach, after another, named Chris, opened the CNN-YouTube debate with a barb aimed at the entire eight-candidate field: "Can you as politicians ... actually answer questions rather than beat around the bush?"
The answer was a qualified yes. The candidates faced blunt questions -- from earnest to the ridiculous -- and, in many cases, responded in kind.
To Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois: Are you black enough? "You know, when I'm catching a cab in Manhattan ... I'm giving my credentials," he replied.
To Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York: Are you feminine enough? "I couldn't run as anything other than a woman," she said, drawing a challenge from former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, who said he was the best women's advocate onstage.
One voter asked whether young women should register for the draft. Clinton, Obama and Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut said yes.
The debate featured questions submitted to the online video community YouTube and screened by CNN. A talking snowman, two rednecks and a woman speaking from her bathroom were among the twists to the oldest forum in politics: debate.
A Clio man asked about gun control while brandishing a firearm.
"He needs help," Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware snapped.
Copyright © 2007 Detroit Free Press Inc.
A Maverick's AIM for Change!
Maverick Leads Charge for Charter Schools
LOS ANGELES — Steve Barr, a major organizer of charter schools, has been waging what often seems like a guerrilla war for control of this city’s chronically failing high schools.
In just seven years, Mr. Barr’s Green Dot Public Schools organization has founded 10 charter high schools and has won approval to open 10 more. Now, in his most aggressive challenge to the public school system, he is fighting to seize control of Locke Senior High, a gang-ridden school in Watts known as one of the city’s worst. A 15-year-old girl was killed by gunfire there in 2005.
In the process, Mr. Barr has fomented a teachers revolt against the Los Angeles Unified School District. He has driven a wedge through the city’s teachers union by welcoming organized labor — in contrast to other charter operators — and signing a contract with an upstart union. And he has mobilized thousands of black and Hispanic parents to demand better schools.
Educators and policy makers from Sacramento to Washington are watching closely because many believe Green Dot’s audacious tactics have the potential to strengthen and expand the charter school movement nationwide.
“He’s got a take-no-prisoners style,” said Jaime Regalado, the director of the Edmund G. “Pat” Brown Institute of Public Affairs at California State University, Los Angeles. “He’s channeled the outrage of African-American and Latino parents into the public space in a way that’s new.”
Charter schools are publicly financed but managed by groups separate from school districts. Most other major charter organizations have focused on opening easier-to-run elementary and middle schools, not taking over devastated high schools.
Mr. Barr says, “We want systemic change, not to create oases in a desert.”
And while most charters have nonunion teachers and are often called union busters by opponents, Mr. Barr, a former fund-raiser for the California Democratic Party and co-founder of Rock the Vote, prefers to work with organized labor. Teachers at Green Dot schools have a contract, though one less rigid than at other Los Angeles schools.
Mr. Barr’s posture, as well as promising results at some of his schools, has attracted teachers to his side, even while splitting the larger teachers union, some of whose officials have been fighting him tooth and nail. Randi Weingarten, the president of the United Federation of Teachers in New York City, is working with him to put a Green Dot school in the South Bronx.
That alliance embarrassed United Teachers Los Angeles, which represents some 40,000 teachers. A. J. Duffy, its president, said in an interview that his union had allowed work rule waivers for some schools, but had erred several years ago by ruling out an arrangement with Green Dot.
“We could have and probably should have organized the Green Dot schools,” Mr. Duffy said. “They started with one charter school, now have 10, and in short order they’ll have 20 schools in Los Angeles, with all the teachers paying dues to a different union. And that’s a problem.”
The union representing Green Dot teachers, Association de Maestros Unidos, has a 33-page contract that offers competitive salaries but no tenure, and it allows class schedule and other instructional flexibility outlawed by the 330-page contract governing most Los Angeles schools.
Andrew J. Rotherham, who worked in the Clinton White House and is co-director of Education Sector, a research group in Washington, said, “Green Dot is mobilizing parents in poor neighborhoods and offering an alternative for frustrated teachers, and that’s scrambling the cozy power arrangements between the school district and the union to a degree not seen anywhere else.”
Mr. Barr has not just used his charters to challenge the district. He is also an ally of Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa, a Democrat who has also battled the Los Angeles school district, seeking mayoral control.
The district superintendent , David L. Brewer III, met with Mr. Barr several times last spring to discuss his proposals for Locke, but those talks broke down.
“Mr. Brewer has said he continues to be interested in partnering with Green Dot,” said Greg McNair, who leads the district’s charter school division.
Green Dot is part of a new wave of nonprofit, high-performing charter chains that have grown rapidly with philanthropic financing, in Green Dot’s case especially from the Broad and the Bill & Melinda Gates foundations. Others include the Kipp Schools, in 18 states, and Achievement First, with 12 schools in New York and New Haven, said Ted Mitchell, head of the NewSchools Venture Fund, a San Francisco group that works with several chains.
Mr. Mitchell said that only Green Dot was mounting such an aggressive challenge to the local school board. “Many charter organizations try to induce different behavior by providing examples of good new schools,” he said. “But only Green Dot is trying to provoke a school district to behave in radically different ways.”
Some people voice skepticism about Green Dot’s methods. Clint Bolick, a lawyer who has represented many charter schools, said: “If union bosses start patrolling their hallways, that’ll be the death knell of charters, as it has been for public schools. There has to be a genuine perestroika for Green Dot’s approach to work.”
Tactics aside, the chain has had promising results. An early high school that Green Dot founded, Ànimo Inglewood, has raised the percent of students proficient in math by 40 points since 2003, and 79 percent of its students from the class of 2006 went on to college. Green Dot keeps enrollment in its high schools below 525. Incoming freshmen who need it remedial tutoring receive it, and thereafter pursue a college-prep curriculum.
Three years ago, Mr. Barr negotiated with district officials about overhauling Jefferson High School, a dropout factory in downtown Los Angeles. When the talks bogged down, Mr. Barr concluded he needed clout.
Green Dot organized a parents union, and its members, buttonholing neighbors in supermarkets and churches, collected 10,000 signatures endorsing Jefferson’s division into several smaller charter schools.
Mr. Barr marched from Jefferson High with nearly 1,000 parents to deliver the petition to district headquarters. The authorities refused to relinquish Jefferson, but the school board approved five new charters, which Green Dot inaugurated last fall, all near Jefferson and drawing students from it.
Green Dot’s recent organizing suggests that many teachers are as frustrated as parents.
Locke, designated a failing school for much of a decade, is awaiting its fourth principal in five years. This spring, Mr. Barr drew up a charter plan and began meeting with teachers to explain it. He envisioned using the Locke campus for smaller schools that emphasize college prep and give teachers more decision-making authority.
He invited Frank Wells, Locke’s principal, to tour a Green Dot charter in May, a day on which Education Secretary Margaret Spellings would be visiting. Before parents, teachers and the secretary, Mr. Wells denounced the district as using Locke as a dumping ground for incompetent teachers.
“I went to Locke thinking I could turn it around, but I ran into a brick wall,” Mr. Wells said.
On May 7, teachers began circulating a petition endorsing Green Dot’s plan for Locke, and more than half of Locke’s 73-member tenured staff members signed. Bruce Smith, an English teacher who gathered signatures, said most young teachers were eager to sign; older teachers were reluctant.
“Among the people who opposed us, nobody said, ‘The district is doing a great job here,’ ” Mr. Smith recalled. “It was mostly, ‘What about our job security?’ ”
The district authorities accused Mr. Wells of fomenting the revolt, dispatched guards to escort him from the building, and dismissed him, Mr. Wells said. Binti Harvey, a district spokeswoman, declined to discuss Mr. Wells.
A decision by Locke’s teachers to break with the district would be an embarrassment for the school district and the teachers union. Both began lobbying the teachers. Last month, the district rejected Green Dot’s petition, saying 17 teachers had withdrawn their endorsement, leaving it without the majority necessary to comply with a charter conversion law.
But a newly elected board of education is to reconsider the petition in August.
Mr. Barr says that if he does not win the chance to use the Locke campus for his new charter schools, he will surround it with Green Dot’s next 10 charter schools, which are to open nearby in 2008, supported by a $7.8 million donation from the Gates Foundation.
“If the district doesn’t work with me, I’ll compete with them and take their kids,” Mr. Barr said.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Youth Inspired Technology AIMS to SNEAK-UP on Political Process!
YouTube debate all about real folks
July 23, 2007
Here's my usual routine for watching the approximately 619 presidential debates that have aired so far on basic cable.
Sit down with every intention of paying close attention. Slip into a semi-coma after listening to 10 minutes of canned responses. Revive briefly when Dennis Kucinich waves his pocket copy of the Constitution. Develop a low-level migraine. Flip to a "King of Queens" rerun.
Yet, I live in hope that tonight's CNN/YouTube presidential debate (7 on CNN) will restore my faith -- or at least my interest level -- in unscripted democracy in action. For two hours, the Democratic candidates will answer video questions sent in by real people. Anderson Cooper, who's also a real person (although his perfect silver hair does seem computer-generated) will moderate.
A quick browse through potential questions posted on YouTube indicates tonight's proceedings could be as rib-tickling as "America's Funniest Home Political Queries."
I'm really, really hoping they'll choose the question sent in by a Kermit the Frog puppet who hails from East Lansing. I'll also be a satisfied citizen if they let the man dressed as an ancient Viking ask about illegal immigration.
CNN has run a promo for the debate that includes footage of someone wearing some sort of wrestling mask. I don't know what the person's question is, but I imagine it's a show of hands on which candidates have rented "Nacho Libre."
The debate stuff only scratches the surface of the strange and unexpected footage generated by the 2008 presidential race. Consider what else this started-too-soon campaign season has spawned on the Web:
• In parody videos, scantily clad young women sing racy love ballads about candidates. The "I Got a Crush ... on Obama" video has racked up more than 2 million views on YouTube, with lyrics like, "You're into border security; let's break this border between you and me." There's also a follow-up, "Obama Girl vs. Giuliani Girl," which includes a pillow fight. Guess that's one way to rock the vote.
• Not to be outdone, an aspiring actress named Taryn Southern has created a parody called Hott4Hill. In it, she sings about having a major crush on Hillary Clinton and waxes lyrical about Hillary's pantsuits and, um, the way she fills them out.
• Democratic underdog Mike Gravel stars in a video where he stands outdoors and stares silently into the camera for about a minute and a half. He throws a rock into a body of water. Then he walks away. Pretty deep and arty. But he'd make a bigger splash if he threw something tonight at Joe Biden.
• Republican challenger Ron Paul guests in a video touted as the first-ever interview with a presidential candidate from a college dorm room. It's good to know Paul is so accessible, especially if you're a third-grader who wants to bring a candidate to show-and-tell.
Clearly, everything you need to know about the 2008 presidential election, you can pretty much learn from YouTube. So why not jump in and add your two cents? All it takes is a digital video camera, a nutty costume and maybe some lyrics that rhyme with Mike Huckabee.
JULIE HINDS writes about pop culture and has an excuse to watch YouTube at work.Contact her at 313-222-6427 or hinds@freepress.com.
Copyright © 2007 Detroit Free Press Inc.
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