Posted on by arotherham

Old Hess, New Guiderra, Free Aspire, And An Edujob

Aimee Guiderra (a TIME 12 for 12) of DQC with a thoughtful take on ed data. At Aspire Public Schools, they are giving it away (pdf)!*

The old I’m Rick Hess B**ch is back! The public should have a say in public schools, he says.  Money graf:

…if you’re wondering why people who aren’t experts on schooling get to make policy, it’s simple: they’re elected to do that. You can argue that educators should have an untrammeled right to spend public dollars, educate the public’s kids, and run public schools as they see fit. But you can do so coherently if, and only if, you think military officials should have a free hand to make national security policy, police should get a free hand to write criminal law, doctors and pharmaceutical companies to make health policy, and bankers to regulate banking. Otherwise, if you want a say in things like health policy or whether police racially profile, then you need to recognize that folks expect educators to live by those same rules.

NACSA is hiring for a vice president handling human capital – fun role and a key organization in the sector.

Note – BW works with DQC.

7 Replies to “Old Hess, New Guiderra, Free Aspire, And An Edujob”

  1. So, still no defense of Campbell Brown’s lying?
    Typical, Andy.

    More on Campbell Brown and her duplicity:

    When confronted over the issue of her husband’s work on Twitter and her lack of disclosure in her Wall Street Journal op-ed, Brown wrote: “B/c protecting kids from sex predator teacher is a partisan issue?”

    This is at odds with a New York Times op-ed she wrote in May that was critical of President Obama, where she included the following statement:

    I should disclose here that my husband is an adviser to Mr. Romney; I have no involvement with any campaign, and have been an independent journalist throughout my career.

    http://mediamatters.org/blog/2012/08/01/campbell-browns-disclosure-problem/189068

  2. What’s Campbell Brown Doing Smearing Teachers All Over the Media?

    There’s just one problem with Brown’s argument: it doesn’t hold up under even the most casual scrutiny.

    The relevant portion of the contract, which you can read in its entirety here, says:

    6. Sexual Offenses Involving Students or Minors

    A tenured pedagogue who has been charged under the criminal law or under §3020-a of the New York State Education Law with an act or acts constituting sexual misconduct (defined below) shall be suspended without pay upon a finding by a hearing officer of probable cause that sexual misconduct was committed.

    ….

    In §3020-a proceedings, a mandatory penalty of discharge shall apply to any tenured pedagogue a) found by a hearing officer to have engaged in sexual misconduct, or b) who has pleaded guilty to or been found guilty of criminal charges for such conduct.

    ….

    For purposes of this section, sexual misconduct shall include the following conduct involving a student or a minor who is not a student: sexual touching, serious or repeated verbal abuse (as defined in Chancellor’s Regulations) of a sexual nature, action that could reasonably be interpreted as soliciting a sexual relationship, possession or use of illegal child pornography, and/or actions that would constitute criminal conduct under Article 130 of the Penal Law against a student or minor who is not a student.

    In other words, school districts not only have the authority to terminate teachers who commit sexual misconduct—they are required to.

    There’s no reason for a professional reporter not to know this. This contract was agreed to by Joel Klein, the former New York schools chancellor, and the teachers’ union. Klein is now the chief executive of Rupert Murdoch’s “fledgling education division” and is a board member of StudentsFirst, the infamous anti-union organization led by scandal-plagued former Washington, DC schools chancellor Michelle Rhee. Also on the board of StudentsFirst? Dan Senor, Campbell Brown’s husband.

    Though Brown denied that StudentsFirst had anything to do with her Op-Ed and her TV appearance, StudentsFirst sent an angry email to supporters when Brown’s connection to their organization (whose talking points she’s parroting) was pointed out

    http://www.alternet.org/whats-campbell-brown-doing-smearing-teachers-all-over-media?paging=off

  4. Well the comments on Rick Hess’ piece aren’t as complimentary as Andy, and in fact, most make fairly good points.

  5. Whatever our political or ideological persuasions, most of us would agree that there are too many Americans who truly do not put children first. I have heard of this situation:

    There is a woman who dumped her husband when she “fell in love” with a more handsome and powerful man, even though the man was accused of molesting little girls. The woman even has two daughters but solved that problem by handing over custody to the ex-husband, a good father. The woman did not want to be burdened with the daily care of two children. Sadly this story is only too common in our country.

    Kudos to the parents and teachers who care for our children each day for little or no money, and even less prestige. As Thomas Moore said to the prospective teacher in the film
    “A Man for All Seasons”: “You know and God knows what you do.” Indeed.

  6. About Rick: it’s fine to have oversight and input from political and personal interests, suggest policy, but do so honestly–and that is not the current state of affairs in the USA. There is a not-so-hidden agenda from the would-be policy makers and it is dishonest. The other thing is, the people who have been making policy are failing and have been in fail mode for some decades now. Of course, these are the same lowlifes who called schools failing in the 1980s on trumped up charges and poor scholarship. So, it’s really rich of them to now want more control over schools and teachers when they were the ones to create the failure either by design, incompetence or both.

    Finland has found a way to have political oversight but also grant classroom teachers the authority and professional accommodations while maintaining a strong union. It’s not rocket science but Americans are making our system, like health care, more and more complicated and thus more expensive, all the damn time.

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