In This Issue:
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BURBANK SCHOOL BOARD HIRES HILL ON 4-0 VOTE, BUT NOT BEFORE BOARD MEMBER KEMP SCOLDS TEACHERS, RESIGNS AND WALKS OUT OF MEETING |
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DISTRICT
EXPELS PEARSON FROM ‘iPADS FOR ALL’ CONTRACT: “APPLE AND PEARSON
PROMISED A STATE-OF-THE-ART SOLUTION, THEY HAVE YET TO DELIVER IT” |
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SEC LAUNCHES INFORMAL INQUIRY INTO LAUSD'S USE OF BONDS FOR IPADS |
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AB 817: AN ATTACK ON STUDENT PRIVACY RIGHTS – EVEN BEFORE THEY TAKE EFFECT! |
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HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but
not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources |
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EVENTS: Coming up next week... |
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What can YOU do? |
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Featured Links:
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I had dinner the other night with a person of
elevated higher educational stature, a retired university president who
shall remain nameless lest he be connected with this scurrilous K-12
blog. At a point in the evening the conversation inevitably came around
to LAUSD’s acquisition of iPads and the bond-fundability thereof – and
he advanced his theory as to what is-and-what-is-not fundable with
public school construction+modernization bonds.
“It’s quite simple,” he said, not just professorially but
presidentially. “If the Gods were to pick up a school and shake it,
everything that falls out – employees, text books, copier paper, art
supplies, policy memos, laptop computers, playground balls, etc. should
not be paid for with school bonds.”
It’s a good theory, depending upon just how hard the Gods shake.
A little shake gets out the dubious superintendents, their sycophants
and questionable deals; shake hard enough and the fixtures come off the
walls. Then we get into the question of whether it’s maintenance or
repair+modernization.
THE LEAD IN A KPPC STORY LAST THURSDAY: “Fallout from Los Angeles
Unified’s high-profile technology troubles is being felt in a
neighboring school district.”
Fallout...? I think we have a theme!
The lead in a similar story in Wednesday’s LA School Report: “One of the
last top tier LA Unified executives who was instrumental in launching
the disastrous iPad and MISIS programs, is one step away from getting a
new job.” Disastrous? I remind 4LAKids readers that LASR was generally
editorially supportive of the previous LAUSD regime and its initiatives.
I have it on dubious yet proven authority that John Deasy was a great
friend of LASR publisher Jamie Lynton.
Those stories go on to describe the role of Broad Resident and LAUSD
Chief Strategy Officer and now Burbank Superintendent-elect Matt Hill in
iPads and MiSiS @ LAUSD.
In Hollywood the conventional wisdom is that you are only as good as your last job.
Matt Hill’s last job was the first-(and-hopefully-only) Chief Strategy
Officer for LAUSD. Did anyone on the Burbank Board of Ed ask him what
that strategy was? …and how well it worked? Burbank’s outgoing
superintendent has her doctorate in education, 40 years of experience
starting as a classroom teacher and ten years at BUSD. Matt Hill has an
MBA and experience as an executive at Black and Decker – plus that Broad
Residency Class of 2005-2007 in Oakland *
The outgoing Burbank superintendent’s salary was $205,000 a year; Hill’s
starting salary is $241,000.** Much of the time Hill’s salary at LAUSD
was supplemented by the Broad Foundation.; hopefully Eli is helping
Burbank out too, And even more hopefully, not.
And did I mention that two of the Burbank Board of Ed members are lame
ducks – replaced just last week in an election in which they were not
even candidates? One of them theatrically resigned at the board meeting
just before Hill was elevated – not out of fairness to his successor
board member-elect – but because he was upset that teachers were upset!
Not for the reason they were upset, but because they had the audacity
to be upset!
And the Quote o’ th’ Week goes to Burbank Board Member Larry Applebaum –
who, while denying that Hill’s elevation was a done deal and continuing
the open meeting farce of a fair election after listening
patiently-to-and-duly-considering-public-comment-– assured the public
and his fellow board members – after a hint-hint/nudge-nudge prompt –
that Hill’s employment contract was not done overnight but negotiated
over time. [http://bit.ly/1cDGHXT at 2:33]
AND SEEING THAT HOLLYWOOD AND LASR WERE REFERRED TO obliquely in the
last bit, here is a new parlor game to play with your digital device in
whatever passes for spare time you have in your so-called life. This
game was taught to me, not by a ne’er-do-well (I have no truck with
those), but by an occasionally-do-well of my acquaintance - known to
have caused trouble more than once for those in need of some.
Go to the WikiLeaks website that has all the hacked Sony Pictures
Studios emails brought to us courtesy of Julian Assange and Kim Jong-un.
I know, "Gentlemen don't read other gentlemen's mail”- but who are we
and Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson kidding? There is nothing
salacious there that TMZ hasn’t already found …and we are not reading
other gentleperson’s mail – these are Hollywood show-biz-peep with their
egos and avarice second only to teenage girls – this according to Sony
CEO Michael Linton on April 2, 2014. http://bit.ly/1O3hTJI
Wait, you say! Where is the LAUSD K-12 centric focus that we’ve come to expect from 4LAKids in all this eavesdropping?
If someone will play “It’s a Small World” on the kazoo in the background
let me tell you: That email from Michael Lynton cited above was to
Pearson CEO Dame Marjorie Scardino – the “Marjorie” of the John+Marjorie
LAUSD/Apple/Pearson emails:
• Michael Lynton writes to Marjorie: “John Deasy is terrific. A great
friend of Jamie's. Please please let me know the next time you are in
LA.” http://bit.ly/1Dlpxno
• Marjorie to Michael: “Anyway, I will make it a point to come to LA
soon. I was there last month and went to LA for the day to see John
Deasy (who seemed in pretty good shape) and some schools using our
digital materials. It was wonderful. “
On the WikiLeaks/Sony site [https://wikileaks.org/sony/emails/] enter
L.A. School Report in the Search box. You will turn up a lot of
personal stuff and husband wife chit chat about the train from
Madrid-to-Barcelona between Michael Lynton and his wife Jamie – who
happens to be the publisher of LA School Report. But you will also meet
some familiar characters, like Dame Marjorie. Or Equity Fund magnate
Antony Ressler, on the Board of Directors of the Cedars-Sinai Medical
Center, Finance Chair and member of the Executive Committee of the Los
Angeles County Museum of Art; Board Co-chair of the Alliance College
Ready Public Schools and board member of Campbell Hall Episcopal School
in Studio City who writes on June 5, 2014 about the District 1 LAUSD
School Board Race: “Crazy that we have a publicly elected school
board... This is NOT what democracy is supposed to be. No one in LA
cares TR” http://bit.ly/1CZAjk8
• On sept 14, 2014 Jamie Alter Lynton wrote: This is a really good list of ed reform leaders in LA :) http://bit.ly/1b8VFnQ
• On Oct 15, 2014, at 9:49 PM, Lynton, Michael wrote to Tony Ressler:
“jamie just broke the story of John Deasy's resignation and she is on
the Channel 4 11pm news, interviewed in our house! A good excuse for not
coming tonight. He gave it to her exclusively.” http://bit.ly/1Hk8EiV
He gave it all of us, inclusively.
Now search for LAUSD. Local politicos, etc.
This just in: IN L.A. IT LOOKS LIKE THE DISTRICT AND UTLA HAVE REACHED AN AGREEMENT:
18 Apr 2015 | Los Angeles (AP) | http://cbsloc.al/1H2WQmz
- The Los Angeles Unified School District has reached a tentative
contract deal with its teachers. The three-year tentative deal was
reached late Friday and includes a 10 percent raise over two years. The
Los Angeles Times [Tentative Settlement Reached Between Teachers &
L.A. Unified - http://lat.ms/1DoW3oF] reports that teachers at LAUSD have not had a raise in eight years.
Both sides have been involved in tense negotiations for more than a year
and this deal will forestall talk of a strike. The pact must be
ratified by both the union membership and the Board of Education.
Teachers had asked for an immediate 8 ½ percent raise.
The district wanted a 4 percent raise this year and a 2 percent raise
next year in the form of four additional work days for training.
IN DC THE REAUTHORIZATION/TRANSFORMATION/RECONSTITUTION of NCLB/ESEA
proceeded ploddingly+bipartisanly apace …but at least apace!
IN SACRAMENTO there was weaseling on measles vaccination [http://lat.ms/1Q5AHqb] even as the Dept. of Public Health declared the recent outbreak over: http://bit.ly/1cIWaWS.
We can all return to our homes and our tired old reliance that somebody
else’s children will get their shot. And other politicos tempted by
$pecial intere$ts began nibbling way at the student privacy protections
guaranteed in last year’s SB 1177 The Student Online Personal
Information Protection Act (SOPIPA) - a law that hasn’t even taken
effect yet! | http://bit.ly/1Q3yzPJ
THIS WAS NOT A WEEK WITHOUT iPAD NEWS. Friday afternoon I went to a
political fun-raiser event, and immediately inside the door was a
three-year-old being entertained on an iPad …I figured he was taunting
me!
Tuesday LAUSD sent an email to Apple terminating Pearson from the
LAUSD/Apple/Pearson Contract and demanding a refund for failing to
provide the promised product. | http://bit.ly/1zvEoLk
Apparently the problems with the Pearson System of Courses have
resulted in less than five percent of the students within Instructional
Technology Initiative schools having consistent access to the content.
And LAUSD revealed that the Security and Exchange Commission had
launched an inquiry into the District’s purchase of iPads+content using
bonds – which are investment securities under the SEC purview. Here I am
going to add little. Had I been informed of the inquiry as I believe
the District had a fiduciary responsibility to me as a member of the
Bond Oversight Committee to do, and had they asked me to remain silent
because of the ongoing investigation I would’ve - discretely biting my
tongue and holding my peace. But because I wasn’t told a thing beyond
“Don’t worry!” - and know nothing beyond what’s in the paper I am
quietly seething – if only because the SEC is asking parallel questions I
and others have asked and never had completely answered.
And because I come from a show-biz background I have just so delightedly
torn asunder above, I share with you the Lessons Learned/Teachable
Moments: Never trust anyone that says “Trust me”. When someone says
don’t worry, start worrying.
If your mother says she loves you, check it out.
FINALLY: WE ARE A NATION AND A WORLD OF IMMIGRANTS. We came to where we
are from somewhere else, whether on the Mayflower or a galleon or a
steamship; whether in the dark hold of a slaver or in steerage or first
class – whether our ancestors came seeking fortune, a second chance, a
better life, fleeing repression, pogroms or debt or genocide. Whether we
came across the land bridge from Asia or across a river in Texas or the
Sonoran desert or in the trunk of a car or a bright silvery airplane –
bound by hope or chains or fear or shame we are here: Part of a
diaspora. We teach this ancient history to our children in rituals about
Pilgrims, The Good Earth and the Grapes of Wrath – and we live it and
it is with us every day. We are all strangers in a strange land, plagued
by dark memories of Pharaoh and the inquisition and Cossacks and Hitler
and Stalin – of the ship captain who brought Africans in chains and
wrote Amazing Grace for us all to sing in our churches. We brought the
smallpox with us along with our prejudices; we perpetrated genocide in
this land. We are the victims and the guilty. When we accept these
things we do not change them but they unite us. We become
reconciled.
One hundred years ago a terrible thing happened in the Ottoman Empire – a
political subdivision that exists no more. There was a forced
relocation of Armenians from their homeland, what we have come to call
ethic cleansing. Many many died in what was the first genocide of the
twentieth century. To deny this is to deny history and ourselves – there
are only six degrees of separation between every one+everyone of us who
inhabit this planet and the six currently circling it in space.
Today a terrible thing is happening in North Africa as another diaspora
of immigrants drowns in the Mediterranean. They are fleeing problems of
our making: famine, climate change, un-civil war, regime change; they
are pilgrims, refuges, immigrants and children – huddled masses yearning
to breathe free.
To frame the question in iambic pentameter: How many lives will it take till we see that too many people have died?
¡Onward/Adelante! - smf
________________
* The Broad Residency is defined by the Broad Foundation as “a
leadership development program that places qualified participants into
high-level managerial positions in school districts, charter management
organizations and federal/state departments of education”.
** Of course, gender-pay-gap-fans: Matt is of the male persuasion. Using the usual formula F=.78 M he should be making $262.5K
BURBANK SCHOOL BOARD HIRES HILL ON 4-0 VOTE, BUT NOT
BEFORE BOARD MEMBER KEMP SCOLDS TEACHERS, RESIGNS AND WALKS OUT OF
MEETING
by Kelly Corrigan | The Burbank Leader – an LA Times publication | http://bit.ly/1CWZrGV
April 17, 2015 | 8:29 a.m. :: During a heated meeting packed with
teachers who opposed the Burbank school board’s proposed choice for the
district’s next superintendent, the board made the hire in a 4-0 vote
Thursday, but not before longtime board member and retired teacher Dave
Kemp submitted his immediate resignation and walked out of City Council
chambers, saying he was ashamed of the teachers’ behavior.
Matt Hill, who replaces current Supt. Jan Britz, will begin his new post on July 1.
Many teachers, along with parents, who filled council chambers Thursday
night, spoke against Hill’s hiring, in part, because he does not have
any teaching experience or credentials. They also pointed to his role in
a $130 million implementation of a student management system that
failed at Los Angeles Unified, where he had two years remaining on his
contract as LAUSD's chief strategy officer.
“I can hardly tell you how disappointed I am in the board tonight for
putting us and the community in this position,” said Lori Adams,
president of the Burbank Teachers’ Assn. during the public comment
portion of the meeting.
She encouraged board members to continue their search for an
“experienced” superintendent to guide the 15,000-student district,
winning applause from fellow teachers.
A few days earlier, the teachers’ union asked the L.A. County district
attorney's office to look into possible violations of the state's open
meeting law, the Brown Act, regarding the potential hiring of Hill as
the new superintendent.
District officials reported that Hill had been selected as a finalist
for the position on March 15, but nothing was reported out of closed
session from that day's meeting. Public officials are allowed to discuss
certain matters behind closed doors — including personnel matters — but
votes are required to be reported in the open afterward.
Under the Brown Act, actions taken in violation of the law are voided.
In response to the union’s allegations, school board member Larry
Applebaum said the district has been “overly transparent,” and when two
former superintendents, Greg Bowman and Stan Carrizosa, were hired,
their contracts were not made public until the meeting where they were
offered a job.
During the meeting on Thursday night, Burbank High teacher Diana Abasta
said Hill’s contract, which includes a $241,000 base salary, was an
“insult.”
“I have never been so disheartened,” she told the board. “And you make
me feel that it’s not good enough to be a teacher because you can bring
someone in without any experience.”
Many also had issue with Hill’s salary, which totals about $36,000 more
than what is paid to Britz, who took the district’s helm in 2012 and
whose salary was raised to $205,000 last year from $190,000.
“This is one of those times I feel you guys are making a serious mistake,” high school teacher Jerry Mullady said.
Also in the audience was a Burbank police officer in uniform, which is not typical during Burbank school board meetings.
A few people pleaded with the board to hold off on voting until two
newly elected board members — Steve Ferguson and Armond Aghakhanian, who
are expected to take their oath of office in early May — have time to
weigh in on the hiring process.
The current board, however, began deliberating over the next
superintendent in November after Britz announced in October she would
retire at the end of this school year, after 40 years in education and
about a decade at Burbank Unified.
“Common Core’s all about evidence and argument,” said Burroughs High
teacher, Jill Sullivan. “Make your case. What has Mr. Hill done that is
so special to you?”
However, before they offered their insight, Kemp, a board member for 12
years and a teacher in the district for many more years, stepped down
from the dais and walked up to the podium as the teachers had, speaking
during the public comment session not as a board member, he said, but as
a citizen.
Because Kemp did not seek re-election this year, the night was his final
meeting as a board member, along with board member Ted Bunch, who also
did not seek reelection.
“I am absolutely appalled and ashamed by [this] mob mentality,” Kemp said during his seven-minute address to the teachers.
“This is unsuitable. And I am so unhappy that so many of my former
colleagues decided how I’m going to vote on this situation,” he said,
adding that he’s been “raked over the coals” over Hill’s potential hire.
Even so, as he did during Tuesday’s three-hour public forum with Hill,
Kemp spoke in support of Hill, 38, describing him as “a terrific young
man.”
“I’m so ashamed of the people I always thought were such good friends
and former colleagues that meant so much to me, that at this time, I can
no longer be a part of this. I’m tendering my resignation to Dr.
Britz,” he said.
He then picked up his belongings, handed Britz a yellow slip of paper and walked out of the chambers.
Shortly after, school board President Roberta Reynolds called for a
brief break, and within 10 minutes, the meeting resumed — without Kemp —
for additional public comments.
Then Ted Bunch, who has also served on the board for a dozen years, said he empathized with Kemp’s reaction.
“He feels betrayed by you,” he said. “I can understand why Dave said,
‘The hell with it and walked out.’ You have no confidence in us. You
listen to what the union says and you eat it up like it’s steak.”
Fellow board members went on to offer their insight into choosing Hill
as a finalist after a national search that brought the board a total of
18 candidates, which they whittled down to five to interview.
“If you think that I have not spent dozens and dozens and dozens of
hours going through binders this thick of people’s qualifications, doing
due diligence and doing vetting… I didn’t just leave it to a search
firm to do it,” board member Applebaum said. “I want somebody who’s
going to lead the entire district to greatness. I believe Mr. Hill
could.”
Fellow school board member Charlene Tabet said she was looking for a
leader “who wasn’t just what we’ve always had,” adding that Hill “made
me feel I needed to be a better board member if he was going to be our
superintendent.”
Tabet said she thinks Hill could facilitate employees’ growth as well.
Out of the candidate pool, Reynolds said Hill stood out “with something
different” than the others. “And honestly, I don’t think I’ve slept for
four weeks because the decision is that important,” she said.
Board members noted that Hill would have a three-year contract and no
cellphone or auto stipend, but they did not elaborate on their reasoning
for setting Hill’s salary at $241,000.
After casting their vote approving his hire, the school board invited
Hill to take the podium, at which point -- before he began speaking --
Adams and dozens of others, many of them teachers, abruptly left the
chambers, leaving about 25 people who stayed.
“Tonight, even though it’s so difficult to have this experience, it
means something that I knew when I started researching Burbank,” Hill
said. "Every single person in this room tonight, and probably at home,
has a deep conviction and passion for students. And this work is so
challenging that we get emotional. It’s personal, and it should be
because it’s every single one of our responsibilities to help those
children.”
Hill recalled that when he first met Kemp, he said Kemp told him he
wouldn't vote for him because teachers and others stated in early
feedback that they wanted the next district chief to have been a teacher
and a superintendent.
“But you know what he did? What we should do for every single human
being? He said, ‘There’s something in you that I believe in. I’m going
to hear you out. I’m going to listen. I’m going to give you a chance,’”
Hill said.
“I didn’t know how he was going to vote today. He told me initially he
wasn’t going to vote for me. Maybe he would have, maybe he wouldn’t. I
don’t know,” Hill added. “The biggest disappointment I had today, and
we’ll move on from it — we have to make sure that we do something
different as a community, is we give every student and every adult an
opportunity, and when they fail, we pick them up together. I am here to
help, to lead, to serve, and I want to thank the board for seeing what’s
in me and helping me realize the leader I can be.”
The board continued with its regular meeting, and adjourned about 12:15 a.m.
DISTRICT EXPELS PEARSON FROM ‘iPADS FOR ALL’
CONTRACT: “APPLE AND PEARSON PROMISED A STATE-OF-THE-ART SOLUTION, THEY
HAVE YET TO DELIVER IT”
►LAUSD DITCHING PEARSON IPAD PROGRAM SOFTWARE, DEMANDING MULTIMILLION DOLLAR REFUND
by Annie Gilbertson KPCC | http://bit.ly/1EIpffI
4/15/2015 :: Los Angeles Unified told Apple Inc. this week that it
will not spend another dollar on the Pearson software installed on its
iPads and is seeking a multimillion-dollar refund from the technology
giant.
If an agreement cannot be reached, the nation's second-largest school district could take Apple to court.
"While Apple and Pearson promised a state-of-the-art technological
solution for ITI implementation, they have yet to deliver it," David
Holmquist, the school district's attorney, wrote in a letter to Apple's
general counsel. The ITI, or Instructional Technology Initiative, is the
district's name for its iPad program.
Holmquist said the district is "extremely dissatisfied" with the work of
Pearson on its technology initiative to get computers into the hands of
each of the district's 650,000 students.
"As we approach the end of the school year, the vast majority of
students are still unable to access the Pearson curriculum on iPads," he
wrote.
L.A. Unified's $1.3 billion iPad program has been fraught with problems,
from issues getting the technology to work in the classrooms to
questions about how the tablets were procured.
The FBI launched an investigation into the purchase in December, carting
out 20 boxes from the district office on bidding material,
communications and other records involving Apple and Pearson.
An investigation published by KPCC last August found former
Superintendent John Deasy and top district staffers had close ties with
Pearson executives before the contract was awarded.
District officials purchased Pearson's software even though it was
unfinished, and teachers complained the material seemed rushed: lessons
were missing math problems and reading material and included errors. The
software also lacked many interactive elements that were promised,
teachers said.
“[Pearson] missed the whole point of technology — individualized
instruction, all the material in the palm of your hand," said Ben Way, a
math teacher at Alliance Cindy & Bill Simon Technology Academy, a
charter school that also purchased Pearson's iPad app.
Pearson and Apple executives could not be immediately reached for
comment, but Pearson representatives maintain they have held up their
end of the deal.
"The course content has been complete for over a year," wrote
then-Pearson spokesman Brandon Pinette in an email to KPCC in September.
"Yes, there are important enhancements to add as there always will be.
We will add twice a year. No digital product should ever be considered
complete."
________________
►Tweet by Howard Blume @howardblume 15 April 2015
L.A. school board voted Tues. in closed session to pursue possible
litigation against Apple/Pearson over $1.3 billion iPad effort.
________________
►LAUSD to Apple: STOP SHIPPING OUR iPADS WITH DODGY PEARSON SOFTWARE
By Associated Press , from Daily News | http://bit.ly/1cx1QD0
Posted: 04/15/15, 2:23 PM PDT | LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Unified
School District is telling Apple it is dissatisfied with the Pearson
Education Inc. curriculum delivered on student iPads and wants to be
reimbursed for all the learning materials schools haven’t been able to
use.
In a letter to Apple Monday, LA Unified’s general counsel orders Apple
to end Pearson products and services under contract as soon as possible.
General counsel David Holmquist says that while Apple and Pearson
promised state-of-the-art technology, they haven’t delivered. Holmquist
says most students still can’t access Pearson curriculum on their iPads.
The Associated Press asked Pearson for comment by email Wednesday.
Apple subcontracted with Pearson under the district’s technology
initiative to transition schools to the new Common Core academic
standards and provide every student with an iPad or other device.
SEC LAUNCHES INFORMAL INQUIRY INTO LAUSD'S USE OF BONDS FOR IPADS
By Howard Blume | LA Times | http://lat.ms/1CUdjDd
17 April 2015 | 3AM :: The federal SEC has opened an informal inquiry into LAUSD's use of bonds for its iPad project
The federal Securities and Exchange Commission recently opened an
informal inquiry into whether Los Angeles school officials complied with
legal guidelines in the use of bond funds for the now-abandoned
$1.3-billion iPads-for-all project.
In particular, the agency was concerned with whether the L.A. Unified
School District properly disclosed to investors and others how the bonds
would be used, according to documents provided to The Times.
District officials said they were optimistic that they had addressed the SEC concerns.
The news of the SEC inquiry came the same week that L.A. Unified
officials demanded a refund from computer giant Apple over curriculum
supplied on the devices by Pearson, which sells education services and
materials worldwide. Pearson was a subcontractor to Apple under a
contract approved by the Board of Education in June 2013.
That fall, problems immediately plagued the rollout of devices to
campuses, and questions soon arose about whether Apple or Pearson had an
unfair advantage in the bidding process. An ongoing criminal
investigation by the FBI is looking into that matter. Current and former
district officials have denied any wrongdoing.
Apple has not responded to requests for comment. Pearson has
consistently defended its actions, including on Thursday, when top
executive Michael Barber said that L.A. students would benefit if the
district stayed the course with the company's product.
The SEC declined to comment and does not, by policy, confirm or deny
investigations. L.A. Unified acknowledged meeting with an agency
attorney.
The federal agency is charged with protecting investors and maintaining
fair, orderly and efficient markets. Its enforcement division frequently
looks into "misrepresentation or omission of important information
about securities," according to the commission.
With the help of an outside law firm, L.A. Unified prepared a
presentation, dated March 31, that outlined measures it took to inform
the public and potential investors about how the taxpayer-approved bond
funds would be spent.
"LAUSD was transparent regarding the program and its funding," and all
necessary disclosures were made to the public, underwriters, rating
agencies and investors, the district told the SEC representative.
The district also distinguished between the L.A. Unified bonds and
different types of bond debt that are issued under other disclosure
rules.
The L.A. Unified general obligation bonds are paid back over time
through property taxes. Projects funded by the bonds have no role in
generating revenue to investors, the district said.
"The particular use of the bond proceeds is not material," the district wrote.
California law allows school construction bonds to be spent on
technology; districts also list the intended uses of bond funds in
ballot materials available to voters.
L.A. Unified clearly designated funds for technology, but did not
mention tablets. At the time of the district's most recent bond issue,
in November 2008, iPads were still two years away from entering the
marketplace.
But officials have maintained that tablets are a modern equivalent of
the traditional computer lab and therefore a legal and appropriate use
of bond funds.
A separate question has been whether the district acted properly in
using bond funds to purchase curriculum on the devices. But that issue
was not part of the district's presentation.
School board member Bennett Kayser said Thursday that legal questions
regarding use of the bonds were not sufficiently examined before the
project moved forward.
"I wish the SEC had looked into this over a year ago," Kayser said.
(Kayser did not participate in the original discussion or vote on the
contract because he owned a small amount of Apple stock. He sold his
holdings and emerged as a project critic, although he later voted to
purchase additional devices for schools and for testing.)
The district's demand for a refund came in the form of a letter sent Monday to Apple.
L.A. Unified bought 43,261 iPads with the Pearson curriculum. The
curriculum added about $200, for a three-year license, to the total
price of $768 for each device. (The district purchased another 77,175
iPads under the contract without the Pearson curriculum to be used
initially for state standardized tests.)
Pearson offered only a partial curriculum during the first year of the license, which was permitted under the agreement.
The product has not caught on in L.A. Unified. Only two schools of 69
with the devices use Pearson regularly, according to an internal March
report from project director Bernadette Lucas.
The report cited a litany of complaints, including content that could
not be fully adapted for students with limited English skills, a large
group in L.A. Unified. The district also claims the curriculum lacks
important features such as online tests and data on how and when
students are using it. Another problem has been getting access to the
online curriculum quickly and consistently.
Barber, Pearson's chief education advisor, acknowledged that there have
been difficulties and said that Pearson, Apple and the district shared
responsibility as partners in the effort. But he added that Pearson was
willing to work through such issues.
With such sweeping change, "you're going to have glitches. You're going
to run into challenges," he said. In the long run, he predicted,
Pearson's product could help "transform teaching and learning."
"Once you get used to using these materials," he said, students and teachers would find them "very engaging, very empowering."
The iPad project was pushed by then-Supt. John Deasy, who resigned under
pressure in October, largely due to fallout from the iPad effort and a
faulty new student records system.
AB 817: AN ATTACK ON STUDENT PRIVACY RIGHTS – EVEN BEFORE THEY TAKE EFFECT!
By smf for 4LAKidsNews
18 April 2015 :: EdWeek reports that a spate of recent laws and policies
intended to better protect the privacy of students' sensitive
information don't go nearly far enough, according to researchers
concerned about commercialization in public education. | http://bit.ly/1DmlO96
"Computer technology has made it possible to aggregate, collate,
analyze, and store massive amounts of information about students,"
according to a new report from the National Education Policy Center,
based at the University of Colorado, in Boulder.
"This has opened opportunities for private vendors to access student
information and share it with others. Further, the computerization of
student work offers opportunities for companies that provide education
technology and educational applications to obtain and pass on to third
parties information about students."
The report, titled "ON THE BLOCK: STUDENT DATA AND PRIVACY IN THE DIGITAL AGE” |http://bit.ly/1OrYxsK
is the latest in a series from the NEPC on "schoolhouse
commercializing trends." The group has consistently released reports
critical of the private sector's role in public education.
“A trifecta of laws passed in California— especially the Student Online
and Personal Information and Protection Act, or SOPIPA—were praised by
the National Education Policy Council for their expansive definition of
the student data to be protected and their restrictions on commercial
use of student information.”
BUT THERE IS ALREADY LEGISLATION from $pecail intere$ts in the hopper in
Sacramento to limit SOPIPA. To amend it into squishy meaninglessness.
Here are comments from an authority on online student privacy – culled
from an email, his first+best appraisal of recent amendments to AB 817,
not his last+final word. As a work in process I cloak the writer in
anonymity:
“As amended, AB 817 would severely limit SOPIPA by creating broad exemptions to the definition of “K-12 school purposes.
These exemptions would leave sensitive student information vulnerable to privacy and security risks.
They would mean numerous operators collecting sensitive student
information from students in schools are no longer subject to SOPIPA.
·It would also vastly limit the sensitive student “covered information” protected by SOPIPA.
“Our students’ privacy and safety is not served by taking these broad
categories of activities and exempting them from SOPIPA. Any app
designed to help a student with helping K-12 students outside the
classroom—or even standard school hours—could be considered an
“extracurricular educational” product. “Enrichment opportunities” could
be limitless. The law has not even gone into effect, but already it
appears that certain players are looking for loopholes and ways out.
“These exemptions could give companies license to market to our students
in schools and eliminate protections California decided to put in place
for our students’ sensitive personal information. This is an example of
precisely the kinds of results SOPIPA was designed to prohibit.
Students deserve the school zone to be a privacy zone, a trusted
environment where they can focus on learning.”
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T
FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other
Sources
TENTATIVE SETTLEMENT REACHED BETWEEN TEACHERS AND L.A. UNIFIED | http://lat.ms/1DoW3oF
SENIOR L.A. UNIFIED OFFICIAL WILL HEAD BURBANK SCHOOL DISTRICT | http://lat.ms/1IsWyT6
CALIFORNIA LAWMAKERS SHOULD PASS THE VACCINATION BILL | http://lat.ms/1Q5AHqb
AB 817: AN ATTACK ON STUDENT PRIVACY RIGHTS – EVEN BEFORE THEY TAKE EFFECT! | http://bit.ly/1Q3yzPJ
Video of Board Mtg: BURBANK APPOINTS NEW SUPERINTENDENT | Matt Hill to be paid $241K vs $205K for current supe | http://bit.ly/1cDGHXT
BURBANK SCHOOL BOARD HIRES HILL ON 4-0 VOTE, BUT NOT BEFORE BOARD MEMBER KEMP SCOLDS TEACHERS, RESIGNS AND WALKS OUT | http://bit.ly/1NYWktZ
STUDENTS WOULD BENEFIT IF LAUSD KEPT CURRICULUM, PEARSON EXEC SAYS. Sir Michael Barber: “It’s a brilliant product” | http://bit.ly/1G3ZVTb
3 new stories: L.A. SCHOOLS iPAD PROGRAM SUBJECT OF INQURY BY SEC | http://bit.ly/1HAytvy
LAUSD BOARD APPROVAL OF NEW SPENDING ON HEALTHCARE PROMPTS REVOLT | http://bit.ly/1FSm3KS
MATT HILL APPOINTED BURBANK USD SUPERINTENDENT AMID NEW+CONTINUING CONTROVERSY | http://bit.ly/1G3Z595
L.A. SCHOOLS iPAD PROGRAM SUBJECT OF INQUIRY BY SEC | http://lat.ms/1Hcv8SP
SAN DIEGO UNIFIED SUPE CRITICIZES COMMON CORE TESTING, shares opt-out info
LAUSD’s MATT HILL A FINALIST FOR SUPERINTENDENT OF BURBANK SCHOOLS + smf’s 2¢ | http://bit.ly/1H9jTKT
LAUSD: "APPLE AND PEARSON PROMISED A STATE-OF-THE-ART TECHNOLOGICAL SOLUTION, THEY HAVE YET TO DELIVER IT” | http://bit.ly/1J4HWcC
LAWSUIT IN THE WORKS? :: LAUSD EXPELS PEARSON FROM APPLE/PEARSON/LAUSD ‘iPADS FOR ALL’ CONTRACT | http://bit.ly/1J4HWcC
NEWS CORP’s $1 BILLION PLAN TO OVERHAUL EDUCATION IS RIDDLED WITH FAILURES | http://bit.ly/1FTbTPf
The education of Murdoch, Bloomberg & Klein (+Cortines): TABLET
COMPUTERS+ONLINE CURRICULUM WERE SUPPOSED TO REVOLUTIONIZE SCHOOLS. THAT
DIDN’T HAPPEN | http://bit.ly/1FTbTPf
EVENTS: Coming up next week...
2pm | April 21, 2015: The Board of Education Committee of the Whole FOCUS ON ENROLLMENT:
• Enrollment & Equity
• Enrollment & Empowerment
• Enrollment & Excellence
Agenda/List of presenters: http://bit.ly/1JjvqX0
Beaudry Boardroom, 333 S Beaudry L.A. 90017
*Dates and times subject to change. ________________________________________
• SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION BOND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE:
http://www.laschools.org/bond/
Phone: 213-241-5183
____________________________________________________
• LAUSD FACILITIES COMMUNITY OUTREACH CALENDAR:
http://www.laschools.org/happenings/
Phone: 213-241.8700
What can YOU do?
• E-mail, call or write your school board member:
Tamar.Galatzan@lausd.net • 213-241-6386
Monica.Garcia@lausd.net • 213-241-6180
Bennett.Kayser@lausd.net • 213-241-5555
George.McKenna@lausd.net • 213-241-6382
Monica.Ratliff@lausd.net • 213-241-6388
Richard.Vladovic@lausd.net • 213-241-6385
Steve.Zimmer@lausd.net • 213-241-6387
...or your city councilperson, mayor, the governor, member of congress,
senator - or the president. Tell them what you really think! • Find
your state legislator based on your home address. Just go to: http://bit.ly/dqFdq2 • There are 26 mayors and five county supervisors representing jurisdictions within LAUSD, the mayor of LA can be reached at mayor@lacity.org • 213.978.0600
• Call or e-mail Governor Brown: 213-897-0322 e-mail: http://www.govmail.ca.gov/
• Open the dialogue. Write a letter to the editor. Circulate these
thoughts. Talk to the principal and teachers at your local school.
• Speak with your friends, neighbors and coworkers. Stay on top of education issues. Don't take my word for it!
• Get involved at your neighborhood school. Join your PTA. Serve on a School Site Council. Be there for a child.
• If you are eligible to become a citizen, BECOME ONE.
• If you a a citizen, REGISTER TO VOTE.
• If you are registered, VOTE LIKE THE FUTURE DEPENDS ON IT. THEY DO!
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