PGCPS asks seniors for proof of residency

Members of the senior class at Northwestern High School in Prince George’s County were recently summoned to the auditorium to discuss what they needed to do before getting their diplomas in the spring.

They received information about what scores they needed to pass the Maryland High School Assessments exam, what they could expect to pay in senior dues and how to prepare for college. Then, before they left the auditorium, they were handed a letter demanding verification of their residency.

According to the letter, students whose families did not provide a current lease or mortgage statement and a utility bill, pay stub or other proof of legal residence within the Hyattsville school’s boundary would be forced to withdraw. They had two weeks to respond.>>>Read More Washington Post  >>>Read More The Wild Cat Press

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OPINION

There is nothing wrong with requiring proof of residency, but telling seniors, halfway through the year, that they have two weeks and a parent must personally bring the documents to the registrars office is a little too much. It is clearly another case of incompetent PGCPS taking a perfectly reasonable premise or idea and blowing it way out of proportion. Usually in many jurisdictions around the country, at the beginning of every school year, students always bring home a bunch of papers for parents to fill out. That is the correct time to request proof of residency. Springing this on everyone at this time, well into the school year, would tell me that the administration of this school is not knowledgeable, or at least inefficient. The way most audits work is to examine a random sampling. If there is a significant number of students who are shown not to be correctly enrolled, then broaden the audit. Why, on a whim, should over 500 families be inconvenienced out of the blue? Most kids at Northwestern are majority Hispanic / African immigrants if there is a problem with accountability, expand the exercise to the whole district. Otherwise, it will be unfair to target only this one school because of high levels of immigrant population.

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Jury Trial in Philadelphia Hears Fraud Charges…

…Against Charter Founder

Charter school founder June Brown is on trial in Philadelphia for collecting multiple salaries from the charter schools and management firms she opened.

Brown is accused of defrauding the four charter schools she founded of $6.7 million and then conspiring with two former administrators to obstruct justice by orchestrating a cover-up.

Meanwhile, business leaders in Philadelphia hope to open more charter schools in that beleaguered city, where the public schools have been decimated by budget cuts and layoffs under embattled Dr. William Hite jr. The money meant to help the poor kids in Philadelphia School District is  being siphoned off through the back door in charter schools using conspirators in the city of brotherly love.

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Beleaguered Dr. William Hite Jr.

Maryland ranking Scandal…

 …gubernatorial candidate Ron George calls for a General Assembly hearing.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Ron George has called for a General  Assembly hearing into whether Maryland’s exclusion of a high percentage of  special education students from standardized testing artificially inflated the  score of the state’s schools in national rankings.

George, a state delegate from Anne Arundel County, issued a statement Tuesday  in which he called for answers on what he called the O’Malley administration’s  “reading test cheating scandal.”

The  Sun reported last week that Maryland may have achieved its No. 1 ranking on  Education Week’s ranking of state school systems in part by excluding a higher  percentage of special education students from reading testings than any other  state. By excluding special ed students at such a high rate, the state appears  to have gained 5 points in eighth grade reading score and 7 in fourth grade.

Read more: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/blog/bal-george-calls-for-hearing-on-school-ranking-20131126,0,6066290.story#ixzz2lncaXOlN

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OPINION

We always thought conjuring the illusion of quality education when the whole nation has seen several decades of watered down teach to the test standards was just pure deception used to bait the unsuspecting and the affluent into Maryland. Now it seems deceiving the public wasn’t enough, Maryland had to cheat its way to the top of the educational dung heap in conspiracy in order to mislead citizens.

We need more than an investigation, we need to look at how watered down our education system has become here in Maryland. It’s time for Dr. Lilian lowery and Dr. Charlene Dukes and others in Maryland State Board of Education to prepare themselves for the next chapter of their lives and create a new way for innovative leadership.

Everyone we have spoken with in the community is saying this is wrong. We’re treating these educators like they’re criminals, like they’re drug dealers, like they’re gangsters. Racketeering, conspiracy, making of false statements interalia should be the basis for a proper investigation. It’s time to break the cycle of corruption here in Maryland and let the chips fall where they may!

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Call your elected officials now and the media. Demand investigations and initiation of changes… There is no smoke without fire!!

In our opinion, We aver and therefore believe Maryland State Board of Education President Dr. Charlene Dukes shown here has demonstrated a culture of corrupt leadership style and continues “an integrated pattern of pay to play” and manipulation during her tenure. Both leaders need to resign to create room for new leadership.

Dr. Lillian Lowery Embattled State Superintendent is currently presiding over deep-seated corruption in Maryland school system. She has demonstrated a culture of discrimination and racism while on the job.

 

Common Core resistance growing in Maryland

Dr. Lillian Lowery Embattled State Superintendent is currently presiding over deep-seated corruption in Maryland school system. She has demonstrated a culture of discrimination and racism while on the job.

As Maryland moves ahead with school reform and the implementation of the Common Core State Standards, state officials are facing growing resistance among teachers, lawmakers and others who are concerned that too much change is being forced onto schools too soon.

The issue in Maryland has become political. In the next legislative session, House Republicans plan to push for the state to withdraw from the Common Core initiative; and Harford County Executive David R. Craig, a Republican gubernatorial hopeful, has said the Core is too costly and gives too much control over Maryland classrooms to national testing organizations, my colleague John Wagner reported here. >>> Read More

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Call your elected officials now and the media. Demand investigations and intiation of changes… There is no smoke without fire!!

In our opinion, We aver and therefore believe Maryland State Board of Education President Dr. Charlene Dukes shown here has demonstrated a culture of corrupt leadership style and continues “an integrated pattern of pay to play” and manipulation during her tenure. Both leaders need to resign to create room for new leadership.

Md. test exclusion rate raises questions

Maryland superintendent Lillian Lowery is on the spot for several bad things including poor leadership skills.

When Maryland officials recently trumpeted the performance of their students on national reading tests, they failed to mention one thing: The state blocked more than half its English language learners and students with learning disabilities from taking the test, students whose scores would have dragged down the results.

Maryland excluded 62 percent of students in two categories — learning-disabled and English learners — from the fourth-grade reading test and 60 percent of those students from the eighth-grade reading test. >>> Read More Washington Post

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PGCPS Board narrowly approves…

…Maxwell’s budget request

CEO Kevin Maxwell

The Prince George’s County Board of Education narrowly voted Thursday to support a request by the schools chief to make significant changes to the district’s $1.7 billion budget.

The 5-2-2 vote allows Schools CEO Kevin Maxwell to proceed with his request to transfer $18 million from various accounts in the budget to pay for several executive level positions, enhancements in the art program, security improvements and other initiatives. The County Council now must approve the request for the proposal to take effect. >>> Read more

OPINION.

CEO Kevin Maxwell is being premature in evaluating and faulting the Hybrid School Board of Education for the budget change in the Prince Georges County Public Schools System (PGCPS). The budget which was initiated by the County Executive and the power elite in order to grab power seem to have had a different agenda. The power grab now appears to have been for the sake of grabbing power rather than in order to initiate sincere reforms. When the Reform Sasscer Movement (A grass roots advocacy group) encouraged for changes, our hope was to see actual reforms and proper management of resources rather than cover ups and squander. However, proper and transparent reforms is not what we are seeing at the moment. Several grass roots pressure groups concerned with PGCPS corruption have been completely disenfranchised from the process.

In the article above by the Washington Post, Ms. Wiggins conveniently left off the salaries for Maxwell’s new senior staff. The three new appointees hired recently are making nearly $1 million. Maxwell’s friend is making $220,000 a year while teachers have to buy their own paper and classroom supplies! This is unacceptable. …. We do not mind a little increase but spending tax payer money like this is not being wise. Prince George’s county council needs to scrutinize the new raises and send back the entire package to the Hybrid Board to fix the remunerations.

Call your elected officials now and the media. Demand changes…

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More states delay Common Core testing…

…as concerns grow

Massachusetts and Louisiana, both seen as important in the world of school reform, have decided to delay the implementation of high-stakes standardized tests aligned to the Common Core State Standards in the face of  growing concern about the initiative. The two states follow nearly 10 others — including Florida, the pioneer of corporate-influenced school reform — to slow or rethink Core implementation, actions coming amid a growing movement led by educators and parents who have become skeptical of the standards and the new related standardized tests.

Meanwhile, Maryland just took over as fiscal agent for PARCC; State Superintendent Lillian Lowery said in a release last Thursday that Maryland “is strongly committed to the success of PARCC.”  However, her statement didn’t mention growing resistance among educators and parents in Maryland about the way the Core is being implemented in the state. >>>Read more

A November 21 Baltimore Sun article summarizes a briefing held by the Senate Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee on the implementation of the Common Core curriculum standards, a new statewide testing system, and a new teacher evaluation system.  The article reports that Committee members questioned State Superintendent of Schools Lillian M. Lowery on whether the amount and pace of the education reforms are putting unnecessary stress on teachers.  From the article:

“A lot of [teachers] have talked about tremendous stress,” said Sen. Ronald N. Young, a Frederick County Democrat, adding that some teachers say they’re ready to give up and others now take medication for stress.  …

Lowery responded that the state has already sought ways to slow down the reforms, delaying when the new teacher evaluation system tied to student achievement takes effect and when new tests will be used to measure the state’s education system.  …

“This is one of the worst program implementations I have ever seen, in terms of educating parents and families,” Sen. Ed Reilly, an Anne Arundel County Republican, said to Lowery and other top state education officials. “Public relations is part of your job — all of your jobs — and it’s been done very poorly.”  …

Sen. Bill Ferguson, a Baltimore City Democrat and former teacher, compared the educational reforms to the botched rollout of the Affordable Care Act and health exchanges. “If we don’t do this right,” he said, the state may have “a bad image on a great concept.”

Sen. Ed Reilly has almost got it here. Once you understand Maryland’s great schools are just an illusion conjured by incompetent leaders like superintendent Lowery. Understand our quality of education has been dropping for 40 years and Common Core is compost than you can ask real questions. Questions like what have we been paying you folks for and why haven’t you people educated our children? >>> Read more

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Dr. Lillian Lowery Embattled State Superintendent is currently presiding over deep-seated corruption in Maryland school system. She has demonstrated a culture of discrimination and racism while on the job.

Parents demonstration at Maryland state Board of Education

Parents demonstration at Maryland state Board of Education and the leadership of Dr. Lowery

Experts call for stronger UN role in ending impunity.

Today is International day to end impunity.

The International Day to End Impunity (IDEI) is marked annually on 23 November by advocates for free expression. A group of United Nations independent human rights experts, today called on the UN to adopt a more central role in the fight against impunity, and urged Member States to give more support to and strengthen on-going efforts to secure accountability and justice for human rights violations, including serious crimes.

“Ending impunity requires greater scrutiny, prosecution and punishment, and no other international institution is better placed than the United Nations to effectively contribute to this goal,” they stressed. “It is time for the UN to take a more decisive role in combating impunity and focus on all dimensions of the problem, including the erosion of the rule of law and the violation of general principles of justice.” Here in Prince George’s County and the larger Maryland as a state, the calls for ending impunity in this ancient old land is an important step forward. We must never surrender until the issues we have advocated for in the last several years within our county and especially the school system are resolved.

Welcoming civil society’s initiative to commemorate 23 November as an annual International Day to End Impunity, the human rights experts recalled that the Heads of State and Government pledged to ensure that impunity for serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law is not tolerated, and that such violations are properly investigated, prosecuted and sanctioned, as stated in the UN Declaration on the rule of law adopted on 24 September 2012.

The experts recalled that States are required to hold accountable those who fail to protect and prevent, as well as those who perpetrate, violations of human rights, including the rights of women and other groups at risk. “Fighting against impunity implies not only the obligation of States to investigate violations and take appropriate measures in respect of the perpetrators and the victims, but also to ensure the inalienable right to know the truth about violations and take other necessary steps to prevent their recurrence”, they added.

“Efforts to address impunity must demand transparency and accountability of all State and non-State actors, including not only paramilitary forces, mercenaries, private military companies and terrorists, but also transnational corporations,” they said.

“The goal of ending impunity does not aim at revenge but at justice,” the independent experts underscored. “It requires objectivity and non-selectivity in identifying abuses that have not been redressed.”

“Addressing the challenge of impunity is not the one-way street of victor’s justice and the punishment of the guilty among the vanquished,” they said. “The solution must be found in equal application of the law and the commitment to obtain an accounting by the powerful and the weak alike.”

The human rights experts noted that the fight against impunity requires Governments to ensure access to justice for all, to proactively make information available to all and to refrain from using national security, immunities or any other measures to cloak criminal behavior.

“Universal access to diverse and reliable information, effective domestic justice systems, the globalization of the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court and the practical realization of the right to truth are necessary conditions to do away with impunity,” they concluded. >>> Read more

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OPINION:

Many definitions of corruption have been advanced, none fully satisfactory and comprehensive. Although it may be difficult to define corruption precisely, it is generally not hard to recognize. The World Bank settled on a straightforward definition—the abuse of public office for private gain. This definition is not original, but it was chosen because it is concise and broad enough to include most forms of corruption that the Bank encounters, as well as being widely used in the literature.

Corruption is a complex phenomenon. Its roots lie deep in bureaucratic and political institutions, and its effect on development varies with country, state or County conditions. But while costs may vary and systemic corruption may coexist with strong economic performance, experience suggests that corruption is one of the most severe impediments to development and growth in emerging and transition economies.

All over the world, Corruption violates the public trust and corrodes social capital. A small side payment to obtain or speed up a government service may seem a minor offense, but it is not the only cost. Unchecked, the creeping accumulation of seemingly minor infractions can slowly erode political legitimacy to the point where even non corrupt officials and members of the public see little point in playing by the rules. Credibility, once lost by the state, is very difficult to regain. As we move towards to the future here in Prince George’s County, leadership must ensure to uphold the rule of law and avoid situations which have been developing in the last several months now under the current leadership. We must say “NO” to select few who are trying to mismanage rare resources under our watch.

C = M + D -A

where:

C (corruption) = M (monopoly) + D    (discretion) – A (accountability)

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Maryland Senators grill Dr.Lowery…

… and others on Common Core

Dr. Lillian Lowery Embattled State Superintendent is currently presiding over deep-seated corruption in Maryland school system.

A panel of state lawmakers grilled Maryland’s top school officials Thursday over whether education reforms are being executed too quickly and putting undue  stress on teachers.

Senators on the Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee told  state schools Superintendent Lillian M. Lowery that they have been bombarded by  concerns from teachers and parents.

Many, they said, complained about how the state is simultaneously implementing three big programs: a new testing system, new ways to evaluate  teachers and a more rigorous set of education standards known as the Common  Core.

Read more: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/education/blog/bs-md-common-core-20131121,0,4256476.story#ixzz2lLVnQLM9

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See and read more>>> Maryland protest on corruption in Education and other matters here

In our opinion, We aver and therefore believe Maryland State Board of Education President Dr. Charlene Dukes shown here has demonstrated a culture of corrupt leadership style and continues “an integrated pattern of pay to play” and manipulation during her tenure. Both leaders need to resign to create room for new leadership.

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Baltimore County teachers file a grievance…

…over workload from Common Core

In an unusual move, Baltimore County teachers filed a grievance this week  against the county school board saying new education initiatives are forcing  them to work long hours beyond their normal day.

Teachers in the county and the rest of the state have had to adapt their  teaching this school year to new, more rigorous standards known as the Common  Core. Local school districts were expected to have written a curriculum — a  detailed road map of lessons — based on the new standards, but the county fell  behind in the elementary grades.

The county teachers have complained that they’ve been working long hours  because the lesson plans have not been available until just weeks before they  are to be taught and the website to access those lessons has been difficult to  use.

Read more: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/education/blog/bs-md-co-teacher-grievance-20131119,0,4440262.story#ixzz2lA1L6QxC

Baltimore County Superintendent Dallas Dance.

 

Dr. Lillian M. Lowery Maryland State Superintendent  of schools has shown very poor leadership skills in several ways including discrimination conduct on several occasions and received an F grade for Common Core meetings recently. Above all, Dr. Lillian Lowery is currently presiding over deep-seated corruption in Maryland school system.

In our opinion, We aver and therefore believe Maryland State Board of Education President Dr. Charlene Dukes shown here has demonstrated a culture of corrupt leadership style and continues “an integrated pattern of pay to play” and manipulation during her tenure.

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Read More about the plane fixing as articulated by Dr. Dallas Dance and Dr. Lilian Lowery