I received an email this morning from a teacher at an Arizona independent school who is planning to ask his students if they were surveyed for the civics test Goldwater Institute used to create 3 separate studies comparing high school students attending public and private schools.
The question [...]
More on the survey results used for the G.I. civics study (No, I'm not obsessed, just very interested). Here's a way to get closer to finding out whether Strategic Vision LLC actually completed the survey for G.I. and didn't just make up the results.
It can be worth a' [...]
I don't know if Matthew Ladner is working from his end to discover whether or not the public school/private school survey he commissioned from Strategic Vision LLC was legit or fraudulent. But I have to say, he's been very forthcoming with documentation. I asked him if he would [...]
The legislature just passed a whole bunch of changes affecting teachers, not just budget cuts. They were passed earlier but Brewer's budget vetoes eliminated them. Now they're back. And the teacher's union is suing.
First, a comment. If I'm a serious teacher planning to make it a career, [...]
I learned recently that my posts are being used on another site without my permission. The posts aren't simply being quoted from or compiled with other posts from other sites. They are nearly the only original content on the site. They have my name at the top, but' [...]
Matthew Ladner commented on the concerns I have expressed, along with others, about the survey Strategic Vision LLC was paid to conduct for G.I. Here are his comments, in full.
David-
I believed you linked to a post last week where I explained that I am awaiting further evidence from [...]
It's always a little dangerous to enter an econ prof's turf and question his use of numbers, but, what the hell, I'll give it a try.
Charles North, an econ prof from Baylor University in Texas, entertained the House committee looking into whitewashing tuition tax credits with his' [...]
This is just me being curious. I rarely write about the Goldwater Institute, and especially about Matthew Ladner's work, without getting a fairly prompt response in the Comments. Recently I've been tag-teaming with others all over the country to question the accuracy of Ladner's Civics study, as well' [...]
Here's a press release from Grijalva's office:
Grijalva Announces Bill To Help Struggling Schools Prevent Dropouts, Encourage Pursuit of Higher Education
Washington, DC – Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva today announced the release of H.R. 4122, the Graduation for All Act, which seeks to decrease dropout rates and provide assistance to [...]
Ad for the President Obama, United We Serve and NFL Team Up fitness and service campaign.
This goes out to friend of the blog Steve Gall who is trying once again to get a 30 minute mandatory recess bill through the legislature and is talking to and working at [...]
by David Safier
The Rs planned to cut $144 million in soft capital funding from district schools. The snafu Thursday only delayed the move.
But now some legislators are asking, Why aren't charter schools feeling the budget ax as well?
Here is among the lamest reasons imaginable for not making cuts to' [...]
by David Safier
A few days ago, I posted about problems with the survey Goldwater Institute's Matthew Ladner used for his study about how little high school students know about Civics. It seems the company that conducted the survey, Strategic Vision LLC, has a history of complaints about their methodology [...]
If you've been watching Rachel Maddow or following the blogs, you've probably seen that one of the latest anti-Obama slogans is a line from one of the Old Testament Psalms of David, 109, verse 8:
Let his days be few; and let another take his office.
This isn't just a' [...]
No, not Sarah for Arizona. I want Sarah in Arizona during the 2010 primaries supporting the Senate candidate of her choice. Will it be her running mate, John McCain? Will it be her more natural ally, J.D. Hayworth? Or will it be Chris Build-a-wall-around-the-entire-country Simcox? Arizona wants to [...]
This is about Maricopa and it's about community colleges -- a bit out of my usual physical and educational geography -- but really, it's about a rogue members of a Board trying to use the colleges for personal and political ends, educational mission be damned. And that kind [...]
You know that special session called by the Accidental Guv to do some budget cutting? It didn't quite work out that way.
A fragile budget deal collapsed in the Senate Thursday when Sen. Thayer Verschoor skipped the floor session and tied his support to a last-minute amendment to' [...]
I happened to be at the Capitol Wednesday, camera and notepad in hand, so I took in the Dem press conference.
The thrust of the conference was to criticize the Rs for their piecemeal approach to budgeting: cut some stuff today and worry about everything else [...]
If you live in Tucson and you want to know about the tuition tax credit/STO mess, there's currently only one place to go: my posts on BfA. The Star has been AWOL when it comes to covering the story. I don't think it would take all the fingers [...]
In the post below, I wrote about the recent meeting of the R-created committee looking into painting a happy face on the tuition tax credit mess. I mentioned it brought in an "expert," Charles North, to explain that tuition tax credits save Arizona millions and millions of tax [...]
The other legislative committee looking into tuition tax credits and STOs met Monday. I call it "the other committee" because it was set up by Rs to counter the task force set up by Ds. The D-created task force is trying to probe tuition tax credit abuses. The [...]
I thought I would never have to write about this one charter school principal again. But a news story from KPHO Phoenix let me know the principal, who should never have been allowed to be around students after what she did in 2005, is back in the [...]
In case you missed it yesterday (between Blue Meanie's posts and mine, things move down the page pretty fast), I wrote about the possibility that the survey Matthew Ladner based three public/private school comparisons on was totally fabricated by Strategic Vision LLC, the company paid to do' [...]
I don't usually blog about this kind of thing, but the Phoenix connection makes it irresistable.
There have been lots of questions about Bonner & Associates, a Republican outreach firm which apparently uses all kinds of shady tactics to do its clients' bidding. But this is a new one [...]
Another strong article about tuition tax credits and STOs from Pat Kossan and Ronald J. Hansen at the Republic. It focuses on taxpayer-funded scholarship money going to families that don't fit most people's definitions of "needy," though it also mentions examples of families who are well within [...]
As you know if you've been reading this blog, I've had several bones to pick with the Goldwater Institute's studies comparing public and private school students in their knowledge of civics, tolerance of others and feelings about the schools they attend. (My criticism of the' [...]
Another update on the Imagine Schools in Fort Wayne, Indiana, which have been the subject of scathing investigative work by the Journal Gazette.
The dean of the Teachers College at Ball State University, the group that authorized the charter for Fort Wayne's Imagine schools, wrote an op ed' [...]
I'm participating in a panel on blogging this Monday, Nov. 16, 6:30pm, at the Saguaro Eastside Democrats meeting -- New Spirit Lutheran Church, 8701 E. Old Spanish Trail (northeast corner of Camino Seco).
Joining me will be some guy who goes by the nom de pixel of Tedski --' [...]
This hearing will not be televised
by David Safier
[Note: In classic blog fashion, Part 3 is at the top of the page with Parts 2 and 1 following. Scroll down if you want to read them in the order they were written.]
These days, state legislative business is videotaped and streamed on [...]
Crandall thinks some public testimony is inappropriate
One of the people who testified at Wednesday's House task force on tuition tax credits and STOs was Ann-Eve Pedersen, one of the Tucsonans who have worked hard to uncover information about misuse of tuition tax credit funds and are trying to' [...]
An STO fund sweep? What an idea!
by David SafierThe House task force on tuition tax credits and STOs met Wednesday. This is the House group started by Ds, then joined by some Rs, not to be confused with the Senate committee started by Rs in response to earlier task force.
Both [...]
Just thinking here. I've written lots of posts about problems with Imagine Schools. Some have come from national reports and some has been based on my research into AZ DOE school funding reports and IRS tax records. I haven't received any criticism of what I've written.
It's not that [...]
It makes me feel slightly dirty giving Sarah Palin any more ink pixels, but reading AP do a take-down on the "facts" in Palin's new book gives me a certain joy, and I want to share it with others. I get the sense the writer had as much' [...]
I'm not one to sympathize with Tom Horne, but I think the guy needs a friend, and a hug, about now. Not only do people like me snipe at him from the left, but the Sonoran Alliance tore him a big ol' new one on his right flank [...]
Remember that wonderful 5 part investigation of tuition tax credits and STOs in the East Valley Trib? And remember how the Trib reporters as well as others at the Republic kept adding to the story? And remember how all this journalistic attention led to not one, but two [...]
I've heard rumors to this effect over the past month, and I guess Tedski has heard them as well.
A question fresh from the rumor mill: is Vic Williams contemplating a primary run against Al Melvin?
It would certainly make things interesting up here in my LD.
A SIDENOTE: About' [...]
(Is that going to be the new newsroom scream in an increasingly paperless journalistic world -- Stop the Pixels? It lacks the punch of Stop the Presses! somehow.)
Anyway, yesterday I posted about an editorial Dave Perry wrote in The Explorer concerning the Amphi School funding election. I wrote [...]
Faculty at the University of California, Berkeley, are crying foul about the millions of dollars in subsidies directed to the school's athletic department.
The campus Academic Senate on Thursday voted 91-68 in favor of a nonbinding resolution calling for an end to campus support of the' [...]
This is the first time I'm quoting Emil Franzi, who writes a conservative-leaning column in The Explorer, where I write a liberal-leaning column. But when both of us are thinking more-or-less the same thing on an issue or two and he brings in knowledge I don't have, [...]
Dave Perry, Editor and Publisher of The Explorer, wrote an editorial about the passage and failure of school funding initiatives using the squeaker in Amphi School District as his case in point. At press time, Perry wrote, the Amphi property tax extension was up by 26 votes. [...]
I write a lot about the potential dangers of the profit motive in K-12 schools, because my teaching experience allows me to understand how pre-college schools operate. I avoid too much discussion of higher ed because I don't know how it works from the inside.
But a few recent' [...]
The IRS has concerns about for profit Charter Management Organizations (CMOs or EMOs) running non profit charter schools. The important term here is "running." While it's perfectly OK for a non profit charter to contract out parts of its curriculum and operation to CMOs, it's a violation of [...]
The above-the-fold photo on the front of today's NY Times' SundayStyles section shows 4 students from Rincon High under the headline, Can a Boy Wear a Skirt to School?
None of the students, male or female, appear to be wearing skirts, but the caption says [...]
Thanks and congratulations are due to our AZ Democratic delegation to the U.S. House. All of them voted Yes on the health care bill -- Raul Grijalva, Gabriel Giffords, Ann Kirkpatrick, Harry Mitchell and Ed Pastor.
Keep up the good work (he said hopefully).
[...]I wonder if the City Council election results would have been different if Trasoff and Uhlich came out strong and early against Prop 200. I know the smart money consultants said, Play it safe, you can't be against increasing police and fire protection. But what if they didn't [...]
On Imagine School's website, you can read a list of the corporation's Six Measures of Excellence. Most of them are the usual stuff -- values, achievement, character development -- but one, as the old Sesame Street song says, is not like the others. The final sign of [...]
Education scandal rags Education Week is abuzz with vaguely interested in the shocking not-terribly-exciting news that Washington D.C. Superintendent Michelle Rhee is engaged to former basketball star, former charter school operator and current Sacramento mayor, Kevin Johnson.
They've been carrying on a bi-coastal romance for some time. Johnson' [...]
Kudos to Giffords for taking such a public stand saying she plans to vote for the House health care bill Saturday. She could try and do it quietly. Instead, she's making the case for her vote in today's Star.
I have to admit, I don't know all the' [...]
Stop the presses, and stop bad mouthing public schools. Our graduates are so well trained, productivity just jumped almost 10%!
What's that? You say there's no direct connection between schooling and productivity? Then why was everyone trashing me and my fellow teachers in the 80s when productivity was down? [...]
Man, Tom Horne has spent a lot of Ed Supe time and Dept of Ed money trying to knock down Tucson's Ethnic Studies programs. Who knows how much time he's wasted and how many miles he's logged traveling to Tucson just to hold press conferences trashing the program.
And' [...]
