Pickering Academic Assessments is now offering two programs to parents of children who need homework or tutoring help in order to be more successful in public education, according to Jean Pickering.

Pickering, a veteran public educator who has been a classroom teacher, counselor, curriculum coordinator, and high level administrator, has entered the private sector with a range of services to meet the academic needs of children both in public and private education.

Pickering’s business philosophy is guided by the standard of “no contracts” are necessary. “We are not trying to get parents into our services and trap them with a long term financial contract. We want parents to have the flexibility to evaluate our effectiveness without being punished financially if they are not satisfied,” she said.

“We can provide one on one private tutoring in any subject a student is taking in public school,” Pickering said. “This tutoring is provided by educators certified in the subject matter they teach or tutor.”

Pickering says the $45 per session private tutoring rate is the “going rate in this community. Our tutors are highly qualified and very dedicated to helping your child master the skills they need to be successful in their class work.”

“We also understand that the general economy has affected many families,” Pickering said. “That’s why I will establish “Acceleration Classes” of two to four students whose academic needs are very closely matched. These small group classes mirror the effectiveness of private tutoring but allow us to offer the service at a discounted cost to families.” The cost of “Acceleration Classes” is $30 per session.

Capstone Classical Academy and Pickering’s Academic Assessments are located at 515 Pin Oak in Katy. The phone number is 832-314-1400. Pickering can be reached at directors@capstoneclassicalacademy.com.

Why? It’s because she is a veteran public educator who until recently was fully engaged with her professional peers doing her very best to meet the educational needs of a diverse array of children who attend public schools.

Now, she is in the private sector having established both an innovative private school approach that uses independent online programs as alternatives to public schools as well as an academic diagnostic service that can help children perform better in public education.

“Private education is not for everyone, but unfortunately, public education is also not for everyone,” Pickering said. “The challenges confronting parents today have never been greater. That’s the bad news. The good news is that there are options and solutions.”

Pickering, who has earned four degrees including two masters, has been a classroom teacher, counselor and top level administrator. Because she has been in the private meetings with teachers and professional peers as specific children and specific issues are addressed, Pickering brings an extraordinary wealth of knowledge and insight into her new business venture.

When Pickering speaks about issues and problems confronting students in public education, she brings truth and professional credibility to the forefront.

“Let me be very clear. I am not an opponent of public education. I have spent my life working in it. However, the truth is that classroom teachers and counselors are the first to understand that public education is not organized to effectively deal with the full myriad of problems that students and parents confront,” she said.

“The era of accountability testing in Texas has forced public education to shuffle its priorities dramatically. Thousands of students have been lost in that shuffle,” she said.

“My business approach is based upon confronting two facts. The first is that there are children in high school even as early as their freshman year who have fallen behind in their course work and their grades to the degree that their academic or technical workforce training even in community colleges is in jeopardy,” Pickering said.

“The second is that there are children enrolled in all levels of school from elementary to junior high to high school who are struggling with their course work because they have been given passing grades when their mastery of actual academic skills is lower than their report cards reveal,” she said.

As it relates to the first group, Pickering’s Capstone Classical Academy has targeted three separate online high school degree programs that she offers to parents as an alternative to public education.

“Parents can order these online and correspondence programs by themselves, and their children can work at home alone with parental guidance or none at all,” she said. “I don’t recommend that except in the rarest of circumstances.” Her business “twist” is this:

“At Capstone, we have created a school environment where students come four days a week and their work is guided by certified professional educators whether it is language, math of all levels, or other courses,” Pickering said. “There are hard copies of instructional materials and we are totally focused upon guiding a student’s progress through academic mastery.”

The three online programs include:

1. Texas Tech High School Diploma/Course Credit Plan: Texas Tech is recognized as prestigious program. It is for those who want to pursue a high school diploma.  It is also for those who need to take one or two courses to “catch up” or “get ahead” in their course work. The college entrance SAT scores of graduates rank very well. The curriculum is rigorous. For those taking targeted courses, the grades transfer subject by subject back to any school district in Texas. A student graduates from Texas Tech High School “college ready.”

2. Ashworth College Prep High School Diploma: This program is also academically rigorous. It is accredited by The Secondary Association of Colleges and Schools. It is less expensive than the Texas Tech option. Students who earn this diploma can be expected to move into the college world.

3. Ashworth College General High School Diploma: This program is designed for students who have fallen behind in the course work and who or in danger of not graduating from public high school.  This is an academically solid program.  However, it does not include upper level math and science classes.  Thus, it is also effective for students whose career plans do not include the highest level math and science courses. Graduates of this program can expect to attend community college to pursue additional academic studies or move comfortably into workforce training programs.

“While these high school programs are ones for which we have students who currently enrolled and one that we expect to be the highest in demand, we also offer such programs with support for elementary and junior high students,” she said. “We also offer the Alpha-Omega Christian-based curriculum, for instance.”

The cost of all of these programs as well as our tuition fees are substantially less than enrolling a student in a traditional full-service private school, Pickering said. “Our goal is to help your child advance academically so we focus upon curriculum. We move your child at a pace that is based upon the accumulation of academic skills.”

“There are families out in the real world who know that their children (despite their report cards and despite their passing TAKS test scores) are struggling in school,” she said. “They know public schools are not working and they know they cannot afford a traditional private school. Capstone Classical Academy represents a financial middle ground that is absolutely dedicated to help students maximize their academic advancement.”

“We have developed a financial policy that is most convenient to families. Parents will buy the online curriculum program and materials directly from the providers. Our fees are based upon a monthly charge. We do not require long term contracts because we want parents to know that if they are not satisfied with the program, they can leave it without a continuing financial burden,” she said.

For the families of students absolutely dedicated to remaining in public education, Pickering has formed another company to give them the assistance they need.

“Except for the academically elite students or those who need a little boost to be able to pass the TAKS test, the modern classroom is one that has abandoned ability grouping to the detriment of the broader range of students,” Pickering said. “Classroom teachers talk about this privately, but there are obvious pressures on what they can say publicly and to parents.”

“The delivery of instruction to the majority of students in public education is an academic compromise that classroom teachers are forced to make because it is not possible to be the most effective in trying to reach students with a broad range of strong and weak skills in the same classroom,” Pickering said.

“That’s education’s dirty little secret that everyone in the system knows but won’t talk about publicly because it is not politically correct to do so,” Pickering said.

“There are hundreds of children at virtually every public school campus sitting in language, math, and other core subject classrooms today receiving instruction that is either ‘over their head’ or ‘too easy’ for their actual academic skills,” Pickering said. “It would be irrational to blame classroom teachers for this situation. They work in the real world, and they do the very best they can because they are dedicated to your children.”

“However, they are not miracle workers. There is no amount of differentiated instruction in a single classroom that can bridge the academic disparity of students that are sitting in too many of our public school classrooms,” Pickering said. “That strategy works in theory but is often overwhelmed by the reality of your child’s actual classroom.”

That’s why Pickering Assessments has developed three key approaches to help parents who students are in this situation. It primarily focuses upon students between the 5^th and 10^th grades but can be customized for students who are younger or older.

“These three programs are for parents who children who are dedicated to staying in public education by choice or because of financial considerations,” Pickering said. The three programs are as follows:

1. The ‘Red Flag’ Academic Audit: “The first step is to identify whether the instruction your child is receiving really targets actual academic needs. We can do that in a very cost effective, time-efficient way through the following steps:

a. Assessment of TAKS Test Results: “We will review your child’s most recent TAKS test results to evaluate what the State of Texas says your child does and does not know. We’ll look at the results academic objective by objective and reach our independent conclusions…

b. Assessment of Actual Classroom Work: “We will ask you to provide us with 2-3 weeks of actual classroom work your child has completed most recently. We’ll look at what has been tested and how your child performed…

c. Assessment of Actual Major Test: “We will ask you to provide us with a recent major test your child has taken. We’ll look at what has been tested and how your child performed…

d. Academic Gaps Testing in Math: “After reviewing the above, we’ll administer a brief but targeted test that will ‘audit’ perceived academic strengths and weaknesses…

e. Assessment of Reading Fluency: “The State’s TAKS test asserts a level of reading fluency for your child. We’ll administer a brief but targeted assignment that evaluates your child’s reading fluency…

f. Assessment of Writing/Grammar Skills: “We’ll administer a brief but targeted writing and grammar test. Most “TAKS Grades” don’t test these skills.

g. We’ll Report Our Findings To You: “This ‘audit’ is designed to put you on a schedule to make important decisions about your child’s academic future. It may be that you decide obtain a full scale nationally norm-referenced test. It may be that you want short term or even long term tutoring. We’ll help you give the information you need to start taking back control of your child’s academic future.”

2. Private Tutoring: “We can provide your child one-on-one tutoring in any subject by a certified professional educator.” There are no contracts to trap you into a financial burden that is not working for your child.

3. Acceleration Classes: The cost of private tutoring is a financial burden for many families. That’s why Pickering Academic Assessments has established its “Acceleration Classes.” The concept is simple. “We’ll group your child with one to no more than four other children whose skills are very similar. That will allow us to give your child the benefit of small-group tutoring that’s very close to private tutoring at discounted price.” Again, there are not contracts to bind your honest evaluation of effectiveness.

If you are interested in learning more about the programs or you want to review actual curriculum materials, “please give me a call, and I’ll be glad to visit with you and your child personally.”

Capstone Classical Academy and Pickering Academic Assessments are located at 515 Pin Oak in Katy. The phone number is 832-314-1400. Pickering can be reached at directors@capstoneclassicalacademy.com.

The limited, special offer will be available to the first 25 families who register their children for the academic assessment. Students must be currently enrolled in the 6^th through 10^th grades in public education, Jean Pickering said.

“Our “Classroom Instructional Audit” is designed to evaluate the actual current instruction of an individual student to determine if it is effectively targeting the real academic needs of that student,” Pickering said.

Pickering, a veteran public educator with 32 years as a classroom teacher, counselor, curriculum coordinator, or high level administrator, has recent formed this service in the private sector.

“In this audit, we will evaluate a student’s recent class work assignments including a major test or two and the most recent TAKS’ test results,” she said. “We will then administer our own brief but targeted assessment in math, reading, and writing to complete our evaluation.”

Pickering says her audit has a criterion-based approach to help parents decide if academic intervention programs may be needed.

Here are the elements of the “Classroom Instructional Audit:”

• Assessment of TAKS Test Results: “We will review your child’s most recent TAKS test results to evaluate what the State of Texas says your child does and does not know. We’ll look at the results academic objective by objective and reach an independent conclusion…
• Assessment of Actual Classroom Work: “We will ask you to provide us with 2-3 weeks of actual classroom work your child has completed most recently. We’ll look at what has been tested and how your child performed…
• Assessment of Actual Major Test: “We will ask you to provide us with a recent major test your child has taken. We’ll look at what has been tested and how your child performed…
• Academic Gaps Testing in Math: “After reviewing the above, we’ll administer a brief but targeted test that will ‘audit’ perceived academic strengths and weaknesses…
• Assessment of Reading Fluency: “The State’s TAKS test asserts a level of reading fluency for your child. We’ll administer a brief but targeted assessment that evaluates your child’s reading fluency…
• Assessment of Writing/Grammar Skills: “We’ll administer a brief but targeted writing and grammar test. Most “TAKS Grades” don’t test these skills…
• We’ll Report Our Findings To You: “This ‘audit’ is designed to put you on a schedule to make important decisions about your child’s academic future. It may be that you decide to obtain a full scale nationally norm-referenced test. It may be that you want short term or even long term academic assistance. We’ll help you get the information you need to start taking control of your child’s academic future,” Pickering said.

This limited offer is available to the families of the first 25 students who are registered to participate with the following restrictions:

• Parents or legal guardians must authorize participation in writing.
• Parents or legal guardians must accept the terms of participation which include access to confidential information including a student’s TAKS test results, classroom work, major test grades, and additional testing cited.
• Parents must agree to provide such material as well as abide by the schedule for additional testing.
• This offer expires December 31, 2009 or when 25 have registered to obtain the free audit, whichever comes first.

Capstone Classical Academy and Pickering Academic Assessments are located at 515 Pin Oak in Katy. The phone number is 832-314-1400. Pickering can be reached at directors@capstoneclassicalacademy.com.

There are at least two kinds of students who can benefit from pursuing their high school diplomas from Capstone Classical Academy, according to founder Jean Pickering.

Capstone offers three reputable, accredited online high school diploma programs from its campus at 515 Pin Oak Road in Katy near the Katy Mills Mall. One of the programs also offers a more limited approach allowing a student to take individual high schools courses for full credit at their public high school.

“By establishing a campus environment to which students come four times a week, we have combined the best of online instruction supported by instructional professionals in a disciplined environment,” Pickering said.

Here are the two kinds of students cited by Pickering:

1. Highly motivated, disciplined students who are focused upon academics more than extra or co-curricular activities at school. Such a student may or may not be an elite student but will be very dedicated to maximizing one’s academic potential on a path to a university-level education.
2. The student who is falling behind or whose goals are more focused upon community college or work force training as the next step in life. These may be students that have lost credits to timely graduation in the public schools or ones, for whatever reasons, are just not performing well in public education.

The benefits of the programs for each kind of student will be described in more detail. However, here are the common denominators of the programs:

• “The online high school diploma programs I have chosen are focused upon academic mastery. There are no activities to “puff up” grades. The curriculum materials of each of the programs vary according to the student’s post high school objective. The curriculum is calibrated and delivered to objectives parents understand at the beginning…
• “Parents will purchase access to the online programs and supporting curriculum materials at cost from the source…
• “Capstone’s fees are based upon a monthly cost. There are no long term contracts to sign that cost you financially if you want to leave the program…
• “Capstone is not a place for lazy students. We offer a structured program with professional support and high expectations. However, we consult with you to help you choose the exact program that represents realistic expectations…”

The three online programs include:

1. Texas Tech High School Diploma/Course Credit Plan: Texas Tech is recognized as prestigious program. It is for those who want to pursue a high school diploma.  It is also for those who need to take one or two courses to “catch up” or “get ahead” in their course work. The college entrance SAT scores of graduates rank very well. The curriculum is rigorous. For those taking targeted courses, the grades transfer subject by subject back to any school district in Texas. A student graduates from Texas Tech High School “college ready.”

2. Ashworth College Prep High School Diploma: This program is also academically rigorous. It is accredited by The Secondary Association of Colleges and Schools. It is less expensive than the Texas Tech option. Students who earn this diploma can be expected to move into the college world.

3. Ashworth College General High School Diploma: This program is designed for students who have fallen behind in the course work and who or in danger of not graduating from public high school.  This is an academically solid program.  However, it does not include upper level math and science classes.  Thus, it is also effective for students whose career plans do not include the highest level math and science courses. Graduates of this program can expect to attend community college to pursue additional academic studies or move comfortably into workforce training programs.

“While these high school programs are ones in which students are currently enrolled and one that we expect to be the highest in demand, we also offer such programs with support for elementary and junior high students,” she said.

Capstone Classical Academy and Pickerings Academic Assessments are located at 515 Pin Oak in Katy. The phone number is 832-314-1400. Pickering can be reached at directors@capstoneclassicalacademy.com.

Noted Texas civil rights attorney Larry Watts has retained George Scott to consult with him on cases and due process hearings involving his clients who are classroom teachers or public school administrators. Watts also represents families of students involved in litigation with school districts.

“Many cases in which I represent public school educators include matters of educational accountability or lower level administrative decisions guided by arbitrary, punitive policies that often target teachers or administrators for retaliation,” Watts said. “I have come to respect George’s expertise in such matters over the 30 years I have known him.”

Scott has already worked with Watts on several cases in the ‘Golden Triangle’ that includes the Beaumont, Port Arthur, and Orange areas of Texas.

Among Scott’s strengths are “his vast knowledge of the public education system and the additional experts he can bring to any effort,” Watts said. “He has demonstrated an ability to quickly establish knowledgeable rapport with my clients that helps us understand what’s happened and why.”

Watts says that Scott’s role in particular cases will be to help him prepare “discovery requests” of data from public school districts. “He will also play a role in helping prepare me for the questioning of school district officials when I have them under oath in a deposition or hearing.”

“I am very excited to have this opportunity to work with Larry on some of his cases involving public education officials,” Scott said.  “The current level of administrative abuse of some public school employees including classroom teachers and lower level administrators is often staggering.”

“I look forward to the opportunity to explain some of these matters in detail as my work with Mr. Watts moves forward,” Scott said.  “I am honored to have the opportunity to use the knowledge I have gained about public education in different way than I have had the chance in my previous career.”

There are five elements, which I will spell out in detail, that would create a perfect storm of educational reform in a community if they could be mustered in unison.  However, empirical history and harsh reality dictate that two of the five are either systemically unattainable or consistently unachievable.  These two - local news media and business community leadership - are generally lost causes unless ways can be calculated to ‘bully’ them into action.

The remaining three must function together if meaningful reform is to be forced upon a system that is dedicated to its own eventual implosion.  While the likelihood of successful reform has grown dim, it is theoretically possible to achieve.

These five elements take for granted that the Texas Legislature is fundamentally incapable of taking the lead in genuine reform–the kind that restores the academic integrity of academic classrooms.

The politics of public education in Texas is among the primary reasons that the academic integrity of education has been corrupted.

What the Legislature has allowed in its name has enabled academic corruption, dishonesty, and public misrepresentation of academic reality. The Legislature will never lead actual reform; it is destined only to follow community-based reform because its collective membership is politically and philosophically incapable of pursuing academic reform - preferring the appearance of reform as more achievable.

The system of public education that has evolved over the past three decades is pervasively powerful.  It distributes billions of dollars cumulatively in spending that fuels the political, statutory, and legal processes that preserve, protect, and reward those who distribute the dollars in the first place.

It is a circle of influence that is protected viciously.  National governments have militaries.  The public education bureaucracy, armed with abundant finances and enduring power, retain mega-law firms such as Bracewell and Giuliani.  In conjunction with powerful associations such as the Texas Association of School Boards and the Texas Association of School administrators, and others, the bureaucracy has placed a high priority upon protecting itself from penetration.

These institutions play a pivotal role in intimidating and bullying school board members into surrendering the “independent” part of a district.  Vendors who slop in the public trough of public dollars and  no-bid professional services are always there to grease the skids of an administration’s need during bond issues, or at conventions and other communal gatherings of educators.

Think of these forces protecting the educational bureucracy as you would the U.S. Army Rangers or the U.S. Navy Seals.

When reformers leave their communities and head to Austin in pursuit of reform, they are taking a garden hose to fight a forest fire.  At that level, there are simply no chinks in the armor of the system.  The political system is too corrupt, too entrenched and too vested to contemplate actual reform that will be meaningful in what happens in your children’s classrooms.  One can add to this the fact that powerful corporate interests that are enriched by public dollars also protect the ’system.’

As you consider the veracity of that brutal conclusion, consider the predestined-to-fail efforts of the conservative Dr. Jim Leininger, who has poured literally millions of dollars down a political rat hole believing that fundamentally ignorant legislators knew enough about the substance of public education to ‘deliver’ him vouchers.

Setting aside his ill-conceived notion that vouchers automatically translates to better public education, he should realize by now that Austin is an impenetrable political fortress, protected by conservative, liberal, Republican and Democratic politicians who all share the shame of the past 20 years of fraudulent academic accountability.

The five elements of reform also acknowledge that the local school board’s role as a viable independent entity (in holding a superintendent’s administration accountable) has given way to the intellectual equivalent of a holy matrimony where the two have become one.

Individually and collectively, school board members and boards as a whole do not think in terms of holding a superintendent (and thus the leader’s entire administration) accountable.  Board members have been inculcated to believe that they and their administrators must ride a unicycle - with the superintendent in charge of the guiding handles while the board members sit in a subservient position.

The likelihood of electing a school board armed with the knowledge and self-motivation to change this relationships is a years-long process.  There are few if any school boards ready now to lead a reform effort, and, like the Legislature, boards will only follow community-based demands.

As protective as most school boards are with their administrations, organized community efforts must target the school board with a sustained effort to ‘break the model’  of acquiescent ‘accountability’ typical boards have created.

So what are the five essential elements of reform that will be covered in more detail over the next several columns?  Reform groups must develop a working strategy that accomplishes the following:

Taking a slightly closer look at the last two elements - the news media and business organizations.

An effective strategy will have to find ways to make it “journalistically impossible” for the news media to avoid covering a group’s major issues.  There are some practical ways to do this.  As far as the business community is concerned, a group will need to bypass the leadership and go directly to the rank and file members.

An group that is successful in developing strategies to achieve the first three elements of reform will almost certainly improve their chances of improved performance regarding the last two elements.

This series on the five essential elements of reform will now discuss each of the five in much more detail.

The 5 Essential Elements Of Reform - 2

One common denominator of why public education watchdog groups rise and fade so quickly is the low-hanging fruit of the system’s abuse they target almost exclusively.  To be certain, supporting business efficiency and opposing financial abuse of taxpayers should always be a part of an agenda.  However, it will never be enough to change the powerful developments that are destroying the academic integrity of your children’s core subject classrooms.

• Forcing school districts to post check registers and financial audits online
• Exposing administrative abuse of district-issued credit cards, excessive travel, or claimed perks of the job
• Creating public outcries that block a particularly stupid decision
• Rallying public ire at any given issue of the moment
• Producing the momentum for across-the-board budget cuts to save a penny or two on the tax rate

A 100% success rate on any of these kinds of issues and dozens more that could be cited will do absolutely nothing to improve the quality of education that the district organizes and delivers to your children’s classrooms.

Groups often focus their anger upon these issues because they are absolutely the easiest ones to confront.  In the scheme of things rated on a scale of 1-10 for impact on actual education, these issues rate towards the bottom.  In truth, they barely rate at all on this standard.

Let’s be more blunt.  A group that forces a district to post its checks online or to back away from spending $5 million on artificial turf for fields at individual high schools, for instance, will do absolutely nothing to resolve the helter-skelter, hodge-podge organization of core subject classrooms that puts children of vastly different academic skills into the same classroom at the same time.

Therefore, the most important ingredient in an education reform movement should be the actual reform of education.  The more the focus is upon the assistant or deputy superintendents of instruction is the more a group is likely to have positive impact on the children’s education.

There should be no misconception about this. This is a dramatic challenge, and very difficult to accomplish.  The curriculum and accountability management side of public education works under the radar of most community groups except in superficial ways.

The superintendent of schools becomes a major roadblock between a school board and accountability for such administrators.

If you go back into the archives of George Scott Reports, you will find specific columns actually proving this in Katy.  We asked for specific reports that had been prepared by the district to document the empirical effectiveness of administrative-directed and board-approved curriculum initiatives.

We forced the district to acknowledge time and time again on one curriculum strategy after another that such documentation of program effectiveness “did not exist.”

There was a major math and science task force report presented to the Katy school board in 2007.  Proof of its effectiveness did not exist.  The district is huge into the Professional Learning Community.  Give us some proof of performance, the public information request said.  Responded the district, it “doesn’t exist.”

Show us some empirical evidence that your strategy of team teaching or collaboration through vertical teams were improving student academic performance.  Such proof doesn’t exist said the district.

These kinds of issues and strategies are at the very heart, soul, and bone-marrow of the quality of education your children are receiving.  Yet, most watchdog groups are too intimidated by their initial lack of knowledge on these subjects to learn more.

Certainly, school board members quickly become ‘children of the corn’ types of automatons by allowing themselves to be browbeaten by their superintendents into believing they are not capable of independent thought upon these subjects.  Moreover, school board members are ‘trained’ to believe that it is not within their job description to challenge the details of curriculum initiatives because it would involve them in administration rather than policy.

That’s why this system of public education has deteriorated so dramatically.  It is why your children’s academic futures are genuinely at risk.

Here is a fact.  The academic integrity of significant and increasing numbers of core subject classrooms have been fatally compromised if the standard is creating organizational units in which classroom teachers can deliver genuine grade-level instruction.  This language means that in districts such as Katy, there are still students who are receiving a world-class education in extremely effective classroom units.  However, even in districts such as Katy, these numbers are dropping.

Classroom teachers are the first to know it.  The fact of the matter is that mid-level administrative curriculum specialists, most of whom are extremely dedicated professionals, know it as well.

These folks are forced to work in an environment that is imposed from above, and most are doing the best they can to make it all work as best it can.  From the federal government to the Texas Legislature to the Texas Education Agency to your local school board to your superintendent to your high level curriculum administrators, they are all key players in a sick system that is destroying public education.

The truth of the matter is that these developments have gone on for so long, and they have become so inculcated into the ways things are done that genuine reform of public education has grown less likely to even be achievable.

Having written that, there are specific things that can be done to help your children while re-establishing some management accountability over curriculum and accountability measures in your district.

Despite what members of your board may have been told they are allowed to believe, the school board does have some independent authority to take actions that would help.  Right now, school board members don’t generally think they have such power; they would not really know what to do if they concluded they did have power; and they have no organization of parents or citizens demanding that they exercise such power.

A community has limited choices here. It can choose among:

1. Adopting a posture that there is really no problem while concluding that people like me are crying wolf
2. Staying on the sidelines far removed from engagement on these issues
3. Taking the battle directly to your school board over an extended period of time on issues of educational substance (Don’t worry about school board elections as much as you focus upon school board performance.)

From a practical standpoint, the third option above will never materialize in a community without an effective watchdog organization.  Movements are always about initial leadership.  Sustaining movements is always about issues, revitalized leadership, and consistent agendas.

Here’s a one-question litmus test about evaluating a watchdog organization: which action would be most important to your children?

1. Blocking $5 million of spending on artificial turf
2. Forcing your school board to demand that its administration produce an empirical based report demonstrating the effectiveness of vertical team conferences in improving math performance at the district’s junior and senior high schools. A part of this demand would include an opportunity for private citizens organized by the watchdog group to directly engage the administrators who produced the report with questions in front of the school board.

If your answer is the first, your group will never be successful.  It will never produce serious educational reform in your school district.

The second answer is the only correct answer.  It is the hardest answer. The truth of the matter is that the likelihood of a community group dedicating itself to such an aggressive, important role is not great.

Moreover, the second answer is just one tiny step of changing a community’s attitude about what is and is not really important. It is a daunting challenge.

The entire educational bureaucracy has successfully engineered a scam it has foisted on school boards and many rank and file citizens including far too many parents.  The scam basically reads as follows:

“We are the experts.  We have the doctorates.  We know what is best for your children.”  Don’t question us is the borderline-explicit message.

So, if a watchdog organization is to be effective, it must prepare itself to become informed on issues that for the most part have always been left to the “experts.”  The group’s leadership must, at a minimum, do the following:

1. Determine and identify individuals it can trust to ‘crack the code’ of curriculum administrative arrogance
2. Determine an effective initial agenda that includes a specific curriculum-accountability project
3. Develop a specific public information request that focuses like a laser beam to get information that really advances your first project
4. Implement an effective communication strategy to the general public

George Scott Reports is prepared to help any community organization in the state develop such a strategy.

However, let me suggest now that the first step any organization must take is to find a way to engage classroom teachers in private discussions about the reality of their classrooms. The fact of the matter is that there will be no reform in your school district unless and until your group finds a way to understand what classroom teachers know and take for granted.

Expanding a group’s agenda beyond the low hanging fruit of business abuse into the bone marrow of what is really wrong with what has become of a deteriorating public education system is the most important step in achieving reform.  Without this commitment, no other steps really matter, and no watchdog organization will have any real ‘bite.’

The 5 Essential Elements Of Reform - 3

Perhaps this will be the most controversial theme of the series “The Five Essential Elements of Reform,” because it is going to take everyone to task for what’s happening to classroom teachers - including classroom teachers.

Here is a fact of life in Katy I.S.D. in particular and public education almost everywhere.  One of the single most hostile work environments that exist in any American workplace is the public education classroom.  Classroom teachers are among the most ‘bullied’, white-collar professionals in the United States.

They are the victims of arbitrary and capricious top-down management from their real bosses at central administration (much like principals and assistant principals can be).  To irrational, mean-spirited, vindictive wenches like national book salesman Ann Coulter and other mantra-drive conservatives, classroom teachers are often the focal point of all that is wrong in public education.

Teachers’  bosses give them classrooms filled with students having a range of academic skills from ‘Jethro Bodine’ of the old Beverly Hillbillies to students who are actually at grade-level and ready to learn more.  That’s just the start of it.

Their ‘good public policy’ idiot bosses above tell them:

• Differentiate your instruction!
• Make vertical teams!
• Make horizontal teams!
• Collaborate!
• Use strategies such as:
  • Think, Pair, Share!
  • Jigsaw!
• Operate as a Professional Learning Community: traditional schools emphasize teaching but PLC emphasizes learning!

And, by the way, when Jethro does not turn in his homework - or finish his classwork - do not give him an ‘F!’ Give him another day.  And, when Jethro doesn’t turn in the work for a second day, call his parents.  If he doesn’t turn it in for the third day, give up your duty-free  lunch hour, and make him do it in front of you.  Never mind that forcing teachers to give up their lunch hour is against the law; our kids don’t get zeros and our kids don’t flunk without an act of Congress.

And, by the way, when teachers are planning on using their conference period to grade papers, plan lessons, contact parents, or any of the hundreds of other things teachers need to do to prepare themselves every single day, they get an order from an administrator telling them they have to attend a departmental meeting to “collaborate” all on orders from public policy idiots at central command!

Never mind that this action butt-kicks state law.  Never mind that the public policy idiot school board members in Katy endorsed a legislative proposal to try to change that law in the current session of the Legislature while permitting the law to continue to be broken in Katy I.S.D.   When central command snaps their fingers, teachers must respond even if what they are required to do subtracts from time they have to give to most of their students.

When too many kids in a class are not succeeding academically because they act up in class, don’t turn in their homework, and don’t work to succeed, teachers are expected to find a way to pass the vast majority of these relatively few but highly disruptive students anyway.

And, if they don’t pass the particular kids, they often get summoned to the office to explain why.  Summon a teacher once, they get the message.  No future summons are needed!

Parents should not think that these abusive personnel policies directed towards the rank and file classroom teacher help the majority of children who are there to work hard, to learn and to have some fun in their school years.

Professional abuse.  Intimidation.  Corrupt academic standards imposed too often.  So, to whom does the teacher turn for support?  Their gutless, wimpy teacher groups?  Nonsense.

Of them all, the ATPE is the most gutless and worthless to their members.  The ATPE, the largest group in Katy I.S.D., ought to be leading the way helping teachers file literally thousands of grievances against the administrators of this district.  Oh, that’s right - the ATPE has administrators as well as teachers in the group.  The ATPE could stop the majority of this nonsense in one semester, but its institutional gutlessness rivals the school board’s.

If there were ever a need for Gayle Fallon’s group to become active in a suburban Texas school district, Katy I.S.D. would be exhibit A.

So, what does this have to do with reform?

The thesis of George Scott Reports is that the classroom is the single most important organizational unit in public education.  Everything else is distant by comparison.  The integrity of too many of those classroom units has broken down - academically, organizationally and managerially.

Watchdog groups that want to reform public education have a gigantic pathway to success.  It begins with establishing diplomatic relations with classroom teachers.

As evidenced by even the current school board race, incumbent and challengers seeking election to the school board have gone through this entire election cycle without saying, writing or perhaps even thinking one substantive thought that would change the condition of reality in the classroom.    They spout intellectual drivel such as “better communications” or “experience” as if it means something.  One candidate in particular is about to set a Guinness Book world record by running three consecutive campaigns of the most inconsequential, vacuous nature.

The fact of the matter is that classroom teachers possess chapter and verse of what’s happening in their workplace, why it is happening, and the impact it is having.

Reform groups that want to succeed must find a way to open communications with classroom teachers to begin developing the knowledge base they will need to confront administrative reform.

Reform will not and cannot and shall not happen without engagement of classroom teachers.

On the other hand, classroom teachers should recognize that this problem has grown because they have allowed themselves to become intimidated by a process over which they have more control than perhaps they believe.

Nobody or no group can help you if you are not willing to help yourself.

You have about a month left in school.  Here are three things you should do to be better prepared to deal with these issues next year:

1. DEMAND: A specific plan of action should be developed now and over the course of the summer to be implemented at the start of next school by your professional organization.  The plan should deal with explicit strategies including providing legal support for teachers who file legitimate grievances that are within the parameters of the plan and/or state law.  As necessary, the plan should include a commitment by the statewide organization to assist implementation.
2. CHANGE LEADERS or CHANGE GROUPS: If your current group will not make the commitment to do this, change leaders or change groups.  Your current group is not the only place to get professional insurance.
3. SEND LINKS TO GEORGE SCOTT REPORTS: As strange and ironic as it may seem, a political conservative who believes that public education’s best days may be behind it is probably your single best friend in this community.  Your school board is not.  Your administration is not.  The last watchdog group in Katy was run by political idealogues who preferred the pursuit of  philosophical mantras to intellectual substance.  Although I am a vicious critic of what public education is becoming in many ways, I remain strongly committed to its reform or restructuring.  What you and I know is that reform cannot be achieved without restoring your standing and wresting control away from the high level administrators who abuse you professionally every day you come to work.  So, please use your private emails to send links of this column and my website to your colleagues.  You have to trust someone.  You can trust me to protect your confidence.

Wow!  What a start! As a totally ‘inside’ joke left publicly unexplained, I probably even have one or more members of my own immediate family who will disagree with that statement.  So, let’s discuss this in the context of George Scott Reports’ release of longitudinal performance data by enrolling freshmen at the University of Texas at Austin.

George Scott Reports has now become officially very cumulative in nature.  I can’t go back and review everything written before.  Go catch up! The archives are easy to access.  So, let me cite two things of unequivocal certitude what I or my principle consultant Dr. William Howland did NOT say in reference to reporting on student performance at the University of Texas regarding the SAT scores of enrolling freshmen from Texas high schools.  We did not:

1. PREDICT that a high school graduate with an SAT score of 1550 (math and reading) would go to the University of Texas on an inevitable path to becoming a future winner of some Nobel Prize.
2. PREDICT that a high school graduate with an SAT score of 950 would go to the University of Texas and fail miserably on a path to become the next guy at the corner of Mason and Katy Freeway with a sign that says “Give me five bucks; I need a beer and some cheap cigarettes.”

Dr. Howland and I did not reach or communicate any conclusion about the statistical predictability of the relationship between an individual’s SAT score and eventual college success or failure.  We did not even try because, most importantly, we did not want to try to do that with this analysis.

There have been ‘tons of studies’ over the course of time evaluating how socioeconomic and even learning-style issues affect student performance upon standardized tests, including the SAT.  Dr. Howland has participated in and reviewed many of those studies over the course of his career.  I am generally familiar with the range of thoughts on that subject.

Let me state this categorically.  I do not believe that the SAT score of a single student should be the sole criteria by which that student earns admission to a college or university.  The inclusion of other factors is absolutely justified for a wide variety of reasons.  Intellectually and philosophically, I absolutely endorse, support, and commend that practice.  In fact, I think it would be crazy to do otherwise.

However, I do not believe that just because the SAT score lacks statistical certitude about future academic performance of an individual student, that it means one surrenders the ability to make reasoned judgments about SAT scores without sophisticated sociological analysis explaining why some groups do better than other groups.

I am far from alone in that view.  Hundreds of millions of dollars in National Merit Scholarships, for instance,  have been awarded to high school students on the basis of high rather than just good PSAT scores by 11th graders without the benefit of “why?”.

One can look at the academic profiles of colleges and universities throughout the United States and define vast differences in the academic profile of students based upon high, good, average and lower SAT scores.  It obviously means something to these universities.  After all, there is a an academic difference between Harvard and the Lone Star Community College.  Both serve society, but there is a difference.

In fact, what our report on performance by enrolling freshmen at the University of Texas at Austin has already documented (and will do so even more when the retrievable data base becomes available in a just a few days) are the following:

1. Students with very high SAT scores enrolled in the University of Texas ‘flamed-out’, dropped-out, and otherwise performed very poorly, and,
2. Students with lower quartile SAT scores at entrance enrolled there and performed extraordinarily well and graduated on time with good grades.

Why is that the case?  Why does the information we presented document this? It is because the SAT score does NOT predict an individual’s future academic success.

However, when researchers become preoccupied with communicating to parents about this lack of predictable certitude of the SAT score, it can implicitly suggest that the SAT, absent sociological analysis, has little value for analysis.  That is not true, either.

That’s the reason that I made the decision to look at the SAT data from the University of Texas without the filter of trying to explain why some students do better on standardized tests than other students do.

Here’s what our analysis does show.  For whatever reason students scored whatever they scored on the SAT, there’s a statistically significant difference in the graduation rates, dropout rates, and grade point averages of students in the top25% and the bottom 25%.

The University of Texas at Austin uses its own website to publish dozens of tables of raw data on student academic performance showing top and non-top 10% students, SAT scores, college of admission and grade point averages.  The university’s own presentations in these tables do not address these broader issues swirling about the SAT.  Why should I suddenly be forced to a different standard?

What George Scott Reports has done is take raw data provided to us by the university and presented it in different kinds of tables that we think are more relevant in helping parents understand some important issues.

To my knowledge, George Scott Reports is the first to publish this detailed information this way on a high school-by-high school basis.  Soon, that data will include detailed information on a student-by-student basis.  In fact, I also have (on a student-by student basis) all of this information based upon the college of enrollment.  I’ll have to scrub some of elements of this to remain consistent with federal privacy laws, but I have and will report on this too in the future.  I have just begun.

I think this approach has value.  Here are some of the reasons that include my looking to future reports and columns:

1. While there is a national movement among some forces to ‘neuter’ the use of SAT scores for college admissions, our information confirms that the SAT has important meaning that should not be ignored.  The effort to diminish the importance of the SAT is not a movement that I support.
2. By showing the academic profile of enrolling freshmen at a flagship university in Texas for so many years on a high school-by-high school basis, parents can put their child’s individual performance in the context of their own high school and every high school in Texas. Further, I believe they can ’start’ (not conclude, but start) doing this when they get the results of a 10th PSAT test.
   1. For instance, I already know that the academic profile of enrolling freshmen from Katy’s high schools is way above the average performance of these schools’ general student population.  There’s nothing radically surprising about this, but parents need this kind of detailed information that gives them more data than they can get just from classroom grades and the state’s TAKS test.  Now parents throughout Texas can start looking at data they would not have without George Scott Reports.
   2. Other available data from Texas Education Agency (TEA) and Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) reports can be used to give even greater context and meaning to the information we have published regarding students at the University of Texas at Austin.
3. We have just started this process of writing about this information.  The intent is to use what we have done so far as a focal point to address further issues.  I am asking serious researchers who have strong credentials to ‘cut me some slack’ as I develop my themes and conclusions over the next weeks and months that I will be addressing. Before you totally condemn me for how I chose to have the numbers ‘cut’ or ‘not cut’; wait to see what I do with the numbers before overreacting.
4. The fact that my report published information showing all college enrollment for the most recent year as published by the THECB will hopefully be received by my readers and potential critics as an act of good faith that the goal here is to expand the knowledge of parents.  I have and will continue to publish extensive raw data; I will give my analysis of what that data does and does not mean; and I will encourage my readers to make their own judgments.
5. The University of Texas at Austin has what I consider to be among the best university websites I have visited in terms of giving information about its students.  The THECB gives outstanding information.  Even the TEA gives important information in its data tables buried amidst the TAKS-C.R.A.P. (Conned Reporting About Performance is what that add-on acronym means.)  Cumulatively, these institutions give out a lot of data.  However, the real meaning and value of some of this information is obscured and buried within the tables.  Routinely, important information from the TEA would give more meaning to THECB data.  Data from these institutions would also help put some of the UT information we have published in better context.  However, there’s that information in three different reports ‘not talking to each other.’ I want to help parents start pulling some of this information together, and to start thinking about what this information means to their children. As I can afford, I want to triangulate some of these sources into a common analysis.
6. Within what we published yesterday and in what’s coming, George Scott Reports’ goal is to help parents escape their dependence upon relying upon their school district or their school board or their superintendent of schools to tell them what they need to know. I want parents to know that there is an abundance of information available to them.  I want parents to know that honest people can have differences of opinion about what that information means.  However, and most importantly, I want parents to understand that they have the ability to work through these issues on behalf of their children if they’ll just do it.

For those linking to us from that source, we think you will quickly discover that George Scott Reports is a unique brand of citizen-journalism bearing huge differences from many that pursue the debate on public policy issues.  We’ve linked to a few columns that will quickly allow you to gauge the website.  We encourage you to browse throughout each of the categories for other articles of interest.

We are focused upon education issues.  The rules of engagement for the website are different than many.  We are researched focused.  We sponsor and publish original research based on information requested and received through custom-crafted Public Information Requests.  We supplement that research with strong commentary.

George Scott Reports has focused its primary research efforts on Katy I.S.D.  However, we are doing so in a way that creates a template for citizens in other school districts.  Katy I.S.D. is recognized as one of the best school districts in Texas.  Our premise is pretty basic:  This district has not been insulated from the general deterioration of the public education system.  However, academically corrupt accountability systems in Texas have allowed districts such as Katy a very easy way to ‘gloss over’ serious deficiencies.

If we can show you how to take on a Katy I.S.D., you’ll be steps ahead in your own efforts to hold your school district accountable.  In fact, we are willing to help you directly.  Our goal is to expose the serious deficiencies in one of the best districts so that citizens in other districts will have a path to follow in their own districts.  We plan to issue reports of statewide scope in the future. Our goal is to grow, but you have to start somewhere when your resources are limited.

George Scott Reports does not generally allow anonymous posters although we will consider requests on a case-by-case basis.  You need to have a good reason to be anonymous on this site.  Consequently, we don’t have as many contributors because many websites have generally encouraged anonymous meanderings.

I am the primary author on the website.  However, individuals are encouraged to post responses to my columns.  I will consider your original postings.

Since you are joining us five months into this effort, I am going to suggest some specific columns that will help you catch up with the effort thus far.  I hope you’ll come back many times.

PUBLIC EDUCATION CHALLENGES OVERALL

 With Such Pervasive Corporate & Regulatory Corruption, Why Is It Difficult To Accept Public Education’s Fraud? 

White-Collar, Philosophical War Crimes Against Students & Parents 

TEACHERS ARE NOT OUR ENEMIES - GENUINE REFORMERS NEED THEM AS A PART OF THE EFFORT FOR US ALL TO BE SUCCESSFUL

Gayle Fallon Advises Teachers On Conference Time Rights 

DEAR PARENTS:  UNDERSTANDING THE CHALLENGES OF ACCOUNTABILITY

Dear Parents, Part 1: Let’s Start The New Year With A Dedication To Understand The Forces Affecting Your School District 

Dear Parents Part 2: Because Your Community Institutions Are Failing, You Must Be Extra Vigilant 

PEEKING INSIDE THE WORLD OF CURRICULUM ADMINISTRATORS

NEWS RELEASE: In The Wake Of 6 Days Missed Instruction From Hurricane Ike; KISD Keeps Pulling Those Teachers Out Of The Classroom: Part 1 

Part 2: When Will Katy I.S.D. Parents & Community Institutions Say Enough Is Enough? 

DON’T WAIT ON THE LOCAL MEDIA TO REPORT YOUR BATTLE - IN KATY, THE MEDIA IS NOT WORTH A BUCKET OF WARM SPIT - YOU JUST HAVE TO DEAL WITH IT - I’VE TRIED REASONING - MAYBE INSULTING THEM WILL WORK TO GET THEM OFF THEIR TAILS

Chronicle, Times, Sun Support And Enable Frailey’s Isolation, Retreat From Accountability

OUR CLASSROOM TO COLLEGE SERIES -

“Classrooms to College” is an extensive series that will paint a detailed portrait of student performance, starting with anaylsis of Katy ISD high school classrooms and tracing the path all the way towards the success of Katy ISD graduates once they move on to college.   The summary below will have you ready to go ‘inside’ individual Katy I.S.D. secondary classrooms.  Also featured in the “Classrooms to College” section is a series of responses to a researcher who offered critique of GSR’s analysis.

Katy ISD ~ Classrooms to College: An enriched summary of Parts 1-4  

Response to Researcher-Part 1

POKING SOME FUN IN A SERIOUS WAY

Frailey’s Rage Gauge & Duhon’s Rubber Stamp Board When I was publisher of The New Katy News, I wrote of the Katy I.S.D. School Board that its members had the cumulative intellectual curiosity of an amoeba.  The following week, I issued an apology to amoeba everywhere. 

PART 1 Awards: Katy I.S.D. School Board Members Earn Honors 

Awards: Part 2 

As Spring break ends for Katy I.S.D., George Scott Reports reaches its six-month anniversary of publication.  Some key goals have been accomplished while one major one has not been.

I’ll begin addressing that one goal tomorrow (Monday, March 23) when a standing advertisement in The Houston Chronicle begins its publication schedule in the Katy section of that newspaper’s online publication.

Within two weeks, I will begin another marketing venture that hopefully will produce more awareness of my effort to lay the foundation for genuine education reform in Katy and beyond.

The major weakness of this Report, in my assessment, has been the lack of sufficient personal financial resources to adequately spend on broad-based marketing.  Consequently, while the growth in readership has been steady from day one in terms of unique visitors and the frequency of visits, the growth has not met my goals.

It is my plan that the next two months leading up to the end of this school term and the summer vacation will go a long way in raising this Report’s public visibility.  I have written several times that my report began as a one-year project.  It will go beyond the one year only if I can raise its visibility to the point I want it to be in order to affect public policy.  It has not reached that point yet.

I will appreciate any help that any of my existing readers can provide in helping me accomplish this one major need.  The research, analysis and writing part of this effort is in good shape.  External marketing needs some help.

Starting this week, a major component of the Classrooms To College Series will report its major assessment of the academic rigor of all the Algebra II classrooms from the 2006-07 academic-year in Katy I.S.D.  It is not a pretty picture of the deterioration of math instruction in Texas.  That this situation exists in one of the ‘best’ school districts in Texas should serve as a major wakeup call well beyond this District’s borders.

Soon after that, George Scott Reports will publish major findings about the success rates of students attending The University of Texas at Austin including Katy I.S.D. graduates.  This will be meaningful to parents throughout Texas.

The results of the study are completed and its findings are now being packaged for publication. It will be reporting important data to which parents should have common access. However, school districts such as Katy don’t believe it is their job to let you know these sorts of things about their graduates.

There is ‘much good news’ embedded in the report, but there is also important analysis that allows parents to look at data from an outstanding state university and begin making judgments about their own children when they are sitting in those junior high classrooms.

Over the next two months, we’ll finish out reporting on the initial efforts that have been made to describe staff development training abuses forced upon classroom teachers.  We’ll also complete our report on a particular training session involving the language and science departments.

The goal is to also begin reporting on academic matters other than math.

My warning for parents today is the same as it was when we began this effort six months ago this weekend.

Parents cannot depend upon its school board, its administrators, or its politicians to help protect their children in a public education system that is imploding academically for more and more students every year.

The elite students have been somewhat insulated in their academic ventures, but even that condition is changing.

The ‘TAKS bubble’ children (those at or near the failing point of the test) get special treatment.

If your children are NOT passing TAKS handily or your children are among the academically elite, they are getting some very special treatment.  If your children are in the middle of that range of academic performance, your worries should be severe.

Unfortunately, you cannot count on the educational bureaucracy to deal with this matter.  You cannot count on the general media to expose it.

That’s why I started George Scott Reports.  Six months down.  Six months and maybe more to go.

It’s going to be a very productive two months from the standpoint of reporting.  I am hoping for more success on the marketing issues.

Just because I said I had no interest in this year’s school board election for Katy I.S.D. did not mean that I wouldn’t use last year’s election to explain why.

At this point in this community’s life (and most communities for that matter), it simply does not matter who seeks or serves on the board.  They are too often cut from the same mold of individuals who simply have not and do not prepare themselves to perform competently.

I am on record predicting that the incumbent will be re-elected in one seat this year.  I also believe that the administration-favored candidate (even if not expressed publicly) will win the open seat abandoned (thankfully) by Tom Law.

Should those two predictions prove incorrect, the one prediction that will remain accurate is my prediction that none of the winners will have prepared themselves to advance the cause of educational reform in a meaningful way on behalf of students, classroom teachers, parents and taxpayers.

That last observation is based upon more than 30 years of watching school boards and school board members in action.  The last 15 years or so have seen even further deterioration in the quality of the institution of the school board for a whole host of reasons.

While I have criticized the Katy Watchdog organization’s leadership over the last several years and on this website, I want to acknowledge that this column is made possible because that organization conducted and published a candidate questionnaire from last year’s election.

So, my source of the quotes attributed to a candidate from last year’s election is made possible because of the Katy Watchdogs.

I will use three responses in whole or part in particular to explain why the school board system in public education in general and Katy I.S.D. in particular has ‘broken down.’  I am not going to name the candidate to whom these quotes are attributable because I believe the answers are symptomatic of a much bigger issue. One question deals with accountability.  One deals with curriculum. One deals with finance.

Any candidate who has spent the time necessary to prepare for service on a school board would be able to provide compelling answers to all three of these questions.  An individual actually prepared to be a member of a school board would consider these ‘sofball’ questions. These questions from the Watchdogs gave candidates an opportunity to express knowledge, acquired expertise and general readiness to serve on a school board.

THE KATY WATCHDOGS ASKED:

Do you believe that TAKS results are an accurate indicator of a student knowledge and district performance?  Please explain your position as to standardized testing.  Do you approve of “teaching to the TAKS”; a practice that is actively done in our district?  Here’s how one candidate answered:

I am neither a professional educator, nor a research scientist…I am not qualified to answer this question on behalf of other parents except to say the test results did not surprise me as they did a good job of describing my children. I realize this is a hotly contested issue throughout our state and one, which if I am elected, I would direct squarely at the one employee the board supervises, Mr. Frailey.

If you want to understand the ferocity of my disrespect of what has become of the institution of the school board, you could not pick out 73 sadder words than those above from a person who wanted to join the Katy I.S.D. school board.

Sadly and tragically, all this person did was honestly admit what most sitting school board members won’t admit.  Most citizens reach the Board with a massive inferiority complex predetermined to be subservient to the administration as the source of definitive answers.

The notion that one has to be a professional educator or a research scientist to understand issues of testing and accountability is staggering.  Yet, it is the real world of your school board.

What this candidate and would-be member of your board said, in effect, is:  “When I get on the Board, I’ll ask the superintendent for his opinion.  And, since I am totally unqualified to evaluate his answer, it must be true.”

Any of my readers who have followed George Scott Reports should understand by now that one does not have to be a research scientist or professional educator to evaluate issues of testing and accountability.

Go back to this column; watch the slide show; and recall this:  it was upon the basis of this test that research scientists for the TEA and professional educators throughout the state including Katy I.S.D. told you that your children were ready for college.

White-Collar, Philosophical War Crimes Against Students & Parents

It is remarkable that a potential member of a school board feels unqualified to evaluate testing and accountability without having such analysis spoon-fed by a superintendent.  What is about the above presentation that requires a research scientist or a professional educator to explain?

Yet, that is what you generally have on school boards today – spoon-fed automatons with massive inferiority complexes.

What the statement means almost certainly is that the candidate in question has not used the public information request in any serious way to conduct personal research on issues of testing and accountability.  And that person wants to go on the board and represent your interests?

That person would almost assuredly ‘fit in’ with the gang.

THE KATY WATCHDOGS ASKED:

What is your opinion of the current KISD curriculum that has been in place over the last thirteen (13) years?  What measures, if any, do you believe should be implemented to improve the current curriculum?  Here’s the answer:

If this is an issue parents want to discuss the board should open a dialogue on the subject.  In the process we should invite our teachers and other support persons to contribute their thoughts and build a consensus before either making changes, or re-affirming the status quo.

What in the holy heck does that mean?  It means that this candidate is clueless.  The candidate is an empty vessel in terms of public policy, or, the candidate is doing the best possible imitation of an empty vessel.

Again, this answer implies a matter of total deference to the educational bureaucracy.

Given an opportunity to espouse fundamental positions on issues of curriculum and curriculum management, the candidate punted.  That’s what school board members do best on important issues – punt.  After all, they are not professional educators nor are they research scientists – apparently the only classes of human being this person must believe are qualified to actually think about important issues of public education.

Once again, the candidate would fit right in with any gang of actual board members because the attitude expressed here as a candidate is the pervasive attitude of incumbents.

THE KATY WATCHDOGS ASKED:

Do you believe that public schools in Texas are receiving adequate funding?  Do you believe that Katy ISD is adequately funded?  Please explain your position.  The candidate’s answer:

This is an impossible question to answer as my knowledge of Katy ISD finances is what the board is willing to share with the public and that is not much. The entire budgetary process for our ISD is shrouded in darkness and only a summary sheet is released showing broad categories. There is no public discussion of the budget nor are citizens allowed to come and ask meaningful questions and get a response. If elected to the board, I will insist the entire budgetary process be more transparent to all parties, especially BEFORE the budget vote is taken. I also feel strongly about reporting to the community how money was actually spent as the board goes about its duties of spending the money in a prudent and conservative manner.

This is pure, unmitigated nonsense.  The one process of school districts for which there is anal-retentive data readily available is the budget and spending process. For a school board candidate to assert that the budgetary process is “shrouded in darkness” almost certainly means several things:

• The candidate has not read and understood the annual financial audit or a series of financial audits covering successive years.
• The candidate has not submitted a single public information request to look at detailed records that are readily available and conveniently produced.
•  The candidate has not read or understood any of the voluminous reports from the Texas Education Agency, the Legislative Budget Board or committees of the Texas Legislature.
• Consequently at the public hearings and budget workshops, this candidate would be the kind of board member incapable of eliciting additional information to help the public work through all the numbers.  Again, the candidate would be right at home on the board.

Let me help the candidate.  When the Board sets the salary schedule; runs the buses; pays the utility bills; and pays debt on construction; it has essentially established the vast majority of the budget.

A school district budget is actually one of the easier budgets to analyze and explain.  It’s one of the easiest government budgets to evaluate in terms of ‘cuts here, impact there’ sorts of analysis.

For a candidate to actually write that the process is shrouded in darkness is actually absurd to the extreme.

It’s not the budget process itself that is hard.  It is the fact that board members do not establish an independent assessment of productivity.  It’s that we have not re-assessed the organizational structure of how we build and operate secondary schools in particular.

There’s money to be saved; money to be reallocated; and efficiencies to be achieved. This requires analysis of the full range of issues that affect the delivery of education.  However, for a candidate who wants to serve on a school board to write that the budget process is shrouded in darkness really means one thing:  ”I am intellectually lazy.”

Again, that candidate would fit right  in on a school board.

For that, they depend upon professional educators and research scientists.

This person and so many others are the reason that board elections – at least for now – don’t really matter.

That’s why George Scott Reports is targeting education for parents.  By the time people reach the board, they know all they need to know because they have their professional educators to tell them what they need to know.