My Goals Have Evolved Regarding George Scott Reports; Katy I.S.D.’s Bond Issue Is The Vehicle To Reveal Public Education’s Dirty Secrets That Threaten Your Families

Here’s a news tip.  Katy I.S.D.’s November bond election will either pass or fail.

More importantly, however, when the dust settles either there will be a reform movement emerge from this election or this will remain a school district like most others where the control of policies and practices will remain in the hands of those with a philosophical predisposition to value the cosmetics of education rather than the genuine academics of education.

If I had to bet the farm today, here are my predictions:

1. The November bond issue will fail.
2. There will be no serious reform movement emerge because those in this community who could lead it are showing signs of ‘wobble in the knees.’  Thus far, there has been no serious effort to organize a reform movement based upon educational issues.  There are those who may believe that beating the bond issue is by definition an act of reform.  It is not.  It is a necessary step to achieve reform, but it is not in and of itself a strong enough action to create a reform movement.  This is a lesson some are waiting to learn.
3. The subsequent bond issue will pass.
4. The District’s march to becoming a ’shell of its former self’ will continue unabated.

Here a link to the audio version of this column. Listen To Audio MP3

So how have my goals for George Scott Reports evolved?  It is quite simple.  I am going to spend the next three to six months unloading a career of research on my website.  For the next two months, I will primarily focus upon Katy I.S.D.  After the election regardless of the outcome, I will start methodically addressing a wide range of issues.  I will find a way to make my extensive empirical library of student performance data that stretches from the late 1990’s to last year available to researchers with money to hire statisticians to do honest analysis.

Within my files of data are a chronicle of the unmitigated corruption of the Texas Education Agency.  It needs to be recorded and available publicly for historical purposes.

Now, back to the four bullet points above.

Most school bond issues pass the first time.  Virtually all  pass with some revisions the second time.  The actual smart bet for the district’s November election is that it will pass.

However, this November will be a very different kind of election.  The nation is now under the Presidential leadership of a genuine radical. His administration is so far over its head that it may not be correctable although I have great confidence in the ability of the American people.  Why does this national issue affect the Katy I.S.D. bond issue?

There are going to be a lot of angry conservatives voting in November.  They are going to take their anger out on Bill White’s campaign for governor.  Angry voters do not generally vote to give government - any government - more money.  There are no guarantees here but Katy I.S.D.’s bond election may fail for reasons totally disassociated with the district’s performance.

That leads me to bullet point two.  If the bond issue fails in November, the above will be a major factor in its defeat.  An angry electorate striking out at low-hanging fruit frustration (half-billion dollar bond issue) does not create or sustain a reform movement in public education.  That’s a different issue.  It rides on a separate set of rails.  Those two trains are not even necessarily riding on parallel tracks.

An actual reform movement requires many components that would develop over time.  The first component is an actual working knowledge of the internal workings of a public school bureaucracy.  There are people in this community who understand this.  More can.

That’s the reason that Supt. Alton Frailey’s philosophical meltdown at his August 17 convocation at which he outlined his vision of the “Center of Truth” is so potentially important.  I started covering school boards and superintendents professionally in 1973.

Frailey is the first superintendent I have ever heard during that time give a major speech under the apparent influence of truth serum metaphorically attached to a ‘lie-detector’.  He said what he meant.  He believes what he said.  His remarks should propel a reform movement in this community.  His remarks are sort of a last public warning of where things are going here.

There’s simply no evidence that his remarks will.  The second component of achieving a serious reform movement is a recognition upon the part of its leaders of the nature of the public bureaucracy as demonstrated in Frailey’s stunning remarks and conduct. It is very difficult for nice community people to internalize the toughness and single-mindedness of those who lead public education including Katy.

These educational leaders have the benefit of unmitigated, self-righteous arrogance coupled with a team of other administrators who adopt an almost cult-like admiration for the leadership.  Together, they are armed with the the wide discretion that state law gives them and a virtual bottomless pit of your tax money.  This money buys them lawyers, consultants, professionals, and all the trappings of power.

The thought of combatting these powerful forces is daunting to the average citizen.  I understand that.  It is my certain belief that when Frailey talked of the village idiots to his staff, he was talking about community opposition in general.  However, there was a little passage in his actual remarks where it was clear to me that he was also talking about George Scott and Mary McGarr in particular.

 UPDATE PARAGRAPH TO ORIGINAL COLUMN: This a response to the comment by Mary McGarr after the conclusion of this column: Mary: I was about to post an additional comment to my original column.  I will use your post to do it here as well as in the original post.  We both know that Chris Cottrell was also a target of this “Village Idiot” kind of enemies’ list.  I did not deliberately leave out a reference to Chris because of past differences.  We both know that he has been a courageous and outspoken opponent of Merrell and Frailey and of the district’s financial abuses of the taxpayer.  And, like us, he always signs his name.  Despite any differences of the past, that is one of his most admirable qualities among many.

Unless you have the personality to claim victory when a government bureaucrat who refers to his administration as the ‘Center of Truth’ calls you a village idiot, it can be disturbing.

Thus, it is hard for the average citizen to internalize that you don’t ‘negotiate’ or find ‘common ground’ with these people.  You defeat them politically. However, in order to stand ‘toe-to-toe’ with them, it is absolutely essential that you have a working knowledge of what motivates them, what guides them, and what their internal weaknesses are.

As of now, I don’t see any substantive signs that there is an actual reform movement in Katy I.S.D. that meets the first two essential steps of an actual movement.

So the third bullet point is now at hand.  Should the first bond issue fail, the district will come back with another as it did the last time a bond issue was defeated.  The pressure will be greater and the scare tactics from the district will elevate even higher.  Also, facts will begin to take over the debate.

This district needs to build some more schools.  I disassociate myself from any forces in this community that believe that this is not a true statement.  Fortunately, there aren’t any people I have talked to that don’t understand the need for more construction.

A bond issue will pass within the next calendar year.  The November bond issue may well pass.  If not, another one will. That’s the path of life that will go unchanged for the foreseeable future.

In the meantime, George Scott Reports will spend the rest of the year addressing bullet point four -  the decline of the academic condition of Katy I.S.D. along with other research issues I previously addressed.

A final thought to my readers and folks over at the ‘Center of Truth.’  If you believe that I have one ounce of emotional investment in the defeat of the bond issue for the mere defeat of the bond issue, you are wrong.  I have an investment in the decline of one of the most important institutions in the history of this country - public education.  My ‘investment’  is to try to stop this decline at least in Katy.

It is a decline so clear and so evident and so omnipresent that it can even be seen, observed, tracked, and quantified by a village idiot.

Katy I.S.D. Delivers New Frailey Tape With Better Audio

Katy I.S.D. has now delivered a tape of Supt. Alton Frailey’s remarks to classroom teachers and other employees at last week’s mandatory ‘convocation’ at which he advised those present that the district was monitoring the voter registration status of employees.  It was during these remarks that he launched his missives against district critics whom he labeled as shameless, hypocrites, and village idiots.

The tape originally delivered to George Scott Reports pursuant to a public information request had an inferior quality of audio.  The tape delivered Monday is of much better quality.

Instant News Katy has published two stories on this matter that I believe fairly capture what happened.  So, I am going to let that independent publication give you the news about the details.

George Scott Reports Seeks Better Quality Tape - Instant News Katy Story

Katy I.S.D. To Deliver Enhanced Tape - Instant News Katy Story

However, I do want to note that when you are an independent researcher, these are the kinds of moments that you either press forward with determination or just quit the game.  I was delivered an inferior tape of his remarks.  That was not acceptable.  This was a distraction.  However, it was a distraction that required a forceful response.

As I said in an email to the district’s public information specialist Tricia McKinney who offered an explanation of the circumstances, I have never questioned her work or the work of her colleagues in public information.  She and her peers in that department (those before as well) have always worked well with me even when their bosses detested me.

My aggressive posture to retain an attorney and sound engineer had nothing to do with my assessment of McKinney’s efforts in her job - absolutely nothing.

Those aggressive efforts of mine were a signal to Frailey that while I had no presumptions about why I had a bad tape, I was going to have a better tape. I wanted Frailey to know that this is not a game just in case there was some ’pushback’ from his administration.  His conduct before his employees was about the worst I have ever seen from a superintendent in Katy I.S.D.  His tactic of anonymously assaulting his critics (he didn’t name us) at the convocation makes me wonder if he is one of those anonymous bloggers on Helen Eriksen’s pathetic site over at The Houston Chronicle.

His remarks last week are news by any definition.  My goal is to make them continuing news because of the nature of many of his comments.

Now that this skirmish about the quality of the tape is over, I can get back to evaluating the capital improvement program (back in the saddle on that tomorrow) as well as helping explain Frailey’s convocation remarks in all their glory.

For the record, I am glad there was a simple explanation as to why I got a bad tape.  I totally accept the explanation from Tricia’s perspective although I still wonder why the technical folks didn’t make the copy.  However, Frailey needs to understand that as he is making this bond election about himself, those in the public can’t be ordered to listen to his nonsense.

We among the village idiots that have genuine, researched-based, and empirical reasons to be concerned about his capital program and his academic programs will not be bullied by ridiculous, mean-spirited rhetoric before a group of employees whom he ordered to be there.

Frailey’s Administration Communicates With District Graduates On Voter Registration But Not Success In College

Katy I.S.D. Supt. Alton Frailey apparently has developed his own version of a “Road to Damascus” conversion with his high profile interest in the graduates of the district.

Has the leader of this district suddenly decided that he wants to survey graduates about their first year in a college or university to see how their transition from high school progressed? Oh no.  Of course not.  That would be about academics.

Has the leader of the district suddenly submitted data requests to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board in order to gain a thorough understanding of how our graduates are actually performing at the college or university level?  Of course not.  That would be about academics.

Has the leader of our district tried to survey our graduates or their families to get their input into how the district might better refine or improve its college preparation advice to our high school students that comes from school counselors?  Of course not.  That would be about academics.

It might interest you to know that for dollars on the cheap, Katy I.S.D.’s leader and feckless school board could  get solid, reliable information like this about our graduates in a way fully compliant with all federal rules of privacy.  How do I know this?  As a citizen researcher, I have gotten a lot of such information. With a tiny budget, the district and Frailey could have so much more valuable information to help better prepare our graduates for the real world they confront upon high school graduation.

However, that would involve the core mission of a school district - academics.

No, it appears that Frailey’s conversion of being interested in our graduates is in line with what appears to be his growing and compulsive interest in the voter registration status of all those who do or have walked the halls of his growing domain.

Take a look for yourself.  Go to the home page of the Katy I.S.D. website (www.katyisd.org) and you’ll see the result of Frailey’s newly inspired fascination with the well being of our graduates - voter registration.

One thing you can say about Frailey is that he does not even attempt to hide his transparency.  It is August.  It is the first day of school.  He’s got a controversial bond election in November. And what are some of the actions he takes?

1. Summon employees and classrooms teachers to his convocation; slime those in the community who don’t share his vision of the inner-goodness of his proposed capital program; and let teachers know he knows how many are registered to vote.  It’s just a hop, skip, and easy jump away from knowing this on an individual named basis, and the employees got that message loud and clear.
2. Send out public notices and post high profile releases trying to contact graduates of the district to encourage them to vote.

Of course, in Frailey’s compulsive desire to leave no voter behind, we can assume that an aggressive voter registration drive among seniors in high school will be next.

Here’s a few summary points about this:

• Frailey has had years to initiate a serious effort to contact graduates and families and organize their assessment of actions and plans this district could employ to better help our graduating seniors prepare for the next stage of their lives.
• Frailey has had years to initiate a serious effort to compile valuable performance data about our graduates totally within all privacy laws to incorporate such knowledge into our high school programs.

Pursuant to one of my many public information requests, Frailey and his district have acknowledged in writing they have done none of this.

Now, on the verge of a bond election, Frailey moves into decisive action to encourage voter registration among the district’s graduates.

Just barely a week ago, this community was headed towards a major bond election in November.  The opponents of which I am one were going to make this bond election about the capital program itself.

At his convocation, Frailey’s bizarre conduct apparently tried to make this election about his opponents whom he lumped into a big tub and slimed as shameless hypocrites and village idiots.

However, here’s what Frailey is really doing.  He’s on the verge of doing something that is very risky for a superintendent of schools and the district he leads.  He’s on the verge of making this election about himself.

There’s no question that he has an ego big enough to justify that effort in his own mind.  Whether it is wise or not remains to be seen.  Whether he has the personal credibility to do what he is trying to doing remains to be seen.

My opposition to this bond issue is based on the undisciplined nature of the capital improvement program itself.  Unless Frailey’s unique approach to community and employee relations keeps rearing its head, that’s where I want to keep the debate.

However, as Frailey roars…

Are Bonuses For Student Test Results The Latest Sham & Scam For Taxpayers?

Answering the question posed in the headline for this column is the goal of my current research project that officially began last January with public information requests to the Houston I.S.D.

Let’s begin with a statement of fact.  Houston I.S.D. has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the Texas Education Agency’s corrupt academic accountability system.  Despite horrendous levels of low academic performance by tens of thousands of students on academic measures not controlled by the TEA and the State of Texas, the state’s system has classified the vast majority of campuses in the district as recognized or exemplary. Congratulations Katy: you too have mostly recognized and exemplary schools.

The TEA’s actions in this regard constitute an asexual practice of promoting intellectual prostitution.  The accountability system is demonstrably dishonest.  The TEA itself has spent the last three decades taking the willingess of government to lie to people to new depths.  The TEA is worse than a common pimp working the streets of a red-light district.  At least the real pimp delivers a service and product that is what it is however despicable.

The TEA’s version of  ‘pimp’ is to deliver an inferior product and call it high class while spending hundreds of millions of dollars a year to package its whore product in a fancy wardrobe.

It is on this foundation of pervasive dishonesty that Houston I.S.D. has voted to give over a hundred million dollars in bonuses (and growing)  to classroom teachers and administrators for gains in student academic performance on the state’s standardized test now known as the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS).

Because of my two-decade background in accountability research, I felt an obligation to get deep inside the numbers of Houston I.S.D.’s bonus program.

That prompted me to submit one of the most comprehensive public information requests of my entire career last January.  I knew that obtaining the information itself would be a major battle because it sought certain kinds of information that others had tried and failed to obtain on the program.

Ego aside (and some know that I am afflicted with a certain level of ego on these matters), I worked over the previous Christmas holidays to construct a public information request that would obtain 90% of the information that would be needed for genuine empirical analysis that would allow me to avoid a defeat before the Attorney General.  Others had failed.  I don’t like to fail when it comes to gaining public information.

I submitted the request for data in January 2010.  As anticipated, Houston I.S.D. sought an opinion from the Attorney General of Texas seeking to withhold the vast majority of the data I had sought.  As much as any non-lawyer can have, my experience over three decades has given me a strong working understanding of the public information act.

There are red flags that commonly kill a request and give the government seeking secrecy the upper hand before the Attorney General who makes the decision about whether information must be released or can be withheld.

It’s a fine line when constructing such major requests for data.  A researcher needs 100% of the data in a perfect world.  100% of the data that one would want is almost never available to independent researchers not paid to do contract work for the government.  So, the goal of an independent researcher is to get as close to 100% as possible without sabotaging the entire request.

The feckless Houston Chronicle education reporters had tried to get data, but its request was predictably and laughably so clumsy that even I would have denied it were I the Attorney General.  Rather than pursue, the reporters quit.  I don’t quit.

Whether run by a Republican or a Democrat, the open records division of the Attorney General of Texas has earned an extraordinary reputation in Texas for fairness in its willingess to accept and read submissions from citizens who are seeking information.  That fairness gave me an opportunity to respond extensively to the Houston I.S.D.’s legal briefs seeking permission not to give me the data I wanted.

When I read Houston I.S.D.’s  initial legal brief, I concluded that although the document was signed by an attorney, it may have been written by a paralegal intern.  Over the course of my career, I have fought and won open records battles with major law firms.  However, just in case any of the points resonated with the Attorney General, I submitted an alternative public information request (while not withdrawing the original) that was essentially the same with a slight change to address one point in the District’s first legal brief.

Once again, the District challenged that modified request before the Attorney General.

The reason that I am giving this insight into the process of obtaining data is to demonstrate that school districts don’t really like you getting inside their real books.  Districts generally want you to read ‘their version’ of reality.  Districts don’t generally want you to have access to the ‘raw empirical reality’ that is in fact actual reality.

The closer one’s request threatens the truth, the more likely the lawyers are to getting involved.

The bottom line is that I won two opinions from the Attorney General’s office giving me all the information I sought from both requests.

It took a long time to go through this process, but it was more than worth it.

Let me add at this point that Houston I.S.D., like most governments, has multiple components.  Once I got the lawyers out of this, the technical staff at Houston I.S.D. is comprised of some of the most honest, diligent, hardworking, and helpful people that I have encountered in more three decades of doing this work.

The complexity of the requests that I made were of the highest order of any requests I have ever made.

Once the attorneys were out of the picture, it took an extended period of time to work with the technical experts to define the most cost-effective and effective way to pull the data out of the computers at Houston I.S.D.

That data is now in the hands of my statistician.  We have had multiple meetings trying to frame and define the research questions to pull from the data.

My statistician is looking now at the most complex questions to be answered regarding individual students, teachers, and classrooms.

I have already begun my own analysis of some of the easier, big-picture, campus-level insights.  I will report on those starting soon.

The one thing I would like for my readers to understand is that I am not starting ‘cold’ with this new data.  Other than research officials in Houston I.S.D. and their ‘bought and paid for consultants’, there’s not a person in the United States who has obtained and reviewed more student-by-student and classroom-by-classroom data from Houston I.S.D. than me.

The new data that we are now evaluating is data that is nearer to the top of the pyramid. There is a tremendous foundation of knowledge upon which our analysis will rest.

If I had been able to raise about $20,000 from conservative leaders in this community (from Katy to Houston) over the past year including ones that would be household names to you, this project would have been completed a month ago. (We could not have rushed the legal part of this effort)  However, as the emerging Tea Party movement in the U.S. and locally knows, many Republicans like to talk the talk of conservatism but will not walk the walk.

The good news is that a few precious friends have helped get us to the brink of a major report that will likely reverberate nationally.

While my statistician is working the complex analysis, I will begin writing about some of the big picture foundations to set the stage.

For cynics, here’s what you need to know.

How much am I paying the statistician?  He’s doing it free as an academic exercise because he knows I don’t have any money to pay him.

What have I asked the statistician to give me?  The truth.  My directions are clear.  Tell me what the data shows and prove it.

If the Texas Education Agency took that approach there would not be so many intellectual whores roaming the state fueled with your tax dollars spouting academic lies about your schools and about your children’s actual academic skills.

Stay tuned.

Productive But Quiet Year For My Research, Personal Efforts

While in terms of writing columns for public distribution over the last calendar year I have been essentially dormant, it has been an extremely important year for me in finding new ways to use my skills in advancing the cause of public education accountability.

However, with Katy I.S.D.’s monstrous bond election on the horizon, I will spend the time leading up to it by using GeorgeScottReports.com for its original purpose – publicly exposing what has become of today’s educational bureaucracy and all of its abuses of students, parents, classroom teachers, and taxpayers.

I will use this particular column to give some insight into the last year of my efforts that have been interesting, challenging, and productive.  One project in particular has taken the entire year to date to reach the point where its productivity will become evident as I reach the formal ‘reporting’ stage over the next couple of months.

The last year has been divided into two separate functions for me.

The first was to help attorneys prepare to represent clients whose school districts were trying to fire them for so-called performance reasons.  The second was to launch a major research project involving the growing national trend of giving bonuses to classroom teachers and administrators on the basis of student performance on state-created, standardized test results.

This column will deal with my efforts to work with some attorneys to help them better prepare to represent their clients.

A separate column under “Regional and State” will deal with a major research project I have been developing for almost a year.

About one year ago, I was contacted by an attorney I have known for over 30 years.  He’s a civil rights attorney who has enjoyed a fabulous career representing public educators among others who were victims of administrative abuse and wrongful termination.

For you knee-jerk conservatives that have both legs pumping now, calm down.  Let me be the first to let you know that of the significant numbers of educators who are either terminated or “pushed out” every year (most rightfully, probably), there are those who were victims of retaliation by abusive administrators.

These are the ones I enjoy using my skills to help.  I used my skills to help inner-city, African-American principal Thaddeus Lott avoid that fate almost two decades ago and I have used them many times since. (See About George Scott)

In this particular case, a junior high teacher in the Pt. Arthur school district was transferred to a different school.  He was put into a situation that should have ended with every administrator (from the principal to the superintendent) who had anything to do with the resulting ‘story’ to be fired.

I was called in by the attorney on the eve of what the district fully expected would be a three or four hour hearing resulting in a board vote to terminate the man.

Because of my background in academic and curriculum accountability, I was able to help the attorney craft about 20 key questions to ask the principal during the opening phase of the hearing.  By about 1:00 a.m. that morning, the hearing had to recess.

Upon recess and based upon fundamentally gibberish answers to the questions, the attorney and I were able to craft a comprehensive discovery request for extensive academic information from the district.

What ensued over the next year should have resulted in the termination of employment of key administrators and the removal from office off all the board member-puppets.

Rather than provide the data as requested, the district played games for virtually the entire year.  Rather than provide the readily available data and risk putting their administrators back on the stand for under-oath testimony, the district folded like a cheap suit.

Rather than face the humiliation that was coming their way before the Texas Education Agency, the district paid this teacher his full salary, his expected compensation for the next summer school, and his legal fees.  It paid the teacher his full compensation to stay at home all year.

The primary reasons the district did this are a reflection of three things:

1. The power of real data in the hands of someone ‘outside’ the system who actually understands what the data means.
2. The intellectual dishonesty and gutlessness of school administrators to subject themselves to real scrutiny in forums where they do not own or control the microphone.
3. The ability of the bureaucratic system to use your tax dollars to ‘launder’ their problems into obscurity.

In this case, justice won.  This case, while over, will set the stage for this attorney and I to pursue other objectives.

More recently, I worked with two attorneys that were representing multiple clients in a series of scheduled termination hearings.  While I cannot discuss the details of these cases yet, I can report that all three clients were exonerated by decisions of three different administrative hearing officers.

These cases involved an extremely high-profile matter that most citizens in the Houston region will recognize when the matter eventually breaks into the public arena.  I just cannot be the first to break the news with any substantive discussion of this until the attorneys and the clients decide to do so.

However, I can say this.

All of the circumstances of this ‘battle’ represent the worst of the educational bureacracy and its use of incompetent, brain-dead members of the public education media to tar and feather people by accusation rather than substance.

I can also say that how these cases have been resolved to this date represent at least two things:

1. It is difficult to overestimate just how vindictive, evil, sinister, manipulative, and arrogant some high-level school administrators can be.
2. It is difficult to overestimate just how incompetent, acquiescent, lazy, and feckless school board members can be as they genuflect in the direction of the administrators they are supposed to hold accountable.

I look forward to the day that will come soon that I can speak more directly about this matter and the absolutely brilliant job the attorneys did for their clients and the cause of justice in public education accountability.  It was a privilege to play even a small role in helping that effort.

I hope you will also read my column in “Regional and State“ about my current research effort.

 

 

 

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