Rouge Forum Update: Oaxaca

Dear Friends,

Apologies for this unusually long Rouge Forum Update, but the urgency of the issue in Oaxaca requires it.

The struggle in Oaxaca, which demonstrates that school workers are centrally positioned in the battle for equality and justice, sharpened this week. Now the Mexican police and military are poised to attack the nascent Oaxaca Workers’ Council as a whole. At the same time, thousands of people are headed toward Oaxaca to defend the peoples’ movement.

Below is a note from a friend of a friend describing the situation.

We urge you to take direct action at Mexican consulates, if possible.

The Oaxaca battle also shows the need to build a mass well-organized base of people who grasp that we must transcend capitalism itself, to eradicate exploitation at its root. The movement in Oaxaca has not, to date, taken a sharp position on this central issue, perhaps to maintain a sense of unity among those who want to merely replace the elected officials, those who just want a raise and textbooks, and those who have a more radical view. Whether this unity can be sustained under Federale attacks is yet to be seen.

Even so, the heroic struggle in Oaxaca serves as a harbinger of the future.

Here is a list of the Mexican consulates in this country; call or write to yours:
http://www.mexonline.com/consulate.htm

Here is the US State Dept in Mexico City:
embeuamx@state.gov

and the consular agent in Oaxaca
conagent@prodigy.mx

Remember to set aside the first weekend in March for the Rouge Forum conference in Detroit. Full details to arrive next Sunday.

Oaxaca, Sunday 29 October 2006

Friends, Here’s a bit of update and a revealing first-hand report from two Pittsburgh folks who were at the barricade in Santa Lucia del Camino barrio (an out-of-the-center neighborhood of Oaxaca City, about 4 miles east of the center) where William Bradley Roland (Brad Will), the U.S. journalist and camerman from New York City was shot and killed Friday the 27th.

Yesterday, Saturday, was a very tense day. With president Vicente Fox’s announcement that he was sending a force of Federal Preventive Police (PFP, the initials in Spanish) to restore order, the widespread expectation was that they would act to clear the encampments and the barricades. Nancy’’s theory was that if they came in daylight they would likely surround the Zócalo and give the protestors an opportunity to leave, but if they arrived at night they were coming to apply el mano duro (the hard hand) and it would be bloody. It seemed likely that after the terrible press the Ulises PRI State government got the day before, the first possibility was more likely because a massive blood-bath would be very bad publicity for the PAN federal government. The reports on the radio were that buses were on their way, already between Puebla and Oaxaca, with PFP contingents. Maybe they’’d be arriving by early or mid-afternoon.

So we went to the Zóócalo around noon. The usual vendors were practically all gone. A handful of tourists. A funeral ceremony for one of the victims of the Friday massacre. Not very many people compared to the massive crowds recently to be seen there. People fearful but determined to resist. The Popular Assembly Movement was not backing down, waiting, calling for strengthening the barricades. But the day, and the night, seem to have passed relatively quietly. And the item below, from La Jornada‘‘s late news posting reports arrest of two of the assassins. We can hope that the federal move is intended to curb Ulises, and that the PRI forces in the state will be deterred sufficiently for a non-bloody exit from the immediate crisis. Sorry I don’’t have time to translate the article now, but will post it on the Oaxaca Study-Action Group website later. That site is at .

Here’’s the item in Spanish: (at 3:50am Central Standard Time) (at 3:50am Central Standard Time) Detienen a 2 presuntos responsables de la muerte de camaróógrafo de EU 28/10/2006 15:12 Oaxaca, Oax. Este sáábado fueron detenidos dos presuntos responsables de ataques con armas de fuego contra una barricada en Santa Lucíía del Camino la tarde del viernes, y que causaron la muerte del camaróógrafo neoyorquino Bradley Roland Will. Se trata de Abel Santiago Zurita, regidor de Seguridad Púública, y Manuel Aguilar, jefe de personal del ayuntamiento de Santa Lucíía del Camino. El corresponsal acreditado por la agencia Indymedia e integrante de la ONG Asociacióón de Asesores de Derechos Humanos (segúún las credenciales que portaba) murióó cerca de las seis de la tarde del viernes a causa de dos impactos de R-15.

And here’s the report from Santa Lucia del Camino: Account of the Prííista attack in Santa Lucia del Camino in Oaxaca, Mexico Attacks across the city kill at least 4. NOTE: This account is not meant to be a complete account of the day, it is meant to be from the perspectives and experiences of two people in the midst of what can only be described as a battle in the streets of Santa Lucia, in Oaxaca. We know that other things happened in other neighborhoods, and that other things probably happened in our vicinity. This is our best effort at capturing the events that we experienced and witnessed. On Thursday night, Barricade Three in Santa Lucia del Camino set up a little earlier than normal. Reinforcing the barricades for Friday’’s day of action required more trucks and buses than usual. At times, it was a chaotic scene with camióón after camióón joining the barricade and people unsure of where they should go. Eventually things calmed down. Many more people than usual guarded the barricade and the tranquility of the night had many regulars taking time to lie down, if not sleep. As day broke, the barricade took on the feel of a community holiday or small block party with small children running about. At what felt like an informal pot-luck, people brought tortillas and beans, sandwiches, bread, and arroz con leche.

Most chose to not cover their faces, despite this being a regular practice at the barricades. Up to this point, the only ““contentious”” moment was the permitted approached of a chicken truck that surprised several people. Sudenly, about a dozen people started shouting, donning masks, picking up Molotov cocktails (known as bombas Molotov) and cohetes (large bottle rockets typically shit out of PVC pipes the people call bazookas), and collecting rocks and sticks. A small group moved forward to see why a truck that was part of the barricade (about 200 feet away) was moving and investigate a commotion on the other side of that barricade. After advancing about 100 feet, the group spotted 150 to 200 Prííistas (supporters of the authoritarian PRI party that ruled Mexico for 70 years and currently ““rule”” the state of Oaxaca) marching toward the barricade.

The cohetes were fired into the air to warn the Prííistas not to approach. The warning was ignored. The tiny group of defenders fell back to the barricade and gathered more supplies. It was a chaotic situation. Prioritizing in the moment, a split second decision was made to leave our bags, in part because rocks from the Prííistas were already falling where our bags lay. As we sprinted down side streets to the closest barricade, there were shouts for children to go inside their homes to safety.

At the next barricade, people were banging on poles and railing to sound the alarm and rally the neighborhood to fight the Prííista advance. People came out of their homes and armed themselves with sticks, machetes, metal poles, cohetes and rocks. Once a fairly large crowd had gathered several people started shouting ““Vamos, compaññerQos, Vamos!”” (Let’’s go) and ““Avanza!”” (advance). People began advancing to the fallen barricade and the Prííistas, spreading out along the width of the four-lane highway, it’’s median, and sidewalks. Both sides fired their cohetes, and as we drew nearer rocks started flying from both sides. We pushed the Prííistas back passed the remnants of the now disassembled barricade. There was a lull of about thirty seconds as we populated the area around the barricade before many decided to chase the still-visible Prííistas only about 100 feet away from us.

Though most of them retreated faster than we advanced, one unlucky Prííistas was forced to choose his own safety and well-being over that of his fancy SUV. The look of regret was visible on his face as rocks crashed to the ground around him and he turned and ran. The SUV, lacking a license plate, briefly became the target instead of the retreating Prííistas. Tires slashed, windows smashed, someone decided to ensure that it was beyond use and set it ablaze. While some focused their attention on the SUV, some continued to chase the Prííistas. Most Prííistas had scattered into nearby homes and businesses, so people re-grouped back at the barricade. As we all clustered in the intersection, the two of us looked around and estimated that there were at least 500 people ready to defend their neighborhood.

We were both amazed by what we were seeing. Neither of us had ever witnessed such an incredible display of collective self-defense. We both nearly cried at the inspiring sight of people successfully working together to ward off aggression without centralized leadership. The barricade reclaimed, sandbags replaced, and the Prííistas pushed back, the battle appeared for a few moments, to be over.

We’’re unsure as to the exact reason for the second advance, but we believe that Prííistas were again spotted at the next intersection where they had scattered minutes before. As we cautiously advanced, walking in cover when possible, shots were heard from the intersection and everyone ducked or ran for cover. Many corporate news outlets, most notably those relying on AP ““reporter”” Rebeca Romero (widely believed to be on Ulises Ruiz’’s payroll), have claimed it was ““unclear”” as to who shot first. It was the Prííistas. From the ground, on the receiving end of the gunfire, there is no doubt as to who shot first. There is nothing ““unclear”” about it. It was the Prííistas, shown by El Universal photos and local television to be armed to the teeth, who shot first. After the shooting stopped, the group moved quickly to the other side of the road and to the corner where the shots had originated from.

The attacking Prííistas had retreated back away from the highway and deeper into the neighborhood. Fifty to 100 people slowly advanced north a block into the neighborhood while 200 people gradually moved up, either by going north, or approaching it from the west by way of the barricade. Again the group moved north, taking cover by vehicles parked along the street. In addition to shooters at the far end of the street, more Prííistas were taking cover inside a building along the street. The building was targeted with Molotovs, rocks, bricks, and cohetes. Someone kicked the door in before Prííistas down the street started shooting again and we had to retreat back to the end of the block. This gave the Prííistas time to close and blockade the door. A few attempts with similar results gave way to milling about, as we waited for reinforcements. One block west towards the barricade, about 100 people had gathered to take cover from additional Prííistas on that street. Soon we heard a truck roar to life and a few minutes later, compaññeros in a dump truck came to provide shielding for another advance. In the first such advance, the truck went too far down the road, shooting started again, at which point we fell back to the end of the block. Most waited there while the truck maneuvered itself horizontally across the street in front of the gate of the targeted building. Once the truck was ready, another advance began and the truck smashed open the gate. Another round of shooting began, and again everyone took cover and began to withdraw.

At this point, Brad Will, an Indymedia reporter from New York, was shot in the abdomen as he was filming. Many people ran to carry him around the block and down the street. As we waited for a car to arrive to take him to the hospital, efforts were made to keep him conscious and breathing, including CPR. As Brad showed signs of consciousness and movement, the crowd surrounding him cheered. He was carried into a car and driven to the hospital. Moments later, as people were still taking in what happened, it started to rain. People gathered up the Molotovs and cohetes and got them out of the rain. About a half hour later, people started to gradually head back to the barricade. When we arrived at the barricade, we learned from a teary-eyed compaññero that Brad had died on his way to the hospital. People from APPO such as Flavo Sosa arrived at the scene and were attempting to coordinate with the rest of the city where there had been other attacks. Hundreds of bottles were being filled and prepared as Molotov cocktails.

Thanks to the help of several compaññeras, we recovered one of our bags; though the other which contained a passport, several forms of id, travelers checks, over $1,000 pesos (most of which was intended to be used for the barricade), a video camera, is gone and was presumably stolen by the Prííistas. Hundreds remained at the barricade for the night. The two of us went to a compaññero’’s house to rest, write and watch the news. As of this writing, the Prííistas have set up their own barricades within the neighborhood, APPO has activated the mobile brigades, 4 or 5 people have died, dozens injured, and barricade 3 remains up, reinforced, and alert. Among the attackers were local municipal police (such as Abel Santiago Záárate and Juan Carlos Soriano Velasco) and politicians/PRI thugs (such Manuel Aguilar and Pedro Carmona, the man identified as Brad Will’’s killer), all from the neighborhood. Though the two of us had slightly differing expectations of how the day would pan out, neither of us expected an attack of this kind or magnitude in broad daylight. The diversity of people who fought the Prííista attackers was astounding. We saw young kids helping to gather cohetes and Molotovs.

We saw old women armed with rocks making their way to the front. We saw people wearing circle As, hammer and sickles, and people who didn’’t wear their political identity on their sleeves. In the end, it didn’’t matter who you were, only what side you stood on. La lucha sigue; the struggle continues. ““Tenemos dos manos y un corazóón para luchar.”” ““We have two hands and a heart to struggle.”” –CIPO-RFM Two Poggers in Oaxaca PS We didn’’t know Brad before meeting him here in Oaxaca, and wish to direct you to accounts of his life that are better than anything we would be able to write. Our thoughts go to his family, friends, and loved ones. Our thoughts and prayers also go out to the dead and wounded whose names we do not know and whose fates we did not witness.
_______________________________________________ All comments and criticisms are welcome.
george.salzman@umb.edu

Pirates and Emperors or Size Does Matter

Here’s a great example of how to teach young kids about global geo-politics, war, and “terrorism” via a cartoon. Eric Henry’s flim is titled after an observation by St. Augustine in City of God, proposing that what governments coin as “terrorism” in the small simply reflects what governments utilize as “warfare” in the large. Yet, governments coerce their populations to denounce the former while embracing the latter.

piratesemperors2.png
Click here: for more info on Pirates and Emperors

Put Pirates and Emperors in the same resource kit with:

farmerduck.jpg Farmer Duck by Martin Waddell and Helen Oxenbury

0689832133_large.jpgClick, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cornin and Betsy Lewin

nedmousebreaksaway.jpg
Ned Mouse Breaks Away by Tim Wynne-Jones and Dušan Petrišcic.

and

Czar.jpegHow Does The Czar Eat Potatoes? by Anne Rose/Janosh.

One for the books — tutoring gets outsourced

San Francisco Chronicle: One for the books — tutoring gets outsourced

Fifth-grader Kevin Chen studies math in his living room in Alameda every week with his tutor, Syeda Nikath Sumaiya — who works from her home in Seoul.

In the latest incarnation of outsourcing, overseas tutors are teaching U.S. students math, science, English and social studies. And parents are paying half as much as they would for face-to-face instruction.

Via Internet phone, Sumaiya, 27, who works for a Bangalore company, coached the 11-year-old through drills and word problems in her clipped British Indian accent one recent evening. The equations she drew in red materialized on Kevin’s screen in Alameda, and he wrote back in blue.

“I think you’re carrying twice sometimes,” said Sumaiya, an engineer from Bangalore, India, before she moved to South Korea for her husband’s job. “Just do it once.”
Sumaiya, who communicated with The Chronicle by e-mail, drew a red arrow to point out Kevin’s errors, asking aloud, “Do you follow?” and rewarding him with, “That’s right,” and a big check for a correct answer.

At least a half-dozen tutoring companies operate from India, including two with Bay Area ties: Growing Stars is headquartered in Santa Clara, and TutorVista in Bangalore received $11 million in venture funding from Menlo Park’s Sequoia Capital this year.

Online tutoring, which began in the late 1990s, has grown in the past five years, education analysts say, as communication technology improved and became more affordable. It accounts for about 6 percent of the $2.2 billion U.S. private tutoring market, which reached 1.9 million K-12 students last school year, according to Tim Wiley, senior analyst at Eduventures, an education and research consulting firm in Boston.

“You encounter the same natural incentives as manufacturing did in the 1980s, moving factories offshore to lower-priced markets, and what the white-collar sector is going through now,” Wiley said. “The dynamics are in place for India-based tutoring companies to really grab a big chunk of the online market.”

Between $20 million and $25 million of the roughly $132 million spent on online tutoring — or one-sixth — now goes to tutors in India, Wiley said. But Indian tutors may make up an even larger share of online tutors because they are paid much less than their U.S. counterparts.

TutorVista pays its employees $300 per month, and Growing Stars pays $350 to $450 per month, for roughly a 40-hour workweek. That’s a lower-middle-income salary, said Ashok Bardhan, a senior economist at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. By comparison, in-home tutors in the United States charge $40 to $60 an hour.

Growing Stars, which began offering tutoring in 2004, serves 400 students who pay $21 to $25 per hour. TutorVista, which started in November 2005 and charges $20 for a 45-minute session or $100 a month for unlimited hours, has 2,000 students and aims to reach 5,000 by next fall.

Sanjo Mathew, 25, has tutored with Growing Stars for a year.

“You don’t see the students, so you must listen to them. Some of them don’t speak for two to three months. You have to make those children interact,” said Mathew, who has a master’s degree in biology. “Tutoring takes a lot of time and patience.”

But tutors are common in India, said Growing Stars founder Biju Mathew (no relation to tutor Sanjo), who moved to the Bay Area from India in 2000 as a software programmer and founded his startup two years later.

“The idea seemed good for me as a parent, and I thought there would be thousands of other parents for whom this could be of use,” said Biju Mathew, who had sought affordable tutoring for his three sons.

So far, industry leaders such as Kumon and Score do not offer online tutoring, because they run centers and their value lies in their face-to-face interaction, company officials and analysts say. Sylvan offers it only with instructors from the United States, to control quality, said spokeswoman Wendy Odell Magus.

Officials at tutoring companies that hire abroad say they check tutors’ references and academic backgrounds — Growing Stars and TutorVista require tutors to have a master’s degree in the primary subject matter they teach. The one-on-one attention they offer is more effective, they say. The companies train the tutors for a couple weeks, review their performance, and solicit feedback from parents.

At Growing Stars and TutorVista, tutors receive training in accent reduction and American culture — including the rules of baseball, and popular movies and music. And TutorVista will switch tutors until the student feels comfortable, said Patricia Perry, vice president of marketing. She said the average TutorVista instructor has 10 years of teaching experience, more than any state requires for in-school tutors. TutorVista’s employees tend to work from home, while instructors at Growing Stars work from its teaching center in Cochin, on the coast in southwest India. They start as early as 1:30 a.m. at Growing Stars and 4:30 a.m. at TutorVista in India.

Kevin’s mother, Biyu Lin Chen, 33, who emigrated from China in 1997, said she wants her son and twin daughters to have a good education. Now a child care provider, she prefers TutorVista to the traditional tutor her children saw for a couple months because TutorVista is cheaper and more convenient. And she said Kevin is getting better scores on his math tests, after only a few weeks.

Kevin said he feels more comfortable talking to his tutor — sight unseen — than asking questions in class: “No one is paying attention to me that much.”

Some parents sign up their children with online tutors to give the students an edge. Even though Raj and Rati Sardesh’s daughter Nina, for example, had skipped a grade and was doing well in the sixth grade at the French American School in San Francisco, they signed her up for Growing Stars tutoring in math and science.

“Some other parents laughed at us since we spend money for a private school,” said Rati Sardesh, an ultrasound technician.

Despite disliking the extra work, Nina, 11, said the tutoring boosted her marks.

“I really like my tutors. We’re friends and have student-teacher status,” she said. “It’s almost like they’re there teaching you, when you close your eyes.”

Online tutors also help answer the endless “why” questions of a curious child.

Isha Gulati, 8, of San Jose connects with her TutorVista instructor four or five times a week and asks her about math, science, geography and English.

“It’s really fun,” Isha said. “We always talk about things I really want to know.”

Her tutor, Bina Joseph, 36, has worked for TutorVista for about six months, logging on from her home in Bangalore, she said by e-mail. The job gives her time to raise her family, said Joseph, who has a master’s degree in English and bachelor’s degrees in science and education.

Isha’s mother, Charu Gulati, is a middle school science teacher who sees the benefits of both educational systems: the rigors of India and the creativity encouraged in the United States.

“She loves to know about more stuff. But I don’t always have the answers or the time to answer.”

E-mail Vanessa Hua at vahua@sfchronicle.com.

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URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/10/22/MNGTILTVRR1.DTL

Cheating is up — among teachers

The Columbus Dispatch,/i>: Cheating is up — among teachers
Pressure for state-test success driving some to break the rules

Pressure for state-test success driving some to break the rules
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Jennifer Smith Richards
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Answer sheets and test booklets arrive at districts in securely taped boxes, shipped by FedEx or UPS. Packets are shrink-wrapped and are supposed to be stored in a locked room until test time.

But in some districts, teachers got access last school year. Some made copies. Others shared the questions with students ahead of time, or gave answers during the test.

And a few devised nonverbal signals to cue children that their answers were incomplete.

For all the lock-and-key procedures and explicit rules, more teachers cheated on Ohio standardized tests than ever before.

A Dispatch analysis of 28 school districts found that at least 15, including some in Franklin County, had instances of cheating. The state had named 12 districts that were being investigated in March. The other three were among the 16 districts surveyed in Franklin County.

It’s probably because there were more Ohio standardized tests than ever before, state officials say.

And it wasn’t that hard to cheat.

Barbara Oaks did it. While fourth-graders took their reading test last spring, the Coventry schoolteacher thumbed ahead through the math portion. Coventry is a district near Akron.

In the test, she spotted a geometry problem she thought students might have trouble with, so she jotted down a diagram in her notebook.

Oaks said she didn’t know she was cheating.

In Parma, near Cleveland, Winifred Shima took a copy of the test and used it to make a study guide for students that included 45 of the 46 actual test questions.

In Marietta, a veteran teacher photocopied a state test. She said she wanted to help prepare students she’d have in class this school year. Officials there said an investigation showed she’d done the same the year before.

“Did I cheat? No,” said Judy Wray, who retired from her job as an eighth-grade teacher at Marietta Middle School. “Did I do something wrong? Yes. I made one copy and should not have done that.”

Some districts are still investigating. Cincinnati closed three cases and is still sorting through a fourth. One teacher was fired; several kept their jobs. But for the schools where they taught, the consequences were sometimes severe.

Cheating on the tests doesn’t happen very often, the state says. In Ohio, roughly 2 million tests are given each year, and most of that testing happens without incident.

And not all who broke the rules did so on purpose.

A teacher in Whitehall, for example, left test booklets in an unlocked room. In Hamilton, a teacher excitedly discussed questions and answers with students after they had finished the science portion of the graduation test, not thinking about how absent students would have to take the same test as a make-up.

A Worthington teacher started to help a student on a problem, then realized she couldn’t, and stopped. The Education Department didn’t punish any of those districts, although the districts did punish the teachers. Hamilton suspended the science teacher; the rest were reprimanded.

Others, though, probably knew they were breaking the rules. School districts pass out specific instructions and regulations to teachers, and some, including Hamilton, ask teachers to sign a form stating that they understand them.

They risked losing their teaching licenses anyway.

Brian Wirick, a teacher in the East Knox school district in Knox County, used the test to make a “look-alike” study guide for his students.

“Brian wanted to see his students succeed,” said Superintendent John Marschhausen. “The lesson we need to learn is you can’t succeed at any cost.”

Wirick resigned.

Wanting students to do well is a common excuse among teachers who are caught.

“I just kept thinking that every teacher in the state of Ohio is looking at these math problems and their kids will do better and our kids will look like they don’t know anything,” Heather Buchanan, a seventhgrade teacher in Wapakoneta, a city in western Ohio, told the district during its investigation.

Buchanan, one of two Wapakoneta teachers caught breaking testing rules, created a study guide from the actual test, too.

“I love my kids. I just wanted them to have one last chance to practice.”

Wray, the Marietta teacher who photocopied a test, said that teachers cheat more than administrators know. Several more in her school did, she said, and she understands why.

“Did they cheat? Not really,” she said. “They just wanted the kids to do their best.”

…

There’s less of a gray area when it comes to punishment. Although the state won’t provide exact numbers, investigation records from school districts show that most of the teachers found violating test security measures had their teaching licenses suspended — often for several months — by the Education Department.

Punishment from school districts often was harsher.

Of 14 school districts that verified security breaches and had completed their inquiries, six accepted teachers’ resignations or retirements. Only one was fired — Kathie Conlon, a teachers aide in Newcomerstown schools, about 100 miles northeast of Columbus.

Nine teachers were reprimanded but allowed to continue teaching. That was the case for South-Western teacher Lora DeCarlo, who admitted that she helped students with answers during the test.

In Cincinnati schools, one teacher helped students during the test and another let students have extra time to complete the make-up exam. Both were reprimanded.

The district is still investigating whether an entire school, Robert A. Taft Information Technology High School, might have cheated. The testing company flagged the school because there were so many erasures on the answer sheets, raising suspicion of whether someone erased wrong answers and replaced them with the right ones.

Punishment doesn’t apply only to teachers.

As a result of teachers’ actions, many school districts received zeroes for their test scores. If students did well, they’ll get no credit for it. That’s especially important for a highschool student who must pass the state test to receive a diploma.

Researchers who studied the prevalence of cheating in Chicago schools a few years ago suggested statewide standardized testing should be structured more like the SAT, using independent test proctors. That would eliminate any temptation among teachers.

Districts also should publicize the consequences for teachers caught cheating, according to Harvard University professor Brian Jacob and Steven D. Levitt, a professor at the University of Chicago.

There won’t be independent test proctors in Ohio for this year’s tests. In fact, little will change.

Last year, the state blitzed school districts with information about the rules and procedures for testing, and they’ll do it again this year, spokesman J.C. Benton said.

Other than that, the Education Department will rely on the honesty of teachers.

“We don’t anticipate that any more security breaches will happen,” Benton said. “I think people learned from last year’s unfortunate events.”

Political Backlash Builds Over High-Stakes Testing

The Washington Post: Political Backlash Builds Over High-Stakes Testing

By Peter Whoriskey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, October 23, 2006; A03

LAUDERHILL, Fla. — School exams may be detested by students everywhere, but in this state at the forefront of the testing and accountability movement in the United States, the backlash against them has become far broader, and politically potent.

The role of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, or FCAT, has become central to the race to succeed Gov. Jeb Bush (R), with polls showing a growing discontent over the exams, which he has championed and which are used to determine many aspects of the school system, including teacher pay, budgets and who flunks third grade.

Republican Charlie Crist is offering to push forward with the testing regime, but Democrat Jim Davis has condemned what he calls its “punitive” nature, arguing that exam pressures have transformed schools into “dreary test-taking factories.”

“Couple years ago one of my sons brought this quiz home, and the first question was ‘What does the FCAT stand for?’ ” Davis told a meeting of clergy here Saturday. “I won’t repeat to you what I said because I used words I’m teaching my boys not to use. . . . We’re going to stop using the FCAT to punish children, teachers and schools.”

This election season may be the first in which the growing use of high-stakes school testing, embodied in the No Child Left Behind legislation, has reached this level of political prominence.

A similar exam revolt has become a key issue in the race for governor in Texas, another state in the vanguard of the testing movement, and the issue has roiled the Ohio gubernatorial contest as well.

High-stakes testing — using standardized test scores to impose consequences affecting teachers and students — has been embraced widely in recent years as a way to hold educators and students accountable for their performance. Experts say the movement is one of the most significant shifts in U.S. education in decades.

Texas and Florida were among the states that adopted high-stakes testing early, and each has pushed its program beyond what is required in No Child Left Behind.

Advocates say that under the pressure of the exams, students in Florida, Texas and elsewhere have shown significant improvements. The testing systems include the public release of schools’ results and test-based financial incentives for educators, and determine which third-graders can be promoted and which high school students can graduate.

But teachers unions and some parents groups have argued that an overemphasis on the tests has reduced education to rote drills and needlessly heightened stresses on elementary students, and that the reported test gains have been illusory, overstated or short-lived.

Many opponents say they do not object to the testing but to the high stakes attached to the results, which they say force schools to develop a myopic curriculum focused on the test.

In Florida, as many as 14 percent of 200,000 public school third-graders in some years have been held back, most for failing to make an adequate score on the reading test.

In Texas, an inspector general is investigating possible cheating and other testing irregularities at almost 700 schools.

While many past education debates have dissolved into intangible issues of school finance, the testing critics believe that the issue may sway larger numbers of voters because the tests are having such pronounced and immediate effects on children.

“We have third-grade children who have been retained so many times they are wearing brassieres in the third grade,” said Florida state Sen. Frederica Wilson, one of the leaders of the anti-testing movement here.

“When parents are dealing with children vomiting on the morning of the tests and seeing other signs of test stress, they’re going to be motivated at the voting booth,” said Gloria Pipkin, the president of a testing watchdog group, the Florida Coalition for Assessment Reform. “Texas and Florida are the poster children for excessive testing, and we’re seeing an enormous backlash.”

Polls are also registering growing voter discontent over tests.

A Zogby International poll for the Miami Herald last month showed that 61 percent of voters disagreed with grading and funding schools based on their test scores, and almost half said schools were allocating too much time for test preparation. A poll by the Florida Times-Union and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel showed similar results.

In Texas, a survey drafted by two polling firms, one Democratic and one Republican, and paid for by the Texas State Teachers Association, indicated that 56 percent of voters thought there was too much emphasis on state testing in their schools.

A national poll by a pro-testing group, the Teaching Commission, showed that 52 percent of respondents thought that standardized tests do not accurately measure student achievement; 35 percent thought they do.

“Our kids should be leading the world, and they’re not going to get there by filling in little ovals all day long,” Chris Bell, the Democratic challenger for Texas governor, says in a television ad.

Gov. Rick Perry, however, is sticking to the program.

“I won’t dismiss the idea that there are a lot of folks out there — maybe a large number — who don’t like testing,” said Robert Black, a spokesman for Perry. “But the governor has never been one to follow polls. If you want to hold schools accountable and make sure they are learning, you have to test.”

Opposition to the tests has been building over several years.

At first, Wilson said, opposition was considered a “minority issue” because many of the students being held back in third grade or denied diplomas were African American or Hispanic. But with children in many schools taking on more homework and rote drills, she said, enough parents have complained that the candidates “could see that the FCAT was devastating Florida families.”

Crist, who as Florida education commissioner supported the pro-testing agenda of the Bush administration, began the race offering to move ahead with the program. But more recently, noting that the test has become “a pejorative,” he has indicated that his position on testing is more flexible.

The polls aside, Crist sees support for the FCAT.

“Residents across the state have said that the FCAT is making a difference,” according to Erin Isaac, deputy press secretary for the Crist campaign, in response to e-mailed questions. “Charlie Crist believes that if we don’t measure every student’s progress every year, we don’t care.”

His opponent expressed a different view. “Parents in this state are outraged,” Davis said Saturday. “They’re seeing the rote drills and the pressure. But they’re not seeing their children learn.”

© 2006 The Washington Post Company

LA Times: Bush’s family profits from ‘No Child’ act

The Los Angeles Times: Bush’s family profits from ‘No Child’ act

Bush’s family profits from ‘No Child’ act
By Walter F. Roche Jr., Times Staff Writer
October 22, 2006

A company headed by President Bush’s brother and partly owned by his parents is benefiting from Republican connections and federal dollars targeted for economically disadvantaged students under the No Child Left Behind Act.

With investments from his parents, George H.W. and Barbara Bush, and other backers, Neil Bush’s company, Ignite! Learning, has placed its products in 40 U.S. school districts and now plans to market internationally.

At least 13 U.S. school districts have used federal funds available through the president’s signature education reform, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, to buy Ignite’s portable learning centers at $3,800 apiece.

The law provides federal funds to help school districts better serve disadvantaged students and improve their performance, especially in reading and math.

But Ignite does not offer reading instruction, and its math program will not be available until next year.

The federal Department of Education does not monitor individual school district expenditures under the No Child program, but sets guidelines that the states are expected to enforce, spokesman Chad Colby said.

Ignite executive Tom Deliganis said that “some districts seem to feel OK” about using No Child money for the Ignite purchases, “and others do not.”

Neil Bush said in an e-mail to The Times that Ignite’s program had demonstrated success in improving the test scores of economically disadvantaged children. He also said political influence had not played a role in Ignite’s rapid growth.

“As our business matures in the USA we have plans to expand overseas and to work with many distinguished individuals in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa,” he wrote. “Not one of these associates by the way has ever asked for any access to either of my political brothers, not one White House tour, not one autographed photo, and not one Lincoln bedroom overnight stay.”

Funding laws unclear

Interviews and a review of school district documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act found that educators and legal experts were sharply divided over whether Ignite’s products were worth their cost or qualified under the No Child law.

The federal law requires schools to show they are meeting educational standards, or risk losing critical funding. If students fail to meet annual performance goals in reading and math tests, schools must supplement their educational offerings with tutoring and other special programs.

Leigh Manasevit, a Washington attorney who specializes in federal education funding, said that districts using the No Child funds to buy products like Ignite’s would have to meet “very strict” student eligibility requirements and ensure that the Ignite services were supplemental to existing programs.

Known as COW, for Curriculum on Wheels (the portable learning centers resemble cows on wheels), Ignite’s product line is geared toward middle school social studies, history and science. The company says it has developed a social studies program that meets curriculum requirements in seven states. Its science program meets requirements in six states.

Most of Ignite’s business has been obtained through sole-source contracts without competitive bidding. Neil Bush has been directly involved in marketing the product.

In addition to federal or state funds, foundations and corporations have helped buy Ignite products. The Washington Times Foundation, backed by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, head of the South Korea-based Unification Church, has peppered classrooms throughout Virginia with Ignite’s COWs under a $1-million grant.

Oil companies and Middle East interests with long political ties to the Bush family have made similar bequests. Aramco Services Co., an arm of the Saudi-owned oil company, has donated COWs to schools, as have Apache Corp., BP and Shell Oil Co.

Neil Bush said he is a businessman who does not attempt to exert political influence, and he called The Times’ inquiries about his venture — made just before the election — “entirely political.”

Big supporters

Bush’s parents joined Neil as Ignite investors in 1999, according to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission documents. By 2003, the records show, Neil Bush had raised about $23 million from more than a dozen outside investors, including Mohammed Al Saddah, the head of a Kuwaiti company, and Winston Wong, the head of a Chinese computer firm.

Most recently he signed up Russian fugitive business tycoon Boris A. Berezovsky and Berezovsky’s partner Badri Patarkatsishvili.

Barbara Bush has enthusiastically supported Ignite. In January 2004, she and Neil Bush were guests of honor at a $1,000-atable fundraiser in Oklahoma City organized by a foundation supporting the Western Heights School District. Proceeds were earmarked for the purchase of Ignite products.

Organizer Mary Blankenship Pointer said she planned the event because district students were “utilizing Ignite courseware and experiencing great results. Our students were thriving.”

However, Western Heights school Supt. Joe Kitchens said the district eventually dropped its use of Ignite because it disagreed with changes Ignite had made in its products. “Our interest waned in it,” he said.

The former first lady spurred controversy recently when she contributed to a Hurricane Katrina relief foundation for storm victims who had relocated to Texas. Her donation carried one stipulation: It had to be used by local schools for purchases of COWs.

Texas accounts for 75% of Ignite’s business, which is expanding rapidly in other states, Deliganis said.

The company also has COWs deployed in North Carolina, Virginia, Nevada, California, the District of Columbia, Georgia and Florida, he said.

COWs recently showed up at Hill Classical Middle School in California’s Long Beach Unified School District. A San Jose middle school also bought Ignite’s products but has since closed.

Neil Bush said Ignite has more than 1,700 COWs in classrooms.

Shift in strategy

But Ignite’s educational strategy has changed dramatically, and some are critical of its new approach. Shortly after Ignite was formed in Austin, Texas, in 1999, it bought the software developed by another small Austin firm, Adaptive Learning Technology.

Adaptive Learning founder Mary Schenck-Ross said the software’s interactive lessons allowed teachers “to get away from the mass-treatment approach” to education. When a student typed in a response to a question, the software was designed to react and provide a customized learning path.

“The original concept was to avoid ‘one size fits all.’ That was the point,” said Catherine Malloy, who worked on the software development.

Two years ago, however, Ignite dropped the individualized learning approach. Working with artists and illustrators, it created a large purple COW that could be wheeled from classroom to classroom and plugged in, offering lessons that could be played to a roomful of students.

The COWs enticed students with catchy jingles and videos featuring cartoon characters like Mr. Bighead and Norman Einstein. On Ignite’s website, a collection of teachers endorsed the COW, saying that it eliminated the need for lesson planning. The COW does it for them.

The developers of Adaptive Learning’s software complain that Ignite replaced individualized instruction with a gimmick.

“It breaks my heart what they have done. The concept was totally perverted,” Schenck-Ross said.

Nevertheless, Ignite found many receptive school districts. In Texas, 30 districts use COWs.

In Houston, where Neil Bush and his parents live, the district has used various funding sources to acquire $400,000 in Ignite products. An additional $240,000 in purchases has been authorized in the last six months.

Correspondence obtained by The Times shows that Neil Bush met with top Houston officials, sent e-mails and left voice mail messages urging bigger and faster allocations. An e-mail from a school procurement official to colleagues said Bush had made it clear that he had a “good working relationship” with a school board member.

Another Ignite official asked a Texas state education official to endorse the company. In an e-mail, Neil Bush’s partner Ken Leonard asked Michelle Ungurait, state director of social studies programs, to tell Houston officials her “positive impressions of our content, system and approach.”

Ungurait, identified in another Leonard e-mail as “our good friend” at the state office, told her superiors in response to The Times’ inquiry that she never acted on Leonard’s request.

Leonard said he did not ask Ungurait to do anything that would be improper.

Houston school officials gave Ignite’s products “high” ratings in eight categories and recommended approval.

Some in Houston’s schools question the expenditures, however. Jon Dansby was teaching at Houston’s Fleming Middle School when Ignite products arrived.

“You can’t even get basics like paper and scissors, and we went out and bought them. I just see red,” he said.

In Las Vegas, the schools have approved more than $300,000 in Ignite purchases. Records show the board recommended spending $150,000 in No Child funding on Ignite products.

Sources familiar with the Las Vegas purchases said pressure to buy Ignite products came from Sig Rogich, an influential local figure and prominent Republican whose fundraising of more than $200,000 for President Bush’s 2004 reelection campaign qualified him as a “Bush Ranger.”

Rogich, who chairs a foundation that supports local schools, said he applied no pressure but became interested in COWs after Neil Bush contacted him. Rogich donated $6,000 to purchase two COWs for a middle school named after him.

Christy Falba, the former Clark County school official who oversaw the contracts, said she and her husband attended a dinner with Neil Bush to discuss the products. She said Rogich encouraged the district “to look at the Ignite program” but applied no pressure.

Mixed reviews

Few independent studies have been done to assess the effectiveness of Ignite’s teaching strategies. Neil Bush said the company had gotten “great feedback” from educators and planned to conduct a “major scientifically valid study” to assess the COW’s impact. The results should be in by next summer, he said.

Though Ignite’s products get generally rave reviews from Texas educators, the opinion is not universal.

The Tornillo, Texas, Independent School District no longer uses the Ignite programs it purchased several years ago for $43,000.

“I wouldn’t advise anyone else to use it,” said Supt. Paul Vranish. “Nobody wanted to use it, and the principal who bought it is no longer here.”

Ignite’s website features glowing videotaped testimonials from teachers, administrators, students and parents.

Many of the videos were shot at Del Valle Junior High School near Austin, where school district officials allowed Ignite to film facilities and students.

In the video, a student named India says: “I was feeling bad about my grades. I didn’t know what my teacher was talking about.” The COW changed everything, the girl’s father says on the video.

Lori, a woman identified as India’s teacher, says the child was not paying attention until the COW was brought in.

The woman, however, is not India’s teacher, but Lori Anderson, a former teacher and now Ignite’s marketing director. Ignite says Anderson was simply role-playing.

In return for use of its students and facilities, a district spokeswoman said Ignite donated a free COW. Five others were purchased with district funds.

District spokeswoman Celina Bley acknowledged that regulations bar school officials from endorsing products. But she said that restriction did not apply to the videos.

“It is illegal for individuals to make an endorsement, but this was a districtwide endorsement,” Bley said in an e-mail.

Oaxaca update: Protest Reaches Mexican Capital (2 stories)

El Universal: Protest Reaches Mexican Capital

Protest Reaches Mexican Capital
By John Gilber/Special to The Herald Mexico

El Universal – October 10, 2006

Juan Pérez, a thin, 25 year-old teacher from Jocotepec, Oaxaca, has been walking for the past 19 days. He wears rough leather sandals, jeans, a hand-woven straw hat, and a shirt with “APPO: a dream in construction” painted in orange letters across the front.

“No revolution is going to come from behind a desk,” he says as he swings his small backpack over his shoulders and sets out from Nezahualc’yotl on the final 8 miles of his journey.

“For the government, the voices of the people don’t count,” he says, “that is why we have to take to the
streets, to do something with the impotence we feel.”

Pérez and several thousand of his colleagues from the Oaxaca Peoples Popular Assembly (APPO) have walked from Oaxaca City over 250 miles and through four states to bring their demand that Gov. Ulises Ruiz Ortiz be ousted.

The march, which left Oaxaca City on Sept. 21 and arrived in Mexico City on Monday, comes on the heels of a four-month struggle to force the Ruiz Ortiz out in response to a failed attempt on June 14 to violently break up a teachers strike in Oaxaca´s central plaza.”This is an example of people’s having reached the
limit of patience with decades of neglect,” says César
Mateos, one of the march’s organizers.

“The movement in Oaxaca seeks deep structural changes,
and the first step in these changes is the exit of
Ulises,” he says. “But we want to achieve these changes
through a peaceful movement, which is why we have done
this march. This is the true face of the APPO.”

The march began with over 4,000 people, dipped to
around 1,000 on the last few days, but then swelled to
at least 10,000 as it entered Mexico City.

The APPO protesters walked an average of 8 hours a day,
through both rainstorms and blistering heat, over
mountains and through valleys, enduring chilly nights
of mosquito bites and scorpion stings.

They were often met with support along the way,
including much needed nourishment from sympathetic food
and juice vendors along the highway.

“The support kept me motivated even though my feet
hurt,” said Betty, a 40 year-old preschool teacher from
San Mateo on the Oaxaca coast. “I cried twice, not from
the pain, but because there was so much support from
people.”

The marchers, carrying handmade signs, puppets mocking
Vicente Fox, and cardboard coffins for Ulises Ruiz,
walked down busy avenues leading to the Z’calo,
blocking traffic and enduring the full force of the
late-summer sun. Hundreds of people from nearby
neighborhoods and street-side markets lined the streets
to hand out water and sandwiches along the way.

They plan to set up a protest camp in front of the
Senate and have vowed to stay in Mexico City until
Ulises Ruiz is forced from office.

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Oaxaca, Mexico Overcoming Crisis

Prensa Latina – October 10, 2006

http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=D54D366B-AC36-4652-A306-015DEE52F221)&language=EN

Mexico

Following eight hours of talks, the teachers’ union,
the Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO) and the
Mexican Secretariat of Government finally agreed to
solve the ongoing conflict in that Mexican state via
legal procedures.

They decided to put public security in the hands of the
municipal and state police, led by a federal level
undersecretary.

Until Friday, APPO will hold consultation sessions on
handing over the capital of Oaxaca while teachers
promised to put the question of returning to classes to
the rank and file.

Removal of Governor Ulises Ruiz, the main demand of the
social movement, will be processed by the Senate, also
in charge of ruling on elimination of powers.

Meanwhile, a caravan of Oaxaca teachers and grassroots
activists arrived Monday evening in the Federal
District to stage a sit-in in front of the Senate to
demand the removal of Ruiz, which they consider the
only possible out of the conflict.

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