Tag Archives: Pearson

U of L provost who hired notorious ed school dean Robert Felner steps down

Shirley Willihnganz, the University of Louisville provost who hired “notorious ed school dean” Robert Felner has stepped down from her $342,694 a year position and will return to the faculty after a sabbatical.

Willihnganz told the Louisville Courier-Journal that the “Felner episode” was the biggest regret of her 13 years as a top administrator at U of L.

Willihnganz hired Felner as dean of the U of L College of Education and Human Development in 2003. Felner’s deanship has been described by some as a “reign of terror” because of his abusive treatment of staff, faculty, students and alumni.

Despite dozens of grievances filed against Felner and a faculty vote of no-confidence, Willihnganz and her boss, university president James Ramsey, were dismissive of complaints and vigorously defended him. Ultimately, Willihnganz was “forced to apologize” to the faculty, saying “mostly what I think I want to say is people have been hurt and something very bad happened, and as provost I feel like I am ultimately responsible for that.”

In addition to his well documented abusive behavior, Felner was also engaged in criminal activity while working for the U of L and under Willihnganz’s supervision.

In 2010, Felner was sentenced 63 months in federal prison for a scheme that bilked $2.3 million of US Department of Education money from U of L and the University of Rhode Island.

On June 20, 2008, Federal investigators (Secret Service and US Postal Inspection Service) raided Felner’s office at the U of L College of Education and Human Development (and his new office at the University of Wisconsin, Parkside, where he was in the process of taking over as campus president) to seize documents and a computer.

Read more about the Felner saga and his journey from “high performer” (Willihnganz’s description) to infamous ex-con here.

Courier-Journal reporter Andrew Wolfson asked me to comment on Willihnganz response to Felner. The statement below was quoted, in part, in the C-J story.

Of course it’s hard to disagree that the hiring of Robert Felner as dean of CEHD was, in hind sight, a disastrous decision by the U of L administration and Dr. Willihnganz in particular, but it was not entirely unpredictable. As chair of the largest department in CEHD at the time, I vigorously opposed Felner’s hire and called for the administration to resist the “old boy” network within the college that backed him. The provost’s office failed to do its due diligence in the hiring, despite a plethora of signs that Felner was not a good choice for the university. At the time, I was aware that other universities had considered Felner for deanships, but excluded him based upon thorough investigations of his career. The fact that President Ramsey and Dr. Willihnganz remained in office after defending Felner’s abusive leadership style, and ultimately criminal behavior, says much about the lack of accountability for decision making at the U of L. The damage done to the university’s reputation has been significant and is not merely the result of Felner’s felonious activities and generally abusive treatment of staff and faculty, but can also be laid in some measure at the feet of Dr. Willihnganz and President Ramsey.

The Courier-Journal reports modest positive accomplishments during on Willihnganz’s years a provost, including increased graduate rates and slight improvements in the U of L’s standing in university reputational rankings.

But, these accomplishments pale in comparison to the Felner episode and a long series shameful debacles that have tarnished the reputation of Kentucky’s second largest research university. The C-J reports that,

Under [Willihnganz’s] watch … university employees have stole, misspent or mishandled at least $7.6 million in schemes at the health science campus, the law school, the business school and the athletic department’s ticket office.

Willihnganz also was criticized for approving about $1 million in buyouts for former high-ranking employees, some of which included agreements not to disparage the university or its leaders.

Academic Fraud?
As the chief academic officer of the U of L, Willihnganz allowed the university to bestow a PhD degree on one of Felner’s associates, John Deasy, after enrolling in the CEHD doctoral program for a total of four months and apparently never actually taking any courses.

As reported in the education newspaper Substance,

John Deasy earned his PhD directly under Felner, in a period of four months, earning nine UL credit hours.

Prior to coming to UL, Deasy had awarded Felner’s research company, the National Center on Public Education and Social Policy, a $375,000 grant from the Santa Monica district where Deasy was head.

Before he came to UL, Felner had been dean at the University of Rhode Island’s College of Education from 1996-2003. Deasy studied there in the same period, while Deasy was also a Rhode Island school superintendent.

According to a highly placed source, formerly at UL, Deasy’s dissertation’s title page carries the date, “May, 2003,” while it is signed off, “April 9, 2004.” He entered the program in January, 2004.

A UL investigation of the Deasy PhD did not condemn the practice. James Ramsey, UL president, who had turned a blind eye to Felner’s notorious corruption (the faculty gave Felner a “no confidence vote” in 2006, but he served at least two more years at UL with Ramsey’s full support), gave his nod to the “blue ribbon” investigation.

Deasy is apparently cut from the same cloth as his mentor, having recently resigned as superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, under a cloud of allegations regarding ethics violations in relation to a $1 billion contract to supply iPads to LAUSD students.

A federal grand jury is currently investigating Deasy’s iPad scheme, which involved Apple and Pearson, the latter one of the world’s largest education publishers.

Many in LA were quite pleased by Deasy’s resignation as district boss.

In the end, it can be argued that the mistakes made by the U of L administration in hiring and protecting Felner, allowed Deasy to obtain a questionable PhD, which surely helped him land the high-paying job as superintendent of the second largest school district in the United States.

As LAUSD’s “Deasy episode” unfolds in a federal jury investigation, it could be that Willihnganz’s legacy will include the “graduation” of two federal convicts from the U of L College of Education and Human Development.

Cultural Logic Releases Three Volumes of Critical Scholarship In One Day

Cultural Logic has just announced an epic launch of three volumes of critical scholarship addressing a wide range of issues.

Cultural Logic, which has been on-line since 1997, is a open access, non-profit, peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary journal that publishes essays, interviews, poetry, reviews (books, films, other media), etc. by writers working within the Marxist tradition.

Volumes 2011 and 2012 were edited by David Siar.

Volume 2013 is the open access version the Education for Revolution issue that was published by Works & Days in December 2013, which I co-edited with Rich Gibson. Thanks to everyone for your contributions, to David Downing and his team for publishing the issue in Works & Days, to David Siar for his editorial and site management, and to Joe Ramsey for suggesting the WD/CL collaboration for the Education for Revolution issue.

Below are the Contents for Volumes 2011, 2012, and 2013

Cultural Logic, Volume 2011
Articles
Mathias Dapprich
“A Contribution Towards a Critical Theory of School Shootings”

Jerry Leonard
“Reading Notes on Sangeeta Ray’s Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak: Polemic with Digressions on a Theory of Irreducibility”

Ronald Paul
“The Politics of the Personal in Edward Upward’s The Spiral Ascent”

Spyros Sakellaropoulos
“On the Causes of the Civil War in Nepal and the Role of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)”

Larry Schwartz
“Apocalypse Then: Philip Roth’s Indignation”

Daniel Silvermintz
“Enlightenment in the Shopping Mall”

Response and Counter-Response
Mike Jones
“Some Comments on Sven-Eric Holmström’s ‘New Evidence’ Concerning the Hotel Bristol in the First Moscow Trial of 1936”

Sven-Eric Holmström
“Reply to Mike Jones”

Poetry
Christopher Barnes
(From) The Electric Chair Poems

Cultural Logic, Volume 2012
Articles
Julianne Buchsbaum
“Alienation, Reification, and Narrativity in Russell Banks’ Affliction”

Alzo David-West
“North Korea and the Theory of the Deformed Workers’ State: Definitions and First Principles of a Fourth International Theory”

Haidar Eid
“White Noise: Representations of (Post)modern Intelligentsia”

Doug Enaa Greene
“Leninism and Blanquism”

Desmond Peeples
“Toward an Anarcho-Empiricism: Integrating Precedent, Theory, and Impetus in the Anarchist Project”

E. San Juan, Jr.
“In Lieu of Saussure: A Prologue to Charles Sanders Peirce’s Theory of Signs”

Huei-ju Wang
“Becoming ‘Migrant John’: John Steinbeck and His Migrants and His (Un)conscious turn to Marx”

Poetry
George Snedeker
Selected Poems

Cultural Logic, Education for Revolution, Volume 2013
Preface
E. Wayne Ross & Rich Gibson
“Education for Revolution”

Foreword
David B. Downing, Nicholas P. Katsiadas, Tracy J. Lassiter & Reza Parchizadeh
“Forward to the Revolution” (Forward to the Works & Days Edition)

Articles
Rich Gibson
“Barbarism Rising: Detroit, Michigan and the International War of the Rich on the Poor”

E. Wayne Ross & Kevin D. Vinson
“Resisting Neoliberal Education Reform: Insurrectionist Pedagogies and the Pursuit of Dangerous Citizenry”

Julie A. Gorlewski & Brad J. Porfilio
“Reimaging Solidarity: Hip-Hop as Revolutionary Pedagogy”

Timothy Patrick Shannon & Patrick Shannon
“Learning to Be Fast Capitalists on a Flat World”

Brian D. Lozenski, Zachary A. Casey & Shannon K. McManimon
“Contesting Production: Youth Participatory Action Research in the Struggle to Produce Knowledge”

Mike Cole
“Schooling for Capitalism or Education for Twenty-First Century Socialism?”

Curry Stephenson Malott
“Class Consciousness and Teacher Education: The Socialist Challenge and the Historical Context”

Deborah P. Kelsh
“The Pedagogy of Excess”

John Maerhofer
“Undermining Capitalist Pedagogy: Takiji Kobayashi’s Toseikatsusha and the Ideology of the World Literature Paradigm”

Grant Banfield
“Marxist Sociology of Education and the Problem of Naturalism: An Historical Sketch”

David J. Blacker
“The Illegitimacy of Student Debt”

Alan J. Singer
“Hacking Away at the Corporate Octopus”

Richard A. Brosio
“A Tale of Two Cities —— and States”

Alan Spector
“SDS, the 1960s, and Education for Revolution”

The latest test resistance news (Compiled by FairTest)

Alaska Repeals High School Exit Exam, Plans to Award Withheld Diploma
http://www.ktuu.com/news/news/new-education-bill-could-help-those-without-diplomas/26378278

New Connecticut State Tests Mean Less Time for Teaching and Learning
http://www.norwichbulletin.com/article/20140604/NEWS/140609555

One Florida Mother Has Had it With High Stakes Testing
http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/one-mother-has-had-it-with-high-stakes-public-school-tests-whats-her-next/2183397

Union Challenges Florida’s Test-Based “Merit Pay” Law as “Irrational”
http://tbo.com/news/education/teachers-and-union-appeal-state-merit-pay-ruling-20140605/

Indiana State-Federal Assessments Stand-off Illustrates Politically Driven Testing Charade
http://www.jconline.com/story/opinion/editorials/2014/06/06/editorial-istep-fight-far-classroom/10073887/

Louisiana School Grades Distort Picture of Education
http://www.theneworleansadvocate.com/opinion/9373801-171/letter-tests-dont-show-whole

Gov. Jindal Wants to Pull Louisiana Out of Common Core Testing
http://theadvocate.com/home/9382945-125/jindal-says-he-wants-state

Maine School Grading System Has Major Flaws
http://courier.mainelymediallc.com/news/2014-06-05/Editorial/Beyond_the_Headlines.html

New Massachusetts Teacher Union President Supports Three-Year Moratorium on Standardized Testing
http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2014/06/05/massachusetts-teachers-association-new-president-rejects-assessments-testing-and-other-education-policies/N4LWsYjMXyc3ON98pxnPJP/story.html#

New Jersey Testing Concerns Grow as PARCC Phase-In Begins
http://www.edlawcenter.org/news/archives/secondary-reform/testing-concerns-grow-as-parcc-phase-in-begins.html

More Questions on Accuracy of New Mexico Teacher Evaluations
http://www.abqjournal.com/412073/news/more-questions-on-evals-accuracy.html

Upstate New York School Districts Say “No” to Pearson Field Tests
http://www.rochesterhomepage.net/story/d/story/districts-say-no-to-field-testing/34312/RgeZZhyTcEKUTTnUeoLG_A

Field Test is Exercise in Futility
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/gonzalez-practice-testing-state-mandated-exercise-futility-article-1.1817474

Just Say “No” to NY Field Tests
http://www.wnyc.org/story/opinion-tell-parents-they-can-just-say-no-field-tests/

New Yorkers Demand Release of Test Questions for Public Inspection
https://www.votervoice.net/NYSAPE/campaigns/36307/respond

New York Republican Legislators Promote Plan to Review Common Core Assessments
http://www.longislandexchange.com/press-releases/common-core-cant-be-forgotten/

Bill Would End Pearson’s Common Core Testing Contract
http://www.lohud.com/story/news/education/2014/06/04/senator-wants-pearson-ties-cut/9969003/

Why I Despise North Carolina’s End-of-Grade Tests
http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20140604/LETTERS/140609887/1107/opinion?Title=Let-the-tests-begin

Ohio’s Standardized Tests: What’s the Point?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/claire-klodell/standardized-tests_b_5448020.html

Oklahoma Schools Challenge Flawed Writing Test Scores
http://www.koco.com/news/school-districts-say-test-scores-inaccurate-asking-for-rescore/26314828#!UfudR

Standardized Tests for Tennessee Learning Disabled Students Make Little Sense
http://www.dnj.com/article/20140605/OPINION/306050010

Bringing Transparency to Tennessee Testing
http://www.tennessean.com/story/opinion/2014/06/09/bring-transparency-school-testing-process/10202061/

Vermont to Develop Local Proficiency Standards, Not State Exit Exam
http://www.vnews.com/news/12274494-95/vt-schools-to-create-new-high-school-proficiency-standards

Virginia Kids Are Not “All Right” Due to High-Stakes Testing
http://www.timesdispatch.com/opinion/their-opinion/columnists-blogs/guest-columnists/lehman-testing—the-kids-are-not-all-right/article_f7d8f824-72a3-5763-a7d9-2a6704d30bab.html

NCLB Falsely Labels Wyoming Schools as “Failing”
http://trib.com/opinion/columns/thompson-wyoming-schools-are-failing-try-again/article_8ace31e9-c1c2-52e8-82e6-a00b550037ec.html

Obama-Duncan Education Policies Test Our Patience
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/books/chi-0608-biblioracle-20140606,0,3100945,full.column

What Happens When a Student Fails a High-Stakes Test
http://conversationed.com/2014/05/27/the-academic-life-cycle-of-a-non-proficient-student/

This Is Not a Test: Jose Vilson’s Vision of Race, Class and Education in the U.S.
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/24112-testing-narrative-jose-vilsons-vision-of-race-class-and-education-in-the-us

You Don’t Fatten a Pig By Weighing It
http://www.laep.org/2014/06/03/you-dont-fatten-a-pig-by-weighing-it/

Testing Overkill Won’t Draw In Better Teachers
http://www.tallahassee.com/story/opinion/columnists/2014/06/04/sally-butzin-testing-bring-better-teachers/9978157/

Correcting a Harmful Misuse of Test Scores
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/assessing_the_assessments/2014/06/correcting_a_harmful_misuse_of_students_test_scores.html

Morality, Validity and the Design of Instructionally Sensitive Tests
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/assessing_the_assessments/2014/06/morality_validity_and_the_design_of_instructionally_sensitive_tests.html?cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS3

Common Core Assessment Sales Job is a Hoax
http://mobile.gazettenet.com/home/12038490-108/louise-law-john-stifler-look-between-the-lines-on-education-reform

National Principals Groups Seeks Pause in Common Core Assessments
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/06/03/national-principals-group-urges-slowdown-in-common-core-implementation/

“We Will Not Let an Exam Decide Our Fate”
http://conversationed.com/2014/05/30/i-will-not-let-an-exam-result-decide-my-fate-spoken-word-video/

I Am a Scientist with Learning Disabilities, And That’s OK
http://blogs.plos.org/speakingofmedicine/2014/06/10/im-scientist-learning-disabilities-thats-okay/