Texas Ed Spectator

Suit: Pa. school spied on students via laptops – Yahoo! News

A federal lawsuit accuses a suburban Philadelphia school district of spying on students at home through school-issued laptop webcams.

I’m trying to envision this. How did it happen that the school issued laptops, someone put software on them that allowed the school to access the camera remotely, let other know it can be done, and nobody say this might not be a good idea? Or maybe even, do we have policies in place to ensure it’s not abused–didn’t they think that some student might hack the system and use it? Or at the very least, will our insurance cover us if we get caught?

Now the article shows pictures of what I assume are brain scans but no where does it say that’s what they did. In other words, maybe the brain hasn’t been rewired but the expectations lowered?

EducationNews.org – Internet rewiring youngsters’ brains

A survey designed to examine the internet’s impact on the brain examined how 100 12 to 18-year-olds responded to a series of questions requiring some form of research.

They discovered that most of the respondents gave their answers after looking at just half the number of web pages older people examined.

They also found that younger people took far less time to research their answers and were therefore less thorough.

Texas Tech head coach suspended

The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal reported that Leach locked sophomore receiver Adam James in a closet because he thought the player was faking a concussion.

I’m really having problems envisioning the scene.  Not the getting the kid into the closet part but what the other adults at the scene were doing. Did anyone suggest that this might not be the best way to handle the situation or were they all thinking, “damn, I’m going to use this technique once I’m head coach.” Or maybe they were the sergeant in Hogan’s Heroes “I see nothing!” More likely, it was “the idiot did it this time, that’s Craig James’ son, hmmm, maybe I’ll have a shot at his job.” Regardless of which thoughts were actually present at the time, I think this shows that Leach has some serious management issues.

Another ranking system.

the College Grid

After helping numerous students with their college applications, we noticed a lack of useful tools to help manage the school selection process. We decided to build a website with a “top-down” approach to researching colleges. Within a week, the College Grid was born.

It is improvement over the Princeton Review and US News and World Report in that it actually lets you sort on any of the variables. But the choice of variables!

The default sort is on the admissions rate. Obviously the creators are believers in that selectivity means better. But such a system does have its limitations. For example, select just for Texas schools and see what school shows up second with the default rating. And it even has a 99% acceptance yield! What a find! The problem is that is has a six year graduation rate of less than 20%. I’m sure that’s why there’s a column of SAT scores to give a heads-up that you might want to check into the value of the selectivity but still, is this really valuable?

The top five Texas schools in terms of four year graduation rates are ranked 1, 25, 15, 31, and 44 on the College Grid. Which is more important, selectivity or graduation rates? (They are ranked 1, 6, 2, 4, and 9 by SAT scores.)

The problem is that somebody out there doesn’t want your average college student ranking schools by graduate rates. (I’m not saying that graduation rates should be the only consideration but when your shelling out $40,000 a year, I would put it at the top of the list.) Most lists are now listing graduation rates as part of the school profile but the only place where you can actually select on it is at www.Collegeresults.org. Even the College Navigator, the website run by the federal government that actually collects the graduate rate data, doesn’t allow you to search on it.

So do potential students really not care about graduation rates or have they just been convinced that acceptance rates are actually a reflection of graduation rates?

College graduation rates, college rankings

I recently stumbled across this blog from the Fiske Guide website. He has an interesting link to report by Rice justifying why it needs to increase in size by 30%.

Fiske Guide Blog

But as one undergrad quoted in the report explains, “I feel that we are too small and that increasing by 30 percent at least, if not more, would benefit us in so many ways, socially and academically. Many of my upper-level courses have 10 people or less, which limits me in choosing a study group, project partners, and in class participation.” I hate it when that happens. My bet is that we won’t be seeing this quote in the viewbook any time soon. Alas, the only thing that benefits from smallness is teaching and learning, an item far down on the list of priorities at most institutions.

My initial reaction to the student’s comment was “you’ve got to be kidding.” So that’s why UT Austin required a minimum of ten students in an undergraduate class for it to make.

After thinking about it some more, I realized how the student could have reached that point–but it is still a pathetic comment. I would guess that her lower division classes were between the 15 to 30 range with occasional big hall lectures. So she experienced an “ideal” class size that most have to wait until graduate school.

But what does that say about her ability to imagine what those “ideal” size classes will be like once they start expanding the number of students? What does it say about an institution and it’s graduates that believes the students would benefit more from a stronger “national” reputation than smaller classes?

Maybe the Rice graduates who feel like they are at a disadvantage when applying for jobs because no one knows what Rice is should consider applying to other less shallow sounding jobs. But given the comments in the report, it sounds like those are exactly the type of people Rice has been and will be recruiting.

Well, at the least students won’t have to make sure they’re prepared for their classes and will be able to select from a wide range of potential project partners after they have figured out their names.

Rice, reputation, rankings, colleges, class size

Education | MySanAntonio.com

No charges will be brought against New Braunfels Middle School Principal John Burks for allegedly threatening to kill a group of science teachers if their students’ standardized test scores failed to improve, although all four teachers at the meeting told police investigators Burks made the statement.

Now imagine if some student at the school had said something along the same lines in a writing assignment. We would be hearing about zero tolerance all over the place. The student would be out of the regular classroom so fast it would make your head spin.

The sad part about this is that I bet if a mere, ordinary teacher were to have made some similar statement, he or she would be treated more like the student rather than the principle.

So it looks like we’ll never know after all. I still think that the principal’s handling of this situation warrants a “growth plan”equal to that of McGee’s. Lawson had already collected her data/evaluation before the museum trip but they weren’t revealed to McGee until after the trip. That, in of itself, is no big deal.

Star Community Newspapers:

The April 18 appraisal included a “below expectations” mark on an item titled “policies, procedures and legal requirements.” In a related area of the form titled “Areas to Address,” it states “Appropriate Art substitute plans, specific lesson plans updated weekly. Appropriate monitoring during duty assignments.”While those marks and comments are dated April 18, another document indicates McGee appears to have become aware of her review only after the trip.

Or at least the paperwork part of it anyway.

Star Community Newspapers:

In a May 11 memorandum, McGee states that the “evaluation was conducted April 18.” However, McGee states in the memo that a copy of the report did not reach her until April 28. That was two days after the field trip, according to documents, and one day after McGee was called into principal Nancy Lawson’s office to address the nudity complaint. McGee contends that she was “verbally admonished” by the principal at the meeting.

Even if McGee received it sooner, at this point there is no reason for me to have ever heard of Sydney McGee.

Star Community Newspapers:

On May 4, McGee met with Gonzales and Lawson for the teacher’s yearly “summative appraisal conference,” in which the appraiser discusses the appraisal document with the teacher, according to documents. McGee was informed at this meeting that the administration wanted to place her on a “growth plan” to address areas of concern.McGee has said she viewed the growth plan as a preliminary step to eventual non-renewal of her contract.

Gosh, you think? Anyone who has worked with human resources knows that if you want to fire someone and you want to do it right, you have to some version of a growth plan to allow the person a chance to improve.

Star Community Newspapers:

In her May 11 memorandum, McGee challenged the “below expectations” mark, saying “no negative written documentation was given to me prior with ‘areas to address,’ ” which she said is required by the state administrative code. She also disagreed with the substance of the mark.McGee said she would have expected to see documentation throughout the year had she been doing anything wrong in the classroom.

In fact, it’s not just people who deal with human resources but anyone who understands how evaluations are supposed to work as apparently McGee did.

Star Community Newspapers:

The mark was upgraded to “proficient,” and the growth plan nixed, documents indicate. On May 17, McGee and Gonzales signed a revised appraisal document, with the “below expectations” mark upgraded to “proficient.”Also on May 17, Lawson and McGee met again to discuss her performance, documents indicate. Lawson produced a memorandum May 18 that summarized the discussion.

That memorandum included issues surrounding the museum field trip, including the nudity complaint, as one of five areas of concern about McGee’s performance. It also lays out a list of improvement measures that Lawson expected McGee to meet.

So here is the first sign that Lawson failed to administer her responsibilities properly. Obviously, she must have thought McGee had a point since she changed the evaluation and dumped the growth plan. Apparently, working “verbally” and “informally” to deal with issues as Frisco ISD has repeatedly said was the case, doesn’t meet state administrative code. Since she can’t have a growth plan because she has failed to documented the situation properly, what does Lawson do next? She creates a memo that lists areas for improvement and the infamous parent remark regarding nude statues. And I hear the name McGee and Frisco ISD.

In the meantime, McGee manages to convince the principal of another Frisco ISD school to hire her. The Frisco superintendent, Reedy blocks the transfer so as not to undermine a principal’s authority to discipline an employee. ( I thought this was just about helping a teacher improve her teaching?) We all know what happens next. McGee goes to the press with parent’s complaint.

Why doesn’t anyone think that Lawson and Reedy screwed up as well? If McGee’s job is to have complete lesson plans, isn’t it Lawson’s responsibility to have complete documentation that can stand up to the scrutiny of legal requirements? If it’s McGee’s job to project a professional appearance to maintain standards isn’t it Lawson’s job to appropriately select examples and issues that illustrate an employee’s weakness rather than a parent’s small mindedness? Come on! Everyone is telling me that the nude statue had nothing to do with the situation. Then why did Lawson bother to include it, especially if she had other legitimate concerns? It was a mistake for her to include it.

Then there’s superintendent Reedy. He’s all for supporting Lawson’s authority even though she has failed to administer it properly. I guess he didn’t think it was a big deal that Lawson had to retract her “below expectations” evaluation because, hey, McGee’s just an art teacher and everyone thinks she is a pain to work with anyway? (I would hate to be the social studies teacher that teaches flag burning is a first amendment right or an English teacher discussing race relations in Huckleberry Finn and not be on the good side of the principal.)

Did he try to find out why Lawson’s evaluations differed from her predecessor’s? Did he think that McGee should be concerned about a parent complaining about nude art? (BTW, for all his protests to the contrary, his answer has been a very subtle, yet still very public “yes.”) And finally, he’s settling because he screwed up and recommended “not renewing McGee’s contract” before having the appropriate paperwork. Think about it. The memo wasn’t an actual growth plan. There was no growth plan since Lawson screwed up. To start non-renewal, he would have had to have the same paperwork Lawson was missing. Since it seems unlikely that they were able to come up with a legitimate workplan based on her summer performance, he plowed ahead anyway, contributing to the grounds for a lawsuit.

Will someone tell me who’s evaluating Lawson and Reedy? Where are their growth plans?

Someone has pointed out that taken to extremes that you could use the analogy of a murderer getting off because someone didn’t read him his rights. Yeah, okay. So the police officer not only didn’t read the rights, admits that she didn’t read the rights, presents as a witness someone who swears the person did it because everyone of his “racial epitaph of your choice” does it, and the chief of police says none of this matters because the guy is a murderer. All the officer had to do was to do her job correctly and read the suspect her rights. Because she didn’t do her job, the murderer gets off.

We are a society of rules and laws that apply to everyone, not just the ones we like. And if society’s basic institution for instilling these rights is unable to adequately apply them itself, then there is a problem and blaming it on the press or McGee isn’t going to make it go away.

And I know the answer to the question of the post’s title, for the children’s sake, right? I just wonder if the adults involved have learned anything from this.

EITHER Syndey McGee is a champion of the arts and the Frisco school district composed of neanderthals seeking only to please a culturally repressed parent OR Frisco ISD has been unfairly and unwarrantably attacked by a sensationalist press manipulated by an incompetent educator interested only in preserving her job.

Sorry, while there are plenty of people in this country who are willing and even eager to see all issues in black and white that doesn’t mean it’s reality. As far as I’m concerned, no one is off the hook.

Let’s start with the “smoking gun.” McKinney ISD provided McGee with a positive evaluation and a payment if she agreed to leave. What does this prove? McKinney ISD wanted her to leave for a variety of reasons but for some other unknown reason wasn’t going to be able to do it by bringing disciplinary action against her or simply by not renewing her contract. While the district may have had good reasons for wanting McGee to leave, they also did something that put them in the position of allowing McGee to negotiate the terms of her departure. My guess, and please, I know this is only a guess, is that the district somehow screwed up their own personnel policies in dealing with the issue. Just because an employee doesn’t meet standards doesn’t excuse the employers from doing so. Oh wait, oh never mind, I was going to make some broader generalization but that would only get me into trouble.

So McGee comes to Frisco. You could make the argument that is was under suspicious circumstances but then you’ve really got to blame McKinney for not doing it’s job. Furthermore, you could also make the argument that perhaps, (please note that I am once again speculating and freely admit that I could be totally wrong) by applying for an art teacher position, McGee was actually look for a situation that would be more accommodating to her temperament. Perhaps.

In any case, many of the same problems she had at McKinney plague her relationship with other teachers. In recent years, her principal has been making verbal suggestions and even sending informal emails to McGee regarding her performance. Then there is the trip to the museum, the parent complaint, and the performance evaluation.

It’s EITHER about censorship OR about workplace performance. EITHER the principal was strictly addressing workplace issues OR was trying to undermine art appreciation in the community. EITHER McGee is trying to preserve freedom of speech OR undermining the school’s reputation to save her job. How about a little of both on all sides?

It sounds like enough things went wrong with the museum trip to push the principal into taking formal action. There’s a memo and the evaluation. According to Frisco superintendent Reedy,

Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | Opinion: Viewpoints:

One paragraph in the five-page memo discussed concerns regarding the field trip and mentioned the parent complaint. It was included in the memo as a recent example of concerns involving Ms. McGee’s planning, organization and follow-through.

The parent complaint wasn’t about the hour wait or the problems dealing with the DMA. It was about a piece of nude art a child saw at the DMA. Yet, the district has gone out of it’s way to say that the complaint had nothing to do with censorship or is the reason why the memo was written. Again Reedy states that:

Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | Opinion: Viewpoints:

No teacher, including Ms. McGee, has ever been fired or reprimanded for taking students to the museum or for a student’s incidental viewing of nude art. No teacher, including Ms. McGee, has ever been fired due to a parent complaint.

I know I’m probably fixating but I can’t help but notice that he never states how the district actually handles such complaints. He continues with the following “but”

We do expect teachers to preview materials through the eyes of students, the parents of the student and through the expectations of our community. We expect teachers to plan, prepare and communicate accordingly. A poorly planned and organized field trip is a failed learning experience.

Uhmm, so what does this have to do with not reprimanding teachers for a student’s incidental viewing of nude art? It wasn’t incidental? It wasn’t planned? It was planned?

Given all the problems the principal apparently had with McGee, why even bring up this one parent complaint? If no teacher is fired because of a parent complaint, why include it in the memo? Why was it given any credibility at all?

The principal could have very easily accomplished her task without including the parent complaint. The fact that she included it indicates that she gave it some importance. I’m still waiting to hear from the district that the parent wasn’t just complaining about the nude art but rather that the teacher did not prepare the students for viewing the art or provide a meaningful context for it’s viewing. Pretty quiet.

“Aw come on,” you say. That’s just one thing she did wrong, McGee did plenty more. Actually, any supervisor who waits for a crisis situation to start documenting employee issues, has not been doing her job. The district has talked about some principals preferring “informal” means. And informal means can be great when they work. But then when the principal prepares a very negative evaluation in writing, shouldn’t the teacher be worried? She’s not being informal, so why wouldn’t an employee perceive this as a version of a “work improvement plan” and a sign that her job is in jeopardy?

Maybe because of her basic personality, McGee doesn’t belong in the public school system. However, that does not mean she was treated fairly by the district. Nor does it mean that the district wouldn’t use parent complaints in evaluating teachers. (Think about it, no one is going to care if a bunch parents started complaining that a teacher allows her students to spend all their time in “free reading” while she’s talking on her cell phone?) According the Reedy, the facts are that the complaint was part of the memo. Someone complained about “naked” art and it was given legitimacy.

Now the district is taking the side of the principal and acknowledges no lapses on its part. At this point, the district is sort of stuck in an either or situation much in the same way that McGee is. McGee wants to make sure she can get another job and getting everyone to believe that she was fired for nude art is a great way to compensate any negative evaluations she may have. And the district really wants to get rid of a teacher for some legitimate reasons and doesn’t want the bad press it’s getting.

In a way, it really does come down to how the principal handled the parent complaint. If it had never been mentioned, what would McGee have gone to the press with? However, since it had been mentioned, the district is being forced to defend its actions in public. At some point, the fact that a 5th grader saw nude art in the DMA made a difference.

Guardian Unlimited | World Latest | Wis. Lawmaker Urges Arming Teachers:

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – A state lawmaker, worried about a recent string of deadly school shootings, suggested arming teachers, principals and other school personnel as a safety measure and a deterrent.It might not be politically correct, but it has worked effectively in other countries, Republican Rep. Frank Lasee said Wednesday.

“To make our schools safe for our students to learn, all options should be on the table,” he said. “Israel and Thailand have well-trained teachers carrying weapons and keeping their children safe from harm. It can work in Wisconsin.”

What about McDonald employees? Remember the shooting in California? How about postal workers, or maybe just postal customers? Luby employees? Are they even still in business? University professors? Ministers, Rabies, and Priests? Oh heck, just give everyone guns and then no one is defenseless and stuff like this won’t happen anymore.

Congratulations to the Dallas Morning News for finally presenting “the other side” of the McGee story.

Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | Collin County Education:

McKinney ISD in 1998 to end her employment as a second grade teacher at Glen Oaks Elementary School. Under the arrangement, Ms. McGee received a positive recommendation from the district. McKinney officials declined to comment on the report Wednesday.

Of course, it’s not the McGee story anymore but rather the local paper pointing out the limitations of that shrine of liberal media, the New Times. The Dallas Morning News wins either way.

Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | Collin County Education:

Jennifer King said Wednesday she and other fifth-grade teachers who went on the field trip later told their principal it was chaotic and disorganized.

Now why couldn’t they find out this information two weeks ago? Was it that hard to find someone who was on the field trip who had negative things to say about it?

Congratulations to McKinney ISD which apparently managed to buy its way out of a problem and dump it on another district rather than going through the trouble of actually addressing it.

Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | Collin County Education:

The records show that Ms. McGee signed a settlement agreement for nearly $8,300 with McKinney ISD in 1998 to end her employment as a second grade teacher at Glen Oaks Elementary School.Under the arrangement, Ms. McGee received a positive recommendation from the district. McKinney officials declined to comment on the report Wednesday.

The records do not indicate the reason behind the settlement agreement, but her file contains letters from parents who asked that their children be removed from her class because of personality and learning issues.

Her file also contains complaints from unidentified teachers about planning and field trip preparation issues.

Personality conflicts and disparities between a teacher’s teaching style and a student’s learning style are certainly a headache for any administration. Yet, half of all homeschoolers will tell you that it doesn’t necessarily get a teacher fired. But then there’s the planning and field trip issues again. Addressing such issues in a meaningful way is time consuming and stressful. So if someone were to do a cost benefit analysis, it was probably worth it to cough up the money and have McGee go away quietly. Think about it, if you calculated the time of all the people who would have to deal with this issue at $100 an hour, that’s two weeks of work. Halve that and it’s a month of time spent on one teacher.

Congratulation to McGee for knowing her rights and continuing to teach the way she wants without regard to her fellow employees and supervisors. It would appear that she took a calculated risk that the administration wouldn’t go through the trouble of actually pursuing her shortcomings in a meaningful way so she just focused on her art. As I’ve stated before, she can be a great art teacher but still have problems dealing with the administrative responsibilities. Also, all teachers should realize that no matter what they think about her abilities, if it happened to her, it can happen to you. As for going to the New York Times, I might consider doing that as well while thinking about my next mortgage payment.

And finally congratulations to Frisco ISD for not ever having to answer exactly how did the administration handled the parent complaint. The district must also be saving the tax payers’ money by reducing the time and money it spends on creating a meaningful message.

Update to Request to Disclose Records of Ms. McGee (October, 2006):

Ms. McGee continues to be an employee of the District and receives her full salary and benefits.

See, they have not actually fired her. They’ve got another art teacher but they didn’t fire her.

Update to Request to Disclose Records of Ms. McGee (October, 2006):

but in fact, it is merely all about her overreaction to a memo that she received last spring from her principal which expressed valid and ongoing concerns about her job performance, but which sought no disciplinary action.

And the memo wasn’t disciplinary in nature. It only told her exactly what she would have to do otherwise she would be fired, oops sorry, her contract would not be renewed.

There are times that I feel sorry for the principal. I don’t think she followed procedures in dealing with the workplace issues regarding McGee. She’s probably used to people taking verbal direction and for people to back down when she confronts them with her authority. But then I think about how she obviously did not stand up for education principles with regard to the parent complaint about a nude statue and that feeling goes away.