Si usted o alguien que usted conoce ha sido blanco de ataques y están en proceso de ser despedido y la necesidad de defensa legal, póngase en contacto:

Lenny@perdaily.com


Reformadores nacionales EDUCACIÓN

LA Progressive

Dick Precio y Kyle Sharon
http://www.laprogressive.com/
Dick y Sharon dick_and_sharon@yahoo.com
Dick y Sharon son un par de periodistas ciudadanos y activistas de información que fueron alimentados con medios de comunicación . En lugar de simplemente kvetch sobre los medios de comunicación, decidieron tratar de convertirse en los medios de comunicación. Por lo tanto, juntos fundaron la progresiva LA. Dick es el editor y Sharon es el editor y webmaster, manejar todos los aspectos técnicos del sitio.

Este sitio fue lanzado en marzo de 2008, con Dick y Sharon haciendo la mayor parte de la escritura. Hoy en día, una gran cantidad de talentosos escritores contribuir a la progresiva ofrecimiento diario de Los Ángeles que normalmente asciende a cerca de 45 artículos a la semana. Dick y Sharon seguir escribiendo, así como para editar y publicar el Progressive LA y distribuir sus diarios e-noticias cada mañana.

LAUSD ha seleccionado un nuevo Superintendente de Escuelas

Karen Horwitz Chicago, Illinois

wccbook@gmail.com

Profesor galardonado ex cofundador NAPTA, Asociación Nacional para la Prevención del Abuso de Maestros, y escribió el libro Crimen White Chalk: Las Escuelas verdadera razón Fail to exponer cómo el acoso y el terror profesor mantiene un sistema de corrupción profundamente ocultos. Eliminación de los profesores dedicados forma el núcleo de la agenda Penal White Chalk desde la dedicación y la delincuencia de cuello blanco no se mezclan. Teniendo en cuenta que todos están de acuerdo que los buenos maestros son esenciales para una buena enseñanza, un sistema que no puede tolerar a los buenos maestros no sirve para nada. Esto es lo que tenemos en su lugar. Con Bernie Madoff-como líderes - que era tanto sobre la inversión que nuestros líderes escolares sobre la educación - ungido con poder ilimitado, incluyendo la capacidad para llenar las ondas con la propaganda, la educación ya no es acerca de la educación. Se trata de dinero y poder para aquellos que juegan un juego muy corrupto y con una agenda de privatización de las escuelas por lo que su poder se incrementará. (La privatización puede tener méritos NAPTA no toma una posición al respecto, pero la privatización de un sistema que está podrido hasta la médula -.. Donde la enseñanza de calidad no puede sobrevivir, en un encubrimiento de la pretensión de que ellos no saben esto a pesar de que muchos de nosotros informar estas verdades prevalece - documentos que los privatización defender no se puede confiar Esto demuestra que queremos que nuestras escuelas para sus propios intereses, no los niños, ni la comunidad) NAPTA bienvenida a los padres, maestros, estudiantes, ciudadanos o cualquier persona que entiende que sin un real!. sistema de educación, ya no tenemos una democracia. La membresía es gratuita. Ir a: EndTeacherAbuse.org o WhiteChalkCrime.com . Educarse acerca de lo que está pasando.

Jerry Mintz director
Educación Alternativa Resource Organization (AERO)
417 Roslyn Rd., Roslyn Hts., NY 11577

Para aquellos de ustedes que no pueden esperar a que la educación pública corruptos que se dio la vuelta, AERO ofrece una excelente fuente para conectarse con alternativas viables en estos momentos.

www.EducationRevolution.org
info@EducationRevolution.org
          800-769-4171       (Nacional)
          516-621-2195       (Internacional)

Susan Ohanian Charlotte, Vermont
susano@gmavt.net
http://www.susanohanian.org
Ella es una maestra de escuela pública que desde hace mucho tiempo, después de 20 años, se convirtió en redactor de una revista y luego fue profesor freelance. He mantenido un sitio web del activismo por casi 9 años - desde la aprobación de la ley NCLB. La gente puede suscribirse a la página web y luego obtener actualizaciones sobre el contenido nuevo. Respondo todo el correo llegue a través de la página web y con la respuesta, la gente tiene mi dirección de e-mail. También trato de agitar las cosas en Twitter, aunque me parece medio frustrante. Tengo una página en Facebook - sólo para que la gente me puede encontrar. Yo no iniciar nada en ella, el sitio web me mantiene ocupada.
http://susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.php?id=9593

Susan Lee Schwartz Suffern, Nueva York

Susan estudió la alfabetización, la literatura Inglés, y las bellas artes y tiene una licenciatura ('63) y MS ('65) de Brooklyn College, y tiene el equivalente de dos grados de maestría, obtuvo en los estudios de postgrado de la alfabetización, las artes y la educación. Ella enseñó habilidades de alfabetización y el arte, durante cuatro décadas en Nueva York en la escuela primaria y secundaria. En 1998 ganó el estado de Nueva York Inglés Consejo (NYSEC) Educador del Premio a la Excelencia por su práctica docente con éxito, estudió en Harvard y la LRDC en la Universidad de Pittsburgh para la investigación de nuevas normas. Al final de su investigación, su plan de estudios único fue seleccionado por el LRDC para ser utilizado en los seminarios nacionales de desarrollo del personal para los superintendentes escolares. Ella estuvo entre los seis profesores - de entre los miles en todo el país - observó durante la investigación, y la práctica docente, se reunieron todos los principios del aprendizaje. En los años noventa, se levantó a la prominencia en los círculos educativos nacionales, mientras enseñaba en una escuela magnet nuevo, East Side Middle School. Las calificaciones de lectura de sus estudiantes de séptimo grado se encontraban en la parte superior de la ciudad, y en el primer ELA, que dos tercios de los estudiantes de la ciudad no, sus antiguos alumnos (en ese entonces en el octavo grado) se DÉCIMO EN EL ESTADO.

Ella escribe a menudo sobre lo que aprendió acerca de los estándares reales de aprendizaje, en un intento de iniciar una conversación nacional sobre los estándares auténticos, por lo que no puede haber una verdadera reforma. Su experiencia que puso fin a su carrera muy bien en las escuelas públicas de Nueva York le ha llevado a escribir sobre el proceso que elimina los mejores educadores, silenciando las voces de los practicantes del aula que no aceptaría las políticas anti-aprendizaje. Su ensayo aquí en Perdaily, es el que describe este proceso. Lea más, mientras habla sobre la educación, la alfabetización y el aprendizaje en su sitio, desde la perspectiva de la experiencia docente-profesional de la pedagogía. Ella es la voz de los maestros dedicados y talentosos que saben por qué las escuelas están fallando.

Su sitio web es:

http://www.speakingasateacher.com/Susan_Lee_Schwartz_ (Steiner) _ / index.html

Joel Shatzky: Brooklyn, New York
Joel.Shatzky @ cortland.edu
Profesor Emérito de Inglés - SUNY, Colegio de Cortland (1968-2005)
Adjunto un instructor Kingsborough CC (CUNY) 2006 -)
Colaborador habitual para el Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/searchS/?q=Joel+Shatzky
Autor de "La Crisis Pensamiento" con Ellen Hill (Prensa Autores Choice: Nueva York, 2001)
Numerosos artículos sobre la educación en Corrientes judío.
Guionista de tres sátiras de YouTube en la educación "reforma".
"Las lecciones": www.youtube.com/watch?v=D712J1V2Jsg&feature=player_embedded
"Los números Lie": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57BRNLviVTQ
"Los arrancadores Carta": www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnrrw5CV3Gw <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnrrw5CV3Gw>

Aquí está el último mensaje de Joel por el bajo porcentaje de "listos para la universidad" graduados de escuela secundaria. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joel-shatzky/educating-for-democracy-t_2_b_821410.html

Lorna Stremcha Havre, Montana
<lornastremcha@yahoo.com>
http://www.endteacherabuse.org/Stremcha.html
http://twitter.com/lornapstremcha

lornastremcha.com

callmescarlet. blogspot.com

SU HISTORIA:
"Sé de primera mano los daños financieros, personales, emocionales y físicos que pueden resultar cuando los administradores escolares, el Montana Asociación de Educación y la Asociación Nacional de Educación ponen sus propios intereses por encima de los estudiantes, los profesores y los contribuyentes del Estado de Montana Mis archivos contienen montañas de papeles incluyendo declaraciones juradas, declaraciones de la verdad, documentos notariales y exposiciones como resultado de un arduo proceso legal que finalmente terminó cuando el Havre (Montana) del Distrito Escolar se establecieron dos demandas -. una demanda federal y una presentada en la Corte de Distrito del Estado Estos documentos también incluyen una carta de un representante del sindicato diciendo: "Esto no es nada más que una caza de brujas." Sin embargo, el sindicato continuó permitiendo la administración de la escuela para acosar, intimidar y hacer daño a mí.
Estas dos demandas como resultado de un solo incidente que, de haber sido manejado de manera diferente y bajo la luz del escrutinio público, no habría una bola de nieve en premios de más de $ 200,000 en daños y perjuicios. Los fondos que finalmente llegó de los bolsillos de los contribuyentes. Irónicamente, como contribuyente en Hill County, mi familia y yo estamos ayudando a pagar las indemnizaciones concedidas a mí. Esta cubierto los honorarios de los abogados. El acuerdo no incluye mis honorarios de abogado, sin embargo, el barrio, los seguros y los contribuyentes pagan las facturas de los abogados defensores, que superó la mía. El acuerdo se hizo el 2 de marzo de 2006 ". Http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dr-Jim-Taylor/125893225652

(Mensaje se repite en Español)

What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland's School Success

by Anu Partanen is a Finnish journalist based in New York City. She is writing a book about what America can learn from Nordic societies.

The Scandinavian country is an education superpower because it values equality more than excellence.

Sergey Ivanov/Flickr

Everyone agrees the United States needs to improve its education system dramatically, but how? One of the hottest trends in education reform lately is looking at the stunning success of the West's reigning education superpower, Finland. Trouble is, when it comes to the lessons that Finnish schools have to offer, most of the discussion seems to be missing the point.

The small Nordic country of Finland used to be known -- if it was known for anything at all -- as the home of Nokia, the mobile phone giant. But lately Finland has been attracting attention on global surveys of quality of life -- Newsweek ranked it number one last year -- and Finland's national education system has been receiving particular praise, because in recent years Finnish students have been turning in some of the highest test scores in the world.

Finland's schools owe their newfound fame primarily to one study: thePISA survey, conducted every three years by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The survey compares 15-year-olds in different countries in reading, math, and science. Finland has ranked at or near the top in all three competencies on every survey since 2000, neck and neck with superachievers such as South Korea and Singapore. In the most recent survey in 2009 Finland slipped slightly, with students in Shanghai, China, taking the best scores, but the Finns are still near the very top. Throughout the same period, the PISA performance of the United States has been middling, at best.

Compared with the stereotype of the East Asian model -- long hours of exhaustive cramming and rote memorization -- Finland's success is especially intriguing because Finnish schools assign less homework and engage children in more creative play. All this has led to a continuous stream of foreign delegations making the pilgrimage to Finland to visit schools and talk with the nation's education experts, and constant coverage in the worldwide media marveling at the Finnish miracle.

So there was considerable interest in a recent visit to the U.S. by one of the leading Finnish authorities on education reform, Pasi Sahlberg, director of the Finnish Ministry of Education's Center for International Mobility and author of the new book Finnish Lessons: What Can the World Learn from Educational Change in Finland? Earlier this month, Sahlberg stopped by the Dwight School in New York City to speak with educators and students, and his visit received national media attention and generated much discussion.

And yet it wasn't clear that Sahlberg's message was actually getting through. As Sahlberg put it to me later, there are certain things nobody in America really wants to talk about.

* * *

During the afternoon that Sahlberg spent at the Dwight School, a photographer from the New York Timesjockeyed for position with Dan Rather's TV crew as Sahlberg participated in a roundtable chat with students. The subsequent article in the Times about the event would focus on Finland as an "intriguing school-reform model."

Yet one of the most significant things Sahlberg said passed practically unnoticed. "Oh," he mentioned at one point, "and there are no private schools in Finland."

This notion may seem difficult for an American to digest, but it's true. Only a small number of independent schools exist in Finland, and even they are all publicly financed. None is allowed to charge tuition fees. There are no private universities, either. This means that practically every person in Finland attends public school, whether for pre-K or a Ph.D.

The irony of Sahlberg's making this comment during a talk at the Dwight School seemed obvious. Like many of America's best schools, Dwight is a private institution that costs high-school students upward of $35,000 a year to attend -- not to mention that Dwight, in particular, is run for profit, an increasing trend in the U.S. Yet no one in the room commented on Sahlberg's statement. I found this surprising. Sahlberg himself did not.

Sahlberg knows what Americans like to talk about when it comes to education, because he's become their go-to guy in Finland. The son of two teachers, he grew up in a Finnish school. He taught mathematics and physics in a junior high school in Helsinki, worked his way through a variety of positions in the Finnish Ministry of Education, and spent years as an education expert at the OECD, the World Bank, and other international organizations.

Now, in addition to his other duties, Sahlberg hosts about a hundred visits a year by foreign educators, including many Americans, who want to know the secret of Finland's success. Sahlberg's new book is partly an attempt to help answer the questions he always gets asked.

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From his point of view, Americans are consistently obsessed with certain questions: How can you keep track of students' performance if you don't test them constantly? How can you improve teaching if you have no accountability for bad teachers or merit pay for good teachers? How do you foster competition and engage the private sector? How do you provide school choice?

The answers Finland provides seem to run counter to just about everything America's school reformers are trying to do.

For starters, Finland has no standardized tests. The only exception is what's called the National Matriculation Exam, which everyone takes at the end of a voluntary upper-secondary school, roughly the equivalent of American high school.

Instead, the public school system's teachers are trained to assess children in classrooms using independent tests they create themselves. All children receive a report card at the end of each semester, but these reports are based on individualized grading by each teacher. Periodically, the Ministry of Education tracks national progress by testing a few sample groups across a range of different schools.

As for accountability of teachers and administrators, Sahlberg shrugs. "There's no word for accountability in Finnish," he later told an audience at the Teachers College of Columbia University. "Accountability is something that is left when responsibility has been subtracted."

For Sahlberg what matters is that in Finland all teachers and administrators are given prestige, decent pay, and a lot of responsibility. A master's degree is required to enter the profession, and teacher training programs are among the most selective professional schools in the country. If a teacher is bad, it is the principal's responsibility to notice and deal with it.

And while Americans love to talk about competition, Sahlberg points out that nothing makes Finns more uncomfortable. In his book Sahlberg quotes a line from Finnish writer named Samuli Paronen: "Real winners do not compete." It's hard to think of a more un-American idea, but when it comes to education, Finland's success shows that the Finnish attitude might have merits. There are no lists of best schools or teachers in Finland. The main driver of education policy is not competition between teachers and between schools, but cooperation.

Finally, in Finland, school choice is noticeably not a priority, nor is engaging the private sector at all. Which brings us back to the silence after Sahlberg's comment at the Dwight School that schools like Dwight don't exist in Finland.

"Here in America," Sahlberg said at the Teachers College, "parents can choose to take their kids to private schools. It's the same idea of a marketplace that applies to, say, shops. Schools are a shop and parents can buy what ever they want. In Finland parents can also choose. But the options are all the same."

Herein lay the real shocker. As Sahlberg continued, his core message emerged, whether or not anyone in his American audience heard it.

Decades ago, when the Finnish school system was badly in need of reform, the goal of the program that Finland instituted, resulting in so much success today, was never excellence. It was equity.

* * *

Since the 1980s, the main driver of Finnish education policy has been the idea that every child should have exactly the same opportunity to learn, regardless of family background, income, or geographic location. Education has been seen first and foremost not as a way to produce star performers, but as an instrument to even out social inequality.

In the Finnish view, as Sahlberg describes it, this means that schools should be healthy, safe environments for children. This starts with the basics. Finland offers all pupils free school meals, easy access to health care, psychological counseling, and individualized student guidance.

In fact, since academic excellence wasn't a particular priority on the Finnish to-do list, when Finland's students scored so high on the first PISA survey in 2001, many Finns thought the results must be a mistake. But subsequent PISA tests confirmed that Finland -- unlike, say, very similar countries such as Norway -- was producing academic excellence through its particular policy focus on equity.

That this point is almost always ignored or brushed aside in the U.S. seems especially poignant at the moment, after the financial crisis and Occupy Wall Street movement have brought the problems of inequality in America into such sharp focus. The chasm between those who can afford $35,000 in tuition per child per year -- or even just the price of a house in a good public school district -- and the other "99 percent" is painfully plain to see.

* * *

Pasi Sahlberg goes out of his way to emphasize that his book Finnish Lessons is not meant as a how-to guide for fixing the education systems of other countries. All countries are different, and as many Americans point out, Finland is a small nation with a much more homogeneous population than the United States. 

Yet Sahlberg doesn't think that questions of size or homogeneity should give Americans reason to dismiss the Finnish example. Finland is a relatively homogeneous country -- as of 2010, just 4.6 percent of Finnish residents had been born in another country, compared with 12.7 percent in the United States. But the number of foreign-born residents in Finland doubled during the decade leading up to 2010, and the country didn't lose its edge in education. Immigrants tended to concentrate in certain areas, causing some schools to become much more mixed than others, yet there has not been much change in the remarkable lack of variation between Finnish schools in the PISA surveys across the same period.

Samuel Abrams, a visiting scholar at Columbia University's Teachers College, has addressed the effects of size and homogeneity on a nation's education performance by comparing Finland with another Nordic country: Norway. Like Finland, Norway is small and not especially diverse overall, but unlike Finland it has taken an approach to education that is more American than Finnish. The result? Mediocre performance in the PISA survey. Educational policy, Abrams suggests, is probably more important to the success of a country's school system than the nation's size or ethnic makeup.

Indeed, Finland's population of 5.4 million can be compared to many an American state -- after all, most American education is managed at the state level. According to the Migration Policy Institute, a research organization in Washington, there were 18 states in the U.S. in 2010 with an identical or significantly smaller percentage of foreign-born residents than Finland.

What's more, despite their many differences, Finland and the U.S. have an educational goal in common. When Finnish policymakers decided to reform the country's education system in the 1970s, they did so because they realized that to be competitive, Finland couldn't rely on manufacturing or its scant natural resources and instead had to invest in a knowledge-based economy. 

With America's manufacturing industries now in decline, the goal of educational policy in the U.S. -- as articulated by most everyone from President Obama on down -- is to preserve American competitiveness by doing the same thing. Finland's experience suggests that to win at that game, a country has to prepare not just some of its population well, but all of its population well, for the new economy. To possess some of the best schools in the world might still not be good enough if there are children being left behind.

Is that an impossible goal? Sahlberg says that while his book isn't meant to be a how-to manual, it is meant to be a "pamphlet of hope."

"When President Kennedy was making his appeal for advancing American science and technology by putting a man on the moon by the end of the 1960's, many said it couldn't be done," Sahlberg said during his visit to New York. "But he had a dream. Just like Martin Luther King a few years later had a dream. Those dreams came true. Finland's dream was that we want to have a good public education for every child regardless of where they go to school or what kind of families they come from, and many even in Finland said it couldn't be done."

Clearly, many were wrong. It is possible to create equality. And perhaps even more important -- as a challenge to the American way of thinking about education reform -- Finland's experience shows that it is possible to achieve excellence by focusing not on competition, but on cooperation, and not on choice, but on equity.

The problem facing education in America isn't the ethnic diversity of the population but the economic inequality of society, and this is precisely the problem that Finnish education reform addressed. More equity at home might just be what America needs to be more competitive abroad.

If you or someone you know has been targeted and are in the process of being dismissed and need legal defense, get in touch: 

(Mensaje se repite en Español) 

There is the fable about the scorpion who talks a turtle into ferrying him across the river by telling him he would not dare bite him, because he too would drown and that would be illogical. This convinces the turtle who allows the scorpion on his back, only to be bitten by the scorpion when they are half way across the river. Why did you do that said the turtle as they both start to drown. I cannot help myself," said the Scorpion, it's my nature. 

In applying this fable to the Los Angeles Unified School District and its Superintendent John Deasy, I find it difficult to fault the venomous creature. Rather, I am demoralized by a mainstream media and other institutions that serve as a vehicles to uncritically ferry Deasy's lies to the public, when even a cursory examination of what he says and what they know could out him for the inveterate liar that he is. Deasy can't help himself, but Conan Nolan and his colleague Phil Healy at KNBC with their unfettered access clearly know better, since they once were reporters in the best sense of the word. Alas, they like the turtle will drown along with the rest of us, if they continue to facilitate Deasy's public education privatization motivated war on teachers that has nothing to do with bad teachers, but rather the 87% of the public education budget teachers' salaries represent that Deasy's masters Broad, Gates, Walton, and the other modern day robber barons covet. 

While there are some teachers who have committed heinous crimes against children, none of the hundreds of teachers that I have in my database have done any of the "egregious acts" that Deasy describes and Conan Nolan uncritical ferries to the public. 

When Nolan deigns to ask about teachers targeted by student accusations of questionable truth, instead of a police investigation, Nolan uncritically accepts Deasy's claim that the "entire process gives due process." Nothing could be further from the truth and Nolan, Healy, and their colleagues throughout the media know it. Deasy openly lies and says that "Teachers are immediately put back to work as soon as they are cleared by the police. Reality: The overwhelming major of teachers once target and left without charges in teacher jail housing never again see the inside of a classroom, despite being cleared by the police investigation.

Conspicuously missing from virtually all of the hundreds of cases in my database are any "verfied charges" as required by law and without which there can be no due process. What takes its place is a protracted assault on targeted teachers over time in a process clearly designed to starve out teachers, who ultimately are put on unpaid administrative leave. In my own case, I am going into my 4th year, since I was removed from my classroom, without having any hearing in a neutral forum as is my due process right.

Blatantly untrue and easily verifiable are Superintendent Deasy's lies to Conan Nolan of KNBC that of the "298 teachers presently housed by LAUSD...they are all guilty of misconduct with a child, stealing from the organization, or crimes outside of school." None of the teachers in my database fit this profile  where Deasy's sole purpose seems to be to inflame the public. Alas, most Americans no longer have the education sufficient to identify this gambit made famous in the 1950s by Senator Joseph Mc Carthy.

While Deasy tries to paint himself as solely being concerned with child safety, when "we take them [teachers] out immediately," again, nothing could be further from the truth. Teachers are taken out and housed for years to put them under first emotional pressure of being incarcerated, which is then followed by the financial pressure to force them into settling with the District and resigning. The District policy to house no teacher for more than 120 days is completely ignored. Also is the legal requirement to charge somebody within a reasonable period of time. Many teachers that are housed by LAUSD have no idea what it is they have supposedly done wrong. Due process?

Deasy saying that, "They are not going to be in a classroom until we determine what happened or didn't happen" is reasonable as both the "dad and superintendent." Just one minor problem: Does it take years to do this? This is just another question Conan Nolan seems unwilling to ask the superintendent. If Deasy Dad's kid was expelled from school and kept expelled for years, would Deasy or Nolan find that acceptable? But our society seems to have come to accept a special kind of hell that would never be tolerated in dealing with any other professional like a doctor or lawyer, who could never be restrained from practicing their professions prior to a timely legal determination of their guilty by an independent court that presumed them innocent until shown otherwise by LAUSD by a preponderance of the evidence. But any teacher knows that we are not nor have we ever been treated as a professional. And when it comes down to it, that is the major difference between our failed public education system and the Finnish system of public education, which is the best in the world.

The law gives absolute access to reporters to school campuses. When Deasy says that, "We absolutely put teachers immediately back in the classroom, after police clear them in an investigation." How difficult would it be for any reporter or state or federal agency to show that this is a baldfaced lie? The fact that nobody does anything is a clear indication of just how far we have come in ignoring a citizen's right to basic due process of law. As a history teacher, I regrettably know where this has gone in the past and is likely to go in the future.

If you or someone you know has been targeted and are in the process of being dismissed and need legal defense, get in touch: 

Lenny@perdaily.com

En Español 

Existe la fábula del escorpión que habla de una tortuga en lo transportaba a través del río, diciéndole que no se atrevería a morder a él, porque él también iba a ahogarse y que sería ilógico. Esto convence a la tortuga que permite que el escorpión en su espalda, sólo para ser mordido por el escorpión cuando están al otro lado del río. ¿Por qué hiciste eso dijo la tortuga, ya que ambos comienzan a ahogar. No puedo ayudarme a mí mismo ", dijo el Escorpión, es mi naturaleza.

En la aplicación de esta fábula de Los Angeles Unified School District y su Superintendente John Deasy, me resulta difícil de criticar la criatura venenosa. Más bien, estoy desmoralizado por unos medios de comunicación y otras instituciones que sirven como vehículos para trasladar acríticamente la mentira Deasy al público, cuando incluso un examen superficial de lo que dice y lo que saben podía sacarlo para el mentiroso empedernido que es. Deasy no puede evitarlo, pero Conan Nolan y su colega Phil Healy en KNBC con su acceso sin restricciones claramente conocerlo mejor, ya que una vez fueron los periodistas en el mejor sentido de la palabra. Por desgracia, les gusta la tortuga se ahogan junto con el resto de nosotros, si continúan facilitar público Deasy guerra privatización de la educación motivó a los docentes que no tiene nada que ver con los malos profesores, sino más bien el 87% de los salarios de los maestros de educación pública del presupuesto " maestros que representan Deasy Broad, Gates, Walton, y los otros barones ladrones modernos días codician.

Si bien hay algunos maestros que han cometido crímenes atroces contra los niños, ninguno de los cientos de maestros que tengo en mi base de datos han hecho nada de los "actos atroces" que Deasy describe y ferries Conan Nolan no críticos para el público.

Cuando Nolan se digna a preguntar acerca de los profesores dirigidos por las acusaciones de los estudiantes de la verdad cuestionable, en lugar de una investigación policial, Nolan acepta acríticamente Deasy reclamación de que el "proceso da debido proceso". Nada podría estar más lejos de la verdad y Nolan, Healy y sus colegas a través de los medios de comunicación lo saben. Deasy abiertamente miente y dice que "Los maestros son inmediatamente puestas a trabajar tan pronto como se borran por la policía Realidad:. La mayoría de los principales maestros de destino una vez y se fue sin cargos en viviendas para profesores cárcel nunca más ver el interior de un aula, a pesar de ser aprobada por la investigación policial.

Notoriamente ausente de casi todos los cientos de casos en mi base de datos son las "cargas" verfied como lo requiere la ley y sin la cual no puede haber debido proceso. ¿Qué toma su lugar es un asalto prolongado en los docentes dirigidos a través del tiempo en un proceso claramente diseñado para matar de hambre maestros, quienes en última instancia son puestos en licencia administrativa sin pagar. En mi caso, voy en mi 4 º año, desde que se retiró de mi salón de clases, sin tener una audiencia en un foro neutral como es mi derecho al debido proceso.

Descaradamente falso y fácilmente verificables son mentiras Superintendente Deasy a Conan Nolan de KNBC la de los "298 maestros actualmente alojados por el LAUSD ... todos ellos son culpables de mala conducta de un niño, el robo de la organización, o delitos fuera de la escuela." Ninguno de los profesores en mi base de datos se ajustan a este perfil donde Deasy único propósito parece ser para inflamar la opinión pública. Por desgracia, la mayoría de los estadounidenses ya no tienen la educación suficiente para identificar esta táctica se hizo famoso en la década de 1950 por el senador Joseph Mc Carthy.

Mientras Deasy se trata de pintar como si sólo se ocupa de la seguridad del niño, cuando "las tomamos [los maestros] de inmediato," de nuevo, nada podría estar más lejos de la verdad. Los maestros se sacan y se encuentra desde hace años para ponerlos bajo presión emocional primero de ser encarcelado, que es seguido por la presión financiera para obligarlos a resolver con el Distrito y renunciar. La política del distrito para albergar a ningún maestro por más de 120 días es completamente ignorado. También es el requisito legal de cobrar a alguien dentro de un período razonable de tiempo. Muchos profesores que se alojan por el LAUSD no tiene idea de qué es lo que supuestamente han hecho mal. El debido proceso?

Deasy dijo que, "Ellos no van a estar en un salón de clases hasta que se determine que sucedió o no sucedió" es razonable ya que tanto el "papá y superintendente" Deasy utiliza para justificar sus acciones. Sólo un pequeño problema: ¿Se tardan años en hacerlo? Esto es sólo otra pregunta Conan Nolan no parece dispuesto a pedir al superintendente. Si Deasy chico de papá fue expulsado de la escuela y se mantiene expulsado durante años, se Deasy o Nolan encontrar eso aceptable? Sin embargo, nuestra sociedad parece que ha llegado a aceptar un tipo especial de infierno que nunca sería tolerado en el tratamiento de cualquier otro profesional como un médico o un abogado, que nunca pudo ser contenido de la práctica de su profesión antes de una determinación oportuna legal de su culpabilidad por un tribunal independiente que les presume inocente hasta que se demuestre lo contrario por el LAUSD por una preponderancia de la evidencia. Sin embargo, cualquier profesor sabe que no somos ni hemos sido tratados como un profesional. Y cuando se llega a esto, que es la principal diferencia entre nuestro sistema de educación pública y no el sistema finlandés de educación pública, que es el mejor del mundo.

La ley da acceso absoluto a los reporteros a las escuelas. Cuando Deasy dice que: "Estamos absolutamente poner inmediatamente una copia de los maestros en el aula, después que la policía eliminarlas en una investigación." ¿Qué tan difícil sería para cualquier reportero o agencia estatal o federal para demostrar que esto es una mentira baldfaced? El hecho de que nadie hace nada es una clara indicación de lo lejos que hemos llegado en ignorar el derecho del ciudadano a debido proceso básico de la ley. Como profesor de historia, que lamentablemente sabemos que esto ha pasado en el pasado y es probable que en el futuro.

Si usted o alguien que usted conoce ha sido blanco de ataques y están en proceso de ser despedido y la necesidad de defensa legal, póngase en contacto:

Lenny@perdaily.com

(Mensaje se repite en Español) 

The term "Guerrilla" is Spanish for "little war." It originated in the Napoleonic Wars. whe the French took over Spain. A "Guerrillero" was a soldier in the Spanish Rebel Army. However, during the Battle of Puebla, in Mexico, the French met a new soldier. This soldier did not fight in the conventional style of standing in straight lines and firing volleys of rifle fire at each other until one side dominated. This soldier hid in the bushes, behind rocks, inside buildings, up in trees and any other convenient hiding location. The attack would occur after careful planning, and the proper respect for time. The tactics employed by guerrillas date back to the ideas of Sun Tzu who wrote The Art of War. In this book he demonstrates how your small group could beat a larger army. He argued that you use your carefully planned and timed strength to exploit the weakness of the enemy. In our case, it is the small cadre of teachers versus the vast resources of your school district. This book is intended to give you the head's up regarding the disgusting tactics LAUSD public school administrators utilize to harass, push you out, stress you out and eventually, if they have their way, terminate your employment (taking your long earned benefits away from you). This knowledge will give you power, especially if you find yourself in a "housed" status.

The Principal is not your friend

Unbeknownst to you, the principal of a school is trained in how to harass and eventually fire you. In my experience, anytime you oppose the principal you end up on the "black list." This list will comprise those people who speak out for reform, leaders who are supported by the local community or politicians, or representatives of your union. Essentially, all the people who make the principal's job "harder."  The Local School Leadership Council is an arena where administrators, teachers, and parents work together to improve their school. However, many times the principal uses this as the forum to launch ideas promoted by the district. Many times these ideas impede the educational program: more tests, more collection of data, more waste of precious educational minutes.

Once, you have established yourself as an educational leader who sides with the community, as a leader who employs "secret balloting" to allow true voting, as a protector of student development, you will become a target of the administration. They will use psychological tactics to demoralize, intimidate, institutionalize, bully, undermine your authority, and create mental stressors which basically serve to "push you out" of the organization.

The public school administrator is not accountable for his/her actions. In fact, in California, Government Code Section 821.6 permits them to "maliciously" accuse teachers falsely, while giving them immunity from prosecution. However, principals and other administrators are not immune from prosecution for going after whistle blowers. Another interesting fact can be explained through the following examples. Cafeteria manager X has only one friend at work, the principal. Why? Because everyday X makes her the best salads, soups, and sandwiches. The result is that Cafeteria manager X now thinks her status is above reproach. She yells at co-workers, adults, parents, teachers and even students. One day the Union rep. for the teachers reports her to the principal who does nothing. He reports her to the administration. They do nothing. He reports her to her immediate supervisor. This supervisor comes in, has a meeting with the cafeteria manager who is extremely apologetic and remorseful for her behavior. Cafeteria manager X gets a promotion.

At a High School in Los Angeles one day, an assistant principal has sex with a female student. He gets reprimanded and transferred to a middle school where he has sex with a second student. This one is finally behind bars.

In another Los Angeles School the school principal and the assistant principal both plead guilty to failure to report child abuse (which is a violation of criminal codes and education codes). They were suspended but then later returned to work. The principal was later promoted to a position of director.

You have to ask yourself, if any of these incidents happened to a teacher, would we have been promoted? Would we have been able to return to work? In other words there exists an obvious disparity in treatment. Why do you think that is?

Tactics employed by Public School Administrators

One of the first tactics you will see (as a target of the administration) is the increase in correspondence with you principal. You will begin to see notes appearing frequently in your mailbox. They are like little psychological bombs meant to ruin your day. You will see notes saying things like: I have a concern about this.... I would like to speak with you about ......... I have some questions about something I saw you do, please come to my office...... etc. They usually want to meet with you in a couple of days so that you can allow this unpleasant feeling to sink in and raise you mental and physical stress levels.

Another tactic is the use of the white envelope. A white envelope will appear in your mailbox. In it you will find a formal letter, on school letterhead, and its contents will deal with some concern about you. They will leave this document in your mailbox or sign-out cards on Friday, many times in a place where others can see it, just before you leave for the weekend. The purpose of this communication is to ruin your weekend, while also raising your mental and physical stress levels.

The principal (or assistant, dean, counselor, coordinator, or coach who supports) will begin appearing in your room more frequently. This is designed to keep you aware that you are under the watchful eye of the administration. They will take notes which you may never see because it is their "private notes." They may call for a meeting to discuss their observations. All this is designed to make you feel stress.

If you are suddenly approached by two administrators that want to talk to you about concerns, it is not a good idea for you to say anything other than "I have done nothing wrong. I have followed the guidelines and will continue to follow the guidelines." Such a conversation occurs because one administrator is witnessing for the other, and potentially anything you say can be used against you in a dismissal hearing.

You may get verbal directives. The principal is like the general in an army and there exists a definite chain of command. As a teacher, you are one of the lowest on the totem pole. A directive is an order. You must follow it immediately or you can be charged with insubordination. However, there are two instances in the Education Code which allow you to disobey a directive: 1. If you think the directive will bring on yourself "criminal liability." For instance, the principal cannot tell you to go rob a bank because the school needs a copier. 2. If you believe the directive will jeopardize the safety or welfare of the children. If you invoke either of these, expect to earn the wrath of your administrator. You may find yourself transferred to a "Rubber room", another school, or you will be called to a disciplinary meeting regarding your behavior.

How should you respond to these events? Sun Tzu said: The good fighters of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then waited for the opportunity of defeating the enemy. He wins his battles by making no mistakes. Making no mistakes is what establishes the certainty of victory, for it means conquering an enemy that is already defeated.

In other words, you must develop a positive mental perspective where you understand who you are and that you are on the side of good. Your mental and spiritual perspectives require courage and optimism. If you find yourself as a target, consider it and its effects as a great badge of honor. You are obviously an educational leader who not only can distinguish right from wrong, but you act on it. Unfortunately, in the bizarre, irrational, illogical, illustrious perspective of LAUSD school administrators, you are a thorn in their side. One who could potentially make them look bad in the eyes of their oppressive superiors. It is important that you do not get angry and make a cause you will regret. Diplomacy and polite, professional behavior is required. You will gain more with honey than with vinegar. You might begin to experience stress, fear and anxiety. Take care of your health- both mental and physical, because what LAUSD administrators have been trained to do is designed to purposefully negatively impact both. Unite with other positive minded people and continue to enjoy your life. Don't let the institution discourage you. You have a gift and the children of this society need you. The parents need you also so never give up no matter what. But be aware that it is going to be a long fight and you will need your stamina.

Let the administration continue with its attacks, however, create a notebook, in chronological order and keep an accurate account of each event and all communications. Make sure you memorialize all correspondence in writing- email is great, because it date and time stamps. Do not use school email, these communications can be used against you. If you are given a school computer, give it back. If they find pornography on it, this will become a charge against you. You have no right to privacy. In fact, do not communicate verbally anymore. Verbal communications are ambiguous and your principal could later bold face lie and negate her verbal information. He/she could claim you didn't understand or you misinterpreted. Insist that any directives be put in writing so you can accurately understand what it is you are being asked to do. This leaves a very important paper trail which helps in your enemy defeating itself.

Disciplinary meetings

These meetings are for purposes of discussing something someone believes you have done wrong. It is important that a witness or most specifically, a union representative attend that meeting with you. Anything said during this meeting can be used against you. You will not be allowed to tape record anything unless you do it in secret. Be aware, in CA it is a felony for them or you to secretly record a conversation. During this meeting, you should say only one thing, "I have done nothing wrong. I have followed the district guidelines and I will continue to follow them." Unless you are very good at avoiding sticking your foot in your mouth and not volunteering information, it is better you remain quiet, let your representative ask and answer questions. If your principal wants to barrage you with questions, tell the administrator to write down all their questions and you will answer them at a later date. Once you receive the list of questions, this is how you answer all of them. You write, my answer to all your questions is "I have done nothing wrong. I have followed the guidelines and will continue to follow them." Heard that one before?

Morals charges

Your school district may have come up with a way of circumventing your union's grievance process. (If you want to know more about this and other important rights you have it is imperative that you familiarize yourself with your bargaining unit's contract. It is a written document which delineates and defines your rights within the school district you work for). By charging you with some immoral act(s) the union becomes powerless in defending you. That's right, you read it correctly, the Union, to which you pay precious dues every month out of your hard earned paycheck, will not be able to do much to help you. Once you are in the "immoral" category, the Union will tell you that you no longer are entitled to the grievance and arbitration process of resolving disputes with your district at this time. Education code 44939 governs an area known as "moral turpitude" whose meaning today is being broadened (convenient for the economic downsizing) to include "inappropriate touching." If you tap a student on the shoulder to get their attention, that might be considered inappropriate touching. If a student sits on your knee or hugs you in a primary classroom, that might be considered inappropriate contact. These charges are sufficient to have you removed from the classroom because you are now (from the administration's perspective) considered a "risk" to the educational program and in its best interest you will be reassigned to the district offices (to a place teachers have sarcastically named "the rubber room or teacher jail."). This is somewhat of a detention room like setting. When the district invokes Ed. Code 44939 they are saying you are immoral. Your activities, behavior or choices were immoral and therefore you are a risk to the educational institution. They will remove you from the classroom because they consider your immorality a risk to the educational environment whether it is true or not. This is like the pot calling the kettle "black." Since the fox is in charge of the chicken coop they can utilize innuendo, misrepresentation, exaggeration, over-inflation, and even false allegations against you. In fact, as discussed previously, administrators are protected from prosecution in CA. due to Government Code Section 821.6, which allows them to make even "malicious false allegations" without liability. 

If you were to reach a decision in court that somehow one of the administrators caused you harm and you receive damages, the damages will be paid by the district. Isn't it great to be an administrator? They treat each other differently, they don't get punished as severely and they make the most money. These are obvious flaws in our public education system. They need to be addressed. However, as mentioned above, they are personally liable for retaliating against whistle blowers or violating your civil rights, you just need to complain in writing.

The Protocol

LAUSD, during the ill-fated Brewer administration, had an administrator by the name of Rune. He had sexual relations with a student at his school. LAUSD, in its characteristic "culture of silence" found out about this behavior and proceeded to slap Mr. Rune on the hand and made him transfer to another school. To everyone's shock and amazement, he had sexual relations with another student! He was arrested and now sits in jail. As a result of this incident, Brewer developed a "protocol" for dealing with these situations. In his typical far sweeping knee jerk reaction he opened the flood gates in 2008 for a record 200% percent increase in the number of allegations by administrators against teachers. Our office had only 2 teachers. That increased to 24 within 2 months. It was also at a time when Brewer sent out a memo that everyone should jump ship because LAUSD was going to go bankrupt and not make payroll due to their enormous funding deficit. In other words, the "economic downsizing" had begun.

Once you have been removed from the classroom, the witch hunt begins. One of the first steps the administrator takes is making a police report. Don't let this scare you. If you have done nothing wrong, then you have nothing to fear. The local police in Los Angeles are sick and tired of getting these frivolous reports. But they have to investigate all of them. Talk about overburdening the work load of other departments. Cooperate with them but always give short answers and try not to volunteer information. Most teachers talk too much and end up putting their foot in their mouth. This is how you will get yourself further into trouble because they are just waiting for you to say something dumb. If you are completely innocent, your presence in teacher jail is a testimony to your educational leadership. 

In my four years in teacher jail, I have seen a definite pattern in the people who arrive here. By far, 99% are male. They tend to be outspoken critics of the educational system. They are highly intelligent individuals, with tremendous talents and gifts for teaching students (which is proof the LAUSD does not value highly qualified or highly effective teachers. They only value "those who follow authority blindly"). Teacher jail occupants tend to be veteran teachers who are close to retirement. This is how the LAUSD thanks its tenured and hard working veteran teachers who dare to advance an agenda of Public Education Reform. Many of these individuals are close to receiving life-time medical benefits (something the district hopes they can take away so as to avoid spending on you). These people are being constructively forced to retire, take early retirement, or resign. If you want to avoid the rubber room all you have to do is resign. They will make everything go away, and they might even make you a monetary offer in exchange for your resignation. Getting rid of employees this way is part of their "economic downsizing."

The cruel (abusive) part of "Teacher Jail" is that teachers are not psychologically prepared for the shock, trauma, denial, anger, negotiation and eventual acceptance of the whole ordeal. It really tests your mental fortitude. If you are the kind of personality that is pessimistic, you will not last in the "Rubber Room." That's why they first called it a rubber room because it is like the padded cells at a mental hospital where they put mental patients so they don't hurt themselves. Teachers come in everyday without any duties. In such an environment, if you don't have students, you become your own student. If you don't make use of the time in a value creating manner, it can become a very boring experience. So don't just sit there. Create value with your time. Furthermore, just like in a prison culture, it is good to exchange information and piece together as much knowledge as you can so as to get a better understanding of your ordeal and all its procedures. This document is based on approximately 5 years total in teacher jail on 3 different occasions. The knowledge contained can empower you and alleviate your concerns.

Next, you will have a meeting with your principal. They will have formal written charges and you will sign that you received the document (your signature does not mean you agree to the contents--this should be printed under your signature). There is nothing you can say that will help the situation. They have their mind made up. You didn't know it, but your outspoken behavior or desire to improve things put a huge target on your back. In the economic downsizing, principals get target practice. They find a way to formally remove you from the classroom and if they can, charge you with immoral conduct. We even have reports that principals in LAUSD now move up by how many teachers that have notched on their belts.

You will then wait until you hear from the district again regarding your Skelly hearing. It is not a true Skelly hearing as per the requirements of the 1975 case.This is a dog and pony show put on by the district to once again give you the semblance of a fair hearing. But it is made up of district personnel who already have their minds made up about getting rid of old, expensive you. So you don't get a fair hearing here either. This is also the last stop for Union representation. After this it is important that you retain an education attorney or other experienced representative who can help present your defense at the Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH).

The next step is mailing you a letter which outlines that the District is going to recommend your dismissal and forward that recommendation to the school board. At this point, start saving money because you may find yourself without income or medical benefits for a long long while. Lower your mortgage rate, get rid of some luxuries (like cable), eat at home, and put away that emergency fund so you don't lose your house! You may have a few months before unpaid status kicks in to get your war chest together.

The school board, in its ineptitude, rubber stamps the recommendation for your dismissal and you get placed on "unpaid status" with no benefits.  Here is where your attorney can go into aggressive mode. You now have 30 days to appeal the decision that was rubber stamped by the board of education, before it becomes final. You are also entitled to unemployment benefits, even though you might be told otherwise. Apply online as soon as you get notification that you are on "unpaid status." By law, you are entitled to a hearing within 60 days of going on "unpaid status," don't waive this right and allow a continuance. If you do, this will lead to years of delay before your OAH hearing.  Get representation that can defend your case within the 60 day guidelines. The OAH determines whether you go back to the classroom or get terminated. If you get terminated, you lose everything, including your right to ever work for the district again. If you win, you get to go back to the classroom, get all your back pay, get back medical, and your legal fees will be paid by the district. However, don't be surprised, if you find that you still have a target on your back in the unlikely scenario that you actually win at OAH- few do.

The Office of Administrative Hearings

This is building located on 320 W. 4^th Street in Downtown Los Angeles, just off of Broadway. It is a place where internal disputes can be adjudicated. Many times the trial will not occur in the 60 day period because of full calendars. However, insist on the earliest possible date and if at all possible they should adhere to the 60 day timeline. If you give you attorney permission to go outside this time frame, you may potentially be delaying your trial for an indefinite period of time. So insist on a speedy trial. Your first step is a preliminary hearing with the administrative law judge assigned to your trial. This hearing entertains motions to dismiss and other legal items. Most of the time, the judges don't dismiss because they want to hear the details of the case. After all, they want to protect children from potential predators. Believe me, some in teacher jail are exactly this. That is why this process exists. However, the current financial burdens of the district shouldn't be motivation to abuse this system, but it has.

Your second meeting with the judge and the district out to get you is called the mandatory settlement conference. Here, the district will offer you peanuts, crumbs or simply a raw deal. The law judge will give you a speech about how "this is a good opportunity for you because you are in control and can make it all end here and now. If you don't settle now, you lose control and we will be the one's to decide your fate." Don't let your fear cave you in at this time. You will lose all self respect eventually if you accept their offer. Continue and persevere through to the end of your trial. Before discussing money, tell them you have certain conditions you want met: expunge all this from my file, return me to work, give me back all my pay and benefits and then we can discuss how much money you want to give me. The district will not agree to this. But it puts forward the powerful position that you are innocent and willing to fight and you won't give up for a couple of shekels. If you are innocent, why would you settle?

Your trial requires two teacher panelists. You are entitled to pick one. The California Teachers Association can help you obtain your panelist. The District must obtain their own. Many times they don't, so they rely on the Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE) to provide one. The High School panelists are easier to obtain than elementary school panelists. Be aware of this because LACOE can cause a delay of several months if they don't obtain a panelist. Make sure your attorney fights any delays because this means more time without pay (effectively starving you out). The first hour of your trial is the hardest. The district will slander you and say the most horrible things you have ever heard and none of it is true. Remember, they need to provide concrete evidence that you did something wrong. Your attorney will be aware of all the evidence they will present beforehand in a legal move known as discovery. If there is no evidence, then how can they prove you did something wrong? Hearsay from an administrator and a quarter couldn't get you a cup of coffee at the donut shop. It has as much weight as helium. The burden of proof is on them. This is now your time to tear them apart and show how they don't have any evidence of wrong doing. They don't have any eye witness testimony. They have no foundation for their arguments and much of what they present is irrelevant. So you see, these bumbling administrators don't even know how to put together a good case. If they have not followed due process, this helps you. If they try to use information beyond 4 years in time, the judge will not let them. In other words, if you have a good record, you are allowed to make a mistake and maybe you will get some suspension BUT THEN YOU GO BACK TO WORK. You then are given 45 days to show improvement. After several of these, then they can go for your dismissal but not sooner LAUSD has been abusing this process because they want teachers to leave. Either you resign or you settle but few teachers go to trial because they are just plain scared. If you are innocent, what is there to be afraid of? Fight like a guerillero and win back your career and benefits. The choice is yours. Teachers made of iron, when put in flames tarnish and melt. But teachers made of gold, when put in the flames they only become brighter. My great teacher said: An educator must not only be able to distinguish between good and evil. He/she must also be able to act on it. If not, they are worthless as educators. Do you have the courage to fight against evil? Then congratulations, you are a Guerilla Teacher.

Espiritu Makiguchi

2013 Copyrights reserved, Los Angeles, Califas, Aztlan

If you or someone you know has been targeted and are in the process of being dismissed and need legal defense, get in touch: