Corrupt school-ranking politician improves grade of charter school run by donor

[zerozero]

http://mobile.nytimes.com/aponline/...l-grades.html?h=qAQEidCk7&s=1&pagewanted=all&

Though Indiana had had a school ranking system since 1999, Bennett switched to the A-F system and made it a signature item of his education agenda, raising the stakes for schools statewide.

Bennett consistently cited Christel House as a top-performing school as he secured support for the measure from business groups and lawmakers, including House Speaker Brian Bosma and Senate President Pro Tem David Long.

But trouble loomed when Indiana's then-grading director, Jon Gubera, first alerted Bennett on Sept. 12 that the Christel House Academy had scored less than an A.

"This will be a HUGE problem for us," Bennett wrote in a Sept. 12, 2012, email to Neal.

Neal fired back a few minutes later, "Oh, crap. We cannot release until this is resolved."

By Sept. 13, Gubera unveiled it was a 2.9, or a "C."

A weeklong behind-the-scenes scramble ensued among Bennett, assistant superintendent Dale Chu, Gubera, Neal and other top staff at the Indiana Department of Education. They examined ways to lift Christel House from a "C'' to an "A," including adjusting the presentation of color charts to make a high "B'' look like an "A'' and changing the grade just for Christel House.

It's not clear from the emails exactly how Gubera changed the grading formula, but they do show DeHaan's grade jumping twice.

 

[Rekkapryde]

When these types of crooks start doing real time in jail, this type of fukkery will fall off.

 

[Dusty Bake Activate]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/02/e...rt-that-he-changed-a-schools-rating.html?_r=0

Florida’s commissioner of education, a rising star in a national movement pushing for test-based accountability in public schools, resigned on Thursday after just seven months in office, after news reports surfaced that he had changed the grade of an Indiana charter school founded by a prominent campaign donor while he was the superintendent of schools there.
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Steve Cannon/Associated Press
Tony Bennett

Speaking defiantly at a news conference in Tallahassee, Tony Bennett, who was appointed Florida’s schools chief in December after losing a re-election bid in Indiana in November, referred to “malicious, unfounded reports” when he announced his decision.

The resignation came three days after The Associated Press published an article revealing e-mails that showed Mr. Bennett ordered his staff to change a “C” grade given to Christel House Academy, a charter school in Indianapolis, to an “A.”

The school takes its name from its founder, Christel DeHaan, a former executive at a time share company and one of Mr. Bennett’s largest donors during the 2012 election. According to the National Institute on Money in State Politics, she donated a total of $90,000 to Mr. Bennett’s re-election campaign.

The school grades, which can be based on a number of factors, including student test scores and graduation rates, are used to determine whether a school could be taken over by the state or whether students are eligible for taxpayer-financed vouchers to attend private schools.

Critics contend that such grading systems, which have been adopted in at least 10 other states and some districts, including New York City, can be too simplistic or can punish schools unfairly.

“If the grades aren’t based on good measures, it doesn’t matter,” said Kathy Christie, a spokeswoman for the Education Commission of the States, a policy organization that is planning a study of school grading systems. “They aren’t telling a real story.”

In the case of the changed grades at Christel House, which opened in 2002 and serves students in kindergarten through 10th grade, Mr. Bennett said at a news conference this week that seeing the school’s “C” grade was “the ‘aha moment’ where I had to say something is amiss here” because he knew the school was performing well.

Mr. Bennett said Christel House was one of 13 schools in Indiana whose initial grades were changed. He said those schools were mistakenly given low scores for graduation rates and college readiness when they did not yet operate complete high schools.

Mr. Bennett said he was asking Indiana’s inspector general, David Thomas, to investigate. In an e-mail, Mr. Thomas declined to comment.

“Neither I nor anyone connected with Christel House made any request to have any grade changed,” Ms. DeHaan said in an e-mailed statement released late Thursday. She added that she endorsed a call “for a thorough review of the grades given to schools in 2012 and revisions made if they are inaccurate.”

Mr. Bennett’s resignation came a week after he announced the results of a new school grading system in Florida. The system was revised to account for the state’s transition to the Common Core, a set of standards adopted by 45 states that outline what each student should learn in reading and math from kindergarten through high school.

Under the new system, the number of Florida schools that received an “F” more than doubled from a year earlier. The number of schools that received an “A” tumbled from close to half of all public schools in the state to 29 percent.

 

[88m3]

Forget cutting it off, just turn it into green glass, the whole state is filled with criminals and bigots.Twimmy go make another thread about how amazing charter schools are. And what a fukking scumbag, I hope he's criminally charged. Send your children to charter schools, brehs! Get an education if Florida, breh! @the next guy

 

[Dusty Bake Activate]

@theworldismine13

 

[zerozero]

previously (not many responses though)

http://www.thecoli.com/threads/corr...-grade-of-charter-school-run-by-donor.134469/

 

[theworldismine13]

@theworldismine13

Is this suppose to be an indictment of the charter school system and remind us how clean the public system is? Lol

 

[Blackking]

Is this suppose to be an indictment of the charter school system and remind us how clean the public system is? Lol

No,

as i stated a million times... it demonstrates to us that when politicians and/or gov money is involved.... this is an inevitable result of a certain % of both charter and public schools. Actually this is only 1 issue that can arise.

 

[theworldismine13]

No,

as i stated a million times... it demonstrates to us that when politicians and/or gov money is involved.... this is an inevitable result of a certain % of both charter and public schools. Actually this is only 1 issue that can arise.

Ok, so what is your point?

 

[Dusty Bake Activate]

Is this suppose to be an indictment of the charter school system and remind us how clean the public system is? Lol

It's supposed to be what it is, an example of the real pitfalls and political corruption that come with private school, not a defense of public education. You be talking like private schools are a panacea. @changing grades because of campaign donations.

 

[theworldismine13]

It's supposed to be what it is, an example of the real pitfalls and political corruption that come with private school, not a defense of public education. You be talking like private schools are a panacea. @changing grades because of campaign donations.

this has nothing to do with private schools, and this is just a case of corruption, allegedly, i dont see how this has anything to do with how good charter schools are

i can post stories of corruption in the public school system and we can go tit for tat if you want

 

[Dusty Bake Activate]

this has nothing to do with private schools, and this is just a case of corruption, allegedly, i dont see how this has anything to do with how good charter schools are

i can post stories of corruption in the public school system and we can go tit for tat if you wantted

What would be the relevance of that?

 

[theworldismine13]

What would be the relevance of that?

it wouldnt have any relevance, that is my point

and i think you are confused charter schools and private schools are 2 different things

 

[Dusty Bake Activate]

it wouldnt have any relevance, that is my point

and i think you are confused charter schools and private schools are 2 different things

Charter schools don't get private donations by people who make campaign contributions?

Bureaucracy and corruption exists throughout the education system.

 

[theworldismine13]

Charter schools don't get private donations by people who make campaign contributions?

actually charter schools get all sorts of donation and they also get money from the state, the story clearly states that this was about a charter school, if it was about a private school, the story would have said private school

Bureaucracy and corruption exists throughout the education system.

exactly, that is why this story is neither here nor there in regards to charter schools vs public schools