Ohio Pays Millions While Students at ECOT Average Only an Hour a Day at Online School

Despite a judge’s ruling this week, the state’s largest online charter school has apparently declined to hand over all records requested by the Ohio Department of Education so it can conduct an attendance audit. After a Franklin County judge on Monday denied ECOT’s request for a temporary restraining order to block the state from conducting the audit, state investigators moved into the school’s Columbus headquarters to begin reviewing data. But, according to an e-mail sent Tuesday from the Education Department’s attorney to ECOT’s legal counsel, the information ECOT provided was not complete…. The standoff is the latest development in an ongoing battle between the Education Department and the politically well-connected online school….”

Patrick O’Donnell, the Plain Dealer’s education reporter shares some of the back story about Ohio’s push to audit attendance at the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow, which collected over $100 million last year to educate 15,000 students online. Apparently an initial audit of school attendance records earlier in the spring turned up some shocking news: “An initial review this spring raised red flags that students at ECOT, Ohio’s largest online school, may have done far less work than required.” “‘Those (ECOT’s) records did not substantiate the number of educational hours for which ECOT had billed ODE,’ the state’s lawyers added.”

janresseger

Jim Siegel reported yesterday for the Columbus Dispatch that despite Judge Stephen McIntosh’s refusal to grant the restraining order demanded by the state’s largest online charter school to prevent a state audit of its attendance records, the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT) continues to refuse to share its records openly with the state’s investigators:

“Despite a judge’s ruling this week, the state’s largest online charter school has apparently declined to hand over all records requested by the Ohio Department of Education so it can conduct an attendance audit.  After a Franklin County judge on Monday denied ECOT’s request for a temporary restraining order to block the state from conducting the audit, state investigators moved into the school’s Columbus headquarters to begin reviewing data. But, according to an e-mail sent Tuesday from the Education Department’s attorney to ECOT’s legal counsel, the information ECOT provided was not complete…. The standoff is the…

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ABC-News Talks About Gun Violence And Gets It Right.

I believe that the key to building a society that no longer suffers from gun violence must first begin and ultimately rest on a cultural shift which makes a phrase like ‘gun violence’ as normal and as much a part of the everyday lexicon as the phrase ‘global warming’ has become. And the fact that a national media outlet like ABC-News would run a major story on gun violence based largely on the work of the Gun Violence Archive tells me that this fundamental cultural change may be starting to take place. And it’s a change which I have never previously witnessed and I have been involved with guns for a very, very long time.” – mike

Earlier this week ABC-News ran a long story, complete with videos, interviews and a national map showing the location of recent shootings about gun violence.  As far as I am concerned, this was the most detailed, comprehensive, honest and fairly-reported major media story on gun violence which I have ever seen. And in case you don’t know, I have been closely following the gun violence debate, argument, discussion, whatever you want to call it, for more than fifty years.   That’s right.  I first started paying attention this to issue when went to North Carolina and helped my great-Uncle Ben manufacture a small 22-caliber revolver in 1955.  So when I say that I have been involved in guns for more than fifty years, I mean what I say.

           The ABC story is remarkable in many ways. First is the choice of title, using the words ‘gun violence’ in a…

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On the Road with the ‪#‎OptOutBus2016:‬ Coast to Coast Free Books for Kids Tour

On the Road with the ‪#‎OptOutBus2016:‬ Coast to Coast Free Books for Kids Tour
by seattleducation2010
Editor’s note: Susan and Shawn Dufresne are social justice and education activists. A brief introduction: Susan DuFresne – Integrated Kindergarten Teacher with General Education and Special Education endorsements – 7 years in the Renton School District, Teacher of Professional Conscience, Co-Owner of the Opt Out Bus, Social Equality Educator, Artist, progressive and social justice education […]

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Seattle Education

Editor’s note: Susan and Shawn Dufresne are social justice and education activists. A brief introduction:

Susan DuFresne – Integrated Kindergarten Teacher with General Education and Special Education endorsements – 7 years in the Renton School District, Teacher of Professional Conscience, Co-Owner of the Opt Out Bus, Social Equality Educator, Artist, progressive and social justice education activist, unionist, mother and grandmother – The views I express are my own and do not reflect the views of my employer. #FreeSpeech

Shawn DuFresne – HVAC Technician, Co-Owner of the Opt Out Bus, progressive social justice and education activist, father, grandfather “I love giving free books to children who need them and allowing them to choose which book they’d like to read!”

My favorite part of the Opt Out Bus travel log are the personal stories Susan documents. They’re raw, honest, and sometimes heartbreaking. I hope you enjoy them as well and consider supporting…

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What if police “reform” played out like school “reform”?

What if police « reform » played out like school « reform »?
by SPJ
I don’t know very much about how law enforcement works. I also think the whole concept of “reform,” for schools and otherwise, is so much nonsense, anyway. But let’s think about this for a moment, shall we? Law enforcement, as a public service, is failing in low-income black and brown communities, largely in concentrated and […]

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The Sunday Times.

Look around your school. Who would be the person to talk to your students about race and how it affects minorities? Who would start the conversation about Alton Sterling or Philando Castile?

If you cannot think of anyone, there is an issue. If you don’t think children need to discuss racially charged incidents, there is an even bigger issue.

Minority children are now the majority of students in the United States. Hispanic and black children are historically among the most under-served children of the American education system. In the same vein, Hispanic and black people are disproportionately victims of police brutality. They are killed at rates that far exceed their makeup of the American population.

So why aren’t some schools talking to students about police brutality? And what does this mean for retaining teachers of color?” – Trakela Small

Fred Klonsky

Philando Castile’s funeral procession.

As a resident of the Marshall Field Garden housing complex in Old Town, Sherise McDaniel lives near some of the city’s best selective-enrollment schools.

“I drive by Walter Payton [College Prep] everyday,” said McDaniel, who has lived there for 16 years.

But when it comes time for her middle school-aged son to pick a high school, McDaniel said the chances of him getting into the elite school are “next to none.”

“The selective-enrollment situation … I’m sick of it,” she said. “It’s a horrible process for kids to fight and claw to get into these schools. Very few kids get in, and the rest are left out there.” DNAinfo

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During the Republican Convention, toy guns are banned, real guns are A-OK: https://t.co/9lKlMVksoYpic.twitter.com/OVeD2SPzVE

— Slate (@Slate) July 17, 2016

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Needless to say, Washington’s first reaction was instructive. Turks must support their “democratically elected government”. The “democracy” bit was…

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Always Writing and Shareworthy Reading and Writing Links July 17

Sometimes we need a gentle reminder that some of our most important “writing” time has nothing to do with keyboards or notebooks. When we sit down at the computer or pick up a pen, that moment is the culmination of many hours engaged in the non-writing part of writing. It’s the moment when all the internal work that we’ve been doing – daydreaming, questioning, ruminating – is transformed into words on the page. It is the moment that our work becomes tangible to someone living outside of our heads.”

Live to Write - Write to Live

Go ahead – stare out over the ocean. It’s still writing. When I sat down to write this post yesterday, I wound up spending a good hourbeating myself up because I couldn’t think of anything worth writing. I set the time aside, as I do each week, to come here and write a post; but I ended up just typing and deleting, typing and deleting. I tried four different ideas, but nothing would stick. While I’m not one to rely on the muse, it was clear that I just wasn’t feeling it (whatever “it” is).

We all have these days. Part of my problem is that I didn’t, as I typically do, take the time earlier in the week to do preliminary brainstorming and mind mapping for the weekend edition. This means that I came to my desk without a plan –a speed bump, to be sure, but not usually…

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