During the course of his interview with Sentell, White confided “in an off-the-record remark” that the three teachers were ineffective and that Seabaugh was “pushing hard” to fix it

I think John White went to a lot of trouble to set up Alan Seabaugh for the fall on this one. White took the unusual step of openly referring to this “fix” as the “Seabaugh Solution” and even planted evidence for reporters to find.  When he met with reporters about this situation he queried them about it innocently, and set up Seabaugh again. It could be that John White has is completely clueless, but there may be some political intrigue going on here as well.

Apparently, according to the taped conversation between  John White and Alan Seabaugh below,  it seems likely the directions for this scheme came from Governor Jindal’s office in the form of Policy Director Stafford Palmieri, who was Jindal’s Education and Policy advisor prior to that position and is simply referred to as “Stafford” on the tape between Alan Seabaugh and John White.

I suppose it’s possible this is simply a favor called in by the governor to support a fellow conservative legislator.  However this situation could have been handled seamlessly, as DOE has often handled such things in the past.  I asked one of my sources to comment on this situation. I know how these types of “situations” usually work – through manual “adjustments.” These “situations” are often handled in accountability and SPS scores for politically connected individuals. These situations are usually handled quietly, with a manual adjustment to raw scores, and without much fanfare. When done that way they are almost undetectable to anyone on the outside without access to the true “raw” data which DOE never releases.

I’ve never heard of  something like this being discussed and e-mailed about as a”Seabaugh Solution.” That’s almost begging for someone to inquire if they came across that snippet.  However if things ended there I could chock it up to White’s youth and arrogance, but the planting of evidence that was meant to get handed over to reporters?  John White even pushed this carefully crafted narrative by telling advocate reporter Will Sentell that representative Alan Seabaugh was forcing him to change the VAM system,, for the sake of 3 ineffective teachers. This all makes me wonder. . . .was this John White trying secretly to alert us to the undue influence of his boss, Bobby Jindal, and Alan Seabaugh?

Yes, orders came from the governor making him work with Seabaugh to “fix” the problem. Their process was all screwed up. It started as a policy adjustment but Seabaugh didn’t want his name tied to it so they wanted to hide it in the model. I suggested a sound adjustment but because the teachers were so bad they were not helped by my proposed adjustment. I did suggest exactly that, simply adjusting those teachers scores, but that was not acceptable. Apparently the Supt had voiced that there would be a cap put on student predicted scores and we had to do it that way even when we pointed out this was wrong and would negatively impact effective teachers. {emphasis mine}

On May 14, 2013, at 4:31 AM, Crazycrawfish <crazycrawfish@yahoo.com> wrote:

Who the hell put White up to doing this crazy scheme? It seems like he risked an awful lot for something that really shouldn’t have been a big deal for him. Did the Jindal make him do it?

Also, why not just simply tweak those teachers scores with an adjustment and be done with it?

Consider this:

• If this tape had not come forward, and others had not spoken out, Alan Seabaugh would have been left holding the bag for this.
• It’s quite obvious John White could have handled this quietly, and this suggestion was even made to him by his own staff and rejected by him.
• Instead, what happened is John White destroyed the entire VAM system, screwing up the scores for thousands of teachers, just to fix a situation for three.
• White then went to great pains to refer to this as the “Seabaugh Solution” ensuring Alan Seabaugh and this rigging would be inextricably linked.
• White then planted evidence with a former DOE staffer named Rayne Martin, to be “found” by Will Sentell with The Advocate.
• White then feigned ignorance about how this situation transpired, but disclosed more evidence that makes Seabaugh look corrupt to a reporter interviewing him about this exact situation.

Is John White really that inept, was he trying to do the right thing and expose Alan Seabaugh and Bobby Jindal’s meddling, or was this part of a larger plot of the Governor’s to discredit Alan Seabaugh for some reason?

Your guess is as good as mine.

Now showing! Courtesy of John White’s Department of Education

The only thing that is clear is that MFP should be rejected based on this continuing evidence that the formula is based on manipulation and fraud. Did you know that VAM (Value Added) scores are used throughout the MFP formula to distribute funding? This is the same VAM formula that was manipulated for personal and professional gain and has lost all credibility. It won’t be used for teacher evaluations this year, but if the MFP formula is approved as resubmitted by Chas Roemer it will lead to widespread funding inequities and open the state up to countless lawsuits.

I ask the legislature to once again reject the MFP formula resubmitted by Chas Romer and to tell him to restore the previous MFP formula . . . you know, the one without all the controversy, unconstitutional funding mechanisms, and potential fraud.

A. Student Performance

– A weight is provided for student performance using the Value Added Model (VAM) and the LAA1 and LAA2 accountability data from the latest available data. The weight is provided under the following circumstances:

i. Category 1 provides a 135% weight times the number of students whose score in English Language Arts (ELA) or Math “exceeded expected achievement” in the Value Added Model or whose LAA1 or LAA2 test results improved one achievement level or more, or

ii. Category 2 provides a 175% weight times the number of students whose performance in English Language Arts or Math “significantly exceeded expected achievement” in the Value Added Model.

Reblogged from Louisiana Voice:

Reblogged from Louisiana Voice:

Cambium1

Cambium2

I thought I recognized the name Vivian Fox, the signatory on the RFP proposal, and went back through the hundreds of pages of sideways and upside down scanned image files DOE supplied us in response to a FOIA request. (Technically they filled the request, but searching for terms on an image file is impossible and any viewing program you use has to constantly be reoriented to compensate for the “accidentally” erroneously scanned images.)

Well as I was looking through it something I’d seen before but never quite registered caught my eye. This update by Ken Bradford, White’s newly created Assistant Superintendent of Content, sent to John White on January 2^nd, 2013.  (I think everyone White doesn’t name a fellow is some form of Superintendent.  I hear Lefty is sporting one of those titles on some of his business cards.)

According to this document there are over 1800 individual college level (Board of Regents) offerings and over 1200 technical course offerings, which did not exist last year.

Let that sink in.  How on earth could anyone validate 3000 new courses in less than a year? How could anyone hope to adequately review the credentials of the vendors providing them or hope to monitor them in any fashion whatsoever?  Is it any wonder we already have allegations of fraudulent enrollments?

John White claims there is a “rigorous approval process.”  According to this internal e-mail the process involved typing the names of 3000 courses from .pdf documents into an Agilix database, and then comparing those results to an Excel spreadsheet.  Sounds pretty rigorous to me!  I wonder just how many people and hours went into reviewing all these providers and course offerings?  Did DOE officials meet all of them in person, any of them?  Of course there is that “final rinse” they run by John White.  I’m sure John White will take any responsiblity for any problematic vendors and classes that get by his personally attended rigorous approval process. . .

Now back to this e-mail: According to this e-mail as of January 2^nd DOE had over 23 MOU’s signed for just Course Choice vendors!

We’ve heard before from John White that vendors/partners will have no access to student data? John White has not been able to produce a single MOU for inBloom, for which by some accounts he provided all of our data. These vendors, which could number in the hundreds, if not thousands, would have no need of an MOU if they were not using student data, would they? If the data was just used for registration purposes and safely locked up in our data garage why the 23 plus hundreds of additional potential MOUs? So many MOUs that they had to define a process to collect and update their vendor files with them all as a daily task way back in January!

John White may have emptied out the inBloom database, but that was just a sacrificial lamb. Course Choice is inBloom multiplied one hundred fold and it is already being used and abused by these vendors. John White and Chas Roemer assured us our children’s data was safe, but they lied. In the end their subterfuge may prove to be right about one thing though. . .

If you provide private data to everyone, and everyone has access to it, well then it’s hard to claim that it’s private anymore. Isn’t it?

Problem solved.

I wish I had something witty to say about this, but I’m sincerely stunned by the magnitude and sheer audacity of these two and the problems we are already beginning to see. It’s time for some resignations and/or criminal investigations.  Why are we even allowing a program that has no defined funding and has been ruled unconstitutional over and over, even by a 6-1 decision in our Supreme Court, to continue?  I’m not paying for it, John White and Chas Roemer haven’t offered to pay for them.

Pull the plug on vouchers and Course Choice now.

Don’t let Chas run the same excuse he made for voucher students, that Louisiana has a moral responsiblity to fund them.

Roemer said the money is due sometime in May and that the state has a moral and legal obligation to pay.

Our elected officials have a moral responsiblity to pass laws that are Constitutional, and when they don’t they should have the decency to fire themselves since they aren’t the ones that will have to pay for their incompetence, we are.  Do the moral thing Chas. . .  White.  Fire yourselves.  You owe it to all those students and parents you mislead and all the taxpayers you shafted with your ignorance and arrogance.

If you wanted our input, the public, we would have told you ”no.”  That’s why you didn’t ask with a Constitutional Amendment.  Now we are telling you “it’s time to go.”  You would be wise not to ignore us twice.

Reblogged from Louisiana Voice:

Reblogged from deutsch29:

I decided to have a sit down with John White and ask him a few questions that I’m sure are on everyone’s mind with all the recent scandals swirling around his DOE. Much to my surprise he agreed to my request. Here is my interview and his responses. I have a feeling many of you don’t believe I really interviewed John White, so I included the responses he made in audio form. Apparently WordPress requires 20 dollars to make this kind of magic possible, so I hope you all appreciate the trouble I go through for you.

Me: John White, I’ve also heard that you’ve allowed some favored legislators, like Alan Seabaugh from Shreveport, undue influence in the outcome of VAM - a fully data driven system used to evaluate teachers and schools. The outcome of VAM has direct consequences of school and district funding, salary outcomes for teachers and whether teacher gain or lose teacher or even lose their job. Why are you allowing these situations to take place instead of relying on data and system you’ve claimed repeatedly is both accurate and reliable.

White: “Sometimes its just not smart to use the data.”

Me: Wow, that’s quite an admission. Did you try to explain that to BESE or the public before you pushed headlong with this VAM sham. Sorry, I couldn’t resist the pun. So I assume you will explain that to BESE now and cancel VAM in light of your previous statement.

White: “People have a helluva lot harder time believing me.”

Me: Well, that’s true. But you understand why right? You lie about everything, all the time. I’m not even sure John White is your real name. It sounds like an evil villain’s ironic alias. But let’s move on shall we? It’s been said that you don’t have the proper qualifications for being a State Superintendent of Education. When people visit you, what complaint do you find they make the most about what you are doing?

White: ”. . .a little concerned I’m playing ping-pong.”

Me:  Uh, well.  I imagine that would concern a taxpayer.  I was wondering what that noise and cheering was all about when I stopped by, but just assumed you’d finishing closing down another school for poor black children.

White: “Just doing the Governor’s bidding.”

Me: Of course, of course.  Jindal has a long track record of hurting the poor, so that’s one of the most honest things you’ve probably ever said actually.  What would you like to say to all the people who have believed you before, only to find out time and again that you were lying?  You’ve lied about having a contract with inBloom, then about cancelling it.  You’ve lied about VAM being fair, or data driven.  You’ve lied about destroying the old department of education website in favor of a useless one that makes debunking your claims nigh impossible.  You’ve lied about the reasons for layoffs.  You’ve lied about the reasons behind the MFP changes that take money away from districts, special education programs and increases charter school payouts.  You’ve lied about reorganizing the department of education before getting the reorg approved by the legislature, and even moved people you didn’t like into positions you were planning to eliminate based on the the new reorg.  You are laying off people based on a new reorg that hasn’t been approved, giving the reasons for the layoff as their position has been eliminated under the reorg, that in theory hasn’t happened.  That is an impressive one actually.  You’ve lied about your qualifications for this job, you’ve lied about all the secret agreements you’ve made with vendors, you’ve lied about providing information to BESE after testifying weeks ago you would get it right away, I could go on for pages, but you’ve lied as much I think its possible to lie.  So what do you have to say to people who question whether it’s even possible for you to tell the truth?

White: “Trust me.  Trust me.  Trust me.

Reblogged from Diane Ravitch's blog:

Reblogged from Louisiana Voice:

The one thing you can really trust about John White

This was posted on BESE member Lottie Bebee’s Facebook page:

This is a must read! Every teacher and administrator should OPT OUT of the teacher/leader evaluation process. I am going to call for an investigation of this matter. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! TEACHERS AND LEADERS and SCHOOL BOARDS–IF THIS CONVERSATION PROVES TO BE TRUE, BE COURAGEOUS AS PROFESSIONALS ACROSS THE STATE AND OPT OUT OF THE EVALUATION -PROCESS. FINALLY, THIS PROVES TO ME THAT THIS EVALUATION WAS A SMOKESCREEN from its inception— THE REAL AGENDA: THE DISMANTLING OF PUBLIC EDUCATION, SEGREGATED SCHOOLS, AND PRIVATIZATION! SHAME ON WHITE AND SEABAUGH! I HAVE NO RESPECT FOR EITHER!

http://louisianavoice.com/2013/05/08/white-seabaugh-conversation-reveals-agreement-to-tweak-does-vam-plan-white-whines-about-his-ping-pong-status/

Is it time to go yet?

The inBloom situation is not going away.  Eventually we’ll get the MOU and the response, or lack thereof, that he sent  to inBloom to theoretically cancel the contract, or “pause” as inBloom CEO Iwan Streichberger calls it.  My understanding is Georgia and many of inBloom’s other “partners” are now pulling out too.  I would suggest White resign and rake the job at inBloom he probably had lined up, but for some reason I have a feeling that’s not going to happen now. 

VAM has been postponed but in light of recent events needs to be cancelled and a new evaluation built under the supervision of a new, qualified superintendent with local roots to prevent the kinds of abusive and destructive practices White has employed from the minute he set foot in our state.

The MET study explained in diagram form

Here is one of the 19 layoff plans I’m told John White submitted to eliminate Louisiana citizens from his office in favor “fellows” making 99,999.90 like Jennifer Conway.

LDOE Layoff Plan 4-2013

Whew.  I bet that salary was totally random and had nothing to do with the fact any salary of 100,000 or more has to be approved by the legislature.  Way to go, Jennifer!  It’s nice to know White was considerate enough to practically create an individualized layoff plan for every employee he didn’t like at DOE because they were classified longtime residents.  As a Louisiana resident and taxpayer I demand those classified employees with their 6 figure or 99999.90 salaries and 2 years of experience go first.

Proposed DOE Org Chart

I implore Shannon Templet to reject the layoff plan.  If you have any humanity, or cajun seasoning in your blood, you can’t let this travesty take place! White already has intentions of bringing new unclassified kids in at obscene salaries.  He’s done that after every single layoff he’s had.  This is just another way to evade any oversight and to bilk taxpayers out of millions and even hundreds of millions of dollars. . . from our children no less. 

Don’t sell us out. . .

As for White, I want you to consider this.  I had that tape quite a while ago.  Tom Aswell did not share it with me, so I don’t want people thinking he went back on his word.  Something that might have occurred to an enterprising soul such as myself was to sit on this and suggest to people to make more of those tapes. . .  you know, just for fond memories of their fearless leader in action.  Anyone has the capability with a simple app on their phone.  Wouldn’t that just be awesome?!?!?

You know, I kind of hope he sticks it out longer.  White is like a brilliant, enormous, stinky, albatross hanging around Bobby Jindal’s neck.  The longer he stays, the more I can tie him to Bobby, and the more Bobby will have to turn a blind eye to his bumbling boorish behaviour,  or defend his little “ping-pong ball.”  He’s like the Energizer Screw-up and without him I might have to talk about taxes or potholes or something. . .

Trust me. I just keep lying, and lying and lying, and lying. . .

Come drop by my website at www.louisianabelievesanything.com (I crafted it as an homage to White’s site. Just like White’s it’s mostly useless and filled with shrines to myself, but at least I have a little data and more accurate press releases.)

I’ll admit beforehand, that I haven’t updated it lately, well except for a few . . . mp3 files.  I was thinking they might make for some very entertaining ringtones.  They should load when you click on each page listed on the toolbar but if not they are located at the bottom of each page.  I strongly recommend you download one today.  Then you can have your friend’s call you when you’re near White.  I’m sure he would be comforted by the sound of his voice, voicing things he “believes.”

Hey “dude.” Enjoy the weekend. 

Each feather represents a shattered dream for a child, but a dream come true for me! Keep on Believing Louisiana!