I read this recent article in the advocate after hearing some positive feedback on Twitter about changes made by BESE to address parents concerns brought up at the meeting. At first glance I thought they might be almost meaningful, until I read a little closer. I also have some information that I have been sitting for a few months that refutes the claims being made that seems like I should bring forth now.
One of the changes approved by BESE would ban curriculum from being forced on local districts, “including any that may be recommended, endorsed or supported by any federal or state program or agency.”
However, according to folks privy to inside discussions, John White and a specific handpicked committee are secretly approving materials for schools to use, bypassing the normal vendor to LEA interactions and selection process. Indications are that White has plans to select a national vendor or vendors to provide most of Louisiana’s instructional materials from which LEAs can then “choose.” If I trusted John White and his cadre, this might be a good way to go, but my suspicions is this is being done in secret to serve a secret agenda based on John White’s beliefs and best interests, not the interests of Louisiana parents and school districts. However he claimed he was allowing districts free reign to choose materials without inserting himself into the process. That is patently false. This is from an e-mail I received September 12th so I assume this is in relation to a teleconference that happened on the 11th.
I ‘assumed’ you missed a great tele-conference yesterday with Mr. White (loved his asst’s title – Confidential Assistant to John White State SUperintendent of Education – I added italitacts….who puts confidential in their title?) and the book publishers on what he [White] wants to do and what direction he wants to go in …in the future. He has avoided this conversation for over a year..with the La. Publishers Association asking repeatedly to find out what direction the state was going in to adopt books.
On one hand he said there will be NO text book adoptions, no call for books, no interim adoption or process….and we are in transition. On the other hand he said we will have a call in Oct…and will have ‘approved books’ by Dec. (in previous years it would take about 1 year to get approved books)…..yes it sounds like to me, he’s talking out of both sides of his mouth. ELA – high school and math 1-12 books – all have to be digital to be evaluated!
He said we are calling for digital books ….ok, but I can give you an example that digital will not work…ie handwriting! Can you imagine a 2nd grader learning how to add digitally vs pen and pencil….. Some publishers do not have ‘strictly’ digital books and are not set up to have digital books…
It will now be a ‘rolling adoption’…which leads me to several questions….in the past the districts would know how much the books cost for 7 years. Now with a rolling adoption and the fact the state does NOT want to get into contracts, the publishers can raise their prices at any time….only competition and the market will prevent that.
The people who use to approve the books would preview them over the summer and the process to get on a committee was very detailed. Now it will be some people he picks…no long process or checks and balances so that they aren’t ‘on a publishers’ payroll. DIdn’t say how many people were going to be on this committee….
He ended the conversation with…he wanted us to hear it from him…not anyone else on the process. An email will go out on what books he [White] wants to ‘preview’ in October.
They [LDOE] are also having a taskforce meeting on textbooks and instructional materials going on monthly until Jan. Then the committee will recommend to the legislature what changes in textbook adoptions they want to change...could be anything from… we want just digital books, to getting rid of the depository, to everything that is sold in the systems, to anything! I can’t see them having them approve supplemental materials (don’t know the standards it would use for supplemental materials…because that would be a tremendous job for anyone!)
Obviously this is the complete opposite of what John White and BESE have once again claimed and relayed to the newspapers to publish. John White is leading this process, and he will directly relay to publishers what decisions he and his committee has made. Does this sound like districts are being given free choice to anyone????
Also from the Advocate:
The changes also state that:
Local school officials will have autonomy in picking instructional materials, and be free from both state and federal interference.
Schools have to allow parents to examine textbooks, and parents or legal guardians can request exemptions if they object to high school reading requirements.
In a bid to protect student privacy, the state will use numerical identifiers, not Social Security numbers, on tests that measure Common Core readiness.
Obviously item one is a lie as my previous informant has relayed.
Item 2 sounded good at first. I thought I read something different. I thought it said parents can choose to reject a reading choice if they object to it on moral grounds (I’m assuming another book could be substituted) I believe this would give teachers more autonomy to select wider choices of books but allow parents to opt their children out of morally objectionable material. No one has a copyright on morality (although I heard the NGA and CCSSO were working on a CCSM copyright), and one person’s morals are obviously different than another person’s (Just look at John White who was obviously taught lying is a virtue in his household) This could have been a win-win for teachers and parents. However all this says is parents can examine textbooks, (but not instructional materials which many parents have been finding objectionable) and that parents can request exemptions. However this is vague and probably not any different then what parents can already do. There is no requirement that anyone honor these objections, nor that students have something else substituted in place of the objectionable material.
Parents are not trying to get their kids out of reading books, like this statement seems to imply, they want to exercise some judgment based on their assessment of their children’s maturity level and the impact objectionable material might have on their children, or rights as parents to instill their own morals and ethics in their children. I don’t believe the State should get into the business of teaching morals to children, and I don’t believe most of our elected officials are in any position to be teaching children about ethics, except what a lack of ethics looks like.
Item 3 is just absurd. How could any other decision have been an option?
“We have decided NOT to shoot you in the head today. You’re welcome, parents.”
John White finally tells the truth
This still does not address the issue of privacy. These databases want name, DOB, address, phone number, medical history, parent info, family info, phone number, child’s picture, discipline data, special education info, 504 status, attendance, everything! If we don’t send it today, what’s to stop us from sending it tomorrow? Agreeing to not submit SSN’s should have been a no brainer, but it also does nothing to protect children from other databases and sharing endeavors. For instance, while PARCC may not get a child’s SSN, this data may be shared with inBloom at a later date, or another inBloom like entity.
Louisiana needs its own privacy laws, and a superintendent it can trust to protect its children. Currently it has neither. I look to the legislature and Bobby Jindal to remedy those situations.
Crazy Crawfish 
1. Be nice (not that I am). John White’s ass’s title, I mean “asst’s title” has existed at least since Mr. Picard’s day. First one I recall was “Bill something or other.” He took lots of calls that the supe didn’t have time to answer, contacted legislators, district superintendents. It was a pretty serious and busy job. Pastorek had to have 2 of them, 1 to keep track of the lies Paulie told, the second to know what the truth really was. I heard White doesn’t need a second one because he doesn’t care about the truth. Whorehouse BESE follows his orders under any circumstances.
2. It isn’t his mouth that he’s talking out of … Linda Johnson ( lmj1944@cox.net ) served in some capacity on a committee or commission that discussed some of the textbook issues. It was toward the end of September. I guess White called them together to tell them what he was doing. I can’t figure out how Linda got in the group. She might ask a hard question. She certainly isn’t one of his horde.
3. You use the term “moral grounds.” While discussing White, the LDoE, and BESE, you say “moral grounds.” You’ve been huffing to much Sevin dust, Crawfish. Might as well jump in with all 6 feet and use terms like, “virtue, honor, courage.” I don’t think they’re covered in common core either.
1) That is not my comment, it is the comment of a contributor, but thanks for reading my post using your best CCSS reading and analysis skills. I think its a silly title but I think “team member” and “consultant” and “fellow” are more ridiculous because of their vagueness, whereas the other title seems ridiculous for its verbosity. Does he have a non-confidential assistant? Maybe a blabbering Assistant to the superintendent? That would be cool, I could really use one of those. 2) Not sure what they heck you are talking about or why you think this refutes what I said, but just because LFT and LAE have reps on the MFP redesing committee, does not mean they will be listened to or have an impact since the majority of the committe are White’s allies. My informants is relaying that these are White’s instructions and what people were told who attended this meeting. . . that White was choosing them. White has a habit of farming data out to allies like CREDO and promoting it as independent, do you really think this would be any different? This is also a state committee, which is a direct contradiction to the BESE claim that LEAs will have complete independence in picking their material. If I hold out one apple in my hand and tell people you have the freedom of choice to choose any apple I have in my hand, is that really a choice? 3) Not sure what this comment means, although I rarely huff sevendust these days. I prefer local insecticide brands like Bengal. However being a mudbug I find inhaling bugkillers less than ideal for maintaining a rosy sheen on my shell, but thanks for commenting. Feel free to come back and make a cogent statement when you set down your Sevindust. 🙂
ahhhh …. cogent and refute and verbosity — I’ll have to look those up and get back with you
did you see those on someone’s tattoo — maybe one of those CCSSO photos of Whorehouse BESE
those 1 word job titles or even the ‘team member’ two word monicker.
It’s an LDoE tradition if you can have traditions in the short time White has been in. The staphers get to pick an additional word
throbbing team member for example
blabbering assistant could be shortened to blabbering ass. – sort of onomatopoeic
consultant becomes ex-con
I always wanted a job as an insultant, I’d use “highly paid insultant” if I worked for Whitey. I could start at 99999.90 and get a 6 percent raise
Crawfish, Crawfish, Crawfish, You know dang well that the more stuff that appears on your blog, the more time Whitey’s idiots spend trying to figure out who is leaking info.
That probably think my babbling idiocy, blathering foolishness, and gimcrack folderol is code and they are trying to crack it.
On a serious note, I tried to contact Annette C. a couple of days ago. She has departed the asylum. Hope she found a good spot. The auto response was “Annette ain’t here no mo’. Somebody be checkin’ up in this here e-mail sometimes and gettin’ back at chu.” Maybe the Dixon boys are doing more than cleaning.
I just figured it out – cogent is like a same sex male/male partnership. fute means cunning in French – you must use your thesaurus often
Chlordane and DDT for me kiddo.
If you want to know about that send me a private email. It was a mess. No one is left from when I left. Not one.
Sent from my Samsung smartphone on AT&T
Jen…. Ms. C DID find a good spot…it’s called ‘her sanity’ and by all accounts, she is enjoying getting reacquainted with it very much! 🙂
Yes. We need a superintendent we can trust.