Moscow Education (Idaho)

The following article ran in the Lewiston Tribune.

The University of Idaho paid $105,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by two former employees.

The amount was disclosed on Friday after the Lewiston Tribune filed a public records request with the university on Thursday. The suit brought by husband and wife Kenneth and Martha Hass was settled out of court last month.

The Hasses sued the UI after fellow researcher Gary Maki allegedly conducted a smear campaign against Kenneth Hass.

The university removed Maki as the director of its Center for Advanced Microelectronics and Biomolecular Research in 2007 after he allegedly orchestrated a letter from NASA that was critical of Kenneth Hass' work at the center.

CAMBR has developed radiation-hardened microchips for the space agency. Maki reportedly had one of his NASA contacts write a letter to the UI alleging Hass violated computer security policies and attempted to sabotage NASA projects at CAMBR.

In the lawsuit, the Hasses claimed Maki was retaliating against them for blowing the whistle on questionable activities at CAMBR. Their reporting led to an internal UI audit of the center that found conflicts of interest, misreported work hours, misuse of university resources, misuse of travel and moving expenses and nepotism.

As per the terms of the settlement, the Hasses and the UI released a joint statement, which is to be the only comment from both parties on the matter.

"Kenneth J. Hass, Ph.D., and Martha Hass adhered to and followed UI and state of Idaho policies regarding the reporting of acts which they believe were unethical, illegal, or in violation of university rules," the statement said. "As a result of the Hass's efforts, in combination with the university's administrative review and follow-up, policies have been changed regarding management of conflicts of interest and the handling of whistleblower retaliation issues. Further, personnel changes were also made at CAMBR."

Seems like there is a history of this kind of thing going on at the UI.

I’ll see if I can get a timeline of previous whistle-blowers who were retaliated against.

From the Associated Press:

Washington's statewide math tests appear to be tougher than those in most other states, a national study revealed Thursday.

The study compares the rigor of the tests states use to judge whether schools are meeting the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Law. The individual state tests - The Washington Assessment of Student Learning in Washington state - were also compared to the national assessment known as the nation's report card.

"It's not any great revelation to us," said Joe Willhoft, assistant state superintendent for assessment and student information. "It is comforting to know that we have assessments that have high expectations of our students."

And Washington is going to lower the bar, let more kids pass the test, then claim success in how much better the teaching is.

Amazing.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Do you think there would be an outcry if these numbers were going in the opposite direction?

What’s the social implication for these trends?

HT: Mark J. Perry

As reported in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

Moscow High School seniors will once again spend their final moments of K-12 education in Pullman, the Moscow School Board decided Tuesday night.

The MHS class of 2009 had its June graduation in Washington State University's Beasley Performing Arts Coliseum because the University of Idaho's Kibbie Dome was unavailable while life-safety renovations were being completed.

The dome will be available next year, but the cost of holding graduation there was too high for the board to choose it over Beasley.

The Moscow School District will pay $3,500 from its 2009-10 budget for the use of Beasley and its staff, but Superintendent Candis Donicht said a Kibbie Dome ceremony could have cost $13,000. 

"The biggest gang problem in Chicago is the Chicago Teachers Union."

—Illinois State Senator James Meeks, speaking before an October 17 meeting of Operation PUSH, according to Substance News.

HT: EIA

A press release from Bob Hieronymus, Executive Vice President of Administration and Advancement at New Saint Andrews College:

Rev. Francis Foucachon, a native of France with a Huguenot family heritage that extends to the 16th century Protestant Reformation, will present "Calvin and the Huguenots" at the Nuart Theater this Friday, October 30, at 3 p.m. The lecture is free and open to the public.

The lecture, the fifth in the College's yearlong Calvin Lecture Series marking the 500th anniversary of John Calvin's birth, is on the eve of day that Protestants celebrate the Reformation worldwide.

Foucachon is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) and has served as a church planter in France with Missions to the World. With its speaker series, New Saint Andrews joins an international and interdenominational commemoration of John Calvin's life and work. New Saint Andrews, which is firmly rooted in the Calvinist tradition, is a limited-enrollment classical Christian liberal arts college located on Friendship Square in Moscow, Idaho. 

As reported in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

University of Idaho wide receiver Landon Weaver was arrested Thursday, his 21st birthday, on suspicion of assault in the fourth degree at 1:09 a.m. in Stubblefields. Pullman police allege Weaver was told to leave Stubblefields by the staff, but he refused and allegedly fought with bouncers. Police reported to the scene and deployed a Taser device in an attempt to control Weaver. … The arrest is the third brush with the law for a Vandal football player this month. On Oct. 4 freshman tight end Clayton Homme was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol and also was cited for urinating in public. Also, junior safety Shiloh Keo was cited for misdemeanor battery on Tuesday stemming from an alleged altercation late Saturday evening following the team’s win over the University of Hawaii

More Vandal-isms.

As reported in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

University of Idaho wide receiver Landon Weaver was arrested Thursday, his 21st birthday, on suspicion of assault in the fourth degree at 1:09 a.m. in Stubblefields. Pullman police allege Weaver was told to leave Stubblefields by the staff, but he refused and allegedly fought with bouncers. Police reported to the scene and deployed a Taser device in an attempt to control Weaver.

"I could not be more disappointed and embarrassed that this took place last night," Coach Robb Akey said through a statement from the Athletic Department's media relations office. "Landon is being punished within the team no different than any other young man in our program."

The arrest is the third brush with the law for a Vandal football player this month. On Oct. 4 freshman tight end Clayton Homme was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol and also was cited for urinating in public.

Also, junior safety Shiloh Keo was cited for misdemeanor battery on Tuesday stemming from an alleged altercation late Saturday evening following the team's win over the University of Hawaii.

The following “Ink” by Vera White appeared in Saturday’s edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

Moscow City Council President John Weber recently shared a letter with the INKster he and the mayor had received last month from Bob Hieronymus, executive vice president of New Saint Andrews College.

In the letter addressed to Tom LaPointe of Regional Public Transportation Inc., Bob thanked the company for its efforts in promoting public transportation in Moscow, noting what a benefit it has been to the college and the positive response from students who participate in the "Leave-Your-Car-At-Home" incentive program

The college's conditional use permit requires it to provide adequate parking for its students, and the college also is committed to financially supporting public transportation and made a gift last year. This year, the college is awarding its gift of $1,638 entirely to RPT, in support of its Moscow Valley Transit service to the community.

The INKster was impressed and asked John his thoughts on the matter.

"I think it is great when any of the businesses in town are impressed enough with the bus service to support it in this manner," John said Tuesday. "The council is also doing well with the service and are in the process of putting in about six bus kiosks with grant money. We may have money for a couple more since the job came in under budget."

John said there also has been talk about putting in another fixed route.

"As a councilman, I would support that as long as we can find ways to provide it that doesn't negatively impact the budget," he added.

From the University of Idaho’s Argonaut

ASUI President Kelby Wilson came before the senate on Wednesday with concern for the behavior of University of Idaho students at last week’s Vandal Football tailgating event.

“Let your living groups know they have got to behave in the tailgating area, or we are going to lose it,” Wilson said.

He said the Moscow Police Department is becoming increasingly concerned with the safety of students and others participating in the tailgate.

“Moscow PD is not happy about full-out brawls in the parking lot,” Wilson said.

Wilson said more discussion will take place before a decision is made, but the future of UI tailgating events hangs in the balance. He said it is up to students to regulate their actions if they want to continue with tailgating at future football games.

“It really sucks that a few bad apples can spoil it for the rest of us,” Wilson said. “But, at the same time, I understand where Moscow PD and the university are coming from, in a liability sense as well as a safety sense.”

Wilson said according to the reports provided to him, MPD had to intervene in an altercation at least week’s tailgating events between members of a fraternity.

“The report I have says that they were beating each other up,” Wilson said.

During the meeting, Wilson encouraged senators to set a good example for UI students to follow, and to spread the word that one person could end tailgating for the rest of the year for everyone.

“Be smart and don’t punch anybody,” Wilson said.

“I don’t know why, with our Vandals being 6-1 right now, that you wouldn’t want to go in and watch them.”

He said MPD would like to have any repercussions from the last game go into effect by the next home game. Wilson said he intends to communicate any information about this issue as it is released to him.

 “(Repercussions) could be anything from having no student tailgate whatsoever to having student tailgating just until the game starts, or to having student tailgate for just an X amount of time,” Wilson said.

The parallels between the government schools and the prison system really are incredible.

If you can’t keep them from dropping out, then lock them up.

From Education Next:

A Massachusetts state commission has solved the high school drop-out problem. Just incarcerate the students. That’s the thrust of its recommendation.

According to the Boston Globe, Paul Reville, the secretary of education and chairman of the commission, urges action because  “we can ill afford the waste, loss and tragedy these persistent [drop-out] rates represent.”

It is true that nearly a third of the nation’s 9^th graders—and about half those attending dangerous big city schools—have voted with their feet against the disastrous state of the modern public high school.  They have concluded that they don’t want to stick around for four more years just to get a diploma from their local school.

Schools are like jails, the great sociologist James Coleman once wrote. The inmates hate the authorities and sabotage the mission of the place. The teachers reach a compromise with the students, explains Theodore Sizer, Harvard’s former dean of the school of education. As long as the inmates sit quietly, the teachers will let them get by.   In this kind of environment, the peer group takes charge. And when the peer group is organized into gangs, as in many inner city high schools, life in the school jail can get pretty tough.

In most parts of the country, students have the option of getting out of the school jail at age 16, sometimes even younger. They can get a diploma by taking the equivalency exam, or they can take high school courses at community colleges, or, in Florida and a few other states, they can take courses on line over the internet.

But when students drop out, it means less money for public schools from the enrollment-based state aid formula.  Less money means fewer employees and fewer union members.

So if students don’t want to go to school at age 16 and 17, they should be incarcerated, Reville insists. Dragged off by the truant police and stuck in a classroom. Surely, they will learn, if only they can be badgered into getting to school on time.

From 2 News:

The Moscow-Pullman Daily News is reporting Idaho junior safety Shiloh Keo was cited for misdemeanor battery after a fight in downtown Moscow following Idaho's win over Hawai'i.

Moscow Assistant Police Chief David Duke told the Daily News that police investigated an incident involving two groups of people that started with an exchange of words and ended with a victim being struck in the face.

Keo was cited and released when he came in to the police department for an interview Tuesday.

UI spokeswoman Joni Kirk told the Daily news the incident is “under review, and we will let the legal process run its course.”

Sports2Night talked to a source within the Vandal athletic department that said as of Wednesday evening, Keo has not been suspended - but that the University was going to wait for the investigation to proceed before taking any action.

We are the Vandals, after all.

Coach Akey continues to have his players whittled down. We’ll get to the right group sooner or later.

Two women in two weeks admit to having sex with 13/14 year-old boys.

Looks like Idaho teachers are on a roll.

From KREM News in Spokane:

A Meridian teacher has admitted she had a sexual relationship with one of her students.

Ashley Jo Beach, 37, pleaded guilty in an Ada County courtroom today to one count of lewd conduct with a child under the age of 16

Officers say they caught Beach in the bushes with a 13-year-old boy on the evening of Sept. 17 in the area of Cherry Lane and Vineyards in Meridian.

…

Beach's admission comes a week after a teacher from Idaho Falls admitted to having sex with a 14-year-old student.

And here’s the previous one (also from KREM) from one week ago.

An Idaho middle school physical education teacher has admitted having sexual contact with a 14-year-old male student.

Kari Atkinson, of Idaho Falls, taught at Sandcreek Middle School in Ammon, which is near Idaho Falls.

The 28-year-old Atkinson was originally charged with five counts of lewd conduct with a child under 16.

Atkinson pleaded guilty Wednesday to two counts of lewd conduct with a minor.  In exchange for a guilty plea, prosecutors agreed to drop three other counts against Atkinson.

She was arrested on Sept. 8, after the Bonneville County Sheriff's Office received an anonymous phone call revealing Atkinson's relationship with a student.

Read between the lines.

From CBS Sports:

Ever been to Moscow? Yeah, yeah, snow and vodka. That's nice if you're in the capital of Russia. That's awful if you're in the county seat of Latah County at the intersection of US 95 and Highway 8.

That would be Moscow, Idaho. Like good vodka, the U.S. version of Moscow is an acquired taste. Start with stark and desolate and move down the list of attractions. The largest nearby town is Pullman, 8 miles away and over the border in the state of Washington. The football program has been so poor in the past that it had to play "home" games in Pullman in Washington State's bigger stadium.

…

The team's nickname fit perfectly. One of Akey's first steps was to kick 17 players off the team for various character issues.

"You can look up some of them in the Idaho state penal system," one school spokesman said.

Ouch.

In spite of all that, they call for Robb Akey to be coach of the year.

The following is from J.P. Greene:

Hawaii decided to fix their budget shortfall by eliminating 17 days from this school year in exchange for an 8 percent reduction in teacher salaries.  That means Hawaii public school kids will spend 163 days in school compared to about 180 for most kids nationwide.

OK, think about that for a minute: the kids get 9.4% fewer days of school per year. The teachers get paid 8% less. Talk about a sustainable contract! But it gets better.

Eighty-one percent of all teachers approved the deal, which leaves “teacher vacation, nine paid holidays and six teacher planning days … untouched.”  Teacher benefits, including pension and health benefits also remain unchanged. In addition, “[t]he new agreement also guarantees no layoffs for two years and postpones the implementation of random drug testing for teachers.”  

So, teachers work 9.4% fewer days for 8% less pay, full benefits and two more years of guaranteed employment.  It’s not a bad deal… as long as you are a teacher.  Kids will be shortchanged, parents have to scramble for daycare, and the state gives away more than it gets in savings.

Greene nails it with the closing paragraph.

The only risk for the teacher union in doing this is that we might discover that student achievement is unaffected by 17 fewer days of school.  If that’s the case why not cut 34 days of school for 16% less pay?  Or maybe get rid of it altogether.

No one will notice the difference of kids not being in school.

Brilliant.

From Breitbart:

At a time when President Barack Obama is pushing for more time in the classroom, his home state has created the nation's shortest school year under a new union contract that closes schools on most Fridays for the remainder of the academic calendar.

The deal whacks 17 days from the school year for budget-cutting reasons and has education advocates incensed that Hawaii is drastically cutting the academic calendar at a time when it already ranks near the bottom in national educational achievement.

While many school districts have laid off or furloughed teachers, reduced pay and planning days and otherwise cut costs, Hawaii's 171,000 public schools students now find themselves with only 163 instructional days, compared with 180 in most districts in the U.S.

Dude! Another day a week for surfing!

38% of Washington, DC public school students attended charter schools this year.

Charter school enrollment is up 9% from last year.

Source: Washington Post, “Charter School Enrollment In the District Is Up Again“

Cross-posted from Cato-at Liberty:

First Lady Michelle Obama wrote yesterday in US News and World Report that we face a teacher shortage. She laments that up to a third of current teachers could retire in the next four years. The solution, she says, is to embark on an aggressive and multifaceted teacher recruitment campaign.

But here’s an interesting thought: What if a million teachers really did retire in the next four years, and we only replaced half of them? 

Catastrophe? Millions of kids without teachers? Nope. In fact, we’d still have a lower pupil/teacher ratio than we did in 1970. Back then, we had 2 million teachers for 45.5 million students. Today, we have 3.2 million teachers for not quite 50 million students.

For the past 40 years, we’ve added teachers a lot faster than we’ve added students. In fact, we’ve added other staff even faster. As a result, the total staff to student ratio has gone up by nearly 75% since 1970.

There are plenty of critical problems with American education, but a looming crisis in the size of the teaching workforce is not one of them.

I’d like to talk to you today about the federal role in education policy. It’s often noted that the Constitution doesn’t mention education, and that the provision of education has always been a state and local responsibility.

Yet, it is also true that American leaders have always considered education to be an important priority. They’ve always believed that a strong and innovative education system is the foundation of our democracy and an investment in our economic future.

This national commitment to education predates even the ratification of the Constitution. In the Northwest Ordinance governing the sale of land in the Northwest Territories, the fledgling government required townships to reserve money for the construction of schools.

In the middle of the Civil War, President Lincoln signed the Morrill Act to create land grant colleges and universities. Today, those institutions are some of the best teaching and research institutions in the world…

HT: Neal McCluskey

From Project America.

The overall spending per student in higher education.

Now hear again the words that UI President Nellis said yesterday:

"It's been called a short-term problem by some, but in fact, our nation and our state's disinvestment in public higher education has been occurring for several decades," he said. "This is a reality to which some are only now beginning to awaken as we face global competition for American innovation and knowledge."

Would one of my progressive readers please defend President Nellis’ words?

HT: Frank C.

Nellis made blatantly false claims during his inaugural speech.

As reported in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

The challenges of a ballooning population, the depletion of resources and a disinterest in higher education have warranted a new "space race" in America.

That's the message University of Idaho President Duane Nellis delivered to students, faculty, staff and community members during his official inauguration ceremony Friday morning in the Kibbie Dome in Moscow.

Nellis said the current budgetary problems American colleges and universities are facing go back further than the most recent recession.

"It's been called a short-term problem by some, but in fact, our nation and our state's disinvestment in public higher education has been occurring for several decades," he said. "This is a reality to which some are only now beginning to awaken as we face global competition for American innovation and knowledge."

I’ll post the chart for colleges next. But this one (courtesy of the Cato Institute) shows inflation-adjusted spending, staff-per-student, and outcomes.  

If Nellis calls this type of spending “disinvestment”, I’m at a loss of words for what investment would look like.

But I can tell you this much: if any other institution has this kind of spending with those kinds of results, they would have been shutdown years ago.

From the Boston Globe:

At issue is the Massachusetts Tests for Educator Licensure, a state standards test that is partly required by the federal No Child Left Behind law. The law requires all but a few teachers to have appropriate licenses and to meet standards set by individual states.

But the Massachusetts test has come under much criticism in its 11-year history over the disparity in results between whites and minorities. In the 2005-06 school year, according to data available from the state, 52 percent of Latino applicants and 54 percent of black applicants flunked the [English] writing portion of the exam, nearly twice the rate for whites. The failure rate for native Spanish speakers was above 60 percent.

And because minority teachers cannot pass a written English exam, the exam is unfair?

This is the same thing that people say about the SAT and ACT tests: they unfairly test because the outcomes are not equal.

The test results led to termination of about 100 minority teachers in Boston, many of whom had until then received temporary waivers that allowed them to retest.

They were dismissed as the state raised concerns about the disparity in passing rates among aspiring teachers of different backgrounds. More than two years ago, the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education established a task force to examine the issue.

In a time of growing diversity among students in classrooms across the state, educators and researchers suggest that academically low-achieving student groups such as blacks, Latinos, and English-language learners could fare better if they are more often taught by teachers of similar background.

I guess it depends upon what should be taught and what kids are expected to learn.

But the government schools have fallen into the ditch.

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

—Albert Einstein

Herbert Walberg over at Education Next discusses throwing money down the education money hole.

As Mike Petrilli noted here yesterday, there’s not much good news in the NAEP results for mathematics, which were released earlier this week. Fourth graders have made no progress since 2007, and 8^th graders have made very little progress.

What is worse than sluggish NAEP scores is their combination with steady, substantial increases in per-student spending in public schools. Teachers unions have done well in improving the income and perks of their members, but not the achievement of our students, whose interests have been poorly represented by federal and state legislators and school board members.

Perhaps we need a union for the kids? Or for the parents?

Only the East Asian countries have sustained high levels of learning at surprisingly low costs, which is substantially attributable to a large private school sector. And Sweden, the one economically advanced Western country with sharp achievement gains, has a national voucher system, which forces schools, including a growing number of educationally and financially successful for-profit schools, to compete for students. If socialist Sweden can substantially improve its school system via choice, why not the United States?

Ben Ledford has an article in the University of Idaho’s Argonaut titled “Biblical Homosexuality.”

It’s not what you think.

He’s really gotten under some people’s skin. There’s even a Facebook hate group titled “Benjamin Ledford Should Stop Writing.”

As with all things with the tolerant progressives, they tolerate other people’s thoughts and writings as long as they agree with them.

HT: Larson H.

From CNSNews:

The first graders lining up for lunch at Arlington Elementary School in Baltimore, Md., on Monday could pick a cheese sandwich or cheese lasagna and a bowl of mixed vegetables or broccoli. They could not, however, have meat for lunch now that cafeterias throughout the school district have adopted "Meatless Mondays."
 
Mellissa Mahoney, a chef and dietitian with the school district, said the idea started as part of a themed-approach to planning lunches for the school year. She said the plan changed after representatives from the Meatless Monday movement approached Mahoney and Food Services Director Tony Geraci.
 
“They met with us over the summer, before we even launched the new menu,” Mahoney told CNSNews.com. She said at first they didn’t realize that Meatless Monday is a national and international movement with ties to extreme animal rights activists. “We know now what they do, and we have collaborated with them,” Mahoney said.

HT: Dave M.

Dave G. notes:

Philadelphia holds the principals responsible for getting the students fed breakfast.  If breakfast is served in the first class period it counts as instruction time.  It's not class size or insufficient funding or location that is causing kids to be educated improperly.  Don't you think that principals should be more interested in other things than feeding kids breakfast during their first period class?

From the Philadelphia Inquirer:

In a locally unprecedented move, the School District of Philadelphia will hold principals accountable for the number of students eating breakfast in their schools.

Breakfast participation will be part of the report card that rates principals each year, along with categories such as attendance and math and reading performance.

 

As reported in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

The University of Idaho has canceled its corn maze in Lewiston due to freezing temperatures that hit the region over the weekend.

Corn stalks in the 5-acre maze were still growing when the freeze began Friday night with a low temperature of 23 degrees in the Lewiston Orchards, according to a College of Agricultural and Life Sciences release.

The low temperatures caused the stalks to collapse to a height of about 3 to 4 feet.

The student-designed maze was a partnership among the college and its Agricultural Student Affairs Council, the city of Lewiston and Kaufman Farms.

From KREM News in Spokane:

Several North Idaho schools have shut down until Monday because so many students are sick that they can't have class.

Culdesac School District in north central Idaho have shut down all classes for grades kindergarten through 12th grade until Monday.

The Culdesac School District Principal Jon Hussman said that 49% of his student body was out sick with either the seasonal flu or swine flu.  Hussman said he had snow days built into the school year so they may use those days instead of having to make the missed school days at the end of the year.

Kamiah Elementary School, also in north central Idaho, will be closed until Monday as well.

School officials in Kamiah said they had 38 of their elementary students sick last Thursday, but as of Monday they recorded 69 absences, so they decided to close.

 

From KLEW TV in Lewiston:

New orders to hold back $15 million to help state revenue shortfalls has Idaho public universities and colleges, who are already operating with lean budgets, slashing spending further.

Almost half of the cuts fall to the University of Idaho, which has multiple funding streams from the state for programs and research centers.

UI officials said $7.1 million is being cut from their current budget through several measures, including the elimination of some vacant positions.

At Boise State, the holdback means a loss of $4.7 million, which will swallow up most of the reserves set aside to handle potential cuts this year. At Idaho State University, the holdback equates to a $3.9 million cut.