We should understand that painting the the Dr. Marlon James/Loyola University "MJ/LU" Equity and Excellence Review "EER" and its cancellation as a racial or NAACP or a Black and Latino Civil Rights Issue is highly divisive. This is making a policy issue into a racially charged civil rights problem. This is a clear indication that the majority and its supporters have nothing left to argue their points, so deflect, change the subject, stop the discussion, or in a last ditch effort, pull the race card. What is to be gained by this? I do not know.
The issue for us on the Republican side, and for many others in our community has been transparency, accountability, and good government. Our Board of Education "BoE" members, Mr. Paul Panos, Ms. Cristina Santos, and Ms. Pam DiGiore have argued consistently against THIS study and HOW IT CAME ABOUT. They have not argued about A study. They have pointed out errors in process, issues that deserved questioning, and the need for transparency. The concerned public from all sides has questioned with them facets of this study, process, and professionalism on these pages and directly to the BoE.
The voters have indicated concerns at the polls over SPENDING first and foremost. They have also indicated concerns about the EER study and how it came to be.
The majority Democrats have dug in their heels, even in the face of mounting evidence that this study has become problematic. The President of the BoE has consistently said, as reported in the press, that this study will continue and will not be stopped [period].
The facts are that Dr. James and Mrs. Doreen Richardson, President of the BoE, have a relationship prior to 2012.
- Mrs. Richardson had suggested in the past -- as far back as 2009 or ‘10 -- that the BoE should retain Dr. James for a study or other work.
- That waiving of bidding requirements was done solely to place this contract in the hands of Dr. James and Loyola University.
- There was no clear case made that Dr. James and/or Loyola University had certain knowledge making them the only vendors for this study
- There was no clear case made that would justify waiver of normal bidding procedures other than Dr. James was 'friends' with Mrs. Richardson.
- There was no clear case made that Dr. James and/or Loyola University had experience or a process to mitigate or close the achievement gap.
- The majority Democrats of the Board of Education refused all attempts to follow proper procedures.
- The majority approved -- over strenuously repeated procedural objections -- hiring Dr. James and Loyola University without bidding the work or at least considering other options.
- They also pointed out that the friendship was a potential issue, to no avail.
- The financial situation, as brought forward by Mrs. Ingram, an accountant, has also been ignored.
- The majority asked counsel for an opinion, and as we have seen, the opinion was what the client wanted (See BoE/Ethics Complaint purview).
- We also know that the original contract required modifications before it could be executed, and based upon others' comments the final product is problematic at best, including, but not limited to the Alliance Grant requirements of ownership of the information and report.
Other issues that have come to light are timeline issues related to MJ/LU:
- September 2012 – the BoE authorized that MJ/LU be retained and a contract be executed.
- October 2012 - Dr. James once granted the possibility of a contract, wrote a course syllabus or description including the Windsor EER.
- November 2012 – Dr. James had published and offered a Loyola University Course specifically naming Windsor, CT and the EER as part of said course, more than 4 months before a contract was executed.
- January 2013 – The ‘Spring Semester’ course started 2 months before the contract was executed.
- March 2013 – The Contract was finally executed.
- April 2013 – Work began in earnest because of the shortened and rushed timeline from contract execution March 18 to the end of the semester in the first week of May.
This timeline arguably placed Mrs. Richardson in a difficult position of pushing for an execution of the EER contract for the benefit of her 'friend' who through his own actions placed them in a difficult position. What would have happened if the BoE said thank you, but no thank you, after students paid for the course. Also consider that he offered a course that included specific work that he did not have a contract to perform. This timeline is fact and totally unprofessional, and supported by publicly available evidence.
We also know that various documents and information that were distributed to Windsor residents included various errors.
- We have heard reports that would cause one to believe this study was not handled in a professional manner.
- We know students were very involved in this study based upon a reading of the syllabus or course description and the interviews.
- We also know Dr. James had a thesis that the achievement gap was related to the race of Teachers and BoE staff, and the race of the students.
- This is supported by his statement, as reported: “all white teachers are inherently biased against non-white students, they just can't help it."
So in the end Dr. James does the right thing for our community and indicates he or his students -- see course description -- will produce a report that Windsor can choose to implement in any manner it so desires. We can reasonably expect that the result maybe tainted by his thesis. This will yield a questionable report or work product.
We also know from Dr. Miskavitch, that there are many Universities including Yale and Brown that could perform an EER study, potentially at a much lower cost. We know from the public that the State offers to Windsor at no cost multi-cultural training programs. Why are we not looking at these options? I even offered 7 ideas to improve education on Patch-land pages.
What do we know about the achievement gap?
- We know that socio/economic disparity has strong correlation to the achievement gap, more than racial differences.
- We know parental involvement is an important factor in student performance, more than racial differences.
- We know discipline is an important factor in student performance and class decorum, more than racial differences.
- We also see reports that vocabulary size and use in the home as a correlation to performance as reported in the press.
- We also know that girls on average perform better in school than boys on average, so there is a “gender achievement gap”.
- We also know certain ethnic groups also perform better, an "ethnicity gap".
I do not believe I missed or misstated any information. The issues have been discussed in Patch-land ad nauseum with supporting sources and documents. The majority I guess could not see the handwriting on the wall. Dr. James, to his credit, could see it from almost 1,000 miles away.
The bottom line is the Democratic majority following the wishes of the Board President, has supported this process blindly. Not one of them at any time objected to what clearly was a miscarriage of procedure and policy. Not one publicly commented on the facts of the timeline that became known in the beginning of May.
It is now going to be up to the voters to make a decision. As Democratic Councilor McKenney said just a month ago: "Our schools got to the point they are under Democrats over a long period of time...” The real question to the voters and all the stakeholders is: Are you happy with the performance of education in Windsor?, and the BoE actions as it relates to this matter?
It is time for change and it is time to vote out the Democrats and in November I know there will be more choices than in the past.
As always, open to respectful comments.
