Where There Is Smoke, Is There Fire?

Hmmmmmmmmm.......

E-mails show D.C. schools officials were alerted to cheating at Noyes in 2010

By Emma Brown, Published: January 30

Teachers’ union officials in 2010 directly e-mailed D.C. Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson telling her that the principal of a D.C. elementary school had reported seeing employees cheating on a city-issued test, according to e-mails obtained by the Associated Press through a Freedom of Information Act request.
The e-mails — which offered no specifics about the allegations and said the principal’s claims were uncorroborated — show that Henderson quickly referred the matter to the school system’s then-chief of accountability, Erin McGoldrick, sending an e-mail about the matter less than two hours after she received the report. Henderson asked McGoldrick to be in touch with union leaders about the allegations and wrote to the union official: “Thanks for alerting us.”
McGoldrick replied, writing that the school system had already been informed of allegations at the school, Northeast Washington’s Noyes Elementary, and was in the midst of finalizing an investigation.
It’s not clear from the e-mails — in early November 2010 — whether McGoldrick knew that the allegations the union officials forwarded were new and had occurred only the day before; the union officials’ e-mails don’t specify a date. At the time, the school system was in the midst of investigating older cheating allegations at Noyes.
Adell Cothorne, the principal of Noyes at the time, left the school in 2011 and went on to file a whistleblower lawsuit claiming that school system officials ignored her efforts to raise an alarm about cheating.
Cothorne said that in 2010, she immediately reported the alleged cheating incident by phone to two central office administrators, who never investigated it. Henderson disputed that account at the time, saying there was no record that Cothorne had reported any such incident to school system officials.
The e-mails show instead that union officials contacted Henderson, and that union officials also investigated. Clay White, who was then the union’s chief of staff, said the next day that union leaders directed two field representatives to fully investigate the matter, according to an e-mail White sent to Henderson, McGoldrick and others.
The whistleblower suit prompted an investigation by the U.S. Department of Education, which did not find evidence to support Cothorne’s claims. Cothorne withdrew the case last year.
Cothorne told the Associated Press that the union’s 2010 e-mail exchange with Henderson shows that officials didn’t take cheating seriously because they didn’t follow up with her to ask what she had seen. School system officials said they take every cheating allegation seriously, and pointed out that Noyes has been the subject of multiple investigations during the past several years.
“It is perhaps the most investigated school in the city,” Pete Weber, the school system’s chief of data and strategy, said in an interview Thursday. Weber said that the school system investigated Cothorne’s claims when they became public in 2013 and found no substance to them.
Noyes and its fast-improving test scores became a model for success during the tenure of former Chancellor Michelle Rhee. But the school came under scrutiny after a 2011 USA Today investigation found an unusually high number of wrong-to-right erasures at Noyes and more than 100 other schools in the city.
Educators’ jobs and merit bonuses depended on improving test scores, and between 2007 and 2009, some schools saw huge increases that later reversed after test security was tightened.
Several employees have been fired for cheating at Noyes, but investigators have said they did not find evidence of the widespread cheating suggested by USA Today’s report.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/e-mails-show-dc-schools-officials-were-alerted-to-cheating/2014/01/30/26cbc592-89ec-11e3-916e-e01534b1e132_story.html

Impacted By IMPACT - 10% Of Evaluations Calculated Wrong, Teacher Fired In Error To Be Rehired

       This revelation brings up all sorts of questions - how long has DCPS known this? Has this happened before? How was this found out? Have those methods been used on previous year's results? Hmmmmm...  In this age of accountability, is anyone accountable? Responsible?
      Of particular note to me is that while 44 teachers are only about one percent of all teachers, they are also represent ten percent of the teachers actually being evaluated. So this is not a one percent error but a ten percent error. That is not acceptable.

D.C. schools gave 44 teachers mistaken job evaluations

By Nick Anderson, Published: December 23

Faulty calculations of the “value” that D.C. teachers added to student achievement in the last school year resulted in erroneous performance evaluations for 44 teachers, including one who was fired because of a low rating, school officials disclosed Monday.
School officials described the errors as the most significant since the system launched a controversial initiative in 2009 to evaluate teachers in part on student test scores.
Half of the evaluations for the 44 teachers were too high and half too low, said Jason Kamras, chief of human capital for D.C. Public Schools.
Those affected are about 1 percent of about 4,000 teachers in the school system. But they comprise nearly 10 percent of the teachers whose work is judged in part on annual city test results for their classrooms.
Kamras said the school system will leave unchanged the ratings that were too high and will raise those that were too low. He said the school system is seeking to reinstate the fired teacher and will compensate the teacher — whose identity was not revealed — for lost salary.
“We will make the teacher completely whole,” he said.
In addition, Kamras said, three teachers whose ratings are being revised upward will shortly receive bonuses of $15,000 each.
The evaluation errors underscore the high stakes of a teacher evaluation system that relies in part on standardized test scores to quantify the value a given teacher adds to the classroom. The evaluation system, known as IMPACT, has drawn widespread attention since it began under former D.C. schools chancellor Michelle A. Rhee. It remains a centerpiece of efforts to raise the performance of long-struggling schools in the nation’s capital — and a flashpoint in the national school-reform debate.
Backers of IMPACT say it is essential to hold ineffective teachers accountable for poor results and reward those who are highly effective. Critics say efforts to distill teaching outcomes to a set of numbers are misguided and unfair.
Elizabeth A. Davis, president of the Washington Teachers’ Union, said the disclosure of mistaken teacher ratings for the 2012-13 school year was disturbing.
“IMPACT needs to be reevaluated,” Davis said. “The idea of attaching test scores to a teacher’s evaluation — that idea needs to be junked.”
Davis sent a letter to D.C. Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson demanding more information about the errors and the evaluation system.
Kamras said school officials moved to rectify the errors as soon they learned of them from Mathematica Policy Group, the research firm the city hired to crunch numbers used in the evaluations.
“We take these kind of things extremely seriously,” Kamras said. “Any mistake is unacceptable to us.”
The value-added calculations are complex. The first step is to estimate how a teacher’s students are likely to perform on the citywide D.C. Comprehensive Assessment System, based on past test results and other information. Then the predicted classroom average is compared to the actual classroom average. The difference is what school officials call the value that a teacher adds.
The value-added formula applies to English language arts teachers in grades four through 10 and to math teachers in grades four through eight — about 470 instructors in all. Kamras said the faulty calculations were the result of a coding error by Mathematica.
Under IMPACT, all teachers are evaluated based on classroom observations and other metrics. The value-added formula accounts for 35 percent of the evaluation for teachers in affected grades and subjects.
Teachers are given one of five ratings — ineffective, minimally effective, developing, effective or highly effective. Those rated ineffective are subject to dismissal. The same is true for those rated “minimally effective” two years in a row or “developing” three years in a row.
Kamras said that for the 2012-13 school year, 30 percent of DCPS teachers were rated highly effective, 45 percent effective, 19 percent developing, 5 percent minimally effective and 1 percent ineffective.
Of the 22 teachers whose ratings are being raised, Kamras said, three are moving to the highly effective rating; 12 to effective, six to developing and one to minimally effective. The latter is the teacher who was fired mistakenly.
In October, researchers from the University of Virginia and Stanford University who have examined IMPACT reported that its rewards and punishments were shaping the school system workforce, affecting retention and performance. The study found that two groups of teachers were inspired to improve significantly more than others: those who faced the possibility of being fired and those who were on the cusp of winning a substantial merit raise.

Emma Brown contributed to this report.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/dc-school-officials-44-teachers-were-given-mistaken-performance-evaluations/2013/12/23/c5cb9f26-6c0c-11e3-a523-fe73f0ff6b8d_story.html

DC Council Responds To Pro Legalization Push

  The conversation in DC has moved...... now the real details.....

D.C. poised for a giant leap toward legalizing small amounts of marijuana

By Aaron C. Davis, Published: October 24

D.C. lawmakers took more than 15 years to allow cancer patients to use marijuana for their pain. But over just a few months, city leaders have coalesced around a plan to decriminalize small joints, blunts or bowls full of marijuana in the nation’s capital.
Ten of 13 council members have signed on to a bill to make possession of less than an ounce of marijuana punishable by a fine of no more than $100. On Wednesday, Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) said for the first time that he supports the idea. And on Thursday, the author of the bill and the office of the attorney general said they could agree to an even smaller, token fine of $25.
Such a move wouldn’t go as far as changes by Colorado and Washington state, where voters have legalized marijuana. Seventeen states also have eliminated jail time for possession in favor of civil finesof up to $1,000. If the bill passes, the District would rank behind only Alaska, which has no fine, as the most forgiving.
Even advocates of full legalization are surprised by the breakneck speed of the legislation in the District, where lawmakers have long been reluctant to test Congress on federal drug laws.
Two recent studies that ranked the District among the worst for racial disparity in marijuana arrests and the Justice Department’s growing leniency toward state plans for the medical usage of marijuana have given formerly reluctant Democrats cover to support the idea.
The city’s coming mayoral election has also turbocharged the debate.
Council member Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), who is seeking the Democratic nomination, wrote the bill. Jack Evans (D-Ward 2), another mayoral candidate, has signed on in support. So has David A. Catania (At Large), who might run as an independent. And as Gray decides whether to seek reelection, he has bowed to the political reality that the measure is likely to clear the council in December or January with a supermajority that could override a veto.
Wells has cast the effort in lofty terms of lifting up the city’s African Americans and has done so comfortably, with Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) by his side as co-author.
“Less than one ounce would not be a crime. . . . That would no longer mean a drug-arrest record,” Wells said Wednesday night to applause at a community hearing on the bill in Anacostia.
On Thursday, during a continuation of the hearing in the D.C. Council’s chamber in the John A. Wilson Building, Wells said: “Punishment for drug crimes disproportionately falls on the shoulders of blacks and Latinos. . . . We don’t want to accuse the police, we don’t want to accuse anybody . . . but it is a major societal justice problem, and we are going to fix it.”
The numbers that have shaped the debate so far have come largely from a study published in July by the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs and another earlier in the year by the American Civil Liberties Union.
The study by the lawyers’ committee found that nine of 10 people arrested in the District on charges of simple drug possession are black, even as blacks account for less than half the city’s population.
The ACLU study also found that the District is arresting more people than ever for marijuana possession: It was up 60 percent in the decade that ended in 2010, with black residents accounting for much of the jump.
Over the summer, the NAACP criticized authorities in the District and other cities for using a pretense of smelling marijuana to stop blacks.
The legislation doesn’t go as far as some legalization advocates would like, and they are awaiting the outcome of Wells’s bill to decide whether to press ahead with trying to get a nonbinding referendum on the ballot in 2014 to fully legalize and regulate marijuana sales in the city.
Backers of that idea said Thursday that they might abandon a costly referendum if a proposed amendment by Barry makes it into the legislation. Barry wants to let the District go the way of Uruguay and allow residents to grow a small number of marijuana plants in their homes.
If residents have their own, Barry said, it could “cut out a lot of the economics” of illegal street sales of the drug.
“My motivation is very simple. We have hundreds of black men, black boys, being locked up for simple possession, given a criminal record,” Barry said. “In my community, I talk to somebody almost every day who says: ‘Somebody just got arrested for having a bag of weed. Come on, man — What’s that all about?’ ”
Also during the summer, D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier urged a “robust discussion” of the proposal and cautioned against using the ACLU study to justify decriminalization.
“Some of the information being used as an argument for decriminalization is flawed,” she said in a statement. “Marijuana users are simply not being targeted in the manner suggested.” Lanier did not testify for Gray’s administration on Thursday.
That was left to the office of the attorney general, which among other things asked Wells to ensure that marijuana possession in school zones is still considered a crime. Wells said he agreed with that idea for adults but not for children, who under the bill would have their drugs confiscated and their parents called.




http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/dc-poised-for-giant-leap-toward-legalizing-marijuana/2013/10/24/db183fb0-3cbe-11e3-b6a9-da62c264f40e_story.html

Garret County - Gone To The Hills

   We moved to DC from Vermont - the first time we had a chance for a vacation we headed to the highest point in Maryland figuring it would be somewhat Vermontish.....

Garrett County, Md., beyond Deep Creek Lake

By Ann Cameron Siegal, Published: July 18

After three visits to Maryland’s largest freshwater lake, I have yet to set foot on it or in it. Deep Creek Lake is an enticing destination, for sure, but Garrett County is awash in numerous hidden treasures just beyond the summer sounds of motorboats and jet skis.
As a traveling buddy and I made our first excursion into the county a year ago, I recalled a lesson architect Frank Lloyd Wright learned while traversing a snowy field as a child. Wright’s uncle admonished him to compare the footprints each had left: Wright, his uncle said, had wasted his time meandering left and right while he, the uncle, had proceeded directly to their destination. But Wright, in remembering that conversation, realized that his uncle had missed out on delightfully unexpected finds along their walk.
If you go: Garrett County, Md.
In that vein, I set off with a friend to explore Garrett County’s Barn Quilt Trail — one small link in an art-and-culture-oriented scavenger hunt phenomenon found in 45 states.
These country road treasure hunts are perfect for meandering travelers who want to get off main roads and explore small communities, local markets, cozy inns and down-home restaurants. Our self-guided tour wound past 16 barns, each decorated with an eight-foot-square panel displaying a quilt pattern chosen by the property owners and often painted by community volunteers.
Our route took us along part of the historic National Road — the first highway built by the federal government, in the early 19th century — and through a town curiously named Accident. Apparently, when King George II wanted to pay off a debt with a gift of 600 acres, the intended recipient hired two separate surveyors to scout out the best land. Unbeknownst to one another, they both selected parcels with the same oak tree as a boundary. Thus, the “Accident Tract” was born.
It was certainly no accident that recently brought my family to FireFly Farms Creamery in that same small town. The creamery’s artisan goat cheeses are well known to farmers market aficionados in Dupont Circle and Silver Spring.
You’ll never take cheese for granted after watching the intense, time-consuming and temperature-sensitive hands-on process involved in this craft. For example, one batch of Cabra LaMancha, a mature washed-rind cheese, gives FireFly’s cheesemakers an incredibly physical workout. I watched as Dan Porter briskly and rhythmically ladled curd from the 140-gallon pasteurizing vat to make 24 four-pound wheels. After 10 minutes of gravity settling, each wheel is flipped by hand, then again in three hours, and again the next morning before being stored for aging.
In the meantime, a similar process started in another 140-gallon vat — this time to make Merry Goat Round brie. Stabilizing the milk, cutting and agitating the curd, flipping each of 240 10-ounce rounds and moving all into aging rooms is seamless choreography.
Every step taken and each person involved becomes part of a batch’s written “birth certificate” ensuring product consistency. Even seasonality is a variable in making goat cheese. The deepest part of winter makes for the best goat milk, with the highest protein and fat content, said Dan.
Another “I had no idea” moment came as we visited Husky Power, just 10 minutes south. If you only think Iditarod when you hear “dog-sledding,” Linda and Mike Herdering, owners of what they say is the nation’s southernmost dog-sled touring kennel, will expertly broaden your knowledge through year-round, information-packed two-hour presentations. Husky conditioning, weight training, commands and care are just some of the topics covered during these appointment-only sessions.
“Many people learn about dog sledding through books and movies,” said Linda, which she called “a very incomplete picture.”
We were surprised to learn that many mushers use wheeled carts (gigs) for training, touring and racing. “There are more dry-land mushers in the world than snow mushers,” Linda said. “These dogs are genetically predisposed to pull, and they don’t care what they pull.”
The most important factor in dog sledding is keeping the lines taut by having an alert musher and excellent brakes on one end and a competent lead dog on the other. Slack lines can get tangled, creating a deadly situation, especially for canines.
I was curious about what makes a first-rate lead dog. The selection begins in puppyhood. The dogs are observed while jogging along trails, said Linda. “You look for one that doesn’t wander off — one that keeps going and doesn’t look back.” Sled dogs usually join a team when they turn 2.
The team’s shaded gravel yard is practical, not scenic. Wooden boxes serve as shelters, and each dog is tethered by a precisely measured chain to allow exercise room apart from the others. “They’re happier knowing that they have their own space and no other dog can get into it,” said Linda.
My daughter particularly loved face-to-face time with the most personable Alaskan and Siberian huskies ever. Litters are named in themes, such as Jag and Colt for sports teams, or Slider and BlackBerry for cellphones.
Mike Herdering referred to one dog, Denali, as his “attack licker.” Doffing his cap and revealing a gleaming bald head, he grinned. “She really got me!”
Snow is not required for dog sledding, but temperatures below 60 degrees are, so actually trying the sport on Husky Power’s extensive trail network must wait for the September-to-April running season.
Although we’ve only scratched the surface of Garrett County’s offerings, our list of favorites is growing.
For whitewater fixes, the adventurous are drawn to the Class IV and V rapids of the north-flowing Youghiogheny, Maryland’s wildest river. A 10-mile stretch from Sang Run to Friendsville is particularly popular during scheduled water releases.
For those preferring quiet, upright paddling, New Germany State Park and Broadford Lake beckon. Hikes through the old-growth hemlock forests of Swallow Falls State Park catch mesmerizing views of rushing water — especially as it pours over several falls, including Muddy Creek, the state’s highest single-drop waterfall.
A recently restored 1884 Queen Anne-style B&O train station, now a museum in the very walkable, cute small town of Oakland, is a definite head-turner.
The stately Casselman River Bridge in Grantsville — celebrating its 200th anniversary in September — was the largest single-span stone arch in the nation when constructed in 1813. A walk across it leads to Spruce Forest Artisan Village, where experts in weaving, paper quilling, pottery, metal crafts and more demonstrate and sell their work.
Okay, one day I’ll stop meandering and focus on Deep Creek Lake itself. But first, I must swing by Sugar & Spice Bakery and Cheese, a wee Amish shop on Route 219 just south of Oakland.

Siegal is a freelance writer/photographer in Alexandria.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/garrett-county-md-beyond-deep-creek-lake/2013/07/18/dc32bcf2-ee50-11e2-9008-61e94a7ea20d_story.html

Right Time is Now - It's A Plant, Not A Sin

  For years DC politricksters chanted their mantra that "the time is not now" and "Congress will block it" when asked anything about lowering penalties for marijuana. I give Zuckerberg and his run for City Council, the credit for getting us to the right time.
  Now to pressure the City Council to make the fine as low as possible so that there is no point in enforcing the statute.

D.C. mayor backs decriminalizing marijuana, replacing criminal charges with civil fines

By Aaron C. Davis, Published: October 23

D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) on Wednesday offered his first unequivocal support for decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana, adding momentum to a legislative proposal that has the support of a supermajority on the D.C. Council and could make the District one of the nation’s most lenient jurisdictions on marijuana possession.
Under a measure proposed by council member Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), possession of less than an ounce of marijuana in the District would no longer be punishable by six months in jail and a penalty of $1,000.
Instead, those caught with amounts of the drug deemed for personal use would risk only a civil charge and a ticket of $100 — the equivalent of parking in a no-parking area in the District at rush hour.
Wells, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for mayor, and civil liberties groups have urged passage of the measure. They say the District’s marijuana laws have disproportionately affected African Americans and have saddled some residents with criminal records, making it hard for them to find gainful employment.
Wells and council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) have scheduled a two-part hearing on the bill, beginning Wednesday night in Southeast Washington and continuing Thursday at the John A. Wilson Building.
Gray said that his surrogates would testify Thursday in favor of decriminalizing marijuana.
“I support decriminalization. Legalization is another issue. I’m not there on that issue, yet,” the mayor said, alluding to laws such as those in Colorado and Washington state.
This past summer, D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier urged a “robust discussion” of the legislation, calling it a significant issue and saying she has concerns about the risks marijuana poses for children, as well as the potential conflict with federal law.
Staff members in Gray’s and Wells’s offices said neither Lanier nor anyone else from the police department was scheduled to testify Thursday.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/dc-mayor-backs-decriminalizing-marijuana-replacing-criminal-charges-with-civil-fines/2013/10/23/b70d1f3c-3c2d-11e3-a94f-b58017bfee6c_story.html

DC Bus Privatization - Does Not Benefit Public

I picked this up at the Washington, DC, Greenfest - about privatization of buses in DC. Private companies by definition serve the share holders via the bottom line. I think they call that fiduciary responsibility. Responsibility to the public is low priority.

www.bettertransitDC.org

Disproportionate Marijuana Arrests In DC

ACLU: D.C. pot possession arrest data show differences from national trends

By Annys Shin, Wednesday, June 12, 2:36 PM

Following the report last week from the ACLU that marijuana possession arrests had surged across the country over a 10-year period, the civil liberties group’s local chapter has now drilled down into the data to produce what it says is a more detailed look at how that trend has played out in the District.
The national report attributed much of the uptick to an increase in pot possession arrests of African Americans. According to the local ACLU report released Wednesday, the District had higher pot possession arrest rates and greater racial disparity among those arrestedthan almost any other state or county in the country.
D.C. is often compared to other states, which include non-urban areas, but counties can be more comparable jurisdictions. The report said that the District outstripped places such as Miami-Dade and Philadelphia counties in pot possession arrest rates.
In 2010, based on Metropolitan Police Department numbers, D.C. police made a daily average of nearly 15 such arrests. Arrest rates, the ACLU report said, were highest in gentrifying neighborhoods.
The report is part of the ACLU’s efforts to decriminalize marijuana.
Police Chief Cathy Lanier last week took issue with the national report’s findings and said that under her watch, MPD has been focused on pushing down violent crime rates, not going after pot users.
While the ACLU attributes the rise in marijuana arrest rates to post-crack drug war policies, academic experts who have studied the issue are not sure precisely what the cause is.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/aclu-dc-pot-possession-arrest-data-shows-differences-from-national-trends/2013/06/12/3f845fe6-d389-11e2-a73e-826d299ff459_story.html