z46\doc\web\2000\11\waslpush.txt So is this an urban legend or are there parents willing to take this to the media? This is similar, but worse than verifiable stories of school elsewhere in the nation getting rid of kids to raise their test scores. Any other similar stories out there those of you in arn-l ?? We need to see these kids and the principal on the 5PM news. We can still start a petition to ask Bergeson for her resignation, and picket her every appearance until she sits down with us and addresses our concerns instead of dismissing us. WE WON'T WASL Paul - Thanks for sharing this story with us. It is truly horrible, but unfortunately believable. Hope these parents consider rescuing their children from our corrupt public school system by homeschooling them (note that in the homeschooling world, the WASL and Certificate of Mastery do not exist due to our good homeschooling law). In fact, any really serious education activist should consider exercising this option. CYNDI On Tue, 7 Nov 2000 21:35:07 -0800 Paul R Stone writes: > If you are not sitting down, do so. If you have a heart condition > get out you nitro pills. > > This material is not believable. I think that I have a good nose > for spotting a hoax. The gentlemen who told me this is not given to > conspiracy theories, not does he have a wild imagination. He is a > boring engineer, like me, who his bases his decisions on facts and > data. I would not believe this material myself if I did not know > the gentleman personally. > > He also wants to start a group like CFA in Issaquah. > > I was talking to a friend of mine at work. He lives in Issaquah. > His son has had difficulty in school. I get the feeling that he is > a pretty good kid, but is has Attention Deficit Disorder. It seams > that four or five police officers have singled out some kids for > harassment. These kids are all underachievers, but have not prior > record as trouble makers. > > These kids have been pulled over without probable cause, searched > for drugs just because they were in the wrong neighborhood. Every > encounter with the police has been documented. Onr boy was > handcuffed, and sitting in the back of a police car when a police > officer came over, pulled him out of the back seat, asked him what > he had in his mouth. When he said "gum" the officer ordered him to > spit it out. The boy refused. His head was then smashed against > the hood of the patrol car. His braces (on his teeth) cut the > inside of his mouth. The officer then dug the gum out of his mouth > with his finger, and tossed it on the ground. One boy was roughed > up, and left lying on the ground. The police did not even take him > anywhere for medical attention. > > Infractions as trivial as a traffic ticket have been faxed to the > school district. Each of these kids have been expelled from school > because the police claim that these boys are a danger to other kids > in school. There is no evidence that any of them were a real danger > to anyone. > > Two teachers claim that they were in attendance at meetings where > underachieving students were identified for possible expulsion. The > plan was to give the names to the police, and let them build a case > that the boys are a danger to other students. This information > would then be sent to the Issaquah School District. When a > sufficient case was built against the boys, they would be expelled. > What was the reason for this plan? Raise WASL scores by expelling > underachievers. > > There are twenty families that have been affected by this evil plan. > They are going to file a class action law suit against the police > department, for starters. It will be expanded to include the school > district, and each board member individually. My friend claims that > this type of thing is happening on a limited basis across the state, > to a greater extent on this side of the mountains. He also claims > that this "PLAN" originated in the office of Terry Bergeson. > > All this makes me wonder if the sex scandal in Wenachee was more > than it appears. > > > Paul R. Stone > > My mind is now BOLDLY going where no mind has gone before. > > PS. Jim, Roger Edwards (regor02@home.com) is your contact to get a > group started in your town. Getting the police to arrest, or at least hassle, potential high-stakes test takers is really pretty lightweight, amateur stuff. Why, here in the Great State of . . . (where we have years and years of experience in very high-stakes testing -- not only kids' diplomas but jobs and paychecks on the line, not to mention higher political ambition. . .), we have honed the art of keeping potential failures from failing by keeping them from testing. Simplest way to keep the kids out is to schedule the tests during the height of cold and flu season. There is undoubtedly research somewhere that show a statistically significant correlation between test scores and resistance to disease. Simply put, the more robust kids with the better immune systems get higher scores. The Powers That Be in our state set the state testing calendar to take full advantage of seasonal changes to reduce the number of the "weaker" children present in school on testing days. Allergies often graduate to severe colds and perhaps flu. And since there are no make-up tests, kids who are absent simply don't count -- and their potential failure won't count against us! If the weather doesn't cooperate, which is often the case in this southwestern Eden I call home, we enlist the aid of the food service workers. Of course (as there is research somewhere that probably confirms), a large number of our potential failures comes from the ranks of those children who receive free breakfast every morning in our schools. It then becomes a very simple task to keep a batch of sausage sandwiches a little "off temperature," serve some milk a bit past its expiration date, or just have an "all-you-can-eat" morning at the pancake table. By the time the testing starts, these little darlings will be literally running from their seats, too sick to test. And those who manage to start testing sometimes become so stressed that the combination of a queasy stomach and test anxiety serve as an effective emetic. While kids who puke on their test documents pose an inconvenience to test administrators (We provide latex gloves and baggies for the contaminated documents.), tests that aren't completed are marked "Other - Not Scored," and we can dodge a few more failures. Until last year, we could mark kids with the Special Education label, and even if they tested, their scores weren't "counted" in our rating system. That included ALL special ed kids, from the severely handicapped to those who had orthopedic problems or even just received speech therapy. Since the special ed kids who take the regular test are now "counted," we're seeing fewer last minute referrals for the kid who may not pass but who has a limp or maybe a slight stammer. Now I have heard of other school districts where they have even more creative solutions. You'd be surprised how many parents who'll believe a phone call from someone identifying himself as a school administrator telling them that classes are starting late on a particular testing day. (Remember, a big chunk of intelligence is hereditary! Or -- true story -- as one parent said to me a few years ago: "I am a genius. My wife is a genius. So it is **genetically impossible** for my son NOT to qualify for the GT program." ) You see, if a student doesn't arrive and start testing by 10 am, that kid is counted absent for the test. We have a pretty good idea about who's going to fail, so there are few questions about who to call. If that doesn't work, the local Realtors will cooperate by calling their contacts at the power company to cut the electricity at certain addresses. No lights, no alarmclock, oversleep, no testing. Too bad. Cops are really a last resort, but we've found that they can be effective not only by busting high school students driving to school, but also stopping the parents of those younger failures. It's a proven fact, I'm sure, that the parents of these kids who have trouble with the tests are probably themselves have their own "problems." We don't even have to talk about Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, do we? I mean, do you think those moms stop drinking after their kids are born. We have to live with the kids' lowered cognitive abilities -- and test failures -- but a word in the right ear can stop a mom with an entire carpool of failing kids. (You know how those test failing kids hang out together.) By the time the cops and the children's services are through with the mom, those kids won't make the testing session. And remember, NO MAKEUPS! Washington State just needs a bit of time to figure out the best ways to improve it's test scores. With time, experience, and the proper incentive (who's their governor?), I'm confident they'll figure it out. In the interim, while I've tossed out a few free ideas, for a price, I could be hired for some real consulting on the topic. jp -------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the ARN-L list, send command SIGNOFF ARN-L to LISTSERV@LISTS.CUA.EDU. We used to have gang problems in the eastside Kirkland/Redmond among Asian American / Pacific Islander kids, and all over Seattle in all minorities, but no white gangs, and I've never heard of activity around Issasquah / plateau which is an affluence zone. Still, murder is one cause of dropouts we don't really think about much around here. -----Original Message----- From: George N. Schmidt [mailto:Csubstance@AOL.COM] Sent: Thursday, November 09, 2000 3:33 AM To: ARN-L@LISTS.CUA.EDU Subject: Re: Police harassing kids to expel them to improve WASL scores?? In a message dated 11/8/00 2:07:13 PM, monty@FAIRTEST.ORG writes: November 9, 2000 Hello Colleagues: This was part of the thread about WASL pushouts. I'm skeptical and hope someone will document the connection. The quote below gave me pause, and I'll explain why after offering it back to you... << > > These kids have been pulled over without probable cause, searched > > for drugs just because they were in the wrong neighborhood. Every > > encounter with the police has been documented. One boy was > > handcuffed, and sitting in the back of a police car when a police > > officer came over, pulled him out of the back seat, asked him what > > he had in his mouth. When he said "gum" the officer ordered him to > > spit it out. The boy refused. >> First, I think Jim Parsons (Texas) and Steve Orel (Alabama) have described the kinds of pushouts that are happening in most places. You don't need cops to arrange those things. It's part of the social and economic reality. If Washington has a different angle, it's kind of strange. Second, and more importantly, I'm not impressed with the "just a kid chewing gum" version of this reality. If you've got the time, the following narrative is trying to be as grimly factual as possible, and there is a "chewing gum" and drugs angle. Between 1995 and 1999 (when I was suspended from my teaching job in Chicago's Bowen High School), I taught English and worked as "security coordinator" at one of America's roughest schools. How do I say this "roughest" thing with confidence? Just one year as an example. Between August 1997 and June 1998, we 'lost' seven of our students -- or recent dropouts -- to murder outside the school, usually not during school hours: Ali Golden, Treville Smith, Shantae Harper, Antwan Jordan, Luis Diaz, and Steve Wilbourn all wound up dead before they reached the age of 18. Why only six names? I've already forgotten the seventh, but remember how he died in a running shoot out between two cars at the Indiana Illinois border on Indianapolis Blvd. What was his name anyway?... Anyway, during that time, everyone agreed that the rock cocaine industry was behind all the shootings. Even the Latin Dragons, which had a direct gun (as in LAWs and AK-47s) connection to Mexico City wouldn't have been so lethal if the money wasn't so big. And I was the guy who helped the Chicago police nail four Latin Dragons (two black and two Mexican) for the Antwan Jordan murder (I watched him die with a bullet through his brain five feet from the East wall of our school at about 2:30 p.m. in the afternoon) in December 1997. I knew the Dragons (and Kings, and Vice Lords, and GDs, and Counts, and Black Stones...) pretty well in those days. I was in court a lot. Once while I was in juvenile court on a gun case. In another case, a little kid (about nine years old) was up in front of Judge Lubin (I believe it was) for being part of an Uptown rock corner. The dealers would play basketball in the middle of an alley so they had a good view in both directions and at least two sets of fences to jump if there was a bust. At the end of the alley, a bunch of "shorties" would ride around on bikes. All would be "chewing" gum. When someone made a buy and the money dropped, the buyer would go to the next block, where one of the shorties would ride on his bike and spit out the gum, which would have the rock in the middle. The customer would be picking up a wad of gum on the ground near a little kid on a bike -- not getting a baggy of rock from the basketball player. Before reporting urban legends, be careful to realize that there are a lot of urban facts, too. That nine-year-old kid I watched in juvenile court in Chicago may have been a "child" but he was also part of a Gangster Disciple drug operation. And he admitted how the chewing gum thing worked. It sounded like a strange idea to me, but I was just sitting there, in that closed courtroom (juvenile trials are not open to the public) listening closely. Later, some of the gang bangers I worked with confirmed it. The cop who checked out that chewing gum in Washington may have been unnecessarily brutal or insensitive -- but it's not out of the question that he had some interest in finding out what was going on and knew that chewing gum wasn't always chewing gum. Also, in the real world of the streets, you don't have the time always to be sensitive to certain things. That poppoppopping sound that real guns make in the real world can some in a split second and change everything in your life for an eternity. The best video depiction of those realities I've ever seen comes at the opening of Spike Lee's movie "Clockers." The only thing that's missing from that scene is the smell you get when somebody is shot dead after a big meal. Racial profiling and all kinds of nasty stuff also exist. But the cops aren't always the bad guys. In really nasty places, the last thing cops have time to do is worry about chasing kids around because their test scores are "low." The story doesn't ring true for city cops. Maybe in the suburbs, but who knows? One last thing. I probably knew 50 kids who were murdered during the 30 years I taught in Chicago (1969 - 1999). I attended dozens of gang funerals. I never once met a mother who didn't swear her kid was a good boy and not really in a gang. We used to make cynical jokes about how if the gang banger murders made the papers (usually, they aren't even reported any more), there was a format to the story... the first paragraph was the mandatory kid was killed, second paragraph was about who the police thought did it and why, and paragraph three was the quote from the mother saying he was a good boy and not in a gang... Then you'd go to the funeral (at Gatlings, which has drive by visitation over on Halsted, or Leak, or Brown's, etc., etc., etc.) and the kid would be in the box wearing black and gold, or black and blue, or whatever, and, low and behold, Mom would also be wearing the same colors. Such events lead to skeptical looks when the litany begins... I knew mothers who claimed, until I got to know them, that they didn't know where that $50 or $100 cash the kid gave Mom each week was coming from. They knew. They prayed or preyed, depending upon the reality. Not all were nice. I don't know if these realities are true in Washington, but since there is a lot of cash around Seattle, Redmond and other places -- and perhaps a lot of naivete or blindness or politically correct stupidity -- I have a hunch that the Vice Lords, Latin Kings, Black P. Stones, Gangster Disciples, Dragons, Counts, or one of the other major leaguers I knew has decided the place makes a good "mark." One leading GD I worked in Chicago with moved to Minneapolis after he graduated from high school in June 1968. It was a corporate transfer arranged by the GDs. He came back the following fall and laughed about how those college towns were full of marks and other amenities a young male could ill afford to say no to. Christmas 1997, I was the one who helped take up the collection to buy him a winter coat after he was shot through the jacket by the same gun that murdered Antwan Jordan, and his one winter coat became evidence because the bullet spent itself in the sleeve and then dropped into his pocket. I'm sure he was telling the truth about all those "marks" up in Minnesota. Don't bet the whole thing is just a conspiracy to raise test scores. There are other problems in the world, too. George Schmidt Editor, Substance 5132 W. Berteau Chicago, IL 60641 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the ARN-L list, send command SIGNOFF ARN-L to LISTSERV@LISTS.CUA.EDU.