The following is a copied email from Thursday, October 31, 2013:
Socastee Family, Dr. Elsberry, Members of the Horry County Board of Education, and Selected Media,
Per our district's and consortium's October 2013 submitted application for the Race to the Top grant, the Executive Summary's (p. 10) requirement that each LEA (local education agency) without collective bargaining representation, at a minimum, provide evidence that at least 70% of teachers from participating schools support the proposal, ONLY Mooresville, North Carolina, does so (appendix, p. B4-416). It does so by providing the number of teaching staff at each school and the percentage supporting the proposal. It does not provide the actual signatures of teachers in the application, but it does indicate that signatures were obtained. Of course, these signature sheets would have to be made available to categorically provide evidence of Mooresville's claim of meeting the requirement.
Horry County Schools provided a three page list of participating schools (B4-447 through B4-449), but it included only percentages. Numbers of participating staff at 96% of participating schools were NOT provided. Two schools' numbers and percentages were supplied, but Horry has 51 participating schools. No valid evidence of the 70% support can be deduced from only percentages. Since the application states that signatures were obtained by superintendents at each participating school in districts without collective bargaining, these documents are needed to obtain actual numbers of participating teachers, in order to substantiate the reported percentages.
Joint School District #2 (Idaho) provided the most teacher signatures (294) of all, but no percentages were given or means to determine its meeting the 70% requirement.
Alabama provided 74 teacher signatures from Piedmont City Schools. It also showed no evidence of the minimum 70% requirement, although by my estimate of approximately 80 professional staff members, the percentage would far exceed the requirement. Piedmont City Schools has only about 1200 students, the least of all the districts in our consortium. Mooresville, NC, is the next smallest, with approximately 5500 students.
The least evidence provided of all was NONE from the McAllen School District (Texas). I talked with the person in charge of grants for McAllen, Dr. Cynthia Saldivar (phone 956-632-8414). She told me that McAllen received input from various teacher organizations, survey data, committees of teachers, and several advisory boards to get support for the grant, but there is no documentation provided in Appendix B for McAllen's 70% teachers' support of the grant.
Michigan and Washington did not have to meet the requirement, for they are collective bargaining states.
A substantial number of missing teachers' signatures from not only Horry (SC) but also from Idaho, and Texas, without numbers of participants provided, will not allow a conclusion to be drawn that the consortium has provided sufficient evidence in meeting the minimum requirement of 70% support. No evidence exists in the application proper or Appendix B to corroborate the claim of the consortium that "signatures were gathered from over 70% of teachers at each participating school in districts that do not have collective bargaining representation rules in force" (B-27 of grant application).
The seven states in our consortium have failed miserably in collectively demonstrating compliance with the 70% stated requirement.
There are numerous other issues with our Race to the Top application, but I will not address them here. They will be forthcoming.
If I am in error in any part of my analysis, please point out where. I strive for accuracy always, but sometimes I make mistakes.
Respectfully and professionally,
Bobby
Socastee Family, Dr. Elsberry, Members of the Horry County Board of Education, and Selected Media,
Per our district's and consortium's October 2013 submitted application for the Race to the Top grant, the Executive Summary's (p. 10) requirement that each LEA (local education agency) without collective bargaining representation, at a minimum, provide evidence that at least 70% of teachers from participating schools support the proposal, ONLY Mooresville, North Carolina, does so (appendix, p. B4-416). It does so by providing the number of teaching staff at each school and the percentage supporting the proposal. It does not provide the actual signatures of teachers in the application, but it does indicate that signatures were obtained. Of course, these signature sheets would have to be made available to categorically provide evidence of Mooresville's claim of meeting the requirement.
Horry County Schools provided a three page list of participating schools (B4-447 through B4-449), but it included only percentages. Numbers of participating staff at 96% of participating schools were NOT provided. Two schools' numbers and percentages were supplied, but Horry has 51 participating schools. No valid evidence of the 70% support can be deduced from only percentages. Since the application states that signatures were obtained by superintendents at each participating school in districts without collective bargaining, these documents are needed to obtain actual numbers of participating teachers, in order to substantiate the reported percentages.
Joint School District #2 (Idaho) provided the most teacher signatures (294) of all, but no percentages were given or means to determine its meeting the 70% requirement.
Alabama provided 74 teacher signatures from Piedmont City Schools. It also showed no evidence of the minimum 70% requirement, although by my estimate of approximately 80 professional staff members, the percentage would far exceed the requirement. Piedmont City Schools has only about 1200 students, the least of all the districts in our consortium. Mooresville, NC, is the next smallest, with approximately 5500 students.
The least evidence provided of all was NONE from the McAllen School District (Texas). I talked with the person in charge of grants for McAllen, Dr. Cynthia Saldivar (phone 956-632-8414). She told me that McAllen received input from various teacher organizations, survey data, committees of teachers, and several advisory boards to get support for the grant, but there is no documentation provided in Appendix B for McAllen's 70% teachers' support of the grant.
Michigan and Washington did not have to meet the requirement, for they are collective bargaining states.
A substantial number of missing teachers' signatures from not only Horry (SC) but also from Idaho, and Texas, without numbers of participants provided, will not allow a conclusion to be drawn that the consortium has provided sufficient evidence in meeting the minimum requirement of 70% support. No evidence exists in the application proper or Appendix B to corroborate the claim of the consortium that "signatures were gathered from over 70% of teachers at each participating school in districts that do not have collective bargaining representation rules in force" (B-27 of grant application).
The seven states in our consortium have failed miserably in collectively demonstrating compliance with the 70% stated requirement.
There are numerous other issues with our Race to the Top application, but I will not address them here. They will be forthcoming.
If I am in error in any part of my analysis, please point out where. I strive for accuracy always, but sometimes I make mistakes.
Respectfully and professionally,
Bobby
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