Students, Teachers, and Other Faculty Catch a Fraud
June 16, 2008
This story from the dispatch is unbelievable. It details the story of a local principal that has been recommended for a suspension of her license due to testing “irregularities.”
Six teachers, two secretaries and the custodians invoked the spirit of Sherlock
Holmes to solve the case of the tampered tests.Students’ answers on state exams had changed overnight.
To solve the whodunit, the staff-turned-sleuths collected evidence and conducted an experiment.
It was elementary, they say: The culprit was the principal.Now the Ohio Department of Education has recommended that Stacey Carna’s license be suspended –
that’s all state law allows, despite the high stakes attached to school testing.Carna led Ashville Elementary for less than one school year, 2006-07, but the Teays Valley
district paid her to stay home for the most-recent year. She received her $81,585 salary because
she still had a contract.The facts of the case, according to the sleuthing staff, began with this: Carna didn’t stay
late. Ever.But then Carna stayed quite late one Monday, the first day of the state achievement tests in May
2007, teachers said.The second clue: They knew students had picked wrong test answers that suddenly became correct.
And there were eraser marks. Lots of them.Then Carna spent more late nights in her office, with paper covering the window. Unusual, the
staff thought. The custodian said Carna told him she couldn’t be bothered.Then came the linchpin of the case: After testing was over on the Wednesday of test week, the
amateur detectives placed the box containing the fifth-grade tests exactly 3 inches from the
storage-room filing cabinets. The fourth-grade tests were 4 inches away, and those for
third-graders 2 inches from the cabinets. The secretaries said they locked the door behind
them.The next morning, the crates of tests had been pushed flush with the cabinets. The district
suspended Carna, despite her claims of innocence.“I clearly told (the superintendent) that I did not alter tests in any way, and that I did not
have any firsthand knowledge of any security breech (sic) relating to the altering of student
answers or test access in the storage room,” Carna wrote in a district statement. Further, she had
always had trouble with those secretaries, she wrote.Carna, 38, of Pickerington, couldn’t be reached for comment. Her attorney, Beverly J. Farlow,
said she had no comment, either.The superintendent, Jeff Sheets, sent the Ohio Department of Education a letter the week of the
tests, detailing what his investigators had found. Then he questioned whether Carna’s last school,
in Franklin County’s Hamilton district, had come by its test-score gains honestly.“I questioned whether she had displayed, in our district, characteristics as a leader that would
foster truly raising test scores,” Sheets said.Carna’s contract had been nonrenewed in Hamilton because the district said she wasn’t performing
to its standards, although Teays Valley liked her because of her previous success in raising test
scores. Hamilton officials did not respond to requests to comment on the case.Punishments for test cheating peaked in Ohio around 2005, when the number of tests increased.
Carna’s suggested punishment, it turns out, is a bit stronger than most: The most-common discipline
from the state for cheating on standardized exams is a written reprimand.A
Dispatch analysis found that of the 38 educators disciplined for test cheating
since 1997, eight were from central Ohio. The department says it can’t and won’t go beyond the law,
and wouldn’t say whether it thinks the punishment for cheaters is too weak. After Carna’s case is
presented to a hearing officer next month, the State Board of Education might be asked to vote on
her suspension.After Carna’s actions were questioned, Ashville’s tests were declared no good, and students had
to take a different version of the tests the next week.Sheets hopes the department takes punishing test cheaters seriously; it cost his district a
lot.But the detective work was free.
Obama Camp Again Dissing Ohio
June 16, 2008
This is not the first time that we have heard from a member of the Obama camp about how it can garner 270 electoral votes and not win Ohio. More recently according to the Dispatch, Obama adviser David Plouffe secretly told a crowd how they can win this thing without Ohio’s help.
At a fundraiser held at a Washington brewery Friday, Plouffe told a largely young crowd that the electoral map would be fundamentally different from the one in 2004. Wins in Ohio and Florida would guarantee Obama the presidency if he holds onto the states won by Democrat John Kerry, Plouffe said, but those two battlegrounds aren’t required for victory.
Florida, which has 27 electoral votes this year, gave the presidency to George W. Bush in the disputed election of 2000. Ohio, with its 20 electoral votes, ensured Bush of re-election in 2004 in his race against Kerry. Neither state was hospitable to Obama this year. Clinton handily won in Ohio and she prevailed in Florida although the national party had punished the state and the candidates didn’t campaign there.
The presumed Democratic nominee’s electoral math counts on holding onto the states Kerry won, among them Michigan (17 electoral votes), where Obama campaigns on Monday and Tuesday. Plouffe said most of the Kerry states should be reliable for Obama, but three currently look relatively competitive with Republican rival John McCain — Pennsylvania, Michigan and particularly New Hampshire.
Asked about his remarks, Plouffe said Ohio and Florida start out very competitive — but he stressed that they are not tougher than other swing states and said Obama will play “extremely hard” for both. But he said the strategy is not reliant on one or two states.
“You have a lot of ways to get to 270,” Plouffe said. “Our goal is not to be reliant on one state on November 4th.”
Plouffe has been pitching such a new approach to the electoral map in calls and meetings, according to several people who discussed the conversations on the condition of anonymity because they were meant to be private. Plouffe confirmed the descriptions in the interview.
Now it is no secret that Obama was not my choice for the democratic candidate for president, but he is the nominee and I think he is an intelligent man. I don’t understand why his surrogates keep suggesting that Obama doesn’t need Ohio to win. Many Ohioans want change, even if it isn’t Clinton and will happily vote for him. But they also like to be told how important their vote is to this process and to the eventual ascension of the winning candidate to the office of president. He really needs to get a hold of his advisers and quiet them down.
Isn’t the GOP the Party of Fiscal Responsibility
June 16, 2008
Not so, according to this Dispatch article. As a Clinton democrat, I admit that I am new to the party and still have some Republican leanings. I do think it is absolutely imperative that we balance our budget with regards to all levels of government.
Both parties in the state of Ohio are attempting to spend more money from the rainy-day fund.
On Thursday, the governor vetoed a section of the $1.6 billion economic-stimulus bill that would take $200 million from those emergency reserves. He was concerned about setting a precedent of spending rainy-day money for new projects instead of stabilizing the budget, spokesman Keith Dailey said.
Why can’t the parties work together to find solutions to the many problems that we have in this state without constantly throwing money at them and doing little to actually fixing them?
Big Oil in America - Both Parties Have It Wrong
June 10, 2008
Today Senate Republicans blocked a measure that would have placed “windfall profit taxes” on oil companies in an attempt to lower the pain at the pump. The republican party line has been that these taxes would do nothing to lower prices at the pump as we continue to see prices skyrocketing at higher than $4-a-gallon.
But our friends in the democratic party haven’t done much to help matters either. Democratic leaders decided to block drilling in places like Anwar in Alaska and off-shore in the United States. Republicans claim that this will increase supply and lower costs at the pump.
It seems to me that we need a varied approach to solve this problem. We do need to increase oil production in an effort to decrease prices in the short term, but we must also explore alternative forms of energy to decrease dependence on unfriendly governments.
So friends, both parties are screwing us. What do we do about it?
Tags: WindfallProfit Taxes, Gas Prices
Some Clinton Supporters Turn to McCain
June 10, 2008
Check out this from our friends at NPR:
Ohio HB 477
June 10, 2008
A medida que el mundo se vuelve más pequeño y más interconectado, ¿por qué quiere ser Ohio más aislado? ¿Cuáles son los temores de permitir a la gente que hablen otros idiomas aparte del Inglés? ¿Tiene miedo de que pudiera ser obligado a hablar español, o quizás incluso Somalia?
Los inmigrantes que vienen a nuestro país, legal o ilegalmente, vienen a crear una vida mejor para sí mismos. Con el fin de hacerlo, deben aprender Inglés para prosperar en esta sociedad. Pero para hacerlo, ellos deben recibir también la ayuda de nuestro gobierno para facilitar ese proceso y el tiempo que tarda en aprender un idioma. No podemos dejarlos en una tierra donde nadie pueda comunicarse y esperar que rápidamente se asimilen y olvidaen su lengua materna. El aprendizaje de la lengua lleva tiempo. Ahora es nuestra obligación moral de dárselo a ellos.
From Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton
June 5, 2008
Below is a copy of the email sent to her supporters late yesterday.
I wanted you to be one of the first to know: on Saturday, I will hold an event in Washington D.C. to thank everyone who has supported my campaign. Over the course of the last 16 months, I have been privileged and touched to witness the incredible dedication and sacrifice of so many people working for our campaign. Every minute you put into helping us win, every dollar you gave to keep up the fight meant more to me than I can ever possibly tell you.
On Saturday, I will extend my congratulations to Senator Obama and my support for his candidacy. This has been a long and hard-fought campaign, but as I have always said, my differences with Senator Obama are small compared to the differences we have with Senator McCain and the Republicans.
I have said throughout the campaign that I would strongly support Senator Obama if he were the Democratic Party’s nominee, and I intend to deliver on that promise.
When I decided to run for president, I knew exactly why I was getting into this race: to work hard every day for the millions of Americans who need a voice in the White House.
I made you — and everyone who supported me — a promise: to stand up for our shared values and to never back down. I’m going to keep that promise today, tomorrow, and for the rest of my life.
I will be speaking on Saturday about how together we can rally the party behind Senator Obama. The stakes are too high and the task before us too important to do otherwise.
I know as I continue my lifelong work for a stronger America and a better world, I will turn to you for the support, the strength, and the commitment that you have shown me in the past 16 months. And I will always keep faith with the issues and causes that are important to you.
In the past few days, you have shown that support once again with hundreds of thousands of messages to the campaign, and again, I am touched by your thoughtfulness and kindness.
I can never possibly express my gratitude, so let me say simply, thank you.
Sincerely,
Hillary Rodham Clinton
I think that should put to rest all of the anti-Hillary crowd that thinks that she won’t back Obama.
Carnival of Ohio Politics #120
June 4, 2008
Check out the new Carnival of Ohio Politics compiled by Jill Miller Zimon. Great job!
Would Obama Write Off Ohio?
June 1, 2008
Governor Bill Richardson was recently quoted as saying:
“If we win these three states [New Mexico, Nevada, and Colorado], plus the traditional Democratic base, (Obama) is president,” New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson told Washington-based media group Politico last week. “If John Kerry had won these three states and lost Ohio as he did, he would’ve been president.”
That would total 19 electoral votes while Ohio has only 20.
It seems like that could be a very risky strategy on Obama’s part, don’t you think? It would also be a slap in the fact to Ohio voters who have come accustomed to playing a larger role in the selection of the President of the United States.
Perhaps Richardson is realizing what most Clinton supporters have been saying…Obama lost many of the states that he would need to win to win the general election.
Do Smoking Bans Impede the Rights Of Patrons?
May 31, 2008
Two Central Ohio bars are challenging a local smoking ban which resulted in investigations and fines being assessed. According to the Dispatch a local Moose Lodge and Zeno’s Victorian Village are slated for hearings resulting from patrons smoking in their establishments.
At one, the Loyal Order of Moose lodge, 1970 Schrock Rd., they’re mum about the upcoming encounter. A woman who answered the phone said nobody would talk about the hearing and refused to say whether patrons still are smoking at the lodge.
City officials suspect they are.
Roy Walls, who owns Jack’s Corner Pub, 2480 Summit St., said he’s a bit frustrated with the situation.
Walls said he has enforced the ban since last year, much to the chagrin of many patrons.
Some women sneak smokes in the bathroom and other customers have torn down his “no smoking” signs and snuffed out cigarettes on the sign outside, Walls said. He’s pretty sure that the last fine his business received was prompted by a ban-hating customer who lit up when he recognized the city inspector.
“When it was 10 degrees and snowing outside this winter, they were raising Cain,” said Walls, who thinks the choice of whether to allow smoking should be up to individual bar owners.
I’m tired of smokers whining about these bans. They were voted on in a democratic process and the majority of us do not want the second hand smoke. Don’t we have rights as well?
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