Our Mystery Donor Revealed
From Dr. Enfield's office:
The Seattle Foundation President and CEO Norm Rice today announced funding for Teach for America in Seattle Public Schools. I want to thank The Seattle Foundation and all the donors for their support. Please see the attached announcement for more information.
The TFA teachers receive a typical first-year salary from the District and are members of the Seattle Education Association. They will, however, receive additional support from TFA during the school year. The Seattle Foundation will cover the $4,000 fee per teacher paid to TFA– an estimated $20,000 total. This fee is used to offset the cost of training.
“We know that an exceptional teacher in every classroom can help close the achievement gap and increase the academic success of all of our students. Teach for America brings even more exceptional and motivated teachers into our classrooms,” said Norman B. Rice, President and CEO of The Seattle Foundation. “Education remains one of our top priorities, and I want to thank local community members for supporting Teach for America by donating to The Seattle Foundation, including James R. Faulstich, Matt Griffin and Evelyne Rozner, Intelius, Inc., Will Poole and Janet Levinger, Ann Ramsay-Jenkins (William M. Jenkins Fund), and the Satya and Rao Remala Foundation.”
If more TFA teachers are hired in Seattle during the next year, Teach for America can use additional Seattle Foundation grant funds for the training and support of those teachers, Rice said.
What appears to have happened is the above group of people/entities gave the money to the Seattle Foundation who in turn are giving it to the district to pay TFA. (I note that Mr. Griffin is a top funder of the School Board incumbents' campaigns.)
I will also point out that I have found no study or evidence that TFA teachers have helped closed the achievement gap in any school. Mr. Rice apparently buys into the idea that every single TFA recruit is an "exceptional teacher." What he bases that on I cannot say except maybe he believes TFA's own press releases.
The "next year" phrase is unclear to SPS (they think it means next year as well). I have a call into Seattle Foundation to ask.
The Seattle Foundation President and CEO Norm Rice today announced funding for Teach for America in Seattle Public Schools. I want to thank The Seattle Foundation and all the donors for their support. Please see the attached announcement for more information.
From the district press release:
The TFA teachers receive a typical first-year salary from the District and are members of the Seattle Education Association. They will, however, receive additional support from TFA during the school year. The Seattle Foundation will cover the $4,000 fee per teacher paid to TFA– an estimated $20,000 total. This fee is used to offset the cost of training.
“We know that an exceptional teacher in every classroom can help close the achievement gap and increase the academic success of all of our students. Teach for America brings even more exceptional and motivated teachers into our classrooms,” said Norman B. Rice, President and CEO of The Seattle Foundation. “Education remains one of our top priorities, and I want to thank local community members for supporting Teach for America by donating to The Seattle Foundation, including James R. Faulstich, Matt Griffin and Evelyne Rozner, Intelius, Inc., Will Poole and Janet Levinger, Ann Ramsay-Jenkins (William M. Jenkins Fund), and the Satya and Rao Remala Foundation.”
If more TFA teachers are hired in Seattle during the next year, Teach for America can use additional Seattle Foundation grant funds for the training and support of those teachers, Rice said.
What appears to have happened is the above group of people/entities gave the money to the Seattle Foundation who in turn are giving it to the district to pay TFA. (I note that Mr. Griffin is a top funder of the School Board incumbents' campaigns.)
I will also point out that I have found no study or evidence that TFA teachers have helped closed the achievement gap in any school. Mr. Rice apparently buys into the idea that every single TFA recruit is an "exceptional teacher." What he bases that on I cannot say except maybe he believes TFA's own press releases.
The "next year" phrase is unclear to SPS (they think it means next year as well). I have a call into Seattle Foundation to ask.
Comments
The fact remains that he and his organization are now accomplices in the violation of state law.
I include my most recent letter to the school board below.
Dear Seattle School Directors,
Please include this email and its attachments in the transcript of evidence used to make a decision on the TfA proposal for 9-21-2011. Please also include all my communications to you on this matter.
This is my third communication of the week sent to directors about TfA. I have yet to receive a response. I would appreciate a response.
Attached you will find my testimony and related data for 9-21-2011.
I am asking directly for when the SPS performed a review of all options for closing the achievement gaps and what this review found in regard to options for closing achievement gaps. I am completely unaware of any public engagement on this matter.
I believe there was no such review and that the SPS has in fact made many choices which expanded achievement gaps in mathematics. The choices in other curricular areas are also weak largely because of the SPS's refusal to use practices known to work with educationally disadvantaged learners.
Should the Board approve the TfA action report on 9-21-2011, please use evidence in making that decision. The Board should be ready to submit to the court a transcript of the evidence used in making the decision. It would be appreciated if this transcript is in a form likely to have been used by directors. In the past the SPS has submitted piles of paper work much of which is a repetition of documents and emails repeated over and over again and assembled in a fashion that no one could easily make any sense out of. Also I remind you that someone needs to certify that the transcript of evidence is correct. This is the statutory responsibility of the Board not the Superintendent or any other staff. The Board to the best of my knowledge has continually failed to have anyone certify that the transcripts are correct, when Board approvals are appealed.
As a director one takes an oath to uphold the constitution and laws of the State of Washington ... which include WAC 181-79A-231.
Sincerely,
Danaher M. Dempsey, Jr.
“Education remains one of our top priorities, and I want to thank local community members for supporting Teach for America by donating to The Seattle Foundation, including James R. Faulstich, Matt Griffin and Evelyne Rozner, Intelius, Inc., Will Poole and Janet Levinger, Ann Ramsay-Jenkins (William M. Jenkins Fund), and the Satya and Rao Remala Foundation.”
The Big Money finds laws and the democratic process cumbersome so the answer is just to buy one's way around them.
Watch how the $500,000 four up for reelection vote on this one.
low Income students get screwed again. No need to use effective practices when these folks run the show.
--Birds of a feather flock together
From Dr. Enfield's office:
The Seattle Foundation President and CEO Norm Rice today announced funding for Teach for America in Seattle Public Schools.
The question I have is:
When was the commitment to fund TfA by the Seattle Foundation first made?
It seems more than a little fishy that Dr. Enfield could not reveal where the money was coming from if in fact it was coming from the Seattle Foundation.
"Deus ex machina"
1. (in ancient Greek and Roman drama) a god {{Norm Rice}} introduced into a play to resolve the entanglements of the plot.
2. any artificial or improbable device resolving the difficulties of a plot.
-----
This certainly strains what little credibility Dr. Enfield might still have.
Wikipedia: Intelius
Seattle Weekly: Intelius and the Dubious Art of 'Post-Transaction Marketing'
Matt Griffin also gave $1000 to the the Defeat 1098 campaign.
DWE
Well those four votes are purchased and TfA funded.... any doubt that State Law will be meaningless when this comes to a vote on Wednesday 9-21-11.
19th Century Robbers Barrons were small potatoes compared to this crew.
Destroy any semblance of Unions at all costs.
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In Sri Lanka the elites originally made sure that the public schools were not teaching in English after the British left. Yet they sent their children to private schools that taught in English. This assured their children of a huge employability advantage over the public school graduate.
It is increasingly getting harder and harder to miss what is happening to low income students in the Seattle Schools.
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The Board refuses to improve the educational opportunities presented to low income students .... watch anecdotes trump evidence once again on Wednesday.
Norm Rice relies on well-informed advisors for most issues. That is his gift, not curse. Unfortunately, he is currently being informed by some real reformist troglodytes. They are his problem and now they are our problem as teachers in Seattle.
If you want Norm Rice to change then all you have to do is call him, write him, or email him. This is a man who listens. He is also very conscious of his public image. If he feels the fool...he will change.
Trust the man, talk to him, and he will drop TFA like a hot spud...
I think that Susan Enfield got caught.
Thus Norm Rice needed to cover for her.
========
Remember DeBell was concerned about the slippery slope of the effect of contributions.
So NOW that the four Directors, who are completely unable to make evidence based decisions, are going to make a decision on a project funded by their big contributors.
Apparently this Board slipped down that slippery slope a long time ago with a number of 4-3 votes.
So many groups and politicians have their pride stuck so far up their backside that they haven't the humility to come to a school and ask US what we need. Rather we are told what we need by people who haven't taught, don't work with school age children, are completely disconnected from the community they wish to impact or, my personal favority, say they live in the South End and mean Seward Park or Pritchard Beach. Yes, very gangsta in a two million dollar home on Lake Washington. More beauracratic waste on pet-projects rather than basic solutions.
-Demosthenes
Where are Woodward and Bernstein when you need them? There is a rat at the bottom of this, and we need a good investigative reporter to flush it out.
In 2007, Rozner and Griffin contributed $12,000 alone to Peter Maier. Their total contributions to Maier, Carr, Martin-Morris and Sundquist were $35,000.
As said earlier, their total contributions this year to the incumbents are $12,000. But please keep in mind that in 2007, an avalanche of donations came in October.
I also note that John Stanton sits on the Board of the Seattle Foundation. Stanton is a big contributor to the Republican Party and in 2007 was a big contributor to Maier, Carr, Martin-Morris and Sundquist, to whom he gave a total of $15,000. He also spent $53,500 on the Defeat 1098 campaign.
This year he has so far spent $10,000 on the incumbents.
DWE
n.rice@seattlefoundation.org
DWE
you're missing the big picture - at long last, an entire branch of complete sell outs crapping on the Democratic brand have come out of their decades of hiding & lying
(for those of us who missed the grand entrance in the 90's with the repeal of Glass Steagal, NAFTA, Medica consolidation ... )
where was I?
they've come out of decades of hiding and lying, so they can just cash in and rip us all off.
I'll be writing in "george of the jungle" instead of wasting my votes on these kind of sell outs anymore, so, they're doing me a favor!
aside from tea partiers being completely nuts, these sell outs basically belong on the tea party side of the tracks.
TheyAreNotOnOurSide
Seattle Foundation Supports Teach For America
Date: 5/21/2010
As part of the effort to bring Teach For America (TFA) to Washington in 2011, The Seattle Foundation will grant $250,000 to TFA and seek to, at minimum, match that amount through donations from fundholders and other contributors.
Between 2011 and 2013, Teach For America’s goal is to place 150 TFA corps members across three-to-five Puget Sound-area school districts to help close the achievement gap between low-income students and their more affluent peers.
So, now the board knows the donor. Some worry about influence of dollars on public ed. Will anything change? I doubt it.
With the money being given to this so-called foundation, and its prior and current connection to the election campaign of four sitting board members, I think Michael DeBell, Kay Smith-Blum or Betty Patu should be "encouraged" (via email inundation) to introduce an amendment such as:
Those with campaign contributions given by the members of this foundation should be excused from voting on matters related to this foundation.
--let's see how DeBell skates on this slippery slope
Watch Norm Rice one year ago soliciting donors to bring TFA to Seattle. Surprising that Enfield had no idea who the donors were -- it's been a year in the works.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6ETyV7CGzg
From the "About Us" page:
"We maintain an unparalleled understanding of local needs and issues through regular dialogue with hundreds of King County nonprofit organizations to gain a first-hand understanding of the most effective programs and strategies. "
WOW so that led Norm Rice and friends to believe that TfA would be the preferred route to narrowing achievement gaps.
I am scratching my head in disbelief.
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The Seattle Foundation's mission is to create a healthy community through engaged philanthropy, community knowledge and leadership. We inspire informed and generous giving to make our community—local, national and international—a vital and healthy place to live.
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So Mr. Rice have either you or your donors
read WAC 181-79A-231?
If so please tell me when the "review of all options for closing the achievement gaps" took place.
I have yet to find a shred of evidence that TfA has ever reduced achievement gaps in a community that had an adequate supply of fully certificated teachers.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2012704319_guest24rice.html
-- Citing MGJ's blatantly false 17% statistic as a reason for drastic ed reform
--a statistic provided by SPS Broad Foundation staff
--- during Enfield's tenure as Chief Academic Officer, as I recall.
--But she knew nothing about the donors even up to this month's School Board meeting.
Curiouser and curiouser. . . .. .
Date: 5/21/2010
$240-250k may still be chump change to the Seattle Foundation if the Gates Foundation is the one actually footing the bill:
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Grants-2010/Pages/Seattle-Foundation-OPP1019017.aspx
I agree with slippery slope @ 9/15/11 9:08 PM -- Board Members who are receiving campaign funding from the TFA funders should recuse themselves from the TFA vote.
Great find... the You-Tube upload was on August 31, 2010.
Nice Work!! Listening to what Norm Rice has to say. It is clear he is part of the conspiracy to run around state law.
His sales pitch for TfA is riddled with information that has NO statistical basis.
Zebra Zulu ... Norm sure needed a different speech writer for his "TWO MINUTE" propaganda pitch.
He completely fails to connect any causes for the achievement gaps to his proposed solution.
His TfA "research shows" statement is complete BS.
What research is he referring to?
Research in Mississippi where few fully certificated teachers were available?
Well now we know why Jennifer Wallace executive Director of the PESB was so big on approving the end run around the state law. Big Bucks want it and Jennifer Delivers.
What a political system!!!
What public servants!!!
Wonder where Randy Dorn stands on these shennanigens?
Where is my republic?
Will Seattle get more TfA as we have Norm Rice's fraudulent claims of TfA success?
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The idea that schools will be improved by under trained teachers making a two year stop in the classroom before grad school is ridiculous.
So why is Norm Rice selling this crap?
the country was turned in Somalia or the Sudan, so we little pee-ople are supposed to feel we got something when we lost only a little, instead of everything.
Norm belongs with Patty & Maria & Gary & Dwight & Norm & Adam & Jim & Chris ... and Arne and Arne's boss --
take your fat paychecks for decades of selling us out, and go away.
It makes perfect sense for Norm to go to bat for the incestuous yuppies of the Kopp Kipp Krime Syndicate.
TheyArentOnOurSide
And I heard that SSIA closed its doors this week.
Something is very wrong.
Instead of investigating causes of achievement gaps and possible actions that could improve the situation ... they do the irrational.
The Seattle Foundation proclaims that the Seattle Foundation will bring TfA to Seattle as a solution for narrowing the achievement gap.
NO valid RESEARCH ....
NO basis for such a move ..... other than Oligarchs know best.
This move violates WAC 181-79A-231 as you can be sure the neither the District nor the Seattle Foundation investigated all other options for closing the achievement gaps....
The GOAL was to bring the TfA syndicate to town ... this had ZERO to do with the achievement gaps.
If the achievement gaps were a concern there would have been actual research done on the causes of the Gap and open discussion of possible solutions. => This is called community engagement (just in case you forgot -- its been a really long time).
The Fact is there are huge differences in the Reading and Math Gaps when Seattle is compared with other Puget Sound school districts with significant Low Income populations. Seattle is an incredibly poor performer in this regard.... IT is not Seattle's Teachers that are the problem ...it is the instructional materials and direction provided by leadership ... The district's that are doing better have leaders making evidence based decisions unlike Seattle.
Does the Seattle leadership and Board continue to make extremely poor decisions so that the lack of GAP progress can be an excuse for continued reform ... like bringing in TfA?
There are proven practices that are being ignored by the SPS..... but Norm Rice is NOT going to actually address real solutions because that is NOT what this next expensive move is about and I am sure he would not want to embarrass Susan Enfield or the Board with the truth.
The SPS Directors ignored the data and will now likely ignore the motivations of the donors as well as the data and the State Law.
Welcome to wild west Seattle Schools with the leadership that ignores policies and laws when it suits those with the money.
- the other skeptical -
The Seattle Foundation also directs some giving. When donors die, any amount left in their account goes into a pool of money that is directed by the Foundation's board. So the Foundation itself is choosing charities to support, such as Teach for America.
The individual donors named in the article might be directing grants to TfA from their Seattle Foundation accounts. The Seattle Foundation may also be promoting grants to TfA to their donors. Finally, the Seattle Foundation may be making grants to TfA out of the pool of money that the Foundation controls.
Donor advised funds and community foundations are wonderful ideas and they are really great tools for planned giving, but you need to know what their policies are for when the original donor/advisors die. Some allow the donors to name successors, some do not. In addition, it is wise to know what sort of giving the board prefers to do with the Foundation account.
WV says "comas"...yup
Oompah
If this is a grant (and I believe it is), it must conform to Superintendent Staff Procedure G45.06 which states grants shall be coordinated throught the Grants Office, applications must be approved by Financial Services and others. Grants for over $250K or that carry funding obligations after the grant expires require approval by the School Board. This requires introduction and action at legislative meetings.
First, a TFA hire is a commitment of funds of $8K ($4K for two years). The TFA contract gives a range of 20-25 TFA teacher candidates per year. That presents a potential financial exposure of $160K-$200K. The Seattle Foundation statement only mentions one year. Who is on the hook for the continuing fees? Sorry Normy, this ain't no $20K.
Direct payment to TFA is unacceptable. SF is not a party to the contract. SPS' name is on the contract; a contract that states SPS SHALL pay fees (the contract's ambiguous and conflicting language re: "shall have no obligation" would be interpreted in court against the author of the document.) If SF gives money to SPS, it's a grant.
Gifts or donations are to go to Alliance (yeah, whaddup wi' dat?) for beneficent dispensation. This is not a gift.
I want to see the grant application and agreement please.
Continued analysis at Seattle Foundation donors: Intellius. Its founder Naveen Jain is a well known serial entrepreneur who has attracted any number of lawsuits and threats to sue. He has counter-sued, apparently. He is no longer at Intellius. Intellius, the company, had a shaky reputation a few years back around its handling of data and the value of its marketing product.
Maybe the company is now looking for corporate redemption via civic giving. But it is a curious choice to attach a controversial company to a controversial (TFA) cause. I would have thought The Seattle Foundation, TFA AND SPS would have wanted funders with squeaky clean reputations.
Susan
Actions speak louder than political BS.
"Experiment" excellent word choice.
Illegal Ill-advised experimental venture would be even more accurate.
The last big experiment was the three-year completely unmonitored Cleveland high math experiment brought to us by UW Dr. James King and the NSF/EHR ... it was a complete disaster.
Look for this TfA boondoggle to impact nothing in a positive way..... other than the careers of TfA folks.
What many may not realize is:
TFA got $6.2M from the rich boys club last spring for their PNW expansion (including $200K from Normy)
The $4K is per year per candidate. The TFA contract is for 20-25 candidates per year (TFA contract runs to 2013. At 2 years ea, the first years crop could be $200K.. What a waste, no?
Not included is the wages(borne by the district) for the ill-prepared, inexperienced teacher, plus the wage for the Star mentor teacher, plus the lost opportunity cost to train a teacher new to the profession who plans to stick around.
Not included is the $80K start-up cost at the UW for a (short-lived) TFA alt cert program.
Not included is the opportunity cost of talented young teachers who decide to say WTF and go to districts who don't play these games.
Not included are the state employees who shill for TFA on our dime.
Yeah, Norm, a bargain at $20K
...am I forgetting anything?
Why doesn't HR direct these TFA recruits to other schools, like Betty Patu asked? Susan Enfield replied that, of course, they can (theoretically) be sent to schools like Loyal Heights.
But as astute readers of this blog have pointed out--HR sends the applications to the schools, and Janet, Susan, and the TFA syndicate had already chosen their marks--the schools that fit their model--those "poor, minority children."
Does this script help TFA fundraise? Does it allow their ambitious recruits to brag about their time in the 'hood when they have their interviews with Goldman Sachs in two years?
Susan Enfield can claim to be on a mission to deal with the achievement gap until the cows come home, but she is a hypocrite who is putting the least prepared adults into classrooms with the most vulnerable students. She now has zero credibility on this subject (even less than when she did NOTHING about the achievement gap as Chief Academic Officer).
--you can call a pig Princess but it's still a pig
Seems like because Norm Rice said (in August 2010) that the Seattle Foundation planned to bring in TfA in 2011 to close the achievement gaps that there is a big problem with requesting Conditional certification to close the achievement gaps. Norm clearly did not do research on TfA results in situations like Seattle's and did no research on State laws governing conditional certification. ...
Is Norm a fan of violating state laws?
Guess we may need to go to court again on behalf of the educationally disadvantaged learners that the SPS serves so poorly.
In fact the SPS refuses to have community engagement on options for closing the achievement gaps. WOW what total BS this TfA proposal has been from the very start.
board asked Wayne Barnett the Executive Director of the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission to
judge the matter. He informed them
thus;
"The receipt of a campaign
contribution does not impact an
elected official's ability to
participate in official matters involving the contributor.
Since Buckley v. Valeo was decided
in 1976, contribution limits and
full disclosure have been the
accepted methods of addressing
the concern that public officials
can be influenced by campaign
contributions. So long as school
board members have complied with
the contribution limits
contained in RCW Chapter 42.17,
and so long as they have also
disclosed the identities of
their contributors to the
extent required by law, the
Board's Ethics Policy does not
require anything more of them
before engaging in official
business with a contributor."
I got this gem from "Director" Carr
and Martin-Morris soon agreed when
I suggested they recuse themselves.
Buckley vs. Valeo was in response to officers having a campaign donation limit. RCW Chapter 42.17
quoted and used by Wayne reflects
campaign donation limits. Let's be
very clear here campaign donation
limits do not apply to school board
elections. So Buckley???
Lastly the issue here is the possible influence on a Board
member via in-direct donations.
The TFA never directly donated to
Carr or anyone, the disclosure of
Board member's donors does not
lead one to understand the connection. However when a Board
member's donor bankrolls the TFA
in Seattle and pays up an order of
magnitude beyond a generous donor
there is (in my opinion) a clear
conflict of interest.
Carr and Morris disagree due to
Mr.Barnett - I think he is wrong.