Recommended Reading & Viewing
It’s easy to see how not trying to find out who had done the erasing–burying the problem–was better for Michelle Rhee personally, at least in the short term. She had just handed out over $1.5 million in bonuses in a well-publicized celebration of the test increases[9]. She had been praised by presidential candidates Obama and McCain[10] in their October debate, and she must have known that she was soon to be on the cover of Time Magazine[11]. The public spectacle of an investigation of nearly half of her schools would have tarnished her glowing reputation, especially if the investigators proved that adults cheated–which seems likely given that their jobs depended on raising test scores.
Moreover, a cheating scandal might well have implicated her own “Produce or Else” approach to reform. Early in her first year she met one-on-one with each principal and demanded a written, signed guarantee[12] of precisely how many points their DC-CAS scores would increase.
Relying on the DC-CAS[13] was not smart policy because it was designed to assess students’ strengths and weaknesses. It did not determine whether students passed or were promoted to the next grade, which meant that many students blew it off.
Recommended Viewing:
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Madhu:
April 14th, 2013 at 5:28 pm
On some of the topics discussed in the links: why is the US military contracting out some of its doctrine writing to military consulting firms, the very same firms bidding for certain other government contracts supplying military operations?
L. C. Rees:
April 14th, 2013 at 8:08 pm
The same reason Arthur Anderson offered other accounting services to Enron despite being their “independent auditor” and Fitch, S&P, et al. sold bundled rating services to the same banks whose products (security issues) they were “independent rating agencies” for.
The only check on power expanding is opposing power. This means the opposing power must have sufficient means, motive, and opportunity to check the power it is supposed to check. Failing that, it is anything but “independent”. In that case, outsourcing your marketing materials to the same entity selling your other products is a real cost saver.
L. C. Rees:
April 14th, 2013 at 8:14 pm
The same holds true for Michelle Rhee: there must be separation of credentialing and education. More micro, there must be separation of credentialing and testing. Such separation can only be enforced if the credentialing and education (or testing) blocs are opposed power centers in petty, balkanized, vicious, and jealous equilibrium.
larrydunbar:
April 14th, 2013 at 8:25 pm
Well, self-creation. I wonder how that is going to go over? What, we have science, creationists, and now self-creationists?
Occupy and the Tea Party both oppose crony capitalism - Not the Singularity:
April 15th, 2013 at 3:31 pm
[…] Via Zen Pundit. Image: […]
Madhu:
April 17th, 2013 at 2:01 am
“The privatisation of defence assets and the outsourcing of military services from the armed forces to the private sector is an increasing trend. This book shows the extent to which many military functions and activities, ranging from military research to military consulting/training to operational support services, have been outsourced in the US and in Europe. While other books in this field largely cover the issues of Private Military Companies and of security contractors, this book focuses on technical and management services.This detailed study provides new and updated information on the ongoing privatisation of the defence sector and offers an original theoretical explanation of why the most modern armed forces throughout the world have come increasingly to rely on private companies for nearly everything they do. Contributing to a better understanding of military privatisation and its close connection to technological change, this book explains the complexity of the whole phenomenon and discusses its implications for national and international security.”
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War as Business: Technological Change and Military Service Contracting, Armin Krishnan
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Most studies or books focus on contracting security services. This book seems to discuss the doctrine writing aspect among other topics.
Madhu:
April 17th, 2013 at 2:08 am
“Booz Allen Hamilton’s Socio-Cultural Development Center (SCDC) offers a unique understanding of these challenges. The SCDC is a collaborative, multidisciplinary effort that includes sociologists, anthropologists, economists, psychologists, and scholars from other social science disciplines, as well as technical experts in such areas as geospatial analysis, modeling and simulation, and intelligence analysis.The Center has developed a formal methodology for assessing communities of interest that are driven by social, ethnic, and cultural beliefs and customs very different from our own. For example, in 2008, SCDC studied the key drivers of instability in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo; our analysis identified six interrelated causal factors.Following on this work, SCDC studied the strategic communications approach of al Qaeda in Yemen, and identified ways to counter the group’s influence using our own communications strategy that reflects insight into the various tribal groups.”
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from The Booz Allen Socio-Cultural Development Center (SCDC) website