"A child's learning is the function more of the characteristics of his classmates than those of the teacher." James Coleman, 1972

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Klein Doing Damage Control for Deasy While Selling His Own Tablet Solution

Ole McChoakumchild, himself, Joel Klein, had his media mothballs removed long enough this morning to go on CBS to pretend to defend "Dr." John Deasy's slimeware that he provided for Apple hardware  and Pearson software to complete the Los Angeles IPad fiasco deal.  What he was really for is to get Murdoch's Amplify tablets under the national spotlight.

And what a salesman Klein is!  A rather feisty report on the panel at CBS told Klein she had read that much of what kids "learned" on screen was retained for a very short time.  How do you make sure that is not happening? 

Klein's answer: you give them informal assessments more often, beginning immediately after they read something.  That's Rupert's boy!

From the LA Times:
. . . Emails and other documents, some of which were released under a California Public Records Act request Friday, showed detailed — and numerous — contacts between Deasy, Deputy Supt. Jaime Aquino and the corporate executives.
It appears that the officials began discussing the school system's effort to supply students computers equipped with online curriculum at least two years before the contract was approved.

In one email, from May 24, 2012, Aquino seems to strategize with higher-ups from Pearson on how to ensure that it got the job.

"I believe we would have to make sure that your bid is the lowest one," wrote Aquino, who was an executive with a Pearson affiliate before joining L.A. Unified.

Deasy was one of the last to participate in that email exchange and made his comments after Aquino's, which covered several topics.

"Understand your points and we need to work together on this quickly," Deasy wrote. "I want to not loose [sic] an amazing opportunity and fully recognize our current limits."
On Sunday, Deasy said that the conversations were only about a "pilot program we did at several schools months before we decided to do a large-scale implementation. We did work closely on this pilot."

Deasy said he recalled that Aquino also offered another major vendor, Amplify Education Inc., a similar opportunity.

"Nothing was done in any inappropriate way whatsoever," the superintendent said. "Of course I talk to people. I would be expected to."

Aquino left L.A. Unified at the end of last year and has not responded to interview requests. . . .

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