A look back at John Deasy and his exit from Maryland. He's the Deputy Superintendent of Los Angeles schools now, and very happy with all the value added test scores being printed publicly.
Another example of how accountability only matters for teachers, not administrators.
Gates' man in L.A.And actually John Deasy is not just a Gates' man, he is Broad Superintendent as well. The billionaires have a lot of their guys strategically placed now.
His title is Dept. Supt., but there's little doubt that Broad Fellow and Gates Foundation implant, John Deasy is running the show in L.A. Supt. Ramon Cortines can hardly be found in the latest controversy around the L.A. Times public ranking of individual teachers based solely on student test scores. Deasy is all over it.
During a presentation to the board, recently appointed Deputy Supt. John Deasy said the district would move quickly and planned by October to begin issuing confidential scores to employees that would be based on a "value-added" analysis of student scores on standardized tests. He also said the district would include value-added scores for schools on campus report cards that are issued to the public. (L.A. Times).
The same blogger wrote about John Deasy in 2008 as he exited Prince Georges County, MD.
Why did "superstar" superintendent bail from PG County?Before the "expletive hit the fan"
The revolving door keeps spinning in Princes Georges County, Md. For the fourth time since 1999, they’re searching for a new superintendent. This time it’s to replace John Deasy who was touted as a “superstar” and the great white hope of the power philanthropists, when he came into this predominantly poor, African-American district nearly three years ago from Santa Monica. But now this Broad Fellow is looking for the next flight out to Seattle to become Deputy Director of the Gates Foundation’s U.S. education program. Deasy didn’t stay in PG long enough to implement many of his own programs—small schools, for example.
So why did he bail now? WaPo lists some possible reasons—pressures from NCLB (not likely since NCLB is but a shadow of its former self); “deep budget cuts next year because of the faltering economy and skyrocketing foreclosure rates” (possible, but then why come to a poor district in the first place?); the breaking news of his involvement in a degree scandal at the Univ. of Louisville (WaPo dismisses that possibility in one sentence of a long article).
What they don’t mention is that Broad tried to use Deasy, combined with the leveraging of their grant money, to push a top-down reform program that was bound to meet resistance from both the school board and the community. By top-down, I mean that Broad wanted to control how the district spent all of its money, which outside consultants could and couldn't be used, relations with the union and other matters usually reserved for the board. Deasy was put in the position of trying to ride two horses—the board and the foundation. Plus he was afraid of the push-back from the community. All this in a district that is second from the bottom on most measures of student success in the state. Only Baltimore fares worse.
In fact the exec director of the administrator's union had this to say on why he left:
"I think John is smart enough to get out of here, frankly, before the (expletive) hits the fan," said Doris A. Reed, the executive director of the Association of Supervisory and Administrative Personnel, the union that represents principals and other administrators.
Many think his involvement in a degree controversy had something to do with it. Here is more about that:
The new #2 man in L.A. schools was forced to resign in Maryland over a questionable doctorate.From 2008 Maryland Gazette
Questions raised about whether Prince George's schools superintendent earned doctorate
The Prince George's County school board is assigning legal counsel to work as a liaison with University of Louisville officials investigating allegations that Superintendent John E. Deasy may have improperly received a doctorate from the school in 2004.
..."Deasy did not speak about the allegations at the meeting, but was quoted in The Washington Post as saying, "If the university made errors in the awarding of the degree, I do hope they rescind it. My responsibility is to do everything I was advised and told to do. If I was advised wrong and given wrong information, the university needs to take responsibility for that. I certainly would not want anything unearned."
The university investigation stems from reports in Kentucky news media that Deasy was awarded a doctorate of philosophy even though he only completed nine credit hours in one semester at the school. According to the university's policies, there is no set number of credits that doctor of philosophy candidates are required to obtain, however, it has been "customary to consider the equivalent of three years of full-time graduate study as minimal."
Here is more about John Deasy and his friend the former dean, Robert Felner, from the Inside Higher Education website last year.
Louisville Says Doctorate Earned in Semester Is Legit
The University of Louisville has concluded that a much-questioned doctorate it awarded -- for one semester of study -- was legitimate, The Louisville Courier-Journal reported.
The doctorate was awarded to John Deasy in 2004 -- and appears to violate university rules about residency requirements. Deasy, as a school superintendent, had given money to a research center headed by the then-dean of Louisville's education college, who then went on to chair Deasy's dissertation committee, leading to questions about the legitimacy of the degree.
But the university found that the "totality of the circumstances" indicated an appropriate process. At the same time, Louisville announced that it is tightening the procedures about exemptions from normal procedures for doctorates. The former dean, Robert Felner, was for years popular with administrators even as he angered many professors. In October, he was indicted on 10 counts of mail fraud, money-laundering and income-tax evasion related to charges that he fraudulently obtained grants for Louisville and the University of Rhode Island. He has denied wrongdoing." Louisville Says Doctorate Earned in Semester Is LegitAnother education blogger states it
far more frankly.His stint in Maryland became tumultous when allegations surfaced that Deasy may have awarded a $125,000 contract to his academic adviser in exchange for favorable consideration toward his doctorate. The adviser, Robert Felner, former dean of the school of education at the University of Louisville, pleaded guilty to 10 federal charges of fraud, tax evasion and money laundering. Deasy's attorney, Scott Cox, insisted his client was innocent and the victim of Felner's bad publicity:
"And Dr. Deasy, as far as we can tell, earned legitimately his Ph.D. And there is so much negative publicity associated with Dr. Felner and anything he's connected with, it really is unfortunate that Dr. Deasy got dragged into this. He didn't do anything wrong except get his Ph.D."
There has not been much questioning of that doctorate earned in a semester. Seems that accountability is only for teachers, and the rest don't have to worry about it.
Deasy's the #2 man in the Los Angeles Schools, and no one seems at all concerned.
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