Saturday, October 18, 2014

Our Survey Says ...

Calvin Terrell stands before angry public school parents

In yet another front page Gazette follow up -- pretty much a rewrite of a Masslive story from earlier this week -- concerning the disturbing presentation that occurred to our Middle School children on October 2, results from a parent survey that I requested via Public Documents Law  (thus far ignored) for the raw results gets a brief mention.

 Calvin Terrell:  Not my fault!

As I suspected, a majority (54%) of the 103 parent/guardians responding had problems with the presentation.  And only 15.5% thought the Schools should "continue the work begun by Calvin Terrell."

Considering the "work" to fight racism and bullying is an admirable goal, not a very good overall response to such a leading open ended question. 

Of course if the aging Gazette actually had children in the schools they would have actually received the survey and would know that it was anonymous. Doesn't get much more "private" than that.

Thus when the Schools do get around to responding to my Public Documents request and blow me off  like they did the diffident Gazette with the old "information that could be considered student records" thus protected by state privacy law, I will call them on it. 

18 comments:

Dr. Ed said...

Who says the school wasn't able to recognize the handwriting?

The district I worked for always kept ALL the notes from parents (from Kindergarten on) so when the kids got to Middle/High School, they had handwriting samples to compare alleged notes from parents to.

The problem, you see, was students forging letters from parents requesting early dismissal or excuses for having been absent the day before. That's why we had the old ones in the file.

So what's to stop Team Maria from figuring out who wrote what response on the survey?

Anonymous said...

Larry,

Great work keeping up the pressure on the administration. It would be nice, for once, to see it have negative consequences for them. It seems this, like everything else, will all blow over. Nothing sticks to Superintendent Maria "Teflon" Geryk.

Larry Kelley said...

Too clever by half Dr. Ed. The survey was on-line only. No handwriting.

Dr. Ed said...

Larry -- Doesn't Survey Monkey record IP addresses of submissions so as to ensure that (a) people don't take the survey twice and (b)only those they want to take it do? (I think that is why you couldn't get the survey the 2nd time.)

Well, the IP address is in the header of EVERY email (if you know how to look for it) (remind me, I will tell you what yours is) and hence....

After all, they tracked down whats-his-name rather quickly last spring, didn't they?

Dr. Ed said...

And coming soon to a high school near you...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBmDIHXVnTU#t=33

Larry Kelley said...

I would assume Survey Monkey records the IP address of respondents but almost certainly do not routinely provide it to the person creating the survey.

Obviously if you threaten the President they could track you down via IP address pretty easily I suppose.

The reason Dylan was uncovered so easily is because he posted the alleged "threat" to Facebook.

And we know how crappy Facebook is when it comes to privacy.

Dr. Ed said...

Larry, do you truly trust Team Maria THAT much?

prof r m said...

So this post is here to point out that this guy is more popular than congress and the president....

does this mean he should be running the town. Most people we give up our rights to only win a vote by a % or 2.

And we all know that once you are in the group that only has 49%, you might as well have coordinated the Blarney blowout, you are just evil. Once you get 51% of a vote you are a saint.

That is why we have votes, it is too hard to decide on our own, so we look to our neighbors to tell us how to raise our kids. That is why kids are so much smarter and capable today than when we grew up....trusting the vote.

Dr. Ed said...

Did everyone see this gem in the Gazette?

"The “call to warriors” segment comes at the end of the assembly, he said. In that, “students are invited to apologize for transgressions, thank others who have been allies, and make requests to better the climate.” He called it a “public apology component based on the Olweus research on bullying.”"

Where have we seen such "public apologies" before?

Those who fail to learn from the past....

Dr. Ed said...

Did everyone see this gem in the Gazette?

"The “call to warriors” segment comes at the end of the assembly, he said. In that, “students are invited to apologize for transgressions, thank others who have been allies, and make requests to better the climate.” He called it a “public apology component based on the Olweus research on bullying.”"

Where have we seen such "public apologies" before?

Those who fail to learn from the past....

Anonymous said...

We celebrate diversity. Lol. I became a Republican because Licoln freed the slaves. You'd think that would carry weight in the Amherst.

Anonymous said...

This is the place to come to for paranoia of breath-taking proportions.

They put their sickness inside you said...

What's that you say?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auQJMLWx6og


-Squeaky Squeaks


p.s. Incubated in Ponziville,

~infecting~ the fking planet.

Now sing, you sick little chimps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hO-83CIVKM

Anonymous said...

Just pointing out that "a majority (54%) of the 103 parent/guardians responding had problems with the presentation" is not any kind of analysis of the survey.

You have to take into consideration which 54 people (less than 10% of Amherst middle school parents/guardians) felt strongly enough to responded that they had a problem.

What I see is that about 90% of middle school parents didn't feel strongly enough to respond or responded positively to the event.

Larry Kelley said...

You spin it your way, I'll spin it mine.

Difference is of course you get paid tax dollars to be such a little suck up.

Anonymous said...

anon@518: We can never know why more didn't respond, probably many factors (no computer, didn't get the request) but I suspect many didn't bother... why would they. It happened, the decisions (and mistakes) happened, no one will be held accountable, and business will go on as usual at ARPS. Surveys have come and gone over the years. Have you ever seen any change in course in response??

Anonymous said...

Anon 6:17

I could not agree more. They only put the survey out to give the appearance that they care. Which we all know they do not. If there is Karma in this world the Admin and SC have a whole lots of bad coming their way.

Anonymous said...

Anon 7:13

If by "This" you mean "The Town of Amherst," and if by "paranoia" you mean "wild fantasies of imaginary, 'institutionalized' racism," then Well, yeah.