Buffalo School Board Superintendent candidate James Williams has demonstrated his ties to the charter school movement, but his latest employer has not been discussed by any of the local media (mainstream or alternative). A simple internet news search turned up some interesting items on the company. Here are some excerpts:

Free Market “Discipline” in Houston In Houston, students are “sentenced” to a minimum of 180 days in the CEP facility: “…there's no discretion left because of HISD's CEP contract. In every case, offenders are sentenced to 180 days -- the equivalent of an entire Texas public school year -- in mind-numbing hell. The district and CEP say that's the amount of time needed for these students to improve their behavior and academics. But these students are ringed by computers and technicians, not teachers. Since CEP is a private firm, according to Texas law, there doesn't have to be a single certified teacher in the lot. Also, because it's an off-campus disciplinary program, CEP is exempt from any requirement that the courses it offers would lead to high school graduation.” - Margaret Downing, Houston Press, “180 Days in The Hole.” 4/19/2001

“The $18 million-a-year contract between the school district and the company, signed by Paige, states that the district "will guarantee a minimum enrollment of 2,500 students" for each year of the five-year agreement. If the district does not have enough students to enter into the program, it still will pay for the guaranteed minimum enrollment.”

“‘If this was (the Department of Public Safety), and you were talking about speeding tickets, you would fill up this room with outraged citizens,’” said Public Education Committee Chairman Paul Sadler, D-Henderson. “’Why isn't this a quota?’”

- Maeve Reston, Austin American-Statesman, “Lawmakers question Houston school contract.” 4/29/2001

Silencing Critics…

“Thomas Kellow was a research specialist in the Houston school district's Department of Research and Accountability in September 1999, when Paige's office asked him to conduct a "performance audit" of the CEP program. Putting aside the data CEP provided him, Kellow concentrated on independent measurements, most notably the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS)--Bush's and Paige's own favorite high-stakes test--and the Stanford 9, a highly respected national exam. The numbers startled him: "The longer the kids stayed in the program, the worse their academic performance was." Kellow reported his discoveries to his superiors.”

Four months later, perusing the school district's website, Kellow came across a press release about a visit by Paige to the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank in New York City. Appearing with right-wing education commentator Diane Ravitch and a CEP official, Paige effusively praised CEP's Houston program. "I'm a great admirer of [CEP]," Paige said, describing how the company had transformed some of the district's toughest children into "productive students." The press release boasted of an average growth in reading of 2.4 grade levels and an average growth in math of 2.2. "When I saw this," says Kellow, "I just about hit the roof." Kellow sent an electronic message to 1,800 statisticians on the American Evaluation Association's electronic discussion group. He wrote: "I have no idea where he got this data, unless the negative gain signs in my report were altered to be a plus. I am furious."

Soon Kellow was receiving calls from officials in the Philadelphia school district, who were negotiating a contract with CEP and were curious about his findings. Within a few weeks, Kellow was called to the office of Paige's assistant superintendent. Kellow saw the writing on the wall: "Before I left that day, I backed up my computer files," he recalls. He also absconded with a copy of his report. Sure enough, the next day he found that the contents of his hard drive had been copied and he could no longer print from his computer. "Am I terminated?" he asked the assistant superintendent. No, he was told, just "reprimanded" and moved to a workstation without Internet access. Kellow promptly quit.

Stephen Metcalf, The New Republic “Numbers Racket: W. and The Uses of Testing.” 2/12/01.

…And Whistleblowers

Dr. Kathyrn Montross, a new hire at CEP was shocked at what she found at her school in Houston and immediately went to her superiors with concerns about what was happening with CEP. Protections for whistleblowers being what they are in Texas, she found herself fired almost immediately.

“Montross was surprised to learn that their children had not even received report cards from the spring semester. Parents didn't know what grades or what credits their children had received. They had no idea what level their children were going to be in -- or even where they would be placed the next year.”

Teachers pitched in and searched for the missing cards. They found an unmailed stack of nearly 200 report cards for Ferndale students from the Pasadena Independent School District. They also found a matching stack of the same students' four-month-old final exams that had never been graded. Those tests account for 25 percent of the final grade. So Montross wondered where the grades on the report cards had come from. Employees, she recalls, told her that they had been made up.

(CEP CEO) Randle Richardson says Montross is a ‘nice lady’ -- he chatted with her the week before school started. ‘She never raised an issue with me,’ he says. ‘I'm the person, if she thinks something is wrong or illegal, she should probably be complaining to. She never once said there was a problem or an issue.’”

Wendy Grossman, The Houston Press “Learning Curve: Ungraded exams. Suspect scores…” 10/05/2000.

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