Source: https://arizonadailyindependent.com/2015/01/02/tusd-culturally-relevant-classes-found-noncompliant/
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 16:36:54+00:00

Document:
Today the Arizona Department of Education sent a notice of noncompliance to the Tucson Unified School District stating that one or more of its classes are in violation of A.R.S. §15-112. If the District is not in compliance with A.R.S. § 15-112 by March 4, 2015, ADE will determine whether to withhold 10 percent of the monthly apportionment of state aid that would otherwise be due to the district until the violations are corrected.
A review of the class materials clearly showed a lack of rigor and balance.
The ADE’s finding comes after the courses’ developer, Dr. Augustine Romero admitted that the classes that had been found to violate State law were in fact, back in the District. Romero made the admission while being confronted by former Mexican American Studies teachers at the National Association of Multi-Cultural Educators conference in Oro Valley, Arizona earlier this year.
According to sources in the District, Governing Board president Adelita Grijalva is expected to claim that the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) is simply retaliating for the Ninth Circuit’s decision that the State’s request for intervention in the District’s desegregation case was denied. However, the State was simply denied standing because the issue was not ripe, now that the finding has been made by the ADE, the State could return to court because federal Judge David Bury has ordered in the past that the classes must comply with state law.
Federal Judge Wallace Tashima found that the state law which prevents racially and ethnically divisive classes to be constitutional.
Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal said in a statement released today: “During my tenure as Superintendent, I have been closely monitoring the status of the Tucson Unified School District’s culturally relevant curricula to ensure that all TUSD students, regardless of their race or ethnic background, have access to a high quality education.
“After a thorough review of materials from TUSD’s culturally relevant courses, I find that the district has failed to meet several provisions of the 2012 Settlement Agreement and is once again in clear violation of A.R.S. §15-112. Furthermore, I am deeply concerned by the fact that the noncompliance appears to extend beyond classes taught from the Mexican American perspective and now also includes classes taught from the African American perspective.
The District has ignored the concerns of the community and the ADE, hoping that the ADE did not have the political will to challenge their disregard for the law.
As noted in the finding, Administrative law Judge Lewis Kowal found the Mexican American Studies classes to be in violation of the law after reviewing 7000 pieces of evidence and 4 days of testimony from parents, teachers, administrators, and education experts.
Since then, the proponents of the classes have generated highly questionable data and claimed that it showed that the students taking the classes performed better than students who did not take the classes. However, that data has been discredited and the resulting research has been dismissed.
This Notice of Noncompliance is issued pursuant to A.R.S. § 15-112 and the Settlement Agreement reached In the Matter of Tucson Unified School District No. 1 (No. 1lF-002- ADE). For the reasons described below, there is reasonable cause to believe that Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) is in violation of the referenced Settlement Agreement, in that it has one or more courses or classes that violate A.R S. § 15-112(A)(l), (2) and (4).
Furthermore, TUSD has failed to provide complete information to ADE regarding its revision to its curricula for culturally relevant English, United States History and United States Government classes. Substantial portions of the information that TUSD has provided are incomplete and internally inconsistent. Notably, while TUSD’s original violations related to classes taught from the Mexican American perspective, it now appears that some TUSD classes taught from the African American perspective also violate the law. If TUSD does not act to correct the violations described below by March 4, 2015, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, in consultation with the Arizona Department of Education (ADE or Department), will determine whether to withhold ten per cent of the monthly apportionment of state aid that would otherwise be due to TUSD until such violations are corrected.
On December 27, 2011, Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Lewis D. Kowal issued a decision in matter No. 1lF-002-ADE concluding that TUSD’s Mexican American Studies (MAS) program “had one or more courses or classes that violate[d]” A.R.S. § 15-112. Before the Department took action to withhold TUSD’s state aid, pursuant to A.R.S. § 15- l 12(B), TUSD adopted a resolution addressing its violations of that statute. TUSD further agreed to eliminate MAS curricula in elementary and high school classes. Finally, it agreed to implement revised English language arts and social studies curricula that meet state standards, address the needs of its diverse student body and that would not violate state law. (See TUSD Board Resolution dated January 10, 2012; TUSD letter to ADE dated January 23, 2012; ADE letter to TUSD dated January 31, 2012 Jointly referred to as the Settlement Agreement).) More specifically, TUSD agreed to make its revised Social Studies curriculum available to the Department during the 2012-13 school year on a schedule to be determined jointly by TUSD and ADE. However, TUSD did not establish such a timeline and did not submit any curricula to the Department for review until May 2013.
TUSD failed to comply with provisions of the Settlement Agreement that required work to begin in the 2012-13 school year to revise its English language arts, United States History and United States Government classes to comply with state law and meet the needs of its Hispanic students. It did not provide any curricula for ADE to review until May 2013.
TUSD’s submission of materials has been equally problematic. It has submitted some lists of materials, but the lists are not in any particular order, are not consistent with the curricula or lesson plans that TUSD has submitted, and do not provide any information to teachers or parents regarding how particular materials will be used or for what pedagogical purposes. Furthermore, the lists of materials include many materials that were part of the program that the ALJ held violated A.R S. § 15-112. TUSD did not provide actual classroom materials, such as student assignments and assessments, and teacher lesson plans, until December of 2014.
TUSD’s failure to provide such information meant that ADE was unable to determine whether teachers are teaching to the curricula that TUSD has identified or teaching some other curricula in violation of state law.
ADE has also found that TUSD’s bell schedules and teacher assignment schedules are not necessarily consistent with each other. When ADE has conducted unannounced monitoring visits, it has found further inconsistencies among the schedules provided to it and teacher assignments.
TUSD’s failure to respond completely to ADE’s requests for information and materials raises many issues. First, it reveals a program in disarray, with insufficient support for teachers, inadequate teaching to students and little transparency for parents and community members. More importantly, the materials that TUSD has submitted indicate that several teachers appear to be teaching content that violates A.R.S. § 15-112, in violation of both the Settlement Agreement and state law. I reference here several examples of problematic content, along with a citation to the portion of the statute they appear to violate. This list is by way of example; other content also appears to violate state law.
Hiphop Kulture = or, Hip Hop’s culture, is the name of our unique community; it is the name of our tribe. Hiphop Kulture is the manifested character, patterns, beliefs, sciences and arts of OUR collective consciousness; it is our reality and mental landscape. Hiphop Kulture is an international community of specialize urban people.
…Hip Hop is defined as the artistic response to oppression.
A. Classroom rules include a requirement that students stand to recite Lak’Ech and the four Texcatlipocas every day, and that all students memorize and understand the concepts contained within them.
The Superintendent, assisted by ADE, concludes that TUSD is not in compliance with the Settlement Agreement or A.R.S. § 15-112. It appears to have one or more classes that “(l) promote the overthrow of the United States government [;] (2) promote resentment toward a race or class of people [; or] (4) advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.” A.R.S. § 15-112. The Superintendent is thus prepared to reinstate the Order dated January 6, 2012, adopting the ALJ’s order of December 27, 2011, requiring ADE to withhold ten percent of TUSD’s state aid if TUSD does not come into compliance with state law and the Settlement Agreement by March 4, 2015.
The drawing in the lower left hand corner appears to be an attempt to show a Native American tribal member, I’m guessing from “Aztlan” that he was here first? Years ago, I attended a genealogical conference north of here in which I was instructed in doing genealogical research in Mexican records. I’ve also taken A Course of Mexican History back in the 1980’s taught by Professor Deeds. It’s true that the native tribes in Mexico were there first. However, people so designated as being of Mexican heritage must acknowledge that they are of the blood of conquering Spaniards who pretty-much wiped out a lot of the Native tribes by overwork, starvation, and just flat killing them. In order to keep the promised number of workers on an “encomienda” which was promised in a land grant given to Spanish conquerors by the Spanish king, African slaves were imported to make up for the loss of Native tribal workers whom the earlier Spanish conquerors killed off. They mixed with the local people. In the mid-1800’s and beyond, the French came in to support Maximillian and many of his soldiers settled down and blended with the local population; the British came in to build the railroads using a lot of Chinese laborers, and a number of people worldwide went to Mexico to fight in the revolution, many of them blending in with the local population. Since there’s a wide variety of genealogical blood lines possibly running through most of those who have designated themselves as “La Raza,” none of which were said, “Pilgrims,” who were Separatists who settled in New England, why the picture of the angry Native Tribal member from Aztlan telling the Pilgrim that he/she is the interloper? Shouldn’t he be calling the Spanish conquerors the “illegal alien”?
One has to also take into account that those designated as Mexican American here in the US have the possible genealogical blood lines of just about every immigrant group which has ever come to the United States. For example, my uncle married a woman from Chihuahua whose grandmother used to gather her children on the floor of her humble abode, cover her children with her body to protect them from the bullets of the Villistas who rode through her village and shot up the place. My uncle was Italian; his wife was Mexican American; their children are of both genealogical bloodlines who married neither Italians nor Mexican Americans. Hence, my uncle and aunt’s grandchildren several genealogical bloodlines and don’t feel that they are “victims” who have been put upon by non-raza people. It would be more beneficial to have a class in which the students search out their genealogical roots and wrote their own family histories instead of teaching them to be victims through highly incorrect and culturally irrelevant rubbish!
As a taxpayer I am outraged. When is someone going to be fired or sent to jail for violating state law. When is the board going to take charge and demand that they are given a full reporting of what is going on in the district. They were elected to make sure that the schools are run according to law, not some BS crap that the “Race” wants to cram down kids throats and make them irrelevant in the real world. Oh wait, they will join the other 47% that play the victim card every day and live off the other 53% that pay taxes to support their ignorant asses. Oh, wait I forgot this is Baja, AZ and this is the liberal capitol of AZ and damn proud of it. Well, screw the 47% and the rest of the takers. This taxpayer is past pissed. Its time for action from the state and for the board to do what is right for the kids and taxpayer. But what the hell, most likely it will never happen. The Grijalva’s and their henchmen have become entrenched and the 47% blame the whites for all the ills of the world as well as depend on them for their support. What a screwed up world and most likely it will get much worse.
Imagine that, H.T. Sanchez lied, again.
Bienvendos a La Comuna de Tucson.
Liberal Progressives can’t be fired if thier “good intensions” just didn’t work out that wouldn’t be nice. Since they care (just ask them) they are absolved of any actions. We are in a sad state of affairs.
Very sad. And these children will wonder when they’ve graduated (if they graduate) why they’ll be considered unemployable by most employers.
Not true, not true. They will be fully qualified for their pre-defined roles in La Comuna de Tucson, they will clean the Grijalva’s toilets and if they are lucky, work in a call center, maybe a job in city or county government.
jdfast says, sadly, nothing will ever be done by the proper authorities about the fraud, malfeasance, and false indoctrination going on in TUSD. You would have to get the Pima County District Attorney’s Office committed to doing a very intense investigation, brought on by actual evidence which would prompt a judge to issue a search warrant for searching TUSD records for cases of fraud, malfeasance, etc. The corruption is throughout that district, top to bottom, and they’ve hidden it well, so they think.
Also, ADE is just as corrupt. They have enough reasonable cause to take over TUSD and clean it up, but if they did, it would shed light on their own corruption which is why they have done absolutely nothing about TUSD or any of the other corrupt school districts throughout AZ, and they are legion when one includes a number of the charter schools too!
Huppenthal was useless, ADE is useless, Tom Horne’s office which ultimately would handle fraud and malfeasance cases with school districts was useless. One would think that Special Master Hawley or the federal DOJ are not ignorant of the fraud and malfeasance in TUSD, but both would say that is a state’s rights issue, not theirs. The entire system needs a major overhaul, people need to be properly accused, tried, and either convicted or exonerated, never allowed to work in public education again, but that is not going to happen.
We now have a governor who believes that Common Core is the answer to the ills of public education in AZ and who won’t do a thing about TUSD or other school districts which are equally guilty. As taxpayers, we cannot stop paying our taxes as a means of protest to cut off the funds to this corrupt system. We have email blitzes which we can send to the state legislators, to soon to be Attorney General Brnovich who has the authority to investigate TUSD and ADE, to soon to be Superintendent Diane Douglas. To these authorities we can appeal for investigations. We have the right to organize recall elections for the TUSD school board members; we have the right to show up at the Tuesday School Board meetings and voice our outrage; we have the power as parents to take our children out of TUSD schools if we are willing to drive them to schools in other districts or pay for excellent private schools; we even have the right to take our children out of TUSD and home school them. This would cut off the federal funds, but it would also cause massive unemployment to teachers and all supportive staff and not accomplish a thing as far as cleaning up the fraud and malfeasance in the district. Clearly, ADE must be cleaned up first by getting rid of the old guard which has protected TUSD and other districts for years against state take-over. ADE must take over TUSD and all districts of that ilk, clean it up with internal auditors, fire and prosecute those guilty of fraud and malfeasance as well as any other crimes which will become obvious.
Alas, I don’t see this happening anytime soon. If Diane Douglas and Mr. Brnovich were determined to start the process, they’d be over their heads before too long. Rat T’s solution may be the only valid one.
Balkanization… I see another Isreali/Palestinian conflict in our future. I’d be willing to bet that that is what the instigators want. Somebody should interview the instigators and see just how Anti-American they are.
TUSD looks like an easy opportunity for ANY investigative reporter at a TV station to win an Emmy or someone in the press to win a Pulitzer. There are hours and hours of corruption that could be reported to our citizens.

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