[Not this time, anyway.]
FM. Fibromyalgia. If you want neglectful or outright hostile treatment from some health-care providers, this is the syndrome/chronic condition for you.
I thought my health care was pretty good—I liked my doctor, I could get appointments fast, he was bright and efficient and took notes and took your blood pressure and temp and pulse himself; I liked the doctors he referred me to, though that rarely happened because I didn’t need much. Then, I did.
I asked for a referral to a sleep specialist and got a pulmonologist. Who knew dick about sleep. She looked at my overnight sleep study and gave me the kind of advice I could get from a cashier at PetSmart. The rheumatologist I’ve been referred to has been even worse—gave me a diagnosis, told me to go do research, gave me a prescription for Lyrica, and set my next appointment for 6 months down the road. Not once did she mention any side effects of Lyrica. I got an earlier-than-6-months-from-now appointment because of the extreme daily pain I’ve been in and what did she do? Tell me to gradually increase the dose and come back in 3 months. The pain I was in? No mention, description, plea got anything but a blank stare or a Yes, that’s what fibromyalgia is. I told her how I couldn’t work at a reasonable level because of the fibro fog and the pain from sitting and the stiffness in my wrists and everywhere else. I got a nod and a cheerful, That’s fibromyalgia all right. When I got to the maximum dosage and started having side effects that alarmed my family and called the office, I got, through a nurse, a strong doubt that Lyrica could possibly cause such a thing [the warning is all over the prescription record, drug maker website and all online sources] but it’s possible and rare so reduce the dosage by 75 mg and keep your appointment for June. The end.
Yeah, it’s the end all right. I’ve stepped down from Cymbalta, which is one of the scariest things I’ve done, and I can do it with Lyrica. And guess what? When she starts on about Savella—all she knows about fibromyalgia is Lyrica and Savella–I’ll say little, take the scrip, shred it and never go back. 6 months of Lyrica. No pain relief. No sleep help. Just $40 a month, blurry vision, and dizzy spells. For what? Because a rheumatologist doesn’t want to be bothered with something as individual and “needy” as fibromyalgia. I guess I’m supposed to be grateful I wasn’t told I was crazy and lazy and drug-seeking. Though all that could be in my medical record.
Fuck me? Fuck you.
Rayne Martin is Chief of Staff of the Recovery School District here in NO. I think she is. This painful April 20, 2010, T-P story lists Siona LaFrance as RSD Chief of Staff. In this March 2010 article at 2theadvocate.com, Martin is called, vaguely enough, “an official of the state Department of Education.” She’s named as one of the co-leaders for the Race to the Top team. [In March, LA was "considered one of the favorites" to get the money. Oops. Race to the Top has its own issues. This is only one.]
Martin’s LinkedIn profile lists her as Chief Information Officer at RSD, a position that it says started in December 2007. But in 2008, in this T-P article on Kelvin Adams’ departure, Martin is identified as interim Chief of Staff and described as “a Shreveport native recruited by Vallas to the district.”
Prior to being RSD CIO, Martin was Deputy Chief of Operations at RSD from July 2007 until December 2007, a total of 6 months. Her position before that? Director of Relocation and Supportive Services at the Chicago Housing Authority, October 2001 to January 2007. During this time, high-rise public housing complexes like Cabrini Green had been demolished and residents were being relocated around the city.
In the first stages of its transformation plan, the housing authority struggled to develop an effective relocation system. Families who received vouchers ended up in neighborhoods that were racially and economically segregated; some residents were “lost” before they could receive services to which they were entitled, and even more simply failed to move at all, ending up in “temporary” housing in other CHA buildings, some of which were also slated for demolition. [13]
As a result of the controversy, the CHA negotiated a formal Relocation Rights contract in 2000 with its main resident organization, the Central Advisory Council (“CAC”), that spelled out its obligations to residents during the transformation process. [14] The contract defines the terms for lease compliance and the steps residents can take to “cure” lease violations and remain eligible for replacement housing. Finally, the contract specifies the services that will be offered to residents during the transformation, including supportive services, relocation assistance, and mobility counseling. The CHA’s relocation efforts remained controversial and the housing authority was sued in 2004 over the resegregation of residents who had received vouchers. [15] However, despite—or perhaps because of—the controversy, the CHA gradually refined and improved its relocation and supportive service system and now has a very sophisticated and elaborate relocation process. [No Simple Solutions: Housing CHA’s Most Vulnerable Families, Susan J. Popkin, Ph.D.]
Martin came to the office of Relocation and Supportive Services in the midst of controversy and worked through controversy. How’d she get the job? She had several positions in different cities, including Chief of Staff for County Supervisor John Gioia. Here’s how Martin describes the process she used to get the job:
Rayne’s interest in CHA’s plan lead [sic] her to designing the most elaborate, extensive relocation program in the nation. [The Plan was conceived in 2000, about a year before her arrival.]
“When I arrived in Chicago, I sent emails to anyone I could think of that would be able to put me in connection with the project. As a result, I got three or four names and numbers to call. But instead of approaching the phone calls as job solicitations, what I came up with was more like ‘Hi, I’m new to Chicago, and I would really like to talk to you and do an informational interview about the Plan for Transformation’. Most of the people were open to it.” Rayne continued, “I never left an interview without obtaining the name of another person I could talk to. Eventually I was led to the HR director for CHA, whom I called twice a week for three weeks straight. She probably thought that I was either crazy, or I really had something of value and eventually she gave me the chance to interview with a resident group, and they called and said they really liked me.”
“I met with my future boss,” Rayne told me of securing her position at CHA, “and we started to talk about the concept of relocation, and my position on it was that relocation should occur all the time with families because you should always be in a position to better your income and obtain better housing. In that conversation I realized they were looking for a director. So I was offered the job as a director, and when I started, it was a department of one, then it was a department of five, and now it has grown to forty.”
From what I can find, the office she ran did a fairly good job with few online complaints. But I don’t get the always-be-in-a-position part.
She also spoke at the 2004 President’s Convocation at Centenary College, from which she graduated in 1996. The Convocation starts each academic year, welcoming incoming freshmen. Excerpt:
Quirky study habits aside, I worked very hard and at the end of my second semester, I learned that I was not going to earn an A in any subject; instead, I was going to earn straight B’s.
“Upon learning this, I ran to Dr. Shelburne’s office crying. Dr. Shelburne was my advisor and English professor whose constant faith in my ability has had a profound impact on my life. That day, when I came to him so upset, I finally managed to tell him what was wrong. In his infinite wisdom he explained that there are worse things in life then not getting all A’s. He proceeded to let me know that I can be as successful as I want in life and the grades that I receive in school are not going to determine this.
“In that moment, I began to learn that I can achieve anything that I want and that I can not let one success indicator define my own belief in myself. I believe now that the most important factor in one’s success is the ability visualize that success. [emphasis added]
Wish she’d tell some kids here that.
Martin had been a volunteer, coordinator, several things prior to CHA:
At Centenary, Rayne began to organize and lead public service projects through Habitats for Humanity, Student Government and the Lighthouse, an after-school program for teenagers.
After graduating in 1996, Rayne moved to Philadelphia, where she became a VISTA volunteer. As such, she was given the duties of setting up community mediation centers in inner-city communities and peer mediation programs in high schools. In Philadelphia, Rayne confirmed her ability and drive to pursue a career in public service. “I was realizing that you don’t necessarily have to know what want to do with your life at 18, 20, 30, or 40,” Rayne told me of her time with VISTA, “but you should know what makes you happy, and you should spend your time working towards achieving that happiness.”
Rayne’s pursuit of her happiness soon led her to San Francisco, California where she did political fundraising and further community mediation work. When she decided to relocate to Chicago, With [sic] her public service ambitions now refined by her experience in the field, Rayne decided to relocate to Chicago. “When I was working in San Francisco as chief of staff for a county commissioner, I was exposed to different types of public service. Through my experience, I knew that I wanted to be in housing, and I had heard about the ‘Plan for Transformation’ going on in Chicago.”
Email birdies complain about Martin’s “lack of experience” and may be set off by her scant experience in education before being hired by the RSD. But there also is some flak because Martin is relatively young, white, and in a high-paying position. Bitterness/envy or legit complaints? Hard to verify with the RSD’s opaqueness. Birdies?
From Michigan Radio:
Detroit has one of the worst school systems in the country. The city’s schools are often compared to New Orleans’, before Hurricane Katrina. Charity Nebbe hosts a special call-in show called “A Tale of Two Cities: Lessons the Motor City Can Learn From the Crescent City.” It will air on both Michigan Radio and WWNO New Orleans and will take a look at the two school systems. We’ll discuss what’s working in New Orleans and what’s not and whether the New Orleans model offers valuable lessons or a cautionary tale for education reform in Detroit.
You can join the conversation on May 25 at 3p ET/ 2p CT by calling 866-255-2762. We will also hold a web chat on this page starting at 2:30pm on the day of the show.
Let’s show a good face, people, with constructive comments and opinions.
Link
I guess I’m naive to think it’s fishy for a Chief Administrative Officer of the RSD to be on the board of a charter school.
I know the heart of the controversy is the presence of Anthony Amato. One, I think Amato got driven out by impatience and flat-out racism. Two, why would a former superintendent agree to be principal/CEO of a single, new charter school? Yes, he’s been fired or forced out of the last four positions but if you look at superintendents of urban, struggling school systems, that’s the norm—no overnight blinding change in problems that have existed for generations? Fire the superintendent! Give us his head!
Amato was no favorite of mine. But I did not think he was ill-suited for the job because he wasn’t black. I did not agree that “the children” need a black superintendent.
Another point:
A governing board has chosen former New Orleans schools superintendent Tony Amato to lead the International High School of New Orleans, a move that would displace a popular principal and is vehemently opposed by many parents.
Parents, students and teachers packed a meeting of the school’s new charter board on Wednesday night to speak against the appointment. Board member Andrew Ward said Amato emerged as the clear front-runner in a field of 51 applicants, though he had been fired or forced to resign from his last four superintendent jobs.
Don’t think this is unusual. Boards run these schools, not parents. And it is made glaringly clear when things like this happen. And they happen. And will happen even more. Certain sets of parents think that a school being chartered means parents run the school then they get upset when the principal/CEO won’t meet with them or the board votes on something they disagree with and even complain about and gather to show their displeasure over.
Hm.
Can y’all help a Bitch figure out how to take the following bits from email birdies? Is it an attempt at whistleblowing? Conspiracy? Rumor gone only half-mad? Or something only insiders can know and that none have revealed in a verifiable fashion yet? And if it is or can be verified…..?
- FACT: Are you aware that RSD did not receive the federal funds, Race to the Top and everyone at central office, with the exception of PV and his band of thieves are happy RSD was not selected…. Why? The staff at central office know if the RSD receives the money it is not going to be used the funds for what was proposed on paper. How do we know? If you read the recent article announcing RSD’s application and trip to defend the proposal, the last paragraph contained trumped up credentials for Rayne Martin, because many people at central office have watched the misuse of FEMA and other federal/state funds. and knowing that the district is ”operating” on a negative budget the district was able to remove a Tammy Robicheaux, white female who was supervised by Wanda Anderson, a black female, and place her under Kevin Gutierrez a white male who gave her a $13,334 raise. Interesting, the media made no mention of this fact or that RSD ranked number 11 among the list of 15 proposals, with an opportunity of course to clean up the application. Central office staff also are praying the district is denied the state SES funds and the federal supplement. Why? Receipt of these funds will not benefit the children. Instead the funds will be used to disguise other missing monies and over expenditures.
Right, no district in LA got Race to the Top funds. The rest? Birdies? Folks?
- Funding information—request from RSD the 2009-2010 annual budget—this is public information; look closely at Title I, IDEA, and Capital Funds. The fact the money will be used to fill budget gap will be exposed soon since RSD did not receive Race to the Top Funds. Although RSD was ranked 11 out of 14 competitors [sic], Rayne Martin is still trying to capture the funds. This money is desperately needed to cover up the shortage. It is the ONLY available resource to cover the large deficit. The irony of it all is that the State of Louisiana IS aware of the deficit, the mismanagement of funds, and lack of following regulations of federal dollars, and yet has decided to do nothing about it.
- How is it Intervention Services (special education department) under the supervision of Margaret Lang can spend IDEA funds weekly to pay for department staff catered breakfast and lunch?\
So what’s up here?
There’s been controversy over the plan to transfer management of Craig Elementary School to FirstLine Schools. Now FirstLine is set to manage Dibert Elementary School, currently a RSD-run school which will become a charter in the 2010-2011 school year. The teachers at Dibert are especially concerned about “the transparency of Firstline [sic] and their plans for the school” [from a listserve post]. The Dibert community will hold an “informal meeting” at the school [4217 Orleans Ave.] Wednesday, May 12, at 3:30pm to discuss FirstLine’s plans to manage Dibert. Please attend if you have children attending Dibert, teach at Dibert, or live in the neighborhood. Especially needed are actual parents of students. Don’t go just to yell general aspersions about charters or individuals. The Dibert community needs to prepare itself so that FirstLine serves Dibert’s needs, not the other way around.
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I’m not ascribing any value or not to this but I have noted that at FirstLine Schools the middle school leaders and directors of math, facilities, counseling services, teacher development, Edible Schoolyard NOLA, talent management and development are all white. It’s not an all-white leadership but the directorships are of…note.
Also in the leadership list, a noticeable number of people who have taught or otherwise worked for Teach for America—one co-founder sits on the TfA board and 5 out of the 19 in Leadership passed through TfA. Not a coup but a strong suggestion……..
And Leslie Jacobs’ brother, Stephen Rosenthal, is on the board of FirstLine Schools. Definitely worth noting.
Lawrence Kullman is also on FirstLine’s board. I can’t remmeber why I know that name. Jerome Jupiter is also on the board. He is the brother [see "003687 Jupiter - Clarence Joseph Jupiter"] of Clare Jupiter who was/is the general counsel for Orleans Parish School Board.
…the Girl said it would be the first year of her entire life she hadn’t gone to Jazz Fest.
…a check came in Saturday’s mail.
…we said, Fuck the bills, get the ponchos.
And the Girl’s lifetime Jazz Fest record is intact.
The Committee on Appropriate Test Use of the National Research Council stated in an authoritative report in 1999 that “tests are not perfect” and “a test score is not an accurate measure of a student’s knowledge or skills.” Because test scores are not an infallible measure, the committee warned, “an educational decision that will have a major impact on a test taker should not be made solely or automatically on the basis of a single test score.” ….
Psychometricians are less enthusiastic than elected officials about using tests to make consequential judgments, because they know that test scores may vary in unpredictable ways. Year-to-year changes in test scores for individuals or entire classes may be due to random variation. Student performance may be affected by the weather, the student’s state of mind, distractions outside the classroom, or conditions inside the classroom. Tests may also become invalid if too much time is spent preparing students to take them.
Robert Linn of the University of Colorado, a leading psychometrician, maintains there are many reasons why one school might get better test scores than another. NCLB, he says, assumes that if school A gets better results than school B, it must be due to differences in school quality. But school A may have students who were higher achieving in earlier years than those in the other school. Or school A might have fewer students who are English-language learners or fewer students with disabilities than school B. School A, which is presumably more successful, may have a homogeneous student body, while the less successful school B may have a diverse student body with several subgroups, each of which must meet a proficiency target. Linn concludes, “The fact that the school that has fewer challenges makes AYP [adequate yearly progress] while the school with greater challenges fails to make AYP does not justify the conclusion that the first school is more effective than the second school. The first school might very well fail to make AYP if it had a student body that was comparable to the one in the second school.”
State testing systems usually test only once each year, which increases the possibility of random variation. It would help, Linn says, to administer tests at the start of the school year and then again at the end of the school year, to identify the effectiveness of the school. Even then, there would be confounding variables: “For example, the students at the school with the higher scores on the state assessment might have received more educational support at home than students at school B. The student bodies attending different schools can differ in many ways that are related to performance on tests, including language background, socioeconomic status, and prior achievement.” The professional organizations that set the standards for testing—such as the American Psychological Association and the American Educational Research Association—agree that test results reflect not only what happens in school, but also the characteristics of those tested, including such elusive factors as student motivation and parental engagement. Because there are so many variables that cannot be measured, even attempts to match schools by the demographic profile of their student body do not suffice to eliminate random variation.
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Ravitch. Diane. The Death and Life of the Great American School System. New York: Basic/Perseus, 2010: 153-4.
