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Arne Duncan, Cindy Marten, Diane Ravitch, San Diego Unified School District, San Diego Unified School District Superintendent Cindy Marten
Is that you Superintendent?
As Stakeholders of the San Diego Unified School District we have become used to the many types of lies by “Ruby Slipper” Elementary School Superintendent Marten.
Everything from outright lies covered by the media (Fake Scholarship – http://wp.me/p4LD0L-bl) to lying by omission (Principal Selection Manipulation –http://wp.me/p4LD0L-4O and Butcher Knife Stabbing Coverup – http://wp.me/p4LD0L-bX) to lying through plausible deniability (MRAP Debacle – http://wp.me/p4LD0L-9Y) due to incompetence and lack of credentials.
Around the time of the MRAP Debacle, District Deeds started smelling something more rotten than usual in the SDUSD Superintendent’s office.
The first evidence of something being fishy began after reading the glowing review of Marten by Diane Ravitch in a Voice of San Diego article, then reading the Ravitch blog where she eviscerated Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Common Core and then noticing the multiple Photo and Video Ops Spokesmodel/Ravitch Devotee Superintendent Marten had with Education Secretary Duncan plus numerous presentations extolling the Common Core.
District Deeds began unraveling of The HUGE Marten Common Core State Standards Cover-Up on September 15, 2014 when, to determine if the Ravitch support of Marten was still in effect, we posted the following comment on Ravitch’s Blog regarding the MRAP Debacle:
On September 19, 2014 without referring to our discussion in any way, Ravitch posted a “news” item: http://dianeravitch.net/2014/09/19/breaking-news-san-diego-schools-will-return-armored-vehicle-to-military/
On that Ravitch News Post we commented by calling out the inconsistency of her position on the MRAP. The exchange started with asking Ravitch about her perception of Marten’s responsibility in the MRAP debacle. You can read the interchange here: District Deeds Response to Ravitch Exoneration
After getting no response, we continued to read the Ravitch Blog. On October 9, 2014, via a response on her blog, we asked Ms. Ravitch how she could so fervently support Marten while Marten was publicly strongly implementing Common Core and sucking up to Arne Duncan.
After she was presented to the evidence, we were SHOCKED by Ravitch’s response. Supposedly a CHAMPION of TRANSPARENCY in School District Leadership, she refused to approve our post…and then accused us of having a “grudge” against Marten on her reply without allowing the post of our side of the story. Despite her attempts to cover it up, we saved the exchange and here it is: Ravitch Marten Duncan question
District Deeds was instantly perplexed by this “unholy alliance” of Marten, Ravitch and Duncan and decided to begin to consistently review the Ravitch Blog and continue to research Marten’s decisions and interactions.
After that unpleasant on-line conversation, we stopped posting on the Ravitch blog. However we continued “following” Ravitch and her numerous postings denigrating both:
Arne Duncan: http://dianeravitch.net/?s=arne+duncan
and
Common Core: http://dianeravitch.net/page/2/?s=common+core
All the while watching her beloved photo-op addicted Spokesmodel Superintendent Marten publicly fraternize with Duncan here…
And here…
We were confused!
On one hand Marten was best buddies with Duncan and Common Core while on the other hand Ravitch defended her to the extreme while criticizing Duncan and Common Core regularly.
What could be causing this “unholy alliance” and the Marten/Ravitch/Duncan apparent 3 way cognitive dissonance?
And especially, at the educational risk of the 120,000 SDUSD Students, what was Marten REALLY doing with the implied approval and consent of the SDUSD Board of Education, to satisfy both sides?
Then, on December 2, 2014, we read the State of the District 2014 transcript (State of the District 2014 Marten Speech) and some other documents and it all became clear…the BIGGEST Lie to ALL the Stakeholders that I have witnessed in the history of my 13 years of involvement in the San Diego Unified School District.
Coming up next: Rotten to the Common Core – The HUGE Marten Cover-Up – Part 2: Counterfeit Ruby Slippers
District Deeds 
Frank,
I’ve been a fan of Diane Ravitch for several years. Read her book, “The Death and Life of the American School System”…but after reading her comments about the “heck of a job” Cindy Marten is doing, have lost faith in her opinions.
If you search…ravitch “laura lestrange”, and read the comments after the article entitled “Why San Diego is the Best Urban School District”…start by scrolling to the bottom of the comments, until you see a square black symbol, and the name Laura Lestrange, then read about ten comments, from Laura, Diane Ravitch and Joe Nathan.
Finally, when Joe asks Ravitch if she should maybe look more closely at what’s really happening in San Diego Unified, Diane responds, “I never make judgements based on what people say.”
Then Diane goes on to use the contact extension and salary raise that Cindy was given by the board, as evidence of what an outstanding job Marten is doing.
She may not use Laura Lestrange or your facts to form judgements, but she apparently makes judgements based on what Cindy’s five puppeteers do.
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Its funny how Ravitch criticizes Duncan, everyone who supports the Common Core and the “Broadies (as she calls them) for not listening to what her and her advocates..HER people…say, but refuses to listen to “people” that are bearing the brunt of Marten’s incompetence, dictatorial approach and resistance to transparency. My next blog post …Part 2 of State of the District will explain why I think she refuses to call Marten out.
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