Bank of America Credit Cards = Worst Overall Customer Service

January 31, 2010 at 07:59 (A Member of the 21st Century, Economy and Me, Education Observations, Outside, Take Aways, What might this person(s) be thinking?)
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When I graduated from grad school, I was offered a credit card which upon use and my payment, would give a small percentage to my graduate school. I thought it was a great idea considering how much I owed on student loans and how long it would be until I could make annual contributions.

The credit card was with Bank of America.  I was immediately given $10,000 in credit.  Over the years I rarely used the card (I am not much into credit cards at all) but now and again it came in handy.  When I travel, I tend to pre-pay or leave a credit balance on the card in case while traveling something happens and a bill is ‘skipped’/lost in mail, etc.

When I went to Kenya, I did this again with this credit card. I periodically used the credit card in Kenya as there are currency conversion fees for using a card abroad.  Stupid me for trying to be responsible…..what ensued is a great customers worst nightmare, well second worse when you consider identity theft (although, really, it is difficult enough for me to be me – I would not encourage anyone to attempt the task).

When I returned, there was still a positive balance on the acct. Knowing this, I planned to use the card to make purchases and use up the positive balance. It seemed logical to me at the time as I had in effect given Bank of America the cold, hard cash up front.   I had no clue being a good customer would require so much aggravation.

Bank of America, upon my giving them a new address stateside, decided to issue me a check for the positive balance. Why? I don’t know, I did not request it. As I said, I planned to use it when I got home.  The check was mailed and LOST – no surprise there considering it was mailed at the height of the holiday season (Dec. 17, 2009).  I called Bank of America to report it and ask for a stop pay and to merely credit back my account. I would spend the money by charging things to my card.

I was told it would first be credited to my account by 20 January 2010.  Then, upon calling to find out if the credit had been done, I was told it would be applied 27 January 2010.

I called again. It was not applied. I was put into the phone que three times. I hung up.

I called again on 29 January 2010 and was put in the phone que two times by two different incompetent customer service representatives who could not read the notes on my account to explain a stop pay and reissue was done on the check as opposed to a stop pay and credit my account, which is what I had actually requested.

Finally, I closed the account and then spoke to a manager named Heather Roberts who explained the stop pay reissue. It took some very specific questions from me to get a ‘commitment’ as to when I could expect the reissue (it must be done by the CIA or something). Finally we came to an agreement that I would be called to be on the lookout for the check.

Considering the time spent on resolving these issues, at least 1 1/2 hours with various customer service representatives, two postages to mail checks, paper to print check and then have me close my account with, it actually would have been more cost effective to credit my account instead of a stop pay reissue.  It would have also been more cost effective to have a responsible customer who has never missed a payment.

Apparently one can be hired to do customer service without passing through algebra, which would make the paragraph directly above make sense to anyone trying to manage a business.

We have to  do better with our education system – if we do not, we will be unable to run our own banks and have a functioning economy – Oh, wait……that is what is going on now.

To date, Heather Roberts has not returned my call. On 2/6/10 I spoke with Kim Mitchell who verified everything in this blog and told me Heather had it on her calendar to call me.  Today is 2/9/10 and I am speaking to Rashad Whiting. Since I am on hold, I am able to type. Rashad is hesitant to pass me on to anyone else for fear it may mess up what Heather is trying to do.  Nyree  Koch came on the line to try to help me…..Nyree asked if I had recently moved – I said, yes, from another country…..

I don’t think the small amount of money is enough to do much for the Merrill Lynch Fiasco or bonuses, yet it seems to be cost effective for me to speak to many customer service people and be put on hold and have them attempt to track down the mystery person named Heather Roberts.

Nyree called back. She promised a check for the remaining positive balance would be issued. Today is 20 of Feb – still no check. Thank you B of A for continuing to use my $122.00.   I remain ever hopefull that I will finally get my money back.

Due to a mishap from USPS – kind of sort of understandable as I was able to get my old apartment back after having put in a forwarding address for all my tax stuff……..I received check on 27 February 2010 and promptly deposited.

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What am I missing with the headlines?

January 28, 2010 at 01:05 (Economy and Me, Education Observations, Take Aways)
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/27/MN2E1BNVD8.DTL

Los Angeles Times 27 January 2010 Wednesday A10/Howard Blume Making their pitch for schools

All over California, superintendents of school districts are decrying the sad state of the California budget and the effect it will have on their districts.  Nowhere have I seen equal clamor from the charter school sector, which, too my knowledge gets school monies from the same trough of funds. 

Either charter schools are not complaining as they have figured out how to drum up money via grants and donations to cover the shortfall or there must be some programs/services which charter schools do not provide with categorical funds so they are not feeling as much of a squeeze.

My experience has been that charter schools are schools of  ‘choice’ so they skirt the funding issue by not having to provide the myriad services of regular school districts as parents ‘waive’ their rights to needing such things at the far superior charter schools.  In addition, parents at charter schools tend to put more out of pocket money into the various school programs.  Donations from various groups flood into charter schools as everyone wants their name or their company associated with the do goodness of charter schools.  In essence, charter schools ‘manage’ their money situtation differently.

Due to the strictures of regular public school budgets, public schools can not pull the same smooth moves without raising the ire of parents who expect the school to do everything for their child.   It would seem appropriate that since charter schools have long stated they can teach everyone a thing or two about running a school, they should be out there offering their services or at least sharing their ideas.

There surely seems to be something amiss from my view. Are public, non-charter schools really doing something so drastically different that we all need to jump on the train before it passes or are charter schools skirting issues and this will be when we find out how economics of scale work OR is then when we find out what charter schools don’t do?

For all intents and purposes, it would seem that SFUSD would want to bring in as many charter schools as possible to solve their problem, which is not enrollment issues.  Why are charter schools not gaming up for the big take over opportunity?

All of these unanswered questions make me wonder what is really going on, beyond the money issues. I doubt it there is some scary cabal, however there is definitely a difference in the two types of public schools.

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Whose stamp of approval makes a program credible? How do parents determine what is best for the education of their child? How do we as adults determine what is best for our mental health treatment, or treatment for a child? The decision making is all intimately related.

January 21, 2010 at 08:43 (Economy and Me, Education Observations, Outside)
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Over the past few weeks I have been glimpsing at portions of the newspaper which I have neglected enjoying for six months due to lack of time. When Eric Jaffe wrote his piece in the LA Times regarding the issue of bringing scientific scrutiny into psychotherapy to determine the programs efficacy, I glommed on like warm gum on the sidewalk to a tennis shoe coming by. This similar/same issue of credibility in education took us to state testing being all meaningful and research based education programs as the apogee of educational standards. There has been no noticeable improvement in education for years. The U.S. continues to fail in graduating the quality of students we seek to employ from abroad to make our country function. The lack of applied reasoning seasoned with the emotionality of issues has helped grow the sour grapes we can not make into wine for either education or mental health care.

At the crux of what Eric Jaffe wrote is the simplicity of ‘accrediting’ those who can vs. accrediting those who will follow a didactic, linear approach which ultimately saves money for the institution (industry) most capable of spinning and marketing their ideas to an ignorant public.

Following along with the logic of all the pieces written 11 January 2010 in the LA Times Health Section, would be the race in the last 10-15 years to ‘credential’ teachers through any program possible (http://www.theapple.monster.com a piece entitled Alternate Routes to Teacher Certification 20 January 20100, especially for people looking to make a career change AND bonus to TFA! It is the same logic – we can teach your child by a research proven, scientifically validated, evidence based research methods (http://www.thebestevidence.org and http://www.ed.gov/nclb/methods/whatworks/edpicks.jhtml) recipe that continues to fail children as there is no longitudinal data to show that these programs have indeed improved education. In fact, according to my previous blog, we are still not even sure what makes a great teacher except it appears to be linked to good multiple choice test scores – the most ludicrous measure of success.

Clearly I want my heart surgeon to tell me how successful he is on multiple choice tests about the heart instead of telling me how many intricate surgeries he has done requiring his flexible thoughts and creative skill (not measureable by any multiple choice test). There is no research to show a doctor who does well on multiple choice tests is a better surgeon; an attorney who does well on multiple choice tests is better at representing a client or perhaps an MBA who did better on his multiple choice tests in business school is better at ravaging the public banking system.

The upside to all that has happened in the name of research proven education is the increase in charter schools, TFA and all the ancillary programs who have huge marketing budgets and people gifted in spin as to the upsurge in test scores with more minority/poverty stricken students entering college, BUT NO DEMONSTRABLE PROOF ANYWHERE that there are more students graduating college……..which would be at least one way of demonstrating better research proven education programs.

Applying the above logic in education to the logic used by the Psychological Clinical Science Accreditation System, we as a society should look forward to more people with mental illness getting less help or inadequate care for a long term health issue (mental health). This would also mean more prisoners in prison (the number one precipitating factor to entering the system is mental illness) or being released on a revolving policy and more unproductive members of society as it is already known that there are insufficient services for people of low income and who may also be non-white (specifically in the realm of clinical depression, but definitely apparent in all mental health issues). New law may aid therapy options/Eric Jaffe 11 January 2010 delineates more surrounding the passage of Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act which went into effect 1 January 2010, which seems to have more to do with costs than efficacy or productiveness of the mental health treatment and the qualifications of the provider.

While the answers are certainly not clear as potable water, there has to be more to the discussion than immediacy and money. Time is money and as the saying goes, ‘If you don’t have time or money to re-do the job correctly, do it right the first time’. In education we keep plodding along and re-doing or attempting to undo that which has not worked – and it shows. Following our poor choices with mental health in the realm of research proven most undoubtedly will produce similar results. Can we make it with shoddy education and mental health solutions?

　

　
 

 

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Bereft of moral compass, what does this teach our children?

January 14, 2010 at 09:00 (Economy and Me, Education Observations, What might this person(s) be thinking?)
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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/13/business/13blame.html?sudsredirect=true

For the past few months I have struggled heartily with my own moral compass: at what point was I solving or correcting a problem and at what point would I become complicit in the problem by not being able to turn it around even though I knew it existed.  My dilemma involved a school, students, a chronically corrupt and in some aspects morally bankrupt country (Kenya), people who thrive in manipulating moral situations to make them seem palatable,  some friends, my personal safety and my ability to accept I had made a sad choice for myself.

In spite of the personal hardships my choice would cause, I could not live with myself adding to the problem and did not see any possibility to problem solve without giving up some of my integrity.  Suffice it to say, I came home after lengthy consultation with my family, friends and a local pastor who knew much more the back history of the dilemma than I could sort out in five months.  It hurt. It stung. The very thing I had so desired for 10 years came crashing down but ultimately I found that I had to be able to sleep at night and I sorted out for myself the difference of right versus correct for this situation.

I have now been home three weeks.   At moments of weakness I still cry but I am getting better at accepting my choice and knowing my intent was to do more good than harm to all involved.

With this in mind, the above article was deeply disturbing in so much as it demonstrated adults who could not (would not?)  think and own their responsibility for one of the greatest catastrophic  financial events in my lifetime and quite possibly, the last hundred years by what I read from different analyses of the most recent banking debacle.

My questions are then. “How many of these people who run (administer) and work in the highest echelons of the banking and financial industries are complicit in and demonstration of a bereft moral compass? What does the behavior say about us and our willingness to accept this shoddy behavior by not demanding something different? What does this behavior say about those involved in the banking/financial industry on  a moral/personal level if they accept bonuses and can not apologize for destroying and devastating very real lives?” 

 I ask this because these aforementioned people are our modern day  model of heros until we demonize them to villians. These people are what our children see as  perpetrators of victimless crimes because we are willing to not demand a very human and humble emotion- REGRET.

 These people who do not apologize about how they obtained their money,  for a variety of reasons – fear of shareholders, greed, ego, not conceptualizing what they did was wrong, psychological madness and other assorted reasons do not help us raise up future generations to think with more clarity about their actions. If anything, we ourselves begin to put immorality in a category of benign neglect and downplay the effects.

“Certainly the accepting of public responsibility is a virtue that companies and business schools should cultivate,” said Mr. Bruner. (Italics are mine!)

In order to teach children, young adults and quite frankly some adults about ethical behavior, we need to demand it from the very people who should be demonstrating the ability to be humble and contrite.

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What the research really shows: Almost ALL TEACHERS are better when parents are involved……

January 14, 2010 at 07:00 (Education Observations, A Member of the 21st Century, What might this person(s) be thinking?, Take Aways)
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http://theapple.monster.com/news/articles/9443-what-makes-some-teachers-better-than-others?utm_source=nlet&utm_content=tap_c1_20100112_all

While reading this article last night on my iPhone, I could not decide who would be the prime person to deride – everyone seemed equally culpable of faulty logic.  I do know that this article is an insult to teachers and their intelligence and it is beyond my understanding how so many high profile people and groups glommed on to such an idea.  Bear with me as I state the obvious to those of you reading my blog.

Let me start with the article author (and, by happenstance whomever her editor might be). 

Dallas public schools have joined a national research project that will delve into what makes teachers good at what they do – a key ingredient in how students perform on high-stakes tests.

Diane – thank you for pointing out that a so called good teacher is only as good as how their students perform on high stakes tests. Right off the bat I knew there was a conflict of interest as you did not elucidate those outside of education that not all people believe teacher effectiveness can be measured by high stakes test results since there are many years of teaching (and hopefully, parent involvement) by multiple teachers and misconceptions are incredibly difficult to overcome, even in multiple choice tests.

Research has shown that if students are repeatedly exposed to ineffective teachers, “it’s almost impossible for them to bounce back,” Hinojosa said.

A wrong answer in class is actually a good teaching opportunity, Kane said. Teachers should respond by asking students to explain their reasoning for the wrong answer, so the teacher can understand why the student isn’t getting the concept.

Diane, you quoted Mr. Hinojosa and Mr. Kane so clearly the ‘evidence’ is there. Un fortunately no one bothers to cite the studies they are using to support their statements. Why then would anyone want to peg test scores single handedly on a teacher as a measure of competence?

Mr. Hinojosa knows by inexperience, rather than experience, the issues surrounding middle school teachers. Would it not seem reasonable that teachers want an ‘advocate’ who knows by experience what they do?  The manifestations of pegging test scores to a teacher who has students which already had 5-7 (under the best possible scenario) other previous teachers K-5,6,7 seems  and is outlandish.   Would you expect a doctor to take full successive  responsibility for five previous surgeries which worked to varying degrees by five different surgeons?

I would check Mr. Hinojosa’s educational background, and evaluate

…get some information that says, ‘This is what good teaching is about…

since good teaching is about so much more than test scores.

Critics say that basing a teacher’s evaluation simply on student test scores isn’t fair, and that multiple measures should be used to define teacher quality.

It would seem the criticism is actually to help spend the Gates Foundation money effectively since the money spent on small schools was not a long enough longitudinal study, hence the shifting of gears.  Who is to know that 10-15 years out, a student benefits from something if there is no data since the game plan was changed mid-course.  It would seem from this article, people are looking for the new-NEW thing, not the thing or a modification there of which works.

DISD math teachers in grades 6 to 8, reading teachers in grade 6, and English and language arts teachers in grades 7 and 8 will be involved.

Further evidence that the narrow focus of literacy and math does not take into account students who struggle with science misconceptions, social studies, etc. Essentially the study is directed at only the material items with the largest bang for the buck on state testing, not on what is successful teaching. Successful teaching occurs across all subjects.

Students will be surveyed to measure how they perceive their teacher. That feedback can help teachers improve their performance.

Kane said he hopes student evaluations will become a standard part of teacher evaluations. He also said classroom videos may be able to replace or supplement evaluations done by principals, who may only be able to visit a classroom for a limited time.

This element has witch hunt written all over it. Students who are not performing well can and do gang up to punish a teacher, which assists in the creation of teacher churning, much like fully managed stock brokerages do with accounts. 

Once, in my career of teaching, I actually had a principal who was outstanding.  She (Janet Trostle, Duarte Unified School District) made it a point to script out observations, review with teachers and actually coach. Not only did the staff love her, they enjoyed her feedback – she was the principal teachers wanted to work for.   Sadly, the other principals I have worked for pretty much either really lacked the time or, mostly the case, did not care enough to be effective so avoided observations until it was a last minute, get it under the wire.  One principal, from a charter school,  never wrote anything for me and then decided the last day of school to put me on corrective action because I had a legitimate health problem requiring surgery and I would be out 6 weeks and this would affect how the school year started out which meant his test scores would be affected. This MO was applied to another teacher as well.    I dislike Mr. Kane suggesting that student surveys could some how replace a professional educator doing their job and coaching their teachers.  I believe I missed the portion of graduate school where popularity was an effective coaching method, in fact, I believe it is frowned upon as a method of classroom management for students.

 Kane said. “The new generation of measures will help point teachers to specific things they can be doing to improve.”

I am suggesting  Mr. Kane focus in on the research which says in study after study that  the ‘measures’ which will help point administrators in the direction of  creating great learning environments, must focus on parental involvement.

I would have no problem being evaluated by a matrix as long as it included that the test scores could only be used if I had 95%  ACTIVE parent involvement.  Anything less pushes the burden to teachers, which is not where responsibility lays.

http://hfrp.org/

http://www.pta.org/topic_parent_involvement.asp

http://www.publicschoolreview.com/articles/12

http://cte.ed.gov/acrn/parents/schoolsuccess.htm

http://www.georgiapta.org/resources-parent-involvement.html

http://whereiskatima.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=238

http://www.dallasisd.org/news/publications/parents/parent_fall07_eng.pdf

http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/14/the-push-back-on-charter-schools/?ref=education#geoff

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Tasting Bitter Roots Sewn in a Garden of Sorrow

January 12, 2010 at 03:36 (A Member of the 21st Century, Education Observations, Take Aways)
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My first opportunity to go to Kenya was inopportune as I had to have major surgery. My second opportunity was not possible due to post election violence. The third opportunity occurred in March 2009 and I was able to travel to Kenya.

I fell in love with the parks in Nairobi, the round abouts, walking around in the various sections considered safe, looking at textiles on Bishara Street, eating great samosas or ugali and chicken at various small places. On one Friday I was able to visit Starehe Boys School. I was impressed by so many aspects of the school and the dreams delivered to so many by its founder – it inspired me to want to return to Kenya, I was unsure in what capacity. For all intents and purposes, there was no visible evidence of post election violence- it was a whispered conversation amongst adults and adroitly addressed in op ed pieces in various newspapers. There was a sense of surrender to an imposed calm so people could function.

During the ensuing months of my first journey to Kenya and accepting a job I attempted to research as much as I could about the most recent ‘history’ of Kenya to begin understanding some of the causes of the post election violence. I did not want to understand the evil people could perpetrate on one another, rather I wanted to find a place in my heart for those who were in the process of surviving. I knew that this pivotal event was essential to any change to be made in Kenya. What I visually saw on line and what was explained in writing and what people said did not begin to address what actually occurred. I don’t think the media lied – there is just no way to express all of these tragic events.

Later, as I was leaving Kenya and a friend gave me the photo book Kenya Burning, ISBN 9966-7182-1-4 that I had a more real glimpse into a portion of what happened. Post election violence was at least partially a result of long standing hatred, jealousy induced by decades of colonialism. What ever colonialism did not outwardly destroy in Kenya, the people of Kenya took one step further and poured out the sickest hatred on their own. The need to win an election instead of demonstrate leadership superseded any and all reason. Living with the secondhand knowledge of this tragedy is not the same as living through it.

There is a picture with a hand resting on a rock. It is only a hand – there is no body. In the back of my mind I saw scenes from the movie Hotel Rwanda. There is an ugliness within each photo of Kenya Burning which rips at my heart and yet I know it is nothing compared to the people in each picture or the people outside the photos but who were present for the violence – their pain is genuine and still raw and it may always be an open wound. The anger Kenyans hold regarding corruption is almost reverent.  It is sewn from a frustration that is in the bone marrow.  It is this environment which prevents education from being able to take hold. The population of Kenya and its destiny is better controlled when people do not ask questions nor expect anything.

It was through these same photos I found a way to obtain a ration of forgiveness to myself for not being able to effect any significant change, for being an observer to corruption and hatred but unable to do anything about it. The whole situation was larger than anything I could imagine and clearly will take more than a lifetime to put at rest. What I saw while working in Kenya was merely a dirty residue to a poisonous pile.

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