In case you missed it, LA Times reporters Jason Felch, Jason Song and Doug Smith used California’s public records law to obtain seven years of math and English test scores from the Los Angeles Unified School District. They asked Richard Buddin, a well-respected analyst at the RAND Corporation, to run the numbers and estimate teacher effectiveness — just as many states around the country are considering, and in a few cases starting to do.

The story was an eye-opener. The Times didn’t just present the results; it named names. Much of this sort of data never sees the light of day. What’s more, according to the story: “The district has had the ability to analyze the differences among teachers for years but opted not to do so, in large part because of anticipated union resistance.”

The story has created an interesting response, from teachers, unions, education scholars and more. See here for some reactions and the full story, including remarks from Jay P. Greene, 21st Century Chair in Education Reform at the University of Arkansas:

“It’s no longer possible to hide the fact that there are some awful teachers who continue receiving paychecks and depriving kids of an education,” he wrote. “School officials have had these data for years and never used them, never tried to identify who were the best and worst teachers, and never tried to remove bad teachers from the profession. It took a newspaper and a big [freedom of information] request.”

Transparency is a great tool for measuring what government programs, or in this case, which teachers, are performing well or poorly. Increased transparency can mean increased government accountability, but only if government receives continued pressure from the public and media and fully utilizes this tool.

For the full story on the LA Times piece, click here.

Jim Bolster was slapped with the five-day suspension “for assisting” his boss, former Deputy Commissioner Gilberto Quinones, in Quinones’ quest to “find employment for his son,” according to Transportation Department spokesman Brian Steele.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported Sunday that Quinones resigned his $122,940-a-year job, effective July 26, after the inspector general’s report accused him of clouting his son into “three successive” full-time jobs with three different engineering firms holding CDOT contracts.

In two of the cases, Quinones was accused of going to the city managers with direct oversight over those contractors and directing them to, “Find a place for my kid.” He allegedly approached the president of the third company directly, according to sources familiar with the inspector general’s report.

“These are allegations we take very seriously. City ethics rules prevent anyone from hiring a family member or having a family member hired by a contractor doing business with the city. This appears to be a clear violation,” Steele said.

Want more transparency in your local government? Check out our Local Transparency Project to see some of the ways you can help the Illinois Policy Institute improve transparency in local communities. To read the full Chicago Sun-Times article, click here.

Among an audit’s 68 findings were questions about whether youths who were paid more than $1 million were even qualified to be in the program, why $31,000 in pension payments were made for temporary summer youth workers and why a payroll company was given $12,000 to administer wage payments of $38,000 for one pay period.

“During this economic crisis, we have to make sure that every single dollar available to help put people back to work is used efficiently, effectively and appropriately,” Warren Ribley, director of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, said in a June statement to county commissioners.

The agency’s takeover recommendation comes five years after the state labeled the county program as “high risk” when a top official was under investigation for stealing money.

“Anytime there’s more scrutiny and more eyes watching taxpayer dollars, it’s a good thing,” said Commissioner Timothy Schneider, R- Streamwood, in response to the state’s actions. “To have to return money year after year to the state for mismanagement or misused funds is a disgrace.”

Accountability and transparency are vitally important in developing better government and strengthening public trust. To see how the state government is spending your tax dollars, explore our transparency website, IllinoisOpenGov.org, which features state salary, pension, and expenditure information. You can also find out which state officials are dedicated to transparency and accountability by checking out our Transparency Pledge page.

To find this information on our IllinoisOpenGov.org website, go to “Payroll” and search “Corrections Locksmith” and “Locksmith” in the “Position” field.

To find this information on our IllinoisOpenGov.org website, go to “Payroll” and search “Clinical Psychologist” in the “Position” field.

While the stimulus has been defended as an endeavor to spur job creation, no jobs were created on a $1 million expenditure to buy iPod Touches for students in Utah meant to be loaded “with educational applications that teachers hope will motivate students. Such applications include guides to identify trees, leaves and bird calls.”

Another project singled out in the report is a $498,000 grant to a unit of the American Legacy Foundation, which will provide BlackBerry Curve smart phones to Washington residents trying to quit smoking. The predominately low-income smokers who receive the phones may call a hotline or use the phones’ software capabilities to help with their addiction. Two jobs will be created by the program, a spokesman said.

The stimulus was passed without much time for people to observe what was actually included in it. With such haste and little transparency, wasteful spending should come as no surprise to the average taxpayer. With more transparency and openness about what the government is actually spending money on, taxpayers can have the opportunity to scrutinize projects like these and cut wasteful spending at a time when it is desperately needed.

To read the entire article, click here.

To find this information on our IllinoisOpenGov.org website, go to “Payroll” and search “Electrician” in the “Position” field.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics website shows the mean salary for a nutritionist in 2008 in Illinois was $51,070, a 6.3% decrease from the mean salary for a government-hired nutritionist. According the to the Illinois Central Management Services website, government nutritionists “provide professional nutrition, dietetic and food service program coordination, evaluation, consultation, technical assistance and in-service training to institutions, facilities or agencies within specifically assigned geographical area, region, or program.”

To find this information on our IllinoisOpenGov.org website, go to “Payroll” and search “Nutritionist” in the “Position” field.

The “Local Transparency Project”, a project of the non-partisan Illinois Policy Institute, consists of two separate transparency audits 6 weeks apart on 10 different online transparency categories including elected & administrative official contacts, meetings, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), budgets, financial audits, expenditures, employee’s salary & benefits, contracts, lobbying, and taxes & fees information.

Overall Transparency rankings for the New Trier Township area are listed below. Full details attached here in excel.

Scores accurate as of July 8th.

A special thank you goes out to Illinois Policy Institute Intern Rhys Seiffe, a resident of Wilmette, who led this transparency audit effort.

An audit of the Barrington Township area in Northwestern Cook County revealed no local government agencies graded received a passing grade on basic online transparency guidelines.

The “Local Transparency Project”, a project of the non-partisan Illinois Policy Institute, consists of two separate transparency audits 6 weeks apart on 10 different online transparency categories including elected & administrative official contacts, meetings, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), budgets, financial audits, expenditures, employee’s salary & benefits, contracts, lobbying, and taxes & fees information.

Overall Transparency rankings for the Barrington Township area are listed below. Full details attached here in excel.

Scores as of July 8th.