Ed Notes Online: News From Susan Ohanian Plus Brief Commentary for a Sat Nite

Saturday, September 14, 2013

News From Susan Ohanian Plus Brief Commentary for a Sat Nite

I broke the fast
But I did not eat the humitz
(to the tune of "I Shot the Sheriff).

Well, I'm as full as a bull after 24 hours of fasting. We had 6 people at the break the fast and me and the guys went down to my recently refurbished room which I'm trying to brand my new "man cave." Now pre-Sandy I wouldn't be found dead down there -- though I could have been found dead down there (like my neighbor was in his basement) when my wife sent me down in the flood -- twice. Was she trying to tell me something?

Today I managed to get some yard construction work done, digging post holes for some new structures to cover up areas damaged by Sandy. Work goes slowly because I spend most of the time staring at the problem or reading and smoking my pipe while listening to NPR or sports radio. It's nice outside, won't be fairly soon, so let's take advantage of it.

So you can see I have nothing of note to write - though I did want to point out that the reason Bloomberg is not endorsing anyone is because his endorsement is the kiss of death (like he claimed the UFT endorsement would be). I have an idea. He should endorse de Blasio and claim Bill is really a closet Bloomberg guy and just hiding it.

So let's end this with a great pile of suggested readings from Susan Ohanian's last update. I have barely scratched the surface reading it all but don't want to lose track of these articles in a sea of email so I am archiving it here. It's all Susan from now on.

Sept. 11

You haven't heard from me in a while because I've been hard at work on this piece for VT Digger. I hope you will go to their website and commend it to Twitter and Facebook. And leave a comment.Although I wrote the piece to stir the pot in Vermont, the issues affect us all.

http://vtdigger.org/2013/09/10/ohanian-begging-the-question/

New cartoons:

This kid had the goods on tests in 2nd grade
http://www.susanohanian.org/cartoon_fetch.php?id=822

Message Ignored & Obliterated by the Common Core State (sic) Standards
http://www.susanohanian.org/cartoon_fetch.php?id=819

People Who Care About Food
http://www.susanohanian.org/cartoon_fetch.php?id=818

'The Administration and the Department of Education are continuing to support education reform and success for all students'--Arne Duncan
http://www.susanohanian.org/cartoon_fetch.php?id=817

Assessments 2.0
http://www.susanohanian.org/show_nclb_cartoons.php?id=955

New Infographic: Welcome to Charterland
http://www.susanohanian.org/show_nclb_cartoons.php?id=954

Arne Duncan Likes Change
http://www.susanohanian.org/show_nclb_cartoons.php?id=953

NM State Parent Exemption Form 2013-2014--Albuquerque
http://www.susanohanian.org/show_nclb_cartoons.php?id=952

Whew! I think that cartoons often get at the heart of the matter, but on with the matter.

And if you're the praying sort, please pray for a hard freeze in Vermont. My doctor says that this is what I need for asthma relief.
Susan

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How one great teacher was wronged by flawed evaluation system
Valerie Strauss and Carol Burris
Washington Post Answer Sheet
2013-09-08
http://susanohanian.org/data.php?id=515

There is only one answer to the systematic drive to destroy teaching as a profession: Refuse to cooperate. Mass refusal. Start by refusing to give the tests--en masse.

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David Coleman Chosen to Write English Language Arts Common Core Standards Because Standardisto Triumverate Liked his Math Paper
Susan Ohanian
blog
2013-09-06
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=570

Just when you think you can't be surprised by anything Standardistos do. . . .

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Common Core Assessment Myths and Realities: Moratorium Needed From More Tests, Costs, Stress
Staff
Fairtest Fact Sheet
2013-09-04
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=569

FairTest explains that rather than ending 'No Child Left Behind' testing overkill, the Common Core will flood classrooms with even more standardized exams. Read their factsheet and donate to help support their research.

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Lieutenant Governor Releases DPI's Response to Common Core
Office of the Lt. Governor
Press Release
2013-08-22
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=568

NC Governor gets answers to his 67 questions & finds it baffling why 'a Department that is supposed to promote the Common Core Standards is hiding behind mountains of information and not offering clear, concise, common sense responses to very reasonable questions.'

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Guggenheim's 'Teach,' another Bill and Melinda Gates Project
Robert L. Arnold

2013-09-09
http://susanohanian.org/show_commentary.php?id=1128

A long-time educator reviews the new Guggenheim film 'Teach.'

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Baby Branding Nurseries
Susan Ohanian

2013-08-30
http://susanohanian.org/show_commentary.php?id=1127

Ok, so I got really ticked by a Wall Street Journal exhibition of conspicuous display of wealth-- in babies' nurseries.

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To the editor
Walt Gardner, Lawrence Harrison, & Mariga Temple-W
New York Times
2013-09-06
http://susanohanian.org/show_letter.php?id=1602

I just sat in disgust as I looked at the way the New York Times featured Amanda Ripley's book. Fortunately, these letter writers did something. Kudos.

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Mayor Emanuel,
Stephanie Jemilo
Mayor's office
2013-09-02
http://susanohanian.org/show_letter.php?id=1601

This letter needs absolutely no comment

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To the editor
P. L. Thomas
Post and Courier
2013-09-02
http://susanohanian.org/show_letter.php?id=1600

It seems especially egregious that on Labor Day the Post Courier sees fit to pronounce what 'good teachers' should be able to do

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Schools Put Security Lessons to Test After Newtown Shooting, Many Districts Place Renewed Emphasis on Safety
Joseph De Avila
Wall Street Journal
2013-09-09
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1692

One more step in making public schools as ugly and uncomfortable as possible: In the name of keeping children safe, make them more like prisons.

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How Much We Have Backslid
Richard Rothstein
Economic Policy Institute blog
2013-09-06
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1691

Richard Rothstein calls out Arne Duncan for his statement on NPR show about school integration in particular and about his ed policy in general.

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Cuomo floats 'death penalty' for failing schools
Jon Campbell
Poughkeepsie Journal
2013-08-30
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1690

New Yorkers and everybody else should pounce on Cuomo's outrageous remarks. You can comment at the newspaper site.

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Restore teaching as a respected profession
Lynn Stoddard
Standard-Examiner
2013-08-31
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1689

Stoddard notes 'Clearly, something is terribly wrong with a teaching profession that meekly submits to non-educator politicians telling them what and how to teach.' And then proposes a controversial solution.

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In the Name of Ann Richards
Richard Whittaker
Austin Chronicle
2013-08-30
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1688

AISD's School for Young Women Leaders is a district showcase -- does its glittering reputation hide a darker side for teachers and students?
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Order the CD of the resistance:
"No Child Left Behind? Bring Back the Joy."
To order online (and hear samples from the songs)
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/dhbdrake4
Other orders: Send $15 to
Susan Ohanian
P. O. Box 26
Charlotte, VT 05445

No comments:

"A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

What media call "philanthropy" for the public schools are actually seed monies to establish a private "market" in publicly-financed education - an enterprise worth trillions if successfully penetrated by corporate America. Cory Booker, one of the "New Black Leaders" financed by the filthy rich, is key to creating a "nationwide corporate-managed schools network paid for by public funds but run by private managers.

"Ed Reformers" want to cash in on public education and to control its content and outcome, not improve it. Provide great education? Baby boomers had as close as this country has ever gotten to it when we were growing up. The Ed Reform Movement has no interest in seeing such a well-educated, democratically astute population ever again.

http://blackagendareport.com/content/cory-booker-clear-and-present-threat-public-education

History of the UFT Pre-Weingarten Years

This award-winning series of articles by Jack Schierenbeck originally appeared in the New York Teacher in 1996 and 1997.

Naturally, from a certain point of view. But, despite certain biases, Schierenbeck, a great guy, was one of the best NY Teacher reporters so this is worth reading. Jack suffered a debilitating stroke many years ago (I used to get secret donations to ed notes from him through a 3rd source.)

This chapter looks interesting:

Class struggles: The UFT story, part 3

“The schism in the union over radical politics [is] a major reason for stalling the growth of a teacher union for decades.” Revolutionary politics and ideology take center stage, as the original Teachers Union becomes a battlefield, pitting leftist against leftist and splitting the union.

Clarence Taylor's "Reds at the Blackboard" focused on the old Teachers Union which disbanded in 1964 after suffering from anti-left attacks.

Of course for another view, check out the review at New Politics of the Kahlenberg Bio on Shanker by Vera Pavone and me: Albert Shanker: Ruthless Neocon

Effective Union Organizing

A video series put together by Jason Mann from the British Columbia Federation of Teachers about social media and how to use it for effective union organizing.

The first series was called New Media For Union Activists Roadmap and it's still available on-line at:
http://www.newmediabootcamp.ca/welcome/
I watched some of them and need to rewatch as they are loaded with information.

The second series started last week and it's called "Online Campaigning for Union Activists"

You can sign up for this free series at :
http://act.bcfed.ca/online-campaigning-for-union-activists/

You Don't Have A Choice - Join the Revolt

Ex-Harlem Success Teacher Comments on Eva the Diva

Ex-HSA Teacher has left a new comment on your post "Fear and Loathing at Evil's Harlem Success Empire ...":

I am a former Harlem Success teacher. Not many people who work/worked for her like her very much. I once made the comment that she is very nice when I first was hired. Two of her closest colleague responded immediately almost in unison, "Eve is not nice!" Over time I realized that there was a lot of political games going on. Another colleague once said to me that he was tired of "being part of a political campaign." Sending out 15,000 applications for only 400 seats in a school is reprehensible. The money that paid for those mass mailings could have paid the yearly salary of another teacher not to mention the heartache of all those parents who applied but did not get a spot. She does good work trying to give disadvantaged students a quality public school education but at a great cost to staff AND the school's educational budget! school budget.

Davis Guggenheim Compared to Riefenstahl

“Waiting for Superman" is the second most intellectually dishonest piece of documentary work I have seen. It is surpassed only by Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will," the pro-Hitler propaganda classic, in that regard. Uses personal narratives of adorable children to create narrative suspense that overrides public policy discussion with pure emotion in unscrupulous attack on teachers and their unions, among others

Timothy Tyson
Professor of African American Studies and History
Duke University

How Teaching Experience Makes a Difference

Even as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Michelle Rhee and others around the nation are arguing for experienced teachers to be laid off regardless of seniority, every single study shows teaching experience matters. In fact, the only two observable factors that have been found consistently to lead to higher student achievement are class size and teacher experience, so that it’s ironic that these same individuals are trying to undermine both.
- Leonie Haimson on Parents Across America web site

Full article with charts here.

Weingarten/Gates Foundation announce drone-driven teacher evaluation

According to a press release issued by the Gates Foundation, the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, these three have entered a ground-breaking partnership to evaluate teachers utilizing the drone technology that has revolutionized warfare in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. A bird-size device floats up to 400 feet above a classroom and instantly beams live video of teachers in action to agents at desks at Teacher Quality Inspection Stations established by the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

When asked if the drones were authorized to drop bombs on teachers who exhibit inadequacy, Chester E. Finn, Jr., president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, replied, "Don't be ridiculous. Gates money puts other methods at our disposal."

Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.5-million-member American Federation of Teachers said the powerful union has signed on to the drone project...

More at Substance

The Real Reason Behind Push for Standardized Tests: It's All About the Adults

On standardized testing in our schools

A must read article about the standardized test industry.
Written by an insider who has worked as a test scorer, the article outlines a multinational industry based on an army of temporary workers paid by the piece at $0.30 to $0.70 per test, translated in the need to grade 40 tests per hour to make a $12 salary. The article goes on to show how the companies gauge the grading "results" based on the need to ensure new contracts to continue profiting off of our youth. The original article is from Monthly Review. Here it is on Schools Matter blog.

http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2010/12/on-growing-use-of-corporate-test.html

Parallels between America today and Germany in the 1920's and early 30's

"Resentment and obstruction are all the right wing in America have to peddle. Their policies are utterly discredited. Their ideology - even by its own standards - is a sham. They are so bereft of leaders, their de facto leader is a former drug addicted, thrice-divorced radio talk show host. That is literally the best they can muster. But they have built a national franchise inciting the downwardly mobile to blame the government, not the right, for their problems, exactly as Hitler did in the 1920s."

The US Is Facing a Weimar Moment

Published on Sunday, March 15, 2009 by CommonDreams.org

Chicago View of Unity/UFT on Charters

After many meetings and debates, the Chicago delegation succeeded in working with the New York United Federation of Teachers, Local 2 (UFT) to push the AFT to take stronger stands on charter school accountability and school closings — though many delegates from Chicago would have liked the language to have been even stronger.

Generally speaking, the New York delegation represented organizing charters as the best model for handling their role in reshaping unions, despite the fact that according to many reports few charter schools in New York have been organized as is the case in Chicago. This logic is the same touted by the Progressive Caucus of the AFT. The few that have been organized are a part of the UFT local though they have separate contracts negotiated with the help of UFT. The Chicago delegation reflection the mindset that allowing new charters to continue to proliferate while attempting to organize existing charters is an end game in which public schools and the union lose.

Jen Johnson, CTU, Local 1 in Substance

Ed Notes Greatest Hits: HSA Rally and Founding of GEM

SEE MY VIDEO ON HARLEM SUCCESS RALLY 2009:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEp7rg_L5JI

Angel Gonzalez and I attended that rally and used the footage to promote our conference on Mar. 28, 2009, which is where the concept of a group like GEM emerged. Until then we had basically been a committee of ICE working with the NYCORE high stakes testing group. The actions of Eva and crew helped spawn GEM. Mommie Dearest!!

I have more video somewhere. I was hoping to get Leni Riefenstahl to edit it but she died. We would have called it "Triumph of the Hedge Fund Operators."

Ed Notes Extended

Saturday, September 14, 2013

News From Susan Ohanian Plus Brief Commentary for a Sat Nite

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