Ed Notes Online

Community Outrage: What is Eva Moskowitz's husband Eric Grannis up to in Brooklyn?

2012-01-27T08:47:00.000-05:00

Starting a chain of faux-gressive charters to complement Eva's rigid Success Academies.

There is so much going on around the Eva Moskowitz Success Charter invasion of Williamsburg (and Cobble Hill) that I could do 5 blogs a day. Last night around 40 people came out in the rain to PS 84 where CEC 14 sponsored a screening of our film. I have to write a number of posts on the situation in Williamsburg/Greenpoint where I spend my entire almost 40 year career (see below this post for some links of previous posts).

What is going on here is that Eva is getting an elementary school (PEP votes March 1) into MS 50 which is 2 blocks away from PS 84 while hubbie Eric aims a new charter chain at that school (where I spent the last part of my career), even degrading it to his toney target audience.

All this plays out through the SUNY authorizing agent where Pedro Noguera (see no evil eva) chairs the committee and will turn deaf and dumb when Eric comes before him. (I have lots more to blog about the meeting he chaired this past Weds.)

This info below was compiled by an amazing parent activist defending public education who I just met last Sunday at one of our screenings.

Grannis' umbrella group, the Tapestry Project, employs one person: Etoy Ridgnal, of Stand for Children union busting AstroTurf fame. And with Etoy's help, Grannis is already brokering his first deal to charter-ize north Brooklyn. His Letter of Intent to open two schools in Williamsburg via the aggressively expanding wannabe chain Citizens of the World was filed with SUNY January 19. The first CWCS was founded a year ago in Los Angeles, by former Teach for America Los Angeles board chairman Mark Gordon, who quickly opened two more in LA. The two Williamsburg schools will be the first in New York, and plans include scaling up to almost 1,000 students in co-located public schools. http://www.cwcschools.org/newyork.html CWSC board minutes include plans for partnership with a national chain, but which one is not clear yet.

How is Grannis pitching these "alternative" schools in Williamsburg? --only to the affluent, with a very deceptive soft-sell. Since last March, he has been holding "information sessions" exclusively at Williamsburg's expensive new condo developments, such as the Edge, and Schaefer Landing. He advertised the "info sessions" on a local parents' listserv, where he was quickly outed as not-a-local-parent. His response to this outing was a defense of his "altruistic" motives, that some fell for:

"I'm not a local parent (although Williamsburg is such a wonderful neighborhood that I confess it is tempting!). I have to admit therefore that I'm interested in helping improve education in an area I which I don't live. Just as someone might volunteer in a hospital or volunteer in a school that is not in their neighborhood, I'm helping out in a neighborhood that isn't mine (or at least I'm trying to). I think that it's possible to have some insight in to the needs of neighborhood one doesn't live in because all kids need to learn to read, write etc…. I don't think that what would be a great school on, say, the Upper West Side or in Park Slope is entirely different than what would make a great school in Williamsburg.

Questions are raised and he responds>>>>>>>>

But this really isn't about me. My goal, as stated in my email, is to bring people together to collaborate on creating charter schools if they want to. I want those charter schools to be designed by Williamsburg residents in collaboration with educators. I don't intend to sit on the boards of these schools, I don't intend to be employed by these schools etc…. I intend to help to help parents.I don't doubt that there are good schools, good principals, and good teachers in Williamsburg and I'm happy to hear that you are happy with yours. If everyone is as satisfied as you are and doesn't want to start charter schools, then I'll pack up my bags. From speaking with parents, however, there do seem to be some parents who are not satisfied with their options and want other ones. For those parents, I am making my time and the time of others available for whatever assistance I can provide."

...and in case local parents with newly school-age children--who might have been happy with their local PS--are looking for information, Grannis has "helpfully" provided his site Schoolfisher, where he falsely gives the popular and well-rated PS 84 an "F" rating [PS 84 has a B rating]. (One attendee of an "info session" relayed that Grannis tries to scare the affluent newcomers to the neighborhood he is pitching to: the public schools are all failing and charters are their only hope.) Rather than openly advertising meetings to the whole neighborhood, Grannis's strategy is to prey on and misinform a tiny minority of affluent newcomers to get a foothold. After all, he only needs to dupe 160 parents of kindergarteners to launch his invasion, and he hardly wants to alert the much larger opposition about his plans...

Here is my last post related to this issue:
SUNY/Noguera Cave to Eva: Overturn Reco of Subcom...

The future of MS50, PS84...

http://www.indypendent.org/2010/01/29/bloombergs-12-step-method/

Good article on school choice:

http://www.alternet.org/story/153858/5_biggest_lies_about_the_right-wing_corporate-backed_war_on_our_schools?page=1

More on the invasion of S. Williamsburg by Success Academy charter school

And here is the GEM video of the Jan. 17 hearing at MS 50.

Four Hundred Staten Islanders Show to Fight to Keep PS 14 Open

2012-01-26T09:30:00.000-05:00

Over 400 people showed up, screamed and hollered at the public hearing on the closing of PS 14- some were standing outside and were shut out! Unheard of from sleepy Staten Island. The UFT boro rep, Emil Pietromonaco, did an amazing job in organizing staff from all over the island. -- Loretta Prisco, ICE

Report from the island: UFT leaders did their job. Some people think PS 14 SI was chosen because of criticism of Tweed for leaving SI schools off closing lists for political reasons since SI politicians support Tweed and the SI PEP rep always votes with them. Maybe they are worried about future lawsuits on school closings charging them with racial discrimination. Who knows what lurks in the minds of Tweedies? Other than how to parlay their position so they can get a job with the ed deform movement when they leave Tweed.

Here is a statement from Loretta Prisco from the Independent Community of Educators (ICE).

The Advance asked if the children in the doomed PS 14, already deemed a failure, are goingto be relegated to a lower tier in DOE’s eyes?

Nocrystal ball is needed. PS 14, the students and staff will follow the same pathas other phase out schools - not a rosy one. The good intentions of the Superintendent, staff, parents and CEC will not keep it from traveling thisinevitable path, worn down from so many phasing out schools.

Parentswill get a letter stating that the school is being “phased out" - whichshould be more aptly labeled, “going through a slow and painful death” – and theywill given the opportunity to transfer out.

The childrenof the parents who can negotiate the system, usually test higher, and willtransfer out. The children left behind will be the lower achieving,traditionally have poorer attendance, and have parents who are the leastconnected to school, though not necessarily the least caring. As the populationdiminishes, so will the resources. Those with low scores who transfer willbe seen as piranhas as they take their low scores with them to the receivingschools that will be held accountable for them. To the DOE, these children are - “throw aways”.

Theteachers will know that their days are numbered, and those who can, willunderstandably leave to secure jobs and avoid the death sentence of becoming anATR.

The remainingstaff will be completely demoralized and lack the resources needed toteach. The principal, whether the current or newly appointed, will know this isa short time assignment.

Thenew school will get lots of extra money-classrooms will be newly painted, givenlots of equipment, computers, Smartboards, resources, support staff and arenewed sense of mission - which is not a bad thing – for those children. But the children in the old school willsuffer terribly. Differences will be stark - and all will be painfully aware ofit. There will be turf fights and the “oldPS 14” will inevitably lose. They willbe shortchanged on the use of the gym, library and cafeteria - less learningand further demoralization.

Thenew school will not have test scores for years and will remain off the failinglists. The DOE will send special education children elsewhere. So thenumber of failing schools will drop citywide and the Mayor will look good. Perhaps the DOE might be trying to build upthe nearby charter school or may even be making room for a new charter sincebuilding charters is their mission.

The staff and children have not failed. The failure falls squarely on the shouldersof the captains of the ship - Bloom,Klein,Black &Walcott for 10 years ofmismanagement, incompetency, poor leadership and lack of support.

Onething that we can count on is this decision is not being made in the bestinterest of children.

Here is the Schoolbook article:

http://www.nytimes.com/schoolbook/2012/01/25/a-staten-island-school-blames-its-problems-on-location/

A Staten Island School Blames Its Problems on Location

Sriyantha Walpola for SchoolBook

Related Schools

Jan. 25, 2012, 11:20 a.m.

By Amy Padnani

9:28 p.m. | Updated The announcements came year after year. Eight schools to shut down in Manhattan. Ten in the Bronx. Six in Brooklyn. Two in Queens. None on Staten Island.
It was hard for Staten Islanders not to develop a degree of superiority when it came to school closings.
Since 2002, the year Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg gained control of the system, the city has shut down 117 schools, leaving the borough untouched — until now.
“Staten Islanders thought they were impervious,” said Anne Marie Caminiti, an education advocate who until recently worked for Parent to Parent of New York State. “Schools here tend to operate better than many schools around the city.”
But one of them has finally been singled out.
Public School 14 Cornelius Vanderbilt in the Stapleton area of Staten Island is among 19 schools the city has marked to be closed, with the final judgment to come on Feb. 9 in a vote by the Panel for Educational Policy.
At a raucous hearing at P.S. 14 on Wednesday night, about 400 parents, students and teachers filled the auditorium as an overflow crowd sat in a cafeteria down the hall. About 20 minutes into the meeting, people in the audience began shouting questions about the school’s future at officials for the city’s Education Department and criticizing the plans to close the school.
It is no secret that the school, serving more than 660 students in prekindergarten through fifth grade, has been struggling. In recent years, its grade on its progress report card dropped from an A to a C to a D.
P.S. 14 ranked in the bottom 4 percent of elementary schools in the city in mathematics and English language arts proficiency last year. About 31 percent of students met state standards on the math exam, while just 23 percent passed the English exam.
Still, none of that is new, leaving the community to wonder, Why now?
“This is entirely political,” said Sean Rotkowitz, a Staten Island representative for the United Federation of Teachers. “There hasn’t been any school closed on Staten Island, so they needed to go find a school and, I guess according to the Board of Education, P.S. 14 fits the bill.”
The school’s principal, Nancy Hargett, said: “This is just devastating. We were on a journey of improvement. We thought this was going to be the year we earned an ‘A.’ I don’t understand why they chose us. I just don’t have the energy for the politics.”
Two other schools on Staten Island also saw their progress report grades drop from an A to a C to a D in recent years: P.S. 52 John C. Thompson and P.S. 60 Alice Austen. P.S. 54 Charles W. Leng went from a B to a C to a D.
A spokesman for the city’s Education Department said the decision to close P.S. 14 was rooted in performance.
“Our goal is to ensure that every student has access to an excellent school, and despite our support, P.S. 14 has been failing to provide high-quality education for its students year after year, consistently scoring near the bottom of schools citywide,” the spokesman, Frank Thomas, said in a statement. “The decision to propose the school for phase out is not easy, but it is our responsibility to give this community a better option.”
The Education Department’s plan would involve phasing out P.S. 14 while opening a new school, Public School 78, in the same building. (In the time that the city has closed 117 schools, it has also opened 535 new ones.) As P.S. 14’s students graduate, P.S. 78 will grow to accept children from the neighborhood.
Residents in the area say the plan amounts to much more than a name change. They say it would strip the school of more than 100 years of history and take away generational legacies shared by families in which grandparents, parents and children all attended the same school.
“This is my community school — I’ve been living here for the past 12 years,” said Wasila Amin, 34, a member of the School Leadership Team. Her children, one in fourth grade and one in first, would be split between P.S. 14 and P.S. 78 next year under the plan. “My children love the school. Their teachers have helped them so much.”
Deborah Rose, a city councilwoman who represents Staten Island’s North Shore, which includes Stapleton, said P.S. 14’s neighborhood was poor. The borough’s largest New York City Housing Authority complex is down the block from P.S. 14, and long lines frequently form at a food pantry across the street.
Ninety percent of students at P.S. 14 qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and 19 percent are entitled to special-education services.
“This is a community that really needs stability,” Ms. Rose said. “It needs mental health services, organizations that can come in and provide support services. If you don’t address the issues of the community, nothing will change.”
Harold Williams, a technology teacher at P.S. 14, said many of his students were exposed to drug abuse, alcoholism and crime. Before the staff members can even begin to teach, he said, they have to become secondary parents and earn the students’ trust.
In 2009, the school was on the state’s list of persistently dangerous schools, but it came off a year later, aided by a series of staff and student workshops, the presence of an additional security officer and efforts to better the school culture, said Mr. Williams, who is also the teachers’ union representative at the school.
New reading and math curriculums have been implemented, despite budget cuts, and math and English test scores have gone up, albeit slightly. Mr. Williams said the staff had been striving for an A or a B in the next progress report.
“The D.O.E. claims they gave us support, but me personally, I never got any support,” he said. “They came and gave us a 44-page PowerPoint presentation on dealing with very simple problems. They said, ‘Put your hand on Johnny’s shoulder; try to tell Johnny he can do it.’ That’s not the kind of stuff we’re dealing with. We have serious issues here. Johnny wants to kill Mary. Johnny wants to beat up the teacher. Johnny wants to attack you.”
Mr. Thomas, the Education Department spokesman, said the community’s challenges were all the more reason for the city to step in.
“We don’t believe students in those kinds of neighborhoods deserve to be languishing in a low-quality school,” he said. “It’s unfortunate that a lot of these schools are in low-income areas. Frankly, those are the students we need to help the most.”
A former principal at the school, Frank Carpenito, said it had always been difficult to get help from the city.
Mr. Carpenito, who worked as a teacher, an assistant principal and a principal at the school for a combined 34 years, said things had only gotten worse since he left. He said citywide changes in district organization had left few school leaders with the kind of close relationship he once had with P.S. 14′s superintendent.
“He knew me personally,” he said. “He knew my school. He lived on Staten Island. He knew the neighborhood we were in.”
Even then, he said, it was common for P.S. 14 to be ranked toward the bottom of Staten Island schools, in large part because of the low-income community.
He recalled the time he met a 34-year-old woman who had just enrolled her grandson at the school and an instance when he spoke with a student who didn’t know his own name, only his nickname, “Boo Boo.”
“Closing the school, changing the administration, I think that’s just an excuse to put the blame on someone else: the city doesn’t have to say it’s them,” Mr. Carpenito said. “I think the principal there is doing a wonderful job. I know when I was there, the teachers gave out of their own pockets, out of their own hearts.”

Amy Padnani is a Web producer for The New York Times and SchoolBook contributor.

Outraged Dewey Community Ready To Fight Back

2012-01-26T00:52:00.001-05:00

Superintendent Amy Horowitz came to Dewey Tuesday to give the Tweed party line with the usual "I'm only the messenger." Teachers often take the bait and say "Don't shoot the messenger." Well I say SHOOT THE MESSENGER. They took this sleazy role and are willing to play no role in trying to save a school. So go get 'em. In this case the teachers and parents at Dewey did. [Don't you just love the teacher who used the evil Eva as a boogeywoman?]

Here is the report:

At an informational meeting at John Dewey High School, relating to the proposed implementation of the “turnaround” model, Superintendent Aimee Horowitz faced an outraged community that questioned the strategy of closing an improving school and replacing up to half of its faculty.

Teachers used graphs with data to illustrate Dewey’s improvement in graduation rates and overall academic progress. The Dewey faculty vigorously defended their school’s accomplishments, but the discussion soon turned to skepticism concerning the real motives behind the proposed “turnaround” model.

Ms. Horowitz, unable or unwilling to state the true reason for her visit to Dewey, struggled to answer increasingly difficult questions from the faculty and staff concerning Mayor Bloomberg’s desire to hold the Dewey community hostage in his fight with the UFT over negotiations related to teacher evaluations.

Very few of those in attendance accepted Ms. Horowitz’s claim that she was only the messenger, choosing instead, to accuse her and her bosses of union busting and intentionally trying to undermine the school community.

One teacher said “I expect Eva Moscowitz to walk into the auditorium at any moment, tape measure in hand.” Another teacher complained of “being held hostage” by Mayor Bloomberg adding, that it was a “brutal and demeaning process.”

At a later meeting at the school, with parents and students also present, students shared their Dewey success stories with all those in attendance, receiving rounds of applause from their teachers and a proud crowd.

The Parents’Association president charged Ms. Horowitz and the Department of Education with playing “Russian Roulette” with the students’ education and “setting our kids up to fail.” Another parent threatened a class action law suit against the Department of Education, while a parent with a phone in hand said she had a lawyer on the line who was prepared to work “pro-bono” to defend the integrity of the school. Other parents wanted to know if this was a “setup” to usher in charter schools on the Dewey campus.

The superintendent’s visit ended with a unified commitment from students, parents, teachers, and alumni that a robust fight back would commence. Parents and teachers shared e-mails as a passionate declaration of “you want a fight, bring it on” was announced by a member of the Parents’ Association.

SUNY/Noguera Cave to Eva: Overturn Reco of Subcommitte

2012-01-25T15:30:00.000-05:00

I've updated this constantly so I am reposting.
NOTE, Jan. 26, 12:30AM --- see special historical note on Noguera below

I'll be at feb 9 and march 1 puppets for educational policy meetings! Would LOVE more brochures. I spent $50 printing out the old black and white GEM flyer and circulating around Williamsburg. I'd like to use the nicer color ones to sneak into the condo developments where success has done their ad blitz and slip them under doors... Parent activist in Willamsburg, activated by Eva invasion

I guess the only good news for today is that inside the Bedford L, someone spray painted "don't let corporations privatize education" in huge letters over a giant success ad: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150628474739180&l=caee1f7b48

I've told you Eva is the best organizer we have. GEM movie as antidote to charter invasion beginning to go viral in the neighborhood --- screening at PS 84 at 6PM Thurs. Jan. 26 -- I'll be there.

I'm consolidating reports coming on re Eva invasion of Williamsburg (with more to come later). By the way, her husband is doing his own charter invasion of the area -- but details another time. Also details of last night's Success info meeting at a resident's home in Greenpoint at a location far away from MS 50 later.

The original hearing was on Jan. 17 at MS 50 with a massive outpouring of opposition to the Success invasion from the community. Eva is so sure of herself she no longer brings her shock troops from Harlem, which I think is also a strategy to keep them from identifying with the feelings of the local communities.

Here is a video of that meeting made by GEM's Darren Marelli with some historical background.

Here is the direct link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_wMV5-Zm4o&list=UUh8pphdD7ocfQ7sED6OBL3g&index=1&feature=plcp

But Tweed screwed up something on the EIS and now another meeting will be scheduled the week of Feb. 12.

SUNY Charter authorizing meeting this morning at 8:30AM:
Today was the SUNY charter authorizing committee chaired by Pedro Noguera who likes to play both sides of the field.

Here is our first report at around 10AM: SUNY subcommitte votes to table Success co-loco in Cobble Hill and Wllmsbg.

A bunch of parents from District 14 were there. The committee went into Exec session. Hard to believe Noguera won't cave to Eva. At last night's Success info session Jenny Sedlis Eva's 2nd in command said there was no Plan B to occupying MS 50.

Below is one quick report from Cynthia:

The education subcommittee of trustees is advising the SUNY trustees to table the approval of co-locations for success in cobble hill AND Williamsburg, on the basis of the strength, and material facts provided by opposition from communities of Williamsburg and cobble hill. This means that the success co-locations could be blocked at the SUNY level.

I was amazed--they actually agreed to advise the trustees to table the co-locations, on the strength of community opposition from cobble hill and Williamsburg. Some guy named o'brien was the standout. (but he didn't have voting power on the subcommittee?). Noguera was decent about the whole thing--insisted that Millman and Luis Garden Acosta get to speak, etc

C

Well as I reported, too good to be true. These newly active parents are getting quite a lesson in "democracy." I reported at around 1PM.

Ahhhh, we predicted this in last post. Going against recos of own committee. Look for increasing outrage and blowback at SUNY as a charter authorizing agent. And by the way when the UFT charters come up at SUNY we should call for them to be shut down. I don't want my union in the charter business.

Here is Leonie's report:

http://pointers.audiovideoweb.com/stcasx/va92winlive2386/play.asx

after discussions w/ legal staff in executive session of the board of trustees,

Noguera says the location of the charters are not in our purview, and we will remove the table from the co-locations

Motion to remove the table. Voted yes.

We will be sharing public feedback w/ Dept of Education.

Noguera: we need leadership elsewhere in the state. (passing the buck) But we are not charged with figuring out space and location. We will adjourn.

Leonie Haimson

Leonie followed up with:

Some people are confused about the meaning of what I wrote about the SUNY board deliberations. I am not an attorney but what seems to have occurred is this:

Despite considerable opposition from some of the committee members about these co-locations, or at least their expressed desire to delay their decision, after Noguera came back from private “executive sessions” he said he had had discussions w/ counsel and the board, and removed the tabling of the decision about whether to allow the co-location to go forward.

In other words, these co-locations can go forward and neither the committee nor the board will try to stop them.

Noguera claimed that the committee had no authority to stop the co-locations, (though Rossi, the SUNY Institute counsel, had appeared to say during the committee meeting earlier that the committee could propose to the full board to disapprove the co-locations, and the full board had that authority. Actually the committee doesn’t have the authority to approve anything without the full board, including authorizing charters…it just makes recommendations to the full board, so why this is any different I have no idea.)

Noguera then ended by saying it is not in their purview as to approve or disapprove locations for charters and bumped it up to the State.

Perhaps Jim or another attorney can better explain. We should definitely ask for a transcript.

Look for the new alliances built between parents to have a snowball impact.

ED Note:
Gutless Noguera. Sure screw the Southside.
Isn't community impact in their purview? Resign Noguera. I'd rather see an open ed deformer than a wolf in sheep's clothing.

SPECIAL NOTE FROM THE PAST: dropped in by email:

from a friend who knew Pedro at UC Berkeley "When Noguera was student body President at Cal during the South Africa divestment movement, his MO was to oppose and undermine direct actions and then take credit for them when they were successful. He was completely unprincipled, really someone who could not be trusted.

At that time he was an unacknowledged supporter of the League of Revolutionary Struggle, the most insidious M-L sect I have ever come across. LRS' line was a combination of "nationalist"-style identity politics and shut-up-and-vote-for-the-
Democrats reformism, expressed with a thin overlay of irrelevant Maoist terminology. Noguera managed to dupe Todd Gitlin into writing some grossly ill-informed articles in The Nation giving credit for the movement to LRS-controled ethnic student groups. That was a pretty impressive feat of shysterism, since Gitlin was obviously not naive about such matters and also would have completely opposed LRS' line if he had even known about it.

Pedro was still doing the same kind of stuff when we were back in Berkeley in the mid-90s during the uproar over CCRI, the affirmative action ban. I would bet he has outgrown LRS-style politics, but it doesn't sound as if he has come across any principles. Stay away from him if you can."

NYC Teacher Sam Coleman Responds to NY Post Michael Goodwin Attack

2012-01-25T07:25:00.004-05:00

Sam Coleman with GEM's Julie Cavanagh
and Chicago Teachers Union Karen Lewis,
all social justice teachers

Working with Sam Coleman, a founding members in GEM, is one of the reasons I keep doing this stuff. One of the key new gen activists, also a core member of NYCORE, Sam is also as good a teacher as you can find. (I have been to his class). Teaching in a heavy Latino neighborhood, Sam's fluent Spanish in a dual language school is an invaluable skill. Sam and other activists at his school have organized evening workshops for parents at the school and developed tremendous links within the community. Sam and his colleagues originated the Fight Back Friday campaigns in June 2010 and have spread then around the city.

Sam's voice in the GEM film response to Waiting for Superman is one of the strongest in the movie and at some screenings there is a round of applause (more than once) after Sam speaks.

Thus when Sam was viciously attacked by NY Post columnist Michael Goodwin in ways that called into his question his ability as a teacher, the entire community of ed activists were outraged. The attack was based on an email Sam had responded to on a few list serves. Yes, Sam is a social justice type teacher -- which he will define in his response below --- and proud of it. As are many of our other younger teachers we are meeting like our film's narrators Julie Cavanagh and Brian Jones. Social justice teachers also raise questions about their union and many of them are behind the Feb. 4 State of the Union conference.

Sam took time out from enjoying his new born son Reuben to respond to Goodwin, who revealed himself as another NY Post slug/thug squarely in the Rupert Murdoch mold. Hey Goodwin, got any cell phone hacks of Sam?

I want to share an "article" published in the New York Post by Michael Goodwin. It is a very clear attack on me both personally and professionally. The link to the editorial is below, followed by my response. In addition, please find the email exchange with a fellow teacher on the GEM list serve, which Mr. Goodwin was quoting from. His words are in red and quotes.    http://m.nypost.com/p/news/local/teacher_blind_to_reality_KGf9pTZSQgWq78UqfdM0CP .

Mr. Goodwin, Last week I was forwarded your commentary about me after you read an email exchange between myself and another teacher. Please find my response to your commentary below.

"But there's another hurdle that's not so well known [to fixing education].It's harder to root out because it hides in plain sight."There are no substantive arguments or points in your piece. The only way your words have power is through the use of fear.

"But with his views of what teaching is about, Sam has gone 'round the bend. His plan to help students learn has precious little to do with the classroom."  

I don't actually share my views of what teaching is about in the email I am quoted from. What I do write about is my belief that it is our responsibility to fight injustice. If we want all of our nation's students to have access to quality education we must insist on equity in all spheres of society. My view is that teaching takes incredibly hard work and dedication. I am in my school building from 7-5 most days, if not later, yet my work hours are 8-3. As a dual language teacher I strive to engage my students in ways that tap into their rich lives, cultures and experiences of the world. And, as I mentioned in my email, I find culturally competent and anti-racist pedagogy is more effective in engaging students than the monotony of test-prep. Do our students need to learn to read, write, have strong mathematical literacy, and critical thinking skills? Definitely. Do we need to teach these skills and competencies in the most engaging ways possible? Absolutely. In the long term, the goal of education should be for students to love learning, to think and engage intellectually with aspects of their world that matter. Those are some of my views on teaching, in case you were wondering.  

"We get it that you don't have a clue about the role of your profession. You're a "social justice" type, too much a community organizer to be stuck in front of bored kids who can't read. Street protests definitely are more exciting."

Part of what makes me "well-educated and qualified" for my job is that I understand the relationships between structural inequalities in this society and the failure of the education system to provide equitable opportunities for my students. I know this because I see these connections everyday in my school and city, and because it has been well-documented by the nation's top scholars. Mr. Goodwin, if you're interested in doing some homework, you should read the work of Gary Orfield, Professor, UCLA and Pauline Lipman, Professor, University of Illinois-Chicago on the political economy of schooling and the civil rights implications of school funding formulas; Daniel Solorzano at UCLA and Pedro Noguera at NYU on the school-to-prison pipelines for Black and Latino students; and Kris Gutierrez at the University of Colorado at Boulder on culturally competent educators. These readings will get you started on understanding the reasons why social justice education is needed in this country, and why we know that these connections are more research-based and relevant than the policies backed by the 1% trying to capitalize on public schooling. Part of being a well-educated professional is knowing the research, and the research says it’s time for some meaningful change in our public schools and systems.

"Heaven help New York, and especially the students of teachers like Sam. With "educators" like that, they don't have a prayer."  

The implication that I could not be a good teacher because I fight for justice and a quality education for our students, and believe that tests deform that quality when their importance is exaggerated, is outrageous. The quality of a teacher can never be measured by student test scores alone; not even by basing 40% of an evaluation on scores, as has been proposed in the new teacher evaluation system. A teacher, for example, that has a gift for connecting with struggling or hurting students in his or her class and helps them achieve an emotional state where they can learn again is a quality teacher. This process is often not reflected in test scores. A teacher who raises their student's test scores through endless test prep is not, and should not be, the definition of a quality teacher. Do we need a better (or actually, one at all) supervision program to mentor and support teachers? YES! Instead of educational consultants, we should hire more coaches and master teachers as mentors to do the real work of supervision and support in the classrooms.

Of course those positions cannot be contracted out to your unqualified friends. I refuse to simply allow the Mayor and Governor or you, Mr. Goodwin, to use the educational crisis facing our students as a political chip in the great game of ‘how to make the rich richer’. That has been the biggest "reform" we have seen under Mayor Bloomberg: more million dollar contracts to private companies, billions spent on high stakes testing, more highly-paid consultants in DOE central, a transfer of public monies into private hands under the veil of charter schools, fewer teachers and resources, larger class sizes for our students, and privatization of our public school space. It is disgusting, and as a teacher who cares passionately about my students, I won't stop fighting.

Thank you Mr. Goodwin for laying bare the paucity of your knowledge and the corruption of your belief system. Yours are not opinions based either on fact or experience but on a script written by the wealthy and powerful; people who do not want those whom they oppress to learn to think critically about that oppression. And thank you for the free publicity for this movement. You had so little to say about the issues that you allowed my words to speak for themselves. Real teachers, doing the day-to-day work of educating students, have no voice these days. Our sweat equity cannot buy air-time from the 1%.    

In Solidarity,  

Sam Coleman, 3rd grade dual language public school teacher, Brooklyn.  

Here is the full text of my email that he quotes, and below that is the email I was responding to on the GEM list serve:  

Hi James,  

I am a 7th year elementary school teacher in a school with high ELL and IEP populations, 95 percent free or reduced lunch. We have never met our AYP and probably never will. So I know where you are coming from. I don't usually get into email list discussions, but I thought the emails on this list were sort of a funny grouping. You had me all the way to here "We need to focus on student accountability instead of teacher accountability".

Here is an alternative way to think about it.   It is just as easy to blame students and their parents as it is to blame teachers. Blaming individuals with names, file numbers, report cards, test scores etc is the way politicians and the wealthy avoid taking responsibility for their failures, or the repercussions of their greed. Could students be more responsible? Sure. Could teaching improve in NYC? Sure. More importantly, could supervision improve in our schools? Obviously. Would teaching and learning improve overall?. A little.

But those are the easy questions, with easy answer. And plenty of room for blaming individuals. The harder questions are about systemic, historic racism. The purposeful privatization of public education. About the widening wealth gap that is responsible for the high levels of poverty among public school families. The same poverty that is a major factor (for many complicated reasons) in student's ability to be as "Responsible" as we might want. Which of course is reflected in teachers ability to be as "Successful" as our mayor says we should be. The answers to these hard questions require collective action. We can't do that while we play their blame game.  

We will not improve education by requiring some mythical level of responsibility from teens who are over policed, under-respected and physically and emotionally stressed out by poverty and racism.  We will improve education if we fight along side our students and their families for a higher minimum wage, strong rent laws, just immigration laws, progressive taxes, ending the school-prison pipeline, pushing ourselves to be culturally competent educators, small classes, less testing, fair funding. . . .you get the point.

Teachers are not to blame for failing schools. Students and parents are not to blame for failing schools. We need to push the press to re-frame the dialogue. Americans want simple, and the press gives it to them by the barrel. This serves power. As educators, we need to push everyone, including ourselves, to think more critically about the causes of the current situation. And then ORGANIZE with the students, parents and each other to fight the hard battles that will begin to change the system that brought us here.  in solidarity, sam  

Dear Mr. Nazaryan,

Your assumption that teachers are the problem concerning NYC public schools is deeply flawed.  As a former Teaching Fellows,and apparently now working for the Daily News,you contend that if teachers who are not effective in improving student learning are weeded out of the system through a rigorous DOE controlled evaluation system, education in NYC will improve. You cite your experience at The Brooklyn Latin School, in Bushwick Brooklyn, as a model for what teachers can achieve with hard work and constructive criticism from the administration.  I contend that in the school you cited, you could select the teachers at random and get the same results.

The point being that when you have students who are highly motivated and willing to learn, it doesn't matter who the teacher is.

Please note the following statistics from the 2009-2010 School Report Card and Comprehensive Educational Plan (CEP) for Brooklyn Latin School:  - 281 students enrolled   - Average class size-20 students -17 teachers on staff with only 6.7% having more than five years experience teaching  -12% teaching a subject they are not certified for.

 - No student suspensions for the 2008-2009 school year (no data for 2009-2010).  

- No ESL students and 3 Special Ed. students  - High 90% student attendance rate  - Students take four years of Latin

 - No overage students  

When you have a student population as described above, you are guaranteed success.The vast majority of our high schools have unmotivated, over aged, low skilled students with populations of ESL ( English as a Second Language ) and Special Education students. In addition many students are excessively absent from classes.  We need to focus on student accountability instead of teacher accountability. In addition, we need to restructure a school system that gives more importance to social promotion than student learning.  Your position on teacher evaluations is either sincere but naive or based on another agenda. I am wondering how many years you taught in NYC schools and why you left teaching to work for the Daily News.  

Sincerely,  James, Teacher for 22 years

ED NOTE: I was also going to respond to Nazaryan since Brooklyn Latin occupies space in my old school, PS 147. In fact they now "own" my old magnificent double size classroom -- my second home -- where I taught for most of my 27 years in the school.

August to June

2012-01-23T23:01:00.000-05:00

Norm,

I am a parent at the Neighborhood School/PS 363M and we are having a public screening of the documentary film August to June on the 26th of January at 6 PM. The filmmakers we be there to talk and take questions afterwards and we will have a small panel of teachers to respond to the film.

I was wondering if you would post information about the screening on your blog? I think your readers would be a natural audience for the film.

Here is the information, please contact me with any questions.

Rachel Birdsall

August to June

Screening Thursday, January 26th at 6 PM

Auditorium at The Neighborhood School - 3rd St. bet 1st Ave and Ave A

Panel discussions afterwards with the filmmakers and NYC teachers, moderated by Ann Cook

Suggested $5 donation

Will UFT Frustration Post-Bloomberg Speech Lead to Distruptive Acts?

2012-01-23T14:00:00.000-05:00

Increasing support seen for this week's Fight Back Friday events from the UFT with signs some schools are encouraged to go further.

There are signs that the UFT, feeling boxed in on the ed evaluation issue, is beginning to strike out at WalBloom in various disruptive ways. Some speculate the militant activities of the people who have challenged the leaders is pushing the leadership. Some say they have reached a level of frustration and are just striking out to make a point.

There was the hastily called action at last week's PEP (UFT members protest at PEP meeting, then walk out en masse), with robo-calls to members that didn't have much impact but the union brought out its loyalist Unity Caucus honchos to create various disruptions at the meeting before walking out (it was interesting to see our crew from GEM/TU/NYCORE/ODOE/ICE standing shoulder to shoulder with them).

Then there was there confrontation between Walcott and UFT Queens borough rep Rona Freiser along with Dermot Smyth at the PS 215 closing school hearing Friday night (Walcott Takes Heat From Parents, Teachers and UFT Officials at Contentious Closing School Hearing (PS 215) in Rockaway).
where they followed my suggestion to use mic check to get their point across when Walcott didn't let then speak. His "this is not a UFT chapter meeting" comment is priceless and an indication of how own growing frustration at being thrust into being the front man for a sinking operation by Bloomberg to rescue him from the Cathie Black debacle (which Walcott and the PEP supported all the way).

Now today a phone call comes in from a SIG school that the level of militancy is rising to a fevered pitch with indications that the UFT is pushing things such as calling for assistance from Occupy DOE to use mic check when confronting DOE officials, who always like to play the innocent "don't kill the messenger" role while putting the knife in your back.

Well, apparently, some teachers are pissed off enough to want to kill the messenger. We will report details --- maybe with some video --- if things break.

If the leadership actually releases its Unity chapter chair people (who often try to hold the most militant people back) to take things to another level we may see it as a temporary way of getting Tweed's attention by turning up the heat.

In the past, the UFT was telling its people to avoid our branded FBF events, even changing the term to Friday Fight Back. But I'm beginning to hear a different tune emerging. There is not question a greater sense of urgency and militancy is emerging (later I'll tell you about the amazing group of parents I met on Sunday at our film showing).

Here is an email from a John Dewey teacher:

STOP SCHOOL CLOSINGS!

Please support our schools as the DOE tries to get rid of committed, experienced staff, close schools, and bust the union. If anyone can attend the community meetings where the superintendents come into the school and only report the negative data about our schools. We need support. Get involved. FDR is having their meeting Monday, Tomorrow at 5:30. Dewey is having ours on Tuesday at 5:30. Post any others so we can all support each other and call 311 and talk to someone who can log your call as you voice your opinion of these school closings and the job Bloomberg and Walcott are doing.

Also, attend the Fight Back Friday Rallies if you can. Dewey is having one every Friday. Details to follow.

Thanks,
In Solidarity,
xxxxx xxxxx
Dewey Teacher

Here is our FBF announcement:

School Closings, Increased Charter Co-locations, Larger Classes, Merit Pay, Firing Half the Staff at 33 Schools AND A Flawed Teacher Evaluation System...
The Education Mayor?

It's time for the first Fight Back Friday of 2012
(soon to be occupy Friday??)

THIS FRIDAY: JAN 27th:
PROTEST OUT IN FRONT OF YOUR SCHOOL!
LEAFLET AROUND YOUR SCHOOL!

OR JUST......

WEAR BLACK!

Fliers and stickers and such to follow.
PLEASE FORWARD AND POST EVERYWHERE!!
Please respond to this email or email:
FBFCommittee@gmail.com
if you think your school might participate.

Or to ask for more info or help in planning an action.

We want to get coverage for all the actions and let the public know that parents and teachers are fighting back!

Last spring over 50 schools participated on several Fridays. It’s a great way to build solidarity among your staff, reach out to parents and students and to begin to create the coordinated city-wide effort we all know is needed.

It is time for rank and file teachers, parents and our students to move towards becoming ungovernable.

Mayoral control, the attacks on our livelihoods, and on our students' education will not end simply because we want them to.

It will take mass mobilization at the school and city-wide level.

We need to end the privatization of Public Education through charters and merit pay!
End the destructing of education through the abuse of high stakes testing!
Say NO to school turn-arounds that will destroy school communities, our student's education and the lives and careers of our colleagues.

WE MUST DEMAND AN END TO MAYORAL CONTROL!
PARENTS AND EDUCATORS MUST HAVE A CONTROLLING VOICE IN EDUCATION!

JOIN SCHOOLS ALL OVER THE CITY ON JAN 27TH!
And please let us know that you will be participating!

Here are some times articles covering FBF in the past. We have had lots of other coverage as well.
And the FBF Blog from John Dewey HS.
They have an action planned for this Friday as well.
http://fightbackfridays.blogspot.com/
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/19/fighting-closure-of-a-high-school-on-the-brink/http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/31/makeshift-groups-rising-to-oppose-cuts/

in solidarity
sam
for the rank and file Fight Back Friday committee

-------------

Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on the right for important bits.

Feds, State and City Gang Up on Teachers and Union

2012-01-23T10:43:00.000-05:00

Throughout the Race to the Top process, state officials have behaved erratically.
In May 2010, the teachers’ union and department officials, including Dr. King, agreed that student scores on state tests would account for 20 percent of a teacher’s evaluation.
In August 2010, Mr. Duncan visited the state union’s headquarters in his Race to the Top bus (he really has one) and told union and department officials that New York had won a grant “because of your collective leadership, your act of courage.”
In May 2011, with no warning, Dr. King and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo rammed a measure through the Board of Regents making state tests worth up to 40 percent of teacher evaluations.
In August, a state judge ruled that they couldn’t do that.
For the last month now, as federal officials have pressed for a resolution, the governor and the commissioner have been berating the union. Like children who change the rules in the middle of the game, they appear to be counting on a lot of screaming to distract the crowd.
“It’s not about the adults, it’s about the children,” Mr. Cuomo keeps saying. “The children come first.”

Thus Mike Winerip in today's Times lays waste to the duplicitous actions of NY State Ed led by Tisch and King and Cuomo, etc. I can remember Mulgrew last year waxing poetic about Tisch and Steiner, King's predecessor, when the UFT originally agreed to the 20%

I heard NYSUT Pres. Richard Ianucci on an NPR program early Sunday morning where he basically called for abolishing the Board of Regents. He sounded pretty fed up but he praised Cuomo despite the fact Cuomo is trying to force NYSUT to drop the court case that NYSUT won based on the violation of the law passed by the state legislature.

If you haven't noticed, rank and file teachers are fighting a 5-front war. Government at all levels from Bloomberg/Walcott to Cuomo to Obama/Duncan (Don't you just love those Dump Duncan campaigns as if Obama has nothing to do with it -- reminds me of the UFT dump Klein stuff as if we will get someone better).

Then we have the generally hostile press with even our reporter friends playing the neutral game -- like a quote from each side even if one side has 90%. And then due to the attacks, there is the general public. (See Buying The Lie).

I might add a 6th front. Our own colleagues, as you will see in following this link to an article written by a teacher who is leaving teaching in Colorado. The majority of teachers either go along like the good soldier or suffer the anguish by complaining but refuse to get involved in any action.

And that issue relates to the role the union is willing to play in educating and organizing people.

I often fault the UFT/AFT for going along with the high stakes testing game --- oh, they will mouth things to throw red meat at the rank and file ---- even Obama mouthed a few words on testing --- but their actions belie that. I was proposing at UFT Delegate Assemblies that the union should not get into the high stakes testing game as far back as the late 90's but was ignored.

More from Winerip's column which is titled: In Race to the Top, the Dirty Work Is Left to Those on the Bottom.

Even if you think the Obama administration’s signature education program, Race to the Top, will not help a single child in America learn more, you have to admire its bureaucratic magnificence.

First, it has had a major effect — reaching into most public schools in America — while costing the Obama administration next to nothing.

================
Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on the right for important bits.

Cracking Under the Pressure? Walcott accuses Patrick Sullivan of accusing him of murder

2012-01-22T23:43:00.000-05:00

Hey, I once accused Arne Duncan of murder for closing so many schools in Chicago and forcing kids from different gangs into dangerous situations which has led to many Chicago kids dying. I'm sure we can pin something on the DOE.

I had some positive email saying NYC Chancellor Dennis Walcott was nailed for what he is in the video and commentary I posted about the January 20 PS 215 closing school hearing where I basically pointed out that Walcott was not only arrogant but gutless. I compared him to the captain of the cruise ship that is half sunk off the coast of Italy listing on its side and pointed out that WalBloomBlackKlein have the NYC school system listing on its side while telling people to go back to their cabins.

Really, the more you see Walcott the more despicable he is and I rate him the worst Bloomberg chancellor. Yes, Cathie Black was better because she was so clueless she was beyond causing as much harm as Walcott or Klein who did not try to act cool at least while putting the knife in your back. Remember that Walcott has been behind the ed scene since Bloomberg Day 1.

Patrick Sullivan who is the Manhattan borough PEP rep slugged it out with Mr. Arrogance at the PEP meeting last week after most people (including me) had left.

Queens representative Dmytro Fedkowskyj introduced a resolution recommending the Chancellor consider an approach to granting transportation variances based on a joint committee comprised of parent and DOE representatives.

The approach, called Safety Hazard Advisory Review Program (S.H.A.R.P), was developed by CEC 31 on Staten Island. All five borough president appointees supported the resolution which would not be binding but would simply require the Chancellor to consider the approach.

PEP Chair Hernandez recognized me to to speak in support of the resolution. I mentioned several cases in recent years where children were killed while commuting to school. The most recent was a middle school student killed crossing Delancey Street in Manhattan. Before I could finish, Chancellor Walcott interrupted me, asserted that I was accusing the DOE of killing children and began to lecture me. I responded that the chair had recognized me to speak, not him, and he was not only out of order but rude to interrupt me.

Here is Patrick's full post on the NYC Parent blog:
http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2012/01/chancellor-walcott-out-of-order-on.html

Also from Patrick on the PEP:

One of the more bizarre and suspicious things I've seen from DOE.

The expansion of the beloved School of One teaching machine was put out for RFP with a requirement that the vendor do the work for free in exchange for the rights to the technology and intellectual property.

There was only one outfit willing to take the work, formed by Joel Rose who managed the project at DOE.

My questions:

Q: Was this cleared by conflicts of interest board?
A: We think so but it's not really our concern because the liability is with the vendor

Q: Does the firm have any track record or other customers?
A: No and no

Q: Does the firm have any revenue?
A: No, just some private grants

Q: How many employees do they have?
A: We don't know

High School Student Inspired to Teach After Viewing GEM Film

2012-01-22T11:31:00.000-05:00

GEM received this email the other day from high school student Natalie Janson from Washington State, who found inspiration to become a teacher in our film.

Gina Belafonte's column in today's Sunday Times (Petty Differences Mask Consensus on Teachers --- I would say "not so petty") which in some ways is misinformed, talks about the film “Bad Teacher.” Belafonte closes with, "Maybe what teaching needs is a new movie that makes it seem as hot as Condé Nast."

Well people should email Gina at bigcity@nytimes.com to tell her about the impact of the GEM film, The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman (which is being screened at 2 and 4PM today at the Spectacle Theater 124 South 3rd St in Williamsburg with a discussion with some of the filmmakers -- me included -- afterwards.

Reprinted with Natalie's permission. Natalie is also on her school's FIRST Robotics team.

Hello,
My name is Natalie Janson and I am senior in high school in Washington State. My mother is a teacher in Portland, Oregon, and ever since I was little I have wanted to follow in her footsteps. I love volunteering in her classroom and having second graders hug me before they went home for the day.
Recently, my mother and I watched Waiting for Superman, and were somewhat heated about what they had to say. We found your response video, requested a copy and watched it tonight. As I am looking into my college majors, I have started to veer away from teaching and always considered that I would wind up teaching sooner or later. Lately however, I had my heart set on working in the sciences. During the movie, my mom looked over at me and said, "You're going to end up teaching aren't you?"
Your movie has re-sparked my interest in education. I have always set big goals for myself, and now want to be the Head of the Department of Education and I want to make a difference for everyone. Even if that doesn't happen though, I know I want to make a difference in the lives of children as my educators have done for me. They have inspired me to inspire others, and so has your movie.
Thank you for reminding me what my dream was.

Natalie Janson

Team Mean Machine, 2471

Secretary & PR Lead

========
Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on the right for important bits.

Video: Walcott Takes Heat From Parents, Teachers and UFT Officials at Contentious Closing School Hearing (PS 215) in Rockaway

2012-01-21T17:05:00.004-05:00

"This is not a UFT chapter meeting." ----Dennis Walcott to Queens UFT Borough head Rona Freiser at PS 215 hearing, Jan. 20.

The word doesn't match the image

The NYCDOE holds a closing school hearing for PS 215Q on a Friday night at 6pm. Chancellor Dennis Walcott is, surprisingly, present. There was a lot of anger and anguish amongst parents, teachers and UFT officials from the Queens office.

The first person I ran into was Queens PEP rep Dmytro Fedkowskyj.
"Did you hear my statement?" Sorry. It must have been a wowser. Later I asked if he categorically supported keeping PS 215 open. "I'll examine the facts." Okay. Examine what? Either you view the Tweedies in good faith or bad faith. No examining necessary when it comes to the failed policy of closing schools other than in the most outrageous cases like Williamsburg/Believe Charters.

Lots of teachers and parents and union and politicians were there. At the end of the video that's local City Councilman James Sanders getting booed. (Some people view him as one of the worst CC people.) He jumped in to save what looked like his pal Walcott but I did not include his silken words designed to distract people in the video --- he gave the impression he would assess the situation but we know the score --- he will do nothing. If he feels community heat he just might say a few words in favor of PS 215 but won't put any political capital behind it.

Hey Walcott, there ARE NO MORE DECK CHAIRS LEFT

We were very surprised Walcott was there and a lot of heat was directed at him. His tune just doesn't vary and hasn't for a decade. A building could come down around his ears and he would say nothing's wrong --- think Italian ocean liner. Captain Walcott-Schettino is in charge of a ship that came aground under Joel Klein and is now listing badly while the Captain tells people to go back to their cabins.

Quite an interesting evening and I put together this 12 minute clip of a few highlights.

NOTE THE BAD BLOOD BETWEEN THE UFT - QUEENS BOROUGH UFT HEAD RONA FREISER ASSISTED BY DERMOT SMYTH AND WALCOTT. ALSO NOTE MY INTERVENTION IN SUGGESTING THEY USE 'MIC CHECK" TO GET THEIR MESSAGE ACROSS AND HOW JUST USING THOSE WORDS STOPPED WALCOTT'S INTERFERENCE --- I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE MIC CHECK USED AT A UFT DELEGATE ASSEMBLY.

And one more point. I felt the Rona showed some insensitivity in bringing up the 33 schools and how it was unfair to close a school that went from C to A while at a hearing to close PS 215 which got an F. If we are disputing the grading system as unfair we should be consistent.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOuvml9CXPA

Side note:
I got there late even though it was in Rockaway and I live 15 minutes away. Anna Phillips of the NY Times borrowed one of their cars to make the trip -- I told her PS 215 was impossible to find, especially at night, and I get lost every time I go there during the day and if she came out early I would treat her to a Rockaway dive dinner and drive her there. But she got delayed at the office and then got trapped in a bad lane on the BQE so dinner was out the window and we did a rush over to the school. I dropped her off and had trouble finding a spot -- a sign of a big crowd. I parked blocks away (I won't go into details of the post-meeting senior moment when I couldn't find my car) and could hear cheering coming from the auditorium.

-----------------
Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on the right for important bits.

Retired (Goliath) teacher Guy Brandenburg thrown out of Gates/Rhee/Duncan (David) - Making Alexander Russo Look Even Dumber

2012-01-21T11:53:00.000-05:00

The pamphlet, which you can see here, is titled “Problems with Using ‘Data’ to Fix Our Schools Or, ‘Garbage In, Garbage Out.’ According to Brandenburg, security guards approached him after he had handed out about a dozen pamphlets and told him that he had to leave because the summit hosts didn’t want him there. He was told he could not stay even if he stopped distributing pamphlets...

You have to read the following items in tandem to get the full picture I'm aiming at. Alexander Russo, who pretends neutrality reveals himself to be an ed deformer as underscored at the Schools Matters blog byRobert D. Skeels * rdsathene from LA (who by the way won the raffle at our film premiere in May for a call from Diane Ravitch at his screening).

He joins many bloggers in laying waste to Russo, who in a beyond belief blog claimed the Real Reformers were the Goliath and the poor billionaire ed deformers were the David since we have been dominating the online debate -- because, guess what - They can't find any real teachers to take their side.

First Robert takes Russo down with this comprehensive post

The trouble with Alexander Russo

(with great links to many of the other bloggers who went after Russo):

Anthony Cody - Are Critics of Corporate Education "Reform" Winning the Online Debate?
Nancy Flanagan - Reform vs. Anti-Reform: Quoth the Raven
Kenneth J. Bernstein - Did you know I'm a Goliath?
Anthony Cody - Lopsided Debate Over Education Reform Reveals a Broken System

He follow up with a link to Joanne Barkan on How Billionaires Rule Our Schools

You might also want to check out a great post from Teaching Underground (Buying The Lie) along the same theme -- how those poor Davids against all odds have managed to convince the public (who don't read ed blogs) that teachers and their unions are even in right to work state like Virginia are the problem.

And here is the Valerie Strauss's full story on Guy:

Retired D.C. teacher says he was thrown out of ed data summit

By Valerie Strauss

A retired D.C. teacher who has written critically about Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Michelle Rhee said security guards escorted him out of an education data summit where the two were speaking on Wednesday.
Guy Brandenburg, who writes the GFBrandenburg’s Blog (which is subtitled “Just a blog by a guy who’s a retired math teacher”) describes in a post how he attended the National Data Summit in Washington D.C. — for which he had signed up to attend — and started handing out a pamphlet he wrote criticizing data-driven school reform.
The summit, which started on Wednesday and starred Duncan and Rhee, the former D.C. schools chancellor, is part of the Data Quality Campaign, a national effort to promote data-driven education reform.
The pamphlet, which you can see here, is titled “Problems with Using ‘Data’ to Fix Our Schools Or, ‘Garbage In, Garbage Out.’ According to Brandenburg, security guards approached him after he had handed out about a dozen pamphlets and told him that he had to leave because the summit hosts didn’t want him there. He was told he could not stay even if he stopped distributing pamphlets, Brandenburg said in an email.
After he left the conference, he wrote this post on his blog:
So much for freedom of speech.
… if it goes against the agenda of the ultra-rich and their acolytes, one might somehow suspect.
There I was, in a neatly pressed and clean suit and tie, having registered early on-line. I had still had my registration documents (not much) and was holding some pieces of paper, just like many others there. The problem is that I was giving some of those papers out.
At a conference on data quality.
What is this world coming to?
I was giving out a leaflet discussing — data quality and information about some of the speakers. Not positive towards a couple of the speakers, to be accurate. Someone in the conference administration asked me to give up the leaflets, which I declined to do. Soon I was talking to security officers, who told me that I was not allowed to be in the hotel, at the specific request of the tenant — that is, the “Data Quality Campaign” management.
Guess that someone over there reads my blog pretty carefully? Just wonderful … wish I didn’t have readers like that.
Let me also point out that DCQ is a Gates-funded group. Arne Duncan, and Michelle Rhee are both on the agenda of this conference today as speakers… I have been highly critical of them and have given the press and the public access to a lot of data that I could only find by pretty hard searching myself, and that most likely, most other people wouldn’t have found out on their own. Data which shows that the goals and methods and conclusions of this Gates/Duncan/Rhee group are all mistaken at best or perhaps malign.
Nobody beat me up or anything, but I was only able to give out a dozen or so leaflets while I was standing near the front of the auditorium, just outside the Kinko’s where I had my leaflets copied. (Most expensive Kinko’s I’ve ever been to! DAAG! 20 cents per page, per side!) So these things I was giving away were worth forty cents each, plus tax. Man, I was being generous! (Or that’s what I should have said, but didn’t think of saying at the time.)
I wasn’t interested in getting into a shoving match or being picked up or arrested.
So I walked outside and gave out a few there and went home and then wrote this.
I’ll ask the people who staged the conference why this happened and report on what they say.

GEM Film Fires Up John Dewey Teachers and Teachers and State Legislators in Albuquerque/ Three NYC Screenings this Weekend

2012-01-20T13:10:00.000-05:00

The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman

Lots of screenings in NYC and around the nation, with 3 here in NYC this weekend. Last night I hear between 20 and 30 people viewed the film, including "Battle for Brooklyn" director Michael Galinsky, whose film has been on the short list for an Academy Award nomination. Michael, whose child is in a school that came under Tweed interference has been a promoter of our film and the support and advice of a pro to us amateurs has been inspiring.

My question is why more NYC school-based people who read this blog are not showing the film which seems to have had such a positive impact on teachers under assault?

I was at the picket line at John Dewey this morning and had a great response from the small group of people who stayed after school yesterday to watch our response to WFS. I heard there was a standing ovation from people at a school under severe attack by the ed deform crowd at Tweed that they were inspired. One teacher told me she was hoping to show it to the entire staff during regent week next week.

Of course the UFT continues to snub a film that people say has been the best film response to ed deform and an inspiration for activism. Oh, that's right. The UFT doesn't really want working classroom people active. Only retirees. We made the film that the UFT with all its money should have.

At least some AFT locals are free to hold screenings and here is a great report from two teachers in New Mexico whose local president held a screening and invited 6 state legislators.

They sent this with a $20 check:

My husband and I are both teachers. We saw a viewing early on and wanted a copy of our own. This past week our union had invited members and state legislators to a viewing (it was very well received by all) to which we brought our copy just in case. It happened that our president's copy was scratched so we used ours. It was a rewarding evening. There were six senators and reps there --- we all got fired up.
I have gotten permission from my principal to play it for interested staff and others after school one day. Thank you for making it so readily available.
F and R
Albuquerque public schools
Albuquerque Teachers Federation #1420

There are 3 screenings this weekend and another at 6PM on Thursday at PS 84 in Williamsburg just 2 blocks from MS 50 which held a raucous hearing on Jan. 17 opposing the Moskowitz invasion:

Sat: Jan. 21, noon: Labor Goes to the Movies

Special Saturday Screening of The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman-- both films with WFS first so if you saw that go later.
January 21 - 12:00pm ,PSC Union Hall, 61 Broadway, 16th Floor
Please join us for our special back-to-back Saturday screening/discussion on January 21 of Waiting For Superman and The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman. One has received massive publicity and funding to promote charter schools as part of a neoliberal reform. The second one is a local NYC response, made by NYC schoolteachers, exposing the inaccuracy and inequity driving the charter school movement. We will view both films and have a discussion featuring Julie Cavanagh, one of the Inconvenient Truth producers, and PSC's Treasurer and author on the charter school movement, Mike Fabricant.
The screening is sponsored by the PSC and is open to the public.
PSC Union Hall
61 Broadway, 16th Floor
$2 donation
Refreshments served
RSVP Phone Number:
212 354 1252 ex 270
Email Address:
shughes@pscmail.org

Occupy Williamsburg sponsors 2 screenings:
Sunday at 2 and 4PM at Spectacle Theater in Williamsburg
124 South 3rd St. near Bedford Ave.

Sponsored by Community Education Council District 14
Thursday, Jan. 26 at 6PM
PS 84 - 250 Berry Street (between Grand and South 1st).

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Tonight: PS 215 School closing hearing in Rockaway at 535 Briar Place.

Breaking: Harlem Drug Bust Snares Charter School Secretary

2012-01-20T11:49:00.002-05:00

UPDATED: Sat. Jan. 21, 12pm

This came in unverified from a contact so I am removing the name of the charter school:

"Just found out about some huge drug bust in east harlem. There were four big honchos. One of whom was the secretary of a Harlem charter school located down the street at PS 185 and 208. !!!!!!! She was busted and arrested. "

This story reminds me of another story I heard a few years ago about PAVE - a well-known Brooklyn charter school A bag full cocaine was found in a desk in the office. Somewhere along the way the story changed and in the police report the bag had migrated to a table in the lunchroom.

Now this may very well happen in a public school too but the consequences are so much greater than they would be for a school run by a private entity even though they use public money. Exactly why charters are not public schools.

The people at the public school are sort of holding onto the info for future use.

Sign the Damn Petition on High Stakes Testing

2012-01-20T08:00:00.000-05:00

Liza and Janine are two of the fab activists in GEM. Liza is a 4th year teacher and Janine is the parent of a 7 year old. They work with the GEM High Stakes Testing Committee.

Hello!

Elementary school parent Janine Sopp and I were interviewed on WBAI's radio show Education at the Crossroads tonight. We spoke with host Basir Mshawi about the damaging effects of high-stakes testing and gave folks information about how to sign the petition that demands an opt-out option for parents as well as the immediate halting of any plan for K-2 testing. You can listen to the show in its entirety here: http://archive.wbai.org/show1.php?showid=eatcrossr We speak about half an hour in, and beforehand there were some activists from the Bronx speaking about the work they are doing to fight the school closings. It's a great hour overall.

In less than one week the testing committee of the Grassroots Education Movement collected over 600 signatures on our petition; our ultimate goal is to collect the names of thousands of concerned citizens across the state and present them to the state legislature and the DOE in early April. Please take a moment to sign! Only your city and state will be posted on line.

So many of us are concerned about the damaging effects of excessive high-stakes testing, and there is a growing momentum to put an end to them nationally. Because there is so much money to be made with this type of testing, it is important to think very strategically about how to build a movement and demand a change in policies. It is important to bring informed and experienced teachers and parents into the creation of a more broadly based assessment to show that there is no need to use these high stakes tests as a way to measure success. Parents should have the right to opt their children out of these tests and demand a more accurate assessment to provide a true snapshot of learning that's going on in a school rather than use them to make high-stakes decisions. Parents should have a right to say that they do not want their children and their children's education influenced so heavily by these exams.

We hope that you will sign and share! http://signon.org/sign/give-new-york-state-parents?source=c.em.cp&r_by=1929140

Sincerely,

Liza Campbell

A Tale of Two Rockaway School Closings (With Apologies to Charles Dickens)

2012-01-19T17:00:00.000-05:00

UPDATED: SAt. Jan. 21 11PM

NOTE: PS 215 closing school hearing Friday at 6 PM
Support them on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SavePS215
Email messages about keeping PS 215 school open at D27Proposals@schools.nyc.gov or call to leave a phone message at 212 374 7621.

SEE VIDEO OF THE JAN. 20 MEETING:

Video: Walcott Takes Heat From Parents, Teachers and UFT Officials at Contentious Closing School Hearing (PS 215) in Rockaway

Published in The Wave Jan. 20, 2011 (www.rockawave.com)

A Tale of Two Rockaway School Closings (With Apologies to Charles Dickens)

By Norm Scott

It is the ~~best~~ worst of times, it is the age of ~~wisdom~~ foolishness, it is the epoch of ~~belief~~ incredulity, it is the season of ~~light~~ darkness, it is the ~~spring of hope~~ winter of despair for two Rockaway schools, one public and one charter, slated for closing by the meat cleaver wielded by the hatchet bearers from the Tweed building, the HQ of the NYC Department of Education. In last week’s Wave Howie Schwach predicted, facetiously but all too close to reality, that Tweed would close every Rockaway school except for three. C’mon Howie, why leave even three standing?

The Wave’s Miriam Rosenberg and I attended a January 10 evening meeting held at the Sorrentino Rec Center called by PS 215 supporters that attracted a spirited audience of parents, teachers and Queens UFT officials. Miriam’s report in the Jan. 13 Wave was comprehensive so I’ll address only a few points about the decision to phase out the school by Tweed.

I was struck by the case made for saving the formerly A-rated school which dropped to an F-rating last year. What happened? The teaching staff, which based on the turnout seems loaded with experienced (don’t forget this point as a factor in targeting schools for closure– higher salaried) staff has remained constant. So has the administration. With all the attention being paid to the (false) concept that the quality of the teaching is the crucial element in the success or failure of students, how can a school go from A to F with basically the same staff? What did change was the number of students needing special help while the resources needed were cut, as was the rise in the percentage of children getting free lunch (a poverty index) and the percentage of student turnover – an instability factor. And the cuts in staff from reading specialist, ESL teachers and guidance counselors. Oh, and supplies.

I found out about the meeting when I went to the school early in the morning of January 6 to distribute leaflets to parents and teachers informing them of meetings Occupy the DOE have been holding every Sunday at 2PM at 60 Wall Street focused on reaching out to schools on the closing list and public schools being invaded by charter co-locations in an effort to get them to fight the battle together instead of separately.

Over the past years we have found that no matter what a school does to argue their case (and I think PS 215 has a case to be made) or how many people they bring out to a hearing held at the school, or how passionate they are at the Bloomberg controlled Panel for Educational Policy meetings, the PEP will vote against them. In the past, immediately after the vote to close takes place the spirit and militancy of the school drops to zero and a sort of school-wide depression takes hold as teachers, administrators and parents begin to think of the end-game. This is especially exasperated by the clear message from the DOE that the school will get even less resources.

Now I don’t mean to demean the required by law PS 215 closing school hearing on Friday January 20 at 6PM (an outrage to call a hearing on a Friday night --- one would hope the Jewish Orthodox community which has the right to attend would protest) as being a waste of time. These meetings serve to bring people together and take them to the next step of militancy which is at the PEP meeting at Brooklyn Tech on February 9 where the Bloomberg PEP puppets will vote to close all the schools --- unless there is behind the scenes political intervention.

It was nice to see the Queens PEP rep Dmytro Fedkowskyj at the meeting but he didn’t speak or offer any encouragement. How will he vote? The way Queens borough President Helen Marshal, a Bloomberg supporter, tells him to. Since his vote doesn’t mean much with Bloomberg controlling at least 8 out of 13 votes, he may very well vote to keep PS 215 open. But his votes have been very disappointing in allowing charter co-locations around the city, especially the Evil Moskowitz invasions and his practically zero presence at PEP meetings. Ahhh, don’t we wish we had a BPres with some guts to do what is right and appoint a truly independent voice on the PEP to join Manhattan’s Patrick Sullivan (who gets a big round of applause when introduced at PEP meetings). A representative from Gregory Meeks’ office was also present and he refused to respond when I asked him if Meeks would support PS 215.

The UFT was in the house at that meeting with a passionate (and long) speech by Queens political director Dermot Smyth who gave people hope that with a big Jan. 20 turnout that would give Tweed an earful, they could save the school. When I asked him if the UFT would provide buses to the PEP at Brooklyn Tech on Feb. 9 he made it seem that the school could be saved by a big turnout on Jan. 20. I understand the need to keep people motivated but the failure of the tactic of fighting that battle one school at a time should be clear by now.

With 25 schools on the list added to the threat to close, 33 more on June 30 and reopen them on July 1 while removing at least 50% of the teachers and a new unreported list of about 60 PLA (Persistently Low Achieving) schools targeted, this amounts to a total assault on the union and the public school system while shutting out the parents, students and community from any basic decision making about their own fates. The ed deformers at the national, state and local levels have successfully managed to make it all about the (bad) teacher as a distraction from the real issue: the increasing privatization of the public schools through charterization.

Given that, it might seem like a contradiction for the DOE to close Peninsula Prep Academy, a charter in Rockaway that does not seem to be a failure with three C ratings in a row. (People do graduate with C grades.) I have mixed feelings given my opposition to charters, but the closing of PPA seems unfair. I met with Josmar Trujilo, an articulate and passionate parent advocate at PPA and he makes a very convincing case (see my video interview with him on you tube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03-XBo3a7-U), pointing out that PPA has higher ratings than 9 out of 10 zoned Rockaway schools.

While I don’t put much stock in these numbers, I do think that the ties of Malcolm Smith, the school’s founder, and Gregory Meeks who served on the Board has hurt the school due to the political and corruption problems they have faced. I wrote an analysis on my blog that argued that the closing of PPA is a political hit job (http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2012/01/why-peninsula-prep-is-closing-what.html), possibly because there may be bad news coming from the Smith/Meeks investigations and Walcott who is from Southeastern Queens wants to get out from under sooner rather than later.

Norm blogs at ednotesonline.blogspot.com, email: normsco@gmail.com
If you want to know more about the fight to save PPA you can reach Josmar through the school.

-------

Josmar Trujilio on why PPA should be kept open.

John Dewey HS Fights Back Tomorrow as Other Schools Join in the Battle With Fight Back Friday Jan 27

2012-01-19T08:50:00.003-05:00

NOTE: GEM film will also be shown tonight by Occupy Brooklyn at 7PM at The Commons 387 Atlantic Ave and is also being shown Saturday at noon in downtown Manhattan and Sunday at 2 and 4PM in Williamsburg. Check ed notes and the film website for details.

While the UFT sells a "What me worry attitude" to the members, the teachers as some SIG schools, joined by supporters led by activists within the UFT but not associated with the leadership, have begun to take the battle beyond where the UFT is willing to go.

Teachers at John Dewey HS are taking the lead with today's viewing of the inspiring GEM film response to Waiting for Superman that is being ignored by the UFT, followed by Fight Back Friday rallies both AM and PM tomorrow. A wider FNF is planned for next Friday, Jan. 27 where all schools can join --- please consider having one at your school as a show of solidarity (don't be surprised to see the UFT/DOE settle things and the money be restored --- it may take 'till next year for the full results of the settlement to hit the school we may see militancy die back for a while.)

Here is the press release and fliers:

PRESS RELEASE

Date: Friday, January 20, 2012

Contact:
Michael Solo, Teacher at John Dewey High School : 917-750-7510
Martha Blitzer, Teacher at John Dewey High School : 718-501-2359.

Fight Back Friday: John Dewey High School Fights Back Against Bloomberg Attack

With a cynical misrepresentation of the truth, Mayor Bloomberg is holding 33 Persistently Lowest Achieving (PLA) schools hostage to his demands. The NYCDOE walked out on negotiations with the UFT to finalize an evaluation system for teachers. Agreement on an evaluation process would have allowed School Improvement Grant (SIG) funds to continue being available for the (PLA) schools. Funding for the schools has been frozen because of the impasse in negotiations. The NYCDOE refuses to return to the negotiating table and has threatened the 33 (PLA) schools with closure through a process called “turnaround”.

Funding is being used to drive a wedge between the UFT and the public, but Bloomberg’s real motivation is the implementation of an evaluation process that deprives teachers of due process protections.

The John Dewey High School community has endured years of neglect and threats from the NYCDOE. We have worked hard to move our school forward and we are making great strides in overcoming the tremendous obstacles that were put in our path by the NYCDOE. Why is Mayor Bloomberg threatening our school community?

Bullies depend on their victims to be unprepared to defend themselves. The entire John Dewey High School community has decided to fight back. We are tired of being used as pawns in Mayor Bloomberg’s bid to cripple our school and public education. We are continuing our push back, which began last year, with a new round of Fight Back Friday protests.

Our push back actions will take place on Friday, January 20th. There will be a morning protest, in front of our school building, at 7:15am and an afternoon protest at 2:45pm.

fightbackfridays.blogspot.com

Here is the general announcement for other schools to join in on January 27

School Closings, Increased Charter Co-locations, Larger Classes, Merit Pay, Firing Half the Staff at 33 Schools AND A Flawed Teacher Evaluation System...
The Education Mayor?

It's time for the first Fight Back Friday of 2012
(soon to be occupy Friday??)

NEXT FRIDAY: JAN 27th. WEAR BLACK!
PICKET OUT IN FRONT OF YOUR SCHOOL!
LEAFLET AROUND YOUR SCHOOL!
Fliers and stickers and such to follow.
(one announcement flier attached, feel free to use)

PLEASE FORWARD AND POST EVERYWHERE!!
Please respond to this email or email:
FBFCommittee@gmail.com
if you think your school might participate.

Or to ask for more info or help in planning an action.

We want to get coverage for all the actions and let the public know that parents and teachers are fighting back!

Last spring over 50 schools participated on several Fridays. It’s a great way to build solidarity among your staff, reach out to parents and students and to begin to create the coordinated city-wide effort we all know is needed.

It is time for rank and file teachers, parents and our students to move towards becoming ungovernable.

Mayoral control, the attacks on our livelihoods, and on our students' education will not end simply because we want them to.

It will take mass mobilization at the school and city-wide level.

We need to end the privatization of Public Education through charters and merit pay!
End the destructing of education through the abuse of high stakes testing!
Say NO to school turn-arounds that will destroy school communities, our student's education and the lives and careers of our colleagues.

WE MUST DEMAND AN END TO MAYORAL CONTROL!
PARENTS AND EDUCATORS MUST HAVE A CONTROLLING VOICE IN EDUCATION!

JOIN SCHOOLS ALL OVER THE CITY ON JAN 27TH!
And please let us know that you will be participating!

Here are some times articles covering FBF in the past. We have had lots of other coverage as well.
And the FBF Blog from John Dewey HS.
They have an action planned for this Friday as well.
http://fightbackfridays.blogspot.com/
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/19/fighting-closure-of-a-high-school-on-the-brink/http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/31/makeshift-groups-rising-to-oppose-cuts/

in solidarity
sam
for the rank and file Fight Back Friday committee

------------
Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on the right for important bits.

TODAY: Occupy Brooklyn Charter Schools Teach-In and Film Screening of TITBWFS

2012-01-19T08:00:00.000-05:00

Occupy Brooklyn Charter Schools Teach-In

Charter Schools and the Impact on Public Education
Thursday, January 19th 2012
6pm   Occupy Brooklyn General Assembly
7pm   Film Screening: The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman written and directed by NYC public school teachers and parents
8pm   Panel and discussion with NYC educators and parents

The Commons388 Atlantic Avenue (between Hoyt & Bond)
Brooklyn

Refreshments Available
Organized by Occupy Brooklyn’s Education Working Group

www.occupybk.org

Mulgrew Dog and Pony Show on Constitutional Amendment

2012-01-18T17:28:00.000-05:00

Amazing: with a PEP meeting about to begin and schools being closed left and right and very fabric of teacher rights under attack UFT Delegate Assembly discusses increasing retiree influence. Framing this as giving 99% in union more rights. Who knew this was an Occupy Wall St event?

New Action's Shulman opposes (alright) calls for 90 day wait. What's the rush he asks?

Unity: Everyone here will be retiree one day.
Wanna bet? Tier 12 pension coming.
Unity: Nina Tribble as usual calls question

Typical Unity DA debate.

Let's tell this story to every classroom teacher in the city.

Pt of order from Fred Arcoleo: shouldnt we get more info and time to discuss major constit change? Ruled out of order by Mendel.

Vote overwhelming YES. Unity machine in action.

Now 5:30. PEP almost starting but they don't seem much in a hurry. Really pathetic.

Cheers,
Norm Scott

Twitter: normscott1

Education Notes
ednotesonline.blogspot.com

Grassroots Education Movement
gemnyc.org

Education columnist, The Wave
www.rockawave.com

nycfirst robotics
normsrobotics.blogspot.com

Sent from my BlackBerry

Has UFT Had Enough or Just PEP Power Posturing?

2012-01-18T13:53:00.000-05:00

Chancellor says DOE has a management team in place to remove 1,700 teachers at 33 struggling schools this year. Mayor says it's happening. ---- LindseyChrist - NY1 tweet

Oy!. Is the UFT boxed in by the Bloomberg/Cuomo/Obama assault? How do they play this to the members when they endorse Obama? Probably by placing the blame on Arne Duncan.

What triggered the sudden decision by the UFT hierarchy to cut short the Delegate Assembly today and urge people to head over to the PEP at Brooklyn Tech? Let me count the ways. They went even beyond the DA with robocalls going out to the rank and file last night urging people to attend (one reporter said that 4 teacher friends got calls).

Today's PEP was supposed to be a pretty low-key affair, with even the people from Occupy DOE planning to stay away. Some people think the UFT is getting nervous about the ability of ODOE to reach into rank and file schools with growing attendance at their Sunday meetings. Maybe. But that is not big enough or with enough outreach yet, though the UFT is certainly monitoring ODOE.

This is pretty last minute stuff and smacks of some frustration and even desperation to strike back at the mayor with a show of force. But the UFT has shown a more organized show of force before. What is driving this is the outrage pouring forth from the schools since the Mayor's speech and the leadership has to put on some kind of a show for the members. I'm heading out now and hope to have a report tonight if I can stay awake with some PEP video --- I also have great video from the anti-Moskowitz event last night.

I almost feel sorry for the leadership which had a lot to do with making this bed. But not while they push a constitutional amendment that further restricts democracy. Let's see if the have the sense the withdraw it today but don't bet on it.

Here is Leo Casey's letter:

Dear Colleagues:

Mayor Bloomberg’s State of the City address lastThursday has greatly angered teachers and educators from public schools acrossNew York City. The Mayor’s announcement that he would seek to close somethirty PLA schools, in addition to the twenty-five schools he already slatedfor closure, was a nakedly political decision made without the slightestconcern for its impact on the education of thousands of New York City publicschool students. The targeting of schools which had done everything asked ofthem and had scored highly on the DoE’s own measures of performance isthe act of a callous, self-consumed politician who thinks that he can constructa legacy out of destroying schools. And the targeting of schools that servestudents and communities with great need once again reminds us that this is abillionaire mayor who understands nothing about the struggles of people whoactually have to work for a living.

The Mayor offers as his reason for these school closings,his unwillingness to negotiate with the UFT a meaningful appeals system forineffective ratings. Instead, he and the DoE insist upon continuing the currentsystem they have devised, where such ratings are automatically turned down at arate of 99.5%. He wants a teacher evaluation system without educationalintegrity, just as his school closing decisions are without educational integrity.He will have neither: the UFT, 200,000 strong, will defend and stand withschools unjustly targeted for closure by Bloomberg and the DoE, and we willfight for a fair evaluation system that improves education.

It is important that all of New York City begins to see, assoon as possible, the deep anger that educators feel about the destructiveactions of this Mayor. Our campaign to stop these school closings beginstomorrow, with a massive protest at the Panel for Educational Policy meetingwhich will take place at Brooklyn Technical High School at 29 Fort Greene Placein downtown Brooklyn , starting at 5:30 PM. The closest public transportationis the DeKalb Avenue stop on the B, Q or R train. A map of the school can beaccessed at: http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl

In solidarity,
Leo Casey
Vice President

Massive Opposition to Moskowitz in Williamsburg/UFT Occupy PEP

2012-01-18T08:44:00.002-05:00

So much going on today: UDT DA (4PM) , PEP (6PM), PS 19 school closing hearing in Williamsburg (6PM). Don't haev much time as I gotta leave to take my wife into the city for her follow-up exam after her cataract operation yesterday --- she finally got to see who she married after 40 years.

So, last night was really spectacular at MS 50 though you wouldn't know it from any press reports. Eva gets 5 parents on her side and there are a thousand against but the press always interviews one on each side as if it's equal. Thus this NY 1 report

A proposed charter school is splitting the Williamsburg community in half, but while opponents turned out in force for a hearing Tuesday, the program is expected to be approved by the Panel for Educational Policy. NY1’s Lindsey Christ filed the following report.

In half? It was more like 500-1.
And the northside came out to support the southside.

More later.

GO TO THE PEP TONIGHT AT TECH TO SUPPORT THE UFT.

Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on the right for important bits.

UFT Urges Delegates to go to PEP After DA

2012-01-17T16:19:00.001-05:00

Dear delegates,
We just wanted to remind you that the UFT Delegate Assembly is meeting tomorrow at the UFT, 52 Broadway.
There will be a recommendation that the delegates go to the Panel for Educational Policy (PEP) meeting at Brooklyn Tech HS following the DA.
Sincerely,
Michael Mendel
UFT Secretary

After the delegates vote to give retirees more control over the union, head on down to the PEP where people who are actually working in classrooms can watch their throats being cut. The only way this makes sense if they don't run the meeting till 6 because by the time they get to the PEP it will be far into the meeting. Maybe they will take care of business quickly --- one would think they should postpone the constitutional amendment and deal with the SIG crisis. But I think the priority is to assure lifetime control of the union. Should be fun to see but I will head over to the PEP earlier ---unless I go to the PS 19 closing hearing in Williamsburg instead --- ahhh, so many choices.

Tweed Assault Continues: Another List of School Closings

2012-01-17T14:20:00.002-05:00

Stories are floating around about an as yet unannounced list of schools slated for closure – Persistently Lowest-Achieving (PLA) schools. We have learned from a reliable source that Brooklyn Automotive and MS 126 in Williamsburg/Greenpoint are on the list.

These could be as many as 60 schools in addition to the current list of 25 plus the announced closing of the 33 SIG schools on June 30 and their reopening on July 1 with at least 50% teacher turnover. Thus we may be talking about over a hundred reorganizations with tremendous teacher relocations and a massive influx of ATR next year that could cost a hundred million dollars --- which clearly negates some of the money they claim they are losing.

But we know this is all a shell game though how they will figure out how get ATRs who are subbing into the evaluation based on test scores into the mix is a mystery. But they must have a plan to get around any union resistance. Or, the plan is to get the union to bargain away more of the ATR protections like they did last June. The creation of the ATRs in the 2005 contract was a partial victory for Tweed. The rest will be the ability to fire them within a year if they don't get a job, as was done in Chicago years ago.

As a matter of fact, I would attribute the loss of the union to the opposition in Chicago to this situation. And the UFT/Unity leadership certainly saw what happened there. Is that why there is a constitutional amendment being voted on at the DA tomorrow that will further cement the control of Unity and make it absolutely impossible for an opposition to win an election? (I will go into the details in future posts.) Is this a prep to protect the leadership if/when they sell out?

For those of you who think an opposition can win with a better campaign or better candidates or a better platform I will tell you this much.

Even before the constitutional change tomorrow (which requires a 2/3 vote - expect Unity to call out the troops), if the opposition were to win an overwhelming majority of votes in the elementary and middle and high schools they would win a maximum of 22 seats on the UFT Executive Board out of 89. That is today. In the future it will be worse. The opposition in Myanmar/Berma has a better chance.

Mulgrew Agrees With Cuomo on Evals

2012-01-17T00:00:00.000-05:00

Today's NY Times:

Mr. Mulgrew, noting that his union had “no disagreement with the governor over the evaluations,” did not object to Mr. Cuomo’s tying the increase in education aid to the creation of the evaluation system.

“We’re just as frustrated as he is, and I publicly came out and asked him to get involved,” he said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/17/nyregion/cuomo-and-bloomberg-on-attack-on-teacher-evaluations.html

Some people seem astounded by this statement of Mulgrew. Not me. You see, it's Bloomberg who is the problem. A few years ago Bloomberg was the good guy and Klein was the problem. Walcott is really OK. And so is Merryl Tisch and John King. And, Obama and Duncan will be just fine after the UFT/AFT endorses them in July.

But is NYSUT on the same page or just sending up confusing smoke signals?

Carl Korn, a spokesman for New York State United Teachers, said that while the union shared “the governor’s frustration over the implementation of the law,” tying teacher evaluations to state education aid was the “wrong approach.”

“We think supporting teachers and unions in their work is a much better approach,” Mr. Korn said.

The Williamsburg Community Strikes Back Against Eva Invasion

2012-01-16T20:07:00.000-05:00

Occupy Williamsburg is in the house - for those who think that the Occupy movement is dead.

Sign the petition to keep Eva out:

http://www.change.org/petitions/nyc-department-of-education-stop-success-academy-williamsburg

--
Keep the PUBLIC in public education! Occupy Williamsburg!

Standing up to Eva Invasion at MS 50 in District 14. Success Charter may get what it wants anyway with the PEP voting on Wed. but there may be a critical mass of growing opposition that will not make life easy.

I know some of the players in the area for decades and Eva will not find it so easy to establish a political beachhead here on the Southside as opposed to further south closer to Bed-Stuy in Dist. 14 at MS 33 and PS 59 where there may be less unity.

The closing hearing for PS 19 on Weds. is not far away - on the other side of the expressway from MS 50 is Weds and they are mobilized because they think over the long run Moskowitz wants that building too. But my information is that there is a different dynamic in terms of the school coming in though I can't go into details yet.

This is a very busy week for action with multiple events on each day. I know it's tough out there for teachers with all you do but bodies are needed if you can lend your support to any of the events. I will be posting follow-ups.

Tues Jan. 17: See above

Weds Jan. 18 - 3 events
      4-6PM UFT Delegate Assembly -- there may be some folks from Occupy DOE distributing leaflets and possibly doing more than that.
      6-whenever - Panel for Educational Policy - Bklyn Tech HS -- not much action anticipated but never underestimate the power of the Occupy movement to pull some surprises.
     6-8 PS 19k closing school hearing - 325 South 3 Street Brooklyn NY 11211

January screenings of our film:

•Thursday, January 19th at 7:00PM. The Commons, 388 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, NY. Discussion to follow. Sponsored by Occupy Brooklyn!
•Saturday, January 21st at 12:00 PM. PSC-CUNY office, 61 Broadway, 16th Floor, NYC: Labor Goes to the Movies.
•Sunday, January 22nd at 2:00 PM and 4:00 PM. Spectacle Theater, 124 S. 3rd Street (near Bedford Avenue), Brooklyn, NY. Sponsored by Occupy Williamsburg!
Thursday, January 26th at 6:00PM. PS 84, 250 Berry Street, Brooklyn, NY. Sponsored by Community Education Council 14.

Walcott/Blooomberg Booed on MLK Day at BAM

2012-01-16T10:02:00.001-05:00

Video: http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2012/01/video-bloomberg-facing-protests-boos-on.html

Daily News: January 16, 2012 6:04 PM

Bloomberg And His Ed Plan Booed At MLK Event

BY Celeste Katz

Mayor Bloomberg got booed and heckled as he made the rounds at African-American groups touting his new education initiatives.
Our Monahan, Cunningham and Blau report:
At the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day Celebration at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Hizzoner was jeered Monday as he introduced Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott, highlighting his administration’s successes with education policy.
“The civil rights movement transformed America for the better, and now it is up [to us] to continue the work, especially in education, Every day for the past ten years, improving the city schools has been hands-down my number one priority, and it’s going to remain my priority,” he said, receiving boos from the crowd and even calls of “You suck!” from protesters critical of the mayor’s policy of closing schools.
Later in the day, Bloomberg was met with more of the same.
His face flushed red when he was heckled by a Harlem crowd after being introduced by the Rev. Al Sharpton.

BAM PROTEST

Dear Parents and Students,

On Monday January 16, 2012, Chancellor Dennis Walcott will be the keynote speaker at BAM's Martin Luther King's Day Celebration. The parents and students from Satellite lll and the Academy for Business and Community Development (ABCD) have decided to come together and have a protest around school closings outside of BAM.

We are inviting you to join forces with the parents and community from Sat lll and ABCD in order to let Chancellor Dennis Walcott know that, just as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. fought for quality education for all children, we as parents and students will do the same.

===============
Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on the right for important bits.

Will the UFT/Unity Leadership Cave to Pressure on Evals While Claiming Victory to Members?

2012-01-15T10:41:00.001-05:00

UPDATED: Monday Jan. 16, 9AM - expanded section in green

REGISTER FOR FEB. 4 STATE OF THE UNION CONFERENCE:
http://stateoftheunionconference.eventbrite.com
Find us on Facebook: State of the Union

If the UFT won't allow these debates to take place within the official halls like the Exec Bd and the DA, people will look for forums outside the official UFT to engage in these debates.

The ad above has a lot to do with what is to come below.

This week at the UFT Delegate Assembly, in the midst of teacher evaluation crisis, the Unity leadership will call for a constitutional amendment that will increase the voting power of retirees in union elections and expand the executive board to further dilute the influence of classroom teachers. If you don't make the connection between these two events, you are seriously missing what the UFT/Unity Caucus leadership is all about: give ground to ed deform -- as slowly as possible -- while selling "victory" (it could have been much worse) and tightening up the almost 60-year one party control of the UFT and AFT to keep internal critical voices at a minimum.

A drastic escalation in attacks on a union that has been cooperative in the past
With a full court press by the Obama, Cuomo and Bloomberg administrations to force the UFT into an agreement on teacher evaluations, is the end of resistance coming?

The report in the Daily News that Duncan/Obama are threatening to withhold $1 billion in money (New York State faces losing $1 billion in federal education funds over teacher evaluation issue: Figure is $300 million more than previously thought) if the UFT doesn't cave in, the pressure will be intense, especially with the politicians and the media placing the blame on the union.

Senior members of U.S. Education Secretary Arnie Duncan’s office warned Gov. Cuomo’s team Friday that New York would lose the staggering sum — at least $300 million more than previously thought — if the state made no progress on a system to grade teachers, a source with direct knowledge of the discussions said.
“They will take the money away,” the source added.
A Cuomo administration official said the governor has vowed to protect the money. “(He ) will do everything he can to see that this money is not taken away from us,” he said, declining to elaborate further.
The endangered money includes $700 million in federal Race to the Top money. Now the feds have tacked on $100 million in School Improvement Grants and nearly $200 million in teacher incentive funds.

The UFT supported closing of schools until recently

There is no question all the forces have plotted this removal of funds (which can be restored on a whim) as a way to pressure the UFT to say "give". Will they agree to basically end tenure and seniority protections? Tough territory to go and even weathered UFT critics find it hard to believe they will go there without a fight. But what kind of fight is the UFT capable of engaging in with a non-involved membership (and I claim a lot of this non-involvement can be laid at the feet of the one-party system that disengages the membership).

There is no question the UFT will fight this in court. But what is the backup plan if they lose? The court may be able to delay the move to close these schools June 30 and reopen them the next day but by getting rid of at least half the teachers. This may force the deadlines the DOE needs (6 months) into default and in fact may be the major strategy. But what beyond that?

Ed Notes has been saying from the very beginning a decade ago that the policy of closing schools under Bloomberg is about removing teachers for political and economic reasons and the latest ploy of closing a school one day and reopening the next but leaving everything in place but getting rid of at least half the teachers lays The Plan out in the open.

The UFT supported closing schools until they were hit with the 19 at one shot two years ago. Remember Randi Weingarten's "Lafayette High School should be closed" while it was clear to all Principal Academy hack/incompetent Jolanta Rohloff was sent in as a closer? It was clear that John Dewey HS would be destabilized as part of the Domino Effect that was experienced in the Bronx years before. And so that has come to pass as Dewey is ~~not~~ now on the list of 33 schools.

All along the way, instead of informing the members of the dangers of this policy --- the leadership had the Chicago example --- they tried to distract the members and give the impression they had everything under control. At no point have they admitted that by agreeing to the Open Market System and an end to many seniority protections in the 2005 contract which they continue to defend (though now very quietly) they opened the door to a massive closing of the schools. The UFT may have figured that Bloomberg wouldn't want to take the hit of paying for ATRs while Bloomberg saw that as a long-term investment in destroying the backbone of the union. Neither the UFT nor Bloomberg seemed to care about the fact that many senior ATRs would just give up and retire.

What strategy now for the UFT?
Some people see the latest Bloomberg ploy as a desperate attempt to save his education legacy before it is too late. Some see it as a negotiation ploy. Others see it as a hard and fast policy from which he will not waiver.

Whatever the motivation, the end result will be some loss for the UFT. Maybe not the whole ball of wax but certainly a move in that direction, with further attacks and further givebacks to come-- maybe after the next UFT election in March 2013.

Under any circumstances, the key issue for the leadership is how to save face and present the final outcome as a victory. The key issue for Bloomberg/Cuomo etc. is to what extent they will be willing to allow the union some face-saving measures -- they also want teachers under control and not rebelling against a leadership they have worked with. Don't think that both parties are not scared to death of another Chicago, so look for Cuomo to play a role in this aspect.

Unity Caucus has successfully held off the internal wolves
The other day I tweeted that since ed deformers are pushing the line that the most vital factor is an effective teacher along with the totally contradictory line that online learning is the future of effective education, why not fire every teacher in the nation and find the 2 most effective teachers to teach 50,000,000 kids on line?

The follow-up tweet is that the AFT/UFT calls this a victory - "they only wanted one teacher and we won this one by getting 2, a 100% increase in the number of teachers."

I know even many of the major critics of the UFT leadership have given Mulgrew credit for standing firm so far (though it was interesting to see an article in I think the Times mention that Mulgrew is not as politically adroit as Weingarten was -- the major reason a lot more people - internal and external - like him better). Of course I see it differently. Mulgrew's response has been more along the lines "we are willing to deal but WalBloom walked out and left us at the table - we are willing to go to mediation" (which splits the baby and gives WalBloom at least half of what they want).

In other words, the UFT is engaging in a rear-guard action to minimize the damage (especially to public relations) but most importantly, to reduce the hit the Unity Caucus leadership may take from an increasingly upset membership --- in the closing schools, schools targeted for co-location and now in the SIG schools. By (smartly) sending in UFT officials to give moral support and offer some logistical support, the union leadership has successfully manage to control the outrage and point it at Bloomberg –– who they used to tout as the good guy vs. the Joel Klein bad boy.

But changing the political line to suit the time is part of successful damage control. It helps when you control all the means of internal communication to the members. Will there come a day when the membership begins to turn against the leadership? Some point to the over 90% vote Mulgrew received just 2 years ago, the adroit use of a phony opposition party - New Action - which is given 8 seats on the Exec Bd to give the appearance of an opposition - as a sign that there is little chance of a serious challenge to Unity. But Unity takes no chances -- thus the constitutional amendment which while needed a 2/3 vote at the Jan. 18 Delegate Assembly, is sure to get passed -- watch how many retirees and Unity Caucus people who rarely attend meetings will show up that day.

Leadership covers up past mistakes
Now, we know their highest level of skill they have shown is in convincing the membership that none of this is their fault (look for them to send their minions into the schools to enforce the "who me" argument) despite a past of collaboration on numerous ed deform issues: the 2005 contract, mayoral control, selling evals and Danielson to the members, joining in the Gates/Obama/etc. push for common core standards-- add your own to a pretty large list).

Here is a perfect example of UFT leadership duplicity reported by Nikki Dowling at the Riverdale Press, who interviewed me for the article. Even Nikki seemed astounded. I didn't have time to tell her the UFT does support the charter but did a law suit they knew they would lose for internal consumption to give the impression they support the public school. I did tell Nikki that the UFT has two charter co-locos occupying space in public schools - so will we see the UFT suing themselves?

UFT head sued charters while on their board

The United Federation of Teachers filed a lawsuit on May 18, 2011, seeking to prevent charter school co-location in public school buildings.
But UFT President Michael Mulgrew [and Randi Weingarten] sits on the board of the very organization — New Visions for Public Schools — responsible for opening two charter schools on the Kennedy campus.
The suit, which ultimately failed, sought to prevent the New Visions Charter High School for the Humanities and the New Visions Charter High School for Advanced Math and Science, as well as 16 other charters from across the city, from opening in a building that already housed another school (also known as co-locating).
The two charters are now located on the Kennedy campus in a mammoth building that houses six other schools, including John F. Kennedy High School, which the DOE is phasing out due to poor performance.
The UFT suit had charged that when they are co-located, disproportionate resources are given to charter schools, while larger schools, like JFK, get less.
“A school building should not be a lesson for a child on what inequality is and that is clearly what we now have. All children should have equal access to facilities inside a school building,” Mr. Mulgrew said in a May 26 press release.
While those interviewed agreed that Mr. Mulgrew’s position on the board is not a legal issue, they found it strange that a union leader who has come out publicly against charter school co-locations would sit on the board of an organization that has, to date, opened two charters in a multi-school building and is seeking to open more.
“They try and play both sides of the fence,” Norm Scott, a vocal critic of the UFT and DOE who runs Ed Notes Online, said.
District 10 Community Education President Marvin Shelton called Mr. Mulgrew’s position on the board a “head scratcher.”
“[If you’re] sitting on the board of an organization … one would believe that you are in support of that organization,” he said.
The two New Visions charters are not yet unionized and thus do not have to abide by UFT rules.
“The process of unionizing these two schools, which is up to the educators in the schools, is underway,” a UFT spokesperson said in a statement.
Mr. Shelton pointed out that though charter teachers may form their own union, it is in the UFT’s interest to solicit more members because they pay membership dues.
UFT spokesman Peter Kadushin and New Visions spokesman Timothy Farrell declined to comment on Mr. Mulgrew’s position on the board.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, also sits on New Visions’ board.

If there was democracy in the UFT Mulgrew would have to answer to the members at a DA or an Exec Bd meeting (don't expect New Action to bring this up). As a matter of fact, I will pin the astounding errors the UFT has made over the last decade to the very idea that their initiatives are never debated and vetted but instead imposed on the members. If there were vibrant critical voices in the halls of power in the UFT and issues debated openly, the union might be in a very different place.

Which brings me to the State of the Union conference coming up on Feb. 4 which is aimed at examining the role of the union from many angles. I'll talk more about this conference (and why all of you should attend) over the next few weeks. I think this conference reflects the increasing view that if the UFT won't allow these debates to take place within the official halls like the Exec Bd and the DA, people will look for forums outside the official UFT to engage in these debates.

What is very interesting about the people working on putting this together is the number of new faces, most of them young, but also including some long-time teachers who have not been activists before suddenly feeling that it is time to do something. They include individuals from many of the activist groups plus people unaffiliated with organizations.

Film Jan. 18: Creating Good Schools for Our Children

2012-01-15T01:00:00.000-05:00

From our good pal Donna Nevel at Center for Immigrant Families.

Join us for a screening and discussion of

180 Days Well Spent:

Creating Good Schools for Our Children

January 18th, 2012 from 5:30 PM until 7:00 PM

at PS 75, 96th Street and West End Avenue

Reception to follow program

Childcare provided

Bloomberg Declares War

2012-01-15T00:41:00.002-05:00

Will Bloomberg's actions spur greater teacher and student activism and resistance?

Its seems clear to everyone, mainstream media included, that the situation around education in our city has shifted radically in the last 72 hours with the Mayor's State of the City speech.

Basically, the mayor has declared war on the UFT, abandoning any pretense of negotiating and instead trying an end-run around the union at the 33 Transformation and Restart schools (where negotiations around an evaluation system collapsed over the new year). For those of you who aren't following it, it involves closing the schools and reopening them, with the same students, but forcing the teaching staff to reapply for their jobs and only hiring half of them back (the rest forced to find another job, or wander their district as itinerant ATR subs).

This is basically a desperate escalation on the part of a Mayor who is trying to regain momentum after the Cathy Black debacle and claw back something of an "education legacy" for himself in his last year in office.---- comment from a teacher activist.

I began receiving calls at home Friday afternoon even before I left for a meeting from teachers livid with rage regarding the actions of WalBloom. Teachers at these schools, kept in the dark all day, were handed piles of notices to give their students - a letter from Walcott to their parents blaming the union for the loss of the $60 million and announcing that the schools would be closed on June 30 and reopened the next day as a new school. Everything remains the same - except that all teachers must reapply for their jobs and only half can come back.

Now technically, they cannot be fired but become ATRs instead - and this is where the Bloomberg strategy become interesting. If they go through with it they will be faced with a massive influx of ATRs -- especially if you add the people from the other schools being closed. The costs to pay teachers who are functioning as day-to-say subs can turn out to be massive. Thus the attempt to make the lives of ATRs miserable by moving them from school to school every week (which the UFT signed on to) and now assigning special supervisors -- at what cost? --- to monitor them. If the BloomCrap gambit flies watch for massive escalation of war on ATRs to try to cut those costs. Look for a media barrage as part of a campaign to vilify ATRs --"Those awful teachers who failed at closing schools who cannot be hires." Try to imagine headlines in The Post.

Some students more outraged than teachers
One caller told me it was not the teachers who seemed most upset, but the students, who often take the attacks on their school and their teachers personally. He said a bunch of kids came to his door and wanted to know what he was going to do about it. "Fight" he said. The kids patted him on the back saying they would help. I'm not sure the level of organizing going on amongst students --- teachers take a great risk and thus the students have to do it themselves --- though there are some advocacy groups doing some work with student. If students join teachers in enough force by walking out of schools or better, go on strike, that would do more to unsettle Bloomberg than just about anything the UFT can and will do.

What will the UFT do?
Will the UFT go beyond legal action? They will probably sell legal action as the way to go. But if teachers begin to take actions outside the bounds of the union structure, I can see the leadership, fearing the loss of their ability to keep things under their control, might be forced to take more militant action, though what that might look like is hard to say. Ad hoc groups of teachers are already calling for restarting the Fight Back Friday campaigns of last year, especially if they can make it happen in as many of the schools under attack as possible.

Teacher activists spurred to greater action
I was at a meeting with a bunch of teachers late Friday afternoon - all long-time activists. One is from one of the 33 schools under attack and another teaches at the Morris HS Campus where Bloomberg made his speech. Both were seething - and whatever level of being an activist takes part of your life away and can become a drag at times - both seemed spurred on to even greater activity by events over the last few days.

What happened on Friday afternoon inflamed teachers. They were told to give out a letter from Walcott to take home to parents blaming the union. I bet a hell of a lot of these letters got trashed.

We also heard the story from the Morris campus where Bloomberg spoke on Thursday and how it was turned into an armed camp with hordes of police invading the school. Teachers were even threatened that if they went out during lunch to join some of the rallies protesting Bloomberg the police might not allow them back in. There were reports that police were trying to get info on teacher activity from security guards.

The reason Bloomberg went to Morris was because it was one of the early large schools closed and stuffed with small schools. While Bloomberg touted Morris as a success, Leonie Haimson was raining on his parade at the NYC Parent blog by pointing out that there was no success.

The Real Deal on Morris High School & Bloomberg’s Failed Education Policies

And the blog followed up with:

Bloomberg's State of the City address: an administration that has run out of education ideas -- even bad ones

Bloomberg's damaging education proposals to cost $350 million per year

In the meantime, other groups have been organizing protests, rallies. Boy will the copes be kept busy chasing after each of these.

Parents and students from the schools that are currently on the 2012 SCHOOLS CLOSING LISThave decided to join together and support each other in the fight to save their schools. Listed below are just a few of the actions that will be taking place in the upcoming weeks. Please come out and support our parents and students in their fight. NUMBERS EQUAL POWER!

FIX SCHOOLS, DON'T JUST CLOSE THEM!

JANUARY 16: 9:30 AM: BAM In Brooklyn. Support parents from Satellite Three, from Brooklyn, who will be protesting school closures before Chancellor Walcott gives his education speech at MLK event. See attached flyer for details

JANUARY 18: 4:30 pm: 233 Broadway- Rm 720. Plan parent & student action for Feb 1. Also planning what to do on Feb 9- day of the PEP vote!

FEBRUARY 1: 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm-- Union Square. Students & Parents from closing and failing schools/ Mayor 13% (percentage of Black & Latino students prepared for college). More details later.
FEBRUARY 9: 4:00pm onwards. PEP Votes on School Closings-- Brooklyn Tech H.S.

Remember to join this facebook page on school closings:
Www.facebook.com/closingschoolsisnottheanswer
Support Legacy High School students who organized an "occupy your ears" event making hundreds of calls to DOE, PEP, Elected Officials, etc.

http://www.facebook.com/events/323146817716488/

Many parents/students will be having local actions at DOE hearings at their schools-- from boycotting to protesting. Please let us know what you're planning & post to this email list!

Please call me with any questions.

Fight, fight, fight-- a great education is a Right!

mili
Mili Bonilla

Coalition for Educational Justice

Annenberg Institute for School Reform

Cell: 347-901-1049

www.nyccej.org
www.edvox.org

==================

Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on the right for important bits.

Sticker Caper Bandit Brands Eva's Million Dollar Advertizing Campaign With the Truth

2012-01-14T00:52:00.000-05:00

Updated: Sat. Jan. 14, 7AM: Stickers, Stickers, We Got Stickers

I'm sure all the other NYC blogs will be dealing with the BloomCrap so I'll just pop these puppies about the reactions to closing schools and Success Charter co-locos. Eva wanted gentrification neighborhoods and she's got them along with a load of activists. Really, for people who have been doing organizing without getting much response for years, Eva and BloomCrap are like godsends.

Gotham reports on the sticker caper:
http://gothamschools.org/2012/01/13/critical-stickers-added-to-success-academys-new-subway-ads/

There are so many people in Williamsburg willing to take credit for this you could fill the house of detention. Watch Bloomberg spend a million of public money to put cameras every 2 feet in the subway stations with Eva's ads.

Leonie reports on protests at PS 19 which is on the closing school list and on MS 50 which is being invaded by Eva.

The Williamsburg Latino community fights back against Success charter expansion

Here are some leaflets being circulated:

Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on the right for important bits.

Walcott letter to parents being distributed in 33 schools today in unilateral action bypassing union

2012-01-13T13:49:00.002-05:00

Just got a call from a teacher -- they may be invoking some rule that limits union rights to being on panel that hires teachers -- forcing all teachers to reapply for jobs -- with high schools new term starting in 2 weeks -- are they aiming to do this now or wait till Sept?

UFT DA is Weds. Some people want to go there to show the UFT they will support them in any action the union is willing to take. Others are talking about disrupting PEP meeting later that evening. Is this the spark that ignites a fire?

There are calls for the union to get the 33 schools together to fight this instead of leaving it to individual chapters. Waiting to see how UFT which often sees these actions as internal threats responds. But can the UFT act like it normally does now?

More later.

Robotics Brooklyn FIRST LEGO League Tournament for Kids 9-14 at NYU/Poly Saturday Jan. 14

2012-01-13T13:37:00.001-05:00

Free and open to the public. NYU/Poly is on Jay Street at Metrotech.

Tomorrow (Saturday, Jan. 14) is the opening of the NYC robotics competition season with the qualifying tournament with over 40 teams from Brooklyn competing for the opportunity to go on to the finals at the Javits Convention Center in March where 80 teams winnowed from all the borough qualifiers will compete for the opportunity to go to the finals at the World Tournament with teams from around the globe in St. Louis in April.

Attending these events -- bring your kids --- is a great way to get your school involved next year. I will be manning the registration desk in the morning.

Yesterday I finished building the Field Set Up Kit just in time for the tournament. I had LEGO parts all over my man cave for weeks as each night I built another model. If you think that was easy check out the models on Facebook.

I've been involved with FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition in Science and Technology) since retiring in 2002. FIRST puts on various tournaments for kids from age 6-high school all over the world.

My focus has been the FIRST LEGO League, where teams of kids from age 9-14 (which includes elementary, middle and high schools) build and program robots out of LEGO materials. That makes for an interesting competition with 4th/5th graders competing on the same playing level as 9th graders. (And they do pretty well.) There are over 16,000 teams world wide with 8000 in the states.

Here in NYC we had around 180 teams register in September. We expect around 150 to take part in the borough qualifiers

The teams had over these months to prepare their robots for 4 shots throughout the day at completing a number of tasks within two and a half minutes. In addition, the teams have to do presentations in front of a panel of judges.

Each year there is a theme. This year it is Food Factor.

Some Food Factor Links

2011 Food Factor Challenge | FIRST LEGO League
firstlegoleague.org/challenge/2011foodfactor
The FLL Core Values are the fundamental elements that ... In the 2011 Food Factor Challenge, over 200000 9-16* year olds from over 55 countries will explore ...

FLL 2011 "Food Factor" Robot Game EN - YouTube
► 8:21► 8:21	www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvdTbTf4G0kSep 5, 2011 - 8 min - Uploaded by FLLHot This film explains missions and points of FLL Robot-Game 2011 "Food Factor - Keeping Food Safe". Please ...

FLL 2011 Food Factor Missions - YouTube

► 8:21► 8:21
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xf_bQbPYLT8Sep 3, 2011 - 8 min - Uploaded by bgcalbanyor
These are the missions for this year's Lego Robotics Tournament.

FLL Project DVD - Food Factor season - YouTube
► 20:44► 20:44	www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFBBnyz8syMJun 27, 2011 - 21 min - Uploaded by FLLGlobal The OFFICIAL FLL Project DVD for the 2011 Food Factor season. A rookie team's guide to the FLL Project ...

NYC Qualifiers Begin: Volunteers Needed

Hello, FLL FOOD FACTOR SEASON is in FULL EFFECT. We are holding Borough Tournaments all over the Tri-state area and we NEED YOUR HELP. Below are the DATES/LOCATIONS/ SITE COORDINATOR info for you to choose from. I beg you to please respond to the specific SITE COORDINATOR and copy me at ealmonte311@gmail.com with the following info: Name, Email address, Telephone
FLL Volunteer Position – 1^st & 2^nd Choices. Note:
You need to have been TRAINED for REFEREE or JUDGE in order to be able to volunteer in any of the these two positions. We need PLENTY OF VOLUNTEERS, please spread the news and have your friends and family join us if they can.
BOROUGH TOURNAMENT DATES BELOW:

Saturday Jan. 14th Brooklyn Qualifier @ NYU-Poly
Coordinator: Susan Hermon - shermon@poly.edu

Saturday Jan.21st Bronx Qualifier @ Lehman HS
Coordinator: Bernie DiCristofalo – bdicrist@optonline.net

Saturday Jan. 21st Manhattan Qualifier @ CCNY
Coordinator: Elizabeth Vilchis – Vilchis.elizabeth@gmail.com

Saturday Jan. 28th Queens Qualifier @ George Ryan JHS 216
Coordinator: Peter Xanthus – ptx79@aol.com

Staten Island Qualifier : Feb 5 is Super Bowl - Target date is Feb. 12 if venue can be found.
Coordinator: Thomas Smolka – thomasjsmolka@gmail.com
List of teams competing in Brooklyn

Team [x] Object (home schooled)

St. Edmunds Elementary School

PS 94 K

PS 321K

Packer Collegiate Inst.

PS 8 K

YWCA-NYC

MS 366K

Community Partnership Charter School

MS 354 School of Integrated Learning

PS 270 K The Dekalb School

Brooklyn Brownstone School

Mott Hall Bridges Academy

PS 3K The Bedford Village School

PS 256K Benjamin Banneker Elementary

PS 9K Teunis G. Bergen

PS 399 K Stanley Eugene Clarke

PS 233K Langston Hughes

PS 11K Purvis J Behan School

MS 113K Ronald Edmonds Learning Center

PS 636 K Young Scholars’ Academy for Discovery and

Urban Assembly Institute of Math & Science for Young Women

Ocean Hill Collegiate Charter School

The Young Womens’ Leadership School TYWLS BK

Benjamin Banneker Academy K

PS 58 The Carroll School

Salve Regina Catholic Academy

PS 261K

PS 321K

Sunset Park Prep MS 821K

IS 383 K
Philippa Schuyler MS

MS 354 School of Integrated Learning

PS 372 K

Brooklyn School for Global Studies

Fort Green Prep Academy

PS 147k

Exposing Bloomberg's Education Lies in Today's State of the City Address at Morris HS

2012-01-12T13:00:00.000-05:00

UPDATE: Union busting is Theme of Bloomberg State of the City

I know it's a busy day and this is my 3rd post (make sure to check out the others) and it's only 1PM, just in time for Bloomberg's lying State of the City address. I was going to go to the protest at 12:30 but looked at directions and saw the word "Bruckner Expressway --- the use of the word "express" is a knee-slapper --- and I thought there is no way on a day it rained. So I am just going to head up to Williamsburg later for the CEC 14 meeting where D. 14 long-time Superintendent James Quail whom I've known for 40 years will be making his last appearance before retiring on Jan. 31. I will attempt to worm some ugliness towards Tweed out of him if I can.

Breaking: Just saw my childhood pal Marty Needelman in NY1 on another Bloomberg scuzzy operation in Williamsburg/Bushwick to create discriminatory housing --- they went to court and won against him -- another slap at the leagacy. David and Pat Dobosz from GEM who are neighborhood residents have been involved in this story.

Leonie initial take:

Bloomberg’s State of City Address |
He wants to re-introduce teacher merit pay (What? didn't we try that already?)
& bring Rocketship charter to NYC http://goo.gl/4cXq7
see also http://www.nytimes.com/schoolbook/2012/01/12/bloomberg-unveils-ambitious-proposals-for-schools/
50 more charters over the next 2 yrs.
streaming live (if you can stand it) at
http://www.nytimes.com/schoolbook/2012/01/12/bloomberg-unveils-ambitious-proposals-for-schools/

Gotham reports:

Mayor’s address comes against evaluations impasse backdrop

In education-packed speech, Bloomberg vows to bypass UFT

------

Public School Parents from Across NYC to Protest “Mayor 13%” Today Outside State of the City Address

Site of address – Morris HS – likely to be touted by mayor as success;

but “new” Morris actually made gains by neglecting the highest-needs special ed students

After a decade of school closures and other failed school reform policies, only 13% of Black and Latino students are graduating prepared for college under Bloomberg

Poll after poll has shown a strong majority of New Yorkers reject Bloomberg’s education platform and want a new direction

Parents and education advocates from across New York City will protest today outside the mayor’s State of the City Address, decrying the man they call “Mayor 13%” for his failed education policies—which only prepare 13 percent of Black and Latino public school students for college.

Protesters will also draw attention to the dubious selection of Morris High School in the Bronx as the site of the address, and, apparently, a symbol to the administration of its success. Indeed, Morris’s graduation rates have improved since it was closed and re-opened under the Bloomberg Administration—but at the expense of high-needs (self-contained) special education students who were forced to attend other schools. The old Morris HS had a 14 percent rate of self-contained special education students; the new Morris HS campus schools have an average of just two percent. [FACT SHEET ON MORRIS HS AND BLOOMBERG POLICIES ATTACHED.]

Advocates and parents will also point to the Bronx neighborhood surrounding Morris as a microcosm of Bloomberg’s failed education policies across the City, where high-needs students who typically score lower on standardized exams are “warehoused” in a few schools to inflate scores in others. In the neighborhood around Morris, for example, only three percent of students are in high-needs special education classes at the “A” schools, while the closing schools average nine percent high-needs special education.

The federal government’s National Assessment of Educational Progress Trial Urban District Assessment (NAEP TUDA) test results in December showed that City scores have plateaued since 2009 and the large racial achievement gap persists between students of color and their white peers has not budged. More than one-third of all City schools are now considered failing by the State. Earlier this fall, we learned that adjusted state scores showed a deepening crisis in our middle and elementary schools, and that higher graduation rates were masking the fact that just one-in-four high school seniors were actually prepared for college. In response, poll after poll has shown a strong majority of New Yorkers reject Bloomberg’s education platform and want a new direction.

WHEN: Thursday, January 12^th – 12:30 PM

WHERE: Outside Morris High School – 1100 Boston Road, the Bronx

WHO: Parents and advocates from across the City.

This also available as fact sheet on the CSM website here: http://www.classsizematters.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Morris-HS-fact-sheet-final-final.pdf

For immediate release:
January 11, 2012

Leonie Haimson, Class Size Matters, leonie@classsizematters.org; 917-435-9329
Mili Bonilla, Coalition for Education Justice, mili_bonilla@brown.edu; 347-901-1049

Don’t Believe the Hype!

The Real Deal on Morris High School

& Bloomberg’s Failed Education Policies

Claim: Bloomberg likes to contrast the graduation rate at the old Morris HS to graduation rates at the high schools currently housed in the building, as evidence of the success of his education policies.

Reality: The types of students enrolled at the old and new Morris campus are very different. Of the students enrolled in the four schools currently housed in the Morris building, only 1.7% are in self-contained special education classes– revealing their higher level of need, compared to 14% of students enrolled in the old Morris HS in 2001-02.[1] Also, dividing up the building has caused its own problems; for example, according to a teacher at one of these schools, there is no longer any librarian and the library is completely unutilized: “Lots of books with no one tending to them or using them.”

Claim: In response to criticism that students at phase-out schools suffer a loss of resources and services, Deputy Chancellor Suransky has said that graduation rates actually improved at Morris HS in its final year: “… it was a school that used to take 700 kids into the ninth grade every year and graduate 70 four years later. And as it was phased out, in the second year of the phase out it graduated 120 kids …In the third year it graduated over 200 and in its last year it graduated 300.”[2]

Reality: According to state figures, only 121 students in the last class at Morris HS graduated and only 3% of them attended college.[3] Meanwhile, the student discharge rate soared to 55%, compared to 33% of the prior class, a pattern repeated in many of the phase-out schools.[4] Of the 21 schools closed by this administration between 2003 and 2009, 37% of the students in their final classes graduated on average, 20% dropped out, 33% were discharged, and 10% were still enrolled when the schools closed their doors. [5]

Claim: Bloomberg’s educational policies are helping more students leave school college- and career-ready.

Reality: The schools now housed in the Morris building have college readiness rates ranging from 0% (High School for Violin and Dance) and 2.9% (Bronx International High School), to 4.8% (School for Excellence) and 5.7% (Morris Academy for Collaborative Studies.)[6]

After a decade of school closures and other free-market policies, only 21% of NYC high school students overall and only 13% of Black and Latino HS students are college ready after four years. [7] 79% of NYC students entering community colleges need remediation, and the percent of high school graduates who require triple remediation in math, reading and writing has increased 47% since 2005.[8]

Claim: The Mayor’s educational policies are equitable and fair.

Reality: Most of the schools closed in recent years and those proposed for closure this year enroll higher than average concentrations of English language learners, students who entered the schools overage, and/ or students with disabilities.[9] In fact, Mayor Bloomberg’s school closing policy is a shell game that displaces high-needs students from one school to another, without addressing their educational needs.

Claim: The new schools started during the Bloomberg administration are uniformly more successful.

Reality: More than half of the middle and high schools that DOE proposes closing this year were started during his administration. Many of the new schools have small percentages of the highest-needs students. However, when the new schools serve comparable populations of students in self-contained special education, their students tend to succeed at the same rate as the high schools that preceded Bloomberg.[10]

Claim: Under Bloomberg, student learning has increased and the achievement gap has narrowed.

Reality: As measured by scores on national exams, NYC is second to last in student progress compared to ten other cities since 2003, when Bloomberg’s policies were first put in place. And the achievement gap has not narrowed significantly between any racial or ethnic group.[11]

For nearly a decade, Bloomberg has had complete authority over our educational system. Yet of last year’s eighth graders, who entered Kindergarten when he first took office in 2002, only 35% read and write at grade level. [12]

Truly, these are Bloomberg’s kids and Bloomberg’s responsibility.

NYC can’t afford any more of Bloomberg’s failed education policies.

Prepared by the Coalition for Educational Justice and Class Size Matters, January 2012.

[1] NYC DOE School Progress Reports 2010-2011 & NYS School Report Cards 2001-2002.

[2] GothamSchools, “Chief DOE deputy to parents and teachers: Check our work ,” March 15, 2011.

[3] NYSED, Office of Research and Information Systems, “NYS High School Graduates & Their NYS Public College Participation and Persistence, 2004-5.” June 24, 2010.

[4] Jennifer L. Jennings & Leonie Haimson, “High School Discharges Revisited: Trends in NYC’s Discharge Rates,”

April 2009.

[5] Urban Youth Collaborative, “No Closer to College: NYC High School Students Call for Real School Transformation, Not School Closings,” April 2011. The denominator for discharge rates is the total reported cohort plus the number of discharges. Discharges are taken out of the official DOE reported cohorts on which graduation, still enrolled and dropout rates are based. Each of these outcomes was based on revised cohort figures which included discharges.

[6] NYC DOE School Progress Reports, 2010-2011.

[7] NY Times, “College-Readiness Low Among State Graduates, Data Show,” June 14, 2011. NYC Black and Latino percentage calculated from NYC DOE. Graduation Results. School Level Regents-Based Math/ELA Aspirational Performance Measure 2010.

[8] NY Times, “In College, Working Hard to Learn High School Material,” October 23, 2011.

[9] Parthenon Group, “NYC DOE “Beat the Odds” Update,” March 6, 2008; GothamSchools, “Internal report stokes questions about city’s closure strategy,” January 26, 2011; NYC Independent Budget Office, “Schools Proposed for Closing Compared With Other City Schools,” January 2011; NY Times, “State Approves School Closings, but Puts City on Notice,” July 22, 2011; Jackie Bennett, “Closing Schools: DOE Spins Itself an Alternate Universe of Facts,” Edwize, December 14, 2011.

[10] Jackie Bennett, “Closing Schools, DOE Spins Itself an Alternate Universe of Facts,” Edwize, December 14, 2011; Jackie Bennett, “Meet the New Schools, Same as the Old Schools,” November 21, 2011.

[11] Class Size Matters, “NYC second to last among cities in student progress on the NAEPs since 2003,” January 9, 2011.

[12] NYC DOE, NYC 2011 Mathematics & English Language Arts Citywide Test Results Grades 3-8, Aug. 2011.

Mayor Bloomberg to give State of City speech at iconic Morris High School in Bronx

Education advocates say Bronx has troubled schools

Comments

By Corinne Lestch / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Thursday, January 12 2012, 6:00 AM

Mayor Bloomberg will give his State of the City address Thursday in the grand auditorium of the Morris Educational Campus, surrounded by regal stained glass windows, red velvet drapes and organ pipes.

“Having the mayor of the city I love come in and speak about the state of our city is a dream,” said native New Yorker Charles Osewalt, principal of Morris Academy for Collaborative Studies. “I’m very humbled by it.”
A few lucky students and other invited guests will be in the auditorium when Bloomberg gives his speech in the iconic school.
Morris High School was the first public school to open in the Bronx. Though the 110-year-old school counts such notable alumni as former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, actress Kay Medford and comedian Milton Berle, it became a dangerous hub in the South Bronx during recent decades.
As part of a massive school restructuring in 2002, the city Department of Education converted Morris High School into five small, specialized schools: the School for Excellence, Morris Academy for Collaborative Study, High School for Violin and Dance, Bronx Leadership Academy 2 and Bronx International High School.
All schools have received A’s or B’s on their latest city report cards.
But education activists like Mona Davids said recent scandals like Bronxdale principal John Chase Jr. being allowed to keep his post after allegedly making lewd comments to female staffers, and the exodus of teachers at Bronx High School of Science, do not reflect well on Bloomberg - or his school reform legacy.
“We think it’s interesting that he’s coming to the Bronx considering that Bronx County, for the past 10 years, has scored the lowest on state tests,” said Davids, of the NYC Parents Union. “What is he going to do here in the borough to keep the Bronx off of the failing schools list?”
The last time Bloomberg gave his State of the City address in the Bronx was in 2005 at Hostos Community College, according to a City Hall spokesman.
The address will start at 1 p.m., and can be viewed live on nyc.gov and NYC-TV Channel 74.
clestch@nydailynews.com
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/mayor-bloomberg-give-state-city-speech-iconic-morris-high-school-bronx-article-1.1004741?print

Peninsula Prep Charter Closing Follow-Up From Leonie

2012-01-12T11:12:00.001-05:00

This is an important supplement filling in some gaps on my previous post where I forgot all about Victory's role -- they pulled out loads of money from the school (and our wallets) for management fees.

And a comment came in on the previous post making another important connection to the location of the charter and how it was connected to the massive Arverne by the Sea which I believe owned the trailers where the school was located.

Just as shady, is the issue of locating the school close to Arverne By the Sea as a selling perk for Smith's real estate buddy. Wonder how many buyers that lured?!?!?!

Leonie Haimson, who takes a good shot at Michael Duffy (and Anna Philips for quoting him but leaving out how much money his company made off Peninsula Prep) who was a Tweed Troll for years and used his position to get a job paying him a lot of money (let's make a ban on this as an addition to ed law) to nycednews listserve:

I really have no idea what the underlying motivation of DOE might be here; but according to their own (unreliable) accountability system, a school like Peninsula Prep w/ three "Cs" is vulnerable to closing -- and I believe other regular public schools in that category have been closed.
In Oct. I made a list and and discussed the various charters vulnerable to closing on the basis of their grades on the progress reports:
Note the five charters in light yellow; these are authorized by the NYC Chancellor, and thus can be closed by DOE. Who knows why they picked on Peninsula but did not close the others?

The DOE's decisionmaking remains totally obscure to me, but remember also that
Peninsula Prep paid large management fees to Victory -- 23% of per pupil funding acc. to GS -- and has been involved in lots of scandals, as Norm notes -- though none of this is mentioned in the DOE report that advised against renewing its charter.

My question is this: why did Anna Phillips of the NYT quote Michael Duffy, former head of the DOE charter office, who now works at Victory, as an independent observer on the implications of the school's closing, w/out mentioning the financial connection between the Victory & Peninsula Prep? Did they dissolve their relationship? In any case, this should have been mentioned.

Or did I miss something? I have read through the article twice now and don't see the connection mentioned.

Why Peninsula Prep is Closing: What Times Article Left Out

2012-01-12T10:27:00.000-05:00

The politics behind closing a "C" rated school that claims to outperform 9 out of 10 schools in the area. Scandal-plagued politicians connected to school may have spurred closing to forestall future embarrassment over how political connections helped get the charter school. Did Walcott, who comes from a part of Queens where he would be well aware of the activities of these politicians, decide to cut the cord before more scandals emerge? Does Walcott know something will come out soon?

Today's front page article in the NY Times on the closing of Peninsula Prep Charter School in Rockaway might leave some people scratching their heads given the fact that up to now a serial killer who wanted a charter from Joel Klein, who was the authorizer, could get one. A charter school would have to be outrageous in its actions - like Williamburg/Believe Charters (Williamsburg/Believe Charter with Slimeball Leader Eddie Negron - Charter Revoked) which we wrote about the other day or Ross Global run by celebrity/socialite Courntey Sales Ross in the past (Ross Global Charter to be Closed Along with 11).

For the first time, New York City is closing a charter school for the offense of simply being mediocre.
The announcement this week that the city planned to shut Peninsula Preparatory Charter School, a seven-year-old elementary school in Far Rockaway, Queens, was unusual by any definition. Since 2004, the city has closed only a few of its 142 charters that have opened — schools that are publicly financed but privately managed, and are a source of competition for traditional schools.
But as more of the city’s charter schools have matured, reaching the five-year renewal mark, the Education Department has become increasingly impatient with weak-performing ones. With the closing of Peninsula Prep, which had received a grade of C on each of its last four progress reports, Chancellor Dennis M. Walcott seemed to be signaling that the city’s 136 charters will now be held to a higher standard.
And increasing scrutiny of New York charter schools could have widespread implications, prompting a wider conversation across the country about what the bar for closing should be, and how much charter schools should be expected to outperform public schools.

More unusual, the Times piece left out the fact that State Senator Malcolm Smith was the founder of the school and despite denials of still having connections to the school, people in Rockaway believe his influence is still felt. (I saw a tweet from one reporter the day the closing was announced that Smith had given the school a $100,000 in earmarks and speculated about the fate of those funds.) What does happen to this money --- I say give it to PS 215 in Far Rockaway which the DOE is trying to close despite starving the school of resources.

I emailed Anna Philips who wrote the piece and she pointed me to her Schoolbook article the other day where she wrote:

Opened in 2004, Peninsula Preparatory Charter School was founded by State Senator Malcolm A. Smith, who served as a board member until 2006. Another Queens politician, Rep. Gregory Meeks, was also a member of the elementary school’s board.
Despite its political connections, Peninsula Prep struggled from the outset. Originally located in a Far Rockaway middle school, it moved into a complex of trailers near a large real estate development owned by one of Mr. Smith’s campaign donors, leaving its students without a gym or playground. For the last three years, it has received C’s on its progress reports from the city.

But what the article doesn't say is that both Smith and Meeks have been embroiled in scandal, with the Times ( State Sen. Malcolm Smith Tied To Scandal-Scarred Charity)
doing a major piece on Smith in October 2010 (see below the fold for entire article which makes no mention of the Smith connection to PP Charter) which opens with this:

St. Sen. Malcolm Smith
Federal prosecutors are investigating a nonprofit group founded by Mr. Smith. They subpoenaed records in February 2010 from his office detailing funds he has directed to community groups over the last decade. Some of the group's employees were also Mr. Smith's aides in Albany.

The article paints a picture of a failed businessman and a shady politician. The staff of an embattled Queens nonprofit overlaps closely with the payroll of state Sen. Malcolm Smith, one of the charity's founders. At least four workers at the New Direction Local Development Group—which is under federal investigation and allegedly fleeced Hurricane Katrina victims out of about $30,000 raised on their behalf—have also worked for Smith at a time when the politician gave the organization about $56,000 in state funds.

Yet Smith was shown political favor by allowing him to open up a charter school. I thought it interesting at the time that this article made no mention of the charter school connection. And the fact that both articles by Anna made no mention of the Smith scandals make the paranoid in me work overtime. But if you click the Malcolm Smith link in Anna's Schoolbook piece it takes you to the Times article about the scandal. Anna is a meticulous reporter and makes it her business to know everything there is to know about education in this city. Having to click to make that connection makes me think that the NY Times editors were concerned about making the obvious connection to scandal in an article about the charter. Why mention Smith (which I view as Anna's way of leading the dog to the bone) without openly mentioning the scandals?

Smith's pal Gregory Meeks, who was on the PPrep Board, Congressman from the east end of Rockaway is also under scrutiny. Meeks was mentioned the other day (Edul Ahmad Accused of Defrauding Guyanese Immigrants)
(See below for a few quick hits from a google search on Meeks.)

I agree with Anna's speculation that charters will get closer scrutiny to try to stop the growing scandals that in the long-run threaten the charter school movement. Given that most of these schools perform no better than public schools and many perform worse, the question of why create a dual system with wasted resources will continue to be raised. Thus you see charter school slugs who make a living off charter schools -- people like Michael Duffy and James Merriman -- quoted in Anna's article.

I feel that Peninsula Prep Charter is a special case for closing and not necessarily a sign of closer scrutiny due to the scandals engrossing Smith and Meeks (and their mentor Floyd Flake, whose scandalous behavior was also profiled in the NY Times -

Deal Shows How Floyd Flake Can Gain From Ministry - NYTimes.com
www.nytimes.com/2010/06/18/nyregion/18flake.html?pagewanted...
Jun 17, 2010 – The Rev. Floyd Flake, an influential New York pastor, had a role as both seller and buyer of church-owned buildings.

REV FLOYD FLAKEGATE - VJ MACHIAVELLI-THE VOICE OF THE ...
vjmachiavelli.blogspot.com/2011/.../welcome-to-rev-floyd-flakegate...
Oct 9, 2011 – Posted:2:04 AM, October 9, 2011. New York political kingmaker and religious leader Floyd Flake rakes in the cash -- and leaves wreckage ...

Dennis Walcott is from a corner of Queens where he knows full-well these politicians. I would bet he is not happy about these scandals and is sensitive to how they may come back to bite Tweed in terms of authorizing a charter school controlled by these guys.

So in my mind these are the politics behind closing a charter school that under normal conditions would not face closing.

--------------
By the way, Peninsula Prep had it's own record of tossing kids as you can see in this piece in the local Rockaway paper The Wave (where I write a column):

The Wave Reports: Peninsula Prep Academy Charter Tosses 5-Year ...

ednotesonline.blogspot.com/.../wave-reports-peninsula-prep-academ...

Apr 9, 2011 – The motto of the Peninsula Preparatory Academy charter school on Beach 111 ....

--------------
Parent at PPA writes to Leonie
But to be fair, here is an email from a parent at the school sent to Leonie Haimson pointing to the conflcit this school is causing:

I am a follower and supporter of your work for a very long time. However, the last few years my child has gone to a charter school which (while being in contradiction with many of my political and philosophical views on education) have put me into a much more pragmatic position especially with the conditions of where I live, Rockaway. And while I still support your fight for public education on the long term an imminent problem has arisen for myself and 340 other families out here in Queens: our school's charter has not been renewed and it will close at the conclusion of the school year. This means that the children will be pushed into their zoned schools in Far Rockaway and Arverne, NY where 9/10 schools performed WORSE than our school that is being closed down. This, of course, using the same dreaded standards that the DOE used to justify our school's closure, in essence telling our community that PPA wasn't good enough but the inferior (by their standards) and underfunded local public schools will now have to take in 341 new students. Obviously this will affect class size and student-teacher ratio as well for the local schools.

I'm reaching out to you in desperation to see if you could put me in contact with any local activists that could join forces with our parents in protesting, picketing and shaming the DOE for this move. The parents feel betrayed and we have sensed that our best bet is to get outside of the system. I think that although the charter issue may be different than those of traditional public schools, we all face challenges from the same failed policies.

I too am conflicted about working with this parent but I think it would be the right thing to do even Mona Davids sent a rep out to meet with the charter to assist them but they weren't interested.

-----------------------

Congressman Gregory Meeks Admits He's Been Subpoenaed ...
blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2010/04/congressman_gre.php
Apr 15, 2010 – Things are getting so bad for scandal-plagued Queens Democratic congressman Gregory Meeks that he had to acknowledge on the House ...
Meeks passes the bucks on scandal (video) - New York Post
www.nypost.com/.../meeks_passes_the_bucks_on_scandal_...
Mar 16, 2010 – Gregory Meeks ended weeks of dodging yesterday, taking to TV to insist he's in the dark about ... Meeks passes the bucks on scandal (video) ...
US Cricket Team ensnared in Queens scandal involving Meeks ...
www.nypost.com/.../in_sticky_wicket_MCWvLcM7JPkoKN7nOoKf...
Dec 25, 2011 – A Queens scandal that threatens to engulf Rep. Gregory Meeks has an unusual collateral victim — the US Cricket Team.
New York Papers Scrutinize Meeks Loan Scandal Figure | National ...
nlpc.org/stories/2010/07/.../new-york-papers-scrutinize-meeks-‘frien...
Jul 21, 2010 – New York Papers Scrutinize Meeks Loan Scandal Figure ... Gregory Meeks (D-NY), is today scrutinized by the New York Times and New York ...
The Last Tradition: Democrat Gregory Meeks Changes Story on ...
thelasttradition.blogspot.com/.../democrat-gregory-meeks-changes-st...
Mar 15, 2010 – Gregory Meeks claimed that "every dime" raised by a charity he ... It's the biggest scandal the legacy media purposely does not report. Why do ...
Meeks Scandal Impacts US Cricket Team | www.rockawave.com ...
www.rockawave.com/.../Meeks_Scandal_Impacts_US_Cricket_Team...
Meeks Scandal Impacts US Cricket Team. 2011-12-30 / Top Stories. By Howard Schwach. Congressman Gregory Meeks has been enmeshed in scandal for ...
U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks Passes The Bucks On Scandal - Hip Hop ...
hiphoprepublican.com/.../us-rep-gregory-meeks-passes-the-bucks-on...
Mar 18, 2010 – Embattled U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) ended weeks of dodging yesterday, taking to TV to insist he's in the dark about the gone-missing ...
Gregory W. Meeks News - The New York Times
topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/.../gregory_w_meeks/index.html
... W. Meeks. Commentary and archival information about Gregory W. Meeks from The New York Times. ... N.Y. Senate Leader Tied to Figure in Loan Scandal ...

NY Times piece on Smith below

Richard Perry/The New York Times
Updated: Oct. 22, 2010

Malcolm A. Smith, a Democrat, has represented the 14th District in Queens in the New York State Senate since 2000.

Federal prosecutors are investigating a nonprofit group founded by Mr. Smith. They subpoenaed records in February 2010 from his office detailing funds he has directed to community groups over the last decade. Some of the group's employees were also Mr. Smith's aides in Albany.

In October, the state inspector general said Mr. Smith was one of two state senate leaders who showed favoritism to a troubled bidder on a casino project who was donating to Democratic candidates and had ties to key political figures. The findings have been referred to federal and state prosecutors and the Legislative Ethics Committee.

A Failed Business, a Success in Politics

Mr. Smith learned Queens clubhouse politics from his mother, a Democratic activist, and worked after college as an aide to a councilman, Archie Spigner. In 1983, he took a junior economic development post under Mayor Edward I. Koch and volunteered as president of a nonprofit group that redeveloped run-down housing.

Mr. Smith's life was changed profoundly when he went to work in 1986 for the Rev. Floyd H. Flake, who at the time served in Congress, and whose Allen A.M.E. Cathedral has been a major force for economic and social renewal in the black neighborhoods of southeast Queens.

Though energetic and determined, Mr. Smith struggled at times to get political footing. While still running Mr. Flake's Congressional district office, he lost two campaigns in two years, a bid in 1990 for State Senate and one in 1991 for City Council.

In 1991, he started Smith Development Corporation, a real estate and construction business, and built several dozen moderately priced homes in the Rockaways that helped begin a revival of the area. But by the end of the decade, Smith Development was bankrupt and Mr. Smith was sued by a court-appointed trustee who alleged that he had diverted money owed to his creditors into subsidiaries under his control. The suit was settled for about $12,000.

As Mr. Smith's business foundered, however, his political career took flight. When a Queens state senator left office in 2000, Mr. Smith's allies — including Mr. Flake and his successor in Congress, Gregory W. Meeks — moved quickly to sew the seat up for him. By then well established in the community, Mr. Smith won overwhelmingly in a special election, running simultaneously on the Democratic, Republican, Conservative and Working Families ballot lines, a rare feat. In the Senate, he positioned himself as a pragmatic, business-friendly Democrat with little attachment to conservative or liberal orthodoxy.

A Leader in the State Senate

He formed a close relationship with David A. Paterson, then the deputy minority leader, and became popular among Senate Democrats. This popularity helped Mr. Smith survive the 2006 scandal of a paternity lawsuit filed by a former aide. Mr. Smith, married with two children, eventually acknowledged that he had fathered a daughter with the aide, declining to name the woman. That year, Mr. Smith won a bid to succeed Mr. Paterson as minority leader.

When the Democrats took control of the Senate after the 2008 elections, Mr. Smith was elected by its members to be majority leader. But it was not easy. For weeks after the elections, the Senate was in limbo as Mr. Smith tried to woo several reluctant Democrats whose support he needed to ascend to the post. Many friends and advisers said he had become inexplicably overconfident about winning the post; some questioned whether he even wanted the top job at all. Mr. Smith's support for same-sex marriage also caused problems, and his advocacy nearly prevented him from becoming majority leader.

Lackluster support from within his own party continued to plague Mr. Smith, who was criticized as ineffective throughout his tenure as the Senate leader. He absorbed much of the blame for the government's indecisive action on a rescue plan for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Mr. Smith was later forced from the leadership after two Democrats bolted the party, returning the Republicans to power. After a week of chaos in the state capital, the two rejoined the Democrats, and Senator John L. Sampson of Brooklyn, became the Senate leader. Mr. Sampson became president of the Senate and majority leader; Mr. Smith was named the Democrats' titular leader.

In February 2010, federal prosecutors subpoenaed records from Mr. Smith that detail all monies he has directed to community groups over the last decade. Public records show that four current or former officials of a Queens nonprofit group or a related charity founded by Mr. Smith and Congressman Weeks — a group to which Mr. Smith has directed some $56,000 in state funds — have spent some time on the Senate payroll working for Mr. Smith, and two were among his highest paid staff members.

Federal prosecutors are investigating the nonprofit group, the New Direction Local Development Corporation, and a related charity set up to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina, and they issued a subpoena at the beginning of February for records from Mr. Smith’s Senate office that show all the money he had directed to community groups over the past decade.

In October, the state inspector general said Mr. Smith was one of two state senate leaders who manipulated the choice of who would build New York City’s first casino, leaking information and showing favoritism to a troubled bidder that was donating to Democratic candidates and had ties to key political figures. Mr. Sampson was the other lawmaker.

In a scathing 308-page report on the competition to install video slot machines at the Aqueduct racetrack in Queens, Inspector General Joseph Fisch described a chaotic and ultimately doomed process that was without formal rules or objective criteria, and was awash in “unrestrained political considerations,” lobbyists and targeted campaign contributions.

The report says that the bidder, a consortium called the Aqueduct Entertainment Group, marshaled funds at the behest of the state’s Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, casting “a taint on the motives behind the Senate leadership’s support of” Aqueduct Entertainment. Citing possible violations of laws governing public officials by Mr. Sampson, Mr. Smith and Angelo Aponte, the appointed Senate secretary, the inspector general’s office said it was referring its findings to federal and state prosecutors and the Legislative Ethics Committee.

After complaints of favoritism surfaced, Mr. Paterson reversed the selection in March. The casino is now being built by a subsidiary of an international entertainment company, Genting New York, which won a follow-up competition.

Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on the right for important bits.

How Did Educators 4 Excellence Gain Access to Official DOE Teacher Emails?

2012-01-11T22:47:00.004-05:00

There is but one conclusion that can be drawn from the NYC Department of Education’s last minute walk out of negotiations over a teacher evaluation system for 33 schools placed in the Transformation and Restart models: it was always Tweed’s intention to refuse to enter into an agreement for teacher evaluations. -- Leo Casey at Edwize

I don't often read Edwize but Leo Casey has an excellent piece exposing the sham of Tweed's game-playing on evaluations and lays the blame right on them (though as always I never thought the UFT should have given even a wedge on teacher evaluations given we're dealing with snakes --- though I hate to insult the snakes).

Teachers at some of the 33 SIG schools have been getting emails from the 5th Columnists* at E4E at their official DOE email addresses. Reminds me of the handover of Tweed's handing over private parent info to Eva Moskowitz's Success Charter to help them recruit. It's almost funny how groups like GEM have warned people not to use DOE emails for political purposes since that would give the DOE an opportunity to go after them. I guess it's Katy bar the door now that E4E has broken the barrier of misuse of official DOE emails. So if you ever get hassled if you happen to blast out an email to colleagues here is your precedent.

I would go beyond and if you get such an email maybe lodge a complaint about misuse of DOE emails. Or better yet call E4E's Lauren Goldberg at 212-279-8510 ex. 18 to tell her what you think of this blatant political opportunism of making it look like the DOE was not responsible.

E4E which purports to have teacher interests at heart is exposed by this fact from Leo's post:

why is a 90% rate of principals recommending tenure, at the end of probation “a joke,” but a 99.5% rate of turning down U ratings appeal perfectly acceptable?

Yes, we are the 99.5% that loses U-ratings appeals.

Funding cuts to John Dewey
______________________________
__
From: Lauren Goldberg [mailto:lgoldberg@educators4excellence.org]
Sent: Mon 1/9/2012 6:19 PM
To: [teacher at John Dewey HS] (21K540)
Subject: Funding cuts to John Dewey

Dear ------ ,

I'm reaching out because I came across your name on a staff list from John Dewey. [trans- thanks Dennis for stopping by our office with the list]

I am reaching out to your staff because the School Improvement Grant funding from the state is in jeopardy. This is because the DOE and UFT cannot agree on teacher evaluations. Teachers at several of the 33 schools have written an open letter to Chancellor Walcott and President Mulgrew to urge them to come to an agreement [trans. but we won't criticize our meal tickets for walking out of negotiations] and allow the SIG funding to be restored. We are helping them to get the word out. [sure, we are helping THEM - as if THEM materialized out of nowhere].

You can read and sign the letter at www.restoresigfunding.com .

Please let me know if there is anyone else from John Dewey that I could reach out to.

Thank you for your daily work in the classroom, and for standing up for your students and your profession.

Best,

Lauren

Lgoldberg@educators4excellence.org, Outreach Director, Educators 4 Excellence, 212-279-8510 ex. 18

I'll close with this from Leo:

one conclusion is inescapable: Mayor Bloomberg decided that he had no intention of negotiating in good faith with the UFT over the subject of teacher evaluations. The plan was always to blow up the negotiations required by law, with a strategy of then trying to pressure Albany to change the teacher evaluation law and allow the DOE to continue its kangaroo court U rating appeal process. From the beginning of this process, he and his devotees at Tweed were acting in bad faith.

Read In Bad Faith at Edwize

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_column

Principal Reveals Impact of Cost of an Experienced Teacher

2012-01-11T07:10:00.006-05:00

Woo, who has led the school of nearly 1,100 students for over two decades, said having experienced teachers such as Cannistraci has unfortunately hamstrung P.S. 130 during a time of budget cuts. Because the city bills schools for their teachers’ real salaries, having a staff that earns an average $82,000 a year means there is less to spend on non-salary costs.

Class size jump poses new challenge for a successful school
-------------------
Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on the right for important bits.

Community Board 1 Takes Stand Against Moskowitz Invasion

2012-01-11T02:49:00.002-05:00

Eva Moskowitz is one of the greatest organizing tools we've had. The school closings and charter insertion policies of the ed deformers are galvanizing long-dormant communities around the city. (I was at an intense meeting in Far Rockaway last night over the closing of PS 215 that drew a large crowd of teachers and parents and the Queens UFT political action people - I'll report on that later.)

This came in from Pat Dobosz who works and resides in Dist. 14 in Williamsburg.

CB 1 in Williamsburg/Greenpoint voted for a proposal today, presented by its Education Committee, taking a stand against Eva Moskowitz's Success Academy coming into JHS 50. It also voted for a proposal telling the DOE that the community wants direct input into what is going to be happening at PS 19 BEFORE any phase out takes place. The president of the committee will be sending me a copy of the resolutions and I will forward them. We all know that Eva gets what she wants, but it's important that our CB has taken a stand on our schools, something that has not happened in at least 20 years. (The other schools that she has invaded in our school district are not in CB 1, but CB 3). next month they will be dealing with Williamsburg charter and the two other Believe schools.

Also tomorrow and Thursday, the committee will be meeting with parents from both schools in preparation for the upcoming hearings on January 17 (JHS 50) and January 18 (PS 19). I will also forward those times when I receive them (I believe they are at 6 PM).

Janine, a former D. 14 parent, commented:

Bravo to CB1!
I suppose we can thank Eva and the charter movement (and all other privatizing entities out there) for helping us (finally) build back our communities. A silver lining, perhaps?

Potential Law Suit against Success Academy in Cobble Hill

This Friday, January 13th at 5:30pm there is an IMPORTANT MEETING for District 15 parents interested in being plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the placement of the Cobble Hill Success Academy in District 15. Lawyers will be there to discuss the legal arguments and what is involved in being a plaintiff. The meeting will be held at 2-4 Nevins Street in downtown Brooklyn, on the 2nd floor.

All are welcome to come, ask questions, and sign up to be involved.

Please call 203.313.2479 with any questions.

FLL 2011 Food Factor Missions - YouTube
► 8:21► 8:21	www.youtube.com/watch?v=xf_bQbPYLT8Sep 3, 2011 - 8 min - Uploaded by bgcalbanyor These are the missions for this year's Lego Robotics Tournament.