Friday, October 10, 2014

The Plot Against Public Education: How millionaires & billionaires are ruining our schools by Bob Herbert in Politico

Finally, former NY Times op ed reporter Bob Herbert, who I believe used to by the ed deform nonsense, gets it.

Philadephia Story: Contracts Are Only for Teachers to Follow

Imagine if NYC teachers went on strike over the numerous contract violations going on every day in every school? Taylor Law penalties and an assault on the union and teachers would take place en masse.

With the Philly story playing out the way it is, really, what recourse do teachers have other than to strike? I mean at what point does it get to be too much? The problem is that teachers all over the nation, except in Chicago, have not been prepared politically or ideologically to have even the remotest capability of striking. It took a politically sophisticated leadership in Chicago to do that.

And with a national leader like Randi, who plays footsie (Echos of Vichy: UFT/AFT - Friend or Foe and Mercedes Takes on Randi (Again)) with the other side there is little chance of seeing real resistance - other than, ironically, from students (Phila. students protest canceling of contract.)


Philly School Files



In a stunning move that could reshape the face of city schools, the Philadelphia School Reform Commission voted Monday to unilaterally cancel its teachers’ contract. The vote was unanimous.
The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers was given no advance word of the action — which happened at an early-morning SRC meeting called with minimal notice — and which figures to result in a legal challenge to the takeover law the SRC believes gives it the power to bypass negotiations and impose terms.
Jerry Jordan, PFT president, called the move "cowardly" and vowed to fight it strongly.

Karen Lewis Recovering, Jesse Sharkey Assumes Duties

Karen is an American hero. Every moment I've shared with her I consider a gift. No one has done more to advance the cause of teachers over the last few years than this courageous, brilliant, and really, really funny woman. God bless, Karen. Let's get you through this -- your work isn't even close to done yet..... Jersey Jazzman
Obviously the situation with Karen may seriously affect the mayoral race in Chicago where Karen was/still is expected to challenge POS Rahm Emanuel.

I've had the absolute pleasure of meeting Karen numerous times, including the time when she spoke at the NYCORE conference a few years ago and we picked her and her husband John up at the airport and got to spend an hour talking in the car. The last time I saw her was in Los Angelos at the AFT convention where she looked great. So let's wish she gets well fast.

I don't know Jesse Sharkey real well but I've never heard a bad word about him. Jesse is part of the original crew that organized CORE.

Below is the update from the Chicago Teachers Union blog.

Chicago Teachers Union Statement, Medical Update on President Karen Lewis

by ctu communications  |  10/09/2014
CHICAGO—Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) President Karen Lewis underwent successful surgery yesterday for a serious illness and is recovering well.
During President Lewis’ recovery, CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey will assume the duties of the president according to the rules set forth in the CTU Constitution and By-laws.
“Out of respect to President Lewis’ wishes, the wishes of her family, and their privacy, we cannot provide details on her condition, but we wish her all the best and pledge all of our support—both in aiding her recovery and in carrying on the work of the CTU about which she cares so deeply,” Sharkey said.

ILLUSTRATION: Karen in front of crowd

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Petition SUNY to Stop Eva Expansion


Hello!
We've started the petition "charters@suny.edu: SUNY should reject the current application to approve additional Success Academy Charter Schools in CSD3, especially without a predetermined location for the school." and need your help to get it off the ground.
Will you take 30 seconds to sign it right now? Here's the link:
http://www.change.org/p/charters-suny-edu-suny-should-reject-the-current-application-to-approve-additional-success-academy-charter-schools-in-csd3-especially-without-a-predetermined-location-for-the-school
Here's why it's important:
We support CEC3 in their request for a moratorium on new charter approvals unless and until a full audit of existing co-located charters and their compliance with the law - including marketing, enrollment, student retention, and disciplinary policies - has been undertaken by the New York City Comptroller and the New York City Council.  
You can sign our petition by clicking here.
Thanks! 
Nan Eileen Mead and Elissa Ruback
Co-Presidents, 2014-15
Community School District 3 Presidents' Council
(If you do not wish to receive these emails, please reply "REMOVE")
 

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Video: Parent/Community Voices Oppose Success as SUNY Approves Eva Moskowitz Charter Scam



Part 2 - Leonie Haimson, Noah Gotbaum and more -- https://vimeo.com/108349866



More videos:
For teacher voices see:
MOREistas in the House, UFT Not @ Success Academy ...
and teachers and community/parents at the Sept. 22 hearing in Brooklyn: MORE Takes a Stand Against Eva Moskowitz at Hearin...

Part 1 for community/parent voices
http://youtu.be/t81y-BEzOfI



Also see: The Demographic Shift of Eva Moskowitz - The Grim ...(and Almost All White) Faces of Success Academy Parents...

READ LOTS MORE BELOW THE FOLD

Echos of Vichy: UFT/AFT - Friend or Foe and Mercedes Takes on Randi (Again)

“I think attacking Randi is not smart, wise, accurate, or useful. Equating her with Broad et al is absurd. We argue with our allies differently than we attack our enemies. Let’s keep our aim directed at those leading the fight to end public education.”- Deborah Meier.
Randi is not an ally and we are attacking our enemies when we attack Randi. You only have to watch an AFT convention to see how this plays out.

For over a dozen years, starting sometime in 2001, I have often been a lone voice in branding current AFT and former UFT President Randi Weingarten as a tool of ed deform. Mercedes Schneider, a teacher in Louisiana,  has picked up the cudgel at her blog, http://deutsch29.wordpress.com. Her post 

Where the “Broad” Road Will Take AFT

brought out Randi defenders (apologists) with someone using the Deborah Meier quote above.
Debbie has often made similar comments to me.

My response has been that Randi is not our ally and we are attacking our enemies when we attack Randi.

 and Mercedes followed up with:

Weingarten, Broad, and *Collaborative* Privatization

These are must-reads.

I was once a nominal Randi Weingarten supporter - in the early days in 1997 of Ed Notes when I was working basically alone. I saw Randi as bringing new blood, positive reformist blood, to the UFT and Unity Caucus. A weak (and often pathetic) opposition offered by New Action and a barely visible and equally ineffective Teachers for a Just Contract (TJC) and a third caucus, Progressive Action, which was focused on the teacher licensing issue, was the political landscape at that time. I saw Randi and a reformed Unity Caucus as the only possibility. And her "people" were promising me just that -- she would take the union in a new direction. I was even invited to join Unity - which I declined.

So for the next 4 years, while being "suggestive" and critical in a non-critical non-attack mode, Ed Notes attempted to prod Randi with a positive message

Around 1999-2000 I touched base with George Schmidt in Chicago and began to see the horrors of ed deform be played out there in its earliest days through Paul Vallas and -  Yes, I knew about Arne Duncan from Substance a dozen years ago.

I was on the ground in the UFT and watched in horror as, beginning around 2000-2001, Randi began signing on to one ed deform issue after another. That is what turned me against her and ended any possibility Unity and the UFT could be reformed. Instead, Randi not only joined the ed deform movement, but she also further deformed the UFT from what was an essentially undemocratic organization into a form of monarchy, with her playing the role of queen.

That led me on the road to organizing the people to found the Independent Community of Educators (ICE) in late 2003, which led to GEM in 2009 and to MORE in 2012.

The people in ICE were pretty much in alignment with my view of Randi and the leadership. Others in the opposition do not necessarily agree.

I must follow up with a post about some of the internal struggles within MORE and before that, GEM, over whether our union leaders are enemies of just misguided union bureaucrats (sort of the TJC view and certainly the past and current New Action view. Over the years there has been some tension within MORE over this analysis and we devoted a summer series event in 2013 to exploring this issue.

Here are the videos from that event with Ira Goldfine and Vera Pavone laying out the ICE position and Peter Lamphere putting forth what I would term the TJC/ISO point of view.

https://vimeo.com/71202175



https://vimeo.com/71260639


https://vimeo.com/71228197



https://vimeo.com/71195606




Afterburn:

Also see Mercedes' post:
http://deutsch29.wordpress.com/2014/10/06/caution-aft-has-made-a-deal-with-inbloom-like-clever/


Teachers Unite: Restorative Justice Workshop Thursday + Week of Action is NOW!

From Teachers Unite:

Did you know that on average states spend states spend 
$5.7 Billion a Year on the Juvenile Justice System Instead of our Schools

This week is the 
Dignity in Schools National Week of Action Against #SchoolPushout to demand #SolutionsNotSuspensions 


 YOU CAN TAKE ACTION NOW! 
Join the list of school teams calling on the DOE to bring systemic change with meaningful community input to school climate and discipline: 

 << Full media advisory below >>

_____________________


Dignity in Schools National Week of Action

Restorative Justice Workshop!
Come meet students, educators, parents, & community members in NYC who are working to transform their schools through restorative justice practices.
Workshop will be led by staff & students of West Side High School
 Thursday, October 9th
5 to 7pm
Edward A. Reynolds West Side High School
140 West 102nd Street
1 / B / C to 103rd Street


Food & drinks will be provided
Students, edcuators, parents—all are welcome!
Flyer attached

 #EdsResist #SchoolPushout #EducationIsTheKey #WoA2014



___________________


Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Parents and community voices oppose SUNY authorization of Success Academy charters in Manhattan's Districts 2 and 3 - Part 1

Why doesn't SUNY give them space? There's FIT, School of Optometry - even Downstate... parent testimony
Video from the September 29, 2014 hearing.

For teacher voices see:
MOREistas in the House, UFT Not @ Success Academy ...
and teachers and community/parents at the Sept. 22 hearing in Brooklyn: MORE Takes a Stand Against Eva Moskowitz at Hearin...


http://youtu.be/t81y-BEzOfI



Also see: The Demographic Shift of Eva Moskowitz - The Grim ...(and Almost All White) Faces of Success Academy Parents...

Monday, October 6, 2014

Brainless Drain - Bloomberg Remnants at Tweed: 4000 Educrats

"The whole point is that you're not supposed to just be able to hire your buddy," said Mr. Cheliotes.  ...Crains NY
Leonie Haimson reports:
Fascinating story below – apparently under Bloomberg, the city  hired more than 37,000 employees w/out going through the proper Civil Service process, including passing required exams; more than 20,000 of them remain. According to court order and a new state law they have to pass these exams or be replaced by end of 2016.  More than 4,000 of these employees remaining are at DOE. Does anyone know what sorts of positions these people hold?  4,000 is a lot of educrats; are they also teachers?  We’ve lost more than 5,000 teachers since 2007.
My take? Of course the Manhattan Institute and Crain's consider these political appointees Brains rather than Brainless.

Brain drain looms for de Blasio

Layoffs for city workers have begun and could run into the thousands.

October 5, 2014 12:01 a.m.

"The civil-service system was a progressive reform to ensure good government—but that was 100 years ago," said Steve Malanga, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Photo: Associated Press
This Week in Crain's: October 6, 2014 Download
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20141005/POLITICS/141009915/brain-drain-looms-for-de-blasio#

The de Blasio administration is facing a major brain drain as a court decision, civil-service rules and state law will force it to shed thousands of experienced middle managers across dozens of city agencies.
The upheaval has already begun in some quarters: A city source said the Department of Design and Construction started letting employees go in August and September, and a spokesman for the agency confirmed that 15 had lost their jobs last month.
But the real bloodletting will occur over the next two years.
This week, Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration will submit a plan to the state Civil Service Commission detailing how the city will slash thousands of "provisional" employees from its payroll. The city must replace most of them with "permanent" employees by the end of 2016.
Some of these provisional workers—who, as their titles suggest, were supposed to be temporary—have been on the city payroll for years.
The state constitution dictates that governmental appointments be based on "merit and fitness," and for many job classifications that is determined by scores on civil-service exams. In many cases, only the top three scorers are allowed to be interviewed for a position.

Circumventing the system

The longstanding policy was designed to root out political patronage. But former Mayor Michael Bloomberg felt hamstrung by it because the exam scores reflect knowledge of agency procedures and other arcane facts but not necessarily work experience, managerial skills, temperament and other qualities.
The mayor therefore had his agencies circumvent the system by hiring "provisional" employees. By 2007, nearly 37,000 were swelling the ranks of city government, occupying more than 19% of the "competitive" city job titles that were supposed to be filled based on exam scores.
"The civil-service system was a progressive reform to ensure good government—but that was 100 years ago," said Steve Malanga, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. "Now there's far more sophisticated technology and different types of positions. But you may still want this kind of test for someone working in the Sanitation Department. There are no easy answers to this."
Mr. Bloomberg's work-around was dealt a major blow by a 2007 court decision in a case pitting Long Beach, L.I., against CSEA, a labor union representing employees in the town. The court found it unlawful for municipalities in the state to retain provisional employees for more than nine months.
To be in substantial compliance with the ruling, New York City needed to slash the portion of competitive jobs held by provisional workers to 5%—down to about 9,500. In 2008, the Bloomberg administration developed a plan to cut the provisional ranks to just 3,300 within five years. But it fell well short: As of late last year, nearly 22,500 provisional employees were still on the payroll, according to a city report.

'As fast as they could'

"They went as fast as they reasonably could," argued one source close to the process, alluding to the impact that wholesale personnel changes would have had on city operations.
Data released late last year show the Department of Education had more than 4,000 provisional employees, while the Parks Department, Housing Authority, Human Resources Administration and Department of Health and Mental Hygiene each had more than 1,000. Current provisional employees are being encouraged by their agencies to take civil-service exams.
Many of these provisional employees are union members, said Arthur Cheliotes, president of the Communications Workers Local 1180. Still, public-sector labor leaders chafed because the provisional workers lacked civil-service protections and were afraid to call out managers' misdeeds, including contracting abuses, he said.
Unions also felt the Bloomberg administration was stifling the upward mobility of civil-service workers by hiring provisional managers rather than promoting from the lower ranks.
"It used to be that these kinds of appointments came from the political clubs. [Then] they started coming from the country clubs," wisecracked Mr. Cheliotes, who chairs the civil-service committee for the Municipal Labor Committee, an umbrella group for city unions.

Unions push city to act

Labor interests, which had felt that the Bloomberg administration dragged its feet in complying with the court ruling, pressed the state Legislature to accelerate the process. This year, two Brooklyn lawmakers, Republican state Sen. Martin Golden and Democratic Assemblyman Peter Abbate, advanced bills giving the city a deadline, and after negotiations with the de Blasio administration, a deal was struck to give it until the end of 2016. (Labor sources said the administration, fearing rapid turnover would disrupt agencies, wanted much more time than it got.)
The bill also required the city to issue a new plan to achieve compliance. Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the bill into law in August. On Oct. 8, the Department of Citywide Administrative Services is expected to issue a plan on how the city will comply with the court decision.
An agency deputy commissioner, Julianne Cho, declined to comment until the plan is released.
The department is now headed by a de Blasio appointee, Stacey Cumberbatch. She and Ms. Cho are both Bloomberg holdovers.
Labor leaders had grumbled that the Bloomberg administration did not schedule enough civil-service exams and often tried to reclassify provisional employees' jobs to exempt them from civil-service rules.
The de Blasio administration, however, has been "vigorous" in giving civil-service exams, Mr. Cheliotes said. Top scorers can fill jobs currently held by provisional employees, some of whom have been taking the tests in an effort to stay on.
"The whole point is that you're not supposed to just be able to hire your buddy," said Mr. Cheliotes. "Now there will be an opportunity to take the tests. And the general public will have as much access to the jobs as anyone else."
A version of this article appears in the October 6, 2014, print issue of Crain's New York Business.

Sunday, October 5, 2014

Ravitch to Farina: Fire the Gotcha Squad; Supervisors Skate While Teachers Are Crucified

Chancellor Farina, it is time to fire the “gotcha” squad. It is time to replace Joel Klein’s legal team. It is time to clean house and install officials who share Mayor de Blasio’s vision and values... Unfortunately, the de Blasio administration has been slow to clean house. The Klein regime still controls large sectors of the education bureaucracy, including the infamous “gotcha” squad that is always on the alert for teacher misbehavior. True, the “gotcha” squad completely missed a high school teacher arrested for having sexual relations with several students at selective Brooklyn Technical High School, who is currently suspended with pay.Diane Ravitch, NYC Education Bureaucracy Gone Wild: The Suspension of a Hero Teacher
Diane picked up the same story from the NY Times' Jim Dwyer which we covered yesterday (Wipe out OSI and DOE Legal and Start Over - Let's Focus on Teachers Who Should not be Teaching).

This is the first instance I know of where the mainstream press focused on the abuses of OSI, SCI, or DOE Legal -- all a tandem, covered by so many bloggers, particularly Portelos -- I'll do a follow up with links to the work he's done.
An investigator with the Education Department’s Office of Special Investigations, Wei Liu, found that Ms. Fisher sent emails about the project during her workday at Public School 333, the Manhattan School for Children, and was thus guilty of “theft of services.”
Is there one employee of the DOE that has not sent emails during the workday since email was invented? They tried to pull the same crap at Portelos.
“By omitting essential context, the report wrongly suggested that Ms. Fisher was a rogue employee, acting alone and in her own self-interest.
This is crucial and something that becomes very clear when you attend 3020a hearings -- DOE Legal purposely removes context to try to get a guilty verdict - their measure of "success" in terms of justifying their jobs. They have zero interest in truth.
I heard a story from a teacher about an assistant principal who slapped a child in front of witnesses.  The AP was pulled from the school and disappeared from view for some time, only to resurface as an Assistant Principal in another school. That person is now a principal.

A teacher who did that would be taken out in cuffs.

How can we account for this double standard? We know Tweed protects principals unless they are caught with the knife in their hand with blood all over them - and even then.....

I have come to believe that the CSA (Principal's Union) does a lot of work behind the scenes to protect their people under all circumstances - like the PBA for cops. The UFT? Let then hang from the cross. (I'm reading a book on how Jesus the poor Jewish preacher became god so excuse the reference.)

Meanwhile Diane Ravitch has taken up the case of the teacher suspended for 30 days for assisting a student with a Kickstarter campaign.

“This is a story of an almost unfathomably mindless school bureaucracy at work: the crushing of an occupational therapist who had helped a young boy build a record of blazing success.
“The therapist, Deb Fisher, is now serving a suspension of 30 days without pay for official misconduct.
“Her crime?
“She raised money on Kickstarter for a program that she and the student, Aaron Philip, 13, created called This Ability Not Disability.

But the “gotcha” squad bagged a teacher who helped run a Kickstarter campaign for a student with cerebral palsy. This teacher was suspended without pay for 30 days for “theft of services,” having helped the campaign during school hours.
As Jim Dwyer, columnist for the New York Times reports:

“The school system has proved itself unable to dislodge failed or dangerous employees for years at a time.
“Ms. Fisher’s case seems to represent just the opposite: A person working to excel is being hammered by an investigative agency that began its hunt in search of cheating on tests and record-keeping irregularities. It found nothing of the sort. Instead, the investigation produced a misleading report, filled with holes, on the fund-raising effort.
“By omitting essential context, the report wrongly suggested that Ms. Fisher was a rogue employee, acting alone and in her own self-interest.
“In fact, the entire school, including the principal, was involved in the Kickstarter project, with regular email blasts counting down the fund-raising push. And the money was to be used not by Ms. Fisher, but by Aaron, who is writing a graphic book and making a short film about Tanda, a regular kid who is born with a pair of legs in a world where everybody else has a pair of wheels.
“Aaron has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair to navigate the world. Ms. Fisher has worked with him since kindergarten.”

Saturday, October 4, 2014

Wipe out OSI and DOE Legal and Start Over - Let's Focus on Teachers Who Should not be Teaching

[nyceducationnews] shocking and horrible: therapist at P.S. 333 in Manhattan was suspended b/c she helped a disabled student raise money.... An occupational therapist at P.S. 333 in Manhattan was suspended because she sent emails during work hours for an online campaign to raise money for a student with cerebral palsy.....Confirms deep problems about what many have said about the OSI – including Portelos – and total ignorance at DOE about to handle these issues and reform the OSI office..... Leonie Haimson
This is not only about OSI but the entire DOE legal team which every principal consults before taking action. Yes there are teachers who should be targets - see one Brooklyn Tech -- but the DOE legal and OSI crews are mainly about justifying their jobs so they spend their time trawling through facebook and twitter looking for targets.

I watched the DOE legal slugs at the Portelos hearings -- always 2 of them and sometimes 3. 

Portelos led a "sweep them clean" demo at the Tweed at the end of last school year to make this very point. We had about 20 people there. I would have gone to the UFT since they are as culpable as anyone as they owe more allegiance to their pals at the CSA than to the teachers they represent.


New York Times

Bureaucracy Turns a Hero Into a Rogue

Pedro Noguera Gets Schooled on Charters

Well, I guess better late than never: the man whose rep helped legitimize Moskowitz and give her a start, now says charters lack accountability... Michael Fiorillo
DUHHHH! - Is All I can say to Noguera who as the chair of the SUNY charter authorizing committee passed charters through the sieve while ignoring their pacman space chewing of public schools. Why should a charter school parent give a darn if public school kids don't get gym or science labs because the charter has grabbed their space? Noguera ignored all those pleas for years. Hopefully he is saying, "What have I done?"

Why Don’t We Have Real Data on Charter Schools?

Charters were supposed to be laboratories for innovation. Instead, they are stunningly opaque.
Noguera makes the same arguments we made in our film over 3 years ago. Double duhhhhhh! Instead of going after the very concept of charters, too many people are putting their energy into calling for transparency. I heard a lot of that at last Monday's hearing which is why I went right at the guts - the white affluent parents who don't give a shit whether public school kids lose their gym or science labs ---


The Nation - Alternet-

Norm in The Wave - Atlanta Cheating, Cops and Firemen, Robots and Jesus

I cover a lot of ground in my School Scope column, published in the Oct. 3 edition of The Wave (www.rockawave.com). I hope my lefty friends don't get all agitated at my saying some nice things about cops.

School Scope: Firemen, Police and Their Kids
By Norm Scott

I was going to continue my series of columns on the topic of “police and teachers” but got distracted the other day while spending my usual 7 hours a day sitting on my front porch reading, smoking my pipe and watching the world go by. I used to be a back porch guy but since the hurricane I have reverted to my Brooklyn East-NY front porch sitting roots. It is just so much more interesting. Since Sandy, two families of firemen with 5 very young children – age 3 and under - between them have moved onto my block within hailing distance of my porch. And I get to observe a lot of daddy care with the children. And what a wonderful sight it is to see how these guys relate to their children. In addition we have a police couple on the block with 2 young girls and there is dad, a big guy, riding bikes with the kids, taking them to the beach and seeming to be having an awfully good time. And then there is a retired police department guy with slightly older kids, walking his beloved dog with one of his kids tagging along, all having the time of their life.

I am not raising this to say that police and fire dads are any more loving than anyone else towards their kids, but rather due to public image these first responders have which does not often include this aspect of their lives when they are off-duty. Someone should follow these dads around with a camera and do a commercial to give the world a window into the tenderness and joy they exhibit towards their children. As for me, it just gives me one more excuse to sit on my porch and watch the wonderful world go by before the coming blahs of winter.

*****
Robotics: FIRST LEGO League moves into high gear

I've been working with NYCFIRST since practically the day I retired - actually from that first day in Sept. 2002. I had a great time last Saturday at NYU/Poly on Jay Street at our annual FLL kickoff. We have about 170 NYC teams registered so far for the Challenge which is called World Class, all about learning. Kids not only build a robot for the game field which represents different styles of learning - but also do and present an extensive research project on the subject. Teams spend the next 3 months prepping. Borough qualifiers take place in January. Finalists go to citywide event at Javits on the weekend of March 14. The winner of may be eligible to go to international event in St. Louis in late April.

****
Atlanta Test Cheating Scandals Go to Trial
Imagine, wanting to send teachers, supervisors, and even Superintendents to jail for changing answers on tests in Atlanta. As if they are special when we know what they did was taking place here and in probably many other places – certainly in Washington DC under Michelle Rhee. I was told a story by friend teaching in a high school in a poor neighborhood in Queens that had 100% of the kids score well on the algebra regents, bearing out even Midwood HS – a red flag for sure. But the principal was hailed as a miracle worker – until people began to blow the whistle. She had threatened teachers without tenure with firing and forced even tenured to cheat – the answers were actually posted on the board. But guess what happened? The whistle blowers came under investigation.
Investigator: “You cheated, you lied.”
Teacher: “But we were forced to.”
Investigator: Following orders is not an excuse. “Did you ever hear of the Nuhrenberg trials?” Some links on Atlanta cheating to check out: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/30/us/racketeering-trial-opens-in-altanta-schools-cheating-scandal.html?_r=0, http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/07/21/wrong-answer

***

Rockaway Theatre Company Update
Since the widely successful Godspell closed last weekend, I won’t be doing columns on the RTC for a few weeks as “Damn Yankees” moves into high gear for its mid-November opening. This past week I joined Tony Homesy and crew as they took down the set and started building the new set, which will be a work of art, as usual.

I will say that the show has stimulated an interest in the historical Jesus and I’m reading an interesting book called, “How Jesus Became God – The Exaltation of a Jewish Peacher from Galilee,” by Bart D. Ehrman, who claims Jesus was an apocalyptic preacher, proclaiming the end of the age was about to come, as did John the Baptist and the later Church changed that message since it didn’t happen – yet.

Norm will continue to blog at ednotesonline.com - until the apocalypse – and maybe beyond.

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Go Sandra Noyola: 147K, Where I taught for 27 years, in the (good) news

As many of you know, most stories about wonderbar principals are bullshit. But maybe not this time. Sandra Noyola does not come from the Principal School of BloomCrap. She is from the local community. PS 147 suffered 5 years of hell under a Principal Academy piece of shit whose husband(ex, now) worked for Bloomberg Corp. Now she supposedly has a job at Tweed running some operation. Interestingly she was replaced by another Leadership Acad grad, but this time by some miracle the principal was respected, and even loved by many people in the school. People told me you could look at the faces of the staff after the Monster had left and the nice PRAcad grad came in and they looked 10 years younger.

She had a baby and then got a job as a principal upstate. By the time she left, the energies of BloomKleinCott were beginning to wane and some of the people from the old pre-Bloomberg takeover crew in District 14 were gaining back some of their influence and they were beginning to win more battle over getting their people into principal jobs.

When I went to a community charter protest a few years ago and they told me to come meet the new principal of PS 147 we recognized each other from the good old days when district people used to gather on Fridays after school in various locations. "Didn't I once spill a drink on you," I asked Sandra?

From my contacts at the old school she gets good reports. And then a few weeks ago I heard this one from a parent with a 4 year old looking for a school for her child next year. "PS 147 is considered an up and coming option for parents." Holy Crap. I left there 17 years too soon.

East Williamsburg Principal Introduces Students to the World Beyond School


By Serena Dai on September 28, 2014 9:33pm 



 Sandra Noyola, principal of P.S. 147 in East Williamsburg, said she's proud of the school for its partnerships and project-based learning.
Sandra Noyola, principal of P.S. 147 in East Williamsburg, said she's proud of the school for its partnerships and project-based learning.
View Full Caption
DNAinfo/Serena Dai
EAST WILLIAMSBURG — For Principal Sandra Noyola, student performance goes beyond grades and book smarts.
Schools should also be supporting the emotional, social and intellectual growth of children, she said — a goal she's pursued through teaching methods and partnerships with outside organizations since taking the helm at P.S. 147 in 2011.

The pre-K through 5th grade elementary school located at 325 Bushwick Ave. now has a focus on environmental engineering, with the hope that the students will be prepared for a world grappling with the challenges of a climate crisis.

Noyola budgeted money for a $10,000 hydroponic lab, which is now in its second year of growing cherry tomatoes, herbs and cucumbers in the school, with the help of students and a partnership with NY Sun Works.

P.S. 147 works with Columbia University's Teacher's College on its teacher development, with the Bushwick rooftop farm ECO:Station NY. It also collaborates with a former New York Historical Society consultant who brings in objects to visualize curriculum and with some 15 to 20 other organizations throughout the year, she said.
Noyola hopes to add yet another program to the school by fall 2015 — the city's first Japanese and English dual-language classes, a program suggested by local parents.
Noyola, who has a dedicated grant writer on staff, says she constantly seeks out ways to help students see the world beyond the school's walls.
"It's that integration of resources that really makes the curriculum rich and hands-on for the kids," she said. "If they're not doing, they're not learning. They have to access the content, they have to touch it, feel it, be a part of it."
The principal credits the partnerships and a strong school team with increasing enrollment and diversifying the population at the school, which went from 227 students in 2011-2012 to 308 students this school year, a 37 percent increase.
Noyola worked as a teacher, a literacy coach and an assistant principal before coming to P.S. 147. She sat down with DNAinfo New York to talk about her philosophy, test scores and how the area's changing demographics impact the school.
Why did you decide to make P.S. 147 an environmental engineering-focused school?
I am very in tune with what’s happening in our world — global warming, climate change — and what’s happening to our planet as a result. Technology is not going anywhere. These are the jobs of the future. We want to arm our children with the skills that are necessary for them to be able to be marketable. Not everybody is going to be a lawyer, a doctor, police officer, a teacher. Those are all great jobs, and they are all significant, but we have a crisis here in this world. We need children that have this awareness [about climate change].
How do you balance holistic learning with the need to score well on tests?
My response to the test scores is: 'How can we bring more project-based, hands-on experiences that connect to the curriculum? How can we build that knowledge base so that when they are asked to perform on the test, they can take it?'
We do prepare the children for tests. But we are not a test-prep factory school. We're about the real hands-on, engaging project-based learning for kids. As the test draws near, we shift our programming to do explicit test-prep work.

What's the greatest challenge as you move forward at the school?
Childcare. That’s what we’re working on. Right now, we don’t have a full-scale, after-school program that runs until 6 [p.m.]. We're limited to funding to support that kind of program.
What parents have initiated is a partnership with Kids Orbit. Our parents have to pay [more than $3,000 a year]. It’s not funded by the school. That’s challenging for some parents.
Parents approached you about starting a Japanese and English dual-language class. How will it impact the school?
[It's bringing] new families. The parents are really invested.
Previously, our school was predominantly Hispanic and African-American. Now we have Asians. We're diversifying the school. The truth is that Bushwick is diverse. The school should reflect that.
It’s nice to know that parents who don’t even have their children here come and visit. It’s ignited a flame. We’re really ensuring our school embodies the East Williamsburg community.
You've increased the number of outside partnerships at the school since you've started. Why have you pursued that?
That was an area that we needed to improve in: How can we make the learning deeper and more hands-on and relevant, so that the content is not abstract?
We are continuing a partnership with Richard Bluttal, a consultant [formerly at] the New York Historical Society. He actually bought shackles through eBay and did a workshop with us as a staff [for a unit on slavery]. That created a genuine conversation among all of us, which is what we strive to do across the school community with workshops and content areas.
He plans with teachers. He goes into units of study. He’s helping teachers integrate objects and visual-thinking strategies into his lessons so that the learning is not just abstract and from a textbook, but looking at paintings [or objects] from the time.
In this progressive model, the children are integral. They are the center of the learning.

MOREistas in the House, UFT Not @ Success Academy Charter SUNY Authorization Hearing

We were there to battle the forces of Evil. The UFT, along with de Blasio, have abandoned the fight. MORE will join with communities, parents and teachers at co-located schools.

Here are videos of MOREistas making their points.

Alexandra Alves
Mindy Rosier
Michelle Baptiste
David Dobosz
Norm Scott - who should have pulled out his shirt out to cover that belly.

http://youtu.be/MjAbNW-sBvMhttp://youtu.be/MjAbNW-sBvM

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

The Demographic Shift of Eva Moskowitz - The Grim (and Almost All White) Faces of Success Academy Parents

A large group of MOREistas joined parents opposing Eva Moskowitz's politically and economically (not educationally) motivated Success Charter expansion into the most expensive real estate in the world, a clear shift from the stated purpose of serving poor kids of color - which from day 1 we never believed. Eva used these kids as cover for her real purposes.

Some speakers were benign towards these obviously wealthy and almost all white parents, saying they understood that they wanted what was best for their kids. I saw it differently. I'm betting that what they see as best for their kids is to not be in classrooms with poorer kids of color. Their smirking at some of the positive comments about how many good public schools there were set me off.

MORE's Mindy Rosier, a teacher at the Mickey Mantle school whose kids Eva wanted out in the street - one of the 3 schools where de Blasio actually stood his groung, posted:
What surprised me the most was the SA parents. It's like they stepped out of the Stepford Wives movie and they pretty much said the same thing. They did not care what was happening to any other parents and kids as long as they were happy. Much to our delight, public school parents later called them out on that.... Mindy Rosier
Here is a video of my speech (I'm working on the others).
https://vimeo.com/107632260



I took photos of the Success Academy parents and officials and their camera and sound guys - Why do they all look so grouchy?


Oh the horror

My kid is better than your kid

Grim and more Grim

My kids get gym, your don't - na na na na

A proud lawyer

Anyone named Courtney must be a charter school parent

One of the few I found likeable

Success officials - wishing they were in witness protection program

Do we really need to listen to this? Eva - you owe us a bonus
One of the regular Success cameramen

and the sound guy -
More from Mindy:
Last night's Success Academy's co-location hearing in District 2 & 3 had a huge showing. Found it interesting that even at a hearing you saw clear separation. Most pro charter on the right side of the room an most publi school education warriors and parents on the left. Success Academy had their own film team and we had our ever so faithful Norm Scott filming as well. The hearing took place in the conference room of District 2. Many people spoke from both sides. Members from CEC, MORE, advocates, parents, etc., all gave powerful, passionate speeches!!! Was so proud to be in the room with them. The were no officials from Success Academy there to speak however there were 7 "observers" present. There was one from the Success Academy team that spoke, she is the SA President of Parent Council and claimed that no one has been hiding anything and will answer all questions and after many demanded transparency from SA and a moratorium from SUNY. (Yeah, right!) I took many pics and posted most them to Twitter. (Check out my page for the live Tweeting and pics.)

What surprised me the most was the SA parents. It's like they stepped out of the Stepford Wives movie and they pretty much said the same thing. They did not care what was happening to any other parents and kids as long as they were happy. Much to our delight, public school parents later called them out on that. Most of those SA parents had children with special needs and two of them had ELL's. Hmmmmmmmmm. Those are the two areas that SA gets slammed for and those parents just so happened to be in attendance AND give testimony. Planned much!?!? I spoke to one of those parents after the hearing after she spoke to a few others. This woman claimed to be a labor lawyer. She told me she defends teachers all the time. Some of the things that came out of her mouth really surprised me. About Special Ed Teachers, she felt they are ALL too young and inexperienced and that's why they leave and the kids don't do well in pubic special ed programs. I called her out on that. I have 17yrs experience. Most of the teachers/paras in my school are seasoned. She stumbled. About teacher attrition, she dismissed that saying it doesn't matter. "SA teachers have very long days and work very hard." I replied, "yes they do and they burn out and leave. How is this good for children?" We calmly talked overall for about 10 minutes. She just didn't seem to get it. She only cared about her kid, (I understand parents always wants what's best for their kids,) however she clearly dismissed all of us because it does not fit into her vision of SA. So sad how much tunnel vision there is. I'm sorry, Success Academy CAN be compared to a cult with Moskowitz as their leader.

Appocalypse Soon - DC Watch Debate: Guns and Race

"When government officials distrust their people, they disarm the people to protect themselves from the dangers they fear from them...." - Gary Imhoff, DC Watch
You know I've been thinking along these lines. That with the .01% stealing resources with the ultimate possibility of unrest, the bringing home of the military and the flood of heavy weapons into police departments --- well, draw your own conclusions. There won't be jobs and the social net will be gone. Plus add the upcoming massive impact of climate change - will the powers use the excuse of unrest to decide to thin the herd?

The main problem the super wealthy face is that all these missions to Mars will not make that planet feasible as an escape valve from an uninhabitable earth for quite some time - but maybe their

descendents. They can always build temporary space stations in the sky. Why do you think all these billionaires are starting companies in a race for space while things fall apart down here?


Is this a further rightward drift of my thinking?  Or maybe I am moving further towards anarchism/libertarianism. Maybe I've had too much of a dose of certain leftists, with their tiny little bands of sectarians. Actually, there's almost a coming together of the left - always mistrustful of government and the right - more recently mistrustful of the government. A major difference is that the right sees the government as a liberal conspiracy and the left sees government as a wholly owned subsidiary of the corporations and wealthy.
 
I've subscribed to Gary Imhoff's DC Watch for years but haven't been paying much attention recently due to the influx of email. This caught my eye this morning. Here are both sides of the issue on arming the populace not against criminals, but against the criminals who control our society.

When Government Distrusts the People

Dear Washingtonians:
When government officials distrust their people, they disarm the people to protect themselves from the dangers they fear from them. My introduction to the last issue of themail caused some controversy for referring to the racial roots of the antigun movement in America, and how this distrust and fear of black Americans continues to motivate the antigun movement today, even in DC.
For a personal story of how the disarming of black Americans was used as a tool of racial repression, I’d recommend Robert F. Williams’ 1962 memoir, Negroes with Guns, that tells the story of his presidency of the Monroe North Carolina, chapter of the NAACP, and how he got a charter from the NRA for a rifle club to train people in self-defense against the KKK. (For those who don’t remember Williams, he later left the US to live in Cuba and China.) For more scholarly studies, try two 2014 books, one by Charles E. Cobb, Jr., a veteran of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible; the other by Nicholas Johnson, a professor at the Fordham University School of Law, Negroes and the Gun: The Black Tradition of Arms.
I’d say that the racial motivation of the antigun movement isn’t buried very deeply. Its rhetoric makes it open and evident. The Second Amendment, we are told, may be all right in rural Wild West places like Montana, but it can’t be abided in urban environments like the District of Columbia, Chicago, or New York, where there is more danger. What makes an urban environment dangerous? The same thing that makes urban music or urban fashion different from middle-American music and fashion. And we all know what that is.
Marc Battle, below, in an eloquent refutation of my thesis, argues that “the proliferation of guns will further exacerbate the already unacceptable level of police aggression in many communities,” and that forbidding guns to the people will therefore make the people safer from the police. But I don’t see how that refutes my point, rather than reinforcing it.
Gary Imhoff

themail@dcwatch.com
###############


Manage the Proliferation of Guns
Marc Battle

Your comparison [“Council Antics,” themail, September 24] of DC government officials' efforts to legislatively manage the proliferation of guns in DC to "the southern states’ strategy of massive resistance to Constitutionally mandated desegregation" is dead wrong on too many levels to thoroughly discuss here. Your analogy attempts to equate the "plight" of would-be gun owners in DC, including those who want an open carry policy, to African Americans who suffered under centuries of oppressive state-sponsored racism that was enforced by physical and psychological violence. All of this was done to perpetuate a morally repugnant and intellectually dishonest mythology of white supremacy. With this as your contextual premise, your argument is fatally flawed and cannot be taken seriously.
Just as the First Amendment is understood to be subject to reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions, so too is the Second Amendment. The Bill of Rights has never been interpreted as a recitation of limitless activities. Elected officials have a tough job balancing the rights of gun owners with the understandable concern of citizens who do not want to live in a Wild West society where people walk around armed to the teeth. And in a society where unarmed African Americans are far too often shot by police, one must consider the effect of how the proliferation of guns will further exacerbate the already unacceptable level of police aggression in many communities. Simply put -- there are legitimate reasons for elected officials to limit the presence and use of guns in a community. However, there was never any legitimate reason to subjugate African Americans to racism, discrimination, and violence.
There are many additional issues to debate regarding guns in society. But comparing the tactics of DC officials to those of racist segregationists adds nothing of value to this important discussion.
###############

Monday, September 29, 2014

EIA: Providence Teachers Union Prefers Convicted Felon to Charter School Director

My question to Mike Antonucci is: What exactly is the difference?

Providence Teachers Union Prefers Convicted Felon to Charter School Director
The executive board of the Providence Teachers Union “overwhelmingly” endorsed Vincent “Buddy” Cianci Jr. for mayor. “Mr. Cianci had a little bit more experience in terms of the city’s schools and had a better understanding of the fundamental needs of the schools as they exist in this point in time,” said PTU president Maribeth Calabro. Cianci also picked up the endorsements of the police and firefighters unions.

MORE Takes a Stand Against Eva Moskowitz at Hearings - Last Monday and Today in Manhattan

Thanks so much to all of you dear sisters and brothers who organized around getting folks out or going to the charter school hearing on Monday. These pics from DNAinfo are worth a thousand words and clearly show who's active and ready in the fight for Public Ed! So proud to wake up and see this today, so proud to stand in solidarity with all of you! 
A gaggle of 9 MOREistas attended the hearing last

Monday in Brooklyn as Eva intends to invade more gentrified areas in Districts 13, 14, and 15. The CEC presidents of all these districts, joined by District 23, are working together to address the charter problem. Noted Connecticut charter scoundrel Steve Perry, strangely, attended the hearing but left when MORE's Gloria Brandman did her "Eva the witch" impersonation.
MORE's Pat Dobosz with CEC14 Tesa Wilson behind her

Most of us spoke and the community people were very happy we were there to support them. Here's the full video with all of the speeches, followed by the announcement of today's hearing on 7th Ave in Manhattan.

See news story at http://dnain.fo/1xhTsyY



Charter Hearings Monday 9/29



MORE Caucus





https://www.facebook.com/events/777864822272715/

PLEASE join us tomorrow today.
333 7th ave, 7th floor Conference Room NYC
A public hearing is being held to solicit comments regarding a new charter school application. Success Academy proposes to open 14 new charter schools in various 
Community School Districts (CSDs) in New York City.

Success Academy Charter School NYC 1 & 2 have expressed interest in opening in CSDs 2 & 3. 

Speaker Registration: 5:30pm
Hearing starts at 6:00pm


Stand with public school parents,
students and teachers!

Once again we are here to Say NO to the displacement of public schools by charter schools.


WHAT CO-LOCATION MEANS: 

*Public schools with limited financial support, forced to compete against charter schools with
ample funds for the newest resources
*Overcrowding as schools deal with fewer rooms
*Competition between schools for access to the school's libraries, gyms, auditoriums, and cafeterias
*Parents pitted against parents in the same neighborhoods due to inequitable funding between charters and the district public schools.
*Increased importance of high-stakes tests to determine the future of students and teachers
*The excessing of quality teachers into the ATR pool of rotating teachers, as fewer rooms mean
fewer classroom teachers
+Separate and unequal Schooling for our students!

Sunday, September 28, 2014

NYCFIRST LEGO League Kickoff - Photos

I had a great time yesterday at NYU/Poly on Jay Street at our annual FLL kickoff. We have about 170 NYC teams registered so far for the Challenge which is called World Class, all about learning. Kids not only build a robot for the game field - below - represent different styles of learning - but also do and present an extensive research project on the subject.

Teams spend  the next 3 months prepping. Borough qualifiers take place in January. Finalists go to citywide event at Javits on the weekend of March 14. The winner of that may be eligible to go to international event in St. Louis in late April.

I've been working with NYCFIRST since practically the day I retired - actually from that first day in Sept. 2002.




The amazing Rich Wong - engineer and teacher extraordinaire