Ed Notes Online: Tisch, Tisch, Meryl

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Tisch, Tisch, Meryl

We get letters from people running schools too.

Some of my sources tell me that almost every principal they meet despises Tweed and Joel Klein. And I get mail from more principals and higher placed people, even some at Tweed, than you would imagine.

This one is about the outrageous puff piece in the NY Times on Meryl Tisch, who now heads the NY State Board of Regents which must rule on waivers for "do no nuttin bout education" chancellors. Look for a follow-up piece where I'll parse the article. I've been too busy doubled up with laughter to comment now.

From a NYC school supervisor:

Norm,

I am fascinated by the detail of your research and reporting! I feel fortunate to have you "in the trenches" reporting on everything- as I find many of your opinions right on target. I am only sorry that I am not retired so I could enjoy my freedom of speech – and perhaps write more and share opinions.

I was deeply troubled by the NY Times' very flattering piece on Meryl Tisch.

Though she seems like a nice lady and I have only seen her speak once, she is in the Mayor's pocket- she once was quoted as saying "I absolutely will support Mayoral Control as long as MICHAEL is going to be in charge". Then article talks of how she has shared several Seder suppers with Joel Klein and how she and her husband go on dinner dates with JOEL and his wife".

That would be like me as an accountant sharing Christmas dinner with my auditor every year.

The entire article is full of her connections to the wealth of a very limited number of people mostly very folks from the upper east side.. Seymour Fliegel is mentioned praising her-didn't he get a contract from JOEL to run the CIE PSO??? There is too much here that does not pass the smell test.

They talk about old school board corruption (which obviously existed) but was "small potatoes" compared to this-

This is the outright hijacking of parents' rights and voice to have a filthy rich upper east side "long time friend of the mayor's" who regularly socializes with the UNLICENSED UNCERTIFIED fellow running our schools- she will be called on to testify about Mayoral Control and should perhaps be asked to step aside as her opinions are certainly BIASED!!!

Keep up the good work!

NYC Educator recently wrote about Tisch: Who's in Charge Here, Anyway?

I wrote about the ridiculous NY Post editorial her "brilliant" daughter Jessica sent supporting Bloomberg's 3rd term: "Average Citizen" Jessica Tisch Calls For Bloomberg 3rd Term.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...: The Meryl Tisch appointment and article was sickening. It also mentions that she once taught first grade in a NYC private school. Where does the union come off praising this person?; Tuesday, April 7, 2009 at 7:24:00 PM EDT
Evergreenspan said...: Ms. Tisch taught for how long? Now, she is a self-proclaimed expert in education.
We don't need longer days and longer years. Ms. Tisch, we need smaller class sizes and the return to the 600 school concept for disruptive children.
We learned from the conventional 9-3 hours and so can the children we serve now. However, all children can't learn under the conditions we have allowed to continue. We have far too many disciplinary problems in our schools. How about placing children in their proper class?
Disruptive children should not be in school for longer days. We need work-study programs for them so that they can begin to see the value of an education.; Sunday, May 31, 2009 at 10:48:00 PM EDT
Evergreenspan said...: Please note that we need retired teachers and supervisors running our schools. These veterans of the wars know what has to be done to achieve victory:
A. Smaller Class Sizes
B. Return to the 600 school concept for disruptive children.
C. Children placed in appropriate class for their needs.
D. More special education referrals.
E. Work-study programs for disruptive pupils so that they they learn the value of an education. Education is NOT something that is coming to you. It has to be earned.
F. Police are in charge when disciplinary matters arise. Assistant principals and principals will defer to police when arrests have to be made. Those administrators who interfere with police action in schools should immediately be terminated by order of the chancellor.
G. Since reading scores have significantly improved, there is no longer a need for a longer day or year.; Sunday, May 31, 2009 at 10:54:00 PM EDT
admin said...: nice perspective guys and keep it

PCH CSLC; Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 11:03:00 PM EDT

"A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

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

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

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

History of the UFT Pre-Weingarten Years

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

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

This chapter looks interesting:

Class struggles: The UFT story, part 3

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

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

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

Effective Union Organizing

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

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

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

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

You Don't Have A Choice - Join the Revolt

Ex-Harlem Success Teacher Comments on Eva the Diva

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

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

Davis Guggenheim Compared to Riefenstahl

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

Timothy Tyson
Professor of African American Studies and History
Duke University

How Teaching Experience Makes a Difference

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

Full article with charts here.

Weingarten/Gates Foundation announce drone-driven teacher evaluation

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

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

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

More at Substance

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

On standardized testing in our schools

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

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

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

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

The US Is Facing a Weimar Moment

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

Chicago View of Unity/UFT on Charters

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

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

Jen Johnson, CTU, Local 1 in Substance

Ed Notes Greatest Hits: HSA Rally and Founding of GEM

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

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

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

Ed Notes Extended

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Tisch, Tisch, Meryl

4 comments: