Ed Notes Online: Add Your School to the Jan. 21 Fight Back Friday List: Goal is 50 NYC Schools Taking Part

Friday, January 14, 2011

Add Your School to the Jan. 21 Fight Back Friday List: Goal is 50 NYC Schools Taking Part

Hi all,

I am writing to let you know that on Friday, January 21st, GEM, in coalition with NYCORE, Coalition for Public Education, Teachers Unite and other groups is calling for a school based FIGHT BACK FRIDAY! (www.fightbackfridays.blogspot.com)

Sam Coleman

If you've been following Ed Notes and other blogs, you are aware of the daily assault on public education, blaming teachers and their unions for all the problems that exist, closing schools, moving kids and teachers around like chess pieces, and so on. Just take this item I put up on the sidebar last night:

Bloomberg Takes Aim on Senior Teachers

"Amongst the reforms, Recommendation #20 may cause the most outcry, as it would authorize the Department of Education to retain the most effective teachers -- as opposed to just the most senior teachers -- during downsizing."

Bloomberg Set to Shake Up Union Hiring and Firing Practices: http://bed-stuy.patch.com/articles/bloomberg-set-to-shake-up-union-hiring-and-firing-practices

I don't have to tell you that the UFT has been ineffective in fighting for the public schools - how many have been closed and are slated to close - a clear attack on and has even cooperated in areas like merit pay for performance, experimenting with the value-added measurements of teachers, supporting mayoral control, protecting teachers and public schools from charters (how can the UFT battle co-locations when they themselves have 2 charters co-locating?) and on and on.

Thus, the battle is in your hands. And I have been meeting a wonderful group of next gen activists - new leadership, along with some of the people I've met through blogging moving to the next step of activism. The Grassroots Education Movement is trying to fill the gap and has been joining in coalition with other groups around the city to begin to forge a fight back. A year ago we organized the rally at Bloomberg's home and it drew 400 people. A drop in the bucket you might say, but the bucket is filling, slowly, but filling.

An ad hoc committee to fight closing schools has been formed (meetings are open - next one this Tuesday, Jan. 18, 5pm at CUNY, 34th and 5th Ave, rm 5414-bring ID) and is organizing so many activities I get tired just thinking about it. The key events are: Jan. 21 Fight Back Friday and Jan. 27 rally at Tweed. And attending all the PEP meetings coming up on school closings while also sending reps to as many school closing and charter co-location rallies, hearings, etc.

That is why your help is needed to bolster the forces of The Resistance. There is so much to do and so few people to do it. I can attest that recently adding a batch of people has made an enormous difference (setting up blogs, creating leaflets, etc. takes man and woman power).

Now, you may be saying to Sam, one of the dynamic next generation activists we have been working with, "Why should I get my colleagues to engage in this action? Hasn't the union done this in the past? What did it get us?"

I don't have easy answers. But this is something growing from the grassroots, building school by school. Last June 4 Fightback Friday we had 25 schools. Now we're aiming for 50. Or more. It is no longer a matter of saving one school. The idea is to create a mass movement of resistance that consistently battles the ed deformers on every front. Imagine if one day hundreds of schools start joining in. Or come out to a rally. Jan. 27 will not be the last one. We must continue to build pressure. Classic bullies like Bloomberg historically buckle when the heat is on. Putting thousands in the street one day who are not there because the UFT paid and organized them would scare the hell out of the ed deformers. The only way is to build one block of a movement at a time.

As Sam says in his email:

The protest can be big or it can be as small as a few teachers/students/parents outside fliering. The slogan is: Wear Black, Take our Schools Back!

We need pictures, video, reports from your school. It would be great if you can send a school rep to the press conference on the steps of Tweed at 4:30 on the 21st. And get people out for the Jan. 27 rally at Tweed. If you are doing a Fight Back Friday at your school email CAPE: capeducation@gmail.com and CC me: normsco@gmail.com.

I'll let Sam take over.

JAN 21st!

What's a Fight Back Friday?

Individual schools all over the city will have some sort of action to protest the attacks on pubic education.

NOTE: You can NOT be written up by your administration for any action you carry out off school property. Please email me if you are concerned about this (sam_p_coleman@yahoo).

com

The protest can be big or it can be as small as a few teachers/students/parents outside fliering.

The slogan is Wear Black, Take our Schools Back!

So, naturally we are asking people to wear black. I am attaching some stickers(eng/spa) that can be printed out and given out on the day of. You can get black ribbons or arm bands to give out with the stickers. You can use the sticker for ideas for signs.
I am also attaching five fliers written on 5 big issues in education. We are in the process of translating them into Spanish so look out for that or contact me if you need the translations. These can be modified to fit your needs, they are in word.
Please contact: capeducation@gmail.com to let us know your school will participate!

The movement is growing! Get your school community involved and aware!

I am attaching a flier with more details but here is some of the pertinent info from it:

If you, your school, or your school community plan to participate in Fight Back Friday, let us know @ capeducation@gmail.com so that we can include you on our list of participants/endorsers and interactive map as well as provide you with a Fight Back Friday Toolkit! The Toolkit will include literature and educational material, media information, and sample materials to assist in your school organizing efforts.

Visit our Blog @ www.fightbackfridays.blogspot.com, visit and post to our Facebook page @ fightbackfridays, and post and send in your school’s perspectives, testimonials, videos and pictures of Fight Back Actions.

****Fight Back Friday will culminate with a press conference on the steps of Tweed @ 4:30. If your group or a member of your school community (especially if you are a school facing closing or co-location) would like to speak, contact us and we will do our best to accommodate you. Let’s stand up for public education together, and make our voices heard!****

thanks
sam

NOTE: The 5 leaflets Sam is talking about can be viewed and there are links for downloading at the GEM blog.

Fightback Friday Informational Fliers for January 21, 2011
Download at: http://www.scribd.com/full/46864057?access_key=key-ptivdl0qry389dstkxw

No comments:

"A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

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

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

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

History of the UFT Pre-Weingarten Years

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

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

This chapter looks interesting:

Class struggles: The UFT story, part 3

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

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

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

Effective Union Organizing

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

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

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

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

You Don't Have A Choice - Join the Revolt

Ex-Harlem Success Teacher Comments on Eva the Diva

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

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

Davis Guggenheim Compared to Riefenstahl

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

Timothy Tyson
Professor of African American Studies and History
Duke University

How Teaching Experience Makes a Difference

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

Full article with charts here.

Weingarten/Gates Foundation announce drone-driven teacher evaluation

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

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

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

More at Substance

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

On standardized testing in our schools

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

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

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

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

The US Is Facing a Weimar Moment

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

Chicago View of Unity/UFT on Charters

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

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

Jen Johnson, CTU, Local 1 in Substance

Ed Notes Greatest Hits: HSA Rally and Founding of GEM

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

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

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

Ed Notes Extended