Bad Week for KIPP Charter Chain as Press Increasingly Takes Aim

KIPP has been a darling of the ed deformers. And oh, so many family connections to Teach for America. This has not been a good week for KIPPers. We have come charts in our film showing the attrition rate at KIPP schools and how their so-called levels go up as the poorest performing students are weeded out. Some of the numbers are shocking. But more shocking is how they have been able to get away with it for so long. My theory? As time goes by charters will fail in higher numbers even with all the creaming going on.


Some comments from the NYCED listserve:

Leonie Haimson:You can leave comments at the WaPost; Caroline Grannan of PAA was the first person I know of to note high attrition levels at KIPP schools. Even if it’s true re Whitehurst’s comments below re the mathematica study, showing comparable attrition levels at matched public schools, this  ignores the fact that the low-achieving students at public schools go back into the pub. School system; while the struggling students at KIPP leave KIPP altogether; considerably enhancing their test scores.

Caroline Grannan: The supposedly "comparable" attrition is NOT comparable. Mathematica is giving out misleading information, a sin of omission.

Yes, there is high mobility at public schools serving low-income students, but the crucial difference is that public schools replace the students who leave, and KIPP schools don't. (It's not that they necessarily have a policy of not doing so, but the numbers show definitively that they simply don't.)

As the most at-risk, challenged students tend to be low-performing and high-mobility, the students who leave KIPP schools and are not replaced tend to be the lower-performing students. At public schools, students who leave are replaced with similarly high-mobility students.

A study of San Francisco Bay Area KIPP schools by SRI International showed that the schools lost 60% of their students, and that those students were consistently the lowest performers. Thus the KIPP schools wound up with only the highest-performing 40% of their students. (This study was apparently underway while I was doing my research and was released later -- it used data that I didn't have access to, giving the achievement levels of the students who left KIPP schools.)

The information about KIPP attrition also sheds a different light on the supposed "long waiting lists" that KIPP schools have -- as supposedly shown in "Waiting for Superman." If the lower-performing students are streaming out the door, as the data definitively proves, aren't there spots opening up all the time for the supposed eager hordes waiting to get into KIPP schools?

Again, Mathematica is giving out misleading information and needs to be refuted.

Study Finds High Dropout Rates for Black Males in KIPP Schools

Education Week

KIPP charter middle schools enroll a significantly higher proportion of African-American students than the local school districts they draw from, but 40 percent of the black males they enroll leave between grades 6 and 8, says a new nationwide study by researchers at Western Michigan University and Teachers College, Columbia University.

“The dropout rate for African-American males is really shocking,” said Gary J. Miron, a professor of evaluation, measurement, and research at Western Michigan University, in Kalamazoo, and the lead researcher for the study. “KIPP is doing a great job of educating students who persist, but not all who come.”

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/03/31/27kipp_ep.h30.html?tkn=TVVFjx6pS%2F3QXxwZpXXoJbMnmNSLeyGYhryE&cmp=clp-edweek

Study Says Charter Network Has Financial Advantages Over Public Schools

New York Times

Most charter schools receive less government money for each student, on average, than traditional public schools.

But the KIPP network, one of the fastest-growing and most academically successful charter groups, has received more taxpayer dollars per student than regular public schools, according to a new study, which also noted that KIPP receives substantial amounts of private philanthropic money.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/31/education/31kipp.html?ref=education

On Education http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/28/nyregion/28winerip.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

In Fight for Space, Educator Takes On Charter Chain

By MICHAEL WINERIP

Published: March 27, 2011

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Joel I. Klein, the former schools chancellor, are strong supporters of charter schools. Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Klein have repeatedly told principals at New York City’s traditional public schools that a new age of reform has dawned, that charter schools are the cutting edge and that if these principals want traditional public schools to survive, they must learn to compete in the educational marketplace.

Democracy Prep Streamrolls PS 197: Hats Off to Antoine Bogard for Leading the Resistance- Where was the UFT?

The more I think about the shameful performance of Leo Casey at the Left forum, defining public education in a way to include charter schools, the more it becomes clear what they are leaving school after school like PS 197 out there to hang on their own. Leo claims the union has a strategy. They must have studied the actions of France in WWII. 

Marjorie Stamberg reports:

A few of us went tonight to support Antoine Bogard, chapter leader at PS 197 in Harlem whose school has already been forced to co-locate with Democracy Prep, and now they want to grab even more space. The hearing was flooded with Democracy Prep people, all of whom were given yellow t-shirts, caps, pizza ordered in for them, their yuppie frat boy organizers handing out written scripts to the parents, lining up the students who have no idea how they are being used in the privatization wars!


Where were the UFT district and central office people tonight? They should have been out there to support PS 197 students and teachers.


Hats off to Antoine for standing up for public education in that environment! He made the powerful points as to the dramatic rise in class size from kindergarten on now that their school is being squeezed out by the charter.


--Marjorie

Previous Ed Notes reports on Democracy Prep and PS 197:
Stop Democracy Prep Charter Takeover of PS 197M ...
The Racial School Divide in Harlem: A Public Schoo...
Does internal union democracy help organizing ... 
What Ed Deformers Get Wrong About Going to College 
Treat Public Schools Like Ross Global Charter

Ross Launches Missile and Goes Ballistic

Jan 13, 2011

Wait till the Harlem charter schools not part of the favored Democracy Prep, Harlem Success or KIPP start to get squeezed out of the picture. We may have to push our new allies off the resistance boat with a stick.

 
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Voices of Parents, Teachers and Principals at Feb. 28 District 14 Meeting with Cathie Black

Coming soon: report of Mar. 30 meeting of Black with CEC 14

Must see video highlight:
A principal questions Santiago Taveras:

Do you believe that when the parents (opposing Eva's school) go to the PEP meeting at Brooklyn Tech everything is predetermined or are they going to listen to the parents?
Taveras answer is such obvious bullshit the principal follows up with: You are an educator, right? You sound like an educator. You actually believe when they have these massive meetings this mass of  people opposed to what they are doing, you actually believe the system  are putting these schools in without any care for what the community believes? You actually believe that? I know what you have to say, but you are an educator.
Taveras says he stands on his integrity as an educator and his work over 22 years.  Then he pulls a card by shifting the issue and goes on the attack claiming someone asked him earlier why they couldn't fire kids and says he is highly insulted because he has a special ed kid. What a piece of crap this guy is turning out to be.

The principal is incredulous and doesn't give up. He says he himself has been in the system for 33 years - points to parents and professionals on the CEC - they don't believe it either. (The video ends with me asking him: Don't charter schools fire kids all the time?)

CEC 14 pres. Tessa Wilson

Just a note: this principal is one of the tops in all ways and runs one of the very best middle schools in the city - a school he taught at. I know him for 30 years. If Tweed retaliates there will be a massive reaction.

To better understand the backdrop of my report yesterday about the stealth meeting hastily set up for Cathie Black with CEC 14 (Cathie Black's Stealth Visit Today to District 14 (Williamsburg) With a bit of Skulduggery Thrown In) I have put together a half hour video of extracts from the raucous Feb. 28 meeting in the District. I know it is long but there is some remarkable comments and challenges and lots of anger - a microcosm of a system expressing absolute disgust at the insanity emanating from Tweed. It seems that Eva Moskowitz's entry into the district, which already has a number of charter schools, inundating entire neighborhoods with posters, fliers, doorknob hangers, etc,  has been a trigger point.

You can scroll though it but I urge you to try to watch it all.

Here are some more highlights:

The CEC when it was formed was told it would be given an opportunity to have a dialogue with the chancellor...we are the foot soldiers who walk through our schools...the reason you see such anger is because no one hears those voices. ---- CEC 14 President Tessa Wilson (first minutes of video)

We are for educational options but we are very much for district schools - former school board president Juan Martinez (from 5 minute mark)

Questions from audience: your background demonstrates your total unfamiliarity with public schools-- how do you justify your ability to run the largest public school sysem?

Why are charter schools exempt from the disciplinary code public schools face?

The video of the principal starts at the 28 minute mark and runs 3 minutes.

For those who are not familiar with what CECs are, they are the remnant of the old school boards pre-Bloomberg years but basically toothless. Margianalizing parent voices is a major plank of the ed deformer strategy of privatization.

Use this link directly for better video and if it plays slowly on ed notes.
http://vimeo.com/21717003


Cathie Black and Santiago Taveras at 2/28 CEC District 14 Meeting Face Intense Questioning

Grassroots Education Movement on Vimeo.

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Cathie Black's Stealth Visit Today to District 14 (Williamsburg) With a bit of Skulduggery Thrown In

Like - where the hell is the 2PM meeting going to take place?

Reports surfaced yesterday afternoon of Cathie Black's attempt to reach out to the CEC 14 after her disastrous appearance at the Feb. 28th meeting (Cathie Black District 14 Town Hall: No Sex, but Pl...).

Black is supposed to do drop-ins at a bunch of schools, including we are told, the old Eastern District HS Campus on Grand Ave.

I put up only a brief video of the principal with the Teddy Bear telling Black he supports LIFO and that competent principals do have the ability to remove tenured teachers. (Brooklyn Principal Challenges Cathie Black).  (I am processing more video to go up later today.)

Diana Reyna, Feb. 28

Apparently Tweed reached out to local City Councilwoman Diana Reyna and CEC 14 President Tessa Wilson to set up a meeting today at 2PM at the Green School located at the IS 49 campus on Graham Ave. Calls supposedly went out to round up "safe" parents to attend. Meg Barbosa, one of Tweed's CEC managers (very telling title), made the connections.

When I heard that I did a double take since there is a mass meeting to organize teachers in another school in that building scheduled for 4:30 today. I figured I'd just go in early and kill two Black birds with one stone. But, alas twas not to be.

Changing the meeting location
Later in the afternoon a notice went out that the location of the meeting was being changed to Conselyea Prep School, 208 North 5th Street in the more toney West Williamsburg. "The meeting starts at 2PM sharp," was the message from Meg Barbosa, a tone that insulted some community people - we know, Black needs to get in and out and say as little as possible as soon as possible.

The reason was not given but we suspect it is considered a more secure location. Reports surfaced that the Tweedles were so disturbed at a heckler at the Feb. 28 meeting, one of them made a "suggestion" to some local to throw the heckler out.

I was going to be there but I have to wash my hair. However, some press I tipped off might just show up - unless they move the meeting again. Just think: shell game.

Video of the Feb. 28 meeting will be posted in this space later in the afternoon. But for now here are a few stills I culled from the video.

Social Note
Yesterday we completed a pretty much final edit of our film, pending a few more shots I need of charter school parents who have left those schools (we have current parents but they fear retaliation against their kids so we are not using that footage). After we finished, Lisa Donlan and went into the city to attend the going away party for Gotham Schools' Maura Walz who is moving to Atlanta to cover education for NPR as part of an 8 city consortium. There were a bunch of familiar faces there - no Tweedies (I told Maura she's not needed anymore by them) - including lots of press people. It is always nice to mingle socially with the press though you want to make sure not to drink so much you start giving away sources. Elizabeth Green offered free shots at the end of the evening but I wasn't buying that ploy - I figure she was trying to find out what Joel Klein whispered in my ear when he hugged me.

I had a long conversation with the always charming Anna Philips, who I've known since almost her first day on the beat after she had just graduated from Columbia almost 2 years ago. Boy, has she learned a lot. Name any ed issue and she's got a handle on it.

It is funny but last night was the first time I really to know Maura and she's leaving already. A Richmond native, she is all excited over Richmond Commonwealth being in the Final Four and will actually be in Richmond Saturday night to celebrate. She gave me an excuse to have a rooting interest.
As a young woman, she's already lived in so many different cities. What a wealth of experience. One thing all have noticed is how the depth and quality of her reporting expanded as she got to know the beat, one of the toughest for a reporter to cover. I'm looking forward to follow her career.

Gotham has not hired her replacement yet but is interviewing people. I was going to apply but only if they guarantee LIFO. Wait a minute. That means Anna stays and I go if there are layoffs even though she is over 40 years younger than me. You see, you can have your LIFO and youthful enthusiasm in one basket.

Read Maura's farewell:  Goodbye, dear readers. It’s been one heck of a ride.

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Debunking the Education Deform College Myth

I'm finding that the blogging environment is making me into a much worse writer than when I started out. When I have to do a piece for a print publication I take much more care. Today is the deadline for my column for this Friday's Wave (www.rockawave.com). So I figure I'll do a quickie - just copy and paste a blog item. But when I start reading I find that there's an awful lot of bad writing not fit for print publication - especially since this is a local paper and I will run into people in the gym who might read it and start throwing weights at me. So I start rewriting and one thing leads to another - 3 hours later - I have bits of 3 different posts in an entirely new article. And most verbs actually match the subject.

For publication in the April 1 (already?) edition of The Wave

Debunking the Education Deform College Myth

by Norm Scott

Can we push the idea on kids from the very earliest age that life is a failure if they don't graduate from college?

Shhhhh! Don't tell Sarah Palin that I was palling around with Bill Ayers, the focus of the right wing attacks on Obama for attending some education meetings in the 90's with Ayers, who was a key member of The Weathermen in the 60's. Ayers has become a well-known educator and gave the keynote speech at the NYCORE (NY Collective of Radical Educators) conference last week. Ayers' presentation was both political and pedagogical, focusing on what classrooms and relationships between children and teachers should look like, a far cry from the reality of teaching. But Ayers urged teachers to look for the cracks where they can humanize instruction. Many of the young teachers present say they attempt to practice progressive ed ideas in the cauldron of the testing environment that so dehumanizes schools.

I was involved in a discussion at one of the workshops with a group that included a special ed teacher, two student teachers who are actually doing some teaching, and one community college future teacher. One student teacher talked about her discomfort over being forced to sell kids on going to college as the only way to success considering so many poor kids don't have the means to pay for it or their aptitudes or the interest level seems low. But she didn't want to be accused of the crime of low expectations, where the penalty is death of your career. In the political correct world we live in, educators are afraid to utter the words, "He would be better off working with his hands."

Student loan debt is at $900 billion and it takes a lifetime to pay off that mortgage like loan. Should we be pushing college down people's throats without providing a reasonable path to pay for it? Remember those days when the city university system was free?

Most new jobs being created (73% is a number I've heard) are fairly low paying and will not require a college degree. Walmart and McDonald's are the largest employers in the nation, which means you can hang the name of your college over your cash register as you ask, "Do you want fries with that?" Is that narrow test prep education kids are getting aimed at preparing them to do fairly menial, non-thinking tasks more efficiently? You know longer need to know even basic arithmetic to work a cash register.

Why not open up more vocational opportunities without making it seem like blasphemy? Consider that many white-collar jobs can easily be outsourced while it takes 3 days to get a plumber to come from India.

Paul Krugman, in a March 8, 2011 NY Times piece titled Degrees and Dollars: The hollow promise of good jobs for highly educated workers pointed out that the idea that "modern technology eliminates only menial jobs, that well-educated workers are clear winners [is] actually decades out of date.... since 1990 the U.S. job market has been characterized not by a general rise in the demand for skill, but by 'hollowing out': both high-wage and low-wage employment have grown rapidly, but medium-wage jobs — the kinds of jobs we count on to support a strong middle class — have lagged behind. And the hole in the middle has been getting wider: many of the high-wage occupations that grew rapidly in the 1990s have seen much slower growth recently, even as growth in low-wage employment has accelerated."

The elimination of jobs in the middle goes hand in hand with the assault on public education and the growth of charter schools, which will cull the herd, leaving an underfinanced and under resourced public school system to train kids for the low end jobs.

Krugman makes this case. "Why is this happening? The belief that education is becoming ever more important rests on the plausible-sounding notion that advances in technology increase job opportunities for those who work with information — loosely speaking, that computers help those who work with their minds, while hurting those who work with their hands.... Most of the manual labor still being done in our economy seems to be of the kind that’s hard to automate...."

So are we heading towards Egypt where PhDs are driving cabs? Krugman seems to be pointing us in that direction: "there are things education can’t do. In particular, the notion that putting more kids through college can restore the middle-class society we used to have is wishful thinking. It’s no longer true that having a college degree guarantees that you’ll get a good job, and it’s becoming less true with each passing decade. "

He then offers a solution. "If we want a society of broadly shared prosperity, education isn’t the answer — we’ll have to go about building that society directly. We need to restore the bargaining power that labor has lost over the last 30 years, so that ordinary workers as well as superstars have the power to bargain for good wages. We need to guarantee the essentials, above all health care, to every citizen. What we can’t do is get where we need to go just by giving workers college degrees, which may be no more than tickets to jobs that don’t exist or don’t pay middle-class wages."

Of course it makes sense to have strong unions to counterbalance the overwhelming corporate control of the government. You know those same corporations that cry so hard about high corporate taxes while we see GE pay zero taxes.

A solution or pipe dream? Restore the bargaining power of labor? In this tea party climate we live in? My advice? When you get your PhD, better get your hack license along with it.

Norm blogs at: http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/
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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 right for news bits. Here are some crucial pieces for you to catch up on at Norms Notes:

• Got Dough? How Billionaires Rule Our Schools- Joan...
• Marc Epstein on Deform End Game
• In Fight for Space, Educator Takes On Charter Chai...
• When test scores soared in D.C., were the gains re...
• Another Teacher E4E Would Want Fired

Cavanagh and Coleman of GEM and NYCoRE, Mayorga of NYCORE and Chicago TU President Karen Lewis at Ford Foundation’s "Examining School Transformations and Closings from the Ground Up"

March 28, 2011

Julie Cavanagh(GEM/CAPE) , Karen Lewis (CTU), Sam Coleman (GEM/NYCORE)

New York

Julie Cavanagh and Sam Coleman of GEM and NYCoRE and Edwin Mayorga of NYCORE participated in the Ford Foundation’s day on Examining School Transformations and Closings from the Ground Up which is part of The Ford Foundation Secondary Education and Racial Justice Collaborative. There were representatives from cities across the country at the event including Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Newark, Boston and of course New York City. Most of the other participants were academics, organizers from community based foundations, and funders.

The theme of the day was sharing experiences of school closings and transformations across the cities and the organizing and fight-back that has grown up around them. As you’d expect, there were many similarities and common threads that ran through the stories from the various cities. During the morning Sam and Edwin presented on the New York story with a parent and youth leader from CEJ and UYC, respectively. In the afternoon, Sam, Edwin and Julie shared the GEM and NYCORE analysis and our on-the-ground experience organizing mostly teachers to fight privatization.

For Sam, Julie and Edwin one highlight of the day was hearing Juan Gonzalez speak about charter schools. Juan exposed how the lack of oversight on all levels of charter organizations will eventually lead to their self-destruction. The other highlight was the appearance of Karen Lewis, the Chicago Teachers Union's president, telling the story of Chicago and its fight against privatization. Karen shared some important innovations in the CTU structure since she’s taken over as president – one, they now have a community advisory board made up of parents and community members who advise the union; two, they established an organizing office to organize their members; and, three, a research division to do the in-depth analysis needed to fight for children and education workers. The union work in Chicago strongly contrasts with a common theme heard from every other participating city regarding the lack of quality union leadership in terms of fighting the destructive forces of the corporate reformers, specifically the devastating and misguided policy of school closings.

This day provided an opportunity for us to connect with potential allies across the country and to learn from many inspiring leaders including Juan, Karen, and Ramon, an 8th grader from Newark who laid down some wisdom about the way we are being used as pawns in "The Man’s" game.

Our thanks to Michelle Fine and Lauren Wells for putting together an inspiring and motivational day that, as one parent advocate said, '...may seem as if we are here preaching to the choir, but it is important to be reminded we are not just singing alone in the shower!'

The Green Dot/UFT 80% Solution - to the Destruction of Public Education - Leo Casey Defends Green Dot Charter at Left Forum

“Randi and I and Mike Mulgrew and I — we don’t agree on everything. … How do you find the 80% we all agree on?”- Green Dot's Steve Barr

Maybe you've been seeing stories in the last few days about UFT/AFT charter school partner Green Dot charter, now to be known as Future is Now Schools. The UFT/Green Dot - or the new name FINS? -or whatever-  is part of some deal to close down 2 Bronx schools and hand them over to Green Dot. There's so much meat in this story, my cholesterol is shooting up just writing about it.

Now you know I am way out there even from some of my colleagues in the movement because I consider the UFT leadership - and I mean the very top, not the rank and file Unity people - collaborators - not labor dupes or just bureaucrats looking to make a buck. I mean full scale ideological collaborators with so much of the ed deform program - and beyond. But they have Leo Casey out there trying to cover this up by giving the union a "leftish" face. Ho, ho, ho.

Before I do any parsing, here is a Gotham item with links to 2 stories:

Under pressure, Steve Barr is leaving Green Dot, the charter school chain he started. (GS, Times)

OK, so if you did your homework you see Randi buddy Barr is being barred from Green Dot and he and the UFT partnership have to change names. Something about financial irregularities. But, hey, Barr is in it for the kids.

Leo Casey on tape defending Green Dot contract

Now if you are up to date on the story, check out this video selection I put up from Leo Casey's panel at the Left Forum - sorry, I'm choking at the very thought of Leo and Left in the same sentence - I started throwing the rope over the lights to hang myself when Leo used the expression, "we on the left" shortly after red-baiting people who oppose UFT policy by comparing their ideology to Leon Trotsky and Rosa Luzemberg. But I have the entire video and will be putting it all up. There's just so much good stuff I don't know where to start.

Emily Giles, a chapter leader from the Bronx whom I've worked with in GEM, made a very strong statement about the UFT support for charter schools (she does agree charter school teachers should be organized) and also raised the UFT role in mayoral control. Leo responds, followed by a comment by  Stanley Aronowitz on mayoral control. Watch the 6 minute segment first before continuing below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uLMBIAl0r4




Had fun? There's lots more to come in future videos - wait till you see how Leo defines public education to fit UFT policy.

Gotham exclusive interview with Green Dot leaders

Now let me get to the Maura Walz (who is leaving to move to Atlanta - we'll miss you Maura) piece at Gotham with some delicious quotes from Barr and partner Gideon Stein, an anti-union guy "won" over by Weingarten and Mulgrew. “Randi and I and Mike Mulgrew and I — we don’t agree on everything. … How do you find the 80% we all agree on?”

What's there to win over when they agree on 80%? What's left to not disagree on? Now, read the following carefully:

[Stein] asked Barr how he could help Green Dot’s mission of re-making schools in partnership with labor. Now Stein is the president of Barr’s national organization, which changed its name today from Green Dot America to Future Is Now Schools. And he’s rejiggered his social calendar. “I’ve now had dinner and drinks with Randi 10 times in the last eight months,” he said, referring to Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers.


Future is Now, whose name is a play on President Barack Obama’s charge to “win the future,” aims to spread the principles that have governed Barr’s schools in California and New York around the country. Those principles include a simplified teachers contract that trades higher pay for tenure and sets only class size, the length of the school day and year, salary and benefits. Barr said that he also aims to transform the learning experience through technology.

Stein and Barr want to start by expanding in New York City, where they are working with the United Federation of Teachers and the Department of Education on a plan to take over two struggling Bronx schools starting next year. The plan would test a model that has not yet been tried here: removing the schools’ principals and half their teaching staffs.

You mean the model used at Locke HS in LA where Barr fired 70% of the staff and then got these results, which of course he is given a pass on, as I reported:

Union Role is Mediator, Not Advocate

Mar 09, 2011

The state test results released Tuesday for Locke High School weren't the sort of thing its new operator, Green Dot Public Schools, is accustomed to seeing: Not a single student scored as proficient in geometry, for example, ..

And again in Aug. 2009 based on work done by Leonie:

Diane Ravitch on charters in the LA Times
And another fine piece from last week along similar lines:
http://www.dailynews.com/opinions/ci_12985055?source=rss
And here's the June Graduation section from the Time's "journal"-type series about Green Dot's takeover of Locke HS in LAUSD. Clearly, throughout the series, the writer is spinning for Locke the whole time, but has enough honesty (or carelessness) in this section to let some tellingly truthful details of actual student behavior slip out:

http://www.latimes.com/la-ed-locke25-2009jun25-test,0,2545367.story

Lackluster test results for Mayor Villaraigosa's high-profile schools and Locke High
The two highest-profile school-reform efforts in Los Angeles — the mayor’s schools and the conversion of Locke High into six charter schools — achieved lackluster results in state test scores released this morning.

Oh, you mean that model. Maura continues:

Organizing parents to support his efforts is also central to the expansion, Barr said. For the two turnaround projects in the Bronx, Barr has promised to knock on every door in the communities where he is taking over schools in an effort to build parent support. He’ll lean on a veteran community organizer he and Stein have hired away from the SEIU for the effort, Mike Dolan.

But it’s far from clear that Barr’s attempt to replace the principal and half the staff of two schools won’t provoke an outcry similar to that sparked when the city has closed schools. Questions linger about the sustainability of Barr’s model, which has proven to be expensive in California. And already critics have grumbled that Barr, the city, and the union are proceeding with their negotiations without identifying the schools they are targeting to their staffs and parents.

(In our interview, Barr and Stein indicated that they had a high school in mind but wouldn’t name it.)

Hey, are you surprised that the UFT and Barr are working together to replace 50% of the teachers in these unnamed chools? How much do you want to bet the average teachers salaries are on the high end - closing schools decisions are based on the economics, not education -compare the schools chosen with similar performing schools not being closed - or turned around - or reconstituted - or regurgitated. That grumbler - critics have grumbled - is Ed Notes, by the way. Maura continues:

Working Together

The city’s teachers union, however, says it is committed to working with the organization. The two groups, along with the DOE, are already working to find common ground in an area where the city and the union have been stalled for months — a new evaluation system for the schools’ teachers.

Formal negotiations on the evaluations began just this week, but the Barr and UFT Secretary Michael Mendel said that there has been progress, although a new evaluation plan has not yet been vetted by lawyers to ensure it conforms to state education law.

“There is absolutely a willingness on our part and on Green Dot’s part to do this,” Mendel said.

Barr and Stein described a close friendship that has formed between Barr and UFT President Michael Mulgrew — and also between Stein, Mendel, and Leo Casey, the union’s resident big thinker and vice president.

“We met for breakfast and we ended up almost going to lunch,” Barr said of his first meeting with Mulgrew three months ago. He said that he found Mulgrew to be extremely thoughtful about the future of the teaching profession. The two spoke about how to reconfigure schools for a changing workforce, he said.

“I think a lot of this is just the lost art of trust,” Barr said. “Randi and I and Mike Mulgrew and I — we don’t agree on everything. … How do you find the 80% we all agree on?”

OK - close schools, get rid of teachers and use technology to get rid of more teachers.
Looks like a plan.

After Burn
Leonie had this comment about the technology component of Barr's plan (read - replace teachers with on-line learning).

In the NYT, he says he wants to take over schools in middle class neighborhoods as well as poor ones, and both pieces highlight how Barr intends to focus on “hybrid” learning, which means a combination of online learning mixed in w/ actual teachers --- the newest craze with little research backing to support it.

And San Francisco activist parent Caroline Grannan said:

Luckily not everything Barr touches turns to gold (or his preference, green). He has been viewed as invincible since the New Yorker devoted a lot of space to a puff piece on him, but his efforts to win a foothold in D.C. didn't get far:

http://www.examiner.com/education-in-san-francisco/breaking-news-from-afar-ed-reform-darlings-rhee-barr-turn-on-each-other

And finally, Michael Fiorillo comments:

I'm so happy that Michael Mulgrew has found a pal who can give him (im)moral support while he goes about the hard work of selling out his members by teaming up to privatize schools, gut the contract (the Green Dot/UFT contract has no tenure or seniority provisions) and destroy the professional lives of the teachers who will be displaced at these schools.


And it's also heartwarming that Mulgrew could earn the affection of real estate developer and charter school funder Gideon Stein. Think of the effort involved in getting him to jilt Eva! But it's a leader's job to go the extra mile and make the tough decisions, and what could possibly be more important than keeping the dues machine going while public education is dismantled? Yes, like his mentor Weingarten, Mulgrew is striving to earn those pats on the head from the education privateers.


When Bloomberg wrote an editorial in the NY Times in February, saying that unions were important in helping him manage the workforce, it was the Weingartens, Mulgrews and Caseys of the world he had in mind. With the union functioning as an arm of the DOE's HR department, it's enough to make the people who've defended it ashamed.

What Ed Deformers Get Wrong About Going to College

The Take Away this morning had a discussion about the classic STEM vs Liberal Arts education, a debate that was ignited to some extent by what appeared to be a contrary view of education between Bill Gates (study what will get you a job) and Steve Jobs (liberal arts prepares you for a wide range of options.) Steve Jobs, Bill Gates clash on merit of liberal arts education.

Now of course the ed deformers push the Gates view. Waiting for Superman made it all seem like a life and death matter to get into a charter school so the kids could see the sign that identifies the college their teachers went to. Life is over otherwise. And it's all about "competing in the 21st century", "America has to stay in the race", blah, blah, blah.

You know the drill - college is all about future employment, not the experience, intellectually and socially. As a history major, I had no prep for a job - Brooklyn College has a 2-track history major - one for future teachers and one for the other stuff you can do with a history degree - as one parent of a history major said, dejectedly - "what's he going to do, open a history store?" But I felt I had a great intellectual experience in college that gave me some skills useful in whatever I ended up doing.

Actually, I received a lot of intellectual stimulus at Thomas Jefferson High School in East NY, Brooklyn where I was in a college bound program of a couple of hundred kids and we were given a college level education that totally prepared us to be intellectually ready for college.

Is there any reason we couldn't do that for all kids if we had the resources? If students came out of high school like I did and chose not to go to college they would still have a full rounded education - remember, the ed deformers are pushing college but not offering to pay for it or support the families of poor kids - the dropout rates or 6 year grad rates make the high school grad rates of schools being closed look good - but you don't see them closing colleges for poor grad rates.

I am reminded of the excellent discussion I was involved in at the NYCORE conference on Saturday with a group that included a special ed teacher (about 10 years into the system), two student teachers who are actually doing real teaching, and one community college future teacher.

I wrote:

Another issue raised by one young lady was her discomfort with being forced to sell going to college as the only way to success considering so many poor kids don't have the means to pay for it or their aptitudes or interest level seems low. But she didn't want to be accused of the crime of low expectations, where the penalty is death of your career

We got into a great debate about vocational education that might or might not lead to college. We also talked about the fact that most new jobs being created are fairly low paying that do not require a college degree. Walmart and McDonald's are the largest employers in the nation. Which as someone commented means that you can hang your college up over your cash register when you ask, "Do you want fries with that?" Also consider that many of the white collar jobs can easily be outsourced  - I say be a plumber since that can't be outsourced - it takes 3 days to get a plumber from India.

I have to say that I have done many manual labor tasks around my house - plumbing, electrical, carpentry, even painting. Every single task has been intellectually challenging - real problem solving. I often hire a great guy who can do some amazing work. He is a college grad who prefers to work with his hands. One of the brightest people I've met - his thinking process and analytical powers are amazing and far beyond my capacity.

I hired another guy to build an extension to my house - with me as his assistant. An immigrant from Portugal with a 4th grade education he was one of the highest level thinking people I ever met. We had to do so much calculating and analyzing of problems - we were sort of working catch-as-catch-can- I found the time I spent with him so mind expanding. And he made so much money he was able to stop working as a fairly young man. But I will say, compared to the first guy I mentioned he did not have a wide range of knowledge and I think a guy like him would have starred in any endeavor.

Paul Krugman (and others) have been pointing some of this out as I reported in Ed Notes.

Krugman is finally delving into the ed deform bullshit. In a (March 8) NY Times piece Degrees and Dollars: The hollow promise of good jobs for highly educated workers, Krugman corroborates my "be a plumber" line and lays waste to the central tenet being pushed by Obama and translated into charter schools calling their kids "scholars" and having teachers post the name of the college they graduated from (don't look for CUNY colleges) on their classroom doors. Krugman writes (read it all)

that modern technology eliminates only menial jobs, that well-educated workers are clear winners, may dominate popular discussion, but it’s actually decades out of date.

The fact is that since 1990 or so the U.S. job market has been characterized not by a general rise in the demand for skill, but by “hollowing out”: both high-wage and low-wage employment have grown rapidly, but medium-wage jobs — the kinds of jobs we count on to support a strong middle class — have lagged behind. And the hole in the middle has been getting wider: many of the high-wage occupations that grew rapidly in the 1990s have seen much slower growth recently, even as growth in low-wage employment has accelerated.

Why is this happening? The belief that education is becoming ever more important rests on the plausible-sounding notion that advances in technology increase job opportunities for those who work with information — loosely speaking, that computers help those who work with their minds, while hurting those who work with their hands.... Most of the manual labor still being done in our economy seems to be of the kind that’s hard to automate.

...there are things education can’t do. In particular, the notion that putting more kids through college can restore the middle-class society we used to have is wishful thinking. It’s no longer true that having a college degree guarantees that you’ll get a good job, and it’s becoming less true with each passing decade. 

On the surface, the discussion on NPR was not about going to college or not but about what choice do you make when you get to college. Focus on the Bill Gates naturally narrow view - what will get me a job? or what Steve Jobs said - which also means getting a job but from a different angle. As a MAC (but not Jobs - also an anti-teacher deformer) fan I believe the products produced by Microsoft and Apple reflect some of their respective points of view and even if an ed deformer, if Jobs were throwing billions into the ed fray he might be very unhappy with test prep all the time.

So, here is the 8-minute  audio of the Take Away tape. About 2 minutes in the guest makes some great points - college experience intellectually - only chance in their lives to read and reflect on great literature, history, philosophy- the audio is worth listening to.




After Burn
Some worthwhile Must Reads from Gotham Schools:
This one adds to blowing the lid off Michelle Rhee - first illegal firings of teachers, then her personal history of lies about her teaching record and now an amazing in depth report on manipulation of tests through out and out cheating caused by the intense pressure Rhee put on to get "results."

• Analysis of Washington, D.C., test scores found high erasure rates at a top-scoring school. (USA Today)

Here is another blowout of the UFT's best buddy Steve Barr - I will post more on this later.

• Under pressure, Steve Barr is leaving Green Dot, the charter school chain he started. (GS, Times)

Stop Democracy Prep Charter Takeover of PS 197M in Harlem

I was at this school and saw with my own eyes something I had only heard about - the difference in the racial component of the teachers of the public school (mostly black and experienced) and the charter (white and young). So I guess "choice" means ending a lot more than just which school you go to.

Here are some very important I extracted from the letter below to highlight:

While our 5^th Grade parents and students had to find space for the students for 6^th Grade, the Department Of Education gave Democracy Prep the vacated space in our building to bring their own 6^th Grade classes there. DOE policies eliminate 6^th Grade in elementary schools to make space for charter schools.  [DOE STOPS PUBLIC SCHOOLS FROM GROWING ADN THEN CLAIMS PEOPLE WANT CHARTERS.]

During the 2009-2010 School year, we were informed that Democracy Prep Charter School would be in our building for only one year [YES, THEY LIE ALL THE TIME]. They started out with six rooms. By the end of the school year, we learned that Democracy Prep wanted four more rooms for the 2010-2011 School Year. 

Democracy Prep was allowed to get four additional rooms which totaled 11 so far; and then the DOE slashed our budget causing eight teachers to be excessed from our school. We believe this was done purposefully so that more rooms could be available for the charter takeover. 

Ms. Rose stated that Richard Boccioccio, space allocation inspector, reported that “there are rooms for Democracy Prep to expand” from 6^th- 8^th grades by getting four additional rooms in our building.

Greetings,

      You are invited to join us in Solidarity on Wednesday March 30th, 2011 at 5:30 pm at a DOE "Public Hearing" to voice your opposition to a charter takeover of PS 197M, and the privatization of public education. Bring signs, posters, banners, and cameras. The following letter went to all the parents and teachers and now to you all to give background information of what has been happening and where we are today. Please read it and come join us. This is another opportunity to organize a Citywide Movement For Public Education. An Injury to one is injury to us all! !!

 

Directions:

#2, 3 Trains to 135th Street, Manhattan, walk East to 5th Avenue to corner of 135th St and 5th Ave.

 

PS 197M PARENT ASSOCIATION & UFT CHAPTER

2230 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 10037

March 25, 2011

IMPORTANT – PLEASE READ CAREFULLY!

PARENTS, PLEASE COME TO SUPPORT YOUR CHILD’S SCHOOL, PS 197M!

DOE HEARING : WEDNESDAY MARCH 30, 2011 AT 5:30 P.M.

IN OUR SCHOOL AUDITORIUM

Dear Parents or Guardians,

        In December 2008 – February 2009, we learned that our school’s 6^th Grade classes were to be truncated; shortly afterwards, we also learned that Democracy Prep Charter School was coming to our building. Letters were sent to parents to inform them that preparations had been made for Grades 5^th & 6^th to graduate together that year in order to make space for Democracy Prep Charter School. Our 5^th Graders had to find placement for 6^th Grade for the following year. While our 5^th Grade parents and students had to find space for the students for 6^th Grade, the Department Of Education gave Democracy Prep the vacated space in our building to bring their own 6^th Grade classes there. DOE policies eliminate 6^th Grade in elementary schools to make space for charter schools.

During the 2009-2010 School year, we were informed that Democracy Prep Charter School would be in our building for only one year. They started out with six rooms. By the end of the school year, we learned that Democracy Prep wanted four more rooms for the 2010-2011 School Year. As we were already meeting with teachers and parents about various issues concerning Public Education, including Budget Cuts, the illegal expansion of Democracy Prep became our focus. Teachers and Parents contacted a lawyer who was willing to help us with this issue Pro bono.

On Friday June 4, 2010, PS 197M parents and teachers joined in a Citywide movement to rally against budget cuts, privatization of our Public Education and the Charter school invasion and takeover of Public School Buildings.

Meanwhile, over the summer, the UFT learned about the issue and decided to offer  legal services bringing litigation against the DOE on behalf of the parents of PS 197M. The litigation charged the DOE did not follow State Law in allowing Democracy Prep to extend their stay and expand in the PS 197M building. According to State Law, the DOE had to prepare an Educational Impact Statement (EIS) detailing the impact of the extension and expansion of Democracy Prep in the building and hold a Public Hearing giving the parents and school community an opportunity to voice their concerns.

Two things occurred; Democracy Prep was allowed to get four additional rooms which totaled 11 so far; and then the DOE slashed our budget causing eight teachers to be excessed from our school. We believe this was done purposefully so that more rooms could be available for the charter takeover. This caused an increase in class sizes in our school. By so doing, it seems the underhanded intent of this illegal process was meant to make it difficult for us to maintain high scores on the State Tests.  

On February 7, 2011, Elizabeth Rose, the Director of Portfolio Planning at the DOE, was invited by Mr. Wright, PS 197M Principal, to the School Leadership Team (SLT) meeting to address the issue of space allocation for Democracy Prep and to clarify the rumors that PS 197M was going to be closed. Ms. Rose stated that Richard Boccioccio, space allocation inspector, reported that “there are rooms for Democracy Prep to expand” from 6^th- 8^th grades by getting four additional rooms in our building. She assured the School Leadership Team (SLT) members that PS 197M was not going to be closed at all. Ms. Rose indicated that the DOE will make arrangements with the SLT to hold a Public Hearing on the proposed expansion and permanent extension of Democracy Prep in our building.

The vote on the proposed expansion and extension of Democracy Prep in our building is set for April 28, 2011 at the Panel for Educational Policy (PEP) meeting in Brooklyn. We need to get ready for both.

PS 197M has been an A+ School for the past 9 years. We have to organize for Parents and Teachers to demand to have our opinions and concerns addressed in our school. The Department of Education must fund Public Education for ALL Students equally.  Parents and Teachers, please come out in full force and voice your concerns and ideas at the Public Hearing to be held on Wednesday March 30^th 2011 at 5:30 pm in our School Auditorium.

Pal'n Around With Bill Ayers - updated

UPDATED: Sunday, March 27, 7AM

Shhhhh! Don't tell Sarah Pallin who I was pal'n with. Well, not exactly pal'n. Ayers gave the keynote speech at the NYCORE conference today and I taped it. But in Sarah's world that's all it take to be pal'n.

Ayer's presentation along with artist Ryan Alexander-Tanner, was both political and pedagogical, pointing to new ways we should view the classroom and approach teaching. But rather than get deeper into it, I'll wait for the video to be ready - Ayers said it was OK to put it up.

I didn't get home until 8:30 and I left here at 7:15AM. But don't think it was all workshops and speeches. We all hit the local bar for a post-conference celebration of an exciting day. I mean hundreds of activists, some from all over the nation, but many NYC school teachers, often very, very young. There is some hope since so many of our newer brethren gave up a Saturday for this conference, which had the theme, "Whose Schools? Our Schools!" I've got a bag of tee-shirts I bought with the slogan on them and can't wait 'till summer to wear them around. I made sure to get one extra large since I am aiming to be the poster boy picture in the New Oxford American Dictionary which added the slang phrase "muffin top."

I attended a workshop run by Teachers Unite focusing on the union where a key topic was organizing at the school level. I got a kick when one teacher talked about her chapter leader who I know is one of the worst Unity slugs: pals around with one of the awful principals and can always be counted on to remove any material critical of Unity from teacher mailboxes. TU has a chapter building toolkit for helping people out.

In another workshop we showed about 15 minutes of our upcoming "Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman." The buzz was out there as many people seemed to know about it. I was approached by some pretty high level institutions that were interested and we gave out forms for people who want to hold house parties - you can even invite me over too - if you have food that will get me to my muffin top goal.

The final workshop I went to (there were scads of them) was a standing room only on slaying the 5-headed hydra - the monster of ed deform. I worked in a break-out session with one current NYC teacher and 3 student teachers. As we talked it became so clear that the attempt to destroy neighborhood community schools, particularly at the high school level where these schools barely exist, but also at all levels by the use of charter schools which draw from a wide area outside the neighborhood, is a major cause of the instability and we all strongly endorsed a strengthening of the neighborhood school concept - I think we will see this theme emerge in the coming debated over continuing mayoral control. Another issue raised by one young lady was her discomfort with being forced to sell going to college as the only way to success considering so many poor kids don't have the means to pay for it or their aptitudes or interest level seems low. But she didn't want to be accused of the crime of low expectations, where the penalty is death of your career (I know one teacher who spent 15 months in the rubber room for making a comment to someone that was interpreted as low expectations and reported to the principal.)

Everyone at so many workshops seemed to want to talk about the union response, or lack of, to the ed deform attack. Lots of frustration a-building it seems. The Unity leadership always seemed capable under Randi to race around putting out fires. But now are there so many fires to put out. And Mulgrew just does not that seem that interested (or paranoid as Randi was) - figuring that with 90% of the vote in the last election he has plenty of ice left to skate on.

I heard a superb analysis of why the UFT won't mobilize even in the face of Wisconsin like attacks from one very savvy participant. It goes like this:

In order to fight back UFT/Unity would have to mobilize membership. If they mobilize the membership the level of activity will rise to the point Unity control will be threatened. I chipped in with: The Prime Directive: maintain control. Not only for personal reasons of power and money. They have an ideology that works to motivate their actions.

The discussion got into that ideology a bit with a few points of view being put out there but that's too deep to drill in this post.

A point was made that by building a rank and file that will be activated (which Unity doesn't want to see happen because it is a threat) the leadership can be pushed into more action from below.  "Victories" were pointed to - minor victories- but they give hope.

I took a counter point. I don't want to waste any time or energy trying to convince the UFT hierarchy to do anything. I just don't have enough faith in the UFT leadership to trust that they have good intentions. My view is that whatever actions they are forced to take because of ferment from below are aimed to distract and misrepresent and divert militancy. They want total control and you can't build a movement based on total control that can only be held onto by killing the very democratic structures that are crucial to mobilizing the members.

Basically, I prefer to see the internal critics within not call on the UFT do anything. Instead, just build, baby, build. Build a rank and file movement from the school level up. Unity will try to kill the fires but if you build enough of them they won't know where to turn. Every time you go to the leadership they will tie you up and delay you. Not to say that we don't raise resolutions at the DA as a way to bring issues in front of the delegates that have an independent mind - even those in Unity.

One of the problems I found over the years I've been working with ICE is too much of a sense of talking to the head and not the body - too much time going to Exec Bd meetings where there is no one to convince. Too much time addressing issues to the leadership. I don't believe in writing letters to Mulgrew to make him do something.

If a serious R&F movement develops (as it did so quickly in Chicago) an enormous struggle will ensue over the very life of the union. I've said this before, but Unity/UFT/AFT would rather see the union go into massive decline than give up power. I mean, I've seen people scratch their heads over Randi's actions - "Why would she not fight when faced with a loss of so many members to charters?"

The answer: They prefer to rule a remnant of the union rather than see even a strong union in the hands of others- others which will always include some leftists whom the UFT hierarchy so despise and red bait all the time.

My fear is the upcoming generation of activists will underestimate the UFT/AFT leadership, which will fight dirty in every way possible while they as social justice activists will be honest and open about what they do. I say, "Be careful out there. Be very careful!"
_____________


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 right for news bits.

Fight Back Friday a big success: Press Release, Press Conf, Please send pictures

Hi all,

Hope everyone had a successful day! A little bit goes a long way. This is how a city wide movement grows, and the fact that there were double the number of schools (30!!) participating yesterday than 2 months ago means a lot.

So thanks to everyone, and especially folks who made the fliers, did translating, made the survey and spread the word.

There was some press yesterday at my school (Cable channel 12 and some local papers) and ch 47 and the chinese language cable station was at the press conference along with gotham schools and some other smaller papers. If you got any coverage please share.

Please send any photos or video to me and to Michael at: mmvs1226@aol.com so we can publicize our actions and make the next one even bigger. And if you woudnt mind a sentence or two describing your actions, something we can post with photos, that would be great.

Also, if people are feeling it, feel free to continue to rock FBF at your school, and if folks are down, maybe lets think about another even bigger one in early June. . .?

Have a great weekend, and probably see some of you at the nycore conference in a few hours!
in solidarity

Sam

PS if you got any push back from your chapter leader or other union folks on your action, please let us know.

VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z29djIHBMCc

Press Release
Date:  Friday, March 25, 2011     


Contact:
Sam Coleman, Teacher PS 24, NYCORE/GEM:  646-354-9362
Lisa Donlan, Parent and President CEC1:  917-848-5873
Julie Cavanagh, Teacher PS 15, GEM/CAPE: 917-836-6465

Fight Back Friday:  After More Than a Week of Protests and Outrage, School-Communities Mobilize to Demand Our Governor and Mayor Put Our Children First

Today parents, students, teachers, and community members across the city took differentiated actions to demand our Mayor and our Governor put our children first.  Education stakeholders city-wide protested Mayor Bloomberg’s destructive education policies, including his threat of over 4,000 teacher lay-offs and his attacks on our experienced educators, as well as Governor Cuomo’s devastating proposed education cuts.  Individual schools picketed, signed petitions and letters, held teach-ins, engaged in teacher appreciation activities and disseminated flyers to spread awareness about budget cuts, proposed lay-offs, teacher protections, and what our Mayor and Governor should be fighting for if they were really interested in putting children first.  


"On Thursday, March 24th thousands of average New Yorkers expressed their outrage against Bloomberg, a failed public ed system, Cuomo, Wall Street  banksters, and the 'givebacks' and job losses being set in motion with the help of city and state legislators. One day later, during another Fight Back Friday, parents, teachers, students and community members around the city continued that struggle at their respective schools, more confident than ever, that in unity there is strength." Muba Yarofulani & Akinlabi Mackall Co-chairpersons,Coalition for Public Education / Coalicion por la Educacion Publica.


Tory Frye, parent at PS/IS 187 said, "Last year my son's elementary school lost the art teacher and the science teacher to budget cuts.  The music teacher has no music room or instruments; there is no dedicated room for art and class sizes are uncomfortably high.  We lost 7 faculty members altogether last year and now we are being told that we will lose another 5 teachers?  There is no one left at my son's school to cut!  I cannot begin to understand how we can allow budget cuts like the ones proposed by Governor Cuomo and supported by Mayor Bloomberg to occur, this is not putting our children first. There is a solution; we can maintain the tax on millionaires and billionaires, which would mitigate the impact of these budget cuts and simultaneously address the growing income disparity that sadly has come to characterize New York City."


Continued Sam Coleman, teacher, “My elementary school, PS 24, has lost over $1 million in the last year to budget cuts. Our school is made up of largely immigrant, working class and poor students of color. Due to budget cuts, students in our school have lost after school programs, arts programs, teachers and materials. It is morally and ethically unjustifiable for the mayor and governor to take these resources away from our families while granting millionaires and billionaires tax breaks. Poor and working class families of color and immigrants should not have their children's education short-changed in order to pay for a new yacht, or a new summer home for the wealthiest citizens of our city and state. Fight Back Friday's are a way for school communities to come together - parents, teacher and students - to say enough is enough. We are united in this fight, and we are not going to sit by quietly anymore.”


“We have witnessed the privileged few dominate the education conversation over the last year and we have seen our elected leaders capitulate to their interests over the needs of the more than 95% of us who are not millionaires and billionaires, most notably our children, more than 20% of whom are living in poverty.  This week we have learned that Governor Cuomo accepted tens of thousands of dollars from the Koch brothers, individuals who seek to dismantle our democracy and protections for the average American.  We have seen our Mayor spend millions of his own money to promote his own policy interest against the wishes of the overwhelming majority of New Yorkers who want the millionaire tax left in place and who support experienced educators.  We do not live in an oligarchy or a plutocracy where the privileged few get to make decisions for the rest of us, we live in a democracy where representatives are supposed to serve those who elected them.  We will fight for our children, for public education, for workers rights, and for the promise of a democracy and an elected leadership that truly represents the will of the people,” said Julie Cavanagh, teacher at PS 15 in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

Casey Fuetsch, public school parent at the Earth School added, "It's ironic and disturbing that, on this 100th Anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire,  we are still fighting to keep the most basic rights of mostly female workers intact.  One hundred years ago it was a safety issue; this year it is common respect and job security for teachers.”

Fight Back Fridays began last June when school communities united to fight proposed budget cuts and other disastrous educational policies.  Over the course of this school year, Fight Back Fridays have continued throughout the city.  

“John Dewey H.S. is continuing our Fight Back Friday actions to unify our school community in the face of a city-wide and national campaign to discredit teachers, destroy seniority rights, and sabotage our public schools. Labor rights are civil rights and these are rights that we must fight to protect for the sake of our students and the future of public education. Our goal is to make our school better and stronger by keeping teachers teaching and helping our students receive a dynamic and quality education,” said Michael Solo, Dewey teacher.

Rosemarie Frascella of NyCORE and teacher at Prospect Heights High School said, “Fight Back Fridays give educators the agency to design their own way of organizing around the issues that are directly affecting our students, classrooms, and communities.  We are organizing Fight Back Fridays to educate and organize our communities around the issues directly affecting our school communities.  From Wisconsin to New York City teachers are coming together to stand up for quality education for every student across the United States.  Our working conditions are our students' learning environments.”

Added Stefanie Siegel, teacher, Paul Robeson High School in Brooklyn, “The Coalition for Public Education (Brooklyn Chapter) has been meeting with students and staff on Tuesdays for the past two months.   Their consistency and resiliency keep us engaged and believing that justice will prevail after all.  The work has empowered, politicized and raised the consciousness of  students and we hope, if nothing else, the teach-in on Fight Back Friday spreads the word and broadens our impact.   The presence of the CPE at Robeson has made us feel as if we are part of a bigger picture, a larger cause as well as a global community.”

Participants in Fight Back Friday and parents, educators, and students across the city have expressed immense frustration with the Bloomberg administration for attacking teachers and seniority rights, using parents and teachers as political footballs with threats of massive layoffs rather than seeking to find a solution to Governor Cuomo’s misguided budget cuts.  Fight Back Friday participants and stakeholders across the city have demanded an end to wasteful city contracts such as CityTime and ARIS, for the state to continue the fair tax on Millionaires and Billionaires, for the DOE to cut middle and upper management at the DOE instead of further cutting school-based budgets and to prevent teacher layoffs, to stop wasting money on over-testing and for our local and state elected officials to do the hard work of putting our children first, by protecting and preserving public education.

“Our community believes in high quality education. However, over-testing has not proven to be effective. We need local community engagement and control that requires high standards for our schools,” Harvey Epstein Denise Soltren The Neighborhood School PTA Co Presidents.

Lisa Donlan, President of CEC1 concluded, “Parents and teachers have come together to send a message in their school communities and to the city at large that the budget cuts, the attacks on teachers, the misuse of high stakes testing and increase in class sizes MUST STOP if we are to deliver on the promise of tomorrow that is our children's education TODAY. Cheating these kids, schools and communities hurts all of us, now and in the future. We will fight back today and every day until our city gets what it deserves-  adequately funded and staffed, good, public schools in every neighborhood!”

More than twenty-five school-communities city-wide participated in Fight Back Friday including: 
The Academy for Environmental Leadership, Brooklyn
The Academy of Urban Planning, Brooklyn
Bushwick School for Social Justice, Brooklyn
James Baldwin High School, Manhattan
Humanities Prep High School, Manhattan
PS 307, Brooklyn
Pan American Internnational HS, Queens
PS 24, Brooklyn
PS 15, Brooklyn
PS 157, Brooklyn
The Earth School ( PS 364 Manhattan)
The Neighborhood School (PS 363 Manhattan)
Lehman HS, Bronx
PS 193, The Gil Hodges School, Brooklyn
John Dewey HS, Brooklyn
Lyons Community School, Brooklyn
PS 368, Manhattan
The Green School, Brooklyn
PS 347, Manhattan
PS 187, Manhattan
Alfred E. Smith high school, Bronx
PS 230 Brooklyn
International High School at Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
PS 254, Brooklyn
PS 134 Manhattan
Rafael Hernandez School of the Performing Arts IS 217, Bronx
Banana Kelly HS, Bronx
PS 3, Brooklyn
PS 3, Manhattan




Additional Contacts:
Tory Frye, Parent and SLT Member PS/IS 187:  646-418-6435
Stefanie Siegel, Teacher Paul Robeson High School: 347-721-2152
Michael Solo, Teacher Dewey High School: 917-750-7510