Ed Notes Online: Sunday, It's A Wrap

Monday, June 11, 2012

Sunday, It's A Wrap

UPDATED: Monday, 10 AM, reposted

Every week I promise myself I would do a wrap-up so I can review where I was the last week so it doesn't all slip away and point to upcoming events the following week. Every week that project slips away. Here is an attempt. Wait--- what was I going to do again?

But first, here are links to the Ed Notes posts from the past week. Note this June 1 report on Anna Phillips' going away party:

--Michael Winerip is leaving the Times. Or was pushed. Another blow and sign of their downfall. Many people have been predicting that given the quality of his writing on the side of real reform. How tempted am I to cancel my sub? --- Ed Notes, June 1.

Did I break that story, given that people seem surprised at Winerip's final ed column in the Times today slamming the Florida/Jeb Bush testing regime?

Monday, Monday, June 4. Hmmmm. Nothing in my calendar from last week.A visit to my dad's apartment to clean it out -- followed by a coughing fit and what seems like swollen glands.

Tuesday:
Lunch with former student who tells me she is 47. The last time I saw her she was 16 and in high school. She looks the same. I don't. Quite a 2 hour conversation about the past. Maybe this is part of the face of accountability – meeting a former student from your 6th grade class and having her tell you she saw her first play because you took the class and she has been a theater goer ever since, making sure her own kids get to share that experience. And my principal used to tell me I took too many trips and the scores would suffer.
      Then it was off to visit a former colleague, an 82 year old who fell in her apartment, broke her hip and lay there for 5 days before being found. She looked so good, but she always looked 20 years younger. I remember someone had found out how long she was teaching and all the young guys gathered around in wonder at her age. Hot, hot, hot, and still hot at 82 with a broken hip.
     And finally the FAIRTEST event which I wrote about here where I posted videos (and revealed that I gave Weingarten a hug-- I am a serial hugger.) What I didn't reveal was the nice comments from Diane Ravitch about the movie and her thanking me for my role in that.
   After the event I went out with Fred Smith who has done such great work with Change the Stakes and Rosalie Friend and another local SOS activist along with an SOS visitor from Denver named Kemble Stokes who took a batch of copies back with her. (I got a great email from her tonight.)

Did I miss the Venus transit of the sun? I'll catch it next time in 2117. I also missed the shuttle being towed practically past my house last week. I'll catch that next time too.

Wednesday June 6 - D-Day - the invasion of Norman 41 years ago. The day belonged to my wife. And what a day. We both got haircuts in prep for the big wedding today, followed by a visit to a car dealer getting ready to buy my new Honda CRV, then off to the bank to take care of dad business, followed by a trek to clean up his apartment which is so full of dust mites we can only stand it for an hour at most. Finally back home to rest before heading out to a great dinner in the meat packing district, followed by a short stroll on the high line.

Thursday: The big Pearson rally, followed by hanging out in Central Park with some of the parents and their kids, followed by a great MORE education discussion on accountability and focused on chapters 8 and 9 of the Ravitch book, followed by my handing out a leaflet in front of CUNY at the E4E meeting with State Ed Comm John King. That was so much fun I have to write about it separately.

Friday: Bikram hot yoga in AM (wipeout), smoking a stogie, followed by a meeting with a newbie to the ed wars now working for a non-profit who was sent by her director to get the historical background and guide to every single activist group in NYC. After 2 hours she was worn out. And so was I -- but we shared a great chocolate chip cookie to recover. And she was delightful to chat with --- intelligent, engaged and ready to roll. Welcome to the ed wars.

Saturday -- went to a wake for the mom of an activist teacher/blogger who I don't know well but have enormous respect for and was moved by the story of his mom.
Followed by the movie Hunger Games (which we loved -- and maybe our future). I have the 3 books waiting to be read -- if I ever get over my new obsession with Jo Nesbo deep dark Norwegian novels starring Harry Hole.

Sunday -- all day getting ready for the gala wedding of the daughter of our great friends. What a great wedding due to the incredible couple and their clear joy and love for each other which so infected everyone.

Best to Robyn and David.
I have a great pic of dad and bride walking down the aisle. If dad reads this, let me know if OK to add it here.

Home at 1AM -- oy! I had to drive someone to the airport at 6AM. Got up at 5AM. Monday will be a couch potato day.

=============
Afterburns -- some collected items that won't get into separate posts:

Reality Based Educator's comments about KIPP founder Dave Levin's work week and the mantra at KIPP inspired the above response.

I used to work in a KIPP school. None of the teachers had kids and there was a 50% turnover rate every year for staff. You simply can not have a life when you work in a KIPP school. The funny thing is that they brag about how you can't have a life other than the KIPP life. Their entire mantra is "Work Hard, be Nice". I actually felt like I was in a cult when I worked there.

-------

Hi Norm,

I just found out about your blog although I have had a copy of your group's doc since last year. Our group in W. Marin County, California just successfully defeated a charter proposal that would have turned my daughter's Waldorf Inspired program into a corporate charter. I have been blogging about it and am writing a guide for fighting charter schools. I decided to write one since I found nothing when I first started to study how to fight charters in March and didn't find any. Do you know of any other guides? Can you help me get in touch with other parents and teachers and communities that have and are fighting charter schools around the country?

My blog is at http://robertovetz2011.blogspot.com/

Keep up the great fight!

In solidarity,

robert

----
A question came in on Harlem Village Charter School after an NBC puff piece on founder Deborah Kenney. I wrote about it but best to read Leonie's response:

We have written about this school many times on the parent blog:

NYC Public School Parents: More blatant charter school propaganda - http://goo.gl/XLFsh

NYC Public School Parents: The Blind Side - http://goo.gl/QXE2p

NYC Public School Parents: Is Harlem Village Academy Really the Model for Urban Public School Reform? - http://goo.gl/gfxUu

A charter school with extraordinarily high teacher and student attrition rates and one of the best PR operations around.

Leonie Haimson

1 comment:

Anonymous said...: You are one busy beaver. Thank you for all you do to uncover the truth.

Schoolgal :); Monday, June 11, 2012 at 12:02:00 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

Monday, June 11, 2012

Sunday, It's A Wrap

1 comment: