Ed Notes Online: Susan Ohanian Update

Monday, February 18, 2013

Susan Ohanian Update

Confiscated Plan Books Languish in Death Valley Repository

NOTE: The product below is gluten-free; contains no peanuts, pesticides, or growth-enhancing hormones. However, exposure to sensitive content may cause rapid heartbeat, dizziness, blurred vision, rash, seizure, or temper tantrum.

by Susan Ohanian

Death Valley--At 282 feet (86 m) below sea level in the Mohave Desert, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation maintains the Substation for Confiscated Lesson Plans. It is a secure site that bears all the marks of a prison: high stone walls topped with concertina wire, uniformed guards shouting into walkie-talkies, forsaken teachers pacing the compound's edge, waiting for a sign of hope.

Jennie Worthsome, 15-year-veteran kindergarten teacher, waited as Foundation officials reviewed the seizure of her lesson plans twenty-three months ago. Ms. Worthsome's planbook indicated time for fingerpainting.

http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_news.php?id=892

http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_cartoons.php?id=855

George posted this Eggplant--with funny illustration--and better headline:
http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=4002&section=Article

Forgive me, I've read it half a dozen times and still think it's funny. Hey, if you don't enjoy your own writing, then it's time to shut up.

Warning to Put on So-Called Education News
http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_cartoons.php?id=856

Compare Tarantino Body Count with Gates Foundation Body Count
http://susanohanian.org
/show_nclb_cartoons.php?id=854

Occupy Kindergarten
http://susanohanian.org/cartoon_fetch.php?id=723

I ordered this T-shirt. It comes in every color imaginable.

The Rich Really Are Different
http://susanohanian.org/cartoon_fetch.php?id=722

Even Radiologists Miss the Gorilla in the Room
http://susanohanian.org/cartoon_fetch.php?id=720

Our Tax Dollars at Work Creating Huge Teacher Memory Hole
http://susanohanian.org/cartoon_fetch.php?id=719

I'm late in discovering Doug Martin's remarkable work: The Truth Behind The Project School Closing: The Indiana Corporate School Complex. It was a bear to post with all the valuable hot links and having to rekey all the diacritical marks. Whine. Whine. Having done the work, I've posted it in two places--as Outrage of the Day and as Research Worth Reading. When you'll see why. Think about the work it took to dig up all this information, and here I sit griping about the work to post it.

Susan

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STEM as Vermont's urban myth?
William Mathis
Vermont Digger
2013-02-18
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=423

Yes, it says 'Vermont' in the headline but this is a piece EVERYONE needs to read. Read and send to media, school boards, etc.

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Former education commissioner blasts Common Core process — update
Valerie Strauss and Robert Scott
Washington Post Answer Sheet
2012-02-13
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=422

Former Texas Commissioner of Education Robert Scott spills the beans about being asked to sign on to the Common Core before the standards were written. He's on the stump in various states fighting the Common core. In Kansas, he teamed up with Sandra Stotsky.

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Strike for America: The CTU and the Democrats
Micah Uetricht

2013-02-17
http://susanohanian.org/show_commentary.php?id=1074

The Chicago Teachers Union can teach the rest of the country an important lesson. . . if they have the guts to learn from it. The article documents the corrupt neoliberal education policies of the democratic party.

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Professor Leaves a MOOC in Mid-Course in Dispute Over Teaching
Steve Kolowich
The Chronicle: Wired Campus
2013-02-18
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1520

LOTS of students drop out of MOOCs. Here's a story about a professor who dropped out mid-course.

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‘This American Life’ Looks at a High School Marooned in Violence
David Carr
NY Times Media Decoder blog
2012-02-15
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1519

Here's a strong piece about a strong program from This American Life. Don't miss either!

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The Truth Behind The Project School Closing: The Indiana Corporate School Complex
Doug Martin
Common Errant
2012-07-21
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1518

You'll find below a meticulous documentation of 'Follow the Money'. It documents a horrendous corporate takeover of community schools and community values.

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Popular Public School Loses Out to Charter School for Space in Harlem
Jeff Mays
DNA Info: NY Neighborhood News
2012-02-13
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1517

The New York DOE gives Harlem space to charter with deep pockets instead of progressive public school with proven track record.

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The State of the Union: an old fartish complaint
Doug Henwood
LBO News: Insta-punditry on Political Economy
2012-02-15
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1516

Henwood takes a look at the reading levels of presidential state of the union addresses.

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Why wealthy foreigners invest in U.S. charter schools
Valerie Strauss
Washington Post Answer Sheet
2012-02-15
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1515

It turns out that super-rich foreigners are forking over big money to American charters.

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Foundations Fund National Education Reform Program at UK
Press Release
University of Kentucky
2012-02-11
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1514

This is a love (of money) fest--everybody clapping everybody else on the back.

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Occupy Kindergarten
Susan Ohanian

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http://susanohanian.org/show_yahoo.php?id=802

Every teacher should occupy her/his own classroom.

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The Truth Behind The Project School Closing: The Indiana Corporate School Complex
Doug Martin
Common Errant
2012-02-08
http://susanohanian.org/show_research.php?id=512

Here is a meticulous documentation of 'Follow the Money.' It documents a horrendous corporate takeover of community schools and community values.

It shows what's likely coming to your community next.

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Confiscated Plan Books Languish in Death Valley Repository
Susan Ohanian
blog
2013-02-18
http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_news.php?id=892

I can't help myself.

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

Monday, February 18, 2013

Susan Ohanian Update

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