Ed Notes Online: Susan Ohanian Tweets at Randi re: Opting Out

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Susan Ohanian Tweets at Randi re: Opting Out

Today, in a conversation about opting out, I Tweeted:
AFT/NEA refuse to learn from their own members.
Randi Weingarten replied:
@susanoha @MSGunderson @drloisweiner @TeachSolidarity @teachertomo @lapham_katie @NUTonline
-our members opinions differ widely on this
So I Tweeted this:
When Tests Fail: Opt Out wp.me/p556RL-R via @TroyLaRaviere
KUDOS!
@CTULocal1 Response?
@rweingarten response?
@NationalPTA response?
So far: No response from any of them. You can read Roy LaRaviere's declaration in the posts below.

Cartoons:
A Talent for Reading Backwards... http://susanohanian.org/cartoon_fetch.php?id=999
NY Times Editorial Board http://susanohanian.org/cartoon_fetch.php?id=998
NO! http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_cartoons.php?id=1076
Incredibly Sexy Standards Developer Dies, Smothered by Dictionaries http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_news.php?id=833
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When Tests Fail: Opt Out
Troy LaRaviere
blog 2015-03-05 http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=786
A Chicago principal supports--and promotes--opting out of PARCC.
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Achieve Is Buying Teacher Lessons to Beef Up Their Common Core Vault
Susan Ohanian
blog
2015-03-03 http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=785
This item raises the question: Is there anybody left who won't sell out for the almighty dollar?
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Thousands of students in New Jersey opt out of controversial PAARC tests
Anthony Johnson
WABC
2015-03-02 http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=784
According to this report, Middlesex County had a 30% opt out rate. But the state ed commissioner reports a 'good day.'
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Educator's refusal to give PARCC called into question by district
Eric Gorski with Ohanian comment
Denver Post
2015-03-01 http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=783
Shabby article about Peggy Robertson's opt-out provokes HUGE outpouring of support.
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Bringing a Daughter Back From the Brink With Poems
Betsy MacWhinney
New York Times
2015-02-26 http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=782
It is impossible to read this lovely piece about finding the right words for one's child without reflecting on the insanity of the Common Core pronouncements about what reading matter is 'informative.'
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As Common Core Testing Is Ushered In, Parents and Students Opt Out
Elizabeth A. Harris with Ohanian Comment
New York Times
2015-03-02 http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=780
The article seems to indicate growing opposition to Common Core testing, and the NYT picks of comments reveals something else.
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‘Live with Kelly and Michael’ Top Teacher is quitting: I can’t ‘drill ‘em and kill ‘em’
Valerie Strauss
Wshington Post Answer Sheet
2015-02-23 http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=776
Teachers have to decide.
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Anti-Anecdotalism
Nicholas G. Carr
This Idea Must Die: ed. John Brockman
2015-02-25 http://susanohanian.org/data.php?id=581
The author speaks to the importance of anecdote.
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Calculus
Andrew Lih
2015-02-26 http://susanohanian.org/show_commentary.php?id=1206
A professor challenges the position of calculus as a hazing ritual.
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Change Comes from Children
Mike Martin
2015-01-20 http://susanohanian.org/show_commentary.php?id=1203
Remembering Martin Luther King, Jr., and the young people who kept marching.
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To the editor
Stephen Krashen
Chicago Tribune
2015-03-04 http://susanohanian.org/show_letter.php?id=1750
Krashen letter affirms that parents are doing the right thing in opting out and that no research supports this irresponsible testing.
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To the editor
Stephen Krashen
Los Angeles Times
2015-02-28 http://susanohanian.org/show_letter.php?id=1749
Krashen refutes claims that NCLB test score gains were due to better test-prep. He shows they never happened. And look at who's making the claims.
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To the editor
Nancy Papas
New York Times
2015-02-28 http://susanohanian.org/show_letter.php?id=1748
In response to dreadful New York Times editorial on the need for testing, this letter has a great summing up line: Students can't thrive at school if they must concentrate on surviving the outside world.
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To the editor
Evelyn Slockbower
New York Times
2015-02-28 http://susanohanian.org/show_letter.php?id=1747
Since the New York Times wouldn't even let me post an online comment about the dreadful editorial, I'm especially happy to see this letter.
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To the editor
Stephen Krashen, USC Professor Emeritus
Substance
2015-02-26 http://susanohanian.org/show_letter.php?id=1746
Krashen correctly labels online testing: A huge and ever-growing boondoggle that bleeds money from schools.
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Are These the 8 Worst PowerPoints the Government Has Ever Produced?
AJ Vicens
Mother Jones
2015-02-26 http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1931
New Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has ordered military commanders to ditch PowerPoint. Mother Jones shows why.
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iPads in School -- Not Even if Free
Thomas Ultican
blog
2015-03-01 http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1930
A physics/math teacher offers experienced argument against i-pad in class.
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The impact of one trip to the public library: Making books available may be the best incentive for reading.
Francisco Ramos and Stephen Krashen
The Reading Teacher
0000-00-00 http://susanohanian.org/show_research.php?id=568
While our current ed reformers argue about how many kids can dance to the tune of the Business Roundtable, Achieve, Inc., US Department of Education, and their allies, this short paper offers a simple idea for getting kids to read: Give them ready access to books of their choice.

2 comments:

Unknown said...: Weingrovel needs to stop with this crap about members disagreeing. We all know she's full of it. What she needs to say is "My corporate masters, the people I really work for, will limit my career advancement if I agree with opting out. Sorry friends but you oughtta know me by now." It would be so much more dignified than the self denigration of lying and the insult she inflicts on teachers. Plus I think she could squeeze it all into a tweet and just retweet it over and over.; Thursday, March 5, 2015 at 7:02:00 PM EST
Anonymous said...: I read your comments all the time. I couldn't agree more. I just don't know what can be done about it.; Friday, March 6, 2015 at 8:16:00 AM EST

"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

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Susan Ohanian Tweets at Randi re: Opting Out

2 comments: