Teacher Protest Over Naming College Office for Walcott

It's hugely disappointing that administration has unilaterally decided to pay tribute to a man who has worked tirelessly to make our jobs less professional, who has vilified us at every turn, who has refused to offer us the compensation he saw fit to give other city employees, and who has supported every baseless corporate reform that has come down the pike while he occupied this office.....Arthur Goldstein, UFT Chapter Leader, Francis Lewis High School

Suck-up deal done without consultation. Two well-known bloggers involved in the school object. Frankly, after watching the 3 Bloomberg Chancellors in action, I would rather see something named for the Cathie Black who did the least harm.

NYC Educator has the scoop (Read some great comments there too.)

As does former FLHS teacher Pissed Off who suggests a better name for the office: Jeff Spielvogel College Office

I think I went to high school (and maybe grade school) with Jeff Spielvogel who had a very distinctive voice that comes back to me even 50 years later. Sadly, I believe he is no longer alive (but if you know differently let me know).

Tish James @ the PEP: We Want Our Schools Back

Not up to the impact of James' galvanizing speech at the Oct. 15 PEP where she laid bare the DOE policy of inequality. Here she does some posturing and I hated her use of the charter standard use of "scholars" -- is she coopting them? But she rises to the occasion at the end with her call of "We want our schools back."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYwb_mCehTY

>

Leonie Haimson Goes to School and Finds Tweedie Implementation of Common Core Is a Disaster Movie

So, amongst all the inherent faults of the Common Bore, we have the totally inept Walcott-led Tweedies showing once again that they would find getting out of a paper bag a significant challenge.

Heeeeere's Leonie:

I toured school yesterday where majority of students are ELLs, either in dual language or transitional bilingual:

- Most teachers said that they were lacking Common core texts, workbooks and/or teacher guides;

- Meanwhile there were many big boxes in library full of materials that were excess or the wrong stuff, but that DOE said could NOT be returned;

- NONE of the Common Core materials are written in Spanish, making it impossible to teach literacy according to the dual language or bilingual model.

Thus there were classes full of students, some of them just arrived to the country, and others with IEPs, who were struggling with materials that they had NO chance of being able to read.

Add to this that the grade level of some of these Pearson texts are already way above the grades assigned them, even for fluent English speakers (see Clara Hemphill on this), for example, Charlotte’s web in 2nd grade; and an informational text on spiders for 4th grade, full of VERY difficult vocabulary and densely packed prose that I had difficulty getting through.

This is a perfect example of how the Common Core’s standardization model and difficulty level seem totally misguided – especially for ELL students and kids with IEPs, who have also assigned these materials.

Leonie Haimson

Change the stakes parents responded:

Teachers at my son's dual language school were concerned about this problem last winter, and seemingly nothing was done to address it. HST policies and now Common Core rollout have been incredibly damaging to dual language programs (which,as we know, have very strong evidence of success on many indicators of learning.) 

-----
My son's school started using a a "common-core-aligned" math series this year.  I'm not sure whether or not there is a Spanish edition, but there is definitely not an English edition :-).

Pardon the sidetrack, but the definition of "core aligned" (based on my limited sample) seems to be "random quotes and references to sections of the common core standards sprinkled throughout the the text, with no discernible connection to the pages on which they appear."  If what I've seen is in any way representative, common core is nakedly nothing more than an excuse to sell the same old books in a new wrapper.

Walcott at District 14 CEC Town Hall - At Times I laughed Out Loud

There is actually some pretty funny stuff in this if you dig down into the weeds as Walcott talks stats to explain the fall in grad rates. But a must see is the part when a PTA president asks why they have to turn parents away when they register for pre-k because it must be done on computers and why the DOE can't provide a computer in school for parents to register their kids. Walcott and Jesse talk dizzy talk about all the tech stuff they have while ignoring an elemental issue -- let the parents fill out some paperwork and the school enter the data. He really is Slick Denny. Give me Joel Klein or Cathie Black.

At one point CSA Dist 14 head Brian De Vale hugged Walcott while pointing to me and saying, "If he can hug Klein I can hug you."

I know slogging through an hour of video can be a chore -- just FF through Walcott's grad crap etc. If I have time later I'll create a separate video just for the pre-k hilarity.

https://vimeo.com/68765728

Dear Mr. Condon: On May 18, 2013, Dennis M. Walcott crossed the line

Hi Norm,
My mother (a NYC resident) will be going to the post office this week to mail her letter (pasted below). Although she will include her name and address on the letter I redacted both in this email.
.......Elementary school teacher in the Bronx

It's great to see entire families involved in battling the ed deformers:

Mr. Richard J. Condon

Special Commissioner of Investigation

80 Maiden Lane - 20th floor

New York, NY 10038


Dear Mr. Condon:

On May 18, 2013, Dennis M. Walcott crossed the line. He used the authority of his office as the Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education to provide a venue on public property paid for with public funds to express his personal political opinion to a captive audience of school principals attending an education conference in Brooklyn. He used an educational forum to push a political agenda. Mr. Walcott’s opinion was no mere slip of the tongue and clearly violated the very rules he is obligated to obey. Rules, I might add, that were established by his office (Chancellor’s Regulation D-130).

I am not sure how your office works. Is my letter considered an official complaint or is there some form that requires my completion? Therefore, if my letter is sufficient to file a complaint, then please consider it as such. If not, please provide me with any further instructions needed to make my complaint official.

My concern in this matter is really quite simple. Chancellor Walcott abused his power and violated a Department of Education Regulation that states, “Any officer or employee who violates the provisions of this regulation is subject to disciplinary action.” In keeping with your authority to investigate such misconduct I must ask, what is your office doing about it?

Thank you for your efforts on behalf of our New York City School District. I expect to hear from you within a reasonable period of time.

Yours sincerely,

 Here is the D-130 reg copied from a previous post on ed notes by A.P. Salamander, my favorite amphibian:

Department of Education’s Chancellor’s Regulation D-130,
(http://docs.nycenet.edu/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-86/D-130__1-15-04.pdf) which clearly states, “ School buildings are not public forums for purposes of community or political expression.”
And: “ Any officer or employee who violates the provisions of this regulation is subject to disciplinary action.” 

“ No rallies, forums, programs, etc. on behalf of, or for the benefit of any elected official, particular candidate, candidates, slate of candidates, or political organization/ committee may be held in a school building.”
And: “The use of any Department of Education school after school/business hours by any person, group, organization, committee, etc, on behalf of any elected official, candidate, candidates, slates of candidates or political /committee is prohibited.” 

Read my original post from last week which also appeared as my column in The Wave: Whining Walcott in Blatant Misuse of Position

Video: Bushwick Community HS Teacher Khalilah Brann Defends Her School

[Corrected -- Michael Powell wrote both NY Times pieces].

This Is Arguably the Most Disgusting Failure of Metric-Driven Education ‘Reform’: The Triumph of the Assholes  --- Mike the Biologist on the closing of Bushwick Community HS (read entire blog here).

Judged a Failure by the Data, a School Succeeds Where It Counts -- Michael Powell (here)

Another Passionate Plea to Save Bushwick High from Ernie Logan

 
Bushwick Community High School's threatened closing is creating howls of outrage. The school serves the highest needs students. At the "Teacher Evaluation Nightmare" forum on April 17, 2012, BCHS teacher Khalilah Brann made a powerful statement regarding her school which is slated for closure at the PEP vote this Thursday. The edited videos are up on Vimeo. The event was sponsored by Grassroots Education Movement, Class Size Matters, Parents Across America. Here is her presentation (sorry, I left the last n off her name in the video). She is introduced by moderator Julie Cavanagh.
Video at http://vimeo.com/40758701 and below.


See videos of other speakers posted on the GEM Vimeo channel: Carol Burris, Leonie Haimson and Gary Rubinstein, along with the Q and A. I will post them here as the week goes by.

Michael Powell in today's NY Times (see below) has a poignant story about the school and offers some hope based on a statement by Shael Polakow-Surransky. Powell also did a story about the school a few weeks ago.

Actually, it would hard to imagine Walcott will still close the school after all the hubbub but Bloomberg is so out of control it just may happen. If it does that is another nail for us in the mayoral control debate.

A Brooklyn School Saved Lives, and Some Now Try to Return the Favor

By MICHAEL POWELL

I was 18 years old with a baby and three high school credits. I was a gangbanger. I was shot and left for dead.

My life was a pane of glass fractured into a thousand shards.

And this place saved me.

To sit in the audience at Bushwick Community High School in Brooklyn last Wednesday evening, to watch as young black and Latino women and men walked to a microphone and, with anger and tears and eloquence, pleaded with officials of New York City’s Department of Education to keep their school open, was to feel privileged.

It is rare in education and in life to hear love put so passionately into words.

“Where would I be without this school family? I would be in jail. I would be dead,” said Iran Rosario, a tall bear of a man who wandered in here as a lost 18-year-old and now returned 14 years later as a teacher. “Friends tell you what you want to hear; family tells you what you need to hear.

“They did that for me, and saved my life.”

New York City has many mysteries, some romantic, some frightening, some simply maddening. The uncertain fate of Bushwick Community High School falls into that last category. It is a last-chance place for last-chance kids. Its teachers and staff members search out 17- and 18-year-olds, many with fewer than 10 credits of the 44 needed for a Regents diploma, and wage an unremitting struggle to turn these children into graduates and adults.

Few who venture to this corner of Bushwick walk away unmoved. Members of the state Board of Regents sing its praises, as have visitors from across the city.

But that could all come to an end on Thursday night. The Education Department has recommended that the Panel for Education Policy, which is controlled by the mayor, vote to lay off the principal and half the staff. Give department officials credit: they don’t really try to argue their indictment on the merits, but on the metrics — that is, test scores and graduation rates.

A majority of the students fail to graduate within six years, which is one of the city’s inviolate metrics. Right-o. If a young man wanders into this high school at 18 with five credits to his name, the odds are strikingly good that he will not graduate within six years of his freshman year.

The Panel for Education Policy could vote to let the school remain untouched. That’s unlikely. Mayor Bloomberg’s education officials have recommended shutting down 140 schools, and this panel has voted in the mayor’s favor 140 times.

They make the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles look like independence-minded bleeding hearts.

We live in an era of educational mantras become dogma; we are convinced that everything within a school’s walls is measurable. An art teacher teaching pottery; an English teacher on the joys of Maya Angelou? All can be reduced profitably to a number.

Shael Polakow-Suransky, the department’s chief academic officer, came of professional age in several of the city’s more innovative public schools. But he is a firm convert to the scientism of metrics. As he noted not long ago: “If I’m a teacher, I’m going to look closely at what that exam is measuring and key my curriculum and my work to passing that exam. That is the reality of what high-stakes exams are designed to do.”

Perhaps.

But last year department officials administered the high school’s annual “quality review.” It is perhaps worth noting what officials saw with their own eyes, as opposed to what they can reduce to a row of numbers on paper. Bushwick Community High School is “effective,” teachers demonstrate genuine “expertise” and the “pedagogy is aligned to schoolwide goals.”

“A clear sense of the vision and mission of the school is pervasive throughout the building,” the city concluded.

MR. POLAKOW-SURANSKY came to this high school for the hearing last week. He sat, stoically, through nearly three hours of tearful speeches and boisterous cheers. At the end, in a voice soft, almost sad, he spoke.

“This is a school that looks at the whole child,” he said to a hushed auditorium. “This is a school that gives students second chances. It’s a place of redemption. It’s a family. It saves lives.”

“I want you to know I will take these stories back and share them with our chancellor, Dennis Walcott,” he continued. “Whatever gets decided as a result of this process, there’s something very powerful here.”

The sound was of a man caught between bureaucratic imperative and the evidence offered by his eyes and ears.

E-mail: powellm@nytimes.com

Occupy and Stay! Don't Walk Away as UFT Changes Plans (Again)

The skinny on what's happening today (info coming in all day). This is last call: 3:30 PM


The overall agenda inside the PEP:

-          Set up the People’s Mic (ignoring the DOE’s electronic ones and
speaker set up)

-          Introductions and explanation of the People’s Pep and process;

-          Roll call of affected schools and communities;

-          Vote of No Confidence;

-          Public Comments via the People’s Mic – school by school,
initially led by a few speakers from each - including elected and other
officials should they so choose;

-          People’s Pep roll call vote on each of the school closings and
charter co-locations;

-          Additional public comments

-          Adjourn


UFT Foments Pissing Contest by not going in
FROM LEO BARR around 2:45PM

Everyone,

Michael Mulgrew will do a press conference at 5:30pm outside of Brooklyn Tech on DeKalb Ave. WE ARE NOT GOING IN TO THE PEP AT BROOKLYN TECH! We will gather on the park side of DeKalb Ave. and begin to march at 6pm, led by Mulgrew, politicians and community people. Look for the UFT feather (vertical banner).

Leo Casey will go inside with 10 people from each borough to pass out a letter from Michael Mulgrew inviting people to come over to PS 20K.

DR’s, we need you to reach out to your people and let them know of the change in plans so that we have a large crowd marching with Michael Mulgrew. Thanks everyone!

LeRoy Barr

Director of Staff

In or out? The UFT plays a divisive game that benefits Bloomberg by walking out and not disrupting.

•  
•  Live steam http://goo.gl/wZJFb
•  Media Advisory: Occupy the Department of Education Will Occupy The Panel for Educational Policy to Stop the Vote on School Closures and Co-Locations
• DOE plans for tonight: vote behind stage in gym or hold meeting Feb. 13.
• UFT will not go in en masse but send 10 reps from each borough in to urge people to leave

• Our chapter leader is passing out UFT neck straps and big bright laminated badges that say "People's PEP" and the name of our school. He says the plan is to enter the auditorium after the rally & then walk out & assemble at the other location (with a small auditorium).

• Coalition of groups: We are not leaving but will use the people's mic to vote to keep all schools open. Each school will be able to send reps to speak their piece not to the PEP but the real public. 
• There will be no storming of the stage, no blocking of the aisles, no chaos. Just a well-organized demonstration of the People’s will and voice and, we hope, a mass movement toward demanding systemic change.
• Coalition does education campaign to public: what PEP is, how decisions are made in advance no matter how you pour your heart out, etc. (http://youtu.be/NYjRRNCMuBM and http://youtu.be/rbDdfAEnJ34).
• Ultimate goal it to build support to shut down mayoral control.
• Following to be distributed today to all schools urging them not leave the PEP. 

Tweed has a plan: hold vote in gym
Given the expected disruption and use of people's mic tonight to hold an alternate meeting within a meeting, the DOE has a few choices. One is to come down with a heavy hand and threaten people. How this would play out in front of the press and public may not be very good for the massive PR team at Tweed to manage. More likely to happen is this:

We have heard that the DOE has made contingency plans on how to hold the vote to close 23 schools at the PEP at Brooklyn Tech. One source says an alternate space is being set up behind the stage in the gym behind the auditorium. Another that they have reserved Brooklyn Tech for February 13 to redo the meeting if necessary. One would expect very heightened security no matter what but if they decide to redo look for them to restrict access in some manner to prevent a repeat. One of Tweed's strategies may be to let the disruption play out tonight and then use the attack dogs in the Murdoch controlled press to blame the UFT and justify heavy police presence on Feb. 13. All this is still speculation.

Walcott blames UFT for Occupy, further proof he doesn't have a clue

Gotham Schools reports:

But Walcott said he would not let tonight’s meeting be driven off course by protesters and accused the union of masterminding the Occupy protest in addition to its own.
“There are important proposals up for discussion tonight and my hope is that we will have a respectful process where people can be heard,” Walcott said in a statement. “But if all the UFT wants to do is bus in Occupy Wall Street to disrupt public meetings — which provides absolutely no benefit to students — then we will just have to work around that.  We are prepared to move forward even if there are disruptions.”

UFT was not sure what to do - stay or go--but decision to walk will lead to blowback.
Like Walcott, the press attack dogs will blame the UFT for whatever happens tonight. That is far from what has really been going on. Given all the activist groups the opportunity for the UFT to play Big Dog is not as operative as it has been in the past. In fact the UFT has resisted the push from ODOE to stay and hold a meeting within the meeting. They are still sending out mixed signals, telling different schools different things.

The UFT will not send people into the meeting other than 50 reps urging people to leave and head over to nearby PS 20 where the auditorium holds 600 people. The UFT's original plan for tonight was to pack the PEP with people from all the closing schools after a pre-PEP rally, disrupt the PEP for a time and then stage an elaborate walkout and march to the alternate space at PS 20 where political allies would be waiting for s series of speeches. Mulgrew will go in and try to lead the walkout by using a megaphone, which he will sneak in by hiding it in his pants. (OK, skip the last part.)

They tried mighty hard to get all the other groups on board so the Tech auditorium would be an empty shell when the PEP votes. They expected a chunk of the press to be at PS 20. But the push back from the organized groups and the schools themselves has caused the UFT some problems, though we can assume that the UFT muscle may prevail, as the email just sent out indicates.

There is an uprising in the making and many are staying.
Will the UFT get an empty auditorium, which would make the PEP very happy --- see Afterburn below on what happened last year when the UFT walked and Tweed heaved a sigh of relief.

Gotbaum sets up coalition
Over a month ago, Noah Gotbaum (son of famous labor leader Victor and step-son of former Public Advocate Betsy) is an active parent on the CEC in District 3 and a passionate defender of public schools called all parties together to formulate a united plan for tonight and beyond. I attended the first meeting with about 50 people, including 2 major players, the UFT and CEJ (Coalition for Educational Justice) -- an Annenberg Inst. backed parent/student organizing organization that has focused on targeted schools and has demonstrated an ability to bring people out --- they have been the only group to actually shut down a PEP (Aug. 16, 2010 --- the first day we shot footage for the ITBWFS at that event.) Noah has been tireless in racing from group to group to try to hammer out something everyone can agree on. Believe me, it has not always been easy and even at this late date there are still negotiations going on. I'm still not sure if CEJ is going in --- they are marching to Tech for a 5PM rally. UFT press conf is at 5:30.

The rise of ODOE as a force
About a month after OWS began, came ODOE, an amalgam of activists from many teaching groups (GEM, ICE, NYCORE, Teachers Unite, TJC) along with individuals from parent/community groups (CPE, ICOPE) came together informally as Occupy DOE which has in its brief life since October shown an amazing ability to organize and mobilize people for action --- the first time a group outside the UFT has developed the muscle to actually put a stop to a PEP. (ODOE meets every Sunday in an open and democratic forum

The UFT tried to sway this coalition --- towards the walk-out or not go in. But there was pushback, with ODOE taking a strong stand that "we won't leave but use the people's mic to allow the schools to make their statements, not to the PEP puppets by pleading, but to the public, which will vote to keep the schools open.

The UFT has been very reluctant to actually try to stop the PEP tonight --- or really at any time in the past for a number of reasons--- - see Sam Anderson below. They will get hammered in the press and probably in polls no matter what they do, though the latest shows that more people trust the UFT than Bloomberg --- yes, even me.

The UFT has been sending out mixed messages. We reported (Walcott Turns Tail at Town Hall in Bronx A..) .that the UFT has been concerned about the new game in town -- Occupy DOE, which insiders say concerns the UFT leadership because so many opposition to Unity people are involved, with a bunch being behind Saturday's State of the Union Conference.

Here is a missive about tonight's plans from Noah. There is amazing organizing going on, a lot of it by some amazing new gen teachers that would warm the cockles of your hearts.

Noah issues call to activists

Things are falling into place, thanks to the hard work of so many –
especially the folks at Occupy the DOE (ODOE), the New York Communities for
Change (NYCC), and the Coalition for Educational Justice (CEJ).  The plan
for a well-organized, law abiding, democratic and community-based People’s
PEP inside of Brooklyn Tech has taken hold.

Programs explaining the People’s Mic process and People’s Pep agenda - as
well as voting cards and seating arrangements by school - are being prepared
for distribution.  Please arrive by 5:30 – or earlier if you are helping out
- and look for these being handed out by ODOE and other members as you enter
the Brooklyn Tech Auditorium.

Support for our People’s Pep is increasing by the hour. There is unity in
the view that our efforts should not be a public venting of anger, but
rather a clear and sustained call for systemic change.  It is also a strong

sign that despite Wadleigh’s middle school having been given a last minute
executioner’s reprieve by Lord Chancellor Walcott, the Wadleigh community
will be attending the People’s Pep en masse to protest the Success Charter
invasion which is still slated for their school, and to demand real changes
from one-man rule and supports for our public schools.

In answer to legitimate concerns of some regarding the risk of intervention
by DOE security officers, we can securely say that we have done, and are
doing, everything possible to minimize that risk.  There will be no storming
of the stage, no blocking of the aisles, no chaos.  Just a well-organized
demonstration of the People’s will and voice and, we hope, a mass movement
toward demanding the systemic change noted above.  Such change should ensure
that our communities play a key decision-making role in the most important
decisions affecting OUR schools, OUR communities, OUR classrooms, and OUR
children including, at minimum, a change to the Mayoral Control law
requiring Parental/Community sign off on any contemplated school closings,
“truncations”, and charter co-locations.

As regards the UFT, we are grateful that they will be bringing many of us
and our fellow community members to the meeting from all corners of the
City.

As a reminder our overall plan/agenda is as follows:

Sam Anderson from Coalition for Public Education (who plays a strong role in our film) comments has a take on the UFT's refusal to participate in a people's mic at the PEP, choosing instead to try to rebrand it for their use --- in a school blocks away from the action:

Folks,

Unfortunately the Union leadership would rather find the mythical middle ground so as to maintain ties with Billionaire Bloomberg and his cohorts. Their move will draw a significant number of educators and parents out of Brooklyn Tech tonight. 

This reality means that we need a Plan B in place. May I suggest that we have a flyer that says some variation of  "The People's PEP Is POWER from the 99%!" "The People's PEP is the foundation for a People's Board of Education!" "Education Warriors don't walk away from a Fight They Can Win!"

In addition, there should be at least 10 ODOE folk at their meeting vocally raising the demand for a People's Board of Education instead of trying to find a way to negotiate the nonnegotiables... trying to find the middle ground when there is no middle ground.

I am confident that the vast majority of the parents and students will stay at Brooklyn Tech and will participate in a seriously historical moment of democracy-in-action. But, we should not let the UFT labor aristocracy seize the media moment and obscure what happens at Brooklyn Tech!

in Struggle,

Sam Anderson

Janine Sopp on Using the People's mic



http://youtu.be/rbDdfAEnJ34


Afterburn

In the past the UFT held disruptions and then walked out. They did that at the January meeting after a Leo Casey shout-out "you walked out on us on the evaluation issue, now we walk out on you."
Many of us were quite perturbed with their actions at the closing schools PEP in Feb. 2011 when they held a great rally before the meeting and then stopped the meeting dead in its tracks and could have actually prevented a public vote but took the entire crowd out to walk once around Brooklyn Tech before letting it dissipate (we used footage from that in our film). To see the energy in that room --- and the concern on the faces of the DOE and PEP puppets, followed by enormous relief after the UFT pulled almost everyone out --- like Tweed had managed to complete a tough bowel movement.

All it turned into was a demonstration of what the UFT could do --- maybe a threat for the future. Fine. But if you have a gun how many closed schools will it take to make you use it?

So this year, we have a new element --- the Occupy movement, in particular the ODOE that has been meeting every Sunday at 60 Wall St and attracting 50 people to each meeting. ODOE led a takeover at a Walcott event on common core standards, forcing him to scurry upstairs (PEP Meeting OCCUPIED! A NEW DAY DAWNS!)  followed by actions at the PEP in December

• PEP: Same Old, Not Same Old
• Occupy DOE Uses Mic Check to Open the Meeting

Video:  The PEP is trash- at Los Sures Feb. 7, 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYjRRNCMuBM




Leonie's blog:

For some other headlines on the blog, see below:

·         Lawsuit filed today vs. Cobble Hill Success Academy charter school

·         Joel Rose of the School of One returns...with a ruling that ignores the city's conflict of interest rules

·         High school students tell Mayor Bloomberg why he should not close their schools

·         A teacher's story: Why the DC Impact system Bloomberg wants NYC schools to adopt caused me to leave teaching

·         Regents agree to give NY student data to limited corporation run by Gates and operated by Murdoch's Wireless Gen
Lindsey Christ NY1 report:

It's usually the largest and most contentious education meeting of the year anyway, but when the Panel for Education Policy meets on Thursday to vote on closing dozens of schools, the protests may be the most combative yet. NY1's Education reporter Lindsey Christ filed the following report.
When it comes to protesting school closures, there is a new kid in town this year. For months, an Occupy Wall Street spin-off called "Occupy the DOE" has been organizing against the Department of Education policy of closing struggling schools. While there have been major protests against school closures in the past, the Occupiers say they hope to stop the closure votes from happening at all.
It's the third year that state law has required the Panel for Educational Policy to hold a public meeting and a public vote on plans to close schools. Each meeting has stretched into the early morning hours, with thousands of protestors attending.
But since the panel is controlled by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, when it comes time to vote, it has always approved the proposals.

Many of the protestors are teachers, organized and bused in by their union. Education advocates rally the parents and students, and this year they will be joined by the Occupy group. "The mayor continues to try to impose his failing agenda and shut down schools and we intend to shut down the panel," says Justin Wedes of Occupy the DOE.
Only 23 schools are on the chopping block Thursday, after the DOE took two off the list Wednesday afternoon. Another 33 schools are to be voted on later this spring.
The Occupy group plans to interrupt the meeting and then let each of the schools do its own presentation. They are asking for volunteer to sit near the aisles to, in their words, "protect" the protesters. They say they hope it will be peaceful but some are prepared to be arrested if it comes to that.
"We are ready to do what needs to be done," says Wedes.
In October, Occupy the DOE forced Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott to move a parent meeting, but this is the first time it is trying to stop an official vote from taking place.
Meanwhile, the teachers' union has reserved space for 600 people to gather at P.S. 20, a school down the street. Sources tell NY1 at some point, the union crowd may just march out of Tech to hold an alternative meeting at P.S. 20, celebrating the 23 schools.

Lisa Donlan on How the WalBloom Administration Fails the Accountability Test

Find the accountability

Lisa Donlan writes:

All that "data" and none on the networks?

....after a first failed experiment of imposing a uniform curriculum, the DoE decided it was not in the teaching and learning business. It decided it was in the business of managing others to handle the teaching and learning.

And I just love this comment.

A great piece of journalism (School Scope in The Wave: A Raucous Hearing at PS 215)  –  insightful, analytically and evocative of all the human emotions and interactions behind the policies and processes!   

----- Lisa Donlan, parent activist, Community Education Council 1 (lower east side)

Hey, I don't toss compliments away, so I appreciate Lisa's comment. (Ignore my lame attempt at humor by using the color "yellow" in the context of her use of the word "journalism.") I've gotten some other nice comments on that piece. (If you read it make sure to watch the video of Walcott getting hot under the collar.)

Aside from printing it for my ego, Lisa brilliantly expands on a minor point in my column about the total lack of accountability of the Networks established by Joel Klein and Dennis Walcott to replace the old geographically defined districts (which still exist in some form and when a stake is put through the heart of mayoral control (despite the UFT's continued support of MC). A school like PS 215 which went from an A to an F with the same staff and administration is being closed while the people running the network which was supposed to monitor and provide support walk away without being held accountable for any of it. Is it possible the branding of so many schools as failures is a failure of a decade of poor management systems?

When, oh when, will the press start paying attention to the role these networks, often loaded with know-nothings and do-nothings, play. Talk about a patronage machine.

I wanted to pick up on something you wrote that I think deserves to be examined and highlighted more often, more consistently and more loudly.


Lots of people ask why nothing was done over the years if there were signs the school was failing. The numerous reorganizations over the years from district to region to network has allowed Tweed to blur the lines of responsibility allowing Lloyd-Bey to shrug.


Not just the Dist Sups get off the hook, as the accountability kick-the-dog routine rolls down the hill from City Hall to Tweed to the individual schools and homes of the students.


We all can recall that the single largest trade off for centralization of power over the schools in the hands of the mayor was to at long last have single point "Accountability".


We all know that "Accountability" has been reduced to: "Boo me in parades", and blaming the victims.


Yet there is one layer of actors that has managed to both actually be accountable and simultaneously invisible, and that is the hidden and nameless/faceless bureaucracy that "supports" the principals and schools, as you point out in your post.


From the old district sups and their staffs, publicly shamed as ineffectual racists, booted out with the schools boards; to the Regions (mostly recycled district employees); to the SSO's and now the CFN's (networks on steroids), there has been no "accountability" and no mention of the great missing link.


By missing link I mean the heart and soul, the nuts and bolts of education, the craft, science and art of teaching and learning- instruction and curriculum.


While Klein and Walcott (let's face it, they were always a team and I suspect still are) reorganized the bureaucracy, hiding it deeper and deeper into the maze of virtual networks, they were also busy ratcheting up the standards.


First it was their own high stakes exams, combined with a few state exams. Then the state took on the task of creating all the exams, and NYC DoE filled in with interim exams.


Next the machine became enamored with value-added algorithms and formulas, as supposed measures of "progress", a never ending series of bell curves of relative competences that stood in for students achievement, teacher quality, principal effectiveness, school progress and many other valuations.


Standards came to mean tests, and tests in turn became the curriculum.


Schools were forced to undertake varying degrees of test prep in limited subject areas to meet the focused goals of the very high stakes tests.


That shell game seemed to be working, until advocates and critics demonstrated just how much the books had been cooked, and how reductionist and absurd the whole game had become.


In response, the educrats have now devised national standards, the "core common standards," a more sophisticated group of expectations that cover greater areas of study, which in the end means more tests, in more subjects, eventually to be administered on-line.


Has anyone else noticed the basic disconnect in this story? The lost thread?


The state/city/feds keep coming up with more and better "standards", which they translate into blunt, inexpensive instruments that are relatively easy to measure, store and analyze.


Yet many schools and students are, over and over, unable to meet those standards.


So the response of the educrats is: to make new standards. Higher standards. More complex standards. Standards in every subject area.


But where is the curriculum that translate the standards into teaching and learning? Everyone is given an x on the map to get to - but no one is getting any directions of how to get there.


Because that map is supposed to be supplied by the Networks!
When schools first selected their School support Organizations they were supposed to select them based on affinities of pedagogy and curriculum, right?


In all the DoE depts is there anyone accountable for curriculum? for teaching and learning?


We don't even talk about the curriculum. Never mind the necessary supports and interventions the networks provided (or failed to provide) to bolster and reinforce the curriculum and its implementation in the classroom.


NYC DoE has a massive legal force, a gigantic accountability office, we have space planners, and folks in charge of Talent, and Portfolios of Learning (creating new small schools/charter schools) but NO ONE is in charge of instruction, pedagogy, teaching and learning!


That is because after a first failed experiment of imposing a uniform curriculum, the DoE decided it was not in the teaching and learning business. It decided it was in the business of managing others to handle the teaching and learning.


Teaching and Learning have since been handed off to the Regions - Boroughs- SSOs and CFNs.


So, if the curriculum and all supports, such as teacher and principal training and development, as supplied by the various Networks, has not been sufficient to get students across the bar, why just keep raising or changing the bar?


Why not look at the supports in place?
Why not evaluate the curriculum, and not just the teachers implementing it?


And why not hold these networks accountable?


We hear about the effects of budget cuts on schools but we never hear how the Networks did or did not distribute those budgets among their schools, how much money was spent on the network itself, what the network is tasked to do and whether or not it did so effectively.


Have we ever looked at their collective school progress report grades? their collective School Quality Reviews?


All that "data" and none on the networks?


Why are all of the school closing hearings about the failure of the school to meet the imposed goals and standards, but there is nary a word about the failure of the Networks to get them there?


Has anyone looked at the rate of failure of schools and the correlation with the various networks?


Could the networks themselves play a part in the school closing game, perhaps robbing Peter to pay Paul, picking the winners to give more resources to, and winnowing off the losers in their own networks?


Who knows, since we can't see them or trace them or learn of their "accountability".


Lisa

Before leaving for the morning, I want to include this Q and A from ICE-mail.

State of the Union(I have lots of video and commentary on a spectacular Saturday in February that drew between 200 and 250 people to a conference on the UFT - are we all crazy or what?)

James Eterno and Jeff Kaufman in their "Know Your Rights" workshop on Saturday reminded me once again how much we need people like them giving even experienced teachers and chapter leaders sage advice. They are always there for people who need advice.

This came in over ICE mail

Subject : [ice-strategy] Question re arbitration hearing on class size
Hi, I received a fax last week stating that I had to appear for a UFT class size arbitration hearing even though there is only one class over regs- a Kgn with 26. I'm supposed to report there in the morning without going to my school first. I get paid for the day. Do I have to appear?


James Eterno responds:
Please go. It is easy and even with one oversize class you establish precedent so they will have a harder time using the exception next year. You probably will not win but if you don't go, you have let them get away with an oversize class and they can do it over and over. You get the time to travel to and from.

 

Update: Walcott Turns Tail at Town Hall in Bronx After Students Do a Mic Check

UPDATE: Weds. Feb. 1 5:30AM - fleshing out last night's brief report:

There weren't quite enough people to pull off the whole thing, but that didn't stop the Chancellor and the DOE from packing up in a matter of minutes. That's all it took.  --- anon. report 

I took this photo at the PS 215 closing school hearing. Ironic, eh!

Increasingly, people are not willing to allow the Tweedies to go about spouting their propaganda message and more such confrontations are expected. As this statement shows, when the DOE doesn't have the capacity to stop this they will just walk out. In the report received below, note this:  

"Jose Vargas (Bronx UFT) who came to the meeting looking for Occupy DOE folks. He wants to collaborate with us and make sure we're all on the same page." 

Sure. The UFT wants to make sure to control the page with their message. Not the first time the UFT has made noises about cooperation but behind the scenes we see something else operating. The union surely is planning something for the Feb. 9 PEP where over 20 schools will be voted closed. Union tactics in the past have included various disruptions followed by a walkout, but no attempt to disrupt the meeting to an extent where it can't go on. We'll see on Feb. 9.

Back in August 2010, the Coalition for Educational Justice CEJ), which is organizing today's Union Square protest (Protest Mayor 13% Weds. Feb. 1 3-6PM) followed by a attendance at the Legacy HS hearing at 6pm, shut down a PEP meeting but hasn't tried that again. Their plans for Feb. 9 are unclear but my guess is they will coordinate with the UFT. CEJ is funded by the Annenberg Institute (Norm Fruchter) and there are close ties to the UFT.

At the first sign of resistance, Walcott and crew jumped ship at the District 9 town hall at Evander Childs Campus in the Bronx last night, blaming the mic checkers. A group of 7 students --- some reports say from Lehman HS ---- read the following statement:

Mic Check:

Chancellor Walcott, the DOE and Fellow Community Members,

We are the forgotten voices, effected by this failed education policy.

We are the future leaders of the nation.

The DOE and mayoral control has failed public schools in NYC

THe PEP and budget cuts have failed public schools

Chancellor Walcott is a puppet for this failed administration

We are more than a budget item

We are the future of our generation

This systematic attack on our public schools will not stand!

Closing our schools is not the solution.

Fix our schools, don't close them!

The people united will never be defeated.

Some members of the audience were not happy at the use of mic check because they wanted their say and there was some individual discussions going on regarding this tactic. This has become an issue for internal discussions. Experienced activists who have become tired of pushing on deaf ears also have to take into consideration that people just exposed to having their school closed actually feel that they can reverse things if they get the ears of officials and this tension is expected to continue. An education campaign as to the history and intents of the ed deformers running the DOE is an important component.

Here is an excerpt of a report discussing this issue received from a participant:

Because it wasn't a crowd of people who came to specifically protest school closings the DOE tried very hard to blame US for shutting down the meeting and behaving "disrespectfully." The students were great and there were a lot of interested and supportive folks who we were able to connect with after and explain ourselves too, some of whom were excited about getting involved. The media eventually came long after the DOE left and the students may well make the evening/morning news. We need to think about being very clear with parents who want their voices heard that they can use the people's mic and acknowledge that some parents (like some of those tonight) won't feel that the people's mic is an "appropriate means" of communicating with the DOE (even though we know that no matter what anyone says they won't listen). Lastly, Jose Vargas (Bronx UFT) came to the meeting looking for Occupy DOE folks. He wants to collaborate with us and make sure we're all on the same page. As one parent put in a follow up email, "only in the Bronx." Ever onwards!  

-------
Here was the original message I reported last night-- Tues. Jan. 31, 2012 - 9PM
This just came in from a Bx teacher (unconfirmed):

Students and teachers from Lehman HS shut down the meeting with a MIC check!  Many teachers there from various schools cheered them for shutting up the Chancellor!  Walcott could not continue to feed the public his well rehearsed lies.

Well, we can only hope it's true. The time has come to kill the messenger. Shut down everything. Why even let them spill their baloney?


Postscript: This just came in:

Jose Vargas is full of shit.  I can't believe for one minute that the Bronx office has done the work to organize.  I worked there for 3 years and they don't have the organization.

Daily News Report

James Monroe Adams IV for New York Daily News

Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott opted to adjourn a meeting with high school students at Evander Childs Tuesday night.

School organizers were forced to abruptly end a meeting at a Bronx high school Tuesday night when it was interrupted by angry students, causing Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott to leave.

Students at Evander Childs in Williamsbridge jumped from their seats, yelling about the city’s “failed education policies.”

The students disrupted the meeting about a half-hour after it began, saying it was payback for a meeting last week at Herbert H. Lehman High School, where students were only allowed 30 seconds to speak about their closing school.

“They don’t even care about what we say,” said student Jesse Aponter, a junior at Lehman.

After a five-minute attempt to calm the rowdy crowd, the meeting was adjourned and Walcott left.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/dennis-walcott-abruptly-ends-meeting-bronx-high-school-angry-students-interrupt-article-1.1015110#ixzz1lB4v64hL

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FEB. 4- STATE OF THE UNION: TIME TO FIGHT BACK Register at: http://stateoftheunionconference-estw.eventbrite.com/ See Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on the right for important bits.

Will UFT Frustration Post-Bloomberg Speech Lead to Distruptive Acts?

Increasing support seen for this week's Fight Back Friday events from the UFT with signs some schools are encouraged to go further.

There are signs that the UFT, feeling boxed in on the ed evaluation issue, is beginning to strike out at WalBloom in various disruptive ways. Some speculate the militant activities of the people who have challenged the leaders is pushing the leadership. Some say they have reached a level of frustration and are just striking out to make a point.

There was the hastily called action at last week's PEP (UFT members protest at PEP meeting, then walk out en masse), with robo-calls to members that didn't have much impact but the union brought out its loyalist Unity Caucus honchos to create various disruptions at the meeting before walking out (it was interesting to see our crew from GEM/TU/NYCORE/ODOE/ICE standing shoulder to shoulder with them).

Then there was there confrontation between Walcott and UFT Queens borough rep Rona Freiser along with Dermot Smyth at the PS 215 closing school hearing Friday night (Walcott Takes Heat From Parents, Teachers and UFT Officials at Contentious Closing School Hearing (PS 215) in Rockaway).
where they followed my suggestion to use mic check to get their point across when Walcott didn't let then speak. His "this is  not a UFT chapter meeting" comment is priceless and an indication of how own growing frustration at being thrust into being the front man for a sinking operation by Bloomberg to rescue him from the Cathie Black debacle (which Walcott and the PEP supported all the way).

Now today a phone call comes in from a SIG school that the level of militancy is rising to a fevered pitch with indications that the UFT is pushing things such as calling for assistance from Occupy DOE to use mic check when confronting DOE officials, who always like to play the innocent "don't kill the messenger" role while putting the knife in your back.

Well, apparently, some teachers are pissed off enough to want to kill the messenger. We will report details --- maybe with some video --- if things break.

If the leadership actually releases its Unity chapter chair people (who often try to hold the most militant people back) to take things to another level we may see it as a temporary way of getting Tweed's attention by turning up the heat. 

In the past, the UFT was telling its people to avoid our branded FBF events, even changing the term to Friday Fight Back. But I'm beginning to hear a different tune emerging. There is not question a greater sense of urgency and militancy is emerging (later I'll tell you about the amazing group of parents I met on Sunday at our film showing).

Here is an email from a John Dewey teacher:

STOP SCHOOL CLOSINGS!

Please support our schools as the DOE tries to get rid of committed, experienced staff, close schools, and bust the union. If anyone can attend the community meetings where the superintendents come into the school and only report the negative data about our schools. We need support. Get involved. FDR is having their meeting Monday, Tomorrow at 5:30. Dewey is having ours on Tuesday at 5:30. Post any others so we can all support each other and call 311 and talk to someone who can log your call as you voice your opinion of these school closings and the job Bloomberg and Walcott are doing.

Also, attend the Fight Back Friday Rallies if you can. Dewey is having one every Friday. Details to follow.


Thanks,
In Solidarity,
xxxxx xxxxx
Dewey Teacher

Here is our FBF announcement:

School Closings, Increased Charter Co-locations, Larger Classes, Merit Pay, Firing Half the Staff at 33 Schools AND A Flawed Teacher Evaluation System...

The Education Mayor?

It's time for the first Fight Back Friday of 2012

(soon to be occupy Friday??)

THIS FRIDAY: JAN 27th: 

        PROTEST OUT IN FRONT OF YOUR SCHOOL!

                 LEAFLET AROUND YOUR SCHOOL!

OR JUST......

WEAR BLACK!

Fliers and stickers and such to follow.

PLEASE FORWARD AND POST EVERYWHERE!!

  Please respond to this email or email: 

FBFCommittee@gmail.com

if you think your school might participate.

Or to ask for more info or help in planning an action.

We want to get coverage for all the actions and let the public know that parents and teachers are fighting back!

Last spring over 50 schools participated on several Fridays. It’s a great way to build solidarity among your staff, reach out to parents and students and to begin to create the coordinated city-wide effort we all know is needed.

It is time for rank and file teachers, parents and our students to move towards becoming ungovernable.

Mayoral control, the attacks on our livelihoods, and on our students' education will not end simply because we want them to. 

It will take mass mobilization at the school and city-wide level. 

We need to end the privatization of Public Education through charters and merit pay!

 End the destructing of education through the abuse of high stakes testing!

Say NO to school turn-arounds that will destroy school communities, our student's education and the lives and careers of our colleagues.

WE MUST DEMAND AN END TO MAYORAL CONTROL!

PARENTS AND EDUCATORS MUST HAVE A CONTROLLING VOICE IN EDUCATION!

JOIN SCHOOLS ALL OVER THE CITY ON JAN 27TH!

And please let us know that you will be participating!

Here are some times articles covering FBF in the past. We have had lots of other coverage as well.

 And the FBF Blog from John Dewey HS. 

They have an action planned for this Friday as well.

http://fightbackfridays.blogspot.com/

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/19/fighting-closure-of-a-high-school-on-the-brink/http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/31/makeshift-groups-rising-to-oppose-cuts/

in solidarity

sam

for the rank and file Fight Back Friday committee

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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 the right for important bits.

Video: Walcott Takes Heat From Parents, Teachers and UFT Officials at Contentious Closing School Hearing (PS 215) in Rockaway

"This is not a UFT chapter meeting."  ----Dennis Walcott to Queens UFT Borough head Rona Freiser at PS 215 hearing, Jan. 20.

The word doesn't match the image

The NYCDOE holds a closing school hearing for PS 215Q on a Friday night at 6pm. Chancellor Dennis Walcott is, surprisingly, present. There was a lot of anger and anguish amongst parents, teachers and UFT officials from the Queens office. 

The first person I ran into was Queens PEP rep Dmytro Fedkowskyj.
"Did you hear my statement?" Sorry. It must have been a wowser. Later I asked if he categorically supported keeping PS 215 open. "I'll examine the facts." Okay. Examine what? Either you view the Tweedies in good faith or bad faith. No examining necessary when it comes to the failed policy of closing schools other than in the most outrageous cases like Williamsburg/Believe Charters.

Lots of teachers and parents and union and politicians were there. At the end of the video that's local City Councilman James Sanders getting booed. (Some people view him as one of the worst CC people.) He jumped in to save what looked like his pal Walcott but I did not include his silken words designed to distract people in the video --- he gave the impression he would assess the situation but we know the score --- he will do nothing. If he feels community heat he just might say a few words in favor of PS 215 but won't put any political capital behind it.

Hey Walcott, there ARE NO MORE DECK CHAIRS LEFT

We were very surprised Walcott was there and a lot of heat was directed at him. His tune just doesn't vary and hasn't for a decade. A building could come down around his ears and he would say nothing's wrong --- think Italian ocean liner. Captain Walcott-Schettino is in charge of a ship that came aground under Joel Klein and is now listing badly while the Captain tells people to go back to their cabins.

Quite an interesting evening and I put together this 12 minute clip of a few highlights.

NOTE THE BAD BLOOD BETWEEN THE UFT  - QUEENS BOROUGH UFT HEAD RONA FREISER ASSISTED BY DERMOT SMYTH AND WALCOTT. ALSO NOTE MY INTERVENTION IN SUGGESTING THEY USE 'MIC CHECK" TO GET THEIR MESSAGE ACROSS AND HOW JUST USING THOSE WORDS STOPPED WALCOTT'S INTERFERENCE --- I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE MIC CHECK USED AT A UFT DELEGATE ASSEMBLY.

And one more point. I felt the Rona showed some insensitivity in bringing up the 33 schools and how it was unfair to close a school that went from C to A while at a hearing to close PS 215 which got an F. If we are disputing the grading system as unfair we should be consistent.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOuvml9CXPA

Side note:
I got there late even though it was in Rockaway and I live 15 minutes away. Anna Phillips of the NY Times borrowed one of their cars to make the trip -- I told her PS 215 was impossible to find, especially at night,  and I get lost every time I go there during the day and if she came out early I would treat her to a Rockaway dive dinner and drive her there. But she got delayed at the office and then got trapped in a bad lane on the BQE so dinner was out the window and we did a rush over to the school. I dropped her off and had trouble finding a spot -- a sign of a big crowd. I parked blocks away (I won't go into details of the post-meeting senior moment when I couldn't find my car) and could hear cheering coming from the auditorium.

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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 the right for important bits.