I just got a call from E4E begging me to come…they said it’s their first rally."
I got this yesterday as one of those "thousands" of supporters E4E claims. Let's see how many come today. They only got 150 to come see Walcott the other day even with the offer of free drinks and snacks. And those included some of our pals who are being careful to not ID themselves since they will be tossed in the future if they do (
E4E Bans People From Walcott Event Today.) Some of us are heading over to the rally to check it out -- free coffee at 2PM and maybe do a little education on VAM. I really hope we go over the Cuomo induced evaluation cliff. (See Eterno and Kaufman today on the ICE blog).
And despite getting help from the DOE in gaining entry into schools to put their crap in mailboxes (later I'll publish the photo ID from Washington Irving campus -- I'll take pic today so we can get a positive id.)
E4E is desperate to get people to their first rally ever today.
Do you think DFER and their other funders will call in chips if E4E can't deliver?
We are the change makers. We are the ones that turn non-readers into lovers of books, a writer of simple sentences into an essayist. We can use those same skills to be a part of this conversation and policy-making.--- Kate Schuster. E4E
OK. Don't gag.
This will he the third rally set up by astroturf orgs like Students Last and some other phony group of students from Columbia, SFER --- (betcha Bloomberg slug Mikah Lasher is involved) who marched from the UFT to Tweedle Dee the other day (see below for that joke) who are worried the UFT may let us go over the ed deform cliff in January if they don't surrender to the Cuomo threat to take away state funding if they don't, as outrageous a demand as the Republican's are making over the fiscal cliff which actually would be a good thing, especially if they dump all the Race to the Top money.
A MORE member urged people to go to the rally today with the leaflet I made up:
It is a great way to promote and inform on this issue and we might even win some converts. E4E is very slimy and dishonest. I don’t think a lot of the people who they have been able to corral really know and fully understand what they’re about and armed with this info it really lays it plain and offers a way for people to get more info at the upcoming forum.
Those from MORE who are able to attend should wear our shirts so nobody thinks we are with E4E who tend to wear those lime green shirts. My gut says this will not be that well attended by their people though FAUX News might still cover it. I don’t want anyone thinking the counter protest is part of their rally.
A blogger wrote about the recent E4E meeting with Walcott and left a link on my post. Interesting report:
http://commonal.tumblr.com/post/36809345728/educators-for-excellences-almost-quiet-war-for
Of course when it comes to making real change for their kids E4E is absent. Well one can't have too much fun. Why should I clean out my basement when I can get a free beanie that you say Kate wearing. Kate, you convinced me and some of my pals in Change the Stakes, which is fighting for real reform and will hand out a leaflet with the Carol Burris article (
Carol Burris With a Lesson for E4E and the UFT) asking some fundamental questions of E4E:
- · WHY DOES EDUCATORS 4 EXCELLENCE PUSH FOR A FAULTY EVALUATION SYSTEM THAT USES THE JUNK SCIENCE OF VALUE ADDED MEASURES TO MIS-JUDGE TEACHERS?
- · WHY DOES E4E IGNORE THE ADVICE OF TOP LEVEL EDUCATORS LIKE CAROL BURRIS?
- · SUPPORT THE 700 TEACHERS WHO HAVE SIGNED A PETITION CALLING FOR A DEMOCRATIC DISCUSSION AND VOTE IN THE UFT ON THE NEW EVALUATION SYSTEM: WWW.IPETITIONS.COM/PETITION/NEW-UFT-EVALUATION
Well, here is Kate's missive. Love that beanie Kate.
My name is Kate Schuster, and I am an elementary ESL teacher at PS 38. Last Tuesday I attended an E4E event with over 150 teachers and Chancellor Walcott, to discuss evaluation. As a result of the event, and the urgency of the issue, I will be rallying tomorrow and
I want YOU to join me.
Here is a quote from my recent blog post about the event that explains why I am rallying:
“We are the change makers. We are the ones that turn non-readers into lovers of books, a writer of simple sentences into an essayist. We can use those same skills to be a part of this conversation and policy-making. This is why I am attending E4E’s “Move Beyond Satisfactory” rally this Sunday at City Hall. The rally is our chance to tell the DOE and the UFT that teachers want a better evaluation system administered by school leaders who are well trained to support our teaching.”
Please stand with me on Sunday. The rally will be a ton of fun and it's incredibly easy to get to. Plus you’ll get one of the sweet beanies I’m wearing in the picture above!
You’ll find a map, including all nearby subways, and the details below.
Hope to see you there,
Kate
There are better reports on the faux Columbia student protest than this slanted one - I saw one but can't find it so if you do leave a comment with the link. Did DFER buy off the Columbia Spectator?
--------
Sophie Gamez for Spectator
Columbia students led a crowd of 75 in a march from the United Federation of Teachers building to City Hall on Thursday, calling on education officials to act quickly to increase funding for city schools.
The New York City Department of Education has not yet come to a consensus on how to evaluate its teachers, and if it does not by Jan. 17, the schools system will be out of contention for $300 million in federal funding.
The Columbia chapter of
Students for Education Reform organized the protest, which hit home hard for a number of students.
“I have three sisters that are being put through public schools. I am a project of New York City public schools, and a well-funded public school system is what we need,” Floyd St. Bernard-Springer, CC ’14, said. “I’ve tutored in Harlem. I know what it looks like—really bad schools.”
“The students need the funding that is being held up in politics. I can see what more money would mean to the students, and politics just needs to get out of the way,” Sharene Hawthorne-Rene, CC ’14, said.
In New York, 60 percent of a teacher’s evaluation is based on administrator observations, 20 percent by students’ standardized tests scores, and 20 percent is left to districts to decide a method of evaluation. The city has not yet determined what that final 20 percent should be.
Jeffrey Henig, a professor of political science and education at Teachers College, said, “I don’t put stock in the likelihood that the money won’t get here. It is partly designed as pressure on the negotiations—while it is a lot of money, it is not a lot of money compared to the size of the overall budget.”
The $300 million would be a 4 percent increase in funding for the DOE.
SFER has been planning for the night for the last month—handing out fliers, making Facebook announcements, getting permits, and tabling in Lerner Hall—all in the name of putting pressure on the DOE to make Governor Andrew Cuomo’s January deadline.
President of Columbia’s SFER chapter Benji de la Piedra, CC ’14, said, “Planning this rally took up a lot more effort than I had initially expected. Just getting in those hours behind the keyboard and putting in all of our free time—and on the side going to classes.”
As the rally wound down, the club’s leaders said it was worth it.
“There was one child talking about how he needed money in his art class and it was something that manifested itself every day in his life and he knows that we can do better, and he was there with his own handmade sign—it was just beautiful,” Leah Metcalf, BC ’14 and SFER’s general body chair, said.
Across the street from the protest’s starting point at the UFT building in Lower Manhattan, members of Student Worker Solidarity began a counterprotest.
Club member George Joseph, CC ’16, said, “I am with a grassroots protest and we are protesting against this protest because it was an anti-union protest, saying we should give into Governor Cuomo’s extortion requests.”
George said he and his fellow protesters believe that making teacher evaluations more reliant on standardized testing could adversely affect teachers’ job security in low-income areas, where test scores are lower.
But the SFER protest far outnumbered the counterprotest.
With students’ schedules so busy at the end of the semester, de la Piedra said he was heartened by the turnout. “I think it’s awesome seeing Columbia students going out into the city and doing something and getting involved in local politics on that level, going on a march, literally making your voice heard. We go to Columbia University in the City of New York, so it’s nice to see that we go to school in this city.”
“I was at the caboose and it was so exciting when people joined that we hadn’t advertised to, people walked by and cheered, a car drove by and honked—it was really great to see how people responded to our message,” Metcalf said.
news@columbiaspectator.com
