E4E Stealth Infiltrates UFT Delegate Assembly - with Leadership Cooperation?

Stack of Resos on UFT table

Unlabeled -

UPDATE: The resolution described below never came up at the meeting as there was a 6PM adjournment. No one from E4E handed out the reso but a stack was left on the UFT lit table, which we are always told is a no-no - they say they only want official UFT lit and if we try to leave Ed Notes or MORE lit there we get a hassle or even an attempt to throw the lit away. That is why Randi almost 20 years ago mandated there be a special table for alt lit, a table that wasn't there this month or last month.

E4E has found a new way to finagle itself into teacher confidences - Men teach and Restorative Justice....
Last time out E4E was backing Bloomberg's effort to end "LIFO"  (last in, first out) seniority protections for teachers and offering teachers free drinks at local happy hours.  They didn't get very far with this.  But now they are trying a new tack -

She does the principal’s bidding whenever she can to undermine chapter meetings. This piece, which sounds very much like our principal, just reinforces a number of teachers thinking that the principal is working in concert with E4E.... a teacher at a school about the E4E teacher who was handing out the unlabeled reso at the Jan. DA.

A reso from the floor during the New Motion dealing with restorative justice (RJ) was voted up and will be in the agenda at the

Feb DA tomorrow. This was an unusual occurrence at the DA. Some of us smelled a rat.

Actually I smelled a rat downstairs when I saw a lady I didn't know handing out the reso which looked fairly decent but the paper had no identification as to who or what org was behind it. When I asked her where she was from she was evasive. (apparently she is the person mentioned in the opening comment). The reso talked about some pilot program for RJ in District 18 (Canarsie/East Flatbush).

On the surface, the reso was progressive and pro restorative justice and hard not to support. MORE was trying to use the same New Motion time to bring its Black Lives Matter reso, so since Mulgrew called on this other guy - someone named Michael Loeb from a  school in the Bronx right away and not one Unity person opposed it and it passed immediately, I figured this was a diversionary reso to kill time so MORE would never get to the floor. But it all happened so fast - sort of like scoring too soon in a football game and leaving time for the other team to come back -- and MORE got to do its thing, which has led to some blow back against Unity and also from some quarters against MORE.

Skewer the E4E Survey - let them know what you think about their ed deform agenda

--- do it often and show how you disagree with the pro-testing, pro-common fore, pro merit pay ed deform agenda of E4E. They call them selves a teacher driven organization without mentioning they are funded by ed deformers to create a 5th column to undermine the teaching profession under false pretenses. Screen shots below of sample questions below.

I'm betting they have a way of tracking people and the people who send the link will be wiped off their list.

Dear Member,

I am writing today on behalf of Educators 4 Excellence to ask your help with a confidential online survey about our organization. We want to better understand your reflections and thinking about how we present and communicate our work.
Your responses will be anonymous and confidential, which is why we are working with an independent market research company to conduct this study for us. Please feel free to be 100% honest.
As a special thank you for providing feedback, you may enter yourself in a drawing for one of three $100 Amazon gift cards. The deadline for the drawing is Wednesday, October 14 so the sooner the better. Please complete the survey at your earliest convenience.
Click on this link to begin the survey or copy and paste it into your Internet browser to begin:
http://www.amrsurvey.com/67008t
Thank you for taking the time to give us your opinion. We couldn’t do this without you.
Liz Utrup
National Director of Communications
Educators 4 Excellence

No place to write in anything to keep people to their message.

Randi/Mulgrew Pal MaryEllen Elia Slammed for Position on Opt-out in Talk to Anti-Union Astroturf E4E

I suppose Ms. Elia felt safe to speak her mind before Educators4Excellence, an astroturf group funded in great part by the Gates Foundation. E4E has made it clear that it thinks accountability testing is just swell.  Or perhaps she believed that it is brave to come into a new state, without having the experience of giving or reviewing even one cycle of testing, and denounce Opt Out and those who support it in front of the press..... Carol Burris

Educators for Excellence, which has guards making sure anyone with another opinion doesn't slip in to one of its events gets UFT/AFT/NYSUT darling Elia to speak before them. What exactly does that say about our union leadership?

Make no mistake about it. Elia is State Ed Commissioner due in part to the influence of our union leaders, who also oppose opt out but try to obfuscate to mislead the rank and file while patting deformers on the back.

With threats against educators who support opt-out, most will be cowed - but not all. Let's see what happens when people like MORE's Jia Lee openly stands up and support parents who opt-out. Will they dare go after her? And watch the UFT wiffle and sniffle if they do.

Watch what happens as MORE runs in the UFT elections -- the UFT/Unity machine  will slam MORE and its attempts to get into schools while E4E attempts to subvert the union by gaining entry into schools will be ignored. I heard this the other day from a chapter leader who had mentioned MORE to a union official who practically held up a devil sign.

Our fellow bloggers have gone to town on Elia but they should not ignore the union connection which goes a long way back to her old Florida Hillsborough arrangement with the AFT and Bill Gates, which was a major keynote at the AFT Bill Gates 2010 convention.

NYC Educator: Hypocrisy, Thy Name Is MaryEllen Elia

I was pretty shocked when NY State Regents unanimously nominated MaryEllen Elia to be NY State Commissioner of Education. For one thing, I had heard Michael Mulgrew speak of the great hope he had in the Regents to modify the new and draconian APPR law. Given that, I was surprised they'd select someone with such enthusiasm for testing, junk science, and all things reformy. It makes me really wonder exactly how much interest (if any) the Regents have in doing the right thing.

Perdido St:

NYSED Commissioner MaryEllen Elia Attacks Parents And Teachers Over Opt Out
Gates Foundation-funded MaryEllen Elia gave the keynote address to Gates Foundation-funded astroturf group Educators4Excellence and attacked parents and teachers who support the Opt Out movement (video below).

Tisch, Elia Warn They Will Go After Educators Who Support Or Encourage The Opt Out Movement...

That warning came after NYSED Commissioner MaryEllen Elia called teachers who support or encourage opt out "unethical." 

Carol Burris

She was very "specific" (her word) that she opposes the Opt Out movement, thinks parents who opt their children out of state tests are "not reasonable," says educators who encourage or even just support the Opt Out movement are "unethical" and is doing everything she can to make sure opt out does not grow next year...... Carol Burris
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2015/08/21/n-y-schools-commissioner-its-unethical-for-educators-to-support-testing-opt-out-movement/

6:30 p.m.—Fariña takes part in an Educators 4 Excellence discussion about Common Core and special education. Scholastic Auditorium, 557 Broadway, Manhattan

An indefensible act by Farina.  

Does anything change from the Bloomberg admin, recognizing the E4E ed deform shills? I guess money talks.

MORE Chapter Leader Patrick Walsh comments:

What's changing is the ground beneath our feet as as absurdities like E$E are given ever more credibility and become more and more institutionalized.  An indefensible act by Farina.  

George Schmidt called me to say E4E has now landed in Chicago, where I'm sure Rahm and crew will give them access to the schools to try to undermine the union. 

Farina should be at the PS 261K event at 6:30 today, where educators like Carol Burris will be headlining a panel discussion, along with MOREs Sam Coleman and Brian Jones.

Beware of E4E Geeks Bearing Gifts for Chapter Leaders

Will Cullen - Don't drink the coffee

Educators for Excellence, the group funded by anti-teacher union pro ed deformer, is attempting to appear to be pro-union as it works to undermine tenure rules, promote high stakes testing, and charter schools. It is making a concerted attempt to reach out directly to chapter leaders and burrow beneath the UFT structure.

Will Cullen, Outreach Director of E4E in New York, sent the following to a chapter leader associated with MORE. E4E vets people to keep out spies but I suggest people go to these events and report back. E4E is as closed and undemocratic an organization as you can find - no outside their box thinking allowed - but this attempt to go right at the heart of the UFT in schools where Unity Caucus is weak is an escalation of their program. It seems E4E is pushing its people to run for chapter leader in the upcoming UFT chapter elections. MORE's March 14 CL training might even attract some E4Eers ---- they should come and see how a democratic organization operates -- they won't see that in E4E or the UFT/Unity operation.

E4E has reshaped its message to try to appeal to teachers and obviously because, despite its large budget and multi-full-time employees, it hasn't been getting very far in NYC or even LA - now their effort is in Minnesota. The "output" of their educational policy teams is pathetic.

And what has happened to the E4E budget -- only offering coffee? Hey Will, how about offering a sandwich? I'd meet you for something decent to eat.

Here is Will's linked-in profile:
https://www.linkedin.com/pub/william-cullen/17/4a7/16

Leadership Opportunity for [CL Name]

Hi xxxxxx,

I hope this email finds you well! My name is Will and I am an Outreach Director with Educators for Excellence, a non-profit that works to get teachers involved in the policy conversations that affect their classrooms. More specifically we have opportunities for teachers to write policy as well as advocate for those policies to elected officials and other stakeholders.

You can learn more about us by visiting our website: educators4excellence.org.

I am reaching out to you because of your leadership at xxxxxx High School. We strongly believe in the power of union participation and currently have a series of events, trainings, and networking opportunities for existing chapter leaders across all five boroughs and for other teachers considering stepping up to become more involved in their chapter.

I would love to grab coffee to discuss further! I can meet wherever is most convenient for you.

Looking forward to touching base!

Will

Will Cullen | Outreach Director
Educators 4 Excellence-New York
Tel (212) 279-8510 ext. 19 | Cell (732) 266-9158
wcullen@educators4excellence.org | @willpcullen
333 West 39th Street, Suite 703, New York, NY 10018
E4E.org

Quisling AstroTurf Groups Like E4E and Teach Plus Reality Distortion

 ...the views of most early career teachers differ from those of many veteran teachers. As a national survey conducted by Teach Plus in 2012 found, early career teachers are more likely than their veteran peers to strongly support rigorous evaluations, performance-based compensation, and inclusion of student growth measures in teacher evaluations..... Balderdash from ed deform astroturf orgs.

NYC has been inundated by early career teachers over the 12 years of Bloomberg. Are they shouting about supporting ed deform crapola other than the few in E4E which despite enormous funding with full-time organizers can't gain much traction while MORE begins to attract teachers who decide to remain in the system once they get tenure and finish their grad studies?

I would say that most MOREistas have only been teaching under Bloomberg. In fact looking at the 11 new MORE steering committee taking office this week and the 10 people on the outgoing committee about half are in the relative newbie category. But I guess we can classify a veteran teacher nowadays at about 4 or 5 years.

The people in MORE vs the temps who join E4E is a counter-sign to their claims. They don't seem to have the nerve to test out their polls by actually running in a union election to see just how they would fare.

The fact that they are trying to claim union Quislings like Randi are out of touch because they fight ed deform is laughable. The very rise of MORE and CORE and NEW Caucus and lots more are due to Weingarten and her brethren doing the very opposite of fighting ed deform (see my follow-up piece on Randi whining about being stabbed in the back by her pal Cami Anderson in Newark -- and see Christie's response which will give you a laugh.

Just watch the next few years and see whether I or Teach Plus is right about where the new generation of teachers will stand once they get a few years in the classroom under their belts.

The Teacher “Union” Problem Within As teacher unions step up their calls to stop the “corporate agenda” in education and to confront the “privatization” movement, there is a far more real and serious threat facing teacher unions. The threat comes not from billionaires or charter schools or philanthropists. Rather, it comes from many teacher unions’ difficulty to modernize and reshape themselves in the midst of profound demographic changes of their members. At stake are the relevance and even existence of teacher unions–a force that historically has played such a vital role in American public school education.

Three basic demographic facts of today’s public school teachers should give teacher unions long pause before continuing to support policies that appeal primarily to a shrinking base of veteran teachers: 1) 52% of U.S. public school teachers have fewer than 10 years of experience (up from 25% in the 1980′s); 2) Approximately one million (or about 30%) of all U.S. public school teachers are expected to retire in the next five years; and 3) Today, there are more first year teachers in American classrooms than there are teachers at any other experience level.

As significantly, the views of most early career teachers differ from those of many veteran teachers. As a national survey conducted by Teach Plus in 2012 found, early career teachers are more likely than their veteran peers to strongly support rigorous evaluations, performance-based compensation, and inclusion of student growth measures in teacher evaluations  http://www.teachplus.org/page/newsroom-6/news/december-2013-342.html?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Newsletter+December+2013&utm_content=Newsletter+December+2013+CID_db0b06033f284dd40592acc2e0299360&utm_source=Campaign%20Monitor&utm_term=Read%20more

E4E Member Resigns in Protest Over Their Support for King/Tisch

Here is something you will never see mentioned at Gotham Schools.

Consider this my resignation of membership for E4E and the corporate driven ideology which binds this organization as a supporter of the Common Core and it’s test driven oppression of learning.... A NYC Teacher and FORMER member of E4E

So, E4E is trying to organize a force to support John King and Meryl Tisch and is urging its "people" to turn out in support to counter what is sure to be a vocal opposition. This teacher has had enough. I always say, the harder these characters push their ed deform crap the more they shoot themselves in the foot. The reality for those E4E people who actually are teaching and facing the Danielson rubric and common core in action is that it basically sucks. Good luck to E4E - maybe try starting a chapter in Detroit.

Dear Jonathan [Schleifer],

I am writing in regard to the E4E letter to Commissioner King stating “We are writing to thank you again for your leadership over the last two years in making New York’s teacher evaluation law benefit teachers and students across the state—and to urge you to make good on that commitment again as you develop a teacher evaluation system for New York City.”

I think the recent video and protests against the Common Core, and the state being forced to apply for waivers to allow developmentally disabled students with an IQ of 60, exempt from state tests. The issue of Danielson, with an untested rubric, and one which does not suit teachers or students of disabilities is central in the error of congratulating Commissioner King. Where was the foresight? Did anyone at E4E ever project the negative consequences of evaluating impoverished students (solely to determine “teacher effectiveness”) and essentially sanctioning teachers who serve them? I think not. Did anyone at E4E ever reflect to see how the Danielson Rubric may sanction educators? I think not.

Consider this my resignation of membership from E4E and the corporate driven ideology which binds this organization as a supporter of the Common Core and it’s test driven oppression of learning.

Regards,

Here is the E4E call to action:

On Mon, Dec 9, 2013 at 2:26 PM, Jonathan Schleifer  info@educators4excellence.org wrote:

Trouble viewing this email? You can View this Message Online

Educators 4 Excellence: An Independent Voice for Teachers

Dear xxxxxx, Over the next two days, State Education Commissioner John King will be hosting several town halls on the Common Core across the city. Teachers, students and parents will have the opportunity to weigh in on the new standards and their implementation. December 10 Brooklyn: Medgar Evers College, 6:30-8:30 PM Bronx: Evander Childs Campus, 6:00-8:00 PM December 11 Manhattan: Spruce Street School, 6:00-8:00 PM RSVP here to join E4E at one or more of the town halls. If you can’t attend the town halls, you can engage in the conversation on Twitter by following @Ed4Excellence. We’ll have teachers live tweeting each event. By replying to them or mentioning them in a tweet of your own, you the too can join the conversation and have a voice at the discussions. Looking forward to hearing from you -  Jonathan Jonathan Schleifer Executive Director, E4E-New York

E4E Slammed in Minnesota by PEJAM

The new strategy is to convince the public that teachers really do want the corporate reforms, but that it is actually their own unions that are keeping them silent.  It is a devious approach that can pit new teachers against veteran teachers.  These newer groups receiving money from Gates, the Waltons, and other corporate foundations are started and led, by mostly TFA alumni, and recruit heavily among TFA corp members and other younger teachers.... (PEJAM)

DFER tried this tactic trying to claim E4E had the voice of NYC teachers ( Joe Williams' DFER Propaganda Laugh Riot ...) while pointing out that few voted in the election and one fifth of those who did vote did not do so for Unity, trying to give the impression they were E4E types while neglecting to mention it was MORE, as anti-E4E as you can get, that garnered those votes.

Yes, E4E facing increasing failure in every venue has to keep jumping to other states like bedbugs to try to remain viable. They have to find ways to spend those bucks ($3 million recently from Bill Gates, who might as well dig a trench and throw his money into it.)

I spoke to some people from LA in Chicago this past weekend and they are also dealing with E4E and have opened up a dialogue with them, viewing most of the teachers involved as naive and misguided and hoping to bring some enlightment to them. Good luck. The leadership will never let anyone get near their rank and file -- one reason they no longer seem to be holding open -- or any - meetings here in NYC -- we often stood outside and handed out leaflets as to what they were all about.

PEJAM points to "reporter" Beth Hawkins hawking E4E -- playing the role Gotham plays here I guess.

Here is the full post from PEJAM:

Public Education Justice Alliance of Minnesota(PEJAM) pejamn.blogspot.com

E4E: The Sheep Clothing for Corporate...

The neoliberals, corporate foundations, billionaires, and others looking to privatize our public schools work hard to sell their actions as that of local grassroots organizations whose only concerns are for the children, especially poor, urban, and minority children.  These astroturf groups have worked their way into every state, including Minnesota.  We have the well-financed MinnCAN and Students First among others, but in their efforts the corporate reformers keep running into the public school teachers and their unions who actually do care about ALL children.

These corporate "reformers" have long realized that if they are going to privatize the public schools, they must eliminate the the voice of the teachers, and the unions that protect their right to speak in defense of their students.  The "reformers" have had a great deal of success, convincing both Republican and Democratic politicians to pass legislation that weakens teacher unions and public education.  The push-back, however, has been growing steadily.  Led by rank-and-file members who have demanded more action from their own union leadership or have taken over the leadership as C.O.R.E. did in Chicago, teachers are calling out the corporate reformers for what they are - privatizers and union-busters.

The corporate reformers are feeling the heat, but they will not go away quietly.  A new strategy has evolved in recent years with the help of the "happy-face" of the corporate reformers - Teach for America (TFA).

The new strategy is to convince the public that teachers really do want the corporate reforms, but that it is actually their own unions that are keeping them silent.  It is a devious approach that can pit new teachers against veteran teachers.  These newer groups receiving money from Gates, the Waltons, and other corporate foundations are started and led, by mostly TFA alumni, and recruit heavily among TFA corp members and other younger teachers.

In many cities, it is Teach Plus that has taken on this role.  It's stated goal is "to engage early career teachers in rebuilding their profession to better meet the needs of students and the incoming generation of teachers."  Here in Minnesota, Educators for Excellence (E4E) is the group leading the effort to hide the union-busting/privatization agenda behind "real teachers."  This past week, E4E officially launched in Minnesota, following a typical corporate product launch strategy.

MythPost
Beth Hawkins, the "education reporter" for MinnPost and one of the Twin Cities biggest cheerleaders for the corporate take-over of public education, is now trumpeting Educators 4 Excellence (E4E) and their claim to offer teachers "a bigger voice in education policy."  Hawkins presents E4E and its members empathetically, as idealistic teachers who have been marginalized in education policy decisions and ignored by unresponsive teachers unions.

Hawkins and MinnPost are helping Madeline Edison, now the full-time Executive Director of Minnesota's E4E, with the corporate style rollout of the "new" reform group.  They are selling a movement that is not only not needed, but in fact is detrimental to public education.  MinnPost published three "news" stories about E4E in four days (See here, here, and here).  MinnPost is an on-line "newspaper" run by Joel Kramer, father of Minnesota's first family of corporate education reform and the former owner of the daily newspaper, the Minneapolis Star Tribune.  The Star Tribune probably would have covered the E4E "news" itself, had it not been so busy shilling for E4E's older sibling of corporate education reform - Teach for America (TFA) - (see here, here, and here).

Launch of a Corporate Product
Launching a new product, or in this case an organization, is not done with a single press release, or event.  "Reform" groups like E4E use the same marketing strategies of their financiers.  David Lavenda, a product strategy and marketing executive offers some advice for a successful product launch on FastCompany.com, including the following:

Start early. Don’t expect reporters to write about you when you want. Get a head start and begin preparing long before you plan to launch. A rolling launch is a great way to keep the conversation going.

Get partners involved. Channel and marketing partners who have a financial stake in the success of the launch are natural allies. The more people that are talking about the release, the better chances it will get pickup.  

E4E-Minnesota has been rolling out its launch for well over a year.  It had its origins in a group with another combination of letters and numbers - E3MN, which stood for Empowering Educators for Equity MN.  E3MN began in early 2012, and its first Facebook Event was a meeting with the co-founders of Educators 4 Excellence.

The groups E3MN identity appears to have been a place-holder as the group built it's E4E brand.  They focused on connecting with "marketing partners" by building alliances with other corporate reformers.  The second Facebook Event they hosted in June of 2012 was a happy hour meet-and-greet with MinnCAN.

In addition to building a core group with mostly TFA teachers and partnering with other corporate reformers, the group needed to build a local financial base and Minnesota has its share of corporate philanthropists.  In September of 2012, The Robins, Kaplan, Miller, and Ciresi Foundation for Children awarded E3MN a grant of $17,500.  The foundation's website explains that the grant was to 

"support the expansion of Empowering Educators for Equity (E3MN) to impact student success through teacher organizing and leadership for systemic legislative and contractual changes."

Michael Ciresi, is a famous local lawyer who ran twice for the DFL nomination for U.S. Senate, but lost.  The Foundation that bears his name, and he leads, has become the major supporter of local corporate education reforms.  E4E received the grant from his foundation because they promote an agenda that helps to dismantle teachers' unions, thereby opening the door to the free market...and closing the door on public schools.

"Liberal" Slight of Hand
Ciresi is similar to many Democratic (DFL in Minnesota) politicians and party activists, in that he claims to favor a liberal or progressive political agenda, but more often follows a corporate agenda.  E4E leaders, and presumably many of its members follow this same approach, at least in regard to education.  E4E, like the "reformers" who claim the Civil Rights mantle, does not just focus on dismantling teachers' unions, but also claims to promote a "progressive" agenda.  This is "reformer" slight of hand, a distraction from the real work of E4E.

In Beth Hawkins propaganda piece published last Tuesday, she helps E4E's new Executive Director, Madaline Edison, sell the idea that focusing on "hot button" contractual/union issues "misses the point."  Sydney Morris, the national co-founder and co-CEO of E4E, claims the aim of the organization is "to give teachers a greater voice in making policy on many issues."

Following another element of launching a new product E4E and MinnPost "put the focus on the people not the product."  Hawkins introduces us to a number of E4E teachers who want to speak up for their students on issues beyond the classroom.  They mistakenly believe, however, that E4E will empower them to do that.  Members quoted in the article speak about the fight for immigrations issues and need for early childhood education.  Edison, who has never been a member of the teachers' union, suggested that the unions weren't dealing with these issues and that's why they needed to create E3MN (E4E).

With this claim, E4E accepts and perpetuates the neoliberal myth of unions as greedy and self-interested.  Social justice has long been a part of union work.  Teachers' unions have certainly made mistakes and at times have been on the wrong side of social justice issues, but unions have actively worked for social and racial justice through most of there history.

Another E4E member in Hawkins article talks about her strong family union background and how she wanted to "wear red" in solidarity when union teachers in Chicago went on strike.  Despite her union upbringing, she describes the union contact as "that’s where all the power just goes away."  Beth Hawkins supports this twisted statement by describing the Minneapolis teachers' union contract as "notoriously complicated."

The third E4E story in MinnPost last week was written by James Kindle.   He was a part of the first group of TFA corp members in Minnesota in 2009.  To his credit, he has remained in the classroom.  However, he also portrays the teachers' contract as a barrier to his "autonomy" as a teacher and his ability to speak out for social justice.

Kindle lets us know that he is the son and grandson of teachers, and like his mother, he wants to be able to look back on his teaching career and say, "Oh, yeah. I enjoyed every day."  Unfortunately, if Kindle and E4E (and TFA) are successful in their corporate reform efforts, most teachers will not have much of a career on which to reflect.  Without committed teachers organized in strong unions, the profession will be filled with under-trained temporary workers.

This is how the conservatives have taken the upper hand with regard to education policy.  Many self-proclaimed liberals/progressives, who were once the ardent defenders of a strong, democratic system of public schools, have accepted the argument that the "free market" actually serves the public good and does so in an equitable way.  Making matters even worse, these so called liberals have accepted the idea that unions and collective bargaining protections are relics of the past. 

The Corporate Reformers and their Agenda
Focusing on "hot-button" issues such as tenure, seniority rights, and teacher evaluations, "misses the mark" according to Madaline Edison.  E4E wants teachers and the public to see these issues as part of a larger "progressive" agenda.  Edison, Kindle, and the other E4E leaders fail to see, or refuse to admit that this is a front for the neoliberal agenda.  Their work will weaken the unions they claim to value and strip teachers of their voices they claim to be empowering.  They are helping to privatize our public schools.

To become a member of E4E, teachers must sign the organization's "Declaration of Teacher's Principles and Beliefs."  A third of this declaration is dedicated to "Restore[ing] Professionalism to Education."  According to the document this is done through teacher evaluations that include "value-added student achievement data" (value-added measure - VAM), weakening tenure, and eliminating "last-in-first-out" (seniority rights).  The document also contends that we can recruit, retain, and support "the highest quality teachers" by implementing "performance-based pay" (merit pay).

These are the positions of the corporate reformers.  To argue these "reforms" will empower teachers, "give them a voice," and/or "autonomy" is naive at best.  Merit pay is not a new idea as educational historian, Diane Ravitch, has pointed out.  It is professionally insulting, divisive, and it does not work, especially in a profession that thrives on collaboration.  Not only has merit pay not worked, Daniel Pink demonstrates that merit pay, in fact, produces worse results!

Value-added is another failed experiment.  Despite repeated research demonstrating the inability of VAM to measure a teacher's performance, corporate reformers continue to argue it will separate bad teachers from good, and good teachers from great.  What VAM actually does is promote more teaching to tests, and penalizes teachers who are willing to take risks.

Attacks on tenure and seniority are at the heart of the "reformer's" efforts and central to organizations like E4E.  Tenure is depicted as "lifetime job security," something that makes it "impossible" to fire under-performing teachers.  Tenure does not guarantee a job.  It guarantees due process, if you are threatened with disciplinary action, including termination.  It requires that administrators demonstrate "just cause" for disciplinary action or termination, and in Minnesota, state statue identifies five areas that can lead to termination at the end of a contract year (see Subdivision 9).  Minnesota state statute also lays out reasons for immediate termination of a teacher (see Subdivision 13)

Tenure in Minnesota is only achieved after a three-year probationary period.  During this time, the district can terminate a teacher contract without cause.  What tenure grants is relatively small, but important power.  It enables teachers to disagree with administration and express that disagreement with less fear of repercussions.  This is one of the few things that does in fact "give teachers voice," and this is what E4E wants to weaken or eliminate.

Seniority works in concert with tenure to protect teachers from arbitrary loss of employment.  In addition to termination due to reasons listed in statute, a teacher can also find themselves unemployed if the school district needs to layoff teachers due to declining enrollment and/or a decline in funds.  Requiring layoffs be done in reverse seniority order or "last-in-first-out" (LIFO), prevents administrators from discriminating with regard to layoffs.  In other words, they cannot layoff a teacher as a way around the due process guaranteed with tenure.  Again, E4E want to eliminate seniority (some argue for making it "one of a number of factors" in determining layoffs), but any weakening of seniority creates a way around the due process guaranteed with tenure.

Losing tenure and/or seniority protections would silence teachers.  This is the exact opposite of what E4E claims as its main goal.  All of these attacks on teachers and our unions are empowered by a misguided faith in meritocracy.  Young teachers are told they are being hurt by more senior teachers being "protected" even when they are "less competent."  They are led to believe that administrators, with standardized test scores, can objectively distinguish between teachers who are competent and teachers who excel.

Those who are truly concerned with ensuring that teachers have a voice and are able to speak up for their students, should stand with the teachers' unions.  Work to get rid of testing and "accountability" regimes that are really about dismantling public education, and defend tenure and seniority.  Then we can work together on behalf of all students, for racial and social justice.

Teachers and the public need to understand the real agenda of Educators 4 Excellence (E4E) and expose this group for what they really are - the sheep's clothing for the corporate education reform wolves.


Posted by: Rob Panning-Miller

Additional information on the origins of E4E's national organization can be found here:

http://raginghorse.wordpress.com/2011/01/29/educators4excellencebrought-to-you-by-the-insidious-arm-of-the-disgustingly-rich/

E4E Free Lunch Turned Away After Agenda Disclosed

Some colleagues had sent out info about E4E to the staff listerv -- and then the administration said that after finding out more about E4E's agenda -- the luncheon is cancelled. We'll be having lunch together as a staff instead.  ..... A MORE teacher at the school

Along with this missive:

“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.” 

 “Every battle is won before it’s ever fought.” 

 “Attack by Stratagem” 

 "The good fighters of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy.” 

― Sun Tzu

I forget which school but at one place they took the pizza and THEN asked them to leave.

John King at E4E, Unity Caucus and E4E in Alignment on King, Ed Eval and Common Core

Both the Unity Caucus leadership and E4E love John King, the front man for the ed deform movement in NY State. This guy is going to decide on an eval plan as an arbitrator? We might as well get Bloomberg himself. Or Quisling himself.



Unity Caucus and E4E: perfect together.  Mulgrew showed up to an E4E meeting but won't show up to debate Julie Cavanagh. 

This is the 2nd appearance King is making at an E4E event. He must have too much time on his hands.

Some MORE teacher and parent reps will be handing out Vote MORE leaflets but expect E4E supporters to vote Unity given they agree on so much. Come on down and join us.

Why go since they won't let anyone in who might ask a question or not sit there like a yoyo? At a recent NYCORE event a young lady came over and said she recognized me from the last time I leafleted John King's appearance. She trashed E4E -- she saw how they tried to bribe people with expensive gifts and raffles and finally saw through them. So you never know how many of these people if they stay in teaching will move politically as they see through the e4e sham.

E4E had the oportunity to test its support by running in the UFT elections. They declined, preferring to use the DOE to help them slink around schools. Their updates are so much more about LA than NY now, a sign of just how much they are petering out here. That is funny as how some of the press were bragging that E4E types won some seats in the last LA union election, which they are pushing as a sign the next gen of teachers are supporting ed deform while wearing egg on their faces when real reform groups like CORE can get 98% of the teachers to strike and MORE actually stands up to Unity.

But Gotham will strive to keep E4E alive by using every excuse to mention them. Did you see their story on chapter leaders where they quote James Eterno extensively but make no mention that he is a candidate for MORE? But they make sure to get one quote from one of the few chapter leader E4E has so they can mention the group.

Don't be surprised to see Gotham do a story on this event while ignoring every other group's events. Like did anyone see something on the NYCORE conference of over 600 people with Karen Lewis as keynoter?

---------------

Critical Questions: A Conversation with NYS Education Commissioner John King Tell New York State Education Commissioner John King about how policies are impacting your classroom, ask your questions, and advocate for meaningful change for our students and our profession. »

Thursday, April 4, 2013 | 6:30 p.m. (doors open at 6 p.m.)

Bank Street Auditorium
610 West 112th Street, New York, NY 10025

Subway: 1 to 110th St

 

Take Action

Show your support for the Common Core: Student Achievement Partners is launching a campaign to ensure teachers remain at the center of conversations around the new standards. Sign the letter from 10,000 Teachers in Support of the CCSS. »

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E4E Mauled in Chapter Election by ICE Candidate and at Raging Horse

Here is an E4E story Gotham won't report. I forgot to tell you the story of how one of the most extreme ICEers -- a 23 year hard-bitten militant anti-Unity candidate --- a guy who makes me look like a pussycat and even scares me -- defeated an E4Eer in a chapter election in a small high school in the Bronx this past fall, an indication of the outrage of so many teachers. When I heard the news I said, "Holy shit," at the idea that in a school with younger teachers this guy would get their votes. So much for E4E having any traction in the schools. Even young teachers view them as a 5th Column. 

I pointed out the other day that E4E is not only a shill for BloomCott, Gates,  and other corp deformers, but also for the Moskowitz charter machine (E4E at Dec PEP Exposes Ties to Eva and Success).

E4Eer and friends frolicking at the PEP

Patrick Walsh, a chapter leader in Harlem -- and a candidate on the MORE elementary Exec Bd slate -- mauled E4E on his raging horse blog where he refers to the pathetic rally E4E held not long ago on a Sunday afternoon -- their first and last rally apparently, given they cannot control who can attend like they do at their bund meetings. Sieg Sydney.

Educator 4 Excellence and the Strings They Pull

January 3, 2013

Once again the farce that calls itself Educators for Excellence, a minuscule organization existing solely to implement the will of its hubristic and anti-democratic billionaire backers, most prominently Bill Gates and the hedge fund gang that calls itself Democrats for Education Reform, have managed to land yet another editorial in a major New York paper, this time the New York Daily News.

There is, of course, no sane reason that as microscopic an organization as is E4E would be treated with such respect and prominence other than the fact that the same people who have ponied up over two million dollars for the two year old propaganda group paid other people to make   some serious phone calls to the honchos at the DN and the heroes of the “Liberal Media” found it advantageous to do their bidding. Hence, another editorial for E4E.
It is more than ironic that these people have the gall to speak of merit.

The editorial, like Educators 4 Excellence itself, is pathetic.   And, like all the times I have actually encountered this deceptive little group, I was almost initially disarmed by pathos.  The last time was a few weeks back at a tiny and tinny E4E rally for the same cause in which head shill Evan Stone, with characteristic humility, bellowed idiotically into a microphone to his 30 or so followers, “ I am not satisfactory!  I am excellent!” with all the energy and passion of a lonely salamander.

For a moment I could not help but pity the poor fool who was trying so hard to please his ultra-wealthy employers who have removed him from the hard work of teaching so as to allow him to play dummy to their ventriloquist.     What else can one feel but pathos?

For a moment, anyway.

Read More

E4E at Dec PEP Exposes Ties to Eva and Success

When I got on the speakers' line at the Dec. 20 PEP at 5PM, low and behold there were a bunch of E4E staffers and other E4E slugs already on line in front of me. Was E4E going to use the occasion to push their anti-UFT agenda calling for giving up the fight for a fair evaluation agreement?

Not at all. In fact they were there as placeholders so Eva's crew could get to speak. These are the people calling on the UFT to give up the rights of teachers by signing on to an evaluation agreement based on junk science. And of course they support handing over entire public school buildings to Eva's growing real estate empire.

Here are the real people at the PEP.

E4E - Misuse of Influence at Truman HS: Group With Political Agenda Gains Entry During Professional Development

Explain how pushing an agenda to pressure the UFT into caving on the evaluation issue is PD? Walcott must bear responsibility.

How interesting that E4E is allowed into schools by the DOE officials to push the political agenda pressuring the UFT to give in on ed evaluation. This is a blatant abuse by the DOE. I bet here is a law being violated somewhere here.

Imagine if MORE were allowed to do PD with its political agenda and the howls of protest. It seems there was some pushback but where is the UFT on this issue? When I was invited to speak to teachers, not during official PD but on their own time, there were howls of protest from the Unity chapter leader and push back from the district reps.

Someone at Truman should check the sign-in books and get the names.

I received a request from someone at the school for more info in E4E.
Here is the email with a link

At Monday's PD, we were visited by Educators4Excellence.  For your consideration, it is funded by Bill Gates [see article].  This is an interest group advocating a political agenda.

May 22, 2011
Behind Grass-Roots School Advocacy, Bill Gates 
By SAM DILLON
Bill Gates' foundation pays educators to pose alternatives to union orthodoxies regarding seniority and test scores. 

People at the school want more info on E4E. If you have some stuff to share leave the link in a comment and I'll send the info along.

E4E Roundup: Giddey-up Doggie

DFER and Gates and Whitney better ask for their money back as E4E could barely muster much of a group at their first rally. The best line from Evan Stone: we lost a few to lesson planning.

Well how much fun did the crew we helped organize for the E4E rally have yesterday? Given we did this ad hoc in 24 hours our turnout which included such luminaries as Fiorillo, Bloggers Raging Horse and South Bronx School, members of MORE and Change the Stakes, I think we had more real teachers there than E4E.

I went there with the intention (and a leaflet) with the goal of educating some of these people who I felt were duped. But upon short conversations I realized they are not duped. They are people who are out of the classroom or about to be out of the classroom.

One of our guys wrote this:

It is interesting when thinking about the event this afternoon about just how contradictory E4E's messages were. As some of their signage suggests, some of their members are craving meaningful support like the rest of us, while some of them want higher salaries and others just seem to be misguided elitists whose claims of support for unionism is so obviously ridiculous when it becomes clear that they support the erosion of due process protections and seniority rights that are basic principles in unionism.

Below the text are some photos taken by Michael Solo, who teaches photography at John Dewey HS. Michael rode shotgun with me on the way in and back.

As the speeches started with Evan Stone and I was doing some video I basically lost it when he started talking about the sad loss of the $300 million -- "Will you demand the money be used to reduce class size," I screamed, knowing full well the DFER/GATES/Students Last masters will never let E4E talk about class size, a no-no in ed deform. I did have one decent conversation with a guy who seemed like a real teacher, asking him if he felt reducing class size would make a difference. His response was right from the book: studies show that it helps in elementary schools, not as much in middle and high schools. Jeez, all they can do is quote studies or stats -- what about you and kids? If you were a high school teacher do you think it would make a difference if you had 27 instead of 32 in each class? Imagine: in 5 classes a day, 25 less kids, 25 less papers to mark, 25 less parents to be in touch with. Oh, I get it. It is only about student outcomes, not teacher workload and how that affects teaching.

I do have video but as usual am way behind others. Below the links to blogs about yesterday's events are links to videos Pat Dobosz shot. I'm heading over to a MORE meeting and then to my first UFT Exec Bd meeting in years, where I may eat enough to give me more heart burn than I need.

Raginghorseblog

The Ignorant and the Egregious: Educators 4 Excellence Hold a Rally

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South Bronx School

E4E's Eric Cartman Goes Silent on The Crack Team

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Chaz wasn't there but blogged about it.

Chaz's School Daze

The Typical Education4Excellence Member - Clueless

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Neither was RBE but here is the usual good stuff.

Educators4Excellence Group Members Even Dumber In Person

 Here are Pat's videos.

[20121202021513 Dec. 2, 2012] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfnOETdbdnw

[20121202022423 Dec. 2, 2012] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HfAApU0N9M

[20121202022759 Dec.2, 2012] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGFuk-o27V4

[20121202023143 Dec 2, 2012] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DY0vjGMMnbo

[20121202030653 Dec. 2, 2012] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqS-LBMF1kw

[20121202030913 Dec. 2, 2012] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tgq7LCILjd4

[20121202031401 Dec. 2, 2012] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7jZCKtYVW8

Fiorillo and Walsh tag team

Who's that fat guy? Gloria is behind me.

Poor Evan looks miserable