Ed Notes Online: IS 318

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Monday, April 2, 2012

April 2, 2012 - A Giant is Lost: Fortunato (Fred) Rubino

UPDATE: Previous Ed Notes on IS 318: Ed Notes Online: In Defense of IS 318

Fred Rubino -- captured from video at Success Charter Hearing, April 2011

I am truly saddened to inform you all of the passing of our Superintendent and brother Fortunato "Fred" Rubino. Freddy was truly THE BEST our city has to offer! ----- Email sent to District 14 principals, April 2, 2012

I received the call early this morning from a teacher at IS 318 with the news that former principal and current District 14 Superintendent Fred Rubino had died of a heart attack early this morning. Shock waves are reverberating throughout the Williamsburg/Greenpoint community and beyond.

Why do I feel like I did the day John Lennon died?

I knew Fred more by reputation than personally since his early days as a teacher at IS 318 in the 80's but got to chat with him in later years when he was an AP and then principal. Fred had been offered numerous principal jobs and often was pulled from the school for months at a time to help fix schools in trouble. But he was loyal to the school and waited years for his mentor Al Fierstein to retire before taking the principal job.

When District 14 Supt James Quail retired 6 weeks ago, Fred was appointed as Superintendent --- as a matter of fact on Feb. 16 the night of the 2nd co-location hearing at MS 50. People in the district were so relieved that Fred was appointed and would be able to offer the district some cover from the attacks of the privatizers.

A major going away party was thrown for Fred by the IS 318/District 14 community. I am now kicking myself for not going to honor him.

Fred was a behind the scenes voice opposing ed deform. We have lost possibly the only Superintendent in the NYC schools who would have been willing to defend us against the onslaught of the privatizers. He was opposed to co-locations and to the closing of schools.

We not only lost a great guy, a wonderful family man and one of the more decent people but also a great educator and a warrior on the right side of the ed wars fence.

IS 318 was a school in great demand because of the array of programs the kids were offered. The chess team won the national championship beating out even the top private schools. A film about the team was premiered at the SXSW Film Festival, a very big thing. Here's the site: http://www.brooklyncastle.com/ and an article: Greenpoint Gazette:Chess-in-the-Schools: Brooklyn IS 318 National Champs

The school not only has chess, but robotics, sewing, yoga and more. One of my friends who was attacked over her low TDA in fact teaches these special programs full-time.

When slime bags from the Daily News went after the school and Fred a few weeks ago for the fact that IS 318 doesn't score as high as others and has a higher % of teachers with low TDAs, they naturally ignored reality.

Whereas most schools would never have extensive programs like yoga and sewing and robotics but use the time for test prep, IS 318 is into educating the entire child. Which is why it is so popular among the parents in the district.

Is it a surprise that the press would attack an outspoken principal who defends teacher union rights as this Gotham Schools piece from last March points out?

With tenure decisions under scrutiny, a principal tapes his own .

gothamschools.org/.../with-tenure-decisions-under-scrutiny-a-princip...
Mar 21, 2011 – Last year, when Fortunato Rubino, the principal of a high-performing Williamsburg middle school, wanted to grant tenure to one of his teachers, ...

I looked for some video of Fred. Here is a very brief clip of Fred challenging Success public relations flack Jennie Sedlis at a co-location hearing when she claimed they had 1400 signatures --- very brief at 3:17-20 of this video I caught him calling out:

You can also see Fred applauding Brian De Vale when Brian tried to present Cathie Black with a teddy bear at her Dist 14 appearance in Feb. 2011: at 6:27 of this video: http://youtu.be/ibwyGXD3CI4.

I grabbed a still of Fred applauding with delight.

I have a 30 minute clip where Fred challenged Tweedies at the same meeting at the 28 minute mark where he questions whether Tweed listens to the community and asks the CEC if they are ever listened to. https://vimeo.com/21717003

It turns out that my yoga teacher is best friends with Fred's sister-in-law. She was equally shocked when I told her this morning. "Every one of the people in that family were known for giving so much to people. Whatever someone needed they were there for them," she told me this morning. His sister-in-law who I know always spoke of Fred with reverence. He always went beyond the call of duty.

At a recent meeting, Fred came over and whispered, "Norm, you're ruining me. I waste an hour a day reading your blog with all the links. Keep 'em coming."

I will Fred.

We have not only lost a great man but warrior in the battle for public education.

Follow-up stories:

Fred (Rubino) and Frank (Freeman)

Assailed Teacher didn't know Fred at all but writes a moving tribute:

Fortunato Rubino: Profile of the Possible

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"A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

What media call "philanthropy" for the public schools are actually seed monies to establish a private "market" in publicly-financed education - an enterprise worth trillions if successfully penetrated by corporate America. Cory Booker, one of the "New Black Leaders" financed by the filthy rich, is key to creating a "nationwide corporate-managed schools network paid for by public funds but run by private managers.

"Ed Reformers" want to cash in on public education and to control its content and outcome, not improve it. Provide great education? Baby boomers had as close as this country has ever gotten to it when we were growing up. The Ed Reform Movement has no interest in seeing such a well-educated, democratically astute population ever again.

http://blackagendareport.com/content/cory-booker-clear-and-present-threat-public-education

History of the UFT Pre-Weingarten Years

This award-winning series of articles by Jack Schierenbeck originally appeared in the New York Teacher in 1996 and 1997.

Naturally, from a certain point of view. But, despite certain biases, Schierenbeck, a great guy, was one of the best NY Teacher reporters so this is worth reading. Jack suffered a debilitating stroke many years ago (I used to get secret donations to ed notes from him through a 3rd source.)

This chapter looks interesting:

Class struggles: The UFT story, part 3

“The schism in the union over radical politics [is] a major reason for stalling the growth of a teacher union for decades.” Revolutionary politics and ideology take center stage, as the original Teachers Union becomes a battlefield, pitting leftist against leftist and splitting the union.

Clarence Taylor's "Reds at the Blackboard" focused on the old Teachers Union which disbanded in 1964 after suffering from anti-left attacks.

Of course for another view, check out the review at New Politics of the Kahlenberg Bio on Shanker by Vera Pavone and me: Albert Shanker: Ruthless Neocon

Effective Union Organizing

A video series put together by Jason Mann from the British Columbia Federation of Teachers about social media and how to use it for effective union organizing.

The first series was called New Media For Union Activists Roadmap and it's still available on-line at:
http://www.newmediabootcamp.ca/welcome/
I watched some of them and need to rewatch as they are loaded with information.

The second series started last week and it's called "Online Campaigning for Union Activists"

You can sign up for this free series at :
http://act.bcfed.ca/online-campaigning-for-union-activists/

You Don't Have A Choice - Join the Revolt

Ex-Harlem Success Teacher Comments on Eva the Diva

Ex-HSA Teacher has left a new comment on your post "Fear and Loathing at Evil's Harlem Success Empire ...":

I am a former Harlem Success teacher. Not many people who work/worked for her like her very much. I once made the comment that she is very nice when I first was hired. Two of her closest colleague responded immediately almost in unison, "Eve is not nice!" Over time I realized that there was a lot of political games going on. Another colleague once said to me that he was tired of "being part of a political campaign." Sending out 15,000 applications for only 400 seats in a school is reprehensible. The money that paid for those mass mailings could have paid the yearly salary of another teacher not to mention the heartache of all those parents who applied but did not get a spot. She does good work trying to give disadvantaged students a quality public school education but at a great cost to staff AND the school's educational budget! school budget.

Davis Guggenheim Compared to Riefenstahl

“Waiting for Superman" is the second most intellectually dishonest piece of documentary work I have seen. It is surpassed only by Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will," the pro-Hitler propaganda classic, in that regard. Uses personal narratives of adorable children to create narrative suspense that overrides public policy discussion with pure emotion in unscrupulous attack on teachers and their unions, among others

Timothy Tyson
Professor of African American Studies and History
Duke University

How Teaching Experience Makes a Difference

Even as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Michelle Rhee and others around the nation are arguing for experienced teachers to be laid off regardless of seniority, every single study shows teaching experience matters. In fact, the only two observable factors that have been found consistently to lead to higher student achievement are class size and teacher experience, so that it’s ironic that these same individuals are trying to undermine both.
- Leonie Haimson on Parents Across America web site

Full article with charts here.

Weingarten/Gates Foundation announce drone-driven teacher evaluation

According to a press release issued by the Gates Foundation, the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, these three have entered a ground-breaking partnership to evaluate teachers utilizing the drone technology that has revolutionized warfare in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. A bird-size device floats up to 400 feet above a classroom and instantly beams live video of teachers in action to agents at desks at Teacher Quality Inspection Stations established by the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

When asked if the drones were authorized to drop bombs on teachers who exhibit inadequacy, Chester E. Finn, Jr., president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, replied, "Don't be ridiculous. Gates money puts other methods at our disposal."

Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.5-million-member American Federation of Teachers said the powerful union has signed on to the drone project...

More at Substance

The Real Reason Behind Push for Standardized Tests: It's All About the Adults

On standardized testing in our schools

A must read article about the standardized test industry.
Written by an insider who has worked as a test scorer, the article outlines a multinational industry based on an army of temporary workers paid by the piece at $0.30 to $0.70 per test, translated in the need to grade 40 tests per hour to make a $12 salary. The article goes on to show how the companies gauge the grading "results" based on the need to ensure new contracts to continue profiting off of our youth. The original article is from Monthly Review. Here it is on Schools Matter blog.

http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2010/12/on-growing-use-of-corporate-test.html

Parallels between America today and Germany in the 1920's and early 30's

"Resentment and obstruction are all the right wing in America have to peddle. Their policies are utterly discredited. Their ideology - even by its own standards - is a sham. They are so bereft of leaders, their de facto leader is a former drug addicted, thrice-divorced radio talk show host. That is literally the best they can muster. But they have built a national franchise inciting the downwardly mobile to blame the government, not the right, for their problems, exactly as Hitler did in the 1920s."

The US Is Facing a Weimar Moment

Published on Sunday, March 15, 2009 by CommonDreams.org

Chicago View of Unity/UFT on Charters

After many meetings and debates, the Chicago delegation succeeded in working with the New York United Federation of Teachers, Local 2 (UFT) to push the AFT to take stronger stands on charter school accountability and school closings — though many delegates from Chicago would have liked the language to have been even stronger.

Generally speaking, the New York delegation represented organizing charters as the best model for handling their role in reshaping unions, despite the fact that according to many reports few charter schools in New York have been organized as is the case in Chicago. This logic is the same touted by the Progressive Caucus of the AFT. The few that have been organized are a part of the UFT local though they have separate contracts negotiated with the help of UFT. The Chicago delegation reflection the mindset that allowing new charters to continue to proliferate while attempting to organize existing charters is an end game in which public schools and the union lose.

Jen Johnson, CTU, Local 1 in Substance

Ed Notes Greatest Hits: HSA Rally and Founding of GEM

SEE MY VIDEO ON HARLEM SUCCESS RALLY 2009:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEp7rg_L5JI

Angel Gonzalez and I attended that rally and used the footage to promote our conference on Mar. 28, 2009, which is where the concept of a group like GEM emerged. Until then we had basically been a committee of ICE working with the NYCORE high stakes testing group. The actions of Eva and crew helped spawn GEM. Mommie Dearest!!

I have more video somewhere. I was hoping to get Leni Riefenstahl to edit it but she died. We would have called it "Triumph of the Hedge Fund Operators."

Ed Notes Online

Ed Notes Extended

Monday, April 2, 2012

April 2, 2012 - A Giant is Lost: Fortunato (Fred) Rubino

With tenure decisions under scrutiny, a principal tapes his own .

Fred (Rubino) and Frank (Freeman)