Radio interview blasts holes in DOE's reported 'successes'

November 14, 10:31 AM

by Lorri Giovinco-Harte, New York City Education Examiner

We sometimes forget that the mayor of New York City owns one of the largest media outlets in the world. This has caused many critics to question how much influence Mayor Bloomberg has over information that is reported about his office, performance, and the agencies which are under his control.

We've seen how deeply the mayor's influence runs in relation to his determination to eliminate term limits. Tom Robbins at The Village Voice refers to Bloomberg's 'Velvet Coup' in quietly influencing important media outlets in his bid. Robbins writes:

Forgive me. Mike Bloomberg would never shut down newspapers or use brutal thugs against dissenters in order to hold onto power. He doesn't have to. He buys them.

Many argue that this influence extends to information that is reported about the school system which Bloomberg also controls. Parents, educators, and students often paint a very different picture of the 'successes' which are touted in some local papers. This morning, The Daily News ran an editorial which extolled the virtues of the mayor and chancellor, proclaiming:

There must be unrelenting, sustained leadership of the kind applied by Bloomberg and Klein.

The article discusses the vast improvements in graduation rates and test scores that have occurred under Bloomberg's control.

Twenty fours hours prior to this publication, however, two educational advocates engaged in a radio interview which painted a very different picture.

Parental advocate, Leonie Haimson, and educational advocate, Norm Scott, were guests on WBAI's morning show, Wake Up Call in which they refuted many of the reported statistics and improvements touted by the Bloomberg administration about the public schools.

Full story at:

http://www.examiner.com/x-903-New-York-City-Education-Examiner~y2008m11d14-Radio-interview-blasts-holes-in-DOEs-reported-successes

Joel Klein's Perfomance: Leonie and I on WBAI this Morning

UPDATE: David B. extracted just the portion of the program with Leonie and I.



The WBAI full program segment:
http://archive.wbai.org/files/mp3/081113_070001wuc.MP3

Our segment starts at 40:43 after Miriam Makeba sings.

I think I said that Klein persecuted (instead of prosecuted) Bill Gates during the anti-trust case. The host made the interesting point that Klein did not enforce anti-trust laws much beyond Microsoft. He went for the one case that would make him look good. Why are we not surprised?

WBAI may be doing something tonight around 7:30 or 8 on the same subject. I don't know who the guests are.

It's pretty interesting the ride this is being given.

At yesterday's UFT delegate assembly there was also a discussion and a resolution. The ICE attempt to amend it to expand things beyond Klein to the genre he represents was turned down.

Good work Lisa North and Michael Fiorillo in making some important points. While we focus on Klein, the idea that Michelle Rhee would also not be objectionable should also be raised. How long before Washington parents and teachers start their own petitions? I guess she has to be there longer than a year to alienate everyone, but she's doing even better than Klein at that.

Here is the text of what we handed out.

No Klein Or His Ilk In Obama Ed Dept.

ICE congratulates everyone who worked so hard to have Barack Obama elected US President. The multitudes of teachers who donated and worked for Obama expect that we will be respected by an Obama administration. We have suffered through a quarter century of teacher bashing in this country since the infamous A Nation at Risk was published. First, there was competency testing of teachers (supported by Hillary Clinton incidentally). Then, the one-way accountability system was introduced that blamed teachers for all of the social ills of the country. This led to the high-stakes testing movement which combined with Mayoral dictatorships over schools in many of our large cities. Blaming teachers became an acceptable form of discrimination. ICE states emphatically: TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF TEACHING BASHING IS ENOUGH! We must send real educators to Washington who will support an education policy that respects our work. ICE would like to see the following motion added to the agenda today:

Resolved, that the UFT will work to see that the Secretary and Under-secretary of Education share our values and we will toil to defeat any nominee such as Arne Duncan, Michelle Rhee, Joel Klein, Paul Vallas or any other potential Secretary of Education who supports corporate style, top-down, high stakes test crazed, teacher bashing accountability.

Klein for Ed Secty? Yes, We Had an Impact

NY Times Reporter Elissa Gutman writes about it Klein’s Name Is Floated, and Bloggers Object in the NY Times City Room.

I've had some recent disagreements with Mike Klonsky but this is one hell of a post on the reasons Klein is the worst choice.

I'm glad Gootman found our buddy Woodlass' comment on the Obama web site:

On a blog attached to the Obama campaign’s official Web site, a poster with the handle Woodlass from New York, N.Y., pleaded with President-elect Obama to pass over Mr. Klein, writing:

He hasn’t made schools in this city any better than they had been, because it’s obvious students aren’t doing so well and neither are the teachers. He excluded parents and the rank-and-file from the decision-making process, poured millions into machines to crunch data for no practical purpose, and he neither respects or defends truth.

One of the important points in this outpouring of antagonism to Joel Klein is that so much of it comes from parents. When Klein spokesperson David Cantor said the complaints are from entrenched interests, one parent wrote:

Dear Mr. Cantor,

I am one of the signatories in a recent letter asking President-elect Obama to appoint an education secretary with real experience in education. I am a public school parent in New York City. I'd be interested in knowing what you consider my "entrenched interest in policies that have never worked." My entrenched interest in my child getting a good education?

Yours sincerely,
Ann Kjellberg

Believe me, we're just scratching the surface. Notice there is not one teacher or parent defending Klein. (Time for Bloomberg to get out his checkbook.) Since we focus on teachers, how does the business community view a leader who alienates the entire body expected to implement his policies? In the real corporate world, it is curtains. Maybe that is what happened to Klein in his last job before being pushed out at Bertelsman and into the Chancellor of the (gulp) NYC school system.

Here's the petition if you want to sign. It says educators but parents (as Leonie Haimson says, kids' first teachers) should sign too.
http://www.petitiononline.com/campd227/petition.html

Joel Klein's reign of destruction by Leonie Haimson

UPDATE:
David B has chipped in.
Maybe there should be a poster in every school.
Click to enlarge.

I posted this must read follow-up to our last De-Kleining America post at Norms Notes.

By the way, many of Leonie's comments on Joel Klein can also be applied to Michelle Rhee and all the other corporate non-educator public ed destroyers.

UPDATE:
David Bloomfield, Brooklyn College education professor (and lawyer) and NYC public school parent sent his thoughts to The Nation- I posted it in the comments section.

De-Kleining America- Updated

You know those scenes in movies where people put their hands over their eyes in horror at an accident that was about to happen?

That is how NYC educators and parents feel since the ugly rumor in the Huffington Post that NYC Chancellor Joel Klein is a possible choice for Education Secretary in the Obama administration. The Ed blogosphere in NYC has been hot and heavy with rumors.

Can you get worse than Margaret Spellings?

Hell Yes. We've been getting emails of this type:

Geez, talk about discouraging news! I just heard that Obama is considering Chan. Klein as Secretary of Education! Does anybody have a way to get the word to him about how most of us feel about the job Klein/Bloomberg have done here?

A Voice Cries Out says, "Ok, ok, stop screaming" and put this up on the advice Joel Klein would give to the nation. Here are a few delicious headings:

Numbers in the toilet? Fudge ‘Em!

Violent Incidents in Schools Getting You Down? Bury ‘Em!

[I especially like this one as it reminds me of a Frankenstein movie - Actually "Young Frankenstein" in honor of the numerous teen principals who have been "made" under Klein.]
Make Your Own Principals

Pack Kids in as Tightly as Possible

Oh the choices we have to make here in the big city. Wish for Klein to go to Washington so he can hang out with his buddy Michelle Rhee? Or do what we can to prevent the Kleining of America?

To me the choice is easy. Despite the UFT attempt to make it seem Mayor Bloomie and Klein are not joined at the hip, things might even get worse if Joel was to go to Washington. Mayor Mike could pick Rhee, who might want to get out of DC before they tar and feather her, to replace Klein. Klein could be US Ed Secty and run the DC schools Rhee has left standing further into the ground. With a financial crisis, think of the savings? But it gets worse.

George Schmidt thinks Obama will go in a different direction:

Here in Chicago, we're reading about how Obama is going to choose Arne Duncan
(Chicago's version of Klein).
Anyone want to bet that in D.C. they're reading about how Michelle Rhee has the inside track? One thing's sure. It's bad.

Obama plays basketball with Arne Duncan. Jeez. The teachers who supported Obama may be in for a shock.

How about real educators like Linda Darling-Hammond?

Or Diane Ravitch, who I disagree with on some fundamentals due to her long-time advocacy of the standards and testing movement, but has been one of the leaders of the De-Kleining battle here in NYC and has been having those wonderful conversations with one of my teaching heroines, Deborah Meier? Diane would represent some sense of rationality and compromise. Besides, many of us have grown very fond of her personally. It was great to see NY Times columnist David Brooks' mention Diane in this context today.

NYC teachers are willing to continue suffering and are taking the high road, starting campaigns to tell the Obama world all about the wonderful world of Klein. Under Assault (Keep Educating Obama) tried to

find a "Contact Us" link on the Obama website to tell him he should under no circumstances consider Joel Klein as his Secretary of Education. The site didn't have a such a link, but it did have something spectacular: an option to create your own blog right in the Obama internet heartland.

So here's the letter I wrote to him this morning via my new blog on my.barackobama.com: "Please don't choose Joel Klein for Sec'y of Education." (Don't choose Weingarten either, by the way.)
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/woodlassnyc/gGgzzN

And things are growing as The Nation is getting involved. NYU Education Professor Bree Picower sent this along to the NYCORE listserve:

Dear Supporters of Public Education,

Many of you have by now heard the rumor that NYC School Chancellor Joel Klein is being considered as Obama's pick for Secretary of Education.
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/31/obamas-secretary-of-educa_n_139775.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/04/AR2008110404573.html).

As people committed to public education, this strikes a hard and fast blow in the euphoria that we have felt since Tuesday. But it's not too late to make our voices heard once again. Let's build on the sense of representation and democracy we have just experienced to send a clear message to the Obama Administration to STOP THE DE-KLEIN of PUBLIC EDUCATION. Community organizations across the New York City and country are teaming up with The Nation to write a communal letter and petition to the Obama Administration on why Klein is a mistake for this position.

This is where we need your help!
Please submit to the Nation a bullet point of a few sentences of why you think Klein's appointment would be a mistake. This should be based on your experience in education as a student, teacher, parent, organizer, etc. If appropriate, include relevant data or citations. Also include your name and affiliation/role.

Particular themes that you could write about:
-issues of community voice and input
-corporate/private interest vs. public interest
-Issues of instruction and curriculum
-particular issues: high stakes testing, military recruitment, school safety policies, special ed, ELL...
-union representation/ treatment
-Issues around race, racism, and representation
-Issues of equity
-transparency and public decision making
-etc.

Please send your submissions to The Nation ASAP at habiba@thenation.com and cc: info@nycore.org
Please also post your submission to the Education Section of Obama's Website at http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/mypolicy.

This article is going online on Monday, so time is of the essence!

Here is what Bree wrote:

Rather than take the advice of educational experts, Chancellor Klein repeatedly championed and implemented policies that support corporate interests and Mayor Bloomberg. For example, in 2004, Bloomberg and Klein ignored the input of parents, teachers and educational experts in their attempt to push through a high stakes third grade testing policy. Despite testimonials from educational experts and community members against this plan, Bloomberg fired and replaced members of their advisory panel that were not going to vote to pass their bill. "Although Mr. Klein said they had resigned, the three panel members said in interviews that they had been tersely dismissed and had intended to vote against the mayor's plan (New York Times, 2004)”. Is this how we want federal education policy handled?
Bree Picower, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, New York University

Lisa North from ICE sent this along:

I am sorry to say that here in NYC you cannot link positive educational reform with the name Chancellor Klein. Dedicated arts moneys in school budgets have been removed and replaced with money for school data inquiry teams. There have been few effective new teaching and learning initiatives or programs since the beginning of Klein's term. Only a massive amount of testing as huge amounts of time and money have been spent on accountability via testing. Do we want large spikes in test scores from teaching to the test OR students educated to be productive members of society? Shouldn't educational reform be about teaching and learning?

Sean Ahern chimed in on ICE-mail:

I think the AFTUFT leadership would look forward to collaborating on the national level with Klein as they have locally for the past eight years.

The UFT/AFT leadership holds a charter membership in the corporate education reform going back to A Nation At Risk in 1982 when Obama was an undergrad and they show no signs of jumping ship now.

Parents and school based educators in NYC who do not share the perspective of the AFT leadership will have to speak out on our own behalf asking that Obama look at the facts not the spin on eight years of "Put Children First".

NYC schools have among the lowest graduation rates, are among the most segregated, have one of the highest rates of teacher turnover, and since 2001 there has been a 40% decline in the number of new Black and Latina educators hired. What about this picture merits a promotion? To the extent that some good things go on in city classrooms is a testament to the determination of the people in the trenches who carry on in spite of Tweed.

Obama said he would listen to the people so let the people speak. What do the Parents Associations, the CEC's, the SLTs, the students, the chapter leaders, the school based Administrators and teachers have to say? This is the time to speak up.

Klein is experienced but so is a used car. Obama should look under the hood before he buys otherwise he may be stuck with a lemon, Remember Bush's first Education Secretary ? How long was it before the truth about the Houston miracle came to light? Two years? I give even less time for the facts about "Put Children First" to emerge. They already have locally. Klein as Education Secretary? Not a change I can believe in .

Peace,
Sean Ahern

I just spoke to a buddy working out of the central beast at Tweed who wants Klein to be nominated.

"Oh, so you can get rid of him," I said?

"No. Because the spot light of a nomination will expose him for his failed policies - the phony grad rates and test scores and complete failures from messed up bus routes to the recent talented and gifted farce." And all the stuff in between.

How much would you give to see Diane Ravitch and Leonie Haimson testifying at a Klein nomination hearing?

Hmmmm! Hold the presses.

What's in YOUR Wallet? Ask the Tweedies

One minute it was there. And the next it was gone. Meredith Kolodner's article in the Daily News about the wealth of top Tweed officials suddenly disappeared from the web site soon after it was posted when Tweed complained to the higher ups at the newspapers. The lost story was reported by Elizabeth Green at Gotham Schools.

My understanding is that the story was slated to run today both in the newspaper and online, but then got scrapped late last night. This appears to have happened because of an outside intervention, since the story had already been uploaded to the paper’s Web site, meaning it had gone all the way through the editing process. Word of the decision to kill the story — not postpone or delay or just put on the Web, but kill — came to both print and Web designers, who dutifully destroyed it, except for one thing: the Web headline, which was still visible this morning.

Leonie Haimson and the gang at the NYC Public School Parent blog used mouth to mouth resusication to bring the story back to life.

After a slew of negative revelations about the way Tweed botched the Gifted and talented admissions process so that it became much less diverse, schools have remained hugely overcrowded, they are paying through the nose for personal couriers and consultants, and the $80 million supercomputer ARIS that is a massive failure and waste of money, one wonders why the extreme sensitivity on this particular issue?

More from Leonie and the revived story at the NYCPSP blog.

Ed Note: When Meredith Kolodner was at The Chief her reporting on NYC education and other matters was always outstanding. And we hope the gig at the Daily News which seems so much under the Bloomberg heel will allow her the freedom to continue that work. Elizabeth Green is continuing her great work from the NY Sun at Gotham. While teachers generally mistrust members of the press, these 2 have always been reliable in getting a teacher point of view out there.

Politics and Schools Update: Tim Rehm Gets It

Even when it's not part of a lesson, there's apparently no law against teachers and other school employees wearing campaign buttons. Cornwall Superintendent Timothy Rehm agrees wholeheartedly that students have a right to wear buttons.

I knew Tim Rehm for years when he worked in District 14 (Williamsburg) and eventually became principal of PS 196 a few blocks up the road from my school, PS 147 on Bushwick Ave. His dad Bob was a high level official in the district office.

When I hear the attacks on the pre-mayoral control system, I think of the quality of people like Tim who received accolades as a principal and his school was very well run. He went on to be a deputy Superintendent on Long Island before becoming a Superintendent upstate. He is the kind of man who will never be looked at as a chancellor in the NYC system or any system under mayoral control, which will look everywhere but educators as the solution.

I'd bet my pension that Cornwall and 95% of the school districts in this country would laugh at the idea of handing their schools over to someone like Joel Klein.

From the Times Herald-Record
Political buttons OK for teachers in Hudson Valley
By Michael Randall

October 27, 2008

Ban the campaign buttons?

Parents will likely see a lot of political play in the region's schools between now and Nov. 4. And while a New York City judge has banned teachers there from wearing campaign buttons, local teachers are unrestricted.

Here campaign buttons and other political paraphernalia are generally welcomed, especially when they're part of a lesson, like the one taking place this week and next at the Tuxedo Park School.

Students are mounting a mock campaign with student-made signs for Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama; a debate in which eighth-grade students will play the roles of the major-party candidates; and a vote on Election Day. They'll see how their results compare to the real thing at an assembly on Nov. 7.

"I wanted the students to understand the significance of (the electoral process)," said Christine McDonald, coordinator of the history department.

Even when it's not part of a lesson, there's apparently no law against teachers and other school employees wearing campaign buttons.

Jonathan Burman, a lawyer with the state Education Department, noted state Education Commissioner Richard Mills backed a school board's decision allowing employees to wear buttons supporting candidates, saying they had a free-speech right to do so.

Burman did add that decision applied to a school election, not a political one.

Yet earlier this month, a judge upheld New York City's barring of teachers from wearing political campaign buttons.

While it's acceptable for teachers to post political material on union bulletin boards, or distribute it in their mailboxes, the judge said, the ban on campaign buttons reflects a judgment about the buttons' potential impact, not an attempt to stifle free speech. The union might appeal.

Can students wear buttons? A booklet issued jointly by the state's School Boards Association and Bar Association says students have a right to wear buttons as long as they don't "substantially interfere" with the educational process or the rights of others.

Local school officials said the issue seldom comes up.

Cornwall Superintendent Timothy Rehm agrees wholeheartedly that students have a right to wear buttons.

As for teachers, Cornwall has no official policy for staff, and Rehm said it's left to building principals to deal with the matter as needed.

Rehm said teachers should not "bring political views into the classroom," although using buttons or signs in a lesson is OK.

At Newburgh Free Academy, Principal Peter Copeletti said complaints about buttons never arise, but the school tries to ensure students get a balanced message on politics in the classroom.

"In our social studies classes, and also our journalism classes, we make sure we portray both sides of the picture," he said.

New York State United Teachers spokesman Carl Korn teachers should be given credit for knowing when to politick and when not to politick.

"I think teachers know how to balance their roles," he said.

mrandall@th-record.com

Eighth-grader Emma Zahren-Newman exercises free speech at Tuxedo Park School on Friday.

The Next Education Secretary: Another Horror Story?

UPDATE: Buried in this post and the comments section is my comment that Bill Ayres was an anti-union leftist (based on the elitism of the weather underground). Fred Klonsky disputed that. I backed off. Then Michael Fiorillo followed up and nailed Ayres as an arrogant elitist supporter of the Chicago school model of "reform". I'm posting Michael's comment as a stand alone right above this.

Susan Ohanian posted this Cleveland Plain Dealer article dealing with the next Education secretary with this comment:

On education, attention is focused on who McCain, Obama would name education secretary. We know McCain's possibilities are scary and most of Obama's are too. Just enter the names in a 'search'.

Susan has been a major supporter of George Schmidt's struggle against the Chicago 14 years of the mayoral control/corporate model of educational reform. The very same basis of the Educational Equality Project being trumpeted by Al Sharpton, Joel Klein, Mike Bloomberg, and John McCain. Obama hasn't signed onto it but supports some of the thrust.

Remember, his connections with Bill Ayres* was due to serving on an educational commission that has supported this Chicago model.

Underlying much of these "reforms" is removing schools from union influence (closing schools, creating charters, forced school choice that destroys neighborhood schools, etc., etc.) The two Chicago Superintendents in all these years have been Paul Vallas (failure in Philly and now heading the New Orleans mess that resulted in firing just about every union teacher) and former pro basketball player Arne Duncan whose mom had influence.

So I'm scratching my head over these excerpts from the Plain Dealer:

In a city where so much works well, Chicago's public schools seem to have improved little since the days a decade ago when Obama headed a philanthropic drive here that spent $150 million but did little to improve the educational opportunities for the city's children.

And don't forget Chicago schools CEO Arne Duncan [for Ed Secty], a friend and adviser with whom Obama often plays basketball. Obama recently accompanied Duncan on a visit to Dodge Renaissance Academy...

You mean the same Obama's buddy Arne Duncan who has been in charge of a school system that is still failing under mayoral control after all these years?

In spite of the dismay people involved with education in NYC at all levels feel about the prospect of another 4 years of BloomKlein, one of the positives will be the loss of their legacy as having improved the schools as the number of better performing kids are wrung out of the system and into charter schools. What happens when most of the large large high schools are closed and there are few union rules left, if any and there's no one to blame? There's only so much manipulation of statistics and phony grad rates they can squeeze out. Kids who were in the 1st grade when they took over will supposedly be graduating from high school in 2013. If researchers explore this cohort they will discover the true horrors of the BloomKlein years when many of these high school "graduates" will find themselves in remedial college programs and the very same business community that supports Bloomberg with such fervor will find their potential hires with as few real skills as they had 12 years ago.

See Manhattan Panel for Educational Policy (Bloomberg's illegal renaming of the Board of Education) Patrick Sullivan, the only BloomKlein critic, outline what he sees for a Bloomberg 3rd term at the NYC Public School Parents blog.

Oh, there's one more nugget in the Plain Dealer article:

"Now you have an interesting array of people whom you can't really characterize," [Randi] Weingarten said. "You have to talk in shades of gray. Things never get implemented in education when you talk about litmus tests." That's why Weingarten is spending every weekend on the road campaigning for a guy who talks about performance pay.


*Bill Ayres [probably one of those anti-teacher union lefties- I jumped the gun on this one - see Fred Klonsky comment and my reply. I took some license here based on some of the attacks I've seen on teachers by the so-called progressive left. I accept Fred's point of view.]

TAGNYC: The Two Big Lies

Share a copy with your colleagues.

Click to enlarge.

Some in Australia Prepare "Big Welcome" for Joel Klein Visit

To be forewarned is to be forearmed! - Leonie Haimson

And forewarned and forearmed our Aussie friends will be. It looks like the blogging efforts of the NYC Public School Parents blog, Eduwonkette, Ed Notes, NYC Educator, A Voice in the Wilderness, Under Assault, Diane Ravitch and all the other watchdogs of the Joel Klein theory of shock doctrine management of schools have had their words reach into the Land of Oz. One of our correspondents in Canberra, Trevor Cobbald of "Save Our Schools," has been helping prepare the way in giving Klein the reception he deserves when he visits in November.

According to the Australian paper the Age, the Australian teachers union and education advocates are not buying the unreliable NYC school grading system that Joel Klein is pitching to them down under. Don't expect the union to lie down and roll over like the UFT.

The federal president of the Australian Education Union, Angelo Gavrielatos, said the Australian Government should not be importing "flawed" approaches from the US, a nation that was consistently outperformed by countries such as Finland which did not publicly rank schools.

Canberra-based public education advocacy group Save Our Schools last week called on Ms Gillard to release the details of her performance reporting plan to ensure it did not reproduce the problems of the New York system, which it said had led to league tables and dissimilar schools being compared with each other.

"Let us have an informed debate while Klein is here and not just a one-sided presentation to bolster Gillard's secret negotiations with state and territory governments," SOS spokesman Trevor Cobbold said. "It seems it is all being decided behind closed doors with the axe of Commonwealth funding held over the heads of state and territory governments to ensure compliance."

Doesn't Klein have a school system to run? I guess it's not that hard a thing to do as he and Michelle Rhee seem to have a hell of a lot of time for politics. But that is what this ed reform thing is all about, mate! Well, guys, throw another shrimp on the barbie for Joel so he doesn't go home hungry.

Full story: http://www.theage.com.au/national/education/a-new-york-state-of-mind-20081012-4yyk.html?page=-1

Joe Klein to visit Oz

Trevor Cobbold from down under sends us another example of how the Bloomberg/Klein/Rhee, etc. gang race all over the world to try to impose their failing vision of ed reform. It's not educational, mate, it's an ideological crusade.

Will Klein wash up to the Aussie shore like a Bondi cigar?

Norm,

You will be interested to know that Joe Klein has been invited by the Aust. Govt Education Minister, Julia Gillard, to visit Autsralia in November.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/10/05/2382401.htm

Her idea is to use Klein to convince our State Govts. to sign up to a her proposed school reporting system to be based on the New York model.

This is going to provide a good opportunity for teacher unions and parent organisations to focus on the failings of the NY reporting system. I would appreciate it if you can forward any useful material or sources you or your colleagues have on the problems of the New York system.

I will keep you informed of developments on the visit.

Trevor Cobbold
Save Our Schools

OK, gang. Let's help Trevor out. No diatribes. Just the facts, ma'am, just the facts. Forget the "look what they did to the teachers" stories because the public not only doesn't care, but thinks teachers deserve it. Leave those fights for inside the sell-out UFT.

The fudging of test scores, the phony grad rates and the use of "seat time" to hand kids diplomas, the forced migration of kids from one closed school to the next, the high class sizes, the enormous sums spent outside the classroom, etc, etc, etc.

Randi, Joel, in PR Joust of ATR's

You won't find many of these in the UFT proposals but you will find lots of rhetoric

UPDATED WITH ICE RESPONSE TO DOE "FACTS" and
see Elizabeth Green in today's NY Sun - I posted it on Norms Notes.

Comment from an ATR:

With all the anti-teacher and anti-ATR press out there this week, why is the UFT so silent????????????? Why no letters to the editors, no op-ed rebuttals? I am hearing from my fellow ATR's who were sent far and away this week and there are some real horror stories out there. And I have no idea what my rights are. Can I be made to sit in an office one period a day to do their bidding? Is this just something ATR's do since I don't see regular teachers doing it? Where is my file? If I am observed as a day-to-day sub, what can they critique me on? etc etc etc.

The silence from the union is deafening.

The silence has ended with the interchange of letters below between Randi and Joel and a UFT press conference that echoes the one held years ago on age discrimination. Sort of. (More aboutthe press conference later.) Both letters and a Tweed fact sheet (definitely read the "facts" on ATR's) are posted at Norms Notes. Also read the full ICE take on these "facts" Excerpt:

In no surprise to anyone, the DOE "Fact Sheet" on excessed teachers distorts the picture. They claim that most teachers in excess are finding jobs. However, a closer look at their numbers shows that their open market hiring system isn't working for most excessed teachers. By looking at the DOE's own data which we show below, we can clearly see that well under 50% of excessed teachers are being hired at new schools through the open market.... Their own facts don't lie. We need stronger contractual protections, not weaker ones.

My response it the usual. The UFT is more concerned with perception than reality. Prime: how the public perceives them. PR is king. Thus, being out in front with a rigorous defense of ATR's leads to the conclusion they created the system in the first place by giving away seniority rights.

How to defend ATR's? Unity suits say "You're still getting paid." They have no concept of what being a teacher is when they so blithely accept that you can be in the system for 20 years and be demoted to a day to day sub on a dime.

Some of our Unity brethren are crying in comments on the Norms Notes blog: Why blame us? Klein changed the funding. Boo, hoo. Poor dears. Got caught with their pants down.

Talk is cheap. To get anywhere the UFT would have to take a very hard stand on issues Klein wants badly and refuse all cooperative modes with the Klein. Target a cherished Tweed program and go after it full speed ahead by mobilizing teachers as refusniks. Without teeth, it's all about PR hot air.

Unity Caucus' Rick Mangone, chapter leader of the soon to be closed Lafayette HS in Brooklyn , has been commenting here and on norm's notes about the wonderful upcoming (it came) UFT press conference and how great it would be for ATR's. Again, later on that.

As you read the Randi/Joel interchange below, keep in mind that it is easy for Randi to propose anything. And just as easy for Klein to reject it. Now what? Do Unity people think that these words of Randi's will be enough to soothe the boo boo of the 2005 contract, which by the way Rick Mangone avidly supported? Teeth, man, teeth.

Right after Klein rejects Randi's proposals, what do her words mean? Does the UFT leadership believe ATR's will bow down and say, "Thank you, Randi. We knew you were with us. And when I am covering subjects I never imagined I would be teaching, I often think of how your words help me go on." Teeth, man, teeth.

I think just a few ATR's might be looking for some incisers to back up Randi's words.

Here's the letter Randi sent Klein on Sept. 24 calling for:

1. An immediate hiring freeze at the central Department of Education, and at the school and district level for any license areas where there are people in excess and available for placement.

2. A redeployment of teachers and other excessed personnel in the Absent Teacher
Reserve (ATR) into vacancies as they arise.

3. Develop a program to recertify excessed personnel in additional license areas, so they are available to fill vacancies as they arise.

Note in Klein's response how he threw her words back at her (emphasis mine):

I want to reiterate that we will not alter our policy on forced placement of teachers. It makes sense to try to limit the significant and growing cost of unselected excessed teachers in the Absent Teacher Reserve, but doing so by forcing these teachers into schools is not the answer. A return to this discredited practice, which harmed our schools for decades, would, once more, require schools to accept teachers regardless of whether principals and faculty believe they are the best candidates or good fits for positions.

At our announcement of the School-wide Performance Bonus awards last week, you and I both emphasized the critical need for teacher quality and effective collaboration among teachers and supervisors. You said, “We know, and I think there has become a real consensus in this City, that teacher quality and collaboration are real keys – pivotal keys – to turning around student achievement in schools.” Forced placement contradicts both of those goals. It would be far better to give excessed teachers a reasonable period of time to find a position before they are placed on unpaid leave. Such a policy would mitigate the cost while maintaining fairness and obviating the need for forced placement and all the negative repercussions a return to that system would bring.

Read both letters in full at Norm's Notes.

Of course Leo Casey chimed in with this analyis on Edwize:

First, as a result of the NYC Department of Education’s policy of school closings, there has been the massive displacement of hundreds of educators through no fault of their own. Second, as a consequence of the DoE’s changes to the school budget process, there has been the introduction of budgetary disincentives for the hiring and placement of experienced, senior teachers, a category into which many ATRs fall. And third, there has been the DoE’s gross mismanagement of its educational human resources, which has gone from bad to worse this last year. An intellectually honest account of the swelling ranks of the ATRs would address in a forthright manner each of these three developments.

Gee, Leo. Ya think? School closings? Ooooh! The UFT just spent the last umpteenth years cooperating with school closings. Exhibit #1: Randi Weingarten saying Lafayette HS SHOULD HAVE BEEN CLOSED. See any ATR's over there Leo?

And they changed the budget process on you? Oh, my! You just missed those issues when you'all pushed the 2005 contract down everyone's throats? As to Leo's use of the words "intellectually honest," his picture is in the dictionary – next to the antonym.

EEP Marches to Denver

The true agenda of the EEP revealed: It's all about politics, not education. Children First, indeed.

Schools in Washington and NYC are about to open. A major contract issue exists in DC. Yet the leaders of those school systems are in Denver trying to get the Democrats to endorse their program:

credit recovery
false graduation rates
over crowded buildings
rote learning
inflaming racial tensions

(thanks to Voice for the list and to David B for the graphic)

The Ties That Bind

In recent posts we have tied what looks like the unlikely combination of Randi Weingarten and Joel Klein, who on the surface seem to have so much to disagree about.

But sometimes, there are ties that bind. The key is to follow the Clinton connection.

In a post back in December (Triangulation - Clintonism as a Model for UFT Policy) we speculated that there has been a merger between the Clintons and the UFT/AFT.

This is a given when you follow the bouncing ball of a union/Clinton relationship that goes way back to the Shanker years of the early to mid-80's when Al Shanker and the Clintons established an ed reform partnership.

Joel Klein's relationship to the Clintons has been given less scrutiny, but is also a strong one.

David B came up with this item from a Jan. '94 Time magazine article:

As their somewhat wonky way of celebrating New Year's, President Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton and their daughter Chelsea joined about a thousand other people on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, for the "Renaissance Weekend," an annual gathering the Clintons have attended for a decade, at which successful liberal yuppies talk about policy and personal growth and make contacts.

Hillary's Favorite Activity: Hanging out with friends, including FDIC nominee Ricki Tigert, attorney Renee Ring, and Patsy Davis, wife of lawyer Joel Klein, who replaced Vince Foster.


According to Wikipedia, Klein's current wife Nicole Seligman, is an attorney who "appeared with Clinton when he testified before the grand jury in the Monica Lewinsky scandal, and she spoke on his behalf before the Senate at the impeachment trial.

Klein was the U.S. Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Justice Department's Antitrust Division in the Clinton administration.

From the Horse's Mouth: Weingarten Wants In

We picked this tidbit up over at Russo's TWIE.

"We are gratified that Senator McCain has endorsed the principles of the Education Equality Project, joining education, civil rights, and elected officials across America who are working together to bring meaningful reform to our nation's public schools," wrote New York City Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein and Reverend Al Sharpton on Friday. "

[From] incoming AFT president Randi Weingarten:
“Sen. McCain clearly has his talking points down about education, but we’re still waiting to see any comprehensive plan...

NOW COMES THE DELICIOUS PART: She wants credit.

"Sen. McCain’s naiveté about education reform is only as stunning as his hypocrisy. He takes a cheap shot by demonizing teachers, yet lauds the very education reforms that I collaborated on with his new best friends, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and School Chancellor Joel Klein. [my emphasis]


You mean - Weingarten collaborated? You'd a never known. But then there were all those Vichy references in Ed Notes. "The UFT/Unity caucus leadership function like the French Vichy government in WWII. They ought to serve Vichyssoise at Exec. Bd. meetings."

David B - time to add a 5th Amigo.

The Fourth Amigo

UPDATE
GBN News commentary on the unlikely alliance between Joel Klein and Al Sharpton





Is that guy on the right handing Sharpton a million bucks under the cloak?



Photoshopping by DB as he strikes again

NYC Parents Deconstruct Klein/Sharpton/McCain Farce

....at the NYC public school parent blog.

Where did Sharpton get the million bucks?
Who is funding the Education Equality Project?
Is there a hidden 4th amigo with initials MB?

photoshopped by DB

Credit Recovery: The Civil Rights Issue of Our Time

If the NY Times says education is a civil rights issue, it must be so.

In 10 Things I Learned in Summer School Credit Recovery, Learners Inherit at Chancellor's New Clothes exposes the fault lines in the Sharpton/Klein promotion that they are addressing the achievement gap, which Klein loves to brand as "the civil rights issue of our time."

1. Students are only required to attend 4 out of 10 days to receive a passing grade and full credit.

Obviously, graduating people who show up 4 out of 10 days is a way to fight for civil rights.

When teachers take a few days past their 10 allotted, they get nasty letters in their files. And sometimes, even U-ratings. What kind of message are we sending to our kids when they see that happen to their teachers?

We can't wait to hear from the business comunity when their workers show up 40% of the time.


And they're so interested in quality teachers.

5. Not having posters on the walls of a classroom during a ten day course is cause for receiving “2″ out of “5″ on an evaluation.

Note how the pro-Bloomberg/Klein press in NYC and the pundits nationwide ignore this aspect of raising the grad rates as they report on Klein and Sharpton traipsing around the country promoting the civil rights issue of our time. (Does anyone in the press ever ask Klein and Michelle Rhee how they have so much time to promote a political agenda when they have large school systems to run? I never had all that time as a classroom teacher.)

This is actually racist policy of using a phony system of making it look like kids are being educated when in fact they are unprepared for the job market.

So who will the corporate/business community world blame since the union obstruction is feeble? Watch the BloomKlein spin doctors after they leave start crying how it is not their fault but that political insterest like the union were able to rear their heads once they left.

Rhee, Klein, Kopp, Feinberg in the land of the KKK...

... and by association, Al Sharpton too, in this incisive post by A Voice over at Chancellor's New Clothes over these speakers at the conservative, and possibly racist, American Enterprise Institute. Irony #1 amongst many: Sharpton's role in the attacks by the black community on the Korean grocers in Brooklyn in the 90's.

Klein and Weingarten On the Road

Elizabeth Green has another interesting piece in the NY Sun:
Schools Chancellor Reaches Into Presidential Contest

"In a speech to the National Council of La Raza's convention in California yesterday, Mr. McCain said he supports charter schools, efforts to "weed out" incompetent teachers, and plans to "hold schools accountable" for their results. He also called improving schools attended by poor students "the civil rights challenge of our time" — the same phrasing Mr. Klein often uses."

It looks like McCain will endorse their campaign.

Klein and Sharpton met with Obama yesterday.

Obama will be a little more careful but will sign on to a lot of this plan since most politicians love to talk about accountability and quality teachers. And the tough liberals like Kahlenberg (include the AFT/UFT/Clinton wing) bring up student/parent accountability to justify their support for a phony system of school and teacher accountability.

Green also reports on Weingarten's plan to call for revisions in NCLB.

Speaking at the union's national convention in Chicago, Ms. Weingarten yesterday laid out a vision for a revamped federal education law that would promote "community schools."

She said such schools would serve needy children by incorporating many government services into one building, services that do not just include schooling but medical care, child care, and homework assistance.

Funny how Weingarten did not propose these ideas all these years in NYC where the union could have used its muscle with the state legislature to try it out in a few schools. Just one reason why I view the entire plan as a PR move to make it appear she is for the more comprehensive Richard Rothstein approach to educational reform, while in NYC she went along with much of Klein's plans.

I mean, if you never tried to get this done in NY where the UFT was one of the major lobbyists, why would you would people take it seriously when it is proposed on a national level?

I guess on the national level she can take stronger stands since she will never have to negotiate a contract. This will lead to favorable press similar to what BloomKlein have gotten - much of the praise has been due to their ability to get Weingarten to capitulate in exchange for money.


Ed Week's blogger reports on the convention (live feeds on the sidebar) also talked about how Randi attacked NCLB in her speech.

She called the federal law a four-letter word, and vowed to work to overhaul it. NCLB, she said, is not about teaching, but about testing.


The Ed Week blogger even used the word, "Ouch!"

I would use multiple 4 letter words to describe just how much bullshit this is.

Watch what Randi Weingarten does, not what she says when it comes to testing and NCLB. Note she says she will work to "overhaul" not abolish NCLB. She and her predecessor Sandy Feldman were supporters of the original NCLB and Sandy sat on the commission to draft it. Has Randi ever said it was wrong to play this role?

She talks about the evils of testing in NYC but then signed on to an agreement that will give teachers bonuses for raising test scores that have proven to be bogus.

When mayor Bloomberg and Joel Klein bragged about their high test scores, who was standing on the podium with them?

When Eli Broad gave Bloomberg and Klein the Broad prize for raising test scores and phone grad rates, who was there in Washington with them to accept congratulations? Guess?

TRIPLE OUCH!