Written and edited by Norm Scott:
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Three pillars of The Resistance – providing information on current ed issues, organizing activities around fighting for public education in NYC and beyond and exposing the motives behind the education deformers. We link up with bands of resisters. Nothing will change unless WE ALL GET INVOLVED IN THE STRUGGLE!
Massive screw up by DOE leading to judge to dismiss the case
against Dewey HS principal Elvin -- who engaged in massive credit
recovery schemes, according to voluminous evidence, to boost HS
graduation rates. This story was well-documented and reported on for months by the NYP, the Daily News, and Marcia Kramer of CBS News. Since
DOE refused to invalidate the credits nor to provide any back up
evidence of the charges, the judge threw the case out before it even
came to trial. More evidence of incompetence on the part
of OSI, which dragged its feet for months, DOE's internal audit Dept
(which apparently failed to find fault with the credits of the fake
courses) and the legal department at DOE. ... Leonie Haimson, NYCEdNews listserve
I know a lot about the Elvin/Dewey story (do a search for Elvin on Ed Notes and you will see pages of posts) since I had sources in the school and was updated regularly on the back story.
Elvin was a monster of a manipulator and brutalized teachers, especially young ones, including a vicious discontinue of a single mom army vet who had complained about some ridiculous school policy.
Elvin demanded that teachers grade and enter the grades of Do Nows every day - an insane amount of wasted work. When grievances were filed she back off tenured teachers but forced the nontenured to do them. She walked into one classroom and in front of the class demanded the teacher show her his Do Nows. Already having graded them and entered the grades he had tossed them in the trash. He nervously pointed to the trash can and Elvin, in front of the kids went rummaging through the trash to find them and slammed them on the desk. Surely a performance worthy of Captain Queeg and his missing strawberries.
According to the NY Times account of Elvin's exoneration, CSA head Ernie Logan, a UFT ally, who apparently sanctions this way of treating teachers
suggested that the original complaints were ginned up because
Ms. Elvin was “a very proactive supervisor” who was trying to turn the
school around. “We’ve found that, as a principal starts to push hard,
sometimes the staff is not happy,” he said.
We know that the way so many teachers are treated poorly by so many of Logan's members is of no concern of his but we do give him more credit than the UFT in defending his members over anything they might do no matter how outrageous. Logan did charge the DOE with using tainted OSI investigators - we know many of these people are criminals themselves so on that we are not surprised.
What an outrage to blame teacher gripers who were reacting to the crimes being perpetrated by Elvin who was prevented from closing down Dewey and getting rid of the teachers she didn't like by the UFT lawsuit. So she found other ways.
Elvin created shadow classes that didn't really exist. The DOE knew all about this for a long time but chose to do nothing about it - until articles began appearing in the press and on blogs. People at Dewey were telling me that the posts on Ed Notes were having an impact and a source told me that Elvin was reading the comments that kept coming up and reacting. One retired Dewey teacher recently credited Ed Notes with playing a big role in Elvin's temporary downfall.
You can inform the DOE that a principal is cutting kids hands off but unless the mainstream press picks up a story they will do nothing.
students had received credit in the 2013-14 school year for courses in
which they simply completed packets of work but received no
instruction, in violation of department policy.
However,
an audit of the courses, conducted in October by the new
administration at Dewey and Education Department officials,
contradicted the investigation’s findings, the arbitrator wrote in his
ruling. It concluded that the courses had, in fact, met department
guidelines and that the students had been properly credited.
Yes the DOE knew and in essence sanctioned what was going on and they are now hoisted on their own petard. If Elvin goes back to Dewey, I can't imagine the mayhem and the DOE will do whatever it can to avoid that outcome.
As to the role the UFT played at Dewey in retarding the kind of actions that could have buried Elvin, I will have a lot more to say in a follow-up.
Here is the Times article.
Brooklyn Principal Removed From Post Is Cleared of Charges
In a rebuke to the New York City Education Department and its investigative unit, an arbitrator has dismissed all charges against a high school principal who was removed from her post last July, after being accused of inflating the school’s graduation rate by giving makeup classes without content.
The arbitrator ruled that Kathleen Elvin, the former principal of John Dewey High School, in Brooklyn, should be immediately reinstated and that the department should pay her the wages and benefits that she lost as a result of her suspension.
An inquiry conducted last year by the department’s Office of Special Investigations found that students had received credit in the 2013-14 school year for courses in which they simply completed packets of work but received no instruction, in violation of department policy. Ms. Elvin was removed, and the department in September brought charges of misconduct and neglect of duty against her, in an attempt to fire her.
However, an audit of the courses, conducted in October by the new administration at Dewey and Education Department officials, contradicted the investigation’s findings, the arbitrator wrote in his ruling. It concluded that the courses had, in fact, met department guidelines and that the students had been properly credited.
In a decision released on Tuesday, the arbitrator, Jay Nadelbach, wrote that “the D.O.E. cannot effectively maintain both of two incompatible positions.”
He concluded that the department’s decision to certify the credits that the students earned validated “the sufficiency of the classroom instruction given.”
Devora Kaye, a spokeswoman for the Education Department, said, “We are disappointed with this decision, and we are continuing to review our options.”
At a news conference on Wednesday, the president of the principals’ union, Ernest Logan, celebrated the dismissal of the charges while accusing the department of “a pattern of reckless bullying” of administrators.
In 2012, during Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s administration, Ms. Elvin was brought into the school, which was struggling with rising violence and declining graduation rates. Her efforts produced an increase in the four-year graduation rate, to 79 percent in 2013-14 from 72 percent in 2011-12.
In 2014, six anonymous complaints about Ms. Elvin and other Dewey administrators were made to the Special Commissioner of Investigation for the school district. A social studies teacher at the school, Alan Lerner, also made a complaint. Her accusers said, among other things, that Ms. Elvin was improperly allowing students to make up courses.
The Special Commissioner of Investigation referred the complaints to the department’s internal Office of Special Investigations.
Ms. Elvin, for her part, said she was “living evidence of what character assassination is.” As for whether she wanted to return to Dewey, she said that while she had never wanted to leave, she did not know if, given the turmoil, it would be possible to go back now.
Mr. Logan suggested that the original complaints were ginned up because Ms. Elvin was “a very proactive supervisor” who was trying to turn the school around. “We’ve found that, as a principal starts to push hard, sometimes the staff is not happy,” he said.
I know that the UFT supposedly helped the Dewey teachers -- but I
also know how they didn't seem to have the same sense of urgency the
teachers had. What of the Discontinued under Elvin? What of the forced
retirements? What of the years of misery so many teachers suffered? Those teachers had to sign a confidentiality agreement not to discuss the changing of their ratings.... NY Post
Yes, they don't want these people to talk about it. Where was the UFT in protecting the rights of these teachers to talk about their own cases? Where is the UFT calling on more investigations of cheating and other abuses as scores of schools with monster principals? The UFT is best friends with the DeB/Farina regime and also with the CSA which represents principals so don't expect much from them.
The problem is there are hundreds of principals like Elvin who
retaliate against teachers, many of them removed for numerous reasons,
yet the ratings are allowed to stand. And that happened going back to the old U rating system -- I could see that in the 3020a hearings I attended -- the Peter Zucker case was an example - and he is losing 4 months pay on suspension over what was clearly a set-up.
One MORE member - a
chapter leader - received 2 U ratings for union activity under a lunatic
and was about to get a 3rd and be fired but she was mercifully removed
and replaces by a benign principal - yet the history of these U ratings
remain - and that school is now a renewal school and the CL may have to
find a job with that history training behind.
The UFT should call on every teacher with a poor rating in a school with a suspect principal be reviewed. I would go back to the early days of BloomKlein.
Given an "ineffective" rating for refusing to participate in fraudulent behavior involving grade-fixing.
Gee, that doesn't sound like an "objective" evaluation system to me.
And NYSED admits as much by overturning at least four of the "ineffective" ratings of tenured teachers who appealed them.
There may be more overturned ratings - we don't know the exact number because of the confidentiality agreements
But what we do know is this - if Elvin and her assistant principals used
APPR as a weapon against teachers to perpetrate their fraud, other
principals and assistant principals can use APPR as a weapon against
teachers for other reasons as well.
Had Elvin not been exposed in the grade-fixing scandal, these teachers
at Dewey would still be working with "ineffective" ratings on their
records.
You can bet there are other administrators elsewhere who have handed out
"ineffective" ratings for a variety of reasons that have nothing to do
with the effectiveness of the teacher.
We learned from Chancellor Farina this week that APPR is a sham when she
acknowledged that "effective" teachers can have their ratings adversely
affected by switching schools and going to teach in a school with high
poverty/high homelessness demographics.
Even the noted anti-union Post reporter, Carl Campanile, given the Post claims an exclusive on the Dewey story -- too bad they don't read Ed Notes -- takes a - sort of - pro-teacher position. Here is Campanile's story:
We've been on the case here at Ed Notes for over a year. Finally, Kathleen Elvin is gone - the worst thing she did was not the cheating - it was how she treated teachers. Does that single parent veteran she discontinued last year as a way to retaliate against the union get her job back?
At a PEP I challenged Farina directly in this issue of
pulling teachers for anything while leaving charged principals in power
to harass people and end their careers.
A contact connected to Dewey emailed this was about to go down.
I told him from they will get a worse principal in retaliation for their embarrassing Farina. So have your party and get ready for the next slug.
Here is a report from Farina's office.
Today, we are releasing the Office of Special
Investigations report on allegations surrounding credit recovery and
grading/credit improprieties at John Dewey High School (21K540). The
report is attached, and a statement attributable to
Chancellor Carmen Fariña and background information is below.
Statement attributable to Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña:
“The
results of the investigation are disturbing and show there was a
failure to follow the DOE’s protocol during the 2013-2014 school year.
We have
begun the process to have Ms. Elvin’s employment terminated, and she
will be removed from payroll shortly. Ensuring every New York City
student is meeting the high-quality standards necessary to graduate is
an imperative and we are retraining principals across
the City to ensure these standards are upheld.”
On background:
*During
the summer, there will be a training for superintendents and principals
on credit recovery protocol to ensure this does not occur again.
*This
investigation concerned allegations related to credit recovery and
credit/grading improprieties during the 13-14 school year. Any
allegations
of similar misconduct during the 14-15 school year should be reported
to Special Commissioner of Investigation.
*The new principal at John
Dewey High School will be a Master principal as part of our Ambassador
program, Connie Hamilton. She is the current principal of Kingsborough
Early College School.
That was the headline last Friday as Juan Gonzalez did another piece on the John Dewey HS credit recovery cheating scandal, asking the golden question: When will Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña address the massive grade fixing scandal at John Dewey High School in Brooklyn?
In this video I confront Carmen Farina about her double standard for principals like Kathleen Elvin and teachers after NYCLetEmPlay teacher David Rosen was sent to the rubber room while the principal of John Dewey HS has been under investigation for many months but still allowed to run the school.
My theory is that Farina loves cheating principals like Elvin who keep her grad rates up the the cheating standards established under 12 years of BloomKlein. Imagine if Farina ran an honest ship -- the phony Bloomberg grad rates would drop like a stone and the press and ed deformers would go nuts attacking the shit out of Farina and de Blasio. So I get it - that for self-survival, Elvin despite a 15 month investigation, stays and great teachers and student advocates are pulled from their schools within hours.
In my PEP speech I also addressed the issue of Success Charters with a game of "Guess the school" where I ask "what schools have lots of extra underwear for kids who are prevented from going to the bathroom? (Hint: someone named Eva runs them). There's nothing like smashing away at Eva than having her minions in the audience. (And she also dropped in.)
And I did it in a nifty 2 minutes - you can boil your egg while watching this.
When will Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña address the massive grade fixing scandal at John Dewey High School in Brooklyn?
Teachers there began registering complaints in February 2014 that their administrators were creating phantom classes for failing students and secretly inflating grades to boost the school’s official graduation rate.
Eight teachers even gave testimony in early December to the School District’s Office of Special Investigations about the bogus scheme. Some claimed their names were attached to courses they never taught, others that they were ordered to instruct and grade students in subjects for which they had no state license..
The teachers provided investigators hard evidence: copies of faculty rosters, individual student schedules, internal emails, even audio tapes of conversations with superiors.
But 15 months later, the Department of Education is mum.
Among hundreds of Dewey records obtained by The Daily News is the transcript of a single student who graduated last June.
His name was redacted from our copy, thus we refer to him here simply as King, for he just might be the “king” of credit recovery.
Under state regulations, students who fail a subject required for graduation can make it up in one of three ways: either attend summer school, repeat the course, or take “targeted credit recovery” -- a class where they get remedial work for their specific weakness.
But the state spells out strict limitations on credit recovery. It cannot be offered to students who were frequently absent from their original course. The student must be taught by a teacher licensed in the subject matter. And after taking the remedial work, the student must demonstrate “mastery” of the subject.
Most importantly, students cannot receive more than three credit recoveries in core academic subjects for their high school career.
Well, student King’s transcript shows he passed 11 credit recovery courses in the spring of 2014, the semester before his graduation! Seven were in core academic subjects.
That’s not just breaking regulations, that’s smashing them.
In one course at John Dewey high school last spring titled Project Graduation, a single teacher was assigned to 35 different subjects to 63 students, including some of those seen on this partially redacted document: Geometry, Health, Living Environment, Earth Science, Global Studies, Economics and a Math Elective.
Even more amazing, King appears to have passed those 11 remedial courses while carrying a regular load of nine other classes.
He received, for example, got credit for five courses during Period 0, before the start of school. Two of those, 9th grade global studies and health, list the teacher only as “Panel 111.” That’s the room number of Principal Kathleen Elvin.
King also managed to take Earth science 2, environmental science 2, and physcial education during the same period, and he received the same grade for all five courses -- 65.
Then, after a full day of regular classes during Periods 1 to 8, King got credit recovery for six additional courses after school. They included Writing Across the Curriculum, US History 4, Algebra 2, Earth Science 1, 10th grade Global Studies, aand another gym class..
Principal Elvin declined our request to discuss credit recovery practices at Dewey or even what kind of early morning instruction occured in her office. She referred questions to officials at Tweed..
“It wasn’t credit recovery, it was fraud,” one veteran Dewey teacher said.
That teacher said many on staff got assigned to a course called “Project Graduation,” into which hundreds of failing students were placed.
Emails reviewed by the News show some declined to give grades in subjects outside their expertise, and others questioned why their names were listed for classes they never taught. But most followed orders.
More than a year after a few brave teachers risked their careers to blow the whistle, nothing has happened.
Why the delay in the face of such overwhelming evidence?
How do those phony Bloomberg grad rates look? Let's explode the bullshit whenever the press puppets the story that Bloomberg raised grad rates from 50-67%. Three quarters of that is based on lies like the Dewey case. Every time Chalkbeat talks about the rise in grad rates under Bloomberg, leave a comment saying "Bullshit credit recovery -- and other slick tricks".
Ed Notes readers are well aware of the John Dewey story and Kathleen Elvin. There has been a lot I have not been able to talk about in order to protect my sources at the school - we've been waiting for this DN Gonzalez piece. One thing we do know is that Tweed and Carmen Farina have been told what is happening for almost a year and have done nothing. It is much worse than credit recovery, as there has been a general assault on teachers by the administration, especially the nontenured. One story is that they have to give Do Nows and mark then and enter the grades every day. Farina was informed of this waste of time 6 months ago. Her recently installed superintendent is as big a shit as the one he replaced - Amy Horowitz who was given an even bigger job at the DOE.
By the way, the investigations at Dewey have been going on forever and somehow nothing gets resolved. How about expedited investigations of principals instead of teachers?
Let's keep an eye on the teacher with guts, Wade Goria, and how the vindictive admin comes down on him. I'm betting they will find a reason to rubber room him -
Last spring, a teacher at John Dewey High School in Brooklyn was assigned to oversee 16 students in a single class who were seeking credit for subjects they’d previously failed. The topics included Earth science, global studies, trigonometry and English — 14 in all — yet the teacher was only certified as a math instructor. A second teacher became her own virtual high school. Records obtained by the Daily News show she was put in charge of a course titled Project Graduation. Students in the course had failed 35 different subjects, including U.S. history, geometry, living environment, Earth science, global studies, algebra, art and Spanish. But the teacher’s license was for special education. How is it possible to teach so many subjects simultaneously — all outside your expertise?
Well, it’s not. Pupils assigned to Project Graduation simply had to show up and fill out individual “course packets,” according to several teachers who were assigned to the course.
It was part of a brazen scheme by the school’s administrators to inflate graduation rates by manufacturing bogus “credit recovery” — a practice now being probed by the school system’s office of special investigation.
Just as test prep has overwhelmed elementary schools, with the politicians demanding higher standardized test scores, “credit recovery” will likely be the next big high school scandal. At Dewey, The News obtained class rosters, individual student records and school emails, and interviewed a dozen teachers who claim sham credit recovery has gone on for years.
The documents show teachers were often assigned to grade students out of their expertise, supervisors altered failing grades to passing without consulting the original teacher, and students were passed without even attending class, all in violation of state and city education regulations. What’s happening is incredibly fraudulent and criminal,” said Wade Goria, a social studies teacher at Dewey who is about to retire. Goria was willing to be quoted, but many of his colleagues who gave evidence to investigators asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals.
The News asked Goria about a student of his who graduated last year despite receiving a failing grade in a government course — one required for graduation. “The student was absent more than half the time and had no idea of what was going on,” Goria said. “In no way, shape or form could I justify passing him. “The next thing I knew, the boy was on the graduation line,” Goria said. School records obtained by The News show that on July 1, a few days after graduation ceremonies, Goria’s student received a 65 in government from a supervisor as part of credit recovery. “No one came to me about him,” Goria said. “There was no discussion whatsoever. He just passed.”
As you might expect, Dewey’s graduation rate soared since Principal Kathleen Elvin took over in early 2012. It was 61% in June 2011, and 74% last June. Elvin declined to comment and referred all questions to the Department of Education.
“The integrity of our academic programs is of the highest importance and the Department of Education takes any allegations of this sort extremely seriously,” said Devora Kaye, spokeswoman for Chancellor Carmen Fariña. “This matter is under investigation.”
Records obtained by the Daily News show a teacher was put in charge of a course titled Project Graduation. Students in the course had failed 35 different subjects, but the teacher’s license was for special education.
Bryan Pace/for New York Daily News
A teacher at John Dewey High School in Brooklyn was assigned to oversee 16 students in a single class who were seeking credit for subjects they’d previously failed.
Part of the reason the teachers are blaming the principal is that they had been rated “effective” based on their students’ improvement on state exams. But when subjective observations by Elvin and her fellow administrators were factored in, their grades sank. “She has a personal vendetta,” the teacher said. “She’s using the teacher observations as a weapon against teachers. It’s her way to force teachers to leave or retire.” ... NY Post
How about this? A NY Post piece taking the side of teachers.
Of course ed notes has been on the Elvin/Dewey case. (For background see links below the Post article.)
Teachers at Brooklyn’s scandal-plagued John Dewey HS say they are being punished with bad performance evaluations for standing up to the principal, who they say lets students slide with a grade-inflation system nicknamed “Easy Pass.”
A Post analysis found that half of the teachers at the school were given failing grades from Principal Kathleen Elvin, even though the graduation rate has been soaring.
State education records show that out of 101 teachers, 16 earned “ineffective” ratings and 35 got “developing” ratings last year, a failure rate of 50 percent.
Only 8 percent of teachers citywide received marks that low, leading some Dewey teachers to claim that the game is being rigged by the administration to get back at educators who object to alleged grade inflation.
“This doesn’t make sense. Something is wrong here,” said one teacher, who was rated “ineffective.”
Part of the reason the teachers are blaming the principal is that they had been rated “effective” based on their students’ improvement on state exams.
But when subjective observations by Elvin and her fellow administrators were factored in, their grades sank.
“She has a personal vendetta,” the teacher said. “She’s using the teacher observations as a weapon against teachers. It’s her way to force teachers to leave or retire.”
He said some of the teachers who got the bad reviews were the same teachers who would not alter grades to pass failing students.
The school is under investigation for fixing grades with easy extra credit so it could post higher graduation rates. Students derisively call the system “Easy Pass.”
“I have integrity,” the teacher said. “I refused to give kids credit who didn’t deserve it.”
Only 49 percent of Dewey teachers surveyed by the city agreed that Elvin is an effective manager. She declined to comment and directed inquiries to the Department of Education.
Department spokeswoman Devora Kaye said “Principals must rate teachers fairly and accurately,” but did not address the dispute at Dewey.
United Federation of Teachers grievance director Ellen Gallin Procida called the poor ratings a “red flag.”
“This is the first year we have had this process, but the fact that one school stands out the way it does is noteworthy,” she said.
Dewey has one of the highest number of ineffective rated teachers by Elvin while at the same time she claims enormous success due to fraudulent credit recovery schemes. Red flag anyone? Here are the latest comments:.
Gerard Papa, 61, who runs Flames, a basketball tournament and mentoring program for 700 kids ages 8 to 19, says Kathleen Elvin, the principal of John Dewey High School, closed off the school's secondary gym last ...
Based on the comments, a major issue is a phony credit recovery scheme and some ridiculous work rules imposed by the Elvin administrators, some of whom seem to be so awful. Hearing about how these slugs continue to ...
Are Elvin and Creveling the local version of ISIS, using this teacher as a hostage in retaliation for actions taken by the union - beheading the teacher, economically, by taking her job. The actions of Principal Elvin, along with ...
The NY Post has a story today about John Dewey HS that has been all over Ed Notes for 9 months. Double DUHHHH! And I love how good old anti-teacher and union reporter Carl Campanile threads the needle:
Teaching kids takes so much effort, staffers at John Dewey HS
in Brooklyn have found a quicker way to fix persistent failure rates...
Schmuck. Principal Elvin and her APs set up a fear factory and set policy and force people to adhere to it, especially the untenured - which Carl and his paper are so opposed to. Double schmuck.
Oh, la di da -- some "staffers" decided they didn't want to put effort into teaching children and out of the blue came up with a scheme. Triple schmuck.
When the DOE, which has been informed about these schemes for over a year or more -- but only when contacted by the press - and the Post is not the only one doing a story on this -- did they act like it was news to them.
Here are just a few Ed Notes posts on the Dewey and Elvin story -- in case Carl Campanile and the rest of the press want to really know what's going on.
Dewey
has one of the highest number of ineffective rated teachers by Elvin
while at the same time she claims enormous success due to fraudulent
credit recovery schemes. Red flag anyone? Here are the latest comments:
Based
on the comments, a major issue is a phony credit recovery scheme and
some ridiculous work rules imposed by the Elvin administrators, some of
whom seem to be so awful. Hearing about how these slugs continue to ...
Gerard
Papa, 61, who runs Flames, a basketball tournament and mentoring
program for 700 kids ages 8 to 19, says Kathleen Elvin, the principal of
John Dewey High School, closed off the school's secondary gym last ...
Are
Elvin and Creveling the local version of ISIS, using this teacher as a
hostage in retaliation for actions taken by the union - beheading the
teacher, economically, by taking her job. The actions of Principal
Elvin, along with ...
“We're
sorry you won't have health insurance for your child and thank you for
serving your country. You're fired!” • Single Mother • Iraq War Veteran •
Teaching for Only Four Months This is who Elvin and the AP of
English ...
Kathleen
Elvin was sent into John Dewey HS as a closer a few years ago - to make
sure to drive the final nail in Dewey's coffin and remove many of the
teachers, mostly senior. But the UFT lawsuit stopped that process
over ...
Mrs
Elvin, who was behind the non-stop attack on this teacher all last year
and this year, was suddenly eulogizing her over the loudspeaker, and
making sure everyone knew she was so deeply, deeply saddened by the loss
of ...
IT'S A MADHOUSE, A MADHOUSE! As a new teacher at Dewey I am in constant fear of being rated poorly. I am in constant fear that I did not carry out the Do Now to Ms. Evin's liking. I am in constant fear that my enthusiasm for teaching will be sucked completely out of me. I am so sad and frightened... Comment on ed notes post: "No Change of Tone at John Dewey HS
The stories out of John Dewey HS in Brooklyn are getting more and more bizarre as Elvin heads into "rolling steel balls" and
Should be posted outside school for new teachers
"missing strawberries" territory. Her obsession with "Do Nows" is causing people to shake their heads. The major tragedy has been what she is doing to new, nontenured teachers who, as the above comment shows, live in fear. A rescue team from Tweed is needed to parachute those people out of the danger zone.
Can't you imagine Elvin testifying at her own 3020a hearing if she is brought up on charges, which she should be but won't because Tweed/Farina protects all principals unless they are proven serial killers, and even then I'm not too sure.
(If anyone knows how to superimpose Elvin onto Bogart, please do so and contact me.)
My post on the situation at Dewey in at the end of the 2014 school year has gotten over 200 comments and they still keep coming.
Dewey has one of the highest number of ineffective rated teachers by Elvin while at the same time she claims enormous success due to fraudulent credit recovery schemes. Red flag anyone?
Elvin doesn't belong in a school setting anymore. Because learning is such a positive experience enhancing the lives of teachers who give and those who are there to benefit from teachers who know so much and want to give to students, it requires a special type of person to promote a positive professional learning environment. A person such as this likes teachers, knows how to gently encourage them to grow and wants them to grow and find themselves as teachers. This isn't the experience at Dewey. There is not much positive about Elvin. She's full of hatred, resentment, poor judgement, and she never stops criticizing most teachers. She sees herself as an authority on everything and her squad of AP's goes along thinking that everything they do is highly effective also. Most, with the exception of the Math AP, are disconnected from students. Elvin herself has little to do with any of the students. She's now asking that teachers offer learning lunches for the students. She sees all staff as her slaves and seems to want to deplete them of all energy. Elvin, the authority on how learning takes place, should teach a class again or stay home. Her AP's should teach classes also. Many are poor teachers themselves and definitely don't teach as well as some of the more experienced educators in the school. We're listening. Elvin is despised by young and old as well. Each new AP who shows up at the school becomes a tool of destruction for her, targeting teachers, ambushing them, reporting back to Elvin what was and was not done. Elvin will search for evidence on you in your garbage pail. The entire school knows all that she does to damage teachers. What does any of this accomplish?
------
For anyone who was aware of the fraudulent credit practices promoted at Dewey by Elvin and her WPrep group, it's hoped that the many,many individuals who reported this fraud to OSI, to Albany, and to the DOE will see something done about it. At this time it is still occurring. Make no mistake, those of you who set up these programs, Elvin will point a finger at you to save herself when the time comes. You know who you are.
Oh! Given the number of comments that come in when I focus on a school, I'm setting up a simple blog for people to post about their schools, which will be listed on the sidebar. I need at least a few teachers from a school to corroborate the stories.
I recently met with a group of teachers from a school in Brooklyn and we brainstormed some plans for them to organize resistance in the schools. I will be available to meet in Brooklyn, lower Manhattan and parts of Queens - after school at a local diner.
The blog will be called Schools Needing Assistance Project - SNAP. More to come.
I hope to be able to report one day on some of the stuff going on behind the scenes at Dewey. Based on the comments, a major issue is a phony credit recovery scheme and some ridiculous work rules imposed by the Elvin administrators, some of whom seem to be so awful. Hearing about how these slugs continue to operate a year after Bloom/Klein/Cott are gone is more than discouraging. Until the UFT goes head to head with Farina to rid the system of these people, nothing will change.
Here is the latest comment to celebrate Xmas - I some of it but some effort was put into it so it is worth sharing up top.
1. Work harder to create a "Workers' State
Island" at The John Dewey High School Campus;
2. create a link with the
soon-to-be-commercially-viable-for-American capital Cuba's Tourist
Dept. and propose an "Ineffective- Teacher- Non-Stop- Balsero -Caravan
to Mariela Harbor (with the hope of renaming it "Catalina Harbor" in the
future!);
3. contact Denis Rodman to come and give a "pep talk" at the
next Faculty Enhanced -Information-Gathering Session (i.e. "Faculty
Meeting") on the topic of "Using Sports Teams and Personalities to
Promote Healthy Groveling Before Maximum Leaders";
4. create a bulletin
board for "Dewey Honors Ferguson's Finest", with an auditorium event
featuring the Principal's hero, Officer Darren Wilson, interviewed by
Our First Lady herself, via Skype;
5. Inaugurate the Joel Klein-Kathy
Black Memorial Garden, with a flower bed reserved for future
to-be-deceased-staff members (purchaseable by staff with their Teacher
Choice funds);
6. break ground for the first-ever "I Can't Breathe Fun
Run" ,and schedule the Gym for an upcoming weekend (now that those
bothersome Flames are out of the picture!);
7. Hold a combination
"Hedgefund Wedding" (to replace that odious "Hippie Wedding"!) and Cross
Burning on the Athletic Field honoring personal "galpals" Eva Moskowitz
and a sensational robotized effigy of a "pregnant" Eva Braun, (created
under School Safety's armed "persuasion" by Dewey's very own Robotics
Team!) and culminating in the "immaculate/digitalized conception" of
"The Sapphic Kathleen", a rabid unbreakable cholera-spewing "doll" that
will birthe at the entrance to The Loading Dock on the anniversary of
"Dewey's Dowager Queen"'s first working day at Dewey ;
8. funnel all
remaining ATR's and "3020A"ers into the former Teachers' Lounge on the
2nd floor, and rechristen it "The UFT Waiting-To-Be-Terminated Room";
have supervisors escort all OSI "visitors" into the former Teachers'
Lounge on the 3rd floor, and run continuous relays of hash brownies and
mescaline-dowsed smoothies from the former Teachers' Cafeteria into the
locked-from-the-outside room;
9. sharpen the Cook's knives in the Student
Cafeteria;
10. have the Parent Coordinator start a rumor that the
Dishwasher is having an affair with the Cook's wife;
11. schedule a
"behind-the-scenes tour" of the cafeteria upon the Parent Coordinator's
return from her assignment;
12. contact NBC to see if they could use a
highly- effective high school principal for the next season of
"Undercover Boss", and buy an Imelda Marcos mask in anticipation of the
episode, so as to work unsuspected side-by-side with the rodents- I mean
the teachers...
let's stop at 12 in honor of "The 12 Days of
Christmas"!!!
Was the death of [Teacher K] a case of slow murder by an arsenic-like administration, some teachers ask?
Now this deadly gang of so-called administrators have surely- through the terrible stress they put all targeted teachers through- contributed to the premature death of Ms. [K], a wonderful Foreign Language Teacher, who passed away over the weekend. Mrs Elvin, who was behind the non-stop attack on this teacher all last year and this year, was suddenly eulogizing her over the loudspeaker, and making sure everyone knew she was so deeply, deeply saddened by the loss of [Teacher K]! What a miserable and transparent hypocrite- she should be known as "The Widow/Widower Maker"!
Elvin, no one believes a word you said [regarding the death of [Teacher K], a teacher under immense harassment by the Elvin admin] today. You must think we're all fools. We know what action you and your goons took.
The heartless ghouls spit out by Tweed over the years continue to stalk the system. I've learned to spot the type from so many teachers' descriptions. Clearly, one of the first things the principals are taught is how to apply pressure to older, often somewhat ill in some way, teachers by giving them more physically demanding assignments that will wear them down. I hear too many stories of teachers dying on the job.
These articles on ed notes regarding John Dewey HS
and the actions of the administration there continue to be amongst the most read and commented on at Ed Notes. Here are some more comments:
Today at 8:30 am the school was notified of the passing of a current Spanish teacher. It was a very unexpected loss. The teacher, an older woman with a severe back issue was very well liked by teachers, not so much by the administration. In fact, it is safe to say that she was one of the teachers with a "bulls-eye" on her back...She was forced to teach in multiple rooms, despite having mobility issues. In other schools with other Principals, her life might have been made easier but not at John Dewey. Here she was forced to use a cart to bring her materials from room to room. Here she was given the toughest of classes and when she asked for help, she was told that no one would respond anymore, that it was her issue. Here she was, taking a car service to work in the name of dedication, and yet she was on the short list for removal....I thought that I had heard everything and seen everything, but today was a real eye opener....We work in the most hostile environment with an administration that has an agenda that is shameful. I hope this teacher rests in peace...and I hope that we get help soon.....
This commenter compares the actions of the police in the Garner case to the actions of the Dewey admin in the Foola Karas death as some in admin try to pin blame on actions of students:
Yes, [Teacher K] a thirty year veteran teacher ( 53 years old) died over the weekend...and while she was alive- instead of the administration celebrating her courage and tenacity to come to work everyday in obvious discomfort, they seemingly systematically denied her support in the form of any kind of disciplinary action against her students; slowly trying to build a case against her for dismissal. [APX] just recently wrote to her "I'm here to support you whenever you need it - after writing her ineffective!!!! One student pulled her phone out of the wall last spring so she couldn't call for deans and was back in class the following day! I heard [APY] even came in to her room recently and in front of the class shouted "I'm finished...I'm not coming back in here anymore!" How is that for giving the kids a green light to do whatever they want? First [APY] you allegedly talk the police out of giving a summons to a kid caught with a five inch knife and now this??? Resign. K' life could have been so instructive to the kids in the way someone deals with adversity instead she was isolated and made into a punching bag. And some of the FECKLESS AP's were ruminating about how the kids might feel guilty about it? And the grief counseling was done by Elvin supporters who side with her interpretation that the administration's actions had no impact on K's sudden demise but that she was suffering and sick? Eric Garner would have probably died of a heart attack sooner or later after all he WAS in bad shape but the rough and dismissive arrest tactics and subsequent disinterested EMS response caused his death. And to compound Elvin's effects....the kids ARE INTERNALIZING the guilt!!!! Anybody knows, Elvin that kids need consequences and your statistic mongering restorative justice has deprived them of an important life lesson and perhaps irreparably harmed them with the death of this person on their consciences'. They should be informed that it was NOT their fault but your statistic padding policies. Kids will be kids and they will push as far as they can and it was up to YOU as the instructional leader to provide those boundaries not use their behavior as a cudgel against a "teacher target" to build a case and rest assured we have the evidence. We can only hope that the K family seeks appropriate legal remedy and believe me many of us our lining up to be deposed. And for the rest of you who still support and finagle for Elvin out of fear or self interest...one question. How do you still look at yourself in the mirror?
I'm attending a 3020a hearing (which I will write about after the case is over) who is being threatened with termination by a younger version of the Dewey principal. Worst of all, the current principal looking to take his job is a former teacher-colleague in the school who planned the action against him as one of her first acts as principal. This teacher's health is also not great and there is some worry about the toll this is taking on him. And believe me - he had one of those jobs in an elementary school teaching around 200 kids a week where his impact as a teacher on the kids is minimal - he is basically a prep giver. So to go to the extent his former colleague is going must mean she developed a hate for him even though he says they always had a good relationship before she became principal.
The Ed Notes June 26, 2014 post about much despised John Dewey HS Principal Kathleen Elvin (No Change of Tone at John Dewey HS: Principal Kat...) has made the top 10 all-time posts on Ed Notes with 5495 hits of as today, with 151 comments.
Today this story surfaced about the queen of mean sticking her fingers into a 40 year after school basketball program for inner city kids. Reuven Blau in the DN does a pretty good job of telling the story. She claimed the gym was in use Sat. from 9-12 but it was stone cold empty the entire time. One must wonder why she would put the screws on a program that has been at John Dewey HS for 40 years. But it is in the DNA of queens of mean.
But then again there was this Dec 6 comment:
Why was the Department of Education’s Office of Investigations (OSI) in
the building all day Wednesday interviewing so many people?
Why indeed? (head on over and read some of the love notes to Ms Elvin.)
The Flames have developed enormous community and political support. If Elvin continues to peddle her bullshit there may be a bigger backlash than she expects, especially if OSI - which we all know is a politically oriented operation - is sticking its nose into her operations.
Foul! Brooklyn hoops group says it's getting booted from home court
The leader of a well-known Brooklyn youth basketball group is whistling a foul on a city principal, saying the kids were abruptly tossed out of their longtime home in a Bensonhurst high school in the middle of the season.
Jeff Bachner/for New York Daily NewsGerard Papa, leader of Flames, a community basketball group that says they are being kicked out of their practice gym.
The leader of a well-known Brooklyn youth basketball group is whistling a foul on a city principal, saying the kids were abruptly tossed out of their longtime home in a Bensonhurst high school.
Gerard Papa, 61, who runs Flames, a basketball tournament and mentoring program for 700 kids ages 8 to 19, says Kathleen Elvin, the principal of John Dewey High School, closed off the school’s secondary gym last Saturday morning, leaving 90 youngsters stranded.
And she’s blocking future Saturday morning games due to a scheduling conflict.
“It’s our home,” Papa said. “What am I supposed to do with these kids for the balance of the season?”
Elvin told the group the space was needed for use by the Public Schools Athletic League.
“We will continue to juggle our Dewey schedule when possible to accommodate the Flames, but right now there just is not enough gym space to handle all of our needs at the same time,” Elvin told Papa in a Dec. 5 email.
Papa said the auxiliary gym was actually empty Saturday morning.
“They practice in the big gym,” he said of the school’s teams.
The school is also hosting a robotics competition on Dec. 20, which will use most of the first floor, including the two basketball courts and the cafeteria, Elvin said.
The school is required to give priority to its own programs and activities, said Department of Education spokeswoman Yuridia Pe na, adding that the city would work to accommodate the basketball program as best it could.
Papa said he should have been warned about the scheduling conflict before the season started in November, rather than finding out on the day itself.
Jeff Bachner/for New York Daily NewsFlames, a community basketball group led by Gerard Papa (top right). The group’s alums include former NBA star Stephon Marbury and current Charlotte Hornets shooting guard Lance Stephenson.
“At the beginning of the school year, she should have called us in — and maybe we could have figured something out,” he said. “She let me send out thousands of cards announcing registration.”
The retired lawyer started the basketball tournament in 1974, and has been using Dewey’s gym as its home for 40 years. The group pays about $10,000 in fees to rent the gym each year, operating on a week-to-week schedule.
The group’s alums include former NBA star Stephon Marbury and current Charlotte Hornets shooting guard Lance Stephenson, who both attended Abraham Lincoln High School in Coney Island.
Flames brings together kids from low-income families and various city housing projects throughout Brooklyn .
Some travel more than an hour to attend the two-month training program and tournament.
Officials from the Brooklyn Borough President’s Office and City Councilman Mark Treyger’s office are trying to broker an agreement.
“Everybody is trying to make this work,” said a source familiar with those talks.
Papa has no plans to look for a new location in middle of the season.
“If your wife doesn’t let you in the house tonight you can go to a hotel, but it’s not your house,” he said. “They don’t legitimately need the space.” rblau@nydailynews.com
Corrected and Updated
These comments on our earlier post (John Dewey Principal Kathleen Elvin Discontinues Iraq War Vet and Mother) provides some more detail on the reasons behind the discontinued Iraq war vet and mom. Are Elvin and Creveling the local version of ISIS, using this teacher as a hostage in retaliation for actions taken by the union - beheading the teacher, economically, by taking her job.
The actions of Principal Elvin, along with Emily Crevling, the Assistant
Principal of the English Department in John Dewey High School,
regarding the termination of a untenured teacher, who was teaching a
mere 4 months, should be viewed as nothing less than malfeasance. The
teacher was hard-working, followed school policies, and the students
attended her class because she established a rapport with them. Her only
misstep was voicing a difference of opinion and questioned Ms. Crevling
on a particular matter. I suppose this teacher would have needed more
than 4 months to realize that in John Dewey High School one never
questions Kathleen Elvin or her puppet assistant principals. This
teacher, had she been given the opportunity to continue to teach in John
Dewey, would have quickly learned that Principal Elvin prides herself
on running a tight ship. So tight, that staff is not allowed to disagree
with her or else she will find a way to retaliate. So tight, that she
has managed to bring on [the blog post] John Dewey Principal Kathleen Elvin Discontinues Iraq War Vet and Mother
This is just the latest disgusting
act of this power-mad, vengeful, menacing, and roundly-hated "Closer"
Principal, who I have sent out diatribes about many times, to no avail.
Elvin has not only gone after teachers who she takes a dislike to, like
this one, for no explicable reason, but has decimated entire Dept's.
since her arrival 3 years ago: there are at least 5 tenured teachers who
are internally " rubber-roomed" through 30-20a terminations, and many
others, including myself, who were forced out, through retirement as in
my case, or by transferring to a less dangerous school administration.
Now, I heard that she changed the locks on all the teacher' s lounges,
just for sheer spite, and staff are left to eat/ get down-time in their
own classrms (not very private!), or their cars!!! She has used
sycophantic and spineless and heartless and careerist dept supervisors
like Creveling, as well as her emasculated APO Messenger, who was an ATR
up til last school year, to terrorize and destroy those on her
Blacklist ( which includes other supervisors,paras, aides, as well as
teachers ), and she has ruined a great school with paranoia,
divisiveness, and a mania to " know everything"....a Stalinesque horror
show. She must be curbed, and exposed for the true crimes she goes on
committing against hardworking staff , who are virtual prisoners.
