Leonie Haimson/Class Size Matters: Skinny Awards Dinner, June 9

I've been to every one of these events and for those fighting ed deform there is no better place to be on a June evening with a gaggle of like-minded folks. I've been to every one and am going again this year. The Skinny Award (a slam at the Broad award) is a major fundraiser for the amazing work Leonie does. She is honoring principals Carol Burris and Liz Phillips. And the great Patrick Sullivan. Past winners include MOREistas James Eterno and Julie Cavanagh. Arthur Goldstein and Gary Rubinstein were honored last year.

Dear friends,

Our annual Skinny Award Dinner is only three weeks away.  This year Class Size Matters will be honoring three terrific leaders in the fight to preserve and strengthen our public schools:  Liz Phillips, principal of PS 321 in Brooklyn, and Carol Burris, principal of South Side HS on Long Island, both of whom have spoken out publicly against the high-stakes and low quality of the NY State exams.  

We are also honoring our Board chair, Patrick Sullivan, former Manhattan representative to the Panel on Education Policy, who stood up for parents and challenged the DOE to justify their irrational policies during the Bloomberg years.

The dinner will be held on Monday, June 9 at 6:30 PM, at Bocca Di Bacco, 191 7th Ave (21st St).

Please join us for a rare opportunity to enjoy a four course dinner with wine and celebrate three heroes who have given us the real "skinny" on NYC schools.
We have a lot to celebrate this year, including our successful challenge of inBloom’s plans to collect and disclose the personal student information of millions of students to for-profit vendors, without parental notification or consent.  We led the battle for student privacy  here in NY, where last month legislation was passed to  prevent the State from participating in this project.  inBloom was funded with $100 million of Gates Foundation money, and had an operating system built by Rupert Murdoch’s Wireless/Amplify, run by Joel Klein.   

Even earlier, we had also reached out to other parents in the eight other inBloom states to inform them of this plan, and because of protests, every single state pulled out.  A few weeks ago, inBloom announced it was closing its doors. 

Please reserve your ticket now, or if you cannot attend, please make a tax-deductible donation to Class Size Matters, so we can continue our efforts to reduce class size, alleviate school overcrowding and protect student privacy. 

Thanks so much, Leonie   
PS Diane Ravitch who just had knee replacement surgery will hopefully be there as well!

 

Leonie Haimson

Executive Director

Class Size Matters

124 Waverly Pl.

New York, NY 10011

212-674-7320

leonie@classsizematters.org

www.classsizematters.org

http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com

Follow me on twitter @leoniehaimson

Fred Smith: Leonie brings Gloom and Doom to InBloom, Dragon Slayer Kills the Demon Seed

The accolades are rolling in for Leonie Haimson on the inBloom closing announcement. Leonie's campaign should written up in textbooks. She won a major war against the leading ed deformers.

Just look at this list from Diane Ravitch:

• The company was started with a grant of $100 million from the Gates Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation, to gather confidential student data and store it on an electronic "cloud." 
• The technology for collection and storage of student data belonged to Wireless Generation, a subsidiary of Amplify, run by Joel Klein and owned by Rupert Murdoch. 

Oh man! How delicious. For those who feel David cannot defeat Goliath, Leonie is one hell of an example.

[Any photoshoppers out there who want to do a cartoon for ed notes exploring this concept - use Gates/Klein/Rupert as face of Goliath and little Leonie with slingshot -- ball labelled "parent/student rights" as it smashes into their head.]

Leonie truly began this fight standing alone - a gang of one against some of the major forces behind the privatization ed movement. She was relentless to the point where I would say to myself, "Stop already! What's the point. She can't beat these guys." But Leonie did beat them - to a pulp. An example to me and everyone else -- they can be beat  --

The national leader of the fight was Leonie Haimson, leader of a New York City-based group called Class Size Matters, who testified across the nation and alerted parents to the possible breach of their children's confidential data.... Diane Ravitch

Thank You Leonie! This wouldn't/couldn't have happened without all you did to spearhead the pushback!... Susan

Wow, this statement shows this guy just doesn't get it. He thinks teachers don't get enough information about how their students are doing by working with them day in and day out, month after month, but need InBloom's data dashboards to feed them factoids and tell them which book to read or science experiment to do next. Unbelievable. Good riddance, and thanks to Leonie and everyone across the country who worked so hard to bring about this result! Now let's send Pearson packing! .... Jeff Nichols

Dragon Slayer Kills the Demon Seed.
Leonie brings Gloom and Doom to InBloom. Wow.
Yes, Jeff, we need to stop the Pearson juggernaut. Another impossible dream. Just as foolish as going up against the inevitability of InBloom... Fred Smith

Leonie Haimson Statement on inBloom's overdue demise

Hopefully, today’s announcement that inBloom is closing its doors will make government officials, corporations and foundations more aware that parental concerns cannot be ignored, and that they must stop foisting their “solutions” on our schools and classrooms with no attention given to the legitimate concerns of parents and their right to protect their children from harm.

Yet the statement issued by inBloom’s CEO reeks of arrogance and condescension, and makes it clear that those in charge still have not learned any lessons from this debacle. The fervent opposition to inBloom among parents throughout the country did not result from “misunderstandings”, but inBloom ‘s utter inability to provide a convincing rationale that would supercede the huge risks to student security and privacy involved.

Leonie's full statement here at the NYCPublicSchoolParent blog.

By the way, do you think Rupert has figured out that Joel Klein can't run anything?

Here are press links from Chalbeat:

• Chalkbeat,
• Schoolbook,
• LoHud,
• NY Times Bits,
• Capital New York (Pro)

Below the break is the statement from inBloom:

Video: Great NYC Bloggers Honored at Class Size Matters Skinny Awards

For too many years Americans have had no choice but to suffer with ineffective reporters accountable to nobody .... blogs are the charter schools of the education reporting - minus of course the cheating and embezzlement .... 

Gary Rubinstein at Skinny Awards dinner, June 18, 2013

The huge turnout at last night's 5th annual Skinny Awards dinner for Leonie Haimson's Class Size Matters is an indication of how important the work Leonie does has become. Parent and teacher activists from New York City and beyond cheered the efforts of Leonie and her two blogger honorees, Francis Lewis HS chapter leader Arthur Goldstein (NYC Educator) - who inspired my blogging efforts - and Stuyvesant HS teacher Gary Rubinstein (Gary Rubinstein's Blog), a more recent convert to educational activism through blogging.

I got to sit with the fabulous ladies (and Fred Smith) of Change the Stakes. This is one crew I want to parteeee with and being District 6 (Washington Hts) based they invited me to join them in post CEC6 celebratory events where I am sure I will have trouble finding the A train for the 2 day trip back to Rockaway. (NEXT CTS MEETING: JUNE 28 - CUNY). Robert Jackon, running for  Manhattan borough president (I would vote for him if I lived there) showed up later after I had put the camera away -- the CTS D. 6 crew are BIG fans of his so he was right in his element.

Below is the entire half hour plus of comments from Diane Ravitch and Patrick Sullivan along with Leonie's introduction of the honorees and an explanation of why she named the awards the "skinny" awards.

I extracted a 2 minute segment of Gary's speech in a separate must watch video of his satire on the state of education reporting -- he better bring a food taster to the next Gotham Schools party.


Gary Rubinstein Satirizes Education Reporting at Skinny Awards 2013 from Grassroots Education Movement on Vimeo.

And here is the full monte - a fun half hour of viewing -- excuse the waiters getting in the way and some of my usual shaky video -- thanks to Prudence Hill for forcing me to use her tripod.





AFTERBURN:
I made sure to chat with Leonie's husband, Michael Oppenheimer, a famous environmental scientist who I invited out to Rockaway before it disappears under the sea --- he is not optimistic for the long-term prospects for my ability to avoid having a salt-water swimming pool in my house.

Charter Shill and Slimeball Michael Benjamin Joins Corporate attack on Leonie Haimson As People Rise to Her Defense

What has Leonie done wrong? See below these supporters from Change the Stakes and Leonie's response for her crime of exposing their agenda. What can one say about former failed politician Benjamin? Just do a search for previous Ed Notes pieces on him. I still have some video somewhere of his shameful performance at the Bill Perkins charter school hearings years ago before he went slinking out of office with his tail between his legs.
Here are the Leonie supporters out in force:

Julie Cavanagh
From Michael Benjamin a charter and "choice" advocate. Note his attack on teachers too as he is trying to paint Leonie as being "hypocritical".... Those greedy high paid teachers with lavish benefits are the cause, or should be the target, of large class sizes- not of course budget cuts, co-locations, and millions wasted on data/testing/"accountability". Truly ridiculous op-ed... Of course not surprising given the author and the paper.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/an_advocate_hypocrite_fGukKLaYpNlBQKTmgco2jO

Carol Burris
I think it is very poorly written, grasping at anything to make her look bad. I think we can expect more attacks...too many people are speaking out against testing, inBloom the CCSS.

Fred Smith
Another attack on Leonie. He couldn't refute her one-woman fight to reverse the InBloom giveaway of private data, so he left that one out of his multi-count indictment Leonie's hypocrisy.

Loretta Prisco
The powers that be definitely know where the greatest threat to their powers is coming from--the person who consistently speaks bold truth to them. Discredit her they must. They never like to be challenged or forced to settle for only 99% of the pie. Using leonie to attack unions and ignoring the incredible work that she has done! Why do reporters go to her? Because she has the information, does her homework, and does represent the interests of parents and kids. I think Letters to the editor from public school parents thanking her for supporting their kids- and not acting ot of self interest are in order - the fact that her son doesn't go to a public school makes the untiring work that she has done even more noble not hypocritical.

Tory Frye
I agree that these attacks are about inBloom and what is turning into a true backlash against corporate takeover of our schools. We need help here. We need to start an IndiGoGo or one of those fundraising things for Leonie; we need to show how MANY public school parents support her and her work. Maybe a petition, where parents sign their names and their children's schools.
This really is because we are finally closing in on the monstrous, beating heart of reform: high stakes testing. If we get enough parents to turn against it, they have nothing to work with; all of our kids data is useless w/o the outcome measure.
Stay strong Leonie!!! We are completely behind you!!! We would be lost without you.
Disgustedly, Tory

Jane Maisel
The attacks on Leonie should be seen as a badge of honor---they are a measure of her true effectiveness. inBloom and its cronies are extremely annoyed with Leonie for alerting parents to the inBloom problem. I agree we should stand with Leonie, and also help parents see the link between the testing, CCSS and data "sharing" which we can legitimately call data stealing. Ad hominem attacks are meant to distract from the real issue. Leonie, thanks for your fabulous work.

Deidra
Happy Birthday! Thank you for your tireless efforts advocating for an equitable education for all school children of NYC. I am borrowing Fred's idea here and using Ghandi's quote, I think you are fast approaching the third comma.

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”



THANK YOU!

Leonie Responds:
Thanks guys. It happens to be my birthday….some birthday present to wake up to!

I am flabbergasted at the amount of venom directed towards me personally, I guess because they can’t attack the issues we address. If any of you want to see the blog post he is referring to, which is mostly devoted to the DN reporter’s explanation of why education issues are nearly always framed as the mayor vs. the UFT, it’s here:

NYC Public School Parents: Why do the media nearly always frame education issues as the UFT vs. the Mayor; and Ben Chapman's response http://shar.es/lsYTH

My originally point was that the media too often ignore that parents have legitimate concerns on many issues, including class size and co-locations, separate from the union, and that the mayoral candidates could be responding to parents’ concerns as well.

It had nothing to do with how much I personally am quoted or not. Perhaps the attacks are motivated by the fact that we attempt to disrupt the dominant narrative -- that only the union matters – and that threatens the powers-that-be.

And here is Leonie's post about the event exposing inBloom:

Video and news from our explosive Town Hall meeting on student privacy

We held a Town Hall meeting at Brooklyn Borough Hall about the NYS and NYC plan to share personally identifiable student information with a corporation called inBloom inc. and other third party vendors. 
About 150 people showed up, including two Regents (Regent Kathleen Cashin of Brooklyn and Regent Betty Rosa of the Bronx), and two representatives from the NY State Education Department (Dennis Tompkins, Chief of External Affairs and Nicolas Storelli-Castro, Director of Governmental Relations), who listened to the presentations and the passionate objections of parents. Adina Lopatin, Deputy Chief Academic Officer of NYC DOE spoke and answered questions.   I also gave a presentation about inBloom  and DOE provided a  FAQ here. Unfortunately, inBloom and the Gates Foundation refused our invitation to attend.
Some of the disturbing revelations from Adina:  The city and state have already shared confidential student data with inBloom.  They don't know how much they will have to pay for inBloom's "services" starting in 2015.  If there is a data breach from inBloom (as many people believe is nearly inevitable) the state will be legally and financially liable, since the Gates Foundation has insulated itself and inBloom from responsibility.  
If this highly sensitive information leaks out, it could lead to class action suits against the state for many millions of dollars.  Just yesterday, it was reported that LivingSocial suffered a massive breach from a data cloud.  Living Social is partially owned by Amazon, which will host the inBloom data cloud.  Why is NY State -- the only inBloom participant currently committed to sharing student data from throughout the state -- insisting on gambling with millions of children's privacy and security along with all these financial risks?  I am left wondering, even more than before. 

Here are some newsclips that capture the intense anger expressed by many parents:  Village Voice: NYC Parents Grill Department of Education Over Private Student Data Cloud ; EdSurge: NYC Parents Raise Questions About InBloom;  The Indypendent: How Murdoch, Bill Gates and Big Corporations Are Data Mining Our Schools; WINS radio/CBS: Parents Irate Over NYC DOE Plan To Give Student Data To Nonprofit Organization ; Brooklyn Daily Eagle: Parents eye city plan to give individual student records to private biz 

On the blog is video of Part II of the evening, with passionate statements and questions from the audience. Video of Part I , with introductory remarks from Margaret Kelley of the Brooklyn Borough President’s office, Stephen Boese of the Learning Disabilities Association of NY, a few outbursts from parents, and my presentation and that of Adina’s, are still on the Livestream site

I have also sent follow-up questions to Adina and I will post her answers when I receive them.  Thanks to all of the co-sponsoring organizations, all of you who came and to the Brooklyn Borough President Markowitz for hosting this event.  Now please contact your legislators and urge them to support the Student Privacy bill!

Thanks, and please forward this message to others,

Leonie Haimson

RBE has a good post on this story:

Parents Fight The InBloom Inc. Plan

Afterburn:

I'm not fan of backstabbing Mona Davids who heads yet another astroturf "parent" group, who has turned into another slug with word out there that she was pushing the press to expose Leonie for sending her kid to a private school in addition to stabbing Julie Cavanagh in the back (a story for another time). But when Mona was (briefly) on the side of angels she took on Benjamin in this post on Ed Notes:

Parental Choice: Mona Davids Responds to Michael Benjamin

Leonie Haimson Offers Parents Real Choice: Low class size, rich non-test driven curriculum

There is no little irony in the Daily News assault on Leonie Haimson for sending her son to a private school while supposedly denying choice to other parents without that option open to them.

Leonie has been such a thorn in the side of the deformers, they must disparage her work. How interesting that they chose one of their funding darlings, Gotham Schools and writer Geoff Decker, to do the initial dirty work. And of course their rise and shine linked to the DN piece today. Ka-ching.

Leonie advocates for all parents to have the choice of low class size, a rich curriculum not driven by standardized tests for kids (in the womb), parent and teacher involvement and other real reforms. You know, the kinds of schools leading ed deformers like Gates, Bloomberg, Arne Duncan and others send their kids to but deny that option to the 99%.

A Daily News opinion piece, Don't let the classroom door hit you on the way out, brands Leonie as an advocate "for the bogus cure-all of hiring thousands of additional teachers to reduce class sizes."

The Daily News supports not giving parents choice but removing their choices. Their choices of whether to have an unwanted charter school planted inside the public school their child attends. A charter that offers no progressive education but a rigid military style discipline. That is the only "choice" the DN wants people to have. The kind of choice that will just happen to enrich market-driven charter school chains and test enriched corporations like Pearson which owns so much of a monopoly.

I left a comment:

Why are you denying parents the choice of low class sizes for their children which is somehow "bogus"? I'll bet given a choice you would choose low class sizes for your own children. As Leonie has done for her own child given that the NYC Public school leaders seem to subscribe to the same "high class size is better" that you advocate.

Leonie opted out of the narrow, bogus phony choice system being implemented by ed deform. When that system falls apart people who want the same kind of progressive education the 1% give to their children will be back.

See Leonie's post on her blog: A personal note

Support Class Size Matters Skinny Award Dinner - June 12, 6 PM

If you like the work Leonie Haimson does this is her annual event to raise funds. Did you know she has a fabulous intern who assists her? Don't make Ellie work for nothing. Even if you are not going send in a contribution. If you watch what Leonie does all the time, she is the best defender teachers have.

Why are they called the "Skinny" Awards? Because Eli Broad gives out his ed deform awards.

I met Leonie about a decade ago through a teacher at the Delegate Assembly who read Ed Notes and suggested we had a lot in common. Few people knew who she was at the time. Since then she has become a rock star. I was the one who suggested she start a blog because her work was so good it seemed the world should know about it (I want that on my tombstone). She introduced me to Patrick Sullivan and Diane Ravitch. She is now nationally connected through Parents Across America with other parents around the nation just like her. Amazing -- there are lots of Leonies, but our one and only here in NYC.

--------------
MORE

Video: Leonie Haimson at Teacher Evaluation Forum

The more I watch these videos from the GEM/CSM/PAA forum we held on April 17, the more impressed I am  --- 2 hours packed with insights. I broke them up into sections.

In this one Leonie Haimson points out that class size has not been taken into account in Teacher Data Reports and in fact class size has an impact on teacher ratings. She also talks about differentiation of instruction and how class size is ignored. It is obvious that the ability to differentiate instruction is absolutely dependent on class size. She eviscerates Dennis Walcott on his response on gifted and talented, really pointing just how pathetic and know-nothing a shill he is. And so much more.


Teacher Evaluation Forum - Leonie Haimson from Grassroots Education Movement on Vimeo.
Sponsored by GEM, Class Size Matters, Parents Across America.

See all videos from the forum

Leonie Haimson: http://vimeo.com/40760269

Carol Burris: http://vimeo.com/40748945

Khalilah Brann: http://vimeo.com/40758701

Gary Rubinstein: http://vimeo.com/40754465

Arthur Goldstein: http://vimeo.com/40740344

Q and A: http://vimeo.com/40772352

Exposing Bloomberg's Education Lies in Today's State of the City Address at Morris HS

UPDATE: Union busting is Theme of Bloomberg State of the City

I know it's a busy day and this is my 3rd post (make sure to check out the others) and it's only 1PM, just in time for Bloomberg's lying State of the City address. I was going to go to the protest at 12:30 but looked at directions and saw the word "Bruckner Expressway --- the use of the word "express" is a knee-slapper --- and I thought there is no way on a day it rained. So I am just going to head up to Williamsburg later for the CEC 14 meeting where D. 14 long-time Superintendent James Quail whom I've known for 40 years will be making his last appearance before retiring on Jan. 31. I will attempt to worm some ugliness towards Tweed out of him if I can.

Breaking: Just saw my childhood pal Marty Needelman in NY1 on another Bloomberg scuzzy operation in Williamsburg/Bushwick to create discriminatory housing --- they went to court and won against him -- another slap at the leagacy. David and Pat Dobosz from GEM who are neighborhood residents have been involved in this story.

Leonie initial take:

Bloomberg’s State of City Address |
He wants to re-introduce teacher merit pay (What? didn't we try that already?)
& bring Rocketship charter to NYC http://goo.gl/4cXq7 
see also http://www.nytimes.com/schoolbook/2012/01/12/bloomberg-unveils-ambitious-proposals-for-schools/
50 more charters over the next 2 yrs.
streaming live (if you can stand it) at
http://www.nytimes.com/schoolbook/2012/01/12/bloomberg-unveils-ambitious-proposals-for-schools/

Gotham reports:

Mayor’s address comes against evaluations impasse backdrop

In education-packed speech, Bloomberg vows to bypass UFT


------

Public School Parents from Across NYC to Protest “Mayor 13%” Today Outside State of the City Address

Site of address – Morris HS – likely to be touted by mayor as success;

but “new” Morris actually made gains by neglecting the highest-needs special ed students

After a decade of school closures and other failed school reform policies, only 13% of Black and Latino students are graduating prepared for college under Bloomberg

Poll after poll has shown a strong majority of New Yorkers reject Bloomberg’s education platform and want a new direction

Parents and education advocates from across New York City will protest today outside the mayor’s State of the City Address, decrying the man they call “Mayor 13%” for his failed education policies—which only prepare 13 percent of Black and Latino public school students for college.

Protesters will also draw attention to the dubious selection of Morris High School in the Bronx as the site of the address, and, apparently, a symbol to the administration of its success.  Indeed, Morris’s graduation rates have improved since it was closed and re-opened under the Bloomberg Administration—but at the expense of high-needs (self-contained) special education students who were forced to attend other schools.  The old Morris HS had a 14 percent rate of self-contained special education students; the new Morris HS campus schools have an average of just two percent. [FACT SHEET ON MORRIS HS AND BLOOMBERG POLICIES ATTACHED.]

Advocates and parents will also point to the Bronx neighborhood surrounding Morris as a microcosm of Bloomberg’s failed education policies across the City, where high-needs students who typically score lower on standardized exams are “warehoused” in a few schools to inflate scores in others.  In the neighborhood around Morris, for example, only three percent of students are in high-needs special education classes at the “A” schools, while the closing schools average nine percent high-needs special education.

The federal government’s National Assessment of Educational Progress Trial Urban District Assessment (NAEP TUDA) test results in December showed that City scores have plateaued since 2009 and the large racial achievement gap persists between students of color and their white peers has not budged.  More than one-third of all City schools are now considered failing by the State.  Earlier this fall, we learned that adjusted state scores showed a deepening crisis in our middle and elementary schools, and that higher graduation rates were masking the fact that just one-in-four high school seniors were actually prepared for college.  In response, poll after poll has shown a strong majority of New Yorkers reject Bloomberg’s education platform and want a new direction.  

WHEN:           Thursday, January 12^th – 12:30 PM

WHERE:         Outside Morris High School – 1100 Boston Road, the Bronx

WHO:             Parents and advocates from across the City.

This also available as fact sheet on the CSM website here: http://www.classsizematters.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Morris-HS-fact-sheet-final-final.pdf


For immediate release:
January 11, 2012

Leonie Haimson, Class Size Matters, leonie@classsizematters.org; 917-435-9329
Mili Bonilla, Coalition for Education Justice, mili_bonilla@brown.edu; 347-901-1049

Don’t Believe the Hype!

The Real Deal on Morris High School  

& Bloomberg’s Failed Education Policies

Get the Skinny From Leonie

So many people have thanked Leonie Haimson for 10 years of spectacular work in exposing the ed deformers with on target research and thoughtful analysis. Now it's payback time. She is having a fundraiser next week on June 15 and giving the Skinny (not Broad) award to some of our favorite people and allies: Julie Cavanagh who was a major cog in creating our film along with all her other amazign work in defense of public education and Jamaica HS Chapter Leader and former presidential candidate in the UFT James Eterno. I'll be there. Will you?

We are holding our annual “Skinny Award” Dinner a week from today, June 15 at 6 PM, honoring four teacher-warriors.  The dinner will be co-hosted by Diane Ravitch and other parent leaders.

Please check it out and RVSP on our FB page at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=173774066009105

Diane will be making an exciting announcement at the dinner that concerns Class Size Matters.

Class Size Matters works hard trying to ensure that in NYC and throughout the country, children get the smaller classes they need for a better chance to learn. 

The four teachers we are honoring have done stellar work, defending their schools and all NYC schools from damaging closures and co-locations that threaten to make things worse.

Please come and show your support.

For more information or to buy tickets, go to http://www.nycharities.org/events/EventLevels.aspx?ETID=3672

A Skinny Awards invitation you can forward to your friends and colleagues is below.

Hope to see you there!

Thanks, Leonie

Leonie Haimson

Executive Director

Class Size Matters

124 Waverly Pl.

New York, NY 10011

212-674-7320

leonie@classsizematters.org

www.classsizematters.org

http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leonie-haimson

Follow me on twitter @leoniehaimson

Leonie Haimson, Diane Ravitch, Patrick Sullivan, Monica Major, Khem Irby and

Emily Horowitz invite you to the third annual Skinny Awards

A fundraiser for Class Size Matters

Please join us for a special evening where we will honor four stellar teachers fighting to save our schools:

Jackie Bennett of Edwize

Julie Cavanagh of PS 15K and a producer of “The Inconvenient Truth behind Waiting for Superman”

James Eterno of Jamaica HS in Queens

Christine Rowland of Columbus HS in the Bronx

A rare opportunity to enjoy a three course dinner with wine while celebrating four heroes, battling to defend our public schools .

Please RSVP on the FB page here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=173774066009105

For more information or to buy tickets, go to http://www.nycharities.org/events/EventLevels.aspx?ETID=3672

Thanks!  

Leonie on FOXNews - It's 3 against 1

video here

Of course -An anti-union City Journal guy

Megyn is a FOXer - and not neurtal.
What about union money to politicians.
Leonie - let's look at where the billionaire money is going.
Megyn interrupts - public sector earn more - also that teachers are off in summers.
Leonie compares to billionaires and Wall St.
Tracy Byrnes - nothing to do with WallSt
Megyn supports her. Doesn't interrupt.
Unless Leonie gets in their faces she will not get a word in.
City Journal slug - never belonged to union in his life. Are 93% of Americans repressed?
Leonie - polls show that vast majority of Americans support unions - FOX slug interrupts Leonie again as does City Journal slug. Now brings up pension issue.
Megyn - unions put Democratic politicians - talks about how much money unions are giving to politicians.
Leonie - who is pushing attack on unions - 1% control 25% of the wealth. We will not survive as middle class disappears.
FOX slug talks about jobs.
What a fix this is.
Leonie - very wealthy should pay fair share -

Megyn's got to go - of course - sounds disgusted that Leonie's words about equity would foul the FOX air.

Follow Up on Leonie at NY Law and Exclusive Video Interview

UPDATED Sat, Sept. 18, 6am - info on Finland

There were some comments on the NYC Parent listserve about the actions of NY Law in relation to the Haimson/Suransky Smackdown. See my 2 previous posts if you missed them.

Leonie Smackdown Redux

Leonie Haimson KO's Tweed in a Knockdown

I'm printing the comments below along with a comment/correction Leonie left on my last post. And here's a link (NY Law School Ban on Taping) to the correspondence between NY1's Lindsay Christ and Nancy Guida (who I believe is the woman who gave me such a hard time) from the law school. Read in reverse order. Enlightening. [By the way, lots of people consider Christ one of the best ed reporters in town - did you know that she was a teacher for a few years before she got this gig? It shows.]

First, I have a bit of follow-up video I did with Leonie in her garden shortly after the NY Law appearance, which as you know they did not allow to be taped. We did it for the movie we are doing - The Absolute Truth About Waiting for Superman but this piece relates to some of the things she touched earlier that day - Finland, class size, teacher bashing - she calls teachers true heroes. Really eloquent stuff. It is a worthwhile 4 plus minute clip.

[Putting videos up seems to slow up this blog so I will leave it up here only for a day. Here is the you tube address if this gets slow. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSg8myiMhR4]

{A Chapter leader sent this in after investigating ed in Finland. Info from Ministry of Ed}

1)  What is the average age of a Finnish teacher (elementary through secondary, not university professors)?

 female 44 and male 47

2)  What is the average number of years a Finnish teacher has been working?

see question 1 and 3: about 20 year

3)  What is the average age of a beginning Finnish teacher?

26

4)  Do the teachers in Finland belong to a union?

about 95 % teachers belong to  union OAJ  

5)  Do Finnish teachers receive a pension after retirement?

yes

6)  What is the average age of retirement for a Finnish teacher?

now its 60 but it will be 65-68.

7)  How many months throughout the year do Finnish teachers work?

teaching time is 38 week / year

8)  What other benefits do Finnish teachers receive? (like healthcare)

healthcare

Yours,

Vesa Ilves

Vesa Ilves
tutkija
OPETUSALAN AMMATTIJÄRJESTÖ OAJ

Comments:

Thanks for the kind words Norm; but one minor correction. I said there was no standardized testing in Finland; of course the schools there have regular classroom tests. Your point about the teacher's union in Finland is very interesting. Shael went on about how Finland was successful because it attracted the best students to teaching; I talked about how in Finland they give a lot of respect to teachers,and alot of autonomy. And I contrasted that w/ the total lack of respect that this administration gives teachers, and Klein's very low approval rankings in teacher surveys. I said if this administration and the Obama administration really respected teachers, they would listen to their prescriptions for education. Over and over in national surveys, teachers respond that reducing class size would be by far the best way to increase teacher quality and teacher effectiveness, over salary increases, teacher performance pay, more professional development, or anything else. And yet they don't listen, because they don't respect teachers or care what they think. Nor do they respect parents or care what we think either!

I don't see anything the least bit surprising in this, other than NY Law School's craven submission to the probable bullying from Bloomberg/Klein.

Leonie



For Klein & Company, It's all about controlling the message. THEY get to control the data, THEY get to decide how it will be spun, THEY get to control when, where, and how, and -- most important -- THEY get to limit or control, at least in their chosen forums, how much information is made available from "the other side." Knowing that they are probably well aware of Leonie's positions as well as her encyclopedic command of the facts and figures, they had every conceivable reason to suppress public distribution of this "debate." It would be OK for a few law school students to hear her side, but heaven forbid that it get out via NY1 or YouTube or EdNotes.

Just think about it for a minute. Had Shael been there by himself to make a presentation and do Q&A, does anyone honestly believe there would have been the least objection to it being taped by NY1 or anyone else? This was all about controlling the message and stifling the dissent -- nothing else. It's not rocket science, but it is smart, at least from their standpoint.

Steve Koss


New York Law School itself has a series of "Citylaw" breakfasts which are always taped for broadcast on cable TV--I forget at the moment whether it is on one of the City stations or CUNY TV (ch. 74 or 75 where I am in Manhattan). You can also access tapes of them at their website, www.citylaw.org. I just checked it and saw that, for example, the tape of Joel Klein's appearance there as featured speaker on 4/3/09 is still available, including the Q&A, where I successfully confronted him with several examples of how, given that he's essentially one of the Mayor's Commissioners, he does not have the ability or the inclination to stand up for the school system when other city agencies are pursuing policies that are harmful to the schools.

I bring this up to point out that it is curious that, in the case of yesterday, the School seemed so unwilling for a recording to be made.
richard


It was meant primarily for students, but the organizer (who was a student, but it was clearly taken out of his hands by the administration) had encouraged me to invite members of the public as well so I did. The moderator said they had never gotten so many RSVPs.

Check out Norm's column on how they were apparently pressured by DOE not to let the discussion be videotaped by either him or NY1.

I have never seen a PR person from an academic institution so nervous about getting publicity; usually they love the attention. First she said that taping was barred because they didn't get the permission from the participants; then she changed her story when I said that they had my permission, and that probably Shael would agree as well.

But in this case, Kathleen Grimm of DOE had apparently made their desires known strongly, behind the scenes to one of the deans. Whether another college or university would have reacted differently, and not given in so quickly, who knows.

The PR person came up to me afterwards, and demanded that I "remove" her email to Lindsey and me from the list serv about how they were barring any videotaping, as it was a private communication. I was astonished.

I said to her, not only do you want to keep the event private, but you also want to keep it secret that you want to keep it private?

If DOE didnt want Shael to be on a panel w/ me they should have asked him not to appear. But to prevent the wider public from being able to see the event is really shameful -- and I think it is esp. craven of a law school , that should be insisting on freedom of political speech to cave in this way..

Leonie Haimson

Leonie Smackdown Redux- Updated

UPDATED Sunday, Sept. 19, 11:30pm

See Leonie's account of the meeting at NYC Parent blog.

My debate with Shael Suransky of DOE

As many people have asked for it, she posted her powerpoint here, part 1 and part II. If you would like Leonie to present it to your organization, please email her at classsizematters@gmail.com.

The email exchange between Lindsey, the very testy VP for PR at NY Law School, and Leonie.

See my post game video interview with Leonie on you tube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSg8myiMhR4]

 

Original posting, Thurs Sept. 16:
I wrote late last night about the New York Law School event featuring Class Size Matters' Leonie Haimson and the NYC Department of Education's Chief Accountability Officer Shael Suransky. But it was late and this piece, Leonie Haimson KO's Tweed in a Knockdown, didn't do justice to Leonie's spectacular work in  laying waste to the ed deform movement and BloomKlein as she took a wrecking ball and kept smashing it into their faces - boom, one blow after another until the virtual Tweed was not left standing.

Poor Suransky. He tried his best to defend Tweed but if this room semi-filled (more on this later) law students were a jury, BloomKlein would have been sent to the hangman's tree.

UFT/AFT Sidebar
How a one woman operation can accomplish such a feat while a hundred million dollar (or is it two hundred?) union operation flails helplessly does make people scratch their heads. But not me since I view the UFT/AFT as a virtual arm of the ed deform movement - whether they agree philosophically or not they take the position that it is here and they have to work within the framework. Thus my comparing them to the mentality of Vichy. (See UFT/AFT: Think Like Vichy)

 Ahhh, that felt good. Back to our program.
 As you all know, I am not a reporter and my scatterbrain mentality makes it hard for me to take notes, plus I can never read my own handwriting - think it's time for an Ipad? But here is what I have until I coral Leonie to do a voice over her presentation - and I should point out that she had to rush through it in her 15 minutes so a lot was skipped. One witness came over and suggested we do it as a series.

The symposium was titled "NCLB and the Effects of high stakes accountability systems (NYC and elsewhere)". I thought it interesting that Tweed was even willing to send one of their top people to get in the same arena with Leonie but maybe it is a sign of their desperate attempts to spin their side of the story after this summer's testing fiasco. It wasn't that Shael is not competent to defend them (I wish he were on our side) but that he has so little he can defend. However, he does seem to drink the Kool-aid.

His presentation went after Leonie and people were so wowed there was little he could do. He pointed to his experience at Morris HS where he claimed they graduated only 70 kids out of a cohort of 700 - when I challenged him later on this 10% grad rate he hedged, saying that some kids went to other schools and came up with a 25% figure. He claims that the 4 new schools, one of which he ran, had 75-80% grad rates with the same type of kids. Sorry, I don't believe it. That rivals Michelle Rhee's claims she performed miracles, raising her class' reading from 10% to 90% in a year. No don't get me wrong here. I do believe we can reverse the numbers. But Real Reformers (our new code name) know what it will take - smaller teaching groups to start - but I won't do the drill again.

Leonie talked about how the high stakes testing game has so totally distorted education. She laid waste the Tweed's report card system, how schools that got F's one year got A's the next, quoting Aaron Pallas, "A monkey could do a better job by randomly picking schools."

She devastated the value added approach, pointing to research that showed how the same teachers measured on student performance on different tests could turn up as the best on one and the worst on another. (See new Sean Corcoran study - link on my sidebar.) How high school grad rates were distorted by the pressure on teachers to mark up on Regents exams and credit recovery. And oh, those discharge rates. Campbell's Law in action.

Leonie went into the data that shows that lower class size is one of the 4 measures proven to have an effect on student performance - an obvious fact to anyone who spent time in the classroom. (Where does Suransky who says he was a teacher stand on this?)

She repeatedly returned to Campbell's Law: 

"The more any quantitative social indicator is used for social decision-making, the more subject it will be to corruption pressures and the more apt it will be to distort and corrupt the social processes it is intended to monitor."^[1]

Yes, give people incentives to cheat based on rewards (bonus pay) and punishment (closing schools, loss of jobs) and people will do what it takes to assure high scores.

When asked later what was her prescription for the ills of schools? Reduce class size and do what it would take to cut the attrition rate of teachers - these are related, of course.

One very interesting interchange took place between Leonie and Shael over a question about how the international standing of the US has fallen. Shael fell into this trap by talking about the higher standing of European schools - how teachers are so much more respected than here.

Duhhhh! European teachers have some of the strongest teachers unions in the world. Maybe that has something to do with how they are respected while also calling out our own AFT/UFT as bearing a major share of the blame for the lack of respect in the US.

In Finland he said, the top quarter of college grads went into teaching while in the US it is more like the bottom third.

Leonie pounced. Finland is the highest performing nation in the world. No high stakes testing at all, though there are some tests.

And how about those teacher unions there? Think that has an impact on luring the top college grads into the profession as opposed to the US where the lure is to go into finance so you too could take part in destroying the economy?


After burn: NY Law Mopes
I won't go into it in depth because we finally got in. But the PR person from the Law School and the NY Law School Assistant Dean were some of the nastiest people we have met.

When I arrived I was surprised to see Lisa Donlan there as I thought she was still in Paris. But she had flown in the night before – there is dedication to the cause. She told me we would not be allowed in without reservations, which we didn't know we needed. Worse of all Lisa said, when she asked if there was room could we come in, she received a firm "no." That this event was for students and they expected it to be filled. And besides,  they ordered pizza. "I won't eat," I chimed in (but I managed to sneak a slice later - na, na, na, na, na, na.)

[This section updated and clarified]
I tried to get in as press and was told I needed a reservation. Just them someone without a reservation came up and said he was with Tweed and was there at Suransky's request. He was Deputy Press Secretary Matt Mittenthal and he seemed like a nice guy but got caught in my tirade once it was clear he would be allowed in. I raised a ruckus: if Tweed can have someone come why can't Leonie have people even if they don't have reservations? I was at my most obnoxious and during our interchanges I was threatened numerous times - "leave this lobby immediately," the PR person screamed at me. More than once (I had tried to take a picture of the sign at the entrance that talked about justice). I told her to call security and I would go kicking and screaming, taping all the way. Matt told me that if other press was upstairs he would argue to get me in (yes, there are some likable people at Tweed even with my pal David Cantor gone.)

Anyway, as more and more of Leonie's people arrived, few with reservations, the Law School people got more and more nervous, finally relenting and saying they would count seats and let us in. So we got in. And the joke is the place was half empty. Lisa did a chair count and came up with these numbers give or take a few: 62 attendees, 46 empty seats at around 1:30 (the numbers varied as people came and went). 16 of these were FOL - Friends of Leonie. Poor Shael only had a few friends, including one of my faves - James Merriman, uber charter school pusher. I love to tweak Merriman. "How did that Perkins/Smikle thing work out?" "Incumbency" he harumphed. He later told Leonie that Sam Hoyt was winning big in Buffalo as a sign of the charter school lobby influence. See Leonie's comment on this in Postscript below.


Did Tweed make demands?
We have info that the Law school was contacted by the DOE to keep press out. NY 1's Lindsey Christ was told she could not tape and was apparently not happy and didn't show (Leonie posted emails between Lindsey and NY Law that upset these mopes no end - I'm getting a feeling she won't be asked back.)

I heard through someone connected to the Law School who was present and not happy with the way we were being treated by the Law School officials that Kathleen Grimm had told them that Leonie was advertising the event as a smackdown - not true as Gotham's Elizabeth Green had done that - and the press should be kept out. NY Law people seemed so nervous we wondered whether there is some funding coming from Bloomberg.


Postscript from Leonie 
Hoyt is a big favorite of the charter school lobby and beneficiary of the hedge hog dollars. He outspent his rival by 4-1 and only is ahead by 250 votes out of more than 10,000 cast.  His opponent wants a recount. Bloomberg gave Hoyt big $, and he was one of DFER’s Hot List. He also briefly subscribed to this list serv, for reasons I could never figure out.

Hoyt Wins, But Golombek Wants A Recount 

http://www.wgrz.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=86801&catid=13

Postscript 2: After the event I walked Leonie home and interviewed her in her garden for our film. I'm heading for the city now to cover the Diane Ravitch/Eva Moskowitz panel at The Economist event at Chelsea Piers. If I can get a few sound bites from Diane for the film that would be awesome.

Is the UFT About to Blink on Lifting Charter School Cap?

The dominoes continue to fall as the UFT backpedals on every issue from rubber rooms to teacher evaluations based on test scores and now the lifting of the charter school cap. The NY Post reports:

The odds of reaching an agreement to lift the cap on charter schools improved markedly after negotiators made "major progress" in resolving two controversial issues, a source close to the talks said yesterday. City, state and union negotiators have discussed creating an advisory council that would assess the impact of sharing space with traditional public schools. But the task force would not have the power to block a charter school from moving into a building. City, state and union negotiators have discussed creating an advisory council that would assess the impact of sharing space with traditional public schools. But the task force would not have the power to block a charter school from moving into a building.

Duhhh! That's the ticket, another advisory committee. Leonie Haimson asks: "How many impotent advisory councils do we already have, whose “advice” the administration totally ignores? 32 CECs and the CCHS. How many more do we need? Zero."


Another issue the union seems to be backtracking on is the for-profit charter operator issue. The Post says,

There are three such firms that operate about 10 percent of charter schools in the state. The teachers union has called for a ban on for-profit firms running the publicly funded, but privately managed, charter schools. One idea floated would cap the number of schools run by for-profit firms [my emphasis].

That's another ticket. Cap 'em, double entendre intended. For the time being. We know how the ed deformers work. Get the charter cap lifted by agreeing to limit for profits and then just go and do what they want anyway. By the way, the way around this is to count each block of schools as one. Thus Victory greedy blood suckers could have 10 schools but count them all as one. Watch a battle emerge to get this wrinkle in once they get their pound of flesh.

Don't miss this knock-down:

Leonie Haimson vs. James Merriman

Event: Leonie will debate James Merriman of NYC Charter Center
Start Time: Thursday, May 27 at 8:00pm
End Time: Thursday, May 27 at 9:00pm
Where: A bar called 49 Grove, at the corner of Bleecker Street.

To see more details and RSVP, follow the link below:
http://www.facebook.com/n/?event.php&eid=119482558092106&mid=262699eG218ef608G4ddfec3G7&n_m=norscot%40aol.com

Leonie had some further comments on her listserve. Isn't it great to have parent activists stand up for the right things while our own union lays down and dies?

By now, you probably have been seeing lots of ads on TV and flooding the internet from Education Reform Now, a group which is pushing to raise the charter cap in NY State and to eliminate seniority protections for teachers.

On its website, ERN claims to be a "coalition of parents, teachers and education advocates" but is really a bunch of deep-pocketed hedge-fund operators.

In their "Race to the Top" ads, ERN is spreading disinformation; imploring parents and others to "send a message to Albany,” implying that if the State lifts the cap on charters, we will get enough federal funds to prevent the need for budget cuts to our schools, and the threatened loss of thousands of teaching positions. In an oped written for Crain’s, James Merriman of the Charter Center wrote the following:

“Across New York state, school districts are so strapped for cash they're doing the unthinkable—laying off teachers and cutting core programs that directly affect student learning. At the same time, the federal government is offering New York $700 million in education funding for agreeing to reforms that have the potential to raise student achievement and offset devastating budget cuts.”

This is simply untrue.

As Kathleen Grimm, DOE Deputy Chancellor, admitted to the City Council a week ago, and the federal government has confirmed several times over, these funds CANNOT be used to offset budget cuts, prevent teacher layoffs or cuts to afterschool programs, but in Grimm’s words are “very restrictive.”

Indeed, they can only be used for a very narrow set of policies, including teacher evaluation and merit pay based on test scores, more data gathering, etc. – few of which would actually improve the quality of our children’s education.

And what are the so called “common sense education reforms”? The charter school lobby is spending millions to try to persuade the Legislature to radically expand the number of charters, while insisting that the State Comptroller be barred from auditing charter schools' use of public funds, preventing parents from having a say in their co-locations in public school buildings, and insisting that profit-making operations continue to be able to make a buck off our kids.

I urge you not to fall for their pro-privatization propaganda.

Already, the city plans to spend $545 million next year on charters, more than the $493 million in cuts planned from our public school budgets. We simply cannot afford to lose any more money from the classroom. Given how our schools are bleeding, the proposal to expand spending on charters is outrageous.

(To see a list of charter schools that are applying for next year, and who could be coming into your district soon if the cap is lifted, check out
New Charter School Applicants to SUNY-CSI, Summer 2010 and New Charter School Applicants to NYCDOE, Summer 2010)

The Assembly will be considering raising the charter cap this week.

Call your Assemblymember today, and ask him or her to restore full funding to the education budget, and not to raise the charter cap unless there are rigorous protections for taxpayer and parent rights; including for the CECs to have the authority to approve all co-locations.

Find your state legislators at http://nymap.elections.state.ny.us/nysboe/; for the Assembly, the toll free no. is 1-877-255-9417 and press 3.

I have also heard from several PTAs that they have received emails from an employee working for ERN; asking if she can talk at your PTA meeting, send a message to parents, or post a link to their online petition about their campaign to “Keep Great Teachers.”

Of course, we all want to keep great teachers; and the best way to do so is to fight against the threatened budget cuts to our schools. But by undermining seniority protections, this group is out to further undermine public education by weakening the professional status of the teaching profession; so that our schools are confronted with a revolving door of inexperienced (read: cheaper) teachers.

The reality is that there are only two objective, quantifiable factors that research has clearly linked to more effective teaching; teacher experience and smaller classes.

Unfortunately, this administration and their buddies on Wall St. – none of whom have their own children in NYC public schools -- are doing everything they can to undermine our kids’ access to both of these critical factors

Thanks,

Leonie Haimson
Executive Director
Class Size Matters

Leonie Haimson on Why Class Size Matters

How dare she? Leonie Haimson calls for money used to build and support empty prisons to be shifted to building schools. Outrageous. Doesn't she know that by cutting education severely we can assure that these prisons will be filled eventually?

And then she has the nerve to talk about rising birth rates and how that will force a demand for new space for schools,mentioning along the way that BloomKlein have ignored this fact or shunned any responsibility for not addressing the issue. Doesn't she know "the plan" is to guarantee a drop in the birth rate by creating a massive multi- decade long depression?

What a nerve she has!

Jugheads like Rick Hesse and his ilk disparaged class size as a solution to fixing schools at the Manhattan Institute luncheon for Diane Ravitch's book a few weeks ago. Leonie Haimson was in the audience and I wanted to go up and grab the mic from him and turn it over to her. Here is part one of her excellent presentation at the Class Size Matters parent workshop this past Saturday, which included workshops for parents to fight back against the BloomKlein machine and an amazing panel session with charter school parents, including the former Moaning Mona Davids who if she keeps up these good deeds will be renamed the Magnificent Mona. But more of that video later.


NYC City Councilman Robert Jackson and State Assemblywoman Cathy Nolan were in attendance. See below the video for Leonie's report of the event.


Part 1




Part 2

Our parent conference on Saturday was terrific. Thanks to those of you who came. And thanks to Lisa Donlan of D1, Khem Irby of D 13, Monica Major of D 11, and Shino Tanikawa of D2, who helped put it together.

Cathy Nolan, chair of the Assembly Education committee, was our surprise guest in the morning and spoke briefly about school governance, the importance of parent involvement, and the state budget crunch. Robert Jackson, Chair of the City Council Education committee, talked about improving the capital plan to relieve overcrowding and reduce class size. All the panels and workshops were terrific.

The afternoon panel on building bridges with charter parents, with Mona Davids of the NY Charter Parents Association, Leslie-Ann Byfield, Achievement First charter school parent, Khem Irby of CEC District 13 and Dianne Johnson of CEC District 5, was especially moving and strong. I hope to have video of it soon, as we had two filmmakers in the audience.

Some of the presentations are available online, linked to from the agenda here; our consensus framework of shared principles with charter parents is here and below. The press release about our shared principles is here. My presentation on class size, school overcrowding and what can be done is here.

Though Chancellor Klein and the DOE would like to pit parent against parent, we find have much in common with charter school parents, who want the same things for their children’s schools that all parents do: a quality education with small classes and experienced teachers, more transparency and accountability, and real parent input in decision-making.

• Speaking of accountability, tomorrow, Monday April 14, at 9:30 AM, legal arguments will be held in our class size lawsuit against DOE’s failure to comply with state law before Justice John Barone, at Bronx County Courthouse; (Grand Concourse and 161st Street).

• Tuesday April 13 at 7 PM, I will be speaking at a community forum about the US Dept. of Education’s flawed priorities and their misguided blueprint for the reauthorization of NCLB, which if enacted would be devastating for NYC schools. The main speaker is Jo Comerford, Executive Director of National Priorities Project. (For a flyer, click here.)

The consensus document which we developed with the help of the NY Charter Parents Association, as well as other charter and district parents is below. If you have comments, are willing to sign onto it as is, please send me your name, school, and district, or other affiliations if any at classsizematters@gmail.com