Good luck to all On the first day of school, It's as much about testing as vaccines -

Brace yourself, everyone. The city has decided, with almost everyone in attendance, that it only needs a fraction of the testing it did when it only had a fraction of the students. If you can't see what that spells, you may just be hard of reading.  ... NYC Educator. 

Scary story: Last night we hear about a healthy late-30, early 40-ish vaxed teacher who had some mild symptoms and got tested and came up pos for covid. Important point-- he went and got tested on his own, NOT BY DOE. If he went in today he would have subjected 60 colleagues. His wife, also DOE, is getting tested but still must go into work today. They are keeping their middle school kid home and actually intended to keep the kid home all along. Both of them have been very careful with masking etc.

Today I am going into the city for the first time in 6 weeks, taking the ferry. Why am I as nervous as I was a year ago before I was even vaxed? Tell me how it is not likely I'd get real sick. That's not enough for me. I don't want to get anywhere near this virus due to possibly long-term effects. You don't end up with reduced kidney function with a cold.

Another Hidden Covid Risk: Lingering Kidney Problems

https://www.nytimes.com › health › covid-kidney-damage

Sep 1, 2021 — Doctors are unsure why Covid can cause kidney damage. Kidneys might be especially sensitive to surges of inflammation or immune system ...

I'm 76 and in one month it will be 8 months since last vaxed and I will be first in line to get the booster.

It's now about testing, especially since there will be loads of unvaxed working in the same space.

Thursday, September 9, 2021

Good morning everyone on back to school day, the most nervous day of the year for me for 35 years, but joyful for the past 19. After two months of total freedom, I was bummed but also ready to see colleagues and students and parents. Butterflies but excited butterflies.

Every single year began with some chaos in my various schools. But today I feel butterflies for all the people who have to go back in the midst of as much fear and chaos as I've every seen. Teachers in LA and Chicago, due to strong progressive unions, may feel safer than NYC school employees - due to the political ambitions of de Blasio, whose political ambitions will crash even further than they have when things fall apart.

And de Blasio will be aided by the UFT's Michael Mulgrew who, other than Unity loyalists, may be the most unpopular UFT leader in history. [Unsafe Schools at any speed --call on UFT and DOE to issue 10 foot poles to vaxed school employees].

 

Mulgrew and Randi actually met with the leader of the unvaxed group while ignoring the calls of the majority of UFT members calling for some remote options, not for them but for parents, whose fears that lead to them not sending their kids to school may be met by DOE investigations instead of support. Mulgrew is silent.

 

As Arthur points out, the reduced testing is a head scratcher.

[Sign a petition for more testing. (see below break for text.)]

If you don't follow Dr. Michael Osterholm's weekly podcasts, they are a must listen.

The Osterholm Update: COVID-19

• Episode 67: You Can't Run Out the Game Clock (September 2, 2021)

He mocks the 3 foot distance rule and even the learning loss argument for forcing kids back to school. It's being driven by the it's the economy, stupid. Osterholm should be on TV more than Fauci -- and actually is appearing as the absolute realists. He also feels we are not doing enough testing.

Here is another must listen -- Michael Mina on Brian Lehrer advocates rapid testing as being as important as vaccines -- he even says we won't vax ourselves out of this pandemic but we can test our way out.

Brian Lehrer - Sept. 1

Summary Transcript

Michael Mina, MD, PhD, assistant professor of epidemiology at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, talks about how schools are preparing to test students, the science on boosters and who gets them, and more of the latest COVID-19 news.

https://www.wnyc.org/story/defense-home-rapid-test

Dr. Mina: Absolutely. COVID and quarantining is really an information problem. We quarantine a child and we say, "You can't go to school for 10 days because you've been exposed," because we don't know whether or not they've been infected, so we say, "Go home and quarantine." We actually have the tools now to know if they are infected and infectious and [unintelligible 00:03:35] a simple rapid test that a lot of people have now been finally hearing about.

Instead of quarantining the child or a whole classroom of children because somebody else turns up positive in the class, we can do what I call test to [unintelligible 00:03:53]. That's instead of having everyone quarantine, you just have them use a simple rapid test at home before school and you do that each day that they would otherwise be quarantining. You say, "You've been exposed potentially. We don't know if you're infected," so on Monday, use a rapid test in the morning, and if negative, go to school. Tuesday, use rapid test in the morning, and do that for the week. Most people don't actually turn positive who ended up being quarantine.

This is in a critical tool that we haven't really utilized very well at all in this pandemic to keep society running. This works for businesses, for schools. It's an information problem and we know how to solve that problem.

Brian: We always hear that the rapid tests aren't as accurate as the so-called PCR tests, the full nose swab. Are the rapid tests accurate enough for use like that and still protect the other kids in the class?

Dr. Mina: Absolutely. The rapid tests that have been authorized thus far in the United States are very accurate to answer the question, am I infectious? This is a very different question than have I been infected in the last few weeks? The question is, and why we quarantine people is we are worried about whether or not they are spreading the virus today. These rapid tests do exactly that, they detect infectiousness. I actually like to call them-- These are public health tools that I think should actually be called contagiousness indicators or something along those lines, because that's really what they excel at. They are very, very good to answer that question.

Brian: I see you have this Twitter thread going that's partly aimed at the Los Angeles public schools in particular. Is LA and outlier for some reason or typical of this issue?

Dr. Mina: This is happening all over the place. That was just one of the first big news reports to break. That was that day one, day two of school there were a huge number of quarantines and now we're seeing people and the teachers unions and such pushing for more extreme quarantines, that when one child becomes positive in a class, to quarantine the whole classroom. This is not the way to go. It wasn't last year and it still is not.

Kids have been out of school enough. The last thing we want to do in a pandemic is to have the societal ramifications be worse than the virus itself. We need to figure out and utilize the tools that we have available to us to ensure that children remain in school, to ensure that businesses keep running and we don't just keep using these brute force methods of closing things down and make major quarantines to solve a public health problem. Those solutions should be considered public health failures, and we have ways not to have to utilize those.

Petition text:

Petition for More COVID Testing in Schools

Dear Mayor de Blasio and Chancellor Porter,

Everyone who works for NYCDOE must protect students’ safety. To keep our communities safer, we demand more COVID testing in New York City’s public schools.

Children aged thirteen to seventeen have the highest positivity rates in New York City. For children aged five to twelve, the positivity rate increased tenfold over the summer. In the second half of August, about one in twenty school-aged children has been testing positive. That rate translates to at least one COVID-positive student in every K-12 class in New York City.

Just when schools need more COVID testing, NYCDOE plans less. Last year, once every week, NYCDOE tested 20% of the students. This year, every OTHER week, NYCDOE will test 10%. Testing half as many kids, half as often, reduces safety. Breakthrough cases are common, but NYCDOE will not test vaccinated staff or students. NYCDOE now allows families to refuse in-school testing. We still do not have testing for 3K, pre-K, or kindergarten; citywide, that leaves about 14% of our students in classes that never get tested.

The following measures will keep our city safer:


Test 40% or more every week. Larger sample sizes detect spreading cases. More frequent testing detects cases while there’s still time to act.

Test the vaccinated. When the Delta variant breaks through, vaccinated people spread COVID. Everyone stays safer if vaccinated students participate.

Require participation. This year should be like last year: families should acknowledge that their children will be tested, but testing should not be optional.

Test early childhood. Random testing cannot monitor untested classrooms. Include 3K, 4K, and kindergarten.

Restore staff testing. Every day, principals and assistant principals enter nearly every classroom. Educational administrators travel school to school. None of us wants to pass COVID to the students we love. If administrators, teachers, paraprofessionals, school aides, custodial staff and kitchen workers all test alongside our students, we know our kids are safer.


You charged us with opening schools and keeping them open. More testing leads to more early quarantining, but less testing eventually results in more cases than our city can ignore. Another systemwide shutdown would undo everyone's goals for mental health, physical wellbeing, and academic learning.

We need early detection to maintain student health and public trust. Give us more testing, more often, for much more safety.

 

Shades of 1975 - Part 1 - The Coming Crisis for NYC Teachers and Students - the Plague is not the only problem

Note - some people told me Mulgrew referred to this piece indirectly when he pointed out at the UFT Ex Bd meeting on Monday that in 1975 teachers still got their raises -- yes they did but the 15,000 laid off did not.

Some new info came in from Bruce Markens who has the best institutional  memory going back to the early 60s. So I am updating and republishing - sorry subscribers for tossing so much email at you.

When I see complaints from teachers about the DOE, the UFT, the loss of

spring break, etc. I find them almost funny due to how shortsighted they are given the potential likelihood of a massive financial crisis to come that will affect and infect the school system, the most likely place to take the biggest hit because it has the biggest budget and therefore the most places to cut - except for the administrators and bureaucracy, of course.

The current home-learning situation will result in a learning experience for all - but especially the politicians and corporatists - especially in the Dem Party, who see a solution to the budget by continuing versions of stay at home schooling where feasible - witness one Andrew Cuomo taking advantage of the disaster - never waste a crisis. He's cutting Medicaid - I guarantee education is on the chopping block.

Of course the role the schools play in babysitting and feeding cannot be ignored, but I believe the idea will be there for use. Imagine closed schools and how many people can be laid off? But let's say all schools remain open.

No taxes coming in and enormous expenses for city and state government: deep cuts are inevitable
 
So how can they cut deeply and still maintain a system? Just tax the rich I hear some people say -- that will solve the problem. Here's what we know - that will never happen -- both parties protect the rich  and that was why Bernie and Warren to a lesser extent were such threats. 

What about UFT contracts? Someone commented recently - don't we have a contract preventing layoffs - a LOL moment.

Once they declare an emergency, contracts don't count. I will speculate on what schools may look like next year in Part 3.

1975 - a lesson: The UFT was much stronger then
So let's talk about what happened in 1975 when our contract was shredded when the financial crisis was declared and the finances taken over by some consortium -- Felix Rohatyn (who died not long ago and was proclaimed a hero - not to us - became the czar.)

At this time of the year in 1975 there were few signs on the horizon - even less than now. Bruce Markens called to tell me that in June '75 all 8000 regular substitutes were terminated - a warning sign. Now I do remember that --- it was clear that if you were not regularly appointed you were dead meat. Still, we thought they would be rehired. The idea of layoffs of regularly appointed teachers had never happened in memory - not even in the depression of the 1930s (I think.)

Still, when we got back in September, it was like getting hit by a brick when they announced that 13 people from our smallish elementary school were being excessed  to other schools --- you see, layoffs were based on seniority, so they were being sent to push the lowest seniority out in other schools -- my school had more experienced teachers -- but they got down to within one of me -- and I started teaching in 1967 as a regular sub for three years - though became a regular licensed in 1970 - and I remember the order of seniority in case of ties was the score on the regular teaching exam - believe it or not - and I had a good score - 85- which jumped me over a few others.

Well, the upshot was that this happened in schools all over the city and there was a storm of outrage and at a DA was called and it was packed. Shanker was up there and we in the opposition were calling for us to not give in.

Shanker claimed the 1975 strike was his biggest mistake
We knew Shanker did not want to strike - he had been so damaged by the 1968 strike personally and professionally. The Taylor Law had been amended with two for one penalties for everyone who went on strike (thanks Bruce) - and  was now going to damage us badly if we struck.

But there was a revolt from the lower UFT/Unity ranks (the only time over 60 years) - the District Reps were breaking ranks and demanding the union do something. But what could it do other than strike? And so it did -- but we in the opposition understood it was a show strike of sorts - Shanker went to jail and also declared we won't go back until we all go back -- NOT.

So the strike lasted a week and Shanker made a deal. "Only" 15,000 layoffs - and he helped bail out the city with our pension funds. You know I find it funny how people used to compare Shanker and Randi - but the Shanker of 1975 was a far cry from the militant union leader of 1967 (and his militancy of 1968 was misdirected and a long term catastrophe with demands from the liberal community for higher penalties for public worker strikes - witness the two for one penalties.) Randi once said that Shanker told her his biggest mistake was the 1975 strike - when it was really the 1968 strike that made it impossible to get the support of the public in the future, thus dooming the 1975 strike.

I remember the packed rally in front of 110 Livingston Street and the march over the Brooklyn Bridge where our opposition group - NYC School Workers - were active in calling for the strike -- even as we didn't trust Shanker to make a real stand. We struck for a week and Shanker served time in jail and then went out and made a deal that screwed us. A membership meeting was held in Madison Sq Garden and we were out there with 20,000 leaflets urging a NO vote in the agreement.

UPDATE: Bruce sent me the numbers - closer than I thought or remembered.

(In retrospect I'm not sure what I would do if it comes to this again but will explore this in Part 3. Shanker sold the agreement as only he could - that was his real genius.

A few months later in the spring of 1976 Shanker endorsed militant hawk Henry Scoop Jackson for president - Jackson who wanted a massive rise in the defense budget - Shanker chose guns over butter.

One thing is clear - we in the UFT took the brunt. I don't remember any other municipal union talking strike - divide and conquer. That's why I think when cuts come in September they will try to hit one group hard - the weakest links - and I fear that's the DOE. (Just dump all the supervisors).

The initial hit was mostly to elementary schools who were hit harder -- (again, divide and conquer). Elementary schools were the biggest supporters of Shanker - and didn't garner much respect. So it seemed to be "screw them" they won't do anything.

The biggest hit was to our preps
We lost all our cluster teachers -- maybe 6 (multiply that by the number of elementary schools) -- and were left with the librarian who covered all preps. We had been getting 5 preps but those were cut to 3 - (contract be damned) and 2 more preps were Mondays and Fridays at 2:15 when the kids went home early. A whole bunch of schools were closed. And actually we adapted surprisingly easy to the new world - in my school on the two days kids went home at 2:45, the common prep turned into wine and cheese parties.

Bruce reminded me that the first heavy hit to high schools was in February 1976. And  major hits in Sept. '76. By that time elementary schools had worked under restrictions for a year

The next year junior high and high schools were hit hard. But certain licenses were hit harder -- like high school social studies layoffs went back to the late 60s. Social studies teachers were hit real hard - some were laid off who were appointed in the late 60s. The DOE was still short in math licensed so offered special courses for laid off teachers to get a math license.

There were repercussions for over 15 years - like no real school repairs that led to enormous damage that had to be cleaned up in the late 80s and 90s.

In part 2 I will share my personal experience in my school union election in the spring of 1975 before the cuts and how the layoffs affected me and touch on issues not included here.

In Part 3 we'll explore some of the possibilities for the great crisis of 2020 and how schools may look - anyone for a 4 day week? And wait till you see what they do to tenure rights, thought he untenured are in serious danger. (Hint - why layoff cheaper teachers with less seniority?) But most importantly, will a crisis finally spark NYC teacher militancy to match that in Chicago and LA? And how will the UFT leadership come up with ways to damper this militancy? Will an opposition spring up to Unity and will MORE be the focus of that opposition?

I'm including an important late comment from my friend Gloria:

...online learning replacing teacher centered learning. It would save enormous amounts of money. (Remember the fight we had against the "School of One" program some years back?) And true, in an emergency, contracts may not hold any power. I'm sure you can describe a horrific yet realistic vision of what education may look like post this Pandemic horror (although a 4 day school week is already in place in some school districts.) Larger classes. Fewer supplies, etc But I also think it’s important to discuss how we can work against having any of this happen. And I think we need look at the bigger picture- not just getting our union to fight for us (Ha!) or pushing the NYS congress to fully fund our education budget (as I heard yesterday on the AQE Zoom meeting about the NYS budget just passed ) by increasing taxes on the millionaires and billionaires although I do agree these are important steps to take. We need to continue building the movement that Bernie Sanders helped organize. Take local power when we can. Let’s publicize the fact that the richest country in the world actually can afford a fair, excellent public education system (as well as healthcare for all, housing, etc.) The current federal military budget is 750 B dollars; half of our taxes go to support war and militarism. Our government is giving money away by the trillions to military defense corporations like Boeing so it can keep its investors happy and continue producing weapons for war. Militarization is now accelerating at a time when most people are suffering. I’d say that now is the time to push our union to work towards these larger goals. They want to keep their power, too and so does not want the union membership to shrink. This won’t be easy. Imagine all left of center groups working together. But if we can’t do this, lets say hello to The USA of F(Fascism). 

Adult Ed Superintendent Rose Marie Mills targeted veteran teachers over age and they sue - UFT Mum

At an Ex Bd meeting, an adult ed teacher used her 2-minute open mic period to call attention to a consultation meeting she attended where Rose-Marie Mills castigated and humiliated her. Sitting silently was the UFT District Rep Patty Crispino sat there silently and did not stand up for the teacher.

That was a clue to how the UFT leadership has responded to the repeated complaints from Adult Ed teachers and have allowed Mills to engage in abusive behavior.

Sue Edelman has another one of her Sunday specials exposing supervisor abuse in the NY Post, this time about one of the major DOE slugs, Adult Ed Superintendent Rose-Marie Mills, vicious and despicable, who has been allowed to purge teachers while the UFT leadership sits on its hands. I know, I know -- they brought it up in consultation and then throw their hands up.

Ed Notes has reported on Adult Ed for years. Here are a few from this past year:

• Councilman Danny Dromm Hearing on Adult Ed Issues 
• First UFT Ex Bd Meeting of Year - A Stephen King Horror Movie
• Adult Education Teacher to UFT Exec Bd

One of our long-time pals, Roberta Pikser, who attends most of our pre-Ex bd meetings in the back of the lobby of the UFT, lost her job a year ago in the purge and the UFT has done precious little to help people get their jobs back. At one of the UFT Ex Bd meetings, a retired adult ed chapter leader castigated the leadership for lack of action, but when I asked if I could publish her speech she declined, saying she wanted to work behind the scenes with the leadership. Good luck to that.

Arthur has a post on this today - Another Day, Another Abusive Administrator -

Fired adult ed. teacher Roberta Pikser has been coming fairly regularly to Executive Board meetings. I've gotten to hear a lot about this firsthand. A lot of what I hear seems outright scandalous, so was pretty happy to read about it today in the Post. They say sunlight is the best disinfectant, and this particular branch of the Department of Education seems infected to the core.

UFT is an enabler of abusive principals
I also think the UFT/Unity leadership also seems infected to the core - with a defeatist non-militant approach to the slugs running so many districts and schools. The NY Teacher should be loaded with stories as should UFT social media.

I believe that every principal has to live in fear of a UFT reaction -- and also the CSA must know that they will not have a cozy relationship with the UFT.

A comment on the suit:

And our union emphatically told the chapter that an age discrimination lawsuit was a waste of time and not a good strategy. And here a small group of determined teachers have filed a legit suit and it has garnered attention in two newspapers!

BRAVO! 

Note that de Blasio did his political attack on the NY Post claiming he hopes it will disappear --- maybe because of stories like this.

Superintendent targeted veteran teachers over age: suit

By Susan Edelman

June 2, 2018

Farina Goes to Rockaway to Sell Replacment School; Most Parents Boycott Visit

Farina outside PS 42 - where did everybody go?

"Fariña’s 12-minute speech was followed by a QandA session during which the chancellor’s team of experts replied to issues including whether or not the incoming teachers would not only be qualified to succeed in their roles, but if they could also “relate” to the student population.

DOE representative Melissa Harris responded that an “exhaustive” round of interviews would take place. Earlier in the gathering, Fariña also maintained that all current PS/MS 42 teachers would be invited to reapply and that some would be afforded priority status..... Ralph Mancini, The WAVE

Priority status my ass. We know what this closing is all about -- dump the teachers.

When Deputy Chancellor Elizabeth Rose announced at the Feb. 13 public hearing that Farina would come to the school on Thursday, Feb. 15 at 4 PM as the school was closing down for the mid-winter break there was a bit of rolling of the eyes. Was she clueless or was this intentional to keep teachers away and avoid being questioned, knowing how quickly school evacuate on the eve of vacation?

I tipped the crew over at The WAVE that Farina was coming and that there won't be many, if any, parents there to hear her. Assistent Editor Ralph Mancini was in the building.

Sources say there was some pissed offtedness coming from her highness and her aides making some disparaging comments about parents not caring instead of facing the reality that they boycotted. If they didn't care, how come so many showed up at the hearing just 2 days before?

but then a two or three parents straggled in. Farina saw how small class sizes can be so convenient, as she was apparently able to sit at a table with the parents and explain her vision for the new schools replacing PS 42. That most parents did not show up indicates that they don't want their school to close and that they want to keep the teachers who their kids have gotten to know so well.

Did the strong UFT response at the hearing put pressure on Farina to drag her way to Rockaway on the eve of a vacation? (Video- PS 42 Hearing - UFT Puts Skin in the Game).

Lots more video to come.
Here is Ralph's story which appeared online. Also see his front-page piece on the Feb. 13 hearing - PS 42: “We Will Prevail! -The WAVE Front Page.

Farina to Principals - Wink, Wink - Go Get Em - Schools With Placed ATRs Must Absorb Salaries

At the very least, one Bronx principal said, he’d be wary of the hire. “If someone automatically puts an ATR into my school,” he said, “I would go in there and observe them quite a bit.” --- Chalkbeat

Chalkbeat as usual doesn't get to the heart of the matter. That the DOE is making sure not to provide financial backing to schools taking ATRs - schools I am betting will be chosen based on the ability of the principal to be especially vicious. Note not one contact from the reporter with a comment from an ATR.

They are walking in with targets on their backs.

Mulgrew of course is exposed as a sham supporter of ATRs - instead of screaming about the fair student funding formula he says this:

Principals have historically exaggerated the impact on their school budget of hiring someone from the ATR pool,” he said in a statement. “We have found the impact of hiring a more experienced teacher, whether from the open market or the ATR pool, does not derail a school budget.”

What a crock - of course the higher salary impacts a school budget -- that was the very purpose of Fair Student Funding in the first place -- to incentivize principals to do salary dumps. As usual the UFT comes up on the wrong side of the issue.

The article does at least point up the UFT flip-flop in providing financial support to the school.

Ironically, this is an issue the UFT set out to tackle in its 2014 contract with the Department of Education. A provision in the contract states that schools that hire an ATR teacher would not have that teacher’s salary included in the school’s average teacher salary calculation. That agreement stood for both the 2015–16 and 2016–17 school years. 

“Principals no longer have a reason to pass over more senior educators in favor of newer hires with lower salaries,” the UFT promised in a statement on the 2014 contract posted online.

During the 2016–17 school year, the DOE also offered two options for subsidizing the salaries of ATR members. The first subsidized the costs of permanent ATR hires by 50 percent the first year and 25 percent the next. The second allowed principals to have the full cost of the teacher’s salary subsidized for the 2016–17 year. Ultimately, a total of 372 teachers were hired with those incentives last year. 

But starting in the upcoming school year, neither of those policies will be in place. Schools will not receive the incentives and the salaries of ATR teachers will be included in a school’s average teacher salary once they are permanently hired. 

The UFT declined to comment on the apparent flip-flop, and neither the UFT nor the city’s Department of Education could estimate the average number of years of experience of teachers in the pool.

The article by Daniela Brighenti is oh-so leaning in the direction of the ed deform attacks on ATRs -- behind which is an attack on teacher tenure protections. Daniela might have reached out to some ATRs to get their take -- maybe she thought she would catch something.

This is the lead blurb.

ATR FUNDING When members of the Absent Teacher Reserve are placed this fall, schools will incur the full cost of the new hires, without incentives the city has provided in the past. Chalkbeat

Did Chalkbeat funder Families for Excellent Schools (I'm guessing here) write this piece?

At the top of their article it says: support independent journalism -- my biggest laugh of the day - so far.

Look at the photo that leads their piece -FES gets 20 people out - probably paid - and that becomes the lede.

Look at their headline:

draining the pool [echo of Trump draining the swamp]

New York City’s plan to place teachers from its Absent Teacher Reserve pool could take a bite out of school budgets

Here is the complete article:

 http://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/ny/2017/08/03/new-york-citys-plan-to-place-teachers-from-its-absent-teacher-reserve-pool-could-take-a-bite-out-of-school-budgets/

CSA Calls Abusive Principal Garg "an outstanding educator" While Revealing Farina Role in Hit Job at CPE1 For High Opt Outs

The DOE must support Mrs. Garg, who is an outstanding educator, as she comes under undeserved fire for doing the job she was asked to do.... Clem Richardson, CSA

The statement by Clem Richardson of the CSA is a laugh riot. Really, Clem, show us one example of Garg's history as an outstanding or even a semi-competent administrator. Her history working for the racist Minerva Zanca where all black teachers were targeted (Garg praised Zanca as a mentor recently).
{It you need to catch up on the school Garg was an AP at --

That's CSA head Ernie Logan to right of Mulgrew

The CSA, which apparently condones its members lying to parents and teachers, engaging in witch hunts against teachers and using children for their own political ends. Should the CSA which is OK with attacks on members of other unions, be allowed to be an AFL/CIO member? Our own UFT cowtows to the CSA by refusing to issue an open call for Garg's (or pretty much any principal's) removal.


But this comment in the CSA call for Farina to stand by Monika Garg is the most revealing:

We repeat: Chancellor Farina PERSONALLY asked Mrs. Garg to “right the ship” at CPE by helping it remain a beacon of progressive education, but one with standards, accountability and measurable outcomes. ... Statement from CSA

We knew it all along. That Farina ordered a hit job on CPE 1, as she's ordered on a number of schools, at times making Joel Klein's and Bloomberg's tenure look benevolent. Why else put in a high school person into an elementary school with a culture so out of sorts with Garg's history? Because they knew Garg would be ruthless -- her career track is to be a Supt and she will step on anyone to get there.

But let's parse this comment a bit. Can you remain a beacon of progressive education ... one with measurable outcomes -- meaning testing -- when the very process of gaining such outcomes degrades progressive education? One would ask why the elite private schools which offer progressive education don't stress measurable outcomes -- and parents pay up to 50 grand a year for that type of education.

In Garg's first weeks as principal she put forth the idea that the progressive education offered at CPE1 was not appropriate for poor children of color. So we know that the intent was not to maintain CPE1 as a beacon of progressive education but to degrade the very idea.

Let's be clear --- there were issues at CPE1 before Garg came on board. The solution would have been to put in a principal with a background in elementary schools and in progressive education, not a hit woman.

The Daily News article on the boycott had this quote affirming the line coming out of the DOE:

But Education Department spokeswoman Toya Holness said officials have met with families to discuss specific concerns and solutions. “We are committed to delivering a high-quality, progressive education with academic rigor, and doing what’s best for CPE 1 students,” Holness said.

Rigor? That's the buzzword used by ed deformers. More like rigor mortis.

The CSA and DOE are lined up in the attack on progressive education at CPE1 -- and their "freewheeling ways", which in the culture of that school, is necessary for democratically based progressive education.

In the world of oppressive top down administration, teacher/parent control - and often student centered decision making on what they will learn - is "freewheeling." Now I know many teachers are not comfortable with this idea, which is why only certain types of teachers  - and parents -- would enter a school like CPE1. Thus teachers who had basically been helping to run the school since its inception had to conform to the new top-down or be gone.

As to CPE2 -- its offshoot also founded by Debbie Meier - principal Naomi Smith has changed the culture of that school to conform to the DOE demands and has supported Garg all the way - in fact her daughter is a parent at CPE1 and also is among the few parents who support Garg -  and all of Smith's grandkids go to CPE1. (We'll deal with Smith and her personal vendettas another time.) But do note what Deb Meier, founder of both CPE1 and 2 posted tonight on FB:

Let NYCs mayor and school chancellor know that what they've allowed to happen to Central Park East (CPE) I, one of the first progressive democratically governed public school-opened in 1974-is an education crime. A vindictive and authoritarian principal placed in the school almost two years ago continues to threaten teachers and parents alike. They need to hear from the world. A petition signed by two thirds of the families, rallies, sit ins, reports by neutral observer's and much more has had no effect except to create an untenable educational climate. As one of the original founders of the school watching this happen breaks my heart.two very vulnerable children's families have been banned from the school because of their protests. Thanks for any help you can give them.

Note the schools Clem Richardson mentions -- Dewey, Harris, Clinton -- all with cheating, lying principals, who alienated their entire staffs. The CSA believes, along with Farina, that destroying a school by any means necessary is OK,

Here's the complete CSA Statement - go have a good laugh.


The DOE Must Not Abandon CPE Principal Monika Garg!!
New York, NY – May 5, 2017 – 

For Further Information contact:

Clem Richardson, Of: 212-823-2052, Cell:  718-207-2260

Email: clem@csa-nyc.org

We’ve seen what’s happening to Central Park East Elementary School Principal Monika Garg before.

John Dewey High School. DeWitt Clinton High School. Townsend Harris High School.

Mrs. Garg is a proven leader who, like the besieged former principals of those schools, is being scapegoated by the Department of Education.

CSA knows that Chancellor Carmen Farina, who asked Mrs. Garg to take the CPE job, understands that leaders are often required to make unpopular decisions because that is what leaders need to do.

But leaders attempting to orchestrate change need to be supported in the face of criticism, not abandoned.    

The DOE must support Mrs. Garg, who is an outstanding educator, as she comes under undeserved fire for doing the job she was asked to do.

The failure to do so sends the message to any person or group who disagrees with a school leader that they only need a camera, a petition, and gather a few disgruntled teachers or parents to complain for a television crew and Tweed will do their bidding.

School leaders expect and deserve more.

“The DOE recruits principals to take on tough assignments, then abandons them at the first grunt from affected teachers, staff members and an antagonistic press,” said Council of School Supervisors and Administrators President Ernest A. Logan

“How can a school leader change a school without making changes? And how can Chancellor Farina ask educators to take on tough assignments then look the other way when they come under attack?”

The Chancellor appointed Mrs. Garg to run CPE in 2015 to right a school that was not meeting the academic needs of all students.

Disgruntled CPE teachers, staff members and parents who disagree with Mrs. Garg’s methodology have since made it their mission to disrupt the educational process for all CPE students, first by occupying the school auditorium overnight and on Friday by holding a boycott which disrupted the school day for dozens of students.

We repeat: Chancellor Farina PERSONALLY asked Mrs. Garg to “right the ship” at CPE by helping it remain a beacon of progressive education, but one with standards, accountability and measurable outcomes. 

And that is what Monika Garg has tried to do. 

CSA says it is time for Chancellor Farina to publicly proclaim her support for this outstanding educator and show school leaders citywide that Tweed supports them in their work.

Walcott at District 14 CEC Town Hall - At Times I laughed Out Loud

There is actually some pretty funny stuff in this if you dig down into the weeds as Walcott talks stats to explain the fall in grad rates. But a must see is the part when a PTA president asks why they have to turn parents away when they register for pre-k because it must be done on computers and why the DOE can't provide a computer in school for parents to register their kids. Walcott and Jesse talk dizzy talk about all the tech stuff they have while ignoring an elemental issue -- let the parents fill out some paperwork and the school enter the data. He really is Slick Denny. Give me Joel Klein or Cathie Black.

At one point CSA Dist 14 head Brian De Vale hugged Walcott while pointing to me and saying, "If he can hug Klein I can hug you."

I know slogging through an hour of video can be a chore -- just FF through Walcott's grad crap etc. If I have time later I'll create a separate video just for the pre-k hilarity.

https://vimeo.com/68765728

Leonie Has questions about turnaround, phase out and next steps

 Leonie Haimson sent this to her listserve. If anyone has answers leave a comment and I'll forward them. Or email me.
 --------------------
NYT story on the mediator’s decision below. I have so many questions about this whole matter still, which I would like people on the list to answer if they can.

The turnaround plans of course made no sense in the first place to me but then most of what DOE does make little sense.

http://www.nytimes.com/schoolbook/2012/06/29/city-loses-arbitration-on-staffing-for-24-turnaround-schools/

First, Al Baker, the new guy on the NYT education beat, writes:

The decision was a victory for the United Federation of Teachers and the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators. They argued that the plans to recast the 24 schools, known as turnaround schools, ran afoul of contracts and contrasted with more deliberative ways that city schools are usually phased out.

1. BUT is a phase –out really “more deliberative” or better in any sense?
Or is it worse, meaning ALL the teachers at the phase-out school can ultimately be excessed, and ALL the students in schools like Robeson and Jamaica suffer the damaging effects as the school is phased-out, including fewer services and classes year to year as the death-watch continues?

Also, as the “new” schools put in place of the phase out school exclude the sort of high-needs students in the original school, making the supposed “improvement” hard to judge – these same sort of at-risk kids are sent to other schools nearby, which then causes them to struggle and ultimately be shut down. Isn’t it better to keep the same kids in the building at least? If this strategy was merely an attack on the union in the first place, why didn’t DOE use the phase-out model for these schools? Is this still a possibility for the admin now?

2. Which leads me to this question: why did the DOE choose this version of “turnaround” rather than their usual “phase-out” – b/c of the fed funds in the SIG grants cannot be applied to phase-out schools? But Walcott said that even if they didn’t get SIG money they were intent on doing this anyway.

3. Or was the DOE prevented from choosing this model in the first place, because these 33 schools – now 24 schools -- many of them in Queens and at 100% utilization or more, are so vastly overcrowded and there are so few other large high schools left, the phase out model simply wouldn’t work? b/c as enrollment is reduced in these buildings at much lower levels, as the old school phases out and the new ones phase in (with enrollment capped at lower levels) there would be nowhere for the students who would have attended the original schools to go?

Also, Baker writes this:

The plans have included replacing all the principals, screening the existing staff and rehiring no more than 50 percent of it.

Yet nearly from the beginning, Walcott and those in charge of this process at DOE have said there would be NO 50% quota for firing or rehiring. King’s decision last week in which he said he would allow the granting of the SIG money only if at least 50% of the staff was replaced seems to contradict the DOE assertions.

So why did DOE insist otherwise? Was it b/c of the union contract that said at least 50% of the staff must be kept on? And if the idea was really to attack the union, what’s stopping the DOE from doing phase-out now? The idea as expressed above that this would cause even more chaos?

READ THE NYT ARTICLE BELOW

Video: Bushwick Community HS Teacher Khalilah Brann Defends Her School

[Corrected -- Michael Powell wrote both NY Times pieces].

This Is Arguably the Most Disgusting Failure of Metric-Driven Education ‘Reform’: The Triumph of the Assholes  --- Mike the Biologist on the closing of Bushwick Community HS (read entire blog here).

Judged a Failure by the Data, a School Succeeds Where It Counts -- Michael Powell (here)

Another Passionate Plea to Save Bushwick High from Ernie Logan

 
Bushwick Community High School's threatened closing is creating howls of outrage. The school serves the highest needs students. At the "Teacher Evaluation Nightmare" forum on April 17, 2012, BCHS teacher Khalilah Brann made a powerful statement regarding her school which is slated for closure at the PEP vote this Thursday. The edited videos are up on Vimeo. The event was sponsored by Grassroots Education Movement, Class Size Matters, Parents Across America. Here is her presentation (sorry, I left the last n off her name in the video). She is introduced by moderator Julie Cavanagh.
Video at http://vimeo.com/40758701 and below.


See videos of other speakers posted on the GEM Vimeo channel: Carol Burris, Leonie Haimson and Gary Rubinstein, along with the Q and A. I will post them here as the week goes by.

Michael Powell in today's NY Times (see below) has a poignant story about the school and offers some hope based on a statement by Shael Polakow-Surransky. Powell also did a story about the school a few weeks ago.

Actually, it would hard to imagine Walcott will still close the school after all the hubbub but Bloomberg is so out of control it just may happen. If it does that is another nail for us in the mayoral control debate.

A Brooklyn School Saved Lives, and Some Now Try to Return the Favor

By MICHAEL POWELL

I was 18 years old with a baby and three high school credits. I was a gangbanger. I was shot and left for dead.

My life was a pane of glass fractured into a thousand shards.

And this place saved me.

To sit in the audience at Bushwick Community High School in Brooklyn last Wednesday evening, to watch as young black and Latino women and men walked to a microphone and, with anger and tears and eloquence, pleaded with officials of New York City’s Department of Education to keep their school open, was to feel privileged.

It is rare in education and in life to hear love put so passionately into words.

“Where would I be without this school family? I would be in jail. I would be dead,” said Iran Rosario, a tall bear of a man who wandered in here as a lost 18-year-old and now returned 14 years later as a teacher. “Friends tell you what you want to hear; family tells you what you need to hear.

“They did that for me, and saved my life.”

New York City has many mysteries, some romantic, some frightening, some simply maddening. The uncertain fate of Bushwick Community High School falls into that last category. It is a last-chance place for last-chance kids. Its teachers and staff members search out 17- and 18-year-olds, many with fewer than 10 credits of the 44 needed for a Regents diploma, and wage an unremitting struggle to turn these children into graduates and adults.

Few who venture to this corner of Bushwick walk away unmoved. Members of the state Board of Regents sing its praises, as have visitors from across the city.

But that could all come to an end on Thursday night. The Education Department has recommended that the Panel for Education Policy, which is controlled by the mayor, vote to lay off the principal and half the staff. Give department officials credit: they don’t really try to argue their indictment on the merits, but on the metrics — that is, test scores and graduation rates.

A majority of the students fail to graduate within six years, which is one of the city’s inviolate metrics. Right-o. If a young man wanders into this high school at 18 with five credits to his name, the odds are strikingly good that he will not graduate within six years of his freshman year.

The Panel for Education Policy could vote to let the school remain untouched. That’s unlikely. Mayor Bloomberg’s education officials have recommended shutting down 140 schools, and this panel has voted in the mayor’s favor 140 times.

They make the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles look like independence-minded bleeding hearts.

We live in an era of educational mantras become dogma; we are convinced that everything within a school’s walls is measurable. An art teacher teaching pottery; an English teacher on the joys of Maya Angelou? All can be reduced profitably to a number.

Shael Polakow-Suransky, the department’s chief academic officer, came of professional age in several of the city’s more innovative public schools. But he is a firm convert to the scientism of metrics. As he noted not long ago: “If I’m a teacher, I’m going to look closely at what that exam is measuring and key my curriculum and my work to passing that exam. That is the reality of what high-stakes exams are designed to do.”

Perhaps.

But last year department officials administered the high school’s annual “quality review.” It is perhaps worth noting what officials saw with their own eyes, as opposed to what they can reduce to a row of numbers on paper. Bushwick Community High School is “effective,” teachers demonstrate genuine “expertise” and the “pedagogy is aligned to schoolwide goals.”

“A clear sense of the vision and mission of the school is pervasive throughout the building,” the city concluded.

MR. POLAKOW-SURANSKY came to this high school for the hearing last week. He sat, stoically, through nearly three hours of tearful speeches and boisterous cheers. At the end, in a voice soft, almost sad, he spoke.

“This is a school that looks at the whole child,” he said to a hushed auditorium. “This is a school that gives students second chances. It’s a place of redemption. It’s a family. It saves lives.”

“I want you to know I will take these stories back and share them with our chancellor, Dennis Walcott,” he continued. “Whatever gets decided as a result of this process, there’s something very powerful here.”

The sound was of a man caught between bureaucratic imperative and the evidence offered by his eyes and ears.

E-mail: powellm@nytimes.com

Principal Lies to Parent Regarding Opting Out

I mentioned the stress it placed on my son, along with the fact that the teacher evals were tied to scores. "Oh my  gosh, so are you from the union? You sound as if you're making an argument for the teacher's union!" -- NYC parent in convo with principal re: opting out

As angry as I was before, seeing the tests today (which we are not allowed to quote in any way) has sent me over the edge! I haven't even read all of them yet but the fifth grade test is unbelievable. Easy reading selections and lots of trick questions--more than I have ever seen before--that are absolutely no indication of any kind of 5th grade level reading comprehension. My APs and I can't even figure out what answer they are looking for in some questions! I think we absolutely need to fight that these tests be made public. People will be shocked to see them.  --- NYC Principal

Ahhh, the high stakes testing game is bringing out lots of people who were not activists before. Over 30 years I have battled against HST that began with a principal in 1979 forcing them down our throats and forcing me out of the classroom that I loved so much. The UFT support for HST was one of the issues that broke me with Randi --- I won't go into details now. The forces are growing amongst parents and teachers while the UFT/AFT as an org stays out of the battle- other than issuing a lame statement every so often.

I haven't had time to address the amazing group of parents who have sprung up around the opting out of the test issue, led by the people involved in the GEM Change the Stakes testing committee. There are wonderful emails flying around that I can barely keep track of. And they go beyond NYC and are reaching out nationally. These parents who seemed isolated before have begun to find each other through the Change the Stakes conduit. Build it and they will come - which is what GEM seems to do so well. What I love about this process is how GEM does not try to take ownership and control but allows the group to breathe and go forth and organize. I foresee this opt-out group touching base with the Willimsburg/Greenpoint parents fighting Eva/Eric and this can create a citywide organizing group to jump into the political battles ahead. A bunch of them were at our evaluation event yesterday and were delightful to meet.

The UFT of course is silent (and they took quite a bashing at our Teacher Evaluation Nightmare Forum  yesterday.)

As I was finishing this up I came across this post on Schools Matter: Special Ed Child Forced to Take Test, Mom Threatened by School Officials in Oceanside, NY

While many parents in NYC report some decent experiences when discussing opting out with their principals, this parent faced the kind of principal so many teachers face.

Well,  I had a somewhat disturbing conversation with our principal. I brought my child in to school at noon, after the testing period, and was told that, "according to Legal", if he entered the building at whatever time, they were "required" to  administer the test. I hadn't read through the threads here today, where i see that some schools have made accommodations that permit some of the opted-out students to help out in other classrooms. So, if "Legal" says my son is "required" to take the test if he's in the building, why is this not being enforced city-wide? (answer: it's a bunch of bull).

She acted as if she were confused by my opposition to the test: "testing has been around for years!" Yes, I said, but not in this way-- and please don't pretend you're not aware of the controversy surrounding these particular tests. I mentioned the stress it placed on my son, along with the fact that the teacher evals were tied to scores. "Oh my  gosh, so are you from the union? You sound as if you're making an argument for the teacher's union!" (not that there's anything wrong with that). I pointed out that the real issue for me, as a parent, was that the tie-in to teacher evals is bound to alter the dynamic between student and teacher-- or should i say test-taker and evaluee?

I politely told her that this was no easy decision for us (after she rather offensively said "I don't see how you could place him in the middle of all this")-- as if I were simply using my child to, i don't know, run for political office...

Finally  I said, "we understand that we'll need to talk about possible consequences to our decision, but we feel we're making it in his best interest" to which she replied "well, he'll have to go to summer school."

Really, I said. He's been on the honor roll; he's reading at the fourth-grade level; he won first place in the science fair-- what possible academic justification would you have for making him go to summer school? She smiled and shrugged her shoulders. "We have to follow the rules, whatever they are" (like the one "requiring" her to administer the test if he's in the building?)

I left it with "well, we don't accept that" and "thank you for your time"... I handed her the temperate, polite letter I'd written explaining our decision and she promised to read it. How wonderful for us.

But I'm glad we're doing it. We don't intend to back down in the face of such bland bureaucratic intimidation-- I only wish I could do this without putting my son in this situation...although when we left he said "you and me...linked, Dad. I'm on your side."

Right. So on to victory. Sigh.

 And this came in from a principal:

As angry as I was before, seeing the tests today (which we are not allowed to quote in any way) has sent me over the edge! I haven't even read all of them yet but the fifth grade test is unbelievable. Easy reading selections and lots of trick questions--more than I have ever seen before--that are absolutely no indication of any kind of 5th grade level reading comprehension. My APs and I can't even figure out what answer they are looking for in some questions! I think we absolutely need to fight that these tests be made public. People will be shocked to see them.

Leonie asks:
Can we have teachers take a look at the ELA passages and tell us, either on or off the record, how confusing and/or ambiguous the choices of answers are?

And note this:

Texas anti-testing resolution; 282 districts adopted so far TASA - http://goo.gl/mTdc7

 This is the website of the Texas Assoc of School Administrators , which has been promoting the reso.  PAA along with other national orgs will release an adapted version next week for NYS and the nation.

More incoming:

There has been a notable difference in my students' affect on this second day of testing. They are much more restless and easily frustrated. Out of the 6 kids in my testing group, 3 have refused to answer the extended response question (a straightforward question, but the story was SO short that the kids have to repeat details they gave in the short response questions). One boy accidentally spilled water on his table and a little bit got on his test. He's currently in the corner curled up in a ball saying he's going to get arrested for messing up the test book. "Fortunately" there are 2 hours left in our testing period so I have plenty of time to convince him otherwise. 4 more days....lord. :(

 

-----

I am a literacy specialist in Rockland and I proctored the fourth grade test today. I thought that the test was terrible and not a true measure, in my opinion, of reading comprehension.  First, some of the early passages in the test were very long (more than two pages) and meandering, making it difficult for 8/9 year-old readers to clearly discern the principal problem among several - or the problem the test-maker thought was the principal problem. These long passagers put an undue burden on young reader's stamina during the early part of the test. Even though I am an adult who reads a lot (I am currently finishing my doctoral dissertation in language and literacy) , i found getting through the long passages and questions mentally tiring. This was in part due to the fact that the questions were convoluted and designed to "catch" students in test traps. In addition, some of the test's print features were inconsistent (i.e., same exact phrases were bolded in some question and not others). The word choice both in the question stem and in the answer choices was meant to obscure meaning. Choosing at times arcane vocabulary to refer to text information in the correct choices.  I have been a teacher for 19 years and a literacy specialist for 13, and I can say with some degree of confidence that this test was unfair and not a good instrument to measure students ability to read proficiently and use complex text to think critically and learn about the world. I feel sad for my wonderful and hard working students who sat for 90 minutes running through an unfair reading rat maze for political antics and for the benefit of corporate profiteers. I am afraid for the profession I love and for the future of public education.

Lisa Donlan on How the WalBloom Administration Fails the Accountability Test

Find the accountability

Lisa Donlan writes:

All that "data" and none on the networks?

....after a first failed experiment of imposing a uniform curriculum, the DoE decided it was not in the teaching and learning business. It decided it was in the business of managing others to handle the teaching and learning.

And I just love this comment.

A great piece of journalism (School Scope in The Wave: A Raucous Hearing at PS 215)  –  insightful, analytically and evocative of all the human emotions and interactions behind the policies and processes!   

----- Lisa Donlan, parent activist, Community Education Council 1 (lower east side)

Hey, I don't toss compliments away, so I appreciate Lisa's comment. (Ignore my lame attempt at humor by using the color "yellow" in the context of her use of the word "journalism.") I've gotten some other nice comments on that piece. (If you read it make sure to watch the video of Walcott getting hot under the collar.)

Aside from printing it for my ego, Lisa brilliantly expands on a minor point in my column about the total lack of accountability of the Networks established by Joel Klein and Dennis Walcott to replace the old geographically defined districts (which still exist in some form and when a stake is put through the heart of mayoral control (despite the UFT's continued support of MC). A school like PS 215 which went from an A to an F with the same staff and administration is being closed while the people running the network which was supposed to monitor and provide support walk away without being held accountable for any of it. Is it possible the branding of so many schools as failures is a failure of a decade of poor management systems?

When, oh when, will the press start paying attention to the role these networks, often loaded with know-nothings and do-nothings, play. Talk about a patronage machine.

I wanted to pick up on something you wrote that I think deserves to be examined and highlighted more often, more consistently and more loudly.


Lots of people ask why nothing was done over the years if there were signs the school was failing. The numerous reorganizations over the years from district to region to network has allowed Tweed to blur the lines of responsibility allowing Lloyd-Bey to shrug.


Not just the Dist Sups get off the hook, as the accountability kick-the-dog routine rolls down the hill from City Hall to Tweed to the individual schools and homes of the students.


We all can recall that the single largest trade off for centralization of power over the schools in the hands of the mayor was to at long last have single point "Accountability".


We all know that "Accountability" has been reduced to: "Boo me in parades", and blaming the victims.


Yet there is one layer of actors that has managed to both actually be accountable and simultaneously invisible, and that is the hidden and nameless/faceless bureaucracy that "supports" the principals and schools, as you point out in your post.


From the old district sups and their staffs, publicly shamed as ineffectual racists, booted out with the schools boards; to the Regions (mostly recycled district employees); to the SSO's and now the CFN's (networks on steroids), there has been no "accountability" and no mention of the great missing link.


By missing link I mean the heart and soul, the nuts and bolts of education, the craft, science and art of teaching and learning- instruction and curriculum.


While Klein and Walcott (let's face it, they were always a team and I suspect still are) reorganized the bureaucracy, hiding it deeper and deeper into the maze of virtual networks, they were also busy ratcheting up the standards.


First it was their own high stakes exams, combined with a few state exams. Then the state took on the task of creating all the exams, and NYC DoE filled in with interim exams.


Next the machine became enamored with value-added algorithms and formulas, as supposed measures of "progress", a never ending series of bell curves of relative competences that stood in for students achievement, teacher quality, principal effectiveness, school progress and many other valuations.


Standards came to mean tests, and tests in turn became the curriculum.


Schools were forced to undertake varying degrees of test prep in limited subject areas to meet the focused goals of the very high stakes tests.


That shell game seemed to be working, until advocates and critics demonstrated just how much the books had been cooked, and how reductionist and absurd the whole game had become.


In response, the educrats have now devised national standards, the "core common standards," a more sophisticated group of expectations that cover greater areas of study, which in the end means more tests, in more subjects, eventually to be administered on-line.


Has anyone else noticed the basic disconnect in this story? The lost thread?


The state/city/feds keep coming up with more and better "standards", which they translate into blunt, inexpensive instruments that are relatively easy to measure, store and analyze.


Yet many schools and students are, over and over, unable to meet those standards.


So the response of the educrats is: to make new standards. Higher standards. More complex standards. Standards in every subject area.


But where is the curriculum that translate the standards into teaching and learning? Everyone is given an x on the map to get to - but no one is getting any directions of how to get there.


Because that map is supposed to be supplied by the Networks!
When schools first selected their School support Organizations they were supposed to select them based on affinities of pedagogy and curriculum, right?


In all the DoE depts is there anyone accountable for curriculum? for teaching and learning?


We don't even talk about the curriculum. Never mind the necessary supports and interventions the networks provided (or failed to provide) to bolster and reinforce the curriculum and its implementation in the classroom.


NYC DoE has a massive legal force, a gigantic accountability office, we have space planners, and folks in charge of Talent, and Portfolios of Learning (creating new small schools/charter schools) but NO ONE is in charge of instruction, pedagogy, teaching and learning!


That is because after a first failed experiment of imposing a uniform curriculum, the DoE decided it was not in the teaching and learning business. It decided it was in the business of managing others to handle the teaching and learning.


Teaching and Learning have since been handed off to the Regions - Boroughs- SSOs and CFNs.


So, if the curriculum and all supports, such as teacher and principal training and development, as supplied by the various Networks, has not been sufficient to get students across the bar, why just keep raising or changing the bar?


Why not look at the supports in place?
Why not evaluate the curriculum, and not just the teachers implementing it?


And why not hold these networks accountable?


We hear about the effects of budget cuts on schools but we never hear how the Networks did or did not distribute those budgets among their schools, how much money was spent on the network itself, what the network is tasked to do and whether or not it did so effectively.


Have we ever looked at their collective school progress report grades? their collective School Quality Reviews?


All that "data" and none on the networks?


Why are all of the school closing hearings about the failure of the school to meet the imposed goals and standards, but there is nary a word about the failure of the Networks to get them there?


Has anyone looked at the rate of failure of schools and the correlation with the various networks?


Could the networks themselves play a part in the school closing game, perhaps robbing Peter to pay Paul, picking the winners to give more resources to, and winnowing off the losers in their own networks?


Who knows, since we can't see them or trace them or learn of their "accountability".


Lisa

Before leaving for the morning, I want to include this Q and A from ICE-mail.

State of the Union(I have lots of video and commentary on a spectacular Saturday in February that drew between 200 and 250 people to a conference on the UFT - are we all crazy or what?)

James Eterno and Jeff Kaufman in their "Know Your Rights" workshop on Saturday reminded me once again how much we need people like them giving even experienced teachers and chapter leaders sage advice. They are always there for people who need advice.

This came in over ICE mail

Subject : [ice-strategy] Question re arbitration hearing on class size
Hi, I received a fax last week stating that I had to appear for a UFT class size arbitration hearing even though there is only one class over regs- a Kgn with 26. I'm supposed to report there in the morning without going to my school first. I get paid for the day. Do I have to appear?


James Eterno responds:
Please go. It is easy and even with one oversize class you establish precedent so they will have a harder time using the exception next year. You probably will not win but if you don't go, you have let them get away with an oversize class and they can do it over and over. You get the time to travel to and from.

 

Update: Walcott Turns Tail at Town Hall in Bronx After Students Do a Mic Check

UPDATE: Weds. Feb. 1 5:30AM - fleshing out last night's brief report:

There weren't quite enough people to pull off the whole thing, but that didn't stop the Chancellor and the DOE from packing up in a matter of minutes. That's all it took.  --- anon. report 

I took this photo at the PS 215 closing school hearing. Ironic, eh!

Increasingly, people are not willing to allow the Tweedies to go about spouting their propaganda message and more such confrontations are expected. As this statement shows, when the DOE doesn't have the capacity to stop this they will just walk out. In the report received below, note this:  

"Jose Vargas (Bronx UFT) who came to the meeting looking for Occupy DOE folks. He wants to collaborate with us and make sure we're all on the same page." 

Sure. The UFT wants to make sure to control the page with their message. Not the first time the UFT has made noises about cooperation but behind the scenes we see something else operating. The union surely is planning something for the Feb. 9 PEP where over 20 schools will be voted closed. Union tactics in the past have included various disruptions followed by a walkout, but no attempt to disrupt the meeting to an extent where it can't go on. We'll see on Feb. 9.

Back in August 2010, the Coalition for Educational Justice CEJ), which is organizing today's Union Square protest (Protest Mayor 13% Weds. Feb. 1 3-6PM) followed by a attendance at the Legacy HS hearing at 6pm, shut down a PEP meeting but hasn't tried that again. Their plans for Feb. 9 are unclear but my guess is they will coordinate with the UFT. CEJ is funded by the Annenberg Institute (Norm Fruchter) and there are close ties to the UFT.

At the first sign of resistance, Walcott and crew jumped ship at the District 9 town hall at Evander Childs Campus in the Bronx last night, blaming the mic checkers. A group of 7 students --- some reports say from Lehman HS ---- read the following statement:

Mic Check:

Chancellor Walcott, the DOE and Fellow Community Members,

We are the forgotten voices, effected by this failed education policy.

We are the future leaders of the nation.

The DOE and mayoral control has failed public schools in NYC

THe PEP and budget cuts have failed public schools

Chancellor Walcott is a puppet for this failed administration

We are more than a budget item

We are the future of our generation

This systematic attack on our public schools will not stand!

Closing our schools is not the solution.

Fix our schools, don't close them!

The people united will never be defeated.

Some members of the audience were not happy at the use of mic check because they wanted their say and there was some individual discussions going on regarding this tactic. This has become an issue for internal discussions. Experienced activists who have become tired of pushing on deaf ears also have to take into consideration that people just exposed to having their school closed actually feel that they can reverse things if they get the ears of officials and this tension is expected to continue. An education campaign as to the history and intents of the ed deformers running the DOE is an important component.

Here is an excerpt of a report discussing this issue received from a participant:

Because it wasn't a crowd of people who came to specifically protest school closings the DOE tried very hard to blame US for shutting down the meeting and behaving "disrespectfully." The students were great and there were a lot of interested and supportive folks who we were able to connect with after and explain ourselves too, some of whom were excited about getting involved. The media eventually came long after the DOE left and the students may well make the evening/morning news. We need to think about being very clear with parents who want their voices heard that they can use the people's mic and acknowledge that some parents (like some of those tonight) won't feel that the people's mic is an "appropriate means" of communicating with the DOE (even though we know that no matter what anyone says they won't listen). Lastly, Jose Vargas (Bronx UFT) came to the meeting looking for Occupy DOE folks. He wants to collaborate with us and make sure we're all on the same page. As one parent put in a follow up email, "only in the Bronx." Ever onwards!  

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Here was the original message I reported last night-- Tues. Jan. 31, 2012 - 9PM
This just came in from a Bx teacher (unconfirmed):

Students and teachers from Lehman HS shut down the meeting with a MIC check!  Many teachers there from various schools cheered them for shutting up the Chancellor!  Walcott could not continue to feed the public his well rehearsed lies.

Well, we can only hope it's true. The time has come to kill the messenger. Shut down everything. Why even let them spill their baloney?


Postscript: This just came in:

Jose Vargas is full of shit.  I can't believe for one minute that the Bronx office has done the work to organize.  I worked there for 3 years and they don't have the organization.

Daily News Report

James Monroe Adams IV for New York Daily News

Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott opted to adjourn a meeting with high school students at Evander Childs Tuesday night.

School organizers were forced to abruptly end a meeting at a Bronx high school Tuesday night when it was interrupted by angry students, causing Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott to leave.

Students at Evander Childs in Williamsbridge jumped from their seats, yelling about the city’s “failed education policies.”

The students disrupted the meeting about a half-hour after it began, saying it was payback for a meeting last week at Herbert H. Lehman High School, where students were only allowed 30 seconds to speak about their closing school.

“They don’t even care about what we say,” said student Jesse Aponter, a junior at Lehman.

After a five-minute attempt to calm the rowdy crowd, the meeting was adjourned and Walcott left.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/dennis-walcott-abruptly-ends-meeting-bronx-high-school-angry-students-interrupt-article-1.1015110#ixzz1lB4v64hL

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