Chicago: Rahm sends police to protect crew sent to destroy historic community center... Rahm, Barbara Byrd Bennett order destruction of 'La Casita'

Norm, Lisa, Gloria, George Schmidt with La Casita Occupier, July 2011 (Thnks to Gloria)

Reports all day coming in from Substance on this open warfare by the ed deformer/neo-liberals on the community. You can follow events on the Substance web site.

Two years ago at our last meetings in Chicago we went to La Casita for a few hours to talk to people - George Schmidt gave us a tour. I will hunt down that video and post it tomorrow.

We are at war. It has been declared on us. We are in middle of a field without cover (of our union especially) and they are using every weapon they can throw at us and somehow the real reformers are still standing - and fighting back with pea shooters (and Ravitch) against drones, tanks, mortars, cluster bombs, etc. 

Here are links to reports in reverse order.

THEY TORE IT DOWN BEFORE OUR EYES!' CPS contractor begins to destroy La Casita despite library treasures and supposed 'asbestos danger'

By Kati Gilson - August 17th, 2013 | 2 comments

LA CASITA IS NO MORE. By a little after ten o'clock in the morning, Board of Education contractors had leveled the library that had been created by the demands of a community that did not . . .

La Casita protests continue through the night of August 16 - August 17, 2013 after police arrest three people... Chicago Public Schools blocked trying to demolish iconic 'La Casita' community center

By Kati Gilson - August 17th, 2013 | 1 comment

It all started when a 6:45 dance class at La Casita was about to start. At 6:30, a community meeting was being held within the building called "La Casita," the "Little House" adjacent to Whittier . . .

Rahm sends police to protect crew sent to destroy historic community center... Rahm, Barbara Byrd Bennett order destruction of 'La Casita'

By John Kugler - August 17th, 2013 | 1 comment

In a brazen move reminiscent of the midnight destruction of Meigs Field by his predecessor, Richard M. Daley, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his handpicked schools "Chief Executive Officer" Barbara Byrd Bennett dispatched the Chicago . . .

George Schmidt: Why every Substance reporter should be proud of the work we've done

[We] knew that at the May 22 meeting of the Chicago Board of Education, we were going to witness one of the greatest anti-democratic and racist attacks on public schools since Alabama Governor George Wallace declared "segregation now and segregation forever" while trying to block the integration of the public schools of Alabama more than a decade after the Brown decision. Wallace was there along with several other Southern governors -- from Virginia to Texas -- who  were following the same course, but less flamboyantly. Remember: The attacks on desegregation in the Southern schools were also an attack on public education.  ... George Schmidt

I'm inspired just reading this.

There was a time -- 2001-2004 when I hoped Ed Notes could be like Substance but got sidetracked with the formation of ICE. I wonder if I hadn't gone in that direction and just kept developing Ed Notes as an independent ed news source for NYC teachers if that wouldn't have been more valuable an organizing tool. But I do know myself -- I don't have the patience, the organizational ability, the organizing ability, the reportorial skills, and lots more missing --- including the ability to recruit a staff --- that George has had for the past 40 years. So it was done.

A group of 10 MOREs are heading to Chicago in two weeks for a conference. Very much looking forward to seeing and hanging out with George.

July 27, 2013

Colleagues, comrades, friends, and others...

1. REASONS FOR SUBSTANCE PRIDE... As your proud editor, I spent half the night working editing the two great reporting jobs by Marybeth Foley and Susan Zupan that are now on the top of the Home Page at substancenews.net -- and I'm still not finished because I want to add a dozen more photographs to help our readers understand each in context. 

As the summer of 2013 began, just about everyone who had experienced the 2012 - 2013 school year in Chicago was either tired, exhausted or more than "all of the above." We had all achieved a great deal, from the Chicago Teachers Strike of 2012 through the fights against the school closings. But after CORE won the great victories in the May 17 Chicago Teachers Union election, it was soon clear that the ruling class was not going to lighten up in their struggle to privatize as many of Chicago's real public schools as possible as soon as possible. Virtually all of us knew that at the May 22 meeting of the Chicago Board of Education, we were going to witness one of the greatest anti-democratic and racist attacks on public schools since Alabama Governor George Wallace declared "segregation now and segregation forever" while trying to block the integration of the public schools of Alabama more than a decade after the Brown decision. Wallace was there along with several other Southern governors -- from Virginia to Texas -- who  were following the same course, but less flamboyantly. Remember: The attacks on desegregation in the Southern schools were also an attack on public education. So the hypocritical votes of the six members of the Chicago Board of Education at the May 22 meeting to close 49 schools and "co-locate," "turnaround," and screw more than a dozen others (while simultaneously adding more to the charter schools) was no surprise. 

At the same time, we began hearing from people in Connecticut after a court there ruled that Paul Vallas didn't have the credentials to be a school superintendent in that state. And that's what I want to remind us of today...

2. SUBSART AS A 'FIRST ROUGH DRAFT OF HISTORY.' One of the reasons why it has become so important for those of us who report for Substance to do our jobs quickly, thoroughly, and with lots of graphics within a day or two of the event we are reporting (or analyzing) is that we are forced to move on quickly. Tomorrow we have new stories to report. We are covering the most important "beat" in the struggle for democracy and public education in the USA today: Chicago. The integrity of our reporting enables people to go "back" and find information they can't get anywhere else. The Vallas situation is one case in point I'd like to share (again). We began out presence on the Web (at the "old" site, substancenews.com) in early 2002 with our special issue, "The Paul Vallas Hoax" at the time Vallas was trying to get the Democratic Party nomination for Governor of Illinois. We were just learning to use the Web, and had to make major revisions in our web site to fully utilize the capacity of the Web to do graphics. We didn't get that capacity until 2007. Since then, we have all learned almost as fast as we need to keep up with the technology. Over time, most of us have mastered digital photography (remember when we used to share those one-use Fuji cameras, and when Kodak was King?) as well as honed our reporting skills. At the same time, I've learned how to edit better, especially how to maximize the "search" tagging for all of our stories. As a result, over time we are contacted more and more as people across the USA (and some from elsewhere on Earth) look for the alternative history of "school reform" in Chicago. The latest is Bridgeport, where the Vallas Hoax is in a new iteration. 

But the key is that every day our reporting, tedious as it may be, brings in the latest chapters. We miss more stories nowadays than we can cover, but that's a tribute to the organizing in Chicago (and elsewhere in some cases). We might have covered more of the dozens of school closing hearings, and recent protests, but we are still covering as much as anyone.

Which brings us to...

3. THE FEDERAL COURT CASE AGAINST SOME OF THE CLOSINGS. The current federal court case against some of the school closings (because they are a violation of the ADA and IDEA) is just the latest in the court cases we have had to cover (or miss) going all the way back to our landmark 1980 case (S.U.B.S. v. Rohter) which established our right to sell Substance in Chicago's public schools. Susan Zupan's coverage of that case was doubtless stressful, but the fact is we are now the only news organization that has complete coverage (to date) of that very very important case. Reading the reporting (and virtually having a front row seat to the testimony, which the reporting "brings alive"), I knew that over time, despite its length, our reports would be central to people's understanding of the case. I had heard from others in addition to Susan that the Board's witnesses were weak and duplicitous, but only after reading the report on Markay Winston's doubletalk did I fully realize what that means. And as you can see from the way I've shared graphics to highlight the history of Winston's ascension to the "cabinet" in Chicago from her Cincinnati roots, we are the only news organization that can tell a story in context as well as with the facts.

4. THE BOARD MEETINGS UNDER RAHM'S REGIME. 
Never underestimate the willingness of tyrants to expand their tyranny. As Marybeth Foley is reporting this month, for the first time I know of, fewer than half the total number of speakers signed up to speak at a monthly meeting of the Chicago Board of Education actually got to speak. As we've reported, almost exclusively, under David Vitale the Board has worked overtime, and sneakily, to undermine every aspect of public participation. At the same time, they rehearse their talking points and smiles proclaiming over and over and over that they want more "transparency." Etc. BlahBlahBlah... 

Thanks for making this a wonderful summer, despite the nastiness we are organizing against and reporting about...

George Schmidt, Editor   

DON'T GET DISCOURAGED.   

Chicago Teachers Union Plans 3 Day March to Oppose School Closings

....while the UFT does......

The march will begin March 18, the day after the Chicago union elections, a sign that CORE is pretty confident. Expect a vicious attack on them from the mainstream press in the days before the election to try to influence the vote.
I know that some Unity people are rooting against Karen Lewis, especially after she embarrassed the hell out of some of them when she appeared at the UFT last month and talked about how they gave up the perks when they got elected. Oh, sitting in that room at that moment was oh so much fun.

Well we know from some of the Unity comments on the blogs during the elections that they think that these school closings are what the CTU deserve for daring to stand up and strike instead of collaborating. Of course many of the 150 plus schools closed under Bloomberg through 2010 came WITH the UFT collaboration. The rest had court, not street resistance. Given a choice, would Bloomberg prefer the current Unity leadership of a Chicago-like leadership? One MORE reason to come to Saturday's MORE meeting.

This just in from Diane Ravitch:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Stephanie Gadlin

May 9, 2013 312/329-6250

StephanieGadlin@ctulocal1.com

Thousands prepare for a three-day march against school closings as Chicago’s mayor continues his assault on working-class people under the guise of education reform

CHICAGO – As the city braces itself for the largest assault on public education in the country, thousands of parents, students, teachers, clergy, citizens and community leaders are preparing for a “long march” against school closings on May 18, 19 and 20. Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) President Karen Lewis said the non-violent demonstration is necessary because “we have a mayor who refuses to listen to reason, research and logic,” in his campaign to destroy 54 school communities which will impact about 50,000 children.

The 30-plus mile march is themed, “Our City. Our Schools. Our Voice,” and will include simultaneous routes from the West and South sides of the city. Protestors intend to walk each day past many of the 54 school communities slated for closure and their efforts will culminate in a mass demonstration downtown. It is sponsored by the CTU, the Grassroots Education Movement, SEIU Local 1, Unite Here Local 1 and Chicago PEACE, an interdenominational coalition of clergy leaders from across the city. Donations are pouring in from across the country.

“Despite the testimony of thousands of parents, teachers and people who work and live in the school communities impacted, Rahm Emanuel is dedicated to entering the history books as having destroyed the most public schools in one year than anyone,” Lewis said. “He refuses to listen to independent hearing officers, law enforcement officials, educators, researchers, parents and the students themselves. We have no choice but to use the power of organizing and direct action to engage in what will be a long fight to restore sanity to our school district.”

The march kicks off at 10:00 a.m. on May 18 on the South Side at Jesse Owens Elementary School, 12450 S. State St., and on the near West Side at Jean de Lafayette Elementary School, 2714 W. Augusta Blvd.

“School closings hurt children academically and the mayor’s plan will also put thousands of students’ safety at risk and many public school employees may lose their jobs,” Lewis said. “We must do whatever is necessary to stop this assault on the working class and the poor. Instead of just getting angry we must organize. Tell Emanuel, the Board, the school CEO and their corporate sponsors that this is our city, these are our schools and we will use our voice to fight for justice.”

Independent hearing officers reviewed the Chicago Public Schools’ list of 54 slated closings and have recommended removing 14 from the list saying those schools don't meet the state standards and are in violation of the law. The mayor’s hand-picked Chicago Board of Education will vote on the issue on Wednesday, May 22. Shortly thereafter, a massive voter registration drive will commence throughout the city.

Rahm Emanuel to Remove His Children From Lab School

Ed Notes Exclusive:
Celebrating the end of the strike and embarrassed over Chicago parent Matt Farmer's revelations of the kinds of privileges children enjoy at the Lab School, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced he will remove his children from the elite school immediately and place them in schools in Chicago's roughest neighborhoods. 

Emanuel made his decision after viewing a video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMUboOIQT48) of Farmer comparing the services  – small class sizes, libraries, physical education, books, working bathrooms – Emanuel's and other kids, the Obama kids included, enjoyed at the Lab school, services denied to the majority of Chicago public school students.

Emanuel was so shaken he was heard to say, "What the fuck."

Emanuel is actively searching for the most under-resourced schools with the highest class sizes he can find for his children. President Obama announced if he should lose the election and have to go back to Chicago he will follow Emanuel's lead and place Sasha and Malika in the same school Emanuel chooses for his kids.

Emanuel felt challenged to prove wrong the Chicago Teachers Union's claims that learning in class sizes over 40 in non-air conditoned rooms with few wraparound services can be harmful to kids. "Mr. Emanuel will show how his own kids can learn in these conditions as well as they did at the Lab school," said a spokesperson for the Mayor.

"Rahm is actively searching through a list of the most under-resourced schools with the highest class sizes he can find to make his point. His problem is that there are so many choices – and the Mayor does believe in  choice – he is having trouble making up his mind from the hundreds of schools starved of resources. He has found classes over 50 but is still looking, sure he can find class sizes that will break the 60 barrier. The more the merrier," said the spokesperson.

After Emanuel's children get the highest scores in the school - and if they don't he will put them up for adoption – he and Obama will make a joint announcement that the school will be closed and all the teachers fired.

Emanuel had no comment other than to say, "A GIANT FUCK YOU TO KAREN LEWIS."

Farmer's video:



Warning: [satire alert]
--------
Emanuel apparently will not be watching the interview below:

I am writing to share a 30-minute interview that we broadcast on Democracy Now! today. As Chicago public school students return to school following the nine-day Chicago Teachers Union strike, Karen Lewis, president of the Chicago Teachers Union joined us to discuss the beginning and subsequent suspension of the first teachers strike in Chicago since 1987. Ms. Lewis is also part of the union's Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators - known as CORE and used to teach chemistry at Martin Luther King High School on the South Side of Chicago.

You can watch this interview here: http://www.democracynow.org/2012/9/19/chicago_teachers_union_president_karen_lewis

Christine Quinn Party Hosted by Rahm's Bro Emanuel

If the UFT ever goes near endorsing Quinn, scream like hell.

The glamorous candidacy of Christine Quinn
	City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has a fund-raiser for her mayoral campaign in Los Angeles this weekend, with talent agent Ari Emanuel serving as one of the hosts. Recently, Quinn announced she's writing a memoir, which will come out months before the mayor's race. She has been the subject of profiles in Elle and the New Yorker.

===============

The opinions expressed on EdNotesOnline are solely those of Norm Scott and are not to be taken as official positions (though Unity Caucus/New Action slugs will try to paint them that way) of any of the groups or organizations Norm works with: ICE, GEM, MORE, Change the Stakes, NYCORE, FIRST Lego League NYC, Rockaway Theatre Co., Active Aging, The Wave, Aliens on Earth, etc.

Chicago: Puny Humans Strike Back Against Rhambo Terminators

Following on my post an hour ago (Tweed Terminates, Grady HS Resists):

Jesse Jackson joins union in protest of school closing policies as Dems chastise Mayor Rhambo as pointed out in this section from this Mike Klonsky report: Is Rahm falling from White House grace?

Following up on my post from Saturday, I'm told that Nancy Pelosi had a come-to-Jesus talk with Rahm Emanuel following her Saturday appearance at Jesse Jackson's Rainbow PUSH. It looks from here like Rahm, the autocrat, has been taken down a peg by the party bigwigs and told in no uncertain terms to heal his rift with Jackson. .

It was only a little more than a week ago that Rev. Jackson openly sided against Rahm and with the CTU and community activists, who had packed a CPS board meeting to protest the board's decision to close more neighborhood schools and hand them over to a politically connected, private turnaround company, AUSL.

Jackson and CTU President Karen Lewis openly denounced  the policies of Rahm's hand-picked board as "education apartheid," a move which immediately re-framed the whole reform discussion and put Rahm and his cronies on the defensive. A day later, Rahm made his schools boss, J.C. Brizard get up in front of the media and deny that he was running an apartheid system.

Let me repeat this again:

A day later, Rahm made his schools boss, J.C. Brizard get up in front of the media and deny that he was running an apartheid system.

How great is that? Phony Brizard who spent some time doing ed deform here in NYC and in Rochester having to deny he is running an apartheid system? Notice by the way how the ed deformers are using black machines like Brizard and Walcott to to do their selling.

Now none of this happens with a politically savvy union. People ask me how is the Chicago Teachers Union different than the UFT given that they have not been able to stop Mayor Rhambo from closing schools or any of the other charter co-loco crap. For a group in power for a little over a year and a half and consisting of leadership that were classroom teachers right up to taking over, they shown a level of fightback against a vicious mayor we have not seen here.

When Rhambo tried to force feed a longer day down their throats a year earlier by trying to bribe individual schools to abandon the union's position of actually asking to be paid a normal wage for the time, the union managed to stop the bleeding by organizing teacher and community resistance.

That's because fundamentally, even though they have made some mistakes, they are adamantly and philosophically opposed to just about every aspect of ed deform and function within that context. Not to say they don't have to compromise at some points, but they are fighting a protracted war as the tiny band of resisters. Here in NYC -- and nationally with the AFT --- we are never sure exactly which side our union is on after making one deal after another that strengthens ed deform.

Here is the rest of Klonsky's very important and incisive report:

Pelosi then flew in to Chicago, stood side-by-side with Rev. Jackson at PUSH and then endorsed Jesse Jackson, Jr. in his congressional  re-election bid. The timing and place of the endorsement was an obvious slap at the mayor who then was forced to to come out himself and openly endorse Triple J.

The party leadership is obviously worried about Rahm's rift with Jackson as well as the growing resistance to Rahm's attack on public schools, especially in the black community. There's the risk that the growing school protests will spill over into upcoming Occupy protests scheduled here for May and possibly lasting up until election time.

Teacher unions are are a badly-needed ally of Democrats in the November elections. But Rahm's war on the unions, reminiscent of the anti-union assault by T-Party guvs like  Wisconsin Gov. Walker, is obviously becoming a concern of the White House. Yesterday, Brizard stunned many of his own supporters when he came out in favor of using federal education funds to be used to send CPS kids to private schools.

Chicago Reader pic

To make matters even worse for Rahm, the White House announced yesterday that it was pulling the G8 Summit out of Chicago and moving it to Camp David. The White House says the change was not in response to the possibility of protests, which means that's exactly what it's about. Rahm had essentially moved to suspend Constitutional freedoms during the May 18-19 Summit.

According to a report in the Monitor, Rahm didn't even learn about the change until yesterday making it pretty clear that he has fallen from grace in the party's inner circles.

Monday's announcement appeared to catch many in Chicago by surprise. A spokeswoman for Emanuel said the Chicago mayor was informed about the location change in a Monday phone call from a White House official. Chris Johnson, spokesman for the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, said his organization was "just as surprised about the announcement as anybody else."

Chicago will still play host to the NATO Summit, May 20-21at great expense (conservatively estimated at $65 million) to city residents, mainly for a massive police presence. Thousands of anti-war and civil-liberties protesters are still preparing to come to the city and make their voices heard, according to Joe Iosbaker of the United National Antiwar Committee in Chicago.

Check out the Chicago Reader's Ben Joravsky who has been writing the best local stuff on this.

Now we'll see if the CTU and it's allies can take advantage of this rift in upcoming negotiations and in support of legislative efforts to stop the school closings.

=====
Join the puny humans in fighting the machines
March 10 - STATE OF THE UNION PART 2: TIME TO FIGHT BACK

 ---- See Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on the right for important bits.

Ed Deform Hypocrisy: Class Size - share with your anti-teacher Seda Relatives, Tchr Eval at Schools they pick for their kids, and Brizzard Resigning Today in Rochester

UPDATE:

Poor Chicago parents, teachers and kids! 

Brizard received a nearly unanimous no-confidence vote among Rochester folks. 

For more on how his policies have been deeply unpopular among Rochester stakeholders, see

http://communityeducationtaskforce.rocus.org/?p=162

Eli Broad and Joel Klein have a lot to answer for!

Rahm Emanuel to name new Chicago schools chief

By KIM JANSSEN Staff Reporter / kjanssen@suntimes.com Apr 18, 2011 11:13AM
Chicago Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel plans to name Rochester Superintendent Jean-Claude Brizard (right) to be the Chicago Public Schools CEO. He'll replace Ron Huberman, who resigned last year.
Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel plans to name the man in charge of schools in Rochester, N.Y., to head Chicago’s public schools, The Associated Press is reporting.
Jean-Claude Brizard — who has headed the 32,000-student Rochester City School District since 2008 — was with Emanuel Monday awaiting the start of a news conference at Kelly High School on the Southwest Side.
Brizard signed a three-year contract there in February paying $235,000 a year but has clashed with the teachers union there.
Previously, he taught and worked as an administrator in New York City’s schools.
Brizard replaces Ron Huberman, who resigned last year. Since then, Terry Mazany has served as interim schools chief.

---------------

Lots of stuff coming in. Leonie has a piece you should share on class size. Then there is the hypocritic oath taken by ed deforms :

I shall not send my own child to a school where teachers are evaluated based on test scores or where there are few senior/experienced teachers, or with high class sizes, or where my child must spend the day doing test prep, or where the school has a KIPP like discipline program.

From Leonie:
The education Deformers like to say that class size does NOT matter, only teacher "quality". That is why we must pay and fire teachers based on test scores. Read below a report from Leonie Haimson of Class size Matters that counters the education "deformers".


Last week, the Center for American Progress released a report by Matthew Chingos, who previously wrote a highly-flawed critique of Florida’s class size reduction program. (See my recent debate with Chingos on CNN.)

CAP has put out a series of crude reports posing as educational research, but this must be one of the least impressive. Despite its title, “The False Promise of Class-Size Reduction,” lowering class size is only one of K-12 four reforms that, according to the Institute of Education Sciences, have been proven to work through rigorous evidence.

In this report, Chingos falsely claims that that the benefits of smaller classes, as shown by the Tennessee STAR studies, faded out over time:

“The bump in test scores after one year would be impressive if it didn’t erode over time despite the continued use of small classes.”

Actually, follow up studies by Jeremy Finn reveal that students who were randomly assigned smaller classes in the early grades had significantly higher graduation and college-going rates. The gains were especially impressive for low-income students:

“For all students combined, 4 years in a small class in K–3 were associated with a significant increase in the likelihood of graduating from high school; the odds of graduating after having attended small classes for 4 years were increased by about 80.0%. Furthermore, the impact of attending a small class was especially noteworthy for students from low-income homes. Three years or more of small classes affected the graduation rates of low- SES students, increasing the odds of graduating by about 67.0% for 3 years and more than doubling the odds for 4 years.”

The report continues:

http://parentsacrossamerica.org/2011/04/more-clap-trap-from-cap-on-class-size-reduction

Combined w/ Winerip story tells a very sad story.

Teacher evaluations at the schools that Obama, Duncan picked for their kids

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/teacher-evaluations-at-the-schools-that-obama-duncan-picked-for-their-kids/2011/04/15/AF1S1cwD_story.html

By Valerie Strauss, Sunday, April 17, 10:35 PM

Bill Schechter taught history for 35 years at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School in Sudbury, Mass. Now retired from the classroom, he supervises the student-teacher practicums of students earning master’s degrees in teaching at a local university. He is also a volunteer tutor at a Boston public school.

•  

A question occurred to Schechter recently when he was preparing testimony to give before the Massachusetts Board of Education, which will soon hold hearings on whether to base teacher evaluations on students’ standardized test scores — and if so, to what extent.

The question was: How do the schools serving the children of President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan handle this important school reform issue? He decided to find out.

The issue of linking a teacher’s salary and pay to how well students do on a standardized test has come to dominate the national education debate.

With the Obama administration’s support, more states are passing laws to connect teacher pay and test scores, even though experts on assessment say it is a bad idea.

The tests being used today were not designed to evaluate teachers (and they don’t do a good job of assessing students, either).

Furthermore, everybody who has ever taken a test understands that there are numerous factors that can affect how well someone does that have nothing to do with the teacher; kids who go to school hungry or tired or mentally ill or sick or anxious aren’t likely to do well, even if the teacher is to the teaching profession what Einstein was to physics.

Knowing that the Obama administration’s policies support linking teacher pay with test scores, Schechter wondered what Sidwell Friends School, the private Quaker school in Washington where Obama’s two children are enrolled, does regarding teacher pay-for-performance.

Schechter wondered the same about the Arlington County public school system, where Duncan’s children attend school.

This is part of what Schechter wrote to me:

“What did the president and the secretary seek and obtain for their own kids, where the important issue of teacher evaluation was concerned? The answers recently arrived in two e-mails:

“Arlington school district teacher, March 31, 2011: ‘We do not tie teacher evaluations to scores in the Arlington public school system.’

“Sidwell Friends faculty member, April 1, 2011:

“ ‘We don’t tie teacher pay to test scores because we don’t believe them to be a reliable indicator of teacher effectiveness.’ ”

straussv@washpost.com

Is he going elsewhere, say Chicago?  Hope not for their sake.

Jean-Claude Brizard expected to announce resignation today

9:38 AM, Apr. 18, 2011  |  

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20110418/NEWS01/110418008/Jean-Claude-Brizard-expected-announce-resignation-today?odyssey=nav|head

Purchase Image

Rochester City School District Superintendant Jean-Claude Brizard talks with the media recently about raising graduation standards. / JAMIE GERMANO staff photographer

Written by

Tiffany Lankes
Staff writer

School board President Malik Evans said this morning that Superintendent Jean-Claude Brizard will likely announce his resignation this afternoon.
Evans said the board planned to meet in executive session to discuss its legal options regarding his contract and then hold a press conference.
Evans said he did not know where Brizard is planning to go.
School board members said last week that they had not been able to reach Brizard for several days amid rumors that he may be considering a job in another district.
Check back for more details as they become available.

Is the Honeymoon Over? Sniping at Obama from the Left (and Right)

While most people heard news reports that the Republicans were upset at the appointment of war hawk Rahm Emanuel as chief of staff, the main gatekeeper to Obama, that's nothing to compare with what is beginning to come from the left. If Obama built his base on being against the war in Iraq how does he make a war hawk the most powerful man in the government?

Progressives are in for some big disappointments. People tell us that after 8 years of Bush, we at least can look forward to somewhat better judges and other appointees and hopefully a better managed government. But the higher the expectations, the bigger the fall. Making Rahm Emanuel the first appointment is not a good omen. (However, I'll soon be posting a positive view from a parent activist in Chicago of the Obama's roles in school reform.)

Stephen Zunes writes at Alternet: Is Obama Screwing His Base with Rahm Emanuel Selection?

I had really wanted to celebrate Barack Obama's remarkable victory for a day or so before becoming cynical again. I really did.

And yet, less than 24 hours after the first polls closed, the president-elect chose as his chief of staff -- perhaps the most powerful single position in any administration -- Rahm Emanuel, one of the most conservative Democratic members of Congress.

More..

George Schmidt, an Emanuel constituent, passed this on:
11/10/08

To simplify Rahm Emmanuel as a war mongering right wing monster is to do him too much credit. I live in the guy's Congressional District (Illinois 5th). I have heard him brag that he got earmarks to expand Chicago's military high schools (Marine Military Academy dedication in Chicago last October, reported in the November 2007 Substance, available on line at www.substancenews.net). We have heard him try to justify his support of the Goldman Sachs "bailout" plan when every Chicago Congressman opposed it (first iteration).

And we watched him stand beside George W. Bush and Mayor Richard M. Daley of Chicago on January 7, 2007, as Bush delivered his "anniversary" speech on No Child Left Behind behind a wall of mounted police and snipers in Chicago (Greeley elementary school). Again, as we reported in Substance (January and February 2008, and on line).

What was unique about Emmanuel's contribution to the Bush agenda that day was that Rahm Emmanuel is one of several Chicago Congressmen, and that all of the black ones (Danny Davis, Bobby Rush, Jesse Jackson Junior) and the Puerto Rican one (Luis Gutierrez) were snubbed by Bush and Daley that day so that Rahm could share the stage and limelight of No Child Left Behind with the two men (Daley; Bush) who most pushed the Business Roundtable corporate "school reform" agenda on the USA.

As people have noted, when Rahm Eammnuel left the Clinton administration, he spent a couple of years as an "investment banker" and supposedly "earned" about $16 million. Needless to say, Rahm Emmanuel has never had much in common with this diverse but mostly "middle class" Congressional District he was in. He bought the Congressional Seat by spending ten times more than his opponent (Nancy Kazak) in his first run, and ignored his constituents ever since. On the
Iraq War; on education; on the Goldman - Sachs "bailout", to cite a few examples. For all his resources, our congressman has never been able to generate a majority of his own constitutents to be in favor of the policies he's supported. So he simply ignores us. (Including a phone call and e-mail I sent him after the first "bailout" vote).

George N. Schmidt
Editor, Substance

www.substancenews.net