Sunday, January 29, 2012

Blog chronicles Eva co-loco at K497 - on Baltic Street in Cobble Hill...


Inside Colocation

The public school where I've been teaching for the last 8 years has been targeted for a "colocation" with a corporate-model charter school. Most people, including me, don't know what a colocation looks like, though we've heard bleak stories. I've started this blog to document it as best I can.


This ad is in the subway stop near the school. This is my first time seeing an elementary school with a million dollar ad budget. Ads have been plastered on doorknobs, in stores, and in mailboxes all over the neighborhood. Well, not quite. The ads have appeared all over the affluent/white areas of the neighborhood, but are noticeably absent from the blocks inhabited by neighbors of color.
This ad is in the subway stop near the school. This is my first time seeing an elementary school with a million dollar ad budget. Ads have been plastered on doorknobs, in stores, and in mailboxes all over the neighborhood. Well, not quite. The ads have appeared all over the affluent/white areas of the neighborhood, but are noticeably absent from the blocks inhabited by neighbors of color.


On Wednesday, January 25, the school received a shipment of these high-quality moving boxes, assumedly compliments of Eva Moskowitz. They were loudly rolled through our hallways during state testing. Guess it’s almost time to start packing up our classroom libraries and student portfolios.
On Wednesday, January 25, the school received a shipment of these high-quality moving boxes, assumedly compliments of Eva Moskowitz. They were loudly rolled through our hallways during state testing. Guess it’s almost time to start packing up our classroom libraries and student portfolios.

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FEB. 4- STATE OF THE UNION: TIME TO FIGHT BACK Register at: http://stateoftheunionconference-estw.eventbrite.com/ 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.

UFT Leadership Must Do MORE to Publicize Political Attacks on Teachers as Reason for Resistance to Tweed Evaluation Plan

I have lots of interesting material on the failure of UFT policy – so much that I can't put it all in one post – so I'll do a series. When you finish reading it all throughout the upcoming week, you are going to rush over to the State of the Union registration page and sign up for next Saturday's conference (there's a $10 fee because the rental is a grand) or if you don't register, next Saturday you will wake up and rush over to catch the action.

I am doing a workshop titled "UFT 101" and will be joined by Bruce Markens, the only non-Unity caucus district rep for a decade (the guy you can blame for Randi eliminating elections for DR's). I believe every single ed activist (old and young) from the teaching corps will be in the room at some point. Head over and register at: http://stateoftheunionconference-estw.eventbrite.com/

Today I'm focusing on what many of us consider a failure of UFT leadership in responding to the attacks on teachers for political reasons and Tweed's continued support for principals who do so. That commercial running that attacks Bloomberg's failures? I can live with that but it doesn't do anything to make OUR case for resisting ed evals without some protection, including a call for an independent investigation of abusive principals (I presented such a resolution at a DA in 1999 or 2000 and Unity killed it).

Let's start with my 2-minute speech at the Jan. 18 PEP meeting:

"As long as you support U ratings for political activity we will dig in our heals on teacher evaluation."  While the UFT walked out, GEM's Norm Scott does what the UFT doesn't: Challenge Walcott and PEP on political persecution of teachers at Panel for Educational Policy Jan. 18, 2011



http://youtu.be/a2kwh5qdS8M

Mulgrew letter to parents "lame" says Brooklyn chapter leader
Mulgrew response on the ed eval where he has openly said how much he supports Cuomo (and in the past how much he loves working with the lying, double-dealing Regent head Merryl Tisch).

A Brooklyn Chapter Leader, takes a shot at the Mulgrew letter to parents:

How hard is it to explain that without an appeals process as part of teacher evaluation, teachers will have to put administrators first rather than the children and parents they serve? Not only the truth, but much more palatable narrative/ case to make to the larger community, especially parents. Instead the focus is on bashing Bloomberg (that kind of attack politic is never favorable in the eyes of the public) and "helping" teachers, which while true that is part of what an evaluation system must be/should be, not the strongest part of the argument in terms of mass public in an ad.

Of course the UFT could be out there shouting Peter Lamphere [who was U-rated twice for being a functioning chapter leader] from the rooftops and getting him in front of any reporter that will listen, but we know why that is not happening. (Peter is one of the leaders of the opposition within the UFT.)

Philissa Cramer at Gotham Schools reported on this letter:
In the ad, Mulgrew also reiterates his call for third-party negotiation to hammer out the final details of a new evaluation system for at least some city schools. Both Chancellor Dennis Walcott and Mayor Michael Bloomberg have dismissed the call for arbitration, saying that the sticking point — whether an independent party would hear the appeals of teachers who get low ratings, as the union wants — is not open to discussion.
But when push comes to shove Mulgrew won't trot out Peter Lamphere--- and I should point out that Gotham has given Peter a lot of space to tell his story while the NY Teacher has not. (See links below but search Gotham for Peter's name for more).

I also used my time at the Dec. PEP meeting to call Walcott out on the Peter Lamphere case and will continue to do so at every opportunity to make the point that Walcott is not really interested in quality teachers when he supports principals who U rate them for political activity.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ZEyvRRZbBME



Isn't it time for the UFT to gather Peter and others and call a press conference? Isn't it time for the UFT , which got NYSUT to fund his suit on one U rating to do the same on the other? After all, he was only doing his job as chapter leader. The UFT's failure to do so sends a chill down every CL's back.

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FEB. 4- STATE OF THE UNION: TIME TO FIGHT BACK
Register at: http://stateoftheunionconference-estw.eventbrite.com/

Saturday, February 4th, 2012
10:00 am to 4:00 pm
at The Graduate Center for Worker Education
25 Broadway, 7th Floor
New York, NY 10004
By Public Transportation: Take 4, 5 to Bowling Green and cross the street. Other stations in walking distance include the : R, W to Rector Street; J, M, Z to Broad Street; 1 to Rector Street; A, C to Fulton Street/Broadway Nassau station to the 4 or 5 train. We are near the Fulton Street Transit Center, in addition to several local and express bus routes, the Staten Island Ferry and PATH train service to New Jersey.
Directions:  http://workereducation.org/contact-us
Find us on Facebook: State of the Union
$10.00 pre-regestration
$15.00 at the door
Scholarships available upon request.


Peter Lamphere | GothamSchools - do a search for articles -- see list below.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Ed Deformers Compare Teacher Unions to Nazis

In case you missed it, in this analogy, the teacher unions represent the Nazis, while the forces for corporate reform represent the doughty British and their allies.  -----  Anthony Cody
I never shy away from comparing people to Nazis so I don't get upset when ed deformers do it to us. This reminds me of Alexander Russo saying real reformers are Goliath and poor Bill Gates, Eli Broad, the Walton Foundation, Rupert Murdoch, et al. are David.

How the war on teachers is changing the profession

This was written by educator Anthony Cody, who worked for 24 years in the Oakland schools, 18 years teaching science at a high-needs school and six years as a mentor and coach of teachers. He is a National Board-certified teacher. You can follow him on Twitter at @anthonycody. A version of this post appeared on his Education Week Teacher blog, Living in Dialogue .

By Anthony Cody

As state after state rewrites their education laws in line with the mandates from Race to the Top and the No Child Left Behind state waiver process, the teaching profession is being redefined. Teachers will now pay the price: They will be declared successes or failures, depending on the rise or fall of their students’ test scores.
Under NCLB, it was schools that were declared failures. In states being granted waivers from the most onerous requirements of NCLB, it is teachers who will be subjected to this ignominy. Of course we will still be required to label the bottom 5% of our schools as failures, but if the Department of Education has its way, soon every single teacher in the profession will be at risk for the label.
This revelation came to me as I read the 17th edition of the Score Card on Education prepared by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), authored by Matthew Ladner and Dan Lips. This is a remarkable document. It explains where each state stands on the education “reform” initiatives that have become the hallmark of corporate philanthropies, the Obama administration and governors across the nation.
The score card begins with a histrionic comparison between the struggle over our schools and the Battle of Britain in the Second World War. The authors wrote:
“Britain’s enemies overreached, invading the Soviet Union and attacking the American fleet at Pearl Harbor. Finally, British forces defeated the German army in Egypt, securing their hold over the strategically vital Suez Canal. Prime Minister Winston Churchill recognized the turning point:
“ ‘Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning. Henceforth Hitler’s Nazis will meet equally well armed and perhaps better armed troops. Hence forth they will have to face in many theatres of war that superiority in the air which they have so often used without mercy against others, of which they boasted all round the world, and which they intended to use as an instrument for convincing all other peoples that all resistance to them was hopeless.
“We mean to hold our own.’ ”

In 2011, America’s struggle for education reform may have also reached a turning point — an end of the beginning.
In case you missed it, in this analogy, the teacher unions represent the Nazis, while the forces for corporate reform represent the doughty British and their allies.

MORE: 

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FEB. 4- STATE OF THE UNION: TIME TO FIGHT BACK Register at: http://stateoftheunionconference-estw.eventbrite.com/ 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.

Principals, Parents and Teachers Stand up on Ed Eval While UFT Tries to Make a Deal

How sad that so many principals in NY State are standing up on the teacher evaluation mess while the UFT tries to make a deal. Here are a few quick hits.

Principals with principles

Audit Culture, Teacher Evaluation and the Pillaging of Public Education

In this program we speak with Sean Feeney, principal from Long Island New York, about the stance he and other principals have taken against the imposition of value added measures in the new Annual Professional Performance Review in New York State. We also speak with Celia Oyler, professor of education at Teachers College Columbia University, and Karen Lewis, president of the Chicago Teachers Union, about the impact of value added measures on teacher education and the corporate powers behind these measures.

http://education-radio.blogspot.com/2012/01/audit-culture-teacher-evaluation-and.html


Also: Rye Principal Retires to Fight Ed Deform
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NYC Teacher

The Doenuts Blog: The Paradox of the Turnaround Model

Thought experiment.
Let's say you're taking a bubble test and you have only an unsharpened pencil. Clearly you have a problem. Right?
So do you:
A)Sharpen the pencil or
B) Replace it with another unsharpened pencil?

I hope that analogy makes sense in a few moments: The Paradox of the Turnaround Model

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Parent:

 On Wed. night at the CEC 2 meeting, I will be presenting our analysis showing how NYC’s progress in student achievement since 2003 is the second smallest among 10 cities, as measured on the national assessments called the NAEPs.  NYC is also the only city tested in which non-poor students have lower average scores now than in 2003, when the mayor’s policies were first implemented.  Please join us!

Reporter:

Gabe Pressman, veteran NBC reporter, has an analysis which cites our research, and shows the way in which the mayor’s program of high-stakes testing and class size increases has led to a decade of failure: City Hall Fails the School Test

There has been a lot of heat on teacher evaluation systems in recent weeks, from the Mayor, the Governor and the mainstream media, but little light.   Please check out my post, pointing out the responsibility of influential columnists in particular to dig a little deeper at  http://goo.gl/7rP1X

Please also check out the eloquent account of a teacher who recently quit the profession because of the DC evaluation system, similar to what the Mayor is proposing here.

More soon,

Leonie Haimson

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Check out 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.

Friday, January 27, 2012

Community Outrage: What is Eva Moskowitz's husband Eric Grannis up to in Brooklyn?

Starting a chain of faux-gressive charters to complement Eva's rigid Success Academies. ---Wlmsbg activist
There is so much going on around the Eva Moskowitz Success Charter invasion of Williamsburg (and Cobble Hill) that I could do 5 blogs a day. Last night around 40 people came out in the rain to PS 84 where CEC 14 sponsored a screening of our film. I have to write a number of posts on the situation in Williamsburg/Greenpoint where I spend my entire almost 40 year career (see below this post for some links of previous posts).


What is going on here is that Eva is getting an elementary school (PEP votes March 1) into MS 50 which is 2 blocks away from PS 84 while hubbie Eric aims a new charter chain at that school (where I spent the last part of my career), even degrading it to his toney target audience.
Eric Grannis advertising for people to work for free till the summer, when applications approved:

http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/18252808/930033556/name/Tapestry+Project+Leader+Position.pdf
All this plays out through the SUNY authorizing agent where Pedro Noguera (see no evil eva) chairs the committee and will turn deaf and dumb when Eric comes before him. (I have lots more to blog about the meeting he chaired this past Weds.)


This info below was compiled by an amazing parent activist defending public education who I just met last Sunday at one of our screenings.
Grannis' umbrella group, the Tapestry Project, employs one person: Etoy Ridgnal, of Stand for Children union busting AstroTurf fame.  And with Etoy's help, Grannis is already brokering his first deal to charter-ize north Brooklyn.  His Letter of Intent to open two schools in Williamsburg via the aggressively expanding wannabe chain Citizens of the World was filed with SUNY January 19.  The first CWCS was founded a year ago in Los Angeles, by former Teach for America Los Angeles board chairman Mark Gordon, who quickly opened two more in LA.   The two Williamsburg schools will be the first in New York, and plans include scaling up to almost 1,000 students in co-located public schools. http://www.cwcschools.org/newyork.html CWSC board minutes include plans for partnership with a national chain, but which one is not clear yet.

How is Grannis pitching these "alternative" schools in Williamsburg? --only to the affluent, with a very deceptive soft-sell.  Since last March, he has been holding "information sessions" exclusively at Williamsburg's expensive new condo developments, such as the Edge, and Schaefer Landing.  He advertised the "info sessions" on a local parents' listserv, where he was quickly outed as not-a-local-parent.  His response to this outing was a defense of his "altruistic" motives, that some fell for:

"I'm not a local parent (although Williamsburg is such a wonderful neighborhood that I confess it is tempting!). I have to admit therefore that I'm interested in helping improve education in an area I which I don't live. Just as someone might volunteer in a hospital or volunteer in a school that is not in their neighborhood, I'm helping out in a neighborhood that isn't mine (or at least I'm trying to). I think that it's possible to have some insight in to the needs of neighborhood one doesn't live in because all kids need to learn to read, write etc…. I don't think that what would be a great school on, say, the Upper West Side or in Park Slope is entirely different than what would make a great school in Williamsburg.
Questions are raised and he responds>>>>>>>>
But this really isn't about me. My goal, as stated in my email, is to bring people together to collaborate on creating charter schools if they want to. I want those charter schools to be designed by Williamsburg residents in collaboration with educators. I don't intend to sit on the boards of these schools, I don't intend to be employed by these schools etc…. I intend to help to help parents.I don't doubt that there are good schools, good principals, and good teachers in Williamsburg and I'm happy to hear that you are happy with yours. If everyone is as satisfied as you are and doesn't want to start charter schools, then I'll pack up my bags. From speaking with parents, however, there do seem to be some parents who are not satisfied with their options and want other ones. For those parents, I am making my time and the time of others available for whatever assistance I can provide."


...and in case local parents with newly school-age children--who might have been happy with their local PS--are looking for information,  Grannis has "helpfully" provided his site  Schoolfisher, where he falsely gives the popular and well-rated PS 84 an "F" rating [PS 84 has a B rating].  (One attendee of an "info session" relayed that  Grannis tries to scare the affluent newcomers to the neighborhood he is pitching to: the public schools are all failing and charters are their only hope.) Rather than openly advertising meetings to the whole neighborhood, Grannis's strategy is to prey on and misinform a tiny minority of affluent newcomers to get a foothold. After all, he only needs to dupe 160 parents of kindergarteners to launch his invasion, and he hardly wants to alert the much larger opposition about his plans...
Here is my last post related to this issue:
SUNY/Noguera Cave to Eva: Overturn Reco of Subcom...

The future of MS50, PS84...



Good article on school choice:

And here is the GEM video of the Jan. 17 hearing at MS 50.


Thursday, January 26, 2012

Four Hundred Staten Islanders Show to Fight to Keep PS 14 Open

Over 400 people showed up, screamed and hollered at the public hearing on the closing of PS 14- some were standing outside and were shut out!  Unheard of from sleepy Staten Island. The UFT boro rep, Emil Pietromonaco, did an amazing job in organizing staff from all over the island -- Loretta Prisco, ICE

Report from the island: UFT leaders did their job. Some people think PS 14 SI was chosen because of criticism of Tweed for leaving SI schools off closing lists for political reasons since SI politicians support Tweed and the SI PEP rep always votes with them. Maybe they are worried about future lawsuits on school closings charging them with racial discrimination. Who knows what lurks in the minds of Tweedies? Other than how to parlay their position so they can get a job with the ed deform movement when they leave Tweed.

Here is a statement from Loretta Prisco from the Independent Community of Educators (ICE).


The Advance asked if the children in the doomed PS 14, already deemed a failure, are going to be relegated to a lower tier in DOE’s eyes?

No crystal ball is needed. PS 14, the students and staff will follow the same path as other phase out schools - not a rosy one.   The good intentions of the Superintendent, staff, parents and  CEC will not keep it from traveling this inevitable path, worn down from so many phasing out schools.

Parents will get a letter stating that the school is being “phased out" - which should be more aptly labeled, “going through a slow and painful death” – and they will given the opportunity to transfer out.

The children of the parents who can negotiate the system, usually test higher, and will transfer out.  The children left behind will be the lower achieving, traditionally have poorer attendance, and have parents who are the least connected to school, though not necessarily the least caring. As the population diminishes, so will the resources. Those with low scores who transfer will be seen as piranhas as they take their low scores with them to the receiving schools that will be held accountable for them. To the DOE, these children are -  “throw aways”. 

The teachers will know that their days are numbered, and those who can, will understandably leave to secure jobs and avoid the death sentence of becoming an ATR.


The remaining staff will be completely demoralized and lack the resources needed to teach. The principal, whether the current or newly appointed, will know this is a short time assignment.

The new school will get lots of extra money-classrooms will be newly painted, given lots of equipment, computers, Smartboards, resources, support staff and a renewed sense of mission - which is not a bad thing – for those children.  But the children in the old school will suffer terribly. Differences will be stark - and all will be painfully aware of it.  There will be turf fights and the “old PS 14” will inevitably lose.  They will be shortchanged on the use of the gym, library and cafeteria - less learning and further demoralization.

The new school will not have test scores for years and will remain off the failing lists. The DOE will send special education children elsewhere. So the number of failing schools will drop citywide and the Mayor will look good.  Perhaps the DOE might be trying to build up the nearby charter school or may even be making room for a new charter since building charters is their mission. 

The staff and children have not failed.  The failure falls squarely on the shoulders of the captains of the ship - Bloom,Klein,Black &Walcott for 10 years of mismanagement, incompetency, poor leadership and lack of support. 
  
One thing that we can count on is this decision is not being made in the best interest of children.

Here is the Schoolbook article:

 http://www.nytimes.com/schoolbook/2012/01/25/a-staten-island-school-blames-its-problems-on-location/

A Staten Island School Blames Its Problems on Location

Sriyantha Walpola for SchoolBook
Jan. 25, 2012, 11:20 a.m.
9:28 p.m. | Updated The announcements came year after year. Eight schools to shut down in Manhattan. Ten in the Bronx. Six in Brooklyn. Two in Queens. None on Staten Island.
It was hard for Staten Islanders not to develop a degree of superiority when it came to school closings.
Since 2002, the year Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg gained control of the system, the city has shut down 117 schools, leaving the borough untouched — until now.
“Staten Islanders thought they were impervious,” said Anne Marie Caminiti, an education advocate who until recently worked for Parent to Parent of New York State. “Schools here tend to operate better than many schools around the city.”
But one of them has finally been singled out.
Public School 14 Cornelius Vanderbilt in the Stapleton area of Staten Island is among 19 schools the city has marked to be closed, with the final judgment to come on Feb. 9 in a vote by the Panel for Educational Policy.
At a raucous hearing at P.S. 14 on Wednesday night, about 400 parents, students and teachers filled the auditorium as an overflow crowd sat in a cafeteria down the hall. About 20 minutes into the meeting, people in the audience began shouting questions about the school’s future at officials for the city’s Education Department and criticizing the plans to close the school.
It is no secret that the school, serving more than 660 students in prekindergarten through fifth grade, has been struggling. In recent years, its grade on its progress report card dropped from an A to a C to a D.
P.S. 14 ranked in the bottom 4 percent of elementary schools in the city in mathematics and English language arts proficiency last year. About 31 percent of students met state standards on the math exam, while just 23 percent passed the English exam.
Still, none of that is new, leaving the community to wonder, Why now?
“This is entirely political,” said Sean Rotkowitz, a Staten Island representative for the United Federation of Teachers. “There hasn’t been any school closed on Staten Island, so they needed to go find a school and, I guess according to the Board of Education, P.S. 14 fits the bill.”
The school’s principal, Nancy Hargett, said: “This is just devastating. We were on a journey of improvement. We thought this was going to be the year we earned an ‘A.’ I don’t understand why they chose us. I just don’t have the energy for the politics.”
Two other schools on Staten Island also saw their progress report grades drop from an A to a C to a D in recent years: P.S. 52 John C. Thompson and P.S. 60 Alice Austen. P.S. 54 Charles W. Leng went from a B to a C to a D.
A spokesman for the city’s Education Department said the decision to close P.S. 14 was rooted in performance.
“Our goal is to ensure that every student has access to an excellent school, and despite our support, P.S. 14 has been failing to provide high-quality education for its students year after year, consistently scoring near the bottom of schools citywide,” the spokesman, Frank Thomas, said in a statement. “The decision to propose the school for phase out is not easy, but it is our responsibility to give this community a better option.”
The Education Department’s plan would involve phasing out P.S. 14 while opening a new school, Public School 78, in the same building. (In the time that the city has closed 117 schools, it has also opened 535 new ones.) As P.S. 14’s students graduate, P.S. 78 will grow to accept children from the neighborhood.
Residents in the area say the plan amounts to much more than a name change. They say it would strip the school of more than 100 years of history and take away generational legacies shared by families in which grandparents, parents and children all attended the same school.
“This is my community school — I’ve been living here for the past 12 years,” said Wasila Amin, 34, a member of the School Leadership Team. Her children, one in fourth grade and one in first, would be split between P.S. 14 and P.S. 78 next year under the plan. “My children love the school. Their teachers have helped them so much.”
Deborah Rose, a city councilwoman who represents Staten Island’s North Shore, which includes Stapleton, said P.S. 14’s neighborhood was poor. The borough’s largest New York City Housing Authority complex is down the block from P.S. 14, and long lines frequently form at a food pantry across the street.
Ninety percent of students at P.S. 14 qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and 19 percent are entitled to special-education services.
“This is a community that really needs stability,” Ms. Rose said. “It needs mental health services, organizations that can come in and provide support services. If you don’t address the issues of the community, nothing will change.”
Harold Williams, a technology teacher at P.S. 14, said many of his students were exposed to drug abuse, alcoholism and crime. Before the staff members can even begin to teach, he said, they have to become secondary parents and earn the students’ trust.
In 2009, the school was on the state’s list of persistently dangerous schools, but it came off a year later, aided by a series of staff and student workshops, the presence of an additional security officer and efforts to better the school culture, said Mr. Williams, who is also the teachers’ union representative at the school.
New reading and math curriculums have been implemented, despite budget cuts, and math and English test scores have gone up, albeit slightly. Mr. Williams said the staff had been striving for an A or a B in the next progress report.
“The D.O.E. claims they gave us support, but me personally, I never got any support,” he said. “They came and gave us a 44-page PowerPoint presentation on dealing with very simple problems. They said, ‘Put your hand on Johnny’s shoulder; try to tell Johnny he can do it.’ That’s not the kind of stuff we’re dealing with. We have serious issues here. Johnny wants to kill Mary. Johnny wants to beat up the teacher. Johnny wants to attack you.”
Mr. Thomas, the Education Department spokesman, said the community’s challenges were all the more reason for the city to step in.
“We don’t believe students in those kinds of neighborhoods deserve to be languishing in a low-quality school,” he said. “It’s unfortunate that a lot of these schools are in low-income areas. Frankly, those are the students we need to help the most.”
A former principal at the school, Frank Carpenito, said it had always been difficult to get help from the city.
Mr. Carpenito, who worked as a teacher, an assistant principal and a principal at the school for a combined 34 years, said things had only gotten worse since he left. He said citywide changes in district organization had left few school leaders with the kind of close relationship he once had with P.S. 14′s superintendent.
“He knew me personally,” he said. “He knew my school. He lived on Staten Island. He knew the neighborhood we were in.”
Even then, he said, it was common for P.S. 14 to be ranked toward the bottom of Staten Island schools, in large part because of the low-income community.
He recalled the time he met a 34-year-old woman who had just enrolled her grandson at the school and an instance when he spoke with a student who didn’t know his own name, only his nickname, “Boo Boo.”
“Closing the school, changing the administration, I think that’s just an excuse to put the blame on someone else: the city doesn’t have to say it’s them,” Mr. Carpenito said. “I think the principal there is doing a wonderful job. I know when I was there, the teachers gave out of their own pockets, out of their own hearts.”
Amy Padnani is a Web producer for The New York Times and SchoolBook contributor.

Outraged Dewey Community Ready To Fight Back


Superintendent Amy Horowitz came to Dewey Tuesday to give the Tweed party line with the usual "I'm only the messenger." Teachers often take the bait and say "Don't shoot the messenger." Well I say SHOOT THE MESSENGER. They took this sleazy role and are willing to play no role in trying to save a school. So go get 'em. In this case the teachers and parents at Dewey did. [Don't you just love the teacher who used the evil Eva as a boogeywoman?]


Here is the report:

At an informational meeting at John Dewey High School, relating to the proposed implementation of the “turnaround” model, Superintendent Aimee Horowitz faced an outraged community that questioned the strategy of closing an improving school and replacing up to half of its faculty.

Teachers used graphs with data to illustrate Dewey’s improvement in graduation rates and overall academic progress. The Dewey faculty vigorously defended their school’s accomplishments, but the discussion soon turned to skepticism concerning the real motives behind the proposed “turnaround” model.

Ms. Horowitz, unable or unwilling to state the true reason for her visit to Dewey, struggled to answer increasingly difficult questions from the faculty and staff concerning Mayor Bloomberg’s desire to hold the Dewey community hostage in his fight with the UFT over negotiations related to teacher evaluations.

Very few of those in attendance accepted Ms. Horowitz’s claim that she was only the messenger, choosing instead, to accuse her and her bosses of union busting and intentionally trying to undermine the school community.

One teacher said “I expect Eva Moscowitz to walk into the auditorium at any moment, tape measure in hand.” Another teacher complained of “being held hostage” by Mayor Bloomberg adding, that it was a “brutal and demeaning process.”

At a later meeting at the school, with parents and students also present, students shared their Dewey success stories with all those in attendance, receiving rounds of applause from their teachers and a proud crowd.

The Parents’Association president charged Ms. Horowitz and the Department of Education with playing “Russian Roulette” with the students’ education and “setting our kids up to fail.” Another parent threatened a class action law suit against the Department of Education, while a parent with a phone in hand said she had a lawyer on the line who was prepared to work “pro-bono” to defend the integrity of the school. Other parents wanted to know if this was a “setup” to usher in charter schools on the Dewey campus.

The superintendent’s visit ended with a unified commitment from students, parents, teachers, and alumni that a robust fight back would commence. Parents and teachers shared e-mails as a passionate declaration of “you want a fight, bring it on” was announced by a member of the Parents’ Association.



Wednesday, January 25, 2012

SUNY/Noguera Cave to Eva: Overturn Reco of Subcommitte

I've updated this constantly so I am reposting.
NOTE, Jan. 26, 12:30AM --- see special historical note on Noguera below

I'll be at feb 9 and march 1 puppets for educational policy meetings!  Would LOVE more brochures. I spent $50 printing out the old black and white GEM flyer and circulating around Williamsburg.  I'd like to use the nicer color ones to sneak into the condo developments where success has done their ad blitz and slip them under doors...  Parent activist in Willamsburg, activated by Eva invasion
I guess the only good news for today is that inside the Bedford L, someone spray painted "don't let corporations privatize education" in huge letters over a giant success ad: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150628474739180&l=caee1f7b48


I've told you Eva is the best organizer we have. GEM movie as antidote to charter invasion beginning to go viral in the neighborhood --- screening at PS 84 at 6PM Thurs. Jan. 26 -- I'll be there.

I'm consolidating reports coming on re Eva invasion of Williamsburg (with more to come later). By the way, her husband is doing his own charter invasion of the area -- but details another time. Also details of last night's Success info meeting at a resident's home in Greenpoint at a location far away from MS 50 later.

The original hearing was on Jan. 17 at MS 50 with a massive outpouring of opposition to the Success invasion from the community. Eva is so sure of herself she no longer brings her shock troops from Harlem, which I think is also a strategy to keep them from identifying with the feelings of the local communities.

Here is a video of that meeting made by GEM's Darren Marelli with some historical background.



Here is the direct link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_wMV5-Zm4o&list=UUh8pphdD7ocfQ7sED6OBL3g&index=1&feature=plcp


But Tweed screwed up something on the EIS and now another meeting will be scheduled the week of Feb. 12.


SUNY Charter authorizing meeting this morning at 8:30AM:
Today was the SUNY charter authorizing committee chaired by Pedro Noguera who likes to play both sides of the field.

Here is our first report at around 10AM: SUNY subcommitte votes to table Success co-loco in Cobble Hill and Wllmsbg.
A bunch of parents from District 14 were there. The committee went into Exec session. Hard to believe Noguera won't cave to Eva. At last night's Success info session Jenny Sedlis Eva's 2nd in command said there was no Plan B to occupying MS 50. 

Below is one quick report from Cynthia:

The education subcommittee of trustees is advising the SUNY trustees to table the approval of co-locations for success in cobble hill AND Williamsburg, on the basis of the strength, and material facts provided by opposition from communities of Williamsburg and cobble hill. This means that the success co-locations could be blocked at the SUNY level.

I was amazed--they actually agreed to advise the trustees to table the co-locations, on the strength of community opposition from cobble hill and Williamsburg.  Some guy named o'brien was the standout. (but he didn't have voting power on the subcommittee?). Noguera was decent about the whole thing--insisted that Millman and Luis Garden Acosta get to speak, etc

C
Well as I reported, too good to be true. These newly active parents are getting quite a lesson in "democracy." I reported at around 1PM.
Ahhhh, we predicted this in last post. Going against recos of own committee. Look for increasing outrage and blowback at SUNY as a charter authorizing agent. And by the way when the UFT charters come up  at SUNY we should call for them to be shut down. I don't want my union in the charter business.
Here is Leonie's report:
http://pointers.audiovideoweb.com/stcasx/va92winlive2386/play.asx

after discussions w/ legal staff in executive session of the board of trustees,

Noguera says the location of the charters are not in our purview, and we will remove the table from the co-locations

Motion to remove the table. Voted yes.

We will be sharing public feedback w/ Dept of Education.

Noguera: we need leadership elsewhere in the state.  (passing the buck)  But we are not charged with figuring out space and location.  We will  adjourn.

Leonie Haimson
Leonie followed up with:
Some people are confused about the meaning of what I wrote about the SUNY board deliberations.  I am not an attorney but what seems to have occurred is this:

Despite considerable opposition from some of the committee members about these co-locations, or at least their expressed desire to delay their decision, after Noguera came back from private “executive sessions” he said he had had discussions w/ counsel and the board, and removed the tabling of the decision about whether to allow the co-location to go forward.

In other words, these co-locations can go forward and neither the committee nor the board will try to stop them.

Noguera claimed that the committee had no authority to stop the co-locations, (though Rossi, the SUNY Institute counsel, had appeared to say during the committee meeting earlier that the committee could propose to the full board to disapprove the co-locations, and the full board had that authority.  Actually the committee doesn’t have the authority to approve anything without the full board, including authorizing charters…it just makes recommendations to the full board, so why this is any different I have no idea.)

Noguera then ended by saying it is not in their purview as to approve or disapprove locations for charters and bumped it up to the State.

Perhaps Jim or another attorney can better explain.  We should definitely ask for a transcript.

Look for the new alliances built between parents to have a snowball impact.

ED Note:
Gutless Noguera. Sure screw the Southside.
Isn't community impact in their purview? Resign Noguera. I'd rather see an open ed deformer than a wolf in sheep's clothing.

SPECIAL NOTE FROM THE PAST:  dropped in by email:

from a friend who knew Pedro at UC Berkeley  "When Noguera was student body President at Cal during the South Africa divestment movement, his MO was to oppose and undermine direct actions and then take credit for them when they were successful. He was completely unprincipled, really someone who could not be trusted.

At that time he was an unacknowledged supporter of the League of Revolutionary Struggle, the most insidious M-L sect I have ever come across. LRS' line was a combination of "nationalist"-style identity politics and shut-up-and-vote-for-the-
Democrats reformism, expressed with a thin overlay of irrelevant Maoist terminology. Noguera managed to dupe Todd Gitlin into writing some grossly ill-informed articles in The Nation giving credit for the movement to LRS-controled ethnic student groups. That was a pretty impressive feat of shysterism, since Gitlin was obviously not naive about such matters and also would have completely opposed LRS' line if he had even known about it.
 
Pedro was still doing the same kind of stuff when we were back in Berkeley in the mid-90s during the uproar over CCRI, the affirmative action ban. I would bet he has outgrown LRS-style politics, but it doesn't sound as if he has come across any principles. Stay away from him if you can."

NYC Teacher Sam Coleman Responds to NY Post Michael Goodwin Attack

Sam Coleman with GEM's Julie Cavanagh
and Chicago Teachers Union Karen Lewis,
all social justice teachers
Working with Sam Coleman, a founding members in GEM, is one of the reasons I keep doing this stuff. One of the key new gen activists, also a core member of NYCORE, Sam is also as good a teacher as you can find. (I have been to his class). Teaching in a heavy Latino neighborhood, Sam's fluent Spanish in a dual language school is an invaluable skill. Sam and other activists at his school have organized evening workshops for parents at the school and developed tremendous links within the community. Sam and his colleagues originated the Fight Back Friday campaigns in June 2010 and have spread then around the city. 


Sam's voice in the GEM film response to Waiting for Superman is one of the strongest in the movie and at some screenings there is a round of applause (more than once) after Sam speaks.


Thus when Sam was viciously attacked by NY Post columnist Michael Goodwin in ways that called into his question his ability as a teacher, the entire community of ed activists were outraged. The attack was based on an email Sam had responded to on a few list serves. Yes, Sam is a social justice type teacher  -- which he will define in his response below --- and proud of it. As are many of our other younger teachers we are meeting like our film's narrators Julie Cavanagh and Brian Jones. Social justice teachers also raise questions about their union and many of them are behind the Feb. 4 State of the Union conference.

Sam took time out from enjoying his new born son Reuben to respond to Goodwin, who revealed himself as another NY Post slug/thug squarely in the Rupert Murdoch mold. Hey Goodwin, got any cell phone hacks of Sam?


I want to share an "article" published in the New York Post by Michael Goodwin. It is a very clear attack on me both personally and professionally. The link to the editorial is below, followed by my response. In addition, please find the email exchange with a fellow teacher on the GEM list serve, which Mr. Goodwin was quoting from. His words are in red and quotes. 
  http://m.nypost.com/p/news/local/teacher_blind_to_reality_KGf9pTZSQgWq78UqfdM0CP .   

Mr. Goodwin, Last week I was forwarded your commentary about me after you read an email exchange between myself and another teacher.  Please find my response to your commentary below. 
 "But there's another hurdle that's not so well known [to fixing education].It's harder to root out because it hides in plain sight."There are no substantive arguments or points in your piece. The only way your words have power is through the use of fear.    
"But with his views of what teaching is about, Sam has gone 'round the bend. His plan to help students learn has precious little to do with the classroom." 
 
I don't actually share my views of what teaching is about in the email I am quoted from. What I do write about is my belief that it is our responsibility to fight injustice. If we want all of our nation's students to have access to quality education we must insist on equity in all spheres of society. My view is that teaching takes incredibly hard work and dedication. I am in my school building from 7-5 most days, if not later, yet my work hours are 8-3.  As a dual language teacher I strive to engage my students in ways that tap into their rich lives, cultures and experiences of the world. And, as I mentioned in my email, I find culturally competent and anti-racist pedagogy is more effective in engaging students than the monotony of test-prep. Do our students need to learn to read, write, have strong mathematical literacy, and critical thinking skills? Definitely. Do we need to teach these skills and competencies in the most engaging ways possible? Absolutely. In the long term, the goal of education should be for students to love learning, to think and engage intellectually with aspects of their world that matter. Those are some of my views on teaching, in case you were wondering.



"We get it that you don't have a clue about the role of your profession. You're a "social justice" type, too much a community organizer to be stuck in front of bored kids who can't read. Street protests definitely are more exciting."   
Part of what makes me "well-educated and qualified" for my job is that I understand the relationships between structural inequalities in this society and the failure of the education system to provide equitable opportunities for my students. I know this because I see these connections everyday in my school and city, and because it has been well-documented by the nation's top scholars. Mr. Goodwin, if you're interested in doing some homework, you should read the work of Gary Orfield, Professor, UCLA and Pauline Lipman, Professor, University of Illinois-Chicago on the political economy of schooling and the civil rights implications of school funding formulas; Daniel Solorzano at UCLA and Pedro Noguera at NYU on the school-to-prison pipelines for Black and Latino students; and Kris Gutierrez at the University of Colorado at Boulder on culturally competent educators. These readings will get you started on understanding the reasons why social justice education is needed in this country, and why we know that these connections are more research-based and relevant than the policies backed by the 1% trying to capitalize on public schooling. Part of being a well-educated professional is knowing the research, and the research says it’s time for some meaningful change in our public schools and systems.  

"Heaven help New York, and especially the students of teachers like Sam. With "educators" like that, they don't have a prayer." 
 
The implication that I could not be a good teacher because I fight for justice and a quality education for our students, and believe that tests deform that quality when their importance is exaggerated, is outrageous. The quality of a teacher can never be measured by student test scores alone; not even by basing 40% of an evaluation on scores, as has been proposed in the new teacher evaluation system. A teacher, for example, that has a gift for connecting with struggling or hurting students in his or her class and helps them achieve an emotional state where they can learn again is a quality teacher. This process is often not reflected in test scores. A teacher who raises their student's test scores through endless test prep is not, and should not be, the definition of a quality teacher.  Do we need a better (or actually, one at all) supervision program to mentor and support teachers? YES! Instead of educational consultants, we should hire more coaches and master teachers as mentors to do the real work of supervision and support in the classrooms. 
Of course those positions cannot be contracted out to your unqualified friends. I refuse to simply allow the Mayor and Governor or you, Mr. Goodwin, to use the educational crisis facing our students as a political chip in the great game of ‘how to make the rich richer’. That has been the biggest "reform" we have seen under Mayor Bloomberg:  more million dollar contracts to private companies, billions spent on high stakes testing, more highly-paid consultants in DOE central, a transfer of public monies into private hands under the veil of charter schools, fewer teachers and resources, larger class sizes for our students, and privatization of our public school space. It is disgusting, and as a teacher who cares passionately about my students, I won't stop fighting.  
Thank you Mr. Goodwin for laying bare the paucity of your knowledge and the corruption of your belief system. Yours are not opinions based either on fact or experience but on a script written by the wealthy and powerful; people who do not want those whom they oppress to learn to think critically about that oppression.  And thank you for the free publicity for this movement. You had so little to say about the issues that you allowed my words to speak for themselves. Real teachers, doing the day-to-day work of educating students, have no voice these days. Our sweat equity cannot buy air-time from the 1%. 
    
In Solidarity, 
 
Sam Coleman, 3rd grade dual language public school teacher, Brooklyn. 
  
Here is the full text of my email that he quotes, and below that is the email I was responding to on the GEM list serve: 


Hi James, 
     
I am a 7th year elementary school teacher in a school with high ELL and IEP populations, 95 percent free or reduced lunch. We have never met our AYP and probably never will. So I know where you are coming from. I don't usually get into email list discussions, but I thought the emails on this list were sort of a funny grouping. You had me all the way to here "We need to focus on student accountability instead of teacher accountability". 
Here is an alternative way to think about it. 
 It is just as easy to blame students and their parents as it is to blame teachers. Blaming individuals with names, file numbers, report cards, test scores etc is the way politicians and the wealthy avoid taking responsibility for their failures, or the repercussions of their greed. Could students be more responsible? Sure. Could teaching improve in NYC? Sure. More importantly, could supervision improve in our schools? Obviously. Would teaching and learning improve overall?. A little.  
But those are the easy questions, with easy answer. And plenty of room for blaming individuals. The harder questions are about systemic, historic racism. The purposeful privatization of public education. About the widening wealth gap that is responsible for the high levels of poverty among public school families. The same poverty that is a major factor (for many complicated reasons) in student's ability to be as "Responsible" as we might want. Which of course is reflected in teachers ability to be as "Successful" as our mayor says we should be. The answers to these hard questions require collective action. We can't do that while we play their blame game.  
 
We will not improve education by requiring some mythical level of responsibility from teens who are over policed, under-respected and physically and emotionally stressed out by poverty and racism.  
We will improve education if we fight along side our students and their families for a higher minimum wage, strong rent laws, just immigration laws, progressive taxes, ending the school-prison pipeline, pushing ourselves to be culturally competent educators, small classes, less testing, fair funding. . . .you get the point.   
Teachers are not to blame for failing schools. Students and parents are not to blame for failing schools. We need to push the press to re-frame the dialogue. Americans want simple, and the press gives it to them by the barrel. This serves power.  As educators, we need to push everyone, including ourselves, to think more critically about the causes of the current situation. And then ORGANIZE with the students, parents and each other to fight the hard battles that will begin to change the system that brought us here. 
in solidarity, sam 


Dear Mr. Nazaryan, 
Your assumption that teachers are the problem concerning NYC public schools is deeply flawed.  
As a former Teaching Fellows,and apparently now working for the Daily News,you contend that if teachers who are not effective in improving student learning are weeded out of the system through a rigorous DOE controlled evaluation system, education in NYC will improve. You cite your experience at The Brooklyn Latin School, in Bushwick Brooklyn, as a model for what  teachers can achieve with hard work and constructive criticism from the administration. 
I contend that in the school you cited, you could select the teachers at random and get the same results. 
The point being that when you have students who are highly motivated and willing to learn, it doesn't matter who the teacher is. 
Please note the following statistics from the 2009-2010 School Report Card and Comprehensive Educational Plan (CEP) for Brooklyn Latin School: 
- 281 students enrolled 
 - Average class size-20 students                                                                                                       -17 teachers on staff with only 6.7% having more than five years experience teaching 
-12% teaching a subject they are not certified for. 

- No student suspensions for the 2008-2009 school year (no data for 2009-2010). 
 
- No ESL students and 3 Special Ed. students 
- High 90% student attendance rate 
- Students take four years of Latin 

- No overage students 
 
When you have a student population as described above, you are guaranteed success.The vast majority of our high schools have unmotivated, over aged, low skilled students with populations of ESL ( English as a Second Language ) and Special Education students. In addition many students are excessively absent from classes. 
We need to focus on student accountability instead of teacher accountability. In addition, we need to restructure a school system that gives more importance to social promotion than student learning.  
Your position on teacher evaluations is either sincere but naive or based on another agenda. I am wondering how many years you taught in NYC schools and why you left teaching to work for the Daily News. 
 
Sincerely, 
James, Teacher for 22 years 

ED NOTE: I was also going to respond to Nazaryan since Brooklyn Latin occupies space in my old school, PS 147. In fact they now "own" my old magnificent double size classroom  -- my second home -- where I taught for most of my 27 years in the school.