Thursday, January 9, 2014

Lisa Donlan on Charter Co-Locos, Rent and More

"The Republican Democratic agenda in Washington doesn't even scratch the surface of the inequities facing more than a million children in our public schools," de Blasio DID NOT say in a statement after Cantor's remarks. In his statement, de Blasio DID NOT call the national Republicans' Democrat's stance on education a "dangerous philosophy that turns its back on public education, and it has failed many times before." ... WHAT DeB Left out
Of course NY State law requires that all charters pay rent. Bloomberg made an exception for his buddies... Rosalie Friend

Let's be clear -- parent choice overwhelming rejects charters school co-locations in public school buildings but in the world of ed deform only a certain minority of parents backed by billionaires get "choice."

Lisa Donlan (parent activist from the Lower East Side -CEC1) responded to my post De Blasio to Eric Cantor: Go Screw Yourself where DeB took a major shot at Republican ed policy, leaving out his compadres in the Democratic Party - esp given that at the very moment Cuomo was proposing the very Republican program deB is opposing. I posted it late last night and sometime in the middle of the night I woke up thinking: every single thing deB said could be applied to most Democrats. But we are giving Bill a big pass on this given that he IS a Democract as is Mark-Viverito, so let's leave room for so-called progressives.

Back to Lisa, who so often dashes off responses on listserves that are almost perfect stand alone blog posts. If she wasn't so busy I would work on her to co-blog here at ednotesonline as she brings a much-needed parent/community activist point of view. My commentary is embedded in [ ].
How many school districts give away space (esp of the magnitude and RE value of NYC) to privately managed charter schools? Klein invented the practice and led the way, actually using "free rent" as an enticement to encourage charter expansion in NYC as recounted here:

In 2002, Mayor Michael Bloomberg won control of the city’s school system and asked to be judged based on his reform of it – something which most NYC politicians dismissed as political suicide. His first act was to appoint as Chancellor Joel Klein, a public-school kid from Queens whose stellar career included heading the Justice Department’s attack on the  Microsoft monopoly. 
To introduce choice and accountability into the system, Bloomberg and Klein  encouraged the creation of 45 charter schools within the city. A charter school is a public school [NOT IN MY BOOK] – there is no tuition, and most of the funding comes from the state. But it is run by a board of private citizens and operates under a charter that can be revoked for  poor performance. 
Intrigued by this, I met in the fall of 2002 with Chancellor Klein to ask whether he was serious about letting private citizens run public schools. “Serious?” he asked at our 
first meeting. “We need public charter schools to show the other public schools how  accountability works. Would it be easier for you to start if I gave you free space in a public school building?”

Funny how Bloomberg's election and popularity were used to justify so many bad policies and practice yet when the shoe is on the other foot the same cheerleaders take the opposite stance.

Lisa

Yes, Lisa. They all wanted mayoral control - Students First and all the ed deform crew pushing it up the kazoo. So when a mayor exercises choice they don't like they go wild. I am not supporting deB's continuation of mayoral control here because even with a mayor you might like we don't want all the decisions in one hand -- can you imagine the pressures this guy is under from every special interest -- good, bad or ugly --

I don't want that kind of system where people with the most say or influence or money get their way. Imagine a system where the Student Firsts of this world had to lobby 32 different school entities?

Ahhh, the good old days where we saw the special interets (including our pals at the UFT) having to race to every part of the city.

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

De Blasio to Eric Cantor: Go Screw Yourself

Ok. maybe just a little hyperbole on my part. The charter lobby is trying to overturn the NYC mayoral election where the man who beat the Republican candidate by 50 points ran on a platform of charging charters rent. Charters claim they want choice. Well, that was CHOICE of the voting public in NYC thrown right up in their faces.
"The Republican agenda in Washington doesn't even scratch the surface of the inequities facing more than a million children in our public schools," de Blasio said in a statement after Cantor's remarks.
...de Blasio elaborated further, saying he doesn't intend to take education advice from Cantor, and that the majority leader is "dead wrong" on the issue of charter rent. He said the revenue from charter rent would help New York City's "tremendous needs," and said Cantor should "look at these facts... if you look all over the country, the norm is to charge rent."
In his statement, de Blasio called the national Republicans' stance on education a "dangerous philosophy that turns its back on public education, and it has failed many times before."
"What public school parents want, and I know because I'm one of them, are real investments that lift up all our kids," he said. "That will take big, bold progressive ideas. And that's exactly what the people of New York City just voted for."

De Blasio embraces a charter fight with Eric Cantor

Mayor Bill de Blasio waded into the national debate over charter schools on Wednesday, in response to some pointed comments from House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.
De Blasio criticized Cantor and the Republican Party for failing to address inequalities facing public school children, a few hours after Cantor gave a speech in Washington that argued the mayor's plans to charge rent and limit co-locations would be "devastating" to school choice.
“Our committees in the House will remain vigilant in their efforts to ensure no one from the government stands in the school house door between any child and a good education,” said Cantor, in remarks at the Brookings Institution.

Asked what exactly the House would do in response to de Blasio, Cantor didn't offer specifics, but said de Blasio's policies put the nation's largest school district "in conflict with federal programs that have been designed to help facilitate growth in public school choice."

The new mayor has conspicuously embraced his role as a national voice for progressive politics--effectively leading a delegation of mayors in a visit to the White House last month--and his scrap with Cantor suggests he's eager to be a national voice on issues beyond income inequality.
Here's the full piece from Capital

Randi Weingarten After VAM Reversal Now Supports US Entry into WWII

Randi's giving up on VAM is more of her covering her ass in prep for the AFT natl convention this summer where Chicago will take the lead in fighting it - and maybe common core too - so watch her begin to move on that too -- pretty soon Leo Casey will be castigating those who support common core and find unique ways to justify his turnabout without admitting he was wrong.

I have so much to say on this but don't have time. Maybe MORE later tonight.

MOREista Dan Lupkin created the graphic on the MORE facebook page. Head over and like it.


Monday, January 6, 2014

Alan Singer, Mixed Feelings on Fariña, de Blasio

.... as far as I can see, Carmen Fariña has closer ties to the top 2% income bracket than the other 98% of the population and has always been willing to play political games... It remains unclear to me what Fariña has to offer the working class and poor Black and Latino students who have been left behind in the Bloomberg years....Alan Springer, HufPo
I've been presenting a variety of views on Farina, both pro and con. This Alan Singer piece at HufPo is pretty much con. Here he raises an interesting issue. Was Farina's success at PS 6 due to her attracting wealthier white parents or improving the lot of the struggling students?
She was principal at PS 6 on Manhattan's Upper East Side where the zip code is 10028, the median household income in 2011 was $107,895, and the population is 83% White. Fariña worked at PS 6 when Anthony Alvarado was Superintendent of Community School District 2 and achieved supposedly miraculous school improvement by offering special programs that attracted Manhattan's wealthy and professional families to the district's schools. PS 6 became a very popular school with New York's economic elite and benefited from being a Columbia Teachers College Mentor School, having close ties to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and receiving Annenberg grants. 
Wasn't that the mantra of the Bloomberg years? Make it look like education was improving by changing the kids -- the essence of what they did by chopping large schools into smaller ones, screening out the most difficult kids from the smaller ones and sending them down the line to the next large school in the daisy chain, or domino effect.
Fariña started as a teacher at PS 29 in tree-lined Brownstone Brooklyn located in the 11201 zip code where the population is 60% White and the median household income was over $91,000 in 2011. 
I'm not sure of this is a fair point given that Farina taught at PS 29 at a very different time. Singer should have given is the 11201 zpi code stats when she taught at PS 29, not 2011. (I'm too lazy to check them myself but I remember Cobble Hill as not being a gentrified area at that time.
Carmen Fariña first worked with Bill de Blasio when she was District 15 Superintendent in Brownstone Brooklyn and he was on the school board. It remains unclear to me what Fariña has to offer the working class and poor Black and Latino students who have been left behind in the Bloomberg years.
By the time she came back to District 15, many areas were in full gentrification mode. Thus the charge that the Lucy Calkins model would only work with gentrified kids in large classes and a level of arrogance that teachers who could not manage the feat of making it work were below par.
Fariña was also a Deputy Chancellor for Teaching and Learning during the Bloomberg/Klein regime where her reputation as an advocate for children gave legitimacy to their programs. I only met Carmen Fariña once, at a social studies teachers' conference in 2006. We exchanged a few words and I expressed disappointment that Fariña did not speak out more forcefully for good education. At the time Bloomberg and Klein were trying to force secondary school teachers to use an inappropriate elementary school lesson format called the Workshop Model. Fariña's office maintained that New York City had no standardized lesson plan format, but that did not stop the DOE from enforcing one. Soon after our encounter Fariña quietly retired as deputy chancellor, suspected of using her influence to help a colleague who lived in New Jersey illegally place his child at PS 29.
The latter point was the Leo McCaskill, principal of Brooklyn Tech, story and that would require an entire blog post of its own. Sort of unfair of Singer to make the automatic assumption that this is why she left, but certainly might have been a factor.

Read the full post at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alan-singer/goodbye-mayor-mike-hello-_b_4524599.html
and below. Singer's being miffed that DeB hasn't gotten back to him to discuss the situation in the schools is, well, you fill in the blank.
=========

Farina Salary Plus Pension Still Less than Charter Operators Eva Moskowitz and Deborah Kenny

Above headline is something you won't see in NY Post. Eva we all know about. More on Kenny
http://garyrubinstein.teachforus.org/2012/06/12/it-takes-a-village/


From Capital Pro City Hall

De Blasio: Fariña salary 'absolutely appropriate'

In response to questions over new schools chancellor Carmen Fariña's salary--a combination of her D.O.E. salary and her pension--de Blasio said Monday that the arrangement was "absolutely appropriate."
He also noted that several members of the Bloomberg administration double-dipped.
"Look, she literally has one of the toughest jobs in America," de Blasio said.
Farina will earn over $400,000 a year between her pension and D.O.E. salary. 

Advice for de Blasio: ASAP - Make Patrick Sullivan Your First PEP Appointment

...here is a chance for Patrick Sullivan to bring his considerable talents in service of NYC parents, students and teachers by working with the majority at long last. What a shame to deny Patrick this opportunity. ... EdNotesOnline
Scott Stringer also deserves a lot of thanks for sticking by Patrick and letting him vote his conscience even after being pressured by Bloomberg’s minions to fire him.... Leonie Haimson
Stringer's support for Patrick is why I voted for him. If you attended any PEP meetings the only member to consistently get applause from the audience was Patrick. W

When people took over the August 2010 PEP meeting, Patrick came off the stage to stand with the people while the rest of the PEPs scurried for cover. Here is a video with Patrick speaking from the floor at around 4:30.




Also See: The anti-chancellor: Scott Stringer’s education-board appointee objects to Dennis Walcott, again and again

Patrick was an immense supporter of our film (see tab at the top of the blog) and we used some important footage of him.

Patrick Sullivan resigned from the PEP once Scott Stringer's term of Manhattan Borough President expired. That does not mean he is not interested in the PEP. Under BloomKleinBlackCott Patrick had to play the role of obstructionist to try to stop the destruction and undermining of the public school system.

But here is a chance for Patrick to bring his considerable talents in the service of NYC parents, students and teachers by working with the majority at long last. What a shame to deny Patrick this opportunity.

However, I do not think Patrick should have to go begging to new Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer. Let's see where she stands on education as revealed by her PEP appointee. de Blasio should show support for the work Patrick did by appointing him to one of the 8 positions (out of 13) he controls.

Here is the link to the ednotes piece when Patrick announced his resignation: Patrick Sullivan resigns from NYC Board of Educati...

And here's Leonie Haimson's supportive piece and call for people to leave comments on the blog she and Patrick run supporting Patrick.

Happy New Year to all.

I just returned from a trip last night, but if you’d like to add your thanks and appreciation to Patrick for an incredible job on the PEP for the last 6 ½ yrs please put your thanks on the blog here, where he posted his resignation letter to Stringer:

http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2013/12/sullivan-thanks-scott-stringer-for.html

Scott Stringer also deserves a lot of thanks for sticking by Patrick and letting him vote his conscience even after being pressured by Bloomberg’s minions to fire him.

As I commented on the blog, if Patrick’s advice had been listened to, we would have been spared hundreds of damaging co-locations and school closures, and millions of dollars down the drain in wasteful and sometimes outright corrupt contracts.

Also, you might mention if you think de Blasio should appoint him to the new and hopefully independent NYC Board of Ed to be a voice for parents.

Thanks,

Leonie Haimson
NOTE- Another thing de Blasio should do immediately is to get rid of Bloomberg's PEP nomenclature -- really should have been PERPS---  and replace it with______ - let's have a contest.

See these links on Patrick:
  1. Ed Notes Online: Why Scott Stringer? Patrick Sullivan on the PEP ...

    ednotesonline.blogspot.com/.../why-scott-stringer-patrick-sullivan-on.ht...
    Aug 30, 2013 - Patrick Sullivan on the PEP and Beat Evil Eva Mosowitz. It was not small feat for Scott Stringer to give us the gift of Patrick Sullivan on the PEP...

  2. Patrick Sullivan commands the stage at the PEP | NYC Public ...

    thediariesofalawstudent.blogspot.com › ... › Patrick Sullivan
    Check out this video of Manhattan member of the Panel for Educational Policy Patrick Sullivan, fearless and brilliant, at the PEP December 20 meeting in the ...

  3. Patrick Sullivan/James Liebman Joust at the PEP - YouTube

    www.youtube.com/watch?v=11q3uZtePCE
    Nov 23, 2007 - Uploaded by norscot2
    PEP Manhatan appointee Patrick Sullivan and Tweed Chief Accountability Officer James Liebman joust at ...

  4. Patrick Sullivan at the PEP Dec 09.mov - YouTube

    www.youtube.com/watch?v=sn_UnhQ0ALc
    Dec 21, 2009 - Uploaded by norscot2
    The NYC so-called rubber stamp Board of Education is known as the Panel for Educational Policy (PEP). Most ...

  5. Patrick Sullivan commands the stage at the PEP - NYC Public ...

    nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/.../patrick-sullivan-commands-stag...
    Dec 22, 2009 - Check out this video of Manhattan member of the Panel for Educational Policy Patrick Sullivan, fearless and brilliant, at the PEP December 20 ...

  6. Manhattan Borough Pres Scott Stringer and PEP Rep Patrick ...

    iceuftblog.blogspot.com/.../manhattan-borough-pres-scott-stringer.html
    Aug 31, 2011 - Manhattan Borough Pres Scott Stringer and PEP Rep Patrick Sullivan at Tuesday's Press Conference on Verizon Contract.

Sunday, January 5, 2014

Gene Prisco Memorial, Today, January 5, 2014, 2-4PM

I still can't come to grips with Gene being gone. We spent New Years Eve at Loretta's house in Staten Island with some of the crew who have been together socially and politically since the early 70s, the crew that founded the Coalitions of NYC School Workers in the 70s and ICE a decade ago. Paul Baizerman, another core member, died 2 years ago.

This will be quite an event -- if you knew Gene or knew of the work he did there is plenty of room.

There is a bus running from the ferry. 

From Loretta Prisco:
Sometimes we win one at the DOE!

We will be celebrating Gene's life on Sunday, January 5, 2:00-4:00 PM at IS 61.
The school is located at 445 Castleton Avenue, corner of Brighton Avenue on Staten Island.  It is the school that Gene served kids, parents and staff for most of his career.  Both of our daughters graduated there and I served on the Executive Board of the PTA for many years.  Needless to say, it is close to all of our hearts.
It will be held in the auditorium which is on the second floor and wheelchair accessible.  Our daughters performed so many times in that auditorium!
I do not have email addresses for so many people who said that they wanted to come.  Please pass the invitation to those that knew Gene and would like to attend.

Love, Loretta 

The Carmen Farina Files

Her management took the form of a Machiavellian benevolence — the kind of approach you imagine is taught to aspiring executives in certain classes at Wharton, whereby the party about to be demoted or fired is encouraged to believe that what is happening is the best possible result for him or her. At P.S. 6, Ms. Farina got rid of only three teachers outright, she told me. The rest she counseled out, helping them to see — presumably in some instances where they couldn’t obviously see it for themselves — that they were really better suited for other things...
..When she rose to higher levels and oversaw principals, she worked in much the same way, assisting one principal, who wasn’t doing a particularly good job, for instance, in finding a new, more bureaucratically oriented position within the system. “It turned out she liked paperwork,” Ms. Farina said. “You think no one likes paperwork.”
 ....Metropolitan edition of the NY Times, Big City Column 
Information keeps flowing in on Farina's history. There were some interesting comments on my post Message to Farina and de Blasio: Undo the Damage where I talked about going after abusive principals and supporting teachers.

There are some serious hints in this piece from Ginia Bellafonte in the Jan. 4th Metropolitan edition of the NY Times. She counseled out teachers but kicked a principal upstairs. Interesting.

Before parsing it in more detail here's some insightful comments posted on the NYCEdNews listserve which points to: class size doesn't matter and lots of PD, not the greatest signs from my perspective.
Carmen comes out of the District 2 school of thinking (most of southern half of Manhattan) that practically the only things that count are PD and standards. It is this thinking that pervaded D2 under Alvarado and his successors and also characterized the first stage of Children's first under Klein-- when she was deputy chancellor. Other factors like class size were thought to be irrelevant and a waste of money. Elaine Fink former D2 Supe used to say she wd spend 80% of her budget on PD if she could.
But here is some hope Carmen has evolved
How much Carmen has evolved since those days we will have to see, but it is no surprise that she likes the Common Core and teachers shd expect a heavy dose of PD in the months to come,

What I find most disturbing is her condescension: that parents just don't understand the Common Core and if they did they would support it.

As to her "protocol" on charter schools - we still have an open lawsuit on this issue and I would hope that she would realize this before making a deal.
[EdNote: Fink ran off to San Diego with Alvarado and ran the Leadership Academy there and when Joel Klein was given the Chancellor job he went out there to meet with them to get advice.]

Now on to the NY  Times piece, Schools Chancellor Brings Joyful and Fierce Style By
In our conversation, rather than trying to get into the granular details of how she would deal with unions or charter schools, ideas and tactics clearly evolving, Ms. Fariña and I talked about her philosophical approach to actual teaching and leadership. 
Serving as the principal of Public School 6 on the Upper East Side during the 1990s, she overturned 80 percent of the staff, greatly improving the school’s standing. One teacher was so awful, Ms. Fariña told me, that the incompetence became consuming. “I’d wake up during the night thinking about the children who had to deal with this teacher,” she said. 

I know teachers who take the position "what the guy does next door is not my business - there are supervisors for that" and I know teachers who say "it is a moral imperative if you see utter incompetence to the point children are being harmed to try to do something." What a slippery slope that can become. Luckily I don't think I would say I saw any teachers reach that level but I did think there were people who did not belong in the classroom -- maybe they can do paperwork too.
But Ginia Bellafonte doesn't seem to see it that way -- while it is OK for Farina to bump a principal into a paperwork job, for teachers it is wasting money.
One of the most contentious challenges the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio will face is contract negotiations with the teachers’ union, particularly around the question of the so-called A.T.R. — the Absent Teacher Reserve. These are teachers who are receiving full pay even though they are working as substitutes or in clerical positions, having been dismissed for poor performance or having lost their jobs to school closings or budget cuts without getting rehired. 
Because Mr. de Blasio and Ms. Fariña are not fully in the reformist mind-set, their critics speculate that they will be reflexively acquiescent or at least highly vulnerable to union influence, but it’s hard to imagine someone with Ms. Fariña’s record prodding the mayor to consent to outrageous and possibly perilous demands. 
 Solving the ATR situation is a "perilous" demand? Note the mindset here -- having been dismissed for poor performance. How can you be dismissed for poor performance and still be working? Bellafonte seems to miss the point that they were exonerated. Remember Christine Rubino who was dismissed  for Facebook comment having nothing to do with her performance - and rehired after she won her case in court - and has a perfect record as a teacher but has been put in limbo doing paperwork.
Ms. Farina is a progressive educator who speaks movingly about returning joy to the project of teaching children. “We’ve lost the spirit that education is a calling,” she told me. 
I'm on board with the above. How many teachers locally and nationally have pointed to how the ed deformists have removed the joy of teaching - and learing. 
She is passionate about social studies and science; 
Yes. Me too. As long as we don't add alcohol to the chemistry experiment (good article in NYT today on that -School Experiment That Burned Boy Was Focus of Federal Warning.)
...she is not opposed to the Common Core or to testing generally. “Life is a series of tests in many ways,” she said. 
I wouldn't expect her to be or say she was if she was opposed.

What she opposes, she explained, are myopic systems of learning in which real knowledge becomes a casualty of test knowledge, and what she calls “the gotcha mentality” of the Bloomberg years, when teachers and principals were often abandoned instead of being given whatever support they might need to improve. “Even the worst principals work hard,” she said. “When we support them, then we can hold them accountable.”

Good points. And she is the first former BloomKlein official who has used the term "gotcha mentality."
Ms. Fariña said she had left the Bloomberg administration because of the issue of professional development, though other education insiders alluded to other philosophical differences as well. 
What does the PD issue mean here? I thought they did PD up the kazoo. As a pro-PDer too I think her objection was to bringing in so many outsiders who knew so much less than the teachers they were training -- the Aussies for instance.

I'd love to know what other issues there were- the holdover policy? The gotcha mentality? Make your own best guess. No wonder she was told (by Klein?) that she didn't have the skill set for the job. I think she left pretty pissed off.
Ultimately Ms. Fariña’s biggest task may be to broker an ideological peace between those who believe that joy and rigor are compatible and those who don’t, between those who believe that progressive education works only for children growing up in prewar apartments with parents who have read every John Updike novel twice and those who believe that disadvantaged children can benefit from it as well. 
Jeez, how much are we hating the phony word "rigor." If there's a conflict I'll take joy any time.
Which side are the ed deformers and real reformers being presented? RRef do believe that disadvantaged children can absolutely benefit from progressive education -- but if class sizes are small enough to enable a teacher to manage things. And therein lies the rub of Farina's arrogance - she refuses to recognize that class size goes hand in hand with effective progressive education -- no amount of PD will compensate for that.

Now comes the kicker that won't bring joy to many Mudville classrooms.

Ms. Fariña is a fan of “balanced literacy,” designed chiefly by Professor Lucy Calkins of Columbia, an approach rooted in the idea that children build reading skill by reading books that they love and that engage them. The Bloomberg administration favored this approach until a study two years ago, following 1,000 city school children in 20 schools from kindergarten through second grade, indicated that those second graders taught with a curriculum focused more on nonfiction scored higher on reading comprehension than those in the comparison schools. At the time, Ms. Fariña criticized the study for focusing on too few schools. 
 I can't tell you how many teachers learned to despise Lucy Calkins - for her arrogance too when she was the lap dog of the DOE for a time. But also teachers I respect who were trained in the program, they feel the implementation and forced feeding was so utterly incompetent - like most things BloomKlein did - that it was doomed.
Ms. Fariña said there were many potential ways to approach context-based learning and, for instance, to improve vocabulary. Giving children actual lyric sheets when they are singing in class, she said, could be one way of exposing them to new words. 
I really love these points -- because I did them myself - I used song sheets a lot and did a lot of work on vocabulary in many unorthodox ways -- it was clear that an important component of improving reading was to increase the oral vocabulary.
One method for going forward might be to teach fundamentals in a more traditional way until fourth grade or so, to lay the groundwork for more expansive learning, and then take things in more experimental directions. The Ascend network of charter schools, educating some of the poorest children in the city in central Brooklyn, has had great success with that model, borrowing the humanities-driven approach of progressive private schools once children are beyond the earliest elementary grades. By sixth grade, Ascend students are reading “The Iliad.” The network’s test scores have been impressive. 
I don't quite get the above. Is that Farina or Bellafonte talking about this "wonderful" charter? Throwing her own 2 cents into the debate?

Here's one of the really good points in the article:
Dialogue, debate and excitement in the classroom should obviously be the goals of all educators. “Once I was about to visit a principal,” Ms. Fariña said, “who told me, ‘You’re going to love coming here because you can hear a pin drop.’ I said, ‘I better not come because that isn’t going to make me happy.’ ”
EMAIL: bigcity@nytimes.com
YES. Carmen is against "pin drop" principals -- just watch the pin head principals tell teachers on Monday to make sure their rooms are not TOO quiet -- just in case Carmen drops by -- hopefully with a set of pins to drop.

Saturday, January 4, 2014

MORE Supports OTs and PTs in Quest for Equal Pay

...experienced OTs and PTs are paid 38 percent less than teachers and speech therapists with the same levels of education.

A variation of this article will appear on the upcoming MORE newsletter.

Occupational and physical therapists are an unseen part of New York City’s education community. But without OTs and PTs, thousands of the city’s promising – yet disabled – students would fall through the cracks.
 
That’s why we’re alarmed that these therapists continue to be valued less than their equally critical peers: the teachers, social workers, school psychologists and others – who along with OTs and PTs provide immeasurable support for the city’s youths.  Surprisingly, experienced OTs and PTs are paid 38 percent less than teachers and speech therapists with the same levels of education.
 
New York City’s OTs and PTs are quietly turning around the lives of physically and emotionally challenged students, helping them overcome profound disabilities to reach their potential in the classroom. That’s not just good for families – it saves taxpayers money and generates revenues for the school system.
 
All we ask for is fairness. Without equity, students with disabilities are in danger of losing a critical support network, a lifeline that will help them graduate and become productive New Yorkers.
 
The best OTs and PTs often choose other jobs where they’re paid according to their value. Those who stay – because of their commitment to the kids they’ve helped for years – often work second jobs to support their families.
 
We can all agree that our school children are our most precious resource. They represent the future of our wonderful city. Helping OTs and PTs remain in the New York City School System is another tool to help vulnerable students overcome obstacles and thrive.
 
Let’s work together in support of our children. Let’s work together to support our OTs and PTs.
 Here is a link to a petition supporting more equitable pay for DOE OTs & PTs. Please consider signing it and passing it on to your networks.
 

Friday, January 3, 2014

Debate: When Common Core is Attacked from the right, does the left form coalitions?

To me this, this about coalition building around individual issues as opposed to finding completely like-minded folks. I have experienced a couple of folks who to me, are extreme in our "camp."  I have also worked with folks whose understanding of the world is quite different than mine.  Through dialogue, we find areas of agreement and areas where we can mutually support each other.  We steer clear of topics that we know, ahead of time, we are going to vehemently disagree on.  Occasionally, we offend each other, but we do not take it personally.  This battle is about making schools better for all of our kids.  We know, from the get go, that if we are talking about how to fix other common problems such as social and economic injustice, we will vehemently disagree.  We respectfully agree to disagree and avoid having to discuss the issues.  We understand that at other times, we will oppose each other. Sometimes, I just know that in this particular setting, I need to edit what I say.  It's politics... and it's my approach to managing it.  Ultimately, it is hard to name call right to my face.  I'm o.k. with being called a communist, too.  Hell, I might actually be one. In the end, I think we can help each other with this particular battle... JM on finding common ground on common core with voices from the right, Change the Stakes listserve
From what I can tell from social media, the folks and groups rallying behind the action are pretty broad based. If that's the case, I'd be comfortable more with it. But as several people have pointed out, there are some good reasons to be very cautious, in general, about collaborating with ring-wing anti-CC groups... NC, CTS
Oh, what to do. We received this at Change the Stakes:
The Facebook group stop common core in NYS are planning a rally across NYS on Monday 4pm to 6pm in Rockefeller Center at WNEP newsroom to protest Common Core and coincide with governors State of the state address. It's seems that the Facebook group has a large LI and Upstate following.

Inline image 1
The Chancellor, Mulgrew, and AFT support CC. We need people power there to make this man listen. Hope you can make it.

On the Stop Common Core site  - http://www.stopcommoncoreny.com - there are pretty straightforward exposures of the common core with a major theme that it removes local control and federalizes education -- a liberal supported trend for 60 years. Today it looks more like a neo-liberal trend towards privatizing. But then I ran across this linking to another web site>
Mon Dec 30 2013 at 8:20 pm +0000
One group in the New York anti-Core groups is led by a former Domestic terrorist and a friend or former friend to Bill Ayers – Mark Naison. Naison was a member of the violent Weather Underground in the late 1960′s and early 1970′s Communists In the NY Anti-Common Core Movement |
Here is the full article:
Shit - I've met Bill Ayers and like him and many of his ideas. And I know Mark Naison. I think the very same conversations taking place on the left and the right, with some saying "hell no I ain't working with those people" and others looking for dialogue. That is what fascinates me about this conversation.

Thus began an interesting internal debate today on CTS. Here is a selection at this point with I am sure more to come (which I will add to this as an update). And by the way--- I keep flipping both ways, as I so often do. I usually come down on the side of the last person I speak to. But since I am getting deep in the weeds of CCSS with the MORE committee I think I will be much clearer on whether to hang with Glenn Beck and Mark Naison to fight the same battle -- but then again is that really the same battle? My hair is beginning to hurt.
LN:
I did notice that their reasons for opposing CC were mostly about the government imposing standards and nothing about developmental inappropriate teaching and learning.

RS:
When I testified at a hearing about Common Core, I was quite disturbed by the man behind me who kept saying "this is all from Obama the communist." I realized then that we share a cause with people who have a very different agenda. While I think we need to try to work with others, I believe we need to be very careful. Some people have forgotten Brown v. Board of Education and the crucial role the federal government plays in some respects.

JM:
To me this, this about coalition building around individual issues as opposed to finding completely like-minded folks. I have experienced a couple of folks who to me, are extreme in our "camp."  I have also worked with folks whose understanding of the world is quite different than mine.  Through dialogue, we find areas of agreement and areas where we can mutually support each other.  We steer clear of topics that we know, ahead of time, we are going to vehemently disagree on.  Occasionally, we offend each other, but we do not take it personally.  This battle is about making schools better for all of our kids.  We know, from the get go, that if we are talking about how to fix other common problems such as social and economic injustice, we will vehemently disagree.  We respectfully agree to disagree and avoid having to discuss the issues.  We understand that at other times, we will oppose each other. Sometimes, I just know that in this particular setting, I need to edit what I say.  It's politics... and it's my approach to managing it.  Ultimately, it is hard to name call right to my face.  I'm o.k. with being called a communist, too.  Hell, I might actually be one. In the end, I think we can help each other with this particular battle.

DZ:
So glad you put it out there Jean. I was going to respond to the 'depth' comment because I actually think otherwise. We cannot be divided in the eyes of Power as is the case of Cuomo and the State, because that's exactly what they want to see. It's about Points of Unity and how we can connect our struggles regardless of our political and philosophical views. I have friends who are ultra religious and send me cards with the word 'Lord' all over and they say they pray for me, etc. I don't mind it because I feel there is something else that brings me together and anchors the friendship. I also have friends who differ with me politically (ok not many) but they may not share my views completely, and this is true even in my education views (as is the case with my ex), but we manage to find that place we both agree. In the case of historical events, the North and South both viewed Slavery and African Americans differently for their own reasons, but it was more important to keep the States united and Lincoln saw this when he delivered the Emancipation Proclamation. Being divided and looking into groups 'motivations' and 'philosophical/political' inclinations doesn't serve the Movement. Let's stay focused and build the movement of different stripes and voices.

JN:
I'm hardly a Catholic, but I was impressed by the Catholic educators' letter to the nation's bishops attacking CCSS as a force for intellectual and spiritual mediocrity. And I now understand the feelings of tea party folks: I too hold the view that in an arena of life I care deeply about, our children's education, federal bureaucrats have violated our rights with destructive, ignorant initiatives they should never have had the power to enact.

I will agree or disagree with individuals and groups on an issue-by-issue basis, and maintain an open mind to persuasive argument. On that basis I think we at CTS (which after all as Jean points out is itself a collection of individuals with diverse views) should seek to build as broad a consensus as possible around the goal of putting educators, parents and local communities back in control of education.

PD:
As I read the comments back and forth, the more I tend to agree with collaboration. Our government and political leaders have so damaged our educational system, both public, religious and private. Yes Diana, the powers that be want to divide us. Let's fight together for our COMMON cause, a just education for our nation's children, respect for their educators and control put back into the hands of parents and local communities as well as the equality of resources to educate all in the best ways possible.

FS:
This is a fascinating discussion that has me wavering. I believe it is necessary to have dissent, honest differences and diverse views rather than the discomfort I feel when everyone speaks with one voice. [Compare the Brooklyn and Manhattan forum.] But my question vis a vis folks on the other side (right wing?) is this: Are "them" as willing to listen to us and respect what we have to say?

DZ:
My feeling is that it's not about dissent (as in the CC forums where the room was totally divided), but about finding spots we share and growing our collective voice and power to bring on changes. We also don't measure our actions in relations to "theirs", we do our thing because we believe it. And to point out, "they've" been interested in inviting us to their actions and I don't know that we've done the same.

NC:
I'm trying to find out a bit more about who all is behind the Jan 6 rally. From what I can tell from social media, the folks and groups rallying behind the action are pretty broad based. If that's the case, I'd be comfortable more with it. But as several people have pointed out, there are some good reasons to be very cautious, in general, about collaborating with ring-wing anti-CC groups. In my view, CtS has far more in common with parents who support CC because they want high standards for their kids but who also oppose HST than right-wingers who oppose CC because they don't want the feds -- Obama in particular -- interfering with their schools. Would love to know how many of these folks opposed HST under Bush's NCLB.
RS:
My fear is that some of those who want to fight the apparatus of ed reform also want to be allowed to have segregated schools, ban books presenting alternative lifestyles----at what point do we say no? I don't think localities should have total control, the federal government needs to control civil rights issues. Girls should be allowed to play football. This is very complicated, but I believe that these wrestlings are part of any growing movement, and I am grateful that this is a growing movement.


A post by Carol Burris on Valerie Strauss' Answer Sheet about the inBloom data dump had this comment:
Jimmy Kilpatrick
Liberals love this. Considering they think the feds have all the answer to all the problems this should solidify their arrogance. Texas has been using the PIEMS for years. I can see how the likes of a Hilter/Obama have gotten into office. Regarding when the public sits the politicos have a field day.
As if Obama is really in charge of all this and not merely the instrument. I get crazed with Obama is called a socialist or Hitler when he is a neo-liberal free marketeer -- see one Affordable Care Act - designed to make sure insurance and drug companies get their cut. (For those of you who think we REALLY wanted single payer, find me one statement from him.)


The Hero Superintendent Debunked

Supt Miles, the dancing queen
Miles’ first year in Dallas was a nasty one. One-quarter of the district’s principals were gone after that year, including some favorites in South Dallas and Oak Cliff, where schools earned high marks from the state. Their departures sparked a fight with black community leaders like Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price, who circulated a letter to pastors accusing Blackburn of taking Miles on a goodwill tour of black churches to sell his reforms. “Pontius Pilate plans to parade through many of your churches with a fake Jesus in tow,” Price wrote. Miles’ communications chief, Jennifer Sprague, left before Christmas, and her replacement came and went after just a few months. Other top officials fled the district, including holdovers from the Hinojosa years and some of Miles’ new recruits.... Texas Observer
With our new Chancellor in place it is worth checking out this article posted on the Ravitch blog focusing on Texas and particularly on Dallas.

Diane's intro:
This is a fascinating article from the Texas Observer that explores the myth of the hero superintendent, the popular delusion that one transformational leader can "save" a school district. The idea was shaped by the Rhee story, the TIME cover I plying that she held the secret to "fixing America's schools," a myth that persists despite the absence of any objective evidence. The focus of the article is the first year of Dallas superintendent Mike Myles, who arrived as a superstar and barely survived an effort to fire him a year later.
The Rhee/Klein/Miles/Brizard/etc nightmare is like watching Ground Hog Day.

I have a particular interest in the Dallas story because Miles replaced 7-year Supt. Michael Hinojosa, whose sister is married to one of my fraternity brothers. They were up here for a wedding of the daughter of another frat brother a few years ago and we heard details of Michael Hinojosa's remarkable educational journey beginning as a Mexican immigrant - in fact the entire family's remarkable success story.

So I began to follow his career a bit. After he left/was pushed out of Dallas and replaced by Miles he became Supt of Cobb County, the 2nd largest school district in Georgia -- and they opted out of common core this past summer (which makes for an interesting story in itself).

I extracted the parts about Hinojosa from the Miles story plus the destructive aspects when the business community takes over school policy. It really makes for interesting reading at:
http://www.texasobserver.org/superintendents-texas-struggling-schools/
Though departures are rarely that dramatic, about 200 Texas districts change superintendents every year. That’s about one in five, and it’s been pretty constant over the years, Joe Smith says. The average tenure for a superintendent is a little more than three years, according to a 2010 survey by the Council on the Great City Schools, a D.C.-based nonprofit. So when Michael Hinojosa left Dallas ISD after seven years as superintendent, it was virtually the end of a dynasty.

Hinojosa had carried Dallas fairly steadily through years when brash school chiefs with dramatic reform plans came and went in other cities. He was a homegrown leader, a graduate of Dallas ISD’s Sunset High School, and during his tenure the district enjoyed modest academic improvement according to test scores and graduation rates. His most remarkable screw-up was  financial: a $64 million budget shortfall in 2008 thanks to an accounting error and possibly hiring too many teachers. Later that year, then-Mayor Tom Leppert floated the idea of a mayoral takeover of the district—a school turnaround strategy that had been in vogue among big American cities—but quietly dropped the idea.

Hinojosa adopted a signature plan for the district called Dallas Achieves, which included the goal of winning the Broad Prize by 2010. When that didn’t happen, Dallas Morning News columnist Bill McKenzie urged the business community and “Democratic reformers” to get involved with Dallas’ schools, particularly to tie teacher pay to student performance. Though Hinojosa had overseen a rise in test scores and graduation rates, McKenzie and other shake-it-up reform advocates had plenty of ammunition against him. In 2011, less than two-thirds of Dallas’ high school graduates took SAT or ACT tests, and just 10 percent of those scored high enough to be called “college ready.” Almost half of Dallas’ students scored below grade level on state math tests.

After Hinojosa announced his departure, the business community took a new interest in the school system, giving tens of thousands to school board candidates who favored shaking things up—a remarkable departure from the election the year before, which was canceled for lack of challengers. Dallas—after seven years with Hinojosa, with schools in poor neighborhoods still struggling and with administrators who’d grown comfortable in their jobs—was finally ready for reform.

Mayor Mike Rawlings, who promised in his campaign to support bold improvement in the schools, told the Morning News, “You already have some momentum for change and have a school board taking reform-minded actions, and the city and business community is supportive of this, and whoever comes in will have a lot of support. For that reason, and if it succeeds, you’re going to be a hero.”
Rawlings, a former Pizza Hut CEO, said he was looking for a new superintendent who could be a “real change agent.  It’s less important to me if they’re a mathematician or a businessperson or a military type. Their background is less important than their leadership ability.”

The business world’s interest in remaking public education is nothing new—calling school leaders “superintendents” became popular a century ago, when factory efficiency experts took a first pass at redesigning public schools.
Nothing like having Pizza Hut deciding on school policy.

If I ever get to meet Michael Hinojosa I would like to ask him why he would want the Broad/Boob prize.

Thursday, January 2, 2014

Jerry Goldfeder: Two Powerful Weapons in De Blasio’s Arsenal to Take On Albany

A revised constitution could upend the city’s subordinate relationship to Albany, ensuring greater self-governance.  ... Jerry Goldfeder

From an old pal, Jerry Goldfeder, one of the leading experts on election law. Jerry lined up with the Quinn campaign - shhhh!

He was once a teacher in the late 60s and part of our early activists group in the early 70s. He and his wife Alice are still part of the eating group we morphed into from those years - the Priscos, etc.

He now is a lawyer for Randi's old firm, Stroock and Levan - and in fact at one time worked for the UFT. 

I used to send out mass emails in the late 90s - and this was when Randi and I were on good terms - Randi once came into the DA and started laughing -- "I see Jerry Goldfeder is on your email list -- we went to law school together." I think I spilled the beans on Jerry's past - but Randi ended up hiring him anyway years later. Read Jerry's bio below and don't smirk when you come to this, "He served as special counsel on public integrity to Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo." That's one job I wouldn't brag about.

In this piece Jerry echoes the frustration over our city being ruled by so many hack politicians operating out of Albany and offers some alternatives.
http://www.cityandstateny.com/two-powerful-weapons-in-de-blasios-arsenal-to-take-on-albany/#.UsVrBOePLdI.email

Written by Jerry Goldfeder on .


Four years from now, when Mayor Bill de Blasio presumably seeks a second term, a central issue will be whether he has achieved his goals. In that much of New York City’s life is regulated by Albany, we can expect the mayor to spend time lobbying the Legislature and governor, who will undoubtedly test the mayor’s considerable powers of persuasion.

Indeed, frustration with the city’s limited home rule authority led a mayoral campaign forty-five years ago to urge secession. That effort in 1969—“Mailer, Breslin and the 51st State”—though dismissed as merely imaginative, had a persuasive rationale.  After all, each of the state’s sixty-two cites must routinely request permission from Albany to enact many laws affecting its residents.
A handbill for the 1969 "51st State" campaign (via Wikipedia).
A handbill for the 1969 “51st State” campaign (via Wikipedia).
This governmental arrangement no longer works. New York City has approximately 50 percent of the state’s population, and it is no exaggeration to say that the city drives much of the national economy. Yet even an emboldened new mayor with a mandate for reform is hampered by the city’s second-class legal status.

If it turns out that Albany is less responsive than desired, Mayor de Blasio has two alternatives. On the very day he is up for reelection in November 2017, voters throughout the state will decide whether there should be a state constitutional convention to overhaul our fundamental laws. A vote on whether to hold a constitutional convention is mandated every twenty years. The new mayor should consider supporting the effort.

A revised constitution could upend the city’s subordinate relationship to Albany, ensuring greater self-governance. On the other hand, a convention could threaten hard-won rights and obligations embedded in the constitution. For that reason, in 1997 a broad coalition of good government groups, unions and business groups opposed it. With the mayor’s support, however, constitutional reform could be guided by a careful hand and take on a progressive hue.

Mayor de Blasio has a second option as well, which has more immediate benefits, and is perhaps politically more palatable. He can appoint a Charter Revision Commission, whose principal mission would be to expand the city’s ability to govern itself. Indeed, over the last twenty-five years, without waiting for Albany, the city relied on Charter revision to reform basic voting laws: fundamental campaign finance reform, liberalized ballot access for candidates and nonpartisan elections for city council vacancies, all in contrast to more restrictive state laws.

The city’s creative use of Charter revision in the area of election reform is useful precedent for the new mayor to implement his agenda without undue reliance upon upstate interests: greater autonomy for economic growth, progressive taxation, affordable housing, and the like. Additional reforms in voting rights can be effected as well, such as early voting, same-day registration, and a robust election enforcement agency. Charter revision is a powerful tool the mayor should embrace.

If the mayor can persuade Albany to adopt his legislative program, fine. If not, he has at least two other options that may enable him to accomplish his goals.

Jerry Goldfeder, special counsel at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP, teaches election law at Fordham Law School and University of Pennsylvania Law School. He served as special counsel on public integrity to Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo.

Katie Lapham's Speech at John King's Common Core Brooklyn Forum

Katie was first on line ahead of the Student First/E4E astroturf crew that dominated the meeting after her, praising the CCSS to the sky. You know I find it funny. From the day I began to teach in 1967 the NY State standards seemed fine. In fact, the problem we had in high poverty area schools was getting anywhere near these standards. NY State had some of the highest standards in the world pre-CCSS. With the logic that raising standards will make for better results why not just make differential calculus the standard in pre-k?

Katie sent this to the MORE CCSS Committee:
Here's a copy of my speech given at John King's Common Core forum in Brooklyn. http://criticalclassrooms.wordpress.com/2013/12/11/testifying-at-john-kings-common-core-forum-in-brooklyn-121013/

It includes links to the sources I used. My goal  - in 2 minutes - was to call into question the legitimacy of the Common Core and to argue that the CCSS aren't the solution to closing the achievement gap. 
Here is the Gotham Schools report of the meeting where people carried signs saying, "Low Expectations." Did they ever take a look at the pre-CCSS NY State standards?

Afterburn
Why can't I walk away from activism in a group like MORE even a dozen years after retirement? Finding smart people like Katie Lapham getting involved and in fact joining the MORE steering committee after a relatively short time with MORE.

I find that anti-Unity people want a group like MORE to do anything it takes to overthrow Unity. Not. We would not want the "new boss, same as the old boss" syndrome. So trying to set up democratic structures from the very beginning is essential. That is fairly easy in a smallish group. If MORE takes off and gathers a gaggle of members with diverging points of view, staying on that track gets tougher. I'm often a glass half full kind of guy so until I see that happen I am not worrying about it.

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

First PUBLIC SCHEDULE FOR CHANCELLOR CARMEN FARIÑA

A new day dawns - for better or for worse.





MEDIA ADVISORY
For Planning Purposes Only
January 1, 2013
DOE_Logo-HiRes-v Farina


PUBLIC SCHEDULE FOR
CHANCELLOR CARMEN FARIÑA


Thursday, January 2, 2014


8:00 A.M.
Arrives at Department of Education Headquarters 

Tweed Courthouse
52 Chambers Street
MANHATTAN
*Photo opportunity only*


1:30 P.M.
Visits M.S. 223 The Laboratory School of Finance and Technology

M.S. 223 The Laboratory School of Finance and Technology
360 East 145 Street
BRONX

###

Contact:  Chancellor’s Press Office (212) 374-5141
 
 

MORE Zooms in on CCSS - and the Union Connection Plus Mercedes Schneider 10 Myths

I find it remarkable the degree to which AFT and Randi Weingarten will go in order to protect and promote CCSS. One of the more telling pieces is a post Weingarten wrote for Huffington Post entitled, Will States Fail the Common Core? As though CCSS is a personality, complete with feelings that will be hurt by states’ betrayal. ... Mercedes Schneider

it has been the teacher unions -- from the Shanker years on -- that have initiated and pushed for standards and a common curriculum around the nation before the business corporations took it up. This was an issue that forged a relationship between Shanker/AFT/UFT and the Business Roundtable in the 80s. Shanker was the lead, not the follow... Ed Notes

At the MORE retreat Monday we decided to move ahead with a committee we formed to address the common core issue in depth. (This committee is open by the way to anyone out there who is interested in working with us.) Taking the lead on the committee is Katie Lapham who blogs at Critical Classrooms, Critical Kids. Katie is joining  9 others and me on the 2nd edition of the MORE steering committee - which has a 6 month term in office, unlike the UFT/Unity Caucus which has a 60 year term in office - and counting.

We are gathering resources to explore the issue. This will cover some wide ground but my focus, as it often is, deals with the UFT/AFT involvement. The other day I had a discussion with a MOREista who viewed the union support as "jumping on the coat tails" of a corporate inspired movement designed to make profits and sort children as prep for the future job market -- mostly low-paying jobs. Or that the unions were doing it for the Gates money.

I disagreed and put forth the idea that it has been the teacher unions -- from the Shanker years on -- that have initiated and pushed for standards and a common curriculum around the nation before the business corporations took it up. This was an issue that forged a relationship between Shanker/AFT/UFT and the Business Roundtable in the 80s. Shanker was the lead, not the follow.

The UFT/AFT leadership has been ideologically committed to common core concepts for 40 years and those who think all you need is to logically explain to the leaders why they might be wrong are getting lost in the woods. The internal battle we face is over the leadership ideology, which also appeals naturally to many teachers -- often until they come smack up against the reality. (I will go back to the Kahlenberg Shanker bio for a follow-up providing specific examples).

But the leadership deals with it this way: "CCSS good, Rollout/implementation bad."

What needs to happen is take this on head on. Mercedes Schneider's impressive piece of work AFT’s 10 Myths: Unyielding Devotion to the Common Core.

Mercedes ends with this news:
Note: Randi Weingarten and I are to be members of the CCSS panel scheduled for Sunday, March 2, 2014, as part of the Network for Public Education conference in Austin, Texas, (March 1 and 2).
Anthony Cody will also be part of the CCSS panel, as will Paul Horton and Ethan Young.
Come hear us.

Darn - I can't go and would have loved to see Mercedes and Randi go at it.

I am reproducing her piece in full below -- here is the link.
http://deutsch29.wordpress.com/2013/12/31/afts-10-myths-unyielding-devotion-to-the-common-core/

AFT’s 10 Myths: Unyielding Devotion to the Common Core

Video - Union leadership connections: To the Words of "Backstabbers"

Let's get the New Year off to a rousing start. his has been floating around since May - but I don't think I shared it yet.
The video was produced by a parent activist opposed to high stakes testing named Sara Wottawa who had a piece published on Diane Ravitch's blog.
Published on May 19, 2013
This Video has been made to bring awareness to teachers that their union has sold them out.

Many parents including myself are very upset by the way our teachers are being demoralized and scrutinized. This video is calling out the presidents of the teachers union. Union presidents we urge you to start supporting your teachers again and stop making deals and accepting funds from corporations who ave intent to destroy public education.

Once again this video is not attacking teachers its attacking their union presidents who are failing to support and speak up for their members!

http://youtu.be/FwA04N2HsPw




As a follow-up, read this from Lois Weiner:

Duking it out with Weingarten on Common Core


Lois Weiner December 25, 2013
            ImageOne of the most confusing aspects of the last decade’s education reforms is that a reform that will do great harm often contains an element that’s useful, even progressive.  The reforms are crafted to seduce liberals with this combination of a carrot and grand rhetoric about the intention of increasing educational opportunity.  Testing was sold to liberals as a way to hold schools accountable.  Now a national curriculum, the Common Core, is being peddled as essential to give all students the rigorous education (they love that word “rigorous”) they need to compete in a global economy in the 21st century.
            We should have learned by now that we can't be seduced by the carrots or the rhetoric.  Yet, here goes Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers, doing exactly that.  Weingarten is being battered on social media for allying with the Business Roundtable to urge acceptance of the Common Core, which is opposed by activist teachers and parents on the Left as well as by elements of the far-right, in particular the Heritage Foundation.
            The Washington Post article practically chortled about Weingarten's jump into bed with the union's foes: “The head of the country’s second-largest teachers union and a business leader who tried to weaken unions as a onetime governor of Michigan have made a joint plea to the nation’s governors to stand by the controversial Common Core academic standards.” 
            Weingarten has endorsed the Common Core in her capacity as union president, speaking on behalf  ofAFT members without this issue having been given the vigorous debate and vote it needs. She has no right to do that and should be called on it.  In allying the union with the forces who aim to destroy public education and teachers unions, she is strengthening them and weakening us.  She is betraying the union’s democratic ideals - and no, the poll the AFT has commissioned cannot substitute for debate and votes, at the local level. Support for the Common Core is disorienting activists, teachers and parents alike, many of whom who are still not totally convinced the union is a trustworthy ally.
            At the same time, we need to acknowledge that union honchos/honchas can get away with this kind of behavior because members allow it.  We have to acknowledge that many union members, though angry, are frightened and passive. They’re waiting for “the union” to protect them. If every member of the AFT Executive Council told Weingarten they would resign unless she pulled back on the Common Core and repudiated linking teacher evaluations to students’ standardized test scores, she would retract her positions.  But AFT Executive Committee members, who are presidents of key locals, don’t do that.  They too are frightened and are used to being told what’s possible for the union to do.
            The AFT and NEA will be as democratic and militant in defense of public education, the profession of teaching, and our students as we make it.  By all means,  duel with Weingarten on twitter for her perfidy. But don’t let this replace organizing in the schools, talking with colleagues about what we can do, together, to make our unions live up to their responsibility.