Randi's Rubber Room Letter to Elected Officials

See Jan. 28 post on Rubber Room for full background.
I know these are hard to read. Email me if you want a pdf (which I will post later on Google docs.)

Victory at PS 84K: Tweed Backs Down

THANK YOU!

Please share with all of the people with whom you shared the earlier email to thank them. The support of the people on your e-mailing list was overwhelming, and the DOE officials acknowledged that “their phone was ringing of the hook all day.” They called it off. I had forgotten how many good friends I had. And, thanks for those, like Luis Reyes, who immediately defended the integrity of the movement when someone questioned it – as well as Mickey, Luis Garden, Angelo Falcon and Lillian.

-Jaime Estades

We just had a meeting with James Quail, Superintendent of District 14, John White, Chief Operating Officer of the DOE’s Office of New Schools and Portfolio Development, and Olivia Ellis, Director of School Support for DOE’s Office of Parent Engagement. John White began the meeting by stating that “there is not going to be a new school sited within P.S. 84 next year.” He went on to state that this decision does not mean that the Department of Education is giving up its belief that parents need to have more educational options within District 14, but that it is clear that there is not community support for placing the proposed elementary school within the existing PS84 elementary school’s building.

When White stated that he understood that PS 84 wanted “to protect the space within the school,” he was told by the parents that “we are not trying to protect the space, we are trying to protect our children.” He promised that there will be no new school sited within PS84 within 2008-09, but he would not promise that there would not be a separate program or school in 2009-10. We consider this a temporary victory. Olivia Ellis stated that because PS 84 is such a unique situation, with issues such as gentrification, such a proposal cannot be viable at this point, while alluding to Superintendent Quail’s agreement with the “gentrifiers”.

After being promised that there will be no school within PS 84, the PTA decided to declare a victory in halting any plans of a new school as planned by the “gentrifiers” and the Klein administration for the academic year 2008-09, taking into consideration that there will be a new mayoral administration which hopefully will be more sensitive to the educational needs of minority students not only in Williamsburg, but in New York City as a whole. The PTA emphatically requested that Superintendent Quail and Mr. White come to the school or provide a written apology to all of the parents of PS 84, particularly the 350 parents who met with Quail on January 24 when he described to them the plan for a new elementary school within PS 84. White and Quail refused to apologize.

The parents communicated to Olivia Ellis that an apology must come from the Department of Education to all the parents of PS 84, particularly to the more than 350 concerned parents who attended the meeting last Thursday and heard Quail describe a the plan to displace the children of PS 84.

THANK YOU AGAIN FOR YOUR SUPPORT! We received phone calls from CNN, Daily News, ABC, Post and others that I could not get because my battery wore out while I was in Albany today. There were many groups and organizations which knew about the issue and wanted to join us for the Press Conference on Wednesday. We are calling off the press conference based on tonight's agreement, and instead will have a celebration and full report to the parents next week.

Thanks again,

Jaime Estades

See ednotes' previous posting on PS 84 here.

Fed Judge Calls Emergency Hearing on Rubber Room Suit

Updated Monday, Jan. 28, 9 AM

• When? Monday.
• RR group, Teachers4Action, growing by leaps and bounds.
• Randi and UFT not supporting teachers. Writes letter to elected officials disavowing suit.
• Randi is sent "cease and desist" letter by lawyer who accuses her of attempting to undermine RR teachers.
• Details to follow as they come in. I'll put a direct link to this posting on the upper right corner of the blog, so check back.

That the UFT will oppose any independent action on the part of teachers is a given. Unless they can coopt it like they did the rally at the PEP in November. Remember the mantra: The "job" of the UFT leadership is to control the members and dampen any militancy that might arise in the rank and file.

I believe both the DOE and the UFT are working together to eliminate the rubber room, not for good reasons, but to find a way to keep people away from each other so such militancy won't occur again. The key was the favorable mainstream press some of the outrageous cases were getting, which embarrasses both Tweed and the UFT.

Who knows? Maybe there is enough anger to cause a lot more people than have come in the past to stand outside the Delegate Assembly on Feb. 6 and tell people what is going on.

Tonight, another group, TAGNYC, will be at the PEP at Tweed to give Klein a lecture.

Check out Chaz's School Daze for his Jan. 21 report.

UPDATE: I only have pdf's and jpegs of Randi's Jan. 16 letter to elected officials. I am working to get them clear enough to read and will post them below Fagan's letter later today. Fagan nails a bunch of stuff in this excerpt:

teachers were forced to take action because, in part of the UFT’s failings to do its job to protect teachers. Unfortunately, you did not see fit to provide a copy of your response to my clients and instead circulated your proposals in a typical political maneuver.

Via Fax # 23 January 2008
Randi Weingarten, President
United Federation of Teachers
52 Broadway
New York, NY 10004

Re: Teachers4Action et al v. Bloomberg et al 08-cv-0548 (VM)

Dear Ms. Weingarten,

I represent Teachers4Action in the above referenced matter. We have just received a copy of the letter you circulated to elected officials on Jan.16, 2008 in response to my clients’ Jan. 15, 2008 letter to Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Chancellor Joel Klein.

My clients’ Jan. 15th letter was faxed to you to inform you of our/their demands and actions. My client’s letter was sent so that you would realize the seriousness of the problems that exist, the immediate, irreparable and ongoing damages that the teachers are suffering and the fact that the teachers were forced to take action because, in part of the UFT’s failings to do its job to protect teachers. Unfortunately, you did not see fit to provide a copy of your response to my clients and instead circulated your proposals in a typical political maneuver. Your Jan. 16th letter illustrates (i) the failures of the UFT to address these problems and (ii) the UFT’s knowledge and failure to take action related to the ongoing damages which Teachers4Action members suffer because of the "Rubber Room“ practices. Your Jan. 16th letter also underscores the need for the above referenced complaint filed by Teachers4Action.

My clients and I consider your Jan. 16th letter as an attempt to undermine their efforts to protect their rights. Your Jan. 16th letter gives the impression that you have labored long and hard to find a solution for my clients and the other teachers and DOE staff who have been, or continue to be, caught up in the mayor’s and the DOE’s scheme to reduce salaries by getting rid of senior teachers. However, the truth is that my clients and Teachers4Action members were forced to take action because you and the UFT failed them and violated your obligations to them.

My clients demand that you and the UFT advise us immediately that you will (i) cooperate with and support Teachers4Action members individual rights to protect themselves and prosecute these claims; (ii) stop interfering with/undermining legitimate efforts of teachers who are UFT members to protect their own rights and interests; (iii) stop misrepresenting what actions the UFT has and has not taken related to teachers in “Rubber Rooms”; (iv) cease and desist interfering in Teachers4Action’s efforts to protect themselves and their members; and (v) immediately produce any and all UFT correspondence, letters, emails, faxes, computer stored records and other documents related to “Rubber Rooms” dating back to 1999.

We look forward to receipt of your direct, full and prompt response to this letter.

Sincerely,


Edward D. Fagan

PTA of PS 84K Protest on Wed at noon- I spent 5 years at this school and this is beyond outrage

P.T.A. of P.S. 84, The José de Diego School
A Magnet School for the Visual Arts
250 Berry Street, Brooklyn, NY 11211

MEDIA ADVISORY FOR JANUARY 30 at 12 PM:

Contact: Jaime Estades 347.446.5786

CHANCELLOR KLEIN JOINS GENTRIFICATION PROCESS
IN WILLIAMSBURG IN A SECRET ‘SEPARATE BUT EQUAL’ POLICY

At the January 24, 2008 meeting of the PTA of P.S. 84, more than 350 incredulous parents and teachers heard District 14 Superintendent Quail confirm that the Department of Education plans to place a separate elementary school within the building of P.S. 84, an existing elementary school serving minority children within the same grades as the proposed school. Quail stated that the new school is in response to the demands of a group of overwhelmingly white parents who have recently moved into the Williamsburg community and who have demanded their own school to provide them with additional “options and choices” -- by eliminating the “options and choices” of the predominantly Latino and African American children of P.S. 84.

This is a clearly discriminatory decision with no policy or social justification, and in which P.S. 84’s school administration and families were not consulted or notified. P.S. 84 children will be over-crowded in fewer classrooms, teachers will lose their jobs, the school will lose many enriching educational programs, students will have less access to its computer lab and other resources and the children will suffer the effects of negative stigma as a result of this segregation which will send our City back 120 years! P.S. 84 welcomes the integration of newcomers’ children into our school, without the creation of a separate school. This plan endangers our children’s education, safety and self esteem!

WHO: PTA and Community of P.S. 84

WHAT: Press Conference to Protect the Children of P.S. 84

WHEN: Wednesday, January 30, 2008 (12:00 P.M.)

WHERE: 250 Berry Street (corner of South 1st Street) Brooklyn

I watched the neighborhood gentrify but PS 84 is still mostly an Hispanic school with some special ed classes. Over time we expected that some new parents would start sending their kids to the school but this sounds like pure segregation.

Reminds me of the time a Hasidim group of kids were put into PS 16 (not that far away on Bedford) about 30 years ago and the Superintendent ordered a wall to be built to keep the 2 populations from coming into contact with each other. It led to a boycott of some kind by the Hispanic community and the wall was taken down.

I will try to be at PS 84 on Wed. maybe with a video camera. If anyone wants to come, take the L to Bedford Ave. Walk north a few blocks to Grand St. trying to avoid becoming overly hip as this is the epicenter of hipsterdom in The Burg. Go left for one block to Grand and Berry. School is on the corner. Walk one block on Berry to South 1st.

WOW!

That's all I can say about Saturday's FIRST LEGO League tournament at Riverbank State park in Manhattan. About a 1000 teachers, administrators, kids and parents as active participants and high school and college students joined by people from the business/corporate world as volunteers and contributers, plus around another 1000 there to support them and cheer them on. We were on the edge of capacity and victims of our own success. We are already talking about next year.

This blog can get pretty negative about what's going on in the NYC school system but working on these projects and being with so many people active in a positive way is a great counterweight. We even had cooperation in getting the word out from the DOE publicity department. Due to their efforts, look for a profile of a team in the NY Times this week.

Everybody is in a good frame of mind at FLL events and here I schmooze with the principal of Bronx Latin HS, which won 4th place overall.

Hōs successus alit; possunt, quia posse videntur.
('Success nourishes them; they can because they think they can.')

Photo by Gary Israel

Schmidt on Obama and Education

Hello Everyone,

Given Barack Obama's stated enthusiasm for merit pay, I thought there might be things we needed to know about his relationship to renaissance 2010 in Chicago. Therefore, I e-mailed George Schmidt, since he would be in a position to know. Below is his response.

Best,
Michael Fiorillo

Subject: Re: Obama/Renaissance2010

1/26/08

Here are the facts:

1. The election of Barack Obama to the U.S. Senate was a blow against white supremacy and all of us should cheer. The election of Barack Obama to the U.S. Presidency would be the same, on the world scale. I don't think we can overestimate its importance. The man is qualified – or more qualified - than about half the politicians who have been elected to that office during the past 140 years, and certainly better by far than any of the last four Republicans. (My family always told me to consider Dwight Eisenhower in a different way, since both my parents served in World War II).

Having struggled against white supremacy, racism, and racial segregation all my adult life, I'm in wonderment about how this is developing.

However:

2. There has been no difference between Barack Obama and Mayor Richard M. Daley on any of the corporate "school reform" plans foisted on Chicago since Daley pioneered the "mayor control" dictatorial model of school governance (thanks to a vote of a Republican dominated Illinois General Assembly, a la the Gingrich Congress) in 1995.

3. Despite the fact that many community leaders and even some public
officials have challenged Mayor Daley on "Renaissance 2010" -- especially the wholesale relocation of children as schools were closed and often flipped for charter school use, Barack Obama was not public with any criticism of "Renaissance 2010." In fact, his positions are indistinguishable from Mayor Daley's or those of his Hyde Park neighbors and the people pushing privatization, charterization, and corporate "school reform" out of the University of Chicago and elsewhere in corporate Chicago. Rumor locally has been that Barack Obama has included Arne Duncan [the Joel Klein of Chicago] and others of that ilk in his informal educational brain trust.

Needless to say, he has no interest in hearing from critics of "Renaissance 2010" or from those of us who maintain that No Child Left Behind has to be abolished.

4. Barack Obama has close ties with a large number of corporate types who are happy with the Daley dictatorship. Most important of these is John Rodgers of Ariel Capital Management, which has placed Arne Duncan and one member of our seven member Board of Education at the "top" of the school system, despite the fact that Duncan had absolutely no experience, training, knowledge or credentials to head up a public school system. Obama's allies, in fact, were partly responsible for Duncan's quick rise to the top of the executive heap.

Ideologically, he seems to share the economic philosophy of the majority of his colleagues at the University of Chicago Law School -- and that is, ultimately, a very reactionary conservatism.

We may go further than this for Substance as we discuss our positions.

5. On the many occasions when I met Barack Obama while I was working for the Chicago Teachers Union, I found him amazingly charming, intelligent, and all of the other things that have brought him this far. He was a superior candidate for the Illinois Senate and for the U.S. Senate from Illinois. He was also, and always, a Chicago politicians, with all the deals that entails.

In those days during the early 2000s -- prior to Renaissance 2010 and prior to his election to the U.S. Senate, Barack Obama was a regular at Chicago Teachers Union events. He even came to the union offices to thank us all after he was elected to the U.S. Senate and prior to his national debut with that speech at the Democratic Convention. I have shaken his hand more times than I have shaken the hand of any politician, ever, and find him immensely likable.

We also have dozens of photographs of Barack Obama at various Democratic Party and union functions. As we've reported, one of the reasons Barack Obama is where he is today is that the leaders of the Chicago Teachers Union in 2003 broke with the labor unions, via the Illinois Federation of Teachers, and endorsed Obama for the U.S. Senate nomination over Dan Hynes, a regular organization guy.

I personally had heated arguments about this with "regular" Democratic Party types (many of them friends) in the CTU during those months, and always countered the opposition to Obama with something like "Will you listen to the guy for a minute..."

6. I oppose Barack Obama's plans for health insurance, which in my opinion will continue the ruin of the American health care system that's developed since the "market" took over and greed ruled over the hypocratic oath. If "Sicko" were made today, there could be a very interesting piece devoted to an interview with Barack Obama.

7. I'm disappointed that his education policies will be in the same
neo-liberal vein, and I don't expect much from him on No Child Left Behind. Our position is that it must be abolished.

8. On February 6, in the Democratic Party Primary here, I will be voting for John Edwards or Dennis Kucinich. With rare exceptions, for the past 40 years I have voted as a Democrat, although sometimes holding my nose. Were there a viable socialist party contending for power in U.S. elections, I'd probably investigate that option deeply.

While I will doubtless vote for the candidate of the party who is running against the Republicans, it will be with a heavy heart, since I think the Presidential election will prove an even bigger disappointment than the Congressional election of November 2006. I worked the streets and all day election day in the Sixth Illinois Congressional District on that transformation on November 6, 2006, and we were not working for a compromise on the war in Irag. As you know if you read Substance closely, we covered the Obama speech against the Iraq war in Substance, both then and since. Most recently, we reprinted the actual text of that speech in Substance.

My one regret about that event is that we didn't take photographs of the speakers, foremost (now) among whom was Barack Obama.

However...

Even in as strong a Republican district as the Sixth Illinois (where Henry Hyde had vacated his seat after decades of reactionary leadership in the U.S. House), the people we were dealing with were focused on many issues, most notably the war. Although our candidate (Tammy Duckworth, a disabled Afghan War vet) lost narrowly to the Republican, the intent of the voters was clear, and it was not to continue to compromise with Bush.

You may share this widely and freely with colleagues, comrades, friends, and anyone else who is asking about Obama's education stands.

Anyone who stands with Richard M. Daley is an enemy of public schools and public employee unions.

Solidarity,

George N. Schmidt
Editor, Substance

They'll be Gone Soon

In out post on City Sue's "coming out of the closet" (and make sure to read our updated version below) she uses the "BloomKlein will be gone" argument. The UFT has used the "they'll be out of office" excuse forever starting with Koch. Remember how they had a campaign of following Giuliani around? We know the UFT has enabled Bloomberg and to now argue they'll be gone as a way to try to give the impression all will be well is part of their usual tactics of obfuscation and misdirection.

I got an email recently from someone who has been somewhat screwed by the union but who wanted me to publish something with the following caveat because of my association with ICE.

"I'm uncomfortable about the factionalism in our union. I believe the city and the UFT leadership use the "divide and conquer" strategy successfully to keep us weak. Let's stay united!"

I'm not sure he is clear about who has to stay united when the leadership is part of the problem. This is the line Unity/New Action when we are called traitors to the union.

I responded:

It is the union leadership that is aligned with BloomKlein against us but tries to make it seem they are on our side.

As long as your "let's stay united" includes Unity Caucus in the definition, there will be manipulation on this basis to defanging militancy. To me "staying united" means the people who feel there will never be changes until an alternative to Unity springs up.

I blame the union more than BloomKlein for what has happened because they have undermined any kind of adequate response.

So my political message is to constantly point to these things they do which contradicts what they say for the consumption of the members.

The UFT has many high priced consultants like Hillary's Howard Wolfson who advise the union on how to manage the membership. And for those who think Randi and co. are incompetent, when it comes to this they are extremely competent. But then again, that is what they devote most of their time and attention to.

Sometimes that does result in service and the union functioning like a union is supposed to. But that is only when forced and to some extent a corollary effect of trying to put out the fires of militancy when they arise.

graphic by DB

No Child Left Behind - Football Version

I posted an excellent commentary from Ed Week on testing and NCLB at Norm's Notes. It is called NCLB: Tests' Insensitivity: Time Bomb Ticketh. Check it out.

Here's one of the little nclb ditties going around. Some poor use of words in some of this - number 3 in particular - but the idea is a variation of many others out there.

1. All teams must make the state playoffs and all MUST win the championship. If a team does not win the championship, they will be on probation until they are the champions, and coaches will be held accountable. If after two years they have not won the championship their footballs and equipment will be taken away UNTIL they do win the championship.

2. All kids will be expected to have the same football skills at the same time, even if they do not have the same conditions or opportunities to practice on their own. NO exceptions will be made for lack of interest in football, a desire to perform athletically, or genetic abilities or disabilities of themselves or their parents. ALL KIDS WILL PLAY FOOTBALL AT A PROFICIENT LEVEL!

3. Talented players will be asked to workout on their own, without instruction. This is because the coaches will be using all their instructional time with the athletes who aren't interested in football, have limited athletic ability or whose parents don't like football.

Games will be played year round, but statistics will only be kept in the 4th, 8th, and 11th game. This will create a New Age of Sports where every school is expected to have the same level of talent and all teams will reach the same minimum goals. If no child gets ahead, then no child gets left behind!

If parents do not like this new law, they are encouraged to vote for vouchers and support private schools that can screen out the non-athletes and prevent their children from having to go to school with bad football players.

UFT Delegate Assembly Run Like 3 Card Monte Hustle

Guest Column by

Mary Theresa Lynn, Delegate from Newcomers High School

The January 16 Delegates' Assembly compels me to write to you:

Who wouldn't agree that the city's current mandatory testing policy is a nightmare? At the January 16 Assembly, The UFT Resolution on Assessment-Related Paperwork and Data Collection seemed like a good idea--until I closely examined the wording of the first WHEREAS (emphasis mine):

"WHEREAS, the data generated by these tests and assessments can be useful to teachers as a tool to enhance teaching and learning, the collection, collation and interpretation of this data can be time consuming and require specific skills, technology and resources often not available to teachers...."

Unless we agree that "test-prep" is now synonymous with "learning," which is just what the highlighted section of the resolution implies, we should find this clause in the resolution most disturbing. These tests are not reliable and the data generated by them is not useful to teachers and certainly not conducive to learning. In fact, these tests have had a disastrous effect on both teaching and learning.

I immediately raised my card to call for a friendly amendment to the resolution to omit the offensive clause. However, Randi seemed determined not to see me. In fact, she deliberately filibustered until my raised arm went numb. When I took my arm down to switch my card to the other hand, one of her minions called the resolution to a vote, even though at least two of us still wanted to voice our opposition and were still waving our cards frantically. A staffer who had seen me with my hand up from the start and had even approached me to politely wait for her to finish her rant stood nearby, but as I yelled, "Point of order," I was drowned out by Randi's, "Let's call the question. All in favor raise your cards" and the amens of others who were eager to move on after her filibuster. I was artfully--but very intentionally--ignored. She dodged my objections and steamrolled on.

My biggest concern on this one is that we will be "hung by our own words" somewhere down the line. Basically, the wording of the resolution that passed gives credence to the DOE's tests as "tools to enhance teaching and learning." What a public relations fiasco for us if proponents of high-stakes testing get their hands on the UFT's own words! How could the UFT validate these tests when we know the disastrous effect all of this test-prep has on teaching and learning?

Randi seemed like she was in an awful rush to call this one to question--she even started the meeting on time for a change, no doubt to leave room for Hilary's "surprise" call--which means she was well aware of the wording, and eager for others not to notice it. As a first-year delegate, I was surprised that there was so little vocal opposition to the wording of this resolution. And obviously, I was disappointed that the "Artful Dodger" had, once again, dodged her opponents. Her tactics at these meetings are becoming increasingly deplorable. Sometimes I feel like I'm being hustled in Three Card Monty.

Klein Meets the Press

I covered Joel Klein's press briefing for The Wave yesterday.

The press briefing was all about the Principal Satisfaction survey and how much principals love what BloomKlein are doing so questions were limited to that.

I did find one area where 55% said they were dissatisfied with the amount of technology in their schools - as a tech person I've heard from my former colleagues that since Klein took over the state of computers has been a disaster in many schools and I tied the question to how can he expect teachers to check results of tests online during a limited school day when there's is such poor computer access and doesn't this mean they have to do it at home?

He responded that my info was based on urban legends. My next question would have been "Will you do a similar survey on teacher satisfaction." But wouldn't call on me again.

Klein claimed the Principal surveys were anon but one reporter told me they must be able to trace them - so even some of them are skeptical. In addition, every contact I have who talk to principals and even those above them - say they are very dissatisfied with the BloomKlein changes - other than those corporate types they've brought in.

I got an email from someone who reads my Wave columns and urged me to keep up the good work. Turns out that person actually works in some high position. There's unhappiness in the belly of the beast.

On a social note, our old friend Redhog was at the press briefing for the NY Teacher.

UFT's City Sue Outs Herself on Edwize

UPDATED

UFT top level blogger City Sue put out a remarkable statement on Edwize "explaining" how and why the UFT knew about the "secret" DOE teacher rating plan focused on test scores. We'll have fun parsing this one later tonight in an update. But here is a first response from a correspondent on ICE-mail:

They are so worried that she had to "out" herself. Her post is truly unbelievable and pathetic -- we could put her own statement out as a leaflet to their own incompetence. They "promised it wasn't going to be used to evaluate teachers" to get the UFT on Board and to keep it secret and then the UFT figured out later on that this really wasn't the truth. Oh my god!

Off to a Joel Klein press briefing for more truly unbelievable stuff.

Update: There's be an update on the press briefing to follow later.

Back to City Sue who reveals she is the UFT's Director of Policy Research. She can no longer try to pose as a teacher/blogger. I think I remember City Sue once saying something about the advantages in being an ATR when she was defending one of the recent contracts.

What exactly does a Director of Policy Research do? Almost sounds like one of the DOE's bullshit positions. The UFT needs a Director of ATR Research.

There's much defensiveness and obfuscation in City Sue's piece:

The UFT had been invited to join the panel only after President Weingarten had angrily refused to endorse the project last summer and had won a concession that results would not be used to evaluate any UFT member.

Translation: Only due to our fearless leader who so intimidated Klein who clearly has proven he will do nothing without the endorsement of the UFT.

At that time, the union’s opposition to the relentless focus on high-stakes tests was the main reason for its objections to the experiment.

Translation: We showed out "opposition" by accepting a merit pay plan based on high stakes testing.

Initially, I was pleased to join the panel. I’d been reading so much about the controversy swirling around the usefulness of value-added (VA) analysis in developing fair and objective ways to evaluate teacher performance. For myself, I can’t remember ever having received an observation report that was truly helpful or thoughtful, and I’d received some that made it clear that the AP was reading his mail throughout my lesson. Maybe, I thought, VA would be an improvement. Hope springs eternal.

Translation: Has City Sue noticed the BloomKlein onslaught, fudging of stats and downright dishonesty in just about everything they've done. Hope springs eternal only if she's been living in a bubble, which is where Directors of Policy Research obviously live.

I am probably on this panel — indeed the panel itself was probably created — for one reason only — so the DOE can say that the UFT “participated” in the project, as they have done for the last couple of days.

Ahhhh! I see. The panel was created to entrap the UFT.

In today's emailbag was this:

I'm just amazed that they're surprised. Can't they predict the behavior of this administration yet? It's so transparent. What are they, a bunch of fucking morons?

What's Up With Teachers in Puerto Rico?

I wasn't in a position to follow this story on my trip to Puerto Rico last week - the usual reasons - beaching, little ability to understand Spanish (or practically any language including English), etc. to follow updates to this story about PR teachers union battles, which I first heard about when they disaffiliated from the AFT a few years ago. If anyone has more info, send it along. Might be a fun project for Randi when whe goes to the AFT. In the meantime, jump right in at Norm's Notes.

Meet the new boss, Same as the old boss...

...or why I have disdain for most politicians

It looks like NY Gov, Elliot Spitzer, who I did not vote for (I ignore the screeching charges of being a lousy citizen for not voting for what seems to be the better of poor choices), has made a deal with Sheldon Silver, who rules the NY State Assembly, one of the most corrupt political bodies in the world. (And so many are friends of our UFT, which I bet will be in favor of the deal.)

With a looming $4.4 billion deficit, the state legislators, who are the 3rd highest paid in the US, could possibly get a 21% raise if Silver gets his way. But, hey, there are only 212 of them, so it ought to be a drop in the bucket. The NY Times article says, "Mr. Spitzer’s move underscores the degree to which the once reform-focused governor is taking a more accommodating approach this year after spending much of last year mired in controversy."

I recently wrote about the Spitzer/Mark Green deal to transfer money between their families to circumvent campaign finance laws.

And that's right after Spitzer cut back on educational promises. (See Leonie Haimson's "Four things to hate about Spitzer's education proposal" on the NYC Education News listserve.)

The actions of politicians always leads me back to these words from those political geniuses, The WHO:

Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss

We might as well do the entire lyric which all of you should recite as you read the daily comings and goings of our candidates. (Make sure to include the screams. It will make you feel better.)

We'll be fighting in the streets
With our children at our feet
And the morals that they worship will be gone
And the men who spurred us on
Sit in judgement of all wrong
They decide and the shotgun sings the song

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around me
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again

The change, it had to come
We knew it all along
We were liberated from the foe, that' all
And the world looks just the same
And history ain't changed
'Cause the banners, they all flown in the last war

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around me
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
No, no!

I'll move myself and my family aside
If we happen to be left half alive
I'll get all my papers and smile at the sky
For I know that the hypnotized never lie

Do ya?
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

There's nothing in the street
Looks any different to me
And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye
And the parting on the left
Is now the parting on the right
And the beards have all grown longer overnight

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around me
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
Don't get fooled again
No, no!

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss

What Did Randi Know and When Did She Know It?

The shot that was heard around the NYC teaching corps was fired on Martin Luther King Day as teachers awoke to a front page article in the NY Times announcing that a secret program was in effect to evaluate teachers based on test scores.

Rather than argue the case against, we want to focus on the role, or lack of role the UFT has played.

With every passing day more and more teachers see that the UFT is not on their side but acts as an intermediary for the powers that be. In essence, they represent the interests of people like Bloomberg and Klein to the members, using obfuscation and confusion to give the members the impression they are on your side.

If you're asking why they function this way, we would have to delve into the history of the labor movement and the role union leaders have played to control the militancy of the members - militancy that could threaten their own power.

Randi Weingarten has known about the program for months but kept quiet about it - she claims she did not know the specific schools which we all know would have been easy for them to find out and warn the teachers. And even if they couldn't find out, a public exposure at the time would have allowed teachers in all schools to confront their principals and ask point blank if they were part of the program. That would have forced them to tell them or basically lie to their faces. At the very least the UFT could have thrown a monkey wrench into the DOE plans but chose the sounds of silence.

Therefore, view Randi Weingarten's words of outrage - I guess she wasn't all too outraged all these months - and promise to fight the plan as the usual empty words designed to obfuscate the issue and confuse the members.


Marjorie Stamberg has written a strong piece posted at the ICE blog:

DOE's Secret Plan for Merit Pay...Without the Pay!

Here are a few choice excerpts related to the UFT's role in all this:

Naturally they had to do it in secret.

The Times revealed that that the DOE has a program in which 2,500 teacher in 140 schools across the city are being evaluated on the basis of their students' test scores.

Did you know about this? Of course not. Because they've kept it under wraps. Now Randi has a statement out (on the UFT website), calling the secret program misguided and claiming it is in contradiction with the "commitment...to collaboration and working together.. in the School Wide Bonus Program." No, there's no contradiction--this is all part of the same program and the UFT leadership has acted as enablers.

The Times said that Randi Weingarten and the UFT knew about this secret program for months and said nothing to the teachers! In a quote, Randi said she could not reveal it because she was told "confidentially" by the DOE and did not know which specific schools were involved. She said she "had grave reservations about the project and would fight if the city tried to use the information for tenure or formal evaluations or even publicized it." (So now it's public--I wonder what she's going to do?)

But we should all ask our UFT reps what they knew about this secret plan and when they knew it.

As members of the UFT executive board, and as district UFT reps, were they informed about the existence of this program before today? Did they know about it when they were asking us to be part of this agenda? Or did Randi keep it from them as well?

I urge you to read the entire Stamberg piece.

Some of the best commentary is over at NYC Educator where his cohort Reality Based Educator did a piece yesterday - and make sure to read the comments.

ICE mail also had quite a bit of discussion and I'll put some of that up in a future post.

One of the themes of the Times piece is the usual "teacher quality is the most important determiner claptrap. Of course, Weingarten and her political cohorts the Clintons say this all the time, which puts the blame for failure clearly on the teacher. So I don't believe the UFT is against this plan philosophically.

But you know my view of Randi and the rest of the Unity Caucus crew is that they are 5th column collaborators, or, Vichyists, if you will.

Michael Fiorillo echos some of these thoughts in a post to ICE-mail:

Apparently, the UFT fundamentally seems to agree with them: rhetoric made for public consumption aside, they clearly support the "testing as achievement" regime, as confirmed by their support of a merit pay plan that enshrines testing, use of management-framed data in making tenure decisions, passivity regarding testing mandates stemming from NCLB, testing used in rating and school-closing decisions, etc.

This is what a "bi-partisan," "post-ideological" political landscape looks like: corporate self-interest and stealth privatization masquerading as "reform," and ambitious union misleaders helping them manage the transition.

Giuliani Horrors Revisited in NY Times

Today's front page of the NY Times is a must read to remind everyone of the mean-spirited "politics of retaliation" of the Giuliani years as mayor. And it doesn't even mention the day care center forced out because a local City Councilman who backed it made some critical comments. Or how the entire "Neponsit Home for the Aged" in Rockaway was condemned on a moment's notice and the entire population terrorized as they were removed in a middle of the night raid. Supposedly because some real estate interests connected to Giuliani were interested in the prime beach front property. The place still remains shut down today.

No matter what you think of the Bush years in the White House, they will pale in comparison with the loss of democracy that would take place under Giuliani. Expect an immediate attempt to cancel the Bill of Rights.

What is notable is the use of the entire city force at the Mayor's disposal to go after even the mildest critics and the absolute and devastating fear Giuliani inspired in everyone around him.

Now, fear also exists in relation to Michael Bloomberg who also practices a less obvious politics of fear. That's only because he has the advantage of money and makes use of the fear factor in more subtle ways. Or, he just buys people. The story about how Giuliani would change the charter to keep Public Advocate Mark Green from taking office could be matched by the same relationship between Bloomberg and Betsy Gotbaum. Keeping her out of office is a major incentive Bloomberg has not to resign even if he runs for President.

The NY Times should hold onto this article for a few years and just change "Giuliani" to "Bloomberg," get a new cast of characters Bloomberg has retaliated against and republish it in a few years when the "all clear" is sounded.

Hillary, Phone Home

The ICE blog had a report on last week's Delegate Assembly.

"Hillary Clinton called Randi on her cell-phone and addressed the delegates from Nevada. The Union is clearly making a strong pitch for their endorsed candidate: Hillary. Comptroller Bill Thompson [who has been the UFT choice for Mayor for about 10 years - part of the support for mayoral control by the UFT] also spoke live to the Delegates in favor of Hillary."

I'm surprised Giuliani spouse Judy Nathan didn't call next. But Chicago Teacher Union President Marilyn Stewart did chip in.

Both Thompson and Stewart are Black.

The calls from Black leaders are part of the campaign to keep Blacks in the UFT from deserting Hillary for Obama.

Unity Caucus discipline will take care of Black members of the UFT Executive Board and Delegate Assembly. Watch the vote when the Hillary endorsement comes up at both bodies. It is hard to believe that not even one Unity Caucus Black member would not be for Obama, with polling numbers around the nation showing a massive drift of Black voters moving from Hillary to Obama since Iowa. Some numbers show 5 to 1.

But in the "democracy" in Unity Caucus, democratic centralism will suppress any sense of support for Obama. That doesn't mean an attempt won't be made to make a stand at the DA by both Black and White non-Unity Obama supporters. And it would be fun to watch some of the Unity faithful squirm around that one. Undercover Unity Obama supporters have got to be feeling some level of discomfort, especially Blacks who understand the historical significance of Obama's popularity across the board. Suppressing racial pride cannot be a good thing for Unity over the long-term.

Which just goes to show that there are some inherent contradictions within Unity and what looks monolithic, can develop cracks when Weingarten is no longer around to keep her hand on the trigger.

Which leads us to a discussion of last week's fascinating piece by Elizabeth Green on Randi's successor. Look for our comments later this week.

Some more tidbits from the ICE DA report:

Tidbit #1
ICE has not taken a position on the Democratic Primaries so further comment is not called for here.

Let me guarantee here that knowing the people in ICE, there is no way in hell ICE will take a position on the primaries but will point out how the UFT leadership will manipulate the members into an all out Hillary endorsement. Don't be shocked at a visit from Hillary to the DA at some point (as she did in 2000.)

Tidbit #2
Finally, the Union announced its Principals in Need of Improvement program. This was introduced by new Staff Director Leroy Barr. He called up to the podium multiple members from three schools who told horror stories about principals from hell. The schools were Acorn High School for Social Justice...

Is this the same Acorn that has an alliance with the UFT? I may be wrong and the school with Acorn's name on it might have little to do with the UFT buddy Acorn.

Apparently not. See comment #1 for clarification from a reader.

Arabella

Every so often I get reports on Arabella, who we met on a cruise to Alaska when she was 3 years old. She's 12 now. Here's the latest from her mom Amanda Uhry:
Happy, tired Arabella at: The Cobra Youth Foil Competition (individual) -- Cobra Fencing 1/19/08

First place Y12 First place Y14

Number of bottles of Vitamin Water consumed - 7

Number of colored rubber bands that popped off braces - 3

Number of hours it took to fence and win both competitions - 9

Toughest bout - finals of Y12 with Jessie Laffey from Cobra Fencing

Person we are most grateful to:
Steve Kaplan head of Cobra Fencing for graciously providing Arabella with weapon when she managed to leave all of hers locked in her locker at her own fencing club by accident.

Number of brand new fencing shoes Arabella managed to destroy in 48 hours (Cobra Foil and Cobra Challenge the next day) - 1 pair (completely torn apart)

Number of hours slept after competition - 13

Number of days til next big event at Cobra - 30 (the New York Super Regionals - Feb 22-24)


Arabella way back then on the cruise ship

Puerto Rico, My Heart's Devotion

I was singing "America" from West Side Story all week while on my first trip to Puerto Rico, most of the time spent at a resort lounging at the beach, snorkeling, reading book after book and eating (a lot). One of the great things about retirement is the ability to travel whenever.

Color War
There were many corporate groups meeting there and we got to see first hand the "business" model of team building - expensive retreats and competitions with loud speakers and annoying noisemaking. One group wore tee-shirts that said their goal this year was $75,000,000.
This is the aspect that has been missing from BloomKlein's attempt to bring the business model to the schools (except maybe at KIPP where spending $70,000 on retreats to the Caribbean is acceptable.) It looked like one of those old camp Color War games where learned all about competition. I was such a lousy hitter when I was 10 years old, my teammates told me to go into the woods and pee when my turn at bat came. (My hitting didn't get much better over the years but I can pee on demand now.)

Coming soon:
Get those scores and grad rates up trips and tee-shirts with logos - 80% grad rates or bust.

I felt real comfortable in PR - lots of good feelings connected to working with mostly Puerto Rican kids in Williamsburg - and we hope to return. Maybe drive around the entire island stopping at beaches.

Next trip is to London in March for the 40th anniversary concert of The Zombies - (INSIDE JOKE FOR ZOMBIE FANS - I hope they're there. Or not there. Or maybe she won't be there.) And then on to Japan in April for the Asian Invitational FIRST LEGO League tournament. And maybe Iceland in June. Phew! I'm tired already.

In the meantime, I haven't been too active in local ed politics recently, with the Privatization Forum the week before last and the big FLL tournament coming up next Saturday (check the norms robotics blog for robotics in NYC for news) and my working for the past month on the FLL program guide (modeled on the old Ed Notes format - see, they were worth more than just using as ballast under the tires when it snowed) which, thank goodness, was just sent to the printer (a pdf is available for those interested, here.)

Last week's Delegate Assembly was the first I missed in a long time and I hear my buddies from ICE actually got something passed. We had a pretty good ICE meeting on Jan. 11 with a lot of people attending and discussed some strategy behind making amendments to a UFT resolution on school leadership teams.

I wouldn't attach too much significance to the fact that Leo Casey supported it, but you can read all about it at the ICE blog. I'll have some comments on the Hillary call later.

Ellen Raider from ICOPE did a presentation at the ICE meeting on their governance plan and we had a rousing discussion that ranged from "Their bottom-up governance plan is just pie in the sky" to "We need to start somewhere and work from that place." I personally support the bottom up concept where the school is the basic unit of power and urge people to take a look at the ICOPE model.

No one other than ICOPE seems to have come up with much of an alternative. Leonie Haimson always points to the "Who controls the money" argument whenever we talk about decentralized plans. But in reality, I feel we will still have some form of mayoral control because the UFT and just about every politician supports it. The UFT is doing its phony baloney Governance road show (tomorrow, Tuesday, at Martin Luther King HS in Manhattan at 6 if you are interested) to make it look like they don't really know what they'll do. They will issue a report to give venting to what people have to say and then do what's in the best interests of the leadership - which guess what, is mayoral control with a few tweaks since they are expecting to get Bill Thompson (who also called into the DA to show Blacks support Hillary) as the next mayor.

Smoke on your pipe and put that in.

How ARIS, data, etc are being used in NYC - your input needed ASAP

A writer is working on a piece on data-driven decision making and needs input on how ARIS, data, etc. are being used in NYC. If anyone has info send it along ASAP. I'll forward it with your email (if you want to be anon. say so) for further contact if needed.

NYCDOE Appoints CEO of "Broad Prize Banners and Flags"

EDNOTESNEWS (EDNN) Reports:

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has appointed his old pal Smellington G. Worthington III, the founder of BFER (Billionaires for Educational Reform), to a newly created position as the CEO in charge of "Hanging Broad Prize Banners and Flags." Worthington will generously take a pay cut and work for a nominal salary of $225,000 a year. "It's my civic duty to serve the poor children of New York," said Worthington.

"Imagine their glee when upon arriving at school every morning from their little hovels, they will gaze upon the banners celebrating the wonderful achievement of our winning the Broad Prize, something we will use to get Michael Bloomberg elected as president."

Chancellor Joel Klein has appointed Alvarez and Marsal as consultants on the project for a $5 million a year. "We were lucky to get A & M so cheap," said a DOE spokesperson, citing their historical expertise in being able to find just the right spot to hang a banner. "That is not an easy thing to do and we just don't have people with those kinds of skills currently working in the Department," said the spokesperson, "particularly since they were ordered NOT to hang the banners on a school's exterior wall." [See DOE announcement to Principals below.]

The money for A & M was raised privately from the profits from foreclosing on the homes of people ruined by sub-prime rate mortgages.

Bloomberg will hire a fleet of skywriting airplanes to blanket the skies with facsimiles of the Broad banner and flag.

NYC schools received notice of these banners in Joel Klein's weekly Principal's Weekly (more popularly know as The WEAKLY) with this item:

Delivery of Broad Prize Banners and Flags
All schools / Event: This week
The Broad Foundation has provided us with flags and banners for our schools. These are in recognition your hard work that helped New York City win the 2007 Broad Prize for Urban Education. You will be receiving one banner and one flag during the next week. They will be delivered to your building's general office, to your attention. Your custodial staff can assist you in determining how to display the flag and the banner. Keep in mind that you should not hang the banner on the exterior of your building, since it is likely to be blown around in inclement weather. For additional information, contact the borough facilities director at your ISC.

Here are the joyous reactions of some parents on the nyceducation news listserve:

We were dumbfounded when it arrived this morning. "We need _____" (fill in the blank with any NUMBER of things), "and they spent how much money on THIS?" - BB

There is a huge banner in my school of congratulations to the NYC Dept of Education as broad prize winner. Its like 8 FT wide! What we really need is wiring , not a huge banner, LOL. Any other schools have one? - L

8th Grade Holdover Policy Designed to Force Dropouts

It is so simple. Want to enforce the illusion that graduation rates are rising so you can use that issue to run for the presidency? Start holding back 8th graders before they reach high school. Just enough might of them be disgusted with school to drop out right then and there and never besmirch a Bill Gates school with their presence.

There are consequences when 8th graders are held over. These "social seniors" often feel that is the last straw for them and many drop out right then and there. The ones who show can become a problem for the school – their behavior reflects the impact of being held over.

I was in some middle schools that had to isolate these senior holdovers in a special class. The class size was small but they were so turned off, even that didn't make a difference - maybe 50% attended on any given day with some not showing up for a week or more at a time. Spending any time at all in this class made it clear that though these students were not exactly flourishing before, holding them over made a bad situation intolerable.

Driving them out of school before they can affect the HS grad rates is one of the ideas behind the plan.

Here's what Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters had to say in her listserve:

Today, in his state of the City address, the Mayor announced that the DOE will now extend their policy of holding back students on the basis of low test scores to 8th graders as well. This is the way they intend to cure the problems of our middle schools!

As the research overwhelmingly shows, holding back kids doesn’t work. 107 academics, researchers, and national experts on testing understand that this policy is not only unfair, given the unreliability of one day’s test results, but will also lead directly to lower achievement and higher drop out rates. They signed the below letter drafted by Class Size Matters and Advocates for Children in 2004 opposing this policy, and nothing has changed since then. In fact, if this policy worked, the DOE 7th grade retention would have caused a rise in 8th grade achievement rates, but instead as the recent NAEPs show, our 8th grade test scores have been stagnant over many years.

Among those who signed our letter included Dr. T. Berry Brazelton, Dr. Ernest House, who did the independent evaluation of New York City’s failed retention program in the 1980’s, four past presidents of the American Education Research Association, Robert Hauser, the chair of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on the Appropriate Use of Educational Testing, and several members of the Board on Testing and Assessment of the National Research Council. Even the two largest testing companies are on record that the decision to hold back a child should never be based upon test scores alone.

Indeed, the professional consensus is so overwhelming about the policy’s destructive academic and emotional consequences that its use amounts to educational malpractice, according to Prof. Shane Jimerson, a dean at the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Nearly everyone who’s looked at our middle schools realizes that their number one problem is huge class sizes. Our middle schools have the largest class sizes in the state by far, and some of the largest in the entire industrialized world. About one quarter of our middle school students are in classes of 31 or more. Yet this administration refuses to intervene by reducing class size, even when the Middle School task force recommended this step. Instead, holding back 8th graders will likely cause class sizes in these grades to grow even larger.

It’s a shame that this administration refuses to take action to actually improve the opportunities for students to succeed, but rather insists on increasing the chances that they will fail.

Bronx High Students Walk Out

Today's NY Sun has an article about Bronx HS students walkout. See our story from the Oct. 11 Ed Notes with more details on the Dr. Quack story.

The Shame of the Nation - It's BloomKlein

When Michael Bloomberg and Joel Klein talk about education reform, the like to use the phrase "The shame of the nation" to describe the education malpractice that has taken place for so many years.

Under the guise of trying to convince people, particularly those in the black commuinity - see one Al Sharpton urging Bloomberg to run for president the morning after Obama won the Iowa primary (nice work Al) - using hype and spin. Like - try this one when teachers complain: "schools are for the needs of children, not teachers." Sure. Teachers, often the only ones who stand up for childre, see BloomKlein's Children First principle inaction every minute of the day.

Samual Freedman has been one of the few people in the press calling BloomKlein on their shell game. In this article in today's NY we again see who is perpetrating the true shame of the nation. [I bolded some choice highlights.]

Run, Bloomie, run. Let's let the entire nation know your shame!

January 16, 2008
On Education

A Queens High School With 3,600 Students, and Room for Just 1,800
By SAMUEL G. FREEDMAN

From its brass entry doors to its rooftop observatory to the intricate oak paneling of the principal’s office, Richmond Hill High School in Queens was built to inspire something like awe for public education. The only discordant response during the structure’s dedication in 1923 was whether, with a capacity for 1,800 students, it was too large.

Nobody asks that question anymore. Over the past dozen years, Richmond Hill’s most notable architectural accouterment has been the quote-unquote temporary classroom. Twenty-two of these red metal trailers, encased within chain-link fencing, occupy the school’s former yard, evoking the ambience of the Port Elizabeth container-ship terminal.

As for the cargo, that would be the students, faculty members and staff. Richmond Hill currently holds more than 3,600 pupils, twice its supposed limit, and could have 4,000 next fall as other neighborhood high schools in Queens are broken into mini-schools with smaller, more selective enrollments. Andrew Jackson, Springfield Gardens and Franklin K. Lane have already closed; next year, Far Rockaway will, too.

These days at Richmond Hill, the first lunch period starts at 8:59 a.m., class sizes routinely exceed city and state averages and students have four minutes to negotiate hallways that one biology teacher at the school likens to clotted arteries.

The classroom trailers, never meant for more than a decade of nonstop use, need new walls, ceilings and plumbing. One social studies teacher, Peter McHugh, was reduced last year to conducting class while holding an umbrella against a leaky roof.

To a certain extent, the growing enrollment at the school reflects the influx of immigrants from Guyana and the Dominican Republic to the neighborhood. But more broadly, the problem is the outcome of Department of Education decisions to open scores of small, niched schools in the area, close large ones perceived as academic failures and leave the excess students to land in traditional schools like Richmond Hill that, while relatively successful academically, were often overcrowded to begin with. In this version of education reform, it is never hard to tell the winners from the losers.

City education officials do not dispute that Richmond Hill is severely overcrowded. But they predict that as the department builds and opens new small schools, including several in the Queens neighborhood of Corona next fall, students who might otherwise attend Richmond Hill will choose these options, gradually reducing the overcrowding.

Yet Garth Harries, chief executive for portfolio development for the school system, also said the department was “not in a position to say there is a specific target number, but it is a priority to reduce enrollment at Richmond Hill.”

The students and staff at Richmond Hill painstakingly calibrate their own comments. They cite the school’s myriad classes and clubs as a strength; they do not lay blame on the principal, Frances DeSanctis; and they hold Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein responsible for the situation.

“Who decides to treat people this way?” asked Brian Sutton, a dean and special education teacher and a 16-year veteran at Richmond Hill. “You don’t build a school for 1,800 students and stick nearly 4,000 in it. Why? Who would want to do something like that to other human beings? On purpose.”

When Christine Dayao entered Richmond Hill as a freshman in September 2005, she thought the 8:59 a.m. lunch period on her schedule had to be a misprint. “I was freaking out,” said Christine, 16, a junior. “My parents called up the school and said, ‘Is it normal for someone to have lunch that early?’ And they said, ‘At Richmond Hill, yeah.’ ”

To make it through her day, which ended just short of 3:30 p.m., Christine said she “drank a lot of water.” That way, her stomach at least felt full.

THE crowding has only grown worse since 2005. Freshmen take virtually all their classes in the trailers, separating them from the school’s community. When they do walk to and from the main building — for lunch, physical education and science labs — they can easily slip away to cut class.
Within the permanent building, the crowding has created a disciplinary headache. Ninety seconds after each new period begins, deans or teachers make a “hallway sweep” to catch the stragglers. Many of them wind up in detention for little more than having been caught in a human traffic jam.

“Students just have to cope with it,” said Shelleaza Ramdass, 18, a senior. “They don’t feel like they have a choice. That’s what they have to do.”

Richmond Hill received a C grade on its Department of Education report card, and its pupils perform decently on standardized tests. But daily attendance remains at about 80 percent, and the attrition rate from freshman year to senior year is more than 50 percent. It is only fair to wonder how much those numbers reflect the disenchantment or disengagement of students who begin their high school careers in trailers.

Ms. DeSanctis, the principal, has increased team-teaching, particularly in English as a Second Language classes, and has asked the education department to build a direct corridor from the main building to the trailer yard. (She is still waiting for an answer.) It is also possible, however, that next year Richmond Hill will have to extend its class day by one more period so that it will run 7:19 a.m. to roughly 4:15 p.m.

“What I’d love is a brand-new building,” said Ms. DeSanctis, offering her opinion. “What I know is that nobody who has trailers has ever had them removed.”

Samuel G. Freedman is a professor of journalism at Columbia University. His e-mail issgfreedman@nytimes.com.

“Merit Pay” Hurts Teachers, Staff and Students

From Marjorie Stamberg to ICE-mail:

This is a leaflet circulating in GED-Plus that colleagues may be interested in. Our school was belatedly asked to "participate" in this project.

“Merit Pay” Hurts Teachers, Staff and Students

10 REASONS TO VOTE NO ON "BONUS PAY"

UFT members in the GED-Plus program are being asked to approve a so-called “Performance Bonus Program.” This is a really, really bad idea. We have to organize to vote it down.

On Thursday we received a joint letter from the United Federation of Teachers and the NYC Department of Education announcing that hub meetings will be held next week on this plan. The first meeting was held in Staten Island on January 3, the day the letter arrived. They want to ram this through, just like they got the Delegates Assembly to vote on it with barely 15 minutes discussion, just hours after the deal was sealed.

Beware: this is not a bonus but a bribe. And don’t think you’ll be seeing 3 grand anytime soon. Already they’re talking about $1,500 if the school only makes “partial gains.” What you give up for that is the basic union principle of equal pay for equal work.

While pretending to encourage teachers in impoverished neighborhoods, the “incentives” will tend to push educators away from all but the best-funded inner-city schools. While claiming to support teacher collaboration, it will set teacher against teacher, dividing paras, teachers and support staff.

Call it whatever you want, it’s not really voluntary, it’s not really a bonus -- it’s the same old “merit pay” we’ve been resisting for years, until the UFT leadership caved.

This plan opens the door to individual “merit” pay. Bloomberg says straight-out that’s what he’s after. And once they get that, you can kiss ALL your union protections goodbye. It won’t stop at “bonuses.” Next time around, if “goals aren’t met,” it’ll be your S rating, your appointment, or the ATR sub pool (which Klein is looking to “terminate”).

Teachers and other school staff may be tempted by the money, but it’s a poisoned offer. Look again! Please read the points below and try to have the maximum discussion on the pros and cons at your hub and spoke. Be informed.

Here are ten reasons to vote down this dangerous plan:

1)Why are they offering the bribe? Teachers already work tirelessly because we are dedicated to our students and public education. We can’t “work harder” for the “bonus,” because we’re already working beyond capacity. They know it. The main purpose of the “bonus” (financed by private corporatizers like the Eli Broad Foundation) is not to improve education, it’s to break the power of the union.

2)If they wanted to give teachers more money, they could just grant a raise. If they wanted to improve education in impoverished school districts, they could lower class size. But instead, the DoE has repeatedly refused to spend money offered by the state to reduce class size, and used money earmarked for reducing class size for other purposes (particularly testing).

3)It will set up competition between teachers instead of solidarity. Imagine the kind of resentment that will be directed at fellow union members on the school “compensation committee” who decide who gets how much of a “bonus”!

4)It will increase the power of principals who have veto power. Want more money? Work lunch. Do extra coverages. There will be pressure to teach to the test, or scapegoat teachers who won’t, because they’re “costing” the school a possible bonus.

5)It is bad for the students. Bonus pay is tied to test scores. So economically, it means teachers will drift to schools where students’ test scores can be the highest. (Low-performing students will be pushed out, low-performing schools will be closed.)

6)There’s nothing really “voluntary” about it, since this “data” will be used in part for the “report cards” to close schools.

7)Think of the extra paperwork required to track the increase in the already over-the-top test schedule to track student “gains” on which the bonus depends. We already work tirelessly for our students.

8)In the 2005 contract, the UFT leadership traded away seniority and work time (going back before Labor Day) for a pay increase. This opened the door for the notoriously corrupt “open market system” and the ATRing (a new verb) of up to 1,000 teachers sitting in sub pools across the region.

9)In some ways this is even more foolhardy, because it goes to the very core of the principles of education and teaching. This re-introduces “piece work” – paying per head (literally) of those students making gains – which the union movement fought for years to get rid of.

10) Schools aren’t factories, kids aren’t widgets, and teachers aren’t stupid. Don’t buy the “bonus” pay scam!

It’s not just about the money. Yankees coach Joe Torre said it best when he turned down George Steinbrenner’s “performance pay” contract. He said, “I’d been there 12 years and didn’t think motivation was needed….Incentives, to me, I took it as an insult.” It’s an insult to teachers, too.

They need 55 percent of chapter members to vote this deal up (not just a majority of those voting). Already, 33 schools offered this plan have voted it down. Don’t say later, “I wish I had voted no at the time.”

Alvarez and Marsal of St. Louis, NY, New Orleans, etc.

How many consultants on the head of a pin does it take to destroy an urban public school system?

Follow the further adventures of A and M, our favorite experts on ruining entire public school systems - the famous authors of last year's school bus route fiasco, among other NYC atrocities. Ahhhh! I love the smell of Privatization in the evening!!!

Lisa North to ICE mail:

Below are comments from St Louis on the NY Times article. Notice the comment about charter schools at the end of the comments. Lisa

Comment: The following NY Times article gives enough impetus for either the Post-Dispatch or The St. Louis American to do an investigative report on what transpired behind the scenes politically and perhaps malevolently against St. Louis' public school system.

At the end of this article, the management firm that did so much damage to the Saint Louis Public Schools is called into question in New York as well for costs. Though the contract with Alvarez and Marsal under William J. Roberti and Karen Marsal here in St. Louis was for $5 million, I recall it exceeding that amount and totaling near $11 million--this in a city where the mayor accused the previous administration of spending like "a drunken sailor." And then the State takes over the school district with its financial crisis being a major factor. So much for the alleged reform decisions of the mayor's personally chosen slate of board members.

Connect the dots. . . now the mayor is attempting to establish 27 charter schools. Was the ruination of the traditional public school district part of the plan in order to initiate private or for-profit schools that would receive public funds?

Helen Louise

January 12, 2008

State to Audit No-Bid Award of City’s School Contracts

By JENNIFER MEDINA
The state comptroller, Thomas P. DiNapoli , is opening an audit of the City Education Department’s increasing practice of awarding contracts without competitive bidding. In the past five years such contracts have totaled $315 million.

To keep down costs, competitive bidding is normally required of city agencies. But although the Education Department is controlled by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, it is by law a state-authorized entity free from some of the more stringent city financial regulations.

School officials have said that awarding contracts without bidding gives them more flexibility and allows them to get better and faster results, but the city has been fiercely criticized for a rapid rise in no-bid contracts since Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein came into office.

In 2002, when the school system was still controlled by the Board of Education, 32 contracts totaling $11.9 million were awarded without bidding. In 2003, after Mr. Klein took over, the number nearly doubled and totaled more than $56 million. They reached a high of $121 million in 2006, then dropped again last year to $62 million, according to the city’s public advocate, Betsy Gotbaum, who has been a critic of the practice. She pressed the state for the audit last fall.

“This is about transparency and accountability,” Ms. Gotbaum said. “Why are they awarding so many contracts without any other consideration? It may all be perfectly legitimate and fine, but we don’t know why.”

In a letter sent to Mr. Klein on Tuesday, the comptroller’s office said it would begin the audit on Jan. 21. Audits typically take between six months and a year. The audit was reported in The Daily News on Friday.

Most city education contracts are still competitively bid, but some of those that were not have been particularly well publicized.

The city came under tough criticism in 2006 over a $15.8 million deal with Alvarez and Marsal, a consulting firm that was hired to restructure the schools’ financial operations and cut as much as $200 million from the city’s more than $15 billion budget. The consulting firm also restructured several school bus routes to save money, but the plan infuriated parents when it took effect last January.

Some of the consultants charged as much as $450 an hour for their work, and were able to bill as much as $500 a day for such expenses as transportation and housing.