Bronx Chapter Leader on NYC Teacher Data Initiative

Dear Teachers:

For those of you unfamiliar with NYC’s Teacher Data Initiative I strongly urge you to “do your homework” as soon as possible. (Google NYC+Teacher-Data-Initiative and you will find a wealth of information.) In a nutshell… it is the DOE’s way of ranking you based on your students’ test scores. You will be compared to other teachers throughout the City with similar student populations including the teachers you work with in your own school. For now it only applies to testing grade teachers but eventually it will apply to all of us.

There are many problems with this type of (false) accountability. This initiative begs the immediate question: If I am being compared to my neighbor across the hall -- then we are indeed competitors rather than collaborative colleagues -- so, why should I share my wealth of knowledge and secrets to success with you if - in the end - you use what I taught you to “outrank” me, and as a result my ranking falls? This initiative has made me realize that it is now in our individual best interest NOT to share with each other. BloomKlein has made this a competition. Do you think the Philadelphia Eagles shared their playbook with the NY Giants?

Do you think Barack Obama shared his campaign strategies with John McCain?

I could write volumes about this and more but for now I want to focus on that overused buzzword….ACCOUNTABILITY. It’s time to remind all administrators from our AP’s right on up the ladder to BloomKlein that they too are accountable. It’s time to document every time someone else fails our students.

Throwing accountability back into the faces of the “higher-ups” is now a matter of self preservation. As per NYC’s Teacher Data Initiative you are being asked to use your students’ scores as a way to answer the following questions that I copied and pasted from the DOE website:

“How is your work affecting particular students? For the purposes of learning and growing, how do you compare to other teachers? What are your biggest strengths and successes that you could share with your colleagues? What could you learn from your colleagues that could help you fine tune your skills?” How have special education students and English language learners fared in your classroom? How are you doing with students in the bottom of the class or the top of the class? What are other English and math teachers in similar circumstances doing successfully and what could you learn from them? What are your biggest successes that you could share with your colleagues—whether they’re other teachers in your school or teachers through the City?”

BloomKlein has made it all about you. “These reports, instead, are designed to help you pinpoint your own strengths and weaknesses, and empower you, working with your principal and colleagues, to devise strategies to improve.”

I bet you feel all warm and fuzzy inside knowing that Joel Klein et al really care about your professional development. I’m going to send him a note of thanks as soon as I’m finished typing this. Ironically they want YOU to improve your craft while they drive our schools into the abyss.

Accountability is a two-way street and every time you fail to document how someone else is failing your students - you are placing a nail in your own professional coffin. After all it doesn’t matter that Johnny never does his homework – it’s all about you as the individual player in the sport of education.

It doesn’t matter that Carlos constantly disrupts your lessons so the other children can’t learn. It’s all about you.

It doesn’t matter that Jane is 13 years old having been left back twice and sitting in your fifth grade class without ever having been referred for an evaluation.
It’s all about you.

It doesn’t matter that no one ever followed up on your recommendation to get your student tested for support services.

It doesn’t matter that you have children in your CTT class who truly belong in a small class setting but the City keeps them in the larger class because it’s cheaper.

It doesn’t matter that Alex has been absent 36 times. It doesn’t matter that Peter has been shipped from shelter to shelter and hasn’t been in school for over a month until he arrived in your class.

It doesn’t matter that Jasmine never seems to pay attention even though you constantly remind her to stay on task.

It doesn’t matter that you are being judged on your ELL students’ performance even though they receive their ELL services in a windowless storage room in our gym where the temperature reaches 90+ degrees and ELL teachers are constantly pulled off program for testing.

It doesn’t matter that you believe that the reading or math programs we use are insufficient.

None of this matters because you haven’t made it matter.

All of the above and then some need be documented on a daily basis. This teacher refuses to be anyone’s scapegoat. And the day my ‘Teacher Data Report” is available is the day that my Administrative Data Report will be produced using all of the wonderful anecdotes, letters, emails and phone call logs I so diligently kept. That’s how you throw accountability back. Imagine if everyone did this. Imagine how powerful our compiled record of administrative/parental failures might be if Joel Klein et al gets the bug to close our school or use those data reports in an attempt to fire you.

Who has the time for more paperwork? We better make time. Like I said….self preservation.
Gone are the days of real teaching (Newbies, I’m sorry you missed it….teachers and students had fun and the children learned.) Real teaching doesn’t leave much of a paper trail. Real teaching is organic and fluid and the best teachable moments are unplanned. Rubrics, process charts and beginning sentences with “Children, good readers [ad your own TC lingo here]….” are nonsense.

Ask any real teacher. Educrats constantly coin new catch phrases and lame ideas to create the false need for professional development from people who are so far removed from the classroom that they probably think a piece of chalk is a suppository. The one thing these educrats are good at is loading their bank accounts with our tax dollars. Gone are the days of collaborating with colleagues, picking their brains for ideas, or sharing your own failures in an honest way so you can truly hone your craft. It’s now about the data and you as the individual competitor. For those of you on the testing grades…you’re on your own. Share your “playbook” at your own peril.

Sometime in the spring I will hold a series of morning union meetings to discuss ways in which you can specifically throw accountability back. I hope you attend and learn how to protect yourself from the clipboards and data.

Roseanne McCosh PS 8 Dist 10 - Bronx
February 26, 2009

Read more on TDI from Ed Week
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/teacherbeat/2009/03/teacherdata_reports_in_new_yor.html

Parents, Teachers at Ocean-Hill Brownsville's PS 150K Lied to by Tweed

Ed Notes first reported on the situation at PS 150 in Brooklyn's Ocean-Hill Brownsville on Jan 26, 2009 PS 150: The Real Game Behind Closing Schools

When the first parent meeting was held the DOE could not (and would not) answer their questions about the transition. All they said was we don't know. Parents were upset, but did not do anything immediately. The school - parents and teachers - were told that the "new school" was going to be a charter school with all that it implies. It was a small group of parents, but they found out their children will not automatically move from 150 to the new school. NOW they are angry and are planning some type of demonstration. (We will report the details in a follow-up post.)

The UFT will supposedly file a lawsuit today against the DOE based on the children being rezoned to other neighborhood schools illegally. (Of course, this is like shooting peas at Godzilla, but why not?)

The DOE is doing the same thing in Harlem by turning PS 241, the zoned school, over to Eva Moskowitz' Harlem Success and forcing the kids into the other neighboring schools. The local schools due to get the "rejects" (or the non-creamed) from the charter schools at both PS 150 and PS 241 are now upset and would join in some kind of action if there was an organizing force out there. Unfortunately .....

....the UFT is the gorilla in the room, but sits there eating bananas.

Law suits are not enough. The UFT should be organizing the parents and teachers at all the schools announced as being closed into a potent force. But we know the leadership really agrees with the policy of closing "failing" schools. Failing based on what? The DOE puts in a principal from the Leadership Academy who is a destroyer, not a builder and blames the teachers. We know the goal: replace as many public schools with charters as is feasible. Instead of a systematic approach to opposing this policy, the UFT opens its own charters schools and also looks to pick up pieces of the teacher training gravy train.

The Independent Community of Educators (ICE), despite being a tiny group, through its ASC-ICE Committee, has taken up the task of bringing people together from at least some of these schools to search for a means of resistance by holding a conference on March 28 at John Jay College.

John Dewey HS Teacher Comment

After our report on John Dewey HS (and yes, the upside down graphic was intentional)
UFT Chaos at John Dewey HS, this comment came in from Martin Haber:

Dear Norm,

I tried to google in to post a comment on your excellent, highly accurate article on the "mishaguys" at Dewey, but I am inept so could not. Feel free to post this comment if you can!

I am The Accused, accused of "dissenting" from the "Zionist Cabal" at JDHS, or just for daring to have a different opinion. Our UFT Rep, Alan Lerner, is quickly losing steam- he did not as far as I know attend the Rally March 5, and we have a picture of us "dissenters" 15 strong, who DID take a stand. Hope it is in next issue of Trade Organ. Latest indignity is not getting our white UFT hats in retaliation I would think, so I started a "Liberate our Hats" Campaign (they are either in a sealed box in the UFT room, or Useless is holding them hostage. Alan is "Spawn of Useless Charlie!"

The "anti-semitism" smear is a pattern that goes back to Alan's election; he used it effectively against his former friend and much more capable candidate Wade Goria, so it IS a pattern. The leaflets I myself was accused of distributing (never proven) and that a girl in my Multicultural Club was accused of putting up in the school hallways (Alan's "army" ripped them down) advertised a "Peace Vigil" on the steps of Brooklyn Borough Hall; I am proud to say I attended this Vigil, and that I want "Peace in the Middle East". My colleague Sean Doyle, previous Chapter Chair, has been the victim of a on-going smear campaign which resulted in the pair of us being summoned before a "mediator" from the UFT Professional Development Program, who was quite decent, but only was there to silence us, whether he knew that or not.

I had the NY Post come to my door, literally, after the same reporter, who has an Israeli background, stopped cars and students leaving the building asking "Do you know Mr Haber? Is he distributing anti-Israeli lit? And Is he an anti-semite?" It was ironic- I was at a conference about "Law in the Third Reich", sponsored by the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous" on that very day!!!! This was surely a job done by "Useless and Son, Inc" After all, Lerner has a confidante at the Daily News he speaks to regularly , as well.

It culminated with Alan claiming me, Sean, and Sandy Osip, another dissenter from the Board, distributed "anti-Israeli Lit...at the DA!!!! (A total lie). It goes on and on, and some colleagues can see that it is the Constitution on trial here, but many miss the point. "Darkness at Noon" redux. And it reminds me of the RED mailings that Randi put out to put the final kabosh on Kit Wainer, even though the Red-Baiting was totally un-necessary from that point of the election. Drivin' the nail in. I guess.

Thanks again for the reportage.

Peace,
Martin (Dreyfus) Haber
JDHS's House of Ill Repute

Ed Notes Humor

Education Notes really got its start when I became chapter leader (very reluctantly) at my school in 1994 and started putting out a chapter newsletter. In my third year I put out 45 editions. The people in my school had to be as well informed as any group of teachers and paras in the city - if they read it, that is. To keep them reading, I began to include jokes, with special holiday editions of just jokes.

This was the early days of internet mania and jokes were flying around all over the place. But almost none of my readers were online yet, so they seemed novel. I knew that people would not just throw away another piece of paper and might even read some of the serious stuff.

When I started putting out monthly bulletins at the UFT delegate assembly (originally called DA Notes), in 1996, I included the jokes. As Education Notes evolved, you could look out at a delegate assembly and see a sea of Ed Notes being read and people chuckling. Even union officials on the stage would be reading it.

Even today, when I give out materials, people come over to take it and comment to their friends, "Get one of these, it's funny." Well, Ed Notes, both the hard copy and the blog, hasn't been all that funny for years. I started a humor blog but stopped posting to it a year ago. With what's going on, maybe it's time to inject some humor. I can go back to the oldies but goodies, but if you have some good ones send them along for the Ed Notes humor blog.

I just got this one from a buddy in Australia:

Home Depot Scam...

Must see: John Stewart scathing attack on CNBC

.. and comments by Reality Based Educator posted at
http://nyceducator.com/2009/03/masters-of-universe.html

I was a CNBC viewer through the tech crash of 2000. To see how they are going after Obama as if he is the cause of the crisis is beyond outrage. RBE makes some great points. "Forget about Obama-proofing your portfolio - try Cramer-proofing it instead."

Hey, RBE, keep 'em comin'.

NY Times Takes Sides on New York's School Chancellor

...want to Guess Which Side the Times is on?

NY Times reporter Elissa Gootman has been subject to criticism from parent leaders in NYC after her kiss face article on Joel Klein, Taking Sides on New York’s School Chancellor.

Patrick Sullivan, the lone voice representing parent interests on the Panel for Educational Policy (PEP), that joke of a board of education, said:

I spoke to Elissa Gootman for some time about this article. And while I did say I felt Klein was "sincere", it was solely in the context of he is sincere in believing his mission is fixing the system for low income families. I also said his policies were wrong, his implementation consistently poor, his contention that he's empowered to make all decisions on behalf of our chilren appalling and many other criticisms that didn't make it into the article. She had an idea about how to paint Klein and clearly picked bits and pieces to paint that picture.

She had also wanted to contrast Klein as an ideologue against Bloomberg as pragmatist. I made it clear to her that was not in any way a valid view. There is an effort now to dismiss the problems of schools governance as simply a question of Klein's style or about the person running the system, not about the governance structure. We need to keep the focus on the failings of the structure that allows parents to be systematically and completely shut out of our childrens education.

Leonie Haimson, a parent who has been one of the most vocal critics of Joel Klein and Michael Bloomberg to the extent that officials feel it necessary to monitor her comments and respond.

The last five people quoted are all ideological allies or friends of Joel Klein. Throughout the article, there are nine supporters and four (somewhat) critics. Not exactly a balanced article. And unfortunately the reporter [Elissa Gootman], seemed to buy Klein’s line that what he has done has provided more equity and that only middle class parents reject his leadership. I know of few involved parents in any part of the city of any background who support his policies.

I disagree with Leonie here. It isn't only the reporters who buy Klein's line. Even if Gootman were inclined to do the type of investigative reporting that people like Meredith Kolodner of the Daily News or Elizabeth Green of the former NY Sun and now Gotham Schools have done (which I doubt) the NY Times would have no interest in exposing the BloomKlein follies. When the Sun went under and people were discussing whether the Times would hire Green, I knew they wouldn't and even told Green that even if it came about she would never be allowed to cover stories like she did at the Sun.

Thus, it is left to students at the Columbia School of Journalism to investigate the No-Bid contracts of BloomKlein.

My comment on the listserve focused on Patrick's statement, "There is an effort now to dismiss the problems of schools governance as simply a question of Klein's style or about the person running the system, not about the governance structure."

If you read UFT propagandists you see this theme of Klein's style constantly reiterated. How Randi finds Bloomberg easier to work with than Klein and rumors that the UFT will only support mayoral control if Klein goes.

One must ask how a union with national roots can focus on Klein when it full well knows for the past 10 years that a similar scenario was played out in Chicago with Vallas and then Duncan and in other cities with similar problems. San Diego with Bursin and Alvarado and Washington with Rhee and Fenty.

The focus on Klein is a distraction for the real national fight that is necessary to understand what is happening in NYC in a national context. That one of the main forces that is capable of leading a fight to defend public education tends to frame the issue in terms of the personality of Joel Klein, leads one to question which side it is really on.

Nationalize the Schools

by Norman Scott

March 6, 2009
The Wave, School Scope column
www.rockawave.com

I’m dizzy from racing from meeting to meeting about the major push-button issues affecting education: closing schools and the potential creation of thousands of teachers (ATRs) and students floating around the city like nomads looking for schools to land at. And much of it due to the impact of high stakes testing. Charter schools are the wedge to undermine over 200 years of public education in this country.

Public education is undergoing the same process as occurred in the last 25 years as privatization and non-regulation became king. But hey, this is a free and open market system. Capitalism, you know. How well is that working out in the economy? With all the talk of nationalizing the banks, we need to take a look at re-nationalizing the public schools – taking back public control of the schools, so many of which have been handed over to private interests running charter schools while we still pay the bill out of our taxes.

The obscenity of all this reached a height this week with the Daily News’ Juan Gonzalez report that Eva Moskowitz, who runs four Harlem Success charter schools and uses a massive publicity operation to steal public school buildings, earned $371,000. That's all for about 1000 kids from grades K-3 who attend Harlem Success. Let's see now, at this rate, if Moskowitz was the chancellor, she would earn around $1,200,000,000 based on the per child rate. Hey Joel, you're underpaid.

My buddy and fellow ICE activist Angel Gonzalez said, “What a poverty pimp! She is siphoning off monies from public school students services and from teachers at these charter schools who probably are not guaranteed pensions and other teacher/worker fringe benefits. She should be indicted! Another reason why we need to oppose Charter Schools.”

Patrick Sullivan, the Manhattan rep on the Panel for Education Policy and the lone voice of dissent (shame on the Queens rep) wrote, “PS 241 in Manhattan's District 3 will be replaced with a branch of the Eva Moskowitz charter chain, Harlem Success Academy. What's news here is not just a new charter school opening but that the Bloomberg administration will convert a public school to a charter school without a majority vote of the parent body as required by state law. The elimination of the school will also require the neighborhood to be rezoned to reassign children to other schools left by the gap created by 241's closure. The administration has signaled that it will not seek the approval for rezoning from District 3's Community Education Council, also required by state education law.”

Talk about theft. The Bloomberg/Klein game plan is clear. Starve the public schools to such an extent they must be branded failures. They even go so far as to put in a principal they know will prove incompetent – someone who will disparage children, teachers and parents, alienating all so even they will want the school closed. A prime example was the notorious Jolanta Rohloff who was installed at Lafayette HS to drive the final nail in the coffin. Her fellow trainees at the Principal Academy sniggered when she got a job over so many others, sine they looked at her as a joke. She is now running the Staten Island rubber room – at $150,000 a year. I have many other examples. (See my blog about horror story Suzanne Joseph of MS 113K). Insidious indeed.

Teachers in elementary schools tell me of the key elements in the downhill death spiral of their schools began when they were forced by the DOE to go to a K-8 model, where very big kids are mixed with very small kids and the school quickly becomes unmanageable. The upper grades have so many less resources than they would in a focused middle school. Not that these weren’t failing either. Let’s stop and remember that the NYC schools have been under BloomKlein control for six years and every school they close is an admission of failure. As is their farming out management to private interests – “we can’t do it right, so you try and by the time you fail too, we’ll be long gone.” Accountability, anyone?

The same thing is occurring at PS 150 in Ocean-Hill Brownsville, where the school is being phased out and replaced by two charter schools. Let’s stop for a minute and remember that this school was under the control of Kathy Kashin when she was District 23 leader, and then Region 5 head and she put in a buddy as principal, who still reigns in total incompetency mode. Kashin was rewarded when she was got a top job in one of the 200 reorganizations Klein has managed to mismanage.

Parents at PS 150 were lied to when originally told their kids were guaranteed slots in the new charter schools (a source says one of the leaders is clearly a know-nothing a-hole). Now parents are told there is a “process.” We call that creaming where the top kids are selected – charter schools often require parents to volunteer, leaving the public schools with the kids who need the most resources. Those who do not get accepted will have to send their kids to 5 local feeder schools. Now those schools are getting into the act in protest and a rally at PS 150 will be held. A rally was also held at Brandeis HS after its closing was announced. Being on the upper west side, that is a major land grab by private interests. It was great to see people from other closing schools come out in support.

And don’t forget our own local PS 225 in Rockaway, of which I have written about in previous columns. The UFT has basically told people the closing of their school is a fait accompli. The union supports individual rallies at the schools – let them get it off their chests – but will do nothing to organize all of them to try to put a stop to the bleeding.

I’ve made no secret that I have no faith in the political process or in politicians, who can be bought and sold for a dime. Witness the involvement of NY State Senate leader Malcolm Smith in our local Peninsula Prep charter school. And remember Floyd Flake’s interest in making his own grab for the privatization of public schools? And with the UFT playing in the same game, the only solution is for rank and file teachers and parents to put together a movement for progressive change.

The Independent Community of Educators (ICE) caucus in the UFT, of which I am a member, has been working with teachers at various closing schools with the goal of bringing people from all these schools together to make a stand. We have also been working with other groups within and outside the UFT. NYCORE (NY Collective of Radical Educators) and ICE have joined with other groups to focus on the closing school, ATR, high stakes testing and charter school issues. We are holding a conference on March 28 at John Jay College.

Our leaflet says, “We are a group of new and veteran educators looking to hold an issues-oriented meeting. We will have speakers who provide an analysis that connects these crucial issues and invite discussion around how to create resistance and attempt to provide an analysis of the interests that benefit from standardized testing and school-reorganization juggernaut. The purpose of the meeting is more than reports and analysis. We plan an extended discussion about actions and strategies to reverse things. We hope, for the first time, to bring together people from affected schools in distant neighborhoods. Let's end the isolation of good school/bad school. Let's map out strategies for citywide action to take back public education.” (Check my blog for updates.)

Further reading: Charter schools and the attack on public education
http://www.isreview.org/issues/62/feat-charterschools.shtml

Norm writes more of this drivel daily at http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/

Message from UFT's Weingarten: Today We Made History

And all you have to do is write a letter to a politician who can be bought by Bloomberg for a few bucks.

The pillars of building an effective, commited rank and file are informing/educating, organizing beyond short time actions, and the ability to mobilize people for effective action.

Did today's rally empower the membership or organize for further action in a meaningful way?
Did it educate them beyond the narrowest band of information? Maybe the leadership feels empowered, though I don't really see how with these one shot mobilizations.

Well, we were there anyway.

The best part for me was a group of teachers going by and one of them screamed my name. "Mr. Scott was my 6th grade teacher," she told her colleagues.

The bad news is she's been teaching for over 20 years.


Waving the banner in Les Mis

See more of Angel Gonzalez' Facebook photos.

Eva Moskowitz is Not Running a Lean Organization

Reprinted from the comments section at Gotham Schools

1. Eva Moskowitz is not running a lean organization. The proportion of “back office” educrats to teachers in her “network” is far far higher than she would let you believe. The proportion of non-instructional people in her network is also far higher than in the DOE. There are PR people and personal assistants for Eva.

2. The people hired by Eva Moskowitz have very little experience in education, unless you count attending school as a student. Find out the background of her “Directors of Curriculum” etc. Virtually no teaching experience.

3. The Harlem Success network does not spend money wisely. All employees get laptops but there are no computers for the students to use. Yes, they may have SmartBoards in the classrooms, but there are not desktops or laptops for student use.

4. Despite their claim to “hire the best” turnover has been very high. The principal of HSA 1 was fired the week before the 3rd grade ELA test.

5. The network is focused on PR stunts rather than their students. The NY Times piece on their Snow Day schedule is indicative. PR trumps student and teacher safety.

Join Ed Activists at the Rally for New York

Join with ICE and NYCORE and Time Out From Testing

Here is a message from NYCORE:

Dear NYCoRE Supporters,

A reminder....

As local educator-activists we invite you to join NYCoRE at the "RALLY FOR NEW YORK!” on Thursday, March 5th.

We will meet at:

3:45 P.M. under the arch at the Municipal Building at 1 Centre Street – where Chambers Street runs into Centre Street.

We will be standing along with educators working on stopping school closings and supporting ATRs (Absent Teacher Reserves).

We will also be standing with members of Time Out from Testing.

We know that many of you will be coming with your schools. We will wait for you until 4 and then walk to the demonstration. Please look for our NYCoRE signs.

UFT Chaos at John Dewey HS

A result of closing so many south Brooklyn schools

The impact of closing schools is far reaching. The pushed out kids who don't make it into the more selective charter or small schools function as a sort of floating crap game, bouncing from just-closed school to soon-to-be-closed school. The next wave of large comprehensive high schools quickly become overcrowded and resources get taxed. A mentality of "we are next" sets in as administrators use the threat to drive instruction towards pushing testing and grad rates at any cost to the detriment of educational value and integrity. Teachers, worried about thrown into ATR purgatory if the school should close, start back biting at each other, even in the midst of marking exams if one should dare give a student a low score.

That this mentality should infect John Dewey HS (in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn), one of the more progressive high schools in NYC for over 35 years, shows just how far the state of the BloomKlein destructive ed reform agenda has reached.

John Dewey HS is not misnamed as so many schools are, as it offered a special brand of education to students, with a longer school day and all kinds of enrichment, so rarely found in NYC schools, actually touching on some of the educational philosophies of Dewey. It attracted kids from many parts of the city and also attracted some very dynamic teachers. The attitude was somewhat permissive: if kids roamed the halls, it was tolerated. They were socializing, not destroying.

But enter the kinds of kids forced to go there because no small school would accept them or because their families weren't together enough to figure out an alternative; kids who would never apply to a school like Dewey in the first place – and suddenly you have a different kettle of fish. The extra-curricular activities are not quite in line with their interests. Photography club, anyone?

Now don't get me wrong. The needs of these kids could be addressed, but certainly the school is not given the kinds of resources that could make a difference. Thus, schools like Dewey enter the death star spiral and become a target for the school closers at Tweed - maybe some Bloomberg contact is looking for some real estate in the area and needs the cache of charter schools to get those values up.

Recently, reports that divisiveness has reached deep into the UFT, a former proud chapter – and don't think the destructive acts on large schools by BloomKlein doesn't have this in mind.

We received this report:

The UFT executive board is revolting against the chapter leader. There are many issues, but the two most recent have to do with

(1) the lack of administration and union response to the threats by DoE to close Dewey (the DoE's most recent gripe VIA the School Comprehensive Assessment has to do with things like policy and practices regarding school entry, dress code, confiscation of prohibited items, school safety protocols, cafeteria access, etc.);

(2) The chapter leader's accusations of anti-semitism was directed against two teachers. The anti-semitism furor followed the posting of leaflets that advertised a demonstration against Israeli's attacks on Gaza. One of the accused teachers (who happens to be Jewish) claimed he didn't post or distribute the leaflets, but he was defending the right of anyone to do this.

Regarding the bullshit Comprehensive Assessment, the committee wants the school to take a strong stand on Dewey's right to fashion its own rules regarding student use of the building in the light of Dewey's history and philosophy.

The reason for safety incidents has to do with the influx of students who are rejected from all the other South Brooklyn schools that have been closed/divided/restructured/small schoolized. In the light of these immediate events plus a whole host of complaints about how the chapter leader behaved in the last year, making personal accusations against the principal and disseminating misleading information to staff, the executive board is talking about having a recall election.

Leaflets from the UFT executive board critical of the chapter leader are floating around.

And there's a leaflet from the UFT District Rep, Useless CHarlie Friedman (or UCH! ) on behalf of the chapter leader. What else do you expect from the UFT? To side with the forces that actually want to protect the Dewey philosophy and fight Tweed?

How bad can things get when a Unity stalwart not in the school urges ICE to run a candidate in this spring's chapter leader elections?

Been waiting a long time

To celebrate this Beatles Song.
With some Beef Wellington tonight at One if By Land, Two if By Sea.
Gotta go.
Better apply for social security while it's still there.

UFT and DOE Agree to Make up Snow Day July 1...

...so the kids don't miss a day of test prep.
The program will be known as the "Snow (Day) Recovery Operation – SRO.
The UFT has has claimed victory, saying the DOE wanted two days – the extra as a day in the bank for future snow days.

Ed in the Apple/Peter Goodman...

...is a shill for the UFT Propaganda Machine

Ed In the Apple/Peter Goodman as just another mouthpiece for the UFT leadership policies that have aided and abetted the gutting of public education. Goodman is using the Ed in the Apple blog as one of the arms of the propaganda machine to justify UFT policy.

Goodman's post
Beware of Geeks Bearing Formulas: Is the Rush to Data the “New Stupid,?” Education Must Begin With Kids and Teachers reveals much about how the levels the Unity Caucus machine operates on.

Talk about Greeks bearing gifts when Ed/Peter Goodman – former District 22 rep and long-time and current employee of the UFT – writes:

"... the priorities Obama set in his Tuesday night speech were troubling: accountability, charter schools, data and national standards"

Let's see now.

Goodman doesn't quite mention the UFT's two charter schools (in one of the great cases of nepotism- his son Drew Goodman was chosen as principal of the UFT middle school charter after a supposedly expensive nation-wide search – and then removed after complaints from teachers).

Or the UFT support for the use of data reports of teachers.

Or the UFT's support of performance bonuses.

Or the fact that Goodman was on being paid to make judgments to close schools, including my alma mater Thomas Jefferson HS (yes, I do hold grudges).

And in a previous piece,
Whispering in Arne’s Ear: Is He Joel/Michelle in Drag, or, Will He Listen to the Folks in Classrooms? Goodman tries to give the impression Arne Duncan can go either way, ignoring Duncan's complete Joel Klein-like agenda in Chicago.

The UFT propaganda machine tries to minimize the nationwide attack on public schools and make it look like our problems in NYC are because of Joel Klein's personality.

Thus Randi Weingarten praised the Duncan appointment.

And there's this disingenuous "If you can get Joel and Randi to agree upon the use of this data I have an assignment for you in the Middle East." The goal is to pass on the propaganda that Randi somehow stands up to Klein even when in fact she agreed to the data reports in the first place to "help the teachers."

Yes Ed/Peter, there will be peace in the middle east before we see the UFT do what a union should be doing.

Poverty Pimp Eva Moskowitz Steals Another Public School

photoshopped by David B.

... and another batch of teachers as ATRs are created

Patrick Sullivan writes at the NYC Parent Blog:

Bloomberg & Klein Send the State Assembly A Message

Excerpt:

The Times also confirms the PS 241 in Manhattan's District 3 will be replaced with a branch of the Eva Moskowitz charter chain, Harlem Success Academy.

What's news here is not just a new charter school opening but that the Bloomberg administration will convert a public school to a charter school without a majority vote of the parent body as required by state law. The elimination of the school will also require the neighborhood to be rezoned to reassign children to other schools left by the gap created by 241's closure. The administration has signaled that it will not seek the approval for rezoning from Distirct 3's Community Education Council, also required by state education law.

Clearly there is a message here. It was only a few weeks ago that members of the Assembly heavily criticized both the style and substance of Klein's management of the schools at a Manhattan hearing. In fact, PS 241 sits in the district of Assemblyman Daniel O'Donnell, the Education Committee member who captivated the hearing audience with his incisive questioning and witty responses to the usual DOE deflections. By openly flouting the law, Bloomberg and Klein are making it clear they are above any law and will do precisely as they please.

How do you watch Arne Duncan...

....operate as the leader of the Chicago school system - read this post as an example - People need to know what is happening in Chicago--forecast for the US and write this:

Obama’s education budget strikes some themes beyond Ed. Sec. Duncan’s refrains so far of KIPP, TFA, and value-added data-tracking systems as the “proven strategies” to push. The new themes in the budget overview on education strike me as more promising - maybe more of Obama, less of Duncan? - and hint at reforms progressives have been calling for. Clay Burell

It looks like a bunch of interested parties are starting to judge the Obama administration based on its appointments and early policy direction. And that’s just fine. But when there’s Fordham’s Reform-a-meter, and Diane Ravitch proclaims Duncan’s USDOE to be Bush’s third term, I’ll chime in with Fred Klonsky: judge people for what they do, but remember the context. Sherman Dorn

Isn't the appointment of Duncan the context? I mean, why choose Duncan and then go counter to his core beliefs? There seem to be a lot of pro-Obama ed people on their knees praying Duncan will not be Duncan. And who are these "interested" parties?

One NYC parent commented:

Obama's "key White Advisor is Bob Gordon, a former advisor to Klein, and, the author of the New York City Weighted Student Funding plan." Talk about the frying pan and the fire!

Exactly how much "context" do these people need?

A NYC Teacher/Parent Asks: Closing Schools - WHY?

In my social circles, I speak with a number of people that have children in both private and public schools. Many of the parents are completely dumbfounded by the fact that a public school can just be closed down by the DOE WITHOUT any consultation with the parents or the community.

Closing the schools in a neighborhood completely changes everything for the people living there. Children must be registered with new schools, education is disrupted, bussing schedules changed, life must be completely reorganized. Parents and children must change everything to scramble to get their children into new schools and start over again.

NOT that these parents WANT ther children to be sent to a school where violence is strife, or the atmosphere does not contribute to learning. The BIG question is this: WHY can't the existing schools be made more productive, without closing them, and turning them into other schools?


It would seem to me with all of the geniuses that hold Harvard and Yale degrees in the offices of the DOE,that rather than blaming the teachers, there would be some studies made at the schools where there are problems to pinpoint precisely why schools fail. The simple fact is this- the school is an extension of the community- if the people that most have a vested interest in education of their children are kept out and excluded from the educational process (parents, teachers, school administrators), how could ANY school have the opportunity to turn itself around? Aren't those of us most directly involved more aware of what makes a school work than some bureaucrat sitting in Tweed?

Still, we let these bureaucrats close these schools, and we just let it happen. My opinion- it's time to put the word PUBLIC back in education and in service. Call me naive, but, aren't these PUBLIC servants like Bloomberg and Klein supposed to be answering to US?

It's time to grow a pair, people, and not only speak up, but GET the control back to where it belong- the people that pay the salaries of the Kleins and Cerfs- US!

People need to know what is happening in Chicago--forecast for the US

People need to know what is happening in Chicago because it is a preview of the national agenda for urban schools.

Since 2004, under Arne Duncan, Chicago has been closing neighborhood schools in African American and Latino working class communities and turning them over to charter schools, selective enrollment schools for new gentrifiers, or to an outside “turnaround specialist.”

We have been fighting for quality neighborhood schools in every neighborhood and against these school closings every year. This year Duncan, before he became Sec. of Ed, recommended closing or turning around 22 schools on a few weeks notice. In the end the Board of Ed. voted to go ahead and close or "turn-around" 16 neighborhood schools, rocks of stability in their communities, each with a compelling story to tell. We saved 6.

We, a multiracial coalition of grass roots community organizations, teachers, parents, and students are angry but not surprised. They ignored research data (2 reports that disputed their reasons for closing the schools), the data from the parents and teachers and students who testified for hours and compiled elaborate piles of documents in their defense.

At the Board meeting, Board members admitted not one had read the testimony from these hearings -- the tears, anger, pleas, careful documentation and reasoned argumentation of hundreds and hundreds of African American and Latino working class parents and children and their teachers and administrators.

This travesty of democracy and disrespect, this crass closing of neighborhood schools for gentrification and charter school give aways, this "cost cutting" on the backs of Black and Brown communities is made possible in part because the mayor, who works in collaboration with the most powerful corporate and financial interests, runs the school system and appoints the Board of Education and CEO of CPS. They are completely unaccountable. Now Arne Duncan recommends Detroit (and what other cities?) follow Chicago’s lead with mayoral control.

After candlelight vigils in the cold, many many community meetings, 2 mass rallies and marches, a tent city sleep over in front of the Board of Ed in subfreezing temperatures, and many other kinds of protests, we are tired but unbowed.

We are pushing for a retroactive moratorium on school closings in the state legislature right now and regrouping for the next phase. It's the parents, especially women, and youth and community members who are the heart and soul of this fight.

Their courage and determination to fight, to picket and march and speak out day after day, to become media spokespeople overnight, and to rise up as grassroots leaders should inspire us all. It's a long fight because the stakes are high. People need to know. This is the national education agenda on the horizon. We have to stop it.

For good coverage of the recent phase of our struggle see http://www.substancenews.net/

Pauline
Teachers for Social Justice, Chicago

Pauline Lipman
Professor, Policy Studies
College of Education
University of Illinois-Chicago
1040 W. Harrison, MC 147
Chicago IL 60607-7133
312-413-4413

South Bronx School exposes the sham of rubber room and 3020-a hearings

South Bronx School exposes the sham of rubber room and 3020-a hearings.

So this teacher is removed from school for probably a year for supposedly being unfit to teach, but by paying extortion money to the DOE, it all goes away. They might as well send Vinny the Collector to the school in the first place and skip the rubber room and 3020-a hearing.

SBS writes
the 3020-a process is used not only to remove unwanted teachers from the school, but to extort them as well with fines up to $10K! The teacher in question was offered a deal before the hearing in which a $5K fine would be paid, a classroom management class attended, put into the ATR system, and signing the stipulation "with prejudice" which in legal terms means that there can be no further legal action. Now after Ramona Duran's alleged twisting of reality, the DOE's lawyer's upped the fine to $10K.

School: PS 157 Bronx
Lying supervisor: Ramona Duran
LIS at time: Donald Conyers- now Supt Dist 23
Donald Conyers was the former principal of PS 18X and know that the school was in complete chaos during his reign there. Mr. Conyers never left his office, because he spent more time on the internet instant messaging than educating.

Eva Moskowitz Succeeds at "Harlem Success"

...In Raking in the Big Bucks.

Thus spawneth the market-based ed reform movement.

A must read if you want to see what the evils of the ed "reform" movement bring forth. Juan Gonzalez in the Daily News reports on one of the more disgusting people in NYC education/politics. Charter schools have license to steal from the public coffers while private interests fuel a gravy train. What next, a Harlem Success corporate jet?

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2009/02/26/2009-02-26_former_city_council_member_eva_moskowitz.html
"Moskowitz, who makes no secret of her desire to create 40 charter schools across the city and run for mayor some day, raked in $371,000 in salaries in the 2006-2007 school year from organizations connected to her four schools," Gonzalez writes. "Charter schools are free to use the money they raise from outside sources any way they see fit - even if that means huge salaries for the chief executive. Given that Moskowitz routinely complains that the Department of Education has failed to provide a fair share of funding for her students, it's fair to ask why she's paying herself so much for educating so few. Charters get about 90% of what it costs to teach each child and raise funds for additional money."

That's all for about 1000 kids from grades K-3 who attend Harlem Success.

Let's see now. At this rate, if Moskowitz was the chancellor, this would come to around $1,200,000,000 based on the per child rate. Hey Joel, you're underpaid.

Photo credit: Costanza for Daily News

A Call to Action – Seeking No-Bid Contract Whistleblowers in New York City Public Schools

Guest column

By Malia Politzer

Since Mayor Bloomberg took office in 2002, no-bid contracts have ballooned from roughly $700,000 per year to $40 million.

We are three graduate students at the Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism at Columbia University investigating why this jump in no-bid contracts within Department of Education took place.

By filing a Freedom of Information Law request, we’ve acquired a list of every no-bid registered with the city comptroller’s office during the span of the Bloomberg administration. But sources tell us that there are even more no-bid contracts that are not filed with comptroller.

Here’s where you come in. We’ve been doing our homework—but there are hundreds of no-bid contracts, and only three of us. We need your help to narrow the scope of our investigation.

Linked here is a complete list of no-bid contracts filed with the City Comptroller’s office under mayoral control. This second list is narrowed down to no-bid contracts for technology, teacher trainings, testing, and data-collection.

We’re requesting that concerned teachers, parents, officials within the DOE—or anyone else with inside knowledge and an interest in improving education—take a look at this list and tell us if there are any contracts that they think ought to be further investigated.

Our focus is on data, testing, and teacher trainings. Who’s making money off of these contracts, and should they be? Are the contracts going to the right vendors? Are any companies getting the contracts because of insider-connections (a wife, friend, golfing-buddy etc.) Are testing, trainings or data-taking actually effective in public schools?

Are you an educator who is suspicious about a why your school is using a specific testing system or data collection method? Are there certain teacher trainings that feel like a waste of time, and that you think providers aren’t qualified to give? Or perhaps you are a vendor who lost a contract with the DOE you feel you should have gotten? Do you know people who used to work in contracting in the DOE? Email me.

You can reach me anytime at my email address: malia.n.politzer@gmail.com.

We also want to talk to parents, teachers, students, and administrators about execution – are these no-bids getting the bang for their buck? Are the teacher trainings beneficial, or a waste of time? Are that data-taking initiatives helpful or hurtful? Testing?

If you have information, experience, or opinions on these issues – please take a look at these contracts, and contact me directly. Thank you for your help.

Complete no-bid contrast list: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=psLbSNUMNpHIwlHtKh77zYQ&hl=en
Narrowed-down by topic: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=psLbSNUMNpHJnEjTRevhYfg


--
Malia Politzer
Stabile Fellow
Columbia Graduate School of Journalism
c: 480-316-9696
malia.n.politzer@gmail.com


Ed Note:
Check the list above of no bid contracts and see if your school used any of them. Let Malia know how the vendors did. Were there any signs they got the bid because they had naked pictures of Joel Klein?

Missing The Union Label

Someone called the East New York Prep Charter School and asked " Are the teachers in your school in a union?" The answer was a definitive "No".

Why is this an interesting factoid? The UFT mouthpiece, the NY Teacher, ran an ad for the school.

Shtupping in the Charters: Bait and Switch

Some Upper West Side Parents Fit to Be Tied Over Tweed Manipulation

It's not all about horror stories for NYC teachers.
Want to see how the Joel Klein team operates with parent communities?

Here are some excerpts from Bijou Miller, Co-President of District 3 President Council, followed by Leonie Haimson.
Click on the link below to read it all.

For those of you who did not make the joint Pres. Council/CEC meeting at PS 241, I wanted to post this because, in my opinion, what happened tonight was the DOE at its worst- In point of fact, I thought I had seen its worst, until tonight.

this "hearing" was being held under the auspices of the Charter School Institute of the State University of New York. I also found out that someone had bused in a busload of children who were given caps blazoned with the Harlem Success Academy logo.

John White, the Office of Portfolio Development, who is running this show stated that the feeling was that 241 families would not put their kids into another public school-that the DOE felt a charter would attract more families. Let me also say that the DLT was told there were at least two viable options for 241, one a charter and one a public. The DLT was never ever given any information on the public option. We asked for info but he put it off or changed the subject at least twice. It was quite obvious that a charter was the DOE's choice and that Harlem Success was the specific choice. At the second meeting, White had even invited Harlem Success parents to come and "testify" about how great their school was. So the deck was definitely stacked

Leonie Haimson:

I agree with Bijou that this is one of the most outrageous things that the DOE has ever tried to do -- and they have done alot.

To close a zoned school w/out the CEC's approval -- essentially eliminating the zone -- and putting a charter school in its place is blatantly illegal: state law and chancellor's regs require that all changes in zoning must be approved by the CEC.

Privatizing the system and turning the best schools into charters, which then excluded the neediest students, is what they did in New Orleans but it took a nearly unprecedented national disaster to do it. here we only have Hurricane Bloomberg/Klein.

The full posts at:
District 3 (Upper West Side) Meeting and Comments

More from Bijou on charters and PS 241 at the NYC Parent blog.

Rise and Fall Back Down: Charter School Comments Galore

Diane Ravitch at Politico.com on Obama and charter schools
President Obama's enthusiasm for charter schools is baffling. Doesn't he realize that they are a deregulation strategy much beloved by Republicans? Deregulation works brilliantly for some schools as it does for some firms. But it produces many losers too. If he thinks that deregulation is the cure for American education, I have some AIG stock I'd like to sell him.
http://www.politico.com/arena/

The Klonsky Brothers are all in a twit over Diane's critique of Obama's ed policy.
Mike writes: What a joke! Obama has done more to save public education in one month than the entire Bush regime did in 12 years.

Ravitch, who high stakes test resisters used to despise, has been one of the strongest voices in NYC on the impact of BloomKlein. We have also seen her in her debates with Debbie Meier seem to move beyond the narrow local issue to the wider view of the impact testing regimens have and how the scores can be misused. Some people on ICE mail who are, and continue to be, critical of Ravitch, have also wondered exactly where the Klonskys stood during all the years of the Chicago school reform model. But we'll leave some of those comments for another time.


Comment on Lorri Giovinco-Harte Examiner post on Charter Schools
I am a public school teacher who is now interviewing with charter schools. I am not impressed.


Susan Ohanian, arm in sling, goes slingin'
Read about the start- of-school hazing procedures enforced by this KIPP leader. And much child abuse. Fresno charter school in furor: Unusual punishments, testing violations alleged as principal resigns from the Fresno Bee posted by Susan:
http://susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.php?id=8427

More on charter schools at ed notes.


Randi Weingarten said she considers Michelle Rhee’s recent kind words “an apology.” (Washington Post)
Randi watchers know she is looking for a reason to make nice with Michelle. My view is this dance was all worked out in advance. Randi: Michelle, I can't sell out the DC teachers until you tone down the rhetoric.
Thanks to Gotham Schools for the lead.


On Obama's speech
Pissed off has words for Obama
I'm sitting here listening to Obama talking about education and I am thinking how totally clueless he is when it comes to this topic.

Miss Eyre had a cogent comment on our post on the speech
Did Obama Fail His Ed Test?
Obama did say that "post-high-school education" includes community college, vocational training, and the military...I see nothing wrong with encouraging students to complete education beyond high school, as long as the "beyond high school" option is right for the student.

Bracey: On Education, Obama Blows It


Chapey finishes 3rd for City Council Seat in Queens (including Rockaway).
Too bad. We wanted her to get ZERO votes. I voted for my fellow Wave columnist Lew Simon, who at least would have brought an air of comedy (unintentional) to the Council. Still glad to see Lew more than doubled Chapey's vote. Read my WAVE column on how she pulled a Rudy B by trading her vote for a seat on the NYS Board of Regents for her mom. Ulrich, the winner, is about 12 years old, so they better have some video games at Council meetings. Who does he know?

32nd CD (Queens, with 82.73 percent of eds reporting):
1. Eric Ulrich: 2,820 2. Lew Simon: 1,368 3. Geraldine Chapey: 607 4. Mike Ricatto: 541
Thanks to David Quintana for the numbers.


Follow-up: Great meeting last night with the Justice Not Just Tests NYCORE group. Two soph college students studying to be teachers were sent by their instructor. With old retirees Angel G and myself and 2 teachers late in their first decade of teaching, it made for a great mix. Yesterday's ed notes post on the abuse of teacher data reports dovetailed with our petition campaign, which we will gear up. Focus on the March 25 Delegate Assembly. We need an army of people out there to get signatures. Join us. We're also working on an ICE/JNJT conference. Save the date: Saturday, March 28. We follow up tonight at the ASC-ICE meeting.

Trying to be a reporter and an organizer can interfere with the easy life style of a retiree.


More: reading great book by Iain Pears: The Dream of Scipio
There is a lot of discussion on the fall of civilization in 3 eras. And lots of Vichy stuff. I'm more convinced than ever that the actions of New Action vis a vis Unity and the actions of Unity/UFT vis a vis the ed reform movement are analagous to the rationales of Vichyites - we're just saving civilization from the Nazi barbarians by collaborating. This concept deserves a separate post.

Did Obama Fail His Ed Test?

So what exactly did Obama say in his speech tonight about reforming education? You see, it's not just about getting resources for schools but about, you know, reform. Like incentives for teachers - you know - merit pay. And charters. And early childhood ed. Well. 1 out of 3 ain't zero.

But as you drill down it gets worse. Shame on you if you don't graduate from not only high school, but college. Does he know that an overwhelming number of jobs over the next decade - if there are any – will not require a college education? I mean, he is telling us his stimulus plan will stimulate infrastructure jobs - mostly vocational-like skills that do not come from a college education. Then in the next breath he makes it look like you are a failure and unpatriotic if you don't go to college. If anything, he should have talked about NOT going to college and learning how to do the kinds of work with your hands that is so missing in this society.

Other than the education aspect, I like the speech. But then again, all I really have any understanding about is education. If I knew economics, I might be screaming bloody murder.

Teacher Data Reports Misused at MS 321 Updated

UPDATED: SEE LEONIE HAIMSON IMPORTANT COMMENT BELOW ARTICLE

The Justice Not Just Tests group ICE has been working with has been asking teachers to petitions calling on the UFT to end its fateful agreement to issue teacher data reports based on their students' test scores. One of the members of the JNJT group sent us this story of the way one principal has used this test by handing out copies to the entire staff for comparison purposes. As far back as the early 80's my principal used to put up all the score over the time clock with the teachers' names and circle in red the names of those whose classes scored below what she expected, so I've seen this game before.

Click on the image to enlarge

I posted the text of the JNJT petition on Norms Notes and if this story doesn't get teachers to circulate it, nothing will. Copy and paste it or email me for the pdf. By the way, JNJT meets today at 5:30 at CUNY, 34th and 5th Ave, rm 5414. Come on down and join the struggle.


A teacher reports from MS 321M

I'm a teacher at MS 321, a grade 6-8 middle school in Washington Heights. My school is being "phased out" (read: closed down) over the next two years. The first discussion of these Teacher Data Reports came at the meeting when the announcement of our school closing was made. At this meeting, a DOE representative pointed out that the Teacher Data Reports "would be out there" when we apply for new jobs. As our school closes, we will become part of the teacher reserve and will have to apply for new jobs, so the implication is that principals will use these reports in the hiring process.

Our principal then "rolled out" the use of Teacher Data Reports at a recent faculty meeting. She explained that whether we like it or not, education is becoming a business and these data reports will hold us accountable according to a business model. It was pointed out by staff members that according to the UFT/DOE agreement: 1) the reports are supposed to be kept between you and your principal and 2) they cannot be used for the sake of evaluation. She did not contest these points, but also claimed that this data can be shared with other principals, so when we apply for new jobs principals will look at these reports while deciding whether to hire or not.

This was bad enough, but despite verbally agreeing that these reports were supposed to be private, she handed out all ELA and Math teachers’ data reports to every faculty member, stapled and compiled together, apparently for the sake of comparison. This is in clear violation of the UFT/DOE agreement that the reports were to be private.

Many people in the staff were outraged and several of us called the district representative from our union that night. The next day a union meeting was held with this representative. Everyone at the meeting (about 2/3 of the UFT chapter) signed a letter expressing our outrage, which was forwarded to the leaders of the UFT and the DOE.

After a couple of weeks, a superintendent from the DOE came in to apologize. Notably, our principal was absent and has yet to directly apologize to the staff. The superintendent said that all principals were given professional development outlining the use of data reports and that it was very clear that reports were to be handed out only in individual meetings.

She claimed to be considering disciplinary action against my principal, but refused to guarantee this or state exactly what that action would be. We must demand that swift and dramatic action be taken, lest other principals feel that they can get away with sharing the reports publicly or amongst themselves.

When questioned, she stated that administrators could not share these reports with other administrators. This new position is definitely a welcome development, as statements from the UFT and DOE have been unclear on this issue. Nonetheless, what is to stop principals from discretely sharing the data and this data informing hiring decisions?

The incident and discussion by my principal about these reports show that the notion that they are a tool for professional development is absurd. The effect of the reports can only further encourage teachers to spend weeks of teaching students how to take the test, poring through old exams and dumbing down instruction to only cover the types of problems on previous tests. And in practice, we can expect principals to threaten to use these reports as evaluative tools either explicitly or otherwise.

Despite the implications of the superintendent, I doubt that my principal was really acting as a “lone wolf”. More likely she got the idea that these reports are a “tool for accountability” from somewhere up the chain. It is only because we came together as a united staff that the DOE felt the need to change the tone of the conversation with our staff.

Finally, we need to argue that the Teacher Data Reports should be abolished immediately. It serves no useful purpose for professional development. There can be no effective mechanism to prevent the data’s misuse amongst administrators, either through sharing it with staff or other administrators or using it, in practice, as a tool for teacher evaluation.

Just an isolated case? We know full well that if there had not been concerted response on the part of the chapter, the UFT would have done little. With so many chapters loaded with young teachers without tenure, fear reigns and most would have done nothing. For 2/3 of the teachers to sign a petition shows a higher degree of union consciousness at MS 321. That is not due to the UFT as much as to the political activity of some of the teachers, some of it connected to groups opposed to the Unity Caucus leadership.

The UFT will now try to claim "victory." But the victory belongs to the staff of MS 321. Below, our teacher reporter does some broader analysis, placing the larger role of the UFT in context, some of which may appear in a publication.


Neoliberalism, privatization, charter schools, merit pay, data reports
- and the UFT
by Anonymous teacher at IS 321M

Across the country, the neoliberal educational model continues to be pushed. Privately managed and publicly funded charter schools are multiplying. In public schools, teachers are being forced to teach narrowly to standardized tests and there is a push to deny union rights like seniority and tenure in favor of standardized test-driven evaluation and merit pay.

The examples of such moves abound. All union teachers were fired and more than half of New Orleans schools became charter schools following Hurricane Katrina. In Washington, D.C., hundreds of teachers have been fired and at least 21 schools have been closed, and Michelle Rhee, the chancellor of DC schools proposed ending teacher tenure and seniority for a performance-based system, though this proposal has since been withdrawn. Dozens of other examples could be cited.

New York City is no exception. Advertisements for charter schools are being sent out in mass to residents of Harlem and placed in subway cars. Each year the push to tailor instruction to fit standardized tests is stronger, complete with breakdowns and analyses of previous years' tests, so as better to teach to the test.. The number of periodic assessments, which eat into instructional time and cause immense amount of stress on students, continues to rise.

Shockingly, some of the most dramatic moves toward a neoliberal educational model have been agreed to by the leadership of my union, the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), and even proclaimed as victories! The oft-stated justification by union leadership for these concessions is that accepting neoliberal-lite proposals will allow for the union to have a say and head off the more draconian versions.

The UFT opened its own charter school in the fall of 2005, which is proudly proclaimed by the union as the “first union-operated charter school in the country”. In the fall of 2007, the UFT agreed to a “pilot”, “voluntary” school-wide merit pay scheme, which my school has been chosen for.

The justification from our union leadership is that if we are going to have charter schools anyway, let them be union-run. If merit pay is coming anyway, let it be group merit pay instead of individual merit pay. But this gets it backwards. The privatizers see such examples as victories! Charter schools are a step away from public control, and for that reason are mostly non-union. We should be fighting to keep public schools public, not jumping on the charter school bandwagon. Where there was no merit pay scheme, there is one now.

The logical conclusion of all of this is that more of our educational funding will go towards these schemes, which will undermine public education and union rights. For example, while the stimulus bill includes a welcome $54 billion for education, the New York Times reports that, “Programs that tie teacher pay to performance will most likely receive money…” in the bill. In fact, a February 19 NYC Department of Education announcement states that, “New York City can also apply for grants to expand its Schoolwide Performance Bonus Program, which rewards educators for improving student achievement, from the $200 million Teacher Incentive Funds.” This money could be better used to prevent budget cuts, lower existing class sizes or to increase teacher salaries across the board.

Most recently, this fall, the UFT agreed to “Teacher Data Reports” for grade 4-8 English Language Arts (ELA) and Math teachers. They break down the performance of each teacher's students on the New York State Math or ELA test in grades 4-8. Chancellor Joel Klein and UFT President Randi Weingarten jointly announced these reports as, “a "new tool to help teachers learn about their own strengths and opportunities for development". They even had the audacity to claim that the idea came from teachers themselves! The letter states, “…many of you have told us how useful it would be to better understand how your efforts are influencing student progress.”

I have heard of teachers complain of lack of mentoring, support and materials (including basics like books and copies), but never of not knowing or having a breakdown of our students’ scores on standardized tests. We are already subjected to countless breakdowns of such “data”, and most teachers would agree that none of this data analysis improves our pedagogy.

At the same time, the letter spells out clearly that, “the Teacher Data Reports are not to be used for evaluation purposes” and in another UFT statement it is made clear that the reports are a private document to be shared with each teacher and their principal. Again, our union leadership proclaimed a victory in keeping the data private and fending off attempts to use such data for evaluation.

But if the reports are not useful in teacher training and development, what are they useful for? Especially given the context of this push towards performance-based evaluation and merit pay, it is impossible to see these reports as anything but a foot in the door towards teacher evaluation on the basis of test scores, and ultimately publicly releasing this data.

Leonie Haimson sent this comment on the story:

Given the tremendous errors in the class size data, the reports may have incorrect evaluations of a teacher’s effectiveness – even assuming the formula is correct (which I’m sure its not.) Every teacher should demand the class size data being used for his or her data report to check it for accuracy.

The teachers should demand that the formula used in the report be disclosed, as well as the research study mentioned below and the identity of the independent panel of experts that supposedly approved it.

THE DOE CLAIMS BUT WON'T REVEAL NAMES:
A panel of technical experts has approved the DOE’s value-added methodology. The DOE’s model has met recognized standards for demonstrating validity and reliability. Teachers’ value-added scores from the model are positively correlated with both School Progress Report scores and principals’ perceptions of teachers’ effectiveness, as measured by a research study conducted during the pilot of this initiative.

Blog Posts of the Day: Feb. 24, 2009

Growing the bureaucracy: but guess which office at Tweed has actually shrunk?
NYC PS Parent Blog


Is Arne Duncan Really Margaret Spellings in Drag?
"I am sorely disappointed in Arne Duncan. I don't see any change from the mean, punitive version of accountability that the Bush administration foisted on the nation's schools."

Diane has been attacked from the left for daring to criticize Obama. As a test-resister who once looked at her very skeptically, my love for her for her honesty is growing by leaps and bounds. Even some of my fellow ICE'ers have come to see her in new ways, remarkable considering her ties to Shanker and his policies.


NYC Educator:
Ms. Weingarten Holds a Rally
Another ho-hum moment?

TEAM & FAMILY: A Veteran Educator's Charter School Experience

Alexander Russo at TWIE: A great interview by Russo with a teacher at the KIPP Brooklyn the UFT is attempting to unionize. One thing is clear. They don't expect much of a contract but do want some basic rights. The question they will face: can the UFT do much when their rights even with a contract are ignored? They should check with NYC public school teachers first.

Student Abuse Ignored by DOE

Even BloomKlein critics have given them credit for breaking up the old political machines that ran local schools for so long. But did they?

Ed Notes reported on the situation at PS 154X in in District 7 the Bronx on Jan. 22. Principal Linda-Amil Irizzary was Supt. of District 8 last year. She was asked to leave. Yolanda Torres, her good friend, is currently the Supt of District 7. They are rumored to be well-connected to certain political entities.

With reports surfacing with increasing frequency of some administrators at the school using more force than necessary one must wonder how it is possible for a teacher to end up in the rubber room after sneazing near a kid while adminsitrators can face serious charges, yet be allowed to, not only continue on the job, but be allowed to conduct the investigation into their own behavior.

The Rubber Room Reporter blog had a follow-up on Monday Feb. 24th,
Disarray at PS 154X in the South Bronx, Teachers There Report, asking:

What is going on at PS 154X in the South Bronx? And what is Joel Klein doing about it?

Related
http://southbronxschool.blogspot.com/

Will Bloomberg dump Joel Klein?

Is the question NY Magazine's Intelligencer asks. There is an attempt at analysis in terms of the UFT:

....the problem for Klein is not so much in the data (though critics have accused him of juicing the numbers) but himself. This is a big problem for Bloomberg’s dreams of a third term as “education mayor.” He can’t pay off the United Federation of Teachers, which sat on the sidelines last election, with a better contract this time. “If the UFT decides, based on Klein, to oppose Bloomberg, you’re talking about a lot of troops on the ground,” says labor activist Jonathan Tasini. Knowing this, the union is said to be pushing the mayor to sacrifice Klein. While lawmakers have piled on the chancellor, UFT head Randi Weingarten has restrained her attacks in recent weeks, stirring speculation of a pact with Bloomberg. Weingarten answers gamely: “I’ve found the mayor easier to deal with and more responsive than the chancellor.”
Walcott says, “The mayor is not one to make deals for anything that sacrifices individuals.” But on the question of Klein’s fate,

There's a lot of meat in this section to analyze. The UFT tries to separate Klein and Bloomberg in teachers' minds. This is a political ploy designed to make it seem this struggle is just about individuals and not a massive corporate attack on schools. Why? Because the UFT is aligned with the corporations and does anything it can to divert the members into focusing on Klein as the problem, as if Washington DC, Baltimore, Chicago, and New Orleans didn't exist as part of the fabric of the reform movement. Remember, Randi gave her blessing to Arne Duncan as Ed Secretary when he is, supposedly, just a more likeable version of Klein. And a better rebounder.

Klein is irrelevant and all attempt to talk about how he is disliked is a smoke screen. So if Klein does go they can use it to claim victory and slide by their tacit support of Bloomberg's third term - see we supported Bloomberg 3rd term, a fait accompli – and got this massive victory in getting rid of Klein.

Total distractive bullcrap.

Michael Fiorillo added this comment on ICE-mail:

Somewhat interesting to see, although one reaction of mine is,

"(If we) Meet the new boss,
(He'll be) Same as the old boss."

Two other reactions:

- Everyone, Randi included, continues with this good cop/bad cop thing with Klein and Bloomberg, when the transparent reality is that Klein is Bloomberg. They may disagree on tactics, and Bloomberg may throw Klein overboard in his own political self-interest, but they share the same worldview about education, as will Klein's (hypothetical) successor.

- On a deeper level, the piece shows the willful naivete/stupidity of the mainstream press with a statement such as, "Both he (Klein) and Bloomberg are... corporate minded,and distrustful of ideology." That's a hot one, since to be "corporate-minded" is by definition ideological: axiomatically anti-labor, obsessed with control over "production" and the pursuit of narrow interests.

How much more ideological can you get?

Best,
Michael Fiorillo