New York City march for schools

By Michele Showman May 19, 2009

NEW YORK--About 75 New York City public school teachers, students and parents rallied in lower Manhattan on May 14 to urge the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) to resist school closings and control of the schools by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

The protest was organized by Grassroots Education Movement (GEM), a coalition of dissident caucuses within the union, as well as parent and community groups. GEM seeks to unite teachers and parents in pressuring the UFT to resist mayoral control and school privatization.
They also came together to support the 1,700 teachers who have lost their jobs as a result of school closings, as well as the hundreds of teachers in temporary re-assignment centers ("rubber rooms"). Their demands include eliminating high-stakes testing, reducing class sizes and no to merit pay. GEM held a conference on charter schools earlier this month at Pace University that built momentum for the protest.

Protesters went to UFT headquarters, where protesters picketed and chanted, "DOE [Department of Education]! Open your eyes! We don't want to privatize." The protest continued to the offices of the Department of Education, where a number of speakers spoke to the importance of union resistance to mayoral control, and to democratic control of the schools.
"Over 20 schools have been closed, and more are on the chopping block," said Angel Gonzalez. "We must oppose principals who behave like centralized dictatorships."

Marchers cheered when Brian Jones, a middle school teacher in East Harlem, said, "President Obama's charter schools represent an attempt to do education on the cheap. Billions are available to bail out the banks: we need that money to bail out the schools!"

By connecting teacher union activists with community forces, GEM is mobilizing the kind of force that can stop school closings, and put control of schools in the hands of teachers and parents.

Battle Intensifies in LA Schools

http://socialistworker.org/2009/05/19/battle-intensifies-in-la-schools

From Socialist Worker


BATTLE INTENSIFIES IN LA SCHOOLS
====================================

Gillian Russom and David Rapkin, members of United Teachers Los Angeles, report on the union's response to a court order barring a planned one-day strike on May 15.

May 19, 2009

AFTER AN anti-union judge issued a temporary restraining order banning our planned one-day strike set for May 15, thousands of members of United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) and hundreds of Los Angeles students pushed back with a series of actions on that day.

Morning picket lines before school, student walkouts and sit-ins, a civil disobedience action by teachers, and an afternoon union rally sent a clear message that our struggle to stop layoffs and class size increases is not going away.Teachers, students, and parents are outraged at the Los Angeles Unified School District's (LAUSD) plans to lay off nearly 2,900 teachers and 2,600 other school employees, and increase class sizes in every grade level.

The layoffs are unnecessary, since money from the federal stimulus bill is sufficient to save these jobs.UTLA members had voted to hold a one-day strike May 15 to protest the layoffs, but union officers decided to cancel the work stoppage when Judge James Chalfant issued a restraining order that could have imposed a fine of $1,000 and a loss of credentials on each teacher who participated.

Chalfant also threatened to fine UTLA itself $1,000 for each member who took part in the strike--a penalty that, if successfully imposed, would have bankrupted the union.

The pickets, civil disobedience and rally were important in keeping teachers active and sending the message that we'll continue the fight. However, it comes in the context of the injunction, which was a major defeat for us and represents a formidable attack on the labor movement.

Plus, Superintendent Ramon Cortines' hard-line stance can't be underestimated. From Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa--a supposed friend of UTLA--to the school board to Cortines and the courts, we are being hammered.The next step it is to reinvigorate the fight in whatever ways we can. Chalfant's temporary restraining order--which could become a permanent injunction against strikes and job actions--needs to be challenged.

This intervention against our democratic right to strike is an attack on the entire labor movement, and UTLA must enlist active support from the LA County Federation of Labor and unions everywhere.Most importantly, we need to prepare union members for a long, tough fight.The fight against layoffs is taking place while a tentative agreement on a contract was set aside prior to a ratification vote by the membership. The district may well agree to pull back partially on layoffs in exchange for reopening contract talks to seek unpaid leave and other concessions from the union. How much we can win in negotiations depends on the level of pressure we maintain through our organizing over the coming weeks.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
SOME ACTIVISTS were disappointed with the UTLA officers' decision to call off the strike, but nevertheless shifted quickly into organizing actions that wouldn't violate the court order.

Angry picket lines were set up in front of most schools Friday morning for the hour before classes started. At Roosevelt High School in Boyle Heights, 100 teachers chanted, "The district says cut back, we say fight back!" and "What do we want? Lower class size! When do we want it? Now!"

Later that morning, we took part in a civil disobedience action in front of LAUSD headquarters with 37 other teachers and union officers. By getting arrested, we hoped to show our ongoing commitment to fighting the cuts, and to keep public attention focused on the detrimental impact that class size increases will have on students' education.Wearing t-shirts reading "Don't raise class size" and "Restrain the district," we stormed up to the locked doors of the school board's offices. Our chants of "Don't raise class size" reverberated off the building as TV cameras rolled.

Knowing that the school board would not arrest us on their steps, we moved into the middle of the street where we formed a circle and sat down. "We are here because for over 500 years, we have been facing oppression," said Martha Guerrero, a history teacher at Roosevelt High School. "Students of color and marginalized youth are continually denied a quality education, and it is obvious that this system does not care about their future. Enough is enough, ¡ya basta!"Twenty-one women and 17 men, including UTLA's president, vice president and secretary, were handcuffed by police in riot gear and transported to two LA jails. We were released around 9 p.m. after about six hours in holding cells.

Students showed their opposition to the cuts and solidarity with teachers in actions at several schools around the city. About 500 students at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles held a sit-in in the school's central yard. Later, they moved to the athletic field bleachers, and the school provided a sound system so they could discuss why they didn't want teachers laid off. Garfield could lose 13 English and social studies teachers.Sit-ins of hundreds of students also took place at Jordan High School in South Los Angeles, Franklin High School in Highland Park and Miguel Contreras Learning Complex in downtown LA."We care about the teachers," Jasmine Guerrero, a senior at Franklin, told the /Los Angeles Times/. "But it's more about us. One teacher for 45 students, it's not a productive learning environment."

At Miguel Contreras Learning Complex School, 300 students held a sit-in in the courtyard from 8 a.m. until about 10:30. Speaking on a bullhorn, one student leader listed the names of LA schools and how many teachers each school would lose due to the cuts.

Another leader gave out the phone number of school board president Monica Garcia, and dozens left messages demanding that she change her vote."Students are definitely making the connection between supporting the teachers' struggle and the fact that their own education is at stake," said Jess Kochick, a teacher at Miguel Contreras. "They were saying things like, 'If they're not going to let you strike, we're not going to go to class!' What students are doing is definitely going to be a crucial part of how we win."

A spirited after-school rally drew about 1,500 teachers, students and parents to the LAUSD building yet again. The head of the LA County Federation of Labor, Maria Elena Durazo addressed the crowd, emphasizing that the struggle for public education is a fight for the whole working class.

UTLA activists are pressing ahead with further mobilizations. Teachers around the city are planning actions including community forums and a protest by elementary school students and parents as well as a possible hunger strike leading up to a major protest at the school board's next meeting on May 26.All this is vital--but more activism and organization will be needed. In the weeks and the months ahead, UTLA faces what are likely to be the most important struggles in its history, and the union will need to be mobilize and organize its rank-and-file members like it has never done before.

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

Readers are welcome to share and use material belonging to this site for non-commercial purposes, as long as they are attributed to the author and SocialistWorker.org.[1]

Teachers Unite Chapter Leader Support

I'm on the road this week. I'm up in Manchester, NH at FIRST HQ for a robotics conference this week so blogging may be sketchy. Certainly, no graphics.

Monday night was a busy one. There was lots of stuff going on at the PEP meeting at Stuyvesant HS with the anti-mayoral control parent group and others on military recruitment.

I couldn't make it because Teachers Unite was holding its prospective chapter leader training session. Michael Fiorillo (ICE), Megan Behrent (TJC) and I were the old hands answering a wealth of questions from people thinking of running either for CL or Delegate.

If you are running or thinking of running for chapter leader or are involved in supporting a candidate in your school, the discussion was very valuable. We hope to continue meeting and eventually form a meaningful support group for chapter leaders that will be able to link the role of union leader at the school level with the broader issues facing teachers.

There was a lot of meat on the table to chew on and I will try to report on some of it when I get a chance this week to follow up.

Here is one item that came up:

The type of support CLs get from the union varies. The key person is the District Rep. Since Randi killed elections (they used to be elected by the CLs in the district) they are more beholden to the leadership than to the members. But I maintain they were never all that beholden in the first place since they were all in the ruling Unity Caucus, which runs the union as a one party system.

The DR is like an overseer, watching for signs of dissonance. They keep CL from wandering off the reservation. CLs feel very beholden to the DR as they are the major conduit to the UFT and even friends of Ed Notes and ICE often feel wary of handing out our literature. ("My DR will rip me a new a-hole if I pass this out was one comment.")

Monthly District meetings of CL are always well attended, way more than Delegate Assemblies. There the DR passes out the word of what the union needs them to do. You see, the union views CLs as their employees and gophers even though they are chosen by their staffs. Thus, these meetings are filled with "Do Nows" and very few DRs hold full discussions and brainstorming sessions for CLs to help each other with their issues and coordinate a multi-school strategy. The goal is to keep them all isolated and dependent on the DR and the union, not each other.

One thing we pointed out to the attendees was the narrow view the UFT has of the way to deal with many issues in the school. Basically, the advice it to keep things between a teacher under attack and the CL, and not to fight things politically by trying to mobilize fellow teachers and parents where appropriate. Again, isolate the teachers and make them dependent on the CL, thus reinforcing the UFT chain of command and its tight top down control.

Pride and Prejudice: Seward Darby on ATRs in the New Republic

The New Republic's Seward Darby clearly an ed deformer supporter, attended the Mar 28 Grassroots Education Movement conference on closing schools, charter schools and ATRs. She signed in but did not identify herself as a reporter. Her negative report (School's Out Forever by Seward Darby in The New Republic) is dripping with so much bias and venom, don't get wet reading it. Teachers grumble. They furrow their brow. They shout. The dress of a few people are described for negative effect.

Participants at the March meeting--sponsored by a self-described "dissenting caucus" of the UFT--are leading a campaign to get the city to repeal its mutual-consent policy, including the ATR. And they echoed Weingarten's grievance (though they also called her a "failed labor leader" for agreeing to scrap forced placement in the first place)."

Darby made no attempt to explore the true roots of dissent, that the organizers of the conference represent some of the most progressive teachers in NYC, and that the issues of closing schools and high stakes tests are part of the ATR equation.

"Meanwhile, as states look for ways to qualify for federal stimulus money by committing to increasing teacher effectiveness, New York stands as one model of what not to do."

I've collected a series of Darbyisms from this "journalist" less than two years out of college, clearly an expert in urban education. Note how every teacher is presented with a negative description. And all seem to be vets, ignoring the fact that the conference attracted a mixed bag of newer and older teachers.

Darby is a shill. Numerous quotes from TNTP's Tim Daly but never mention his contracts with the city and what he has to gain by attacking ATRs. Using quotes from Daly and TNTP on ATRs, which has large contracts in NYC to train new teachers, is like using Dick Cheney as a resource on weapons of mass destruction.

"I'm happy now," one such teacher told TNTP researchers. "I don't have to prep, I don't have to grade tests, I don't have my own class. I don't really have to do anything."

Take one quote and apply it to all 1400? I guess Darby didn't have the time to read the comments from ATRs who sent in numerous resumes but didn't get one call. Daly forgot to talk to them too. She had the opportunity to talk directly to many ATRs in the room but chose to use this old quote from TNTP.

"Perhaps worst of all, the ATR is part of what was supposed to be an effort to free New York from the stranglehold its powerful teachers' union" [Stanglehold? Has Darby been awake at all?]

The battle over teacher hiring is why, on a Saturday afternoon in late March, a group of angry veteran teachers gathered in a chilly Manhattan classroom. They were there to protest the ATR. Sitting at desks scattered haphazardly [look at these people,can't even straighten the desks.] through the room, the educators shouted complaints as one woman scribbled notes on sheets of paper taped to the blackboard. They decried New York's mayor, his chancellor of education, and school principals, and they lamented this cabal's primary goal: to replace experienced educators with younger recruits. "A lot of principals don't want teachers who've been around for a while because when they say jump, we'll say, 'Why?'" one woman cried, her brow furrowing with anger. "A twenty-two-year-old would say, 'How high?'

"It's like in the nineteenth century, when people were thrown off farms and had to live in crummy parts of cities," grumbled one teacher, slumped at his desk in snakeskin cowboy boots and a shirt emblazoned with the UFT logo.

Their sense of entitlement dates back to 1961, when the newly formed UFT challenged the weak job security and low pay of the teaching profession.

But the plan is deeply flawed because, in 2005, UFT refused to sacrifice its commitment to lifelong job security. It won the ATR, which means that, while displaced teachers have to compete for jobs, there is no consequence if they do not find them. They would simply get paid to wait in the ATR."

TNTP found no hiring bias against ATR teachers.[Do they have a dog in the race?]

Wearing black boots, army pants, and a skin-tight shirt that said "undefeated," a reserve teacher standing by a snack table declared himself a "political prisoner."

Another retired teacher shouted that the city's attacks on seniority and job guarantees "will make the AIG crooks look like gold." [THAT's ME and I don't shout. I just speak loudly. Of course she took this out of context.]

Today, teachers lingering for months, even years, in the reserve are more likely than the rest of the city's educators to have "unsatisfactory" performance ratings, [DEBUNKED BY EDUWONKETTE] and many haven't applied for new jobs online, [HOW ABOUT DATA? "MANY" MEANS EXACTLY HOW MANY?] where the city maintains an employment database, or attended a job fair.

Chicago, one of the only other big U.S. school systems to adopt mutual consent, allows teachers to remain in reserve for ten months, after which they are removed from the public payroll.

because of growing opposition and outrage from the UFT and teachers clinging to the past.

Lots of code words here. Note the negative descriptions, ignoring the people who spoke so eloquently at the conference. Darby was in the same room I was but was wearing narrow blinkers

I especially like this one:

Another woman holding an issue of the International Socialist Review silently shook her head.

Wow, and red-baiting too. Way to go Seward.

She emailed me to say she would call to interview me. The call never came. But why hear all sides of the issue when you are out to do a hatchet job in the first place?

Can you spell s-h-o-d-d-y j-o-u-r-n-a-l-i-s-m?

CHARTER SCHOOLS IN HARLEM: Part of the Solution, or Part of the Problem?

The actions of the EEPs and ERPS are driving people to question many aspects of their market-based policies.

An Informational Meeting for Parents

GUEST SPEAKERS:

AKINLABI E. A. MACKALL
co-founder of S.E.E.D.S., Inc. (www.seedswork.org) and on the
Coordinating Council of Black New Yorkers for Educational Excellence –
BNYEE (www.bnyee.com). He has been a community empowerment researcher,
planner and implementer for his entire adult life.

MICHAEL FIORILLO
ESL/English teacher at Newcomers High School in Queens, Public School
Parent and Alumnus, UFT Chapter Leader

Wednesday, May 20
6:30pm
Jackie Robinson Community Center
110 East 129th Street
at the corner of Lexington & 129th

Sponsored by the Grassroots Education Movement
GEMnyc@gmail.com 718-601-4901

The Grassroots Education Movement is a coalition of groups and individuals fighting against the privatization of education in NYC.

NYCDOE: Blame Swine Flu for Drop in Scores

From Ed Notes News (EDNN):

The New York City Department of Education has declared that any drop in test scores over the next decade will be due to school closings due to the swine flu.

"These things can have a long-standing and pervasive impact," said one of the hundreds of Tweed press spokespersons. "We're not making any excuses here like those teachers do all the time, but the definitive studies show that time missed due to swine flu can affect reading scores for a generation."

"But what if they go up," asked a reporter?

"If they do, that will be an indication of the extraordinary leadership of Mayor Bloomberg. If we don't abandon mayoral control, that is. Want to sign this card to the state legislature for Learn NY?"

Related:
1.The DOE announced that all teachers absent from schools closed will be given U-ratings for excessive absence and sent to the rubber room upon the schools' reopening. "How will you staff the schools," an EDNN stringer asked? "Easy," said the spokesperson. "Teach for America has been recruiting seniors in high school who will be trained for 2 weeks, certified personally by Board of Regent head Meryl Tisch, handed surgical masks and send to the classrooms of these schools when they reopen.

The Swines Flew
The DOE announced Joel Klein will be flying down to Washington to the next EEP conference with Al Sharpton.

The Civil Rights Issue of Our Times: End Dictatorial Mayoral Control

Give urban parents the same rights enjoyed by 95% of the parents in the nation.

Randi Grandstands at the DA – After Accusing ICE of Grandstanding

"Say NO to the political grandstanding and opposition without meaning." - Unity Caucus leaflet handed out at the Delegate Assembly, May 13, 2009

Ya gotta hand it to that wacky Randi Weingarten. In the midst of running the national AFT and the local UFT into the ground, she finds time to focus on the ICE/Ed Notes little ole resolution on chapter leaders.

On Tuesday night we posted this:

Defend Chapter Leaders Sent to Rubber Rooms

With the triennial chapter leader election season taking place, the attacks on chapter leaders as a way to undermine the union, particularly by Leadership Academy principals, has become an issue prospective CL's have to consider. This leaflet is to be handed out at today's Delegate Assembly and raised in the new motion period - if Weingarten ever stops filibustering. So don't count on it. Full text published at the ICE blog or click on the graphic.

At the Delegate Assembly Wednesday (May 13), she announced she had read a resolution on chapter leaders on the blogs and she thought it was a good one - especially since it came from those grandstanders without meaning. (She not only read it but she commented on the ICE blog "anonymously" using the opportunity to attack Jeff Kaufman - I include the exchange at the end of this post.)

She called for a suspension of the rules, which the Unity faithful voted up immediately. She finally seemed to have noticed that with chapter leader elections coming up and leadership academy principals obviously trained in tactics to undermine CL's, some people, afraid for their careers, are declining to run. Of course, it took a few blog postings from us little old grandstanders without meaning to remind her. But we're always willing to help out.

She said that the union had done a little bit of rewriting, handed out their version of our resolution and lined up a chapter leader who was in the rubber room to speak. Wow! What union support he got. Phone calls and visits from his district rep every hour. And union VP Bob Astrowsky dropped by to bring him flowers and lunch every day. And Randi herself landing on the roof of the rubber room in a helicopter. I began to think maybe we are wrong about these union leaders. They are really concerned with people in the rubber room, especially the chapter leaders. No wonder they don't have time to handle grievances effectively.

Well, Randi asked if anyone wanted to speak against and if I were a delegate I would have gotten up to oppose a motion I had mostly written myself. When I was a delegate I used the tactic of opposing a popular motion because it was a way to get the floor since they have to call on someone opposed. Unfortunately, no one took advantage of the opportunity to point out the hypocrisy of Randi, who had to be reminded by our grandstanding blogs that attacks on chapter leaders and the union's inability to defend them were bleeding away the lifeblood of the union at the chapter level.

I would have also pointed out how this replacement motion was true grandstanding without any real teeth.

And note how she had the resolution rewritten and passed out as their motion, taking out a few things that gave it teeth. So much for a "grandstanding opposition without meaning" as quoted in the Unity leaflet handed out Weds. What they took out is indicative of how they think.

The Unity/UFT version
Removed this whereas: The number of teachers sent to rubber rooms has escalated since the beginning of mayoral control which has led to an increased level of autocratic rule in many schools;

This is important as if they left it in it would be an admission that their support for mayoral control has had a disastrous result in the schools, something they keep denying.

Replaced "Leadership Academy Principals" with just "principals."
This ignores the fact that the LA seems to focus training on chapter leaders.

Removed from the Resolve: a letter to principals putting them on notice that without a substantive emergency reason for rubber room placement there will be counter charges of harassment based on union/age/freedom of speech issues.

The Unity version ignored our case study where we pointed out how they tell people not to talk about their cases, to sit back and be silent and "it was not the time to file an Art.2 harassment grievance. Call it the basic inaction plan whereas the ICE resolution was more proactive.

You can pass any number of resolutions but with a collaborative union without spine nothing will change for chapter leaders under the gun just as it didn't when Ed Notes raised an even stronger resolution 10 years ago and Randi opposed it. How have things been going for chapter leaders since then? the Unity version has no teeth by putting the SWAT team on the case and calls for monitoring OSI - we could have made it stronger by calling for Jeff's original point of hiring our own investigators and probably some other things.

We know one thing: this Unity version will have zero impact on protecting chapter leaders or anyone in the RR. It will take a union with principles and spine, not resos to protect people.

Is Randi really leaving?
Now you tell me if someone who is so engaged in the minutia of what the tiny opposition grandstanders are doing is planning on leaving the UFT soon.

As early as this summer according to Wayne Barrett in his ridiculous article in the Village Voice? Randi's involvement in this ICE resolution, suspending the rules of the DA with so much business to conduct, even commenting anonymously twice on the ICE blog is a strong sign that she will be running for President again in the winter of 2010.

James Eterno has a DA report on the ICE blog. I disagree with his interpretation and think the Unity version has enough differences to have opposed or amended it. Next time.

It's great to see our grandstanding without meaning be given so much meaning by the Unity Caucus leadership. (Read on for more on the meaningless actions of the opposition given meaning by Unity.)


Related:
The April DA was also dominated by those political grandstanders at ICE when their leaflet listing the ICE contract demands for the next contract dominated the discussion at one of the best DA's in memory according to sources. That was because for one solid hour the members were allowed to talk, something extremely rare at the DA.

James had an excellent report in the April DA. One of the key issues discussed was Letters in File (LIF) and the removal of the right to grieve them in the 2005 contract, something the union claims was a good thing. From James' report:

The best part of the meeting came when a delegate brought up the issue of winning back the right to grieve to remove inaccurate/unfair letters from our personnel files. She talked about how the threat of multiple grievances often forced principals to back off of our members.

Randi asked for someone to find any substantive right on this issue that we have lost since 2005. She went on to talk about how after three years, letters are removed from files if we haven't been charged and we could bring up the issue if there were a spike in letters.

[ICE's] Julie Woodward rose from her chair and answered Randi specifically. She said that we could no longer stop Principals from lying about us in letters written for our files with a grievance. She stated that principals could write anything about us and we were basically powerless to do anything in response. In the course of this debate,the standard from the old Contract, inaccurate or unfair, that allowed us to fight grievances successfully was raised. Randi responded that we almost never won and letters were just altered and now they are removed after three years.

So at the May DA, UFT Grievance chief Howie Soloman gave a PowerPoint presentation (boooring and we left) on LIF. Under Assualt takes Solomon's presentation apart in this post: New info on LIFs! Just kidding. Excerpt:

Let's tell all those union management people — who just loved the idea of PD for all — to go get some PD for themselves. Maybe even an internship for a year in a real school.

We're up against an army of corpocrats and their generals, people who seek power for power's sake. Union management doesn't have a clue about the reality of what we're dealing with. If I'm wrong and they do, their band-aid approach to this abuse is stunningly anemic, or . . . they're collaborating big-time.

*Randi's back and forth on the ICE blog comments.
How can you tell? Randiologists can recognize her imprint anywhere. No one else in the UFT hierarchy follows the details of stuff that took place so many years ago. Or gives a crap. And look at the language. She has used the same wording at Exec Bd and DA's. Her venom at Jeff shows. The only thing she didn't do was call him "Jeffrey" as she used to at Exec Bds. (Those Randi-Jeff battles ever other week at the Exec Bd were worth the schlep over there.)

Anonymous [Randi] said...
What! It is our understanding that you called upon the union to work with you when you were sent to the rubber room. You personally called the president and was she not responsive? This was mentioned at the delegate assembly. Why not include the entire story Jeff?

Chapter leaders in the rubber room, as well as all members receive personalized attention from the Union and they are all provided with an attorney.

Jeff, why be disengenious...you should know and share the special actions that the union takes on behalf of the union reps. Care to share info on PERB charges??? Or do you want to complain and exclude attempts made on your behalf as well as other chapter leaders...convenient!

Wednesday, May 13, 2009 6:29:00 AM

Someone responds...
As a start the principals who file frivolous charges against veteran teachers should be named. This, of course, will be over the muddled protests of the union leadership. I am not saying that they themselves should be sent to the rubber room on trumped-up charges...just named. Let's show some guts.
As it is now there is no down side for principals to dispatch teachers to rubber rooms. Why WOULDN'T they continue to do just that.
And to the first anonymous: Nice try at misdirection. the post is not about 'Jeff' at all. Please re-read the post or stop your own disingenuous commentary.

Anonymous [Randi] said...
Wrong, at the exec board, Randi did not say it was too expensive! What I attempted to point in utilizing Jeff as an example (as you did in the blog..so following the lead) was that his Union through support behind him while he was chapter leader. Was it one time or two times that the principal was removed? And having an attorney assigned and taking the case to PERB, all the way. Perhaps the findings were not suitable, however support was provided to him as a chapter leader and as a member..as it should be. Let's be clear, the blog referenced Jeff...and let's get the facts straight.

A Call to Boycott COPE

I have a suggestion that will really get UFT and RW's attention, organize a COPE Boycott. Distribute COPE termination cards at your school and urge teachers to opt out. This will hit the UFT where it hurts them the most, their bottom line. We have paid millions of COPE dollars over the years to influence New York's politicians. Randi has not been using this political capital to change mayoral control. She has completely ignored the will of her members. She is secretly
supporting the re-authorization of mayoral control. This will be her grand finale before she leaves for Washington.

Hit the UFT where it hurts the most by organizing a COPE boycott in your school. Its the only real power that the average member has.
----Posted on the ICE listserve.

Getting into COPE, the political action arm of the UFT, is easy. But it is like a black hole and almost impossible to escape - at least as I remember the difficulty people had when I was chapter leader. They would fill out the removal cards and somehow they never got processed.

This is not the first time this has been suggested and the opposition parties in the UFT always seemed reluctant to go along, fearing they would come under attack for undermining the union. (Remember: the opposition supports the union but opposes the leadership.)

Mainly, that the concept of COPE is a good one and the struggle is to get the money used in the right way. But these internal struggles are very difficult in a union that is totally controlled and manipulated and there's a sense of increasing frustration as the UFT has not only been unable to oppose the ed deformer polices, but has actually aided and abetted so much of their program, from merit pay to closing schools to charter schools and beyond.

I personally am more inclined to take another look at this issue (I speak as an individual here and not as ICE - you know how the Unity hacks will take a statement from Ed Notes and try to make to ICE policy.) There is no question the money is used to further the narrow ends of the leadership, with the rank and file coming last. Do you see the UFT using the money to end mayoral control? Or force class size reductions? Or reduce the power of the principals?

I would look at this in another way. Get people to withdraw from COPE but set up an escrow fund that will be held as a means of forcing democratizing changes in the union structure. Send a message to the leadership: Make the union more democratic or the money will be released to opposition groups to organize. Who would run this escrow fund and how it would be managed is beyond me at this time but it is an idea worth looking at.

Get on the Bus Gus: Lobby Day for NYC Parents Opposed to Mayoral Control

Click to enlarge



.

UPDATED: Do Charter School Parents Get Same Rights as Public School Parents ?

Coming soon:
The Next Civil Rights Struggle of Our Times – Give Charter School Parents Equal Rights.

On second thought, equal rights to whom? Urban public school parents? Well, at least they can have a PA or PTA, though their influence has also been limited under BloomKlein. Certainly not equal civil rights to suburban - read: white - parents who don't need dictatorial mayors. Or superintendents who have no educational background.

We haven't been doing much on the Community Education Council Elections that took place recently in NYC where BloomKlein spent a fortune to try to make it look like they were interested in parent outreach whereas they had basically eliminated any role the CEC's played. One of their goals was to top the low turnout in the local school board elections from what they term the bad old days of community control between 1969 and Bloomberg's takeover in 2002. The gang that couldn't shoot straight couldn't even manage that. They'll have to find another way to show the state legislature which is ruling on mayoral control other ways they show their love for parents.

[By the way, Ed Notes pats itself on the back for predicting years ago that no matter how everyone postures, especially the UFT, a continuation of mayoral control with possibly a few tweaks was a done deal.]

What people haven't been exploring is the total shut down of parents' role (other than to volunteer to clean up after the kids or being forced by Eva Moskowitz to attend rallies) in charters even beyond what has happened to public school parents in NYC. But when corporations and the wealthy own the school even though using public monies, what can you expect?

From current debate on the NYC Education News listserve:

Basic question:

Can parents of students in Charter Schools serve on CDECs? My guess is that BPs can appoint them but can they also be elected? Do Charters have any parent representation comparable to PAs or a President’s Council?

Lisa Donlon replied

In D one we have tried to get one of the three charters located in our community school buildings elected or appointed to the CEC, ever since Michael Duffy, head of the OCS, attempted to pit charter parents against district parents in a local hearing.

Martine [Guerrier] and DoE have made clear that they object to our attempt to build this bridge. They claim that since the law (the one that sunsets in June!) describes the jurisdiction of the CEC's as limited to the district's pre-K through 8th grade schools, they felt that a charter parent could not, by law, serve on a CEC.

We did put out a call to charter parents and nominated one to the MBP for appointment.
We never heard back from the MBP on that suggestion, although the seat has been empty for a year now.

Even if Charter school parents do have seats on an inside Parent Board of some kind, they are not eligible for district representation at the CDEC or Presidents Council, or at the citywide level (CPAC). Given that the centralized DoE churns out policy and procedures for 1.1 million students citywide, it is inequitable and structurally unfair to limit charter parent representation to school level at best.

Is this another divide and conquer strategy, or just one more dropped stitch in the crazy quilt of the badly written and constantly broken laws that lent the mayor control of the NYC schools 7 years ago?

Lisa Donlan
CEC One

Lisa North chipped in with:

There is a parent on the District 13 CEC who has children in both public and charter schools. In one of the charter schools, she tried to start a parent association. When she was not allowed to, she filed a lawsuit. She lost the lawsuit. It seems that there is no provision for requiring parent associations in charter schools. Lisa N.

Steve Koss said:

No local community in the country would tolerate a schools superintendent who is so dismissive of his/her constituency. As I've stated many times before, having lived for over twenty years in Westchester County, I don't know of a single town or village in Westchester that wouldn't have run a superintendent of Joel Klein's ilk out on the rails within the first year or two. What New Yorkers blithely accept as normal would never be tolerated by cities towns in Long Island or Westchester or New Jersey -- in those places, it'd be torches and pitchforks as the townsfolk marched angrily to the school district office to rid themselves of the mad doctor and his monstrous creation.

So much for that parent choice thing.

NEWS UPDATE:

LA Teachers: Shame on our NYC UFT backward bureaucrats!

Please forward. Support the militancy of teachers, students & community of LA!

End the complacency and complicity of our AFT/UFT local.

We have yet to receive one message of information or solidarity from our UFT officials about what is going on with our brothers and sisters struggling in Los Angeles.

LA Teachers Engage in Sit-in, Sick-ins and Walkouts

President Duffy Arrested

Students Support Teachers: We care about the teachers," Jasmine Guerrero, a senior, said in a phone interview. "But it's more about us. One teacher for 45 students, it's not a productive learning environment."

Actions of UTLA union an embarrassment to an inactive UFT

UTLA teachers today struck a blow for teachers under assault all over the nation. LA teacher union leaders are not out to make themselves look like phony ed deformers like Randi Weingarten. They really stand up for themselves and the kids instead of just talking about it. When faced with an injunction over their proposed one day strike, they withdrew the strike but found other ways to engage in a massive protest. Remember back in September, the union called for a 1 hour strike and got 70% of the teachers to join in. This could never happen in NYC, not because teachers in NYC are different, but because we have a top-down undemocratic union run by the Unity Caucus union oligarchy for over 40 years.

Remember, this is not a strike over a contract or money but over budget cuts. That's the way to build solidarity with the students and community.

Note the sign above: One Day's Pay 4 the Kids of LA.

Here are some stories and links and also a twitter link so you can follow events as they break. I'll post that link on the top of the sidebar. Note the actions of former NYC Chancellor Ray Cortines who chatted with teachers on picket lines. Can you just imagine Joel Klein doing that? Cortines, you see, was a real teacher, so though he may be running the schools in LA he also has a clue as to what is driving the actions of teachers.

L.A. schools disrupted by sit-ins, sick-ins and walkouts
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/05/teacher-protests-1.html
11:33 AM | May 15, 2009

Schools throughout Los Angeles were disrupted today as thousands of teachers called in sick and hundreds of high school students walked out of classrooms to protest possible teacher layoffs at the nation's second-largest school district.

Teachers said they planned to storm the Los Angeles Unified School District's headquarters in downtown Los Angeles today and "jump on some desks" as an act of civil disobedience, according to a memo circulated to district officials by school district Police Chief Lawrence Manion.

District police officials said they did not plan to make arrests. But if arrests became necessary, they would let Los Angeles Police Department officers step in to handle the situation.

About 700 more teachers than usual called in sick today in the Los Angeles Unified School District, days after a judge ordered the teachers union to call off a planned one-day strike.

District officials said they were bracing for expected acts of "civil disobedience" at schools and at district headquarters downtown, despite a renewed warning from the judge against violations of his order.

On a normal Friday in May, about 2,300 of the district's 34,000 teachers would be out of class. Several hundreds of these are scheduled absences for school-related duties, such as meetings to update individual education plans for disabled students. But the overall call for substitute teachers was about one-third higher than normal.

The teachers' union Thursday requested hundreds of substitutes -- that it planned to pay for -- to allow selected teachers to leave class to participate in acts of civil disobedience, some of which were intended to lead to arrests. [extraordinary action based on creative thinking.]

A flier at one school called for teachers to put up anti-district posters on their classroom doors and to lead class discussions relevant to the labor dispute. This news was enough to send district officials hurrying back to court.

L.A. County Superior Judge James C. Chalfant declined to issue a new order but warned that his original order remained in effect, according to district lawyers. The union, United Teachers Los Angeles, has contended that its actions would not violate the court order.

Students have joined the fray, walking out of class at several high schools and holding sit-ins in support of teachers.

About 500 students at Garfield High School in East L.A. walked out of campus this morning and sat in the central yard. Later, the students were moved to the bleachers, and a sound system was provided by the school so students could discuss why they didn't want teachers laid off.

The group dispersed after a break and about 150 returned to the bleachers afterward.

At Jordan High School in South L.A., some 200 students gathered in the quad to show their solidarity with teachers and another 200 at Maywood Academy in Maywood walked out of class.

Shortly after the nutrition bell rang at 11 a.m. at Franklin High School in Highland Park, hundreds of students chose not to return to their classrooms. "We care about the teachers," Jasmine Guerrero, a senior, said in a phone interview. "But it's more about us. One teacher for 45 students, it's not a productive learning environment."

The mood was quiet this morning at Huntington Drive Elementary, an outpost on the district's eastern front, where Supt. Ramon C. Cortines sat in for Principal Roberto Salazar, who was attending his doctoral graduation at USC. Cortines arrived at El Sereno school shortly after 7 a.m. and after walking the campus, strode out front to talk with teachers picketing outside.

The union had scheduled pre-school picketing across L.A. Unified and a post-school rally in place of the strike to spare teachers the risk of $1,000 fines and the possible loss of their teaching credentials for violating the court order.

The presence of Cortines with picketers triggered rumors through the union network that Cortines was walking the line with teachers. That was not true, but he shook hands with each teacher, exchanged introductions and talked shop.
"You can't be doing this for a better principal," a teacher told him, thanking him for filling in.

At least a dozen of the school's 45 teachers were picketing and cars honked their support as they drove past on busy Huntington Drive. Three teachers were absent. Student enrollment was normal for the school of 600 students.

Teachers at the school had voted strongly in support of the union's call for a one-day walkout, said faculty members, but some picketers also expressed relief that it would not be taking place.

"I did not want to walk out," said Maureen Barbosa, a special education preschool teacher who was walking the line. "But we also don't think our pay should be cut. I struggle to make a living and my husband could lose his job at any time."

She added that she could accept unpaid furlough days as a last resort. Cortines did not pass up the opportunity to launch a charm offensive.

"Obviously, the teachers here care about their kids," he said as he walked the asphalt playground. "You can see how much these children like their school."

Parent Adela Castellanas, who is taking a morning class for adults at the campus, also praised the school but told Cortines she was concerned about security at a middle school in the area.

UTLA has been vying to reverse the possible layoff of as many as 2,500 teachers. An additional 2,600 non-teachers also could lose their jobs under a budget plan aimed at closing a $596.1 million deficit. That projected deficit grew by about $250 million Thursday under the latest state budget revision from Gov. Schwarzenegger.

The union has demanded that L.A. Unified use as much federal stimulus money as needed to save jobs now. District officials have countered that the federal money has to last two years and that compensation concessions are needed to avoid layoffs, which would result in larger classes and reduced services across the district.

-- Howard Blume, Jason Song, Ruben Vives and Amanda Covarrubias


Arrests as LA teachers protest layoffs
The Associated Press
2009-05-15 19:25:02.0

LOS ANGELES -
Nearly four dozen people have been arrested in Los Angeles for blocking traffic in a protest of layoffs of teachers and other employees of the nation's second-largest school district.

A Los Angeles police spokesman says 46 protesters have been arrested in Friday's demonstration outside school district headquarters. Teacher's union president A.J. Duffy was among those arrested.

The board of the Los Angeles Unified School District voted last month to lay off as many as 2,400 teachers and 2,000 other personnel to deal with a $596 million budget shortfall for the upcoming school year.

The teachers' union had called for a one-day strike on Friday, but a judge issued a restraining order.

Among the arrested LAUSD teachers just a few minutes ago, United Teachers of Los Angeles union leader AJ Duffy has been arrested, according to KNX1070.

To that, one teacher told us "Good! He needs to get back in his peeps' good graces. They all called him a pussy when he told the strikers to hold off."

Others wonder if this actually hurts teacher's cause instead of helping it. And do the kids lose out the most here or not?


Earlier Today
- Teachers Holding Sit-In in the Middle of 4th Street
- Despite Judge's Orders, Some Teachers Walk Out Anyway

Twitter from UTLA

Early Video of the Rally

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78_6T_HarE8

Thanks to David Bellel

TODAY: March and Rally at Tweed to Take Back Public Education

This rally is the 3rd event planned by the Grassroots Education Movement (GEM), a coalition of groups active within and without the UFT. ICE and Ed Notes are part of this coalition.

At a conference held on March 28 a decision was made to hold a charter school conference on May 4 (attended by 60 people) and a rally today. There will be more events to come.

If you are coming, go to Battery Park up intil 4:30. I and a few others will be stationed in front of the UFT from 3:45 until the march reaches us at around 4:40.

Join the march in progess up Church St or go directly to Tweed on Chambers St where will have some advanced people stationed.

What's it all about?
I won't go into the reasons for why we have to defend public education against the attacks of the education deformers. You can click on the graphics to get more details. This is about forming a truly progressive education reform movement in opposition to the BloomKlein/Sharpton claim to be reformers. I find it ironic since from my earliest years of teaching I was part of a real reform movement. Now the long-time progressives are being attacked as troglodytes because we think true reform doesn't include making teachers the scapegoat.


This is my personal view and not necessarily of GEM:

Today's rally is not about numbers. It is about getting the most progressive elements in the UFT out to an event that will be joined by people from outside the union. If it was 50, it would be sufficient (think Passover Haggadah).

I do not view it as the UFT views rallies - thanks for coming, now go back to your caves till we need you again.

If it were to be 50, they would be 50 people who will not go back to their caves, but will continue to organize. Each one would have the impact of 20 or more Unity slugs, most of whom do what they do for money or other perks.

This has the potential to develop into a powerful coalition, but it will take nurturing.

What I've been observing is a growing spirit amongst broader groups of activists that is bridging the gap between younger and older teachers. Just last Sunday, a bunch gathered in an apartment in Park Slope to make poster for the rally. I always love to notice the mix of people: teachers in their 20's, 30's, 40's, 50's - and then there was me.

What are the reasons for this sudden spurt? The actions of the DOE and the lack of action of the UFT has been the a major spur to action.

I've done a lot on Ed Notes about the role the UFT plays. As the 800 pound elephant they could have stopped the ed deformer train by educating and organizing people. Instead they have chosen to play in their playpen. Though they try to deflect growing resistance by trying to wear hats on both sides of the fence, with every passing day, their words ring more and more hollow. Thus, out brief stop on the rally march at UFT HQ at 52 Broadway calling them to come out and join us.

We won't be there waiting for long. Does the UFT see this as a threat? You bet they do. Word is filtering out of attempts by the UFT to get people in some schools who were thinking of coming to back off. In the long run, the forces unleashed by their actions will turn against them.

As the newer crop of teachers are reaching their 3rd-5th year, many of the realities of the system are crashing down upon them. Some are joining with the older ATRs and rubber room people and people from schools being closed or having charters pushed into them. This has major implications if it continues to grow.

The actions of some of the active groups like ICE, TJC, NYCORE, TAGNYC and Teachers Unite has brought people out. I spent the last two Saturdays in TU workshops with over a dozen teachers, mostly on the newer end, talking about organizing within the schools. The numbers may still be small, but each person's outreach goes right into their schools and beyond. Some of these newer teachers are running for chapter leader and we are holding a session this Monday to talk about the realities of being chapter leader. We are also getting inquiries from some older people running and even some current chapter leaders are interested.

GEM in its short life is already getting inquiries from around the nation.

Reports and pics will be posted starting tonight.

Schedule
Gather at the north end of Battery Park from 3:30- 4:30.
4:30-4:40- March up Broadway to 52 where we knock on the door and ask UFT officials to join us.
4:45-5:30- Walk down Exchange Alley to Trinity Place and make a right - march up Trinity (it changes to Church St) to Warren St. Make a right to Broadway. Cross Broadway and go left half a block to Chambers. Right to Tweed.
5:30-6:30 Rally at Tweed with a variety of speakers from the rank and file.

The route and leaflet are posted on the sidebar and here: http://grassrootseducationmovement.blogspot.com/

MUST READ: What 'The Harlem Miracle' Really Teaches

by Diane Ravitch

Dear Deborah,

The columnists at The New York Times are deeply engaged in school reform these days. First Nicholas Kristof discovered that the key to high achievement is measuring student test score gains, then paying more to the teachers whose students gained the most. Then Thomas Friedman discovered that Teach for America was the key to national educational greatness, despite its small numbers.

Now David Brooks has discovered "The Harlem Miracle," which is a charter school called Harlem Promise Academy, run by the Harlem Children's Zone. Brooks says that this school has closed the achievement gap. If anyone missed the point, he writes bluntly, "Let me repeat that. It eliminated the black-white achievement gap." Brooks asks which city will now take up the challenge to do what this school has done.

This is quite an interesting column, and I highly recommend it. There are lessons for American education, but not necessarily the ones that Brooks points to.

MORE at http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/Bridging-Differences/2009/05/what_the_harlem_miracle_really.html

Defend Chapter Leaders Sent to Rubber Rooms

With the triennial chapter leader election season taking place, the attacks on chapter leaders as a way to undermine the union, particularly by Leadership Academy principals, has become an issue prospective CL's have to consider. This leaflet is to be handed out at today's Delegate Assembly and raised in the new motion period - if Weingarten ever stops filibustering. So don't count on it.
Full text published at the ICE blog. Click to enlarge.

Updated: Charters, Bloomberg, the UFT and Randi Succession Obsession

Interesting article in the Voice by Wayne Barrett, who has always been anti-UFT.*

He makes lots of assumptions in this piece. Barrett obviously favors charters. But he misses on the growing opposition to charters from various forces in the schools and communities.

What this shows about Randi is that when you try to play the middle against both ends you get hammered from both ends. Barrett thinks she is opposing charters (while many of us think she supports them more than oppose them) to squeeze a raise by making a deal with Bloomberg even if such a deal totally subverts public education. But we have learned to never think she is above doing that.

Of interest to many of us is this passage:

The UFT will soon celebrate its 50th anniversary. Other than a couple of years of temporary and muddled leadership at its start in 1960, it has been governed by only three presidents, and each of its long-lasting potentates—Albert Shanker, Sandra Feldman, and now Weingarten—has handed it off to a designated successor. Weingarten, who was Feldman's lawyer for years before she became a part-time teacher to position herself for the presidency, is about to do the same. Former carpenter Michael Mulgrew, the vice president for vocational and technical schools, is expected to take over, possibly as soon as this summer.

Like Shanker and Feldman, Weingarten is giving up her city post after using it for 11 years as a stepping stone to the presidency of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), and will leave town only when she is sure she can install a disciple here that she can influence from Washington (no rule bars her from holding both titles).

What's baffling is why Weingarten has embroiled herself in a Harlem street fight below her $350,000-a-year pay grade.

Weingarten's actions are baffling if she indeed intends to give up the UFT position to Mulgrew, who many feel is not ready for prime time. UFT elections are in March 2010 and it is theoretically smart to put Mulgrew into office so he can function as President and run as an incumbent. But both Feldman and Shanker replaced themselves soon after getting elected, thus giving their successors a few years grace. Weingarten's inability to let go is giving Mulgrew a small window. It would have made sense to have given him the position last January, over a year before the election.

Can she influence him from Washington? Sure. Shanker influenced Feldman. But Feldman had a harder time controlling Weingarten, who started purging her people fairly quickly. If Mulgrew screws up - something he is totally capable of doing (witness the City Council cue card fiasco) – and the Unity Caucus absolute control of the UFT, which is the heart of controlling the AFT, slips even a little, the shock waves will be felt all the way to the Beltway.

But maybe that's the plan all along– give Mulgrew as small a window as possible to screw things up before running for president. Now, don't get me wrong, the Unity machine has so manipulated the election rules that there is absolutely no chance of losing at the top level. But the real battle for control of the UFT ultimately lies in the schools with hand to hand combat. Sort of like the battle of Normandy. Maybe that's why the UFT has put up little resistance to the breakup of large high schools which used to be bastions of old-line UFT power. Make it hard for the opposition to get control of these places. Fragmentation of the school system can benefit both the UFT and Tweed. True partners in crime.

Oh, what to do? Mulgrew as a puppet with Weingarten pulling the strings from DC? What if Mike has that lean and hungry look for real power and starts purging Randi's people? Once the cat is out of the box there is little Randi could do since the real source of power lies in the UFT, the tail that wags the AFT dog. It wouldn't be that hard for a smart political operative to reverse the balance of power on Randi. She may not be worried about that occurring with Mulgrew in charge. Maybe that is why she chose him in the first place.


Barrett's piece evoked this comment on ICE mail:
What a tired old wind bag Barret has become. Doesn't even do his research anymore. Murdoch doesn't seem to mind though, imagine having one of those pesky investigative, trust busting crusaders on the payroll. Quite a coup for the consciousness industry fatcats, but another low point for the craft of journalism.


*Barrett was once a teacher who opposed the '68 strike and supported community control. I spent part of a day working with him and his wife campaigning against the UFT school board slate on the lower east side in the early 70's during the Luis Fuentes/UFT wars. The next time I saw him was at my childhood friend Marty Needelman's wedding a few years later when Barrett had left teaching and was a journalist. Marty, by the way, was working as a Vista lawyer doing community organizing in the late 60's in Williamsburg not far from where I was teaching and it was through him I became active in school politics.

Vinvent Wojsnis, Chapter Leader MS 399,

...Makes the Case Against BloomKlein and Mayoral Control

Excerpts:

In June, the New York State Legislature will vote on whether or not to extend the law granting total mayoral control over the New York City public schools. Parents beware. Mayoral control is out of control.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has created a regime over the Department of Education characterized by an insane obsession with high-stakes testing, the systematic closings of local schools, in many cases replaced by privately-run charter schools, and a bloated bureaucracy accountable to no overseeing authority.

Under mayoral control, students have been subjected to a series of citywide exams in addition to all-ready scheduled state mandated exams from grades 3 to 12. The DOE is now planning to expand testing from kindergarten to grade 2.


Accountability works both ways. It’s time that the mayor and the chancellor were made accountable to someone other than themselves. It’s time they were made accountable to us.

Read in full

Angel Gonzalez, talks about May 14 Rally on WBAI

A Grassroots Education Movement, GEM spokesperson, Angel Gonzalez, talks about our May 14 Rally and our campaign to stop school closings (phase out) and imposition of charter school privatization.

http://dbellel.blogspot.com/2009/05/blog-post.html

How Does NY Times Ed Reporter Javier Hernandez Define the Word "Many?"

Today's article, For Many Teachers, a Famously Fertile Market Dries Up Overnight has this statement:

But this year, the department anticipates fewer openings and will not hire externally except in certain high-needs areas like speech therapy and bilingual special education. Instead, principals can fill spots only with internal candidates, including teachers from a reserve pool made up of those whose jobs have been eliminated and many who have earned unsatisfactory ratings.

We responded to Hernandez' last article slandering ATRs. (See Ed Notes Klein Gives Up the ATR Ghost.)

So if we take the number of ATRs to be around 1100 according to recent reports, then almost 900 never received a U-rating. And only 14 received 2 U-ratings. Let's leave it to Eduwonkette, posted at Gotham Schools:

A point of clarification on this point from the New Teacher Project’s report that you cited, i.e. “By September 2007, unselected excessed teachers from 2006 were six times as likely to have received a prior “Unsatisfactory” rating as other New York City teachers.”

If you read the footnotes in their report, 81 percent of teachers in the ATR have never received an Unsatisfactory rating. Only 6 percent of all teachers in the ATR - about 14 teachers - have received an unsatisfactory rating more than once in their careers.

Beyond these facts, I have no idea to what extent this pool represents great or terrible teachers, and the important point to remember is that no one really knows. It’s not reasonable or fair to indict the entire group based on the very misleading “six times” TNTP sound bite. If someone else applied this kind of statistical discrimination to other groups - for example, by establishing the probability of an outcome like incarceration or welfare receipt by gender, class, or race and characterizing the entire group - we would all be up in arms.

Class Size Skinny Awards Attracts Rock Stars of Education

I'm much more of an ed/pol junkie than a music fan. So, was I more impressed with last Sunday's A Night With Pete Seeger or Leonie Haimson's Class Size Matters fundraiser Honoring Ravitch, Jennings (Eduwonkette), Babad this past Thursday night at Jerry's Cafe on Chambers Street?

Leonie sure knows how to put on a party. Imagine: Diane Ravitch and Deborah Meier (one of my ed idols since the early 70's) bridging their differences in person with Eduwonkette Jennifer Jennings. And her mentor and co-blogger Aaron Pallas, alias Skoolboy, also present. With superb satirist Gary Babad (who read us an "email" from Klein). And Patrick Sullivan. And of course, that force of nature, as Diane put it, Leonie Haimson.

Did Ravitch/Meier/Haimson/Jennings trump Springsteen/Baiz/Emmylou/Melankamp? Close. I'm an edugeek supreme.

Many parent leaders were there and some UFT officials showed up. There were even surprise guests, including some from the DOE and a Gotham journalist named Green, reiterating she is not biased. Okay, okay, already. Whatever she says. (She is irresistible and as much a force of nature as Leonie.)

I finally realized that Leonie had dubbed the award "The Skinny" as a take on the Broad (rhymes with toad) award. Duhhhh!

Leonie introduced each honoree with a gracious speech. I'll admit that as part of the anti-high stakes testing crowd, there was a lot of resistance to Diane Ravitch over the years. But even if she had not modified some of her positions ("I don't know if it's because of Deborah or Leonie," she said) her charm and wit can win anyone over. Once, at a Manhattan Inst. luncheon for Chester Finn, which she moderated, and I was the lone critic in the room, she whispered in my ear something like, "Good to see a voice of disent. I agree with you." That sure firmed up my spine
in hostile territory when I got up to ask my question.

Diane pointed out that she had resigned from the Hoover and Thomas B. Fordham Foundations and was more proud of being of the Class Size Matters board. She talked about what Leonie does on a slightly skinny budget. I expected her to pull out a shoestring.

Leonie introduced Gary by reading some of his satire, which in the bizarre world of Tweed, is often taken seriously. She said she started the NYC Public School Parent blog partly so people could read his funny stuff.

Jennifer, whose Eduwonkette blog in its short time of existence (less than a year) created a national sensation, made waves last week with her report on the school force-outs. (April 30 press conference on rising discharge rates). It caused some serious consternation at Tweed as they scrambled to respond.

In her speech, Jennifer was kind enough to give me credit for suggesting she start the blog. Frankly, I didn't remember. But I do remember her sending me some of her amazing research and I kept asking her to figure a way to share it with more people and offered to let her use Ed Notes if she wanted. We did have lunch (on the day BloomKlein received the Broad award) in Sept. 2007 and she asked me questions about blogging and we discussed how to protect her identity. Three days later she had the prototype up and the 'kette was off to the races.

Leonie, who has a good relationship with Randi Weingarten, also was kind enough to say some nice things about me despite the fact there were UFT reps in the room. She also gave me credit for urging her to blog and I do remember that. I actually started the Norms Notes blog solely to find a way to save Leonie's amazing comments and analysis on the web. Finally, after the Feb. 28, 2007 famous rally that brought so many people opposed to BloomKlein (I met Patrick and Diane for the first time that night) together, Leonie informed me she and Patrick were starting the NYC Parent blog. It's been a wonderful addition to truth, justice and the American way of democratic criticism.

It was good to see good buddy David Bellel get recognized by Leonie for his amazing dedication and work for the cause. I did recruit him to do some video for us at the GEM rally on Thurs May 14 starting at Battery Park and marching up to Tweed, after passing by 52 Broadway to call on our buddies at the UFT to join us. (I will be stationed there from 3:30 until they pick me up.) If you can't get there in time to join the march, go directly to Tweed and wait for us.

You didn't think I would let you get away without a plug, did you?

Eviscerating ARIS

Under Assault eviscerates ARIS.

The Washington Teacher Appears On This Week's News Hour With Jim Lehrer

The Washington Teacher Appears On This Week's News Hour With Jim Lehrer

In a series titled Well-Known Nationally, Struggling at Home, The Washington Teacher appears on the News Hour With Jim Lehrer this week. Some have asked me to post this link here on my blog.

Finally, after covering DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee for an entire school year, Jim Lehrer and his team from Learning Matters responded to requests to tell more than just Rhee's version of the story. Even though this segment was a much longer interview, I am happy that at least viewers will get to hear another perspective than just Chancellor Rhee. Here's the link:

http://learningmatters.tv/blog/current/michelle-rhee-in-dc-episode-9-well-known-nationally-struggling-at-home/1525

The Washington Teacher

Interviews with Candi Peterson, George Parker and others.

Warning: John Merrow is funded by Gates, etc and has openly taken anti-teacher positions.
(Search the Ed Notes blog for Merrow to read more.)

David Brooks is More Clueless Than Ever

You just have to read David Brooks' "Harlem Miracle" piece in yesterday's NY Times where he says "We may have found a remedy for the achievement gap." The best is this quote from ed deformer shill Roland Fryer, "What Geoffrey Canada, Harlem Children’s Zone’s founder and president, has done is “the equivalent of curing cancer for these kids.""

You know the ed deformer mantra about "no excuses" or that "throwing money at the problem doesn't solve it."

Well. check out a few facts about Harlem Children's Zone sent by Leonie:

According to 60 minutes, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/05/11/60minutes/main1611936.shtml

“Harlem Children’s Zone raises $36 million in private funds per year. Classes have a ratio of one adult for every six kids as well as state-of-the-art science labs, a first-class gym, and a cafeteria that looks more like a restaurant.”

According to the school’s data on the 2007-8 school report card,
https://www.nystart.gov/publicweb-rc/2008/1a/AOR-2008-310500860864.pdf

Class sizes are 18 in K-6th grade, and in 8th grade they range from 12 to 20 kids per class, depending on the subject.

According to the same school report card, the school enrolls 1% ELL students.

According to other state sources, it has 0 % special ed students.

Now, of course, if we had a union that was not collaborating with the ed deformers, they would be using their vast resources based on our dues to do the work of exposing these shams instead of leaving it to Leonie, running on a shoe-string budget, to do.


I didn't even get to the arrogance about middle class and poor people values. I found the values of many poor people I worked with more generous and less mean spirited than so-called middle class values. Give me these kids to work with over the middle class kids any day.

Another comment on the NYC Education News listserve did deal with it.

Yes, but aside from all the benefits offered in these schools, look at what else they offer--what Brooks calls "no excuse schools":

"... an emerging model for low-income students....The basic theory is that middle-class kids enter adolescence with certain working models in their heads: what I can achieve; how to control impulses; how to work hard. Many kids from poorer, disorganized homes don’t have these internalized models. The schools create a disciplined, orderly and demanding counterculture to inculcate middle-class values....

Basically, the no excuses schools pay meticulous attention to behavior and attitudes. They teach students how to look at the person who is talking, how to shake h ands. These schools are academically rigorous and college-focused. Promise Academy students who are performing below grade level spent twice as much time in school as other students in New York City . ... Nearly half of the teachers did not return for the 2005-2006 school year. A third didn’t return for the 2006-2007 year. Assessments are rigorous. Standardized tests are woven into the fabric of school life.

... Ever since welfare reform, we have had success with intrusive government programs that combine paternalistic leadership, sufficient funding and a ferocious commitment to traditional, middle-class values. We may have found a remedy for the achievement gap."

I'm sure this has long been discussed and debated, but is this "paternalistic, intrusive" program the best way of closing the achivement gap?"

Related:
Ed Notes has commented on previous columns by Brooks on education.
A Clueless David Brooks
Pathetic Letter to Times From Weingarten

Harlem Public Schools Outscore KAPPA, Schools Threatened With Closure Make Top 10 List

Just like we don't like to blame schools as failures when test scores are dismal, we don't accept great scores as signs of success. But since they Ed Deformers are setting the agenda, when a windfall of data comes our way, we use it. Note in particular Harlem's PS 241. (Some teachers from there are GEMers.) Here are some delicious morsels from Leonie.

See below article in Daily News – reporting that PS 150 in Brownsville, which the DOE tried to close this year to make way for a charter school over the objections of the community, made the fourth greatest gains of any school in the city on its 4th grade reading scores.

There is a chart in the print Daily News – not online that I can find -- of the top ten schools – and PS 241 was the only school in Manhattan to make the list.

This was the second school that DOE tried to close to make way for the expansion of Eva Moskowitz’ charter chain. Two out of the top ten schools.

The only thing stopping him was the lawsuit filed on behalf of parents in these communities, which saved Joel Klein from the embarrassment of having closed two of the top ten most improved schools.

Of course, he already sent letters to the parents in each these schools asking them to withdraw their kids, so who knows whether the schools will survive.

Meanwhile, look at these KAPPA Ii test scores in D5:

MANHATTAN DISTRICT 5 Knowledge And Power Preparatory Academy Ii 50 48.2 42.4 ( percent of 6th-8th graders at grade level)

Compared to District 5 as a whole: 71.3 64.9 45.6

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2009_school_score/manhattan/index.html#ixzz0Ey9lhNdH&B

NYC Parents Protest School Overcrowding at City Hall, May 6

Including comments from parent activists Leonie Haimson, Patrick Sullivan and ICE/GEM's Michael Fiorillo and Angel Gonzalez.





David Bellel has a clip from ABC
http://dbellel.blogspot.com/2009/05/angry-parents-with-bone-to-pick.html

Running for Chapter Leader? (Updated)

*Navigating the Minefield of Internal School Politics*

Keeping chapter leaders in line is the key to control of the UFT. It makes sense since through the CL the leadership can reach out to every member. They use the District reps as the key overseers to make the CL dependent on the union and also to keep them isolated.

Chapter leader and school delegate elections take place every three years and we are now in the midst of the election season.

Many people think the important elections are the election for president and officers (coming next year). But Unity has so manipulated the process that there is no chance of overturning the power structure no matter what the opposition does. Thus, Unity is guaranteed control of the AdCom (officers) and Executive Board in perpetuity (I'll go into the details another time) – at least until there is enough pressure from the bottom to force changes.

Thus, the school elections are ultimately more important in terms of the ability to reach the membership. If the opposition had hundreds of chapter leaders, we would begin to see changes in the union.

Unity Caucus is not stupid and pays strict attention since the constitution of the delegate assembly for the next 3 years will be determined in the next few weeks. Most Unity Caucus members are expected to run for chapter leader or delegate. The rank and file in many schools doesn't even know their CL is in Unity and more beholden to the leadership than to the membership.

Aside from the many Unity candidates, they also coopt new chapter leaders through the union's training program, which often function as Unity recruiting operations. In the last cycle (2006) Unity added over 700 new members drawn from the pool of new chapter leaders and delegate, thus insuring absolute control over the delegate assembly.

Many novice (and even experienced) chapter leaders are concerned with the level of support they will receive from the UFT, especially if they voice criticism of the leadership. This fear is a powerful tool in the hands of Unity. Some join Unity out of this fear, but in most cases, new chapter leaders have no idea what Unity is and figure, "Why not?" Then there are the perks - the after school jobs (why work in the school with kids if you don't have to), the all expense paid trips to conventions, the double pensions. And the big enchilada - a full-time union job if you play ball.

People I talk to thinking of running who have expressed criticisms of the UFT leadership, are not aware of the extent to which Unity will go to keep them from winning. And they play dirty.

With a large turnover in chapter leaders expected this spring, I've been working with Sally Lee of Teachers Unite to set up a session for prospective chapter leaders (and delegates) to help them lay the groundwork for a run for chapter leader and a follow-up support group to help them strategize methods of dealing with the school admins and the central and district union structure. ICE and TJC members are involved.

We are holding a meeting on Monday, May 18 at 5 pm to cover a bunch of issues. We have invited Michael Fiorillo of ICE and Megan Behrent of TJC to join us. And maybe some other experienced union people to provide advice and encouragement. Can't make this meeting? We can also take the show on the road. Just let us know.

Teachers Unite has put out the following announcement:

-Should you run for UFT CL or Delegate?
-Are there risks to your career?
-How can you be part of building a more democratic UFT?
-What can you accomplish as a rank-and-file leader?
-What does any of this have to do with social justice activism?


If you're considering becoming a UFT representative at your school, join Teachers Unite, veteran and new teachers, and members of opposition caucuses in the UFT to discuss the process and significance of becoming a union leader. If elections already happened in your school, but you're interested in these questions, please feel free to join us.

Snacks provided

Please RSVP

Monday, May 18, 2009
Time: 5:00pm - 7:00pm
Location: Brecht Forum
Street: 451 West St. New York, NY
Phone: 2126754790
Email: info@teachersunite.net
Description: A Teachers Unite program:

Directions:
A,C,E, or L to 14th St & 8th Ave., walk down 8th Ave to Bethune, turn right, walk west to
the River, turn left

1,2,3 or 9 to 14th St. & 7th Ave. Get off at south end of station, walk west on 12th St.
to 8th Ave. left to Bethune, turn right, walk west to the River, turn left.

Related:
Today, ICE meeting at Murray Bergtraum HS at 4:30
Pearl St right behind police plaza.