Foreign and Domestic

For my School Scope column in the October 16 edition of the Wave, www.rockawave.com.

By Norman Scott

The day after Obama’s election, working on my column for the Wave, I posed the question, “Will Obama turn out to be a great president or a failure? An FDR or a Herbert Hoover, who had an even lower approval rating than W? It could go either way. When you think of great presidents, they seem to emerge only in times of crisis. Think there are just a few lurking? FDR ran for president with a very different agenda than he ended up enacting due to desperate times. He showed the kind of flexibility that was needed. Policies that had a major impact for generations.”

“The problem I have had with Republicans is that they are driven by a narrow ideology that has helped put us into this mess. Like if you breathe government action, you are a socialist. But when it takes forms of socialism to bail out millionaires, why go right ahead. It was this sort of thinking that led to handing over billions to banks that should have had the requirement to be used as loans to free up credit but instead is being held onto by banks to buy other banks. One day soon we will have only 3 or 4 banks in this country. The only thing I have to fear is fear of Obama's dependence on the same old, same old Clinton people, who come out of places like Goldman Saks when we need some truly radical thinking. Bill Ayres, where are you when we need you?”

Well, almost a year later, it’s looking a lot more Hoover than FDR. Now don’t get me wrong. This is no tea-bag right wing criticism of Obama. I am coming from the far left, which has been just as critical. When the Republicans went after FDR’s radical (at the time) call for things like social security, he laughed at them and organized his core supporters in a form of class warfare (even though he as from the upper class) and became the most loved president by working people ever. Instead of following in FDR’s footsteps, Obama has kowtowed to his critics. For those of us itching for a class warfare fight, it is sickening.

Obama’s education policy is even worse than Bush’s as he supports all the evils that we have seen here in NYC as a result of the BloomKlein policies.

On the economy, Obama seems to have sided with the banking class that got us into the mess. Goldman Saks seems to be running the country – and making billions. Worse for Obama has been the rising unemployment rate. Remember the Hoovervilles – tent cities of homeless that sprung up all over the country between 1929 and 1932? Tampa recently rejected a Catholic charities proposal to create a tent city for the homeless. They didn’t call it Obamaville, but that is coming soon to a tent city near you.

How fast can you say “President Sarah Palin?” I’m already looking for a safe haven, like a condo in Kabul. Speaking of which….

Let’s talk Afghanistan

I must venture into foreign policy here before the raging debate on Afghanistan gets totally out of hand. First, a little historical perspective. Before Bush invaded after 9/11 that country had a rough stretch – of around 2000 years. Well, certainly 200 years. Take a look at a map of where Afghanistan sits. Iran on the east, Pakistan on the west and south and a bunch of small states that were part of the Soviet Union. The British controlled India/Pakistan until 1949 and ended up fighting 3 wars in Afghanistan to protect these areas from Russia. Every one was a disaster, with an entire British army being wiped out in the 1841. The more you look at history the more you can blame British colonial policy for many of the problems the world faces today as they created many artificial nations ignoring tribal realities. Can you spell I-R-A-Q? Add Palestine/Israel, India/Pakistan and the entire Middle East.

The Soviet Union took a crack at Afghanistan in 1979 when the Afghan government asked for help against a Mujahideen Islamist revolt, which was supported by Muslim nations, including Pakistan, while the government was supported by Pakistan’s enemy, India. (The results of those British colonial machinations again.) President Carter punished the Soviets by boycotting the 1980 Olympics in Moscow and started sending aid to the rebels. But when Regan took over, he went much further, sending a great deal of support to the Mujahideen in an attempt to undermine the Soviet empire. The nine-year war really did in the Soviets and was instrumental in the ending of the Cold War. But watch out what you wish for. One of the people the Regan administration supported was a guy named Osama bin Laden and that led to the rise of Al Qaeda.

One of the strengths of the Taliban in defeating the Soviets was the moral imperative of fighting an incredibly corrupt and lawless government. With all the horrors they brought to the table, the Taliban also created such a harsh environment, the crooks and rapists couldn’t operate. All the Taliban did was cut off the heads of girls who wanted to go to school.

Now, jump ahead to George Bush and the post 9/11 invasion. Instead of focusing on solidifying Afghanistan and dealing with Pakistan’s support of Al Qaeda, he invaded Iraq, while leaving Afghanistan in the hands of one of the major crooks, Harmid Karzai. The “defeated” Taliban went back to work and “Voila”, 8 years later (one year less than the Soviet fun time in Afghanistan) we have the major pickle we are in.

Think back to Vietnam in the 60’s, with a fraction of the population and land area of Afghanistan. Our ally in South Vietnam had a corrupt and ineffective president. The CIA solution was to have Ngo Dinh Diem assassinated on November 2, 1963, an assassination approved by Kennedy. Three weeks later, he was dead himself. Remember, we pumped in over 500,000 troops. Estimates are that we would need at least double that in Afghanistan, not the measly 80,000 the military wants now. No matter how many troops end up there, the problem is Karzai and his band of merry thieves. That gives the Taliban the moral high ground. I wonder if the Obama administration sometimes doesn’t think of the assassination option as a “solution” to that part of the problem. No matter what they decide to do, all options lead to disaster – lose/lose no matter what Obama decides to do. No one wants see the Taliban in power again, but it may be inevitable given the lack of an effective Afghani government forever. (Hey, maybe they could use Mayor Mike running the country?) The question on the table is whether to also lose thousands of American lives and untold billions of dollars and still lose the war.

But no matter what, let’s never forget that this no-win position is a result of the Bush disaster. And no matter how bad the Obama presidency gets, I wouldn’t go backwards to a Bush-like Presidency for anything. But I’m afraid that’s exactly what will be happening in 2012. Hmmm, maybe I can get a deal on a condo in South Waziristan.

Proof of NY State Grade Inflation: NAEP math scores just released; no gains for NY State

Watch BloomKlein spin themselves into the ground. Thompson, of course, will take little advantage because he hasn't hit Bloomberg hard on the phony ed gains. Even better, watch the UFT spin since it has tied itself to the BloomKlein phony test gains.


This just in from Leonie Haimson.

http://nationsreportcard.gov/math_2009/

No significant change since 2007 for NY State in either 4^th or 8^th grade math. Since NYC is such a large part of NY State, this means it is very likely the same for NYC – ie no significant improvements since 2007.

This is yet more compelling evidence that the NY state exam scores, which showed big jumps statewide at both levels, were badly inflated.

See http://nationsreportcard.gov/math_2009/gr4_state.asp for 4^th grade math.

Esp. map: NY state surrounded by states with significantly higher results in 4^th grade math.

http://nationsreportcard.gov/math_2009/gr8_state.asp for 8^th grade math.

In both 4^th and 8^th grade math, the big increases in scores occurred between 2000-2003 ; before the Bloomberg/Klein policies put into place.

Webcast of results starting shortly.

Follow-up from Leonie:

Let’s see how Bloomberg/Klein et al, and the editorial boards that are in their thrall, try to spin this one!

Gotham Schools' Anna Philips reports:

No improvement for New York state on national math exam

by Anna Phillips

Math scores for students in New York state have hardly budged in the last two years, challenging results from the state’s own exams that show significant score increases.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress, commonly known as NAEP, or the nation’s report card, is out today and New York’s results on the math exam have changed little from 2007.

Two years ago, 43 percent of the state’s fourth graders were proficient or higher in math, while this year, that number is 40 percent. In 2007, 31 percent of eighth graders scored at or above proficient, and in 2009 it was 34 percent.

While the NAEP scores, released this morning, show no significant changes, the state’s yearly math exams tell a different story. Between 2007 and 2009, fourth graders gained nine scale score points and eighth graders gained 18 points. According to the NAEP exam, fourth graders’ average scale scores decreased by two points and eight grade students’ scores rose by three points.

Philly Student to Sharpton, Duncan and Gingrich: Why are you on a "listening" tour...

...but don't listen or learn from the community?

The Philly Student union puts the ed deformers on the spot.

"We wanted to put forth some input as to what educational reform should look like in Philadelphia and the nation."

But they aren't interested.

See the video, From the Other Side of the Fence, at Philly Student Union.

Fear and Loathing at Evil's Harlem Success Empire - Another Deep Throat Emerges

Deep throats at HSA seem to be coming out of the woodwork. Starting tomorrow: lie detector tests. Can't wait for the people who left to start talking.

I saw that you posted on the principal (Jacqui Getz) leaving Harlem Success Academy. It's true! She and two school leaders left with her. This is the second principal to leave in two years. Last year's principal was fired mid year, just before the third grade exams. He was good, just didn't fit Eva's idea of what a principal should be.

I don't know how she can get away with not having an Administrator in that school. Doesn't the State follow through on it. She should be out of compliance somehow!

I think they'll be bleeding teachers and staff by the boat-loads this year.

They already lost a teacher this year. So you have a number of people leaving in the first two months already.

Earlier in the year, she told teachers that it was not in her "vision" for the school to have teachers unionize - I bet you they would, if there was anyone planning on staying longer than a year or two. Plus, people are too afraid to even attempt that.

Reacting to Rhee in DC

The next time the Post's editorial board tells you that Rhee's plans are wonderful, reread Gittleson's story of how a grade-school principal fired the school's only third-grade teacher, and dealt with the problem that created by kicking some third-graders up to the fourth grade and demoting the others to the second grade.

Gary Imhoff in TheMail

Some people are looking at what appears to be a Michelle Rhee meltdown in DC as a victory for the forces opposing the attack on public education. I take another tack.

One could ask: Was Michelle Rhee placed in DC with one of the weakest teacher unions in the nation by the ed deformer conspiracy to privatize public education to test the waters by pushing things to the extreme so they can see just what they can get away with? In other words, could they get away with hiring 900 mostly white newbies and then fire hundreds of teachers of color? Pushing the union to the edge of oblivion? Closing numerous schools and riling parents? With 35% of the schools already charters, things were looking bleak indeed.

And don't forget to add the newly installed AFT president, Randi Weingarten, a collaborationist supreme, who would work not as a strong advocate of the DC teachers, but as a mediator of sorts with Rhee. Bleak indeed.

There isn't even an opposition caucus in DC to push the leadership. But there was Candi Peterson's Washington Teacher blog and union VP Nathan Saunders and others who I do no know, but clearly something is getting organized.

The Washington Post has been shameless in cheer leading for Rhee. Except for Bill Turque, some of whose reporting has been suppressed (Cover Up of DC Teachers Protests by The Washington Post).

See

Bracey: The Washington Post--Union Buster?

I'm guessing the ed deform forces will retrench a bit and come at them from a different direction. But they may no longer find it so easy as mayor Adrien Fenty's dictatorship alienates more regular DC people, who after all do vote. Obama may be the last DC resident to let him go.

And it will be worth watching upcoming union elections this spring as Saunders may make a run at Parker, who will undoubtedly enjoy Randi's underhanded support. (See my upcoming report on the growing opposition in the Chicago Teachers Union.) Boy are we far behind here in NYC where we reside in the belly of the beast. where even a long-time supporter like Bill Thompson can't get an endorsement from the union against the Bloomberg monster.

Today's DC based TheMail has this encouraging report from Gary Imhoff

Rally

Dear Ralliers:

The protest rally on Freedom Plaza last Thursday marks a turning point in DC politics. Chancellor Michelle Rhee's war against DC school teachers and their union led her to overreach with a maneuver that was too cute by half — to hire many more teachers than she needed for this school year in order to provide an excuse for largely arbitrary firings, calling them a Reduction in Force. That offended not just veteran teachers, but also younger teachers who realized that they, too, would be the targets of Rhee's iron whims. It showed students and DCPS parents how Rhee's methods, when put in practice, would harm them. And it energized government workers and unions — not just local unions, but national union leaders — in recognition that the Fenty administration is engaged not in an effort to improve education, but in an effort to bust public employee unions.

That changes the momentum in the 2010 mayoral race. Here's how things stand. The anybody-but-Fenty voting blocs include the unions; most city workers, whether they are unionized or not; young people and students, who see what Fenty and Rhee are doing to their schools, including the University of the District of Columbia; most black voters, who see Fenty as being uninterested in their issues; the poor and those concerned about the welfare of the poor, who see Fenty's cuts in homeless programs, neglect of job creation programs, and closing of child care facilities as being hostile to their interests; the good government voters who follow city affairs closely and who oppose his giveaways of government property and land to favored developers; and the traditional values voters who are offended by his promotion of gay marriage and his other snubs of organized religion.

The pro-Fenty voters include white voters, largely in sections of Wards One, Two and Three, who have little involvement with or knowledge of DC government; those gays for whom the gay marriage issue trumps all other issues; monied contributors who have given three million dollars to his reelection campaign; developers and contractors who have benefited at the trough of District government; and twenty-somethings who are newcomers to the District of Columbia and who believe Fenty's claims that recent economic development projects are due to him, rather than being the culmination of his predecessors' work.

What last Thursday's large, well-organized, and enthusiastic protest rally shows is that the passion in this race is mostly on the anybody-but-Fenty side. Even among Fenty's contributors, support is tempered by resentment at how the Fenty campaign has coerced them to contribute with barely veiled threats that if they want to do business with the city, or want to continue to do business with the city, they had better give generously. Many of Fenty's strongest supporters in the 2006 race do not support him now, or support him only in the absence of any credible opposing candidate. Fenty's strengths, on the other hand, are his three million dollar campaign fund, the unwavering support of The Washington Post, the absence of a credible challenger, and the possibility that the various groups that oppose him will not be able or willing to work together and to agree on a single candidate. There are tens of thousands of traditional values voters and tens of thousands of government workers and union voters. Together just these two groups could sway the election, but do they have any willingness or ability to work together?

The Post's editorial board's penchant for covering up for and excusing Fenty's and Rhee's mistakes, which will be a great benefit to Fenty in his campaign, is particularly evident in today's editorial on the rally, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/10/AR2009101001914.html, which is replete with mistakes and misrepresentations. The editorial board's ignorance and bias is especially obvious when compared with more accurate information elsewhere in the same paper. Read Thomas Toch's “Five Myths about Paying Good Teachers More,” which confronts and takes down Rhee's claims about the magic of performance pay, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/09/AR2009100902571.html; Robert McCartney's admission, as a Rhee supporter, that he's not convinced by her explanation of her firings, “Did Rhee Overplay Her Hand or Seek a Showdown?” http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/10/AR2009101001956.html; and Jodie Gittleson's account of her own firing and its aftermath, “Pink Slip for a First-Year Teacher,” http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/07/AR2009100702643.html. The next time the Post's editorial board tells you that Rhee's plans are wonderful, reread Gittleson's story of how a grade-school principal fired the school's only third-grade teacher, and dealt with the problem that created by kicking some third-graders up to the fourth grade and demoting the others to the second grade.

Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com

If Karl Marx and V. I. Lenin were alive today, they would be leading contenders for the Nobel Prize in economics

When the long-term discouraged workers are added back into the total unemployed, the unemployment rate in September 2009 stands at 21.4%.

Wait a minute! Those Obama socialists at it again? Nooooo. This was written by, Paul Craig Roberts, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration in an article called Marx and Lenin Reconsidered, (Counterpunch) Roberts continues:

In Marx’s day, religion was the opiate of the masses. Today the media is. Let’s look at media reporting that facilitates the financial oligarchy’s ability to delude the people.

The financial oligarchy is hyping a recovery while American unemployment and home foreclosures are rising. The hype owes its credibility to the high positions from which it comes, to the problems in payroll jobs reporting that overstate employment, and to disposal into the memory hole of any American unemployed for more than one year.

POW!

Marx predicted the growing misery of working people, and Lenin foresaw the subordination of the production of goods to financial capital’s accumulation of profits based on the purchase and sale of paper instruments. Their predictions are far superior to the “risk models” for which the Nobel Prize has been given and are closer to the money than the predictions of Federal Reserve chairmen, US Treasury secretaries, and Nobel economists, such as Paul Krugman, who believe that more credit and more debt are the solution to the economic crisis.

BAM!!

In this first decade of the 21st century there has been no increase in the real incomes of working Americans. There has been a sharp decline in their wealth. In the 21st century Americans have suffered two major stock market crashes and the destruction of their real estate wealth.

Some studies have concluded that the real incomes of Americans, except for the financial oligarchy of the super rich, are less today than in the 1980s and even the 1970s.

The main cause of this decline is the offshoring of US high value-added jobs.

SPLAT!!!

The expansion in debt that underlies this bubble has further eroded the US dollar’s credibility as reserve currency. When the dollar starts to go, panicked policy-makers will raise interest rates in order to protect the US Treasury’s borrowing capability. When the interest rates rise, what little remains of the US economy will tank.

If the government cannot borrow, it will print money to pay its bills. Hyperinflation will hit the American population. Massive unemployment and massive inflation will inflict upon the American people misery that not even Marx and Lenin could envisage.

CRASH!!!!

The entire Roberts piece is at Norms Notes.

And here is Paul Krugman's response in today's Times where he says not to worry so much about inflation in a deflationary time and calls out people like Roberts who talk about the falling dollar as a bad thing.

Principal of Harlem Success 1 Departs....

....and it was not a joyful event. But we have no details yet.

Our deep throat mole in the evil empire declared that HSA schools are awful where the theme is Bubble, Bubble, or there will be Test Prep Trouble.

Fundamental Truths in the Battle Over Girls Prep Charter School

I've been so busy following the wild debate, mostly between parents, over this post about Girls Prep charter school at Gotham Schools that I forgot to blog. There is some amazing stuff being said there with District 1 (lower east side) parents exposing the DOE tilt towards charters and the purposeful disempowerment of parents. One of our fave parent activists Lisa Donlan has been in the thick of it and her comments are required reading for the way they reveal the machinations of the DOE. Lisa is chairperson of Community Education Council (CEC) 1 and has come under spurious attacks while lots of others defend her passionately.

Ken Hirsh, who supports Girls Prep and Harlem Success Academy financially (and is also a major funder of Gotham Schools), has put up comments that are worth parsing. When I challenge him on the political agenda of charter schools he doesn't respond. On the surface he seems like a decent well intentioned guy. But when you read between the lines, who knows? His comments vis a vis Lisa and her responses are certainly interesting.

Go on and feast (and join in the fray.)

http://gothamschools.org/2009/09/30/girls-prep-charter-wants-more-space-but-doesnt-want-a-fight/

Is Arne Duncan Guilty of Murder? Will BloomKlein Be Next?

The violence around Chicago schools has received national attention. Today's Times has a major story, but as usual only tells half of it. "Derrion Albert, the 16-year-old who was beaten to death recently with wood planks after getting caught on his way home between two rival South Side gangs, neither of which he was a member..."

George Schmidt told a different story where he blames the corporate reform which closes schools, turns them into "reform" schools which only take select students and force thousands of students out of their own neighborhoods and into schools in hostile territory:

"It's just seven and a half days since Derrion Albert had his skull crushed in that now-world-famous gang fight on 111th St. in Chicago. And most people still don't realize that "turnaround" was a partial cause of that death.

And the White House is sending Arne Duncan and Eric Holder to Chicago next week to keep the cover up alive and well.

And most of Chicago's media will go along with that cover up, just as they've been cheerleaders for corporate school reform for 14 years now, since Mayor Daley became dictator over Chicago's schools.

But since Arne Duncan is going to force every state in the USA to do Chicago-style "turnaround" or lose stimulus money, let's take a close look at what just happened in Chicago. Not the hype. From the streets around Fenger High School I've been walking the past few days as a reporter, blacklisted Chicago teacher, and former "director of security and safety" for the Chicago Teachers Union. And, oh, as editor of www.substancenews.net.

"Turnaround" and a decade of corporate media manipulation in Chicago and now beyond Chicago's lies, hoaxes, and Orwellian nonsense.

I published the full piece over the weekend: 'Chicago Turnaround' the deadliest 'reform' of them all

Now, the amazing stuff Schmidt writes at Substance doesn't often get into the mainstream press, and of course the Times' article did not give a hint. I loved this opening about Arne Duncan's replacement, Ron Huberman:

The new chief officer of the public schools here, Ron Huberman, a former police officer and transit executive with a passion for data analysis, has a plan to stop the killings of the city’s public school students. And it does not have to do with guns or security guards. It has to do with statistics and probability.

It's just too funny to see how a former cop and transit executive is making educational decisions, just as Duncan and Paul Vallas before him created the Chicago ed deform movement called Renaissance 2000 something or other.

But low and behold, I am listening to a report on NPR this morning on the murder of Derrion Albert and they make exactly the same point George made in linking the gang violence to the forced evacuation of thousands of students from their own neighborhoods, even pointing to the fact that the local high school was turned into a military academy by Duncan.

Is Duncan guilty of murder? Maybe not. How about an unindicted co-conspirator along with Mayor Daley, Huberman and the rest of the ed deformers, which unfortunately includes our current president.

Happy Birthday, Evil Moskowitz

This evening was Evil Moskowitz' big birthday bash for Harlem Success Academy held at Roseland, with guests of honor Joel Klein, Michael Bloomberg, and Dracula.

I hear there was a loud group there to greet them. Here is a brief first report from a GEMer who attended:

PS 123 protested tonight at the HSA opening night dinner party. The picket line was predominantly made up of kids from 123. I think they may have made it a bit difficult for some of the people waiting on line to enjoy their party. They had to wait on line for a half hour listening to these kids chant and picket. I talked to one grandparent who said she was planning to leave HSA because "they never listen" to her concerns about her granddaughter's education. She said the teachers there cannot differentiate instruction.

I"ll add to this post as more pics and reports come in and I'll be following up with a piece on how HSA may be violating its charter.

Brooklyn middle school students squeezed out of study space by 3 charter schools sharing building

MS 126 is a school I knew real well as I did tech support there for about 5 years. First they had Bard HS take over the 4th floor, have the DOE (under Harold Levy) put a million dollars into the renovation, which cut classroom space in half, then move out to the lower east side, leaving room for the charter invasion.

This Daily News article is really an effective piece.

Example of the farce in this library sharing situation:

Period 1: Believe charter school teachers may utilize the left side of the library. The IS 126 library has sole use of the right side of the library.

Brooklyn middle school students squeezed out of study space by 3 charter schools sharing building

BY Elizabeth Lazarowitz <https://mail.nycboe.net/authors/Elizabeth%20Lazarowitz>
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Tuesday, October 6th 2009, 4:00 AM

At JHS 126 in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, memo grants its three charter schools the lion's share of access to the library (below), which got an overhaul just last year.<http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2009/10/06/alg_eriksson_school.jpg>
Adams for News

At JHS 126 in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, memo grants its three charter schools the lion's share of access to the library (below), which got an overhaul just last year.


Students and parents at a Brooklyn <http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Brooklyn> middle school are fuming after they were pushed out of their newly spruced-up library by an expanding charter school.

Junior High School 126 kids have severely limited access to the cozy, mural-painted reading spot this year so the three charters sharing the Greenpoint <http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Greenpoint> building can use the space for planning, meetings and small classes.

"It's unfair," said JHS 126 parent association President Janeen Echevarria <http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Janeen+Echevarria> . "Kids need to get in there to get books out to do their reports, to read, to further their education."

Access to the library for more than 400 middle schoolers will be restricted to one side of the space for less than two hours each day, with an extra hour on Wednesdays.

Eddie Calderon-Melendez <http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Eddie+Calderon-Melendez> , founder of the Believe High School Network, which runs the charters, said the use of shared space is negotiated every year.

"We figure out what's in the best interest of all the children in the building," Calderon-Melendez said.

While the charters are using the auditorium and the library this year, they gave up their half of the gym space, he said.

That's of little comfort to JHS 126 eighth-grader Ashley, who said she's been stuck with a fifth-grade-

level independent reading book because she hasn't been able to get into the library yet. She's also worried about completing final projects required for graduation.

"We have no way of researching," said the 14-year-old student. The area near the library in her Bushwick <http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Bushwick> neighborhood is dangerous, she said.

"There's this whole library full of new books bought for our school, and we can't even use it," Ashley said.

Williamsburg Charter High School <http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Williamsburg+Charter+High+School> , the first school to share the Leonard St. space, opened in 2004. This year, Believe opened two more charters - Believe Northside and Believe Southside - promising that Williamsburg <http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Williamsburg+(Brooklyn)> 's upper grades would move to private space.

The move to a new Bushwick building was stalled this summer, Calderon-Melendez said. He said he expects the building to be ready next year.

That means about 1,400 kids are packed into a building made for about 1,320.

To accommodate the extra charter students, JHS 126 Principal Rosemary Ochoa <http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Rosemary+Ochoa> opted to give up shared space rather than relinquish classrooms, said Education Department spokeswoman Ann Forte <http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Ann+Forte> .

Students will get library skills lessons in their classrooms using laptops, she said.

"The principals have been able to work together to solve the problems on the ground," Forte said. "[The JHS 126 principal] is confident that the kids are still getting the access and the quality of library instruction that they need."

The space scuffle comes as Mayor Bloomberg <http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Michael+Bloomberg> vows to double the number of charter schools in the city to 200.

Last year, the library got an overhaul, with volunteers painting the walls with a castle motif. Now, the 13 donated computers, comfy recliners and futon have been removed.

"It's a beautiful library; 126 should have first priority, and the charter school should wait or get their own building already," lamented parent Doreen Sudano <http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Doreen+Sudano> .

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2009/10/06/2009-10-06_kids_slam_library_land_grab_jhs_126_squeezed_out_of_study_space_by_3_charter_sch.html

<http://www.nydailynews.com/img/hdr_print.gif>

Girls Prep Charter Plays Bait and Switch

We've been reporting on the PAVE charter/PS 15 struggle in Red Hook. Today I stopped by the CAPE group table at the Atlantic Antic street fair in Brooklyn, where they were getting a great response calling on PAVE to adhere to their original agreement to stay at PS 15 only 2 years. (Check the CAPE blog for updates - CAPE'n the Atlantic Antic.)


Many of us view charters as a political wedge to undermine public schools. Girls Prep Charter, based at PS 188 on the lower east side may be a good school with dedicated people. But we have to examine charters as to how they function in the political context. If they use bait and switch schemes and manipulations to gain control over space in public schools, then they are working against the long-time public good. If that leads to a divided and balkanized system that is taken out of the hands of public management then we can’t just focus on whether they are “good” because they serve a small portion of the public.

Thinking ahead, is the goal to have 1500 schools under separate management using public money? Do we think that is a good thing? Especially since only urban school systems with their racial component are the ones affected, while the suburban schools will have few charters and function under public control?

A good discussion has been taking place at Gotham Schools over Girls Prep charter school. Ken Hirsh, a charter school financial backer (he also backs Gotham Schools) and Lisa Donlan, Chairperson of Community Education Council in District 1 had a rigorous back and forth. I have a lot of respect for Ken's passion about education despite the fact I disagree with him on most points. He brings a level of civility to the debate that I just cannot match. I tend to go along with Lisa on most issues and I extracted some of her comments focused on the bait and switch tactics of Girls Prep. Lisa provides the nitty gritty of many of the aspects of the public charter struggle, though I am leaving out her description of her struggle to get basic info from the charters in her district. I'll let her take over, but be sure to check the link to read what Ken and others wrote.

Comments by Lisa Donlan

GPC admitted 3 classes of 5th graders his year, one year after they moved into PS 188.
GPC had been “incubating” in nearby PS 15 since its inception in 2005, and had long outgrown the space there, necessitating a move.

Despite the agreement between the two schools whereby GPC was not to ask PS 188 for additional space beyond the agreed upon joint plan, GPC hired a Middle School Principal and admitted 3 times as many students as they had room for.

GPC had to rescind the extra 50 invitations to keep to one class, which is all they had room for.
GPC also got the names of all of the enrolled students in the district in ATS and used that enrollment information to send out glossy post cards recruiting kids and their parents BY NAME: “Last Chance to Apply! Girls Prep is FREE, all girls, and a proven success…” in English and Spanish, thus breaking the other ground rule for moving in to 188- no predatory marketing or recruiting away of the 188 students.

The SUNY Charter Schools Institute in a notice pursuant to ed law 2857(1) gave notice that the Board of Regents approved the charter renewal application on Sept 16th, 2008 for:
Girls Preparatory Charter School Of New York: Located at 333 East 4th Street, 5th floor, New York, NY, NYC CSD1; charter renewal commencing March 23 2009, and terminating July 31, 2010: proposed final enrollment /grades served- 248 students/K-5.

SUNY Trustees approved the same on June 9, 2008
This renewal was received on March 9, 2008.

On September 17, 2009 SUNY Trustees announced that Girls Prep had applied for a 5 year charter renewal commencing on July 2, 2010, with a proposed 1st year enrollment/grades/served-268 students/K-5; proposed 5th year enrollment /grades served -525 students/K-8.

Interestingly, in the charter application renewal questions, GPC states that it:” plans to open a Middle School in August 2009… to serve grades K-8 at full capacity.

…at full capacity, during the 4th year of the second charter term Girls Prep will serve 437 students in grades K-8, including approximately 242 students in grades K-4 and 195 students in grades 5-8.”

Let’s hope they teach math better than they use it!

At the CEC One meeting, OPD agreed that the targeted space Girls Prep had requested was for 3 classes of 25 students each per grade for grades 5, 6, 7, 8th or for 300 seats, and handed out a “fact sheet” that stated they would serve 300 students in grades K-5 at capacity.
Anyone not getting this new math????

The issue is not whether or not the 57% of students out of district and the 43% in district students who attend GPC on the LES deserve 300 more seats to create a middle school.

The question is who will need to give up what in order to make those seats available to this privately managed charter that serves no ELL’s (in a district that averages over 12% ELL), while 8% of their students have IEPS requiring SETTS, in a district with the same 8% average of SETTS IEPs, plus additionally 15% on average of our district elementary students requiring the More Restrictive Environments of either CTT or Self Contained classes, classes that Girls Prep does not offer, while in middle schools the district average is 21% of students requiring CTT or self contained classrooms.

Will GPC take in thsoe students with IEPs requiring those settings if they do not offer them?
Will more high needs students be pushed into the remaining schools in the remaining real estate?
Is this the way we want to make decisions about serving children? What happened to Children First?
It is starting to look a lot like private management first, or maybe certain children first….

On the OPD chopping block are:

PS 20 (w/ostensibly 19 spare rooms according to OPD)
PS 184 (w/ supposedly 20 unused rooms)
JHS 56 (on paper has 30 rooms over capacity)
PS 188 (that has 11 extra rooms)

These numbers are based on the flawed blue book and principals use survey that fail to take into account real capacity and use, as they are based on unreal constructs that don’t “count” cluster rooms used for art, music, dance, theater, speech therapy, counseling, OT, PT, administrative offices ( there are more offices in school buildings housing one or more schools), etc.

JHS 56 for example houses 3 separate schools (2 MS, and one 6-12) which all have administrative offices; the NYC DoE’s NASA space center; as well as the District Office (with full time employees: the CEC AA, the DFA and the district superintendent’s temp worker); but these rooms can not be part of the “footprint” since they are unique and not formulaic.

The 3 schools in the JHS building serve 27, 30 and 36% special education students requiring CTT or self contained class, respectively. Two school surpass the district average for ELLs with 15% of students classified as ELL’s, and one school is a Title III school.
In fact at one of the middle schools only 21% of the population is not either ELL or Special Education designated.

How does the new governance law that requires local hearings and an impact statement (to be created by DoE) operate to take into account the kinds of students being served, how well they are being served and how best to use the limited space in public school buildings? What will be the value of “consulting” with the CEC or DLT in the case that the recommendations favored by the chancellor do not sway the elected local governing bodies? Keep your eye on cases like these to see how good the new governance laws are at providing transparency, accountability and community input and oversight to these thorny issues.

Lisa continues in another comment

The GPCharter folks were spinning/telling stories when they grabbed me after our CEC meeting to explain away the disconnect between the previous chartering info and the newest proposal.

Planning year snafu my…well, you know what!

I saw that: “ the school’s original charter application and charter originally granted authority to provide instruction in K through 5th grade.

The school’s decision planning year … the charter was amended in May 2004 and limited expansion to 4th grade.

I also learned that there have been several ”deviations from the design elements in the original charter:

From 8am to 5 pm to the current 8 am to 3 or 3:45 pm ( 3/4th grades)

Initiating Spanish instruction in 3rd grade instead of K

Increasing class size from 22 to 25

Reducing number of classes on each grade form 3 to 2

Reducing the school year form 200 to 190 days…”

Interestingly I learned that the school has been provided space at essentially no charge by the NYCDOE.

At PS 188 that translates into: 13 classrooms, 3 administrative offices, and shared use of the: auditorium, Library, Computer lab; Lunch room, Gymnasium, Yard provided at no coast by NYCDoE.

Let 'Em NOT Eat Cake - UPDATED

Updated: Oct. 4, 5pm

GBN News reports: Bake Sale Ban Leaves Thompson Without Dough

http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2009/10/bake-sale-ban-leaves-\
thompson-without.html

Lots of discussion about the Bloomberg ban on cake sales in schools and vending machine contracts.


Parents comment:

Patrick Sullivan:

It looks like the Chancellor's reg was updated to protect the firms getting the new vending contracts.

The timing is interesting. The reg was issued on 6/29/2009, the very day the old schools governance law expired. I would have thought all the legal people at DOE were busy preparing for the transition. Someone carved out some time to lay out new rules clamping down on bake sales.

Here is a link for the reg A-812

The contract with two vendors for snacks and drinks is described in the big document for the PEP approval. It is item 13: ftp://CPS:PASSWORD@MT2CPSFTP00.nycenet.edu/pep100709.pdf It says that new guidelines for snacks in schools were issued as part of the Request for Proposals and snack sales would be vended centrally for the first time.

I'll get the RFP and send that out.

Patrick

Steve Koss:
When I became involved as PTA President at MCSM high school in East Harlem, we took over a parent association that was dormant to the point of comatose, with about $300 in the bank and virtually no parent involvement. We used coffee and donuts (donated gratis by a local Dunkin Donuts shop) to help bring parents to our PTA table set up on Parent/Teacher Conference evening and days, and we used a cheesecake sale through Ashley Farms as one of our first halfway decent fundraisers. On those same parent conference nights, we'd see the cheerleaders with a table set up with homemade cakes/cupcakes, and the Advanced Science Research kids were doing the same thing upstairs on the building's third floor. Not to mention the various candy and other bake sales sponsored by the freshman class, the seniors, and various clubs.

These fundraisers not only bring in needed funds, they get kids involved working toward a common goal, and they usually end up integrating the parents into the activity in some way (if only by baking something at home). So as you've noted so well, this is just one more way for the DOE under Klein to assert control -- by removing it from parents and students -- under the absurd guise that they actually care about students' health. This is more than just government as overreaching mommy, it's a way to reduce local initiatives and parent involvement. It also perversely undercuts the various clubs and student activities that help make schools more than just educational factories and test prep mills, the things that differentiate schools from one another and make them attractive to parents. Why would we want public schools to look attractive when we have the choice of all these wonderful new, privately-operated charter schools?

The day will come when NY'ers will look back and wonder where their public school system went. By that time, we'll have McDonald's Elementary School and Nike High School.

Steve Koss

Dorothy Giglio:
It is very logical, this was one way the students/clubs and parent associations could raise money. If they can control all the money they can then control these groups. Not to mention bake sales are sometimes the first way you can get parents involved. It is something that brings them into the building and then they can be approached for other areas of involvement. If you stop them here you again diminish parent involvement. Very logical.

Leonie Haimson follows up:

Thanks Patrick; this brings up so many questions.

1- Why is the contract info only on a private intranet rather than the publicly accessible PEP webpage, like before? Do they not plan to make this available to the public beforehand?

2- So it is not only the case that Octagon received an inflated percentage for commission for selecting the vendor (was it 15-18%, I recall) but the vendor itself is provided with a monopoly of all snacks sold in schools, and thereby depriving students of a valuable source of revenue in the process? Not to mention the community building activities that Steve mentions below?

3- Was the regulation issued on the last day of the previous governance law so that it wouldn’t need to be approved by the Bd. Of Ed or a reconstituted PEP with new rules to approve regulations, in order to evade public scrutiny?

Also, though the snacks sold by the vendors are supposedly healthy, they cannot be bought any time during lunch or breakfast. For schools with extended lunch periods (like Francis Lewis, for example, where lunch starts at 8:15 in the morning) that essentially cuts them off during most of the entire day.

Schools seeking to use vending machines must use the DOE’s central contracts, which provide for machines equipped with timers.* The snack vending machine contractor will be required to set the timers to lock the machines during the breakfast meal and then again, during the lunch periods. Schools may not enter into vending machine or food and beverage purchase contracts with any other vendors. Snack vending machines may not be used in any schools serving grade levels pre-kindergarten (“PK”) through five (5).

See also:

Food and beverages sold in school stores must be purchased from the centrally approved contracts* and must come from the centrally approved list of food and beverage items that meet the food nutritional guidelines. School stores must not sell food items during breakfast and from the beginning of the firstlunch period until the end of the last lunch period.

These rules even restrict the PTA fundraising once a month that allows restricted food items in that this fundraising cannot occur until after the last lunch period – which again in many schools is very late in the day.

“However, the rule respecting the sale of non-approved food items may be lifted to permit the PA/PTA to raise funds using nonapproved food items once per month as long as the sale of the non-approved food items does not occur from the beginning of the school day until after the last lunch period.

Where is the list of approved food items?

The regulation links to the website of the Office of SchoolFood (“SchoolFood”) website: http://www.optosfns.org/osfns but I can’t find the list there.

Leonie Haimson

'Chicago Turnaround' the deadliest 'reform' of them all

Norm:

I'm posting this and thought you might like to share with New York friends. It's been very very busy here.

George Schmidt

October 2, 2009 

  
Colleagues:
  

  
It's just seven and a half days since Derrion Albert ha d his skull crushed in that now-world-famous gang fight on 111th St. in Chicago.
  

  
And most people still don't realize that "turnaround" was a partial cause of that death.
  

  
And the White House is sending Arne Duncan and Eric Holder to Chicago next week to keep the cover up alive and well.
  

  
And most of Chicago's media will go along with that cover up, just as they've been cheerleaders for corporate school reform for 14 years now, since Mayor Daley became dictator over Chicago's schools.
  

  
But since Arne Duncan is going to force every state in the USA to do Chicago-style "turnaround" or lose stimulus money, let's take a close look at what just happened in Chicago. Not the hype. From the streets around Fenger High School I've been walking the past few days as a reporter, blacklisted Chicago teacher, and former "director of security and safety" for the Chicago Teachers Union. And, oh, as editor of www.substancenews.net.
  

  
"Turnaround" and a decade of corporate media manipulation in Chicago and now beyond Chicago's lies, hoaxes, and Orwellian nonsense.
  

  
Read on if you want some narrative fact. 
  

  
If you're waiting for all the "data" in this "data driven" age, I can't help you. 
  

  
I just posted another critique of Chicago's school "turnaround" craziness at www.substancenews.net and hope it will he lp people understand what we have been talking about from Chicago for the past ten years or more. "Turnaround" as applied to Chicago's schools has a specific meaning, and is largely unrelated to the buzzwords of corporate America. 

  
If you want to check out the mixed history of "turnaround" in corporate America, I urge you to Google Al Dunlap -- "Chainsaw Al Dunlap" prior to his nasty fall after destroying Chicago's Sunbeam corporation during the dot-com con. For the ten years prior to 2001-2002, "Cahinsaw Al" was a media favorite, and the public snarl of corporate "turnaround." His legacy was about to be poised into corporate "school reform" courtesy of Forbes magazine, which was about to nickname Paul Vallas "Chainsaw Paul" until Dunlap was exposed, top to bottom, as a fraud. They quickly withdrew the "Chainsaw Paul" sobriquet and went on to construct a new identity for Paul Vallas as he was leaving his mess behind in Chicago (after leaving CPS in June 2001) and continuing his corporate school reform work in Philadelphia. But that's another story for another time.
  

  
In public schools, as we've reported for years at Substance, 'Turnaround' is a Chicago process that is actually reconstitution. That is what the Chicago Board of Education approved on February 25, 2009, when it chainsawed Chicago's Fenger High School (the latest to be "turnarounded", as we put it here in Chicago). The vote of the Board was to do "turnaround," but Illinois state law doesn't have "turnaround" (yet) in its vocabulary, so the Board votes to do "reconstitution" (which all you ed researchers know has been a failure, at least as measured by any legitimate researchers and peer reviewed). 
  

  
But Chicago still does "turnaround." It's the flavor of the month from Chicago's Madison Ave. hucksters, David Axelrod at the White House and Peter Cunningham working on Arne Duncan's spin from the Education Department. With Barack Obama reading the scripts.
  

  
Now we have "turnaround" on brutal display, courtesy of the murder of 16-year-old Fenger student Derrion Albert last Thursday (September 24) while one of his fellow students made a video that is now on international display.
  

  
How does "turnaround" relate to the Derrion Albert murder?
  

  
In June and July, after being warned not to, the administration of Ron Huberman, who succeeded Arne Duncan as Chief Executive Officer of Chicago's public schools, fired all but seven or nine of the more than 150 staff (teachers, principal, custodians, lunchroom workers, etc.) at Fenger High School and brought in a newly trained "turnaround" team. In July and August, the new "turnaround" team (mostly white, replacing a mostly black staff at an all-black segregated public high school) prepared its lessons avidly and studied its scripts earnestly.
  

  
Then on September 8, the kids arrived.
  

  
The 10th, 11th and 12th graders were the same from last year. This is because for the first time since "turnaround" began in Chicago Chicago forced the school to keep all the previous students. A year earlier, at Harper and Orr High School, "turnaround" allowed the new regime at each school to dump the "bad" kids. But last year they got caught, not only by Substance (that's us) but by public radio. By the time WBEZ reporter Linda Lutton was done with the Harper story, anybody paying attention knew that Harper had dumped between 300 and 400 kids between June and September 2008, Those kids (whom Lutton and some friends of ours tracked) wound up at schools like nearby Robeson (that's Paul Robeson High School) where they were kept (vaguely) under control because Robeson had a strong veteran staff.
  

  
But over the summer of 2009, CPS ordered Fenger High School not to dump its "trash" (this was the term used by both charters and "turnaround" schools to describe the process) into nearby schools. So Fenger began this school year not only with its exotic collection of 10th, 11th and 12th graders (hint: more than 30 percent were classified "special needs" even under CPS negligent special ed department), but it also added a group of 9th graders that nobody else on the South Side had to take.
  

  
Result?
  

  
By September 14, the teachers at Fenger High School were under siege. The bad guys knew the new teachers were what are called on ghetto streets "Marks." The majority of the kids were caught in the middle. Gang fights every day; coverups in the media (except for us at substancenews) 14/7.
  

  
By September 21 (the first day of the third week of school) things were still escalating despite the addition (quietly; keep it out of the media) of several cops, and enhanced police patrols. At one point they called in police from two already overstretched south side police district.
  

  
The teachers (a) didn't know the kids (b) didn't know much about inner city teaching, except what they got in their summer "turnaround" lessons and (c) were scared to death (not all, just the majority) at the first sight of blood.
  

  
Flash forward to September 24, 2009.
  

  
By 10:00 a.m., one of the Fenger children had gotten angry and fired a weapon outside the building, roughly from the corner of 113th and Wallace. The police got the child, a 15-year-old. But the building "heated up" all day. 
  

  
At 2:46 p.m. (dismissal time) things were chaotic, except that Chicago had deployed at least eight squad cars around the building. 
  

  
Rather than fight adjacent to the building (which fills the entire two-block square space at 112th - 113th and Wallace; use Google Satellites to see from space if you don't believe me), the really bad guys took the fight a quarter mile north and east of the building, to 111th and "the tracks." (Everyone knows "the  tracks" except Chicago's "turnaround" geniuses; the tracks are where you find ammunition for a major battle, from huge rocks to throw to broken bottles to that 2 x 4s and 4 x 4s you can now see on display if you have the stomach for the video). 
  

  
So, at a little after 3:00 p.m.. while eight or more Chicago police squad cars huddled around the Fenger High School building, a major gang battle was beginning at 111th St. outside the now famous "Agape Community Center" (which, by the way, was securitized like a fortress even before it became part of an international news story). 
  

  
And one young lady turned on her phone camera and recorded the murder of Derrion Albert.
  

  
And a major commentary on "turnaround" in the real world.
  

  
Although that's still being covered up from the White House to 111th St. (where, irony of all ironies, young Barack Obama supposedly worked as a "community organizer" -- although don't try to find many people who remembered any impact he had on the public schools from Roseland and Pullman out to "The Gardens").
  

  
Anyway, that's all the time I have to share Chicago "turnaround" reality -- from "Chainsaw Paul" to Ron Huberman. And from Antwan Jordan (that's a kid I watched die with a bullet through his head outside Bowen High School in 1997 when I was "security coordinator") to Derrion Albert.
  

  
But if you  want to continue believing in fairy tales, I'm sure Oprah will be back in time to feed you a couple of dozen.
  

  
As Deborah Lynch reports in this morning's Chicago Sun-Times (reprinted right now at www.substancenews.net)...
  

  
"Turnaround is the deadliest reform of all..."
  

  
George N Schmidt
  
Editor, Substance
  

  
and 
  

  
www.substancenews.net
 
 

Loretta Prisco is Scratching Her Head

I'm Scratching My Head

Bloomberg says he is “fixing” schools.

Every school’s budget is cut, over 600 aides laid off,parents supplying paper towels, and the DOE pays $27,000,000 in bonuses for raising farcical test scores.

Charter schools pushing out traditional school students from their own buildings to save rent, and Eva Moscowitz (paid $371,000 annually) is throwing a cocktail party with free food and drink at Roseland for charter school families.

There are 1,126 classes without permanent teachers, while 1,583 paid teachers are in reserve, haven’t been assigned and new are teachers hired.

NYC unemployment rate is high, Bloomberg claims to be rebuilding the economy, yet 14 DOE computer specialists, earning an average annual salary of $65,000 are laid off , and a contract to a Florida company paying 63 consultants $250,000 each is extended, an 10 additional persons are hired. Nineteen of the consultants are working with H-1B immigrant visas.

The Mayor claims to have ended social promotion by holding over students who do not achieve a “2” on tests, and a reporter takes two tests, without reading them, guesses A,B,C,D. doesn’t answer the written component, and scores a “2”.

Loretta Prisco taught in the NYC schools for too many years to count. She has also been a mentor and teacher trainer. She is one of the founding members of the Independent Community of Educators (ICE.)

Does Girls prep function as a public school?

They keep repeating the mantra they are a public school at Gotham Schools. That's like Blackwater claiming to be a public agency because they get funneled billions of public dollars.

Are board meetings open to the public? Are all their stats listed in a way accessible to the public? Attendance figure, free lunches, ELL and special ed student numbers? Accountability to the public in all the ways public schools are?

Hasn't Girls Prep kept changing its charter? First a middle school. Then no middle school and an agreement to limit themselves to one class on the grade when they got space at 188. Now changing its charter back to wanting a middle school. Call it bait and switch. Public schools don't have these options but must jump through hoops at a DOE that clearly tilts towards charters.

Girls Prep agreed not to recruit when they pried their way into 188. They weren't there for more than 10 minutes before slick lit went out to hundreds of kids in the neighborhood based on data passed on to them from the ATS system through a third party by the DOE. Funny thing was how many boys got invited to sign up at Girls Prep. I know not a few who were ready.

A Message From Uncle Joel on Gates Teacher Quality Study

... and the wonderfully collaborative UFT. I can save them the money and predict the outcome. Just measure teacher quality based on test scores. And salary: lower = higher quality teaching. Joel uses his favorite expression, "research shows" without showing what the research is. Leonie Haimson asks:
"How much you want to bet that class size will be systematically excluded in this study, just as it was in the small schools evaluations funded by Gates?"

Dear Fools Who Sign Up For This Sham,

As you know, many factors contribute to student achievement. But research shows that teachers can influence student learning more than anything else in a school. We know this, but we still do not have a full range of reliable and consistent methods for assessing effective teaching to use in our classrooms. That is why the Department of Education is collaborating with the United Federation of Teachers on a two-year research project called the Measures of Effective Teaching study. Funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the study seeks to develop fair, accurate, and useful tools to determine what really contributes to effective teaching and learning. Participation in the study is voluntary, but if you are eligible, I strongly encourage you to sign up.

Over the next two years, independent researchers will be studying classroom practices here and across the country using a broad array of measures including video observations, surveys, and student growth. The goal is to capture the full range of what teachers do, and how they affect student outcomes, in order to create multiple measures of effective teaching.

You can learn more about the study and find out if you’re eligible to participate by clicking here. If you are eligible, you should complete the Principal Interest Form. You need to fill out this form to ensure that your school will be considered. Later this week, teachers will be invited to complete a similar form. The deadline to submit forms is October 22. If you are selected to participate, your school will receive $1,500 over the two years of the study, and each participating teacher will also receive $1,500.

We know that teachers teach best when they understand what’s expected of them, know how best to reach their goals, and feel assured that no single, snapshot measure will determine the course of their careers. That, and improving the likelihood of success for our students, is what this project is all about.

Joel I. Klein

Introducing "The Broad Report"

Hit the road Broad
And don't you come back no more no more no more

The Perimeter Primate has a new project on Broad the toad. PP writes:

I’m not the only one who is extremely bothered by what Eli Broad has been up to over the last several years. Since I started this blog in February 2008, I’ve been contacted by other people via private emails and blog comments. As it turns out, there are many other public school parents, public school teachers, and a variety of people all across the U.S. who are greatly disturbed by things that are happening to the public school systems where they live, courtesy of Eli Broad's "philanthropy." We certainly don’t feel like our communities, or our kids, are benefiting from his largess.

Because the dissatisfaction is definitely out there, I thought it was time to create a place where people could come together and share what they know. The result is a website I put together over this past weekend called The Broad Report.

Eventually, I plan to add more information about the Broad Residency, recipients of Broad Foundation grants, details about the individuals and all their connections, and other lovely tidbits. Grassroots contributions are most welcome. I'm most interested in accurate, verifiable information, so please include links when you can. I do realize that sometimes the reports may only be anecdotal.

Eli Broad is a wealthy and well-connected individual who has acquired an incredible amount of influence over a very important public sphere. He is also an unelected person who plies his trade in back rooms, or at by-invitation-only affairs. He never presents himself at truly public forums, thus conveniently protecting himself from any public response which would be negative. Those of us in the trenches are left to our imaginations to come up with strategies to counter what he's doing.

Behind Bloomberg Charter Announcement: Trashing His Own Record on Education

If you haven't gotten the message yet that Bloomberg's main mission has been to dismantle the public education school system, yesterday's announcement on charter schools should have made it loud and clear. But we'll leave that issue for later posts on how the DOE tilts in favor of charters every time.

Out focus of interest here is that Bloomberg has been running on his record on education, with all its lies and distortions. Yet in parsing his major initiative on charter schools, he basically trashes his own record.

Note this piece from the Bloomberg press release on the recent Hoxby study on charter schools, which has been criticized for its lack of academic rigor (here and here.)

Stanford University Professor Caroline M. Hoxby recently released a comprehensive study that found that students who were accepted into charters – who are more likely to come from poor families – performed nearly as well on state math and reading tests as students who attended school in the affluent Westchester suburb of Scarsdale. Professor Hoxby’s research found that it is the charter schools themselves – and not the pool of self-selecting students – that makes the difference. Students who gain admission to a charter school via the randomized lottery perform better than students who participate in the same random lottery, but do not get a seat due to oversubscription

In other words, Bloomberg is bragging about a study that shows kids in schools he doesn't manage do significantly better than in schools he has managed for 7 years. And he is running on that record. Brilliant. And the press will let him get away with it. Shameful.

I put up the entire Bloomberg press release for further parsing at Norms Notes.

MAYOR BLOOMBERG ANNOUNCES HISTORIC EXPANSION OF NYC’S CHARTER SCHOOLS

Note this:

Partner with NYCHA to Provide Facilities and Property For Charter Schools
With severe overcrowding in so many Bloomberg controlled schools, he never sought a partnership with NYCHA to relieve that situation but is promoting this for charters.

Here is the link to the more thoughtful blog which analyzed the Hoxby study
http://morethoughtful.blogspot.com/2009/09/what-is-gold-standard.html

Related:
A nice touch on Bloomberg's record from themail in DC:

DC's mayoral takeover of the public school system is based on the New York City model advocated by Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg has repeatedly claimed that changes made under his direction have improved education. But the New York Post reported on September 9 (http://tinyurl.com/yjf5qux) that, “City and state scores on SATs spiraled downward for the fourth straight year, according to new data. Since hitting a peak in 2005, the city's average score on each 800-point section of the SAT has dropped by 13 points in reading, to 435, and by 18 points in math, to 459. Scores on the writing section, which was introduced in 2006, have dropped by six points, to 432.”

The excuse for the drop in performance was racially tinged: “City Department of Education officials said the dramatic drop was fueled by the substantial increase in low-performing students taking the test — particularly black and Hispanic students who may not have considered college in the past.” Education officials hail in increase in minority students taking the test, “

But the same data hailed as a positive trend also highlighted an increase in the achievement gap between whites and their black and Hispanic peers since 2005. That gap has stretched by about 20 points in both math and reading — with whites now scoring an average 108 points higher in math and nearly 100 points higher in reading than minorities.”