How Long Before Rhee Proclaims, "I'm Not a Crook?"

Five years ago I wrote that one day Joel Klein and his ilk would be taken out of Tweed with coats over their heads. Maybe they'll never catch up to the NYC guys, but they are closing in on some of the ilk.

We have 2 more reports on the growing Michelle Rhee/Kevin Johnson/Obama admin scandal surrounding Johnson's St. Hope charter school franchise, which Rhee was St. Hoping to bring Johnson's St. Hope franchise into the DC schools.

There's nothing like a sex and money scandal to get one's blood boiling, and while the accusations of inappropriate behavior towards students by Johnson may seem to be the more serious charges, the guessing is that the misuse of federal Americorps funds by Johnson and Rhee's attempts to aid the cover-up, are the real buttons to push (though here are details of Johnson's actions with the girls/women). Also bet that we are just scratching the surface. Johnson better hurry up that wedding to Rhee so she can't testify against him.

Watch the tea baggers seize on this issue to further undermine the Obama administration for firing the investigator.


Gary Imhoff, at themail@dcwatch.com titles today's post Damage Control

Michelle Rhee did damage control for her fiancee, Kevin Johnson, when she was a board member of the charter school he founded in Sacramento and he was accused of improper sexual behavior with a student, according to a congressional staff report issued Friday (http://republicans.oversight.house.gov/images/stories/Reports/20091120JointStaffReport.pdf). The story was broken in the Washington market by Byron York in the Washington Examiner (http://tinyurl.com/yzobtur), with detailed follow-up stories by David Lipscomb in the Washington Times (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/21/hill-report-names-dc-schools-chief/), Mike DeBonis in CityDesk (http://tinyurl.com/yj2eshr), and Bill Turque in DC Wire (http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dc/2009/11/report_says_rhee_interceded_wi.html).

Rhee's only response so far has been through a DCPS spokeswoman, who essentially dismissed the story as old news. It's not old news to me, and I assume it's not an old story to most people in Washington. It's a serious allegation, against both Rhee and Johnson, that deserves a real response. Parenthetically, it's also a big enough story that it should have appeared by now in the print edition of the Washington Post, and not just on its web site — unless the Post is deliberately intending to position its web site as the primary news source, and downgrade the importance of the newspaper itself.


Candi Peterson, whose blog has been a major source in following the Rhee shenanigans, has another follow-up post today, which I'm including in full.

She reposts some great stuff from conducting the inner light blog, which has some interesting tidbits, which are worth highlighting:

Excerpt from CTIL blog:

I think that there is much more damning evidence in the IG report than sex.
I cannot recommend enough reading the entire report right down to the interview of Jacqueline Wong-Hernandez, the former employee of St. Hope Academy Charter Schools. Your jaw will drop, your eyes will pop out of your head. No matter how you try to play this report it looks stinky. Just a for instance: Michelle Rhee was listed as a board member of St. Hope. Simultaneously she was listed as: the consultant for the New Teacher Project, the consultant for the reconstruction bridge span, the consultant for the reconstruction of the HR department, while on another memo she was listed as the COO. In yet another letter she was listed as the President and Johnson as the CEO. So many hats for one person and absolutely no conflict of interest, is there, in being both a board member and a consultant for the very board of which you are a member. Sarcasm in that last sentence. The discrepancies are legion in this report. Just read the summary of charges. According to these charges Johnson used Americorps money and Americorps volunteers in complete violation of the government contract and volunteer contract.

The CTIL author, in another post worth checking out from Oct. 31, charges the Washington Post with Rheeism, cancelling his/her subscription in response.

I'll let Candi do the rest of the talking.

visit: http://thewashingtonteacher.blogspot.com/

Nov 23, 2009

Due Diligence Has Been A Long Time Coming For Some In DC Schools

This is a reprint from an education blog titledconducting the inner light (below). Even though it was posted on November 21, I think it deserves a' look see' by my readers as it provides yet another perspective into the Michelle Rhee, Kevin Johnson and St Hope story. Many DC parents thank their lucky stars that KJ didn't get to take over DC's Eastern Senior High School here as Rhee might have liked due to their own due diligence . Here's to DC parents who were pro-active in protecting their community.

As critical thinkers, it is imperative that we review the Inspector General's report and transcripts and not simply take the word of Rhee's spokesperson or others who want to sweep the details of this story under the rug. Conducting the inner light blogger has done an excellent analysis of what's wrong with this story as it more than just a sex scandal. I implore you to judge for yourselves by reviewing the Inspector General's report, transcripts and other links from the Sacramento Bee in detail by clicking on the respective names within the body of this story below. After all, isn't it time for all of us to exercise due diligence ? It's been a long time coming.

Definition of due diligence:

1. An investigation or audit of a potential investment. Due diligence serves to confirm all material facts in regards to a sale.

2. Generally, due diligence refers to the care a reasonable person should take before entering in an agreement or transaction with another party.

Investopedia Commentary

Due diligence is essentially a way of preventing unnecessary harm to either party involved in a transaction.

Reprinted from education blog conducting the inner light

"It is interesting to me how the Michelle Rhee/Kevin Johnson situation is playing out in the newspapers and blogs. For those of you not keeping up suffice it to say that in a congressional investigation it has been revealed that Michelle Rhee acted as a fixer/damage controller for her fiance when he was accused by three girls of inappropriate touching. I won’t go into the allegations but refer you to the articles via The Washington Teacher’s Blog. Candi Peterson has aggregated all the newsources beautifully and this allows you to read each and come to your own conclusion.

Personally, I think the sex part of this scandal is somewhat of a misdirection. Not that I think the charges are groundless – read not only the Inspector General’s report but also the transcripts, as reported by The Sacramento News and Review , of Johnson’s phone conversation with another girl (not one of the accusers but a girl from 10 years before when Johnson was still a player on the Suns) and it will be hard to avert your eyes or find any excuse for him – but I think that there is much more damning evidence in the IG report than sex.

I cannot recommend enough reading the entire report right down to the interview of Jacqueline Wong-Hernandez, the former employee of St. Hope Academy Charter Schools. Your jaw will drop, your eyes will pop out of your head. No matter how you try to play this report it looks stinky. Just a for instance: Michelle Rhee was listed as a board member of St. Hope. Simultaneously she was listed as: the consultant for the New Teacher Project, the consultant for the reconstruction bridge span, the consultant for the reconstruction of the HR department, while on another memo she was listed as the COO. In yet another letter she was listed as the President and Johnson as the CEO. So many hats for one person and absolutely no conflict of interest, is there, in being both a board member and a consultant for the very board of which you are a member. Sarcasm in that last sentence.

The discrepencies are legion in this report. Just read the summary of charges. According to these charges Johnson used Americorps money and Americorps volunteers in complete violation of the government contract and volunteer contract. These volunteers are supposed to be used for the community and as tutors for students in schools. According to the report none of the volunteers did a single hour of tuturing for their time at St. Hope. What they did do was wash KJ’s car, clean his place (Johnson told one employee that the Americorps volunteers were there for “grunt work”), worked as clerks in the St. Hope store, canvassed the neighborhoods for candidates for local political offices, used them to solicit funds for St. Hope – even traveling to NYC on the Americorps money to do so. Johnson also misappropriated Americorps funds to pay SHA staff.

Here was one of the most incredible things I found in this report: the volunteers, who were on a stipend of around $4000 plus dollars, were charged rent for their housing. The housing was owned by (wait for the drumroll please) The St. Hope Development Corporation – they were charged $300-$350 a month. SHA never revealed to federal authorities their relationship to SHD (you would think, though, that they would change the name of their corporation just a tad so that no one would notice – you know, like Enron).

The sex allegations are here, as well. I don’t see how anyone can dismiss them as groundless nor as the accusations of people who hold a political motive. It is obvious throughout this report that there was a culture of abuse. The culture of power that Johnson practiced (one person describes him as micromanaging every thing right down to the position of all the office furniture) is one in which abuse is the predominate factor.

Here is what disturbs me after reading this report: Michelle Rhee tried to bring St. Hope Charter schools into our school system to take over some schools. She tried to do this AFTER this report had been filed. It was only due to the due diligence on the part of the parents of those schools that would have been overtaken (deliberate use of word here) and their objection to SHA coming in because of what they found out in their own investigations.

Due diligence in regards to Ms. Rhee has been missing in DC from the very beginning. From the vetting process on down she has been given a free ride by Adrian Fenty, the Washington Post, many on the city council, and a host of other people who believe she is “doing what has to be done.” Discrepencies in what she says and does have been ignored or explained away at almost every turn. She contradicts herself, denies, changes facts to suit her need and all of this is dismissed as quibbles on the part of those of us who have had worries about her methods and the true nature of her plans. OK, fine, than read this report and explain to me how anyone could think to bring in this corrupt, unethicial organization to run any of our schools? She knew about the charges in that report. Given her status as one of the three main operators of St. Hope – again read the report and Ms. Wong-Hernandez’ interview to see the number of titles Rhee held – there is no way she can claim ignorance to these charges.

That is the real scandal that should be on the front page of every paper. Diligence is now due."

Posted by The Washington Teacher featuring Candi Peterson, blogger in residence, story courtesy of conducing the inner light, definition/commentary courtesy of dictionary.com

Does the UFT Have a Strategy on the Contract?

Can they sell ATRs down the river for money?

I don't think the UFT has much of a strategy. Once the UFT got on the ed deformer train - merit pay, charter schools, high stakes testing, closing schools, acceptance of the argument that teacher quality is more important than class size or socio-economic issues, leading to end of seniority, weakened tenure, use of data to measure teachers, etc. the ed deformers are dictating and the UFT responds - defensively.

Right now the biggest issue is the ATR situation. BloomKlein can't close all the schools they want without solving that because the cost will be astounding with the constant creation of new ATRs. They could really not hire new people and force principals to keep absorbing ATRs as they are created but that is sort of going back to a semi-seniority system.

So for BloomKlein the primary issue has to be the removal of the ATR problem. For the UFT, no matter what they say, the major issue is to get money even if they have to sell off something in the contract. Giving up the ATRs would be a biggie and really weaken them with the membership.

By going to arbitration, the expected recommendation would be a compromise which the UFT could claim as an out on the ATR issue. Rush a contract with money and some future deal that is left vague and sell it to the membership with a "trust us" attitude. The press condemns BloomKlein for giving in but a year later some kind of hammer comes down.

What could the compromise be? Maybe 3 years and out. Or a buyout.

One teacher I spoke to today in a D school that could be closed is thinking that they will leave a bunch of so-called "failing" under resourced schools as holding pens for students who can't get into small schools or charters that will also serve as holding pens for ATR teachers.

In other words, gather ATRs in a few places that are very tough to teach in and make life so miserable they will take any buyout offered. Or pick them off through harassment. Think of the old 600 school concept - except for teachers and students, trapped in a death spiral of failure.

UFT Partner Bill Gates at it again

Gates Foundation gives $335 million to raise teacher effectiveness

Frizzle Sizzle had this comment on ICE-Mail:
"...in my last chapter elections I was the first at my school to expose the fact that Bill Gates' goal is to privatize our school system AND now tinker and alter tenure in our contract."

Well of course the chapter wouldn't know about Gates and the privatization movement if they read anything the UFT puts out. Gates is their partner. Their collaborator. Some Vichyssoise, anyone?

The UFT could be the great educator of the membership and the public. But the leadership purposely doesn't connect the dots. Some people think they are stupid. Or bamboozled. Not so. They know exactly what they are doing. Collaborating in letting the air out of the teacher labor movement. Not that they like doing it. But they have no choice. No strategy for fighting off the data testing. Or the charters. Or the merit pay. No strategy at all. And no prospect for developing a strategy. So they are left with nothing more than a holding action and the bet they can hold onto power and get what they can out of using their control over the membership to get what they need for the top oligarchy.

Susan O has an article from WAPO and a comment:

Ohanian Comment:
schools. This agenda includes For teacher "effectiveness," read "test scores." This is one more step in the Gates use of venture philanthropy, marching lockstep in the neoliberal agenda to corporatizedeprofessionalizing teachers. Under the neoliberals, control of schools shifts from teachers, parents, and communities to private foundations, corporations, and investors. Under neoliberals, public schools are a business, students are consumers. Teachers? They are lackeys operating at the will of the system stocked by principals who must become entrepreneurs. This money is dirty, buying the soul of a school and eating it alive.

Here are some excerpts from the WAPO article:

For the [Gates] foundation, a central player in school reform, the initiative reflects an evolution in strategy. Several years ago, it concentrated on breaking large high schools into smaller, more personal academic communities. That effort had mixed results. In a conference call, Melinda Gates, co-chair of the foundation, said she and Microsoft founder Bill Gates had discovered that innovation takes long-term commitment because school systems are often "entrenched" in their ways and teachers "siloed in their classrooms." "We have been in this work for almost a decade" she said. "We've learned a lot about what works. . . . Let's focus on the thing that actually matters the most, which is the teacher." (Gates serves on the board of the Washington Post Co.)


If you watched the Sat nite live opening where the Chinese Pres asks Obama to kiss him. "I like being kissed when someone is screwing me," he says as he bends over and assumes the position.

Can Mulgrew and the Unity leadership crew kiss a 100,000 or so working UFT members without getting chapped lips?

Will Kevin Johnson/Rhee Scandal Be Obama's Whitewater?

Wow! The GOP right wing gang ganging up on the kind of people who should be their darling. Rhee, our own ed version of Sarah Palin. With the Swift boaters on the case, can you imagine them turning this into the Obama Whitewater? My goodness, where do we root here?

There's lots to report on this breaking story, but I'll let others do it.

The NY Times reports is here, with this perfect photo of the Rhee personna.

Candy Peterson from DC has this up on her blog.

Visit: http://thewashingtonteacher.blogspot.com/
Nov 21, 2009

Michelle Rhee, The Fixer Did Damage Control After Sex Charges Against Kevin Johnson

If you haven't read this already it is a 'must read' Examiner Exclusive by Byron York with Bill Myers contributing to the report. It reads like an episode from Dominick Dunne's TV show Power, Privilege and Justice. It confirms my belief that no 'reign of terror' lasts forever. I'd be interested to hear how you think this drama will play out. I have posted this Examiner story in its entirety.

Thriller Dance Roosevelt Middle School Staff West Orange, NJ

How much do kids love when teachers let their hair down?

Darren from GEM sent this video link along:

Hey all,

Check out this youtube video. I like imagining being on either side of the camera - a screaming middle schooler who can't believe her math and science and english teachers are dancing to a choreographed number, or a teacher who knows that the kids are absolutely loving it. My friend Mike, who's now 30, went to this middle school.

Enjoy!

Darren

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhjVKgiatZE

PS 15/PAVE Story Redux

Shared space formulas, not questions about charter schools comes to the fore


CAPE, which was formed to battle the PAVE invasion at PS 15 (and is now working with GEM to reach out to other schools in the same situation) posted an announcement this morning that it ain't over 'till it's over.

The CEC15 has bravely forced the DOE to at least pretend to function within the realm of our republic and has agreed to have a public hearing and have the PEP vote on whether PAVE Academy should be able to extend their two year agreement, an agreement by which this charter was sold to the Red Hook Community who fought it.

Please join in our fight to protect and preserve public education, our children and our school! Sign the online petition and circulate it. Contact the NYC PEP and tell them to vote no in allowing PAVE to break their agreement and stay housed in PS 15's building past June 2010... further, we need to fight to expose the faulty DOE formula that is hurting schools and our children.


While some people thought the battle was over when the DOE ruled, as expected, to give PAVE its 2-year extension, Jim Devor of CEC15, which held a contentious meeting at PS 15 back in September, filed a complaint that under the mayoral control renewal law, the PEP must discuss the issue first and then rule in favor of PAVE. This will happen at the January 26 PEP meeting, which will held in the crater of the moon where water was discovered. I'm guessing the vote will be 9 to 2 for PAVE (money and influence talks) but it all should be a worthwhile event.

Ed Notes covered the story from the beginning and we have lots of video from the Sept. 17 meeting. The single best piece is PS 15 Makes Their Case. (Use the search blog for PAVE to find more coverage.)

Excerpts from the Gotham Schools report:

Responding to protests that it was breaking the new mayoral control law, the Department of Education will hold a public hearing before extending PAVE Academy Charter School’s stay inside a district-owned building. The law passed this summer requires the DOE to issue an “educational impact statement” and hold a public hearing on any proposed changes to the way school building space is used, and then to put changes to a vote before the city-wide Panel for Educational Policy.

Last month, DOE officials notified the principals of Red Hook’s PAVE Academy and P.S. 15 that the charter school would remain in the P.S. 15 building, even though PAVE originally agreed to leave the building at the end of this school year. At the time, DOE spokeswoman Ann Forte said that there was no need to follow the new rules since a hearing had been held before the charter school moved into the building two years ago. But after protests from the district’s Community Education Council members, DOE officials said this week they will follow the new procedure after all.

CEC President James Devor drafted a resolution this week calling on the DOE to follow the new law in the case of P.S. 15. The resolution also states that if the DOE does not follow the new procedure in making space decisions regarding P.S. 15 and PAVE, it would join any lawsuit designed to force the DOE to adhere to the law.

A CAPEr commented at Gotham:

This is a victory for due process, for what we have been fighting for. Now we need to make sure the process is transparent… a hearing is one thing, being heard is another. What is at issue here is not charter schools (although many of us have opinions about them), what is at issue is a faulty DOE space sharing formula that is bad for kids and bad for schools— and not for nothing– both groups of kids and schools!

The DOE formula does not take into account the space demands of our special education population and does not take into account a full prep schedule, as well as the space needed for the enrichment and intervention services that make PS 15 an AAA school. I should also mention we have a medical, dental, and social services program at our school as well that requires space.

We all feel for PAVE parents who fear losing a place for their child’s school, but firstly, this is the fault of Robertson and his poor leadership, planning, and judgement and second of all, PS 15 students should not suffer for his incompetence. He has more than enough money to go and find himself a space somewhere else where he would not be negatively impacting the education of over 350 other students, whose parents choose PS 15. We should not be functioning in a system where we rob Paul to pay Peter. Support our fight in keeping PAVE to their two year agreement!

Hey, SEIU Goons: Break a Egg

Mike Antonucci reported over at Intercepts on Tuesday:

SEIU Threatens to Organize Charter School Teachers?

Can’t find confirmation anywhere other than in this story about the infighting between SEIU and the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW). Reporter Randy Shaw says SEIU is upset with United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) for supporting NUHW. UTLA reportedly sponsored a fundraiser for NUHW in San Francisco, which was protested by SEIU activists.

According to Shaw, SEIU made a statement to UTLA that “it would seek to organize charter school teachers in retaliation for UTLA’s pro-NUHW stance.” If true, it’s an empty threat. What makes SEIU think it would be any more successful organizing charter school teachers than UTLA has been? And how much damage would it really do if it were successful?

Charter school teachers might ask what all this has to do with their needs, and the answer is nothing. Something to remember when the union guy shows up at school.

If you followed our reports of the AFT/Randi takeover of Local 5017, a health services union in Portland Or. not long ago, goonism is not partial to SEIU. Ironically, the AFT takeover, which necessitated a trip to Portland by Randi, was related to Local 5017's flirtation with the very same NUHW- see end of this piece for links.

I agree with Mike that the AFT/UFT/Whatever will have a hell of a touch time organizing charters - they will probably have to "buy" charter operators off with some cozy contracts. See one Steve Barr and Green Dot.

Yesterday at the DA Angel Gonzalez and I had a short discussion with what seemed to be union official over charter schools and their support. They seem clearly in a box because they will not take a position opposing charters and will watch the union be winnowed away bit by bit. While they hemorage members to charters, they will be trying to organize what they lost. Sort of like trying to hold sand.

Anyway, I digress.

Here is Mike's follow-up report today:

SEIU Protest Lays an Egg

It isn’t all cakes and ale within the Los Angeles labor movement. SEIU added eggs and whipped gently.

On Tuesday, I relayed the tale of a dispute between SEIU and United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) over the latter’s support of a rival union – the National Union of Healtcare Workers (NUHW), which was once part of SEIU. (Don’t worry if you don’t have a scorecard. You’ll get the idea.)

Well, UTLA hosted a labor forum about NUHW, and SEIU bused in a few hundred protesters. Labor Notes reports:

The SEIUers chanted, beat on drums, and threw eggs and water bottles in an unsuccessful effort to intimidate people from attending…. The forum was held at the headquarters of the Los Angeles Teachers union (UTLA). Josh Pechthalt, UTLA vice president, said he was glad the teachers union had hosted NUHW, despite threats by SEIU that there would be “war” if UTLA hosted the event. SEIU threatened to come after charter school teachers UTLA is trying to organize, according to Pechthalt. UTLA refused to buckle, and the room burst into applause.

Michael Fiorillo commented on ICE-mail:
SEIU reps are on the board of Green Dot in LA. NUHW was formed in response to a too-cozy-with-management SEIU leadership in Northern California putting more militant locals under receivership. Kudos to UTLA for standing up to SEIU thugs and sellouts. Best, Michael Fiorillo

This is not the first time SEIU has used goon tactics. Megan Behrent from ISO and TJC told us some interesting stories. I hope they have fun trying to organize charter school teachers. Try throwing fried eggs next time.


Ed Notes on AFT version of goonism without the eggs.

Randi In Portland (OR) and a Weird Subway ...

Jul 20, 2009

If you followed our reports on the goings in Portland (AFT Hack Attack) where the leadership of AFT Local 5017 (sue me AFT) was removed and the union put in receivership for considering the very idea of disaffiliating from the AFT and ...

AFT Hack Attack on Portland Local 5017

Jul 13, 2009

Some of you may not be paying attention to this "small" story in Portland, Or. But the role being played by the AFT against a local daring to discuss leaving the AFT is indicative of the kinds of desperate attempts to keep people in ...

Randi Goes to Portland As AFT Threatens ...

Jul 11, 2009

Portland OR--At 9am Tuesday July 7, approximately 20 representatives from American Federation of Teachers Healthcare national offices arrived at Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals Local 5017 and put the health care ...

AFT Takeover Sanctioned By US Labor Department

Oct 21, 2009

The Lund Report, an Oregonian Health Blog run by Diane Lund (who I accidentally ran into on a subway in NYC this summer), has an excellent report on the AFT takeover of a Portland health care local which had been discussing leaving the ...

Wild Night at CEC1 Meeting on Girls Prep Charter: Updated

Last night saw an outpouring of public school parents from many schools on the Lower East Side (district 1) opposing the DoE/Girls Prep charter to expand to include a middle school. But that is what charters do. They keep expanding until there is little remnant of the public school they occupy. If you want to compare it to a cancer, feel free to do so.

The Gotham School report on the meeting captures little of what really went on. I left this comment:

Were we at the same meeting? I think this report doesn't represent what really went on last night. It was one of the few times where a massive opposition to the way charters are placed has occurred, akin to the Marine Park protest against the Hebrew Charter last May and the PS 15 protest in Red Hook against the PAVE expansion in Sept. But that meeting was somewhat balanced between the groups. The CEC 1 meeting was overwhelmingly opposed by an extremely large number of people, while Girls Prep had little comparative representation. (They probably don't have the same resources Eva Moskowitz has to hire buses.)

The fervor of the crowd reached epic proportions of anger and condemnation of the DEO and its policies toward shared space. There were few attacks on Girls Prep reps though they were outnumbered at least 10 to 1. Almost every public school in the area was represented, with a few principals getting up and making a statement. Many teachers and parents spoke about the DEO methods of judging whether a school has space. A method that doesn't account for the realities of how schools really function. The theme of the evening was the divisive tactics used by the DOE to pit schools against each other. But that is the mantra of the ed deformers. Throw them all into the pit and see who emerges, but all along the way make sure to tip in favor of the charters. Strong statements were made by local politicians too.

Is there any question that Girls Prep, which as was pointed out yesterday moved out of PS 15 claiming they only would go to 5th grade, but is now reversing and asking to go to 8th grade. And one day will ask for more space to go to 12th grade I would bet.

The only question is which school gets caught with the hot potato. Bet on the one that had the least presence yesterday. PS 20 and PS 184 may have won a reprieve with their massive presences yesterday.

Note: I find it interesting that there is one quote from each side with the Girls Prep founder disparaging quote equating an art room with a civil rights issue being given such prominence when there were a hundred things said by opponents of all the plans that were more relevant.

Fair and balanced?

mendez
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFQSiBFINE8

gerson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8gM53ZCvi0

Shuang Wen Parent Leader-James Lee

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv4AcVl2tXs

staebell-ahearn

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45F0YM1hHhA

norm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gnpHI6avAk

Isabel Reyna-Torres

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EApwtWFWGHU

NY1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Lh4WGtmNvU

Note: Moaning Mona Davids, self appointed head of the charter school parents, came down from her perch in the Bronx to leaver her droppings. She told me she put on makeup for me for her video appearance. She has toned down her act. Video later.


Added 3pm:
I'm adding Lisa Donlan's comments at Gotham which demonstrate that half the girls at Girl's Prep are not from district 1.

The “demand” for Girls Prep has very little to do with the D One community.
In fact of the 263 girls enrolled at GPC on the LES only 43% are from D One.
Even in their K class, the first to actually follow the law that imposes giving absolute preference to District One residents is only 53% District One. Inother words, fewer than 27 Kindergarten students from District One chose Girls prep out of an incoming class of 698 Kindergarteners in the district.

Girls Prep, then has captured less than 4% of the current district K students, which can hardly be classified as overwhelming demand, especially given the glossy post cards mailed to every student in ATS by the Charter last spring.

The two local peer horizon schools that the DoE progress report compares GPC to had equally impressive demand and “waiting lists” in the last K admissions cycle:

Earth School had 294 applications for 60 K seats. 5:1 ratio, wait list of 234 for K alone;

Children’s Workshop School saw 212 applications for 45 seats. Nearly a 5:1 ratio and wait list of 167 in K.

if If currently enrolled students in Girls Prep are made up of only 43% in-district students, who will the expansion to middle school grades benefit?

And as the D One community made clear last night- no functioning community school should have to give up needed resources to accommodate this “request ” to grow!
Plenty of schools in our district want to grow- but we do NOT rob Peter to make a bigger school for Paul!

Yeah Norm- I was at the meeting you attended last night.

It sure seems the GS bias is showing in this report.

I hope more of the 500 or more parents, teachers, administrators and community folks in attendance last night write in to say what they saw and said, to help create a fuller, more balanced picture of the event.

Lisa Donlan

This is the prelude to disaster

This is the prelude to disaster - how convenient of Mulgrew to leave the ATR situation in the hands of a mediator and then blame the mediator when a decision comes down as part of a final contract that ATR's need to get hired within a certain period or lose their jobs. What a disgrace - and Peter Goodman has the nerve to say their is no downside - we have suffered greatly in the past by leaving things to a mediator in contract negotiations.

EVERY time the UFT has gone to a third party mediator and probably most every time any union has been in mediation it has eventually wound up in non binding fact finding and a contract has been imposed and it will be so again. We all know that there is an agreement on a monetary package from long before Mulgrew took office. The only sticking point is the ATR's and therein lies the rub and why we have no contract despite our "neutrality" in the mayoral election. The contract already has a clause calling for discussions around a potential buyout of ATR's. This contract will have some final agreement around ATR's - they are not going to allow thousands of people to remain in that status forever. It has all to do with ideology and what they [Unity Caucus] see their role as. Lets remember it was the UFT that agreed to eliminate seniority in the first place and so we wound up with ATR's.

Ira Goldfine, ICE

Mulgrew asks union for power to call impasse in contract talks

Times Article on High School Grades Reveals Dark Underbelly of Large School Closures

Over the last three years, high schools that received the lowest marks from the city have been the ones with the highest percentages of poor, black and Hispanic students, despite an evaluation system that was meant to equalize differences among student bodies, according to an analysis by The New York Times of school grades released this week.

Blacks and Hispanics make up on average 77 percent of the student population in the 139 schools that received A’s this past year, compared with more than 90 percent of the schools that received C’s or worse. While the vast majority of A schools have a high minority enrollment, 14 of the 15 largest high-performing schools in the city have drastically lower black and Hispanic enrollment.

Thus begins the article in today's NY Times titled "Schools' Grades Reflect Persistent Disparity."
Of course, the Times won't clearly state what everyone has been saying for years: that the replacement of the large high schools by small ones and charter schools forced thousands of kids from the so-called failing schools who couldn't get into the new schools, to roam the city looking for the closest large school.

See Aaron Pallas, alias Skoolboy at Gotham:
Comparing Small Apples to Large Apples

Leonie Haimson commented:
Subtly suggested in this article is that the claim of increasing equity that the DOE makes was not borne out in reality. Finally, what we have been making for six years about the flaws in the implementation of the small schools initiative makes the NY Times.

Followed by Angel Gonzalez, whose semi-prose post, I took a bit of poetic licence with:

"High School Institutional Racism Reigns in NYC!"

What's the Obama Dept of Ed & the NYC DOE response to this historic institutional racist apartheid system of education? (read article below)

.......to the racist high stakes school/teacher/student rating/testing system?

Breakup the bigger Black & Latino public schools down into smaller schools. And set the stage for Charter privatization.

Overcrowd and Super-overcrowd the traditional public schools to create more disparate multi-tiers in the apartheid schooling.
Let the bigger Black & Latino schools continue to fester into the downward spiral.


Add more and more Test driven irrelevant pedagogy.
Add cutbacks to essential spaces, library & other support services.
Give the students, teachers and schools more negative ratings.

Negative data reports.

Blame the students.
Blame the teachers. Divide and conquer. Shut 'em down!



And again DOE sets the stage for closing them down.
Unleash the Charter floodgates.
Make everything "nice" for the charter-corporate private takeover of public education.
DOE (the Dept of Privatization) will make everything nice for the profiteers of Wall St.
Our Black & Latino parents & communities increasingly become the shock-troops for the charter-privatization of the all public schools, White community schools inclusive.


And in the final analysis, we all lose to the interests of capital. Our communities get The Wall St.school-venture-vultures public school takeovers...and all the while...the AFT AND UFT officialdom ferries in the charter school movement as its bell-hop enabler to this grand ripoff !


Our grassroots teachers and parents across NYC and the country are starting to get hip to this Madoff corporate scheme and are starting to fight back!


STOP OBAMA'S "RACE-TO-THE-TOP" PRIVATIZATION SCAM!



Angel Gonzalez



http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/18/education/18grades.html?hpw for full article

Commentary by Loretta Prisco

The NYS Regents is considering using museums and cultural institutions to prepare teachers instead of universities. I earned a college degree in education and received extensive training in teaching in a museum setting.

When I started teaching, there were many teachers who were not college graduates, but graduates of Maxwell Training School - a 2 year preparation for teaching. There were many things they did well and I learned from them. They could organize a class, line kids up, and get to recess in an orderly fashion. I learned games and songs. They could teach beginning reading, properly use a basal reading series, and follow a math text book. They knew about using realia for social studies, but lessons were basically reading from a text and answering the questions at the end of a chapter. They did arts and crafts. Some learned the piano, a requirement for the early childhood license. They knew how to run an assembly and put on plays. I don't know what they learned at Maxwell, but I do know they taught they way they were taught in the 1920's and 1930's. Perhaps it worked for them in the 50's and 60's.

But, and it is a big but, I think they knew little about teaching and learning theory, little about child development, and I don't think they could survive in today's classroom. I don't think that if a lesson failed, they could figure out why and make adjustments, because their lessons weren't buttressed by theory. I don't think they knew much about higher level thinking and good questioning techniques. They used discipline methods that would have all of them in the rubber room - using rulers and hands to smack kids around, and very abusive and demeaning reprimands. They had no other resources or understanding. They disciplined the way they were disciplined in the 20's and at home.

I learned a lot more when I was Director of School Programs at a children's museum. But it was not an ordinary museum and a far from ordinary learning experience. Every 2 years we opened a hands-on thematic and interdisciplinary exhibit. We met tirelessly for 2 years with experts in the content area of the theme, architects and museum preparators to develop each exhibit. But 2 years - on one topic - (sound, art, the human body, storytelling, architecture) with a significant budget and access to many creative and quality people. Yet the staff saw me as useful because I did have teaching experience. I had acquired skills that they did not have. I knew whether or not kids would "get it" after experiencing a particular exhibit or participate in an activity. I knew that it was critical to be able to smoothly move children from one space to another, that all children had to be able to see and touch. And of course, my one constant demand - that every class that visited be divided into 2 so that docents had small classes to teach! That experience as wonderful as it was, would not have prepared me to teach. It broadened what I already knew.

When I was teaching undergrads at the college, I was shocked when one student complained that she didn't see any reason for taking liberal arts classes. She asked why she had to know about Ancient Greece. I told her that it is assumed that a college graduate knows about Ancient Greece and she just might have to teach it.

As I think about it now in today's educational climate, I think she asked what the current thinking is in our system. You don't have to be smart, or well educated to teach. As a matter of fact, either of those are dangerous. You need only to read and follow the directions of what is laid out for you.

Loretta Prisco is involved with training and supporting new teachers in NYC. She is one of the founding members of ICE.

David Pakter Has Advice for Whistle Blowers

After the Lehman HS whistle blower blow-up a few weeks ago (see links below), where teachers supposedly slipped proof of the principal tampering with grades, I was contacted by some of the Lehman whistle blowers for advice (and a lawyer.)

To know one's surprise, Tweed announced they would investigate the teachers who blew the whistle. They went to the press because they had notified Joel Klein last March and an investigation was supposedly begun, but they hadn't heard anything for 5 months and figured it went nowhere.

I think they seem to be in the clear, but I consulted with whistle blower supremo David Pakter.

He responded with this essay, posted at Under Assault, who also posted a photo of one of the plastic plants Pakter bought for the school, one of the charges against him in his endless 3020a hearings (which are wrapping up with two dates in December) after the DOE has spend an enormous amount of money trying to get rid of him. I was at the hearing when the school supervisors testified and they made the tree sound like a giant redwood. When Pakter told us he bought 3 of these at Home Dept and carried them to the school in a shopping bag, I fell off my chair.

It would have been much cheaper to just place Pakter in charge of putting together arts programs all over the city if they wanted him away from kids - you know, giving out $200 watches from a company you own to kids earning over 90 on their report cards is seditious., even though it dovetails perfectly with the market-based ed deformers.

Here is an excerpt:

So what else is new. Cheating went on in every school I ever taught in and at the High School where I taught for twenty five years, mark altering / "improving"/ "updating" - was raised to a virtual "art".

I wonder if Principals demand Kickbacks for all the gallons of "white-out" they order every June to ensure that their graduation totals will look even better and rosier than the previous year's stellar "improvement".

As for using a "Passing" Regents grade as an excuse to ignore a Failing Class Grade score- how the heck do you think they come up with those "regents scores".

At my former school, and I am sure many would not be surprised to learn, at 99 % of the NYC High Schools, all Regents Scores are referred to as a student's "Raw Regents Score". That is to say- the actual grade the student earned on the actual Regents Examination.

I have my own advice for whistle blowers. DON'T DO IT! Unless you have a crew of people with you. Expect to be more of a target yourself than the people you are blowing the whistle on. One area I disagree with Pakter's essay. That is his assumption it is the newer teachers who whistle blow. In my experience, it is the people with years in the system who have the understanding to know when to blow the whistle. It usually takes years to build up the anger and passion to be willing to risk your career.

Ed Notes Lehman stories
Education Notes Online: Lehman HS, School for

What Did Klein Know About

Lehman Story Gets Legs

Teacher Contract/Seniority Defended on Lopate Show

There's a discussion going over arts education on the Leanard Lopate show on WNYC over a report showing that arts education improves student performance. One of the guests talked about how the stress on reading and math (he didn't say the test prep) has affected arts education. It would be much worse if not for the no layoff clause in the contract. If not for that "arts teachers would have been blown away." Blown away indeed.

Lopate asked, "Are charter schools doing any better in offering arts education?" The guest guesses probably not.

20% of the high schools don't have one certified arts teacher, yet students must have a certified arts teacher to get the credits they neeed to graduate.

So he asks, "How are they graduating?"

Look behind the magic BloomKlein curtain.

Arts Education and Graduation Rates

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

A new study by the Center for Arts Education has found that schools that have increased access to arts education programs also have higher graduation rates. We’ll talk with Richard Kessler, CAE's Executive Director, and Doug Israel, Director of Research and Policy.

Read the report here.

CAPE Throws it Down

I have this blog from CAPE (Concerned Advocates for Public Education) listed on the sidebar, but I just read it again and it gets better and better. There's a whole lot of strong insights in this piece from a Red Hook based Brooklyn group.

The Traveling Trio on Meet the Press this morning

A few excerpts:

Public education was called for and created because our citizens, many of them first generation immigrants, in the late 1800's, realized that if we did not provide a system where all of our future citizens could share in access to a free and fair education, we would not be able to build a great society. It was realized then, that we are only as strong as our weakest members, that we are judged ultimately by how we treat our children, and that our success as a nation lies in our ability to teach each child to become thoughtful, educated citizens of the world. "Race to the Top" does not even begin to represent the earliest and most important ideals of public education: if this is a race, then there are winners and losers- who will the losers be? Inherent in the components of current reform, is a belief that teachers fail, schools fail, that choice and competition will bring about equality.
---------------------
Choice and competition, and private interest and money, the capitalist ideology now driving education reform, has weakened and harmed these important and vital aspects of our country and our social policies. This is not the solution for education. The unwavering belief in a free market ideology in a time of great economic turmoil that has been propagated by these very beliefs is unbelievable to me... how can we be so blind?
---------------------


At the foundation of education reform is standardized testing; these tests are the centerpiece of all that reform is to be measured by, all we should be accountable to and for, this is not only a fundamental flaw, but it is outrageous. The current reform movement suggests that, we, and specifically teachers, should accept yearly test-based standards for their students/children, should stop whining about testing because it does no good, that if teachers teach, it will show up on the tests we give... this is a very narrow view not only of what teaching is, but of who our students are. We teach students who are hungry, whose parents did drugs and alcohol while they were pregnant. We teach students with disabilities, language delays, and medical issues. We teach students who are being abused and neglected. We teach students who don't know where they will sleep tonight. We teach students who trust no one, who are afraid, who seek love, who need love. We teach students who have had little to no rich experiences, whose prior knowledge is limited. We teach students without parent advocates, without family, without the safety and security that is a fundamental requirement for learning. These students do not necessarily represent the vast majority of students; but should we ignore their reality? We all know who the losers will be in Race to the Top and in the new Education Reform agenda, it will be these children.
-------------------

Read it in full qt The Traveling Trio on Meet the Press this morning

The Math Wars Revisited: Lisa, Why Doth I Love Thee....

...let me count the ways.

Below, Lisa Donlan, parent activist from District 1 on the Lower East Side, leaps into the fray of the discussion raging on the math wars over at the NYC Ed News listserve, where some trashing of constructivist education has been going on.

Philosophically, I am a constructivist, but recognize it requires small classes and some assistance that goes beyond one teacher. And lots of time for kids to explore and learn by trial and error. But in times of test prep mania, there is almost no chance. Interesting that the initial Klein choices were Diana Lam and then Carmen Farina, major constructavist operators. (When Carmen went from big C district 15 Supe to taking over Region 8 there were just a few cultural clashes with my district (14) which had a very old hat teaching philosophy - like from the 5th century.) But they were dogmatic and considered any resistance or questionning their dogma heresy.

So, how did I teach long division? Any way that worked. I remember how I learned it by rote but never had a clue as to what was going on. If you asked me what 356 into 15,000 was, I had I could only get the answer by the long tedious method.

And I got a 98 on the geometry regent and was the only one at Jefferson, which had some pretty heavy hitters, to get a 100 on the advanced algebra regent. So I was no slouch. But it goes to show you the fallacies of standardized tests. Yes, we had test prep and I pored through old regents to study, but never really understood basic arithmetic.

But in my 6 week wonder course in the summer of '67 that turned me into an instant teacher, one instructor did Base 2. And then Base 5. And Base 8. That was an aha moment. I began to see the relationships. Thus, I can tell you in 3 seconds that the answer would lie south of 50 and north of 40. And a few seconds later be able to say it was south of 45. And have multiple ways of making that guess. That gives me an instant advantage before I even start the long division and in fact may not have to do it altogether.

Over the next few years, I really learned math by teaching it. One of my other AHA moments was when I was teaching division of fractions where you reverse the denominator and actually saw an explanation in the math book as to why that worked. I ate this stuff up.

I tried to communicate these nimble ways of looking at numbers to my kids, using charts and number lines. Paperless tests. Did I neglect the times tables? Not at all, as they are the key to so much. But if they couldn't remember them I at least wanted them to have the tools to be able to figure them out. And I taught them the 9 times table trick of reversing 0-9 vertically. Just in case.

So, now it it time for Lisa Donlan to take over with this wonderful piece based on her experiences as a parent:

I really am loathe to join in on the Math Wars, but after biting my tongue for dozens of posts, I feel I need to share my experience with the constructivist model as used to teach my own two children and their school mates.

The approach yielded a rich and fruitful learning experience for both of my kids, who have gone on to perform well on tests and in traditional math classes in HS and college.
Today both kids like math, have an ease with computation and a deep understanding of the underlying mathematical concepts they are learning and using.

It may be significant that besides working extensively with staff in this area, their schools also put a lot of energy into training and explaining the approach to parents. As result many of us became informed partners, who could actually help with homework and support the pedagogy.

I can say that the numerous workshops and hands-on math activities parents participated in turned our initial tendency to push back on this new (to us) way of seeing mathematics and see it instead through our children's eyes. The tendency to distrust or critique a different way of seeing number - of adding or dividing, for example, could very well could have worked to undermine the teacher's authority and perhaps negatively affect our children's learning. I could only imagine it might be hard for a child to feel open to a methodology his or her parents are (even unconsciously) undermining at home.

Did my kids spend a lot of time "mucking around" with numbers and manipulatives , drawing and grouping, skip counting and breaking down, even creating emotional relationships with numbers? Did they routinely spend 10 minutes to do what I could do in 2?

Yes. Oh, yes.

Did they eventually learn the traditional methods and algorithms, math facts and times tables, formulae and equations, and learn to perform short cuts for times tests?

Also yes.

For instance they were eventually able to learn how to do the long division I had been taught as a child, and they also learned the very different method their father had been taught in France. Over time, they amassed a multitude of tools to choose from to figure out life's math problems.

When I hear the frustration and critiques of many parents over constructivist math, I sometimes feel the way I do at the soccer field watching kids play.

Very often the kids will dribble too much and lose possession of the ball, make mistakes in tactics, technique and strategy as they learn and experiment, take risks and solve problems.
The adults I see often watch these players with the critical eye of pro game fans, expecting 8 year olds to juke like Ronaldo, or 12 year olds to play like little Drogbas.

It hard not to act like an arm chair coach, or an arm chair math teacher, when we watch our little ones try out new skills.

We would never take a block out of a four year olds hand and show her the right way to build a tower.

We allow her to experiment and learn from the successes and failures of play and mucking around.

Just as there is no right way to make a mask or draw a face, I think there are many ways to learn about and interact with the world, and that includes math.

Like anything else, when a methodology is taught well and deeply and consistently it can work quite well, including child centered developmentally focused pedagogy.

This is only my own personal and anecdotal experience, but I think it highlights just how unlike a business is the business of education.

I am not an educator by training, but there does not seem to be one way, a one-size-fits-all, right or wrong, efficient way to teach all kinds of young minds.

Lisa Donlan


Deborah Meier threw in these comments, where she endorses the concepts of the New Math which is what I was really talking about above:

How would you have them "measure" results?

As in the reading wars, we argue about (I think) all the wrong issues. Neither bad math teaching nor bad teaching of reding is what's wrong with American education--although the way we get stuck aguing about these may well be the problem.

Until we solve the depth vs breadth question in math, and stop our obsession with everyone taking advanced algebra/calculus we're stuck with bad math programs. Best of all I liked the "new math" of the 60s an 70s--which were abandoned too soon - largely because of parental complaints like yours! No subject on earth raisesd more hackles--by mathemticians and/or parents.

I like TERC's effort, if not their solution. But then I truly think that the only important thing to teach is a "love" of looking for patterns in numbers , and other patterns as well. We could teach the useful--practical--stuff in 4th grade if we hadn't messed it up by rote learning before that--and you probably think the opposite!! And we can actually both point to experts and evidence. But what we dare not argue about is "purpose".

It's always bound to create a stir! But I'm sorry to see Class Matters get into either of these wars.

Deb

PEP Reports from Eterno and Sullivan

ICE/TJC presidential candidate James Eterno, a chapter leader who defends his school and teachers to the hilt, reports on the Panel for Educational Policy (the joke Board of Education) meeting in Queens last week. Joel Klein said kitchy-koo to James and Camille's 4 month old daughter Kara.

JAMAICA TELLS PEP ABOUT BUDGET CUT IMPACT

Then there were two

Patrick Sullivan, Manhattan PEP parent rep, gives his report on the NYC Public School Parent blog. Patrick has been joined by Bronx parent rep Anna Santos in standing up to BloomKlein.

http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2009/11/doe-demands-consultants-get-additional.html


Excerpt: Across the city, people school leadership teams are working hard to close growing budget gaps while the Chancellor and his team are squandering millions of dollars.
A contract with Hanover Foods to provide canned ravioli to schools passed 9-3. I voted against the contract because new DOE specifications resulted in only one bidder and a price increase of 41% amounting to $1.1 million in additional cost over three years. While nutritional standard are important, the upgrade was not significant enough to warrant the additional expense. For example, we were told the new specifications called for lower sodium but the reduction was minimal: from 880 mg per serving to 770.

A NY1 report had this nugget:
"The fact that there is only provider of ravioli is kind of absurd," said Panel for Educational Policy member Patrick Sullivan. "We are clearly doing something wrong, and my concern here is that we have to be aggressively taking cost out. Not looking for ways, or acting like we have abundant funds to be buying gourmet ravioli."

Sometimes it is fun to watch the reporters as they have to listen to these farces. Keeping a straight face is tough.

Francis Lewis HS CL Arthur Goldstein, an ICE candidate for the UFT high school executive Board, also attended and we expect a report from him soon. Arthur and James were featured in a recent NY Post piece on their schools. See Goldstein and Eterno: ICE Chapter Leaders in the NY Post

By the way, check out the activity of the ICE/GEM activist crew vs the Unity machine in just about every venue. (See my previous post on the DC union strategy.)

The Maddening Logic of the AFT/UFT and now DC

Candi Peterson has a laid off teacher report from DC. Here is the section that makes critics of the Weingarten/Mulgrew policies want to scream.

Depending on whose version you believe, many laid off teachers who attended the November 5 hearing voiced their concerns that the hearing did not go well. There were reports that there were many objections to the Washington Teachers' Union's defense. In a WTU Building Representative November 10 meeting that I attend at McKinley last week , WTU Field Representative Anita Corley stated publicly that the WTU's legal arguments appeared weak because they did not want to alert DCPS lawyers to the strategy that the WTU would ultimately use in arbitration. When I heard this as a rationale, I actually couldn't believe what I was hearing. I couldn't help but thinking what it if the judge rules that the WTU cannot go to arbitration ? Then what ?

Sound familiar, UFTers? Welcome to the world of AFT/UFT defensive posturing, Candi. Get used to this logic. We've been seeing this for a long time here in NYC. We just finished working on a new ICE Update that addresses this issue:

What is it that makes our Unity leadership so prone to wrong moves at every turn? Their failures result from a core Unity philosophy that changes the traditional role unions are supposed to play in defense of their members, opting instead for a partnership with management in exchange for a false sense of insider status. Thus, their main battle becomes trying to win a seat at the table for themselves, while shutting out the concerns of the rank and file. This is no mere tactic but a transformation of the nature of the concept of unionism, wherein the major concern becomes selling so-called “reform” programs to a victimized membership: bonuses based on testing, rating teachers based on test scores, closing schools, open market system, support for charter schools at the expense of public schools, etc. This partnership is a losing proposition for the membership — a strategy of always playing defense, not with a goal of winning better working conditions, but of trying to minimize the losses. This debilitating strategy is an adherence to a core philosophy that is often called “New Unionism.”

Jay Matthews Tribute to Jerry Bracey

Many trashers of the ed deform crowd love to make fun of Jay Matthews. But his tribute to Jerry Bracey, one of his arch educational enemies, was truly touching. Bracey died recently just before the release of the annual Bracey Report. Matthews writes:

The last person to receive one of his infamous emails questioning the ancestry and sanity of the recipient should frame the thing and put it on a wall. I don't know anyone else in our community of education wonks who matched him in passion, honesty and wit. The 2009 edition of the Bracey Report on the Condition of Public Education proves it.

The annual Bracey report has been a big event the last 18 years for those of us fascinated by schools and by Bracey's refusal to buy into the buzz words that we drop into our own writing and speeches without thinking, like chocolate chips in the cookie batter. Phrases such as "high quality schools," "global challenge" and "widening achievement gap."

Fortunately, Jerry had finished a draft before he died, so his friends, author and blogger Susan Ohanian and Penn State education professor Pat Hinchey, applied the finishing touches with help from Jerry's wife, Iris.

I was in the midst of a couple of email exchanges with Susan when she got the news of his death and saw the shock and anguish soon after she got the news. That they all got out this report so soon is a tribute to their work.

It was good to read this from Matthews, who we hope may be "getting it."

He also makes a powerful case for remembering that impoverished students are going to need more than just great teaching and longer school days to reach their academic potential. Their health and family problems also drag them down.

His victim in this part of the report---Jerry often does his best work when he is shooting at a living, breathing, well-known target--is New York Times columnist David Brooks. I am sure Brooks will never again make the mistake in his May 7, 2009, column, resting his argument for the superiority of tough-love, no-excuses inner-city schools on data for one year, one grade and one subject at the Harlem Promise Academy, and failing to give enough credit to the unusual medical and nutritional support that program provides.

Mayoral control of schools, the second issue, was a much easier target for Jerry. Nobody was ever better at sifting the data. His Ph.D. from Stanford, the birthplace of psychometrics, came in handy. He looks at the results from Chicago and New York City, the best-known examples of school systems run by mayors, and reveals that their test score jumps do not match the ones in the more reliable National Assessment of Educational Progress.

But in case Matthews doesn't reform, save these posts on Matthews by NYC Educator:

More Expert Analysis from Jay Matthews

More Expert Ideas from Jay Matthews

I Don't Understand Education, but I Know What I Like

I don't much read the Washington Post, but every now and then someone sends me or links to another Jay Matthews story and I marvel at how someone so uninformed can make a living writing about education. This week Jay is happy that unions are slowing their opposition to charters.

Teachers Selling Lesson Plans? I'm Buying

As a teacher, I was at my best in front of an audience. But I was lousy at lesson planning in an empty room. I would be at home trying to think of creative ways of presenting things like the difference between the short a and long a (I used to act out the roles of the letters, the poor short a suffering from an inferiority complex). Or creative ways of teaching times tables (I used to light a match and hold it until a child finished reciting the entire table for the one number, the goal being for him to finish before I burned my finger - the sharpest kids got the 8x table, the hardest one in my opinion).

I was one of those teachers whose creativity was stimulated when I was in front of kids. Not always the best way to teach.

I was best at performing, not planning, while some of my colleagues were able to create sharp plans but lacked a certain spark in the presentation. I was always confident that I could take just about any material and tweak it to my style. Like an actor on stage performing a script. So though I rail against rigid scripted programs like "Success for All" I hungered for some scripts I could modify and work from. In my ideal world of teaching, I would have had one or more partners who did the writing while I did the performing. Or marked the homework. It would have been a good deal, as I was comfortable being in front of kids for hours at a time. As long as I had the material. But teaching was never really collaborative in the world I lived in.

So, it was interesting to read on the front page of the Sunday Times, (the attention things teachers do seem to be getting incredible scrutiny) that teachers are putting their lesson plans up for sale. Some school districts are saying they own the rights to teacher lesson plans. Then there's this:

Some purists think that undermines the collegiality of teaching. Beyond the unresolved legal questions, there are philosophical ones. Joseph McDonald, a professor at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development at New York University, said the online selling cheapens what teachers do and undermines efforts to build sites where educators freely exchange ideas and lesson plans.

“Teachers swapping ideas with one another, that’s a great thing,” he said. “But somebody asking 75 cents for a word puzzle reduces the power of the learning community and is ultimately destructive to the profession.”

I wonder if Professor McDonald has noticed that the ed deformers are trying to turn teaching into a commodity. It's all about competition and merit pay and performance of kids. Dog eat dog. So, why shouldn't teachers take advantage while they can? After all, what is coming is one script for the entire country. Every single teacher will be doing the same exact thing at the same time of the day.

Even way back then in my days, many teachers wrote books based on their experiences and I bought loads of them. So how is that different from using the internet to sell lesson plans?

So yes, I would buy some lesson plans and curriculum designed by real teachers to save me the time and anguish of having to write them.

Koss Comments on Teaching to Test

From today's NY Daily News, thanks to Rachel Monahan. Note the following incredibly disingenuous quote from DOE spokesperson David Cantor: "This is the first time I've heard the argument against testing used to explain students' failure on tests as well as their success."

As Mr. Cantor is a regular reader of this blog (and others, I'm sure, such as Ednotes and Time Out for Testing), his statement that he's never heard the argument against testing (such as the NYS 3-8 or NYS Regents) as explaining their failures on tests (such as NAEP or CUNY placement) is absurd, to say the least. Unless, of course, he's arguing the meaningless point that success on a given test means non-failure on that test, but that's nothing more than sophistry for the uninformed masses. There is simply no shame at Tweed -- whatever they feel like saying, they simply say. It is so Karl Rovian, it's positively creepy.

By the way, where has anyone heard or seen ANY story indicating that the current obsession with testing is leading to success other than that measured by those same tests (or other metrics like graduation rates that can and are being manipulated by the same people administering the tests)? Are SAT scores going up? How about Intel Science Fair performance? NAEP scores? College readiness as measured by folks like CUNY? Once you get our kids out of the clutches of Klein and his likes, are they really doing better in other academic venues? Does anyone know of a single study that demonstrates how much better off our public school grads are once they are beyond high school thanks to all this standardized testing? How about even at the high school level -- are more kids scoring high passes (over 85%) on Regents exams than they used to? Are more of them taking and passing the Physics or the highest level of Math?

To paraphrase Mr. Cantor, "This is the first time I've heard the argument for testing used to explain students' success in college and beyond." Regrettably for the DOE, reality is not simply whatever they decide to say it is.

Steve Koss


Daily News Story is here.

Dear Dumb Bob Compton

After hearing Bob Compton on yesterday's Brian Lehrer show make some statements about education that were right in line with the ed deformer crowd, I posted this:

Reknowned Arizona Charter School Asks Disruptive Students to Leave

My comments led to this comment from Compton:

Bob Compton, Exec Producer 2 Million Minutes said...

Thanks for the post, Norm.
I don't think I'm manipulative, although I am trying to foster improved education for our children.
Guess "dumb and dumber" is your answer. :-)
Every child has the potential to be well-educated - not every child aspires to that goal.
I'm working, at my own expense, to inspire, and perhaps scare just a bit, more kids into striving for a better education - for their own life-long benefit.

Dumb Bob :-)

Dear Bob,

I don't think for a minute you are really dumb. If you are not manipulative, then you are misguided. We all agree that every child has the potential, but you yourself said that some are not right for the Basis school. I bet more than some. You said they should be in an alternative setting. Better to spend your time and money working on figuring out how to do that in a meaningful way.

Your points about finding good schools in India and China are off base in that students are weeded out. As they are here too, by the way. For your next film, why not find the worst schools and figure out what's wrong with them and how to fix them.

So much of what you had to say about education in your brief time on the program was so off base that I can imagine numbers of teachers pulling their hair out in frustration. Luckily, I don't have enough hair to pull out, so I just gnashed my teeth. I'll send you the dental bill.

PS: I hoped you enjoyed your time with Uncle Joel at that private screening.

Check out what Bob has to say at: http://www.2mminutes.com/

Bogus Charges Hurt Effort to Remove Teachers Who Should Be Removed: Teacher says, "Take a lap (run)"

....sees words twisted into asking a student to "sit on his lap." DOE turns it into sexual harassment charge and 2nd year rubber room assignment.

"I have something that I normally say. I say take a lap and sit on your spot. Students are assigned floor spots. This young lady said, 'Oh, I have to sit on your lap?' and I said, 'No, you heard what I said. You'll take a lap and then sit on your spot,'" Smith said.

See NY1 report.

It is cases like these (and there are so many of them) that undermine and discredit any move to get rid of teachers who should be removed and makes all teachers dig in their heels to assure their protection.

Some may cast doubt on the teacher's version, but I don't doubt he is telling the truth because of the stories coming in.

A teacher at my old school served 15 months in the rubber room and was completely exonerated for a case of having her words twisted. She told a child that if he didn't do his homework he would never get it (the concept they were learning) and unless he did his work he would never learned. She was removed because of a charge she said black kids would never learn. Of course, the principal hated her because she spoke her mind about the mindless policies of the principal.

Last week I attended the 3020 hearing of another teacher, who also resisted this same principal's machinations and was railroaded. She is coming on the completion of her third year in the rubber room. She is charged with putting her hand on the shoulder of a child who had been repeatedly running out of the room pushing her into her seat. In doing so, they claim her finger caught the shirt and 2 buttons came off (her buttons could have been lost). The principal seized on the opportunity and urged the parent to call the police. Thus, a teacher who had been in the school for 22 years with absolutely no record of any incidents, was taken out of the school in handcuffs by 5 police.

At the hearing, large sized photos of supposed bruises were shown. The child's mother testified they were taken by the principal immediately after the incident. We all looked intently for any sign of a bruise, but there were none. By the way, the child had been coming to school with the remnants of a black eye and the teacher had been calling for an investigation before this incident. The child been out of school for weeks and the teacher had talked to the mother as recently as the afternoon before the incident. The principal did nothing.

It came out that the police were totally sympathetic to the teacher, especially after a detective went to the school and investigated. I spoke to the cop a few weeks later. I'll paraphrase what he said: this is clearly trumped up and the principal was behind it. The parent testified that a group of cops sat around her in a circle and urged her to drop charges.

The teacher was released and should have been back in the school soon after. But the DOE is pursuing 3020 charges. Think of what this case is costing them. They pay the teacher 3 years salary to sit in the rubber room, pay the costs of the investigation, bringing in witnesses, pay the DOE lawyer, pay at least 500-800 bucks a day or so for the hearing officer, some of whom sometimes take a nap, as reported by the NY Times' Jennifer Medina yesterday, who I invited to join me at one of the upcoming sessions in this 3020 open hearing and she said she just may do so. (Teachers must request in writing an open hearing before it begins if they want witnesses.)

And then there are those 20 math teachers at Bronx High School of Science where these vendettas go on all the time.

Tenure protection anyone?

Until the DOE stops the witch hunts engaged by principals using the lack of oversight by the DOE, any attempt to make it easier to remove bad teachers will meet stiff resistance. Offer those teachers out of classroom positions (maybe in the press office of Tweed, which has plenty of room). There are certainly things they can find for people to do and it will be much cheaper in the long run.