Thursday, March 4, 2010
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Historical Perspective, 2003: On Closing Schools and High Stakes Testing and the UFT's Role
There was a lot of wallop packed into a few pages of Ed Notes when we published our second 16 page tabloid edition 7 years ago in Jan. 2003.
The incredibly perceptive John Lawhead [ICE-TJC candidate for the High School Executive Board] laid down some serious truths on testing and small schools and where Eric Nadelstern [now rumored to be Joel Klein's successor] was coming from at the time.
George Schmidt, sent John an email after reading his article, including this gem:
Most of the "small schools" research (at least the stuff around here, especially from William Ayers and Michael Klonsky of UIC) is also intellectually dishonest. Nailing Ayers 5 years before he became famous all over again.
Check out the ed deform disasters in Chicago and now New York today.
I had just met Lawhead in late 2002, and he proved to be one of a most perceptive analysts on the deep issues affecting education. In March 2003 John and I attended a meeting in Birmingham, Alabama with some of the leading Resisters to NCLB, high stakes testing, and all the ed deforms to come – such leading lights as Susan Ohanian, the late Steve Orel, Juanita Doyon, Bill and Joanne Cala and 20 others. I learned so much from these people and from John, one of the most widely read people I've ever met- code words for "I felt downright inorant." I learned in those days that John had been the administrative assistant to a lawyer at Columbia U who happened to be named James Leibman, who became Joel Klein's Chief Accountability Officer years later. Boy does the worm turn.
Nine months later John and I and a few others hatched the idea of an Independent Community of Educators (ICE) which has attracted some of the leading thinkers and writers in the UFT.
John's analysis is incisive. Teaching at soon to be closed Bushwick HS, he saw a copy of Ed Notes in his mailbox at school and sent in this article. After Bushwick HS was closed – and the process he lived through has given him enormous insight – he ended up a Tilden HS where he is chapter leader. Now Tilden is about to be closed as the Tweed tsunami sweeps through Brooklyn.
In that same early 2003 edition, I ran an email sent by George Schmidt to John sharing his experiences with the small schools movement in Chicago (see below John's article), followed by my 2 cents at the time on the role the UFT was playing in the high stakes tests/school closing scenario.
Shhhhhhhhhh ... The Small Schools are Coming
by John Lawhead, Teacher, Bushwick HS
Jan. 2003
Teachers, let's repeat the mantra:
Change is never easy but it is necessary and good. Change is a part of life and it's a big part of a school system that feeds us.
Teachers know that change is also a godsend for those who can't finish what they start. Often the changes are meant to invite a kind of amnesia that will take us past whatever has previously been inflicted on the schools or promised but never delivered.
I belong to a pocket of teachers who are suspicious and combative about the new wave of small schools reform. Not everyone understands us. For instance, me and my complaints about the New York Teacher newspaper. What they put in and what they leave out.
Why be irritated over a paper that's mainly devoted to making teachers feel good about being teachers? On the days when it comes you can put your feet up and read about the fresh triumphs and "historic" accomplishments of our union.
The rub is that my Brooklyn high school is being phased out and September and October have passed without a word about any of it. Nothing about this year's opening of small schools and the phasing out of large ones in the Bronx. In the absence of clear statements suspicions turn to speculation.
My guess is that this is another issue, like high-stakes testing and teacher-proof curricula, on which our UFT leadership prefers to "deliver" a passive teacher constituency for its political bedfellows. Perhaps that's an overly subjective perception. I'll just leave it there and let's wait and see. {emphasis mine}
[Breaking up large neighborhood high schools into smaller theme-based academies is not something new. Perhaps that's why the current wave of small schools, officially called the New Century Initiative, rolled into the Bronx and now Brooklyn with almost no attention from the major media. The hiring of a staunch small schools proponent, Michele Cahill into the Department of Education's high command as well as comments by Joel Klein have been the more widely noted signals that small schools are the coming trend.]
As with any school reform there are reasons; and then there are reasons. Let's start with a big one. The City's Department of Education is operating under the pressure of federal mandates to demonstrate vigorous reform efforts and offer alternative schooling and other services to students in low-performing schools.
The small schools initiative which is being overseen by New Visions for Public Schools lets the city spend private money to close schools and open new ones in a time of looming budget crises. In this way, leaving aside the nature of the reform, the financially strapped school system is able to use tens of millions in foundation largesse (Gates, Carnegie and Open Society) to do something dramatic. Reason enough. Why debate the particulars?
Only that some fairly credible people are claiming it's all for the better. The plan calls for participants at the school and community level. Staff at schools slated for closing are being wooed as potential small schools designers.
The small schools proponents argue that size is the thing that matters. In the first place the smallness allows for greater familiarity among staff and students. Small schools foster a sense of community in which students thrive.
In discussing the positive effects of the smaller, more friendly environment the reform enthusiasts are often also quick to mention favorable data the show the superiority of a small school situation. If they are careful they will qualify the claim, that this data only pertain to "at risk" students. Sometimes people seem to take for granted that it's only Black and Latino that are being discussed. That's both understandable and alarming. The discussions have mostly revolved around the schools targeted for closing and so far those schools have only been in Black and Latino neighborhoods.
The other part of the pitch is innovation. "Why should students have to learn math inside a classroom?" asks Brooklyn High Schools Superintendent Charles Majors. This part of the argument seems to rely on suggestive appeal rather than achievement data.
The small schools initiative propelled two former small school principals into the role of district administrators. Eric Nadelstern [Ed Note: Now rumored to be Joel Klein's successor] and Paul Schwarz are the deputy superintendents for small schools in the Bronx and Brooklyn respectively. It has fallen upon them to field the most difficult questions. Paul Schwarz, for instance, is facing teachers in a district where a command-style of administration has been prevalent. In my school and several others students must learn math in front of a computer with a packaged curriculum that no one in the school asked for. The obvious question for those charged with small schools implementation, and perhaps for others, is why isn't more local autonomy, innovation and student/staff familiarity being advocated for the large schools?
As a newly minted administrator Schwarz pleads innocence regarding the neglect or abuse of the large schools. As to whether the district is a favorable environment for innovation he describes the coming wave of small schools as a "paradigm shift." Major changes are in the forecast but there aren't many actual guarantees yet. He does voice the suggestion that small schools reform will have an influence on the entire school system.
Eric Nadelstern pushes further in this regard. He's an ardent believer in the potential of small schools reform for everyone. In fact, Nadelstern calls for breaking up all the large schools including selective high schools like Stuyvesant and Bronx Science. As unlikely as that prospect might seem, the man seems to have chosen his stand with integrity. He is clearly for more than the phasing out of zoned schools in Black and Latino neighborhoods. He is adamant that all large schools are failing their students.
Nadelstern also expresses a crusader's zeal on another issue: the possibility that small schools would try to improve their data by gleaning students. He concedes that many school people believe the way to show improvement is by finding better students and turning away the worse ones. To prevent that he vows that the small schools will abide by what he calls "random selection." It's something of a paradox the way the man can display both small-scale idealism and an administrator's high and mighty scorn for those who cheat at the numbers game.
The test for such reformers is to what extent they can change the system versus what it does to them. There are, after all, two sides to the bargain. If the school system is only bent on the wholesale elimination of zoned schools in Black and Latino neighborhoods then the school reformers may prove more useful to the system than to their small-scale cause.
Both Schwarz and Nadelstern are advocating the formation of school communities within "choice schools." There's no support from them for neighborhood-based community schools and that's significant. For most of the kids involved small schools is going to mean commuter schools. It's really not hard to imagine what kinds of students will be drawn into the new arrangement and who will not.
Alas, the small schools reformers may be surfing atop Microsoft millions but that isn't the only money in play. A trend in recent years has been the increased interest of upper middle class parents, mostly white, in having their children attend neighborhood public schools. Whites make up just over a third of school-age children in the city and roughly half of them go to public schools. The more affluent parents bring money and a willingness to pour some of it into the schools their children attend. They also bring political clout and one expects their wishes will tend to be met.
The most troubling aspect of the smalls schools reform is the distinct possibility that the school system values small schools for their weakness rather than their strength.
It hasn't been so long since their alternative assessments were defeated in favor of standardization by the State Commissioner of Education Richard Mills. Advocates for the Performance Standards Consortium had been adamant that a regime of regents exams would destroy their curriculum and their mission.
They also practiced a 'holier than thou' approach to the threat by declining to spearhead any larger challenge to high-stakes testing in the city. The court appeal of the Mills' decision was argued as narrowly as possible. It did not directly challenge the use of high-stakes testing in large schools.
So the question is this: If the well-knit alternative assessment schools could not mobilize enough parent or community support to defend what they claimed they needed, then what does that say about the strength of the new commuter academies that Black and Latino youth are being funneled into?
What happens to such schools when their school data shows decline for whatever reasons, including possibly, the honesty of the school staff? We can imagine they might easily be closed without much fuss from the local residents who might say: Who went to that school anyway?
And for the teachers: just another change.
School closings and "small schools" alternatives are epidemic here, too
by George N. Schmidt, Editor, Substance
(from email to John Lawhead re: Bushwick HS)
For several years, I've argued (against the Maoists, the old lefties, and the conservatives who've pushed "small schools") that "small schools" in urban contexts is the new face of Jim Crow.
The "best" high schools in Chicago's public school system (as measured by test scores and other measures) are selective enrollment schools with student populations of between 1,500 and 4,000.
The "best" high schools in the greater Chicago area are large suburban high schools with student populations of 1,500 to 3,000 (New Trier, Glenbard West, Hinsdale, etc., etc.).
The "small schools" people (and Gates money, which is fronting for dozens of other foundations pushing the same stuff) are pushing a new form of "separate but equal." We should point out that their program is an alternative to equitable funding for schools that serve mostly poor minority children.
Most of the "small schools" research (at least the stuff around here, especially from William Ayers and Michael Klonsky of UIC) is also intellectually dishonest. They do not have research to back up their claims, but simply assert those claims over and over based on anecdotes which, when checked out, turn out to be either half-truths or outright distortions.
George Schmidt
I also wrote an article on the UFT role in all this in that winter 2002/03 Ed Notes:
High Stakes Testing: Where the UFT Sits by Norm Scott
The incredibly perceptive John Lawhead [ICE-TJC candidate for the High School Executive Board] laid down some serious truths on testing and small schools and where Eric Nadelstern [now rumored to be Joel Klein's successor] was coming from at the time.
George Schmidt, sent John an email after reading his article, including this gem:
Most of the "small schools" research (at least the stuff around here, especially from William Ayers and Michael Klonsky of UIC) is also intellectually dishonest. Nailing Ayers 5 years before he became famous all over again.
Check out the ed deform disasters in Chicago and now New York today.
I had just met Lawhead in late 2002, and he proved to be one of a most perceptive analysts on the deep issues affecting education. In March 2003 John and I attended a meeting in Birmingham, Alabama with some of the leading Resisters to NCLB, high stakes testing, and all the ed deforms to come – such leading lights as Susan Ohanian, the late Steve Orel, Juanita Doyon, Bill and Joanne Cala and 20 others. I learned so much from these people and from John, one of the most widely read people I've ever met- code words for "I felt downright inorant." I learned in those days that John had been the administrative assistant to a lawyer at Columbia U who happened to be named James Leibman, who became Joel Klein's Chief Accountability Officer years later. Boy does the worm turn.
Nine months later John and I and a few others hatched the idea of an Independent Community of Educators (ICE) which has attracted some of the leading thinkers and writers in the UFT.
John's analysis is incisive. Teaching at soon to be closed Bushwick HS, he saw a copy of Ed Notes in his mailbox at school and sent in this article. After Bushwick HS was closed – and the process he lived through has given him enormous insight – he ended up a Tilden HS where he is chapter leader. Now Tilden is about to be closed as the Tweed tsunami sweeps through Brooklyn.
In that same early 2003 edition, I ran an email sent by George Schmidt to John sharing his experiences with the small schools movement in Chicago (see below John's article), followed by my 2 cents at the time on the role the UFT was playing in the high stakes tests/school closing scenario.
Shhhhhhhhhh ... The Small Schools are Coming
by John Lawhead, Teacher, Bushwick HS
Jan. 2003
Teachers, let's repeat the mantra:
Change is never easy but it is necessary and good. Change is a part of life and it's a big part of a school system that feeds us.
Teachers know that change is also a godsend for those who can't finish what they start. Often the changes are meant to invite a kind of amnesia that will take us past whatever has previously been inflicted on the schools or promised but never delivered.
I belong to a pocket of teachers who are suspicious and combative about the new wave of small schools reform. Not everyone understands us. For instance, me and my complaints about the New York Teacher newspaper. What they put in and what they leave out.
Why be irritated over a paper that's mainly devoted to making teachers feel good about being teachers? On the days when it comes you can put your feet up and read about the fresh triumphs and "historic" accomplishments of our union.
The rub is that my Brooklyn high school is being phased out and September and October have passed without a word about any of it. Nothing about this year's opening of small schools and the phasing out of large ones in the Bronx. In the absence of clear statements suspicions turn to speculation.
My guess is that this is another issue, like high-stakes testing and teacher-proof curricula, on which our UFT leadership prefers to "deliver" a passive teacher constituency for its political bedfellows. Perhaps that's an overly subjective perception. I'll just leave it there and let's wait and see. {emphasis mine}
[Breaking up large neighborhood high schools into smaller theme-based academies is not something new. Perhaps that's why the current wave of small schools, officially called the New Century Initiative, rolled into the Bronx and now Brooklyn with almost no attention from the major media. The hiring of a staunch small schools proponent, Michele Cahill into the Department of Education's high command as well as comments by Joel Klein have been the more widely noted signals that small schools are the coming trend.]
As with any school reform there are reasons; and then there are reasons. Let's start with a big one. The City's Department of Education is operating under the pressure of federal mandates to demonstrate vigorous reform efforts and offer alternative schooling and other services to students in low-performing schools.
The small schools initiative which is being overseen by New Visions for Public Schools lets the city spend private money to close schools and open new ones in a time of looming budget crises. In this way, leaving aside the nature of the reform, the financially strapped school system is able to use tens of millions in foundation largesse (Gates, Carnegie and Open Society) to do something dramatic. Reason enough. Why debate the particulars?
Only that some fairly credible people are claiming it's all for the better. The plan calls for participants at the school and community level. Staff at schools slated for closing are being wooed as potential small schools designers.
The small schools proponents argue that size is the thing that matters. In the first place the smallness allows for greater familiarity among staff and students. Small schools foster a sense of community in which students thrive.
In discussing the positive effects of the smaller, more friendly environment the reform enthusiasts are often also quick to mention favorable data the show the superiority of a small school situation. If they are careful they will qualify the claim, that this data only pertain to "at risk" students. Sometimes people seem to take for granted that it's only Black and Latino that are being discussed. That's both understandable and alarming. The discussions have mostly revolved around the schools targeted for closing and so far those schools have only been in Black and Latino neighborhoods.
The other part of the pitch is innovation. "Why should students have to learn math inside a classroom?" asks Brooklyn High Schools Superintendent Charles Majors. This part of the argument seems to rely on suggestive appeal rather than achievement data.
The small schools initiative propelled two former small school principals into the role of district administrators. Eric Nadelstern [Ed Note: Now rumored to be Joel Klein's successor] and Paul Schwarz are the deputy superintendents for small schools in the Bronx and Brooklyn respectively. It has fallen upon them to field the most difficult questions. Paul Schwarz, for instance, is facing teachers in a district where a command-style of administration has been prevalent. In my school and several others students must learn math in front of a computer with a packaged curriculum that no one in the school asked for. The obvious question for those charged with small schools implementation, and perhaps for others, is why isn't more local autonomy, innovation and student/staff familiarity being advocated for the large schools?
As a newly minted administrator Schwarz pleads innocence regarding the neglect or abuse of the large schools. As to whether the district is a favorable environment for innovation he describes the coming wave of small schools as a "paradigm shift." Major changes are in the forecast but there aren't many actual guarantees yet. He does voice the suggestion that small schools reform will have an influence on the entire school system.
Eric Nadelstern pushes further in this regard. He's an ardent believer in the potential of small schools reform for everyone. In fact, Nadelstern calls for breaking up all the large schools including selective high schools like Stuyvesant and Bronx Science. As unlikely as that prospect might seem, the man seems to have chosen his stand with integrity. He is clearly for more than the phasing out of zoned schools in Black and Latino neighborhoods. He is adamant that all large schools are failing their students.
Nadelstern also expresses a crusader's zeal on another issue: the possibility that small schools would try to improve their data by gleaning students. He concedes that many school people believe the way to show improvement is by finding better students and turning away the worse ones. To prevent that he vows that the small schools will abide by what he calls "random selection." It's something of a paradox the way the man can display both small-scale idealism and an administrator's high and mighty scorn for those who cheat at the numbers game.
The test for such reformers is to what extent they can change the system versus what it does to them. There are, after all, two sides to the bargain. If the school system is only bent on the wholesale elimination of zoned schools in Black and Latino neighborhoods then the school reformers may prove more useful to the system than to their small-scale cause.
Both Schwarz and Nadelstern are advocating the formation of school communities within "choice schools." There's no support from them for neighborhood-based community schools and that's significant. For most of the kids involved small schools is going to mean commuter schools. It's really not hard to imagine what kinds of students will be drawn into the new arrangement and who will not.
Alas, the small schools reformers may be surfing atop Microsoft millions but that isn't the only money in play. A trend in recent years has been the increased interest of upper middle class parents, mostly white, in having their children attend neighborhood public schools. Whites make up just over a third of school-age children in the city and roughly half of them go to public schools. The more affluent parents bring money and a willingness to pour some of it into the schools their children attend. They also bring political clout and one expects their wishes will tend to be met.
The most troubling aspect of the smalls schools reform is the distinct possibility that the school system values small schools for their weakness rather than their strength.
It hasn't been so long since their alternative assessments were defeated in favor of standardization by the State Commissioner of Education Richard Mills. Advocates for the Performance Standards Consortium had been adamant that a regime of regents exams would destroy their curriculum and their mission.
They also practiced a 'holier than thou' approach to the threat by declining to spearhead any larger challenge to high-stakes testing in the city. The court appeal of the Mills' decision was argued as narrowly as possible. It did not directly challenge the use of high-stakes testing in large schools.
So the question is this: If the well-knit alternative assessment schools could not mobilize enough parent or community support to defend what they claimed they needed, then what does that say about the strength of the new commuter academies that Black and Latino youth are being funneled into?
What happens to such schools when their school data shows decline for whatever reasons, including possibly, the honesty of the school staff? We can imagine they might easily be closed without much fuss from the local residents who might say: Who went to that school anyway?
And for the teachers: just another change.
School closings and "small schools" alternatives are epidemic here, too
by George N. Schmidt, Editor, Substance
(from email to John Lawhead re: Bushwick HS)
For several years, I've argued (against the Maoists, the old lefties, and the conservatives who've pushed "small schools") that "small schools" in urban contexts is the new face of Jim Crow.
The "best" high schools in Chicago's public school system (as measured by test scores and other measures) are selective enrollment schools with student populations of between 1,500 and 4,000.
The "best" high schools in the greater Chicago area are large suburban high schools with student populations of 1,500 to 3,000 (New Trier, Glenbard West, Hinsdale, etc., etc.).
The "small schools" people (and Gates money, which is fronting for dozens of other foundations pushing the same stuff) are pushing a new form of "separate but equal." We should point out that their program is an alternative to equitable funding for schools that serve mostly poor minority children.
Most of the "small schools" research (at least the stuff around here, especially from William Ayers and Michael Klonsky of UIC) is also intellectually dishonest. They do not have research to back up their claims, but simply assert those claims over and over based on anecdotes which, when checked out, turn out to be either half-truths or outright distortions.
George Schmidt
I also wrote an article on the UFT role in all this in that winter 2002/03 Ed Notes:
High Stakes Testing: Where the UFT Sits by Norm Scott
Want Higher Scores? Work ‘till midnight
UFT leader blames short day and poor teaching for low scores
An article in the NY Times this past summer [2002] pointed to the fact that “Yonkers far outstripped other large cities on the 4th grade test with 59.5% meeting standards, up from 52.7% last year and up from 33.6% four years ago.”
The article also stated that Randi Weingarten, president of the UFT, attributed the sharp gains in Yonkers to “higher teacher salaries than New York City” and “to an additional 20 minutes a day added to the school day in Yonkers.”
Let’s see. Our union leader is saying that higher salaries in Yonkers have attracted better teachers so the scores have risen. The corollary must be that lower salaries in NYC must have attracted lower paid and therefore less qualified teachers. Ergo, the scores have not risen as much.
Conclusion: New York City scores are lower because the teachers are not as good and don’t work a long enough day.
That’s a union leaders speaking boys and girls. It’s not the conditions in the schools or the difficult family life of students or poor supervision or poor management or political manipulation or waste, etc., etc.
So, let’s all roll up our sleeves and work ‘til midnight. Scores should go through the roof.
Note: The UFT leadership has backed and collaborated in the punitive closing of schools, in contrast to the recently elected union leadership in Chicago which led protest marches over such closings.
A Good Week for the Ravitches? - Updated
Updated: Mar. 3, 4pm
With rave reviews coming in for Diane Ravitch's new book and the news that Governor Patterson may be leaving the field for Diane's ex-husband, Lt. Governer Richard Ravitch, this is turning into quite a week for them.
(running for HS Exec Bd on the ICE-TJC slate) was lucky enough to get a hold of a review copy of “The Death and Life of the Great American School System” - a further sign that Arthur has become one of the most respected commentators on education not only in the city, but nationally. His review is a rave:
Sam Dillon the NY Times today has a BIG STORY on Diane's turn around from a leading conservative to a major voice battling the Ed Deformers.
Leading Scholar’s U-Turn on School Reform Shakes Up Debate - NYTimes.com
I can remember years of disparaging remarks toward Diane from the Resistance to the Ed Deformers I have been associated with for almost a decade. When she received the UFT's John Dewey Award, I received an email from Jerry Bracey, one of her severest critics, asking if we were throwing up a picket line.
So when Leonie Haimson introduced me to Diane at the famous St. Vartus church Feb. 28, 2007 rally, I was a bit surprised. Diane joined Leonie's list serve and published some critiques on the brand new at the time NYC Parent blog. As I began to post her work on ICE mail I came under attack from some people on the list, who went after Diane. Over the past few years, she has won over more and more critics (some praise from Ohanian and Lawhead).
When I went to a Manhattan Institute luncheon honoring Chester Finn (who is mentioned on the Times piece) hosted by Diane, a close friend of his, I felt like a total outcast. Until Diane came by my table and whispered in my ear: Go Get 'Em.
I still line up more with Deb Meier on standards and the other issues she and Diane blog about (both are on Leonie's influential listserve and we get some special treats from their back and forth) but I have become a Diane Ravitch fan as much for qualities as a person as for her ideas.
Here is a link to a new radio interview:
http://radio.nationalreview.com/betweenthecovers/post/?q=ZWNkOGNjNTEyMzA2ZmI1ZTMzN2EyZjY1MmU2ZDM5Zjk For a somewhat dissenting view from Jim Horm (thanks to Sharon Higgins) see:
Diane Ravitch and What's Underneath the Policy Makeover
Horn picks at the national standards issue that Diane supports and without going deep on my part, I tend to agree that if we end up where Diane wants us to, one day we will see a part 2 of her book.
With rave reviews coming in for Diane Ravitch's new book and the news that Governor Patterson may be leaving the field for Diane's ex-husband, Lt. Governer Richard Ravitch, this is turning into quite a week for them.
(running for HS Exec Bd on the ICE-TJC slate) was lucky enough to get a hold of a review copy of “The Death and Life of the Great American School System” - a further sign that Arthur has become one of the most respected commentators on education not only in the city, but nationally. His review is a rave:
It is, frankly, a revelation, and anyone interested in education, particularly New York City education, needs to read it right now.For anyone who’s wondered where on earth Joel Klein dreamed up his “reforms,” look no further. A substantial source of inspiration appears to be a three-stage process — a New York City experiment that gave a false impression of success, a San Diego experiment that eluded success altogether, and a stubborn determination to replicate both in overdrive.
As both Bloomberg and Klein were business experts using business models, they used a “corporate model of tightly centralized, hierarchal, top-down control, with all decisions made at Tweed and strict supervision of every classroom to make sure the orders flowing from headquarters were precisely implemented,” Ravitch writes. It appears they didn’t squander their valuable time on troublesome input from teachers, parents, or any contradictory voices whatsoever. In fact, Ravitch points out that though the mayor had promised increased parental involvement, it was actually reduced. Parent coordinators were hired, but in fact, they actually “worked for the principal, not for parents.”
Read Arthur's full review at Gotham Schools Ravitch Reveals All
I just hope Richard R reads his ex-wife's book, takes heed, and swats the co-conspirator NY State Ed Department before it causes more damage. But I'm not holding my breath.Sam Dillon the NY Times today has a BIG STORY on Diane's turn around from a leading conservative to a major voice battling the Ed Deformers.
Leading Scholar’s U-Turn on School Reform Shakes Up Debate - NYTimes.com
I can remember years of disparaging remarks toward Diane from the Resistance to the Ed Deformers I have been associated with for almost a decade. When she received the UFT's John Dewey Award, I received an email from Jerry Bracey, one of her severest critics, asking if we were throwing up a picket line.
So when Leonie Haimson introduced me to Diane at the famous St. Vartus church Feb. 28, 2007 rally, I was a bit surprised. Diane joined Leonie's list serve and published some critiques on the brand new at the time NYC Parent blog. As I began to post her work on ICE mail I came under attack from some people on the list, who went after Diane. Over the past few years, she has won over more and more critics (some praise from Ohanian and Lawhead).
When I went to a Manhattan Institute luncheon honoring Chester Finn (who is mentioned on the Times piece) hosted by Diane, a close friend of his, I felt like a total outcast. Until Diane came by my table and whispered in my ear: Go Get 'Em.
I still line up more with Deb Meier on standards and the other issues she and Diane blog about (both are on Leonie's influential listserve and we get some special treats from their back and forth) but I have become a Diane Ravitch fan as much for qualities as a person as for her ideas.
Here is a link to a new radio interview:
http://radio.
Diane Ravitch and What's Underneath the Policy Makeover
Horn picks at the national standards issue that Diane supports and without going deep on my part, I tend to agree that if we end up where Diane wants us to, one day we will see a part 2 of her book.
The WAVE: The Joys of Aging
March 3, 2010, for publication in The WAVE, Mar. 5 edition
by Norm Scott
This column will be a shortie – Susan Locke (WAVE Publisher) is doing cartwheels. The 9am Wave deadline approaches on the day I begin Medicare and social security – and the most fun of all, the day I start to use my half fare Metro card – take that Jay Walder. My wife is waiting to take me shopping for my birthday gift, which she thinks should be an exercise ball instead of that 200 inch flat panel TV I really need. "But honey, shouldn't we also get that TV to go with the ball so I can see the video that comes with it really well?"
That's all I have to say about the aging process. I am hoping some extra aging is going on over at Tweed over the Daily News' Juan Gonzalez's exposure of the emails between Joel Klein and Harlem Success charter school queen Eva (Evil) Moskowitz (Mockowitz, Moskowitch - take your pick). The ed literati are howling with glee over the 70 pages of emails that reveal uncle Joel's predilection for charter schools over schools he is supposed to be running. Gotham Schools' Elizabeth Green had this tidbit:
April 16, 2009, was a hectic e-mailing day for the odd couple. First, Klein offers his frank thoughts on his new buddy Al Sharpton, after Moskowitz asks whether she should invite Sharpton to visit her school. He’s good on charters, but not on mayoral control, Klein says. But he is “working” on Sharpton. The same day, Klein lets Moskowitz know that Bill Clinton called him to say he’s upset about the teachers union attack on charter schools — “keep confi,” Klein instructs. Clinton apparently “wants to do an op ed.” Pretty sure this never materialized, though Moskowitz offered some talking points.
Always being focused on the UFT, I picked up this piece from Green's report:
WHAT RANDI SAID: In an Oct. 8, 2008, e-mail, Moskowitz claims that former city teachers union president Randi Weingarten, and her personal enemy, suggested that the duo write a thin contract together. Presumably that would mean that Harlem Success schools would become unionized, and the resulting work contract would have very few restrictions. Moskowitz said she would but only if Weingarten also agreed to a thin contract at half of all city schools. The union’s first thin contract, with the Green Dot charter school in the Bronx, landed in June 2009.
Could you just imagine the Randi/Mulgrew qvelling and distorting if they actually got Evil to go along with this? We've been predicting that the UFT moves to organize charters will be all about thin contracts with "very few restrictions" on the charter operators. Which will screw the teachers, of course. In ICE and GEM (the organizing groups I work with) we ask ourselves what to tell charter school teachers who might be interested in having the UFT organize them. My instinct is to say, "Try the exterminators union." But seriously, do you urge them to become part of an undemocratic, narrow, sell-out union?
Last week I got a call from a former student in my 6th grade class – from 1979. I haven't seen her since she was in high school. We're getting together for lunch. She's in her 40's. Now THAT makes me feel OLD. But I will feel much better after my yearly dose of Beef Wellington tonight at One if By Land, Two if By Sea.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Divide and Conquer: PS 30 VS Harlem Success Academy Charter School Invasion
February 22, 2010 was a volatile night at PS 30. The PS 30 community clashed with Harlem Success Academy II in what did not make for a pleasant evening. Harlem Success Academy II is looking for a home after the PS 123 community fought hard to get them out. The PS 30 community was brilliant in their defense of their school.
Part 2
Moskowitz/Klein Emails Reveal UFT Intentions on Organizing Charters
I don't have the patience to wade through the emails (here's the link if you want to get your kicks), but luckily people like Elizabeth Green at Gotham did so (we've missed you
, Elizabeth).
Could you just imagine the Randi/Mulgrew qvelling and distorting if they actually got Evil to go along with this? We've been predicting that the UFT moves to organize charters will be all about thin contracts with "very few restrictions" on the charter operators. Which will screw the teachers, of course. In ICE and GEM we ask ourselves what to tell charter school teachers who might be interested in having the UFT organize them. My instinct is to say, "Try the exterminators union." But seriously, do you urge them to become part of an undemocratic, narrow, sell-out union?
, Elizabeth).
WHAT RANDI SAID: In an Oct. 8, 2008, e-mail, Moskowitz claims that former city teachers union president Randi Weingarten, and her personal enemy, suggested that the duo write a thin contract together. Presumably that would mean that Harlem Success schools would become unionized, and the resulting work contract would have very few restrictions. Moskowitz said she would but only if Weingarten also agreed to a thin contract at half of all city schools. The union’s first thin contract, with the Green Dot charter school in the Bronx, landed in June 2009.
Could you just imagine the Randi/Mulgrew qvelling and distorting if they actually got Evil to go along with this? We've been predicting that the UFT moves to organize charters will be all about thin contracts with "very few restrictions" on the charter operators. Which will screw the teachers, of course. In ICE and GEM we ask ourselves what to tell charter school teachers who might be interested in having the UFT organize them. My instinct is to say, "Try the exterminators union." But seriously, do you urge them to become part of an undemocratic, narrow, sell-out union?
Monday, March 1, 2010
"You can't fire poverty"- Mrs. Mimi With Some Common Sense Outrage at Central Falls Firings
These 2 blogs from Ms. Mimi are in the "wish I had written them" category as she takes Obama, Duncan and the whole pack of ed deformers to task. (And not good news for them that Ms. Mimi, a published author, comes from the stock of teachers they view as golden.)
Yes, I'm Still Heated About This Whole Rhode Island Thing...
Why The Superintendent Firing All the Teachers in One School Should Be Ashamed Of Themselves...and Maybe Have To Wear a Scarlet D for Douch
Yes, I'm Still Heated About This Whole Rhode Island Thing...
Why The Superintendent Firing All the Teachers in One School Should Be Ashamed Of Themselves...and Maybe Have To Wear a Scarlet D for Douch
Sunday, February 28, 2010
PS 198, Lower Lab School - Inaccuracies in Thrasher Voice Story
If you read Steven Thrasher's Village Voice article
Front door / back door: Everyone used to use the front door but that was kind of crowded so it was decided that Lab, as the smaller school would use the back door. The reporter got this backwards. Parents use whatever door.
Class size: Lab is 28 average, 198 is 23.
Funding: 198 gets about $2,700 more per student. Lab is one of the 10% of schools that is not Title I.
Lab parents have been actively looking to move. This article will only accelerate that. So what should replace it were Lab to go away? This building is at the north end of District 2. The local zone has enough kids to fill maybe a third of the school. Rezone? Charters? Keep in mind that removing G&T doesn't erase the racial differences between the 198 zone and the overcrowded zones around it.
there were some shocking revelations - or allegations to some. Ed Notes fave Patrick Sullivan came off as somewhat hypocritical in Thrasher's view. But knowing Patrick, it seemed there had to be another side to the story.
Leonie Haimson provides some enlightenment, followed by Patrick himself (both on the NYCEducationNews listserve.)
On Feb 25, 2010, Leonie Haimson wrote:
I believe that Tony Alvarado is responsible for the creation of this school and its placement at PS 198.
The uncomfortable but undeniable truth is that many gifted programs through the city are segregated; even G and T programs in regular public schools. The Chancellor’s policies of mandating that admissions be based solely on high stakes test scores has made this even worse; as has his extension of test-based admissions to many more high schools.
The reality is that NYC is a very segregated city and there has been no effort in recent years to integrate classrooms; in fact the reverse has occurred under this administration.
Lisa Donlan can tell you about how they have fought bitterly to try to keep D1 schools integrated; against fierce resistance from the administration.
It’s all very sad.
However, the picture the author gives of huge classes at PS 198 compared to Lower Lab is not true. According to DOE stats anyway, most classes at PS 198 still average about 20, while those at Lower Lab are 28 and up, including in Kindergarten, making teaching assts a very reasonable requirement
For a portrait of PS 198 the first year smaller classes came to NYC schools ten years ago, and the revolutionary changes it brought, you can check out the report I wrote in 2000, Smaller is Better at http://edpriorities.org/Pubs/Report/Report_Smaller.html
I believe that Tony Alvarado is responsible for the creation of this school and its placement at PS 198.
The uncomfortable but undeniable truth is that many gifted programs through the city are segregated; even G and T programs in regular public schools. The Chancellor’s policies of mandating that admissions be based solely on high stakes test scores has made this even worse; as has his extension of test-based admissions to many more high schools.
The reality is that NYC is a very segregated city and there has been no effort in recent years to integrate classrooms; in fact the reverse has occurred under this administration.
Lisa Donlan can tell you about how they have fought bitterly to try to keep D1 schools integrated; against fierce resistance from the administration.
It’s all very sad.
However, the picture the author gives of huge classes at PS 198 compared to Lower Lab is not true. According to DOE stats anyway, most classes at PS 198 still average about 20, while those at Lower Lab are 28 and up, including in Kindergarten, making teaching assts a very reasonable requirement
For a portrait of PS 198 the first year smaller classes came to NYC schools ten years ago, and the revolutionary changes it brought, you can check out the report I wrote in 2000, Smaller is Better at http://edpriorities.org/Pubs/Report/Report_Smaller.html
Patrick Sullivan adds:
As a PTA co-president at Lab, I imagine I'm on the hook to respond here. There are some very serious inaccuracies in the story. I've asked David Cantor to help set the record straight but as he is probably busy, I will get started myself.Front door / back door: Everyone used to use the front door but that was kind of crowded so it was decided that Lab, as the smaller school would use the back door. The reporter got this backwards. Parents use whatever door.
Class size: Lab is 28 average, 198 is 23.
Funding: 198 gets about $2,700 more per student. Lab is one of the 10% of schools that is not Title I.
Lab parents have been actively looking to move. This article will only accelerate that. So what should replace it were Lab to go away? This building is at the north end of District 2. The local zone has enough kids to fill maybe a third of the school. Rezone? Charters? Keep in mind that removing G&T doesn't erase the racial differences between the 198 zone and the overcrowded zones around it.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
PS 15 Charter School Suit Over PAVE
This may grow into a big story as the counter attack on the BloomKlein policy of inserting charter schools into public school buildings is getting some serious push back. If you've read our and other reports of the PEP meeting the other night it would appear the charter school movement is garnering lots of support and may be extended to other invaded schools. (See the video of the CAPE presentation at the PEP the other night.
Now I don't have much faith in the state ed commissioner Steiner since he was chosen by Bloomberg/Klein pal Meryl Tisch but the state ed dept is a political creation and this type of pressure might have a long term impact.
Check out the complaint itself, prepared by Advocates for Children, at Gotham. Leonie calls it "Very compelling stuff!"
Julie C. of CAPE commented at Gotham:
Check out the complaint itself, prepared by Advocates for Children, at Gotham. Leonie calls it "Very compelling stuff!"
Two parents at a Brooklyn district school who have strongly resisted the city’s plan to let a charter school extend its stay in the district school building are appealing to State Education Commissioner David Steiner to halt the plan.
The parents, John Battis and Lydia Bellahcene, allege that the city of violating state education law in its plan to allow PAVE Academy charter school remain in the same building as P.S. 15 until 2013. The citywide school board voted to approve that plan in its January meeting.
The appeal, which parents filed to the city today and expect to deliver to the state education department in Albany on Monday, claims that vote should be nullified because the city revised its timeframe for PAVE’s stay without having a second public hearing, as required if the city changes a plan for how a building will be used. It also argues that the city failed to give enough information about how the plan would affect students at both the schools.
Lawyers with the advocacy group Advocates for Children are working with Battis and Bellahcene on the appeal.
Julie C. of CAPE commented at Gotham:
Wanted to thank all of the posters so far for your supportive words; I also want to note the commitment of and thank, with the greatest pride, John and Lydia for taking the lead on this and showing what we can do when parents take the leap and get involved with education policy. We have been so fortunate in the Red Hook Community to have an amazing collective of parents and teachers who work together fighting for their children. John, Lydia, and other parents and teachers have sacrificed much in this fight, but it is all worth it to us; we know how important it is to protect our children and the public education they ALL deserve. I just want to note to one poster, PS 15 parents are not ‘fighting against PAVE parents’… we have kept the tone and tenor very much focused on the DOE and the PAVE founder and board. Their decisions and motives do not serve PS 15’s children, nor the children who attend PAVE Academy. The destructive policies of this administration, and those who have hijacked the charter school movement for personal gain and an ideology deeply rooted in a privatization agenda, are shameful. We will continue this fight and hope more parents, teachers, and policy makers get informed and get involved.
Witnesses Testify on Evil Moskowitz at PS 30 Hearing
Report 1:
I was at P30 that night, but not in time to see the march into the auditorium, thankfully.It was enough to remain quiet in my seat throughout the evening because of the continued bad behavior of the charter school crowd. I stood next to Moskowitz for most of the evening, who sat in the chair looking at papers, not even paying attention to what people were saying. She looked disheveled. Two very good points were made by P30 speakers, one parent and one teacher, that got the audience's attention. When the parent spoke about how the community was being divided, neighbor against neighbor, by Klein and Bloomburg, there was a lull in the crowd. He lost the charter parents, however, when he criticized Moskowitz for getting an exorbitant pay check and not even being interested in addressing the crowd (remember, disheveled and reading papers all night). At this point, Moskowitz stood up, like Mussolini, papers in hand, and the charter crowd roared. The other point, strongly delivered by a P30 staff member, was concerning Eminent Domain; this got some attention since Bloomberg supports the real estate developers that are daily walking up and down the streets, viewing buildings in East Harlem. All in all, it was a disgusting evening.
Report 2:
I got an earful about Moskowitz and her goons at a meeting at our school PS 30M. There was a meeting about whether or not to house her latest charter school in our building. Her parents entered our building having been fed pizza and given t-shirts with the charter slogan on them. They entered chanting, "Share your space." They were pretty riled up.
I got an earful about Moskowitz and her goons at a meeting at our school PS 30M. There was a meeting about whether or not to house her latest charter school in our building. Her parents entered our building having been fed pizza and given t-shirts with the charter slogan on them. They entered chanting, "Share your space." They were pretty riled up.
When one of our parents was on the stage speaking (it was a big thing for her to speak in public and she was very nervous) she stumbled in her speech and one of the charter school t-shirt wearers shouted out, "You see their parents cannot even read!" At no point in the meeting did Moskowitz stand up and separate herself from this statement. In my twenty years of teaching experience I have seen that the thing that most motivates children to learn is to have some moral or ethical purpose. It was shocking to hear Moskowitz beginning a brand new charter school with such questionable morals and ethics seeming to be at the forefront. It appeared that the charter school parents came fighting and wanting to "beat" the other parents out of their space. There was no desire to listen or learn. NONE OF THIS WAS CORRECTED by Moskowitz. Is this what she stands for? Survival of the fittest (or the ones with the newest t-shirts and the loudest chants)? How sad that our school, which we have pulled out of its SURR status to turn it into a model school and have consistently increased our reading, math and attendance scores as well as other markers of success, is being so dismissed and mocked! Moskowitz should want to learn how we pulled ourselves up from so low a position. We should all be learning from each other so we can be better able to help the children. That is best practices. I don't see that happening in this case. This new charter school will fail because no one has the moral vision to call to the best and deepest thing in our children.
Report 3
| I now understand that these gatherings are no more than circuses with trained charter school acts. I might add that the staff of P30 were quiet, dignified and beautiful, presenting themselves in the most elegant manner. I was proud to support them and will continue until Bloomberg and Klein are defeated or out of office. I am totally confident that we will win in the end and preserve public education. |
Fiorillo on Wall St. Robber Barons as Ed Deformers
Michael Fiorillo, ICE-TJC candidate for UFT HS Exec. Bd debates Kitchen Sink, a charter school operator at this Gotham Schools post
Kitchen Sink:
Just as a point of fact, the rich hedge fund/Wall Street/robber barons, whatever you want to call them, donors and board members of charter schools: they GIVE money to the schools, adding resources to the public schools in NYC. They don’t TAKE money.
They give, don’t take. If you need me to say it louder, they GIVE, don’t TAKE.
Are their motives all pure? Certainly not. Are their politics diverse? Certainly yes. But remember, they GIVE, don’t TAKE.
Fiorillo:
Let's take a look at this issue of finance capital (which on these pages, hedge and private equity funds are usually a proxy for), it's role in society and its more recent role in education.
The ostensible purpose of finance capital is to allocate money from those who have it to those who can productively use it, and make interest and/or fee income in the process. So far, so good: that's how capitalism works, and as long as there is some kind of healthy balance between lenders and borrowers/producers, then a market economy can function well according to its own terms.
But it that what's really happening in this country, or globally, for that matter?
No. What we have seen over the past 35 years is the financial end of the economy becoming engorged with capital and power, at the expense of both the productive economy and the democratic process, which has been captured by those financial interests. Look no further than home, where NYC's executive office has been purchased by a Finance/media mogul.
The past 35 years have seen:
- the rescinding of usury laws that limited interest charges, resulting in those 30% interest charges on credit cards.
- the shrinking of the productive, goods-producing (and unionized) side of the economy, with finance becoming an ever-greater percentage of GDP. This has led to the physical and social decline of huge regions of the country that were once major economic engines for the US. This has not been some "natural" process, as mainstream economists would like to fantasize about (or propagandize, depending on your point of view), but has occurred while Finance, through merger and acquisitions, private equity takeovers and outsourcing, has directly based much
of it growth on cannibalizing the patrimonial wealth that the goods-producing part of the economy generated over many decades. In fact, this is what is driving both the current financial crisis and the attack on public schools: these fundamentally parasitic forces have extracted so much wealth from the private sector that they are now driven to go after society's public wealth. Thus the ever-increasing attacks on public education and Social Security.
- Because their wealth and power is increased by enlarging how much they can skim from every corner of the economy, in the form of rents (interest, fees, royalties and actual rents) there is ultimately a negative relationship between the expansion of Finance and the overall health of the economy and society. This doesn't mean that some, even many, don't benefit: they do. What else accounts for Manhattan becoming a Xanadu of opulence and ostentatious wealth in the past generation? And there is some trickle down: art auctioneers, designers, high-end
caterers and restaurants, valet parking attendants all get their little cut, but the overall effect is the decline of long-term, real wealth-generating capacity. As Finance has fattened off the land, the poverty rate in NYC has increased (and NYC has fared much better than many other parts of the country).
- Because there is a limited amount of wealth-producing opportunities for Finance to invest in, and because the money must go somewhere, it goes into ever more abstruse financial instruments that are ever more abstracted from the physical world of work and wealth: credit default swaps, trading of interest rate indexes, futures trading by parties that have no relation to the commodities being traded, foreign exchange plays, etc. As all of this grows relative to the "real" economy, the system becomes top-heavy and more susceptible to crisis. That explains the increasing incidence and severity of financial crises over the past 35 years, most of it directly related to the credit system: NYC's "bankruptcy' (really a banker's coup) in 1975, a succession of Third World debt crises in the 1980's, the S&L crisis of the late 80's and early 90's, the Asian debt crisis and Russian default of 1997, the LTCM crisis, Dot Com meltdown, and our current crisis, which is entirely fueled by debt and "financial engineering" (really just a euphemism for an ever-expanding financial casino gamed by big players).
What does any of this have to do with education? Well, as I said, these immense amounts of money must go somewhere, and opportunities for "investment," which has devolved into systemic extraction of wealth, must be found. Enter the the public schools, "the Big Enchilada" (actually just the "Pretty Big Enchilada:" Social Security is really the Big One) according to Jefferies and Co.
But Finance has a PR problem. Most people (rightfully) don't fully trust Wall Street gamblers. And don't be fooled: a hedge fund is nothing but a gambling machine, creating no tangible wealth whatsoever. Their "investments" are short term bets, which often (as we're seeing right now in the case of Greece, Spain, Ireland and Portugal) have negative consequences. So plutocrats and Wall Street gamblers must start foundations, and have Society benefit balls, and make patronizing statements about their concern for the "underprivileged." Look at the very term"social entrepreneur:" there is a (deluded or deceptive) notion that marketizing the right to an education will somehow benefit people. Sorry, that's not how postmodern capitalism works.
Meanwhile, they have dollar signs in their eyes. Having ignored if not benefited from the decades-long disinvestment in inner city schools and communities (which were largely a result of their own investment decisions, combined with their political efforts to reduce their taxes), they become part of the chorus chanting about the failures of public education (which in reality does have many problems and shortcomings, problems that these very same people have an indirect hand in as a result of what they do for a living every day).
Finance makes "investment" decisions that often reduce the productive capacity of the nation, leaving communities and entire regions (Upstate NY, the Great Lakes, etc.) hollowed out: that's a TAKE.
Finance captures the political process to extend its power and wealth, further
skimming wealth: that's a TAKE.
Finance (along with its political and media assets) uses its increased power to create an echo chamber that endlessly harps on the failures of public education (and the public sector in general) and the faults of teachers and their unions in those failures: that's a TAKE.
Finance helps establish a parallel, privately-run (but publicly-funded) educational system that consciously skims, filters and creams some students, and excludes or counsels out others. At the same time, it diverts money from the public schools system: that's a TAKE.
Finance works to create the political climate for the diversion of funds from the public schools by imposing executive (mayoral) control over school systems, disenfranchising school communities, in particular the minority communities they claim to serve: that's a TAKE.
Now, KS, what exactly do they GIVE?
Friday, February 26, 2010
Panel for Educational Policy, Feb. 24, 2010: Alev, Khem, Julie, Lisa
CAPE and GEM and a few parent activists were few voices heard standing up for public education in a sea of charter school supporters.
"Where is the UFT?" was a constant refrain we heard last night from reporters and even from some of Klein's Tweedies. Good question as the massive charter school outpouring of parents imprinted an anti public school message, with lots of teacher bashing.
The biggest message left to every public school teacher and parent who supports public schools and every political operative there last night was the utter failure of the UFT, the only agent capable of standing up. But that is nothing new as the UFT did nothing for this meeting, feeling I guess it had done enough on Jan. 26.
"Where is the UFT?" was a constant refrain we heard last night from reporters and even from some of Klein's Tweedies. Good question as the massive charter school outpouring of parents imprinted an anti public school message, with lots of teacher bashing.
The biggest message left to every public school teacher and parent who supports public schools and every political operative there last night was the utter failure of the UFT, the only agent capable of standing up. But that is nothing new as the UFT did nothing for this meeting, feeling I guess it had done enough on Jan. 26.
Read the CAPE Report:
Another PEPuppet Meeting, An EXPLOSIVE Daily News Article...
From CEJ:
Press Coverage from February 23rd
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Evil Moskowitz/Joel DeKlein Lovefest
Evil was in the house last night with loads of the HSA gang. What a good time for this story to come out on the day after. The Daily News did a Freedom of Information (FOIL).
Klein helped Evil get a million bucks from Eli Broad. Must have come in handy last night for the buses and pizzas. Charters who cry they don't get the same money as public schools always seem to have bus and food money.
Eli also gave Randi a million for the UFT charter school. Did Klein also help his friends out too? Can someone FOIL the Randi/Klein emails?
Here is a link to the must read Gonzalez piece. Photo from the DN web site enhanced by Bellel.
Read the email exchanges between Eva Moskowitz and Joel Klein.
http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxueWRuZG9jc3xneDoyMjFlOTliYmVlNjUxMmIw
Anti Public School, Anti Union, Anti Public School Teachers Charter School Message at PEP
CAPE and GEM and a few parent activists were few voices heard
Check back for updates and links to other stories later
"Where is the UFT?" was a constant refrain we heard last night from reporters and even from some of Klein's Tweedies. Good question as the massive charter school outpouring of parents imprinted an anti public school message, with lots of teacher bashing.
The biggest message left to every public school teacher and parent who supports public schools and every political operative there last night was the utter failure of the UFT, the only agent capable of standing up. But that is nothing new as the UFT did nothing for this meeting, feeling I guess it had done enough on Jan. 26.
There is a lot to say about the contrast between the Jan. 26 and Feb. 24 PEP meetings. The former dominated by the pro public school debate, with the enormous booing of Joel Klein
Ed Notes was handed out at the UFT Delegate Assembly on Wed. Feb. 24 warning them that their presence was needed to counter the massive charter school outpouring at the Feb. PEP. Mulgrew's pathetic response was that he wanted to end the meeting by 6 so people who wanted to go can leave. Useless. They needed to be there at 4. The entire DA should have convened in front of Fashion Industries HS. I'm including the Ed Notes pdf below.
In some ways there was joy in hearing the very people who cheered Joel Klein last night, in contrast to the massive booing he received on Jan. 26, made a strong impression that the schools he was in charge of were not up to the level of charter schools he is pushing. I thought there was great irony in that parent after parent talked about the failures their children faced in his schools.
I left around 10 and the meeting went till 12. There are reports surfacing of the meeting and I am processing some video to post here later in the day of the wonderful statements made by CAPEers, and parents Lisa Donlan and Khem Irby.
Ed Notes Feb 2010
Check back for updates and links to other stories later
"Where is the UFT?" was a constant refrain we heard last night from reporters and even from some of Klein's Tweedies. Good question as the massive charter school outpouring of parents imprinted an anti public school message, with lots of teacher bashing.
The biggest message left to every public school teacher and parent who supports public schools and every political operative there last night was the utter failure of the UFT, the only agent capable of standing up. But that is nothing new as the UFT did nothing for this meeting, feeling I guess it had done enough on Jan. 26.
There is a lot to say about the contrast between the Jan. 26 and Feb. 24 PEP meetings. The former dominated by the pro public school debate, with the enormous booing of Joel Klein
Ed Notes was handed out at the UFT Delegate Assembly on Wed. Feb. 24 warning them that their presence was needed to counter the massive charter school outpouring at the Feb. PEP. Mulgrew's pathetic response was that he wanted to end the meeting by 6 so people who wanted to go can leave. Useless. They needed to be there at 4. The entire DA should have convened in front of Fashion Industries HS. I'm including the Ed Notes pdf below.
In some ways there was joy in hearing the very people who cheered Joel Klein last night, in contrast to the massive booing he received on Jan. 26, made a strong impression that the schools he was in charge of were not up to the level of charter schools he is pushing. I thought there was great irony in that parent after parent talked about the failures their children faced in his schools.
I left around 10 and the meeting went till 12. There are reports surfacing of the meeting and I am processing some video to post here later in the day of the wonderful statements made by CAPEers, and parents Lisa Donlan and Khem Irby.
Ed Notes Feb 2010
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Download the ICE UFT Election Leaflet for Your School
Forward to your friends.
Make a donation to the campaign. Make copies for your colleagues at schools. Stop by nearby schools to put some in the mail boxes (you have the right in the election season.) If you wish we will send you copies. Email ICEUFT@gmail.com with the number of copies you need. Or call Norm at 917-992-3734.
ICE UFT Election Flyer
http://www.scribd.com/full/27389047?access_key=key-1v1201we990j0wsemxwo
Make a donation to the campaign. Make copies for your colleagues at schools. Stop by nearby schools to put some in the mail boxes (you have the right in the election season.) If you wish we will send you copies. Email ICEUFT@gmail.com with the number of copies you need. Or call Norm at 917-992-3734.
ICE UFT Election Flyer
http://www.scribd.com/full/27389047?access_key=key-1v1201we990j0wsemxwo
White Flight: PS 92 Lefferts Charter School Hearing Notes - Video to Follow
People in Lefferts Gardens want their own charter school and the DOE decided to house it at PS 92 in Crown Hts. A hearing as is required was held Monday night though everyone know that issue has been decided in favor of the charter and will be voted up tonight at the PEP meeting.
I attended the hearing on Monday night and taped it. I know something about the school. My wife graduated from there in 19$% and her dad had a grocery store on Rogers Ave a block away and they lived over the store. But no matter how hard I tried to pursuade her to join me, she wouldn't go. After I retired, I mentored six teaching fellows at the school and so knew the lay of the land. Also, Vera Pavone, an ICE founder, was the school secretary there for three years.
The mostly white charter school crew claimed to be home grown, talked about options and choice, praised PS 92 as being a great school (but they wouldn't send their kids there) – you know, if you've been to these things before, they all use the same arguments - they are well coached. And of course, it is all temporary since one day they will have a building of their own. Duck, that flying pig is coming straight at you. But then again, why shouldn't Tweed hand over millions of dollars for them to build their own school - as long as they know someone with influence and money like the Robertson clan and Malcolm Smith.
Parent activist Carla Phillip, a PS 92 grad, spoke at the meeting and sent this report to the NYCEducation listserve (Leonie's List- who as I write this is about to appear on Fox after Joel Klein to discuss the charter school invasions- oops, just saw it and it was only sound bite).
Here is Carla's report:
I attended the hearing on Monday night and taped it. I know something about the school. My wife graduated from there in 19$% and her dad had a grocery store on Rogers Ave a block away and they lived over the store. But no matter how hard I tried to pursuade her to join me, she wouldn't go. After I retired, I mentored six teaching fellows at the school and so knew the lay of the land. Also, Vera Pavone, an ICE founder, was the school secretary there for three years.
The mostly white charter school crew claimed to be home grown, talked about options and choice, praised PS 92 as being a great school (but they wouldn't send their kids there) – you know, if you've been to these things before, they all use the same arguments - they are well coached. And of course, it is all temporary since one day they will have a building of their own. Duck, that flying pig is coming straight at you. But then again, why shouldn't Tweed hand over millions of dollars for them to build their own school - as long as they know someone with influence and money like the Robertson clan and Malcolm Smith.
Parent activist Carla Phillip, a PS 92 grad, spoke at the meeting and sent this report to the NYCEducation listserve (Leonie's List- who as I write this is about to appear on Fox after Joel Klein to discuss the charter school invasions- oops, just saw it and it was only sound bite).
Here is Carla's report:
The public hearing at PS 92 was well attended. There were a good amount of parents from PS 92 and Lefferts Gardens. This was the first hearing that I have been to where it was racially divided (blacks and whites). The Charter school tried to convince the public on the benefits of their school. To which I had to correct them on, in the sense of being a modern day form of segregation, where you have the haves and the haves not.
At one point in the hearing, you could literally cut the tension with a knife. I bought to the panel's and community's attention the Chancellor's letter on DOE's website stating the placement of Lefferts Gardens in PS 92 in September of 2010; and asked why are we having this hearing, when the decision was already made on January 8th? Yes, I had to go there. To which they said that the decision would be made on Wednesday at the PEP meeting. Now, we all know its going to be rubber stamped. That's what Bloomberg's appointees do - rubber stamp everything.
All in all, the parents and alumnis of PS 92 kept saying:
- Where were you (Lefferts Gardens), when we were bringing the school up to par?
- Charter schools need their own buildings
- Why your kids cannot attend the school now and help further improve it?
Meanwhile, Lefferts Gardens was stressing the fact that the school is an option and helping the children of the community. If this is a new option, why are they not pushing for their own space, but rather co-location?
And yes, there was a public official in the audience, Mr. Mel Faulkner from Assemblywoman Barron's office came to support. Thank you, Mr. Faulkner for taking the time out to come and its not his district. He understands that it is about the children and empowering the parents.
Finally, thank you Senator Adams for sending out the initial email and informing the community of the hearing.
And the struggle continues.
Carla M. Phillip
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Whose Map Is It?
Feeling the heat James?
Dear Norm,
Dear Norm,
I have in front of my a brochure from your organization (dated August 9, 2009) that uses our map prominently. While I certainly have no problem with you using the information on the map, I do have a problem with you using the map itself. Its colors, look and feel, are very much associated with the Center and therefore your use of it confuses the reader that we support the positions taken in the brochure. Accordingly, I must insist that you cease immediately distributing the brochure with our map image in any shape or form—equally please remove the map from your website.
I thank you in anticipation of your cooperation.
...............................................................................
James D. Merriman
Chief Executive Officer
NEW YORK CITY CHARTER SCHOOL CENTER
111 Broadway, Suite 604, New York, NY 10006
T: 212.437.8302 F: 212. 227.2763
It's about great public schools
GEM Scares 'Em: Klein Urges Achievment First Charter School Parents to Come Out
GEM on the radar. This was passed on from a parent.
Of course while the charter schools are rallying at 4:30 the UFT will be holding another staged Delegate Assembly, leaving the field open. I rsvp to Courtney telling her that GEM will be there and thanking her for the plug.
The UFT is holding a Delegate Assembly tomorrow and thus won't have much of a presence unless they follow my advice and adjourn the meeting and take them all uptown to counter the pro-Klein forces. But how does the UFT organize to stop co-locations when they have their 2 charter schools occupying public schools? I was at the PS 92 charter school hearing last night and no presence from the UFT.
Thus, the Jan. 26 action at PEP looks like a one-shot deal for the UFT. Now let the courts do their thing? Rip Van Winkle time?
Note how the letter mentions GEM and uses " around grassroots. As if GEM was being organized anywhere outside of the schools. Ironically, though GEM as an organization is not involved in the UFT elections, almost every activist in GEM is running on the ICE-TJC slate in the elections against Mulgrew's Unity. So any attempts to paint the opponents of charter schools as a union front group will not work.
Norm
I wanted to invite you to be a part of an exciting and important event in the fight for NYC school reform. This coming Wednesday, February 24, 2010, the NYC Department of Education’s Panel for Educational Policy will meet to decide whether to allow public charter schools to have continued access to NYC public school buildings. In fact, one of our newest schools, Achievement First North Crown Heights / AF Apollo (Jabari Sims’s new school), is up for specific discussion and decision. As you know, the Chancellor has been incredibly supportive of high-performing charter schools and sees us as a vital part of his overall reform strategy – but there is increasing opposition to his policy of providing charters with access to public school buildings (for example, see attached literature from GEM – a “grassroots” group that is opposing charters and spreading false information). At a local hearing specific to the new AF school last week, protestors outside chanted “We don’t want you in our school!” and, as Jabari says in an email to his fellow principals pasted below, pro-charter folks were outnumbered and out-organized. The Chancellor has asked AF specifically to step up, help turn the tide, and to have a big turnout for the city-wide hearing on Wednesday night; he views it – and we agree – as one of the biggest battles to date in NYC’s overall school reform movement.
Of course while the charter schools are rallying at 4:30 the UFT will be holding another staged Delegate Assembly, leaving the field open. I rsvp to Courtney telling her that GEM will be there and thanking her for the plug.
The UFT is holding a Delegate Assembly tomorrow and thus won't have much of a presence unless they follow my advice and adjourn the meeting and take them all uptown to counter the pro-Klein forces. But how does the UFT organize to stop co-locations when they have their 2 charter schools occupying public schools? I was at the PS 92 charter school hearing last night and no presence from the UFT.
Thus, the Jan. 26 action at PEP looks like a one-shot deal for the UFT. Now let the courts do their thing? Rip Van Winkle time?
Note how the letter mentions GEM and uses " around grassroots. As if GEM was being organized anywhere outside of the schools. Ironically, though GEM as an organization is not involved in the UFT elections, almost every activist in GEM is running on the ICE-TJC slate in the elections against Mulgrew's Unity. So any attempts to paint the opponents of charter schools as a union front group will not work.
Norm
I wanted to invite you to be a part of an exciting and important event in the fight for NYC school reform. This coming Wednesday, February 24, 2010, the NYC Department of Education’s Panel for Educational Policy will meet to decide whether to allow public charter schools to have continued access to NYC public school buildings. In fact, one of our newest schools, Achievement First North Crown Heights / AF Apollo (Jabari Sims’s new school), is up for specific discussion and decision. As you know, the Chancellor has been incredibly supportive of high-performing charter schools and sees us as a vital part of his overall reform strategy – but there is increasing opposition to his policy of providing charters with access to public school buildings (for example, see attached literature from GEM – a “grassroots” group that is opposing charters and spreading false information). At a local hearing specific to the new AF school last week, protestors outside chanted “We don’t want you in our school!” and, as Jabari says in an email to his fellow principals pasted below, pro-charter folks were outnumbered and out-organized. The Chancellor has asked AF specifically to step up, help turn the tide, and to have a big turnout for the city-wide hearing on Wednesday night; he views it – and we agree – as one of the biggest battles to date in NYC’s overall school reform movement.
This is a case where numbers matter. Our NYC schools are organizing a big parent turnout, and we hope to have at least 200 AF parents and staff who will join with likely a thousand or more charter school supporters from around the city. It should be a heck of a night. In order to make it easier for everyone, we have arranged for a bus to leave from Waverly at 3:30 P.M. to take any AF staff (and AF Endeavor families) who are interested to the High School for Fashion Industries in Manhattan where there is a planned rally for charter school supporters at 4:30 P.M., followed by the hearing itself at 6:00 P.M. Our buses will leave to return to Waverly around 8:15 P.M. (arriving before 9:00) – but it will undoubtedly be a long night of testimony for anyone who wants to stay later and enjoy all the fireworks.
If you are able, please join us with us. Please RSVP to courtneyarcher@achievementfirst.org.
What: Meeting of the Panel of Education Policy
When: Wednesday, February 24, 6:00 p.m.
Bus Departs Waverly at 3:30 P.M.
Charter School Supporters Rally at 4:15 P.M.
Hearing at 6:00 P.M.
Where: The High School of Fashion Industries
225 West 24th Street, Manhattan
It should be a big and important night. We’re fired up, and ready to lend AF’s strong voice to the Chancellor’s reform effort. Please join us if you can.
Many Minds, One Mission.
On Boycotts on Paperwork
In ref to yesterday's post on paperwork and lack of UFT response:
I received some email saying a boycott wouldn't work.
I am not saying do this just anywhere. The UFT should look for the most vulnerable principal who is forcing this down peoples' throats. Hold meetings with the staff to prepare them. Have a strategy in place to respond if people are harassed. Make a big deal of it. Create a confrontation with the DOE in every forum. Press conf etc. By focusing on one school - it is like a magnifying glass. Expand to the district if this is widespread.
There needs to be some creative thinking at the UFT. But if there is not we have to do it ourselves.
Ed Notes and maybe ICE might set up a task force to address these issues. Get case studies school by school. Let's target the most abusive principals and expose the lack of UFT action at the district level. Embarrass the Dist rep and borough office.
I received some email saying a boycott wouldn't work.
I am not saying do this just anywhere. The UFT should look for the most vulnerable principal who is forcing this down peoples' throats. Hold meetings with the staff to prepare them. Have a strategy in place to respond if people are harassed. Make a big deal of it. Create a confrontation with the DOE in every forum. Press conf etc. By focusing on one school - it is like a magnifying glass. Expand to the district if this is widespread.
There needs to be some creative thinking at the UFT. But if there is not we have to do it ourselves.
Ed Notes and maybe ICE might set up a task force to address these issues. Get case studies school by school. Let's target the most abusive principals and expose the lack of UFT action at the district level. Embarrass the Dist rep and borough office.
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