Wall Street Occupation

There was lots of action today with a number of arrests at the Brooklyn Bridge. But the more aggressive the police the more the movement grows. Are we really in Egypt or Tunisia? Or Syria or Libya? Quadaffi for mayor? Or Assad to replace Bloomberg? At least we'd have a more responsive City Hall.

I was over at Police Plaza for Friday's rally and protest. Here are some pix and a piece of video. On Sunday teachers will be emulating Chicago with a Teach-In. See below. What are you waiting for?

Wall Street Occupation- Police Plaza Protest
A small rally at Police Plaza of union supporters was joined by the main contingent from the Wall Street Occupation which did a silent march to join the others to protest police brutality. Here they arrive and enter the plaza through the Municipal Building pathway.


Links to the 3 vids I made from Friday night

http://youtu.be/TwRu2Pxb6mg
http://youtu.be/IRcd0B7VX1c
http://youtu.be/Cc4X3arPZSk

Some more videos I didn't shoot.

Entering through the arch leading to police plaza:
http://youtu.be/U7MI3qV83Lk

This was the General Assembly in Police Plaza right in front of NYPD HQ:
http://youtu.be/ByEmdR_UUwU

I also have good footage of the General Assembly - a thousand people sitting in the plaza at a meeting. Wish the UFT Del Ass functioned as smoothly.

See Friday pix at the end of this post.

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Weds Oct. 5 is big union support for the occupation.
Support grows for Oct. 5
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/09/29/unions-and-liberal-groups-to-join-occupy-wall-street-protest/

I'm going to the matinee of Spiderman on Weds so I probably won't make it.

Reuters: The UFT  declared their support for OWS. 
Maybe the UFT can let the occupiers use their bathrooms.

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This came in from a teacher Sat. afternoon

We are now marching to one police plaza where we believe they are bringing those arrested. Trapped hundreds of protestors on bridge in pouring rain and bringing in empty buses to arrest and cart people to police precinct. Please spread word to join us at one police plaza!

There is a heavy police presence here so teachers should stick together if you come down. Tweet, post, and email to help spread the world. 

Serve and protect, that's a lie!

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Join the October 2 Grade-In For Public Education
Public Schools and Universities Work Because We Do!

Education cuts to K-12 public schools and public Universities hurt
students by decreasing resources and decreasing the amount of time teachers,
graduate teaching fellows, and full time and part time faculty can dedicate to
their students due to an increased workload. To draw attention to the cuts
to public education, educators will grade papers to make visible the work of
teaching and call for increased public funding to make sure that students
receive a quality education.

What: Educators will lesson plan and grade papers and exams.
Bring your work and a folding chair (optional).

Who: K-12 Teachers, Graduate Teaching Fellows, Full Time and Part Time
Faculty

When: Sunday, October 2, noon-3pm
*rain date TBA* _RSVP on Facebook for updates_
(https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=284224124938936)

Where: Liberty Plaza/Zuccotti Park, Manhattan
northwest side of the plaza near the #OccupyWallSt poster/art display
Cross streets: Trinity Place and Liberty St.
Trains: 4/5 (Wall St), R (Rector St.)
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Helping #OccupyWallStreet

Hey everyone,

A lot of people have been asking how they can help the camp if they can't come down. Here's one way:

A local art exhibit, right on Wall Street, is being devastated by over-policing, barricading and intimidation from NYPD and Homeland Security. The curator, Marika, is a strong supporter of Occupy Wall Street.

Info about the exhibit: http://www.nyartsmagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&catid=451:curated&id=577126:loft-in-the-red-zone-a-tribute-to-september-11th-

Kickstarter to help her recover lost funds: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/loftintheredzone/loft-in-the-red-zone

I hope we can work together to help her continue to exist and share our beautiful work. We have volunteers working with her now, and there is even talk of featuring our artwork there!

-justin

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Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on right for news bits.

The Wave: Mis-Education Nation on NBC

Here is this week's column in The Wave printed Sept. 30.

Mis-Education Nation on NBC
by Norm Scott

I spent some time last Sunday and Monday covering NBC's Education Nation, which last year was a showcase for the education deformers when rank and file teacher and parent voices were mostly shut out.

Apparently NBC was embarrassed enough to offer a wider variety of opinions this year but stopped far short of succeeding in a balanced presentation. (Note: in my lexicon, I label the counter group to the Ed deformers who call themselves "reformers" as "Real Reformers." Pretty much you can tell an Ed deformer from a real reformer by how they view class size. The former disparage it while the latter put it front and center.)

There was a counter event to Education Nation dubbed Mis-Education Nation on September 27 with Real Reformers Diane Ravitch, Leonie Haimson (Class Size Matters), 4th grade teacher Brian Jones (one of the narrators of the film I did with the Grassroots Education Movement “The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman”) and Pedro Noguera (SUNY charter authorizer committee chair, who tries to have a foot in both the Ed deform and Real Reform camps). I’ll write about this another time.

A new star rose in the firmament at Education Nation as PS 261K teacher Jamie Fidler, one of the stars of the film "American Teacher" which premiered on Sunday September 25 at EN, went head to head with major ed deformer Jonathan Alter at the post screening panel. She was joined on the panel, moderated by Al Roker, by the three other teachers from the film and Parents Across America parent leader Helen Gym from Philadelphia.

The only logic for having Alter on this panel was that NBC had to make its sponsors happy by having a voice for Ed deform to counter what real teachers who are real reformers might say. The sponsors didn't get their monies' worth as Jamie and fellow teacher Rhena Jasey slammed the concept of Teach for America's short-term and shortsighted solutions to upgrading education after Alter brought it up.

Alter was put on the defensive and then went on to talk about the importance of extending the school day in Chicago, the current darling of ed deformers, where Mayor Rhambo Emanuel has made a longer school day, where kids can spend even more time doing test prep, out to be the most important innovation to education since the basal reader was implemented a century ago. Naturally, Rhambo wants to do this on the backs of the teachers by paying them less than the minimum wage for the extra time. The Chicago Teachers Union is being slammed for resisting.

Jamie jumped in to question the value of a longer day where children would have even less time to do the things that children should be doing that would turn them into well-rounded human beings. The Chicago Teaches Union has said it would be willing to talk about the longer day if the kids in Chicago were offered the same type of activities Rhambo's own kids were getting at the exclusive Lab School at the U of Chicago where Obama's kids also went. Ed deformers like Rhambo and Obama (and his education chief Arne Duncan, who ran the Chicago schools for 7 years and never pushed for a longer day as the golden solution) love to tell everyone else what is good for kids while their own kids get a very different kind of education than they are foisting on everyone else.

An offshoot group of Chicago teachers called “SaveOurSchools: Chicago” is running a campaign where teachers conduct Teach-Ins in public spaces with the slogan: “Teachers: come show Chicago how much work you really do! Bring Lessons to Plan, Essays to Grade, Teams to Coach, Students to Tutor, Clubs to Sponsor, and Parents to Conference.”

Why am I writing so much about Chicago? Because they are the precursor of what has been coming down on the rest of the nation since former mayor Daley was handed control of the schools in 1994. Bloomberg has had a decade of control over the schools and it has been a disaster – Arne Duncan ran those schools for 7 years. Mayoral control in NYC is coming up for renewal in 4 years and the battle to put a stake into its heart is already beginning.

I went back to Education Nation on Monday for a panel on teacher evaluation and accountability featuring Michelle Rhee the former Washington DC superintendent who was run out on a rail and now is trying to raise a billion dollars to use to undermine the nation’s public school systems. Rhee calls her organization, ahem, “Students First.” After Rhee left DC, a large cheating scandal emerged but much of it has been pushed under the rug. Another panel member had been on the school board in Atlanta, which has had a massive cheating scandal that was exposed when the state put a major team of investigators on the case. Beverly Hall, the Atlanta Superintendent had pulled down somewhere around 600 grand in bonuses for “raising” the scores. And she won’t have to give it back since she resigned while the teachers who were pressured into cheating will be fired.

NBC’s Rehema Eliis who was chairing the panel raised the Atlanta cheating issue twice with a sense of outrage while sitting right next to Rhee without bringing up her cheating scandal. So when I got to the microphone I asked why not bring up DC? Rhee, on the defensive, claimed it was only a few places (sure, without any real kind of Atlanta-like investigation) and said she welcomed an investigation, knowing full well that will never happen. The former Atlanta school board member challenged her by saying, “even if one child is affected it is an outrage” and pointed to all the good things in Atlanta being overwhelmed by the scandal, putting Rhee, glory be, further on the defensive. I’m glad I played my part.

How about cheating in NYC? Of course there’s mucho cheating here, but a cover up continues as Bloomberg stopped erasure analysis a major way to uncover cheating when he took over, claiming it was “too expensive.” Take moment to have a good laugh. Recently the state revealed they have been doing some selected erasure analysis behind the scenes, but the NY State Ed Department has been an unindicted co-conspirator on test inflation, by hook or crook.

I had a chance to do a WAVE one on one with NBC News chief Steve Capus, the major domo of Education Nation. I’ll let Huffington Post education reporter Joy Resmovits describe the encounter:

While some lauded the increased balance and depth at this year's Education Nation, retired New York City teacher and Grassroots Education Movement member Norm Scott gave Capus an earful on Tuesday. "People see an absence of the word 'class size' in these debates," he told Capus. "This notion that somehow we're skewed too close to the reformers, I just don't buy it and completely disagree," Capus responded. "How did a guy like Jonathan Alter end up as an expert on Sunday night's panel?" Scott asked. He was referring to the Bloomberg columnist and MSNBC contributor who has taken hard-line stances on charter schools and teacher evaluations. "We had Jonathan Alter and 300 teachers," Capus countered.

I have a funny feeling The Wave will not be invited back next year.

Norm gives everyone an earful every day at: http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com

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Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on right for news bits.

Wall Street Occupation Gains Support: Join Transport Workers Today at 5:30

Growing labor union support for  Occupy Wall Street. Let's have an Educators Contingent on Friday.

Demonstration in Solidarity with Occupy Wall Street

                                   Fri, September 30, 5:30pm – 7:00pm, One Police Plaza

I hope you are rooting for the gang involved in the Wall St. occupation. Some are even comparing it to the Tea Party with a left twist. It is beginning to get mainstream media attention, a lot of due to FAIR - see the posting between the 2 events - one today and one Weds. - I can't go then because I'm going to the matinee of Spiderman.

Also - tonight Patrick Walsh - a UFT Chapter Leader in Harlem is doing a talk on the lower easr side:

Hello all,

On September 30, 2011, I will be speaking again as part of the Friday Night Meeting series of  The Catholic Worker in the Lower East Side.   My talk is titled The Intellectual and Spiritual Price of Corporate Education Reform, a subject of tremendous import not only for the future of education in America but for the survival of our already enfeebled democracy.   

Friday Night Meetings are held at Maryhouse located at 55 East Third Street between First and Second Ave very close to the 2^nd Ave F subway stop. ( 212 777 9617) The meeting will begin at 7:45 and will be followed by a question and answer period in which all are encouraged to participate. Please try to attend.

The corporate cancer that is devouring our country and insidiously extinguishing all forms of public life can only be stopped by the building of community, community awareness, community resilience and community resistance. 

  ===================

Here are 2 upcoming actions with a FAIR media watch posting in between. I'm heading to Wall St. to do some video.

Origins of the ATR Pool: A Short History

Originally Posted 2:45, updated 1PM

Look for an upcoming ATR flier for distribution and sharing. 

Thanks to Teachers for a Just Contract for sending this clarifying information:

The ATR pool is not, in fact, directly related to the right to seniority transfer.  It is related to what is mentioned in the small type:  the end of the practice of placing of excessed appointed teachers in nearby unencumbered vacancies (although that was not a seniority right, see below).    

These are two entirely separate rights.  The seniority transfer required that schools post half their unencumbered vacancies in the early spring.  (This is a slight simplification, since there was also transfer for racial balance, but let's leave that aside)  Teachers then could apply and the most senior in the specific license applying for a position was hired.  

 Excessing would take place long after the deadline for the  seniority transfers,  at the very end of the school year.    Before the 2005 contract, the excessed teachers would be placed in nearby vacancies in their licenses.  This took place even in schools that had already opted out of the seniority transfer system by adopting the SBO transfer.  (This btw was not a seniority right. There was no bumping. They were placed in vacancies, or displaced only unappointed teachers.)  What changed to stop this was that principals got the power to decide who their school hired.  Even if the seniority transfer were to be restored, without the right of excessed teachers to be placed, there would still be ATRs, since teachers who already have positions could get the positions posted on the seniority list, and schools only had to post half their unencumbered vacancies. 

I know this doesn't make much difference, we should have both rights.

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

Reminder:
Next week the UFT is holding borough ATR meetings at the borough offices. We believe this is a response to the agitation around the ATR question. The ostensible purpose of these meetings is to reasure ATRs that they will not be laid off out of seniority but will not address the underlying issues that ATRs are bringing up regarding being moved from school to school.

The flyer says they will answer questions and address your concerns. Bring your stories.

Just last night I got an email from an ATR in south Staten Island who was assigned to a school in Bushwick. There is some physical handicap involved and the ATR has to use public transportation. On purpose? I bet it is.

Thanks to ICE's  Jeff Kaufman for this related info:

District 76 is BASIS which covers all of Staten Island and schools in South Brooklyn, Williamsburg and Bed Stuy among other neighborhoods. The rest of Brooklyn is Brooklyn HS which is district 73. It appears the ATR is being assigned within the district. While BASIS is terrible just think about my old district, 79, which has a city-wide reach.

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Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on right for news bits.

"American Teacher" Praised: Say It Ain't So Valerie

UPdated - 10:15PM with Susan Ohanian comments on Dana Goldstein review.
Here is my review from May: Reviewing "American Teacher": Ed Deform Wolf in Sheeps Clothing

Praise for American Teacher Movie As "Getting it Right" Gets It Wrong.

The Answer Sheet Blog
'American Teacher': A Film on Education That Gets It Right
by Mark Phillips
Every policymaker should be required to see the new film “American Teacher,” which powerfully reveals the huge challenge that the country faces in attracting and keeping the best teachers to help improve public education.

I can't think of any post Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet published that I don't agree with. Until now. I've seen "American Teacher" twice and just loved Real Reformer Jamie Fidler (Rocking the House at Education Nation) in it. But I didn't hear the 2 dirtiest words in the world of ed deform:   class size

Funny, but there's a statement in the movie that they've "tried everything." But

class size (reduction)

And there is just too much Ed Deform house researcher Eric Hanushek in the film, one of the stars of "Waiting for Superman." See: Eric Hanushek Mistates Facts - Again

But then again there's Linda Darling-Hammond.
---------------

Dana Goldstein Review of "American Teacher" Raises Important Questions

I thought Dana did a pretty good job pointing out some of the major inconsistencies in the film. Brian Jones and I sat in the blogger peanut gallery with Dana during the screening at Education Nation on Sept. 25. Brian gave her a copy of "The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman." Too bad she didn't compare all 3 films. I think ours has the most consistent logic but I have a feeling Dana won't bother watching it or reviewing it if she does. 

We also sent a copy to Valerie Strauss at her request back in June but not a word.

Here, Susan shamelessly plugs our film once again.

Still Waiting for Superman

Ohanian Comment: OK, below find a warning about movie star worship. My advice is that you should order a copy of The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman and share it with colleagues, neighbors, churches, etc. This movie is unique: it is made by teachers. We MUST stop looking for outside saviors and look to our own for leadership in The Fight.

Here is the subtitle for this review:

Dave Eggers and Matt Damon’s American Teacher is almost as flawed as last year's big school reform movie.

In an otherwise fairly sensible review, Dana Goldstein pronounces, [T]here is little doubt the quality of the teacher corps would improve if the job paid a six-figure salary.

I have grave doubts that this is true. I base my opinion on visiting classrooms in 26 states. I wonder what Goldstein bases her opinion on.

------------------
Leonie Haimson had a few things to say about another "favorite" featured in the film:

TEP – The Equity project charter – is not just featured in this movie but also relentlessly promoted in several articles in the NYT, NPR, 60 minutes etc. despite the fact that it has among the worst results of any school in the city. 

Zeke Vanderhoek its founder has attacked the notion that class size and other factors matter – and that teacher quality is the only thing that does.

He has also recruited teachers who moved across the country to be there and then fired them.  In fact, he bragged about how many teachers he’s fired.

I wrote about this charter last year here:

http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2011/03/zeke-vanderhoek-relentless-self.html

On this year’s scores the students came out on bottom again – and yet the PR spin continues unabated.

Ironically, the new American Teacher film lavishes praise on the “sponsors” of Education Nation which showed their film, including many organizations like Gates & Broad that are funding projects that are systematically undermining the professionalism and morale of American teachers:

Thanks so much to NBC's Education Nation and the following sponsors for hosting the world premiere of our film: University of Phoenix, State Farm, Microsoft, Scholastic, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The Bezos Family Foundation, The W.K. Kellogg Foundation, The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, America’s Promise Alliance, the National Education Association, and the American Federation of Teacher.From: news@theteachersalaryproject.org

More specifically the website it links to; Microsoft Partners in Learning at http://www.microsoft.com/education/ww/leadership/partnerships/pil/pages/index.aspx

This effort is described as follows:“a 10-year, nearly $500 million commitment by Microsoft to transform education systems around the world, empowering more than 9 million educators in over 115 countries to creatively and effectively use technology in their curriculum to help improve the way students learn.”

Of course, most of the districts interested in online learning are doing this w/ the hop that they can eliminate teachers from the equation as much as possible.

Sad, because though I haven’t seen the film, according to many, it appears to be sincerely committed to improving the public’s appreciation of teachers and how hard they work w/ so little pay.  It is too bad that they are participating in this green wash.

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

Protest Against NYPD Brutality - Friday 9/30 at 5:30pm

In response to NYPD brutality this past Saturday (Sept 24) and the on-going discrimination against people of color (for example, City Councilman Jumaane Williams and City aide Kirsten John Foy were arrested & detained unlawfully by the NYPD simply because they are young African-American who looked like trouble makers), there will be a rally and a march to protest against NYPD brutality.

WHEN: Friday, Sept 30. Start time 5:30pm
WHERE: The rally will start from Zuccotti Park (between Broadway & Liberty St.) in Lower Manhattan, marching toward NYPD headquarter at One Police Plaza in Lower Manhattan.
Source: AM New York
http://www.amny.com/urbanite-1.812039/wall-st-protesters-to-rally-against-brutal-arrests-by-nypd-1.3205821

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Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on right for news bits.

Mis-Education Nation: Sending NBC's 'Education Nation' Back to School

Standing Room Only Event wows attendees at alternative event showing real voices.

They kept coming and coming - until just about every single seat was filled and people were standing along the walls of the auditorium at the School of the Future, and very apt name for the  location of an event co-sponsored by GEM that presages a re-balancing of the debates in the ed wars between the Goliath billionaire backed Ed Deformers and the David-like Real Reformers.

Flanders, Jones, Ravitch, Haimson, Noguera

There was some irony on the choice of panelists.

We knew three of the four panelists - Brian Jones (GEM), Diane Ravitch and Leonie Haimson (Class Size Mattera) - line up squarely on the Real Reform side of the line. Pedro Noguera, who is considered a fairly safe choice when Ed Deformers try to claim "balance" (he was on an Education Nation panel) found himself under attack for attempting to have one foot on both sides of the line. As GEM's Julie Cavanagh declared in a note attached to her report on the event posted at Labor Notes, "Brian, Leonie and Diane fabulous as always and wooohooo Michael Fiorillo going after Noguera something fierce!" Noguera who is often the star of events he is invited to looked uncomfortable throughout as Brian Jones with his insights and humor stole the show. (See my AFTER BURN comment for more on Noguera.)

I taped the entire event and have put the hour and a half video up at http://vimeo.com/29735658. As the weekend progresses I will extract excerpts, in particular the Noguera/Fiorillo material. Michael who works with ICE and GEM has been a persistent critic of Noguera on the blogs.

I should say a word and put in a plug for FAIR - Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting - which sponsored the event (along with Class Size Matters. GEM was proud to be asked to join in as a co-sponsor.) In today's world of media domination by the wealthy, FAIR plays a crucial role which you can support with a donation.

Here is Julie's report at Labor Notes:

What Goes On in Vegas Doesn't Stay in Vegas - "The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman"

We send this out with every copy (7000 we've had made so far - but apparently way beyond that).

Please share the film with your friends, family members, and colleagues and feel free to duplicate your DVD! If you do duplicate or distribute the film, please let us know. We'd love to keep track of who our film is reaching. Email: gemnyc@gmail.com

Why isn't this happening in NYC?

I am a teacher who saw "The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman" at a summer screening in Las Vegas, Nevada.

I was moved and inspired by the film enough to request a copy and then make a sizable donation. Combining my enthusiasm with the permission of the film makers to share copies, I put together a cover letter and shared eighteen copies with each member of my school's PTA board.

Additionally, I put together a write-up and made copies available to my school's staff. Twenty-five copies were shared in this manner. Beyond this, I gave a glowing review and offered copies to teachers and support staff around the Valley. In this way, I sent out thirty-eight copies to other campuses.

In addition to home watchings, I know that there have been "The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman" viewing parties. Once viewed, I encourage people to pass their discs onto new potential viewers. My hope is that a large enough number of people watching the film here will either be inspired to resist the current reform movement or better yet, spark a real reform awakening. I've done what I can to pay honor to the film and spread the message to this corner of the country. I appreciate the efforts of Real Reform Studios for creating such a long overdue and well-done film! Thanks for the film and your permissions, Ryan D.

Come to our next screening:

Oct. 14 (Friday) at Community Church, 40 East 35 St., 6PM

Fight Back Friday - on Tuesday, Oct. 4

Hello Fight Back Friday participants and allies!

Below is the announcement we are sending out for an action to support the nearly 800 DC37 workers who are being threatened with layoffs. These are school aides, parent coordinators and other colleagues who work with our students everyday. The fight back friday committee is made up of rank and file teachers, members of Teachers Unite, GEM and NYCoRE, and others who are tired of watching the racist attacks on our schools, students and colleagues occur while we and our union sit in shameful silence. Please check out the time line below and let us how you can participate, and especially if you would be willing to spread the word in your school. Attached is a paper petition and a flier for your use. Below are articles and an online petition. This is an important opportunity to build solidarity with the many folks in our schools who go largely unnoticed (and certainly underpaid).
in solidarity

 sam for the fight back friday committee,

 Stop Bloomberg from Laying Off over 700 School Workers!

 DC 37 employees play a critical role in our school community as parent coordinators, tech support, and school aides who help our schools run like clockwork. They are invaluable members of our community that our schools cannot function without. In a time when schools are already suffering tremendously under the weight of budget cuts, our ability to "do more with less" will be even more impossible than it already is. These layoffs not only hurt the learning of all children, but they also disproportionally impact low-income communities of color, such as Harlem,Washington Heights, and Brooklyn. Many of these areas are slated to lose up to 25% of their DC 37 staff members! Additionally, these cuts are not necessary when the city is in a time of surplus. We have little time to act! Let's stop the mayor's unnecessary layoffs and support schools, save jobs, and defend the right for every child to have the equal opportunity to learn!

Here is what YOU can do to Stop DC37 Layoffs:

 The Week of September 26th

 ·    Begin publicizing the Day of Action on October 4th to all your coworkers and parents (flier attached)

 ·         Use the articles linked below to inform your coworker about the layoffs.

 Gotham Schools:  http://gothamschools.org/2011/08/29/dc-37-official-cutting-school-aides-wont-save-city-much-money/

 Daily News:  http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2011/08/26/2011-08-26_doe_layoffs_hit_poor_areas_hardest.html

 NY Times:  http://www.nytimes.com/schoolbook/2011/09/20/school-aides-rally-for-their-jobs/?scp=21&sq=nyc%20department%20of%20education&st=cse

 ·    Survey the DC37 workers about how much they know about the layoffs

  Tuesday, September 27th

 · Come to the Teachers Unite office (90 John St., Suite 308, New York, NY 10038) from 5:30 to 7:30 to phone bank NYCoRE and Teachers Unite members about the event on Oct 4th

  Monday, October 3rd

 · Remind Co-workers to wear GREEN  in solidarity with DC37 workers on Tuesday and to come out to the rally at City Hall after work from 4pm to 6pm.

 Tuesday, October 4th

 · Wear GREEN to show your support to all the DC37 workers throughout the city.

 · Join DC37 workers at City Hall to protest the layoffs of over 700 school staff from 4pm to 6pm.

 · Call 311 and tell the Mayor to Stop the Layoffs of all 700 DC37 workers. Our students need these workers and there is a surplus in the budget.

 · Have your co-workers sign the petition (hard copy attached to this e-mail, link:  http://www.change.org/petitions/mayor-michael-r-bloomberg-stop-the-layoff-of-essential-dc37-school-staff-on-oct-7th to stop the layoffs.)

 Let's keep showing the city that we have teachers and a union that cares about our schools and kids!

 Brought to you by the Fight Back Friday Committee

 Please E-Mail fbfcommittee@gmail.com <http://us.mc1606.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=fbfcommittee@gmail.com>  to let us know you are participating.

 
 ========================

Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on right for news bits.

Tonight: MisEducation Nation/ Oct. 12 - It's Time to Change the Stakes

I'm posting this email from parent activist Janine Sopp to her listserve. If you can make it to the School of the Future at 7PM tonight you will get the alternative view from Education Nation - see my upcoming post on my adverntures there yesterday.

And on October 12, we kick off our "Change the Stakes" campaign to reverse the impact of high stakes testing, which has affected - and infected- almost every child, parent and teacher in America - except for those involved with private schools. Yong Zhao is honoring us as the guest speaker.


Both events are co-sponsored by the Grassroots Education Movement.

Dear Parents, Teachers, Administrators and Friends,

If you are reading and listening to the media of late, you will find that issues around "Education" have been making the headlines.  In President Obama's State of the Union Speech the other night, he spoke firmly about his vision of what our Education System should be.  This article speaks to his points and clarifies some of the facts behind the talk.  http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/guest-bloggers/it-makes-no-sense-a-dissection.html

Below are two very important and informative events that will help to shape your understanding of the path our current administration, from the Federal Government down to the State and City level are taking.  Should you find the laws and policies being implemented in your child's school confusing at best and potentially destructive rather than instructive, please consider attending one or both of these events and engaging in the process of educating yourself on the current climate of Education. 

There are many policies in the works that will effect our students, our teachers and our schools, most of which will be put in place without our consent.  If you want to know what to expect beyond what has already happened, these panel discussions will help you gain some perspective.  If you feel this is not the path you would like to see for our children and our schools, now is the time to get informed and involved.

I hope to see some of you there......
Regards,
Janine

Report from the Field: Race to the Bottom

Stand and Deliver

by Anon.

So this week’s Inquiry Team task is a doozy. We are supposed to go into ARIS, list all kids by proficiency level AND by proficiency rating, cross reference on NYSSTART to find trends, identify kids that are in more than one category (for example, a young, African American male who has an IEP, has been held back, and who qualifies for free lunch counts for 4 points because he is a member of 4 subgroups) for school report card purposes and identify two target groups with proficiency ranged from high-1 – mid-2 and high-2 to mid-3. There are other little data tricks we need to do, but I think you get the idea.

So my co-teacher and I settle down with the directions and start to work on this. As I read the directions, I notice at the end that the final SMART goal on the sheet reads something to the effect of “By September 27, 2011, 100% of teachers will have MEMORIZED the names and proficiency scores of ALL students within the target proficiency ranges, along with each students proficiency score.”

There were other memory requirements. I have to memorize the names and proficiency ratings of all the students I have that fall into one or more subgroups (they are worth extra points on the school report card). I have to memorize who my level 1s are and who are my “push/slip” kids – the ones whose scores are JUST under or over the threshold for another level, therefore at risk of “slipping” back or worthy of trying to “push” for the next level to gain points.  I must also memorize the number of students I have in each level and the range of scores within the level.

Apparently, just having the information available in a file for planning purposes is not enough. I must have it all committed to memory, along with the school-wide SMART goals (verbatim, btw).  I have visions of being stopped in the hallway by an administrator and being told “Recite all students who are young black males with IEPs and free lunch, in ascending order, GO!!”  Or even, “All your level 1s who are within .03 points of making level 2, alphabetically! GO!!” It’s a scary thought and I am already lying awake at night stressing out over what is going to happen to me if I can’t alphabetically recite, on demand, the names of all my Level 2s who qualify for free lunch and have trouble with inferences as I am walking to the ladies’ room.

And I fail to see the point of this.  I understand needing to know where the areas of most need are within my students and needing to know who is at which proficiency level (I do this anyway and use the information to inform instruction), but to require me to memorize this data for some kind of “Stand and Deliver” encounter in the hallway strikes me as degrading. I am I really simply a seal performing tricks for administration in the hopes of being thrown a herring?  Must I take time away from planning lessons and creating strategies to meet the needs of these kids to study a stack of flash cards filled with sterile data about them?  Somehow we all become less than human in this situation.

The other disturbing aspect of this Inquiry meeting was the treatment the lowest and highest students are slated to receive this year.  As we focus on the kids who are “worth” more points on the school report card and the kids who fall into the “push/slip” categories, the students who are at the high and low end of the range will be ignored. To quote my AP this week, “The kids who are at a 3.4 or higher, even into level 4, well, we’re not going to worry about them. They will pass the test and we get no points from moving a 3 to the 4, so we don’t want to waste our instructional time on them since there is little return in it.”

Yes, she said that.

Regarding the really low kids – the level 1s and holdovers, she said, “It’s the same with the really low kids. You know you can’t make a level 1.2 into a level 2 by the end of the year, so you don’t  need to waste time on those students who will not be able to help move the school’s data forward. We need to be pragmatic and use our limited time and resources on the kids that can get up points."

Really.

She wrapped up with a reminder to focus on the kids who are “worth” more because they fall into more than one subgroup and therefore count more than once on the report card. To wit, “Let’s say you have a student who is a young African-American male, who has an IEP, qualifies for free lunch AND is an ELL student. THAT student needs to get LOTS of attention because my moving that ONE student, his points are multiplied by FOUR, whereas a student who is simply an African-American male will be worth only one point and therefore is not as valuable on the report card.”

I find this profoundly disturbing, and it’s making me feel dirty.

Race to the Bottom, indeed.

 

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Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on right for news bits.

Chicago Teachers Fight Back

SaveOurSchools: Chicago Presents

Teach-Ins in Public Spaces of Chicago

Thursdays in September

 4-6pm

Teachers: come show Chicago how much work you really do!

Bring Lessons to Plan, Essays to Grade, Teams to Coach, Students to Tutor, Clubs to Sponsor, and Parents to Conference.  

Thurs., September 29th: Millennium Park @The Cloud Gate (Bean)

Before you go 

Call a colleague, 

Text a teacher, 

Fwd this email,

Print and Post in Public

Status your Facebook, and 

Retweet your followers

See you at the SOS Thursday Teach-Ins!

Find us on facebook: SOS Thursday Teach-Ins

Contact email: aheenan@gmail.com

Rocking the House at Education Nation: JA-MIE FID-LER, JA-MIE FID-LER, JA-MIE FID-LER

Last Updated: Monday, Sept. 26, 8AM
[See my live tweets below the fold]

A new star rose in the firmament tonight last night at Education Nation as PS 261K teacher Jamie Fidler, one of the stars of the film "American Teacher" which premiered tonight, went head to head with major ed deformer Jonathan Alter on the post screening panel. She was joined on the panel, moderated by Al Roker, by the three other teachers from the movie and Parents Across America parent leader Helen Gym from Philly.

The only logic for having Alter on this panel was that NBC had to make its sponsors happy by having a voice for ed deform to counter what real teachers who are not ed deformers but real reformers might say. Tonight, the sponsors didn't get their monies' worth. Jenna Bush (yes, THAT BUSH) had to rescue him from the audience by finding a TFAer who defended the org vehemently, followed by an ed deform Supt from Idaho who bragged about getting rid of tenure and putting in merit pay. But what would you expect from Bush's daughter?

The word was that NBC was totally embarrassed by the criticism last year over their one-sided case for ed deform - they are partners with Gates at MSNBC - and tried to get better balance.

Jamie Fidler has been co-chapter leader at her school and is now working with the Real Reformers in the progressive activist groups in NYC, especially with Teachers Unite. Thus she was perfect to be on the panel. She also lights up the screen whenever she is on. Look for her to emerge this year as a new voice in the ed wars on the Real Reformer side.

At the end of the event I told Alter what I thought about him. Hope I ruined his karma. I also ran into E4E's Sydney Morris (who I waved to when she went in) on the way out. Sydney always says hello. But then I noticed a sour looking Evan, who glared at me, walking the obligatory 2 steps behind his leader. Guess he didn't care for my comment calling Sydney the brains of the outfit. At least she recognizes that I know what I'm talking about. [BTW South Bronx School takes a big shot at E4E today.] I heard from a teacher in Kansas City today that E4E had packed the teacher forum during the day - where is GEM she asked? GEMers do have better things to do than waste time at these events on a Sunday.

I was there with a press pass along with Brian Jones who teaches at Jamie's school and we passed out some copies of The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman to some press people and to Dave Eggers who made "American Teacher." Brian and I sat in the special blogging section in the back and ate popcorn and other goodies they gave us.

I actually like the movie better the 2nd time. When I saw it in May I reacted to the overwhelming money theme which I think distorted some of the message. But this time the other positive issues like the work teachers really do came through. That is why I like the Chicago Teacher Union people who go to malls and other public spaces and do Maulins - where teachers gather on Sundays or in the evenings to work on lesson plans and mark papers in public to show people what they really do.

I have a pass for tomorrow afternoon where I may get to tape a press conference of parents who Dennis Walcott is trying to ban from a panel he is on. Negotiations are going on to balance that panel or there will be more embarrassment for NBC.


I copied and pasted my tweets - you have to read them in reverse order. It was the first event I tweeted at - not my fave way of reporting. See below the fold:

Raging Horse Goes Deep

This blog by RH takes us down the long, long road of ed deform. Shuddering and shattering. Is there any hope?

Raginghorseblog

The truth as I see it.

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In Darkness Visible: The Corporate and Oligarchic War on Public Education and Public Life

September 24, 2011  

Given the unprecedented concentration of financial and political power bent on “reforming” the American public school system, it is well within the realm of possibility that within the next few years, the system that has educated the vast majority of Americans for almost two centuries and helped propel this country from an agricultural backwater to, for better or worse, the greatest power in human history,  will cease to exist in any recognizable form if, indeed,  it exists at all.

That same system, according to self declared “reformers,” is now so utterly hopeless it must be completely altered or eradicated altogether. Now.  Before it is too late. There is not a moment to lose.  Not if,  in the bizarre words of   Barack Obama, “we are  to win the future.”   If the “reformers” get their way, the crown jewel of American public life will become merely the latest and the greatest of our public institutions to be devoured by the ever-grasping hands of what is called the free market.  If this comes to pass, the system’s destruction or utter transformation comes, not as the result of an election, an uprising of the people, a revolt of parents (who, like educators have been completely ignored) or anything resembling a democratic process or mandate. It will come, rather, as did the Iraq war: entirely as the result of the machinations of a handful of extraordinarily powerful men who,  aided and abetted by corporations who stand to reap billions in profits, waged a brilliant and relentless public relations campaign based on gross distortions and out -right lies to manufacture a false sense of crisis wholly out of proportion to the reality of the situation.

With the indispensable assistance of a completely subservient  media,  this false crisis was used to impose their will upon a largely unwitting nation, come what may. Their will, as we now know, was war and profit, resulting in mountains of corpses and rivers of innocent blood.

MORE AT: 

In Darkness Visible: The Corporate and Oligarchic War on Public Education and Public Life

Addendum: an excerpt from this essay will appear in the October – September issue of The Catholic  Worker newspaper.  I will be speaking on another aspect of corporate  education reform on September 30, 2011 as part of the Friday Night Meeting series of  The Catholic Worker.  My talk is titled The Intellectual and Spiritual Price of Corporate Education Reform.
Friday Night Meetings are held at Maryhouse located at 55East Third Street between First and Second Ave very close to the 2^nd Ave F subway stop or the Broadway/Lafayette   stop on the  4, 5, or 6  trains.  Their number is  212 777 9617. The talk will begin at 7:45 and will be followed by a question and answer period in which all are encouraged to participate.

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Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on right for news bits.

Bloombergville Turns into Syria

UPDATED: Sunday, Sept. 25, 12:30PM

From KG:

As most of you already know, hundred's of people have occupied Wall Street since Saturday, September 17. The "movement", an offshoot of the online magazine, Adbusters, is angered by and fueled by what people there call the principle of "profit over and above all else". Sound familiar? We are all part of this fight - workers across all fields and unions, parents, children, students of all ages... everyone. It felt so right joining Verizon workers. Imagine if a union came out to support these (mostly) young folks. I can dream.

Posts on their Web site compare the groups efforts to those used in pro-democracy movements across the Middle East.

There have been arrests and police caught on video using ridiculous amounts of force. So the media is noticing.

The protesters need supplies and they certainly need much more company.

Wouldn't it be something if this did grow into a movement?

Below is the live stream.

Onward.
KG

http://www.livestream.com/globalrevolution

At least four arrested, one for shooting photos UPDATE: at least eighty arrested, five maced | RETRACTION: no tear gas used

Published 2011-09-25 12:11:29 UTC by OccupyWallSt

We have at least four arrests today during a community march, a fifth arrest is suspected but police will not confirm.
A legal observer attempting to contact an arrested member was not allowed to due to “an emergency situation,” we are currently unsure of what this means. At least one arrest was due to a protester taking photographs. At least one protester's possessions have not been returned.
Please call the first precinct, central booking and the Deputy Commissioner of Public Information and urge them to release these peaceful protesters.
First precinct: +1 (212) 334-0611
Central booking: +1 (212) 374-3921
Deputy Commissioner of Public Information: +1 (646) 610-6700
NYPD Switchboard: 1-646-610-5000
UPDATE: We are now receiving reports that at least 80 protesters have been arrested. The National Lawyer's Guild puts the number at around one hundred. Liberty square is currently full with an ongoing discussion on how to respond to this unprecedented level of police aggression. Police are currently surrounding the square. There is nearly one police officer for every two protesters.

Earlier today we had reports of police kettling protesters with large orange net, using tasers, at least five protesters have been maced.

Reviewing "American Teacher": Ed Deform Wolf in Sheep's Clothing?

Last update: Saturday, Sept. 24, 9pm - 

I'm reprinting this review from May since "American Teacher" is premiering at NBC's Education Nation on Sunday with Jamie Fidler on the panel. Brian Jones and I will be in the press section to report back, maybe with some live blogging.

Make sure to read comment 2 from Caroline with a little more information on one of the teachers featured.

See Saturday NY Times article on Jamie Fidler.

A film whose main focus is on paying teachers more money as a solution to the educational crisis. A film purporting to be apolitical is actually very political by what it leaves out. Class size anyone?

What could be wrong with a movie featuring wonderful stories of four dedicated, overworked, underpaid teachers with interesting personal stories and attractive personalities, one of whom I know personally? And while focusing on paying teachers more money?

Jamie Fidler

Plenty. 

I went up to Brandeis for the press conference opposing Harlem Success invasion of that school yesterday but couldn't stay for the hearing because a friend gave me a ticket to American Teacher, narrated by Matt Damon. I also know Jamie Fidler, one of the four teachers and the co-chapter leader at PS 261 in Brooklyn. We reconnected after many years at the May 12 rally where she and people from her school marched with the NYCORE/GEM/Teachers Unite group. (More on Jamie later.) 

I expected this movie to be a weapon on our side in the war against teachers right along side our own Grassroots Education Movement's Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman, which seems to be resonating with teachers and parents because addressed the political issues head on. 

Don't get me wrong. There was also things I liked about the movie. The ridiculous comments on FOX attacking teachers got a good laugh.

The teachers featured were fabulous, especially the teacher from Texas, Brooklyn's Jamie Fidler and the African-American teacher from San Francisco who left teaching to go into real estate. Their stories were compelling. The Harvard grad who went to teach at TEP for $125 grand was the only one who didn't share any of her personal story so I was a bit turned off. She did not seem to exhibit much of a sense of humor, which all the others seemed to have. My guess is that she wasn't long for teaching at that low salary and TEP may have saved her - for now. 

I may be prejudiced, but I think Jamie, who was pregnant throughout most of the filming, was the star of the movie with her humanity, openness, humor and wonderful personality. One of the good things about the film was how it dealt with the choices Jamie had to make. I loved the bit how her prep gotten eaten away on a phone call to the DOE to get info on her leave. And the breast feeding pump story brought the house down.


An effective teacher? No mention of high stakes tests and their impact
From the opening moments of American Teacher my friend and I were seething over the repeated term used by ed deformers: an effective teacher. The film barely touched on the issue of what makes an effective teacher (though Jamie does raise the question of how we can judge) while ignoring the fact that "effective teacher" is a code word for results on standardized tests. In fact, the very idea that high stakes tests even exist or have made most teachers' lives miserable is totally ignored. How do you make a movie called "American Teacher" in these times without talking about high stakes testing and the impact test prep and threats of closing schools and charter schools are having on their psyches?


An immediate warning sign went up when the the first people you see in the film are Arne Duncan, Bill Gates, President Obama and the Hoover Institution's Eric Hanushek, all leaders of the ed deform movement. At least Linda Darling-Hammond is there to lend a bit of balance on the pundit side of the ledger.

And presenting Zeke Vanderhoek as a hero (on the post-screening panel) who pays teachers at his TEP charter school $125 grand is enough to make you gag. Vanderhoek was featured on 60 Minutes (Ed Notes link) trashing the union and LIFO. (See Leonie Haimson's Zeke Vanderhoek, relentless self-promoter.)

The teacher in the film who left her school in New Jersey to teach at TEP, which so far has had dismal results even with all that high-priced "talent," was filmed in her old school. She has been at TEP for two years. Since the film makes so much of her leaving, I would have liked to have seen her at her new school. Vanderhoek said he could pay all that money by eliminating much of the out of classroom personnel public schools have, joking the teachers change the rolls of toilet paper. It sounded like it was close to that. We would have liked to see more of what teachers have to do for that money. It might lead some to prefer driving a forklift.


Blurb from the San Francisco Film Festival:

 As the debate over the state of America’s public school system rages on, one thing everyone (including President Obama) agrees on is the need for great teachers. Yet, while research proves that teachers are the most important school factor in a child’s future success, America’s teachers are so woefully underpaid that almost a third must divide their time between a second job in order to make a living. Chronicling the stories of four teachers in different areas of the country, American Teacher reveals the frustrating realities of today’s educators, the difficulty of attracting talented new teachers and why so many of our best teachers choose to leave the profession altogether. One of the very few black teachers at Leadership High School in San Francisco, Jonathan Dearman, loved his job, and his students adored him. But his inability to support his family led him to pursue a new career and left his students devastated by his departure. An elementary school teacher in New Jersey, Rhena is fresh out of Harvard and personifies the smart, young teacher anyone would want for their kids. But even her strong commitment to her students ultimately gets pushed aside when weighed against her own financial needs. Their stories are disheartening, but this wake-up call to our system’s failings also looks at possibilities for reform. Can we re-value teaching in the United States and turn it into a prestigious, financially attractive and competitive profession? With almost half of American teachers leaving the field in the next five years, now is the time to find out.

—Joanne Parsont 

In fact, as our filmed response to WFS makes clear more than once, the only two in school factors that research has proven to have a positive impact on student learning is class size and teacher experience. So seeing a fuzzy fact stated so early in American Teacher got us off to a bad start. My pal and I were already nudging each other 5 minutes into the movie. Hanushek goes through the bullshit rigmarole about how an effective teacher can affect the lifetime earning salary of the students and we see all that cash flying around the screen. In fact studies have shown low class size has a bigger effect on future earnings than which particular teacher a student has.

Texas teacher Erik Benner - as described in this review: "Teacher, football coach, and fork-lift operator Erik Benner is underpaid, over-extended, and in foreclosure (62 percent of teachers have a second job, teachers are priced out of housing markets in 32 cities)" makes much less money than Jamie Fidler though he is teaching longer. Guess what? Jamie's union helped get her that salary. Benner teachers in Texas. 'Nuff said. At the post screening, one of the producers said they purposely left the union out of the movie. I'm sure. Would they have gotten the funding they received if they made the very important point that unionized teachers are paid much more money? To pretend the two issues are not connected is disingenuous if not openly dishonest.

Time and again we hear the words "teacher excellence" and "teacher effectiveness", ed deform buzzwords. What is lurking behind the call to pay teachers more? Do they mean all teachers? I was wondering if the real point of the movie is that only certain - "effective" teachers - should be paid more.

Class size ignored
I also was perturbed when Damon stated a list of things we have tried that haven't worked and included class size as one of them. If they had allowed questions after the panel I was going to ask for a vote of teachers in the audience if they think class size reduction was the major issue in their working conditions. I bet most hands would have shot up. While the movie claims that low wages are the reason most people leave (it does include lack of respect and support) many teachers would say a lot of the problems would be ameliorated if they had smaller class sizes - and many site the large classes as a factor in their leaving. I mean, you might be willing to keep working for a lower salary if the job were more satisfying and class size is often the bomb. To its credit the movie does include a comment that failures in school leadership is as large a factor as anything else. Broad Leadership academy grads, anyone?

Doing the Finland dance while ignoring unions
Two of the people involved in the film wrote an op ed in the NY Times on April 30 that many people initially cheered. They said:

The consulting firm McKinsey recently examined how we might attract and retain a talented teaching force. The study compared the treatment of teachers here and in the three countries that perform best on standardized tests: Finland, Singapore and South Korea.
Turns out these countries have an entirely different approach to the profession. First, the governments in these countries recruit top graduates to the profession. (We don’t.) In Finland and Singapore they pay for training. (We don’t.) In terms of purchasing power, South Korea pays teachers on average 250 percent of what we do.

And most of all, they trust their teachers. They are rightly seen as the solution, not the problem, and when improvement is needed, the school receives support and development, not punishment. Accordingly, turnover in these countries is startlingly low: In South Korea, it’s 1 percent per year. In Finland, it’s 2 percent. In Singapore, 3 percent.

Ahhh, Finland, the little nation that could. Lauded in American Teacher, Waiting for Superman and our movie. Except that we are the only ones to point out that teachers in Finland are almost totally unionized and their union has been in the lead in fighting for the very reforms that are so praised in ed deform movies.

Our movie points out that the 5 states with the lowest level of union activity - in the south of course (and including Texas) had the poorest results on the SAT/ACT scores.

I did love the statement by 2007 New York State teacher of the year Marguerite Rizzo who said "People think teaching is about liking kids or getting summers off--they don't understand the intellectual rigor involved in teaching students in a way that they'll understand." I totally agree but would extend the intellectual rigor description to figuring out a seating plan or where kids should stand on line. I used to spend hour pouring over these issues.

The panel discussion afterward was so-so but when Jamie Fidler took the microphone towards the end I was anticipating something interesting. She said she had become politically active and urged people to get involved in the fight. She didn't get into details but we all know what she was talking about even if the filmmakers didn't.

On the way out I stopped to say hello to Rizzo and raised a few of the issues I talked about above, also telling her about my involvement with the Inconvenient Truth Behind... film. She said she had heard about it, I think she said from Randi Weingarten. I gagged. I told her Randi and I were not exactly on the same side and handed her a dvd of our film.

Also on the way out we were handed a flier titled: Take Action to Honor and Reward Effective Teachers with 4 things you can do to improve working conditions and salaries for teachers. Supporting the work of their unions was not on the list.

We were all invited to a party afterwards but I knew it would turn into a battleground. Besides, my companions had to teach today. So we went out looking for a place to get coffee and dessert – searching for a nice piece of strudel looked like a better deal. I ended up with a scone but it was better than getting ed deform agita.


See another review of the movie here:


Afterburn: Jamie Fidler
I go to know Jamie when she threw herself and her school into the 2005 contract fight. Jamie contacted me on the recommendation of her dad who was a teacher and featured prominently in the film. He had heard of Ed Notes or ICE and had my contact info. Jamie and others in her school formed Brooklyn Teachers for a Fair Contract. We joined together to leaflet entire areas of north Brooklyn urging a "NO" vote on that disastrous contract. Jamie joined me as a UFT Executive Board meeting to check out what was going on. When we rallied at the October 2005 Delegate Assembly followed by a rally at UFT headquarters a few weeks later, she was there with her colleagues. 

Soon after the contract battle was lost we fell out of touch. I heard she had gotten married and had a baby from my contacts at PS 261 (they have a robotics team. ) Recently, I found out she was the co-chapter leader at the school and was working with Teachers Unite. When I saw her at the May 12 rally it was just like old times. One can never go wrong working with Jamie Fidler. One of the major successes of the film is how clearly that point is made.

GEM High-Stakes Testing Committee Meeting – Monday, September 26, 5-7PM

Bulletin from the Grassroots Education Movement

The next GEM high-stakes testing committee meeting is this Monday, September 26th at 5pm at the CUNY Graduate Center, room 5414. Please bring ID. We will be planning a launch of the Change the Stakes campaign in October, but we need to plan that together! We hope you will join us.

You may know that a petition in support of opt out has been launched for New York State, written by someone upstate. Sign if you haven’t already! http://signon.org/sign/opting-out-of-high-stakes-4?source=s.tw&r_by=233445

As the “national insanity” that is high stakes testing continues, we must continue to work to expose the use of high stakes testing as a cancer that is destroying real learning and thinking in our schools. As we all know, every child deserves an opportunity to think creatively, talk about ideas, and have time in their day devoted to art, music and science. Unfortunately, students who struggle to pass such tests, many of whom don’t speak English or traditional English in the home, are then subject to the treacherous test-obsessed changes that we all know too well. This is a racist practice that is serving to increase the divide between the schooling of those who are privileged enough to be born in a household that speaks traditional English and those who do not.

And of course the second layer is not just the individual impact on individual students, but the fact that these tests are then used to shut down schools and dismantle pillars of community, with the goal of privatizing education in mind. Again, a racist practice that is without question disproportionately impacting communities of color. We must struggle against these inequities, for our very well-being as human beings and the health of our society both depend on it. We hope you will join us on Monday!

There are 454 elementary schools in Chicago. Only 13 have volunteered to participate in the longer school day experiment

This is the first of a series of posts on the situation in Chicago. To bring you up to speed. If you haven't been reading NYC Educator check out. Rahmbo Demands More Work for Less Pay

And George Schmidt's Chicago-based Substance for extensive reporting.

Emanuel's media Blitzkreig against Chicago Teachers Union fails as only 13 schools go with 'Longer School Day'... Brizard team gets an 'F' on 'Longer School Day' campaign... As schools enter fourth week, Brizard's 'team' sports a Won-Lost record that makes Cubs hundreds-year World Champs

Here is the Chicago Teacher Union Press release:

http://www.ctunet.com/blog/115-elementary-schools-ignore-cash-incentives-and-threats-and-vote-no-to-waiver

[Press Release] 115 elementary schools ignore cash incentives and threats and vote “no” to waiver

09/23/2011

Teachers express concerns as CPS Implements its Ill-Planned “Longer School Days”


CHICAGO - A confidential school-by-school analysis conducted by the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) reveals that teachers and other classroom professionals at 115 elementary schools voted down the longer school day waiver ballot proposed by the school board.

“These results demonstrate that most union members clearly favor taking the appropriate time necessary to carefully plan for delivering the rich and broad curriculum that our students deserve,” said CTU President Karen GJ Lewis. “This longer school day initiative is just another experiment in a long line of experiments over the last two decades.”

There is no strong evidence indicating that student achievement will rise if the school year is lengthened. CTU maintains it is the quality not the quantity of instruction that matters.
CPS CEO Jean-Claude Brizard’s “longer school day,” initiative is a rebranding of a similar program offered by the Daley administration, then called “Additional Learning Opportunities (ALO).” On August 25, 2010 the Board of Education approved Resolution 10-0825-RS3 which authorized CPS to increase student learning hours in designated schools by requiring students to attend a mandatory 90 additional minutes per day for five days per week, or as otherwise scheduled. At the time Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley said the ALO program costs were expected to exceed $10 million. To date, the Board has not provided taxpayers or educators with an assessment of the extended learning time experiment.

Ever since CPS began its recent aggressive public relations campaign to force schools to endorse its longer school day ideology, CTU phones have been flooded with calls from concerned teachers who said they had “received no training or in-service as to how the 90 additional minutes were to be used,” according to one grievance report.
At Henry H. Nash Elementary School, 4837 W. Erie Street, though CTU attorneys declared the vote null-and-void because a school bus driver was asked to break a tie of 14 to 14 in favor of the extended day, the K-thru-8 campus will go to an extended schedule from 8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. After school programs could see children as young as seven walking home in the winter months well after 6:00 p.m.
Another complaint from Mann Elementary noted: “…(the principal) held a meeting to discuss the possibility of doing a waiver vote. Teachers in attendance agreed to do an informal inquiry. No written plan was submitted for us to study…. We all voted no.”

The waiver process was flawed from the start. Elementary school educators complained of intimidation, coercion and threats of layoffs or school closures if they did not vote in favor of a longer school day. Principals were promised a one-time $150,000 gift to their school if they convinced staff to void parts of their current 2007-2012 labor contract to enact longer work hours this year.

Only teachers were promised a one-time, non-pensionable stipend of 2 percent of the average teacher salary or roughly $1,250 before taxes, among other bribes and incentives. Other school employees receive nothing. CPS has made no guarantees on how it intends to fund and staff all of the city’s elementary schools when the longer school day becomes mandate next year. Even though its longer school day theory will cost upwards of $100 million system-wide, the Board continues to lay-off qualified teachers citing budget concerns.

“Rather than sit down with educators who spend all their work time focused on improving our students’ education, the Board of Education decided to implement a flawed, political process,” said CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey. “CPS has essentially given schools a popular slogan and told them to figure it out on their own. Unless there is a comprehensive, well-thought-out academic and funding plan—you will see our 200,000-plus elementary students doing the same things like mindless test prep—but only longer.”

The campaign to implement an ill-planned longer school day, school-by-school, comes on the heels of other attacks on teachers. In June, the Board denied unionized employees their guaranteed contractual 4 percent cost of living increase. After slashing teacher pay, it then raised the CEO’s salary and offered lucrative increases and benefits to other CPS executives totaling millions of dollars.

“Our teachers are dedicated public servants: they educate our kids, watch over their safety and often pay for school supplies out of their own money,” Lewis said. “All we want is the support to do our jobs well, and appropriate compensation. Targeting teachers in this way sends the wrong message and will hurt our students in the end.”

There are 454 elementary schools in Chicago. Only 13 have volunteered to participate in the longer school day experiment. At least 115 CPS elementary schools have taken “informal straw polls” or waiver votes in which teachers voted against the extended day. The remaining schools met the program with silence and indifference. A formal complaint filed with the Illinois Education Labor Relations Board will be heard in mid-October.

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