STOP THE EVALUATION AGREEMENT

Note: The GEM Conference on the evaluation agreement scheduled for March 15 aimed at formulating a plan to redirect the debate on this issue – with LI Principal Carol Burris, Francis Lewis HS Ch Ldr Arthur Goldstein and Class Size Matters Leonie Haimson is being rescheduled. Look for updated info here and on the gemnyc.org blog.

This post is based on a James Eterno Feb. 16 piece on the ICE blog:

EVALUATION AGREEMENT BAD NEWS FOR TENURED TEACHERS

Vera Pavone modified it for this post to include info on the publication of TDRs.


STOP THE AGREEMENT

The UFT and New York State United Teachers gave away the store in their initial agreements with the city and the State Education Department concerning teacher evaluations. While there’s no final agreement on a new evaluation system in New York City, what is emerging is a system with few safeguards that has the potential to allow the Department of Education to terminate hundreds or possibly thousands of tenured teachers starting in 2014.

The agreement with the state has 40% of a teacher's annual rating based upon student performance on tests. Half of that will be state-wide standardized tests and the other half will be locally developed assessments (whatever that turns out to be) that the State Education Department must approve. The other 60% will be based on subjective measures such as principal observations and possibly some peer review, parent review or student review. However, if a teacher is rated ineffective in the student test score portion, the teacher cannot get a passing grade. Also, if a principal gives a teacher a poor rating even substantial test score gains will not save the teacher. There are so many ways to give teachers a failing grade.

UFT negotiators had been holding out in negotiations with the city for a stronger appeal process—a review before an independent arbitrator instead of the present appeal process for U ratings in which teachers lose over 99% of the time. But the DOE walked out of negotiations during the Christmas break and announced that they would close most of the transformation-restart schools that were supposed to be the first to use the new evaluation system

The “compromise” is a mere face-saving change and will affect only 13% of teachers who the UFT leaders determine were rated ineffective in the first year due to harassment rather than performance. These 13% can have an appeal before a three person panel, one union-selected, one DOE-selected, and one agreed on by both. But given the various ways principals can be unfair to teachers, many of which impact on performance and student outcomes, this is hardly a way to protect teachers. What remains in place for the other 87% of ineffective-rated teachers is an appeals process which will offer them virtually no chance of winning.

UFT leaders tell us not worry because a teacher with an ineffective rating will be monitored by an “independent validator” who will observe the teacher at least three times during the following school year and issue a report rating the teacher. This evaluator is assumed to be independent because he or she cannot be employed by the UFT or the DOE and will be chosen through a joint process. If the validator disagrees with the principal on the ineffective rating, then the burden of proof will fall on the DOE at the 3020A (tenure process) hearing. But if the validator agrees with the principal’s rating, then the teacher would carry the burden of proof in the tenure hearing. Since this is basically a recycling of the Peer Intervention Plus program, which has a history of mostly rubber stamping U ratings by principals, we believe it is highly unlikely for a teacher to prevail over two ineffective ratings by principals.

If this evaluation system is finalized, it will mark the end of tenure. Tenure is the right to due process, which means a teacher is assumed to be competent unless the DOE proves otherwise. In this agreement the burden of proof is shifted. If you are rated ineffective, and the so-called independent evaluator concurs with this rating, you will have to prove that you are not ineffective. Even assuming the validators are independent and neutral they will most likely have neither the capabilities nor the time to fairly evaluate teachers, especially those who principals may have set up for failure by giving them difficult classes and bad programs.


The recent publication of the NY City’s Value Added Model ratings has left teachers, administrators and parents appalled at the shamefulness of the DOE and press, but also astonished at the total disconnect between the “grades” and the actual abilities of the teachers. The newspapers, the DOE and the union were well aware of the research that has shown that the margin of error in these VAM ratings is 75% in math and 87% in English, and that there are large swings in variability for each teacher. Yet the so-called data was published, and according to the agreement similar data (slightly different tests and tweaks in the mathematical equation) will be the basis of evaluating and firing teachers with the process beginning next year. What makes this especially dangerous is the statements of state education political appointees that the teachers’ scores will be projected on a Bell Curve which will target 10% of our teachers to be rated ineffective and terminated. In addition to a wholesale attack on teachers, the entire evaluation system, which will necessitate tests in every subject area, including multiple tests a year to enable value added to be calculated, is a costly bureaucratic nightmare and a fatal blow to teaching and learning.

In the wake of a great deal of anger and fear on the part of teachers as well as parents, community and political leaders, UFT leaders have been reacting on the one hand with concern (Mulgrew stated that he is “not confident” that the state model will avoid the pitfalls of the city reports) and on the other with defense and even celebration of their agreement with Governor Cuomo. High School Vice-President has been working overtime trying to get us to believe that our union leaders, who have caved in on every negotiation over our rights in recent years (longer school day, seniority/SBO transfers, creation and mistreatment of ATRs, letter in file grievances) will prevail in getting the city and the state to be reasonable when it comes to teacher evaluations.

There are still many details to be negotiated by the UFT and DOE. It is entirely possible that there will never be an agreement on the local assessments and this whole new evaluation process will then collapse under the weight of its stupidity. But we can’t count on things like stupidity, unfairness, expense, educational malfeasance, and massive firings of teachers to stop our union leaders from going ahead with this disastrous agreement.

It is up to us to stop them.

================

March 10 - STATE OF THE UNION PART 2: TIME TO FIGHT BACK ----

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

Evidence from TDRs: Kipp Does Cream ...But Still Does No Better

It's going to be a busy day today, so look for a bunch of postings. I'm cross-posting these to make sure people who don't get links working get to read in full.

I wrote last week about the Sunnyside of the TDR Street.
 
Gary Rubinstein in an awesome post below that should be a major plank in the war for us puny humans against the machines validates the idea that there is much gold in them thar hills and a lot of it positive for our side.

One of the most powerful features in our movie are the graphs showing KIPP and other charter school attrition rates as correlated to scores going up. In other words, as they dump the poorer scoring kids and don't replace them, the scores rise as the cohort goes through the grades. (See for instance New KIPP Study Underestimates Attrition Effects).


But here Gary shows that it is even worse than that by actually showing evidence of creaming by KIPP which we all know occurs but is hard to prove. Gary managed to massage the data to extract the 4th grade scores before they enter KIPP.  So they start off with higher performing students in the 5th grade and then lose about about a quarter (est.) of those by the 8th grade though Gary doesn't go into those numbers.

Make sure to check out Gary's previous posts. And in the double whammy for ed deform, Gary is also a Teach for America alum. (I'm including a superb piece on TFA by Chicago's Ms. Katie's Ramblings below Gary's so I don't have to post 10 times today).

And all teachers in public and KIPP do about the same…

Analyzing Released NYC Value-Added Data Part 3

by Gary Rubinstein

http://garyrubinstein.teachforus.org/2012/03/06/analyzing-released-nyc-value-added-data-part-iii/
 

The inaccuracy of the New York City teacher evaluation data is taking a beating in the media.  As I expected, this data would not stand up to the scrutiny of the public or even the media.  Value-Added is proving to be the Cathie Black of mathematical formulas.

A teacher’s Value-Added score is a number between about -1 and 1.  That score represents the amount of ‘standard deviations’ a teacher’s class has improved from the previous year’s state test to the current year’s state test.  One standard deviation is around 20 percentile points.  After the teacher’s score is calculated, the -1 to 1 is converted to a percentile rank between 0 and 100.  These are the scores you see in the papers where a teacher is shamed for getting a score in the single digits.

Though I was opposed to the release of this data because of how poorly it measures teacher quality, I was hopeful that when I got my hands on all this data, I would find it useful.  Well, I got much more than I bargained for!

In this post I will explain how I used the data contained in the reports to definitively prove:  1) That high-performing charter schools have ‘better’ incoming students than public schools, 2) That these same high-performing charter schools do not ‘move’ their students any better than their public counterparts, and 3) That all teachers add around the same amount of ‘value,’ but the small differences get inflated when converted to percentiles.

In New York City, the value-added score is actually not based on comparing the scores of a group of students from one year to the next, but on comparing the ‘predicted’ scores of a group of students to what those students actually get.  The formula to generate this prediction is quite complicated, but the main piece of data it uses is the actual scores that the group of students got in the previous year.  This is called, in the data, the pretest.

A week after the public school database was released, a similar database for charter schools was also released.  Looking over the data, I realized that I could use it to check to see if charter schools were lying when they said they took students who were way behind grade level and caught them up.  Take a network like KIPP.  In New York City there are four KIPP middle schools.  They have very good fifth grade results and their results get better as they go through the different grades.  

Some of that improvement comes from attrition, though it is tough sometimes to prove this.  The statistic that I’ve been chasing ever since I started investigating these things is ‘What were the 4th grade scores for the incoming KIPP 5th graders?’  I asked a lot of people, including some high ranking KIPP people, and nobody was willing to give me the answer.  Well, guess what?  The information is right there in the TDR database.  All I had to do was look at the ‘pretest’ score for all the fifth grade charter schools.  I then made a scatter plot for all fifth grade teachers in the city.  The horizontal axis is the score that group of students got at the end of 4th grade and the vertical axis is the score that group of students got at the end of 5th grade.  Public schools are blue, non-KIPP charters are red, and KIPP charters are yellow.  Notice how in the ELA graph, nearly all the charters are below the trend line, indicating, they are not adding as much ‘value’ as public schools with students with similar 4th grade scores.

As anyone can see, the fact that all the red and yellow markers are clustered pretty close to the average mark (0 is the 50th percentile) means that charters do not serve the high needs low performing students that they claim to.  Also notice that since these red and yellow markers are not floating above the cluster of points but right in the middle of all the other points, this means that they do not ‘move’ their students any more than the public schools do.  And the public schools manage this without being able to boot kids into the charter schools.

One other very significant thing I’d like to point out is that while I showed there was very little correlation between a teacher’s value-added gains from one year to the next, the high correlation in this plot reveals that the primary factor in predicting the scores for a group of students in one year score is the scores of those same students in the previous year score.  If there was a wide variation between teachers’ ability to ‘add value’ this plot would look much more random.  This graph proves that when it comes to adding ‘value,’ teachers are generally the same.  This does not mean that I think there are not great teachers and that there are not lousy teachers.  This just means that the value-added calculations are not able to discern the difference.

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Here is Katie's post in full:

Teach for America is great! Just not for my child...

Today I came across a Wall Street Journal opinion piece written by Teach for America founder Wendy Kopp. She rightly condemned the public release of teacher test scores in New York City. I applaud her for speaking out against this disgusting act. But as I read, I became enraged when I saw a story about Ms. Kopp's own experience with her child's teacher.

She writes:

A few years ago, my son had a teacher who under the current system would probably be ranked in the bottom quartile of her peers. This wasn't for a lack of enthusiasm or effort on her part—you could see how desperately she wanted to connect with her students and be a great teacher. Knowing my son was in a subpar classroom didn't make me angry at the teacher. It made me frustrated with the school—for not providing this young educator with the support and feedback she needed to improve.

Wait a second...Wendy Kopp was upset when her child was given an unsupported (but enthusiastic and hard-working) young teacher? A teacher who really meant well, but wasn't getting the help she needed to reach all her kids? And Kopp calls this a "subpar classroom"?

So let me get this straight, when Kopp creates a program which by design puts unsupported young people into subpar classrooms, it is fine? As long as it is for other people's children?

And then she seems to argue that it was the current "system" and not the individual teacher which was to blame. And yet Teach for America constantly argues that their recruits are better people, that they fight educational inequality on the individual classroom level. Teach for America does nothing to address ANY of the systemic problems which drive educators away from high-needs schools.

I suppose that's not entirely true. I should add that some Teach for America alums go on to join the corporate reform movement ( a la Michelle Rhee) which is actively damaging many classrooms. Way to change the system! Too bad it's for the worse.

When it's her own child, Wendy Kopp seems to think enthusiasm, hard work, and youth are not enough. And that teaching contexts matter greatly. But for all those teachers teaching other people's children...not so much.

Is anyone else outraged by this?

Students and Parents to Target Mayor’s Appointees to Panel for Educational Policy For “Crimes Against New Yorkers” With Office Visits

About time. Hold them personally responsible for their support for the slaughter of the public school system. Coming next round: visits to their homes?
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Students and parents fed-up with PEP “puppets” who vote for failed Bloomberg policies despite overwhelming opposition from New Yorkers

Several of mayor’s rubber-stamping picks to decision-making body for schools employed by City-funded groups, approve Bloomberg plans every time

New York City public school parents and students will descend Wednesday on the mayor’s appointees to the City’s decision-making body for schools, delivering charges of “crimes against New Yorkers” to some members for rubber-stamping controversial Bloomberg education policies that have disproportionately targeted low-income Black and Latino communities in the face of overwhelming public opposition—all while they drew paychecks from organizations funded by the mayor’s administration.

The group will charge three Panel for Educational Policy (PEP) members each with three “crimes”: violation of civil rights, breach of the public trust and conflict of interest.  As probable cause for the charges, the group will list its evidence, including the members’ employment at organizations dependent on taxpayer money allocated directly from the Bloomberg Administration while they’ve been mayoral appointees; their 100 percent voting record in favor of the mayor’s proposals; and the fact that – despite constant protests, thousands of parents and students flooding their meetings to demand they reject the mayor’s plans, and poll after poll showing that the vast majority of New Yorkers disagree with their votes – the panel members have passed proposal after proposal resulting in disproportionate de-funding of low-income Black and Latino communities.

The parents will visit the mayor’s PEP appointees at their offices on Wednesday to deliver these charges, and demand that the members stand to face their accusers at a public hearing.

Created in 2002, the PEP was formed to replace the now defunct Board of Education as the governmental body that makes major decisions about the City’s education system, and approves significant policy and spending initiatives made by the mayor and the Department of Education (DOE).  School closures, for instance, must be approved by the PEP.  The PEP is made up of eight mayoral appointees and an appointee from each of the five borough presidents.  The mayoral appointees often vote against the appointees of the borough presidents.

WHEN:           Wednesday, March 7^th – 2:30 to 4:30 PM (three visits)

WHERE:       2:30 PM: CUNY headquarters / 535 E. 80th St.

3:30 PM: Inwood House / 320 E. 82^nd St.

4:30 PM: CUNY offices / 555 W. 57^th St.

WHO:             The parents will visit the mayor’s PEP appointees at their offices on Wednesday to deliver these charges, and demand that the members stand to face their accusers at a public hearing.

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March 10 - STATE OF THE UNION PART 2: TIME TO FIGHT BACK ---- See Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on the right for important bits.

Chicago: Puny Humans Strike Back Against Rhambo Terminators

Following on my post an hour ago (Tweed Terminates, Grady HS Resists):

Jesse Jackson joins union in protest of school closing policies as Dems chastise Mayor Rhambo as pointed out in this section from this Mike Klonsky report: Is Rahm falling from White House grace?

Following up on my post from Saturday, I'm told that Nancy Pelosi had a come-to-Jesus talk with Rahm Emanuel following her Saturday appearance at Jesse Jackson's Rainbow PUSH. It looks from here like Rahm, the autocrat, has been taken down a peg by the party bigwigs and told in no uncertain terms to heal his rift with Jackson. .

It was only a little more than a week ago that Rev. Jackson openly sided against Rahm and with the CTU and community activists, who had packed a CPS board meeting to protest the board's decision to close more neighborhood schools and hand them over to a politically connected, private turnaround company, AUSL.

Jackson and CTU President Karen Lewis openly denounced  the policies of Rahm's hand-picked board as "education apartheid," a move which immediately re-framed the whole reform discussion and put Rahm and his cronies on the defensive. A day later, Rahm made his schools boss, J.C. Brizard get up in front of the media and deny that he was running an apartheid system.

Let me repeat this again:

A day later, Rahm made his schools boss, J.C. Brizard get up in front of the media and deny that he was running an apartheid system.

How great is that? Phony Brizard who spent some time doing ed deform here in NYC and in Rochester having to deny he is running an apartheid system? Notice by the way how the ed deformers are using black machines like Brizard and Walcott to to do their selling.

Now none of this happens with a politically savvy union. People ask me how is the Chicago Teachers Union different than the UFT given that they have not been able to stop Mayor Rhambo from closing schools or any of the other charter co-loco crap. For a group in power for a little over a year and a half and consisting of leadership that were classroom teachers right up to taking over, they shown a level of fightback against a vicious mayor we have not seen here.

When Rhambo tried to force feed a longer day down their throats a year earlier by trying to bribe individual schools to abandon the union's position of actually asking to be paid a normal wage for the time, the union managed to stop the bleeding by organizing teacher and community resistance.

That's because fundamentally, even though they have made some mistakes, they are adamantly and philosophically opposed to just about every aspect of ed deform and function within that context. Not to say they don't have to compromise at some points, but they are fighting a protracted war as the tiny band of resisters. Here in NYC -- and nationally with the AFT --- we are never sure exactly which side our union is on after making one deal after another that strengthens ed deform.

Here is the rest of Klonsky's very important and incisive report:

Pelosi then flew in to Chicago, stood side-by-side with Rev. Jackson at PUSH and then endorsed Jesse Jackson, Jr. in his congressional  re-election bid. The timing and place of the endorsement was an obvious slap at the mayor who then was forced to to come out himself and openly endorse Triple J.

The party leadership is obviously worried about Rahm's rift with Jackson as well as the growing resistance to Rahm's attack on public schools, especially in the black community. There's the risk that the growing school protests will spill over into upcoming Occupy protests scheduled here for May and possibly lasting up until election time.

Teacher unions are are a badly-needed ally of Democrats in the November elections. But Rahm's war on the unions, reminiscent of the anti-union assault by T-Party guvs like  Wisconsin Gov. Walker, is obviously becoming a concern of the White House. Yesterday, Brizard stunned many of his own supporters when he came out in favor of using federal education funds to be used to send CPS kids to private schools.

Chicago Reader pic

To make matters even worse for Rahm, the White House announced yesterday that it was pulling the G8 Summit out of Chicago and moving it to Camp David. The White House says the change was not in response to the possibility of protests, which means that's exactly what it's about. Rahm had essentially moved to suspend Constitutional freedoms during the May 18-19 Summit.

According to a report in the Monitor, Rahm didn't even learn about the change until yesterday making it pretty clear that he has fallen from grace in the party's inner circles.

Monday's announcement appeared to catch many in Chicago by surprise. A spokeswoman for Emanuel said the Chicago mayor was informed about the location change in a Monday phone call from a White House official. Chris Johnson, spokesman for the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, said his organization was "just as surprised about the announcement as anybody else."

Chicago will still play host to the NATO Summit, May 20-21at great expense (conservatively estimated at $65 million) to city residents, mainly for a massive police presence. Thousands of anti-war and civil-liberties protesters are still preparing to come to the city and make their voices heard, according to Joe Iosbaker of the United National Antiwar Committee in Chicago.

Check out the Chicago Reader's Ben Joravsky who has been writing the best local stuff on this.

Now we'll see if the CTU and it's allies can take advantage of this rift in upcoming negotiations and in support of legislative efforts to stop the school closings.

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Join the puny humans in fighting the machines
March 10 - STATE OF THE UNION PART 2: TIME TO FIGHT BACK

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

Tweed Terminates, Grady/Lehman Etc. HS Resists

I can't resist watching any of the Terminator movies. I even watched one the other night. I was a fan long before the ed deform attack on public schools but every day I have an eery feeling of deja vu.

Last night when the revised public notice from the DOE to close down all 33 PLA schools came out I felt I was watching another Terminator movie. Take a look (http://schools.nyc.gov/AboutUs/leadership/PEP/publicnotice/2011-2012/April2012Proposals.htm) and tell me it doesn't remind you of the machines in the Terminator franchise trying to wipe out humans while a small resistance movement fights back.


After closing my high school they close my junior high
And look at this one -- after closing my HS -- Thomas Jefferson years ago they are now closing my old JHS - Gershwin -- look who is co-located -- our UFT friends.

J.H.S. 166 George Gershwin (19K166) and New School (19K338) with the UFT Charter School (84K359) in Building K166

Closure, Opening and Co-location Public Notice  EIS  Building Utilization Plan

Elaine Gorman Email: D19Proposals@schools.nyc.gov Phone: (212) 374-0208

April 4, 2012 at 6:00PM J.H.S. 166 George Gershwin 800 Van Siclen Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11207

While things look bleak, the puny humans are still fighting back with different schools trying different things. Many have been calling on the UFT to mount a united fightback of all the schools in the city but that has not seemed to be happening, though the UFT has been making noises about holding rallies of some sort on March 15 but for some reason seems to be keeping that top secret.

GEM even postponed our special teacher eval sesssion with Carol Burris, Leonie Haimson and Arthur Goldstein just in case the union actually comes through.

Puny humans fight Tweed machines at Grady
We'll try to keep people updated on any of the protests that are coming in. Tomorrow there is one at Grady HS where Mulgrew taught even though there is a Delegate Assembly tomorrow. I assume Mulgrew has to pop in there.

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Want to join the fight back?

March 10 - STATE OF THE UNION PART 2: TIME TO FIGHT BACK

REGISTER ONLINE for State of the Union - 

Part II: Next Steps - 

3/10/12 - 10AM to 4PM *** Register online here ***

See below the fold for Lehman HS Updates:

Reforming the UFT is the Prime Directive

• The UFT/Unity leadership's prime directive is to hold onto power at any cost. 
• Understanding this basic fact is crucial for any potential opposition.
• If there were a real opposition force within the UFT to challenge Unity, the UFT would not be taking the positions it has.

REGISTER ONLINE for State of the Union - 

Part II: Next Steps - 

3/10/12 - 10AM to 4PM *** Register online here ***

Here are some questions that will be discussed: 

• What should the organizing priorities of union activists be right now? 
• What are some basic points of unity that bring us together?
• What strategies and tactics can achieve the change we want to see? 
• What is a union caucus? 
• How could one be democratically structured to include the diverse political and pedagogical views among our membership?
• How can our rank and file chapters be more organized?

SHARE WTH YOUR SCHOOL: EMAIL ME FOR A PDF

I can't tell you how many conversations I've been having with people who are coming up with one idea after another on how to fight back against the ed deform agenda of closing schools, pushing charters, vilifying teachers, and so on: boycotts, petitions, protests, rallies, marches, conferences, political campaigns, etc.

But I always point out one very important missing ingredient: there is not an organization in existence that is capable of coordinating these actions in a consistent way.

Oh, wait! There is such an organization. It is called the UFT. Only one problem. The UFT leadership has no real interest in truly fighting ed deform other than as much of a holding action as they can get away with. The UFT/Unity leadership's prime directive is to hold onto power at any cost. I can't say this enough times.

Just note this headline from the Schools Matter blog:
Don't Sue to Keep Scores Out of the Papers: Sue to End This Sham Evaluation Scheme

But of course, the UFT while cooperating with a sham evaluation scheme only did the former. And lost. Instead of fighting the right fight, the UFT fought the wrong fight. Even if they would have lost the battle anyway, by taking a stand with some integrity, they would have won. But this is the case with every story. I can say a lot more about how the UFT operates but will have to leave that for another time.

What I am trying to say to all my activist friends and fellow bloggers and to anyone who might read Ed Notes is that with all your activity and suggested activity the overriding prime directive is to turn the UFT into a body that will truly engage in the struggles and really function as a coordinating force to put an end to the madness.

Now, there are some people who think the UFT leaders have good intentions and just have made some bad judgements. Or that they are just incompetent. To the latter I point out that functioning as a one party system in control of the union for 50 years where loyalty is valued more than competence, you will not always end up with the best people. I only have to point to people like James Eterno or Yelena Siwinski who were turned down for district rep positions. To the former I say you don't continue to make bad judgements so often. The policies only make sense if there is an ideology behind it. (We'll do that part another time.)

Then there are those who think the UFT leadership can be pressured or convinced. "Oh, if only I can talk to Michael," I hear. Then there is the "pressure from below" people. "Let's get the UFT leadership on board."

Right. Wait till you see my video of how the UFT leaders functioned at the Feb. 8 PEP. When any action gets going at the school level, the UFT sends in people ostensibly to help, but really to deflect and undermine any real initiative they might deem a threat to their prime directive. And rank and file teachers taking action is such a threat.

The time has come after years of failed attempts by groups such as TJC and ICE to put together a dynamic, far reaching organization within the UFT --- call it a caucus if you will, which some people only define as a group that runs in elections. I'm thinking beyond that narrow framework since I full well know Unity has stacked the election deck to make it impossible to win an election against them.

But I point out that in Egypt they couldn't win an election. An organized force within the UFT would have to organize from the bottom up -- school by school and create a shadow UFT district by district. This will take a large force of people committed to working on such a project as organizers. Right now knowing the landscape, if there were a hundred activists involved moving in concert the UFT would be shaken to its core. (Up to now the reality has been that no group ever had more than a dozen very active people at one time.) While a hundred organizers who work to build the organization (don't confuse that with people who just attend a meeting or sign up to join) is still a drop in the bucket, in NYC there would have to be 300-500 such people. That is not an easy task but not impossible.

If such an organization does come into existence, it would have to be the anti-Unity in the sense of bending over backwards to be democratic -- not just for the idea of democracy but because I believe democratic discourse leads to better decision making -- if the UFT was actually democratic there would have been a real fight against ed deform instead of so many compromises. In fact the UFT had the ability to derail much of the Bloomberg program if it has used all its resources to do so. But Bloomberg knew the union could be bribed by offering money in the form of raises, much of it disguised by the longer day which is not a raise.

Well we are at a point where such an organization is possible and everyone has a chance to get in on the ground floor in terms of shaping the nature of such an org. Right now it is going by a temporary name of State of the Union. After attracting over 200 people on Feb. 4 where workshops were offered and a sense of testing the waters as to whether there was serious interests beyond the usual suspects in forming such a group.

The stage has been reached to engage in serious discussions on how such an org with people from NYCORE, GEM, ICE, TJC, Teachers Unite, ISO, GEMATRa, ODOE, other ad hoc groups and non-affiliated people can come together in a democratic manner to create a structure that could work.

So, no matter how many ideas you have for action or how you rail against the UFT leaders or the ed deformers, the prime directive for critics of the UFT leadership is to put the major effort into building a coherent organized force. Who knows? When faced with a real opposition that gathers support from the schools, even Unity Caucus may not find it so easy to direct the rank and file teachers into total oblivion.

I'm heading off for the last planning meeting this afternoon for the SOTU Part II this Saturday. I've been involved from the beginning discussions over a year and a half ago and have tried to apply what I learned from working with ICE, both positive and negative plus from the continuing work with GEM fighting for public education.

ICE, which still holds the deepest discussions of any group I've worked with, will continue to work to share information with fellow educators through discussion groups and the internet outreach. I still feel most comfortable in the ultra democracy of a group like ICE. But that model has not proven it can organize masses of teachers.

This may be the last chance to salvage the UFT in a form that is recognizable as a teacher union. (Don't worry, Unity Caucus will be fine running even a shell of the UFT.)

Am I happy with everything? No. We can no longer can afford to be purists in the midst of this crisis. Hope to see you there. Or if not then at follow-up events.

Here is what is being sent out:

STATE OF THE UNION : Part 2: NEXT STEPS  
 MARCH 10: 10am-4pm
Graduate Center for Workers Education (25 Broadway)

On February 4, over 200 people attended  State of the Union – Part 1, featuring 15 workshops focusing on issues facing the UFT in the age of ed deform.

That was only the beginning.

Join us on March 10 to help plan the next steps in moving our union forward, and unite those who came together on February 4th into a common organization.

As the UFT and NYSUT agree to an evaluation system that requires 40% of evaluations to be based on state or local high stakes tests, mandates unannounced observations, and allows for an independent appeal on only 13% of first time ineffective ratings, it becomes even more urgent to discuss how we can build a movement in our union to fight for an alternative to the concessionary approach.

We are asking for a $5-$10 contribution at the door to pay for expenses incurred for this event. 

Childcare available upon email request before Thursday 3/8 

For more info, find us on Facebook: State of the Union or email sotuuft@gmail.com

Flyer for distribution at your school: email normsco@gmail.com.

Here are some questions that will be discussed: 

• What should the organizing priorities of union activists be right now? 
• What are some basic points of unity that bring us together?
• What strategies and tactics can achieve the change we want to see? 
• What is a union caucus? 
• How could one be democratically structured to include the diverse political and pedagogical views among our membership?
• How can our rank and file chapters be more organized?

Why do we need a new caucus?

We believe our strength lies with our members, organized into strong chapters. This requires active effort to educate our membership about how their union works, and involve them in democratically determining its direction.

We believe in social justice unionism. We fight for equitable public education and against racism in the schools. Building an alliance of students, parents and community members as a key part of our strategy. The UFT must fight for our members and our students. Our working conditions are our students learning conditions.

We prioritize members working together to build power in our schools. Through collective struggles, our members will gain confidence and organization to mobilize an escalating series of actions, in our communities, city-wide and nationally, that can begin to take on the bigger challenges facing our union, educators and public education as a whole.

Every educator in America knows that our profession, and our students, are under attack. The onslaught of high-stakes testing, privatization, weakening or elimination of job protections, school closings and charter co-locations threatens the very existence of public education as we know it. Unionized teachers in particular have been singled out for demonization.

The strategy put forth by our union leadership to take on these challenges is inadequate. UFT officials rely primarily on lobbying, media blitzes and procedural law suits. When occasional mobilizations are called, they are organized without a long-term plan for escalating actions or increased membership involvement. The union leadership takes a concessionary stance in order to maintain its "seat at the table” with politicians and corporate forces like Bill Gates, who turn around and attack teachers and the union at every opportunity. Union leadership then sells serious concessions to the members as victories claiming - "It could have worse”.

Some of the key policy failures of the UFT leadership:

• supporting mayoral control even in the face of the devastating impact
• a weak stand against closing schools
• a compromising position on charter schools and co-locations
• giving up on the fight to reduce class size
• the acceptance of rating teachers based on high-stakes tests
• agreeing to merit pay even though every single study shows the failure of this policy
• steadily deteriorating working conditions and power in the workplace
• erosion of job security and tenure protections
• a one-party undemocratic system that shuts out the voices of the members

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March 10 - STATE OF THE UNION PART 2: TIME TO FIGHT BACK
 *** Register online here ***

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

In Defense of IS 318

On this item from Gotham Schools:
A principal with many low-rated teachers blamed the ratings, inaccurately, on budget cuts. (Daily News)

Anna Phillips wrote at Schoolbook:

The Daily News looks at another Brooklyn school, Intermediate School 318 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn where families compete for seats and applicants have to submit a report card and a recommendation from a teacher in order to get in. "

I've been involved with schools in District 14 for 45 years. Parents in the district have fought to get their kids into IS 318 for 20 years. Ok, so being the national chess champions doesn't count for some. But the programs IS 318 has offered and its stable leadership team has been a mainstay within the chaos of the Bloomberg era reforms. Fortunato (Fred) Rubino, its former long-time principal, who spent his entire career as teacher, AP and principal in that school and was often pulled to mentor struggling school, has become the D. Supt, a miracle given the insanity coming out of Tweed. I've known Freddie Rubino forever and he is the kind of guy I would come out of retirement to work for.

I wish the new principal, Eric Windley, the best of luck one week after stepping into this hornet's nest. I worked with Eric in my last full year in the system 10 years ago when he was a classroom teacher and we set him up with a robotics program, which continues to this day at the school.

One of my oldest pals teaches there and had a very low rating. I met her 20 years ago when she was a step-parent of one of the kids in my school and she came up to volunteer in my computer lab. I watched her spend years working her way through college, then become a para and finally a teacher. One of the most conscientious people I've ever met. She received an awful rating for teaching reading when she has a Spanish license and I believe that was what she mostly taught. What, no published rating in the area which she is actually trained to teach?

And the UFT is willing to even give 20% credence to this crap?

Read this at Schools Matter which perfectly expresses what the position the UFT should be taking instead of caving.

Don't Sue to Keep Scores Out of the Papers: Sue to End This Sham Evaluation Scheme

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March 10 - STATE OF THE UNION PART 2: TIME TO FIGHT BACK ----

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

Julie Cavanagh: Test scores mean nothing - Daily News

Go Julie!

Here are some comments from Susan Ohanian
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1225

Reader Comment: BRAVO! The idiocracy in which the Bloomberg administration has injected into our educational system has done more damage than good. After ten years of this idiocracy I now realize the ultimate goal was to destroy in order to eventually open up public education to private enterprise. In addition, his agenda was to weaken the UFT. I am not a leftist, liberal who is anti-business. Quite the contrary. However, it is clear what the Bloomberg agenda is attempting to accomplish. I am tired of hearing all sides say, "We are doing it for the students." If you want to do it for the children then get your "butt" in a classroom and teach. The better students will have the opportunity to be chosen to be placed in charter schools-perhaps with the most effective teachers- leaving the rest in a public environment.

Ohanian Comment:I especially appreciate this statement: No formula can measure the value of the relationships at the heart of good teaching. My first teacher evaluation ever noted that although currently I had a way to go, in time I would be a good teacher because
1) I followed up on suggestions
2) I had a good heart.

Where's the section on 'good heart' in these value added measures?

Students are not created the same, even though the DOE seems to believe we can compare their teachers as if the classroom were nothing more than a repository of numerical data to be finessed and analyzed.

Test scores mean nothing A highly-rated teacher on the follies of using data to evaluate educators

By Julie Cavanagh

According to the numbers, I am a highly effective New York City public school teacher. But you won't see me jumping for joy over the news.

My teacher data report, along with those of 18,000 other teachers, was released last week by the Education Department after a lengthy legal battle. That report says I have a career rating that falls at or above the 95th percentile in both English and math (as measured through a complex formula that takes into account the gains my students made on standardized tests, compared with gains made by students in similar classrooms across the city).

In fact, plenty of teachers in my school also have average-to-high ratings. Every year, however, when test scores are released, we do not celebrate; instead, we exhale and then get back to the real work of teaching.

I imagine this attitude is shared by educators across the city, whether they are in the 90th percentile or the ninth.

Since the reports were released last week, the debate has been raging about whether a formula prone to as much as 53% in margin of error is the best way to judge the effectiveness of teachers. Self-proclaimed reformers say yes; those who understand teaching say otherwise.

There is no question that teachers are responsible for the learning and growth that take place inside of their classrooms. However, standardized tests are just not a reliable measure of learning. If we are truly interested in increasing the quality of education, the conversation surrounding accountability must shift.

Imagine if doctors were held accountable based on the death rate of their patients, regardless of environmental factors and whether prescribed treatment was followed.

Imagine if firefighters were held accountable based on fire injuries and deaths, even though they didn’t start the fires, their budgets had been cut and most of the homes in their district didn’t have fire alarms.

That would be unreasonable. So why do we only apply this impossible standard to teachers?

No standardized test score can quantify what we do. In fact, we succeed in spite of -- not because of -- the testing culture that has pervaded our classrooms since Mayor Bloomberg took office.

Students are not created the same, even though the DOE seems to believe we can compare their teachers as if the classroom were nothing more than a repository of numerical data to be finessed and analyzed.

I know countless teachers whose ratings were not as favorable as mine and my colleagues'. These teachers are no less successful with their students. In fact, many of these teachers serve children who actually outperform the children I serve. But because they didn’t show as much progress, their teacher’s "value" is lower.

In other cases, teachers serve children with more significant needs. For example, children who need English-language instruction or special education -- as well as students who fall below the poverty line. All these factors impact the validity of test scores.

In a democracy, our elected leaders are supposed to be responsive to the people they serve. As a teacher, I apply this same democratic principle to my work. And so the parents I serve know I am a good teacher not because of their child's test score, but because they come to our classroom, see their child's work and hear my estimation of that child's growth.

No formula can measure the value of the relationships at the heart of good teaching.

Regardless, some will continue to argue that there is a correlation between test scores and teacher effectiveness. But correlation does not equal causation.

We could be allocating the millions spent on testing on what research shows are actual causes of positively impacting student achievement: small classes and experienced educators. That's what our children truly need.

Cavanagh teaches special education at PS 15 in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

— Julie Cavanagh
New York Daily News

2012-03-04

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/test-scores-article-1.1032155

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March 10 - STATE OF THE UNION PART 2: TIME TO FIGHT BACK ---- See Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on the right for important bits.

The Expats: Chris Pavone Novel Published

When I opened the book review section of the NY Times this morning on the entire page 2 and 3 was an ad for "The Expats" by Chris Pavone.

Some of you may recognize the name Pavone from my long time friend and mentor Vera Pavone, one of the founders of the Coalition of NYC School Workers in the 70's and the Independent Community of Educators (ICE) in 2003. Vera did so much of the work in ICE's early years and much of the writing on our co-written review of the Richard Kahlenberg Shanker bio (Al Shanker: Ruthless Neo-Con - get the pdf) for New Politics. When I look smart in that piece, it is due to Vera. The dumb stuff is all mine.

Her son, Chris, who I've known since he was 3 years old, survived endless ed-political meetings throughout his childhood and lived up to his guarantee he would never be a teacher, (his brother has become a NYC teacher), though in this interview there some teaching on how to write a best-selling novel. My contribution to us upbringing was taking him and his brother to see Star Wars when it first came out and they flipped over it. So where is the sci-fi novel?

Well, Chris has written a spy movel that is being billed as a very hot novel which is being released with a buzz on March 6. The story is based in Europe where Chris and his wife and twin boys lived for a few years. They are now NYC public school parents. How about a novel based on the machinations in a PTA?

Chris will be on national and world book tours and will be doing book signings. Here is one in NYC: 8 March 2012, BARNES & NOBLE, Tribeca NYC: talk, Q&A, signing

Our community of 70's UFT opposition activists are thrilled at the news about Chris. Boy is there a mystery -- or horror- novel to be written about the ed deformers. Wish I had the time. And the talent. Or convince Chris there is a best-selling novel lying in wait in the WalBloomBlackKlein era.

Here is the latest from Chris's blog:

climbing the lists at b&n.com

Published March 1, 2012

It is still five days before the book’s official on-sale date in the U.S., Tuesday March 6th. But yesterday b&n.com shifted into gear with their marketing efforts, and it worked brilliantly: THE EXPATS is today the #1 top trending Nook Book! It is also as of this moment the #62 hardcover overall (!), and amazingly the #17 ebook (!!). Of all the great things that’ve happened during the pre-publication process, this may be the most encouraging. Actual book sales!

Check out The Expats at Amazon.

---------
Here is a story on the novel from the WSJ.

Out of the Heat, Into the Fire

We came back late last night from a week in Delray Beach where you couldn't get more perfect weather. It was so good and we had so many people to see we only got to one movie.

After doing the stuff you need to do upon returning from a trip it was after 1AM when I turned on the TV before going to sleep and there was Bruce Springsteen on the Jimmy Fallon show doing his new rallying cry Death to My Home Town in an amazing performance and a real assault on the 1%. We could apply every word by just changing the title to "Death to My Public School."

This is the first time staying in Delray after over 20 years in West Palm or Singer Island and this is a very different place than most of East Coast South Florida. A real combo of young and old ---- and not many early bird specials - so many restaurants, so little time.

I have a killer tan and I got to see some old pals from my Brooklyn College fraternity when 7 couples went out to dinner. Lots of talk about how we were Animal House before there was an Animal House. There was only one other career teacher, though two others were teachers for some time. One of them became a top level old board of ed mover and shaker and the other left after 15 years to open a highly successful business. The rest: accountant, US foreign service, cancer surgeon. So sad as we talked about at least 3 guys who have died young, two from probably heart attacks and one from an accident.

Speaking of which -- young -- a word that gets further and further away from me with today being my 67th birthday. And noticing my overhanging belly I better wrap this up and get to the gym.

Bernie the cat had to spend a week alone for the first time but now that he is over 5 months old we figured he could handle it. Even though our friend came in to feed him and play with him twice a day we got a pretty good greeting so I imagine he was lonely. Can there be a 2nd cat in our future? Maybe after our next trip in April.

I spent hours at the beach or on the terrace reading -- very deep stuff --- a bio of Mick Jagger. Since I've been reading Keith Richard's autobio but the book was too big to take with me I figured I'd give Mick equal time. I learned a lot of useless celebrity information.

I did get to start "Water for Elephants" on the last day. I wish every student could capture the excitement in fiction that is better than watching a movie but so many people are not reading fiction because "it is not true." When I think back to how I tried to teach reading to kids who were mostly behind I put at the top of the list of things I tried to do was to share my excitement at reading. Other than kids who have structural/physical issues I still believe that if we focused on love of reading and provided lots of space and time for kids to just enjoy we would solve much of the reading issue. But we've gone in the other direction with high stakes tests and rating teachers (how many teachers will take a chance and just let kids read for love of reading, the single best way of teaching reading?).

I'm sure the above paragraphs will lead the usual Unity slug suspects to tell me how I can thank the union for my retirement and ability to take these trips. So I say "Thank you" in advance for a Tier I retirement that has not been available to any UFT members who started working after 1973.

Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman Screenings while UFT continues boycott

I just found out that today there is a screening in Minneapolis with Brian Jones as the guest speaker.

Last nite this message came from Diane Ravitch to Julie, Brian and Leonie:

The Louisiana School Boards Assn showed Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman. Your fame spreads!
Diane

Diane has had a major impact in spreading word of the film (showings coming up in Tuscon, Austin TX and on Long Island to name just a few.) The UFT leaderships continues its boycott. One of the surprises to me is how the film seems to be inspiring people to act, which is a major message with Julie's final comment, "The hero is you," echoing the theme song written by her husband Glen. But then again, the UFT doesn't really want people to act until and unless they tell them to so the boycott makes sense from their point. What I don't get is why teachers who read this blog are not arranging showings in their own schools.

Diane is in Louisiana to counter former Tweed ghoul John White who reigns supreme and where Karran Harper, Royal who appears in our film, is battling him every inch of the way.

Summing up the week: Sorry too much happened but check the post for the last week and the blogroll.

I did try to follow all that is going on with the TDRs, charter co-locos, etc. I don't have a feel yet for what happened at Thursday's PEP both inside and outside though I got a sense through the twitter feeds.

The North Brooklyn alliance to oppose Moskowitz invasion is very active with pressers and law suits. See below for links to videos.

My post earlier in the week about the press conference on the proposed bill to have CECs vote on charter co-locos (The Real Story Behind UFT Push for Legislation on Charter Co-locations) did bring some angry responses from some allies for disparaging the attempt to curb charter co-locos. My main aim was to focus on the UFT leadership's role in the process and the role they generally play. In fact, the charter lobby is telling its people this bill will go nowhere but I focused on not including the closing schools issue. I'll try to do a follow-up to try to explain what is behind the way the UFT leadership operates --- I get clearer on the consistency of their actions as time goes by.

I am trying to pack too much into this post and just can't manage any more. Better get my ass to the gym before I have to get a crane to lift me out of my chair.

March 1, 2012 Southside Community Press Conference: 

(ALSO SEE: Los Sures)

Video by GEM/ICE Pat Dobosz

http://www.youtube.com/my_videos

Council Member Diana Reyna speaks against Success Academy (English)

[20120301050304 March 1 PEP] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rpN732H8aA

Arthur Schwartz, lawyer filing a suit against the co-location of success Academy into JHS 50

[20120301052931 March 1 PEP] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YvZ3LO_1Ys

Luis Garden Acosta is critical of charter schools that do not serve ELLs and special needs students. Janine Sopp speaks about the travesty that the DOE is.

• 
  

[20120301052133 March 1 PEP] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeXn2y1wORw

Why the Southside community coalition is boycotting tonight's PEP, Patrick Sullivan, Antonio Reynoso

[20120301051445 March 1 PEP] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBQ19lXWybo

Evelyn Cruz on behalf of Nydia Velaszquez

[20120301051010 March 1 PEP] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wF8FIirJb0g

Students Speak Out: Dream Yard Project 

[20120301053215 March 1 PEP] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPpFljGhyKI

 

[20120301070007 March 1 PEP] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yAsWlOGgro
[20120301060754 March 1 PEP] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZBUSywVl50
[20120301055848 March 1 PEP] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYtNa_dKUX8
[20120301054614 March 1 PEP] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqNgVVSrVMc
[20120301054514 March 1 PEP] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyWDIjcQYIg
[20120301054414 March 1 PEP] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPprNXu-Hok
[20120301054325 march 1 PEP] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEt8rxQjnIo
[20120301053215 March 1 PEP] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPpFljGhyKI
[20120301052931 March 1 PEP] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YvZ3LO_1Ys
[20120301052826 March 1 PEP] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OA8Iq-CYdMI
[20120301052559 March 1 PEP] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jh2heerlekM
[20120301052133 March 1 PEP] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeXn2y1wORw
[20120301051445 March 1 PEP] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBQ19lXWybo
[20120301051010 March 1 PEP] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wF8FIirJb0g
[20120301050755 March 1 PEP] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsKZfw6ijLY
[20120301050304 March 1 PEP] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rpN732H8aA
[20120301050137 March 1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYXCSgmc50U
[20120301045856 March i PEP] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJOxGjue_7Y
[20120301045452 March 1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJ-IYyYLN30
[20120301045256 march 1 PEP] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCmmPCwwcWo

============
March 10 - STATE OF THE UNION PART 2: TIME TO FIGHT BACK ----

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

Parent Activists Lisa Donlan and Khem Irby

The game is rigged to replace viable community schools with corporate style privately managed charter schools that do not serve our highest needs students and then claim above average success. The charters push into our school buildings, taking space from the schools that do not screen or push out students, taking services, enrichment, supports that allow those schools to encourage, support and educate our students with special needs, the new comers, the students in difficult family and economic situations. The DoE is aiding and abetting and even engineering this take over, in the name of accountability, and data driven decision making. ---- Lisa Donlan, CEC 1

Commentary on two somewhat different but related topics (from the NYC Ed News Listserve) expose levels of undermining the public school system.

Lisa Donlan, CEC 1

I am not clear about the process by which these new schools are developed and cited. Does anyone know how these schools get created/selected/sited?

I don't suppose the CCHS or any other elected body,  or any parents or community members in any shape or from have an input or window into this process.

There used to be an Office of New schools, run by Garth Harries Assistant Superintendent, Portfolio and Performance Management New Haven Public Schools) that had this charge.

At one point there was a simulacrum of parent involvement- once a proposal was put forward by some group- perhaps a charter school CMO, an EMO, a CBO, or even the odd school leader or community group, who had jumped through some DoE hoops, that proposal was theoretically presented to a parents, for input.

I know that we on CEC 1 lobbied  hard to make the new school process one that included parents and community and this is what the DoE came up with in response.

Our CEC would get the odd invite now and then to hear a presentation at Tweed on the various new school proposals, none of which had any locations or any other type of connection to our community.

We did support a successful, diverse, non screened district middle school that had sought to create a related HS to provide a good alternative for its average students, in keeping with its own adolescent-centered, collaborative practices.

The school found that high performing students had generally good options for HS, and that many high needs students also had good options, but that low to mid performing average students had very limited options and that those options were becoming harder and harder to get into, and were becoming more and more screened and skewed to high performance.

So they went through the entire proposal process with their concept- which DoE loved and encouraged- until it was time for the physical school siting.

Even though every element of the proposal, from the name to the scaffolding off of the existing MS staff and curriculum, presupposed proximity to the MS, and thus a local siting, DoE offered them space in Brooklyn.

The new school leader declined, despite the year of work she had invested for free, and got an AP job in an existing HS instead. The project was DOA.

Incidentally a charter school founded by the SUNY CSI big wig Susan Barker Miller and some Edison and CEI-PEA edu-profiteer types has decided, in a vacuum, to replicate in our district.

SUNY CSI approved the proposal last June, even though the school now serves NO- ZERO- NADA ELL students, despite the clear legal mandates to meet our district proportions of 14%.

The charter also claims to serve 14% students with IEPs but offer no CTT or Self Contained classes which schools in our district serve at an average of 19%, in addition to the SETTS only IEPs that the 14% at the charter represent.

Despite this clear violation of the law, the fact that no one in the district is asking for another elementary school, another charter school or another Manhattan Charter School (except 5 of their current parents who clearly will not attend the new school!) you can be sure they will be given the space they want.

The game is rigged to replace viable community schools with corporate style privately managed charter schools that do not serve our highest needs students and then claim above average success. The charters push into our school buildings, taking space from the schools that do not screen or push out students, taking services, enrichment, supports that allow those schools to encourage, support and educate our students with special needs, the new comers, the students in difficult family and economic situations.

The DoE is aiding and abetting and even engineering this take over, in the name of accountability, and data driven decision making.

Yet none of the data supports this fad, and there is no accountability in failing schools and turning them over to private management.

 ---------

Khem Irby, CEC 13:

Urban Assembly is the DOE version of Success Academy.

This school is replacing the phasing out SAT III in District.  This school is phasing out because of DOE's incompetent Principal which was disclosed in the public hearing.  Kathleen Grimm refused to recommend that the school should not be closed.  The newly hired principal has already turned the school in the right direction.  This is a legacy school in District 13 and is being closed in haste.  Urban Assembly does not want to be in certain areas of Brooklyn.  They don't want to go beyond Clinton Hill as the available space is Bed-Stuy.

Why should the phasing out school be reminded every day that they are a failure according to the DOE.

We should no longer allow this psychological torture happen to our children, teachers and staff.

There will be three schools next year in the bldg at K56 in Clinton Hill.  There will be impact to the elementary school and SAT III.  District 13 can easily open this MS in other known spaces.  The DOE refused to work with District 13 and rejected sound advise.

Urban Assembly is the DOE version of Success Academy.

Please share on your list serves.  A petition will be forth coming.

Khem Irby

--------------
March 10 - STATE OF THE UNION PART 2: TIME TO FIGHT BACK ---- See Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on the right for important bits.

Democracy Now - Lewis, Pallas and Noor

This just came in. For up to date coverage of Chicago hotbed ed news check in with George Schmidt and Substance - at the beach (eat your hearts out) and don't have link handy.
There should be some nyc action today. And check my tweets on outrageous action in San Fran where Teach for America newbies based on no teaching record will keep jobs over senior teachers.

Good afternoon,
I am writing to share an interview that we broadcast on the independent, daily news hour Democracy Now! today. As students across the country stage a national day of action to defend public education, we look at the nation's largest school systems — Chicago and New York City — and the push to preserve quality public education amidst new efforts to privatize schools and rate teachers based on test scores.
We host a discussion with Karen Lewis, president of the Chicago Teachers Union; Columbia University's Aaron Pallas; and Democracy Now! education correspondent Jaisal Noor.
"The danger is that if teachers and schools are held accountable just for relatively narrow measures of what it is students are doing in class, that will become what drives the education system," says Pallas, who studies the efficiency of teacher-evaluation systems.
"The effects of school closings in [New York City] is one of the great untold stories today," says Noor. "The bedrock of these communities [has been] neighborhood schools and now they're being destroyed."
Lewis says, "When you have a CEO in charge of a school system as opposed to a superintendent — a real educator — what ends up happening is that they literally have no clue how to run the schools." Lewis recounts a meeting where she says Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel told her that, "25 percent of these kids are never going to amount to anything."
When you have a chance, please take a moment to watch the interview and read the complete transcript, which is available at the link below. I have also provided the video embed code if you would like to share the interview on your website and social media networks today.

You can find our past coverage of education-related topics at:
http://www.democracynow.org/topics/education
Thank you so much for your time and consideration. Please let me know if you have any questions.
My Best,
Megan Hafner
Social Media and Online Outreach Intern
Democracy Now!
--
Cheers,
Norm Scott

Twitter: normscott1

Education Notes
ednotesonline.blogspot.com

Grassroots Education Movement
gemnyc.org

Education columnist, The Wave
www.rockawave.com

nycfirst robotics
normsrobotics.blogspot.com

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