Wednesday, April 25, 2012

CEC 14 Hearing against Citizens of the World Charter School --Videos and More

We published a report on this hearing last week: Report from the Hearing on Citizens of the World C... and here is the video from Pat Dobosz (GEM/ICE/MORE).
 
 
Introductions of CEC 14 members. Carrie Marlin of the Division of Portfolio Planning introduces PS 19 network leader, Margarita Nell.
 
 
Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez
 
Carrie Marlin responds to Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez
 
 
Senior Supervising Superintendent, Donald Conyers
 
CEC member, Elaine Manatu: No one can give us answers...
 
 
Divisionof Portfolio Planning, Carrie Marlin and her data.
 
 
Carrie Marlin and leader selection, Charter pipeline possibilities for Brooklyn.
 
 
CEC 14 member Elaine Manatu: It doesn't seem like feedback. It feels like an announcement.
 
 
Mr. Donald Conyers speaks about the late Superintendent, Fortunato Rubino and insults parents. he has been in the system for 29 years and only taught for five of those years!
 
 
DOE Rep, Jessica speaks about what charters are and introduces Citizens of the World.
 
 
Kate Sobel, Board member of Citizens of the World Charter School is given a not-so welcome Williamsburg reception.
 
 
Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez: We do not need more elementary schools. Who are you fooling DOE?
 
 
Assemblyman Joe Lentol: We have public education going on here that is great public education.
 
 
State Committeeman, Lincoln Restler: ...the DOE has one priority...imposing charter schools in each and every school.
 
 
Mr. Juan Martinez: We consider ourselves part of a special family here in District 14. Let's not make this a done deal.
 
 
Maria Bautista representing Councilwoman Diana Reyna: We do not want any more charter schools in this district.
 
 
Jason Otono, Special Assistant for Legal Affairs to Brooklyn Borough President, Marty Markowitz: The office of the Borough President is opposed to any Citizens of the World Charter Schools in District 14.
 
 
Representative of Councilman Steven Levin: CM Levein is staunchly against this proposal...
 
 
Brooke Parker parent speaking on behalf of all the parents/ schools represented in tour district: Accepting these two Citizens of the World Charter School proposals will segregate our schools.
 
 
Brook Parker continues with the consent of the audience...
 
20120419071907 CEC 14 Hearing] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL4JUIoqYCg
 
PS 132 parent, Sarah Porter, asked Mr. Conyers to attend the PTA meetings at every single school and learn about what is going on.
 
[20120419072218 CEC 14 Hearing] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xr1QPHOUX7U
 
PS 132 Parent, Sarah Porter on the PS 19 phase out and leadership


Thank you EVERYONE for coming to the Hearing on Thursday!  It was a terrific turnout, particularly considering how many other important forums and Hearings were happening that same night.  And a heartfelt thanks to our elected representatives for really representing!  
It is time for each of us to write individual emails (and get others to write!)  to the SUNY Charter School Institute regarding the Citizens of the World proposals.   Please pass this along to your respective groups and ask them to send some emails as well. 

Enclosed the 22 page comments on the proposal for you to draw from for inspiration.
[Email normsco@gmail.com for a copy].

We need to write as MANY emails as we can from as many people as we can saying as many different things as we can.

I encourage our spanish speaking members to write their emails in Spanish.  Or, write in any other language if you like.
You are welcome to pull directly from the comments.  
PLEASE blind copy williamsburggreenpointschools@gmail.com so that we can keep a copy of your letter.

Here's an example of an email.  Cut and paste as needed, but make it your own by adding information from the comments:

Dear Suny Charter Schools Institute:

I am opposed to the two Citizens of the World Charter Schools proposals designed for District 14.

Regardless of whether these two proposed schools intend to co-locate in our public schools, our district simply does not need any more elementary schools.  Adding more choice for the sake of choice will undermine the quality of the public schools that we currently enjoy.

Our district is not suffering from a lack of options for elementary schools.  We have eight elementary magnet schools, our unzoned schools have room for out of zone kids, and, by the Fall of 2013, we will have eight elementary charter schools.  The UCLA Civil Rights Project has a recent report underlining  magnet schools as a successful model distinct from charter schools.  We believe that these proposed schools will jeopardize any hope we have of achieving diversity in our four new magnets for elementary schools and will undermine the promise that the NYC DoE made to the federal government to address socio-economic and racial isolation in those schools and our district.

The proposals for Citizens of the World reflects the minimum amount of work that they did to understand our district.  They did not mention our magnet schools at all. No one involved in their proposal had even the vaguest understanding of the choices already available in our district.  These two proposed schools do not offer anything unique in the way of curriculum, programming, or pedagogy.  CWSNY1 and CWSNY2 are copies of the schools that we have.

I am also concerned that.....

Regards,

Name
Address
 
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Tuesday, April 24, 2012

GEM Teacher Evaluation Forum: Arthur Goldstein

I'm posting individual videos from the April 17, 2012 teacher evaluation forum sponsored by GEM, Class Size Matters and Parents Across America.

Arthur Goldstein, chapter leader of Francis Lewis HS could not attend the forum due to a death in his family. Moderator Julie Cavanagh reads his powerful statement written in his inimical style. Also at: http://vimeo.com/40740344.


GEM Teacher Evaluation Forum Arthur Goldstein Statement from Grassroots Education Movement on Vimeo.


There are certainly problems with evaluation systems. But I didn’t realize there was a crisis until recently. Apparently, we are overrun by bad teachers. They are everywhere. From what I see in the papers, they’re an epidemic, a plague of zombies, and they must be rooted out and eliminated by any means necessary. 

We teachers see other problems. All due respect, some supervisors are nuts. In New York City there is a Leadership Academy spitting out corporate style principals, with no background in education or teaching. One of them U-rated my friend a few times for the egregious offense of being a chapter leader. He had to go to court to get one reversed. Another is torturing a close friend of mine even as we speak, for the unpardonable offense of getting a grant for the school without first consulting leadership.

Unfortunately, I doubt that Gates, Broad, Rhee, the Walmarts and the other “reformers” pushing evaluation are remotely concerned about supervisors. Their eye is on this bad teacher/ zombie plague the Post is always writing about. The only cure, evidently, is to allow Governor Andrew Cuomo to advocate for students, because parents, teachers, and principals are all out for themselves. Only he advocates for children, just as only Joel Klein puts children first, and only Michelle Rhee puts students first. 

We are to conclude adults, especially activist parents, unionized teachers, and uppity principals, are bad, children are good, and we must protect children by any means necessary. Until they grow up, of course, and then they can be fired for no reason, enjoy the reduced pensions Governor Cuomo pushed through the legislature, and pay in other ways for the millionaire’s tax the governor took a “principled” stand against.  Though it’s kind of odd, as Tony Avella just wrote, children’s advocate Andrew Cuomo just killed 5000 bucks for Bayside Little League while giving Black Rock, the world’s largest investment manager, a 5 million dollar tax break. I’m sure he’ll explain how that helps children any moment now.
Meanwhile, the only way to fix the plague of bad teachers, according to Governor Cuomo, the only person in the world who can possibly advocate for students, is to judge all teachers by the scores of their students. No excuses. 

Most of my students come from China. Governor Cuomo has had it with lazy teachers like me complaining my students won’t instantly pass standardized tests simply because they don’t speak English. He’s had it with whiners like me saying it takes years to learn a language, and that all available research says you cannot just show up with no English and pass tests like the English Regents exam, without which my kids cannot graduate high school. And no, my students can’t take an exam designed for English language learners, whose needs are very different from those of us who were born here. Differentiating instruction is strictly for teachers, not student advocates. No excuses.

My school, which I would call one of the best in the city by any standard, is a community. We work together. In February, of my students stopped showing up three days before the President’s week break. I thought about calling her house, but every time I’d done so before her mom had said she was sick. By the third day, I figured they’d gone on an extended vacation.

When she didn’t come back after the break, I called. Mom wanted to change her to another school. I called the guidance counselor, who called mom into the school. That Wednesday, the girl thanked me for calling her mom. She was happy to be back in school. One of my colleagues set her up to get tutoring in math.

Under Governor Cuomo’s bold new paradigm, I’d hesitate before picking up a phone. I’d have to consider whether or not she would bring my grades down. Would she be absent from the test that determined my future? How would that affect my value-added?  Would she show up and get a low grade due to her absences? Would this get my name splashed on the NY Post as worst teacher in the world? Would reporters camp out on my doorstep to make sure my neighbors know? How would that impact our next block party?

My friend, a math teacher, was sitting with a young woman who was trying to edit a college application essay. She asked me to help. I sat for 45 minutes and went over every word. Why shouldn’t I help this girl if I can? 

Under Governor Cuomo’s plan, things would be very different.

We’d be spending every spare minute of our lives trying to increase the do or die test scores of our students. Not someone else’s. Why would we tutor other teacher’s students when we could be spending time with our own? After all, our jobs would be on the line here. If those scores don’t go up, we go out and sell pencils on the corner.

Another small problem is everything I read suggests that value-added has no value whatsoever. My friend scored 6 one year, 96 the next. He did not actually become an excellent teacher from one year to the next. He is very smart, a published author, who I’m confident is always an excellent teacher.

I don’t really think the bad teacher epidemic exists. Even if it did, this would not be the way to go. If the evaluation crisis existed, adding junk science to the mix would not improve it. How many principals, in Mayor Bloomberg’s New York, will stand up and say, yes this value added stuff looks bad, but I’m keeping that teacher? What will the New York Post say about that principal, that school, that teacher?

No teacher should be in the paper tarred by junk science grades, or even praised by them. 

No teacher should be afraid to leave her house based on the nonsense the tabloids wrote about her. The notion of sharing invalid nonsensical junk science grades with parents rather than the tabloids is also unacceptable. Supervisors will likely spend all their time dealing with pointless transfer requests, and have no time to help teachers who really need support.
This system, like the small schools movement Gates initiated and backed away from, like the school closings that resulted from it, like the mythical charter schools that will save the world, like the notion that hedge fund billionaires care about our children rather than dismantling union, is absurd nonsense.

It’s our job to let people know, and make this ridiculous and baseless plan is treated as such. It’s our job to be role models, to have standards, and to check things before inflicting them on students and teachers. The state’s approach, doing whatever Bill Gates says to do without regard to consequence and hoping for the best, is less than optimal. Change for the sake of change is not the way to go. We need either to test first, and by all I’ve seen value-added is an epic fail, or emulate systems that actually work, like the one in Finland.

Odd that such things do not cross the minds of anyone in Albany or Tweed, but that’s what happens when you exclude educators, parents and communities from the business of education.


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Video: Bushwick Community HS Teacher Khalilah Brann Defends Her School

[Corrected -- Michael Powell wrote both NY Times pieces].

This Is Arguably the Most Disgusting Failure of Metric-Driven Education ‘Reform’: The Triumph of the Assholes  --- Mike the Biologist on the closing of Bushwick Community HS (read entire blog here).

Judged a Failure by the Data, a School Succeeds Where It Counts -- Michael Powell (here)

Another Passionate Plea to Save Bushwick High from Ernie Logan
 
Bushwick Community High School's threatened closing is creating howls of outrage. The school serves the highest needs students. At the "Teacher Evaluation Nightmare" forum on April 17, 2012, BCHS teacher Khalilah Brann made a powerful statement regarding her school which is slated for closure at the PEP vote this Thursday. The edited videos are up on Vimeo. The event was sponsored by Grassroots Education Movement, Class Size Matters, Parents Across America. Here is her presentation (sorry, I left the last n off her name in the video). She is introduced by moderator Julie Cavanagh.
Video at http://vimeo.com/40758701 and below.


See videos of other speakers posted on the GEM Vimeo channel: Carol Burris, Leonie Haimson and Gary Rubinstein, along with the Q and A. I will post them here as the week goes by.

Michael Powell in today's NY Times (see below) has a poignant story about the school and offers some hope based on a statement by Shael Polakow-Surransky. Powell also did a story about the school a few weeks ago.

Actually, it would hard to imagine Walcott will still close the school after all the hubbub but Bloomberg is so out of control it just may happen. If it does that is another nail for us in the mayoral control debate.

A Brooklyn School Saved Lives, and Some Now Try to Return the Favor

By
I was 18 years old with a baby and three high school credits. I was a gangbanger. I was shot and left for dead.
My life was a pane of glass fractured into a thousand shards.
And this place saved me.
To sit in the audience at Bushwick Community High School in Brooklyn last Wednesday evening, to watch as young black and Latino women and men walked to a microphone and, with anger and tears and eloquence, pleaded with officials of New York City’s Department of Education to keep their school open, was to feel privileged.
It is rare in education and in life to hear love put so passionately into words.
“Where would I be without this school family? I would be in jail. I would be dead,” said Iran Rosario, a tall bear of a man who wandered in here as a lost 18-year-old and now returned 14 years later as a teacher. “Friends tell you what you want to hear; family tells you what you need to hear.
“They did that for me, and saved my life.”
New York City has many mysteries, some romantic, some frightening, some simply maddening. The uncertain fate of Bushwick Community High School falls into that last category. It is a last-chance place for last-chance kids. Its teachers and staff members search out 17- and 18-year-olds, many with fewer than 10 credits of the 44 needed for a Regents diploma, and wage an unremitting struggle to turn these children into graduates and adults.
Few who venture to this corner of Bushwick walk away unmoved. Members of the state Board of Regents sing its praises, as have visitors from across the city.
But that could all come to an end on Thursday night. The Education Department has recommended that the Panel for Education Policy, which is controlled by the mayor, vote to lay off the principal and half the staff. Give department officials credit: they don’t really try to argue their indictment on the merits, but on the metrics — that is, test scores and graduation rates.
A majority of the students fail to graduate within six years, which is one of the city’s inviolate metrics. Right-o. If a young man wanders into this high school at 18 with five credits to his name, the odds are strikingly good that he will not graduate within six years of his freshman year.
The Panel for Education Policy could vote to let the school remain untouched. That’s unlikely. Mayor Bloomberg’s education officials have recommended shutting down 140 schools, and this panel has voted in the mayor’s favor 140 times.
They make the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles look like independence-minded bleeding hearts.
We live in an era of educational mantras become dogma; we are convinced that everything within a school’s walls is measurable. An art teacher teaching pottery; an English teacher on the joys of Maya Angelou? All can be reduced profitably to a number.
Shael Polakow-Suransky, the department’s chief academic officer, came of professional age in several of the city’s more innovative public schools. But he is a firm convert to the scientism of metrics. As he noted not long ago: “If I’m a teacher, I’m going to look closely at what that exam is measuring and key my curriculum and my work to passing that exam. That is the reality of what high-stakes exams are designed to do.”
Perhaps.
But last year department officials administered the high school’s annual “quality review.” It is perhaps worth noting what officials saw with their own eyes, as opposed to what they can reduce to a row of numbers on paper. Bushwick Community High School is “effective,” teachers demonstrate genuine “expertise” and the “pedagogy is aligned to schoolwide goals.”
“A clear sense of the vision and mission of the school is pervasive throughout the building,” the city concluded.
MR. POLAKOW-SURANSKY came to this high school for the hearing last week. He sat, stoically, through nearly three hours of tearful speeches and boisterous cheers. At the end, in a voice soft, almost sad, he spoke.
“This is a school that looks at the whole child,” he said to a hushed auditorium. “This is a school that gives students second chances. It’s a place of redemption. It’s a family. It saves lives.”
“I want you to know I will take these stories back and share them with our chancellor, Dennis Walcott,” he continued. “Whatever gets decided as a result of this process, there’s something very powerful here.”
The sound was of a man caught between bureaucratic imperative and the evidence offered by his eyes and ears.
E-mail: powellm@nytimes.com


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Monday, April 23, 2012

PS 261 UNITE Sponsors Forum Weds on HST, Brian Jones/Lisa Donlan comments on Literature vs. Standardized Tests and Pearson Eats GED

With all the debate on testing, where is the UFT?
I'm packing a lot into this post. Sorry I'm going to miss this forum.

April, 2012

PS 261 is loaded with activists like Brian Jones, Jamie Fidler and Melissa Torres. And they rave about the principal Zipporah Mills. You know it's funny how many principals are turning up that people enjoy working for. But then again there is this MUST READ Assailed Teacher post:  A Tale of Two School Districts.

 
*PS261 UNITE is an independent group of teachers, parents, and community members advocating for our students, our community, and the right to free, quality public education.

--------------
Brian Jones makes a great point about how good lit cannot really be tested effectively on a high stakes test.
I think it's [the pineapple story] a quirky story -- but really no stranger or mysterious than many other classic stories for children. This occurred to me as I was reading Harold and the Purple Crayon to my daughter this morning!

The problem is that when a story has any element that is not perfectly clear (which, in my view, makes it actually a more interesting story) then it's hardly fair to test kids on it and demand that there be a single right answer to questions about its meaning.

On the other hand, if you serve up a story that DOES have a bunch of "right" answers that are clear and straightforward, then you're not really dealing with literature that anyone would really cherish, savor, enjoy, etc. The delicious thought process that *can* occur between reader and text is lost, and is turned into a "skill" exercise.

Hence the problem with testing is even deeper -- it's a reductive approach to literacy that tries to take something inherently complex and make it simple. In doing so, most of what makes good literature and real reading worthwhile is lost. 

That's why the Pinneapple and the Hare may actually be a great (or just, funny) story, and thus HORRIBLE as a test passage.

Brian Jones
------------
The issue is the use (misuse) of the passage in the context of the test. Not a commentary on the text as a text/story/piece of literature or in any way a left handed defense of the "good" test questions that are not ambiguous.
I included some comments from students on the absurdity of testing.

These tests are so stupid. they do not test any knowledge. they will never count for anything. no one, in lets say, 20 years, is going to ask you how you did on your 7th or 8th grade standardized tests. no one! and that is why the amount of pressure that students are put under to do well on these tests is so silly and horrible! in the end, this will never count! for anything! it won't matter!

The point of school is to learn, and not to spend half the year on prepping for a silly state test that will not be of any use in the future. 

I don't even think kids that are trying to get into good colleges go through this amount of stress. AND IT MOST DEFINITELY SHOULD NOT BE THIS WAY!!! 

Lisa Donlan
-----------
There is a GREAT NY times piece about just what Brian was talking about--written by a teacher. Check it out:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/opinion/sunday/taking-emotions-out-of-our-schools.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

--------

From Mike Klonsky:
Daniel Pinkwater

"Who knew my book would be used for world’s dumbest test question?" -- Daily News
Deborah Meier
"In the world of testing, it does not really matter whether an answer is right or wrong; the 'right' answer is the one that field testing has shown to be the consensus answer of the 'smart' kids. It’s a psychometric concept.” -- When Pineapple Races Hare, Students Lose
Valerie Strauss
"The whole push for test-based school reform makes about as much sense as a talking pineapple." -- The Answer Sheet
ETS spokesman Tom Ewing
“We don’t want students to come out of a test and perhaps memorize questions or share or discuss questions with students who may not have tested yet,” said Tom Ewing, spokesman for ETS, which administers the SAT for the College Board. -- Miami Herald
 -----------
Leonie Haimson on Pearson takeover of GED

Pearson just acquired the contract to take over developing and giving the GED exams across the entire nation, to be taken on computer and supposedly aligned with the Common Core; it is also  “planning a substantial cost increase” that will double the cost of the exam which  may force states to restrict the no. of students that are able to them.  See article in Albany paper below.

Last year, the American Council on Education, which is providing the test through next year, and Pearson Vue Testing, a for-profit company, announced they would create a new, more rigorous GED, which would be administered and provided by a new company, GED Testing Service LLC. The new computer-based test is to be aligned with national common core standards and would replace the current exam in January 2014.

See also press release below, which says Pearson will be selling “associated online courses to help prepare students for GED” – another huge source of potential profit and adds:  

The new GED Testing Service will build on its past experience in adult and continuing education by harnessing the considerable resources of Pearson, the world's largest education and testing company, with the nearly 70-year history of ACE to expand access to the GED Test, ensure its quality and integrity…”

Given  #pineapplegate that may  be a hard line to sell.

State may bypass GED

Costs, less control over school equivalency exam have state eyeing change
Read more »
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Rally against the APPR at the NYSUT Representative Assembly

It's junket time for at least 800 Unity Caucus minions who will be getting two days off later this week to head up to Buffalo for the NYSUT convention. Our "elected reps" will be told to ignore this event. Baaaaaaaaaaa. Really, aren't they really more spineless than PEP members?

This is led by the heroic Lancaster County Teachers Association (a NYSUT local upstate). Please take a second to sign their petition against the evaluation deal. 
I'm going to follow this up with some great videos of the Teacher Eval event last week.
What: Rally against APPR @ NYSUT Representative Assembly ConferenceWhere: Buffalo Convention Center 153 Franklin Street Buffalo NY 14202
When: Thursday, April 26th
Details: arrive at the convention center, 153 Franklin Street Buffalo, NY 14202where we will stand outside in solidarity against the new APPR regulations. We will be at the Franklin Street entrance from 5:00 pm and 6:00 pm. 

The purpose of this rally is to bring awareness for the need to amend the APPR.  We are not protesting NYSUT and do not wish to cause division, but instead want to show that we cannot accept this terrible plan.
Why:
  1. A teacher can earn a perfect score on each of the elements in the New York State Teaching Standards and end up on a Teacher Improvement Plan if the students do not perform well on the tests.
  2. Test scores and the teacher APPR scores will be reported to the public via the local and state news outlets.
  3. Teachers who do well on test scores but don't choose to do anything innovative will achieve a satisfactory score and will avoid a Teacher Improvement Plan. This discourages doing anything “outside of the box” and encourages “drilling for the test”. Why teach any critical thinking when the APPR is mostly weighted on the test scores?
  4. After the local media reports teachers’ APPR scores, Parents will begin demanding that their children be placed with certain teachers.
  5. Teachers should no longer collaborate and share any ideas because you are now competing with your colleagues to ensure that parents request you to teach their children.
  6. Students that need the best teachers due to various circumstances will no longer be sought out, but rather avoided.
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Sunday, April 22, 2012

Cheat to Beat the Tests: We Need an EduLeaks

I have but one test to give for my country.
Teacher Nathan Hale punished for revealing Pearson test passages
Nathan Hale was a teacher.
Then there is this recent historical discovery from Patrick Henry: Give me liberty from testing or give me death. 

Thousands of people in New York have access to these tests. It would only take a few of them to get them before the public.  ----NYC Parent activist
There was a Spartacus, known as Stanley Kaplan who outsmarted the College Entrance Examination Board fifty years ago when ETS was the reigning test master. He knew that ETS was embedding items within its tests and trying them out for purposes of developing subsequent examinations. He sent spies to take the high-stakes exams and report back to him what they saw. He debriefed others who had taken the exams. Armed with the knowledge he compiled, Kaplan's shrewdness paid off. He ran successful coaching courses boosting the SAT scores of those who took them. ----Fred Smith
If they're going to come after you because of your TDA, cheat, cheat, cheat.  ----Retired NYC teacher/blogger/videographer/pain in the ass

See Ed Notes previous post earlier today:
Pineapplegate, or The Pineapple That Ate Pearson

With Diane Ravitch's call for tests to be made public -- don't parents have as much right to know what kinds of tests their kids are being subjected to as to know their teacher data reports? Ho, ho, ho. I can't stop laughing at this idea. Watch the Joel Kleins and Michael Bloombergs and all the ed deform hacks rush to protect the Pearson monopoly when it comes to releasing this information. But do we really need to demand this when there is distributed power in the hands of teachers all over the nation?

Oh, we know what will happen if any teachers get caught sneaking a reading passage of a math problem out. Or worse, taking a photo of a test with their cell phone (I saw one such pic on a teacher's phone yesterday and told her to destroy her phone as I'm sure Bill Gates has given money to track every move a teacher makes). They will be put in solitary with Bradley Manning, charged with treason and threatened with the death penalty.

We really need an edu-leaks (as opposed to Normi-leaks which involved Depends). Someone contact Julian Assange to help us.

This just came in: 
In the spirit of fighting back, here are two modest proposals:
Note: The Math test (Book 1 and Book 2) is coming up this week and these items are easier to remember than the ELA items. 

#1-  From Susan Ohanian Speaks: Testing: How to Stop the Reign 
NOTE: This year the tests contain embedded multiple-choice items that are being field tested, enabling the new vendor (you guessed it, Pearson) to develop future tests on the back of the children. The items won't count but they will make the exams considerably longer.

A strategy for making this greedy scheme backfire.
Ohanian Comment: I don't give up on my dream of the day the corporate-politicos schedule the massive testing scheme and no parent allows their children to participate AND a huge majority of teachers engage in the professional act of refusing to administer the tests.
Teachers, you are too good to revolt against the Caesars who rule education's holy empire through fear and the test master's cruel lash. Too patient awaiting leaders who will finally mass your mighty numbers in unified rebellion. Too battered to engage in acts of resistance. And far too decent to do this:

This week, when forced to participate in Albany's annual rites of examination, subjecting 1.2 million children to ever worsening trials, please closely reflect upon the tests that you are all suffering.

Many of the passages you see and the questions that follow will reappear next spring when the ordeal is repeated. Many of the same math riddles your students must answer will also return in MMXIII. It was so decreed by the emperor's closest advisors. Take heed honorable teachers.

Both you and your young charges in grades three through eight will be judged by how well they perform at this year's testing games and the next and the next. As proctors throughout the provinces, you will have time to minister the 90-minute examinations, study them and remember their contents.

Your legions in those grades are 45,000 strong. Properly deployed you can disarm the test master and destroy his vile instruments. For he has left himself vulnerable at the very moment he expects to lead you and your lambs to slaughter. Arrogant miscalculation has exposed him to defeat at his own hands.

The battle plan is simple. Its successful execution depends on discipline in the ranks. This year four forms of the exams are being given, enabling the master to try out and hone the blades he will use at next year's sacrificial altar. He likes to call them items that he is field testing. You know better. They are the knives and swords that will be used against you in the coming years.

Don't worry that you don't know which items on each form are being field tested. Know that each form will contain 15 to 25 try-out items per grade. The sharper ones will be included on next spring's exams when they will count.

Know that there are 7,500 of you at each grade level, to whom the master is exposing the material. Little does he expect you to attack and overwhelm it. He assumes you are too distracted, disorganized and beaten down by testing to fight back. But he has tipped his hand and given you the opportunity to preview next year’s tests.

Mark every word on this year's examinations. Rely upon your eyes and collective memories to absorb each passage, question and choice set before your flock this week. Use the same weapons next week to penetrate the math material.

After the smoke clears, talk to your comrades and share the information you took away from the exams. Nowadays, there are so many ways to network. Each one of you in the state has a piece of the story. Put the pieces together and you can build the most efficient test preparation strategy ever devised. When you teach-to-the-test next year, you literally will be teaching to the test.

Does this seem far-fetched? There was a Spartacus, known as Stanley Kaplan who outsmarted the College Entrance Examination Board fifty years ago when ETS was the reigning test master. He knew that ETS was embedding items within its tests and trying them out for purposes of developing subsequent examinations.

He sent spies to take the high-stakes exams and report back to him what they saw. He debriefed others who had taken the exams. Armed with the knowledge he compiled, Kaplan's shrewdness paid off. He ran successful coaching courses boosting the SAT scores of those who took them.

The thought alone that test-abused teachers are ready to strike back would make the evil testing empire shake with rage and threaten retribution—and sweat nervously as the backlash gains strength enough to topple its dominion. May the empire’s fall be near.

#2 - How fitting would it be if someone figured out a way to break Pearson's item bank—perhaps, a student grapevine —to compile previously used items, create a national item clearinghouse and put together an app that lets kids review items before being tested by them.  I think smart high school kids would relish the fight--obtain information from test-tortured students across the country and spread the word to the masses.  Robin Hood meet Wikileaks. 


Posted by Norm @ at 7 comments:

Aloha - Want to Go to a Screening of GEM Film?

Following up on our Pineapple gate post (Pineapplegate, or The Pineapple That Ate Pearson) comes this delicious story from the land of pineapples where our film will be shown, one screening I would love to attend. In fact I may just go to buy a crate of pineapples to mail to Pearson -- COD which they can afford out of that $32 million NY State paid for the tests. (I scheduled this to post while I'm in a hot yoga class, thirsty and starving and thinking of pineapples and Hawaii.)
Aloha...Warm greetings from hawai`i!  Thanks again so much for sending me a copy of 'the inconvenient truth about waiting for superman'! i'm fired up to show it to my fellow teachers & showing it next week.  letting you know as requested, and if possible, if you could list it on your website please?  here is some info i sent sent out on email- feel free to copy/paste the info you need for a web posting (again, if possible).

You have my gratitude and solidarity,
Pete Doktor
Farrington high school/YHCR chapter rep


Youth, Human &  Civil Rights Committee- HSTA HONOLULU CHAPTER PRESENTS:
"Movie Night" for Teachers&  Community-at-Large featuring:

"THE INCONVENIENT TRUTH BEHIND WAITING FOR SUPERMAN"

HSTA Hawaii State Teachers Association
1200 Ala Kapuna St. Honolulu Hawaii 96819
April 26, 2012
4:30~6 pm
FREE
Open to public; Feel free to bring ohana, colleagues, friends, etc.

Many of you may have seen the film "Waiting for Superman," which was really a propaganda film for corporate private charter schools (as opposed to public charter schools here; quite different!) with a not so hidden agenda to reduce school problems to teacher unions, in the guise of school reform.  Its a front for an older, more insidious ideology/movement to privatize public education, reducing universal education to an "auction model" for quality education access and profiteering.

In response to this larger assault on public education, New York City teachers created this grassroots film exposing this unspoken political-economic agendas...which are driving the current divide-and-conquer crusade around "school reform."  The film is only an hour, but will expose many challenges to the cause of public education and the teaching profession completely ignored by mainstream institutions including government (both parties) and the media; time has been allotted for those who may want to discuss (or decompress) after
the film.

Come see the tsunami that is headed towards Hawai`i from the East Coast to know what's coming, and get a better understanding of the undercurrent in places like Wisconsin.  Its a LOT more than differences on evaluations or tenure...its also a redefining and reducing education to the level of Wall Street/test score numbers, or as Boards of Education nationwide are clarifying their vision of "education:" 'to produce competitors in a global marketplace.'  If you believe education has more noble purposes, such as uplifting human intelligence& potential to advance the quality of life, and transform society to more just, sustainable, life-enhancing communities, you won't want to miss  this documentary.

For more information, trailers, resources, etc. see:
http://www.waitingforsupermantruth.org/
or, Pete_Doktor@notes.k12.hi.us   



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Pineapplegate, or The Pineapple That Ate Pearson



Below the Juanita Doyan created button list from Susan Ohanian's site (http://susanohanian.org/buttons.php) is just some of the commentary on this story so far. We used Juanita's Choose the best answer: a)test b) teach button in our film. I used to distribute these buttons at UFT Delegate Assemblies. To Unity Caucus deaf ears of course.


Since "Pineapplegate" erupted not because the NYSED or Pearson voluntarily made public an erroneous test item, but that item became widely known through sheer happenstance (called the internet), the public can have no confidence in the quality of the rest of the ELA exam.

Therefore it should be published in its entirety so the public can make the determination whether these materials are appropriate to form the basis for evaluating children, teachers, and schools.

I see no reason to wait for the SED to do so voluntarily, since Commissioner King's statement about the Hare and the Pineapple already vacates any remaining credibility they have on this issue.

Thousands of people in New York have access to these tests. It would only take a few of them to get them before the public.

As parents whose children are boycotting the state tests, my wife and I in any case reject on principle the idea that any exercise that takes place in our son's elementary-school classroom should be unavailable for our inspection.

Where's Wikkileaks when you need them?

Jeff Nichols
-------
NY State Legislature should include state tests in "truth-in-testing law" that requires disclosure of all test items and answers after the test.
Purpose of law was to be sure questions and answers were reasonable.
Why exclude state tests?
Following on Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Cuomo's strong belief in Public's Right to Know about teacher ratings, public has a right to know about the tests that are so consequential for students and teachers.
The public has a right to know.
Release the tests.

Diane Ravitch
--------------
That's great! Assuming this turkey (I mean pineapple) of an item was a field test item:

a) the kids wasted time and effort on a worthless item.
b) the publisher, Pearson, should not have submitted it for try-out, because it made no sense on its face.
c) the publisher should have rejected the item based on data in its items bank and the substantive criticism the item received from students and parents who saw it.
d) Pearson should give SED a refund for the cost of a clunker it probably would have rejected any way.
e) the owl

By the way, the time it took to administer the no-count pineapple (a reading passage followed by two multiple-choice items with a hard-to-defend best answer) takes away time and focus from kids that should not be squandered in taking the 90-minute Book 1.

Fred Smith
---------------
From Leonie

Just google Pineapple and Hare on google news to see the explosion of news around this issue today.

What’s esp. infuriating is that it was just sheer luck that I found out about this passage and set of questions, since NYS will no longer release any of the tests that will determine the futures of our kids, our teachers and schools.

And yet there were many other confusing and ambiguous and tricky passages on the ELA – see my blog about this, that has gotten 29 comments in the past day.

http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2012/04/nys-educators-agree-flawed-confusing.html

For example, a reading passage on the 43rd grade test was called “Spring Peepers” and the question was, what season is this passage about, and the answer is “Summer”!!! This is called a distractor, as Fred surely knows. Put in as many tricks as possible to make sure kids get the answers wrong.

The Pineapple story along with its absurd questions had been complained about for at least 7 YEARS by students and teachers in states all over the country, as being ridiculous and stressful and extremely confusing, and NO ONE told Pearson to stop including it in the state’s high-stakes standardized tests until now. I guess it won’t be used again. One tiny step forward for rationality.

Below is the Commissioner’s statement. Of course, the Common Core will cure all. (And King blames the teachers who supposedly reviewed the test -- yes, teachers paid by whom?).

Commissioner King Statement on The Hare and the Pineapple - http://goo.gl/HxOpw
----------

NY Times story
---------
Susan Ohanian on vomiting on tests:
The first time I heard of what to do with vomited-on tests was  in  Sacramento Bee interview with Harcourt official,
Interview
Sacramento Bee. April 4, 2000
Bob Rayborn, Harcourt Educational Measurement
"I've seen where kids have thrown up on the test. Kids do get sick at school. In those instances, teachers might have thrown the test away. The appropriate way to deal with that would be to put [the test] in a plastic bag. And send it back to Harcourt."

March 14, 2002, accompanying this news item: "Test-related jitters, especially among young students, are so common that the Stanford-9 exam comes with instructions on what to do with a test booklet in case a student vomits on it."
 Test-related jitters strike some pupils -- and parents
By Sandy Louey and Erika Chavez
Sacramento Bee

The urls to articles are dead.

My website, which started with passage of NCLB, has recorded 10 years of these assaults    (resulting in involvement with police, lawyers, courts--but that's another story).

My original intent was "keep a record" of what's happening. Now I have doubts about this. Today we wring our hands over an assault on children and then tomorrow we will wring our hands over a new assault. And so on. I'm beginning to wonder if I'm contributing to the trivialization of this topic. We need ACTION, not more hand-wringing. I've tried every avenue I can think of. So far the big dead ends are unions,  professional organizations, and the media. They have no shame.

That said, I just had op-eds in newspapers across VT, protesting our progressive Democrat's power grab for education. I've heard from a lot of citizens but the politicos (Democrats) went ahead and gave the governor what he wanted.  When I told my husband about the vote,  he said, "People get what they deserve."  I think he's right. If we sit here and take it . . .

Susan O.
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Saturday, April 21, 2012

Susan Ohanian Takes on Common Core - Show Me the Money, Honey

Blog of the day from an elementary school teacher:

The Fruitcake and the Big Banana – a tale inspired by a pineapple

==========
Before I get to common core (and you might want to check out Miss Eyre at NYC Educator on this topic -Common Core, Uncommon Assumptions) here is some background.

I had always had issues with the testing process but went along, even taking the scores seriously. In 1979 my new principal turned up the heat and made them into somewhat of a high stakes game. Teachers would be publicly praised and shamed based on the results. She was ambitious and wanted to use her scores as a springboard to higher things. But she never made the cut.

Then around 2001 I connected up with George Schmidt's work in Chicago -  "Substance" which featured the work of Susan Ohanian who went after the high stakes testing game with a vengeance. George had been fired for printing some dumb local Chicago test in full. The summer (2002) I retired George came for a visit and I invited a group of people I had met through my work at the delegate assembly. I had the idea of doing a Substance like newspaper that was widely distributed instead of the monthly newsletter I had been distributing at the Delegate Assembly since 1997. In the fall of 2002 I started putting out Education Notes as a 16 page tabloid and began distributing 20-25000 copies to the schools.

John Lawhead, then at soon to be closed Bushwick HS found a copy in his mailbox and contacted me. He wrote a great piece on standardized testing for the next edition of Ed Notes. At that point NCLB was a topic of conversation, with the UFT/AFT supporting it, and Ed Notes took a stand against, thanks to John and George and Susan. John told me about a conference of activists opposing NCLB (and did not see her again until this past summer at SOS in Washington) and we went. I discovered John's immense knowledge base on just about anything but he really had the high stakes testing game nailed and has had a lot of influence over my thinking. (The idea of founding ICE was hatched by us and Sean Ahern and later on John, Angel Gonzalez and myself came up with the idea for GEM.)

Of course, Susan was on to the common core standards scam right away. Common core means more tests. In today's update she has a bunch of goodies for all of us. (And check out that CD of music on NCLB.)

Ohanian on Common Core
And now, in separate entrepreneurial ventures, the former president of McGraw-Hill enterprises and Canter associates of assertive discipline infamy and folks at Sacramento State University bring Common Core courses to the land. See two press releases.

In case you haven't noticed, that's what Common Core is about: $$$ in the pockets of curriculum enhances and testmakers. Yesterday I received two slick brochures from NCTE about the things they're selling in the name of 'Supporting Students in a Time of Core Standards' and one from Heinemann titled 'Meaningful teaching for Common Core reading.' It actually contains scripts, telling teacher what to say.  I have been a member of NCTE for decades. Heinemann has published 7 of my books. I feel ashamed of the associations.

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
E2020 Inc. Releases Suite of Common Core Courses Innovative Curriculum to Better Prepare America's Students for College, Careers
Press Release
PR Newsire
2012-04-19
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=137

Former CEO of McGraw-Hill and Kaplan moves on to where the money is: Common Core delivery system.

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New Canter Courses Help Educators Meet Common Core State Standards
Press Release
Marketwire
2012-04-20
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=136

Look at who is associated with this Common Core offering.

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
CRLP Signature Programs and Common Core State Standards
web announcement
Sacramento State
2012-04-20
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=135

I see something like this and I figure universities deserve every bad 'government accountability' thing that is thrown their way.

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
Common Core, What Is It Good For?
Alan Singer
Huffington Post
2012-04-19
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=134

 New York State Council for the Social Studies condemn Common Core but are they doing it for the right reason?

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Separate Reading Exams Await Elementary Teachers
Stephen Sawchuk
Education Week
2012-04-18
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=133

As Stephen Krashen points out, this looks like a  deliberate attempt to rewrite the history of literacy research. And to make sure teachers are under the Standardisto thumb.

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Maybe Some Children's Authors Need a Ferocious Kick on Both Shins
Susan Ohanian

2012-03-10
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=116

As the tests for the Common Core State [sic] Standards approach, we need to revisit the list of authors willing to sell their work for student interrogation.

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Talking pineapple question on state exam stumps ... everyone!   Students, teachers, principals -- no one has any idea what the deal is
 Ben Chapman AND Rachel Monahan
New York Daily News
2012-04-19
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1281

So is why did Pearson test writers change Daniel Pinkwater's eggplant into a talking pineapple? And don't miss a first grade teacher's take on the incident, The Fruitcake and the Big Banana -- a tale inspired by a pineapple.

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Special Ed Child Forced to Take Test, Mom Threatened by School Officials in Oceanside, NY
Jim Horn and Parent
Schools Matter and United Opt Out National
2012-04-18
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1280

Parents now have a place to make threats from administrators public.

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Now Hear This: Letter to Arne Duncan: Two Teachers & a Microphone
Two Teachers and a Microphone
YouTube
2012-04-20
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1279

Must see/hear.

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
Mr. Fitz

2012-04-18
http://susanohanian.org/nclb_cartoon_fetch.php?id=0

------------------------------
----------------------
Order the CD of the resistance:
"No Child Left Behind? Bring Back the Joy."
To order online (and hear samples from the songs)
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/dhbdrake4
Other orders: Send $15 to
Susan Ohanian
P. O. Box 26
Charlotte, VT 05445
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Friday, April 20, 2012

Testing, Teachers and the UFT: An Historical View

"'They’re saying Mr. Avella made us do this,' said Johnny Cruz, 15, another boycott leader. 'They don’t think we have brains of our own, like we're robots. We students wanted to make this statement. The school is oppressing us too much with all these tests.'

"The afternoon of the protest, the principal ordered Avella out of the classroom, reassigned him to an empty room in the school and ordered him to have no further contact with students.

"A few days later, in a reprimand letter, Lopez accused Avella of initiating the boycott and taking 'actions [that] caused a riot at the school.'

"Avella denied that he urged the students to boycott tests. Yes, he holds liberal views and is critical of the school system’s increased emphasis on standardized tests, Avella said, but the students decided to organize the protest after weeks of complaining about all the diagnostic tests the school was making them take.

"'My students know they are welcome in my class to have open discussions,' Avella said. 'I teach them critical thinking.'  --- June 2008

The parents on various listserves have been asking about teachers boycotting the tests and we all know that is death to a career. But if one were leaving anyway, it might be an interesting way to go out.

In May 2008, a non-tenured teacher went out just that way. First let me say these weren't the regular tests but some other kind of standardized test -- maybe a field test like they will be giving this June. And he didn't boycott the tests but let his kids openly discuss their disgust at having to sit through more tests that wouldn't count for anything. A bunch of kids emerged as leaders and led a student boycott of these tests in all 4 of the teacher's 8th grade classes. They just left the entire test booklet blank.

The teacher was rubber roomed and vilified in the school, IS 318 BRONX (not the same IS 318 Brooklyn, the chess championship school). (I seem to remember the principal around the same time also drove out the dedicated robotics coach who quit the NYC school system.)

It became a big story at the time and of course the UFT ran the other way. Thanks to Susan Ohanian for reminding me of the teacher's name and when this took place -- 4 years ago before GEM even existed.

Some of us in ICE were working with the Justice Not Just Tests committee of NYCORE and we got involved in this story, even petitioning Randi and Leo. I quickly compiled a bunch of stuff on the story.

Some hits from Susan's site on the story:
  1. Bronx 8th-graders boycott practice exam but teacher may get ax (Yahoo, Good News!
  2. Individual Acts of Resistance (Yahoo, Good News! )
  3. Individual Acts of Resistance (Resisters' Letters, 2008-05-22)
  4. Individual Acts of Resistance (Resisters' Letters, 2008-05-23)
  5. Rouge Forum Update (Outrage of the Day, 2008-05-28)
  6. Ask Chancellor Klein a Question and You'll Hear from the Strategic Response Group (Outrage of the Day, 2008-06-12)
  7. Leave No Corporate CEO Behind (Outrage of the Day, 2008-10-02)
  8. Living for Change: Teens Re-Invent Education (NCLB Atrocities, 2008-06-01)
 And here are a bunch of stories for your enjoyment in some rough chronological order

Ed Notes: May 27, 2008

Where is Leo Casey and Edwize on Test Boycott? 

Fred Klonsky at PreaPrez wants to know how the UFT has responded in supporting the teacher in the student testing boycott case? He writes:
One of their leaders, Leo Casey, seems to have no problem finding time to writing on EdWize, the UFT blog, long, very long theoretical critiques of G. William Domhoff’s analysis of the power elite. This is something I’m sure his rank-and-file members have been salivating to read. Yet not a word about Doug Avella and the students of I.S. 318X.
We're sure the UFT is doing what it always does in cases like these: provide a rep and inform the teacher of his rights, which as a probationary teacher are few. They will claim they are negotiating behind the scenes and therefore must remain quiet.

Students need support too

WHAT DID MR. AVELLA SAY AND WHEN DID HE SAY IT?

Coming soon: Waterboarding as a staple of DOE investigations

What about the public aspect of the situation? That a teacher discusses an issue with his classes, the kids take some action, and the teacher is immediately blamed and sent to the rubber room. Remember. The kids have supposedly taken 22 standardized tests this year and this was one of those practice types that ARIS, which is not working effectively, is supposed to deal with.

It seems the UFT should use its pulpit to shout about this case loud and clear. They may very well argue that publicity would hurt the teacher. I disagree. His best chances would seem to come from embarassing the DOE to the extreme over the use of Gestapo tactics against the kids and teacher.

“We’ve had a whole bunch of these diagnostic tests all year,” Tatiana Nelson, 13, one of the protest leaders, said Tuesday outside the school. “They don’t even count toward our grades. The school system’s just treating us like test dummies for the companies that make the exams.”

Sounds like no harm, no foul.

Sources tell us the children were threatened with No GRADUATION or PROM if they didn't comply and rat the teacher out and Avella's program is being covered by a substitute. Is it a good thing for the kids to lose a popular teacher at this point in the year? And what of the bigger lesson of threats and intimidation? Where's the outrage at the violation of these children by the system? Anyone out there in the regressive reform movement who are so concerned about achievment gaps in the abstract?

BRING AVELLA BACK TO HIS KIDS FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR FOR THE SAKE OF THE KIDS!

Where's the NY press which is always talking about how much money is being wasted by the rubber room? Do you get a clue why teachers need tenure? If Avella had tenure he would be in a much stronger position. In fact, when Joel Klein and the regressive ed reformers try to make the case for the elimination of tenure, respond with these two words: Doug Avella.

[2012 addendum -- today, even if Avella had tenure he would still get a 3020a dismissal hearing and would probably be fired.]
------

Here's my follow-up later that day:

Ed Notes Online: Support for Doug Avella Builds
May 27, 2008

Support for Doug Avella Builds

PLEASE WRITE TO CHANCELLOR KLEIN IN SUPPORT OF A TEACHER WHO TEACHES CRITICAL THINKING

To all those in favor of critical thought,

You have most likely heard about the situation in the Bronx at IS 318. On May 13 six classes of 8th graders staged a boycott in protest to being forced to take another standardized test, one of over two dozen this year. They boycotted one of the practice tests. An 8th grade social studies teacher, Douglas Avella, was falsely accused of instigating the students to boycott, and he is already in the rubber room and likely to lose his job entirely. Over the past week, a number of news articles and editorials have come out, including coverage from Juan Gonzalez and on WBAI's Democracy Now, and there has been a huge outpouring of concern and support for the teacher and the students. Recently, there have been a few other cases of testing boycotts in other U.S. cities, but this is the first one that we have heard about that was initiated by students. The students of I.S. 318 thought critically about their education, organized with each other, and then decided to take action. Their actions should be celebrated. The students and their teacher should be applauded and their message of urgency about the current state of high-stakes testing in our schools taken seriously.
We need to let the DOE know that we need more teachers like Douglas Avella. We need more educators who listen to their students, take their ideas and experiences seriously, and make it possible for them to respond thoughtfully and critically to their world. The students of I.S. 318 stood up for what they thought was right. They have been taught by a beloved teacher whose job is now in jeopardy. It is critical that we stand up right now and show our support for Doug Avella and his students. Please send an email to Chancellor Joel Klein at jklein@schools.nyc.gov.

Let him know that we demand the immediate re-instatement of Douglas Avella to his teaching position at IS 318 and the removal of any negative letters or ratings in his file in connection with the test boycott.

also, please cc your letter to UFT President Randi Weingarten at rweingarten@uft.org

Thank-you!

Sam Coleman and Geoffrey Enriquez, on behalf of NYCORE
Priscilla Gonzalez and Donna Nevel, on behalf of Center for Immigrant Families
Jane Hirschmann, on behalf of Time Out From Testing
Sally Lee, on behalf of Teachers Unite 

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

And then this letter to the UFT:

 June 3, 2008

ASK THE UFT TO MAKE THE TESTING BOYCOTT A PRIORITY...

CONTINUE TO DEFEND ACADEMIC FREEDOM AND FREEDOM OF SPEECH
ASK THE UFT TO MAKE THE TESTING BOYCOTT A PRIORITY ISSUE

We ask that you continue to write e-mails to Chancellor Klein in support of a teacher who teaches critical thinking.
We are also asking the UFT to make this issue of academic freedom and freedom of speech a priority. Please e-mail UFT President Randi Weingarten rweingarten@uft.org and Vice President Leo Casey lcasey@uft.org asking the UFT to continue to defend teacher rights in this matter and to make this issue a priority for the UFT.
A sample letter is below:
Dear Leo Casey and Randi Weingarten,
As a member of the UFT, I ask that the teachers' union continue to be proactive in the struggle to defend the academic freedom of public school teacher Douglass Avella, who wanted his students to think critically about their education.

As an educator concerned with the abuse of standardized tests, I also support the 160 8th grade students who used their freedom of speech to boycott the practice test to demonstrate how excessive testing has taken away valuable learning time from the classroom.
Because of the large amount of support from teachers, educators, organizations, parents and students, I ask that our teachers' union make this issue of academic freedom and freedom of speech a priority.
Sincerely,

____________________
Teacher/UFT Member

Supported by:Center for Immigrant Families, NYCoRE, Teachers Unite, Time Out From Testing
----------
Here is Juan Gonzalez' in the Daily News with Susan's comment:
Bronx 8th-graders boycott practice exam but teacher may get ax
Susan Notes:

This is combined Good News for what the students did and Outrage for how the teacher is being treated.

What a remarkable feat. Let's hope this student insistence in taking back their learning will inspire some teachers to take back their teaching.

By Juan Gonzalez

Students at a South Bronx middle school have pulled off a stunning boycott against standardized testing.

More than 160 students in six different classes at Intermediate School 318 in the South Bronx - virtually the entire eighth grade - refused to take last Wednesday's three-hour practice exam for next month's statewide social studies test.

Instead, the students handed in blank exams.

Then they submitted signed petitions with a list of grievances to school Principal Maria Lopez and the Department of Education.

"We've had a whole bunch of these diagnostic tests all year," Tatiana Nelson, 13, one of the protest leaders, said Tuesday outside the school. "They don't even count toward our grades. The school system's just treating us like test dummies for the companies that make the exams."

According to the petition, they are sick and tired of the "constant, excessive and stressful testing" that causes them to "lose valuable instructional time with our teachers."

School administrators blamed the boycott on a 30-year-old probationary social studies teacher, Douglas Avella.

The afternoon of the protest, the principal ordered Avella out of the classroom, reassigned him to an empty room in the school and ordered him to have no further contact with students.

A few days later, in a reprimand letter, Lopez accused Avella of initiating the boycott and taking "actions [that] caused a riot at the school."

The students say their protest was entirely peaceful. In only one class, they say, was there some loud clapping after one exam proctor reacted angrily to their boycott.

This week, Lopez notified Avella in writing that he was to attend a meeting today for "your end of the year rating and my possible recommendation for the discontinuance of your probationary service."

"They're saying Mr. Avella made us do this," said Johnny Cruz, 15, another boycott leader. "They don't think we have brains of our own, like we're robots. We students wanted to make this statement. The school is oppressing us too much with all these tests."

Two days after the boycott, the students say, the principal held a meeting with all the students to find out how their protest was organized.

Avella on Tuesday denied that he urged the students to boycott tests.

Yes, he holds liberal views and is critical of the school system's increased emphasis on standardized tests, Avella said, but the students decided to organize the protest after weeks of complaining about all the diagnostic tests the school was making them take.

"My students know they are welcome in my class to have open discussions," Avella said. "I teach them critical thinking."

"Some teachers implied our graduation ceremony would be in danger, that we didn't have the right to protest against the test," said Tia Rivera, 14. "Well, we did it."

Lopez did not return calls for comment.

"This guy was far over the line in a lot of the ways he was running his classroom," said Department of Education spokesman David Cantor. "He was pulled because he was inappropriate with the kids. He was giving them messages that were inappropriate."

Several students defended Avella. They say he had made social studies an exciting subject for them.

"Now they've taken away the teacher we love only a few weeks before our real state exam for social studies," Tatiana Nelson said. "How does that help us?"
— Juan Gonzalez
New York Daily News
More from Susan:
Living for Change: Teens Re-Invent Education

Gary Doyle Comment: Dear Friends of Public Education:
The article below, written by Grace Lee Boggs, gives me hope. Grace describes a group of eighth graders who challenged the NCLB insanity. These students did what our so-called educational "leaders" across the country have failed to do.

By the way, Grace Lee Boggs is a Detroit-based activist, writer and speaker who has been challenging the system much longer than most people have been alive. Grace will be celebrating her 93rd birthday on June 27, 2008, and,according to a good friend who knows her, she is showing no signs of slowing down. I hope Grace is around for many more birthdays, as we desperately need more people like her.

By Grace Lee Boggs

On Thursday, May22, students at a South Bronx middle school pulled off a stunning boycott against the standardized testing mandated by Bush’s "No Child Left Behind" Act.

The May 22 New York Daily News carried Juan Gonzalez' story about the well-organized action and it was reprinted on Common Dreams.

"More than 160 students in six different classes at Intermediate School 318 in the South Bronx—virtually the entire eighth grade—refused to take last Wednesday’s three-hour practice exam for next month’s statewide social studies test.

Instead, the students handed in blank exams.

"Then they submitted signed petitions with a list of grievances to school Principal Maria Lopez and the Department of Education.

"The school system's just treating us like test dummies for the companies that make the exam,." said Tatiana Nelson, 13, one of the protest leaders.

"School administrators blamed the boycott on a 30-year-old probationary social studies teacher, Douglas Avella.

"'They’re saying Mr. Avella made us do this,' said Johnny Cruz, 15, another boycott leader. 'They don’t think we have brains of our own, like we're robots. We students wanted to make this statement. The school is oppressing us too much with all these tests.'

"The afternoon of the protest, the principal ordered Avella out of the classroom, reassigned him to an empty room in the school and ordered him to have no further contact with students.

"A few days later, in a reprimand letter, Lopez accused Avella of initiating the boycott and taking 'actions [that] caused a riot at the school.'

"Avella denied that he urged the students to boycott tests. Yes, he holds liberal views and is critical of the school system’s increased emphasis on standardized tests, Avella said, but the students decided to organize the protest after weeks of complaining about all the diagnostic tests the school was making them take.

"'My students know they are welcome in my class to have open discussions,' Avella said. 'I teach them critical thinking.'

"The students say their protest was entirely peaceful. In only one class, they say, was there some loud clapping after one exam proctor reacted angrily to their boycott."

"'Some teachers implied our graduation ceremony would be in danger, that we didn't have the right to protest against the test,' said Tia Rivera, 14. 'Well, we did it.'"

Comments by Common Dreams readers were overwhelmingly in support of the students and Avella.

"I hope the idea spreads from this school to others."

"The students and their teacher are an inspiration. May their example spread like a prairie fire across this dim and oppressive land. As a former teacher I know about the totalitarian strictures of standardized tests. Virtually every teacher I know hates them. The testing companies are making billions. It is a scam. Critical thinking is stifled, which is just fine with the powers that be. Teachers have tremendous power if they only had the courage to exercise it. A nation-wide strike against standardized tests would be a start. Standards, yes! Standardized testing, no!"

"He was teaching them to think for themselves. How will they be able to work at Mickey-Ds if they do that?"

"The testing serves to monitor young people—to track them into acceptable roles as adults or into the prison system."

"I hope the idea spreads from this school to others. It’s not like the kids aren’t going to hear about this and think about going on strike rather than taking a meaningless test."

"FCAT (Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test) was a test program that came from a company owned by Neal Bush (yes, former Gov. Jeb Bush and moron Pres. George Bush’s brother). How nice it was to have your brother JUMP on-board using taxpayer dollars to implement HIS companies program in the state school system!! "

"Everyone should read John Gatto, a teacher in NY who won the 'best teacher of the year' in both New York City and New York State."

"The whole No Child Left Beyond Act is just another way of robotizing education and kids. Think of the moron-in-chief who is its chief proponent. You can’t test creativity. You can’t test imagination. Like Einstein said 'Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.' It is time to revolt against this revolting trend in education to turn our kids into testing machines. And now kids are thinking for themselves. Praise to the eighth grade kids!"
— Grace Lee Boggs
Michigan Citizen
2008-06-01
http://tinyurl.com/5vuk77
--------------
And one more from Susan:
June 12, 2008

Ask Chancellor Klein a Question and You'll Hear from the Strategic Response Group

People who wrote New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein on behalf of Douglas Avella received a shocking reply from Elizabeth Sexton who identified herself as being an Associate with the Chancellor's Strategic Response Group
NYC Department of Education
52 Chambers St. | New York, NY 10007.

Sexton stated that she was responding on behalf of Chancellor Klein. In her strategic response, Sexton makes ugly, unsubstantiated allegations while at the same time referring to the privacy of Mr. Avella's file.

Visit the New York City Department of Education website, and you will learn that The DOE has set up a framework for ensuring that all questions sent to the central office are answered in a timely fashion.

The Chancellor’s Strategic Response Group answers about 200 letters and emails
sent to Chancellor Klein every week. We can only hope that they aren't all as nasty as this one.

How does one get to be a Strategic Responder? I couldn't locate Elizabeth Sexton online but one former Strategic Responder had a college degree in English, another in Political Science.

Question: Does the New York City Department of Education maintain a Rubber Room for unfit Strategic Responders?

Posted by Norm @ at 1 comment:
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