Common Core Ills

We need to focus more on common core. Here are just a few tidbits followed by a discussion on the Change the Stakes listserve between parents and teachers.
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Susan Ohanian continues her onslaught against Common Core, which you should oppose merely on the ground that both the UFT/AFT and Tweed support it.

Frightened to the Core
R. L. Ratto
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=285

The Common Core frightens this elementary teacher. Rightfully so.

Straight Up Conversation: Common Core Architect and New College Board President David Coleman
Rick Hess
Straight Up Education Week blog
2012-06-11
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=282

Rick Hess interviews David Coleman. Don't blame David Coleman for being very efficient at what he does. Blame NCTE, IRA, NCTM, ASCD, AFT, NEA.

And this on CC:

Yong Zhao 5:09pm Jun 17 Common Sense Vs. Common Core: How to Minimize the Damages of the Common Core Read my most recent blog post: http://zhaolearning.com/?p=1214 Common Sense Vs. Common Core: How to Minimize the Damages of the Common Core zhaolearning.com The wonder drug has been invented, manufactured, packaged, and shipped. Doctors and nurses are being..

A NYC teacher writes on CC:

NY State used some of its discretionary RTTT funds to create Common Core frameworks for Pre-K. This article is one of the scariest pieces of evidence I've seen for the "war against childhood.":

http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=3161

A parent asks:

I'm coming to this a bit late; could someone point me to some materials explaining why national curricula are bad?  Looking at this somewhat ignorantly, arithmetic is arithmetic, physics is physics, biology is biology (even in the states where it's not ;-)), etc., so why oppose national standards?.  Obviously, regional content is important, but it should be possible to strike a balance without losing what's good about common standards in subjects that clearly lend themselves to such standards.  It seems to me that the core problem with the common core is not that it's national -- it's that it's bad (i.e., it's designed to be a cattle chute toward short answer tests, it's simultaneously prescriptive and vague to the point of inscrutability, it's unsupported by realistic research or field testing, etc.).  National curricula (such as those that exist in many nations considered exemplary) don't have to have these flaws.  Am I wrong in my thinking?

 Another parent replies:

That's a great question. What we're seeing with the Common Core is
that the process was so bad -- not transparent, excessively controlled
by the testing companies, etc. -- that many of the original
participants refused to sign off on the final result (see the articles
in Leonie's recent post on the Common Core).

The question I'm asking is, why do we need imposed national standards
for public but not private schools? If there's a basic principle at
stake here, that the nation as a whole has a legitimate,
constitutional interest in dictating learning goals to the nation's
children, why are some categories of children excluded from those
dictates?

Clearly there are advanced nations with national standards that are
doing fine. But this is the United States. Our great distinguishing
national characteristic is supposed to be the premium we place on
freedom, on individual rights, and the associated dynamism and
creativity of our culture -- which are real. Moreover, our
constitution supposedly delegates the regulation of education to the
states. Since our most comprehensive effort at national standards, the
Common Core, is an unfolding disaster, it does beg the question, why,
in a time of scarcity most especially, but really at any time at all,
should we violate our national traditions of pluralism, individualism
and local control of education to move towards a model that show no
signs of achieving the goals we all supposedly care about -- helping
our children become more creative, flexible thinkers ready for the
ever-changing conditions of the job markets of the future?

 And I chip in:

While it seems obvious that there are certain things that everyone should be taught -- algebra is algebra but the devil is in the details. A national curricula that is mandated vs recommended means it will be measured. And watered down by politics. Can't you see pressure to include intelligent design? Or maybe flat earth to be fair to those who still debunk the "earth is round" theory?
We all know the civil war should be taught, but I can imagine it being taught very differently in different places. Thus an argument for standardizing. But imagine the potential battles over that.

While nations like France have a centralized system we can already see how dangerous NCLB and RTTT have been destructive. The nations you talk about are not driven by destruction of public education with the aim of privatization so we need to look at common core in that context and not as a theoretical basis.

 And this idea from a parent activist in Change the Stakes:

I'm sure someone must have fully developed the following argument, but
it's just occurring to me so I'll share it for possible inclusion in
some form in our evolving position statements.

Two things are clear:

1) In order to avoid having federal and state governments destroy
public education, we must return to local control.

2) Yet there must be some sort of state oversight, or you get
situations like that unfolding in Louisiana in which anyone with a
bank of computer terminals and a few DVDs can set up shop as a school.

I haven't noticed a burgeoning movement of affluent parents protesting
the destructive interference of government in our nation's private
schools. Whatever the accreditation process for private schools, the
rich seem pretty much satisfied with the range of educational
approaches they offer. So let's govern public schools the same way.
They must meet certain very general standards to be accredited, but
after that they get to design their own curricula, choose their own
teaching materials, and make their own determinations about how to
evaluate their staff and students.

It is such an obvious injustice that no one talks about it: in our
country, the state can impose whatever draconion and counterproductive
policies it likes on parents and children who cannot afford to buy
their way out of the system through the option of private schooling,
but the affluent can bypass "standards" and "accountability" at will.
Moreover, the wonderful range of existing public schools in New York
proves that the teachers and principals in the public system are fully
capable of developing as rich and varied a range of schooling options
as those in the private system. What exactly is wrong with offering
the same freedoms to public-school parents that private-school parents
enjoy?

We as a society can choose equity in the domain of school regulation
-- and the beauty of it is it will save taxpayer money, since we can
ditch the fantastically wasteful and destructive accountability
systems now consuming billions of dollars nationwide.

Sunday on Monday, June 18 - It's a Wrap

This past week was a bit lighter on activism than the busy week of June 4. I won't bore you right up front but you can read about the week that was with some commentary below.

Here are some connections to check out from the blogs on issues I would have blogged about. If you don't check out our extensive blog roll you are missing a lot. Really, I should just cull from all the great blogs and never actually have to write anything myself.

Last Stand for Children First
Anything written on this great satirical blog out of Chicago is a howl.

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A School Too Far: Is School Choice Unraveling Education Reform In New York City?

Marc Epstein nails the de-coupling of schools from the surrounding neighborhoods.
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James Eterno at the ICE blog:
CAN YOU BELIEVE WE'RE GOING TO FACT FINDING AGAIN?
And his report of the Delegate Assembly (which I still hope to report on):
SPECIAL DELEGATE ASSEMBLY: UFT ENDORSEMENTS & MULGREW RESPONDS TO LAWSUIT
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Gary Rubinstein discovers secret of charter schools that claim success:
....the strategy that charters have proved effective is:  Keep the bottom 15% of the kids away from the top 50% of the kids. What charters teach us

My comment
Some charter school charlatan will come up with this: we will take the 15% if you pay us a lot. Then they will do something analogous to the New Jersey half-way house scam the NY Times has been talking about -- cut services to the bone and treat the kids like prisoners. No one will rally care much anyway --- the operators will make a lot of money, the public schools -- whatever is left of them can compete with charters on a more equal basis, but ultimately they will disappear too since the only reason to keep them around was to service those 15%. A nice tidy package for the privatizers.
Might take another generation but it will come.
One of the big culprits in all this has been the teacher unions trying to straddle the line and refusing to challenge the very idea of charters as having that ultimate aim.

-------
Perdido Street School:

AFT, NEA Need To Pressure Obama To Stop Teacher Bashing And Race to the Top

My comment:
Before pressuring Obama we have to pressure the teacher unions. But good luck with that when dealing with the UFT/AFT a top-down monopoly of power. The only pressure they will understand is when there are thousands of teachers in the streets screaming for their heads. See Chicago. Now that union might still endorse Obama but as a local political tactic given the war that is going on in that city. Or maybe not. If they go on a strike in the fall, it will be fun to watch Obama's silence in the midst of an election campaign and a labor war in his own city. The CTU seems able to gather community support at the grassroots level -- they have been working on this since the CORE caucus was founded 4 years ago so they have foresight.

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Accountable Talk takes apart Walcott's arguments for giving him sole right to fire teachers accused of sex-related issues.

Love this one:

if Walcott is correct, what he is saying is that the city knowingly agrees to hire arbitrators who send sexual predators back into the classroom. And since he is in charge of the DOE, the buck must stop with him. He is as guilty as anyone of what he claims is true. 

Dennis Walcott, Debunked
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 Diane Ravitch who has a new toy with her new blog where she is prolific sent this link to a hilarious 11 minute video that features a conversation between a teacher and supervisor that nails the essence of the ed deform view of teachers.

Race from the Axe




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Ms. Katie's Ramblings

Rahm's Longer School Day Tearing an Elementary School Apart
Another great blog out of Chicago



Ed Notes posts over the past week (in reverse order):

• Pre-K Destruction: It is "children last " with the...
• Bill Gates Tells Us Why His High School Was a Grea...
• A Happy Happy Hour - We Want MORE
• Carol's Garden
• A Sign of the Times? Unity Chapter Leaders Losing ...
• TODAY! Join MORE June 16th for Happy Hour and Grea...
• Remarkable Video From Railroaded Rubber Room Teach...
• Portelos Wins Chapter Leader Election from Rubber ...
• Ravitch on Chicago
• UFT "Neutrality" in Jeffries-Barron Race is Suppor...
• NBC Bias on Deborah Kenny HVA Charter Scam and NY ...
• Tuesday: Three Events Today - Press Conf on DOE Sp...

Here is the week that was -- if you're interested

Monday June 11: Hang out at home

Tuesday June 12: I work with a group called Active Aging that produces a TV show at Manhattan Neighborhood Network and we are doing a story on an artist/musician/and lots more named Leo Witlarge --- what an interesting guy and it should make a great story. He lives on Bushwick Ave. in what could pass for a museum. Check out some of his work: www.witlarge.com.
In the evening it was off to Leonie Haimson's Skinny Awards dinner, which was packed, mostly with people I didn't know. The UFT had a table for 8 and I knew a few of them. I got to talk to a very interesting, a 2nd or 3rd careerer in the 9th year in our wonderful system working at a closing school. She said she has worked in a number of different jobs and systems and the NYCDOE is the most dysfunctional. "Intentionally dysfunctional," I told her to assist in its destruction so it can be privatized.

Weds June 13:  Only item was the UFT Delegate Assembly where I offered free dvds of our movie on condition of holding a screening in the school. Twelve people took me up on it. Even though online, we want people to see it in groups and that is why we ordered another thousand. Check it out if you haven't seen it and let me know if you want to hold a screening in your school and I'll get you a dvd.

Thurs June 14 - Flag Day. I think we used to get off when I was a kid. New air conditioning system installed, just in time for the small memorial/party we are holding for my dad this Thursday when it will be 97 degrees.

Friday June 15 -- electrician came to hook up the system. Interesting conversation about unions with the worker doing the installing. His whole family are union but he works for a private contractor, a guy who used to coach his teams as a kid and also a grad of Brooklyn Polytech. When the boss came by we had a nice chat --- a real down home guy with a great sense of humor. He even custom made a few small brackets I needed for another job, right on the spot.

Saturday June 16 -- The gala MORE happy hour.

Sunday June 17 -- out to Philadelphia area for our niece's fathers day invite. Two kids aged 4 and 1. They did lots of chasing around. And there was some water flying around. Got into the usual discussion with her father in law who is adamant that Obama is a socialist. If he only read what the left is saying about Obama as the ultimate supporter of capitalism.

Throughout the week there were lots of visits to my dad's apartment -- we have to have it cleared out by June 30. Put up a note there was free furniture available and the calls have been coming in. Need a 40 year old stereo system?

Pre-K Destruction: It is "children last " with the DOE.

NY Times bias: The only way SchoolBook lets you respond is through Facebook. Why? Many people do not use this social media.

We've seen how Tweed, the enemy within, purposely denies pre-k growth for public schools, their very lifeline, so they can favor charters by creating "demand." This message was sent by GEM/ICE/MORE member Pat Dobosz, a pre-k teachers in Williamsburg after reading this article at Schoolbook:

More Pre-K Seats Open for Bid, Starting Monday – SchoolBook

Bill Gates Tells Us Why His High School Was a Great Learning Environment

Hi Norm,

I'm a regular reader.  I wrote the piece below for a chat board:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002807175 & someone told me I should send it to education bloggers, so I am.  Feel free to use it if you think it's of interest.

Bill Gates Tells Us Why His High School Was a Great Learning Environment

Bill's high school was Seattle's most elite private school, Lakeside, current tuition $28K (not including food, books, bus, laptop, and field trips).

A bargain, compared to some eastern private schools, but about equal to the median income of all US workers:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/20/us-incomes-falling-as-optimism-reaches-10-year-low_n_1022118.html

Lakeside has a lovely campus that looks kind of like a college campus:






- Faculty is nearly equally balanced between men & women (i.e. Lakeside pays well);
- 79% of faculty have advanced degrees;
- 17% are "faculty of color" (half the students are "students of color," cough, Asian)
- Student/teacher ratio: 9 to 1
- Average class size: 16
- High school library = 20,000 volumes
- 24 varsity sports offered
- New sports facility offers cryotherapy & hydrotherapy spas
- Full arts program with drama, various choruses, various band including jazz band, chamber orchestra

Bill says Lakeside was great because the teachers pushed the students to achieve (and when you push students to achieve, of course they do, especially when you challenge them to read your college thesis and your ten favorite books -- what student wouldn't rise to such a fascinating challenge...):

Rigor absolutely defined my Lakeside experience. Lakeside had the kind of teachers who would come to me, even when I was getting straight A's, and say: "When are you going to start applying yourself?" Teachers like Ann...One day, she said: "Bill, you're just coasting. Here are my ten favorite books; read these. Here's my college thesis; you should read it." She challenged me to do more. I never would have come to enjoy literature as much as I do if she hadn’t pushed me.

Bill says Lakeside was great because the education was relevant to real life:

Relevance also was a big part of my Lakeside education. The most common image of a bad education is a sullen kid, slumped in a desk saying: "When am I ever going to use this?"
The teachers here did everything to make their lessons matter....Years before other schools recognized the importance of computers, the Lakeside Mothers Club came up with the money to buy a teletype that connected over the phone lines with a GE time-sharing computer...

The school could have shut down the terminal, or they could have tightly regulated who got to use it. Instead, they opened it up. Instead of teaching us about computers in the conventional sense, Lakeside just unleashed us...

Lakeside introduced me to computers. They allowed me to teach a class in computers. They hired me to write a scheduling program. It didn’t have to work that way. They could have hired an outside computer expert to do the scheduling system. Teachers could have insisted that they teach classes on computing, simply because they were the teachers and we were the students...

Bill says Lakeside was great because of relationships:

Finally, I had great relationships with my teachers here at Lakeside. Classes were small. You got to know the teachers. They got to know you. And the relationships that come from that really make a difference...

Relationships include the ones developed in Lakeside's Global Learning Program. Bill thinks it's important that rich kids see how poor people in other countries live...poor neighbors in *this* country, not so much...

I’m really excited about the Global Service Learning Program, which will send Lakeside students on extended trips to developing countries to learn about the people and the issues they face...I believe if we could get the same kind of visibility for health problems around the world, so that rich people saw millions of impoverished mothers burying babies who died from causes we can prevent—we would insist that something be done, and we would be willing to pay for it...We need to see what’s happening—only then will we stop ignoring our neighbors and start helping them.

Bill says: I want as many students as possible, from as many different backgrounds as possible, to enjoy a Lakeside education.

http://www.gatesfoundation.org/speeches-commentary/Pages/bill-gates-2005-lakeside.aspx


Bill is funding financial aid for talented students who can meet Lakeside's rigorous entrance requirements.

Bill is funding schooling for "ordinary" students too -- but what does Bill want for these "ordinary" students?

Bill says for ordinary students, class size doesn't matter:

http://www.alternet.org/story/149232/where_does_billionaire_monopolist_bill_gates_get_off_saying_bigger_class_size_and_fewer_teachers_is_the_education_solution/?page=2

Bill is funding Teach for America, because for ordinary students, teacher training and advanced degrees don't matter, 5 weeks training & a BA is plenty:

http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=2163§ion=Article

Bill is funding high-stakes testing, which stresses students, teachers and schools and crowds out class time & district money for actual teaching, the arts, and sports. Ordinary students don't need those things.

Bill is also funding Common Core, which will dictate a national curriculum to the extent that every school in the country will be on the same page of the same book or computer program at the same time. So no chance for students to be "unleashed," or go with the flow of the students' interests, as was Bill's lucky experience at Lakeside.

Once Common Core is instituted there will be even more standardized tests -- high-stakes standardized tests in every subject!! At least 20% more testing time!! And these tests will determine whether a student passes or fails, whether a school passes or fails, and whether a teacher has a job or not.

http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/04/the_common_core_the_technocrat.html

Bill thinks when schools and teachers fail his tests, the school should be dissolved, the teachers should be fired, and someone else should come in and give it a shot, perhaps in a charter school open to anyone on a lottery system.

Because stability and relationships aren't so important for ordinary students as they are for the kind of students who go to Lakeside.

Maybe the charter school can rent a church basement, or "co-locate" in a public school and push the public school students into classrooms located in supply closets or down in the boiler room.

Because decent facilities don't matter so much to ordinary students.

Bill Gates wants to keep a central database of all student information:

http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/

Far from allowing students to be "unleashed" & learn through "relevant" experiences like Bill did, Bill Gates is funding Orwellian electronic devices which will monitor students' attention to his canned lessons, and cameras in classrooms to make sure teachers are sticking to the canned lessons:

http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/06/wiring_our_students.html

Bill is going to make a lot of money on all the things he's imposing on ordinary students...but that's another OP. Suffice to say that Bill's schools won't be hiring students to write computer programs for them, or anything else. They'll be hiring private contractors for big bucks.

What can we conclude from the kind of education Bill supports at Lakeside and the kind of education Bill supports for ordinary students? Not only Bill, but all the rest of the elite prep-school educated "Education Deform" crowd?

I think it's pretty obvious.

 

 

A Happy Happy Hour - We Want MORE

MORE Happy Hour: They just kept comin' and comin' with even more stories of Unity Caucus chapter leaders being driven out of office when challenged.

I got home last night from a great evening out with people who turned out for the Movement of Rank and File Educators (MORE - morecaucusnyc.org) first ever Happy Hour at Druids Bar. A great mix of people, from a small group of retirees like me to experienced teachers to lots of under 5-year people. And a good balance -- high, middle and elementary. I didn't know a whole bunch of people - a good sign that some people are coming out of the woodwork. I'm still cautious as always as I've been through some of this before.

They just kept comin' and comin' with even more stories of Unity Caucus chapter leaders being driven out of office when challenged. Unfortunately, the number of schools still make up a relative blip and Unity still controls the bulk of the schools. But there may be places out there where Unity was overturned that we do not know about yet.

Then there is this email from an old pal, an independent retiree who was a chapter leader:

found the unity chapter leaders losing in this election interesting.  Of course, some schools did not even post the notice or inform their staff of elections.  Oh well.... business as usual.

Next year's Delegate Assemblies should be interesting, with a big turnover. MORE is ordering tee-shirts for affiliated CLs and Del to wear. What Unity will do is hold new chapter leader training and use the district reps to try to recruit as many people into the black hole of Unity as they can, thus gagging them and shutting them off from MORE.

With general UFT elections coming with the campaign season beginning in January 2013 and the election at the end of March, that adds to the interest. Of course, the way the union is structured and with New Action running to split the opposition vote, there is little chance to win anything.

BUT
 As we've been saying for many years, the chapter elections are more important. You can't even hope to win anything without a ground game --- schools and districts. That is a long haul, but as Unity and Mulgrew demonstrate an inability to defend the public schools, more and more teachers will be turned off. Think Chicago 5 years ago.

I heard one story yesterday about a large high school election where a transferee in the first year in the school ran a militant campaign and won. Of course the Unity person challenged the election --- really unbelievable --- and the borough office upheld the challenge - of course, not the first time -- count on the borough office to uphold any challenge by a Unity CL who lost. In the next round 1/3 didn't vote, 1/3 went to the challenger and the Unity and another candidate split the other 1/3. So the Unity person got 1/6 of the total school vote and the person we know doubled it. Frankly, I was called by this person weeks ago and given the situation described I didn't think there was a chance to win, given it was the first year in a large school.

Interesting. I wonder how any people in large high schools can vote for the person representing the party that has let their schools die slow deaths with barely a peep. Do you think Leo Casey is bailing out at the right time? Any idea who will replace him?

 If you're interested in MORE touch down with the web site for details and events.
 I'm doing an event on July 12 on some UFT history and the roots of the opposition caucuses over the time I've been involved. The roots of MORE go deep.


=============
The opinions expressed on EdNotesOnline are solely those of Norm Scott and are not to be taken as official positions (though Unity Caucus/New Action slugs will try to paint them that way) of any of the groups or organizations Norm works with: ICE, GEM, MORE, Change the Stakes, NYCORE, FIRST Lego League NYC, Rockaway Theatre Co., Active Aging, The Wave, Aliens on Earth, etc.

Carol's Garden

Carol's Garden, a painting by one of my wife's friends

Below are a bunch of reasons I am always reluctant to leave our garden. And when I do always happy to be back. The best is to be out there reading and smoking a stogie.

The painting on the right was inspired by the garden. My wife handles the flowers and vegetables while I do the shrubs, trees and general landscaping design.

Yesterday Vera Pavone stopped by with a gift of 2 more plants while there is little space for them, but I'll manage.

I hope the weather holds for this Thursday as we're doing a memorial/party for my dad for friends and family where we will serve his favorite foods -- plus some edible stuff. He told me, "When I go don't have a funeral, have a party. I'll pay for it." I hope the check doesn't bounce (and yes we did have a funeral). I wrote a piece about my dad for my writing group and after revising it based on their input I will use it to say a few words. Very few so people can eat that Waldbaum's rotisserie chicken he loved so much.

These are from my phone and do not do the garden justice. If only I were a real photographer.... I want to share them with you before I head over to the MORE Happy hour where we will eat, drink and be merry --- and have some great conversations -- and get to see some of the new MORE logos being developed.

Took me years to figure out how to get from deck to patio and a local guy has done work for 25 years for me executed it perfectly.

An offspring from my famous oak leaf hydangea  c. 1987 which is still in my backyard - I have given cuttings to everyone and gardens all over have the babies. At that time it was rare, now all over the place.

Oak leaf next to Daphnoides blue (purple) hydrangea

Vera gave me this as a young Viburnam many yrs ago -- I had no room so put it in my neighbor's yard. Then put in a twin.

Early spring in front

An amazing vibernum - blooms all summer

Side of the house that is not often seen,

An almost dead maple when I got it at Botanic Garden plant sale many years ago. I could stare at it for hours -- and often do.

A little mountain laurel -- a few weeks of bliss

One of 3 smoke bushes I have

Climbing Hydrangea -- the first time it bloomed like this ever -- lots of work pruning to get it like this

A Sign of the Times? Unity Chapter Leaders Losing Elections

The administration at my school is livid that I won. They are punishing the staff with a lengthy sign out process and screwed up a lot of programs. Teachers were given classes outside of their license, grades they never taught before, removed from their positions etc. What can we do?

They say politics is local and when it comes to school politics it certainly is. But are we trending here given the anecdotes coming in about Unity Caucus chapter leaders who have defended the UFT hierarchy in their policies losing elections? Or are these just little molehills? Sure, local school issues are the dominating force. But remember that many Unity people follow the mantra of the union about being "partners" and all too many are with their principals.

Unity's Richard Candia from IS 49SI who sold out Portelos and the rest of his colleagues while the UFT Staten Island office looked the other way may be the poster boy of a Unity sell-out. So Portelos wins the election out of the rubber room and the principal responds by retaliating against the entire staff -- and certainly hurting children in the process.

Imagine trying to defend the UFT position on judging teachers by data --- even 20%, or 40%. Or whatever line they are selling?

Just the other day the DA passed a resolution reaffirming the protection of chapter leaders. Ha, go ask Peter Lamphere. (By the way, Dave Pecoraro who is CL of Beach Channel HS and currently in the rubber room called the question on the debate on this issue so Mulgrew could get out early -- Dave calls the question on some issue almost every meeting --- as does Nina Tribble --- these two are the designated killers of debate).

I and the late Paul Baizerman put up a reso on protecting chapter leaders in 2001 and it was turned down overwhelmingly by Unity with Tom Pappas speaking against it and saying chapter leaders have enough protections. How's that been working out Tom that you all have to REAFFIRM YOUR SUPPORT FOR CHAPTER LEADERS? [I have to dig up that reso from the archives for my report on the DA where even 5 minutes of Mulgrew's lame attempts at being cute make me wish for the ghost of Weingarten.]

Principals are also using the "excess the new chapter leader" approach if they don't like the way the election came out. Here is a note from a school in Queens where the favored Unity candidate lost the election:

Norm

We just had a chapter leader vote and the person who won is pretty militant. The principal does not like this person because he defends teachers. So the principal placed him on the excess list. If he becomes excessed who becomes our chapter leader?

I suggested calling the UFT Queens office but then asked if it was a Unity chapter leader the principal favored. Sure enough it was. Thus forget the UFT borough office which has proven time and again it prefers a suck-up Unity CL to an independent or opposition person who fights for the rights of teachers.

And so it goes.

Are you an independent? Come hang out with the crew from MORE tomorrow at 5pm. Join me in a toast to the future endeavors of Leo Casey in Washington, as Randi put it, an "exquisite choice." For us here in NYC.

TODAY! Join MORE June 16th for Happy Hour and Great Conversations

TODAY! Join MORE June 16th for Happy Hour and Great Conversations

I'm not talkin', just drinkin'. Maybe hoist one for Leo Casey on his new venture leading the Al Shanker institute into justifying charter schools. Hey, Leo, come on down!

Movement of Rank & File Educators The social justice caucus of the UFT “Our working conditions are our students’ learning conditions”

MORE

The Movement of Rank and File Educators invites you for a happy hour at

Druids Bar and Restaurant

Saturday, June 16

5 - 7 pm

736 10th Avenue

Trains: E/C/1 at 50th St.

to talk about
Everything Union!

• School closings
• turnaround models
• Race to the Top
• teacher data reports
• ATR’s
• the structure of our union: the United Federation of Teachers (UFT)
• the Unity caucus and caucuses in general
• lack of a contract
• union elections
• chapter leaders and delegates.....

and any other topic you care to discuss!

Finally got my wife's permission to go. 

Remarkable Video From Railroaded Rubber Room Teacher Exposes Bloomberg Claim on Quality Teachers

Let's not discount the role, or lack of, that UFT/Unity Caucus played at IS 49 SI where one of their own, Richard Candia, not only sold out to the principal Linda Hill, but worked with her to go after Portelos supporters. That Portelos is in a supposedly defunct rubber room for almost 2 months on unspecified charges should be a major embarrassment for both the UFT and DOE.

Has the DOE picked the wrong victim or not?

Here is a wonderful video Francesco Portelos made of his work. The DOE will probably make this video one of the charges against him. Can't wait to peruse all the other videos of schools and kids at work. So take a look and see what the children of IS 49 SI are being denied by the DOE, Mayor Bloomberg, Dennis Walcott and all Tweedies who claim they want quality teachers.

Just a few clips of my accomplishments before I asked about the school's finances. That question began a 5 month saga filled with hostility, harassment, betrayal, investigations, defamation of character, slander and more retaliation that eventually caused me to be removed from school. What am I charged with? That is a good question, but it has been over 45 days since I was sent to a small Rubber Room (that doesn't exist) and I still have no clue as to why I was removed. The only clue lies in some documentation I obtained that shows financial misconduct by the administration. Good call on removing me as I seem to be the biggest threat to uncovering who has their hand in the student's cookie jar. Can you hear me now?

See Portelos lessons for students and teachers:

Francesco Portelos is awaiting unspecified charges and if you read his blog you will see just how trumped up there are whatever they may be. He is luckily tenured and entitled to a hearing before being fired. Otherwise he would be long gone.

Time clock at Network HQ in Ozone Pk

Does anyone in the press think that paying a qualified teacher to sit in a rubber room while getting full pay while there is a long-drawn out investigation --- possibly to be followed by charges and a 3020a dismissal hearing that will cost the DOE hundreds of thousands of dollars --- all because Portelos exposed one of "theirs" -- a principal - and we know they are sacrosanct.

The fact that Portelos won the chapter leadership from the isolation of the rubber room -- and not just a rubber room in Staten Island, but in Ozone Park at the corrupt Network
See: Winning the Union Chapter Leader position from the Rubber Room.

See story of photo at left: “Stay away from him….he’s a “Blogger”!


While in the rubber room in Ozone Park he has begun to expose the farce of the network that supports Linda Hill -- another set of high paid rats.

Let's not discount the role, or lack of, that UFT/Unity Caucus played at IS 49 SI where one of their own, Richard Candia, not only sold out to the principal Linda Hill, but worked with her to go after Portelos supporters. (See Portelos Story). Until Portelos blew the story wide open, the UFT will allow a principal to get away with murder. A lone teacher fighting back and paying the consequences did more than the entire union to open up this can or worms.

UFT borough leaders urged Portelos not to run for chapter leader. Worried he was too independent? He insisted they follow the rules in running the chapter election and he won. I'm sure they also urged  him not to go public, but he did and is getting results. If the DOE dares to file 3020A charges in an attempt to fire him he will open the hearings to the public and press and we will see the trial of the century which will expose the DOE.

Where is the press on this story of railroading? Would the public be supportive of attempts to fire tenured teachers if stories like this were actually made the press?

When Portelos requested the right to go back to school to collect his personal items he was denied and told to make a list. Instead of demanding he be allowed into the school -- even after school --- after all, he is such a danger --- the UFT told him to just make a list despite this has never happened before. So he did:

I checked and have not found any reassigned educator ever being prevented from getting their personal belongings. I totally forgot that I was a threat to national security. They continue to break the mold with me and I’m flattered yet again. I was told “this is the first time I have seen DOE prevent a reassigned employee from making arrangements to pick up personal belongings in person.” Am I a threat to national security OR a threat to the security of some skeletons in the closet (A closet I might have a key to).
Here it goes….

Mr. Portelos’ Incomplete List of things he brought to the lab in 5 years

1. 1 Set of silver magnetic pens from Brookstone
2. Painting of a frog splashing into water in suspended animation
3. Painting from Salvadore Dali “The Persistence of Memory”
4. 2 white battery chargers
5. 1 White PVC trajectory air pump prototype I was designing to teach trajectory (priceless)
6. 1 microwave
7. 1 refrigerator
8. 1 tuppeware with red lid of 1/4 full of Nescafe
9. 1 tupperware with red lid with some sugar in it
10. 1 Staples “That was easy!” Button
11. 1 Rii wireless mini keyboard
12. 1 larger wireless keyboard with string
13. About 6 chips of Ram DDR 512 and 1GB
14. 1 Hammer with gray and yellow handle
15. 1 Ratchet screwdriver (black)
16. 2 screw drivers Phillips and Flathead
17. 1 Logitech webcam blue not black
18. 2 robotics team shirts
19. 1 IS 49 white polo
20. 1 set of eyeglasses in black case
21. 4 AA rechargeable batteries
22. 2 AA rechargeable batteries
23. 1 Philadendron plant..alive!
24. 2 Boxes of straws ( about 300)
25. 2 boxes of pipe cleaners
26. About 15 styrofoam pipe insulation covers
27. 1 blue sign on door with quote from  Portelos
28. 1 broken digital camera
29. 1 broken Roomba
30. 1 broken xbox
31. 1 large paper airplane that says Aerodynamics on it.
32. 1 hydro car that runs on water
33. 1 large gray collapsable laundry mesh basket
34. 3 cable covers
35. 1 white mirror
36. 1 Gray foam nerf USB missile launcher
37. One Desktop PC with sticker that says MV on it. No DOE parts in it.
38. 2 DigiPort to HDMI connectors
39. 2-3 finger LED flash lights (experiment I was working on with infrared sensors)
40. One bag of Green felt pieces (about 30)
41. 4 Renuzit deodorizers
42. 1 approx 7″ diameter tupperware with blue lid. May still have food in it, but my mother in law has been asking for it.
43. 2 Water bottles
44. One black stapler. Swingline I believe
45. My son Alexander’s Birth Announcement
46. An old AOL 56K Turbo CD (funny right? 56K was called Turbo) I show it to the kids and compare to the 50Megabits/sec connection… a staggering 892.85% increase in residential download speed.
47. A box of 100 nerf darts (don’t ask, but science and engineering were involved)

Portelos has done the following since he was placed in the rubber room:

…since April 26, 2012:

1. I had an article published in the NY Teacher paper
2. I brought to light that rubber rooms (the process) still exist
3. I filed for a US Patent on our website faceshop.me
4. I refused to bend to pressure from additional harassment from DOE employees
5. Found hard evidence showing heavy financial misconduct at my school
6. Registered for additional courses for my Leadership in Education program.
7. Continued revamping and testing my educational social media site fridgework.com
8. Made some really good contacts. I mean really, really good contacts.
9. Made some really bad enemies. I mean really, really bad enemies. (not really an accomplishment)
10. Filed for Whistle Blower Protection and gave a 2 hr testimony to SCI on my saga
11. Put in a run for UFT Chapter Leader in my school.

If you need to catch up on this story, check the Portelos blog. http://protectportelos.wordpress.com/

Also here are the previous Ed Notes posts on the case:

Portelos Wins Chapter Leader Election from ...

Jun 14, 2012

Portelos Wins Chapter Leader Election from Rubber Room. What could be more embarrassing for a principal who railroaded a teacher into the rubber room than to put up a candidate to oppose him and lose? The old sell-out ...

Catching Up: ATRs, Portelos Story, GEM Film ...

May 17, 2012

Lurking behind all this is the perfidious behavior of IS 49 Chapter leader Richard Candia who, his cozy relationship with principal Linda Hill and the threat posed by Portelos' run for chapter leader, conspired to undermine ...

Francesco Portelos: Teacher Under Assault by ...

Mar 20, 2012

Sunday at the robotics tournament at the Javits Convention Center I had the opportunity to meet and chat with Staten Island teacher and coach Francesco Portelos of the IS 49 SI team. He is the father of a 10 month old with ...

Portelos Wins Chapter Leader Election from Rubber Room

What could be more embarrassing for a principal who railroaded a teacher into the rubber room than to put up a candidate to oppose him and lose? The old sell-out chapter leader slinked away into infamy. This may be a first. I've been telling reporters that this case will have legs. One major reporter will be attending the 3020a dismissal attempt and if honest articles are written, that should put some nails in the WalBloom anti-LIFO agenda.

Winning the Union Chapter Leader position from the Rubber Room.

Posted on June 14, 2012

Today was a great day. For those familiar with my story, you would remember that my union chapter leader and SLT chairperson turned on me back in January. They wrote false statements and played an important role in the attacks that ultimately lead to my temporary removal from school. My removal from school has caused an immeasurable loss of knowledge and skills I could have taught the students.

Today I’m happy to announce that I ran for the Chapter Leader position at IS 49 and won. I ran against a talented and very dedicated teacher/parent. I was supposed to be allowed to go in and cast my ballot this morning. However, the powers that be thought it would be better punishment to make me wait outside and have the ballot brought to me. (Remember that I’m a threat to national security.) I used this to my advantage, dressed in my best navy blue politician monkey suit and greeted my fellow chapter members. It was good to see them after 50 days of exile. I was approached by two 8th graders and signed their yearbook as well.

Now begins the not so arduous task of uniting the chapter. That part is easy because I don’t think we are as divided as they lead us to believe. The messy part will be not having to fight for everything we request. First and foremost is the ridiculous line to leave the building at the end of the day. 100 staff members need to sign out one at a time. This is in direct violation of Article 6 of our contract as well as other DOE/UFT agreements. It was supposed to be made easier today but after the election results were posted, Principal Hill made sure the staff was punished some more. The last person signed out 11 minutes after end of day. The staff started logging their time to out in for per session and now we have to grieve again.

As far as SLT goes the current chairperson has been unseated as well. As chapter leader I get back on the team. Strange how Karma works. What were they thinking?

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The opinions expressed on EdNotesOnline are solely those of Norm Scott and are not to be taken as official positions (though Unity Caucus/New Action slugs will try to paint them that way) of any of the groups or organizations Norm works with: ICE, GEM, MORE, Change the Stakes, NYCORE, FIRST Lego League NYC, Rockaway Theatre Co., Active Aging, The Wave, Aliens on Earth, etc.

Ravitch on Chicago

Sorry, Jonah. You don't know what mass action means. You have no idea what happens when working people organize and mobilize and stand together against the powerful financiers and politicians that you now represent. Karen Lewis showed that the teachers of Chicago stand together against mayoral authoritarianism.

Karen Lewis and the CTU are the new leaders of the labor movement. Time for us to follow in their footsteps, rather than more pointless and counter-productive engagement with “reformers” and their absurd notions. 

--- Arthur Goldstein, NYC teacher comment on Ravitch Blog 

Today at the Delegate Assembly (look for some of my notes in the morning posting) Mulgrew talked about Chicago and bragged about what good friends he was with Karen Lewis in Chicago. I also heard from people in Chicago that Karen and Mulgrew seem to get along. We'll see how that all plays out in Detroit this July at the AFT convention. In Seattle two years ago the Chicago CORE crew didn't always mesh with the UFT/Unity gang -- I heard more than a few "they're a-holes" as Chicago watched in disbelief how Unity people used the same manipulative tactics --- that I saw at today's DA.

But anyway, Mulgrew talked about the game the deformers have tried to play in limiting the union's ability to strike by requiring a 75% vote. So they got 90%. Mulgrew was careful to point out that there is no Taylor law making strikes illegal. Interesting that Mulgrew compared Rahm Emanuel and Bloomberg and said he'd rather have Bloomberg while also pointing to the fact Emanuel is a Democrat. Maybe Karen Lewis having chats with Mike is having an impact.

But I'll let Diane Ravitch pick up the story on her new blog, which has become so prolific. Too bad she doesn't go into how the UFT/Unity Caucus/AFT leaders match up with the Chicago people in terms of accountabilty to the members, deomocratic procedures. how far the union has gone to throw monkey wrenches into the works of the ed deformers.


Ravitch on Chicago

A few days ago, the Chicago Teachers Union voted overwhelmingly to strike.

This wasn't supposed to happen. Just a year ago, Jonah Edelman of Stand for Children boasted at the Aspen Ideas Festival how he had outsmarted the teachers' union. He described how he had shaped legislation not only to cut back teachers' job protections but to prevent the Chicago union from ever striking. He told the nation's elite, 'if it could happen in Illinois, it could happen anywhere." Stand for Children was once a grassroots group but has now become one of the active leaders in the corporate reform campaign to advance privatization and bring teachers to heel.

Speaking to a gathering of the nation's elite at Aspen, Edelman offered a template to beat back public employees in other states. Armed with millions of dollars supplied by wealthy financiers, he hired  the top lobbyists in Illinois and won favor with the top politicians. He shaped legislation to use test scores for evaluating teachers, to strip due process rights from teachers, and to assure that teachers lost whatever job protections they had. In his clever and quiet campaign behind the scenes, he even managed to split the state teachers' unions.

More of the Ravitch piece here.

UPDATE: Mike Klonsky nails Rahm

Rahm's anti-union spin machine is spinning in reverse. Even though his pals now own the Sun-Times and even with a big-bucks propaganda campaign bankrolled by corporate "reformers", nothing seems to be spinning the mayor's way.

S-T political reporter Fran Spielman, can't quite hide her disdain for Rahm's assault on the CTU.

Emanuel pushed for a change in state law that raised the strike authorization threshold to 75 percent, a benchmark so high, at least one education advocate [SFC's Jonah Edelman--mk] with ties to the mayor predicted that it could never be met. Instead, the Chicago Teachers Union roared passed that benchmark, fueled by their anger against a mayor who stripped them of a previously-negotiated, four percent pay raise and tried to muscle through a longer school day.

"Stripped" and "muscled" is a long way from the usual Civic Committee-style rhetoric of "union thugs" and "greedy teachers." Spielman then asks the mayor, "whether the showdown with teachers threatens to turn Chicago into 'another Wisconsin?'” It's a question no Democrat dare ask and one that answers itself.

S-T columnist Carol Marin, writing a day earlier couldn't make the case any better or clearer.

If I had been a Chicago public school teacher last week, I would have done as 90 percent of them did — and voted “yes” for a strike authorization...Teachers in this town have been demonized, demoralized, and disrespected. No profession is beyond criticism and no public school system is without significant problems. But taking a sledgehammer approach to CPS teachers and their union has backfired on the Emanuel administration and his schools CEO, Jean-Claude Brizard.

And all the radio ads and robo calls funded by out of town, union-busting billionaires doesn’t alter that fact.

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The opinions expressed on EdNotesOnline are solely those of Norm Scott and are not to be taken as official positions (though Unity Caucus/New Action slugs will try to paint them that way) of any of the groups or organizations Norm works with: ICE, GEM, MORE, Change the Stakes, NYCORE, FIRST Lego League NYC, Rockaway Theatre Co., Active Aging, The Wave, Aliens on Earth, etc.

UFT "Neutrality" in Jeffries-Barron Race is Support for Jeffries

Charles Barron, a former Black Panther out of East New York, has the the movers and shakers of this city aghast. All those Wall Street lawyers, hedge fund operators and charter school advocates who have poured money into stopping Barron’s bid for a Brooklyn congressional seat are worried.-- Juan Gonzalez

Jeffries was supported be DFER but then to cover his ass claimed he didn't want their money. There is no bigger supporter of ed deform than Jeffries yet the UFT would not support his opponent. I've seen Barron and his wife Inez at almost every single rally and event opposing Bloomberg control of the schools. Look at the money flowing into Jeffries and yet Barron is holding his own. I almost never contribute to a candidate but I may just do so now. (Barron has an office on Pennsylvania and Hegeman, a corner I used to walk by every day on the way to George Gershwin JHS, not to be closed.)

If you are a UFT member ask the leadership why they won't support Barron.

Juan Gonzalez really nails the issues in today's Daily News.
 

• 

Charles Barron, a former Black Panther out of East New York, has the the movers and shakers of this city aghast.

All those Wall Street lawyers, hedge fund operators and charter school advocates who have poured money into stopping Barron’s bid for a Brooklyn congressional seat are worried.

A group of Democrats, from liberals like Manhattan Rep. Jerrold Nadler to neo-conservatives like Ed Koch, even blasted Barron this week as an “anti-Semite” and a “racist.”

All of them have suddenly realized that Barron, the most outspoken member of the City Council for the past decade, could be heading to Washington.
This wasn’t supposed to happen.

Not with all the money the people downtown poured into their choice for the newly drawn 8th congressional seat — State Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries.

Jeffries, after all, is young, articulate, nonthreatening. He claims the mantel of a new generation of forward-thinking, technocratic black leaders, following in the footsteps of Newark’s Cory Booker and Barack Obama.

Jeffries’ list of donors reads like a who’s who. His latest campaign filing shows $500,000 raised, but he now claims to have surpassed $700,000.

Members of his former law firm, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, gave the most, $33,000; but a slew of other hedge fund operators, lawyers, bankers and philanthropists provided tens of thousands more.

They include John Petry and Joel Greenblatt, heads of Gotham Capital and the founders of the Success Academy Charter Schools ($2,500 a piece); Whitney Tilson of the KIPP charter schools ($1,000); Merryl Tisch, chancellor of the state board of regents ($2,500); Kathryn Wylde of the Partnership for New York City ($500).

Barron, on the other hand, lists a mere $50,000 in donations — most of it from himself.

Still, there was Barron Tuesday morning, sitting in a small campaign office on Nostrand Ave. in Bedford-Stuyvesant, looking very much like a front-runner.

Sitting next to him was U.S. Rep. Ed Towns, who recently announced his retirement from the congressional seat he has held for 30 years.

Back in 2006, Barron challenged Towns and came very close to defeating him. Then last week, Towns shocked everybody by endorsing the rival he once called a “bomb thrower.”

“Even though we’ve been on different sides, we always shared a belief in making things better for this community,” Towns said. “I feel Charles will do a better job as my successor.”

Senior citizens, the most reliable of voters, have always been Towns’ base. And given that the unusually early Democratic primary on June 26 is expected to have record low voter turnout, Towns’ decision to throw in with Barron is a potential game changer.

Jeffries discounted the new developments.

As for donations from hedge fund mavens and charter school advocates, they will not influence his views on the lightning rod issue of education, he said.
“No one is fighting harder to stop public school closures than I am,” he said. “I’ve always held the same position on school choice, and supported lifting charter school caps,” he added.

Barron’s focus has been “on the sound bite, mine has been on substance,” Jeffries said.

Sure, Barron has been loud and outrageous at times.

But he has also been a fixture at scores of social justice battles in this city for decades. Few black leaders are better known. Few are more willing to challenge the city’s rich and powerful.

No wonder the money people in Manhattan are suddenly worried about a congressional race in Brooklyn - one they thought was a sure thing.

Author:

Juan Gonzalez

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The opinions expressed on EdNotesOnline are solely those of Norm Scott and are not to be taken as official positions (though Unity Caucus/New Action slugs will try to paint them that way) of any of the groups or organizations Norm works with: ICE, GEM, MORE, Change the Stakes, NYCORE, FIRST Lego League NYC, Rockaway Theatre Co., Active Aging, The Wave, Aliens on Earth, etc.

NBC Bias on Deborah Kenny HVA Charter Scam and NY Times Trip Gabbriel Trips on Vouchers

NBC's Brian Williams is a shill for charters and ed deform

Student attrition at HVA is huge...the 66 5th graders in 2007-2008 have shrunk to just 16 9th graders in the 2010-2011 school year.  This is a 75% attrition.  In that same time, the district that the school is in went from 904 5th graders in 2007-2008 to 1313 9th graders in 2010-2011.  That is a 45% growth....  Contrary to what she preaches, teachers are her lowest priority

Why would you believe anything reported on NBC? Even more outrageous was the puff piece NBC's Today show and Brian Williams did in an interview with Harlem Village Academy founder Deborah Kenny. Leonie has done a few pieces on the school and today Gary Rubinstein tears it all apart.

An outrageous puff piece NBC's Today show and Brian Williams did on Harlem Village Academy founder Deborah Kenny. Leonie has done a few pieces on the school and today Gary Rubinstein tears it all apart. Really, if you want to see the entire charter sham exposed this is a must read piece.If NBC were fair and balanced they would have Gary or Leonie on to give the counterarguments. But NBC may be even less "fair and balanced" on school deform than even Faux FOX.

Here is Leonie's comment:

Great piece from invaluable Gary Rubinstein on the fraud that is Deborah Kenny and her charter school Harlem Village Academy. Kenny is all over TV promoting her new book, interviewed by the likes of Brian Williams and other reporters who never bother to check the stats or uncover the truth.

I would put quotes around reporter in this case. Just take this stat from Gary:

Gary Rubinstein's TFA Blog

It takes a village

 Excerpt:

The reason I need to debunk miracle schools is because lawmakers use them as examples of why it is good education reform practice to close down failing schools and fire their teachers.  My purpose is to show that the good test scores, if they really have them, come at an even greater cost.  The more I can show that the ‘miracle’ schools aren’t any better than the failing schools, maybe people will be more outraged when ‘failing’ schools are shut down. The latest ‘miracle’ school getting a lot of attention is Harlem Village Academy Charter School.  The founder of the school, Deborah Kenny, recently published a book about her experience, called ‘Born To Rise.’  The school was featured on NBC with Brian Williams.

 Gary also deals with their bogus claims on regent success and teacher turnover. He contacted a former teacher at HVA who has blogged about the school. Here is her entire comment which reveals ao much.

When a school is truly great, teachers want to keep teaching there year after year.  So it should be telling that in this school over the past three years the amount of staff turnover was 2007-2008 53%, for 2008-2009, 38%, and for 2009-2010, a whopping 61%.  By comparison, the teacher attrition for the entire district in 2009-2010 was just 19%.
To me, this teacher turnover is the most alarming statistic of all.  So I tracked down a TFA alum named Sabrina Strand who taught for one year there.  Sabrina wrote an excellent blog post called ‘I’m no Superman.’  I asked her if she would give more details about her experience, and here is what she wrote:

I am more than happy to tell the truth about HVA, at least how it was when I left after the 2006-2007 school year. I’m really glad you’re dedicated to exposing the truth behind the whole TFA/charter school charade. It is very much a charade, an elaborate, expensive smoke & mirrors. HVA, as I knew it, was one of the worst offenders of creating and sustaining the myth that teachers can solve everything. Waiting for Superman infuriated me because just like HVA – just like Deborah Kenny – it sent the message that good teachers should be martyrs, not people with lives and passions of their own that happen to also be talented and passionate about educating children. I am not a martyr, and as I titled my op-ed, I am also not superman. But yet many would say I am a very good teacher. In Deborah Kenny’s world, that would be impossible.
During the 2006-2007 school year at HVA, I taught huge classes of 5th graders who were poorly behaved. The administration was weak and ineffective. Everyone, including the principal and the dean, was so stressed out that there were often medical problems. I used to take the bus up to Harlem with my co-teacher and best friend at the school, Johanna Fishbein, and we would often cry on our way to work.
The working conditions at the school were plainly unreasonable. They took advantage of young, idealistic, competent teachers; they squeezed and squeezed until there was nothing left to give, even our dignity. Deborah Kenny is LARGELY to blame for this, as we were all desperately trying to play our parts in the Deborah Kenny play – one where she produced and directed but never wrote or starred in the productions. I have zero respect for that woman. The only time she actually came into the trenches is when she was preparing the kids for some dignitary’s visit. At that time, she would talk to them like they were slow kindergarteners, and when she left, they would all ask me who she was. That’s how connected she is to the school. Yet when President Bush came to laud our teachers’ efforts for earning the highest math test scores in the city, it was Deborah who schmoozed and gave the tour, Deborah who took the credit.
Deborah Kenny and her Village Academies take advantage of budding teachers, often crushing their spirits in the process. Though we barely made more than NYC public school teachers while working seven weeks over the summer, teaching on multiple Saturdays, and averaging 12-hour work days during the week, Deborah pays herself the HIGHEST SALARY out of any charter school executive in NYC (that stat was recently published in The New York Post). She makes almost nine times as much as her teachers who are doing all the real work, the hard work, that lands her in the press so often and helps her send her own kids to tony private schools. Her “vision” is a bunch of bullshit – basically, work your teachers to death, and you’ll see results. Sure, and you’ll also see a lot of unhappy teachers, and a lot of people leaving your school and vowing to never come back.
The year I left, my entire fifth grade team left with me. Deborah refused to write letters of recommendation for any of us. Contrary to what she preaches, teachers are her lowest priority and she never has their best interests at heart. In fact, this whole thing started when her husband tragically passed away from leukemia, and she needed a massive project to keep her grief at bay. That project was Harlem and its children. She developed her miracle solution about holding teachers accountable after she had already latched onto this “save the poor black children” project as a desperate attempt to find new purpose in her life. I admire that tenacity and resilience, but not what has become of it.
No school with a 60% teacher turnover rate should be praised in the press as the model for other schools to follow. Now that I’ve taught in a relatively stable independent school for four years, I see that a school’s real success comes from its sense of community. When teachers are leaving left and right because they’re being asked to perform superhuman feats for little compensation, the idea of “community” essentially vanishes. All that holds Village Academies together is Deborah Kenny’s unrelenting ambition and greed.
Feel free to use any or all of this in your blog post. I am absolutely, 100% done with the TFA and charter school world, and I have no fear of burning my bridges. I’m one of the lucky ones; I moved across the country and found a teaching job that calls to my soul instead of giving up on education altogether like many of my peers did after their horrific experiences at HVA.

NY Times weak piece on vouchers
With the news that Michael Winerip is leaving the ed beat at the NY Times we know that the paper has basically abandoned adequate ed coverage on both the local and national ed beats. Today's Trip Gabbriel piece on the Romney Voucher program has so many holes, the space shuttle could have passed through it on its recent journey. How can you write an article on vouchers and totally ignore the failed voucher programs already in existence, as pointed out in Diane Ravitch's book where she has a whole section on the Milwaukee failed voucher program (p. 130-31):

When a team of reporters from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel examined the voucher schools... they uncovered unanticipated problems. Applicants to run voucher schools did not need any particular credentials, nor did their teachers. The journalists visited 104 out of 115 voucher schools (nine voucher schools would not let them in); they found good schools and awful schools. [many religious schools --Ed:  using public money to support religion, a major purpose of the voucher movement]. 
The reporters judged that about 10 per cent... were excellent, and the same proportion showed "alarming deficiencies."
...on the whole, the reporters concluded that "the voucher schools feel, and look, surprisingly like the schools in the Milwaukee Public Schools District."...This was not the momentous result that voucher advocates had predicted."

In other words, let's destroy the fabric of the public school system for no real gain while opening up the ability to open schools by any charlatan or religious entity.

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The opinions expressed on EdNotesOnline are solely those of Norm Scott and are not to be taken as official positions (though Unity Caucus/New Action slugs will try to paint them that way) of any of the groups or organizations Norm works with: ICE, GEM, MORE, Change the Stakes, NYCORE, FIRST Lego League NYC, Rockaway Theatre Co., Active Aging, The Wave, Aliens on Earth, etc.