The reality and the hype behind online learning and the "School of One"

One day Joel Klein will be doing a perp walk with his coat over his head .... Ed Notes, c. 2005. [And Chris Cerf too].

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UPDATE, Fri, Sept. 7, 1PM: Assailed Teacher has a great summary and commentary on School of One: Follow the Silver Lining…. and the Money

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As a followup to my earlier post, "Klein Gets F for School of One While Tweed Expands to IS 49 SI", there is so much meat in Leonie Haimson's post, The reality and the hype behind online learning and the "School of One"summarizing the outcomes of todays report on the failing "School of One" initiative that I have to repost it all.

She really hits so many aspects of the interlocking directorate of ed deform. One day I hope this piece is used as evidence in a court case.

Today’s Daily News has a story about a new negative evaluation of DOE’s much vaunted “School of One” program.  This study, which found no significant achievement gains from the program, was quietly placed on the Research Alliance website in the middle of summer with no apparent outreach to the media or the public. 

This contrasts with the huge publicity machine promoting this online program that has operated since its inception as a pilot started in the summer of 2009.  

The School of One is an online or “blended” learning math program, combining online with small group instruction. It was started by Joel Rose when he was at DOE, using an algorithm devised by Wireless Generation.  Rose, along with Chris Rush, formerly of Wireless Gen, has now taken the company private and renamed it New Classrooms.  According to its website, the company is hiring new staff to work in NYC, as well as in Washington DC, Chicago and Perth Amboy NJ schools starting this year.  I wrote about DOE’s awarding of this contract to New Classrooms last year, in apparent violation of conflict of interest rules.

By the time it started as a small scale pilot in the summer of 2010, it already earned a story in the New York Times. By September, Arthur Levine, former head of Teacher’s College, wrote that School of One “may turn out to be the single most important experiment conducted in education so far. It is the future.” By November, it had already won a place on Time magazine’s best inventions of 2009, which described it as “learning for the Xbox generation”. 

This led Mayor Bloomberg to put out a press release, boasting that “The School of One [is] creating a 21st century classroom to meet the individual needs and learning styles of every student.” 

   Edward Glaeser, a professor of economics at Harvard wrote an oped for the Boston Globe in 2011, saying that “This type of out-sourcing [to private providers] could be encouraged everywhere, which could support a nationwide industry dedicated to smartening our children. “

The School of One has also been recognized and encouraged by the US Department of Education, which awarded the DOE a three year $5 million I3 federal Innovation grant to expand it in NYC schools. By the time the application was written, DOE had already spent $1.5 million on the project, and now according to the Daily News, has spent $9 million over the past three years --- they say from private donations.  According to its federal grant application, the DOE had planned to spend $45 million on expanding the program through June 2013 (though the DN also reports officials expect to downsize that by an unspecified amount,  “with help from a private contractor.”)

The “personalized” learning system featured in “the School of One” has now become the focus of the new federal RTTT program for districts; encouraging the spread of virtual or “blended” instruction through computers, by offering nearly $400 million in grants, again with little or no evidence that such programs work. Nearly 900 districts have applied for these grants, including the Superintendent of Miami, who recently said that Miami’s application “will focus on personalizing education for students based on how they best learn, rely more on digital content and changing the learning environment and outcomes of middle school students who have fallen behind…."This is a creative and effective way of spurring reform from the bottom up," he said.”

Bottom up?  Not exactly. This is an initiative driven from the top down. What has been the actual record of the School of One?

In the spring of 2010, the School of One was implemented at IS 228, in Brooklyn. By Sept. 2010, it was added to two more middle schools, MS 131 in Manhattan’s Chinatown, and IS 339 in the Bronx.   I visited the program in Chinatown as was not impressed; I saw chaos and many disengaged kids, as I described here.  As Joel Rose said during my tour of the school, it is intended to substitute for smaller classes, since “no human being” can provide fully individualized instruction to a class of 25. 

As Gary Rubinstein first explained on his blog, in two of these schools it caused achievement to slip in math, according to the DOE’s Progress reports: slightly at IS 228, and drastically at IS 339. By the next year, two of the three schools had dropped the program, including at MS 131, the school I visited in Chinatown (which had already earned the school an “A” in math progress the year before) and at IS 339, whose progress grade on math fell from a “B” to a “D”.  MS 131, the school that appeared to do the best with the program but dropped it anyway, has a relatively high-achieving, mostly Asian population; the school that did the worst, IS 339, has primarily poor Black and Hispanic students.  

Now the new study from the Research Alliance  not only quietly confirms those findings, but also finds that the lowest achieving students within each school were the ones who tended to fall furthest behind in below-grade level skills, showing that this virtual instruction may actually widen rather than narrow the achievement gap, as some have feared:

Students who came to SO1 with low prior performance were exposed to approximately twice as many below-grade-level skills, compared to those who came with higher performance levels from prior grades. … However, these students mastered less than 15 percent of the skills to which they were exposed (as measured by SO1’s daily assessments), compared to approximately 85 percent mastery for students who entered with higher prior performance.

These results fly in the face of the DOE’s I3 application, which said it should be awarded extra points because it would provide special benefits for struggling students.

Next year, there will be four more NYC middle schools which will adopt this model, along with IS 228:  IS 49 and IS 2 in Staten Island, MS 88 and MS 381 in Brooklyn. There will also be a new “randomized” study, led by Jonah Rockoff of Columbia.   

Good luck to these schools. One wonders if the parents at these schools have given their consent to what is really an experiment on their kids, with no research to back it up.  As the new study points out,

….SO1 program staff hypothesized that schools might experience a variety of implementation and outcome “dips,” in which instructional quality and student achievement might initially decline, as teachers adjusted to the new organization and delivery of the math curriculum. …. in general, educational innovation is exceedingly challenging: Program impact is often incremental, rather that abrupt and dramatic; the process of development and evidence building is iterative and dynamic, rather than linear and uni-directional; and it often takes years, rather than months, to establish program efficacy and a credible track record for expansion and scale.

Meanwhile, of course, the DOE makes decisions about holding back children, and evaluates teachers and grades schools based on one year’s worth of test results – regardless of the sentiments expressed above. 

These words of caution are similar to those expressed by a recent study of the Izone, DOE’s online learning initiative, of which the School of One belongs:

 “….NYC school district leaders are taking risks with the iZone, implementing new models, committing deeply to a defined set of principles that challenge core assumptions about what a school should look like, and moving to scale very quickly. How and when they will know if they got the big bet right is a question district leaders will have to ask so that students are not subjected for too long to programs and schools that don’t work. “

 

There is a well-documented gold rush now, with many companies getting into the business of online learning, including Rupert Murdoch’s NewsCorp, headed by Joel Klein, which acquired Wireless shortly after Klein was hired.  With the help of the right-wing organization ALEC, of which NewsCorp is a member, these companies are using their considerable resources to fund astroturf organizations and persuade politicians to encourage or even require students to take virtual courses for credit, with NO evidence that this helps them in any way. You can read exposes about how this has happened in Maine; Pennsylvania; Minnesota Wisconsin and  nationwide.  

Here in NY, the Regents and the State Education Department has encouraged the growth of online learning by eliminating seat time requirements which, along with the overriding pressure for high schools to inflate their graduation rates or risk being closed, will likely cause districts statewide to follow in NYC’s footsteps by implementing substandard credit recovery systems, what Diane Ravitch has rightly called “academic fraud.”  

More and more in this nation, we are moving towards two different school systems: one for the wealthy, who insist of proven reforms including small classes for their children.   The other highly experimental model, for disadvantaged and even middle class kids, will increasingly deliver so-called “personalized” instruction via a machine, causing struggling students to fall even further behind.  Is this the future we want for our kids?

See also Jersey Jazzman’s blog here and here on how the superintendent of Perth Amboy, a controversial former NYC administrator named Janine Caffrey, has proposed a $575,900 contract for New Classrooms.  Meanwhile, Caffrey is serving only at the pleasure of Chris Cerf, Joel Rose’s former boss who is now NJ Education Commissioner, as the Perth Amboy school board has voted to remove her. 

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.

Klein Gets F for School of One While Tweed Expands to IS 49SI

...the best part is that they are using a 2.5 million dollar grant from the Obama administration to put the program in IS 49SI, Francesco Portelos' school... he is the main tech person and STEM teacher in the school but sits in the rubber room on trumped up charges for questioning how the principal was using tech grant money. --- ed notes

“School of One is expensive and disruptive,” said Patrick Sullivan, Manhattan representative to the Panel for Educational Policy. --NYDN

Last Update (in green): 5:15PM

And must read by Leonie exposing connections to Wireless Generation and Rupert Murdoch.

The reality and the hype behind online learning and the "School of One"

How many Joel Klein legacy failures can you find? We reported on the about to be abandoned networks yesterday (Tweed Dismantles Networks Before Crimes and Corruption Exposed).

Rachel Monahan reports on the Daily News:

Former NYC Chancellor Joel Klein's highly touted School of One math project dropped by 2 of 3 schools in pilot program

Initiative was hailed by Time magazine as one of the 50 best inventions of 2009, but NYU study shows $9 million effort failed to raise test scores more than old-school math classes 

AN EXPENSIVE city program touted as the future of middle school math education had disappointing results in its first year — and was abandoned at two of the three schools where it was implemented, the Daily News has learned.

City officials said they’ve spent $9 million over the past three years — all from private donations.

In its grant application, the city projected the total cost of the program’s expansion at $46 million, though officials say they’ve been able to get that price down with help from a private contractor.

But the best part is that they are using a 2.5 million dollar grant from the Obama administration to put the program in IS 49SI, Francesco Portelos' school (Protect Portelos: Rubber Room Journal).

 
He is/was the main tech person and STEM teacher in the school but sits in the rubber room on trumped up charges for questioning how the principal was using tech grant money.

The city is pushing forward, planning to expand the program this fall to four more schools — Intermediate Schools 2 and 49 in Staten Island as well as Middle Schools 88 and 381 in Brooklyn — with the help of a high-profile $5 million grant awarded by the Obama administration.

So in the ultimate of ironies, the Republicans can charge the Obama admin with wasting at least 2.5 million on Portelos' school.

And really, it is all about trying to use this expensive program to pump up test scores, which we have been pointing out time and again is not about real learning.

Stuyvesant High School math teacher Gary Rubinstein, who recently wrote about his visit to School of One early in the pilot program, said he wasn’t surprised. “Even if they got results, I wouldn’t be impressed because it looked like all they were learning how to do was do better on a standardized test,” he said.

Read entire article

"School of One" versus "I-Zone?"

Both certainly share lots of corporate sponsors and partners! School of One is one type of school within the Izone which encapsulates a lot of alternative online learning schools and programs.

The reality and the hype behind online learning & the "School of One" - http://goo.gl/Dql2h

Tweed Dismantles Networks Before Crimes and Corruption Exposed

Protect Portelos in 

Rubber Room Journal reports this from the rubber room today:

Found some network offices are being broken down and dissolved. Even our cluster2.net site seems like it doesn’t exist anymore. Something is brewing. What’s a network office? Some info here.

O'Mahoney

Ah, those networks. I heard a story that Eric Nadelstern, one of the architects of the failed network system about to be dismantled, always claims they don't have any real power over the schools, just service them. He claims that when questions arise as to the accountability of networks for the actions of a principal. Nadelstern is a liar. Talk to people at any school and they will tell you the truth of the power the shadowy networks where no one has to take responsibility, have held over the schools.

The Gotham Schools report on John O'Mahoney -- Former network leader fined for helping teacher wife get hired --- exposed how deep the corruption:

John O’Mahoney was in charge of the Children First Network #208 in February 2011 when he met with the principal of one of the schools he oversaw to discuss a state audit of the school’s federally-funded academic intervention services program. It was at that time that O’Mahoney determined that the principal needed to create a teaching job for the program and “discussed my wife’s qualifications” for the position, he admitted in a signed deposition released by the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board.
Shortly after, O’Mahoney’s wife got the job.

Now I know all about this O'Mahoney character. He used to work at a middle school in Queens. One thing you should know about that school. The last 3 UFT Middle School VPs come out of there and O'Mahoney was a pal. He was even part of a conspiracy between the Unity people at the school to trump up charges against an ICE candidate for chapter leader and put that teacher in the rubber room for 6 months, effectively ending his career.

So I wasn't surprised at this:

Later that year, O’Mahoney learned that his wife’s position would be eliminated at the school, which was not named, because of budget cuts. He then instructed his network’s director of human resources to “inform the Principal that my wife’s position could not be excessed.”
Both acts were a violation of the city’s ethics laws and O’Mahoney is required to pay a $4,000 fine, the board ruled. 

 That's it. Four grand for extortion while teachers charged with the most minimal acts get fined 10 or 15 grand by hearing officers.

Or worse, fired and then suspended for two years without pay.
[DONATE To Christine Rubino]
Network operatives have been part of every coverup of the actions of principals. Francesco Portelos tells once such story about his corrupt principal and for telling this story he sits in a rubber room while the kids at his school are denied his considerable talents.

Knowing the networks are kaput, the rats are scurrying to grab a principalship wherever they can. John O'Mahoney, now principal of Sheepshead Bay HS, has brought his level of corruption to that school.

There are 35 comments at the Gotham article. Here is one example:

This is hilarious. This has been going on for ages. Check Sheepshead's Network leader WENDY KARP. She was a failed principal at Madison and got bumped UP to Network leader. While there, she has hired friends of hers such as failed Principal Amy HOROWITZ as superintendent and put in her long time Dewey friend and corrupt COOKING TEACHER, REESA LEVY as Principal. Its all the same.

Yes, the networks, bastions of corruption and failed recycled principals, now being recycled once again.

Here is one more story that exposes O'Mahoney for what he is but you will never see his pals at the UFT say a word:

The New York Post

June 24, 2012 Sunday

NYC teacher: Bosses made me doctor grades

A Brooklyn geometry teacher with a remarkable record of academic success says she was pressured into giving passing grades to two failing seniors so they could graduate.

The inflated scores allowed the students to get their diplomas from Sheepshead Bay HS on Friday, despite both having flunked her class.

Erica Bloom, 36, says administrators used threats to pressure her into changing the final marks for the two, raising their scores from a failing 55 to a passing 65.

"They said if I didn't change them, I could expect another '3020' [disciplinary hearing], which would mean the removal of my license," Bloom said. "So I lose my job, my insurance, my pension - everything, after 14 years."

She says she signed off on the changed grades, hurled the new paperwork at an assistant principal and stormed off.

At issue was the students' poor performance on the geometry Regents exam on Wednesday.

Bloom says new school Principal John O'Mahoney had insisted that all students take the Regents - and that their scores should count for 10 percent of their final grades.

One of the students notched a 53 on the test. The other failed to show up.

"A guidance counselor [for one student] came in and asked me to change his grade," she said.

He was followed by the assistant principal "who came in and kept asking, 'Why are you failing him?' "

Another asked about the second student.

"I was pressured by everybody," she said.

She then went to O'Mahoney's office but he refused to intervene. "He didn't say a thing," she said.

Bloom says she suffers from an eating disorder and exceeded her allowable sick days in 2009 and 2010, leading to an unfavorable attendance rating.

In 2011, she took 10 days, the approved limit.

"But they went back and found one day where I left early, so they said I took 10.33 sick days."

Which would mean a third straight year of excessive absenteeism - and a likely termination, Bloom says.

"I was hysterical," she said.

Faced with that threat, she says, she signed off on the grade changes.

The Department of Education said O'Mahoney did nothing wrong.

"The principal acted properly," said spokeswoman Margie Feinberg. "This was not an issue of changing grades."

brad.hamilton@nypost.com

Charter School Profiteer 260K a Year Man Juan Rangel Wants to Bust Chicago Teachers Union [VIDEO]

The crew at the Chicago Teachers Union sure know how to make a video tell a story and make the ed deform connections. Only 1 and a half minutes and worth watching.




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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.

Chicago Teachers Union Educates Members on History of Strikes

Here in NYC the UFT tries to bury the history of teacher strikes. In Chicago they celebrate them.

History is important if you want to build a movement. One day I have to upload all the print editions of Ed Notes going back to 1997. There is a real history of the Weingarten years and the early days of the ed deform movement.

Diane Ravitch labeled me a "prolific" blogger on Saturday. I just counted 6 of hers today and it's 9:15AM. This is only my 2nd today. I hope she keeps them coming every half hour if necessary -- even if we can't read them all, they offer a tremendous resource for us all. I know, I know, I am inundating you on the first day you have to go back to school  -- and good luck to you all.

Substance reports:

VIDEO HISTORY: CORE and Labor Beat team up to produce the half hour video 'CTU Strikes 1969 - 1987' where veteran teachers help a new generation understand the work of union militancy

The video produced by CORE (the Caucus of Rank and File Educators of the Chicago Teachers Union) and Chicago's Labor Beat during the summer of 2012 in conjunction with the four CORE "Successful Chicago Strikes" forums is now available on You Tube for the public to view. It is — called "CTU Strikes: 1969 - 1987" and is a half hour long.

By George N. Schmidt - September 2nd, 2012

The video produced by CORE (the Caucus of Rank and File Educators of the Chicago Teachers Union) and Chicago's Labor Beat during the summer of 2012 in conjunction with the four CORE "Successful Chicago Strikes" . . .

http://youtu.be/B1qO4IBhGEw


Here is more from George Schmidt's Substance story:

The video features six veteran Chicago Teachers Union members (including this reporter) who discuss the history of the strikes between 1968 (the famous FTB strike against racism and segregation) and 1987 (the 19-day strike) that made the Chicago Teachers Union the most famous militant union in the USA. As the video points out for historical accuracy, CTU continued to strike successfully even after "PATCO" supposedly made the labor movement afraid to strike.

The video was produced during the summer of 2012 as the union busting tactics of the Chicago Board of Education and the administration of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel made it clear to more and more teachers that the CTU was being forced into the position of "Strike or Surrender" that it had faced during the earliest days of collective bargaining in the 1960s, and that many of the issues, including the tactics of the city and the Board of Education, had not changed in 50 years.

In the introduction to the video, George Schmidt and Jim Daniels talk about the vicious racism that divided the City of Chicago through the 1960s and resulted in the majority of Black teachers in the city not only teaching in segregated schools, but unable to get "certified" because of a blatantly discriminatory oral certification exam.

Members of CORE continued organizing and informing the CTU membership throughout the summer of 2012 as the strike loomed closer and closer. CORE leaders noted that a union that has forgotten its history is doomed to repeat the worst mistakes of its past, so CORE begin the long process of reviving the militant history of the Chicago Teachers Union in video and print.The segregation and racism were challenged both within the CTU and in the schools by a growing group of teachers, most of them Black, who eventually led a wildcat strike that shut down or disrupted more than 100 of the city's schools. The "FTB Strike" of 1968 is widely revered among progressive unionists in Chicago as a pivotal moment in the history of the CTU. As Jim Daniels notes in the video, the union leadership at that time declared the FTB strike against racist certifications an illegal "wildcat," but the leadership of that action eventually pushed the union into full integration and into overcoming the racism of the Board of Education's certification and assignment procedures.

A trick used to keep minorities from becoming "fully certified" (and thus eligible for "assignment" as "regular teachers" and later, tenure) was the oral examination. Throughout the 1950s, as Chicago's enormous Black ghetto expanded across the South Side and the West Side through block busting and deliberate school overcrowding block by block, the Chicago Board of Education created more and more new Black schools, staffing them with Black teachers (and some whites, usually those considered "Hippies" and "Commies") who were forced for the most part to remain in "FTB" (Full Times Basis Substitute) status for years, or even decades. Ironically, however, the compression of the Black ghetto (which had been "allowed" to expand block by block thanks to edicts of the Chicago Real Estate Board beginning during the 1920s) also gave rise to a form of Black Power (in both the communities and the schools) unique in many ways in the USA.

There's even more to read at:
http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=3558&section=Article

Those who appreciate the work of CORE and Labor Beat in making this learning tool available are asked to join CORE (see www.coreteachers.org) and make donations to Labor Beat and to Substance. The video is available in DVD format from CORE for $10 (a part of this cost goes to build CORE and democracy in the CTU) from CORE at coreteachers.org. Members of CORE can request copies of the video. The video will be shown on Labor Beat in early September 2012.

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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.

"Screw You," Says Obama Team When Teachers Don't Like Obama Ed Policies

Hey, teachers don't have anywhere else to go is the theory of the Obama team so this story in the LA Times, Teachers unions' alliance with Democratic Party frays, contains a few interesting nuggets. Yesterday we reported that there would be Parents Across America protest at the movie "Won't Back Down" (What Goes on in Charlotte Doesn't Stay in Charlotte).

The LA Times story is about that protest.

The screening [Won't Back Down] was not an official convention event, but required approval from the highest levels of the White House and the Democratic Party, according to the Huffington Post. In a measure of blessing, convention chairman and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa stopped by to speak briefly to the attendees.

When a leader of the overhaul [deform] movement was hired to be Obama's spokeswoman for California, the California Federation of Teachers told state Democratic officials that if she was not fired, the union might not "participate" in Obama's reelection effort. The spokeswoman remains on the Obama team.

Wow, "might not participate" -- fighting words. The Obama people must have laughed themselves silly.

Think Chicago --- if Rahm Emanuel smashes the teacher strike while Obama is of course silent, how many Chicago teachers do you think "might not participate." Does anyone think it possible that Obama loses his home state? Remember how Adrian Fenty, an up and coming Washington DC politician, has his career ruined by Michelle Rhee's stewardship of the DC schools. If that should happen to Obama I will have mixed feelings because I despise the Republicans so much. But then there are plenty of Dems to despise too.

I know one thing. I won't be giving money to Obama or get up at 6AM to go to Allentown as a volunteer. Multiply me by thousands of teachers who might vote for Obama but won't be getting out the vote and there may very well be some chickens coming home to roost despite the absolutely awful lying Republican candidates who will lead us into a Greater Depression than the Great Depression.

Karen Lewis Says: Enough is Enough - Chicago Teachers Turn the Town Red/ Rahm and the DNC

On Labor Day, Karen Lewis addressed 20,000 teachers about their struggle with Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Do you know how hard it is to get 20,000 people to turn out for anything? ..... The fight between CTU and Rahm Emanuel is not helpful to President Obama.--- Diane Ravitch

Info keeps rolling in from Chicago and the allies of the TU all over the nation. You can keep up at: http://www.ctunet.com/ and at http://www.substancenews.net which reports on today's events:

Labor Day in Chicago draws more than 18,000 to rally and march... Huge support for upcoming Chicago teachers' strike.... 'The only way to handle a bully is to stand up to him,' Karen Lewis told the crowd

Kati Gilson and Susan Zupan - September 03, 2012
18,000 people packed Daley Center on picture perfect Labor Day. The only thing missing were the two key players in the CPS/CTU saga — Chicago's mayor and his hand-picked schools "Chief Executive". The sea of red was dotted with green AFSCME shirts, blue Action Now shirts and more. Families with young children, numerous union groups and CTU teachers gathered in solidarity to

Here is a pic from Substance fight for “The Schools our Children Deserve”.

From Fred Klonsky blog: Check out this photo by Sarah Ji:

Teachers are parents too, Fred Klonsky blog

Have they noticed the pictures coming in from Chicago of thousands of red shirted union people and supporters flooding the streets of Rahmbo's ed reform fiefdom? Forget about Romney being out of touch we all KNEW that but how about Obama's old pal and featured speaker at the Dem Conference who openly hates and abuses union workers every chance he gets while bootlicking the Hyatt mogul and billionaire Penny Pritzkin, building her a hotel with money he stole from taxpayers. His city is awash in rabid anti Rahm sentiment and do you think he gets it? How does this party let a guy like Emanuel in the door let alone invite him to speak? And our own Prince Andy Cuomo, who is essentially Rahmbo with a New York crust, tried to keep the 4 biggest labor leaders in the state from attending unless they called him to grovel. Lucky for slippery Dick Ianuzzi his fellow sellout Randi was able to squeeze some juice from the DNC so Dicky was spared the begging. These are people who don't give a shit about any of us. Why on earth would we vote for more of their abuse and betrayal?  -----

sean crowley  comment on ednotes post "What Goes on in Charlotte Doesn't Stay in Charlott..."

from Fred Klonsky blog

Ravitch reports:

Karen Lewis Speaks to 20,000 Chicago Teachers

by dianerav

On Labor Day, Karen Lewis addressed 20,000 teachers about their struggle with Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Do you know how hard it is to get 20,000 people to turn out for anything?

When Karen Lewis met with Rahm Emanuel after his election, he told her that 25% of the children in Chicago would never amount to anything. She was outraged.

more Diane

Here is the video of Karen's speech today from the CTU web site where she calls Rahm Emanuel a liar and a bully.





Fred Klonsky expresses his own excitement and emotion at the events in this blog post, followed by some pointed criticism at the state union lack of support (and let's keep an eye on the AFT.)

“Look up! Look down! Chicago is a union town!”

September 3, 2012

I heard everything from ten thousand to eighteen thousand. I say twenty. Matt Farmer half jokingly said that the Tribune is reporting 326.
We filled Daley Plaza in a sea of red.
We surrounded Rahm’s City Hall and poured from the sidewalk on to the street.
We marched down Clark Street to the headquarters of the Chicago Public Schools.
“Hey, hey. Ho, ho. Rahm Emanuel has got to go!”

And a thanks to all the many blog readers who came up and introduced themselves to me and shared some very nice words. Putting faces to readers is important. It was so great to hear from those who told me they share articles and drawings with others. It means we’re building a network and a movement. That makes the work worthwhile.

Yes, Fred, when people ask me why after 10 years or retirement, building a network and a movement makes it all worthwhile.

What were they doing down in Springfield today.

Having a barbecue?

Barbecue unionism. --- Fred Klonsky

Here is another important post from Fred Klonsky condeming the Ill Ed Assoc which didn't even mention the situation in Chicago: An injury to one is an injury to all. But not if you’re the IEA.

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A BIG LAUSD TEACHER LABOR DAY SALUTE TO STRIKING CHICAGO TEACHERS (VIDEO)

http://www.perdaily.com/2012/09/a-big-lausd-teacher-labor-day-salute-to-striking-chicago-teachers.html
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How interesting that in Chicago they actually hold Labor Day activities on Labor Day while here in NYC "Labor Day" will be next Saturday, Sept. 8.  If you are going look for updates on Ed Notes of where you can meet up with the MORE contingent -- and I will have extra tee-shirts if you want to purchase one ($20 to help raise money for the MORE election campaign -- but I'll only sell you one if you promise to wear it.)

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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.

What Goes on in Charlotte Doesn't Stay in Charlotte

Karran Harper Royal

Last Update: Monday, Sept. 3, 10PM

Parents Across America, a national grassroots parent organization Leonie Haimson helped found, along with amazing people like Karran  Harper Royal from New Orleans (see the wonderful video I shot of her as SOS - see Afterburn for more on Karran), and with outlets in many cities across the nation, is taking action this week in Charlotte, North Carolina and not letting people claiming to be Democrats off the hook.

For immediate release: September 3, 2012
Contact: Pamela Grundy, 704-806-0410, shamrockparent@earthlink.net
           
Members of MecklenburgACTS.org and Parents Across America will be rallying and distributing literature at two events associated with the Democratic National Convention here in Charlotte.

We will call on President Obama and other Democrats to reject the ineffective "reform" measures being pushed by well-heeled organizations such as Students First and Democrats for Education Reform, and instead join parents and education experts in support of a more proven, community-based set of changes.

As the Charlotte Observer and the Huffington Post have noted, Democrats differ significantly over ways to improve the nation's schools. We will be highlighting this debate.

On Monday, we will be at the Students First-sponsored showing of the controversial movie "Won't Back Down" at the Epicenter complex, 201 E. Trade St., from 12:30 to 1 p.m. Although several of us signed up to see the movie and attend the discussion some weeks ago, we were informed early this morning that we would not be admitted. So we will make our case outside.

On Tuesday, we will be at the "Town Hall" sponsored by Democrats for Education Reform at the Knight Theater, 4:30 S. Tryon St., from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.

We will present the following statement:

Our Children Need Education Reforms that Work

Students First, Parent Revolution and Democrats for Education Reform are pushing for education policies that have no track record of success:

• An expansion of high-stakes testing that turns schools into testing factories and drives families and top teachers away from public education.

• Relentless charter school expansion even though charter schools regularly perform less well than comparable public schools.

• School closings which disrupt families and communities and send most students to schools that perform no better than the ones they left.

• Parent trigger laws which divide parents and have yet to improve a single school.

We've seen here in Charlotte how these policies destabilize communities, anger parents and demoralize our best teachers. We call on President Obama and other Democrats to reject these policies and join parents and education experts in support of a more positive set of changes that includes small classes, a well-rounded curriculum, more meaningful parent involvement and greater investment in teachers and families.

For REAL solutions visit MecklenburgACTS.org and ParentsAcrossAmerica.org.

Afterburn Update:
Leonie Haimson posted a link on PAA to the Karran Harper Royal SOS video I shot with this perfect comment summing up ed deform:

How did some African-Americans get on wrong side of ed reform?

How can you tell if you’re on the wrong side of reform: Does the policy shut down open debate? Does it remove the democratic process? Do parents get to elect the charter board? Do the policymakers have to focus on a villain, in this case, teachers and unions as the bogeyman? Do they insist on closing schools rather than improving them? Do they impose on high stakes decision for children or teachers or schools? Do they talk about return on investment and are there billionaires pulling the strings? Do they focus on “school choice” over civil rights? These are signals that they are on the wrong side of education reform. And yet it’s easy to fall into the wrong side. Check out Karran’s brilliant analysis why -- video link here   or here

Terrific visual on how ed reform industries milk public education dollars

Special Report: The profit motive behind virtual schools in Maine

Documents expose the flow of money and influence from corporations that stand to profit from state leaders' efforts to expand and deregulate digital education.

 READ IT

Ravitch on the same case:

Understanding the Online Scandal in Maine by dianerav

If you read this article about how online companies bought American education, you would not be at all shocked or surprised by the scandal in Maine. There, the state commissioner of education is following the instructions of Jeb Bush's education advisor and implementing the ALEC model legislation to change the laws to bring in for-profit online corporations.

Corporations will make millions. Many children in Maine will get a lousy education, and the taxpayers in Maine will be ripped off.

That's known these days as reform.

E4E Rep Told "This is a MORE School"

I got a call from a MORE teacher who was approached by a colleague who attended an e4e meeting and heard a carefully crafted message that appears to support teachers instead of the real intent –  to undermine them. After explaining what e4e is all about he proudly told his colleague:

GO TELL e4e THEY ARE NOT WELCOME. 

WE ARE A MORE SCHOOL.

In fact e4e is very aware and threatened by MORE and expect more head to head battles. They are trying to sneak into your school through the back door (E4E Buys Its Way Into Schools Using Tweed Contacts) by capturing a colleague or two and sending them back to your school to recruit. In most cases these colleagues are not aware of the underlying -- and lying message, so fill them in. And tell them to join the real organization standing up for teachers, MORE.

========

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.

Eva Moskowitz Can't Hold On To Teachers, Rivals Paul Ryan in Lies

I had to share this post from Leonie on her blog.

More dissimulation from Eva

From Wikipedia: In 2010, according to Eva Moskowitz, she received around 13,000 applications for 69 teacher positions. In 2011, she said there were "57,000 applications for 256 jobs."  (Sources: Rosato, Ken, host, New York Viewpoint, July 25, 2010; Phillips, Anna M., High Teacher Turnover at a Success Network School, in NYT SchoolBook, October 19, 2011)

Yet from the below email it is clear that of yesterday, her schools are still looking for TFA teachers  even after their years have begun. 

So much for those 57,000 applications, as well as their “extensive” pre-service training programs.  On the Success Charter website, the job postings are four pages long.

Begin forwarded message:

From: Teach For America - New York Group Members <group-digests@linkedin.com>

Subject: [1] discussion on LinkedIn

Date: August 31, 2012 9:14:15 AM EDT

	Teach For America - New York   August 31, 2012   Success Academy Charter Schools is still hiring EXCELLENT teachers and operations staff for the 2012-2013 school year! Reach out to me directly or visit our website at successcareers.org Started by Gabrielle A. Levine, Recruiter at Success Academy Charter Schools

Video: Jaisal Noor at Save Our Schools

I've done videotaping at many events with Jaisal, who really knows how to tell a story. So well, I'm jealous. I often just try to copy what he is doing, from camera angle to just point my camera while he interviewing people.

I have a bunch of raw videos  up from the same SOS event that you can see at https://vimeo.com/gemnyc/videos. Speeches by Kozol, Meier, Carlsson-Paige, and entire workshops. Here Jaisal gets a lot of the essence of SOS in 9 minutes.

Hey folks,

I wanted to request you all check out and tweet/facebook/ blog my report from the SOS conference in early August (I know several people on the listserve were present as well). I spoke to teachers and activists from across the country.

The video already has 2,000 hits since it was released Friday morning and I'm getting lots of good feedback. I'm hoping to get to 3,000 by tomorrow!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=quQLMCzz7dw
Thanks
Jaisal Noor

http://youtu.be/quQLMCzz7dw

John King's Priority Schools Classification Scam

It makes me all the more uncomfortable when that unilateral disregard for existing law is being used in a coercive manner - using access to federal funding to coerce states to adopt reform strategies that the current administration happens to prefer. The precedent at the federal level that legislation perceived as inconvenient can and should simply be ignored seems to encourage state departments of education to ignore statutory and constitutional provisions within their states that might be perceived similarly as inconvenient.  ---schoolfinance101

I want to follow up on our earlier post:

Insanity Reigns: Priority Designation of Schools Will Lead to Further Destruction of Neighborhood Schools and Privatization with some great follow-up stuff.

RBE takes a good shot: Obama NCLB Waiver Process Even More Damaging To Schools Then NCLB

Under the No Child Left Behind waiver the state received from the feds, the lowest performing schools must undergo major overhauls or be closed and turned into new schools. 

Leonie pointed to another brilliant post by Bruce Baker of Rutgers blogging at School Finance101. NCLB Waivers worse than NCLB? Bruce writes:

Implicit in these classifications - and the proposed response interventions - is the assumption that priority schools are simply poorly run schools - schools with crummy leaders and lots of bad, lazy, pathetic and uncaring teachers... who have thus caused their school to achieve priority status.

Really, having such amazing forces like Bruce Baker doing this work on our side is heartening. Here's the first part of his post in full -- click the link below it to read the rest.

Ed Waivers, Junk Rating Systems & Misplaced Blame: Case 1 – New York State by schoolfinance101

I hope over the next several months to compile a series of posts where I look at what states have done to achieve their executive granted waivers from federal legislation. Yeah... let's be clear here, that all of this starts with an executive decision to ignore outright, undermine intentionally and explicitly, federal legislation. Yeah... that legislation may have some significant issues. It might just suck entirely. Nonetheless, this precedent is a scary one both in concept and in practice. Even when I don't like the legislation in question, I'm really uncomfortable having someone unilaterally over-ride or undermine it.

It makes me all the more uncomfortable when that unilateral disregard for existing law is being used in a coercive manner - using access to federal funding to coerce states to adopt reform strategies that the current administration happens to prefer. The precedent at the federal level that legislation perceived as inconvenient can and should simply be ignored seems to encourage state departments of education to ignore statutory and constitutional provisions within their states that might be perceived similarly as inconvenient.

Setting all of those really important civics issues aside - WHICH WE CERTAINLY SHOULD NOT BE DOING - the policies being adopted under this illegal (technical term - since it's in direct contradiction to a statute, with full recognition that this statute exists) coercive framework are toxic, racially disparate and yet another example of misplaced blame.
States receiving waivers have generally followed through by using their assessment data in contorted and entirely inappropriate ways to create designations of schools and districts, where those designations then permit state officials to step in and take immediate actions to change the governance, management and whatever else they see fit to change in these schools (and whether they have such legal authority or not).

Priority schools are the bottom of the heap, or bottom 5% and are subject to the most aggressive, and most immediate unilateral interventions (seemingly with complete disregard for existing state statutory or constitutional rights of attending children, their parents or local taxpayers, as well as explicit disregard for existing federal law).

Implicit in these classifications - and the proposed response interventions - is the assumption that priority schools are simply poorly run schools - schools with crummy leaders and lots of bad, lazy, pathetic and uncaring teachers... who have thus caused their school to achieve priority status.

They clearly must go... or at least deserve one heck of a shaking up!

Couldn't possibly be anyone else's fault. After all, the state must have clearly already done its part to provide sufficient financial resources, etc. etc. etc. It must be the bad teachers and crappy principals. That's all it can be! Therefore, we must have immediate wide-reaching latitude to step in and kick out the bums - and heck - just close those schools and send those kids elsewhere, or convert those schools to "limited public access, privately governed and managed institutions" (privately manged charters) where layers of constitutional rights for employees and students may be sacrificed.

New York State's Waiver Hit List
New York State Education Department released their hit list of schools recently. 

 READ MORE

 

Insanity Reigns: Priority Designation of Schools Will Lead to Further Destruction of Neighborhood Schools and Privatization

This is the most ridiculous policy... cash rewards and options for opting out of some state regulations for schools that are doing great, which is correlated with population.  More external pressure and "accountability" for schools that are not, which has to do w/ population, but no policies to actually help these kids...  as long as we are going by test scores the results of programs like these will be the same:  schools with highest concentrations of ELL/Special needs/and children living in poverty will be "low achieving" and schools with low poverty rates (or no poverty) and small numbers of ELLs and special needs students will be "high achieving"... Meanwhile schools with large nos of at risk kids to be restructured or closed. .....a NYC special ed teacher and member of MORE

Here comes another assault on schools that will force the most struggling schools to focus resources on tests instead of doing what is necessary. And they can expect no help from Bloomberg/Walcott or from the next mayor for that matter.

Some say John King, pro-charter, pro-privatization State Ed Comm. is clueless. I don't agree. He is executing the ed deform agenda, in addition to executing these schools

Gotham has a story about this here. Go leave a comment.

Leonie Haimson had this quick analysis:

At first glance reward schools include some of wealthiest & most selective in city incl ps 6 on upper east side manhattan & anderson Stuy bronx science brooklyn tech & lehman these are the schools that are supposed to get cash  awards for doing so well?

Here are the comments that the MORE special ed teacher sent in this quick analysis:

As result of the NCLB waiver, all districts in NYC were identified for focus/priority except D31/Staten Island...there is a reward too, of course going to wealthiest schools, in d15 for example ps 321 park slope.

This is the most ridiculous policy... cash rewards and options for opting out of some state regulations for schools that are doing great, which is correlated with population.  More external pressure and "accountability" for schools that are not, which has to do w/ population, but no policies to actually help these kids...  as long as we are going by test scores the results of programs like these will be the same:  schools with highest concentrations of ELL/Special needs/and children living in poverty will be "low achieving" and schools with low poverty rates (or no poverty) and small numbers of ELLs and special needs students will be "high achieving"...
There will be an improvement plan based on 6 tenants of education effectiveness (whatever that means) and schools/districts will have to meet goals, provide data, have visits... Haven't seen what happens if goals are not met/there isn't improvement/test scores don't go up... But this newfangled thing has another group "priority" schools, which are schools "in more trouble" than yours (lowest 5% I think), those schools I think face more imminent action and I think the idea is the focus schools are targeted to prevent from becoming priority aka- stop them from becoming "the bottom 5"... Of course if u have a tiered system like this, there will always be a "bottom."

 http://www.p12.nysed.gov/accountability/ESEADesignations.html


This email was sent out to a staff by Jeff Kaufman, chapter leader of one of the schools.

As our school has been statistically struggling with some City and State metrics our struggle, unfortunately, continues. Today the State has designated Aspirations as a “Priority” school. This replaces our former SINI designation and was determined by 3 main criteria; ELA, Math scores and graduation rates.

Under the Federal NCLB rules New York applied for and received a waiver in order to comply with many of the mandates. With the State’s Race to the Top Application (conditionally approved but not implemented since our union has not agreed on evaluation of teacher criteria…there has been no agreement to change our U/S rating system) the Feds and the State revamped their list and terminology. The new designation that we received, Priority school, will release additional sums to change our ELA, Math and graduation stats. It also buys up to 3 years before the state will order the school closed or phased-out.

It is important to note that the state’s designation does not directly impact any city decision to close or phase out our school. The city’s power to transform certain low performing schools was severely curtailed when our union won a lawsuit prohibiting the city from excessing all staff without closing the school.

While I realize a lot of this is complicated and this short space is clearly not enough to explain all of the nuances I think it is important to understand that as we open the school year with the same commitment we have always had…to our students. We will undoubtedly be told we are not working hard enough or effectively and that if we don’t improve our school will close.

We will do our best, not for any state metric or to please an administrator, but because we are committed to the notion that if our students are to have any chance in this world it will be because that they are prepared for college or work, and while we can’t change their economic status or their poor prior education, we can impact our students in many ways which state or city metrics will never be able to measure.

I look forward to this year knowing there will be challenges and knowing that I will be working with some of the most dedicated teachers I have ever known.

As always, feel free to call or email me about this or any other issue. If you wish more information about our priority school designation and the process go to

http://www.p12.nysed.gov/accountability/ESEADesignations.html

See below for word from State Ed

CTU Delegates Set Strike Date for Sept. 10

08/30/2012

On Wednesday, a standing-room-only House of Delegates, representing schools & citywide educators across the city set a potential start date of Monday, September 10, 2012, for a strike of more than 26,000 teachers, clinicians and paraprofessionals.
The resolution reads:
RESOLVED that the House of Delegates shall set a strike date of September 10, 2012.

The strike is necessary to achieve a labor contract with acceptable wages, benefits and job protections; and for all other purposes for which a strike is authorized under law. The strike is also necessary to protest unfair labor practices committed by CPS against our membership.