ICE Meeting Today: Better Not Shout, Better Not Pout, George Schmidt is Coming To Town

At ICE's scheduled meeting today we will have the bonus of special guest Substance,  telling us all about what's happening in Chicago with the school closing protests and the CORE re-election campaign. As one of CORE's founding members, George will also talk about the evolution of CORE from an 8 person group of people in 2008 reading Naomi Klein's "Shock Doctrine" to running the Chicago Teachers Union by July 2010. The theme of George's talk will be from dissidents to the realities of power.
George Schmidt, the founder, publisher and editor of

And that is an interesting theme given many Unity Caucus comments over the years that it is easy for a group like ICE or MORE to be critical when it doesn't have to deal with running a union. And those are not points to slough off and it will be interesting to hear George tell us about that tightrope walk. But I am interested in how the structures of CORE work in terms of organization building. How have they managed to gather so many more committed activists in Chicago than we have done so far here in NYC given they have about 650 schools (soon to drop to 600 if Rahmbo gets his way) while we have 1700 here and 5 boroughs. George often tells me that organizing Chicago is the equivalent of Brooklyn.

Some who are not aware may be wondering what role ICE still plays given that the other caucus, TJC, is no longer functioning.
We all made a decision that once the organizing groups got MORE up and going their official role as decision makers would disappear and MORE would be a membership org of individuals rather than a coalition of orgs which I for one felt would clog up the process.

ICE as one of the constituent groups that helped organize MORE felt we had strong enough bonds between us to continue in some form, mostly as a discussion group to explore issues of interest. And there are some ICEers who are either not interested in MORE, so keeping ICE alive gives them a voice. Plus the  ICEUFT Blog that James and Jeff continue to maintain and gives ICE its own voice in the union debates.

We don't meet often, especially with the work needed in MORE, but think that as a group of older teachers and retirees we have some things to offer which MORE may not have the time or inclination to address. In fact one of my own disatisfacttions with MORE meetings is the lack of time to just talk. MORE people are more action oriented and that just doesn't always suit old fogies like me who love the give and take we always have in ICE.

And we have invited some of the newer people we have met in MORE to join our meetings who we think fit that mold. We meet in a diner and just talk -- and eat. And I never emerge from an ICE meeting without feeling I've learned something or had some issues that were muddled illuminated. The floating agenda and lack of time constraints plus the fact that with MORE doing the work we don't really have to do anything -- but talk and eat.

Ahhh, life is good.

UPDATED: Civil Disobedience and Arrests at Chicago Closing Schools Protest

I am updating as more info comes in. Fred Klonsky has great pics. Here is one.

Jaisal Noor tweeted links to his videos:
@jaisalnoor: Interviews with Karen Lewis and those arrested at #Chicago protest for #EDUjustice & against #CPSclosings

You tube

NPR coverage
In Chicago, Dozens Arrested As They Protest School Closures
by Eyder Peralta
NPR - March 27, 2013
Hundreds of demonstrators, along with the Chicago Teachers Union, marched through the city today demanding that City Hall walk back its plan to close 53 elementary schools and one high school in response to a $1 billion budget deficit....

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/03/27/175524955/in-chicago-dozens-arrested-as-they-protest-school-closures?sc=17&f=1001

 "People have a right to the neighbourhoods in which they live," said CTU leader Karen Lewis at the rally. "Children have the right to a safe, nurturing, loving environment."
The CTU emerged with considerable public support after it blunted Emmanuel's attempts to tie teachers' pay to test scores last year. It has pledged to continue the campaign of non-violent disobedience. "People who work in the schools and rely on public schools will oppose the mass closings by any and all peaceful means," [Vice-President] Sharkey has told union members. "[School closings] are not something we are prepared to accept without a fight ... We're going to take this fight as far as we have to, to defend our community schools."

Well, you could do what the UFT does when there are mass school closings announced: show a tepid presence with no organizing at closing school meetings like this report in Nation of Change, Shuttered: How America is Selling Out Its Schools

The United Teachers Federation, which represents educators in New York, hasn't even bothered to mobilize its members, apparently preferring to bide its time until the mayoral election in November when, presumably, someone more amenable than billionaire Michael Bloomberg will be in office. 

while

Decked in red t-shirts, members of MORE were out in force at the PEP hearing, standing by parents and students where the UFT leadership was absent. Their hope is that those with a mutual stake in preserving public education can band together to beat back the privatization of learning and build a quality school environment for all.

UPDATE - Video: IS 49 SI Asst Principal Illegally Stops and Frisks Student

See new info below. This info was sent to OSI and they did nothing. When a video about a teacher is out there they pull the teacher and try to fire them. See what was sent to OSI.
And where is the press on this double standard?

How long will the DOE protect the administrators at this school?

http://youtu.be/UR0-MKVZeiA



sent OSI and SCI and they did nothing. From teachers to osi:

Other Allegations submitted 4 months ago about the same assistant principal:

On 9/9/11 AP _______ was seen grabbing student _______ by front desk at dismissal and pushing him back and forth shaking and holding him by his wrists yelling

AP ________ was seen grabbing student _____ in the main staircase on 1st floor by the neck and shaking her. Beginning of 5th period (approx 11:20-11:30) on 12/30/11

AP _______ was observed pulling the hoody strings around the neck of District 75 student____ outside room 228 around 7pm on February 28, 2012

From anonymous staff member submitted on my UFT online suggestion site:

“ On the day (June 6, 12) of the incident, with Student A Ms. ______shielded student A with her body so that she would not get cuffed by School Safety. Student A was pinned against the wall by her AP, her body up against Student A and her two arms against the wall so that she had leverage to move her body if anyone tried to get to  Student A.School safety tried on several occasions to try and secure Student A to be cuffed, but Ms. ______ moved her body to and fro and and school safety was not able to cuff Student A. It was absolutely disgusting to see _____’ body up against a student. All of this can be verified by the video tape from the security cameras, she was next to Rm 131. Hill (principal) called in school safety agents and tried to say that they were responsible for allowing  Student A to get in building. School safety, at dismissal, is usually relieved by Hill or AP (when they were checking staff out for day) so that an agent can go to the doors to make sure they are closed.______was checking out staff for that day, but she did not go early to relive level 3, because she wanted staff to wait for making complaints about having to wait to check out. By the time _____ got to relieve level 3 was the same time that _____sneaked through the doors.

There are no suggestion because no matter what we do nothing is ever done about it… ”

NY Times Attack on Quinn Part of Plan to Make Lhota Mayor by Making Thompson Dem Choice?

So I am a suspicious sort. I agree that Quinn is awful and believe everything in the NY Times article and would never vote for her. But something is fishy. Note this quote from a 2010 Wayne Barrett piece:

Friends of Thompson expect him to try, like loser Rudy Giuliani did in 1989, to stay in play on the sidelines and run for mayor again in four years, when a departing Bloomberg might throw him an endorsement or some checks.... Thompson often looked like a befuddled shadow-boxer, tied to Bloomberg at the hip while serving up obligatory campaign lip.

See Perdido St. comments:

NY Times: Christine Quinn Is A Petulant, Tantrum-Prone Child

and Backlash Against Quinn Grows.  RBE at Perdido has often branded Thompson as the worst candidate in history. 

  

I do think there is a plan operating here. And that is to make Joe Lhota mayor and the only way to do that is to have the weakest possible Democrat as a campaigner run against him.

And that is one Bill Thompson the worst candidate to run for mayor and the supposed behind the scenes choice of Bloomberg both in 2009 and most probably this time too as a stalking horse for Lhota.  The Times has run some puff pieces on Lhota and a look at Thompson's backers leads one to some suspicion -- sorry I can't find the link. Ignore the talk about rifts between Bloomberg and Lhota. They are both part of the undemocratic oligarchy that has a choke hold on the city, especially when it comes to the education and real estate gravy trains.

I wrote about the Wayne Barrett piece in the Voice Jan 10, 2010

The next time you read a New Action leaflet bragging about how they were the only caucus to endorse Bill Thompson, suggest people read this revealing Wayne Barrett piece in the Voice about Thompson's girlfriend/wife and how Bloomberg has helped her.

Bloomberg and Thompson: The (Really) Odd Couple

Bushwick to Broadway: Help My Former Student Ernie Silva Get His Show to Broadway

Ernie it trying to get his show to Broadway and you can help. http://www.usaprojects.org/project/bushwick_to_broadway

I've written about Ernie, who was in my 4th grade class around 1982. Ernie's story it quite engaging. (I wonder if he knows what they've done to his alma mater, Murry Bergtraum?) I went to see Heavy Like the Weight of a Flame at least 3 times and Ernie always managed to work "Mr. Scott" into the dialogue. My claim to fame.

I should write more about that class and how I came to get it  --- a top class my principal was forced to give me due to contract rotation but she tried all sorts of tricks to deny me and I had to file a grievance. One argument I made at the time was that a teacher should experience kids who had a great chance at success at least sometimes in their careers -- too many of my former students had gone down to drug use, prison time, etc. And this class has given me a lot of nachus (that's a Jewish word, not nachos.)

See my piece on Maria, another member of my class who came to our film screening, the first time I had seen her in over 20 years (A Former Student Surprise Visit at GEM Film). Maria was a "can't miss" student who went to Stuyvesant but also had some trials and tribulations. So many lessons from kids in that class.

Maria at screening

This was clearly a golden class with many very smart kids and Ernie was one of them -- guaranteed to make it, right? Well, "Heavy...." tells us of his journey and trials that so many of even our top academic performers go through and reinforces the point we make when ed deformers claim the teacher is the most important element. Believe me, that class could have been taught by a monkey and the kids would have been successful.

One of the most riveting parts of Ernie's show is the stop and frisk segment when he was 12 years old. Quite pertinent with the current court case going on. The judge should see the show which Ernie is trying to bring to Broadway.

MORE Featured in National Publication Article on PEP

The Movement of Rank-and-File Educators, or MORE, is attempting to take over the teachers union in elections slated for April. They want to push the UFT more toward a social justice approach. “What MORE would do differently,” says Julie Cavanagh, a Brooklyn school teacher and MORE candidate for the UFT's presidency, “is change the philosophy and ideology of how the union functions.” That means building “real organic partnerships with the communities that we serve.”

MORE has modeled itself on the Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators, which took over the Chicago teachers union in 2010 and led a strike that fought back attempts to cut teacher pay last June. They attribute their success cooperation from the community. Parents and students joined the Chicago teachers on the picket-line. The strike was seen as being about more than a contract, but about the systemic racism within the city's underfunded public schools.

Decked in red t-shirts, members of MORE were out in force at the PEP hearing, standing by parents and students where the UFT leadership was absent. Their hope is that those with a mutual stake in preserving public education can band together to beat back the privatization of learning and build a quality school environment for all.

The United Teachers Federation, which represents educators in New York, hasn't even bothered to mobilize its members, apparently preferring to bide its time until the mayoral election in November when, presumably, someone more amenable than billionaire Michael Bloomberg will be in office.

Nice article in Nation of Change. A few excerpts, but go read it all.

Shuttered: How America is Selling Out Its Schools

Peter Rugh

Published: Tuesday 26 March 2013

A number of specialty schools were among those given the boot, including the Law, Government and Community Service High School in Queens.

Boos and hisses fills the auditorium of Brooklyn Technical High as the governing board for New York City's public schools, the Panel on Education Policy, takes the stage. It's March 11 and the PEP is meeting to consider a proposal from Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott to close nearly two dozen schools.

Parent after parent, teacher after teacher, student after student takes the microphone and pleads for their school to remain open.

Similar scenarios are consistently playing out in many parts of the country. Officials in Chicago last week announced plans to eliminate fifty-four schools next year in one swoop. The city's mayor, former Obama White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, was on vacation at the time of the announcement and could not be reached for comment.

Earlier this month twenty-three schools got the axe in Philadelphia, about ten percent of the city's total. Nineteen protestors, including American Federation of Teachers head Randi Weingarten, were arrested for attempting to block the entrance to the building where Philly's education reform committee dished out the guillotine treatment.

In New York, these PEP meetings have become a tired ritual. Everybody knows what to expect, and this evening's turnout is not what it has been in the past.

Tonight, there's a significant crowd on hand but it falls far short of years before. The United Teachers Federation, which represents educators in New York, hasn't even bothered to mobilize its members, apparently preferring to bide its time until the mayoral election in November when, presumably, someone more amenable than billionaire Michael Bloomberg will be in office.

Following in the footsteps of many who came before him, Bloomberg systematically underfunded the city's institutions of learning. Simultaneously, his Department of Ed has ramped up standardized testing -- a cash cow for giant publishing houses like Houghton-Mifflin-Harcourt and Pearson, who design the tests used to measure whether schools are making the grade or whether the DOE will toss them overboard.

Meanwhile, for approximately every public school the DOE has crossed off its books, a charter school has opened up. Charter's are frequently non-union. They receive public funding but are privately run, sometimes by for-profit educational management firms.

In New York, hedge funds have lobbed large sums of money into charters and often sit on their boards. “Hedge fund executives,” The New York Times has noted, are developing into a “significant political counterweight” to teachers unions and other advocates of public education.

When it comes to an increased emphasis on testing, charters have a key advantage over traditional public schools: they can cross students off their grading sheets if they're not meeting their academic standards. Often that means students with learning disabilities get shown the door.

By contrast, public schools have to take everybody. Public school teachers attest that students with learning disabilities, behavioral problems, or who speak English as a second language commonly enter their classrooms well after semesters have started.

----
Charter-friendly legislation passed by President Bill Clinton in the 1990s helped the neoliberal education model grow roots in the U.S. In the following decade, President's George W. Bush's “No Child Left Behind” bill, followed by Obama's “Race to the Top” program, tied school funding to test results, further facilitating the dismantling of public education.
-----
Yet while the city's Department of Ed has used test results to qualify the closings, they have likewise resisted testing classrooms for Polychlorinated biphenyl, or PCBs.

....bodies young and old shuffled out of Brooklyn Tech late on the evening of the 11th. On the stage panel members appointed by the mayor had executed 22 schools simply by raising their arms when it came time to vote. A number of specialty schools were among those given the boot, including the Law, Government and Community Service High School in Queens.

Watching the proceedings, Noah Gotbaum wondered aloud, “What are we teaching our youth about democracy?”

This article was published at NationofChange at: http://www.nationofchange.org/shuttered-how-america-selling-out-its-schools-1364307870. All rights are reserved.

 

I Don't Believe John King When He Claims Tests Won't Be Used to Close Schools

I don't believe any of them. Just lies to divide and reduce opposition. He is an agent of the new gen robber barons.

That was my response to this comment on the NYState Ed Commissioner's supposed guarantee:

According to his memo, the tests will not be used to close more schools or create focus schools. They will be used to evaluate teachers, because that is "fair", says the King.

So a word of warning to people who think the growing parent opt-out movement is forcing State Ed to modify its policies, my response is watch out for Trojan horses.

The prime directive of ed deform: privatize as much of the public school, unionized system. The target is union teachers. Reduce their share by eliminating contracts, increase their portion.

Speaking of Trojan horses, they have a valuable assistant in all this - the people running the unions who are willing to go along as long as a small share is reserved for their little oligarchy.

Their prime directive is to hold onto power and thus while the different primes of deformers and union leaders seem contradictory on the surface they are not when you go deep.

The unions deal with Democrats who are good with the deal while fearing Republicans who want the bosses gone too.

Note how Rahm's agents will promote Karen Lewis' opposition in the Chicago union elections since Karen is the only big city union leader who won't make that deal.

One of the most interesting moments at the Lewis/Mulgrew event at the UFT on March 15 (The Ides) was when Karen talked about how they gave up their perks with Mulgrew sitting next to her squirming, as did much of the mostly Unity Caucus laden room.

That makes CORE people less subject to the temptations that accrue to union leaders who spend too much time hobnobbing with the 1% rather than with the members.

------
Lisa Donlan added some great info -- see the comment section -- and also added this point:

Making Norm's point:

Six Steps to Effective Teacher Development and Evaluation Sponsored by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and American Federation of Teachers

BY VICKI PHILLIPS AND RANDI WEINGARTEN

March 25, 2013

Sponsored content by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and American Federation of Teachers.

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/112746/gates-foundation-sponsored-effective-teaching 

 

John Yanno on The Work Julie Does and the UFT Doesn't

Mulgrew may have been at the DA but he wasn't in the trenches fighting for rank and file teachers and public education. Here, John Yanno provides a microcosm of Julie's work and why so many people who have worked with her are thrilled she is running for UFT President.

Julie highlighted a lot of her education activism in her response to the anonymous comments on the ICE blog (read Julie’s reply here - http://morecaucusnyc.org/2013/03/25/cavanagh-defends-her-record-and-asks-mulgrew-to-debate-his/). But one thing she didn’t mention was that when I was having a problem at my school, it was Julie and not the UFT who came to help us.

In 2010, the NYC DOE proposed housing Millennium Brooklyn in the John Jay High School campus where I teach. While Millennium Brooklyn is not a charter school, many of us at the John Jay campus were opposed to the co-location because of the scarce space in the building. 

There was also the problem of the DOE failing to release promised funds to the school (outrageously, they told us that allowing Millennium Brooklyn in would release those much-needed funds for our crumbling building). 

I knew Julie from the Grassroots Education Movement (this was way before MORE) and her fight at PS15. 

After telling her about what was happening at my school, Julie attended a joint parent and teacher meeting at my campus to help explain what would happen next after the proposal and what steps we could take to prepare for the hearing and the PEP. 

Julie also attended the hearing at my school and spoke powerfully both to the DOE from the microphone but also privately to at least one CEC member about the failure of the DOE to fund the schools at John Jay. Again, this was before there was any MORE, before Julie was running for any office. Julie, a true activist dedicated to education justice, came and said what the UFT leadership didn’t.

Julie Strikes Back

What matters is leadership. What matters is vision. What matters is the philosophy by which one will govern and represent the membership. I believe in a union that is member led and member driven. When I, or a candidate from MORE caucus, become president of the union, you will not have to attend a DA and sit idly and listen. The DA will be yours. When we take over leadership of our union, we will organize, support and build fighting chapters at the school level with elected district representatives who are trained organizers.  When we run the union, leadership and staffers will make salaries equivalent to the teachers we represent — there will be no extra perks, no double pensions.  When we lead our union, you will not go more than three years without a contract, at least not without organized job actions and a fight.

When Unity’s stranglehold of the leadership of our union ends, the members will have representation that believes in solidarity with other unions and in the power of our collective action. You will have a union that educates, mobilizes, and organizes our members and the public and who organically partners with parents and young people. You will have a leadership that truly understands that our working conditions are our students’ learning conditions, that a harm to one is a harm to us all, and that we must stand side by side with deep roots in the communities we serve to fight for social, racial and economic justice in our schools, in our city and across the country.

 ----Julie Cavanagh responding to Unity Caucus attacks at MORE blog.

The attacks on Julie as being unqualified to run the UFT remind me of the Republican/Pallin attacks and derision of Obama for being a "community organizer" given Julie's work in the community around her school, the basics of grassroots organizing.---- ed notes

In the midst of dealing with a sick child and getting ready for a few days of breathing room from working as a full-time teacher, mother, chapter leader, presidential candidate, school and neighborhood organizer, best friend and supporter to too many people to count, Julie Cavanagh found the time to respond to the Unity hack/slug attacks while Mulgrew hides under the table.

Listen, I actually happen to like Mulgrew from what I see of him, but if he had to face a debate with Julie and answer tough questions about UFT policy he just wouldn't hold up. And she would. So it is funny how the Unity people claim she would cave while backing Mulgrew's refusal to debate.

Duck, Mulgrew, duck.

So I don't blame Mulgrew for ducking. That doesn't make him a bad person and maybe it means he is smart to not want to debate Julie, knowing full well her capabilities and his weaknesses. (Randi was willing to debate the late Michelle Malkin representing PAC, a tiny caucus, in 2001).

Mulgrew bears responsibility for Unity attacks

But then the Unity attacks on her qualifications in such a coordinated manner means he must bear responsibility for them and that means he is condoning them while the anonymity of the commentors provide cover for people who are clearly amongst the leadership, allowing Mulgrew to say, "who me?" It happened to Kit Wainer in the 2007 campaign when thousands of teachers received an mailing at home attacking Kit. Randi claimed she didn't know. Sure. Can we expect a similar mailing with the same type of attack on Julie this time?

I'm not speaking for MORE here but let's challenge any of the Unity hacks/slugs or anyone else in Unity to debate any people in MORE in a public arena. Watch them duck this one too. Let any of the commentors on the MORE, ICE, and Ed Notes blogs come forward and stand up for what you say you believe. How about Emil and Camen debating Gloria on what exactly happened with the UFT governance committee instead of using the DA to beat Gloria up? No guts, no glory.

New Action, inaction
And watch New Action in all this. They will probably issue some inane statement about keeping the election process clean. Then watch some of them go over and schmooze with Julie after the election and commiserate. I try to tell Julie and other MOREs that New Action is worse than Unity. They know they can never contend for power and have no intention of doing so but will do Unity's bidding in making sure a CORE-like caucus will not get traction in NYC. They really are despicable. Just look at their leaflet taking credit for the sun shining and making it look like they are criticizing Unity while burying the fact they are running Mulgrew at the top of their ticket -- and don't think Unity people are not helping them get their stuff into schools -- Leroy Barr killed a potential lower level debate between MORE and Unity over including New Action -- they like 2 against 1.

Attack on Julie will come back to bite Unity and New Action after the election

One of the major miscalculations on the part of Unity is their basic ignorance of Julie's stature in and beyond NYC. And all the people she has worked with. They live in their insular box. All they are worried about is the election results this time. As more teachers get to know Julie over the coming years, these attacks will resonate with them.

You know my interest is not in the election but in building a core group of activists with a wide reach and the election was seen as a way to do that. The very fact that Julie has chosen to work with MORE, given her wide range of options, is a sign of change that is a real threat to Unity. Thus these attacks.

That is the only way to challenge Unity and if MORE stops doing this after the election only to come back in 3 years it is wasting its time. The attacks on Julie and her response will go far and wide for a long time. If it were up to me I would put it out as a leaflet to stuff in the boxes. (I will put together a pdf for anyone who wants to share with their staff.)

You can read Julie's response at the MORE blog and at ICE where James Eterno, the ICE-TJC 2010 Presidential candidate and an avid Julie supporter along with his wife Camille (which given their long activism should mean something -- would they be willing to turn the UFT over to someone unqualified?) added this comment:

As John Kerry found out in the 2004 presidential campaign, mud sticks so you better fight back fast and that is what MORE Presidential candidate Julie Cavanagh is doing.  She will not be "swift-boated" by Unity. Here is her response on the ICEUFT blog to the viscous Unity attacks on her fitness to lead the UFT .  It will also be on the MORE blog.

http://iceuftblog.blogspot.com/2013/03/more-presidential-candidate-julie.html

Please read and comment but don't forget we still need to work hard on the ground game to get out the vote as ballots will be mailed as soon as we come back to school.

James

And a MUST READ is NYC Educator:

Is UFT's Delegate Assembly a Forum for Candidates' Debate?

Should Working Mothers With Sick Babies Attend the DA?

 If you don't get to MORE or ICE, Julie's entire statement is below:

Cavanagh Defends Her Record and Asks Mulgrew to Debate His

25 Mar

By Julie Cavanagh

Wow. While having breakfast with my husband and almost nine month old son (who is finally on the mend after more than a week of a fever ranging 102-104 every day, during the same time my best friend’s 18 month old daughter was in the hospital, who by the way, is also a teacher and a single mother of two young children), I picked up my phone to see a mention on Twitter from Arthur Goldstein (teacher and chapter leader in Queens). I frankly couldn’t believe what I was reading. Usually a mention from Arthur has me in stitches. Not this time.

Now instead of relaxing while my baby takes a nap, I am writing this in response to comments on the ICE and MORE blogs attacking my commitment as a unionist and chapter leader and questioning my worthiness as a candidate for UFT President. All of this because I, and the caucus I represent, had the nerve to insist that Michael Mulgrew engage in a forum or debate with me so that our members can be fully informed and engaged when it comes to their voting choices in the upcoming election.

First let me say that I do not feel I need to defend my role as a chapter leader. Nearly every UFT member in our school, signed my petition for UFT President, and many of my colleagues are actually running in this election with MORE.

Second, I certainly do not need to defend my attendance at Delegate Assemblies. While I do attend, often, DAs are not a democratic forum. As I am sure the commenters on the ICE and MORE blogs know, and as all Unity folks know, the room is not even large enough for all of the CLs and delegates to be seated and when you do go and sit, you listen to Mulgrew practice his stand up routine for an hour or so, after which you *might* have the chance to ask a question or bring a resolution to the floor if Mulgrew recognizes you. Regardless, it is an effort in futility because it really doesn’t matter what you say, ask or bring to the floor; the ruling Unity caucus will disagree with it or vote it down, since they control the DA. If the UFT leadership actually held Delegate Assemblies each month that were informative and provided fair and ample time for discourse and discussion, I would be there in a New York Minute. As this is not the case, I attend as many Delegate Assemblies as I can, but sometimes other events such as a childcare issue, my son being ill or an important meeting in my community to bring a new partner into Red Hook to service children and families with disabilities will take precedence. I do not need to go to the delegate assembly to prove who I am or that I am committed to my union; I act every day in a way that highlights why I should be president of the UFT.

I am a mother and a teacher. I have been a teacher for thirteen years, and have been working with children with special needs and their families for even longer. I have stayed in the same community and school since moving to NYC in 2001, because I am committed to the process of leading school change and improvement from the school level. I became chapter leader at the request of my colleagues a few years ago and have worked hard with them, our parents, and our principal to make sure our children and our teachers have the best learning and working conditions possible. I fought for my school during the dictatorship that my union handed to the mayor, during a co-location of a charter school in my building that my union didn’t adequately help fight (which is difficult since the UFT leadership chose to co-locate its own charter), while our class sizes rise steadily and our budgets are slashed, while teacher’s choice was eliminated and insultingly reinstated to cover no more than a few boxes of pencils, while ATR’s rotate in and out of my building- some of whom  have approached me on the brink of tears desperate for someone to listen to their struggle, during a time of a tidal wave of assaults on our children, our schools, and our profession.

Throughout this time, I not only worked in my own school community, I worked with parents and union members across the city and the country to fight back. You can find links to some of my work here, but I will list a few highlights: I co-wrote/edited/produced/and narrated a film that stood up to corporate education reform, a film that has been seen by hundreds of thousands of people in every state and on every continent (except Antarctica); I have appeared on several TV and radio programs and written several articles where I have spoken out forcefully against corporate education reform and for the schools our children deserve – and I was invited or asked in every single case to participate, so while those in Unity caucus pretend to not know who I am or what I have done (but yet ”know”, falsely, that I am not at DAs) apparently the national media does; I have also worked with other union members in the city and nationally – I helped organize a conference, and attended and facilitated, in Chicago in the summer of 2011 with other teacher union members; I helped lead the solidarity efforts with Verizon workers at the end of that same summer. I have sued, with a parent and a student, Mayor Bloomberg for the right to protest school closings and co-locations on his block and successfully organized and co-led that protest. I was the only teacher petitioner in the effort to stop and overturn the appointment of Cathy Black and also recently the only teacher on record to join with parents in sounding the alarm of student and teacher data privacy issues regarding SLC/inBloom data systems (Randi Weingarten, by the way, sits on inBloom’s advisory board). I say all of this not because I think anything that I am or that I do is so special, I share this information to highlight the outlandishness of the attacks from people whose usual line is there should be no attacks on union folks because we are under attack from outside forces and therefore need ‘unity’. I also share this because these are the things the president of a union should do.

Beyond of all of this, if Unity caucus can attack me for the number of times I went to the DA (this year I believe I have been to four DAs), the number of grievances I have filed (none), the number of UFT trainings or committees I have attended (none), then I wonder why they nominated Randi Weingarten as their presidential candidate, since she never attended a DA as a chapter leader, was never a chapter leader, and therefore never filed a grievance, attended the trainings, etc.

I personally do not think any of those things are what makes someone qualified to run our union. What matters is leadership. What matters is vision. What matters is the philosophy by which one will govern and represent the membership. I believe in a union that is member led and member driven. When I, or a candidate from MORE caucus, become president of the union, you will not have to attend a DA and sit idly and listen. The DA will be yours. When we take over leadership of our union, we will organize, support and build fighting chapters at the school level with elected district representatives who are trained organizers.  When we run the union, leadership and staffers will make salaries equivalent to the teachers we represent — there will be no extra perks, no double pensions.  When we lead our union, you will not go more than three years without a contract, at least not without organized job actions and a fight.

When Unity’s stranglehold of the leadership of our union ends, the members will have representation that believes in solidarity with other unions and in the power of our collective action. You will have a union that educates, mobilizes, and organizes our members and the public and who organically partners with parents and young people. You will have a leadership that truly understands that our working conditions are our students’ learning conditions, that a harm to one is a harm to us all, and that we must stand side by side with deep roots in the communities we serve to fight for social, racial and economic justice in our schools, in our city and across the country.

I am more than ready to share who I am with the members of the UFT and I am happy to answer their questions. In fact, that is precisely the reason I sent the email below to Michael Mulgrew. I believe a union membership with a less than 30% voter turnout needs to be engaged and exposed to open discourse and conversation between the two people who seek to represent them.

Mr. Mulgrew, I am still waiting for a response.

***

Sent: Mar 14, 2013 8:01 PM

Michael,
I hope this email finds you well.

While we have differences and disagreements concerning education policy and union democracy, we both are committed to our union and the children we serve. In that spirit, we should be able to engage in an open conversation during election season so we can ensure our fellow members are informed and engaged.

To this point you have ignored outreach regarding your participation in a debate or question and answer town hall with me. I would like to directly and formally ask you to participate in such an event.

I believe that our members deserve the opportunity to ask questions of their presidential candidates and I strongly believe this kind of open and honest discourse strengthens our union: an educated and engaged membership that is listened to and participates makes us stronger.

There is precedent for an event such as this between presidential candidates during election season.  As you know, Randi has participated in presidential debates in the past: one in 1999 and again in 2001.

I am open to a debate format with a third party moderator or a town hall question and answer event with the membership. My only specific asks are that the event be filmed and/or livestreamed so that we can maximize member participation, that the date, which I am open to any, be agreed to a few days in advance, so that I can secure child care and that the date be as close to April 3rd as possible, so that we provide a fair amount of time for members during the election timeframe.

I look forward to your response.
In solidarity,
Julie Cavanagh

Unity Slugs Attack Julie Cavanagh as Candidate After She Misses DA Due to Sick Child

There is no little irony in these Unity Caucus attacks on parents of young children as somehow not being qualified to serve in high union positions.

I have to say I am disgusted by the petty and personal attacks against a young mother on this forum ---There are few as poised and articulate as Julie Cavanagh. It's pretty hard to get pro-teacher pieces published in the Daily News. Julie's done that. It's pretty hard to be brilliant and articulate enough to narrate a film. Julie's done that too. I've met Julie, and I knew right away how smart she was. I'm very sorry some small-minded individuals have decided to target her. --- Arthur Goldstein on ICE blog.


... she's running for the grueling, time consuming position of UFT president. That's pretty much being on call 24-7. Maybe she shouldn't be pursuing this right now. Seriously, I hope everything is ok with her baby, but, how often does that happen? And, would it be a valid excuse to blow off the mayor with?----- Unity Hack comments on ICE blog.

Get rid of it --- Bloomberg to pregnant employees.

Arthur is responding to some of the comments Unity slugs are leaving on the ICE blog so typical of the attacks made on women for eons.

Given such major stories as new Yahoo chief Marissa Mayer with a young child less than 3 months younger than Jack (On the same day "Yahoo!" announced her hiring - Mayer revealed that she was pregnant. Mayer gave birth to a baby boy on September 30, 2012) ----

-----these Unity hacks are beyond boundaries when it comes to defending their perks and positions from the MORE threat. (Note the silence of the New Action lambs -- and one day I'll get into the male dominance thing in New Action.)

Of course the Unity hack then engaged in a personal attack on Arthur:
Arthur, stop being a wordy blowhard.

Arthur responded: Frankly, your inability to engage in civil discussion suggests you are not a teacher remotely like me.

Then a hack asked: Has MORE's candidate, Brian Jones, been attending the DAs?

Brian is not a delegate or chapter leader and is on child care and study leave.

That's 2 Unity attacks on MORE candidates who are parents of young children. By the way, these are the same 2 candidates who narrated the movie that has gone around the world with a defense of teacher unions that Unity has not come close to.

There is no little irony in these Unity Caucus attacks on parents of young children as somehow not being qualified to serve in high union positions. I have a number of reports of teachers returning from child care leave to find a new principal immediately attacking them while the UFT dithers and covers up for the principals --- you know with a young child you can't serve in the brave new world of 24-7 teaching the ed deformers have imposed with the assistance of the UFT. (Yes, ed deform is anti woman and mothers.)

Remember Bloomberg's attacks on women working for him who became pregnant ("get rid of it") and the subsequent law suits? One should be shocked that in today's world we would hear people saying these things, triggered by Julie's not attending the recent Delegate Assembly due to her child running a high fever. (The fever has come down).

Here is Arthur's full statement with a great defense:

I have to say I am disgusted by the petty and personal attacks against a young mother on this forum. It's not all that hard to attend the DA. It's pretty hard to get pro-teacher pieces published in the Daily News. Julie's done that. It's pretty hard to be brilliant and articulate enough to narrate a film. Julie's done that too. I've met Julie, and I knew right away how smart she was. I'm very sorry some small-minded individuals have decided to target her. There are many chapter leaders who can go to the DA and cheer as we partner up with Bill Gates and set up teachers to be vilified in the pages of the NY Post. There are many who can rationalize things like mayoral control or the unconscionable fashion in which we treat ATR teachers. Personally, I'd prefer they stop attending the DA altogether and wake up to precisely what this new junk science evaluation system will mean for working teachers. There are few as poised and articulate as Julie Cavanagh. There are some things that can't be learned, that can't be taught, and innate brilliance is one of them. I'm not seeing much of that here. Shame on all of you anonymous cowards who attack her.  

Shame indeed!

Julie missed her advertized appearance at Karen Lewis' speech at NYCORE last week too and MOREs rose to cover for her and at no point did I hear anyone say, "Maybe we should not have chosen her for our presidential candidate."

But maybe that is one of the many differences between Unity and NYCORE.

Jeff A responded to Unity questions on Julie's qualifications:

1. Will someone make or second a motion to have the Delegate Assembly attendance rate of all chapter leaders and delegates freely available to all the members?

2. Why is it important to register at the Labor Day Parade?

3. Amount of grievances filed is a reflection of what exactly? an inept administration, a lack of cooperation amongst the admin and uft, or genuine problems. Remember, being correct and being what the leadership thinks is winnable are two entirely different things.

4. Trained by the UFT means what exactly? It would be eye-opening to see what members thought of their “representation” at these hearings.

5. What does any of this have to do with being able to run a Union? Is this your litmus test?

If it means that much to you, “anonymous”, could you tell us Randi's record on those issues while she was actually a teacher?

Ah, yes, the same Unity slug supported Randi with her 6 months of teaching and never having been a chapter leader.

Well, there is a lot more to this debate on the ICE blog triggered by a couple of incidents. The challenge to Mulgrew to show the guts even Randi did who debated twice. And the issue of Gloria Brandman's voting against the UFT governance report but it being issued as being unanimous. James published Gloria's request to Carmen Alvarez and Emil Pietromonico to NOT hold the final meeting on elementary Open School Night which the refused to do. But we see attacks on Gloria at the DA and on the blogs and not on the UFT leadership for ignoring the elementary schools. But I'll tackle the UFT support for mayoral control separately (Oh, did New Action which claims to oppose mayoral control get up and say ANYTHING at the DA?)

One of the Unity hacks puts attendance at DAs as somehow indicative of qualifications, which prompted responses from ICE followers:

After going to many nonsensical, windy DAs and witnessing not very much happen, ever, I've taken to reading your sharp reports. It takes much less time than driving to Manhattan, and saves me over 20 bucks on parking each month. I want to thank you, James Eterno, from the bottom of my heart, for attending these things and giving such a clear picture of what happens, so that I don't have to.

And this

Unity Hacks!!!

Why should anyone go to the DA? I read these reports every month and it's basically the same nightmare over and over again:

Mulgrew talks and talks and talks and talks and talks saying how great he and UFT are. He must be in love with the sound of his voice or is repeating his subliminal messages learned during his sleep recorded messages.

After an hour of listening to his nonsense, then we are treated to Leroy Barr announcing the dates for the next time we can hear Mulgrew preach to his faithful how great he is.

After Barr, the Unity Gang all raise their cards so they can tell Mulgrew how great he is prior to asking their embarrassingly ignorant questions. This resembles more of a CULT than a Union Meeting.

Then there is a new motion period. At this time some delegate from some weird left wing organization raises a motion to support Fidel Castro or Raul Castro. Then, the Unity Gang, once again raises their cards to say how our union leadership is not fooled by the radicals within or ranks.

People in the schools would not believe what goes on. After this, the regular motions follow and they are usually things like supporting daylight savings. You have to respect the people who can sit through this farce every month and sustain the ability to not commit suicide.

Going after Julie and anyone else that does not attend the CULT like meetings shows that some of the Unity Flatterers here are in need of skilled professionals that may successfully reverse brain washing. 

 -------

And I'll close with this red-baiting comment from the Unity slug:

Bizarre. Simply bizarre that someone from MORE would compare their own union's delegate assembly to a cult. Then again you have some MORE people running for UFT leadership who proudly proclaim that they're communist. Weird lot of you. With a bizarre take on the world.-- Unity Caucus Slug on ICE blog

-----

So after the Unity Caucus slugs turned down a resolution at the UFT delegate assembly calling for a debate between the only 2 presidential candidates - yes Virginia, Mulgrew heads both the New Action and Unity slates -- and don't think Unity hasn't been using its people to make sure New Action election materials are showing up in as many schools as possible to sow confusion in the ranks --- the slugs started showing up on the ICE blog attacking Julie, who was home with a sick child, for not attending the DA. And red-baiting McCarthyism too. But we don't expect anything less from them.

Panel Rejects Moratorium Proposal

I did a short piece accompanied by a 12 minute video. Maybe this is the model for print journalism.

The Wave, March 22, 2013: http://www.rockawave.com/news/2013-03-22/Columnists/School_Scope.html

School Scope

Panel Rejects Moratorium Proposal 

 

By Norm Scott

At a sometimes raucous March 11th meeting of the Panel for Educational Policy, the Mayor Bloomberg-controlled Panel rejected the efforts of Queens PEP rep Dmytro Fedkowskyj and Manhattan PEP rep Patrick Sullivan both of whom called for a moratorium on school closures, phase-outs, and co-location proposals. Fedkowsky, appointed by Borough President Helen Marshall, has increasingly become an opponent of many of the Mayor’s policies as they have ravaged more and more neighborhood schools. He joined Sullivan in presenting the resolution which was supported by most of the hundreds of attendees, many of whom used their two minutes of speaking time to support the moratoriums.

Over the past five years Rockaway has seen both its large comprehensive high schools either closed or in the process of being phased out.

Fedkowskyj questioned the DOE’s process of communicating to parents the rationale for phasing out schools and the process for providing support they claim to have given schools before and after the phase out process. “This month’s agenda is excessive and out of control after 11 years of mayoral control…Too many of our school communities are being targeted year after year by the Mayor. He steamrolls past parents without providing specific targeted support for struggling school communities,” said Fedkowskyj in introducing the moratorium resolution.

Melvin Hydleburg, one of the two student reps in the Panel, a student at Lehman HS in the Bronx, which has repeatedly been threatened with closing during his entire tenure there and was pulled off the closing schools list a few weeks before the March 11th vote, spoke about the negative impact on the high school experience for thousands of students going through the school closing process over the Bloomberg era. “There are students here tonight that could be home doing homework…I know how they feel and it sucks…It’s about the students and how they are affected.”

In the end, the PEP voted down the call for a moratorium by a vote of 8-3 with the Brooklyn rep abstaining. At the end of the long meeting that began at 6 p.m. and ended around 11 p.m. they voted to close another 22 schools despite the pleas of parents, students, teachers and a slew of politicians. Video link

I think I remember putting in that people were calling Marty Markowitz a clown when his rep abstained. I prefer "piece of crap."

Fighting School Closings, Chicago Style

Do you know what Unity Caucus people are going to say? "You see, if only the CTU had not been so militant and struck. This is retaliation. We know how to deal. We know we have to be good boys and girls and they will let us live a little longer.

Karen Lewis would say they want to kill us sooner or later. Our only chance is to fight them on all fronts sooner and with all guns blazing.

In reality, if CORE had not won the election, the Chicago Teachers Union would be a bare bones shell by now. And what irony that the very people who led the CTU down the road to extinction are now saying that CORE did not do enough. The proverbial guy who kills his parents and pleads mercy on the grounds he's an orphan.

	Closings Update
Dear CTU member, You probably heard yesterday that the school district plans to close, co-locate and turnaround 70 schools this year. Your sisters and brothers in the CTU will stand tall with you during these difficult times. You have newly won rights in this situation, and our field staff will help you assert them, should the need arise. The CTU will continue to fight any and all school closings or other actions that displace our members and harm the education of our students. We are planning a mass rally on March 27th, we are developing legal challenges to these closings, we will continue to pursue legislative action, and we will continue working with our members and community to build a mass movement to stop this massive privatization drive. Rahm Emanuel and his handpicked Board of Education are attempting the largest mass school closing in the history of the nation—but the mayor is more vulnerable now than ever, thanks to the strength we have all built together with parents, students and community. We have the momentum, for the first time: Thousands of people came out to public hearings to reject school closings over the last month. The public knows CPS is lying about the budget and underutilization because they are: expanding charters inflating the deficit creating $1 billion more in liability, by CTU estimates, if they actually do what they promise (hardly likely) and install air conditioning, provide sufficient security, and adequate social supports to the receiving schools, and they will increase class size, not decrease it. Rahm hopes to project strength with these closings because he is actually weaker now than ever. Black aldermen and legislators are finally waking up to the realization that this will have a devastating impact on their communities. The newspapers are actually covering the educationally damaging and discriminatory impact these closings will have on Black students, special needs students, and low-income communities. Our members are united like never before. We held a packed House of Delegates meeting on school closings just last week. 250 people have agreed to be arrested on March 27th and schools are ready to take the next steps. Everyone knows the closings will increase the violence and harm the academic opportunities for our children. CPS has even adopted military planning strategies for these closings. They mean to make war on our neighborhood schools. It seems that Rahm is more committed to a high “body count” of school closings than helping our communities survive and thrive. What can we do? Know your rights – in the event that the school does close you should be aware of what your rights are. The March 27th Rally is essential. It is one of best chances to show how strong and powerful we are. If we flood the streets with thousands, surround City Hall, take hundreds of arrests and express a booming rejection of these harmful, undemocratic policies, we have a fighting chance. Take home all your parent phone numbers over the break and get them to come out on the 27th and to a future meeting to fight the school closing. Come to the Bank of America action tomorrow, Saturday 3/22/13, to make them give $36 million back to CPS for rip off loans since 2008 -- this money, if returned, could keep all our schools open and then some. The training and action is from 10am to 12:30pm tomorrow at 2229 S. Halsted. We must prepare for a big confrontation. Power concedes nothing without a fight; it never did and it never will. The future of our public schools and the well-being of our students are in jeopardy. This is a critical battle and your union is with you 100%. Please contact Lupe Coyle if you would like to schedule a meeting with members from your school during Spring break to meet with an organizer or field representative. We will get back in touch with you as soon as possible to schedule a day and time. Here is the Ravitch post with Karen Lewis' response Karen Lewis on Chicago School Closings by dianerav The mass closing of public schools in Chicago should be the lead story on every news channel tonight. It is not. The fact is that a dozen years of No Child Left Behind and three-plus years of Race to the Top has persuaded the American public that closing schools is "reform." It is not. It is a dereliction of responsibility. It is an abdication of any oath of office that a public official in this country takes. It is a betrayal of any commitment to equality of educational opportunity. It is a capitulation to corporate interests. I wish I could be in Chicago on March 27 to stand with the teachers, parents, and students who have been abandoned by Rahm Emanuel and all those who carry out his shameful orders to close neighborhood public schools. Here is the statement of Karen Lewis, president of the Chicago Teachers Union: CHICAGO –The Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis said the following at a news conference regarding proposed school closings: “We are standing here today in the beautiful Mahaila Jackson elementary school in our city’s Auburn-Gresham neighborhood. This school was named for one of the greatest gospel singers in our nation’s history, a woman who sang at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s funeral, a woman who was instrumental in our Civil Rights struggle. Unfortunately, we are gathered here today not to talk about this pioneer or even about how this school does an outstanding job of providing a great learning community for some of our special needs students. We are standing here because this school, along with scores of others, has been targeted for closure by Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Chicago Public School district.... “Closing 50 of our neighborhood schools is outrageous and no society that claims to care anything about its children can sit back and allow this to happen to them. There is no way people of conscious will stand by and allow these people to shut down nearly a third of our school district without putting up a fight. Most of these campuses are in the Black community. Since 2001 88% of students impacted by CPS School Actions are African-American. And this is by design. “Closing 50 schools is not grand or glorious. This is nothing to celebrate or marvel. “These actions unnecessarily expose our students to gang violence, turf wars and peer-to-peer conflict. Some of our students have been seriously injured as a result of school closings. One died. Putting thousands of small children in harm’s way is not laudatory. “There is no safety plan. There is no transportation plan. The city has already raised CTA fares and now they expect parents to put their five-year-old on a crowded city bus in order for them to get to school, when they used to be able to walk to a school in their neighborhood. The way this is being done is an insult and it is disrespectful. “The CTU is the bargaining unit for 30,000 of the district’s employees SEIU and Unite HERE represent thousands more. Yet CPS did not feel obligated to brief any of us in advance of today’s announcements. Instead, they called a few aldermen last night and then summoned principals this morning at 6:00 a.m. to spring the news on them. They had no consideration for their employees or our students—at all. They have no regard for our parents. They do not care about the children of their employees, many of whom also attend our public schools. “I also find it extremely cowardly for the Mayor’s administration to announce these actions while he is vacationing out of town. They are also making this announcement days before people are headed into spring break. CPS has spun our entire district into utter chaos, a management model perfected on Clark Street where they are headquartered. “This city cannot destroy that many schools at one time; and, we contend that no school should be closed in the city of Chicago. These actions will not only put our students’ safety and academics careers at risk but also further destabilize our neighborhoods. “This is why we intend to rally, united and strong, on Wednesday, March 27 to send a signal that we are sick and tired of being bullied and betrayed. Some of us are going to put our bodies on the line—because a threat to justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. And when we declare the victory, some of us will sit back and sing the lines of one of Mahaila Jackson’s songs—How I Got Over. “Rahm Emanuel has become the ‘murder mayor.’ He is murdering public services. Murdering our ability to maintain public sector jobs and now he has set his sights on our public schools. But we have news for him: We don’t intend to die. This is not Detroit. We are the city of big shoulders and so we intend to put up a fight. We don’t know if we can win, but if you don’t fight, you will never win at all. “The people of this city can no longer sit back and allow this mayor, his school board and his corporate cronies to run rough-shod over democracy. They’ve turned their backs on affordable housing; turned their backs on job creation; and, now they’re turning their backs on our students, their families and our schools. We are tired of playing their school reform games. But who are the winners and losers? Who made the rules? And what do they keep telling the losers to keep them playing their games? “We do not have a utilization crisis. What we have is a credibility crisis. CPS continues to peddle half-truths, lies and misinformation in order to justify its campaign to wipe out our schools and carry out this corporate-driven school reform nonsense. CPS continues to peddle an ‘underutilization myth’ and ‘billion dollar deficit lie’ as justification for their actions. When research and the facts prove them wrong they simply reconfigure their talking points in order to further perpetrate their sham and to keep us playing their school reform games. “For the past several weeks there has been a resounding cry against school actions from parents, students, educators and community stakeholders. The Mayor and the CEO have ignored these petitions for justice at these hearings and apparently have not listened to single word that was said. Parents have been direct, loud and clear. Students have been loud and clear. Principals have been loud and clear. Teachers, paraprofessionals and school clinicians have been loud and clear: DO NOT CLOSE OUR SCHOOLS! GIVE US THE RESOURCES WE NEED, RIGHT NOW, TO SUPPORT OUR STUDENTS AND GIVE THEM THE EDUCATION THEY DESERVE. “Enough with the lies and public deception: School closings will not save money and taxpayers will not see costs benefits in two years. Why? Because vibrant school communities will be quickly transformed into abandon buildings, neighborhood eyesores and public safety hazards. “This is the mayor’s 25% solution. Yet, who will be held accountable when one of our students is harmed as a result of these policy decisions? And, who will be the ones to ensure justice is served?” ### The Chicago Teachers Union represents 30,000 teachers and educational support personnel working in the Chicago Public Schools, and by extension, the more than 400,000 students and families they serve. The CTU is an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers and the Illinois Federation of Teachers and is the third largest teachers local in the United States and the largest local union in Illinois. For more information please visit CTU’s website at http://www.ctunet.com.

Change the Stakes Open Letter to Walcott

Change the Stakes – an organization of parents and educators committed to replacing such tests with more meaningful forms of assessment – urges you to publicly pledge that scores from this year’s state English Language Arts (ELA) and math tests will not be used to penalize students, teachers or schools. The upcoming testing cycle represents an unprecedented grand experiment: the exams, and the standards on which they are based, are new and untested.  --- Letter to Walcott from CTS

----how excited I was to hear that NYC parents are mobilizing to take action against the testing-madness.... we don't want classrooms or schools to be "data-driven," we want them to be child-driven, learning-driven and data-informed. Good luck and let us know in Chicago how we can be supportive..... 
In cahoots, Bill (Ayers)

When people ask where is GEM at now I respond there are 2 branches: one is involved with MORE and the other has morphed into Change the Stakes, which is a true parent/educator/statistician (Fred Smith) grassroots partnership organization here in NYC, including elementary through college teachers and even principals. CTS works with other testing groups like Parent Voices and Time Out From Testing (TOFT), all of which were involved in organizing the great Pearson pineapple protest last May. Look for more action especially around the opt-out movement coming up. Imagine the day when thousands of parents refuse to have their kids take the tests being used to strangle public education?

One of the wonderful things for me to witness has been the excitement of the parents who formerly felt isolated and unempowered feeling the power of being part of an organized group like CTS with people with amazing talents.

The parents in CTS have taken the lead and put together this letter to Walcott. As a member of the listserve I was a non-participant in the process but able to watch it come together as a listserve lurker of the remarkable group of people involved. While GEM can take credit for doing an amazing number of things in the 2 years it was most active, the work of Change the Stakes is as high on the list as producing The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman.

Here is Diane Ravitch's post followed by the letter itself followed by an email received from Bill Ayers in Chicago.

Parents in NYC called on Chancellor Dennis Walcott to pledge not to use this year’s tests to punish students, teachers, or schools. 

Change the Stakes (www.changethestakes.org), an activist group comprised of parents, teachers and teacher educators – argues that this year’s tests are so fundamentally flawed that the scores should not be used. Here’s our letter to the Chancellor:

OPEN LETTER TO CHANCELLOR WALCOTT
By Change the Stakes
March 20, 2013

Dear Chancellor Walcott,

In four weeks, public school children across New York City will begin two weeks of intensive, high-stakes standardized testing. Change the Stakes – an organization of parents and educators committed to replacing such tests with more meaningful forms of assessment – urges you to publicly pledge that scores from this year’s state English Language Arts (ELA) and math tests will not be used to penalize students, teachers or schools. The upcoming testing cycle represents an unprecedented grand experiment: the exams, and the standards on which they are based, are new and untested.

Educators, parents and students alike are painfully aware that this is a “transitional year” in the state testing program. Two years ago, New York State adopted its own version of the new national education standards known as the “Common Core” and this year’s tests are the first to be aligned with them. Not only are the standards new and unproven, the heart of the program – the curriculum – is still being developed. Teachers haven’t been given sufficient time to transition students to the new learning standards, yet children are being tested on them next month anyway.

You yourself acknowledge the serious challenges inherent in using scores from the looming April 2013 exams to assess student performance – and presumably, by extension, the performance of teachers and schools. In a recent letter to parents, you state:

“In past years, decisions about summer school were made based on estimates of each student’s performance level on the State tests: 1, 2, 3, or 4. This year, because the tests are new, we cannot predict how the State will determine performance levels.”

If the purpose of your letter was to reassure parents, you did not succeed. As far as we can tell, the letter has had the opposite effect by setting off alarms among parents who weren’t already focused on the sweeping changes taking place. Another Department of Education (DOE) document developed for parents, Tips for Talking with Your Elementary School Child about the Common Core Standards & Changing State Tests, is even more disturbing: it says that young children should be told to expect school work and tests to be more difficult this year and that feelings of struggle, anxiety and nervousness are common reactions. These new pressures are likely to be particularly onerous for English Language Learners.

In short, the DOE has acknowledged the harmful nature of the abrupt transition to the Common Core – in a year when schools and families also endured a devastating hurricane, a bus strike and a mass elementary school shooting in a nearby community – and yet offers only platitudes about how to help children, parents and educators cope.

Given the poorly managed phase-in of the Common Core and the experimental nature of this year’s assessments, we call for you to immediately and publicly announce that:

§ All student promotion decisions will be made on the basis of a range of indicators, including a review of a substantive portfolio of work representative of a child’s academic progress throughout the year. 

§ Teachers will not be evaluated on the results of this year’s tests as the scores are not comparable to last year’s.

§ School Progress Reports, which are almost entirely based on student test scores, will be either suspended or significantly changed to incorporate additional evidence of student achievement. No schools will be closed using this year’s test scores.

§ Parents have a right to opt their children out of the tests, as Deputy Chancellor Shael Polakow-Suransky has publicly stated, and the DOE will put in writing procedures about how to do so. 

It is unacceptable for city students, teachers and schools to be judged by the results of these new exams, which are unpredictable by your own admission, especially when other means of assessment already exist. 

The time has come for the DOE to finally acknowledge and respond to the growing concerns among public school parents about high-stakes testing. The current direction of policies and practices MUST change.

Sincerely,
The Members of Change the Stakes
http://www.changethestakes.org

Ayers' email:

You may know that Chicago Public Schools will announce any minute the schools they plan to close--it will be the largest school closing plan in history, and it represents an all-out assault on public education following a long and systematic pattern of abandonment and Jim Crow education. There will be a lot of talk of budgets and deficits to cover  this draconian and entirely unjustified move, but none of it the least bit convincing once you look at the evidence. Stay tuned and stay close.

We've also been in crazy-land over at Lane Tech H.S. The CPS chief banned the graphic memoir of the Iranian revolution, Persepolis, on the grounds that it was too graphic...and student demonstrations and parental outrage continue apace. A call to the Lab School, where our mayor sends his kids, turned up several copies in the library, a couple of them in French, and the book listed on one syllabus as required reading. Jim Crow curriculum at work---the mayor's kids get real literature, the "masses" get test-prep.

All of this is prelude to telling you how excited I was to hear that NYC parents are mobilizing to take action against the testing-madness. Reading about the dazzling boycott being organized is encouraging---another important indication that we are not alone and that a coherent resistance to the destruction of public education is coming together. Your boycott is such a clear and morally justified response to the education malpractice our children face in New York and Chicago and throughout the country. I hope parents can organize large numbers of families to participate in every school, and that you seize this moment to change the framework of the conversation---we don't want classrooms or schools to be "data-driven," we want them to be child-driven, learning-driven and data-informed.

Good luck and let us know in Chicago how we can be supportive. 
In cahoots, Bill