MORE Weekly Update #73: Protest Colocations at the PEP on October 30th!

Protest Colocations at the PEP on October 30th! 

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Weekly Update #73

October 30, 2013


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Please help out with this action. Click here for quarter sheet flyers to distribute to your colleagues.

The campaign for a moratorium on test-based evaluations continues!   Please make sure you have collected signatures on our petition from your colleagues.

Print a copy here.   Sign and share the electronic version of the petition, as well. Petitions can be returned before November 13th (scan and email to to more@morecaucusnyc.org or send hard copies via mail to 305 E. 140th #5A, Bronx, NY, 10454).

Support the Parent Test Boycott! 80% of families at Castlebridge elementary opted out of K-2 exams imposed by the new eval system. Sign a petition in support of them.  Read more from the Daily News, Real News Network, and Diane Ravitch.

Education News Roundup Obama's P-Tech Visits Highlights NYC School Closure Fight "...But inside the building that houses P-Tech is what's left of Paul Robeson High School -- as many as 50 students, three teachers, and a couple of administrators who also work in the classroom. Robeson is being phased out." King's Scarlet Letter (by Opine I Will) "Over the last several weeks the call for [NYS Education Commissioner] King’s resignation has increased exponentially...King must go." NY Principal: These "Reforms" Destroy Love of Learning (Diane Ravitch Blog) Tim Farley ("tired dad, educator, administrator") writes an open letter reflecting on the ways in which the "reform" movement is damaging K-12 education. Cuomo Loves His Teacher Evaluation System Even If He Can't Vouch For Its Accuracy (Perdido Street School) Unfortunately, Commissioner King isn't the only one touting flawed education "reform" policies... MORE's Paul Hogan in The Riverdale Press: Common Sense, Not Common Core (EdNotes) "Common Core is an added distraction and superfluous obstacle for those professionals in the trenches who are serious about bettering the lives of the young people in their charge." Teachers Suffer, UFT Leadership Spins (NYC Educator) "I pity the chapter leader who has to tell members facing high-stakes evaluation, 'Take a deep breath, the guys and gals at UFT did a swell job.'" Process Matters in a Democracy: Common Core Fails the Test (Education Week) "Democratic process is important not just so that people feel better about what happens. It yields much better decisions" (Anthony Cody)

Outraged that teachers are evaluated on tests for subjects they don't even teach?   City-wide Chapter Organizing Happy Hour!

The MORE Chapter Organizing Committee invites everyone to our city-wide Happy Hour. Share reports about how the new teacher evaluation system is being implemented and plan resistance to this unfair and fraudulent method of evaluating teachers. Friday, November 1st, 5pm The Ginger Man Bar: 11 E. 36th St (btw 5th & Madison) Any train to Herald Sq. or 6 to 33rd St. RSVP on Facebook!

Read more about the event and download a flyer by clicking above.  Join an ongoing support group of educators dealing with supervisory harassment by emailing DTOE+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Our Schools are Not for Sale! - Watch an 8 minute mini-documentary about the fight to defend public education in Philadelphia against massive budget cuts.

MORE Newsletter Sign up to help distribute MORE's newsletter, "MORE Stuff in Your Mailbox," to your colleagues. Reply to this email if you can pick up copies or would like to help distribute it, or pick up copies at our general meeting. And read the newsletter online: morecaucusnyc.org/newsletter

Join MORE Today

Make Sure You Are On Our Listservs! Click below to join:  News (announcements/articles) Discussion (debate/back-and-forth) Chapter Leader (discussion for chapter activists) NEXT GENERAL MEETING Sat., Nov. 16th, 12-3pm 224 West 29th St 14th fl. (btwn 7th and 8th ave) COMMITTEES: Chapter Organizing Committee chapters@morecaucusnyc.org Happy Hour Fri., Nov. 1st, 5pm The Ginger Man Bar 11 E. 36th St (btw 5th & Madison). High Stake Testing Committee testing@morecaucusnyc.org Sat., Nov 2nd, 2pm Location TBA Steering Committee steering@morecaucusnyc.org Phone Meeting Mon. Nov. 4th, 8PM Reply for details Meeting minutes here Newsletter Committee news@morecaucusnyc.org Tue., Nov. 5th, 5PM Karavas Place 162 W 4th St @ 6th Ave Membership Committee membership@morecaucusnyc.org Sat., Nov. 26th, 11AM - 1PM Park Slope Email for exact location Media Committee media@morecaucusnyc.org Contract Committee contract@morecaucusnyc.org Next Meeting Wed., after DA 11/20 Location TBA STAYING IN TOUCH:  Comments? Suggestions? Email update@morecacusnyc.org with items for future updates

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Oct. 30 PEP: Parents, Teachers, Clergy and Students to Rally for End To School Closures and Co-Locations

Gotta switch mind-sets after the last post and focus on the PEP at Prospect Hts HS. I will be there to get what footage I can. First a rally, then let's go in a sign up for 2 minutes of speaking time and support the schools under assault.

From MORE:

Attached is the final flier for Wednesday's PEP in Brooklyn at Prospect Heights HS. Print some copies and bring them at 5:30 for the Funeral Procession of Schools that have been closed! Then come into the PEP horror show. Wear your MORE T-shirt. Wear a costume. Wear a Mask. Bring instruments. Be there. 

From Save Our Schools:

Parents, Teachers, Clergy and Students to Rally for End To School Closures and Co-Locations

Will hold Funeral of Schools before NYCDOE Panel for Education Policy meeting to remember 168 schools closed under Bloomberg and look forward to a new era of equitable public education policy

New York, NY - On Wed., Oct. 30th at 5:15 community supporters of public education will gather outside of the Prospect Heights Campus at 883 Classon Ave in Brooklyn to hold a funeral for all the schools shuttered under the Bloomberg administration. Fathers Michael Sniffen and Chris Ballard of the Church of St. Luke & St. Matthew will officiate the festive Dia de Los Muertos-style ceremony.  

Participants include the Movement of Rank-and-File Educators (MORE) Caucus of the UFT, Change the Stakes, Class Size Matters, the Paul Robeson Freedom School, and allied groups. 

###

Not 'till the fat lady sings

Six of us piled into a van today to go down to Philadelphia to say goodbye to a dear friend and political pal of over 40 years. Our friend had decided to enter hospice care just 2 days ago at his daughter's home after months in the hospital. I expected the worst but got the best. Our friend though weak, was as eloquent and lucid as he always has been at political events, often dominating the room. How often new people would come over to me and say, "That guy was wonderful - funny and smart and making sense." And he made sense today, casting these words of wisdom (I'm paraphrasing).

"I am so happy to be here and out of that place (the hospital). If you ever have the opportunity like I have -- to end your life in a place you want to be, with people who love and support you, grab it, hold on to it and don't let it go."

Words to live by.

I'm a glass half full guy. Our friend to me looked better than I had seen him since he went into the hospital almost 3 months ago. I expect to go back and say goodbye again. And maybe again. I don't believe in miracles. But I do believe in the concept that someone at total peace like our friend seems to be will get some kind of rebound - most likely temporary, but who knows? I'm a guy who thinks that one day we can take the UFT from below by winning over a majority of schools. Some people would give our friend better odds.

I will write further about the almost incomprehensible  medical story we've witnessed over the past 8 months. But not 'till the fat lady sings. And here's to the fat lady coming down with a very sore throat.

Speakers to testify at NYC's Senate hearing on school issues

I was going to go to the Portelos hearing today but I'm in a car heading to Philly - don't worry, I'm not driving. My alternate was to go to the Flanagan hearings today where many of our allies from Change the Stakes and Class Size Matters are testifying today.

The unholy trio - Tisch, Mulgrew and Walcott, all pushing the same drug in different doses lead off. There's even an E4E slug listed. (Did he get a day off from school?) This is a Gotham schools report.

Speakers to testify release for NYC&#8217;s Senate hearing on school issues <http://gothamschools.tumblr.com/post/65372447202/speakers-to-testify-release-for-nycs-senate-hearing-on>
Senator John Flanagan's office released a final roster of speakers <http://gothamschools.tumblr.com/post/65372447202/speakers-to-testify-release-for-nycs-senate-hearing-on> who will testify tomorrow today at a New York State Senate hearing in New York City.

New York State Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch will be on the hot seat to start off the hearing, the fourth — and final — event that Flanagan convened this fall to probe the merits of sweeping policies ushered by Tisch and the State Education Department in recent years. Tisch will be joined by SED Legislative Director Nicolas Storelli-Castro.
The next two spots go to United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew and city schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott.
In all, 27 speakers are scheduled to testify. They include parents, advocates, researchers and teachers. The hearing is expected to cover a variety of issues facing schools, from state testing policies, to teacher evaluations, to privacy issues around student data.
Tomorrow's hearing will take place tomorrow in the Senate Hearing Room at 250 Broadway in downtown Manhattan. It's expected
Two rival advocacy groups are planning simultaneous rallies before the hearing gets started at 10:00 a.m. The first is being organized by New York City-based parent groups Class Size Matters and Change the Stakes, which have been critical of the state's reforms. Starting at around the same time — and not too far away — will be advocates and parents from StudentsFirstNY, which lobbied for tougher state teacher evaluations, and Families for Excellent Schools, which organized a pro-charter school march across the Brooklyn Bridge earlier this month.
Here is the list of those expected to testify tomorrow, according to Sen. Flanagan's office:
New York State Education Department/New York State Board of Regents
        Chancellor Merryl Tisch, New York State Board of Regents
        Nicholas – Storelli-Castro, Governmental Affairs, NYSED
United Federation of Teachers
        Michael Mulgrew, President
NYC Board of Education
      Chancellor Dennis Walcott
Parents
        Lisa Shaw
        Nancy Cauthen
        Karen Sprowal
        Jan Johnson
Specialists
      Deborah Rayow, Vice-President, Core Curriculum and Credit Recovery <http://gothamschools.tumblr.com/post/65372447202/speakers-to-testify-release-for-nycs-senate-hearing-on> ,
      Edgenuity
        Ms. Nathalie Elivert, StudentsFirstNY
        Ms. Tenicka Boyd, StudentsFirstNY
Advocacy
        Leonie Haimson, Executive Director, Class Size Matters
        Zakiyah Ansari, Advocacy Director, Alliance for Quality Education
Testing
        Dr. Monty Neill, Ed.D., Executive Director, FairTest
        Marco Battistella, Member of the Steering Committee of Time Out FromTesting
NYC Charter Schools James Merriman, CEO of the NYC Charter School Center
Student Privacy
        Sheila Kaplan
Council of School Administrators
        Ernest Logan, President
        Mark Cannizzaro, Executive Vice-President
NY Alliance for Public Education/Save Our Schools
        Tracy Pyper, Co-Chair, NY Alliance for Public Education
        Rosalie Friend, NYS Information Coordinator, Save Our Schools
Teachers/Principals
        John Owens, Teacher and Author
        Fred Smith, Retired Member of NYC Department of Education, Testing
Department
        Nicholas Lawrence, 8th Grade Teacher and Educators 4 ExcellenceMember
Special Education
        Stephen Boese, Executive Director, Learning Disabilities Associationmof NYS
        Ellen McHugh, Citywide Council on Special Education Higher Education
      Dr. Ruth Powers Silverberg, Ed.D Associate Professor, Coordinator,
      Post Master's Advanced Certificate Program <http://gothamschools.tumblr.com/post/65372447202/speakers-to-testify-release-for-nycs-senate-hearing-on> for Leadership in Education, College of Staten Island, CUNY

Sandy Redux: Norm in The Wave

I've been a little too busy to do regular blogging the past few days and I am not reporting on lots of stuff going on. Tomorrow (weds) night is the 2nd of the Bloomberg forced co-loco PEP meetings. I'll report on that tonight as there are some interesting events going on before the meeting.

I just finished my column which will be published Friday, Nov. 1. Last week The Wave published a spectacular reprise of the Sandy experience. Here is what I just wrote.

The Ebb and the Flow

By Norm Scott

October 29, 2013, 9AM

Kudos to all at The Wave for the spectacular special edition last week. Let’s see, what was I doing at this time a year ago today? Watching water from the morning tide come up my street, which is on the bay side. Upon seeing that some people on my block grabbed some things and left. How much worse can it get, I thought, especially when we took a walk down to the beach at noon and all the water had receded?  “It doesn’t look that bad, “ I said to my companion. I went home and blogged “The Real Perfect Storm” (http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-real-perfect-storm.html) which included a piece of video I shot that afternoon (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUt4Y0L9oTg&feature=youtu.be). I ended the piece with, “Next high tide is 8PM tonight, the big one where we expect to take in some water. The idea is to turn my basement into a swimming pool.” Little did I know that with water up to the basement ceiling swimming was not an option. Writing that sometime around 3PM on October 29 shows just how arrogant and insular I was about the dangers.

The effects of the storm go deep and trigger many memories. On August 1, 1979 we took title to our house. Our next door neighbors came over to introduce themselves. Born and bred in Rockaway, where they had a business, they had raised three children. Over the years we became friends  despite the differences in our ages  – they are now in their 80s – a very robust 80s I dare to say. As newcomers to Rockaway, refugees from East New York and Flatbush in Brooklyn, their visit, along with others on the block, made us feel welcome.

They left the day before Sandy to stay with friends and over the next few days we were their only source of information, mostly bad news ­– “don’t even think about saving your car.” They were not able to move back into the house they had lived in for almost 50 years  until the spring and went to Florida. When they returned in April to a house restored they had made their decision. A few weeks ago they moved out, headed for Florida for the season with no plans to come back to Rockaway. While this move was probably inevitable, the Sandy experience was the decision-maker.

Sometime this week new neighbors will be moving in, not newcomers but leaving one Rockaway house for another – a young couple with deep Rockaway roots and three very young children. On that August day in 1979 when we took title, one of the people down the block who came by to say hello was the aunt of one of our new neighbors. The ebb and the flow.

A Tale of One City?

Returning to my theme of the past few columns about inequities in Rockaway. I had written about the new “Doctors of the World” free clinic that is opening two days a week: Rockaway health, where over 20% of the population has no health insurance,  being equated health-wise with the poorest areas of the world. Last week WNYC continued their Life After Sandy series with a piece titled, In Public Housing, Temporary Boilers Are Here To Stay (For A While).  The story focused on the situation facing some residents of the Hammel Houses.

Catherine Darby, an elderly resident of the Hammel Houses in the Rockaways, said when she turns on the “warm” tap in her bathroom, cold water comes out about half the time. To draw a bath, she has to boil water on her stove. The next step is particularly tricky, because Darby uses a walker. She places the pot of hot water on the seat of the walker, then maneuvers it from the kitchen, down the hall, to the bathroom. “That’s what I do," Darby said. "It’s a lot, but if you want to wash up, you don’t want to be smelling. You got to wash.” Like many residents, Darby believes the temporary mobile boiler that now serves Hammel is unreliable. The structure looks jerry-rigged, consisting of a large plywood house and a truck with Texas plates, which emits clouds of steam. Weeds are growing beneath the wheels.

With so many Rockaway residents living in public housing damaged by Sandy, that is a story that must be told. Rockaway post-Sandy problems are not all about how high we need to raise our houses. The little potshots at de Blasio who actually at least talks about addressing these problems (I’ll believe it when I see it) show a Rockaway insularity that does not benefit us in the long run. Let’s not just tell a tale of only one city.

Rockaway Theatre Company

The reopening of Fort Tilden gave the RTC an opportunity to put on “Boeing Boeing” for the final 3 performances that were postponed due to the shutdown. (Video highlights, https://vimeo.com/75933374). The day after the final performance, Tony Homsey led a crew to take down the old set and start putting up the new one for a reprise of “Inspecting Carol” one of the funniest shows the RTC has done. Look for details in The Wave.

Ravitch on MSNBC

I haven't seen this yet but am reposting from the Ravitch blog for the Ed Notes archives. The discussion about charter schools has been changing - just see this:

Top 16 NYC charter school executives earn more than Chancellor Dennis Walcott - Daily News

http://m.nydailynews.com/1.1497717

The interview and panel discussion were broken into three segments which do not follow one another sequentially online for some reason, so here are the direct links to all three parts.

Part 1) The Case Against School Privatization
http://www.msnbc.com/melissa-harris-perry/watch/the-case-against-school-privatization-57195587667

Part 2) How Charter Schools Can Lead to Disparity
http://www.msnbc.com/melissa-harris-perry/watch/how-charter-schools-can-lead-to-disparity-57194563769

Part 3) Poverty and Its Impact on Education
http://www.msnbc.com/melissa-harris-perry/watch/poverty-and-its-impact-on-education-57196611701

UFT Used $250K COPE Money to Support Gambling

The United Federation of Teachers deposited $250,000 in the account from two of its political action funds.... Capital NY

Thanks to Jeff Kaufman for this.

Oh what fun. Having COPE money spent not on fighting ed deform but promoting gambling. I didn't know Paul Egan liked the dice so much. I took a shot in a recent Wave column at my City Councilman, Republican Erich Ulrich, for promoting casinos and asked how much he got from them.

By the way, people trying to leave COPE often are ignored. The right way is to never leave but get a change in contribution application and write in a nickel. Now I am generally in favor of COPE -- if we had a democratically run member-driven union instead of a slush fund for the leadership to use as it sees fit.

Tear down that wall, Mr. Mulgrew.

ALBANY—Gambling companies account for the vast majority of the $2.075 million raised by a pro-casino PAC, campaign disclosures show.

As we reported on Thursday, owners of the race-track slot parlors in Yonkers and Tioga contributed to the effort, as did track-casinos in Saratoga Springs ($250,000) and the Aqueduct site in Queens ($500,000). Other contributors include the Pequot tribe ($100,000), which runs the Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut and is interested in developing a new resort at the old Grossinger's site, as well as the real estate investment trust that developed New Roc City in Westchester County. The United Federation of Teachers deposited $250,000 in the account from two of its political action funds.

The PAC has so far spent $360,000 on digital advertising, mail advertising and production of a pair of ads released Thursday.

Here is a comment on the ICE listserve:

Who's feelin' lucky this morning?

Two to one odds  if you raised a delegates' card to bring up this "investment" during the question period you'd be treated like you don't know the first thing about "growing the economy" or the critical need to "bring prosperity" to upstate New York.

Why does our union need to ingratiate itself to another elite club with a scheme to create more winners and losers (and mostly losers)?  Because it's really not our union anymore.  It's a racket with rich friends.

 

Portelos Chapter Leader Recall Attempt Fails - Again

I heard teachers looking to recall me were disrupting lessons today to remind educators to vote. Remember not voting, was a vote in my favor. Disrupting lessons? I’m not happy.... I’m here. You have my email and my number. I am still your chapter leader.....

Francesco Portelos

Well, there goes the case the DOE is trying to prove. That Portelos is a loner. And dangerous. And feared and shunned by the staff he used to work with. So in a school with an abusive principal and a few of her henchslugs who spew real fear and loathing, they still can't manage to uproot this guy from his basis of support.

I can't wait to see those slugs testify. (Next hearing date: Tues., Oct. 29, 10AM.)

http://protectportelos.org/todays-recall-election-result/#lightbox/0/

The third attempt recall me as UFT Chapter Leader failed as well. I’m not happy though. I’m not doing a “nanny-nanny-poo-poo I’m still the chapter leader” post here. I’m not happy, because there is a group that is not willing to work with us at IS 49. I have emailed them and called and asked that we all work together, but that is not what they seem to want.

I heard teachers looking to recall me were disrupting lessons today to remind educators to vote. Remember not voting, was a vote in my favor. Disrupting lessons? I’m not happy.

In any case, let’s move Forward…shall we? We have a lot of work to do and a big rally on Monday to oppose the co-location of Eagle Academy in our school. Stop the Co-Location info.
I’m here. You have my email and my number. I am still your chapter leader.
Should anyone at IS 49 want to go for a fourth attempt, let me make it a little easier.
Download this attachment, print, fill out and sign it. Otherwise assist the rest of us or get out of our way. www.is49uft.org

MORE's Paul Hogan in The Riverdale Press: Common sense, not Common Core

It is dangerously easy for education administrators to lose sight of the needs of the students they are supposed to serve when one’s daily reality never involves firsthand work with students.

The Common Core in District 75 is an abstraction for some who see the world of education only in terms of theory. 

However, Common Core is an added distraction and superfluous obstacle for those professionals in the trenches who are serious about bettering the lives of the young people in their charge. 

Those individuals have enough obstacles to deal with.     ...  Paul Hogan, Riverdale Press

 

Paul  Hogan is a member of the United Teacher’s Federation caucus of the Movement of Rank and File Educators.  He is a retired public school teacher who taught for 27 years in District 75.

I learned some educational jargon bullshit from reading Paul's piece.

By Paul Hogan

Posted 10/17/13

The article in the Oct. 3, edition of The Press entitled “Special ed teachers find new curriculum a challenge,” throws a welcome light on a profoundly troubling aspect of the Common Core curriculum: Its oafish insistence that the educational needs and characteristics of all children are essentially identical.

District 75 is devoted specifically to the education of students with severe and profound disabilities. Still, Deputy Superintendent Barbara Joseph appears to defend the extension of Common Core to classrooms throughout the district. 

Dismissing the concerns of classroom teachers that Common Core is a poor match for children with severe disabilities, Ms. Joseph says, “You have to be able to do backward designing. You have to be able to unpack that standard. You have to meet the student at their functional level.” 

Full article.

Obama, in P-Tech Visit, Walks on Bones of Dead School And Pushed Out Students in P-Tech Visit

Robeson, which had a capacity of 1,000 students, Siegel said, found itself with 1,500 in 2005. "That's when we started having a lot of incidents, gang issues, things that didn't come into the building before that," Siegel said. "This is the story of all the schools that got closed down. We had the lowest dropout rates in the city, kids didn't leave, but it wasn't balanced. what it became was over 30 percent high-needs students, and no institution can survive that sudden change."... When P-Tech moved into the building, the two schools shared a cafeteria. Robeson students found themselves eating lunch at 2 p.m. The students lost access to parts of the building. The remaining Robeson students, Siegel said, are mostly "overage, unaccredited kids.".... Huffington Post

What better vision of neo-liberal Obama than his visit to a school loaded with resources co-located into the building of a school starved of resources to the point of being closed? Sometimes it is all about real estate.

One Sure Thing: Most Robeson Kids Not Wanted in P-Tech. Our film opens with Robeson kids protesting at the PEP with the cry: DOE Doesn't Care About Us. Amen.

Huffington Post (excerpts): http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/25/obama-p-tech_n_4160548.html

Bloomberg's time as mayor have been defined by school turnover. While charter schools have received the most attention, Bloomberg created 654 new schools -- of which only 173 were charters -- and shuttered 164 schools for low academic performance. Many of them are small schools. (A recent Massachusetts Institute of Technology study of 101 such small schools found their students 7 percent more likely to attend college than peers in big public schools.) Many of the new schools have moved into buildings being vacated by doomed schools as they're phased out, a process city school officials call "co-location."

Bloomberg's drive to shut down big campuses generated raucous public hearings and school walkouts. De Blasio, who will likely succeed Bloomberg, called for a moratorium on closures and co-locations.
 
The school closings also are unpopular with some school communities. "The whole closing of schools is musical chairs," said Stefanie Siegel, who left Robeson in 2012 after teaching there for almost a quarter-century. "It does a lot of damage to community."

Robeson opened in the 1980s in partnership with Salomon Brothers, the Wall Street firm where Bloomberg started his career. As Siegel described it, the firm's promises were similar to IBM's for P-Tech.

But in 2002, Bloomberg and his schools chancellor Joel Klein started the small schools movement. Many big high schools were disbanded, and students who didn't attend the new schools shifted to the remaining big schools.

Robeson, which had a capacity of 1,000 students, Siegel said, found itself with 1,500 in 2005. "That's when we started having a lot of incidents, gang issues, things that didn't come into the building before that," Siegel said. "This is the story of all the schools that got closed down. We had the lowest dropout rates in the city, kids didn't leave, but it wasn't balanced. what it became was over 30 percent high-needs students, and no institution can survive that sudden change." A longtime basketball coach faced allegations of a long-term affair with a former student, and killed himself. A few abrupt changes of principals followed.

Scores dropped, and the city school governance panel -- whose members are mostly appointed by Bloomberg -- decided the school should be closed. A lawsuit filed by the United Federation of Teachers union stalled the closure for a year, allowing teachers and students fighting to save Robeson time to improve graduation rates.
But again in 2011, Robeson wound up on the city's closure list. “Roughly half of the kids who come to this school will graduate,” Deputy Chancellor John White -- who now oversees education in Louisiana -- said at a hearing, as reported by the GothamSchools blog. “Our goal is to change the outcome for kids.”
Lizabeth Cooper, a 2012 Robeson alumna who advocated for the school and now studies at the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts, said her school was full of energy until it was slated for closure.
"Everything that was, wasn't anymore," Cooper said. "If you yell at someone, the prettiest person in the world, 'You're ugly, you're ugly, you're ugly,' at some point they're going to think they're ugly. That's what the media did to my school -- they drained it, and they turned it into crap, and that's what my school became."
When P-Tech moved into the building, the two schools shared a cafeteria. Robeson students found themselves eating lunch at 2 p.m. The students lost access to parts of the building. The remaining Robeson students, Siegel said, are mostly "overage, unaccredited kids."
The Robeson students are "second-class citizens," said Justin Wedes, an Occupy Wall Street activist who worked with Robeson. "They're stuck on a sinking ship." From 5 to 15 students regularly attend, he said.

====
Co-Loco Stories

A proposed South Bronx co-location was also criticized at a hearing for being divisive. (DNAInfo)

Students say they don't want a co-location at embattled Long Island City High School. (DNAInfo)

LONG ISLAND CITY — Critics came out in full force Wednesday night to a public hearing on the city's plan to co-locate a new school at Long Island City High School — which they say will threaten the progress the struggling school has made recently.

Students rallied before the hearing, holding signs that read "Don't Slice or Dice LIC," and a bevy of students and elected officials testified in opposition to the plan, which the Department of Education's Panel for Educational Policy is set to vote on next Wednesday.

Opponents say the plan would threaten the progress the school has made recently, saying LIC has a new effective principal and is back on track after several years of struggling — and a co-location would only set them back.

"It's clear that the students don't want this change, the parents don't want this change, the teachers don't want this change, the elected officials don’t want this change," Assemblywoman Aravella Simotas said at Wednesday's hearing.

The DOE has proposed co-locating a new Career and Technical Education high school in the building at 14-30 Broadway, which would open in September of 2014.

The new school would share the space with LIC's students as well as with one site of P.S. 993 Queens, a District 75 special needs school that is also in the building.

The proposal would mean reducing enrollment at LIC High School over the course of four years beginning next September in order to make room for the new school, which would be phased in with a new grade each year.

LIC would lose 420-460 students by the 2017-2018 school year, according to the DOE, bringing its enrollment that year to just under 2,000 kids.

The DOE says the enrollment reduction would allow for the new school option in the building as well as to "provide an opportunity for LIC to concentrate on a smaller cohort of students," according to the Environmental Impact Statement for the proposal.

The city points to the struggling school's performance over the years, including overall "C" grades on its last three progress reports and decreasing enrollment numbers.

But critics of the plan say LIC drew fewer students in recent years in part because of a tumultuous period caused by the city's attempt to close the school in 2012. 

"The city wants to take apart Long Island City High School," Rachel Paster, head of the Community Education Council for District 30, said in her testimony Wednesday night.

"They’ve tried it before and it didn’t work. it kind of seems like payback," she said.

Paster said LIC offers a number of important opportunities to the diverse Queens neighborhood it serves, including 26 Advanced Placement classes, advanced Regents courses, plus special programs and extracurricular activities.

"To try and co-locate a school that would reduce those offerings is absurd," Paster said.

MORE Weekly Update #72: Petition vs. Evals, Parent Anti-test Revolt, PEP Protest, and MORE!

Protest Colocations at the PEP on October 30th! 

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Weekly Update #72

October 24, 2013

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The campaign for a moratorium on test-based evaluations continues!   Please make sure you have collected signatures on our petition from your colleagues. Print a copy here.   Sign and share the electronic version of the petition as well. Petitions can be returned before November 13th (scan and email to to more@morecaucusnyc.org or snail mail to 305 E 140th #5A, Bx, NY, 10454).  Support the Parent Test Boycott! 80% of families at Castlebridge elementary opted out of K-2 exams imposed by the new eval system. Sign a petition in support of them.  Read more from the Daily News, Real News Network, and Diane Ravitch. The latest from MORECaucusNYC.org... Media Lapdogs: DOE & the “Bad Teacher” Witch Hunt There they go again. The newspapers are filling their pages with stories about “bad teachers”.... It’s all part of this mayoral administration’s continued push to transform the profession of teaching into an ‘at-will’ job, so that it can fire as many of us as it would like. Read more... Carry out the UFT Resolution on Diversity! One of the defining features of mayoral control in NYC under Bloomberg has been a sharp decline in the hiring of Black and Latino educators since 2002. Read more... When “Advance” Really Hit Home: The Very Human Cost of High Stakes Testing My students did not take the news about the Performance Assessment well. In fact, it was kind of a wrenching experience- their faces could not have been more pained if I had run over their dogs. Read more... Please help out with this action. Click here for quarter sheet flyers to distribute to your colleagues. Outraged that teachers are evaluated on tests for subjects they don't even teach?   City-wide Chapter Organizing Happy Hour!   Share reports about how the new teacher evaluation system is being implemented and plan resistance to this unfair and fraudulent method of evaluating teachers. Friday, November 1st, 5pm The Ginger Man Bar: 11 E. 36th St (btw 5th & Madison) Any train to Herald Sq. or 6 to 33rd. Read more about the event and download a flyer by clicking above.  Join an ongoing support group of educators dealing with supervisory harassment by emailing DTOE+subscribe@googlegroups.com  Our Schools are Not for Sale! - Watch an 8 minute mini-documentary about the fight to defend public education in Philadelphia against massive budget cuts. MORE Newsletter Sign up to help distribute MORE's newsletter, "MORE Stuff in Your Mailbox," to your colleagues. Reply to this email if you can pick up copies or would like to help distribute it, or pick up copies at our general meeting. And read the newsletter online: morecaucusnyc.org/newsletter

Make Sure You Are On Our Listservs! Click below to join:  News (announcements/articles) Discussion (debate/back-and-forth) Chapter Leader (discussion for chapter activists) NEXT GENERAL MEETING Sat., Nov. 16th, 12-3pm 224 West 29th St 14th fl. (btwn 7th and 8th ave) COMMITTEES: Chapter Organizing Committee chapters@morecaucusnyc.org Happy Hour Fri., Nov. 1st, 5pm The Ginger Man Bar 11 E. 36th St (btw 5th & Madison). High Stake Testing Committee testing@morecaucusnyc.org Sat., Nov 2nd, 2pm Location TBA Steering Committee steering@morecaucusnyc.org Phone Meeting Mon. Nov. 4th, 8PM Reply for details Meeting minutes here Newsletter Committee news@morecaucusnyc.org Tue., Nov. 5th, 5PM Karavas Place 162 W 4th St @ 6th Ave Membership Committee membership@morecaucusnyc.org Media Committee media@morecaucusnyc.org Contract Committee contract@morecaucusnyc.org STAYING IN TOUCH:  Comments? Suggestions? Email update@morecacusnyc.org with items for future updates