UFT Tries to Activate Mostly Inactive Chapters in War With Cuomo -- But Is the Leadership Willing to Supply Funding to the Schools?

We want our leaders to get up in front of the Cuomo equivalent powerful German army members intimidating everyone as they are singing German fight songs in Rick's cafe and lead everyone in the "Marseillaise".

But no guts, no glory. And so it goes.

Will the UFT/Unity Caucus leadership stop throwing millions of our bucks away on tepid commercials and useless politicians who stab us in the back and funnel some of that money back into the schools to use in establishing local campaigns? After all, there are enough public schools to be able to blanket the entire city with a grassroots campaign.

The thing to understand about the UFT is that it is a totally top-down controlled organization and doesn't have the DNA to allow the schools leeway to truly activate themselves without trying to control their message. Like how about having schools at the district level team up to go to community newspapers with ads? Or hold local community meetings? Instead of district reps holding brainstorming meetings they are there just to give schools marching orders from the top.

Michael Fiorillo pretty much has their number:

All just empty, going-through-the-motions-to make-it-look-like-we're on-top-of-this misdirection. They've already decided on what they'll settle for (on our backs, needless to say) and still think they can pull off something behind the scenes. If Shelley was still in place as Speaker, that might have "worked," somewhat, but now? With things so unsettled? They're taking a very big risk with our future...

As I pointed out in my Casablanca referenced piece last night -Louie, I Think This is the Start of a Beautiful Friendship - Will Mulgrew Join the Resistance or Vichy?-- there is not much will for being resistance fighters in our leadership, which hungers most for a seat at the table.

We want our leaders to get up in front of the Cuomo equivalent powerful German army members intimidating everyone as they are singing German fight songs in Rick's cafe and lead everyone in the "Marseillaise".

http://youtu.be/HM-E2H1ChJM




Based on this email exchange on the MORE listserve I would be they will not let go of the purse strings other than in a nominal way.

At last DA Kelly asked if we would get additional money for our school based organizing against Cuomo and I believe that Mulgrew said something like yes. Anyone remember exactly what he did say? I asked my DR and she said NO.

Followed by this:

At the "emergency" chapter leader meeting this Wednesday that all DRs were told to have with their CLs there was few concrete unified actions organized by UFT. DR gave lots of paper info and said we should organize our members. They didn't even have the petition nor did they have the postcards to get signed. I made concrete suggestions and after meeting, some of the other CLs came up to me for ideas. I also asked about getting extra money for the school campaign as per what Mulgrew said at DA but DR said no extra money. Honestly it was not hard to get my members activated and we have a bunch of actions planned. Imagine if our leadership was coordinating unified actions. No, just a petition campaign.

Below is what the District Reps are sending to teachers with talking points and a breakdown of the Cuomo threat, which as NYC Educator pointed out in his fabulous piece - Entropy -
yesterday, was ignored for so long for that mythical seat at the table. Entropy - lack of order or predictability; gradual decline into disorder.  -- maybe not the exact definition I would use since the UFT/AFT/NYSUT leadership is all about predictability as evidenced by this point NYC Educator made:

Now they want me to tweet what they tell me. Use this hashtag, or that, they say, and everything will be better. Once Cuomo sees our tweets he'll run like a doormouse. Mulgrew doesn't tweet because, like the pigs in Animal Farm, he's off doing brainwork, filling ledgers that must be meticulously filled then burned in the furnace. That's what I pay a thousand dollars a year for, while they go to conventions and fail to support people who might actually wish to help me.

I love that Animal Farm reference. We are all so Orwellian as we pointed out at the AFT Bill Gates Seattle convention in 2010 with this video.



Well, here is the message District Reps are sending to schools with the message they want out there -- all very predictable -- send some names go to Albany in March 4 when Eva will close her schools -- not call for NYC schools to hold field trips to Albany for a counter rally instead of the same old same old lobbying trips we've all been taking for 40 years -- and look where we are as a result.

Thank you to everyone who was able to attend the chapter-leader meeting. I’m following up on what we discussed during the meeting.

What makes our campaign urgent is the fact that if the state budget is not passed on time (April 1), with changes made to the education policies of the governor, then Mr. Cuomo can use a political maneuver called an “executive order” to pass his own budget. The governor’s budget would include all the educational policies he introduced at the 2015 State of the State Address:

https://www.ny.gov/2015-opportunity-agenda/education-escalator#teacher-evaluations

Essentially, Mr. Cuomo is trying to accomplish in one year (really 3 months), what Mayor Bloomberg tried to accomplish in twelve years. An important part of our campaign to fight Cuomo’s education agenda is to inform our political representatives, the parents of our students and the general public on how bad these policies are for public education and our students. Our representatives must hear our chorus and our message and stand up to the governor and fight these policies.

The main points of the Cuomo education agenda are as follows:

INDIVIDUAL MERIT PAY – He wants to give teachers that get a highly effective final rating an additional $20,000. This may sound good for those that recently got this rating but wait until you see how he wants to change the teacher evaluation system. Merit pay is a divisive idea that has failed everywhere it has been tried. Who is going to want to teach the neediest students with this policy?

TEACHER EVALUATION - Cuomo wants to get rid of the 20% local tests and increase the state test to be 50% of the teacher evaluation. The other 50% for measures of teacher practice would be 15% from your principal and 35% from an outside agent. How many teachers are going to come into teaching, or remain, if they are evaluated like this? And, how many teachers are going to remain in schools that have a large number of students with disabilities or other life challenges?

NEW TEACHERS BEWARE! – Mr. Cuomo wants to extend the probationary period from 3 to 5 years! That might be okay if he were proposing more support for new teachers but he’s not. What he wants in an army of “at will” employees who will have no due process rights. This policy ignores the real issue - the lack of support that drives 40% of new teachers to quit by their 5th year.

DUE PROCESS – The governor wants to take away the use of an independent arbitrator and wants the employer to decide on terminations. We say the process needs to be fair, quick and impartial. He believes it should be fast and unfair.

CHARTER SCHOOLS – The governor wants to increase the charter cap even though he knows that most charters are breaking the law by “creaming”, or unfairly selecting, the students they teach. Rather than holding charters accountable for this he wants to reward their misconduct along with the billionaires that are backing the charter movement.

RECEIVERSHIP – The governor wants to have all of the struggling schools to be run by private companies and to abolish all collective bargaining agreements. This plan punishes the neediest children and the educators who serve them.

SCHOOL FUNDING – The governor is holding this year’s inadequate school funding increase hostage to his political agenda. Since he has been in office, the governor has not met his constitutional obligation to properly fund our schools and now he is blaming us. Our schools are already owed billions of dollars from the Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE) litigation.

What we need to do:

1. Every chapter should conduct an emergency chapter meeting. Invite everyone, even your supervisors. We’re all on the same side in this fight. Let me know when you will be doing this.

2. A committee of members should meet with the parents at each school to inform them of these disastrous policies. Recruit parents in this fight.

3. Each school community should organize a group to attend one of three regional forums that are being held next week on the 12th.

4. Each chapter and school community should plan and execute local actions. This could be letter writing, phone calls, sending post cards, informational picketing.

5. Join the social media campaigns. Join the UFT Facebook campaign and the twitter campaign.

6. Send me the names and contact information of the people you want to send to Albany on March 4th. I will need their email address.

7. There will be other large events, including rallies, in the near future . Each school community should join in these mass actions.

8. Document, photograph and record your individual actions so we can pass the word to other school communities.

We can either sit idly by and watch these things happen to us, or we can join together and fight back.

Thank you all in advance for your continued hard work, and for your assistance on this campaign!

Louie, I Think This is the Start of a Beautiful Friendship - Will Mulgrew Join the Resistance or Vichy?

Just watched Casablanca for the umpteenth time and was reminded of the contrast between the Vichy "seat at the table" mentality of the Claude Rains Col. Renault character and the Paul Henreid Victor Laszlo resistance fighter. And then there's Bogart, Rick - clearly a former resistance fighter - almost definitely a commie at one time (who else fought in the Spanish civil war?), now turned selfish cynic. Laszlo inspires them both to join the resistance -- he welcomes Rick back to the fight - "this time I know we will win."
Before getting into the war with ed deform and how the UFT plays the Vichy role -- Mulgrew/Randi as Louie Renault? -- they're shocked, just shocked that Cuomo is anti-teacher/union/public education -- take a look at the final scene.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kiNJcDG4E0



Arthur Goldstein at NYC Educator captured the mood in his post on Saturday:

Mulgrew stands before the DA and bloviates for an hour. His talk is disorganized, frenetic. He comes back to things he hasn't finished. He sneers. He raises eyebrows. He speaks of how it's time to fight, how that's what he was taught when he grew up. He radiates the machismo that failed to surface anywhere during the six years we went without a contract, the machismo that evinced itself nowhere as the union said we'd happily wait another seven years for the raises everyone else got years ago. We all voted for it because it was better than nothing, because they said they weren't gonna do better and we believed them. Mulgrew shouts the determination to stop Cuomo that was nowhere to be found when Zephyr Teachout rose like a David but failed to garner sufficient force, that time, to slay the Goliath propped up by the dollars of our enemies. We know who the enemy is. Why didn't we know last summer, when we could have maybe done something about it?.... NYC Educator:  Entropy

Basically, all you have to do is watch Casablanca and read Arthur's piece to get which way the wind is blowing.

While we are surprised that Rick comes back to the fight and Louie abandons Vichy and joins him in the resistance, we would be shocked, just shocked, to see the leaders of the UFT/NYSUT/AFT do the same.

======
Next: The UFT calls on school chapters to take action, but will it part with COPE and other money to help them?

Rand Paul On Parent Choice

I have heard of many tragic cases of walking, talking normal children who wound up with profound mental disorders after vaccines excessive standardized testing. I'm not arguing vaccines tests are bad idea. I think they are a good thing, but I think the parent should have some input. The state doesn't own your children. Parents own the children. And it is an issue of freedom and public health education... Rand Paul, slightly revised.

Inspired by a Ravitch post: A Question About Parental Choice

A tweet by Jason Stanford, political journalist in Texas:

JasonStanford ‏@JasStanford

Why is it OK with some politicians to opt your kids out from getting vaccinated but not if you don't want them taking a standardized test?

Teacher Union Sellout on Charters in Minnesota - supported by AFT

Those of us who are MFT members had no say in the creation of the Guild even though we actually are the union, and now we continue to subsidize our own demise...

Frankenguild, Part 2: The Sellout Continues

An excellent blog post at PEJAM echoing the policies of our union's inability to fight off the charter assault because they have jumped into the charter business themselves. When I brought this up to a UFT employee a few weeks ago she responded, "Oh, that is Randi's fault." Duhhhhh!

Conflict of Interest?
According to Dylan Thomas, "Mill City [charter school] joins the small but growing portfolio of the Minnesota Guild, a non-profit charter school authorizer sponsored by the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers. When it launched in 2011, the Guild was the first union-backed charter school authorizer in the country."  The Guild's first charter school opened this past year in Isanti, Minnesota, and the MN Department of Education has authorized Mill City and three other charter schools to open in Minneapolis this fall, under the sponsorship of the union created Minnesota Guild.

The current president and lobbyist (also a former president) of MFT not only created the Guild, but continue to serve on its board of directors.  Every charter school they sponsor pulls more students from Minneapolis Public Schools (or other public schools) which eliminates unionized teaching positions.  How can the president of the teachers union defend the rights of the union members who elected her, and at the same time create schools that threaten those same members' job security?

Brad Blue and the Guild operate out of an office in the MFT-owned building and pay no rent.  MFT's brothers and sisters working as janitors and engineers in Minneapolis Public Schools have their SEIU local office in the same MFT building, and they pay rent.  Those of us who are MFT members had no say in the creation of the Guild even though we actually are the union, and now we continue to subsidize our own demise.

Union Leaders Have Joined the Privatizers
Two years ago I wrote about the Minnesota Guild of Public Charter Schools, an organization created four years ago to sponsor charter schools.  The Guild was created by Lynn Nordgren, the current president of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT), and Louis Sundin, a former president of MFT and its current lobbyist.  The funding for this enterprise came from the American Federation of Teachers' (AFT) Innovation Fund, which itself received money from the Gates Foundation.  All of this was done without a discussion or vote by the rank-and-file members of MFT.

Read full report:

Frankenguild, Part 2: The Sellout Continues

Fred Smith Compares UFT Delegate Assembly to Buffalo Board Meeting on Ravitch Blog

I would say the “trouble-makers” I have known, those who would give discomfort to the comfortable, have strong faith in labor and unionism and are deeply troubled by the state of the UFT.  ... Fred Smith

Fred Smith reacted to a story on the Diane Ravitch blog.

Buffalo: Teachers Union Official Thrown Out of Board Meeting When He Tries to Speak

Fred Smith

February 6, 2015 at 4:20 pm

Terrible. How is this episode any different or more outrageous than when UFT Pres. Mulgrew and his henchman shout down, bully or use faux procedural tactics to silence dues paying members in NYC who disagree with them at meetings or do not accept their party line?

Linda responded
 

Reply  Linda says: February 6, 2015 at 7:02 pm

Were the proposals/candidates rejected in NYC, more likely to secure stronger tenure protections, fewer high stakes tests etc. than the UFT strategies/leaders?
It’s a tangential issue but, I’m curious about your opinion.

Reply  Fred Smith says: February 6, 2015 at 8:17 pm

I’m not sure I’m addressing your concerns about politicians I think. Here’s where I was going.

As I understand it second hand, meetings held at UFT headquarters, involved union delegates and/or chapter leaders. Among them were individuals who felt the union, which has been run forever by a self-perpetuating leadership (i.e., the Unity slate) elected under procedures that make it virtually impossible to unseat the top echelon, did not think the UFT was doing enough for the rank and file members.

These “dissidents” wanted the chance to address bread and butter issues, including the teacher’s contract and protection of members from arbitrary mistreatment; and the leadership’s heretofore ineffectiveness in fighting back against charter schools that have been taking away space and resources at the expense of traditional public schools; and perceived sell-out tendencies that sacrifice principles for “a place at the table;” and the mealy mouthed positions taken by said leadership against the misuses of student test data tied into the indefensible inclusion of test scores in convoluted, ever-changing teacher evaluation formulas. Then too, there were the overriding questions–based on past history–of union governance and the undemocratic way Unity controlled the floor at these meetings–arbitrarily denying speakers a voice, not even a discouraging word to be heard.

So, I would say the “trouble-makers” I have known, those who would give discomfort to the comfortable, have strong faith in labor and unionism and are deeply troubled by the state of the UFT. Yes, there is a certain amount of understandable self-interest in their beliefs, but I feel they are sincere when they say, “Our working conditions are our children’s learning conditions.”–which they strive to better. And I hope they grow in number and strength because one-party rule and monopolistic arrangements work against the vast majority of people kept on the outside. (The 99%?)

I hate to see the way teachers have been portrayed as bad guys. They’re not. They shouldn't be victimized by politicians who can be bought cheaply–nor by those who claim to represent them.

Heat of Corruption Flame Grows Closer to Cuomo the Crook

Silver is alleged to have benefited personally from Litwin’s spending -- and there is no dispute that Cuomo has benefited politically from that same largesse.

http://www.ibtimes.com/cuomo-officials-directed-state-loan-cuomo-donor-center-corruption-probe-1807476

Cuomo Officials Directed State Loan To Cuomo Donor At Center of Corruption Probe

The tones of surprise and outrage emanating from Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s lips in the wake of the stunning criminal complaint against New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver might give the impression that the governor hovers above the fray of Albany’s transactional politics.

“I’ll tell you the truth: I was totally shocked on a number of levels,” Governor Cuomo said of the allegations that Silver used his office to help politically connected real estate developers in their state business. Cuomo has positioned himself as a champion of ethics reform, declaring that “these acts of corruption are so damning.”

But a careful review of state documents reveals that Cuomo and Silver are connected by a key figure in the scandal. Both lawmakers have a financial relationship with the same New York real estate mogul, Leonard Litwin, who has in turn relied upon them for preferential tax treatment and other government benefits.

Silver is alleged to have benefited personally from Litwin’s spending -- and there is no dispute that Cuomo has benefited politically from that same largesse.

Litwin contributed $1 million to Cuomo’s reelection campaign and another $500,000 to the New York Democratic Party, making him the largest political donor in the state. His money flowed through 27 subsidiaries of his firm, Glenwood Management. Those subsidiaries were also clients of the real estate law firm that paid referral fees to Silver. U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara has alleged that Silver "induce[d] real estate developers with business before the state" to employ the law firm, which in turn made payments to Silver.

Neither Cuomo's office nor Glenwood Management responded to International Business Times' request for comment about the governor's relationship with Litwin. But documents reviewed by IBTimes illustrate Cuomo’s role in the developer's state business.

The Cuomo-run New York State Housing Finance Agency, for instance, approved a $260 million state-supported low-interest loan in 2014 to finance Glenwood’s new luxury apartment building in midtown Manhattan. At the time the loan to Glenwood was approved, the NYHFA was headed by Cuomo appointee Bill Mulrow, an executive and registered lobbyist at Blackstone, a private equity and real estate firm. Mulrow was just appointed to be the governor’s chief of staff. According to NYHFA documents, Glenwood also has had other business with the agency.

Similarly, Cuomo in 2011 signed Silver-backed legislation reauthorizing a then-expired property tax abatement for real estate developers called the 421a program. Cuomo also signed an extension of that program in 2013. Litwin’s firm used the 421a program for its Midtown Manhattan project, according to the New York Times. Glenwood has also used the 421a tax break for some of its other properties in the city.

In 2014, Cuomo shut down the Moreland Commission, an anti-corruption panel that was examining the relationship between lawmakers and the real estate industry. The governor’s top aide at time, Larry Schwartz, called commission members to stop them from subpoenaing the Real Estate Board of New York, of which Litwin is the lifetime “honorary chairman.”

The 421a abatement, which costs taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenues, is set to expire in 2015. The question of its renewal -- and Cuomo's support for its renewal -- is a flashpoint in this year’s legislative session in Albany. Already, some New York City lawmakers are calling for its repeal.

National Urban League and Civil RIghts Groups PlaysTeacher Experience Game

... do they think it important for kids of color to have some portion of their teachers actually look like them vs the young, white TFA types that fill up so many positions, especially in charters?

You can't have a serious level of experienced teachers if you undermine basic teacher security. Thus, this statement by the Urban League caught my eye. But we know all about the Urban League -- the NY chapter was headed by Dennis Walcott before he descended into hell in the Bloomberg administration.

Students of color and low-income students are twice as likely to have inexperienced teachers, as compared to their white and affluent peers. ESEA reauthorization must bring greater transparency and focused action to increase equity in the availability of critical educational inputs, including but not limited to funding, equal access to advanced coursework, and equal access to effective and experienced teachers.” ... National Urban League following the road to ed deform in statement " NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE JOINS COALITION OF CIVIL RIGHTS AND EDUCATION ADVOCACY ORGANIZATIONS IN RESPONDING TO SENATE ESEA DISCUSSION DRAFT"

Therein lies the rub - the contradiction between using the words "effective" and "experienced."This was Joel Klein's ploy -- in the early days he went after seniority transfers - with Randi's support - because they supposedly shortchanged students as experienced teachers drained out of badly run schools -- and that was vastly over-rated -- but let's point out that teachers didn't run away from schools that were well-managed in even the poorest neighborhoods -- the problem was that so many of them were poorly managed and under-resourced.

Once Klein got what he wanted -- seniority transfers broken, he went after senior teachers.

You can't play the teacher "quality" game when it's based mostly in test scores --- attacks on tenure undermine the stability of the teaching profession ---- other than the temp TFA types -- people who enter teaching for a career are attracted by such ugly words as "pension" and "tenure" protections. You can't have a serious level of experienced teachers if you undermine basic teacher security.

Deformers have been playing the game of speaking out of both sides of their mouths -- calling for experienced teachers for kids fo color while doing everything they could to undermine experienced teachers -- just look at the outcomes in the heart of ed deform -- much younger, inexperienced teachers. And by the way -- they have also managed to chop up experienced teachers of color, a fact ignored --- do they think it important for kids of color to have some portion of their teachers actually look like them vs the young, white TFA types that fill up so many positions, especially in charters?

The full statement below the fold.

Principal to Jia Lee - Woman of the Year!!!

Subject:   Woman of the Year!!!

Jia,
We have never met but I have seen you mentioned by my friend Norm Scott on his EdNotes blog.
I just watched the  video (https://vimeo.com/117989096) of your testimony in DC to the. Senate... Powerful, elegant, sincere and beautiful!
I was encouraged by the Senator from Rhode Island who summed up RTTT perfectly, none of the money came to the schools. And now Cuomo wants to duplicate it here in NY tying any funding increase to similar reforms .
Anyway, I was proud of you as both a veteran NYC educator and union man.  You are an amazing young woman.
We could use more like you!   Sadly, too many folks take their rights  benefits and profession for granted, as we watch reformers chip away at it all.
Thank you for speaking up and representing us so well,
Brian De Vale
Principal
P.S. 257 /
Chairman
Council of Supervisors and Administrators
Community School. District  # 14

And here is a message from Brian to all of us:

We call these LI republican state senators and Assemblymen whose constituents have signed the petitions and tell them:

"you guys want to expand charters because you assume that it will only impact NYC. Well we work in NYC but live in your district. As charters explode because they offer extended day (day care) until 6pm many parents go and we lose money in our budgets. Our principals let people go, us, and we can't afford to live out here". 

Thousands of teachers in live in. Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester counties. They need to mobilize. We have shard this message with Sen. Martins, Flanagan,  Boyle and others.
My school has collected over 1000 signatures please email the petition around and ask folks to fax or deliver them to their local state Assemblymen/Senators:

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STOP CUOMO AND HIS WAR

 ON PUBLIC SCHOOLS!

We are against the Governor’s immoral attack on public school students and teachers.  SAY:

1.     NO increase in Charter schools.  There are already too many Charter Schools in New York City and there are 100 available spots for charters in the rest of the state.  Nobody is applying because they are not wanted.  Charters were meant to be a few lab sites around the state to establish best practices, NOT an alternative system of hundreds of schools.  Cuomo’s goal is to privatize the New York City public schools in order to break their unions.

2.    NO new Teacher Evaluation System.  New York State just passed a new evaluation system last year.  Students and teachers deserve stability.  Cuomo has become a tool of the billionaires and hedge funds who want  to lower their taxes through “education reform” policies.

3.    NO change to tenure.  Police officers and fire fighters remain on probation for 18 months.   Teachers are already on probation for 3 years.  Cuomo’s move is designed to cheat young people out of a pension and career by kicking them out before they can become permanent.

-->

NAME	ADDRESS	E-MAIL

Bill and Melinda Gates' Faux Theories Exposed: Paving The Road to Hell — And Other Gates Foundation Initiatives

As Bill Gates sees many of his health and education initiatives go up in smoke -- oh, if only those billions had gone into reducing class size -- Daniel Katz joins other bloggers in ripping apart the basic premises under which Gates operates. (And let's never forget his best friend Randi.)

For instance, Melinda Gates makes this asinine statement:

It may surprise you–it was certainly surprising to us–but the field of education doesn’t know very much at all about effective teaching. We have all known terrific teachers. You watch them at work for 10 minutes and you can tell how thoroughly they’ve mastered the craft. But nobody has been able to identify what, precisely, makes them so outstanding.

Katz answers by pointing to just how much the field of education knows about effective teaching -- but those darn pesky kids and lousy school administration plus any number of factors get in the way.

 What does Mrs. Gates risk missing in her ten minute assessment?

• The lesson that worked very well in the first period but worked far less well in the third period.
• The day when the lesson plan was simply off base.
• The work that teacher did outside of the classroom determining what students knew, selecting teaching and learning strategies that would help them build upon that, figuring out what would help the teacher know the students had learned.
• ANY of the uncertainty in the previously described process and the necessity to pivot if that uncertainty disrupts the plan.
• How the teacher self assesses and with what information.
• The week when that teacher has sick children at home, cannot get enough sleep, and has little time to plan.
• The week disrupted by excessive standardized testing or mandatory field tests of examinations.
• ANYTHING, really, beyond being impressed by Razzle Dazzle without thinking about substance.

These points by Katz really resonate with me --- at times I thought I had the best of times as a teacher -- and a few hours later -- or even the next period - I was the worst. No one can tell me that I would not be a better teacher in a class of 22 than in a class of 30 - or that I was often a better teacher in the morning than in the late afternoon. That was why I tried to get schedules that piled up morning teaching. When we had late lunch at 12:30 if I had an afternoon prep I would go straight on from 8:40. After lunch I had to work so much harder to focus the kids --- the breaks broke the magic.

Paving The Road to Hell — And Other Gates Foundation Initiatives

Towards the end of last year, the Seattle Times provided coverage of the Gates Foundation’s report on the tenth anniversary of its global health initiative. After a decade of effort and a billion dollars invested, Bill Gates admitted that despite the investment he had been “pretty naive” about how long it would take to significantly improve public health outcomes in the developing world. Most notable was Gates’ admission that the problems in his approach were not merely ones about overcoming scientific hurdles, but rather they seriously underestimated the challenges of implementing highly technological “solutions” in countries where the majority of the population lack secure access to routine infrastructure which, in the words of Dr. David McCoy of Queen Mary University in London, are “the barriers to existing solutions.”
Both Peter Greene of the Curmudgucation blog and Anthony Cody of Living in Dialogue have written excellent pieces on this somewhat quiet but very important admission by Bill Gates.  Greene astutely notes that Gates’ realization of his limitations does not actually lead him to understand why his approach is flawed:

Gates wants to use systems to change society, but his understanding of how humans and culture and society and communities change is faulty. It’s not surprising that Gates is naive– it’s surprising that he is always naive in the same way. It always boils down to “I really thought people would behave differently.” And although I’ve rarely seen him acknowledge it print, it also boils down to, “There were plenty of people who could have told me better, but I didn’t listen to them.”
The non-success of Grand Challenges is just like the failure of the Gates Common Core initiative. Gates did not take the time to do his homework about the pre-existing structures and systems. He did not value the expertise of people already working in the field, and so he did not consult it or listen to it. He put an unwarranted faith in his created systems, and imagined that they would prevail because everyone on the ground would be easily assimilated into the new imposed-from-outside system. He became frustrated by peoples’ insistence on seeing things through their own point-of-view rather than his. And he spent a huge amount of money attempting to impose his vision on everybody else.

This is an important observation because it shows that there is a flawed perspective rooted at the heart of the Gates Foundation, and while the man and the institution may be able to recognize failures, they are not inclined to understand why they have failed.  Anthony Cody also recognizes this observation as he lines up quotes from the central figures at the Gates Foundation that demonstrate little regard for the knowledge about teaching held by teachers and wonders if the “humility” earned in Grand Challenges project will translate to humility about the foundation’s approach to education reform. 

Read Katz in full here and also see

Related

Gates' Money and Privacy Activism -- Opposition to Ed. Reform Hits the MainstreamIn "Activism"

Open Letter to President Obama -- You Are Listening to the Wrong PeopleIn "Activism"

What Education "Reformers" Do Not Understand About Teaching and LearningIn "Common Core"

The Cost of Stupid: Families for Excellent Schools Totally Bogus Analysis of NYC Schools

Capital NY reported today: Families for Excellent Schools will hold a press conference calling for state takeover of 40 of the city’s failing schools.

I emailed them:

Check out Bruce Baker piece exposing their analysis as a sham - and please include a link. To only "report" on their press conference based on bogus, politically motivated "data" is only partial reporting.

School Finance 101

Data and thoughts on public and private school funding in the U.S.

The Cost of Stupid: Families for Excellent Schools Totally Bogus Analysis of NYC Schools

Families for Excellent Schools of New York – the Don’t Steal Possible folks – has just released an impossibly stupid analysis in which they claim that New York City is simply throwing money at failure. Spending double on failing schools what they do on totally awesome ones (if they really have any awesome ones). A link to their press release is here:
http://www.familiesforexcellentschools.org/news/press-release-cost-failure
And what is their astounding new evidence that validates that NYC is stealing possible by throwing money at failing schools? Well, they ever so carefully identified the 50 worst and 50 totally awesomest schools in the city, and then took the average of their per pupil budgets to show that the worst schools are substantially outspending the awesomest ones. Thus – money doesn’t matter- especially when in the hands of schools under the governance of their nemesis Mayor BDB and his possible-thieving lackeys.
Oh, where to even begin on this analysis. Let’s peel it all back a little, one layer at a time. Let’s begin with the fact that New York City a while back, under their favored Mayor Bloomberg, adopted something called Fair Student Funding. 

Read it in full as a perfect example of how political astro-turf groups like FES use phony data to cover their real intentions to degrade the public schools and promote charters and other privatization schemes.

https://schoolfinance101.wordpress.com/2015/02/03/the-cost-of-stupid-families-for-excellent-schools-totally-bogus-analysis-of-nyc-schools/

Palm Beach Post Opinion Piece Slams Testing Culture

What's so special about this? There was a time when you would never read something like this in the mainstream press, especially in Florida, one of the hearts of ed deform.

Ed deform keeps wearing thinner and thinner. There is even a piece in the business section by Frank Cerebino attacking the voucher scam: Florida’s Tax Credit Scholarship is little more than government-sanctioned money laundering.

But this piece by Catherine Martinez nails them.

Commentary: Unleash the power of school protests

http://www.mypalmbeachpost.com/news/news/opinion/commentary-unleash-the-power-of-school-protests/nj3PX/

Jeffrey Hernandez, “whiz kid”; Jeffrey Hernandez, evil genius; Jeffrey Hernandez, testing guru; Jeffrey Hernandez, miracle principal — all contradictory but all attitudes held by different factions in the tumultuous year of his reign as chief academic officer of the Palm Beach County School District in 2009-10.

By Catherine S. Martinez


Jeffrey Hernandez, “whiz kid”; Jeffrey Hernandez, evil genius; Jeffrey Hernandez, testing guru; Jeffrey Hernandez, miracle principal — all contradictory but all attitudes held by different factions in the tumultuous year of his reign as chief academic officer of the Palm Beach County School District in 2009-10.
At the distance of five years, I wonder whether he had inside knowledge of what was coming statewide with the current Common Core controversy.

+Commentary: Unleash the power of school protests photo
Catherine S. Martinez is a national board-certified teacher at Pahokee Middle Senior High School.
Hernandez had built a reputation for turning around failing schools since transforming a Miami-Dade elementary school from a D to an A. Apparently, he and then-Palm Beach County Schools Superintendent Art Johnson felt that these same measures would raise scores for all the county’s schools. In addition to the changes at the middle and high school level, he introduced a lot of changes into elementary schools across the county.

This may be a prime example of the problem with relying too much on numbers. Students are not data points. They are living, breathing, complex human beings, each with a past, present and future. They are part of a larger community with varying degrees of involvement in and commitment to their schools.

Both Johnson and Hernandez were and are very smart, even brilliant people, highly educated but poorly informed on the ways to win friends and influence people.

If Hernandez and Johnson had had a better appreciation for human nature, they would have realized that communities do not react well to sudden change. They could have picked a group of schools, either through voluntary participation or forced inclusion due to failing grades, as a pilot project for the 2009-10 school year. If their measures had been successful and raised test scores for those schools, the A and B schools would have been forced to go along. If they had put together a parent advisory board, got the board on their side and explained the reasons for the changes, those same parents could have sold their ideas to the other parents. By trying to do too much too fast and being too autocratic, they made enemies and brought about their own downfall.

In the brief months of Hernandez’s oversight, there were crowded School Board meetings with speakers lining up outside the door to complain about the changes. Websites, Twitter hashtags and Facebook pages such as “Testing is not Teaching” were created. Numerous protesters attended every meeting waving signs until Hernandez was demoted and eventually forced out. Some of the changes were scaled back or eliminated. Art Johnson lost his job a little while later.

In 2011, the Florida Legislature passed the ironically named Student Success Act, which mandated teacher evaluations be based on their students’ growth on standardized test scores. This new law also mandated the gradual introduction of end-of-course exams (EOCs) for every course. This was supposed to be phased in over time, and this (2014-15) is the year that all exams should be implemented, even for performance classes like visual arts, band, chorus and physical education.

The statewide trend in education now is similar to what was happening here in 2009 during Hernandez’s period as chief academic officer. Teachers are treated like widget-makers in a widget factory with students as widgets.

At a recent School Board workshop, which was a joint meeting with state lawmakers, there were empty seats and no one outside holding signs for the legislators. The workshop was also very predictable. Everyone talked about how much they had done for education and listed a few personal concerns, but nothing that would grab more than a sidebar in the newspaper the following day or a few minutes on the evening news toward the end of the broadcast.

Our School Board has raised objections about excessive testing, but the board knows that the state is going to exert any pressure it can to bring the board back in line.

That’s what happened in Lee County, which voted to opt out and then reversed itself after the state threatened consequences — including loss of funding and students denied graduation.

We’re still waiting for the outrage statewide to have the effect it had in Palm Beach County five years ago.

Excessive Testing as Child Abuse - Midterm Benchmarks to 1st Graders in ELA and Math

My principal was an early adapter - in the 80s - of the testing regime - a major cause of the difficulties between us. I had absolutely no respect for her as an educator. She instituted a highly expensive series of benchmark tests throughout the school year - that was pretty much it for me as a self-contained classroom teacher and I became a computer cluster. So this dialogue this morning caught my attention.

A parent on the Change the Stakes listserve asked:

This year, standardized assessments are in place for kindergarten, 1^st and 2^nd grade.

a True

b False

A - 1st grade teacher responded:

True. In fact this week I'm supposed to administer a midterm benchmark in ELA and math to my first graders. I'm livid. It's to assess how they are progressing on mastering the skills on the MOSL tests, which are given at the beginning of the year and at the end of the year and are for teacher eval purposes only (20% of our rating is based on a local measure & many NYC schools are using the MOSL). Some schools, like the Earth School, got a waiver through their participation in the newly created PROSE program.

At the beginning of the year I had to admin MOSL in my 1st grade class. They are developmentally inappropriate, a colossal waste of time.

Parents do not know the full extent of what's going on. I see it as my duty to get this out. I'm working on a new blog post now...will detail the insanity of the midterm benchmark. I really don't want to administer it. 

Do all schools give this test?
 

It depends on what your school chose to use as their local measure of student learning. Many schools, like mine, went with the NYC performance assessments created by NYCDOE. They are awful. I think they now call them tasks. Ask if they are giving midterm benchmarks in K-5 in the next two weeks. 

Furthermore it's sneaky. Parents at my school aren't notified & teachers find out just days before.

For an analysis of the poor quality of MOSL tests see:
https://criticalclassrooms.wordpress.com/2014/10/27/whats-really-rotten-in-our-schools-poor-quality-mosl-assessments-used-to-rate-nyc-teachers/