Success Charter Abuse story spreads: How a New York City charter school uses public shame to get results

I love the "end justifies the means" headline from Business Insider. Eva brags about the outcomes - which everyone seems to accept as legit - I don't. Just like I don't accept the claims there is enormous demand on the part of parents to have their kids in this kind of environment.

One red flag is how Success beat out every other charter - many with the same advantages - by miles - something the chart below doesn't show. This has led competitor Democracy Prep's Seth Andrews to call for Eva to back fill her classes after kids drop out.

We know that most of the parents at Success are coming in with higher levels based on the very nature of the lottery system -- people aware enough to apply -- people have bought into the "public schools suck" argument - you know - those public schools with those union - and way more experienced teachers than Success. Funny how parents opt for a lower level teaching staff because they are sold a bill of goods. And then put up with a socially restricted system devoid of accountability. Eventually they began to catch on and year after year our school fell in district rankings.

I know every trick in  the book to get high scores - I learned them from my principal, who was a joke to other principals in my district - an early version of  Eva. Principals in lower poverty areas of the district used to sidle up to me and ask how she was doing it as my school showed so much higher scores than the others who weren't pulling the same tricks. And they rose so quickly after she took over. Miracles.

One trick she used and Eva does today: Hold loads of kids back in kindergarten or first grade so for the next 5 years they would be a year older when they took the test in their grade. One of the outcomes in Eva's schools now is that parents who do not think it fair to hold their kids back, especially if it is a 2nd time  -- and often it isn't - pull their kids from the school -- thus Eva "loses" the bottom scorers.

How a New York City charter school uses public shame to get results

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/success-academy-students-being-put-in-the-red-zone-2015-4#ixzz3XHTQZAGs

NYSAPE Video: NYS Test Refusals Hit Main Street + NPLB Trailer

NYS Allies For Public Education

NYS Test Refusals Hit Main Street

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URkNzkADnIM#t=10

No Pineapple Left Behind Announce Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ln7xrQM22VI#t=35

Another Nail in the Ed Deform Coffin: Paying the best teachers to teach more students is unsubstantiated

Specifically, Hinchey notes that the report's assumptions regarding identifying the "best" teachers rest on using increases in standardized test scores using Value Added Models (VAM). Value-added modeling has been shown to be an unreliable measure of teaching ability.  She continues, "With no reliable way to identify the 'most effective' teachers, the proposed plan is untenable."

UPDATE, Apr. 14: Ed Week article on this story.

Another chink in the false research claims, often paid for by the ed deform crowd. The comment about VAM makes the Cuomo plan just as unreliable. Teachers who are dismissed should gather these research outcomes for the giant law suit -- of course if we had a union, that might make a massive suit feasible -- TOMORROW.

Paying the best teachers to teach more students is unsubstantiated, review finds

Source: Great Lakes Center for Ed Research

EAST LANSING, Mich. (Apr. 13, 2015) – A recent report from the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University proposed that school districts pay top performing teachers a bonus for accepting additional students into their existing classes. The report claimed that larger classes and reductions to the teaching force would create significant savings.  However, an academic review of the report finds that the report is largely unsubstantiated, ignores what is known about teacher pay, and fails to offer guidance for policymaking.

Patricia Hinchey, professor of education at Penn State University, reviewed Paying the Best Teachers More to Teach More Students for the Think Twice think tank review project. The National Education Policy Center (NEPC) produced the review with funding from the Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice.

According to the report, districts should pay teachers in the top quartile a bonus for increasing their class size by up to three students.  The report considers that students working with more effective teachers would offset any potential sacrifice in student learning.

In her review, Hinchey finds that the report: (1) ignores the technical problem of how the best teachers might be reliably identified; (2) neglects a strong research base that has established a link between class size and student learning; and (3) misrepresents what is known about teacher pay, teacher attitudes, and teacher job satisfaction.

Specifically, Hinchey notes that the report's assumptions regarding identifying the "best" teachers rest on using increases in standardized test scores using Value Added Models (VAM). Value-added modeling has been shown to be an unreliable measure of teaching ability.  She continues, "With no reliable way to identify the 'most effective' teachers, the proposed plan is untenable."

Regarding the overall merits of the report, Hinchey says, "On the whole the plan is misleading because the averages used to project practical outcomes are not representative of diverse schools and districts across states."
In her conclusion, Hinchey restates that the plan is unsupported by either original research or existing research. "Finding better strategies to pay teachers fairly and adequately for their work will require far more rigorous and nuanced thinking and research than reflected in this report."

Contact: 
Patricia H. Hinchey, (570) 479-1794, phinchey@psu.edu
Daniel J. Quinn, (517) 203-2940, dquinn@greatlakescenter.org

Read the full review at:
http://www.greatlakescenter.org
Find Paying the Best Teachers More to Teach More Students on the web:
http://edunomicslab.org/paying-the-best-teachers-more-to-teach-more-students/

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More Educators Turn on Hillary and Democrats

• I have a Democrat for president and for Governor and yet I have the most disgusting policies ever placed over my school and staff. 
• Unless I see a written policy statement from Ms Clinton vowing to do away with the destructive Bush (NCLB) and Obama (RTTT) agenda, I would rather vote for Ted Cruz who vows to eliminate the Federal Dept of Education...
• I would gladly give up the Federal money our school receives if it freed us from the ridiculous testing requirements that consume more time and money than they are worth.

----------veteran union principal who is a registered Democrat

More scary words for Democrats came in today after my recent posts:

• Will teachers abandon Democrats as Paul Krugman Di...
• The Clintons and their AFT/UFT Pals: neo-liberal e...

I voted for Obama over Hillary Clinton the first time he ran (in the Democratic primary). I figured all things being equal, to go with the black candidate as the Clintons already had their chance. I feel that it was a mistake-though selfishly I made back everything I lost in the Bush economic fiasco. Obama like Cuomo has done the math and figured out that he can run as a social liberal fiscal conservative and win.

They figure "where else are the unions going to go"? The Republicans went back to their roots and formed a Tea party... Maybe we democrats need to have a coffee party....

Speaking as an educator who has watched the Democrat party turn into an extension of the Republican party where education is concerned, I have a Democrat for president and for Governor and yet I have the most disgusting policies ever placed over my school and staff. 

Count me out. Unless I see a written policy statement from Ms Clinton vowing to do away with the destructive Bush (NCLB) and Obama (RTTT) agenda, I would rather vote for Ted Cruz who vows to eliminate the Federal Dept of Education.

I would gladly give up the Federal money our school receives if it freed us from the ridiculous testing requirements that consume more time and money than they are worth. It is not that much and it causes more trouble than it is worth.

Maybe a few years under a hostile Republican administration would bring us back together. God knows a major branch of our party Rahm Emmanuel, DFER etc.. have taken me away from the fold. I need something solid for Ms Clinton to earn my vote.

Will teachers abandon Democrats as Paul Krugman Distinguishes Democrats from Republicans, while ignoring education

More of the same---we can't do better...blah blah blah. I'm not voting for Hilary. And if that means Scott Walker is the next president, so be it. It's the price the democrats must pay for screwing us over time and time again. If I'm going to get screwed, it might as well be by a republican. If the republicans win the White House, it will be because the dems pissed off too many people like me who used to support their candidates. It's time to earn my vote back Democratic Party...and you aint gonna do it by telling me the republicans are worse..... Roseanne McCosh, comment on "The Clintons and their AFT/UFT Pals: neo-liberal ..

Dems make war on teachers

Serious words from Roseanne. I wonder if enough teachers feel that way to make a difference. Certainly Cuomo will be dead to future teacher votes, but my guess is that he didn't care about burning those bridges if he doesn't run again -- which I am betting he won't.

And another frustrating column from Krugman today - It Takes a Party - and you know which party he is talking about. I guess he didn't read my piece about Hilary and Bill's capitulation to neo-liberalism and being on the edge of neo-conism.

"How did the parties get this far apart", Krugman asks? "Now, some people won’t want to acknowledge that the choices in the 2016 election are as stark as I’ve asserted."

Well, for people focused on the battle against ed deform and have to deal with the Cuomos and Rahms of this world, there is no stark difference. In fact, the Dems are even worse than the Republicans -- guess who invited MORE's Jia Lee to testify in the Senate? -- and throughout the Republican party we see the states righters joining with the left opponents to NCLB and RTTT with the opt out movement being led from both ends.

Another comment on comment on "The Clintons and their AFT/UFT Pals: neo-liberal e...":

With Dems like Hillary, who needs the Tea Party? 3:33 have you witnessed the devastation corporatist Dems like Hillary have wrought on public education? Obama capitalized on the attack of NCLB with his RttT atrocities. If all the Democrats in Denial vote for Hillary, more nails will be hammered in the coffin of public education in America. 

NYC Council Ed Chair Danny Dromm JOINS PARENTS WHO "OPT OUT" OF STATE TESTS

UPDATE
Good for Danny - an ex-teacher. Change the Stakes is sending someone to attend. There's lots of opt out stuff on the blogs.

See Peter Zucker at South Bronx School with an excellent: HEY HARRISON AND THE REST OF NEW YORK STATE IT'S TIME TO OPT OUT!!!

According to this memo (Thanks to Lisa again!) Steven E Katz, the Director of Assessment for the SED which was sent to all superintendents  statewide;

 Tests are considered part of a “course of study” under a board’s authority and, as noted above, are included as part of the program requirements for students in Grades 3–8 under Sections 100.3 and 100.4 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education.

How are tests a course of study? The "Board" has more authority over my kid than do I? 
Who is telling the truth here? The State or the parents who wish to opt out their children? Will the officers from the Harrison Police Department come to my house Tuesday morning to arrest me and my wife? Will my son be arrested or taken from us? What is a parent to do?

Peter will be on the Bob Marrone Morning Show this Tuesday morning at 6:30AM EDT on WFAS-AM 1230 and will discuss testing and opting out. You can call in at 914-693-5700.

Listen for NYSAPE public service announcement on WCBS-AM 880 and WINS 1010.

So much more stuff out there, but let me also point you to Jose Vilson, Opting Out of Everything, where Jose goes after an essential issue:

The largest question about the opt out movement for folks is color is whether these tests help highlight our educational inequities via numbers. Opting out students stands as a powerful rebuke of the idea that standardized tests should be the primary determinant as to whether a school stays open or not. So if opting out is an option for you, please do.

UPDATED:

WABC-TV Tiempo segment on ELLs and ELA exam aired earlier today; Leonie vs. Assoc Commissioner SED

http://7online.com/uncategorized/tiempo-watch-this-weeks-show/31525/ Part 1 & 2

THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK

OFFICE OF DANIEL DROMM

37-32 75TH STREET

JACKSON HEIGHTS, NY 11372

(718) 803-6373

FOR PLANNING PURPOSES ONLY

Contact: Josey Bartlett jbartlett@council.nyc.gov,  Office: (718) 803-6373 x 202

***PRESS ADVISORY***

ED CHAIR JOINS PARENTS WHO "OPT OUT" OF

STATE TESTS

 

Who: NYC Council Education Committee Chairperson Daniel Dromm (D-Jackson Heights, Elmhurst) will join parents who chose today to not permit their children to take high stakes English Language Arts (ELA) tests. 

What: The ELA exams are scheduled to take place in NYS schools today through Thursday.  More and more parents have chosen not put their children through the pressure of testing because they disagree with policies that reduce education to a few test scores and they see the detrimental effects these tests have on their children.  Parents have the right to pull their children out of or refuse the tests and have the school use alternative measures of evaluation.  Schools are forbidden from retaliating against parents who choose this option. 

When: April 14 at 10 a.m.

Where: Jackson Heights Post Office, 78-02 37th Avenue

Why: These tests were never intended to be used this way and parents should be aware that they have the right to make the decision to have their child opt out of testing without retaliation from the schools.

***RSVP to Josey Bartlett at jbartlett@council.nyc.gov ***

Turning "Collaboration" into a Bad Word -- Ken Derstine at Schools Matter

The hubris and aggressiveness of the corporate education reformers is because they believe there will not be an organized and determined fight against their privatization agenda. This collaboration has been going on for a long time. They know that (unknown to their members), not only is the leadership of the American Federation of Teachers standing down from what a union is supposed to be, they are collaborating with the corporate education reformers.... Ken Derstine @ Schools Matter, Turning "Collaboration" into a Bad Word

Define Collaborate:
1. work jointly on an activity, especially to produce or create something.
2. cooperate traitorously with an enemy. "the indigenous elite who collaborated with the colonizers," "they collaborated with the enemy."

Our union leaders' favorite word is "collaboration," -- an almost desperation - pleading to be included with a seat at the table. When you have given up the fight, you really have nowhere else to go. And if you are reading ed notes regularly you can follow the bouncing ball taking us back to having pretty much given up the fight after the '68 strike. Until BloomKlein, the Board of Ed did look at the UFT as partners. But more on that another time.

They can only collaborate once fighting back is off the table. They pretend  they are using def. 1. I think the reality is they are using def 2, which leads me to the Vichy mentality reference [I now  pointing out that this does not mean to put them in the company of Nazi collaborators but rather give context to their puppet mentality.]

Ken Derstine, who seems to be somewhat of mine and George Schmidt's counterpart in Philly [I hope I'm not insulting him], is on the AFT/UFT/Randi collaboration case - and I have so much more stuff to publish from him. Here is his latest at Schools Matter, which I am cross-posting in full if you don't get to it through Schools Matter.

Turning "Collaboration" into a Bad Word

By Ken Derstine http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2015/04/turning-collaboration-into-bad-word.html

The Clintons and their AFT/UFT Pals: neo-liberal ed deformers - and maybe neocons too

Hillary debated.....

[Clinton] recaptured the governorship [of Arkansas] in 1982 and as a reward appointed his wife to head a special task force charged with reforming Arkansas’ education system, at that time widely regarded as the worst in the country. The plan Mrs. Clinton came up with showcased teacher testing and funding the schools through a sales tax increase, an astoundingly regressive proposal since it imposed new costs on the poor in a very poor state while sparing any levies on big corporations. The plan went through. Arkansas’ educational ranking remained abysmal, but Hillary won national attention as a "realistic Democrat" who could make "hard" choices, like taxing welfare mothers. ... Counterpunch, Nov. 2007

....Linda at AFT c. 1985

Is there any doubt that the UFT/NYSUT/AFT complex will be endorsing Hillary Clinton - and given the alternatives, it may look like a no-brainer - though we may have less chance of eternal wars with Rand Paul. Hey dummy, some of you might be saying --- it is obvious Hillary will be much better on education. Well, if you think so, consider the quote above. The Kahlenberg Shanker bio spends serious time talking about the close relationship between Shanker (and the AFT) and the Clintons, a partnership  helping give birth to neoliberal ed deform.

And don't forget that when Vera and I titled our review of the Kahlenberg Shanker bio: Albert Shanker, Ruthless Neocon, we were extending the neo-liberal concept to foreign policy. Hillary is a neo-con no matter how she triangulates. And if you do your homework and read the Schmidt Pamphlet I refer to so often, you will see that the AFT/UFT complex has often been at the service at home and abroad of the neoliberals and the neocons.

Counterpunch reprised a 3 part series from 2007 that critiqued Hillary and Bill from the left -- by ALEXANDER COCKBURN and Jeffrey St. Clair.

Part One: The Making of Hillary Clinton.
Part Two: Hillary and the Arkansas Elite.
Part Three:  The Vices of Hillary Clinton

Hillary's announcement that she is running for president (surprise! surprise!!!) brought up some thoughts - and a bit of research.

The Clintons and our union have been tied together for over 30 years, since Bill was governor of Arkansas and he put Hillary in charge of state education reform, an endeavor that made the couple amongst the earliest adopters of ed deform.

Did the Clintons out Cuomo Cuomo in the 80s in Arkansas?
Kahlenberg writes (p. 288-90)

Leading up to the 1984 presidential elections, Shanker expressed a willingness to consider another... controversial measure to rid schools of bad teachers: A movement in Arkansas [the Clintons] and Texas, to test all teachers, including veterans.

The proposals, in both states, came not from right-wingers seeking to punish teachers' unions, but from Democratic governors - Mark White in Texas [backed by Ross Perot] and Bill Clinton.

The NEA strongly opposed both...plans.

Just like Cuomo, this proposal was tied to increases in state aid and rises in teacher salaries. The "bad" teacher witch hunts were on. And our national and at that time still, UFT president, Al Shanker, was into selling off teacher protections for money, a consistent patter. And, like today, there was more resistance from the NEA than the AFT.

Shanker said:

there is ample evidence that states -- have hired people who are illiterate. If a person has been teaching for 20 years and is illiterate, then they ought not to be teaching."

I get it. But something strikes me as odd for a national union leader to be jumping on this. How did they become teachers in the first place and what was being offered to make this process if it led to true illiterates? Do we believe the "easy" tests were unbiased? Would Phds have had problems? Where were the calls to test lawyers and politicians --etc.?

Hillary debates Linda Darling-Hammond

At a later AFT conference, Shanker invited.... Hillary Clinton, who was the point person on education reform, to debate Rand researcher Linda Darling-Hammond about testing veteran teachers.

Hillary debating a woman who is today considered one of the champions of teachers. Hillary argued that the test was easy claiming that 10% failed -- and using some of the language we hear today from Campbell Brown and Students First, Hillary said: That 10% touched thousands of lives.

I don't get it. This is Arkansas. If a principal wanted to get rid of an  incompetent teacher what stopped them?

The point is, that from that point on until Shanker's death over a decade later, he [and the AFT/UFT] and the Clintons were partners - through the Clinton presidency - with developing the earliest tenets of ed deform.

Below are a few nuggets from the Kockburn Counterpunch piece pointing to the roots of the Clintons' helping move the Democratic Party to the right.

The Nation: PS 29K Teachers Take Stand on Opt Out

we, the undersigned, believe that it is crucial for teachers to raise our voices on these issues, and we resolve to stand together to advocate for the elimination of the high-stakes nature of standardized tests.  ... Teachers, PS 29K

It's nice to see teachers putting their names our there in support of opt out. And it doesn't hurt to have more and more writers with kids in public schools.

I know there are people who will say -- these teachers have the support of their principal. I get that and don't claim people without principals friendly to the issue should throw themselves out there.

Want to know one reason the UFT will be taking stronger and stronger stands on opt out and high stakes testing? Fear that an opposition like MORE which has taken such a stand might gain some traction in some of these pro opt out schools.

Brooklyn Teachers Push Back Against High-Stakes Testing

Peter Rothberg on April 6, 2014 - 6:35 PM ET

http://www.thenation.com/blog/179193/brooklyn-teachers-push-back-against-high-stakes-testing#

Response to Success Times Article: Unprinted Letter to NY Times

By selling “accountability” to America’s families, Ms. Moskowitz and the other reformers do America’s children more harm than good....

Dear editor,
Eva Moskowitz, like the snake oil salesmen of old, is peddling one thing—high test scores--but calling it something else--education.  Her sales pitch goes, “For affluent parents who are concerned about the test scores,… their exit strategy is to hire a private tutor,” as if wealthy families actually concern themselves with standardized test scores.  Yes, they pay for music instructors, sports leagues, creative writing, art, and drama classes, even SAT prep courses, but it’s the rare wealthy family that hires tutors to improve state test scores.  In fact, affluent families actively avoid state tests by enrolling in private school. Then, what wealthy family would subject their kids to the kind of rigid, hyper-conformist self-restraint Ms. Moskowitz is demanding? Her product wastes kids’ valuable learning time on vacuous drill and humiliating discipline, depriving them of opportunities to expand their brains in truly meaningful ways. For that she pays herself a half-million dollar salary.
By selling “accountability” to America’s families, Ms. Moskowitz and the other reformers do America’s children more harm than good.

Kari, parent of NYC public school student

Recess at Success Academy Charters

The Times will print more letters in the Sunday edition, I'm sure giving too much space to Eva shills, including one from her and a principal.

Note Eva says: that parents of the more than 22,000 applicants - show us the names Eva to prove they are not just people who signed a "let's have better schools" petition on a subway station.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/12/opinion/sunday/inside-a-charter-school.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Message to Paul Krugman: public education is a public good

DEFINITION of 'Public Good':  A product that one individual can consume without reducing its availability to another individual and from which no one is excluded. Economists refer to public goods as "non-rivalrous" and "non-excludable".

Public schools are a public good while exclusive and privately run charter schools are not. 

The privatization of the public school system, with charters and voucher ideas leading the way, have been a result of a surge of neoliberalism, which argues for privatization of as many public institutions as is feasible - and coming from all quarters of the political spectrum -- and I include many of our own union leaders here (for me, their support for charters - as long as they are unionized -- but still privatized is my bellwether.)

Even our ostensible allies, like NY Times columnist Paul Krugman, when making the case for "public goods", as he did in his April 10 (here) column, never seems to venture anywhere near the education-as- privatization issue. My sense is that he can't go there because he would have to lump in most Democrats with Republicans - in fact, with the right wing joining the left in the revolt against common core and testing and with both arguing for local control, Republicans are looking better than Democrats like Cuomo and the majority of Dems in the NY legislature.

Like all advanced nations, America mainly relies on private markets and private initiatives to provide its citizens with the things they want and need, and hardly anyone in our political discourse would propose changing that. The days when it sounded like a good idea to have the government directly run large parts of the economy are long past. Yet we also know that some things more or less must be done by government. Every economics textbooks talks about “public goods” like national defense and air traffic control that can’t be made available to anyone without being made available to everyone, and which profit-seeking firms, therefore, have no incentive to provide.

One of the oldest public goods in this nation is public education -- an innovative idea 170 years ago -- and also an instrument of local government. Has the concept of public education been successful? Hell yes! For all? Hell no -- but we know that that can be fixed without turning to privatization.

Now Dems like Cuomo term public education a monopoly that must be broken - unlike all the other public goods.

Krugman argues that Government Excels in areas like social security and medicare -- I know some of you don't buy the medicare angle but I trust my wife who did that kind of work in a hospital and says it is more efficient and well-run than any private company (and I love having it - everyone should). Krugman should have included the post office, which if it were viewed as a public good that should be fully funded instead of having to earn a profit, would be in fine shape -- hey, I get my mail 6 days a week and can walk to a post office. Here he deals with health insurance.

But are public goods the only area where the government outperforms the private sector? By no means.

One classic example of government doing it better is health insurance. Yes, conservatives constantly agitate for more privatization — in particular, they want to convert Medicare into nothing more than vouchers for the purchase of private insurance — but all the evidence says this would move us in precisely the wrong direction. Medicare and Medicaid are substantially cheaper and more efficient than private insurance; they even involve less bureaucracy. Internationally, the American health system is unique in the extent to which it relies on the private sector, and it’s also unique in its incredible inefficiency and high costs.

 And I will argue time and again that when looked at the nation as a whole over time public education is more efficient and well-run than any privatized system, including charters -- as we are seeing daily. Why? Because over time someone is held accountable. The problem with public education is the absolute lack of democratic functioning systems, where stakeholders like teachers and parents and students get to have a say. But they have even less of a say in any privatized system.

Read it in full:  Where Government Excels

Saturday With Susan O

Weekend reading.

Thursday, April 9, 2015

Yesterday morning I got up early and peeled and pared 20 pounds of apples and then took them to the Senior Center and made apple cobbler. That was a whole lot more fun than reading the articles for today's posting.
You can get a great T-Shirt if you donate to FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting). Great cause: Great shirt. Take a look. http://susanohanian.org/cartoon_fetch.php?id=1020
What the Feds Did with Your Dollar in 2014: http://susanohanian.org/cartoon_fetch.php?id=1015

Dismiss What Insults Your Own Soul http://susanohanian.org/cartoon_fetch.php?id=1014
Refuse! http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_cartoons.php?id=1086

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How YouTube, Big Data and Big Brands Mean Trouble For Kids and Parents
Jeff Chester
Alternet
2015-04-05 http://susanohanian.org/data.php?id=589
As I read this article, all I could think about is that when Pearson and Google team up, childhood is over.
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Taking the Fall in Atlanta
Richard Rothstein       with Ressiger and Merrow comment
Economic Policy Institute blog
2015-04-03 http://susanohanian.org/data.php?id=588
Rothstein gives evidence of a truth nobody else dares speak: Because it causes less harm to students, the cheating done by Atlanta teachers may be more ethical than the more commonplace forms of corruption.
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A teacher's confession: Why I quit
Deanna Lyles
2015-04-09 http://susanohanian.org/show_commentary.php?id=1212
 A National Board Certified teacher of 23 years experience states very directly why she quit.
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Why the conventional wisdom on schooling is all wrong
Marion Brady
2015-04-09 http://susanohanian.org/show_commentary.php?id=1211
Standardized tests are sideshows on the periphery of effective schooling because they can't evaluate original thought, without which humankind can't adapt to continuous change and survive.
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An Editor in Search of Activism and Justice

2015-04-05 http://susanohanian.org/show_commentary.php?id=1210
I share a letter I received in 2001 and why it relates to our current situation.
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To the editor
Kalin Jordan  and  Lindsey Berger
Wall Street Journal
2015-04-03 http://susanohanian.org/show_letter.php?id=1758
Comments to this letter at the Wall Street Journal site are vicious. Not surprisingly, nobody applauds the writers.
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Letters to Presidents: Is Anyone There?
Ralph Nader
Huffington Post
2015-04-09 http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1956
The right to petition your government implies some possibility of learning whether the petition arrived and whether it will receive notice. But Nader shows that now any communication to the White House is crying in the wilderness.
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Block that Metaphor: Life Isn't a Playing Field
Susan Ohanian
blog
2015-04-09 http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1955
Taking a look at the level-playing-field attempt to hoodwink a gullible public.
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Familiar Lesson of Science Give: Government Looks to Philanthropy to Get Stuff Done
L. S. Hall with Ohanian documetation
 Inside Philanthropy
2015-03-26 http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1954
Philanthropists pay the piper so of course they call the tune.
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The Lost Children of Katrina
 Katy Reckdahl
The Atlantic
2015-04-02 http://susanohanian.org/show_research.php?id=574
A decade after Katrina, poor black kids who were in New Orleans still grapple with the effects of missed schooling and mass displacement.

UFT Approves plan forcing teachers to reapply to out of time schools

Only two schools: Boys and Girls High and Automotive High, are called by NYSED "out of time" schools. The plan to require applying each year was negotiated and approved by the UFT.

Another "victory" for the UFT.

Impeach -- The Uncommon Ed U. Cator on Cuomo, Tisch: Playing Fast and Loose in a Labyrinth of Deceit

[T]he web of money, appointments, corporations, hedge funds, people, and campaign contributions crisscross so much in this complex money maze that it was difficult to write with any fluidity. It appears to me that Merryl Tisch needs to be seriously investigated as to her part in this web of deceit, as well as many others. The corporate money and real estate connections to Tisch cannot be ignored. There is no doubt to me, however, that Mr. Cuomo may have crossed some ethical lines. There is also no doubt to me that due to the way the impeachment process of a Governor works in New York state that if our senate and legislature were truly the voice of the people, then they would pursue that avenue with much vigor until Governor Cuomo is indeed impeached.....The Uncommon Ed U. Cator

A nice piece of work pointing to Cuomo impeachment possibilities from The Uncommon Ed U. Cator.

Dishonesty, Lies, Deception: Cuomo Playing Fast and Loose in a Labyrinth of Deceit

February 22, 2015 at 10:13am

Cuomo: Playing Fast and Loose in a Labyrinth of Deceit

The impeachment process of a governor in New York starts in the state Assembly and then moves to the state Senate. “It doesn't have to be a crime. It doesn't even have to be an official act. The words are "willful and corrupt conduct in office." It could be a private act. The Assembly decides what's impeachable.” http://www.myfoxny.com/…/impeachment-process-in-new-york-st…

Andrew Cuomo's recent budgetary tactics are completely despicable to me. His”strategy”of blackmail is usurping the budget process and completely circumvents the entire idea of democracy. Holding the budget process hostage in order to achieve his own personal and political goals is nothing short of economic terrorism against his own constituency.

Over the past few days I have had information shared with me and today started digging some more on my own. This writing unfortunately is itself a winding labyrinth meandering from education & campaign donations to hedge funds to Pearson to education reform to tax breaks to real-estate and back. At this point is impossible for me to make it fluid narrative because of all the twists and turns.

After piecing this together though it is difficult for me to believe that Governor Andrew Cuomo has not broken any legal laws of ethics. It is also my opinion that he most certainly has betrayed the working class of NY and the public trust. I also believe that there is enough here to begin the impeachment process.

A reading of the Teachout/Kuhn Washington Park Project paper, “Corruption in Education: Hedge Funds and the Takeover of New York’s Schools,” published recently in December of 2014 clearly shows the amount of private dollars that were pumped into the NYS legislative process last year with the sole purpose of taking over public education.

“New York State is plagued by legal corruption: campaign contributions and outside spending explicitly designed to buy policy outcomes. In 2014, a tiny group of powerful hedge fund executives, representing an extreme version of this corruption, spent historic amounts of money in order to take over education policy.

This paper details this fast-paced purchase of political power, and the threat it poses to democracy and public education in New York State.

A small cadre of men, including Carl Icahn, Paul Tudor Jones, and Dan Loeb, poured more than $10 million into state lobbying and election campaigns since the beginning of 2014, with electrifying results.i Their campaign bears the signature components of the corporate takeover world which they occupy: rapid action on multiple fronts; highly secretive activity shielded from the public view; high stakes, big spending; and top-down power plays that are not accountable to the public.

First, in a span of 10 weeks they spent over $6 million on lobbying that won unprecedented public funding to pay for charter school rent. ii

This was done as part of a campaign orchestrated with Governor Cuomo, designed to frustrate Mayor Bill de Blasio’s efforts to win universal full-day pre-K, paid for entirely through expanded taxation of New York City millionaires.

Phase two of the attack came in the fall elections.

Wall Street Fees Wipe Out $2.5 Billion in New York City Pension Gains - NY Times

The Lenape tribe got a better deal on the sale of Manhattan island than New York City’s pension funds have been getting from Wall Street, according to a new analysis by the city comptroller’s office....  http://nyti.ms/1anMi33

Apparently, most of the interest gain on our pension money is going straight to Wall Street.  Disgusting - and frankly, I don't think Mulgrew's comments below communicate the appropriate level of outrage. If I was charged $250 in fees on a $16,000 I had in a bank account, I would be calling up the FDIC and saying that I had been scammed.  If we get charge $2.5B on $160B in our life savings, then we should be demonstrating in the streets.... 
.... comment on MORE Listserve

I should apply for the job of pension fund manager. Frankly, I've done much better than they did over the past 25 years. Or maybe I should run for the UFT pension rep position.

The analysis concluded that, over the past 10 years, the five pension funds have paid more than $2 billion in fees to money managers and have received virtually nothing in return, Comptroller Scott M. Stringer said in an interview on Wednesday.

“When you do the math on what we pay Wall Street to actively manage our funds, it’s shocking to realize that fees have not only wiped out any benefit to the funds, but have in fact cost taxpayers billions of dollars in lost returns,” Mr. Stringer said.

Why the trustees of the funds — Mr. Stringer included — would not have performed those calculations in the past is not clear.

Mulgrew's la-di-da comments are priceless:

Michael Mulgrew, the president of the United Federation of Teachers, said he was happy that his union’s pension fund, the Teachers’ Retirement System of the City of New York, had been performing well. But he said the fees paid to some managers were “ridiculous” and should be renegotiated if those managers are retained.

“Education’s always being put under reform; maybe some of these financial practices should be put under reform as well,” Mr. Mulgrew said. He praised Mr. Stringer for taking aim at a line of business that has been very lucrative for Wall Street.

Where are our elected pension reps?

What about ratings of principals? Chalkbeat gets it wrong on teacher evals in low performing schools

Oy! I know I should avoid reading at Chalkbeat to avoid cutting into my life expectancy. I'm amazed at how the press and public - and the UFT -- let the people running  schools like John Dewey and so many other schools -- I mean principals who are psychopaths --- off the hook. The CSA must have dirty pictures.

Today's headline piece is piling on:

turnaround teachers

More than 20 percent of teachers at schools in the city's "Renewal" program for struggling schools received the two lowest ratings on their evaluations last year, compared to less than 10 percent of teachers citywide. Also, less than 2 percent of Renewal teachers received the top evaluation rating, compared to 9.2 percent of all city teachers.

• Chalkbeat

The headline alone helps anti teacher groups- look at this Student First tweet:

StudentsFirstNYVerified account ‏@StudentsFirstNY

New analysis from @ChalkbeatNY says students at renewal schools are TWICE as likely to have an ineffective teacher: http://bit.ly/1EaT1JK 

• Retweet 1
• 

9:18 AM - 9 Apr 2015

Look at how Chalkbeat frames it -- as an open attack on the teachers, totally ignoring the key ingredient -- what kind of people are running these schools --- the single most important ingredient in the days of unbridled principal power is - DUH! - the principal.

I'm amazed how this factor - in all the debates - is left out -- but by the way- Cuomo, etc don't trust these people enough to rate the teachers -- hell, I don't trust most of them too. Given the assaults so many of these lunatics have made on teachers over the years I myself have called for independent observers -- from the other direction. And I also tell teachers to videotape their lessons whenever they are observed.

I left this comment at Chalkbeat.

This article is missing an essential ingredient -- the effectiveness of the people running the school -- which is a bigger factor than teacher ratings. If there is teacher turnover it is not due to the kids but to the supervisors - and the often hostile environment with lack of support. Then there is the factor of principals in struggling schools wanting to cover their asses by making sure to have more "ineffective" teachers -- this is going on at John Dewey HS in Brooklyn.

The article quotes a Tweed spokeperson:

“Having a strong teacher at the front of every classroom is critical at our Renewal Schools and at every school,” spokeswoman Devora Kaye said. “We are using an aggressive set of tools to improve these historically struggling schools and we’ll hold them accountable for improved student outcomes.”

Hey Devora -- how about a strong principal instead of the hundreds of looney toons?  And note how silent the UFT is about this issue? Covering for their pals in the CSA?

Laurel Sturt's "Davonte's Inferno" chronicling a decade with 4 awful principals (Cruella, ego-maniac Guido, Principal Dearest, Rosemary's Baby) at an elementary school in the Bronx should be required reading.

The Police - What Can You Believe?

Today's front page of the NY Times story on the police shooting in South Carolina raised the issue of trusting the accounts of police, who have been given the benefit of the doubt when there is no proof otherwise. This is presented as a new thing.

So let me tell a story of the early 70s when I first became active with people on the left through working in the opposition in the UFT. Very quickly, their stories of police actions in negative ways began to shake my faith. Early in my active days at school board meetings, a police car rolled by and a white cop called us n-ger lovers. Then I got a ticked because of my "hippie" look -- the disgust the cop showed -- and an implicit threat when I argued.

So when I found myself being questioned for jury duty and the prosecutor asked the panel if we would believe the testimony of police, I raised my hand and said I wouldn't automatically believe police testimony.

The judge had been distracted while I answered but when the prosecutor told him what I said he went off on me - screaming at me and saying "and you're a public school teacher? Get out of my court room." And so I discovered a way to get off jury duty.

Chicago Election: What Rahm Didn't Win, Despite Enormous Spending

John Arena wins in 45th Ward despite Rahm PACs, DFER attacks.

All politics is local. While it looks like a big loss for the uinon, they did have a few eggs in local ward races. Looking for silver linings, George Schmidt has found a few.

While Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel won re-election by a decisive margin in the citywide elections, Emanuel's City Council opponents are still in power and promise to be even more active in the years ahead. In the city's 45th Ward, on the far northwest side (near O'Hare Airport), incumbent alderman John Arena won re-election by a comfortable margin, despite serious spending by Rahm Emanuel's organizations on behalf of Arena's opponent, Chicago Police Lieutenant John Garrido. By nine o'clock Garrido had called Arena to concede defeat. Arena won with 53 percent of the vote.
Arena has been one of the most consistent leaders of the City Council "Progressive Caucus" since his 2011 election by the narrow margin of 30 votes over Garrido. Arena was targeted by numerous mailings attacking both him and his record, and by on-line slanders as well, during the campaign.

I've just begun analyzing the election results from April 7 in Chicago. What becomes clear is that Rahm Emanuel won the mayor's race, but that most of the aldermen (or candidates like John Garrido in the 45th Ward where our family lives) Rahm supported for the remaining 18 ward races lost. We will be sharing some of these analyses over the next couple of days. There will be more real "progressives" in the Chicago City Council after May 2015 than there were before. 

LESSONS OF CHICAGO'S 2015 ELECTION: First lesson. Negative nonsense at a huge cost failed. The lesson of the 45th Ward...

By George N. Schmidt - April 8th, 2015

Ken Derstine, Using AEI Video, Parses Ed Deformers and Randi Collaboration

The second panelist, Sarah Reckhow, (starting at 16:00)  co-authored the policy paper ‘Singing from the same hymnbook': Education policy advocacy at Gates and Broad | Michigan State University . What struck me is how matter of fact she is in the video and the paper about Randi Weingarten participating with them which is obviously assumed by other panelists to be common knowledge. See pages 18 and 19 of the paper which shows Randi Weingarten’s collaboration with them. Sarah Reckhow comments that Randi Weingarten has been working with them to develop a teacher evaluation based on standardized tests......

Ken Derstine

Ken is a Philly-based activist who posted a piece this morning at Schools Matter  about the corporate deformer attacks on the opt out movement: CorpEd Assails Opt Out In Desperate Attempt to Protect House of Cards.

Ken did a video with the Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools and the Media Mobilizing Project about school closings in October, 2013. Our Schools Are Not For Sale.  It has been viewed over 83,000 times.

I stay connected with the struggle with my Facebook https://www.facebook.com/defend.public.education and Twitter https://twitter.com/PublicEdDefense . I use them as bulletin boards for linking articles about corporate education reform and the resistance to it. I spend at least three or four hours each day posting links to posts I find on the internet about how the struggle is unfolding. The growth of people following is gradual, but some significant people from around the country are following my posts. 

Last week, in response to some of my blogs about collaborationist union Is the ‘new’ education philanthropy good for schools? Examining foundation-funded school reform 

leaders with ed deformers, Ken sent me these comments after watching 4 hours of American Enterprise video:

I have stumbled onto this amazing video from a panel at the American Enterprise Institute (look at this link) on February 5, 2015. This is a spawning center of neoliberalism! This is the corporate education reformers talking to the choir. It is amazing to watch. This confirms everything I said in Who’s Is Eli Broad and Why Is He Trying to Destroy Public Education? from their goals, to their deep collaboration with the U.S. Department of Education, to Randi Weingarten’s collaboration with them. 

I poked around and found this video at AEI of Randi: [NOTE - SINCE REMOVED- WHY? TOO MUCH EXPOSURE?]

During her follow-up conversation with AEI’s Frederick M. Hess, Weingarten confessed that “unions are not monolithic,” stressing that rather than using VAM to assess all teachers, it should be one among several components used to evaluate teacher performance. 

VAM is not a sham to Randi --

Ken gives us more entry points below for those skipping around for nuggets to use in this 4 hour plus video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMDXfl9e4DM

I have stumbled onto this amazing video from a panel at the American Enterprise Institute (look at this link) on February 5, 2015. This is a spawning center of neoliberalism! This is the corporate education reformers talking to the choir. It is amazing to watch. This confirms everything I said in Who’s Is Eli Broad and Why Is He Trying to Destroy Public Education? from their goals, to their deep collaboration with the U.S. Department of Education, to Randi Weingarten’s collaboration with them. 

Also, they might present a front that they are powerful because of the subservience of the corporate media, but among themselves they know they are just putting “a bucket in the ocean”. A number of times they ask why the corporate funders keep funding the corporate attack on education when it obviously is not working. They are also aware they are in an ivory tower and have little understanding of their impact on the “grassroots”. This is the video:

Is the ‘new’ education philanthropy good for schools? Examining foundation-funded school reform | American Enterprise Institute

This video is also on YouTube and should be downloaded.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMDXfl9e4DM

This video is four hours long, but watch a little of it to get the flavor. (Warning: I said there is no way I can give four hours to this, but it is so engrossing and important, I watched it off and on for two days and I’m sure I will rewatch parts.) 

Watch the first two panelists in the in the first panel. The second panelist, Sarah Reckhow, (starting at 16:00)  co-authored the policy paper ‘Singing from the same hymnbook': Education policy advocacy at Gates and Broad | Michigan State University . What struck me is how matter of fact she is in the video and the paper about Randi Weingarten participating with them which is obviously assumed by other panelists to be common knowledge. See pages 18 and 19 of the paper which shows Randi Weingarten’s collaboration with them. Sarah Reckhow comments that Randi Weingarten has been working with them to develop a teacher evaluation based on standardized tests.

Anthony Cody had a post about this paper on February 9. Reckhow and Tomkins-Stange Document How Gates and Broad Money Got Everyone “Singing from the Same Hymnbook  While he does link the AEI page which has this paper with an easy to miss link to the video of the four-hour AEI conference, he makes no mention of Randi Weingarten’s role.

Also see my article: Which Side Are You On? | Defend Public Education!

After watching the second panelist, go to 55:00. There is a real demoralization they are showing. Notice what they say about the impact of the Chicago teachers strike.

The second panel is about the “backlash” against corporate education reform. (starts at about 1:30) The demoralization is very evident here.

Howard Fuller of Black Alliance for Educational Opportunity (which Philadelphia mayoral candidate Anthony Williams is affiliated with - see my article Corporate Education Reform and Civil Rights ) is on the second panel. Notable quote (1:54): “We (BAEO) wouldn’t exist without John Walton and this is one of the reasons I love that man."

At 1:47 the panelist Larry Cuban speaks about the Broad Superintendent’s Academy. He is followed by Howard Fuller. (Starts at 1:51.) His remarks are very revealing about how disconnected these people are from what is the reality in public schools and from the impact of what they are doing. Fuller seems totally unaware that he is working for the same political forces that have been underfunding schools for decades and the money BAEO receives from them comes from the low wage exploitation of Walmart workers.

The third panel, starts at 2:42, is about the future of corporate philanthropy. It starts with Dana Goldstein. I commented about Dana Goldstein on Schools Matter on September 30, 2014. There are also articles on Schools Matter if you do a search in the search engine for “Dana Goldstein". 

The second panelist (2:55) talks about corporate education reform in higher education. Anyone in higher education should watch this…and be very afraid. The fourth panelist, Jim Blew (3:18), left the Walton Foundation to replace Michelle Rhee at Students First. He spends most of his time attacking teacher unions. (Note: He says his father was a teacher union organizer.) One corporate ed reform organization he cites (which has gone below the radar, I never heard of them; they are not mentioned on Sourcewatch) as being very influential is the Fisher Family. 

This is the initial article that led to my finding this video:

School Masters: How Gates and Broad Came to Shape the Education Policy Debate | Inside Philanthropy

March 24, 2015

Frederick Hess at the end of panel one made an off the cuff comment (at 51:00) which summed up the bottom line for these people.:

“They (venture philanthropist) may not be as powerful as they think they are in terms of shaping what happens in the nation’s schools and classrooms, but they’re very powerful in terms of us being able to feed our families and being able to do the research and analysis we like to do.” In other words, there is no real passion, no real belief in what they are doing; they looking at spreadsheets and each others position papers….and they are just in it for the big bucks.

Ken Derstine

MORE Condolences to Noah Gotbaum After Passing of Labor Deader Dad

Many fighters of ed deform have come to know and respect Noah Gotbaum over his years of support for the struggle. He played a role in our anti-ed deform film - we closed the movie with a clip from him. I joined Noah and others on a trip to Albany to oppose the Cathie Black appointment as chancellor.

I never met his labor leader dad, Victor, who passed the other day (extensive NY Times obit). Noah's step mom, Betsy, has held numerous positions in local government.

In the 70s Gotbaum, as head of DC 37 which represented school aides and lunchroom workers, went head to head with Al Shanker, especially when Shanker made some moves to incorporate them into the UFT.

Noah has worked with people throughout the system, both the UFT, MOREs, GEM and numerous parent groups. He is one of the major thorns in the side Evil Moskowitz.

MORE posted these comments on the blog:

morecaucusnyc (http://morecaucusnyc.org/2015/04/08/in-tribute-to-victor-gotbaum/#comments)
 

In Tribute to Victor Gotbaum - MORE sends its deepest condolences to our friend and fellow defender of public education, Noah Gotbaum and his family, over the death of his father, Victor..

Victor Gotbaum was among the most prominent union leaders during the glory days of public employee unionism. A great organizer and defender of worker’s interests, Victor Gotbaum led District Council 37, the umbrella organization for most unionized city employees, from 1965, when DC 37 had 35,000 members, until 1987, when it had well over 100,000.
Victor Gotbaum was a lifelong New Yorker, a WWII veteran, a precociously early opponent of the Vietnam War, and a fighter for the rights of working people. During the fiscal crisis of 1975 and after, also known as “The Banker’s Coup,” his immediate reflex was to fight the austerity being imposed on working New Yorkers, and DC 37 members demonstrated the power of working people, coming close to shutting the city down in opposition to the budget cutbacks that took almost a generation to recover from.

Victor Gotbaum understood and devoted his life to expanding the power of workers, and we will use this moment to reflect upon how we will carry on that tradition, as he did, with intelligence, passion and commitment.
Again, our deepest condolences to Noah and his family for their loss.

Victor Gotbaum, the City’s Shop Steward