Test Scorer Reports Extremely Poor Math Scores in Central Brooklyn

I have been scoring the state math tests for a few districts in Brooklyn. Most of the scores for elementary and middle school are 0 or 1 out of a total possible of 2 or 3. Many are almost all "0" for the whole sheet. The special ed classes are almost all "0"'s as well.

From the names you can tell that many are probably ESL students. Are these ESL students being instructed in their own language? The extended response questions are mostly reading tests. There are some tests written in Spanish, but if students are not taught in their language, what good does that do?

Those who support testing often say that we need the tests to show the schools/areas that "need" support.
Well testing to do this has gone on for over 10 years. Where is the "support" for these schools? Many have classes of 30 and over.

I think this has to be a major point going forward.....okay we know these areas need support and major resources....WHERE is it? It is time for ALL the money going into tests to be spent supporting these schools.

Many teachers are upset by the low scores, but some say it is the teachers fault. Teachers are soooo "uneducated". Many say that students need to learn to take the tests as they will have to take the tests later in their lives. 

Thank you UFT for "not educating" teachers.

Damned by her own words - Fariña Speaks of Partnership with UFT/Unity in purging bad teachers

Farina leads hunt for bad teachers

Before we can even think about removing bad teachers, bad principals have to go first. Many of the bad teachers who leave move up to supervisor and it is often these people that Farina is telling to go after "bad" teachers. And she protects these people. As long as even a few principals act on V is for Vendetta principles the UFT should be digging its heals in the sand.

Here's a deal - for every "bad" teacher let's get rid of a bad principal.

An illuminating piece from Politico.

Fariña insisted the union was not interfering with her plans for firing ineffective teachers. “We have worked very collaboratively with the U.F.T.,” she said, adding, “If I’m getting pushback from the U.F.T. [on individual teachers] I or someone on my team is going to get involved.”

Fariña has repeatedly said she believes new provisions in the U.F.T. contract will help get weak teachers out of the classroom, including moving teachers out of the Absent Teacher Reserve (A.T.R.), a controversial pool of teachers who have been removed from the classroom but remain on the payroll.

Fariña said asking principals to weed out their weakest teachers has been her “first statement when I get into any school visit. ... I repeat it over and over again."

Fariña said, “I literally told the principal, ‘I will be back at the end of April, and so-and-so better not be here.’”
 - POLITICO  Capital New York 

The witch hunts are on. How nice to have a collaborationist UFT.
Jonathan Halabi said it on WBAI Monday night and I said it to the school I visited when they asked how we would be different than Unity? Farina would not be able to say any of the above about the union as the DOE will get severe pushback on wasting these resources on the bad teacher hunting expeditions. Because before we can even think about removing bad teachers, bad principals have to go first.

I love this line the best:

Fariña has appointed a D.O.E. official whose primary role is instructing principals on how to properly write letters about certain teachers to keep in their files.

You see, they have a plan while teachers are given no plan by the UFT to defend themselves.

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/city-hall/2015/03/8563677/fari%C3%B1a-method-purging-bad-teachers

Diane Ravitch touched on the bad teacher rap in her dialogue with Whitney Tilson when he asked:

• Some teachers are phenomenal, most are good, some are mediocre, and some are truly terrible.
This spread is probably the same in every other profession. Those who are “truly terrible” should be removed before they achieve tenure; most, I suspect, leave early in their career because they can’t control their classes. We actually have many more successful teachers than most people believe; as states have reported on their new evaluation systems, more than 95% of teachers have been rated either “Highly effective” or “Effective.” Very few fell below those markers. Frankly, teaching these days is so difficult that it takes a very strong person to handle the responsibilities of the classroom.

My response is that many of the bad teachers who leave move up to supervisor and it is often these people that Farina is telling to go after bad teachers.

MORE/New Action on the Radio Monday, April 25, 7-8 PM - Jia Lee (President), Camille Eterno (Secretary) and Jonathan HalabiMonday, April 25, 7-8 PM

UPDATED, Monday April 25 10 AM

Hear from three of the candidates running on the MORE/NAC slate (Movement of Rank & File Educators/New Action Coalition) in the upcoming UFT elections. Jia Lee (President), Camille Eterno (Secretary) and Jonathan Halabi (High School Executive Board) will explain why our membership needs new leaders in our union. Mulgrew’s Unity Caucus has controlled the UFT for over 50 years, and it’s time for a change. The UFT must stop collaborating with politicians and start building strong school chapters as well as unity with school communities and students, and effectively fight the forces that are working to privatize public education. Issues include: High Stakes Testing, the charterization of public schools, lack of union democracy, weakening of tenure and teachers rights, demoralization of the teaching profession, importance of Social Justice Unionism, and so much MORE!

Jia Lee, candidate for President
Jia is currently a 4th/5th grade special education teacher and is chapter leader at the Earth School in District 1 and a public school parent. As chapter leader, she supported staff consultation committees on issues from micromanagement and professional conciliation and fostered mediation to
support a democratic culture. She testified before the U.S. HELP (Health, Education, Labor and Pensions) Senate Committee, on the reauthorization of ESEA. She is an opt out organizer with Change the Stakes and NYC Opt Out, a member of the Stronger Together Caucus and a national network of social justice caucuses.
and
Camille Eterno, candidate for Secretary
Camille has been an English teacher since 1996. She was elected to chapter leader at the Queens Gateway to Health Sciences and won grievances that were said to be unwinnable and organized her chapter into a force at many union rallies. As a leader in the Independent Community of Educators, she was instrumental in the battle against the giveback laden 2005 contract. She is now a delegate from
Humanities and the Arts High School in Queens.
and
Jonathan Halabi, High School Division Candidate for Executive Board
Jonathan is a UFT Chapter leader and a math teacher at the H.S. of American Studies at Lehman College.  He’s been on the UFT Ex. Board 2009 to the present. Jonathan has said “Teaching is an honorable career. We help kids learn and grow. Their success is our reward. But not if we are mistreated. Not if our voices are ignored. Not if decisions that affect our schools are made out of incompetence and malice. We are running to ensure all our voices are heard

in our union”.
 

Ballots will be mailed on May 5th to member’s homes.
Building Bridges over WBAI Radio, 99.5FM
with Mimi Rosenberg & Ken Nash
Mon., April 25, 7 – 8 pm EST

streaming @ http://www.wbai.org/playernew.html
smartphone streaming @ http://stream.wbai.org/
to listen, or download archived shows

http://www.wbai.org/server-archive.html

De Blasio used ‘slush fund’ to support faulty pre-K programs | New York Post

 ...the practice of paying vendors with shady backgrounds who deal with vulnerable children is likely to recur in the future. ... Leonie Haimson

The ax is getting closer to DeB/Farina's neck as the scandal reaches into the DOE and PEP. The vaunted pre-k program was so rushed through it is loaded with fault-lines, especially in certain religious communities. deB/F better pray that a kid doesn't get hurt.

the practice of paying vendors with shady backgrounds who deal with vulnerable children is likely to recur in the future. ... the city gave a green light for pre-K programs to accept kids last school year despite problems including tax evasion, misspending public funds and failure to hire sufficient qualified staff — a move Sullivan called “irresponsible.”.... NY Post

I watched the PEP sit there like dummies last Wed with nary a peep. There are some very arrogant people on the PEP who claim they care about children but let this stuff go.

Patrick Sullivan is gone from the PEP because neither the new Manhattan BP (Gail Brewer) nor the Mayor would re-appoint him .... the PEP has never voted down a contract and the public doesn't get to hear any of this discussion or answers from DoE, which also sidesteps the open transparent process that's supposed to happen in the case of a public governing board.... Leonie Haimson

A plague on Gail Brewer for not reappointing Patrick. The Mayor could have also appointed him and he was lobbied to do so but he doesn't want someone asking questions. That is the essence of mayoral control - no accountability. I'm prepared to join with our enemies to take control away from him.

Yes, we had more info coming out of the DOE under BloomKlein than under DeFarina.

Leonie's full commentary:

The Mayors office asked a nonprofit called the  Fund for the City of NY to cover the costs of preK vendors who had evaded taxes, engaged in fraud and failed to hire sufficient qualified staff as well as engaged in other unspecified programmatic problems.
Now the DoE is asking  the Comptroller to retroactively approve these contracts so the city can pay the Fund back- in an end run around the city's procurement rules.
Good story by sue Edelman below.   What the story doesn't mention is the DoE is still asking the PEP to approve preK and special Ed vendor contracts before the background checks are completed- and the PEP complies.


This means  the practice of paying vendors with shady backgrounds who deal with vulnerable children is likely to recur in the future.  This is unacceptably careless behavior of questionable legality and risks taxpayer funds and kids' lives,
http://nypost.com/2016/04/24/de-blasio-used-slush-fund-to-support-faulty-pre-k-programs/
More detail you can see in the last few pages of this month's RAs - in the Addendum that Patrick spotted.  We also highlighted these issues in our comments to the PEP before their vote,  now posted on our blog at nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com  as well as other unresolved questions pertaining to the huge Amazon contract and the funds awarded special Ed vendors with similar problems as those found with these preK vendors,
Yet not one PEP member brought up any of these issues during the contract committee discussion or during the PEP meeting.

Supposedly there are backroom private discussions between the PEP members and DOE staff about some of their concerns, but the PEP has never voted down a contract and the public doesn't get to hear any of this discussion or answers from DoE, which also sidesteps the open transparent process that's supposed to happen in the case of a public governing board.
Sue Edelman asked me if it was better or worse under Bloomberg- I said about the same because a lot of rotten contracts were also approved during those years. But at least during much of the Bloomberg administration, Patrick was there to challenge the DOE and force them to answer questions in a public forum.  Robert Powell, the one PEP member from the Bronx who voted against the corrupt CCS contract , originally proposed to cost the city $1.1 B, also made his concerns public in that case.

Now Patrick is gone from the PEP because neither the new Manhattan BP nor the Mayor would re-appoint him,  and Robert Powell has left the PEP as well.

It Won't Be Over Even if Hillary is Nominee: Sanders Allies Plot Meeting to Discuss Future of the Movement

The progressive movement that supported Sanders existed before his campaign and will continue after it. But Sanders has expanded it and unified it in a way that creates the potential for a powerful post-election force in politics if it can retain at least some cohesion....  http://portside.org/2016-04-23/sanders-allies-plot-meeting-discuss-future-movement

Bernie may not even be involved in this for all we know but we do know things have changed as the energy of the semi-anarchic Occupy Movement has shifted to the Bernie campaign.

There has been a shortage of stuff on education coming out of Bernie and his crew. Time to escalate the awareness. 

Real ed reformers must be involved in making sure that ed deformers don't jump in and make their phony case that deform is civil rights. (We've seen them to that in the Black Lives Movement).

Right now, despite some criticisms, NPE could be a force if it doesn't get side-tracked into the Randi/Hillary stuff which will be sold as real reform. Union caucus groups like CORE in Chicago and MORE could play a role -- MORE's Mindy Rosier is already deep in the Bernie movement. Some people on the left don't want to hear the words "social democrat" and spend their time attacking Bernie and his supporters. That is the same mentality that led to the left being decimated in Germany by Hitler. I'll take Finland and Denmark any day.

Full article below.

Alex Seitz-Wald
April 21, 2016
MSNBC

The progressive movement that supported Sanders existed before his campaign and will continue after it. But Sanders has expanded it and unified it in a way that creates the potential for a powerful post-election force in politics if it can retain at least some cohesion.

Key allies of Bernie Sanders are planning to meet in Chicago after the final votes have been cast in the Democratic presidential primary to plot the future of the movement galvanized by Sanders’ presidential campaign.

Sanders’ loss in New York’s primary this week has put the Democratic nomination almost certainly out of reach, leading many to wonder what will become of the millions of people who donated, volunteered, and supported his campaign, including many who seem unready to settle for likely nominee Hillary Clinton.

The two-day People’s Summit is timed for mid-June in order to fall between the final set of primaries in California and elsewhere on June 7, and the Democratic National Convention in late July. It aims to continue building the “political revolution” Sanders often invokes and to develop a “People’s Platform” of issues important to the movement.

“There’s a vibrant conversation going on about what happens to the movement after the primaries are over,” said Charles Lenchner, who co-founded the group People for Bernie, which is helping to organize the summit. “This is a collection of groups that share a lot in common and want to work together in the future and who represent a significant portion of the coalition that has come together around Bernie Sanders.”

The event’s partners include many key players — though far from all, at least for now — of the Sanders movement. Lenchner said many other groups are likely to join.

Their focus remains on the campaign, representatives of various groups involved in the summit said, but they wanted to create a plan to come together regardless of whether Sanders wins or loses.
Taking the lead are People for Bernie, which grew out of the Occupy movement, and the National Nurses United union, which has endorsed Sanders and whose super PAC has supported the senator to the tune of nearly $3 million this year.

They’ll be joined by the environmental group 350.org, which backs Sanders, various Sanders-aligned liberal groups like Progressive Democrats of America and pro-Sanders demographic groups. Also on the list is the Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement Action Fund, which sponsored Sanders’ earliest visits to the first-in-the-nation caucus state in 2014. And then there’s the Democratic Socialists of America.

Conversations have already started in lefty circles about what happens after the primary, with a range of ideas about possible organizations, tactics and priorities.

Sanders has always been as much a movement leader as he is a politician, and hundreds of volunteer groups sprouted up organically across the country to support his candidacy and supplement his campaign’s relatively light footprint.

Almost everywhere Sanders’ campaign went, local volunteers had been first, organizing and opening field offices, some of which were absorbed by the official apparatus. In New York, for instance, it was volunteer efforts — not the campaign — that worked to get independent voters to change their party registration before the October deadline.

The progressive movement that supported Sanders existed before his campaign and will continue after it. But Sanders has expanded it and unified it in a way that creates the potential for a powerful post-election force in politics if it can retain at least some cohesion.
“Maybe we’re on the cusp of some really interesting political changes,” Lenchner said.

Haimson - A dispiriting night at the Panel for Educational Policy

What is so dispiriting is here are two, unique and successful schools, trying to do the right thing by their students against all odds, and provide them with an engaging, well-rounded education, and yet the DOE is trying to undermine them in the most unsubtle ways.  In the case of the Meyer Levin Performing Arts School, the administration is proposing to take away their performing arts rooms -- to give them to an oppressive charter school.  In the case of the progressive CPE1, by inserting a top-down, authoritarian principal who doesn’t believe in collaboration or progressive education.   These schools somehow survived the twelve ruthless years of Bloomberg and Klein’s reign of terror, and yet are being destroyed by de Blasio and Farina – despite the fact that these schools exemplify the supposed values of this supposedly progressive administration.... Leonie Haimson on PEP meeting

A dispiriting night at the Panel for Educational Policy; DOE continues to close struggling schools, co-locate charters and plans to destroy two terrific public schools 

Contrast this with what Mulgrew is saying as James reports at the ICE blog: IS MULGREW'S DESCRIPTION OF A HEALTHY NYC SCHOOL SYSTEM ACCURATE?

I wrote briefly about the April 20  PEP meeting (The "New" PEP Under di Blasio/Farina - New Boss, Same as....) Leonie has done a good job of touching on the important issues in the blog above where she posted the video of Meyer Levin students telling the truth about an invading charter - a video that had been suddenly removed from you tube but is now posted on vimeo.


Meyer Levin video from Class Size Matters on Vimeo.

With deBlasio facing rough waters how much longer will Farina be around? But if you are rooting for her to leave no matter who replaces her it won't get any better.

UFT's Jason Goldman Implicated in Growing di Blasio Election Scandal

One of those alleged violations is a felony.... NY Post

Will Jason roll on Mulgrew and take the rap himself, breaking his mother's heart twice? ... a contact with inside knowledge of the UFT

The memo targets de Blasio, his legislative director Emma Wolfe; Ross Offinger, de Blasio’s campaign finance director and treasurer of his political advocacy roup Campaign for One; former Hotel and Trade union official Josh Gold; Jason Goldman of the UFT; and political consultants Neal Kwatra, BerlinRose, AKPD Message Media and Hilltop Public Solutions.... NY Post

Others said to be on the team included Jason Goldman, the United Federation of Teachers assistant director legislation and political action... UFT spokeswoman Alison Gendar said the union "will always fully cooperate with any state or federal inquiry if and when one is made."... Ken Lovett's front page Daily News article

I'm piggy backing off the Eterno post at ICE MAYOR IN HOT WATER OVER ILLEGAL CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS ACCORDING TO KEN LOVETT (WITH REACTION FROM REALITY BASED EDUCATOR)


Jason Goldman is the scion of the Goldman family - current officer candidate Anne, head of the nurses, and former Manhattan borough rep Jerry who was allowed to resign with full pension rights after an internal hush hush scandal. At one point the 3 members of the Goldman family were pulling down between 3 hundred and 400 thousand bucks a year. Jason started in the PR department and is now I assume working with Paul Egan or  since I can't follow the comings and goings at the UFT maybe this guy Jasaun Boone.

Are you rooting for di B to fall?
The other day I was at a school where teachers were happy di Blasio may go down - until I informed them that the most likely replacement would be someone connected to Eva Moskowitz. Pretty sad that even with the Farina/dB people in charge of the disaster things will get worse.

RBE pretty much made the same point in the Eterno posting.

UFT Election: Unity Irregularities

I find the whole thing blatant electioneering and highly inappropriate.... I’d be curious to dig through next years tax filings and see how much the UFT spent at Woodhaven Manor. .... a contact

Unity election material handed out at official D 27 UFT para event

We know that UFT district reps stuff mailboxes in schools where they do not have someone to do it, often on working hours, our time and dime (which is someone from MORE did the same thing on DOE time they would be cooked). But even if they do it on their own time that is still a violation of some important protocols given how chapter leaders are often dependent on the district rep as their main conduit in the UFT. It's a power relationship and when the district rep is openly partisan it violates that relationship.

But even worse, ask this question:
Is it election fraud if the UFT is holding "official" events as cover?

More Blatant electioneering by Unity than ever

Using district reps on our dime to stuff mail boxes where they don't have someone. But more egregious is the setting up of phony "official" UFT events as cover for their campaign.

A contact in District 27 sent this:

On April 19 some kind of large gathering/celebration dinner for para’s in D27 was held.  There was some spiel about how D27 para turn out is low at events and the union wanted a chance to get to know them better.  This was advertised as a UFT event for paras, not a Unity caucus event. I'd imagine union dues paid for their chicken. Then this was handed out to them after the meeting and there was some campaigning. I find the whole thing blatant electioneering and highly inappropriate. District reps try to hold some sort of meetings where they invite all paras to attend a few times a year after school hours.  D27 turn out for these events is by far the lowest according to what the para rep is saying. Low turn out is the reason given by her para rep for holding a catered meeting to try and attract more paras to come. (Yeah right). All previous meetings have always been held at a school and never before held at a catering hall, Woodhaven Manor on Jamaica Ave as a free dinner. The UFT people did discuss the election in general terms and the meeting featured a lot of self-praise and coy references to read this month's NY Teacher.  The Unity flyers weren’t handed out until near the end. 

They also hold chapter leader events:

I’d be curious to dig through next years tax filings and see how much the UFT spent at Woodhaven Manor.  They did an event earlier this school year at Woodhaven Manor where they asked CL’s from all the schools to try and fill a table. The reason for the event was something along the lines of "Mulgrew feels like he doesn’t know the teachers of D27 as well as he should so he would like to meet you."  He showed up about 2 hours in, spoke for 15 minutes, and then promptly left. 

Mulgrew must have gotten to know a lot of people in his 15 minute hit and run speech.


Unity has always done this but there is a sense that these events have escalated more this year than ever and that will pump up the Unity vote. I know some people will say we should a lodge protest, etc. I am still of the mind that the opposition must get closer in the school level vote (where retirees don't vote) before lodging protests. Hitting 40% in the elementary schools would be a sign of Unity  power crumbling from within.

Will these events gain Unity votes? Someone said "Look at what they are selling people. Why will people buy the same old crap, even for a chicken dinner?"

Where’s the big money in privatization? Take it from the teachers Plus Leonard Lopate Segment on Charters With Michelle Fine

When people question why so many wealthy people have jumped on the ed deform bandwagon they often ask how can they make money? We have heard about the real estate scams, high salaries for them and their pals, charter scams, etc. But not enough attention has been paid to the fact that teacher salaries make up probably 75% of all spending on education and if that number can be cut down significantly the money could begin flowing into the pockets of the privatizers. Teacher unions with their contracts are the major target as they want to move teachers to individual negotiated contracts like they have in charters. The problems charters have in big cities with union contracts is they have to compete for labor so they have to pay higher salaries than they want - even though they extract a lot more hours of work for what they pay. So if the union teacher competition can be removed they can lower teacher salaries across the board and open up billions of dollars for themselves.

While not addressing the teacher salary issue - but they did address the massive charter teacher turnover - Yesterday on WNYC, Leonard Lopate had a great piece with Michelle Fine and Michael Fabricant, the authors of Charter Schools and the Corporate Makeover of Public Education: What's at Stake?   - probably the most comprehensive critique I've heard on mass media. I bet Leonard comes under intense pressure to have a rebuttal. You know WNYC is funded by some of these slugs.

Listen to this informative segment at:  http://www.wnyc.org/story/charter-schools-education/

The infographic below does delve into where the money comes from to fuel ed deform.
....Norm Scott

Infographic: Why Corporations Want Our Public Schools 

This article is from Education Uprising, the Spring 2014 issue of YES! Magazine.
More Stories

• The Myth Behind Public School Failure
• Oakland Classrooms Try Healing Instead of Punishment
• Meet the New Rebels Taking Back Our Public Schools

Source

• http://perimeterprimate.blogspot.com/2012/03/much-greater-than-expected-2010-2011.html
• http://teacherblog.typepad.com/newteacher/2012/11/on-the-rise-of-pearson-oh-and-following-the-money.html
• http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/hired-guns-on-astroturfhow-to-buy-and-sell-school-reform
• http://www.aepweb.org/aepweb/?p=3261&option=com_wordpress&Itemid=68
• http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/reports/2012/11/ 29%20cost%20of%20assessment%20chingos/11_assessment_chingos_final.pdf
• http://www.ednetinsight.com/files/article%20images/Charter-Schools_2013.jpg
• http://educationvotes.nea.org/2013/05/03/ohio-maine-lawmakers-stand-with-workers-say-no-to-right-to-work/
• http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=28
• http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d12/tables/dt12_205.asp
• http://www.ncspe.org/publications_files/OP201.pdf
• http://www.ohea.org/collective-bargaining-and-teacher-salary-facts
• http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2013/full_list/index.html?iid=F500_sp_full
• http://www.eprkc.com/portfolio-overview/portfolio-composition/
• http://credo.stanford.edu/documents/NCSS%202013%20Executive%20Summary.pdf
• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/07/charter-school-student-nu_n_1133807.html
• http://www.ncsl.org/research/education/charter-schools-overview.aspx
• http://credo.stanford.edu/documents/NCSS%202013%20Final%20Draft.pdf

Abusive Principals with UFT Support are as old as the hills - Teacher wore tampon because she peed everytime the principal came into her room

I was asked how MORE would be different from Unity and I said one thing I would guarantee - at the very least every abusive principal would be challenged on all levels - privately and publicly.

UPDATE: questions have been posed as to the use of a tampon in this situation and our understanding is that it was not used in a conventional manner. I leave the rest to your imagination.

Yesterday I spoke to the 2 lunch hours at an elementary school and spoke about my own experience in District 14 which was run by the UFT district rep who eventually became the Superintendent - why  not take power directly instead of through an intermediary? The district 14 story where there was a local machine operated through the UFT deserves a book of its own which one day I may write. The route to principal ran through becoming chapter leader. Every one of these politically connected people were in Unity Caucus - so for those who wonder about my hostility to the Caucus it is rooted in my earliest experiences as a teacher activist opposing them on the district level at first and then on the city level.

At the end of the 2nd lunch hour I was approached by a teacher who taught at the most repressive school in the district and she told me about the absolute fear people worked under in that school. Eventually she got out to the school run by James Quail who was slicker but not much better. She finally got out of there to her current school with a UFT transfer which was abolished in the 2005 contract.

We talked about how teachers got pregnant just to get out of her original school due to a frightening principal. She told me that years later she ran into a former colleague who told her how she wore tampons every day because she would pee from nervousness every time this guy came into her room. When he retired his protege - the Unity chapter leader eventually who had moved up to AP took his place and was little better. When she moved up to Dist Supt the person who took her place continued the repression which she said still goes on today.

The "New" PEP Under di Blasio/Farina - New Boss, Same as Old Boss?

Aixa Rodriguez (right) led the battle to save her school. Jia Lee and Marilena Marchetti from MORE were present to support her.

Where have you gone Joel Klein?
Our nation turns it's lonely eyes to you.

Would we ever have imagined that the current DOE administration could look as cold stone deaf and heartless as the previous administration? From what I saw up there last night I can't say I see any difference. I even saw a di Blasio appointee, a former principal who came to a MORE meeting 2 years ago and I spent an hour in the bar afterward arguing with him over his anti-union, blame the teacher attitude. That this guy was appointed by di Blasio is indicative of why so many people in the schools - principals and teachers - and parents - think that when it comes to transparency and response and over regulations, nothing much has changed.

Aixa makes a powerful speech

A large crew from Central Park East 1 called for removal of principal Monika Garz

Watching the Farina led PEP with the Panel sitting on a stage so far away from the audience, but not far enough away not to see the blank looks on their faces as issue after issue came up with people practically pleading for a response to repeated requests over months and even years - any response at a all - but not getting any.

I have loads of video to process so this will only be a quick hit of the 3 major issues that came up.

"Renewal Means Removal"
I posted yesterday:Today at PEP: Mayor de Blasio's "RENEWAL"

High on the agenda was the closing of FLAGS whose building is being invaded by a charter school - which sent a busload of people to the PEP. I asked them when we were leaving if we could co-locate their bus for people going to the Bronx so they could get a ride home. They have money to use for buses for political events.
I have a lot of good video of speeches made on their behalf.

Chalkbeat has an article on this aspect of the PEP quoting Aixa and Jane Meisel:

“If they wanted to revitalize the school they could do that,” said Jane Maisel, a member of the advocacy group Change the Stakes, before the vote. “We think it’s a very bad precedent.”
“Parents and kids were like, ‘Didn’t we have an understanding that this would be a community school?’” said Aixa Rodriguez, a FLAGS teacher. “We had the sword of Damocles over us the entire time.”

Here is the brief press conference before the meeting. The charter bus arrived and they cut it short to make sure to get in and sign up before they packed the sign up list so not everyone got to speak - but at that point I was the only "press" there and I have all their comments from inside the PEP to post in a followup.

https://vimeo.com/163684178




Civil Rights lawyer Norman Seigel leads battle for true education for Jewish boys
This item surprised me. A group of former Hassidic yeshiva students were with Norman to protest the education they got which violate state laws. The DOE is supposed to monitor them. The Bloomberg and di Blasio admins both covered up for political reasons. Farina has been unresponsive. The powerful speeches laid bare the political arrangement as these schools get millions of dollars that are misused and misdirected. I'll cut the videos of their speeches and put them up in a few days.

CPE1 Organizes
You've been reading their story here:
Parents at Central Park East 1 Issue Press Release...

• TONIGHT AT PEP: Demand to Remove Abusive Principal...
• #savecpe1 - Support Legendary Debbie Meier Founded...

 I have some great footage of them at the PEP but have to process it all. When they described how 40 years of teachers having their voices heard in setting school policy was dismantled in months by Monika Garg my thought was that she is the perfect principal for Farina who I can't conceive of sharing power with teachers. I believe Farina is behind the move to dismantle CPE1 - a decision to put in such an inappropriate principal can only come from the top. The teachers who spoke were amazing, yet most of them are under investigation on bogus charges. Garg pulled kids in to be questioned without parent permission or notice. And Garg has made racial comments which may prove to be the trigger - Beth Fertig from WNYC was interviewing a parent and that point seemed to interest her the most.

For now I do have their press conference before the PEP. Wait till you see the two 12 year old alums have to say about how they learned at CPE1.

PEP CPE Pr Conf April 2016
https://vimeo.com/163678111

Not Far from the tree: Trump's Dad was racist and Klan Member- Rick Perlstein

We now know Fred Trump was notorious enough a racist to draw the attention of Woody Guthrie, who wrote a song about him in the 1950s: “I suppose/ Old Man Trump knows/ Just how much/ Racial Hate/ he stirred up/ In the bloodpot of human hearts/ When he drawed/ That color line/ Here at his/ Eighteen hundred family project.”

A nice bit of history from Alternet

Election 2016

Trump's GOP Coup: How the Orange-Haired Monster Has Rewritten the History of American Conservatism

The events that shaped Donald Trump's politics, and how he gained power.

By Rick Perlstein / The Washington Spectator

April 19, 2016 
  http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/trumps-gop-coup-how-orange-haired-monster-has-rewritten-history-american-conservatism

TONIGHT AT PEP: Demand to Remove Abusive Principal Monica Garg at CPEI

We hope to see you at tonight's PEP meeting where parents, teachers and supporters from MORE and other organizations will be fighting for their community schools and students.  Here is one action that is occurring - stay tuned for the other... - MORE Media Team

PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release: April 20, 2016
For more information contact CPE1 parents:
Kenya Dilday: kdilday@gmail.com
Jennifer Roesch: (917) 319-7008; jenroesch@gmail.com
Kaliris Salas Ramirez: (718) 704-7387; ksalasramirez@gmail.comMore information at www.savecpe1.org
Parents, Staff and Alumni of Central Park East 1 to Present Petition Demanding Principal’s Removal to Chancellor
Delegation to Panel for Education Policy will demand chancellor intervene to support students and parents at one-time progressive beacon 

Who: Parents, staff, alumni and supporters of Central Park East 1
What: Press conference and petition delivery to Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina
When: April 20, Press Conference 5pm - Petition delivery to follow during Panel for Educational Policy Meeting

Where: 100 Hester Street

 New York, NY.—Parents, staff and alumni of Central Park East 1 will deliver a petition Wednesday signed by nearly two-thirds of current families and more than 2,000 supporters to Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina demanding the removal of Principal Monika Garg at Central Park East 1.
 
The petition delivery comes as Principal Garg has refused to address concerns raised by parents and staff at the school. Parents, staff, alumni and educational experts will attend the Panel for Educational Policy (PEP) meeting and present their case. They plan to deliver the petition to the chancellor personally and ask for her direct intervention to support the needs of parents, students and staff. 

Other signatories include State Sen. Bill Perkins, former NYC Councilman and Education Committee Chair Robert Jackson, education professor and activist Dr. William Ayers, and large numbers of former teachers, family members and students.

Background:
Central Park East 1 is a 41-year old elementary school that is the oldest progressive school in Harlem and the first formed by legendary educator, Deborah Meier. It has a record of success

that has been documented by the Department of Education using its own metrics as well as independent qualitative and longitudinal studies. It is a nationally renowned school and one where educators go to observe and learn from best practices. However, its core progressive principles and successful pedagogical approach is being undermined under the leadership of both the principal and the district superintendent. In response, parents have launched a campaign to Save CPE 1. In addition to the petition, parents have created a website that documents the record of administrative failure, provides metrics showing that CPE 1 is a remarkably successful school and offers parent testimonials that show the diverse needs this school is meeting. 

Problems with Principal Garg include, but are not limited to:
In March, she interviewed several very young children as part of investigations of veteran teachers and staff. The parents of these children were not notified before or after these interviews.

She has no experience in progressive education, no experience in early childhood education and minimal experience in elementary education, but has nevertheless implied that the school’s style of education is not suitable for “black children and poor children.”

Veteran teachers have described their working conditions as intolerable. Several have considered leaving. 

The website, savecpe1.org, offers an extensive timeline detailing the pattern of administrative mistreatment over time. It also provides just a few samples of more than 20 testimonials from families about what a Central Park East 1 education has meant for them and their children. It explains Central Park East 1’s unique curriculum and pedagogy as well as its success - as measured by the Department of Education’s own metrics.
###

Today at PEP: Mayor de Blasio's "RENEWAL" means public school "REMOVAL"

The correlation between the Receivership and Renewal program and the sites where charters are opening and expanding is undeniable.

It is a very busy day today. First the UFT Delegate Assembly where MORE will have 5000 leaflets to give to contacts for their schools. I will leave early for the PEP where at least 2 actions are taking place. Parents of Central Park East 1 will hold a press conference calling for the removal of their principal as I chronicled their story:

• Parents at Central Park East 1 Issue Press Release...
• #savecpe1 - Support Legendary Debbie Meier Founded...

And there is the long-running battle led by Aixa Rodriguez and Jane Maisel to save FLAGS. The PEP meeting should have some life. MOREs will be there as well at the DA and the post DA happy hour.

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 20, 2016

CONTACTS:  

Jane Maisel (917) 678­-1913

Contact after 3 pm: 

Jim Donahue  

(917) 318-8762 donohuenyc@gmail.com

or

Jim Shoaf  jimshoaf@me.com

PRESS CONFERENCE

100 Hester Street, NYC

Wednesday, April 20, 5:15 pm

Mayor de Blasio's "RENEWAL" 

means public school "REMOVAL"

New York City-- Bronx high school, Foreign Language Academy for Global Studies (FLAGS), may be closed by a vote of the Panel for Educational Policy, held this evening, Wednesday, April 20th, despite the fact that it was classified by NYS as a Receivership School and by the NYC DOE as a Renewal School and was supposed to have time and support renew itself. Its space will be given to a charter school, as the DOE has recommended, with the full cooperation of the current UFT leadership.

At 5:15 p.m., families and teachers will hold a press conference before the Panel for Educational Policy (PEP) votes. They will decry this betrayal and explain how school closures perpetuate systemic segregation and racism, while serving the private interests of charter school profiteers.

According to Aixa Rodriguez, NYC DOE teacher, notice of FLAGS’ possible closure was, "like a poison. We began hemorrhaging students. The stigma of the label is what made our enrollment fall, and then our low enrollment was used as a reason to close us.”  

“The DOE loves to break up schools into small schools, but their love isn’t sustained once there is a choice between a small school and a charter. It looks as if the small school movement is nothing more than a method for picking off public schools, one by one, as their buildings are demanded by charter schools. And the schools that are being closed are in communities with the fewest economic resources.” observed Jane Maisel, member of Change the Stakes.

Rodriguez describes a cascade of problems set off by the threat of closure: teachers looking for other jobs, the school improvement grant only distributed in February which was the same month the proposal to close FLAGS was delivered, while students were not informed of the closure with enough time to participate in the first round of the high school application process.

“Were the new toilets a gift for the new tenants, Academic Leadership Charter? They were never meant for us.”

At the April 5 meeting, the school community was already so resigned that not a single parent, teacher or student spoke. Senior Deputy Chancellor Dorita Gibson told the audience that it is never easy to make the decision to close a school, and that it really is not possible to run a good high school with only 100 students. This was the same argument used with the recent closure of three other schools, and was supported by the UFT’s current president, Michael Mulgrew.

Yet over the past year, the school staff’s multiple suggestions for attracting new students were all rejected by the principal. When a CEC 7 member suggested that the DOE should keep its commitment to the students by reviving rather than closing the school, building on the strength of the mostly multilingual student body, her ideas were dismissed. Apparently occupying space that has been requested by a charter school is tantamount to a death sentence for a school. Teachers and parents do not accept the DOE’s chilling logic. Parents and teachers ask the PEP members to make an independent judgement on this trend of sacrificing schools, but we will be surprised if the members of the PEP are willing to resist giving their rubber stamp approval to the DOE’s decision.

Jim Donohue teaches English at Renewal School JHS 145 in the Bronx. His school fought to prevent a charter co-location during high stakes standardized testing season last year. According to Donohue, "Success Academy came into our school last year and pointed out the classrooms they wanted. The DOE welcomed them with open arms and told us to get packing. We have been scattered across 4 floors of the building, and Success Academy has beautifully renovated the 19 classrooms that they staked a claim to. This is defined as RENEWAL."

Tonight the PEP will also vote on the expansion of Success Academy Charter School Bed-Stuy 1 at the site of Foundations Academy, a Renewal School that will cease to exist after this year. The correlation between the Receivership and Renewal program and the sites where charters are opening and expanding is undeniable. Concerned teachers and parents wish to make this hypocrisy clear to members of the PEP. Closing Renewal Schools and allowing charter schools to take over their space undermines the restoration Mayor de Blasio promised and institutes a climate of fear and demoralization. Advocates demand a moratorium on public school closures, demand that city officials join NYC citizens in fighting the law that requires the DOE to pay for charter school space, and that all public schools be meaningfully respected and given a genuine chance to thrive.

###

Video - Shino Tanikawa, Carol Burris: Conversation About Integration in Wealthy Manhattan District 2

Carol Burris, the former principal of South Side High School in Long Island, gave a presentation at the forum about her former district’s years long effort to phase out separate classes for high and low-performing students. She summarized years of research showing that mixed-ability classes benefit lower-skilled students and do not harm their higher-skilled peers. “When you have a middle-school system that sorts and selects,” she said, “there is so much promise that you are missing.” ... Patrick Wall, Chalkbeat

The upshot is that not only do poor kids benefit when they go to higher achieving schools but so do the wealthier kids. And in fact by going to schools and being in classes "of their own kind" all students suffer. Can people in the wealthiest district in the city be convinced?

CEC2 President Shino Tanikawa asked me to tape an event she was running with Carol Burris and researcher Halley Potter on integrating schools in CEC2. Shino presented the final segment. Given the controversial nature of the topic, especially in the high performing Manhattan district, Shino calls it a "conversation". We know how parents fight to get into certain schools and how resistant some people can be to making schools more diverse economically and racially so doing this took some guts.

I had to miss a robotics annual dinner to tape this and almost pulled out. But when Shino asks for a favor I will do whatever I can to be there and I am so glad I went as I learned so much. The event was held at the Clinton School for Writing and the Arts on E. 16 St - and they served pizza which made me happy.

What I learned is on these 3 segments, one for each speaker.

Carol Burris does a full presentation on the experience in Rockville Center. There was a bit of scoffing from some people about using a wealthy Long Island district as a model but Carol later pointed out that District 2 and Rockville Center are very similar in demographics. I included the Q and A where Carol addressed some of the challenges.

https://vimeo.com/162700822



Halley Potter is a fellow at the Century Foundation and presents some of her research on integration.

https://vimeo.com/162809813


Shino put things together with some specifics on the schools in District 2.

https://vimeo.com/162815024


And here is Patrick Wall's story at Chalkbeat

http://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/ny/2016/04/12/in-manhattans-vast-district-2-some-parents-seek-a-district-wide-integration-plan/#.VxdWMnCKVFU

In Manhattan’s vast District 2, some parents seek a district-wide integration plan

By Patrick Wall

@patrick_wall

pwall@chalkbeat.org

Published: April 12, 2016 - 9:17 p.m. EDT

District 2 held a forum Monday about school segregation and the impact sorting students into different programs or schools based on their academic records.

The next New York City school district to come up with its own plan to combat school segregation could be Manhattan’s vast District 2, where some schools do not reflect the district’s diversity.

At a public forum Monday about integration, parent leaders argued that the selective admissions systems used by many of the district’s middle schools have worked to sort students along race and class lines.

For instance, East Side Middle School on the Upper East Side, which admits only high-achieving students, is 83 percent white and Asian and just 11 percent low-income. But City Knoll Middle School in Hell’s Kitchen, a new school that accepts any District 2 resident who applies, is just 28 percent white and Asian and 73 percent poor. (Overall, the district’s middle-school students are about two-thirds white and Asian and 44 percent low income.)
Several districts across the city are probing the link between school admissions policies and segregation, and considering alternative enrollment systems that would promote diversity. Now some parent leaders are hoping that District 2, which includes some of the city’s wealthiest enclaves and its most sought-after schools, will join them.

“There are so many ways to skin this cat,” Shino Tanikawa, president of the district’s community education council, told the crowd Monday. “The first thing we have to do as a district is at least start the conversation on diversity.”

Districts 1 and 3 in Manhattan and District 13 in Brooklyn are exploring a type of admissions system known as “controlled choice,” which is designed to curb school segregation. That model matches students with schools based on their preferences as well as information such as their family’s income level, so that high and low-income students are spread evenly among the district’s schools.
Funded by state integration grants, Districts 1 and 13 are months into a public planning process around new admissions systems. While the city education department has not committed to adopting their final plans, officials have said they will at least consider them.
On Monday, Tanikawa said she hopes her district will begin a similar process of reevaluating the way its students are assigned to schools. She said that could include setting school diversity goals, recruiting under-represented families to enroll at specific schools, and changing the admissions policies at the district’s middle schools.

“I’m hoping this is the start of a series of conversations on this,” Tanikawa said, adding that she would like the district’s education council to form a diversity committee and to apply for one of the state grants.

District 2’s grade 6-8 middle schools vary in terms of their racial composition. “S” represents schools that screen students based on test scores and other criteria; “LU” stands for limited unscreened schools that do not consider applicants’ academic records. (Graphic courtesy of Shino Tanikawa/District 2 CEC)

The majority of District 2’s schools with middle grades screen at least some of their applicants using a variety of criteria, including the students’ state test scores, attendance records, interviews, and writing or math assessments. Some of the highest-performing middle schools — including East Side, The Salk School of Science, and the Clinton School for Writers and Artists — enroll smaller shares of black, Hispanic, and poor students than the district average.

The discussion about admissions policies and diversity has lately centered on a new West Village middle school, known as 75 Morton Street, set to open in 2017. Some parents have called for the school’s catchment area to be drawn so that it enrolls a mix of students from different backgrounds.

Josephine Ishmon said Monday that she is searching for a diverse, high-quality middle school for her daughter, whose ethnic background is Puerto Rican, African American, and Japanese. But she said she is worried about finding one, since many of the district’s top schools are “predominantly white.”

“My question is, as parents, how do we do something to change that?” she said. “Are we just waiting around for the good will of principals?”

Carol Burris, the former principal of South Side High School in Long Island, gave a presentation at the forum about her former district’s years long effort to phase out separate classes for high and low-performing students. She summarized years of research showing that mixed-ability classes benefit lower-skilled students and do not harm their higher-skilled peers.

“When you have a middle-school system that sorts and selects,” she said, “there is so much promise that you are missing.”

Whither Teacher Unions @ #NPE16NC , AFT/NEA Leaders Drop Lead Balloon as Hillary Endorsement is Splained

Many in the audience sat there seething as Pringle and Ricker did their Hillary splaining during their conversation with Anthony Cody on Sunday morning. Other than this event there were no workshops on the unions. I only took one opportunity to bring things up.

UPDATE: Video



At the final workshop on Saturday run by Anthony Cody on teacher evaluations I spoke up at the end about the role of the unions and how teachers had to fight a multi-front battle against the deformers and their own union leaders. Later that night a woman approached me and said she agreed and was inspired by what I said, as did another woman on Sunday over brunch who was in the room and said this had to be pointed out -- but that wasn't happening at the NPE - this time.

One of the highlights of my trip was hanging out with two of my favorite ladies - Leonie Haimson and former Brooklyn and now North Carolina parent activist Khem Irby. Khem had emailed me Friday wanting to know if I brought her a MORE shirt. So I took this one off my back and gave it to her.

I took the shirt off my as Khem Irby becomes our NC MORE outpost

Leonie, who is way smarter than me, and I had some heated discussions on the union issue and as I often do when arguing with Leonie, came away seeing things from a different angle.

One of the reasons I drove down to the NPE in Raleigh was to check the pulse of how people felt in relation to both teacher unions, especially since the Diane Ravitch/Anthony Cody led NPE have faced  charges of coddling Randi in the past by giving her and her reps space at NPE conferences to look like anti-ed deformers or taking the leaders of the unions as voices of the rank and file.

I was quite surprised to have progressive people who were there - Bernie supporters of course, tell me they would vote for Trump over Hillary -- one because she felt Trump would be so bad that things had to change while Hillary would be more Obama like attacks on public education. 

Let me first say that when it comes to the NPE there are the leaders and people running the organization - Ravitch, Cody, Ex Director Carol Burris, the influential Board, etc and then there are the rank and file supporters - the people who show up at the conferences who take part in panels plus a mass of bloggers and BATS and independents from all over the nation.

I had conversations over the weekend with people in the leadership and others and I came away with a more nuanced view of the relationship between the leadership of NPE and both teacher unions. While some call for them to declare war on the unions the most we can expect is a form of neutrality for a lot of reasons based on long-term relationships that are not easy to break.

It was interesting that there were no panels related to the unions at all. What they did offer was a Sunday morning 8:30 AM 45 minute conversation between Anthony Cody and high level officials of the NEA and AFT, Betty Pringle and Mary Cathryn Ricker - who is rumored to be a contender as Randi's successor one day.

This was not set up for people in the audience to ask questions. Anthony Cody asked some pertinent questions and let each of them respond without follow-up. I have a tape but am not sure it is worth posting - if people want to see it I will process and post it.

My sense is that the overwhelming majority of people who attended the NPE are pro-Bernie and there is a lot of resentment from both NEA and AFT members over the endorsement process. So Anthony's question asking them to splain themselves was pertinent and there was some muttering but no call-outs as they went on. Their key response was that it gave them access to Clinton and they managed to get her to modify pro-deform comments. Oy!

The outcomes of their actions have not been all that good in rallying support for Hillary among teachers who have been following the ed deform onslaught and seem as angry at Randi as they are at Hillary -- who is and has been an ed deformer -- and Ricker actually had the nerve to say that Hillary was a fighter for us as far back as the 80s in Arkansas. Sure, she was an early founder of ed deform in Arkansas and if I had a shot at the mic I would have raised that.

I was frustrated and muttering to myself throughout - especially at Ricker who started a charter ala Randi in St. Paul. So as she splained on and on to make it look like they opposed charter I so wanted to ask about Randi's failed charters that co-located and helped undermine and destroy the public schools they were in - including IS 166 the middle school I attended in East NY.

When I told people the story later on they were astounded.

I only wish I had sat with Beth Dimino during this session so we could laugh at what we were hearing.



On the way out Leonie gave me her perspective and calmed me down a  bit. "Did you want them NOT to be here," she said?
Well, they didn't get prime time and if they had to actually face some music they wouldn't have come. I guess it was better to have them hang themselves because no one seemed to be buying it.




While they spoke there was a massive twitter storm - I saw a few from MORE's Katie Lapham. Maybe I'll track down a few and post them. One NPE leader was heard to say, "we are getting killed on twitter.

Later in the day I spoke to Anthony who made the same points as Leonie did. He was wearing a Bernie button.

In my dotage I may becoming more ready to compromise. But if I go to the NPE next year I am going to offer to do a workshop on the role the unions have played. Let's see how that works out in the post-election wreckage that will give us Trump, Crux, Hillary or an even worse ed deformer, Kasich. Triple OY!