Memo from the RTC: The Producers – Eat Your Heart Out If You Missed It

Published in The WAVE, Aug. 4, 2017
www.rockawave.com

-->

Memo from the RTC:  The Producers – Eat Your Heart Out If You Missed It

By Norm Scott

Last week I raved about the six leading performances by Jeremy Plyburn (Bialystock), Craig Evans (Bloom), John Panepinto (Franz Liebkind), Brian Sadowski (Carmen Ghia), Erech Holder_Hetmeyer (Roger), Catherine Leib (Ulla) of the Rockaway Theatre Company production of Mel Brooks’ The Producers.

But this just scratches the surface. I’ve lost count of the number of cast members. The dressing room often looks like a subway car at rush hour as people race in and out for their scenes, many costume changes, or stage crew duties (everyone has to do some scenery moving in an elaborate schedule set up by Jenna Tipaldo, our 20 year old stage manager supreme (who also does the light cues in many performances). There are so many excellent performances supplementing the Big 6, I would have to use the entire WAVE to mention every performer.

I laugh at every joke and cheer at the end of every song and dance even though I’ve seen umpteen times – most of it from the wings, peeking between the curtains in the back of the theater or from the booth upstairs because I have stagehand duties -  moving the French doors when we set up and take down the office, which happens about a million times a show. So I end up running back and forth between office scenes so I can see snatches of the show. (Of course I never get to see the one scene I am in near the end, nor the scene before it since I am setting up to move my prop.) I’m often joined by other performers in the back of the theater who can’t stop laughing. And when we are backstage we are also laughing.

Before one show a theater goer asked me if Jodee Timpone was in the show. “She sure is,” I said. “And you will see Jodee as you’ve never seen her before.  Jodee, playing the part of Hold me-Touch, shows her heart/s is/are in the right place.

Producer Susan Jasper says in her program Notes, “If you have not seen or heard anything to offend you by Intermission, you probably slept through Act 1.” Some of the funniest, and possibly most offensive scenes relate to the LGBT community. A large group from the local LGBTQ social group, Out Rockaway wearing their tee-shirts, attended and I hear there was a lot of laughter coming from their quarter. No pickets - yet. And few people - maybe one guy – walked out due to homophobia.

The audiences have been as responsive as any in the past, some saying this is the best one ever.

I won’t get into some details of the play so those who come the final weekend see the surprises for those who didn’t see the movie or the play. I do want to mention a few behind the scenes people. I’ve talked about the directorial leadership of John Gilleece who has managed the entire project wonderfully. Audiences have been raving about the professional choreography by Nicole DePierro-Nellen. Watch those tap dancers and the synchronicity of complex dances. The opening sequence recalls Fiddler on the Roof. And the chorines in the office scene doing that Rockettes matching kick-line and see how many of them swap into old-lady land tip tapping their walkers. And that solo dance by Ulla – ooh, la, la.

Music Director Rich Louis-Pierre is one of the RTC indispensables, not only leading the band, but playing a small part in the play and doing the sound design while working with the sound technicians Michael Caprio and the heroic Daniel Fay. Danny is a local and a recent college grad who actually got a job in the industry and gives up much valuable time to be at the shows when he can.

There’s the complex lighting by Andrew Woodridge, the RTC lighting guru, who also makes the pigeons do their thing, which got an ovation at last Sunday’s performance – watch Adolph salute. Andrew hasn’t developed the technology – yet – of having them fly around the audience and crap on their heads, but maybe one day.

Dan Guarino, president of the Rockaway Artists Alliance, who is not in the show but volunteered to assist with the stage crew and is my partner in moving the French doors without killing anyone, and has done yeoman service.

I’ll have more next week in my final piece on this show (after which I will take a little RTC break). This Monday, I join master demolisher Tony Homsey in taking down the set before working with his twin, Tony the master builder, to put up the set for the upcoming Frank Caiati directed Elephant Man.

When not destroying sets, Norm uses his pen as a sledgehammer on the NYCDOE, UFT Leadership, the Democratic Party, and charter schools on his blog at ednotesonline.com.

School Scope: Health Care - Educating People Honestly is First Step to Reform By Norm Scott

The WAVE - www.rockawave.com -- Aug. 4, 2017

-->

School Scope: Health Care - Educating People Honestly is First Step to Reform

By Norm Scott

If you are looking for commentary on education let me remind you this is summer vacation for most ed news, other than to say that the de Blasio/Farina operation of the schools is not as different from BloomKlein. One of the big stories this week was the Susan Edelman expose in the NY Post of the scandals in the principal training Leadership Academy, which spawned our very own Marcella Sills. http://nypost.com/2017/07/29/doe-lost-track-of-101m-given-to-leadership-coaches-audit.

I compare the NYC Leadership Academy training to the Nazi SS - where there are stories that they would give a new recruit a dog when they arrived, allow them to bond, and then order them to kill the dog to complete their training. All too many Lead Acad grads act like they’ve emerged from that type of trauma and feel free to engage in vicious, sadistic behavior.

But let’s get back to an equally vicious and sadistic topic. Health care as a follow-up to last week’s column (School Scope: Why Not Medicare for All?) where I talked about single payer around the world with an emphasis on how health stats in Rwanda may one day, if Republicans remain ascendant, may soon surpass ours.

There has been increasing serious media attention (as opposed to mocking commentary) related to Bernie Sanders bringing up a single payer bill, an idea he was ridiculed for a year ago. It is clear there are problems with Obama Care, many of them exaggerated by eight years of Republican attempts to go back to the pre-Obamacare good old days of death panels. The criticisms of Obamacare from both left and right go deep but come at the issue from two entirely different directions.

One of the attacks on Obama was based on his false promise that people could keep their plans. Seven years ago I was tossed out of my UFT plan and into Medicare by law as I joined everyone who turns 65 . I didn’t cry, as Medicare just happens to be one of the most popular government run programs.

I keep repeating that my wife who worked in billing for a major hospital and dealt with every insurance company maintained that Medicare, staffed with career professionals (as opposed to the often revolving door employees in private insurance) was also the most efficient and well-run. I would say this was one of the biggest issues in former Obama voters moving to Trump.  Goodness, is it possible that the big, bad government which comes under attack by so many can out perform privately run operations?

Boys and girls there is a solution, even if a temporary one to stabilize the market while we work to expand Medicare down to younger people. (Bernie suggests we move people who are 55 into Medicare as a first step.)

Obama abandoned the offer of a public option very quickly to appease the insurance companies who didn’t want to compete with the government. (He also ignored please control drug costs to keep big pharm on board). With so many insurance companies abandoning the market at this time, the biggest immediate fix to Obamacare would be to add a government option in every area that is left with few options or none. I find it funny how all the people who believe in competition don’t want the government to compete with private insurance plans.

Now I want to be clear. In a single payer system everyone would be tossed out of their plan and into the same plan. This would be huuuuge and of course disrupting as even employer based plans would end. Some argue that industry offers these plans as a way to lure workers. And many workers make job choices based on health care. By taking the burden of health care off the table, as would happen in single payer, there would be a major bump in earnings for boss and worker – think of taking the money spent on health care and giving raises.

We also should be clear that single payer would wipe out most of the insurance industry with its overhead and high executive salaries – and all those lobbying costs. How can that be a bad thing?

Let me end with a reference to some correspondence I’ve been having with  a WAVE reader who doesn’t agree with my take but does admire the variation of single payer system in Singapore, which forces everyone to pay something whenever they use a health service. (Google Singapore health care if interested in learning more.) I am open to negotiations on means payments and co-payments. My recent foray into health care related to a urinary tract infection taught me a few things. I had to have a picc line installed in my arm to receive antibiotics and it was done at NYU-Langone where two nurses and a doctor did the job (who knew that the line went  directly from my arm into my heart – ugh). They billed for over $15,000. Medicare paid about $600. It was clear before I went in – there would be no cost to me and they knew what they were going to get. Thus an advantage of single payer even with all the waste and fraud ( and over testing) – there is one place to go to get paid and someone makes a value judgment.

Even under single payer, which would replace everyone’s health care costs with a  --- dare I  say the word – tax, people would come out ahead.

If you want to read a medical horror story, check out the recent NY Times exposure (The Company Behind Many Surprise Emergency Room Bills) of scams where emergency rooms have been privatized by EmCare, a rapacious company. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/24/upshot/the-company-behind-many-surprise-emergency-room-bills.html.

Norm blogs about whatever drivel comes into his head at ednotesonline.com.

On "Fair" Student Funding, ATRs, Chalkbeat Deformer Reporting

I blogged yesterday (Farina to Principals - Wink, Wink - Go Get Em - Schools With Placed ATRs Must Absorb Salaries) about that ridiculous Chalkbeat story echoing the Families for Excellent Schools line on ATRS. Why a deformy group would focus so much attention on ATRS -- not exactly the crucial education issue of our time? The answer it that they are using it as a wedge as part of the broader attack on seniority, tenure, highly paid teachers, disparaging certified teachers- the "hey, anyone can teach" etc.

Arthur Goldstein took on Chalkbeat on his blog --

NYC Educator

Reformy Chalkbeat Deems Paying Teachers Inconvenient - Who'd have thought that Chalkbeat NY, after taking all that money from Gates and the Walmart family, would suddenly go all community service on us. Arthur was as perturbed by that phony demo photo used as I was.

 I just adore the photo Chalkbeat chooses to recycle, the one of a dozen people organized by the well-financed so-called Families for Excellent Schools standing around stereotyping ATR teachers. It would take me about five minutes to organize a dozen people to stand outside the Chalkbeat office with signs that say "Chalkbeat Sucks."

Not a bad idea to illustrate a point.

Then there is a parent shill named Nicole Thomas who writes a piece at the Daily News assaulting ATRs. Nicole just woke up one day and decided the existence of 800 ATRs in a system of 100,000 education personnel is the most important threat to her children's education. Nicole is one of those bought parents by the deformies. I bet she was at one of those phony 20 people rallies.

ATR Peter Zucker took Nicole Thomas on and ripped her op ed to piece.

I know where your bread is buttered Nicole. StudentsFirstNY butters it, and butters it well. You want to hang with these people? You think for a moment that StudentsFirst cares about you or your family, or even your community? You are being played like a fiddle and when you outlive your usefulness, see how long, if ever, it takes Jenny Sedlis to return your calls.

But if you want to hang with these people, know that StudentsFirst is the evil spawn of Michelle Rhee. Read this and tell the world how you would feel if Rhee was your child's teacher. These are the type of people you are being a sycophant for.

SOUTH BRONX SCHOOL Open Blog Post to Nicole Thomas (ATR Basher) Parent at PS 256 in Brooklyn

Now we know that one of the wedges used to attack teaching as a career is the fair student funding formula.

Leonie Haimson savages the Fair Student Formula in a must-read blog: https://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2017/08/fair-student-funding-atr-system-two-bad.html

NYC Public School Parents

Fair student funding & the ATR system - two bad policies undermining NYC schools

Today Chalkbeat covers the budgetary ramifactions of the new agreement between the UFT and the NYC Department of Education in which the DOE will place ATR teachers (on Absent Teacher Reserve) in schools with vacancies, whether the principal chooses these particular teachers or not.  In addition, unlike earlier years, the principal will have to pay the full amount of their salaries – which are often much higher than the average teacher salary, even though the school only receives funding for the average salary under the Fair Student Funding system, implemented by Joel Klein in 2007, after much controversy and protest.

Let's look at how our stalwarts at the UFT are handling the situation. Arthur comments:

 I'm also disappointed in UFT leadership, which seems to believe that, even with the idiotic so-called Fair Student Funding, that there will be no issue hiring senior teachers. In fact, schools themselves now have to pay teachers out of their own budgets. Why would a principal hire a 100K teacher when a 50K teacher would do? After all, who values experience anymore? You could stock your whole building with newbies and turn them over every three years before they get tenure and start speaking up.

 Mulgrew, given an opportunity to point out certain essential truths, punted. I will urge our high school ex bd people to hold their feet to the fire on making a strong stand -- including educating the public - on the damages of FSF.


 

Bernie Sanders attacks 'greedy' Nissan for waging anti-union campaign - Where are Other Dems?

Vermont senator, writing in the Guardian, says: ‘The truth is Nissan is an all-too-familiar story of how greedy corporations divide and conquer working people’... The Guardian.

Where are the other Democrats? Most don't want to support unions even with a 10 foot pole.

Bernie Sanders has attacked Nissan for doing “everything it can” to stop workers from unionizing at its Mississippi plant despite making “obscene” profits.

Nissan dispute could go down as most vicious anti-union crusade in decades

Bernie Sanders

Read more

In an editorial for the Guardian, the former presidential hopeful weighs in as Nissan workers prepare to vote on joining the United Auto Workers (UAW) union.
Echoing union officials and their supporters, Sanders says Nissan’s campaign “could go down as one of the most vicious, and illegal, anti-union crusades in decades”.
Nissan is being investigated by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the independent US government agency responsible for enforcing US labor law, after warning workers they could lose wages and benefits if they back the union vote.
Other workers have been told they will receive increased benefits and pay if they vote against unionising. “Workers should never have to endure this type of threatening campaign or walk through a minefield just to vote for a union,” Sanders writes. “The truth is Nissan is an all-too-familiar story of how greedy corporations divide and conquer working people.”
The Nissan vote is the latest in a series of attempts by unions to grow membership in America’s south, where many manufacturers have moved to take advantage of low wages and non-union workforces. Unions have faced similarly hard-fought battles to gain recognition at plants run by Boeing and Volkswagen – and lost.
Sanders, the actor Danny Glover and leading labor officials have all campaigned in support of the UAW’s attempts to unionise the 800-strong plant.

Mississippi Nissan workers hope for historic win in 14-year fight to unionize

Read more

Nissan has union representation in 42 of 45 of its plants throughout the world, writes Sanders. “But the company does not want unions in the US south, because unions mean higher wages, safer working conditions, decent healthcare, and a secure retirement.
“Corporations like Nissan know that if they stop workers in Mississippi from forming a union, wages will continue to be abysmally low in this state.”
Sanders says Nissan made $6.6bn in profits last year and paid its chief executive officer, Carlos Ghosn, more than $9.5m last year.
“Those kinds of obscene profits are a direct result of corporations’ decades-long assault on workers and their unions,” he writes. “The American middle class, once the envy of the world, is disappearing while income and wealth inequality is soaring. We have got to turn that around.”

Gothamist: Eva Moskowitz’s Privileged ‘Bipartisanship’

Nice to see mainstream press (sort of) exposing Eva Moskowitz hypocrisy - actually, she's a Trump-level outright liar - though the writer doesn't go into the schemes she uses to phony up the rep of Success.

Some excerpts:

Ms. Moskowitz can’t hide behind a self-serving and privileged version of bipartisanship.... It takes a lot of privilege for Ms. Moskowitz to somehow believe that the policies that Democrats and the Resistance across the country represent somehow do not apply to her students.

Black organizations like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (the N.A.A.C.P.), afters years of internal debate, in October called for a moratorium on charter schools, like the charter network Ms. Moskowitz runs in New York City. In response to the N.A.A.C.P. moratorium and report, Ms. Moskowitz attacked the N.A.A.C.P.’s credibility and authority to speak on education for black children. Despite the fact that Ms. Moskowitz's schools have come under scrutiny for controversial admissions policies and disciplinary practices, which Ms. Moskowitz usually leaves to be resolved by her private consultants and lobbyists....

it seems strange that Ms. Moskowitz repeatedly attacks the mayor, a fellow Democrat, for budgetary reasons yet she doesn't criticize the federal secretary of education, a Republican, who is proposing cuts worth more than $9 billion to national education programs and resources.

Gothamist

August 01, 2017 | by Kenneth Campbell

http://www.gothamgazette.com/opinion/7093-eva-moskowitz-s-privileged-bipartisanship?mc_cid=fbd1eba5eb&mc_eid=1a6c9e0292

Farina to Principals - Wink, Wink - Go Get Em - Schools With Placed ATRs Must Absorb Salaries

At the very least, one Bronx principal said, he’d be wary of the hire. “If someone automatically puts an ATR into my school,” he said, “I would go in there and observe them quite a bit.” --- Chalkbeat

Chalkbeat as usual doesn't get to the heart of the matter. That the DOE is making sure not to provide financial backing to schools taking ATRs - schools I am betting will be chosen based on the ability of the principal to be especially vicious. Note not one contact from the reporter with a comment from an ATR.

They are walking in with targets on their backs.

Mulgrew of course is exposed as a sham supporter of ATRs - instead of screaming about the fair student funding formula he says this:

Principals have historically exaggerated the impact on their school budget of hiring someone from the ATR pool,” he said in a statement. “We have found the impact of hiring a more experienced teacher, whether from the open market or the ATR pool, does not derail a school budget.”

What a crock - of course the higher salary impacts a school budget -- that was the very purpose of Fair Student Funding in the first place -- to incentivize principals to do salary dumps. As usual the UFT comes up on the wrong side of the issue.

The article does at least point up the UFT flip-flop in providing financial support to the school.

Ironically, this is an issue the UFT set out to tackle in its 2014 contract with the Department of Education. A provision in the contract states that schools that hire an ATR teacher would not have that teacher’s salary included in the school’s average teacher salary calculation. That agreement stood for both the 2015–16 and 2016–17 school years. 

“Principals no longer have a reason to pass over more senior educators in favor of newer hires with lower salaries,” the UFT promised in a statement on the 2014 contract posted online.

During the 2016–17 school year, the DOE also offered two options for subsidizing the salaries of ATR members. The first subsidized the costs of permanent ATR hires by 50 percent the first year and 25 percent the next. The second allowed principals to have the full cost of the teacher’s salary subsidized for the 2016–17 year. Ultimately, a total of 372 teachers were hired with those incentives last year. 

But starting in the upcoming school year, neither of those policies will be in place. Schools will not receive the incentives and the salaries of ATR teachers will be included in a school’s average teacher salary once they are permanently hired. 

The UFT declined to comment on the apparent flip-flop, and neither the UFT nor the city’s Department of Education could estimate the average number of years of experience of teachers in the pool.

The article by Daniela Brighenti is oh-so leaning in the direction of the ed deform attacks on ATRs -- behind which is an attack on teacher tenure protections. Daniela might have reached out to some ATRs to get their take -- maybe she thought she would catch something.

This is the lead blurb.

ATR FUNDING When members of the Absent Teacher Reserve are placed this fall, schools will incur the full cost of the new hires, without incentives the city has provided in the past. Chalkbeat

Did Chalkbeat funder Families for Excellent Schools (I'm guessing here) write this piece?

At the top of their article it says: support independent journalism -- my biggest laugh of the day - so far.

Look at the photo that leads their piece -FES gets 20 people out - probably paid - and that becomes the lede.

Look at their headline:

draining the pool [echo of Trump draining the swamp]

New York City’s plan to place teachers from its Absent Teacher Reserve pool could take a bite out of school budgets

Here is the complete article:

 http://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/ny/2017/08/03/new-york-citys-plan-to-place-teachers-from-its-absent-teacher-reserve-pool-could-take-a-bite-out-of-school-budgets/

DE BLASIO GIVES IN BIG TO CHARTERS

Curbing mayoral control of schools should be a priority - local control is the biggest threat to the ed deformers.

Posted by Jake Jacobs at NYC BATS FB:

DE BLASIO GIVES IN BIG TO CHARTERS: You might have missed this but in a last-minute deal for a two-year renewal of mayoral control, Mayor de Blasio agreed to circumvent the legislature, pledging to help charters expand through his administrative powers.

The agreement granted permission to revive so-called “zombie” charters, meaning schools that never open or quickly closed.

The really contentious part was the proposal to let charter schools which SUNY oversees hire unlicensed teachers. The controversial proposal grew out of concessions de Blasio made in last year's mayoral control renewal deal, where SUNY was allowed to change some rules so charters could switch authorizers -- about 50 charters did switch over to SUNY in advance of the unlicensed teacher proposal.

But it's not clear whether SUNY has the legal authority to approve the new rules, which would not only let charters hire uncertified teachers, but let charter school executives grant licenses to teachers after three years, even if they were trained by uncertified instructors.

Mayor de Blasio’s position on the uncertified teacher plan has not been made public, but the proposal dropped around the same time de Blasio secretly negotiated his side-deal for renewing mayoral control.

First wondering aloud if the two were linked, Politico’s Eliza Shapiro later reported that withholding details about the exact concessions made to charters seem to be part of the deal struck between de Blasio and NYS Senate leader John Flanagan.

We can wonder whether de Blasio agreed to letting charters hire uncertified teachers to replace the 40% of teachers they burn through each year, but we know the proposal was first championed by Eva Moskowitz, who supports not only Trump's call to expand charters but private school vouchers as well.

http://www.politico.com/states/new-york/albany/story/2017/06/29/mayoral-control-deal-could-change-de-blasios-poor-standing-in-albany-113160

Jeff Kaufman: Computer Science for Some

After decades spent fighting abusive/inept principals, Jeff Kaufman, one of the stalwarts of the ICE caucus, has been teaching computer/coding classes working with an excellent principal the past few years, a late career reinvention of himself as a teacher. Jeff sent this the other day.

I submitted the attached article as an op-ed for the New York Times partially in response to an article that appeared there about the manipulation of computer science education by some wealthy tech companies. As you can see my experiences evidence their lack of commitment to the basic notion they started with; that computer science was truly for all. In any case it doesn't appear the Times will print it. .... Jeff Kaufman

I also went back to school in mid-career and earned an MA in computer science in the mid-late 80s and taught computer courses at Brooklyn College. I spent the last 20 years teaching tech/low level coding in elementary school and also teaching teachers at the district level -- things like -- how to set up their first email accounts. My computer lab was more popular than gym for many kids. I used the Basic Programming languahe initially to have the kids use x/y coordinates with a color of choice to turn on a pixel on the screen. They could then build that into lots of pixels to make large letters or picture. Simple coding but also teaching math.

I saw the power kids felt in controlling a computer. And also the logic and order one learns from programming. So I was all for the call for coding -- but only if done with a broader purpose.

One of my goals is to get off my lazy ass and go over to Jeff's school and hang out in his class.

In this piece Jeff points out the shift from the initial values that attracted him. It wasn't just about teaching pure coding but relating it to a cultural significant curriculum that would engage the students. Jeff makes this key point:

The course began with an assignment that required us to read a book co-authored by Goode with her colleague at UCLA, Jane Margolis entitled Stuck in the Shallow End.[8] The book, a landmark study of how racial and ethnic barriers not only persisted in the allocation of resources in Computer Science education but were reinforced by the then current pedagogy. Both Goode and Chapman sought to introduce a more culturally relevant curriculum and transform our pedagogy to reflect teacher practice which was sensitively inclusive in diverse student populations.

Apparently the original purpose of Goode and Chapman have been morphed by leaving out the "relevant curriculum" aspect.

Computer Science for Some: An Assessment of Two Different Approaches to Teaching Computer Science in a Diverse Classroom

By Jeff Kaufman[1]

After several years teaching United States History, Government and Law to at-risk students and given the opportunity to transform my teaching practice to a blended learning environment I embarked on a way to provide a relevant and rigorous curriculum to my students. Following some of the teaching models outlined in Gloria Ladson-Billings’ book, The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children[2], I sought to provide a pedagogy that incorporated these concerns.[3]

There were many resources available to teach culturally relevant materials in Social Studies including the Zinn Education Project[4] and the American Social History Project.[5] Along with teaching practical law courses such as Police-Student Encounters[6] and Immigration Law my ability to tailor the curriculum to student needs made their learning both engaging and personal. I used the computer to provide a ready-resource to the outside world and encouraged exploration, research and discussion on the topics we covered.

Unfortunately, due to graduation requirements and other New York State Education Department mandates I was slowly being forced to change my curriculum to conform to high stakes examination requirements. While my pedagogy did not change it became increasingly more difficult to go into the depth necessary to provide the high-ordered thinking vital for students to fully take part in our democracy. Since students are required to pass the New York State Regents examinations to graduate my classes became test review classes requiring a pedagogy that was not only irrelevant to my students but was antithetical to culturally relevant education.

As this trend was becoming clearer to me and I contemplated retirement I noticed an offer by the Central Board of Education to learn and teach Computer Science. My classes were already paperless and seeing a way to teach an important subject without a high stakes test and proscribed curriculum I decided to investigate.

During the summer, in 2014, I attended a seminar taught by Joanna Goode and Gail Chapman, who, at the time, were associated with Code.org, a philanthropic educational company founded by an ex-Microsoft executive to promote Computer Science throughout the United States.[7] Goode and Chapman taught my cohort of New York City budding Computer Science teachers in a way that valued culturally relevant methods in similar ways Ladson-Billings did in her books.

The course began with an assignment that required us to read a book co-authored by Goode with her colleague at UCLA, Jane Margolis entitled Stuck in the Shallow End.[8] The book, a landmark study of how racial and ethnic barriers not only persisted in the allocation of resources in Computer Science education but were reinforced by the then current pedagogy. Both Goode and Chapman sought to introduce a more culturally relevant curriculum and transform our pedagogy to reflect teacher practice which was sensitively inclusive in diverse student populations.

I was skeptical at first but after trying out the curriculum I was sold. While I found some of the practice pedantic I nevertheless found a freedom to allow for high order thinking, positive and rigorous discussion and the time to teach students who were eager to learn. For some of my students Computer Science was the first time they felt they had learned something.

By the fall of 2015 New York City was all in with its Computer Science for All initiative:

NYC students will learn to think with the computer, instead of using computers to simply convey their thinking.  Students will learn computational thinking, problem solving, creativity, and critical thinking; to collaborate and build relationships with peers; to communicate and create with technologies; and to better understand technologies we interact with daily. These skills will be integral to student success in higher education, the 21st century job market and beyond.[9] 

I joined the excitement and volunteered to help facilitate Code.org professional development. This allowed me to recreate the same sense and transformation I had experienced while learning how to teach Computer Science. These experiences and my teaching improved my practice and looked forward to the day I would be able to teach Computer Science full time.

That opportunity came when I was accepted to teach Computer Science at a Queens high school which had the highest free or reduced-price lunch rates in its district.[10] The school had a Technology Department but there were no Computer Science classes. The transfer gave me a retirement-delaying reason to try bringing my newly adopted subject to a new environment.

It worked. By the end of my second year I had started a brand new Advanced Placement class in Computer Science and with the help of the principal brought robotics and 3d printing to students who had never experienced Computer Science education.

This past summer I went back for some more professional development and found out that Code.org had disassociated itself from Goode and Chapman and had adopted a new pedagogy for teaching introductory computer science. This new class stressed computational thinking and many of the goals outlined on the New York City DOE website but deliberately avoided the culturally relevant education that was stressed with my previous instruction.

Notions of equity were mentioned but the new facilitators were not equipped or instructed on how to teach computer science among diverse populations. Teachers under the new pedagogy were ill prepared to teach Computer Science for all.

It is important that our students learn to be prepared for their role in our democracy. Computer Science provides an ideal modality to cause students to become critical thinkers. If it becomes less relevant we will only reinforce the barriers our students face.[11]

---

[1] Jeff Kaufman has taught at-risk students for almost 20 years having taught in the high school on Rikers Island, a jail for adult prisoners held in New York City, a long-term suspension school for students prohibited from returning to general education schools due to student discipline transgressions and a transfer school serving under-credited, overaged students in Brownsville, Brooklyn. He currently teaches Computer Science at Queens High School for Information, Research and Technology, a school on the Far Rockaway High School campus.

[2] John Wiley & Sons, Mar 23, 2009

[3] These include: 

1.Communication of High Expectations

2.Active Teaching Methods

3.Practitioner as Facilitator

4.Inclusion of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students

5.Cultural Sensitivity

6.Reshaping the Curriculum or Delivery of Services

7.Student-Controlled Discourse

8.Small Group Instruction

[4] https://zinnedproject.org/

[5] https://herb.ashp.cuny.edu/

[6] See, more generally, https://www.flexyourrights.org/

[7] See Singer, Natasha “How Silicon Valley Pushed Coding Into American Classrooms,”

New York Times, June 27, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/27/technology/education-partovi-computer-science-coding-apple-microsoft.html

[8] Margolis, Jane, Stuck in the Shallow End:  Education, Race, and Computing, with Rachel Estrella, Joanna Goode, Jennifer Jellison Holme and Kim Nao

[9] From the New York City Department of Education website at http://schools.nyc.gov/Academics/ComputerScience/Introduction/default.htm

[10] QIRT is at 86% free or reduced-price lunch. See https://high-schools.com/directory/ny/school-districts/new-york-city-geographic-district-27-school-district/342700010000/

[11] During my first training, a lesson on coding for cornrow braiding was provided early in the curriculum. While this was only one of several culturally relevant lessons it caused the most discussion while I taught the lesson in professional development. When I taught the lesson to my students they could not believe someone had created software to help design cornrow braids. This lesson was omitted in the revised curriculum.

Leadership Academy Scandals - and MTA Too

I used to compare the NYC Leadership Academy training to the Nazi SS - where they would give a new recruit a dog when they arrived, allowed them to bond and ordered them to kill the dog to complete their training. 

People have been writing about the NY Post report on the Leadership Academy stable of unstable principals.

See:

ICEUFT Blog

SUE EDELMAN EXPOSES DOE NOT TRACKING HOW PRINCIPAL LEADERSHIP ACADEMY MONEY IS SPENT

Leonie also added this on her listserve:

 

David Ross who oversaw numerous DOE fraudulent & wasteful contracts and who should have been fired years ago just joined MTA

 

"Summer of hell just got worse" http://nyp.st/2vh5LBq

 

Meanwhile, the DOE’s sweetheart deal with the Leadership Academy has cost millions – without any documentation of the “work” done for schools

 

http://nypost.com/2017/07/29/doe-lost-track-of-101m-given-to-leadership-coaches-audit/

 

The city Department of Education has awarded contracts worth up to $101 million to the NYC Leadership Academy — but didn’t keep track of where the money went, a bombshell audit by City Comptroller Scott Stringer charges.

The Long Island City-based non-profit has collected $45.6 million from the contracts to coach “aspiring principals” and teachers. But the DOE failed to produce records to prove the $183-an-hour coaches did what they were paid for.

“If the DOE can’t be sure whether or when the professional coaching even happened, how do we know it was effective?” Stringer asks in a scathing report obtained by The Post.

….The comptroller’s auditors reviewed $559,667 in DOE payments to the Leadership academy, including $394,007 for “leadership coaching.”

“Disregarding the safeguards in its own contracts and procurement rules,” the comptroller said, the DOE spent $385,612, or 98 percent of the coaching payments, without the required documentation.

 

 

Bernie Sanders’s Campaign Isn’t Over - New Yorker

“Do not underestimate the resistance of the Democratic establishment.”.... Bernie Sanders, New Yorker

In Trump’s America, the Independent senator is fighting to win back the heartland for Democrats.

New Yorker: Bernie Sanders’s Campaign Isn’t Over

By Benjamin Wallace-Wells

 A good piece in this week's New Yorker. Contrast Bernie - a Brooklyn born Jew -- digging in deeply in Trump territory - while say someone like Chuck Schumer, another Brooklyn Jew -- hides out in Washington with the Dems so-called Better Deal. The internal battle continues as this selection illustrates:

Bernie said on MSNBC -- which by the way no matter what the rhetoric, side with corp Dems because they are a corp.

Democrats would continue to lose elections “unless we have the guts to point the finger at the ruling class of this country.” Hayes asked Perez if he shared that view, and Perez wearily issued a talking point: “When we put hope on the ballot, we win.” Clinton, Hayes pointed out, had put hope on the ballot. She had not won. Whereas Perez offers the liberal abstraction of inequality, Sanders insists on naming an enemy, the billionaire class.

Some excerpts:

Since the election, the Democratic Party has tried to move closer to Sanders’s views. Last week, in a small town in northern Virginia, Chuck Schumer, the Senate Minority Leader, announced the Party’s platform for 2018, “A Better Deal,” which is aimed at winning back working-class voters. The platform includes a fifteen-dollar minimum wage and a trillion-dollar investment in infrastructure, plans that Sanders has long promoted, often with little support. Many people in the Democratic Party believe that, when it comes to policy, Sanders has prevailed. Sanders does not see it that way. He told me, “Do not underestimate the resistance of the Democratic establishment.”

When the Democratic Party fractured, in the primaries, it was like a bone cracking—the Clintonites on one side, the Sanders faction on the other, with no obvious way to repair the break. Sanders’s supporters deeply resented the Party’s obvious preference for Clinton; Clinton’s backers accused them of sexism. Last July, at the Democratic National Convention, in Philadelphia, the Sanders faithful shouted down podium speakers, marched out of the hall and occupied a media tent, and covered their mouths with tape, on which some of them had written the word “Silenced.” The two camps clashed again this winter, in the contest for the Democratic Party chair. Tom Perez, who was President Obama’s Secretary of Labor, narrowly defeated Representative Keith Ellison, of Minnesota, the co-chair of the Progressive Caucus and an ally of Sanders. The insurgents had come up short again.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/08/07/bernie-sanders-campaign-isnt-over

School Scope: Why Not Medicare for All?

My column in The Wave, Rockaway's local paper. Published July 29, 2017

School Scope: Why Not Medicare for All?
By Norm Scott

I write this on the morning before the Senate Republicans are about to vote on their version of death panels. And I’m thinking…..

Imagine a medical care system where you can get your health taken care of without worrying about finances. I’ve been in the midst of dealing with some not too serious (so far) medical issues and as a Medicare (with GHI supplement) patient I haven’t paid a dime, despite lots of visits to more than one doctor. And every doctor I use accepts Medicare – apparently they can manage to live on what they pay.

Should I feel guilty about costing our economy money I might not have been willing or able to spend otherwise? Not when we see that if I lived in just about every other advanced nation, not only people over 65 but everyone would have the same system I have. The major difference is that in these foreign systems the costs to the system and for drugs are significantly lower.

I'm amazed at how the so-called liberal press lets the Democrats off the hook. Eduardo Porter had a good piece in the NY Times about single payer health care around the world in a letter to Republicans (https://tinyurl.com/yb27jcyb). He might as well have included most of our Democratic Party leaders. This article should be read out aloud in every hall of legislature and also to convince the public -- instead we hear all about Russia all the time. This would be the best way to fight Trump and the Republicans but the Dems spin their wheels. Their “better deal” will not turn out to be that much better as long as they are bought by big pharm and other corporations.

In a single payer system, there is a big bump in taxes, but no one has to buy health care and there are no insurance companies to take a profit. And big pharm has to come into line on costs. Pretty much a win-win for almost everyone. So why not here? Ask our own local politicians, weather Republican or Democrat why they aren’t doing more to educate their constituents on this issue to counter the propaganda from big pharm, insurance companies and the politicians who are bought by them?

What country is Porter talking about? Rwanda. Can you imagine the day post Republican health care when we flock to Rwanda to get better care?

Teachers to Eric Ulrich on supporting Bo Dietl - Say It Ain’t So
Teacher's union has hijacked our classrooms. When I'm mayor, teachers will pass drug tests and performance evaluations. I'm not for sale… Bo Dietl tweet.

Last week I posted an Eric Ulrich tweet supporting Bo Dietl for mayor. Dietl has made it a specialty to attack teachers and the teacher union. I think Ulrich owes the teachers in his district an explanation.

Arthur Goldstein had some comments about Dietl at his blog, NYC Educator (http://nyceducator.com/2017/07/here-come-mayoral-candidates.html).

Circus clown/ Arby's pitchman/ mayoral hopeful Bo Dietl is on Twitter making statements about what things will be like when he's mayor. There's some teacher at John Adams accused of allowing a student to sit on his lap, and Bo is outraged. Bo…says teachers caught having sex with students shouldn't be paid. The only problem is that this teacher has not been caught having sex with a student, and no one is saying otherwise. Inconvenient for Bo, though, is that allegations have to be proven here. You know, there's that whole innocent until proven guilty thing in the United States. Bo has had it with all that mollycoddling, evidently, and just wants to declare people guilty of whatever. As for drug tests for teachers, I don't support them, but Bo has got another thing wrong here: Performance evaluations? Teachers already have performance evaluations.

For proof that Dietl is blowing smoke up his ass on teacher evaluation: http://schools.nyc.gov/Offices/advance/About+Advance/Overview/default.htm.

Norm blows smoke wherever every day at ednotesonline.com

Memo from the RTC: Producers Produce Laughs (Lots)

Published in The Wave, July 28, 2017

Memo from the RTC: Producers Produce Laughs (Lots)
By Norm Scott

Don’t say I didn’t warn you over the past few weeks that getting into see the Rockaway Theatre Company production of Mel Brooks’ The Producers would not be easy unless you reserved early. On opening night someone who attends most of the shows said this may be the best cast ever. A reviewer from a Brooklyn newspaper said, “You will never top this.” And people who won’t get to see it will roll their eyes when I maintain that I liked our cast and production better than the Broadway version with Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane.

There are still two more weekends to run including a special July 27 Thursday night performance, which for the first time in RTC history is sold out. So I’m not going to tell you about the awesome performances at the sold out opening weekend. I’ll let you see for yourself – if you are lucky enough to have a ticket.

I’m not going to rave about first time RTCers Jeremy Plyburn and Craig Evans, playing the leads with perfect timing that deliver a laugh a minute.

Jeremy is a quadruple threat. With a big voice that could reach the back walls of even the largest theater, he also adds singing, dancing and acting in addition to being a comedian - you can tell that Jeremy has worked in comedy clubs. A big man to start with (he is thinner than you think since they added a fat suit to his costume), he plays Max Bialystock “Big” in all ways. His "standing ovation" line brings down the house.

Carmen, Roger, Max, Leo watch in horror as Atsushi Eda does a split

Craig as accountant Leo Bloom (he is also an accountant in real life) clearly comes from a professional acting, singing and dancing background in his earlier life. “His facial expressions are extraordinary,” a friend of mine said. Watch his body language – that of a extremely repressed character verging of being on the spectrum. Watch especially his stiff initial interactions with Ulla. Watch him dance with the chorus girls in the dream sequence, some of whom verge on professional dancers. Watch him interact with his blue blanket and think of Gene Wilder in the movie.

Last year we met two newcomers to the RTC, Erech Holder-Hetmeyer (La Cage) and Brian Sadowski (Follies and La Cage). Both also appeared in A Chorus Line this past spring. In The Producers they team up as the gay couple, Roger Debris, and his assistant, Carmen Gia. I’m not sure how to even describe the goings on in their scenes other than to say they are knock down wild and funny. Erech is a young man who graduated from Edward Murrow high school in Brooklyn five years ago. I know they have a strong theater program. Did he learn how to act, sing and dance so well there? I think it is innate talent. Erech in real life is learning to be an electrician. Brian, who impresses every minute he is on stage in every production, has been a teacher and is now an assistant principal at an elementary school in Brooklyn. Brian will be in the Frank Caiati directed “The Elephant Man” in September.

It says a lot about Director John Gilleece and Producer Susan Jasper and the RTC as an organization that they were willing to cast Max and Leo with newcomers to the RTC, in addition to giving two other key parts (Roger and Carmen) to relative newcomers. That they were willing to pass by some experienced RTCers who auditioned. That the RTC is an open organization that incorporates talent from anywhere. So much talent that when you see even the minor roles in the over 40-member cast you are seeing actors, dancers and singers who have played leads in past productions taking on tiny roles just to be part of the show. (More about them next week).

Franz gives Max and Leo the oath

For the other two key roles, Gilleece went back to the tried and true.

I don’t have to tell regular RTC audience members about the talents of John Panepinto as Hitler (and pigeon) lover Franz Liebkind. This is John’s 14th performance on the RTC stage and whenever he is on the stage he practically brings down the house. I first met John when he starred in How to Succeed in Business… and he can carry an entire show or play featured parts to perfection. Whenever he came on, I ran from the dressing room to the back of the theater to watch him and his pigeons. His comparison of Churchill’s paintings with Hitler’s ability to paint an entire apartment in one afternoon – two coats – gets some of the biggest laughs in the show.

I’m definitely not going to tell you about our local superstar Catherine Leib’s performance as Ulla. I mean how many times can I rave about her beauty, brains and talents? “Why aren’t you on Broadway,” said more than one theater goer to her last weekend? We missed her for a few years when she was on tour but she came back with a vengeance last fall in Toxic Avenger and this spring in A Chorus Line. Her audition dance has every male in the audience (and some females) join Bialystock and Bloom in having their tongues handing out. If you can take your eyes off Ulla, make sure to notice how the guys are reacting. As someone who has gawked in awe at Catherine Leib for a decade, how do I react as the judge when Catherine sidles up to me and starts flirting? If I tell you I’ll have to kill you.

When Norm is not gawking at beautiful women, he blogs at ednotesonline.com.

Steven Wagner, Andy Guzman, James Dalid, Myles Rich prep for their parts (photo by Adele Wendt)

NAACP Issues Report Supporting Public Schools and Demands Charter Reforms

With the expansion of charter schools and their concentration in low-income communities, concerns have been raised within the African American community about the quality, accessibility and accountability of some charters, as well as their broader effects on the funding and management of school districts that serve most students of color.”... NAACP report

I attended a debate - of sorts - sponsored by the NAACP and moderated by a somewhat clueless Politico reporter - about a month ago. Carol Burris was very effective in her presentation. The charter slugs were - well, slugs.

This just came in from Carol and the Network for Public Education:

Something wonderful happened again at the NAACP convention. Despite enormous ed-reform and political pressure, the NAACP stood strong and issued a remarkable report in support of public schools that demands charter reform.
In this WAPO Answersheet blog, I summarize the report. You can read it here.

You can also read the full NAACP report here.
Now it is time for us to thank the NAACP.
Send a "thank you" note. We make it easy. Just click here.
If you are not already a member, join the NAACP today.


Thank you for all that you do. Now please thank the friends of public education at the NAACP.

Please share the link to this email with family and friends.
https://wp.me/p3bR9v-2uh


Carol Burris
Executive Director
Network for Public Education