A Smoking Bush

Hedging my bets if the post on parochial schools offends the higher powers. Couldn't find a burning bush but found the next best thing in the back yard. Not a bad view from the rear window. One more reason to never leave home.

But, alas, I may have to. Can't resist tonight's PEP meeting at Tweed to watch lone Klein critic on the PEP, Patrick Sullivan, question Klein about the small school grad rates and other goodies. I may even bring along a video camera.

Booted

Friday I was getting a hair cut when the phone rang. My haircutist (new word, here) got a phone call from a friend who was crying over the fact her son was just booted out of the parochial school he was attending. After his junior year.
"Why," I asked after she hung up?
"For failing his classes," said the barberista.
Thinking of the discussions I used to have with pro-voucher people like Sol Stern I said, "The people who argue for vouchers always deny parochial schools throw kids out."
"Are you kidding," she said? "They throw kids out all the time. And they took my friend's money for summer school and THEN threw him out. He actually received more attention when he went to the local public high school. Even though he fooled around there they went more out of their way to help him."
"So why did she move him?"
"You know, Catholic school. She thought the discipline would get him serious."
"Sometimes kids have to take responsibility. My advice," I said "is to tell him to drop out and get a job for a while. That should do it."
By now, most of my hair was on the floor. I'll get the rest of the story next month.

Comment: Steve Orel founded the WOO in response to the pushouts of low performing kids in Birmingham. With so much now at stake in public schools (principal bonuses should add too the pot) the amount of pushouts and not so gentle refusals to take certain kids in the first place would increase dramatically. Read Jeff Coplon's piece (posted on the Norm's Notes blog) on the public NEST school for a prime example of how a principal operates to manipulate the school population.

Steve Orel: December 20, 1953 – July 7, 2007

Posted at Susan Ohanian's web site:

http://susanohanian.org/show_commentary.php?id=517
and at Norm's Notes
Read our previous post here.

The Bronx is Burning ... with ATR's

A UFT official writes in an email to one of my correspondents:

"The number of veteran teachers in excess in the Bronx is huge. 33% of the teachers at Stevenson have been placed in excess this June and a whopping 56 employees from Evander Childs have been excessed. Dozens from Walton are out, including the Chapter Leader. Meanwhile, on the hiring committees that I have been attending, at least 3/4 of the applicants have been Teaching Fellows with shiny new Trans B licenses."

*For readers outside the NYC area
ATR: Absentee Teacher Reserve
Recent UFT contracts have so drastically changed (eliminated) seniority rules that used to allow senior teachers to bump junior teachers in their license area. Now they just become substitutes. For those of you who think this is a good thing, keep watching an eye on the ensuing chaos that is occurring. I maintain that with all the evils of seniority, it is still the best (only) way to maintain some level of stability in the system.

Macklein

This past Weds. I was off to see the new Australian modernized version of Macbeth over at the Quad cinema but made a stop at Sony Wonder on 56th and Madison to check in on the robotics gang who were there for the day in the atrium doing exhibitions of FIRST Robotics and FIRST LEGO League. Kids, parents and teachers from Stuyvesant, Lehman HS, HS of Computers and Technology and MS 217Q.

So as I enter the atrium, a few of the teachers come running over, "You missed him. You missed him."

"Missed who," I said?

"Klein. (NYC Schools Chancellor) Joel Klein was here."

"You mean Joel Klein made a special trip down here to see the kids and the robotics," I said disbelievingly?

"No, He just happened to be passing through, checking his Blackberry. We tried to engage him and get him to stop by to talk to the kids but he said he had to catch a plane."

Aha. Serendipitous corroboration that Joel Klein has absolutely no interest in seeing what kids are doing unless it can be used for public relations. And since he didn't have his massive PR core with him, why give even 30 seconds of his precious Blackberry time to stop and say hello to the kids?

These teachers were being polite (and they still work in the system.) Lucky I missed him. I wouldn't have been.

(You can read the feel-good part of the story at my Norm's robotics blog.)

As for Macbeth, a fine movie. We've had our own version here in NYC playing for the past 5 years. In the leads? Who have had the most blood on their hands? YES! BloomKlein in the lead. And do I have to tell you the top choice for Lady Macbeth?

Too Little, Too Late on Class Size...

....UFT uses borough hearings as "Do Nows" to let out a little gas as a way to control militancy.

While we all appreciate the eloquent comments from so many people like John Elfrank-Dana (see post below this one), the reactions of parent groups and the UFT is a case of too little too late.

David Quintana commented on this blog:
I never understood why Randi and most of the other coalition members believed the empty promises of the Tweedies and allowed Bloom/Klein to effectively disrupt and cancel our original rally...We had the Tweedies nervous and they were on the run...Parents got little or nothing in return...Lets be honest...Our side blinked...I know many CPAC members wanted the rally to go forward, even after the UFT bailed out...A parents rally is needed now more than ever...

Our April 20 post titled, "A Unique Opportunity had been missed," was a reaction to the bitter disappointment over the cancellation of what was expected to be a massive rally on May 9th that was killed by the deal between Mayor Bloomberg and a coalition of parents and teachers, but it is clear it was Randi Weingarten's dealings with Bloomberg that killed the rally.

Why? Because Weingarten has the same alliances as BloomKlein do: Eli Broad, the Clintons, Green Dot charters, etc. She can get away with rhetoric criticizing Bloomberg (and note how the UFT has focused on Klein, as if he is independent from Bloomberg), but any street action that actually would have results is too dangerous. The enthusiasm at the Feb. 28th rally at the church that was the precursor to the excitement among teachers and parents in planning the May 9th demonstration scared Weingarten as much as Bloomberg.

Ironic, since she had so much to do with building a good coalition of groups that for the first time was a credible threat to BloomKlein. I never believed she ever intended to hold the demo May 9th in the first place. Her role is not to lead any street movements but to make backroom deals that would prevent any possibility of militancy getting out of the hands of the leaders.

Think of it as a bottle of gas. The leadership keeps things under control by letting out a little at a time and then shutting it once some steam is let out. The current storm of testimony in front of the bogus borough panels set up by Tweed is a perfect example. Busy work and Do Nows for the activist people in the UFT, including the opposition. I can' tell you how many of my colleagues who are opposed to Unity raced down to speak. To what end?

Would you be surprised if you found out that these borough events were part of a plan hatched by Bloomberg and Weingarten as a way to let out that gas just enough to shut people up and distract them from calling for a demo?

When the deal in April was announced, I posted the following on the issue of class size to the influential NYC Education News listserve, which is dominated by activist parents in the NYC area:

"On class size, I don't care what they say or what committees they form. They do not believe that reducing class size will have the same impact spending money on professional development will. That is their mantra... They will say one thing and do another. To put any trust in Tweed given their record is a mistake."

Many other posts to the listserve made similar points. NYC High School Parent Council head David Bloomfield: Promises of consultation on class size, drop out prevention, and middle school reform seem little more than crumbs.

The leaflet put out by the Independent Community of Educators (ICE) at the April Delegate Assembly said on the class size reductions in the deal:
"Expect spinning the wheels. ICE’s position has always been that there will be no reductions in class size without contract negotiations."

The reactions of the UFT and parent advocacy groups - attend press conferences, write politicians, speak out at the borough meetings are all fine. But if all they do is let off steam then it is just a case of marking time - more of the same old, same old.

Forget all of this and start building for a rally at City Hall this fall. We have been told all along by Weingarten when we kept calling for the May 9th rally to be held (the UFT rescheduled it's Delegate Assembly on May 9th) and when the Manhattan HS chapter leaders' call for a rally was rejected by Weingarten and Unity Caucus at the DA (see video of the DA here) with the argument that we will hold a rally if the DOE goes back on its deal.

Holding that rally on May 9th would have been the best way to get class size reduction and many other items on the agendas of parents and teachers. But the age-old reliance on politicians and the leadership of Randi Weingarten has misdirected all too many people away from the understanding that street action works. No one seemed to learn the lesson that was made so strongly at the February 28 rally that frightened BloomKlein into sitting down at a table that was heavily tilted in their direction. But when the very person supposedly leading the movement is really in alignment with Bloomberg, the chances of putting something together that will actually have an impact is very unlikely.

Only when there is a movement of teachers independent of the yoke of Unity caucus and a corresponding movement of parent groups not under the dominance (and fear) of the UFT leadership, will there be a chance to have an impact.


Follow ups:
An article and leaflet handed out by ICE "What was gained and what was lost" and the "Top 10 reasons to oppose the reorganization".

Speaking of Class Size by John Elfrank-Dana

John is the chapter leader of Murray Bergtraum HS in Manhattan.

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

http://laborslessons.blogspot.com/

Here I sit at the DOE hearing on the new Fair Student Funding scheme in the Project for Excellence (or something like that).

I made the following statement, facing the parents in the audience, which required me to turn my back on the Chancellor's panel (no disrespect intended).

Statement for Hearing on NYC Dept. of Education Contracts for Excellence

Millennium High School

7/11/2007

Good evening parents, students and colleagues. My name is John Elfrank-Dana. I am a social studies teacher at Murry Bergtraum High School, UFT Chapter Leader, Adjunct Professor at Fordham University and Carnegie Scholar. I am here tonight as a matter of conscience. I am here because I believe the success of the public school system is essential to preserving and extending our democratic society. And I am here especially because I am concerned your children are being systematically disenfranchised.

I came to teach at Murry Bergtraum in 1986. What I saw there was a vibrant educational community; a community to which I was hoping to send my own children some day. However, I am sad to report to you that it is no longer the case. My own children now attend school in a suburban district with class sizes of twenty-five or fewer students in buildings not over-crowded. My children, as did the children of many of the corporate bureaucrats who now run this City’s education system, have an educational advantage over my students at Bergtraum. This disparity is immoral and undemocratic.

The result of this injustice has landed Bergtraum on the No Child Left Behind’s hit list of failing schools. Once a model school, recognized nationally for its business program, Bergtraum is now a holding pen for large numbers of students the DOE doesn’t know what to do with as a result of the its rushed and reckless move to create small schools. As a result of this imposed injustice on our school we are required to take corrective action. We are told to evolve into a complex of “Small” Learning Communities. At Bergtraum we are taking on this challenge full steam. However, the prospect of successfully carrying out the required cultural change is not auspicious, as we are a school of 3500+ students and staff, in a building designed for 2400, with class sizes remaining at 34 and hallways swelling with students in the heart of a three-session school day. The term “small” is meaningless for us.

At Murry Bergtraum we demand a chance to succeed. The Mayor is obligated to provide the means for us to do so. The overcrowding must stop and class sizes must be brought down to levels comparable to surrounding suburban districts. We parents, students and educators, must continue to combine forces and mobilize using the methods of the great civil rights struggle against the corporatization of the school system. Over-sized classes are one component of a broader injustice taking place in our school system. It’s class size reduction that is the first and essential step in wresting control away from Mayoral tyranny over our schools and brining the “public” back into public education here in New York City.

Reviewing Weingarten Performance...

.... More Boo Hoo as Randi Weingarten runs around the city crying about the way the Tweedles at the DOE are allocating the CFE money. Robert Jackson calls a press conference. The CFE's executive director, Geri Palast , Weingarten, and Jackson will urge state officials to reject it. if it is not revised. Palast said litigation would be a last resort. "Before we consider further court action, we must raise a ruckus here and now," she said.

Here's a way to raise a ruckus:
RESINSTATE THE DAMN MAY 9TH RALLY THAT WEINGARTEN SOLD OUT

A parent on the NYC Education News listserve wrote:

On reviving the May 9th parent rally -- I vote for rescheduling it to the Tuesday after Labor Day -- and bringing our kids with us! Having it on that day (with the attendant loss of state aid for the missing kids) might help penetrate Tweed's consciousness about adding school days without consulting with parents.

Make sure to race on over to Pissed off Mom's blog to read her take on holding a rally.

Klein and Weingarten: separated at birth
Here's the best from Weingarten:
"Ultimately, ultimately after teacher quality, lowering class size is the second most important factor in helping children."

In today's David Herzenhorn finale to the ed beat in the Times, he quotes Joel Klein: “The most important thing in education is the quality of teachers,” Mr. Klein said.

They must have the same script writer.

Next time they use the term "teacher quality" ask them how you can tell a quality teacher. Or better yet, measure one. I don't know about others, but there were days (hours, minutes) when I was a quality teacher and times when I wasn't. Mornings I was top quality. After lunch, not so much.

Better yet, I was a higher quality teacher when class sizes were lower. Weingarten is putting the cart before the horse. Or is just behind the horse's ass.

I can't tell you what makes a quality teacher. It's one of those "You know one when you see one" deals.

This review came in from a teacher of Weingarten's appearance in the Bronx the other day at the DOE "hearing" where they gave everyone 2 minutes to talk.

Whining and mewling like a 6-mo. old kitten, speaking with no gravitas, dignity, or fire. She looked like she could be stepped on. When she was told she went past her 2 min. time -- as if she were just an ordinary public citizen -- she pleaded for extra minutes and whined something like "You only told us 3 days ago."

Being derelict in her duties as President of the Union. She should have been holding a press conference in front of cameras outside to make her points of non-inclusion in the process. She should have done everything that union leaders do. But no. She just looked like she was just one person in a small- size crowd. She made less impression than the group of 15 Spanish parents who actually spoke better, all carrying identical signs to back up their leaders' points. It was impressive, and it put the union to shame.

As for bringing up teacher quality at THIS meeting. It was off-point and gratuitous.

The Carnival Of Education: Week 127

Head over to the midway of the 127th Carnival of Education!
The very latest roundup of entries from around the EduSphere. Now playing at the Education Wonks.

We have 2 items submitted, which means this blog will get hits from all over the place. Let the word go out... BloomKlein have destroyed the school system an the UFT has helped them.

The Real Swindle is at Edwize

Look for updates to this post later tonight.

Boo Hoo, they are crying at Edwize over the class size swindle. Notice how the author, a full-time union employee and Unity Caucus member, doesn't dare use that hated word "rally."

Remember all the posts here about how the Manhattan high school chapter leaders call for a rally was turned down by the Unity horde (gee, how do you think the poser on Edwize voted?) with the words from the leadership, "If they don't adhere to the agreement (made in April) to kill the May 9th rally, we can still hold a rally." Really? Think it's time? Our reporting and calls for a rally led to another vicious mad-dog Unity leaflet attack on this blog.

NYC Educator has been on the case so make sure to check out his latest with lots of links.

I posted the following on the nyc education news listserve when there were calls to attend the Robert Jackson press conference at City Hall on Sunday and go to the borough hearings.

"It's fine to go ahead with all these activities. But the single thing that will have the most impact is to hold the massive rally that was originally planned for May 9th. The only reason they agreed to sit down at all was because of that threat. We know that Tweed is not to be trusted. Why fiddle around? Go for the gusto."

I'll be back later tonight with lots more on this issue, including commentary on calls to attend borough hearings run by the Tweedles (you can get your 2 minutes in which Randi did in the Bronx yesterday - bet she didn't mention rally.)

A New Teacher Story - updated

Scene: Elementary school in a very deprived area of the city.

Characters:
Principal, Queen bee type, arrogant and abusive. Don't know if she's from Leadership Academy* but perfectly typecast, if so.
* Yes she is

First year teacher, 4th grade. Results on tests are good. Does lesson planning with other 4th grade teacher.

Time: End of '06/'07 school year

Action: Teacher gets rating. Almost every category is a U, including "lesson Plans" which are the same as the other 4th grade teacher who got an S in that category. But new Teacher gets an overall "D" rating for the year. Other categories like appearance, neatness of room are left blank.

Question of the day:
Should she behave like most first year teachers would and be happy she did not get a "U"?

Hell No!

Fly in the ointment:
Teacher was never observed by principal. She calls a variety of people to complain, including the Leadership Academy and a higher up, the Local Instructional Supt. Gets a call back from LIS a few hours later telling teacher she is at the school looking at her Unsatisfactory observation. Teacher goes to school next day (last of the year) and goes to principal with chapter leader asking to see her file. Inside she finds an observation of a lesson she never gave signed with her name, but it is not her signature. She tells the principal that, who snatches the observation out of her hands.

What does teacher do? She calls the cops and tells them the principal forged her name. Principal is now under investigation. Hope she has a nice summer.

The teacher should be president of the UFT.

Postscript: Under this principal of a fairly small elementary school, 28 people have left in just a few years. The mission of Leadership Academy grads is to force out everyone they can and replace them with their own people, obviously using whatever tactics they can, even if immoral (see my stories on Kathy Blythe of PS 147K who was arrested at the instigation of a Lead. Acad grad) or illegal.

Sicko Union

We saw Michael Moore's "Sicko" the other day - at the behest of our 23 year old cousin who just graduated from college. It's nice to see interest in the issue of health insurance from the younger generation. But then again, faced with the prospect that they may have no health insurance, who can blame them?

There is no question the movie will have an impact on the debate, though I always have issues with some of the methods Moore uses in all his movies, especially his disingenuousness. There was also a feeling of exploitation. When you are up against the powerful forces arrayed aghast you on this issue, I guess some of it is justified, though in some cases Moore's case is weakened in his uncritical admiration for, say France, where certain elements of society do not seem exactly enamored, despite free health care. And when Moore points to the fact that so many other services are paid for in the public arena, like schools, I guess he isn't aware of the privatization efforts of people of BloomKlein ilk - by the way, Mike, examining what they did to education in NYC would be a fitting topic for your next documentary. Call it "Sicko II."

But this is about the UFT and the health care issue, inspired by a comment on ICE-mail by Sean Ahern:

"As the owner of HIP does UFT Inc. qualify as a health insurance company? When was the last time our so-called union called for a single payer national health insurance plan? Could it be that their business interests trump all others?"

Now, some members of the UFT will say, "Why should we care about universal health care? We have a pretty good plan." While "Sicko" points to the fact that even people with health plans can find themselves in financial risk at some point, I will take the road of saying that a union that has the resources the UFT has, should be out there fighting for such a basic right for all people in society, especially since so many of our students may not exactly be getting the best health care. Think that affects the job teachers can do?

But I haven't seen the UFT making too many of the political points that unions used to make. And don't expect the AFT to do any more when it has new leadership. As Sean says, they are business unions functioning more in support of the status quo than interested in changing it.

Steve Orel: He is gone...

Posted by Glenda Jo Orel

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

W. H. Auden


We are so sad to report the passing of the remarkable Steve Orel after putting up one of the great battles against colon cancer. But no one was surprised that Steve would fight to the end. After all, he fought the Klan in Birmingham (as a Jew and civil rights worker in Birmingham, that ain't easy), the racist policies of the Birmingham Board of Education, and his most valiant fight of all - to make the WOO (World of Opportunity) a place where the poorest, most downtrodden students would get a second chance. The recipient of ACT NOW's "Courage in Education Award," that barely touches on the incredible things Steve accomplished.

It is often said about people who pass, they will be sorely missed. By the people who loved them. Or worked with them. In Steve's case, he will be missed by all of humanity. There is probably no worse time to lose someone like Steve.

In April 2006 I hitched a ride with friends Ira and Sheila Goldfine who were driving down south. We loaded up the Godfine's van with old computers, books and whatever else we could gather, as The WOO has become a center for the distribution of "stuff" to people in need. With Steve's illness looming so large, we never expected to see Steve, who I met at the ACT NOW conference organized by SusanOhanian, Juanita Doyan and others to forge a national resistance to the evils of high stakes testing and to battle against the upcoming NCLB Act. The conference was held at the WOO in March 2003 where Steve was given his Award. Steve included the entire WOO in accepting the Award.

We were on the highway looking for The WOO, when a van cut us off, the driver pointing to follow him. Hey, this is the south, and we were nervous, but we got off at the exit. A yellow paper popped out the window. In bright red letters, it said "WOO" on it. when we pulled into theWOO's driveway, out popped Steve from the car, his arm in a sling from all the crap they had been pumping into him. "You didn't think I wouldn't recognize 3 Jews from New York, did you," he said with a big smile? That was the first time Ira and Sheila had met Steve and after an hour with him talking education, politics, people, kids, etc. theimpression he made on them was as great as anyone they had ever met.


Ira, Sheila and I visited with Steve and Glenda Jo one evening a few months ago on one of their visits to Sloan Kettering here in NY and heard all the horror stories about the health care system directly from them. Michael Moore could have made "Sicko" just using their story. I consider myself very lucky to have gotten to see Steve twice in the past year or so.


The other day, when things were looking bleak, Glenda Jo, asked for final messages to be read to Steve in his final days. Knowing Steve as a man with one of the great senses of humor, I could imagine him making jokes about his situation 'till the end. So I sent a bunch of politically oriented chicken crossing the road jokes along with the message below. I hope he got to hear a few of them and smile.


Dear Steve,
While there's much to be sad about, there's so much to cheer in a life well lived. We only met a few times but I feel I've known you so well. I wish we had more time to hang out and schmooze, and, most of all, laugh. Of course, your first words to me when we met at the WOO were "Hello, what subject do you want to tutor? Here's someone to work with. See you later." No laughs there. I didn't find out about your amazing sense of humor 'till later when we went to get those peace banners from your car for the weekly anti-war vigil on a corner in downtown Birmingham, Al., as surrealist experience as I've had.

You said such kind words about what you noticed about the work I did with the student. You got me as a teacher in just a few moments. I value those words of yours as much an any praise I have received.

But enough of the serious stuff, Steve. As a man with as good a sense of humor as anyone I have met, we know that there's nothing you like better than a good laugh. And you are about the only one I know who, despite your situation, will find a laugh to be the best medicine. When Oscar Wild was in your situation he said, "Either that wallpaper goes, or I do."

And given the point we are at and the risk of doing anything in bad taste - but of course, "bad taste" are my middle names, I revert to the venerable use of the "chicken crossing the road" series, which no matter how dire the situation, I hope will bring a smile to your face. Or at least, get you to start removing that wall paper.

From Susan Ohanian:
I mourn the loss of my soul brother, friend, and great champion of young people. He started the World of Opportunity in Birmingham, Alabama to right the injustice of students terminated by the public school system. The door at the WOO is always open for students to get a second chance. . . and a third and a fifteenth, when need be.

Steve, your spirit fills the streets of Birmingham and the hearts of all who were privileged to know you.

Susan has been sending contributions to the WOO from the sale of this CD:
Order the CD of the resistance:
"No Child Left Behind? Bring Back the Joy."
To order online (and hear samples from the songs)
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/dhbdrake4
Other orders: Send $15 to
Susan Ohanian
P. O. Box 370
Charlotte, VT 05445

Another way to assist Glenda Jo in keeping The WOO running.

Support the World of Opportunity!
Start your Amazon.com shopping at
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/subst/home/home.html/102-6736567-7856906


Thanks to John Lawhead for these pics of Steve when we visited the WOO in '03

DOE to Schools: Class Size Go Blah!

The DOE had a press release on reducing class size today. Thank goodness we have Leonie Haimson to decipher the gobboly gook for us.

Okay, what many of us were breathlessly waiting for turned out not to be worth waiting for at all.

There is nothing that Tweed submitted today that resembles a real class size reduction plan, and it clearly does not comply with the state mandate.

Moreover, they appear to think that they can charge $40 million for the interim assessments, including “data inquiry teams” and the Senior Achievement Facilitators (SAFs), to the state-funded contracts for excellence and the CFE funds; this doesn’t fall under any of the categories set out by state law – as even their own summary reveals: http://schools.nyc.gov/Offices/ChildrenFirst/CFE/ContractProgramAreas/default.htm

Instead of adding to instructional time, the interim assessments further diminish it.

More real analysis soon, particularly of their totally inadequate class size reduction proposal, or what they are trying to package as such.

Meanwhile for those who are interested, some highly tendentious and debatable documents are here:

http://schools.nyc.gov/Offices/ChildrenFirst/CFE/ContractProposal/default.htm

http://schools.nyc.gov/NR/rdonlyres/219D42DE-28DB-4531-8935-ED47A53EAC1C/23819/FairStudentFundingandtheContractsforExcellence.pdf

http://schools.nyc.gov/NR/rdonlyres/358C31A7-2EC8-43CD-9B40-4838FADC361C/23890/NYCDOEClassSizePlan.pdf

I hope that all of you will come out to the hearings in each borough next week; save the dates and locations that are below. I will supply talking points for those who would like them.

Thanks,
Leonie Haimson
Executive Director
Class Size Matters

leonie@att.net
www.classsizematters.org
http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/

Okay, Leonie, as you know I am not new to this issue, but can you play devils advocate and tell us is there any conceivable reason why the administration would not support a real lower class size initiative. During all my years it was always a goal in our schools and in our district to bring down class size where we could scrape together the funds to do so. So why, what is the reason, that the bloom/klein team don't want to do it. Something so simple that everyone seems to believe would be a real boon to education in NYC there has to be some reason why they don't want to do it.

dorothy

region 6 hs

I get asked this question all the time and I usually refuse to answer on the grounds that I would be speculating.

But between us, I would guess the following: It doesn’t fit their game plan; they don’t care/think it matters much, and they don’t want to have to bother to build enough schools to make it happen throughout the city. They have never been educators so they have no idea how difficult/impossible the job is when you have 28 or more needy students. They believe it’s just a matter of getting the right sort of teacher.

Of course they would never consider depriving their own kids of smaller classes…but you get the idea.

It is no longer a lack of funding. They would just rather spend the money elsewhere – on consultants, ARIS, more testing, data inquiry teams, school achievement facilitators, SSO’s and PSO’s, charter schools, small schools, etc.etc. You get the idea.

And so it’s our job to fight like mad, and to try to make sure that all the CFE funds don’t get wasted.

Leonie

I would add to Leonie's answer to Dorothy that class size reduction has many ramifications: many more schools, many more teachers, and the bureaucratic structure to support it. These are long-term solutions and they are only interested in short-term answers so they can make their political points in the limited time they are in power.

Everyone knows that top suburban schools and elite private schools have low class sizes. But the Bloom/Kleins, Eli Broads, KIPP, Green Dot, etc -- those phony reformers of the public education system -- envision a very different education for the inner city -- and they want to do it on the cheap: use narrow standards and narrow tests to create a narrow level education to prepare whatever kids come out "successfully" for the narrow job market that will be available to them -- a very different job market than available for the graduates of the elite schools where kids get a very different education. Check out blogger jd2718's post on two separate education systems for some good analysis related to the small schools.

Today's This & That - July 4, 2007

Happy Post July 4th

Rush on over to NYC Educator - DO NOT PASS GO - to read this week's Carnival of Education round-up of the blogs, where he features a few choice items from this abode. http://nyceducator.com/

There is an item from blogger and NYC teacher jd2718 "Do we really want Black and White kids to be educated not only separately, but differently?" that makes so many good points I wish I had written it myself as he analyzes some crucial issues related to the small school movement and how it has been implemented. As I pointed out in my post about how the DOE has a dog in the hunt, when it comes to this issue and will use every PR move to make sure their dog wins.

While I have had issues with jd2718 over his support for the role the former opposition caucus New Action has played with its total support for Weingarten and Unity, it was nice to see him at least raise the the possibility that the UFT should be taking more of a role on this issue besides passing resolutions and issuing reports - both PR moves from my point of view. I repeat uncle Normie's mantra: watch what the UFT leadership does, not what it says. jd2718's point below pretty much nails it:

"The United Federation of Teachers issued a report saying that we support a mix of large and small schools. But there is no mix. Some groups of neighborhoods have large schools. Some have good mini-schools. And some have ‘redesign’ and Gates mini-schools. Which groups of neighborhoods have a mix? The UFT’s resolution has never been acted on. We have never challenged in a serious way the Department of Ed’s willy-nilly opening of lousy mini-schools, or their disruption of larger schools. And today? Today the UFT is partnering with Green Dot to bring a small charter high school to…. the Bronx. We already set one up in Brooklyn. And Green Dot doesn’t have a pretend report about supporting a mix of types of schools."

I just hope New Action leader Mike Shulman doesn't get too much agita that one of his members might have gone too far to make Randi mad. Bet he gets a call from Leo Casey.

Jolanta Rohloff in today's Daily News:
"We're very pleased and relieved," said Lise Hirschberg, who heads East Harlem's Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics school's chapter of the teachers union. "Klein objects to moving bad teachers around the system, but that is apparently what they're doing in this particular case."

In her new $130,000-a-year job, Rohloff will be developing a new high school that she will run when it opens in 2008 - a job specially created for her, said schools spokeswoman Melody Meyer.

We're sure teachers will just be dying to work there. They'll probably have to hire them off the dead scroll list. Jolanta has already given U-ratings to 20% of the prospective staff before hiring anyone. Gary Babad of GBN News at the NYC Public School Parent Blog reports the real story behind the scenes and reveals who the other candidate for principal at Manhattan Center really is.


Check Samuel Freedman's article in Wed. ed section of the NY Times which I posted on the Norms Notes blog. Of note are the assinine comments of Andres Alonso regarding the overwhelming paperwork ESL teachers labor under. His blabber just reaffirms my post on my own brief experience with Alonso. I would love to hear from any teachers who actually worked with Alonso. I bet he had real disdain for his colleagues. As I said, "Good luck Baltimore."


In response to this post on ICE mail,
"I heard a rumor in the Unity grapevine that Randi is trying to set her table up for a possible nomination for Secretary of Labor should Hillary Clinton be elected President. Randi wants to appear more conservative and tougher on labor in order to have an easier nomination process before conservative Republican Senators. This could explain Randi's collaboration with BloomKlein."

Michael Fiorillo responded:
Well, if Randi wants to appear tough on labor, she's done a pretty good job by going out of her way to undermine the AFT local in Los Angeles. Her embrace of Green Dot, despite their maintaining a company union in LA, is a disgrace.

I had assumed that the green Dot ploy was her entrance onto the national stage vis-a-vis her expected assumption of the national AFT throne. Either way, duplicity and betrayal, in the guise of "new realities" and "cooperation" with management, is the order of the day.

EdNotes comment:
I totally disagree that Weingarten is interested in the Dept. of Labor position, since once out of that office she would not gain entrance back into the labor movement. Leading the AFL-CIO eventually is the perfect arc. But it all starts with the AFT presidency in July '08.


I was at a meeting last night with a bunch of people of various ages and experience in the schools who represent a wide constituency of interests in education. One of the article I read in prep was on Neo-liberalism as it relates to education by Lois Weiner. It nailed and tied together so many points related to privatization of schools, Eli Broad, the World Bank, standards, testing, etc. and the role the unions, in particular the AFT contrasted with the NEA, play in this scenario. We're working on a series of events addressing many of these issues for next year. We'll keep you posted.


I was at the annual July 4th party in Rockaway today - this is about the 30th edition we've been to - where we get to see people only this once a year. Naturally there were a bunch or retired or soon to be retired teachers. One of them works a few days a week doing PD in a small school - one of 4 or 5 occupying a large school that was closed years ago. She said that with each year things in these small schools get worse and in a few years the building will be as bad as the one that closed. She feels so bad for the newer, younger teachers and said their first year, one of the main things she does is pass out tissues. A lifetime high school teacher with an impeccable rep, she gave more insight into how the DOE has been able manipulate the grad rates through lots of subtle and not so subtle pressures to pass kids so they graduate on time. She points to the importance to the DOE of keeping students in their cohort - one of the major words we hear bandied about - and all sort of little tricks are used. Like a few days or even hours of summer school instead of a full course to pass kids for courses they have failed. And of course, teachers marking their own students' regent exams. She said she actually gets physically ill at some of the things she sees going on. There was more but it's midnight and time to go.

The 14th floor is deserted....

... at 52 Broadway.

Your dues at work

50 members of the Unity steering committee are enjoying an all expenses paid trip to Philly for the NEA convention! Yes, that's NEA, not AFT. Well, you know, the NEA and AFT merged in NY State into NYSUT so they need 50 more YES votes.

Philly fans greet Unity leaders

It started last Saturday and ends this Saturday. Many UFT'ers are staying at the Sheraton. Anyone out there with a video camera? You can have lots of fun visiting the Philly hot spots after 12 noon any day - the zoo, baseball, the track, Reading market, shopping - and don't forget the bars at night.

While in Philly, Unity Caucus will adopt the crack in the Liberty Bell as a metaphor for their leadership of the UFT

Tilden and Lafayette: A Tale of 2 Chapters...

....What a farce 3

The response from the Unity gang at Lafayette to the posts of comments by current and former teachers at the school is so indicative of how Unity operates. They brag about how they got rid of the doctor even though the patient died. And add on some egregious statements that confirm the charge of one teacher about how they play both sides against the middle.

Unity: The DOE had the support of the Alumni.
ICE: They distributed to all staff the recent op-ed by well-known Lafayette alumnus Jerry Della Feminina denouncing Klein for closing Lafayette and calling for a rally of alumni to keep the school open.

Unity: Support the 2005 contract and denounce the ICE person at the school for being anti-union for opposing the contract.
ICE: They ostentatiously denounce the 2005 contract as the "worst" contract ever.

The anon. Unity comment "the ICE guy MELTED during the fight against Rohloff" is interesting considering he was the one who openly was quoted in the NY Post about the lack of textbooks in articles as he stood up despite Rohloff's attacks. That has to be put in the context of the comments from the teachers who were attacked by Rohloff (as posted in both What a Farce items below) that they did not feel the Unity people really fought for them. Besides, as one of the fairest-minded people I know, the ICE guy always felt that, though Rohloff was so wrong-headed, he felt she had some positive things about her and never gave up the idea of getting her to function in a better way. Idealistic? Maybe. But he kept his eye on the prize - keeping the school open.

Contrast the actions of the Unity people at Lafayette with the way the Tilden chapter responded as both scenarios played out at the same time. Weingarten, who in the initial stages did not respond at Tilden, was forced to do so when the chapter activated itself to engaged in an active fight to keep the school open, a fight that they are still engaging in, as Meredith Kolodner pointed out in last week's article in The Chief.

I posted a series of articles on the evolving situation in Tilden on this blog. (Do a search of the blog for the Tilden tag to read them, in particular the comments of ICE's John Lawhead, one of the leaders of the fight keep Tilden open.

Of course having a user-friendly principal at Tilden helps, so the cases are not exactly equal. But the ICE person tried to get the chapter at Lafayette to unite behind the idea of keeping the school open.

When Weingarten said that Lafayette should be closed -

"It is no secret that there have been problems at Lafayette, so its closing is not surprising. We are working with the DOE to create a redesigned school - and potentially two new schools - that parents will want to send their children to and where educators will want to teach."

-that was the death knell for any action by the Unity reps there to engage in such a fight. The Unity gang owe allegiance to Unity and the leadership over the members at Lafayette - remember, there are free conventions to attend and other perks. So when the leadership decided getting Rohloff's scalp took priority over a battle to keep the school open, it was game, set and match for the demise of Lafayette. The people at Tilden may not win the fight and end up being closed anyway, but they are still in the game.

The Unity "victory" over Rohloff has resulted, and will result, in many of the teachers at Lafayette ending up as ATR's. The anon. Unity commented,

"As the unity folks at Lafayette have seniority, more than 60 years combined in teaching, they have a right to remain until excessed. Or do you and the ICE person begrudge them that?"

With the Unity abandonment of seniority, resulting in so many senior teachers under attack despite, and maybe because of their high salaries, this comment shows they are not too worried. Just another perk of being in Unity.

What a farce II...

... a response to Unity

Yesterday's "What a Farce" posting resulted in a comment by an anonymous Unity person, most probably one of the 2 Unity people referred to in the response below:

I read the "What a Farce" item on your blog, and your facts are correct. The note from "anonymous" purports to be for the record, but it attempts to muddy the record. The ICE person tried to do just what you said he did, get the chapter to ease up on the relentless ad null campaign against Rohloff in order to focus the chapter's energies against the closing and the long-term negative impact on the school of this strategy since as long as the closing was a fait accompli, Rohloff was gone anyway. That's the kind of "support" for Rohloff, in order to challenge Weingarten's capitulation to Klein's small school, break the union strategy. The ICE person asked for a truce in the battle against Rohloff and that would have built a stronger chapter that could have also checked Rohloff's U-rating binges.

As you suggest, the two [Unity] prime movers of the "Rohloff is the root of all evil" demarche, remain secure in their jobs, at least for now. Meanwhile, they ostentatiously denounce the 2005 contract as the "worst" contract ever, without even mentioning that they supported it, stuffed the mailboxes for Unity, and attacked ICE for being anti-union [because ICE opposed the 2005 contract].

"Anonymous" further claims that the Alumni, as well as one politician approved the takeover of Lafayette by the High School of Sports Management and two other schools. Yet "Anonymous" also distributed to all staff the recent Post (?) op-ed by well-known Lafayette alumnus Jerry Della Feminina denouncing Klein for closing Lafayette and calling for a rally of alumni to keep the school open. I hope more alumni write your blog and let you know how much they "approve" of the closing of Lafayette!

Small Schools: Bloomberg & Klein have a dog in the hunt....

... thus, politics takes precedence over education

Exploring some of the complexities of the small schools/large schools issue.

As Canarsie high school parents met with Region 6 Officials - sort of, we think - the press was banned - we noticed a poster on the door of the Region HQ at 5719 Flatlands Ave. says "Your voice counts. When one parent speaks schools listen." Sure.

On Monday, June 25, a group of parents and teachers and some students came to the Region 6 HQ in its final days to ask for a meeting to discuss the planned removal of principal David Harris. What they got was typical DOE mumbo jumbo. That, added to the fact that not all of them were allowed into the meeting. Lack of space or something like that. There must be special training sessions at Tweed on exactly what to say to people who demand answers.

It is certainly of interest that in their dying gasps, just days before they officially closed down the operation, officials of Region 6 chose to disrupt yet another high school with the removal of Harris, a popular principal who seems to have the support of parents, teachers and many students.

One teacher, just days away from retirement, said that Harris in his year and a half tenure had begun to change the culture of a school that has been under serious difficulty over a period of many years.

My guess would be that the removal of Harris is part to the overall plan to close down Canarsie to make room for a gaggle of charter schools by making it impossible to show any success.

In giving some background to a reporter from Channel 12, I talked about the political context of the action in Canarsie against the backdrop of the closing of just about all the other large schools in the immediate area – Jefferson, Tilden, South Shore, Wingate – leaving Canarsie as the last large school standing. When I and another teacher made some critical comments regarding small schools, the reporter said, "What's wrong with small schools?" We told her there is nothing intrinsically wrong with small schools, but when shoved into larger ones creating even more pressures leading their ultimate closing, they are being used as a political tool.

"Explain," she said.

If you start out with the idea that you are going to make the establishment of successful small schools one of the pillars of your national reputation as an educational miracle maker and stake your political bones on these grounds, then you have a political ax to grind to make large schools look bad and small schools look good. BloomKlein and their Tweedle Dees have a dog in that race and will manipulate stats to give their small school dog every edge they can. Note the extolling of grad rates in small schools and the concurrent attack on the stats in large schools. While the numbers have grains of truth in them, as usual there is a story behind the numbers.

See the accompanying piece at Norm's Notes where Diane Ravitch nails the details on the spinage spilling out of the mouths of Tweed on grad rates.

Since small schools in their initial years do not have the facilities to accept some of the more difficult students to work with, like special ed and students with language difficulties, these students end up gravitating to the nearest large schools still remaining open. This is moving pieces, which is all the children are to the Tweedles, around a game board. Or rearranging those proverbial deck chairs on the Titanic.

In fact there is a lot of information on the subtle creaming to skim the better students that goes on at these small schools. Klein denies it, pointing to the number of Level 1's and 2's and to the fact that 90% of the students are African-American and Hispanic (figures the DOE gives us no way to prove by withholding access to the actual data.) Because schools require an application process where a proactive parent must make an active decision, that alone is a form of creaming. Even low performing students academically, but with parents concerned enough to take action, are often not the kind of behavior problems and that make such an enormous difference in how a school functions.

I have no problems with the fact that these kids are skimmed and often saved by the attention they get in the small schools, one of their prime benefits. But I object to the way the policy is implemented in a way to harm way more kids than are helped. Plus the outright lies and distortions.

When I was a teacher and had difficult kids heading for middle school where I knew they would get lost, I hoped that such schools would exist. I even looked for one for an extremely difficult child who ended up dropping out in the 7th grade and was killed at 18 while selling drugs. So I absolutely support the movement to create small learning environments. But not in the way it is being done by BloomKlein, whose main purpose is political, not educational.

Let's at least be open abut what is going on. Any teacher or administrator will tell you that a fairly small cadre of difficult to manage kids can infect an entire school. These are kids who have parents that will not be out there looking for a small learning environment. In cases that they do and the kids end up in a small school that is in no way equipped to deal with the difficulties they present, in many cases the school does the kinds of things that will drive the kid to either drop out or transfer to a large school.

See examples of how schools do this in Jeff Coplon's New York Mag amazing piece "NEST+m: An Allegory" the most succinct account I've read of the manipulation principals engage in to drive students out. I had the opportunity to meet Jeff at a party last Friday night and told him this was one of the most perceptive pieces I had read and points to the serious lack of adequate reporting by the NYC Ed press. Jeff said it was his first ed piece. Kudos to him.

Most of these kids also want to be able to hang out with buddies, roam the halls, etc -- all the things that drive all schools, but especially the larger ones to distraction. They become an infection of sorts to the rest of t he kids. As to how to rescue these kids, we'll address at another time.

But the DOE shell game of moving schools around creates a class of nomad students not really wanted by anyone, but the large schools are forced to accept them and schools like Canarsie, which as we pointed out, will be overloaded with these super at-risk students who will be joined by many students who will not find room in the small schools in the neighborhood. That at a time of the massive reorganization and the expectation that with South Shore and Tilden not accepting 9th graders who will gravitate to Canarsie, the idea of not leaving Harris there as principal and bringing in someone new at this crucial point in time is insane. But this is the NYC DOE. I have an idea. Try Jolanta Rohloff who can deal with the situation by threatening teachers with u ratings. (One sidelight of Harris' removal was his refusal to come up with his quota of U-ratings.) Sorry, she's slated to destroy Manhattan Center for Math & Science.

Since there will never be enough room in the very cost-intensive small schools where the Bill Gates money runs out after 4 years and these schools begin to face some of the downhill slides if they cannot attract enough students who can perform well academically, the people at Tweed ought to invest the capital necessary to attempt to fix the large schools instead of throwing up their hands and saying it is no use.

The attack on large schools, using the buzz words of "we need to change the culture" is an attempt to replace a teaching staff that is often more knowledgeable about their union rights - in effect a union-busting tactic. In essence, they want to change the culture on the backs of young, inexperienced teachers who will be often be burned out after just a few years and replaced.

When I attended a luncheon at the Manhattan Institute for Christopher Cerf, he said throwing money at educational problems doesn't automatically fix them. I raised the point that the DOE under BloomKlein is willing to throw all kinds of money at consultants, expensive computer systems and all kinds of pet programs, but not at schools. I asked, "Why not at least try throwing money at schools like Tilden and Lafayette instead of closing them? Try putting enormous amounts of personnel to provide guidance, social workers and a drastic reduction in class size." He had no response. But that's expected when you have a dog in the hunt.

Bloomberg and Klein's dog (undoubtedly a lap dog) is proving one of the underpinnings of their restructuring of the NYC school system - the success of the small schools - will be hammered home again and again even at the expense of the overwhelming majority of students remaining in the large high schools. To them, the collateral damage to an entire generation of students is a small price to pay. If there were truly an educational pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, we could at least say their motives were pure. But every day they reinforce the idea that it's all about politics, not education.