Columbus, the Truth behind the Myth

The student examines and understands major ideas, eras, themes, developments, turning points, chronology, and cause-and-effect relationships in US, World, and Washington State history.

GRADE LEVEL: Secondary

BASIC CONCEPTS: Clearing up many of the misconceptions, myths, and misunderstandings behind the mainstream view of Christopher Columbus.

ORGANIZING GENERALIZATION: The voyages of Columbus changed the lives of American Indians forever. We must begin to present a perspective about him that is more acceptable to the sensitivity of Indian history. Instead of perpetuating the many inaccuracies found in textbooks, or the commonly used terms, ideas and concepts that refer to a biased viewpoint, we must look at the devastation to Native cultures his "arrival" on this continent foreshadowed.

Full plan posted at NIARI Curriculum Project and Norm's Notes

Northwest Indian Applied Research Institute At The Evergreen State College

Mass Exodus of Teachers from Bronx Science

Bob Drake was forwarded this letter from a current teacher at Bronx High who MUST remain anonymous. Drake is a former chemistry teacher dismissed for political reasons at Bronx Science. He had come from a college and did not yet have tenure. Drake, who has a Ph.D, has landed higher paying jobs in private schools and currently is the highest paid teacher at a public school in Connecticut.

At the time, freshman, students picked up on the "Dr. Quack" theme placed on Principal Reidy when she took the title of "Dr." after receiving an honorary Ph.D, which real Ph.D's like Bob did not take kindly to. Now, the former freshman are seniors and are re-raising the Dr. Quack theme, as described in these articles (which I know are not readable but email me if you want me to send you the pdfs of these articles if you can't access them online.)

Approximately 30 teachers have left the once prestigious Bronx High School of Science this year.

Even accounting for retirees, and one or two pregnancies, these numbers are at an unprecedented high. Reasons cited for departures are: interference by Principal Reidy and her sycophantic Assistant Principals in the classroom, lack of professionalism in their treatment of staff, several givings of U ratings to staff who did not kowtow to She Who Must Be Obeyed (i.e., Reidy) in her incompetent, dictatorial and usually incorrect classroom pedagogy. Reidy's abusive treatment of staff was also a factor. Of particular note is the English Department, which lost a previously unheard of EIGHT teachers who complained of dead end protocols and meaningless or incorrect classroom style dictates.

Rather than being replaced with seasoned teachers, the replacements are recent grads -- teaching some of the brightest kids in the City. The current English AP is seen as unqualified and incompetent -- a Reidy "yes" person. Agreement with the complaints voiced last year by English teacher XXX seems evident in the latest walkout. Several of the teachers have since found employment in high-level and high-paying jobs elsewhere.

Teachers who left of their own will, and others ousted by unfair assessments, are voicing a call for a General Amnesty by the Department of Education for all staff members given a U by the Reidy Administration.

Facebook hums with activity of Bronx High Students on this issue at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=19412507072
(You must be a member to view the page. I joined so I could view it and am probably the oldest member.)

Competition and Education

The idea that making the public schools more competitive will somehow improve education is as ridiculous as saying having public fire, police and sanitation departments compete with private competitors will lead to better service.

It's like saying that if we allocated public money to send a competing army over to Iraq, led by, say, Haliburton or Blackstone, the war would have run smoother. Oh, yea, been there, done that. See how well it worked out?

Yet that is exactly what has become the national mantra in what should loosely be termed "education reform" – very loosely. When the voucher idea didn't get enough traction, the charter school idea was seized upon. What is behind all of this is the opportunity for a lot of people to shake loose a lot of public ed money and divert it into the private sphere. And that means the undermining public schools.

Richard Kahlenberg makes the point many times in his book, Tough Liberal, how often Al Shanker spoke about the support of rigorous public schools as being essential to the maintenance of a democratic society, ironically, not to be applied to the idea of a democratic union. Doubly ironic, since Shanker was the father of the concept of Charter Schools. I'm not up to that chapter yet, but I will assume at this point that Shanker did not mean them in today's incarnation. What would he think of the 2 UFT charter schools draining public and private money (Broad foundation, etc.)

This post inpired by:
"We seem to live in an era of privatization. Here in NYC the mayor believes in privatizing and so does Joel Klein. There is this mantra that private is better. I think that the Iraq war is the first privatized war. I think that history will show that it was one of the most inefficient corrupt wars ever conducted..," says blogger Life After the Rubber Room.

High Stakes: How The Testing Craze Leaves NYC Children Behind

RSVP

info@teachersunite.net

www.teachersunite.net

NAEP This

Stories this week about NAEP results bringing into question the impact of NCLB make this article on Susan Ohanian's web site a must read. We DO NOT NEED ANOTHER TEST!

How Does NAEP Label a Reader Proficient?
An Inside Look at Children's Responses Labeled "Inadequate"

Susan Notes: This research provides the inside dope on media headlines screaming, "NAEP Finds 71% of 4th graders score below the proficient level." This is important because corporate politicos are pushing for NAEP to become the national test.

Down the Rabbit Hole with the Reading Passages
Read it at
http://susanohanian.org/show_research.html?id=103

Got Meat?

Can you Topps this?

Back in my high school days, we actually had to read books that had nothing to do with tests. One of them was Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle," an expose of the horrors of the unregulated meat industry written in 1906. Boy, even in high school, were we mad at the antics of an unregulated industry run amuck. All kinds of icky stuff ended up on your burger. So the system was reformed and regulation came to the meat industry mostly as a result of Sinclair's book.

Now business interests weren't very happy and they stated praying for a savior. And their prayers were answered by a massive publicity campaign about how government stifled the little ole business community. Bureaucracy run wild. Remember those $600 bolts being bought? Stories came out about the horrors of regulation and how it interfered with a free market economy. And, goodness, the expense of sending all those meat inspectors into the field. Bet there is less meat inspection going on now than 50 years ago.

Thus, we get the Topps EColi scandal. They are already out of business. (Topps, not EColi). A scam to try to avoid paying out what will amount to enormous sums? Probably open up tomorrow under a new name. Sppot would work.

What is interesting is how the neoliberals -- our friends in the Democratic Party for the most part -- are pushing the same line.

In How the neoliberals stitched up the wealth of nations for themselves, George Monbiot says:

Neoliberalism claims that we are best served by maximum market freedom and minimum intervention by the state. The role of government should be confined to creating and defending markets, protecting private property and defending the realm. All other functions are better discharged by private enterprise, which will be prompted by the profit motive to supply essential services. By this means, enterprise is liberated, rational decisions are made and citizens are freed from the dehumanising hand of the state.

This, at any rate, is the theory. But as David Harvey proposes in his book "A Brief History of Neoliberalism," wherever the neoliberal programme has been implemented, it has caused a massive shift of wealth not just to the top 1%, but to the top tenth of the top 1%.

The entire article is at my Norms Notes blog.

Lois Weiner in Neoliberalism, Teacher Unionism, and the Future of Public Education cuts quickly to the chase by linking the exact same anti-government environment to the attempts to reform education by both right wing conservatives and neoliberals. Get educators out of education decision making and put generals, lawyers, MBA's and corporate executives in charge of school systems. If vouchers fail, try tuition tax credits. If not that, charters, more charters.

Their efforts came to fuition in No Child Left Behind, which will ultimately result in a balkanized, privateer school system which, rather than close the achievement gap, will result in people being poorer (both monetarily and educationally) than ever.

The Carnival of Education ....

... is up and running at Evolution - not just a theory anymore.

And check out the rest of Greg Laden's site for some wonderful commentary on science and religion. His latest post on cycad sex got me all excited. I'm keeping a careful eye on the cycad right outside my door for any hanky panky. I may sneak up on it and post a picture later. (It may be X-rated, so shield your eyes.)

Let's Have a Longer School Day and Year

New organization to promote an extended school day and school year.

Comments:

Michael Fiorillo, chapter leader Newcomers HS

Now that Corporate America has essentially succeeded in eliminating the forty-hour week and the two-week vacation for most adults, it is embarking on its next campaign to make children as miserable and stressed as their parents, with their education as crimped and de-skilled as the work most adults do. And as usual, in a propagannda flip that would make any totalitarian state proud, they claim to do it in the name of equity and racial justice. It's all of a piece with the underlying propaganda behind TFA: somehow the children of privilege, acting as missionaries on two-year assignments - why does no one comment on how fundamentally patronizing it is? - are to "close the achievement gap." (itself a rhetorical constuct that is intended to mask the increasingly vicious racial and class disparities in the country).

Of course, those of us who've been struggling to provide guidance and education for our students all along are an impediment, and must be de-regulated out of existence.

Perhaps they'll succeed - although I still am idealistic enough to believe that evil ultimately thwarts and destoys itself - but let's not go quietly.

Leonie Haimson, class size matters on the nyceducationnews listserv:

And guess who it’s being funded by? Our friends at the Broad foundation.

I love that it’s being pitched as providing “research and support for efforts to increase academic and enrichment opportunities for students.”

Ellen

Between hours spent in school and on homework, many kids already spend more time per day on schoolwork than adults do at work. Why isn't it obvious that that's really not the problem?

National Center on Time and Learning is Launched

A new organization is being launched today to promote an extended school day and school year.

The National Center on Time & Learning will provide research and support for efforts to increase academic and enrichment opportunities for students, which some experts say can help improve student performance and close the achievement gap between disadvantaged students and their better-off peers.

There is currently a bill in Congress to fund district-level programs for expanded learning time, and the strategy is included in the discussion draft for the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act that was released by House education leaders last month.

The center will be co-chaired by Paul Reville, the president of the Rennie Center and director of the Education Policy and Management Program at Harvard University, and Chris Gabrieli, an entrepreneur and venture capitalist. It is being funded by the Eli and Edythe Broad Education Foundation, the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

Don't Fence Her In

We met Arabella on a cruise to Alaska when she was 3 and a half years old. No, she was not travelling alone. She was with her mom. Quite a kid then. Quite a kid now. She's 11 and is featured on a CNN blog due to her fencing prowess. Every so often she asks for help with a computer problem. I don't dare turn her down. She boxes too.

Arabella then – – and now


See a video on CNN:

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/living/2007/10/05/ypwr.intv.arabella.uhry.cnn

AFT Endorses Hillary - UFT Not Far Behind

Reality based educator has nailed another one at the NYC Educator blog regarding the AFT endorsement of Hillary Clinton. As all UFT members pay dues to that organization and the UFT is by far the largest block of votes in the AFT [add the NY State United Teachers, which the UFT controls], people opposed to the Clinton endorsement may be a wee bit vexed.

As noted in the article in the NY Times, UFT president Randi Weingarten is close to Hillary and is expected to become president of the AFT in July '08.

Does anyone think the UFT will endorse anyone else? All AFT/UFT forces are being marshaled to get Hillary elected.

In a democratic union there might be a referendum on this issue. In the Kahlenberg book on Shanker it talks about how Shanker used to brag how many referendums of the membership were held on endorsements and even the Vietnam War (he even lost a few before he figured out how to use the Unity machine to it's full effect.)

Watch how the entire process within the UFT is manipulated to give the impression this will be done democratically. First, the Executive Board will rubber stamp, followed by the Delegate Assembly with a 90% plus vote. Even expect a visit there from Hillary (she came to the DA when she was first elected Senator.)

What do you think the vote for a Hillary endorsement would be if there were a referendum of all UFT members?

60%" 50? Certainly not 90%. This disparity would indicate the disconnect between the Unity controlled DA and the membership.

Maybe it's time to raise a call for such a referendum in the UFT on the issue before UFT members get the response when calling for assistance:

Sorry, we are busy working in the Hillary campaign. Call back after Election Day, Nov. '08.

Tracking NYC School Data

I was going to write about today's NY Times article on the so-called independent commission that has both Joel Klein and Randi Weingarten on it but Reality-based educator has done a bang-up job as NYC Educator's columnist. So head on over.

Oh, and the Fund for Public Schools is spending millions to run ads lauding BloomKlein instead of funneling money to the classroom. Now there's Children First.

Check out Woodlass' post at the Under Assault blog.

Military Recruitment Resolution at the PEP in NYC

Patrick Sullivan, Manhattan rep on the Panel for Educational Policy, presents a resolution on military recruitment at the PEP meeting, Sept. 24, 2007. Joel Klein suggests it be tabled. Patrick explains why he wants to have a vote. It loses by a 6-3-1 margin. Patrick compares level of enforcement of cell phone ban to DOE enforcement of military recruitment regs as Patrick gets the last word.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FI9CT8bbEtg

See Patrick Sullivan's report on the meeting:

Note: video removed due to some complaints it slowed the loading of this blog.

Andres Alonso Alienates Baltimore Teachers

It took Andres Alonso about 2 minutes of leading the Baltimore school system to alienate the teacher union - following the Plan. Expect the same to happen in Washington with another Klein acolyte running things. Note that teachers are fighting back by refusing to work the extra hours. After working in NY as Klein's assistant, Alonso is unfamiliar with unions that aren't interested in collaborating.

City Teachers To Picket Over Planning Time

BALTIMORE -- Baltimore city school teachers concerned about their contracts are planning to set up what they call informational pickets. They said the goal of the picketing is to put pressure on the administration to sign on the dotted line. City teachers agreed over the summer to work only those hours called for in the contract, refusing to take part in before- and after-school activities. The teacher's union is currently vowing to go a step further by setting up informational pickets this week outside at least three schools. "It will inform the public. We will be asking them to contact the school board in support of us, and let them know that teachers in Baltimore city are working without a contact, and they are to support this effort," said Marietta English of the Baltimore City Teacher's Union. The union said the main sticking point in the contract is teacher planning time. City School Chief Executive Officer Dr. Andres Alonso said that the contract dispute really boils down to a simple request by the administration. "The board and I have asked for one planning period a week to be used for common planning time or professional development at the discretion of the principal. I hear I'm trying to take away planning time. That's ridiculous," he said. "We are talking about planning time, time that is precious to teachers and time that they need to plan their lessons to mark papers to get prepared for the next class," English said. The union said that until there's a new agreement, teachers will continue to work by the terms of their old contract. WBAL TV 11 News learned that the Baltimore city teachers union is not pleased with the school board or Alonso. The union said it is prepared to take a vote of no confidence as it relates to the contract controversy.

Secretary Spellings Forced to Admit Lack of Qualifications for the Job

Thank goodness Susan Ohanian is back from vacation. She came up with this gem where a member of Congress who actually was a teacher and principal questions the education chief officer of the USA. Oy vey!

I got to see Spellings in person at the Manhattan Institute luncheon where there was an entire table of UFT suits (and suitesses) hobnobbing with the very people who are killing real education. See that post here. And Susan's satirical (and hysterical) post on Spellings' declaration of a non-testing day.

Ohanian Comment: Take a look at this short segment of Rep Mike Honda's questioning of Secretary Spellings on if and how she is highly qualified for her current position. It is refreshing to see a politico cut through her hot air snowballing and get right to the point.

— Congressman Mike Honda
House subcommittee hearing
2007-03-26

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zSJexw0Gvs&mode=related&search=

And while you're at YouTube, take another look at these excellent videos:

Test the Kids

NCLB Truths and Consequences

Broad Jumping II - From The Wave

by Norm Scott

The following article appeared in The School Scope column in The Wave, September 21, 2007 and summarizes some of the previous pieces on Eli Broad on this blog.

BloomKlein Win! BloomKlein Win!!
Shout it from the rooftops. Toss the confetti in the air. Have a party.
The BloomKlein gang at Tweed are suffering rotator cuff damage – in both arms– from patting themselves on the back for their victory, announced on Tuesday, in winning the Broad [pronounced Brood] prize.
Who is Eli Broad and why is he using his billions to help destroy public education in the major urban school systems?
Therein lies a long tale and I’ve elucidated much of it on my ednotesonline.com/ blog.

Broad has simple answers to complex questions. Nationally recognized educational historian Diane Ravitch sums it up:
“About 18 months ago, I was invited to meet Eli Broad in his gorgeous penthouse in NYC, overlooking Central Park. I hear that he made his billions in the insurance and real estate businesses. I am not sure when he became an education expert. We talked about school reform for an hour or more, and he told me that what was needed to fix the schools was not all that complicated: A tough manager surrounded by smart graduates of business schools and law schools. Accountability. Tight controls. Results. In fact, NYC is the perfect model of school reform from his point of view. Indeed, this version of school reform deserves the Broad Prize, a prize conferred by one billionaire on another.”

Deborah Meier, a nationally respected progressive educator for the past 40 years says:
“I am afraid. Truly. I think the mayor of NYC, and Eli Broad, are perfectly happy about a future in which most teachers come and go every five or so years. Temps. Easier to manage and harder to organize. A few will rise to leadership positions after a few years of teaching—after getting MBAs?—and the rest of the leaders will come from other fields like law, business, and the military.”

Leonie Haimson and a number of other parents sent a letter to the Broad Foundation:
“We urge you not to award the Broad prize to NYC this year. As parents and teachers, we have witnessed one incoherent wave of reorganization after another over the last five years, leading to unnecessary chaos and in many cases, disruption of educational services. None of these changes have been planned or undertaken with any consultation of the stakeholders in the system. “Instead of transparency and accurate information, we get spin and PR. Though overall, the amount spent on education has risen, there is no evidence that a larger percentage of resources has gone to the classroom, despite repeated claims by DOE. Instead, each year the headcount grows of highly paid officials at Tweed, as well as the number of multi-million dollar consultants. “…as recent news reports have revealed, the 4th grade exams in both ELA and math were much easier in 2005, when the largest gains in NYC performance occurred, putting into doubt their validity.”

The full text is available at nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/

David M. Quintana, a parent active in District 27 wrote:
“As one of the four (4) parent participants in a focus group held at Tweed for researchers from the Broad Foundation, I am disappointed in the fact that NYC received the Broad Foundation prize today. “This group of parents, handpicked by Martine Guerrier of the Department of Education (DOE), expressed uniform disappointment with the various changes put into place by DOE, the lack of transparency and accountability, and the lack of consideration given the views of parents about what their children really need to succeed. “Clearly the Broad Foundation did not take parents views into consideration when awarding this prize to NYC today. “I feel that the DOE is totally dismissive of parents views and makes short shrift of our concerns for our children (i.e. - class size reduction, cell phone ban, school bus fiasco, numerous reorganizations of the DOE, et al).”

Quintana’s resume is not a light one:
District 27 Presidents Council - Recording Secretary
District 27 Representative to Chancellors Parents Advisory Council, Queens Community Board 10 - Education Committee and Queens Borough President's Parents Advisory Council member

And the reaction of teachers on the front line to the national recognition of BloomKlein for doing wonderful things in “reforming” the NYC school system? I would bet my pension that 95% of them are laughing (or crying) themselves silly. And they would be joined by a hell of a lot of supervisors too.
I wonder what kind of prize is given to the CEO’s of corporations that have absolutely no respect from the bulk of the people that work for them? Oh, I know. The Broad prize.

Et tu Randi?
It should be clear to teachers in the trenches that they are fighting a 2-front war -– against BloomKlein and their own collaborationist union.
There was a picture of UFT president Randi Weingarten with Joel Klein giving her a big hug and kiss at the Broad Prize Awards ceremony in Washington. (It would not be impossibility for both Klein and Weingarten to end up in a Hillary Clinton cabinet, though I am betting Randi goes to the AFT presidency in July, tries to become the head of a united NEA and AFT and then moves on to John Sweeny’s job as AFL-CIO head.)
Boy, for someone who regularly charges the UFT collaborates with the forces looking to destroy public education, it doesn't get any better than this.
Last year, Broad gave the UFT Charter schools one million dollars.
Of course the UFT is saying the Broad prize is deserved, due to the teaching corps, "the best ever" in their words. Funny how they can argue that experience counts for teachers and then negate that argument by saying a system that has an enormous influx of inexperienced teachers, 50% of whom leave after 5 years, is the best ever. See Debbie Meier’s quote above.
Then they validate high stakes testing, which is the instrument by which the Broad prize is given, negating so much of what their own task force on testing reported last year.
And to further seal my contention that the UFT leadership are collaborators (I compare them to the French Vichy in WWII) against the interests of their own members –
The UFT commissioned a study of whether the ELA tests were easier in 2005 (teachers marking the exam at IS 180 at that time confirmed it at the time), thus enabling Bloomberg to use the “wonderful” results as part of his election bid and as a means to springboard him on the national stage as an masterly (funny that my spell checker first came up with “miserly”) educational reformer. When the study showed that this is exactly what occurred, Randi Weingarten ordered the results to be hushed up. Were it not for a leak to NY Sun reporter Elizabeth Green she would have gotten away with it.
Confused? Did the UFT PR machine lead you to think Weingarten and Klein are enemies?
Let Uncle Normie untangle it for you.
Both Democrats and Republicans are pushing the business/factory model of education that has caused so much misery to so many teachers, students and parents, albeit with slightly different twists. And the Clintons are in it right up to their necks. Now follow the bouncing ball.
Eli Broad, when attacked as a right-winger, responds that he is a Democrat.
Who is Hillary Clinton’s main supporter in the labor movement? Someone who is dedicating all her resources to getting Hillary elected? You guessed it. Our girl Randi.
Who worked for Clinton before he became NYC chancellor?
Bingo!

Want to do some more surf Broading? Check the ednotesonline.com blog.

More next time with a few words on Howie Schwach’s praise for Al Shanker. Needless to say, I have another view.

Urgent: Students and Teachers “At Risk”in D79 Reorganization

John Lawhead, the ICE web site admin, posted Marjorie Stamberg's very excellent piece that she handed out at the Chapter Leader meeting the other day.

The last time I posted something on District 79, Randi Weingarten told people that my post almost killed negotiations with the DOE. (Not the first time Weingarten just makes things up, but at least this blog has one regular reader).

Hey! This may be a rare occasion where Weingarten isn't trying to manipulate peopIe –

give me a minute so I can stop laughing –

so I'm not posting it here in full.

Sorry - I can't seem to stop –

I wouldn't want to mess anything up - Sorry again –

between the UFT

and the DOE.

OK. I'm recovered from my fit.

I can't resist a few quotes from Marjorie's leaflet.

"Why did D79 teachers have to read about their situation in the Daily News and The Chief before it was finally reported in the New York Teacher?"

"We need our union to fight for the kids and the teachers of D79!"

Read the whole thing, as she raises some great questions. I've heard all too many teachers say the union has no business fighting for the kids. These teachers just don't get it. Aside from being the right thing, improving things for kids also affects teachers' working conditions. Marjorie points out that there are ATR's from District 79 while kids are tossed out of schools. If they were back in schools these teachers would not be ATR's. Get it now?

Weingarten Says: It's All Hunky Dory in UFT/Tweedland

When only around 500 chapter leaders out of a potential 1500 showed up at the citywide Chapter Leader meeting on Tuesday, Randi Weingarten stated it must be because things are going well in the schools.

"This was one of the smoothest openings of schools ever," she said.

Boy, that wacky gang at Tweed must be doing something right.

Only 4000 over class size grievances and not the usual 6000. See, they're listening.

Last year almost twice as many CLs attended the Sept. meeting (held at the the magnificent auditorium at UFT HQ at 52 Broadway) and squeezing almost a thousand people into a room holding only 850 served to remind them of their overcrowded classes and how years of the UFT's "reduce class size" campaign has netted them nothing. And a lot of people never got a banana.

So this year I was all excited when they moved the meeting to the Brooklyn Marriott, where if I got there early, I was sure to score a macadamia nut cookie. And a banana.

But so many happy chapter leaders were busy celebrating the glorious opening of school with their colleagues, the meeting had to be moved to a much smaller room, which they had plenty of time to arrange since Weingarten showed up so late. But chapter leaders have plenty of extra time on their hands, so they didn't mind.

And I had time to eat and drink myself silly.

I was there with my leaflet announcing that after 10 years, the final print edition of Ed. Notes would be distributed at the OCT. 17 Delegate Assembly (you can read it here.)

There was shock and awe in Unity Caucus at this news and I had to console them. UFT District 22 rep Fred Gross came up with tears streaming down his face after reading the news and pleaded with me for another copy. I had to turn him down and he went off sobbing.

Well, here's some more good news. (Read James Eterno's right-0n report on the meeting at the ICE blog.)

The UFT will join the fight on NCLB, not to eliminate the horrendous law, but to stop the provision calling for individual merit pay for teachers. (Remember Randi's suggestion years ago that summer school teachers who get good scores should get free airline tickets.) But as a compromise the UFT/AFT seem willing to accept merit pay for entire schools that raise scores. Just plugging into the "test will decide all" mentality that I always charge them with no matter what their task force on reading says.

With reports of open revolts about to take place in the Queens and Staten Island rubber rooms, where the inhabitants blame the UFT as much as the DOE for their situation and the formation of groups like TAGNYC (who did such a good job standing up to Klein at the PEP meeting on Monday) to defend themselves in the absence of the UFT, Weingarten announced that the UFT will focus on ATR's and the rubber room and will be holding meetings with both groups. More deflection by the "masters of deflection." [Make sure to check this post out as it develops my theory on how the UFT operates.]

The work Woodlass has been doing on this blog on the ATRs and excessed has clearly had an impact and gotten the UFT's attention. (It is amazing how much they worry about anyone out there organizing.)

In a post the other day I wrote "the screams of the people are beginning to be heard and with the potential national impact of blogs calling Randi a sellout, she is trying to make it look like they will do something-- she has assigned Ron (back-stabbing worm) Isaac, Betsy Combier and reporter Jim Callahan to visit the rubber rooms and come up with suggestions. So she is trying to let the air out of the balloon."

It will be the usual "We hear you, we feel your pain." People will feel good like the union is paying attention and will stop organizing. A year later when nothing much has changed they will get the message: Talk loudly, carry a tiny stick.

3 Stooges
Jeff Kaufman (who brought rubber room conditions to everyone's attention in 2005) in a post called "Rubber Room Redux" wrote on the ICE blog about what he termed the "3 stooges" Randi has appointed to investigate the rubber rooms. I know all of them and only consider Ron (the back-stabbing worm) Isaac a true stooge. Jim Calahan is a reporter for the NY Teacher who has written a number of exposes on abusive principals and probably has good intentions, but will not have much impact.

Betsy Combier, not a teacher but a parent advocate who I have worked with on a number of cases, was recently hired by the UFT, ostensibly to assist in rubber room cases. But since the real reason she was hired was to keep her from revealing sensitive information about some high UFT officials she gained from a FOIL request, I have to be suspect about how effective she will be. But if someone wants to pay you 50 grand to keep your mouth shut, who can blame them? And since I and others know the sensitive info, it will do them no good anyway.

NOTE: Want a job with the UFT? FOIL all the work records of every former and current district rep to see if they actually teach the one period a day. Word is that a reporter for a local daily has already done so, which is causing all the DR's to make sure to do their daily period of teaching - poor dears.

Weingarten hired Ron Isaac last year for 60 grand a year as a reward for his work during the 2005 contract negotiations in stabbing the opposition in the back. (Ron had run with ICE in the 2004 elections and parlayed that into his job.) I also used to publish Isaac's articles in Ed Notes when the UFT did not want anything to do with him (years of applications to get into Unity were rejected.)

And by the way, one of Isaac's main jobs is to monitor this blog all day. From our conversation the other day it is clear he knows more about what I write than I do.

So, this is the rubber room crew that Weingarten has put together. If I were in the RR I wouldn't make plans to be back at my job real soon. Better to join up with TAGNYC.

Apparently there's some upset at Kaufman's calling them "3 Stooges." The UFT wouldn't know how to spell rubber room if not for Kaufman.

On a closing note, it was nice to get responses from people about the impact Ed Notes has had. (check the comments here). One chapter leader who I did not know came up and said he really enjoyed reading it all these years and even some positive words filtered out from some Unity people the non-suit non-goon wing.

It is also nice to see ICE beginning to stir again after a bit of hiatus. One Unity slug commented: "ICE melts slowly." Or not at all.

Robots Are Us

While it may appear that writing and organizing in the UFT is my major activity, since I retired 5 years ago I've been even more involved in the NYC robotics community through volunteer activities with NYCFIRST, the local incarnation of FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition in Science and Technology) which puts on various tournaments for kids from age 6-high school all over the world.

My focus has been the FIRST LEGO League, where teams of kids from age 9-14 build and program robots out of LEGO materials. That makes for an interesting competition with 4th/5th graders competing on the same playing level as 9th graders. (And they do pretty well.) There are over 8000 teams world wide.


A team from a public elementary school at the tournament at Brooklyn Tech last year. The teacher has left after 2 years to start a program at a private school, citing the high class sizes as a reason. (See, I can combine robotics and ed politics.)

We are just completing the registration procedure for this year and at this point have 180 NYC teams from all 5 boroughs, mostly from public schools. We have grown so much that we are running events in each borough in December. All of these events are mostly run by high school kids from the senior robotics teams at Brooklyn Tech, Stuyvesant, Aviation, Lehman and Staten Island Tech, along with their great teacher/coaches.

The top 80 teams will go on to the citywide at Riverside State Park at the end of January. The winning team there may have an opportunity to go to Atlanta for the World Festival, which includes teams from all over the world. I went last year and had a blast. One of the interesting highlights was seeing teams from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordon and Israel interact. And teams from different Chinas - Hong Kong, Taiwan, Shanghai.

A bunch of us from NYC may be going to Japan at the end of April to assist with the Asian Open tournament. Konichiwa.

This Saturday we are holding a kickoff event at Polytechnic U. in downtown Brooklyn from 9-1. Stop by if you are in the area. Or come on down to one of the events in December and think about getting your school involved for the future. You can check it all out at my robotics blog .

Giving up on the UFT Delegate Assembly

The following was distributed at the UFT citywide chapter leader meeting on Sept. 25.

Education Notes has been distributed at almost every Delegate Assembly since 1996. Roughly 100 editions of the paper, in various formats from mimeographs to full newsprint tabloids.

The last regular print edition of Education Notes will be distributed at the October Delegate Assembly and will only publish in print when there are special issues on the table.

Why stop now?

Ed Notes began when I was a chapter leader and delegate as a means of establishing a regular communication with the members of the Delegate Assembly to counter the Unity Caucus spin.

The initial purpose of Ed Notes was to inform delegates of motions I was going to present in advance to meet the “has to be printed if 3 lines or more” rule. I would inform Randi Weingarten before the meeting where I was sitting. Initially, things worked out, with Randi even declaring to the DA “I love reading Ed Notes.” But then again, I wasn’t overly critical of her and Unity Caucus at that point, thinking that as a new President, she would bring a breath of fresh air to a union that was in much need of reform. I also felt that with New Action being such a weak (and pathetic opposition even then) that only by getting Unity people to back reforms would we see the kind of democratic changes that would prepare for the coming attacks. New Action even began spreading rumors that Randi was funding Ed Notes. Ironic in the light of New Action’s total sell out in years to come.

At some point it became clear that I was being avoided when Weingarten wasn’t happy with my motion, even canceling the new motion period (the only opportunity for rank & file delegates) at one point. I angrily told her that in all my years at the DA (since 1971) neither Shanker nor Feldman had ever gone that far. The final straw came in 2001 when I spent 4 months trying to get a motion calling for the UFT to reject all schemes that hint at merit pay. That was followed soon after by Weingarten’s endorsement of mayoral control, a clear disaster for members of the UFT. (I had been in touch with George Schmidt in Chicago.)

It was clear there would not only be no reform under Weingarten but she would take the control and manipulation of the membership to new heights. And so she has. At that point Ed Notes went into opposition mode which led to the formation of ICE by supporters of the paper after the New Action sell-out left a void.

I won’t go into the history of the past 5 years. Just look at your schools and the state of the union at the school level where pre-UFT conditions prevail in so many places. From Kahlenberg’s new Shanker bio: “Shanker was assaulted by a student, but when he asked for help from the principal he was told, ‘This would not have happened if you had motivated your students.’” That was 1952. “Administrators were in a position to play favorites, assigning some teachers to ‘administrative assignments’ and others to the most violent classes. At long drawn out faculty conferences “teachers sat there seething.”

Back to the future.

So, why stop publishing the print edition of Ed Notes now? Ed Notes continues to be more active than ever on the ednotesonline blog. But with Unity Caucus more tightly in control than ever and a DA that reminds me of the Roman Senate in the declining years of the Republic, the idea of reaching out to people at the Delegate Assembly seems fruitless.

Weingarten has turned the DA into a farce. Why not just put up a video of her hour long report on the web and save everyone the trip?

The past few months of last school year took things to a new level. With 10 items waiting on the agenda, a deputy mayor and DOE reps from the reorganization are brought to the April DA and a meeting gets extended until after 6:30. One blogger, a member of New Action, actually complained about this on his blog. Where was he at the meeting raising a protest at the outrage? Only silence. And silence from most of the opposition, including some of my colleagues in ICE. They seem to have given up on the DA too.

The outrage continued at the next DA when Manhattan chapter leaders, who voted 19-1 to call for discussion at the June DA on a rally against the reorganization, had their resolution overwhelmingly defeated. Nothing better illustrates the disconnect between the schools and the Unity Caucus leadership when nineteen chapter leaders representing probably a thousand to fifteen hundred members are turned down in the attempt to discuss - I repeat “Discuss” - the idea of a rally. (By the way, are you still happy with the cancellation of the May 9th rally?)

But it went further. When Kit Wainer rose to defend himself against Jeff Zahler’s red-baiting attacks, Weingarten had the nerve to suggest that the body read all 10 resolutions while he spoke so they could be voted on en masse. When someone objected, she incredulously said, “Well, people have been waiting for these for so long, it is not fair to obstruct them.”

No one called a point of information to remind the delegates about the deputy mayor and all the DOE people at the previous DA. Farce, indeed!

At that point I said “Enough.”

It seems the overwhelming majority of delegates and CL have accepted the rationale of the Unity spinmeisters that the UFT leadership bears absolutely no responsibility for the events of the last 5 years. They are coated with Teflon. Similar to the way BloomKlein have become the heros of the nation for basically destroying the union at the ground level. It confirms a new insight - that the most important job in the world – one I would urge any young person to go into – is public relations.

In fact, the UFT leadership have been enablers of BloomKlein. And all too many members of the DA have been enablers of the leadership. If they won’t look at themselves in the mirror and see that the conditions for most rank and file teachers resemble those that existed before the birth of the UFT, there is no point in Ed Notes trying to convince them otherwise.

I pity the rank and file. To survive they have to fight a 2 front war – against a horrendous assault on them by BloomKlein and with a collaborationist leadership that has shown a masterful ability to coopt and deflect any hint of militancy that might arise. I can go into numerous examples but you will have to read them on the ednotesonline blog, where daily I post the outrages of the BloomWeinKlein team.

Have I given up? Not at all. Not with the loads of emails coming in from teachers in schools all over the city that have been decimated by BloomKlein who are screaming for a union that will truly stand up for them. Increasingly, teachers are beginning to take action on their own, in small groups. The U-rated, rubber rooms, ATR’s are beginning to make their voices known. The biggest threat they face to this movement is from a union that will leap in to gain control of them by promising action with words, not deeds. They will get high level meetings which will impress them no end. But in the end the most vocal might get a behind the scenes transfer or some special deal that will separate them from the rest of the group.

Deflection, cooptation, delay. Or form a committee.

I will continue to work with ICE and support TJC. But from now on I will only attend Delegate Assemblies purely for the entertainment value – and for the post DA visit to a local pub with the regular DA gang. Join us. If you are an independent delegate, skip the meeting and go directly to the pub where the real delegate assembly will take place.

Carnival of Education is Open

.. at Global Citizenship in a Virtual World.