Francis Lewis HS Teacher Responds to NY Post article

Read it here.

April 2008 - More Puff From the NY Times on Weingarten

Reading Jennifer Medina in today's NY Times on Randi Weingarten's coming ascension to the AFT presidency (posted on Norms Notes) misses so many bases, we can only call it another puff piece. Oh, where to start?

You might ask: how do your charges that the Times is an agent of BloomKlein jive with a puff piece on Weingarten? Ed Notes readers are familiar with our thesis that Tweed and the UFT are both peas in the same pod and the bombast is just that. "Watch what Weingarten does, not what she says," is our mantra. The Times only talks to the top level people at Tweed and the UFT and pees on the peons.

Remember my post last week (AERAPlaning) about an AERA session with Medina, Alexander Russo and Eduwonk – Andrew Rotherham where when I asked how come we never hear the voices of classroom teachers? Medina responded, "We want to talk to teachers, but they don't want to be on the record." The entire room nodded.

So I avidly searched though the article looking for one teacher quote. I found favorable quotes from anti-union Rod Paige, Rotherham, and the best one of all from conservative Hoover Institute fellow Eric A. Hanushek "gushing with praise for Ms. Weingarten, and promising to do all he could to support her bid to become the president of the AFT. Just one thing, he added with a laugh: "I don’t know if that’s good for your image."

It's not Eric. At least among the NYC teacher corps who have been shredded during Weingarten's tenure. But it's wrong to blame Weingarten alone. Read Kahlenberg's bio on Shanker to see how Al was the architect of so much of what Weingarten is doing and will do as AFT President. He received the same kind of praise from the business community in the 80's and 90's and is considered the godfather of much of the current ed reform that is coming from Democrats.

The surface level analysis in the Times certainly missed this important point – that Weingarten's imprint on the AFT will be mostly style as she continues long-term policies. As to the point that the AFT will take a stronger stand on NCLB, which they supported all along, it has become politically untenable to Weingarten not to oppose it. Another point the Times missed – that Randi goes in the direction of the political current.

I talked at the AERA session about the numerous teacher blogs out there, many of them critical of both Klein and Weingarten. I know, I know. The view at the Times is that these blogs are six people talking to each other. But the numbers of readers is not the issue. When it is clear they are coming from the schools, they demonstrate the depth of feeling out there and represent some level of where teachers in the schools are at. Certainly, the views at NYC Educator where both he and Reality-Based Educator, or Chaz School Daze, or Pissed Off Teacher, or Have a Gneiss Day, or Under Assault etc, etc, etc, (see our blog roll) are just a few examples of the depth of hostility towards Weingarten (and Klein) by teachers.*

I avidly searched the Medina piece for any sign that she tried to talk to any of these people. I'm still looking.

* So why should the Times talk to Weingarten critics when she wins election so overwhelmingly? Again, surface reporting. A weak opposition(especially since she bought out New Action the old opposition) that gets only 20% of the people who voted is not an adequate way to express the deep-seated anti-Weingarten feelings in the schools. More important is the low vote totals Weingarten received from working teachers in all divisions despite controlling all the communications and personnel machinery of the UFT that failed in bringing out a bigger vote for her - only 22% of 70,000 voted.

The ugly numbers (rough and rounded and including the numbers from New Action - some people were confused and still thought they were opposed to Randi) in her vote totals :

Elementary: 7000 votes out of 37,000 teachers
Middle School: 1800 votes out of 13,000 teachers
High School: 2800 out of 20,000 teachers
Total Randi votes: 13000 out of 70,000, a pretty weak endorsement.

You can check out the results for yourself in our comparison chart for the 2004 and 2007 elections. By not putting in a clear successor (a major error that is one area that she has strayed from the Shanker/Feldman script) she is indicating she will run again for UFT Pres. in 2010. Maybe she will get more people to vote for her next time – absence does make the heart grow fonder. I'm missing her already.

Oh! And self-proclaimed ed coomentator/Democrat/hedge hog fund manager Whitney Tilson seems to like her. We recently had some fun with Whitney.

ATR Handbook from Under Assault

GET IT HERE

Chaz's School Daze: I AccuseThe Union Of Eroding Teacher Rights & What They Need To Do To Reverse It

Chaz's School Daze: I AccuseThe Union Of Eroding Teacher Rights & What They Need To Do To Reverse It

Mind the Gaps

Philip Kovacs at the Educator Roundtable posted this video about gaps beyond the bogus ed reformers' fav expression - Drumroll please - THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP!!!
Now for the real gap. Presenting ---

The Disparity Gap

When Eduwonks Attack

Andrew Rotherham and others exercised about some of Eduwonkette's surgical strikes at the heart of their pro-everything BloomKlein all the time, have thrown barbs at her for remaining anonymous, acting like there's no connections between the long reach of their Bloomie hero vindictiveness and someone who might one day look for a job. The fact that she asked me to check out the Rotherham/Russo/Medina/Colvin session at AERA (is Andy miffed that she may not have graced him with her presence) somehow taints her with my supposed lunacy.

Note that I am joined in my anti-everything NYC lunacy by such esteemed colleagues as NYC Educator, Leonie Haimson, Diane Ravitch and a whole core of NYC teacher bloggers who are beyond outrage at the phony ed reform movement. And probably 90% of the NYC teaching corps.


Here is Rotherham's silly post this on the Eduwonk blog.
The Wire
Not to rehash this entire debate but if Eduwonkette and Education Week want us to believe she's just some dispassionate observer of the education scene, especially the scene in New York City, so anonymous journalism is OK in this case, then it might not be such a good idea for her to use anti-everything NYC ed activist Norm Scott as her stringer...kinda, you know, blows her cover...but I did like her coverage!

Eduwonkette responded with this:
Marry Me, Eduwonk!: Boys, watch and learn from a Clinton-certified Don Juan - the passive aggressive flirting, truculent pet names, salacious locker room gossip, and wonky bickering all make me hot. Sure, you're already married - but after #9, polygamy is the new prostitution in New York.


I left this comment on his blog:
You don't read enough. I'm not only anti-everything NYC, but anti-everything Chicago and anywhere else that the phony reform movement to turn schools into factories is in operation. When it is clear that the PR expression "Children First" is really "Children Last" then you look at what's really going on behind the PR and oppose the entire program of BloomKlein.

I'm proud to be part of the NYC community where a host of respected teacher bloggers are on the same page as I am, in addition to influential parents on the NYC public school parents blog who have been persistent critics of the Bloomberg/Klein administration. Someone should point to a similar outpouring of support from parents and teachers in NYC for the mayor.

But then again, why listen to teachers and parents? You mentioned in your session at AERA that your survey shows teachers don't know much about educational policy. You know – NYC teachers are just a little busy marking those 150-170 papers a day from overcrowded classes and those 10 hour days the heroic "quality" teachers are expected to put in to save the world to have much time for these little debates.

As for Eduwonkette, whatever research she comes up with to support what we feel in our gut, is welcome. Why not take the research she puts out there and pick that apart instead of the irrelevant issue as to whether she is anonymous or not? No one seems to care except you and other pro-everything NYC people who get their words thrown right back in their faces and want to flush her out for purposes that seem awful suspicious.

Message from TAG: Weingarten - Failed Labor Leader

UPDATED April 2

The message below was sent from Teachers Advocacy Group (TAGNYC). They blame Weingarten, perhaps not realizing the longstanding position of the UFT regarding people branded fairly or unfairly as "bad" teachers. The UFT has always been concerned about being seen as protecting teachers who have been labeled as "poor" for fear of negative publicity. The Richard Kahlenberg Shaker bio reports that as far back as the 1969 contract, "...a provision for the development of objective criteria of professional accountability" was agreed to by Shanker, who said, "those who can't be improved and who are functioning at a very poor level [what are the criteria?], we're going to have to have the courage to sat that...you may be good at some other thing, but you're not good at this."

Notice the use of the word "we're." Who, me kimosabe? All in the name of what I consider a phony professionalism. Don't get me wrong. Under proper conditions, teachers could play such a role and I would be all for teachers making these decisions - if they had control of the school environment. (I'll get into what I mean by this in a future post.) But they don't. Therefore, the union's job is to defend every teacher rigorously and leave it to some other agency to take care of incompetent teachers. I would favor a body independent of the DOE and the UFT.

Again from Kahlenberg (p. 288): Peer review was common among professors, doctors, and lawyers, who police themselves.Shanker said: "it would be the first time in the history of American education that teaches would govern themselves."

How does Shanker equate peer review of teachers with these professions, which have a higher level of control than teachers ever could have? And by the way, how many doctors have you heard of being "peer reviewed" out of the profession? In the early 80's Shanker said, "a lot of people who have been hired as teachers are basically not competent." Shanker was selling peer review as an alternative to threats to abolish tenure.

The "bad teacher and the unions that protect them is the cause of all the ills of urban public ed" argument is a bogus one. How do you explain the achievement levels in right to work states like Florida where unions have so much less control?

How about your own education experience? Think of your own teachers. How many extraordinary teachers did you have? How many horrors? How inspired or damaged were you by either end of the scale of teacher quality? Somehow many of us survived the bad teachers. I saw some kids in my school have one excellent teacher after another and those that would do well did and those that wouldn't do well didn't.

Teachers guts and experience tell them this is all a crock. Some young teachers just starting out see some impact in the early years. It took me about a decade to see the long-term results as kids started drifting back as they grew up. That's how you get some perspective.

The public seems in much more danger from incompetent police, doctors, lawyers and politicians (see one George Bush) than from incompetent teachers - the worst of whom are often driven out of teaching by the daily failure of facing kids' scorn. Or they just go into administration and abuse teachers who actually can do the job.

Though at times it may make your skin crawl, I recommend reading the Kahlenberg 400 page apology for Shanker's actions. That Al Shanker and the AFT have been promoting this claptrap surprises even veteran NYC teachers. Weingarten is just following a script laid out a long time ago.

Anyway, here's the message from TAG.

Weingarten: Failed Labor Leader

Randi Weingarten is looking to her new career as head of the AFT. That much larger pool of teachers must understand what they are getting. A failed labor leader. Randi, through her position, is in an excellent position to advocate for children and to negotiate health and welfare benefits for her membership. How well she performs either of these two functions demands future critical evaluation. What we address here is her inability to function as a labor leader. Make no mistake. Teachers are members of the labor force. We are not independent contractors or consultants able to individually control our own terms and conditions of employment. And the most important condition of employment is the right to remain employed. Remain in the profession we chose. Ms. Weingarten does not want to be seen as the protector of teachers' job rights: The press and the public would label her a "protector of incompetents." But the teachers who are being forced out of their jobs- the ATRs, the whistle-blowers, the questioners, the teachers who dared to exercise their transfer rights, and the teachers who make too much money - are not incompetents. These teachers are the scapegoats being used to further Bloomberg, Klein, and yes, Randi Weingarten's political ambitions.

Weingarten has proven she does not have the stomach to advocate for teachers' rights to their jobs. She has colluded in turning NYC teachers into at-will employees. Her defense for doing so- "The UFT was not strong enough to fight."

Questions TAGNYC has for Randi Weingarten:

1. Why did you not educate your membership about the implications of the givebacks in the 2005 contract? You and your lawyers knew the possible if not probable consequences. You can't blame the membership for running to take the money since you did not do your job in educating the membership. Labor leaders don't invoke the adage "Buyer beware" when the `buyer' is the membership.

2. Will you admit that you feared for the careers of the more senior teachers in the wake of the 2005 contract and the empowerment of principals? Will you admit that you communicated this fear to your district reps? You hoped Bloomberg-Klein would go easy on the senior teachers. You lost and we lost. Labor leaders should never "depend upon the kindness of strangers."

3. Why did you not rally the members to make a stand against Bloomberg-Klein? 80,000 plus teachers in your corner and you did nothing to get them on the street (strikes weren't necessary- why not mass protests during rush hours, etc)? Oh, right, you were and are afraid of antagonizing the public. Too cautious to be a labor leader.

4. Why do you tell your members "Wait until 2009?" You see 2009 as a time when friends of `labor' come back into office. How courageous! Who can't `lead' when times are good and ears are sympathetic. You failed to lead in tough times. Too many of NYC teachers- the competent teachers- have, and are suffering the devastating consequences of your failed leadership in the run-up to 2009. Will many of these teachers be employed in 2009?

5. Why do you hide behind the 3020a process? Rather than using the law as the pretext for not intervening, why are you not railing against the farce of the 3020a process?

6. Why don't you state publicly what is said privately by district reps, chapter chair people, and OSI: Frivolous charges of incompetence, verbal, corporal, and sexual abuse are being used by principals to remove competent teachers from their schools?

7. Why have you not led your members in vocal, body-on-the line protests against the absurdity of turning competent teachers into ATRs? Why won't you admit loudly and publicly that the ATR paradigm is the road to unemployment for high salaried, competent teachers?

8. Why have you not led your members in vocal, body-on-the-line protests against the willful destruction of competent teachers' careers by incompetent, insecure, and unethical principals?

9. Who is defending your teachers in the schools? Do you know that most of your chapter chair people and district reps have abdicated the duty to advocate? Do you know of the despair being felt by teachers who know they don't have a union willing or able to defend them within the schools?

10. How do you reconcile your claim to be an advocate for the students when their teachers- new hires and senior teachers- are stampeding out of the NYC school system?

11. On a NY1 news show last week, in criticism of the budget cuts, you chastised Klein and advised him to "Show some leadership in tough times." Ms. Weingarten, how have you shown leadership in protecting your competent teachers during the tough Bloomberg-Klein times?


Teachers are urged to email Ms Weingarten with any of these or other questions. IT IS PAST TIME FOR HER RESPONSE. Not an opt ed piece but a question and answer format where Ms. Weingarten does not control the floor, or the questions asked, or the time allotted to each response.
rweingarten@uft.org

Race on the Table – Globally and Locally

Excerpt of my column that appeared in The Wave (www.rockawave.com) on April 4, 2008.

Barack Obama’s speech on race has opened up a long-needed area of discussion, not only on the national level, but out here in Rockaway. Howard Schwach’s editorial on March 28 on the Democratic primary being about race and gender touched a chord. Sure, 50 percent of white voters voted for Clinton and an even higher percentage of black voters are for Obama. We should also say that in Italian areas and Jewish areas, candidates of those persuasions also garner votes based on how people identify with them. So, yes, all political campaigns are based to some extent on race, gender and ethnics.

[Wave Editor] Howard Schwach’s presentation of how Geraldine Ferraro was forced to resign for “telling a political truth” as a comparison of Obama’s relationship to his pastor a bit simplistic. I detected something petulant in Ferrara’s position along the lines of “look at all the advantages blacks have.” Obama did address white backlash over these issues in his speech. Sometimes I don’t get it. Obama is half white and half black and somehow the white half disappears when people talk about him.

PS 106 and Race
I bring race up in a column focused on schools because of PS 106 PA President Joyce Bunch’s It’s My Turn column in last week’s Wave in which she castigated PS 106 teacher Miriam Baum (unfairly, I believe) for her recent column on the schools in which she expressed the extent of teacher satisfaction with Principal Sills. Rather than get into the details of whether UFT President did or do not call Sills a bitch at a UFT meeting (she probably did – but she’s called me much worse and recently called a high school principal in Manhattan an A-hole.) Or the so-called “slanderous” comments about Sills forging a teacher’s signature on a faked observation – which I heard about literally the day it happened and have discovered has happened in more schools than we want to imagine, especially with Leadership Academy principals, which leads us to think about exactly what kids of training they are being given.) Joyce Bunch is basically defending Sills, and that’s her right.

Of more interest to me was points of anger she expressed at racial attitudes people may have towards kids and their parents in black communities. This touched a real nerve, given the debates going on about race and how that might affect the education process or the relationships between what is often white teachers and poor people in a black community. The idea has been raised by some that black kids would be better served by black teachers. But some people in the black community have also talked about the attitudes of middle class black teachers being much closer to those of white teachers when it comes to poor kids. Results in communities with a majority of black teachers like Washington DC (overwhelmingly,) Chicago and Bed-Stuy have not been any better.

Bunch points out that the community around PS 106 is not homogeneous, stating that she is an attorney and other parents are professionals. She says, “If someone receives a welfare check, so what?” As a white, Jewish young man who entered teaching in 1967 with a whole mess of preconceptions and received a wonderful education by the children and their parents, most of whom were on welfare, I agree wholeheartedly. And I continue to learn, working with current and former teachers of various races to try to reform the system in a way beyond the current corporate, market based driven schools based on a ridiculous competitive model that unfortunately people like Joyce Bunch and Principal Sills seem to have signed onto.

When I mentioned Bunch’s article to a young activist friend of the same mixed race as Obama, she said, “You cannot write about race and schools without reading Lisa Delpit’s “Other People’s Children” which I immediately bought and will follow up with in the future.
Bunch closes her article with an invitation for me to sit down with the PS 106 PTA to create a dialogue and I would be happy to do so. (My email is at the end of this article.) But I want to get one more thing clear…

Bees in my bonnet
I put 35 years in the system as a teacher/activist/reformer in a Hispanic/Black community in which I stood with local activists against an ethnic/white dominated school board, so I have some sensitivity to the issues Bunch raises. I’m proud to have been a teacher and the overwhelming majority of my colleagues were decent, well-meaning and competent. Thus column is aimed at teachers. When Bunch says I have a bee in my bonnet about Sills that is partially due to some of the things teachers (who I respect enormously) tell me. But it also goes to the one personal contact I had with her during the massive battle over the ratification of 2005 contract that took place between the UFT leadership and groups opposed to the contract.

With the UFT doing everything it could to keep the opposition out of the schools, we went around the city with leaflets to put in teacher mail boxes to provide them with both sides of the issue. I went to a hundred schools and in just about every one I was given the courtesy of being allowed to reach out to teachers. And when a principal felt uncomfortable, they were unfailing polite (for instance the principal of PS 114 asked to look over the leaflet and then said “OK.”) Some said they would check and asked me to come back. But not Sills, who was incredibly nasty and abusive over my request, refused to listen to even a 10 second explanation and ordered me off the premises immediately. (The person who was told to escort me out was horrified and said, “Don’t worry, that’s’ the way she treats people.”) When you have contact with so many people over so many years and you meet the rarity of someone treating me like Sills did, you get an inking that something is not right. But maybe she was just having a bad day. I look forward to the dialogue with Joyce Bunch and her colleagues if they are still interested.

Ding Dong at Bayard Rustin Ed Complex

Principal John Angelet of the Bayard Rustin Educational Complex, a man publicly called an a-hole by Randi Weingarten, has resigned and will be leaving this June. Word is the UFT was on the case for a logn time but whether their pressure made a difference is not clear. Angelet was protected through thick and thin by Tweed. They will send a teacher to the rubber room for yelling at a principal but a principal can say and do anything and get away with it. Some words from teachers in the trenches:

John Angelet has inflicted harm upon excellent Teachers, Counselors, and other UFT members for almost 4 years now as Principal. He has destroyed careers, lives and caused an excessive amount of stress for all who work for him. The morale at this school is non-existent. UFT members have resorted to a "survival" mentality even if it means hurting another UFT member. John Angelet has destroyed this school, yet we still have not received our report card grade and despite numberous acts of violence committed in and outside of school, rumours of grade-changing and Regents scrubbing and an abysmal attendance record for all students, he continues to be Principal, he continues to go after those he wants to exact his irrational rage upon and he will not stop until that person is robbed of their livelihood. I have been going through this for three years and it has got to stop. I know Principals that have been removed for less, yet John Angelet is left to terrorize his staff. The events at this school are being widely publicized, the most recent being a condemning, but accurate, article in Chelsea Now.

Mr. Angelet continues to retain his job while others are powerless to save their own. We have an Assistant Principal of Guidance, Jacqueline Serna, who left her previous school, Urban Peace Academy, under allegations of misconduct.... Still she is allowed to observe and U rate Counselors who work very, very hard and have given years to this system. Urban Peace Academy is another casualty of the BloomKlein regime, yet the very people that caused its demise are simply placed in other schools instead of the rubber room, where John Angelet is assigning people at an alarming rate. The UFT has to respond to this and demand why this incompetent, possibly emotionally disturbed individual is being allowed to run this school.

John Angelet must be removed before June and he SHOULD NOT be allowed to rate anyone considering he is himself incompetent. I have never met a more vindicative, cruel, sadistic individual in my entire life.

http://programthistales.blogspot.com/
http://getupstandupforurrights.blogspot.com/

AERAPLANING - Don' Need No Stinkin' Research

...to tell me lower class sizes benefit kids.

On Tuesday, after De-Kleining Joel Klein, I headed over to the Sheraton with Sol Stern to pick up a press pass (I left out in that post that Sol was mad at me for repeating something he said in an email) for AERA (American Education Research Association) which supposedly has 16,000 people attending. I was thinking of hanging around for Diane Ravitch's presentation later that afternoon, but headed for a movie and then home to do get in some late-afternoon gardening. Reading Eduwonkette's report on Diane's presentation made me sorry I didn't stay. I wonder if 'Wonkette was wearing her mask? (How about an Eduwonkette scavenger hunt?)

Thursday, I bit the bullet and headed for AERA for the entire day, carrying the 500 page AERA guide, Kahlenberg's "Tough Liberal" and Podair's book on the '68 strike to entertain myself between workshops. As a quasi educator/blogger/reporter/ed commentator I was interested in this mouthful: Disseminating Education Research Through Electronic Media: Advice from E-Journalists.

The participants were: ed commentators and bloggers Alexander Russo (This Week in Education), Andrew Rotherham (the Ed Sector and Eduwonk), the more traditional educational journalist, Jennifer Medina from the NY Times, and Richard Colvin of the Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media at Teachers College, Columbia University.

Eduwonkette asked me to cover this for her and I sent stuff over for her AERA quotes of the day. There wasn't a food fight between Rotherham and Russo – that will go on at their blogs. Is the day coming when you can throw a pie in someone's face through the computer screen?

I was interested in raising some issues related to the coverage of events in NYC, especially by the NY Times which is viewed by so many as biased for BloomKlein but wasn't sure how to raise it. I've actually seen a slightly more nuanced tone in Medina's reporting but there's so much the Times leaves uncovered. I was surprised when she said there were 11 education reporters at the Times.

You can read about the serious aspects of the session in terms of researchers and journalists (the E and traditional kind) at their blogs.
Russo reports on the session here.
Rotherham's account is here.
Moderator Paul Allen Baker's report here.

I wanted to get a few points in regarding the absence of the classroom teacher voice and how class size is addressed in terms of research.

So I made the statement about not needing stinkin' research in the context of the argument the anti-class size reduction people make that we can't lower class size until we have a quality teacher available and that resources would be better spent in recruiting and training better teachers. That reporters repeat that all the time. Less kids = lift all teachers quality is so obvious.

I said, how come the same questions are not raised about the medical field: we don't refuse to put more doctors and nurses in hospitals because some of them will not be high quality. (Did you know how many practicing doctors have not passed their certification boards?) The legal field – do we ban the guys who can't run fast enough to catch up to the ambulance? The financial field?Hoo , ha! Judges? Politicians? The ones who have the most number of affairs are the lowest quality. Or the highest. Or better yet, take NYC education journalists. Do you see a difference in quality? If you can't keep up with Elizabeth Green, you can't write a story.

Of course this comparison was totally ignored. This is about education, not the rest of the world.

How come the focus on teacher quality to the exclusion of other areas of society. Actually, I got a lot of the answers at Lois Weiner's session on Saturday about the world-wide neo-liberal attack on teachers and their unions (see Lois at the April 15 Teachers Unite forum) but will post on that soon.

What ed journalist do is narrow-casting. Like there was a UFT/coalition rally to restore budget cuts while down the street the fed was coming up with $200 billion and no one made the ironic connection.

Or report that class size research is inconclusive and ignore the fact that parents spend #30,000 for private school and parents in rich areas like Scarsdale pay so much for small class sizes.

I got a rather heated response from Richard Colvin (did I detect a note of hostility when I ran into him in the press room later?), who said just because people in Scarsdale drive a Mercedes, it doesn't mean we all have to when cheaper alternatives are available - that the best uses of resources in resource-starved urban schools may not be to reduce class size. He didn't quite say that the better use was to recruit quality teachers, but he may have been thinking it.

I didn't get a chance to say it but I guess urban kids never get to ride in the Mercedes unless they do the drug thing. What I would have said: How about giving kids in a few places the Mercedes just to see if it works. Like, instead of closing down one high school and loading it up with multiple small schools (sure, that's certainly more cost effective), try doubling the staff for a few years and see what impact that had. Why don't class size researchers suggest that as a test? Or ed reporters? Like I said, narrow casting.

Rotherham pointed to the USA Today article on class size on Monday which made an interesting observation:

Small classes work for children, but that's less because of how teachers teach than because of what students feel they can do: Get more face time with their teacher, for instance, or work in small groups with classmates... researchers closely watched students' behaviors in 10-second intervals throughout class periods and found that in smaller classes in both elementary and high school, students stayed more focused and misbehaved less. They also had more direct interactions with teachers and worked more in small groups rather than by themselves.

Duhhh! That's the point. Reducing class size from, say 30 to 20 may not lead to drastic change in teaching styles (again, what exactly are they doing in the private schools and the rich suburban districts with their lower class size - it would have been interesting if reporters and researchers reported on that) but why is that the crucial thing at this point. The USA article stated, "teachers didn't necessarily take advantage of the smaller classes, often teaching as if in front of a larger group." Of course idiot anti-teacher propagandists who claim to be teachers turn that statement into this: "The solution is not to reduce class size and thus have to hire more bad teachers, but to keep classes big, within reason, and to focus more on hiring and training good teachers."

Typical sophistry from the right wing - turning "teachers who still teach to large groups" into "bad" teachers. Like if it were a given that class sizes would be under 20, teachers would be trained to work in that environment instead of training to manage a herd.

The other point I made was how the voices of classroom teachers, the actual people who have to implement all this crap, never seem to be heard in these debates. I could almost hear a collective regurgitation at the mention of "classroom teachers." Rotherham's comment was that his survey of 1000 teachers show they are not much aware of policy issues. So what? Guess he isn't reading some of amazing NYC Teacher blogs out there.

Medina said something about 6 people talking to each other. Maybe so, but each of these 6 people work in a school and talk to people at the job. So for each blogger and their commenters, there is a multiplier effect.

But most egregiously, she said she'd love to talk to teachers but they don't want to talk to the press. Hmmm! Maybe not about an expose at their school, but about policy? I know so many people who won't keep their mouths shut. If there are any teachers out there who have gotten a request from an ed reporter at the NY Times for an opinion on DOE policy, please let me know.

I bet some in this crowd, as much of society, gag at the idea of hearing teacher voices. Read Frank McCourt's wonderful Teacher Man for a view of how low down society looks at teachers. He spent 30 years in the classroom but it took writing a best seller to be heard.

At least he taught high school. When I told the crowd I taught elementary school, you might as well have read the bubbles over their heads saying, "Those that can do, those that can't teach, especially elementary school."

A Pat on the Back

I'm not shy. If someone wants to give me more credit than I deserve, I'll take it. Ed Notes put out the press release telling the story of the closing of Brooklyn Comprehensive Night School (based in South Shore HS) in Feb., 2007. Some of the papers picked up the story. (Not the NY Times, of course.) The UFT did respond when the press showed interest and if I remember correctly, played a role in extending the school's life.

BCNHS was a school that ran from the afternoon through the evening (for kids that had jobs, etc) four nights a week.

Flo has a tribute to the founding principal of BCNHS (see picture on the right) on her blog here and here.

Malaika Holman-Bermiss (right) died in January.

Norm,

You have been the champion and hero who I have looked to this whole year for a reason to go on. You reminded me that there was still truth, honesty and high intelligence at work in the world. And you cared about me even when I could not be brave.

In the flood of people that we asked to save Brooklyn Comprehensive, you were the only person who really helped us and I will always believe that the publicity we got because you sent out the press release helped us get that extra year. 40 kids graduated in January who never would've had the chance and about that many will in June. Some kids will finish in other places, but at least they didn't give up and they got a little closer with the people they trusted most. You made that possible.

Malaika Holman-Bermiss, BCNHS' founding principal, passed away just this February. She was just 56. It was cancer. When she was 40, she was working on building her school. At the time, there was a place in the DOE to create a place where people could be creative, kids could learn and everyone could feel absolutely safe. We never had an incident that I can remember while she was principal (we had one with Grace Garafolo and a few with the current principal.) She wasn't a big woman at all or a tough one in a physical way. She just had absolute intellectual clarity. This was about helping young adults live their lives and love to learn. Anything that stood in the way was garbage. Anything that did those things was a good thing. I'm 40 and I can't guarantee that I can offer that kind of place to anyone or that kind of environment to any student and that is my failing somehow.

You gave my school an extra year and a lot of kids and their families will be forever grateful.

Flo

Founding Fathers

Here's a story for ya - Updated

UPDATED: March 30

Background for those not familiar:
Last year the DOE sent out surveys to teachers, parents and students. In schools where teachers and/or parents were critical, their report card scores were lowered. Predictably, principals have often responded, not by fixing the problems btu by using tactics to make sure the surveys this year are not critical - get teachers to do them en masse, etc. Teachers are afraid these supposed anonymous surveys can be tracked.

This email came in over the transom Friday from one of the best teachers I've known ( I point this out to show the bullshit has alienated even the best of people.) This is not the first email about teachers being pressured to fill out favorable surveys (I think Unity Must Go made a comment last week). Watch the press buy it hook, line and sinker when Klein says "See how satisfied the teachers and parents are."

Norm,

Do you know about those surveys we're supposed to complete about our school? Well, my principal was REALLY pissed last year that people didn't rave about the place so she told us a few times during meetings that we had to be very careful with what we write (maybe they should also put some thought into how to run a school if they want a favorable response from us???). OK, so this school year passes, a lot of BS went on as usual, and people are generally disgusted. Now it's time to fill in these questionnaires again. A few weeks ago, the principal wanted us to do the surveys online IN SCHOOL [in return for some perk]. "Why?" when we could do them at home in 5 minutes, but then I realized: they wanted to supervise us so we would have to write what they want!! The other day, they held a meeting and handed out the survey and told teachers to fill them out right there in FRONT of the supervisor!!! The chapter leader, thankfully, was there and protested. The rest of us got them delivered to us shortly thereafter. If it had not been for the CL, we probably all would have been similarly pressured during grade meetings. And most of us would have been afraid to protest because then we get pulled into the office and threatened individually (so there are no witnesses). At a nearby school, the principal told his teachers to fill them out and submit them TO HIM when they were done...

Is there ANY way someone can tell who submitted which responses? I am telling the truth in this survey and don't need to get caught. I am even going to skip the last question asking how many years I've been teaching so there will be NO way to identify me. But there is an id number on each form and how do we know that the administration can't track these down?

On the UFT Grapevine, is there any way people can track down who submits comments? It seems anonymous, but I don't trust anyone (except you, of course). There is a rave review about our school there and the truth needs to be told.

Students have nothing to do with their performance

TEACHER QUALITY are the buzz words – a VERY convenient way to throw teachers under the bus for all the bad things that go on in schools.

A voice in the Wilderness at The Chancellor's New Clothes makes the point of the irrationality so deftly. Why not say a sick person's recovery depends soley on the quality of the doctor (not to say that is not a factor - a factor - not the sole or even the major factor?) How responsible are the lawyers for the guys on death row? Here is an excerpt, but make sure to read the whole thing here.

I made a comment that I thought was fairly innocent. “It’s interesting,” I said “to note that all of the explanations and goals have to do with teachers.” Literally, every statement looked something like “Teachers are not teaching consistently, Teachers are not planning regularly, Teachers are not engaging students,” and so on.

I could see the change in his demeanor. “Well, who else would you hold responsible for student performance?”

I just kind of looked at him. “Well, how about students?”

It was on. I had unwittingly thrown the gauntlet.

“That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard,” he began. “Students have nothing to do with their performance.”

Huh? I looked around the class to see if the other students had heard. They looked at me blankly.

De-Kleining at the Manhattan Institute

It's been an interesting week. Tuesday morning I was at the Manhattan Institute (the conservative think tank) breakfast where Joel Klein was the featured speaker. He said the usual - a friend told me a colleague from the DOE was there too, couldn't stomach it and left before Klein finished.

Should MI members have their heads examined for supporting BloomKlein?

After Klein came the panel with his former employee Michele Rhee, who runs the Washington DC schools, Paul Vallas (Chicago, Philadelphia and now, New Orleans, and Tom Payzant (Boston, retired.) Don't any of these people have large school systems to run? I guess using their valuable time to go to these things is sign of the political ideology they are laying down. I've heard the line a million times about how schools should be there to meet the needs of the kids, not the adults. But that is what these so-called reforms are all about - the ideology, not the kids.

I had a bunch of questions to ask but didn't get called upon during this panel. I'll get into the details about Klein's speech and the panel in a future post.

The 2nd panel had David Bloomfield from Brooklyn College (who I know from Leonie's list) but he unfortunately supports Mayoral control with some slight modifications - he subscribes to the theory that BloomKlein are aberrations and the next mayor will make the system much more responsible. Dream on David.

Joe Williams was on the panel - the former reporter from the Daily News who now runs Democrats for Education Reform, another supporter of BloomKlein. I wasn't impressed with his presentation which talked about how bad things were before and how much better it is with one strong person in charge. My question (I didn't get called on again) would have been that having one person in charge makes it easier for them to cover up the same crap that happened before. I had a nice chat with Joe afterwards - he said he used to call me when he was a reporter and I used to tell him how I wouldn't talk to the press because they were so biased against teachers but then talked to him anyway. I have no memory about that, but a lot of brain cells have died since then.

Seymore Fliegel, a former Superintendent (and deputy under Anthony Alvarado in District 4 when AA made his bones before becoming chancellor) DOE flunky and current Bloomberg flunky ( someone told me he's on he payroll) told distorted anecdotes.


Finally, the piece de resistance - Diane Ravitch, who surgically dismantled every single thing Klein said, ripping apart the phony stats piece by piece. I was sitting next to parent leader from District 1 Lisa Donlon ( who made a great presentation arguing in favor of a localized community control governance plan at the City Council hearings) and I'm black and blue from her punching me every time Diane hit another zinger. The only problem with Diane from my point of view is that she, as everyone else up there, also supports mayoral control, but with what she terms checks and balances, which take the form of the mayor appointing a majority of a board, I believe for a fixed term - I don't get how this is a check. Or a balance.

Leonie Haimson was there and got in a good statement/question on class size.
The UFT's Joe Colleti (the designated attendee at these events) and Peter Goodman (Edwize and Ed in the Apple blogs) were there but the UFT doesn't send people to stand up for teachers in these forums (and I told Joe that they never effectively counter Klein's arguments) - which leaves it to me, but I didn't get called on again. I may have to wear a disguise. Almost feels like the old days when I tried to hide behind a seat at the Delegate Assembly to fool Randi into calling on me.

The event was taped and I hope it pops up on C-Span.

At the end of the meeting, I got to hang out with Ed Notes fave Elizabeth Green from The NY Sun (that was the day her article on the UFT Charter school was out) and she filled us in on her adventures the night before when the UFT didn't let her into the PTA meeting. Sol Stern came by to chat with Elizabeth. (Sol may be the only BloomKlein critic at the Manhattan Institute.) Since I was standing there, Sol and I finally made up (once again) after not talking for a year. After the ruckus he caused at last year's Radical Math Conference (it's coming up again next week) which somehow lead to our argument (more of my brain cells are gone so I don't remember the details) he is not interested in attending again. Some of the gang from NYCORE and RadMath often chide me for putting Sol onto them. I do enjoy jousting with Sol over ed policy and always come out sharper for it. So I'm glad we're talking again, though after writing this piece, he'll probably get mad again.

We shared a cab to the Sheraton to get press passes for the AERA Conference. Having a well-known journalist run interference got my dinky Wave press pass through, enabling me to hang out at the press office, drink coffee and eat bagels and danishes for the rest of the conference. More on that Friday.

Pay for Performance Destruction

A brilliant piece that exposes what teaching and learning is all about by Jamiaca HS teacher JB McGeever in the City Limits. Delving into the kind of choice teachers face when test scores are used to evaluate their work, it is an impressive expression of the destructive impact merit pay schemes have on the teaching/learning process.

Principal Doublespeak: Having the Lesson Plan Takes Priority Over the Lesson

If you haven't been following the travails of Moriah, a middle school science teacher in the process of receiving a U-rating, head on over and read the latest entry in the bizarre world of the NYCDOE. I know people at the school and this principal, notorious for emphasizing minutia and noted for choosing one teacher a year to pick on for a career-ending experience. One day Moriah will give the ok to go public with this stuff so that when someone googles the principal's name they will read this excerpt (head over to Untamed Teacher for the entire saga.)

MORIAH: There is a big difference between not having a lesson plan and not having a lesson plan on the desk during a lab.

PRINCIPAL: Tell me what the difference is.

MORIAH: The difference in not having a lesson plan would have meant that I did not know that I had to bring 8 triple beam balances. I did not know that I had to bring 8 graduated cylinders, two bars of soap. In other words, I would not have known what to do that day. But the lab was very very carefully planned. All materials were present. I knew the exact procedure. All the children knew the exact procedure. There was 100% success rate in finding the density of both bars of soap. Children were able to write up a lab, an example of which I gave you and which I have here. So it would be impossible to do all that without writing up a lesson plan, but my emphasis was on having the equipment rather than having a piece of paper that I have memorized. You are always welcome to ask for it. I usually have a written lesson plan, but there are times when perhaps I might get caught without the piece of paper, but the lesson is not only planned, I have it memorized in my head.

PRINCIPAL: But as per Chancellor’s memo 666 and the faculty handbook that you received at the beginning of the year, you must have a written plan and you must have the lesson plan available when it is requested. You said just now that you “usually” have a written lesson plan. All teachers must have a planned lesson. A written lesson plan. Please explain to me why you did not follow the faculty handbook, the Chancellor’s Regulations and the Principal’s Memos. You must have a written lesson plan ALL the time.

On march 23, 2007 I was a traveling teacher and I had a small cart with 13 science project boards from 7F the lowest class that I had.

The science projects were:

How does color affect the melting rate of ice?
How does a change in air pressure affect an egg?
How does temperature affect an electromagnet?
How can we use cabbage juice as a pH indicator?
Which substance filters water the best?
What is the effect of soda on the fizz of a soda?
Will seeds grow better in a covered jar or an uncovered jar?
How do we find if a food has starch?
How much bounce will a handball lose if it is dropped from different heights?
Have you ever wondered how clouds form?
How will different amounts of baking soda and vinegar affect how high a film canister will pop?
How does density of a liquid affect how ice floats.
How can we test different liquids for pH?

At that time I was overwhelmed by the number of boards on the cart. We were going to have a science project fair for 7F. Ms X came in and asked for the lesson plan and when she couldn’t find it she turned around and left without looking at the science projects of 7F. Without giving the children the approval that this low level class needed.

PRINCIPAL: Let me repeat my question. Why did you not have a lesson plan?

MORIAH: It was buried under 13 science boards.

New Blog from NYC Schools

Updated March 27

At the new blog The Chancellor's New Clothes, bloggers A Voice Cries Out and Learners Inherit come at us from 2 distinct directions right out of the NYC schools.

Today, Learners Inherit, a former Teaching Fellow who has crossed over and is now a vet, exposes the fault line in the newbie/veteran teacher divide in today's post. A brief excerpt (make sure to read the whole piece):

...according to the welcoming committee at the NYCTF New Teacher Ceremony, the reason [for th divide] is because “older teachers don’t like you. And they shouldn’t. They are afraid of you because you have the power to do what they can’t. You can change the schools. You are young, fresh, and full of ideas.” That was the speech that echoed throughout the large auditorium housing over 1,850 newly inducted NYCTF. But this was not the first time I heard it. In fact, this was actually a tame version of what I had been hearing all summer from my Fellows Advisor...

Why did these Fellows Advisors have to play-up our importance in the system? Why did they consistently and conveniently alienate us newbies from the experienced teachers?

Is Clinton Strategy Designed to Undermine Obama Chances to Win?

What role will the UFT/AFT play if Obama is the nominee?

On Feb. 12, in part 2 of our post on Randi's Succession, we wrote:

[Randi's] plan being to use a national forum [as AFT President] to help Hillary get elected. Ooops! Actually, if Obama is the candidate and loses to McCain, Hillary becomes very viable in 2012, so think long-term. Who do you think the Weingarten/Clinton forces will really be rooting for?) An Obama loss and AFT HQ becomes Hillary Central.

If Obama gets the nomination and loses to McCain, Hillary gets to say "I told you so" and becomes the instant candidate for 2012. At the time, I read the piece to my wife, upon which she, basically a Hillary supporter at the time, said "WHY? HOW COULD THEY WANT McCAIN?" I responded because for the Clintons and their supporters it is about them, not the party. I told her we would be watching the true level of enthusiasm Randi Weingarten and the AFT/UFT have for Obama – oh, there will be lots of surface stuff, but with Randi's star so hitched to Hillary, an Obama win, leaving Hillary in Siberia, would not be part of the plan.

Today, Maureen Dowd ("Hillary or Nobody") raises this same point (has she been reading my blog?):

Even some Clinton loyalists are wondering aloud if the win-at-all-costs strategy of Hillary and Bill — which continued Tuesday when Hillary tried to drag Rev. Wright back into the spotlight — is designed to rough up Obama so badly and leave the party so riven that Obama will lose in November to John McCain.

If McCain only served one term, Hillary would have one last shot. On Election Day in 2012, she’d be 65.

Why else would Hillary suggest that McCain would be a better commander in chief than Obama, and why else would Bill imply that Obama was less patriotic — and attended by more static — than McCain?

Why else would Phil Singer, a Hillary spokesman, say in a conference call with reporters on Tuesday that Obama was trying to disenfranchise the voters of Florida and Michigan. “When it comes to voting, Senator Obama has turned the audacity of hope into the audacity of nope,” he said, adding, “There’s a basic reality here, which is we could have avoided the entire George W. Bush presidency if we had counted votes in Florida.” So is Singer making the case that Obama is as anti-democratic as W. was when he snatched Florida from Al Gore?

Some top Democrats are increasingly worried that the Clintons’ divide-and-conquer strategy is nihilistic: Hillary or no democrat.

(Or, as one Democrat described it to ABC’s Jake Tapper: Hillary is going for “the Tonya Harding option” — if she can’t get the gold, kneecap her rival.)

A few days ago, David Brooks ("The Long Defeat") estimated Hillary's chances of getting the nomination as at best 5% and he wondered why she would be risking the party's chances by undermining Obama to such an extent he can't win.

When you step back and think about it, she is amazing. She possesses the audacity of hopelessness.

Why does she go on like this? Does Clinton privately believe that Obama is so incompetent that only she can deliver the policies they both support? Is she simply selfish, and willing to put her party through agony for the sake of her slender chance? Are leading Democrats so narcissistic that they would create bitter stagnation even if they were granted one-party rule?

We've speculated (here and here) on the lack of democracy in the way Randi Weingarten went about steamrollering the UFT into supporting Hillary Clinton (Are there NO Obama supporters in the UFT, in particular amongst Black UFT'ers and in particular Unity Caucus?) by not allowing the Delegate Assembly to even discuss the endorsement, denying Obama supporters at least the sense of fairness.

Unity Caucus discipline will take care of their Black members. It is hard to believe that not even one Unity Caucus Black member would not be for Obama, with polling numbers around the nation showing a massive drift of Black voters moving from Hillary to Obama.... But in the "democracy" in Unity Caucus, democratic centralism will suppress any sense of support for Obama.

It's all about how to manage the membership. The UFT payed [Hillary advisor] Howard Wolfson to advise them on how to use massive UFT resources in Hillary's campaign without having to go through an endorsement by the members or even hold a discussion where Obama supporters might get to raise a stink.

With the end-game approaching, let's see if members of Unity Caucus are freed to express their enthusiasm for Obama. Randi, hedging her bets as usual, did do some gentle trashing of Obama's positions on education at a recent DA. The UFT (it will take Randi a bit of time to turn over the top level of the AFT in her image) will make it look like they support Obama, while undermining him. This is where Weingarten is at her most brilliant. Feinting left while going right. Or is it feinting right and going left? Actually, it's both at the same time.

There is sure to be some resentment of Black members within Unity Caucus if the UFT slacks off. Mike Mulgrew, Michelle Bodden and other supposed Weingarten successors will have their work cut out for them avoiding cracks in the machine.

I will miss the daily obfuscation show in the UFT when she starts racing around the county this July after her election as AFT president campaigning for Hillary – in '12.

Green Scratches Surface at UFT Charter

Updated March 26

The long-awaited Elizabeth Green piece in the NY Sun on the troubles at the UFT elementary Charter school has just scratched the surface. Some of us in ICE have been sitting on a bunch of stuff about the school for some time and were waiting for someone in the main stream press to puncture the pinata. (There was probably no lack of joy over the story in the upper reaches of Tweedletown – there were some hints from that quarter that a little scratching around was warranted.)

These stories are ONLY about the elementary, not the UFT middle school, whose principal is Drew Goodman, son of retired UFT District Reps Joan and Peter Goodman – noted Edwize blogger and Ed in the Apple. Drew Goodman has a good rep but the hints of nepotism after the UFT supposedly engaged in a high priced talent search, still float around 52 Broadway. The middle school is housed in George Gershwin JHS on Van Sicklen Ave., where I spent my glorious junior high years and was in the first 3-year grad class ('59 the school opened in Sept '56.)

Elizabeth took a trip out to the old neighborhood in East New York on Monday night for an emergency PTA meeting at the elementary school on Wyona St. where parents expressed some level of dissatisfaction. What's still missing is the unhappy teacher factor plus assorted other parties who have complained to ICE – not happy campers. Both current and former teachers, fearing the long arm of the UFT are afraid to talk publicly and some are resorting to drop boxes, leaving messages taped to the bottom of park benches – extreme micromanagement that make the Tweedles look like progressives and other juicy goodies.

Excuse me, I have to go wipe some of that juicy stuff off my keyboard.

Note: Check out NYC Educator's take.