NYCDOE Office of Accountability Grows...and Grows...

....AND GROWS (Updated 10:30 AM)

Is Tweed a kudzu mutant?
What the face of EEP ed "reform" really looks like

What's another million that could have gone to the classroom? The "No Excusers" always find excuses not to cut class size. I echo Leonie. Gee, they're going to train 25 teachers to differentiate instruction - WITH 30 KIDS? And of course, teachers who somehow can't manage this will be vilified. Put any private school teacher where people pay $30 grand a year into this situation and check the results. (Talk to some of them and they roll their eyes.)

Want to beat the odds? Try JUST A FEW SCHOOLS with drastically lower class size. That so many apologists for EEP teacher bashing keep raising red herrings is a clear sign that they know we will that is the most effective way to reduce all kinds of gaps – well, maybe not the Grand Canyon, which will be closed before the Tweed credibility gap.

Tweed sure is reducing bureaucracy
Oh, and if you want to apply for a job in the Accountability Office, see the jobs available below. Wouldn't you just love to be a "Summative Assessments Product Manager"?


From Leonie Haimson to NYC EDNEWS Listserve:

Just as we’re struggling with overcrowded classes with insufficient resources, and a large number of District family advocates laid off, the Accountability office is continues to grow like a cancer that won’t stop.

Remember how there was supposedly a hiring freeze at Tweed to save money?

Newest finding: there’s a new ten person team at DOE, costing a million dollars, headed by a “director of knowledge management” in the Accountability office. Meanwhile, Jim Liebman is still heading the office while ostensibly full time teaching at Columbia. Wonder if he’s getting paid twice.

One of the projects they’re in charge of will supposedly “show teachers at 25 middle schools how to tailor their lessons for each student.”

How about beginning by cutting their class sizes? With classes of 30 or more, and a teaching load of up to 150 students, it’s a bit difficult to individualize instruction for every student.

Of course, that’s advice they refuse to listen to even though it doesn’t cost them a penny.

$1M SCHOOL 'THINK' LINK
By YOAV GONEN, Education Reporter, NY Post
September 11, 2008

The Department of Education is assembling a million-dollar team charged with getting schools to learn from one another how best to educate their students, The Post has learned.

The 10-person team will have a budget of more than $1 million and will be headed by a "director of knowledge management." The initiative will create a computerized "warehouse" that will allow schools to share ideas about organization, scheduling and other aspects of educating kids.

"It's just spreading out knowledge or learning or innovation horizontally from almost 1,500 schools to almost 1,500 other schools," said Jim Liebman, the DOE's chief of accountability. While much of the information-sharing will be done online, schools struggling with similar problems will also form real-life networks.

Education officials are planning to link poorly performing schools with a "beat-the-odds" school that has overcome similar hurdles, and they've started two related two-year pilot programs this year. One will help about 20 schools learn how to pinpoint concepts students are struggling with, and the other will show teachers at 25 middle schools how to tailor their lessons for each student.

Need a job?

Chancellor's Accountability Initiative

Analyst; Research and Policy Support (5182) $46,004 +
NEW YORK, NY, US. - 04/25/2008

Community District Assistant (4821) : $29,804+
New York, NY, US. - 11/05/2007

Community Superintendent (5344) Up to $170,000 Salary
NEW YORK, NY, US. - 06/09/2008

Data Analyst-Consultant (4504) $250.00 - $300.00 per day
NEW YORK, NY, US. - 09/14/2007
__

Deputy Director; Knowledge Management (5412) Salary: $95,000+
NEW YORK, NY, US. - 07/18/2008

Director of School Quality (5373) up to $170,000 Salary Commensurate with Experience
NEW YORK, NY, US. - 07/28/2008

Director; Knowledge Management (5389) ; Salary: $111,000 - $170,000
NEW YORK, NY, US. - 07/09/2008

Implementation Manager, KM Initiatives (5552) $65,120+
NEW YORK, NY, US. - 08/29/2008

Instructional Design Manager, KM Educator Support (5553) $65,120 +
NEW YORK, NY, US. - 08/29/2008

KM Domain Leader for Leadership & Organizational Management (5507) $111,000 - $170,000
NEW YORK, NY, US. - 08/11/2008

KM Domain Leader for Literacy; English Language Arts; & Social Studies (5508) $111,000 - $170,000
NEW YORK, NY, US. - 08/11/2008

KM Domain Leader for Mathematics & Science (5506) $111,000 - $170,000
NEW YORK, NY, US. - 08/08/2008

Senior Achievement Facilitator (2880) Up to $170,000
NEW YORK, NY, US. - 06/19/2008

Senior Analyst; Assessment (5346) $63,301+
NEW YORK, NY, US. - 06/11/2008

Summative Assessments Product Manager (5232) $81,000


UPDATE from Leonie:

More evidence of the unreliability of the school grades in the NY Times today.
Remember IS 89, that as one of the best schools in the country-- the only NYC middle school to do so-- and yet received an "D" ?
Or the "F" given to PS 35 in Staten Island, PS 35 - where more than 95% of students met standards in math and ELA?
Well, PS 8, most visited school in Brooklyn by top DOE officials -- who have repeatedly lauded it as one of the most improved schools in the entire city -- got an "F" in this year's report cards.
Experts say that year to year changes in average test scores at the school level are 34 to 80 percent random. And yet school grades are based 85% on these test scores.
I wrote an oped for the Daily News on this issue last year -- posted here:
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2007/11/07/2007-11-07_why_parents__teachers_should_reject_new_.html

The school grades were devised by Jim Liebman, a man with no expertise in education, testing or statistics, and who is still running the doE Accountability office full time despite also being full time Columbia law prof. He is spending hundreds of millions a year, and the office is still growing in leaps and bounds, despite budget cuts to other areas, including school supplies, special ed transportation, and many District family advocates who have been laid off. Instead, it is the entire Accountability office that deserves an "F" and should be cut, and Liebman and his other top staff should be sent back to school where they belong -- to take a basic course in statistics.

In Brooklyn, Low Grade for a School of Successes

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/12/education/12school.html?hp

NYCoRE Announcement--Plan book campaign in final stages!

With the new school year just beginning, we wanted to take a moment to update you on our campaign to promote Planning to Change the World, the social justice teacher’s plan book. We have sold more than 1,700 books nationwide, and orders are continuing to come in. We also received another great review on tolerance.org (http://www.tolerance.org/teach/current/event.jsp?ar=956).

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Please help us make one final push by spreading the word to your friends and colleagues. You can download a flier here (http://www.justiceplanbook.com/justiceplanbook/planning-to-change-the-world-flier) or you can email your colleagues and direct them to the plan book website, www.justiceplanbook.com.

A huge thank you to all those who participated in this campaign. You have helped put a wonderful resource in the hands of educators across the country and bring critical funds to both the New York Collective of Radical Educators and the Education for Liberation Network, supporting our efforts to achieve education justice.

Bree, NYCoRE and Tara, Education for Liberation Network

The Achievement Gap and Civil Rights

Is a dropping percentage of African-American teachers in urban areas contributing to THE DREADED ACHIEVEMENT GAP?

An article in the Philadelphia Daily News (posted at Norms Notes) states:

The percentage of African-American teachers is declining, and now stands at its lowest point in decades.

And students are suffering as a result, a growing body of research shows. One national organization found that increasing the percentage of black teachers is directly related to closing the so-called achievement gap - students of color lagging behind white peers.

Now, I'm always suspicious when I see the words "a growing body of research" without citing the actual study, as is the want for so many ideologues who talk about "studies" that debunk the benefits of low class size or how teacher quality is the most factor (without defining what the words "teacher quality" mean) or the 45 teachers used in a "major" study that claiming that Teach For America teachers outperform other teachers.

However, this throws an intriguing element on the table when the EEP Klein/Sharpton acolytes talk about the AG being "the civil rights issue of our time." Sure. Let's have a civil rights movement in education, but leave African-American teachers behind. Hmmm. Do we need a federal No African-American Teacher Left Behind? Let's see: NAATLB. Not bad. Just trying saying it 10 times real fast.


Teachers in NYC, led by my Independent Community of Educators colleague Sean Ahern, have been harping on this issue for years. Sean talks about the "whitening of the teacher staff." In NYC where numerous Teach for America recruits have entered the school system, it was pointed out to me the other day that TFA does not recruit at the City University of New York, where they might actually tap into a source of many students of color.

In fact, due to Sean and some other ICE'ers, ICE will be discussing the issue at this Friday's meeting (see the ICE blog for details if you want to come down and jump in.) Ed Notes has reported on the dramatic drop in the percentage of new hires of African-Americans (from 28% to 15%) in the BloomKlein years (here, here and the black educator blog.)

I support the concept of diversified teaching staffs. All kids should be exposed to teachers of different backgrounds. White kids should have enough black teachers so they don't come to see the world in a narrow framework. African-American kids should not see only white teachers. But does such exposure make a major difference academically?

I have never bought into the idea that having teachers of the same race has an enormous impact. My school had many African-American teachers and there did not seem to be much of a difference in terms of student performance, behavior, etc. Some were great teachers. Some not so great. About the same ratios as Hispanic and white teachers. But that was a very small sample.

There were entire districts (16 for instance in Bed-Stuy in Brooklyn) that under community control from 1968-2002 hired enormous numbers of Black teachers, to the extent that there were whispers that white teachers were not welcome in some schools. While there are many factors involved, the performance of students in District 16 was generally abysmal. And friends who taught in District 16 reported the same kinds of impact I saw in my school.

On a larger stage, while I don't have any figures, the Washington DC school system supposedly has a majority of black teachers and has been lambasted for poor performance. That adds an interesting (and surprisingly unreported) backdrop to the current attack on DC teachers and their union by Michelle Rhee and Mayor Fenty, who is black. Is there an undercurrent of an attack on civil rights going on - for teachers?

I'm open to hearing all points of view on this issue. Expect a spirited debate at the ICE meeting tomorrow. I think I'll wear a helmet.

Throwing BB’s at EEPs – With a Dollop of Common Sense

The following column will appear in The Wave on Sept. 19, a reworking of some of the material on this blog.

Note: Thanks to Tom Hoffman's comment for the heads up on misplacing the word "bigger" for "broader." An added redundant adjective ended up replacing the intended word. A good lesson for using spell/grammer check without proof reading. Can I get away with blaming a rushed deadline?



What lies between the Joel Klein/Al Sharpton Education Equality Project vision of education reform and the Broader, Bolder approach signed onto by many other education reform advocates?

EEP believes the solution to the buzz word of the century – read in a loud stentorian voice - THE DREADED ACHIEVEMENT GAP - is in a competitive, market based, narrow outcome oriented based on standardized tests system that punishes schools, teachers and kids or rewards them with incentives like merit pay. Create competition by turning whole chunks of school systems over to charter schools run by semi-public and private operations supported by money from outside the school system. EEP says bringing up other factors like class size, home life, behavior, and socio-economic status are just excuses and calls for a “no excuses” approach to education reform.

This is the reform model that is sweeping the urban landscape, in most cases led by a mayor who has been given dictatorial control over the school system. Klein and Sharpton led their troops to the Democratic and Republican conventions to attempt to influence both parties. John McCain signed up immediately.

This summer a counter group called the Broader, Bolder approach to ed reform counters with the idea that schools can't do it alone without significant investment in support services.

Broader, Bolder does not claim schools cannot be improved at all and also seems to sign on to some of the accountability themes of EEP, while calling for an expansion beyond narrow test scores of how schools are held accountable. Broader, Bolder's main themes are:

* Continue to pursue school improvement efforts (with a big component being reducing class size.)
* Increase investment in developmentally appropriate and high-quality early childhood, pre-school, and kindergarten education.

Common Sense, Rational Education Reform

This week, a 3rd group organized by two parent activists, has come on the scene. Calling itself "Common Sense Educational Reforms," it is led by New York based Leonie Haimson of “Class Size Matters” and Julie Woestehoff of the Chicago-based "Parents United for Responsible Education" (PURE). They wrote a letter to both presidential candidates outlining their vision for what could be called a rational approach to Ed reform based on common sense instead of ideological prescriptions upon which both EEP and BB seem to operate. Like, how much research is necessary to prove that lower class sizes, enjoyed by the wealthy, would have a positive impact on children, while also improving teacher quality?

The EEPs constantly downplay class size, arguing that there are not enough quality teachers to make a difference. CSER argues that teacher quality deteriorates in large classes no matter what the level of the teacher and lower class sizes would also serve to dam the attrition rate of teachers who often run off to the better working conditions of suburban schools.

CSER certainly comes down closer to the BB’s, calling for:
–Safe and uncrowded schools with more counselors.
–Smaller classes.
–Adequate resources and teacher support to assure that all students receive a rich, well-rounded curriculum including the arts, physical education and project-based learning in a curriculum connected to their own lives and culture, with progress evaluated by high-quality, appropriate assessment tools that are primarily classroom-based.
–More parental involvement. A high level of involved parents at the school level leads to better outcomes for students.

They enter the fray as major critics of the Klein/Sharpton EEP approach, claiming “the top- down, corporate approach to school governance currently used in cities throughout the country such as Chicago and New York has consistently and systematically worked to eliminate the ability of parents to have a real voice in decision-making and thus to be true partners at the school and district level.” I find it interesting that poorer urban parents are being denied the right to elect school boards and control school funding, a right enjoyed by the overwhelming majority of parents in this nation.

The NY Sun’s Elizabeth Green wrote about CSER this week:

They dismiss Mr. Klein's as offering only a beefed-up version of President Bush's unpopular No Child Left Behind law. Mr. Klein's prescriptions are "NCLB on steroids." They also reject charter schools, which are embraced by Mr. Klein and his supporters as a means of giving opportunities to poor children. The Common Sense group says charter schools actually further exacerbate income disparities by admitting only children who can do well at their schools and leaving the rest to flounder. Admission at charter schools is regulated by strict lotteries in New York, but the parents argue that only the savvy students apply to them, and they say that the schools encourage more troubled students to leave.

CSER has a new blog at: http://commonsensereforms.blogspot.com/


Separate and Unequal: When Parents Hire the Teachers

When I taught in Williamsburg, the PTA raised money, mostly through candy sales. They used the money to buy books for the library and reading programs. But the idea of buying extra teacher services? Why that would take a hell of a lot of money. This week, we read about the enormous amounts of money PTA’s in wealthy areas raise to buy all kinds of services that are beyond the realm of schools in poor areas. Major differences in spending per pupil in charter vs. public schools have also emerged, allowing charters to offer lower class sizes and other services.
What all this means is perpetuating a system of "separate and unequal” for the kids most in need.

Has "Liberal: Become a Dirty Word?

While liberalism in the sense of the New Deal is in retreat - witness the Democratic move to the center/right - most people are not aware of the intense criticism of liberals that comes from the left. In fact, liberalism - the Ameican version as opposed to the European model of Adam Smith - seems to be dead. When the NY Times is accused of being liberal or left, radicals have a good laugh. Arjun raises some interesting points.

Arjun Janah, a former NYC teacher, on liberalism

In this country, the term "liberal" has, since Reagan's time, been a pejorative. The right has achieved this by associating liberalism with real or perceived "liberal excess" -- with a permissive attitude of moral relativism that coddles criminals and errant children, ignores the rights of crime victims, parents and teachers, undermines legitimate authority, and refuses to accept responsibility. It has also successfully linked liberalism with "tax and spend" policies, bloated and oppressive big government, and with an affluent "liberal elite" associated with Washington, the big cities on the coasts, and Hollywood, that supports legislation that adversely affects working class Americans while drinking lattes, owning multiple homes and sending their own children to private, elite schools and colleges.

The distancing of much of the left in this country from its working class origins may have contributed to this, as also the peculiar increasing insularity of much of that working class as it grew more affluent. But one cannot discount the power of the propaganda campaign carried out by big business, its animus against unions and its success in brainwashing the public into pathological fears about "socialism" as a foreign evil, closely associated with the bogey of Communism, and threatening to the "American way of life". The size and geographical isolation of this country, and the strength of its economy, have also led to an indifference or ignorance about the affairs of even neighboring states, such as Mexico and Canada. This has fed this insularity in a vicious cycle.

The individualism, and the healthy skepticism about authority and government, that may have been part of this country's culture from the start, have thus been twisted into what may be a pathological fear of collective spirit and effort beyond the confines of one's church -- and of the legitimate uses of government for purposes other than defense.

This pathology has increased to the extent that most of the perceived "leftists" that remain among this country's legislators, government executives and media are mainly concentrated in a few cities and states, and would, by most other country's standards, be considered "center right". Indeed, that much-vilified bastion of liberalism, the New York Times, has yet, in my experience, to publish anything substantive in support of its own home city's union workers. And it has often been in the forefront, both editorially and in reportage, at the start of foreign wars, arguing the government's case. Iraq was no exception.

Nevertheless, in the Times, one still finds those who occasionally have the courage to defend traditional liberalism. In the article below, Bob Herbert rises to the defense of liberals, citing some of their notable achievements, such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and the advance of basic civil rights for minorities and women.

Arjun Janah

Read Herbert's column at Norms Notes right below Arjun.

Separate and Unequal: When Parents Hire the Teachers

Recent articles (NY Post) have pointed to the enormous disparity in the amount of money raised between Parent Associations in wealthy and poor areas of NYC. Read Leonie's full comments at the NYC PSP blog.

I talked to the Post reporter at length who was researching this practice, and pointed out to her that it was DOE's failure to provide reasonable class sizes that put NYC parents in this impossible situation- having to decide whether to raise money to hire assistant teachers, or move to the suburbs or transfer their kids to private schools, in an effort to ensure that their children do not suffer in substandard conditions of classes of 25, 30 or more.

Unfortunately, the editors cut my quote from the final article.

Manhattan PEP rep Patrick Sullivan wrote a blog pointing to how much higher per pupil spending was at charter schools. On the first day of school Leonie pointed to these differences in spending.

So what does it all amount to for those sterling advocates of the civil rights issue of our time (see John McCain say same in a major education policy speech today)?

SEPARATE AND UNEQUAL FOR THE KIDS MOST IN NEED



A NYC parent activist responded on the parent listserve:

...so much for the "Fair Student Funding formula" which we all know is anything but.

If these guys cared about equitable funding then the hard fought for CFE funds would be used to improve the conditions and resources of the schools with the historically most disadvantaged kids.

Instead the politically arrived at (by special interests) budget formula is aimed at union busting and punishing schools for hiring ands retaining experienced teachers.

PTA's in the wealthiest zip codes fund raise to supplant school staffing budgets because this administration only thinks charter schools should get to cap class size at reasonable numbers, leaving budget decisions (such as spending on art, music, phys ed and after school) totally up to individual principals.

This emperor has no clothes- only rhetoric.
Catchy buzz words and tons of PR do not accountability or transparency make.

Where is the data driving these decisions?
Where is the evidence that any of this never ending re-tooling and experimentation is effective?
Are graduation rates and college readiness, or any other meaningful measure of learning, actually improving?

How has mayoral control removed corruption, cronyism, political agendas or special interests?

It has only magnified the power of a very narrow ideological force by removing all mechanisms for dissent or even dialogue.

Essential public services like education are too important to be left in the hands of technocrats and lawyers.

We can not afford a winners and losers free market based approach to public education.

Use your vote today, if your are a registered Democrat, to support any candidate that is opposed to continuing mayoral control and the neo-liberal ideology that has driven " education reform" for our one million children for the past 7 years.

Lisa Donlan
CEC One ( LES/ East Village)

---

Green Dot Charter and UFT Update

In case you missed it, Yoav Gonen in the NY Post wrote a piece on Green Dot and the UFT. I posted it at Norms Notes.

Some excerpts:

He's a former Democratic fund-raiser who said he founded the organization in 1999 not to advocate charter schools, but to reform public schools.

The United Federation of Teachers, which had long resisted privately operated charter schools, eventually opened two of its own. As its own boss, the union gave the teachers the same seniority rights and tenure they got from the city.

But instructors at Green Dot New York are giving up both in exchange for salaries 10 percent above what the city pays and more say in how to run the school.

They're also working longer hours and may eventually give up overtime pay.

Several national education groups gave UFT President Randi Weingarten high marks.

"The pathway to irrelevance for the unions is to continue to say, 'No,' " said Andrew Rotherham, co-founder of the think tank Education Sector.

"The way to thrive is to start embracing some of these ideas and getting in the game, and that's what she's doing."

But some rank-and-file members say Weingarten sold out.

"I think Randi is taking the path of least resistance," said Arthur Goldstein, a teacher in Francis Lewis HS in Fresh Meadows, Queens. "I don't think her priorities are to help teachers."

Ed Notes and NYC Educator did a bunch of articles on the UFT and Green Dot over the past year. Search the blogs with the "Green Dot" tag if interested in reading more.

Common Sense, Rational Education Reform

REVISED & UPDATED

What lies between the Joel Klein/Al Sharpton Education Equality Project (market based, narrow outcome oriented, punish schools and teachers) and the Bigger Bolder approach (schools can't do it alone without significant investment in support services)?

Does "Common Sense Educational Reforms" led by New York based Class Size Matters' Leonie Haimson and Julie Woestehoff's Chicago-based "Parents United for Responsible Education" (PURE) offer a 3rd way? (See the Common Sense blog.)

(Read Leonie Haimson's post at NYC Public School Parents, which fine tunes the CS position.)

Elizabeth Green of the NY Sun reports:

The parents criticize both groups. They dismiss Mr. Klein's as offering only a beefed-up version of President Bush's unpopular No Child Left Behind law. Mr. Klein's prescriptions are "NCLB on steroids," the parents' letter says.

They also reject charter schools, which are embraced by Mr. Klein and his supporters as a means of giving opportunities to poor children. The Common Sense group says charter schools actually further exacerbate income disparities by admitting only children who can do well at their schools and leaving the rest to flounder.

Admission at charter schools is regulated by strict lotteries in New York, but the parents argue that only the savvy students apply to them, and they say that the schools encourage more troubled students to leave.

The parents' statement also criticizes the Broader, Bolder Agenda's argument that schools alone cannot end the achievement gap.

"We cannot and we should not give up on schools being able to make a really transformational differencee in kids' lives," Ms. Haimson said.

Read Green's full story here. See the letter CSER has written to Obama and McCain here (after Green's piece.)


Will CSER become the third person between EEP and BB? (Okay, it's a stretch - Orson Welles forgive me.)

Is this part of a movement for rational educational reform that will unite parents with progressive teachers who have seen their union drift into limbo between competing reform movements? (NYC Educator promoted it as did Ed Notes - I think I signed it.)

The UFT will jump on board - why not? It won't cost them anything but in terms of actually doing something about reform, don't expect much. After all, in addition to the BB, they also signed on to many of the aspects of the EEP - longer days, evaluations of schools based on narrow agendas, various merit pay schemes, charter schools and whatever crap is thrown against the wall and shows signs of sticking. Most of these concepts are criticized by CSER.

Bigger, Bolder does not claim schools cannot be improved at all and also seems to sign on to some of the accountability themes of EEP, though calling for an expansion beyond narrow test scores of how schools are held accountable. Bigger, Bolder's main themes are:

• Continue to pursue school improvement efforts (with a big component being reducing class size.
• Increase investment in developmentally appropriate and high-quality early childhood, pre-school, and kindergarten education.

So it is not clear exactly how different Common Sense is from Bigger, Bolder?

Philissa and Kelly at Gotham Schools called the school wars between EEP and BB a "false choice." Kelly raised the common sense concept:

As a policymaker evaluating schools, it makes no sense to ignore context. Set a high bar for everyone, of course - but recognize that it will take a lot more resources for some schools to achieve that than for others. If you don’t provide those resources - I’m talking small classes, rigorous, proven curriculum, recruitment, development, and retention of the best teachers, and it’s all going to take money - then you’re just setting up schools to fail.

And as a society, it makes no sense to put the whole burden on schools. I will know that our nation really wants to leave no child behind when I see a complete package of funded legislation that takes on health care (physical and mental), housing, environmental justice, early childhood education, and a host of other issues that affect the development and opportunities of our kids. “Our schools are failing,” is nothing but an excuse when the rest is left unaddressed.

To me, it looks like common sense: no excuses schools in a no excuses society.

I believe that most teachers who see the full consequences of how education in urban areas is given short shrift compared to places they send their own children to school do not take an approach to their jobs that things are hopeless. Teachers see real progress in many kids every day and put out their best. The real accountability they feel is to their students.

What they do see is the shame of what could be. What could be if only they didn't have 5 classes with over 30 kids in each, etc. (You know the drill.) There are kids who just don't make progress and they don't know what to do about it in the context of the resources they have at hand. Frustration, yes. But give up? No. The job becomes just too much heavy lifting when you do that. But when you add this market based competitive accountability thing to the equation then a job that was manageable to live with can become oppressive as the years go by.

What many, if not most, teachers who don't leave end up doing is finding ways to get out of doing a full schedule (comp time, dean, etc) or a gig that is less intensive teaching wise - there are a hell of a lot of non-classroom or part-time stuff that could be used to reduce class size. (We'll get into this aspect another time.) Finding teachers who do the blood and guts full schedule teaching for a very long time will be an increasingly rare thing.

My problem with one way accountability - hold teachers, schools, kids responsible while the people who hold the keys to the money escape - is that the fight for proper allocation of resources to close the equality gap between wealthy and poor schools gets lost in distraction over issues like teacher quality and accountability. Spend a fortune on monitoring, weeding out (isn't it cheaper to just find other useful things for people to do if there's a feeling they are not the best teachers), etc. instead of funneling all money into the classroom.

More from Kelly

How could two-way accountability actually work? If a school fails, but other services aren’t in place, schools are underfunded, and so forth, should the school still be held accountable? How could parents and educators in that school hold the government accountable for doing its part?

Let’s move beyond the “false choice” and explore what two-way accountability could look like in practice. Anyone?

I've been wrestling with Kelly's challenge and cannot see how 2-way accountability can work without a mass movement. Such a mass movement can never get moving with a progressive teachers union that bridges the gap between various elements and organizes and mobilizes its membership. That is why I have put a lot of my energies over the past 40 years into trying to spark a movement for progressive change in the UFT (with little success, I might add.) The UFT has bought into one way accountability and only pays lip service to holding political forces accountable - just look at their endorsement list (Pataki and worse.)

Class size is the bell weather issue that defines the separation of quality schools and the work Leonie has done for the past decade has been a focal point in the call for 2 way accountability. She has become one of the most vocal parent leaders in the city and beyond while attracting a lot of support from progressive teachers (as opposed to the UFT which also supports her - but you know the view from the anti-union right wing- they are only interested in class size so they can add members and dues.)

Parents organizations are difficult to sustain as they are mostly in the struggle for the years their kids spend in schools. Can create a movement without allying very strongly with teachers, who unless they are the new "peace corps" temporary teachers, are in it for decades and even if looked at from narrow self-interest, still have enormous incentives to see schools work well? That is why class size is such a unifying issue for all.

Gary Stager in his article in Good Magazine "School Wars" says, "Politicians, billionaires, and mavericks all want to fix public schools. They won’t. Parents will." Okay, I don't agree that parents will - alone. But these points focuses on the lack of accountability when it comes to the funders of the EEP approach are worth closing with:

Traditionally, corporate philanthropy in education consisted of a speaker on career day or sponsorship of a softball team. I’m all for generosity, but I’m also for accountability. And I wonder, to whom are the Gateses and the Broads of the world accountable? They were not elected or even appointed, but their money is changing the ways public schools operate. They may do this for altruistic reasons, but what is a citizen’s recourse if their ideology harms children? And, worse, what happens if a billionaire finally throws up his or her hands and publicly exclaims, “Even I can’t fix the public schools”? Our schools may not be able to survive the sudden cash withdrawal—or the backlash.

One way to navigate this new era of “giving” is by asking a simple question: Would these folks send their own children or grandchildren to their “reinvented” schools? Is a steady diet of memorization, work sheets, and testing the sort of education the children they love receive? Of course not. If affluent children enjoy beautiful campuses, arts programs, interesting literature, modern technology, field trips, carefree recess, and teachers who know them, I suggest that we create such schools for all children. What’s good for the sons and daughters of the billionaires should be good enough the rest of the children, too.

Bailing Out the Fannies & Freddies

Well what can you say about today's bailouts? Didn't McCain say the other day there is TOO MUCH REGULATION? Which planet is he living on? My generation had to read Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" in high school, a book about abuses in the meat industry that one shouldn't read before lunch, especially a school lunch. With the corporate de-reg agenda pushed by Republican/business we are heading to the point where I would boil all my meat for 24 hours - which means we will all be eating flanken which my mother used to cook for 2 weeks. Even Ebola was afraid to go near it.

My usual rant on class size
How many times to we have to be told that reducing class size is not cost effective? Skoolboy at 'Wonkette's place raised the issue recently and we hear a few things repeated when class size comes up:

• quality teachers
• what the research shows

and the dreaded

• COST

Matthew Tabor left a comment that included these points:

As a parent who pays the taxes to fund the class size reduction I'm as skeptical as the next person about CSR becoming a full employment act for the UFT. At the same time I know that Tweed has its own agenda, and isn’t always interested in acknowledging the grains of truth that may be contained in its opponents’ claims.

and

...the truth probably lies in the middle. Yet none of the actors in the debate seem interested in finding that middle. Just scoring points against each other, once again leaving parents in the middle.

So hear, hear for real research, like the City appears to be undertaking with the ED Hirsch curriculum in ten schools starting this fall. Let’s stop shouting at each other, get some facts on the table and then have a real debate about the cost implications. [Read his entire comment here.]

I guess I get ticked off how class size costs are always put on the table as employment for the UFT while ignoring the larger issue of how much money is wasted in this society in the corporate welfare system. Hey, then try it in a right to work state if you are all so hot and bothered by the union.

Let's try some research, not that I think we need it but we want to make people comfortable.
So let's say we hire scads of teachers - I mean take the 10 most failing schools and literally double the staffs. Inundate the schools with services no matter what the cost. Just throw cash at them. Hey, rename the schools "Fannie and Freddie" if that will make you feel better.
Say you get some teacher clunkers in the batch. So what? Find something useful they can do in the school if their strongest suit is not teaching.

What can it cost to do this with 10 schools? I even suggested this to Chris Cerf at a Manhattan Institute meeting to try it with one school when he said it's been proven throwing cash at the problem doesn't solve it. I said, "You NEVER throw cash. Why not try it with Tilden HS in Brooklyn instead of closing it"?

Skoolboy in his post threw down the gauntlet challenging the DOE to do an experiment on reducing class size. I left this comment:

I'm glad to see you revisit the class size issue but I'm afraid your gauntlet will lie in the gutter untouched by the hands of a Tweed official.

The NYC DOE had many opportunities over the last 6 years to do a study of class size. For instance, instead of closing so many large schools, why didn't they try to reduce class size in one or two schools as a control and compare the impact to other schools?

The answer is class size reduction is not part of the fabric of the ed reform movement. It is much easier - and cheaper - to blame ed failures on lack of quality teaching.

When there's a need for more police, firemen, soldiers, doctors - is the quality issue raised? We know that "qualifications" in the medical field are never related to performance and hospitals in need scrounge for doctors where they can get them as long as they are certified. In these fields people actually die if mistakes are made.

The quality teacher before class size issue is a red herring to support an ideological, not an educational solution, that accomplishes the political goals of privatizing many elements of the public schools while diminishing the impact teacher unions might have. (I say might because of the role the AFT/UFT plays in supporting so much of this ideology.)

Sarah Palin: Thank God for Jesus so she didn't have to be Jewish (spoof)

....and dinosaurs were around 4000 years ago.


She didn't actually say these things which were made up by Bob. These "quotes" have circulated the internet with many people believing them. Which just goes to show what 8 years of W can do to our brains. But it also shows how close to the edge some people are about Palin's supposed views (time to hold off till we hear from the horse's mouth, though I doubt there will be all that much opportunity - can she be worse than Agnew and Quale?)

In Her Own Words
Actual quotes by Governor Palin during a series of interviews by the Anchorage Daily News in 2006 when she was running for Governor...

On Creationism:

The simple yet elegantly awkward moose proves God's creation and not evolution is the source of all life. How could something as oddly shaped and silly looking as a moose evolve through so-called "natural selection?" Is evolution a committee? There is nothing natural about a dorky moose! Only God could have made a moose and given it huge
antlers to fight off his predatory enemies. God has a well known sense of humor, I mean He made the platypus too.

On oil exploration and drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Reserve:

God made dinosaurs 4,000 years ago as ultimately flawed creatures, lizards of Satan really, so when they died and became petroleum products we, made in his perfect image, could use them in our pickup trucks, snow machines and fishing boats.

Now, as to the ANWR, Todd and I often enjoying caribou hunting and one year we shot up a herd big time, I mean I personally slaughtered around 40 of them with my new, at the time, custom Austrian hunting rifle. And guess what? That caribou herd is still around and even bigger than ever. Caribou herds actually need culling, be it by rifles or wolves, or Exxon-Mobil oil rigs, they do just great!

On Alaskans serving overseas in Iraq:

Well, God bless them, and I mean God and Jesus because without Jesus we'd be Muslims too or Jewish, which would be a little better because of the superior Israeli Air Force.


Bob blogs at http://unbearablebobness.typepad.com

The Broads Breed

ENN is reporting the Eli and Edyth Broad (pronounced Brood) Foundation, the source of so much funding in undermining the urban public school systems (BloomKlein won the Broad prize for education "improvement" last year), has just given a whopping $400 million to a genetic institute, a joint venture by Harvard and MIT.

The money will be used to study the type of genetics that would produce teachers capable of eliminating the achievement gap.

"This is the cutting area of research. There is no more important issue the world faces than finding quality teachers and that will never happen without some genetic intervention," said a spokesperson.

Genetic manipulation of pre-determined embryos is expected to produce teachers who will:

• work 14 hour days without interruption
• teach class sizes of 40 and up without complaining
• never join a union

All candidates will be sterilized to assure they never have their own children who might interfere with the primary mission- to create millions of super human quality teachers.

Read the NY Times article here.

And if they can't agree on parking?

Chapter leaders and principals to assign parking placards: The UFT reached an agreement with the city on Aug. 26 that preserves all on-street and off-street parking spots for schools, but limits the number of permits available to a school to the number of available spots designated for parking by DOE personnel. In each school, the chapter leader and principal must agree on how those placards will be used. The story and the agreement are at uft.org. If you as chapter leader have any questions, please contact your district rep.- UFT Weekly Update

Hmmm. Let's see how this works. My principal and I don't agree. So I call my District Rep. Three days later I still haven't received a response. The principal has given out all the permits. Now I read somewhere that when there's a dispute, the issue is taken to the UFT president. Isn't she somewhere racing around the country for the presidential election? No, I forgot. Hillary didn't make it so she has a lot more time to drop everything and deal with my parking issue. I'm still waiting.

In the meantime, I am all of a sudden being observed every half hour and getting U ratings even though I have a perfect record for 15 years. Ok, I'll grieve. Ooops! I forgot. I can't grieve letters in my file. I call the district rep. After a week, he calls me back. "Keep a careful log." After 3 months and 40 U observations, I call him back. "Not enough yet. Keep logging. Maybe we'll file a harassment grievance at the end of the year."

I'm in the rubber room though I don't know why. Rumor is that I verbally abused a kid for telling him he's a bad boy for not doing his homework. I call the District rep. "Don't worry, after all you're getting paid. Sit back and relax and enjoy. It's out of our hands now but you'll have a NYSUT attorney."

If you are having these problems, download Park Anywhere.

The Republican Platform: The Palin Planks

1. Schools shall be obliged to teach the Intelligent Design Theory in all history and anthropology courses, and The Stork Theory of Human Reproduction in all biology classes.

2. The Spanish Inquisition shall be incorporated into the Department of Homeland Security.

3. Abortion, birth control, and jerking off shall be proscribed by awarding legal personhood to embryos, ova, and sperms.

4. The U.S. Government shall implement an immigration policy modeled on that of Cardinal Jiménez de Cisneros and Friar Tomás de Torquemada in 15^th century Spain.

5. A domestic crusade shall be forged against American infidels inspired by Pope Innocent III’s campaign against the Cathars (Albigensians) in southern France in the 12^th century.

6. All citizens with IQs of three digits shall be sent to re-education camps.

7. Galileo shall be re-indicted.

--
Louis Bedrock
Per alta vade spatia sublimi aethere; testare nullos qua veheris, deos.

Ed Note:
I'll add one more - All schools will be required to teach both theories on whether the earth is round or flat.

Election 2012: Clinton vs. Palin

You read it here first - I think.

UPDATE: No, you didn't read it here first. This is all over the internet - Google clinton, palin, 2012 and get a load of stuff.

A scriptwriter couldn't fashion a better scenario.

The Clintons never believed Obama could win and therefore were positioning Hillary to pick up the pieces for a 2012 run against McCain? Who would be 76?

Palin is the new wild card and if she doesn't self-destruct, a very likely Republican candidate in 2012, win or lose. But if she and McCain win... oh what a delicious scenario.

Clinton does pick up the pieces and would waltz into the nomination, thus setting up the dream match-up and the sure bet guarantee of a woman president in 2012.

From a Wasilla, Alaska Housewife: The Real Deal on Sarah Palin

Around Wasilla there are people who went to high school with Sarah. They call her "Sarah Barracuda" because of her unbridled ambition and predatory ruthlessness. Before she became so powerful, very ugly stories circulated around town about shenanigans she pulled to be made point guard on the high school basketball team.


In a fascinating piece by a neighbor of Sarah Palin, I found the above selection the scariest of all. A commentator compared Palin to Reese Witherspoon's Tracy Flick character in the 1999 movie "Election." If you haven't seen it do so. And then be scared. Very scared. The author herself says, "this is likely that this will cost me somehow in the future." Don't bet it won't.

UPDATES:
Check out The Ballad of Sarah Palin at psuedo-intellectualism.
And this report on the librarian who Palin attempted to fire over a loyalty test.
Looks to me Palin will make George Bush Pale In comparison when it comes to partisan politics.

ABOUT SARAH PALIN

I am a resident of Wasilla, Alaska. I have known Sarah since 1992. Everyone here knows Sarah, so it is nothing special to say we are on a first-name basis. Our children have attended the same schools. Her father was my child's favorite substitute teacher. I also am on a first name basis with her parents and mother-in-law. I attended more City Council meetings during her administration than about 99% of the residents of the city.

She is enormously popular; in every way she's like the most popular girl in middle school. Even men who think she is a poor choice and won't vote for her can't quit smiling when talking about her because she is a "babe".

It is astonishing and almost scary how well she can keep a secret. She kept her most recent pregnancy a secret from her children and parents for seven months.

She is "pro-life". She recently gave birth to a Down's syndrome baby. There is no cover-up involved, here; Trig is her baby.

She is energetic and hardworking. She regularly worked out at the gym.

She is savvy. She doesn't take positions; she just "puts things out there" and if they prove to be popular, then she takes credit.

Her husband works a union job on the North Slope for BP and is a champion snowmobile racer. Todd Palin's kind of job is highly sought-after because of the schedule and high pay. He arranges his work schedule so he can fish for salmon in Bristol Bay for a month or so in summer, but by no stretch of the imagination is fishing their major source of income. Nor has her life-style ever been anything like that of native Alaskans.

Sarah and her whole family are avid hunters.

She's smart.

Her experience is as mayor of a city with a population of about 5,000 (at the time), and less than 2 years as governor of a state with about 670,000 residents.

During her mayoral administration most of the actual work of running this small city was turned over to an administrator. She had been pushed to hire this administrator by party power-brokers after she had gotten herself into some trouble over precipitous firings which had given rise to a recall campaign.

Sarah campaigned in Wasilla as a "fiscal conservative". During her 6 years as Mayor, she increased general government expenditures by over 33%. During those same 6 years the amount of taxes collected by the City increased by 38%. This was during a period of low inflation (1996-2002). She reduced progressive property taxes and increased a regressive sales tax which taxed even food. The tax cuts that she promoted benefited large corporate property owners way more than they benefited residents.

The huge increases in tax revenues during her mayoral administration weren't enough to fund everything on her wish list though, borrowed money was needed, too. She inherited a city with zero debt, but left it with indebtedness of over $22 million. What did Mayor Palin encourage the voters to borrow money for? Was it the infrastructure that she said she supported? The sewage treatment plant that the city lacked? or a new library? No. $1m for a park. $15m-plus for construction of a multi-use sports complex which she rushed through to build on a piece of property that the City didn't even have clear title to, that was still in litigation 7 yrs later--to the delight of the lawyers involved! The sports complex itself is a nice addition to the community but a huge money pit, not the profit- generator she claimed it would be. She also supported bonds for $5.5m for road projects that could have been done in 5-7 yrs without any borrowing.

While Mayor, City Hall was extensively remodeled and her office redecorated more than once.

These are small numbers, but Wasilla is a very small city.

As an oil producer, the high price of oil has created a budget surplus in Alaska. Rather than invest this surplus in technology that will make us energy independent and increase efficiency, as Governor she proposed distribution of this surplus to every individual in the state.

In this time of record state revenues and budget surpluses, she recommended that the state borrow/bond for road projects, even while she proposed distribution of surplus state revenues: spend today's surplus, borrow for needs.

She's not very tolerant of divergent opinions or open to outside ideas or compromise. As Mayor, she fought ideas that weren't generated by her or her staff. Ideas weren't evaluated on their merits, but on the basis of who proposed them.

While Sarah was Mayor of Wasilla she tried to fire our highly respected City Librarian because the Librarian refused to consider removing from the library some books that Sarah wanted removed. City residents rallied to the defense of the City Librarian and against Palin's attempt at out-and-out censorship, so Palin backed down and withdrew her termination letter. People who fought her attempt to oust the Librarian are on her enemies list to this day.

Sarah complained about the "old boy's club" when she first ran for Mayor, so what did she bring Wasilla? A new set of "old boys". Palin fired most of the experienced staff she inherited. At the City and as Governor she hired or elevated new, inexperienced, obscure people, creating a staff totally dependent on her for their jobs and eternally grateful and fiercely loyal--loyal to the point of abusing their power to further her personal agenda, as she has acknowledged happened in the case of pressuring the State's top cop (see below).

As Mayor, Sarah fired Wasilla's Police Chief because he "intimidated" her, she told the press. As Governor, her recent firing of Alaska's top cop has the ring of familiarity about it. He served at her pleasure and she had every legal right to fire him, but it's pretty clear that an important factor in her decision to fire him was because he wouldn't fire her sister's ex- husband, a State Trooper. Under investigation for abuse of power, she has had to admit that more than 2 dozen contacts were made between her staff and family to the person that she later fired, pressuring him to fire her ex-brother-in- law. She tried to replace the man she fired with a man who she knew had been reprimanded for sexual harassment; when this caused a public furor, she withdrew her support.

She has bitten the hand of every person who extended theirs to her in help. The City Council person who personally escorted her around town introducing her to voters when she first ran for Wasilla City Council became one of her first targets when she was later elected Mayor. She abruptly fired her loyal City Administrator; even people who didn't like the guy were stunned by this ruthlessness.

Fear of retribution has kept all of these people from saying anything publicly about her.

When then-Governor Murkowski was handing out political plums, Sarah got the best, Chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission: one of the few jobs not in Juneau and one of the best paid. She had no background in oil & gas issues. Within months of scoring this great job which paid $122,400/yr, she was complaining in the press about the high salary. I was told that she hated that job: the commute, the structured hours, the work. Sarah became aware that a member of this Commission (who was also the State Chair of the Republican Party) engaged in unethical behavior on the job. In a gutsy move which some undoubtedly cautioned her could be political suicide, Sarah solved all her problems in one fell swoop: got out of the job she hated and garnered gobs of media attention as the patron saint of ethics and as a gutsy fighter against the "old boys' club" when she dramatically quit, exposing this man's ethics violations (for which he was fined).

As Mayor, she had her hand stuck out as far as anyone for pork from Senator Ted Stevens. Lately, she has castigated his pork-barrel politics and publicly humiliated him. She only opposed the "bridge to nowhere" after it became clear that it would be unwise not to.

As Governor, she gave the Legislature no direction and budget guidelines, then made a big grandstand display of line-item vetoing projects, calling them pork. Public outcry and further legislative action restored most of these projects--which had been vetoed simply because she was not aware of their importance-- but with the unobservant she had gained a reputation as "anti-pork".

She is solidly Republican: no political maverick. The State party leaders hate her because she has bit them in the back and humiliated them. Other members of the party object to her self-description as a fiscal conservative.

Around Wasilla there are people who went to high school with Sarah. They call her "Sarah Barracuda" because of her unbridled ambition and predatory ruthlessness. Before she became so powerful, very ugly stories circulated around town about shenanigans she pulled to be made point guard on the high school basketball team. When Sarah's mother-in-law, a highly respected member of the community and experienced manager, ran for Mayor, Sarah refused to endorse her.

As Governor, she stepped outside of the box and put together of package of legislation known as "AGIA" that forced the oil companies to march to the beat of her drum.

Like most Alaskans, she favors drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She has questioned if the loss of sea ice is linked to global warming. She campaigned "as a private citizen" against a state initiative that would have either a) protected salmon streams from pollution from mines, or b) tied up in the courts all mining in the state (depending on who you listen to). She has pushed the State's lawsuit against the Dept. of the Interior's decision to list polar bears as threatened species.

McCain is the oldest person to ever run for President; Sarah will be a heartbeat away from being President.

There has to be literally millions of Americans who are more knowledgeable and experienced than she.

However, there's a lot of people who have underestimated her and are regretting it.

CLAIM VS FACT

*"Hockey mom": true for a few years

*"PTA mom": true years ago when her first-born was in elementary school, not since

*"NRA supporter": absolutely true

*social conservative: mixed. Opposes gay marriage, BUT vetoed a bill that would have denied benefits to employees in same-sex relationships (said she did this because it was unconstitutional) .

*pro-creationism: mixed. Supports it, BUT did nothing as Governor to promote it.

*"Pro-life": mixed. Knowingly gave birth to a Down's syndrome baby BUT declined to call a special legislative session on some pro-life legislation

*"Experienced": Some high schools have more students than Wasilla has residents. Many cities have more residents than the state of Alaska. No legislative experience other than City Council. Little hands-on supervisory or managerial experience; needed help of a city administrator to run town of about 5,000.

*political maverick: not at all

*gutsy: absolutely!

*open & transparent: ??? Good at keeping secrets. Not good at explaining actions.

*has a developed philosophy of public policy: no

*"a Greenie": no. Turned Wasilla into a wasteland of big box stores and disconnected parking lots. Is pro- drilling off-shore and in ANWR.

*fiscal conservative: not by my definition!

*pro-infrastructure: No. Promoted a sports complex and park in a city without a sewage treatment plant or storm drainage system. Built streets to early 20th century standards.

*pro-tax relief: Lowered taxes for businesses, increased tax burden on residents

*pro-small government: No. Oversaw greatest expansion of city government in Wasilla's history.

*pro-labor/pro- union. No. Just because her husband works union doesn't make her pro-labor. I have seen nothing to support any claim that she is pro-labor/pro- union.

WHY AM I WRITING THIS?

First, I have long believed in the importance of being an informed voter. I am a voter registrar. For 10 years I put on student voting programs in the schools. If you google my name (Anne Kilkenny + Alaska), you will find references to my participation in local government, education, and PTA/parent organizations.

Secondly, I've always operated in the belief that "Bad things happen when good people stay silent". Few people know as much as I do because few have gone to as many City Council meetings.

Third, I am just a housewife. I don't have a job she can bump me out of. I don't belong to any organization that she can hurt. But, I am no fool; she is immensely popular here, and it is likely that this will cost me somehow in the future: that's life.

Fourth, she has hated me since back in 1996, when I was one of the 100 or so people who rallied to support the City Librarian against Sarah's attempt at censorship.

Fifth, I looked around and realized that everybody else was afraid to say anything because they were somehow vulnerable.

CAVEATS

I am not a statistician. I developed the numbers for the increase in spending & taxation 2 years ago (when Palin was running for Governor) from information supplied to me by the Finance Director of the City of Wasilla, and I can't recall exactly what I adjusted for: did I adjust for inflation? for population increases? Right now, it is impossible for a private person to get any info out of City Hall--they are swamped. So I can't verify my numbers.

You may have noticed that there are various numbers circulating for the population of Wasilla, ranging from my "about 5,000", up to 9,000. The day Palin's selection was announced a city official told me that the current population is about 7,000. The official 2000 census count was 5,460. I have used about 5,000 because Palin was Mayor from 1996 to 2002, and the city was growing rapidly in the mid-90's.

Anne Kilkenny

Boston Herald on Kilkenny

BloomKlein Model in the Land of Oz

I received an email from Trevor Cobbold, a parent activist, who is based in Canberra, Australia's capital and is involved with Save Our Schools Canberra.

He wrote an article for the Canberra Times addressing the situation in New York in terms of school reporting:

Ideology win in school reporting

The Rudd Government's ''education revolution'' is looking more and more like an extension of the Howard government's school policies. All the same elements are there choice and competition, reliance on markets, and now public reporting of school results.

The model for the new school reporting scheme comes direct from New York. Julia Gillard has been enthusing about the New York system ever since her audience with the New York schools chancellor, Joe Klein. She says she is ''inspired'' and ''impressed'' by Klein's model.

If Gillard had looked more closely, she would have seen major flaws.

The New York system produces unreliable and misleading comparisons of school performance and student progress. It is incoherent, can be used to produce league table,fails to compare like with like and is statistically flawed.

He goes on to cite Diane Ravitch and Jennifer Jennings (Eduwonkette) and concludes with:

Australia and Finland are two of the highest-achieving countries in the world in school outcomes according to the PISA surveys conducted by the OECD. Neither country got there by reporting school results.

Why the Rudd Government is choosing to emulate the reporting policies of much lower-performing countries such as the United States and United Kingdom can be explained only as a triumph of ideology over evidence.

Read the entire piece here.

Trevor also sent this blog site for reference.

http://www.futuredforum.blogspot.com/

I have disagreements on an article he wrote on class size at Save Our Schools where he talks about cost effectiveness and teacher quality as excuses not to jump into class size reduction across the board. While praising the STAR project, he also cites research on teacher quality, which no one seems to be able to define:

There is evidence that improving teacher quality contributes more to increasing student outcomes than class size reductions. Recent studies by Doug Harris and David Plank at Michigan State University and by Dylan Wiliam, Professor of Education at the Institute of Education, show larger improvements from increasing teacher ability and skills than by class size reductions.

Too many researchers have agendas based on where their funding is coming from and the TQ people have a lot more money than advocates for class size. I find it interesting that the "quality" issue is not raised when it comes to putting more police on the street to reduce crime or firemen on the job to cut down fires or doctors in emergency rooms.

I have to ask him what he thinks about all those Aussies Klein hired (at up to $1000 a day) to run around schools in NYC as consultants.


Personal Aussie Note
We visited Canberra in the early 90's to attend the Scherr scion's Bar Mitzvah. We had to smuggle in the yarmulkes - apparently it's tough to get them engraved in Canberra but I did manage to get them through customs despite the yarmulke sniffing dogs. The Scherrs, now living in Perth/Freemantle, stayed with us for 3 weeks last summer (and we're still talking.) Their son Sam is now 30 and a founding member of Capital City, a rock band in Australia. Dan Scherr, a native of the TenEyk housing project in Williamsburg in Brooklyn, keeps me informed of ed events in Western Australia.

The Battle Over Mayoral Control? Sorry Yogi, It's Over

It's down to a battle of twicks and tweaks

There's been a lot of sturm and drang over whether mayoral control will be renewed in 2009. If it isn't will force us back to the much derided old system of local elected school board control over grades K-8 (32 districts) with central control over high schools and various special services along with a central board of education.

Much has been made this week over the enormous sums being spent by Bloomberg and his corporate buddies to steam roller the politicians (the corrupt and useless state legislature has the power to decide) and the public. They might as well have saved the money. Or maybe even put it into classrooms by buying school supplies (teachers and parents are funding an awful lot of this stuff while money flies to political manipulation.

While many of us were critics of the old system, there was never any attempt to fix those flaws as the baby was thrown out with the bath water when the mayor gained total control over the school system.

Other than a few groups like ICOPE, my colleagues in the Independent Community of Educators and some independent activists out there who still believe the same system of parent and community input should be given to urban parents just as it is in the surburbs, even the severest critics of the Bloomberg and Klein administration (Ravitch, Stern, and even Leonie Haimson) think there is a need for some centralized control in the hands of a politician (who controls the money.)

The UFT? They were the first out of the box to support mayoral control in 2001 (which was one of the issues that pushed me into opposition mode) and no matter the rhetoric coming out of 52 Broadway, we always predicted they would never waiver from that position and instead call for minor changes that would still leave the mayor in control. Tey even had a committee spend a year or more holding meetings and listening to all sides. We even had some ICE'ers involved and they have the people running the committee good grades for listening. But the results are predetermined no matter what people said and I think they were wasting their time.

What will happen is report will be issue with all the criticisms included but no real call for an end to mayoral control and a reversion to some improved version of neighborhood control which the UFT has opposed since the mid-60's.

Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, who has been perceived as a thorn in Bloomberg's side, formed a commission to study the issue. Today the report was released.

What it amounts to is a joke with recommendations so inconsequential as to make us wonder if the money couldn't have been better used for school supplies. Like we need a 4 year term of office for the un-peppy PEP so they can't be fired by the mayor who appoints them anyway. Duhhhhh! Like now he'll make sure to appoint total robot nincompoops so he will not have to fire them. Read it here.

Nothing they do will make a difference unless there is radical change. The first step is to get politicians out of education, which by the way was the main flaw in the old decentralized system that existed from 1968 - 2002. All they did with mayoral control and their twicks and tweats is to shift the flow of influence (and patronage - the major interest of politicians) from one set of politicians to another.

Today's NY Times story

Separate and Unequal in Good 'Ole New York

UPDATE:
Leonie's piece also posted at NYC Public School Parent blog

In these days of phony ed reform, where there is a claim by so-called reformers they are engaging in the "civil rights movement of our time," is it time for another Supreme Court Brown vs, Board of Education case?

Ooops! Not with this Court. Maybe in another generation when we find progress has been marking time. When the results are examined in detail, it will be found that the BloomKlein administration have set back civil rights by 50 years. (Check 2 blog posts by Chaz School Daze on the increase in the need for remedial programs for NYC high school grads under BloomKlein and the deteriorating SAT score situation under Kleinberg.)

And follow the events in the Chicago boycott and civil rights march after 13 years of mayoral control and Phony Ed Reform Politics (which we are now referring to as PERP and "reformers" as PERPS) in the ed notes sidebar where you can also find a link to Fred Klonsky's Prea Prez which is covering the story. His brother Mike also has a story today. Chicago is a great model to see how this all plays out over time and how it will play out in New York in the next half dozen years.

My ICE colleague James Eterno has been writing about Academic Apartheid at Jamaica High School on the ICE blog and in letters to useless NY State Ed Commisioner.

Leonie Haimson chronicled this wonderful story and interchange betweem Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and Joel Klein on a tour of a charter school. Poor Marty, lamenting the severe differences in resources allocated to public and charter schools in one of the poorest areas of Brooklyn. You see, Marty has been a total suckup and supporter of BloomKlein, so these are only crocodile tears. (And I remember a different Marty in his Brooklyn College and tenant activist days when he held a meeting in my building lobby to fight our landlord.)

Here's Leonie's superb post:

Jenny Medina of the NY Times captured the following exchange during the usual dog and pony show of yesterday’s media tour of the first day of school:

In a kindergarten classroom — its door designating the students inside as members of the Class of 2025 — Mr. Markowitz cornered Mr. Klein. “Why can’t our public schools have a place like this?” he asked a bit testily. “Do you know the resources it takes for a place like this?

Elizabeth Green of the NY Sun also observed this conversation:

On a visit to the Excellence School, which is housed in a sparkling new 90,000-square-foot school building in Bedford-Stuyvesant, the president of Brooklyn, Marty Markowitz, became visibly agitated.

"Listen to me," he said to the schools chancellor, Joel Klein, as the two toured a classroom, "we have some public schools that are starving for these kinds of resources." Mr. Klein replied that some schools are doing as well as Excellence with more modest budgets. Mr. Markowitz was not convinced; he said that while he supports charter schools, he is "conflicted" about the extra resources they sometimes receive from private donors.
"I really believe the jury is out on this whole thing," Mr. Markowitz said, walking out the door.


Is it all a matter of private donors? According to the school’s website:

Excellence is housed in a 90,000 square-foot, state-of-the-art facility with a 10,000-volume library, a 500-seat auditorium, music and art studios, a gymnasium, a climbing wall, a rooftop turf field, and sufficient classroom space to house Excellence as it grows into a K-8 school.

According to InsideSchools, the building was renovated from a former DOE public school (PS 70):
In the new facility, students will enjoy amenities that rival deeply-endowed private schools. Designed by Yale School of Architecture Dean Robert A.M. Stern, the renovated building includes an AstroTurfed roof garden/play yard with sweeping city and harbor views, secluded and inviting book nooks on every floor, double-sized science labs, a giant gymnasium complete with climbing wall, a spacious school library, and a state-of-the-art auditorium. Sawicki lives around the corner from the new building.

http://www.nyc-architecture.com/BES/BED027.htm has wonderful before and after photos:

And where did all the money for this incredible facility come from?

See this 2006 article from Fortune magazine, about the Robin Hood foundation and its founder, “hedge fund maestro Paul Tudor Jones” :

“The school is the product of a pooling of dollars by the New York City Board of Education, Robin Hood, and Jones personally, plus contributions from a variety of corporations. The school's physical plant, including a fabulous AstroTurf roof, would be the envy of any $30,000-a-year private school. Inside, groups of energized young teachers and little boys, kindergarten through second grade (and 100% minority), in white shirts and ties, ready themselves for the coming school year. Principal Jabali Sawicki tells me there is a 170-student waiting list. Just a few years ago this building was a neighborhood eyesore, a symbol of all that had gone wrong in Bed-Stuy. Originally constructed in the 1880s as PS 70, and later used as a yeshiva, it became a home to drug dealers and prostitutes after a fire in the 1970s - even a venue for illegal cock fights. Then, in 2004, another organization that Jones supports, Uncommon Schools, committed $30 million ($6 million from Jones personally) to buy and renovate the property. David Saltzman, the executive director of Robin Hood, persuaded Robert A.M. Stern, dean of the Yale School of Architecture, to design the facility, which was completed this spring. Signs throughout the school were done gratis by renowned design firm Pentagram. And Robin Hood sent a check for $150,000 for the school's operating budget. Books were donated by Scholastic and HarperCollins, which have given a collective two million volumes to Robin Hood…”

This 2006 article notes how the Robin Hood Foundation raises hundreds of millions per year; from charity concerts of the Rolling Stones (take: $11 million); benefit dinners hosted by Jon Stewart w/ Beyonce performing, and auctioning off naming rights to charter school buildings going for $1 million:

Most charity dinners in New York are considered a smash if they bring in $1 million. Here success is measured in tens of millions. "If you are on Wall Street, particularly in hedge funds, you have to be here," says one of my tablemates. The final tally? In a single night Robin Hood hauls in $48 million. Some $20 million is earmarked for the new school - which will be matched by the board, $2.25 for each $1. And New York City schools chancellor Joel Klein, who at one point during the gala, at Jones's urging, stands and takes a bow, has said the city, in turn, will match the combined sum (as well as the amount of a tax credit). Overall, the $20 million for the school will grow to $180 million. The cost to put on the dinner? Around $5.6 million.

And the cost to taxpayers: $90 million. In answer to the Fortune reporter’s question: Don't charter schools draw precious resources away from other public schools?

Jones makes no apologies:

"Charter schools are the best thing that ever happened to education in New York City because they provide competition to regular public schools and raise the bar that everyone is trying to attain. They provide thought leadership for other schools, so again there's a multiplicative impact."

This is Klein’s usual response as well. Wonder why so many other schools in Brooklyn and citywide still have substandard conditions. How does that competition thing work again?

Leonie Haimson
Class Size Matters
classsizematters@gmail.com
www.classsizematters.org
http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/