Doug Henwood on Klein's "Shock Doctrine" - Awe, shocks!

A more critical look at Naomi Klein's book is posted on Norms Notes.

SICK OF THE TESTING MADNESS? Come out with NYCoRE to fight testing!

Get involved!

Come out on Wednesday, October 15th to the UFT delegate assembly. Justice-not-just-tests is going to be leafleting and talking to UFT delegates from schools all over the city about the problems with high stakes testing. We need to get our union on the right side of this issue. Meet us outside the UFT building, 52 Broadway, near Exchange place, anytime after 3:30 till 6:15-6:30.

Please RSVP to sam_p_coleman@yahoo.com if you plan to come or have questions.

NYCoRE

Justice Not Just Tests

Ed Note: Education Notes and ICE members have been working with NYCoRE and its subgroup JNJT on a number of projects. A number of us attended last week's "Get to Know NYCoRE" meeting and it was a pleasure to see a group of committed younger teachers who are prepared to go beyond the classroom to create a movement for change.

We support this initiative, which is coming from younger teachers who entered the system recently and are now taking a good hard look at how the UFT has been operating. Future activities will be the distribution of the JNJT pamphlet opposing merit pay, focusing on schools that have voted for merit pay and reinforcing those schools that voted against.

We have also been working with Teachers Unite on some of their initiatives in getting teachers to work in their communities and also to get them more active in the UFT.

This is not about caucus politics or running in UFT elections. It is about building a broadbased movement for progressive change in education, a big component of which includes changes in the UFT, the elephant in the room.

Rumor Mill: Upset at Canarsie High School

UPDATE: Link to the Canarsie Courier --- you got to read this! Including the student account of their counselor being excessed and other chaotic excessing.
http://www.canarsiecourier.com/news/2008/0925/TopStories/014.html

UPDATE 2 (from a Canarsie teacher):
As a result of a letter writing campaign by a couple teachers, and multiple correspondence to Randi, she (took time off her busy schedule and) 1) sent Charlie Turner, who got a hostile reception, then 2) came herself , and was not treated so badly, and 3) sent Leon Casey and Charlie Turner who came today (Oct. 8).

Our teachers are concerned that they will become ATRs and forced to take a no-paid leave after one year, and more so, in the next contract, ATRs will be sacrificed. Randi reassured them that job security is paramount, "over my dead body", and they made her promise to write those assurances in the NY Teacher.

[So many] voted for the '05 contract, so the "chickens have come home to roost."



Original Post (Oct. 7, 12 pm)
This came in over the transom. Canarsie high school is in southeast Brooklyn. Canarsie is one of the big schools that are closing or closed (Tilden, South Shore, Jefferson) in the area, putting tremendous pressure on the education system. A free floating pool of ATR's -teachers without positions in all the schools has paralled the free floating pool of students looking for places to land. The chaos of the shock doctrine of the BloomKlein reforms.

I'm hearing that something big has been going on at Canarsie HS. There are reports that Randi was there last Friday and again today to try and control things. They had a large number of ATRs this Fall.

A teacher told a friend a couple of excessed teachers had written an article that appeared in the Canarsie Courier, a real estate newspaper. She also mentioned that Randi had discussed the possibility of striking if there were layoffs. Maybe she's rehearsing a new line for next week's D.A.?

They ought to give Randi a fire hose. Gee, who is running the AFT? Jeff Zahler, I hear. (Having fun, Jeff?)

Randi use of strike statement interpreted (if she said that.)
Randi's use of the word strike is more of a threat to teachers - like - do you want to strike - over this? She knows full well the newer teachers would laugh at the idea. So would older teachers who would have more confidence in the US economy's recovery that they would in Randi's willingness and ability to run a successful strike.

The Best Laid Plans Of Mice And Mayors

Miami teacher Paul Moore ruminates on the financial crisis' impact on the business model for education. - UPDATED


Oh, they had such grand plans for public education. Homage was paid to their ideological godfather Milton Friedman. In his 1950 book Capitalism, Friedman wrote that "The privatization of schooling would produce a new highly active and profitable industry."

Their pride and joy is burning as you read. It was never sustainable but they had us going for awhile, didn't they? It was immutable. It was eternal! It was a pig with lipstick in a poke!

Oh, they had such grand plans for public education. First the masters of the universe genuflected to their ideological godfather Milton Friedman. In his 1950 book Capitalism, Friedman wrote that "The privatization of schooling would produce a new highly active and profitable industry."

Then fueled with the fire of the Reagan revolution they put the finishing touches on their devious campaign at the Business Roundtable education summit in 1989. Standardized testing would be their primary weapon. The tests would isolate urban schools first and bury them under public posturing for accountability . The corporate vultures from Edison Schools and the others would move in to pick up the pieces and impose their gospel, the business model. Vouchers and charter schools would even redirect public monies to the destruction of public schools .

Toxic wastes, like incessant testing and mindless data collection and merit pay plans, would be pumped into the public school environment to sicken both teachers and students. And bye and bye the privatizers would have their brave new education system to serve their global economy.

And they were so close. They had their blueprint for legally closing public schools, the No Child Left Behind Act, in place. Billionaire Bloomberg and his CEO sidekick Joel Klein were in control in New York City. Mayor Daley and Arne Duncan were strangling the Chicago Public Schools. Mayor Villariagosa and Admiral Brewer were trying to get their hands around the throats of the Los Angeles Unified Public Schools. Jeb Bush, in and out of office, was calling the shots in Florida. Bill Gates had succeeded in winning Washington D.C. for Mayor Fenty and he in turn introduced the nation to a new level of ruthlessness and brutality in the person and policies of Michelle Rhee. Eli Broad's superintendents dotted the landscape from Vallas in New Orleans to Crew in Miami, chirping over the achievement gap and with grave voices declaring "the children of Singapore are eating our kids lunch." Many of those pesky democratically elected school boards had been eliminated.

Then just as the campaign appeared ready to bear fruit, their rationale for being, their precious global economy, crashed! Their pride and joy is burning as you read. It was supposed to be immutable. It was eternal! When the men of the Business Roundtable came down from their Charlottesville, Virginia education summit they were imbued with the Reagan Revolution's confidence. Now that's all gone.

A forlorn John Castellani's mug has been all over TV for the last couple weeks. He's the president of the Business Roundtable. Who could have imagined that less than twenty years after their education summit these same men would appear on their knees, hat in hand, to desperately plead with every public school teacher, parent and student to give them $3,000 as their share of a $700 billion public bailout. Goodness, what happened to their vaunted business model? Somehow these proponents of data driven education have no idea what their collateralized debt obligations (CDO's) and structured investment vehicles (SIV's) are worth. Most shockingly, the poster boys for accountability who pranced around with their noses in the air chanting "no excuses" over the battered minds and bodies of poor children, now beg for sympathy and want to be rescued by their victims!

Well it will take some time to clean up this mess, and we will suffer for their folly, but there is now some light ahead. Our corporate tormentors will soon slink away to lick their wounds and we will have the chance to rebuild the public schools, make them truly places of learning. Imagine there's no pacing guides, it's easy if you try. Our time under these sanctimonious, hypocritical blowhards is over! They have forfeited their right to any influence in our schools and in our lives.

Mail your No. 2 pencils to the Business Roundtable, swords into plowshares, standardized tests into poetry contests!

Long live Douglas Avella*! http://www.talkbx.com/tag/douglas-avella/

Paul A. Moore
Miami Carol City High School

*160 students in 4 classes left the entire papers blank on a [useless] practice test at IS 318 in the Bronx. All classes were taught by Avella. Nothing happened at first but when the story came out in the press, Avella was sent to the rubber room and has since left the system. Students reported they had their cell phones confiscated, were not allowed to contact Avella, were questionned intensely and many were manipulated into giving up Avella by being threatened that they wouldn't be allowed to attend graduation (and worse.)


Articles on Ed Notes on the Avella story in chronological order beginning in May 2008.

http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2008/05/bronx-teacher-refuses-to-test.html

http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2008/05/support-for-doug-avella-builds.html

http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2008/05/dear-joel-klein-letters-on-student-test.html

http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2008/05/where-is-leo-casey-and-edwize-on-test.html

http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2008/06/ask-uft-to-make-testing-boycott.html

http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2008/06/more-nyc-students-boycotting-tests.html

They Just Cut Interest Rates

What will they do when rates are zero?

In the Japanese financial crisis of the 90's - the lost decade - where the stock market didn't recover for over a decade, they tried cutting rates to stimulate the economy – until they reached bottom. Instead of getting interest when people put their money in banks, they had to pay the banks. Call it negative interest rates.

Numbers of people who bought apartments during the real estate boom of the 80's just walked away finding it cheaper to rent, thus losing their entire investment.

In July, William Patalon wrote:

If you think the "Lost Decade" Japan endured during the 1990s was deep and painful, stick around: As the global financial crisis that was jump-started by the meltdown of the subprime mortgage market continues to unwind, the U.S. economy is headed for a financial Ice Age that will make Japan’s 10 wasted years seem like a single chilly night.

The two meltdowns started in much the same way - with busted stock-and- real-estate bubbles. With both the United States and Japan, the market manias were ignited by laughably loose credit policies, smoldered under a lack of oversight from government regulators, market analysts or such private-sector sentinels as credit-rating agencies, and were finally fanned into a frenzied financial conflagration by the promise of easy profits.

...

On Dec. 29 of that year (1989), the Nikkei 225 Index topped out at 38,957.44, before closing at 38,915.87. By the following September, it had nearly been halved - and there was still much more bloodletting to go (despite several subsequent rallies up over the 20,000 threshold, the Nikkei ultimately bottomed at 7,830 in April 2003. It closed yesterday - Wednesday - at 12,760.80, still down 67% from its trading high 19 years ago).

...

By early 2004, houses were selling at 1/10th their peak value, and commercial real estate was selling for less than 1/100th of its peak-market value.

More

It's going to be a long ride.

If you had purchased...

..... $1,000 of shares in Delta Airlines one year ago, you would have $49.00 today.
......$1,000 of shares in AIG one year ago, you would have $33.00 today.
......$1,000 of shares in Lehman Brothers one year ago, you would have $0.00 today.

But, if you had purchased $1,000 worth of beer one year ago, drank all the beer, then turned in the aluminum cans for recycling refund, you would have received $214.00.

Based on the above, the best current investment plan is to drink heavily and recycle.

Call it the 401-Keg.

Will Obama or McCain Be FDR or Hoover?

UPDATE: Fred Klonsky on Palin's future - a companion piece

“Terrorist,” they screamed at Obama at a McCain rally. “Kill him,” some in the crowd were quoted as saying. These are people who are preparing for life after an Obama victory and are beginning to organize now. Economic pain for working people is not going to end on November 4th or even in January. Organizing fear and anger and attempting to direct it at a black president and a potentially progressive dominated congress is their plan. History has seen stuff like it before.

more

If we are comparing the world to the Great Depression and we are roughly in the 1928 area with the major economic crunches to come, it is much more likely that whoever "wins" the election will be fairly helpless to do much other than to watch the economy spiral down to massive unemployment.

In my opinion, only a New Deal WPA-like government supported massive job program could reverse course. Our infrastructure could sure use a little injection of capital instead of sending enormous sums to bail out Wall Street.

Remember, in the 20's and 30's, the Soviet Union was still viewed as heroic by many and the left was fairly strong. With the right wing anti-left, anti union ideology so prevalent today, there is little chance Obama, even if he wanted to, would get to set much of an FDR New Deal agenda. McCain doing so, of course, is out of the question.

If Obama wins, if he can't pull off FDR-type magic, it is likely he would be a one-term president as he gets the blame for not being able to stop the bleeding. Then Hillary Clinton gets to pick up the pieces for 2012.

Goin' Shoppin'

Some lessons of the 1920's and 30's: Remember how Germany printed money and they had hyperinflation, one of the keys to the rise of Hitler. See Reality-Based Educator over at NYC Educator today:

The Fed is going to start lending directly to businesses.
And where are they going to get the money from?
They're going to print it.

Of course in the Great Depression there was massive deflation. But given the choice today, government will choose inflation by printing money which might help disguise the problem.

But eventually, the population will get restless and move left. That is where repression comes in. [See Naomi Klein's "Shock Capitalism" for the chilling details.]

In the meantime, Palin polishes her act. Expect her to be around as a leading Republican presidential prospect for the next 20 years. It is almost inevitable that at some point she will be president.

In times of massive economic dislocation you end up with dictatorships and totalitarianism. And horrendous wars. (Iraq may prove to be a cupcake.)

People as late as the mid 30's laughed at Hitler. To those who laugh at Palin, beware. Imagine if Bill Clinton had ignored subpoenas, which Palin has done in Alaska over the firing of her ex-brother-in-law’s boss? All the seeds are in place in this country with extraordinary powers given to turn this into a police state.

A third term for Bloomberg? When will we see a president in crisis times calling for a repeal of the XXII Amendment limiting presidents to two terms?

As for me, my wheelbarrow is ready to be loaded with the money for that hyper inflated day when I’ll need to buy a loaf of bread.

Where is our new leader in the AFT in defending teachers in the nation's capital?

My response to Michael's question is: Weingarten is busy helping Bloomberg/Klein continue running NYC schools for another 4 years.

Michael Fiorillo comments on Rhee in DC on ICE-mail:

One of the things that's remarkable about the whole Rhee/DC situation is the failure of the union to call her out on her presumtuousness and statements that cannot be backed up by her beloved "data." The woman had a cup of coffee in the classroom ten year or so years ago, and claims that her students made tremendous strides. However, she is unable to document any of this, claiming that the "data" is unavailable. [See Daily Howler excerpt below.]

Additionally, the DC local, with help from the AFT should be demonstrating every day in front of the Washington Post. The Post, agitating so militantly for the de-professionalization of teaching, is also the owner of Kaplan, which along with other test prep factories, stands to gain from the corporate education regime. Kaplan is currently the largest single source of profit for the Washington Post Corporation.

Where is our new leader in the AFT in defending teachers in the nation's capital?

Best,
Michael Fiorillo

The Daily Howler (excerpt July 11, 2007 - Read full piece and also do a search for more on Rhee on his blog.) I heard Rhee claim she raised scores from the 15% to somewhere in the 85% in one year.

Note: Howler Bob Somerby taught in the Baltimore schools for many years so he brings a teacher perspective to the issues.

For years, Rhee has been telling a pleasing story. She performed an educational miracle at Harlem Park—and she “earned acclaim” in the national media for this brilliant success. Our reaction? Speaking frankly, her claim about test scores is so extreme that we would regard it as suspect on its face. Now, there also seem to be a question about the “acclaim” which she says she earned. But once again, the big problem here is the Narrative of the Miracle Cure—the pleasing tale that routinely takes the place of serious talk about low-income schools.

Let’s get serious for a minute; if you know much about standardized test scores, Rhee’s claim about those miracle scores should invite healthy skepticism. It’s amazing that DC’s city council—and Washington’s newspapers—have allowed that claim to stand without evidence. But let’s just say it: That’s what happens, quite routinely, when the interests of black kids are at stake.

One last time, we’ll restate our view. The Washington Post and the Washington Times should insist on getting those musty old test scores. (They only date back to 1995, for God’s sake.) We know, we know—it’s only black kids! It’s much more pleasing to tell cheerful tales—and let the data sleep with the fishes.

Dr. Art: Fired in DC

Back in August I received this email from a supporter of fired Wash DC teacher Art Siebens and posted it here: "You Don't Fit" - Fired in DC by Rhee

Hello - I just found your website and wanted you know about this website, www.reinstatedrart.com, sponsored by students and parents in support of a highly successful DC teacher [Art Siebens] who was dismissed from his 18 year post under [Michelle] Rhee's regime, with the explanation "you don't fit." I'm alerting the Daily Howler as well.

Eduwonkette outdoes herself today

All along the Eastern corridor, folks are buzzing about firing teachers. In New York City two weeks ago, the New Teacher Project once again called for the district to put excessed teachers who have not been hired after a year on unpaid leave. Last week in his Washington Post column, Jay Mathews also sang a paean about the virtues of principals firing teachers at will. And in Michelle Rhee’s proposed contract, teachers would give up tenure in exchange for performance pay. Now, she’s moved to “Plan B,” which involves giving “bad teachers” 90 days to improve, or else face dismissal.

In all three cases, the assumption is that principals know best, that they make decisions based on the best interest of students, that “kid issues” will be put before “adult issues” in hiring decisions, and that concerns about fair treatment are retrograde - even passé.

Yet right under Michelle Rhee’s nose, her own theory of action – that principals will always pick the “best teachers” – has been tested by the case of Dr. Art Siebens.

Read Eduwonkette"s full post on Siebens and Rhee. Make sure to read the comments.
(I put a choice selection below in comment #1.)

Weingarten & Bloomberg to Extend Terms to Life - and Beyond

In a late breaking story, Ed Notes News has learned that Mayor Bloomberg and UFT President Randi Weingarten will soon make a joint statement announcing they will seek to extend their terms in office. Bloomberg, headed for a 3rd term in 2009 and Weingarten for a 5th term (or is it a 6th? they do so run together) have discovered the joys of collaboration and plan to stay in office for life – and beyond.

Weingarten declared:
"Personally, I have always been opposed to term limits, as has this union. I am also, as are so many people, very concerned about the economy, and I am grateful the mayor is willing to step up."

A number of UFT'ers who have lost seniority, basic contract protections, (even parking permits) and seen a massive deterioration in their working conditions under a decade of Weingarten rule, had been looking forward to a new regime in the UFT since Weingarten's elevation to the presidency of the American Federation of Teachers and her appointment of Mike (Who) Mulgrew as Chief Operating Officer (COO,) are no longer cooing about his appointment 'cause as he tries to take the field, Weingarten's marching band refuses to yield.

Ed08 is Dead: Is Joe Williams Another Loser?

Fred Klonsky at Prea Prez thinks so.

This week we noted the demise of ED ‘08, the Eli Broad and Bill Gates backed outfit that bet $60 million that education would be a big issue in this presidential campaign. Not just a big issue. But an issue that they could direct towards a corporate model, that both the Republicans and the Democratic Leadership Council types would love and support.

Broad and Gates got former Colorado governor and LAUSD boss, Roy Romer to head it up. They got the likes of the Business Roundtable to sign on.

But it ended up having no traction. And last week it died.

But who are some of the other losers in this election campaign?

Joe (Democrats for Education Reform) calls Fred dumber than rocks. I have a video of Joe's appearance on a panel bowing down to Joel and Michelle (except for Diane Ravitch) at the Manhattan Institute last spring. Maybe I'll put some of it up on you-tube for a few laughs.

Rhee Bypasses Talks, Imposes Dismissal Plan

Have a contract? Negotiations broke down? Just ignore it all and forge ahead.

D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee made good yesterday on repeated threats to bypass labor contract negotiations by imposing her own program to fire ineffective teachers, including a measure that gives poorly performing instructors 90 days to improve or face dismissal.

Details from the Washington Post at Norms Notes.

For our NYC colleagues, one of the reasons Randi has been so collaborative is her fear that BloomKlein will pull the same stuff. "See, we broke the contract, do something about it." So Randi makes deals to give up the arm and half the leg and brags to the membership how they still have their thigh bone while leaving enough loopholes that allow BloomKlein to whither it away. But you still have your hip.

Did Obama Bomb the World Trade Center?

Ed Notes News has learned that Barack Obama once walked past the World Trade Center, clearly an indication he was part of the terrorist plot. Sarah Palin is expected to make this charge at upcoming appearances. ENN has obtained an advanced copy of Palin's remarks, to be delivered at a meeting of a group of loyalists who will be wearing their newly laundered sheets for this special occasion.

“There is a lot of interest, I guess, in what I read and what I’ve read lately. Well, I was reading my copy of today’s Education Notes and I was interested to read about Barack’s strolls around Manhattan before the World Trade Center bombing.

“I get to bring this up not to pick a fight, but it was there in Education Notes, so we are gonna talk about it. Turns out one of Barack’s earliest visits when he came to New York, according to Education Notes, and they are hardly ever wrong, was walk past the WTC, where he was observed looking up for some 30 seconds."

Background: here and here.

Ed Note: We're betting that polls will show a majority of Americans who come across this parody will believe that Obama is really a member of bin Laden's organization. Or do they believe that already?

Joe Klein to visit Oz

Trevor Cobbold from down under sends us another example of how the Bloomberg/Klein/Rhee, etc. gang race all over the world to try to impose their failing vision of ed reform. It's not educational, mate, it's an ideological crusade.

Will Klein wash up to the Aussie shore like a Bondi cigar?

Norm,

You will be interested to know that Joe Klein has been invited by the Aust. Govt Education Minister, Julia Gillard, to visit Autsralia in November.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/10/05/2382401.htm

Her idea is to use Klein to convince our State Govts. to sign up to a her proposed school reporting system to be based on the New York model.

This is going to provide a good opportunity for teacher unions and parent organisations to focus on the failings of the NY reporting system. I would appreciate it if you can forward any useful material or sources you or your colleagues have on the problems of the New York system.

I will keep you informed of developments on the visit.

Trevor Cobbold
Save Our Schools

OK, gang. Let's help Trevor out. No diatribes. Just the facts, ma'am, just the facts. Forget the "look what they did to the teachers" stories because the public not only doesn't care, but thinks teachers deserve it. Leave those fights for inside the sell-out UFT.

The fudging of test scores, the phony grad rates and the use of "seat time" to hand kids diplomas, the forced migration of kids from one closed school to the next, the high class sizes, the enormous sums spent outside the classroom, etc, etc, etc.

The horror, Colonel Kurtz? Yes indeed and now the irony too!

From Paul Moore

The horror, Colonel Kurtz? Yes indeed and now the irony too!

John Castellani's puss has been all over TV for the last several days. He's the president of the Business Roundtable.

Back when the Business Roundtable was riding high in 1989, flush with Reagan era confidence, the big company CEO's met for an education summit in Charlottesville, Virginia. They came down from their summit and announced to the world that they would transform America's public schools.

Who could have imagined that less than twenty years later these same men would appear, hat in hand, to plead with public school teachers, parents and students to each give them $3,000 as their share of a $700 billion public bailout. Goodness, what happened to their vaunted
business model? Somehow these proponents of data driven education have no idea what their collateralized debt obligations (CDO's) are worth. Most shockingly, the poster boys for accountability who pranced around with their noses in the air chanting "no excuses" over
the battered minds and bodies of poor children, want sympathy and want to be rescued by their victims!

Public school teachers, parents and students our time under these sanctimonius, hypocritical blowhards is over! They have forfeited their right to any influence in our schools. Mail your No.2 pencils to the Business Roundtable, swords into plowshares, standardized tests into poetry contests.

Long live Douglas Avella!

Paul A. Moore
Miami Carol City High School

Howling at the Debate: Did Ifill Roll Over for Palin?

THE IFILL COWER: Gwen Ifill asked very few follow-up questions last night. Was that because of the evening’s format? Or was it a function of Ifill’s political problems? Brit Hume’s first remarks after last night’s debate referred to the problem Ifill carried with her into this debate:

HUME (10/2/08): Well, now the families come on the stage to join the two contestants as they say good-bye and thanks to the moderator, Gwen Ifill, who seemed to have gotten through this evening without anybody jumping on anything she said or making her the issue, which I'm sure she's very grateful for.

Let’s translate: If Ifill had challenged Palin last night, conservative elements would have scorched her for displaying her vile “liberal bias.” And yes, that’s clearly what Hume meant. Because let’s face it, there was exactly zero chance that weaklings of the pseudo-left were ever goin to “jump on” Ifill. As we all know, conservatives go after people like Ifill. Liberals ask her for jobs.

More insightful analysis of how the so-called liberal press operates at today's edition of The Daily Howler.

September Madness

Which bank will win the tournament and become the only bank left standing? Choose the winner and take home the pool.

Click to enlarge

Naomi Klein: Now is the Time to Resist Wall Street’s Shock Doctrine

The dumping of private debt into the public coffers is only stage one of the current shock. The second comes when the debt crisis currently being created by this bailout becomes the excuse to privatize social security, lower corporate taxes and cut spending on the poor. A President McCain would embrace these policies willingly. A President Obama would come under huge pressure from the think tanks and the corporate media to abandon his campaign promises and embrace austerity and "free-market stimulus."

Klein's full piece from Huffington Post

http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/2008/10/disaster-capitalism-in-action.html

Step up to the plate Teach for America

I posted an article from The Feministe by "Anna" called "Why I Hate Teach for America" on Aug. 24, 2008. One of the things TFA'ers who comment on critics say is that they are filling a breach that other teachers won't go into even if it's only for 2 years. In NYC with 1400 unassigned teachers (ATR's) due to closed schools adn excessed positions, TFA continues to pour people into the NYC school system. The cost to the system has been estimated to be $70 million.

Amazingly, the blame has been placed on these experienced teachers by Tim Daly of the New Teachers Project who has a contract to train new teachers and a vested interest in attacking these experienced teachers. His biased reports may in fact be a hidden part of his contract.

Groups in NYC have been calling on the DOE to place a moratorium on TFA recruitment until all these teachers are placed or use them to create more classes where feasible to reduce class size.

The anonymous comment below on the "I Hate TFA Post" came across the other day.


I am a traditionally trained teacher. I have a dual degree in elementary and special education. I'm currently working on my M.Ed in Literacy. It pains me to think of the disservice we are doing our students with TfA.

I've seen people with no background become literacy coaches in 3 years, teaching new recruits how to teach! It's an absolute joke.

We are putting the wrong people in the neediest situations and often watching them fail. With programs like TfA we are putting a band-aid over a huge flesh wound in the American educational system.

I believe that alternative programs can be a part of the certification process but TfA is missing the boat, big time.

I teach special education in an inner-ring suburb of a large metropolitan area. I think of what our students are missing by having teachers, with less than 8 weeks of training, standing in front of them, especially in the elementary grades. Research proves that these primary years are the most important in shaping our academic success and our nation is willingly letting people with no experience or background teach literacy and math.

Unfortunately, this is the way it will be unless this great nation of ours realizes that we need to turn things around, supporting our students at home and our teachers in the classroom. Our profession has lost its nobility.

Students are disrespectful and are supported in their poor choices by parents. We need to reward teachers who pursue higher education degrees and continue to teach with higher salaries and an ounce of appreciation for the often thankless things we do and the countless hours spent helping students beyond our contracted day.

Teach for America perpetuates the problem by supporting the idea that teaching is a stepping stone to bigger and better. In my mind, teaching is the bigger and better. Teach for America boasts that high expectations are required for student achievement. I agree, and I have higher expectations for programs like TfA and the people who have chosen this path.

Step up to the plate TfA and require your recruits to enter the field and continue with their training to TEACH!


Ed Note: I do not agree with the "Students are disrespectful" part of this comment because it brands all students. However, since I also taught special ed kids with emotional difficulties as a cluster teacher - and believe me, I was completely untrained to deal with them - I can understand why this teacher may feel this way.

Leonie on Teachers to Be Measured Based on Students' Standardized Test Scores

Click on image to enlarge


"Using a complicated statistical formula, the report computes a "predicted gain" for each teacher's class, then compares it to the students' actual improvements on the test. The result is a snapshot analysis of how much the teacher contributed to student growth. "

Leonie Haimson writes to her listserve:

What factor did they use in terms of improvements -- one year's gains or losses in test scores? Such a small number of students as are included one class would likely lead to an even more unreliable measurement than the progress category at the school level, which culminated in the highly unreliable school grades.

How does such a highly erratic and variable measure get teachers "comfortable with the data, in a positive, affirming way," as Chris Cerf asserts? How exactly does it "help teachers identify their strengths and weaknesses" as Randi writes?

Moreover, according to the "performance predictor" chart above -- the formula was supposed to control for class size at the classroom and school level. Did it?

It appears so. "The teacher data report balances the progress students make on state tests and their absences with factors that include whether they receive special-education services or qualify for free lunch, as well as the size, race and gender breakdown of the teacher's class."

In an oped about evaluating teacher performance in the Daily news in April, Klein wrote that “Nor should test scores be used without controlling for things like where students start academically, class size and demographics.”

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2008/04/08/2008-04-08_beware_the_teacher_tenure_trap.html

Will we ever get to see the formula? How much of a factor did they attribute to class size?

I'd like Eduwonkette and other statistical experts to be able to analyze it.