Tweed Public Relations Head Gets Mail

David Cantor, from the Tweed PR Department, responded on the NYC Education News parent dominated listserve to some of the critical comments on Joel Klein and got an earful. Or a basket full of email. His post and responses from parents Steve Koss and Leonie Haimson (just 2 out of numerous) are posted on Norms Notes. (I'll add some more to the post as they come in.

Q & A With a UFT CL

Hi Norm,
Q: How are you? I would like to know if you have heard from any other chapter leaders/teachers about how they are so disgusted with the union, DOE, and especially the administrators. I just received the chapter leader update and the union is asking us to have a discussion with our principal about the budget cuts so classrooms are protected. Doesn't the union realize, or should I say, want to realize, that the principals will do whatever they please, including budget cuts?

A: What is there to say? The union tries to maintain the fiction that it is functioning at the school level. If a principal is benign and has a sense of fairness, then there it does, but due to the principal and not the union. Since most principals are not benign, the UFT is a head without much of a body. But they issue these directives with a prayer attached.

Jane Addams got a D

Dear Colleagues,

Yeah, [Jane] Addams got a D.
But the fix was in, right from the start, for us to "fail."

A closer look at the "report card" reveals:

1. Our "Student Performance" (success in graduating students, in four years) score: B
Honestly, what the hell else matters???


2. Our "Student Progress" score: F

Simplified- We didn't improve enough from the B in "Student Performance."

And in case you haven't noticed- the competency of the students admitted to Addams is not the same as it was just four years ago.

(No longer are students who really want to come to Addams routinely admitted.)


3. The group of 40 so-called "Peer Schools" to which Addams is being compared includes schools that are very different than ours.

Many of the 40 are newer "mini academies" - the replacement schools for schools that were previously closed down.

These schools have much smaller enrollments, and can, to a larger extent, "cherry pick" which students are admitted and which are rejected.

The dirty little secret is that many of these rejected students are sent to… Addams (and Truman)

Remember, the big money (Gates Foundation, Broad Foundation, et. al.) and its lackeys (Klein in NYC, Rhee in DC, et. al.) is on "proving" that "traditional" "big" schools (read: us!!!) don't work.

And - surprise, surprise - this report card does just that.

Hope y'all haven't already spent that $3,000 "bonus money" that we were never gonna get, but were conned into voting for - twice.

Solidarity forever (for the Union makes us strong)

A teacher at Jane Addams HS (the Bronx)

Rhee in DC: Foxes in the Chicken Coop

Susan Ohanian offered this comment at her site on another article on Rhee in DC.

As usual, Sam Smith offers a concise, on-target critique.

One of the worst ideas floating around Washington is to give some high federal position to Michelle Rhee, DC school chancellor. Rhee, who has accomplished little of substance, is the media protected product of an area business community that would like to undermine public education as much as possible. Hence DC has an exceptional number of effectively unmonitored charter schools and Rhee is going after teacher tenure - not to mention teachers themselves - like a Blackwater mercenary dealing with Iraqis.

Rhee's master plan includes bribing teachers to give up tenure with a promise of raises of as much as $40,000. Sounds good until you realize the money is coming from unsecured grants from private foundations and Rhee could be gone in a short while, either through misguided promotion to the federal level or being dumped. In any case there's no tenure in the alternative to tenure.

You can find much more of this sorry story on our local site (DC City Desk) and searching for Rhee.

— Sam Smith
Undernews
2008-11-15

Radio interview blasts holes in DOE's reported 'successes'

November 14, 10:31 AM

by Lorri Giovinco-Harte, New York City Education Examiner

We sometimes forget that the mayor of New York City owns one of the largest media outlets in the world. This has caused many critics to question how much influence Mayor Bloomberg has over information that is reported about his office, performance, and the agencies which are under his control.

We've seen how deeply the mayor's influence runs in relation to his determination to eliminate term limits. Tom Robbins at The Village Voice refers to Bloomberg's 'Velvet Coup' in quietly influencing important media outlets in his bid. Robbins writes:

Forgive me. Mike Bloomberg would never shut down newspapers or use brutal thugs against dissenters in order to hold onto power. He doesn't have to. He buys them.

Many argue that this influence extends to information that is reported about the school system which Bloomberg also controls. Parents, educators, and students often paint a very different picture of the 'successes' which are touted in some local papers. This morning, The Daily News ran an editorial which extolled the virtues of the mayor and chancellor, proclaiming:

There must be unrelenting, sustained leadership of the kind applied by Bloomberg and Klein.

The article discusses the vast improvements in graduation rates and test scores that have occurred under Bloomberg's control.

Twenty fours hours prior to this publication, however, two educational advocates engaged in a radio interview which painted a very different picture.

Parental advocate, Leonie Haimson, and educational advocate, Norm Scott, were guests on WBAI's morning show, Wake Up Call in which they refuted many of the reported statistics and improvements touted by the Bloomberg administration about the public schools.

Full story at:

http://www.examiner.com/x-903-New-York-City-Education-Examiner~y2008m11d14-Radio-interview-blasts-holes-in-DOEs-reported-successes

Thomas Friedman’s World Is Flat Broke

From Susan Ohanian's "Outrages:"
http://susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.php?id=8320

Vanity Fair

[B]ased on the bad news coming out of shopping-mall owner General Growth Properties[GGP], it is no wonder Thomas Friedman is feeling crankier than usual. That’s because the author’s wife, Ann (née Bucksbaum), is an heir to the General Growth fortune. In the past year, the couple—who live in an 11,400-square-foot mansion in Bethesda, Maryland—have watched helplessly as General Growth stock has fallen 99 percent, from a high of $51 to a recent 35 cents a share. The assorted Bucksbaum family trusts, once worth a combined $3.6 billion, are now worth less than $25 million.

Maybe Friedman's fall from the billionaire's club will make him come to his senses on some of this financial and trade stuff. Maybe - just maybe - he'll start realizing that the free-market fundamentalism he's been preaching for so long has some downsides.

The Cost of Accountability

Leonie Haimson has a great wrapup on the costs of accountability, money drained from use in the classroom. Yes, the accountability movement - let's spend gobs of money to measure kids, teachers, schools, principals - for exactly what purpose? Leonie will probably put it up on the NYC parent blog but right now I have it at Norms Notes and it is a must read.

The idea of bottom line accountability makes sense in the business world. Measure success and failure by the numbers. Applying the idea to the education world however, has created an immense dislocation of resources out of the classroom, while at the same time diverting teachers from their real teaching mission. Many people have pointed out that every minute spent evaluating is a minute lost to instruction. You know, that "using data to inform instruction" crap.

See Steve Krashen We Must Be a NUT (No Unnecessary Testing) at Ed Notes.

Teachers have always used data they accumulated from testing and observation to inform their instruction.

The obscenity here is that teachers are not to be trusted - the anti-educator, no nothing mood currently dominating the educational debate in this country, as exemplified by Joel Klein and Michelle Rhee.

So let's hire people at enormous expense to provide data to teachers, data they often have little time to address. But so what if the reality of the daily teaching grind leaves little room to use this data? Just use the data to punish and reward and close down entire sections of school systems instead of trying to fix what's wrong. See CLASS SIZE MATTERS at Leonie's site.


Related:
Also see another one of Leonie's posts Would national testing really improve our schools?

And if you have some time, chack out another post at Norms Notes that expose the destructive policies of BloomKlein. Is there anything these guys get right?

LANGUAGE COMPANIES SHUT BY NEW DEPT. OF ED POLICY

Obama Forced To Reign From US Senate

Republican investigators, Fox News an Rush Limbaugh are charging that Barack Obama is being forced to resign from the US Senate this Sunday. "This is an unexpected November Surprise," said a spokesman. "Too bad we weren't aware of this before Election Day, as exposing him even a few days before, would have won the election for McCain." Republicans are calling for a special prosecutor to investigate and Ken Starr has been contacted.

Joel Klein's Perfomance: Leonie and I on WBAI this Morning

UPDATE: David B. extracted just the portion of the program with Leonie and I.



The WBAI full program segment:
http://archive.wbai.org/files/mp3/081113_070001wuc.MP3

Our segment starts at 40:43 after Miriam Makeba sings.

I think I said that Klein persecuted (instead of prosecuted) Bill Gates during the anti-trust case. The host made the interesting point that Klein did not enforce anti-trust laws much beyond Microsoft. He went for the one case that would make him look good. Why are we not surprised?

WBAI may be doing something tonight around 7:30 or 8 on the same subject. I don't know who the guests are.

It's pretty interesting the ride this is being given.

At yesterday's UFT delegate assembly there was also a discussion and a resolution. The ICE attempt to amend it to expand things beyond Klein to the genre he represents was turned down.

Good work Lisa North and Michael Fiorillo in making some important points. While we focus on Klein, the idea that Michelle Rhee would also not be objectionable should also be raised. How long before Washington parents and teachers start their own petitions? I guess she has to be there longer than a year to alienate everyone, but she's doing even better than Klein at that.

Here is the text of what we handed out.

No Klein Or His Ilk In Obama Ed Dept.

ICE congratulates everyone who worked so hard to have Barack Obama elected US President. The multitudes of teachers who donated and worked for Obama expect that we will be respected by an Obama administration. We have suffered through a quarter century of teacher bashing in this country since the infamous A Nation at Risk was published. First, there was competency testing of teachers (supported by Hillary Clinton incidentally). Then, the one-way accountability system was introduced that blamed teachers for all of the social ills of the country. This led to the high-stakes testing movement which combined with Mayoral dictatorships over schools in many of our large cities. Blaming teachers became an acceptable form of discrimination. ICE states emphatically: TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF TEACHING BASHING IS ENOUGH! We must send real educators to Washington who will support an education policy that respects our work. ICE would like to see the following motion added to the agenda today:

Resolved, that the UFT will work to see that the Secretary and Under-secretary of Education share our values and we will toil to defeat any nominee such as Arne Duncan, Michelle Rhee, Joel Klein, Paul Vallas or any other potential Secretary of Education who supports corporate style, top-down, high stakes test crazed, teacher bashing accountability.

Emily LaGates Says - "Never Mind!"

It's really worth noting what was happening in Seattle at the Gates Foundation shindig where reporter extraordinaire Elizabeth Green gives us the full scoop. An awful lot of what Gates had to say was pure poop.

He said that while the investments created some noteworthy successes, which he said proved an important lesson — “that all students can succeed” — the overall goal of scaling up successful models was a disappointment.

“Largely, this has not happened,” he said.

Many of the 8% of schools did not succeed: Their test scores were actually lower than the average scores of schools in their school district, and their college-attending rates climbed painfully slowly, up only 2.5 percentage points over five years. A main strategy of the schools, breaking large high schools into smaller units, on its own guaranteed no overall success, Gates said.

He said the New York City small schools were an example of successes in raising high school graduation rates — but a disappointment in that their graduates were no likelier than any city student to be prepared to go onto college.

Ya mean Bill that you helped destroy entire swaths of the NYC school system and now it's "Never Mind?" Oops!

Green goes on:

Perhaps the most sensitive project will be investments to study a seemingly innocuous subject: teacher effectiveness. The touchy part is that the foundation is signaling that it will urge school districts to find ways to fire teachers judged ineffective.

“If their students keep falling behind, they’re in the wrong line of work, and they need to move on,” Bill Gates...

Following this same line of reasoning, Gates will soon announce he is closing down Microsoft for foisting the Windows Operating system on the world despite it's being a vastly inferior product to the Apple Macintosh OS. "If we keep falling behind Apple, we're in the wrong line of work and need to move on," Gates said. Microsoft will produce hair brushes from now on.

New Microsoft line of products

Skoolboy over at Eduwonkette laughed uncontrollably - Bill Gates, U.S. Superintendent of Schools at this line from Green's report

As part of its new approach, the Gates Foundation will advocate for the politically thorny goal of national standards — and will aim to write its own standards and its own national test.

I have an idea for a national standard:

Ability to use Windows computers and all Microsoft products to the exclusion of anything resembling Apples, even if they want to serve them for lunch.

(Sidenote: I was in NYC school tech when BloomKlein took over. Think there was any favoritism towards Microsoft, which made millions?)

Skoolboy says, "Read it again, slowly: The Gates Foundation will develop its own national standards and its own national test. Does anybody else think this is a really, really bad idea? I'm delighted that the Gates Foundation has realized that throwing money at small schools didn't work, but I'm not prepared to turn over the public's interest in what is to be taught and learned to a private philanthropy, no matter how civic-minded it may be.

Hey Skoolboy, isn't Bill Gates allowed to make a few mistakes? Check out this idiot comment from CodyPT:

How do you manage to pass judgement so quickly when you haven't read the first syllable of the Gates Foundation effort? It's the same old story. No one outside the hallowed confines of the educational "establishment" is allowed to put an oar into the education lake (puddle?) without immediate howling from the education "experts."

Ah, yes CodyPT. What we need are non-experts. I hope you get one of those the next time you go to a doctor

Mike Klonsky also has some thoughts- Gates' unveils '3 pillars' and here on the subject.

Bowling for Bailouts: Billions for Corps, Nada for Class Size

This article is part of the Ed Notes handout at the Delegate Assembly today and will also appear in The Wave this Friday. Click on the image to read the entire leaflet. Print a copy and share with the people in your school.

“Lobbyists Swarming the Treasury for a helping of the Bailout Pie,” read a headline in a today's NY Times. Where have the education lobbyists been for the past quarter century?

The last time I bought an American car was… hmmm, let’s see now, was it 1980? Nooo. Maybe 1970. No, not then either. My 1970 Toyota Corona Mark II was my first car – $2,700, and that was the top of the line. It didn’t have giant fins like American cars and the doorknobs didn’t fall off the day you got it home.

The American car industry got its ass kicked in the 1970’s as the gas lines got longer (remember those?) by cheaper, more fuel efficient cars coming in from Japan that worked better. What did they do about it? Oh my! Here we go again.

Thomas Friedman in the NY Times has no sympathy for the American auto industry. “Instead of focusing on making money by innovating around fuel efficiency, productivity and design, G.M. threw away too much energy into lobbying and maneuvering to protect its gas guzzlers.” The usual corporate shenanigans where they worry more about buying politicians who will do their bidding than trying to run an efficient company.

Of course, we hear “blame the union” stories. Oh, my all those health care and pension costs G.M. has to pay that are making them hemorrhage $2 billion a month. “Please, spare me the alligator tears,” Friedman writes. “Why did G.M. refuse to lift a finger to support a national health care program…?” Friedman goes on to show how Honda and Toyota are still flourishing building cars in the US and Canada. Are the guys running things incompetent or what? They’re asking for so many billions, my calculator exploded trying to add them up. But, hey, we’re in a financial crisis, aren’t we? So let’s dump more money down the well.

Enough about cars and economics. Let’s talk education. For 25 years since the business-financed “A Nation at Risk” was released, we’ve been told we are in an educational crisis. Whenever we bring up the concept that reducing class size is the key, we have been told it is too expensive. People like NYC Chancellor Joel Klein have said that we first need to guarantee a competent teacher in every classroom. How about assuring a competent manager of car companies? Or banks? (We just handed another $25 billion, making it a total of $150 billion, over to AIG.)

The numbers are astounding when we compare them to what it would cost to assure every kid in America the same class size and educational services enjoyed by kids in the most elite private schools. Another generation of opportunity wasted as we will now see educational budgets cut to the bone while the financial and auto industry and who knows what else will go bowling or bailouts from the very same politicians that have denied the poorest kids the services they need to truly close the achievement gap.

The so-called education quick change artists running so many large school systems – Michael Bloomberg/Joel Klein, Michelle Rhee in DC, Paul Vallas in New Orleans (after messing up Chicago and Philly) – have been telling us we can’t change education by throwing cash at the problem but by changing the culture of the schools. All in the name of closing the achievement gap, which has been termed the civil rights struggle of our times.

Read this to mean – get rid of teachers who won’t be bamboozled into thinking they will close the achievement gap just by working 12-hour days, doing all the dumb assessments, making an astounding number of dumb charts that will look good for visitors but have nothing to do with teaching and learning – with 25% more kids in their class than schools in the suburbs have even though they are dealing with the poorest kids with the most difficult academic problems. Find a kiddie corps of people with zero educational background to train to be principals in a business oriented manner. Hand over a major chunk of schools built and supported by public funding to charter schools run by private interests – the biggest land giveaway since the land rushes in the Midwest in the 19th century.

And oh yeah, and turn urban school systems over to dictatorial mayors while suburban (white) parents actually get to vote for school boards and school budgets. Here’s the real civil rights struggle of our times – give parents in our city the same rights 95% of the parents around the nation have by removing politics from education and getting rid of mayoral control.

Where’s the UFT/AFT?
Reading the “Bailouts” article, you might be wondering where the UFT and AFT has been on this issue. Since Albert Shanker signed onto A Nation at Risk in 1983, our union at the city and national level has tried to accommodate the business community by signing on to so many of their schemes (see merit pay, rating teaches based on test scores, Etc.) This has diverted us from the fight for full funding for a generation. The obscenity of following this policy is all the more obvious today when our schools will be cut while such enormous sums are given away. You can read more about the origins of this policy under Shanker in the review I co-wrote of Kahlenberg’s “Albert Shanker: Tough Liberal” for New Politics. We called it “Albert Shanker: Ruthless Neocon.” I have copies with me. Just ask on the way out.

Gates Sees the Light on Small Schools Impact

Leonie Haimson reported on the nyc education news listserve:

Elizabeth Green is in Seattle, live-blogging from a Gates Foundation event where they are announcing a major change from their previous emphasis on small school, and will now turn their focus on.... what actually happens in the classroom.

Surprise! it took hundreds of millions of dollars and how many years before they figured out that this is what's most important? Of course, I doubt they will pay much attention to class size, since they told all the researchers who were doing independent evaluations of their small schools not to look at class size as a possible determinant of success -- even though nearly all the teachers and students they interviewed said that this was the most important factor to them.

Anyway, according to Elizabeth,

Bill Gates suggested that the New York City small schools have been an exception to the overall disappointing results of small school projects, noting that in 2006 the schools’ graduation rates at small schools were 18 percentage points higher than the citywide rate. Then he thanked Chancellor Joel Klein, who was in the audience, and Mayor Bloomberg, who was not, for working with the Gates Foundation.

But just a few minutes later, Gates pointed out one major shortcoming of the New York City small schools: Students were just as unprepared for college as were students citywide. Less than 40% of graduates, he said, met the City University of New York’s standards for college readiness, giving them no appreciable advantage over graduates citywide. (I’m looking into what he’s referring to; my guess is that his evidence is the number of students who graduated with a full Regents diploma, versus the easier-to-attain local diploma.)

Check out more at:

http://gothamschools.org/2008/11/11/gates-nyc-grad-rates-are-good-but-students-not-college-ready/

ATR "Rally" Changed to Candlelight Vigil

UPDATED Nov. 12, 7AM

The UFT, following its "successful" Tweed candlelight vigil of a year ago for rubber room denizens (check to see how much good that did) has changed the call for a massive rally into, guess what? Another candlelight vigil.

Randi just loves candles.

John Powers and Marjorie Stamberg of the Ad Hoc ATR committee have sent a strong letter of protest to the UFT which is posted on the ICE blog. Here's an excerpt:

we were not consulted on this change, which was made without our knowledge, despite assurances from Randi Weingarten and Michael Mulgrew that we would be included in the planning. The first we heard of this was in a changed rally leaflet we received this morning.

A candlelight vigil is a silent "protest at the suffering of some marginalized group of people, or in memory of lives lost to some disease, disaster, massacre or other tragedy."

We want to make precisely the opposite point -- that ATR teachers are not marginalized, that we stand by them, and the UFT will fight to ensure that they do not become "lost lives," a "massacre," a "disaster" or other "tragedy." We can "bear witness" all we want, but it won't stop Joel Klein from trying to drive out our colleagues. And it won't stop the likes of the New York Post from vilifying them and our union.

We will continue to plan for a mass citywide rally as "a show of our unity and strength" as the motion called for.

The latest Ad Hoc ATR Committee leaflet
(click to enlarge)

If you can print some copies, please share with the people in your schools. If you are a chapter leader or delegate, support them at the Delegate Assembly tomorrow (Wed. Nov. 12 starting at 3:30 in front of 52 Broadway.) Numbers count as the UFT leadership is always worried about the PR aspect.

Here are some important dates in an email sent by Marjorie.

Update on the ATR rally, and some important planning events. Please mark your calendars.

1. The News We just learned that the rally format has been changed to a "candlelight vigil." Groan, this toothless silent method of demonstrating is the opposite of the powerful show of strength and mobilization that we have been building. Moreover, we were NOT consulted on this. We found out about it when we saw a "corrected" version of the official UFT leaflet. John Powers and I sent off a letter to the Randi Wiengarten and the E-board vigorously objecting to this.

Page 2 of the leaflet (click to enlarge)

2. Wednesday, November 12 Delegate Assembly

We will have the new leaflet at the D.A. to hand out. Please come if you can, and gather outside to hand out leaflets for the rally, get names, etc. This is important--the presence of a number of ATRs, RTRs and supporters outside the last D.A. actually influenced the outcome.


3. Friday, November 14 Meeting of Ad Hoc Committee to Defend ATRs

This will be a really important meeting to make signs, have reports from the schools, planning further outreach. Everyone who has worked on this demo, or who wants to start working on it--we need you Friday. Place for meeting to be announced.

4. Panel on Education Policy--Monday, Nov. 17

This is the monthly meeting at Tweed Courthouse where Joel Klein comes and "deigns" to hear the concerns of the community. The date is probably Monday, November 17; will confirm tomorrow. We plan to go and sign up to speak there. It is a very good place to get press attention of the situation with ATRs. Again, we need people to come out and speak.

5. November 24 ---Rally date!

Starting time is 4:30, but we'll need people there at 4 pm sharp, we plan to have signs and will not be silent.

Marjorie

Postscript
Some people are extremely upset at what they call the UFT hijacking of the rally and morphing it into a candlelight vigil. ICE's Sean Ahern took a more positive view:

May I suggest that your language may be interpreted by your foes as intemperate and even provocative and could be used to discredit efforts on behalf of the ATRs in particular and the work of opposition caucuses and adhoc groups generally?

Expression of righteous indignation at policies of the Mayor and the UFT leadership should not even hint at the lighting of fires under anyone nor make references to funerals of those alive and well nor indulge in sarcasm or bitter recrimination. I think this diminishes the effect of your protest and may attract unwarrented attention.

Additionally, while I share your dismay at the lack of leadership, wouldn't you agree that it was a positive effort to organize the ATRs and seek out support from the DA? From what I hear there was a positive response from your sister and brother unionists who are not ATRs. That's solidarity, labor's credo, an injury to one is an injury to all.

Even as the leadership may seek to diminish or coopt the spirit of the resolves, new ground has been broken. The ATR brings to light fundamental longterm weaknesses in the UFT bargaining strategy that must be identified, understood so that an ever larger number of members may give serious consideration to alternative strategies going forward.

Whether you stand in place holding a candle or march around in cattle pens under the watchful eyes of our militarized police department matters less than what brings us together in the first place and what we say to eachother and the public while we are there. How will you use this effort to promote solidarity, to make more connections and build support for the ATRs? Be positive. It's a beginning not the end.

Peace,
Sean

Klein for Ed Secty? Yes, We Had an Impact

NY Times Reporter Elissa Gutman writes about it Klein’s Name Is Floated, and Bloggers Object in the NY Times City Room.

I've had some recent disagreements with Mike Klonsky but this is one hell of a post on the reasons Klein is the worst choice.

I'm glad Gootman found our buddy Woodlass' comment on the Obama web site:

On a blog attached to the Obama campaign’s official Web site, a poster with the handle Woodlass from New York, N.Y., pleaded with President-elect Obama to pass over Mr. Klein, writing:

He hasn’t made schools in this city any better than they had been, because it’s obvious students aren’t doing so well and neither are the teachers. He excluded parents and the rank-and-file from the decision-making process, poured millions into machines to crunch data for no practical purpose, and he neither respects or defends truth.

One of the important points in this outpouring of antagonism to Joel Klein is that so much of it comes from parents. When Klein spokesperson David Cantor said the complaints are from entrenched interests, one parent wrote:

Dear Mr. Cantor,

I am one of the signatories in a recent letter asking President-elect Obama to appoint an education secretary with real experience in education. I am a public school parent in New York City. I'd be interested in knowing what you consider my "entrenched interest in policies that have never worked." My entrenched interest in my child getting a good education?

Yours sincerely,
Ann Kjellberg

Believe me, we're just scratching the surface. Notice there is not one teacher or parent defending Klein. (Time for Bloomberg to get out his checkbook.) Since we focus on teachers, how does the business community view a leader who alienates the entire body expected to implement his policies? In the real corporate world, it is curtains. Maybe that is what happened to Klein in his last job before being pushed out at Bertelsman and into the Chancellor of the (gulp) NYC school system.

Here's the petition if you want to sign. It says educators but parents (as Leonie Haimson says, kids' first teachers) should sign too.
http://www.petitiononline.com/campd227/petition.html

Is the Honeymoon Over? Sniping at Obama from the Left (and Right)

While most people heard news reports that the Republicans were upset at the appointment of war hawk Rahm Emanuel as chief of staff, the main gatekeeper to Obama, that's nothing to compare with what is beginning to come from the left. If Obama built his base on being against the war in Iraq how does he make a war hawk the most powerful man in the government?

Progressives are in for some big disappointments. People tell us that after 8 years of Bush, we at least can look forward to somewhat better judges and other appointees and hopefully a better managed government. But the higher the expectations, the bigger the fall. Making Rahm Emanuel the first appointment is not a good omen. (However, I'll soon be posting a positive view from a parent activist in Chicago of the Obama's roles in school reform.)

Stephen Zunes writes at Alternet: Is Obama Screwing His Base with Rahm Emanuel Selection?

I had really wanted to celebrate Barack Obama's remarkable victory for a day or so before becoming cynical again. I really did.

And yet, less than 24 hours after the first polls closed, the president-elect chose as his chief of staff -- perhaps the most powerful single position in any administration -- Rahm Emanuel, one of the most conservative Democratic members of Congress.

More..

George Schmidt, an Emanuel constituent, passed this on:
11/10/08

To simplify Rahm Emmanuel as a war mongering right wing monster is to do him too much credit. I live in the guy's Congressional District (Illinois 5th). I have heard him brag that he got earmarks to expand Chicago's military high schools (Marine Military Academy dedication in Chicago last October, reported in the November 2007 Substance, available on line at www.substancenews.net). We have heard him try to justify his support of the Goldman Sachs "bailout" plan when every Chicago Congressman opposed it (first iteration).

And we watched him stand beside George W. Bush and Mayor Richard M. Daley of Chicago on January 7, 2007, as Bush delivered his "anniversary" speech on No Child Left Behind behind a wall of mounted police and snipers in Chicago (Greeley elementary school). Again, as we reported in Substance (January and February 2008, and on line).

What was unique about Emmanuel's contribution to the Bush agenda that day was that Rahm Emmanuel is one of several Chicago Congressmen, and that all of the black ones (Danny Davis, Bobby Rush, Jesse Jackson Junior) and the Puerto Rican one (Luis Gutierrez) were snubbed by Bush and Daley that day so that Rahm could share the stage and limelight of No Child Left Behind with the two men (Daley; Bush) who most pushed the Business Roundtable corporate "school reform" agenda on the USA.

As people have noted, when Rahm Eammnuel left the Clinton administration, he spent a couple of years as an "investment banker" and supposedly "earned" about $16 million. Needless to say, Rahm Emmanuel has never had much in common with this diverse but mostly "middle class" Congressional District he was in. He bought the Congressional Seat by spending ten times more than his opponent (Nancy Kazak) in his first run, and ignored his constituents ever since. On the
Iraq War; on education; on the Goldman - Sachs "bailout", to cite a few examples. For all his resources, our congressman has never been able to generate a majority of his own constitutents to be in favor of the policies he's supported. So he simply ignores us. (Including a phone call and e-mail I sent him after the first "bailout" vote).

George N. Schmidt
Editor, Substance

www.substancenews.net

"Now I see what merit pay can do"

"Now I see what merit pay can do. I am ever so resentful to think that some of these people are getting merit pay for being rats. They do not work. BSA is a hired lunch duty man. That is his job, two lunch duties, three preps, and one gym class. What the fuck does he need a prep for?"

From a chapter leader who supported merit pay last year. The principal has tabbed someone to run against this chapter leader who stands up for the members. That someone barely teaches and is already spending the day campaigning for the elections in June. This chapter leader is fighting not just for the chapter leadership but for life as a teacher as you know what will happen if BSA wins. You know something? If BSA joins up with Unity Caucus, as I bet he will since people like him who know which side their bread is buttered, the UFT leadership will be perfectly happy to lose a thorn in their side even if that thorn is a vigorous defender of the members.

The entire rant is here: http://terry-proofoflife.blogspot.com/

Anti WASL Wins as Washington Education Superintendent

Juanita Doyon, a leader of the anti-high stakes testing movement in Washington State, founder of Mothers Against WASL (the state test), and author of Not with Our Kids You Don’t!: Ten Strategies to Save Our Schools, sent this good news:

We're celebrating here!! Big time!!!!!! Randy Dorn has been in touch throughout his campaign and is listening to our concerns. His speeches and debate responses were deja vu to my own campaign. He understands the pitfalls of high-stakes testing and the need for viable alternatives.

Juanita ran against Terry Bergeson, Dorn's opponent, a few years ago, so her celebration is well-deserved. I met Juanita at the ACT Now conference a bunch of test resisters from around the nation attended in Birmingham, AL back in March 2003. Juanita, whose buttons are featured on our side panel on the right, recently sent over 5000 anti testing buttons to the LA Teachers Union.

We Must Be a NUT (No Unnecessary Testing)

Almost every major issue facing teachers in NYC (and elsewhere) can be linked to the evils of high stakes testing. Closing schools based on tests leads to Teacher Reserves. Narrow curriculum. Bored students. More discipline problems as a result. Yet the UFT, while paying lip service to the concept there is too much testing, has gone along with most of the Bloomberg/Klein/market-based no nothing education engineers: merit pay, rating teachers based on tests, no opposition to closing schools, etc. The UFY clearly has a stake in the merit pay program as they ran workshops jointly with the DOE accountability people and when one of the Justice Not Just Tests reps tried to raise objections he was not exactly treated with courtesy by one of the UFT leaders, Michael Mendel. I've been working with the Justice Not Just Tests on a campaign to reach into the schools and get teachers to join us by creating such a massive movement in the UFT the leadership will be forced to notice.

Here is an excellent piece by Steven Krashen. Become a NUT in your school.


The Fundamental Principle: No Unnecessary Testing (NUT)
Stephen Krashen
The Colorado Communicator vol 32,1. Page 7, 2008

No Unnecessary Testing (NUT) is the principle that school should include only those tests and parts of tests that are necessary, that contribute to essential evaluation and learning. Every minute testing and doing “test preparation” (activities to boost scores on tests that do not involve genuine learning) is stolen from students’ lives, in addition to costing money that we cannot afford these days, with serious budget problems in American schools.

If we accept the NUT principle, it leads to this question: Do we need yearly standardized tests closely linked to the curriculum? Do they tell us more than teacher evaluation does? This issue must be looked at scientifically. If, for example, the current CSAP (Colorado Student Assessment Program) test is shortened and/or given less frequently or abandoned, will student performance be affected? Would Colorado’s NAEP scores (already quite high) be affected?

My prediction is that teacher evaluation does a better job of evaluating students than standardized testing: The repeated judgments of professionals who are with children every day is probably more valid that a test created by distant strangers. Moreover, teacher evaluations are “multiple measures,” are closely aligned to the curriculum, and cover more than just math and reading.

There is some evidence supporting this view for high school students: Research by UC Berkeley scholars Saul Geiser and Maria Veronica Saltelices shows that high school grades in college preparatory courses are a better predictor of achievement in college and four-year college graduation rates than are standardized tests (the SAT). Geiser and Saltelices found that adding SAT scores to grades did not provide much more information than grades alone, which suggests that we may not need standardized tests at all.

For those who argue that we need standardized tests in order to compare student achievement over time and to compare subgroups of students, we already have a good instrument for this, the NAEP. The NAEP is administered to small groups of children, who each take a portion of the test, every few years. Results are extrapolated to estimate how the larger groups would score. No test prep is done, as the tests are zero stakes: There are no (or should be no) consequences for low or high scores. If we are interested in a general picture of how children are doing, this is the way to do it. If we are interested in finding out about a patient’s health, we only need to look at a small sample of their blood, not all of it.

My predictions, however, need to be put to the empirical test. A conservative path is to start to cut back on standardized tests, both in length and frequency, and determine if this has any negative consequences. This is an essential move now, when funds are so scarce, and it is an essential exercise of our responsibility to students.

Geiser, S. and Santelices, M.V., 2007. Validity of high-school grades in predicting student success beyond the freshman year: High-school record vs. standardized tests as indicators of four-year college outcomes. Research and Occasional Papers Series: CSHE 6.07, University of California, Berkeley. http://cshe.berkeley.edu Thanks to Geoff for this.

Joel Klein's reign of destruction by Leonie Haimson

UPDATE:
David B has chipped in.
Maybe there should be a poster in every school.
Click to enlarge.

I posted this must read follow-up to our last De-Kleining America post at Norms Notes.

By the way, many of Leonie's comments on Joel Klein can also be applied to Michelle Rhee and all the other corporate non-educator public ed destroyers.

UPDATE:
David Bloomfield, Brooklyn College education professor (and lawyer) and NYC public school parent sent his thoughts to The Nation- I posted it in the comments section.

De-Kleining America- Updated

You know those scenes in movies where people put their hands over their eyes in horror at an accident that was about to happen?

That is how NYC educators and parents feel since the ugly rumor in the Huffington Post that NYC Chancellor Joel Klein is a possible choice for Education Secretary in the Obama administration. The Ed blogosphere in NYC has been hot and heavy with rumors.

Can you get worse than Margaret Spellings?

Hell Yes. We've been getting emails of this type:

Geez, talk about discouraging news! I just heard that Obama is considering Chan. Klein as Secretary of Education! Does anybody have a way to get the word to him about how most of us feel about the job Klein/Bloomberg have done here?

A Voice Cries Out says, "Ok, ok, stop screaming" and put this up on the advice Joel Klein would give to the nation. Here are a few delicious headings:

Numbers in the toilet? Fudge ‘Em!

Violent Incidents in Schools Getting You Down? Bury ‘Em!

[I especially like this one as it reminds me of a Frankenstein movie - Actually "Young Frankenstein" in honor of the numerous teen principals who have been "made" under Klein.]
Make Your Own Principals

Pack Kids in as Tightly as Possible

Oh the choices we have to make here in the big city. Wish for Klein to go to Washington so he can hang out with his buddy Michelle Rhee? Or do what we can to prevent the Kleining of America?

To me the choice is easy. Despite the UFT attempt to make it seem Mayor Bloomie and Klein are not joined at the hip, things might even get worse if Joel was to go to Washington. Mayor Mike could pick Rhee, who might want to get out of DC before they tar and feather her, to replace Klein. Klein could be US Ed Secty and run the DC schools Rhee has left standing further into the ground. With a financial crisis, think of the savings? But it gets worse.

George Schmidt thinks Obama will go in a different direction:

Here in Chicago, we're reading about how Obama is going to choose Arne Duncan
(Chicago's version of Klein).
Anyone want to bet that in D.C. they're reading about how Michelle Rhee has the inside track? One thing's sure. It's bad.

Obama plays basketball with Arne Duncan. Jeez. The teachers who supported Obama may be in for a shock.

How about real educators like Linda Darling-Hammond?

Or Diane Ravitch, who I disagree with on some fundamentals due to her long-time advocacy of the standards and testing movement, but has been one of the leaders of the De-Kleining battle here in NYC and has been having those wonderful conversations with one of my teaching heroines, Deborah Meier? Diane would represent some sense of rationality and compromise. Besides, many of us have grown very fond of her personally. It was great to see NY Times columnist David Brooks' mention Diane in this context today.

NYC teachers are willing to continue suffering and are taking the high road, starting campaigns to tell the Obama world all about the wonderful world of Klein. Under Assault (Keep Educating Obama) tried to

find a "Contact Us" link on the Obama website to tell him he should under no circumstances consider Joel Klein as his Secretary of Education. The site didn't have a such a link, but it did have something spectacular: an option to create your own blog right in the Obama internet heartland.

So here's the letter I wrote to him this morning via my new blog on my.barackobama.com: "Please don't choose Joel Klein for Sec'y of Education." (Don't choose Weingarten either, by the way.)
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/woodlassnyc/gGgzzN

And things are growing as The Nation is getting involved. NYU Education Professor Bree Picower sent this along to the NYCORE listserve:

Dear Supporters of Public Education,

Many of you have by now heard the rumor that NYC School Chancellor Joel Klein is being considered as Obama's pick for Secretary of Education.
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/31/obamas-secretary-of-educa_n_139775.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/04/AR2008110404573.html).

As people committed to public education, this strikes a hard and fast blow in the euphoria that we have felt since Tuesday. But it's not too late to make our voices heard once again. Let's build on the sense of representation and democracy we have just experienced to send a clear message to the Obama Administration to STOP THE DE-KLEIN of PUBLIC EDUCATION. Community organizations across the New York City and country are teaming up with The Nation to write a communal letter and petition to the Obama Administration on why Klein is a mistake for this position.

This is where we need your help!
Please submit to the Nation a bullet point of a few sentences of why you think Klein's appointment would be a mistake. This should be based on your experience in education as a student, teacher, parent, organizer, etc. If appropriate, include relevant data or citations. Also include your name and affiliation/role.

Particular themes that you could write about:
-issues of community voice and input
-corporate/private interest vs. public interest
-Issues of instruction and curriculum
-particular issues: high stakes testing, military recruitment, school safety policies, special ed, ELL...
-union representation/ treatment
-Issues around race, racism, and representation
-Issues of equity
-transparency and public decision making
-etc.

Please send your submissions to The Nation ASAP at habiba@thenation.com and cc: info@nycore.org
Please also post your submission to the Education Section of Obama's Website at http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/mypolicy.

This article is going online on Monday, so time is of the essence!

Here is what Bree wrote:

Rather than take the advice of educational experts, Chancellor Klein repeatedly championed and implemented policies that support corporate interests and Mayor Bloomberg. For example, in 2004, Bloomberg and Klein ignored the input of parents, teachers and educational experts in their attempt to push through a high stakes third grade testing policy. Despite testimonials from educational experts and community members against this plan, Bloomberg fired and replaced members of their advisory panel that were not going to vote to pass their bill. "Although Mr. Klein said they had resigned, the three panel members said in interviews that they had been tersely dismissed and had intended to vote against the mayor's plan (New York Times, 2004)”. Is this how we want federal education policy handled?
Bree Picower, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, New York University

Lisa North from ICE sent this along:

I am sorry to say that here in NYC you cannot link positive educational reform with the name Chancellor Klein. Dedicated arts moneys in school budgets have been removed and replaced with money for school data inquiry teams. There have been few effective new teaching and learning initiatives or programs since the beginning of Klein's term. Only a massive amount of testing as huge amounts of time and money have been spent on accountability via testing. Do we want large spikes in test scores from teaching to the test OR students educated to be productive members of society? Shouldn't educational reform be about teaching and learning?

Sean Ahern chimed in on ICE-mail:

I think the AFTUFT leadership would look forward to collaborating on the national level with Klein as they have locally for the past eight years.

The UFT/AFT leadership holds a charter membership in the corporate education reform going back to A Nation At Risk in 1982 when Obama was an undergrad and they show no signs of jumping ship now.

Parents and school based educators in NYC who do not share the perspective of the AFT leadership will have to speak out on our own behalf asking that Obama look at the facts not the spin on eight years of "Put Children First".

NYC schools have among the lowest graduation rates, are among the most segregated, have one of the highest rates of teacher turnover, and since 2001 there has been a 40% decline in the number of new Black and Latina educators hired. What about this picture merits a promotion? To the extent that some good things go on in city classrooms is a testament to the determination of the people in the trenches who carry on in spite of Tweed.

Obama said he would listen to the people so let the people speak. What do the Parents Associations, the CEC's, the SLTs, the students, the chapter leaders, the school based Administrators and teachers have to say? This is the time to speak up.

Klein is experienced but so is a used car. Obama should look under the hood before he buys otherwise he may be stuck with a lemon, Remember Bush's first Education Secretary ? How long was it before the truth about the Houston miracle came to light? Two years? I give even less time for the facts about "Put Children First" to emerge. They already have locally. Klein as Education Secretary? Not a change I can believe in .

Peace,
Sean Ahern

I just spoke to a buddy working out of the central beast at Tweed who wants Klein to be nominated.

"Oh, so you can get rid of him," I said?

"No. Because the spot light of a nomination will expose him for his failed policies - the phony grad rates and test scores and complete failures from messed up bus routes to the recent talented and gifted farce." And all the stuff in between.

How much would you give to see Diane Ravitch and Leonie Haimson testifying at a Klein nomination hearing?

Hmmmm! Hold the presses.