UFT Chaos at John Dewey HS

A result of closing so many south Brooklyn schools

The impact of closing schools is far reaching. The pushed out kids who don't make it into the more selective charter or small schools function as a sort of floating crap game, bouncing from just-closed school to soon-to-be-closed school. The next wave of large comprehensive high schools quickly become overcrowded and resources get taxed. A mentality of "we are next" sets in as administrators use the threat to drive instruction towards pushing testing and grad rates at any cost to the detriment of educational value and integrity. Teachers, worried about thrown into ATR purgatory if the school should close, start back biting at each other, even in the midst of marking exams if one should dare give a student a low score.

That this mentality should infect John Dewey HS (in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn), one of the more progressive high schools in NYC for over 35 years, shows just how far the state of the BloomKlein destructive ed reform agenda has reached.

John Dewey HS is not misnamed as so many schools are, as it offered a special brand of education to students, with a longer school day and all kinds of enrichment, so rarely found in NYC schools, actually touching on some of the educational philosophies of Dewey. It attracted kids from many parts of the city and also attracted some very dynamic teachers. The attitude was somewhat permissive: if kids roamed the halls, it was tolerated. They were socializing, not destroying.

But enter the kinds of kids forced to go there because no small school would accept them or because their families weren't together enough to figure out an alternative; kids who would never apply to a school like Dewey in the first place – and suddenly you have a different kettle of fish. The extra-curricular activities are not quite in line with their interests. Photography club, anyone?

Now don't get me wrong. The needs of these kids could be addressed, but certainly the school is not given the kinds of resources that could make a difference. Thus, schools like Dewey enter the death star spiral and become a target for the school closers at Tweed - maybe some Bloomberg contact is looking for some real estate in the area and needs the cache of charter schools to get those values up.

Recently, reports that divisiveness has reached deep into the UFT, a former proud chapter – and don't think the destructive acts on large schools by BloomKlein doesn't have this in mind.

We received this report:

The UFT executive board is revolting against the chapter leader. There are many issues, but the two most recent have to do with

(1) the lack of administration and union response to the threats by DoE to close Dewey (the DoE's most recent gripe VIA the School Comprehensive Assessment has to do with things like policy and practices regarding school entry, dress code, confiscation of prohibited items, school safety protocols, cafeteria access, etc.);

(2) The chapter leader's accusations of anti-semitism was directed against two teachers. The anti-semitism furor followed the posting of leaflets that advertised a demonstration against Israeli's attacks on Gaza. One of the accused teachers (who happens to be Jewish) claimed he didn't post or distribute the leaflets, but he was defending the right of anyone to do this.

Regarding the bullshit Comprehensive Assessment, the committee wants the school to take a strong stand on Dewey's right to fashion its own rules regarding student use of the building in the light of Dewey's history and philosophy.

The reason for safety incidents has to do with the influx of students who are rejected from all the other South Brooklyn schools that have been closed/divided/restructured/small schoolized. In the light of these immediate events plus a whole host of complaints about how the chapter leader behaved in the last year, making personal accusations against the principal and disseminating misleading information to staff, the executive board is talking about having a recall election.

Leaflets from the UFT executive board critical of the chapter leader are floating around.

And there's a leaflet from the UFT District Rep, Useless CHarlie Friedman (or UCH! ) on behalf of the chapter leader. What else do you expect from the UFT? To side with the forces that actually want to protect the Dewey philosophy and fight Tweed?

How bad can things get when a Unity stalwart not in the school urges ICE to run a candidate in this spring's chapter leader elections?

Been waiting a long time

To celebrate this Beatles Song.
With some Beef Wellington tonight at One if By Land, Two if By Sea.
Gotta go.
Better apply for social security while it's still there.

UFT and DOE Agree to Make up Snow Day July 1...

...so the kids don't miss a day of test prep.
The program will be known as the "Snow (Day) Recovery Operation – SRO.
The UFT has has claimed victory, saying the DOE wanted two days – the extra as a day in the bank for future snow days.

Ed in the Apple/Peter Goodman...

...is a shill for the UFT Propaganda Machine

Ed In the Apple/Peter Goodman as just another mouthpiece for the UFT leadership policies that have aided and abetted the gutting of public education. Goodman is using the Ed in the Apple blog as one of the arms of the propaganda machine to justify UFT policy.

Goodman's post
Beware of Geeks Bearing Formulas: Is the Rush to Data the “New Stupid,?” Education Must Begin With Kids and Teachers reveals much about how the levels the Unity Caucus machine operates on.

Talk about Greeks bearing gifts when Ed/Peter Goodman – former District 22 rep and long-time and current employee of the UFT – writes:

"... the priorities Obama set in his Tuesday night speech were troubling: accountability, charter schools, data and national standards"

Let's see now.

Goodman doesn't quite mention the UFT's two charter schools (in one of the great cases of nepotism- his son Drew Goodman was chosen as principal of the UFT middle school charter after a supposedly expensive nation-wide search – and then removed after complaints from teachers).

Or the UFT support for the use of data reports of teachers.

Or the UFT's support of performance bonuses.

Or the fact that Goodman was on being paid to make judgments to close schools, including my alma mater Thomas Jefferson HS (yes, I do hold grudges).

And in a previous piece,
Whispering in Arne’s Ear: Is He Joel/Michelle in Drag, or, Will He Listen to the Folks in Classrooms? Goodman tries to give the impression Arne Duncan can go either way, ignoring Duncan's complete Joel Klein-like agenda in Chicago.

The UFT propaganda machine tries to minimize the nationwide attack on public schools and make it look like our problems in NYC are because of Joel Klein's personality.

Thus Randi Weingarten praised the Duncan appointment.

And there's this disingenuous "If you can get Joel and Randi to agree upon the use of this data I have an assignment for you in the Middle East." The goal is to pass on the propaganda that Randi somehow stands up to Klein even when in fact she agreed to the data reports in the first place to "help the teachers."

Yes Ed/Peter, there will be peace in the middle east before we see the UFT do what a union should be doing.

Poverty Pimp Eva Moskowitz Steals Another Public School

photoshopped by David B.

... and another batch of teachers as ATRs are created

Patrick Sullivan writes at the NYC Parent Blog:

Bloomberg & Klein Send the State Assembly A Message

Excerpt:

The Times also confirms the PS 241 in Manhattan's District 3 will be replaced with a branch of the Eva Moskowitz charter chain, Harlem Success Academy.

What's news here is not just a new charter school opening but that the Bloomberg administration will convert a public school to a charter school without a majority vote of the parent body as required by state law. The elimination of the school will also require the neighborhood to be rezoned to reassign children to other schools left by the gap created by 241's closure. The administration has signaled that it will not seek the approval for rezoning from Distirct 3's Community Education Council, also required by state education law.

Clearly there is a message here. It was only a few weeks ago that members of the Assembly heavily criticized both the style and substance of Klein's management of the schools at a Manhattan hearing. In fact, PS 241 sits in the district of Assemblyman Daniel O'Donnell, the Education Committee member who captivated the hearing audience with his incisive questioning and witty responses to the usual DOE deflections. By openly flouting the law, Bloomberg and Klein are making it clear they are above any law and will do precisely as they please.

How do you watch Arne Duncan...

....operate as the leader of the Chicago school system - read this post as an example - People need to know what is happening in Chicago--forecast for the US and write this:

Obama’s education budget strikes some themes beyond Ed. Sec. Duncan’s refrains so far of KIPP, TFA, and value-added data-tracking systems as the “proven strategies” to push. The new themes in the budget overview on education strike me as more promising - maybe more of Obama, less of Duncan? - and hint at reforms progressives have been calling for. Clay Burell

It looks like a bunch of interested parties are starting to judge the Obama administration based on its appointments and early policy direction. And that’s just fine. But when there’s Fordham’s Reform-a-meter, and Diane Ravitch proclaims Duncan’s USDOE to be Bush’s third term, I’ll chime in with Fred Klonsky: judge people for what they do, but remember the context. Sherman Dorn

Isn't the appointment of Duncan the context? I mean, why choose Duncan and then go counter to his core beliefs? There seem to be a lot of pro-Obama ed people on their knees praying Duncan will not be Duncan. And who are these "interested" parties?

One NYC parent commented:

Obama's "key White Advisor is Bob Gordon, a former advisor to Klein, and, the author of the New York City Weighted Student Funding plan." Talk about the frying pan and the fire!

Exactly how much "context" do these people need?

A NYC Teacher/Parent Asks: Closing Schools - WHY?

In my social circles, I speak with a number of people that have children in both private and public schools. Many of the parents are completely dumbfounded by the fact that a public school can just be closed down by the DOE WITHOUT any consultation with the parents or the community.

Closing the schools in a neighborhood completely changes everything for the people living there. Children must be registered with new schools, education is disrupted, bussing schedules changed, life must be completely reorganized. Parents and children must change everything to scramble to get their children into new schools and start over again.

NOT that these parents WANT ther children to be sent to a school where violence is strife, or the atmosphere does not contribute to learning. The BIG question is this: WHY can't the existing schools be made more productive, without closing them, and turning them into other schools?


It would seem to me with all of the geniuses that hold Harvard and Yale degrees in the offices of the DOE,that rather than blaming the teachers, there would be some studies made at the schools where there are problems to pinpoint precisely why schools fail. The simple fact is this- the school is an extension of the community- if the people that most have a vested interest in education of their children are kept out and excluded from the educational process (parents, teachers, school administrators), how could ANY school have the opportunity to turn itself around? Aren't those of us most directly involved more aware of what makes a school work than some bureaucrat sitting in Tweed?

Still, we let these bureaucrats close these schools, and we just let it happen. My opinion- it's time to put the word PUBLIC back in education and in service. Call me naive, but, aren't these PUBLIC servants like Bloomberg and Klein supposed to be answering to US?

It's time to grow a pair, people, and not only speak up, but GET the control back to where it belong- the people that pay the salaries of the Kleins and Cerfs- US!

People need to know what is happening in Chicago--forecast for the US

People need to know what is happening in Chicago because it is a preview of the national agenda for urban schools.

Since 2004, under Arne Duncan, Chicago has been closing neighborhood schools in African American and Latino working class communities and turning them over to charter schools, selective enrollment schools for new gentrifiers, or to an outside “turnaround specialist.”

We have been fighting for quality neighborhood schools in every neighborhood and against these school closings every year. This year Duncan, before he became Sec. of Ed, recommended closing or turning around 22 schools on a few weeks notice. In the end the Board of Ed. voted to go ahead and close or "turn-around" 16 neighborhood schools, rocks of stability in their communities, each with a compelling story to tell. We saved 6.

We, a multiracial coalition of grass roots community organizations, teachers, parents, and students are angry but not surprised. They ignored research data (2 reports that disputed their reasons for closing the schools), the data from the parents and teachers and students who testified for hours and compiled elaborate piles of documents in their defense.

At the Board meeting, Board members admitted not one had read the testimony from these hearings -- the tears, anger, pleas, careful documentation and reasoned argumentation of hundreds and hundreds of African American and Latino working class parents and children and their teachers and administrators.

This travesty of democracy and disrespect, this crass closing of neighborhood schools for gentrification and charter school give aways, this "cost cutting" on the backs of Black and Brown communities is made possible in part because the mayor, who works in collaboration with the most powerful corporate and financial interests, runs the school system and appoints the Board of Education and CEO of CPS. They are completely unaccountable. Now Arne Duncan recommends Detroit (and what other cities?) follow Chicago’s lead with mayoral control.

After candlelight vigils in the cold, many many community meetings, 2 mass rallies and marches, a tent city sleep over in front of the Board of Ed in subfreezing temperatures, and many other kinds of protests, we are tired but unbowed.

We are pushing for a retroactive moratorium on school closings in the state legislature right now and regrouping for the next phase. It's the parents, especially women, and youth and community members who are the heart and soul of this fight.

Their courage and determination to fight, to picket and march and speak out day after day, to become media spokespeople overnight, and to rise up as grassroots leaders should inspire us all. It's a long fight because the stakes are high. People need to know. This is the national education agenda on the horizon. We have to stop it.

For good coverage of the recent phase of our struggle see http://www.substancenews.net/

Pauline
Teachers for Social Justice, Chicago

Pauline Lipman
Professor, Policy Studies
College of Education
University of Illinois-Chicago
1040 W. Harrison, MC 147
Chicago IL 60607-7133
312-413-4413

South Bronx School exposes the sham of rubber room and 3020-a hearings

South Bronx School exposes the sham of rubber room and 3020-a hearings.

So this teacher is removed from school for probably a year for supposedly being unfit to teach, but by paying extortion money to the DOE, it all goes away. They might as well send Vinny the Collector to the school in the first place and skip the rubber room and 3020-a hearing.

SBS writes
the 3020-a process is used not only to remove unwanted teachers from the school, but to extort them as well with fines up to $10K! The teacher in question was offered a deal before the hearing in which a $5K fine would be paid, a classroom management class attended, put into the ATR system, and signing the stipulation "with prejudice" which in legal terms means that there can be no further legal action. Now after Ramona Duran's alleged twisting of reality, the DOE's lawyer's upped the fine to $10K.

School: PS 157 Bronx
Lying supervisor: Ramona Duran
LIS at time: Donald Conyers- now Supt Dist 23
Donald Conyers was the former principal of PS 18X and know that the school was in complete chaos during his reign there. Mr. Conyers never left his office, because he spent more time on the internet instant messaging than educating.

Eva Moskowitz Succeeds at "Harlem Success"

...In Raking in the Big Bucks.

Thus spawneth the market-based ed reform movement.

A must read if you want to see what the evils of the ed "reform" movement bring forth. Juan Gonzalez in the Daily News reports on one of the more disgusting people in NYC education/politics. Charter schools have license to steal from the public coffers while private interests fuel a gravy train. What next, a Harlem Success corporate jet?

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2009/02/26/2009-02-26_former_city_council_member_eva_moskowitz.html
"Moskowitz, who makes no secret of her desire to create 40 charter schools across the city and run for mayor some day, raked in $371,000 in salaries in the 2006-2007 school year from organizations connected to her four schools," Gonzalez writes. "Charter schools are free to use the money they raise from outside sources any way they see fit - even if that means huge salaries for the chief executive. Given that Moskowitz routinely complains that the Department of Education has failed to provide a fair share of funding for her students, it's fair to ask why she's paying herself so much for educating so few. Charters get about 90% of what it costs to teach each child and raise funds for additional money."

That's all for about 1000 kids from grades K-3 who attend Harlem Success.

Let's see now. At this rate, if Moskowitz was the chancellor, this would come to around $1,200,000,000 based on the per child rate. Hey Joel, you're underpaid.

Photo credit: Costanza for Daily News

A Call to Action – Seeking No-Bid Contract Whistleblowers in New York City Public Schools

Guest column

By Malia Politzer

Since Mayor Bloomberg took office in 2002, no-bid contracts have ballooned from roughly $700,000 per year to $40 million.

We are three graduate students at the Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism at Columbia University investigating why this jump in no-bid contracts within Department of Education took place.

By filing a Freedom of Information Law request, we’ve acquired a list of every no-bid registered with the city comptroller’s office during the span of the Bloomberg administration. But sources tell us that there are even more no-bid contracts that are not filed with comptroller.

Here’s where you come in. We’ve been doing our homework—but there are hundreds of no-bid contracts, and only three of us. We need your help to narrow the scope of our investigation.

Linked here is a complete list of no-bid contracts filed with the City Comptroller’s office under mayoral control. This second list is narrowed down to no-bid contracts for technology, teacher trainings, testing, and data-collection.

We’re requesting that concerned teachers, parents, officials within the DOE—or anyone else with inside knowledge and an interest in improving education—take a look at this list and tell us if there are any contracts that they think ought to be further investigated.

Our focus is on data, testing, and teacher trainings. Who’s making money off of these contracts, and should they be? Are the contracts going to the right vendors? Are any companies getting the contracts because of insider-connections (a wife, friend, golfing-buddy etc.) Are testing, trainings or data-taking actually effective in public schools?

Are you an educator who is suspicious about a why your school is using a specific testing system or data collection method? Are there certain teacher trainings that feel like a waste of time, and that you think providers aren’t qualified to give? Or perhaps you are a vendor who lost a contract with the DOE you feel you should have gotten? Do you know people who used to work in contracting in the DOE? Email me.

You can reach me anytime at my email address: malia.n.politzer@gmail.com.

We also want to talk to parents, teachers, students, and administrators about execution – are these no-bids getting the bang for their buck? Are the teacher trainings beneficial, or a waste of time? Are that data-taking initiatives helpful or hurtful? Testing?

If you have information, experience, or opinions on these issues – please take a look at these contracts, and contact me directly. Thank you for your help.

Complete no-bid contrast list: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=psLbSNUMNpHIwlHtKh77zYQ&hl=en
Narrowed-down by topic: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=psLbSNUMNpHJnEjTRevhYfg


--
Malia Politzer
Stabile Fellow
Columbia Graduate School of Journalism
c: 480-316-9696
malia.n.politzer@gmail.com


Ed Note:
Check the list above of no bid contracts and see if your school used any of them. Let Malia know how the vendors did. Were there any signs they got the bid because they had naked pictures of Joel Klein?

Missing The Union Label

Someone called the East New York Prep Charter School and asked " Are the teachers in your school in a union?" The answer was a definitive "No".

Why is this an interesting factoid? The UFT mouthpiece, the NY Teacher, ran an ad for the school.

Shtupping in the Charters: Bait and Switch

Some Upper West Side Parents Fit to Be Tied Over Tweed Manipulation

It's not all about horror stories for NYC teachers.
Want to see how the Joel Klein team operates with parent communities?

Here are some excerpts from Bijou Miller, Co-President of District 3 President Council, followed by Leonie Haimson.
Click on the link below to read it all.

For those of you who did not make the joint Pres. Council/CEC meeting at PS 241, I wanted to post this because, in my opinion, what happened tonight was the DOE at its worst- In point of fact, I thought I had seen its worst, until tonight.

this "hearing" was being held under the auspices of the Charter School Institute of the State University of New York. I also found out that someone had bused in a busload of children who were given caps blazoned with the Harlem Success Academy logo.

John White, the Office of Portfolio Development, who is running this show stated that the feeling was that 241 families would not put their kids into another public school-that the DOE felt a charter would attract more families. Let me also say that the DLT was told there were at least two viable options for 241, one a charter and one a public. The DLT was never ever given any information on the public option. We asked for info but he put it off or changed the subject at least twice. It was quite obvious that a charter was the DOE's choice and that Harlem Success was the specific choice. At the second meeting, White had even invited Harlem Success parents to come and "testify" about how great their school was. So the deck was definitely stacked

Leonie Haimson:

I agree with Bijou that this is one of the most outrageous things that the DOE has ever tried to do -- and they have done alot.

To close a zoned school w/out the CEC's approval -- essentially eliminating the zone -- and putting a charter school in its place is blatantly illegal: state law and chancellor's regs require that all changes in zoning must be approved by the CEC.

Privatizing the system and turning the best schools into charters, which then excluded the neediest students, is what they did in New Orleans but it took a nearly unprecedented national disaster to do it. here we only have Hurricane Bloomberg/Klein.

The full posts at:
District 3 (Upper West Side) Meeting and Comments

More from Bijou on charters and PS 241 at the NYC Parent blog.

Rise and Fall Back Down: Charter School Comments Galore

Diane Ravitch at Politico.com on Obama and charter schools
President Obama's enthusiasm for charter schools is baffling. Doesn't he realize that they are a deregulation strategy much beloved by Republicans? Deregulation works brilliantly for some schools as it does for some firms. But it produces many losers too. If he thinks that deregulation is the cure for American education, I have some AIG stock I'd like to sell him.
http://www.politico.com/arena/

The Klonsky Brothers are all in a twit over Diane's critique of Obama's ed policy.
Mike writes: What a joke! Obama has done more to save public education in one month than the entire Bush regime did in 12 years.

Ravitch, who high stakes test resisters used to despise, has been one of the strongest voices in NYC on the impact of BloomKlein. We have also seen her in her debates with Debbie Meier seem to move beyond the narrow local issue to the wider view of the impact testing regimens have and how the scores can be misused. Some people on ICE mail who are, and continue to be, critical of Ravitch, have also wondered exactly where the Klonskys stood during all the years of the Chicago school reform model. But we'll leave some of those comments for another time.


Comment on Lorri Giovinco-Harte Examiner post on Charter Schools
I am a public school teacher who is now interviewing with charter schools. I am not impressed.


Susan Ohanian, arm in sling, goes slingin'
Read about the start- of-school hazing procedures enforced by this KIPP leader. And much child abuse. Fresno charter school in furor: Unusual punishments, testing violations alleged as principal resigns from the Fresno Bee posted by Susan:
http://susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.php?id=8427

More on charter schools at ed notes.


Randi Weingarten said she considers Michelle Rhee’s recent kind words “an apology.” (Washington Post)
Randi watchers know she is looking for a reason to make nice with Michelle. My view is this dance was all worked out in advance. Randi: Michelle, I can't sell out the DC teachers until you tone down the rhetoric.
Thanks to Gotham Schools for the lead.


On Obama's speech
Pissed off has words for Obama
I'm sitting here listening to Obama talking about education and I am thinking how totally clueless he is when it comes to this topic.

Miss Eyre had a cogent comment on our post on the speech
Did Obama Fail His Ed Test?
Obama did say that "post-high-school education" includes community college, vocational training, and the military...I see nothing wrong with encouraging students to complete education beyond high school, as long as the "beyond high school" option is right for the student.

Bracey: On Education, Obama Blows It


Chapey finishes 3rd for City Council Seat in Queens (including Rockaway).
Too bad. We wanted her to get ZERO votes. I voted for my fellow Wave columnist Lew Simon, who at least would have brought an air of comedy (unintentional) to the Council. Still glad to see Lew more than doubled Chapey's vote. Read my WAVE column on how she pulled a Rudy B by trading her vote for a seat on the NYS Board of Regents for her mom. Ulrich, the winner, is about 12 years old, so they better have some video games at Council meetings. Who does he know?

32nd CD (Queens, with 82.73 percent of eds reporting):
1. Eric Ulrich: 2,820 2. Lew Simon: 1,368 3. Geraldine Chapey: 607 4. Mike Ricatto: 541
Thanks to David Quintana for the numbers.


Follow-up: Great meeting last night with the Justice Not Just Tests NYCORE group. Two soph college students studying to be teachers were sent by their instructor. With old retirees Angel G and myself and 2 teachers late in their first decade of teaching, it made for a great mix. Yesterday's ed notes post on the abuse of teacher data reports dovetailed with our petition campaign, which we will gear up. Focus on the March 25 Delegate Assembly. We need an army of people out there to get signatures. Join us. We're also working on an ICE/JNJT conference. Save the date: Saturday, March 28. We follow up tonight at the ASC-ICE meeting.

Trying to be a reporter and an organizer can interfere with the easy life style of a retiree.


More: reading great book by Iain Pears: The Dream of Scipio
There is a lot of discussion on the fall of civilization in 3 eras. And lots of Vichy stuff. I'm more convinced than ever that the actions of New Action vis a vis Unity and the actions of Unity/UFT vis a vis the ed reform movement are analagous to the rationales of Vichyites - we're just saving civilization from the Nazi barbarians by collaborating. This concept deserves a separate post.

Did Obama Fail His Ed Test?

So what exactly did Obama say in his speech tonight about reforming education? You see, it's not just about getting resources for schools but about, you know, reform. Like incentives for teachers - you know - merit pay. And charters. And early childhood ed. Well. 1 out of 3 ain't zero.

But as you drill down it gets worse. Shame on you if you don't graduate from not only high school, but college. Does he know that an overwhelming number of jobs over the next decade - if there are any – will not require a college education? I mean, he is telling us his stimulus plan will stimulate infrastructure jobs - mostly vocational-like skills that do not come from a college education. Then in the next breath he makes it look like you are a failure and unpatriotic if you don't go to college. If anything, he should have talked about NOT going to college and learning how to do the kinds of work with your hands that is so missing in this society.

Other than the education aspect, I like the speech. But then again, all I really have any understanding about is education. If I knew economics, I might be screaming bloody murder.

Teacher Data Reports Misused at MS 321 Updated

UPDATED: SEE LEONIE HAIMSON IMPORTANT COMMENT BELOW ARTICLE

The Justice Not Just Tests group ICE has been working with has been asking teachers to petitions calling on the UFT to end its fateful agreement to issue teacher data reports based on their students' test scores. One of the members of the JNJT group sent us this story of the way one principal has used this test by handing out copies to the entire staff for comparison purposes. As far back as the early 80's my principal used to put up all the score over the time clock with the teachers' names and circle in red the names of those whose classes scored below what she expected, so I've seen this game before.

Click on the image to enlarge

I posted the text of the JNJT petition on Norms Notes and if this story doesn't get teachers to circulate it, nothing will. Copy and paste it or email me for the pdf. By the way, JNJT meets today at 5:30 at CUNY, 34th and 5th Ave, rm 5414. Come on down and join the struggle.


A teacher reports from MS 321M

I'm a teacher at MS 321, a grade 6-8 middle school in Washington Heights. My school is being "phased out" (read: closed down) over the next two years. The first discussion of these Teacher Data Reports came at the meeting when the announcement of our school closing was made. At this meeting, a DOE representative pointed out that the Teacher Data Reports "would be out there" when we apply for new jobs. As our school closes, we will become part of the teacher reserve and will have to apply for new jobs, so the implication is that principals will use these reports in the hiring process.

Our principal then "rolled out" the use of Teacher Data Reports at a recent faculty meeting. She explained that whether we like it or not, education is becoming a business and these data reports will hold us accountable according to a business model. It was pointed out by staff members that according to the UFT/DOE agreement: 1) the reports are supposed to be kept between you and your principal and 2) they cannot be used for the sake of evaluation. She did not contest these points, but also claimed that this data can be shared with other principals, so when we apply for new jobs principals will look at these reports while deciding whether to hire or not.

This was bad enough, but despite verbally agreeing that these reports were supposed to be private, she handed out all ELA and Math teachers’ data reports to every faculty member, stapled and compiled together, apparently for the sake of comparison. This is in clear violation of the UFT/DOE agreement that the reports were to be private.

Many people in the staff were outraged and several of us called the district representative from our union that night. The next day a union meeting was held with this representative. Everyone at the meeting (about 2/3 of the UFT chapter) signed a letter expressing our outrage, which was forwarded to the leaders of the UFT and the DOE.

After a couple of weeks, a superintendent from the DOE came in to apologize. Notably, our principal was absent and has yet to directly apologize to the staff. The superintendent said that all principals were given professional development outlining the use of data reports and that it was very clear that reports were to be handed out only in individual meetings.

She claimed to be considering disciplinary action against my principal, but refused to guarantee this or state exactly what that action would be. We must demand that swift and dramatic action be taken, lest other principals feel that they can get away with sharing the reports publicly or amongst themselves.

When questioned, she stated that administrators could not share these reports with other administrators. This new position is definitely a welcome development, as statements from the UFT and DOE have been unclear on this issue. Nonetheless, what is to stop principals from discretely sharing the data and this data informing hiring decisions?

The incident and discussion by my principal about these reports show that the notion that they are a tool for professional development is absurd. The effect of the reports can only further encourage teachers to spend weeks of teaching students how to take the test, poring through old exams and dumbing down instruction to only cover the types of problems on previous tests. And in practice, we can expect principals to threaten to use these reports as evaluative tools either explicitly or otherwise.

Despite the implications of the superintendent, I doubt that my principal was really acting as a “lone wolf”. More likely she got the idea that these reports are a “tool for accountability” from somewhere up the chain. It is only because we came together as a united staff that the DOE felt the need to change the tone of the conversation with our staff.

Finally, we need to argue that the Teacher Data Reports should be abolished immediately. It serves no useful purpose for professional development. There can be no effective mechanism to prevent the data’s misuse amongst administrators, either through sharing it with staff or other administrators or using it, in practice, as a tool for teacher evaluation.

Just an isolated case? We know full well that if there had not been concerted response on the part of the chapter, the UFT would have done little. With so many chapters loaded with young teachers without tenure, fear reigns and most would have done nothing. For 2/3 of the teachers to sign a petition shows a higher degree of union consciousness at MS 321. That is not due to the UFT as much as to the political activity of some of the teachers, some of it connected to groups opposed to the Unity Caucus leadership.

The UFT will now try to claim "victory." But the victory belongs to the staff of MS 321. Below, our teacher reporter does some broader analysis, placing the larger role of the UFT in context, some of which may appear in a publication.


Neoliberalism, privatization, charter schools, merit pay, data reports
- and the UFT
by Anonymous teacher at IS 321M

Across the country, the neoliberal educational model continues to be pushed. Privately managed and publicly funded charter schools are multiplying. In public schools, teachers are being forced to teach narrowly to standardized tests and there is a push to deny union rights like seniority and tenure in favor of standardized test-driven evaluation and merit pay.

The examples of such moves abound. All union teachers were fired and more than half of New Orleans schools became charter schools following Hurricane Katrina. In Washington, D.C., hundreds of teachers have been fired and at least 21 schools have been closed, and Michelle Rhee, the chancellor of DC schools proposed ending teacher tenure and seniority for a performance-based system, though this proposal has since been withdrawn. Dozens of other examples could be cited.

New York City is no exception. Advertisements for charter schools are being sent out in mass to residents of Harlem and placed in subway cars. Each year the push to tailor instruction to fit standardized tests is stronger, complete with breakdowns and analyses of previous years' tests, so as better to teach to the test.. The number of periodic assessments, which eat into instructional time and cause immense amount of stress on students, continues to rise.

Shockingly, some of the most dramatic moves toward a neoliberal educational model have been agreed to by the leadership of my union, the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), and even proclaimed as victories! The oft-stated justification by union leadership for these concessions is that accepting neoliberal-lite proposals will allow for the union to have a say and head off the more draconian versions.

The UFT opened its own charter school in the fall of 2005, which is proudly proclaimed by the union as the “first union-operated charter school in the country”. In the fall of 2007, the UFT agreed to a “pilot”, “voluntary” school-wide merit pay scheme, which my school has been chosen for.

The justification from our union leadership is that if we are going to have charter schools anyway, let them be union-run. If merit pay is coming anyway, let it be group merit pay instead of individual merit pay. But this gets it backwards. The privatizers see such examples as victories! Charter schools are a step away from public control, and for that reason are mostly non-union. We should be fighting to keep public schools public, not jumping on the charter school bandwagon. Where there was no merit pay scheme, there is one now.

The logical conclusion of all of this is that more of our educational funding will go towards these schemes, which will undermine public education and union rights. For example, while the stimulus bill includes a welcome $54 billion for education, the New York Times reports that, “Programs that tie teacher pay to performance will most likely receive money…” in the bill. In fact, a February 19 NYC Department of Education announcement states that, “New York City can also apply for grants to expand its Schoolwide Performance Bonus Program, which rewards educators for improving student achievement, from the $200 million Teacher Incentive Funds.” This money could be better used to prevent budget cuts, lower existing class sizes or to increase teacher salaries across the board.

Most recently, this fall, the UFT agreed to “Teacher Data Reports” for grade 4-8 English Language Arts (ELA) and Math teachers. They break down the performance of each teacher's students on the New York State Math or ELA test in grades 4-8. Chancellor Joel Klein and UFT President Randi Weingarten jointly announced these reports as, “a "new tool to help teachers learn about their own strengths and opportunities for development". They even had the audacity to claim that the idea came from teachers themselves! The letter states, “…many of you have told us how useful it would be to better understand how your efforts are influencing student progress.”

I have heard of teachers complain of lack of mentoring, support and materials (including basics like books and copies), but never of not knowing or having a breakdown of our students’ scores on standardized tests. We are already subjected to countless breakdowns of such “data”, and most teachers would agree that none of this data analysis improves our pedagogy.

At the same time, the letter spells out clearly that, “the Teacher Data Reports are not to be used for evaluation purposes” and in another UFT statement it is made clear that the reports are a private document to be shared with each teacher and their principal. Again, our union leadership proclaimed a victory in keeping the data private and fending off attempts to use such data for evaluation.

But if the reports are not useful in teacher training and development, what are they useful for? Especially given the context of this push towards performance-based evaluation and merit pay, it is impossible to see these reports as anything but a foot in the door towards teacher evaluation on the basis of test scores, and ultimately publicly releasing this data.

Leonie Haimson sent this comment on the story:

Given the tremendous errors in the class size data, the reports may have incorrect evaluations of a teacher’s effectiveness – even assuming the formula is correct (which I’m sure its not.) Every teacher should demand the class size data being used for his or her data report to check it for accuracy.

The teachers should demand that the formula used in the report be disclosed, as well as the research study mentioned below and the identity of the independent panel of experts that supposedly approved it.

THE DOE CLAIMS BUT WON'T REVEAL NAMES:
A panel of technical experts has approved the DOE’s value-added methodology. The DOE’s model has met recognized standards for demonstrating validity and reliability. Teachers’ value-added scores from the model are positively correlated with both School Progress Report scores and principals’ perceptions of teachers’ effectiveness, as measured by a research study conducted during the pilot of this initiative.

Blog Posts of the Day: Feb. 24, 2009

Growing the bureaucracy: but guess which office at Tweed has actually shrunk?
NYC PS Parent Blog


Is Arne Duncan Really Margaret Spellings in Drag?
"I am sorely disappointed in Arne Duncan. I don't see any change from the mean, punitive version of accountability that the Bush administration foisted on the nation's schools."

Diane has been attacked from the left for daring to criticize Obama. As a test-resister who once looked at her very skeptically, my love for her for her honesty is growing by leaps and bounds. Even some of my fellow ICE'ers have come to see her in new ways, remarkable considering her ties to Shanker and his policies.


NYC Educator:
Ms. Weingarten Holds a Rally
Another ho-hum moment?

TEAM & FAMILY: A Veteran Educator's Charter School Experience

Alexander Russo at TWIE: A great interview by Russo with a teacher at the KIPP Brooklyn the UFT is attempting to unionize. One thing is clear. They don't expect much of a contract but do want some basic rights. The question they will face: can the UFT do much when their rights even with a contract are ignored? They should check with NYC public school teachers first.

Student Abuse Ignored by DOE

Even BloomKlein critics have given them credit for breaking up the old political machines that ran local schools for so long. But did they?

Ed Notes reported on the situation at PS 154X in in District 7 the Bronx on Jan. 22. Principal Linda-Amil Irizzary was Supt. of District 8 last year. She was asked to leave. Yolanda Torres, her good friend, is currently the Supt of District 7. They are rumored to be well-connected to certain political entities.

With reports surfacing with increasing frequency of some administrators at the school using more force than necessary one must wonder how it is possible for a teacher to end up in the rubber room after sneazing near a kid while adminsitrators can face serious charges, yet be allowed to, not only continue on the job, but be allowed to conduct the investigation into their own behavior.

The Rubber Room Reporter blog had a follow-up on Monday Feb. 24th,
Disarray at PS 154X in the South Bronx, Teachers There Report, asking:

What is going on at PS 154X in the South Bronx? And what is Joel Klein doing about it?

Related
http://southbronxschool.blogspot.com/

Will Bloomberg dump Joel Klein?

Is the question NY Magazine's Intelligencer asks. There is an attempt at analysis in terms of the UFT:

....the problem for Klein is not so much in the data (though critics have accused him of juicing the numbers) but himself. This is a big problem for Bloomberg’s dreams of a third term as “education mayor.” He can’t pay off the United Federation of Teachers, which sat on the sidelines last election, with a better contract this time. “If the UFT decides, based on Klein, to oppose Bloomberg, you’re talking about a lot of troops on the ground,” says labor activist Jonathan Tasini. Knowing this, the union is said to be pushing the mayor to sacrifice Klein. While lawmakers have piled on the chancellor, UFT head Randi Weingarten has restrained her attacks in recent weeks, stirring speculation of a pact with Bloomberg. Weingarten answers gamely: “I’ve found the mayor easier to deal with and more responsive than the chancellor.”
Walcott says, “The mayor is not one to make deals for anything that sacrifices individuals.” But on the question of Klein’s fate,

There's a lot of meat in this section to analyze. The UFT tries to separate Klein and Bloomberg in teachers' minds. This is a political ploy designed to make it seem this struggle is just about individuals and not a massive corporate attack on schools. Why? Because the UFT is aligned with the corporations and does anything it can to divert the members into focusing on Klein as the problem, as if Washington DC, Baltimore, Chicago, and New Orleans didn't exist as part of the fabric of the reform movement. Remember, Randi gave her blessing to Arne Duncan as Ed Secretary when he is, supposedly, just a more likeable version of Klein. And a better rebounder.

Klein is irrelevant and all attempt to talk about how he is disliked is a smoke screen. So if Klein does go they can use it to claim victory and slide by their tacit support of Bloomberg's third term - see we supported Bloomberg 3rd term, a fait accompli – and got this massive victory in getting rid of Klein.

Total distractive bullcrap.

Michael Fiorillo added this comment on ICE-mail:

Somewhat interesting to see, although one reaction of mine is,

"(If we) Meet the new boss,
(He'll be) Same as the old boss."

Two other reactions:

- Everyone, Randi included, continues with this good cop/bad cop thing with Klein and Bloomberg, when the transparent reality is that Klein is Bloomberg. They may disagree on tactics, and Bloomberg may throw Klein overboard in his own political self-interest, but they share the same worldview about education, as will Klein's (hypothetical) successor.

- On a deeper level, the piece shows the willful naivete/stupidity of the mainstream press with a statement such as, "Both he (Klein) and Bloomberg are... corporate minded,and distrustful of ideology." That's a hot one, since to be "corporate-minded" is by definition ideological: axiomatically anti-labor, obsessed with control over "production" and the pursuit of narrow interests.

How much more ideological can you get?

Best,
Michael Fiorillo

Teacher Quality and Class Size

I have to go back to the Leonie Haimson well for this post. It's like I have all these thoughts incoherently wrestling with themselves. The price of aging brain cells. And then Leonie, like a cowboy with a rope, writes something that corals them into semi-rationality. I've been meaning to write about the heroic teacher concept you see plastered all over subway cars.

All you need is a quality teacher with proven high test score to handle this crowd.

Hey, I was one of these heroic teachers in my early years, devoting my entire life to the classroom. Then came the realization that there was a lot of socio-economic stuff going on - which led to the idea that becoming politically active was as important as the work I was doing in the classroom. But that's a story for another time.

In The myth of the great teacher, hopefully euthanized once and for all on the NYC Public School Parent blog, Leonie credits recent writings by Diane Ravitch and Skoolboy (Aaron Pallas) for taking apart those ridiculous Nicholas Kristof education columns.

Leonie sums up with

In fact, one study from San Diego cited by the report shows that “35 percent of teachers initially ranked in the top quintile remain there in the second year while 30 percent fall into the first or second quintiles of the quality distribution in year two. Apparently, even using different tests can affect the stability of estimated teacher effects.

Of course all the phony ed reform crowd cares about what can be measured like test scores. Read any teacher blog and you will see the ability to deal with kids' behavior effectively – and I mean going beyond simply controlling a class (some teachers I saw used to do it brutally) but with some level of humanity – is often considered by other teachers one of the highest levels of skills and probably a key indicator of teacher quality. But there is no way to measure this skill, so out the window it goes.

Now, this high level teaching skill is most affected by class size.

In the fall of 1979 we had three 6th grade classes, all with fairly low class sizes. As usual, they were grouped homogeneously. In my school traditionally, the administration (old hand teachers who rose through the ranks) made a conscious effort to keep class size in the more difficult classes to a lower number, enough of an incentive for some people to volunteer to take the position every year just for the low class size.

This policy changed in 1979 with a new test-driven politically appointed administrator with no teaching experience who ignored these finer points. But this was her first full year and she hadn't gotten total control yet.

Of course 30 years of fog clogs the brain but the numbers were from around 20 in the 6-3 class to about 27 in the 6-1. I had the 6-2 with around 22. The bottom class with the neediest kids was below 20. For all of us the situation was a unique opportunity and I would guess by any measure of Teacher Quality we were better than ever.

But being a doom and gloom guy, from the first day, I expected them to not allow this to continue and that they would cut one class. I had the lowest seniority, so I knew it would be mine.

The district made the decision to cut a position in December, of all times. The 3 classes were cut to 2 with each class having 35-37. (I had one student who 15 years later when she was a parent herself, used to complain about what happened - why did you get rid of me she used to cry?)

They took the top half reading scores and folded them into the top class, which turned heaven to purgatory. But for the teacher with the more difficult class, going from 19 kids to 35 was hell. But both of the teachers were extremely skilled in dealing with kids and they persevered.

I was placed in a special ed cluster position teaching 4 emotionally handicapped and one CRMD (mentally retarded class) a day. The class sizes were 10 with a para. It was my first experience with kids who could be so irrational or such slow learners, that someone like me with no training didn't have a clue how to teach. In the interest of full disclosure, I ended up there because the teacher with least seniority was bumped. (I know, I know, the attacks on union rules will be forthcoming but that I was an experienced teacher vs. a newbie even with training - I call it more than a wash.)

If someone checked my TQ factor they would have seen a serious drop from just a few weeks before. But being a prep coverage position, I was able to recoup after each class without too much damage and began to figure things out. The experience taught me that many of the techniques I had learned in over a decade of teaching needed modification.

Which goes to show that Teacher Quality is not an absolute, but a moving target that can change by the year, the month, the day, the hour. And in the 1979-80 school year, for me, by the minute.

I went racing back to regular ed the next year. It wasn't until the crack babies started filtering into regular ed a few years later that we all began to see that same irrationality of the kids. My 79-80 experience did make a difference.

Resources:
Skoolboy

Why Are People So Gullible About Miracle Cures in Education?The Miracle Teacher, Revisited

Nicholas Kristof column in the New York Times.

My last post NY Times Ends Black Out on Class Size - Sort Of
David Pakter left a comment with a list of private school tuition in NYC where parents pay all that money for low class sizes. He also sent it to the NY Times.