Bracey: On Education, Obama Blows It

I have not the expertise to address the merits of President Obama's speech to Congress on the issues of the economy. I do claim some expertise on education. He blew it. He accepted the same garbage that the propagandists, fear mongers such as Lou Gerstner, Bill Gates, Roy Romer, Bob Wise, Craig Barrett and many others--God help us, Arne Duncan?--have been spewing for years. - Gerald Bracey in the Huffington Post (abridged).

As we reported in yesterday's posts here and here, if Obama can get this so wrong (as Bracey says, it is the one area where I actually know something) what else is he getting wrong? I mean, look at the state if education in Chicago after 13 years of this crap. Obama was in that belly of the beast all that time.

Obama talked about education as related to jobs. Bracey takes apart the Obama jobs claims.

Similar to his inaugural address he said, "Of the 30 fastest growing occupations in America, half require a bachelor's degree or more." But, as in his inaugural, he neglected to say these occupations account for few jobs. Wal-Mart, McDonald's, etc., are the great job machines in this country. Today he added, "By 2016, four out of every 10 new jobs will require at least some advanced education or training." There's that weasel phrase again, "advanced education or training." It's meaningless except as propaganda.

I voted for Obama. I canvassed for him. I registered voters for him. But on education, he has yet to hit the basket. Diane Ravitch, never once called a bleeding-hear liberal and assistant secretary of education for George H. W. Bush, recently said that, from what she's seen, Obama is a third term for George W. Bush and Arne Duncan is Margaret Spellings in drag. She was not doling out compliments to either man.

Obama's endorsement of the testing regime, merit pay and charter schools will further exacerbate all the gaps. Many people have made the point that the focus of the kind of non-thinking, testing all the time education is really a form of training for jobs at McDonalds and Walmart.

Of course, unsurprisingly, our friend Randi went right along with the plan instead of making a rigorous defense of teachers. The NY Times:

"Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.4-million-member American Federation of Teachers, said her union embraced “the goals and aspirations” outlined by Mr. Obama. “As with any public policy,” Ms. Weingarten said, “the devil is in the details, and it is important that teachers’ voices are heard as we implement the president’s vision.”

I'm beyond gagging. The only "teacher" voice she cares about is her own and since she was a full-time teacher for only 6 months, we know what that means.

Susan Ohanian has the complete response as Gerald Bracey takes apart Obama's education plan.

Ohanian Comment: Among other things that President Obama failed to acknowledge is that 70% of new jobs don't pay a living wage.

To accept his claim that America's future depends on its teachers means that teachers should accept the sorry mess this country is in.

I'd rather not.

When will teachers rise up in protest?

Destroying the Public School System in Harlem

The DOE is sending out information to our parents telling them that "as PS 241 Family Academy phases-out over the next few years, the DOE is expanding the school options to students currently attending 241 as well as students zoned to 241."

There are several options offered based on grade level- but essentially all students are being given the option to attend PS 149, PS 76, PS 165, PS 180, PS 185, or try their hand at the Harlem Success Academy 4 which will displace 241 in the building. (Please be aware that the Harlem Success Academy is not a new school- it is simply moving from another site and already has a current student body.)
-From a teacher at PS 241

Harlem is fast becoming a major battleground over the fate of the public school system. With gentrification moving at a quick pace, charter schools have moved in to pick off the cream of the crop. A massive public relations campaign has also reached into the traditional community, using the language of the civil rights movement and framing school choice as the key to a decent education. This appeals to the parents of children who were basically succeeding anyway, albeit in public schools that have been shortchanged of many services (deliberately) that are being offered in charter schools.

Here is one such ad on a hearing today to replace (read: steal) PS 194.

Do you know where your child will go to school in August?
The kids in Harlem deserve a neighborhood school where they can flourish!
Join concerned parents and staff for a Public Hearing about replacing PS 194.

PS 194
244 West 144th Street
New York, NY 10030
Tuesday, March 10th, 5:30pm
Let your voices be HEARD... when your options are taken you are left powerless

Expect a large influx of people organized charter school promoters screaming for more charters. "See," Joel Klein and Eva Moskowitz will chirp, "parents want charters."

Ahh, but there is a rub. There is not room in the charters for ALL the children. Only for the ones that get in. Guess which ones they will be, leaving the kids with the most difficulties to the public schools. (Ms. Moskowitz made her expectations clear by saying, “If you know you cannot commit to all that we ask of you this year, this is not the place for you.)*

As one contact recently noted, "They are creating two school systems. Public schools are being turned into the equivalent of the old "600" schools (where the most extremely difficult students used to be sent).

While no one denies the fact that education in the schools in Harlem has been shortchanged forever, the question has been raised as to whether creating separate but unequal schools systems, which we thought was outlawed in 1954, is the answer. Back to the separate but equal - wink, wink - days of Plessy vs Ferguson. Where are you Brown vs. Board of Education? Some will argue these analogies are false since most parents on both sides are Black. Maybe it's time to redefine the issues into classes of poor, poorer, and poorest. (See Elijah Anderson's Code of the Street.)


We interrupt this story to bring you this Ed Notes sponsored ad from Chicago, where the same process has been playing out for 13 years:

Today's AOL story listed the worst 100 schools based on NCLB and other factors. Four of the Chicago schools are in the top 25 and a total of 21 in the the top 100. A little over 20% of the schools from Duncanland.

Poor Arne Duncan. And Joel Klein. Their policies are doomed to fail. Read our earlier post on Chicago, where resistance is growing and even reversed the announced closings of 6 schools.
Chicago: Ed Forecast for the Nation,

This excerpt from press release on a current David Berliner report points out the roots of the failure:

Last week, Education Secretary Duncan told the Washington Post that those who would use the social ills of poor children as an excuse for not educating them "are part of the problem." Welner agrees. "But," he says, "those who point to schools as an excuse for failure to address social ills are equally at fault."

Berliner explains that NCLB "focuses almost exclusively on school outputs, particularly reading and mathematics achievement test scores." He says, "The law was purposely designed to pay little attention to school inputs in order to ensure that teachers and school administrators had 'no excuses' when it came to better educating impoverished youth."

Yet, as explained in the new report, that position is not merely unrealistic, but certain to fail.

This brief details six out-of-school factors (OSFs) common among the poor that significantly affect the health and learning opportunities of children, and accordingly limit what schools can accomplish on their own: (1) low birth-weight and non-genetic prenatal influences on children; (2) inadequate medical, dental, and vision care, often a result of inadequate or no medical insurance; (3) food insecurity; (4) environmental pollutants; (5) family relations and family stress; and (6) neighborhood characteristics. These OSFs are related to a host of poverty-induced physical, sociological, and psychological problems that children often bring to school, ranging from neurological damage and attention disorders to excessive absenteeism, linguistic underdevelopment, and oppositional behavior. Also discussed is a seventh OSF, extended learning opportunities, such as preschool, after school, and summer school programs that can help to mitigate some of the harm caused by the first six factors.
http://epicpolicy.org/publication/poverty-and-potential

One thing we know: children with many of these factors are not welcome at charter schools like Harlem Success.

However, there is something of a revolt brewing amongs the parents who are not getting in to charters along with the educators and parents at the schools surrounding the schools being handed over to charters. Thus, the parents at PS 241 will have to send their kids to PS 149, PS 76, PS 165, PS 180, PS 185. Parents and teachers at those schools see what's coming: overcrowded and shortchanged to create more failing schools. And don't forget that gem of a Leadership Academy principal that might be sent in to destabilize and create hostility.

What is missing is an organizing body to help put people in touch with each other and create resistance, something that has been going on in Chicago. With the UFT playing the most minimal role by telling schools like PS 241 they will help (too little too late from the fait accompli UFT leadership), the job is open. In Chicago, an opposition caucus called CORE has been so effective in this organizing effort, leading a march of 1000 teachers and parents on Board of Ed and even a local bank backing the Chicago reform effort, that the union leadership has been dragged along. In the long run, this demo will have a greater impact than the dog and pony show the UFT put on last week. (Oh, my, we completed step one, now all you have to do is write a letter to a politician.)

What is needed is a sustained education and organizing effort that can lead to a real mobilization of people, not a one shot deal. ICE and NYCORE have been working together to jump start the process by holding a conference on March 28 (we are having an organizing meeting this afternoon at 4:30 at CUNY in rm 5414, so come join us.)


Related:
For more on Chicago see George Schmidt's Substance.
CORE (The Caucus of Rank and File Educators.)

Eva Moskowitz Exposes Fault Lines of Charter Schools
*All kids and parents are welcome

She demands a lot from Harlem Success parents: They must read their children six books a week, year round, and attend multiple school events, from soccer tournaments to Family Reading Nights. If children are repeatedly late, the parents must join them to do penance at Saturday Academy.

Nefertiti Washington, 28, whose son is a kindergartner, said some parents walked out of a springtime information session when Ms. Moskowitz made her expectations clear by saying, “If you know you cannot commit to all that we ask of you this year, this is not the place for you.”

What it's all about Eva
Eva Moskowitz Succeeds at "Harlem Success"

And the unkindest cut of all:
Obama education plan to call for performance-based pay

Don't forget, Obama lived in the belly of the beast where the educational plan is coming down around their ears. But just watch the Obama ed apologists ignore this one and focus on all the "good" things. But what this shows is the basic faulty market-based thinking. How did that performance pay thing work out for the American financial system?

Chicago: Ed Forecast for the Nation

Today's announcement that Obama education plan to call for performance-based pay
should focus out attention on Chicago. Don't forget, Obama lived in the belly of the beast where the educational plan is coming down around their ears. But just watch the Obama ed apologists ignore this one and focus on all the "good" things. But what this shows is the basic faulty market-based thinking. How did that performance pay thing work out for the American financial system?

And not so well for Chicago schools:

Today's AOL story listed the worst 100 schools based on NCLB and other factors. Four of the Chicago schools are in the top 25 and a total of 21 in the the top 100. A little over 20% of the schools from Duncanland.

Read this report from Pauline, Teachers for Social Justice, Chicago

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

Bronx Chapter Leader on NYC Teacher Data Initiative

Dear Teachers:

For those of you unfamiliar with NYC’s Teacher Data Initiative I strongly urge you to “do your homework” as soon as possible. (Google NYC+Teacher-Data-Initiative and you will find a wealth of information.) In a nutshell… it is the DOE’s way of ranking you based on your students’ test scores. You will be compared to other teachers throughout the City with similar student populations including the teachers you work with in your own school. For now it only applies to testing grade teachers but eventually it will apply to all of us.

There are many problems with this type of (false) accountability. This initiative begs the immediate question: If I am being compared to my neighbor across the hall -- then we are indeed competitors rather than collaborative colleagues -- so, why should I share my wealth of knowledge and secrets to success with you if - in the end - you use what I taught you to “outrank” me, and as a result my ranking falls? This initiative has made me realize that it is now in our individual best interest NOT to share with each other. BloomKlein has made this a competition. Do you think the Philadelphia Eagles shared their playbook with the NY Giants?

Do you think Barack Obama shared his campaign strategies with John McCain?

I could write volumes about this and more but for now I want to focus on that overused buzzword….ACCOUNTABILITY. It’s time to remind all administrators from our AP’s right on up the ladder to BloomKlein that they too are accountable. It’s time to document every time someone else fails our students.

Throwing accountability back into the faces of the “higher-ups” is now a matter of self preservation. As per NYC’s Teacher Data Initiative you are being asked to use your students’ scores as a way to answer the following questions that I copied and pasted from the DOE website:

“How is your work affecting particular students? For the purposes of learning and growing, how do you compare to other teachers? What are your biggest strengths and successes that you could share with your colleagues? What could you learn from your colleagues that could help you fine tune your skills?” How have special education students and English language learners fared in your classroom? How are you doing with students in the bottom of the class or the top of the class? What are other English and math teachers in similar circumstances doing successfully and what could you learn from them? What are your biggest successes that you could share with your colleagues—whether they’re other teachers in your school or teachers through the City?”

BloomKlein has made it all about you. “These reports, instead, are designed to help you pinpoint your own strengths and weaknesses, and empower you, working with your principal and colleagues, to devise strategies to improve.”

I bet you feel all warm and fuzzy inside knowing that Joel Klein et al really care about your professional development. I’m going to send him a note of thanks as soon as I’m finished typing this. Ironically they want YOU to improve your craft while they drive our schools into the abyss.

Accountability is a two-way street and every time you fail to document how someone else is failing your students - you are placing a nail in your own professional coffin. After all it doesn’t matter that Johnny never does his homework – it’s all about you as the individual player in the sport of education.

It doesn’t matter that Carlos constantly disrupts your lessons so the other children can’t learn. It’s all about you.

It doesn’t matter that Jane is 13 years old having been left back twice and sitting in your fifth grade class without ever having been referred for an evaluation.
It’s all about you.

It doesn’t matter that no one ever followed up on your recommendation to get your student tested for support services.

It doesn’t matter that you have children in your CTT class who truly belong in a small class setting but the City keeps them in the larger class because it’s cheaper.

It doesn’t matter that Alex has been absent 36 times. It doesn’t matter that Peter has been shipped from shelter to shelter and hasn’t been in school for over a month until he arrived in your class.

It doesn’t matter that Jasmine never seems to pay attention even though you constantly remind her to stay on task.

It doesn’t matter that you are being judged on your ELL students’ performance even though they receive their ELL services in a windowless storage room in our gym where the temperature reaches 90+ degrees and ELL teachers are constantly pulled off program for testing.

It doesn’t matter that you believe that the reading or math programs we use are insufficient.

None of this matters because you haven’t made it matter.

All of the above and then some need be documented on a daily basis. This teacher refuses to be anyone’s scapegoat. And the day my ‘Teacher Data Report” is available is the day that my Administrative Data Report will be produced using all of the wonderful anecdotes, letters, emails and phone call logs I so diligently kept. That’s how you throw accountability back. Imagine if everyone did this. Imagine how powerful our compiled record of administrative/parental failures might be if Joel Klein et al gets the bug to close our school or use those data reports in an attempt to fire you.

Who has the time for more paperwork? We better make time. Like I said….self preservation.
Gone are the days of real teaching (Newbies, I’m sorry you missed it….teachers and students had fun and the children learned.) Real teaching doesn’t leave much of a paper trail. Real teaching is organic and fluid and the best teachable moments are unplanned. Rubrics, process charts and beginning sentences with “Children, good readers [ad your own TC lingo here]….” are nonsense.

Ask any real teacher. Educrats constantly coin new catch phrases and lame ideas to create the false need for professional development from people who are so far removed from the classroom that they probably think a piece of chalk is a suppository. The one thing these educrats are good at is loading their bank accounts with our tax dollars. Gone are the days of collaborating with colleagues, picking their brains for ideas, or sharing your own failures in an honest way so you can truly hone your craft. It’s now about the data and you as the individual competitor. For those of you on the testing grades…you’re on your own. Share your “playbook” at your own peril.

Sometime in the spring I will hold a series of morning union meetings to discuss ways in which you can specifically throw accountability back. I hope you attend and learn how to protect yourself from the clipboards and data.

Roseanne McCosh PS 8 Dist 10 - Bronx
February 26, 2009

Read more on TDI from Ed Week
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/teacherbeat/2009/03/teacherdata_reports_in_new_yor.html

Parents, Teachers at Ocean-Hill Brownsville's PS 150K Lied to by Tweed

Ed Notes first reported on the situation at PS 150 in Brooklyn's Ocean-Hill Brownsville on Jan 26, 2009 PS 150: The Real Game Behind Closing Schools

When the first parent meeting was held the DOE could not (and would not) answer their questions about the transition. All they said was we don't know. Parents were upset, but did not do anything immediately. The school - parents and teachers - were told that the "new school" was going to be a charter school with all that it implies. It was a small group of parents, but they found out their children will not automatically move from 150 to the new school. NOW they are angry and are planning some type of demonstration. (We will report the details in a follow-up post.)

The UFT will supposedly file a lawsuit today against the DOE based on the children being rezoned to other neighborhood schools illegally. (Of course, this is like shooting peas at Godzilla, but why not?)

The DOE is doing the same thing in Harlem by turning PS 241, the zoned school, over to Eva Moskowitz' Harlem Success and forcing the kids into the other neighboring schools. The local schools due to get the "rejects" (or the non-creamed) from the charter schools at both PS 150 and PS 241 are now upset and would join in some kind of action if there was an organizing force out there. Unfortunately .....

....the UFT is the gorilla in the room, but sits there eating bananas.

Law suits are not enough. The UFT should be organizing the parents and teachers at all the schools announced as being closed into a potent force. But we know the leadership really agrees with the policy of closing "failing" schools. Failing based on what? The DOE puts in a principal from the Leadership Academy who is a destroyer, not a builder and blames the teachers. We know the goal: replace as many public schools with charters as is feasible. Instead of a systematic approach to opposing this policy, the UFT opens its own charters schools and also looks to pick up pieces of the teacher training gravy train.

The Independent Community of Educators (ICE), despite being a tiny group, through its ASC-ICE Committee, has taken up the task of bringing people together from at least some of these schools to search for a means of resistance by holding a conference on March 28 at John Jay College.

John Dewey HS Teacher Comment

After our report on John Dewey HS (and yes, the upside down graphic was intentional)
UFT Chaos at John Dewey HS, this comment came in from Martin Haber:

Dear Norm,

I tried to google in to post a comment on your excellent, highly accurate article on the "mishaguys" at Dewey, but I am inept so could not. Feel free to post this comment if you can!

I am The Accused, accused of "dissenting" from the "Zionist Cabal" at JDHS, or just for daring to have a different opinion. Our UFT Rep, Alan Lerner, is quickly losing steam- he did not as far as I know attend the Rally March 5, and we have a picture of us "dissenters" 15 strong, who DID take a stand. Hope it is in next issue of Trade Organ. Latest indignity is not getting our white UFT hats in retaliation I would think, so I started a "Liberate our Hats" Campaign (they are either in a sealed box in the UFT room, or Useless is holding them hostage. Alan is "Spawn of Useless Charlie!"

The "anti-semitism" smear is a pattern that goes back to Alan's election; he used it effectively against his former friend and much more capable candidate Wade Goria, so it IS a pattern. The leaflets I myself was accused of distributing (never proven) and that a girl in my Multicultural Club was accused of putting up in the school hallways (Alan's "army" ripped them down) advertised a "Peace Vigil" on the steps of Brooklyn Borough Hall; I am proud to say I attended this Vigil, and that I want "Peace in the Middle East". My colleague Sean Doyle, previous Chapter Chair, has been the victim of a on-going smear campaign which resulted in the pair of us being summoned before a "mediator" from the UFT Professional Development Program, who was quite decent, but only was there to silence us, whether he knew that or not.

I had the NY Post come to my door, literally, after the same reporter, who has an Israeli background, stopped cars and students leaving the building asking "Do you know Mr Haber? Is he distributing anti-Israeli lit? And Is he an anti-semite?" It was ironic- I was at a conference about "Law in the Third Reich", sponsored by the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous" on that very day!!!! This was surely a job done by "Useless and Son, Inc" After all, Lerner has a confidante at the Daily News he speaks to regularly , as well.

It culminated with Alan claiming me, Sean, and Sandy Osip, another dissenter from the Board, distributed "anti-Israeli Lit...at the DA!!!! (A total lie). It goes on and on, and some colleagues can see that it is the Constitution on trial here, but many miss the point. "Darkness at Noon" redux. And it reminds me of the RED mailings that Randi put out to put the final kabosh on Kit Wainer, even though the Red-Baiting was totally un-necessary from that point of the election. Drivin' the nail in. I guess.

Thanks again for the reportage.

Peace,
Martin (Dreyfus) Haber
JDHS's House of Ill Repute

Ed Notes Humor

Education Notes really got its start when I became chapter leader (very reluctantly) at my school in 1994 and started putting out a chapter newsletter. In my third year I put out 45 editions. The people in my school had to be as well informed as any group of teachers and paras in the city - if they read it, that is. To keep them reading, I began to include jokes, with special holiday editions of just jokes.

This was the early days of internet mania and jokes were flying around all over the place. But almost none of my readers were online yet, so they seemed novel. I knew that people would not just throw away another piece of paper and might even read some of the serious stuff.

When I started putting out monthly bulletins at the UFT delegate assembly (originally called DA Notes), in 1996, I included the jokes. As Education Notes evolved, you could look out at a delegate assembly and see a sea of Ed Notes being read and people chuckling. Even union officials on the stage would be reading it.

Even today, when I give out materials, people come over to take it and comment to their friends, "Get one of these, it's funny." Well, Ed Notes, both the hard copy and the blog, hasn't been all that funny for years. I started a humor blog but stopped posting to it a year ago. With what's going on, maybe it's time to inject some humor. I can go back to the oldies but goodies, but if you have some good ones send them along for the Ed Notes humor blog.

I just got this one from a buddy in Australia:

Home Depot Scam...

Must see: John Stewart scathing attack on CNBC

.. and comments by Reality Based Educator posted at
http://nyceducator.com/2009/03/masters-of-universe.html

I was a CNBC viewer through the tech crash of 2000. To see how they are going after Obama as if he is the cause of the crisis is beyond outrage. RBE makes some great points. "Forget about Obama-proofing your portfolio - try Cramer-proofing it instead."

Hey, RBE, keep 'em comin'.

NY Times Takes Sides on New York's School Chancellor

...want to Guess Which Side the Times is on?

NY Times reporter Elissa Gootman has been subject to criticism from parent leaders in NYC after her kiss face article on Joel Klein, Taking Sides on New York’s School Chancellor.

Patrick Sullivan, the lone voice representing parent interests on the Panel for Educational Policy (PEP), that joke of a board of education, said:

I spoke to Elissa Gootman for some time about this article. And while I did say I felt Klein was "sincere", it was solely in the context of he is sincere in believing his mission is fixing the system for low income families. I also said his policies were wrong, his implementation consistently poor, his contention that he's empowered to make all decisions on behalf of our chilren appalling and many other criticisms that didn't make it into the article. She had an idea about how to paint Klein and clearly picked bits and pieces to paint that picture.

She had also wanted to contrast Klein as an ideologue against Bloomberg as pragmatist. I made it clear to her that was not in any way a valid view. There is an effort now to dismiss the problems of schools governance as simply a question of Klein's style or about the person running the system, not about the governance structure. We need to keep the focus on the failings of the structure that allows parents to be systematically and completely shut out of our childrens education.

Leonie Haimson, a parent who has been one of the most vocal critics of Joel Klein and Michael Bloomberg to the extent that officials feel it necessary to monitor her comments and respond.

The last five people quoted are all ideological allies or friends of Joel Klein. Throughout the article, there are nine supporters and four (somewhat) critics. Not exactly a balanced article. And unfortunately the reporter [Elissa Gootman], seemed to buy Klein’s line that what he has done has provided more equity and that only middle class parents reject his leadership. I know of few involved parents in any part of the city of any background who support his policies.

I disagree with Leonie here. It isn't only the reporters who buy Klein's line. Even if Gootman were inclined to do the type of investigative reporting that people like Meredith Kolodner of the Daily News or Elizabeth Green of the former NY Sun and now Gotham Schools have done (which I doubt) the NY Times would have no interest in exposing the BloomKlein follies. When the Sun went under and people were discussing whether the Times would hire Green, I knew they wouldn't and even told Green that even if it came about she would never be allowed to cover stories like she did at the Sun.

Thus, it is left to students at the Columbia School of Journalism to investigate the No-Bid contracts of BloomKlein.

My comment on the listserve focused on Patrick's statement, "There is an effort now to dismiss the problems of schools governance as simply a question of Klein's style or about the person running the system, not about the governance structure."

If you read UFT propagandists you see this theme of Klein's style constantly reiterated. How Randi finds Bloomberg easier to work with than Klein and rumors that the UFT will only support mayoral control if Klein goes.

One must ask how a union with national roots can focus on Klein when it full well knows for the past 10 years that a similar scenario was played out in Chicago with Vallas and then Duncan and in other cities with similar problems. San Diego with Bursin and Alvarado and Washington with Rhee and Fenty.

The focus on Klein is a distraction for the real national fight that is necessary to understand what is happening in NYC in a national context. That one of the main forces that is capable of leading a fight to defend public education tends to frame the issue in terms of the personality of Joel Klein, leads one to question which side it is really on.

Nationalize the Schools

by Norman Scott

March 6, 2009
The Wave, School Scope column
www.rockawave.com

I’m dizzy from racing from meeting to meeting about the major push-button issues affecting education: closing schools and the potential creation of thousands of teachers (ATRs) and students floating around the city like nomads looking for schools to land at. And much of it due to the impact of high stakes testing. Charter schools are the wedge to undermine over 200 years of public education in this country.

Public education is undergoing the same process as occurred in the last 25 years as privatization and non-regulation became king. But hey, this is a free and open market system. Capitalism, you know. How well is that working out in the economy? With all the talk of nationalizing the banks, we need to take a look at re-nationalizing the public schools – taking back public control of the schools, so many of which have been handed over to private interests running charter schools while we still pay the bill out of our taxes.

The obscenity of all this reached a height this week with the Daily News’ Juan Gonzalez report that Eva Moskowitz, who runs four Harlem Success charter schools and uses a massive publicity operation to steal public school buildings, earned $371,000. 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, she would earn around $1,200,000,000 based on the per child rate. Hey Joel, you're underpaid.

My buddy and fellow ICE activist Angel Gonzalez said, “What a poverty pimp! She is siphoning off monies from public school students services and from teachers at these charter schools who probably are not guaranteed pensions and other teacher/worker fringe benefits. She should be indicted! Another reason why we need to oppose Charter Schools.”

Patrick Sullivan, the Manhattan rep on the Panel for Education Policy and the lone voice of dissent (shame on the Queens rep) wrote, “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 District 3's Community Education Council, also required by state education law.”

Talk about theft. The Bloomberg/Klein game plan is clear. Starve the public schools to such an extent they must be branded failures. They even go so far as to put in a principal they know will prove incompetent – someone who will disparage children, teachers and parents, alienating all so even they will want the school closed. A prime example was the notorious Jolanta Rohloff who was installed at Lafayette HS to drive the final nail in the coffin. Her fellow trainees at the Principal Academy sniggered when she got a job over so many others, sine they looked at her as a joke. She is now running the Staten Island rubber room – at $150,000 a year. I have many other examples. (See my blog about horror story Suzanne Joseph of MS 113K). Insidious indeed.

Teachers in elementary schools tell me of the key elements in the downhill death spiral of their schools began when they were forced by the DOE to go to a K-8 model, where very big kids are mixed with very small kids and the school quickly becomes unmanageable. The upper grades have so many less resources than they would in a focused middle school. Not that these weren’t failing either. Let’s stop and remember that the NYC schools have been under BloomKlein control for six years and every school they close is an admission of failure. As is their farming out management to private interests – “we can’t do it right, so you try and by the time you fail too, we’ll be long gone.” Accountability, anyone?

The same thing is occurring at PS 150 in Ocean-Hill Brownsville, where the school is being phased out and replaced by two charter schools. Let’s stop for a minute and remember that this school was under the control of Kathy Kashin when she was District 23 leader, and then Region 5 head and she put in a buddy as principal, who still reigns in total incompetency mode. Kashin was rewarded when she was got a top job in one of the 200 reorganizations Klein has managed to mismanage.

Parents at PS 150 were lied to when originally told their kids were guaranteed slots in the new charter schools (a source says one of the leaders is clearly a know-nothing a-hole). Now parents are told there is a “process.” We call that creaming where the top kids are selected – charter schools often require parents to volunteer, leaving the public schools with the kids who need the most resources. Those who do not get accepted will have to send their kids to 5 local feeder schools. Now those schools are getting into the act in protest and a rally at PS 150 will be held. A rally was also held at Brandeis HS after its closing was announced. Being on the upper west side, that is a major land grab by private interests. It was great to see people from other closing schools come out in support.

And don’t forget our own local PS 225 in Rockaway, of which I have written about in previous columns. The UFT has basically told people the closing of their school is a fait accompli. The union supports individual rallies at the schools – let them get it off their chests – but will do nothing to organize all of them to try to put a stop to the bleeding.

I’ve made no secret that I have no faith in the political process or in politicians, who can be bought and sold for a dime. Witness the involvement of NY State Senate leader Malcolm Smith in our local Peninsula Prep charter school. And remember Floyd Flake’s interest in making his own grab for the privatization of public schools? And with the UFT playing in the same game, the only solution is for rank and file teachers and parents to put together a movement for progressive change.

The Independent Community of Educators (ICE) caucus in the UFT, of which I am a member, has been working with teachers at various closing schools with the goal of bringing people from all these schools together to make a stand. We have also been working with other groups within and outside the UFT. NYCORE (NY Collective of Radical Educators) and ICE have joined with other groups to focus on the closing school, ATR, high stakes testing and charter school issues. We are holding a conference on March 28 at John Jay College.

Our leaflet says, “We are a group of new and veteran educators looking to hold an issues-oriented meeting. We will have speakers who provide an analysis that connects these crucial issues and invite discussion around how to create resistance and attempt to provide an analysis of the interests that benefit from standardized testing and school-reorganization juggernaut. The purpose of the meeting is more than reports and analysis. We plan an extended discussion about actions and strategies to reverse things. We hope, for the first time, to bring together people from affected schools in distant neighborhoods. Let's end the isolation of good school/bad school. Let's map out strategies for citywide action to take back public education.” (Check my blog for updates.)

Further reading: Charter schools and the attack on public education
http://www.isreview.org/issues/62/feat-charterschools.shtml

Norm writes more of this drivel daily at http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/

Message from UFT's Weingarten: Today We Made History

And all you have to do is write a letter to a politician who can be bought by Bloomberg for a few bucks.

The pillars of building an effective, commited rank and file are informing/educating, organizing beyond short time actions, and the ability to mobilize people for effective action.

Did today's rally empower the membership or organize for further action in a meaningful way?
Did it educate them beyond the narrowest band of information? Maybe the leadership feels empowered, though I don't really see how with these one shot mobilizations.

Well, we were there anyway.

The best part for me was a group of teachers going by and one of them screamed my name. "Mr. Scott was my 6th grade teacher," she told her colleagues.

The bad news is she's been teaching for over 20 years.


Waving the banner in Les Mis

See more of Angel Gonzalez' Facebook photos.

Eva Moskowitz is Not Running a Lean Organization

Reprinted from the comments section at Gotham Schools

1. Eva Moskowitz is not running a lean organization. The proportion of “back office” educrats to teachers in her “network” is far far higher than she would let you believe. The proportion of non-instructional people in her network is also far higher than in the DOE. There are PR people and personal assistants for Eva.

2. The people hired by Eva Moskowitz have very little experience in education, unless you count attending school as a student. Find out the background of her “Directors of Curriculum” etc. Virtually no teaching experience.

3. The Harlem Success network does not spend money wisely. All employees get laptops but there are no computers for the students to use. Yes, they may have SmartBoards in the classrooms, but there are not desktops or laptops for student use.

4. Despite their claim to “hire the best” turnover has been very high. The principal of HSA 1 was fired the week before the 3rd grade ELA test.

5. The network is focused on PR stunts rather than their students. The NY Times piece on their Snow Day schedule is indicative. PR trumps student and teacher safety.

Join Ed Activists at the Rally for New York

Join with ICE and NYCORE and Time Out From Testing

Here is a message from NYCORE:

Dear NYCoRE Supporters,

A reminder....

As local educator-activists we invite you to join NYCoRE at the "RALLY FOR NEW YORK!” on Thursday, March 5th.

We will meet at:

3:45 P.M. under the arch at the Municipal Building at 1 Centre Street – where Chambers Street runs into Centre Street.

We will be standing along with educators working on stopping school closings and supporting ATRs (Absent Teacher Reserves).

We will also be standing with members of Time Out from Testing.

We know that many of you will be coming with your schools. We will wait for you until 4 and then walk to the demonstration. Please look for our NYCoRE signs.

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!