A Busy Week of Action

Monday - PS 123 hearing on Evil Moskowitch invasion. 5pm for rally, 5:30 to sign up.

Then off to see former student perform at La Tea on Suffolk St. at 8pm where I will meet up with another former student from the same 4th grade class. How can these guys be pushing 40 when I am so young? Ernie was in one of the two top level classes I had. He was an above grade level reader and damn easy to teach. (Do I get merit pay?) In the world of BloomKlein that should have solved all his problems. But he had some journey.

See a review of one of Ernie's shows below.
He is also appearing on Wed and Thurs is the final show.


Tuesday - GEM meets 4:30, CUNY 5th ave and 34 st. Rm 5414 bring id

Wed. - PS 15/PAVE - one more time - at PS 15 in Red Hook 5:30 to sign up. See below for details.

Thurs - 12 noon- CPE wants to close the rubber room
GEM/CPE meeting of reps of each group to explore common issues and build an alliance. 6pm

Fri - ICE meets at 4:30 at Murray Bergtraum, Rubber room movie premiere at Puck building, 6pm

Sat - matinee of the play, "Enron."

Sun. Taping "The Rabbit Hole" at the Rockaway Theatre Co. Directed by my acting teacher Frank Caiati.


heavy like the weight of a flame

***Extended by Popular Demand!!!***

Featuring R. Ernie Silva
Written by James Gabriel and R. Ernie Silva


R. Ernie Silva just recently got nominated for Best Solo Performance by the LA Weekly!!

A Bushwick projects street kid +
domestic strife + deaths of close friends + overdose of an idolized older brother =
Pick up your guitar and hit the road

An autobiographical one man show about a kid who decides to run away for a better life on the road in America – Will he become a casualty of the “road” if he goes; a victim of the “street” if he stays? Maybe the road is just another street in Brooklyn.

Actor, guitarist, stand-up and sketch comedian, USC graduate, Ernie Silva tells his story; sometimes fun, other times harsh but always universally human. Ernie Silva comes back home to New York City to tell the story of the trip.

“The sheer strength of will that it took for Silva to outstrip such negative indoctrination is inspiring”
- LA TIMES
“Silva is a charismatic talent! I expect we’ll be seeing more of Mr. Silva and this is a good place to get acquainted”
- LA WEEKLY

R. Ernie Silva is a product of the Bushwick projects in Brooklyn New York where he grew up the youngest of 13 siblings. His creative career started at the age of 12 when one day while break dancing in the streets he and his crew Love Disco Style were discovered by radio station 98.7 KISS FM where Eddie Rivera chose them to be the station’s resident dancers. It was there Ernie got his first tastes of life in front of live audiences as they immediately began performing in shows with some of street music’s hottest acts across the city. As Ernie grew so did his taste for performing, but now with a more eclectic edge. He left breaking and became fascinated with performers like Flip Wilson, Freddie Prinze, and Richard Pryor. Consequently, the desire to make people laugh drew him back to the stage at places like the upper west side’s Stand Up New York, The Comic Strip in the upper east side, and the Comedy Cellar in Greenwich Village. At age 17 standup became his new voice. Eventually his musical side came calling to be recognized. It was then that the voices of people like Andres Segovia, John McLaughlin, Paco DeLucia Son House, and Jimi Hendrix began to join all the other voices he loved. All these exploits and years of traveling around playing guitar, acting and doing comedy in stand up and sketch comedy forms eventually earned him a full scholarship to the newest Graduate Acting Program at the University of Southern California. Soon the world of one man shows moved into his sights. It was in this realm that Ernie would find the creative room for all of his individual abilities to coincide in harmony in whatever capacities he chose. There is where he has been ever since.

PS 15/PAVE

Hello All!
Hopefully some of you will be able to join us at our public hearing on Wednesday, April 14th @ 6:00 (sign ups to speak begin @ 5:30). If not, please consider leaving a message, and encouraging others to do so, at the proposal email or phone number (718-935-4390, D15proposals@schools.nyc.gov).
Thanks so much!
In Solidarity,



Our Position and Message:

1. We oppose the extended co-location of PAVE Academy beyond June 2010.

2. We reject this revised process and want the record to show we do not believe it complies with State Education Law.

3. The revised EIS still fails to address the negative impact on PS 15 and does not provide a proper analysis of the facts:

-Special education services, mandates, and testing accommodations are not accounted for in the utilization formula, the footprint, or the EIS. 15 rooms are needed for testing accommodations, which is already impossible this year. Second grade classes are being forced to leave the building on trips in order to have all of the needed space. Related service providers are traveling the building looking for space to serve or assess their students. At least four rooms are needed for related service providers, none are allocated.

- Enrichment and intervention services are not accounted for in DOE space policies. The EIS treats these needed services as luxuries. Our children are more than entitled to utilized space to have the programming and services schools in non-minority areas have such as science labs, computer rooms, art rooms, etc.

-Community partnership space is imperative to our community. The EIS inaccurately accounts for this space and leaves out the dental program and GED program, gives Beacon only one room when they use three and Lutheran only a 1/2 room.

- Claims PS 15's enrollment has not increased: increased in the last year by 10% and we have projections including K numbers, new classes, and magnet grant that tell us our enrollment will continue to increase. In addition, the city-wide enrollment ave is increasing, this year by 14,000 students. All trends point to our enrollment continuing to increase and this extension will stifle the growth of an AAA school successful serving the Red Hook Community.

-By 2012 the EIS states PS 15 will have 27 full size rooms and 4 half size rooms. This allocation would be insufficient for the basic needs of our building. If there is not growth, we would have 24 classrooms. That leaves three classrooms for clusters (which the footprint allocates us for three even though we need 4 to run the program). This would leave four half size rooms in the entire building for 9 related service providers, guidance, mandated counseling, parent coordinator, ELL, intervention, health and community services (beyond the one room allocated to Beacon and 1/2 room allocated to Lutheran), teacher cafe, PTA room, SETTS teacher, and DOE nurse. Not to mention testing accommodations, enrichment, and intervention services. Clearly this is NOT enough space.

-The EIS is based on PAVE having a new facility. Even if they went into contract on a building today (which they have been saying every few months since 2008 they are doing, even writing in the proposal for 26 million taxpayer dollars that they were in a contact on a building when they were not and still are not), there is no way a building will be completed in three years. Permits, the existing businesses in the proposed space, zoning approval, finances, and the actual construction once all of this is completed will certainly take more than three years. Even on the barest of utilization numbers, PS 15 would be over 100% capacity by this point. Is it the DOE's policy to intentionally overcrowd and undermine a successful community public school in a low-income-majority minority community?

4. Law allows charter schools in NYC access to public school space only when space is "unutilized". There is now and there has been NO unutilized space at PS 15. This co-location has only taken space, services, and programs AWAY from existing students and families who were utilizing and flourishing in those spaces. This policy is a direct attack on the PS 15 and Red Hook Community. The DOE has sought to divide and disenfranchise the families in our community and has undermined the quality education provided to the children of Red Hook. This policy has taken resources away from Red Hook students to benefit a school that serves more than 50% of students from outside of Red Hook, 20% of whom are even out of district (while we neighbor one of the most overcrowed neighborhoods, Sunset Park). This is a destructive policy that does not comply with basic logic let alone law. PAVE must be held to the two year co-location. With over $12,000 in per pupil funding and the private donations they absorb, PAVE board and founders can secure and pay for their own space, or perhaps the DOE can generously find them an alternative space, by this summer.

5. It should also be noted several parents, Red Hook and PAVE parents, have claimed that Spencer Robertson has stated directly to them that PS 15 is closing. Sara Gonzales' office is reporting, and we have heard from other policy makers, that Spencer Robertson is inundating them with phone calls and visits telling them that PS 15 parents and teacher are lying, there is no negative impact, and there is more than enough space in the building. Interestingly, Mona Davids now appears to be going against Mr. Robertson; when the ONLY person who got up and spoke on your behalf at the last PEP meeting is now publicly against you, it is pretty clear who the liar is.

Leonie Haimson on Why Class Size Matters

How dare she? Leonie Haimson calls for money used to build and support empty prisons to be shifted to building schools. Outrageous. Doesn't she know that by cutting education severely we can assure that these prisons will be filled eventually?

And then she has the nerve to talk about rising birth rates and how that will force a demand for new space for schools,mentioning along the way that BloomKlein have ignored this fact or shunned any responsibility for not addressing the issue. Doesn't she know "the plan" is to guarantee a drop in the birth rate by creating a massive multi- decade long depression?

What a nerve she has!

Jugheads like Rick Hesse and his ilk disparaged class size as a solution to fixing schools at the Manhattan Institute luncheon for Diane Ravitch's book a few weeks ago. Leonie Haimson was in the audience and I wanted to go up and grab the mic from him and turn it over to her. Here is part one of her excellent presentation at the Class Size Matters parent workshop this past Saturday, which included workshops for parents to fight back against the BloomKlein machine and an amazing panel session with charter school parents, including the former Moaning Mona Davids who if she keeps up these good deeds will be renamed the Magnificent Mona. But more of that video later.


NYC City Councilman Robert Jackson and State Assemblywoman Cathy Nolan were in attendance. See below the video for Leonie's report of the event.


Part 1




Part 2

Our parent conference on Saturday was terrific. Thanks to those of you who came. And thanks to Lisa Donlan of D1, Khem Irby of D 13, Monica Major of D 11, and Shino Tanikawa of D2, who helped put it together.

Cathy Nolan, chair of the Assembly Education committee, was our surprise guest in the morning and spoke briefly about school governance, the importance of parent involvement, and the state budget crunch. Robert Jackson, Chair of the City Council Education committee, talked about improving the capital plan to relieve overcrowding and reduce class size. All the panels and workshops were terrific.

The afternoon panel on building bridges with charter parents, with Mona Davids of the NY Charter Parents Association, Leslie-Ann Byfield, Achievement First charter school parent, Khem Irby of CEC District 13 and Dianne Johnson of CEC District 5, was especially moving and strong. I hope to have video of it soon, as we had two filmmakers in the audience.

Some of the presentations are available online, linked to from the agenda here; our consensus framework of shared principles with charter parents is here and below. The press release about our shared principles is here. My presentation on class size, school overcrowding and what can be done is here.

Though Chancellor Klein and the DOE would like to pit parent against parent, we find have much in common with charter school parents, who want the same things for their children’s schools that all parents do: a quality education with small classes and experienced teachers, more transparency and accountability, and real parent input in decision-making.

• Speaking of accountability, tomorrow, Monday April 14, at 9:30 AM, legal arguments will be held in our class size lawsuit against DOE’s failure to comply with state law before Justice John Barone, at Bronx County Courthouse; (Grand Concourse and 161st Street).

• Tuesday April 13 at 7 PM, I will be speaking at a community forum about the US Dept. of Education’s flawed priorities and their misguided blueprint for the reauthorization of NCLB, which if enacted would be devastating for NYC schools. The main speaker is Jo Comerford, Executive Director of National Priorities Project. (For a flyer, click here.)

The consensus document which we developed with the help of the NY Charter Parents Association, as well as other charter and district parents is below. If you have comments, are willing to sign onto it as is, please send me your name, school, and district, or other affiliations if any at classsizematters@gmail.com

Miami teachers are on the move against Senate Bill 6/HB7189

Teachers of Miami-Dade County Call:
Take a personal or sick day, Monday April 12th to oppose Senate Bill 6/ HB 7189
Meet at: Tropical Park, 7900 SW 40th Street, Miami, Florida
We need to show our power and force Governor Crist to veto the bill!
We need to meet and organize ourselves autonomously as teachers from the bottom up!
Why we should oppose Senate Bill 6/ HB 7189:

- It’s a Tallahassee takeover of education at the expense of local collective bargaining
- It will give administrators arbitrary firing power
- It will destroy education by forcing it to focus on test taking tips, strategies and memorization techniques; rather than critical thinking, learning and understanding which can’t be measured in standardized tests
- It will increase inequalities by incentivizing teachers to abandon students with less parental support, financial tutoring means and family educational background in favor of schools with students with these background supports
- It’s an unfunded mandate that will take more money from public schools and put it in the hands of standardized testing companies
- It will take more time away from our students education in requiring class time for the administration of these new standardized tests in every subject
- It eliminates salary funding from areas with proven indicators of quality teaching: years of experience and higher education degrees
- It eliminates incentives for involvement in the National Board Certification program
- It makes teachers financial planning unstable by cutting their salaries in half and then basing the other half of their pay on varying student test scores on one high stakes standardized test at the end of the year
- It opens the door for greater nepotism and unstable and biased working environments by granting administrators excessive and arbitrary firing power

Please forward this information as widely as possible to all teachers, parents, community members and everyone you know to spread the word and support the struggle of the teachers against this attack on teachers and public education!

Will DC Be Coming to NYC?

We've been posting links to the new contract proposal in Washington DC on the Ed Notes sidebar. Here is another link to a Labor Notes article, thanks to Michael Friedman. That merit pay will be privately funded and is a trap they are trying to lure teachers into. I mean, what is the vicious anti-union Waltons doing involved in a union contract? Naturally, Randi Weingarten is praising it. As she did the Detroit contract. Here is the caption for this photo:

Washington Teachers Union President George Parker and DC Schools Chief Michelle Rhee announced a tentative agreement this week. Flanked by Mayor Adrian Fenty and AFT President Randi Weingarten, the two lined up behind a deal that would institute a privately funded merit pay plan while continuing to whittle away at teacher job security.

With the DC union elections about to unfold and Randi and Rhee critic Nathan Saunders standing a chance to win, it was inevitable that they would team up to get a new contract to undermine Saunders. Labor Notes said, "The timing of the deal, and the teacher ratification vote, comes not a moment too soon for Parker, who hopes to seal an agreement before facing current Vice President Nathan Saunders—an outspoken critic of both Rhee and Parker —in May’s union election."

Don't expect the elections for George Parker to look like the massive sweep enjoyed by the UFT's Michael Mulgrew.

The use of private money tied to Rhee is a bribe to suck teachers into agreeing and they will surely have the rug pulled out from under them. It is basically the end of the union over the long term. Labor Notes says,

"Rhee retains a host of “plan b” powers that allow her to fire teachers, cut costs, and punish dissent—though Parker and Weingarten tout new “checks and balances” on her firing power in the would-be contract. Teachers are poring over the full contract, released today, before a ratification vote that will likely be a referendum on May’s union election."

Doesn't it remind you of the way the 2005 contract was sold by Unity Caucus?

I was recently chatting with a UFT Unity stalwart and DC and Detroit came up. He talked about the different conditions there from NYC. DC has different laws and Detroit is like NYC in '75 he said. But with economic conditions being what they are, who is to say NYC doesn't become DC or Detroit one day? Let's see now. Randi hand picks Mulgrew, who people will come to see will follow every major policy direction set by her. Just watch the just elected 800 Unity delegates in action in Seattle this July.

As one commenter on this blog said, the UFT just elected a new captain of the Titanic with the iceberg 10 feet away.


Here is more from the Labor Notes piece:

PRIVATE MONEY, PUBLIC SCHOOLS

After swapping counterproposals and bringing in former Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke as mediator, Rhee and Parker’s newest iteration is not quite as “bold” as the schools chief had once hoped. But it still contains the same essence of her initial proposal.

There’s merit pay, but teachers won’t have to give up tenure, as such, to receive it. They will, however, be evaluated in order qualify for the merit pay program, on criteria that the tentative deal leaves for further negotiation. Teachers on the merit pay plan that face a job loss due to school program cuts or closings, would relinquish hiring options available to those who opt out of the merit pay program.

Non-merit pay teachers who lose their position are given choices if they can’t immediately find a new placement: a $25,000 buyout, early retirement (for teachers with 20 years of service), or another year to find work—before facing separation. But, importantly, teachers with low “performance” evaluations wouldn’t be afforded these options.

The actual decision to hire a teacher at a particular school would depend on a principal’s consent. And in making the placements, principals would now prioritize teacher "performance," as determined by Rhee’s new evaluation system, over years of experience. WTU President Parker touts a side agreement that would form a working group to review details of the evaluation system—which by law, teachers can’t negotiate over. Teachers haven’t yet had access to those side agreements before the vote.

Across-the-board raises of 20 percent over five years (retroactive to 2007) and the merit pay system are to be funded to the tune of $65 million in private money from the anti-union Walton and Broad Foundations—and others. The unprecedented move to let private donors underwrite merit pay is Rhee’s attempt to show that D.C. schools are serious about upping test scores and tying teacher evaluations to them—a key criterion for winning federal money in the Race to the Top competition.

Rhee is a good investment for the foundations’ corporate-style overhaul of education, which seeks to bust the unions, dismantle schools, and turn them over to private charter operators. And this deal could protect her job. Council President Gray’s mayoral bid is also a challenge to Rhee’s education plans. But all indications are that the foundation money would leave with her, forcing the new mayor to scramble to meet the financial obligations set up by this week’s deal—or concede that private forces will call the shots for public schools.

Rhee retains a host of “plan b” powers that allow her to fire teachers, cut costs, and punish dissent—though Parker and Weingarten tout new “checks and balances” on her firing power in the would-be contract. Teachers are poring over the full contract, released today, before a ratification vote that will likely be a referendum on May’s union election.

Additions:
Yesterday I was able to get back to some normal non-activist activities. Attended a meeting of the Active Aging cable TV show I work on where we feature people who have retired and are doing some very interesting things as the years go by - a 91 year old tango dancer and a retired tv producer who went into the Peace Corps in Africa when she was in her mid-60's are 2 of the stories I worked on.

Then off to my fiction writers group after a few months hiatus where one of the members is writing a fascinating ancient Rome novel about Livia, Augustus' wife. I was a real fan of both Robert Graves Claudius novels and the entire tv series, "I Claudius" where Livia was much maligned according to my novelist colleague. I think this is a very publishable book.

Coming soon:
A series of Ed Notes election analysis posts. If only events would slow down enough for me to have time to write them.

This coming week alone:
Today - Sat - Leonie's class size conf at School of the future
Monday - demo at PS 123 in Harlem against HSA at 5pm
Tues - GEM meeting at 4:30
Wed - Pave/PS 15 AGAIN.
Thurs- close the rubber rooms at 12pm, GEM/CPE meeting
Fri - ICE meeting, rubber room film

Gotta go to sleep and get up early to get into Manhattan to tape some of Leonie's event. A surprise guest may show up in late morning. I'm hoping it will be Megan Fox presenting her must see Hot for Teachers video but it will probably turn out to be someone like Scott Stringer.

Class Size Matters Citywide Parent Conference -Saturday April 10

School of the Future

127 E. 22 St. (betw. Park and Lexington)

9:30 AM: Registration

10-10:50 AM: The crisis in overcrowding, Kindergarten waitlists and what can be done; Leonie Haimson, Class Size Matters; CM Robert Jackson, chair, Education Committee, NY City Council; Noah Gotbaum, CEC D3.

11-11:50 AM: Workshop sessions (pick one)

Rights and responsibilities of Community Education Councils, including how to do your own rezoning: Shino Tanikawa, CEC D2; Lisa Donlan, CEC D1; and Monica Major, CEC D11.

How to advocate for your school and reach out to the media: Jaime Estades, PS 84K; Julie Cavanagh C.A.P.E. (Concerned Advocates for Public Education); Leonie Haimson, Class Size Matters.

Toxic schools: Dawn Philip, NY Lawyers for Public Interest and Susan Ryan, public school parent.

12 noon- 12:45 PM: break for lunch.

1:00-1:50 PM: Building bridges with charter school parents; Mona Davids, NY Charter Parents Association, Leslie-Ann Byfield, Achievement First parent, Khem Irby, CEC District 13, and Dianne Johnson, CEC District 5.

2:00-2:50 PM: Workshop sessions (pick one)

How to ensure your special education child receives the services s/he needs: Ellen McHugh, Parent to Parent NY State; Tara Foster, Queens Legal Services: Danielle Mowery, The International Dyslexia Association.

PTAs, School Leadership Teams, and the new Chancellor’s regulations: Lisa Donlan, CEC D1; Paola de Kock, former Stuyvesant PA president; Muba Yarofulani, D18 Presidents Council.

Title 1 and parent involvement: Khem Irby, CEC District 13.

Wrap-up

3-3:30 PM: Action agenda and report back from workshops

What Type of School Reform Do We Really Need? Diane Ravitch, Lois Weiner and Edward Fergus

Link to a video of an interesting forum:http://www.rfls.blip.tv/ held a few weeks ago.

Lois Weiner has been one of the leading critics of the neo-liberal agenda.

I believe Deb Meier was supposed to be there and Diane Ravitch subbed for her. Diane has not been know to address the neo-liberal agenda in the manner of others, in indeed, has often been accused of being part of the agenda in the past. So this video should be worth checking out.

I don't know of Fergus.

What Type of School Reform Do We Really Need?

A public discussion featuring Diane Ravitch, Lois Weiner, Edward Fergus

Diane Ravitch -- Author of over twenty books, former Assistant Secretary of Education under President George H. W. Bush, and currently research professor of education at New York University and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. In her latest book she explains why she’s changed her mind and now views testing and choice as barriers to public education.

Lois Weiner -- Professor in the College of Education at New Jersey City University; Editorial Board member and education editor of 'New Politics' magazine; and former long time New York City high school teacher.

Edward Fergus -- Deputy Director of the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education at New York University. A former high school teacher, he continues to provide technical assistance and analysis on education policy and research to school districts. He has published various articles on disproportionality in special education, race/ethnicity in schools, and author of 'Skin Color and Identity Formation: Perceptions of Opportunity and Academic Orientation among Mexican and Puerto Rican Youth'.

Support Teachers/Parents of PS 123, Harlem Against Eva Invasion; Monday, Apr. 12, 5pm

The parents, students, staff, educators, administrators, and community supporters at PS 123 were able to get Eva Moskowitz's HSA II to leave their building but now the privatizers are threatening to move Moskowitz's HSA V in. We all need to be at PS 123 on Monday April 12th to defend our sisters and brothers against this second threatened charter school invasion.

Please support our Sisters and Brothers at PS 123!!!

Attend the Public Hearing, Stand Up, Speak Out and Wear Red!

Monday April 12, 2010

Please arrive at 5pm so that you can speak.

Public School 123 (Mahalia Jackson School)

301 West 140th Street

Harlem, NY 10030

Trains: A,B,C to 135th Street Station; Buses: Bx19, M2, M3, M10

or use hopstop.com

Contact: Ernestine at (646) 262-9052 or email: queenteenie45@aol.com

Next GEM Meeting: Tuesday, April 13

Come to the GEM Meeting
to Discuss and Plan Next Steps For:

The fight Against School Closures and Co-locations
Setting up School-Based Committees
Literature Needed to Help Build our Movement

Grassroots Education Movement (GEM) is a group of mostly educators that has been fighting against the charter take overs, school closings, high stakes testing, mayoral control and all other forms of the attack on and public education and the push to privatize.

Where: CUNY grad center. 34/35th on 5th ave. N, R, D, F, Q, B, W, V, 6, 2/3 trains. Room: 5414

When: 4:30 - 7

We are meeting next Tuesday to talk about next steps in the fight against charter take overs, school closings and to find concrete ways for all those concerned with education to get involved in this growing nation wide fight back. One important aspect of our work will be to build school based committees to involve educators and families in the process of educating ourselves, building a collective vision of what we are fighting for and developing a strong base of active citizens that will hold our government and corporate entities accountable for this unprecedented attack on our work, our students and their families.

If you think you might be interested in getting involved with this work, if you are curious about what it will take to win this fight, or if you just want to listen, please come on Tuesday.

Hearing Teacher Voices? NOT!

At the Manhattan Institute luncheon for Diane Ravitch last week, I was raising my hand (in vain) as policy wonks and others were called on. It took Diane's intervention - let Norm Scott, a real teacher, ask a question - to for me to get the floor. I said I know how to fix so-called failing schools. Start with a drastic reduction of class size. You would have thought I dropped a stink bomb on the joint. Diane's antagonist, Rick Hesse, practically dripping venom, went off on how class size reduction has been proven not to work (a lie), studies this, studies that, blah, blah, blah. Almost the entire audience kept nodding in approval, while throwing darts at me. Leonie Haimson was in the audience but this was not a forum where she could get up and tear Hesse's head off with real facts.

The funny thing was that Hesse had previously talked about the 3 and a half million teachers in this country and how to reach them with good technology and lesson plans and more blah, blah, blah. I was tempted to call out, "Why don't you ask these millions of teacher what they think about class size? Then you wouldn't need no phony stinkin' research." But the dessert was pretty good and I wanted to be asked back.

Not so with my buddy and GEM colleague Antoine Bogard, a chapter leader in Harlem, who got up as they tried to end the meeting and insisted on asking a question. "I have the most important question," Antoine said. "Why are the voices of teachers, the MOST important voice, never heard?" Diane offered to take on that one. "They don't want to hear union voices," she said, a response I was very unhappy with and one of the major flaws in her book. Union voices were at the table for NCLB (Sandra Feldman and Randi Weingarten) and that is not what Antoine was asking. Union leaders are not the same as classroom teacher voices. In fact, quite different.

Many of us were not fooled about NCLB and its predecessors as Diane was. If instead of selling NCLB to their members and worse, keeping them in the dark as Sandy and Randi did, they had led a charge against it, we might not be in the position today. But Diane let's them off the hook.

There were two other teachers I knew at the MI Luncheon. Both are 20 plus year ATRs and we chatted as lot. What wonderful people and teachers (I am keeping them anonymous for obvious reasons.) These are the voices that should be heard but are not. By the ed deformers and by our union.

When teachers go to MI luncheons and identify themselves as a "real" teacher who is not a union hack, they are treated as a pet. Wow! Someone who actually spend 30 years teaching in the inner city. What an oddity to show up here!

When I checked out one of my fave bloggers, It's Not All Flowers and Sausages, I was pleased to see this relatively young teacher, the type of teacher the ed deform crowd holds up as the savior of the system, raise this same issue. Here are a few excerpts. Note how she trashes national standards, one of Diane Ravitch's pets.

I saw the following question, "Are educators' opinions factored into reforms?" and my immediate thought was, "NO. Duh." I know, my knee jerk reaction is to utter words of brilliance. It's a gift.

You see, I was reading this piece in EdWeek about how much or how little the opinions of real teachers factor into decisions made by policy makers. The article begins by saying that "...at no other time in the history of American education has there been more publicly available information about what teachers think about their profession, their students and the conditions under which they work."

Really? I mean, yeah, I guess we have blogs, and books (buy mine!), and surveys and things, but really? Who is looking at those? Other teachers? And who is listening? Because while I heart my readers, don't you feel like sometimes we're all just talking to a wall???? Just because we're saying it doesn't mean that the Powers That Be are listening, taking us seriously or think that we have anything intelligent to offer. I've worked at educational research organizations and more often than not, the concerns of Real Teachers are met by eye rolling. EYE ROLLING! By people who claim to care about education...

Later in the article, a few recently compiled teacher surveys are referenced. You know, like the one done by the Gates Foundation? But everyone who has a brain knows that you need to consider the source when reading reports of that nature..Can we just hear and listen to the voices of teachers? No surveys, no filtering, no compiling, no bubble sheets...just real, honest voices of the people doing the work that EVERYONE ELSE seems to have so many opinions about.

I mean, do we really even need to debrief on this whole situation where teachers get to weigh in and comment on the proposed National Standards? Does anyone else think that this feels a bit like flushing a twenty down the toilet? Like the proverbial tree in the forest? If a teacher posts a well thought out response to the National Standards but nobody listens, did she even make a noise?

How about we say enough with the surveys? How about we actually invite a REAL TEACHER (or better yet a WHOLE BUNCH OF TEACHERS) to the table when these policies and decisions are actually being made?!?!?

(insert jaw dropping on the part of policy makers everywhere)

(Close your mouths boys, you'll let all the flies in.)

I know that the article states that it is difficult to get teachers to donate their time to take a survey but maybe JUST MAYBE if someone offered to REALLY LISTEN and not just count our bubbles on a survey, I think the Powers That Be, who are so superficially concerned with the opinions of teachers, would find themselves with a line out the door.

Make sure to head on over and read her entire post:

Bitter and Cynical, Party of Two? Your Table Is Ready...

Additions:
I posted one of her wonderful pieces on the Rhode Island Central Falls Massacre where she said "You can't fire poverty." Diane Ravitch loved this line so much she linked to Flowers and Sausages in an article and used the line in her MI presentation.

Going to Court to Close the Rubber Rooms

Are Union Mines Safer?

This was the question asked on NPR's Diane Rehm show Weds. night in the light of the West Virginia mine accident, a non-union mine by the way with massive safety violations. The response was that union miners are extremely outspoken if they see safety problems while workers in non-union mines fear raising complaints. "You can't imagine how many anonymous calls I get from people in non-union mines who are afraid," said a guest. The protection the union affords miners automatically creates an environment where owners can't get away with violations as easily.

Which reminds me of tenure. Are school districts with tenure educationally safer environments for children because teachers can speak out more freely when an idiot principal or superintendent comes up with a stupid idea? What about the union in this case, you ask? Why do you need tenure if you have a union? Have you checked out conditions in the schools lately? Do UFT teachers dare complain when they don't have tenure? I can't tell you how many teachers say they are waiting for tenure before speaking out. And even then most of these people don't speak out anyway. Hmmm. Is the United Mine Workers looking to organize teachers?

Tweed and the Mob - Will Joel Klein End Up With a Horse Head in Bed?

We interrupt the vote reporting with a funny item from the NY Post which I posted on Norms Notes.

Tweed and the Mob - Will Joel Klein End Up With a Horse Head in Bed?

More from Leonie's list:

For some interesting historical reading (1990), go to: http://www.nytimes.com/1990/12/26/nyregion/school-buses-unions-mob-special-report-school-bus-pacts-go-companies-with-ties.html?scp=3&sq=dominic%20gatto&st=nyt&pagewanted=1

Pretty incredible! Dominic Gatto of Atlantic Bus Co., the man with the gun in the 2010 school bus and the mob story, is also in the 1990 school bus and the mob story Warren has forwarded. 20 years later and they are still talking to this guy.

There was a story in the nat'l. papers a while ago that the USDOE was purchasing heavy guns. Turns out it was for its Inspector General folks who do criminal investigations. I've suggested a bunch of them attend the NYC DOE's "negotiations" with these lovely people in the future to provide federal protection to them while they negotiate corrupt contracts with mobsters, using our tax dollars and endangering our children.

Ellen wrote: This makes for a great film....Bullets Over Long Island City? Gunfight at the OPT Corral?
John Houston, Raoul Walsh or John Ford would laugh out loud!

Blow by Blow: Preliminary UFT Election Returns- Updated

Update: Sat, Apr. 10, 9am

Gotham has the results posted here. Thanks to Anna Philips for all her hard work.

11PM

Elem
Total sent 36,907
Ret 10,292 28%
Unity 7761 75.4%
New Action 978 9.5%
ICE 703 6.8%

Non slate 712


Retirees
Ballots sent Returned %
53,560 24,978 46.6

Slate
Unity 20,744 83%
New Action 2,234 8.9%
ICE-TJC 1,037 4.2%

Non slate 867

2010 Prorated .72
Unity 14,934
New Action 1,608
ICE-TJC 746


7:30PM
The % is skewed because I am using the total returns and not subtracting the non-slate votes. Will recalculate another time.

Things have really slowed up. Here are functional totals:

Ballots sent out: 45,889
Ballots ret: 10,629 - 23.2% ret
Slate
ICE 708 6.7%
Unity 7337 69%
New Action 1175 11.1%

Non-slate: 1332


3PM
Middle School vote:

Total ballots-11,697
Returned -2,881 18.6%
Unity 1,981 68.8%
NA 421 14.6%
ICE-TJC 248 8.6%
Non-Slate - 207


1:45pm
High School vote:

Ballots sent: 19,931 Returned: 5203 26%
Slate:
Unity 2595 49.9%
ICE-TJC 1369 26.3%
New Action 774 14.9%
Non-slate: 424 to be tabulated by individual vote

Prelim anal:
Unity vote up around 300, ICE down about 200, New Action up around 200 from 2007.
Looks like big endorsement of Mulgrew.


It's 11am and all we have are percentage of returns. I'm a novice excel user and my formulas may be off so take heed. Totals seem to indicate that around 30% voted all together including retirees which is not much more than last time. But the in schools the vote went up from 22% return to around 27%.

Ballots sent Returned %

Elementary (up from 24% on 07)

36,907

10,292

0.28%

Middle Schools (Up from 18.6% in 07

2010

11,697

2,881

0.20

High Schools (Up by over 700 - from 23% in 07

2010

19,931

5,203

0.30

Functional (Dropped to 20% from 21.4%

2010

45,889

10,629

0.20

Retirees (50% up from 44.7% in 07)- Only 18,000 count so figure around .7 a ballot.

2010

53,560

24,978

0.5

Totals

2010

167,984

53,983

0.30

Totals Elem+MS+HS
68,535 18,376
0.27%

ICE-TJC Totals Will Affect UFT Reaction to RTTT

Did you see the NY Times story today about the NY State disaster in the Race to the Top competition?

Confusion, Chairs and Charters Helped Doom Bid for Grant

A review of the state's application for Race to the Top money, and of the judges' comments, reveals a number of ill-fated moves.

It illustrates an important point. David Steiner said the focus will be on union support. And there is no RTTT without the union agreeing to charters galore and teacher ratings based on test scores. The pressure on the UFT will be intense.

Today's UFT election vote will have an impact on how the union responds. If Mulgrew wins overwhelmingly - in the sense that there is little change from the last election or any signs that ICE-TJC has not gotten any traction - then there will be less reason for Mulgrew to resist this pressure. Think of the UFT leadership as a balloon being squeezed from two directions. The opposition vote is a counter force in that if the trend would be a threat to Unity control at the school level (they are much more insulated at the top due to the distorted election process) would force the leadership to take heed before caving in.

Early Returns - Some Young, Some Old

I got a call from one of my retired colleagues last night, an 80 year old. "I voted for your slate," she said. I would bet that even though I have been gone from my former school for well over a decade, the people still there who knew me voted ICE-TJC.

Earlier in the day, I was told by young woman in her early 20's that one of her teacher friends had told her she and her colleagues in a small school housed in a large closing school had voted for ICE-TJC, mainly because of the ICE member who is chapter leader at the large school.
So we got at least a few votes from the 20-somethings and the 80-somethings.

These stories illustrate an important point. Wherever we have active people, we get votes. Most of our candidates are highly respected for a number of reasons, not the least of which is they are good teachers. Our problem? Not enough active people in enough schools. But that is an issue for the future.

I have no way to predict results but I will say right now a few hours before results come in that based on previous numbers and my sense of how far we were able to reach out, the chance to win even the high school Executive Board seats is very slim. We would need to at least double our vote from 1550 last time to around 3000 to have a chance. In the last election Unity had around 2200 and New Action had 550. A key issue is whether their votes will rise at all this time. I think that there are enough people wanting to give Mulgrew a chance to get Unity/New Action over.

With the fragmentation of large high schools and our limited reach to the younger teachers who occupy the new schools (compare that to the UFT ability to flood every school with their lit and also UFT officials visiting so many schools) I am not expecting us to come close to reaching that number.

I find it pretty ironic that the best we can do is win 6 seats on the EB out of 89. That's the real joke of this election. The opposition will never win without some structural change in the UFT (and that will never take place until the number of active - and I stress this word - active - people there are standing up to Unity). But an explanation of why this is so and what has to be done to change it is also for another time.

Today's vote count is the culmination of the UFT election process, a process that started for some of us ICEers with a meeting with TJC where we decided to work together over a year ago. I hope to write a lot more about the process we went through as a guide for people in the future. But that's also for another time.

If you are interested in early returns through the day, email me at normsco@gmail.com. I don't tweet or whatever but I do burp.


By the way, did you know that the Wall Street Journal now has a NYC beat ed reporter? She contacted me yesterday and we may meet up for coffee later today. That coverage should be interesting to watch. Wouldn't it be funny if it turned out more fair and balanced than the NY Times? Shouldn't be all that much of a stretch.

Seniority and Pakter Non-Hearing

UPDATED (see below):

I attended the David Pakter 3020a "hearing" today but there was no hearing (search this blog for background if you don't know about this case as I'm too lazy to get the links). Or at least while I was there. I left at 2 when they broke for lunch. David will update us soon.

We had quite a cast of characters. The wonderful hearing officer, Douglas Bantle - who is such a decent guy the DOE is getting rid of him. The NYSUT lawyer, Chris Calegy, who whenever I see him in action is impressive. Betsy Combier, who is always there for people and her sidekick Polo Colon. I alerted Gotham's Anna Philips about the hearing and unfortunately she showed up and wasted 3 hours waiting for a hearing that never took place. I owe her lunch - or at least an ice cream. But I did give her an earful for classifying New Action as an opposition caucus instead of bottom-feeding weasels. (See my recent post: UFT election figures for New Action Over the Years)

Ken Hirsch tagged along with Anna. Ken is the most likable ed deformer, some kind of hedge fund guy who helps fund scuzzy charter schools like HSA and Girls Prep and who knows what else. He also helps fund Gotham, which is a good thing, despite the fact some people feel they tilt (I am not yet convinced of that.)

I always have very deep discussions with Ken. He is a guy who while may not be convinceable about the errors of ed deform, is always willing to engage and listen - which with me around is just about all you can do. So we had a brief discussion on a number of issues and touched on the seniority issue. I pointed out how the longevity of teachers in one school creates a certain level of stability and teachers make strong connections to families over time. I'm talking about the elementary school level. Of course, with charter schools parachuting kids and teachers in from all over the place and the destruction of the neighborhood school concept by the deformers, this concept become irrelevant.

I get home and low and behold find that Diana Senechal wrote a great piece at Gotham on this very issue. Accountable Talk linked and wrote his own piece.

The Other Argument for Seniority

There's a nice piece in the Community section at Gotham Schools that lays out the case for seniority, especially in light of possible upcoming layoffs. I won't repeat any of the author's arguments here; you can read them for yourself and decide if they are compelling. I think they are. I'd like to address an argument for seniority that I rarely hear, but it warrants discussion. I believe that ignoring seniority as it exists now would ruin education in the future, and here's why.

Head over and read both pieces and all the comments.

After Ken left, who should show up but blogger South Bronx School, one of my faves – he goes even lower than I do. He's not happy that Gotham doesn't link to him and told Anna so. She defended herself. This was better than the hearing that wasn't taking place. I love SBS but I can understand them not linking. He was promising Anna not to be so raunchy while I begged him to keep it up. What would Whitney Tilson and Thomas Carroll do if he toned it down?

If you dig beneath the crust of SBS, you find the instincts of a teacher who gets it and gives a crap. I'd rather have the fun crusty stuff than see links on Gotham, which often links to Ed Notes. What am I doing wrong?

UPDATE:
Since I posted the above a few minutes ago, I have been in touch with 2 former students who friended me - my 4th grade class in the early 80's and -listen to this - the son of a former student from 1976. His mom brought him to my house when he was one month old and we put him on a blanket on the floor and my cat came over and was bigger than him. Look at him now. His mom was one of my favorite kids of all time and we stayed in touch.

In the small world department, his dad's (his parents never were together) sister was the mom of a couple of kids I had and she was a parent who I always like a lot and I got to know a lot about the family. One day I was at the UFT and I see someone familiar and she said, "Mr. Scott." It was her daughter who I had in my computer classes. She has been working at the UFT - now in the tech department (think those Apple IIe's got her ready for the job market?) - for many years and we run into each other every so often and she fills me in. She has kids herself and her mom is doing fine.

Jeez. The more I am hooking up on facebook, the more the memories come flooding back. One of the students is a NYC teacher and we are getting together soon - the first time I will see him in over 25 years and next week I am meeting a student from the late 70's for lunch - I haven't seen her since she was in high school.

Sorry, but this is my "data."


Some former 4th graders had an elementary school reunion in Feb. I can recognize 4.

TFA Alum Trashes RTTT, Lawhead Comments

Listen to the words of teachers to get the real scoop on how the ed deform agenda is damaging kids. Heather Kim, a TFA alum, has a very good article in the SF Chronicle showing how the test taking agenda can destroy the ability of students to read in a constructive way.

We teach students who didn't pass the Analytical Writing Placement Exam, and our task is often to undo these habits so students can learn how to really, truly read. They're employing test-taking strategies they've learned all their No-Child-Left-Behind lives. When standardized test scores come attached with high stakes, teachers are forced to arm their students with speedy decoding in lieu of critical thinking. Unfortunately, such teaching will only be perpetuated under the Obama administration's Race to the Top program. Faced with tests that could determine whether our students graduated, my panicked administrators encouraged me to teach tricks. "If a writing prompt is three questions long," my department head told me, "make students turn each question into a statement. Statements should become topic sentences." If the students followed the format, the essays would read like a series of nearly identical paper dolls. Passing paper dolls. Under such pressures, students can't be prepared for college-level work.

John Lawhead (ICE/GEM), sent this comment to the GEM listserve:

[The article] mentions college teachers trying to undo what's been taught in high schools that are obsessed with teaching test-taking strategies. Truly it's making idiots of us and getting worse.

In New York many teachers counsel students to agree with the critical lens statement no matter what (in Session Two of the ELA regents). The model student papers provided by the state rarely do otherwise. That means the critical lens essay involves parroting a statement you've never read before, agreeing with it and earnestly supporting your interpretation of it with two works of literature.

The theme of the essay is determined by the statement. In 10 years there's never been a critical lens with the word justice or even happiness.

Over the last two years about half of the statements had to do with appreciating heroes or characters with uncommon virtues. They've included phrases like "the strongest man on earth" (June 09) "the real hero" (August 08) "greatness" (January 08) "what does it mean to be a hero" (June 07). This may or may not be an invitation for teachers to assign books about great men, rugged individuals (free-market enterpreneurs?),etc. Maybe it's just a softball theme to improve the scores. But calling the critical lens critical is hypocrisy!