Civil Rights Leaders Take On Obama/Duncan on Ed Deform?

I'm reposting from this morning with a load of updates:

July 26, 12pm - (See below for original story - not the most organized way to do this but it is beautiful outside.)
 
"This is really tough talk, and it is about time that America’s civil rights leaders are speaking up. The only question is whether anybody in the Obama administration is actually listening."

-----Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet WAPO blog

Valerie is fast becoming our new heroine. But more on her later.



Word is that Obama is speaking on Thursday to the Urban League to defend his ed policy and sources say that was a major part of today's cancellation. I have links to two major stories on Norms Notes:

Download here:

http://www.otlcampaign.org/resources/civil-rights-framework-providing-all-students-opportunity-learn-through-reauthorization-el

Sam Anderson responded to the email I sent out this morning:

The National Black Education Agenda (NBEA) is still operating and plan to have a national public response to the National Standards miseducation policy. Foir those who don't know about the NBEA, go to: blackeducationnow.org.

We plan to insist on a meeting with the President and the Ed Dept director. The "WE" are prominent Black educators as well as in-the-ed-trenches educators, parents and community members from across Black America.

The NAACP at their last week's convention came out with a resolution OPPOSING charter schools. This was a grassroots effort that had to fight some of the national leadership who give uncritical support to the Obama administration. I think this is a very good victory for the progressive Black educators specifically and progressive educators in general. and we should spread that resolution far and wide once it becomes public.

In Struggle,

Sam Anderson

Here is the Ed Week story with an excerpt:

Civil Rights Groups Call for New Federal Education Agenda

By Michele McNeil on July 26, 2010 10:00 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks Seven leading civil rights groups, including the NAACP and the National Urban League, called on U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan today to dismantle core pieces of his education agenda, arguing that his emphases on expanding charter schools, closing low-performing schools, and using competitive rather than formula funding are detrimental to low-income and minority children.

The groups, which today released their own education policy framework and created the National Opportunity to Learn campaign, want Duncan to make big changes to his draft proposal for reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. 

What's even more interesting is that a big event planned to release the framework this morning in conjunction with the National Urban League's annual conference was mysteriously cancelled (or postponed, depending on whom you ask) after a lot of press releases went out last week trying to drum up interest.

 And here is some interesting analysis by Valerie Strauss, who is turning out to be MAJOR for the side of the good guys. Note her use of the word "skewer" which you have to love.

Valerie Strauss in WAPO: Civil rights groups skewer Obama education policy

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/education-secretary-duncan/civil-rights-groups-skewer-oba.html#more

It is most politely written, but a 17-page framework for education reform being released Monday by a coalition of civil rights groups amounts to a thrashing of President Obama’s education policies and it offers a prescription for how to set things right.

You won’t see these sentences in the piece: “Dear President Obama, you say you believe in an equal education for all students, but you are embarking on education policies that will never achieve that goal and that can do harm to America’s school children, especially its neediest. Stop before it is too late.”

But that, in other nicer words, is exactly what it says. The courteous gloss on this framework can’t cover up its angry, challenging substance.

But it gets better, as Valerie non only uses the word "ouch" but goes so far as a "double ouch." This may be a record for "ouches" though we can hope one day to see a dreaded triple.

“The Race to the Top Fund and similar strategies for awarding federal education funding will ultimately leave states competing with states, parents competing with parents, and students competing with other students..... By emphasizing competitive incentives in this economic climate, the majority of low-income and minority students will be left behind and, as a result, the United States will be left behind as a global leader.”

Ouch.
About an expansion of public charter schools, which the administration has advanced:
“There is no evidence that charter operators are systematically more effective in creating higher student outcomes nationwide....Thus, while some charter schools can and do work for some students, they are not a universal solution for systemic change for all students, especially those with the highest needs.” 

And there’s this carefully worded reproach to the administration:
“To the extent that the federal government continues to encourage states to expand the number of charters and reconstitute existing schools as charters, it is even more critical to ensure that every state has a rigorous accountability system to ensure that all charters are operating at a high level.” 

Double ouch.

But there’s more.

Jeez, she almost hit the triple. I'm getting orgasmic; better not to go there. 
But you go there and read it all.


I also read this morning that Al Sharpton was originally signed on to the report, but later on wasn't. Probably not any money in it for him.


------------------------
Original post

July 26, 8am
Are Civil Rights Leaders Going to Take an Anti-Obama/Duncan Position on Education?
Or were they and now are backing off?

Today a major event was scheduled that would skewer race to the top and other Ed Deform plans. The very idea of major civil rights leaders taking down the ed deform bull that people like Joel Klein and Eva Moskowitz and Michael Bloomberg are leading a civil rights battle would make a powerful statement.

Now suddenly we get this email a few minutes ago:

The briefing to release the Framework for Providing All Students an Opportunity to Learn scheduled for Monday at 10 a.m. at the Grand Hyatt has been postponed.

A copy of the framework can be downloaded at http://www.otlcampaign.org after 10 a.m. on Monday morning, July 26, 2010.

Those interested in scheduling interviews about the framework, please call Kari Hudnell or Stephanie Dukes at 202-955-9450.

I won't be home until later this morning but I suggest people call to schedule an interiew and ask why they cancelled the press event. Were pressures brought to bear by the Obama administration? Bloomberg? Billionaires like Gates and Broad threatening loss of funding? Who knows?

After burn:
Framework is here:
http://www.otlcampaign.org/resources/civil-rights-framework-providing-all-students-opportunity-learn-through-reauthorization-el

Are YOU Fired Up About the DC Firings???

Mimi certainly is at. It's Not All Flowers and Sausages  A few excerpts on classroom observations and a dump on value added.

Should our education system tolerate inadequate and ineffective teachers?  Um, no.  (Duh.)  As a teacher I could barely tolerate inadequate and ineffective teachers...they make the jobs of rockstar teachers that much harder and do NOTHING to improve the educational outcomes for children.  In fact, I'm sure some of them are subtracting opportunities and knowledge from children, but that's just a hunch.

Should teachers be held to high standards as professionals?  Of course they should.  We are not idiots, and we can handle high standards as we are professional individuals who not only work hard to do our best everyday in our classrooms but actively seek out ways to improve our practice.

Should all of us be treated like morons because a few of us blow?  Should we be subjected to checklists of discrete skills that masquerade as the only markers of good teaching?  Should we work in fear that someone is going to catch us *gasp* spending an extra ten minutes on our science lesson, thus rendering us task OFF time and, as a result and according to many Checklists of Effectiveness, INeffective?

I take issue with the system of evaluation (IMPACT) which utilizes both "value added" (buzz word alert!) test score data and classroom observation.

I will leave the discussion of "value added-ness" to my colleagues out there who enjoy discussing and tearing apart numbers (Skoolboy, care to weigh in??) and will now focus on the reliability of classroom observations.

Now I know I am only a sample of one, but in my experience, observations have been canceled at the last minute, scheduled at the last minute, absently watched and blatantly hi-jacked.  Let's see, there was the time that my administrator suggested that I post a chart that she was sitting in front of at the time.  (Way to go powers of observation!)  Then there was the time I was told, "Let's just skip it all together.  You're fine."  Or the time when my suggestions for follow up were cut and pasted out of another colleague's observation report, AND considering we taught different grades and were observed in different subjects, were less than relevant or helpful.  Ooo!  How about the time I begged for feedback on my teaching and was told, "No."

Can we please base my salary and job security on that? 'Cuz it seems like fun.  Like a big old carnival game or something.  But more rigged and with no stuffed prize at the end.

Read the entire piece at It's Not All Flowers and Sausages 


And of course you can follow the Rhee in DC story directly from Candi at http://thewashingtonteacher.blogspot.com/

Jean Shepherd Takes Down the Press

Listening to NPR right now:

August 28, 2003
Forty years ago Thursday, radio storyteller Jean Shepherd took a crowded bus from New York City to participate in the March on Washington. The next day he went on the air and told about the experience from his perspective in the crowds. He was surprised by the good-natured attitude of most of the demonstrators, and by how they were received by regular people walking around in the city. We hear an excerpt from his broadcast of Aug. 29, 1963. - http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1414581

Shepherd tells how his experience differs so from that of the press corps. Probably because they didn't cover it as a participant. They didn't take a bus down. The flew in the day before and stayed at hotels. Then covered from behind the press ropes.

He's still talking so catch the wave. Or check archives.

http://www.radio4all.net/responder.php/podcast/podcast.xml?series=Jean+Shepherd+Rewound


For my next present - if my wife ever gets me one - I want the entire Jean Shepherd archives. And every night at around 11pm I will plug in a sert of earphones and go back to being 16 years old.

Once a Leader, U.S. Lags in College Degrees - Time to Close Them Down

When college grad rates are lower than those of high schools being closed down under the ed deform movement what is there left to do but CLOSE 'EM DOWN AND FIRE ALL THE PROFS. I mean, isn't the quality of the teacher the single most important element? All the deformers say it. And so do our own union leaders.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/23/education/23college.html?ref=education

Bill at ICE mail wrote:

While Dr David Steiner was a Dean at Hunter College, the school only had a 37 percent graduation rate. That would qualify Hunter College for an F grade under the DOE school rating system. Does this record give him the qualification to lead the NYS Department of Education.

http://www.onveon.com/college/graduation-statistics/cuny-hunter-college-10021.htm

How the UFT/AFT Fights Smart - Readers Choice

OK, gang. You've seen numerous examples of the how the UFT/AFT is executing its new slogan:

Fighting Back.

Fighting Smart.

In Washington DC the AFT under Randi Weingarten forged a deal with Michelle Rhee for a new contract, all the while making sure there would be no regularly scheduled election since one of the leading candidates was opposed to that contract. Now that Randi handed her the power, Michelle Rhee is firing scads of teachers.* See Afterburn

In NYC, the UFT under Randi's successor Michael (Ironing Board) Mulgrew went to court to stop the closing of schools, but did not go to court to stop Klein from discouraging potential enrollees at these schools and then made a deal to allow Tweed to insert new schools into the building that were being closed.

Given these brilliant moves, now it's your turn to come up with more ways how our union leaders can continue to FIGHT BACK. FIGHT SMART.



I'll get you started:

Here's an idea that fits right in. Get Bloomberg to give us our 2% raise and in exchange we let them fire ATRs who can't get a job in a year. That's the FIGHT BACK part. We FIGHT SMART by telling the members Bloomberg wanted to fire the ATRs immediately but we held out for a year. Leo Casey before he leaves to join Randi in DC will lecture us on how we don't understand the conditions in today's world and besides, look at the Autoworkers Union.

The UFT continues to organize teachers in charter schools but makes sure there is a blackout on the use of the words "Merrick Charter." Here is the FIGHT SMART part. Whisper to charter school managers that all the UFT wants is to be able to list the school as UFT organized for PR purposes but they can write any contract they want and the UFT will sign it. As long as the teachers have to pay dues.

LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS. READERS WILL VOTE FOR THE BEST FIGHT BACK, FIGHT SMART IDEA. MULGREW HAS PROMISED THAT THE UFT WILL MAKE THE WINNER OFFICIAL POLICY.

-------
After burn

• Michelle Rhee fired 241 of 4,000 D.C. teachers (6%) today citing poor performance. (WashPost)
• 737 of D.C. teachers were rated “minimally effective” by the new IMPACT eval. (Teacher Beat)

It takes a WaPo blogger to go after Rhee while the FIGHT SMART crowd at the AFT are silent. Leonie wrote:

Valerie Strauss points out the absurdity of the DC IMPACT system, supposed to measure 22 aspects of teacher quality in 30 min. observations; including designing teacher to fit “tactile” learning styles. Not to mention that the DC exams, meant as the base of 50% of the eval system for teachers in 4-8 grades, weren’t designed to evaluate teachers. Neither were the NY state exams, now shown as fraudulent, but still will be used as basis of 40% of NYC evaluation system for teachers in grades 3-8^th. Is there any area of public life where the reigning ideology is as patently absurd as in public education?

The problem with how Rhee fired teachers

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/dc-schools/the-problem-with-how-rhee-fire.html?wprss=answer-sheet

Former Student — Ernie Silva's "Heavy Light the Weight of a Flame" Returns to NYC This Week

Heavy Returns to New York!! 
July 28th thru August 1st. Tix 10$

Wednesday, July 28, 2010 at 8:00pm
Teatro La Tea (LA Tea Theater), New York, NY
107 Suffolk Street
New York, NY 10002-3387
(212) 529-1948

 A GREAT SHOW FOR TEACHERS TO SEE

"Contrary to the Ed Deformers, I do not take the position that teachers are the major influences in these kids' lives, but are small pieces of a very large jigsaw puzzle."

I wrote the above in the April 16 edition of The Wave where I wrote about going to see Ernie Silva's one man show (Ernie Silva Show an Allegory for Why Achievement Gap and Teacher Quality Are Phony Issues, Updated) about his journey out of the streets of Williamsburg to his life as a comedian and performer. Ernie was in my 4th grade class back in the early 80's and I hadn't seen him in 25 years. Ernie is back in town performing his one man show "Heavy Like the Weight of a Flame" July 28 through August 1 at La Tea Theater (Teatro La Tea (LA Tea Theater) 107 Suffolk St. 2nd Floor New York, NY) on the lower east side.

Every teacher has had an Ernie Silva in their class
I will be going back to see the show and hope to see more former students. I think this is a great show for teachers to see, as Ernie, one of the brightest and most literate students I had, is a prototype for students all teachers run across. Not knowing the depths of what his life as all about, a teacher would pretty much assume a kid like Ernie would have clear sailing right through college and a good career. But it was not so easy. One of ten kids. A brother dead from drugs. Another died in prison. A kid who read Shakespeare and watched Masterpiece Theater and had to take the slings and barbs of family members who degraded him for it.

Tickets are only $10 and there are plenty of good places to eat in the neighborhood so head on down. I'm planning on going this Wednesday, opening night and probably Friday the 30th and maybe closing night. Let me know if you are interested in joining me.

Here is a reprise of what I wrote back in April

I watched my former 4th grade student Ernie Silva perform his powerful one-man show, "Heavy Like the Weight of a Flame," with a different eye. As his former teacher and a member of the education deform resistance movement, I saw things that a casual viewer might not see. The show reinforced what every experienced teacher knows: it is not the so-called achievement gap or "teacher quality is the most important element" - blah, blah, blah - but the street gap faced by most Black and Latino kids compared to the daily life experience faced by middle class kids.

Ernie's story may be unique but it is also in many ways typical of kids growing up in the projects and on the streets of Williamsburg in the 1980's. There was lots of danger all around. Ernie faced it all. Shots fired at a party with one slicing a hole through his shirt. Being stopped by cops pointing guns in his face. Drugs, drugs, drugs - everywhere - in his own house where he was the youngest of 13 children and his brother, destined to die young, was a heavy user. And the other brother in prison who also died. He ended up riding freight trains across the country.

Ernie became a street performer doing break dancing when he was 12 and still a 6th grader. One thing led to another over the next few years and he started doing stand up. His bio states he became an obscene hooky player and started using his train passes to travel around the city looking for comedy clubs instead of going to school (he attended Murray Bergtraum HS). I won't get into the rest of his journey that led to a scholarship to a graduate acting program at USC. He lives in LA now.

Ernie did not face the so-called achievement gap in reading. He was in one of the two best classes I ever had in terms of academic skills (either 1982 or 1983) in terms of achievement and 75% of the children in that class (which I only got because of a threatened grievance) were reading on or above grade level. They wouldn't have been in that class otherwise since classes were grouped strictly by reading scores. Their math was probably not as good but generally they were at a pretty high level. What needs to be pointed out is that most of these kids walked into school as 4 year olds (the top level neighborhood kids usually attended pre-k) with some level of skills and the teachers nurtured these skills.

Ernie talks about how he was a voracious reader. Shakespeare and he was the only one in his house who watched Masterpiece Theater. Friends and family told him: "You can't change things with all that garbage you read" and "knowledge is dangerous and raises questions." Mostly these questions took the form of "What the f!"

Ernie's teachers through elementary school were experienced teachers who were at the top of their game. That class was pretty much together from pre-k through 6th grade. The bottom classes also had the same teachers and the academic results were very different.

There were only 2 classes on the grade in those years at my school as we had lost lots of population due to tenements being torn down - which by the way automatically raised our scores as the project families were more stable than the tenement kids. Ernie was a project kid. The difference in reading ability between the top and bottom classes was very wide. One of the best teachers in my school had the other (bottom) class and she told me she had a tough time that school year. Thank goodness for the UFT contract or my principal would never have given me that class without my threat to grieve it. The next year we reversed positions as the contract demanded. My principal generally violated the contract and I was one of the only teachers who demanded my rights be honored.

I attended the show with Dina, another student from the same class, who I hadn't seen in 25 years. We caught up during intermission. He taught in NYC high schools for years and keeps track of his former students. He was the best math student I ever had and one of the brightest students. He and his sisters' journeys are also interesting and instructive and illustrate how very bright kids in places like Williamsburg have to take routes - like through the military - that middle class kids don't have to face.

I know that anecdotal stories are not considered "data" but the follow-up stories teachers who spend many years in one community hear inform their knowledge and understanding of what it will take to make real changes and why so many of us are ed deform resisters. Joel Klein and Teach for America tell their minions there are no excuses and they often end up discounting trying to address the "street." This is misleading to young teachers who must have an understanding of the "street" and how it transcends the question of reading and math score data. Having such an understanding - which only comes to white middle class teachers through years of experience and involvement in the lives of their children - is a building block toward becoming a more effective teacher.

I want to stress that I also do not believe in making excuses. Teachers have to believe in every student's potential and do their best to help them fulfill that potential. But there are bigger issues that must be addressed that are way beyond the teacher. Indeed, it was that understanding that pushed me into political activism by my 4th year of teaching. It was the first time I became active – the 60's passed me by – and my activism was driven by the kids.

During our reminiscences with Dino, he had lots of memories of my classroom (my giant room) and the trips - the time I loaded him and 5 other kids into my car and took then to my house after school as a reward for good behavior, how he was car sick and barfed in my driveway – sure ways to get a SCI investigation today - I hope the statute of limitations have expired.

Contrary to the Ed Deformers, I do not take the position that teachers are the major influences in these kids' lives, but are small pieces of a very large jigsaw puzzle.

Seeing Ernie perform was special for me. He managed to work my name into the show ("Mom, my teacher Mr. Scott, gave me an A on my science exam today").

I didn't go out with Ernie and his crew after the show, though invited. The other former student joked that he was waiting for me to leave before lighting up because he didn't me to see him smoking. I thought I was a pretty casual teacher and things like that wouldn't matter. But teachers have an impact in ways that are beyond our imagination.

Teachers at PS 193 Fight Budget Cuts in a Special Way

Teachers at PS 193 in Brooklyn decided to rewrite the lyrics to a well-known song from Grease. They performed it on the morning of June 23, 2010 in front of the school. Some arriving parents and students got a great kick out of seeing their teachers fighting for them. Ed Notes was there to cover.




WANT TO DO A PERFORMANCE AT YOUR SCHOOL? 
CONTACT ED NOTES FOR VIDEO COVERAGE

Klein Violates Court Order By Shunting Kids Away From Jamaica HS AS UFT Makes Backroom Deals

From Day 1 I said the UFT law suit was more PR than reality. And here is proof.
Click to enlarge. Email me for a pdf.

Jamaica HS admissions letter 

This is the letter which Mr. Forrestal sent to Michael Mulgrew on June 11th: 

HILLCREST ESTATES CIVIC ASSOCIATION

Mr. Michael Mulgrew

President

United Federation of Teachers

Dear Mr. Mulgrew:

I am the president of the Hillcrest Estates Civic Association and a member of Community Board 8.    Our association is zoned for Jamaica High School.       The civic association and the community board have, through various means, advocated against the arbitrary phase-out of Jamaica High School.    To your organization's credit, you have taken successful legal action to stop this injustice.

Since the March 26th ruling by Judge Lobis, the Department of Education has been consistently attempting to thwart her ruling.    I am chagrined that the UFT has failed to return to Judge Lobis to seek satisfaction through a restraining order.     It appears to me, as a non-lawyer, that their actions to co-locate two new schools in the Jamaica High School building, without compliance with the Mayoral Control legislation enacted last summer, is flagrantly illegal.

The disregard of law that is being shown by the Department of Education, as illustrated by the attached letter, is outrageous.   This letter at least borders on contempt of court.

This is an issue that goes well beyond Jamaica High School and other organizations.   If the UFT allows this disregard of law to succeed, the future will bring even further totalitarian rule.   For the sake of the students, the teachers and staff, and the entire community, I urge you to return to court to seek compliance with the laws.   As a teacher, you are well aware that the actions of adult leaders speak louder than words and have a greater impact on students.

Thank you for your consideration of this matter.

Sincerely,

Kevin J. Forrestal

President

Hillcrest Estates Civic Association

Mulgrew and Klein: Illegal Collusion

Jamaica HS stabbed in the back by UFT/DOE agreement.

What does it tell you when a student who wants to go to Jamaica HS is sent to the intensely overcrowded Francis Lewis HS instead?

DOE plans to put two schools within Jamaica High

Members of Jamaica High School's School Leadership Team hold fliers they are passing out to students to let them know they can still attend the school in the fall. Photo by Anna Gustafson

An agreement between the United Federation of Teachers and the city Department of Education that is expected to bring in two new schools to Jamaica High School has outraged some officials and community members who said the plan is essentially a move to close the school mandated to remain open by the court earlie r this month.

The Hillside Arts & Letters Academy and the HS for Community Leadership are now slated to move into Jamaica HS next fall, bringing the total number of schools operating inside the high school building to four. Both Jamaica and Queens Collegiate high schools will remain in the building next year.

As part of the agreement reached July 14, the Rockaway HS for Environmental Sustainability will move into Beach Channel HS in Rockaway Park.

The decision between the UFT and the DOE follows a state appellate court’s decision earlier this month that saved Jamaica HS, Beach Channel HS, and the Business, Computer Applications & Entrepreneurship Magnet HS in Cambria Heights from closure and upheld the March 26 ruling by a State Supreme Court judge that the city’s plan to shut down 19 public schools violated the law by not providing enough information about how the closings would affect communities.

The UFT sued the city DOE af ter the city in January decided it would stop admitting students to the selected high schools categorized as failing and replace them with smaller campuses.

“We really feel stabbed in the back,” said James Eterno, a social studies teacher and UFT chapter leader at Jamaica HS. “It looks like what the UFT has done is snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.”

Eterno and other Jamaica HS teachers said they are perplexed as to why the UFT would allow the DOE to implement the smaller schools after the organization won the lawsuit against the city.

UFT officials did not return a request for comment.

Under the agreement, the UFT waived its right to sue the city for co-location — moving the smaller schools into existing school buildings — in exchange for the DOE agreeing to make fewer schools share space in now-operating schools. Of the 16 smaller schools originally proposed to move into existing city schools, nine will be co-located in buildings for which they were originally planned — including the two schools at Jamaica and the one school at Beach Channel.

The Cambria Heights Academy, originally set to be located at the Cambria Heights magnet school, is expected to move into open space in southeast Queens’ District 29. Officials did not say exactly where it will be located because the lease has not yet been signed.

“Putting these new schools in here is handwriting on the wall to get rid of us,” Eterno said.

Kevin Forrestal, president of the Hillcrest Estates Civic Association and a Community Board 8 member, berated UFT President Michael Mulgrew for the decision to allow the smaller schools into Jamaica HS. Forrestal, who lives near Jamaica HS, said the move violates the law.

Calling the agreement “reprehensible,” Forrestal wrote in a letter to Mulgrew that it “sends a terrible example to the students and staff.”

“The action pairs the UFT with the DOE as co-collaborators to circumvent the letter and the spirit of community-based decision-making,” Forres tal wrote.

Eterno and other members of Jamaica’s School Leadership Team met just after the UFT and DOE’s agreement July 14, and they said despite the DOE’s efforts to close their school, they will continue to recruit students to join Jamaica’s freshmen class, which currently numbers approximately 40.

Last week, SLT members went to Cunningham Park and City Councilman Leroy Comrie’s (D-St. Albans) barbecue at St. Albans Park to distribute fliers encouraging students and parents to look into Jamaica HS.

“We know we’re an excellent school that’s worth fighting for,” said Nancy Reghay, a speech and language teacher who has been at Jamaica HS since 1999.

Eterno and other school officials noted they could take several hundred freshmen from neighboring schools that are overcrowded, like Francis Lewis and Bayside high schools.

Reach reporter Anna Gustafson by e-mail at agustafson@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4574.

Letter to Queens Tribune

Illegal Collusion

To The Editor:
Open Letter to Mr. Michael Mulgrew, President, United Federation of Teachers:

This is in follow up to an e-mailed letter to you dated June 11, 2010, with the subject line, "Justice for Jamaica High School." With that letter, we forwarded a copy of a letter to a student admitting the student to Francis Lewis High School rather than to the student's choice of Jamaica High School.

Today we write in response to the agreement made yesterday between the United Federation of Teachers and the Department of Education. The plan submitted to the Panel for Educational Policy in January was for a phased closing of Jamaica High School combined with a phased opening and growth of three new small schools. Accompanying it was a flawed Educational Impact Statement.

This plan, approved by the Panel for Educational Policy, was presented as one integrated resolution. The Supreme Court of New York State, upheld by the Court of Appeals, has found the PEP votes for the approval of that resolution null and void and annulled the votes.

New York Education Law - Article 52-A, § 2590 - clearly gives the procedure for the co-location of new schools in an existing school. See also Chancellor's Regulation A-190, "Significant Changes in School Utilization", which clearly outlines the procedure which begins with a filing six months before the start of the school year and calls for an EIS, hearings, and a vote of approval by the Panel for Educational Policy.

The announcement of the UFT and the Department of Education's agreement to allow the placement of new schools at Jamaica High School in violation of New York State Law is reprehensible. It sends a terrible example to the students and staff. The action pairs the UFT with the DOE as co-collaborators to circumvent the letter and the spirit of community-based decision making.

I call upon you to reconsider your decision and extricate yourself from a course of action that is a flagrant act of defiance of the new Mayoral Control Law passed last summer. ”

Kevin J. Forrestal,
President, Hillcrest Estates Civic Association

 

Testing, one, Two, Three – Testing, One, Two, Three – Testing...

....on and on through an infinite loop.

We haven't dealt with the major testing story. You see, Tisch and Steiner, that dynamic duo that run the NY State Ed Dept, embarrassed about the national joke NY State tests have become even as they are used by Merryl Tisch's next door neighbor (Bloom) and her Sedar buddy (Klein) to justify the scam they are pulling about how they raised student levels, decided to commission a Harvard study on NY State Tests. The researchers happened to be Daniel Koretz and Jennifer Jennings – the great Eduwonkette, an old - actually, really a young - buddy from a few years back. No fooling around there. And no Gates money involved I bet to steer the results the "right" way.

Leonie's blog and listserve have been dead on the story.

Bloomberg's Education Gains "Illusory" -- Harvard Researchers

State Ed Commisioner Steiner is making the rounds with analysis prepared by Harvard researchers showing the state tests are simply getting easier.

She links to the Times coverage. Leonie keeps asking why Tisch and Steiner refuse to release the entire study for public viewing. Maybe they think the viewing will play like a mob funeral. Tony Soprano and friend for Steiner and Tisch jobs anyone?

We heard from old pal Fred Smith who sent along his article in the NY Post with this comment:

Norm,

Hope you saw this. Opens up a few windows that go beyond talk of "score inflation" to expose how defective the test instruments are. It aint that the clock is ticking too loudly. It's that the clock is broken.

Here is an excerpt from Fred's work:

Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch and Education Commissioner David Steiner have admitted that the state has badly bungled its testing of New York's schoolchildren. They are promising to do better -- but want to close the book on what went wrong.

Sorry: Assurances of more honest days ahead aren't enough -- we need to resolve accountability for the dishonest days of the recent past. After all, Tisch and Steiner are implicitly acknowledging that the critics have been right, and the state Education Department wrong, for years -- since 2006, at least.

The department and test publisher, CTB/McGraw-Hill, have reduced the tests' "cut scores," so that a student could score fewer points but still be graded as "proficient."

Department spokesmen, buffered by the head of the state's Technical Advisory Group, defended the adjustment by saying the questions had gotten harder. In fact (as was shown by data I later obtained via the Freedom of Information process), the questions were getting easier. Lowering the bar made no sense -- yet the department insisted it did.

A Harvard study quantifies some inevitable long-term consequences: Students labeled "proficient" in fact struggle to graduate from high school; most are unready to do college-level work. That Tisch and Steiner commissioned the study doesn't absolve anyone of responsibility for this sham.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/who_takes_the_rap_for_ny_test_mess_cxq2Ro9d5i6C5fSOWBMfZJ#ixzz0uTUlqFU

CORE and Unity on Charter Schools - Where the Rubber Meets the Road

Chicago-based Lee Sustar, who I got to hang with at the press table at the AFT convention, does a penetrating analysis of the AFT convention – and links to reports from George Schmidt's Substance, Ed Notes and Leonie's HufPost article on Bill Gates, "The Most Dangerous Man in America".

Lee's piece is long but well worth reading. Lee writes for the Socialist Worker, associated with ISO (International Socialist Organization). We have been working closely with a number of ISO teachers here in NYC.

Lee goes beyond the Bill Gates issue and touches on the major Weingarten sell-outs in Colorado and beyond. This is information every single one of you should share with every single colleague in your school and beyond. Just send them a link to this ed notes post.

Before you delve into it, I want to highlight the area that I have been emphasizing – the flash points between the two big caucuses - Chicago's CORE and New York's Unity.

Lee writes:

While not formally part of the opposition--CTU President Karen Lewis joined the union's ruling Progressive Caucus and won election as an AFT vice president--there were frictions between the Chicago delegation and Weingarten's home union local, the United Federation of Teachers in New York City.

The main disagreements were over convention resolutions on charter schools--where the Chicagoans wanted to call for a moratorium on charters as a form of privatization, the New York delegation insisted on restating the AFT's support for charter schools as a matter of school choice, and prevailed.

For the moment, the debate over charters, teacher evaluation and merit pay may fade to the background as the Chicago teachers gear up to fight the threat of layoffs. But the AFT's pursuit of partnership even as teachers are under their greatest attack in decades will inevitably lead to a struggle over the future of teacher unionism.

Read the above carefully and connect the dots to the story on the firing of the 10 key teachers at the Merrick Charter School in Queens that were trying to organize for the UFT. This charter school is founded by the head of the NY State Senate Malcolm Smith, who I bet the UFT has endorsed in the past and maybe even is endorsing again - he has no opposition so it is a mute question. The UFT has a press conference today at 1pm on this issue. See our updated post from last night:

Malcolm Smith founded charter school fires UFT teachers- Mulgrew threatens law suit

It seems the UFT would be going wild in Albany over this outrage, calling for Smith's head. But I bet they are too timid to do this. So a law suit is all they can threaten.

So how does this connect, aside from exposing the bankrupt policy of the UFT's total focus on political action?

Chicago/CORE called for an moratorium on charter schools at the AFT convention because they undermine public schools.

The AFTUFT/Unity gang supports charters along with a policy of organizing charter school teachers. How is that working out so far? Chicago people have pointed to how few charters have been organized and also point to how even when they are, there are individual contracts signed, which dilutes the power of a big union. Another bankrupt strategy of the UFT/AFT.

I was asked last night by a parent activist if the UFT had issued a press release or has any notice of the press conference and I said I only knew about it from her.

"Why not," she asked?

"Because they are very nervous these firings will kill off any organizing they are doing as charter school teachers realize the UFT has no real ability to protect them from retaliation. So the UFT is doing a semi-public relations gambit and threatening a law suit which can take a bit of time and do no good to the teachers who were fired." This entire thing can turn out to be a major PR disaster for the UFT/AFT.

The Merrick situation must be sending a chill in a very hot July down the spine of the UFT/AFT strategy because it is in the belly of the beast - with heavy Democratic black politicians associated with the firings. By the way, the charter school is managed by for profit Victory Schools which just hired Michael Duff away from the DOE. Victory also took a pound of flesh from another Malcolm Smith founded school in Rockaway - Peninsula Prep. Rockaway's local paper, The Wave, has been claiming that the closing of Beach Channel HS was related to a land grab by Smith for his charter.

The NY Times did a major front page expose on the Floyd Flake/Smith/Greg Meeks scams a few weeks ago.

Make sure to check out the Resolutions Chicago suggested at the AFT:

Chicago Teachers Union Resolution at AFT Convention

I usually include entire articles here for those too lazy to link or with slow networks. But I'm saving some scrolling space on the blog on the assumption that you all will read every word of Lee's article. There will be a high stakes test to follow.

The wrong partner for our schools

Lee Sustar looks at the implications of the "partnership" between American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten and Microsoft chairman Bill Gates.

July 22, 2010

http://socialistworker.org/2010/07/22/wrong-partner-our-schools

Wanna Relocate? Chicago Teachers Union is Hiring

So one day you all are teaching. Then you run a 6 month campaign with a runoff. Then you win the election. Then two weeks later you take over the union. Many of the old guard have to leave their jobs. Then a few days later most of you head off for Seattle to the AFT convention, leaving a skeletal staff. Then you come back exhausted and have to start building up a staff to handle 1000 people who have lost their jobs and confront a mayor and CEO who feel they found a loophole in tenure and can layoff who they want. Oy!

So what happens? Instead of being burned out, you come back from the AFT convention totally stoked - energized by the experience. Your union and fellow teachers need you. So, you go into the union and volunteer to help out.

If you are a UFT member in NYC thinking this could ever happen with your friendly Unity crowd, blink twice and snap those ruby slippers - and keep snapping – you will not end up in Oz.

See a list of jobs at the CTU web site: http://www.ctunet.com/


Below is a link I put up at Norms Notes with the text of the insightful resolution the CTU tried to bring to the floor at the AFT convention that was posted at Substance.

It opposes mayoral control, merit pay, calls for a moratorium on charters, calls for an end to all school closings. After negotiations with Randi's agents - Aminda Gentile and Leo Casey, a little itty bitty piece of the language made the final cut.


Excerpts:
our resolution is wholly grounded in the experiences of public educators in Chicago where the movement toward the business model of education reform has had perhaps its most reaching impact. This resolution is just another means with which we (the Chicago delegation) hope to combat that movement.

RESOLVED that the AFT and its state and local affiliates support policies and legislation that put a moratorium on the creation of new charters, charter clones, and other schools that divert public education funds into corporate models; and Resolved that the AFT and its state and local affiliates demand all existing charter schools to be held as accountable and transparent as regular public schools, in regards to student progress and achievement, budget, funding and influence of corporate and private interests and entities; and Resolved that the AFT and its state and local affiliates will lobby for changes in legislation to allow existing charter schools to join large existing union locals rather than being forced to form their own small affiliate or work to close them; and Resolved that the AFT and its state and local affiliates recognize Bill Gates’ presence at the AFT Convention as a “Trojan horse”; and

RESOLVED that the AFT and its state and local affiliates fight to protect teacher tenure, seniority and due process rights so that trained educators can have job security and individual autonomy to develop innovative curriculum and instruction and lead local school reform; and

RESOLVED that the AFT and its state and local affiliates demand that school districts stop the arbitrary closing and turning around of schools and rehire displaced and terminated teachers immediately; and

RESOLVED that the AFT and its state and local affiliates reject the concept of merit pay for educators tied to student progress and achievement; and

RESOLVED that the AFT and its state and local affiliates campaign to expose the for-profit motives of high stakes testing companies and end the use high stakes testing which is used to punish students, teachers, families, schools and districts rather than build better schools; and Resolved that the AFT and its state and local affiliates lobby to overturn legislation allowing mayoral control of school districts and to put education back in the hands of educators; and

RESOLVED that the AFT and its state and local affiliates expose RTTT as based on the same faulty premises as NCLB and demand that RTTT funds are used equitably for all states in order to engage in real education reform lead by professional, union educators; and

After you get out from under the house, take off your slippers and read it all:

Chicago Teachers Union Resolution at AFT Convention

UPDATED: Malcolm Smith founded charter school fires UFT teachers- Mulgrew threatens law suit

UPDATED: Wed. July 21, 2010, 9:45PM

UFT calls press conference at 52 Broadway, Thurs. July 22 1pm
Word is they will go to court. Which court? Or PERB (probably not as that is for public employees). Maybe NLRB- isn't that controlled by pro-charter Obama administration that is so anti union teacher?

How will this story play out in local and national charter schools the UFT and AFT is trying to organize? Should teachers in charter schools look for a union with muscle to organize them?

Will the UFT follow Randi's advice and FIGHT SMART?
Or as they say in France: nous nous rendons

-----------
July 21, 9am
Since the UFT has made organizing charter schools a lynch pin of their policy, what message does this send? The UFT should have been out there supporting our friends from Rochester who came down to protest against Smith on July 5 over mayoral control. Oh, I forgot. The UFT supports mayoral control. And charter schools.

I made note of this excerpt from Chicago CTU/CORE delegate Jen Johnson in her must read report to Substance on the AFT convention:

"Generally speaking, the New York delegation represented organizing charters as the best model for handling their role in reshaping unions, despite the fact that according to many reports few charter schools in New York have been organized as is the case in Chicago. This logic is the same touted by the Progressive Caucus of the AFT. The few that have been organized are a part of the UFT local though they have separate contracts negotiated with the help of UFT. The Chicago delegation reflection the mindset that allowing new charters to continue to proliferate while attempting to organize existing charters is an end game in which public schools and the union lose."

And ask your friendly Unity/UFT rep what Mulgrew is doing about this:

Teachers at PS 222 in Queens say their principal excessed seven of them but is still hiring. (NY1)


Merrick Academy workers get boot via FedEx amid contract dispute between school, union

BY CLARE TRAPASSO
DAILY NEWS WRITER
Wednesday, July 21st 2010, 4:00 AM

Pace for News

Merrick Academy fires nine staffers amid bitter contract dispute.

Some of the Merrick Academy staffers who got the boot are chalking it up to a bitter contract dispute between the school and unionized teachers.A scandal-plagued Queens charter school fired at least nine teachers Tuesday - via FedEx, union officials said.

"If the board of the Merrick charter school is firing teachers because of union activity, then we're going to take all legal action against them," said United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew.

Teachers at the Queens Village school voted to unionize in 2008 but they haven't reached a contract with Victory Schools, which operates the charter.

Ge rald Karikari, chairman of Merrick's Board of Trustees, would not say how many teachers were fired and denied the layoffs were retaliatory. "At the end of the year, every teacher is evaluated on the way they performed," he said.

Kindergarten teacher Marjorie Berry, 60, one of the fired teachers, isn't buying it. "I was upset, because I put my heart and soul into these children and into the school," said Berry, who has taught at the school since it opened. "I just feel like I've been pushed aside like a piece of garbage."

Federal prosecutors have subpoenaed documents from a politically connected architect who helped design Merrick's school building in an ongoing corruption probe of several Queens politicians, including Merrick founders Senate President Malcolm Smith and U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2010/07/21/2010-07-21_disunion_as_9_teachers_fired.html#ixzz0uK5z1btw

AFT Convention: UFT/CTU Deal Expose Fault Lines in School Closing Policy

There is no more volatile issue than that of closing schools. It leads to disruption of students, parents and teachers who are tossed onto the scrapheap– in NYC they are known as ATRs - absentee teacher reserves as even the most experienced teachers are used as subs.

The difference between the new Chicago Teachers Union leadership from CORE and the UFT/Unity Caucus almost came to a head at the recent AFT convention in Seattle, where the UFT initially supported a resolution that did not include much stronger language. Randi, fearing an embarrassing floor fight that might expose the fault lines in AFT/UFT policy on closing schools — they have refused to oppose them unequivocally — had Unity leaders approach the CTU and together they negotiated language the CTU would be willing to accept.

The 9 minute video below opens with Unity's Janella Hinds (one of the UFT point people in NYC on closing schools) making a strong statement on closing schools – which at first surprised me until I was filled in on what had gone on behind the scenes. She is followed by a strong statement from CORE's Jenninfer Johnson thanking Local 2 for "seeing the light" - my words.

Jen Johnson went where the UFT won't go – she flat out stated that the closing of schools is an attack on teacher tenure and seniority rights and talked about Chicago's ATR problem, where they can be fired after 10 months if they don't get a job. She said there was an attempt to cut into this time limit. (In NYC, ATRs cannot be fired at this time. It is hard to imagine even the UFT giving on this issue, especially after seeing the impact that issue has had in radicalizing Chicago teachers.)

Jen is followed by new CTU president Karen Lewis, who said, "I would like to thank Local 2 for understanding what it means to be on the front lines of a policy that is not only dangerous, it's deadly." You gotta love the underlying dig here at Unity. She talked about how closing schools undermine neighborhood stability and even lead to the deaths of students.

One of the reasons Lewis, who was teaching chemistry a few weeks ago, is now the CTU president is because the Unity style leadership in Chicago that preceded her went along with the closing schools, as has the Unity leadership in NYC. It wasn't until the slap in the face by the NYCDOE when they announced 19 school closings in Dec. 2009, that Unity, facing an upcoming union election, started to take action by organizing a rally in January and filing a lawsuit.

The UFT/Unity Caucus leadership has been making a big deal over their "victory" in lawsuit to keep schools open, especially at the AFT convention. I can't tell you how many people came over to talk about that "win" — even our pals in Chicago.

Of course, people on the ground here in NYC know better:

Bloomberg is sending so few students to those schools that, in effect, they won't be open anyway. And in a startling deal with the UFT, he's placing replacement schools in a bunch of them anyway. It's incomprehensible to me that they've agreed not to file another lawsuit and are essentially allowing him to walk all over the one they managed to win. But such is the transitory nature of victory when you have no follow-up strategy, I suppose.

Read full post at NYC Educator

There was disgust over a recent agreement between the UFT and DOE to insert new schools at Jamaica HS, one of the closing schools where ICE's James Eterno is the chapter leader (Eterno ran against Mulgrew for UFT president) while the incoming freshman class has been undermined by the DOE. Eterno wrote on the ICE blog:

We suffered a setback today when the DOE-UFT agreed to co-locate the two new schools in our building for September and the UFT agreed not to sue. It is hard to believe how we were stabbed in the back by the UFT. They didn't even have the decency to consult with us before they allowed the DOE to move new schools into our building.

Read James' full piece: Committee At Jamaica Vows to Fight on After UFT Gives us Away

Here is the video, also playing on the ed notes sidebar, GEM, and CPE.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bhailiqr4uQ

AFT Convention: CTU and UFT Compromise on School Closing Reso

Want to see why the CORE victory in the June Chicago Teachers Union election has national implications? The UFT dominated convention was faced with a much stronger resolution on closing schools from Chicago than they advocated. The UFT backed off and offered a deal to include the CTU language in the school closing reso. Follow the bouncing ball with this excerpt from a powerful article written by CTU delegate Jen Johnson for Substance.

On Friday, July 9th, UFT Vice President for Educational Issues Aminda Gentile approached CTU convention delegates Carol Caref (also CTU interim Staff Coordinator and CTU Area A Vice President) and Jen Johnson (also CTU Area B Vice President) to discuss possible ways for CTU and UFT to work together on the issue of school closings.

Vice President Gentile was in the Educational Issues Committee and witnessed the work of CTU delegates to have their concerns heard by the convention. That morning, CTU convention delegates Jen Johnson, Xian Barrett (also CTU interim Legislative Coordinator), and Carol Caref met with UFT Vice President of Academic High Schools Leo Casey, UFT Special Representative Janella Hinds and UFT Special Representative Amy Arundell to negotiate what amendments could be made to existing UFT resolutions based on the language of the CTU resolution.

The CTU and UFT representatives agree to add language to Resolution 8, which was the UFT’s main priority resolution and Resolution 58. The representatives also agreed to adding one from the CTU resolution resolving that AFT demand that RTTT funding being used equitably rather than competitively was also agreed to be added to Resolution 60, which was not made a priority in committee so the amendment never made it to the convention floor.

Because of disagreements between the CTU and UFT representatives over how charter schools should best be dealt with, the amendments to Resolution 58 did not include a call for a moratorium on new charters despite the CTU representatives’ desires for one. The CTU representatives made clear to the UFT representatives that CTU delegates would make the final decision as to the delegation’s support for the proposed amendments and that CTU delegates were free to speak their mind on the floor of the convention if they had disagreements, especially concerning their perspectives on charter schools.

Here is Jen Johnson's full report to Substance which includes the entire amazing resolution proposed by CORE/CTU.

AFT CONVENTION: Resolution on school closing, charters required hard work, some compromises

Jen Johnson made a passionate speech from the floor, followed by new CTU president Karen Lewis. They were preceded by Unity's Janella Hinds who also made a good speech, which we'll parse in our followup article.

See the video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bhailiqr4uQ
(The video is also at the GEM blog and playing in the ed notes sidebar.)

By the way, if you haven't noticed, Karen Lewis got the 2nd highest vote total for AFT Ex Bd VP.

Let's remember that CORE has just come out of a grueling half year election campaign, took control of the CTU on July 1 - only 2 weeks after winning - and then left for Seattle on July 6. Most had little idea of how a convention operates especially one controlled by the UFT out of NYC. (Think: Block of 800 out of 3400 - almost 25% - and they control many other blocks - a lot of NY State which has 650,000 out of the 1.5 million AFT members. By the way, most of these 800 - Unity might have as many as 1500 or more members - also pack the Delegate Assemblies in NYC - in a room that only holds 850 people.

So, they get there and have to figure things out. And they start learning quickly. In every conversation I had with a CORE member I was impressed — by their knowledge, their passion, their commitment to public education. Remember - almost every one of them, including Karen Lewis, were in classrooms teaching just a few weeks ago. Quite a contrast to New York City.

CORE/CTU/Local 1 delegate Katie Hogan left this comment on Jen's article at Substance based on what happened at the committee meeting:

It's hard to understand, unless one was there, the total and complete orchestration of Local 2 - New York - of all committees and floor debate. I did get up in my committee (Organizing and Labor Issues) and try to add our original Resolved: "Resolved that the AFT and its state and local affiliates will march, petition, rally, hold media events, mobilize its members and utilize the help of supportive community partners and use all resources at its disposal to dispel the myths about the success of charter schools compared to traditional public schools, to expose the inequalities that exist within the funding and management of public education and to improve the public perception of public education" -- the amendment was voted on by voice -- and in audible surprise it was unable to determine to pass or vote down. You had obviously NY delegation voting against -- they had actually stacked the committee. It went to vote by hand and we were unfortunately defeated -- but not overwhelmingly. I also got to speak in that committee about WHY it's so important to add this particular resolved considering the national wave that is on its wave courtesy of Arne Duncan. This was a huge learning experience for everyone and I think when we go to Detroit and can write our own resolutions we will be much more prepared. However, we were fighting tooth and nail for anything we could get with our limited experience and resources. I was very proud to represent Local 1.

George Schmidt over at Substance has started posting these wonderful reports from inside the CORE caucus who sent 108 delegates to Seattle and came up against the massive 800 member Unity juggernaut, totally controlled and under caucus discipline. They listened, learned, fought back and compromised when they could and stood their ground when they couldn't.


Ed Note:
Look for the follow-up article later in the day that discusses UFT policy related to closing schools.

Add-on:
Good point by commenter Esteban who said: "Call me a cynic, but passing a resolution and actually following it are not the same thing" Esteban is so right. The Unity compromise was for PR purposes and will have zero impact on policy - unless there is an increasing national uprising, especially in New York.

Conflicts of Interest Galore at Tweed - Duffy Leaves to go to Victory Charters and Cami Anderson to Run Charters While Still at DOE

Last Updated Mon, July 19, 2010, 10:14pm


Has Klein passed another lemon?

Garth Harries, Christopher Cerf, and now— Duffy
(Thanks to MM - Magnificent Mona for the heads up.)

The NYCDOE might as well declare itself a hiring hall for top executives using their positions to better themselves at the expense of public school community. We just learned that DOE Charter school chief Michael Duffy is leaving to go to Victory Schools charter management organization, which manages to skim a tidy sum off the top of the schools they manage.

There are lots of comments floating around about what a loss Duffy will be to Klein. I have not had enough personal contact other than some friendly greetings at meetings, insiders have not been impressed. Another case of Klein's passing the lemon?

See Wall St. Journal article on Duffy going to Victory which includes an analysis of the current for profit category and how it may now figure out how to scam the public by switching to non-profit.

And...

Alternative high schools district supt. Cami Anderson gets a pass from the conflicted interest board. Leonie said:

The city’s Conflict of Interest board approves DOE’s Cami Anderson to run a chain of charter schools; big surprise since they go along with anything the mayor and/or the city agencies want. It is a shame when this is how low the people running our public schools have sunk.

Here is Yoav Gonen's article in the NY Post. Even Yoav seems shocked.

City ed. big OK'd for schools role

7:37 AM, July 19, 2010

The city's Conflicts of Interest Board is letting a district superintendent play a pivotal role in opening three charter schools that would serve the same group of students she oversees.

Alternative High Schools District leader Cami Anderson got permission not only to help open and advocate for the alternative charters but also to raise money and recruit board members -- all on city time.

That's despite concerns about an education official's having a stake in schools that fall outside her district's purview and that might compete for students. If approved, two charters would open in The Bronx and one in Brooklyn in 2011.

Are The Winds Changing for the Ed Deformers?

What does it mean politically when Mike Winerip suddenly reappears as an education columnist every Monday in the NY Times, which had ended years of the traditional ed columns by the likes of Winerip, Samuel Freedman and Paul Rothstein – all writers who have done critical pieces on NCLB and the general ed deform crowd. To many of then (Rothstein is public enemy number one.)

I'm thinking that the original cancellation of these columns has a political backdrop as does their renewal. A sign that the wind are a changin' for the ed deformers after 16 years of practical experience in destroying urban ed systems.

Today, Winerip goes after Race To The Top with a penetrating column on a beloved principal in Vermont who had to be let go due to RTTT. Leonie has some great comments over at NYCPSP:

No One Safe From the “Race”

Here is her idea for a sure-bet hit:

Hey, how about making Race to the Top a new reality show? Film a few schools each week, and let them compete on whether just the principal should be fired, or the principal and half the staff; or the entire staff should be fired and turn the building over to a charter school! This could make good ratings and the Gates Foundation and/or Microsoft could co-sponsor!

Steve Koss commented:

Disgraceful almost beyond words. Institutionalized blindness is such a tragedy. I'm reminded of the quote (not sure I have the exact phrasing or order correct here) attributed to Albert Einstein: "Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts."

David Bloomfield

The crazy, frustrating thing about the the forces that advocate such "transformation" is that they have defined failure as poor test scores and, even if strategically admitting the definition's deficiencies, insist that 'bold" change is necessary anyway. Defenders of principals like Ms. Irvine suffer big lie accusations of being soft-hearted perpetuators of mediocrity or are patronized as incrementalists. One commentator recently inoculated the whole movement by predicting these stories of excessed excellent principals, dismissed as exceptions. EXASPERATING! Nothing gets in the way of their ideological steamroller.

NY Times: Proficient, Proshmicient, So What's the Big Deal?

Leonie lays waste to the editorial staffs of the Daily News and NY Times while praising excellent Daily News reporters. But at least the News told the truth while not mentioning the fraud perpetrated by BloomKlein. And didn't the NY Post actually mock the DOE's credit recovery program? When Bloomberg won a third term I told people this may turn out to be a blessing in disguise as he will still be on office when the shit starts hitting the fan. Better duck.

Here are some excerpts from Leonie's post:

What are the chances that now that Bloomberg has successfully won his battle to retain nearly unlimited control over our schools, and is in the midst of his third term, the editors of the News and the Times will apologize to their readers, and admit that the smell they’ve told us was roses was really an artificial chemical, successfully concocted to fool them? Don't hold your breath.

The Daily News editorial board finally gave up today, and admitted that the city’s big gains in state test scores over the Bloomberg era have been a vast mirage, in an editorial called Harsh lesson for N.Y.

In August 2009, when Bloomberg was pressing for extension of mayoral control of the schools and his own re-election, the Times published a credulous story that recounted the steep increase in state test scores without directly quoting any of the skeptics; and also incorrectly used the DOE’s preferred date of 2002 instead of 2003 to claim improvements on the national exams called the NAEPs.


The article omitted any of the abundant evidence that the state exams and their scoring had become easier over time. (See my critique of their August 2009 article, NY Times falls in line with the Bloomberg PR spin control; and the response from Times editor, Ian Trontz: The NY Times response, and my reply. See also Wayne Barrett's take on our critique of the Times.)

When do people like Brent Staples who often writes Times editorials on education start to hang their heads in shame?

Read Leonie's full piece:
Harsh lessons for the editors of the Daily News and NY Times

And Steve Koss' comment:

It is moderately heartening to see the Daily News editorial board finally publicly concede what so many of us have known for so long: the "extraordinary gains" in Math and English Language Arts proficiency of Grade 3 - 8 children in NYC public schools as ostensibly measured by the annual NYS examinations has in fact been nothing but smoke and mirrors. In fact, it has all been a con, a sham, a massive educational fraud. Too bad that it took eight years and a lecture from someone in Albany to discover something that was already well-known, even among the paper's own reporting staff! This isn't some sudden discovery, except apparently to the folks sitting around the Daily News editorial board table.

Yet even the Daily News's editorial concession is shameful, striking the bloodless note of an anonymous, monolithic, Kafkaesque bureaucracy with its "mistakes were made" impersonality. Consider that the NY Daily News has been one of the biggest cheerleaders for mayoral control of NYC's public schools, often arguing the importance of accountability as one of its major justifications. The logic is inescapable, yet the Daily News refuses to follow where it so obviously leads: to the Mayor's office and that of his prime henchman, Joel Klein.

If after eight years, editors at the Daily News are willing to concede that there has been virtually no progress in the city's public education system, then they cannot avoid the logical consequences of their own arguments -- ACCOUNTABILITY.

Time to cut that City Hall cord, guys. Time to man up and call out the folks who've wasted billions and built an entire regime of reporting, incentivizing, school closures, and curriculum manipulation around a mirage. Time to admit that a mayor and schools chancellor who brought us all those incredible test score gains not only brought us nothing, they've done incredible, possibly irreversible harm to the city's children and its educational system as well. Most of all, it's time to face the facts: you (and most NYers) were played.

Steve Koss

Jean Shepherd

My wife called me this morning from her car to tell me NPR was running a repeat of the Harry Shearer ten year old tribute to Jean Shepherd. As teenagers growing up in the East NY section of Brooklyn, my friends and I went to sleep with the transistor radio under the covers listening to Jean Shepherd spin tales of his childhood and early adulthood. If you saw Christmas Story, one of the funniest movies ever, that is Shepherd's work – Ralphie was the Shepherd protagonist.

Today they had the first hour (next Sunday at 7am will be part 2). The show ended with a great story where they took Shepherd's entire corps of expert coders and put them in a beginners course - in coding. They all played dumb and became the worst students ever. If you've dealt with the BloomKlein DOE you will see familiar patterns. Think of some idiot professional development telling you stuff you know. Maybe Shepherd and his buddies are models. Just play dumb. Duh- Does "differentiated instruction" refer to those instruction manuals in 4 languages?

Take a look through the archives to see if you can find the show and also look on the net for some of Shepherd's broadcasts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Shepherd

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Seattle

---yes many funny things happened on the way to Seattle but this is about a funny thing that happened at the Rockaway Theatre Company where I happen to be the videographer (because they can't find anyone else).

Last night "A Funny Thing ...." opened As in all shows at the RTC it is NOT TO BE MISSED. Chazmond J. Peacock one of the great young actors at the RTC plays Pseudolus, the Zero Mostel role and is wonderful. I've seen Chaz do Jud in Oklahoma and and Mr. Bumble in Oliver. He has been on the national tour of Oliver and recently played Mingo in the 75th Anniversary tour of Porgy and Bess. This guy is a PRO!

Last night, as an experiment, I grabbed my new little camera that I used in Seattle to see if it would work out in a theater with variable lighting and also to test the sound with the mic I was using in Seattle. I'm still figuring it out but not too bad.

Watch Chaz in the opening number – "A Comedy Tonight" - and just try to stay away.




Direct you tube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZFD-b4DGXg

You likee? You can make reservations at the RTC web site:
http://rockawaytheatrecompany.org/

Or contact me and I'll get you tickets. We have a crew going this Friday. Join us.

Some of this stuff is Broadway quality.
Only $20 ($15 for seniors) and free parking.
At the Post Theater in Fort Tilden right over the Gil Hodges bridge.

The RTC is very influenced by current and retired NYC teachers. The Board of Directors has at least 4, many direct and act in the shows (one of the young actresses in this show teaches 6th grade at a Brooklyn elementary school) and some of their former students who were in their shows in school have been in RTC shows. By the way, most of the band are teachers, many at Forest Hills HS.

One of the wonderful things they have done is mixed all ages into a souffle that works incredibly well. Teens who started out with the RTC and are now in their 20's are still around and hang with the people who are - ahem - almost approaching my age. If you watched the video you can see the mix. Most of these people are regulars.

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Afterburn
And oh yes, they want me to audition for the Murray the Cop role in The Odd Couple in December. If I do and get the part it would be my first time in a play. Oy! The heartburn is starting already - maybe something Murray might say?

Frank Caiati is another young actor who does wonders on stage. He is teaching another acting course at the RTC starting Sunday Aug. 1 (10-11:30) through Sept. 26. I've taken 3 classes with Frank so far and they have all been wonderful. Frank is around 23 years old, a grad of Kings Borough HS and Brooklyn College and always lights up the stage. If you want to dabble in acting and also have a great time, come on down (fee is $150.)