Elena Kagan Brothers Take Stands as NYC Teachers

Some take more pride in the work of Irving and Marc Kagan than their sister. Count me as one of them. At least they leave a public record. From what I read about Marc in particular, he is much needed on the front lines of the resistance to the ed deformers.

With Elena Kagan due to be appointed to the Supreme Court as early as today, let's take a look at the tale of Kagan's two brothers, Irving and Marc, both NYC high school teachers.

Hours after the principal’s address, a committee of Hunter High teachers that included Ms. Kagan’s brother, Irving, read aloud a notice of no confidence to the president of Hunter College, who ultimately oversees the high school, one of the most prestigious public schools in the nation.

The above quote is from today's NY Times front page article on the lack of diversity at Kagan's alma mata, Hunter College High School, where Kagan's mom taught, as does her brother Irving. The article delves into the tensions between the school's faculty and the Hunter College president Jennifer Raab and how the teachers at the school are the ones pushing the most to diversify the school which currently is 3% black and 1% hispanic. It is Raab who has resisted which I find interesting given that the State Ed commissioner David Steiner comes out of the Hunter College top admin ranks - where did he stand? Steiner along with his boss at the State Board of Regents Meryl Tisch, are two of the bigger hypocrites around.

Good for Irving Kagan for taking a stand.

Also in the article is an important discussion on the Hunter admissions test.

The events fanned a long-standing disagreement between much of the high school faculty and the administration of Hunter College over the use of a single, teacher-written test for admission to the school, which has grades 7 through 12. Faculty committees have recommended broadening the admissions process to include criteria like interviews, observations or portfolios of student work, in part to increase minority enrollment and blunt the impact of the professional test preparation undertaken by many prospective students. 

As has happened at other prestigious city high schools that use only a test for admission, the black and Hispanic population at Hunter has fallen in recent years. In 1995, the entering seventh-grade class was 12 percent black and 6 percent Hispanic, according to state data. This past year, it was 3 percent black and 1 percent Hispanic; the balance was 47 percent Asian and 41 percent white, with the other 8 percent of students identifying themselves as multiracial. The public school system as a whole is 70 percent black and Hispanic.

When Justin Hudson, 18, stood up in his purple robes to address his classmates in the auditorium of Hunter College, those numbers were on his mind. He opened his remarks by praising the school and explaining how appreciative he was to have made it to that moment. Then he shocked his audience.

See after burn following this post for the statement made at graduation by Justin.

 How I found out Marc Kagan ran on the ICE/TJC slate for AFT/NYSUT Delegate

I never made the connection until it was pointed out to me by a reporter from the AP who called the ICE phone number listed on the election blog.

She was calling to find out more information about Marc Kagan.

"Who," I said?

"Elena Kagan's brother, a teacher at Bronx High School of Science," she said. "His name appears on your web site as a candidate for some kind of union election."

I recognized the name from the slate but had never made a connection. The reporter proceeded to fill me in on Kagan's background as an activist in the transit union. How he was elected to the leadership on a reform slate with Roger Toussaint, had a falling out with him and ended up becoming a teacher as part of the Teaching Fellows program in 200

I was intrigued, but cautious. I didn't know anything to tell her (later I found out who in ICE had asked Kagan to run and the dots started to connect).

Sensing my reluctance, she prompted me to give her more info. "Marc Kagan's background is sure to come up in the Senate hearings [it didn't as far as I know] and it all might as well come out now."

I envisioned a southern senator drawling as he questioned Elena:

"Is your brother's running with ICE-TJC an indication that you might be in opposition to sell-out dictator-like Unity Caucus leadership, without the cooperation of which the Obama/Duncan/BloomKlein assault on education could not be successful?"

Darn, I would have paid to see that.

I did share with the AP reporter the situation at Bronx High School of Science where numerous people had been harassed, including Peter Lamphere the chapter leader and much of the math department. I speculated on where Kagan stood in this battle. A few months later I heard he attended the rally by Bronx High teachers at Bloomberg's house.

The Marc Kagan story did emerge later on in these articles in the Village Voice and the NY Times:

Elena Kagan and Family: Best of the Upper Left Side, with a Pro-Union Brother

The Kagan Family: Left-Leaning and Outspoken

Here's hoping we see more of Marc Kagan in the movement to save public education.


After burns

Here is part of the Voice piece on Marc:

Then there's Kagan's brother, Marc, who was a transit worker and union reformer in Transport Workers Local 100. Marc Kagan was one of former Local 100 leader Roger Toussaint's top aides until the two had a falling out in 2003. That's par for the course for the Upper Left Side, where if you can't launch two feuds before lunch, the day's a waste.
Marc Kagan became a teacher and he's no less a fierce supporter of union rights in his new union. In a letter in last week's Chief-Leader, he takes a swipe at schools chancellor Joel Klein's notion that seniority rules shouldn't apply to upcoming teacher layoffs. He goes on to offer a full-throated defense of unionism, one that's likely to light up the eyes of Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell as he looks around for something to throw at the new White House nominee.

Here is Marc Kagan's letter to the Chief:

A Larger Issue for Unions


I write in response to your editorial, “Klein’s Imperfect Logic” (April 30 issue). Of course, I agree with your conclusion, that Teacher layoffs should be based on seniority. But I am troubled by part of your rationale. It seems to me a symptom of how unions — and supporters of the idea of unionism, such as The Chief — have ceded ground to our opponents.


You correctly write that the Bing-Diaz bill is flawed because Teachers would be subject to victimization, particularly those at higher rates of pay. I would add that many would have little chance of finding new employment at the DOE, since each Principal essentially now has an NBA-like “salary cap” that militates against hiring senior staff.


But you also suggest that the DOE proposal is simply no better at determining who is a good Teacher than the seniority system. That’s dangerous ground; what if it was better, or claimed to be? As Mark Twain said, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” Soon enough the DOE will start to churn its data machine to “prove” that younger teachers teach to the test better, or teach 8th grade Earth Science better, or spin on their heads better. They’ll send Post and Times reporters scurrying after this or that second year Teach for America superstar. [Disclosure: I was hired as a Teaching Fellow, a program for which I personally am very grateful].


Moreover, I don’t care if it’s a “better” system. Here’s a heretical thought: the actual purpose of unions is to improve workers’ lives by challenging the free market: to win a higher than “market” wage, to make it hard for the employer to change working conditions or fire the higher-paid worker. We shouldn’t hide these ideas under a rock like we’re ashamed of them; just the opposite. When unions won the 8-hour day, or the weekend, or pension plans, unions defended the idea that working people’s lives and rights were socially more important than employers’ profits and rights. And we said that those victories would tend to spread, even into nonunionized sectors, and generally make people’s lives better. And that was true, for decades.


Today we are playing this movie backwards. As people in the nonunion sector have faced big roll-backs in wages and benefits, we hear them complain that unionized workers should also “give back.” It’s an indication that we have, at least temporarily, lost the battle of ideas in this country, that we can’t successfully explain to our fellow workers that it is in their interests too if we are able to hold the line somewhere, rather than engage in a frantic race to the bottom.


In some ways, we have been reminded in recent months that unregulated free markets can make a handful of people money at the expense of the larger society. In 12th-grade Economics class we have a term for this: Negative Externality. The classic example is the polluter who saves a few bucks by fouling the drinking water for the whole town.

Goldman Sachs is a Negative Externality. And we should make the case that so are Joel Klein and Jonathan Bing. It’s morally and ethically wrong to take away the jobs of people who have worked hard for decades simply because a cheaper body can be found. It is a spiritual pollution of the values that we should uphold. It is another step away from civilized behavior toward the idea that only might makes right. If we can make this case to the public we can win; otherwise, scratch and claw as we will, we will be fighting an ultimately losing battle.< Finally, I would just add that if the “for the students” mantra is successful, it will open up the door for attacks on every public union in the city that has some kind of seniority pay grade. I’m sure the city can “prove” that 23- year-old studs make better Sanitation Workers than 38-year-olds. Or that 42-year-old Firefighters have lost a step or two compared with their first year brethren.


We all tend to fight our own battles and try to preserve our resources otherwise; my union, too. In the short run, this makes complete sense. We’re all concerned about what we need in the next five minutes or the next three months or, at the longest in our own next contract round, even though we are all stuck in this pattern-bargaining contract system where wages are largely pre-ordained before the bargaining begins.


Management, whether private or Mayor Bloomberg, thinks hard about how its labor strategy will unfold over the next 10 or 20 years; if we could learn to do the same, we might have a brighter 2030. And that would be a really good thing.


MARC KAGAN
UFT member

Here is some great stuff on Marc Kagan from the June 20 NY Times piece:

WHILE a student at Princeton University, Elena Kagan made reference to her older brother’s “involvement in radical causes” as an inspiration for her senior thesis on the Socialist movement in New York.
After attending two of the nation’s most exalted educational institutions, the Dalton School and Yale, Marc Kagan appeared to purposefully descend the class ladder. It was as if he needed to join the proletariat in order to raise it up.

In 1984, he became a mechanic at the 207th Street subway yard in Upper Manhattan, operating a forklift, among other responsibilities. “We did not know he was a Yale graduate,” said Joe Fernandez, a former co-worker who still works at the yard. “He was very low key.”
A former colleague of Gloria Kagan’s, Robert E. Mason IV, said that “she was wondering how long he would do that.”

Mr. Kagan’s union involvement grew during the 1990s, and he joined a movement called New Directions that was challenging the leadership of the Transport Workers Union local. When one of its leaders, Roger Toussaint, was elected union president in 2000, Mr. Kagan became his special assistant, or chief of staff.

But Mr. Kagan, now 53, had misgivings about the 2002 contract that he had helped negotiate, said Alan Saly, director of publications for the local, and he let some of his former co-workers know it. Among other issues, he objected to the fact that the contract relied on a bonus of $1,000 in the third year, rather than a raise, so it would not count toward workers’ pensions or future salary increases.

Mr. Kagan was fired from the union, as were several associates. “Roger didn’t like dissent,” said Mr. Saly, who was later forced out himself by Mr. Toussaint, only to return. “His opinion was that a deal is a deal and you should get behind it.”

Mr. Toussaint, who now works for the national transit workers’ union, denied that Mr. Kagan’s departure was related to “issues or differences around the contract,” but he would not elaborate, citing the family’s privacy. Mr. Kagan, who had married his Yale sweetheart, LeeAnn Graham, and has two children, became a teacher, working at A. Philip Randolph Campus High School in Harlem before moving to the prestigious Bronx High School of Science.

Students say he is devoted and demanding in his course on world history, which spans 8,000 years. Mohammad Nauman, a senior, recalled Mr. Kagan trying to find ways to energize the class, like ordering students to run up and down stairs when they studied the concept of horsepower.

But others, like Aja Colon, a 16-year-old junior, saw a stricter side of Mr. Kagan, who also serves as a disciplinary dean. During an event last fall called Freshmen Fridays, Mr. Kagan tore stickers off students’ shirts that bore labels like “fresh meat” and other inappropriate phrases. “He yells,” Ms. Colon said. “He definitely yells. He’s a fan of that.”

Mr. Kagan has also pressed the Bronx Science administration to make sure teachers have time for professional development, said a colleague, Gary Hom, a physics teacher who described Mr. Kagan as “always on the side of teachers.”

This spring, in a letter to The Chief-Leader, a civil service employees’ newspaper, Mr. Kagan compared the attempts by Joel I. Klein, the schools chancellor, to end teacher seniority protections to Goldman Sachs’s alleged misdeeds. The letter had the crusading, poetic feel of a lawyer making closing arguments. “It’s morally and ethically wrong to take away the jobs of people who have worked hard for decades simply because a cheaper body can be found,” he wrote. “It is a spiritual pollution of the values that we should uphold. It is another step away from civilized behavior toward the idea that only might makes right.”

Justin Hudson at the Hunter College HS grad

Then he shocked his audience. “More than anything else, I feel guilty,” Mr. Hudson, who is black and Hispanic, told his 183 fellow graduates. “I don’t deserve any of this. And neither do you.” 

They had been labeled “gifted,” he told them, based on a test they passed “due to luck and circumstance.” Beneficiaries of advantages, they were disproportionately from middle-class Asian and white neighborhoods known for good schools and the prevalence of tutoring. 

“If you truly believe that the demographics of Hunter represent the distribution of intelligence in this city,” he said, “then you must believe that the Upper West Side, Bayside and Flushing are intrinsically more intelligent than the South Bronx, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Washington Heights. And I refuse to accept that.” 

The entire faculty gave him a standing ovation, as did about half the students. The principal, Eileen Coppola, who had quietly submitted her formal resignation in mid-June but had not yet informed the faculty, praised him, saying, “That was a very good and a very brave speech to make,” Mr. Hudson recalled. But Jennifer J. Raab, Hunter College’s president and herself a Hunter High alumna, looked uncomfortable on the stage and did not join in the ovation, faculty members and students said. 

Wasn't Raab and Hunter also involved with Joel Klein in trying to take over the site of the Julia Richman complex where many schools co-exist in peace? Let's hope Raab continues to look uncomfortable.

More on Leonhardt Piece and No More Social Promotion from the Womb

We met long time friends for a movie and dinner Sunday night - both retired teachers. We talked about the Dave Leonhardt NY Times business section piece the other day on paying certain kindergarten teachers $320,000 the other day? Our friends thought it was a positive piece, though there were things that made them a bit quesy.

Most people - even s lot of teachers - viewed that as a positive article. But I saw it as an ed deform piece that endorsed the Rhee firings and totally downplayed the real import of the Tennessee study - that class size was a major determining factor in making teachers better. Leonhardt mentionned class size in passing. Note that a major mantra if ed deform is that class size is irrelevant. I wrote about it in this piece:

Does NY Times' Leonhardt Distort Tennessee Class Size Study?

Today's Times had a gaggle of letters, all it seems critical of Leonhardt. How nice to be right.

The venerable Richard Rothstein, whose work forms the basis of the anti-ed deform movement, was the lead letter. Rothstein closes with:

Policies based on exaggerating school reform’s ability to ameliorate inequality leave most working families and their children unprotected. We need educational improvement, including better kindergarten, but also economic reforms — more job creation, greater protection of union organizing rights, higher minimum wages and more generous earned income tax credits — if we want disadvantaged children to have a fighting chance.

Edward Miller wrote:

But what makes for highly effective teachers?
Another important study may hold the answer. The HighScope Preschool Curriculum Comparison Study followed children randomly assigned to different preschool programs through young adulthood, with striking results. The children who learned mainly through playful activities fared much better at their work and social responsibilities than those in an academic instruction-oriented class.
Social and dramatic play in kindergarten develops patience, self-regulation, empathy and perseverance — the critical “skills that last a lifetime,” as Mr. Leonhardt puts it, but aren’t measured by multiple-choice tests. Yet teachers in thousands of schools are being told not to let children play in the classroom. That’s a recipe for long-term failure. 

Gail Rosenberg, one of our old colleagues wrote:

Our future adults should be expected to communicate with creativity and humor, as generous, thoughtful, caring learners and human beings. The development of these attributes must take precedence in early childhood. Test prepping and academic focus in the early stages of learning will never create the kind of citizens we want to embrace our future world. 

Anne Mackin says

Many thanks for this article, although I wish it had not played down other contributing factors, like class size. After all, we have more control over class size than the elusive “teacher quality.”

 Ashlee Tran said:

You grazed over the fact that early interventions for long-term benefits start even earlier than kindergarten — they begin in preschool. Notable longitudinal research has been done (like the Perry Preschool Project and the Chicago Child-Parent Center Program) on the effects of high-quality preschool programs. 

 Sorry Ashlee, they haven't figured out how to give a multiple choice test in the womb.


 No social promotion for your future child
Answer the questions correctly or you will be left back – in the womb.

Report: When/why progress in closing achievement gap stalled

"These areas are important, the report says, because student achievement is related to family, demographic and environmental factors."

DUHHHHHH!

Sing a song to VALERIE

The authors discuss various issues that could help explain why progress stopped, including some sensitive ones such as inadequate care in early childhood, the decline of communities and neighborhoods, the explosion of single-parent families, the employment plight of black males and stalled intergenerational mobility out of seriously disadvantaged neighborhoods.

These areas are important, the report says, because student achievement is related to family, demographic and environmental factors.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/equity/the-achievement-gap-when-progr.html#more

What is the job of an AFT convention delegate?

The top-down structure of the AFT appears to allow for the “locals” to choose roughly 15-20% of the resolutions, while the leadership gets 90-95% of its chosen resolutions passed.
Susan Zupan for Substance

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

Introduction of AFT delegate's job... A first look at the national union convention of 2010

Having just been elected on June 11, with less than one month to make all the traveling arrangements and attempt to do their union homework, 104 newly elected CTU delegates from the CORE (Caucus of Rank and File Educators) Caucus along with 4 veteran CTU delegates from the UPC (United Progressive Caucus) Caucus attended the convention. For most, it was a crash course in national unionism. Although the total number of delegates Chicago could have sent was 150, only 108 were in Seattle for the convention.

More than a dozen delegates from CTU Local 1 took the floor during the debates over the resolutions presented to the convention. Above, Karie Hogan of Little Village High School School of Social Justice is projected on to the big screen during her remarks. On many occasions, Chicago's delegates were speaking in opposition to New York City's massive United Federation of Teachers delegation, which frowned on Chicago's independence from Randi Weingarten's political machine. Chicago delegates quickly came to know that members of Weingarten's "Progressive Caucus" were looking over their shoulders throughout the convention. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.


Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis spoke many times during the convention, both during the debates in the general sessions and at the daily breakfasts of the Illinois Federation of Teachers. One of the highlights of the convention for Chicago was when Lewis received the second highest number of votes for AFT vice president (one of 43 vice presidents elected to the AFT executive council) in the election. The majority of the members of the Chicago delegation refused to join the Progressive Caucus, but Lewis and Michael Brunson (CTU recording secretary) did, so Lewis could be slated for an executive council seat. Above, Lewis speaks to the breakfast while Geppart looks on. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.

Jim Vail

Thank you Susan for writing a clear and excellent analysis of the AFT convention. We the first time AFT delegates learned a lot about how to shape future national union politics under the threat of total destruction by the business community and presidential administration.

Newsweek: Shouldn't staff salaries be merit-based and depend upon sales, revenues and readership?

Reality Based Educator Nails 'em again in his post:

Newsweek To Be Sold For A Dollar

He concludes with:

I mean, fair's fair.

If that "turnaround" and performance-based strategy is good enough for the Central Falls, Rhode Island school and other schools that Newsweek urges be shut down for "failing," isn't it good enough for the hypocrites at Newsweek?

Newsweek's headline for the famed "Fire Bad Teachers" story was "In No Other Profession Are Workers So Insulated From Accountability."

Oh, really?

What about journalism?

What about at Newsweek?

Read it in full: Newsweek To Be Sold For A Dollar

And Paul Moore has this advice for one of the few lights at the Washington Post in his  

Love Letter to Valerie Strauss in D.C.:

 Ms. Strauss, you are such an earnest and able defender of the public schools, but I wonder if in times of quiet reflection you realize that those driving this blitzkrieg against universal public education in the US don't care what you write.

You can and have constructed a series of reports that are reasoned and rational and backed up by whatever honest research has actually been done in the field. And it's water off the backs of these ducks with all the money. You see the people with the money have decided it's time for the public schools to go! (Check the Venture Philanthropy Partners $5.5 million gift to KIPP so the charter chain can better serve its true mission: to discredit public schools).

On the monied attackers side the truth is of no concern, rationality holds no sway, and they laugh at your stinking research. You've got a charlatan like Gates but the rankest absurdity that comes out of his mouth is treated like a gem from an oracle because he's the world's richest man. It's repeated by all the politicians he owns, up to and including a certain President of the United States and in the case of the District a certain Mayor, until total nonsense is accepted as gospel. And then the complete sociopaths, like Michelle Rhee, are sent in to slay the heretics, read any sane person who dares to stand up for public schools.

You have my undying respect and admiration Ms. Strauss. You're one of the good people. But understand that if you were ever to write something that actually threatened to derail the rich folks, the venture capitalists, the hedge funds campaign to shutdown the public schools, your column would disappear from the pages of the Washington Post the next day. And I pray that's the worst thing that would happen to you.

I too love Valerie.

UFT COPING Very well

I get email from people telling me they withdrew from COPE. But clearly the major UFT effort to push their CL's to get people to sign COPE checkoff cards is paying off.

Anna Philips at Gotham reprises Kim Gittleson's July 20 piece. Anna raises the golden question: "It’s unclear where the sudden infusion came from and what the union plans to do with it."

I can tell you that the membership will have zero say in where this money goes.
 

August 2, 2010

Teachers union’s political funds grow and some migrate south

by Anna Phillips

New York City’s economy is still suffering, but the teachers union’s political coffers have grown, as have union members’ donations.

An analysis of the United Federation of Teachers’ political activities, done by Kim Gittleson, shows that contributions from union members to the union’s political action committee are at their highest level in 10 years. The amount of money in the fund, called COPE, has increased from an average of $124,000 in the earlier part of the decade to $1.35 million in July of 2009. It’s unclear where the sudden infusion came from and what the union plans to do with it.

High Stakes Tests: Die by the Sword

Last Update: Monday, Aug. 2, 2010, 8:30am

Results not good for UFT middle school charter. But so what?

I wish we'd take these new scores with the same skepticism we should have had toward the old ones.  They do not tell us what and if our children are learning.  We need to teach parents how to assess their own children in more common sense ways that doesn't leave them at the mercy of mercenaries!  Otherwise we are all subject to the latest political norming of tests. 


For low stakes or no stakes purposes they can give us a rough sense of how things stand--but as soon as we attach importance to them--above all for individual children!!!! we're  back into the same cesspool.   Let's use this occasion to undermine our reliance on such instruments for judging children or teachers or schools.   Let's also use them in ways that can prevent such abuse: like using sampling that allows us to have better and more in-depth understanding as well as making it much harder to misuse.   The tests are built on sampling, but used beyond their capacity for a very different purpose.  But that means we need parents and teachers to be more expert at judging the "real" thing.

Deb Meier on the NYC Education News listserve

When BloomKlein bragged about high test scores, guess who was standing there right next to them? Good ole' RW.

When they won the bogus Broad award guess who was there again?

We had a number of disagreements with Randi Weingarten through the years over the UFT's slavish adherence to the use of test scores for all sorts of nefarious reasons. I know, I know. Every so often we would hear her blab away about the negativity of tests while at the same time agreeing to merit pay schemes based on the very same tests or claiming teachers deserve raises when test scores go up. I repeatedly warned our union leaders that what goes up must go down and if you try to tie money to test scores this will backfire one day.

When the UFT decided to start a charter, I and others in ICE were opposed. Hoping against hope that the UFT charters would be run on progressive school principals instead of test prep - we asked if the school would be run differently from the other schools that run on the basis of the tests? They responded that the use of tests were the rules. How has that turned out?


The NY Times reported as part of the state test fiasco over the past few days:

"The charter school run by the local teachers' union, the UFT Charter School, showed one of the most severe declines, to 13 percent of eighth graders proficient in math, from 79 percent."

Now since I often discount tests as the sole basis for judging schools, who can tell if the UFT charter really has declined? But since the UFT decides to play by these rules we have to ask: Could UFT nepotism have played a role in the results? Long-time District 22 rep UFT mouthpiece Peter Goodman's (Ed in the Apple) son Drew was made principal of the UFT middle school charter after a supposed nationwide "search" that cost more than a few bucks. (Drew Goodman's mom Joan was also a UFT district rep for many years)

Javier Hernandez wrote the story about Goodman's situation in the Times, Dec. 2008: “At School Union Runs, Principal Steps Down

Drew D. Goodman stepped down last week as principal of the union-run school, the United Federation of Teachers Secondary Charter School in East New York, Brooklyn, after union leaders grew dissatisfied with his handling of brewing teacher dissatisfaction.

How did Randi defend the school at the time?

She pointed to high test scores among students at the union’s elementary school — this year, 81 percent of third-graders passed state English tests and 98 percent met math standards — as evidence that the schools were succeeding.

Nothing else to say, Randi? Only those darn tests?

Hernandez delved into the UFT elementary school too:

Mr. Goodman’s resignation mirrored a shake-up last spring at the union’s elementary charter school, also in East New York, when the principal resigned amid complaints by teachers and parents of heavy-handed governance.

The UFT solved more than one problem in this case by appointing UFT elementary school VP Michelle Bodden as the principal of the elementary school. Bodden for years had been the assumed successor to Weingarten as UFT President until she was moved out to make way for Mulgrew, thus allowing the killing of 2 birds with one stone. Bodden had become very popular not only with teachers but had lots of fans within 52 Broadway. But she no longer had the big enchilada in her corner.

Some commentators had a bit of fun with the Goodman story at the time:

Weingarten defends the school by pointing to its high standardized test scores, even though, as we all know, using standardized test scores to evaluate teachers and students “distorts and constricts our understanding of quality teaching and learning.”

Gee, Randi talking out of 2 sides of her mouth on testing? Shocking.


We agree with Deb Meier's quote with which we began this post and do not think schools should be judged solely as successes and failures based on one test given a year - I don't even like to use these words because things are so much more complex. This concept is being discussed within groups like GEM and on Leonie's NYC Ed News listserve, where heavyweights like Diane Ravitch and her blogging counterpart Deb weigh in regularly.

For those who don't know about Deh, I first heard of the work she was doing as far back as the early 70's when I wanted to try an open classroom and Deb was considered the master. I had read Herbert Kohl's "36 Children" and was trying out open classroom ideas in my class in 1971 - with somewhat disastrous results.  I should have tracked Deb down for advice but I never got to meet her until I went to a panel at NYU about 3 years ago where Deb appeared as one of the few people allowed to challenge the Kahlenberg Shanker book (Tough Liberal). Boy did she take a poke.

One of the original key backdrops to the Bridging Differences blog where Diane and Deb have their dialogue is Deb as a defender of progressive education and Diane as a critic (favoring a traditional approach, which by the way is where Shanker was coming from. Since they started there has been a whole lot of bridges breached when it comes to the ed deformers. And who knows? One day we might even see some more agreement on fundamental ways of reaching kids. But of course, Diane is a researcher and Deb comes from the classroom so there is a lot of room to roam.

How the hell did I get from there to here in this post? Can it be the heat?

Reactions

UPDATE:

So what's the story? Have NYC schools made progress in test scores or not....see Leonie's analysis at http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2010/08/so-whats-story-have-nyc-schools-made.html

Chaz's School Daze

The New York Daily News Editorial Board Is Simply A Propagana Outlet For The Bloomberg Administration When It Comes To Education 


C Public School Parents

Er-r-r, Um-m-m, Well, Hm-m-m: Mayor Dissembles in Blagojevichian Style

NYC Educator
 

ICEUFT Blog

NEW YORK TEST SCORES PLUNGE 

Plus I hear Leo Casey has some nonsense defending the actions of the UFT at Edwize. Just ate so won't go there, but maybe after I get back from movie/dinner and before Madmen. But they again reading Leo.....

Norm Does History at the AFT Peace & Justice Meeting in Seattle

I was asked to provide some historical context to the current state of resistance in NYC at the AFT P&J committee meeting on July 9, 2010. Lisa North (ICE/GEM) chaired the meeting.

"You not only have to deal with charters, you have to deal with charters that are like a cancer in your own building."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMLPrWrcAGk&feature=player_embedded


Want more of my drivel?

I was asked to cover for a guest too chicken to appear by Bronx Teacher on his penetrating weekly internet radio show (every Tuesday night at 9pm).

"The union has consistently been giving back since 1968." Well, psychologically at least. There was one more contract with gains and then in '72 it was all downhill.

He asked some great questions and I had a chance to get into issues in terms of historical context of the UFT - the '68 strike, the '75 massive cuts to schools and other issues to help prove my point that Randi Weingarten DID NOT CHANGE DIRECTION but continued and amplified the policies set in motion by Al Shanker.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/bronx-teacher/2010/07/28/the-mind-of-a-bronx-teacher

Randi and Rhee: Firings in DC Aided By AFT Subversion of Union Elections

I was on the phone the other day with a long retired teacher I worked with for many years - she is 80 years old today so I sent congrats (and flowers) to her. She has had little interest in education issues for many years. "Oh, those firings in Washington," she said. "They must be crazy."

Yes, the Rhee in DC story has captivated people's attention. I've noticed lots of our buddy bloggers have castigated Randi Weingarten for screwing the teachers in DC by negotiating the contract with Rhee that allowed for these firings.

What they haven't touched on is how Randi helped subvert the DC teacher union elections which were supposed to take place sometime in May. In essence Randi functioned as Michelle Rhee's agent. Is she a Manchurian Candidate?

As chronicled by Candi Peterson, the current president of the union, George Parker, has run the union into the ground. But he was more amenable to the contract than his opponent in the presidential race, Nathan Saunders, who currently is the VP. Except he isn't since both he and Parker's terms expired on July 1.

Now follow this bouncing ball. If the election had been held in May and Saunders were elected, the chances of the Rhee/Randi contract being voted up might have been jeopardized. I know, I know - it passed overwhelmingly. But if all the information as to repercussions had been distributed with a new union admin coming in, who knows what would have happened? Randi could not take that chance.

So when Parker did not submit the legally required petitions to enable him to run in time for the deadline, Randi was aghast. In essence, Parker has handed the election to Saunders at a crucial time when Rhee and Randi were about to seal the deal. Getting this done was very important to Randi as this would help seal her reputation as an ed reformer when in reality we know she is an ed deformer.

Now the Washington DC teachers union election is in the hands of an AFT committee and no matter what they say and do we know one thing- Randi does not want Saunders, a version of Karen Lewis in Chicago (who just called for the cancellation of Teach for America contracts as one example of someone with union moxie) to win.

At the AFT convention in Seattle a few weeks ago, I had a chance to do a brief interview with Nathan Saunders at the Chicago Teachers Union party and the next day filmed Candi Peterson as she made a presentation on the DC situation to an AFT Peace and Justice Committee event. I'll let them speak for themselves.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4wo0viVzT0&feature=player_embedded

And here is the latest info from Candi:

Norm
Please take a look at this survey, designed by AFT - no doubt. I have never seen anything like it. Have you? Surveying our union members about the upcoming mayoral and DC City Council chairman race when we have a political arm of the WTU. My guess is that George Parker, WTU President and AFT President, Randi Weingarten may want to throw their support to Mayor Adrian Fenty . Another term with Fenty would guarantee Chancellor Rhee and company will stay at the helm. This is absurd when every other union in DC is supporting Chairman Vincent Gray for Mayor. Wonder why? because Fenty believes in firing everyone in this town.

I'd love to know your thoughts on this survey?

Candi

(See Survey at Norms Notes)

AFT Survey for DC Teachers

 

 

Oh, What a Show - Four days left to See "Heavy"

I got home late last night after seeing "Heavy Light the Weight of a Flame," the one man show by Ernie Silva, my former 4th grade student from over 25 years ago (facebook, Ed Notes, Huffington Post review).

I know the major stories of the day are the test results, the story breaking just as I was leaving to head into the city yesterday afternoon. I managed to get something up before I left. Many bloggers have been out there - check the blogroll for NYC Educator, Leonie on the parent blog, Perdido, Chaz, Accountable Talk, Queens Teacher, etc. I'm not sure I have much to add but there was so many great comments coming through on the listserves, I'll try to get a few up later.

But I want to talk about Ernie's show. I was joined by Yelena Siwinski - the chapter leader of PS 193K who organized that great video I shot at her school of the teachers singing and dancing to the words of a Grease song they rewrote – her friend and Frank Caiati (who I know from the Rockaway Theatre Company), an actor, director and teacher - I am starting my 4th acting class with him this Sunday.

I had seen the show twice in April when Ernie was the winner of The One festival. Ernie's friend Dino, another one of my former students had been telling me there were changes – the show was tighter and funnier, so I was really looking forward to it.

Last night La Tea theater was packed to capacity. I was somewhat surprised - as was the theater manager who commented on the number of people showing up on a Wednesday night. The show ran an hour and 15 minutes. Ernie on stage for every second. And wow, what a performance. I looked around the audience and people barely moved throughout. I don't believe I've seen such rapt attention focused on one person for such a length of time in any one man/woman show.

I have no ability to review a show like this - I just watched and enjoyed. I was reminded of Asilda Sun's wonderful "No Child Left" in the way Ernie took on the persona of so many different characters. I just loved the southern security guard who began to look like Don Knotts playing a cop as Ernie kept switching in and out of one character after another.

Look, I may be prejudiced and would have liked it under any circumstances. But I could tell from the reactions of Yelena, her friend and Frank that they were very impressed. Frank, a member of Actors Equity and SAG, for a guy not even 25 yet, has as deep seated an understanding about acting as anyone. He picked up on so many of the insights coming out of Ernie's coming of age comedy/drama.

I've been telling teachers that this is a special show for them. How Ernie was disparaged for reading too much and told his fate was drugs. How he lost 8 of his friends to aids, drugs and murder by the time he was 17. I feel this show lays lies to so much of the ed deform crap - Ernie was a good student yet still had to go through so much shit. Unless we as a society figure out how to help tackle the shit kids have to go through we will be pedaling backwards.

Ernie even managed to work my name in - Hey mom, l got a hundred on Mr. Scott's science test.

Must have been a test prep for a science test as that was all my principal was interested in. She tried to keep me from getting that top class because she felt I didn't concentrate on test prep and took too many trips - she even took away my double sized classroom as punishment for threatening to grieve if I didn't get the top class because it was my turn - but I grieved her taking away my room and actually won.


If you are in town and want to see a unique show - you can't get more for $10 - then go see "Heavy Like the Weight of a Flame." You don't need advanced tickets if you get there 15 minutes before.

I'm going back this Friday night when a whole bunch of former students who I haven't seen in 25 years will be there. Contact me if you are interested in going. There are quite a few good restaurants in the area, so let's have a party.

	Thursday, Friday and Saturday (July 29-31) at 8:00pm - Sunday, Aug 1 at 3pm
	Teatro La Tea (LA Tea Theater) 107 Suffolk St. 2nd Floor New York, NY

THE FALLOUT FROM TEST SCORE FIASCO - RAW STUFF COMING IN

This was predicted but here is some initial info rolling in. I left this comment - first one - on the Times site:

BloomKlein will comment: Let's celebrate - at least we're not as bad as Rochester.
Note that Mayor Duffy - soon to be Lt Gov- in Rochester has been pushing for mayoral control based on the "success" of mayoral control in NYC. Next up to be debunked: phony claims to raising grad rates. But then again if you use credit recovery - fog a mirror and get creditb– and bogus tests to promote people (remember how they "ended" social promotion) you reap what you sow.

Gotta go, but here is just some initial stuff. The fur will be flying all day.

Dee Alpert said this:

If you go over NYSED's materials re these scores carefully, it says there's a technical report available which has information re how cut scores were determined - and refers you to www.nysed.gov to fish it out for yourself.

Hmnnn.  It's not on the web page where links to prior years' technical reports are given and from what I can tell, it's not anywhere else on NYSED's web site either.

This is a nice way of saying that NYSED screwed with the cut scores ... again ... and that they probably should have been worse.  Otherwise NYSED would have actually made the technical report (which experts could analyze and see what's missing) available. 

However bad the NYCDOE's scores are in terms of % of kids who passed ... you can safely assume that it could, and probably should, have been a lot worse.

Dee Alpert

Leonie Haimson wrote:

State presentation here: http://ht.ly/2hO2G ;

ELA, NYC went from 69 percent of students passing exam last year to 42 percent of students passing this year – a 27 point - or 39% - decline.  Statewide drop: 77.4% down to 53.2% -- a 24 point drop and a 31% decline.  Charter school dropped from 76.1 to 43%; a 33 point drop and a 43% decline.

In Math, NYC went from 81.8 % passing in 2009 to 54% passing this year. A 28 point drop and a 34% decline. Charters went from 89.4% proficiency to 59.9%, a 29.5 point drop; a 33% decline.  Statewide: 86.4 to 61: 25.4 point drop and a 29% decline.

How does that compare to the pre-Klein era?  And does this mean that NYC’s claims of improvement compared to the rest of the state are dead in the water?

In math, Students with disabilities state wide dropped from 58.4 to 24.6; a 34 point drop and a 58% decline; ELL students, 67% down to 30.7%; a 36 point drop and a 54% decline.

In ELA, students with disabilities at proficiency dropped from 39.3 % to 15.2%; 24.1 drop and 61% decline…..  ELL dropped from 36.4% to 14.3% proficient; 22.1 point drop; and a 61% decline!!!

Awfully sad, even though many of us have known about the state test score inflation for years now.  The Mayor and his cronies sold the editorial boards and the legislature on the renewal of mayoral control, based in large part on these test scores. 

Do we get a do over?

Tim Johnson - So thoughtful to wait to recalibrate until the 3rd term was in place...
 
Reality based Ed:
Now That The State Calls Bullshit On The Scoring, NY City Test Scores Plummet: Spill, baby, spill:

Queens Teacher

A HA ! !

Does NY Times' Leonhardt Distort Tennessee Class Size Study?

Why did the article downplay the Project Star Study impact of class size and emphasize the teacher quality issue?

“We don’t really care about test scores. We care about adult outcomes.” - Raj Chetty, Harvard, in today's NY Times, "The Case for $320,000 Kindergarten Teachers."

Don' need no stinkin' research
Hmmm. Since I started connecting up former students from over 25 years ago, I've been thinking along the same lines as Chetty. The Ed Deformers constantly say it is all about outcomes - test scores - and we should not bring up inputs - student background, poverty, etc. because they are just excuses.

So the ultimate outcomes are how their adult lives turn out. Will BloomKlein take the blame for students who go through 12 years of their ed deforms and end up in prison? Nahhh, that would be due to their ineffective teachers.

There is some irony in that tonight and over the next few days I am going to see my former student Ernie Silva perform his one man show  (come on down) and expect to run into other former students, all of whom are almost 40 years old. I've been learning lots of things from these recent contacts– things I never got to know as their teacher. (And therein lies a follow-up to this - how much do teachers have a right to know about deep private matters and how much do they need to know to be more effective. But another time.)

One thing I learned - even though some of these students tell me I did have an impact on their lives - the reality is that I had very little impact - certainly when it comes to academics. What some do say is that I may have inspired an interest or they had a wonderful experience (one told me she took her own children on all the trips I took them in the 6th grade), but not anything that would affect outcomes as the ed deformers define it.

Back to Leonhardt.

Did the article distort the case for lower class sizes?

Leonhardt talks about a research project that followed up on the famous Tennessee Star study.

Are children who do well on kindergarten tests destined to do better in life, based on who they are? Or are their teacher and classmates changing them?

The Tennessee experiment, known as Project Star, offered a chance to answer these questions because it randomly assigned students to a kindergarten class. As a result, the classes had fairly similar socioeconomic mixes of students and could be expected to perform similarly on the tests given at the end of kindergarten.

Yet they didn’t. Some classes did far better than others. The differences were too big to be explained by randomness. (Similarly, when the researchers looked at entering and exiting test scores in first, second and third grades, they found that some classes made much more progress than others.)

Since my brain can't bear looking at these studies, I have to rely on people whose brains can (see one Leonie Haimson) and I am told that the Star Study found that the effectiveness of the teachers was very much influenced by the size of the classes. So, here comes the fun part as Leonhardt continues:

Class size — which was the impetus of Project Star — evidently played some role. Classes with 13 to 17 students did better than classes with 22 to 25. 

 Duhhh. Evidently - why so begrudgingly, Dave? Leonhardt just tosses away the class size issue, which is what ed deformers always do.

He goes on:

Peers also seem to matter. In classes with a somewhat higher average socioeconomic status, all the students tended to do a little better. 

 Double DUHHHHH!

Now here comes the whammy!

But neither of these factors came close to explaining the variation in class performance. So another cause seemed to be the explanation: teachers.

Leonhardt leaps tall buildings in a single bound. 
 
WHAT? The Starr study showed that class size had an impact on teacher effectivness which in turn had an impact on students. Leonhardt turns the outcome (better teaching) into the effect (it was the teachers themselves). And that is the whole point of the ed deformers: put the onus in teachers.

So, here comes the ed deform mantra – hook, line and sinker:

Mr. Chetty and his colleagues .... estimate that a standout kindergarten teacher is worth about $320,000 a year. That’s the present value of the additional money that a full class of students can expect to earn over their careers. This estimate doesn’t take into account social gains, like better health and less crime.

Wow! What a good guy, saying that a teacher could be worth that much. But only some teachers. Here is the fun part:

They can pay their best teachers more, as Pittsburgh soon will, and give them the support they deserve. Administrators can fire more of their worst teachers, as Michelle Rhee, the Washington schools chancellor, did last week.

Ah, yes. good ole Michelle, their hero. It has nothing to do with the higher salaries of senior teachers. Shame on Leonhardt, an economics writer.

Leonhardt tries to throw this bone so he looks to be fair and  balanced:

Schools can also make sure standardized tests are measuring real student skills and teacher quality, as teachers’ unions have urged.

Sure, "teachers unions" - meaning ed deformer Randi Weinngarten. Does Leonhardt not know about this? Important new study about huge error rates in value-added teacher evaluation

Let Chetty and his colleagues start a study of adult outcomes over the next 20 years in Washington DC, Chicago and NYC and measure Rhee, Duncan and BloomKlein's effectiveness.

Defector Describes TFA in Two Words

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Why I Hate Teach for America":

I can only describe TFA in two words: foolishly arrogant. I completed one year with TFA. Why only one year when TFA requires members to commit to two? Because TFA changes the rules of their game to suit the agenda of TFA. In my case I was terribly placed in an area of teaching that was well outside my content area. I was trained to be an English teacher by TFA but that's not where they placed me. As a result, the charter school system with a 25% turnover rate did not take my contract the second year. TFA's policy (a word of warning to all prospective members) is they don't necessarily place you elsewhere and can (and do) drop members from the program. Because they do not like to lose at what they do, they are not very nice about it either.

TFA's current problem, among hundreds of others, is that real teachers, the ones who went through accredited institutions and have credentials the day they walk into the classroom, are being laid off, so placement of ersatz teachers like TFA's becomes harder for that organization. Beyond this though, is the irrefutable fact that TFA has existed for 20 years and even though in some cases their results have been as good as that of accredited teachers, it has been no better and in many cases, far worse.

The major problem facing TFA is that their rhetoric is twenty years old, held cult-like by die-hard members on TFA's payroll, and like a chain-letter or pyramid scam, TFA's existence depends on fanatical belief in order to raise the private funding needed to support the organization. The federal government is wisely expanding alternate certification program funding to other organizations making it competitive. In short, TFA's dogma, arrogance, and apparent lack of organizational intelligence to adapt has fostered the beginning of the demise of TFA as a viable organization.

It is unfortunate that government officials at all levels appear to be moving toward the incredibly unregulated world of privatized education. Charter Schools, (many of whom don't have qualified principals: they call them directors) are loose cannons. They too play by their own rules. They are a natural marriage for organizations like Teach For America, and that is the unfortunate development in American education. If it weren't for the play it by ear, almost unregulated charter school systems, organizations like TFA would have folded their tents long ago. It should be noted however, that American voters are to blame. Americans need to understand that privatization of education and teaching with unqualified teachers is not the long or short term solution to American education. We need to fix the existing system. That is done, not by flailing moderately paid teachers, but by making administrators, many of whom earn salaries four times as high as the teachers in their charge, prove competence and do their jobs.

A Whoopdeedo from Jersey and Washington State Parents Celebrate Losing Race To The Top

This text just came in from Leonie Haimson (not the picture.)

See below from NJ; but substitute NY and it expresses my sentiments exactly.  Meanwhile, check out WA parents who are celebrating their state losing the race: 

Washington State Remains Free from “Race to the Top” Extortion at http://seattleducation2010.wordpress.com/2010/07/27/washington-state-remains-free-from-race-to-the-top-extortion/

And more on why teacher evaluation linked to test scores is a random roll of the dice. Teachers will lose out and ultimately the kids will as well at
 
http://schoolfinance101.wordpress.com/2010/07/28/rolldice/

http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2010/07/whoop-de-friggin-do.html?spref=tw

Whoop-De-Friggin'-Do...

So NJ got into the next round of Race To The Top. Gee, swell.

Let's think about all the great stuff that's coming so that we "put the kids first":

- Merit pay. Hasn't worked yet, but full speed ahead!

- Charter schools. Weak to no gains so far, but full speed ahead!

- Teacher evaluations and dismissals based on standardized tests. Error rates of 25%-35%, but full speed ahead!

- Institutionalizing the testing culture of schools. Big problems looming with cheating as the stakes in these tests get higher - really big problems - but full speed ahead!

- Rewarding states for their commitment to educational reform. So far, some of the worst states have been rewarded, but full speed ahead!

Some race...

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