E4E: The Missing 700

The Wall St. Journal's Barbara Martinez fawns and Stuart Varney and Fox News are jumping up and down. All of Rupert's gnomes and trolls have been drooling over the prospect of a 5th column within the UFT to undermine the union.

They talk in wonder at the 700 people, many of whom are not NYC teachers, have signed up on their web site to get updates. Gee, I am one of those 700. Whooopdeedo. Show me the money. I want to see what they've really got. Like real NY teachers with a few more than 2 or 3 years in the classroom.

To their credit NYC Educator, Miss Eyre (Educators 4 Actually Being Educators) and Michaal Fiorillo have been on the Evan and Sydney and their bogus Educators 4 Excellence for quite some time. The fact that Miss Eyre is of the Evan and Sydney generation that E4E us trying to attract and is so outraged is a bad sign for Rupert's game plan. The fact that Evan and Sydney have abandoned the children they love so much to build an anti-teacher union organization seems to be rubbing real reformers just a tad bit the wrong way, expecially those from their generation.

Here is an excerpt from NYC Ed:

Who Funds Ex-Educators 4 Excellence?

After reading the WSJ piece on the union-busting young ex-teachers, I had to wonder--how the hell do they pay the rent?  They aren't teaching, but rather spreading their new gospel.  What happens when that electric bill shows up?

It's remarkable that seems not to have occurred to the reporter.

Do they live with Mom and Dad?  Do they get an allowance?  Or do they get money from Whitney Tilson and DFER?  If so, is that really any way to run a "grassroots" movement?

Hey, NYC, the reporter works for Rupert. A lot doesn't occur to them.

Here at Ed Notes have tried to chip in when we can also.

The Ballad of Evan and Sidney

She's Coming For The Ed Deformers - and ...

In the latter piece we talked about the Real Reformers from the Evan/Sydney gen, people who are pro-union but also critical of the current UFT/AFT leadership, many of who ran against the Unity Caucus machine in the last election. Makes it tough to brand them as union flunkies.

No one has been more on the case more than South Bronx School, who rumor has it also ran on the ICE/TJC slate. So charges he is a Unity hack won't fly.

Here is an excerpt of his latest upset over the appearance of Evan on the Stuart Varney Fox Business News show. Evan is getting over exposed and beginning to look like one of those bad reverse negatives.

Little Evan Stone Unfair And Unbalanced

What a day. I was look forward to a nice relaxing evening at home. First day this week without some scheduled event. I plan on making dinner for my family, do the laundry, and then watch segue into watching The First 48. I was not planning on blogging tonight.

That changed when in my email inbox I got yet another newsletter from that "grass roots" organization, Educators4Excellence. And what is it that got my skin to crawl? Yes, Little Evan Stone appeared on Fox Business Channel's Varney & Co. Check it out here.It is amazing what a 26 year old boy can accomplish all by himself. How does he get himself on such shows?

Doesn't Evan know that he, just like Mongo, is a pawn in the game of life? That Little Evan is like a dog. Leashed and owned by the hedge fund gnomes and ed deformers?

The interview by Stuart Varney stating to Little Evan that E4E has 700 members. Wow! Impressive. I am one of those 700 members. In fact you can count me twice. I seriously doubt Little Evan that all 700 support what you and the Princess do. It's kind of like driving by the scene of a car wreck. You don't want to look, but you feel you must and you do. E4E is that car wreck.

Read SBS's entire piece which parses the entire Evan appearance.

There is some back story to this that I need to talk to South Bronx about before revealing. A back story that if it pans out will show just how low down and dirty Fox and the Varney people are in their attempts to promote their anti-union agenda.

Aftereburn
The Real Reformers will be up and running on some issues within the next week, with a lot more support from the same age group as E4E claims. Watch them get zero coverage.

Ich Bin Ein ATR

UPDATE: ATR MEETINGS THIS WEEK:

Bronx and Manhattan: Tues., Sept. 21, McGinley Ballroom, 441 E. Fordham Rd, Bronx 10 am to 3:30
Queens: Thurs., Sept. 23, Citi Field, 12-01 Roosevelt Ave., Flushing 10 am to 3:30

I'm often asked why teachers in Chicago seemed to rise up against their Unity-like union leadership and the Chicago ed deformers. One area if difference has been the way excessed teachers from schools being closed have been treated. They can be fired within a year. All Chicago teachers realize that anyone of them can be an ATR.

The fact that at this point they can't be fired in NYC - though treated in ways that might encourage then to leave - and that there are still a relatively small number of teachers affected compared to the majority, has kept the issue under the radar of most teachers and has allowed the UFT to sort of bury the issue.

Most teachers don't realize that their day could come even though as the charters school movement infiltrates neighborhoods and steals kids from public schools, more schools are feeling the pressure and teachers are getting more conscious as their schools shrink.

Here is a parsing of the UFT position on ATRs by Julie Woodward who teaches High School music - when she is not being bumped around her school as an ATR.

The UFT's position on ATRs in writing

“The ATR problem is a result of Tweed's mismanagement."

[JW comment:  Everyone except apparently the union knows this ATR thing is not a question of ”mismanagement" but unionbusting. And they're  very good at it. It's about the  only thing this chancellor  was actually trained to do and he's not bungling any of it.]

  

“The union will stand by educators in the ATR. They are good people who were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and they deserve our support."

[JW:   Good people?  How condescending and simplistic.  ATRs are about as good or nondescript as any other bunch of educators. 

          More importantly:  The union has in fact been exceptionally poor at supporting ATRs. The leadership sabotaged a rally for them a couple of years ago, and they entered into a Side Agreement that did nothing or worse to improve their continual marginalization and second-class status. It does seem, however, that the union is holding the line on Klein's wish to fire them all. For this contract they're negotiating anyway.  I've heard nothing to the effect that ATRs might be sold out.]

  

 “Don't think it couldn't happen to you. Any one of us can become an ATR if the DoE decides to downsize or close our school.”   

[JW:  Very true, but not nearly the whole picture. We can become ATRs for a host of other reasons as well: union activity, personality clashes, nepotism and playing favorites, directives from the DoE, etc. Almost at the snap of a finger. ]

The Rash

I'm married almost 40 years and I still can't tell you where my wife stands on religion. She just won't talk about it. Maybe because I've been an avowed atheist since I was 14 – call it post Bar Mitzvah trauma. I grew up in a mixed household. My mother was from Eastern Europe and a traditional Jewish family. My dad was born here and is also Jewish but his pop was some kind of Marxist/atheist and my father was never even Bar Mitzvahed. So I had no male role model and jumped off the wagon as soon as I could.

Now my wife is Jewish too, but grew up in a secular household where religion was barely practiced, if at all. So it is not surprising that I never hear one word uttered about Judaism or any other religion.

Except when it comes to Yom Kippur when a whole lot of fasting goes on in this house. Now since she seems to have no connection to religion otherwise, I probe for deeper meaning in this act of denial. Being perfect, she also has no sins to atone for. A shame since we live so close to the water and it would be so easy to stand at the sea wall facing Manhattan and just toss one sin after another into the bay. (I on the other hand, spend half my day there.)

I go along with this fasting business, not for religious reasons but to maybe lose a pound or two for at least one day. But beyond that is the fun of breaking the fast with a bunch of friends - oh that creamed herring with onions. And that giant tub of whitefish salad from Costcos, which has become the mecca of break the fast food - if you can't get into the lower east side to Russ and Daughters, where you can blow a years worth of pension checks on a pound of lox.

Well anyway, the source of this trying to be a Jew for one day a year goes back about 15 years I guess.

We used to go out the opening night of Yom Kippur with a bunch of other Jewish non-believers. Maybe it was an act of defiance. Or just that the restaurants are so empty. This one year we really went whole hog - we went to Tripoli, a Lebanese restaurant on Atlantic Avenue, on Yom Kipper eve. There must have been about 8 or 10 people - mostly all Jews. Just as the first course was being served, my wife broke out in a rash. Not a big deal. She is sensitive to certain foods and sometimes has a hive or two. But this rash really bothered her. Was it was just uncomfortable physically? Or was there a deeper psychological meaning for her discomfort?

Well that was all it took to take the yummy out of Yom Kippur. From that point on she has adhered to the basic Yom Kippur ritual of fasting. Nothing else mind you. No Shul or praying or anything like that. Even a bike ride is not out of the question. Maybe it is fear that if she eats anything on Yom Kippur the rash will return. So far it hasn't.

Special Ed Teacher Comments on Changes Being Pushed by DOE: It's not About Children

You always hear ed deformers say they are about children and accuse the Real Reformers about being about adults. Here a spec ed teacher shows what changes by the DOE are really all about.

Say a zoned school has 8 kids that need 12:1:1 on a given three grade section... how will the school fund the 12:1:1?  I very much believe the DOE would want the IEPS changed to "a least restrictive environment" (which is their code for make the kid fit the program not make a program for the kid)... which they are already doing in charter schools.  The charter in our building has counseled several families out of special education services, and there have been a few where it was VERY damaging to the child, and they were boomeranged back to their PS (mostly told their child wasn't a "fit" for the school) in even more dire circumstances.  The potential for the removing of student services and the usurping (and manipulation) of parents and their rights is truly troubling.

I do not believe one word the DOE says regarding their reforms for special education.  I fully believe this policy is about dollars, about increasing student to teacher ratios, about taking services away from special needs students b/c they are "too costly" and it is a "waste of money" to fund programs for "kids who will always be behind anyway".  The fact that the DOE could not complete one comprehendible sentence on this very important issue, regarding an initiative that is already underway, proves I/We have EVERY reason to be suspect... and must be vigilant!  (and btw, not just for our special education population, which should be enough, but for our general ed population as well... they too will be impacted by potentially increased class sizes filled with more high needs students who are not getting the support they need... both groups will suffer.)

My mom's boss (a physician) is always my bell weather in terms of what this administration is really thinking but won't say.  When I started teaching children with mental retardation and other health impairments, his response was, "Why bother? You are wasting your time, it doesn't matter what you do with those kids."  Disgusting and sad.... but there are MANY people who feel this way, and in a time of supposed economic crisis, in a time when the top 1% are scrambling to protect their disproportionate distribution of wealth, the most vulnerable in our capitalist society will be the ones to pay the price. 

Teaser: Coming later- accounts of exclusive Ed Notes interviews with Ravitch and Moskowitz

Strange encounters and Stranger in a strange land would both make good titles for the upcoming piece.

And it was a very strange day indeed yesterday at The Economist 2 day Idea fest at Chelsea Piers. Cost was $1500 to get in. No, I didn't break my piggy bank. Diane Ravitch helped get me a press pass and was gracious enough to give me some camera time afterwards for our film.

Shockingly, so did Eva Moskowitz even though I told her it was for a film debunking Waiting for Superman. And we had quite a nice chat off camera too as I tried to convince her to sign up for FIRST LEGO League robotics. (What the hell, I am in charge of team recruitment.) I gave her a copy of the new GEM newsletter which gives her the Coal of the month (Karen Lewis got the Diamond). Then she tells me her husband is a big fan of Ed Notes. I hope he isn't reading it while he eats breakfast or at least someone is around who knows the Heimlich maneuver.

I Got a Credit for Film Footage in Documentary on Channel 13

I caught the last half hour of an excellent documentary called The Bungalows of Rockaway shown Thursday night. I saw some footage that looked familiar - you know, too fast panning and other ills. I did shoot a meeting for the filmmakers. Low and behold they included a nice credit for me under "additional footage."

Here is a link: http://thebungalowsofrockaway.com/

Next showing at:
Wednesday, September 22nd, 7 pm,
on Channel 21, WLIW
Long Island public television

Follow Up on Leonie at NY Law and Exclusive Video Interview

UPDATED Sat, Sept. 18, 6am - info on Finland

There were some comments on the NYC Parent listserve about the actions of NY Law in relation to the Haimson/Suransky Smackdown. See my 2 previous posts if you missed them.

Leonie Smackdown Redux

Leonie Haimson KO's Tweed in a Knockdown

I'm printing the comments below along with a comment/correction Leonie left on my last post. And here's a link (NY Law School Ban on Taping) to the correspondence between NY1's Lindsay Christ and Nancy Guida (who I believe is the woman who gave me such a hard time) from the law school. Read in reverse order. Enlightening. [By the way, lots of people consider Christ one of the best ed reporters in town - did you know that she was a teacher for a few years before she got this gig? It shows.]

First, I have a bit of follow-up video I did with Leonie in her garden shortly after the NY Law appearance, which as you know they did not allow to be taped. We did it for the movie we are doing - The Absolute Truth About Waiting for Superman but this piece relates to some of the things she touched earlier that day - Finland, class size, teacher bashing - she calls teachers true heroes. Really eloquent stuff. It is a worthwhile 4 plus minute clip.

[Putting videos up seems to slow up this blog so I will leave it up here only for a day. Here is the you tube address if this gets slow. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSg8myiMhR4]

{A Chapter leader sent this in after investigating ed in Finland. Info from Ministry of Ed}

1)  What is the average age of a Finnish teacher (elementary through secondary, not university professors)?

 female 44 and male 47

2)  What is the average number of years a Finnish teacher has been working?

see question 1 and 3: about 20 year

3)  What is the average age of a beginning Finnish teacher?

26

4)  Do the teachers in Finland belong to a union?

about 95 % teachers belong to  union OAJ  

5)  Do Finnish teachers receive a pension after retirement?

yes

6)  What is the average age of retirement for a Finnish teacher?

now its 60 but it will be 65-68.

7)  How many months throughout the year do Finnish teachers work?

teaching time is 38 week / year

8)  What other benefits do Finnish teachers receive? (like healthcare)

healthcare

Yours,

Vesa Ilves

Vesa Ilves
tutkija
OPETUSALAN AMMATTIJÄRJESTÖ OAJ

Comments:

Thanks for the kind words Norm; but one minor correction. I said there was no standardized testing in Finland; of course the schools there have regular classroom tests. Your point about the teacher's union in Finland is very interesting. Shael went on about how Finland was successful because it attracted the best students to teaching; I talked about how in Finland they give a lot of respect to teachers,and alot of autonomy. And I contrasted that w/ the total lack of respect that this administration gives teachers, and Klein's very low approval rankings in teacher surveys. I said if this administration and the Obama administration really respected teachers, they would listen to their prescriptions for education. Over and over in national surveys, teachers respond that reducing class size would be by far the best way to increase teacher quality and teacher effectiveness, over salary increases, teacher performance pay, more professional development, or anything else. And yet they don't listen, because they don't respect teachers or care what they think. Nor do they respect parents or care what we think either!

I don't see anything the least bit surprising in this, other than NY Law School's craven submission to the probable bullying from Bloomberg/Klein.

Leonie



For Klein & Company, It's all about controlling the message. THEY get to control the data, THEY get to decide how it will be spun, THEY get to control when, where, and how, and -- most important -- THEY get to limit or control, at least in their chosen forums, how much information is made available from "the other side." Knowing that they are probably well aware of Leonie's positions as well as her encyclopedic command of the facts and figures, they had every conceivable reason to suppress public distribution of this "debate." It would be OK for a few law school students to hear her side, but heaven forbid that it get out via NY1 or YouTube or EdNotes.

Just think about it for a minute. Had Shael been there by himself to make a presentation and do Q&A, does anyone honestly believe there would have been the least objection to it being taped by NY1 or anyone else? This was all about controlling the message and stifling the dissent -- nothing else. It's not rocket science, but it is smart, at least from their standpoint.

Steve Koss


New York Law School itself has a series of "Citylaw" breakfasts which are always taped for broadcast on cable TV--I forget at the moment whether it is on one of the City stations or CUNY TV (ch. 74 or 75 where I am in Manhattan). You can also access tapes of them at their website, www.citylaw.org. I just checked it and saw that, for example, the tape of Joel Klein's appearance there as featured speaker on 4/3/09 is still available, including the Q&A, where I successfully confronted him with several examples of how, given that he's essentially one of the Mayor's Commissioners, he does not have the ability or the inclination to stand up for the school system when other city agencies are pursuing policies that are harmful to the schools.

I bring this up to point out that it is curious that, in the case of yesterday, the School seemed so unwilling for a recording to be made.
richard


It was meant primarily for students, but the organizer (who was a student, but it was clearly taken out of his hands by the administration) had encouraged me to invite members of the public as well so I did. The moderator said they had never gotten so many RSVPs.

Check out Norm's column on how they were apparently pressured by DOE not to let the discussion be videotaped by either him or NY1.

I have never seen a PR person from an academic institution so nervous about getting publicity; usually they love the attention. First she said that taping was barred because they didn't get the permission from the participants; then she changed her story when I said that they had my permission, and that probably Shael would agree as well.

But in this case, Kathleen Grimm of DOE had apparently made their desires known strongly, behind the scenes to one of the deans. Whether another college or university would have reacted differently, and not given in so quickly, who knows.

The PR person came up to me afterwards, and demanded that I "remove" her email to Lindsey and me from the list serv about how they were barring any videotaping, as it was a private communication. I was astonished.

I said to her, not only do you want to keep the event private, but you also want to keep it secret that you want to keep it private?

If DOE didnt want Shael to be on a panel w/ me they should have asked him not to appear. But to prevent the wider public from being able to see the event is really shameful -- and I think it is esp. craven of a law school , that should be insisting on freedom of political speech to cave in this way..

Leonie Haimson

Leonie Smackdown Redux- Updated

UPDATED Sunday, Sept. 19, 11:30pm

See Leonie's account of the meeting at NYC Parent blog.

My debate with Shael Suransky of DOE

As many people have asked for it, she posted her powerpoint here, part 1 and part II. If you would like Leonie to present it to your organization, please email her at classsizematters@gmail.com.

The email exchange between Lindsey, the very testy VP for PR at NY Law School, and Leonie.

See my post game video interview with Leonie on you tube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSg8myiMhR4]

 

Original posting, Thurs Sept. 16:
I wrote late last night about the New York Law School event featuring Class Size Matters' Leonie Haimson and the NYC Department of Education's Chief Accountability Officer Shael Suransky. But it was late and this piece, Leonie Haimson KO's Tweed in a Knockdown, didn't do justice to Leonie's spectacular work in  laying waste to the ed deform movement and BloomKlein as she took a wrecking ball and kept smashing it into their faces - boom, one blow after another until the virtual Tweed was not left standing.

Poor Suransky. He tried his best to defend Tweed but if this room semi-filled (more on this later) law students were a jury, BloomKlein would have been sent to the hangman's tree.

UFT/AFT Sidebar
How a one woman operation can accomplish such a feat while a hundred million dollar (or is it two hundred?) union operation flails helplessly does make people scratch their heads. But not me since I view the UFT/AFT as a virtual arm of the ed deform movement - whether they agree philosophically or not they take the position that it is here and they have to work within the framework. Thus my comparing them to the mentality of Vichy. (See UFT/AFT: Think Like Vichy)

 Ahhh, that felt good. Back to our program.
 As you all know, I am not a reporter and my scatterbrain mentality makes it hard for me to take notes, plus I can never read my own handwriting - think it's time for an Ipad? But here is what I have until I coral Leonie to do a voice over her presentation - and I should point out that she had to rush through it in her 15 minutes so a lot was skipped. One witness came over and suggested we do it as a series.

The symposium was titled "NCLB and the Effects of high stakes accountability systems (NYC and elsewhere)". I thought it interesting that Tweed was even willing to send one of their top people to get in the same arena with Leonie but maybe it is a sign of their desperate attempts to spin their side of the story after this summer's testing fiasco. It wasn't that Shael is not competent to defend them (I wish he were on our side) but that he has so little he can defend. However, he does seem to drink the Kool-aid.

His presentation went after Leonie and people were so wowed there was little he could do. He pointed to his experience at Morris HS where he claimed they graduated only 70 kids out of a cohort of 700 - when I challenged him later on this 10% grad rate he hedged, saying that some kids went to other schools and came up with a 25% figure. He claims that the 4 new schools, one of which he ran, had 75-80% grad rates with the same type of kids. Sorry, I don't believe it. That rivals Michelle Rhee's claims she performed miracles, raising her class' reading from 10% to 90% in a year. No don't get me wrong here. I do believe we can reverse the numbers. But Real Reformers (our new code name) know what it will take - smaller teaching groups to start - but I won't do the drill again.

Leonie talked about how the high stakes testing game has so totally distorted education. She laid waste the Tweed's report card system, how schools that got F's one year got A's the next, quoting Aaron Pallas, "A monkey could do a better job by randomly picking schools."

She devastated the value added approach, pointing to research that showed how the same teachers measured on student performance on different tests could turn up as the best on one and the worst on another. (See new Sean Corcoran study - link on my sidebar.) How high school grad rates were distorted by the pressure on teachers to mark up on Regents exams and credit recovery. And oh, those discharge rates. Campbell's Law in action.

Leonie went into the data that shows that lower class size is one of the 4 measures proven to have an effect on student performance - an obvious fact to anyone who spent time in the classroom. (Where does Suransky who says he was a teacher stand on this?)

She repeatedly returned to Campbell's Law: 

"The more any quantitative social indicator is used for social decision-making, the more subject it will be to corruption pressures and the more apt it will be to distort and corrupt the social processes it is intended to monitor."^[1]

Yes, give people incentives to cheat based on rewards (bonus pay) and punishment (closing schools, loss of jobs) and people will do what it takes to assure high scores.

When asked later what was her prescription for the ills of schools? Reduce class size and do what it would take to cut the attrition rate of teachers - these are related, of course.

One very interesting interchange took place between Leonie and Shael over a question about how the international standing of the US has fallen. Shael fell into this trap by talking about the higher standing of European schools - how teachers are so much more respected than here.

Duhhhh! European teachers have some of the strongest teachers unions in the world. Maybe that has something to do with how they are respected while also calling out our own AFT/UFT as bearing a major share of the blame for the lack of respect in the US.

In Finland he said, the top quarter of college grads went into teaching while in the US it is more like the bottom third.

Leonie pounced. Finland is the highest performing nation in the world. No high stakes testing at all, though there are some tests.

And how about those teacher unions there? Think that has an impact on luring the top college grads into the profession as opposed to the US where the lure is to go into finance so you too could take part in destroying the economy?


After burn: NY Law Mopes
I won't go into it in depth because we finally got in. But the PR person from the Law School and the NY Law School Assistant Dean were some of the nastiest people we have met.

When I arrived I was surprised to see Lisa Donlan there as I thought she was still in Paris. But she had flown in the night before – there is dedication to the cause. She told me we would not be allowed in without reservations, which we didn't know we needed. Worse of all Lisa said, when she asked if there was room could we come in, she received a firm "no." That this event was for students and they expected it to be filled. And besides,  they ordered pizza. "I won't eat," I chimed in (but I managed to sneak a slice later - na, na, na, na, na, na.)

[This section updated and clarified]
I tried to get in as press and was told I needed a reservation. Just them someone without a reservation came up and said he was with Tweed and was there at Suransky's request. He was Deputy Press Secretary Matt Mittenthal and he seemed like a nice guy but got caught in my tirade once it was clear he would be allowed in. I raised a ruckus: if Tweed can have someone come why can't Leonie have people even if they don't have reservations? I was at my most obnoxious and during our interchanges I was threatened numerous times - "leave this lobby immediately," the PR person screamed at me. More than once (I had tried to take a picture of the sign at the entrance that talked about justice). I told her to call security and I would go kicking and screaming, taping all the way. Matt told me that if other press was upstairs he would argue to get me in (yes, there are some likable people at Tweed even with my pal David Cantor gone.)

Anyway, as more and more of Leonie's people arrived, few with reservations, the Law School people got more and more nervous, finally relenting and saying they would count seats and let us in. So we got in. And the joke is the place was half empty. Lisa did a chair count and came up with these numbers give or take a few: 62 attendees, 46 empty seats at around 1:30 (the numbers varied as people came and went). 16 of these were FOL - Friends of Leonie. Poor Shael only had a few friends, including one of my faves - James Merriman, uber charter school pusher. I love to tweak Merriman. "How did that Perkins/Smikle thing work out?" "Incumbency" he harumphed. He later told Leonie that Sam Hoyt was winning big in Buffalo as a sign of the charter school lobby influence. See Leonie's comment on this in Postscript below.


Did Tweed make demands?
We have info that the Law school was contacted by the DOE to keep press out. NY 1's Lindsey Christ was told she could not tape and was apparently not happy and didn't show (Leonie posted emails between Lindsey and NY Law that upset these mopes no end - I'm getting a feeling she won't be asked back.)

I heard through someone connected to the Law School who was present and not happy with the way we were being treated by the Law School officials that Kathleen Grimm had told them that Leonie was advertising the event as a smackdown - not true as Gotham's Elizabeth Green had done that - and the press should be kept out. NY Law people seemed so nervous we wondered whether there is some funding coming from Bloomberg.


Postscript from Leonie 
Hoyt is a big favorite of the charter school lobby and beneficiary of the hedge hog dollars. He outspent his rival by 4-1 and only is ahead by 250 votes out of more than 10,000 cast.  His opponent wants a recount. Bloomberg gave Hoyt big $, and he was one of DFER’s Hot List. He also briefly subscribed to this list serv, for reasons I could never figure out.

Hoyt Wins, But Golombek Wants A Recount 

http://www.wgrz.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=86801&catid=13

Postscript 2: After the event I walked Leonie home and interviewed her in her garden for our film. I'm heading for the city now to cover the Diane Ravitch/Eva Moskowitz panel at The Economist event at Chelsea Piers. If I can get a few sound bites from Diane for the film that would be awesome.

Leonie Haimson KO's Tweed in a Knockdown

I have rarely felt sympathy for BloomKlein. But the bludgeoning they took from Leonie Haimson at NY Law School where she appeared with the DOE's Chief Accountability Officer Shael Suransky almost made me feel sorry for them. Almost. Her amazing Powerpoint presentation was not directed at Suransky who seems to be well-liked and personality wise is an enormous improvement over his predecessor Jim Liebman (Suransky at least can claim some creds based on real teaching - he claims- in a NYC middle school) but took apart the entire ed deform program, point by point.

 Value added? POW!

Merit pay? SLAM:

Class size as one of the few true ed reform solutions? WHAP!

I was sitting next to Lisa Donlan and she kept saying, "Did you get that?" I missed so much but was trying to write as much down as I could during Leonie's 15 minutes. Now I have to get her to do an audio over her PowerPoint and put it up on the web. It could become a classic ed deform rebuttal.

The reaction of the people who organized the event at the Law School was curiouser and curiouser.
Terming the event a "Smackdown" by Gotham's Elizabeth Green probably didn't help. Leonie invited her thousands of friends to come and observe but most of them were working in and out of schools. We counted 16 that did show and 3 for the other side. I have a longer tale to tell about the press ban and the incredibly nasty PR person and Dean we encountered - the extent they threatened to call security on me - at least twice. I was bucking for a 3rd time when they finally let us in. We have hints of DOE interference to try to keep this from getting out to the public, but more about that in a follow-up.

ATRs: Many Called, Few Chosen

From an ATR's horses mouth. What a great inside illustration of not only the lack of respect from the DOE but also of their incompetence at even running an event like this.

A “mandatory recruitment fair” (or was it a futility festival?) was held in the main room of the Grand Prospect Ballroom in Brooklyn on September 14.  Teachers were initially directly to report at 10 o’clock in the morning.  Email messages went out the day before changing the time to 1:00.  Although the second floor ballroom is large, teachers weren’t permitted to enter until after one o’clock.  Some didn’t get in until around 2:00.  Teachers who arrived in the morning had to stand around waiting for more than three hours before going upstairs to the interview tables.

The DOE used a first floor lounge and restaurant as waiting rooms.  These side rooms were stuffed far beyond their room capacity (which is listed on the ballroom’s website as 320 persons).

Teachers were advised in the email messages that no lunch would be provided.  For those arriving in the afternoon there was not even water.  One teacher was stopped from entering the Skylight Room where administrators were being served a range of beverages by waiters in black jackets.  A handler in a monogrammed jacket told the teacher there wasn’t anything available for interviewees.  Asked what his position was the man explained that he was employed by a private company (a DOE “partner”) hired to provide logistics for the job fair.   Apparently these logistics didn’t include providing water for the hundreds of cattle call participants.  After a standoff of several minutes a Ballroom waiter brought the teacher a glass of water from the off-limits room.  Teachers typically seemed to be seeing about 3-4 vacancies in their licence area.  Some fewer.  Some found none.

Throwaway line:  Many of the participants were dressed like they would hope to be treated:  professional or at least semi-professional.  However, scores of others were more in keeping with the shabby reality.

Follow-Up

Pakter on Callaghan: UFT Canned Its Conscience When It Fired Jim Callaghan

DOE to ATRs: Jump Off a Cliff

Angel Gonzalez and I went over to the big ATR job fair for Staten Island and Brooklyn ATRs (Absentee Teacher Reserves for the uninitiated) held in Park Slope to hand out the just published Grassroots Education Movement (GEMNYC) newsletter.

So we discovered some fun facts. The meeting was mandatory. Some notices said 10-4. A follow-up said to report at 1pm. Those who reported at 10 were made to sit around until 1pm and then had to line up to be registered one by one. Hundreds of people were there to be interviewed for jobs. We hear that some people weren't notified and if they didn't show look for Tweed to leak some leaky statistics to the NY Post or Wall St. Journal about how people refused to look for jobs.

Even if they are "hired" they are still at-will employees subject the the whims of principals. Their position is so precarious they have to do anything in the hope of staying on. I know one ATR who tells people she will move their cars during her preps and lunchtime just to curry favor.

Angel and I talked to them about forming an ATR committee to put pressure on the UFT to relieve the situation. They seemed receptive to a rally in November to commemorate the one held 2 years ago, the threat of which forced the UFT and Tweed to try to undercut it with a deal - still a lousy one but one that doesn't charge the school for the cost of the ATR - that expires on Dec. 1. Even if they get a job under this deal they can be released at the end of the school year if they didn't wash the floors with a toothbrush to the principal's satisfaction.

The funniest response came from an ATR who refused to take out newsletter, proclaiming he was in Unity Caucus. "They screwed you too," we shouted. But I guess those free trips to Seattle were worth it.

Actually, the funniest response came from the UFT's Ann Rosen who has to schlep over from UFT headquarters for the event. Usually we are on friendly terms but when Angel and I joked that this is all her fault she got a bit testy telling us how she worked her ass off for these people. I pointed out she was making a pretty nice salary for working her ass off and the alternative was going back to teaching. Here is what she makes for working her ass off:

Here are some comments from yesterday's blog post
Mid Day Snack: The Great ATR Musical Chair Swap Game

Once again the blame is placed upon the teachers who due to no fault of their own are left dangling in the wind. The contract is clear, excessed staff shall be placed into vacancies within license with district. The UFT should be filing an immediate cease and desist Article 78 on behalf of the atr's. Let the Dept and Klein explain this to voters and parents as class size rise throughout the city.

I am not a math person, but this just doesn't add up. The DOE cuts budgets, teachers get excessed, but the DOE is still paying for them, but won't put them in schools, class sizes rise, the DOE saves no money anyway... ???? Why not just place the ATRs in schools (especially given testgate, schools could use an extra teacher for intervention, given that generally schools lost at least one position -depending on individual principal decisons- due to cuts). The placed ATRs would not come out of school-based budgets. The ATRs would be 'working', and kids would benefit. If the ATR is a "bad teacher" they are subject to the same rating system as everyone else and can be given a U and go through due process. The DOE could always offter an 'opt out' to principals who do not want to deal w/ 'hiring' someone not of their choosing. Done and Done. Instead the DOE is using this issue to paint teachers as sucking the life out of taxpayers and doing harm or at least neglegence to children. UFT: Do your job and tell the proper narrative to the citizens of our city. Push for ATRs to be placed in their licensed positions in a school. With the extreme rise in class sizes across the city, the budget cuts, and testgate... there is more than enough political capital to spend on this issue, if you (the uft) really wanted to solve it in a way that benefits children and teachers.

AfterBurn
I still have to post the election results- Fenty/Rhee lost, Perkins won BIG. But I have to go see Leonie debate a Tweed lug and naybe get to tape it.

In the meantime if you don't read Reality Based Educator you are missing some of the best political commentary from a teacher perspective (yes, RBE teaches in NYC).

Perdido Street School

Bill Perkins Beats Charter School Stooge: 76%-24%

And then our pal NYC Educator takes Evan and Sydney to task in his usual fabulous manner. Teamed with his cohort Miss Eyre who used a cannon on them the other day, this amounts to a dismemberment.

NYC Educator

Who Funds Ex-Educators 4 Excellence?

 

Waiting For Superman Challenged by Teachers in San Francisco: An insult to teachers and students

Before I get to this report, I wanted to give you an update on our own actions here in NYC in response to the film – at least what I am at liberty to say right now. GEM (Grassroots Education Movement) is moving ahead on our own film – The Inconvenient Truth About Waiting for Superman – which we hope to have completed by the end of October. Hopefully the trailer will be finished in time for the Superman release next week. We will debut it here on Ed Notes. We are also working on some songs around the theme of the "Will the Real Reformers Please Stand Up" and might even perform it in various locations and meetings. We will be looking for volunteers to join in so start gargling. We may even have instruments. If you are planning to see the film it is opening in LA and NYC on Friday, Sept. 24 and will be showing at the Lincoln Square cinemas near Lincoln Center. I can write the rave reviews from the anti-union press right now. Some of us are going that night so we can produce a fact sheet to refute the inconvenient truths for our movie. Email me for details if you want to join us.

An insult to teachers and students

September 14, 2010

A NUMBER of members of Educators for a Democratic Union (EDU) and a few leaders from our union, United Educators of San Francisco (UESF), attended the advanced screening of Davis Guggenheim's Waiting for Superman.

We were there to pass out some leaflets and challenge the director of the movie, who would be speaking at the end.

What about the movie?

Yikes! Let me try and summarize: The problems with public education is bad teachers, the tenure that protects them and the unions that protect tenure. The problem is not funding, because plenty of money has been thrown at schools to succeed. The solution is charters. Also, there is some criticism of "tracking," which is probably the only part of the movie I agreed with.

That's about it. When Guggenheim took questions afterward, he opened with the fact that he was a "friend of public education," that he liked unions, and that he was not saying charters were the answer.

The problem was that the entire thrust of his movie contradicted that. It was crazy.

UESF leaders and EDUers were able to get questions out to him that challenged the frame of his movie: Why are you attacking unions? Why don't you mention funding? Or the larger political questions facing the country?

Guggenheim was mostly patronizing, saying that he couldn't include "everything." Regarding unions, he said he was in a union (the Director's Guild) and he supported unions and the protections they provide. Presumably, he is for protections for everyone except teachers. He also called himself a leftist, saying that believed in social justice...after bashing unions and teachers.

I stuck around afterward to invite Guggenheim to come to Mission High School and actually see how public education works to serve our neediest students. I also told him that I was disappointed by his attack on unions, which had been the only protection many of us had this year when the budget ax came swinging down.

I overheard him talking to an aide saying "Wow! This was a tough crowd." She replied, "Well, it is San Francisco."

I was surprised by this, because he had only fielded four or five questions at most. We hadn't even started!

Finally, for a movie titled Waiting for Superman in which "Superman" is supposed to be a great teacher (white and male, I guess), this movie did not contain a single interview with a teacher. It had a grainy camera inside a class which showed teachers reading a newspaper. It showed clips from School of Rock and the Simpsons but no teachers

Who was interviewed? Principals of charters, D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee and, of course, Bill Gates' ugly mug was all over the movie.

My final question to Mr. Guggenheim is, if you are really "Waiting for Superman" why do you spend so much time in your movie interviewing Lex Luthor?

Andy Libson, San Francisco

http://socialistworker.org/2010/09/14/insult-to-teachers-and-students

The Late, Late Show: Playing My Cards in The Odd Couple

I was offered a part in the upcoming Rockaway Theatre Company production of The Odd Couple which will be running over 3 weekends in December. I auditioned on a lark since I am taking acting classes there just for fun. I tried out for the wise guy Speed and Roy the accountant. But they offered me Vinnie, the whiney, hen-pecked whimpy guy. They must have seen this as typecasting though I strongly protest the type ---uh, just a minute---What honey? Take out the trash? And then clean the house? After I go shopping or before?

Sorry, gotta go.

After burn
In last year's acting class I got a chance to be anything but a whimp. We all had to do monologues. An audience was invited and this was the first time I performed live. I was given a perfect piece -  Eric Bogossian's Talk Radio where the host goes on a rant directed towards the radio audience.  The radio show, based in Cleveland, was scheduled to go national the next night and the calls were beyond stupid. What a wonderful way to get it all out of your system even though it was around 7 minutes and I had a hell of a time remembering the lines - which is obvious at certain points. I nailed those lines in the last rehearsal shortly before. I shamelessly put the rant up on you tube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=torbrnEM0ms

UPDATE on Perkins/Smikle - PERKINS WINNING BIG - Charter school lobby goes down in flames

Last Update Sept. 14, 11:30pm
Perkins well over 70%. Reports coming in from victory party. Wish I were there.

Sept 14 - 2:30 pm
Report from Perkins/Smikle Harlem Battleground: Vote for Basil the Plant

A correspondent reports:

I'm in Harlem canvassing for Bill Perkins with other parents. You have to see Basil Smickle's canvassers, he hired crack heads to canvass for him by wearing Vote for Basil t-shirts!!!! LOL. I'm not joking, he is paying them $200-$300 a day. Come see for yourself. That's a great use of the charter lobby money.

People might end up writing in Basil Paterson, David's dad when they see the Basil shirts. Or just the plant.

Just in - don't know if it will work. Direct audio from the Perkins/Smickle battle. Hear how they are getting paid - cash off the books.

Drat - didn't upload.

Mid Day Snack: The Great ATR Musical Chair Swap Game

Reposted and Updated Sept. 14, 1PM

As the Brooklyn and Staten Island ATRs are entering the Grand Prospect Hall just about now (see below) we have reports coming in about ATRs being sent hither and fro. High school ATRs being sent to middle schools. Middle school ATRs being sent to elementary or high schools. Elementary ATRs being sent to middle schools.

The best stories are the ones from ATRs who are sent en masse out of one school and are replaced by a whole batch of ATRs from somewhere else. Reports are coming in of 40-60% turnover of total staff at some schools. Is this Tweed mismanagement or intentional use of chaos disruption theory?

Angel and I are heading over to Grand Prospect Hall to talk to ATRs as they come out about organizing an ATR committee to plan a rally of ATRs at Tweed in November. The least they will get out of it will be another UFT wine and cheese diversion.


Brooklyn/Staten Island ATRs Invited to Heavenly Event

Dear Colleague,

This email serves as a follow up to the notice already given to you by your current principal in regards to the mandatory New York City Department of Education recruitment fair being held tomorrow, Tuesday, September 14^th at 1pm.   You are receiving this email because based on current records, you are a teacher who was originally excessed from a school in either Brooklyn or Staten Island, and you are currently a part of the Absence Teacher Reserve (ATR) Pool.
If you received this email but have not received a letter from your principal, please contact your principal immediately to confirm your status.  If you are no longer a part of the ATR pool, please forward an email from your principal confirming as such to thsc@schools.nyc.gov .  Fair information is as follows: 

Brooklyn and Staten Island Excess Teacher Recruitment Fair
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Grand Prospect Hall
263 Prospect Ave, Brooklyn, N.Y 11215 

The fair will be held from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM and teachers must check in no later than 1:00 PM. You should plan to report to your assigned school at the start of the school day and then travel to the fair; your school where you are currently assigned as an ATR will be notified of your absence and you will be provided with documentation of your attendance at the recruitment fair.  

Lunch will not be served at the fair, but you are entitled to the contracted amount of time for lunch on your own before the fair. You will be expected to stay until the end of the school day and encouraged to stay until the end of the event at 4:00PM. 

Best Regards,

Teacher Hiring Support Center

NYC Department of Education

 (718) 935-5280

thsc@schools.nyc.gov

Staff from the Former Island Academy at Rikers Island Need Your Help

Dear Friends,

During the 2009-2010 school  year our school paid The Comer Institute a reported $35,000 for a comprehensive report wherein teachers were interviewed extensively.

This comprehensive report discussed and analyzed the various aspects of Island Academy. The administration had promised on several occasions throughout the process that after a brief review by District 79 administration, the entire contents of this report would be available to staff. The document has been completed and sent to Island Academy’s administration, but District 79 refused to share it with staff.

The school administration disagrees with the report claiming that “It undermines the rationale for closing the school.” The report can be requested per the Freedom of Information Act from the DOE at  foil@schools.nyc.gov.


The title of the report is "Contextual Analysis for Austin H. MacCormick - Island Academy, Rikers Island, June 29, 2010."


We encourage everyone to request the report so that the DOE will release it. Thanks for your help in this matter.

Very truly,

Don Murphy

Former Chapter Leader, Island Academy at Rikers Island

The Late Show: Jamaica HS Staff Member Pays Tribute to Eterno

We 9% dissenters are proud to have supported closing school Jamaica HS Chapter Leader James Eterno for president against MulGarten. Questions have been raised at the ICE blog about whether the deal between the DOE and the UFT to allow a school into Jamaica in spite of the UFT law suit that could have stopped it was in any way retaliation. I don't usually hold with conspiracy theories as the MulGarten team have shown they are willing to eat even their own.

But if you want an insight into the kind of gut work James has done at the school, read a tribute from a staff member who left this comment on the ICE blog:

Why was Jamaica singled out for destruction? I think the main goal is union-busting and making an example of a powerful chapter. As chapter chairman, you conducted yourself with lawyerly professionalism and integrity. You know the rules and the contract and stand loyally at the side of every staff person, popular or not. Whatever problems we as a staff had with students or with politicians, I was always proud to work in your school. You kept us united, as united as an opinionated staff can be, and focused on our goals and methodology for enabling students have conditions under which they could best learn. Everyone respected you and your systematic way of standing up for our rights individually and as a school. 

Remember on one issue how 50 of us went to the Queens Office and packed a conference room to show our stand? It was powerful adn effective. We won that issue. I wonder if that made us more of a thorn in the side of the BOE/DOE. Post hoc ergo procter hoc? Perhaps that aroused the ire of the bean-counters who wish us to always genuflect at their dicta.

So it could be that the DOE's determination to destroy Jamaica HS is simply one more event in the ruthless union-busting crusade of the Business world's invasion of our hapless schools. They are creating New Schools that meet their requirements: administrators with no experience, no independence for teachers to maintain their professionalism without fear of peremptory dismissal, staffing with largely new teachers who can be easily excessed and fired, focus on numbers numbers numbers, just like they bean counters learned in business school.

So, James, it could be that the DOE sees you as I do, as a Fearless Leader, capable and beyond corruption. Their determination to bust our chapter could ultimately be their highest tragic compliment to us and to you.

So I sign off with love, respect, appreciation and the highest regard. I wish the best to you and to Camille and your child. Thank you. I will always be, like the rest of our staff, proud to have worked with you. Maybe some of us took you for granted, but I never did. We were all fortunate to work with you.

Sincerely yours,

Judith Pfeffer
 

By the way, Seung Ok from another closing school, Maxwell Vocational in Brooklyn, wrote a maginificent piece that is getting nationwide recognition and it may appear in the Washington Post blogs today. He was excessed and is now teaching at another school. He has worked with GEM at various times during the last year. I posted his piece at Ed Notes last week:

The story of Maxwell HS should be a canary in the mines of what’s to come for the rest of the city – Seung Ok on Fighting Closure: A Report from William H. Maxwell HS (CTE):

She's Coming For The Ed Deformers - and MulGarten Too

UPDATED: Sept. 14, 2am:

The ed deform press promotes Evan Stone and Sydney Morris and their bogus "alternative to the UFT" - see the Wall St. Journal headliner today

Teachers Break Union Ranks

They claim to have 700 supporters but they will prove to have zero presence in the long run.

The Journal's Barbara Martinez writes hopefully:

"While that's a pittance compared with the nearly 80,000 teachers under the UFT, her nascent movement may represent the seeds of a growing population of teachers who are breaking ranks with the traditional tenets of unionism."

Sure, Barbara, keep praying. Already Evan and Sydney have left teaching:


"This school year, Ms. Morris and Mr. Stone took a break from teaching and are instead working on building up their organization, including identifying "school captains" at the city's schools—much like the UFT has a "chapter leader" at every public school."

That should enhance their creds with real teachers as they see Evan and Sydney getting hedge hog type funding. I can't wait to see these "school captains."

[UPDATE: See Ms Eyre's brilliant piece on Evan and Sydney now running at NYC Educator. Educators 4 Actually Being Educators].

The Real Reformers stand up
The press ignores a fairly recent current within the UFT that represents the same generation of teachers as Evan and Sydney as represented by groups like NYCORE (2000 members on the listserve) and Teachers Unite which also has lots of people signed up. And GEM has managed to attract some real young activists who make Evan and Sydney look like the joke they are.

Now these people are virulently pro-union and anti Ed Deform while they call for a more progressive system of education reform. They don't buy the pablum that if you just work 24 hours a day you will accomplish Michelle Rhee like miracles. They call for real reforms like reduction in class size and increased resources. And they are totally opposed to charter school co-locations. They are the people working on a response to "Waiting for Superman" and other exciting projects.

But there's another wrinkle. While Evan and Sydney are presenting themselves as not anti union but as offering an alternative to the UFT, the real reformers are also showing a willingness to be critical of the MulGarten type of Unity Caucus leadership. Evan and Sydney want to destroy the UFT. The Real Reformers not only want to reform the schools, but the union too. They seek to build a democratic union that would support a democratically run public education system.

Oh yeah. They are uniformly superb teachers at the top of their game, amongst the most respected in their schools. 

If you didn't read the Michael Mulgrew "Welcome Back" letter I posted yesterday that was reworked to express what is really going on, go forth immediately and read it:

Welcome to the new school year … Remix

To me the most important thing about the Remix is that it was written by one of the new Real Reformers, a still young teacher who not very long ago had a different view of the UFT. The teacher began teaching in NYC right out of college 10 years ago (thus spending the bulk of the career under BloomKlein).  Just a short time ago this teacher would argue that addressing UFT related issues in terms of the actions of the leadership was not worth putting time and effort into.

I wrote in the into to the Remix that the Mulgrew letter had stirred a hornets next and the Remix is the result. If more teachers of this generation become hornets and start nesting together, a serious opposition within the UFT might yet emerge.

If you are a fan of the Stieg Larsson novels with its unique heroine, I can't help thinking that the Remix author may be representative of what I will call the Lisbeth Salander generation of teachers. Smart and tough, taking no crap from anyone. And capable of reaching out to parents and community and to other teachers. I've seen some of them with long careers ahead stand up and openly challenge BloomKlein time and again. If they get organized and turn their sights on BloomKlein and MulGarten - and Sydney and Evan's phony movement  - there will be more than a few hornet stings to go around.

Today's Links From Susan Ohanian

Susan does all the work and we just spread the word. She takes a swipe at a piece by Pedro Noguera, who all too  many people consider a saint, with the comment below. Well, if I had read Noguera with his criticism of TFA and other points about RTTT without Susan's insight, I might have said "good stuff." Read on and reap. And maybe weep too. 

Schools vs. Slogans

This is the inaugural essay in a new series of bimonthly pieces on the politics of education byNation editorial board member Pedro Noguera. 
This piece, which is curiously "soft" on Obama/Duncan, reflects the reluctance of progressives to make an out-and-out assault on the Obama/Duncan policy. Instead of offering analysis of how this administration is tied to a corrupt corporate plan to deprofessionalize teachers, to force a nationalized curriculum into the schools, to further segregate the rich from the poor, and so on, Noguera posits his criticism around "failure to use sound research" for its "policy direction."
This suggestion that the "right research" will put Obama/Duncan on the right path would be laughable if it weren't so disingenuous.  Rather than suggesting that Obama/Duncan choose different schools as models for "scaling up," Noguera would do well to read Richard Rothstein. If raising test scores is our goal, then get the lead out, fix kids' teeth, and give them an iron fortified breakfast. No matter how many fourth graders pass the standardized test, it won't increase the minimum wage.

Mathematician's Lament is a MUST read. It gets to the core of what education-- 

in all subjects--is about. 

And does this with such grace and wit
Krashen's letter to Time Magazine is also a MUST read because he  

provides a deft summary  

of the issue that you can--and must--use in your own letters.
A belated  thank you to the contributor in Sanger, CA. 
Susan
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The Overscheduled Child
Jeannette Catsoulis
New York Times
2010-09-10
http://susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.php?id=9459
Kudos to the NY Times for reviewing Race to Nowhere, a must-see film.
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A Mathematician's Lament
Paul Lockhart
2010-09-11
http://susanohanian.org/show_commentary.php?id=837
This is MUST READ.
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Food Sovereignty . . . and Education Sovereignty Too
R. G. Davis, with Ohanian comments 
2010-09-04
http://susanohanian.org/show_commentary.php?id=836
R. G. Davis is on the mark and his commentary on food sovereignty  

offers strong parallels with the way so-called education activists divert  

people from doing something to change the crisis we face in the schools.  

I urge you to read this one.
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To the editor
Stephen Krashen
Time Magazine
2009-09-11
http://susanohanian.org/show_letter.php?id=1261
As the media keeps reporting those claims that roll off Standardisto tongues, 

we must be grateful to Stephen Krashen, who doesn't let them get away with it.
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Fighting Closure: A Report from William H. Maxwell HS
Seung OK
Ed Notes Online
2010-09-10
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=753
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Outsiders get a view of Memphis City Schools' vision
Jane Roberts
Commercial Appeal
2010-09-11
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=752
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Marked absent: Many Oregon students will do without music and art classes
Kimberly Melton
The Oregonian
2010-10-06
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=751
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Who gets to speaks about what schools need? Race to the Top and   

the Bill Gates Connection
Susan Ohanian
Extra!
2010-09-08
http://susanohanian.org/show_research.php?id=366
Here is an article about who gets quoted in the press.
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Incredibly Sexy Standards Developer Dies, Smothered by Dictionaries
staff
The Eggplant
2010-09-05
http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_news.php?id=833
Not quite a standard obituary.
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The neoliberal bait-and-switch
David Sirota
syndicated column
2010-09-10
http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_atrocities.php?id=4051
Sirota takes a stab at exposing the Great Education Myth promulgated by  

neoliberals.
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Schools vs. Slogans
Pedro Noguera
The Nation
2010-09-27
http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_atrocities.php?id=4050
This suggestion that the right research will put Obama/Duncan on the  

right path would be laughable if it weren't so disingenuous.
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What Passes for School Reform: Value-AddedTeacher Evaluation and  

Other Absurdities
Alfie Kohn
Huffington Post
2010-09-09
http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_atrocities.php?id=0
Alfie calls LA Times and Newsweek unconscionable. And more. 

Welcome to the new school year … Remix

 Having just finished the first two of Stieg Larsson "The Girl..." trilogy and about to start "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest" the piece below made me think that we could start our own series. It seems UFT President Michael Mulgrew's "Welcome Back to School" letter has kicked some kind of hornet's nest with a number of teachers.

We're keeping the teacher, who has had little concern about challenging BloomKlein publicly, anonymous to hold the Unity hounds away from the door.

Welcome to the new school year … Remix

For those of you who did not see it, or read it, UFT President Michael Mulgrew sent out a “Welcome Back” letter to members this week.  In it, he shamelessly spins the spineless acts of our union over the last year. 

With the kind of manipulative, pull-at-your-heart-strings propaganda we have come to expect from the ed deform whores; Michael Mulgrew proves once again our union is far more interested in protecting their seat at the table, than protecting our children and our profession.  It is time for a different kind of leadership, one that is not content to lick up the crumbs in order to preserve their power, but rather one that sets the table and serves the meal.

Here in bold is what Michael Mulgrew left out of his letter…

Dear colleagues,

On behalf of my fellow officers and the entire UFT staff (yes it is true we vacation, drive cars with parking spaces, and expense meals on your dues dime), I want to wish you the very best of luck this school year (you sure are going to need it since there are 2,000 fewer of you, but 18,000 more kids and millions in lost budget dollars). Your dedication and passion for making children’s lives better and improving the profession are the foundation of all that we do (bow down and let me pat you on the head). We know that budget cuts, larger class sizes, excessing and the lack of support from the DOE are major concerns in many schools as are the struggling economy and the endless attacks from the “blame the teacher” crowd.  But we also know that the commitment of our membership has made us strong, and working together we will navigate through the many challenges ahead (fear not, we will work to get you that overdue 2% raise that doesn’t even cover your cost of living expenses and we will do so by ceding even more of our voice in education policy while we give away even more of your protections, time and resources. As for ATRs, don't make any long-term plans). 

There is much to be excited about and thankful for (hey, at least you have a job) as we begin this school year, including several recent well-earned victories (even though we cowered after we won them) and smart, forward-thinking agreements (even though these agreements will do little to better the lives of children or our profession). Among them: We secured millions in additional federal funding (money that will never actually reach your schools and classrooms), which will help offset some future budget cuts (because the DOE continues to spend untold wasted millions on their obsession with accountability and testing rather than an investment in real reform). We blocked efforts to go after career teachers through misguided legislation (but agreed to an evaluation system that will tie your worth as a teacher to misleading, misguided and punitive high stakes testing). Teacher’s Choice funds, which were slated for elimination, were saved thanks to the hard work of our political team and volunteers (even though that $110 will not even cover your costs for paper and pencils). We reached a landmark agreement with the city to shut down the so-called "rubber rooms" (so teachers that have been persecuted by often times incompetent and vindictive administrative leadership, will be forced to work in the PR world of the DOE) and put a faster, fairer hearing process in place (faster maybe, but the DOE doesn’t know how to be fair). A new and more objective evaluation system will be on the way once we negotiate it, and we made sure it will include a true teacher improvement plan and limit the emphasis on standardized tests (even though at least 20% of this system will be tied to those very tests).  Crucial charter school reforms were passed that improve access for all students, including ELLs and those with special needs, and drive out for-profits who are pocketing millions in taxpayer funds (btw, teachers in co-located schools, go talk to those TFAers who now teach in your old classrooms and will take more and more of our public school resources, and unionize them please; I know they’ll be gone in two years, but the union dues will keep rolling in). And thanks to our legal action, the DOE was forced to comply with the state’s governance law (shhh, I know we sold out after we won this case and allowed the DOE to not only shrink to virtually nothing the freshman classes of the 19 schools targeted for closure and further allowed them to open new small schools and charter schools in their buildings, even allowing the sitting of one school in our own UFT building, but why hold the DOE accountable to the law, which we proved they violated, accountability is only for the little people like you).

We would not have achieved any of this without the efforts of so many thousands of UFT members who worked with parents in their own communities to raise public awareness on issues and lobby their elected officials (with little to no help and resources from your union organization, keep it up, so we can keep licking the crumbs off the table). From phone banks and leafleting to rallies and demonstrations, UFT members were out in force all across the five boroughs, fighting for their schools and their profession. We also owe a great deal of thanks to the many parents, organizations and elected officials who were willing to stand up and stand with us as partners on our many campaigns (even though we have far too often in our history fed into the divide and conquer mentality of the ed deformers and haven’t done nearly enough to work with parents and community).

No one needs reminding that we will again face many challenges this year. We cannot and will not capitulate to the political agendas of those who don't support educators, school staff or public education (even though we already have, but we’ll get tough, no really, I promise). We must continue to stand up for our students, parents and school communities, and set the agenda ourselves (our vision is coming soon, really, I promise). This is our time to take back our profession (see, I’m tough).  We must also continue to take on the Department of Education, which all too often refuses to take responsibility for its mismanagement of the system (I know many of you think there is an intentional undermining of our public education system at work here, but that is just conspiracy stuff, these guys don’t want to dismantle public education, they just want to replace half of your schools with charters and have you work more for a lot less). And the union will once again do all in its power to ensure that members are treated as the professionals that they are, and that they get the support and guidance they need and deserve (i.e. little to no professional development, micro-management, fewer resources with even greater expectations, narrowed curriculum, excessive focus on testing and no true salary increase).

Perseverance, commitment and unity (you like my double entendre here!? Don’t go thinking what happened with Chicago and CORE will happen here, Unity all the way baby) will help us stand apart from others. We are here for you (if it suits us), only a phone call or an e-mail away, and the newly redesigned UFT website is packed with important information as well (please go and read more of my propaganda blather).

Again, thank you for all that you do (keep doing more with less).

Sincerely,

Michael Mulgrew