Donna Nevel: The Slow Death of Khalil Gibran International Academy

"What does the story of Debbie Almontaser and KGIA tell us? The story is about Islamophobia and racism. But the story is also about a public education system that is accountable to nobody it should be accountable to–not to its students and families, nor to its educators." 

..........

The story of KGIA is yet one more example of the danger of a school system controlled by a mayor with little input from, or respect for, community members, educators, parents, and students. It is yet one more example of a school system that has little regard for the cultures, languages, and histories of the families that make up our schools. It is yet one more example of a school system that makes decisions based on outside interests that don’t grow out of the needs of, or what is in the best interest of, our children, schools, and communities. - Donna Nevel at Gotham Schools

Beyond the specifics of how the DOE killed KGIA, Donna lays out a powerful case for why mayoral control must end. (Donna doesn't go there but Randi Weingarten also played a negative role in calling for Debbie Almontaser's removal.) And then there is our new weaselly chancellor Dennis Walcott:

In August 2007, New York City’s then Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott called Debbie Almontaser, then the acting principal of KGIA, into his office to tell her that Mayor Michael Bloomberg had lost confidence in her and wanted her to resign from her post. But that wasn’t all. Walcott also told her that the mayor wanted the resignation immediately because he intended to announce it on his radio show the next day. She was told that if she did not resign, KGIA would be closed. Knowing how much the school meant to the Arab community and to so many others, Almontaser submitted her resignation.

She brought suit soon after, charging that the city and the DOE had discriminated against her by bowing to anti-Muslim and anti-Arab bigotry in demanding her resignation. In March 2010, the federal Equal Employment Opportunities Commission upheld Almontaser’s charge of discrimination. It ruled that, in demanding her resignation, the DOE “succumbed to the very bias that the creation of the school was intended to dispel, and a small segment of the public succeeded in imposing its prejudices on the DOE as an employer.”

 Nice work Dennis as you demonstrate your major qualification for the job of Chancellor in the Bloomberg administration: the art of using threats, intimidation, discrimination, bullying tactics. A perfect hit man - albeit with a smile - for the times.

Brooklyn Teacher Reacts to Teacher Data Report in Letter to UFT Leader Mulgrew

...were teachers to be rewarded for their classroom's performance on the state test or alternatively, sanctioned for low performance many of these teachers would have demonstrated quite different results on a low-stakes test of the same subject.  Importantly, these differences need not be due to real differences in long-run skill acquisition…

Teacher effectiveness on high- and low-stakes tests - Corcoran/Jennings/Beveridge

I won't make any comments at this time as to whether Lynda's plea to Mulgrew will have an impact given that the UFT record on making a stand on these reports has not been good. But the letter is very powerful and illustrates the folly of flawed teacher ratings systems as indicated in the Corcoran/Jennings/Beveridge report from which the above quote comes - see more below Lynda's letter. Lynda touches on all the evils of data mania – of teachers abandoning testing grades and teaching solely to the test while ignoring some of the most important elements of a good education.

Also check out Jose Vilson.

From Lynda Costagliola, PS 3 Brooklyn

Dear Mr. Mulgrew,


I am a veteran public school teacher of 33 years and have taught a variety of subject areas and grades during my tenure. I began as a middle school special education teacher and am currently a licensed teacher for the Gifted and Talented Program, grade 5 . I have an exemplary record and have contributed in a positive way to many, many students most of whom I still keep in contact via that technological wonder, Facebook!

I received my Teacher Data Report on Wednesday, April 13 and was demoralized beyond words. I was rated an "average" teacher in both E.L.A. and Math and "below average" in one area of the math. I sat and stared at the computer screen reading through tears of frustration insisting that someone made a terrible mistake. I am NOT "an average/below average" teacher!


In June of each school year, parents line up outside my principal's office begging to have their children in my class. If I was such an "average/below average" teacher, why would parents do that? Over the years many of my fifth grade students have been accepted into such prestigious middle schools as DeLaSalle Academy, Medgar Evers Prep School, Mark Twain Middle School for the Gifted and Talented, Philippa Schulyer Middle School and the Prep for Prep Program. I prepare all my students to take these entrance exams as well as introduce them to the interview process. I don't think an "average/below average" teacher's students would be able to pass such rigorous entrance exams.


My principal told me to rip up my Teacher Data Report as she does not give it any merit, especially in my case. As a teacher of the Gifted and Talented, many of my students enter my class with perfect E.L.A. and Math scores. Where can I move them? What if my principal leaves and I am at the mercy of some Tweed Operative who only deals with statistics?


I hope my Union, one that I have supported and believed in since the days of Albert Shanker, will alert the public to the offensive nature and inaccuracies of these Reports. Fight their release and get rid of them! My livelihood is being challenged on the basis of two exams, which are administered over four days. Three hours of testing can measure a teacher's worth?


My evenings and weekends are consumed with paperwork. My preps? My lunch periods? I coach the Oratory Team and am the coordinating teacher for The Stock Market Game. I also coordinate many of the senior activities at my school. Should I give this all up and focus on test-taking? Teaching in Brooklyn certainly has it advantages. I have taken my class on many school trips to concerts, plays, museums and art galleries, all related to various areas of the curriculum. Should I stop and just focus on test-taking activities? Should I stop molding my students into becoming well-rounded young men and women and just focus on test-taking skills? If the answer is yes, then I fear I may have to retire.


Please Mr. Mulgrew. Get the word out that Teacher Data Reports are flawed, inaccurate and do not measure the worth of a competent, motivated teacher. These Teacher Data Reports do not take into account students who have to overcome incredible obstacles just to make it to class every day. What about students who, through no fault of their own, arrive at school late, hungry and unprepared? A teacher can only do such much in the course of a day, a week, a month and a school year. Many of my colleagues are reconsidering teaching the testing grades and are applying for lower grade positions or out of classroom positions.


I do not deserve such abuse. I have dedicated my life to the children who have passed through my classroom door. Please help me.


Lynda Costagliola, PS 3 Brooklyn

AFTERBURN

Teacher effectiveness on high- and low-stakes tests_

Sean P. Corcoran

Jennifer L. Jennings

New York University

Andrew A. Beveridge

Queens College/CUNY

April 10, 2011

http://homepages.nyu.edu/~sc129/papers/corcoran_jennings_beveridge_2011_wkg_teacher_effects.pdf

This study finds that teacher effects are 15-31% larger on high stakes tests than low stakes tests, that the value-added results of the same teacher on the two types of tests are only weakly correlated, that teaching experience matters more over a longer period of time in terms results on the low-stakes tests, and that teacher effects on high-stakes test decay at a faster rate.

We find that only 46% of teachers in the top quintile of effectiveness on the TAAS/TAKS reading test [high-stakes test] appear in the top quintile on the SAT [low stakes] reading test. More than 15% of these are in the bottom two quintiles on the SAT. The same asymmetry is observed for the bottom quintile of TAAS/TAKS teachers.

Here only 48% of bottom quintile reading teachers also appear in the bottom quintile of the SAT. One in eight (13%) ranked in the top two quintiles according to the SAT. A similar pattern is observed in math, though the quintile rankings are a bit more consistent than in reading…

To summarize, were teachers to be rewarded for their classroom's performance on the state test or alternatively, sanctioned for low performance many of these teachers would have demonstrated quite different results on a low-stakes test of the same subject.  Importantly, these differences need not be due to real differences in long-run skill acquisition…

In terms of experience level, there appears to be positive returns for up to 21 years of teaching experience in low-stakes math exams (as opposed to high-stakes exams, where the value of experience levels off sooner): “If anything, teachers with 21 or more years of experience have the greatest differential over novices (at 0.131 s.d.).”

For reading, there are gains for 16-20 years of experience (though these graphs only go up to 11 years).

Very interesting paper and one well worth reading for all sorts of implications on ed policy. A good corrective to the highly misleading paper put out  by Gates on the same subject. -- Leonie Haimson

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Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on right for news bits.

Education Deformers Ignore "The Street"

The NY Times story of a student who was everyone's favorite - teachers, parents, church - and ended up in an exclusive out of town prep school- holds some lessons for all.

Now this is one anecdotal case where the student was arrested for being connected to drug and gangs. But over the years there have been a number of them. In some cases it is an innocent kid coming back to the neighborhood and being cut down in intentional or accidental violence. For those of us who taught for a long time in one school there have always been these heartbreaking stories.

I remember one of my kids in the 1975 top class - his name was Benjamin. He had a older brother in hie late teens or early 20's named Michael who was a real role model - I think he might have gone to a prep for prep. I don't remember if it was that year or a few years later but one night he went to a party, left the party and was never seen again. Benjy's dad was naturally devastated and I think the search went on for a long time but don't remember it ever being resolved. I have visions of that dad's face as I write this.

I've often written about my former student Ernie Silva's coming of age one man play and how even bright, academically successful students have to battle the street.

So when I get hot about the ed deform agenda that pushes the idea that all we need to do is get rid of the bad teachers we will go a long way to solving the problems. One could make the case that all we need to do is get rid of the bad cops - I mean if there is street crime and drugs it must be the fault of the cop on the beat, right? Or maybe get rid of the worst social workers who don't seem to be able to stop the street from getting so many kids. And I'll venture into the health field - the bad medical people who "allow" a higher degree of sickness amongst poor people. Did you see that one third of patients in hospitals get something bad happen to them while there and how there were screams they were not allowed to adjust for risk factors of the patients?

I guess I get particularly perturbed by E4E types - led by 2 or 3 year teachers - who put their energies into the kind of activities that have minuscule if any impact on the kids while proclaiming to care about kids. But they ignore the street. But of course the people backing them are purposely ignoring the street as a factor. But that is where the buck to open an office and hire staff to do no good works lie.

I was sufficiently worked up about these activities to put together a leaflet which I can send to anyone who is facing an E4E invasion of their school.

How Educators 4 Excellence Puts Children Last and Adults First

If you were a 3rd year teacher given funding by some very rich people and organizations to leave your full-time teaching job to set up an organization to ostensibly fight for the interests of children, what issues would you put at the top of your list to fight for? Given the immense problems we face in the schools, exacerbated by a decade of control of the NYC school system in the hands of one person - a billionaire mayor who makes major decisions without consulting anyone and who makes his disdain for professionally trained educators clear - which issues would you choose to put your efforts into:

Would you make the focus of your activities ending the last in first out policy in case there are layoffs (which in the entire 110 year history of the NYC school system has occurred only 2 or 3 times)? Layoffs that look extremely unlikely no matter how much the mayor blusters given the fact that there is a budget surplus? Can your school be managed effectively if there are 6000 less teachers and enormous class sizes?

So instead of joining others in fighting against the blatant use of children for political reasons by the mayor, E4E chooses to partner with the mayor in an assault on children and teachers. But then again, E4E has been funded by billionaires who have an agenda:

·       An agenda that disparages lower class sizes.

·       An agenda that promotes merit pay schemes that every bit of research shows actually lowers achievement while distorting education into a narrow test-driven.

·       An agenda that pushes charter schools while attacking the public schools you work in.

An agenda that puts adult self interests, not children, first.

If E4E was really interested in improving the lives of children they would be out there fighting to improve social services to protect abused children and the poor medical services so many of our children receive.  Has E4E attacked the enormous wastes in the DOE: non-bid contracts, ARIS, semi-useless networks, an expanding Tweed bureaucracy, enormous costs associated with assessment, the enormous paperwork burdens being put on you as teachers that have nothing to do with children? Not a peep from E4E!

But this is not the agenda that E4E's billionaire backers are interested in.

They are also not interested Real Reforms that would actually work in the interests of children:

·       Smaller Class Sizes

·       Excellent Community Public Schools for ALL Children

·       More Teaching – Less Testing

·       Parent and Teacher Empowerment and Leadership

·       Equitable Funding for ALL Schools

·       Anti-Racist Education Policies

·       Culturally Relevant Curriculum

·       Expand Pre Kindergarten and Early Intervention Programs

·       Qualified and Experienced Educators and Educational Leaders

These are the Real Reforms that we in the Grassroots Education Movement, a group dedicated to fighting for the interests and rights of children, parents AND teachers and defending public education. Come join us as we also fight for a social justice oriented union.

http://gemnyc.org/ Email us at: gemnyc@gmail.com

Also come see our response to the film "Waiting for Superman" also funded by billionaires. It is called "The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman" and will be premiering in May. This film has no funding and was made by educators in NYC schools working in NYC schools. We will be making DVDs available for showing in school and house parties. Check our blog for the premiere.

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Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on right for news bits. Recent posts:

• Michael Winerip: In Public School Efforts, a Commo...
• Computer-based tests to measure the newly-develope...
• Breaking News: NYS Education Tenure Laws Shake Dow...
• Insanity in Kansas City
• The Myth of the “Crappy Teacher”
• Troubles at Omni Prep charter school

There's an April Brizard Hitting Chicago

When news reports surfaced late last year about his wife angling for a role in the all-girls charter school, Superintendent Brizard said he was trying to keep the media off of the story until the charter application was in. Brizard's new boss, Rahm Emanuel, successfully did the same thing by keeping media questioners at bay.  -

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/iteam&id=8080428&rss=rss-wls-article-8080428

Chicago, Chicago - the birth of mayoral control and vicious ed deform - still not getting it right after 16 years. Vallas, Duncan, Huberman, Brizard - what a lineup.

Lots of Brizard stuff - Rahm bringing him in to stand up to Karen Lewis and CORE. What a laugh. He will however last longer than Cathie Black - but hey, isn't she from Chicago? Now that she has some ed experience why wasn't she a candidate?

Brizard is another Broad Acad grad. (Scroll down sidebar for Sharon Higgins' list of failed Broad Acads.)

Ed Notes has done some Brizard stuff in the past:

From Ttilden HS teacher john lawhead

"jean-claude brizard in a letter to parents of december 12 the major problem was that tilden was “not on track” to meet the city's goal of “raising the city-wide 4-year graduation rate to 70% and the 6-year graduation rate to 80"

Education Notes: John-Claude Brizard in line to become Rochester ...

Nov 24, 2007

He basically pegs Brizard as a Klein flunkie. What is the real story on Brizard? He gets appointed on Thursday and then there is no turning back. http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article? ...

My friend Bill Cala (who should be NY State Ed Commissioner AND Chancellor) preceded Brizard in Rochester as Superintendent. He had this to say about Brizard's claims he raised grad rates - from Substance:

Brizard’s claim has even been called into question by his predecessor, former Interim Superintendent of the Rochester schools, Dr. William Cala.
Here’s what Dr. Cala had to say about the graduation rates, in a series of e-mails with Brizard which were obtained by a Rochester reporter using the Freedom of Information Act: "Let’s make one thing perfectly clear. Brizard had nothing to do with a 12 point graduation increase. Here are the facts. In 2007 the graduation results were announced by SED for 2006 graduates at 39%. In 2008 the results for the 2007 year were announced at 51%. 2008 was Brizard’s first year. The 12% increase came before he stepped in the door. The real facts are that graduation rates dipped below 51% during his tenure, thus actually losing ground.

More on the story at Substance.

Here (http://bit.ly/dHP3kB) is a good year by year summary of articles related to Brizard from his tenure in Rochester. I know a few goodies from his time here but he was bumped around a lot because he was not on a fast track - I think he kept going down in the pecking order - Klein passed the lemon in this case.

Just some of the titles should stimulate some debate. Here are a few favorites:

RCSD School Officials in Vegas During Testing, Layoffs
RCSD Board to Question Brizard’s Raise
Brizard Hires $100,000-a-Year, Part-Time Special Assistant
Principals Told to Cut Art, Music, Phys EdRCSD Staff Stayed at Luxury Resort During Budget Crisis
Brizard Said He Didn't Give Raises to Top Staff, but He Did
State Test Scores Plummet, Erasing Gains
Brizard Spinning Graduation Data
EEOC Finds Brizard Discriminated Against Official
Staff Survey Finds Little Support for Brizard
Fact-Checking Brizard on Cabinet Spending
State: Only 5% of RCSD Grads Ready for College

Looks like the right guy for Rahm.

Seung Ok on Social Promotion

If there is a grey area involving a medical decision, I would hope that  a specialist in that field makes it.  So if a teacher who knows their students and knows the curriculum, makes a decision to pass on a struggling student - devoid of outside pressure - I'm okay with it.--- Seung Ok

 
It was so good to hear from Seung Ok, one of the early members of GEM, who has been busy at his new school. As usual, Seung drills deep - this time on social promotion. And note the comments he inspired, especially from Deb Meier.

When he says, "Have I ever socially promoted a child? Sure I have," I am in agreement, having done the same. The Ed Deformer policy of trying to "automate" such a delicate process - part of the litany of taking basic ed decisions out of the hands of teachers - is idiocy. But it also works both ways for ed deformers. When it comes time to pump the grad rates so they look good politically, they also take the decisions out of the hands of teachers by using gimmicks to socially promote kids.

Seung gets to the heart of it: Who is making the basic decision?  I had a battle with a new principal in 1978, a woman who had taught for 6 months, who took the decisions on promotion out of our hands. She wanted to hold as many kids back as early in the grades as possible so that when they took the tests in future years they would always be a year early (brilliant woman). So it is not just ed deformers. But she was data driven, hoping to use it to move her career, so she interdicted our decisions in order to create a system that manipulated the data. She turned our school into her own high stakes school decades before the ed deformers. I immediately saw the evils personified in our little den (it took another 6 years but this change was what led to my leaving the self-contained classroom - the infantry of teaching). One day I'll share a few stories on how I used to beat her system - I have to check if the statue of limitations has run out.

Like the ed deformers, she didn't really give a rat's ass as to what kids really were learning. She could be the mother of ed deform.

In today's world, if we want to get to the essence of ed deform, whether you talk Cathie Black/Dennis Walcott, the business types at Tweed, Teach for America, it comes down to not trusting professional educators but instead placing blame for past system failures on them.

Posted to NYCEdNews listserve by Seung Ok:

In Frank McCourt's humorous passage, he describes how a group of high school teachers creatively added points to a student's score to help him obtain a 65 on the NY state English exam. He was describing an event that occurred back in the 1970's. This may me think of the key differences between the social promotion that had occurred in the old days compared to the state sanctioned promotion encouraged by education reform ala Mayor Bloomberg and NCLB.  

When I first came into teaching, and during the era of Frank McCourt's career, there was a choice of 2 high school degrees.  A student could  opt for the Regent's diploma ( by passing all the state mandated tests) or the non -regents diploma (which just required passing the classes offered by the school).  Obviously, top colleges looked to the regents diploma for their selection criteria.

Combine this with the fact that in 2002 - when the United States still led all countries in the number of those obtainment of college degrees- the US census reported that only 27 % of all Americans held a bachelor's degree.  Specifically for whites alone, the rate was 37%. 

So, the majority of house owning families in suburban areas like long island lived self supporting and productive lives as small business owners, civil servants, plumbers and whatnot - without a college degree. The myth that college is the only route to success is repeated so often that it is accepted as doctrine.

Have I ever socially promoted a child? Sure I have.  I passed struggling students who have taken the same course multiple times, and obtained a 55 average instead of the 65 minimum standard for proficiency.  However, I can recall many more times that I have  failed a student who performed a 55 average, but had the potential be be an 80 student - but lacked the motivation and work ethic to perform in class.  The key criteria I used in making the decision, was whether that student would be helped by taking the class over again.  

The main difference in the social promotion of old and what is occurring today - is centered on who makes that decision.  If there is a grey area involving a medical decision, I would hope that  a specialist in that field makes it.  So if a teacher who knows their students and knows the curriculum, makes a decision to pass on a struggling student - devoid of outside pressure - I'm okay with it. It is similar to the decisions of a jury of our peers who have to dispense justice- even though it is an imperfect system. 

However, the social promotion policies of today derive not from educators but politicians and corporate ideologues who believe they know more than those specialists working in the schools. It is a one size fits all approach that brings social promotion to a massive and uniform scale with dumbed down tests and punitive pressures for schools with many high needs students.

Frank McCourt's description of teachers helping to artificially boost up a student's scores in a state test was indeed humorous, mainly because the consequences was not high stakes.  In other words, the graduation of that student , the closure of that school, and the livelihood of the teachers were not dependent on the that student passing the state exam. 

And there is a difference when that scale for "helping" students slides down from those that earn a 55 to 50 to 45 to 40 to 35.  It is a lot like comparing the speed limit posted on the highways and the actual speed most of us drive.  The exponential increase in risk in driving 10 miles over the limit than say 20 is stark - and it is society who will take the burden of that risk.

Dangers always arise when simple solutions are offered for complex systems and problems.  The focus on high stakes testing and evaluation is one such example.  We may argue that the particular child in Mr. McCourt's passage may never become a surgeon or engineer, but the institutionalized promotion happening in all the grades today - which are promoted by the likes of Mayor Bloomberg - are destroying the drives of those otherwise destined to become the surgeons and engineers of tomorrow. 

Seung Ok

Comments on Seung's piece

Ed Deform Hypocrisy: Class Size - share with your anti-teacher Seda Relatives, Tchr Eval at Schools they pick for their kids, and Brizzard Resigning Today in Rochester

UPDATE:

Poor Chicago parents, teachers and kids! 

Brizard received a nearly unanimous no-confidence vote among Rochester folks. 

For more on how his policies have been deeply unpopular among Rochester stakeholders, see

http://communityeducationtaskforce.rocus.org/?p=162

Eli Broad and Joel Klein have a lot to answer for!

Rahm Emanuel to name new Chicago schools chief

By KIM JANSSEN Staff Reporter / kjanssen@suntimes.com Apr 18, 2011 11:13AM
Chicago Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel plans to name Rochester Superintendent Jean-Claude Brizard (right) to be the Chicago Public Schools CEO. He'll replace Ron Huberman, who resigned last year.
Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel plans to name the man in charge of schools in Rochester, N.Y., to head Chicago’s public schools, The Associated Press is reporting.
Jean-Claude Brizard — who has headed the 32,000-student Rochester City School District since 2008 — was with Emanuel Monday awaiting the start of a news conference at Kelly High School on the Southwest Side.
Brizard signed a three-year contract there in February paying $235,000 a year but has clashed with the teachers union there.
Previously, he taught and worked as an administrator in New York City’s schools.
Brizard replaces Ron Huberman, who resigned last year. Since then, Terry Mazany has served as interim schools chief.

---------------

Lots of stuff coming in. Leonie has a piece you should share on class size. Then there is the hypocritic oath taken by ed deforms :

I shall not send my own child to a school where teachers are evaluated based on test scores or where there are few senior/experienced teachers, or with high class sizes, or where my child must spend the day doing test prep, or where the school has a KIPP like discipline program.

From Leonie:
The education Deformers like to say that class size does NOT matter, only teacher "quality". That is why we must pay and fire teachers based on test scores. Read below a report from Leonie Haimson of Class size Matters that counters the education "deformers".


Last week, the Center for American Progress released a report by Matthew Chingos, who previously wrote a highly-flawed critique of Florida’s class size reduction program. (See my recent debate with Chingos on CNN.)

CAP has put out a series of crude reports posing as educational research, but this must be one of the least impressive. Despite its title, “The False Promise of Class-Size Reduction,” lowering class size is only one of K-12 four reforms that, according to the Institute of Education Sciences, have been proven to work through rigorous evidence.

In this report, Chingos falsely claims that that the benefits of smaller classes, as shown by the Tennessee STAR studies, faded out over time:

“The bump in test scores after one year would be impressive if it didn’t erode over time despite the continued use of small classes.”

Actually, follow up studies by Jeremy Finn reveal that students who were randomly assigned smaller classes in the early grades had significantly higher graduation and college-going rates. The gains were especially impressive for low-income students:

“For all students combined, 4 years in a small class in K–3 were associated with a significant increase in the likelihood of graduating from high school; the odds of graduating after having attended small classes for 4 years were increased by about 80.0%. Furthermore, the impact of attending a small class was especially noteworthy for students from low-income homes. Three years or more of small classes affected the graduation rates of low- SES students, increasing the odds of graduating by about 67.0% for 3 years and more than doubling the odds for 4 years.”

The report continues:

http://parentsacrossamerica.org/2011/04/more-clap-trap-from-cap-on-class-size-reduction

Combined w/ Winerip story tells a very sad story.

Teacher evaluations at the schools that Obama, Duncan picked for their kids

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/teacher-evaluations-at-the-schools-that-obama-duncan-picked-for-their-kids/2011/04/15/AF1S1cwD_story.html

By Valerie Strauss, Sunday, April 17, 10:35 PM

Bill Schechter taught history for 35 years at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School in Sudbury, Mass. Now retired from the classroom, he supervises the student-teacher practicums of students earning master’s degrees in teaching at a local university. He is also a volunteer tutor at a Boston public school.

•  

A question occurred to Schechter recently when he was preparing testimony to give before the Massachusetts Board of Education, which will soon hold hearings on whether to base teacher evaluations on students’ standardized test scores — and if so, to what extent.

The question was: How do the schools serving the children of President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan handle this important school reform issue? He decided to find out.

The issue of linking a teacher’s salary and pay to how well students do on a standardized test has come to dominate the national education debate.

With the Obama administration’s support, more states are passing laws to connect teacher pay and test scores, even though experts on assessment say it is a bad idea.

The tests being used today were not designed to evaluate teachers (and they don’t do a good job of assessing students, either).

Furthermore, everybody who has ever taken a test understands that there are numerous factors that can affect how well someone does that have nothing to do with the teacher; kids who go to school hungry or tired or mentally ill or sick or anxious aren’t likely to do well, even if the teacher is to the teaching profession what Einstein was to physics.

Knowing that the Obama administration’s policies support linking teacher pay with test scores, Schechter wondered what Sidwell Friends School, the private Quaker school in Washington where Obama’s two children are enrolled, does regarding teacher pay-for-performance.

Schechter wondered the same about the Arlington County public school system, where Duncan’s children attend school.

This is part of what Schechter wrote to me:

“What did the president and the secretary seek and obtain for their own kids, where the important issue of teacher evaluation was concerned? The answers recently arrived in two e-mails:

“Arlington school district teacher, March 31, 2011: ‘We do not tie teacher evaluations to scores in the Arlington public school system.’

“Sidwell Friends faculty member, April 1, 2011:

“ ‘We don’t tie teacher pay to test scores because we don’t believe them to be a reliable indicator of teacher effectiveness.’ ”

straussv@washpost.com

Is he going elsewhere, say Chicago?  Hope not for their sake.

Jean-Claude Brizard expected to announce resignation today

9:38 AM, Apr. 18, 2011  |  

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20110418/NEWS01/110418008/Jean-Claude-Brizard-expected-announce-resignation-today?odyssey=nav|head

Purchase Image

Rochester City School District Superintendant Jean-Claude Brizard talks with the media recently about raising graduation standards. / JAMIE GERMANO staff photographer

Written by

Tiffany Lankes
Staff writer

School board President Malik Evans said this morning that Superintendent Jean-Claude Brizard will likely announce his resignation this afternoon.
Evans said the board planned to meet in executive session to discuss its legal options regarding his contract and then hold a press conference.
Evans said he did not know where Brizard is planning to go.
School board members said last week that they had not been able to reach Brizard for several days amid rumors that he may be considering a job in another district.
Check back for more details as they become available.

Washington TU protest at WAPO - LInks to Kaplan Test Prep and Virtual Schools Push as Critical Blog Post is Rejected by WAPO

Updated, Monday, April 18, 10AM- This blog keeps changing every 10 minutes, so check it out again even if you read it.

mport84 Comment

The Post editorial board is not entirely separate and independent of Kaplan. Furthermore, Kaplan Educational Services in involved in something far more troubling than even their higher-education frauds. I will explain.  

In October, at Jay Mathews invitation, I wrote a guest blog for his Washington Post education column, Class Matters. I discussed Kaplan's stealthy expansion of its tax-funded, public K-12 for-profit virtual charter schools. I was concerned that the Kaplan website appeared to be hiding these ventures from the local communities whose education budgets are paying for them. Judge for yourself:  http://www.kaplanonlineschools.com/district/soluti...  

Mathews says his editors refused permission for him to print the blog, saying they would handle the Kaplan matter themselves. Ask him. Is that editorial independence?

I was contacted by teacher/blogger mport84 about the link between the protest at WAPO and their parent company, Kaplan Industries. I'm updating this post with information sent to me by mport84.

(There have been some calls from teachers to protest Murdoch's NY Post but other than Gotham Schools most people don't take the Post too seriously. WAPO is different with more of a NY Times-like rep.)

To be fair: It's not all one-sided at WAPO. They have ed deformer Jay Matthews balanced by the fabulous Valerie Strauss and good reporting from Bill Turque.

The WTU did mention the Washington Post's distorted and pro-ed deform policy to their ownership by testing and test prep giant Kaplan which makes so much profit from ed deform. Kaplan's new push is for virtual schools where the kids will never leave their house - think of it - no messy school building, or teacher salaries - all costs go directly into the hands of corps - see why Joel Klein pushed the idea and then left to join Rupert to get some of that business - reason enough for him to have fulfilled my failed prediction (so far) that one day he would be taken out of Tweed in cuffs. Mport84 also touched base with WTU President Nathan Saunders:

I spoke to Saunders, who said that while there was no direct connection between Kaplan and the DC public schools, Kaplan was part of a “testing culture” that had permeated the public school system, ruining the educational experience for both students and teachers."

Here are a bunch of reports on the protest. The first one is WAPO's own coverage:

Teachers’ union protests Post editorial board

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/teachers-union-protests-post-editorial-board/2011/04/15/AFVFJ2kD_story.html

 

"The D.C. teachers union staged a rally outside The Washington Post on Friday alleging that the paper’s editorial positions are influenced by Kaplan, the for-profit educational services division owned by The Post Co.

 

Dozens of teachers clad in red chanted “Down with The Post lies” during the midday protest. Union activists parked a giant inflatable rat near the entrance to The Post’s headquarters at 15th and L streets in Northwest Washington.

 

“Absent Kaplan, The Post would be out of business,” Washington Teachers’ Union President Nathan Saunders said. Saunders said The Post’s editorial board stakes out positions that are in keeping with the general business aims of Kaplan, which offers a range of services, including degree programs and standardized test preparation. Saunders pointed to a Post editorial supporting IMPACT, the D.C. teacher evaluation system, which is partly based on students’ performance on standardized tests. Kris Coratti, The Post’s communications director, said Kaplan is not involved in The Post’s editorial decision-making."

 Now one from Politico:  On Media: Teachers union protests Washington

http://www.politico.com/blogs/onmedia/0411/Teachers_union_protests_Washington_Post.html

 

"But the greater oddity is connecting Kaplan to the kinds of editorials that the teachers union was upset about – in this case, supporting the controversial teacher evaluation system that was former DC Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee’s signature initiative. The former is primarily about higher education, the latter about K-12. Kaplan does also run a test-prep business that might mingle with the interest of DC public schools, but not in any fundamental way that is worth waging a policy battle about.

Blogger mport84 left the comment that leads this piece. Here are reports from themail which includes WTU VP Candi Peterson's report of the rally.

The Washington Teachers Union held a protest against the editorial board of The Washington Post on Friday, and the protest was much larger than either of the DC statehood protests that got much more publicity. So, if you haven't heard about it, read Candi Peterson's article below.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
###############

WTU Protests the Washington Post
Candi Peterson, saveourcounselors@gmail.com
Approximately three hundred teachers, school personnel, city workers, union and community members protested outside The Washington Post building on Friday, April 15. This day was selected because it coincided with a day-off furlough for DC Public Schools employees and DC government workers. The protest was organized by the Washington Teachers' Union (WTU) against the Post due to their biased reporting that consistently vilifies DC public school teachers and fails to include more balanced reporting of the obstacles teachers face in a mostly urban school district. According to WTU President, Nathan Saunders: "You've got to understand that the Washington Post has been vicious against, not just teachers unions, but the Washington Teachers' Union in particular, for the last three or four years," he said. "And everything that the former chancellor, Michelle Rhee, has done in the district, they have embraced wholeheartedly at the expense of working teachers.

In the words of Reflective Educator blogger, a former DC teacher: "Why is the Washington Post such an awful place for citizens to get information about what's really going on with education in the District?" We have to ponder why did it take USA Today newspaper's investigative journalists, Jack Gillum and Marisol Bello to cover the story, "When Standardized Test Scores Soared in DC, Were The Gains Real?" Another reason for Friday's protest was to call attention to the Washington Post's relationship with Kaplan Testing Company, which accounts for the majority of their revenue. It is the Washington Teachers' Union position that the Post fails to adequately cover education reform from all vantage points, fails to print letters to the editor from education stakeholders, colors their editorial viewpoint, and heaped undeserved praise on former Chancellor Michelle Rhee during her term in DCPS, despite her many transgressions.

At the protest, teachers carried signs that read: "Cancel your Washington Post subscription today" and "We'll stop buying until you stop lying" while singing chants, as a big inflatable union rat loomed large in front of the Post. Speakers included other union leaders, including Jos Williams, President of Washington, DC Metro Labor Council; Bill Simon, Former WTU President; AFSCME representative, Caneisha Mills; AFGE representative, Johnny Walker; Vincent Orange, At-Large City Council candidate; Robert Brannum, President of the DC Federation of Civic Associations; Jerome Brocks, a now-retired activist teacher; and Sheila Gill, a wrongfully terminated school counselor; and a host of others, with closing remarks given by Reverend Grayland Hagler, who encouraged protesters to march in solidarity around the K street corridor. All in all, it was a beautiful day and just the start of actions planned by the Washington Teachers Union which will seek to build momentum and convince our government and the mayor of the need to provide adequate funding for public education.

MPort84 also sent this info along:

Here are some quotes from Kaplan website extolling virtual schools:

“IMAGINE REACHING EVERY CHILD, EVEN IF SHE NEVER WALKS THROUGH THE DOOR....PROGRAM SOLUTION: DISTRICT-LABEL VIRTUAL SCHOOL”

Kaplan created public school programs to address the needs of districts seeking a partner....Districts can also open an intact virtual school that has the look and feel of the district and not that of Kaplan.

Districts can accommodate students who cannot be served by a traditional brick and mortar school, thus keeping them in-district and capturing per-pupil funding. Plus, a dedicated Account Manager will work as a district partner to deliver results.”

http://www.kaplanonlineschools.com/district/solutions

There is a great need to discuss the actual educational consequences of the profit-driven drive to curtail brick-and-mortar and flesh-and-blood education in favor of virtual products.  

 

Others have voiced genuine reservations, especially considering the horrific record of the for-profit online college mills.  Here is a respected columnist from Forbes, E.D. Kain:  “The Next Step in Scott Walker’s Corporate Education Reform Agenda: Diploma Mills”

 

“But a virtual school does not fully replicate an actual classroom, and even if it did, we should be deeply troubled by the funneling of public education dollars into the coffers of for-profit businesses with very dubious transparency and even more dubious results.”

http://blogs.forbes.com/erikkain/2011/03/23/the-next-step-in-scott-walkers-corporate-education-reform-agenda-diploma-mills/

A Day of Immersion in Bloomberg Bureaucracy: Roll Out the Barrel

Any elementary school teacher could have better managed this.

This was my comment to the people from the EPA running the rain barrel giveaway at Marine Park yesterday on a cold and nasty day. What should have taken about a half hour of my time ended up using up most of the day. Okay, I know. I could have bought one for about $30. But I wouldn't have. You know the motto in the Scott family: free is better than good - or actually - free is better than anything.

photo from EPA website

The offer of a free 50 gallon rain storage unit along with the converter kit was too much for me to resist. I have 3 spots I could make use of it in my garden. So when I accidentally came across the announcement on Friday that barrels would be given away on Saturday from 9-2, I made plans to be there early before the crowd and get home in time to get to the gym by 10. So, I how did I feel when I came straggling home with my barrel after 3 trips back and forth, hacking and coughing from the cold wet day at around 3:30PM? *&*&%&%%.

I got to Ave U around 8:45 and the traffic was backed up for blocks and a massive line was formed in the parking lot. People were already walking away with barrels. Apparently most of Brooklyn have the same motto as the Scotts. But on the good side, it was nice to see how many people are interested in gardening and conservation. Or maybe since we are quickly slipping into banana republic territory in this country it was simply a case like they use to have in Russia - if you see any line join it.

I won't get into the details of how poorly this was managed. But a few quick hits. One guy has number 13 at 7:30 and was told he could leave and come back at 9 since no barrels would be given away before them. So how did he end up at the back of a long line with people like me with number 355? Of course they started giving away barrels at 8 and by 9 there were none left.

The prefect manager for rain barrel giveaway

They were giving out numbers - to cars coming in and to people on the line - total chaos. Lines forming all over the place. "Another truck is coming," they told us. So we line up to wait. In the cold (I didn't dress as warmly as I should have - just pick up the barrel and put it in the car - I figured.) An hour goes by. Where's the truck? Jersey Turnpike was one answer. Williamsburg was another.

But we all start to bond while waiting. A great slice of Brooklyn diversity. People who might never talk to each other if they were not on a line on a nasty Saturday morning waiting for a rain barrel. The guys from Jamaica and other Caribbean nations tell us how they use gravity feed systems all the time on the Islands. The guy with number 13 who got screwed is in remarkable good humor. He asks why is rain water better than tap water? The nitrogen. Much of it gets lost through filtration in tap water. Thus watering plants with rain water gives them more nutragens.

Finally they tell us to leave and come back in an hour. Everyone with a number (cars and people were still pulling in and were told it was too late.) My number was one of the last given out.

So I go shopping for my 93 year old dad who as a true Scott wants me to chase all over Brooklyn to different stores so I could save a dollar. I get the goodies up to his apartment, am questioned intently as to why I paid $4 for a tin of raisins when I could have gotten them for $2 at CVS, head over and get gas and then back to Marine Park.

No truck. But at least I have a spot in the lot. So I listen to Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Finally at around 12pm the truck arrives. Ensuing chaos - they can't figure out an orderly system to give out the barrels but they say they are doing it by numbers. I stay back since I have 355. They aren't really doing it by numbers. They run out before I get to the front of the line. The truck leaves to go back to Williamsburg to get more barrels. It won't be back for at least 2-3 hours. There are about 50 of us left.

The dispatcher is a nice guy. "I'm from Wisconsin," he says. "You can trust me." Ha, I say. "I'm from Madison," he answers. "OK," I say. "You pass." He says everyone with a number will get a barrel. He's from Madison. I believe him.

I'm not giving up on this quest. I go back home, take cough medicine, eat lunch and head back at 2:30. Sit in the car for about 15 minutes and finally the truck comes. Even with this smaller crowd there is no clue on how to manage it. Sort of like the newbie teacher who tells an entire class to get their coats at the same time. I figure that every single teacher in the school system with minimal management skills could have done this better. It is raining but I wrestle the barrel into the car. (Can't wait to get home and rip open the conversion kit. I knew I shoulda been a plumber.)

Maybe it was not the fault of the poor EPA workers who have been there since 6AM. They are not trained in crowd management. But no one seemed to be in charge – the benefits of Bloomberg-style management. What was needed for this even was a top-level manager. Someone with vast experience in managing large organizations. Someone who would be available on a Saturday morning. A perfect job for Cathie Black.


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Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on right for news bits.

Cathie Black to Head Ed Notes Expansion to Russia

Published in The Wave Friday, April 15 - www.rockawave.com

Phee-Asko
by Norm Scott

If you don't know what the title of this column refers to you have not been a regular reader. Just consider it your phonics lesson of the day. But all is not lost for Cathie Black. I have decided to hire Black as the publisher of my blog Education Notes, thus giving her an opportunity to combine her vast experience in publishing with all she learned in her three months in the world of education. Cathie and I have a lot in common – we're both 66. She asked, “If I were a guy, would I have had the pounding that I did?” I assured her she would be treated just like a guy. And when she complained about all those unflattering shots of her that appeared in the press, I was careful to tell her she could pick any photos she wanted to use. When she compared the experience as Chancellor to trying to learn Russian in a weekend, I jumped at the opportunity and put Black in charge of translating Ed Notes for the Russian market.

The same people who praised Bloomberg for appointing Black are giving him credit for acting quickly once he realized he made a teeny-weeny mistake by dropping an atom bomb on over one million school children – Bloomie, our own Dr. Strangelove. Want to see a list of people who jumped on board? Check out this link on my blog: http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2011/04/why-oppose-walcott-waiverlist-in.html. We haven't heard from Opra or Whoopie since Black left.

A Teacher Has Second Thoughts on Weingarten

by Robert C. Rendo
English Language Arts Teacher, Westchester County


In 2006, when I had written  an article in the NY Teacher Paper about Randi Weingarten, I extolled her leadership virtues by examining her role in actualizing parity to bring city teacher salaries in line with those of the gentrified suburbs. She also compromised tremendously in that “victory” by helping Michael Bloomberg secure mayoral control of the New York City public schools and then extending the working day for teachers, amounting to 15 more days a year. The “leveling” didn’t exactly produce a flat terrain, and pay for city teachers, while increased, still lagged behind about $7,000 on average for top capped salaries.

With regard to Ms. Weingarten, I’ve since then had a reversal of observatory fortune and am getting in touch with my inner Diane Ravitch. Like Ms. Ravitch’s “one-eighty” on NCLB, I’m now seeing Weingarten in a high wattage spotlight, as opposed to the rose colored light I once shed on her in my article. Ms. Weingarten was at the “We are One Rally” on April 9th in Times Square. I saw that the only transparency she exuded was the two way mirrored window pane plucked straight from a stage set. She was cheering us protestors with her shiny high pitched, fast talking, inflection filled speech. Yet, her rhetoric remained acutely incongruent to her past and present actions. Randi Weingarten is, within her own drama queen-to-centrist spectrum,  a substantial obstructionist to true educational reform.

I want to remind everyone at that rally that Weingarten, a teacher for 9 months in her whole 20 year career, paved the path for Bloomberg to control and damage the NYC public schools by demoralizing teachers with a test-obsessed, mostly data driven, and castigative professional culture. Not to mention, Bloomberg now runs an opaque process where no one gets to see too much of what goes on behind the scenes; whatever democratic components he has in place, like the Panel for Education, are little more than cosmetic democracy. His hiring of Cathy Black was a swift smack in the head to teachers, administrators, cognitive scientists, students, and parents. When I saw Weingarten up at that speaking post at the rally, I was reminded that this was the very same figurehead who was completely behind mayoral control and instrumental to getting Bloomberg this post.

 Bloomberg’s appointment as a education leader is a dot that can be directly connected to other dots of non-teaching occupations and unions. He’s a prominent powerbroker for the rich and an indifferent plutocrat whose policies weaken the middle and working classes.The contradiction of Ms. Weingarten, president of the AFT, and Mr. Bloomberg, president of the rich, stick out like a sore, open, liquidy infected blister.

I am also reminded of Weingarten’s successful move to feature Bill gates as a key note speaker at the AFT convention this year. How can that NOT send the wrong message to us teachers, yet also, reveal Weingarten’s true “reformer-deformer” orientation? Gates is among the most anti-teacher and anti-teacher union plutocrat in the United States; not to mention he is emotionally disconnected from the student-teacher bond and has no background in education. He has preached his cavalier and politicized acceptance of several self-dogmatized, bizzare precepts: 1) class size doesn’t matter; 2) the length of time it takes teachers to become adept and experienced is only 3 years); 3) there is a non-necessity of having a masters degree or higher to become a teacher; 4) there is a non-necessity of factoring in student poverty to teacher evaluation; 5) there is an innocuous need to replace, in part, real teachers and the human bond part with virtual learning. How much more counterproductive to children’s intellectual development can Mr. Gate’s Aspberger-ish and disconnected notions be?

Yet  again, we turn to Ms. Weingarten, who cherry picked at one of the most visible and symbolic forums this year at the AFT convention.

Finally, there is the UFT debacle wherein Weingarten, and then later on, Michael Mulgrew, suppressed information regarding Iris Blige, the Medusa-inspired principal who was found guilty and fined by the DOE of giving directives to her assistant principals to issue “U” ratings to teachers without actually having them observed. The UFT deliberately chose not to pursue this case when one of the affected teachers was sent to a rubber room. The virtual absence of coverage, press conferences, rhetoric, and plain truthful advocacy is key to revealing Ms. Weingarten’s corruption and incompetence. And now we all get to relish those same branded hallmark qualities in her at the national level.

It is my succinct hope that the more people are keenly aware of Weingarten’s “all-about-eve” style representation of teachers nationwide, the more there will be a movement to seriously and perhaps aggressively unseat her. It remains a critical goal to replace her with someone who will militantly stand for those who educate rather than for ideological, philosophical movements that are dressed up to imitate advocacy for teachers. But then again, Weingarten is a master at self-promotion. I can see her sparkling up her public image a little by dancing with the stars or showing up on a revival of “What’s My Line?” Yet, the real Randi Weingarten couldn’t possibly ever stand up due to her own self serving denial and paralysis. A strong but peaceful grass movement to form and mobilize a national teacher union where the president is directly elected by teachers - as opposed to being elected by a cronied tier of upper delegate management, is a start in the right direction to restoring health to a union that is diseased by its leadership.

Teacher Expose: Inside a South Bronx Charter School

Thanks to Queens Teacher for this link.


Mary Ann Reilly at Between the By-Road and the Main Road posts a former student's harrowing account of teaching in a South Bronx Charter School.

View this as a companion piece to our post the other day: An Ex-KIPP Bronx Parent Speaks Out

Note, these two stories are not necessarily from the same schools, but the stories are indicative of the harsh environment for children and teachers at so many charters. (Some have compared them to pre-civil war plantations.)

Guest Blog: Miss C Recounts Teaching at a South Bronx Charter School

Guest Blog: This blog post was written by Miss C a former graduate student of mine who spent a year working as a first grade teacher at a charter school in the South Bronx (NYC). Miss C completed a Masters of Professional Studies in Literacy, a graduate program that ironically privileged the arts and situated the study of "literacies" within a sociocultural framework. The charter world that Miss C describes represents a fundamentally different understanding of teaching, learning, children, and developmentally appropriate practices than what she knew and learned at college.  

I warn you, I cried reading this narrative--not for Miss C, a talented artist and teacher now working in a public school, but for her 22 first graders still at the charter school.

                                                Welcome to Boot Camp

“Miss C, when you were gone, I was so scared, I thought I was in boot camp!” -one of my first graders, after I returned from a meeting.

            This piece serves as a glimpse inside a South Bronx charter school, told from the perspective of a classroom teacher. With the overblown acclaim of charter schools as a means of education “reform” in recent months, I jumped at the chance to tell my story.  I realize that mine is just one story and there are infinite stories and viewpoints held for any given situation;  someone else in my shoes might offer a completely different account. My hope is that my story will spark a conversation, offer new perspectives, and raise a few questions. Teacher's voices can be powerful when they are allowed to be heard.

            Charter schools are public schools, and can be started by and run by anyone. It is not uncommon for them to be operated by people who have no background in education.  They are funded by a mixture of government money, private donations, and grants, and are often situated in areas of high poverty, where applicants are chosen by lottery. Charter schools offer longer school days, smaller class sizes, and "rigorous, standards-based instruction". They also offer a militaristic and strangely corporate environment that emphasizes the importance of order, obedience, and product above all else. Everything has a set protocol and predetermined vision of result, usually dreamt up by administration.  I spent ten months feeling like a chess piece, robot, crusader, warden, inmate, and performer, sometimes all at once. It was a very long year.

Lights, Camera, Action: Battling the Script

“It defies both logic and experience to believe that the learning of all will be enhanced by a curriculum that meets the individual needs of few, if any." --P. David Pearson 

NYCORE Conference: Whose Schools? Our Schools! Bill Ayers' Keynote

Taped on March 26, 2011



Watch directly on vimeo if video plays slowly here:

NYCORE Conference: Whose Schools? Our Schools! Bill Ayers' Keynote from Grassroots Education Movement on Vimeo.

Also check out:

FMPR & UPR NYC Forum of Mar 18 youtubes

Posted by: "Angel Gonzalez" gee.lee21@verizon.net   gee.lee21

Fri Apr 15, 2011 6:49 am (PDT)

For Youtube Videos on:
The FMPR and UPR Forum at Resurrection Church, South Bronx of March 16, 2011

part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAP-fv87RBU&feature=player_embedded
part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAP-fv87RBU&feature=player_embedded
part 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti8NsTY1YDk&feature=player_embedded

Angel F Gonzalez

Puerto Rico - Solidarity Network
http://prsolidarity.blogspot.com/

For PR & NYC School Struggles -
Go to my Youtube Account: Pitirrefili

Jamaica HS Play and Discussion- Declassified: Struggle for Existence (We Used to Eat Lunch Together)

Revised June 8, 2011

From Rethinking Schools

Getting two schools co-located in one school building, especially when one school is being closed replaced while the other is viewed as being favored is not an easy thing to do. But when it happens it can be a beautiful thing to watch. Well, it happened at a Queensborough Community College Prep class with students from both schools based at Jamaica HS where teacher/facilitator Brian Pickett taught a theater class of students. A student-written play dealing with the subject matter of closing and co-located schools and the impact on the students was the result. (See Brian's article in Rethinking Schools.)

Here is the original April 10 blog:
I've been waiting to get this organized since I taped it on February 22. I had to wait to make sure it was OK with the people involved. I taped this performance at an off-Broadway theater. The follow-up Q&A with the students has as much impact as the play itself. They talk about being told they couldn't perform and the follow-up. The entire video is over an hour - I did no editing but just tried to let the camera capture it. It is scrollable so you can watch it in segments if you don't have time for one sitting. The students are so damned articulate from both schools.

Note the interesting question from a Wingate HS campus student at around the 48th minute about why not phase out certain schools - and the response.

Here is a note from Brian Pickett, the teacher who worked with the students:

On February 22, 2011 students from Queens Collegiate and Jamaica High Schools performed an encore performance of "Declassified: Struggle for Existence (We Used to Eat Lunch Together" at the off-Broadway Abingdon Theater. The play, an adaptation of the ancient Greek tragedy "Antigone", was written by the students in a class at Queensborough Community College.


It had been initially banned by the students' principals for fear it was too critical of the Department of Education's decision to close Jamaica High school. The performance is followed by a discussion with the audience.
----Brian Pickett

Here is the direct vimeo link


Jamaica HS- Declassified: Struggle for Existence (We Used to Eat Lunch Together) from Grassroots Education Movement on Vimeo.