Friday, September 23, 2011

E4E: 3000 Members, 2900 Don't Show - Walcott And Crew Appearance at E4E Event Failed to Bring Out Troops

UPDATED: Saturday, Sept. 24, 12:30AM

An embarrassed Sydney Morris blamed "transportation issues" for the low turnout.
Even at a E4E event w/ Walcott, only 15% teachers think that DOE listens to their concerns? Wow. That shows how pissed off teachers are. ....Leonie Haimson
DFER was late getting E4E transport support
See report from a GEMer who attended the Walcott at the end of this post.


I've been staying away from the E4E story due to the work SBS has been doing, most notably his breakdown of their financials: Educators4Excellence Structure And Financials Reve...  Really a must read. (See more SBS E4E reports listed in the Afterburn.)


The partnership between Tweed and E4E reached new heights when Chancellor Dennis Walcott brought his entire top team to meet with E4E on September 19 in an attempt to breathe life into an organization that despite an infusion of money paying for 5 full-time organizers cannot seem to get traction after its initial splash despite enormous media coverage (which I chronicle below).

Now we have been tracking E4E's events all summer and have seen planned events canceled due to lack of interest. Their Sept. 14 event morphed into the Sept. 19 event and despite all the advertising, only a hundred people showed up. Which means 2900 of their supposed 3000 members did not show. And even amongst that hundred a few were from GEM there to check out what Walcott had to say (see report below). An embarrassed Sydney Morris passed off the low attendance as due to "transportation issues." Yeah, DFER forgot to order the helicopters.

There is no question E4E has been hurt by the number of their members who were denied tenure or had tenure extended (Ruben Brosbe for the 2nd straight year.) E4E supposedly advocated for rigor in tenure judgments, something which Real Reformers would also support. But the decisions this past year were so blatantly politically motivated in many cases  with principals demonstrating to superiors how "rigorous" they were or superintendents ordering principals to not grant tenure. In one strong E4E school, just about every teacher was not given tenure and the Supt told them it was because the school got an "F."

E4E has a large team to organize but is apparently hitting a wall. Maybe they can tap into the new teachers - until they don't get tenure. You can "follow the E4E team on Twitter! Evan, Sydney, Ryan, Tori, and Beth travel the city, meet with teachers, report back from schools, and give you a glimpse of what we're up to. We'll also live-tweet E4E-hosted events if you can't make them and want to follow along."

Have fun, kiddies.

E4E/Tweed partnership
It has been clear that E4E works closely with Tweed. Uncle Joel gave them a nice pop, which E4E bragged about, showing just how out of touch they are given that Klein is almost universally despised in the schools by both teachers and principals alike. Some people are getting involved with E4E, looking at it as a career track entry into the world of Tweed. Or maybe figuring that DFER and Gates will take care of Sydney and Evan in some big way and they hope to go along for the ride.

I even stopped by after the GEM meeting around the corner and saw Walcott walking down 5th Ave. shaking his head and reading his Blackberry. Walcott had been hassled over the cheating issue, apparently by Philip Nobile and had a sour look on his face.

I got into the lobby as Sydney and her green tee-shirted crew (they look like bugs) were ushering people up to the 9th floor for breakout sessions with a Deputy Supt whose name I didn't get and David Weiner (a former Brooklyn awful principal who went to Philly and then escaped the equally awful Supt Arlene Ackerman who has just been fired). Weiner on his first day on the job on May 12 held one of his first meetings with Sydney and Evan (I put the brains of the outfit first), showing just how deep the Tweed/E4E partnership is. Expect Tweed to "urge" principals to allow E4E organizers into the schools as a way to undermine the union at the school level. WARNING: WITNESS CHICAGO.

I was wearing my press pass. "No press allowed. We want to have an honest conversation about education," said Sydney. "As opposed to the usual dishonest conversation you generally have," I said. I tried to scam a tee-shirt because I too want to attract bees but you have to leave a pint of blood. I could have stayed around to join them in the bar afterwards but looking at all that green was giving me a headache.


Media Loves E4E while blacking out GEM, NYCORE, Teachers Unite and New Teacher Underground

There has been much hype by the anti-teacher/ed deform media trying to push Educators 4 Excellence as a legitimate group representing teachers when in fact the main role E4E is to play is to undermine LIFO. Here is one example of the propaganda they push
Our amazing E4E summer intern Claire Goebel writes about how Last In, First Out policy hurts schools in Minnesota.
[I collated a bunch of recent articles at Norms Notes: Articles Pumping Life Into E4E and Other Groups].

E4E bragged about being mentioned in an Ed Week article mostly about SOS, which E4E totally ignored since SOS was aimed at Ed Deform. But even in an article with a sea of Real Reformers being talked about like Anthony Cody, Nancy Flanagan, and Sabrina Stephens-Shupe, the reporter felt he had to bring in a the faux E4E:
Meanwhile, a new nonprofit group in New York City, Educators 4 Excellence, seeks to give teachers more voice in policy debates, but its agenda parts company in some ways with the Save Our Schools march. For example, the group backs tying teacher pay in part to test scores. It also calls for ending “last hired, first fired” teacher-layoffs policies. More than 2,600 New York teachers have backed the group’s “declaration” of beliefs, said Sydney J. Morris, the co-founder and a former teacher. Her group receives financial backing from the Gates Foundation and other philanthropies. (Gates has been a funder of Education Week’s nonprofit parent corporation.)
Note the last point about Bill Gates funding Ed Week. Is that part of the contract? You have to mention E4E in every way possible? And sure, how many of those "backing" E4E are just spies like me? They certainly didn't seem interested in hearing Walcott.

Recently Ed Week did another report on E4E, a report for which I was interviewed but not one word of what I said made it into print.
Education Week examines E4E as a group providing an independent voice for educators, interviewing co-founders Evan and Sydney about the importance of teachers being included in policy discussions.
When I asked the reporter how come all the attention to E4E while groups with bigger outreach despite not being funded like NYCORE and GEM that actually have done real reform organizing are ignored, I was told that E4E influenced policy in the NY State teacher evaluation debate. I pointed out that a: these people are no longer teachers and b: they are funded by Gates and DFER and it is THEY who influenced policy with their outreach and money and are just using E4E as a front group and are trying to pump them up (which the reporter seemed to be falling for) even though they are a paper tiger.

I pointed out that E4E had to cancel events this summer due to lack of interest while New Teacher Underground attracted from 20-40 people every Thursday this past summer to their events.

The Ed Week article talks about other groups in urban areas that are similar to E4E. Los Angeles-based NewTLA is a caucus in LA that has bragged about the influence it had in the recent union election in LA that resulted in defeat for Julie Washington, the favored candidate. My sources in LA indicate they are way over valuing their influence but the media loves groups like this that are capable of pushing ed deform values from within. Look for code like: we must hang on to our talented young teachers. No interest in hanging on to talented old teachers.

Other groups mentioned are Teacher Plus, with branches in many cities and "New Millennium Initiative, in which local networks of teachers work to make their voices heard on topics of local interest, such as the implementation of new state laws. Support from a variety of private national and local foundations, including the Joyce Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Denver-based Rose Community Foundation, have helped in the transition. (The Joyce Foundation underwrites coverage of improvements to the teaching profession in Education Week, and the Gates Foundation provides grant support to Editorial Projects in Education, the newspaper’s parent company.)

Ooops! There goes that nasty little funding issue for Ed Week again.

There were other reports during the summer. I was clued into them by this post from Educational Intelligence Agency's Mike Antonucci, which warned about them getting too ecstatic:

We’d All Love to See the Plan

On the pages of Time, Andrew Rotherham examines the various reform-minded groups that have sprung up within the ranks of the big-city teachers’ unions. Sarah Rosenberg at The Quick and the Ed follows suit. Rotherham calls them “insurgents” while Rosenberg refers to “a revolution.” While I applaud any publicly stated diversity of thought within NEA and AFT, I am considerably less sanguine about the prospects of major internal reform. There are two problems. One is that in any corporate culture radical changes in direction are frowned upon, if not suppressed. In unions, whose very hallmark is solidarity, this reluctance to entertain unorthodox thought is ratcheted up several levels. The relative electoral success of NewTLA is remarkable, but such victories don’t usually result in further gains in subsequent elections. I admit we are operating in extraordinary times, so maybe things will be different and I’ll be surprised.
Second, everyone is an insurgent until he or she achieves power. If you think this is an easy transition, ask Karen Lewis in Chicago. Or ask Bob Chase how that new unionism thing worked out for him. The teacher union reform field is littered with the bodies of those who sought to alter the union’s primary mission – protecting teachers – and found themselves ousted in favor of challengers who promised to get tough with administrators.
You say you want a revolution? Well, you know…
I know Mike is a leading ed deformer, but you gotta love him. His mistakes here are to actually give credit to NEWTLA for electoral success (they endorsed people who were not NEWTLA and claimed credit for people who won) and equate Real Reformer Lewis with with deform groups like E4E. Lewis just came out of 30 years teaching high school chemistry to take over the Chicago Teachers Union.

One interesting real reformer new union leader who is being ignored is Milwaukee's Bob Peterson who founded "Rethinking Schools," the most progressive teacher journal in the nation. I got to hang with Bob in Chicago and at SOS this summer and here is a guy who just came out of a 5th grade class and is now running a big-city union (NEA unfortunately or we could really give Randi agitta).  I should also point to a young-gen teacher activist in Chicago - Kristine Mayle - who went from 4th grade special ed teacher to chief financial officer of the Chicago Teachers Union.

These real reform reformers are the ones that should be getting the press - if the press was not tilted. Just note how the local press, which all know about our movie simply ignores it. Yesterday when Brian Lehrer mentioned WFS and branded its counter film as the closed ed deform "American Teachers" Beth Fertig who I spoke to extensively about our movie could very easily have said, "actually there is really a counter film to WFS produced by local teachers and parents." But she didn't.

==========================
Here is a report from a GEMer who attended the Walcott event but not the breakouts.
The E4E event on September 19, was held at the CUNY graduate center and immediately upon entering I was greeted by overly friendly people. When I said I taught in the South Bronx the young woman responded by saying that was the “territory” she covered when she taught. They audience was mostly young and white and numbered a little over one hundred.

Sydney welcomed everyone and for the teachers in the audience she displayed a lovely power point agenda. We would learn what is E4E; event and conversations norms, “Please stay respectful and solutions oriented in your comments”; the chancellor would speak; the chancellor would hear from us; there will be break out sessions and lastly we would continue this conversation at the bar listed on our break out session cards.

In a barely ten minute speech, the chancellor did nothing but continue the legacy of his predecessor. He began his speech saying his goal when he started was to lower the rhetoric and in five months he succeeded with the exception of last week with the incident in Staten Island. He talked about the first days of school, his plan for the extra day of staff development and the teacher who amazed him on the first day while at a school in the Bronx. He stated that he would continue to work with mediocre schools but that the DOE would continue to do what its been doing with failing schools. He said that what we’ve done with high schools with the Gates funding is great. Things are off the charts now. He said he would be coming out with a number of vision statements over the next 3 months. He believes his greatest challenge is the size of the system. That a lot of reform can take place in 6 months and he is not here to enforce the status quo.

In the next segment, questions were on the big screen with answer choices. Only current teachers were given clickers to respond. After the teacher responses were shown the chancellor would give his answer and speak about the topic.

The first question asked which out of 4 issues should be the biggest for the year. The choices were; principal/teacher evaluations, teacher pay structure, potential layoffs, and tenure. I missed the teacher response; Walcott said principal/teacher evaluation was his number one issue. Regarding tenure he said, “no one should be guaranteed a job for life”.

Asked if they were very well informed, somewhat informed or uniformed regarding the new teacher evaluation system, 55% said they were somewhat informed. Evan ? said “that’s pretty good” and Walcott said “yeah”.

Teachers were asked if we should be compensated based only on seniority or credits accumulated, only on effectiveness in the classroom or both measures. Overwhelmingly the teachers responded both measures. Walcott stated that teacher pay should be measured by some metric.

64% of teachers said they agree that tenure should be a meaningful milestone based on a fair and rigorous assessment. Although 63% responded that they were uninformed regarding the DOE’s changes to tenure guidelines.

Teachers were asked if they felt the DOE was aware of their concerns and if they DOE actively listens to those concerns. 38% responded they somewhat disagreed and 19% strongly disagreed. 28% remained neutral and 15% somewhat agreed. Walcott asked how can we better listen and communicate.

The next question had “helpful” suggestions for the DOE to better communicate with teachers. 12% of teachers said regular town hall meetings, 6% said webinars, 14% said survey teachers and 67% said all of the above. In response to Walcott’s query teachers said districts would be a manageable town hall meeting. Walcott said webinars were possible but surveys are costly and time consuming.

The chancellor then answered 5 questions written on index cards by audience members. Responding to a question regarding how to compensate teachers, Walcott said that he believes in alternative compensation and that David (Weiner) was recruited for this purpose, to determine different ways to compensate teachers. Walcott then said he did not have to worry about a job he would be there for two and a half years.

The chancellor got a bit testy when asked a question about cheating on the regents exams and the finding that so many tests were scored 65. He said New York City is not Atlanta and the Regents has always had a policy if a grade falls in the 60-64 range to go back over the exam which is why there were so many tests at 65. He quoted an audit by Bill Thompson in 2009 that found no evidence of cheating. When pressed further on the question Walcott responded, “I’m trying to be nice”. He then turned it over to Shael Suransky.
Afterburn:
More links to SBS articles on E4E

Thursday, September 22, 2011

MisEducation Nation -Sept. 27 - The Real Reform Panel - Ravitch, Haimson, Jones

Check out the NBC Education Shmation panels full of ed deformers. On Tuesday there will be an alternative event. OK. Noguera has one foot in ed deform - but this should be a lively event. I hope to tape.

FAIR Event


September 27, 2011

New York City

MisEducation Nation:
Corporate Media and Corporate Education Reform

NBC is staging its second annual "Education Nation" summit at the end of September--a series of events and broadcasts bankrolled by the corporate interests and foundations aligned with the so-called "education reform" movement.

Corporate media coverage of education policy tends to hew closely to the "reform" agenda: promoting charter schools and vouchers, embracing relentless testing and other "accountability" measures, and attacking teachers' unions for standing in the way of progress.

What would a more reasonable conversation about public education look like?

On September 27, join FAIR and four of the most dynamic and thoughtful education experts and activists in the country for a FREE discussion about how the media mangle the debate over public schools.

The panelists:

-Diane Ravitch
Author, NYU Research Professor of Education

-Pedro Noguera
NYU Professor of Education

-Brian Jones
Teacher-Activist

-Leonie Haimson
Executive Director, Class Size Matters

Moderator: Laura Flanders, Author/Journalist

September 27, 2011
7:00 PM
School of the Future Auditorium
127 East 22nd Street (between Park and Lexington)
New York, NY 10010

CO-SPONSORS: Class Size Matters, WBAI 99.5 FM, Grassroots Education Movement, Parents Across America, Rethinking Schools

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Night Notes: Justin Arrest in Wall St. Occupation/ Protest Budget Cuts Weds.

Things are heating up all over the place. We had a fruitful conference call with the ATRs tonight. Next step will be some kind of meeting in October, especially given this report:
Posted: 20 Sep 2011 04:28 PM PDT
For the first time, the city teachers union could allow teachers to be removed from schools based on merit rather than seniority, a union official close to the negotiations said today.



This just came in:

Dear GEM,
Just some more evidence.  Today was the ATR fair and there were no high school social studies positions available in Queens.  Well, this went up on craigslist this evening.  Why didn’t this principal come to the job fair?

Civic Leadership Academy seeks a US History teacher!


Date: 2011-09-20, 3:27PM EDT
Reply to: mailto:teachingjobs@newvisions.org?subject=Civic%20Leadership%20Academy%20seeks%20a%20US%20History%20teacher!&body=%0A%0Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fnewyork.craigslist.org%2Fque%2Fedu%2F2608638121.html%0A [Errors when replying to ads?]

In partnership with New Visions for Public Schools, the Civic Leadership Academy is seeking a high school US History teachers to begin as soon as possible. Please only apply if you currently hold valid New York State Certification in Social Studies. Experience teaching US History preferred.

To learn more about the Civic Leadership Academy, please visit http://www.claqueens.org/ and http://schools.nyc.gov/SchoolPortals/24/Q293/default.htm.

If you are interested in teaching at the Civic Leadership Academy, please e-mail teachingjobs@newvisions.org with your resume and cover letter attached. We will follow up with you as soon as possible. Please only apply if you currently hold New York State Certification in Social Studies.


See great videos of Justin Weides arrest for doing nothing and the genesis of the Wall St. Occupation by Jaisal Noor.

Justin Weides arrested and held for 5 hours
Hi friends,
Some of you may have heard that I was arrested today at Zuccotti Park today during the #OcupyWallStreet peaceful encampment. Here's video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7M186KXT3jE

I did not resist arrest, was detained for about 5 hours and was not charged with any crime. And I'm OK and back in action here :) And I would love to see you at our peaceful encampment!
Follow us on twitter: @OccupyWallStNYC

Love and peaceful change,
Justin

For people who would like more information, On Saturday I shot and edited this video about how Occupy Wall Street started  -----Jaisal Noor




---------------------
 Join us on Wed. to protest the budget cuts and class sizes at your school!
Join us at rally this Wednesday, to protest the severe budget cuts to our schools, the increases class sizes, and the loss of valuable programs.  
Come and fight for your child's right  to receive a quality education!
Class sizes in many schools are far worse than I have ever heard– despite the city’s legal obligation to reduce them – and are now above 30 in many schools, even in the early grades.   It is really outrageous how the state and the city have failed our kids. 
When: Wednesday, Sept. 21st @ 12:00 P.M
Where: DOE headquarters, Tweed Courthouse, 52 Chambers St.
(take the 4, 5, 6, N & R to City Hall- BK Bridge, or 1, A/C to Chambers St.)
Who: parents and outraged citizens. Co-sponsored by: Class Size Matters, Alliance for Quality Education, NYC Coalition for Educational Justice, NYC Parents Union, African American Clergy and Elected Officials, Charity B.C. of Christ,  Cody Cares, Churches United to Save and Heal, Greater New York Labor-Religion Coalition, New York Divinity School, and Mirabal Sisters.
A flyer is to the right that you can post or distribute in your school. 
Let me know if you have a story to tell at the rally about how the cuts have affected your child’s school by emailing me at leonie@att.net
 
Please also complete our survey if you haven’t already at www.bit.ly/class-size-survey
AQE also has a survey you can ask your principal to fill out at www.surveymonkey.com/s/nycschools 

===========
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.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Evening Extracts: UFT Responds to ATR Pressure - Will Hold Meeting

We GEMers were at the Brooklyn ATR job fair at the Brooklyn Museum. Poor tourists who came from all over only to find the museum closed. This is breaking news - I gotta go for the ATR conf call. Back later.

9-20-11 Brooklyn Museum "Job Fair" for ATRs

Hundreds lined up for another day of futility and humiliation at the mandatory DOE job fair at the Brooklyn Museum where few will land jobs.

ATRs without specific assignments for the year from Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island were mandated to attend.

The ATR attendees were a majority of older higher paid experienced teachers.  Again, the majority were Black and Latino.

Abandoned by the DOE and the UFT leadership, with this summer's agreement,
unassigned ATRs will in October become wandering substitutes who will be sent every week to different schools. Many expressed anger and fear that the untenable situations created by this new ATR substitute arrangement could force many into quitting.

All of us need to demand:
  • Seniority transfer rights with guaranteed jobs for all experienced teachers. (a UFT contract right prior to 2005)
  • Tenure rights protection for all NYC teachers.
  • Fair tenure granting processes for all.
  • LIFO (Last In First Out) protections.

Experienced quality higher paid teachers are essential to successful community schools
and must be defended.  Tomorrow any one of us can become the ATR excessed teacher 
as the City closes more schools and converts into privatized charters.

Organize to fight back. 
Attend our ATR - GEM committee meetings.
Angel Gonzalez








 UFT Calls Borough ATR Meetings

Bronx: Oct. 3
Brooklyn: Oct. 4
After resisting calls to organize ATRs the UFT has succumbed to pressure and has called for an Oct. 4 meeting. See below the fold for the letter. That doesn't mean they will really organize them. Or give them representation. Or really answer their questions other than to say, "You're lucky you have a job!" What they will do is tell them how things are better in NYC than in Washington or Chicago.
-------------

CEC 14 Meeting
Sept. 15

Hi Norm,


The meeting tonight was probably one of the best we've had.  There were folks there from the five affected schools in D 14.  Parents spoke.  Teachers spoke.  Principals spoke.  Reps from Diana Reyna's office spoke as well as Evelyn Cruz from Nydia Velasquez's office.  CBO people spoke.  Every educational issue was touched upon: bringing the message into  the communities to the parents in understandable languagen not DOE jargon;  why charters are being put into communities of color; the under funding and under resourcing of public schools; class size; saying the DOE encourages outreach to communities, but does not fund programs such as Pre-K so schools can build and grow, stating emphatically that our district does not need or want Success Academies and Eva Moskowitz with her over $300,000 salary; how charters do not service special needs students and English Language learners and how these students are taken in and back to the public schools among many others.
The DOE representative could not get out of her robotic answer box.  She spoke to me before we left about the Pre-K need at our school which the DOE has ignored.  She said she was taking notes.  I reminded her that she had to be sure to read them.  She also said someone would come to the school to look at the situation.  We'll see.
Before we left we got into conversation with Tessa Wilson, CEC 14 president.  I gave her a copy of the film and she was delighted.  She had heard about it and said she definitely wanted to see it and possibly have a community viewing.



Morning Commentary - September 20, 2011

Hot topics: 
Occupation of Wall Street

CLASS WARFARE
Teachers strike in Tacoma - no time now - google it.


Chicago longer day story (I'm working on it.) Read Schmidt at Substance - see bottom of my blog roll -

---------------------
Lois Weiner's presentation at the GEM meeting was powerful. Even the fairly sophisticated audience seemed blown away. Video should be up by tonight. It's an hour but you will really see what neo-liberalism is all about.
 --------------------
Follow up to my piece on Elizabeth Green and her class size clap-trap article in NY Mag:
In case you missed this comment:
She [Green] pretty much repeated all the cliches, all of which by the way are factually incorrect. The sort of piece that you would expect from someone who knows nothing and is too lazy  to do any research.

More class size clap-trap? Watch this video; the DOE plans to send 2nd graders in crowded class of 36  out of their zoned school to another school, rather than hire another teacher to reduce class size; outrageous.

Thank goodness NY1 reporter Lindsay Christ doesn't view the class size issue as clap-trap.
-----------------


I headed over to CUNY for the E4E Walcott appearance after the GEM meeting last night but ran into Walcott walking alone on the street, his head buried in his Blackberry. Sydney and crew were moving people upstairs to the 9th floor where they had the Kool-aid stashed. I had my press pass Sydney stopped me - "no press," she said  - "we want to have an honest conversation about education." - 'As opposed to the dishonest conversations you usually have," I said.
--------------------
Did someone win the Broad prize yet? Who really cares? Maybe chief of ed deform Broad can throw another million bucks at the UFT charter school.

---------------------
Well, I got my apology from Netflix' - er Quikster - or quipster - CEO Reed Hastings - and major ed deform supporter - Reed Hastings. People are tailing it out of Netflix so fast there is a fire hazard. I will give the streaming service a shot for a few months. Reed co-wrote a piece with Arne Duncan, Susan Ohanian linked and commented:

A Digital Promise to Our Nation's Children

Ohanian Comment: Nearly 15 million children in the United States -- 21% of all children -- live in families with incomes below the federal poverty level --$22,050 a year for a family of four. And our federal politicos make them a digital promise.
From the National Center on Children in Poverty:


Most of these children have parents who work, but low wages and unstable employment leave their families struggling to make ends meet. Poverty can impede children’s ability to learn and contribute to social, emotional, and behavioral problems. Poverty also can contribute to poor health and mental health. Risks are greatest for children who experience poverty when they are young and/or experience deep and persistent poverty.

Research is clear that poverty is the single greatest threat to children's well-being. But effective public policies -- to make work pay for low-income parents and to provide high-quality early care and learning experiences for their children – can make a difference. Investments in the most vulnerable children are also critical. [emphasis added]
So research is clear that poverty is the single greatest threat to children's well being, and Arne Duncan declares, "Give them videogame graphics." And he declares worse. Insisting that learning is sequential, he declares that a computer will automatically deliver the curriculum a second grader needs next.

As to Digital Promise, if you want to see a video in which Arne's lips don't synchonize with his words, go here. If you want to see the board of directors of this "independent 501(c)(3), created through Section 802 of the federal Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008," go here.
 ---------
More from Susan:
When Free Trips Overlap with Commercial Purposes
Michael Winerip
New York Times
2011-09-19
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1076
Winerip gives us a hard-hitting column on Parson's junkets.

Education Points of View
Susan Ohanian, commentary
FAIR and New York Times
2011-09-19
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1072
In case you hadn't already noticed, the New York Times reveals its true colors about education.

Getting teacher evaluation right
Valerie  Strauss & Linda Darling-Hammond & others
Washington Post Answer Sheet
2011-09-15
http://susanohanian.org/show_research.php?id=439
Will any other journalist in the country print this information?
===========
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.

Monday, September 19, 2011

The Work of Robert Rendo

by Robert Rendo, who holds copyright but gives permission to reproduce--as long as it's used to further the fight against ed deform.






Gotham Schools Elizabeth Green Shows True Colors on Class Size Issue

She [Green] pretty much repeated all the cliches, all of which by the way are factually incorrect. The sort of piece that you would expect from someone who knows nothing and is too lazy  to do any research.   --comment on the piece below

To me the dividing line between ed deformers and real reformers is where you stand on class size.
I've considered Elizabeth Green an ed deformer for quite a while. And I'm not just talking about her love for anyone connected to E4E. See Ed Notes: (The Insidious Nature of Green's Sunday Times Article)

Note this in her Sept. 11 article in NY Mag - Class-Size Claptrap - interesting title:
"Because what is the only way to reduce class sizes? To hire union-dues-paying teachers!"
Is that the ONLY way? Charter schools brag about lower class sizes without union teachers. Is that the answer? Hire cheap teachers?

And this:
"But cutting class sizes doesn’t always produce better outcomes—especially not when hastily imposed size caps compel the hiring of inexperienced teachers [word for word from the ed deform manual]. And there are many other factors, including teacher quality [how about naming even one factor beyond the ed deform one - like the scary P word - poverty], that affect results."

Amazing! Where is the concern for hiring inexperienced TEACH FOR AMERICA Teachers? I get it. They are from "good' schools - supposedly.

And what about this "results" stuff? We know that means test scores. I view results as my being able to spend some quality time with each child in my class to talk about things and help with the issues so many of our children face. Anyone knows that lower class size gives teachers that opportunity. But to deformers like Green they boil it down to "kids throwing things."

NYC Educator brilliantly takes the person running Gotham Schools to task subtle but one-sided reporting. It is so good I have to cross-post:

Is Half a Story Better than None?

I'm fascinated by this article in NY Mag, and the more I think about it, the more I change my mind why that is. At first blush, I thought it did a good job of encapsulating both sides of class size. But on closer examination, it kind of paints class-size advocates as fanatics, while offering little or nothing in the way of why we believe as we do. On the other hand, it portrays the other side fairly well--reasonable class sizes cost too much, and union is bad.

I've taught classes of 15, 25, and 35, and I can tell you there's a world of difference in what you can accomplish. Folks like Bloomberg, Klein and Obama place their kids in private schools with class sizes below 15, but have no problem advocating larger class sizes for our children. In fact, those who administrate schools ought to be required to patronize them, rather than utilizing them as experiments for Bill Gates and the other billionaires who want to tell us how our kids should be treated. The article states class sizes in higher grades may go higher than 27--that's absurd. In my school there are dozens of classes over 34, the UFT contractual limit, and plenty right at 34. This is what happens when you eliminate 10% of working teachers via attrition and hope for the best.

Meanwhile, I hope in vain publications like New York will offer its readers the full story. It's ridiculous those of us in the field, those of us who know from firsthand experience what class size means to call it a "red herring." I'd like to see people who write such things control 35 teenagers at a time and tell me it doesn't matter.

Finally, there's this conclusion:

As it happens, there are people in the city Department of Education working on open-minded, teacher-friendly methods of improving training and evaluation. And, obviously, not all rank-and-file teachers are opposed to structural changes. The problem is that the people who are in charge still believe that school reform is war. And nothing much about New York City education is going to change while that remains the case. 

I'm curious who these people are, and why they're working on "open-minded, teacher-friendly methods of improving training and evaluation." After all, there is a state agreement that mandates any such method be negotiated with the UFT.

Furthermore, since Bloomberg took office, I have seen nothing open-minded or teacher friendly. I have grown used to broken promises, not the least of which entails the billion dollars the DOE took to reduce class size--after which it went up every year. The DOE is engaged in releasing scores it specifically promised not to release. And studies suggest that "value-added" has no validity whatsoever. The last few lines make sense to me, but if it's true they're waging war on us, how on earth are we supposed to believe they're open-minded and teacher friendly? Do people really think teachers can be that stupid?

To say that not all rank and file teachers are opposed to structural changes is easy, but what precisely do these changes entail? We need to know before making judgments. Not all of us are taking money from Bill Gates and promoting corporate-friendly nonsense.

What we need, desperately, is a press that's willing to dig for the truth, a press that will not grant credibility to nonsensical "reforms" simply because billionaires say they're a good idea, a press that will challenge the status quo. I'm sure there are plenty of reporters quite capable of this, and I know a few that rise to the occasion.

Regrettably, those who depend on New York magazine for info are far from getting the full story here.
Here is Green's New Yorker piece:

Monday – Dueling Orgs: GEM Real Reformers With Weiner vs. E4E Ed Deformers With Walcott

This post will be added to later since I am in no shape to complete it after a late Saturday night at Steely Dan - and what a concert it was but after getting to bed near 2pm and up at 6:30, there isn't much left. However this one has been in my mind for some time and I wanted to get started.
Dennis Walcott attempts to take E4E off life support!
Where will you be Monday? Weiner or Walcott? Real Reform or Ed Deform?
If there was one event you should go to, that is the GEM meeting with Lois Weiner as the guest speaker to demonstrate that there is major interest in Real Reform vs the Ed Deform being pushed by E4E and its guest speaker Dennis Walcott. Let's get an audience that can hold its own.
Today, dueling meetings between GEM and E4E will be taking place an hour and a block apart.

The Real Reformers of GEM will be holding their monthly meeting at 5PM at the Community Church of NY (40 East 35 St, between Madison and Park) with Lois Weiner as the speaker talking about the global assault on teachers and their unions (which is the title of her book). I saw Lois do her presentation years ago and it was an AHA moment where she ties in shock doctrine on educators world wide. What I like about it is how the UFT/AFT leadership narrow misleading of the members by blaming Klein or Bloomberg for the issues we face is exposed.  See the top of the side panel for Lois' powerpoint and some news of her speech in LA. Also the post below this for the formal announcement.

We really want your bodies at the GEM meeting: a) because we love you b) because you will walk out with the tools in your head to argue down all those conservative anti-teacher family yokels you have to deal with - maybe even next week at Rosh Hashonnah dinner and c) to demo that real groups like GEM can draw people.

At 6:30 or so, Ed Deformers E4E will be meeting at CUNY just down the block with Ed Deformer in Chief Dennis Walcott, who is trying to pump up the dying group that cannot survive without infusions of cash from outside agencies to support their staff of 5 and their offices. Naturally, the pro ed deform media has seized on E4E and other so-called teacher reform groups to pump up the empty balloon.

I'll get into the articles on E4E later in the day in this post or in a separate one. Why do I say they are a faux organization? Their numbers of so-called members which is a national list is stagnant. I know this because loads of people signed their pledge just to be on the mailing list. South Bronx School did a bit of analysis of the numbers:
Three thousand? So how many of these are NYC teachers? If all 3,000 are NYC teachers that gives E4E .03947368% of all teachers in NYC that support E4E. Now considering that I have signed up twice, many others have so how is this a movement? The E4E Facebook page shows just 1,828 friends. So even if these are all NYC teachers, which they are not, that shows a percentage of .02471053%. E4E is just a steamroller.

E4E got slammed when so many of their so-called supporters were denied tenure or had their tenure extended, many on unfair grounds. See Jeff Kaufman's report on how E4Eers at his school had tenure denied for bogus reasons. How did they feel about the organization whose pledge to make tenure much harder to obtain they signed?

E4E even had to cancel a few events this summer for lack of interest.

They had a Sept. 14 event planned but that disappeared too, replaced by the Walcott event on Sept. 19, the same day and at the same location (CUNY) where GEM usually meets (though we're not meeting there this time). I'm betting they get the auditorium which costs some serious money – unless there was some pressure applied to give them the space. But why should E4E worry - they have sugar daddies.

The media black out real groups like GEM, NYCORE, Teachers Unite, and New Teacher Underground while humping Faux "teacher" group E4E.

When a reporter who was doing a story on E4E called me for comment I raised the issue of how an organization funded by DFER and Bill Gates gets credence while real organizations organizing within basically the same pool – newer teachers to teachers with about a dozen years in the system – gets blacked out. The response was a lame, "E4E has influenced policy, referencing the teacher evaluation law they like to take credit for. I practically leaped over the phone: "Are you saying you actually believe THEY influenced policy and not DFER and Gates and the rest of the ed deformers who are using them as a front group to undermine the union from within?"

MORE LATER

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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.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Bronx High Story at NY Times - Drilling Down - What Affects Students More – Bad Principals or Bad Teachers?

“I loved my students, they were great. My coworkers were smart and hardworking. But I have never met anyone as cruel and petty as Principal Valerie Reidy, from whom I had to endure threats, intimidation, and ultimately denial of tenure and the end of my public school teaching career in New York City.” ---Geoffrey Nutter, who taught at Bronx High School of Science for a year.

So the New York Times has (finally) reported in print on the continuing harassment of teachers in my former chapter.... This past year, the administration moved on to focus on the Social Studies department. Legal relief on the implementation of the arbitrator's fact finding regarding the Math department's special complaint is still pending... as the article mentions, the DoE sadly chose not to take action on the arbitrator's recommendations - action which could have saved some turmoil the school - but, in the next month or two, I expect Judge Paul Wooten's ruling on the first U rating I received in retaliation for advocating for my colleagues at the school. The UFT has filed suit on the second U rating, and that will be going to court soon as well.--- Peter Lamphere
The percentage of lousy and incompetent principals far outweighs the percentage of bad teachers.

You hear so much about "teachers are the most important---blah, blah, blah" while the impact of bad principals is fluffed over, especially here in NYC where Tweed will protect serial killers if the press doesn't report it. (Check out the story of Eximius Academy in the NY Post - Bronx principal found to have tampered with students’ transcripts and may be fired - NYPOST.com and the email I received from a contact who worked there which I printed at the end of this post.) How can you compare the impact a principal has on so many teachers and students to that of a teacher? I told Joel Klein at meeting after meeting at the PEP that his protection of so many awful principals will result in great difficulty in removing bad teachers. Unfortunately, our union leaders refuse to make this point in some kind of solidarity with the principals' union.

Yesterday while I was at wrist therapy, I was next to an assistant principal at a prestigious Manhattan high school. Friday's NY Times story (At Prestigious Bronx School, an Exodus of Teachers and Criticism) on the travesty of principal Valerie Reidy at Bronx High School of Science came up and she leaned over and said, "I have the real story. It was about her U-rating incompetent teachers." Thus the spin floating around the DOE is that Reidy is fine but some lousy teachers are just out to get her because she is tough on them. I said, "I have the real story as I have been reporting on the Bronx High of Science situation for years. How do you explain the turnover rate at a top high school? Are people leaving your school?" She was silent.

I went on to tell her about the Peter Lamphere case. Peter, a GEM member, was chapter leader and received two U-ratings. By anyone's account he is a superb math teacher but stood up when the math department was decimated. He is the poster boy for LIFO. Yet the UFT leadership rather than fighting this one out in the press and at the top levels as an example of how principals retaliate for union activities - I mean what message does this send to chapter leaders? - they chose to arrange to parachute Peter out of the school. (Interesting that as a member of the opposition, the UFT/Unity Caucus/New Action tandem benefits by removing him from a large high school). I don't blame Peter for taking the lifeline with his career on the line. But it should never have gotten to that point.

Here is Peter's story at Gotham Schools last February: “Merit”? My Experience With Arbitrary U Ratings | GothamSchools. Peter and Rachel Montagano wrote a joint piece at Gotham which I linked to here: Education Notes Online: E4E: Fire Peter Lamphere and Rachel ...


Gail Robinson has a great follow up detailing the historical context of Reidy's rise to power: (Harold) Levy's Legacy at Bronx Science- Gotham Gazette (blog) which is a must read.


It is interesting that former Gotham reporter Anna Philips wrote the Friday's story. She certainly knows the full background of the Bronx High Story and she did a reasonably good job, even including a former student
Sarah Hofer, who graduated in 2005, said she once planned to return to Bronx Science as a math teacher, but abandoned that idea when she saw former teachers she admired head for the door. Ms. Hofer said she now returns her alumni association contribution card every year blank, except for the words “I’ll pay my dues when Reidy leaves.”
(I had contact with a student who was threatened and punished for putting up the "Quack" cartoon on a computer at the school.I had promised Anna I would try to get him to touch base with her for this story but couldn't find his email.)

While the article focused on social studies teachers who left the school (I hear Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan's brother was one) Peter Lamphere is mentioned in this context:
The complaints by the Bronx Science social studies teachers are reminiscent of those made in a special complaint in 2008. At that time, 20 of the school’s 22 math teachers accused Rosemarie Jahoda, the math assistant principal, of harassing and intimidating new teachers. In 2010, an arbitrator ruled that both Ms. Jahoda and the school’s chapter leader, Peter Lamphere, should be transferred to other schools. City education officials did not follow the recommendation.
(In fact, Peter is now gone and Jahoda is still there.) But think of it: 20 out or 22 teachers in one department as one of the most prestigious schools in the nation. It is too bad the article did not mention the 2 U-ratings Peter received as that would tie the issue to past and upcoming LIFO wars - I did a piece on how E4E is basically demanding that U-rated teachers like Peter be fired (E4E: Fire Peter Lamphere and Rachel Montagano).

This is not the first time the Times did a piece on Reidy: Battle Over a Principal Spills Outside a School's Walls - New York ...www.nytimes.com/2005/06/12/nyregion/thecity/12scie.html
Jun 12, 2005 – Valerie Reidy when she was named head of Bronx Science in 2001. The battle turned public in mid-May, when staff members at Bronx Science ...

If you put "Reidy" in the search ed notes box on the side panel you get loads of article I published on Bronx High and Reidy. Here are a few nuggets:
Jan 08, 2009
if you check out some of the blogs of current and former students (many of the latter at top colleges) you can see how reidy is totally despised and disrespected. it's really frightening actually. today, the principal and her cronies ...
Jun 26, 2009
to put it lightly, mrs. reidy has been notorious for not getting along with the teaching staff of bronx science. it has been in the news on more than one occasion. this time, however, mrs. reidy made a personal attack on a veteran ...
Sep 09, 2010
Bob Drake was one of Bronx HS of Science principal Valerie Reidy's victims. Reidy had received an honorary PhD and called herself "doctor". Drake, a real PhD made some objections. At some point Reidy was called a "quack". ...
Jan 08, 2009
Joel Klein, who has been aware of what has been going on there, has never wavered in his support for Reidy. His inaction only reinforces the case for teachers. Too bad the UFT has also failed to use all its resources to take these ...
Oct 07, 2007
Reasons cited for departures are: interference by Principal Reidy and her sycophantic Assistant Principals in the classroom, lack of professionalism in their treatment of staff, several givings of U ratings to staff who did not kowtow ...

Oct 11, 2007
the animosity towards reidy by the kids seems to be more intense than that of teachers. and i received an email from a parent leader that indicates many of them feel the same. wow! reidy has united parents, teachers and students. ...
Apr 27, 2010
I'm amazed that the fact finder also recommends that chapter leader Peter Lamphere, who has been active in the opposition, also transfer when the crimes have clearly been perpetrated by Reidy and Jahoda. I recently met one of the young ...
May 26, 2008
while known for attacks on teachers (which seems ok to the anti-teacher world out there) the bronx high administration under reidy has also engaged in attacks on students and parents. i became personally involved with a bronx high ...
Sep 02, 2010
I think the first case we (Betsy Combier) raised was that of Dr. Bob Drake, a chemistry teacher at Bronx HS of Science who was fired by PFH Valerie Reidy because he objected to her using "Dr." before her title since she was not a phd. ...
Email on Eximius Academy Principal:
I worked at Eximius(eczema/scrofula/bubonic plague)Academy from late Sept.09 after I had been illegally excessed from JFK HS until Jan. 2010 when I managed to escape.
It was the worst scene that I have ever encountered in my 23 years as a teacher.It had the feeling of a bizarre cult a la the Rev.Jim Jones and Jonestown replete with plenty of purple kool-aid (metaphorically speaking).
Tammy Smith was, in my opinion, a psychopath.
While most of us are aware of the roles that the mayor,Adolph Bloomberg , and his chancellor ,Adolph Klein, have played in the ongoing destruction of the NYC public school system we must must never forget nor forgive the leadership of the UFT and their open and ongoing collaboration with Bloomscum and his minions.They are our Vidkun Quislings,our Pierre Lavals,our Axis Sallys and our Tokyo Roses.Their betrayal and abandonment of the Eximius staff was particularly abominable.
Brothers and Sisters ,let's flush the present leadership of the UFT down the commode of history and build a powerful and militant union that will fight tooth and nail for it's memberships rights and well-being..

In Solidarity

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Oy! Is it my age or is there just so much information coming in that I can't keep up?

Here is just a selection from a daily digest from listserves:

New City Tests Coming for Teacher Evaluations. We Explain.
3.
Fwd: City Hands Off Part of Teacher Evaluation Effort to the State -
4.
Fwd: School cuts hurt: Survey & Action! AQE needs your help 
5a.
Attention Press: FMPR Statement to the Press regarding visit of Sect From: Angel Gonzalez
6a.
Fwd: [nyceducationnews] Leo Casey admits at last Bill Gates is not 
7.
Labor Notes: High SchoolTeachers in south Brooklyn create a coalitio From: Angel Gonzalez
8.
Fwd: [Highlights fr. our day in court  re charter co-locations 
9.
Fwd:open letter to Michael Moore from Sharon Higgins 
10.
Tacoma teachers strike From: guitarnboots 
5.
Fwd: [Highlights fr. our day in court  re charter co-locations 
6.
Fwd: Bill to expand charter school moves on to U.S. Senate 
7.
Fwd: [nyceducationnews] Wall Street Protest Begins, With Demonstrato 
8.
Fwd: Dan Rather on Testing and Scoring  Industry: Sept. 20 
===================

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.

Friday, September 16, 2011

What If? The State of Education on September 10, 2001

Published in The Wave (Rockaway Beach's Community newspaper), Sept. 16, 2011 (www.rockawave.com)


The State of Education on September 10, 2001
by Norm Scott

Imagine if I issued a call for a series of radical reforms of the public school educational system that would turn every school in the nation into the equivalent of the most elite private school. How about class sizes under 20 for every single child in the system – 15 for the earliest grades? A highly trained assistant teacher in each classroom. Classrooms stocked full of supplies. A rich and varied curriculum, that includes travel to far away places. And one-on-one tutoring for every child that needs it. How about a laptop for every child? Every single child in this nation offered a world class education.

You're saying: This guy must be nuts. Doesn't he know the nation is broke and the political system is in shambles? But what if I had issued this call on September 10, 2001? Or September 10, 1991? Or '81? There would have been the same basic reaction - you're nuts - too expensive, an impossible dream.

Yet, after September 11, 2001 an estimated three trillion dollars or more materialized seemingly out of nowhere to fight two wars and fund an immense security machine from airports to just about every aspect of peoples' lives. And these costs keep rising every single day.

So, without going into the politics of it all, there is some indication here of where the priorities of this nation lie. Since I started teaching in under-resources schools in 1967 in the midst of the Vietnam War I have raised the issue of the immense defense department budget compared to what is spent on education. When that war ended there was no massive shift of money to education. There was still a cold war to fight. When that war ended in the late 80's and we entered what looks today like the enormously prosperous 90's, I didn't notice tons of money in the schools.

Then came September 11, 2001 and all hope for that world-class education was doomed. Today, the US spends more on defense than the combined total of every nation in the world.

Instead, we have seen a so-called education reform movement that has focused the blame on the teachers and their unions – in actuality a third war funded by billionaires.

Let me backtrack a bit for those new to the school wars. Over the past decade there has been a radical shift in the debate on education towards a business model market-based school system – urban schools only, of course – based on competition between schools and teachers, primarily through the push for charter schools, mostly non-unionized and stocked by many newbie teachers, often recruited from Teach for America which offers a 6 week summer training course before turning these recruits loose on the schools (most TFAers leave teaching after their 2-year commitment). Schools are branded as failures and closed down based on standardized test scores. Teachers are given merit pay or fired based on these scores. Charter schools competing for the same children are opened next to or within public schools to offer so-called "choice." Private management companies, some for profit, are brought in to manage charters and even some public schools. Enormous sums are spent on testing and data management while starving the classrooms. Anyone bringing up poverty or other outside school conditions is branded as an apologist for teacher unions or an excuse-maker or a supporter of the status quo.

The system was first implemented in Chicago in 1994 and we have had this system in place here in NYC since Bloomberg took over the schools in 2002. George Bush codified things nationally with No Child Left Behind (NCLB) around the same time. Obama has not only adopted this extreme appliance of capitalism to the schools whole cloth but extended it with Race to the Top which forces states to grovel for federal ed money by imposing narrow prescriptions on state education departments to conform to the corporate reform agenda. Not exactly a socialist, this Obama guy.

What has been the outcome? Disaster. Applying a business model that almost brought the nation's economy down in 2008 has had the same impact in education. City after city has been wracked by test cheating scandals. The Big One hasn't hit NYC - yet. (It is interesting that Bloomberg and Klein removed the erasure analysis monitoring system when they took over, claiming it - ahem - cost too much.)

Who are these people pushing the agenda? Bill Gates, Eli Broad, the Walton Family, Rupert Murdoch, and numerous hedge fund managers - you know, all those millionaires and billionaires who have demonstrated so much concern about poor kids. David Sirota writing in Slate calls it: The bait and switch of school "reform": Behind the new corporate agenda for education lurks the old politics of profit and self-interest.
Google the article for some enlightenment on what is behind the curtain.

We have branded these people as ed deformers while the people putting forth the ideas in the first paragraph are "Real Reformers." It is a David vs. Goliath battle but as the defects of the ed deformers continue to show up daily, there are more and more defections from their camp, with Diane Ravitch being the biggie and celebrities like Matt Damon joining the cause, thus giving the RRs a puncher's chance.


Choice in schools but not in politicians
Ed deformers throw around the words "school choice", as if people were shopping for varieties of corn flakes in a supermarket. So I found the recent local political races affecting us in Rockaway interesting. Wave editor and former teacher Howie Schwach said it as well as anyone in last week's edition – The Least Objectionable Candidate. Schwach just about everything objectionable in each of the 4 candidates. Convinced me.

I too held my nose as I voted. As I wrote in my last column I felt I really had little choice when it comes to my core issue - education. I did receive a nice call from Phil Goldfeder who said I would be surprised. Of course he used the ed deform stock expression - we must hold on to our talented young teachers – which I told him is code for an attack on teacher seniority protections. He said he didn't realize that. We'll see where he stands when Bloomberg comes after "Last in First Out" this year. He promised he would hold the line.

If Anthony's Weiner had still been running against Bob Turner instead of the hapless Weprin, I still would have has little choice since Weiner also supported the ed deform program. (By the way, if Weiner hadn't self-destructed I'm not sure he would have won given that Turner had 40% of the vote the last time.) Turner of course a MOC - More Objectionable Candidate since he doesn't believe in government and drinks tea. But I do expect him to support putting a Jerry Springer show in every pot.