Re: Smell a Rat Alert: ATRs to Be "Supervised"

And where is the money coming to pay for these jobs??? I thought there was a budget crisis and DOE is adding new, unecessary Tweedsters!!! Probably more 20 somethings ripe for brainwashing and cult (non-questioning, spill the cool-aid jargon out of their mouths) who will have these Field Supervisory positions. Trogether they would not have enough experience to judge the majority of the ATRs they will be "supervising!". SHAME, SHAME, SHAME!!!! Mulgrew, where are you?!
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-----Original Message-----
From: "Norm Scott" <normsco@gmail.com>
Sender: grassroots-education@googlegroups.com
Date: Mon, 5 Dec 2011 22:48:57
To: Ednotes blog<ednotesonline.buffy@blogger.com>; Gem Internal<GEM-Internal@googlegroups.com>; GEM Listserve<Grassroots-Education@googlegroups.com>; Ice Internal google<ice-mgs@googlegroups.com>; IceMail ListservYahoo<ice-mail@yahoogroups.com>
Reply-To: normsco@gmail.com
Subject: Smell a Rat Alert: ATRs to Be "Supervised"

I could just drip with satire but I'll leave that to others.

From: Atrassignment <Atrassignment@schools.nyc.gov>
Subject: Important Update on Supervision
To:
Date: Monday, December 5, 2011, 10:37 AM

Dear Teacher,

The Department of Education is piloting a new model for supervision of teachers in the Absent Teacher Reserve (ATR).  This pilot will be implemented for most ATRs assigned to community school districts in Brooklyn as well as the Brooklyn High School superintendency, District 73; you are receiving this email because you will likely be included in the pilot.  Under this initiative, you will be supervised by a licensed administrator, called a Field Supervisor, who will periodically observe your practice and provide you with feedback to support your professional development.  The Field Supervisors are aware that as an ATR you do not have a regular program and that you rotate school assignments and they will take this context into account in their work with you.

At some point in the next two months, you should expect your Field Supervisor to visit your assignment site to meet with you in person.  At this initial meeting, the Field Supervisor will work with you to develop a plan to support your professional growth and job search process.  The Field Supervisor will make an effort to contact you via your DOE email in advance of the initial meeting to give you a sense of when you can expect him or her; however, he or she may not always be able to provide advance notification.

Sincerely,

NYC Department of Education

 
Cheers,
Norm Scott

Twitter: normscott1

Education Notes
ednotesonline.blogspot.com

Grassroots Education Movement
gemnyc.org

Education columnist, The Wave
www.rockawave.com

nycfirst robotics
normsrobotics.blogspot.com

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Re: [ice-mail] Smell a Rat Alert: ATRs to Be "Supervised"

Oh yeah, definite rats.
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

-----Original Message-----
From: "Norm Scott" <normsco@gmail.com>
Sender: ice-mail@yahoogroups.com
Date: Mon, 5 Dec 2011 22:48:57
To: Ednotes blog<ednotesonline.buffy@blogger.com>; Gem Internal<GEM-Internal@googlegroups.com>; GEM Listserve<Grassroots-Education@googlegroups.com>; Ice Internal google<ice-mgs@googlegroups.com>; IceMail ListservYahoo<ice-mail@yahoogroups.com>
Reply-To: normsco@gmail.com
Subject: [ice-mail] Smell a Rat Alert: ATRs to Be "Supervised"

I could just drip with satire but I'll leave that to others.

From: Atrassignment <Atrassignment@schools.nyc.gov>
Subject: Important Update on Supervision
To:
Date: Monday, December 5, 2011, 10:37 AM

Dear Teacher,

The Department of Education is piloting a new model for supervision of teachers in the Absent Teacher Reserve (ATR).  This pilot will be implemented for most ATRs assigned to community school districts in Brooklyn as well as the Brooklyn High School superintendency, District 73; you are receiving this email because you will likely be included in the pilot.  Under this initiative, you will be supervised by a licensed administrator, called a Field Supervisor, who will periodically observe your practice and provide you with feedback to support your professional development.  The Field Supervisors are aware that as an ATR you do not have a regular program and that you rotate school assignments and they will take this context into account in their work with you.

At some point in the next two months, you should expect your Field Supervisor to visit your assignment site to meet with you in person.  At this initial meeting, the Field Supervisor will work with you to develop a plan to support your professional growth and job search process.  The Field Supervisor will make an effort to contact you via your DOE email in advance of the initial meeting to give you a sense of when you can expect him or her; however, he or she may not always be able to provide advance notification.

Sincerely,

NYC Department of Education

 
Cheers,
Norm Scott

Twitter: normscott1

Education Notes
ednotesonline.blogspot.com

Grassroots Education Movement
gemnyc.org

Education columnist, The Wave
www.rockawave.com

nycfirst robotics
normsrobotics.blogspot.com

Sent from my BlackBerry

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Smell a Rat Alert: ATRs to Be "Supervised"

I could just drip with satire but I'll leave that to others.

From: Atrassignment <Atrassignment@schools.nyc.gov>
Subject: Important Update on Supervision
To:
Date: Monday, December 5, 2011, 10:37 AM

Dear Teacher,

The Department of Education is piloting a new model for supervision of teachers in the Absent Teacher Reserve (ATR).  This pilot will be implemented for most ATRs assigned to community school districts in Brooklyn as well as the Brooklyn High School superintendency, District 73; you are receiving this email because you will likely be included in the pilot.  Under this initiative, you will be supervised by a licensed administrator, called a Field Supervisor, who will periodically observe your practice and provide you with feedback to support your professional development.  The Field Supervisors are aware that as an ATR you do not have a regular program and that you rotate school assignments and they will take this context into account in their work with you.

At some point in the next two months, you should expect your Field Supervisor to visit your assignment site to meet with you in person.  At this initial meeting, the Field Supervisor will work with you to develop a plan to support your professional growth and job search process.  The Field Supervisor will make an effort to contact you via your DOE email in advance of the initial meeting to give you a sense of when you can expect him or her; however, he or she may not always be able to provide advance notification.

Sincerely,

NYC Department of Education

 
Cheers,
Norm Scott

Twitter: normscott1

Education Notes
ednotesonline.blogspot.com

Grassroots Education Movement
gemnyc.org

Education columnist, The Wave
www.rockawave.com

nycfirst robotics
normsrobotics.blogspot.com

Sent from my BlackBerry

OCCUPY WALL STREET TELLS NEWT GINGRICH TO 'TAKE A BATH'

Tough internet access in NZ. Have big backlog. This looks like fun.

December 5, 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: press@occupywallst.org
For this action: Ben Campbell, 646-457-2856, occupyfundraisers@gmail.com
 
OCCUPY WALL STREET TELLS NEWT GINGRICH TO 'TAKE A BATH'
 
 
Republican Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich told Occupy Wall Street protesters, "go get a job, right after you take a bath."  However, it is Gingrich who is truly filthy from rolling around in dirty money. Since leaving the House of Representatives over a decade ago in a cloud of ethics violations, Newt has amassed a fortune of between $7.3 million and $31 million by the peddling of political influence [1]. He has been personally paid $840,000 by the Chamber of Commerce [2], more than $1.6 million from Freddie Mac [3], and $312,500 in a single year from Growth Energy, an ethanol lobby [4].  His for-profit "think tank", the Center for Health Transformation, was founded to lobby on behalf of health insurance and pharmaceutical corporations, and he was paid a monthly retainer by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, one of the largest lobbying organizations in the country [5].  His 527 group, American Solutions for Winning the Future, was funded by big oil and coal companies and worked to oppose climate change legislation and promote offshore drilling [6].

One of the 1%'s most successful and moneyed lobbyists, Gingrich is now running for President to more fully institutionalize inequality and the entrenched plutocratic system.

On Monday Dec. 5, Gingrich will be in Manhattan to raise money from the 1%.  He is holding a $1000/person fundraiser at the Union League Club, 38 E 37th St, 12 PM.  Occupy Wall Street will be there at 11:30 AM, decked out in bathrobes and shower caps, to tell Newt that it is he who needs to "take a bath", to get the influence of dirty money out of our politics.

OccupyFundraisers is an affinity group of Occupy Wall Street, a people-powered direct action movement that began on September 17, 2011, in Liberty Square in Manhattan's Financial District. OWS is part of a growing international movement fighting against neoliberal economic practices, the crimes of Wall Street, government controlled by moneyed interests, and the resulting income inequality, unemployment, environmental destruction, and oppression of people at the front lines of the economic crisis.
 
[1] http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-18/gingrich-running-as-change-agent-profits-from-washington-insider-status
[2] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204517204577044551356125444.html
[3] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-16/gingrich-said-to-be-paid-at-least-1-6-million-by-freddie-mac.html
[4] http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/article/gingrich-made-big-bucks-pushing-corporate-welfare
[5] http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/article/gingrich-made-big-bucks-pushing-corporate-welfare
[6] http://www.salon.com/2010/08/10/whos_giving_to_newt_gingrich/

Cheers,
Norm Scott

Twitter: normscott1

Education Notes
ednotesonline.blogspot.com

Grassroots Education Movement
gemnyc.org

Education columnist, The Wave
www.rockawave.com

nycfirst robotics
normsrobotics.blogspot.com

Sent from my BlackBerry

Occupy the DOE

Believe it or not there are still teachers in our public schools who do not see the threat to their jobs and livelihood. I certainly put some blame on the uft leaders who are selling "we only have to wait for Bloomberg to leave" while ignoring the threat of the political machine Eva Moskowitz, who wants to be mayor" is building by using her charter schools - you know it was never about education.

The gang at Tweed can only be met head on by large numbers. They moved the Dec. 14 PEP meeting to Queens (see stories at gotham and Ed Notes) to help out Eva who can rent buses.

OCCUPY THE DOE!
The Fight for Quality Public Education for the 99%

Should we allow the 1% -Bloomberg, his puppets on the Panel for Educational Policy, the corporate privatizers and their charter schools - to control our public school system? 

The Panel for Educational Policy is UNDEMOCRATIC!
Mayoral Control IGNORES THE VOICES OF PARENTS, STUDENTS, and TEACHERS!
Charter schools funnel public funds into private hands and force unnecessary competition for resources between families from the same community. All children have the right to a quality education! 

Join us to craft a People's Agenda for our schools! 

Join OCCUPY THE DOE Every Sunday
The Atrium
60 Wall Street

2pm: OCCUPY THE PEP (Direct Action Working Group): Discuss how to make the Panel for Educational Policy a REAL democratic forum for parents, students, and teachers!

3pm: OCCUPY THE DOE General Meeting.

SAME STRUGGLE, SAME FIGHT 
TEACHERS, PARENTS, STUDENTS UNITE!

Occupy the DOE: We are concerned educators, parents and students who believe that Bloomberg and Walcott -- the 1% -- should NOT have the sole authority over NYC public schools but that the 99% can best decide HOW OUR SCHOOLS ARE RUN.

Cheers,
Norm Scott

Twitter: normscott1

Education Notes
ednotesonline.blogspot.com

Grassroots Education Movement
gemnyc.org

Education columnist, The Wave
www.rockawave.com

nycfirst robotics
normsrobotics.blogspot.com

Sent from my BlackBerry

Bloomberg's Big Mistake

He fired only 2/3 of the Chancellor's he's hired.

Cheers,
Norm Scott

Twitter: normscott1

Education Notes
ednotesonline.blogspot.com

Grassroots Education Movement
gemnyc.org

Education columnist, The Wave
www.rockawave.com

nycfirst robotics
normsrobotics.blogspot.com

Sent from my BlackBerry

Ed Deform Failures in Chicago After Almost Two Decades

It was a late spring evening in 2001 at a UFT Exec Bd meeting, the very day Randi Weingarten put the UFT on track to support mayoral control, the key element in the ed deformer arsenal that removes almost all public oversight over schools.

I received an email that day from Chicago's George Schmidt addressed to NYC teachers warning us about their already fading ed deform experiment since 1994 and I handed it out to the uft EB that night. I followed up later that night with a nasty email to Randi. She blew a gasket and our relationship turned ugly from then on.

The uft propaganda machine has spent the last decade blaming things that went wrong on joel klein or incompetence at Tweed or Bloomberg (the latest is "only ___ months till he's gone - recycling what they said about Giulianni, Koch - a quarter century of the same bullshit.)

J'accuse the UFT leadership of educational malfeasance by PURPOSELY trying to deflect the truth that ed deformers have engaged in a national assault on pub ed for almost 2 decades while the uft leaders were telling members that Klein's first ed czar Diana Lam's arrogance was the issue. As if Chicago didn't exist.

Here is more proof about the failures of charter schools in Chicago, where Arne Duncan ran the schools into the ground for 7 years but escaped before the shit hit the fan.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-11-30/news/ct-met-charter-schools-performance-1130-20111130_1_chicago-international-charter-schools-andrew-broy-school-report-cards

Report finds charters struggling like other CPS schools
Poverty dogs students despite schools' flexibility, autonomy

November 30, 2011|By Joel Hood and Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah, Chicago Tribune reporters

Mayor Rahm Emanuel and other city leaders have long heralded charter schools' innovative approach to education, but new research suggests many charters in Chicago are performing no better than traditional neighborhood schools and some are actually doing much worse.
More than two dozen schools in some of the city's most prominent and largest charter networks, including the United Neighborhood Organization (UNO), Chicago International Charter Schools, University of Chicago and LEARN, scored well short of district averages on key standardized tests.

In two of the city's oldest charter networks, Perspectives and Aspira, only one school — Perspectives' IIT Math & Science Academy — surpassed CPS' average on the Illinois Standards Achievement Test, taken by elementary schoolers, or the Prairie State Achievement Examination, used in high schools.

At Shabazz International's DuSable Leadership high school on the South Side, just 7 percent of students met state standards on the PSAE. A few miles south, nine out of every 10 students at CICS' Hawkins high school missed the state benchmark.
The dismal numbers are part of a new set of school report cards the state is releasing to the public Wednesday, results sure to reignite the debate over education reform one day before Chicago Public Schools is expected to release its long-awaited list of school closings for next year.
Andrew Broy, president of the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, acknowledged that maybe a dozen underperforming charter schools are in need of "substantial actions" that may include closing. But simply looking at how many students have met state benchmarks is not a fair assessment, he said; a more important indicator is student growth over time.
"We're in this business because we want to prove that public schools can work," said Juan Rangel, president of the politically connected UNO charter network, which operates nine schools in CPS and plans to open three more next year.
Addressing the failures at UNO's lowest-performing school, Paz Elementary on the West Side, Rangel said: "We're at a point where it's do or die. We're either going to put Paz on course … or we'll have to consider whether this is a school we should keep open."
Two years after Illinois lawmakers approved a more thorough accounting of charter school performance, the state has released data that will allow the public for the first time to see how individual charter schools are measuring up against traditional public schools.
The report cards are somewhat limiting, only looking at a school's performance in 2010-11. But the trends show that despite their celebrated autonomy, discipline and longer school days, charter schools are struggling to overcome the poverty that so often hampers underperforming neighborhood schools.
Charters with the highest numbers of students from low-income families or those with recognized learning disabilities almost universally scored the lowest last year on state exams, a trend common throughout CPS.
One exception is the performance of high schools within the Noble Street Charter network, often touted by Emanuel and others as some of the best charters have to offer. Report cards show Noble students did not reach the level of CPS' elite selective enrollment or magnet schools on the PSAE, but did score on par with state averages — a notable feat for any school in CPS.

But even charters' staunchest supporters admit that success has not been widespread across all schools. New Schools for Chicago, which invested in dozens of charters after then-Mayor Richard Daley launched a massive charter expansion program in 2010, has compiled a watch list for poor-performing charters that they've turned over to CPS.
"In general for charters that have been around for more than five years and not performing, we're supporting their closure or restructuring of these schools," said New Schools Chief Executive Phyllis Lockett. "At the end of the day, we need the bar set on what achievement needs to look like."
Over the last decade, the number of charter schools, which are publicly funded but have relative freedom in decision-making, has grown to 110, and they have become a force in Chicago's crowded public school system.
A report to be released Wednesday by the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution ranks CPS second among large urban districts in providing choices for parents aside from traditional neighborhood schools. Expanding those options is a major point of emphasis for Emanuel and CPS chief Jean-Claude Brizard.
But the majority of charter schools in Chicago and around the U.S. rely on nonunion teachers, who are frequently paid lower wages and asked to work longer hours. That has led to friction with powerful teachers unions, who accuse charter networks of devaluing the profession by driving down salaries and of stripping public money from long-standing neighborhood schools.

Cheers,
Norm Scott

Twitter: normscott1

Education Notes
ednotesonline.blogspot.com

Grassroots Education Movement
gemnyc.org

Education columnist, The Wave
www.rockawave.com

nycfirst robotics
normsrobotics.blogspot.com

Sent from my BlackBerry

Video: Brooklyn parents, teachers & community members speak out: we don't want your charter school in our neighborhood!

Sent by Leonie Haimson

http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.
com/2011/12/brooklyn-parents-teachers-community.html

Thanks to Darren Marelli, here are highlights from the hearing that occurred on Tuesday about the controversial proposal to co-locate another branch of the Success Academy charter chain in Cobble Hill, District 15, in Brooklyn. 

Passionate and articulate parents, teachers, elected officials, students and community members spoke out against this damaging, deceptive and most probably illegal proposal, and pointed out how the co-location will likely wreck the schools that now inhabit the building, one of which is in transformation, by overcrowding them, forcing them to increase class size and lose valuable programs.  Does the DOE care?  You be the judge.

Leonie

Cheers,
Norm Scott

Twitter: normscott1

Education Notes
ednotesonline.blogspot.com

Grassroots Education Movement
gemnyc.org

Education columnist, The Wave
www.rockawave.com

nycfirst robotics
normsrobotics.blogspot.com

Sent from my BlackBerry

Video: Brooklyn parents, teachers & community members speak out: we don't want your charter school in our neighborhood!

Sent by Leonie Haimson

http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.
com/2011/12/brooklyn-parents-teachers-community.html

Thanks to Darren Marelli, here are highlights from the hearing that occurred on Tuesday about the controversial proposal to co-locate another branch of the Success Academy charter chain in Cobble Hill, District 15, in Brooklyn. 

Passionate and articulate parents, teachers, elected officials, students and community members spoke out against this damaging, deceptive and most probably illegal proposal, and pointed out how the co-location will likely wreck the schools that now inhabit the building, one of which is in transformation, by overcrowding them, forcing them to increase class size and lose valuable programs.  Does the DOE care?  You be the judge.

Leonie

Cheers,
Norm Scott

Twitter: normscott1

Education Notes
ednotesonline.blogspot.com

Grassroots Education Movement
gemnyc.org

Education columnist, The Wave
www.rockawave.com

nycfirst robotics
normsrobotics.blogspot.com

Sent from my BlackBerry

Walcott/Bloomberg Move December PEP Meeting to Antarctica

At Ed Notes:
They might as well meet in Antarctica instead of difficult to get to Newtown HS in Queens, where an increasingly panicy Tweed has moved the Dec 14 PEP meeting, which will decide on 2 Success charter Brooklyn invasions, from Fashion Industries HS in midtown Manhattan. They claim this is for Queens parents when as of this time no issues related to Queens schools are on the agenda (though they did dig something up to try to cover their asses).

WalBloom are making a clear attempt to shut out the voices of Brooklyn parents whose choice (the buzz word of ed deformers) is to NOT have an Eva Moskowitz school in their neighborhood.

Last night's protests over another Success Academy invasion, this time in gentrified Cobble Hill in Brooklyn, is a wake-up call. Tweed is counting on them to show up sparingly at Newtown HS while Eva sends in rented buses full of food and other goodies to get her people there.

There will be growing demands to move the meeting back to a more accessible location. The key will be whether the press picks up on the obvious intent of this move.

But with growing awareness of the outrageous machinations going on at Tweed and with communities in Dist 15 (western bklyn) and Dist 14 (northern) joining forces and organizing, along with outreach to Occupy Wall St educators, this may not turn out to be a cakewalk for Eva and Tweed. She has stepped on communities that just may have the resources and leadership, along with the diversity to engage in an effective long-term battle even after she gets her school, which is a given. Some forms of civil disobedience are not out of the question as anger grows. This is one PR war that Eva and Tweed will have to work very hard to win even with a press biased in favor of Tweed. But then again do they really have to worry about this issue?

Eva will try to paint the opposition as a Uft op but the uft fingerprints are light even if they have a rooting interest. But with the move to Newtown we just may see the uft jump in with their own buses, though the press will paint this Eva's way as uft vs her. The UFT has jumped into the battle in Harlem at PS 241.

Here is some press coverage of last night's meeting. Look for my follow-up post of comments from parents Karen Sprowal and Noah Gotbaum on the press coverage where he points out that 90 percent against and a few lone voices for are presented as a "divided" community.
------------
Leonie Haimson:
Good video of Brian Jones at (NY1)  also some video at GothamSchools; both stories below.

Protesters Disrupt DOE Hearing On Proposed Brooklyn Charter School

By: Zack Fink, NY1

The Department of Education held a meeting Tuesday at K293 in Cobble Hill to discuss a proposed 190-seat charter school that would be housed in the building, and opponents butted heads with supporters as dozens signed up to speak. NY1's Zack Fink filed the following report.

The K293 building in Cobble Hill is already home to two secondary schools and one special education program, but Department of Education officials say there's still space for 700 students.

Success Academy Charter Schools wants to use up 190 of those spots for a charter that would serve kindergarten through fourth grade.

Some parents say they're behind that idea.

"2007 was a boom for Brooklyn. Lots and lots of babies. And we all need to go to elementary school. Some of us have great options in this neighborhood, others have less than stellar options, and it's my ethical responsibility to find a good school for my son. So I'm supporting the charter school," said parent Liz Williams.

But there were some fierce opponents at a public hearing Tuesday night.

About 70 people signed up to speak, some of whom claimed to be part of the Occupy Wall Street movement. One person was ejected.

For other opponents, the issue is about how public resources are allocated.

"Unfortunately, the DOE doesn't seem to put the same priority, love and interest in building up the public schools that they do with charters, and it just raises a lot of questions," said teacher Brian Jones. "Why do they have to come into public school buildings, why do we have to have a competitive system of education?"

A competing plan is also on the table for the space. Elected officials and others want to use it for an early childhood education program.

"There is an enormous need in this district for pre-K and K classes. They are all oversubscribed. You even have to pay a lot of money to go to private pre-K and K, and they are oversubscribed, too," saod Assemblywoman Joan Millman.

The panel for educational policy has scheduled a vote on the co-location for December 14. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has been supportive, controls a majority of votes on the panel, and the co-location is expected to be approved.

 

 

Showdown set for year's first charter school co-location hearing

by Rachel Cromidas, at 4:48 pm

Many of the attendees who lined up outside Brooklyn Tech for last February's Panel for Educational Policy meeting came to protest the creation of a Success Academy Charter School on the Upper West Side.

Back-to-back rallies set for this afternoon augur a contentious co-location hearing for the newest outpost in the Success Charter Network.

The creation of Cobble Hill Success Academy, which won approval earlier this year to open next fall in Brooklyn's District 13, has sparked conflict in District 15, the location of the school's proposed site. Advocates and critics of the city's plan to co-locate the charter school with two secondary schools and a special education program will lay out their cases during tonight's public hearing — and beforehand, in rallies set for outside the Baltic Street building.

The public hearing is the first of the year and ushers in a season of rancorous co-location hearings.

Some families have lamented crowding in high-performing local elementary schools and said they would appreciate new options. But others say they are worried that the new school would strain resources at the proposed site without effectively serving the high-needs populations it was originally intended to serve.

Cobble Hill Success's promise to serve low-income, immigrant families in District 13 was a boon to its application, according to Pedro Noguera, an education professor who green-lighted the school's original application as a member of the State University of New York's Charter Schools Institute.

"We have tried to take the position recently that we can put charter schools where there is clearly a need for better schools for kids, so targeting the more disadvantaged communities. We have also seen the areas that are a saturation of charter schools, so we want to encourage them to open in areas that have a high need and aren't being served," said Noguera, who will be participating in an education debate this evening in the West Village. "A school in Cobble Hill clearly does not meet that criteria." 

At 5 p.m. parents from District 15 will hold a press conference outside of the Cobble Hill school, "to demand the City's Department of Education award public space to Success Academy Cobble Hill," according to a press release sent out by a communications firm that works with the Success Academy Charter Network.

The network's CEO, Eva Moskowitz, has seemed to court controversy when seeking spacefor her schools. Co-location battles have followed her forays into schools in Brooklyn, Harlem, and the Upper West Side, and the network has in the past bused groups of parents from its schools, often wearing signature orange T-shirts, to co-location hearings.

At 5:30 p.m., opponents of the co-location are planning to rally in front of the school to renew calls for an alternative proposal: to open an early childhood center in the building instead of a charter school. Yesterday a vocal group of parents, state and union officials rallied at the building's Baltic Street entrance in support of that proposal, arguing that the local elementary schools are turning away families who apply for preschool.

Organizers of the protest say they will argue that the charter school would not address crowding issues in Brownstone Brooklyn's elementary schools because its tlottery admissions would allow students from other parts of the city to apply, and it also would not address the demand for more preschool programs.

Community members and educators from the two secondary schools that currently share space in the four-story building, along with a District 75 special education program, have also said that an additional charter school could overcrowd the high schools' shared facilities.

 

 
Cheers,
Norm Scott

Twitter: normscott1

Education Notes
ednotesonline.blogspot.com

Grassroots Education Movement
gemnyc.org

Education columnist, The Wave
www.rockawave.com

nycfirst robotics
normsrobotics.blogspot.com

Sent from my BlackBerry

Some Updates

Occupy
Its spreading! Wash State occupiers actually tried to issue a "citizens arrest" of the state legislature because of its violation of the constitution guaranteeing a right to education. It looks as though the teacher who led the mic check was instead arrested. Outrageous.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODBNCYRQdyk&feature=youtu.be

-------------------------
 Common CoreThis is a top-down agenda devised by Coleman/Gates in two ways and that “distort early learning” acc. to early childhood expert quoted below.

Coleman, who never taught a day in his life, started at what he believed should be demanded of college students and worked downwards to Kindergarten – which resulted in the requirement that that all Kindergarteners be able to read, among other things, which simply is not developmentally appropriate acc. to many experts.

Common Core standards pose dilemmas for early childhood
Valerie Strauss
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/common-core-standards-pose-dilemmas-for-early-childhood/2011/11/28/gIQAPs1X6N_blog.html
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Class Size Does Matter

Lots of research showing how class size narrows the achievement gap on Leonie's website at http://www.classsizematters.org/research-and-links-2 

Here are some:Spyros Konstantopoulos and Vicki Chun, “What Are the Long-Term Effects of Small Classes on the Achievement Gap?

Evidence from the Lasting Benefits Study,” American Journal of Education 116, November 2009.  Peter Blatchford  et.al.

“Do low attaining and younger students benefit most from small classes? Results from a systematic observation study of class size effects on pupil classroom engagement and teacher pupil interaction Philip Babcock and Julian R. Betts, “Reduced-class Distinctions: Effort, Ability and the Education Production Function,” NBER Working paper 14777, March 2009. Results indicate that small classes elicit enhanced effort and engagement by disadvantaged students.

Thomas Dee and Martin West, “The Non-Cognitive Returns to Class Size, ” NBER Working Paper 13994, 2008. “Alan B. Krueger, Economic Considerations and Class Size, The Economic Journal, 113 (February 2003). 

Jeremy D. Finn et.al., “Small Classes in the Early Grades, Academic Achievement, and Graduating From High School,” Journal of Educational Psychology, 2005.

Alan B. Krueger and Diane M. Whitmore, “Would Smaller Classes Help Close the Black-White Achievement Gap?” from :Bridging

"Shock Doctrine" Comes SHOCK DOCTRINE COMES to Your Neighborhood Classroom

An oldie but goodie. We used Arne Duncan's Hurricane Katrina was the best thing to happen to New Orleans.

Published on Wednesday, September 7, 2011 bySalon.com
The "Shock Doctrine" Comes to Your Neighborhood Classroom
Corporate reformers use the fiscal crisis and campaign contributions to hype an unproven school agenda
by David Sirota
 ."Let's hope the fiscal crisis doesn't get better too soon. It'll slow down reform." -- Tom Watkins, a consultant, summarizes the corporate education reform movement's current strategy to the Sunday New York Times.

The Shock Doctrine, as articulated by journalist Naomi Klein, describes the process by which corporate interests use catastrophes as instruments to maximize their profit. Sometimes the events they use are natural (earthquakes), sometimes they are human-created (the 9/11 attacks) and sometimes they are a bit of both (hurricanes made stronger by human-intensified global climate change). Regardless of the particular cataclysm, though, the Shock Doctrine suggests that in the aftermath of a calamity, there is always corporate method in the smoldering madness - a method based in Disaster Capitalism.

Though Klein's book provides much evidence of the Shock Doctrine, the Disaster Capitalists rarely come out and acknowledge their strategy. That's why Watkins' outburst of candor, buried in this front-page New York Times article yesterday, is so important: It shows that the recession and its corresponding shock to school budgets is being  used by corporations to maximize revenues, all under the gauzy banner of "reform."

Some background: The Times piece follows a recentEducation Week report showing that as U.S. school systems are laying off teachers, letting schoolhouses crumble, and increasing class sizes, high-tech firms are hitting the public-subsidy jackpot thanks to corporate "reformers'" successful push for more "data-driven" standardized tests (more on that in a second) and more technology in the classrooms. Essentially, as the overall spending pie for public schools is shrinking, the piece of the pie for high-tech companies -- who make big campaign contributions to education policymakers -- is getting much bigger, while the piece of the pie for traditional education (teachers, school infrastructure, text books, etc.) is getting smaller.

The Times on Sunday added some key -- and somehow, largely overlooked -- context to this reportage: namely, that the spending shift isn't producing better achievement results on the very standardized tests the high-tech industry celebrates and makes money off of. "In a nutshell," reports the Times, "schools are spending billions on technology, even as they cut budgets and lay off teachers, with little proof that this approach is improving basic learning."

The paper adds that the successful "pressure to push technology into the classroom without proof of its value has deep roots" going back more than a decade, which raises the fundamental question: Why? Why would this push be so successful in changing education policy if there is little hard evidence that it is the right move to improve student achievement?

The answer goes back -- as it so often does -- to corporate power and the Shock Doctrine.

Tech companies give the politicians who set education policy lots of campaign contributions, and in exchange, those politicians have returned the favor by citing tough economic times over the last decade as a rationale to wage an aggressive attack on traditional public education. That attack has included everything from demonizing teachers; to siphoning public money to privately administered schools; to funneling more of the money still left in public schools to private high-tech companies.

This trend is no accidental convergence of economic disaster and high-minded  policy. On the contrary, it is a deliberate strategy by corporate executives and their political puppets, a strategy that uses the disaster of recession-era budget cuts as a means of justifying radical policies, knowing that the disaster will have shellshocked observers asking far fewer questions about data and actual results. As the Times  sums it up, the recession's "resource squeeze presents an opportunity" for corporate interests.

Or as Watkins explains, social pain is an opportunity: "Let's hope the fiscal crisis doesn't get better too soon. It'll slow down reform."

For sheer weapons-grade assholishness, Watkins' publicly wishing for a crushing recession to continue ranks up there with such gems as "bring them on" and "let them eat cake."

However, the real news here is that a Disaster Capitalist has spoken the unspoken and clearly articulated the Shock Doctrine in all its hideous glory. In this case, he has told us what the "reform" movement to demonize teachers, undermine public education, and generate private profits from public schools is really all about: It is about using the shock of a fiscal crisis to enact a radical, unproven but highly profitable agenda that corporate forces fully know they cannot pass under non-emergency circumstances, when objective scrutiny would be much more intense. Indeed, corporate "reformers"are so reliant on the Shock Doctrine to glaze over uncomfortable questions about their agenda, that they are now praying that the shock of recession continues.

The Times article does a good job of raising questions, forcing the corporate "reform" movement to resort to a revealing kind of hypocrisy. Check out the response from the Obama administration -- which has been one of the leaders of the corporate "reform" movement -- when confronted with data showing that its push for technology isn't raising student achievement:

Karen Cator, director of the office of educational technology in the United States Department of Education, said standardized test scores were an inadequate measure of the value of technology in schools. Ms. Cator, a former executive at Apple Computer, said that better measurement tools were needed but, in the meantime, schools knew what students needed.

"In places where we've had a large implementing of technology and scores are flat, I see that as great," she said. "Test scores are the same, but look at all the other things students are doing: learning to use the Internet to research, learning to organize their work, learning to use professional writing tools, learning to collaborate with others." (emphasis added)
Cator, of course, is making the argument that supporters of traditional public education have been making against corporate "reformers" for years -- namely, that standardized tests cannot be the primary tool to measure overall educational achievement, because they do not measure other equally important skills. And the fact that she is selectively making it in defense of her former technology industry tells us a lot about how public policy is really made in America.

Recall that this statement against standardized testing comes from the same Obama administration that has been pushing for more standardized testing -- the same Obama administration that wants to use standardized testing as a key metric for withholding federal aid from "failing" schools and for firing teachers. That's right, somehow, according to the Obama administration, standardized tests are the perfect tool to judge and punish struggling schools and the teachers who work with low-income kids, but they can't be used to similarly judge technology products that are making Obama's high-tech donors lots of cash.

In this oxymoron, we see who the corporate "reformers" in government really believe they work for, and whom they shape public policy on behalf of. It's not the average parent or student or voter. It's the Disaster Capitalists, who now have their sights set on your local schoolhouse.

Note: Steven Brill, the author of the new book "Class Warfare," and Dana Goldstein, the Nation magazine's education reporter, will be debating these and other education issues on my KKZN-AM760 radio show at 9 a.m. ET on Sept. 7. Stream it live or podcast it atsirota.am760.net.

© 2011 David Sirota
Cheers,
Norm Scott

Twitter: normscott1

Education Notes
ednotesonline.blogspot.com

Grassroots Education Movement
gemnyc.org

Education columnist, The Wave
www.rockawave.com

nycfirst robotics
normsrobotics.blogspot.com

Sent from my BlackBerry

FIGHT EVA INVASION THIS TUESDAY November 29th Brooklyn charter co-location hearing COME OUT!!

Evil is like the Bubonic Plague. I know some of you view E4E as a threat but it's not even close. With the UFT fearing confrontations with Eva organized opposition has to come from somewhere - though Eva will claim the uft is behind anything - even in the face of groups like GEM that the uft does not exactly like. I claim one of the reasons the uft ignores our film is the strong stand opposing charters, ironic in that other teacher unions, universities and parent activists seem to agree with us.

COME SPEAK UP and FIGHT BACK FOR OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Protest Eva Moscowitz's plan to co-locate another of her Harlem Success Academy charters in one of our District 15 public school buildings

Where: Brooklyn School for Global Studies and School for International Studies, 284 Baltic Street, Brooklyn

When: 6 p.m. - 8 p.m.
(Initial sign up to speak is from 5:30 to 6:15 p.m.)

Cheers,
Norm Scott

Twitter: normscott1

Education Notes
ednotesonline.blogspot.com

Grassroots Education Movement
gemnyc.org

Education columnist, The Wave
www.rockawave.com

nycfirst robotics
normsrobotics.blogspot.com

Sent from my BlackBerry

GEM Film Showing in Williamsburg Dec. 1, 2011

While the UFt ignores GEM's "Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman" not only because if the criticism of the UFT but for its straight to the gut message on charter schools (the UFT wants to make nice with the sledge hammer being used to destroy public ed), communities being invaded by charters are starting to use the film to educate the local community. A few weeks ago there was a screening in District 15's Cobble Hill which is being invaded by an Eva Moskowitz charter. And now the CEC of D. 14 which is a major target of Success Charters due to its gentrification - nice pickings of public ed money to teach mostly white middle class kids - is doing the same.

PS 250 at 6PM followed by a panel discussion. Call the District Office for info. There's another screening in CEC 3 at PS 75M on Dec. 7 -  735 West End Ave. Details will be up on Ed Notes a few days before.

Instant Teachers - Why Wait Even Six Weeks?

Mr. Arrington, in the middle of his third month of teaching at the Advanced Technology Complex in the Denton Independent School District, has a background well suited to the subject. He was a police officer for six years — he turned in his badge on Sept. 12 and began teaching the next day.

For-Profit Certification for Teachers in Texas Is Booming - NYTimes

Susan Ohanian Highlight: Private Money for Public Education

Private Money for Public Education

NOTE In April 2011, Matthew McKnight was an intern at The New Republic, writing False Choice: How private school vouchers might harm minority students. In this New Yorkerpiece, good for him for highlighting Joanne Barkan's article. More questionable is his casual conclusion that KIPP produces "admirable results." This is still an open question. 

by Matthew McKnight 

For all the contention brought about by the O.W.S. protests, most observers and commenters agree that the movement’s one success has been to shift the national conversation—inasmuch as there is one—to words like “poverty” and "inequality." Still, since the early occupations, calls for the protesters to give specifics to underline their shouting have resounded. And in the months of occupation, the financial and political structures that created and support such drastic inequality have been widely reported on and scrutinized. 

One, though—the privatization of public education, in the name of reform—has received less attention. On Monday, the Walton Family Foundation announced its plan to donate twenty-five and a half million dollars to the Knowledge is Power Program (K.I.P.P.), a national network of charter schools that many believe to be among the best in the nation. Surely, a lot of good can come from that amount of money. With its latest grant, the W.F.F. aims to "double the number of students attending K.I.P.P. public charter schools," reaching fifty-nine thousand students by 2015. More broadly, the foundation, according to its press release, seeks to help K.I.P.P. "transform public education in our nation." 

But what is the nature of that transformation? In its Winter 2011 issue, Dissent magazine published an in-depth look into the control that three prominent foundations (Bill and Melinda Gates, Eli and Edythe Broad, and the Walton Family) exert over the substance, direction, and quality of education "reform." 

In that article, Joanne Barkan writes: 


Whatever nuances differentiate the motivations of the Big Three, their market-based goals for overhauling public education coincide: choice, competition, deregulation, accountability, and data-based decision-making. And they fund the same vehicles to achieve their goals: charter schools, high-stakes standardized testing for students, merit pay for teachers whose students improve their test scores, firing teachers and closing schools when scores don’t rise adequately, and longitudinal data collection on the performance of every student and teacher. 


The education-reform methodology that Barkan describes can be seen in major school districts throughout the country, including New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. She concludes: 
"The imperious overreaching of the Big Three undermines democracy just as surely as it damages public education.' As many school districts—and members of Congress--push to privatize public education, the money and foundations behind such crusades often gain considerable control and face little backlash if their plans fail. 

More to the point, though, poverty poses difficult challenges for education in America, and as poverty figures grow, those challenges stand only to grow more complex. One wonders: Who are the nearly thirty thousand students that K.I.P.P and the Walton Family Foundation hope to attract? Already, nearly eighty per cent of students populating K.I.P.P. schools qualify for free- and reduced-price lunch (the education reform movement's euphemism for “poor”). A study conducted by Gary Miron, a professor at Western Michigan University, says that thirty per cent of K.I.P.P. students and forty per cent of its black male students leave the schools between grades six and eight. The study continues: 



The departure of low-performing students helps K.I.P.P. improve its aggregate results. Unlike local school districts, K.I.P.P. is not replacing the students who are leaving. When a student returns to a traditional public school after the autumn head count, K.I.P.P. retains all or most of the money -- allocated for educating that student during that school year. 


K.I.P.P. responded with its own pair of studies to rebut those findings: "Our impact estimates reflect the effect of ever having enrolled at K.I.P.P., even if a student subsequently withdraws" and "if struggling students who leave K.I.P.P. are replaced by incoming struggling students from other schools -- there will be no selection effects arising from attrition/retention." At the same time, the schools tend to admit fewer "late-entry" students than those who leave before graduating. The studies, commissioned by K.I.P.P. did not, however, respond to the claim that K.I.P.P. retains funds after a student leaves the school network. 

Looking at charter schools in general, it is far from certain whether or not charters perform better than public schools. Studies by Stanford University (2009) and theInstitute of Education Sciences (2010) have yielded mixed results when comparing the two. But, even such a comparison is too myopic. The better question: Why do some schools—or types of schools—perform better than others? Foundation grants—however much they might help one, or a particular set of schools—are neither sustainable nor scalable enough to address the growing inequalities in education. 

So, at the very least, it's worth asking if, in doubling its student population in roughly three years (the network was founded in 1994), K.I.P.P. is biting off more than it can chew. But the dollars from the Walton Family Foundation don't only enable K.I.P.P.; they also contribute to the notion that private institutions--schools, hospitals, banks—universally perform better than public ones, an idea that feeds rhetoric and policies, but may ultimately make it more difficult for generations to climb out of poverty. 

Update: K.I.P.P.'s public affairs director, Steve Mancini, points out that, based on a survey of all hundred and nine K.I.P.P. schools conducted yesterday, eighty per cent "lose funding immediately for students who leave during the school year," while the others only count students once a year and "would keep funding if students leave during the school year." 

Second, K.I.P.P. schools receive public funds just as traditional neighborhood schools do and should not be considered to be "private schools." K.I.P.P. schools also receive philanthropic donations, and often in large sums, that help to fund professional development programs, building costs, and teachers’ salaries. 

The broader issue, though, is that however well the K.I.P.P. model works--and they do produce admirable results--economic inequality reverberates through the American educational system. There are many more children in America who are unable to attend K.I.P.P. or other charter schools. The Walton Family Foundation donation aims to increase capacity, which may end up being wonderful for future K.I.P.P. students. But what is America to do with the other children? 



— Matthew McKnight
New Yorker online blog
2011-11-17
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/11/private-money-for-public-education.html#ixzz1eRbbLKhR

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 the right for important bits.

The Wave - Bob Turner Don't Know Much 'bout History

School Scope The Wave - www.rockawave.com - Nov. 25, 2011

by Norm Scott

I read amusing excerpts in last week's Wave from our newly minted Congressman's swearing in speech on November 13 at Queens Metropolitan HS where he declared "free enterprise, not 'capitalism [Huh?],' is what our economic system is built on ... a free enterprise system is built on ‘intellectual capital’ and ‘sweat equity.’ It is intellectual capital, people have to have an idea and belief that something will work and can work and they can prosper." Well, whatever Turner wants to call it, whether we are talking about a free and unregulated enterprise system of crony capitalism or the privatization of the public school system, we have a mess.

It's too bad Turner was at Queens Metro on a Sunday. If he had been there on a school day he would have found that the free enterprise school system instigated by WalBlackBloomKlein offers up fairly brand new school where kids had no regular schedules, were left in a gym "class" – taught by Chancellor Walcott's daughter no less - where they didn't get gym, a physics class "taught" by an unqualified special ed teacher, and no chemistry at all after the teacher quit in October. The principal actually did have an idea for a school that on paper seemed to offer a lot of good ideas. The only problem was that she was a grad of the Leadership Academy, the Tweed training ground for future principals ¬without a clue – with many people coming from Turner's vaunted "free enterprise" system without knowledge on how to organize or run a school. Of course, after Walcott and his minions ignored the problem for months - especial knocks to Queens HS Superintendent Juan Mendez (who was so arrogant at the Beach Channel school closing hearing last year) and network leader Gillian Smith – they finally responded – once the story hit the press. (I'm just scratching the surface here - read more on my blog). Free enterprisers sure know what is important.

The oft-mysterious network management system - Turner's vaunted free enterprise system run amuck – deserves to come under scrutiny. A retired teacher left this comment on my blog: "The role of the network organizations MUST be investigated! New Visions, one of the biggest of the Children First networks, also runs charter schools in NYC and advertises constantly for new teachers with no credentials in a program that looks just like Teach for America. This is a clear conflict of interest. I taught at a small school in a poor minority neighborhood and even though students were without mandated classes or teachers (don't get me started on how the special ed kids were shafted) nothing was done to correct the situation. The school is still being run by a totally incompetent Leadership Academy principal with little teaching and no administrative experience. He was backed totally by New Visions."

The school is in the old Jefferson HS – my Alma Mata – that was closed down to make way for four schools some of which - those that have not been able to cream the best kids – have been doing as badly or worse than the old Jefferson. But in Turner's world of free enterprise we now pay four principals instead of one.

And how about Far Rockaway, another closed school (where we are paying 5 or 6 principals) where students at Frederick Douglas Academy VI have been complaining about not having an English teacher for 3 months? There are only 1200 unassigned teachers floating around the city called ATRs who were bumped from their own schools that closed but why hire a real teacher that you actually have to pay? Instead students are being taught English through a computer learning program called "iLearn", part of a massively expensive plot to eliminate teachers. When students have a question, they are told to "Google it." Rename the program "iLearnButNotOften."

The Daily News reported that 75 seniors "have been warehoused in a bunk class with a different substitute each week and no coherent lesson plan...For weeks, students begged administrators at the C-rated school for a steady instructor, but their request was denied — until Friday, when they protested and refused to go to class until their demands were met."

Replacing real teachers with computers is right up Bob Turner's free enterprise system alley. The computer programs are enormously expensive - and profitable - see one Rupert Murdoch who bought a company called "Wireless Generation" after Joel Klein as chancellor created enormous opportunities for the company – before being hired by Murdoch at $4 million a year. Free enterprise for the 1% but not free for us.

The Frederick Douglas students learned their most important lesson when after an hour after their protest, school administrators, who had been ignoring their complaints, met with a delegation and agreed to hire an English teacher.

Were the students inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement, which we are beginning to see is having a more wide-ranging impact than on one square block in lower Manhattan? I'm betting they were. Make sure to see the full 8-minute video of the pepper spraying incident at U of California at Davis where the students shouted at the police in unison, "Shame on you" and "You can go." And the police actually looked shamed and left. How nice to see high school students in our neighborhood learning to use their power of numbers to accomplish something on a smaller scale. We hope to see them broaden their local concerns and join with students around the city who are beginning to stir – as are parents and teachers – against Bloomberg's dictatorship over the schools.

All you have to do is read the short list of headlines Howie Schwach printed in last week's "The Rockaway Beat" with cheating from the school level to the NY State Ed Department running rampant (there can be bonuses for results in the world of free enterprise) as we see the results of Bob Turner's favored competitive and punitive free enterprise system imposed on the school system. Hey, Bob, don't you just love it when people with an idea - and with access to the right people – figure out how they can prosper?

Norm will continue his parsing of Bob Turner in his Dec. 9th column. If you can't wait, he blogs at http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com.

CUNY Students Occupy

Hi All,

I attended the CUNY GA at the Graduate Center last night and they are looking for our support on November 28th.

Below is an email sent out through GEM and NYCORE. Please forward info below widely to educators and parents. Apologies if it's repeat info for you.

In solidarity,

Heather

Dear fellow educators,



The Occupy CUNY GA met last night, with about 90 people in attendance, representing most CUNY schools, undergrads, grads and faculty, as well as a PSC staff rep. The GA called for a mass action on Monday, November 28 at the Board of Trustees hearing at Baruch College, on

25th Street and Lexington Ave, at 4:30 pm. The focus is to be on the intensifying police attacks on university students and protests in general, while also denouncing tuition increases. The exact time and place of the action will be decided at a CUNY-wide GA on Sunday, November 27. The GA also resolved to request that the PSC mobilize its membership for this action. I'll forward the formal statement when it is released. I hope it can be used to gain support from other teacher unions, as well.

This call should be of great concern to all NYC teachers, students and parents. Beyond the implications of growing police repression for our democratic right to peacefully protest, many of you studied in CUNY schools and many of your students will go on to study at CUNY schools. Mayor Bloomberg, Governor Cuomo and Chancellor Goldstein's actions will close this door to most NYC students and render them voiceless to protest. We hope you will respond in force.

I would also like to suggest that Occupy the DOE and other groups defending education attend the 3rd CUNY wide General Assembly, on Sunday, November 27 at 3:00pm at St. Mary's Episcopal Church, Harlem.


Video:  Police Charge Club CUNY Students at Baruch College 


CUNYt:  Peaceful Assembly (1 of 5)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkBGMULZKxY

CUNY (2 of 5)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGMS5G3gxq8

CUNY (3 of 5)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGvO8TQSLQk

CUNY (4 of 5)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSeNS77XJd0

CUNY (5 of 5)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Klsh3YlhEg8
 
=========
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 the right for important bits.

May His Legacy Be: Bloomberg, Book Destroyer

Submitted by Justin Wedes:

Friends-

Today, librarians from The People's Library at Occupy Wall Street (OWS) held a press conference with renowned civil rights attorney Norman Siegel to denounce the destruction and disappearance of thousands of books during the midnight raid last week on Liberty Square (Zuccotti Park). Staff and patrons at the people-powered library gave heartfelt testimony about the city's trashing of the library, which at the height of its operation had over 5,000 books, newspapers, zines, digital media and rare documents housed under a half-cylindrical covering donated by Patti Smith. 

At the conference, hundreds of severely-damaged books were presented as evidence that the Bloomberg administration lied about its treatment of the People's Library during the raid. They claimed, through the Mayor's twitter feed, that the library items were "safely stored at the 57th St Sanitation Garage". In fact, thousands of books and other media remain unaccounted for and requests for information and comment from the City have not been returned. 

[Ed Note: They say OWS have no demands. Here are a few simple ones]

These are the immediate demands of the OWS People's Library:

~The Bloomberg administration must replace every single book missing or damaged, about 3161 books.

~The Bloomberg administration needs to acknowledge that a wrong was committed and this can never happen again.

~We need a space to recreate the People's Library (12% of city storefronts are vacant right now.)

The OWS People's Library remains committed to rebuilding itself in the coming weeks, with the support of the broader #occupy movement. But in the meantime, the sad reality is that 'Banks got bailed out. Books got thrown out.'

There is a formal press release coming in the next few hours on the OWS People's Library website.

Video from the event is forthcoming, but preliminary (low-res) video available here and here.

Ed Note: Let me remind you of the intentional destrucion of laptops that look as if smashed with a bat.

 ==============
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 the right for important bits.

Help Stop Eva Moskowitz Invasion of Brooklyn on Nov. 29th

Hi everyone!

We are less than one week away from the DOE hearing on the co-location of the Cobble Hill Success Academy, and we need ALL hands on deck to make sure we can pack the auditorium. Now is the time to fight for an Early Childhood Center in Cobble Hill and against Eva Moskowitz's Success Academy. (below is an email flyer you can forward).

Join us on Nov. 29th at 5:30, at 284 Baltic St. (btwn Smith and Court St.) to stand up for our community schools. Here is a facebook event for the 29th! Please share as WIDELY as possible! Also, please use the hashtag #NoSuccess on twitter to promote the hearing...

     http://www.facebook.com/events/268718893180043

Can people share this on listserves and your contacts? Flood 'em with the FB page, on twitter and the flyer, its better if people hear about it 20 times.

Also, here are the attachments from last time to help you with outreach...

1) a flyer for the 29th (we can make different ones to adapt to your specific school)

2) the petition that we've been using to build a list we can call to come out on the 29th

3) The proposal for an early childhood center in the Global Studies building. The idea has been gaining a lot of support, so please circulate for feedback. There is also a second "Real School Choice" document that compares the Early Childhood Center with the Success Academy.

COME FIGHT FOR QUALITY EDUCATION IN OUR NEIGHBORHOOD!

Community leaders and educators are proposing a free public Early Childhood Center in the K293 building that would offer pre-K and kindergarten to children in local school zones.

BUT

The Department of Education wants to give the space to Eva Moskowitz to open a Success Academy Charter School that would bus in students from across the district. 

Which would better serve the needs of neighborhood families?

Come tell the Department of Education what our neighborhood families need and come defend PUBLIC EDUCATION

Tuesday, Nov. 29th at 5:30 pm

284 Baltic Street
(between Smith and Court Street)

Success Academy Charter School = DOE’s Choice

Early Childhood Center = Parent’s Choice!

Julian at 203.313.2479 or julian@aqeny.org for more information

Julian Vinocur 
NYC OrganizerAlliance for Quality Education
www.aqeny.org
(212) 328-9268