Principal Lies to Parent Regarding Opting Out

I mentioned the stress it placed on my son, along with the fact that the teacher evals were tied to scores. "Oh my  gosh, so are you from the union? You sound as if you're making an argument for the teacher's union!" -- NYC parent in convo with principal re: opting out

As angry as I was before, seeing the tests today (which we are not allowed to quote in any way) has sent me over the edge! I haven't even read all of them yet but the fifth grade test is unbelievable. Easy reading selections and lots of trick questions--more than I have ever seen before--that are absolutely no indication of any kind of 5th grade level reading comprehension. My APs and I can't even figure out what answer they are looking for in some questions! I think we absolutely need to fight that these tests be made public. People will be shocked to see them.  --- NYC Principal

Ahhh, the high stakes testing game is bringing out lots of people who were not activists before. Over 30 years I have battled against HST that began with a principal in 1979 forcing them down our throats and forcing me out of the classroom that I loved so much. The UFT support for HST was one of the issues that broke me with Randi --- I won't go into details now. The forces are growing amongst parents and teachers while the UFT/AFT as an org stays out of the battle- other than issuing a lame statement every so often.

I haven't had time to address the amazing group of parents who have sprung up around the opting out of the test issue, led by the people involved in the GEM Change the Stakes testing committee. There are wonderful emails flying around that I can barely keep track of. And they go beyond NYC and are reaching out nationally. These parents who seemed isolated before have begun to find each other through the Change the Stakes conduit. Build it and they will come - which is what GEM seems to do so well. What I love about this process is how GEM does not try to take ownership and control but allows the group to breathe and go forth and organize. I foresee this opt-out group touching base with the Willimsburg/Greenpoint parents fighting Eva/Eric and this can create a citywide organizing group to jump into the political battles ahead. A bunch of them were at our evaluation event yesterday and were delightful to meet.

The UFT of course is silent (and they took quite a bashing at our Teacher Evaluation Nightmare Forum  yesterday.)

As I was finishing this up I came across this post on Schools Matter: Special Ed Child Forced to Take Test, Mom Threatened by School Officials in Oceanside, NY

While many parents in NYC report some decent experiences when discussing opting out with their principals, this parent faced the kind of principal so many teachers face.

Well,  I had a somewhat disturbing conversation with our principal. I brought my child in to school at noon, after the testing period, and was told that, "according to Legal", if he entered the building at whatever time, they were "required" to  administer the test. I hadn't read through the threads here today, where i see that some schools have made accommodations that permit some of the opted-out students to help out in other classrooms. So, if "Legal" says my son is "required" to take the test if he's in the building, why is this not being enforced city-wide? (answer: it's a bunch of bull).

She acted as if she were confused by my opposition to the test: "testing has been around for years!" Yes, I said, but not in this way-- and please don't pretend you're not aware of the controversy surrounding these particular tests. I mentioned the stress it placed on my son, along with the fact that the teacher evals were tied to scores. "Oh my  gosh, so are you from the union? You sound as if you're making an argument for the teacher's union!" (not that there's anything wrong with that). I pointed out that the real issue for me, as a parent, was that the tie-in to teacher evals is bound to alter the dynamic between student and teacher-- or should i say test-taker and evaluee?

I politely told her that this was no easy decision for us (after she rather offensively said "I don't see how you could place him in the middle of all this")-- as if I were simply using my child to, i don't know, run for political office...

Finally  I said, "we understand that we'll need to talk about possible consequences to our decision, but we feel we're making it in his best interest" to which she replied "well, he'll have to go to summer school."

Really, I said. He's been on the honor roll; he's reading at the fourth-grade level; he won first place in the science fair-- what possible academic justification would you have for making him go to summer school? She smiled and shrugged her shoulders. "We have to follow the rules, whatever they are" (like the one "requiring" her to administer the test if he's in the building?)

I left it with "well, we don't accept that" and "thank you for your time"... I handed her the temperate, polite letter I'd written explaining our decision and she promised to read it. How wonderful for us.

But I'm glad we're doing it. We don't intend to back down in the face of such bland bureaucratic intimidation-- I only wish I could do this without putting my son in this situation...although when we left he said "you and me...linked, Dad. I'm on your side."

Right. So on to victory. Sigh.

 And this came in from a principal:

As angry as I was before, seeing the tests today (which we are not allowed to quote in any way) has sent me over the edge! I haven't even read all of them yet but the fifth grade test is unbelievable. Easy reading selections and lots of trick questions--more than I have ever seen before--that are absolutely no indication of any kind of 5th grade level reading comprehension. My APs and I can't even figure out what answer they are looking for in some questions! I think we absolutely need to fight that these tests be made public. People will be shocked to see them.

Leonie asks:
Can we have teachers take a look at the ELA passages and tell us, either on or off the record, how confusing and/or ambiguous the choices of answers are?

And note this:

Texas anti-testing resolution; 282 districts adopted so far TASA - http://goo.gl/mTdc7

 This is the website of the Texas Assoc of School Administrators , which has been promoting the reso.  PAA along with other national orgs will release an adapted version next week for NYS and the nation.

More incoming:

There has been a notable difference in my students' affect on this second day of testing. They are much more restless and easily frustrated. Out of the 6 kids in my testing group, 3 have refused to answer the extended response question (a straightforward question, but the story was SO short that the kids have to repeat details they gave in the short response questions). One boy accidentally spilled water on his table and a little bit got on his test. He's currently in the corner curled up in a ball saying he's going to get arrested for messing up the test book. "Fortunately" there are 2 hours left in our testing period so I have plenty of time to convince him otherwise. 4 more days....lord. :(

 

-----

I am a literacy specialist in Rockland and I proctored the fourth grade test today. I thought that the test was terrible and not a true measure, in my opinion, of reading comprehension.  First, some of the early passages in the test were very long (more than two pages) and meandering, making it difficult for 8/9 year-old readers to clearly discern the principal problem among several - or the problem the test-maker thought was the principal problem. These long passagers put an undue burden on young reader's stamina during the early part of the test. Even though I am an adult who reads a lot (I am currently finishing my doctoral dissertation in language and literacy) , i found getting through the long passages and questions mentally tiring. This was in part due to the fact that the questions were convoluted and designed to "catch" students in test traps. In addition, some of the test's print features were inconsistent (i.e., same exact phrases were bolded in some question and not others). The word choice both in the question stem and in the answer choices was meant to obscure meaning. Choosing at times arcane vocabulary to refer to text information in the correct choices.  I have been a teacher for 19 years and a literacy specialist for 13, and I can say with some degree of confidence that this test was unfair and not a good instrument to measure students ability to read proficiently and use complex text to think critically and learn about the world. I feel sad for my wonderful and hard working students who sat for 90 minutes running through an unfair reading rat maze for political antics and for the benefit of corporate profiteers. I am afraid for the profession I love and for the future of public education.

Exposing Segregation Tactics of Eric Grannis and Citizens of the World Charter Schools

Our schools are 8% white, but theirs will be 55% white.

Williamsburg and Greenpoint say NO to segregated schools

• Beware: “Citizens of the World Charter Schools” has already been associated with a number of financial scandals and ethical improprieties.

Grannis and wife

• "Citizens of the World Charter Schools" are financially unstable. Expansion of their schools is necessary for them to stay in business. Our children should not be prey to this Ponzi scheme.

Everyone come to the Thursday, April 19th hearing @IS 71 215 Heyward Street, Brooklyn NY 11206 from 6pm to 8pm to fight the Citizens of the World Charter Chain. They are planning on opening TWO schools in District 14 - one on the north side and one on the SOUTH side! we need your support. https://www.facebook.com/events/185195068267404/

Some people view this Grannis move as an attempt to start being perceived as the one really wearing the pants in the family. Don't believe it.

I have so much information to post on the expansion of the Moskowitz/Grannis machine with the open intention of draining as many white kids as they can out of the public schools in Williamsburg/Greenpoint. This is a direct attack on schools like PS 110, PS 31, PS 34, PS 84, PS 132 and PS 17, MS 50 and the to be closed MS 126, all schools in the main gentrifying areas. Even the national chess champs (IS 318 Wins High School Chess Championship)  [today's wonderful front page article in the Times] are threatened by this diversion.

Just think about this. You actually have some integrated and diversified schools and the husband and wife vulture capitalist Grannis/Moskowitz team aim to disrupt that.

The positive thing about every outrage perpetrated by the ed deformers is that the opposition is growing and hopefully this will create a crescendo to abolish mayoral control. The weakest link in all this is the UFT -- which was so reinforced at the amazing ed eval forum we held yesterday (video coming). Really, if you are a teacher and not involved in this, Why We Need a New Caucus in the UFT- SOTU Meets Apr. 21, you are being led to slaughter.

I can't make the meeting to oppose the charter on April 19 but we did arrange to tape it. (Don't forget the closing schools rally at Tweed is earlier at 4PM which I will make.)

Here are some items for your attention. I have a great 22 page pdf that I have to figure out how to put up but if you want a copy email normsco@gmail.com

 https://www.facebook.com/events/185195068267404/

 =========

CALLING ALL WILLIAMSBURG / GREENPOINT PARENTS AND COMMUNITY MEMBERS!! DEFEND OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS FROM PROFIT-DRIVEN SEGREGATION

Come to the Community Education Council for District 14 Hearing on “Citizens of the World Charter Schools”

• “Citizens of the World Charter Schools” is a Los Angeles charter school chain with two proposals to open schools in our area, one on the south side of Williamsburg and one in Greenpoint, in the fall of 2013. These schools are brought to us by Eric Grannis, husband of Eva Moskowitz, who already has forced three of her Success Academy Charter Schools on our district.

• The official proposal for these schools is riddled with false information and manipulated data in a mercenary attempt to discredit our local public schools and manufacture a desire for these schools.

• Their proposed schools offer nothing new or different. They are poor copies of our neighborhood schools, (PS84, PS132, PS110, PS31, PS34 and the new PS414), and will not have the experienced teachers and principals or the commitment to our community that we enjoy in our neighborhood schools.

• “Citizens of the World Charter Schools” wants to pull white middle class children out of our public schools. They manipulated our demographic data by disregarding the Hassidic population and child- less hipsters when they discussed the discrepancy between our district population as 55% white and our district schools as 8% white. They want schools that will mirror our district demographic. Our schools are 8% white, but theirs will be 55% white.

• If these redundant and wasteful school are approved, they will siphon precious funds from our existing schools, and worse – they will seek to co-locate in PS110 in Greenpoint and either PS84 or PS414 in Williamsburg, dramatically segregating those buildings and creating class-warfare. Our neighborhood schools will lose vital art rooms, science rooms, computer rooms, music rooms, and rooms used for special education.

• Beware: “Citizens of the World Charter Schools” has already been associated with a number of financial scandals and ethical improprieties.

• "Citizens of the World Charter Schools" are financially unstable. Expansion of their schools is necessary for them to stay in business. Our children should not be prey to this Ponzi scheme.

PLEASE JOIN US IN OUR FIGHT TO SUPPORT OUR LOCAL PUBLIC SCHOOLS!
CEC14 MEETING   
    Thursday, April 19, 2012 from 6pm to 8pm    
     215 Heyward Street, Brooklyn NY 11206

-------------------
Stop the Grannis/Moskowitz charter invasion of District 14

COMMUNITY EDUCATION COUNCIL FOR DISTRICT 14

 BUSINESS/CALENDAR MEETING:

 Thursday, April 19, 2012   (Business: 6:00 pm - 7:00pm / Calendar: 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm)

 I.S 71

215 Heyward Street,   Brooklyn NY 11206

by Kate Yourke, parent activist, Williamsburg/Greenpoint

Citizens of the World is a charter school in Los Angeles, CA which hopes to expand to become a national chain of publicly funded, privately run charter schools.

Citizens of the World recognized an opportunity to move into our School District to capitalize on NYC’s policy of offering charter schools free rent in our public school buildings.

This free rent has created a business model attractive enough for Citizens of the World to begin its national expansion here in NYC, coming all the way across the country to exploit District 14’s under enrolled public schools, hoping to capture the potential of wealthier, white families moving into our gentrifying District.

Founding Board Chair of Citizens of the World is Kristean Dragon, who is also Executive Director of The Wonder of Reading. Citizens of the World’s newly formed “national network” shares its address with Wonder of Reading.

On Jun 20, 2011, NBC4 Extra ran an investigative piece on scandals surrounding the Wonder of Reading program, called Book Wars: Episode Two. It describes a situation where inadequate oversight allowed public bond money to be used for improperly awarded contracts to companies requiring kickbacks- and for cost overruns to double and triple the expense of rebuilding 177 school libraries in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

From the report:

“Accountant Chris Hamilton draws an even more sober conclusion about the problems detected in the Wonder of Reading program.

"I call it the perfect storm," he says, "because you have someone who admits they've paid a kickback. You have cowed and intimidated vendors. You have no oversight. You rarely see that all in one case…"

Along with shared leadership and a shared address, Citizens of the World has a $5.2 million contract with Wonder of Reading extending into the 2014-2015 school year.

Citizens of the World recognizes similar lucrative subcontracting opportunities here in NYC, starting in our School District, where they also intend to capitalize on the fears of newer white families preparing for their children’s entry into school. Citizens of the World’s District 14 outreach efforts began with Eric Grannis (husband to Success Academy’s Eva Moskowitz) subversively infiltrating a yahoo group for local parents in the guise of a local dad. Inviting parents on this mainly white, middle-class yahoo group to a discussion of their ideal school (a discussion held in an pricey baby boutique,) a few parents were cultivated to strategically promote the school in exclusive meetings in luxury waterfront hi-rises. Parents with no experience in the public school system were told that all our neighborhood schools were failing, and that the low-income families of color would never accept them in their public school communities. The repercussions of Eric Grannis and Citizens of the World’s smarmy entrance into our neighborhood are still being felt in broken friendships, betrayed trust, and heated arguments in local play spaces. I cannot fathom the negative impact of their type of divisive, racist manipulation if Eric Grannis and Citizens of the World were to be successful in co-locating 2 large charter elementary schools in our District.

Charter Schools were developed so that educators and community leaders could respond to specific community needs.

However, the structure of charter law in combination with the system of Mayoral Control in NYC has instead allowed schools from outside a community to be imposed on that community despite universal opposition.

This Thursday’s CEC meeting will be entered into the CWCS application to demonstrate compliance with the requirements of charter law, which requires the applicant “rigorously demonstrate” public outreach “in conformity with a thorough and meaningful public review process.” In reality, Eric Grannis and Citizens of the World intentionally hid this proposal from the larger community, making only private invitations, never announcing their intention to bring this school to our District, much less holding any public meeting, discussion, or forum on their intentions.

Mayoral Control could force our community to make space in our public school buildings for these 2 charter schools which have targeted our vulnerable District from 3,000 miles away – charter schools whose leadership is implicated in vast corruption and profiteering from public money- charter schools suggesting they educate according to the premise of Citizenship, while they operate in a manipulative, secretive, and racist manner as they segregate and divide our community in the pursuit of our public school system budget.

Mayoral Control offers our community no opportunity to impact the approval and siting of charter schools, although we will suffer their impact. The stakes are enormous and the impact would be profound. We must make sure our voices are heard, involve our neighbors and stand up against this destructive intrusion, stand up for our truly public schools. I ask the Community Board to pass a resolution opposing the Citizens of the World Charter School, and I ask everyone in this room to spread the word, attend Thursday’s CEC meeting, write letters to Carl McCall, SUNY Board of Trustees, and push back against this effort to privatize our public education system.

Why We Need a New Caucus in the UFT- SOTU Meets Apr. 21

Find out more. Join us for: An Open Meeting

Sat, April 21st 12 – 3pm

Graduate Center for Worker Education, 25 Broadway

The single most important thing in defending teachers and public education we can do from inside the UFT is building a broad-based movement from the bottom up that can reach deep into the schools. I don't have to agree with everything that will emerge but as long as the process is democratic and everyone has a say I can live with not having everything go my way. This is impossible in Unity Caucus or the way they have run the union for 50 years.

Really nothing will change in the UFT until there is a viable alternative to Unity Caucus. As a matter of fact it will get worse.
I won't list the unwillingness or unwilligness of the UFT leadership to fight back. How ironic that principals are doing more to defend us on the evaluation menace?
(Today will be another dreary Delegate Assembly and nothing gets one more depressed  - or motivated - than these monthly travesties of democracy.)

It will take work and commitment. As in Chicago's CORE, this can be done with a few hundred committed people.

Are you ready?

Share the leaflet with your co-workers and help build this group from the ground up. Email me for a copy of the leaflet.

WHY WE NEED A NEW CAUCUS in the UFT

We believe our strength lies with our members, organized into strong chapters.
This requires an active effort to educate our membership about how their union works, and involve them in democratically determining its direction.

We believe in social justice unionism.

We fight for equitable public education and against racism in the schools.

Building an alliance of students, parents and community members as a key part of our strategy. The UFT must fight for our members and our students.
Our working conditions are our students learning conditions.

We prioritize members working together to build power in our schools.
Through collective struggles, our members will gain confidence and organization to mobilize an escalating series of actions, in our communities, city-wide and nationally, that can begin to take on the bigger challenges facing our union, educators and public education as a whole. Every educator in America knows that our profession, and our students, are under attack.

The onslaught of high-stakes testing, privatization, weakening or elimination of job protections, school closings and charter co- locations threatens the very existence of public education as we know it. Unionized teachers in particular have been singled out for demonization.

The strategy put forth by our union leadership to take on these challenges is inadequate. UFT officials rely primarily on lobbying, media blitzes and procedural lawsuits. When occasional mobilizations are called, they are organized without a long-term plan for escalating actions or increased membership involvement. The union leadership takes a concessionary stance in order to maintain its "seat at the table” with politicians and corporate forces like Bill Gates, who turn around and attack teachers and the union at every opportunity. Union leadership then sells serious concessions to the members as victories claiming - "It could have worse”.

Some of the key policy failures of the UFT leadership:
• Supporting mayoral control even in the face of the devastating impact
• A weak stand against closing schools
• A compromising position on charter schools and co-locations
• Giving up on the fight to reduce class size
• The acceptance of rating teachers based on high-stakes tests
• Agreeing to merit pay even though every single study shows the failure of this policy
• Steadily deteriorating working conditions and power in the workplace
• Erosion of job security and tenure protections
• A one-party undemocratic system that shuts out the voices of the members
We need something different. A union that fights for the rights of students, teachers and communities. A union that fights for racial and economic justice inside and outside our schools.

Find out more. Join us for: An Open Meeting
Sat, April 21st 12 – 3pm


Graduate Center for Worker Education, 25 Broadway

For more information email: sotuuft@gmail.com or look for State of the Union on Facebook.

One on One With Diane Ravitch and Deb Meier

Diane Ravitch and Deb Meier knock it out of the park in an interview with GEM for the upcoming film, The Inconvenient Truth Behind High Stakes Testing.

Diane Ravitch will be on Brian Lehrer today to counter the infomercial interview he did with Michelle Rhee last week. I'm a fan of Lehrer and though he did toss in a few tough comments, there was no real challenge to Rhee, though a parent and principal did get in a few shots. At one point Brian called her Dr. Rhee, maybe confusing her with Dr. MengeRhee, the German butcher of WW II.

Well anyway, when I heard she was going to be on, I rushed to edit the interview I did last week with Diane for our new movie (The Inconvenient Truth Behind High Stakes Testing).

What a treat! building Bridges one-on-one with Diane Ravitch and Debbie Meier, the two rock stars of the real reform movement within a few days of each other. (One dream is to get them next to each other and just turn on the camera.) Both interviews cover a lot of ground with Deb talking about the impact on kids and Diane on policy, really the essence of what they both do so well.

Diane was between trips for a day or two and was so gracious in giving us time last Monday morning. Our meeting was scheduled at Brooklyn Borough Hall for 10AM so I got there 20 minutes early. It was a beautiful day and there were little green tables in front of the steps so it made sense to not waste her time searching for an indoor location (when Debbie and tried it at Starbucks the noise was impossible). Besides, the setting with a park in the background looked so good.

It didn't take me long to notice it was a bit windy. And not much longer before a 40 mile an hour gust practically blew me away. OMG! The film crew will kill me if I mess this up. I pulled a table over to the side of the steps to give us some shelter and I also had a remote mic - luckily since I often use a mic mounted on the camera. You can hear the wind, but most of the interview is clear except for a few spots where the wind gusted.

Diane arrived promptly at 10 wearing a cool leather jacket and jeans. She truly did look like a rock star. She said we should have done the interview in front of 110 Livingston St., the old DOE HQ and a major topic of one of her books but we figured we would have to buy a condo first.

With the wind tousling her hair she shakes, rattles and rolls through 20 minutes of comments on high stakes testing. (I tried to edit out my whiny voice where possible.) See below for the Deb Meier interview. where she nails what education should be about. I also had the treat of talking to her off camera about open classrooms as Deb was a hero of mine when I was teaching and struggling with that concept in the 70's.

https://vimeo.com/40501011



And in case you missed it, here is my 10 minutes with Deb Meier a few days before which I wrote about previously here.


http://youtu.be/owi2SKa4EA8

IS 318 Wins High School Chess Championship

Bill Hall, the executive director of the United States Chess Federation, which organized the championships, said he had never heard of a middle school winning the high school championships. “To my knowledge, it has never happened before,” he said. I.S. 318 beat several other city chess teams this weekend, including Stuyvesant High School and Edward R. Murrow High School.  -----NY Times, Schoolbook

This is really big news. I reported on the Daily News attack on the school in this March 5 post

In Defense of IS 318 after the data reports came out where they charged that the school had a high number of ineffective teachers based on the inaccurate TDRs, even sending a reporter and photographer to one of my long-time friend's home on a Saturday morning.

I also wrote about the school when long-time principal, AP and teacher at the school, Fred Rubino, died suddenly recently (A Giant is Lost: Fortunato (Fred) Rubino). Somewhere up there Fred must be kvelling -- or whatever the Italian word for that is.

About half the school’s 1,600 students take chess classes, said Leander Windley, the school’s principal.

800 kids have time off from test prep? Though they do test prep like everyone else, they manage to create all kinds of interesting programs for the kids. By the way, I know Windley since his teaching days when he was one of the first teachers I involved in a robotics program, which 318 still has.

“This is the greatest achievement we’ve ever had, and probably ever will have,” John Galvin, one of the coaches, said in a telephone interview from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

Wait a minute. You mean the chess team is out of town before the testing season?

John Galvin, an AP at the school, has been involved with this program for so many years. He goes back to the late 80s or early 90s when I was teaching all my upper grade classes chess when I was a cluster teacher. John actually organized a district-wide chess tournament where 8-10 schools participated, including mine. Interesting point in that the tournament was held at MS 50, the school Eva is currently invading -- (see After burn.) You know how Eva likes to brag about her chess programs, which the eager pro-charter press reports all the time, while a public school has to win the national championship to get coverage.


After they collected their award on Sunday evening, Mr. Galvin and the team hopped in cabs to catch a 9 p.m. screening of “Brooklyn Castle,” which happened to be showing at the Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival across town. It was the first time many of them had seen it.

The film also looks at the challenges I.S. 318’s longtime principal, Fortunato “Fred” Rubino, who died suddenly earlier this month, faced in maintaining the team through a time of budget cuts. A $25,000 grant from the Brooklyn Navy Yard Co-generation power plant helped pay for this year’s travel, Mr. Galvin said.

Yeah, watch WalBloom jump to take credit -- lookee, we cut their funds to the bone but due to the nurturing we gave them they can do miracles.

After Burn
Speaking of Eva, MS 50 is already getting new stuff for Eva, some of it almost a joke if you read the post from the Inside Colocation blog about the Cobble Hill school:

We returned from Spring Break to find this new floor in the basement, where the charter school will be moving in. Of course, there are no new floors anywhere else in the building. The blue was shocking. I heard one adorable student say, “I don’t know how to swim, Mister.” Another said, “They spent their money on something stupid. We don’t need new tiles.” And another said, “I think the charter school did it.” All of these students will, I’m sure, be surprised to see the changes yet to come.

Gather Ye Data: Testing Day Reminder From Fred Smith

I posted this request from Fred the other day:Fred Smith Requests Your Help
Here is a last minute reminder.

Folks,

If you are a teacher who is giving the ELA Test (or you know a teacher who is giving it) would you please confirm the following information about the total number of multiple-choice items that appear in Book 1, which is being given tomorrow.

Grade 3  36 items ____ Number of Passages ____   Grade 4  37 items ____ Number of Passages ____

Grade 5  39 items ____ Number of Passages ____  Grade 6  39 items ____   Number of passages ____

Grade 7  39 items ____  Number of Passages ____  Grade 8  39 items ____  Number of Passages ____

The above numbers come from the Teacher's Directions, so I assume they are accurate.  If not, please let me know of any discrepancy and tell me how many items appear in the Test Book.

Also, please indicate the number of reading passages (stories, poems, etc.) in Book 1. 

Book 1 contains the field test items.  These items won't count in the results of tomorrow's tests.  They are embedded with the items that actually will count. Knowing how many items and reading selections are on tomorrow's test will help me evaluate the ELA's structure and expose its weaknesses as an examination.

Feel free to call me with the numbers at  (718)-437-5659 if you don't want to email.

Thank you.

Fred

Parent Anger Builds Over High-Stakes Standardized Tests: Some NYC parents take a stand, refuse to have their children tested

Change the Stakes issues press release on high stakes tests. 

UPDATE: With Test Week Here, NYC Parents Consider the Option of Opting Out – SchoolBook - http://goo.gl/fP3cu

http://www.nytimes.com/schoolbook/2012/04/16/with-test-week-here-parents-consider-the-option-of-opting-out/

I haven't been writing much about this growing movement but have been involved in it through the GEM Change the stakes committee which also spurred the Real Reform Studio arm of GEM to work on a new film. Tomorrow's Teacher Evaluation Nightmare - Forum
is also connected. It has been exciting to see this committee sort of take off on its own after emerging from a GEM idea to focus on this issue a year ago. It has attracted a dynamic group of parents who are committed to fighting the impact of high stakes testing. I am proud that Ed Notes was taking a stand on this issue as far back as the late 90's when I was bringing resolutions to the UFT Delegate Assembly where Unity Caucus affirmed their support for the testing agenda by overwhelmingly defeating every one of them.

See Susan Ohanian comment below in the Afterburn.


Change the Stakes

Changethestakes.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
Contact: Janine Sopp, 917-541-6062

Andrea Mata, 646-831-3903 

Parent Anger Builds Over High-Stakes Standardized Tests:
Some NYC parents take a stand, refuse to have their children tested 

New York City – As the annual rite of standardized testing begins in the city’s public schools, the stakes are higher than ever before: low scores can prevent students from moving to the next grade and limit their middle and high school choices, while aggregate scores that fail to improve over time can be used to close schools and, as of next year, to fire teachers. Some parents believe the stakes have gotten too high.

“I’m not opposed to standardized tests, but the emphasis on testing is out of control. It’s seriously compromising the quality of education at my son's wonderful school,” said Andrea Mata, mother of a 3rd-grader in Manhattan. “Too much time is spent on test prep, and everything else – notably science, social studies, and our school's entire dual language curriculum – has become secondary,” added Ms. Mata. She has decided to take action; her son will not take the state language arts test this week. 

Ms. Mata is not alone in her anger and frustration. Parents in the city and elsewhere across the country have begun to unite with teachers and administrators to fight high-stakes testing through a spate of new organizations and campaigns.1 

But unlike Ms. Mata, most New York City parents who oppose the tests are reluctant to “opt out” because of possible repercussions for their child, their child’s teachers, and their school. New York does not allow parents to legally opt out of state-mandated standardized tests as Pennsylvania and California do. 

Although only a handful of parents are likely to refuse to have their children tested over the next two weeks, some hope their actions will encourage other parents to join the broader movement to end high- stakes testing. “It’s been difficult to get definitive answers about the consequences of opting out, but we feel so strongly that these tests are hurting our son’s education that we felt compelled to take the risk,” said Robert Kulesz, father of a 3rd-grader in Queens. 

Critics of high-stakes testing cite a long list of harmful effects on children and their education. Because the stakes are so high, schools have narrowed curricula and neglected non-tested subjects. Teachers are rewarded for high test scores rather than for inspiring a love of learning, fostering creativity, or encouraging critical and interdisciplinary thinking. Students know that doing well on standardized tests is highly valued, which creates undue pressure and anxiety. As the length of the tests increases, so does the stress, especially for younger children who have a harder time sitting still for long periods and for children with extended testing time to accommodate learning issues. Critics also point to the vast resources expended on testing when the city has lost thousands of teachers and class sizes are increasing. 

Despite the rising tide of opposition to high-stakes tests, the city and state already have plans to implement more: New York is part of a consortium of states working to develop a common set of K-12 assessments in English and math to be given throughout the school year.2  New local assessments also are being developed for earlier grades and in subjects like the arts.3  New local assessments also are being developed for earlier grades and in subjects like the arts.

According to Janine Sopp, a parent who is active in Change the Stakes and opting her 3rd grader out of this year’s exams, resistance against high-stakes testing is likely to grow in the months and years ahead unless officials at the federal, state, and local levels heed mounting opposition. “Parents and teachers are frustrated because our concerns about what high-stakes testing is doing to public education have been ignored or even dismissed. 

Officials who keep upping the ante have little or no classroom experience and typically send their own children to private schools but somehow think they know what’s best for public schoolchildren,” said Ms. Sopp, whose daughter attends the Brooklyn New School.
Parents will get another chance to opt their children out of standardized tests before the school year is over. According to the State Education Department, most schools will be invited to serve as field testing sites for Pearson, the for-profit test development contractor. The field tests, which are scheduled for June, will be administered in only one or two grades per school.4 They allow the test company to try out sample questions for use on future exams but serve no educational purpose for the children taking them. 

To schedule interviews with parents opting out of this year’s tests, call Janine Sopp (917-541-6062) or Andrea Mata (646-831-3903). 

### 

Change the Stakes (changethestakes.org), a committee of the Grassroots Education Movement, was formed to expose the damaging effects of high-stakes standardized tests. We are a group of parents and teachers working to build and unite opposition to these tests in New York City. See our online petition demanding that New York State develop a non-punitive process by which parents concerned about the impacts of high-stakes testing on student learning can opt their children out of standardized tests. 

========
1 In addition to Change the Stakes, other organizations that oppose high-stakes testing include Time Out from Testing, United Opt Out, Parents Across America, Save Our Schools and Fair Test. 

2 The consortium is the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, http://www.parcconline.org/. 
 3 http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-07-22/local/29818539_1_arts-education-budget-cuts-high-school-students
4 http://www.p12.nysed.gov/apda/ei/38fieldtest-memo-12.pdf. 

-----
Testing: How to Stop the Reign

NOTE: NCLB testing begins tomorrow in New York, when 1.2 million kids begin to take the ELA and math tests in grades 3 - 8. This year the tests contain embedded multiple-choice items that are being field tested, enabling the new vendor (you guessed it, Pearson) to develop future tests on the back of the children. The items won't count but they will make the exams considerably longer.

Fred Smith presents a strategy for making this greedy scheme backfire:
http://www.susanohanian.org/show_nclb_outrages.php?id=4232

Ohanian Comment: I don't give up on my dream of the day the corporate-politicos schedule the massive testing scheme and no parent allows their children to participate AND a huge majority of teachers engage in the professional act of refusing to administer the tests.

Teacher Evaluation Nightmare Updated - Forum - April 17

GEM, Class Size Matters and Parents Across America along with the GEM high stakes testing committee, Change the Stakes, are sponsoring this event on Tuesday, Apr. 17.

The idea for this event emerged out of a GEM steering committee meeting in Feb. We  postponed once because the UFT announced it would be doing some protest on March 15 which turned out to be the usual nothing.

The Change the Stakes committee has evolved into a strong parent influenced group with a lot of opt-out action. Leonie has some good stuff about it: NYC Teacher supports parents opting their children out of standardized testing and wishes she could as well!

And The Assailed Teacher also posted: The New Civil Disobedience

A great panel has been recruited headlined by Carol Burris and joined by NYC teacher/writers/bloggers Gary Rubinstein (see his blog) and Arthur Goldstein and joined by leading parent activist Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters. After the panel speaks we will try to come up with strategies for fight back.

Julie Cavanagh will moderate. Independent filmmaker and reporter Jaisal Noor and I will be taping (I will also be doing interviews for our new film on high stakes testing. See my interview with Diane Ravitch.)

This is not just a sit, listen and ask a question event but has a working component to develop strategies to create the kind of rational policy we are not seeing out of the UFT and NYSUT.

NEW SPEAKER ADDED: Khalilah Bran, Teacher, Bushwick Community High School, a school threatened with closure: Bushwick Community High School’s supporters protested its planned turnaround. (GothamSchools, NY1).

More on BCHS:

This Is Arguably the Most Disgusting Failure of Metric-Driven ...

mikethemadbiologist.com/.../this-is-arguably-the-most-disgusting-fail...

Apr 4, 2012 – Michael Winerip has a great article about Bushwick Community High School, a transfer school–essentially the last stop for failing students.

Teacher Evaluation Nightmare !
          a forum on testing, teacher evaluations and our schools

Tuesday, April 17 at 5:30 PM

Murry Bergtraum High School Auditorium

411 Pearl Street, Manhattan

(Brooklyn Bridge/City Hall Station 4,5,6 -Fulton Street Station 2,3 - Chambers Street Station J)

Come to a Meeting to Discuss: Why are the new teacher evaluations bad for teachers, students, and families?

How can we organize to change them?

Speakers: Carol Burris: L.I. Principal, one of the co-authors of the principals’ letter against evaluating teachers by       student test scores, which has been signed by nearly 1,400 New York principals. Leonie Haimson: parent activist and  Exec. Director of Class Size Matters   Gary Rubinstein: Math teacher at Stuyvesant High School and critical analyst of the Teacher Data Reports Arthur Goldstein: E.S.L. teacher and  chapter leader at Francis Lewis High School in Queens

Come hear speakers  explain how the new evaluations will work and the implications for students, teachers, families, and education.  Join the discussion of how we can organize to change the final outcome.

Co-sponsored by: Grassroots Education Movement, Class Size Matters, and Parents Across America 

Blog  :   http://gemnyc.org/  or email:   gemnyc@gmail.com 

For more information about  the negative effects of high stakes tests or opting your child out of high stakes testing, please visit: http://changethestakes.org 

State Ed Dept Should Be Indicted With Believe's Unsteady Eddie

If a charter school leader were an ax murderer, the State Ed Dept would reauthorize with a slap on the wrist..... channeling my inner Bloomberg (comments on 3020a hearing officers).

What is wrong with this timeline?

• 2004: Mr. Calderon-Melendez founded Williamsburg Charter High School and became the school's CEO.  

• 2005:Mr. Calderon-Melendez failed to file taxes despite earning up to $500,000 a year in salary and consultant fees. After receiving a subpoena, he "produced false New York tax returns" for years 2005 through 2008.

• 2009-10 school year. A state audit found more than $80,000 in overpayments to the network and hundreds of thousands of dollars in mishandled expenses.

• 2010: The state approved Southside and Northside to join the newly created Believe High Schools Network, which Mr. Calderon-Melendez also headed. ---- Wall St. Journal

The state APPROVED TWO MORE SCHOOLS JUST 2 YEARS AGO?

I just read the Wall St. Journal article on the indictment of Eddie Calderon-Melendez, who as Susan Ohanian put it:

This is the thug who sent me threatening e-mails after I asked this question. He was notorious for mistreating teachers .

Here's the New York Times opening paragraph:

When state investigators demanded last year to see personal tax returns filed by Eddie Calderon-Melendez, the founder and chief executive of a troubled network of charter high schools in Brooklyn, he produced them. One problem, according to the investigators, was that those state tax returns were falsified and had never been filed.

And here's the kicker: Almost all of the money to operate the three schools came from public financing.

So let me get this straight since I'm on my holding the press accountable kick. The WSJ -- and the NY Times and Gotham and the NY Post -- all write stories about Eddie but NOT ONE OF THEM THINKS TO RAISE THE ISSUE OF WHY THE STATE ALLOWED HIM TO OPEN 2 MORE SCHOOLS 2 YEARS AGO?

Read the WSJ Article in full.

And check out a load of comments (where we have fun with our fave ed deformer Ken Hirsh) at Gotham Schools. Investigation into charter school CEO ends with an indictment.

Here is an email from a teacher at Believe after I broke the $100 a head story that Jenny Medina at the NY Times picked up on (the photo was sent to me anon from someone in the school.)

I am a current teacher at a Believe school

Dear Ms. Ohanian,

Thank you for posting the story "Students at $100 a Head?" from the New York Times blog. I saw your note that the CEO of the school wrote threatening emails after you posted the story.

I am a current teacher at a Believe school, and a commenter on Ms. Medina's blog. I implore you to publish Melendez's comments, or to comment on Ms. Medina's blog. It may seem small or irrelevant to spend more time thinking about this single charter school, but I assure you that it matters to me, my fellow teachers, and most of all, to our students, that Melendez's misdeeds do not continue to go unnoticed.

Sincerely,

Louise (not my real name)

See all comments posted at the CityRoom blog

One of the funny comments at the NY Times Cityroom Blog

What can I say about Williamsburg Charter High School that hasn’t already been said about Iraq?

It has been named the “Believe” Network. Who came up with this name? Belief in what? By whom? At best it is an arbitrary title rooted in the presumption that the students are inherently unable to perform. As a result, success is dependent on faith. This is yet another example of framing the problem as a deficiency in these poor black and brown kids and not the irresponsible adults entrusted with their development (achievement gap, anyone? How about addressing the administration gap?).

The school mascot is the Wolverines. Why? No one knows. No one cares. There aren’t even any wolverines in Brooklyn. The closest wolverine is in Canada. How about a relevant mascot? Let’s go Williamsburg Animal Shaped Rubberbands!

Ultimate charity fund-raising event: A roast of Eddie Calderon-Melendez. Charge $50 a plate and invite current and former employees (mostly former). We’ll make enough to cure cancer.

Williamsburg Charter High School has been unfairly compared to the mob in these comments. The mob has consistent leadership.

Believe Network Definitions:

Irony: The network offices have glass walls yet are the least transparent part of the organization.

Sadism: the tendency to derive pleasure from inflicting pain, suffering, or humiliation on other people’s children (e.g. mismanaging a charter school network).

Masochism: the tendency to derive pleasure from one’s own pain or humiliation (e.g. sending your children to your own mismanaged charter school network).

And how can I leave you without a pic of State Bd of Regent Head Merryl Tisch, my favorite candidate for being indicted one day.

Fred Smith Requests Your Help

For those of you who are not aware, Fred Smith has been working with us for years to expose the underbelly of high stakes testing.

Hi, Norm:

I put together a teacher survey about the ELA and Math testing program and advertised it in NY's union papers. One ad came out on April 5th in the UFT paper. It will appear again in both the NYSUT and UFT papers on the 19th. The classified ad was placed in the MISCELLANEOUS category.

Can you share this with your readers?

Fred Smith

As a retired NYC BOE test researcher, I stand ready to receive responses from the field, analyze and report on them. I welcome your feedback and support. I'd like to see the survey get into wide circulation by making teachers aware of it and inviting their participation.

The New York State ELA and Math tests are being given over the next two weeks. Your feedback about the testing program is important. Here is the link to a survey, intended for teachers in grades 3 to 8, asking how you see the program. (For your information, the survey is also being advertised in the UFT and NYSUT newspapers.) It should take 5 minutes to complete--but a little more time if you want to provide comments. Please invite your colleagues to respond as well. Thank you.

Please take a look at the survey: www.surveymonkey.com/s/TeachersSay

Thank you.

Also from Fred to the Change the Stakes Listserve - see blog here: http://changethestakes.wordpress.com/

Folks, I'm calling on the teachers in this group to do me a favor.

On Tuesday, when the ELA is given (Book 1), please note the total number of items there are in the test booklet and how many reading passages there are. There is nothing wrong in verifying this information.

I'd like that basic information for each grade level (from grade 3 to grade 8).  I think our group has that range covered.

Note: Book 1 is the only part of the ELA that will contain embedded field test items. The facts I'm requesting will help me figure out how many of the multiple-choice items that appear on the test will actually count in the scoring.

Thank you.

A Nine Year Old Unleashes His Imagination

Check out this wonderful little film -- Caine's Arcade. Of course it is summer vacation in his dad's auto shop, not school where "real" learning takes place. But it could be if educators had the imagination Caine has. I always have believed kids can do amazing things when their imaginations are unleashed. Early in my career I actually tried to set up my classroom in a way to unleash their imaginations but a combination of factors -- including my lack of skills in how to do this the right way -- led me to abandon the idea. But imagine a classroom full of cardboard and tools to cut them ---oops, we'd all be arrested on weapons charges. And besides, there's a high stakes test to take so who has time for this?




Thanks to Alexandra Miletta for the link.

I had the opportunity last week to discuss my failed attempt with one of my heroes, Debbie Meier. Here is the short interview I did with her where she shares her views on how kids learn. (The discussion on open classroom we had was unfortunately not taped.) And look for the wonderful interview I did one on one with Diane Ravitch a few days later which I will post later. Imagine -- Meier and Ravitch. What a treat.

Steve Brill Headlines Ed Writer Conf - Who's Next - Jayson Blair?

Education Writer’s Association annual meeting May 17-19: keynote speakers this year are Steve Brill, who wrote the worst book ever on ed reform, with factual misstatements on nearly every page, and Colorado Sen. Bennet, DFER’s favorite Senator. Wonder how much the Gates Foundation or Walmart is paying for this one. ----- Leonie Haimson

*  A fast-paced forum for high-octane speakers to explore all aspects of the push to reform the teaching profession --- EWA program

(Try to find any real teachers engaging in this discussion. Guess you can't be a teacher and high-octane.)

Jayson Blair: Next EWA Keynoter?

In chapter one  the author [Brill] pulls the first and worst of a number of journalistic stunts that call  his credibility into very serious question.  In fact, it should expose Brill as an outright fraud. On page 17, Brill takes a page out of the Jayson Blair/ Stephen Glass School of Fictitious Journalism and describes the horrendous performance  of  a public school teacher who doesn’t exist. Or, if the ”teacher” does exist, he is completely unknown and unrecognizable to any of the people who ostensibly work with him.  I know.  I am one of those people.  What makes the matter that much  more egregious is the fact that the non existent teacher is the only description of  a public  school teacher at work in the 400 plus pages of Brill’s  tome.  Such, I believe, is not a  coincidence. ---Patrick Walsh, Chapter Leader, PS 149M

I've heard for years from ed reporters I know about the EWA meetings. So many of them go to these meetings. So how are we to judge the organization so many of them belong to that would make Steve Brill, one of the most biased ed deformers, one of their keynote speakers and DFER fave Michael Bennet their other keynoter? Unfair and biased.

Will any reporters publicly raise objections? Or is that too dangerous for their careers?

I admit it. I am on a personal vendetta against the press since I started getting reports of reporters and photographers making surprise visits to teachers' homes after the publication of the Teacher Data Reports.

Then came the Chaz incident last week. People are telling me this or that reporter is really OK. I don't really care. Their names are on the articles. No matter what the editor did to their story they must bear some accountability. [

I've been using this phrase recently:  The single most important factor in a successful democratic society is the quality/effectiveness of the reporters. Well, that's as dumb as saying the same about teachers. But what reporters are questioning the very concept. Isn't it time for Reporter Data Reports giving each reporter a numerical score based on the accuracy and fairness of their stories? Points off for questions not raised. (Like why the DOE would spend a quarter million to persecute Chaz for an innocuous statement? Or why Believe charter authorizers are not being indicted along with Eddie Calderon for running up $5 million in debt for his charter despite warnings over the last half dozen years?)

Read:  Gary Rubinstein Rolls Steve Brill - a devastating review of Class Warfare

Check the post from Patrick Walsh's blog (excerpts below) on the open lies Brill told in his book. Patrick is the chapter leader at a Harlem co-located school with an Eva Moskowitz HSA and demonstrates how Brill just made up a lazy teacher for his "non"-fiction book.

Reporters have been banned for doing what Brill did. What does it say when their professional organization honors a guy like Brill? Bring in Jayson Blair?

Message From EWA's Executive Director

Philadelphia is the place to be May 17-19, when EWA gathers an outstanding line-up of journalists and education experts for "Learning from Leaders: What Works for Stories and Schools." http://www.ewa.org/site/R?i=VHmGf0fT0F8SUbptaAIwLg

The early bird deadline has been extended to April 20, so register here today!
http://www.ewa.org/site/R?i=eRs1wcf3YIvfg4cCSk8NNw

The conference will offer three jam-packed days of discussions and hands-on training covering the most pressing topics in education journalism today. Some highlights:

*  Top speakers including Steve Brill and U.S. Senator Michael Bennet, as well as leading
researchers and educators
*  Site visits to noteworthy Philadelphia-area schools
*  Debates on topics such as affirmative action, college costs, common standards, school choice and online learning
*  A fast-paced forum for high-octane speakers to explore all aspects of the push to reform the teaching profession
*  Practical sessions on mining data, observing classrooms, producing enterprise stories on
the fly and new-generation tech tools for journalists
*  Presentation of the prestigious 2011 National Awards for Education Reporting, where the winner of Fred M. Hechinger Grand Prize for Distinguished Education Reporting also will be announced

Patrick Walsh: Raginghorseblog

Reflections on and Rebuttals of Class Warfare (Or Steven Brill has a Serious Credibility Problem)

Excerpt:

For Harlem Success Academy Brill writes almost worshipfully of one Jessica Reid, an admirable, extremely dedicated young woman who Brill describes as teaching her students something called “juicy words “ and also, disturbingly, praising a student for making “total eye contact with the teacher throughout the lesson,”  as if the poor kid was being hypnotized.    As in many instances of pointing out differences between  a public school teacher and a charter school teacher, Brill seems totally unaware that a NYC public school teacher could be reprimanded and even cited for corporal punishment by the Department of  Education for demanding a student    maintain “total eye contact “ with a teacher — as well they might be.  As a parent I’d raise  the roof   if  a teacher  demanded such behavior from my child.

On Reid, Brill spends many, many words – some of them so sexist and absurdly inappropriate to the subject matter as to be beyond parody. Indeed, he writes a kind of People Magazine style mini bio of Reid built largely of stuff like this:  “Standing in front of her new class in black stiletto heels, a black and pink crinoline dress, and a black and gold buttoned jacket not quite covering five different bracelets Reid called on them (students) one by one, to line up at the door.”  As a product of Wendy Kopps’ deeply problematic absurdly praised  Teach For America program, Reid, who “has her mother’s Swedish face, blue eyes and blond hair”, serves as Brill’s script perfect model of corporate reform’s solution to the problem of poor urban schools: the creation of   an ephemeral army of eternally young   Ivy league educated white people blessing  the classrooms of the ghetto, inspiring them by what the  brilliant Linda Darling Hammond sardonically called Teach For  America’s “ innate superiority”.

Add On (Mon, Apr. 16, 2012)
Susan Ohanian Comment: 
I detailed my own experience at an annual meeting of the Education Writers Association: The Annual Meeting of Education Reporters, Writers and Editors: Plenty of Wattage but Not Much Illumination

For starters, I recount how I was kicked off the Education Writers Association listserv. They had accepted my membership dues for years but didn't want me offering any criticism of Education Week's Quality Counts hogwash.

I went to their annual meeting in Chicago along with parent education reform resister par excellence Juanita Doyon, aka The Button Queen. I paid for a table in the exhibit area--to show reporters about the grass roots resistance to the party line coming out of the U. S. Department of Education and most media claiming to report on education issues.

Reporters attending the meeting were not one bit interested in the material on my table. But it gets worse: http://susanohanian.org/%3Ca%20href=>

And Susan sent this addendum on Gates buying pieces of the EWA agenda:
Gates Grants
Education Writers Association
Date: July 2009
Purpose: to support media coverage of the education components of American Recovery and Reconstruction Act through the construction and maintenance of the Stimulus Tracker website
Amount: $110,000
Term: 2 years

Education Writers Association
Date: July 2008
Purpose: to enhance media coverage of high school and post-secondary
education by offering seminars and online training for reporters, building
bridges between mainstream and ethnic community media, and supporting
capacity building efforts
Amount: $950,962
Term: 3 years
Topic: Advocacy & Public Policy
Region Served: Global, North America
Program: United States
Grantee Location: Washington, District of Columbia
Grantee Web site: http://www.ewa.org

The Trayvon Trigger and Educational Stop and Frisk: The Wave

Published in The Wave, Friday, April 13, 2012 (www.rockawave.com)

By Norm Scott

It was a late weekday summer night on the sweltering streets of Philadelphia – early summer, around 2004. I was attending an educational technology conference and had touched base with an old acquaintance who had just gotten her Masters from Wharton, one of the top grad schools in the nation. I was escorting her back to her apartment after dinner. She It was her last night in town and she had to be out of the apartment the next day.

I had been told that Wharton is located in an iffy neighborhood but then again people told me all of Philly is in an iffy neighborhood, so my antennae were up. But my friend, in her late-twenties, very blond and very white did not seem concerned. As we turned the corner to her block I noticed a group of black men down at the other end. As we got closer I could see they were drinking beer and seemed to be celebrating something. They appeared to be in their 20’s and my level of concern went up 2 notches. But my friend just kept walking and I followed. As we approached they all broke into smiles, as she went up and hugged them all, congratulating them on having gotten their Wharton Masters or PhD degrees that day. Well, I learned an important lesson about checking my own racial attitudes at the door. Too bad George Zimmerman did not check his own racial attitudes at the door.

While I do think people have to exercise caution in certain situations, there has to be a balance. I had some interesting interactions with black teens in the late 80’s-early 90s when I was hanging out with the Van Arsdale HS basketball team for the four years one of my former 6th grade students was a star on the team. What a mix of kids. The experience was generally so positive and affected my views of black teens.

Many people are having Trayvon Martin moments, some honest attempts to understand the implications of what happened in Florida despite the Rupert Murdoch media (NY Post and FOX) attempts to smear him. Any info coming out of them should be termed as FOX FACTS. In an example of this bias, the NY Post ran a front-page photo of three black lawmakers in Albany who had worn hoodies, depicting them as “race hustlers” despite the fact that there were also white lawmakers who had worn hoodies in support of the Trayvon Martin family. Fair and balanced FOX FACTS.

Though Zimmerman was not officially part of law enforcement, the stop and frisk blitz here in NYC has led to some thoughts on the subject, with a particularly noteworthy NY Times April 10, 2012 column by Michael Powell who points out the growth in S&F from 2002 when police stopped and questioned 97,296 to the 685,724 New Yorkers stopped in 2011, a vast majority black or Latino men, sometimes at gunpoint and with their faces pressed to the pavement with 88 percent of them innocent. Powell points out more New Yorkers were stopped than the entire population of Boston. Some may think the 2% gun recovery makes it all worth it. I don’t agree. If it were young white men being stopped time and again there would be an outcry.

Powell says “the unbridled use of stops leaves a deep bruise of unfairness, particularly around the issue of race.”

He asked eight black male students who attend the Borough of Manhattan Community College how many times they have been stopped. “Cumulatively, they said they had been stopped 92 times. They spoke with surprisingly little rancor. But they wonder at the casual humiliations.

The police stopped Mario Brown, who dreams of a career in theater arts, and forced him to take off his sneakers in the subway. (“It’s kind of ridiculous; I don’t see any Caucasian kids doing this.”) They forced Jamel Gordon-Mayfield, 18, the son of a police detective and a doctor, out of his parents’ S.U.V. one afternoon and demanded he take a Breathalyzer. (He passed.) Then they searched him and the car. Jasheem Smiley, 19, sweet and soft-spoken with a neat goatee, lives in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, with his uncle. Two months ago, he says, a van drove up on the sidewalk and a man jumped out. “I’m a cop!” the man yelled. “Get down on the sidewalk!” Mr. Smiley complied but feared he was being robbed and asked to see a badge. The officer, he said, responded by putting his shoe to his face and pressing it to the pavement. Mr. Smiley’s tone is matter of fact. He speaks mainly of his humiliation at lying on the sidewalk as hipsters gawked. What, I ask, is his aspiration? He smiles, rueful. “I’m a first-year criminal justice major,” he says. “I’d like to be an investigator, but sometimes I wonder about that.”

Do your own poll. Ask 8 white college kids how many times they have been stopped.

Former police captain and Molloy College professor John A. Eterno, whose brother James fought a valiant battle as chapter leader of the soon to be closed Jamaica HS which came under assault by the DOE, “sees a place for stop-and-frisk tactics. Gangbangers dominate the courtyard of public houses? Put them through the wringer. But to apply the tactic so broadly is a disaster in a democratic society,” Eterno says, pointing out that “Crime has dropped 80 percent…. yet there are 700,000 suspects in the streets?” He charged that the police is viewed as “an army of occupation” within some of the very communities they are there to protect.

Throughout the years I taught elementary school, I was not really conscious of what my male students would be going through as they grew into adulthood. As someone who believed in teaching the whole child, I should have been. This failure was starkly brought home to me when I went to see a one man play performed by actor/comedian Ernie Silva, my former 4th grade student (1983). Ernie was one of the really good kids and top students, so in my mind, compared to other students I had who I expected might get into trouble, I didn’t think he would face stop and frisk situations. Ernie would laugh at my naivete.

Ernie’s play, “Heavy Like the Weight of a Flame” depicts his years growing up in the projects in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn and his journey through his young adult years, culminating in a masters degree from USC. In one of the most vivid scenes, Ernie and his friends are coming home from an audition when the scene described by Jasheem Smiley is enacted: a police van pulls up and 5 cops come out with guns drawn. Twelve year old Ernie had just been handed an ice cream cone brought at the bodega and startled, dropped it. He acts out the profound disrespect, verbal abuse and dripping sarcasm pointed at he and his friends. It ends with the cop giving him a littering citation for dropping the cone. Whether it happened exactly that way or is allegorical is beside the point. It demonstrates the state of mind that exists even in our finest black and latino students.

While I don’t have room in this column to expand on the idea, I published an essay on my blog (April 8) titled “Educational Stop and Frisk Infects School”, where the author extended the idea of S and F into the corporate school culture established by Bloomberg. Here are just a few points made:

Corporatism is the new racism. The common theme among the corporatists is that minority communities have nothing to offer, should have no voice in their educations and need direction from outsiders in order to live properly. This fact is proven every day in all of New York City’s schools. The battle against corporate school reform does not stop at standardized testing and school closings. It must also include the fight against a top-down, dictatorial manner of running each school building.

Norm blogs at: http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com