PS 261 UNITE Sponsors Forum Weds on HST, Brian Jones/Lisa Donlan comments on Literature vs. Standardized Tests and Pearson Eats GED

With all the debate on testing, where is the UFT?

I'm packing a lot into this post. Sorry I'm going to miss this forum.

April, 2012

PS 261 is loaded with activists like Brian Jones, Jamie Fidler and Melissa Torres. And they rave about the principal Zipporah Mills. You know it's funny how many principals are turning up that people enjoy working for. But then again there is this MUST READ Assailed Teacher post:  A Tale of Two School Districts.

 
*PS261 UNITE is an independent group of teachers, parents, and community members advocating for our students, our community, and the right to free, quality public education.

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Brian Jones makes a great point about how good lit cannot really be tested effectively on a high stakes test.

I think it's [the pineapple story] a quirky story -- but really no stranger or mysterious than many other classic stories for children. This occurred to me as I was reading Harold and the Purple Crayon to my daughter this morning!

The problem is that when a story has any element that is not perfectly clear (which, in my view, makes it actually a more interesting story) then it's hardly fair to test kids on it and demand that there be a single right answer to questions about its meaning.

On the other hand, if you serve up a story that DOES have a bunch of "right" answers that are clear and straightforward, then you're not really dealing with literature that anyone would really cherish, savor, enjoy, etc. The delicious thought process that *can* occur between reader and text is lost, and is turned into a "skill" exercise.

Hence the problem with testing is even deeper -- it's a reductive approach to literacy that tries to take something inherently complex and make it simple. In doing so, most of what makes good literature and real reading worthwhile is lost. 

That's why the Pinneapple and the Hare may actually be a great (or just, funny) story, and thus HORRIBLE as a test passage.

Brian Jones

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The issue is the use (misuse) of the passage in the context of the test. Not a commentary on the text as a text/story/piece of literature or in any way a left handed defense of the "good" test questions that are not ambiguous.

I included some comments from students on the absurdity of testing.

These tests are so stupid. they do not test any knowledge. they will never count for anything. no one, in lets say, 20 years, is going to ask you how you did on your 7th or 8th grade standardized tests. no one! and that is why the amount of pressure that students are put under to do well on these tests is so silly and horrible! in the end, this will never count! for anything! it won't matter!

The point of school is to learn, and not to spend half the year on prepping for a silly state test that will not be of any use in the future. 

I don't even think kids that are trying to get into good colleges go through this amount of stress. AND IT MOST DEFINITELY SHOULD NOT BE THIS WAY!!! 

Lisa Donlan

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There is a GREAT NY times piece about just what Brian was talking about--written by a teacher. Check it out:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/opinion/sunday/taking-emotions-out-of-our-schools.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

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From Mike Klonsky:
Daniel Pinkwater

"Who knew my book would be used for world’s dumbest test question?" -- Daily News

Deborah Meier

"In the world of testing, it does not really matter whether an answer is right or wrong; the 'right' answer is the one that field testing has shown to be the consensus answer of the 'smart' kids. It’s a psychometric concept.” -- When Pineapple Races Hare, Students Lose

Valerie Strauss

"The whole push for test-based school reform makes about as much sense as a talking pineapple." -- The Answer Sheet

ETS spokesman Tom Ewing

“We don’t want students to come out of a test and perhaps memorize questions or share or discuss questions with students who may not have tested yet,” said Tom Ewing, spokesman for ETS, which administers the SAT for the College Board. -- Miami Herald

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Leonie Haimson on Pearson takeover of GED

Pearson just acquired the contract to take over developing and giving the GED exams across the entire nation, to be taken on computer and supposedly aligned with the Common Core; it is also  “planning a substantial cost increase” that will double the cost of the exam which  may force states to restrict the no. of students that are able to them.  See article in Albany paper below.

Last year, the American Council on Education, which is providing the test through next year, and Pearson Vue Testing, a for-profit company, announced they would create a new, more rigorous GED, which would be administered and provided by a new company, GED Testing Service LLC. The new computer-based test is to be aligned with national common core standards and would replace the current exam in January 2014.

See also press release below, which says Pearson will be selling “associated online courses to help prepare students for GED” – another huge source of potential profit and adds:  

The new GED Testing Service will build on its past experience in adult and continuing education by harnessing the considerable resources of Pearson, the world's largest education and testing company, with the nearly 70-year history of ACE to expand access to the GED Test, ensure its quality and integrity…”

Given  #pineapplegate that may  be a hard line to sell.

State may bypass GED

Costs, less control over school equivalency exam have state eyeing change

Rally against the APPR at the NYSUT Representative Assembly

It's junket time for at least 800 Unity Caucus minions who will be getting two days off later this week to head up to Buffalo for the NYSUT convention. Our "elected reps" will be told to ignore this event. Baaaaaaaaaaa. Really, aren't they really more spineless than PEP members?

This is led by the heroic Lancaster County Teachers Association (a NYSUT local upstate). Please take a second to sign their petition against the evaluation deal. 

I'm going to follow this up with some great videos of the Teacher Eval event last week.

What: Rally against APPR @ NYSUT Representative Assembly ConferenceWhere: Buffalo Convention Center 153 Franklin Street Buffalo NY 14202
When: Thursday, April 26th
Details: arrive at the convention center, 153 Franklin Street Buffalo, NY 14202where we will stand outside in solidarity against the new APPR regulations. We will be at the Franklin Street entrance from 5:00 pm and 6:00 pm. 

The purpose of this rally is to bring awareness for the need to amend the APPR.  We are not protesting NYSUT and do not wish to cause division, but instead want to show that we cannot accept this terrible plan.

Why:

1. A teacher can earn a perfect score on each of the elements in the New York State Teaching Standards and end up on a Teacher Improvement Plan if the students do not perform well on the tests.
2. Test scores and the teacher APPR scores will be reported to the public via the local and state news outlets.
3. Teachers who do well on test scores but don't choose to do anything innovative will achieve a satisfactory score and will avoid a Teacher Improvement Plan. This discourages doing anything “outside of the box” and encourages “drilling for the test”. Why teach any critical thinking when the APPR is mostly weighted on the test scores?
4. After the local media reports teachers’ APPR scores, Parents will begin demanding that their children be placed with certain teachers.
5. Teachers should no longer collaborate and share any ideas because you are now competing with your colleagues to ensure that parents request you to teach their children.
6. Students that need the best teachers due to various circumstances will no longer be sought out, but rather avoided.

Cheat to Beat the Tests: We Need an EduLeaks

I have but one test to give for my country.

Teacher Nathan Hale punished for revealing Pearson test passages

Nathan Hale was a teacher.
Then there is this recent historical discovery from Patrick Henry: Give me liberty from testing or give me death. 

Thousands of people in New York have access to these tests. It would only take a few of them to get them before the public.  ----NYC Parent activist

There was a Spartacus, known as Stanley Kaplan who outsmarted the College Entrance Examination Board fifty years ago when ETS was the reigning test master. He knew that ETS was embedding items within its tests and trying them out for purposes of developing subsequent examinations. He sent spies to take the high-stakes exams and report back to him what they saw. He debriefed others who had taken the exams. Armed with the knowledge he compiled, Kaplan's shrewdness paid off. He ran successful coaching courses boosting the SAT scores of those who took them. ----Fred Smith

If they're going to come after you because of your TDA, cheat, cheat, cheat.  ----Retired NYC teacher/blogger/videographer/pain in the ass

See Ed Notes previous post earlier today:

Pineapplegate, or The Pineapple That Ate Pearson

With Diane Ravitch's call for tests to be made public -- don't parents have as much right to know what kinds of tests their kids are being subjected to as to know their teacher data reports? Ho, ho, ho. I can't stop laughing at this idea. Watch the Joel Kleins and Michael Bloombergs and all the ed deform hacks rush to protect the Pearson monopoly when it comes to releasing this information. But do we really need to demand this when there is distributed power in the hands of teachers all over the nation?

Oh, we know what will happen if any teachers get caught sneaking a reading passage of a math problem out. Or worse, taking a photo of a test with their cell phone (I saw one such pic on a teacher's phone yesterday and told her to destroy her phone as I'm sure Bill Gates has given money to track every move a teacher makes). They will be put in solitary with Bradley Manning, charged with treason and threatened with the death penalty.

We really need an edu-leaks (as opposed to Normi-leaks which involved Depends). Someone contact Julian Assange to help us.

This just came in: 

In the spirit of fighting back, here are two modest proposals:

Note: The Math test (Book 1 and Book 2) is coming up this week and these items are easier to remember than the ELA items. 

#1-  From Susan Ohanian Speaks: Testing: How to Stop the Reign 

NOTE: 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.

A strategy for making this greedy scheme backfire.

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.

Teachers, you are too good to revolt against the Caesars who rule education's holy empire through fear and the test master's cruel lash. Too patient awaiting leaders who will finally mass your mighty numbers in unified rebellion. Too battered to engage in acts of resistance. And far too decent to do this:

This week, when forced to participate in Albany's annual rites of examination, subjecting 1.2 million children to ever worsening trials, please closely reflect upon the tests that you are all suffering.

Many of the passages you see and the questions that follow will reappear next spring when the ordeal is repeated. Many of the same math riddles your students must answer will also return in MMXIII. It was so decreed by the emperor's closest advisors. Take heed honorable teachers.

Both you and your young charges in grades three through eight will be judged by how well they perform at this year's testing games and the next and the next. As proctors throughout the provinces, you will have time to minister the 90-minute examinations, study them and remember their contents.

Your legions in those grades are 45,000 strong. Properly deployed you can disarm the test master and destroy his vile instruments. For he has left himself vulnerable at the very moment he expects to lead you and your lambs to slaughter. Arrogant miscalculation has exposed him to defeat at his own hands.

The battle plan is simple. Its successful execution depends on discipline in the ranks. This year four forms of the exams are being given, enabling the master to try out and hone the blades he will use at next year's sacrificial altar. He likes to call them items that he is field testing. You know better. They are the knives and swords that will be used against you in the coming years.

Don't worry that you don't know which items on each form are being field tested. Know that each form will contain 15 to 25 try-out items per grade. The sharper ones will be included on next spring's exams when they will count.

Know that there are 7,500 of you at each grade level, to whom the master is exposing the material. Little does he expect you to attack and overwhelm it. He assumes you are too distracted, disorganized and beaten down by testing to fight back. But he has tipped his hand and given you the opportunity to preview next year’s tests.

Mark every word on this year's examinations. Rely upon your eyes and collective memories to absorb each passage, question and choice set before your flock this week. Use the same weapons next week to penetrate the math material.

After the smoke clears, talk to your comrades and share the information you took away from the exams. Nowadays, there are so many ways to network. Each one of you in the state has a piece of the story. Put the pieces together and you can build the most efficient test preparation strategy ever devised. When you teach-to-the-test next year, you literally will be teaching to the test.

Does this seem far-fetched? There was a Spartacus, known as Stanley Kaplan who outsmarted the College Entrance Examination Board fifty years ago when ETS was the reigning test master. He knew that ETS was embedding items within its tests and trying them out for purposes of developing subsequent examinations.

He sent spies to take the high-stakes exams and report back to him what they saw. He debriefed others who had taken the exams. Armed with the knowledge he compiled, Kaplan's shrewdness paid off. He ran successful coaching courses boosting the SAT scores of those who took them.

The thought alone that test-abused teachers are ready to strike back would make the evil testing empire shake with rage and threaten retribution—and sweat nervously as the backlash gains strength enough to topple its dominion. May the empire’s fall be near.

#2 - How fitting would it be if someone figured out a way to break Pearson's item bank—perhaps, a student grapevine —to compile previously used items, create a national item clearinghouse and put together an app that lets kids review items before being tested by them.  I think smart high school kids would relish the fight--obtain information from test-tortured students across the country and spread the word to the masses.  Robin Hood meet Wikileaks. 

Aloha - Want to Go to a Screening of GEM Film?

Following up on our Pineapple gate post (Pineapplegate, or The Pineapple That Ate Pearson) comes this delicious story from the land of pineapples where our film will be shown, one screening I would love to attend. In fact I may just go to buy a crate of pineapples to mail to Pearson -- COD which they can afford out of that $32 million NY State paid for the tests. (I scheduled this to post while I'm in a hot yoga class, thirsty and starving and thinking of pineapples and Hawaii.)

Aloha...Warm greetings from hawai`i!  Thanks again so much for sending me a copy of 'the inconvenient truth about waiting for superman'! i'm fired up to show it to my fellow teachers & showing it next week.  letting you know as requested, and if possible, if you could list it on your website please?  here is some info i sent sent out on email- feel free to copy/paste the info you need for a web posting (again, if possible).

You have my gratitude and solidarity,
Pete Doktor
Farrington high school/YHCR chapter rep


Youth, Human &  Civil Rights Committee- HSTA HONOLULU CHAPTER PRESENTS:
"Movie Night" for Teachers&  Community-at-Large featuring:

"THE INCONVENIENT TRUTH BEHIND WAITING FOR SUPERMAN"

HSTA Hawaii State Teachers Association

1200 Ala Kapuna St. Honolulu Hawaii 96819

April 26, 2012

4:30~6 pm

FREE

Open to public; Feel free to bring ohana, colleagues, friends, etc.

Many of you may have seen the film "Waiting for Superman," which was really a propaganda film for corporate private charter schools (as opposed to public charter schools here; quite different!) with a not so hidden agenda to reduce school problems to teacher unions, in the guise of school reform.  Its a front for an older, more insidious ideology/movement to privatize public education, reducing universal education to an "auction model" for quality education access and profiteering.

In response to this larger assault on public education, New York City teachers created this grassroots film exposing this unspoken political-economic agendas...which are driving the current divide-and-conquer crusade around "school reform."  The film is only an hour, but will expose many challenges to the cause of public education and the teaching profession completely ignored by mainstream institutions including government (both parties) and the media; time has been allotted for those who may want to discuss (or decompress) after
the film.

Come see the tsunami that is headed towards Hawai`i from the East Coast to know what's coming, and get a better understanding of the undercurrent in places like Wisconsin.  Its a LOT more than differences on evaluations or tenure...its also a redefining and reducing education to the level of Wall Street/test score numbers, or as Boards of Education nationwide are clarifying their vision of "education:" 'to produce competitors in a global marketplace.'  If you believe education has more noble purposes, such as uplifting human intelligence& potential to advance the quality of life, and transform society to more just, sustainable, life-enhancing communities, you won't want to miss  this documentary.

For more information, trailers, resources, etc. see:
http://www.waitingforsupermantruth.org/
or, Pete_Doktor@notes.k12.hi.us   

Pineapplegate, or The Pineapple That Ate Pearson

Below the Juanita Doyan created button list from Susan Ohanian's site (http://susanohanian.org/buttons.php) is just some of the commentary on this story so far. We used Juanita's Choose the best answer: a)test b) teach button in our film. I used to distribute these buttons at UFT Delegate Assemblies. To Unity Caucus deaf ears of course.

Since "Pineapplegate" erupted not because the NYSED or Pearson voluntarily made public an erroneous test item, but that item became widely known through sheer happenstance (called the internet), the public can have no confidence in the quality of the rest of the ELA exam.

Therefore it should be published in its entirety so the public can make the determination whether these materials are appropriate to form the basis for evaluating children, teachers, and schools.

I see no reason to wait for the SED to do so voluntarily, since Commissioner King's statement about the Hare and the Pineapple already vacates any remaining credibility they have on this issue.

Thousands of people in New York have access to these tests. It would only take a few of them to get them before the public.

As parents whose children are boycotting the state tests, my wife and I in any case reject on principle the idea that any exercise that takes place in our son's elementary-school classroom should be unavailable for our inspection.

Where's Wikkileaks when you need them?

Jeff Nichols

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NY State Legislature should include state tests in "truth-in-testing law" that requires disclosure of all test items and answers after the test.

Purpose of law was to be sure questions and answers were reasonable.

Why exclude state tests?

Following on Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Cuomo's strong belief in Public's Right to Know about teacher ratings, public has a right to know about the tests that are so consequential for students and teachers.

The public has a right to know.

Release the tests.

Diane Ravitch

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That's great! Assuming this turkey (I mean pineapple) of an item was a field test item:

a) the kids wasted time and effort on a worthless item.
b) the publisher, Pearson, should not have submitted it for try-out, because it made no sense on its face.
c) the publisher should have rejected the item based on data in its items bank and the substantive criticism the item received from students and parents who saw it.
d) Pearson should give SED a refund for the cost of a clunker it probably would have rejected any way.
e) the owl

By the way, the time it took to administer the no-count pineapple (a reading passage followed by two multiple-choice items with a hard-to-defend best answer) takes away time and focus from kids that should not be squandered in taking the 90-minute Book 1.

Fred Smith

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From Leonie

Just google Pineapple and Hare on google news to see the explosion of news around this issue today.

What’s esp. infuriating is that it was just sheer luck that I found out about this passage and set of questions, since NYS will no longer release any of the tests that will determine the futures of our kids, our teachers and schools.

And yet there were many other confusing and ambiguous and tricky passages on the ELA – see my blog about this, that has gotten 29 comments in the past day.

http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2012/04/nys-educators-agree-flawed-confusing.html

For example, a reading passage on the 43rd grade test was called “Spring Peepers” and the question was, what season is this passage about, and the answer is “Summer”!!! This is called a distractor, as Fred surely knows. Put in as many tricks as possible to make sure kids get the answers wrong.

The Pineapple story along with its absurd questions had been complained about for at least 7 YEARS by students and teachers in states all over the country, as being ridiculous and stressful and extremely confusing, and NO ONE told Pearson to stop including it in the state’s high-stakes standardized tests until now. I guess it won’t be used again. One tiny step forward for rationality.

Below is the Commissioner’s statement. Of course, the Common Core will cure all. (And King blames the teachers who supposedly reviewed the test -- yes, teachers paid by whom?).

Commissioner King Statement on The Hare and the Pineapple - http://goo.gl/HxOpw

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NY Times story
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Susan Ohanian on vomiting on tests:

The first time I heard of what to do with vomited-on tests was  in  Sacramento Bee interview with Harcourt official,
Interview
Sacramento Bee. April 4, 2000
Bob Rayborn, Harcourt Educational Measurement
"I've seen where kids have thrown up on the test. Kids do get sick at school. In those instances, teachers might have thrown the test away. The appropriate way to deal with that would be to put [the test] in a plastic bag. And send it back to Harcourt."

March 14, 2002, accompanying this news item: "Test-related jitters, especially among young students, are so common that the Stanford-9 exam comes with instructions on what to do with a test booklet in case a student vomits on it."
 Test-related jitters strike some pupils -- and parents
By Sandy Louey and Erika Chavez
Sacramento Bee

The urls to articles are dead.

My website, which started with passage of NCLB, has recorded 10 years of these assaults    (resulting in involvement with police, lawyers, courts--but that's another story).

My original intent was "keep a record" of what's happening. Now I have doubts about this. Today we wring our hands over an assault on children and then tomorrow we will wring our hands over a new assault. And so on. I'm beginning to wonder if I'm contributing to the trivialization of this topic. We need ACTION, not more hand-wringing. I've tried every avenue I can think of. So far the big dead ends are unions,  professional organizations, and the media. They have no shame.

That said, I just had op-eds in newspapers across VT, protesting our progressive Democrat's power grab for education. I've heard from a lot of citizens but the politicos (Democrats) went ahead and gave the governor what he wanted.  When I told my husband about the vote,  he said, "People get what they deserve."  I think he's right. If we sit here and take it . . .

Susan O.

Susan Ohanian Takes on Common Core - Show Me the Money, Honey

Blog of the day from an elementary school teacher:

The Fruitcake and the Big Banana – a tale inspired by a pineapple

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Before I get to common core (and you might want to check out Miss Eyre at NYC Educator on this topic -Common Core, Uncommon Assumptions) here is some background.

I had always had issues with the testing process but went along, even taking the scores seriously. In 1979 my new principal turned up the heat and made them into somewhat of a high stakes game. Teachers would be publicly praised and shamed based on the results. She was ambitious and wanted to use her scores as a springboard to higher things. But she never made the cut.

Then around 2001 I connected up with George Schmidt's work in Chicago -  "Substance" which featured the work of Susan Ohanian who went after the high stakes testing game with a vengeance. George had been fired for printing some dumb local Chicago test in full. The summer (2002) I retired George came for a visit and I invited a group of people I had met through my work at the delegate assembly. I had the idea of doing a Substance like newspaper that was widely distributed instead of the monthly newsletter I had been distributing at the Delegate Assembly since 1997. In the fall of 2002 I started putting out Education Notes as a 16 page tabloid and began distributing 20-25000 copies to the schools.

John Lawhead, then at soon to be closed Bushwick HS found a copy in his mailbox and contacted me. He wrote a great piece on standardized testing for the next edition of Ed Notes. At that point NCLB was a topic of conversation, with the UFT/AFT supporting it, and Ed Notes took a stand against, thanks to John and George and Susan. John told me about a conference of activists opposing NCLB (and did not see her again until this past summer at SOS in Washington) and we went. I discovered John's immense knowledge base on just about anything but he really had the high stakes testing game nailed and has had a lot of influence over my thinking. (The idea of founding ICE was hatched by us and Sean Ahern and later on John, Angel Gonzalez and myself came up with the idea for GEM.)

Of course, Susan was on to the common core standards scam right away. Common core means more tests. In today's update she has a bunch of goodies for all of us. (And check out that CD of music on NCLB.)

Ohanian on Common Core

And now, in separate entrepreneurial ventures, the former president of McGraw-Hill enterprises and Canter associates of assertive discipline infamy and folks at Sacramento State University bring Common Core courses to the land. See two press releases.

In case you haven't noticed, that's what Common Core is about: $$$ in the pockets of curriculum enhances and testmakers. Yesterday I received two slick brochures from NCTE about the things they're selling in the name of 'Supporting Students in a Time of Core Standards' and one from Heinemann titled 'Meaningful teaching for Common Core reading.' It actually contains scripts, telling teacher what to say.  I have been a member of NCTE for decades. Heinemann has published 7 of my books. I feel ashamed of the associations.

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E2020 Inc. Releases Suite of Common Core Courses Innovative Curriculum to Better Prepare America's Students for College, Careers
Press Release
PR Newsire
2012-04-19
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=137

Former CEO of McGraw-Hill and Kaplan moves on to where the money is: Common Core delivery system.

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New Canter Courses Help Educators Meet Common Core State Standards
Press Release
Marketwire
2012-04-20
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=136

Look at who is associated with this Common Core offering.

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CRLP Signature Programs and Common Core State Standards
web announcement
Sacramento State
2012-04-20
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=135

I see something like this and I figure universities deserve every bad 'government accountability' thing that is thrown their way.

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Common Core, What Is It Good For?
Alan Singer
Huffington Post
2012-04-19
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=134

 New York State Council for the Social Studies condemn Common Core but are they doing it for the right reason?

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Separate Reading Exams Await Elementary Teachers
Stephen Sawchuk
Education Week
2012-04-18
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=133

As Stephen Krashen points out, this looks like a  deliberate attempt to rewrite the history of literacy research. And to make sure teachers are under the Standardisto thumb.

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Maybe Some Children's Authors Need a Ferocious Kick on Both Shins
Susan Ohanian

2012-03-10
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=116

As the tests for the Common Core State [sic] Standards approach, we need to revisit the list of authors willing to sell their work for student interrogation.

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Talking pineapple question on state exam stumps ... everyone!   Students, teachers, principals -- no one has any idea what the deal is
 Ben Chapman AND Rachel Monahan
New York Daily News
2012-04-19
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1281

So is why did Pearson test writers change Daniel Pinkwater's eggplant into a talking pineapple? And don't miss a first grade teacher's take on the incident, The Fruitcake and the Big Banana -- a tale inspired by a pineapple.

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Special Ed Child Forced to Take Test, Mom Threatened by School Officials in Oceanside, NY
Jim Horn and Parent
Schools Matter and United Opt Out National
2012-04-18
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1280

Parents now have a place to make threats from administrators public.

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Now Hear This: Letter to Arne Duncan: Two Teachers & a Microphone
Two Teachers and a Microphone
YouTube
2012-04-20
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1279

Must see/hear.

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Mr. Fitz

2012-04-18
http://susanohanian.org/nclb_cartoon_fetch.php?id=0

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

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Order the CD of the resistance:
"No Child Left Behind? Bring Back the Joy."
To order online (and hear samples from the songs)
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/dhbdrake4
Other orders: Send $15 to
Susan Ohanian
P. O. Box 26
Charlotte, VT 05445

Testing, Teachers and the UFT: An Historical View

"'They’re saying Mr. Avella made us do this,' said Johnny Cruz, 15, another boycott leader. 'They don’t think we have brains of our own, like we're robots. We students wanted to make this statement. The school is oppressing us too much with all these tests.'

"The afternoon of the protest, the principal ordered Avella out of the classroom, reassigned him to an empty room in the school and ordered him to have no further contact with students.

"A few days later, in a reprimand letter, Lopez accused Avella of initiating the boycott and taking 'actions [that] caused a riot at the school.'

"Avella denied that he urged the students to boycott tests. Yes, he holds liberal views and is critical of the school system’s increased emphasis on standardized tests, Avella said, but the students decided to organize the protest after weeks of complaining about all the diagnostic tests the school was making them take.

"'My students know they are welcome in my class to have open discussions,' Avella said. 'I teach them critical thinking.'  --- June 2008

The parents on various listserves have been asking about teachers boycotting the tests and we all know that is death to a career. But if one were leaving anyway, it might be an interesting way to go out.

In May 2008, a non-tenured teacher went out just that way. First let me say these weren't the regular tests but some other kind of standardized test -- maybe a field test like they will be giving this June. And he didn't boycott the tests but let his kids openly discuss their disgust at having to sit through more tests that wouldn't count for anything. A bunch of kids emerged as leaders and led a student boycott of these tests in all 4 of the teacher's 8th grade classes. They just left the entire test booklet blank.

The teacher was rubber roomed and vilified in the school, IS 318 BRONX (not the same IS 318 Brooklyn, the chess championship school). (I seem to remember the principal around the same time also drove out the dedicated robotics coach who quit the NYC school system.)

It became a big story at the time and of course the UFT ran the other way. Thanks to Susan Ohanian for reminding me of the teacher's name and when this took place -- 4 years ago before GEM even existed.

Some of us in ICE were working with the Justice Not Just Tests committee of NYCORE and we got involved in this story, even petitioning Randi and Leo. I quickly compiled a bunch of stuff on the story.

Some hits from Susan's site on the story:

1. Bronx 8th-graders boycott practice exam but teacher may get ax (Yahoo, Good News!
2. Individual Acts of Resistance (Yahoo, Good News! )
3. Individual Acts of Resistance (Resisters' Letters, 2008-05-22)
4. Individual Acts of Resistance (Resisters' Letters, 2008-05-23)
5. Rouge Forum Update (Outrage of the Day, 2008-05-28)
6. Ask Chancellor Klein a Question and You'll Hear from the Strategic Response Group (Outrage of the Day, 2008-06-12)
7. Leave No Corporate CEO Behind (Outrage of the Day, 2008-10-02)
8. Living for Change: Teens Re-Invent Education (NCLB Atrocities, 2008-06-01)

 And here are a bunch of stories for your enjoyment in some rough chronological order

Ed Notes: May 27, 2008

Where is Leo Casey and Edwize on Test Boycott? 

Fred Klonsky at PreaPrez wants to know how the UFT has responded in supporting the teacher in the student testing boycott case? He writes:

One of their leaders, Leo Casey, seems to have no problem finding time to writing on EdWize, the UFT blog, long, very long theoretical critiques of G. William Domhoff’s analysis of the power elite. This is something I’m sure his rank-and-file members have been salivating to read. Yet not a word about Doug Avella and the students of I.S. 318X.

We're sure the UFT is doing what it always does in cases like these: provide a rep and inform the teacher of his rights, which as a probationary teacher are few. They will claim they are negotiating behind the scenes and therefore must remain quiet.

Students need support too

WHAT DID MR. AVELLA SAY AND WHEN DID HE SAY IT?

Coming soon: Waterboarding as a staple of DOE investigations

What about the public aspect of the situation? That a teacher discusses an issue with his classes, the kids take some action, and the teacher is immediately blamed and sent to the rubber room. Remember. The kids have supposedly taken 22 standardized tests this year and this was one of those practice types that ARIS, which is not working effectively, is supposed to deal with.

It seems the UFT should use its pulpit to shout about this case loud and clear. They may very well argue that publicity would hurt the teacher. I disagree. His best chances would seem to come from embarassing the DOE to the extreme over the use of Gestapo tactics against the kids and teacher.

“We’ve had a whole bunch of these diagnostic tests all year,” Tatiana Nelson, 13, one of the protest leaders, said Tuesday outside the school. “They don’t even count toward our grades. The school system’s just treating us like test dummies for the companies that make the exams.”

Sounds like no harm, no foul.

Sources tell us the children were threatened with No GRADUATION or PROM if they didn't comply and rat the teacher out and Avella's program is being covered by a substitute. Is it a good thing for the kids to lose a popular teacher at this point in the year? And what of the bigger lesson of threats and intimidation? Where's the outrage at the violation of these children by the system? Anyone out there in the regressive reform movement who are so concerned about achievment gaps in the abstract?

BRING AVELLA BACK TO HIS KIDS FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR FOR THE SAKE OF THE KIDS!

Where's the NY press which is always talking about how much money is being wasted by the rubber room? Do you get a clue why teachers need tenure? If Avella had tenure he would be in a much stronger position. In fact, when Joel Klein and the regressive ed reformers try to make the case for the elimination of tenure, respond with these two words: Doug Avella.

[2012 addendum -- today, even if Avella had tenure he would still get a 3020a dismissal hearing and would probably be fired.]
------

Here's my follow-up later that day:

Ed Notes Online: Support for Doug Avella Builds

May 27, 2008

Support for Doug Avella Builds

PLEASE WRITE TO CHANCELLOR KLEIN IN SUPPORT OF A TEACHER WHO TEACHES CRITICAL THINKING

To all those in favor of critical thought,

You have most likely heard about the situation in the Bronx at IS 318. On May 13 six classes of 8th graders staged a boycott in protest to being forced to take another standardized test, one of over two dozen this year. They boycotted one of the practice tests. An 8th grade social studies teacher, Douglas Avella, was falsely accused of instigating the students to boycott, and he is already in the rubber room and likely to lose his job entirely. Over the past week, a number of news articles and editorials have come out, including coverage from Juan Gonzalez and on WBAI's Democracy Now, and there has been a huge outpouring of concern and support for the teacher and the students. Recently, there have been a few other cases of testing boycotts in other U.S. cities, but this is the first one that we have heard about that was initiated by students. The students of I.S. 318 thought critically about their education, organized with each other, and then decided to take action. Their actions should be celebrated. The students and their teacher should be applauded and their message of urgency about the current state of high-stakes testing in our schools taken seriously.
We need to let the DOE know that we need more teachers like Douglas Avella. We need more educators who listen to their students, take their ideas and experiences seriously, and make it possible for them to respond thoughtfully and critically to their world. The students of I.S. 318 stood up for what they thought was right. They have been taught by a beloved teacher whose job is now in jeopardy. It is critical that we stand up right now and show our support for Doug Avella and his students. Please send an email to Chancellor Joel Klein at jklein@schools.nyc.gov.

Let him know that we demand the immediate re-instatement of Douglas Avella to his teaching position at IS 318 and the removal of any negative letters or ratings in his file in connection with the test boycott.

also, please cc your letter to UFT President Randi Weingarten at rweingarten@uft.org

Thank-you!

Sam Coleman and Geoffrey Enriquez, on behalf of NYCORE
Priscilla Gonzalez and Donna Nevel, on behalf of Center for Immigrant Families
Jane Hirschmann, on behalf of Time Out From Testing
Sally Lee, on behalf of Teachers Unite 

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

And then this letter to the UFT:

 June 3, 2008

ASK THE UFT TO MAKE THE TESTING BOYCOTT A PRIORITY...

CONTINUE TO DEFEND ACADEMIC FREEDOM AND FREEDOM OF SPEECH
ASK THE UFT TO MAKE THE TESTING BOYCOTT A PRIORITY ISSUE

We ask that you continue to write e-mails to Chancellor Klein in support of a teacher who teaches critical thinking.
We are also asking the UFT to make this issue of academic freedom and freedom of speech a priority. Please e-mail UFT President Randi Weingarten rweingarten@uft.org and Vice President Leo Casey lcasey@uft.org asking the UFT to continue to defend teacher rights in this matter and to make this issue a priority for the UFT.
A sample letter is below:
Dear Leo Casey and Randi Weingarten,
As a member of the UFT, I ask that the teachers' union continue to be proactive in the struggle to defend the academic freedom of public school teacher Douglass Avella, who wanted his students to think critically about their education.

As an educator concerned with the abuse of standardized tests, I also support the 160 8th grade students who used their freedom of speech to boycott the practice test to demonstrate how excessive testing has taken away valuable learning time from the classroom.
Because of the large amount of support from teachers, educators, organizations, parents and students, I ask that our teachers' union make this issue of academic freedom and freedom of speech a priority.
Sincerely,

____________________
Teacher/UFT Member

Supported by:Center for Immigrant Families, NYCoRE, Teachers Unite, Time Out From Testing
----------
Here is Juan Gonzalez' in the Daily News with Susan's comment:

Bronx 8th-graders boycott practice exam but teacher may get ax

Susan Notes:

This is combined Good News for what the students did and Outrage for how the teacher is being treated.

What a remarkable feat. Let's hope this student insistence in taking back their learning will inspire some teachers to take back their teaching.

By Juan Gonzalez

Students at a South Bronx middle school have pulled off a stunning boycott against standardized testing.

More than 160 students in six different classes at Intermediate School 318 in the South Bronx - virtually the entire eighth grade - refused to take last Wednesday's three-hour practice exam for next month's statewide social studies test.

Instead, the students handed in blank exams.

Then they submitted signed petitions with a list of grievances to school Principal Maria Lopez and the Department of Education.

"We've had a whole bunch of these diagnostic tests all year," Tatiana Nelson, 13, one of the protest leaders, said Tuesday outside the school. "They don't even count toward our grades. The school system's just treating us like test dummies for the companies that make the exams."

According to the petition, they are sick and tired of the "constant, excessive and stressful testing" that causes them to "lose valuable instructional time with our teachers."

School administrators blamed the boycott on a 30-year-old probationary social studies teacher, Douglas Avella.

The afternoon of the protest, the principal ordered Avella out of the classroom, reassigned him to an empty room in the school and ordered him to have no further contact with students.

A few days later, in a reprimand letter, Lopez accused Avella of initiating the boycott and taking "actions [that] caused a riot at the school."

The students say their protest was entirely peaceful. In only one class, they say, was there some loud clapping after one exam proctor reacted angrily to their boycott.

This week, Lopez notified Avella in writing that he was to attend a meeting today for "your end of the year rating and my possible recommendation for the discontinuance of your probationary service."

"They're saying Mr. Avella made us do this," said Johnny Cruz, 15, another boycott leader. "They don't think we have brains of our own, like we're robots. We students wanted to make this statement. The school is oppressing us too much with all these tests."

Two days after the boycott, the students say, the principal held a meeting with all the students to find out how their protest was organized.

Avella on Tuesday denied that he urged the students to boycott tests.

Yes, he holds liberal views and is critical of the school system's increased emphasis on standardized tests, Avella said, but the students decided to organize the protest after weeks of complaining about all the diagnostic tests the school was making them take.

"My students know they are welcome in my class to have open discussions," Avella said. "I teach them critical thinking."

"Some teachers implied our graduation ceremony would be in danger, that we didn't have the right to protest against the test," said Tia Rivera, 14. "Well, we did it."

Lopez did not return calls for comment.

"This guy was far over the line in a lot of the ways he was running his classroom," said Department of Education spokesman David Cantor. "He was pulled because he was inappropriate with the kids. He was giving them messages that were inappropriate."

Several students defended Avella. They say he had made social studies an exciting subject for them.

"Now they've taken away the teacher we love only a few weeks before our real state exam for social studies," Tatiana Nelson said. "How does that help us?"
— Juan Gonzalez
New York Daily News

More from Susan:

Living for Change: Teens Re-Invent Education

Gary Doyle Comment: Dear Friends of Public Education:
The article below, written by Grace Lee Boggs, gives me hope. Grace describes a group of eighth graders who challenged the NCLB insanity. These students did what our so-called educational "leaders" across the country have failed to do.

By the way, Grace Lee Boggs is a Detroit-based activist, writer and speaker who has been challenging the system much longer than most people have been alive. Grace will be celebrating her 93rd birthday on June 27, 2008, and,according to a good friend who knows her, she is showing no signs of slowing down. I hope Grace is around for many more birthdays, as we desperately need more people like her.

By Grace Lee Boggs

On Thursday, May22, students at a South Bronx middle school pulled off a stunning boycott against the standardized testing mandated by Bush’s "No Child Left Behind" Act.

The May 22 New York Daily News carried Juan Gonzalez' story about the well-organized action and it was reprinted on Common Dreams.

"More than 160 students in six different classes at Intermediate School 318 in the South Bronx—virtually the entire eighth grade—refused to take last Wednesday’s three-hour practice exam for next month’s statewide social studies test.

Instead, the students handed in blank exams.

"Then they submitted signed petitions with a list of grievances to school Principal Maria Lopez and the Department of Education.

"The school system's just treating us like test dummies for the companies that make the exam,." said Tatiana Nelson, 13, one of the protest leaders.

"School administrators blamed the boycott on a 30-year-old probationary social studies teacher, Douglas Avella.

"'They’re saying Mr. Avella made us do this,' said Johnny Cruz, 15, another boycott leader. 'They don’t think we have brains of our own, like we're robots. We students wanted to make this statement. The school is oppressing us too much with all these tests.'

"The afternoon of the protest, the principal ordered Avella out of the classroom, reassigned him to an empty room in the school and ordered him to have no further contact with students.

"A few days later, in a reprimand letter, Lopez accused Avella of initiating the boycott and taking 'actions [that] caused a riot at the school.'

"Avella denied that he urged the students to boycott tests. Yes, he holds liberal views and is critical of the school system’s increased emphasis on standardized tests, Avella said, but the students decided to organize the protest after weeks of complaining about all the diagnostic tests the school was making them take.

"'My students know they are welcome in my class to have open discussions,' Avella said. 'I teach them critical thinking.'

"The students say their protest was entirely peaceful. In only one class, they say, was there some loud clapping after one exam proctor reacted angrily to their boycott."

"'Some teachers implied our graduation ceremony would be in danger, that we didn't have the right to protest against the test,' said Tia Rivera, 14. 'Well, we did it.'"

Comments by Common Dreams readers were overwhelmingly in support of the students and Avella.

"I hope the idea spreads from this school to others."

"The students and their teacher are an inspiration. May their example spread like a prairie fire across this dim and oppressive land. As a former teacher I know about the totalitarian strictures of standardized tests. Virtually every teacher I know hates them. The testing companies are making billions. It is a scam. Critical thinking is stifled, which is just fine with the powers that be. Teachers have tremendous power if they only had the courage to exercise it. A nation-wide strike against standardized tests would be a start. Standards, yes! Standardized testing, no!"

"He was teaching them to think for themselves. How will they be able to work at Mickey-Ds if they do that?"

"The testing serves to monitor young people—to track them into acceptable roles as adults or into the prison system."

"I hope the idea spreads from this school to others. It’s not like the kids aren’t going to hear about this and think about going on strike rather than taking a meaningless test."

"FCAT (Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test) was a test program that came from a company owned by Neal Bush (yes, former Gov. Jeb Bush and moron Pres. George Bush’s brother). How nice it was to have your brother JUMP on-board using taxpayer dollars to implement HIS companies program in the state school system!! "

"Everyone should read John Gatto, a teacher in NY who won the 'best teacher of the year' in both New York City and New York State."

"The whole No Child Left Beyond Act is just another way of robotizing education and kids. Think of the moron-in-chief who is its chief proponent. You can’t test creativity. You can’t test imagination. Like Einstein said 'Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.' It is time to revolt against this revolting trend in education to turn our kids into testing machines. And now kids are thinking for themselves. Praise to the eighth grade kids!"

— Grace Lee Boggs
Michigan Citizen
2008-06-01
http://tinyurl.com/5vuk77

--------------
And one more from Susan:

June 12, 2008

Ask Chancellor Klein a Question and You'll Hear from the Strategic Response Group

People who wrote New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein on behalf of Douglas Avella received a shocking reply from Elizabeth Sexton who identified herself as being an Associate with the Chancellor's Strategic Response Group
NYC Department of Education
52 Chambers St. | New York, NY 10007.

Sexton stated that she was responding on behalf of Chancellor Klein. In her strategic response, Sexton makes ugly, unsubstantiated allegations while at the same time referring to the privacy of Mr. Avella's file.

Visit the New York City Department of Education website, and you will learn that The DOE has set up a framework for ensuring that all questions sent to the central office are answered in a timely fashion.

The Chancellor’s Strategic Response Group answers about 200 letters and emails
sent to Chancellor Klein every week. We can only hope that they aren't all as nasty as this one.

How does one get to be a Strategic Responder? I couldn't locate Elizabeth Sexton online but one former Strategic Responder had a college degree in English, another in Political Science.

Question: Does the New York City Department of Education maintain a Rubber Room for unfit Strategic Responders?

Test Protests Grow as Brooklyn Principal Takes the Lead

I've always maintained that the ed deform agenda is so viciously anti-child and anti-teacher and anti-parent that it will eventually collapse under its own weight of failure. Of course we will lose a generation of students, ruin careers of a generation of teachers and destroy entire swaths of the public school system before we begin to hear echos of that famous "What have I done" quote from the end of Bridge on the River Kwai. (See clip here or below). I'm also reminded of a memorable B film I saw as a child - The Magnetic Monster. We will win in the end.

GEM has been deeply involved in the battle against high stakes tests (where's the UFT, which I consider the biggest obstacle in creating an effective fight back) though its prolific Change the Stakes committee with the listserve over the past week going wild with parents and teachers chipping in on the awful tests. (You can join the listserve by signing up at the blog but warning -- the volume is high but so many amazing people).

The prolific Mark Naison posted this:

Thank you Pearson for some of the Worst Tests in History Being Administered in NY State Public Schools!

Too bad the content of recent NY State 3rd to 8th Grade tests is being withheld from the public because from what I hear they would make great material for Saturday Night Live, if not Saturday Night Fever. The idea that that teachers will be evaluated, and students promoted or held back on the basis of these ill designed tests strains credulity. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to Pearson for designing tests that are so ambiguous, illogical and culturally biased that they discredit the entire New York State Department of Education, which paid 32 million dollars for these tests, and the US Department of Education, which required they use them to evaluate teachers in order to receive Race to the Top funding.

Yes, Pearson is coming under severe attack for making money on the backs of our kids while producing inferior products. You don't hear Michelle Rhee and Joel Klein talking about it's all about the adults -- that is only reserved for unions. Fred Smith has been posting on the list serve about the use of our kids as guinea pigs to field test questions with a whole battery coming in June. 

Years ago a teacher was fired for inciting a revolt in his 8th grade kids against these useless June tests where 4 entire classes refused to take the tests (Testing, Teachers and the UFT: An Historical View).

There is a lot of rumbling from parents about boycotting these puppies given that refusing to take these tests will have no impact on the schools (other than pressure from Tweed). And there will be growing pressure to have the tests published. And if not, there is an underground crew apparently copying for underground publication as a way of undermining the testing industry. Remember George Schmidt was fired from the Chicago school system for publishing and exposing the ridiculous CASE tests -- the public exposure led to their abolition and George should have been lauded as a hero and given a raise -- of course he is a hero to generations of teacher activists.

Valerie Strauss has a piece about the growing protests.

Elizabeth Phillips, Mark Naison's wife, is one principal in NYC who stands up. She also protested the use of teacher data reports. Here is her letter to John "I never met a charter I didn't like" King, the ed deform front man for NY State, joining a despicable succession of state ed commissioners.

P.S. 321                                                                             lphilli@schools.nyc.gov

180 Seventh Avenue • Brooklyn, New York 11215                     • 718-499-2412 • FAX: 718-965-9605 

• Elizabeth Phillips, Principal                                               • Beth Handman, Assistant Principal

• Elizabeth Garraway, Assistant Principal                                   • Ryan Bourke, Assistant Principal

April 19, 2012

Dr. John B. King Jr.

New York State Education Commissioner

New York State Education Department

89 Washington Avenue

Albany, New York 12234

Dear Commissioner King:

I urge you to carefully review this year’s state ELA exams.  I have been principal for 13 years and have read the tests each year.  Although there are always issues with selected questions, generally it is only one or two per test that the assistant principals and I can’t quite agree on.  I am genuinely shocked that with the increased importance of state testing,  there are so many more flawed questions than ever before.  I wish I could go into detail here, but it violates test security for me to discuss the content of the tests or the questions, which is why I feel so strongly that it is important that you see these tests for yourselves. 

In particular, I would recommend that you carefully read through day one of the fifth grade ELA.   The reading passages themselves are not too challenging—surprising since the passages in the 4^th grade test were not particularly easy and the Common Core Standards call for more rigor.  However, the questions were nothing short of ridiculous.  Several of them were ambiguous and seemed designed only to trick children (and adults….the answers were not clear to many of us).  Overall, the questions did not serve to determine whether or not children had good reading comprehension skills.   You could have excellent comprehension skills and miss many questions.  Although to me the fifth grade was the most outrageous of the elementary school exams, there were problems with the other exams too.  It is puzzling to me that in 2012 in New York State, a testing company that won the lucrative contract to develop these exams did not think it was important, on day one (the most heavily weighted day) of the 4^th grade exam, to include any selections that were in urban settings.  Children who spend a lot of time outdoors and in rural or suburban settings definitely will find “friendlier” texts, both fiction and nonfiction.   Take a look so you can see what I mean.  Fortunately, day two is better in this regard.

I would also urge you to actually do the listening section of grade 3 (first part of day 2).  Have someone read aloud this incredibly thin, brief passage two times as required and then see if you can answer the questions, including the short and extended responses, without looking at the text (since kids are not permitted to look at this text).  The questions are not really ones that you can answer well from the text, even if it is sitting in front of you and you can refer back. 

Because I am an elementary school principal, I do not see the middle school exams.  However, a middle school principal from outside of New York City wrote this to me after day one:  “As I reviewed the exams for the sixth through eighth grade yesterday, I was appalled. I felt that sixth grade was the most difficult of the three exams, followed by eighth, with the most fair exam being the seventh grade. There were so many questions that contained answer choices where the ELA teachers could not decide which answer would be 'best'. I felt terrible for my children, especially for my English Language Learners and my special education students.”  And 8^th graders, who really can’t be controlled in terms of not talking about the test, are having a field day on the internet mocking what appears to be one of the most ridiculous selections ever included on a test! 

These exams are so deeply flawed, and now so incredibly high stakes.  The idea that teachers may lose their jobs and schools (at least in New York City) may be closed based on how children do on these problematic exams is incredibly upsetting and demoralizing to educators.  The fact that the state has decided that these exams can never be made public just exacerbates the problem, as the general public will never know how silly the exams are.   And, to use an “added value” measure on tests that are not consistently more difficult from year to year is another serious problem. 

I understand that you are very busy, but given the importance of the state tests at this time, it is absolutely critical that you analyze them carefully.  If you agree with my assessment, I hope that you will consider recommending to the State Legislature that given the flaws in the tests, we are not yet ready to use them for high stakes decision making.  I also hope you will consider making these exams public after the test scoring is completed.  It is ironic that teachers’ individual ratings are made public while the actual test that determines those ratings is not.  I know that the state already has a long-term contract with Pearson, but there is something seriously wrong with a testing company that has such inappropriate questions and passages on such a high stakes test. 

Thank you for considering all this.  Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Phillips

Principal   

What Have I Done?




The Bridge on the River Kwai

— MOVIECLIPS.com

Report from the Hearing on Citizens of the World Charter Schools

We reported on this story a few days ago:  Exposing Segregation Tactics of Eric Grannis and Citizens of the World Charter Schools.


The hearing was Thursday night but had Broadway tickets so I couldn't make it though I did get to the closing schools rally at Tweed (33 Schools United: City-Wide Rally Against School Closures at DOE Headquarters).

Posted by Brooke:

Started late, but there was an AMAZING turnout! 100 people - PARENTS showed up at IS71 to speak out against these proposed charter schools, holding signs:

- Citizens of WHAT world?
- Citizens only track Record is Wonder of Reading Scandal.
- DOE, do the MATH, D14 doesn't need another Elementary School
- The community of Williamsburg says NO to co-locating PS110
- Indict Kriste Dragon
- CWCS is bankrupt

We had planned an organized round of talks to address every single aspect of their proposal. SUNY wasn't going to be there, but the transcript will be sent to SUNY.

Kate Sobel showed up with Etoy Ridgnal and 2 other members of her team. NO ONE was there from the community in support of these proposals. Sobel spoke about how she came from Teach for America, adopted a black child, and single highhandedly erased the achievement gap with the kids she taught at a latino school in Los Angeles. It was difficult for the audience to contain our outrage towards her arrogance and paternalism.

Our elected officials were there in FORCE:

- State Committe Member Lincoln Restler
- BBP Marty Markowitz (represented)
- City Councilmember Diana Reyna (represented)
- City Councilmember Stephen Levin (represented)
- NYState Assemblyman Joe Lentol
- US Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez

All of them spoke on the record that they are vehemently opposed to these two proposed charter schools. I want to be Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez when I grow up. We were proud to be District 14 families tonight.

I had a 25 page attack on their curriculum, pedagogy and programming, but was only able to get through 5 pages before time ran out.

At one point, and the irony in this was unmatched, as I was telling Citizens of the World that their concept of service learning and community building was not unique and listed the community projects that our schools engage in, I noticed that all four Citizens of the World staff were talking to each other and not listening to anything I had to say. This was the one opportunity that they had to get feedback from the community regarding their proposals - and they weren't listening at all.

I wanted the DoE and SUNY to hear that we understand the proposals for these two schools. That these proposals are redundant and wasteful - poor copies of the schools we already have. I wanted DoE and SUNY to know that we see through the Citizens of the World charter school proposals. We'll see.

We walked out chanting, "The people united will never be defeated..."

Lots of stuff happened in private arguments afterwards.

- Etoy Ridgnal claimed that the private listserv of mostly white affluent and new parents was plenty of community outreach.

- After I pointed out in my talk that their proposal lists Everyday Math (and uses the Everyday Math website as evidence of it's success) is being used less and less in schools and the DoE is rethinking their Everyday Math curriucla, Sobel told a parent that they plan on using Singapore Math and that they will let their teachers use whatever math curricula that they want.

I mention this only because I flat out asked SUNY if Citizens can alter their proposal based on feedback AFTER it's been written and they said that they can not. What's in the proposal is in the proposal.

We'll see. The next step is a letter writing campaign.

Brooke

33 Schools United: City-Wide Rally Against School Closures at DOE Headquarters Today, April 19th @ 4:30 pm

PRESS RELEASE
Date: Thursday April 19, 2012: 4:30-6 PM

Contact:
Michael Solo, Teacher at John Dewey High School: 917-750-7510 (mmvs1226@aol.com)
Kevin Kearns, Teacher at Lehman High School: 201-314-6914 (kevin@lehmanuft.org)

33 Schools United: City-Wide Rally Against School Closures at DOE Headquarters

On April 19th, 2012 at 4:30 PM at Department of Education Headquarters (52 Chambers Street, New York, NY) teachers, parents, students and community members will rally to protest the DOE policy of closing schools.

With a cynical misrepresentation of the truth, Mayor Bloomberg is holding 26 Persistently Lowest Achieving (PLA) schools hostage to his demands. The NYCDOE walked out on negotiations with the UFT to finalize an evaluation system for teachers. Agreement on an evaluation process would have allowed School Improvement Grant (SIG) funds to continue being available for the (PLA) schools. Funding for the schools has been frozen because of the impasse in negotiations. The NYCDOE refuses to return to the negotiating table and has threatened 26 of the 33 (PLA) schools with closure through a process called "turnaround".

"Turnaround" is a failed policy because it is disruptive and distracting to the entire school community. It is a model that has been borrowed from the business world and we all know how well the American business model has fared during the past decade. Turnaround destroys bonds between students and teachers. It demoralizes the entire school community when instead the school community should be bolstered and strengthened.

All of the PLA schools have endured years of neglect and threats from the NYCDOE. We have worked hard to move our schools forward and we are making great strides in overcoming the tremendous obstacles that were put in our path by the NYCDOE. Why is Mayor Bloomberg still threatening our school communities?

Bloomberg's policy of school closure has gone on too long.  In three terms of Mayoral Control, Bloomberg has now closed over 100 schools.  Many of the schools voted to phase out on February 9th, were schools opened under the Bloomberg administration.  The policy of closure, phase-out, and now turnaround, has not improved our school system in any way.  Bloomberg continues this policy only to hide the data that would paint him as a failure on education.  He is ruining the lives of a generation of students all for his own political gain.

As recent research has demonstrated, having a consistent set of teachers increases student success. However, a huge turnover in staff will have a negative impact on the students who remain at the affected schools, decreasing the likelihood of students' graduation and achievement.  Furthermore many of the programs that are successful at these schools, including electives, clubs, and AP courses, many not run when the majority of the new staff is untrained.

Mayoral control of the NYCDOE under Mayor Bloomberg has been a colossal failure. The very idea that one person has been granted the authority to close any school without input from teachers, parents, and students is a mockery of the concept of democracy. What lesson are our students learning about how this city and our nation work if the voices of affected communities are shut out? We need an end to mayoral control of our public schools.

Bullies depend on their victims to be unprepared to defend themselves.  A coalition of chapter leaders, delegates and members from many of the original 33 Turnaround schools have decided to fight back. We are tired of being used as pawns in Mayor Bloomberg's bid to cripple our schools and public education. We will continue to push back until the policy of school closure has ended.

For further information see:

stopturnaround.blogspot.com

Impeach Joel M. Miller, from dysfunctional NYS Assembly After Comments on Coddled Teachers

Here is my response to Miller's comments.
The single most important factor in our success as a society is the effectiveness and quality of politicians.
The current evaluation system of politicians protects the ineffective ones and I believe it is time to stop shielding them by allowing voters who can be mislead by campaign money decide.
Currently, our politicians receive no penalty for failed political practices as incompetent incumbents can spend decades in office.  
Thus we need a PDR - politician data report. Fire them if ineffective according to numerical data.
Miller's record of results should be analyzed and we should come up with a single number by which he will be judged. If he has a record of failed political judgement as indicated in his statement he should be removed immediately.
-----------
NYC Principal Brian De Vale also responded:
Dear Mr. Miller,

Please read the comments attributed to you below. If they are accurate, then I believe that you are clueless and have no business having any involvement in developing education policy.

Brian De Vale
--------------
Miller comments were passed on by Joe Knapp through Mark Naison.

So, yesterday I received a scathing letter from Assemblyman Joel M. Miller of the 102nd District.....
Here are some quotes:
"The current (evaluation) system protects the ineffective teachers and I believe it is time to stop shielding them."
"The parents are entrusting that our system provides qualified educators for the students;"  Isn't it our state that give them their certification????
"Without teacher evaluations, there is no incentive for teachers to improve their teaching methods."  Really, there are no teacher evaluations in place?  And I need that to want to improve?
"Currently, our teachers receive no penalty for failed teaching practices, nor do they receive rewards for good teaching."
1.  I have seen plenty of ineffective teachers removed in my 13 years as an educator.  2.  I do not need a "reward" for good teaching, I am intrinscly motivated and my students success is good enough reward for me.
"For anyone to stand in the way of allowing teacher evaluations to be public is protecting ineffective teachers and promoting for a poor educational system."
"Currently, there are public databanks for professionals in various career areas.  For example, physician performance information is available to the public through databanks.  TEACHERS INSIST THAT THEY ARE PROFESSIONALS.  IF TEACHERS CONSIDER THEMSELVES PROFESSIONALS, WHY SHOULD THEIR EVALUATIONS NOT BE PUBLIC INFORMATION?  I FAIL TO SEE THE REASONING BEHIND WHY TEACHER EVALUATIONS SHOULD REMAIN A SECRET."
Mark, this is obsurd, please forward this email and the email address of Assemblyman Miller (millerj@assembly.state.ny.us) so that they may express their dismay with his position.

Joe Knapp
PROFESSIONAL EDUCATOR CERTIFIED BY THE STATE OF NEW YORK!!!