Wear red on Monday in solidarity with CTU!

Brian Jones writes on his blog:

No Struggle, No Progress

A blog about politics, education, racism, and more.

Got a red shirt?

One of the unintended consequences of the attack on public education is the politicization of educators. Generally speaking, teachers like to close their classroom doors and do their own thing. There doesn’t seem to be any point in getting involved in “politics” and so they mostly don’t. But the times are changing.

Suddenly, like it or not, “politics” is interested in teachers. Suddenly, wealthy and powerful people have become obsessed with them, and with what goes on behind those classroom doors. As the billionaire investors and their political allies attempt to refashion education in their own image, they increasingly force teachers to sit up and take notice.

Does this mean we now have a national movement of teachers united in a collective struggle to defend and improve public education? Not quite. Where teachers already have large organizations — their unions — they rely on them to defend their interests. The problem is that those unions have, by and large, conceded much of the ideological terrain to the billionaire privatizers.

That’s where Chicago comes in. While other unions have jumped at the chance to trade tenure, merit pay, charter schools, and other “free market” reforms for pay increases, the Chicago Teachers Union has drawn a line in the sand. The CTU is the first union to threaten a strike against so-called “ed reform”.



Rahm Emanuel, the mayor of Chicago, says he wants a longer school day, for example. The CTU has responded, effectively: “No, we want a BETTER school day!” The CTU has boldly pointed out the apartheid-like conditions in the Chicago Public Schools, and demands that funding be restored to the arts, sciences, physical education, counseling, and smaller class sizes. Their research document, The Schools Chicago’s Students Deserve is a must read.
Importantly, their stance has galvanized parent support. Erica Clark, a Chicago parent, wrote:

“We formed Parents 4 Teachers because we were fed up with the abuse that teachers were taking from politicians. We saw that there wasn’t recognition of what we saw as parents—that the interests of the teachers in the schools go hand in hand with the interests of our kids… The things that teachers are fighting for in their contract—smaller classes, more nurses and counselors, a better day not just a longer day, art and music for all schools—are the things that parents want. These are the things that teachers want.”

Daring to stand up to Rahm Emanuel — Obama’s former chief of staff — during an election year, is no small feat. But CTU is blazing a new trail for educators in this country.

Check out the Network of Teacher Activist Groups website to find out how you can build solidarity (including by making a donation to the CTU Strike Fund).

If contract negotiations fail, CTU members voted to go on strike on September 10. On that day, teachers, parents and students all over the country will wear RED in solidarity with CTU.

If you’ve got a red shirt, and if you want the CTU to win, you should, too.

Chicago Update: Merit Pay off the Table, But Not Attempt to Eliminate Salary Steps

Lewis and CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey said CPS still wants to stop giving teachers extra pay for extra experience. Such “step’’ increases have been a part of the CTU contract since 1967 but are facing increasing scrutiny nationwide. “Eliminating steps is a big deal,’’ Sharkey said. “Proposing to take that away essentially means a first- and a fifth-year teacher are going to be paid the same and we think that’s an unacceptable outcome. . . . Teaching is a craft in which gaining experience improves practice.’’ ---Sun-Times

UPDATE from Lois Weiner:

AFT President Randi Weingarten showed when she headed the union in  New York City that she would give away everything and anything that mattered in having quality schools in exchange for paltry salary increases. My hunch is that she'll be using all the power she has to pressure the CTU to settle for the same kind of contract she negotiated in NYC.  I don't think Obama wants a strike of Chicago teachers, so he'll be putting pressure on his guy Rahm to settle on money. Weingarten will be doing the same. [see below for Lois' complete article from New Politics].

New York teachers have to watch Chicago ed deform leaders to see what's coming here. This update has the interesting nugget that Rahm is looking to eliminate salary steps, the logical outcome of ed deform which declares a first year TFA with 5 weeks training can be as effective as a 10 year vet.

UPDATE: 3:30PM
Before you read the Sun-Times article, first see what Lois Weiner has to say about how the anti-union media reports the story:

New Politics:

The bottom line for Chicago teachers?

Lois Weiner

September 6, 2012

As the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) holds fast to its strike deadline of Sept. 10, negotiations continue.  It's always risky to trust reports in the mass media, especially the virulently anti-teachers union media that we have today, about what's happening in negotiations. They want to see the unions discredited, and one way to do that is to cast teachers as greedy and selfish.

 So we should be taking the recent article in the Chicago Sun-Times about negotiations as another salvo in the propaganda war against teachers.The article reports only on aspects of the contract dispute that take up teachers' wages and benefits. In contrast, what has made this mobilization of Chicago teachers so powerful and exciting is the CTU's commitment to locate demands about teachers' economic well-being in a package that addresses what needs to be done to give Chicago children the schools they deserve. 
The union has done this remarkably well in its report about the "apartheid" conditions in the schools.  During my recent visit to Colombia, teachers in Bogota told me that their union should be issuing a similar report. The Chicago Sun-Times article illustrates that Chicago's power elite wants to make this struggle fit the mold of a "traditional" labor dispute, one that might be settled by giving a tiny bit more money to teachers. What the bankers, corporate chiefs, and politicians that do their bidding want is complete control over what children learn. The bigger picture that is often ignored in the US is that this is a global project, one spelled out in World Bank reports, to reduce education to vocational training, accomplished through the "accountability" of standardized testing. Yet, there is world-wide resistance to this project, little news of which appears in the popular media, and this global context frames the struggle in Chicago. CTU's leaders face enormous pressures, so I was relieved to that a bargaining update on the union's website still contains the CTU's demand for "A 'Better' Day—with Art, Music, World Language, Physical Education and other services like counseling" and lower class size.   Certainly the union needs to fight for job protections and re-hiring teachers who have lost their jobs in school closings. Its struggle for the salary and economic benefits teachers deserve is essential. But it must also hold onto the demand for lower class size and restoring the subjects and services students (and their teachers) need so very much.Chicago's teachers should expect no help from the national union (American Federation of Teachers) in holding fast to what Chicago's students deserve. AFT President Randi Weingarten showed when she headed the union in  New York City that she would give away everything and anything that mattered in having quality schools in exchange for paltry salary increases. My hunch is that she'll be using all the power she has to pressure the CTU to settle for the same kind of contract she negotiated in NYC.  I don't think Obama wants a strike of Chicago teachers, so he'll be putting pressure on his guy Rahm to settle on money. Weingarten will be doing the same.  The question is whether CTU's courageous and dedicated leaders will have the confidence in their ideals to lead Chicago's teachers in a new direction, one that will show what can be won when a teachers union really stands up for public education and so wins support from parents and students who deserve better schools.

Chicago Sun-Times:

Chicago Public Schools teachers: Monday strike date still on

BY ROSALIND ROSSI  AND STEFANO ESPOSITO Staff Reporters September 5, 2012 4:34PM

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Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis, talks to reporters Thursday after Chicago Teachers Union House of Delegates unanimously agreed to strike starting Sept 10. August 30 2012. I Scott Stewart~Sun-Times

Updated: September 6, 2012 2:23AM

Chicago Public Schools officials freshened their economic offer to teachers Wednesday but teachers union officials immediately labeled the deal “unacceptable’’ and held firm to a Sept. 10 strike date.

CPS didn’t budge from its May offer of four years of 2 percent raises, but for the first time it formally dropped the requirement that the fourth-year raise be tied to a form of merit pay and “differentiated compensation,’’ Chicago Teachers Union officials said.

“I have some reasonable news: The board has moved off of merit pay,’’ CTU President Karen Lewis told reporters after the union’s House of Delegates held its monthly meeting. But, Lewis said, “We have some . . . problems we are very concerned about.’’

Lewis and CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey said CPS still wants to stop giving teachers extra pay for extra experience. Such “step’’ increases have been a part of the CTU contract since 1967 but are facing increasing scrutiny nationwide.

“Eliminating steps is a big deal,’’ Sharkey said. “Proposing to take that away essentially means a first- and a fifth-year teacher are going to be paid the same and we think that’s an unacceptable outcome. . . . Teaching is a craft in which gaining experience improves practice.’’

Teachers leaving the union’s House of Delegates meeting Wednesday evening said a Monday strike date is still on.

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The opinions expressed on EdNotesOnline are solely those of Norm Scott and are not to be taken as official positions (though Unity Caucus/New Action slugs will try to paint them that way) of any of the groups or organizations Norm works with: ICE, GEM, MORE, Change the Stakes, NYCORE, FIRST Lego League NYC, Rockaway Theatre Co., Active Aging, The Wave, Aliens on Earth, etc.

What Clinton's Speech Left Out as Dems endorse 15 years of ed failure in Chicago and call for more of the same

How can you talk about cooperation and shared responsibility in the same breath with a “race” to “the top” for our children?

How can you say “we are all in this together” while you are telling children that they have to race to see who is best at taking tests and the poor kids almost always are the losers? --- Diane Ravitch on Clinton's speech last night.

I  hate to spoil the party, but Democrats lie too. Obama lost votes of educators every time Rahm Emanuel's face came on the screen, especially if you read this Ravitch post:

Is Chicago a National Model for School Reform?

Chicago public schools have been under mayoral control since 1995....Then Mayor Daley promoted Arne Duncan to reform the schools. Duncan called his reforms “Renaissance 2010.” Before he left for DC in 2009 Duncan opened 100 new schools and closed many neighborhood schools....Then came Ron Huberman to continue the Daley reforms....And now Mayor Emanuel carries on in the Daley tradition, having recently instructed his hand-picked school board [and chose as Supt John Claude-Brizard who screwed up schools here and in Rochester] to close or privatize more schools. And what’s the upshot of nearly two decades of reform? 

- READ THAT SAD STORY

Diane Ravitch has been on the case exposing the fault lines in the Democratic Party approach to education.

If you hear that rousing speech by Dem ed deform Mass. Governor Deval Patrick, he lauded the one-year turnaround of a school named Orchard Gardens where they fired 80% of the teachers, a number to challenge the Romney/Bain Capital firings. Another ed deform "miracle" on the backs of teachers. Diane and Gary Rubinstein nail Patrick in this post by Diane:
Gary Rubinstein Fact-Checks Mass. School

We all would like to believe in miracles. There aren’t many, especially with reference to schools that miraculously “turn around” in one year.
It is comforting to believe that a school can change from the worst to the best almost overnight. It is a made-for-Hollywood scenario.
Last night at the Democratic convention, Governor Deval Patrick talked about the one-year turnaround of a school named Orchard Gardens.
Gary Rubinstein checked and learned that 80% of the teachers were fired. Then he went to the Massachusetts Department of Education website. Not exactly one of the best schools in the state. Why do so many politicians think that the best way to fix a school is to fire almost everyone (or everyone) and start over?  Wouldn’t it be more productive to help the school, add resources where needed, remove those who are truly incompetent, do whatever it takes to make the school work well for its students? Why is mass firing the preferred solution?

And then we come to Clinton's speech, which I loved, though I'm still voting Green. Clinton really did what none of the Obama people seem capable of doing – actually defending him. But let's not forget how far to the right of the Democratic Party Clinton has been. Or moderate Republican.

When it comes to education policy, Clinton touched on it when he mentioned the Bushes. Clinton's "Goals 2000" preceded Bush's No Child Left Behind which led to Obama's Race to the Top, each iteration worse than the one before. What is not well-known but well covered Kahlenberg's Shanker bio was the work both Clintons did in Arkansas in the 80's in ed deform --- retesting of teachers for instance. Shanker and Clinton were on the same page in many areas on education.

Diane posted this soon after Clinton's speech. 

What Clinton Didn’t Mention

He didn’t mention K-12.
I listened closely.
He didn’t mention Race to the Top.
Maybe it was an oversight but I doubt it.
How can you talk about cooperation and shared responsibility in the same breath with a “race” to “the top” for our children?
How can you say “we are all in this together” while you are telling children that they have to race to see who is best at taking tests and the poor kids almost always are the losers?

In 2012 Democratic Convention, Unity without Unions

Teachers are the heart and soul of the Democratic volunteering apparatus. Public education is a massive institution funded by taxes to deliver care-giving services. The transition of that revenue stream, roughly $500 billion a year, to private hands is well on its way, and it carries a bonus of destroying the power of a liberal faction in the Democratic Party and the electoral system. ---Naked Capitalism

This piece addresses the movie "Won't Back Down", claiming it was shown at the convention when in fact the showing by Michelle Rhee was a sideshow, but approved behind the scenes apparently by the DNC.

You might also check out: Rhee Touts Obama's School Policies

Naked Capitalism

Matt Stoler

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Except for the 2004 Republican National Convention, I have never seen a national political convention where there was such unity of purpose, so much excitement, and such validation from media insiders as in this Democratic Convention. The left side of the aisle has been fully stomped on, getting crushed in nearly every significant electoral contest of 2011. While Elizabeth Warren made her big appearance last night, she’s down by 5 points in the polls in Massachusetts, failing to carry the Democratic establishment of the state (including the Mayor of Boston, Tom Menino, who has not endorsed her). The hulking labor bureaucracies, after their demolition in Wisconsin, are not in Charlotte in full force, having refused to fund the convention. And the embrace of the party for the education privatizers is on full force, with the film “Won’t Back Down” pretty much endorsed by the party.

Teachers are the heart and soul of the Democratic volunteering apparatus. Public education is a massive institution funded by taxes to deliver caregiving services. The transition of that revenue stream, roughly $500 billion a year, to private hands is well on its way, and it carries a bonus of destroying the power of a liberal faction in the Democratic Party and the electoral system. A variety of mechanisms are used to justify this shift, from school choice to parent triggers to the best line, “our failing public schools”. “Don’t Back Down”, which tells the story of a poor single mother who takes on an entrenched union bureaucracy and reclaims her kid’s school with the help of a dynamic teacher, is the latest narrative to justify the shift. What makes the playing of this film at the convention interesting, though, is that the teacher’s unions are not particularly upset. In fact, the President of the National Education Association, said he enjoyed the film.

Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association (NEA), said that he has seen the film and wasn’t offended by it.
“They wrote a script. One of the villains is a union. But it didn’t offend me because that’s not my union. I have never seen any union like that. It’s a make-believe union that doesn’t care. My members care. We care. We are doing everything we can to turn around schools, to lead a profession, to make it a real profession,” Van Roekel said.
The union leader even said that he liked the movie.
“I didn’t really think I would like it but I did,” Van Roekel said. “It’s a great movie. It made me cry three times.”

Nothing illustrates the captured state of our politics better than a supposed union leader praising a film dedicated to destroying the power of working men and women. Now, of course, there are certainly problems with teachers unions, as there are with any set of large bureaucratic institutions. But eliminating the one opposition vehicle to the transfer of a half a trillion dollars of tax revenue each year to privatize educational corporations is simply about graft.

Going into the election, the Democratic Party is more unified than I’ve ever seen. Unity happened, though, not because the various factions in the party decided to put aside their differences and cooperate. It happened because there was an internal war in the party, and the neo-liberals did a clean sweep. They smashed everyone opposed to them, and cowed or coopted everyone else. The Republicans, who are the repository of a purer form of plutocracy, are just not necessary this electoral season. They aren’t really trying to win. After all, if your supposed opponents will implement your program, why not just let them?

Well, no matter who wins the election, public ed and teacher unions are in deep shit. I could make the case that Obama/Duncan have gone on their merry way with an intelligent plan* working hand in hand with the privatizers while Romney seems so incompetent he is guaranteed to mess whatever he wants to do up so bad he will alienate everyone -- and might even bring some elements of the ed deform and real reform camps together.

*I know that most of you think RTTT is a dumb plan for students, parents and kid, but servicing them is not the intention of the plan. For their purposes it is brilliant.

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The opinions expressed on EdNotesOnline are solely those of Norm Scott and are not to be taken as official positions (though Unity Caucus/New Action slugs will try to paint them that way) of any of the groups or organizations Norm works with: ICE, GEM, MORE, Change the Stakes, NYCORE, FIRST Lego League NYC, Rockaway Theatre Co., Active Aging, The Wave, Aliens on Earth, etc.

Ring Around the Rahm: Chicago Teachers Encircle City Hall

Fred Klonsky reports:

Hands around City Hall.

September 5, 2012

When Jackson Potter told me on Saturday night that we were going to join hands and encircle City Hall, I didn’t really believe it.
Believe it.

Yes, I believe just about anything Jackson promises. For those of you who don't know who Jackson Potter is, he was the initial moving force behind forming CORE in 2008. I got to hang out with Jackson in the summer of 2009 in LA and then again in Chicago in July 2011. Jackson has extraordinary leadership and political skills and teaming him and Karen Lewis together is a major reason for what is working in CORE and the CTU. I was proud last summer to  introduce our own Julie Cavanagh to Jackson in Chicago (she already had met Karen), a political connection made in heaven. And to top it off, Julie is a vegetarian and Jackson is a vegan, so – kismet. They're great to hang out with, but don't bother going out to eat with them if you want to tear into a steak. Lucky they're in different cities.

The reality and the hype behind online learning and the "School of One"

One day Joel Klein will be doing a perp walk with his coat over his head .... Ed Notes, c. 2005. [And Chris Cerf too].

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UPDATE, Fri, Sept. 7, 1PM: Assailed Teacher has a great summary and commentary on School of One: Follow the Silver Lining…. and the Money

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As a followup to my earlier post, "Klein Gets F for School of One While Tweed Expands to IS 49 SI", there is so much meat in Leonie Haimson's post, The reality and the hype behind online learning and the "School of One"summarizing the outcomes of todays report on the failing "School of One" initiative that I have to repost it all.

She really hits so many aspects of the interlocking directorate of ed deform. One day I hope this piece is used as evidence in a court case.

Today’s Daily News has a story about a new negative evaluation of DOE’s much vaunted “School of One” program.  This study, which found no significant achievement gains from the program, was quietly placed on the Research Alliance website in the middle of summer with no apparent outreach to the media or the public. 

This contrasts with the huge publicity machine promoting this online program that has operated since its inception as a pilot started in the summer of 2009.  

The School of One is an online or “blended” learning math program, combining online with small group instruction. It was started by Joel Rose when he was at DOE, using an algorithm devised by Wireless Generation.  Rose, along with Chris Rush, formerly of Wireless Gen, has now taken the company private and renamed it New Classrooms.  According to its website, the company is hiring new staff to work in NYC, as well as in Washington DC, Chicago and Perth Amboy NJ schools starting this year.  I wrote about DOE’s awarding of this contract to New Classrooms last year, in apparent violation of conflict of interest rules.

By the time it started as a small scale pilot in the summer of 2010, it already earned a story in the New York Times. By September, Arthur Levine, former head of Teacher’s College, wrote that School of One “may turn out to be the single most important experiment conducted in education so far. It is the future.” By November, it had already won a place on Time magazine’s best inventions of 2009, which described it as “learning for the Xbox generation”. 

This led Mayor Bloomberg to put out a press release, boasting that “The School of One [is] creating a 21st century classroom to meet the individual needs and learning styles of every student.” 

   Edward Glaeser, a professor of economics at Harvard wrote an oped for the Boston Globe in 2011, saying that “This type of out-sourcing [to private providers] could be encouraged everywhere, which could support a nationwide industry dedicated to smartening our children. “

The School of One has also been recognized and encouraged by the US Department of Education, which awarded the DOE a three year $5 million I3 federal Innovation grant to expand it in NYC schools. By the time the application was written, DOE had already spent $1.5 million on the project, and now according to the Daily News, has spent $9 million over the past three years --- they say from private donations.  According to its federal grant application, the DOE had planned to spend $45 million on expanding the program through June 2013 (though the DN also reports officials expect to downsize that by an unspecified amount,  “with help from a private contractor.”)

The “personalized” learning system featured in “the School of One” has now become the focus of the new federal RTTT program for districts; encouraging the spread of virtual or “blended” instruction through computers, by offering nearly $400 million in grants, again with little or no evidence that such programs work. Nearly 900 districts have applied for these grants, including the Superintendent of Miami, who recently said that Miami’s application “will focus on personalizing education for students based on how they best learn, rely more on digital content and changing the learning environment and outcomes of middle school students who have fallen behind…."This is a creative and effective way of spurring reform from the bottom up," he said.”

Bottom up?  Not exactly. This is an initiative driven from the top down. What has been the actual record of the School of One?

In the spring of 2010, the School of One was implemented at IS 228, in Brooklyn. By Sept. 2010, it was added to two more middle schools, MS 131 in Manhattan’s Chinatown, and IS 339 in the Bronx.   I visited the program in Chinatown as was not impressed; I saw chaos and many disengaged kids, as I described here.  As Joel Rose said during my tour of the school, it is intended to substitute for smaller classes, since “no human being” can provide fully individualized instruction to a class of 25. 

As Gary Rubinstein first explained on his blog, in two of these schools it caused achievement to slip in math, according to the DOE’s Progress reports: slightly at IS 228, and drastically at IS 339. By the next year, two of the three schools had dropped the program, including at MS 131, the school I visited in Chinatown (which had already earned the school an “A” in math progress the year before) and at IS 339, whose progress grade on math fell from a “B” to a “D”.  MS 131, the school that appeared to do the best with the program but dropped it anyway, has a relatively high-achieving, mostly Asian population; the school that did the worst, IS 339, has primarily poor Black and Hispanic students.  

Now the new study from the Research Alliance  not only quietly confirms those findings, but also finds that the lowest achieving students within each school were the ones who tended to fall furthest behind in below-grade level skills, showing that this virtual instruction may actually widen rather than narrow the achievement gap, as some have feared:

Students who came to SO1 with low prior performance were exposed to approximately twice as many below-grade-level skills, compared to those who came with higher performance levels from prior grades. … However, these students mastered less than 15 percent of the skills to which they were exposed (as measured by SO1’s daily assessments), compared to approximately 85 percent mastery for students who entered with higher prior performance.

These results fly in the face of the DOE’s I3 application, which said it should be awarded extra points because it would provide special benefits for struggling students.

Next year, there will be four more NYC middle schools which will adopt this model, along with IS 228:  IS 49 and IS 2 in Staten Island, MS 88 and MS 381 in Brooklyn. There will also be a new “randomized” study, led by Jonah Rockoff of Columbia.   

Good luck to these schools. One wonders if the parents at these schools have given their consent to what is really an experiment on their kids, with no research to back it up.  As the new study points out,

….SO1 program staff hypothesized that schools might experience a variety of implementation and outcome “dips,” in which instructional quality and student achievement might initially decline, as teachers adjusted to the new organization and delivery of the math curriculum. …. in general, educational innovation is exceedingly challenging: Program impact is often incremental, rather that abrupt and dramatic; the process of development and evidence building is iterative and dynamic, rather than linear and uni-directional; and it often takes years, rather than months, to establish program efficacy and a credible track record for expansion and scale.

Meanwhile, of course, the DOE makes decisions about holding back children, and evaluates teachers and grades schools based on one year’s worth of test results – regardless of the sentiments expressed above. 

These words of caution are similar to those expressed by a recent study of the Izone, DOE’s online learning initiative, of which the School of One belongs:

 “….NYC school district leaders are taking risks with the iZone, implementing new models, committing deeply to a defined set of principles that challenge core assumptions about what a school should look like, and moving to scale very quickly. How and when they will know if they got the big bet right is a question district leaders will have to ask so that students are not subjected for too long to programs and schools that don’t work. “

 

There is a well-documented gold rush now, with many companies getting into the business of online learning, including Rupert Murdoch’s NewsCorp, headed by Joel Klein, which acquired Wireless shortly after Klein was hired.  With the help of the right-wing organization ALEC, of which NewsCorp is a member, these companies are using their considerable resources to fund astroturf organizations and persuade politicians to encourage or even require students to take virtual courses for credit, with NO evidence that this helps them in any way. You can read exposes about how this has happened in Maine; Pennsylvania; Minnesota Wisconsin and  nationwide.  

Here in NY, the Regents and the State Education Department has encouraged the growth of online learning by eliminating seat time requirements which, along with the overriding pressure for high schools to inflate their graduation rates or risk being closed, will likely cause districts statewide to follow in NYC’s footsteps by implementing substandard credit recovery systems, what Diane Ravitch has rightly called “academic fraud.”  

More and more in this nation, we are moving towards two different school systems: one for the wealthy, who insist of proven reforms including small classes for their children.   The other highly experimental model, for disadvantaged and even middle class kids, will increasingly deliver so-called “personalized” instruction via a machine, causing struggling students to fall even further behind.  Is this the future we want for our kids?

See also Jersey Jazzman’s blog here and here on how the superintendent of Perth Amboy, a controversial former NYC administrator named Janine Caffrey, has proposed a $575,900 contract for New Classrooms.  Meanwhile, Caffrey is serving only at the pleasure of Chris Cerf, Joel Rose’s former boss who is now NJ Education Commissioner, as the Perth Amboy school board has voted to remove her. 

The opinions expressed on EdNotesOnline are solely those of Norm Scott and are not to be taken as official positions (though Unity Caucus/New Action slugs will try to paint them that way) of any of the groups or organizations Norm works with: ICE, GEM, MORE, Change the Stakes, NYCORE, FIRST Lego League NYC, Rockaway Theatre Co., Active Aging, The Wave, Aliens on Earth, etc.

Klein Gets F for School of One While Tweed Expands to IS 49SI

...the best part is that they are using a 2.5 million dollar grant from the Obama administration to put the program in IS 49SI, Francesco Portelos' school... he is the main tech person and STEM teacher in the school but sits in the rubber room on trumped up charges for questioning how the principal was using tech grant money. --- ed notes

“School of One is expensive and disruptive,” said Patrick Sullivan, Manhattan representative to the Panel for Educational Policy. --NYDN

Last Update (in green): 5:15PM

And must read by Leonie exposing connections to Wireless Generation and Rupert Murdoch.

The reality and the hype behind online learning and the "School of One"

How many Joel Klein legacy failures can you find? We reported on the about to be abandoned networks yesterday (Tweed Dismantles Networks Before Crimes and Corruption Exposed).

Rachel Monahan reports on the Daily News:

Former NYC Chancellor Joel Klein's highly touted School of One math project dropped by 2 of 3 schools in pilot program

Initiative was hailed by Time magazine as one of the 50 best inventions of 2009, but NYU study shows $9 million effort failed to raise test scores more than old-school math classes 

AN EXPENSIVE city program touted as the future of middle school math education had disappointing results in its first year — and was abandoned at two of the three schools where it was implemented, the Daily News has learned.

City officials said they’ve spent $9 million over the past three years — all from private donations.

In its grant application, the city projected the total cost of the program’s expansion at $46 million, though officials say they’ve been able to get that price down with help from a private contractor.

But the best part is that they are using a 2.5 million dollar grant from the Obama administration to put the program in IS 49SI, Francesco Portelos' school (Protect Portelos: Rubber Room Journal).

 
He is/was the main tech person and STEM teacher in the school but sits in the rubber room on trumped up charges for questioning how the principal was using tech grant money.

The city is pushing forward, planning to expand the program this fall to four more schools — Intermediate Schools 2 and 49 in Staten Island as well as Middle Schools 88 and 381 in Brooklyn — with the help of a high-profile $5 million grant awarded by the Obama administration.

So in the ultimate of ironies, the Republicans can charge the Obama admin with wasting at least 2.5 million on Portelos' school.

And really, it is all about trying to use this expensive program to pump up test scores, which we have been pointing out time and again is not about real learning.

Stuyvesant High School math teacher Gary Rubinstein, who recently wrote about his visit to School of One early in the pilot program, said he wasn’t surprised. “Even if they got results, I wouldn’t be impressed because it looked like all they were learning how to do was do better on a standardized test,” he said.

Read entire article

"School of One" versus "I-Zone?"

Both certainly share lots of corporate sponsors and partners! School of One is one type of school within the Izone which encapsulates a lot of alternative online learning schools and programs.

The reality and the hype behind online learning & the "School of One" - http://goo.gl/Dql2h

Tweed Dismantles Networks Before Crimes and Corruption Exposed

Protect Portelos in 

Rubber Room Journal reports this from the rubber room today:

Found some network offices are being broken down and dissolved. Even our cluster2.net site seems like it doesn’t exist anymore. Something is brewing. What’s a network office? Some info here.

O'Mahoney

Ah, those networks. I heard a story that Eric Nadelstern, one of the architects of the failed network system about to be dismantled, always claims they don't have any real power over the schools, just service them. He claims that when questions arise as to the accountability of networks for the actions of a principal. Nadelstern is a liar. Talk to people at any school and they will tell you the truth of the power the shadowy networks where no one has to take responsibility, have held over the schools.

The Gotham Schools report on John O'Mahoney -- Former network leader fined for helping teacher wife get hired --- exposed how deep the corruption:

John O’Mahoney was in charge of the Children First Network #208 in February 2011 when he met with the principal of one of the schools he oversaw to discuss a state audit of the school’s federally-funded academic intervention services program. It was at that time that O’Mahoney determined that the principal needed to create a teaching job for the program and “discussed my wife’s qualifications” for the position, he admitted in a signed deposition released by the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board.
Shortly after, O’Mahoney’s wife got the job.

Now I know all about this O'Mahoney character. He used to work at a middle school in Queens. One thing you should know about that school. The last 3 UFT Middle School VPs come out of there and O'Mahoney was a pal. He was even part of a conspiracy between the Unity people at the school to trump up charges against an ICE candidate for chapter leader and put that teacher in the rubber room for 6 months, effectively ending his career.

So I wasn't surprised at this:

Later that year, O’Mahoney learned that his wife’s position would be eliminated at the school, which was not named, because of budget cuts. He then instructed his network’s director of human resources to “inform the Principal that my wife’s position could not be excessed.”
Both acts were a violation of the city’s ethics laws and O’Mahoney is required to pay a $4,000 fine, the board ruled. 

 That's it. Four grand for extortion while teachers charged with the most minimal acts get fined 10 or 15 grand by hearing officers.

Or worse, fired and then suspended for two years without pay.
[DONATE To Christine Rubino]
Network operatives have been part of every coverup of the actions of principals. Francesco Portelos tells once such story about his corrupt principal and for telling this story he sits in a rubber room while the kids at his school are denied his considerable talents.

Knowing the networks are kaput, the rats are scurrying to grab a principalship wherever they can. John O'Mahoney, now principal of Sheepshead Bay HS, has brought his level of corruption to that school.

There are 35 comments at the Gotham article. Here is one example:

This is hilarious. This has been going on for ages. Check Sheepshead's Network leader WENDY KARP. She was a failed principal at Madison and got bumped UP to Network leader. While there, she has hired friends of hers such as failed Principal Amy HOROWITZ as superintendent and put in her long time Dewey friend and corrupt COOKING TEACHER, REESA LEVY as Principal. Its all the same.

Yes, the networks, bastions of corruption and failed recycled principals, now being recycled once again.

Here is one more story that exposes O'Mahoney for what he is but you will never see his pals at the UFT say a word:

The New York Post

June 24, 2012 Sunday

NYC teacher: Bosses made me doctor grades

A Brooklyn geometry teacher with a remarkable record of academic success says she was pressured into giving passing grades to two failing seniors so they could graduate.

The inflated scores allowed the students to get their diplomas from Sheepshead Bay HS on Friday, despite both having flunked her class.

Erica Bloom, 36, says administrators used threats to pressure her into changing the final marks for the two, raising their scores from a failing 55 to a passing 65.

"They said if I didn't change them, I could expect another '3020' [disciplinary hearing], which would mean the removal of my license," Bloom said. "So I lose my job, my insurance, my pension - everything, after 14 years."

She says she signed off on the changed grades, hurled the new paperwork at an assistant principal and stormed off.

At issue was the students' poor performance on the geometry Regents exam on Wednesday.

Bloom says new school Principal John O'Mahoney had insisted that all students take the Regents - and that their scores should count for 10 percent of their final grades.

One of the students notched a 53 on the test. The other failed to show up.

"A guidance counselor [for one student] came in and asked me to change his grade," she said.

He was followed by the assistant principal "who came in and kept asking, 'Why are you failing him?' "

Another asked about the second student.

"I was pressured by everybody," she said.

She then went to O'Mahoney's office but he refused to intervene. "He didn't say a thing," she said.

Bloom says she suffers from an eating disorder and exceeded her allowable sick days in 2009 and 2010, leading to an unfavorable attendance rating.

In 2011, she took 10 days, the approved limit.

"But they went back and found one day where I left early, so they said I took 10.33 sick days."

Which would mean a third straight year of excessive absenteeism - and a likely termination, Bloom says.

"I was hysterical," she said.

Faced with that threat, she says, she signed off on the grade changes.

The Department of Education said O'Mahoney did nothing wrong.

"The principal acted properly," said spokeswoman Margie Feinberg. "This was not an issue of changing grades."

brad.hamilton@nypost.com

Charter School Profiteer 260K a Year Man Juan Rangel Wants to Bust Chicago Teachers Union [VIDEO]

The crew at the Chicago Teachers Union sure know how to make a video tell a story and make the ed deform connections. Only 1 and a half minutes and worth watching.




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The opinions expressed on EdNotesOnline are solely those of Norm Scott and are not to be taken as official positions (though Unity Caucus/New Action slugs will try to paint them that way) of any of the groups or organizations Norm works with: ICE, GEM, MORE, Change the Stakes, NYCORE, FIRST Lego League NYC, Rockaway Theatre Co., Active Aging, The Wave, Aliens on Earth, etc.

Chicago Teachers Union Educates Members on History of Strikes

Here in NYC the UFT tries to bury the history of teacher strikes. In Chicago they celebrate them.

History is important if you want to build a movement. One day I have to upload all the print editions of Ed Notes going back to 1997. There is a real history of the Weingarten years and the early days of the ed deform movement.

Diane Ravitch labeled me a "prolific" blogger on Saturday. I just counted 6 of hers today and it's 9:15AM. This is only my 2nd today. I hope she keeps them coming every half hour if necessary -- even if we can't read them all, they offer a tremendous resource for us all. I know, I know, I am inundating you on the first day you have to go back to school  -- and good luck to you all.

Substance reports:

VIDEO HISTORY: CORE and Labor Beat team up to produce the half hour video 'CTU Strikes 1969 - 1987' where veteran teachers help a new generation understand the work of union militancy

The video produced by CORE (the Caucus of Rank and File Educators of the Chicago Teachers Union) and Chicago's Labor Beat during the summer of 2012 in conjunction with the four CORE "Successful Chicago Strikes" forums is now available on You Tube for the public to view. It is — called "CTU Strikes: 1969 - 1987" and is a half hour long.

By George N. Schmidt - September 2nd, 2012

The video produced by CORE (the Caucus of Rank and File Educators of the Chicago Teachers Union) and Chicago's Labor Beat during the summer of 2012 in conjunction with the four CORE "Successful Chicago Strikes" . . .

http://youtu.be/B1qO4IBhGEw


Here is more from George Schmidt's Substance story:

The video features six veteran Chicago Teachers Union members (including this reporter) who discuss the history of the strikes between 1968 (the famous FTB strike against racism and segregation) and 1987 (the 19-day strike) that made the Chicago Teachers Union the most famous militant union in the USA. As the video points out for historical accuracy, CTU continued to strike successfully even after "PATCO" supposedly made the labor movement afraid to strike.

The video was produced during the summer of 2012 as the union busting tactics of the Chicago Board of Education and the administration of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel made it clear to more and more teachers that the CTU was being forced into the position of "Strike or Surrender" that it had faced during the earliest days of collective bargaining in the 1960s, and that many of the issues, including the tactics of the city and the Board of Education, had not changed in 50 years.

In the introduction to the video, George Schmidt and Jim Daniels talk about the vicious racism that divided the City of Chicago through the 1960s and resulted in the majority of Black teachers in the city not only teaching in segregated schools, but unable to get "certified" because of a blatantly discriminatory oral certification exam.

Members of CORE continued organizing and informing the CTU membership throughout the summer of 2012 as the strike loomed closer and closer. CORE leaders noted that a union that has forgotten its history is doomed to repeat the worst mistakes of its past, so CORE begin the long process of reviving the militant history of the Chicago Teachers Union in video and print.The segregation and racism were challenged both within the CTU and in the schools by a growing group of teachers, most of them Black, who eventually led a wildcat strike that shut down or disrupted more than 100 of the city's schools. The "FTB Strike" of 1968 is widely revered among progressive unionists in Chicago as a pivotal moment in the history of the CTU. As Jim Daniels notes in the video, the union leadership at that time declared the FTB strike against racist certifications an illegal "wildcat," but the leadership of that action eventually pushed the union into full integration and into overcoming the racism of the Board of Education's certification and assignment procedures.

A trick used to keep minorities from becoming "fully certified" (and thus eligible for "assignment" as "regular teachers" and later, tenure) was the oral examination. Throughout the 1950s, as Chicago's enormous Black ghetto expanded across the South Side and the West Side through block busting and deliberate school overcrowding block by block, the Chicago Board of Education created more and more new Black schools, staffing them with Black teachers (and some whites, usually those considered "Hippies" and "Commies") who were forced for the most part to remain in "FTB" (Full Times Basis Substitute) status for years, or even decades. Ironically, however, the compression of the Black ghetto (which had been "allowed" to expand block by block thanks to edicts of the Chicago Real Estate Board beginning during the 1920s) also gave rise to a form of Black Power (in both the communities and the schools) unique in many ways in the USA.

There's even more to read at:
http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=3558&section=Article

Those who appreciate the work of CORE and Labor Beat in making this learning tool available are asked to join CORE (see www.coreteachers.org) and make donations to Labor Beat and to Substance. The video is available in DVD format from CORE for $10 (a part of this cost goes to build CORE and democracy in the CTU) from CORE at coreteachers.org. Members of CORE can request copies of the video. The video will be shown on Labor Beat in early September 2012.

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The opinions expressed on EdNotesOnline are solely those of Norm Scott and are not to be taken as official positions (though Unity Caucus/New Action slugs will try to paint them that way) of any of the groups or organizations Norm works with: ICE, GEM, MORE, Change the Stakes, NYCORE, FIRST Lego League NYC, Rockaway Theatre Co., Active Aging, The Wave, Aliens on Earth, etc.

"Screw You," Says Obama Team When Teachers Don't Like Obama Ed Policies

Hey, teachers don't have anywhere else to go is the theory of the Obama team so this story in the LA Times, Teachers unions' alliance with Democratic Party frays, contains a few interesting nuggets. Yesterday we reported that there would be Parents Across America protest at the movie "Won't Back Down" (What Goes on in Charlotte Doesn't Stay in Charlotte).

The LA Times story is about that protest.

The screening [Won't Back Down] was not an official convention event, but required approval from the highest levels of the White House and the Democratic Party, according to the Huffington Post. In a measure of blessing, convention chairman and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa stopped by to speak briefly to the attendees.

When a leader of the overhaul [deform] movement was hired to be Obama's spokeswoman for California, the California Federation of Teachers told state Democratic officials that if she was not fired, the union might not "participate" in Obama's reelection effort. The spokeswoman remains on the Obama team.

Wow, "might not participate" -- fighting words. The Obama people must have laughed themselves silly.

Think Chicago --- if Rahm Emanuel smashes the teacher strike while Obama is of course silent, how many Chicago teachers do you think "might not participate." Does anyone think it possible that Obama loses his home state? Remember how Adrian Fenty, an up and coming Washington DC politician, has his career ruined by Michelle Rhee's stewardship of the DC schools. If that should happen to Obama I will have mixed feelings because I despise the Republicans so much. But then there are plenty of Dems to despise too.

I know one thing. I won't be giving money to Obama or get up at 6AM to go to Allentown as a volunteer. Multiply me by thousands of teachers who might vote for Obama but won't be getting out the vote and there may very well be some chickens coming home to roost despite the absolutely awful lying Republican candidates who will lead us into a Greater Depression than the Great Depression.

Karen Lewis Says: Enough is Enough - Chicago Teachers Turn the Town Red/ Rahm and the DNC

On Labor Day, Karen Lewis addressed 20,000 teachers about their struggle with Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Do you know how hard it is to get 20,000 people to turn out for anything? ..... The fight between CTU and Rahm Emanuel is not helpful to President Obama.--- Diane Ravitch

Info keeps rolling in from Chicago and the allies of the TU all over the nation. You can keep up at: http://www.ctunet.com/ and at http://www.substancenews.net which reports on today's events:

Labor Day in Chicago draws more than 18,000 to rally and march... Huge support for upcoming Chicago teachers' strike.... 'The only way to handle a bully is to stand up to him,' Karen Lewis told the crowd

Kati Gilson and Susan Zupan - September 03, 2012
18,000 people packed Daley Center on picture perfect Labor Day. The only thing missing were the two key players in the CPS/CTU saga — Chicago's mayor and his hand-picked schools "Chief Executive". The sea of red was dotted with green AFSCME shirts, blue Action Now shirts and more. Families with young children, numerous union groups and CTU teachers gathered in solidarity to

Here is a pic from Substance fight for “The Schools our Children Deserve”.

From Fred Klonsky blog: Check out this photo by Sarah Ji:

Teachers are parents too, Fred Klonsky blog

Have they noticed the pictures coming in from Chicago of thousands of red shirted union people and supporters flooding the streets of Rahmbo's ed reform fiefdom? Forget about Romney being out of touch we all KNEW that but how about Obama's old pal and featured speaker at the Dem Conference who openly hates and abuses union workers every chance he gets while bootlicking the Hyatt mogul and billionaire Penny Pritzkin, building her a hotel with money he stole from taxpayers. His city is awash in rabid anti Rahm sentiment and do you think he gets it? How does this party let a guy like Emanuel in the door let alone invite him to speak? And our own Prince Andy Cuomo, who is essentially Rahmbo with a New York crust, tried to keep the 4 biggest labor leaders in the state from attending unless they called him to grovel. Lucky for slippery Dick Ianuzzi his fellow sellout Randi was able to squeeze some juice from the DNC so Dicky was spared the begging. These are people who don't give a shit about any of us. Why on earth would we vote for more of their abuse and betrayal?  -----

sean crowley  comment on ednotes post "What Goes on in Charlotte Doesn't Stay in Charlott..."

from Fred Klonsky blog

Ravitch reports:

Karen Lewis Speaks to 20,000 Chicago Teachers

by dianerav

On Labor Day, Karen Lewis addressed 20,000 teachers about their struggle with Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Do you know how hard it is to get 20,000 people to turn out for anything?

When Karen Lewis met with Rahm Emanuel after his election, he told her that 25% of the children in Chicago would never amount to anything. She was outraged.

more Diane

Here is the video of Karen's speech today from the CTU web site where she calls Rahm Emanuel a liar and a bully.





Fred Klonsky expresses his own excitement and emotion at the events in this blog post, followed by some pointed criticism at the state union lack of support (and let's keep an eye on the AFT.)

“Look up! Look down! Chicago is a union town!”

September 3, 2012

I heard everything from ten thousand to eighteen thousand. I say twenty. Matt Farmer half jokingly said that the Tribune is reporting 326.
We filled Daley Plaza in a sea of red.
We surrounded Rahm’s City Hall and poured from the sidewalk on to the street.
We marched down Clark Street to the headquarters of the Chicago Public Schools.
“Hey, hey. Ho, ho. Rahm Emanuel has got to go!”

And a thanks to all the many blog readers who came up and introduced themselves to me and shared some very nice words. Putting faces to readers is important. It was so great to hear from those who told me they share articles and drawings with others. It means we’re building a network and a movement. That makes the work worthwhile.

Yes, Fred, when people ask me why after 10 years or retirement, building a network and a movement makes it all worthwhile.

What were they doing down in Springfield today.

Having a barbecue?

Barbecue unionism. --- Fred Klonsky

Here is another important post from Fred Klonsky condeming the Ill Ed Assoc which didn't even mention the situation in Chicago: An injury to one is an injury to all. But not if you’re the IEA.

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A BIG LAUSD TEACHER LABOR DAY SALUTE TO STRIKING CHICAGO TEACHERS (VIDEO)

http://www.perdaily.com/2012/09/a-big-lausd-teacher-labor-day-salute-to-striking-chicago-teachers.html
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How interesting that in Chicago they actually hold Labor Day activities on Labor Day while here in NYC "Labor Day" will be next Saturday, Sept. 8.  If you are going look for updates on Ed Notes of where you can meet up with the MORE contingent -- and I will have extra tee-shirts if you want to purchase one ($20 to help raise money for the MORE election campaign -- but I'll only sell you one if you promise to wear it.)

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The opinions expressed on EdNotesOnline are solely those of Norm Scott and are not to be taken as official positions (though Unity Caucus/New Action slugs will try to paint them that way) of any of the groups or organizations Norm works with: ICE, GEM, MORE, Change the Stakes, NYCORE, FIRST Lego League NYC, Rockaway Theatre Co., Active Aging, The Wave, Aliens on Earth, etc.