Julie made this appearance on National TV and more than held her own with ed deformers a few weeks ago on the Sunday before the Chicago strike ended. Here are the segments. Watch out for commercials.
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Julie Cavanagh on MSNBC - Chris Hayes
Julie made this appearance on National TV and more than held her own with ed deformers a few weeks ago on the Sunday before the Chicago strike ended. Here are the segments. Watch out for commercials.
Gotham Schools on UFT, Possible MORE/E4E Confrontation Will Help Mulgrew
Is Unity promoting an E4E election run?
A high UFT official admitted privately that an attempt was made to convince E4E to run, a policy that could put E4E against MORE and deflect from the failure of Unity policy. E4E would be stacked with money from DFER and other anti-union groups but since the main object of Unity is to maintain power, the confusion, with New Action as a stalking horse for Unity would totally confuse the issues. This will be interesting to watch.
In the meantime, MORE expects to announce its top level candidates within the next week. Being cash poor since MORE is funded out of the pockets of NYC teachers, there is hope the campaign will resonate in the schools and the rank and file will see through the sham.
Here is the Gotham article and some comments below the fold.
A high UFT official admitted privately that an attempt was made to convince E4E to run, a policy that could put E4E against MORE and deflect from the failure of Unity policy. E4E would be stacked with money from DFER and other anti-union groups but since the main object of Unity is to maintain power, the confusion, with New Action as a stalking horse for Unity would totally confuse the issues. This will be interesting to watch.
In the meantime, MORE expects to announce its top level candidates within the next week. Being cash poor since MORE is funded out of the pockets of NYC teachers, there is hope the campaign will resonate in the schools and the rank and file will see through the sham.
Here is the Gotham article and some comments below the fold.
UFT chief hits Florida to sway 2012 election, and maybe 2013′s
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
MORE's Brian Jones on School Grades at Schoolbook
MORE members once again prove they are about a lot MORE than narrow union politics.
Leonie Haimson hyped this debate at nycednews:
Great critiques of NYC school grading system by parent Tory Frye, teacher Brian Jones, former principal of El Ro Susan Elliot & Manhattan Institute's Sol Stern in NYT #RoomforDebate
http://bit.ly/SKCqnY
Here is Brian's piece:
Labeling a School 'Hopeless' Isn't the Answer
Brian Jones has taught in New York City public schools for nine years and is now pursuing a Ph.D. in urban education at the CUNY Graduate Center. He co-narrated the film "The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman <http://vimeo.com/41994760> " and contributed to the book "Education and Capitalism: Struggles for Learning and Liberation <http://www.haymarketbooks.org/pb/Education-and-Capitalism> ." He is a member of the Movement of Rank and File Educators <http://morecaucusnyc.org/mission-statement/> and writes a blog <http://brianpjones.tumblr.com/> .
OCTOBER 9, 2012
School progress reports cannot be fairly called a measurement of "progress" since schools are graded on a curve <http://shankerblog.org/?p=6812> : 25 percent of them will get a "C" each year, 7 percent will get a "D," and 3 percent will get an "F." You don't have to be a statistician to understand that it is possible, here, for schools to make actual progress but remain in the same spot on the curve.
Anyone who works in a school knows that receiving a scarlet letter "C" or worse means punishment, not help, is on the way. Schools with poor ratings face staff firings and closure. At times, public school closures have coincided with the expansion of charter schools <http://articles.nydailynews.com/2010-02-26/local/27057482_1_charter-schools-public-schools-chancellor-joel-klein> , defying basic notions of fairness, the public trust and even the rating system itself.
These and other problems are a reflection of a deeper issue at the department of education: the lack of serious ideas about pedagogy and an unshakable faith in free market solutions. The grading system encourages parents to view themselves as customers with "options" not citizens with rights. But there's one option that isn't on the menu: transforming the conditions in all of the schools.
In the age of austerity, the department of education has found millions to spend on developing more standardized tests for more grades and more subjects -- including pre-K <http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2012/04/doe-to-spend-millions-of-dollars-on-new.html> .
Meanwhile, when an investigation <http://comptroller.nyc.gov/press/2011_releases/pr11-10-076.shtm> found that only 6 percent of the audited schools were meeting students' physical education needs, no such millions were ever mobilized to hire physical education instructors or upgrade facilities. Here, the grading system serves to justify the rationing of education. Why spend on a "hopeless" school?
We are wary of teachers who label even one student as "hopeless." We should be equally wary of education leaders who know -- in advance -- the precise percentage of schools that will be deemed hopeless.
Cheers,
Norm Scott
Twitter: normscott1
Education Notes
ednotesonline.blogspot.com
Grassroots Education Movement
gemnyc.org
Education columnist, The Wave
www.rockawave.com
nycfirst robotics
normsrobotics.blogspot.com
Sent from my BlackBerry
MORE general Meeting: Saturday Oct. 13, Noon-3pm
Building a rigorous and effective alternative to Unity Caucus is the single most important method of getting the UFT leadership to function in the true interests of the rank and file. A caucus doesn't even have to win any seats in an election in an inherently undemocratic structure but win enough votes to shake the tree.
Then there are the schools themselves where a caucus can start breaking the Unity hold by organizing chapters so that the Delegate Assembly no longer remains a lock for Unity.
Have you read about Julie Cavanagh in various publications or Portelos live streaming from the rubber room? Or Brian Jones appearing on major education panels? Or the fiery words from Michael Fiorillo or Patrick Walsh or James Eterno? All MORE members with lots of new stars to come.
All balls are in play as the new MORE caucus gets rolling in a manner I haven't seen in my over 40 years of activism. Still lots of hurdles to cross, mainly in expanding outreach to the schools.
So jump on board this fast moving train.
I don't have to tell readers of ednotes online over the past 6 years or the published version of Education Notes over the past 15 years how Unity has assisted the deformers in dismantling the public schools, not just in the lack of organizing a massive fightback but in actually cooperating.
An uprising out of the schools is where it begins. MORE is committed to monthly meetings. This Saturday MORE hopes to have the top 5 positions for the upcoming uft elections in place, with a great choice for a candidate to challenge Mulgrew if the MORE members endorse. You can be part of the process by joining MORE.
Here is the announcement:
Join MORE members for our next general meeting this Saturday, October 13th.
We will be discussing the upcoming UFT elections and voting on the top five positions of the slate.
Bios of the candidates will be sent out this week in our weekly update.
We will also hold committee meetings as well as breakout sessions to tackle the work we face in the coming months.
Did you know 217 schools qualify for closing under the New York City Department of Education guidelines?
We will hold breakout groups to launch our efforts to support, educate, organize and mobilize around this issue and MORE!
October 13th 12-3 pm
CUNY Graduate Center
365 5th Ave @ 34th St.
Rm. 5409. Bring ID.
Reply to more@morecaucusnyc.org to request childcare by
Wednesday, October 10th
Cheers,
Norm Scott
Twitter: normscott1
Education Notes
ednotesonline.blogspot.com
Grassroots Education Movement
gemnyc.org
Education columnist, The Wave
www.rockawave.com
nycfirst robotics
normsrobotics.blogspot.com
Sent from my BlackBerry
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
ATRs Meet Wed. Oct 10 5pm - Inform Atrs in your schools
The best protection atrs can have - and since everyone is a potential atr that means all current teachers are potential future atrs - check Bloomberg's closing school list so more non-unionized charters can open - is to organize. The uft only responds as the PR org it really functions as is to public pressure. GEMATR only group doing it. A small number of people are doing a lot of work. They need to get an idea of numbers so as to best organize the meeting so rsvp to gemnyc@gmail.com
EXPERIENCED TEACHERS NEED NOT APPLY?!
NYC ATRs, Stand up together!
Learn about the DOE's myths about the ATRs and the realities about the ATRs. Share ideas on surviving the process.
Discuss bridging the gap between the status quo and what action we can take together to change our situation.
Come to the GEM/ATR Committee's general meeting: Wednesday, October 10, 2012, 5:00 p.m.
Location:
Skylight Diner (meet in the back)
402 W. 34th Street and 9th Avenue.
Please RSVP to gemnyc@gmail.com
EXPERIENCED TEACHERS NEED NOT APPLY?!
NYC ATRs, Stand up together!
Learn about the DOE's myths about the ATRs and the realities about the ATRs. Share ideas on surviving the process.
Discuss bridging the gap between the status quo and what action we can take together to change our situation.
Come to the GEM/ATR Committee's general meeting: Wednesday, October 10, 2012, 5:00 p.m.
Location:
Skylight Diner (meet in the back)
402 W. 34th Street and 9th Avenue.
Please RSVP to gemnyc@gmail.com
Monday, October 8, 2012
MORE's Julie Cavanagh on DOE Convoluted School Choice
Choice is great for the folks who have the resources to be good consumers. For the rest of us, choices are really no choice at all. It really should be quite simple. Great neighborhood schools with what we know works: small class sizes, rich and culturally relevant curriculum, experienced/supported educators, and parent/community involvement and empowerment. None of this is difficult, none of it is a mystery. The only mystery is why every current policy and all ed "reform" rhetoric espouses basically the opposite....... Julie Cavanagh
Julie's comment is an excerpt from a Great debate with numerous people at Nycednews over the insanity driven nycdoe choice options parents have to slog through. Julie's point is that "choice" is advertised as beneficial for poor parents when in fact it favors the well-off.
(Just for fun Attend any meeting full of Evil Moskowitz minions where they practically chant "choice" till u want to barf all over them. And then go over and do it).
I also include comments by Lisa Donlan who basically agrees with Julie but has her own twist on choice. Leonie Haimson and Deb Meier also chip in.
Read it all but here are a few segments to whet your appetite:
Leonie:
... for those who get into a school they want, often it turns out not to suit them and despite all the rhetoric of "choice" DOE makes it nearly IMPOSSIBLE to transfer out.
It's a little like the Roach Motel ad; once you check in you can't check out.
Julie's full comment below is in response to a Deb Meier comment below that closes with:
"I did rather envy my other grandchildren who live upstate and had one choice--their local high school."
Julie begins:
Exactly and thank you Deb.
And let's also think beyond our own subject positions...
What about the child of a single mother?
What about the child who has a parent(s) who is/are an addict?
What about parents who work more than one job? Who can't read or write? Who are mentally ill? Who are immobile or elderly?
What about kids who live in foster care or a group home or are homeless?
What about parents who are intimidated by the overwhelming nature of the process or because of institutional racism, or because they are immigrants or all three?
What about parents who have no one to watch other siblings while they navigate this process?
What about the parents whose budgets simply cannot afford extra travel expenses to be factored in so that they can travel to schools (let alone extra expenses for tutoring/prep for specialized exams or other admissions processes)?
I could go on.
Should these children have less access to "good" schools because they have no access to the process?
Should parents have to sacrifice time and treasure to find a "good" school for their kids?
My mom was a single mother raising two kids, one of them (my sister), was ill. She worked tremendous hours as a nurse, cared for my sister and our household largely on her own.
She would not have had the ability to navigate this process with me, and in fact when it came time for college I was on my own (save my amazing teachers who helped me including one who actually drove me out to Indiana to school bc my mom couldn't. Which, I'm sure has a lot to do with why I am a teacher).
Who knows what my middle school and high school experiences/access would have been if I grew up in NYC and, therefore, who knows where I would be now.
I've worked in Red Hook for over 10 years now. Some parents do not even fill out the middle school applications let alone visit and "shop" for schools. There are a myriad of reasons why they don't/can't and their reasons should not matter; as a society what should matter to us is that every child attends a great school, I don't see "choice" getting us there.
Choice is great for the folks who have the resources to be good consumers. For the rest of us, choices are really no choice at all.
It really should be quite simple. Great neighborhood schools with what we know works: small class sizes, rich and culturally relevant curriculum, experienced/supported educators, and parent/community involvement and empowerment.
None of this is difficult, none of it is a mystery. The only mystery is why every current policy and all ed "reform" rhetoric espouses basically the opposite.
-----------
Phew. What a powerful statement by Julie, echoing the great narrative she wrote for our movie, The Inconvenient Truth Behind Superman.
------------
Here is Deb Meier's full comment on choice:
What an unreal picture folks have of most people's lives. I'd never consider reading through that huge list as a way to make choices. I'd depend on friends and school contcts to whittle it down for me. And then? When my son and his wife were away I tried to help out by doing some of the visiting with my grandkids. I managed to see two schools in one full day, and it left me bewildered. In three days I saw four. No clearer. I mostly found out--as they did--how easy or hard it would be to get there and back home, what the plant looked like and something about the schools values -- but I was not sure it wasn't random, depending on one's guide. I don't know what they'd do if they hadn't felt they could trust their middle school advisor and a few friends. I did rather envy my other grandchildren who live upstate and had one choice--their local high school.
Deb
--------
I want to close with Lisa Donlan on choice. Lisa saw a program of local choice on the lower east side undermined and ultimately destroyed by Tweed because its very existence threatened the favored bogus "charter is the only choice".
I'll let Lisa take over:
I am always so glad when I see thoughtful discussion of these huge polemics.
"Choice" is not simply black or white but is very complex and must be unpacked to be understood.
For all of the reason Julie enumerates above, school choice has caused our nation's children to learnin increasingly segregated schools. That is just wrong!
But I feel it is important to note that the whole notion of choice, which has been hijacked and used to manipulate parents and create a separate unregulated privately managed school system, stems from real inequities in our nation.
The practice of school zoning, which largely recreates inequitable and segregated housing patterns in our schools, is the "wrong" that school choice claims to address.
Until we find a way to improve all schools, in order to deliver on the right that Leonie evoked a few posts back, to a high quality neighborhood school for all children, it is hard to imagine anyone telling those families that they do not deserve better options.
The tragedy is that there has never been any large scale attempts to bring about that promise, and those with privilege (who often demand and work for a different outcome for their own children) have not necessarily suffered from the effects of those inequities and may not understand what it means to feel you have no choice.
As most folks on the list know already I believe in the power of diversity-based choice-driven assignment plans, like magnet programs and community controlled choice, that try to address these inequities and help all schools to be those quality neighborhood schools every child deserves.
Neither pure market-style choice or rigid zoned-based assignment plans are going to get us to that promise.
Lisa
--------
Leonie Haimson on choice:
Perhaps we can all agree that every child in NYC should have the right to attend a high-quality neighborhood school, all the way through HS.
And that offering 400 plus HS "choices" of uneven and unreliable quality, any of which can be closed at a moment's notice for arbitrary and often unfair reasons by the Mayor, should never replace that right.
The HS admissions process in NYC is a nightmare; extremely time consuming and stressful, with highly unreliable results. Thousands of kids get shut out of ALL of their top ten choices each year; for those who get into a school they want, often it turns out not to suit them and despite all the rhetoric of "choice" DOE makes it nearly IMPOSSIBLE to transfer out.
It's a little like the Roach Motel ad; once you check in you can't check out.
-----------
Back to me. Choice as framed in a competitive capitalistic market ultimately leads to little or no choice as competition drives out the choices. As eva and hubby eric run wild all over north bklyn creaming the top kids with massive advertizing campaigns we will see public schools shut down ala New orleans without the hurricane.
Julie's comment is an excerpt from a Great debate with numerous people at Nycednews over the insanity driven nycdoe choice options parents have to slog through. Julie's point is that "choice" is advertised as beneficial for poor parents when in fact it favors the well-off.
(Just for fun Attend any meeting full of Evil Moskowitz minions where they practically chant "choice" till u want to barf all over them. And then go over and do it).
I also include comments by Lisa Donlan who basically agrees with Julie but has her own twist on choice. Leonie Haimson and Deb Meier also chip in.
Read it all but here are a few segments to whet your appetite:
Leonie:
... for those who get into a school they want, often it turns out not to suit them and despite all the rhetoric of "choice" DOE makes it nearly IMPOSSIBLE to transfer out.
It's a little like the Roach Motel ad; once you check in you can't check out.
Julie's full comment below is in response to a Deb Meier comment below that closes with:
"I did rather envy my other grandchildren who live upstate and had one choice--their local high school."
Julie begins:
Exactly and thank you Deb.
And let's also think beyond our own subject positions...
What about the child of a single mother?
What about the child who has a parent(s) who is/are an addict?
What about parents who work more than one job? Who can't read or write? Who are mentally ill? Who are immobile or elderly?
What about kids who live in foster care or a group home or are homeless?
What about parents who are intimidated by the overwhelming nature of the process or because of institutional racism, or because they are immigrants or all three?
What about parents who have no one to watch other siblings while they navigate this process?
What about the parents whose budgets simply cannot afford extra travel expenses to be factored in so that they can travel to schools (let alone extra expenses for tutoring/prep for specialized exams or other admissions processes)?
I could go on.
Should these children have less access to "good" schools because they have no access to the process?
Should parents have to sacrifice time and treasure to find a "good" school for their kids?
My mom was a single mother raising two kids, one of them (my sister), was ill. She worked tremendous hours as a nurse, cared for my sister and our household largely on her own.
She would not have had the ability to navigate this process with me, and in fact when it came time for college I was on my own (save my amazing teachers who helped me including one who actually drove me out to Indiana to school bc my mom couldn't. Which, I'm sure has a lot to do with why I am a teacher).
Who knows what my middle school and high school experiences/access would have been if I grew up in NYC and, therefore, who knows where I would be now.
I've worked in Red Hook for over 10 years now. Some parents do not even fill out the middle school applications let alone visit and "shop" for schools. There are a myriad of reasons why they don't/can't and their reasons should not matter; as a society what should matter to us is that every child attends a great school, I don't see "choice" getting us there.
Choice is great for the folks who have the resources to be good consumers. For the rest of us, choices are really no choice at all.
It really should be quite simple. Great neighborhood schools with what we know works: small class sizes, rich and culturally relevant curriculum, experienced/supported educators, and parent/community involvement and empowerment.
None of this is difficult, none of it is a mystery. The only mystery is why every current policy and all ed "reform" rhetoric espouses basically the opposite.
-----------
Phew. What a powerful statement by Julie, echoing the great narrative she wrote for our movie, The Inconvenient Truth Behind Superman.
------------
Here is Deb Meier's full comment on choice:
What an unreal picture folks have of most people's lives. I'd never consider reading through that huge list as a way to make choices. I'd depend on friends and school contcts to whittle it down for me. And then? When my son and his wife were away I tried to help out by doing some of the visiting with my grandkids. I managed to see two schools in one full day, and it left me bewildered. In three days I saw four. No clearer. I mostly found out--as they did--how easy or hard it would be to get there and back home, what the plant looked like and something about the schools values -- but I was not sure it wasn't random, depending on one's guide. I don't know what they'd do if they hadn't felt they could trust their middle school advisor and a few friends. I did rather envy my other grandchildren who live upstate and had one choice--their local high school.
Deb
--------
I want to close with Lisa Donlan on choice. Lisa saw a program of local choice on the lower east side undermined and ultimately destroyed by Tweed because its very existence threatened the favored bogus "charter is the only choice".
I'll let Lisa take over:
I am always so glad when I see thoughtful discussion of these huge polemics.
"Choice" is not simply black or white but is very complex and must be unpacked to be understood.
For all of the reason Julie enumerates above, school choice has caused our nation's children to learnin increasingly segregated schools. That is just wrong!
But I feel it is important to note that the whole notion of choice, which has been hijacked and used to manipulate parents and create a separate unregulated privately managed school system, stems from real inequities in our nation.
The practice of school zoning, which largely recreates inequitable and segregated housing patterns in our schools, is the "wrong" that school choice claims to address.
Until we find a way to improve all schools, in order to deliver on the right that Leonie evoked a few posts back, to a high quality neighborhood school for all children, it is hard to imagine anyone telling those families that they do not deserve better options.
The tragedy is that there has never been any large scale attempts to bring about that promise, and those with privilege (who often demand and work for a different outcome for their own children) have not necessarily suffered from the effects of those inequities and may not understand what it means to feel you have no choice.
As most folks on the list know already I believe in the power of diversity-based choice-driven assignment plans, like magnet programs and community controlled choice, that try to address these inequities and help all schools to be those quality neighborhood schools every child deserves.
Neither pure market-style choice or rigid zoned-based assignment plans are going to get us to that promise.
Lisa
--------
Leonie Haimson on choice:
Perhaps we can all agree that every child in NYC should have the right to attend a high-quality neighborhood school, all the way through HS.
And that offering 400 plus HS "choices" of uneven and unreliable quality, any of which can be closed at a moment's notice for arbitrary and often unfair reasons by the Mayor, should never replace that right.
The HS admissions process in NYC is a nightmare; extremely time consuming and stressful, with highly unreliable results. Thousands of kids get shut out of ALL of their top ten choices each year; for those who get into a school they want, often it turns out not to suit them and despite all the rhetoric of "choice" DOE makes it nearly IMPOSSIBLE to transfer out.
It's a little like the Roach Motel ad; once you check in you can't check out.
-----------
Back to me. Choice as framed in a competitive capitalistic market ultimately leads to little or no choice as competition drives out the choices. As eva and hubby eric run wild all over north bklyn creaming the top kids with massive advertizing campaigns we will see public schools shut down ala New orleans without the hurricane.
Sure, Joel Klein is Not a Crook
Back around 2004 Ed Notes said that one day Joel Klein will be led out of Tweed with his coat over his head. I was wrong about him still being at Tweed. He'll be led out of some building on a perp walk at some point.
SYNERGY: News Corp. Exec Uses News Corp. Paper To Attack Teachers' Strike Without Disclosing News Corp. Testing Contracts
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2012/09/17/synergy-news-corp-exec-uses-news-corp-paper-to/189937
In an op-ed in Sunday's Wall Street Journal, News Corp. executive vice president Joel Klein attacked the ongoing teachers' strike in Chicago without disclosing his role in administering $4.7 million in educational testing contracts at the heart of the dispute.
In 2010, News Corp. purchased 90 percent of the education technology company Wireless Generation for $360 million, incorporating that company into the education subsidiary of News Corp. now known as Amplify.
Klein, the former schools chancellor for New York City, was hired by Rupert Murdoch to run News Corp.'s education division in July of 2010 and is now the CEO of Amplify. While the Journal -- which is also owned by News Corp. -- identified Klein as Amplify's CEO, neither the paper nor Klein himself disclosed that the company has millions of dollars in contracts for the very testing that is a central issue in the strike.
In May, Chicago Public Schools entered into an agreement with Wireless Generation to provide "math assessment services" and "literacy assessment services" to the school district. The math agreement is for "a total cost not to exceed $1,700,000" while the literacy assessment cites a cost "not to exceed $3,000,000." The Progressive Change Campaign Committee first reported on these contracts in a September 12 blog post.
In his op-ed, Klein downplays the teachers' rationale for taking action, writing that the strike "feels more about attitude -- 'the mayor doesn't respect us' -- than substance." In fact, the Chicago Teachers Union objects to a reformulation of the existing teacher evaluation system which would make standardized tests -- like those administered by Wireless Generation -- count for 40 percent of the score, which will be used to determine teacher pay and whether certain teachers will be laid off.
Union president Karen Lewis said the tests are "no way to measure the effectiveness of an educator" and that "there are too many factors beyond our control which impact how well some students perform on standardized tests such as poverty, exposure to violence, homelessness, hunger and other social issues beyond our control." The union is seeking such scores to weigh less heavily on the teachers' evaluations.
Indeed, reporting in the Journal has highlighted the centrality of teacher evaluations based on standardized testing to the ongoing dispute between teachers and the city. In a September 10 article the Journal noted that the strike has highlighted "a growing national debate over how best to evaluate teachers, set their pay and fire them."
In previous news stories discussing education reform, the Journal has disclosed its financial connection to News Corp. and Wireless Generation. In a May story on education standards, the Journal wrote about "Wireless Generation, an education-technology company owned by News Corp., which also owns The Wall Street Journal." In a January story on the "Race to the Top" education program, they made a similar disclosure. But the paper has not disclosed the contracts with Chicago Public Schools in their coverage of the strike.
Wireless Generation has previously been the target of controversy linked to its News Corp. ownership. In 2011, New York City rejected a $27 million contract with Wireless Generation, specifically citing the ongoing criminal investigation into phone hacking by their parent company. State Controller Thomas DiNapoli wrote, "in light of the significant ongoing investigations and continuing revelations with respect to News Corp., we are returning the contract with Wireless Generation unapproved."
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Eric Nadelstern, the great apologist for everything Joel Klein did for a decade
Sort of like Goering complaining about how Hitler ran the war.
Sour grapes from a guy who said nothing until he was passed over for his proteges.
Sour grapes from a guy who said nothing until he was passed over for his proteges.
-------------
...Take New York City, which received approximately $300 million in Race-to-the-Top federal funding. The central office squandered this windfall on two initiatives: trying to mandate top down innovation and imposing the Common Core in all schools. The last place in the school system capable of innovation is the central office, and when 70,000 teachers close their classroom doors each morning to begin the school day, the last thing they're thinking about are central office mandates. These badly needed resources would have been better spent by the schools in support of students and teachers in their classrooms...
http://www.schoolbook.org/2012/10/05/in-race-for-president-no-clear-winner-for-education/
In Race for President, No Clear Winner for Education
Oct. 5, 2012, 9:50 a.m.
By ERIC NADELSTERN
Like most Americans, I've made up my mind on which presidential candidate I plan to vote for. However, I would be hard-pressed to determine which candidate has the better plan for improving public education. I suspect that I'm not alone.
President Obama selected his neighbor and basketball buddy to be Secretary of Education. Arne Duncan was the superintendent of schools in Chicago, where the five-year high school graduation rate stood at 58% in 2011. Other than a teachers' strike at the start of this year, there isn't much education news coming out of the Windy City, where the new schools superintendent began his tenure by mandating recess.
To be fair, as education secretary, Duncan did use the power of the purse to push a charter-friendly federal agenda, and to promote teacher evaluations based on student performance. But the monies used to leverage this support were often not well spent.
Take New York City, which received approximately $300 million in Race-to-the-Top federal funding. The central office squandered this windfall on two initiatives: trying to mandate top down innovation and imposing the Common Core in all schools. The last place in the school system capable of innovation is the central office, and when 70,000 teachers close their classroom doors each morning to begin the school day, the last thing they're thinking about are central office mandates. These badly needed resources would have been better spent by the schools in support of students and teachers in their classrooms.
As we look forward to an increasingly likely second term for Obama, what has the administration learned from its first term educational efforts that will make them more successful in raising student achievement in a second term? I can't think of anything they have said or done to address this question. Is the U.S. Department of Education a functional learning organization, or like most educational bureaucracies, will it once again demonstrate that those who work at educational agencies are incapable of learning from experience?
On the other hand, the campaign of Republican Mitt Romney began with the most promising suggestion to close the achievement gap I've heard in years. He wants every student below grade level or with special needs to be able to select to attend any public school in their home state. What a great idea! The only problem in implementing it is that the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled against forced inter-district busing. Another problem is that Romney never followed up with anything as compelling with which to reform a public education system that is not getting the job done; namely, educating all of our young people to high school completion and beyond.
My late father had one standard he used to judge political candidates. Will he be good for Israel? Like him I care about the Jewish state and Middle East peace, but that would not be the sole criterion I would choose for supporting a candidate. Were I to base my vote on only one issue, it would have to be who would most like improve education in our country. On the basis of that standard, I would probably stay home on Election Day.
Eric Nadelstern is a professor at Teachers College. Prior to that, he was a deputy chancellor in the Department of Education
Cheers,
Norm Scott
Twitter: normscott1
Education Notes
ednotesonline.blogspot.com
Grassroots Education Movement
gemnyc.org
Education columnist, The Wave
www.rockawave.com
nycfirst robotics
normsrobotics.blogspot.com
Sent from my BlackBerry
Saturday, October 6, 2012
Portelos Rubber Room Live Stream Gets Press
More on Portelos, including video, since he has been live-streaming his stay in the new version of a "rubber room" without DOE making any of the charges against him public - but portelos has them publicly listed on his blog which should make Walcott a laughing stock.
What an embarassment this will prove to be for Walcott/Bloomberg and their aim to end tenure when they use laughable charges (including over half by his own chapter leader to get him out of the school) to try to railroad a top-level teacher - qualified, quality, effective - go ahead, apply any of the ed deform code words - for blowing the whistle on a corrupt principal and her union lackey (Richard Candia who by the way ran on the New Action slate in the 2010 elections).
Oh boy have they picked on the wrong guy this time. Portelos has such creds as a former engineer, top-notch STEM teacher and an elected chapter leader while in the rubber room this story is hard to ignore. Here is someone who openly admits he didn't see the need for tenure until they came for him.
You know, I have often urged teachers under attack with iron-clad creds to make these battles public but even politically active people often back away because the uft gives them hope as long as they keep it quiet - why? Because it demonstrates how weak, ineffective, uncaring, bullshit, etc the uft can be. Thank goodness someone who even the press will find impressive has had enough.
I can't get to the internet so links are not hot but here is an update from Leonie - and how great that she is taking this on while the uft is mum - I wish I could say more ----
Leonie Haimson has left a new comment on your post "The Portelos Case: A Basic Rights Issue of Our Tim...":
More on Portelos, including video, since he has been live-streaming his stay in the new version of a "rubber room" without DOE making any of the charges against him public: NBC News: Banished Teacher Live Streams Self Doing Nothing in rubber room http://shar.es/5d2SN and NYP: http://bit.ly/RlKA3c
Also the Staten island advance and nY post.
Cheers,
Norm Scott
Twitter: normscott1
Education Notes
ednotesonline.blogspot.com
Grassroots Education Movement
gemnyc.org
Education columnist, The Wave
www.rockawave.com
nycfirst robotics
normsrobotics.blogspot.com
Sent from my BlackBerry
NYC Teacher Patrick Walsh Takes Down Won't Back Down
www.raginghorse.wordpres
Won't Back Down: The Latest Volley from the Corporate Industrial Complex ( Hollywood Division)
Won't Back Down: The Latest Volley from the Corporate Industrial Complex ( Hollywood Division)
Produced by Walden Films, the same people who created the scene -staging anti teacher "documentary", Waiting for Superman, Won't Back Down is a multi-million dollar, star studded commercial for something called the Parent Trigger legislation. The Parent Trigger is a mechanism created ostensibly to empower parents by making it preposterously easy for them to turn a public school into a charter school. (Once a charter school, it is currently impossible to revert back to a public school regardless of how poorly the school performs.) But, as one of the major obstacles to parents actually pulling the Parent Trigger are teacher unions, Won't Back Down is a full-length attack on teacher unions that is nothing less than mendacious and slanderous. In point of fact, Won't Back Down nothing less than a public relations equivalent of a bullet to the union's brain.
Despite the presence of first-rate actors, the movie as movie is insulting and offensive on every conceivable level. But that does not mean it will not be effective. Won't Back Down is a tearjerker in which the jerked tears are meant not to allow the audience to get in touch with their inner Oprah but to inform political opinions and inspire political actions of a decidedly undemocratic strain. It is designed to turn parents against teachers by tricking them into believing that the sole reason their child is struggling is because he or she has a "bad teacher "; their only hope for their children's future is aligning themselves with union busting privatizing billionaires. Won't Back Down is meant to turn teachers against themselves.
Won't Back Down is a morality play pitting a fiery but good working class parent against her daughter's lousy or even evil teachers and their oppressive union which seems somehow to dictate a deadening curriculum, casts a melancholy cloud over everything and most egregiously forbids teachers from working with their students after school. The plot runs as follows: Jamie Fitzgerald (Maggie Gyllenhaal) a feisty Pittsburg single mom with two jobs, rightfully disgusted by the horrific education her dyslectic daughter is receiving in the nightmarish Adams Elementary School, stumbles upon a little used and littler known parent empowerment law strikingly similar to the Parent Trigger. Desperate to get her daughter the education she deserves, Jamie attempts to enlist both parents and teachers in signing the petition to create a new if utterly undefined school where parents "get a say in what gets taught and how." The only certainty is that it will would be non-union. At first, scornfully rebuked by both parties, especially the self absorbed and frightfully unlikable teachers (save one), she is also contemptuously dismissed by the honchos of the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Jamie won't back down. She gains a confederate among the teaching staff in Nona Alberts ( Viola Davis) and soldiers on. In time – very little time, actually – she somehow convinces not only the previously reluctant parent body, but, after a night of drinking and Texas Two Stepping, the previously hostile teachers who are magically transformed and as happy as dolphins to surrender all rights and benefits for a school "for teachers who want to teach" and "is about the kids." In a final absurdity, after the Pennsylvania school board, because of a single faulty mathematical equation, turns down Jamie's petition, Jamie convinces the board to reconsider by revealing that the equation was wrong because, she, like her daughter, is also dyslexic. Somehow this disclosure moves the board to hold a second and public vote. (Don't ask.) In the end 'because something must be done" the board approves Jamie's ' new school, and there is much rock and roll and weeping for joy in Pittsburgh. The final scene shows Jamie's dyslexic daughter Mylia who was struggling to read in the film's grim opening scene, miraculously reading fluently in a bright beautiful class room filed with happy and well mannered children.
Like all effective propaganda Won't back Down deals in broad strokes, traffics in heros and villains and aims to bypass rational argument, truth, and nuance, and appeals straight to the emotions. Writer Brian Hill and director Daniel Barnz know how to do this kind of thing, are good at it and leave nothing to chance. At no point in Won't Back Down does one hear the words "charter school" or "privatization" or "billionaire" or "ALEC" or "union busting." There is not hint a of the effects of Obama's insidious and deliberately destabilizing and astoundingly undemocratic Race to the Top, no mention of ballooning class sizes or idiotic, degrading effects on education systems based increasingly on standardized tests. You will listen in vain for any to the various Captain Ahab's – Gates, Broad and Co, -- who have been allowed to hijack the public school Pequot and sail it in almost any damn direction they please for years now, unbeknownst to the public at large.
What one does hear, again and again are recitations from the catechism of the corporate reformers. For a special kick in the pants, they often come from the mouths of teachers.
Hence, as if channeling Mike Bloomberg, one hears teacher Breena Harper (Rosie Perez) plaintively inquire, " What other profession guarantees a job for life after two years? " (Answer: none, including the teaching profession.) Echoing one of the holy writs of Teach For America, Jamie dismisses the horrific and myriad realties of poverty with a single pithy and solipsistic declaration: "I don't need 10,000 studies about poverty. I know poverty sucks and my kid can't read. " At another moment Jamie dismisses any option other than the trigger by declaring, "The whole system is broken. It's dead!"
Character after character speak as if they are but ventriloquists for the hidden masters behind the curtain.
And that, as they say, is that.
All one needs to know about what is wrong with the American public school system and unionized teachers can be easily discerned from the opening scene in which Malia, Jamie's pretty dyslexic daughter, stands in the center of a bleak , depressing classroom (all classrooms are bleak and depressing ) trying and failing to sound out a word on a filthy blackboard (all blackboards are filthy.) While her classmates openly ridicule the child, her overweight, miserable excuse for a teacher plays with her cell phone, too lazy and indifferent to even raise her eyes and look at the poor girl.
And it gets worse. Much worse. In short order we learn from a fellow teacher (Perez again ) that despite having the lowest test scores in Adam's Elementary, the union contract demands that Ms. Cellphone is the school's highest paid teacher. Hill and Barnz are not finished with Ms. Cellphone, however. Before the film is over this monster will lock little Malia in a disgusting broom closet -- a vicious, cruel and criminal act for which any teacher in this country would and should lose their job – for needing to use the bathroom. She is only freed from her captivity by the unexpected arrival of Jamie. Does this act lead to Ms. Cellphone being arrested, led out of school in handcuffs and pictured on the 6:00 news ? Hardly. No one other than Jamie even seems to notice. There are no consequences. Such is life in our public school system. By the films end, long after her colleagues have incomprehensively jettisoned their union in favor of a building a new school that favors the radical ideas of reading Shakespeare and having field trips ( what on earth were they doing in that school before hand ? ) , the cruel, criminal Ms. Cellphone remains gainfully employed if the only teacher from Adams Elementary to stick with the union. Get the connection? If not, you are not paying attention.
As the slanderous treatment of teacher unions is not merely central to the political agenda of this preposterous film but to the success of the corporate campaign to hijack and privatize public education, it is impossible to believe that they are the results of lazy research or poor writing or poetic license. Won't Back Down is a work that is consciously dishonest, never more so than in its depiction of teacher unions. Consider the fact that character after character, teachers included, bemoan the contractual agreement cited again and again in the film that forbids teachers to stay after school and work with kids. Consider the fact the union's reaction to Jamie's increasingly successful campaign to remake the school is to try and bribe her by paying her child's tuition to a spectacularly beautiful private school. Consider how the whole defeated, miserable filthy atmosphere of Adam's Elementary is somehow the result of the union and its "600 page contract, "; a contract that which puts the interests of teachers ahead of the interests of students, refusing in the sloganeering drone of Mike Bloomberg and Michelle Rhee and so many other corporate reformers, to "put kids first. Always." In works of fiction, such conceits fall under the rubric of poetic license. In politics they are called plausible deniability. Won't Back Down is politics masquerading as poetry.
The Parent Trigger legislature as depicted in the film bears as close a relationship to truth as does Won't Back Downs treatment of unions: That is to say, none. Like all of the corporate reform mechanisms, the Parent Trigger is the brainchild of a third party with vested interests in privatizing schools and plugged by a phony grassroots organization funded by billionaires. Unlike the mythology its cynical creators have manufactured, the Trigger is the labor, not of a handful of grassroots parents rising up to demand better schools for their kids but rather the brainchild of one Ben Austin, a policy consultant for a charter school organization in Los Angeles.
The Trigger mandates that a school be closed, its staff fired and the building turned over to a charter school corporation if 51% of parents can be persuaded to sign a petition. It is a reckless, wildly undemocratic and foolish idea and one that would have died on the vine if it were truly the fruit of the grass roots movement its adherents claim it to be. It would have been strangled to death if it actually led to anything vaguely approximating parental empowerment in schools which is among the last things Corporate Education Industrial Complex wants or would ever allow.
Austin went on to form the organization Parent Revolution whose sole reason for existence is to promote the Parent Trigger, across the USA of A.
Parent Revolution, ostensibly an organization built to empower parents, is another in a seemingly endless line of billionaire backed phony grass roots front groups that help do the dirty work -- especially the dividing and conquering -- necessary for the absolute triumph of the Corporate Reform Industrial Complex.
The parent revolutionaries of Parent Revolution are bankrolled by some of the most reactionary entities in America, including the Walton Family Foundation, the Heartland Institute and the extremely secretive American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) that is always busy helping corporate America propose and draft legislation for states across the country, all of them salivating over the privatization of the public school system.
As yet the Trigger has only been implemented twice, both times in California, both times leading to very negative results: bad schools, divided communities, nothing delivered. But no matter. Such realities are meaningless in the rarified world of the Corporate Reform Industrial Complex where, after almost a decade of complete dominance over schools from coast to coast, they are still whining about the " status quo " as if it were someone other than themselves.
Won't Back Down may well be a seminal product in American history as it is a popular film that exists solely as a vehicle for a political agenda. Its purpose is to put a union busting privatizing law on the map, make inroads into the American psyche, further undermine confidence in our school system, and further demonize unions and teachers. And this explains the almost presidential style public relations campaign the film 's promoters have led for the past mouth or so from coast to coast including events at both the Democratic and Republican conventions. There may be others, but I, for one, know of no other film that so nakedly and shamelessly served a political agenda. That the film is a commercial for the Trigger is not even disguised. Consider the following from Michelle Rhee's StudentfirstNewyork.org, she who publicly vowed to raise a billion dollars to destroy teacher unions.
"For too long, parents of students in failing schools have been stuck without options. Not any more. A new reform called "parent trigger" is giving parents a tool to take charge of persistently failing schools and turn them around. Under parent trigger, a majority of parents can petition for real, transformative changes for their school. Seven states already have some form of parent trigger laws on the books, and more than 70% voters say they support them. These reforms haven't come to New York – yet – but they have made it to the big screen. A new film, Won't Back Down, opening Friday highlights a parent and a teacher – played by Maggie Gyllenhaal and Viola Davis – who team up to turn around their failing school. Won't Back Down tells an invigorating story of parents, teachers and concerned citizens working together for the good of the students. We're trying to make that happen in New York – we need your help, and we need you to see this movie to see the possibilities."
Or this:
Last week, StudentsFirstNY hosted a screening of the new film Won't Back Down.
There was a lot of clapping, cheering and crying. But mostly, there was a lot of energy in the theater. Parents from across New York were inspired and motivated, ready to demand transformative education reforms for their children.
After the movie, I met a single mother from Crown Heights, Brooklyn. She was so excited that there was finally a neighborhood organizing effort that gave her a voice.
This was a mother who was engaged – a mother who works late nights and who wants a better education for her son than the one she received. She wants choice. She wants a good school with great teachers. She wants what I want for my own daughter – what we all want as parents.
We're working for that mom, and for the moms and dads across New York who want a great education for their children
----------------------
The real purpose of Won't Back Down is to utterly malign if not destroy the reputation of the single institution standing in the way of a complete corporate takeover of public education: teacher unions. Just as the Philip Morris Company once admitted in a confidential memo that cigarette were nothing more than " nicotine delivery systems, "even as the head of the company swore under oath that nicotine contributes to the pleasure of smoking, Won't Back Down was created as a kind of "corporate education delivery system ", even as its publicists babble on about empowering parents, freedom parents and school choice.
Its toxins, lies, distortions, and simplistic solutions to the complex and deeply human problems of educating our nation's children depicted in Won't Back Down are meant to enter into the blood stream of every American who sees it without them even knowing it. Images are powerful weapons, that much the more in an increasingly a-literate, image- based society. It is not unreasonable to assume that for millions of Americans the perception of schools, teachers and unions will be to some degree formed by this film. That, in any case, is the purpose of the work.
The fusion of corporate culture and corporate agendas that Won't Back Down epitomizes is deeply disturbing. I fear that at the level it is practiced in this film it is something new in the American experience.
Let us hope that many see it for what it is. Let us work to make sure they do.
Cheers,
Norm Scott
Twitter: normscott1
Education Notes
ednotesonline.blogspot.com
Grassroots Education Movement
gemnyc.org
Education columnist, The Wave
www.rockawave.com
nycfirst robotics
normsrobotics.blogspot.com
Sent from my BlackBerry
NYC Teacher Patrick Walsh Takes Down Won't Back Down
www.raginghorse.wordpres
Won't Back Down: The Latest Volley from the Corporate Industrial Complex ( Hollywood Division)
Won't Back Down: The Latest Volley from the Corporate Industrial Complex ( Hollywood Division)
Produced by Walden Films, the same people who created the scene -staging anti teacher "documentary", Waiting for Superman, Won't Back Down is a multi-million dollar, star studded commercial for something called the Parent Trigger legislation. The Parent Trigger is a mechanism created ostensibly to empower parents by making it preposterously easy for them to turn a public school into a charter school. (Once a charter school, it is currently impossible to revert back to a public school regardless of how poorly the school performs.) But, as one of the major obstacles to parents actually pulling the Parent Trigger are teacher unions, Won't Back Down is a full-length attack on teacher unions that is nothing less than mendacious and slanderous. In point of fact, Won't Back Down nothing less than a public relations equivalent of a bullet to the union's brain.
Despite the presence of first-rate actors, the movie as movie is insulting and offensive on every conceivable level. But that does not mean it will not be effective. Won't Back Down is a tearjerker in which the jerked tears are meant not to allow the audience to get in touch with their inner Oprah but to inform political opinions and inspire political actions of a decidedly undemocratic strain. It is designed to turn parents against teachers by tricking them into believing that the sole reason their child is struggling is because he or she has a "bad teacher "; their only hope for their children's future is aligning themselves with union busting privatizing billionaires. Won't Back Down is meant to turn teachers against themselves.
Won't Back Down is a morality play pitting a fiery but good working class parent against her daughter's lousy or even evil teachers and their oppressive union which seems somehow to dictate a deadening curriculum, casts a melancholy cloud over everything and most egregiously forbids teachers from working with their students after school. The plot runs as follows: Jamie Fitzgerald (Maggie Gyllenhaal) a feisty Pittsburg single mom with two jobs, rightfully disgusted by the horrific education her dyslectic daughter is receiving in the nightmarish Adams Elementary School, stumbles upon a little used and littler known parent empowerment law strikingly similar to the Parent Trigger. Desperate to get her daughter the education she deserves, Jamie attempts to enlist both parents and teachers in signing the petition to create a new if utterly undefined school where parents "get a say in what gets taught and how." The only certainty is that it will would be non-union. At first, scornfully rebuked by both parties, especially the self absorbed and frightfully unlikable teachers (save one), she is also contemptuously dismissed by the honchos of the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Jamie won't back down. She gains a confederate among the teaching staff in Nona Alberts ( Viola Davis) and soldiers on. In time – very little time, actually – she somehow convinces not only the previously reluctant parent body, but, after a night of drinking and Texas Two Stepping, the previously hostile teachers who are magically transformed and as happy as dolphins to surrender all rights and benefits for a school "for teachers who want to teach" and "is about the kids." In a final absurdity, after the Pennsylvania school board, because of a single faulty mathematical equation, turns down Jamie's petition, Jamie convinces the board to reconsider by revealing that the equation was wrong because, she, like her daughter, is also dyslexic. Somehow this disclosure moves the board to hold a second and public vote. (Don't ask.) In the end 'because something must be done" the board approves Jamie's ' new school, and there is much rock and roll and weeping for joy in Pittsburgh. The final scene shows Jamie's dyslexic daughter Mylia who was struggling to read in the film's grim opening scene, miraculously reading fluently in a bright beautiful class room filed with happy and well mannered children.
Like all effective propaganda Won't back Down deals in broad strokes, traffics in heros and villains and aims to bypass rational argument, truth, and nuance, and appeals straight to the emotions. Writer Brian Hill and director Daniel Barnz know how to do this kind of thing, are good at it and leave nothing to chance. At no point in Won't Back Down does one hear the words "charter school" or "privatization" or "billionaire" or "ALEC" or "union busting." There is not hint a of the effects of Obama's insidious and deliberately destabilizing and astoundingly undemocratic Race to the Top, no mention of ballooning class sizes or idiotic, degrading effects on education systems based increasingly on standardized tests. You will listen in vain for any to the various Captain Ahab's – Gates, Broad and Co, -- who have been allowed to hijack the public school Pequot and sail it in almost any damn direction they please for years now, unbeknownst to the public at large.
What one does hear, again and again are recitations from the catechism of the corporate reformers. For a special kick in the pants, they often come from the mouths of teachers.
Hence, as if channeling Mike Bloomberg, one hears teacher Breena Harper (Rosie Perez) plaintively inquire, " What other profession guarantees a job for life after two years? " (Answer: none, including the teaching profession.) Echoing one of the holy writs of Teach For America, Jamie dismisses the horrific and myriad realties of poverty with a single pithy and solipsistic declaration: "I don't need 10,000 studies about poverty. I know poverty sucks and my kid can't read. " At another moment Jamie dismisses any option other than the trigger by declaring, "The whole system is broken. It's dead!"
Character after character speak as if they are but ventriloquists for the hidden masters behind the curtain.
And that, as they say, is that.
All one needs to know about what is wrong with the American public school system and unionized teachers can be easily discerned from the opening scene in which Malia, Jamie's pretty dyslexic daughter, stands in the center of a bleak , depressing classroom (all classrooms are bleak and depressing ) trying and failing to sound out a word on a filthy blackboard (all blackboards are filthy.) While her classmates openly ridicule the child, her overweight, miserable excuse for a teacher plays with her cell phone, too lazy and indifferent to even raise her eyes and look at the poor girl.
And it gets worse. Much worse. In short order we learn from a fellow teacher (Perez again ) that despite having the lowest test scores in Adam's Elementary, the union contract demands that Ms. Cellphone is the school's highest paid teacher. Hill and Barnz are not finished with Ms. Cellphone, however. Before the film is over this monster will lock little Malia in a disgusting broom closet -- a vicious, cruel and criminal act for which any teacher in this country would and should lose their job – for needing to use the bathroom. She is only freed from her captivity by the unexpected arrival of Jamie. Does this act lead to Ms. Cellphone being arrested, led out of school in handcuffs and pictured on the 6:00 news ? Hardly. No one other than Jamie even seems to notice. There are no consequences. Such is life in our public school system. By the films end, long after her colleagues have incomprehensively jettisoned their union in favor of a building a new school that favors the radical ideas of reading Shakespeare and having field trips ( what on earth were they doing in that school before hand ? ) , the cruel, criminal Ms. Cellphone remains gainfully employed if the only teacher from Adams Elementary to stick with the union. Get the connection? If not, you are not paying attention.
As the slanderous treatment of teacher unions is not merely central to the political agenda of this preposterous film but to the success of the corporate campaign to hijack and privatize public education, it is impossible to believe that they are the results of lazy research or poor writing or poetic license. Won't Back Down is a work that is consciously dishonest, never more so than in its depiction of teacher unions. Consider the fact that character after character, teachers included, bemoan the contractual agreement cited again and again in the film that forbids teachers to stay after school and work with kids. Consider the fact the union's reaction to Jamie's increasingly successful campaign to remake the school is to try and bribe her by paying her child's tuition to a spectacularly beautiful private school. Consider how the whole defeated, miserable filthy atmosphere of Adam's Elementary is somehow the result of the union and its "600 page contract, "; a contract that which puts the interests of teachers ahead of the interests of students, refusing in the sloganeering drone of Mike Bloomberg and Michelle Rhee and so many other corporate reformers, to "put kids first. Always." In works of fiction, such conceits fall under the rubric of poetic license. In politics they are called plausible deniability. Won't Back Down is politics masquerading as poetry.
The Parent Trigger legislature as depicted in the film bears as close a relationship to truth as does Won't Back Downs treatment of unions: That is to say, none. Like all of the corporate reform mechanisms, the Parent Trigger is the brainchild of a third party with vested interests in privatizing schools and plugged by a phony grassroots organization funded by billionaires. Unlike the mythology its cynical creators have manufactured, the Trigger is the labor, not of a handful of grassroots parents rising up to demand better schools for their kids but rather the brainchild of one Ben Austin, a policy consultant for a charter school organization in Los Angeles.
The Trigger mandates that a school be closed, its staff fired and the building turned over to a charter school corporation if 51% of parents can be persuaded to sign a petition. It is a reckless, wildly undemocratic and foolish idea and one that would have died on the vine if it were truly the fruit of the grass roots movement its adherents claim it to be. It would have been strangled to death if it actually led to anything vaguely approximating parental empowerment in schools which is among the last things Corporate Education Industrial Complex wants or would ever allow.
Austin went on to form the organization Parent Revolution whose sole reason for existence is to promote the Parent Trigger, across the USA of A.
Parent Revolution, ostensibly an organization built to empower parents, is another in a seemingly endless line of billionaire backed phony grass roots front groups that help do the dirty work -- especially the dividing and conquering -- necessary for the absolute triumph of the Corporate Reform Industrial Complex.
The parent revolutionaries of Parent Revolution are bankrolled by some of the most reactionary entities in America, including the Walton Family Foundation, the Heartland Institute and the extremely secretive American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) that is always busy helping corporate America propose and draft legislation for states across the country, all of them salivating over the privatization of the public school system.
As yet the Trigger has only been implemented twice, both times in California, both times leading to very negative results: bad schools, divided communities, nothing delivered. But no matter. Such realities are meaningless in the rarified world of the Corporate Reform Industrial Complex where, after almost a decade of complete dominance over schools from coast to coast, they are still whining about the " status quo " as if it were someone other than themselves.
Won't Back Down may well be a seminal product in American history as it is a popular film that exists solely as a vehicle for a political agenda. Its purpose is to put a union busting privatizing law on the map, make inroads into the American psyche, further undermine confidence in our school system, and further demonize unions and teachers. And this explains the almost presidential style public relations campaign the film 's promoters have led for the past mouth or so from coast to coast including events at both the Democratic and Republican conventions. There may be others, but I, for one, know of no other film that so nakedly and shamelessly served a political agenda. That the film is a commercial for the Trigger is not even disguised. Consider the following from Michelle Rhee's StudentfirstNewyork.org, she who publicly vowed to raise a billion dollars to destroy teacher unions.
"For too long, parents of students in failing schools have been stuck without options. Not any more. A new reform called "parent trigger" is giving parents a tool to take charge of persistently failing schools and turn them around. Under parent trigger, a majority of parents can petition for real, transformative changes for their school. Seven states already have some form of parent trigger laws on the books, and more than 70% voters say they support them. These reforms haven't come to New York – yet – but they have made it to the big screen. A new film, Won't Back Down, opening Friday highlights a parent and a teacher – played by Maggie Gyllenhaal and Viola Davis – who team up to turn around their failing school. Won't Back Down tells an invigorating story of parents, teachers and concerned citizens working together for the good of the students. We're trying to make that happen in New York – we need your help, and we need you to see this movie to see the possibilities."
Or this:
Last week, StudentsFirstNY hosted a screening of the new film Won't Back Down.
There was a lot of clapping, cheering and crying. But mostly, there was a lot of energy in the theater. Parents from across New York were inspired and motivated, ready to demand transformative education reforms for their children.
After the movie, I met a single mother from Crown Heights, Brooklyn. She was so excited that there was finally a neighborhood organizing effort that gave her a voice.
This was a mother who was engaged – a mother who works late nights and who wants a better education for her son than the one she received. She wants choice. She wants a good school with great teachers. She wants what I want for my own daughter – what we all want as parents.
We're working for that mom, and for the moms and dads across New York who want a great education for their children
----------------------
The real purpose of Won't Back Down is to utterly malign if not destroy the reputation of the single institution standing in the way of a complete corporate takeover of public education: teacher unions. Just as the Philip Morris Company once admitted in a confidential memo that cigarette were nothing more than " nicotine delivery systems, "even as the head of the company swore under oath that nicotine contributes to the pleasure of smoking, Won't Back Down was created as a kind of "corporate education delivery system ", even as its publicists babble on about empowering parents, freedom parents and school choice.
Its toxins, lies, distortions, and simplistic solutions to the complex and deeply human problems of educating our nation's children depicted in Won't Back Down are meant to enter into the blood stream of every American who sees it without them even knowing it. Images are powerful weapons, that much the more in an increasingly a-literate, image- based society. It is not unreasonable to assume that for millions of Americans the perception of schools, teachers and unions will be to some degree formed by this film. That, in any case, is the purpose of the work.
The fusion of corporate culture and corporate agendas that Won't Back Down epitomizes is deeply disturbing. I fear that at the level it is practiced in this film it is something new in the American experience.
Let us hope that many see it for what it is. Let us work to make sure they do.
Cheers,
Norm Scott
Twitter: normscott1
Education Notes
ednotesonline.blogspot.com
Grassroots Education Movement
gemnyc.org
Education columnist, The Wave
www.rockawave.com
nycfirst robotics
normsrobotics.blogspot.com
Sent from my BlackBerry
NYC Teacher Patrick Walsh Takes Down Won't Back Down
www.raginghorse.wordpres
Won't Back Down: The Latest Volley from the Corporate Industrial Complex ( Hollywood Division)
Won't Back Down: The Latest Volley from the Corporate Industrial Complex ( Hollywood Division)
Produced by Walden Films, the same people who created the scene -staging anti teacher "documentary", Waiting for Superman, Won't Back Down is a multi-million dollar, star studded commercial for something called the Parent Trigger legislation. The Parent Trigger is a mechanism created ostensibly to empower parents by making it preposterously easy for them to turn a public school into a charter school. (Once a charter school, it is currently impossible to revert back to a public school regardless of how poorly the school performs.) But, as one of the major obstacles to parents actually pulling the Parent Trigger are teacher unions, Won't Back Down is a full-length attack on teacher unions that is nothing less than mendacious and slanderous. In point of fact, Won't Back Down nothing less than a public relations equivalent of a bullet to the union's brain.
Despite the presence of first-rate actors, the movie as movie is insulting and offensive on every conceivable level. But that does not mean it will not be effective. Won't Back Down is a tearjerker in which the jerked tears are meant not to allow the audience to get in touch with their inner Oprah but to inform political opinions and inspire political actions of a decidedly undemocratic strain. It is designed to turn parents against teachers by tricking them into believing that the sole reason their child is struggling is because he or she has a "bad teacher "; their only hope for their children's future is aligning themselves with union busting privatizing billionaires. Won't Back Down is meant to turn teachers against themselves.
Won't Back Down is a morality play pitting a fiery but good working class parent against her daughter's lousy or even evil teachers and their oppressive union which seems somehow to dictate a deadening curriculum, casts a melancholy cloud over everything and most egregiously forbids teachers from working with their students after school. The plot runs as follows: Jamie Fitzgerald (Maggie Gyllenhaal) a feisty Pittsburg single mom with two jobs, rightfully disgusted by the horrific education her dyslectic daughter is receiving in the nightmarish Adams Elementary School, stumbles upon a little used and littler known parent empowerment law strikingly similar to the Parent Trigger. Desperate to get her daughter the education she deserves, Jamie attempts to enlist both parents and teachers in signing the petition to create a new if utterly undefined school where parents "get a say in what gets taught and how." The only certainty is that it will would be non-union. At first, scornfully rebuked by both parties, especially the self absorbed and frightfully unlikable teachers (save one), she is also contemptuously dismissed by the honchos of the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Jamie won't back down. She gains a confederate among the teaching staff in Nona Alberts ( Viola Davis) and soldiers on. In time – very little time, actually – she somehow convinces not only the previously reluctant parent body, but, after a night of drinking and Texas Two Stepping, the previously hostile teachers who are magically transformed and as happy as dolphins to surrender all rights and benefits for a school "for teachers who want to teach" and "is about the kids." In a final absurdity, after the Pennsylvania school board, because of a single faulty mathematical equation, turns down Jamie's petition, Jamie convinces the board to reconsider by revealing that the equation was wrong because, she, like her daughter, is also dyslexic. Somehow this disclosure moves the board to hold a second and public vote. (Don't ask.) In the end 'because something must be done" the board approves Jamie's ' new school, and there is much rock and roll and weeping for joy in Pittsburgh. The final scene shows Jamie's dyslexic daughter Mylia who was struggling to read in the film's grim opening scene, miraculously reading fluently in a bright beautiful class room filed with happy and well mannered children.
Like all effective propaganda Won't back Down deals in broad strokes, traffics in heros and villains and aims to bypass rational argument, truth, and nuance, and appeals straight to the emotions. Writer Brian Hill and director Daniel Barnz know how to do this kind of thing, are good at it and leave nothing to chance. At no point in Won't Back Down does one hear the words "charter school" or "privatization" or "billionaire" or "ALEC" or "union busting." There is not hint a of the effects of Obama's insidious and deliberately destabilizing and astoundingly undemocratic Race to the Top, no mention of ballooning class sizes or idiotic, degrading effects on education systems based increasingly on standardized tests. You will listen in vain for any to the various Captain Ahab's – Gates, Broad and Co, -- who have been allowed to hijack the public school Pequot and sail it in almost any damn direction they please for years now, unbeknownst to the public at large.
What one does hear, again and again are recitations from the catechism of the corporate reformers. For a special kick in the pants, they often come from the mouths of teachers.
Hence, as if channeling Mike Bloomberg, one hears teacher Breena Harper (Rosie Perez) plaintively inquire, " What other profession guarantees a job for life after two years? " (Answer: none, including the teaching profession.) Echoing one of the holy writs of Teach For America, Jamie dismisses the horrific and myriad realties of poverty with a single pithy and solipsistic declaration: "I don't need 10,000 studies about poverty. I know poverty sucks and my kid can't read. " At another moment Jamie dismisses any option other than the trigger by declaring, "The whole system is broken. It's dead!"
Character after character speak as if they are but ventriloquists for the hidden masters behind the curtain.
And that, as they say, is that.
All one needs to know about what is wrong with the American public school system and unionized teachers can be easily discerned from the opening scene in which Malia, Jamie's pretty dyslexic daughter, stands in the center of a bleak , depressing classroom (all classrooms are bleak and depressing ) trying and failing to sound out a word on a filthy blackboard (all blackboards are filthy.) While her classmates openly ridicule the child, her overweight, miserable excuse for a teacher plays with her cell phone, too lazy and indifferent to even raise her eyes and look at the poor girl.
And it gets worse. Much worse. In short order we learn from a fellow teacher (Perez again ) that despite having the lowest test scores in Adam's Elementary, the union contract demands that Ms. Cellphone is the school's highest paid teacher. Hill and Barnz are not finished with Ms. Cellphone, however. Before the film is over this monster will lock little Malia in a disgusting broom closet -- a vicious, cruel and criminal act for which any teacher in this country would and should lose their job – for needing to use the bathroom. She is only freed from her captivity by the unexpected arrival of Jamie. Does this act lead to Ms. Cellphone being arrested, led out of school in handcuffs and pictured on the 6:00 news ? Hardly. No one other than Jamie even seems to notice. There are no consequences. Such is life in our public school system. By the films end, long after her colleagues have incomprehensively jettisoned their union in favor of a building a new school that favors the radical ideas of reading Shakespeare and having field trips ( what on earth were they doing in that school before hand ? ) , the cruel, criminal Ms. Cellphone remains gainfully employed if the only teacher from Adams Elementary to stick with the union. Get the connection? If not, you are not paying attention.
As the slanderous treatment of teacher unions is not merely central to the political agenda of this preposterous film but to the success of the corporate campaign to hijack and privatize public education, it is impossible to believe that they are the results of lazy research or poor writing or poetic license. Won't Back Down is a work that is consciously dishonest, never more so than in its depiction of teacher unions. Consider the fact that character after character, teachers included, bemoan the contractual agreement cited again and again in the film that forbids teachers to stay after school and work with kids. Consider the fact the union's reaction to Jamie's increasingly successful campaign to remake the school is to try and bribe her by paying her child's tuition to a spectacularly beautiful private school. Consider how the whole defeated, miserable filthy atmosphere of Adam's Elementary is somehow the result of the union and its "600 page contract, "; a contract that which puts the interests of teachers ahead of the interests of students, refusing in the sloganeering drone of Mike Bloomberg and Michelle Rhee and so many other corporate reformers, to "put kids first. Always." In works of fiction, such conceits fall under the rubric of poetic license. In politics they are called plausible deniability. Won't Back Down is politics masquerading as poetry.
The Parent Trigger legislature as depicted in the film bears as close a relationship to truth as does Won't Back Downs treatment of unions: That is to say, none. Like all of the corporate reform mechanisms, the Parent Trigger is the brainchild of a third party with vested interests in privatizing schools and plugged by a phony grassroots organization funded by billionaires. Unlike the mythology its cynical creators have manufactured, the Trigger is the labor, not of a handful of grassroots parents rising up to demand better schools for their kids but rather the brainchild of one Ben Austin, a policy consultant for a charter school organization in Los Angeles.
The Trigger mandates that a school be closed, its staff fired and the building turned over to a charter school corporation if 51% of parents can be persuaded to sign a petition. It is a reckless, wildly undemocratic and foolish idea and one that would have died on the vine if it were truly the fruit of the grass roots movement its adherents claim it to be. It would have been strangled to death if it actually led to anything vaguely approximating parental empowerment in schools which is among the last things Corporate Education Industrial Complex wants or would ever allow.
Austin went on to form the organization Parent Revolution whose sole reason for existence is to promote the Parent Trigger, across the USA of A.
Parent Revolution, ostensibly an organization built to empower parents, is another in a seemingly endless line of billionaire backed phony grass roots front groups that help do the dirty work -- especially the dividing and conquering -- necessary for the absolute triumph of the Corporate Reform Industrial Complex.
The parent revolutionaries of Parent Revolution are bankrolled by some of the most reactionary entities in America, including the Walton Family Foundation, the Heartland Institute and the extremely secretive American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) that is always busy helping corporate America propose and draft legislation for states across the country, all of them salivating over the privatization of the public school system.
As yet the Trigger has only been implemented twice, both times in California, both times leading to very negative results: bad schools, divided communities, nothing delivered. But no matter. Such realities are meaningless in the rarified world of the Corporate Reform Industrial Complex where, after almost a decade of complete dominance over schools from coast to coast, they are still whining about the " status quo " as if it were someone other than themselves.
Won't Back Down may well be a seminal product in American history as it is a popular film that exists solely as a vehicle for a political agenda. Its purpose is to put a union busting privatizing law on the map, make inroads into the American psyche, further undermine confidence in our school system, and further demonize unions and teachers. And this explains the almost presidential style public relations campaign the film 's promoters have led for the past mouth or so from coast to coast including events at both the Democratic and Republican conventions. There may be others, but I, for one, know of no other film that so nakedly and shamelessly served a political agenda. That the film is a commercial for the Trigger is not even disguised. Consider the following from Michelle Rhee's StudentfirstNewyork.org, she who publicly vowed to raise a billion dollars to destroy teacher unions.
"For too long, parents of students in failing schools have been stuck without options. Not any more. A new reform called "parent trigger" is giving parents a tool to take charge of persistently failing schools and turn them around. Under parent trigger, a majority of parents can petition for real, transformative changes for their school. Seven states already have some form of parent trigger laws on the books, and more than 70% voters say they support them. These reforms haven't come to New York – yet – but they have made it to the big screen. A new film, Won't Back Down, opening Friday highlights a parent and a teacher – played by Maggie Gyllenhaal and Viola Davis – who team up to turn around their failing school. Won't Back Down tells an invigorating story of parents, teachers and concerned citizens working together for the good of the students. We're trying to make that happen in New York – we need your help, and we need you to see this movie to see the possibilities."
Or this:
Last week, StudentsFirstNY hosted a screening of the new film Won't Back Down.
There was a lot of clapping, cheering and crying. But mostly, there was a lot of energy in the theater. Parents from across New York were inspired and motivated, ready to demand transformative education reforms for their children.
After the movie, I met a single mother from Crown Heights, Brooklyn. She was so excited that there was finally a neighborhood organizing effort that gave her a voice.
This was a mother who was engaged – a mother who works late nights and who wants a better education for her son than the one she received. She wants choice. She wants a good school with great teachers. She wants what I want for my own daughter – what we all want as parents.
We're working for that mom, and for the moms and dads across New York who want a great education for their children
----------------------
The real purpose of Won't Back Down is to utterly malign if not destroy the reputation of the single institution standing in the way of a complete corporate takeover of public education: teacher unions. Just as the Philip Morris Company once admitted in a confidential memo that cigarette were nothing more than " nicotine delivery systems, "even as the head of the company swore under oath that nicotine contributes to the pleasure of smoking, Won't Back Down was created as a kind of "corporate education delivery system ", even as its publicists babble on about empowering parents, freedom parents and school choice.
Its toxins, lies, distortions, and simplistic solutions to the complex and deeply human problems of educating our nation's children depicted in Won't Back Down are meant to enter into the blood stream of every American who sees it without them even knowing it. Images are powerful weapons, that much the more in an increasingly a-literate, image- based society. It is not unreasonable to assume that for millions of Americans the perception of schools, teachers and unions will be to some degree formed by this film. That, in any case, is the purpose of the work.
The fusion of corporate culture and corporate agendas that Won't Back Down epitomizes is deeply disturbing. I fear that at the level it is practiced in this film it is something new in the American experience.
Let us hope that many see it for what it is. Let us work to make sure they do.
Cheers,
Norm Scott
Twitter: normscott1
Education Notes
ednotesonline.blogspot.com
Grassroots Education Movement
gemnyc.org
Education columnist, The Wave
www.rockawave.com
nycfirst robotics
normsrobotics.blogspot.com
Sent from my BlackBerry
Rutgers Teacher Under Construction Blogs About Education Nation
Student Stephanie Rivera has very quickly made a name for herself battling ed deform. Here "Teacher Under Construction" blog post:
Education Nation Summit and Won’t Back Down and Protest
She has pics of the "Won't Back Down Protest" -- note the bald guy in the MORE tee.
Education Nation Summit and Won’t Back Down and Protest
She has pics of the "Won't Back Down Protest" -- note the bald guy in the MORE tee.
Friday, October 5, 2012
TONIGHT! March for Dignity in Schools - Stop student Push-outs
TONIGHT at 6:30pm, the Dignity in Schools Campaign-NY will be holding a vigil and marching over the Brooklyn Bridge to raise awareness about student pushout and the criminalization of students in NYC schools as part of the National Dignity in Schools Week of Action. Join us!
Stand as allies with students and parents in demanding that the DOE support positive, school-wide approaches to discipline that uphold students' human right to education.
Bring students, families, colleagues--all are welcome!
RSVP: anna@teachersunite.net
And call 646.707.4006 if you're lost
At 6:30 meet on the Brooklyn side of the Brooklyn Bridge at Cadman Plaza East and Prospect Street.
The nearest trains are the A/C to High St. or the F to York.
#WOA2012
#Solutionsnotsuspensions
#dignityinschools
Cheers,
Norm Scott
Twitter: normscott1
Education Notes
ednotesonline.blogspot.com
Grassroots Education Movement
gemnyc.org
Education columnist, The Wave
www.rockawave.com
nycfirst robotics
normsrobotics.blogspot.com
Sent from my BlackBerry
Stand as allies with students and parents in demanding that the DOE support positive, school-wide approaches to discipline that uphold students' human right to education.
Bring students, families, colleagues--all are welcome!
RSVP: anna@teachersunite.net
And call 646.707.4006 if you're lost
At 6:30 meet on the Brooklyn side of the Brooklyn Bridge at Cadman Plaza East and Prospect Street.
The nearest trains are the A/C to High St. or the F to York.
#WOA2012
#Solutionsnotsuspensions
#dignityinschools
Cheers,
Norm Scott
Twitter: normscott1
Education Notes
ednotesonline.blogspot.com
Grassroots Education Movement
gemnyc.org
Education columnist, The Wave
www.rockawave.com
nycfirst robotics
normsrobotics.blogspot.com
Sent from my BlackBerry
Today: Chapter Leader & Delegate Happy Hour, 4:30pm
More worthwhile than most of the training by the Uft/Unity Caucus narrowcast view of how to function as a union leader at the school level. Experienced and new ch ldrs and delgts mingle with much shared knowledge at these informal sessions. The listserve has been wonderful with people like Eterno, Wainer, Elfrank-Dana, Markens, Kaufman, Lamphere sharing.
So come on down. Or at the very least join the listserve: more@morecaucusnyc.org
I think I goofed the other day and posted this as thursday so my apologies if you were drinking alone yesterday - but come back today.
**** Please Forward Widely ****
Chapter Leader & Delegate Happy Hour
Are you a chapter leader or delegate (or know someone who is) and want to get advice and strategize with others? Want to build a strong, active chapter but not sure what that would entail? Or are you not currently in a union position at your school but just interested in UFT structure, chapters in general, the responsibilities of chapter leaders and delegates, etc?
Here is a chance to connect with other folks who are Chapter Leaders, Delegates, or just thoughtful union members to compare notes, get advice, and talk about how we can build stronger chapters.
Friday, October 5, 4:30pm
at The Grey Dog - 242 w. 16th st. betw. 7th and 8th (1/2/3/A/C/E to 14th or L to 8th Ave)
Cheers,
Norm Scott
Twitter: normscott1
Education Notes
ednotesonline.blogspot.com
Grassroots Education Movement
gemnyc.org
Education columnist, The Wave
www.rockawave.com
nycfirst robotics
normsrobotics.blogspot.com
Sent from my BlackBerry
So come on down. Or at the very least join the listserve: more@morecaucusnyc.org
I think I goofed the other day and posted this as thursday so my apologies if you were drinking alone yesterday - but come back today.
**** Please Forward Widely ****
Chapter Leader & Delegate Happy Hour
Are you a chapter leader or delegate (or know someone who is) and want to get advice and strategize with others? Want to build a strong, active chapter but not sure what that would entail? Or are you not currently in a union position at your school but just interested in UFT structure, chapters in general, the responsibilities of chapter leaders and delegates, etc?
Here is a chance to connect with other folks who are Chapter Leaders, Delegates, or just thoughtful union members to compare notes, get advice, and talk about how we can build stronger chapters.
Friday, October 5, 4:30pm
at The Grey Dog - 242 w. 16th st. betw. 7th and 8th (1/2/3/A/C/E to 14th or L to 8th Ave)
Cheers,
Norm Scott
Twitter: normscott1
Education Notes
ednotesonline.blogspot.com
Grassroots Education Movement
gemnyc.org
Education columnist, The Wave
www.rockawave.com
nycfirst robotics
normsrobotics.blogspot.com
Sent from my BlackBerry
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)