Movement of Rank & File Educators
Weekly Update #41 - January 24th, 2013
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Saturday, January 26, 2013
TODAY: Come to the 1st MORE meeting of 2013!
Movement of Rank & File Educators
Friday, January 25, 2013
Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire - Norm in the Wave on Teacher Evaluation
Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire
By Norm Scott
Kevin [Boyle, editor] tells me I only have 700 words, and I better hurry. Here’s the skinny: Deadline for teacher evaluation agreement based on test scores between UFT and DOE: Jan. 17, an artificial deadline imposed by thug governor Cuomo using extortion/threat of loss of $250 million in state aid (much of which will not go into classrooms but into the pockets of high priced consultants) with additional loss of $200 million in grants. Result: no agreement and bye, bye, $birdie.
Now State Ed Department head junior thug John King, who learned his thug spurs during the few years he spent managing a charter school chain known for thug-like harsh punishment of mostly African-American students – threatens the loss of another billion bucks if there is no agreement by Feb. 14, King’s Happy Valentine Day to the children and parents of New York City. Ahhhh, King loves the smell of jumbo class sizes in the morning.
It was wonderful to see the Daily News crying about high class size if the money is lost given the DN never gave a fig that under Bloomberg NYC schools have amongst the highest class sizes. Read the thug-supporting tabloids and the NY Times it is clear the UFT is totally irresponsible for wanting to avoid having teachers be held accountable for (fill in the blank) with anything you choose to blame a teacher for and then charge every teacher as an accessory responsible for all crimes committed by former students – using some holy data like former student test scores. If only those teachers did not make excuses or if they stayed after school until midnight to tutor the future criminal, the crime might have been averted.
Well, it turns out as the story emerged regarding the failure of the negotiations there were just a few twists and turns. As I was heading over to a rally outside the UFT building at 52 Broadway where a Delegate Assembly was taking place on the afternoon of the 17th, a meeting where I expected UFT President Michael Muldrow to cave to pressure and have an agreement ratified – I was loaded with almost 2000 leaflets urging people to vote NO on ANY agreement – word came through that there was no agreement. Oh, da trees murdered in the noble attempt of myself and my colleagues in the Movement of Rank and File Educators (MORE) UFT caucus to deflect the union leadership from folly of agreeing to use the failed model known as “Value-Added Measures” (VAM) to rate teachers. VAM has been so discredited in so many quarters it has been termed “junk science.”
So I dumped the leaflets and someone quickly created and printed another with the headline: RANK AND FILE MUST HAVE A SAY IN ANY AGREEMENT! END TO “COLLABORATION” with REFORMERS! You see, UFT leaders denied a MORE attempt in December to require them to hold a membership vote on a change in the contract claiming changing the way teachers are rated is not a contract change. Huh? (Mulgrew spent the entire meeting trying to convince everyone that the junk science of VAM was good medicine for them – liar, liar, pants on fire.)
So anyway, Mulgrew, painting himself a hero, held a 3PM press conference calling Bloomberg a liar, one of the few truthful things Mulgrew said. In fact, Mulgrew and Tweed made a deal the night before – though Chancellor Walcott (liar, liar….) echoed his liar, liar… boss and said there was no deal --- in other words, Mulgrew was willing to sacrifice teachers and their protections on the alter of faulty high stakes tests but was saved by Bloomberg. It seems that one of the provisions of the deal, not only in NYC, but in 90% of NY State was a one year sunset provision where this vast experiment bound to fail would be given another look. But Mulgrew, being generous, gave Bloomberg two years to get rid of high salaried teachers. But here comes Bloomberg to save Muldrow’s ass from himself – TLJ kills the deal – he no like sun set on deal given the real intention is not to get better teachers, just cheaper ones. TLJ claims Mulgrew is liar, liar… but turns out the principals had the same deal with a one year sunset and TLJ blew that off too. They back the UFT story – Bloomberg rechristened TLLJ - The Little Lying Jerk.
You can read more Norm – who wishes his lovely wife a Happy Birthday today - if you can stomach it – at his blog, ednotesonline.org.
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Change the Stakes: Backing the Seattle Teachers
There's been a wealth of support for the test boycotters and now the Superintendent is threatening the teachers. I don't have time but I'm sure you an google the links as loads of email is flowing into the Superintendent. Here is a letter of support written for the teachers by Change the Stakes and MORE member Diana Zavala for our NYC based Change the Stakes Group. Diana is also a parent opt-outer for her kids.
Dear Superintendent Banda,
It has come to our attention that you plan to discipline teachers in the Seattle Public Schools who refuse to administer the MAP test in the Seattle school districts despite the unanimous support that their action has had across the nation, which has inspired all of us resisting the damage that high-stakes, standardized testing that for the past 10 years has negatively affected schools, communities (school closures, charters), and students (achievement gap, segregation/apartheid, drop in college preparedness) and teachers (high teacher turn-over) alike.
We firmly believe you are making a grave mistake in taking any punitive action against these brave individuals who acted (finally) for the benefit of the students. Like the teachers in Newton, Conn. who risked their lives to protect the children, the teachers in Seattle are living heros and an inspiration to parents and teachers everywhere. The overuse and abuse of testing has had damaging consequences for students for whose curriculum has been narrowed, whose needs are forced to fit a one-size fits all model of instruction, and who have been robbed from an evaluation process that is an informative tool that demonstrates genuine growth and predicts future success. Money spent on test production, scoring, test prep material, and software has been cut from classrooms and resources in favor of private pockets such as Pearson, LLC.
Please reconsider your actions and stand on the right side of the issue for the benefit of the Seattle students, schools,and the teachers. Their action should be a moment where school officials in your city take stock of the role testing in shaping instruction and consider whether you are doing grave damage to the quality of Seattle public schools by using student test scores to assess teachers.
Change The Stakes is a New York based organization made up of parents, teachers, principals, professors/scholars, and concerned residents who are part of a larger, and growing national movement against excessive testing.
We applaud the teachers in your district you propose to penalize. They are providing a powerful example for teachers throughout the nation
Sincerely,
Change The Stakes
NYC
Heckuva Job Mikey: RBE Writes MORE Campaign Lit
That's a heckuva job this union leadership has done selling you out and making sure your job is in jeopardy, you have lots more work to do, and your salary has stagnated.-- RBE at Perdido St. SchoolReally, this piece by Reality Based Educator should be printed and go into every teacher mailbox in the city. Or emailed out to every contact you have. Want to help organize for MORE? Gather ye colleagues' emails and send stuff like this out to them on a regular basis.
It is so good I am printing it in its entirety.
Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013
Mulgrew Brags In Daily News How APPR System Is His Baby
Mulgrew has an opinion piece in the Daily News that attacks Bloomberg for not wanting to come to an agreement on a teacher evaluation deal.
He says Bloomberg was the one who blew up the negotiations and points out that both the principals union head and NYSED Commissioner John King have backed the UFT up on that.
Then he notes the following:
To me, all this is evidence that Bloomberg may have decided that it is not in his interest to have a new teacher evaluation system in place when he leaves the political scene at the end of this year.
But that isn’t true for the UFT, which went to Albany and Washington to lobby for the creation of such a system and has been working toward one even as the Education Department has not.
King has said that the city’s Education Department “has not prepared effectively for implementation of the evaluation system.” To meet that need, which we discovered when we surveyed teachers earlier this year, the union has on its own sponsored briefings in the new evaluation methods for hundreds of both teachers and principals.
We are now working on a framework of best practices that the Education Department can use as part of the training system it must outline to King by Feb. 15 if it wants to avoid the loss of even more state and federal funds.
And we are willing to sit down to negotiate the new teacher evaluation system by the governor’s new Sept. 1 deadline.
The UFT is not the obstacle here. We believe the current evaluation system is inadequate. We want a new one that provides educators more nuanced ratings that give them the chance to grow on the job — and, yes, remove those who consistently underperform.
But if we are going to be successful, we will need people on the other side of the table who are interested in creating a system that will truly help teachers improve, not in leaving a legacy of blame.
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
MORE Pres Candidate Cavanagh in NY Times
"The ‘bad teacher’ narrative as a way of explaining what’s wrong with our school system gets really old,” says Ms. Cavanagh. “Our union has taken a stance that we will collaborate and compromise and that is shortsighted when the other side seems bent on destroying you." -- Julie Cavanagh in NY Times
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.Anything Michael Powell writes is worth reading, though one must pity his passion for the Mets (I didn't tell him Julie is a Phillies fan) and I think the Jets. Now I don't know if he knew Julie is running against Mulgrew and I also know that Julie tends to downplay putting herself front and center but what an interesting sidelight to this article that Julie as President along the Karen Lewis mode would be Bloomberg's and the ed deformers' worst nightmare.com/2013/01/23/scorn-for- unions-threatens-mayors- educational-legacy/
Scorn for Unions Threatens Mayor’s Educational Legacy
By MICHAEL POWELL
Teachers Julie Cavanagh and Adam Stevens listen to the mayor pour boiling oil on their union, to his talk of imposing more tests and using the scores to draw a stringent measure of each teacher, and they wonder what world he inhabits.
Ms. Cavanagh, 34, teaches at the highly rated Public School 15, in the working-class Brooklyn neighborhood of Red Hook. She already loses 16 days each school year to our mania for federal, state, and city tests. (I write “our mania” but this noun rarely applies to the $40,000 per year private schools attended by the children of the mayor and many education reformers, where the emphasis is on essay writing and the “whole child,” and a distrust of standardized testing prevails.)
“Our school has never been about churning out day after day of test prep; we try hard not to be that narrow,” Ms. Cavanagh says. “Slowly but surely, though, the definition of success becomes based on a test score.”
As for Mr. Stevens, 38, he teaches history with much-admired passion at one of the city’s nationally ranked public high schools. “I love teaching history,” he says, “but I don’t want to find myself pushed to the curb in ten years because some of my kids didn’t do well on a test imposed on us by administrators who have set us both up to fail.”
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg styles himself an education revolutionary. He can claim accomplishments, and many rebuilt schools. Like many of that self-assured breed, however, he can sound deaf to the observations of his best front-line troops. Twelve years in, he risks making purism his trademark.
Last week he went to war on two fronts, and neither was very successful.
He took on the school bus owners and union drivers and attendants, who each day take more than 150,000 children to school. The mayor insisted that only competitive bidding for bus contracts – which could eviscerate union contracts – would yield the dollar savings he desires. His adherence to the religion of competitive bidding is wobbly; his administration came to the precipice of disaster in 2007, when consultants holding a no-bid, multimillion dollar contract recommended new bus routes that made very little sense.
Former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, a true negotiating carnivore, was threatened with a school bus strike years ago, but backed off after the companies and unions gave back tens of millions of dollars in savings.
(Comptroller John C. Liu also noted last week that the mayor’s education department planned to hand a no-bid, $10 million contract to track test scores to a company run by the former New York City schools chancellor, Joel I. Klein).
But it was the mayor’s failure last week to reach an agreement with the United Federation of Teachers on a new evaluation system that poses a real threat to his educational legacy.
The teachers union, aware that teachers chafe at being tied tight to the wheel of test scores, reluctantly agreed to a two-year trial run for a new evaluation system. Mr. Bloomberg would hear nothing of it; he insisted that an agreement must extend for perpetuity. The mayor took the same line with the union representing principals and administrators.
Each negotiation foundered as a result, in the final hours.
The mayor mounted his horse of indignation afterward, suggesting that the teachers union wanted only to kill the evaluations. The teachers union is no team of angels; it can be a stubborn, frustrating negotiating partner.
But the mayor’s account trips over inhospitable facts.
State education officials said that the Bloomberg administration had indicated early on that it was open to a two- year deal. More than 90 percent of school districts statewide agreed to deals with their unions that lasted either one or two years.
The Bloomberg administration’s hard line carries a price tag: It now risks losing hundreds of millions of dollars in federal and state aid.
The mayor has claimed that the teachers union’s leadership is out of touch with its members. He is perhaps half right.
Rank and file anger swells, some of it directed at the union itself. But trust in Mr. Bloomberg is an hourglass that has run out. Many teachers say the mayor has humiliated them, offering no raises since 2009 and last year releasing a database ranking 18,000 teachers based on student test scores. Mr. Bloomberg enjoys talking of bringing business practices to the public sector, but it’s hard to imagine top law and financial firms handing out evaluations of its partners to potential customers.
Ms. Cavanagh adores her Red Hook school and her children, 90 percent of whom come from families poor enough to qualify for free lunches. But she feels the walls of the system closing in.
“The ‘bad teacher’ narrative as a way of explaining what’s wrong with our school system gets really old,” says Ms. Cavanagh. “Our union has taken a stance that we will collaborate and compromise and that is shortsighted when the other side seems bent on destroying you.”
Her words speak to a revolution in peril.
UFT Elections: The Game is ON
I guess the UFT leadership feels they have a good election window given the breakdown of negotiations and Mulgrew coming out of it looking enhanced with Bloomberg clearly being proven as a liar.
So finally, at last night's UFT Executive Board meeting, an election committee was formed and expected to report back to the Feb. 4 EB meeting where the recommendations for ground rules will be voted on. That will probably kick off the petitioning campaign beginning at the Feb. 6 Delegate Assembly, usually a 6 week process, followed by a few weeks of campaigning, followed by roughly 3-4 weeks of balloting -- they are sent to the homes and returned by mail. So by my estimate, we are about 3 weeks behind previous elections, so expect April balloting with a count in the neighborhood of May 1. Just my guess.
MORE and New Action each get a rep on the election committee along with about 20 Unity people. Amy Arundel will head the committee. Thank goodness Ellen Fox relieved me of this task. I'll keep you posted on how this breaks out given the expansion of the Exec Bd.
Consider the spring break coming in the middle of balloting (if I am right about the time table) as a negative for MORE given that they will have free access to all school mailboxes during the election and will lose a week of campaigning. Unity will have its chapter leaders and District reps where they have no chapter leader stuff every mail box in the city with slick Unity lit a few times while New Action will send out its mostly retiree crew to do the same. While I used to do a lot of this too, I am mostly taking a pass this time -- I will probably be doing my hair.
Though I am not always a fan of the traditional opposition tactic of spending the election running around from school to school stuffing mailboxes with lit, it is pretty much what will happen once again. My experience in the past was that we didn't get enough results out of this tactic but maybe times are different.
And as I am fond of saying, the Einstein definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. But what do I know? I'll leave it to the next gen MOREs to figure this crap out and learn for the future.
One other thing each caucus gets is a 2-page spread in the NY Teacher for two successive issues. Since few people bother to even read the NY Teacher (me included) the opposition gets few results from that too. But lots of anxt-time spent worrying about it. Again, I'll take a pass.
The only thing that works is having someone on the ground in as many schools as possible --- and I don't mean a passive person, but a reasonably active MORE supporter who is aware of the issues and able to articulate a response to the Unity line of malfeasance.
It mostly takes a ballot return ground game since 75% of the working teachers don't vote --- many just toss the confusing ballot. So if you are unhappy with Unity MORE would need people in the schools to remind people to send back the ballot, hopefully with the MORE slate checked off. Not just remind people -- but even set up a "voting day" where everyone who didn't vote brings in their ballots and all get mailed out together.
If people actually voted --- say double the vote -- Unity would feel heat and in fact could lose some Executive Board seats which they desperately want to avoid, preferring to hand 8 seats over to their pals in New Action.
And another thing people in the schools can do is explain exactly who New Action is and what they are doing in this election --- the bidding of Unity to split the opposition vote -- and do not forget many of the New Action people are on the UFT payroll -- sort of reminds me of Bill Thompson's wife who had her museum receiving Bloomberg money while her husband was running against him. Thompson ran the worst campaign in history.
No wonder New Action made such a big deal about supporting Thompson last time and maybe they will again this time since Thompson seems to have a lot of money coming in from -- hmmm, think Bloomberg is abandoning Quinn and supporting Lhota but pumping up Thompson, who will run another awful campaign again?
Coming UFT slogan: Only 12 more years of Lhota.
So finally, at last night's UFT Executive Board meeting, an election committee was formed and expected to report back to the Feb. 4 EB meeting where the recommendations for ground rules will be voted on. That will probably kick off the petitioning campaign beginning at the Feb. 6 Delegate Assembly, usually a 6 week process, followed by a few weeks of campaigning, followed by roughly 3-4 weeks of balloting -- they are sent to the homes and returned by mail. So by my estimate, we are about 3 weeks behind previous elections, so expect April balloting with a count in the neighborhood of May 1. Just my guess.
MORE and New Action each get a rep on the election committee along with about 20 Unity people. Amy Arundel will head the committee. Thank goodness Ellen Fox relieved me of this task. I'll keep you posted on how this breaks out given the expansion of the Exec Bd.
Consider the spring break coming in the middle of balloting (if I am right about the time table) as a negative for MORE given that they will have free access to all school mailboxes during the election and will lose a week of campaigning. Unity will have its chapter leaders and District reps where they have no chapter leader stuff every mail box in the city with slick Unity lit a few times while New Action will send out its mostly retiree crew to do the same. While I used to do a lot of this too, I am mostly taking a pass this time -- I will probably be doing my hair.
Though I am not always a fan of the traditional opposition tactic of spending the election running around from school to school stuffing mailboxes with lit, it is pretty much what will happen once again. My experience in the past was that we didn't get enough results out of this tactic but maybe times are different.
And as I am fond of saying, the Einstein definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. But what do I know? I'll leave it to the next gen MOREs to figure this crap out and learn for the future.
One other thing each caucus gets is a 2-page spread in the NY Teacher for two successive issues. Since few people bother to even read the NY Teacher (me included) the opposition gets few results from that too. But lots of anxt-time spent worrying about it. Again, I'll take a pass.
The only thing that works is having someone on the ground in as many schools as possible --- and I don't mean a passive person, but a reasonably active MORE supporter who is aware of the issues and able to articulate a response to the Unity line of malfeasance.
It mostly takes a ballot return ground game since 75% of the working teachers don't vote --- many just toss the confusing ballot. So if you are unhappy with Unity MORE would need people in the schools to remind people to send back the ballot, hopefully with the MORE slate checked off. Not just remind people -- but even set up a "voting day" where everyone who didn't vote brings in their ballots and all get mailed out together.
If people actually voted --- say double the vote -- Unity would feel heat and in fact could lose some Executive Board seats which they desperately want to avoid, preferring to hand 8 seats over to their pals in New Action.
And another thing people in the schools can do is explain exactly who New Action is and what they are doing in this election --- the bidding of Unity to split the opposition vote -- and do not forget many of the New Action people are on the UFT payroll -- sort of reminds me of Bill Thompson's wife who had her museum receiving Bloomberg money while her husband was running against him. Thompson ran the worst campaign in history.
No wonder New Action made such a big deal about supporting Thompson last time and maybe they will again this time since Thompson seems to have a lot of money coming in from -- hmmm, think Bloomberg is abandoning Quinn and supporting Lhota but pumping up Thompson, who will run another awful campaign again?
Coming UFT slogan: Only 12 more years of Lhota.
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Leonie Haimson on Lisa Nielson
The testing rebellion and opt-out movement in NYC has a supporter -- inside TweedI did a piece on this yesterday with video of Deputy Chancellor Shael Polokow-Seransky endorsing the rights of parents to opt out which is no different than what Lisa Nielson has done. But the NY Post does not seem interested in THAT story. Here is Leonie's take on her blog.
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| Lisa Nielson |
Robert Perry, announced that testing had become a "perversion of its original intent.” Over the last year, 86 percent of Texas school boards representing 91 percent of the state’s students, have passed resolutions against the use of high stakes testing. The view is now so mainstream that in his introductory remarks before the Legislature, Joe Straus, the new, conservative GOP Speaker of the Texas House recently announced,
"By now, every member of this house has heard from constituents at the grocery store or the Little League fields about the burdens of an increasingly cumbersome testing system in our schools…Teachers and parents worry that we have sacrificed classroom inspiration for rote memorization. To parents and educators concerned about excessive testing: The Texas House has heard you."
Joining the movement is Joshua Starr, the superintendent of Montgomery County, Maryland, who has called for the nation to “stop the insanity” of evaluating teachers according to student test scores, and has proposed a three year moratorium on all standardized testing. Starr has joined forces with Heath Morrison, the newly-appointed superintendent of Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina, a Broad-trained educator no less, who calls testing “an egregious waste of taxpayer dollars” that won’t help kids.
Then last week, the movement jumped into the headlines when teachers at Garfield High School in Seattle voted unanimously to boycott the lengthy computerized MAP exams, which take weeks of classroom time to administer; the teachers were supported by the school’s PTA and the student government. Other Seattle schools have now joined the boycott, and yesterday, more than sixty educators and researchers, including Diane Ravitch, Jonathan Kozol, and Noam Chomsky, released a letter of support for the boycott, noting that "no student's intellectual process can be reduced to a single number." [Full disclosure: I was among the letter's signers.]
Even before this, more than one third of the principals in New York State had signed onto a letter, protesting the state-imposed teacher evaluation system, which will be largely based on test scores, and Carol Burris, a Long Island principal and the letter’s co-author, has more recently posted a petition that has now over 8200 signatures from parents and educators, opposing all high-stakes testing.
Though many NYC teachers and principals have spoken out against the particularly onerous brand of test score-based accountability imposed by DOE, with decisions over which children to hold back, what schools to close and which teachers to deny tenure to, based largely on the basis of test scores, no one inside the halls of Tweed, DOE’s headquarters, has up to now been brave enough to speak out publicly against the system.
Until now. As reported in yesterday’s NY Post, Lisa Nielsen, the newly-appointed digital guru at Tweed, has not only stated that she believes that high-stakes testing is severely damaging our children and schools, she has also offered creative suggestions of activities that parents can offer their children rather than allow them to be subjected to the state tests. On her personal blog, the Innovative Educator, she writes: “There are so many ways kids can learn on opt out of state standardized testing days. All it takes is community coming together to take back our children’s freedom to learn.”
Lisa also runs the Facebook NY State Opt out of Testing page, and has pointed out the “12 Most Unconventional Reasons to Opt Your Child Out of Standardized Testing,” including the fact that they are a “horrific waste of money”, and cause unneeded anxiety and stress. She adds:“Instead of spending billions of dollars on funding testing this money could go toward providing resources for children or lowering class size. Let the teachers do what they were trained to do — teach and assess. Keep big business out of the equation. Keep the billions of dollars out of the pockets of publishers and let it remain in the classroom.”
We now have our own anti-testing advocate at Tweed, and we should all celebrate Lisa’s honesty and her courage in speaking the truth.
Pasi Sahlberg, expert on Finland’s renowned educational system, had said that if his government decided to evaluate their teachers on the basis of test scores, the “teachers would probably go on strike and wouldn’t return until this crazy idea went away.”
It’s time for all our educators to join the movement, follow the inspired leadership of Lisa Nielsen and the teachers in Portland, go public with their opposition, and refuse to participate in this oppressive system any longer.
MORE's Brian Jones, Secretary of Department of Education, Will End TFA Contracts and Repeal NCLB and RTTT
In his spare time Brian is running for UFT Secretary on the MORE slate in the upcoming UFT elections.
Brian along with MORE presidential candidate Julie Cavanagh, narrated the film "The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman."
Toward this end, I will seek an immediate repeal of No Child Left Behind legislation and of the Race to the Top competition. Together, these have raised the stakes of standardized assessments beyond any reasonable proportion; narrowed the curriculum; created a culture of corruption; cheating and competition between schools; and have increased the trend toward teaching as a short-term job, not as a long-term profession. I will call for an end to high-stakes standardized testing and a moratorium on school closings. Just as we commit ourselves to teaching every single student, we will likewise commit ourselves to improving every single school.
Teachers must be trained in the very best practices and must be given the opportunity to learn from experienced educators during their training. In our highest-needs municipalities, students only rarely have teachers who are from their community, and teacher turnover is high. Teach for America cannot be the model of teacher training for our schools. Therefore, I will seek an end to Teach for America contracts with municipalities nationwide. Shortages must be addressed by strengthening our schools of education and by developing pathways to train community members to serve as educators in their schools.
READ MORE
Brian Jones has taught elementary grades in New York City’s public schools for nine years, and is a member of the Movement of Rank and File Educators (the social justice caucus of the United Federation of Teachers). Brian is a doctoral student in urban education at the CUNY Graduate Center, and has contributed to several books, including Education and Capitalism: Struggles for Learning and Liberation.
The Indypendent newspaper "appointed" me US Secretary of Education and asked me "what would you do?" My reply will be in the print edition that comes out soon, and is online here: http://www.indypendent.org/Brian Jones has taught elementary grades in New York City’s public schools for nine years, and is a member of the Movement of Rank and File Educators (the social justice caucus of the United Federation of Teachers). Brian is a doctoral student in urban education at the CUNY Graduate Center, and has contributed to several books, including Education and Capitalism: Struggles for Learning and Liberation.2013/01/21/no-school-left- behind ---- Brian
Brian along with MORE presidential candidate Julie Cavanagh, narrated the film "The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman."
Brian Jones
Secretary
Department of Education
As the new Secretary of Education, my first priority will be to
reverse the trend toward the privatization of the public schools, to end
the pervasive climate of fear and demoralization among the nation’s
educators and to urgently promote desegregation and genuine equality of
resources and opportunity in all K-12 schools.Secretary
Department of Education
Toward this end, I will seek an immediate repeal of No Child Left Behind legislation and of the Race to the Top competition. Together, these have raised the stakes of standardized assessments beyond any reasonable proportion; narrowed the curriculum; created a culture of corruption; cheating and competition between schools; and have increased the trend toward teaching as a short-term job, not as a long-term profession. I will call for an end to high-stakes standardized testing and a moratorium on school closings. Just as we commit ourselves to teaching every single student, we will likewise commit ourselves to improving every single school.
Teachers must be trained in the very best practices and must be given the opportunity to learn from experienced educators during their training. In our highest-needs municipalities, students only rarely have teachers who are from their community, and teacher turnover is high. Teach for America cannot be the model of teacher training for our schools. Therefore, I will seek an end to Teach for America contracts with municipalities nationwide. Shortages must be addressed by strengthening our schools of education and by developing pathways to train community members to serve as educators in their schools.
READ MORE
Brian Jones has taught elementary grades in New York City’s public schools for nine years, and is a member of the Movement of Rank and File Educators (the social justice caucus of the United Federation of Teachers). Brian is a doctoral student in urban education at the CUNY Graduate Center, and has contributed to several books, including Education and Capitalism: Struggles for Learning and Liberation.
Monday, January 21, 2013
Supporting Lisa Nielson: Leading DOE Official Shael Polokow-Seransky Affirms Parent Right to Opt Out
When I first heard the NY Post was exposing a DOE official for supporting the opt-out movement I thought they must have come across the video I made of Shael affirming the rights of parents to opt-out. Maybe the Post should take a look at this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmfOOJkBlds
But of course the Murdoch-owned Post would be outraged by any protest against testing that might hurt the boss's and his pal Joel's profit margins on the testing regime.
So, there was lots of chatter about the Sue Edelman's "exposure" of DOE official Lisa Nielson's support for the opt-out movement -- and I put "exposure" in quotes because Lisa, who I've known as an aquaintance for about a decade -- has never hid her activities from the Tweedies and I'm sure they know all about it. Of course, they are so concerned about what the Post thinks, they just may pull the plug but I hope not. (I hope Ed Notes support is not the kiss of death.)
Actually, Sue, who can be a snake, did not do a terrible job given that the work Lisa does was given lots of space. It was the vicious headlines and the photo of Lisa they used from her Facebook page that made it look bad.
Here are some links to the Post Article and Perdido Street School:
This is my favorite line from the NYP article: ““The department is always open to working with people with different ideas,” said spokeswoman Erin Hughes.” Really? Could have fooled me!
Lisa here: http://www.facebook.com/
Go show Lisa some love.
And maybe one day we can get her to tell us the inside dope on how DOE technology really fared under Bloomberg admin over the last 12 years. As a tech guy myself in the last 20 years (roughly 1985-2005) I worked both at the school, district and region level my sources generally report a disaster with enormous sums wasted.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmfOOJkBlds
But of course the Murdoch-owned Post would be outraged by any protest against testing that might hurt the boss's and his pal Joel's profit margins on the testing regime.
So, there was lots of chatter about the Sue Edelman's "exposure" of DOE official Lisa Nielson's support for the opt-out movement -- and I put "exposure" in quotes because Lisa, who I've known as an aquaintance for about a decade -- has never hid her activities from the Tweedies and I'm sure they know all about it. Of course, they are so concerned about what the Post thinks, they just may pull the plug but I hope not. (I hope Ed Notes support is not the kiss of death.)
Actually, Sue, who can be a snake, did not do a terrible job given that the work Lisa does was given lots of space. It was the vicious headlines and the photo of Lisa they used from her Facebook page that made it look bad.
Here are some links to the Post Article and Perdido Street School:
More Tweedies Like This One, Please
And some stuff from Leonie:
Here is a response to this NYP article by kris Nielsen ( no relation):
NY Opt out group which she moderates is here: http://www.facebook.com/
Go show Lisa some love.
And maybe one day we can get her to tell us the inside dope on how DOE technology really fared under Bloomberg admin over the last 12 years. As a tech guy myself in the last 20 years (roughly 1985-2005) I worked both at the school, district and region level my sources generally report a disaster with enormous sums wasted.
LEADING EDUCATORS SUPPORT TEACHER TEST BOYCOTT
Press Release
Date: January 21, 2013
Contact: Brian Jones, Teacher and Doctoral Student, 646-554-8592 bjones2@gc.cuny.
Wayne Au, Professor of Education, wayne@
LEADING EDUCATORS SUPPORT TEACHER TEST BOYCOTT
In
a public statement released today, more than sixty educators and
researchers, including some of the most well-respected figures in the
field of education, pledged support for the boycott of the Measures of
Academic Progress (MAP) test initiated by the teachers at Garfield High
School in Seattle, calling the action a “blow against the overuse and
misuse of standardized tests.” Among the signers of the statement are
former US Assistant Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch, Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis, author Jonathan Kozol and professor Nancy Carlsson-Paige.
While the MAP test is used exclusively for rating teachers, “the test’s
developers (the Northwest Evaluation Association) have noted the
inappropriateness of using tests for such evaluations” the educators
wrote.
“We’ve
had more than a decade of standardized testing,” Ravitch said, “and now
we need to admit that it’s not helping.” She added: “By signing this
statement, I hope to amplify the voices of teachers who are saying
‘enough is enough’.”
“On
Martin Luther King Day, we celebrate people who are willing to take
personal risks to act according to their conscience,” Lewis said. “The
teachers at Garfield High School are taking a stand for all of us.”
New
York City public school teacher and doctoral student Brian Jones
drafted the statement last week and received help with revisions and
outreach from University of Washington professor Wayne Au. “I’m
overwhelmed by the response to this statement,” Jones said, “I feel like
this is the beginning of a real movement to challenge high stakes
standardized testing.”
"We
contacted leading scholars in the field of education," Au said, "and
nearly every single one said 'Yes, I'll sign.' The emerging consensus
among researchers is clear: high stakes standardized tests are highly
problematic, to say the least."
"When
I look at this list of names, I see the people whose work helped to
make me the teacher I am today," Jesse Hagopian, a teacher at Garfield
High School said. "Their support really means a lot to me, and I know
that many teachers at Garfield High School feel the same way."
Call on UFT to Release the MOU
Thanks, Marjorie. We should demand that the Union provide the MOU to the membership. We know that they will say that it will hurt their negotiating position but keeping the members in the dark will not soften the blow when the approved concessions are presented. This should be a major plank of our demands. --- Jeff KaufmanMarjorie Stamberg does a nice job in calling out the UFT on releasing the memorandum of understanding (MOU) so we can see what they were willing to give up. But I'm sure we'll find out soon enough after the UFT signs whatever agreement they will sign while making sure the members never get to vote on it despite the fact that would change the contract. And given that Leroy Barr at the Dec. DA affirmed the right of members to vote on contracts, the UFT leadership will enter Leroy into the Bloomberg hall of liar shame.
But enough of my drivel. I too want the MOU, preferably with a quart of milk. I love Marjorie but get such a kick out of so many people on the left who always keep me entertained. At the very end Marjorie calls people like me who don't fight a revolutionary struggle against capitalism an instrument of capitalism. Guilty as charged. Scuse me, while I go check my portfolio, here is Marjorie followed by the great pretender, Leo Casey.
People should read the attached self-serving but revealing article from Leo Casey, formerly UFT vice president in charge of high schools, now executive director of the Albert Shanker Institute (!) at the AFT.
Even the big business press admits that a deal on teacher evaluations linked to student test scores fell through because Mayor Bloomberg complained it wouldn’t let him “fire bad teachers” wholesale. His “scientific” method for carrying out this union-busting scheme is teacher evals based on the junk science “value added model” which with its indecipherable algorithms is guaranteed to produce large numbers of “ineffective” ratings. In this, the billionaire Republican in City Hall is only following the lead of liberal Democrats Cuomo in the NY State House and Obama in the White House, who are trying to bribe and blackmail teachers into compliance.
In his presentation to the Delegate Assembly on Thursday, UFT president Mulgrew called Bloomberg a liar and went on at length about all the fabled safeguards that had been allegedly built into the tentative agreement that the mayor shot down. But he didn’t say a word about the content of the evals scheme that the union had agreed to.
In this piece from Casey’s blog Edwise, he gives an insider’s account of the negotiations. He reveals that at the last minute the NYC Department of Education sprung their draft application to the NYS Education Department, including “numerous scoring tables and conversion charts” which the union had never seen. Without a doubt, these scoring metrics would allow Bloomberg to fire at will, since that has always been his bottom line. But instead of breaking off negotiations, the union proceeded to negotiate with the DOE a “three-part agreement” saying that the union would have to sign off on student “growth formulas,” that “unfairly skewed ratings” would somehow be “recalibrated,” and a “special expedited appeals process” would be set up to deal with internally contradictory ratings.
The union leadership is afraid to tell us what the scoring criteria are, but all Casey is saying is that if there were a glaring contradiction between student test scores and principals’ “observations” (the other component of the evaluations) it could be appealed. Nothing about rejecting the DOE’s slimy metrics. So not only was the principle of linking teacher evaluations to student test scores agreed to, the DOE’s mathematical formulas for firing teachers were implicitly accepted, with an escape clause for when the principal disagreed. Basically, Mulgrew, Casey & Co. capitulated to Bloomberg and Walcott (backed up by Cuomo and Obama). The UFT tops were ready to sign off on a deal that would have been a betrayal of the teachers they supposedly represent, destroying any vestige of job security. But for Bloomberg, who has the mentality of a slave master, capitulation was not enough: he demanded total surrender.
Since according to Casey's account, a Memorandum of Understanding exists in some form, let the membership see what the union leadership was about to agree to -- publish the MOU!.
So in the end, it was the intransigence of the puffed-up dictator Bloomberg which thwarted the treachery of the pro-capitalist union bureaucracy. He and his fellow denizens of Wall Street really do consider themselves to be “masters of the universe,” entitled by “management rights” to do whatever they please with “their” wage slaves. But it is not enough to oppose the sellouts of the union misleaders. Without a program to take on and defeat a united capitalist ruling class through hard class struggle, liberal and reformist union reformers would end up agreeing to a variant of the deal the UFT leadership okayed (but Bloomberg torpedoed).
Either wage revolutionary struggle against capitalism, or become an instrument of capitalist rule: as Leon Trotsky outlined long ago, those are the only alternatives in this epoch of decaying capitalism, the supposed middle ground of reforming capitalism no longer exists.
Caught In Their Own Web Of Deception and Deceit:Bloomberg, the DOE and Teacher Evaluation Negotiations
By LEO CASEY
After he blew up the teacher evaluation agreement that had been reached between the UFT and his own NYC DOE negotiating team, Mayor Bloomberg appeared at a hastily called press conference yesterday to spin an entirely fictional account of what had transpired. The UFT had made agreement impossible, he claimed, because of our unreasonable demands for more arbitration dates that would make it impossible to “fire bad teachers,” our “last minute” insistence upon a sunset clause that would have made the entire system a “joke,” and a “middle of the night” effort to change the scoring metrics for teacher evaluation so “no teacher” would be rated ineffective. Each of these claims is a lie, pure and simple. Here I will address the last two of Bloomberg claims, as I was personally involved in the negotiations around them.*
To finalize an agreement over teacher evaluations in New York, two different documents must be developed: a memorandum of understanding (MOU) which lays out in legal language the agreement between district and the union over the new evaluation system, and an application from the local school district to the New York State Education Department which provides scores of assurances that the specific evaluation plans laid out in the MOU conform to state law. Both the head of the school district and the head of the union must sign the local school district’s application. During the last week, as the UFT and the DOE met long into the night in an effort to reach agreement on the terms of the MOU, we asked, again and again, more insistently at each turn, to see the DOE’s draft of their application. It was not until late into Wednesday evening, barely 24 hours before the deadline, that the DOE finally gave us their draft of the application. When we read the draft, it quickly became apparent why they had resisted sharing it with us. Included in the draft were numerous scoring tables and conversion charts which the UFT was now seeing for the very first time. These tables and charts were very important: embedded in them were fundamental decisions about the shape of the evaluation system. By waiting until the very last minute to provide the union with these numbers, the DOE was trying to sandbag us: it was now impossible to properly vet those numbers before the deadline.
The UFT would have been completely justified in ending the negotiations, then and there. But we did not. Our Measures of Student Learning team met with our DOE counterparts and I met one-on-one with Deputy Chancellor Shael Suransky in efforts on our part to put together an agreement over the scoring numbers and ratings that would ensure that teachers would receive fair and accurate scores and ratings. Bloomberg’s description of these discussions could not be further from the truth: far from a last minute effort on the part of the UFT to change agreed upon scoring metrics, the union was doing everything it could to rescue the negotiations from a bad faith maneuver on the part of the DOE that could have easily derailed any agreement. We agreed to a three part solution: a joint UFT-DOE committee would have to approve the growth formulas which would be used for all of the measures of student learning; any scoring metric which unfairly skewed ratings would have to be recalibrated; and a special expedited appeals process would be established for final ratings which were not concordant with the different component ratings. On Thursday morning, I confirmed this three part agreement in a telephone conversation with Suransky. Over many years of working with the Bloomberg DOE, through the chancellorships of Joel Klein, Cathy Black and Dennis Walcott, I have seen a great deal of cynicism on the part of the mayor and the top DOE leadership, but Bloomberg’s lie that the UFT engaged in an 11th hour effort to undo agreed upon scoring metrics in an effort to protect “bad teachers” is surely a new low in misrepresentation.
The Mayor’s claim that the UFT introduced a “last minute” demand for a sunset clause on the agreement is refuted by the very draft application shared with us. On the very last line of this section of the draft application, the DOE itself had written that the agreement would only last through the 2013-2014 school year. The preponderance of applications from school districts around New York approved had similar sunset clauses: given the sheer complexity of the new teacher evaluation systems required by New York State law, they reasoned that it was only prudent to revisit their implementation in a year or two. All of these applications have been approved by the New York State Education Department. It was the Mayor who, after an agreement had been reached with a sunset clause, insisted on undoing that clause and blowing up the entire agreement. The Council of Supervisors and Administrators, negotiating for a new principal evaluation, also had their agreement blown up by Bloomberg on the very same issue.18 January 2013
After two years of continuous efforts on the part of the UFT to negotiate a teacher evaluation system which would provide New York City public school teachers with the means to hone our skills and craft, and provide our students with the highest quality education, it is now painfully clear that Mayor Bloomberg has no intention of negotiating such an agreement.
__________________________________________________________________________________
* When the negotiations on teacher evaluation began two years ago, I was a UFT Vice President, and I served as co-chair of the union’s Teacher Evaluation Negotiations Committee. Last September I resigned my position as UFT Vice President to become the Executive Director of the Albert Shanker Institute at the American Federation of Teachers, the UFT’s national union, but I made a commitment to the UFT to see these negotiations to completion and remained involved in them.
MORE General Meeting 1/26
WHAT: MORE General Meeting
WHEN: 12:00-3:00pm, Saturday Jan 26th 2013
WHERE: 224 West 29th St. btwn 7/8ave NYC 14th floor
During the recent evaluation negotiations, MORE fought for democracy within OUR union. MORE believes that members should have direct input into all major decisions.
Evaluations are just one of many issues MORE is organizing around: closing schools, forced co-locations, over-testing and underfunding, ATRs, denial of tenure, mounds of paper-work, Danielson, common core, special ed violations, and the continued attempt to destroy unions (as in the current school bus strike)….
The time is now!
Come build a positive alternative that challenges the UFT/Unity Caucus leadership.
Join us at our general meeting Saturday 1/26. We will discuss why we have been successful in growing this democratic movement and what our strategies will be moving forward.
Come find out how to work with MORE in the upcoming UFT elections… including opportunities to run, petition for signatures, leaflet, and fundraise.
If you have sold raffle tickets bring money and/or unsold tickets to meeting, please contact us if you can't make it.
Childcare available only if requested by Wednesday 1/23 - email more@morecaucusnyc.org
Next Special Event
Saturday February 23rd " Forum with Lois Weiner, moderated by Brian Jones "Dignity and Democracy in Education: Blowing the Whistle on the Culture of Fear and Corruption in NYC Public Schools"
Check the Facebook link for more info/location
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Vincent C. Wojsnis on Eval Deal on Facebook
The time has come for people to consider whether the ruling party of the UFT over 50 years has any answers. Vincent was for many years a neutral chapter leader but has cast his lot with MORE. He wrote a great piece "Why I Joined the MORE ... back in November. He is running on the MORE slate for UFT Executive Board at-large.
Here are some comments in Facebook which he will expand into a general article.
Here are some comments in Facebook which he will expand into a general article.
At Thursday's UFT Delegate Assembly, Michael Mulgrew repeatedly said that the proposed deal on teacher evaluations was a "good deal," though he offered few details. What concerns me was his repeated reference to "evidence of growth." (translation: "value added") Was this not the "junk science" we sued Joel Klein over the release of Teacher Data Reports? We're buying into this?!! This is a bad deal. Let them keep their money. It's tainted.
We should be clear on this. The so-called deadline for a new teacher evaluation deal is not an act of nature (or if you prefer, "God"), only by politicians who think they're gods. Cuomo and Commissioner King can release the money (the amount of which seems to be growing) at any time. THEY CHOOSE NOT TO. They would rather hold a "gun" at the heads of teachers to force us to accept an unfair evaluation process that is based on "junk science," a result of of the deal they made with the "devil" when they accepted the Race to the Top funds. This is nothing more than a naked attempt to weaken our union.
"The future of school reform is here. It is the democratic voice of the true stakeholders in the education system...
Unfortunately, the same forces that have given rise to dictatorial mayoral control schemes around the country are also responsible for our own union’s lack of democracy. Since these education reform policies are wholly unpopular, and since our union leaders do not want to be seen as obstacles to “progress”, they have been forced to take a “conciliation” approach with “reformer” mayors who run school districts. In turn, they have been required to turn to increasingly un-democratic means to silence their members who understand that these reforms are harmful to our schools.".. Movement of Rank and File Educators (MORE)
Seven Habits of Happy Kids in 5 SI Schools: Teacher Charges Religious Infiltration
I don't know anything about this but a teacher at one of these schools contacted me with this info and I'm throwing it out there for comment from anyone who knows something about it. The costs to a school -- 30-50 grand sounds so excessive and as the teacher points out these costs come as the loss of major services. But we shouldn't assume that the teacher is correct in charging a connection to religion. This program is about character education and we should question whose values are being promoted when we do character education. Given some bad history in the Mormon church on race I do wonder exactly how they view character in the black community, especially given the repressive charter school restrictions.
Colleagues,
A total of 5 schools are currently implementing the "7 Habits of Happy Kids." PS 21 in Staten Island, P.S. 53... 330 Durant Ave. SI and P.S. 23 in Richmond Town and PS 39 near Grasmere in SI.
We are being told it is not a "pilot" but a real "program" to be used. After sitting through some training I couldn't help but feel it's "cultish" vibe. So I researched Sean Covey and found he is a mormon with relations to the Seventh Day Adventist ... hence SEVEN habits.
It is a clear religious agenda being implemented into our PUBLIC schools. The children and teachers are being trained to use special vocabulary from the seven habits. We had to create mission statements...when in fact Mr. Covey's organization does not have a mission statement.
This is costing each principal of the five schools somewhere btwn. 30 and $50,000...money that should obviously be spent in the classroom to support students who CONSTANTLY lose services due to staffing issues.
In London, Ontario, Canada they tried to use the School Board to try to implement Covey's beliefs but the community and teachers fought against it and won!!!! We are in a SAD, SAD state if we are allowing 'religious' beliefs into our Public School System ....any thoughts? anything can be done?
BTW...TWEED has been visiting the 5 schools this year to determine if it is something ALL schools will do next year.
Paul Proscia works at the Regent and sends out the emails. Also, he held a workshop for teachers last week at 21 and attended the PTA meeting at P.S. 53 on Thursday night...this is PURE madness to me. TWEED was at PS 21 last week as well...teachers were instructed to put on the show so they will implement it next school year across the city.
Sharpton Doesn't Show at Philly Event While Weingarten Does
Our contact in Philadelphia sent us a follow-up to his report on this event Weingarten and Sharpton, Perfect Together -
Al Sharpton was a no show at the MLK event in Philadelphia. His spokeswoman said he was 50% on his way, but stuck in traffic and realized he couldn't make it on time. She wasn't very convincing. The crowd greeted her announcement with silence.But exactly what is the AFT going to do about -- not talk about how outrageous it is -- the shutting down of almost entire public school system in major cities?
Randi Weingarten spoke three minutes. She did some shouting, pumping her fist about the planned closing of 37 public schools in Philadelphia. After reciting a list of the outrageous we face she asked if we were going to let them do it. Everyone shouted no, and that was it. No proposal for any kind of action.
The other union leaders were little better.
Saturday, January 19, 2013
Saturday Sitings: Double Dose of Violence Where Russel Crowe Plays Bloomberg and a Touch of Credit Card Fraud
Bloomberg retaliation? Mulgrew says UFT HQ "inundated with city inspectors" this morning. "I would say the mayor is not responding well" -- Gotham Schools tweet.Thursday's UFT Delegate Assembly and its aftermath - especially - King Threatens To Strip Title 1 Money From NYC If No Evaluation System Is In By March 1 - put me in the mood for some good old violence.
So my Friday plan hinged on catching Django Unchained at the reasonably close Sheepshead Bay Multiplex but when it was clear I was not making the 12:05 showing and with the next one at 3:40 I ended up aiming for the just opened "Broken City", a tale of a mayor of NYC running for a third term and his major corruption, malfeasance, misuse of power, and arrogance.
In other words, the Michael Bloomberg story, something the NY Times review didn't dare go near. Expect him to hire a private investigator to track Diana Taylor. Or maybe misuse city power to harass people like Mulgrew who become obstacles. Oh, sorry, been there, done that. The key element of the corruption -- the mcguffin -- was a fictional representation of the attempt to sell Suyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village as a way to drive lower middle class people out in order to gentrify the area - and I'm sure Bloomberg had is hand in promoting that. If he could manage it, Manhattan would have a moat around it with missiles aimed at anyone without a high credit rating.
Well, (spoiler alert) -- it was nice to see the Russel Crowe Bloomberg surrogate being led off in cuffs, something we unfortunately will not get to see, though in Joel Klein's early tenure, the corruption was so clear, I predicted he would one day be taken out of Tweed with his coat over his head. There is still hope, though it may be out of a Rupert Murdoch owned building.
Before I went to the 2PM show I made my daily visit to Home Depot and paid at the self-checkout machine. With the movie starting and me with the biggest tub of popcorn I could find, I ignored the phone call from an 800 number at about 2:15. Later I found out it was Amex fraud alert. Apparently, minutes after I used my card, someone used it to shop at Target and then Kentucky Fried Chicken -- and I would have forgiven them if they has sent over a bucket to the movie to save me from that enormous amount of popcorn (which I finished half way through). How Amex figures that is impressive -- later that night they told me to destroy the card - cest la vie.
Well, after the satisfaction of see Bloomberg got to jail, I managed to make the Django Unchained movie just a few minutes in -- remember the days as kids when you walked into the middle of a movie and sat through a double feature to see the parts you missed --- and there was enough violence to last me 5 Delegate Assemblies.
Well, its off to a gala birthday bash being thrown by the children of Loretta and Gene Prisco, two of the old stalwarts from the 1970s right through to today. So seeing some of the old UFT activists today should be lots of fun. Pics later tonight.
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