Confessions of a Bad Teacher - John Owens on the demonization of teachers in NYC and elsewhere

I had read John Owen's piece at Slate and thought that for a guy with so little time in the system he seemed to get it. He contacted me asking for a blurb for his book and sent me a pdf. I haven't had time to read it all but read enough to be impressed. He was at the Skinny Awards dinner a few weeks ago where we met for the first time.

Leonie was also impressed with his book.

Everyone should pre-order this book, out August 6:

When John Owens left a lucrative publishing job to teach English at a public school in New York City's South Bronx, he thought he could do some good. Instead, he found an educational maelstrom that robs students of real learning to improve the school's statistics at any cost, even demonizing its own support system: the teachers.

Using first-hand accounts from teachers across the U.S., Confessions of a Bad Teacher is an eye-opening look at the dire state of American education and an essential blueprint for how to embrace our best educators and create positive change for our children's futures.

"A heartfelt call-to-action.... [Owens] offers a worthy perspective on the need to change the ways in which teachers are viewed and concludes with useful suggestions to get started." - Kirkus

http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Bad-Teacher-Shocking-Education/dp/1402281005/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1372263931&sr=1-1&keywords=confessions+of+a+bad+teacher

or

www.thebadteacher.com

How Ed Deform in the Name of Choice Takes Away Parent Choice

From a new member on the Change the Stakes listserve. NOTE: CTS meets today at 5:30 at CUNY, 5th av and 34th st, rm 4202. (Bring ID).

I'd like to observe that a side effect of being part of a pathological system is that one begins to see small victories as progress and to forget what a healthy system would be like. 

As a citizen and a parent with many parent friends in the rest of America, I don't understand why I have fewer rights than they do when it comes to schools. 

1. They have manageably-sized school districts. We could have one school district in each borough, completely independent from the other boroughs. 

2. They vote for a school board. Talk about accountability! Instead of voters having to consider everything to do with city life, including schools, when they vote for a mayor, they have school board members who are voted in or out every 2 years on a rolling basis and they dump failures, dead weight and corrupt losers like hot potatoes. 

3. They have a budget based on property taxes, for better or worse. If we had that in NYC, it would be better...especially considering we don't yet have borough-sized school districts. Given the astronomically high property values in Manhattan, we should have the best schools in the world. But no. We send all that money to NY State and they send it back. 

4. They have the right to vote on the budget. 

5. They have school board meetings where it is their right to speak. We have lost our constitutional rights, as "mere" citizens aren't even allowed to attend SLT meetings and parents must request permission to speak. 

6. They have a right to see the budget. I thought I saw something somewhere that said I had a right to see that budget, but it's not on the web and in the school, it was chained to the copier. I wasn't allowed to copy it "because it has salaries in there." Hello? I thought school salaries were public information? The principal refused to let me have this information. 

7. Some school districts even have transparent finances now...every CHECK that's written is on the Internet. At our local school, they had a RULE against paying for certain things with anything except cash. Now let's see...the reason for that might be....to make it easy to steal cash? 

I have been told on more than one occasion that I am "just" a parent. But that's wrong. What I am is "just" a citizen who is required to pay taxes to support schools but who is not entitled to any say in how that money is spent and not even entitled to know how that money is spent.

 

‘Badass Teachers’ Fights for Public Education and Against Ed Deform

The group is part of an ongoing revolution in education in which teachers, parents, and students are exasperated and exhausted by the Obama administration’s Race to the Top proposals and the testing they require, the Common Core State Standards, and school closings..... Takepart.com

Mark Naison was one of the people who got this started and it is growing fast. Below is an article followed by a BAT press release. Anyone can join as I found out when I went to join and was already a member as someone signed me up. anyone can sign you up and you can add your friends. Build it and they will come.

http://www.takepart.com/article/2013/06/24/badass-teachers-launches-fight-for-place-table

June 24, 2013 Takepart.com

A group calling themselves the Badass Teacher Association (BAT) launched a campaign on Monday against America's federal education policies.

The 15,000-plus strong Internet group spent Monday making hundreds of calls to the White House switchboard to tell President Barack Obama to replace Arne Duncan as Secretary of Education. Instead, the teachers want a lifetime educator who better understands and empathizes with teachers and parents.

The White House call was the first action since the group started about a week ago with an initial 100 members on Facebook.
The group is part of an ongoing revolution in education in which teachers, parents, and students are exasperated and exhausted by the Obama administration’s Race to the Top proposals and the testing they require, the Common Core State Standards, and school closings.

---

“I think that many teachers hoped that if Barack Obama was re-elected, he would ease up on the testing, and the school closings, and the test-driven teacher evaluations,” Mark Naison, a professor of African-American studies and history at Fordham University and a cofounder of the Badass Teachers Association, told TakePart. Instead, he doubled down on all of those, “leaving teachers with no other option than to speak out in the most forceful way possible, say, ‘enough is enough,’ and demand a seat at the table in shaping education policy, which they emphatically do not have now.”

There’s long been a push for Obama to replace Duncan, a longtime friend of the president’s from their days in Chicago. Obama picked him as his Education Secretary soon after he was elected in 2008. From 2001 until then, he worked as chief executive officer of the Chicago Public Schools.
Duncan has plenty of foes from his Chicago days, particularly those who disapproved of his successful efforts to shutter underperforming schools and replace them with charter schools.

“I want BAT to show everyone that we are not going away quietly, that we see the true agenda and it isn't about better education,” Marla Kilfoyle, a teacher in California, said. “It is about profit and privatizing our public school system. I hope that BAT exposes that the school closings we are seeing in our inner city neighborhoods are not about helping kids but about business and money. I would like to see BAT expose that to the public and dismantle it so that we can start doing some real work that is genuine.”

---

Priscilla Sanstead, cofounder of the group and an activist parent, said she helped to get the BAT group started because she likes to connect people and ask questions that “a lot of people won't just go ahead and say out loud.”
Sanstead said that she wants big changes in education. She specifically wants standardized testing to be reigned way back, portfolios to become an accepted way to assess students, and for teachers to get a voice in setting education policy, she said. “I want smaller class sizes, too, and the way to do that is to spend money hiring more teachers.”

Bonnie Cunard, a Florida teacher and parent, is a member of the group. She says that although she can see education reform from both sides, things still need to change.

“Mostly, I see depleted public schools and our public funds channeled to testing corporations and corporate, for-profit charter schools,” Cunard said. “I see high-stakes tests strangling the education of children everywhere, including my own children.”

I'm very tired of teachers not being allowed to be a part of the decision-making process that affects our everyday lives and the lives of our students.
She says that she hopes this group will awaken teachers across the nation “to the fact that many of us are fighting these same issues—that we are not alone...I also hope to take proactive steps to change policies regarding high-stakes testing, privatization, and depleted funding of public schools.”
Michael Peña, a public school teacher in Washington who led the charge to call the White House, says he hopes the group accomplishes three things: reduce or eliminate the use of high-stakes testing, increase teacher autonomy in the classroom, and include teacher's voices in legislative decision-making processes.

“I'm tired of being pointed at as the problem in education by people who don't understand the complexity of the public education system and how decisions are made by elected and unelected officials,” Peña told TakePart. “I'm very tired of teachers not being allowed to be a part of the decision-making process that affects our everyday lives and the lives of our students.”
Many teachers are demanding that they have more control over their profession.

“We are professionals” Denisha Jones, a professor at Howard University and a teacher educator, told TakePart. “We are educated. We deserve to make decisions regarding our craft. I hope that through this group, teachers can come together, organize, and save the profession from the corporate takeover of public education.”

=====

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                    CONTACT: John V. Wood, Press Coordinator

         PHONE: (919) 632-1827

         EMAIL: nc.bats1@gmail.com

 

EDUCATION ACTION GROUP AIMS TO USE “TEACHER VOICE”

Badass Teacher Association already causing ripples in educational waters

 

Public education in the United States has long found itself first in line when it comes to budget cuts and legislative tweaking. People on the front lines have been asked year in and year out to do more with less, and to continue to do so without any kind of salary incentives or increases. The undercurrent of teacher dissatisfaction has been slowly bubbling to the surface, and – at the hands of Dr. Mark Naison – teachers all across the country may have finally found their activist voice.

 

Naison, Professor of African American Studies and History at Fordham University, founded the Badass Teacher Association (BTA), along with Priscilla Sanstead, a parent activist from Oklahoma. The basis of the BTA is to join together “every teacher who refuses to be blamed for the failure of our society to erase poverty and inequality, and refuses to accept assessments, tests and evaluations imposed by those who have contempt for real teaching and learning.”

 

Below is a statement from Dr. Naison:

_________________________________________________________________________________________

 

“It was [Priscilla] Sanstead's idea to start the page, although I put out the idea for a Badass Teachers association more than a year ago - even had a video of it made, as well as some T-shirts. Nothing much came of it. We sold about 40 shirts and that was it.

 

But in the last few months, there has been a huge outpouring of resistance to standardized testing, to school closings, and to the Common Core standards – which led some activists to conclude that the tide was finally turning against the idea that testing and more testing was the way to improve the nation's schools. Priscilla and I were both greatly impressed by the mobilization of parents in a huge test revolt in New York State that took place this April and the anti-Common Core mobilizations taking place all over the country. We thought, “Why not find a way to get teachers involved?"

 

We were both part of a moderately successful site called the Badass Parents Association, so we said why not create a site like this for teachers. We did this a week ago Friday just before 5pm. We were totally unprepared for the response. We starting publicizing the site on Facebook and got about 300 members by Sunday – much more than we expected. Then came the “Big Bang” that put the BTA on the map! Marla Massey Kilfoyle, a teacher and leader of the Long Island opt-out movement, suggested we sponsor a one-hour recruiting contest and declare the winner as the Badass Teacher of the Month. Teachers all over the country started recruiting and before we knew it we had over a thousand members added! The rest is history!

 

This was an idea whose time had come because teachers were fed up with being apologetic in the face of constant attacks by politicians and the press and policies which undermine their autonomy, professional integrity and job security. The response just keeps building. We now have over 18,000 members.”

_________________________________________________________________________________________

 

The membership of the BTA is climbing by the minute. Teachers across the nation – and around the globe – are tired of being ignored and pushed around. They say birds of a feather flock together, but BATs would rather FIGHT together!

 

For more information on the Badass Teacher Association movement, contact John V. Wood at (919) 632-1827, or at nc.bats1@gmail.com.

URGENT: Press release on student promotions crisis

I posted the PRESS ALERT - earlier TODAY!.  Here is the full Press Release.

All are welcome to join the Change the Stakes monthly meeting tomorrow (Friday). 5:30 PM in room 4202 of the CUNY Grad Center, 5th Ave and 34th Street. Please bring photo ID to enter building. Hope to see many of you there!

And See blogger Raginghorseblog who also posted this photo.

ChangetheStakes Bemoans the Chaos and Incompetence of Education Under Bloomberg
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
Contact: Jane Maisel (917) 678-1913  Edith Baltazar (646) 326-8953 
changethestakes@gmail.com 

Press Alert

NYC DOE’s Test-Obsessed Promotion Policies Leave Families in Limbo: First day of summer is NO VACATION for parents wondering if children will be promoted 

New York City – In recent weeks the Department of Education (DOE) sent letters to thousands of students, including some with passing and even excellent grades, notifying them they have not been promoted to the next grade. Shocked parents, teachers and principals have been left scrambling to keep children from being unfairly held back. 

Unlike the rest of New York State, the city bases promotion decisions for 3rd-8th graders on test scores from the annual state English Language Arts (ELA) and math exams, regardless of student performance throughout the year. Yet since 2010, when the state began administering tests in April and May instead of January and March, promotion decisions in NYC have been based on preliminary test results because final scores are not released until mid to late summer. This has meant that some students are sent to summer school and denied the opportunity to participate in graduation ceremonies, even though their final test scores will qualify them for promotion. 

A middle school principal, who asked to remain anonymous, expressed her distress at having to tell an 8th grader he could not participate in graduation because of his preliminary test score in math. She asked, “What happens at the end of summer if his actual score shows he passed? He can’t walk for graduation. That only happens once.” The principal and his math teacher both believe the student’s performance met the bar for promotion. 

This year’s uncertainty about student promotion was compounded by the introduction of state exams based on the “Common Core Learning Standards,” to which schools and teachers are still in the process of transitioning. The exams themselves were wholly experimental. In fact, NYC Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott acknowledged in a February letter to parents the serious challenges inherent in using scores from the April 2013 exams to assess student performance: “This year, because the tests are new, we cannot predict how the State will determine performance levels.” Nonetheless, the DOE is sending thousands of children to summer school based solely on preliminary results from experimental exams. 

“Our 8th grade daughter has been performing well in school all year,” says one Bronx mother, “How can the fact that she did not do well on the April math exam erase a whole year of learning and academic achievement?”
Further, public school parents in NYC and across the country are increasingly skeptical about the reliance on standardized tests to make high-stakes decisions about the performance of students and teachers. As a result, a growing “opt out” movement has meant that hundreds of students in NYC refused to take this year’s state tests.

1

Students without state test scores as well as those scoring in the bottom 10 percent of preliminary state exam results are subject to an inscrutable “portfolio review” process, which is largely based on yet another test. Conversations with parents and educators throughout the city reveal that:

1. (1)  The process by which students are denied promotion is not at all transparent. Parents are not routinely informed that students with failing test scores or no test scores will be asked to take another test.
   
2. (2)  Most parents whose children go through the “portfolio review” process are not aware that: 
   
   
   • Their children are held to a higher standard than children promoted based on their state test scores,
     
   • Alternative tests comprise the bulk of a student “portfolio,” supplemented by only a few pieces of actual student work,
     
   • Despite the recommendations of a child’s teacher and principal, the district superintendent makes the final decision about promotion,
     
   • There is no consistency across districts in superintendent evaluations of portfolios. (3) In some districts, students who refused to take the April exams – including many with
     high grades – seem to have had their portfolios singled out for a higher level of scrutiny. 
     
     “As parents we are particularly concerned because in so many ways our children’s teachers, who are best equipped to assess them, are excluded from the process, resulting in unnecessary work and anxiety for everyone,” said Andrea Mata, a parent in District 6. 
     
     Although students who are denied promotion are not required to attend summer school, they are strongly encouraged to take additional tests in August to move on to the next grade. These exams, created by the city, are yet a third set of tests used for student promotion decisions in New York City that further subject children to arbitrary promotion criteria and ignore the judgments of the people best qualified to assess their academic performance – their teachers. 
     
     Change the Stakes calls on the NYC Department of Education to immediate disclose information on the number of 3rd-8th grade students in each district who were “recommended” for summer school, the number of portfolios submitted by principals to superintendents in support of student promotion, and the approval rate for such portfolios for each district. 
     
     We also join parents across the city in calling for student promotion policies that are transparent in how decisions about individual students are made, proactive in communication with parents, and consistent across districts. Given the high number of unresolved contested student retention decisions in districts across the City, the DOE should designate a central office to handle inquiries and grievances relating to student promotion this year.
     ### 
     
     Change the Stakes (changethestakes.org) is a group of parents and educators working to reduce the harm caused by high stakes-testing, which we believe must be replaced by valid forms of student, teacher, and school assessment. Change the Stakes believes decisions about a child’s promotion to the next grade should be made by educators who know the child using a broad range of information and tools to assess the child’s readiness to perform at the next grade level.
     

2

PRESS ALERT - TODAY! NYC DOE’s TEST-OBSESSED PROMOTION POLICIES LEAVE MANY NYC FAMILIES IN LIMBO AS SCHOOL ENDS

PRESS ALERT - TODAY!           FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   June 26, 2013

Contact:        Change the Stakes       changethestakes@gmail.com
Jane Maisel             (917) 678-1913
Edith Baltazar          (646) 326-8953


NYC DOE’s TEST-OBSESSED PROMOTION POLICIES LEAVE MANY NYC FAMILIES IN LIMBO AS SCHOOL ENDS

First day of summer is NO VACATION for parents struggling get their
children promoted to next grade

WHAT:   Come meet parents battling the NYC Dept. of Education’s dysfunctional and educationally unsound student promotion policies

WHEN:   4:45 PM on Thursday, June 27th

WHERE:  NYC Department of Education, 52 Chambers Street
Assemble on the Courthouse Steps (In the event of severe rain gathering
will take place across the street, under the scaffolding at 51 Chambers)

Participating parents have children who have not been promoted despite
recommendations from teachers and principals who have determined they
are ready    for the next grade level.  They will also discuss concerns the DOE is arbitrarily forcing thousands of children to attend summer school solely on the basis of partial results from this year’s experimental State exams.

Analysis from the Right: EIA's Antonucci on Newark Union Election/ What Impact on Randi Nationally as Arbiter of Contract?

Schmuck, why aren't retirees voting in Newark like they do in NYC? .... Mulgrew/Weingarton to Newark Union President Del Grosso

...it isn’t a good idea for education reformers to invest too much emotional capital in collaborative union presidents. Most members are apathetic/agnostic about this stuff – about two-thirds of Newark teachers didn’t vote – but the active ones are generally very clear about what they want from their union: protection. When the officers start wandering far afield, they are herded in one way or another.... Educational Intelligence Agency

First of all, happy first day of vacation. Warning: not only are the days getting shorter every day, so does your vacation. (I'm a glass half full kind of guy.)

We reported on the New Caucus, running under the New Visions slate (NEW Caucus Shakes the Union Election Tree in Newark), winning a majority of the Ex Bd seats and only losing the presidency by 9 votes. The Newark contract brokered by Randi was another in a long line of interventions on her part (Detroit, Washington DC, Baltimore) where money was put on the table to lure teachers into giving up their basic rights and then showing buyer's remorse in the next contract.

(Sorry I have to use an old photoshopped version done for me by David Bellel -- though I managed to add Newark to it. I think a new version could put Randi on the cycle with Arne Duncan.)

See our April 22 post: Randi Sellout Tour Coming to Fruition in Newark.

Only Chicago had the chops to keep Randi out.

I will deal with national implications within the AFT for Randi at next July's convention in LA in another post.

Can New York be next in terms of a contract that so enrages the members that they revolt against Unity? Or has the UFT basically given us a new contract through the King dictum but has obfuscated the issue by not holding a contract vote and also distracting the members with the lure of the upcoming mayoral election and how when they get rid of Bloomberg things will improve.

[Another post for the future though given the Unity plus retiree control NYC will be the last bastion and in fact the deformers may recognize that and will give the UFT enough crumbs to keep the rank and file under control -- ie, Thompson will come through with some bucks.]

Though coming at the issue from an anti-union bias, Mike Antonucci zooms in on some important points. His key point is that "the active ones are generally very clear about what they want from their union: protection."

But Antonucci ignores an important point about NEW Caucus being more than just protection, but social justice along the lines of Chicago and other cities that have seen the growth of caucuses challenging a collaborationist union leadership on ed deform.

Interesting in that we have been having that debate in MORE where some people think MORE has gotten lost in social justice issues and has not emphasized the protection aspect enough. This is a more nuanced discussion than one would think on the surface as most MOREistas think the long-term protection comes from the building of alliances based on social justice. My feeling is that the rhetoric, given the newness of MORE, has not quite been balanced.

But I should point out that NEW Caucus is as social justicey as MORE if not more so. Thus those internal critics who say that if only MORE abandoned social justice they would have done much better in the union elections have a lot of splaining to do.

Let's also point out that one third of the teachers in Newark voted while only 18% of classroom teachers voted here -- I don't have figures for Newark classroom teachers vs overall but it must be higher. And interesting there was a 3rd candidate for President who got 40 votes which if it had gone to New Visions would have given them the entire enchilada.

Below is Mike's complete analysis where he issues a warning of sorts to ed defomers: don't wast your time trying to woo union leaders to collaborate. He may be right. That's how you end up dealing with Karen Lewis instead of Michael Mulgrew.

Tenuous Union Reform

Posted: 26 Jun 2013 11:03 AM PDT

Joseph Del Grosso, the president of the Newark Teachers Union for 18 years, has received national attention because his views on education reform have evolved from his early days. He negotiated a contract that included performance and differential pay, though he continued to battle district administrators over the budget.

Well, Del Grosso was up for re-election, and he won his 10th term… by 9 votes out of 1209 cast. His slate no longer holds a majority on the union’s executive board, and the 40 votes that went to a third candidate could have swung the election the other way.

Del Grosso’s opposition was the New Vision slate, which won a majority on the board, and whose manifesto you can read here. A sliver should suffice for summary:

For true social and economic justice to be realized in our time it is imperative for education workers to see that their efforts cannot stop when the school day ends. As powerful corporate forces and the politicians who benefit from their donations attack the working class, we must take affirmative steps to link our teachers’ union to other unions being attacked and to working class people in the city and beyond whose very livelihoods are at stake in this so-called era of austerity.

This is the wayof things in teachers’ unions, and has been for a long time (see “TURN Leader Turned Out” from 2006). That’s why it isn’t a good idea for education reformers to invest too much emotional capital in collaborative union presidents. Most members are apathetic/agnostic about this stuff – about two-thirds of Newark teachers didn’t vote – but the active ones are generally very clear about what they want from their union: protection. When the officers start wandering far afield, they are herded in one way or another.

The Last Day: Teachers Party All Over the City

I party with Christine Rubino and crew at Clementes in Sheepshead Bay.

One thing I miss about teaching: the absolute joy of the afternoon of the last day. The feeling of floating, the incredible lightness of being off for 65 days with no responsibilities or anxieties about school.

But then you wake up the next day and think: damn, only 64 to go.

Christine was celebrating her recent court win over the Tweedle dees and even though she is still not back on payroll after her 2 year suspension was up June 14 because the DOE keeps trying to appeal, she invited all her supporters to join her in a victory celebration. I'm paraphrasing here but she said: "I lost 2 years pay but the rewards in meeting so many wonderful people have almost made up for it. I've learned so much from everyone."

I had some time to drop by for a while and seeing the scene of joyous teachers free from the oppression for a while reminded me of the difference from the last day happy hours I attended when I was working. We were truly unburdened. Teachers today are carrying so much on their shoulders I never really goes away.

Good luck and a great well deserved summer to all. Just don't take my favorite parking spots that are so free while you guys have been slaving away.

Video: Chicago Students Tossed From Board of Education Meeting

Video of Chicago students taking over the Board of Education Meeting to save schools, prevent education cuts.
From Xian Barrett:

Published on Jun 26, 2013

Members of Chicago Students Organizing to Save Our Schools speak out against unjust and illegal school closing and draconic budget cuts.

The Board of Education continues to sabotage public education and divert money to their political allies. We stood up as the only unscripted student voices at the meeting. We were forcibly removed. The Board continues to destroy our educations, but we will keep fighting!

Sign the petition to support Chicago students:
http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/save...

NEW Caucus Shakes the Union Election Tree in Newark

Teachers react to Randi brokered contract by election by handing union reform NEW Caucus 18 of 29 Exec Bd seats but losing the presidency by only 9 votes. Holy Cow!

There are growing signs that in cities across the land, rank and file social movement oriented caucuses are a-rising.

NEW Caucus Members and Supporters:

As most of you have probably heard, the results of today's election were mixed. 

ONLY 1,220 NTU members cast ballots.  

Joseph Del Grosso maintained the Presidency of the NTU by a vote of 589 to 580.

Michael Dixon won the Secretary Treasurer position by a vote of 644 to 544.

The major change is that for the first time in at least 16 years there has been a major shift in the  makeup of the Executive Board, the NTU governing body. 

NEW Vision candidates won 18 of the 29 seats on the Executive Board.  For the next 2 years these new Executive Board members will work to be activist leaders to help reenergize, revitalize, reorient and rebuild the NTU for the challenges we face.  

The new Executive Board members from NEW Vision slate are:

-  Kevin Arroyo 

-  Akili Buchanan 

-  Sherill Cantrell-Brown

-  Michael Cutler 

-  Victor Fernandes

-  Nancy Gianni

-  Lisa Gray

-  Delores Gresham

-  Alicia Malave-Diaz

-  Al Moussab

-  Pablo Olivera

-  Yari Peres

-  Tariq Raheem

-  Carlos A. Rodriguez

-  Andrew Saperstein

-  Keith Starks

-  Bettie Williams

-  Thomas Wolverton

COME TOGETHER this Friday, June 28th, to witness the swearing in.

3:45, NTU Headquarters, 1019 Broad Street.

In Solidarity,

Newark Education Workers Caucus

(NEW Caucus)

 

NewarkEducationWorkersCaucus.com

862-367-9211 

Facebook.com/NEWCaucus

Twitter.com/NEWCaucus

YouTube.com/user/NEWCaucus

Google Calendar: NewarkEducationWorkersCaucus@gmail.com

Eterno Chronicles Regent Grading Fiasco at ICE Blog

I assume you are aware of the Regents grading mess where because teachers cannot be trusted to mark their own kids' exams, they are sent to detention
grading centers to mark exams of kids from other schools. Or maybe their own since you can't tell anyway. But the DOE needed to toss some money McGraw Hills' way so first exams are sent to Connecticut to be scanned and posted on the internet -- which by the way, teachers could actually access from their own schools. But why quibble.

NYC Educator had his usual funny take.

Thank goodness we have Meryl Tisch making policy for us. In the old days, we would have students taking Regents exams, and kids would give the exams to their teachers. Then, the teachers would grade them. This was a terrible system. First of all, no technology was involved. Secondly, no corporations made money from this. And worst of all, every single teacher in the world is a lying, worthless, conniving. self-serving fraud who cares about nothing but appearance.

Because of this, we now have a far better system. First of all, we've paid McGraw-Hill 9.6 million bucks to scan all the tests. That's a huge improvement. Not only have we given a corporation millions of dollars, but we've also managed to add the element of scanning thousands and thousands of papers. This, clearly, is highly effective, and that's what matters in King Reformy John's feifdom.

Read it all at: Ms. Tisch and the Brilliant Innovation

With so many bloggers out there covering ed issues in so much a better way than the mainstream ed press, I find less and less need to comment myself. I assume Ed Notes readers are checking the blog roll but in case you are missing some of them, here is a quick summary on the current hot button issue of Tweedie incoherence. Every time you see Walcott or Shael or any Tweedie talk their jive, just think of the almost daily fiascoes and laugh in their faces.

James has been doing a great job. Read in reverse order.

• REGENTS SCORING DAY 9: ARE WE DONE YET?
• NY TIMES FINALLY DISCOVERS REGENTS SCORING MESS
• REGENTS MARKING DAY 6: WILL WE EVER FINISH?
• REGENTS MARKING DAY 5: SOME IMPROVEMENT BUT NO END...
• SOCIAL STUDIES REGENTS MARKING DAY FOUR & THE SKIN...
• SOCIAL STUDIES REGENTS GRADING DAY 3 REPORT; UFT M...
• Danielson: What We Lost – Creating an Environment...
• NO REGENTS EXAMS TO GRADE SO IT'S BACK TO JAMAICA
• REGENTS MARKING

MORE has put out a statement:
Regents Scoring Debacle – Trouble for English Language Learners - The following is an op-ed written by MORE’s Joanna Yip about the effect of the Regents scoring problems on a particularly vulnerable population.

Other bloggers have chimed in:

RBE:

94% Of Regents Exams Graded As Of 1 PM Monday

According to Gotham Schools, 6% of the city's Regents exams still need to be graded.
Tests are still being scanned by McGraw-Hill and teachers sat around the grading centers today with nothing to grade.
Wednesday is the last day of school.
I cannot remember a Regents exam grading season as chaotic as this one.
Will there be some accountability for the Tweedies who put this system into place and signed off on the contract with McGraw-Hill? 

DOENUTS

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

All Documents Have Been Graded For This RIB

That's the message that teachers across the city have been getting when they access regents exams in a vain attempt to scores them for students.

Look, for three full days, we have have not been unable to access these exams because the private, for-profit company that has been asked to scan and present the exams to us for grading has not been able to do their job. We've sat in these rooms for this time accomplishing nothing (a particular pet peeve of mine) because our department struck a deal with some company that couldn't even deliver on their end of the bargain. This screw up is jeopardizing the graduation expectations of high school seniors all across the city and I'm sure that several hundred family vacations are currently hanging in the balance (with the potential for summer school still alive for many teens who would otherwise know their scores by now).

This whole time we at our schools (grading along the time honored tradition) would have been finished with this task, or would have been very close to finished, by now and none of this would be happening.

You see, we would have delivered, as we have for decades now. They didn't. 

And who will they turn to to fix their screw up? Why us, of course!
The DOE, as rumor would have it, has decided to offer us all per session (DOE-speak for overtime) on Thursday and Friday evenings -and all day on Saturday, as well as all day Sunday- to make up for this train wreck. Yep.
We're in this fiasco because the department had decided -astoundingly!- that it was us who could not be trusted to produce accurate results for our own students! That's right. They concocted this system as a way to keep us and our professional judgement at bay with regard to assessing our own students at our own schools. We're here because we weren't trusted to act as professionals. 
People who read this blog know that I really don't complain and I really don't gripe. Maybe I'll throw out the occasional piece of sarcasm, but wining isn't something I really do. But as you read the blogs and Ed. news sites tonight figuring out exactly what is causing this mess, and as you go into your grading 'hub' tomorrow wondering if it will continue for yet another day and wondering when you will find out how well your students performed on their* state tests  I'd like to you to remember just one thing:
We're here at these grading hubs experiencing this fiasco because they said that they could not trust us to be professional!
And ain't that a hoot!?

 

PAVE Charter Pre-School Scam

We reported on this story a few times. I was at PS 15 the other day and actually saw some of the PAVE slugs in the building -- but that is a story for another time when I get permission to tell THAT story.

Ed Notes Online: DOE Allows Charter Schools to Set Up Stealth Pre ...

Ed Notes Online: This is new….The PAVE Pre-K contract is listed as ...

May 31, 2013

Yesterday we reported on the outrage of PAVE charter being handed 400 grand by Tweed to help them steal pre-k kids from the local public schools in Red Hook, which have had their requests to expand their own pre-k ...

http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/ 

Ed Notes Online: NYCDOE Charter Hits Keep Coming on PAVE ...

May 06, 2013

Remember billionaire run PAVE charter? They moved out of PS 15 and got their own 34 million building. You see charters aren't supposed to have pre-k.

I thought they had taken the PAVE pre-k off the agenda of the May PEP but all they did was change the name of the corporation from PAVE to one of the slugs who works for them.

I posted the pre-k registration question from a PTA president to Walcott at the District 14 Town Hall last week asking for help in registering parents and Walcott pretending not to know what he was talking about. All the while allowing charters like PAVE to set up dummy corporations to register kids for pre-k 18 months in advance while public schools have to tell parents to go find a computer to register online.

Here is the link - go to minute 50 and watch for about 5 minutes as Walcott literally dances around the issue.

https://vimeo.com/68765728 

And here is an excerpt from a very excellent post by Leonie on the diversion of public money to charter schools like PAVE at

NYC Public School Parents.
 

Crony capitalism and the inequities of NYC charter funding: Julian Robertson and the case of the billionaire scion's preschool -

Note the example of the PAVE charter school, run by Spencer Robertson, the son of billionaire Julian Robertson, a close associate of Mayor Bloomberg's.
In order to evade this prohibition, Robertson the son set up a dummy corporation for a pre-school for PAVE called the "Henry Cooper Westendarp" school, named after PAVE's  director of  finance. This pre-school  is being funded through a separate contract with the DOE to the tune of nearly half a million dollars, and it will help ensure a steady stream of students for Spencer's charter school. 

Julian Robertson, billionaire and non-city taxpayer

Along with Chancellor Walcott, Spencer is also on the board of the NYC Charter Center, which is headed by Phoebe Boyer, who runs both of Julian's foundations, the Tiger and Robertson Foundations, which help finance the Charter Center and other pet projects of the Mayor.  

Yet Julian, whose net worth is  $2.8 billion according to Forbes, refuses to pay city taxes, and has his secretary calculate exactly how many days he must travel out of the city and schedules him accordingly, to avoid doing so. 

See below commentary by parent Jim Devor, outgoing president of Community Education Council in District 15 on the need for an investigation into how the city is providing funds to pay for PAVE's preschool. 

THIRTEEN THOUGHTS ON WHY THERE NEEDS TO BE AN INQUIRY INTO  THE "PRE-PAVE" CONTRACT AWARD BY THE DEPARTMENT OF INVESTIGATION

See more at: Crony capitalism and the inequities of NYC charter funding: Julian Robertson and the case of the billionaire scion's preschool -

Video: McGraw-Hill! Welcome to the trough!

The Regents Exam in NY has been saved from the corrupt hands of the teachers. McGraw-Hill is here to make it all better. Welcome to the trough but, hey, at least get in line with the rest of the corporate suckers....

EXCESS'D - A Teacher Without a Room

http://youtu.be/BlrW77lGsCE

Carol Burris on Problems with APPR and the English Regents

Wouldst our union do a tenth of the work Carol is doing to expose the

Marching on NY State Ed Dept

bullshit from the crooks at the NY State Ed Department, the leaders of whom if justice is ever served, would be removed in handcuffs. Carol suggests writing them. My suggestion would be to go after them with pitchforks.

Please consider sharing this with principals, teachers, union reps and parents who would care about this.  So much of this is not known or understood.  It will be good to spread this with all who are effected by this plan.
Janine Sopp

Recently, Commissioner King imposed an APPR plan on New York City teachers. When you look at the plan, you see that the scoring band ranges for the first two categories( student growth), are dramatically different from those used this year. For example, this year's scoring bands for Ineffective range from 0-2. But NYC teachers will have an Ineffective range of 0-12. Likewise, this year Effective starts at 9, but for NYC teachers it will start at 15.

Why? Because the score band that is being used for APPR scores  has serious problems that cannot be addressed through negotiations. For example, if you get the rating of 'developing' in all three categories and the scores are on the low end of developing, you will be rated INEFFECTIVE overall.

Despite the fact that this is known to SED, they have yet to honestly address it or speak about it. What is the right thing to do? Have this year's APPR scores not count, and certainly not have scores shared with parents. It is yet to be seen if the NYC "fix" will even work.  I know this stuff can be hard to understand, (which is probably what SED is counting on), but this needs to come to light.

You can read my explanation of the problems here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/06/18/new-problems-with-new-yorks-teacher-evaluation-plan-found/

On another note, a South Side English teacher, Chris Webster, did a great job explaining how the passing and mastery cut scores for the ELA Regents were manipulated and wrote to John King about the problem. You can read his letter here:

http://roundtheinkwell.com/2013/06/22/english-teacher-the-high-stakes-testing-agenda-is-shameful/

A NYC assistant principal shows how this change made the ELA passing rate in his school dramatically drop

http://gothamschools.org/2013/06/21/broad-concerns-about-harsh-ela-regents-conversion-charts/

Is this preparation for next year's Common Core ELA exam?  The problems that are being caused by the so-called state reform agenda are staggering, as are the tax dollars being wasted. It is now officially summer, and you have a bit more time. Write to the Regents. Write to the legislature. Let them know what the first year of APPR was like. Let them know what testing is doing to your students. You can find all of the email addresses that you need on www.newyorkprincipals.org

If you send me your emails to the Regents, Commissioner, Governor etc, I will post them so that others can see them as well. 

Thanks 

Carol 

follow me on twitter @carolburris

Leonie: Mayoral Candidate Pledges on hot-button ed issues - Thompson Finishes Last

Another right on post from Leonie Haimson:

UPDATED:  Here are scanned copies of the signed pledges of each of the candidates, responding whether they would support each one of our demands.  If the next mayor is one of these individuals, you can be sure we will hold them to their promises! Sal Albanese (D), Adolpho Carrion Jr  (I), Bill de Blasio  (D), Anthony Gronowicz (G),  John Liu (D), Erick Salgado (D),  Bill Thompson (D)

Previous post from June 14: The parent-led mayoral forum last night at Murry Bergtraum High School was terrific, with parents asking incisive yes/no questions, investigative reporter Juan Gonzalez doing inspired follow-up as only he knows how, and all the candidates giving thoughtful responses.  Below is the livestream video; we will have sharper video uploaded next week, but the audio is quite clear.

The coalition of individuals and groups that put this together, which included Class Size Matters and NYC Kids PAC (the full list is on the flyer)  asked some very challenging questions, and developed a scorecard by which the responses of the candidates could be marked off yes or no.  Here is a pdf copy of the scorecard, with all the questions listed and how each of the candidates responded.

 

Or you can click on the images to the right and below. 

Carrion, Thompson and Liu came late and so didn't have a chance to answer all the questions, so they are marked "L" for those questions.  However, at the end of the forum, Juan Gonzalez requested that all the candidates to indicate their answers on their individual scorecards and sign them, so that we will have a record of what they promised to do should they be elected mayor.

An informal calculation made at the forum shows these results: Liu and Gronowicz got perfect scores  of 100%, Salgado 87%, Albanese 73%, de Blasio 60%, Carrion 50%, and Thompson 33%.  (I will update these scores when I receive copies of the signed responses from the candidates, hopefully with all the questions checked off one way or another. I will also post these documents here.)

The candidates whose names are crossed off did not attend.  Democrats Chris Quinn instead visited two Orthodox synagogues, Anthony Weiner did not show up though he had no competing campaign events on his schedule. Republicans Catsimitidis, Lhota, and McDonald also chose not to attend.

The highlight (for me): All the candidates promised to commit to specific class size reduction goals by the end of their first term, and if necessary, to raise revenue to meet them.  All the candidates also promised to stop sharing personal student information with inBloom and other corporations, without full parental notification and consent.

The most contentious issues -- predictably -- related to Mayoral control, governance and parent empowerment.  Only Liu, Gronowicz and Salgado agreed to give up three of their appointments on the Panel for Education Policy to representatives who would be elected by parents, though Thompson said he would give up two of his seats.  DeBlasio and Thompson also opposed giving Community Education Councils the authority to approve co-locations and school closings, though they said they would listen to CECs for advisory input.  (DeBlasio explains his position at about 31 min. in on the video.)

Another contentious issue related to require charter schools that are housed in DOE facilities to pay rent; Albanese, Carrion and Thompson said they would not require this. 
 

As to whether they would take away the school safety officers away from the jurisdiction of the police, Carrion, de Blasio, Salgado and Thompson were opposed. At about one hour into the video are explanations from de Blasio and Thompson about why they answered this way; Thompson said that police should still do the training though the principal should decide whether a student should be arrested.

But please watch the entire forum, and add your comments below.  There are many interesting issues covered, including additional questions asked by Juan not included on the scorecards.  For example, at 1:10 in, there is a discussion about the lack of diversity in the Bloomberg administration, as well as a critique of the decline of Black and Latino teachers in the public schools.


Video streaming by Ustream

Change the Stakes to Discuss DOE's Bankrupt Student Promotion Policies, MORE Study Group on HST

Our meetings are always open and all are welcome.  I can guarantee a lively discussion!  Promotion policies will be the focus on the agenda as well as ways we will move forward to plan for next year.  School may be out for summer, but our work will continue... Janine Sopp

With NYC's bankrupt student promotion policies placing even higher levels of stress on the families of the City's elementary, middle, and high school students, we invite you to join us next Friday.

What - Change the Stakes monthly meeting
When - Friday, June 28th, 5:30-7:30 PM
Where - Room 4202, CUNY Grad Center (5th Avenue between 34th and 35th Streets)
Open to all. Please bring a photo ID to enter the building.

The stuff flying back and forth on the CTS listserve over the reactions of DOE slugs to the opt-out movement has been more than intense -- with threats to force some parents to send their kids to summer school. The epicenter seems to be in District 6 in Washington Hts.

For those not aware, GEM developed 2 branches: CTS and MORE, both independent now (GEM is currently not functioning as an organization). The MORE July 11 summer series event on high stakes testing will bring elements of both groups together.

In the meantime, MORE is running a study group on high stakes testing and is meeting Saturday at 1PM


We're starting off our next working group meeting with a discussion of the first chapter in Unequal By Design by Wayne Au, followed by developing some common understandings to frame the debate around HST, and planning for the summer series event! 

Interested in the history of high stakes testing?
What do you think about the fact the HD testing came out of the
eugenics movement?

Join the MORE anti-testing committee

for a study group on Chapter 1 of the book

Unequal by Design by Wayne Au

Available on Amazon.com OR Half.com 

available as an ebook: http://www.ebooks.com/355924/unequal-by-design/au-wayne/

(We can also scan the pgs of Chapter 1 and have it available in drop box. Let us know!)

Saturday, June 22, 1-3 pm

Teachers College library at 

120th and Broadway (525 W. 120th St)

 2nd floor  (talking, eating and drinking are permitted)  

The library is open to the public with a show of ID. 

Hope to see you there! 

Mulgrew Muffs Class Size Question From Parent on Brian Lehrer Show

"Why isn't the UFT standing up for children by fighting the high class sizes," asked a parent calling in? (paraphrase)

Good question. He didn't have an answer. He doesn't have an answer when teachers ask the same question.

Listen to the interview from June 20 -- towards the end.

Walcott at District 14 CEC Town Hall - At Times I laughed Out Loud

There is actually some pretty funny stuff in this if you dig down into the weeds as Walcott talks stats to explain the fall in grad rates. But a must see is the part when a PTA president asks why they have to turn parents away when they register for pre-k because it must be done on computers and why the DOE can't provide a computer in school for parents to register their kids. Walcott and Jesse talk dizzy talk about all the tech stuff they have while ignoring an elemental issue -- let the parents fill out some paperwork and the school enter the data. He really is Slick Denny. Give me Joel Klein or Cathie Black.

At one point CSA Dist 14 head Brian De Vale hugged Walcott while pointing to me and saying, "If he can hug Klein I can hug you."

I know slogging through an hour of video can be a chore -- just FF through Walcott's grad crap etc. If I have time later I'll create a separate video just for the pre-k hilarity.

https://vimeo.com/68765728