I was going to use the final column to review the bad and ugly (there was little good) of education coverage, but with the start of summer vacation for my teacher readers I decided to pass. But I did write a newsy story on a Stop and Frisk march held last Saturday in Rockaway organized by Josmar Trujillo, one of the very interesting people I've met out here. More about the march and Josmar in a follow-up piece later or tomorrow.
Education News You Can’t Live Without
By Norm Scott
Published Friday, June 28, 2013
It’s
a lie. You can live without it and so can I. It’s that time again – the
last School Scope column of the school year. And it’s been quite a year
for Rockaway schools. The Wave has done a good job of chronicling the
struggles and recoveries so I won’t belabor the point, but let’s hope
summertime makes the livin’ easy for all our schools, especially those
that have suffered draconian and outrageous cuts by the Bloomberg
administration.
There have been quite a few changes at
The Wave itself. Howie is out, Kevin is in, I’m on a word count limit,
and I have to climb this long flight of stairs if I want to complain.
As
editor, Howie made the paper one of the only voices in the media
resisting the Bloomberg reforms. He made the politics of education a key
focus of Wave reporting with great insights into the successes and
disasters going on in the school system. In case you didn’t notice, I am
an ed policy wonk – duh – and have too much information for my tiny
brain to contain. Trying to share even a fraction of it with readers has
at times been unmanageable.
The Wave was out in front
on so many push button issues in education, especially when they started
closing schools in Rockaway. The School Scope column under Howie’s
stewardship was the reason I started reading The Wave in the first place
over 20 years ago. Or is it thirty? Having worked as a teacher in
Rockaway, Howie knew the ins and outs of District 27 and every Rockaway
school. When Howie retired from the school system to take a full-time
job at The Wave as managing editor he asked me to take over school
commentary, giving me the made up title of “education editor” and
issuing me press credentials, which I have used to gain entry to press
sections not only here in NYC but at events all over the nation. I waved
my WAVE press pass at Joel Klein press conferences, American Federation
of Teachers conventions in Seattle and Detroit, teacher street
demonstrations in Chicago, entry to the press tent at NBC’s Education
Nation and a large rally to defend public schools in Washington DC. Plus
all that jousting with DOE security when I cover Panel for Education
Policy meetings. When I introduce myself as education editor of The Wave
people seem impressed. And then they ask, “What is that?”
Having
taught and been politically active in District 14 in Williamsburg, I
realized I could never duplicate Howie’s great reporting on local
schools. So I have focused critiques on the national and the local
Bloomberg-led movement to reform schools, which I branded as “ed
deform,” and how the local UFT and national AFT were responding –
actually aiding and abetting the deforms in so many ways. I have pointed
the columns at people who work in the schools and might have some idea
of what I’m talking about. But even some of my teacher friends often
say, “Wha?”
I’ve been doing this column roughly twice a
month for the past 8 years. Or is it 9? Wait, I’ll check the archives.
Ooops. Out to sea. With all the things that happened, the loss of those
wonderful binders with 130 years of Rockaway history makes me very sad,
especially since I had procrastinated over writing a novel using those
archives for research. One more reason to just lay in the sun and do
nothing. Which I intend to do once I hit the SEND button.
In
fact I intended this final column of the school year to be a summary of
key stories in education over the year, especially the new teacher
evaluation system. I, and everyone else in Rockaway, have had a few
distractions, so at times it was hard to focus on external events. There
are so many stories, if I wrote about all of them this column would
have OCCUPIED this edition. Kevin has pretty much given me the OK to
write anytime there is a story to write about, even if outside the
education sphere, so I may pop back up during the summer. Otherwise have
a great one and see you back in the fall.
In the meantime you can
follow the fall of civilization on my blog ednotesonline.org.
http://www.rockawave.com/news/2013-06-28/Columnists/School_Scope.html
Saturday, June 29, 2013
Eva Moskowitz Takes Control of StudentsFirstNY With Jenny Sedlis Move
From DAY ONE of the Moskowitz path of destruction, Jenny Sedlis has been at her side attached at the hip, making up whatever lies were necessary to push the evil Success machine. So making Jenny
head of StudentsFirstNY to replace the slime bag Micah Lasher, who jumps from place to place like a bedbug, is a sign that Eva wants to solidify her influence with the next mayor whoever he/she may be.
Jenny can be a nervous sort, dependent on Eva's approval that when things go wrong you get the impression it ain't pretty. I have heard stories about Jenny using hysterics to try to turn away negative stories about Eva and Success, knowing she will get blamed. So it will be interesting to watch how Jenny in charge operates -- but we know she is really not in charge.
I first met Jenny Sedlis at the end of the 2009 school year at a rally GEM supported outside PS 123 in Harlem, another Eva take-over target. She claimed she was an ed notes reader --- monitoring even the blogs for negative Eva stuff, of which Ed Notes is proud to have lead the way. Over the years we have had some nice chats at Gotham Schools parties and at confrontations with the Success machine. I think she really believes that ed deform crap. I know people who despise her for her shilliness but as you know I am not a hater and when we see each other we sometimes hug ---- (she is better than Joel Klein to hug). The thinking must be that using charm might moderate some hostility. It doesn't work but I always love to joust with the Success Stepford crew, though I find some of the parents interesting to talk to.
At one hearing in district 14 the vehemence against Success was so intense as she spoke she looked rocked. (I have some good tape of that -- I almost felt sorry for her.) She started sending surrogates to do her dirty work.
Hey, I have an idea: Jenny Sedlis for next chancellor.
Here is the WSJ article:
Jenny can be a nervous sort, dependent on Eva's approval that when things go wrong you get the impression it ain't pretty. I have heard stories about Jenny using hysterics to try to turn away negative stories about Eva and Success, knowing she will get blamed. So it will be interesting to watch how Jenny in charge operates -- but we know she is really not in charge.
I first met Jenny Sedlis at the end of the 2009 school year at a rally GEM supported outside PS 123 in Harlem, another Eva take-over target. She claimed she was an ed notes reader --- monitoring even the blogs for negative Eva stuff, of which Ed Notes is proud to have lead the way. Over the years we have had some nice chats at Gotham Schools parties and at confrontations with the Success machine. I think she really believes that ed deform crap. I know people who despise her for her shilliness but as you know I am not a hater and when we see each other we sometimes hug ---- (she is better than Joel Klein to hug). The thinking must be that using charm might moderate some hostility. It doesn't work but I always love to joust with the Success Stepford crew, though I find some of the parents interesting to talk to.
At one hearing in district 14 the vehemence against Success was so intense as she spoke she looked rocked. (I have some good tape of that -- I almost felt sorry for her.) She started sending surrogates to do her dirty work.
Hey, I have an idea: Jenny Sedlis for next chancellor.
Here is the WSJ article:
StudentsFirstNY, a pro-charter school organization that launched with a bang a year ago and then stalled, has signaled it is ready to jump back into New York City politics, hiring the top lieutenant of a polarizing charter chain.Jenny Sedlis, who helped former City Council Member Eva Moskowitz build Success Academy Charter Schools, will start in September as the new executive director, the group plans to announce Friday. Officials said this would show they weren't going to sit out the mayor's race."This is a launching of a pretty important new beginning, especially with the mayor's race in full swing," said Ms. Moskowitz, a StudentsFirstNY board member.The group had said it could raise about $10 million and would put its stamp on the mayoral contest, but it has yet to take action. Ms. Sedlis said it is still unclear whether the group will make an endorsement in the mayoral primary or the general election, though she said there would be roughly the same amount of money on the table.Until now, the 30-year-old Ms. Sedlis has been Ms. Moskowitz's right-hand woman, running ground battles for the Success Academy chain, which consistently posts high test scores but draws a backlash when it opens a new school. "I'm pretty battle-tested," Ms. Sedlis said. "I'm not going to shy away from a fight that's going to take place."StudentsFirstNY turned heads a year ago when it launched as the New York partner of the national advocacy group founded by former Washington, D.C., schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, a pioneer in the movement known as education reform.At the helm was Micah Lasher, a former lobbyist for Mayor Michael Bloomberg who promised to put pressure on elected officials and provide an alternative source of cash and support for politicians afraid of breaking with the United Federation of Teachers. Another board member is former city schools chancellor Joel Klein, who now works for News Corp., which owns The Wall Street Journal.In the fall, StudentsFirstNY made enacting tougher teacher evaluations its top priority, running advertisements urging the city and the teachers union to negotiate a resolution. It hosted parent meetings explaining the importance of new evaluations and ran social-media campaigns to draw attention to the issue. And in January, it released a report about the proliferation of poorly rated teachers in the city's lowest-income schools.Pro-union groups fought back, recruiting elected officials to pledge to reject money from the organization. Many said they wouldn't take money—regardless of whether it was offered to begin with. For instance, mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio, the city's public advocate, has said he wouldn't take money from the group. (StudentsFirstNY has said it wouldn't offer him any.)UFT President Michael Mulgrew said StudentsFirstNY's was already having an effect on the mayoral race: Candidates think "what they need to do is stay away from them."Mr. Lasher left in March to work for Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, leaving the group leaderless just when the mayoral race started to pick up steam. Mr. Lasher declined to comment."It was disappointing, just because the thing was getting under way, but such is life," Ms. Moskowitz said.In Ms. Sedlis, the group has someone who comes alive when talking about the specifics of education policies, and someone who isn't just a fighter, but also one who has spent years building schools and walking in and out of classrooms.Though she said the organization's priorities weren't set, she personally is in favor of changing teacher certification to make sure educators are better prepared to step foot in the classroom, and she supports something known as "parent trigger," a concept that allows parents to take over a public school. Perhaps most importantly, she said she cared about a new teachers contract, which the next mayor will negotiate."There are so many provisions of the contract people don't talk about," she said. "So much of why [Success Academy] is successful is because we have the flexibility to orient the school around the needs of children."
Friday, June 28, 2013
Please sign petition to fire principal who called teachers “big lipped,” “nappy haired,” and “gorillas”
From Peter Lamphere who is chapter leader at this school. Let's see now, a principal gives teachers U ratings because they are black. Hmmmm, what will Tweedies do? Back the principal of course. Tweed does support racist apartheid doesn't it? Nelson Mandela would get a U rating and Walcott would bring him up on 3020a charges.
http://www.change.org/Please consider signing this petition support these teachers who have been victims of racist harassment and asking for the DOE to comply with its own anti-discrimination policy.
If you have media contacts, please share this story with them - we are trying to build up pressure on DOE. Check out the TV interview and press release below.TV interview with New York teachers who say principal called them “big lipped,” “nappy haired,” and “gorillas”: http://tinyurl.com/q3k3g2a FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEContact:Kevin Powell
Queens, NY Principal Minerva Zanca calls African American teachers "big lipped," "nappy haired," and "gorillas"Two teachers that were preparing for tenure this year were denied and subsequently fired by a principal that referred to them as "having big lips" and "nappy hair." John Flanagan, a Spanish Language teacher, and Heather Hightower, an ESL-Science teacher, were the targets of these remarks by Minerva Zanca, principal of Pan American International High School in Elmhurst, Queens, New York.
These two teachers, as well as tenured Theatre teacher Lisa-Erika James, have filed a discrimination claim against Principal Minerva Zanca within the Department of Education-Office of Equal Opportunity-for poor performance ratings and undue budget cuts that they feel were racially motivated.
Assistant Principal Anthony Riccardo, who is also filing a harassment claim against Ms. Zanca, uncovered these comments in a written statement that discloses, in vivid detail, the targeting of these three teachers over the course of the 2012-2013 school year. In Post-Observation Conferences with Mr. Riccardo, Zanca states that Ms. Hightower "looked like a gorilla in a sweater with nappy hair" and asked, "Did you see his big lips quivering?" in reference to Mr. Flanagan.
"It is not only important to have high standards for our public school teachers," says Kevin Powell, President of BK Nation. "But we must also support the good ones, like these teachers, who are completely dedicated to their young people. I find it unacceptable that a principal can engage in this kind of conduct without any repercussions. We are not going to stop until due justice and process is served here. We are calling on the school district and the DOE to review this matter thoroughly, to deal with the facts fairly, and to make it clear that racial bias and mistreatment of teachers in any form is not tolerated in New York City. We are also specifically asking for the support of City Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras, who has a working relationship with Principal Zanca since the school is in her district, and for her to condemn this racist and abusive behavior and to stand with us in pushing for an investigation and justice."
The New York City Department of Education's Chancellor's Regulation A830 is a strict anti-discrimination policy that protects its employees from discrimination based on race/color/ethnicity/gender and sexual orientation. The three teachers feel their Civil Rights have been violated and in return are pursuing their complaint in the hopes of getting their jobs back. Ms. James is asking that Ms. Zanca be held fully accountable in compliance with the Chancellor's Regulations. Ms. James states "It is deeply disappointing that Ms. Zanca has made such hurtful racial epithets and is allowed to run a school where many of the children are of Afro-Latino descent." There are currently no African American teachers left at the school.###
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.
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." - Kirkusorwww.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.comMark 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
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) 632-1827EMAIL: nc.bats1@gmail.comEDUCATION ACTION GROUP AIMS TO USE “TEACHER VOICE”Badass Teacher Association already causing ripples in educational watersPublic 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.
Thursday, June 27, 2013
URGENT: Press release on student promotions crisis
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.
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) 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) 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.
- Their children are held to a higher standard than children promoted based on their state test scores,
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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.
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 AgencyFirst 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.)
(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.
Posted: 26 Jun 2013 11:03 AM PDTJoseph 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.
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
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.
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:
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...
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...
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
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 WolvertonCOME TOGETHER this Friday, June 28th, to witness the swearing in.
3:45, NTU Headquarters, 1019 Broad Street.In Solidarity,
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.
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 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:
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.Read it all at: Ms. Tisch and the Brilliant Innovation
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.
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
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:
DOENUTS94% 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?
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!?
Monday, June 24, 2013
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.
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
Crony capitalism and the inequities of NYC charter funding: Julian Robertson and the case of the billionaire scion's preschool -
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.May 06, 2013Remember 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 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
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.See more at: Crony capitalism and the inequities of NYC charter funding: Julian Robertson and the case of the billionaire scion's preschool -
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
Sunday, June 23, 2013
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....
http://youtu.be/BlrW77lGsCE
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