AFT Sics the Dogs on Mercedes Schneider

Today AFT went down the chain to reach my local union president and ask her to “rein me in.”  .. Mercedes Schneider

Norm, In reading the various posts, you may have missed Mercedes' comments below which are quite revealing. It is a classic example of how Unity operates by using intimidation. .. Retired NYC teacher and UFT activist

How familiar are we with these tactics? From Mercedes:

Today AFT went down the chain to reach my local union president and ask her to “rein me in.” My school union rep told me. No kidding. But my local union president doesn’t try to make teachers follow her wishes. She finds out what teachers want to do and then helps us do it.

AFT communicated down the chain that they are concerned I will incite a protest. I don’t incite protests. When told to “talk to me” by one on the regional level, my local union president responded, “And tell her what?”

Funny– the Common Core protests have already transpired and brought about results in my district– including open support from our local union president:

http://deutsch29.wordpress.com/2013/11/03/my-local-teachers-union-and-superintendent-stand-against-common-core-and-parcc/

If you don't know about the war going on at the Ravitch blog, check it out and jump right in:

An Open Exchange Between Mercedes Schneider and Randi Weingarten

 

Leo Casey Defends Randi Weingarten Against Critics

Leo's piece doesn't pass the common core test due to the amount of fiction.

My version of events are here:

Mercedes Schneider Emails Randi Weingarten

 

 

Next MORE Meeting: What do you think about the Common Core?

Some of you might think why does MORE need to decide on a position on the common core? It should be a no-brainer. Well it is not. There are many progressives out there who are not clear about the issue, especially with the propaganda mill from the UFT/AFT, major corporations, the entire educational top level leadership etc. MORE has not had time and now is the time to refine things. Even if you can't make the meeting email MORE with ideas: more@morecaucusnyc.org.


Come to the general meeting November 16th
to help decide MORE's position on the Common Core

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Our next general meeting will discuss what position our caucus should take on the Common Core. Check out some of the links below for the latest commentary.  Join us to add your voice! Anthony Cody: Common Core Fails the Test NYC Educator: Common Core Geniuses Perdido Street: Why Common Core Will Fail

Check out pictures of the Oct 30th "Funeral" to protest colocations at the PEP. Video on Ed Notes

The campaign for a moratorium on test-based evaluations continues!   Please make sure you have collected signatures on our petition from your colleagues.

Please consider bringing it before a chapter meeting so your chapter can endorse (see model letter here) Print a copy here.   Sign and share the electronic version of the petition, as well. Petitions can be returned before November 13th (scan and email to to more@morecaucusnyc.org or send hard copies via mail to 305 E. 140th #5A, Bronx, NY, 10454).

Test Boycotts spread!   Students at Stuyvesant high school became the latest to boycott the new tests from the evaluation system. Sign a petition in support of the Castle Bridge Elementary School parents who boycotted. Read more in the Indypendent and hear from the school's principal in Schoolbook about why she supports the boycott.

Resistance News Roundup Nearly 1,000 Rally Against Senator Flanagan Port Jefferson Teachers Association Who's Really Behind Campbell Brown's Sneaky Education Outfit? Mother Jones Small High Schools are Better, Say Small School Advocates Assailed Teacher Chris Christie and Why Teaching Intersects With Women's Rights The Jose Vilson

Read more about the event and download a flyer by clicking above.  Join an ongoing support group of educators dealing with supervisory harassment by emailing DTOE+subscribe@googlegroups.com

 Join MORE Today

Make Sure You Join Our Listservs! Click below to join: News (announcements/articles) Discussion (debate/back-and-forth) Chapter Leader (discussion for chapter activists) NEXT GENERAL MEETING Sat., Nov. 16th, 12-3pm 224 W 29th St 14th fl. (btwn 7th and 8th ave) SAVE THE DATE! Friday, Dec. 6th, 5-9pm O'Reilly's 21 W 35th St (betw. 5th & 6th). COMMITTEES: Newsletter Committee news@morecaucusnyc.org TODAY Tue., Nov. 5th, 5PM Karavas Place 162 W 4th St @ 6th Ave Steering Committee steering@morecaucusnyc.org Mon. Nov. 11th, 5PM Meeting minutes here Membership Committee membership@morecaucusnyc.org Sat., Nov. 26th, 11AM - 1PM Park Slope Email for exact location Contract Committee contract@morecaucusnyc.org Next Meeting Wed. Nov. 20th after DA Location TBA Chapter Organizing Committee chapters@morecaucusnyc.org Planning Meeting Nov. 21st, 5PM Location TBA High Stake Testing Committee testing@morecaucusnyc.org Media Committee media@morecaucusnyc.org STAYING IN TOUCH:  Comments? Suggestions? Email update@morecacusnyc.org with items for future updates

Shimon Says - Or Doesn't

New York City has slammed the brakes on a plan to expand a much-heralded Brooklyn elementary school after less than 10% of its first class of third-graders passed state exams last spring....Leo Casey, a former vice president of the United Federation of Teachers who sits on the board of the charter school version:
“There’s nothing that I have found in my visits or in my conversations or anything else that makes me think the school is anything but a very good school.”

Master teachers are paid $125,000 a year to help their less experienced colleagues. But just two students out of a class of 22 passed the state math and reading tests last spring... the New American Academy has captured headlines with its unusual setup of 60 kids in a single classroom...

Daily News

Boy, Leo is the gift that keeps giving. He endorses an outrageous pay scale for "master teachers" like the failed TEP model. And 60 in a class -- OK I know there are 4 teachers - theoretically - so that makes the ratio lower -- still, doesn't that in these times sort of send a wrong message about class size?

But how about Principal Shimon Waronker who has had numerous articles written about him. (I just am too tired to compile them - just google "hype.") Now, I'm not going to express Schadenfreud because some of the concepts I can see being supportive of -- but not in these times of assault on public education.

Read the story here.

And you should read this oldie but goodie: RELATED: MOLLOY: CATHIE OUGHT TO SEE HOW SCHOOL LIFTS SPIRITS

Page 6 Insanity: de Blasio Wants Randi for Chancellor? Not

We thought the Post was always ridiculous but this one takes it to bizarroland. Which of these assertions on the Richard (Idiot) Johnson piece are false?

1. De Blasio really wants Randi for Chancellor.
2. Randi really wants the job.
3. Randi "is against charter schools, teacher evaluations and most of the other reforms Mayor Bloomberg enacted.

Answer: While we can't vouch for 1 and 2, we can guarantee that 3 is absolutely false: The UFT has 2 charter schools started by Randi, supports teacher evaluations and common core and indeed has backed many of the Bloomberg deforms.

Randi is so extremely unpopular with NYC teachers she might get lower ratings than Joel Klein. Just check today's doings over at the Ravitch blog (Mercedes Schneider Emails Randi Weingarten). Last I read, only Leo Casey and Peter Goodman were defending her -- though I imagine they'll drag out some Unity slugs to join in even though we saw in the last election that even Unity slugs were not willing to defend Randi.

Would Randi give up double the salary she gets as AFT president and the national presence to even consider being NYC Chancellor? Impossible. Thus we are left with the question as to whether this came from the De Blasio people. Is he so clueless? I doubt it. Or certainly hope not. So what this is is a last ditch effort by the Post to deflect some last minute votes away from de Blasio.

But this has to be the funniest part of the Richard Johnson piece of fiction (sorry Richard, you don't meet common core standards as fiction is taboo).

“The idea of putting a union chief in charge of a school system is mind-boggling,” said a political consultant. “It strains credulity that de Blasio would go that far.

Some union chief. What would strain credibility would be de Blasio actually being serious.


http://pagesix.com/2013/11/04/de-blasio-studying-up-on-weingarten-for-schools-chancellor/

Richard Johnson

De Blasio studying up on Weingarten for schools chancellor

By Richard Johnson

November 4, 2013 | 8:04pm

Modal Trigger

Randi Weingarten

Photo: Matthew McDermott

MORE FROM

Richard Johnson

They say...

Bill de Blasio is considering hiring teachers’ union boss Randi Weingarten as the next NYC schools chancellor, sources tell me.
Weingarten — who was head of the United Federation of Teachers in New York before becoming chief of the national American Federation of Teachers — is against charter schools, teacher evaluations and most of the other reforms Mayor Bloomberg enacted.
“She wants the job, and de Blasio’s people have been making calls, asking about Weingarten and testing the reaction,” said one well-placed source in the public education sector.
“The idea of putting a union chief in charge of a school system is mind-boggling,” said a political consultant. “It strains credulity that de Blasio would go that far.”

Mercedes Schneider Emails Randi Weingarten

I believe that you really do want to support public school teachers. However, I think that in general, you have lost our confidence and our trust.  Just read the comments associated with numerous posts tagged using your name on Diane Ravitch’s blog. The negative sentiment is undeniable. Your choices have provoked this loss of our support... Both letters are below, first mine;  then Weingarten’s response. My letter is pointed and confrontational. It honestly captures my concerns about Weingarten and AFT. In it, I ask Weingarten to consider taking three specific actions... Mercedes Schneider at The Chalkface

Mercedes was in touch with me, asking about Randi's teaching history. I sent her the links to ed notes that dealt with that issue. In her response Randi states the reasons she started teaching, none of them the real reason: that she was the hand-chosen successor to Sandy Feldman. I heard that news as early as 1989 or 90 when my chapter leader, a member of Unity Caucus, told me how upset people were that Randi was being jumped ahead of the popular Allan Lubin as a successor - that in fact she had to get a teaching credential. Friends at Clara Barton knew when she showed up that she would be the next UFT president. And she misleads in the Shanker illness story. In fact he got cancer in the early 90s - coinciding with Randi's move to teach -- it was clear that Sandy would have to move up at some point in the next few years and so they rushed to get Randi ready.

Randi makes reference to me and Ed Notes a few times. The UFT a thriving democracy?

Diane Ravitch wrote about it here:

An Open Exchange Between Mercedes Schneider and Randi Weingarten 

 

Diane urges people who are allies to not divide. I left this comment.

They key question is whether Randi is really an ally when she has led the union into so much support for the enemies of public education. I can give multiple examples from brokering contracts in so many cities to support for merit pay, the common core, Bill Gates at the AFT — I’ll let others complete the very large list. Here in NYC one of the major battles has been over co-locating charter schools in public school buildings. Yet the UFT has had its own 2 charters (started by Randi) co-located in 2 public school buildings for years. One of the schools was the George Gershwin JHS (where I went as a kid) in East NY, Brooklyn. That school was deemed a failure and is closing, due in part from having the UFT charter in the building people there who opposed the closing told me. This year the Bloomberg controlled Panel for Educational Policy allowed the UFT to move the school into another public school. Parents came out to oppose that as it does exactly to that school what charters have been doing – take away valuable space, etc. So tell me how Randi is an ally? Just because she sometimes says “the right thing?” Here is a mantra I learned a long time ago. Watch what she does, not what she says because she will say anything at any time to anyone if she thinks it will help her agenda. What is her agenda? it is not one that favors teachers — the people she represents — or the future of the public schools. When the only large scale organization does not come down squarely on the side of real reform or does not reject completely the ed deform agenda or does not put all its resources into the battle (instead of trying to sell common core) then we have been left to fight these battles on our own.
One last example — we – a bunch of NYC teachers and parents – made the definitive response to Waiting for Superman, a film that has gone far and wide, due in no small part to the efforts of Diane. One would expect the union to use its resources to make that film available to every teacher as a way to battle for public education. The UFT/AFT has refused to acknowledge the existence of the film and in fact has an effective boycott. Why? Because those involved have been internal critics over the years. The mantra has been for Randi and her allies — keep power at all costs even if the union ends up weaker and possibly ultimately destroyed... Norm Scott

Below the break is the cross post of Mercedes' exchange.

Truth-Out on Obamacare: The Biggest Insurance Scam in History

An attack from the left on Obamacare, which many of us supported as being progressive but when examined looks more and more like the health version of Race To The Top, Common bore and other give-aways to the corporations and vested interests.

If you add the NSA surveillance, the take away of basic rights and other issues, how funny that many on the left and the tea party on the right are coming full circle in opposition but from such diametrically opposite positions on race, social justice, etc.

Obama never even put up a battle for medicare for all. Why? People think he got what he could. Maybe. But I think he is a basic neo-liberal and backed by those forces that will profit from Obamacare. There are no signs he was in favor of medicare for all, never tried to sell it or even showed much interest in it despite the fact that Medicare is very popular but with some big wastage. But people make big profits from the waste and there was never a battle to control the drug companies by giving Medicare bargaining rights. Or control over high costs of medical devices.

What I do know is that my wife's job was dealing with medicare and private insurance companies and by far the most efficient and effective she tells me was medicare. When she talks about the private insurance companies she uses words like %^%&^*()__%$.

====

Wednesday, 30 October 2013 10:21 By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers , Truthout | Op-Ed

The Affordable Care Act (ACA), also called "Obamacare," may be the biggest insurance scam in history. The industries that profit from our current health care system wrote the legislation, heavily influenced the regulations and have received waivers exempting them from provisions in the law. This has all been done to protect and enhance their profits.

In the meantime, the health care crisis continues. Fewer people, even those with health insurance, can afford the health care they need because of out-of-pocket costs. The ACA continues that trend by pushing skimpy health plans with low coverage and restricted networks.

This is what happens in a market-based system of health care. People get only the amount of health care they can afford, rather than what they need. The ACA takes our failed market-based system to a whole new level by forcing the uninsured to purchase private health plans and using the government to sell and subsidize them.

Sadly, most Americans are being manipulated into supporting the ACA and do not even know they are being bamboozled. That is how scams work. Even after the con is completed, victims do not know they have been manipulated and ripped off. They may even feel good about being scammed, thinking they made a deal when they really had their bank accounts picked. But it is the insurance companies that are the realizing windfall profits from the Obamacare con even as it falters.

The mass media is focused on the technical problems with getting the insurance exchanges up and running. These problems result from the complexity of the law and outsourcing of services to corporations that are often more costly and less effective than government. In comparison, in 1965 when Medicare started, everyone 65 and over was enrolled within six months - using index cards.
If all US residents were in one plan, Medicare for all, rather than the ACA's tiered system that institutionalizes the class divides in the United States, not only would the health system be fairer and improve health outcomes, but it would be less bureaucratic, less costly and easier to implement. The Medicare-for-all approach considers health care to be a public good, something that all people need, like schools, roads and fire departments.

Rather than being distracted by the problems of the exchanges, the more pressing issue is whether we want to continue using a market-based approach to health care or whether we want to join the other industrialized nations in treating health care as a public good. This conversation is difficult to have in the current environment of falsehoods, exaggerations and misleading statements coming from both partisan directions, echoed by their media supporters and nonprofit organizations.

Rest of the story: http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/19692-obamacare-the-biggest-insurance-scam-in-history 

or below.

Flushing HS Report #3: Letter to Madame Tisch as Grading Saga Continues

Ms. Hansen,
While I await response from the NYSED, let me try to illustrate to your office why your interpretation of the High School Academic Policy 2013 concerning grades is ridiculous. The new teacher evaluation system currently in effect uses a scale of 1 - 100. Suppose principals had the option of using only a part of that scale.
Mr. Seung Yong Ok

Seung is replying to the nonsense response (See Flushing HS Report #2: DOE Tepid Response to Principal Violation of DOE Rules) he received from Shael assistant, Tweedie Katie Hansen of the Office of Academic Policy and Systems - OAPS? Or OOPS?
Here was our original report: Flushing HS Report#1: Teacher Questions Principal's Grading System as Violation of DOE Rules

Seung is not finished yet. We expect to do quite a few reports on Flushing HS and their thug interim principal as info from him and others at the school comes in. Here Seung emails Chief Slug Merryl Tisch.

Dear Chancellor Tisch,
I am a teacher who is deeply concerned about the DOE's Office of Accountability's refusal to check Principal James Brown's obvious flouting of New York's City and State academic grading polices.
Not only has Principal Brown proposed a policy that mandates teachers give no grade lower than a 55 on report cards, but also calculate 33% of that grade towards the final course mark.

Teachers have met with Principal Brown, Children First Network's Niancy DiMaggio, and have emailed Mr. Suransky numerous times to no avail.

We believe the DOE is breaking their own policy in the 2013 High School Academic Reference Guide, which states that the numerical scale to be used is 1-100.

Essentially, the proposed new policy is illegally instituting a new scale of 55-100, which is not the spirit, intent, nor letter of the stated policy.

More disturbing is the attempt to make teachers complicit in grade inflation, which adds to the rampant practice occurring in many of our NYC public schools today.

I know that as a proponent of higher standards and a rigorous curriculum you may be alarmed that with Mr. Brown's policy, a student only only needs to obtain a grade of 85 only one marking period, and disappear for the other two, and still average a passing grade. That culminates in only a 28% mastery of course curriculum.
Mr. Suransky's office merely replied that a principal has the power to choose their school's grading policy. To quote their response," While STARS offers a variety of grading scales, schools are not required to use the entire 1-100 point scale in their grading policies."

I hope you agree that this is either a flagrant flouting of DOE policy or an extreme confusion of the terms grading policy versus grading scale.

The principal can alter policy: choosing letter grades and their numerical values, Pass/Fail, or numerical grades; the number of marking periods, and whether the policy is set per course, per department, or school-wide.

However, it is against policy and common sense, to allow a principal to choose their own numerical scale.

What will stop a principal from mandating that a grade of 64 be calculated as the minimum real average for all students, even those who have cut classes a majority of the marking period.

The teachers of Flushing High School plead with you to look into this matter or refer this matter to the appropriate NYSED department.

Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Mr. Seung-Yong Ok
Science teacher at Flushing High School.

Daily Howler on NY Times Ed Reporter Motoko Rich: functionally illiterate

I can't pass this one up from Howler. He takes the article Rich wrote apart with pertinent quotes from the Ravitch book. I don't opt for the "she knows not what she does" POV. I think she lines up with the typical NY Times ed deform agenda that disparages the public school system.

We return to that New York Times news report!

Posted: 02 Nov 2013 01:16 PM PDT

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2013

Motoko Rich, functionally illiterate: You’re right!

This past week, we never got back to that news report in the New York Times about international test scores.

The report appeared on October 24, atop the front page of the National section. It was written by education reporter Motoko Rich.

For our first post on this subject, click here.

Our question was this: How is it possible that someone like Rich could write such an utterly clueless report? Given our focus on Minnesota’s test scores, we never got back to that topic in our posts this week.

If you want to puzzle about your nation’s journalistic culture, we’ll suggest that you peruse that report. Focus on three topics:

Clueless from the headline down: Rich’s report concerned a new study of U.S. math and science scores on the 2011 TIMSS. We marveled at the headlines on the hard-copy report, and at its opening paragraph:

RICH (10/24/13): Better News In New Study That Assesses U.S. Students/
Majority Outperform International Average

Amid growing alarm over the slipping international competitiveness of American students, a report comparing math and science test scores of eighth graders in individual states to those in other countries has found that a majority outperformed the international average.

The headlines mirror Rich’s opening paragraph, although they may miss one nuance. That said, those headlines are quite hapless. Here’s why:

From those headlines, a reader would think it came as “news” to learn that a majority of U.S. students outperformed the international average on the tests in question.

In fact, TIMSS results from 2011 were released last December. Since that time, it has been known that American students outperformed the international average in math and science at both grade levels tested.

Flushing HS Report #2: DOE Tepid Response to Principal Violation of DOE Rules

While STARS offers a variety of grading scales, schools are not required to use the entire 1-100 point scale in their grading policies.... Katie Hansen Office of Academic Policy and Systems
 

Dear DOE administrators,

Either you are flagrantly flouting your own grading policy or you are horribly confusing the terms: grading policy versus grading scale.

Hurricanes are categorized in a scale of 1 to 5. Weather stations, in an attempt to make sure people always prepare adequately in case of sudden storm strengthening, mandate that all storm broadcasts have category 3 as the lowest possible scale reported. Makes sense?...

So if Principals can choose to use any of the 1-100 scale as you have argued, is it okay if our school uses 64 as the lowest possible grade? Please respond.
Have a nice day.
Mr. Seung-Yong Ok

Hey, why not make the lowest score you can give "90"?
Follow-up to: Teacher Questions Flushing HS Principal's Grading System as Violation of DOE Rules

Office of Shael Polokow-Suransky responds:

Dear Mr. Ok,
Thank you for your email. We appreciate your concern and your attention to these topics. Shael shared your message with me and asked me to respond on his behalf. I am writing to reiterate the information shared with you by Superintendent Mendez. It is the right of a school principal to set the grading policy, including the number of marking periods per term and the grades awarded to students who are excessively absent. While STARS offers a variety of grading scales, schools are not required to use the entire 1-100 point scale in their grading policies.
I hope this addresses your concern. Please continue to work with your principal, your school’s Network Leader, and Superintendent Mendez if you wish to discuss this matter further.
Best,
Katie Hansen Office of Academic Policy and Systems


Dear DOE administrators,
Either you are flagrantly flouting your own grading policy or you are horribly confusing the terms: grading policy versus grading scale.

I will give you the benefit of the doubt that it's the latter. The former would mean the DOE are a bunch of data manipulating bureaucrats who put themselves ahead of children first. That would be too depressing of a thought.
Principals are allowed to choose their own grading policy - # of marking periods, Letter grades and their numerical equivalents, Pass/Fail, and whether the policy is relates to courses, departments, or school-wide.
However, it is absurd to interpret that as to mean principals can choose their own numerical scale. That scale is stated as 1-100 in your DOE policy.
So, here is an analogy to help you understand.
Hurricanes are categorized in a scale of 1 to 5. Weather stations, in an attempt to make sure people always prepare adequately in case of sudden storm strengthening, mandate that all storm broadcasts have category 3 as the lowest possible scale reported. Makes sense?

Seung Ok

Video: Recchia and District 21 CEC Parents Object to DOE Co-Locations

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvSu_tm5tKM




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwKviU6VmLk

Video Norm's Speech at the PEP, October 30, 2013

Charter school parents had their choice of sending their kids to school taken away when charters closed down their schools for a political rally. They are not public schools.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QSqonvvNBs

Flushing HS Report#1: Teacher Questions Principal's Grading System as Violation of DOE Rules

it is the right of the principal to set the grading policy for a school. It is common practice in high schools to establish 55 as the lowest grade awarded to students.  .. Qns Dist Supt Juan Mendez

Teacher follows chain of command to Polakow-Suransky and Qns HS Dist. Supt. Juan Mendez

2nd email request: Principal James Brown's grading policy - Flushing High School to Suransky

Dear Mr. Polakow-Suransky,

This is the second request for clarification.

I am a teacher at Flushing High School and deeply concerned about Principal Dr. James Brown's proposed grading policy recently sent to the staff which will go into effect for the second marking period.

It not only mandates that the lowest grade given on the report card is a 55, but that this 55 must be calculated using the following formula (55 x 33 % = 18 points) towards the final grade. Dr. Brown offers no optional code for No shows such as 45 or NS.

This policy is not compliant with the DOE High School Academic Policy 2013 - which states that the numerical scale to be used is 1-100. By mandating that the lowest calculable numerical grade must be a 55 - without the option of putting another code or number to signify long term absences or cutting, Dr. James Brown is in fact creating his own scale of 55-100, which the DOE does not allow for.

With Dr. Brown’s policy, a student needs to only apply herself in one marking period with an 85 and completely disappear for the other two marking periods to achieve a final grade of 65 for the course. In essence 85% mastery for only one marking period equates to only 28% mastery for a full semester curriculum.

Not only does it fail to exemplify the rigor and college ready preparedness that the DOE is intending in the spirit of the common core, but it is grade inflation and possibly public fraud.

It misrepresents the performance of the students to their parents on the report card, who believe their child is just short of meeting expectations, when in fact, their progress and classwork may be far below that.

I have requested a meeting with Dr. James Brown personally which he declined. I have also requested a meeting with him and a DOE representative, which he also declined via email.

I am therefore going up the chain of command to address and clarify this issue.

Please advise on this issue or be kind enough to meet with both of us to address this matter on the validity of this proposed policy.

Find attached Principal Brown’s memo on the proposed grading policy.

Thank you in advance.

Mr. Seung-Yong Ok
Science Teacher - Flushing High School

From: Suransky Shael
Sent: Tuesday, October 22, 2013 12:54 PM
To: Ok Seung Yong (19K660)
Cc: Lack Joanna; Weiss Emily
Subject: RE: 2nd email request. Principal James Brown's grading policy - Flushing High School to Suransky

I got your first message – someone from my team will follow up

Mother Jones on Who is Behind Campbell Brown Anti-Teacher Campaign

 Before Brown left CNN three years ago, her evening news show carried a memorable tagline: "No bias. No bull." She can't say the same for her foray into the education wars.... she failed to disclose was that her husband, Dan Senor, sits on the board of the New York affiliate of StudentsFirst, an education lobbying group founded by Michelle Rhee... New York state law also mandates that any teacher convicted of a sex crime be automatically fired. It is the law, not union contracts, that requires that an independent arbitrator hear and mete out punishment in cases of sexual misconduct that fall outside criminal law. The quickest route to changing that policy may be lobbying lawmakers in Albany, not hammering teachers and their unions.....PTP spent $100,000 on an attack ad questioning whether candidates like Bill de Blasio and Joe Lhota had "the guts to stand up to the teachers' unions."....Mother Jones

The former CNN anchor says her nonprofit seeks to protect kids from predators in the classroom. Its real agenda may be union-busting.

—By Andy Kroll Tue Oct. 29, 2013

Who's Really Behind Campbell Brown's Sneaky Education Outfit?

Pre-PEP Funeral for Closing Schools Pics

Our own Evil Eva dressed appropriately for Halloween with old nemesis Noah Gotbaum. Thanks to Pat Dobosz for the pics. A roll-call was read listing each of the over 160 schools that have been murdered by Bloomberg's hench-people at Tweed. After this people at the PEP buried the pathetic puppets of the PEP -- only 2 months left. Not that I trust de Blasio to do much given the charter lobby has such access to people who have access.

MOREistas gather

Evil and Fred Smith

My costume? Dressed as a bald guy.

Tish James @ the PEP: We Want Our Schools Back

Not up to the impact of James' galvanizing speech at the Oct. 15 PEP where she laid bare the DOE policy of inequality. Here she does some posturing and I hated her use of the charter standard use of "scholars" -- is she coopting them? But she rises to the occasion at the end with her call of "We want our schools back."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYwb_mCehTY

>

PS 196 WINS

Co-loco tonight off PEP agenda. Keep up the fight everyone.

Cheers,
Norm Scott

Twitter: normscott1

Education Notes
ednotesonline.blogspot.com

Grassroots Education Movement
gemnyc.org

Education columnist, The Wave
www.rockawave.com

nycfirst robotics
normsrobotics.blogspot.com

Sent from my BlackBerry

Video: PS 196K Rallies Against Co-Loco

Another unreported rally at a public school with an overflow crowd at the hearing following the rally - schools that can't close for half a day to march over a bridge to demonstrate their opposition to fundamental Bloomberg ed policies. Go add up all the people at all the local school-based rallies and see if that doesn't top the charter rally where parents were told they had to attend while their children were dragged out of their schools for the day.

I taped this Oct. 21. I assume PS 196 will be in the house tonight at the PEP.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGEsgyM-nyI

Fred Smith On the Empress Tisch

What clear and astute observations... Loretta Prisco

Fred, thanks for this scathing and brilliant portrait. Helps me make sense of my visceral reaction of horror at her presentation. So much feigned reasonableness and caring. So little capacity for hearing the truth.... Jeff N

Yes, Fred- so right on! Let's not forget that the "flawed accountability system" she is replacing is one SHE is responsible for and defended.... Lisa D.

There are a lot of posts coming today(ala Ravitch) so duck. In the world of ed deform, there are not many people I despise more than Merryl Tisch. So how nice to see this.

Change the Stakes had a big crew testifying at the Flannigan hearings yesterday (details later).

Our man Fred Smith was there with some perfect comments on Merryl Antoinette.

Some observations about Chancellor Tisch's performance at the Education Committee hearing yesterday:

~ She thinks that being soft-spoken can disguise her haughtiness and pernicious policies. 

~ Tisch throws in a few spontaneous remarks that pass for wit to show that she's loose, the epitome of grace under fire and not totally rehearsed.  

~ Answers begin by identifying with the questioner ("Yes, I know because when I taught... I'm concerned about ELL kids. My family were immigrants too... Being poor is no fun.  I can remember a Tuesday when I forgot my wallet, my chauffeur had the day off and the maid was late....) Yes, I've walked many a mile in your Louboutains.

~ She has a fondness for setting up false choices in order to suggest bold leadership : We could have adopted the Common Core or remained with a system the failed to prepare our students for college.  (By the way, she apparently realized that graduates needed "remediating" at community colleges in 2010. Somehow the problem had eluded all the Regents and had even gone undiscovered by Her Regency for 14 years.) 

[Digression: Tisch's use of the word remediating smacked me between my ears. Sounded like irradiating.  Did someone say sterilizing?]

~ Anyway back to the dichotomies:  We could have taken the RTTT money or.... (fill in the blank).  We could have gone backward or forward, left or right, bad or worse and we chose knishes over cyanide.

~ When the Queen gets an unexpected question to which she cannot give a practiced response she will invariably begin her answer with the placeholder "So... followed by a repeat of the question.  So, you want to know why we didn't announce forums in New York City. In fact, that was part of our plan all along and we'll hold forums in all four or five boroughs.  If there were six boroughs, we'd schedule one there, too.)

~ Thank you for inviting me and giving me a chance to address these important concerns. There's no place I'd rather have been.

Such noblesse.  Thank you, Merryl Antoinette.

Fred Smith

The Daily Howler on Frank Bruni Piece on Colorado Ed Law, Supported by Sell-Out AFT and NEA

Can we talk? In our post-journalistic culture, everyone is an expert on schools! Everyone except the people who get assigned to be education reporters..... Columnists sometimes like to pretend that they know about public schools, though it rarely seems that they do. More horribly, education reporters often seem caught in the grip of the same affliction.... The Daily Howler on Frank Bruni ed piece

Is there a more perfect example of the NY Times position on education than having people without a clue writing on education while Michael Winerip, the only writer who has a clue ends up covering fluff?

The Howler, a former teacher -- and I mean a real teacher in the inner city for a long time -- does regular hit jobs on the NY Times. Also read about Tom Friedman's trip to Shanghai with Wendy Kopp: Tom Friedman, taking dictation from experts!

What is worth noting about the Colorado ed story and the Bruni article is that our pals Randi/AFT and Dennis/NEA are supporting the law which I consider ed deform with a twist -- basically bribing the unions to support more charter schools and other deforms for some up front money which I bet will be the last thing they will see - and the end game will be fewer public schools, if any. But those of us in NYC have seen the Randi game before.

Richly schooled: Bruni speaks!

Posted: 29 Oct 2013 12:48 PM PDT

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2013

Everyone knows about schools: Frank Bruni doesn’t seem to know a whole lot about public schools.

In fairness, Bruni has never covered schools. There’s no reason why he should know much about that important topic.

Bruni doesn’t seem to know much about schools, but when has that ever stopped anyone? In today’s New York Times, he evaluates, or pretends to evaluate, a ballot measure in Colorado which would increase the state’s education funding while raising the state income tax.

Is the ballot measure a good plan? We don’t know, and there’s little sign that Bruni knows either:

BRUNI (10/29/13): The state is on the precipice of something big. On Election Day next Tuesday, Coloradans will decide whether to ratify an ambitious statewide education overhaul that the Legislature already passed and that Gov. John Hickenlooper signed but that voters must now approve, because Colorado law gives them that right in regard to tax increases, which the overhaul entails. Arne Duncan, the nation’s education secretary, has said that the success of Amendment 66, which is what voters will weigh in on, would make Colorado “the educational model for every other state to follow.”

It’s significant in many regards, especially in its creation of utterly surprising political bedfellows. Amendment 66 has the support of many fervent advocates of charter schools, which the overhaul would fund at nearly the same level as other schools for the first time...

[The proposal involves an] infusion of an extra $950 million annually into public education through the 12th grade, a portion of which could go to rehiring teachers who lost jobs during the recession and to hiring new ones for broadly expanded preschool and kindergarten programs. That’s an increase of more than 15 percent over current funding levels, which put Colorado well behind most other states in per-pupil spending...

The proposed “overhaul” would increase the state’s funding of charter schools. It would permit some teachers to be rehired. It would expand preschool and kindergarten programs in unspecified ways and to an unspecified degree.

According to Bruni, Colorado spends much less money per pupil than most other states. This overhaul would raise per-pupil spending by 15 percent.

Would that create parity with other states? Bruni doesn’t say. Later, Bruni says the overhaul would “direct more money proportionally to poor schools and at-risk students.”

Is this proposal some sort of big deal? We have no idea. Almost surely, neither does Bruni, who wrote an extremely vague column.

Can we talk? There’s no sign that Bruni has any idea what he’s talking about in this column. That said, it’s fairly clear that he knows a few talking points:

At one point, Bruni says there’s “no magic bullet for student improvement;” Wendy Kopp recites that bromide in her sleep. As the column proceeds, Bruni shows facility with another mandated pundit point. We refer to the places where he discusses the role of those infernal teachers union.

Bruni plays this familiar card throughout his column. Snarking nicely, he mentions the unions in five successive paragraphs.

It never seems to occur to Bruni that many teachers in Colorado may know more about these proposals than he does. Judging from the column itself, we will venture a guess: it’s possible that everyone in Colorado knows more about this proposed overhaul than Bruni.

Bruni doesn’t seem to know much about this “overhaul,” but he managed to kill a column this way. Last Wednesday, Tom Friedman did a similar paint-by-the-numbers column about the Shanghai public schools.

Friedman didn’t say there’s no magic bullet. He said there’s no “secret.”

Can we talk? In our post-journalistic culture, everyone is an expert on schools! Everyone except the people who get assigned to be education reporters.

Last week, Motoko Rich did a news report in the Times about a somewhat recent set of international test scores. In the early 1990s, Rich graduated summa cum laude from Yale. That fact seems a bit surprising to us, because 1) she seems to know little about public schools, and 2) she seems to have a hard time composing coherent reports about even the most basic topics.

Her editor is part of this too! For our previous post on the topic, click here.

Last week’s news report struck us as especially incompetent. That said, you live in a post-journalistic world. In the next few days, we’ll look at the way this New York Times education reporter covered a very basic topic, the kind of topic which is being discussed pretty much all the time.

Columnists sometimes like to pretend that they know about public schools, though it rarely seems that they do. More horribly, education reporters often seem caught in the grip of the same affliction.

We thought Rich’s report was especially weak. Tomorrow: Back to the future!