Randi, Cami and Newark: Anyone for a Quisling Reference?

These two have a long history together. The dynamic works like this: Randi gives Cami whatever she wants, then complains about Cami exercising the freedoms that Randi has given her. It's sort of like the dynamic Randi is alleged to have with everyone else, except the 'gives', and later the 'complaints', are more pronounced and eye catching than anywhere else....she's not just given the keys to a reformer, Randi has given the keys to a loser reformer. ... JG on MORE Discussion list

This is so much shit it is not funny. They make veteran teachers' lives a living hell. They transfer us, give us lousy evaluations and refuse to listen to a word we say. The administrators in my two most recent schools all parrot the same crap about Common Core. It is like talking to the wall. The newbies live in fear.... Newark veteran teacher

I reported on the attempt to destroy pub ed in Newark and the resistance the other day Klein Klone Kami Gets Pushback Over Attack on Publ... 

So Randi actually has the nerve to make these comments after helping force a contract down the throats of the Newark teachers. My anon friend quoted above despises Randi.

Weingarten cited what she called “grievance upon grievance” lodged by union members who say the district has not lived up to its pledges, which included additional support and coaching of lower-performing teachers. Of Anderson, Weingarten said she has “turned her back and stopped listening to teachers’ voices. . . . She has said tough luck, and if you can’t do it, you’ll be fired.”

Worst Person in the World

DUHHH, Randi! You mean you couldn't trust a snake like Cami Anderson? City after city falls to the idiocy of a union leadership falling into the trap of ed deform. Randi could make the same statement and just change the name of the city and the slug in charge.

A comment on one of the listserves made this point: "Quisling Rat Weingarten who snared Newark teachers with her dirty deal with Christie and Cami Anderson whines about the trap she helped set."

RBE at Perdido Street did a hit on Randi's bullshit today:

Weingarten is so full of crap every time she opens her mouth in criticism of Bloomberg. She was integral to the Bloomberg Reform Agenda when she was leading the UFT and later when she moved over to the AFT... she got teacher raises for her "collaboration" with Bloomberg. But the salary increases teachers received for conceding on seniority and other givebacks has in the end turned into blood money....the Newark contract that sold out teachers was pushed by Weingarten and hailed as a new model for teacher contracts......Calling Randi Weingarten Out On Her Bloomberg Criticism

The Star-Ledger of course jumps to the whistle of ed deform like a dog but here is a one response.

What the newspaper calls “sensible and bold reforms” amount to the elimination of neighborhood schools in much of the city, a transfer of assets to corporate-backed charters, and the destruction of much of the city’s history and culture–Weequahic High, one of New Jersey’s most historic high schools,  should be on the National Registry, not on the auction block, nor on the table for a “redesign” that will close it.

"Shrieking" People of Color Demanding Autonomy, and Other Threats to America

When black people in Newark start getting a little too "uppity," it's time to fluff up the pillows on our local punditocracy's fainting coach. Quickly, someone catch the editorialists at the Star-Ledger - and bring the smelling salts!

- See more at: http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2013/12/shrieking-people-of-color-demanding.html#sthash.feG2RheP.dpuf

"Shrieking" People of Color Demanding Autonomy, and Other Threats to America

- See more at: http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/#sthash.GjnMggqH.dpuf

Jersey Jazzman  takes 2 bites of the apple:

Two Newarks - So the big plan to "save" Newark's schools, One Newark, was announced this week, and - surprise! - the big winners are the charter schools: As part of a co... 

"Shrieking" People of Color Demanding Autonomy, and Other Threats to America - When black people in Newark start getting a little too "uppity," it's time to fluff up the pillows on our local punditocracy's fainting coach. 

Here is the essence of the union sellout - dirty money.

The agreement between the district and the Newark Teachers Union included the state’s first large-scale use of performance bonuses for teachers found to be performing at a high level. It also included extensive provisions for teachers to take part in peer evaluations and the reviews of the final job ratings.

....a good reason why teachers are so mistrustful of the latest force tube feeding of ed deform pablum by the unions: the evaluation system and the common core. If Bill Gates said every teacher would improve if they ate a spoonful of shit every morning Randi would be handing out spoons.

Anderson largely stayed out of the fray yesterday, leaving her spokesman to issue a statement criticizing the rally as a whole…In a phone interview, state Education Commissioner Chris Cerf was less reluctant to engage, and he strongly contested Weingarten’s specific claims.

Chris Cerf in drag

He said an additional $50 million was spent to meet the agreement’s promises to teachers and other staff.
“I can assure you that the contract has been fully and honorably implemented,” Cerf said. “I am absolutely confident that all the components of the contract have occurred exactly as they were agreed upon.”

 Cerf added that the city teachers union subsequently blocked the district from gaining federal Race to the Top money for new technology and programming, because they union claimed it has not been kept apprised of the application. “What Randi seems to have forgotten is this contract brought $50 million more into the pockets of Newark teachers, http://www.njspotlight.com/stories/13/12/09/new-era-of-cooperation-in-newark-school-gives-way-to-animosity/

So Cerf makes the point about Randi's dirty money -- she sold the $50 million in exchange for getting screwed.

Here are some comments on the MORE Discussion list:

I'll start with a clarifier; Anderson has never ever listened to teachers' voices and Randi knows this well.  Cami was the d79 sup and never ever listened to teachers back then (who consistently said that college prep shouldn't be the focus of the district). She also worked closely with Randi and Marc Korashan to close d79 schools quicker, and without public input, than any other type of school back (in 2007). These two have a long history together. The dynamic works like this: Randi gives Cami whatever she wants, then complains about Cami exercising the freedoms that Randi has given her. It's sort of like the dynamic Randi is alleged to have with everyone else, except the 'gives', and later the 'complaints', are more pronounced and eye catching than anywhere else. And through this, Cami has never ever once demonstrated a noteworthy success. So she's not just given the keys to a reformer, Randi has given the keys to a loser reformer. From an arguments perspective, both Randi AND the reformers are weakest when the topic turns to Newark..... John G.

I'm less interested in responding to the central problems of this issue, though there are many, but to the constant refrain by our union leaders that they are "shocked, shocked," to find that some agreement, some contract, some evaluation system, some merit pay system, some "anything" they've negotiated has not implemented, funded or administered in the way that "it was intended." If our union's leaders enter into these agreements, over and over and over again, and the results are not 'managed" as they were intended, then the other side of the table should be ASSUMED to be acting in bad faith and the folks on this side of the table should be ASSUMED to be imbeciles.  Members who continue to elect such union leaders should be ASSUMED to be unconscious or willfully negligent.    .... HL

Quisling AstroTurf Groups Like E4E and Teach Plus Reality Distortion

 ...the views of most early career teachers differ from those of many veteran teachers. As a national survey conducted by Teach Plus in 2012 found, early career teachers are more likely than their veteran peers to strongly support rigorous evaluations, performance-based compensation, and inclusion of student growth measures in teacher evaluations..... Balderdash from ed deform astroturf orgs.

NYC has been inundated by early career teachers over the 12 years of Bloomberg. Are they shouting about supporting ed deform crapola other than the few in E4E which despite enormous funding with full-time organizers can't gain much traction while MORE begins to attract teachers who decide to remain in the system once they get tenure and finish their grad studies?

I would say that most MOREistas have only been teaching under Bloomberg. In fact looking at the 11 new MORE steering committee taking office this week and the 10 people on the outgoing committee about half are in the relative newbie category. But I guess we can classify a veteran teacher nowadays at about 4 or 5 years.

The people in MORE vs the temps who join E4E is a counter-sign to their claims. They don't seem to have the nerve to test out their polls by actually running in a union election to see just how they would fare.

The fact that they are trying to claim union Quislings like Randi are out of touch because they fight ed deform is laughable. The very rise of MORE and CORE and NEW Caucus and lots more are due to Weingarten and her brethren doing the very opposite of fighting ed deform (see my follow-up piece on Randi whining about being stabbed in the back by her pal Cami Anderson in Newark -- and see Christie's response which will give you a laugh.

Just watch the next few years and see whether I or Teach Plus is right about where the new generation of teachers will stand once they get a few years in the classroom under their belts.

The Teacher “Union” Problem Within As teacher unions step up their calls to stop the “corporate agenda” in education and to confront the “privatization” movement, there is a far more real and serious threat facing teacher unions. The threat comes not from billionaires or charter schools or philanthropists. Rather, it comes from many teacher unions’ difficulty to modernize and reshape themselves in the midst of profound demographic changes of their members. At stake are the relevance and even existence of teacher unions–a force that historically has played such a vital role in American public school education.

Three basic demographic facts of today’s public school teachers should give teacher unions long pause before continuing to support policies that appeal primarily to a shrinking base of veteran teachers: 1) 52% of U.S. public school teachers have fewer than 10 years of experience (up from 25% in the 1980′s); 2) Approximately one million (or about 30%) of all U.S. public school teachers are expected to retire in the next five years; and 3) Today, there are more first year teachers in American classrooms than there are teachers at any other experience level.

As significantly, the views of most early career teachers differ from those of many veteran teachers. As a national survey conducted by Teach Plus in 2012 found, early career teachers are more likely than their veteran peers to strongly support rigorous evaluations, performance-based compensation, and inclusion of student growth measures in teacher evaluations  http://www.teachplus.org/page/newsroom-6/news/december-2013-342.html?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Newsletter+December+2013&utm_content=Newsletter+December+2013+CID_db0b06033f284dd40592acc2e0299360&utm_source=Campaign%20Monitor&utm_term=Read%20more

Matt Vaz in The Brooklyn Rail (With an Old Quote From Moi)

Then he gets on the train, everybody in the train car has to lie face-down on the floor with their hands behind their head. Then the train goes 150 yards, and then stops in between two stations, and then Bloomberg exits through a private tunnel, and then gets back in his helicopter and flies to Bermuda to get a manicure and pedicure. He goes to Bermuda every day. He loves that spot. He bought a house down there because he wanted someplace to practice his Spanish. See, he thought they speak Spanish in Bermuda. It sounds like a Spanish name right. And nobody even told him. He just goes around talkin’ to everybody in Spanish, and they just nod, mumble some bullshit, and keep on wit’ his manicure. But see, he couldn’t even find somebody to tell him they speak English down in Bermuda. Everybody just tells ’im what he wants to hear.  ... Matt Vaz quoting Efrain Irizarry, The Brooklyn Rail

While I remember the rally we (GEM, Class Size Matters, etc) held at Bloomberg's home, I don't remember much about my conversation with Matt. And look at what I said -- actually makes sense and is sort of literate -- something I am not capable of doing today. Matt, thanks for reminding me I used to have a brain. And that I was once energetic.

Here is the quote:

On the evening of January 21, 2010 a group of protestors has assembled outside of the Mayor’s mansion on 79th Street in Manhattan. “We’re here to protest school closings,” explains Norm Scott, a retired teacher and an energetic activist. “We’re here to stop the privatization of the public school system. People are here from all over the city,” he says pointing to the crowd of 350 people. “We have young teachers, old teachers. We have parents out here, we have elementary school kids out here. They want to keep their schools open. They want to be treated fairly. They can see what’s going on. This mayor and his friends want to privatize the schools. And in order to do that they need to break the organic connection between neighborhood and school. They make some money on Wall Street and in the banking sector, and they feel that makes them experts in educational policy. They have an ideology that puts private over public. They would privatize the air we breathe if we gave them the chance. If nobody stands up to this man we’ll be breathing corporate air and attending Halliburton schools.”

And this note from Matt, who used to be a teacher in Brooklyn - congrats on your escape from the madhouse.

Hi Norm,

My name is Matthew Vaz. I am a professor in the History department at City College. I did a little slapdash interview with you about four years ago, on the day you organized that wonderful protest outside of Bloomberg's mansion.

I was going to use the material for a piece in the Brooklyn Rail...but for some reason I stuffed it in a drawer. Yet the Politics Editor at the Rail is stepping down, so I decided to squeeze in one last piece while he is till over there...also I wanted to get in some final thoughts on Bloomberg. So I dusted off the piece, updated it a bit and ran it...

You are quoted at length...I think you may find the whole thing amusing.

...I am a former Public School Teacher (PS 305 in the old District 13) and I was raised by a Public School teacher (PS 85 in Queens)...and I love and admire what you (and those who roll with you...Julie Cavanagh etc.) are doing and have been doing...

Keep up the fight for real reform

feel free to share the link or the text of the piece...

http://www.brooklynrail.org/2013/12/local/bloombergs-in-his-helicopter-and-the-children-are-snug-in-their-beds

Best Regards
Matt Vaz

 And the link to Matt's article.

Videos of PS 321 Event: Teachers Talk Testing

Help Us Lower the Stakes Around Testing for Teachers and Families in NYC

I attended this amazing event at PS 321 which I reported on (Teachers Talk Testing Forum at PS 321)
I didn't have to film as a professional film maker, Michael Elliot, has been working with various groups opposing high stakes testing. He has put up a batch of videos cut into short very watchable segments. They include teachers from PS 321 and MOREistas Julie Cavanagh and Sam Coleman.

View then here:
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOTDp0kcHMYXNLtZmiTvv-w 

And here is the email we got today -- they want to spread the word to as many places as possible. So if you have something to say about testing, turn on those video cameras or cell phones and go to it -- then you will be able to upload to their site.
If interested in hosting a similar event at your school email:
teacherstalktesting@gmail.com

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Thank you for signing our "Help Us Lower the Stakes Around Testing for Teachers and Families in NYC".   We are thrilled that so many have signed on.  We've been getting attention from the press and have almost 700 signatures already!

We are so excited to share selected videos from the December 3rd Teachers Talk Testing Forum. They can be found at www.teacherstalktesting.com. The videos feature the stories shared by the teachers and administrators who spoke during the forum.  The stories were powerful expressions of the high cost of high-stakes testing.  We encourage you to view & share!  

We're planning on hand-delivering our petition against high-stakes testing to Mayor-elect de Blasio on Wednesday, January 15th.  We have almost 700 signatures already. Help us get past 1,000 by sharing link to the video and petition as widely as possible.

Teachers, please share your story about how high-stakes testing has impacted you.  Send a short video to teacherstalktesting@gmail.com and we will post it on teacherstalktesting.com.  For questions, email us at teacherstalktesting@gmail.com. 

Sincerely, 

Alex

PS

To view the full length speeches, visit our Youtube channel here:  http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOTDp0kcHMYXNLtZmiTvv-w 

And to see some of the press we've been getting, visit the follow links:

http://www.wnyc.org/story/brooklyn-teachers-decry-high-stakes-attached-tests/

http://gothamschools.org/2013/12/06/at-forum-teachers-share-testing-woes-and-parents-talk-opt-out/ 

Portelos Update: A Para for the Defense, Part 2

The story below is a warning to anyone who might think that taxpayer supported DOE Legal has any interest in the truth.

Part 1 is here: Portelos Update: A Para for the Defense, DOE Pulls Race Card, Theresa Europe Sits in to Intimidate Hearing Officer


PORTELOS HEARING DEC. 18, 2013

CROSS EXAMINATION by DOE Legal Jordana Shenkman –

JS: U heard rumors of Apr 2011 meeting P brought up safety concerns – u weren’t there to hear who brought what up and based on hearsay –U didn’t hear admin response – CS: “they don’t talk to us”
JS: U don’t say hello to Hill – 
CS: she doesn’t say hello to us. Majority of tchrs said – she didn’t --- I took it personal – but told to get used to it.
None of admin said hello to most teachers – I stopped taking it personal

JS: you say people at schl afraid of Admin – are u aware of people afraid of P? 
CS: NOT ONE.
JS: You say safety not being addressed at school – 
CS: I KNOW IT.
JS: That didn’t stop u from sneaking in 2 strange men thru back door not through schl security?
OBJ from Chris Callegy: – You don’t get to make things up. No foundation for your question. 

Now you have to follow the bouncing ball of Shenkman's outrageous (and embarrassing - to her) question about 2 strange men sneaking through security. Shenkman made a big point that they did not sign in - making it look like a criminal act. And also Shenkman's attempt to make it appear CS was disciplined for doing so. The real story came out under Chris C's cross. I'll paraphrase.

CS had bought a small refrigerator for the office she shared and brought her husband and his friend to the school to take it down to his car. [CS was leaving the school permanently and it was the end of the school year.] He drove up to the front of the school but the custodian told him to drive to the loading dock where the door would be open which it was. As they walked two of the AP'S were there and saw them and said nothing. CS took them to security where the guard did not have passes handy and also said she knows CS' husband so she waved them through without signing in.

Principal Linda Hill, vindictive in every way, got in touch CS' district 75 principal who had to take his valuable time to look at the video tape and then told CS not to go back to the school again for the final few days.

She was never disciplined in any way.

The story above is a warning to anyone who might think that taxpayer supported DOE Legal has any interest in the truth.

Portelos Update: A Para for the Defense, DOE Pulls Race Card, Theresa Europe Sits in to Intimidate Hearing Officer

There was only fear of the administration. YES everyone is in fear of them, not Portelos. .. former Para, IS 49SI.

According to Shenkman, a para - with a high school education - and a parent with 5 kids of her own - is not qualified to make a judgement as to whether someone is a good teacher. What arrogance and elitism. ... Report from Portelos hearing, Dec. 18

I finally was able to attend the 14th day of the Portelos 3020a hearing after missing the last few. Today there will be another and more after the holidays. For DOE lawyers and subsidiaries: ka-ching - At the afternoon session there were 4 DOE lawyers taking part, including Slug in Chief, Theresa Europe, who was there to make sure DOE Legal Slugette, Jordana Shenkman, pulled the race card with vigor (she did). But that was in the afternoon.

I'll do a follow-up about the afternoon testimony where we watched in amusement (and horror) as DOE legal beagle Shenkman pulled the race card on a Portello witness, as they had previously tried to do on Portelos himself - (also pulling the anti-semitic card on him). Shenkman should never be allowed into a China shop.

One thing is clear from these hearings: The absolute incompetence of IS 49 SI principal Linda Hill who everyone at the DOE seems to know is incompetent but is being protected by assaulting Portelos, who once he came under attack struck back with a vengeance. It is that vengeance he is being charged with while they try to bury the attack on him. I'll get more into the weeds in future posts.

A Para for the Defense

First to the morning testimony of a very strong witness for Portelos, a District 75 para (initials CS) at IS 49 who has since transferred to another school, who stood up to every attempt by Shenkman to break her, including an attempt so clumsy we had to hold our sides to keep from laughing out loud.

CS was a management para who followed the children she worked with from class to class through the day (except gym).

On Portelos as a teacher

Worked with him every year. Judgement of him as a teacher – very impressed – always put nice spin on teaching – kids very attentive. He gave Dist. 75 kids extra attention – especially one child with extreme difficulties. The kids were always orderly and listened to him.
Colleague to colleague he was very easy to work with – he once did rocket ships in school yard and included me, making me feel very much part of the lesson.
CC: Was it remarkable to be included by a teacher? CS: Yes [P was different from other teachers in the way he treated paras as equals.]

Shenkman OBJECTIONS and Cross Examination on this point alone:
 - anything you saw a first yr probat tchr do is not relevant (referring to how he treated one special ed child years ago when P was a new teacher). Then this from Shenkman:

JS: Not part of your resp to observe or eval tchrs.

CS: No.

JS: What is your ed degree?

CS: None. HS diploma.
JS: Was it your job to pay attention to special needs students – your job to stay focused on them – get them started with work – [meaning she couldn't know what kind of teacher P was if she was focusing on her job]

CS: I always instructed to help all public school children not just mine.
JS: You saw P one per a day – 8 periods – for 7 per follow assigned student – you didn’t see P teach other 7 periods.

According to Shenkman, a para - with a high school education - and a CS is also a parent with 5 kids of her own - is not qualified to make a judgement as to whether someone is a good teacher. What arrogance and elitism.

Note to Jordana Shenkman: Paraprofessionals are education professionals with the ability to make a judgement as to what good teaching is.

Jordana Shenkman with less qualifications to judge a teacher's competency than CS feels perfectly free to judge Portelos as not competent to teach (as she tried to prove by calling a network curriculum support person who was sent in to do a hit job).


How principal Linda Hill treated the staff
This testimony was so strong on how Linda Hill has run IS 49. (When the hearing is over we will print the transcripts). If a teacher said good morning Hill would not respond. "It was that way from the day I set foot in the school. At first I though it was personal but I was told she treats everyone that way so get over it."

We needed help – kids hitting teachers, wallet stolen –and we can’t report it - teachers crying – fear – always the principal against us – I worked in other schools – administration and teachers always worked together.

When there was a problem did you speak to Hill?

"She was unapproachable – she locked herself in her office all day."

On Portelos as a colleague

Shenkman: Are you aware of people having nervous breakdowns over fear of P or crying in hall? People filing police reports for fear of P? 

CS: NO.

JS: You weren’t aware in fear of P stalking or following them? 

CS: There was only fear of the administration. YES everyone is in fear of them not Portelos.

On the April 2011 meeting where Portelos first spoke up about the safety issue:

CS: I wasn't at the meeting but the school was buzzing.
Did u hear what P did? He stood up and said things about security and safety of building? I said to him you are so young and naive – I knew there would be retaliation.
P told me – what do u mean? I spoke the truth.
But you opened can of worms – everyone should be backing you. I was very concerned he was going to be a target. He led everyone to be able to say something.

This was April 2011, 6 months before things began to blow up. And when they did in January 2012,

CS: I spoke to R(another para) – this is all because P spoke up at that (April 2011) meeting.

There's more to this testimony where Shenkman made an outrageous attempt to discredit CS, an attempt crude and truly disgusting. And how her D. 75 admins backed her all the way. Best to do that in a separate post.

And then there is the afternoon disgusting stuff where the hearing officer, maybe hoping to impress Theresa Europe, made an outrageous decision to allow a racist neo-Nazi publication that intentionally misquoted a Portelos witness into official evidence. Portelos lawyer Chris Callegy is usually a cool customer but in this case he was livid.

READ Portelos' latest post on his blog (he is gagged from commenting on the hearings until they end):

DOE’s Digital Duct Tape

Teacher Protest Over Naming College Office for Walcott

It's hugely disappointing that administration has unilaterally decided to pay tribute to a man who has worked tirelessly to make our jobs less professional, who has vilified us at every turn, who has refused to offer us the compensation he saw fit to give other city employees, and who has supported every baseless corporate reform that has come down the pike while he occupied this office.....Arthur Goldstein, UFT Chapter Leader, Francis Lewis High School

Suck-up deal done without consultation. Two well-known bloggers involved in the school object. Frankly, after watching the 3 Bloomberg Chancellors in action, I would rather see something named for the Cathie Black who did the least harm.

NYC Educator has the scoop (Read some great comments there too.)

As does former FLHS teacher Pissed Off who suggests a better name for the office: Jeff Spielvogel College Office

I think I went to high school (and maybe grade school) with Jeff Spielvogel who had a very distinctive voice that comes back to me even 50 years later. Sadly, I believe he is no longer alive (but if you know differently let me know).

Klein Klone Kami Gets Pushback Over Attack on Public Education in Newark

Cami Anderson, the new Michelle Rhee, is trying to pull off massive destruction of Newark public school system. Is Anderson real or just a marionette whose strings are being pulled by ed deformers behind a curtain?

From NEW Caucus:

ESS CONFERENCE AND RALLY AT WEEQUAHIC HIGH SCHOOL!

-  Fight School Closings/Renews/Charters

-  11am, Weequahic High School, 279 Chancellor Ave., Newark, 07112.

We know most of you will be in school working hard, but if not, please join the education workers and community to defend historic Weequahic High.

In Solidarity,

Newark Education Workers Caucus

(NEW Caucus)

And the Star Ledger:

http://www.nj.com/essex/index.ssf/2013/12/baraka_community_leaders_to_rally_in_protest_of_newark_school_closings.html

Baraka, community leaders to rally in protest of Newark school closings

By David Giambusso/The Star-Ledger

on December 19, 2013 at 2:20 PM, updated December 19, 2013 at 4:19 PM

Newark Mayoral Candidate Ras Baraka is organizing a rally to protest changes to Newark schools announced this week.Saed Hindash/The Star-Ledger 

NEWRK — Newark mayoral candidate and South Ward Councilman Ras Baraka is heading up a rally Friday morning to protest a major overhaul of Newark public schools announced this week by Superintendent Cami Anderson.

The plan, which met with a raucous reception at a school board meeting this week, would increase the presence of charter schools by expanding them into district-owned buildings.

Anderson plans to convert three elementary schools into early childhood centers, relocate five schools to under-utilized facilities and transform three comprehensive high schools into smaller academies. The goal, Anderson said, is to improve local options for all residents.

"You should have options for great schools in your neighborhood or ward," Anderson said this week. "How do we get to that day faster and in every ward? We're jump-starting change."
But community members in the state-run district routinely accuse Anderson of shuttering neighborhood schools in order to expand charters.
"Baraka will discuss how the plan will further damage Newark’s public and charter schools with an onslaught of unproven “reforms” that violate charter school guidelines and practices, close traditional public schools, and virtually eliminate parental involvement," read a statement from the Baraka campaign.

The rally will be held in front of Weequahic High School — one of the schools set to be eliminated and remade as two single-sex academies — Friday at 11 a.m.

RELATED COVERAGE

• Newark school restructuring includes plans to put charters in district buildings

Howard Schwach on John King Visit to Long Island and Parents' Objection to inBloom

Good to see my old editor at The Wave still battling the forces of evil.

By Howard Schwach

12/17/13

http://liherald.com/valleystream/stories/State-school-boards-say-no-to-InBloom,51762

A survey of more than 600 school board members across New York state found that 75 percent overwhelmingly oppose the education department’s plan to provide student data to a third-party vendor, according to the New York State School Board Association.

The poll also found that 78 percent of the school board members believe that parents should be able to opt out of having the educational and developmental records of their children shared with InBloom, a data storage company that has a contract with the State Education Department to collect student information such as names, addresses, disability, grades, standardized test scores, attendance, disabilities, psychological testing results and suspensions. Thirteen percent say they approve of sharing the information while 11 percent indicated that they were not sure.
“The majority of school board members who responded to our poll do not want the education department to share student data with InBloom,” said Timothy Kramer, the organization’s executive director. “Obviously, we have serious concerns about the security of the student data, how it will be used, and whether the collection of data will be useful to school districts around the state.”
New York State Education Commissioner John King got a loud laugh from the mostly-hostile crowd at Mineola High School on Nov. 13 when he admitted that the new data site being rolled out by the state and several non-profits —called InBloom — was as secure as they could make it, but there was never a guarantee that online data couldn’t be hacked.
“Tell that to the national security agency,” one man yelled out, referring to the breach in the super-secret agencies data last year.
One participant took up the question head on, asking King if she could opt-out of the program for her elementary school student.
“I am concerned about protecting the privacy of my student,” she said. “As he is a minor, I should be the one to decide which information about him goes into the cloud and which does not.”
King told her that the state needed the information to make decisions and that federal law required that the state collect that information.
"There can be no opt-out because we are required to aggregate that information,” he told the parent, assuring her that it would be kept safe, and never given or sold to a for-profit corporation or other entity.
Our goal is to protect our students, but to provide the same information available now in richer districts to poorer districts as well,” he said, drawing boos from the audience. “Some districts now have teacher portals and parent portals. Some districts can’t afford that, but now the state will be providing that for everyone in a cost-effective, yet secure way.”
“Whatever you put in there about my son will be there forever,” the parent said. “Will it be used someday for college entrance, or by prospective employees? You’re turning over my child’s private information to a corporation, albeit a non-profit. Nobody can tell me that any data that’s online or in a cloud can’t be mined by somebody with good computer skills.”
Another parent who had apparently gone to InBloom’s website, read the site’s disclaimer to the commissioner, pointing out that the company said in that disclaimer that it could not be held responsible for any information that leaks from the site
“I don’t want platitudes from you about security,” she yelled at King. “I want my child’s information withheld from the cloud, or I and others will file a lawsuit to keep you from putting it there.”
“We’ll do everything possible to keep it secure,” King answered to loud boos and catcalls.
Digitizing student data, which ranges from test scores to statistics on absenteeism from special education placements (and their attendant psychological evaluations) to disciplinary information, which the Education Department wants to eventually make available to parents through local school system online “dashboards” is funded, at least in the beginning, largely through federal funding as part of the Race to the Top Program.
But along the way, lots of questions cropped up about the protection of the data and on Wednesday the curiosity turned to outright ire against the Atlanta-based grant-funded non-profit firm that is organizing and maintaining the data. “Our ability to protect our privacy has not caught up with the mechanisms we use to collect and store data,” added Assemblyman Daniel O’Donnell, who earlier told a state hearing that it was “outrageous” for state education officials to suggest school districts couldn’t operate without the data program. O’Donnell has proposed an opt-in bill.
State Sen. John Flanagan, the chair of the Senate Education Committee, said that he was going to propose legislation early next year to create a “Parent’s Bill of Rights” in regard to student’s privacy and their school data. There would be an opt-out provision, penalties for privacy violations and a new “chief privacy officer” within the state education department who would be tasked with keeping student data secure from unauthorized third parties.
Flanagan called last week for a year’s delay in implementing the state plan.
“I think we need to take a step back,” he said. “The public I would say, at this point, is beyond frustrated.”
Education department spokesman Jonathan Burman defended the plan, saying that the state agency already supports measures that insure security of the information in the database. ices to parents or school staff.

More on de Blasio Chicago-based Consulting

A follow-up to our piece yesterday: DeBlasio Shadow Transition Includes Advice from Rahm Emanuel

RBE at Perdido:

De Blasio Uses Ed Deformer-Tied Consulting Group For Transition Team

That story that Dana Rubenstein broke at Capital NY about Mayor-Elect Bill de Blasio using a Bloomberg-funded consultant group suggested by Rahm Emanuel to run his transition team in secret just gets worse and worse:

Read the comments.
And also Julie Fain from Chicago:

I'm sure it's redundant for me to chime in that these folks are bad news. But given the hell we went through in Chicago with the 50-school-closing binge this year taken word-for-word out of a Broad handbook, these are hired guns who have plenty of experience being on the wrong side of ed reform. 

Julie Fain (from Chicago)

Consultant Avani Patel, left, talks with mayoral adviser Desiree Tate after a school utilization meeting. (Armando L. Sanchez, Chicago Tribune)

The panel appointed to give the public a voice on Chicago school closings is being advised by experts with political and financial ties to City Hall, fueling questions about its independence from Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration.

The head of the school commission, former ComEd CEO Frank Clark, has promised his panel will make its own decisions without regard to the wishes of the mayor. At the same time, Clark has sought help from a platoon of public relations and education consultants with a stake in the school debate.

The commission's hearings are being organized by public relations executive Desiree Tate, a member of Emanuel's "kitchen Cabinet" of African-American advisers who received more than half a million dollars in contracts from Chicago Public Schools before he became mayor. Tate said she is working for free for the commission.

The commission also is being advised by the Civic Consulting Alliance, which has provided free advice to Emanuel since the start of his administration and has links to an organization pushing to replace the traditional neighborhood schools with privately run charters.

Their involvement follows a pattern in which business professionals with ties to the mayor have often worked behind the scenes to shape the public conversation on controversial plans he is pushing, from schools to his speed-camera program.

The Chicago Teachers Union has criticized the involvement of the consulting alliance, arguing that it is supporting Emanuel's charter school agenda that will close more schools where union teachers work. Union members walked the picket lines in September in part because of fear that Emanuel would radically increase the number of charter schools here.

Last week, CPS chief Barbara Byrd-Bennett faced renewed skepticism after the Tribune reported that a Sept. 10 internal CPS document showed the administration already had discussed how many schools to shutter and in what areas of the city — including a scenario for closing 95 schools and installing charter schools in some CPS buildings.

"Until the engagement process is completed, until the commission finalizes its work by gathering information and recommendations from the community, there will be no list" of schools targeted for closing, Byrd-Bennett said in response to the report.

Clark has likewise declared that there is no predetermined number of schools to be closed, but he refused to answer the Tribune's questions about the role of the consultants vis-a-vis his panel, the Commission on School Utilization.

The consulting alliance is a pro bono government consulting arm of the Commercial Club of Chicago that has worked with the mayor's office and school officials since the days of Emanuel predecessor Richard M. Daley. But the Commercial Club also founded an organization called New Schools for Chicago, which has the expansion of charter schools as its goal.

New Schools President Phyllis Lockett is a former leader of the consulting alliance who still sits on its board; she is credited by New Schools with helping triple the number of charters in Chicago in recent years. The consulting alliance shares a downtown office suite with New Schools.

"New Schools for Chicago and the Civic Consulting Alliance are two distinct and separate organizations, each with their own priorities and governed by their own boards," Lockett said. "New Schools for Chicago is not involved in any way with the Utilization Commission or school actions."

The CEO of the consulting alliance, Brian Fabes, dismissed any suggestion that his group favors charter schools and said New Schools is not a client. "CTU can make whatever connections they decide they want to make," he said.

Fabes characterized his group's assistance as largely logistical — including making photocopies for meetings — although a Tribune reporter recently observed him going over notes from one meeting with Clark before the chairman addressed the media. Fabes said he did not recall that conversation.

"We don't take positions, we don't advocate, we support them in what they want to do," Fabes said of the commission.

Fabes said he has not spoken with the mayor about school closings, despite his group's regular access to the mayor's office.

The alliance was a key player in Emanuel's 2011 transition to office. As part of its role, the group brought in Accenture, one of the world's largest financial consulting firms, to provide free advice to the new administration. The company subsequently received a no-bid contract from the Emanuel administration that pays it a percentage of every dollar saved on other City Hall contracts.

The alliance also has previously helped CPS leaders analyze the teachers union contract and helped recruit another outside consultant to become the CPS chief transformation officer, a position that now oversees the school-closings strategy.

Tate, who has often been at Clark's shoulder during the commission's public hearings, also has a long history with the school district. She has brought in more than $600,000 in school contracts since 2005, much of it through her previous firm, Tate & Associates, according to city records.
She said Clark, a fellow participant in "kitchen Cabinet" meetings with Emanuel, asked her to help out and she agreed to do so for free.

"We're overseeing the messaging," Tate said of her current firm, D&T Communications.
She said she has not spoken with Emanuel about her role and believes her work for the district to hold training sessions for parents on school involvement is what led Clark to bring her into the process. She said that has gone on for 15 years and she expects it to continue.
"He knows I have an independent nature," she said of Clark. "All that work I have done has been to advocate for the parents."
It is not the first time that Emanuel allies have taken an important role in steering the public debate over school controversy.
As tension between the mayor and teachers was building earlier this year, radio ads criticizing the union were produced by John Kupper of AKPD Message and Media, a firm that has been on retainer for Emanuel's campaign committee. Kupper, a key political strategist for Emanuel, declined to discuss his talks with the mayor, and Emanuel said he had no knowledge of the ads before they aired.
In February, when his administration was first pushing for a longer school day and closing some schools, the Tribune identified another Emanuel political ally working quietly in the background. Greg Goldner, who ran Emanuel's successful 2002 bid for Congress, dedicated the skills of his Resolute Consulting firm to write news releases for pastors, produce a video presentation and help plan community events supporting the mayor's agenda.
The Tribune later revealed that Goldner had taken up another controversial cause Emanuel was pushing — automated speed cameras near schools and parks. Goldner was the brains behind a grass-roots coalition that supported cameras, a group that was funded by Chicago's red light camera vendor, Redflex Traffic Systems Inc.
Redflex eventually was disqualified from the speed camera bidding after the Tribune disclosed that the company had failed to report internal corruption allegations stemming from the city's red light program.

DeBlasio Shadow Transition Includes Advice from Rahm Emanuel

I never drank the BDB Kool-Aid and fear that the people of New York, in their determination to kick Bloomberg's ass right out of town, bought themselves a blanker slate than Barack Obama, which I thought physically and politically impossible. .... Comment on MORE listserve on Capital NY article on under the covers DeB consultants

The same consulting group that helped Rahm Emanuel screw the teachers in Chicago is in NYC advising de Blasio.

Civic Consulting USA was suggested to de Blasio's aides during a November meeting between de Blasio and Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel. Emanuel's staff suggested that de Blasio's transition team enlist the help of the group, whose mission is to pair government clients with partners in the private and nonprofit sector.

Everyone assumes it will be better under de Blasio than under Bloomberg -- how can it be worse? And when it inevitably goes bad as the Capital NY article below points to, watch the UFT leadership turn tail and say, "We told you so, Thompson would have been better."

The consultant arrangement may come as a surprise to some supporters of de Blasio, who regularly, proudly champions the virtues of public-sector experience. ("I think people who understand government run government best," he told the Times recently.) But the apparent embrace of private-sector expertise is nothing new in New York City. Outgoing mayor Michael Bloomberg has routinely talked of the benefits that non-bureaucrats can bring to city governance, and in fact Civic Consulting USA lists Bloomberg Philanthropies as one of its funders.

In the meantime we got some indications (vague, I admit) that the UFT and its fellow-travelers in the astro-turf community tried to drum up a last-ditch Kathy Cashin lobby campaign to forestall what a week ago was a sure-bet Farina appointment as chancellor. From what I can tell, the UFT has a long-term relationship with Cashin from her days as a District 22 (Midwood, Sheepshead Bay) principal, and her days as Dist. 23 (Brownsville) and Region 5 (Dist, 23, 19, 27 - Rockaway, Howard Beach, Woodhaven, etc). Not so much with Farina - Dist. 15 and Region 8.

I'm also betting that the charter school lobby would prefer Cashin over Farina for reasons I am not going to go into now. But given my reservations over both of them -- for very different reasons - which I hope to go into after a choice is made -- don't count on a lot of big changes on issues of big concern to teachers.

De Blasio’s shadow transition

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/city-hall/2013/12/8537450/de-blasios-shadow-transition

Bill de Blasio has two transition teams.

There's the public one, announced in late November. It's a diverse, 60-person assortment of nonprofit leaders, political types, educators, rabbis, Cynthia Nixon. More than half of its members are de Blasio donors.

Back to the Bataan Death March

Well, it's time to get back to the fray. I take a week off and head to Delray Florida for some serious tanning and eating and fraternizing and shit happened while I was gone. Well, I hope you've all been reading the fabulous bloggers on my blog roll to keep up. I am way behind. (I find it real hard to do much blogging while at the beach.) And it was only decent beach weather for the first few days even though it hit in the 80s almost every day. Walking off the plane into 26 degrees? Not fair. The main benefit of the trip was missing the Tisch/King dog and pony show for which Assholes First and Ech4Ech brought out some of their crews.

There were some excellent discussions on many of the listserves about the race card being pulled but also about how many parents of color have legitimate gripes with the public school system.

I would collate some of them and include them here but hell, I'm going to sleep. Gotta get up early tomorrow morning for a dental appointment. And there's nothing like a lazy blogger who leaves all the heavy lifting to the gang on the ednotes blog roll.

Ed Notes Reprint, Nov. 2007: Welch, Tweed, Farina, and Creative Destruction

Thanks to Tim-Parent's comment at Gotham for digging up this ednotes piece from November 14, 2007, with discussion over a 2003 Carmen Farina quote in Businessweek that seemed to support the Jack Welch philosophy. But in 2007 Farina clarifies what she said with this:

Farina's comment posted on the listserve Sunday, Nov. 11, 2007:

"Complacency is not the same as complicity in how to evaluate schools. The problem with the report cards is that they leave out the human touch from evaluation and evaluating the caliber of teaching. I am not for any report that focuses only on grades since most of us know a complete education for our children includes critical thinking, problem solving, humane education and writing skills. None of these are possible with this evaluation. Hopefully parents can see beyond the reports and evaluate for themselves how their own schools are serving their children. The people who are giving greatest credence to these reports are those who do not have children in our schools. My favorite choice for Charlie [grandchild] right now is not an A school but one that strikes the balance of all important issues and respect the development stage of his growth. It is also does not stress test prep. Don't know who is quoting me out of context but feel free to put this quote on blog."

My comment at the time: Now she tells us. Farina was part of the enabling structure that gave Klein cover. In the words of Ricky Ricardo, Farina has a lot of splaining to do.

The entire thread was started by my old pal Julie Woodward (Woodlass) who did the heavy lifting along with the work of Leonie Haimson who makes some great points. Again, a reminder that this is 6 years ago and I'm including the comments.

Welch, Tweed, Farina, and Creative Destruction

A great discussion (started by Woodlass) broke out on the NYC Public School Parent listserve that led to the ideology of "creative destruction" behind much of what Tweed is doing today. A lot of it is laid to former GE chairman, Neutron Jack Welch, who was instrumental in setting the ideoligcal framework of the Principal Academy.

Carmen Farina's name came up because she was quoted in a Business Week article from June 2003. Farina replaced Diana Lam as chief ed mucky muck at Tweed and gave Klein educational cover for creative destruction of the system, but was declared obsolute after her usefullness was over, supposedly being told she didn't have the skill set for the job – which means she spent some time in the classroom. Note how she spoke out [below] about 10 minutes after hearing her name was being bandied about.

Farina's original BW quote from June, 2003:

John Elfrank-Dana Teaches a Lesson About the Life and Death of His School

John does a great job here. I'm looking forward to a Part 2 where he tells us exactly what the UFT did over this time. I'm cross-posting here but if you want to leave a comment go directly to the link at Labors Lessons.

http://laborslessons.blogspot.com/2013/12/murry-bergtraum-high-school-case-study.html

Murry Bergtraum High School - A Case Study for the Mayor Elect

Foreword: What started off as a reply to a member regarding the missing teacher comments from the report cards and their distribution in the middle of the school day- creating much tension and animosity, as expected towards the faculty by several students grew into a blog post. In other words, just another administrative debacle in what is amounting to the most chaotic year in Bergtraum's 30+ year history, and right after its first "F" on the school report card. Or, is it deliberate? 

...I wonder if Principal Almonte did this deliberately (report card debacle)? I can't believe it. I find her actions more and more inexplicable. We were warned in the blogosphere the summer of 2012 that she was coming in as a closer. Notice how she is silent regarding the collocation of a Moskowitz kindergarten coming in Bergtraum, while several other principals speak out against collocations. Were the warnings true? Is she here to put us down?

The solution to collocate the old Bergtraum out of existence, ironically, acknowledges what I have been saying all along - that no school that was sent high academic and social needs kids in large number from half way across town will be successful. So, a breakup/shrink out of Bergtraum can be ONE response to that. Except, in the DoE's plan the teachers play the roll of the fall guy, not its own misguided policies and, perhaps, incompetent/sabotaging school administration (expect a lot of Ineffective ratings this year). 

51 from the faculty and administration, out of about 150, left last year. Most fled by getting jobs elsewhere, hastened retirements... The large number of teachers excessed by the principal in June was never approved by the network, and therefore, never official. No attempt was made by the administration to update these teachers- hence many were surprised when they learned in August they were never in excess. Is the principal's goal another 50 to leave this year?  

Look at the action steps from the Manhattan Superintendent's Early Engagement meetings with some staff last month- Inquiry Teams! I could have told her- "Been there done that- the last 7 years." Perhaps it was deduced from the advise of teachers new to the school this year- several attended these sessions. Or, is it that she knows the plan is to phase the school out? My reference to the issue of trust in principal's competence and veracity (painfully revealed in the LE Survey of last year and our own in-house survey this year ) and how no reforms are going to work unless that issue is resolved apparently fell on deaf ears with the superintendent. We got an "F" for security as well. There too, the Department of Education sees no need for change... Stay the course! Sorry to sound so conspiratorial. However, when information is not shared with us, when there's no other explanation than this is deliberate mismanagement that connects all the dots- where does that leave you? Remember, the backdrop is the mayor's statement that he'd fire half of the teaching force if he had his druthers. Add to that the great union busting effect of shrinking large schools - many new small schools have no UFT chapter, and it makes sense for the agenda of the Moskowitz' and other privatizers.

Meanwhile a program that was working - Freshman Academy, and a highly functional department, social studies, were decimated this year. The leaders of the academy and department fled the school- chased out by the principal. Why would what works (at least works better than anything comparable in the school) be deliberately undermined by the school administration? 

The high need students should have good community high schools close enough to home so that social workers and attendance teachers could make visits to several students' homes a day (see details in SchoolBook article). Also, that parents can easily come to parent association meetings and  to the parent/teacher conferences. The school has been a ghost town on these occasions. If a student is strong enough socially and academically, let them commute to school. Bergtraum could be a good neighborhood school serving Smith and Rutgers houses as well as the Lower East Side and Tribeca area.  You'd have a diverse student population with plenty of 3s and 4s (higher level students) to balance out the others, as well as no one racial group dominating the population. 

Where were the Bergtraums during the 10 year dismantling/sabotaging of their school? Silent and even rubber stamping the closure of schools and collocation of Moskowitz here on the Panel for Educational Policy. Murry Bergtraum was a union man from what we were always told. Now, Judy Bergtraum, a Bloomberg appointee to the PEP has voted for the collocation of the union-busting Eva Moskowitz in the school that bears her father's name. 

The onslaught on the UFT members of the school continues unabated. If Principal Almonte believes that an F school cannot have Effective teachers, you will see an inordinate number of Ineffective ratings of teachers under a tunnel vision application of the Danielson rubric. Combine it with the programming chaos this year and its discontinuity for student and teacher programs. The result is guaranteeing failing grades on tests used as part of the teacher evaluation when compared to more functional peer schools. Furthermore, it assumes the faulty premise that teachers have the lion's share of responsibility for student success ignore much research that the home accounts for four times or more impact on student success than teacher quality. But, studies be damned- we are told time and again "instruction is the problem here". Of course, it can and always should be improved. But, we will not be scapegoated for failed DoE policies that account for the systemic setup for failure at the school.

The lessons for a mayor elect intent of changing the course of educational reform are the following: 

Community Schools: The needier the student population, the closer physically families need to be to the school.  

Genuine Collaboration: Trust is a prerequisite for collaboration between the school's leadership and staff and is essential for the implementation of reform. Give School Leadership Teams real power over school budgets. C-30 hiring committees made up of school stakeholders that select administrators the final word instead of just a recommendation. 

School Democracy: Only transparency and shared decision making can produce such trust. The finger of accountability runs up the chain of command, not down. Dictator principals, a hallmark of Bloomberg/Klein ed policy, need to be sent packing. 

Leadership Responsibility: School leaders need to adopt the Harry Truman model- "The buck stops here." Our principal confuses passing the buck for "empowerment" of her staff. She took no responsibility for the school's programming debacle.

Leadership that Walks the Walk: We call repeatedly for our principal and assistant principals to teach a class of their own so they can lead by example; show us what Effective teaching looks like. No dice in the new technocratic Danielson rubric interpretation system. The principal explained all the administrators' time is now spent becoming experts as evaluators. I call them Compliance Clerks, not educators. 

If Bergtraum High School is to die Mr. Mayor Elect, don't let it die in vain. Instead, understand what really happened here. If Bergtraum will be resurrected in a new way while embodying the spirit of excellence it once had, come talk to us, the students, parents and teachers about how that can happen. All we ask is that you give us a real chance at success. 

Change the Stakes end of year meeting - Tuesday 12/17, 5:30

Join what promises to be a lively discussion about the issues and how we – as parents, teachers and students – can respond individually and collectively.....Change the Stakes

Press Conference re: City Council Resolution on High-Stakes Testing - On December 9th, Change the Stakes participated in a press conference held on the steps of City Hall in support of Resolution 1394, which calls for high-st...

And people are going out to eat Korean food after the meeting. A chat 'n chew evening. This is my favorite group because it is real grassroots organizing - parents who came out to get involved due to the impact of high stakes testing on their kids and their kids' schools.

Please join us this coming Tuesday as we discuss the abundance of recent events and plan for the remainder of this school year and beyond. All are welcome. Please consider sharing with those who would benefit from this event and posting the attached flier.

Tuesday, December 17th @ 5:30 PM
CUNY Graduate Center, 5th Ave between 34th and 35th streets, Room 5414

*Please bring photo ID to enter building


What is happening here?

Chancellor Tisch and Commissioner King are not listening to parents and teachers who see through the smoke and mirrors of their state education policies. During their visits to NYC and elsewhere, they have made it abundantly clear that despite widespread criticism, they have no plans of reducing the stakes their agenda imposes on students, teachers and schools. In Chancellor Tisch’s words, they are considering only “tweaks” to their agenda, despite the fact that it subjects public school children to unprecedented experimentation. They clearly plan to continue to bulldoze ahead with high-stakes testing and privacy-violating data collection, despite a very loud outcry from public school parents across NYS.

What can we do?

Change the Stakes will host a discussion about how these policies are playing out in your particular school with your children and teachers. Following this discussion, we will develop a wide-ranging action plan with the goal of empowering all stakeholders who have been affected by current education “reforms,” as we continue to build the movement to end high-stakes testing and support ALL public education students. Because every school is different and every child is unique, we encourage you to come and share your stories!

Join what promises to be a lively discussion about the issues and how we – as parents, teachers and students – can respond individually and collectively.