District 2 principals fight back! Parents, Rally with your school on Friday morning vs awful State ELA exam

Oh da protests continue against state exams. The deformers who put out those pro Eva ads are going to take a shot at reversing the anti-common core movement with a bunch of ads -- our pals at E4E, Students - barf- First, etc are involved in that. The tests suck, parents are pissed, kids are bummed, teachers are stressed-- there ain't no turning this train around.

Posted at Leonie's NYCParents Blog.

District 2 principals fight back! Parents, Rally with your school on Friday morning vs awful State ELA exam

See letter from most of the Elementary school principals in Community School District 2 below; D2 takes up a large slice of Manhattan from the southern tip to 96 St. on the East Side and the 50's on the West Side, with a small chunk of the Lower E. Side taken out.

Note: the letter mentions "product placements":  Among the trademarked products in the ELA exams this year were not just Nike and Barbie mentioned below; but also Lifesavers, Ipods, Mug Rootbeer, Singer Sewing Machines, IBM and FIFA, trademark of the International Soccer Federation, each with the TM after their name and below the reading passage. Mug Rootbeer, Fifa and IBM were also in the exams last year.

Community Action: Join Principals  in Speaking Out Regarding the NYS English Language Arts Exam Friday, April 11th, at District 2 Schools

Dear District 2 Families,

Community School District 2 represents a richly diverse group of school communities and it is not often these days that we have an opportunity to join in a shared effort.  Last week, and for several weeks prior, every one of our upper grade classrooms devoted hours of instructional time, vast human resources, and a tremendous amount of thoughtful effort to preparing students to do well on the NYS ELA exams and, ultimately, to administering them.  Only a handful of District 2 families even considered opting out, and we are not advocating families do so, specifically because we believe our students are well prepared for the rigor and high expectations of the Common Core and our schools have worked hard for several years to adjust our curriculum and teaching to support students in meeting those expectations. 

We had high hopes for what this year’s tests would bring and assured families that they would reflect the feedback test makers and state officials had received from educators and families regarding the design of the test following last year's administration.  Our students worked extremely hard and did their very best.  As school leaders, we supported teachers in ensuring that students and families kept the tests in perspective – they were important, but by no means the ultimate measure of who they are as readers, students, or human beings. We encouraged them to be optimistic, and did our best to do the same.  Frankly, many of us were disappointed by the design and quality of the tests and stood by helplessly while kids struggled to determine best answers, distorting much of what we'd taught them about effective reading skills and strategies and forgoing deep comprehension for something quite different.   

Last Friday morning, Liz Phillips, the principal of PS321 in Brooklyn, led her staff and her parent community in a demonstration objecting, not to testing or accountability or high expectations for kids, but to these tests in particular and, importantly, to their high stakes nature for teachers and students, and the policy of refusing to release other than a small percentage of the questions.  500 staff and parents participated.

By Friday evening some officials were dismissing the importance of their statement, claiming that Liz and her community represented only a tiny percentage of those affected, implying that the rest of us were satisfied.  Given the terribly high stakes of these tests, for schools, for teachers and for kids, and the enormous amount of human, intellectual and financial resources that have been devoted to them, test makers should be prepared to stand by them and to allow them to undergo close scrutiny.

Many District 2 schools will be holding demonstrations this week, making sure our thoughts on this are loud and clear and making it more difficult to dismiss the efforts of one school.  On Friday morning, April 11th, at 8:00am, we invite our families and staff to join District 2 schools in speaking out, expressing our deep dissatisfaction with the 2014 NYS English Language Arts LA exams and the lack of transparency surrounding them. 

Among the concerns shared by many schools are the following: The tests seem not to be particularly well-aligned with the Common Core Learning Standards; the questions are poorly constructed and often ambiguous; the tests themselves are embargoed and only a handful of select questions will be released next year; teachers are not permitted to use (or even discuss) the questions or the results to inform their teaching; students and families receive little or no specific feedback; this year, there were product placements (i.e., Nike, Barbie) woven through some exams. We are inviting you and your family to join together as a school community in this action, helping to ensure that officials are not left to wonder whether our silence implied approval.  

Yours truly, District 2 Principals

Adele Schroeter, PS59; Lisa Ripperger, PS234; Robert Bender, PS11; Tara Napoleoni, PS183; Jane Hsu, PS116; Sharon Hill, PS290; Amy Hom, PS1; Lauren Fontana, PS6; Jennifer Bonnet, PS150; Nicole Ziccardi Yerk, PS281; Susan Felder, PS40; Alice Hom, PS124; Nancy Harris, PS397; Kelly Shannon, PS41; Nancy Sing-Bok, PS51; Lisa Siegman, PS3;  Irma Medina, PS111; Terry Ruyter, PS276; Medea McEvoy, PS267; Darryl Alhadeff, PS158; Samantha Kaplan, PS151; David Bowell, PS347; Lily Woo, PS130; Jacqui Getz, PS126; Kelly McGuire, Lower Manhattan Community MS

Video - NYSUT Update: MORE's Lauren Cohen and Mike Schirtzer Rock the House

The video you have been waiting for. I'm so proud of our MORE next-generation union activists. Lauren and Mike are the new rock-stars. Lots of comments over at NYC Educator as to the level of Lauren's petiteness (UFT-Unity Caucus Demonstrates How It Handles Dissent) ....

I have never viewed Lauren as petite because from the day I met her I viewed her as a giant. When she was so desperate to get away from a beast of a principal she was ready to quit and go teach in Korea - but on her resume she put down she was an activist and test resister - "I don't want to work for a principal who wouldn't want someone like me." And she found such a principal in Liz Philips. To me that makes Lauren a giant.

As for Mike -- my adopted son will get a separate post.

Here is a summary MORE posted on you tube:

The NY United Teachers union is comprised of more than 1,200 local unions across NY State. This year the Movement of Rank-and-file Educators (MORE) ran six candidates for the Board of Directors. NYSUT Elections have been uncontested since 1979. The six candidates pooled their speaking time and were represented by Lauren Cohen and Mike Schirtzer. Behind them were James Eterno, Julie Cavanaugh, Francesco Portelos, Jia Lee from MORE and our union sister from Port Jefferson Teachers Association Beth Dimino.

Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MOREcaucusNYC

Join our and subscribe to our news at http://www.morecaucusnyc.org

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbkqXmDz62Y&feature=youtu.be

Thursday - Rally Against Cuomo - 4 PM

Lots of forces gathering for the big march and rally on Thursday to Cuomo's Manhattan office. Are you pissed off at Cuomo? BE THERE!!!!

NYSUT Election Update: Message to Revive: Now that you broke it, you own it

Well, Revive certainly broke NYSUT with the claim that the Stronger Together leadership wasn't militant enough -- one very big joke. So now they own it.

And Revive will come under the very same attacks they used on Stronger Together starting ---- yesterday. Even with 100% of the Unity block voting for him, Revive's Martin Messner won with 53.7% of the weighted vote while Stronger Together incumbent Lee Cutler came in with 46.3%.

In fact the Julie Cavanagh vs Mulgrew numbers (Julie Cavanagh Defeats Mulgrew Outside NYC With 52.3% of Vote) show just how soft the support for Revive is -- let's split the baby -- say half of Julie's votes were due to people knowing her and the other half anti-Mulgrew. So even the big cities had some clear drift toward the Stronger Together candidates.

James Eterno at the ICE blog (REVIVE WINS; MORE DOES VERY WELL OUTSIDE NYC) shows how Stronger Together incumbent Lee Cutler beat Martin Messer (whose tweets put him in slug territory) with 70% of the vote outside NYC. James explains:

A detailed look at the numbers for the election, which we have said was run on as tilted a playing field as a UFT election, shows it was much closer than most people expected.  Outside of New York City, Revive candidates either lost or only won by a small margin.  The difference in this election was the New York City UFT Unity Caucus bloc of votes. 
These Delegates are bound by their caucus obligations to support the decisions of their caucus in public and union forums (the so called Unity loyalty oath) so we knew 34% of the vote (the percentage the UFT has in this election according to what we looked at) was going to Revive from the start. That is a healthy head start.
For Secretary-Treasurer, Revive's Martin Messner won with 53.7% of the weighted vote while Stronger Together incumbent Lee Cutler came in with 46.3%. We got to know Lee Cutler during the last month and found him to be a decent guy who did a pretty good job as an officer. We are not surprised that he won a huge percentage of the vote outside of New York City. Let's look at some of the details.
There were 328,014 weighted votes that were cast in the election for president.  It was less for other offices which is not unusual in any election. Since 34% of the votes were from the UFT and this was a non secret ballot, we can safely assume that all of the UFT votes were for Revive's Martin Messner.
Outside of NYC we can conclude there were 216,489 weighted votes by simply subtracting 111,525 (34% of the total weighted votes cast) from 328,014 (number of weighted votes cast for president).  Now subtract from Messner's totals the same NYC 111,525 weighted votes from his 175,790 total and he is left with 64,275 votes while Cutler keeps all of his non NYC weighted votes which add up to 151,526.  Outside of NYC, where the election is not a top down mandate from Michael Mulgrew, Cutler won easily with 70% of the vote to Messner's 30%.
The same holds true if we take out the NYC votes from the other officers. Stronger Together's Maria Neira, Kathleen Donahue, and of course Dick Iannuzzi won easily outside of NYC. It was also very competitive outside of the city for Arthur Goldstein against Andrew Pallotta for Executive Vice President.

NYSUT Election Update: Julie Cavanagh Defeats Mulgrew Outside NYC With 52.3% of Vote

Michael Mulgrew and Julie Cavanagh replayed the 2013 UFT Election here at NYSUT for an at large Board of Directors seat.  Mulgrew garnered 197,081 weighted votes while Cavanagh received 93,830. 

Now take out the 111,525 NYC Unity votes (I think we can safely assume that no NYC Unity voter would vote against Mulgrew in an open ballot) and Mulgrew is left with 85,556. Cavanagh keeps her 93,830 . The percentages work out to 52.3% for Cavanagh and 47.7% for Mulgrew.
Outside of NYC, Julie Cavanagh defeated Michael Mulgrew!.... James Eterno, ICE blog

James' full report where he does some of the math at:

NYSUT ELECTION RESULTS: REVIVE WINS; MORE DOES VERY WELL OUTSIDE NYC

Of course James is doing some extrapolation here. But the results were remarkable for MORE, which was not on the Stronger Together slate - even with the big cities stacked for Revive, when it came to individual battles there's lots to mull over.

From what I hear, based on her appearance Saturday at the NYSUT RA (she didn't speak, ceding her time to Lauren Cohen and Mike Schirtzer) Julie is still a rock star -- MORE was originally approached by people in the state partly because of Julie's status -- but she has been very busy with Jack, who will officially hit the terrible Twos in July. (No one is waiting for summer more eagerly than Julie.)

Her name carried some serious weight and according to James' analysis got more votes than Mulgrew outside of the NYC Unity Caucus block.

For those who think the NYSUT rift will be healed soon, they are blowing smoke. Stronger Together did not disband and will be holding a meeting soon. What used to be a solid NY State Unity Caucus block at the AFT convention (July 11) will now be split into 2 camps - roughly a 60-40 split. Since the minority caucus pins much of this on Randi Weingarten/Mulgrew, if there is any serious opposition to Randi on national policy and even a serious candidate against her in the election, watch some fur fly.

NYSUT Update: MORE's Lauren Cohen Stands Up to Bully Tests and Bully Unity Slugs

Yesterday morning I watched from the audience as Lauren Cohen, a petite young woman from the UFT MORE caucus, got up and addressed the NYSUT Representative Assembly as a candidate. When Lauren mentioned the UFT-Unity Loyalty oath, my 800 brothers and sisters from UFT-Unity tried to drown her voice with loud boos. The moderator had to get up and explain that it was not in the best traditions of public forums to prevent people from speaking. Lauren stood calmly, and continued undeterred after waiting a moment for the noise to subside. She demonstrated grace and thoughtfulness, neither of which was evident in the audience that saw fit to shout her down in the full view of UFT President Michael Mulgrew. ... NYC Educator, UFT-Unity Caucus Demonstrates How It Handles Dissent

The MORE presence and the Unity response exposed goon tactics to the entire state... even some Unity people were embarrassed and came over to Lauren to apologize. I believe Peter Goodman, one of the 800 Unity delegates, is urging unity after they split the state. Consequences, consequences, consequences -- you reap what you sow....Ed Notes

You mean THIS Lauren Cohen -- not that long ago, seemingly a bit shy -- gets booed, waits calmly and then rocks the house. Thus the power of being in a group like MORE - watching the growth of wonderful new leaders like Lauren.

Only Unity Caucus would boo someone who loves puppies.

There was much irony in the massive booing on the part of Unity Caucus goons and slugs as MORE NYSUT candidate Lauren Cohen began her speech Saturday at the NYSUT RA. I wasn't there but I heard she mentioned the Unity Caucus loyalty oath, prompting boos and shout of "No MORE".

Lauren was a victim of Unity Caucus perfidy way before Saturday, suffering, until she escaped, for years under an abusive, bully principal who has driven a number of staff, parents and children out of the school, all while the UFT/Unity leadership twiddled (and continues t twiddle) its thumbs. Thus Lauren has suffered a double dose of abuse from the union leadership, which by the way, made bogus claims it defends chapter leaders at the March Delegate Assembly. While Lauren was not CL, the previous gaggle of CLs at the school came under the evil eye of the principal -- again the UFT did nothing.

Both Lauren and her pal Jia Lee, also a MORE NYSUT candidate and a fugitive from the same school, came to MORE as a result of the abuse they suffered at that school and to Change the Stakes due to their stand against testing policy.

Below is Lauren in a shot from TV on Friday outside her new school, PS 321, making a very public stand against testing at the rally. She was also interviewed on TV. Less than 24 hours later, she was standing in front of her Unity Caucus fellow UFT members being booed.

This is the way of the goon mentality we face in battling against the evil empire (video will be up soon.) Booing one of the teachers with the guts to stand up to all bullies - the kind of person who would never be tolerated in the caucus. MORE continues to attract people like Lauren. I will highlight some of the others this week.

A photo of the MORE crew at the NYSUT RA with friends-- and many more were made over the weekend as the MORE presence and the Unity response exposed their tactics to the entire state.

Arthur Goldstein, next to Julie Cavanagh, the indomitable Beth Dimino, far right, Mike Schirtzer and Francesco Portelos, back-center next to James Eterno, to the right of Sean Ahern. Jia Lee, center (blue) next to the always awesome Megan Moskop. Others - Joan Heymont, Don Doyle, Sal Notera, Rob Pearl (VP Port Jeff Stn TA)

Teachers Win Special Ed Complaint Against Murry Bergtraum Principal Lottie "Neutron Bomb" Almonte....

...can clear a building faster than flatulence from a herd of cattle.  Look at my school, Murry Bergtraum High School. Nearly 1/3 of the staff split because of the principal. I call her “Lottie Neutron” (as the neutron bomb kills people put leaves buildings in tact). ... John Elfrank-Dana, Chapter Leader

John has been vigilant as a chapter leader.

Dear Bergtraum Community,

Attached are the results of the special education complaint filed by me and several of your colleagues. And again, the letter was opened before I received it, even though it was addressed to me. 

John

And US Postal service tempering to boot.

Here is the pdf of the State Ed Dept ruling:

Special Ed Complaint Findings NYS

Today: Don't Tread On Educators Workshop in Brooklyn, 5-8PM

Are you an educator who:

• Feels their career has been derailed?
• Bullied in the workplace?
• Overloaded and underappreciated?

Are you burnt out?.....COME GET FUELED UP!

You are not alone. We are taking back our careers.

--> UPDATE:
-->

There is an informal talk from 5pm-6pm with Mary Compton and MORE before the DTOE Event. All are invited. Mary is the past President of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) in the UK, webmaster for teachersolidarity.com and co-editor with Lois Weiner of the "Global assault" book. She's key in an emerging global network of teacher union activists.

Join our Don't Tread on Educators support group by emailing a blank email to DTOE+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Paul Robeson Freedom School 520 Clinton Ave, Brooklyn, New York 11238

School

---

join@paulrobesonfreedomschool.org

Get Directions

---

Accolades for 3 Teachers Test Refuseniks

If Unity Caucus could have booed Jia Lee, one of MORE's candidates at the NYSUT RA this past weekend, they would have. But Jia had ceded her time to Laura Cohen, who was booed by the Unity 800 (UFT-Unity Caucus Demonstrates How It Handles Dissent).

Valerie Strauss reports on Jia and colleagues' remarkable letter of conscience to Carmen Farina.

Three teachers from P.S. 364 Earth School in New York have informed their administration and Chancellor Carmen Fariña that they will not proctor Common Core state standardized tests this year — or ever — saying in a letter (see below) that they “can no longer implement policies that seek to transform the broad promises of public education into a narrow obsession with the ranking and sorting of children.” They join a small but growing number of educators who are taking a strong stand against high-stakes testing, in Seattle last year, Chicago this year and in other places. The three teachers — Colin Schumacher, Emmy Matias and Jia Lee — are part of a group called Teachers of Conscience, who have issued a position paper (which you can see below). The three have the outspoken support of their principal, Alison Hazut, and of parents opting out their children from the tests (and more than half of the families at P.S. 364 are doing so). Hazut has assigned these teachers to work with students who are opting out on independent writing, math, reading, and art projects during the tests. Contrast that with the “sit and stare” policies some other principals have enacted, which essentially force kids who are opting out to sit in their chairs during the test administration and do nothing but look around......http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/04/04/teachers-refuse-to-administer-standardized-tests/

And more accolades for Jia from fellow Change the Stakes and MOREistas.

This could be a game-changing turning point for the movement! My deepest thanks, Jia, for all you do. You're an amazing woman, teacher, mother, leader!... Nancy Cauthen, Change the Stakes

Jia, Together this letter and position paper are not just brilliant and definitive. For me they constitute the best single piece of news I've seen in the two years Anne and I have been involved in this movement. Now that parents are opting out in significant numbers, the next step is for teachers to "come out" and speak truth to power. You are in the absolute vanguard of that movement, and together parents and teachers will bring the "ed deform" to a halt and begin truly restoring public education in this country. Bravissima!!!!!!!! And THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!

.... Jeff Nichols

Jia, Emmy and Colin,
This is spectacular and you are very brave to do this!.. Jane

Jia is the best parent, teacher, union leader! I stand with her any day every day.. Mike Schirtzer

Jia, Emmy, Colin--you have taken us to a new level.  Your letter belongs in the Smithsonian.... Fred

Excellent letter Jia, you really are exceptional! .... Diana

This is historic and courageous of the three of you. Also kudos to your principal who is giving support,  and to the brave parents and students who are taking a stand against for forfeit  assessment/education. Your letter should be in every major publication across the nation....Pat

 

On DIscontinue - MORE's Paul Hogan - Mr. de Blasio: Tear Up This Blacklist

My fellow MOREista retiree Paul Hogan urges you to sign a petition against the DOE blacklist, where any principal has the power to ruin a non-tenured teacher's entire career with a swoop of a computer stroke. Paul is another outstanding MORE activist, thoughtful, analytical, smart -- the kind of person MORE is attracting in greater numbers. Paul often gets up early and stands in front of schools in cold weather handing out MORE materials in order the spread the word.


http://paulvhogan.wordpress.com/2014/04/05/mr-de-blasio-tear-up-this-blacklist/

Mr. de Blasio: Tear Up This Blacklist

5 Apr Was Bill de Blasio’s dad blacklisted in the 1950s? Well it sure looks that way.

Long story short, Warren Wilhelm Sr., government analyst , was dragged before a McCarthy-era committee in 1950 and 1953, interrogated about suspect activities, interests, and affiliations, and then stripped of his security clearance.
“Over the next several years, the case resurfaced as Mr. Wilhelm was considered for promotions,” the New York Times reported in 2013.

Apparently the promotions didn’t come. Bill’s dad, who’d been awarded a Purple Heart for his WWII battlefield heroics, didn’t talk much about his difficulties with the Loyalty Board to his family. But the Wilhelms left Washington for greener pastures after 1953, and he seemed to struggle thereafter in almost every way imaginable. It seems reasonable to assume, then,  that Mayor Bill de Blasio understands, as few others can, the malignant power of the blacklist.

It’s a question of some immediate relevance . Currently making the rounds is an online petition asking that the Mayor’s schools chancellor put an end to a Bloomberg-era policy of blacklisting-for-life probationary teachers who are “discontinued” ( “fired”, in plain English) from their initial DOE assignment.

The petition makes the obvious point that school principals should base their decision to retain or to discontinue a new teacher on strictly *pedagogical* grounds.   Yet, this does not happen often.

So, apart from pedagogy, what else would matter? Well, politics, for one; both in the local ( i.e. within the school) sense of the word and in the more general sense.

Religion, race, and ethnicity, for another. ( All of the “old reliables”; rolled into one, for clarity’s sake.)

Sexual orientation and gender. (“But there are LAWS against that sort of thing.” Yeah. Right. PROVE it.)

Cronyism and nepotism. (I myself saw a probationary teacher, primary support for two minor children, discontinued — and consequently blacklisted throughout the system —thereby making room on staff for an administration-insider’s newly-credentialed relative.)

Personality conflicts, unrelated to work performance. (Grow-up, folks. It happens all the time.)
The petition itself provides an excellent example of how the process actually works:
“Then, several months later and out of the blue, it happened. Without even realizing it, Jennifer crossed Principal Higgins by questioning some change in assignment and a preparation period she felt she was owed. Suddenly, Jennifer stopped receiving “satisfactory” observation reports and began receiving several “unsatisfactory” ones. Principal Higgins then rated Jennifer unsatisfactory for her first year final rating. Jennifer was devastated. It didn’t make sense. The students and parents liked her. She received unofficial praise from the assistant principal, but to Principal Higgins Jennifer didn’t differentiate instruction. She didn’t have coherent lessons and didn’t demonstrate knowledge of resources.
http://www.change.org/petitions/katherine-rodi-save-the-careers-of-discontinued-teachers
 450 NYC probationers were discontinued in the last two years.  

The real killer here though is the *blacklist*. Discontinued NYC probationers have all spent years ( and tens of thousands of dollars) in preparation to get as far as they got: studying for undergraduate and , in many case, graduate degrees; jumping through all kinds of testing and licensing hoops.  Suddenly… because of something so trivial as a personality conflict with a supervisor… they are essentially banned-for-life from the profession for which they trained. Under the blacklist, no other principal in the 1,700 school NYC sysytem may hire them. There is only one public school system in New York City. Just as there was, in the 1950s, for Warren Wilhelm …..and many, many others… only one federal government.

One of the most striking and promising things about New York City’s new mayor is his intriguing resume’. In an era when government policy is shaped for the most part by shallow suburban prep school dilettantes, de Blasio’s bio smacks of something real.


But there it is. The blacklist. It’s cultivator and guardian is the NYC’s Department of Education, that bottomless pit of  nepotism, patronage, mendacity, mindless cruelty and absolutely incomparable bureaucratic dysfunction.
The question right now is: will Mayor de Blasio do something about it?
http://www.change.org/petitions/katherine-rodi-save-the-careers-of-discontinued-teachers

Read Paul's complete post as he explores the impact of the blacklist on de Blasio.
http://paulvhogan.wordpress.com/2014/04/05/mr-de-blasio-tear-up-this-blacklist/

NYC Parent Urges Farina and King to Cancel Upcoming Math Exam

There was no rigor applied to the development of these tests, nor does the practice of high-stakes testing in general stand up to critical analysis....I was offended by your remarks earlier this week to the effect that while parents' opinions should be respected, children should come to school prepared to meet challenges like the state tests...

I honestly believe it is time for insurrection at the local level... I want de Blasio and Farina to unequivocally condemn these tests and call those who inflicted them us to account.

......Jeff Nichols, NYC parent opt-outer

Read Jeff's comments regarding the motivation of this letter below. Jeff and his wife Anne Stone are Change the Stakes stalwarts..

Dear Commissioner King and Chancellor Fariña,

Events are moving very fast. You are no doubt aware that today the principal, staff and parents of one of the most highly regarded schools In New York City, PS 321 in Brooklyn, will be holding a protest outside their schools to decry the abysmal quality of this year's ELA tests. You have probably read the astonishing comments from teachers and principals that continue to pour into the the New York City Public School Parents blog and other sites (http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2014/04/liz-phillips-brooklyn-principal-i-have.html).

I have not yet heard your view of this situation, Chancellor Fariña. But as an opt out parent, I have to tell you frankly I was offended by your remarks earlier this week to the effect that while parents' opinions should be respected, children should come to school prepared to meet challenges like the state tests.

Have you not realized that parents are protesting the tests precisely because we want our kids challenged deeply by real learning in our schools and these tests are obstructing that goal? Have you not realized that NYSED's and Pearson's claims that these tests represent new levels of "rigor" and "critical thinking" are demonstrably false?
There was no rigor applied to the development of these tests, nor does the practice of high-stakes testing in general stand up to critical analysis, so I fail to see how taking the state tests represents a worthwhile challenge for any child.

Moreover, Commissioner King, I cannot accept the state's intention to keep the tests secret from parents. My wife and I are responsible for all aspects of our children's upbringing. We would not permit a doctor to administer a vaccine to our children and forbid us from knowing what is in the shot. We will not let you subject our children to any exercise in school while forbidding us to know its contents, much less tests that are being used to determine their promotion and whether or not their teachers will be fired.
The forced, secret high-stakes testing of minor children is going to go the way of cane switches, dunce caps and forcing left-handed children to write with their right hands -- practices that were once commonplace that we now regard as child abuse. It's only a matter of time.

The question is, will our local and state education leaders join together and stop this travesty? Given the fact that the NYSED and the Pearson corporation have again utterly failed the test of earning parents' and educators' confidence in the quality of these exams, why should our schools proceed with administering the math tests later this month? Can you give me any reason other than obedience for obedience's sake? All I hear from you, Commissioner King, is slogans about higher standards and career readiness. I have yet to witness direct engagement by you with the arguments made by the thousands of educators and parents in our state who are advocate abandoning high-stakes testing of young children once and for all.

I call on you, Commissioner King, to suspend the administration of this year's state tests, and if you fail to do that (as I expect you will) I call on you, Chancellor Fariña to refuse to administer them.

We have lemon laws protecting consumers from egregiously faulty consumer products, but we no one is protecting our children from these worthless exams. Chancellor Fariña, they are state tests, so you can blame Commissioner King and the legislature for them, but you are ultimately responsible for our city's schools. You must ensure that no one forces educational malpractice upon them. If NYSED continues to ignore the protests against the state tests that are exploding across the state, and you allow the math exams exams to go forward, the public will hold the DOE accountable as well as NYSED and the U.S. Department of Education.

We now have teachers in this city and beyond refusing to administer the state tests and parents refusing to allow their children to take them. Chancellor Fariña, will you stand with these disobedient citizens, or will you stand with Arne Duncan and John King and insist that the tests must go forward regardless of their quality, because an unjust law says they must?

I hope both of you will acknowledge that finally, enough is enough. Suspend the state tests and bring daylight onto the whole process that led to this debacle.

Sincerely,

Jeff Nichols

One parent thought Jeff should address King and not Farina since she has no control. Jeff begged to differ:

I know, of course you're right, these matters are outside Farina's and de Blasio's control. I know at one level my demand make no sense.
But for the sake of argument, the tests are also outside the control of teachers who are now starting to refuse to administer the exams and are risking their jobs to do so. And they are outside the control of parents boycotting them. At the grass-roots level, test refusal is exploding. Is it truly impossible for our city officials to join us?
As a negative example, we have the history of leaders in the south defying federal orders of integration in the 1960s. As a positive one, we have Obama's administration refusing to defend the Defense of Marriage Act, in a sense defying Congress, which has the authority to make laws the president must obey.
Officials can and do at times take a position contrary to the directives of authorities higher than themselves when they believe an inviolable principle is at stake.

By the way, can Tisch and King suspend the exams, or does the order to give them technically rest with the legislature? Who could legally suspend the tests?
I regard NYSED as utterly hopeless, which is why I am not bothering to talk to them. I honestly believe it is time for insurrection at the local level, and NYC is a pretty darned sizable locality. And moreover what I really want is something less than what I demand -- I want de Blasio and Farina to unequivocally condemn these tests and call those who inflicted them us to account.

Jeff

NYC Teachers of Conscience - Letter to Farina - We Refuse to Support Market-Based Reform by Giving the Test

We find ourselves at a point in the progress of education reform in which clear acts of conscience will be necessary to preserve the integrity of public education. We can no longer implement policies that seek to transform the broad promises of public education into a narrow obsession with the ranking and sorting of children. .. Teachers of Conscience

Jia Lee is a core member of MORE and Change the Stakes and Chapter Leader at the Earth School. Feel free to download the letter and share with your colleagues. MORE recommends anyone doing this seek legal advice. A massive resistance effort -- like something supported by a real union -- would begin to turn the tide. (I'm going to follow up with a powerful parent letter to Farina).

http://teachersofconscience.wordpress.com/

A Letter to Chancellor Carmen Fariña

DOWNLOAD Letter

“The ongoing wars, the distortions of truth we have witnessed, the widening gaps between rich and poor disturb us more than we can say; but we have had so many reminders of powerlessness that we have retreated before the challenge of bringing such issues into our classrooms. At once, we cannot but realize that one of our primary obligations is to try to provide equal opportunities for the young. And we realize full that this cannot happen if our students are not equipped with what are thought to be survival skills, not to speak of a more or less equal range of literacies. And yet the tendency to describe the young as “human resources,” with the implication that they are mainly grist for the mills of globalized business is offensive not merely to educators, but to anyone committed to resist dehumanization of any kind.”

- Maxine Greene, In Search of a Pedagogy

Dear Chancellor Carmen Fariña,

We are teachers of public education in the City of New York. We are writing to distance ourselves from a set of policies that have come to be known as market-based education reform. We recognize that there has been a persistent and troubling gulf between the vision of individuals in policymaking and the work of educators, but we see you as someone who has known both positions and might therefore be understanding of our position. We find ourselves at a point in the progress of education reform in which clear acts of conscience will be necessary to preserve the integrity of public education. We can no longer implement policies that seek to transform the broad promises of public education into a narrow obsession with the ranking and sorting of children. We will not distort curriculum in order to encourage students to comply with bubble test thinking. We can no longer, in good conscience, push aside months of instruction to compete in a city-wide ritual of meaningless and academically bankrupt test preparation. We have seen clearly how these reforms undermine teachers’ love for their profession and undermine students’ intrinsic love of learning.

As an act of conscience, we are declining the role of test administrators for the 2014 New York State Common Core Tests. We are acting in solidarity with countless public school teachers who have paved their own paths of resistance and spoken truthfully about the decay of their profession under market-based reforms. These acts of conscience have been necessary because we are accountable to the children we teach and our pedagogy, both of which are dishonored daily by current policies.
The policies of Common Core have been misguided, unworkable, and a serious failure of implementation. At no time in the history of education reform have we witnessed the ideological ambitions of policymakers result in such a profound disconnect with the experiences of parents, teachers, and children. There is a growing movement of dissatisfied parents who are refusing high-stakes Common Core testing for their children and we are acting in solidarity with those parents. Reformers in the State Department of Education are now making gestures to slow down implementation and reform their reforms. Their efforts represent a failure of imagination — an inability to envision an education system based on human development and democratic ideals rather than an allegiance to standardization, ranking, and sorting. State policies have placed haphazard and burdensome mandates on schools that are profoundly out of touch with what we know to be inspired teaching and learning. Although the case against market-based education reform has been thoroughly written about, we feel obliged to outline our position at length to address critics who may see our choice of action as overstepping or unwarranted. You will find a position paper attached to this letter. We are urging you, Chancellor Fariña, to articulate your own position in this critical and defining moment in the history of public education. What will you stand for? What public school legacy will we forge together?

Sincerely,
Colin Schumacher, 4th/5th Grade Teacher, P.S. 364, Earth School
Emmy Matias, 4th/5th Grade Teacher, P.S. 364, Earth School
Jia Lee, 4th/5th Grade Teacher, P.S. 364, Earth School

Download the position paper or read it at the Port Jefferson Station TA site: Teachers of Conscience Position Paper

Aljazeera Features Change the Stakes Opt-Out Parent, NYC Teacher

FANTASTIC!!! Takiema, you nailed it!... CTS parent

Imagine if the UFT urged NYC teachers to consider opting out their kids to help bump the movement to deny the data for judging teachers? The day we have a majority of people opting out is the day that teacher evals based on testing become meaningless.

N.Y. educator lets her son opt out of Common Core-based testing

April 2, 2014

A New York parent who opposes tests based on new Common Core standards says 'We can't test our way into high standards'

http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/consider-this/2014/4/n-y-educator-letshersonoptoutofcommoncorebasedtesting.html

Memo from the RTC: Professionalism, Personality, Talent – and Me

  How to Succeed cast (most of them) photo --
                                      Follow the red line straight|down to a tiny head - me

Published in The Wave, April 4, 2014
www.rockawave.com

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Memo from the RTC: Professionalism, Personality, Talent – and Me

By Norm Scott

After the Sunday matinee closing performance, I had a hangover Monday morning, not from the incredible fun cast party, but withdrawal symptoms from the intensity of total immersion in a theater experience. I can’t tell you how many people connected to the RTC came up to me saying with such glee, “You are hooked. You’ll never escape.” And so it goes. Early Monday morning I joined the de-construction crew taking down the set that had become home to the almost 40 cast  members. By Tuesday, noon, the basic set for Moon Over Buffalo was in place.

And how sad to see the empty backstage dressing room that had pulsed with such life over the past 3 months – people constantly coming and going onstage and off, changing costumes on the fly, moving the not inconsiderable sized sets during the show, often in wet and windy weather. Watching the always amazing Stage Manager, Nora Meyers coral this bunch was a wonder. Until I appeared in these 2 plays I never new that the stage manager is almost as important as the director – she is the person the actors come into contact with constantly once the play opens. Nora’s husband Patrick is not only a very talented performer (Curly in Oklahoma) but does anything asked behind scenes, including one of the most important jobs, operating the curtain when Suzanne Riggs was not available. If you haven’t heard of Suzanne, a local teacher, she is a major behind the scenes player at RTC, doing anything that is needed to keep the theater going.

On to the amazingly diverse cast. Many RTC vets played key roles. I’ve mentioned many of them in my previous columns and want to make sure to note the work of Roger Gonzalez (Twimble) who knocks it out with “Company Way” and keeps everyone laughing back stage. Roger runs a website (localtheatreny.com) - INDEPENDENT, LOCAL, GRASSROOTS NEW YORK THEATRE FROM THE COMMUNITY STAGE TO BROADWAY – where you can find out about auditions, performances, etc. I’ve watched 12-year RTC vet Najat Arkadan (Smitty) belt it out for years. How did she get involved? She was Susan Jaspar’s student at Goldstein HS. Jose Velez (Wally Whomper) was one of my card-playing pals in “The Odd Couple” and has been a powerful voice not only in RTC productions but in the Far Rockaway community. I met Joseph Lopez (known as JoLo) in Frank Ciaiti’s acting class and did my first scene with him. Janet Miserandino and Cathy Murfitt, who have been RTC mainstays, played the scrubwomen – small roles they brought verve and vigor to. And what a delight to meet first time performer Danielle Rose Fisher who was my dance partner (for 15 seconds at each performance) at the World Wide Wickett office party. Danielle, whose enthusiasm and cheer brought a smile to my face every time I saw her, has been involved backstage at the RTC for a decade since she was a 15-year old. In the show she sang and tapped her way into future performances.

The high school kids were fabulous to work with and I got such a kick out of their enthusiasm, knowledge of the theater, and ease on stage (due to the training of the RTC youth program run by Peggy Page). Midwood HS senior Casey Stabiner, already with an impressive resume as a performer at RTC since she was 9, never seemed to stop moving - when she wasn’t back stage reading Hamlet. I was delighted to listen in as Casey and Leon Goldstein teacher Steve Ryan (Bratt) discussed the plot. Other RTC youth program vets Kayla Ann Healy (15- student at Professional Performing Arts School), Antonio Oliveri (senior at Xaverian), James Dalid(studying music at CCNY) and Dante Rei (19) – the only cast member with facial hair – a perfect mustache - made being backstage so much fun. I couldn’t stop smiling as Casey and Keyla danced up a storm during the overture right before the curtain opened and then went into freeze pose seconds before it did open. Dante is assisting Nora as stage manager for the next production. RTC is more than a production company. It offers the full theater education experience, from sound to lighting, to all age groups.

I’ve run out of words before getting to the great influx of newcomers to this production (I’ll cover this amazing crew in a future column) who trekked out to Fort Tilden from Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan almost daily, often by public transportation. They all say they are coming back, just showing the power and draw of Rockaway’s local theater group.

And the fab cast party where the guys did the gals’ tap and the gals did the  guys’ Brotherhood of Man. And people gathering around the piano to sing just about anything – what a Les Mis they did. I’ll always remember the backstage banter, spontaneous bouts of breaking into song, people practicing lines, dance steps - a once in a lifetime treat 
--> for a non-theater person of a certain age.

NYSUT Update: EIA Analyzes NYSUT Delegate Vote

My unscientific extrapolation estimates Revive NYSUT holds about 56 percent of the delegates, Stronger Together 24 percent, and 20 percent are unknown or undecided... EIA

Mike Antonucci crunches the numbers based on endorsement of big local presidents for the Mulgrew/Weingarten Revive Slate.

Is he missing something by assuming the rest of the delegates from the big locals will vote the way their leaders want them to like the Unity clones? What if that 56% doesn't vote as a block? Other than the roughly Unity controlled NYC 32% the other 24% will not hold firm because those local presidents don't have the control over their people like Unity does.

Other than a few Unity people defecting because they want to leave Unity anyway and maybe some PSC (Prof. Staff Congress - CUNY) defections, we are hearing that there may be a lot more defections from UUP (SUNY), Rochester, Syracuse, Buffalo and maybe even Yonkers.

I at no point believed Stronger Together will win, but have believed that anything from 70-30 to 60-40 is a defeat for Randi with some talk of leaving NYSUT and joining the NEA by some locals. Anything above 40% approaching half the vote is massive.

In case you are not aware, Arthur Goldstein running for Exec VP gets to address the convention Saturday morning -- some of these delegates are bound to be impressed. In addition, MORE, not running on Stronger Together, will send 2 speakers to the podium to explain how the Unity machine operates, amongst other issues  -- Mike Schirtzer and Lauren Cohen -- the new faces of the opposition here in NYC. MORE's other candidates (Julie Cavanagh, Jia Lee, James Eterno and Francesco Portelos have yielded their time). Expect at least some withering away from the big locals. Maybe not enough to win but ....

Here is Antonucci's post with a great graph -- if NYSUT was run like the US Senate where each state gets the same vote it would be a landslide for Stronger Together. Not that I am advocating that. But imagine if our election here in NYC elected delegates by our local school districts rather than winner take all? A reform that might be worth fighting for.

Why Iannuzzi Is Toast by EIA

Posted: 03 Apr 2014 07:34 AM PDT

More than two months ago I posted my thoughts on the New York State United Teachers election headlined “Iannuzzi Is Toast.” My conclusion had nothing to do with the policies of the incumbent NYSUT president or his slate, nor did it take into account the policies of his challengers, Revive NYSUT. I simply took a look at the number of delegates and the locals pledged to the challengers, particularly the largest teachers’ union local in the nation, the United Federation of Teachers.
In recent weeks Iannuzzi’s slate, named Stronger Together, has trumpeted its growing list of endorsements by NYSUT local presidents and boards. We started to see graphs like this one.


That’s an impressive show of strength and it would be decisive if the NYSUT Representative Assembly assigned a single vote to each local. But the votes are weighted according to the size of the local, and that’s where Stronger Together gets a lot Smaller Together.

I don’t have a list of delegates and I have no special insight into how individuals might vote on the open floor (no secret ballot in NYSUT). But the two slates are using local endorsements as a proxy for voting power and I will, too. I know how many teachers are in each district they represent and can usually add pretty well.

I took a look at the list of 300 or so local presidents on the Stronger Together web site and discovered: a) there was some double-counting of locals; and b) the total number of teachers those locals represented came to about 60,000.
UFT by itself has 64,000 active full-time K-12 teachers.
So if UFT stood alone, Stronger Together would have a fighting chance to pick up votes from the rest of the delegation. But the Revive slate also boasts the endorsement of virtually all of the largest locals in NYSUT: the Professional Staff Congress, the United University Professions, and the K-12 unions in Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers and Syracuse. Stronger’s largest declared local is the Brentwood Teachers Association, representing about 1,100 teachers.

My unscientific extrapolation estimates Revive NYSUT holds about 56 percent of the delegates, Stronger Together 24 percent, and 20 percent are unknown or undecided. Iannuzzi’s slate would have to capture all of the undecideds and peel off about 11 percent of Revive’s delegates while holding on to all of its own.

My prediction: Revive NYSUT picks up at least 60 percent of the vote. If it climbs to 70 percent, I would not be surprised.

PS 321K Rallies Friday Morning to Protest Awful ELA Test

...the teachers and administration are truly devastated by what a terrible test it was and how little it will tell us about our students. 

This is just the beginning. Let the deformers attack the staff and parents at one of the highest performing schools in the city and the actions of one of the top principals (who also happens to be the spouse of Mark Naison).

Will Carmen Farina repeat her recent comment about some parents not being up to the challenge?

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PS 321 PARENTS--Our 3rd, 4th, and 5th  graders have just completed three days  of the New York State English  Language Arts Exam.   Your  children were wonderful and worked incredibly hard.  On the whole, we think that we were able to protect them from the worst stresses of the test,  and most seemed fine during most of the exam.   However, the teachers and administration are truly devastated by what a terrible test it was and how little it will tell us about our students.   Because we are bound by test security, we cannot reveal details but we can tell you that we have never seen an ELA exam that does a worse job of testing reading comprehension.   There was inappropriate content, many highly ambiguous questions, and a focus on structure rather than meaning of passages.   Our teachers and administrators feel that this test is an insult to the profession of teaching and that students’ scores on it will not correlate with their reading ability.  Because of this, the staff has decided to hold a protest outside of school TOMORROW, FRIDAY, APRIL 4, FROM 8:15-8:35 to express their extreme dissatisfaction with the ELA exam.  Parents are invited to join the staff before going into classrooms for Family Friday.

PS 321 180 Seventh Ave. , Brooklyn, New York 11215

Video: Change the Stakes Rocks Opt-Out Movement

“I had people come up to me on the street and explain that their kids were sick this morning going into school, because they knew they have to take the test,” Dromm said.

There is so much opt-out news I can manage to share much of it - stuff is just flying around.

Former teacher and current City Councilman Danny Dromm held a press conference: More Parents Refusing NYC Standardized School Tests.

A parent in touch with Change the Stakes said, "the changes made by the budget bill that lower the stakes for students are part of the solution, but don’t go far enough. It’s also used to evaluate teachers, it’s also used to evaluate schools. I’m not just here for my kids, although I’m very much here for them. I think teachers are an incredibly important part of the society and they’re getting just stepped on all over.”

Right in the middle of all this is our own lil ole Change the Stakes crew who are getting lots of publicity.

I was just talking to Julie Cavanagh tonight, remembering old times and how we met less than 5 years ago through the resistance to charter movement, which spurred us to make our 2011 film response to that awful pro-charter unmentionable film. and how many people locally and nationally it seemed to inspire to take action. And we remembered meeting a parent at one of our film showings who came because she was so upset at the testing her daughter was going to face. She expressed such great emotion at the impact of the film and jumped into the fray - helping organize a committee of GEM we called Change the Stakes (I think Julie may have come up with the name). That parent was/is Janine Sopp, who has become a giant, joined by other giants in CTS. (See Janine Sopp, Opt-Outer).

Janine broke her back working with parents and film maker Michael Elliot to make this promo for opting out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ayYajsQjg8




Last night at the CEC 19 Meeting a parent on the CEC suggested we make our own commercials to counter the Eva ones -- ours would run on You-tube and won't cost $5 million bucks.

Remember those millions of dollars of our UFT dues money spent on tepid commercials? Ho-hum.

Even Charterbeat had an article which features MORE/CTS stalwart woman of steel and stamina, Jia Lee. Less than 2 years ago Jia came to a testing forum GEM put on - with a very pregnant Julie hosting and VROOOM! Jia was the gal on fire. She has become a force of nature in both GEM (she is also chapter leader) and CTS.

And the article mentions Nancy Cauthen whose incredible competence and driving energy make things happen.

You know the lesson of the Janine and Jia and Nancy stories? And even Julie? They got involved because some of us had built some structural organizations taking action that provided a place for them to hang their hats and the freedom for them to flourish. Build it and they will come. But you don't build it by sitting at the keyboard. If you think you do you are under an illusion. It takes organizers to make stuff happen - face to face.

Here is s piece of the chalkbeat piece on Jia -- did they link to the CTS website like they used to with E4E? Did they even think to mention

For Jia Lee, a critic of the state’s standardized tests who teaches at the Earth School and has a son there, the decision to opt her child out of this year’s exams was a “no-brainer.”

But Lee felt she could do more, so she and two of her colleagues at the East Village public school decided to refuse to administer this year’s state tests.
 
The teachers had already drafted a letter to the schools chancellor explaining their decision when they were called into their school office last week. Enough families had opted their children out of the tests, the teachers were told, that they did not need to proctor the exam — the teachers’ planned boycott was trumped by their students’. So on Tuesday, the first of six state-exam days, all but a handful of Lee’s students worked on a project about immigration instead of taking the test.
As the number of parents who opt out their children grows, and as test scores play a role in teacher evaluations for the first time, educators like Lee are being drawn into their protest. Some are simply providing logistical information to parents; others are sharing their concerns about over-testing; and still others, including Lee, are opting out their own children or, in some cases, even encouraging other parents to.
“We’re hoping that more teachers will realize that there’s empowerment in saying, ‘We don’t want to be a part of this,’” Lee said.
The number of city families opting out of state tests this year is poised to hit a record high, one year after new tests tied to the Common Core standards resulted in vastly lower scores. While just 276 students opted out citywide last year, nearly 640 students have already opted out this year just among six schools in Brooklyn and Manhattan, according to parents and teachers. The advocacy group Change the Stakes estimates that 1,000 students or more may decline to take this year’s test — a tiny portion of the city’s test-takers, but a huge increase from years past.
Many families are opting out despite pushback from their schools. At least 50 parents told Change the Stakes that school administrators discouraged them or told them children who skip the tests might be penalized, according to parent leader Nancy Cauthen. Responding to the growing tension within schools, Chancellor Carmen Fariña — who herself has expressed reservations about test boycotts — last week told principals to “respect the parents’ decision” if they decide to keep their child from taking the tests.
But at many of the opt-out hotspots, educators are offering support — both explicit and tacit — to families that are choosing to have their children sit out the tests.
Several schools held information sessions for parents who expressed interest in opting students out of the tests. In most cases, educators at those schools were “scrupulous” about offering information about testing while remaining neutral on the question of opting out, said Jessica Blatt, a parent at Brooklyn’s Arts and Letters Academy, where 83 percent of third graders are not taking the tests.
But educators’ comments at the meetings signaled that they were sympathetic to testing concerns — and emphasized that there would likely be no significant consequences for families who opted out, according to people who attended and records of the meetings.
Parents at the Earth School organized meetings where middle school principals explained that students’ lack of test scores would not be held against them in the admissions process, Lee said. At another forum for parents, Lee and other teachers described the impact of testing on their classrooms, she said. Some 57 percent of Earth School students are not taking this year’s tests.