MORE Says: While Governor Cuomo is Waging War Against Public Schools, Parents and Teachers Call For An End To Unjust Testing!

For Immediate Release:
Contact:
Jia Lee
Mike Schirtzer
media@morecaucusnyc.org

While Governor Cuomo is Waging War Against Public Schools, Parents and Teachers Call For An End To Unjust Testing!

Public education as we know it is in mortal danger here in New York State. The anti-public education Governor Andrew Cuomo is attempting to get rid of what is left of teacher, parent and student rights with his destructive agenda for our schools. 

Parents statewide are opting their children out of standardized testing, but Cuomo has rejected this call and wants to add more value to these tests by tying a majority of teacher’s evaluations to standardized exam scores.

Public school educators from all around the state stand stand firmly with parents and our students who have decided to opt-out. Instead of attacking public education, we call on Cuomo to come visit our schools, speak with children, parents, and teachers. These misguided attacks are taking away from the real issues that are harming our schools; child poverty, lack of resources, class sizes, and narrowed curriculum due to the over emphasis on standardized testing.

Unfortunately our UFT leadership does not feel the same. Our caucus, The Movement of Rank and File Educators (MORE), raised the “I Refuse” resolution at the February 11th UFT Delegate Assembly. It calls for union opposition to standardized high stakes testing that is currently pushed by the Federal and State governments, because this testing is not being used to further instruction for children, to help children, or to support the educational needs of children. The UFT leadership voted against this resolution.

MORE also supports it because, “assessment practices that accompany Common Core State Standards – including the political manipulation of test scores – are used as justification to label and close schools, fail students, and evaluate educators”.

The speaker opposing the resolution representing our union leadership said “standardized testing is necessary” and refused to stand with parents, students, classroom teachers and over forty teacher unions from all across the state.

MORE member, public school parent and teacher, Jia Lee testified to the United States Senate that “the focus on testing has taken valuable resources and time away from programming in social studies, the arts and physical education. At my school, we no longer have a librarian and our parent association works full-time to fund needed arts programs that are not provided for in our budget.”

The use of standardized test scores to evaluate students and teachers has been proven to be invalid, as Ms. Lee stated: “The American Statistical Association has warned The Value Added Measured scores themselves have large standard errors, even when calculated using several years of data. These large standard errors make rankings unstable, even under the best scenarios for modeling. In New York State, the tests change every year, and the cut scores shift.” 

The time has come for UFT leadership and Governor Cuomo to listen to class-room teachers, our students, and their parents in ending their support for the non-stop testing of our children.

About MORE: MORE is a caucus in the UFT that organizes for a member-driven union. We fight for the public schools our children deserve. “Our working conditions are our students’ learning conditions!”

Fiorillo and RBE on UFT Leadership/Unity Caucus Position on Testing

The fact is, the war between the unions and Cuomo was NEVER on because these people running the unions don't want a war. They like testing, they like Common Core and they like reform. They're simply negotiating the terms of exploitation and surrender while sucking up their double pensions and other union perks and putting on a show for the rest of us... RBE points out that the ed deform supporting union leadership (AFT/UFT/NYSUT) UFT Continues To Put On Dog And Pony Show Against Cuomo, But Signals They Expect Defeat - 

Michael Fiorillo left this comment below on the Perdido Street School blog where Reality-Based Educator talked about the resolution at the DA:  UFT President Michael Mulgrew Discovers Nixon's Silent Testing Majority which is a must-read. 

Michael Fiorillo
February 12, 2015 at 1:39 PM

Do I really need to pay over a thousand dollars a year to listen to someone who misrepresents me and acts like a ventriloquist's doll for Bill Gates, Eli Broad, Michael Bloomberg and all the other so-called reform privateers? To say that tests should drive instruction, as Mr. Robeson did, is to repeat their phrasing word for word.

The needs of children, not tests, should drive instruction.

The reviving of democracy, not tests, should drive instruction.

Education as a means of providing choices, and the ability to rationally judge them, not tests, should drive instruction.

Yesterday's DA provided yet more proof, as if it was necessary, that the Weingrew regime fully accepts the premises of the so-called reformers, which pivot on high stakes testing. These people are there to manage and pacify us while the deal goes down.

How these folks think they can maintain their dues machine once the union is so weakened and discredited (and make no mistake, any union where 80% of the active membership doesn't vote, where archipelagos of schools have no Chapter Leader, and where the contract is ignored with impunity, is racing there) that it can be drowned in the bathtub.

That is exactly what Gates and company will do when Weingrew have outlived their usefulness: stop taking their phone calls and send them on their way to their double pensions.

Apparently, they've signed a loyalty oath to Bill Gates, not that it will help when he's used them up.

Perhaps they're operating under the assumption of the crooked bankers and mortgage brokers leading up to the financial crisis of 2008: IBGYBG, or "I'll Be Gone, You'll Be Gone."

Two UFT DA Reports From MORE

In addition to our previous report, here are 2 from MORE members to their staffs.

Testing Reso Voted Down at Delegate Assembly, New Action Squeals at MORE's Failure to Communicate

Did I tell you we got back from Singer Island and Delray beach Tuesday?

A commenter asked me to post appropriate photos for the blog and I can't think of a better one to show how dumb I am to be here in the cold at a UFT DA instead of staying in Florida. But the cat feeder went off to Costa Rica and we had to come back. And by the way -- I was treated to a nice coming up (70th) birthday lunch down there by the well-known commenter on blogs -- Schoolgal - which we got to do when my wife - who will brook no ed pol discussion in her presence - got into a mah jong game that afternoon. It was nice to get Schoolgal's perspective on things even though we don't always agree. Her optimism that Unity can be beaten is always refreshing.

The Unity gang pointed to procedural issues - as I pointed out they might in yesterday's post --Today's UFT Delegate Assembly: Jia Lee Will Attempt to Present Resolution to Support “The I Refuse Movement” to Oppose High Stakes Testing --- nice work Mark Corasham who at times pretends not to be just another Unity hit man. Yes, the reso was directed at NYSUT - but it called on the UFT to take this to NYSUT. And yes it said NY State Board of Education instead of Board of Regents or NY State Ed Dept. They just used procedural mish-mosh to mash the reso. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I got upstairs just as MORE's Mike Schirtzer took the floor to make the resolution -- Jia Lee had her card up but Mulgrew did not call on her - but nothing new for Mulgrew who probably sees Jia as a threat, just as he saw Julie as a threat and never called on her. Mike did me proud as my adopted political son -- I expect to see him in front of the DA handing out leaflets when he's 70 --in about 32 years - just in time to get that retro pay. He was so natural in front of the body --- I really haven't seen many people be able to do that over these years -- even from the opposition, who can seem so uptight. Not Mike. He told me he was speaking as if in front of his class. If Mulgrew ever calls on him again he will be a DA star.

Before getting to NYC Educator's report - Arthur and I enjoyed a nice Chipotle burrito after the meeting -- and I'm up at 1AM with heartburn - thanks Arthur -- Arthur and I do have people who go to the DA who read our stuff. I want to thank the chapter leader who I had never met before who came up to me before the meeting and told me he reads Ed Notes regularly along with all the major ed blogs. Sometimes I think I'm writing in a vacuum or for the usual suspects. He said I was often on point - which surprised me because I am told I write too much "fluff." Like now.

Anyway - before I get to No Action -- here is Arthur's piece on the reso -- his fuller report on the DA is at his blog:  DA Report—"I Refuse" Resolution Killed by UFT Unity—Supporter Shut Down by Mulgrew

Motion—Mike Schirtzer rises, raises motion for next month on behalf of MORE, to support I Refuse Movement. Circulates it. Mulgrew says it needs a simple majority to be placed on agenda. 
Mike says has been passed by several locals, that testing regime is out of hand, and that we should oppose high stakes testing. Says test prep saps joy from teaching, helps neither us nor our students. Kills creativity, critical thinking so we can do non stop test prep. Says we must starve the beast, that MOSL is junk science. Says if we’re gonna go to war against Cuomo, let’s take high stakes testing away from him.
Point of information—states we cannot make resolutions for NYSUT, and that there is no NYC Board of Education. Mulgrew points out other reference to NYSUT, makes disapproving noises, says DA does not have ability to bind NYSUT’s hands.
Sterling Robeson rises to speak against resolution, says we are against overtesting, but that we need tools to help drive instruction. Says parents need tests to ensure that they’re getting the “education they deserve.” Says we’ve supported this issue “from teachers of Chicago,” and in early grades. Says we’ve enforced it and reemphasized it over and over. States there is difference between opting out and refusing. Says it tells folks to tell their kids to refuse. Although there are pieces that are appealing to us, it goes to far. Urges this motion be defeated.
Mulgrew holds vote, I did not hear him declare outcome (it was clearly voted down, I would say 2-1) takes point of personal privilege, says he understands passion around this issue. Says resolution is out of order because it asks us to make decision about NYSUT. Speaks of how parents want tests. Says we’re in a fight and have to be smart about it, that we ought not to take a boilerplate resolution that was put together in other places. Says we should be against high stakes.
Supporter of resolution makes point of information—"Last resolve makes it clear that this resolution is only"—Mulgrew interrupts speaker before she finishes and says it’s already been voted on. Calls speaker out of order.

 Oh, and a post-DA conversation between Schirtzer and New Action's Shulman where Shulman complained loudly that if only MORE had communicated with New Action they would have fixed the reso and it would have passed. Sure. New Action has so much influence. They've been on the UFT Ex Bd through the grace of Mulgrew and in exchange for supporting Mulgrew or Weingarten in the past 4 UFT elections over a decade and we have seen so much "inaction" on the testing issue.

Julie Cavanagh and I represented MORE at a meeting with New Action in Nov. 2013 (which I audiotaped)  and made our position clear: We will be willing to work with New Action AFTER it renounces its deal of support for Mulgrew.

Still waiting.

What I find funny is that there is actually a group bragging about their cool relationship with New Action and how it gives them access to the UFT Ex Bd. Hope they have fun with that and see how far that gets them. NA will desperately try to cling to any group that actually does something.

Really, they should change their name from New Action to No Action. Shulman peeped a question at Mulgrew -- Sir, can you tell me if the New Motion period is over, Sir - and can I have some more porridge? Mulgrew said it was over and Shulman sat down -- like how about asking to extend? Next NA leaflet: NA makes strong point at DA.

By the way, communication means official between caucuses. New Action seemed desperate to establish official lines of communications with MORE. I told them to just come to any of our meetings. I might go to theirs - if they had any publicly announced.

Personally I have no problem saying hello and goodbye to most NA people (except Shulman). Since we had that meeting I no longer see them as evil. But when they try to pump themselves up into something they are not -- like a real opposition caucus that just happens to endorse their supposed opponents in UFT elections in exchange for gift ex bd seats - the truth needs to be told.

My advice is to just take those Ex Bd seats and those little UFT jobs - except for Shulman who gets around 15 grand a year from the union - and stay in their self-designed little cage.

They are what they are. No Action.

Bill Moyers On ISIS and Lynching Brutality

I've been reading about the run-up to World War I and the atrocities committed in the Balkans. Forms of ethnic cleansing are a very old story. And then there's the American stories.

The Fiery Cage and the Lynching Tree, Brutality’s Never Far Away

by Bill MoyersFollow

• 514 Comments / 514 New

A Palestinian hold a poster with a picture of slain Jordanian pilot, Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh during a protest in front of the Jordanian embassy, in the West Bank City of Ramallah, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2015. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

They burned him alive in an iron cage, and as he screamed and writhed in the agony of hell they made a sport of his death. After listening to one newscast after another rightly condemn the barbaric killing of that Jordanian air force pilot at the bloody hands of ISIS, I couldn’t sleep. My mind kept roaming the past trying to retrieve a vaguely remembered photograph that I had seen long ago in the archives of a college library in Texas.
Suddenly, around two in the morning, the image materialized in my head. I made my way down the hall to my computer and typed in: “Waco, Texas. Lynching.”

Daily Howler on Brian Willians - How He Was Rewarded With Wealth and Influence for Pushing Us Into War

Brian Williams was in Iraq because his employers worked quite hard to get us there. That’s how we found our way into Iraq—with people like Williams and (Chris) Matthews pimping the glories of Candidate Bush, then calling Gore “un-American.” 

Brian is very wealthy today. People are dead all over the world because so many chasers of “press corps” Mammon sang these particular songs. On the brighter side, Williams is very wealthy today.

We’ve warned you and warned you and warned you again—disaster lurks when “journalists” are handed multimillions by corporate owners like (Jack) Welch. This syndrome affects our “liberal” journalists too, including those we may be most inclined to love, respect and trust.
.......
Immelt could afford both cribs? Having fawned to his friend Rush Limbaugh, Williams was now bringing in two times Immelt’s haul! He owned a house in wealthy New Canaan too, handed down from the influential in-laws which must never be discussed in profiles of Williams. Now, he also shared a Manhattan address with Immelt and with Welch. These are the sorts of facts people like Williams work quite hard to suppress. Obedient members of the guild will generally keep such facts undiscussed. This leads us rubes to believe the relentless cons about Brian’s vast everydayness.
We’ll discuss that problem before the week’s end; your lizard brain will insist that we’re wrong. But we don’t think that Williams is an obvious “decent guy” in the way he approaches the world.

We think he scratched his way to the top. Along the way, we’ll guess that he was often less than obsessively honest, and not just about those RPGs in Iraq.

When Howard Kurtz sang Brian’s songs: Back in 2007, Howard Kurtz sang Brian’s various songs in his book, Reality Show. By then, Williams was very important. Perhaps for that reason, Kurtz broke his back to tell Brian’s story in the way Brian likes it told. In December 2007, we did a three-part Special Report about Kurtz’s ridiculous fluffing of Williams. For links to all three parts, click here.  For something resembling a fourth part to the series, you can just click this. 

Read it all at:

THE FOG OF BRIAN’S VARIOUS SONGS: Why was he in Iraq at all?

Posted: 11 Feb 2015 08:25 AM PST

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2015

Guidance on Advance - Email to Principals from Deputy Chancellor David Weiner - Nov., 2013 -

I know this is old but some interesting tidbits about their thinking -- I learned a lot at the Peter Zucker 3020a from the testimony of the principal -- they must have a paper trail and show how they gave "support" --- if you can call it that. Also some points about tenure -- tenure is a political football where principals want to show how "tough" they are through denials.
=======

Email to Principals from Deputy Chancellor David Weiner 

November 22, 2013

I’m writing today to share additional guidance on Advance and new resources that can support you and your school community. This guidance is driven by our deep belief that principals must be empowered to make the key decisions that affect their schools. You know your staff best; if Advance is going to be the powerful lever for teacher development and student learning that it can be, you need some flexibility to make it work for you and your team. You need the discretion necessary to make decisions that consider the unique circumstances of your school environments. And you also need time—if you haven’t already, I encourage you to review the strategies in the Advance Guide for Educators that was released last month and to regularly check the Advance Intranet page. 

Parsing Pearson After Politico Expose

Pearson has been in the news with a Politico piece-  promoted by Diane Ravitch: A MUST-READ: Stephanie Simon in Politico: A Blockbuster Report on Pearson’s Money Machine

We had a heads up the other day with some comments from inside the Pearson machine that were shared with some people in Change the Stakes. There are a few pdfs with some of the comments pointed to below. I know some of these comments don't make sense without the documents but I am not going to post these but will send them to anyone interested- normsco@gmail.com.

===

Usually most of the things they say on their internal web site are either dull and unimportant, or shrouded in their lingo (words like "efficacy," etc.) but here we have shilpi giving out talking points, about a politico article that's going to be published today about them.
------
Here we have them talking about "lessons learned" from the parcc
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Here is something from January 21, 2015; This is their hilarious response / talking points regarding the recent fortune magazine article, called 'everyone hates pearson,' -- they completely dodge any questions about lausd and their so called charitable foundation, and they deny that barber wants global standards (of course he does) and they go on about how they are the most accurate assessment system ever!
------
Maybe you've seen this one, ...but it's straight from the horse's mouth about how they are purposely dumbing down the children, I mean, they say it right there, "this material has been totally re-written, not repurposed from existing materials" and, get a load of the math problem on page two, where "marta" has a glass full of pieces of gravel VARYING IN SIZE (varying in size!!!!) and yet she has to GUESS how many will fill the glass, I mean, THIS IS NOT MATH, this is not rounding numbers, it is absolutely designed to confuse young children and make them feel that there are no correct, exact answers that can be found.  They want kids to do it by a "best-fit" line.  And with algebra, they're teaching it all wrong, they're having the kids move all the scientific formulas around first, solving for just one variable, before plugging in numbers.  That's an extra step you don't need to do, and makes problem-solving very time-consuming. They apparently don't want you to be able to plug in numbers directly into formulas written the way they're supposed to be written in the standard format.

Today's UFT Delegate Assembly: Jia Lee Will Attempt to Present Resolution to Support “The I Refuse Movement” to Oppose High Stakes Testing

Deny Cuomo the data that feeds the monster. Jia Lee, of MORE and Change the Stakes and a chapter leader, has notified the UFT leadership she would like time to present this reso today. MORE

members will be there to help hand it out before the meeting.

I think we need to make it clear to people who often don't make the connection between testing and the assault on teachers ---- the UFT supports too much of the ed deform movement and unlike other unions has not taken a firm stand in supporting opt-out teachers and parents. This is its opportunity -- deny Cuomo his data.

Knowing the way Unity operates I believe they may not be willing to reject this outright but instead offer an amended version that will dilute it. Or they will find a procedural ground to reject it. Or Mulgrew will talk for most of the meeting and new motions won't be gotten to. One thing is clear - they will not take a real stand on high stakes testing  -- and by the way - Ed Notes presented resos at the DA against high stakes testing in the late 90s. Call me Clare -Voyant - I knew then from the Chicago story what the end game was going to be.

Join the conversation, post articles, ideas and actions, download materials, grow the NYC Opt Out movement on Facebook and beyond!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/nycoptout/

MORE has endorsed the following resolution which has also been posted on the ICE blog. (Note a minor error - there will be no AFT convention in 2015 - next one is 2016.)

Resolution to Support “The I Refuse Movement” to Oppose High Stakes Testing 
WHEREAS, the purpose of education is to educate a populace of critical thinkers who are capable of shaping a just and equitable society in order to lead good and purpose-filled lives, not solely prepare that populace for college and career; and

WHEREAS, instructional and curricular decisions should be in the hands of classroom professionals who understand the context and interests of their students; and

WHEREAS, the education of children should be grounded in developmentally appropriate practice; and

WHEREAS, high quality education requires adequate resources to provide a rich and varied course of instruction, individual and small group attention, and wrap-around services for students; and

WHEREAS, the state assessments are not transparent in that–teachers and parents are not allowed to view the tests and item analysis will likely not be made available; and

WHEREAS, the assessment practices that accompany Common Core State Standards – including the political manipulation of test scores – are used as justification to label and close schools, fail students, and evaluate educators; therefore be it

RESOLVED that NYSUT opposes standardized high stakes testing that is currently pushed by the Federal and State governments, because this testing is not being used to further instruction for children, to help children, or to support the educational needs of children; and be it further

RESOLVED, that NYSUT advocates for an engaged and socially relevant curriculum that is student-based and supported by research; and be it further

RESOLVED, that NYSUT will embark on internal discussions to educate and seek feedback from members regarding standardized high stakes testing and its impact on students; and be it further

RESOLVED, that NYSUT will lobby the NYS Board of Education to eliminate the use of high stakes testing; and be it further

RESOLVED, that NYSUT will ask that all of its members have their own children refuse to take the Grade 3-8 assessments: and be it further  

RESOLVED, that NYSUT will organize other members and affiliates to increase opposition to high stakes testing; and be it further

RESOLVED, that a copy of this resolution will be sent to the NY State Board of Education, the Governor of NYS, and all members of the NYS legislative branch; and be it finallyRESOLVED, that after this resolution is passed by the UFT Delegate Assembly, an appropriate version will be submitted to the American Federation of Teachers for consideration at the AFT July 20156 Convention and to NYSUT for consideration at the 2015 RA. 

UPDATED: Cuomo Evaluation Changes Primer 2015 Rev 2-4-15 No Call to Action

A couple of MORE chapter leaders put this flyer together and some people in the UFT sent it out to the schools. Now that's working together. Download it if you want to share with people in your school.

NOTE A CORRECTION: Developing is listed as causing a salary freeze but people have said that is not so. I have an updated pdf with that point deleted for those interested in sharing with colleagues. Email me.

But this came in this morning from a David Weiner 2013 memo:

Disciplinary Action/Termination: Rather than simply moving forward with disciplinary action based on a teacher’s “Ineffective” rating, the DOE will only pursue disciplinary action (3020-a) for teachers rated poorly if principals agree. It is also important to note that principals can use their autonomy to go in another direction and recommend teachers rated “Developing” for 3020-a.

Cuomo Evaluation Changes Primer 2015 ModifiedMar9 by Grassroots Education Movement (NYC)

Daily Howler Turns Brian Williams into a Pin Cushion -- All for the love of (Williams' friend) Rush Limbaugh -

Brian Williams - King of Education Ed Deform Nation.
Why we mistrust pretty much anything coming out of the mainstream press. We know that from ed coverage -

Sept. 24, 2002 - After Al Gore made an anti-war speech and was being accused of being un-American - with Brian Williams using his friend Rush Limbaugh as cover.

SANDERS: I really am concerned about some of the language you used leading up to this discussion, the suggestion that it is un-American to criticize the president and we're supposed to be fighting for freedom.

This is not Iraq. It's not China, and I think the American people want a serious debate on this issue.

[...]

I think the position that Jim [McDermott] and I are advocating is what the vast majority of the people want. They want us to work with the United Nations. They are concerned about the impact of a unilateral effort on the war on terrorism, as Al Gore just said...

WILLIAMS: Congressman, Congressman Sanders, just to be fair, I was quoting, when I used the term “un-American,” a caller to Mr. Limbaugh's radio show accusing—

SANDERS: But who cares what—but who cares what Rush Limbaugh says?

WILLIAMS: Well, let's not attribute it to the broadcast. Let's attribute correctly.

Let's attribute correctly! Suddenly, Brian was very concerned about fundamental fairness! He was willing to float “un-American” rather widely with respect to Gore. But he sought fairness for Rush!

Later, the handsome chaser of multiple millions thoughtfully told viewers this:

WILLIAMS: For the record, we tried to get Rush Limbaugh on tonight. He had another engagement, sent his regrets. But I confirm that was the sound of a trash can hitting the wall during his broadcast today, a rough day for Rush.

Poor Rush! He had really had “a rough day,” all thanks to that speech by Vile Gore!
---- The Daily Howler

This is the most devastating take-down yet as DH goes deep into Williams' history way back to when he shilled for the Iraq war. And then Congressman Bernie Sanders is in the script too.


I was going to use excerpts but you need to read every word to get the full flavor.

THE FOG OF BRIAN’S VARIOUS SONGS: Deferring to a wonderful friend!

Two Generations Say No to Equality in American Education -

Send on other captions -- Win a Free Sub to Ed Notes.
Thanks to Darren for the photo and caption.

Warning - Sellout Coming

Sources say the unions during the meeting may have agreed to temporarily pull their attack ads...

This goes into the category of Mulgrew "threatening" to go to court to enforce the CFE lawsuit over state funding that was "won" 10 years ago. Threatening. Why not wait another 10 years to go to court? 

 

Cuomo puts outrageous demands on the table and the unions put nothing on the table. So they negotiate from where Cuomo started and even if they split the baby -- 4 year tenure instead of 5? 35% based on eval instead of 50%? It is  - as Fearless Forecaster often says -- a LOSS.

This is in the Daily News:

Shortly after unveiling ads last week attacking Gov. Cuomo's education plans, the heads of the city and state teacher unions met with aides to the governor, the Daily News has learned.

City teachers union President Michael Mulgrew and New York State United Teachers President Karen Magee attended the meeting on Friday at the state Capitol.

Sources say the unions during the meeting may have agreed to temporarily pull their attack ads, leaving some insiders to question whether the sides are trying to hammer out some type of agreement on how to move forward.

Reps for both unions wouldn't discuss the specifics of the meeting, though a NYSUT spokesman said that its "broad-based media campaign is moving forward, with more to come."

“We talk to elected officials all the time," said Mulgrew spokeswoman Alison Gendar. "We use strategically-placed ads to move the education discussion in the right direction. At this moment, the UFT and NYSUT, our parent organization, are engaged in the largest grass-roots campaign in recent memory to empower teachers and to protect our students.”

In a separate statement, NYSUT spokesman Carl Korn said that "we advocate for students and public education in many ways, including talking to elected officials."

"We have a strategy to use rotating television ads, billboards, print ads, social media and public forums to educate New Yorkers about the importance of protecting public education," he added. "Our grassroots campaign is accelerating. More forums are taking place next week. NYSUT's broad-based media campaign is moving forward, with more to come."

Neither Gendar nor Korn returned calls over the weekend for clarification on their statements.

Cuomo aides also wouldn't comment.

Cuomo has been warring with the unions, who did not back his reelection effort last year.

Vowing to break what he calls "one of the only remaining public monopolies," the governor this year proposed an education-reform package that would revamp the teacher tenure and evaluation programs, make it easier to fire bad and lecherous instructors, give the state more power to oversee the overhaul of failing schools and expand charter schools.

He also has accused the unions of being more interested in protecting their members than improving the situation for students.

The unions have accused him of trying to demonize teachers.

klovett@nydailynews.com

Testing Outrage 2: Another NYC 1st Grade Teacher Chimes in on Assault on Learning Time

Wait, isn't "progressive" Carmen Farina the Chancellor instead of Joel Klein, Cathie Black or Dennis Walcott?

Norm, our first graders spent September, October, November testing, all for teacher MOSLs. We lost the opportunity to attend to the needs of our first graders at the very beginning of the school year when they need us most. Teachers were unable to delve into high interest units as we usually do, like Apples, Pumpkins, holidays, etc. It was such a waste of time & we were all so very upset at what we weren't able to teach during that time. The worst part about it is that parents were completely unaware that testing was going for all that time. Can you imagine putting out a school letter that says, "Dear Parents, We'd like to advise you that all first grade students will be tested for the first 3 months of the school year." Ha ha. We had about 5 different tests to administer, one with several components, and ALL were to be administered individually. Now you figure out how much learning when on during those months.

Then there is this from CapitalNY. It's like an internal tug of war where schools waste countless hours testing kids to death while people at the top are oblivious.

CITY WILL INVEST $5 M. IN LITERACY, LANGUAGE PROGRAMS—Capital’s Eliza Shapiro: “Bill de Blasio's preliminary budget will include more than $5 million for literacy intervention teams and access to language services for parents, according to the mayor's office. The Fiscal Year 2016 preliminary budget, scheduled for release today, includes $2.4 million to create a separate intervention team within the Department of Education's special education office to support literacy in students with dyslexia.
—The intervention would further Carmen Fariña's goal of getting every child in New York up to reading level by second grade, something de Blasio reiterated last month during his announcement to expand the Young Men's Initiative. The funding would also be used for staff training to create more expertise around dyslexia interventions and more literacy support across the general education population. In addition to her second grade reading goal, Fariña has said she wants to see the quality and quantity of writing vastly improved in all city schools over the next year.

Sure. Teachers have time for labor intensive dyslexia interventions when they are assaulted from every direction, including the massive paperwork.

More Testing Outrage: Mid-Year Benchmark Assessments for 1st Grade Waste 180 Minutes of Instructional Time

A NYC teacher reports:

My school is administering mid-year benchmark assessments this month. First graders will be tested for a minimum of 180 minutes over the course of four consecutive days. On days one and two - for 45 minutes each day - ReadyGEN curriculum assessments will be used to test six and seven-year-olds in English-language arts (ELA). On the other two days - again, 45 minutes each day - first graders will take Go Math assessments.

These tests are being given in addition to:

1. Beginning of the year NYC Baseline Performance Tasks in ELA and math (MOSLs used for teacher evaluation purposes only)

2. Running records - 4 per year

3. Monthly writing assessments aligned to the Common Core standards 

4. 12 Go Math unit assessments 

5. End of the year NYC Performance Tasks in ELA and math (MOSLs used for teacher evaluation purposes only)

This is first grade, folks.

UFT Tries to Activate Mostly Inactive Chapters in War With Cuomo -- But Is the Leadership Willing to Supply Funding to the Schools?

We want our leaders to get up in front of the Cuomo equivalent powerful German army members intimidating everyone as they are singing German fight songs in Rick's cafe and lead everyone in the "Marseillaise".

But no guts, no glory. And so it goes.

Will the UFT/Unity Caucus leadership stop throwing millions of our bucks away on tepid commercials and useless politicians who stab us in the back and funnel some of that money back into the schools to use in establishing local campaigns? After all, there are enough public schools to be able to blanket the entire city with a grassroots campaign.

The thing to understand about the UFT is that it is a totally top-down controlled organization and doesn't have the DNA to allow the schools leeway to truly activate themselves without trying to control their message. Like how about having schools at the district level team up to go to community newspapers with ads? Or hold local community meetings? Instead of district reps holding brainstorming meetings they are there just to give schools marching orders from the top.

Michael Fiorillo pretty much has their number:

All just empty, going-through-the-motions-to make-it-look-like-we're on-top-of-this misdirection. They've already decided on what they'll settle for (on our backs, needless to say) and still think they can pull off something behind the scenes. If Shelley was still in place as Speaker, that might have "worked," somewhat, but now? With things so unsettled? They're taking a very big risk with our future...

As I pointed out in my Casablanca referenced piece last night -Louie, I Think This is the Start of a Beautiful Friendship - Will Mulgrew Join the Resistance or Vichy?-- there is not much will for being resistance fighters in our leadership, which hungers most for a seat at the table.

We want our leaders to get up in front of the Cuomo equivalent powerful German army members intimidating everyone as they are singing German fight songs in Rick's cafe and lead everyone in the "Marseillaise".

http://youtu.be/HM-E2H1ChJM




Based on this email exchange on the MORE listserve I would be they will not let go of the purse strings other than in a nominal way.

At last DA Kelly asked if we would get additional money for our school based organizing against Cuomo and I believe that Mulgrew said something like yes. Anyone remember exactly what he did say? I asked my DR and she said NO.

Followed by this:

At the "emergency" chapter leader meeting this Wednesday that all DRs were told to have with their CLs there was few concrete unified actions organized by UFT. DR gave lots of paper info and said we should organize our members. They didn't even have the petition nor did they have the postcards to get signed. I made concrete suggestions and after meeting, some of the other CLs came up to me for ideas. I also asked about getting extra money for the school campaign as per what Mulgrew said at DA but DR said no extra money. Honestly it was not hard to get my members activated and we have a bunch of actions planned. Imagine if our leadership was coordinating unified actions. No, just a petition campaign.

Below is what the District Reps are sending to teachers with talking points and a breakdown of the Cuomo threat, which as NYC Educator pointed out in his fabulous piece - Entropy -
yesterday, was ignored for so long for that mythical seat at the table. Entropy - lack of order or predictability; gradual decline into disorder.  -- maybe not the exact definition I would use since the UFT/AFT/NYSUT leadership is all about predictability as evidenced by this point NYC Educator made:

Now they want me to tweet what they tell me. Use this hashtag, or that, they say, and everything will be better. Once Cuomo sees our tweets he'll run like a doormouse. Mulgrew doesn't tweet because, like the pigs in Animal Farm, he's off doing brainwork, filling ledgers that must be meticulously filled then burned in the furnace. That's what I pay a thousand dollars a year for, while they go to conventions and fail to support people who might actually wish to help me.

I love that Animal Farm reference. We are all so Orwellian as we pointed out at the AFT Bill Gates Seattle convention in 2010 with this video.



Well, here is the message District Reps are sending to schools with the message they want out there -- all very predictable -- send some names go to Albany in March 4 when Eva will close her schools -- not call for NYC schools to hold field trips to Albany for a counter rally instead of the same old same old lobbying trips we've all been taking for 40 years -- and look where we are as a result.

Thank you to everyone who was able to attend the chapter-leader meeting. I’m following up on what we discussed during the meeting.

What makes our campaign urgent is the fact that if the state budget is not passed on time (April 1), with changes made to the education policies of the governor, then Mr. Cuomo can use a political maneuver called an “executive order” to pass his own budget. The governor’s budget would include all the educational policies he introduced at the 2015 State of the State Address:

https://www.ny.gov/2015-opportunity-agenda/education-escalator#teacher-evaluations

Essentially, Mr. Cuomo is trying to accomplish in one year (really 3 months), what Mayor Bloomberg tried to accomplish in twelve years. An important part of our campaign to fight Cuomo’s education agenda is to inform our political representatives, the parents of our students and the general public on how bad these policies are for public education and our students. Our representatives must hear our chorus and our message and stand up to the governor and fight these policies.

The main points of the Cuomo education agenda are as follows:

INDIVIDUAL MERIT PAY – He wants to give teachers that get a highly effective final rating an additional $20,000. This may sound good for those that recently got this rating but wait until you see how he wants to change the teacher evaluation system. Merit pay is a divisive idea that has failed everywhere it has been tried. Who is going to want to teach the neediest students with this policy?

TEACHER EVALUATION - Cuomo wants to get rid of the 20% local tests and increase the state test to be 50% of the teacher evaluation. The other 50% for measures of teacher practice would be 15% from your principal and 35% from an outside agent. How many teachers are going to come into teaching, or remain, if they are evaluated like this? And, how many teachers are going to remain in schools that have a large number of students with disabilities or other life challenges?

NEW TEACHERS BEWARE! – Mr. Cuomo wants to extend the probationary period from 3 to 5 years! That might be okay if he were proposing more support for new teachers but he’s not. What he wants in an army of “at will” employees who will have no due process rights. This policy ignores the real issue - the lack of support that drives 40% of new teachers to quit by their 5th year.

DUE PROCESS – The governor wants to take away the use of an independent arbitrator and wants the employer to decide on terminations. We say the process needs to be fair, quick and impartial. He believes it should be fast and unfair.

CHARTER SCHOOLS – The governor wants to increase the charter cap even though he knows that most charters are breaking the law by “creaming”, or unfairly selecting, the students they teach. Rather than holding charters accountable for this he wants to reward their misconduct along with the billionaires that are backing the charter movement.

RECEIVERSHIP – The governor wants to have all of the struggling schools to be run by private companies and to abolish all collective bargaining agreements. This plan punishes the neediest children and the educators who serve them.

SCHOOL FUNDING – The governor is holding this year’s inadequate school funding increase hostage to his political agenda. Since he has been in office, the governor has not met his constitutional obligation to properly fund our schools and now he is blaming us. Our schools are already owed billions of dollars from the Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE) litigation.

What we need to do:

1. Every chapter should conduct an emergency chapter meeting. Invite everyone, even your supervisors. We’re all on the same side in this fight. Let me know when you will be doing this.

2. A committee of members should meet with the parents at each school to inform them of these disastrous policies. Recruit parents in this fight.

3. Each school community should organize a group to attend one of three regional forums that are being held next week on the 12th.

4. Each chapter and school community should plan and execute local actions. This could be letter writing, phone calls, sending post cards, informational picketing.

5. Join the social media campaigns. Join the UFT Facebook campaign and the twitter campaign.

6. Send me the names and contact information of the people you want to send to Albany on March 4th. I will need their email address.

7. There will be other large events, including rallies, in the near future . Each school community should join in these mass actions.

8. Document, photograph and record your individual actions so we can pass the word to other school communities.

We can either sit idly by and watch these things happen to us, or we can join together and fight back.

Thank you all in advance for your continued hard work, and for your assistance on this campaign!

Louie, I Think This is the Start of a Beautiful Friendship - Will Mulgrew Join the Resistance or Vichy?

Just watched Casablanca for the umpteenth time and was reminded of the contrast between the Vichy "seat at the table" mentality of the Claude Rains Col. Renault character and the Paul Henreid Victor Laszlo resistance fighter. And then there's Bogart, Rick - clearly a former resistance fighter - almost definitely a commie at one time (who else fought in the Spanish civil war?), now turned selfish cynic. Laszlo inspires them both to join the resistance -- he welcomes Rick back to the fight - "this time I know we will win."
Before getting into the war with ed deform and how the UFT plays the Vichy role -- Mulgrew/Randi as Louie Renault? -- they're shocked, just shocked that Cuomo is anti-teacher/union/public education -- take a look at the final scene.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kiNJcDG4E0



Arthur Goldstein at NYC Educator captured the mood in his post on Saturday:

Mulgrew stands before the DA and bloviates for an hour. His talk is disorganized, frenetic. He comes back to things he hasn't finished. He sneers. He raises eyebrows. He speaks of how it's time to fight, how that's what he was taught when he grew up. He radiates the machismo that failed to surface anywhere during the six years we went without a contract, the machismo that evinced itself nowhere as the union said we'd happily wait another seven years for the raises everyone else got years ago. We all voted for it because it was better than nothing, because they said they weren't gonna do better and we believed them. Mulgrew shouts the determination to stop Cuomo that was nowhere to be found when Zephyr Teachout rose like a David but failed to garner sufficient force, that time, to slay the Goliath propped up by the dollars of our enemies. We know who the enemy is. Why didn't we know last summer, when we could have maybe done something about it?.... NYC Educator:  Entropy

Basically, all you have to do is watch Casablanca and read Arthur's piece to get which way the wind is blowing.

While we are surprised that Rick comes back to the fight and Louie abandons Vichy and joins him in the resistance, we would be shocked, just shocked, to see the leaders of the UFT/NYSUT/AFT do the same.

======
Next: The UFT calls on school chapters to take action, but will it part with COPE and other money to help them?

Rand Paul On Parent Choice

I have heard of many tragic cases of walking, talking normal children who wound up with profound mental disorders after vaccines excessive standardized testing. I'm not arguing vaccines tests are bad idea. I think they are a good thing, but I think the parent should have some input. The state doesn't own your children. Parents own the children. And it is an issue of freedom and public health education... Rand Paul, slightly revised.

Inspired by a Ravitch post: A Question About Parental Choice

A tweet by Jason Stanford, political journalist in Texas:

JasonStanford ‏@JasStanford

Why is it OK with some politicians to opt your kids out from getting vaccinated but not if you don't want them taking a standardized test?

Teacher Union Sellout on Charters in Minnesota - supported by AFT

Those of us who are MFT members had no say in the creation of the Guild even though we actually are the union, and now we continue to subsidize our own demise...

Frankenguild, Part 2: The Sellout Continues

An excellent blog post at PEJAM echoing the policies of our union's inability to fight off the charter assault because they have jumped into the charter business themselves. When I brought this up to a UFT employee a few weeks ago she responded, "Oh, that is Randi's fault." Duhhhhh!

Conflict of Interest?
According to Dylan Thomas, "Mill City [charter school] joins the small but growing portfolio of the Minnesota Guild, a non-profit charter school authorizer sponsored by the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers. When it launched in 2011, the Guild was the first union-backed charter school authorizer in the country."  The Guild's first charter school opened this past year in Isanti, Minnesota, and the MN Department of Education has authorized Mill City and three other charter schools to open in Minneapolis this fall, under the sponsorship of the union created Minnesota Guild.

The current president and lobbyist (also a former president) of MFT not only created the Guild, but continue to serve on its board of directors.  Every charter school they sponsor pulls more students from Minneapolis Public Schools (or other public schools) which eliminates unionized teaching positions.  How can the president of the teachers union defend the rights of the union members who elected her, and at the same time create schools that threaten those same members' job security?

Brad Blue and the Guild operate out of an office in the MFT-owned building and pay no rent.  MFT's brothers and sisters working as janitors and engineers in Minneapolis Public Schools have their SEIU local office in the same MFT building, and they pay rent.  Those of us who are MFT members had no say in the creation of the Guild even though we actually are the union, and now we continue to subsidize our own demise.

Union Leaders Have Joined the Privatizers
Two years ago I wrote about the Minnesota Guild of Public Charter Schools, an organization created four years ago to sponsor charter schools.  The Guild was created by Lynn Nordgren, the current president of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT), and Louis Sundin, a former president of MFT and its current lobbyist.  The funding for this enterprise came from the American Federation of Teachers' (AFT) Innovation Fund, which itself received money from the Gates Foundation.  All of this was done without a discussion or vote by the rank-and-file members of MFT.

Read full report:

Frankenguild, Part 2: The Sellout Continues

Fred Smith Compares UFT Delegate Assembly to Buffalo Board Meeting on Ravitch Blog

I would say the “trouble-makers” I have known, those who would give discomfort to the comfortable, have strong faith in labor and unionism and are deeply troubled by the state of the UFT.  ... Fred Smith

Fred Smith reacted to a story on the Diane Ravitch blog.

Buffalo: Teachers Union Official Thrown Out of Board Meeting When He Tries to Speak

Fred Smith

February 6, 2015 at 4:20 pm

Terrible. How is this episode any different or more outrageous than when UFT Pres. Mulgrew and his henchman shout down, bully or use faux procedural tactics to silence dues paying members in NYC who disagree with them at meetings or do not accept their party line?

Linda responded
 

Reply  Linda says: February 6, 2015 at 7:02 pm

Were the proposals/candidates rejected in NYC, more likely to secure stronger tenure protections, fewer high stakes tests etc. than the UFT strategies/leaders?
It’s a tangential issue but, I’m curious about your opinion.

Reply  Fred Smith says: February 6, 2015 at 8:17 pm

I’m not sure I’m addressing your concerns about politicians I think. Here’s where I was going.

As I understand it second hand, meetings held at UFT headquarters, involved union delegates and/or chapter leaders. Among them were individuals who felt the union, which has been run forever by a self-perpetuating leadership (i.e., the Unity slate) elected under procedures that make it virtually impossible to unseat the top echelon, did not think the UFT was doing enough for the rank and file members.

These “dissidents” wanted the chance to address bread and butter issues, including the teacher’s contract and protection of members from arbitrary mistreatment; and the leadership’s heretofore ineffectiveness in fighting back against charter schools that have been taking away space and resources at the expense of traditional public schools; and perceived sell-out tendencies that sacrifice principles for “a place at the table;” and the mealy mouthed positions taken by said leadership against the misuses of student test data tied into the indefensible inclusion of test scores in convoluted, ever-changing teacher evaluation formulas. Then too, there were the overriding questions–based on past history–of union governance and the undemocratic way Unity controlled the floor at these meetings–arbitrarily denying speakers a voice, not even a discouraging word to be heard.

So, I would say the “trouble-makers” I have known, those who would give discomfort to the comfortable, have strong faith in labor and unionism and are deeply troubled by the state of the UFT. Yes, there is a certain amount of understandable self-interest in their beliefs, but I feel they are sincere when they say, “Our working conditions are our children’s learning conditions.”–which they strive to better. And I hope they grow in number and strength because one-party rule and monopolistic arrangements work against the vast majority of people kept on the outside. (The 99%?)

I hate to see the way teachers have been portrayed as bad guys. They’re not. They shouldn't be victimized by politicians who can be bought cheaply–nor by those who claim to represent them.