MORE, Change the Stakes, NYC OPT OUT Condemn Elia’s Threats Against NYC Schools

Jia Lee, on vacation in California, led this initiative.

Teachers, Parents and Students Condemn Elia’s Threats Against NYC Schools

 

                         

For Immediate Release

August 14, 2015

MORE-UFT, a rank-and-file caucus within the NYC teachers union, stands with parents of Change the Stakes, NYCOPTOUT and NYCpublic in response to New York State Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia’s statement indicating that schools may be subject to sanction and have federal Title I funding withheld for having high percentage of opt outs. These funds are intended to support the neediest students in the state. The tests have sparked controversy, both in regards to the content, which many parents and educators consider poorly designed and developmentally inappropriate, and to the high stakes attached to them, in particular, their unreliable use in the teacher evaluation system, a practice that is widely criticized and currently under review in an Albany court.

Charmaine Brown, parent of a soon to be fourth grader at P.S. 203 in District 22, Brooklyn, states, “We opt out for justice. High stakes testing has only had horrible consequences for schools with disproportionate number of Black and Latino students. Show us one instance in which a school was asked what they needed. Being aware of this, I'm horrified at her (Elia’s) response to punish our schools and our students.”

"These tests are used to rate my teachers. But the tests don't nearly begin to reflect what I learned from them. I think this is totally unfair. That's why I opted out in 8th grade," says Evan Cauthen-Brown, a new Brooklyn Tech student that graduated in June from PS/IS 187 in Washington Heights.

“It is vital that someone speak up in defense of the brave parents and students who are standing up for their rights, their educators and schools, and public education at large by refusing to participate in a testing regime they deem harmful for their children, since our union leadership has so stubbornly refused to do so,” said Dan Lupkin, a UFT Chapter Leader and Brooklyn elementary school teacher.

Jia Lee is a public school parent, teacher and UFT Chapter Leader at the Earth School in Manhattan where more than 100 students boycotted the exams. She states that the expanding opt out movement is a, “growing ground-up awareness by parents, teachers and students who don’t want to be evaluated based on an invalid metric.” Ms. Lee testified to a U.S. Senate committee on the negative consequences of the high stakes attached to flawed standardized tests.

The UFT leadership has shown hesitancy in supporting the opt out movement, refusing to endorse the I Refuse resolution introduced by MORE-UFT that is supported by nearly every local across New York State. MORE also called for a resolution of “No Confidence” in Elia at the UFT delegate assembly, only to be told by the union leadership that Elia was “a friend to teachers unions and someone we can work with.”

MORE-UFT is the Social Justice Caucus of the United Federation of Teachers. We are rank-and-file educators challenging the current leadership of the UFT in the 2016 union elections in order to fight for the public schools our children deserve.

Media Contact

Charmaine Brown/ NYCOPTOUT/ Parent at P.S. 203, District 22

Nancy Cauthen/ Change the Stakes/ Parent of Brooklyn Technical H.S. Student

Dan Lupkin/ MORE/ Elementary School Teacher

Jia Lee/ MORE/ Special Education Teacher

media@morecaucusnyc.org

TODAY: MORE Tackles UFT Elections at Summer Series - Presidential Candidate Will Not Be Emphasis of Campaign

It's not Mulgew, Stupid - It's the 60-old Unity Machine. They can replace Mulgrew with a chimp and it will win. That is why some of the "animal for UFT president campaigns" resonated last month. Those who make a big deal about the UFT presidency are, you'll excuse the expression, barking up the wrong tree. But after living with one woman for 45 years, I am used to not being listened too.

• Julio for UFT President, Bernice and Penny Lane fo...

If I can make one point in this election that will be it. When Randi left it to Mulgrew in 2010 I heard how much better he would be than Randi. etc as people jumped from the opposition to Unity. And when Mulgrew's popularity wanes he too will go to the AFT and a replacement part will take his place. Those who make a big deal about

Well it looks like no one is listening to me and MORE-UFT will run in the 2016 UFT election campaign and I am getting sucked in despite my intentions to sit back in my hammock, relax and watch the show. Why am I so crazy to get involved in the 5th election campaign since 2004? I guess it's loyalty to the many younger generation MOREes who have gotten involved in UFT politics.

I am joining Megan Moskop and Peter Lamphere in presenting today. We make an interesting trio. Peter who comes from the old TJC Caucus has been active for over 15 years. I come from ICE and before that involvement in other groups over my years in the UFT. ICE and TJC were separate caucuses that came together for the 2004 (only for the HS candidates which we won) and joint slates in 2007 and 2010. We finally realized that we needed one caucus.

Megan represents the new face of the opposition - active for the past 2 years in MORE. I remember her saying at the first event she came to (Summer Series 2013) that she was considering leaving the city to teach back in her home town until she met MOREs and found a welcome home. She is enormously excited to be involved in her first election campaign and I am so happy to be working with her - yes, it's people like her who keep me out of the hammock.

Why should the rank and file put their faith in a coalition of groups that can't work together between elections?

This is a key question and the creation of MORE has been the response after running joint coalitions for so many election cycles. Other groups active in NYC teacher issues joined in and MORE was born 3 years ago - blending old and new activists/organizers. My goal, despite all the angst it can involve, is to maintain a big enough tent to bring many points of view to create more than a caucus - but a movement to defend our union and public education.

We are far from getting there yet - and over time we hope there will be 2 caucuses - Unity and MORE  - so people have a clear choice. But MORE still has many issues to work out - and doing things in the non-Unity way - by establishing a democratic process - is not easy. As a band new merged group in the 2013 elections, things were far from perfect - but we set up a baseline for that election as MORE received almost 5000 votes.

This election is part of the process of growing the opposition and getting more people involved over the long-term. (I have already talked about how the election as a whole is not winnable, but only certain positions on the UFT Exec Bd can be won - those where retirees don't vote.)

• UFT Election Musings: What Can Be Won and Is it Wo...
• Talking About UFT Elections - Double Oy Vey! -
• UFT Election Question: Why Focus on HS Seats to Ex... 

MORE's Presidential Candidate - So many choices

•  Where's Julie?

Some people ask me who will MORE run for president? There are so many MOREs I would support - I won't mention names because there is no process internally set in place yet - we will tackle a few of these issues today. We have 3 people who have already run for UFT President - Kit Wainer, James Eterno and Julie Cavanagh - and I expect this time we will have a different candidate. And if we run again in 2019 yet another.

Why?

Because the UFT has suffered from the cult of personality and dominance by one voice - only 4 presidents since 1964. MORE has diffused leadership - a conscious effort to change the culture of the UFT and most of its past opposition caucuses where a caucus is identified by a clear leader.

It is too bad the presidential candidate is so often the focus, since that  position is not winnable. In this election campaign I believe MORE will push a gaggle of people into prominence as the voices of the opposition, not focus on one person.

This election is about building out an infrastructure to challenge the Unity machine which has so much control of so many schools.

So if you are in town this afternoon, come on down and sign up to run with MORE for one of the 750 AFT/NYSUT positions - I will have forms for you to fill out. We can't win these but we can make a statement by matching the 750 Unity convention slugs and use this campaign to tell people who they go to conventions to support Randi 100% in setting national policy that ends up screwing us.

THURSDAY, August 13th What is the role of the UFT Elections in Building a Caucus?

4pm‐7pm
The 2016 UFT election is around the corner, and we're gearing up for this opportunity to build a better union, a union that truly is a Movement of Rank and File Educators!

We will work together to plan MORE's campaign. A run-down of election rules, procedures, and past strategies. Then together we'll set up a timeline for the year ahead. You'll have the opportunity to brainstorm and plan outreach, fundraising, and activities with other teacher-activists in your neighborhood. 

Dark Horse Pub
17 Murray Street NYC
Downtown/City Hall area
 
And next week, we are doing part 2 of our CL training - with a focus on back to school issues CLs may face.

THURSDAY, August 20th Hardcore Chapter Leader/Delegates Training

4pm‐7pmThe nuts and bolts of leading your chapter, running chapter meetings, working with parents on PTA/SLTs, and holding consultation meetings.Newly elected or just looking to develop new skills, this is your opportunity to learn from some of the most experienced and best chapter leaders in NYC. We will help you develop tools for building an active chapter that will work together to strengthen the UFT in your school.

Ed Notes Newark Stringer Abbie Shure on Teaching in Newark

We ended up participating in a group about assisting struggling teachers. I came out as a struggling teacher despite my advanced age... Abigail Shure

It was so nice to catch up in person at the UCORE conference with Ed Notes Newark stringer, Abigail Shure, who came over to say hello and then hung out for a few hours. Here are some comments.

As I embark on my second year of providing additional support to children at Camden Elementary in Newark, I am filled with trepidation. Last year, I filled three roles; library aide, academic interventionist and teacher of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL). I had no crutches to lean on since my twenty-five years of teaching experience were in the field of English as a Second Language (ESL). Thankfully, my mother was a librarian so I grew up listening to her endlessly talking shop. I am more than capable of providing academic interventions, but how could I offer emotional support to girls with psychological issues ranging from suicide attempts to cutting? What is SEL? I quickly Googled that to discover that it falls under Psychology. If I recall correctly, I have completed a total of nine credits in Psychology over a lifetime of study. I spent six months investigating the SEL curriculum and seeking additional materials online only to be told that the the program was to be discontinued the following year. Of my three evaluations, two were Partially Effective and one was Effective resulting in an annual Partially Effective rating. This was a shonda (Yiddish for disgrace) for the person who was always the smartest girl in the class, or wanted to be.

This past weekend, I was honored to be invited by Norm to stop by the UCORE conference at NJIT. We ended up participating in a group about assisting struggling teachers. I came out as a struggling teacher despite my advanced age. Am I a district target? Am I being set up to fail in a career I love and in which I have invested so much time, energy and money in ongoing preparation? While, I was being led through the wringer, there were ESL students right in my school who were receiving no services. The message clearly was that it was preferable for them to receive no instruction than to be taught by the likes of me.

What does the future hold for me? What hoops will I be required to jump through? If I were to receive a Partially Effective designation at the end of this coming year, I would most likely be brought up on tenure charges. Am I really half way down the road to being accused of incompetence? Are the TFA and the uncertified teacher down the hall better prepared and more able? As a child, I was taught to respect elders and betters in appreciation of the trials and tribulations they had endured in their life journeys. As I approach my golden years, I have rapidly transformed into an individual lacking in skills and knowledge. How do the children of Newark benefit from the demoralization of veteran teachers?

Abigail Shure

Aiming at Aimee (Horowitz): Was she the worst Superintendent in the DOE?

A veteran educator said the email was evidence that Kerr — who reports to Aimee Horowitz, executive superintendent of de Blasio’s School Renewal Program — had “full knowledge” of what was going on at Flushing High School. “This is the first email made public that directly ties Aimee Horowitz and the Renewal hierarchy to a policy of teacher coercion and grade fixing,’’ the educator said... NY Post

Oh that well-known Peter Principle in operation at Tweed. A chapter leader I know from Aimee Horowitz's old district branded her a "classic piece of shit" - (POS) for being so willing - if not eager - to kill new teacher careers by rubber stamping every discontinuence. We used to tell teachers who were going to a final hearing under her to forget any chance of surviving. Even the UFT used to tell people that - and here they are working with her at the top of the ladder.

I've been at hearings with smug Aimee Horowitz, who, before Farina promoted her to a top position at Tweed, was District 21 Superintendent covering up for Kathleen Elvin at John Dewey HS, willing to discontinue any teacher on a dime and eager to deny tenure where possible.

The NY Post's Sue Edleman has been on the case -- especially since her bosses' darlings - Bloomberg/Klein - who are responsible for all that is going on have left - now it can be open house on the DOE, Farina and de Blasio - a political vendetta that in some cases works for us - except what will come after de Blasio is gone - like Eva or worse.

Perdido Street takes a well-deserved shot at the Post coverage:

Educators Must Stand Up To The McCarthyites And Smear Merchants At The NY Post

So Sue - if you are reading this - and I know sometimes you do -- Aimee Horowitz should be a major target. Here is the Post piece on Flushing HS.

DOE official was informed of effort to graduate failing students

A smoking-gun email obtained by The Post shows that a top city Department of Education official was informed about shady efforts to graduate 150 failing students through quickie online courses in apparent violation of DOE rules.

Cyndi Kerr, a director of “school renewal” under Mayor Bill de Blasio’s $400 million plan to turn around 94 low-performing schools, was CC’d on a June 1 email in which a Flushing High School administrator said the flunking kids would be put in online classes to help them graduate.
It’s against DOE rules to have students to do “credit recovery” work while the classes they are failing are still in session, staffers said.

http://nypost.com/2015/08/10/doe-official-was-informed-of-effort-to-graduate-failing-students/?utm_source=Master+Mailing+List&utm_campaign=2b362c1158-Rise_Shine_8_11_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_23e3b96952-2b362c1158-50237593

Jim Callaghan in Daily News on Ferguson and Staten Island

Good to hear from Jim, who as an ace investigative reporter for the NY Teacher until Mulgrew fired him in July 2010. Jim knows where all the skeletons are buried on the UFT.

Here is his piece in the Daily News.

Jim Callaghan: Ferguson erupted; why didn't Staten Island?

In the runup to the anniversary of Eric Garner’s death in Staten Island, many friends asked me why Staten Island didn’t

In the runup to the anniversary of Eric Garner’s death in Staten Island, many friends asked me why Staten Island didn’t riot after the grand jury decision not to indict Officer Daniel Pantaleo. We are forced to ask the question again in the wake of additional unrest in Ferguson on the first anniversary of Michael Brown’s death.
When the question was put to me, I tried to explain how my hometown has changed since my birth in 1947. It is now an infinitely more tolerant place.
In 1972, a black family planning to move into a white neighborhood in the Oakwood section of the Island’s South Shore had its house firebombed. I had grown up within walking distance of the house.
That same year, cops were pelted with rocks for several nights after one of them shot dead an 11-year-old involved in a car theft in the New Brighton section of the borough on the North Shore, not far from the Staten Island Ferry.
In 1980, there were race riots following the admission of the first black students at New Dorp High School on the mainly white South Shore. Five years later, black students again were attacked. When Daytop Village, a drug rehabilitation program, tried to open a treatment center in 1982, its building was torched.
That was then. Today, huge swaths of the North and East Shores of Staten Island are as integrated as they have ever been. It is not uncommon to see white and black kids playing on the street and becoming friends at local elementary and high schools.
Apartment buildings in St. George and Tompkinsville, near where Garner struggled to draw his last breath, are integrated. This happened over time and not by government fiat.
In 2007, the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development estimated that there were 6,000 to 8,000 Liberians living near that area; those numbers did not account for immigrants who were not yet citizens. Asians and Russians are buying new homes there, too.
In addition, 60,000 of us travel every day on the Staten Island Ferry, arriving at the terminal by foot, trains and buses to make the 25 minute trip to Manhattan. it’s difficult to hate people with whom you are cheek by jowl every day.
These are common denominators that a place like Ferguson doesn’t have. We don’t have to like each other but we know in our souls that most of our fellow commuters are working so they can live the American dream.
We don’t hate immigrants because we see them every day in every corner of the Island in all kinds of professions. We see them attending religious services, their children snappily dressed, praying the same way we do.
On the North Shore are dozens of stores owned by Albanians, African Americans, South Koreans, Yemenites, Chinese, Spanish, Sri Lankans, Mexicans and Indians.
They are part of us. Islanders are happy they are here as we try to get along. We have no inclination to go on a rampage to destroy the businesses of immigrants who spent their life savings to, in the words of Tennyson, “seek a newer world.”
The people of Staten Island, of all races and backgrounds, want live cops, not dead ones. We understand that politicians put police officers in harm’s way to settle the issues they haven’t figured out, including domestic abuse, gangs, gun and drug runners, homelessness and mental illness.
So, we don’t blame all cops for the reckless actions of Pantaleo. When a cop is shot or murdered, our hearts ache for their colleagues and the families.
Despite its conservative image, Staten Island has an openly gay state assemblyman and an African-American woman in the City Council. We voted for Obama in 2012.
Is everything perfect? Absolutely not. But maybe we feel proud that so many people want to come here.
I know this: When my father arrived in 1930, he had more rights at the age of 20 than most African Americans did, as did I when I voted for the first time in 1968.
Enough of us are the progeny of dreamers, and we understand that we have an obligation to make this a better city.
For all our difficulties, we are a good town with good people.
Callaghan is a freelance writer in New York.

George Schmidt: Chicago Teacher Strikes have always had community support

Our gang at UCORE

George Schmidt wades through the fiction. When I asked people over the weekend at the UCORE conference who think they know the story of CORE and the CTU if they knew of George and Substance, they said NO. Why ruin a political narrative?

There are loads of books and articles on the CORE/CTU events of the past few years. See if you see a mention of George and Substance -  a monthly newspaper and a presence in Chicago schools for 40 years - and a CORE supporter and promoter from the day the caucus was formed. Do ya think it had no impact on the growing influence of CORE? I only wish I had the means to keep up the Ed Notes copycat version of Substance, which I abandoned in 2005 after ICE formed.

Over the weekend I was gratified to find people from around the nation who read Ed Notes (thanks Francesca from New Mexico and Mel from Buffalo). I often find when I mention somethings reported on Ed Notes before anywhere else some of our local activists have no clue until they read it elsewhere. OK. I also expect that if one day someone tells the story of MORE, Ed Notes might also be missing from that narrative.

Call us both crotchety old men - searching for the truth often steps in political narratives. But when surrounded by my pals in the pic above I feel in a safe place and get less crotchety. I wish George had made it to Newark which is close to his home town in smelly Linden, NJ.

Here is George's report for today:

HISTORICAL FACT. CTU has always had "community support" during every strike. One of the histories I'll be putting into print in the next week is the fact that the Chicago Teachers Union has always had community support during our strikes. The termination of the 1987 strike was based on a false claim, actually, a conspiracy of the media (most notably Channel 5) and some slimy opportunists (most notable, Leon Finney) to make the claim that the "community" was demanding the strike end. In fact, that "community demonstration" in the background was in support of the union! I reported it at the time, and will re-report it soon. But please, let's not repeat some of the nonsense that has been around since the Chicago Teachers Strike of 2012 that CORE's unique contribution to CTU was finally gathering "community support." My first strike in 1971 had that, and I know of no strike after that where we did not have massive community support. But in order to clear our heads for what's ahead, we need to know history, not mythology. 

Should MORE be LESS? The Key to Organizing Opposition in the UFT is to Decentralize

I've attended a few MORE meetings. While I was very impressed overall, they did not seem particularly interested in the issues of micromanagement and harassment that go on in many elementary schools, which is what keeps those teachers too busy, preoccupied and exhausted to get more involved politically. Also, a lot of our younger teachers are not aware of their union history -- in my school (which you know, I believe, in District 14) the vast majority of newcomers had no clue. There were also many TFAers - don't know if that's the case in the district as a whole, but the TFA fellows frequently don't stay in the profession, and therefore are not interested...

Comment from Leigh on Facebook, Talking About UFT Elections - Double Oy Vey! -
http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/…/talking-about-uft-elect…

Leigh raises some good points. Before responding, let me digress a bit. History is important and Ed Notes tries to handle that issue - but maybe we need study groups.

Since Shanker the concept of a strong leader/personality has been the norm -- the UFT has had only 4 presidents since Shanker took power. And often the opposition caucuses have had clear leaders and personalities. My goal in helping form ICE was to dilute the leadership - everyone should be encouraged to lead. It didn't always work out that way because we didn't attract enough people willing to take on these roles. I'm pretty happy with the direction MORE has been going -- since we started 6 month steering committee terms we have had almost 30 people take part. If I asked someone to name the leader of MORE they would come up with a dozen names - some may be louder than others - but we have successfully gotten more people involved than I could have dreamed of - and the key is that so many are in the 6-15 year teaching range and in their 20s and 30s - a new wrinkle in the opposition since the 70s.

But there are also inherent problems in a diffused leadership situation - sometimes people wait for others to act - someone has to pick up the ball. That is the essence of what Leigh is saying - sure people are concerned about these issues but the mechanisms to address them - are not yet in place. 

I would also point out that on the other side MORE is open and flexible enough for Leigh to come in and take over that aspect and lead the way in the battle -- people would jump on board. I think MORE's failure has been to make it clear that this is possible - meetings are often so centrally managed.

My recent thinking is decentralizing so people are empowered to act - to organize. To make it easier for people like Leigh who want MORE to tackle an issue to jump in.

I see the upcoming UFT elections as a way to establish some ways of doing that. There may be resistance from some who see that a centrally managed campaign is essential - and aspects of that do need to be taken care of. But if MORE

Here was my response to Leigh on facebook.

Norm Scott  
 -- your comment has given me some food for thought. This system is too big to crack without decentralizing -- and one of my goals is to get MORE to function with that mentality. Many of us have never been entirely happy with MORE meetings, especially the earlier ones where people did a lot of talking and not doing. This past year we began to focus more on getting work done --like chapter leader assistance - they are often keys to getting a fightback going at the school level - but one saturday a month is really not the way to get things done. MORE's elementary school people are concerned but as you say too busy to do much about it. I think what is needed is a MORE elementary school group that tackles the specific problems in a committee not in a meeting - maybe break the meetings in 2 and have the committee meet - then follow up on their own. If you are interested in working on issues like these let me know. One approach would be more to focus on these issues at the district level - not on the central where there is not much that can be done. So maybe getting some D 14 elem school teachers together might be an idea. If one district gets some changes that model can be shared with others. 

Can the UFT/Unity Leadership Benefit From a Negative Supreme Court Right to Work Decision?

Norm-  rumors persist that the UFT leadership is quite concerned with the upcoming Supreme Court decision regarding dues check-off. Right now the court appears to reflect 4 v4 with the swing vote vital. Question?? If the union lost the dues check-off in your opinion would that perhaps allow the UFT to strike when a future impasse happens?? Leadership has been quite hesitant to even consider a strike with the dues check-off a vital concern..... COMMENT ON ED NOTES:  UFT Election Question: Why Focus on HS Seats to Exclusion of Elementary?

UPDATED:
There's lots of talk at the weekend conference of national caucuses in Newark from 15 states and what the unions will do. We have people from Wisconsin who have an enormous burden to keep people in the union - they must be re-certified every year -- but we've heard amazing stories of how they have managed to get people to stay in the union.

I was wondering what the UFT would do if the Court rules against the unions, especially unions that have capitulated to ed deform and sold out members. I heard stories about Unity-like unions that make your hair curl - go-along, get-along, non-fighters, etc--- gee, if you read Ed Notes you didn't even need to go to Newark to know that. But also about people who sill steal elections, use any dirty tactics to win, etc. I'll get more into some of this stuff in the future - how even if the opposition were to win in a UFT election, there would be a court case challenging the result or they would find ways to manipulate things to keep anyone else from taking power.

In unions like these we may expect mass defections. How would the UFT react in the face of mass defections?

The meat of the thesis I want to offer is that oppressive undemocratic union leaderships - like the UFT - are not as afraid of loss of members to agency fee as people are assuming. Let me explain but first clear up a misconception the comment expresses.

This is not about dues checkoff
No matter what the Court rules the UFT will still get dues checkoff - where the DOE deducts dues and sends it to the UFT so they don't have to collect dues themselves -- that is the much worse threat to them - and the reason they won't ever strike because they will then lost dues checkoff for a period of time, like they did around 1982 as a result of the 1975 strike.. [If you want to read the 1982 court decision here is a google doc.]

What is agency fee?
Some people don't join the union - there are over 3000 such people in the UFT - but in non-right to work states they still pay dues because the union represents them in collective bargaining. They can file grievances and are entitled to representation but can't vote in union elections and may even lose the right to attend union meetings. That would change if the Court rules against the concept of agency fee - and make every state right to work.

There are already a batch of anti-Unity types who are drooling at the thought of not paying dues to the UFT to punish them. How unhappy would the UFT/Unity leadership be to lose these people even if there is a loss of revenue from them? In essence the UFT pays to remove a block of anti-Unity votes and if UFT elections reach the day where they are getting close, this helps them keep tighter control of the UFT.

One thing I've learned - and had reaffirmed at the weekend meetups with caucuses battling Unity type unions - is that they will stop at nothing to keep control of the union, even if it means undermining and weakening their own union. There is historical precedence and when people told me their local horror stories and how shocked they were to find this out I got the idea that it is important to share some of the histories of repression on the part of the Unity like leaderships.

More to come.

NYT: Judge Rules New York Teacher Exam Did Not Discriminate Against Minorities

The ruling is a departure from earlier decisions by the same judge, Kimba M. Wood of Federal District Court in Manhattan, in which she threw out past certification exams. It... symbolizes a significant moment in a long-running tug of war between two policy goals in education: making tests for new teachers more rigorous, and increasing the diversity of the nation’s teaching force...NY Times

This is about a recent exam but the other cases are still in play. This earlier decisions by Kimba Wood affects a case that goes back 15 years. Ed Notes was a strong supporter of the teachers who were suing. Sometimes outcomes count. If a much higher proportion of certain ethnic groups fail an exam what do we do about it? In the case of the DOE they fired thousands of people who had struggled to pass. Look at the fireman exam which was thrown out due to the overwhelming white fire department as an example.

Why do some fail? The lack of a high level of literacy often due to poor neighborhood schools or language issues including certain dialects is the reason I would use. I heard it every day from some great teachers I worked with - a certain lack of facility with the language that is often needed to extract the fine tuning on exam questions.

When this issue hit the UFT in the late 90s, Marc Pessin, a well-known, controversial and often divisive figure since the 70s who ran for UFT President a few times with different caucuses he formed, formed yet another caucus, the Progressive Action Caucus (PAC), to focus on this issue and ran for President of the UFT in the 1999 election. With New Action having emerged from a merger of TAC and New Directions (the first caucus Pessin had led before they tossed him out in the late 80s) in 1995, PAC was considered a divisive threat to New Action's ability to win seats on the Exec Bd.

I agreed with the idea of forming a group to focus on the issue of so many people of color getting chopped from the system and supported their actions at the DA but did not think their running in the elections with their own slate helped their cause (they only got 2% of the vote.) I had teachers in my school affected by the same situation. One teacher failed 8 times and lost her job, but my principal loved her work and made her  a para mentoring the teacher who replaced her. The former teacher gave up trying because her nerves were frayed by the process. Then 2 years later someone convinced her to go in and wing it - and she passed. So for bad test takers, emotions can screw you up.

Here is the Times article (thanks to Jeff Kaufman for sending it along).


Judge Rules New York Teacher Exam Did Not Discriminate Against Minorities

UFT Election Question: Why Focus on HS Seats to Exclusion of Elementary?

I have always wondered about the focus on HS seats ... what is up with that? So unfair to the elementary schools... Question on FB in response to Ed Notes, Talking About UFT Elections - Double Oy Vey! - 

I wouldn't say exclusion - but there are 700 or more elem schools and no opposition has had enough outreach to them. There used to be about 100 high schools - now there are around 450 - but still a reachable number. 

If you are an elementary school teacher and want to become a point person in your school in the election campaign we will connect you up to others in your district. Email more@morecaucusnyc.org.

My initial reaction was to recall the famous bank robber Willie Sutton's response to the  question of why he robbed banks: It's where the money is.

Organizing in Elem Schools Must be District Based
The opposition activists over most of UFT history came from the ranks of high school teachers. Only groups I have been involved in - CSW in the 70s, ICE in the aughts and MORE now, have had some elementary activists but never enough critical mass at the district levels to have much impact -- and elem schools are very much district based and under the control of Unity through its district reps.

Voting outcomes in elem school divisions over the many election cycles show about a 20-25% vote for the opposition while totals in the HS have ranged from 35-55% for the opposition - the only seats ever won against Unity. If in next year's election, the elem school opposition vote cracks 33% that would be a sign of change. But most elem schools are just not reachable by the opposition.

Here was the response I gave on FB.
 
On the whole, the focus on HS is because the most active people have been in HS over the 60 year history of the UFT. They organized the first strikes. HS teachers are not in a position to organize elem school teachers - I was one by the way for 30 years - and it is up to elem school teachers to take more control. We don't need votes only but active people in the schools to challenge the Unity line. Look at the votes in just the last election. There were 36,000 elem school ballots sent out and MORE got 1100 votes, New Action around 700 and Unity around 5200. Whereas in HS - out of 19000 votes sent out, Unity got 1575, MORE 1440 and New Action around 450 - but the New Action votes went to Unity due to their alliance. If MORE and New Action votes were together Unity would have lost in the HS. But even if New Action and MORE were together in the elem schools Unity still would have won 2-1. Fact is the opposition has never been able to establish a toehold in most elem because Unity has such a base there - and uses its district reps to keep control - the elem school environment is much more conducive to repression for a number of reasons and people generally are not as militant or willing to get involved. But some progress is being made where MORE has a base in elem schools in certain districts with a bunch of Chapter leaders who are independent or in MORE.

 

New Blog by Parent Activist Nancy Cauthen of Change the Stakes

I'm pleased to announce the launch of my new blog, Dreaming Forward: Inequality, Education and the Politics of the Future! http://dreamingforward.org/. I hope you'll take a look, share it, give me feedback, tell me what you'd like to see me write about, etc. The idea for this blog has been in the works for a very, very long time, so I'm very excited for it to finally go live -- no turning back now!
Nancy

Nancy Cauthen is one of the remarkable activists we've met through CTS. She is very responsible for their web site and so many other things that goes on. She is also on NYSAPE steering as the CTS rep. And she gets what the UFT is all about:

Whatever criticisms educators might have of high-stakes testing in NYC, the leadership of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), which is the largest local of NYSUT, the state teachers union, has made it absolutely clear that they do not support opt out and will not protect any teacher saying anything that could be construed as promoting opt out among parents. In contrast, NYSUT locals in some areas, particularly Long Island,  have been in the forefront of promoting opt out.

Her latest blog deals with the reasons for the lower opt out rates in the city.

Explaining NYC’s Opt Out Numbers

Her initial blog was: My Take on Education “Reform” in New York State

Teacher Gets Job in Charter School, Cries When Sees Contract

I heard this story today from a non-teacher friend about his daughter. It is not easy to convince the general public about onerous charters. But I didn't have to say much after he saw how his daughter reacted when she saw all the things she would be required to do as a charter school teacher, a lot of it without pay. She cried - and then heard the magic news - she was offered a position in a local public school. She threw the charter contract in the trash.

This happened in my own neighborhood so it hits close to home. Teachers want unions, they want rights, they want to get paid for their work, they want health care and a pension.

Now of course as a UFT non-tenured teacher newbie she won't have a lot of rights for many years - maybe never. Another daughter of a friend in a public school in her 3rd year just had her tenure extended. Out of about a dozen teachers, all of them were denied by the superintendent and a howl went up - so a handful got tenure -- and a principal admitted to me many denials of tenure are due to principal career decisions to show stats to indicate how tough they are on tenure -- especially after Cuomo-like attacks about how could teachers be competent when so many kids do poorly on tests.

With charters proliferating, and with their high teacher turnover and burnouts, replacement shock troops are needed - especially low-salaried newbies. Inexperienced teachers goes a long way to explain the need for harsh discipline codes and big pushouts in charters. The ed deform agenda is aimed at undermining public schools and one aspect is to drive down the competition for teachers so charters can lower salaries and benefits -- increase their labor pool.

Talking About UFT Elections - Double Oy Vey! -

Every time I get into the weeds of the complexities of the UFT election process, people nod off. There is just so much misinformation out there. The other day a prominent supporter of another caucus commented on facebook that retirees only vote for president, spreading the kind of misinformation that encourages support for crackpots. Retirees vote for every officer position and the majority of the exec board and all 750 AFT/NYSUT delegates who go to conventions as the shock troops (cadre) to control the nationwide teacher movement. In other words there is a lot more involved in UFT elections beyond the presidency and unlike other cities like Detroit or Newark where you can have different caucuses take different positions - Unity makes sure it is a lock for them and keeping out ANY voices of dissent is a priority. That is why even if MORE captured the 7 high school Ex bd seats, that would be viewed as a major threat to Unity.

Roseanne McCosh, one of the most astute people in the UFT, sent me this email in response to some of my posts on the UFT election (Are UFT Elections a Joke?). She has become a strong MORE ally with great ideas.

Hi Norm, 
It's rare that I can't weigh all that is to be said on a matter and come down in favor of one side but that's the case with MORE's involvement in the 2016 election.  If MORE runs they need to be honest with people and not get their hopes up or they will lose any momentum they gain between now and spring 2016..  

I'm sure that none of the teachers in my school understand how the elections are rigged since I'm the one who disseminates such info and I'm just starting to get a handle on it myself. You posed the following question in your post, 

"On the other hand, how exactly do you sell people on getting involved in an election that can win only such a small sliver of 7% of Ex bd and no officer or AFT/NYSUT delegate positions?"   

To that I would say....by defining even 1% as a win.  By saying that it's about having the voice of the working classroom teacher present on the Ex Bd.  

(This is where my knowledge on the issue gets fuzzy-----why the focus on HS seats? Is it just a matter of MORE's resources? Out of the 100 seats, how many do retirees NOT vote on?  I'm afraid I need to read "UFT elections for Dummies" to fully understand everything.)  

[NOTE: I will respond to these questions in a follow-up].

I agree with you that getting a stronghold in individuals schools is imperative.  Unity has support in schools by the default position of apathy.  While scoring the ELA exam this year I met a 20 yr teacher who never votes bc she doesn't believe the ballots are really counted.  Try as I might to convince her otherwise, she would not budge.  How many teachers like her are out there?  What would it take to get them to just fill out the damn ballot?  It would take, like you said, a spokesperson in each school.  That's not going to happen quickly.  And like you, I would hate to see support taken from schools since that's where MORE needs to be to gain traction.  OY VEY is right!  

So in a nutshell....using all your resources to win a few seats is not a good idea.....if it means not getting more hands on deck in individual schools.  So I guess it's a matter of MORE being honest about it's limited resources and what they can take on at this point in time.  If they run, I'll help get out the vote at PS 8.  If they don't run, I'll still help to show my colleagues why we need to support MORE.  In either case, I will be upfront with my colleagues so they don't expect to wake up to a non-unity prez anytime soon.  

My quick response is that MORE seems to have come to a similar conclusion - that the elections are a building process. In the past after the elections gains in outreach were not consolidated as people lost energy. MORE did get almost 5000 votes in 2013. So MORE is continuing to do the work it has been doing in concentrating on building local organizing groups around the city and concentrating where it has the resources while adding an election component to the mix.

Today: Press Conf Demands Eva Return $8 Million as Hedge Hogs Rape Puerto Rico and Attack Public Schools for More profit - And give to Eva

PR crisis, like Katrina in New Orleans, is another disaster capitalism opportunity to destroy public education. When will Arne Duncan say: The Puerto Rico default is the best thing to happen to PR?

[Major Success Academy supporter] Paulson & Co. was one buyers of Puerto Rico's record $3.5 billion sale in March 2014. 
of the largest

Hedge Fund Economists Want Puerto Rico to Lay Off Teachers to Fix Debt Crisis... Time

Puerto Rico can avoid a costly default by upping taxes, cutting teacher jobs and closing schools, a group of hedge fund economists proposed in a report released on Monday, offering a controversial solution to the island’s “unpayable” $72 billion debt crisis. The report, commissioned by hedge funds holding several billion dollars of Puerto Rico’s bonds, highlights the island’s rising education expenditures against the backdrop of countless school closings and waves of poor families fleeing to mainland America.

Gee, hedge hogs killing an economy and targeting public schools and teachers. Can someone connect the dots for us?

It would, in particular, be a terrible idea to give the hedge funds that have scooped up much of Puerto Rico’s debt what they want — basically to destroy the island’s education system in the name of fiscal responsibility... Paul Krugman, NY Times

I saw this little tidbit in the Krugman piece on Monday on the Puerto Rico debt crisis. But Krugman, as usual when it comes to education, doesn't connect the dots -- that the PR crisis, like Katrina in New Orleans, is another disaster capitalism opportunity.

This morning at 10AM some dots will be connected.

Success Academy Pressured to Return $8.5 Million Hedge Fund (Dirty Money) Donation

PRESS ADVISORY

Success Academy Pressured to Return $8.5 Million Hedge Fund Donation
The charter school chain in New York City should not accept any money tied to the suffering of Puerto Rican children and families, many of whom already live in poverty

WHAT: Advocates will call on Eva Moskowitz and Success Academy to return an $8.5 million donation of “tainted money” from controversial hedge fund manager John Paulson. In Puerto Rico, where many New Yorkers and Success Academy families have roots, Paulson is profiting from the debt crisis. He is linked to austerity measures that may lead to deeper cuts in school funding and wages for workers that will harm Puerto Ricans. Success Academy’s expansion should not benefit in any way from the suffering of Puerto Rican children and families.

Fifty-six percent of Puerto Rican children already live in poverty, and now hedge fund managers like Paulson want to threaten access to educational opportunity just to make bigger profits.

WHO: Education advocates, parents, community leaders, and concerned residents of New York. Leaders and members of the Hedge Clippers, Alliance for Quality Education, New York Communities for Change, Make the Road New York, Strong Economy for All, Citizen Action New York.

WHERE: Steps of City Hall, Lower Manhattan, NYC.

WHEN: Today, August 5, 10 a.m.

MORE BACKGROUND: Paulson has focused on transforming Puerto Rico into a low-tax, high-luxury playground for the wealthy. As a Bloomberg News headline put it, “Paulson’s Paradise Lures Rich Fleeing Taxes.” He has purchased $120 million of Puerto Rico’s debt. Like other hedge fund managers, he is looking to collect massive profits from his investments – even if it means drastic austerity measures like cuts to public education funding and wages that will destroy the lives of families and children. Paulson’s paradise is a nightmare for Puerto Ricans.

Message to the Lying NY Post: Credit Recovery Was a Bloomberg Creation to Get Grad Rates Up -

From 2005 to 2013, the city’s four-year high school graduation rate jumped by more than 40 percent, while its dropout rate halved — imperfect metrics, perhaps, but telling nevertheless.-- Bob McManus, New York Post

McManus is a real knee slapper. The Post is taking credit for exposing cheating based on reporting by Carl Campanile and Sue Edelman. Cheating under Farina because the Post has a political vendetta to tear down de Blasio and Farina. What is true is that Farina covered up the Bloomberg mess. But the Post won't admit it is a Bloomberg mess.

Look at grad rates like crime stats, which seem to be rising and will doom be Blasio.  Bloomberg phonied grad rates (and crime rates - I still think there are way more murders and Bloomberg is hiding the bodies) and now if Farina fixes the mess grad rates will go down to where they should have been and the Post will hammer her for that. It's a no win.

Chalkbeat does go into the credit recovery history and they have been covering that issue for years.

Here is their comprehensive run-down of links to the story.

where credit is (and isn't) due

Chancellor Carmen Fariña unveiled a six-member task force that she's pledging will take steps to root out cheating following a spate of reports and investigations that found evidence of academic malpractice.

• Chalkbeat,
• New York Post,
• New York Times,
• SchoolBook,
• Wall Street Journal

Five of the six members are Department of Education staffers with close ties to Fariña and the sixth still hasn't been named, leading some educators to wonder about the task force's independence.

• New York Post

Academic wrongdoing tied to credit recovery and grade-changing has long preceded the current regime under Fariña. Chalkbeat explains what credit recovery is, why high schools use it and why it's being abused.

• Chalkbeat

The New York Post remains unimpressed with Fariña's vow to clean up credit recovery, calling it a "fake fix."

• New York Post

Post opinion writers joined the discussion, with columnist Bob McManus writing that Fariña and de Blasio aren't directly to blame, but "responsibility for the scandal is hers, and Mayor de Blasio’s, and they must answer for it."

• New York Post

Post columnist Adam Brodsky writing that the academic improprieties were predictable and that Fariña could have moved sooner to safeguard against them.

• New York Post

City Council members were divided on whether to hold hearings on schools that illicitly inflate graduation rates, although leaders Melissa Mark Viverito and Daniel Dromm downplayed a need to further probe the issue.

• New York Post