...parents in Change the Stakes (CTS) will be out there agitating and also working with MORE teachers to push opt-out -- which MORE will also do in its UFT election campaign -- as a way to not only protect children from test abuse but teachers too.
Opt-out supporters will not have an easy time meeting a goal I saw online of doubling this past spring's total of 220,000 students who refused to take exams. UFT support would certainly be welcomed. Opt-out is weaker in so called progressive NYC compared to much of the rest of the state.Being on the Change the Stakes steering committee I get a lot of info as to currents related to opt out in NYC schools and there is some movement, though the figures will not hit a crescendo for a while. But parents in CTS will be out there agitating and also working with MORE teachers to push opt-out -- which MORE will also do in its UFT election campaign -- as a way to not only protect children from test abuse but teachers too.
New York City has now become in many ways the standard bearer for almost a kind of Status-quo unionism. The UFT leadership is enabling the people who are trying to destroy us by still trying to play the appeasement game. Our leadership continues to call only for modifications of the test and punish policies that are killing public education.
Opt out is beginning to take root here in NYC. Don't even consider the UFT as a factor - this must be parent driven. MORE people have been involved from the beginning with Change the Stakes - which is where Jia Lee came from to MORE. Running the most prominent teacher leading opt out for UFT president will get the movement noticed beyond the union. We have principals now working with us - some behind the scenes. We started with 4 optouts just 3 years ago in the city -- look at the rate of growth. The DOE will do anything to can to kill the movement but it is something they can't stop because as long as there are these tests opt out will exist. When you look at the total assault on teachers, their unions and public education and the helplessness so many feel, the only thing that has the potential to protect people is the opt out movement.
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| Deformers carpet bomb teacher unions |
In the spring Andrew Cuomo pushed through a school receivership law that allows the state to take control of "struggling" and "persistently struggling" schools and supersede the union contracts for teachers at those schools. This week NYSED Commissioner MaryEllen Elia gave the Buffalo schools superintendent the power to "circumvent" union contracts at five Buffalo schools. The Buffalo News reports the Buffalo Teachers Federation is planning to sue over the move and the lawsuit will have national implications......Remember -- Elia is a Randi/Mulgrew pal -- she was one of their stars in their partnership with Bill Gates and her in Hillsborough at the AFT 2010 Seattle convention - I have video to prove it but am too lazy to dig it out -- which was put deep in debt and they chased Elia out on a rail - and Randi got her the gig here so she can negate teacher contracts. How perfect.
I am hoping the events in Buffalo are the impetus for mass organizing by NYSUT or, at the very least, STCaucus. Without the rank and file organizing at the general membership level New York’s teachers will continue to be unprepared to take the collective action necessary to defeat an agenda such as the one we face now.I can hope too - but when you have Quisling leaders, hope only goes so far.
Well it didn't take long for the forces of corporate ed reform to fire their first volley at B-Lo Public Schools. Fresh from burying Hillsborough County Florida's school system in a $20-$40 million dollar hole after a Faustian deal with Bill Gates, MaryEllen Elia has been subcontracted to do more damage on a much wider scale here in the Empire State. Isn't it interesting the way the ed reform class shuffles its muscle from place to place until they end up beetling over their base as Barbara Byrd Bennett did in Chicago. Looks like B3 is headed to the Stoney Lonesome. Curious to see if she gets paroled before Elia gets yet another brown parachute, this time from New York State.
UFT/Unity UberSlug Mulgrew among others actively working against WFP and colluding with other "labor" goon squads to date rape WFP into submission and capitulation ending in a disingenuous and hollow endorsement of Cuomo. High on our list of backstabbing "friends" there's AFT Empress for Life Randi Weingarten who glibly robocalled on behalf of Kathy Hochul and Cuomo doing her best lawyerly parsing of the betrayal claiming that she wasn't calling on behalf of Cuomo but just for Hochul. I am reminded of Bill Clinton in Lewinskean disgrace saying something to the effect of "define is." It didn't fly then and it didn't fly when Weingarten did it either. You robocalled for the Cuomo ticket Randi.
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| Frank Caiati and Matt Smilardi |
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| The inmates with McMurphy in hat (John Stillwaggon). David Risley as Harding on the right |
Our grievance was never about the few coins we might see in interest if we won the grievance.... This was about demanding that UFT leadership demand that respect for us---all of us---a few of us. Mulgrew and Unity have failed us all…yet again.... PS 8X GrievantsNothing surprising about UFT refusal to take this grievance - what is good is that at least one group of rank and file teachers took a stand.
Dear Mr. Mulgrew:
The purpose of asking our union leaders to file a grievance, regarding the delay in retro payment, was an effort to get UFT leadership to demonstrate they prioritize the concerns of the membership at large by holding NYC accountable for the delay. First retro payment on October 1st should have meant just that---October 1st not October 15th. Filing individual grievances on behalf of a handful of individual members accomplishes nothing.
By failing to file a union initiated grievance, the UFT has once again shown their true colors. You are not backing the membership with this issue. It was a political move to allow you to say, “Hey you wanted to file a grievance, so we filed your grievance.” This political maneuver also allows you to say to NYC, “Hey it’s not us. It’s these school level malcontents that are causing the trouble.”
We predicted this would happen but we hoped we would be proven wrong. Unfortunately for the entire membership we were correct in assuming that you and your Unity Caucus would rather ignore the fact that the entire working membership was disrespected, when we were not paid on the date we were promised we’d be paid, than upset Mayor DeBlasio and the powers-that-be at the NYC DOE.
Our grievance was never about the few coins we might see in interest if we won the grievance. We knew the financial win wouldn’t even cover the cost of metro cards to and from lower Manhattan where the grievance is heard. This was about demanding the respect we deserve. This was about demanding that UFT leadership demand that respect for us---all of us---a few of us. Mulgrew and Unity have failed us all…yet again. We expect more from a union leadership that represents 140,000 working members. Filing individual grievances for a handful of us is a slap in the face to all 140,000 working UFT members. We are not fooled by your action. We have not been appeased by individual grievances. You have only provided further evidence that our outrage at your lackluster leadership is indeed justified.
PS 8x Grievants
What kind of cretins would discipline a child with autism for not looking in the direction of the teacher?
The kind who run and/or work at Achievement First.
Oh, btw, they're hiring, so if you're in the market for a job where you get to abuse kids, especially special education students, head on over to Idealist and send the Achievement First cretins your resume...
Yesterday morning I watched from the audience as Lauren Cohen, a petite young woman from the UFT MORE caucus, got up and addressed the NYSUT Representative Assembly as a candidate. When Lauren mentioned the UFT-Unity Loyalty oath, my 800 brothers and sisters from UFT-Unity tried to drown her voice with loud boos. The moderator had to get up and explain that it was not in the best traditions of public forums to prevent people from speaking. Lauren stood calmly, and continued undeterred after waiting a moment for the noise to subside. She demonstrated grace and thoughtfulness, neither of which was evident in the audience that saw fit to shout her down in the full view of UFT President Michael Mulgrew. ... NYC Educator, UFT-Unity Caucus Demonstrates How It Handles Dissent
The MORE presence and the Unity response exposed goon tactics to the entire state... even some Unity people were embarrassed and came over to Lauren to apologize. I believe Peter Goodman, one of the 800 Unity delegates, is urging unity after they split the state. Consequences, consequences, consequences -- you reap what you sow....Ed Notes
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| Only Unity Caucus would boo someone who loves puppies. |
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| Arthur Goldstein, next to Julie Cavanagh, the indomitable Beth Dimino, far right, Mike Schirtzer and Francesco Portelos, back-center next to James Eterno, to the right of Sean Ahern. Jia Lee, center (blue) next to the always awesome Megan Moskop. Others - Joan Heymont, Don Doyle, Sal Notera, Rob Pearl (VP Port Jeff Stn TA) |
Success Academy has grown far too large to keep the lid on everything now. Moskowitz enrolls 11,000 students in 34 schools. She has around 1000 teachers and staff. With such numbers and given their policies, there will likely be 1000s of former “scholars” and 100s of former teachers in short order, and all of them are not going to be intimidated into silence about what they saw while there. The simple fact is that Moskowitz absolutely cannot keep total control over what people say and know anymore, and it is her own policies of driving away students she does not want and burning out teachers that has put her in this position. So even if she fully recovers from this month, I think it is likely we will see many more months like this........Daniel Katz, Ph.D.
Eva Moskowitz and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Month
The real anomaly, however, is the fact that the exclusionary practice that Success Academy silently demands in order to "succeed" ever was mentioned in the New York Times, which has an editorial board that remains entirely enthusiastic about the paternalistic segregated charter reform schools that corporate America promotes as a hideous manifestation of educational justice in blackface....
Schools Matter
Success Academy Find Its Scapegoat
Eva says the "got to go" list was an anomaly, one of those wacky things that happens once in a blue moon. Yet there have been stories for years of kids pushed out of Moskowitz Academies, for inconvenient behavior, low test scores, whatever. Eva is now demanding public funding for the Moskowitz pre-K but refusing to submit to required oversight by the city. Rules are for the little people, and that would be us, the people who serve all children. If there's an "anomoly," it's the fact that this particular list was placed in writing.......NYC Educator: The Moskowitz Anomoly - Eva says the "got to go" list was an anomaly, one of those wacky things that happens once in a blue moon. Yet there have been stories for years of kids p...
Success Academy's tearful apology for a 'Got To Go' list of students isn't accepted by every parent
They decided to start with younger and younger kids, so the communication of abuses would be harder to decipher. They decided to tell the parents one thing, and do another to the child. I once stood in the hall and listened to a dean yell so violently at a student (behind closed doors) that I couldn't even discern the infraction. The child was thoroughly convinced he had committed a sin so unspeakable based on her threats, that he was too afraid to report the incident to his parents, hoping the she wouldn't either.
When you get detention for squeaking the rubber soles on the floor, or coughing. or sneezing in a disingenuous way; when you are taught that asking for help when you are told not to talk, is a level 4 "disrespect of a teacher" your world begins to change. Twilight Zone comes to mind.
........Abundant1 has left a new comment on your post "Eva's Got to Go, Not Children: NY Times Throws Another Grenade at Eva Moskowitz as She Holds Presser to Scam for More Money
Success Academy, Achievement First, they are among the top offenders of tactics like this. The words in the article have been repeated time and again to city officials, and news reporters. We've had hearings and community gatherings. I spent my sons entire 5th grade in meetings trying to understand, advocate, advise, and reveal. Those who already knew had been resigned to the idea that the big money backers would make sure none of it would make a difference. As it had not made a difference over the decades that it took for these charter schools to become so prolific and take root in our communities. Now the story resurfaces as if it is news, but it is unmitigated child abuse that it is known by those in a position to change it, and or punish it, and here it is October 2015 still wrong and strong. God Bless people like Leonie Haimson who have not been deterred; and who continues to show up, and fight to expose and change the system of abuse for the children whose own parents barely know what is happening to them.
When I see these mothers who are willing to participate in these propaganda commericals for these charter schools, I am sick about all that they don't know, and how their children are subsequently in a position to fend for themselves.
I am glad this article repeats the one area that EVERYONE must know regardless of whether your child attends these schools or not. They are criminalizing these children to the point that the children are believing them, and begin to act as expected. When you get detention for squeaking the rubber soles on the floor, or coughing. or sneezing in a disingenuous way; when you are taught that asking for help when you are told not to talk, is a level 4 "disrespect of a teacher" your world begins to change. Twilight Zone comes to mind.
What did the few parents who stood against their policies teach them? How to hide their abuses. They decided to start with younger and younger kids, so the communication of abuses would be harder to decipher. They decided to tell the parents one thing, and do another to the child. I once stood in the hall and listened to a dean yell so violently at a student (behind closed doors) that I couldn't even discern the infraction. The child was thoroughly convinced he had committed a sin so unspeakable based on her threats, that he was too afraid to report the incident to his parents, hoping the she wouldn't either.
It is a layered problem, but lets start with the illegal stuff and take it from there. But when the office of child welfare stops taking calls, and when you do get through tells you it will be more than a year before anyone even thinks about investigating the complaint, hopelessness can set in. Even the NYC agency set-up to protect children with special needs, failed. It was clear there was a network of silence at work, that is well funded... Anyway, I go on...
Hopefully this will be the year, this will be the story, this will be the child that will break the system's back. No more charter abuses!
Principals at Success, many in their 20s and 30s, frequently consult with a team of lawyers before suspending a student or requiring a parent to pick up a child early every day. It was a member of that team who described a student’s withdrawal from the Success Academy in Union Square to colleagues as a “big win,” the current employee said.I love that Kate mentioned the ages of the principals. I wonder if staff don't have to sign some non-disclosure agreements when they sign a contract? Does anyone have examples of these contracts to publish?
James D. Merriman, the chief executive officer of the New York City Charter School Center, a group that advocates and supports charter schools, said it was unrealistic to expect any given school to be a good fit for every child. And Mr. Merriman noted that the city had many traditional public schools that required a test or other screening for admission, schools that by definition did not serve all students.That's an infinitesimal number of public schools and they are open and above board on their policies. Merriman used to sell charters as taking every kid through the lottery. Now they are explaining away their trying to beat the lottery.
Hi Twitter Brigade,The news keeps piling on, today the New York Times published an article confirming and detailing some disgusting suspension habits carried out by Success Academy Charter School Network.The article proves that Success Academy uses frequent suspensions as a tactic to push students out, using a "Got to Go" list. Read the article here: http://nyti.ms/1MkDyX3This sort of unfair treatment shows that Success Academy is not the "public school" they claim to be and that Eva Moskowitz will use ultimate autonomy to hand pick students.TWEET WITH US NOW!!Let Eva and her schools know this is unacceptable. Attached are some meme's and below are sample tweets.9 of 16 students on @SuccessCharters #Got2Go list withdrew. Frequent suspensions force kids out http://nyti.ms/1MkDyX3.@SuccessCharters uses frequent suspensions to push kids out, claims they #GotToGo http://nyti.ms/1MkDyX3 Moskowitz wages ultimate autonomy claims kids #GotToGo then suspends until they withdraw http://nyti.ms/1MkDyX3 .@SuccessCharters uses trolling parents with suspensions for minor infractions as form of pushing kids out #GotToGo http://nyti.ms/1MkDyX3 Parents choose @SuccessCharters then learn their child has #GotToGo with frequent suspensions http://nyti.ms/1MkDyX3 Parents say 'lives upended by repeated suspensions' @SuccessCharters says their child has #GotToGo http://nyti.ms/1MkDyX3 .@SuccessCharters staff ADMIT network uses suspension to let parents know their child has #GotToGo http://nyti.ms/1MkDyX3 Students that @SuccessCharters believe have #GotToGo are suspended frequently, left off re-enrollment list http://nyti.ms/1MkDyX3.@SuccessCharters staff say certain kids leaving is 'BIG WIN' #GotToGo http://nyti.ms/1MkDyX3 .@SuccessCharters decide some students have #GotToGo, start suspending as young as kindergarten http://nyti.ms/1MkDyX3
The city is SO using this eval to harass teachers. They don't even have to be verbally abusive any more.What do you think?
The eval is harassing enough and keeping everyone on edge. It will push out all tier 4 people before their time.That goes for workshop model too. You can't implement a work shop model in classes of 32 kids and keep endless records on all of them. That's why they'll never reduce class size. All meant to push out teachers.Total bullshit.
One hundred 10-year-olds spent the first week of school sitting on the floor. What was it they were supposed to have learned?...There were some people on Facebook skeptical of this report.
KIPP spends a great deal of money promoting its brand of total compliance, segregated charter schools as the “tough love, no excuses” solution for schooling in urban communities disabled by poverty and lack of hope. KIPP and its billionaire supporters contend that we cannot wait for an end to poverty to properly educate the children of the poor. No one I know would disagree with this premise, but everyone I know disagrees with KIPP's conception of what "properly educate" means.
KIPP requires the poorest urban children, those who have received the least in life, to earn everything at KIPP, from paychecks for good behavior and working hard to the very shirts they wear. At some KIPPs, children must even earn their right to sit at a desk (rather than on the floor) for 8 to 10 hours a day.
......... Jim Horn, Schools Matter and Alternet
NYC Teacher Talks: "The Weight Of Standardized Testing Is Absolutely Crushing"
Erik (Jennifer Preissel / Gothamist)
Last month, 240,000 students and their teachers returned to the corridors of New York City’s 500 public high schools. Gothamist sat down with teachers at different stages of their careers—some entering service, some with a few years under their belt, and a couple of vets. We talked about why they chose to teach, how they feel about the government's education policy and their thoughts on the charter system and the United Federation of Teachers. We wanted to know: are the teachers all right?When I was in college, I worked at Starbucks at the Mall of America. I saw that there were lots of problems—poverty wages, inconsistent scheduling, arbitrary firings, sexual harassment from the boss. So my coworkers and I started a union and we were able to change a lot of things. We got much more stable scheduling. We were connected to Starbucks workers doing some of these things across the US. We saw that when workers stand together you can have a voice and you can change things. So I got very involved in union organizing in the fast food industry for about seven years.
We'll run a different teacher profile each day this week (read them all here). Today we feature Erik, who is in his second year of teaching English as a second language and social studies in the Bronx. Erik is also the United Federation of Teachers' chapter leader for his school.
I also began working as a substitute teacher. I had this experience of essentially working with the people in the fast food industry whose kids I would then encounter in the classroom. And I saw that there was this very direct connection between poverty and academic success. I thought you could attack poverty both by union organizing, which is probably the most powerful tool we have, but that education also has to play a role, to give people the confidence to believe that we can live in a better world, to open their minds to different possibilities for themselves and for the whole society.
Eventually I decided to go into teaching, which took me into the New York City Teaching Fellows here in the Bronx. I had not planned on getting active in the union when I started as a teacher, but I rapidly saw that so many of the problems we have in the school system are actually workplace problems—they are problems of capitalism.
------I think we have to transform the UFT. The UFT is, I think, like most unions in the United States, it's based on a model of service unionism, where people pay their $54 a paycheck and in exchange they get services. They get advice, help with dental insurance, a catalogue with discounts on a security system for your home, maybe some professional development courses. But that's not where the power of the union lies. The power of the union lies in members talking to each other, figuring out what problems they have, what problems they share with the community and taking action. If we did that, the UFT would be an unstoppable force.
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The weight of standardized testing is absolutely crushing. It makes it difficult for teachers to foster critical thinking when students could be tested on more facts and figures than they could ever conceivably learn in a school year. All teachers do a dance of trying to make sure kids do well on these tests.
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Charter schools can kick kids out, so they take the kids who are easier to work with, need less support to succeed and they kick out the kids who have behavioral problems, learning disabilities, who are struggling to acquire English. Over time, this creates this gradient where the students who need less support do better because maybe because they have more stable family lives or they come from a higher socioeconomic class, they end up in the charter schools and the public schools get the kids who need the most help. But they are getting fewer resources than the charters to do this. The charter system is creating a two-tiered education system and that's been morally wrong always, and legally wrong since Brown vs. Board of Education.
Wonderful Jia! So glad you will shake up the UFT. Let's figure out how public school parents can work on your campaign to help get all teachers to vote for Jia in 2016! I feel a change coming!.. Janine Sopp, opt-out parent activist.
