Fred Smith in City Limits Debunks Unity Caucus Buddy Farina, Elia Phony Sales Pitch

Closer examination reveals that shortening the tests, removing their time limits and working with a new testing partner are not quite the changes SED wants us to believe in. Public faith in the words of New York's top education officials will not be restored by giving us one side of the story.... Fred Smith

Elia - the great pal of Randi and Mulgrew.

Fred writes:

My attempt to debunk the phony sales pitch being made to parents and the public by SED, Elia and Farina about the changes in this year's statewide testing program--intended to be taken as improvements that will improve the testing experience of children and the validity of the assessments.  The obvious objective is to counter thoughts parents might have about opting their children out of the tests. 

Even when I went to school, so long ago we only had Number 1 pencils, I don't recall any of my classmates saying they had a great testing experience.

City Limits gets about 200,000 page views each month from 50,000 or so unique readers. Generally they are New Yorkers, very politically involved, typically in some sort of work dealing with city policy.  If you have the time and inclination please send link to others who may be interested and post a comment to City Limits relating to the Op-Ed.

http://citylimits.org/2016/03/24/cityviews-as-standardized-tests-loom-improvements-are-illusory/

As Standardized Tests Loom, Improvements are Illusory

by Fred Smith

The New York State Education Department (SED) and Education and Commissioner MaryEllen Elia are campaigning to convince parents that changes have been made to the statewide exams that "will improve the testing experience for students and the validity of the assessments." There will be fewer test questions, a shift to untimed testing and a replacement of the previous test vendor.

The changes had already been set forth in the Foreword to each Educator Guide to the 2016 Common Core Tests that was prepared for posting last October. They were broadcast in a January SED memo to superintendents and all public school principals. Since then, the news has filtered down to teachers and the word has spread to parents at meetings and individually.

The advance work continued last week when NYC Schools Chancellor Farina sent a letter to parents echoing the changes and urging them to support their children in taking the tests.

Three days of English Language Arts (ELA) tests will commence on April 5th. Math starts on April 13th and will also be given over a three-day period.

The uniformity and on-message nature of these communications mark an effort to make the testing program more appealing to any who might consider opting their children out of the exams.

But what are the changes being underscored, are they improvements, and should parents believe they're worthwhile?

A decrease in the number of test questions. Day 1 is devoted to Multiple-Choice (M-C) items designed to measure reading comprehension. Last year, looking at Grades 3 and 4, there were five passages followed by 30 items. Now, there will be four readings and 24 items—a 20 percent reduction.

Shorter tests, however, aren't necessarily better. They tap into smaller samples of what students know. Even if tests are composed of high caliber items, having fewer will provide less reliable information on which to base presumably relevant judgments about students or meaningfully compare school and district performance in the area being assessed.

A sudden lowering of the item count throws the ball back to critics who feel there is too much testing. But friends or foes of testing alike should keep their eyes on that ball. The issue has less to do with item quantity than item quality. Is a chain with 24 weak links stronger than one with 30?

Not emphasized is the fact that one of the four reading passages and six of the 24 M-C items will be embedded in Book 1 for try-out purposes. Performance on the trial items doesn't count in the score a student gets. So, one-quarter of the time and effort children spend on Day 1 will be given over to field testing material for the test vendor to use on future exams.

Constructively, this means that children will have only 18 M-C items to demonstrate their level of achievement. If trying to gauge reading proficiency based on 24 operational items was precarious last year, how much more dubious will it be to claim that a sample of 18 is sufficient now?
(On Days 2 and 3, the number of Constructed Response Questions (CRQs), where students have to produce an answer, will remain nearly the same this year. There will be six readings again, but nine questions instead of ten.)

A shift to untimed testing. This concession was made to educators and parents who saw that children have had trouble finishing the common core-aligned tests since 2013. The difficulty of the items and the stress placed on children struggling to complete them were widely cited. This year SED has moved to tests that will not be timed. Children will be allowed to proceed at their own pace without a clock.

It seems humane but presents a conundrum. The Educator Guide says that "The tests must be administered under standard conditions and the directions must be followed carefully. The same test administration procedures must be used with all students so that valid inferences can be drawn from the test results." How can this be reconciled will the removal of time limits?

The same page of the Guide makes a further statement to compound the dilemma: "Given that the spring 2016 tests have no time limits, schools and districts have the discretion to create their own approach to ensure that all students who are productively working are given the time they need to continue to take the tests." Procedures are not spelled out to allow students as much time as they need.
With all that, the very same page in the 2016 Guide offers that: "On average, students will likely need approximately 60–70 minutes of working time to complete each test session." The 2015 Guide said the Grades 3 and 4 tests were "designed so most students would complete testing in about 50 minutes," adding that "students will be permitted 70 minutes to complete the test…. This design provides ample time for students who work at different paces." Why was 70 minutes to finish 30 items enough time in 2015, but not to complete 24 this April?

Faced with the reality of testing 1.2 million students this year, a de facto 70-minute testing period will probably prevail. But timing won't be uniform in every school, confounding comparisons that standardization affords. This change, however, gives SED a chance to claim it is addressing shortcomings in the tests by giving children a benefit that is arguably more apparent than real.

Change to a new testing vendor. In November, Questar Assessments, Inc. was awarded a five-year $44.7 million contract with SED to develop the ELA and math examinations. But NCS Pearson, Inc., which held the previous five-year contract, amounting to $38 million through December 2015, was quietly given an extension until the end of June.

The amendment called on Pearson to draw questions from its item bank to develop April 2016's operational exams. Pearson also supplied embedded field test items for next month's exams, as well as items that will be tried out in separate (aka stand-alone) field tests in May or June. This material will be the basis for constructing the 2017 operational exams.

Contrary to the carefully crafted impression SED wishes to convey, Pearson has been engaged in an additional cycle of item development. Yes, in a sense, Questar replaced Pearson, but the prior vendor has had a significant continuing role in the 2016 and 2017 testing program.
The state's party line of improved testing is better served by keeping Pearson out of the picture. The prior vendor's Common Core-aligned ELA and math products were panned for being badly developed because of poor field testing methods resulting in items that proved to be faulty and far too difficult, especially for English Language Learners and special needs students, when put to operational use. Mentioning Pearson's name would disrupt SED's drumbeat of change.

Closer examination reveals that shortening the tests, removing their time limits and working with a new testing partner are not quite the changes SED wants us to believe in. Public faith in the words of New York's top education officials will not be restored by giving us one side of the story.

Let us hope that the changes that count—recent changes in the composition of the Board of Regents, placing policy-making in the hands of educators attuned to the needs of schools, teachers, parents and children—will end the dark days that allowed bureaucrats to mislead us.

Katie Lapham, #MORE2016 Elementary School Ex Bd Candidate Slams Fariña's 3/15/16 letter to parents

How how much do I love the MORE people on our slate.

My latest blog post is a reaction to Fariña's 3/15/16 letter to parents about the tests. It is very specific to NYC and offers parents opt out reasons & resources. Please share widely.

I quote Kemala, Jamaal, Anna Allanbrook and mention NYC Opt Out, Change the Stakes, MORE and the UFT elections, Teachers of Conscience, Jia Lee

.... Katie Lapham, MORE Elementary School Ex Bd Candidate

So do a lot of other people love what Katie wrote:

Thank you, Katie. Posting ASAP. READ THIS BEFORE YOU GO ALONG WITH NY STATE's DETRIMENTAL TESTING PROGRAM! If you have had enough, then ‪#‎optout2016‬... Parent Edith B.

Wow Katie!! Amazing work. Definitely a good place to send people who are on the fence and who claim they really want to do their homework before deciding.

.......Dani :)

WONDERFUL!  This parent thanks you !!!!... Jeff Nichols, CUNY Prof.

NYC Parents: Here’s the TRUTH about the 2016 NYS Tests

Posted on March 20, 2016

4

New York City parents may be hearing that the New York State (NYS) Common Core math and ELA (English-language arts) tests will be better this year and are of value to educators and students.
This does not tell the whole story.  Here’s the truth about the 2016 NYS tests. 

 MORE at: https://criticalclassrooms.wordpress.com/2016/03/20/nyc-parents-heres-the-truth-about-the-2016-nys-tests/

The Missive from RBE: Tisch Family has been doing damage to humans for a long long time...

Merryl Tisch is no less guilty of crimes against the children, parents and teachers of this state than the rest of her family.

Received this from our old pal Reality Based Educator from Perdido Street School blog. He doesn't miss blogging but couldn't let this one pass by.

The Tisch Family has been doing damage to humans for a long long time... RBE

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/25/sports/football/nfl-concussion-research-tobacco.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=image&module=photo-spot-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

"Some retired players have likened the N.F.L.’s handling of its health crisis to that of the tobacco industry, which was notorious for using questionable science to play down the dangers of cigarettes.

Concussions can hardly be equated with smoking, which kills 1,300 people a day in the United States, and The Times has found no direct evidence that the league took its strategy from Big Tobacco. But records show a long relationship between two businesses with little in common beyond the health risks associated with their products.
In a letter to The Times, a lawyer for the league said, “The N.F.L. is not the tobacco industry; it had no connection to the tobacco industry,” which he called “perhaps the most odious industry in American history.”

Still, the records show that the two businesses shared lobbyists, lawyers and consultants. Personal correspondence underscored their friendships, including dinner invitations and a request for lobbying advice.

In 1997, to provide legal oversight for the committee, the league assigned Dorothy C. Mitchell, a young lawyer who had earlier defended the Tobacco Institute, the industry trade group. She had earned the institute’s “highest praise” for her work.

A co-owner of the Giants, Preston R. Tisch, also partly owned a leading cigarette company, Lorillard, and was a board member of both the Tobacco Institute and the Council for Tobacco Research, two entities that played a central role in misusing science to hide the risks of cigarettes."

"In 1992, amid rising concerns about concussions, Mr. Tisch — the Giants and Lorillard part owner — asked the cigarette company’s general counsel, Arthur J. Stevens, to contact the N.F.L. commissioner at the time, Mr. Tagliabue, about certain legal issues.

Mr. Stevens was not just any tobacco lawyer; he was a member of the industry’s secretive Committee of Counsel, which helped direct tobacco research projects. In a letter obtained by The Times, Mr. Stevens referred Mr. Tagliabue to two court cases alleging that the tobacco and asbestos industries had covered up the health risks of their products.

In one case, the family of a dead smoker sought internal documents that the tobacco industry had withheld on the grounds of lawyer-client privilege — which does not apply if invoked to cover up a crime. The judge in the case reacted angrily after reading those internal records.

“The documents speak for themselves in a voice filled with disdain for the consuming public and its health,” the judge, H. Lee Sarokin of Federal District Court in New Jersey, wrote earlier in 1992. Tobacco lawyers succeeded in having Judge Sarokin removed from the case.

Why an influential tobacco lawyer would recommend legal cases to the N.F.L. is not known, because neither Mr. Stevens nor Mr. Tagliabue would agree to be interviewed. Mr. Tisch died in 2005.

UFT Election Update: 33 Candidates and No Mule; 12000 MORE Leaflets To Go At DA

The UFT election committee met after the Delegate Assembly and reaffirmed the long-time established rule of 40 candidates needed to attain slate status.

For DA reports see:

• NYC Educator: DA Report March 2016—UFT Declines to Oppose Junk Science or 3012c
• ICEUFT Blog LIVE BLOGGING FROM MARCH DA (Unedited); UNITY VOTES TO KEEP TESTING AS PART OF OUR EVALUATIONS TWICE

Given that one caucus had 33 candidates that means that the UFT election ballot will contain only 2 slates: MORE/New Action and Unity. This means that the names of the 33 Solidarity candidates will appear but must be voted on individually rather than by slate, a significant disadvantage.

• UFT Election, ATR Update: Luck Be a Lady and Her N...
• UFT Election Update: Today is the Drawing for Slat...

I seem to remember that at one point many years ago Unity had a higher threshold for running a slate but liberalized the number to 40. Some people in the opposition at the time viewed the lower 40 number as an attempt to make it easier for multiple slates to run as a way to split the opposition. I mean at no time in the past 30 or more years did any opposition caucus view 40 candidates as too high a number other than this time. MORE alone had 40 in July.

So many of us were pretty surprised to hear that this had happened. There were some questions as to whether Unity would ignore their own rules since having 2 competing slates for anti-Unity votes would be to their advantage. At this point if I tell you what I know I would have to kill you. Let it suffice skeptics abound as to initial Unity intentions but faced with breaking the very rules they set up for the election - rules that were voted upon and agreed to - or at the very least not protested -- by all caucuses running. Frankly, if I entered the process thinking I might not reach 40 I would have protested this number from Day 1.

Funny thing is that even though denying Solidarity a spot on the front page of the ballot, the Unity Caucus dominated election committee decided to give Solidarity a full two page ad in the NY Teacher as if they were running as a caucus. And they will place the name Solidarity next to each candidate's name. Though I believe that by doing this they are technically breaking their rule in spirit, I guess they felt sort of bad for Solidarity and gave them this break. I have no real issues with their doing this since I don't believe many people even notice the NY Teacher ads. I had urged MORE/New Action to leave the page blank except for an 8 point type in the middle saying vote MORE/New Action, the only rational choice.
Imagine that the few people who bother to read the NY Teacher open to this page and have to squint to read it.
But no one listens to me.

Let's explore the idea of 40. Should it have been lower? What kind of threshold is fair to be able to call yourself a slate? When ICE was barely a few months old in 2004 we had little problem in getting double that number. 40 seems like a reasonable number to show caucus viability. What I can't understand is given the sturm and drang from some people on facebook and in the comments sections of blogs why aren't some of these people running with Solidarity to have helped them reach the magic number?

I have mixed feelings on this issue as I like competition.  MORE/New Action seem to be solid in terms of outreach and people being active even though that doesn't necessarily translate into votes. On the other hand, this will be the first time since 2001 that when people open their election ballots they will see only one opposition slate on the first page and will have to open the booklet to see all the candidates. Many of my efforts over the years have been aimed at creating one united opposition force to challenge Unity.

As MORE shows more unity internally than I've seen since its inception and begins working with New Action in an open and fair manner, I think we are moving in the right direction though I am still skeptical that will translate into votes in an election that only seems to have the 7 high school Ex Bd seats at stake.
----
Election Literature BE GONE
Monday afternoon I picked up 20,000 MORE/New Action leaflets. I dropped about 3000 off in Queens and another 10,000 in Brooklyn to be brought to the Delegate Assembly for people to pick up and take back to their schools. I kept about 7000 for further drop offs. I brought about 1500 with me to the DA.

Post DA decompression at Happy Hour

Last month when we disposed of 5000 at the DA we were surprised. By 6:15 PM every single one was gone with people having to leave empty handed. So we headed off to the Happy Hour which was crowded.
-------

Stuffing School mailboxes and running into some principals who seemed cool
 
Before the DA we stopped at some campuses to stuff mail boxes at some schools with John Antush. At one campus with 5 schools we first met a chapter leader who knew all about MORE and signed on to be a regular distributer. At the other schools in the building we had no problem, One guy sitting in the office in very casual clothing was so welcoming. I said you heard of MORE? He said of course and then said tell them the CSA in this school supports you. He was the principal. Ordinarily I wouldn't admit that but this guy just seemed so cool. One of the ladies in the office escorted us to the boxes and said he was an awesome guy to work for. I was ready to come out of retirement.

At a school in another building the principal was an older British guy from London. We had a brief chat. He seemed pleasant. Of course all this is from a distance but over the years I have faced some resistance from some principals who acted like we were trespassing. Now the only resistance we've heard about is from Unity chapter leaders, not principals.

My sense is that there may be more well-run schools by decent people than we have been willing to admit. It is so much easier to make lists of bad principals. I'm thinking of starting a list of principals I would want to work for and try to use them as escape routes for people who feel they need to get out of their schools.

UFT Election, ATR Update: Luck Be a Lady and Her Name is Norm

I drew first and picked Jia Lee for top of the ballot.

I had a busy day yesterday. I had a lunch date with a teacher who was going to put MORE election lit in the mailboxes of 5 neighboring schools (Lunch With a Chapter Leader I Met for the First Time) followed by a meeting at 52 Broadway to draw ballot positions for the UFT election - as I reported, UFT Election Update: Today is the Drawing for Slate Positions - #MORE2016.

I met up with New Action's Michael Shulman at the UFT for the 4:30 meeting run by Amy Arundel. I reported on some of the issues yesterday: UFT Election Update: Today is the Drawing for Slate Positions - #MORE2016

Amy's first comments were about my ATR posts:

• ATRS Targeted by Brienza Consultant Firm Formerly ...
• An ATR Tells Us a Story - Where is the UFT's Plan

Amy disputed that Brienza was hired as a consultant by the DOE and said she had checked with the DOE and they had no record. She said that most likely the school itself had possibly hired them but also felt that there should have been no contact with the ATR since that should be handled by the field supervisor. She wanted me to give her the name and particulars about the ATR but I would not do that until further consultation with the ATR. I shared some information about the case but was not specific. I felt the union has been letting him down. She promised to rectify that situation.

We had a very lively discussion on the ATR situation where we disagreed on the UFT's agreeing to allow ATRs to be shuffled to multiple districts. Amy, who I and many others respect, claims the wider exposure has helped ATRs get jobs and out of the ATR pool. I felt that more ATRs are hurt than helped by this change. Amy promised to assist in any way possible to help this ATR and I will follow up with her. I know some ATRs who have been helped behind the scenes by Amy.

Once we got that out of the way we got down to election business.

In addition to Amy, the meeting was attended by some members of the UFT election committee. Ellie Engler, David Hickey and Leroy Barr were in the room. Solidarity had the time wrong and their rep, Michael Herman, had to participate by phone.

Each candidate for the officers and exec board are on a folded piece of paper and each caucus draws and the order on the ballot is determined. One caucus did not meet the 40 candidate requirement and that issue is still up for discussion. I will report in detail on this aspect later tonight.

There were multiple drawings for individual ballot positions. First came the president and I drew first and hit the jackpot - Jia Lee will get the top line. Mulgrew will be 2nd and some other guy will be 3rd.

Then we drew for each candidate for the Ex Bd divisions and Ex Bd at large. We alternated between Leroy, Amy and I and I also got the first draw for high schools and drew Mike Schirtzer who will appear at the top of the high school ballot. He owes me a dinner.

The rest went fairly hum drum and we were done by 5:30.
The UFT election committee is meeting today at 6 after the DA to make some final decisions.

Today is a UFT delegate assembly followed by a MORE happy hour. We are bringing 10,000 election leaflets to the DA so we have enough for people to take back to their schools. Last time we brought 5000 and didn't have enough. MORE will have an organized crew on hand to log which schools are being covered.

Here is the MORE announcement:

Please pick-up you election fliers at UFT 52 Broadway NYC from 3:45 to 6:00pm. Post DA Happy Hour 6:00-7:00pmBlarney Stone 11 trinity place - one block way. Please take for your school , nearby chapters, and for your friends to distribute.

Chapter Leaders and Delegates please support our resolution to calling for an end to test based evaluations and motion to amend the receivership resolution.

http://morecaucusnyc.org/2016/03/20/get-test-scores-out-of-teacher-evaluation/

Before the DA I am dropping our lit at various schools in lower Manhattan with MORE's John Antush. Between us and New Action we may be getting out 70-80 thousand pieces of lit.

Lunch With a Chapter Leader I Met for the First Time

I had a lunch date with a teacher, a long time supporter going back to ICE, who was going to put MORE election lit in the mailboxes of 5 neighboring schools followed by a meeting at 52 Broadway to draw ballot positions for the UFT election - as I reported, UFT Election Update: Today is the Drawing for Slate Positions - #MORE2016. 

I'll report on the latter in a follow up.

It was quite a pleasure meeting this contact whom I only knew from anonymous comments on blogs. He is a long time reader of all the major NYC ed blogs and one of the most knowledgeable people I've met, showing me the importance of the blogging community in providing an alternate source of information to the rank and file people who are not racing around to meetings and doing organizing outside their schools. He shares this info with his colleagues so he is doing the important work of education, the first pillar of Ed Notes' triad of educate, organize, mobilize. There are other readers of Ed Notes like Roseanne McCosh who do the same.

He made sure to share the info MORE was putting out on the contract with his staff and even people who were contract supporters are coming to see that he was right.

When we have people in hundreds of schools doing this kind of work we will begin to shake the union.

But make no mistake about it - Unity knows this can be a threat and monitors people to track where there are cracks and focuses attention on schools like this.

He told me quite a story about how Unity micromanagement has increased by putting pressure on chapter leaders to conform. I also learned that the DOE has put pressure on principals to kill the opt out movement - this school had a higher percentage of opt outs last year and apparently came up on the DOE radar. For years he held back but now feels it is the time to step up. He commutes and doesn't have a lot of time but I told him to come to one DA and hang out with the crew sometime. We found we had a lot in common despite a 30 year age difference.

I had written that I would take him to lunch but he insisted on taking me to lunch. I know he is reading this and I have to insist that the next time it is on me.

You know that I was not for running in the elections but the election process leads to meetups like this and makes it worth it.

If you want to take me to lunch or have me take you to lunch, you know where I am.

UFT Election Update: Today is the Drawing for Slate Positions - #MORE2016

I'm heading over to meet a teacher for lunch who has volunteered not only to put #MORE2016 election leaflets in the boxes of his own school but to do 5 other nearby schools. The lunch is on me - and if you want to have lunch on me (not literally) send me a list of schools outside yours you are covering.

I will be throwing the tumbling dice

Then I am off to the UFT to take part in the drawing for slate positions on the ballot. A caucus needs to meet the threshold of 40 candidates in order to get a slate line. If they don't have 40 candidates, as long as the candidates get the petitions signatures, the candidates would have to run as individuals.

This 40 candidate threshold was part of the UFT election announcement and ratified unanimously by the election committee which consists of representatives of all three caucuses that have declared they are running.

Some candidates have been ruled ineligible to run due to their not being a member of the union - ie, not paying their dues. I have heard that 2 of the roughly MORE/New Action 300 candidates have been so ruled and we accept that decision as our bad for not making sure all our candidates were union members.

We will get the exact numbers this afternoon and I will be rolling my lucky dice to try to get MORE/New Action the first position on the ballot. We will then draw for each candidate's position on the rest of the ballot. In reality, 90 percent of the voters just check one of the slates and send back one sheet instead of going through the 20 page booklet picking out candidates. When we do our post-election number crunching we ignore those non-slate ballot votes because they vary so much and do not give much of a picture.

Betty Rosa In, Tisch Out - Ding Dong

Dr. Betty Rosa just elected Chancellor of the Regents!

The tabloids are crying that this is the end of ed deform.
Kudos to Leonie Haimson whose hard work played a role in making this happen.

A little celebratory ditty from Fred Smith

Merryl T we roll along
Roll along, roll along.
Merryl T we'll roll along;
Your Core was Level I.

Betty's here to right the wrongs.
May she stay strong where she belongs.
Betty's here to fight the wrongs
And she speaks the truth.

Betty's here. She knows the score.
'Bout Common Core and much more.
Betty's here. She's Level 4.
At last we have real hope.

Fred

ATRS Targeted by Brienza Consultant Firm Formerly Run by Mulgrew's Sister

An ATR told me an interesting story. In addition to a field

supervisor, he was also visited by some guy from a company called Brienza Academic Advantage who told him they were hired by the DOE to "assist" ATRs - read that as - "assist the DOE in getting rid of" ATRs who have been targeted.

Michael Mulgrew's sister, Kathleen Mulgrew-Daretany, was the COO of Brienza, as reported by Sue Edelman in an April 28, 2013 article:

During her leave, Mulgrew-Daretany worked as chief operating officer for Brienza’s Academic Advantage, a Brooklyn-based company that sells teacher-training seminars and student tutoring. She is listed as COO in a Brienza’s organizational chart filed with the DOE. She left “last year,” a company official said.

DOE payments to Brienza’s rose from $5,109 in 2002 to $10.9 million in 2012, when the city received No Child Left Behind funds for after-school tutoring, officials said.

What happened when this Brienza guy observed the ATR? Well, the ATR was not actually teaching a class but in there to assist another teacher and during the lesson played no role at all.

So how astounded was he when this Brienza guy tells him he wants to meet on the ATRs prep to discuss his "lesson" and see where it could be improved.

"But I didn't teach a lesson," says the ATR.

The Brienza guy ignores what he said and insists there was a lesson.

Surreal in some worlds, but in the tangled relationship between the UFT and the DOE, business as usual.

Let's follow the bouncing ball:

• The UFT abandons ATRs to the fates and refuses to give them any representation by allowing them their own chapter. 
• When challenged the UFT/Unity leadership says "ATRs are not a permanent position."
• The DOE agrees with their partners at the UFT - that the ATRs are not permanent and has a plan to phase them out. They spend an enormous amount of money hiring field supervisors - known among many ATRs as "failed supervisors" in previous positions.
• In addition to the failed supervisors being used to go after ATRs we now find out that they have hired Brienza, whose COO was the sister of the UFT president.
• Brienza is clearly hired not to assist the ATRs but to assist the field/failed supervisors in removing ATRs who become a target.
• They are all being very careful to make sure that when they observe the ATRs they are covering in their license areas and they often badger the people in the schools to make sure to get certain classes for the ATR, better if they are the worst classes in the school -- yes, some people at the school level are annoyed enough at these FS and consultants to be supportive of ATRs whom they think are doing a good job in a bad situation.  

In all of my criticism of the UFT I rarely accuse the leadership of out and out corruption. But someone explain to me how they are so silent while enormous amounts of money is being spent to monitor people who are in essence substitute teachers. In the over 100 year history of the NYC school system, have outside agents ever been hired to monitor subs? So we know that the way a sub does his or her job is and has always been irrelevant as long as they are not utter incompetents.

So it is clear that the very purpose of field supervisors and Brienza is to get rid of people by putting enough pressure on them to get them to leave. We know that there are union officials who have been told about these stories. Public silence.

That the UFT/Unity Caucus leadership is complicit even if not outright, but by their silence.

An ATR Tells Us a Story - Where is the UFT's Plan of Assistance to Defend an ATR Under Assault?

A MORE contact, a former chapter leader, reached out to us

Support should be in quotes

because she felt an ATR who was rotated into her school and had impressed many people, was being set up by the field supervisor (failed supervisor in many cases).

In one of the best conversations I've had with an ATR, it took a few fascinating hours for me to get the full story from the ATR and it is clear there is an unfair vendetta going on coming from the field supervisor on up. Other than one scumbag principal, the other schools being rotated into have been fairly supportive and even in some cases resisted attempts to set him up. (Yes there are witnesses to requests that he be given the worst class timed to the field supervisor visit.)

I got names and numbers as we worked up the chain of command but still have to do more digging.

Because our primary aim is to protect the ATR we are treading very carefully and not publishing many details and may not be able to do so until things are further along in the process. The good thing is that the fear he was operating under seems to have been broken once it became clear what his fate will be.

We are also developing a strategy of defense that goes beyond the narrow confines of what the UFT offers, which is precious little. One of the options on the table is trying to use contacts in MORE to look for job openings that might free him from ATR status (One MORE CL has already gotten 4 ATRs regular jobs in his school.)

When and if the full story comes out we will see just how the UFT does as little as it can. Like when you ask if the DOE people can do something that is outrageous the UFT response is "they can." End of story -- no sense that they will try to fight the rule that allows the response "they can."

This ATR has been in a lot of schools and has a smart analysis of what is working and what is not in each one. A deep repository of knowledge of just how deep this system sucks resides in the body of ATRs - and this is just one part of the story of why the DOE wants to break so many ATRs to the point where they appear to be paranoiac lunatics.

While he says in every school most teachers are miserable, there are still a bunch of schools where he came away with respect for the principal and the rest of the administration. There was only one school with an awful principal and when we can we will expose the school and the principal. We will also praise and slam the particular people up and down the line who helped or acted like slime.

Included is an interesting story about a consulting firm hired to help go after ATRs that has ties to the Mulgrew family.

One clear sign you have become a target - whether an ATR or not - is when they ask you to sign the dreaded "Plan of Assistance" and the "log of assistance" where they demonstrate how they "helped" you.

Maybe it is time for ATRs to ask the UFT for a plan of assistance on how they will stand up for you and keep their own log of non-assistance.

Help the IS 192Q FLL Robotics Team Go to the Nationals in St. Louis

I spent part of last Friday and all day Saturday at the Javitz Convention Center at the FIRST Lego League (FLL - ages 9-14) 80 team robotics competition where I have been a volunteer since I retired from the NYC school system 14 years ago. This year’s theme was “Trash Trek” where the project mission was to make less trash or improve the way people handle the trash we make. The teams had to run a robot three times on a field where they had to complete missions related to the trash concept within 2.5 minutes for each run. They also had to go before a panel of judges and present a research project related to topic in addition to a technical presentation showing how they built and programmed their robot. The overall winner is chosen based on all these factors.

This year’s winner was the team from IS 192Q from the St. Albans area of eastern Queens which is coached by Eric Greene who won for the first time. Eric has been a heroic figure for me since he joined our program 14 years ago as he managed to keep the robotics program going through all these years. This was no light victory since the competition came from many of the most elite private schools in the city which have many more resources than Eric has. Eric can now take his team to St. Louis for the international championship but needs to raise funds to do so. The team is from a lower middle class area (hard-working parents making ends meet), with possibly a few kids from the lower income level; it is a mixed income area. Eric is running a Go Fund Me Campaign and put out this request for assistance:

The FLL Champion robotics team from IS 192Q in St.Albans - Help to St. Louis

“We are the Robotics Team from IS 192 in St. Albans, Queens, New York. The team is made of seventh and eighth grade students. We just won the 1st Place Champion’s Award at the NYC FIRST LEGO League Championship tournament. Our team is now invited to the FIRST (World) Championship tournament in St. Louis, Mo. This event will take place April 27 to April 30. There are 14 members on the team. We would like everyone to but some families are unable to afford the trip. The money will go toward airfare, hotel, meals, and other expenses. We need the money as soon as possible so we can plan the trip and see how many students and parents would like to go and who needs financial help. It would be great if they all could go because everyone contributed to the team’s success.”

Here is the site if you want to help: www.gofundme.com/eru9tz9q

UFT Elections and #MORE2016: What is to be learned?

MORE is getting requests for election literature from people we don't know. I made a bunch of drops at schools yesterday (and stuffed some boxes in schools where we don't have a contact.) Is that a good sign? Maybe.

When some of my young colleagues in MORE get overly excited I play the role of Debby Downer. I've seen this movie too often in the past. As my old pal Jeff Kaufman told me this past weekend: things must change drastically externally before the union will change. While the loudest anti-Unity voices seem to think things have changed drastically over the last 15 years - and in some ways they certainly have changed - I think they ain't seen nothin' yet. We have seen a  slow-drip of losses coming out of an alliance of the UFT, DOE and CSA. The UFT control of communications has kept most UFT members from hearing all the stories. Most are not blog readers.

The major role I see UFT elections playing is offering an opposition an opportunity to extend and build their own communication network. But if that network only operates during the brief election period every 3 years, that is just marking time.
My major goal in this election is to extend whatever network MORE has and get it to operate on a permanent basis to bring information and goad people towards being more active in the union.

Ed Notes readers should know what I think of UFT elections - they are a distraction. But they are also a way to galvanize people, at least for a time. I'm not sure why some people get excited for an election that is pre-determined but I guess hope springs eternal. Dozens of people you talk to say they don't like the union leadership and in your mind it becomes hundreds. And then you find that even the those people forgot to vote.

Remember how much opposition there was to the last contract? Well, pretty much the same 75% that matches the rough Unity vote voted for the contract. The major difference between the contract vote and the UFT election vote was that 92% of UFT members voted while 20% vote in the UFT elections. And don't forget that retirees vote in the latter. Yet the percentages voting for the Unity line were similar. What I did see was a batch people who were so turned off by the contract that they came to MORE and are now key people and also, encouraged by MORE, have taken on the job of chapter leader.

Some people have surmised that the 20,000 NO contract voters might be pissed enough to vote opposition to Unity which would definitely raise the opposition totals this time. I am not getting my hopes up. I don't measure things by votes but by the people who jump into the water and sign on to help build an opposition to Unity. We have a new MORE steering committee with such people.

Each of those people bring their schools and their social network along by sharing information on what the union leadership is doing. And that can translate into votes. I'd have to see hundreds of people doing this before I become an optimist.

I know that in each election in the past, even for a hardened realist like me, my expectations exceeded the outcomes. This time I think I have finally lowered my expectations to a point where they match reality. But surprise me, please!

I am most interested in helping build a long-term infrastructure for an opposition caucus that can one day challenge the Unity Caucus machine. I constantly look within MORE for signs of that happening and I can see how the election process offers hope for  progress as more people get involved. Given past history, many election activists are just that -- active during elections. Makes sense because there are concrete things to do. The problem for a group like MORE has been the interregnum between elections when the level of activity and commitment drops.

I can see MORE already thinking beyond the election - to the summer series of educational workshops, a regular newsletter using the distribution network, advocacy for the groups in the UFT not being dealt with fairly -- untenured, senior teachers being pushed out, schools threatened with receivership, ATRs, rubber roomers, paperwork overload -- I would love to push for a job action on this -- extending the opt out movement -- freeing teachers from threats if they talk to parents. (I think there may be some surprises brewing in the NYC opt out numbers this year.) But MORE can't just complain about these situations. It has to actively go out and try to organize these people into a force for their own interests. MORE people have to think more like organizers than just activists. Organizers don't pontificate or run to every rally. They get names and numbers and do follow-up calls and go out and meet with people where they are at and build networks. There are precious few of those.

For me, the election period can't end too soon - and it will at the end of May -- so MORE can get on with the intense work that has to be done by a fairly small group of dedicated people who will continue to stand up for what is right.

On Guns and the Apple Privacy Battle - It's About Protecting US from Abusive Dictators

I watched the 60-minute segment last night on Encryption and things suddenly became crystal clear. Using the word "privacy" makes it seem that we are willing to let terrorists be protected so we can keep our precious emails private. But watching that Russian guy who wrote a program to protect dissidents in Russia and had to leave the country for his own protections made it so clear this is not about our emails.

If there were cell phones in Hitler's day would we advocate relaxing encryption so the Gestapo could root out opponents? Since most of the world is under some authoritarian rule and we claim we are for democratic movements, then handing the keys to these dictators to root out not terrorists but those who are trying to organize opposition to these dictators.

And we know full well we may not be all that far away from facing our own fascist dictatorship here. Imagine trying to protest a president Trump as his version of the Brown shirts go after you?
The ability to organize, which terrorists are using, becomes our tool when we are oppressed.

As for guns - well think of the registration issue and how that would be used by a dictator to send people to your house to confiscate them. We know the right wing charges that Obama was going to do that were a joke. But what happens when the shoe is on the other foot and the right is in control? They will have the guns and the progressives won't.

Can we become Russia when we have a Putin-like president who has the support of 90% of the people?  Or worse, Germany where Hitler was enormously popular? If you are a student of history it is not far to get from there to here. And will the day come when the only option you might have left as a dissident is to become a terrorist yourself?

Just some thoughts on a rainy Monday morning.

#MORE2016: Hard to Keep Up With MOREs All Over the Place

Jake Jacobs, ‎New York BATs, MORE candidate for UFT Ex Bd At-large

March 11 

FULL HOUSE IN NEW PALTZ: Amazing job at public education forum at SUNY New Paltz tonight with Jia Lee, Marla Kilfoyle, Lisa Platt-Rudley, Bianca Tanis and Zephyr Teachout

I got there a bit late, but I heard Jia Lee talk about creating superior alternatives to testing in practice, as she uses in her school, and the risks she had to take in becoming an opt-out parent and teacher. Marla's dramatic ... See More

— with Jia Lee, Marla Kilfoyle, Lisa Platt-Rudley and Zephyr Teachout.

Over the weekend, MORES were involved in a meeting and also this event in Jackson Heights:

Good turnout today of concerned Jackson Heights parents who - like so many others - aren't happy with the current state of public education in NYC. MORE teachers were in attendance, and the opt out workshops had the greatest number of participants.....Katie Lapham

MORE's Kevin Prosen, standing

You know I was concerned that the UFT election would be a distraction for MORE and keep them from doing their basic organizing work. But as you can see above, MOREs are out there. Jia Lee was in some select company at New Paltz as reported by NYCBAT Jake Jacobs. The growing ties between MORE and the BATS is a move in the right direction and Jia deserves a lot of the credit for her tireless work in building bridges toward a movement that goes beyond a narrow caucus interested only in challenging the union leadership. I view the movement as building a wall around the leadership and trapping them in their own little world - a disconnected leadership head with no body.

Peter Zucker realizes the remarkable qualities of MORE and Jia in this incisive post that in so many ways expresses MORE in ways that people deep on the inside haven't been able to. Peter, coming from the outside after having left MORE for a while perhaps has a more perceptive view. I had to miss Saturday's meeting because of robotics but hearing from Marilena and Peter below gives me an idea I missed a good one. From what I know, Peter and Marilena are very different politically yet both had such positive feelings about the MORE meeting. Meetings, frankly, in the early days, often led to some friction. Hopefully this is a sign of smoothing the edges but I have to give Jia Lee a large amount of credit for helping smooth these edges.

Hey all,

If you didn't get a chance to attend Saturday's election rally, you missed a truly inspiring and inspired afternoon. I haven't been able to attend MORE events in a while but I'm so glad I didn't miss today. I walked outta the LGBT center feeling hope and pride. Executive slate members - your leadership, thoughtfulness, creativity and passion was truly felt. It's Saturday and y'all deserve a toast - along with everyone else who's been doing the hours and hours of behind the scenes organizing, discussing, emceeing, hosting, etc.

Cheers,
Marilena

SOUTH BRONX SCHOOL

I Really Now Get It About MORE - I get it. I really, truly, finally get MORE. Driving home from the MORE meeting today I had an epiphany (If that is what you want to call it)

During the breakout sessions today I was commiserating with Jia Lee about this and that. The subject came around to how I had a shitty personal week and I started to share with her some of what I had gone through during my exile from the DOE.

Jia was so empathetic, so calming in her tone, her manner, and her words that I felt safe to open up. In fact so safe, I asked Lauren Cohen, knowing what she had gone through in the past, to join in.

And as the three of us were talking both their words and actions dawned on me which only finally hit me once I was in The Bronx.

MORE is not just a caucus looking to unseat the powers of the UFT. MORE is a place where teachers, educators, families, and the community can come and get support and not be judged nor looked down upon. Anyone can reach out to anyone at MORE and not be asked anything in return other than you walk away feeling better.  ..

Every time I talk with Jia I learn something new. Jia is a wealth of knowledge. Not just with education and unions. But of writers, historical facts pertaining to the working people, and to philosophies that affect us all. Isn't this someone that we need to lead a our union?

I'm happy enough to have Jia helping lead MORE.

Arthur Goldstein at NYC Educator says:

I'm very proud to be running on the MORE/ New Action High School slate, headed by James Eterno, one of the most knowledgeable and experienced unionists it's been my pleasure to know. This is who I want representing NYC high school teachers. We have not taken oaths to rep leadership in lieu of membership and we never will.

My former neighbor Josmar Trujillo, not a teacher, posted this on FB:

The best recognition you can get: young people.
MELS Middle School in Queens profiled a bunch of activists for their book. Lucky enough to be one of them! Big smile on my face now... And Timothy Ford & David Garcia-Rosen. Now that's good company!

So here's another MORE, David Garcia-Rosen, a fellow candidate like Arthur for the high school executive board, being recognized for his amazing work in organizing athletic leagues for underserved small schools. 

Eric Draitser Here's my interview with Jia back in November http://store.counterpunch.org/jia-lee-mercedes-schneider.../

What to Make of "I'm for Bernie or Donald?" Who's to Blame for Trump?

To imagine that Donald Trump is a sort of comb-over John the Baptist for some eventual progressive Jesus is a fiction we force on ourselves by faith, not by reading history. For most of the last century, progressives of various sorts were always convinced that nationalist self-assertion could be magically transmuted into progressivism. By “heightening the contradictions” or showing “capitalism with the gloves off,” authoritarian contempt for parliamentary democracy might be magically transmuted from the wrong kind of rage into the right kind of reform.... Adam Gropnik, The New Yorker ---

This comment really touches on an element of the Bernie-Trump axis which is the theme of this piece.

A few hours ago we received a photo from my brother in law of my sister in law wearing a Trump shirt - they are at the Trump rally in Boca and believe me it is not to protest. My wife is virulently anti-Trump and sent back some little ditty. I just laughed. Passover this year will be fun as my wife includes a Trump button on the sedar plate as a substitute for the bitter herbs. I can't wait to read the section where we name the plagues: vermin, frogs, boils, the first born, Trump.

A transcript of our festive meal would reveal the underlying truths of Bernie, Trump and Hillary supporters. I think the April 19 NY primary comes before the festive meal so we will have lots to have a food fight about.

 ...nationalism sufficiently strident can get by with an eclectic or completely vague economic program both in promise and in practice. Fascism may have appealed to the economically insecure, but it did not appeal by giving them an economic answer. It appealed by giving them an enemy. As in France, or throughout Europe now, the extreme right flourishes not because there is insecurity but because they have an answer for insecurity: blame the Muslims (they’ve also blamed the Jews, though they’re quieter about that right now). Or: blame the Muslims and the Mexicans. They work, in the classic manner, not by providing answers to insecurity but by blurring the lines between genuine anxieties and imaginary fears and then by offering an imaginary solution—the Jews/Muslims/terrorists/Commies who are coming—to the imaginary fears as though that would alleviate the real anxieties.... Adam Gropnik, The New Yorker ---

Gropnik identifies himself as a conservative and his piece below my commentary is worth reading.

He touches on the Ted Cruz charge that Obama is to blame for Trump:

It isn’t Trump or his followers who are really to blame for his rise; it’s the circumstances that produced them and the guys, chiefly liberals, who they think created those circumstances.

Not that this is what they are talking about but is there some sort of Bernie-Trump axis and Trump's trying to blame Bernie for the protests is a sign that he recognizes that lurking among Bernie supporters are people who will support him?

The other day a Bernie supporter called the Brian Lehrer show and said if Bernie doesn't get the nomination he would vote for Trump over Hillary. Brian was astounded, not only at the notion but that this was a respected progressive caller who had called a number of times in the past with a high degree of credibility. Brian asked him to explain. He said he could not vote for a corporate, free trade Democrat once again and would prefer to take a shot with Trump. Are there progressives for Trump who are just ashamed to say so?

I wrote about this Trump-Bernie axis on Dec. 30: The Trump Whisperers in Supposedly Liberal Circles.

Now that Trump is making the ridiculous claim that the Bernie campaign is sending protesters to disrupt the Trump rallies - which I believe actually wins Trump more supporters -- and is threatening to send people to disrupt Bernie events we are reaching a new wrinkle where the other candidates, even Hillary, are pushed to the side. Really, if Bernie thinks he can be the nominee who better to run against than Trump?

I remember waking up in the morning WINS reporting on the Bobby Kennedy assassination. It is indelible in my memory. You know we've seen the possible future in the past when violence erupted which led to assassination attempts and scapegoating - ie George Wallace, the Kennedys, King. Can't you just see some Republican Party saviors looking for a Mexican they can scapegoat an pin an attempt on Trump on - if you believe the conspiracy theories of the past, why not? I have also been worried about Hillary given the hatred she inspires. But I also worry about Obama even if not a fan - I still do and only hope all ends well.
Are we in 1968 territory?

Anyway, our teacher pals in Chicago played a role in the shutting down of the Trump rally on Friday. I have mixed feelings on these protests but haven't sorted it all out yet. I am not a protester in that way. I prefer doing things outside rather than inside.

One of the links between Bernie and Trump is economic woe with the free trade issue at a focal point. Gropnik addresses and disparages this notion:

There’s often a strong need on the part of progressive people to believe that all ailments are essentially economic and that, therefore, if there is a political program that isn’t economic in its emphasis it must be surreptitiously economic in its real purpose. It’s a little like Freudian analysis: since all neuroses are sexual traumas, then a sexual trauma will always be found. But one of the fundamental and tragic lessons of the last century is that nationalism can exist on its own as a cause and faith and belief attached to the most meagre shreds of any kind of economic project. That’s the way Mussolini worked, or, later, Berlusconi. People still identify—yes, let’s go there—Hitler’s rise with the currency inflation of the Weimar Republic. And yet that panic had already passed; Hitler’s appeal, as any reader of “Mein Kampf” can find, was very marginally about economic grievances, almost entirely to feelings of aggrieved identity and unavenged humiliation.

In a follow-Up post I will offer the other side - where the thinking is that Trump is more populist than racist.

Here is the full Adam Gropnik piece.

March 9, 2016

Roots and Rot: Dodging the Blame for Donald Trump

By Adam Gopnik

http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/roots-and-rot-dodging-the-blame-for-donald-trump 

#MORE2016 @NYCORE: Building a Teacher Movement Through the UFT Elections

MORE and Change the Stakes is involved in 3 workshops at next week's NYCORE conference which is expected to attract a 1000 attendees. I'll be there taping the keynote and hanging out with lots of good people.  Here is the message sent out by Presidential candidate Jia Lee.

Dear Friends!

MORE is excited to be hosting, once again, at NYCoRE's Conference Day, held on Saturday, March 19th (9:30-6:00)
Location: James Baldwin School, 351 West 18th Street Manhattan, NY 10011

Workshop Session 2 (2-3:30): Building a Teacher Movement Through the UFT Elections ECE, MH 106 

The 2016 UFT Elections this April is an opportunity to organize and mobilize rank and file teachers in NYC. Last election, less than 20% of active members voted. This is indicative of a mass sentiment of disempowerment and lack of voice in our union and profession. Join the Movement of Rank and File educators for a discussion on the nuts and bolts of the election, as well as a historical context. Participants will collaborate around strategies to get out the vote and to spark conversations at their schools around how our working conditions directly impact our students’ learning conditions.

AND PLEASE JOIN US FOR THIS IMPORTANT DISCUSSION! It's time to put an end to Receivership NOW! 

Workshop Session 3 (3:45-5:15pm): Receivership Schools: Stop the Policy NOW! MH, ECE 101

Under recently passed laws, schools that are categorized as falling in the bottom 5% of “low performing” schools can be placed into receivership, where the state will appoint an “independent receiver.” This can be a person or organization, including a charter chain, to run the school.  The receiver has authority to change the calendar, dictate instructional approaches and remove staff. Of the 144 schools on the NYS Receivership list, 62 of them in NYC. Members of the NYS Receivership and NYC Renewal Schools Action Group and Change the Stakes are working together to discredit and end the NYS Receivership policy.
Aixa Rodriguez: Teaches ESL at Foreign Language Academy for Global Studies,in the Bronx. Jane Maisel: Member of Change the Stakes & teaches in School of Education at CCNY.

AND Please Join the parents and educators of NYC Opt Out 

Workshop Session 1: (11:15-12:45) NYC Opt Out: This is the Crucial Year!
101

Last spring approximately 20% of NYS families opted out of the Grade 3-8 high stakes tests. Despite all our efforts to stop NYS Education Department’s damaging policies, the only protest the NYSED has noticed is Opt Out. In response, NYSED has recently tried to stifle protest with a combination of threats and superficial changes, while leaving in place the most damaging aspects of high stakes testing, which hit low-income communities hardest. In this practical session we will share strategies and plan together. Those from outside NYC are also welcome. It’s time to finally end high stakes testing!  

KEYNOTE: Bettina Love featuring Justis Lopez

Register Today!

Check out Schedule

 

A (Tiring) Day of Robotics at Javits

Masters of ceremonies Mareen and John flank one of my favorite coaches, Eric Greene, who ended up winning the Championship after 14 years as a coach. He will be taking his team to St. Louis for the internationals. Retired NYC teacher and master coach Veryl Greene (no relation) mentored the team.

Congrats to Eric Greene and mentor Veryl Greene (no relation) for winning the New York City FLL championship yesterday. Eric, after 14 years of coaching, is taking his school from St. Albans, Queens to the international event in St. Louis.

Boy am I wiped. I dragged myself into the house at 7 last night without chills, without a voice and very hungry. This was my 15th year at a FIRST LEGO League robotic championship, the last 14 as volunteer. I became a volunteer for FLL soon after I retired in 2002, so I am pretty attuned to the support and lack of from the DOE over this time. I'll get to this in a followup post but first I posted this on facebook with my photos:

Oh what a day yesterday at the FIRST Lego league (age 9-14) 80 team event, Junior FLL (age 6-9) and 3 day first robotics high schools from as far away as London, Brazil and Far Rockaway at Javits convention center Saturday March 12.

To make it clear, there are 3 concurrent events.

FIRST LEGO League was an all-day event on Saturday with 80 teams, including public, charter, private, neighborhood home-schooled teams and for profit orgs where parents pay to enroll their kids on a team. I have seen the public school share of teams drop drastically over the years I have been involved, which spans the years from Harold Levy through Bloomberg and Di Blasio. I will address this issue in another post, especially since Carmen Farina spoke and lamented the fact that the event was not dominated by public schools -- she should look in the mirror if she's looking for a reason.

The high school kids (FRC), who come from many public NYC schools  began to arrive Thursday evening  to set up their pit areas. Friday was for practice and tuning their robots. Saturday and Sunday was the competition. I went back to the FRC pits on Friday and was surprised to see a team from Far Rockaway HS Campus, the Queens HS for Information, Research and Technology. The students beamed when my pal Tony Homsey told them we were from Rockaway. I asked if they knew Jeff Kaufman who is not teaching socials studies and coding at the school and they were so excited at the mention of his name. Saturday Jeff,  who is running on the MORE slate for Exec Bd at Large, did come and we had a great chat with a lot of insight about a small school with a good principal who Jeff admires. In all my years of knowing Jeff I have never heard him say nice things about his principal. This guy must be gold. Jeff introduced me to the coach who also happens to read my School Scope column in The Wave. What a task he has taken on to do this work. The team, which won the FIRST rookie award, is called Birch Bots. Here are some photos I took of the team:

A team member collecting memos.

So many people I knew stopped by the pit admin station where I was on duty all day, including Sterling Roberson from the UFT. Farina spoke at the opening but I was too busy to go over and hear her.  My question to Farina and the UFT:  Do they offer real support or a photo op?

More photos:

 Here are some Junior FLL photos at their exhibition for ages 6-9.

The participation medals - long time Staten Island coach Ray Cottrell, center

Old pal Laura Allen of RoboFun stopped by.

Popular every year: Talking robot

The pits

It really was the longest day. After a Friday night of revelry at the

The kids at the RTC

Rockaway Theatre Company gala event at El Caribe, it was out of the house at 6:30 to pick up fellow volunteer Tony Homsey. We didn't get back to Rockaway until 7 PM. I had and have no voice, which my wife is celebrating.