Memo from the RTC: How Many Chorus Line Members Can You Fit on the Head of a Pin?

My final column on A Chorus Line. The mirrors are tucked away (they must be distorted because as I was carrying them they made me look so fat) and we have a good deal of the set for the next show, Neil Simon's Rumors, up already. And next Saturday is the first read through of this summer's Producers.

Memo from the RTC: How Many Chorus Line Members Can You Fit on the Head of a Pin?

By Norm Scott

For someone who didn’t care for A Chorus Line when I first saw the original on Broadway, I keep asking myself why I liked the Rockaway Theatre Company production so much better. Of course the acting, singing and most importantly, the dancing is professional level – that’s a given at the RTC. But I also think it is the intimacy of the Post theater compared to big Broadway houses where you don’t get to see the actors tell their stories up close.

Anyway, I went back to tape the final show on Saturday night, this time from a somewhat precarious perch sitting atop the sound booth, but oh what a view. I figured the cast might be a bit tired after doing a matinee but this performance was as top notch as the previous three I had seen.

Catherine Leib as Cassie doing her final dip

Last week I went through as many of the vast cast as I could before running out of my allotted word count and want to continue in this final column on the show. Bay Ridge’s John Panepinto (Greg), who brings his signing, dancing and acting chops to almost every show at the RTC, makes a distinct impression with a funky costume and a noticeable dialect. Erech Holder-Hetmeyer (Ritchie), a Murrow HS grad a few years ago who debuted at the RTC last year in La Cage as the whip bearing Cagelle, is fast becoming an RTC favorite as he brings a 4^th dimension to acting, singing and amazing dancing with his athleticism. Erech and John will be joining the cast of The Producers this summer and John is also playing a major role in the upcoming Rumors opening May 19 and playing for only two weekends.

Adding newcomers to the RTC to casts has become a staple and renews the talent pool. Chloe Carlston (Maggie) adds a big voice while Avital Asuleen (Sheila) captures the stage with her sassy performance. Nic Anthony Calabro (Mike) came all the way from Westchester to perform in this street smart role while Mai Odaira (Connie) came from even further away – Saitama, Japan, the third Japanese native to work with the RTC. Ashley Ann Jones (Judy) comes from Missouri (I think) and impresses in the first minute of the show with her ditzy performance. Ensemble cast members playing the first dancers cut at the beginning of the show (Dante Rei, Jessica Mintzes, Alex Stabiner, Samantha Braga, Matt Leonen) joined backstage pit singers Jodee Timpone and Steven Wagner to add voice to the dancers singing on stage.

At the very end of the show the entire stage lights up and the audience breaks out into cheers, not realizing they are applauding RTC lighting guru Andrew Woodbridge. Managing all the sound coming from all the remote mics over the past year has been local resident Daniel Fay who is a major find for the RTC. He works with RTC jack of all trades Rich Louis-Pierre who also plays bass in the band. Rich is one of the major architects of the RTC experience. As usual, Producer Susan Jasper delivers what actors and directors need in her very special way.

Susan also delivered the news to me on Saturday night that I was playing the judge in the Producers this summer. “Do you think you can manage four lines,” she said? I better start studying now. And once again, thanks to Directors Susan Corning and David Risley, musical director Jeff Arzberger and choreographer Nicola DePierro Nellen for bringing this great show to Rockaway.

The cast party began soon after the show ended Saturday night with great food. Antonio Oliveri, veteran actor at the RTC at the tender age of 20, who played Al in the show and did that great duet with Gabby Mangano, set up is DJ kit on stage and all those “tired” dancers despite doing two shows that day were still going when I left the theater at 1 AM.

The last word: Congratulations to one of RTC’s stellar performers Renee Steadman on her April 10 wedding, the afternoon after the show closed, an event many of the RTC company attended – those that could still stand up. Also congrats to her mom Denise Eversley, who put up with my dancing with her in La Cage and her sister Jannicke Steadman. The entire family will be in the cast of The Producers this summer.

When Norm is not practicing his 4 lines so Susan doesn’t yell at him, he blogs at ednotesonline.com.

on CPE1: Norm in The Wave - Legendary Progressive School Under Assault

The Binder

CPE1 Update: 
Parent and teacher reps met for hours yesterday with the Chancellor's "team" which included Phil Weinberg, Laura Feijoo, Louis Herrera, Yolanda Torres. A group of supporters sat on the steps of Tweed as a show of support. A 120 page binder listing Garg transgressions, including violating numerous chancellor regs, was handed over.

Below is my column this week, a brief attempt to explain the CPE1 situation to the Rockaway community in a nutshell.

Published in The Wave, April 14, 2017
http://www.rockawave.com/node/243225?pk_campaign=Newsletter

Legendary Progressive School Under Assault

 
Parents support UFT Chapter leader Marilyn Martinez at her hearing. When I was a young teacher dreaming about teaching in a child-centered progressive school (which I never got to do), the model school set up in East Harlem (District 4) in the mid-1970s by Debbie Meier, one of the gods of teaching in this country for 50 years, was a magnet for teachers and parents looking for alternative ways of working with kids that were far from the mainstream. Central Park East (CPE) became a nationwide model, offering elementary school children a private school model of education and making it available to parents who did not have the means to send their kids to elite schools. A major component of such education in Debbie’s vision was a non-segregated and diverse population that would be roughly one third black, Latino and white in a neighborhood where such an option was not available. Call it the one of the early concepts of choice within a public school system which is so pushed by the charter school lobby. Debbie won a McArthur Genius Award for her ground breaking work in New York and in Boston.

The CPE model was the furthest thing from today’s no excuses, test-driven, anti-union, rigid, corporate as opposed to student-driven charter factory floor concepts.

People from all over the nation came to study the practices in the school, which involved student choices in what they would learn, in addition to a wide degree of latitude for teachers; a democratically run school where major decisions on hiring and practices were decided jointly by teachers and administrators with a lot of parent input. Principals sometimes referred to themselves as “head teachers.” The closest model in Brooklyn is the Brooklyn New School in Park Slope.

The original CPE, now known as CPE1, was replicated into a CPE 2 and then a CPE middle and high school, though over the time the practices diverged in the different schools. CPE1 was the school that retained many of the original constructs, one of which is that testing is the least important aspect of a rich education in an elementary school especially since our youngest children grow at different rates intellectually and emotionally and branding kids based on test scores at such an early age is debilitating. Thus most parents who choose to send their kids – in fact, fight to send their kids – to the few progressive public schools there are have been opting out of taking tests once they became the measure of success and drowned out all the other factors of what makes for a good school and a good education.

In the past year and a half, CPE1 progressive education, the teaching staff and the majority of parents have come under attack by the Department of Education with the installation of a principal, Monika Garg, who has no experience in progressive education, was a high school administrator with little or no knowledge of how elementary schools work, but especially of how CPE1 has operated through its history. Garg has gone after experienced and tenured teachers which culminated in the recent removal of chapter leader Marilyn Martinez, which has galvanized an already active parent group that has been fighting back against Garg and the DOE. At Martinez’ hearings, between 50 and 100 parents showed up in support. Last week, after a massively attended School Leadership Team (SLT) meeting that attracted over a hundred people, including State Senator Bill Perkins and former City Councilman Robert Jackson, the parents read a statement calling on Garg to resign.

Garg read her own statement refusing to resign saying that she answers only to her superiors, the Superintendent Alexander Estrella and Chancellor Farina. In our system the people running schools do not have to answer to the stakeholders – the parents, teachers, or the general community. Since the mayor was given control over the schools in this city in 2002, the arrogance of whoever is running the system, no matter what party, has only grown worse.

After the SLT meeting, parents at CPE1 were fed up enough to refuse to leave the auditorium and engaged in a sleep-in, not emerging until 9 a.m. the next morning. I was there to cover the story for my blog and The Wave, along with the NY Times, Wall St. Journal, WCBS, WNBC, The Daily News and other press.
I have been the only one embedded with the parents and teachers since I first met with them a year ago.

CPE 1 Parents Meet With DOE Officials at Tweed Today at 11AM -- Join Supporters Outside

Parent leaders of CPE1 are asking anyone available today at 10:45 to come to Tweed to support the parents and teachers before they go in for the meeting.

April 6: Massive police presence at rally 

Did de Blasio tell Farina to get a meeting with parents and teachers of CPE1? Hell yes. I heard one very liberal parent say last Friday that she would rather vote for a Republican than de Blasio unless the CPE1 situation was resolved.

After over a year of agitating at PEP meetings, rallies at Tweed and organizing the parents and community to call for the removal of Monika Garg, it took the sit-in at the auditorium following an SLT meeting last Thursday/Friday overnight and a phone call from a parent raising the issue with de Blasio on the Brian Lehrer show to get the DOE to invite parents and teachers (two of each) to Tweed today for an 11 AM meeting.

While one of the teachers should be Chapter Leader Marilyn Martinez, still banned from the school until the outcome of her hearing, the DOE is apparently pushing back on allowing her into Tweed. The story is that the UFT supposedly tried to get permission and at this point has not been successful.

This is clearly a show by the DOE to give some cover to de Blasio - lame duck Farina is irrelevant at this point - and we have seen the focus shifted to de Blasio whose base is being undermined by stories like this. While he doesn't face much of a challenge, the number of votes he gets make a difference and given the Trump win, anything is possible. If my local city councilman, Republican Erich Ulrich, had run I would have voted for him, that is how annoyed I am at deB over ed policies.

Now people are not going in with their eyes closed and understand this is a PR stunt of sorts and that the idea that Garg will be gone is not in the DOE game plan. The hostility is at such a high pitch, that there is no bridging the gap. How can teachers who have been under attack work under Garg? How can parents whose children have been called in and questioned in attempts to "get" something on their teachers without parent permission trust Garg?

So the outcome will be a promise to monitor the situation, etc, etc and to try to split the parents and make  the most militant look unreasonable. Now we do know that about a dozen parents and some teachers support Garg and the DOE is hoping to woo people over to that position and give those supporters a wedge. To me that is what this meeting is about. Stall until Garg can get a new batch of parents into the school to try to shift the balance of power -- and she has the ability to do that by manipulating the admission process. (I'll have more on how admission to CPE1 has worked over the years -- CPE 1 had the biggest waiting list per student of any school in the city according to some parents - before Garg, that is.

What next for parents? More sit-ins, boycotts, hunger strikes? Everything is on the table.

Keep up to date with the CPE1 story at: savecpe1.org and sign their petition.

Did Dems Blow Kansas Congressional Seat Because Candidate Was Bernie-Like?

The Nation:

Republicans proved to be savvy as the Kansas election approached. They recognized that Thompson’s old-school economic-populist campaign against Trump and Trumpism (as well as against unpopular Kansas Governor Sam Brownback and the Kansas-based Koch brothers) was closing the gap, and the GOP establishment panicked.

 National Democrats? Not so much. An election-eve story by CNN, headlined “GOP cavalry heads to Kansas ahead of close House election,” noted, “The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is not spending money on this race at all, and even the Kansas State Democratic Party rejected Thompson’s requests for funding for mailers.”
The DCCC made some last-minute calls, and a lot of excuses. There were even those who suggested that the strategy was to “fly under radar”—apparently missing the fact that Republican radar detected what was happening and mobilized at precisely the point when Democrats could have and should have moved money and attention to the race.
  https://www.thenation.com/article/coulda-woulda-shouda-democrats-miss-a-huge-opportunity-in-kansas/

 Thompson suggested that the tepid level of DC Democratic engagement with the Kansas race reflected “establishment thinking.”
Jim Dean, the chair of Democracy for America, was blunter. Dean hailed Thompson’s run—which DFA backed, along with Our Revolution, the group that evolved out of the Sanders presidential campaign. He celebrated Thompson’s aggressive approach, highlighted the role of grassroots activists in creating a “progressive surge,” and explained that “If we can make Republicans go into full-on freakout mode in a ruby red Kansas congressional district now, we have the power to rip the gavel out of Paul Ryan’s hands in November 2018.”
But Dean concluded with a cautionary note for the people at the top of the Democratic Party:

The article in The Nation calls upon the Democratic establishment to wake up but I don't hold out much hope. They would rather keep losing than give up control. That is the exact way our UFT/Unity Caucus leadership thinks -- rather than risk allowing anyone to get a foothold they will make no changes, even if faced with losing 30% of their dues payers.

UFT secures $62M loan for 50 Broadway

Someone make some sense of this. With possible loss of dues coming would you loan the UFT $62 million?


UFT secures $62M loan for 50 Broadway
BY CHRISTIAN BRAZIL BAUTISTA •   APRIL 11, 2017
Christian Brazil Bautista

An affiliate of trade union American Federation of Teachers has secured a $62 million loan for 50 Broadway in the Financial District. The ten-year, fixed rate loan was provided by Citigroup Global Markets.

The property, located between Exchange Place and Bowling Green, is a 37-story office and retail tower. The AFT affiliate, United Federation of Teachers Local 2, bought the 352,000 s/f building in 2002. Along with the acquisition, it also secured a net lease for the adjacent building at 52 Broadway. UFT and its affiliates currently lease 90,000 s/f in 50 Broadway. The trade union’s headquarters is spread out between the two buildings.

According to a press release from Cushman & Wakefield, the building, which is set to undergo lobby renovations, is currently 93.5 percent leased. Tenants in the building include the Center for Hearing and Communication and the Center for Employment Opportunities.

A Cushman & Wakefield team composed of Steve Kohn, Mark Ehlinger and Michael Collins arranged the loan.

Woodrow Wilson: The More We Know About the History of the Democratic Party, the Sicker They Look

I was taught early on by family members who survived the NY Times on Divisions in the Democratic Party

Woodrow Wilson

depression that the Democratic Party was better for working people than the Republicans. They loved FDR. But the more I learn FDR looks like an anomaly. After all, they were often viewed as the party of slavery -- note some interesting history I posted yesterday about party history preceding the civil war in the very first NY Times Magazine piece in 1896 when the party was also undergoing divisions:

When you think of it, the Dems didn't hold power from Lincoln through FDR in 1932 other than Woodrow Wilson 1912 -20  Grover Cleveland who was elected to two separate terms. But he was no progressive (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grover_Cleveland)

But what I want to talk about is the increasingly awful Woodrow Wilson, a man of supposedly high ideals but low in every other way. I'm watching the wonderful 3 part series on PBS on the Great War and Wilson is flat out a dog. A major racist who brought Jim Crow to Washington that lasted through the 1960s. He also dragged us into WWI and is the architect in many ways of us being the policemen of the world - a high level interventionist and globalist view. Until Wilson we mostly intervened in our own hemisphere - except for the 1898 war with Spain.

Imagine Wilson's making the world safe for democracy slogan while destroying democracy at home by having even people like Eugene Debs arrested for opposing the war. When you think about how people frame Trump as being an authoritatian threat to democracy, Wilson makes Trump look like a pussycat.

Now I say all of the above from the perspective of someone with a BA in history and 30 grad credits in history. So why do I feel I only recently have been getting a different view of Wilson that I had for decades? Maybe it was the way history was presented to us in school. A liberal and neo-liberal view that made Wilson look like a tragic hero instead of the dog he was.

NY Times on Divisions in the Democratic Party

 

NY Times Magazine, Sept. 6, 1896 - First edition ever

Just to illustrate that somethings don't change.

Fascinating stuff - read it all:

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1896/09/06/106885429.html?mcid=nyt&mc=einternal&subid=retention_dual%20subs&subid1=engagement&subid2=off%20the%20press&mi_u=1453561&pageNumber=18

Can You Live Blog from A Dead NYSUT?

So there is the beginning of talk of leaving NYSUT and forming a separate organization by some people. Spend a few days at a NYSUT RA and you wonder why this is the first time that talk has infiltrated into the mainstream.

Now will NYSUT die a formal death? Not as long as the big cities keep it going but in essence NYSUT is just an extension of the UFT, which we knew since it's founding in the early 70s was pretty much the truth, but with the election of former District rep Andy Pallotta it is formalized and to the smaller locals, this may be a breaking point but only if there is an alternative and that won't be so easy. I did hear that Stronger Together meetings were packed. Can ST put together enough of a committed coalition and go out seeking an alternative partner?

I am not saying NYSUT will disappear, but spiritually, NYSUT is dying, if it hasn't already done so.

I was at the NYSTU RA at the Hilton Saturday morning hanging with Jia Lee and Arthur Goldstein. We were in the balcony watching the big TV screen and I only woke up when another Unity Caucus slug called the question. We lasted until 11Am before going out for a bite to eat. We got back and I had a nice nap while wating for James Eterno to arrive but we couldn't stand it and left around 1:30.

I am glad that James Eterno was live blogging from the NYSUT RA:

• STRONGER TOGETHER LETTER TO MEMBERS
• LIVE BLOGGING FROM DEAD NYSUT RA
• LIVE BLOGGING FROM NYSUT REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY

Arthur Goldstein has also been blogging about NYSUT:

Ignoring Rank and File Not Paying Off for NYSUT. Or UFT.

Notes from NYSUT RA

The Sad Tale of UFT-Unity's Robo-Voters

Is there any real news to report other than Stronger Together didn't win? How about the final tallies so we get an idea of where things stand? Mike Antonucci, who likes to post union news that puts the unions in an unflattering light, didn't have to look very far this time.

Intercepts

Pallotta Elected NYSUT President; By How Much? Who Knows?

You mean they had an election and aren't reporting the numbers? They give Mike so much material:

To the surprise of absolutely no one, Andrew Pallotta was elected president of New York State United Teachers by delegates to the union’s representative assembly. What was his margin of victory? Well, we don’t know. The vote tallies were not announced to the public, nor to the delegates.
It could be a simple oversight or perhaps the results were embarrassing to the elected officers for one of two reasons: 1) it was too close; or 2) it was too much of a blowout.
Too close and it casts doubt on Pallotta’s support. Too large a victory and it casts doubt on how representative the NYSUT representative assembly is.
Before the convention, NYSUT was proud to boast that 88 percent of its members were represented. Only after repeated inquiries were made by some delegates was it revealed that only 48 percent of NYSUT locals were represented.

 The funniest thing in Mike's post are these comments from superslug NYSUT Treasurer Martin Messner:

As England was preparing for invasion during WWII, Winston Churchill said “We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”
And it is in that vein that we will prepare for the fights to come.
…We will fight this battle and, if we persist, our enemies won’t land on our shores.
Rather, like England, it will be us who storms across the channel to fight on their turf.

Right. The great appeasers in the AFT/NYSUT/UFT complex think they are Winston Churchill instead of Neville Chamberlain. When their leadership results in bigger threats to NYSUT than Friedrichs, they can hold up their 2 fingers and say "peace in our time."

CPE1 Update: Parents Emerge, The Press - WSJ Reporter favored Over NYT, Leonie on SLT Meeting, Breakfast with Parents

The truth is despite all his promises and talk about how unlike Bloomberg, he would listen to parents, our supposedly progressive Mayor Bill de Blasio and Chancellor Carmen Farina have been just as high-handed and dismissive of their concerns.... Leonie Haimson on SLT Meeting: https://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2017/04/amazing-evening-parents-and-teacher-sit.html

Parents came out an unfurled their banner.

April 7, 2017: 2PM

I'm just back from spending the day so far at CPE1 for the rally and the emerging by the people who spent the night in the auditorium. (See my earlier report --Parents Occupy Auditorium - Central Park East 1 Update: Rally, SLT Meeting and Overnight Stay Surrounded by Police)

I got there at 8:30 and there was a rally in front of the school. They ended occupation and came out for a press conference at around 9:30. I am putting up some brief video excerpts on my FB timeline. Go check them out.

There was some press there this morning - NBC, CBS, NY Times - Kate Taylor was there last night too. There was muttering by some over the disappointing reporting she has done on education in general and on her previous report on CPE1 - like having a link to the website of a principal supporter but not the savecpe1 site. So they don't expect much -- like if 20 people speak against Garg and 5 for she will include a quote from one on each side, thus inferring an equal split.

So it was interesting after the press conf when they went back into the school to meet with YAUDOES - Yet Another Useless DOE Slug -- that someone said to wait outside to speak to Leslie Brody from the Wall St Journal who is a good reporter. How interesting that people seem to mistrust the so-called liberal NY Times and have more faith in Rupert's WSJ.

I'm more skeptical but when Leslie arrived I listened in to her questions and she was the only reporter who really seemed interested in what has made CPE a progressive school -- stuff came out that I wasn't aware of. Now the article she writes will be small and probably won't include much if any of what they said, but at least she asked.

She had already left when the people who spent the night without sleep came out from the meeting and packed up to go home and get some sleep.

I spoke at length to a guy named Bruce, who was a teacher at CPE1 and then the principal at CPE2 who filled me in on some remarkable stuff (his wife still teaches at CPE1). We are same gen and talked about the old days and found we knew lots of people -- he was in Teachers Action Caucus - TAC - which morphed into New Action and we know lots of people in common. He did look so familiar. And after he left I asked his last name and it is Bruce Kanze who I did really know back then. Bruce told me today the essence of the problem is that they just don't trust teachers and CPE1 did - until Monika Garg showed up as an agent from the DOE to destroy them. (I'll go more into this teacher trust issue, especially when I address the CPE2 principal support for Garg.)

A few parents went off to get some breakfast and invited me along. I got some education. One left after an hour. The other and I spent another hour or more talking about so much stuff my head is crammed. I learned so much about the real shit Monica pulled from day 1 and how betrayed parents like this, who moved into the area partially to get into CPE1, are -- also about the political and racial situation around East Harlem (she is white) and so much more beyond the CPE 1 story -- about immigrants and daily panic they feel every day when they wake up - if they can sleep at all- some too sensitive for me to get into.

Oh, the depths of this story. I feel like that reporter for This American Life - the people doing the Serial series - especially the latest must hear S-Town Podcast - shit town https://stownpodcast.org/

Yes, the DOE is Shit-Town in spades --Serial people, come calling if you are looking for a story for next time.

I may have more later tonight or tomorrow morning. I am going to head over to see my Unity slug pals at their little junket at the Hilton on 54th and 6th Ave. It is 3PM and I missed the Stronger Together meeting. Tomorrow I will meet up with Arthur and we will have some fun.

In the meantime, read Leonie's great report on last night's CPE1 SLT Meeting.

https://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2017/04/amazing-evening-parents-and-teacher-sit.html

Parents Occupy Auditorium - Central Park East 1 Update: Rally, SLT Meeting and Overnight Stay Surrounded by Police

Hey Serial at This American Life - have we got a story for you.

rally outside went on all evening - we left at 9PM

We don't expect to be arrested and strategizing- going to do 8am press conference and rally to support the demands of the occupiers
1:26am

The cops straight up said no arrests.
And doe guy said they just want you all to stay in the auditorium
Yeah - they keep coming and counting us:)
We're thinking of playing hide and seek with them
There are literally more cops here than there are of us
The janitor said we were paying his car note because of overtime------ Messages from inside

Breaking: Parents, saying they won't leave until principal Monika Garg is gone, spent the night in the auditorium without being arrested, despite the school being surrounded by enough cops and vans to invade Syria. I posted a video on my FB page showing all the cop cars around.

It was the DOE's call and they decided to not have people arrested. They are a diverse group of parents, though one immigrant had to leave and we know why. I do wonder how this would have been playing out if a group of all black parents did this in Brownsville where no one was watching.

This morning we hear that parents not arrested, spent night in auditorium, rally in front of school at Madison av and 106th st at 8am followed by press Conf at 8:30. I'm going to head over to check it out and offer support. I'll post pics of that later.

Here is the press release:

Parents of NYC Public School Central Park East I, calling for removal of  principal, are occupying their school 

Yesterday afternoon there was an SLT meeting of NYC public school Central Park East I, followed by a rally outside the school. While many demonstrated outside, seven stayed in the school, and are now inside, occupying the school. There is a large group of police at the school but so far the occupiers have not been arrested. 

WHAT: Rally and press conference 

WHERE: Outside Central Park East Elementary School

1573 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10029, at E. 106th Street, NYC

WHEN: Families are planning a rally for 8 am this morning, followed by a press conference at 8:30 am.

I posted a video of immense police response I shot last night around 9pm. A good night to commit a crime in the 23rd precinct. De Blasio is a progressive when under his watch an authoritarian principal undermines 40 years of a democratically run school by teachers, parents and even students. Clearly that concept is a threat as we are seeing at Townsend Harris hs where students and teachers also has wide latitude before an authoritarian principal mini-trumpet is being fought. The students there sent a message of support yesterday.

When I tried to take photos of the cops themselves they turned away or look at me in a way to make me concerned about my phone. One school safety officer told me I had no right - it was illegal -- to use the phone in the lobby of the school as he took out his phone to use himself. I pushed back and pointed that out (I have some video which I may post later). He later came over and apologized. A cop told me to get his good side. But they are clearly very sensitive on the issue and we have to be careful.

Chapter leader Marilyn Martinez, had to stay camped out all afternoon in the rain and damp across the street since she is still in the rubber room and can't be at the school. There were shouts all day for her to be brought back. Marilyn is a Latina and has her child in the school and is one of the amazing teachers and when she was removed in Feb that seemed to be a final straw -- the Supt did the dirty work for Garg and Farina. From all reports the charges are politically related but Marilyn has been told by the lawyers not to talk specifics.

Back to the beginning

SLT - Garg, center

Where do I start? I guess at one the most remarkable School Leadership Team (SLT) meetings one could imagine. It could be a movie. It was packed with over a 100 people and more kept coming. Included were state Senator Bill Perkins who was recently elected to the city council and Robert Jackson, as well as Leonie Haimson and a whole batch of we MOREs and Leroy Barr from the UFT, our new best friend who loves to hang out with us.

Garg began by reading a statement defending herself - I came in as she was finishing. Most of the SLT seemed to be lined up against her, though there was a very vocal parent on her side and critical of the SaveCPE1 coalition. There were also parents in the audience who supported Garg and also some of the newer teachers, whom Garg characterized as being more afraid of the senior teachers than of her. Now these are people she has brought in herself, one of which at the very least was a friend. Standard operating procedure for these take-over principals -- first rule - divide the staff.

There was a lot of hack and forth as Garg kept trying to place blame on the senior teachers while some of them pointed to the attacks Garg was making on them.

Garg has also divided the parents by pulling the race card -- getting support from some black parents - I will go into the complexities of the race issue in another post. But clearly if you look at the optics, the parents are diverse in an east Harlem community that is going through gentrification. However, CPE1 has been in that community for 40 years and has always tried to maintain a one third, one third, one third mix. But that mix has slipped in recent years as more white parents came into the community. And that is where there some people are exploiting the race issue in their attack on the savecpe1 people. The DOE hierarchy seem to line up on this side and probably the mayor integration initiative may be at play here too. But it is interesting that Bill Perkins and Robert Jackson came to the SLT meeting.

Progressive education is a system used in many elite private schools and as we see with the no-nonsense test-driven charters, some parents don't want that for their kids and there has been some charges that that is a "white" thing. But the key Debbie Meier concept in starting the school was to prove it was appropriate for all children. Remember - East Harlem was far from gentrifying in the 70s.

The SLT meeting got so crowded in the music room, it had to be moved to the auditorium and went on for hours with lots of rancor on both sides, though clearly the sentiment was more anti-Garg than pro. This is more complex than I thought and someone I'm close to told me that someone she respects a lot is opposed to the savecpe1 campaign.

One of the arguments being used is that there were a lot of problems at the school before Garg came. There had been 4 principals. Now the school had always been run basically by teachers and parents, with all key decisions being a partnership, so a hands-off principal has been the rule. Even an incompetent principal or leadership vacuum has not been a bad thing.

Now the savecpe1 people admit there were issues but that an authoritarian principal who makes all decisions is not the answer, though apparently it is for the current and past DOE, which has had a history of sending in authoritarian principals to undermine progressive schools used to power sharing principals. IE -- Brooklyn New School would be in some danger when the current founding principal retires.

The CPE high school principal in the building, Bennett Lieberman, trashed the school and the savecpe1 people and said he supported Garg because she brought leadership, which makes it easier for him to deal with one person instead of conglomeration of people -- yeah, Bennett, democracy is messy.

The principal of Central Park East 2 is also opposing the savecpe1 parents and also spoke last night. So, yes, this is complicated.

I heard last night that Garg ran the open house for new parents on her own without the teachers and other parents, which had been a tradition at the school -- her way of hand-choosing the parents she wanted, I guess.

I mean so much came out at the meeting. There was a professional guy who is connected to one of the parents who sat in filming. Someone could make a film of that meeting alone. Hey Serial at This American Life - have we got a story for you.

Garg basically sat there cool as a cucumber during immense attacks on her, with parents showing how she lied numerous times, contradicting her remarks. One parent told how Garg told her to come to the school because of an incident of her daughter with a teacher, indicating something inappropriate sexually, one of the most beloved teachers in the school. It turned out that Garg had made that up but the teacher, who told his story at the UFT ex bd meeting a few weeks ago, was pulled out into the rubber room a year ago and recently completed his 3020a hearing and is awaiting a decision as he still sits in the rubber room, one of the most talented teachers in the system according to parents -- sure, children first.

The incident occurred not soon after he pushed back against some of Garg's directives. This was a turning point in the school as teachers and parents, who had tried to give Garg a chance, were so shocked they contacted some of us in MORE - since despite what the UFT says -- Manhattan UFT leader Dwayne Clark made the false claim the UFT has been there for them -- then why did they contact us in MORE?

The fact the UFT is doing anything at all at this point is due to the push from our people at the Ex Bd. If you read Arthur's reports (

NYC Educator

Executive Board Takeaway. you will see how the resolution in support of CPE1, basically written by the parents and teachers at the school, with the assistance of New Action's Jonathan Halabi, was tabled by Leroy Barr, who did show up and speak at the SLT last night. (I have video but won't have it up until Sunday.)

Arthur motivated the reso with a fabulous speech. Barr tabled it so they could work behind the scenes with the DOE -- I guess their claims to be doing something were not quite true.

In my 5 minute speech opening Monday's Ex bd meeting I asked why the UFT has been silent for the past year until we brought it up? Don't you have a district rep to tell you what is going on? When the teacher was removed a year ago that should have triggered an sign to the union (I compared it to Munich - shame on me). When the chapter leader was removed a year later that was like the invasion of Poland -- war needs to be declared. A group of CPE1 parents stood up while I spoke and later were joined by about 15 more who stood in the back when Arthur spoke.

Later Dwayne Clark defended the district rep as having been there. I asked the teachers if she did anything, they scoffed - in fact at our earliest meetings a year ago, they indicated that the UFT people seemed more sympathetic to the supt and admin -- not the first time I've heard that.

Well, it is getting late and I have to head over to the school for the rally and press conf. Unfortunately my camera battery is dead and I can't film. I will report later on what happened.

By the way, the NYSUT convention begins today through Sunday and I may stop by later and tomorrow morning where I will repay Arthur for buying me that $14 beer 3 years ago.

Back to you later.

Memo from the RTC: WARNING: See A Chorus Line at Your Peril

Memo from the RTC: WARNING: See A Chorus Line at Your Peril

By Norm Scott

I have been to three performances of A Chorus Line, the runaway hit sold-out playing its final three performances Friday and Saturday nights, April 7, 8 at the RTC, with a rare Saturday 2PM matinee (no Sunday matinee due to the fact that Rene Steadman is getting married Sunday April 9 and many RTC members will be helping her and her soon-to be hubby celebrate).

I’m going nuts trying to get the songs out of my head. What exactly did I do for love, I keep asking myself? Can I really Do That? like Mike played by Nic Anthony Calabro. I keep trying to remember my good old days in the wonderful At the Ballet.  (Sheila – Avital Asuleen, Bebe – Leigh Dillon, Maggie – Chloe Carlston).

As for the show-stopping Dance: Ten; Looks: Three – watching the amazingly talented Maria Schirripa (Val) do that number resulted in every male in the house having to be hosed down. I had my own Singular Sensation watching her. And how about those Mangano gals? Nicole (Diana) sings What I did for love like a pro and Gabrielle (Kristine) dances like a pro but can’t sing (at least in this show) and demonstrates it in a magnificent Sing duet with her acting hubby Antonio Oliveri (Al), who can sing beautifully.

And who can forget those wonderful stories about growing up by Brian Sadowski (Bobby) a major find last year at the RTC in Follies and as a La Cage dancer, RTC vet James Dalid (Mark) who has his venereal disease cured in church. Anthony Melendez (Paul) was another great find a year ago as a La Cage dancer does a heart rending solo that brings himself and the audience to tears. I knew these 3 guys as dancers but holy crap, they have heavy duty acting chops too.

Newcomer Mai Odaira (Connie) is the third RTC import from Japan and brings comic relief to her role and another newcomer, Chloe Carlston (Maggie) brings yet another great singing voice to the RTC. They are joined by other newcomers Nic Anthony Calabro (Mike), Avital Asuleen (Sheila) and Ashley Ann Jones(Judy) who are all fabulous and make it even more fun to see how much amazing talent is out there and willing to come to Rockaway to perform (check their resumes in the program guide). Hoping to see these guys back again.

Well there are a lot more people I can mention but deadline is past (I’ll try to get one final Chorus Line column with more people next week) and RTC Master Builder Tony Homsey is calling for me to be at the theater for some project to keep us off the street. We start building the set for Rumors on April 12. And by the way, auditions for the summer blockbuster The Producers took place last Sunday and Monday. I didn’t make the cut as one of the old ladies seduced by Bialystok.

Norm shares how what he did for love led to his singular sensations at ednotesonline.com

Randi's Folly, or How We Got Colorado's Teacher-Evaluation Reform Wrong - Education Week

May 6, 2010 -- Denver Post... AFT's Randi Weingarten weighs in
Wednesday’s endorsement of Senate Bill 191 by the American Federation of Teachers did not phase many in Colorado but caused quite a stir around the nation.

Nevertheless, AFT President Randi Weingarten said her organization’s support of the bill shouldn’t come as a surprise.
In January, Weingarten made a speech urging her 1.4 million members to accept a form of teacher evaluation that takes student achievement into account.

In that speech Weingarten called for more frequent and more rigorous evaluations and said she wanted standardized test scores and other measures of student performance to be part of the process.... http://blogs.denverpost.com/coloradoclassroom/2010/05/06/afts-randi-weingarten-weighs-in/318/

Back in 2010, Randi Weingarten, apparently to the surprise of the world -- but not to us here in NYC and other cities on her sellout tour (Newark, Detroit) -- endorsed the Colorado teacher evaluation plan.

Now skip ahead to today's Edweek article with this little nugget:
all of Colorado’s 238 charter schools waived out of the system.

Read this and then go back and read the full article on Randi's endorsement plus these other links to Randi back in 2010. You won't hear a peep of mea culpa from our Unity leaders.

How We Got Colorado's Teacher-Evaluation Reform Wrong

Colorado's missteps on teacher evaluation is a cautionary tale for other states

By Van Schoales

April 4, 2017

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2017/04/06/how-we-got-colorados-teacher-evaluation-reform-wrong.html?cmp=eml-enl-eu-news2

Commentary

Back in May 2010, hundreds of the nation’s education foundation, policy, and practice elites were gathered for the NewSchools Venture Fund meeting in Washington to celebrate and learn from the most recent education reform policy victories in my home state of Colorado and across the country.

The opening speeches highlighted the recent passage of Colorado Senate Bill 10-191—a dramatic law which required that 50 percent of a teacher evaluation be based upon student academic growth. This offered a bold new vision for how teachers would be evaluated and whether they would gain or lose tenure based on the merits of their impact on student achievement.

Colorado would be one of several "ground zeros" for reforming teacher evaluation in the country. Many, including myself, thought these new state policies would allow our best teachers to shine. They would finally have useful feedback, be differentiated on an objective scale of effectiveness, and lose tenure if they weren’t performing. Teachers would be treated like other professionals and less like interchangeable widgets.

Colorado’s law and similar ones in other states appeared to be sound, research-backed policy formulated by education reform’s own "whiz kids." We could point to Ivy League research that made a clear case for dramatic changes to the current system. There were large federal incentives, in addition to private philanthropy fueled by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, encouraging such changes. And to pass these teacher-evaluation laws, we built a coalition of reform-minded Democrats and Republicans that also included the American Federation of Teachers. Reformers were confident we had a clear mandate.

And yet. Implementation did not live up to the promises.

Colorado Department of Education data released in February show that the distribution of teacher effectiveness in the state looks much as it did before passage of the bill. Eighty-eight percent of Colorado teachers were rated effective or highly effective, 4 percent were partially effective, 7.8 percent of teachers were not rated, and less than 1 percent were deemed ineffective. In other words, we leveraged everything we could and not only didn’t advance teacher effectiveness, we created a massive bureaucracy and alienated many in the field.

What happened?

Video: Stop Abusive Principals - April 6 - 4:30 PM - Central Park East1 Parents to Issue No Confidence in Principal Monika Garg

Join the battle against abusive administrators - don't just leave comments about how bad things are -- come out and be inspired by these amazing parents who are standing up for their teachers under attack. April 6 at 4:30 PM - 1573 Madison Ave. at 106th St.
 
There is a lot of info in this report. CPE1 is a special progressive

school started by Debbie Meier - who is one of the top educators in the nation - remember that Diane Ravitch and Debbie began doing a sort of blog together to argue their differing views on education. Since the 70s I admired Debbie and thought about how great it would be to teach at her school -- but I felt I didn't have the skillset as a teacher to work in a school like that. So understand, these are very special teachers who take on the challenge of working at CPE1 and t come under assault by a vicious principal is like one of those ice bucket dunkings.
I got to meet Debbie a few times and once interviewed her and her views of children and how they learn were amazing - she then introduced me to the great voice of early childhood education, Nancy Paige Carlson, (Matt Damon's mom).

Debbie is celebrating her 86th birthday on April 6 and asks that we help her by showing up at the CPE 1 rally at 4:30 - or earlier.
1573 Madison Ave. at 106th St.

I'll have more later but what an amazing meeting at the UFT Ex bd last night as 20 CPE1 parents and teachers showed up as MORE/NA presented a reso in support which was tabled by Unity slimebags who ignored what was happening at CPE1 for a year and half until we made them face this issue. They say they will show up this Thursday to make a show of support. But they won't pass a reso.

The reso is at the MORE site:

morecaucusnyc

Reso to Support CPE1- Tabled by UFT Leadership 

Arthur has minutes of the meeting: 

NYC Educator

UFT Executive Board March 27th--We Love CPE1 But Won't Pass Resolution of Support
Here is a great video made by a CPE1 parent:
https://youtu.be/YKFBEHwMON8



Join CPE1 Parents and Teachers As They Say "No Confidence" in Principal

Thursday, April 6th at 4:30pm
Central Park East 1 - 106th  Madison (entrance on Madison)
FB Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1506717109361942/

CPE 1 parents and teachers have been fighting an abusive principal, Monika Garg, for more than a year. Garg has carried out a campaign of harassment and retaliation against teachers; both the UFT chapter leader and delegate found themselves facing investigations and removed from the classroom after speaking out. Parents say that Garg has caused harm to their children by conducting unnecessary and invasive interviews of very young children, removing trusted teachers without warning, failing to provide support and undermining the school's unique pedagogy. Garg has lost the trust and support of the vast majority of parents and teachers - with more than 70% signing a petition for her removal last year. The DOE's own school survey shows Garg with the lowest level of trust in the whole city and the steepest declines in both parent and teacher satisfaction. Despite appealing to the Chancellor, the Panel for Educational Policy and the Mayor personally, our situation remains unresolved.

Once again, CPE1 parents and teachers are mobilizing to have their voices heard. At the school SLT meeting on April 6th, parents will be presenting a statement of "no confidence" backed by the majority of parents and demanding decisive action to address their concerns. At 4:30pm, parents and teachers will be holding a press conference and rally outside the school in support of those inside the SLT meeting.We need your support! The issues that CPE1 are facing are not unique. All over the city, parents and teachers lack democratic recourse to have their voices heard, while administrators are protected. We have to fight back.

Please note: By law, SLT meetings are open to the public. If you are able to arrive before 4:30pm and join parents and teachers inside the SLT meeting (which starts at 3:30), please sign in and come up to the 2nd Floor art room to join us.

CPE1's principal has to go

Parents and fellow teachers have come to the defense of a victimized educator in the latest battle to shake a New York City elementary school, writes Peter Lamphere.

March 30, 2017

Parents and fellow teachers show their support for a Central Park East 1 educator (Save CPE1)

Democrats Russia Obsession: The Road to Status Quo As Even Bernie Accused of Being Putin Plant to Bring Down Hillary

even those who detest Trump with every fiber of their being must see the dangerous endgame implicit in this entire line of thinking. If the Democrats succeed in spreading the idea that straying from the DNC-approved candidate – in either the past or the future – is/was an act of "unwitting" cooperation with the evil Putin regime, then the entire idea of legitimate dissent is going to be in trouble......

To describe Sanders followers as unwitting dupes who departed the true DNC faith because of evil Russian propaganda is both insulting and ridiculous. It's also a testimony to the remarkable capacity for self-deception within the leadership of the Democratic Party

.... Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone

Two reports here about the pitfalls of the Hillary/Obama wing of the Dems desperately chasing down every bit of conspiracy theory, placing its bet on getting Trump impeached so we can get Mike Pence, separating whatever limited strategy Dems have from reality. The NY Times seems part and parcel of this effort to brand the 2016 election outcome as being stolen for Trump by Russia, therefore vindicating the neo-liberal Dem Party center - you see we really would have won with our strategy if not for the 3rd party operatives in the KGB.

Robert Perry has an article (NYT’s ‘Tinfoil Hat’ Conspiracy Theory worth checking out on what he calls the Times' "tinfoil-hat" conspiracy theories. They gave a known lunatic conspiracy theorist Louise Mensch an op-ed opportunity that when examined makes the Times look like the Enquirer.

New Yorkers Call on the Board of Regents to Remove Commissioner MaryEllen Elia for Failure to Protect Children

The MaryEllen Elia experiment in New York has failed. It is time for the Board of Regents to remove Commissioner Elia and substantially change course.... NYSAPE

Don't forget that Elia was Randi's candidate. MORE Exec Bd people next time should ask Unity to support NYSAPE.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 3, 2017

More information contact:

Lisa Rudley; nys.allies@gmail.com

NYS Allies for Public Education (NYSAPE) www.nysape.org

For the past five years, hundreds of thousands of parents, from every corner of New York State, have called for meaningful changes to our damaging test-and-punish accountability system, resulting in the largest opt out movement in the nation.

Beware Obama Admin Neo-Libs Running for Office

After his time with Obama, Gupta, 33, set up a network of charter schools in the southern US. 

I gagged when I read this story: Former Obama staffers run for office to protect the progressive policies they built

Ravi Gupta worked as an assistant to David Axelrod during the 2008 election.

You set up charter schools, you don't get the support from defenders of public education.

Gupta was the center of a piece in Campbell Brown's The 74 front journalism: 74 Interview: RePublic Schools’ Ravi Gupta on the Next Frontier of the Education Reform Wars

.@RaviMGupta returns to NYC, reflects on how charter schools will win broader support

.@RaviMGupta: next frontier in reform wars, charter schools serving middle- and upper-class

Nice Ravi -- you guys helped undermine inner city schools, now go after the suburbs.

RePublic also has faced scrutiny from charter school critics on the Metro school board. And in January a group of Nashville parents filed a class-action lawsuit that accused the charter group of violating the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act by sending text messages through a commercial auto-dialing service without their consent, a claim RePublic officials denied.

So Ravi is back here in NYC pushing the line that the Dems must organize to stand against Trump.

“I left that room and started calling Obama colleagues: ‘What are we going to do right now? Not for midterms, not 2020, now’,” Gupta said.
Gupta, with the help of several Obama mates, launched The Arena, an organization that holds summits across the country to teach progressive candidates how to run for office - how to raise money, how to launch social media campaigns. At their first event in Nashville last November, 400 attendees turned up and 150 pledged to run for office in the next five years.

 Message to Ravi Gupta -- neo-lib charter supporters are not progressives.

Ravi Gupta and the center right neo-libs in the Dem party are trying to ice out the Bernie wing. The time may come when there is no choice but to split because 2020 will be the same old thing and charter support is the type of wedge that splits the party -- I mean they might as well join DeVos because the ultimate outcome between Obamaites and DeVos is the end of public education.

Memo from the RTC: A Chorus Line Update - I Won’t Dance, Don’t Ask Me

I'm going back to see it again Saturday night and then again Sunday when Arthur and family are coming.

Memo from the RTC:  A Chorus Line Update - I Won’t Dance, Don’t Ask Me

By Norm Scott

They may have asked Sinatra when he sang those words, but they didn’t ask me.  I need a defibrillator from just watching the show. But I am astounded when people who know me ask if I have a part in A Chorus Line, if they know the show at all.

Do they have a clue that you must be able to sing, act and, most importantly of all, dance, dance, dance until you want to drop and on a scale of 1-10, I am minus 10 in all three categories? I wanted to drop numerous times on opening night just watching the 24-member cast showing their triple threat chops.

I was raving about all these facets to Director Susan Corning at the opening night after show celebration. She reminded me, pointing to choreographer supreme Nicola DePierrro Nellen, that despite the amazing acting and singing, the heart of “A Chorus Line” is dance and that this production’s success relied on the amazing work of Nicola, who also has a part in the show as dance mistress Laurie. Whenever you see it, or if you saw it, just think about all the choreography involved in getting so many people to synchronize. I was taping from right up front, practically on the stage in the corner, and got as close up as you can. It was, like, a perfect production.

I just don’t have the space to talk about all the performances by so many RTC regulars, who are joined by a five newcomers with major roles. Actually, almost every role is major, with each member of the cast getting their time in the sun, which is why the play is so coveted among actors and why reviewing all the performances would take a book. If there is a lead, it is the role of Cassie, played by the superbly gorgeous and talented Catherin Leib, who finally returned to the RTC in last fall’s Toxic Avenger after two years absence while touring with a production company. The director, Zach, is played by Frank Caiati who can do just about anything on and off stage. Both Catherine and Frank, a member of Actors Equity and SAG/AFTRA, have been with the RTC since they were teens, well over a decade ago. Their list of credits is beyond extensive. They have a crucial scene opening Act II that is worth the price of admission, followed by Catherine’s take-your breath away solo.

The fabulous Musical Director Jeff Arzberger leads an 11-member band. I went to the 50^th anniversary of the Zombies on Saturday night and they only have 4 musicians in their band. But the RTC is all about giving Rockaway a major taste of Broadway, baby, and with free parking too. And a 50-50 cash on the barrel, which on opening night netted the winner with almost $500.

I know my two or three regular readers are sick of my raving about every show. But believe it when people leaving opening night are saying, “I can’t believe you guys keep topping yourselves. This is the best one yet.”

The directing tandem of Susan Corning and David Risley, both of whom have been major top-level actors at the RTC in so many shows, deliver a perfect rendition of this complex show, which if not done expertly would be a disaster. 

Hot Yoga Rockaway Beach guru Anita Ruderman, whose word is law, posted this comment on FB:  GO SEE A CHORUS LINE at the RTC in Ft. Tilden. A PROFESSIONAL PERFORMANCE NOT TO BE MISSED!!! Really UNBELIEVABLE!!!! Here's the link for tickets. I'm serious. Please go see it. :) http://www.rockawaytheatrecompany.org/ticket-reservation-s…/

Anita may sometimes talk in CAPS, but rarely does she write in CAPS.

Norm blogs at ednotesonline.com. NAMASTE!!!

NYSUT split sends vocal opt-out president packing

One of the few media outlets to report on this - though idea assigned to UFT in the article below that opt out movement seriously threatened federal funding is pretty absurd.... Leonie Haimson

http://buffalonews.com/2017/03/27/nysut-split-could-impact-school-reform-effort/

Both Pallotta, Magee’s likely successor, and his ally Michael Mulgrew, the New York City union president, are seen as Cuomo supporters, and were criticized by some teachers for supporting the governor even when he was pushing for a stringent evaluation system.

Leonie found this nugget about the dumping of Karen Magee by Weingarten/Mulgrew. Astute observers knew from the day Magee came out for Opt out that she was in trouble.

I noticed the difference in the role played by Magee at the AFT 2014 convention when she was a big deal compared to the 2016 when she was marginalized. (But so was Mulgrew whose buffoonish behavior was deemed to embarrassing to showcase.) And let's not forget that Magee landed a position with Randi at the AFT as a reward for taking a bullet - by not running.

NYSUT split sends vocal opt-out president packing

• By Tiffany Lankes
• Published Mon, Mar 27, 2017
  

Karen Magee delivered her message in no uncertain terms.

"I am saying that I would urge parents at this point in time to opt out of testing," the New York State United Teachers president said in a 2015 interview on the radio show "Capitol Pressroom."

The remark made Magee among the first high-profile union leaders in the country to explicitly encourage parents to opt their children out of state tests, fueling a movement that ultimately helped force a major shift in the direction of New York’s education system.
It also may have contributed to a rift between Magee and the very people who put her in office. Magee announced last month that she will not pursue a second term, after it became clear she would face two challengers, including one of her fellow officers.

The point in BOLD is a flat out wrong --- Magee didn't fuel any movement -- but what she did do is allow the ed deformers to make that claim -- that the union was behind opt out in order to try to hide its people from being accountable. This line was quickly picked up and used to defile opt out, which is fundamentally a parent-led movement. 

Fred Smith in WAPO: What N.Y. parents should know about 2017 Common Core standardized tests

Four passages that are well above grade level with 6 multiple choice questions most of which require that a student go back into the text and the answer is still difficult to figure out is ridiculous. Kids were twitching. Two of mine cried. I administered to 7 children with reading disabilities. They didn’t stand a chance. It makes me angry. I spent all year inspiring them to feel excited about learning and confident and in 10 minutes NYS made them feel like idiots…. Anonymous, Valerie Strauss piece by our good pal Fred Smith in the Washington Post yesterday.

I assume that anon is a teacher who if found out would be arrested and maybe deported to Kabul for the criminal act of reporting what was on the test.

Strauss:

Fred Smith, a testing specialist and consultant, explains how the state is attempting to persuade parents not to opt-out, and what students face when they sit down to take the exams. Smith is retired as a senior analyst for the New York City public schools and a member of Change the Stakes, a parent advocacy group.

You can read the entire piece at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2017/03/30/what-n-y-parents-should-know-about-2017-common-core-standardized-tests/?utm_campaign=5b314bf22d-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_03_31&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Master%20Mailing%20List&utm_term=.25c26b8e8fd5

Fred is relentless on the testing issue despite the continuous frustrations of the testing regime to undermine the opt-out. But given he has been a statistician for the NY Jets for decades and must attend every home game, this is child's play.

 A few excerpts:

Seeking to turn back the opt-out movement, authorities are promoting a few scripted points to convey the idea that the testing program has been improved for 2017: The number of questions on the exams has been reduced, more teachers have been involved in developing them, and the tests are untimed.

On the surface these seem attractive. But fewer items make less reliable tests. The teachers who were involved reviewed but didn’t write the questions on the tests, which were created by Questar Assessment (which is being purchased by the Educational Testing Service, or ETS). And the removal of time limits means the tests are no longer being conducted under standard conditions, thereby nullifying attempts to measure growth.

Effectively, the results of the 2017 exams cannot be used to make meaningful comparisons over time, though the Education Department says the tests aren’t being changed enough so that comparisons will be valid.

Another selling point the state makes is that while the tests will continue to be given, no teachers or principals will be affected by the results as in the past, when test scores were factored into their evaluations. The state has declared a moratorium on directly linking student test scores to teacher evaluations. This may lull people concerned about the misuse of the tests into accepting their administration because negative consequences have diminished for teachers and principals, but the results can still affect schools, and the scores can be used as an “advisory” evaluation measure for individual educators.

In announcing the improvements, a department spokesperson said, “It’s up to parents to decide if their children should take the tests and we want them to have all the facts so they can make an informed decision.”

Really? There is no information on opting out — or about the field testing of questions, which allows publishers to develop future exams for free by trying out test questions on children — on the one-page document posted on SED’s Engage^ny _, titled “2017 Grades 3-8 New York State Assessments: What Parents Need to Know.”  Evidently, they must know the tests are untimed, shortened, reflective of teacher involvement and will be given in some districts by computer.

Here are some more facts about  field testing on the 2017 exams that parents aren’t being told:

There are two approaches publishers follow to develop questions and determine which should be kept for subsequent exams.  The preferred way is to embed try-out material (reading passages and associated questions) in the test booklets that students are striving to complete.  In theory, students can’t tell which questions are experimental and do not count in scoring their tests from the operational ones that count.  Thus, they should be motivated to do well on the trial items.

PEP Video: Where I Explain the Basics of Farina-ism - plus Rich Mantell, Gloria and Marilena from MORE

In this video (https://youtu.be/kyAyW0sP6gU) I begin to explore the Farina legacy - which I dub "Farina-ism". Oppose parent, teacher and student influence and indeed punish those who dare to resist. You can see Farina-ism in operation at Central Park East 1 where a vicious vendetta against the Debbie Meier founded progressive school is playing out in all its gory details as teachers, parents and students are under attack.

The closing of JHS 145 is a Trump-Devos like attack on the many immigrant and Muslim children who have found a home there. And since Eva Moskowitz, who the day after the PEP vote had her people measuring the space to be vacated by 145, gets to replace them, that is a perfect dovetail of the DeVos privatization plan.

I didn't even get to mention the Townsend Harris story -- there was a parent and student rep who went after Farina over the claim that the student newspaper was reporting fake news.

UFT VP Richard Mantell was the only official UFT rep who spoke -- I saw one or two others early in the meeting but our call for the DA to be adjourned and have masses go to support the school went unheeded. But Rich did a good job and showed some passion about the issue.

MORE's Gloria Brandman who is a special ed expert focused on that issue and Marilena Marchetti nailed the corporate takeover of the school issue.

By the way, MORE had a big turnout to support 145 and CPE -- maybe 15-20 people. We called for the DA to be adjourned a half hour early and go to the PEP with a show of force. I'll report more on the arguments made at the Ex Bd meeting why we couldn't do that because we had so much important business to attend to -- Mulgrew was 17 minutes late to the DA.

Too bad the Unity/UFT leadership didn't get massive numbers of people there in support.