A Great Debate on Teach for America

...over in the comments section at The Chancellor's New Clothes (click here) where TFA's and critics duke it out.

TFA focuses on the narrow educational issues ignoring the other issues such as health and poverty that come into play. Maybe there's a sense that touching on them becomes an excuse. Klein says that all the time. Certainly they never raise the class size issue and the kind of political battle it would take to have an impact. But TFA's supporters are anti-class size reduction as a union ploy to get more members.

This ties into the social justice theme that some TFA's who stay in the system are beginning to take a look at. Fighting the bigger fight while doing your best to address educational needs (believe me, just a focus on this narrow aspect will never be enough) is the next logical step. If TFA truly believed in closing the achievement gap, they would also encourage their people to work to close all the other gaps. But when you are being used as part of a campaign to privatize the schools, while also undermining the concept of teacher unions (think: don't they undermine your individualism) the social justice aspect will never be part of a TFA program.


TFA Rose makes some good points:
I agree that the issues of inadequate nutrition and health care should be addressed, and that resources ought to be spent in finding those answers. However, as an individual and a professional I am not at all qualified to do any of those things. I am not a politician, a doctor, or a social worker. Instead I have chosen to take the path of a teacher to help show my students the opportunities they need to find their way out of poverty.

That Rose considers herself not qualified in other areas but somehow qualified after 5 weeks, is puzzling.

A Voice in the Wilderness responds:
In the years since TFA started, with all of the teachers who have been sent in to schools, has it not occurred to anyone to say to Wendy Kopp-”Look at the conditions of the low income neighborhoods. Look at the conditions of the low income schools. Something needs to be done to improve these conditions?”

If something were done, maybe the conditions that Kopp likes to cite over and over again as being an “injustice” would not be there.

I find it hard to believe that such conversations have not occurred given the amount of intelligent people who are recruited by TFA.

Another aspect of this debate are the traditionally trained teachers vs. the TFA's, who make the point that if they weren't there even for 2 years, classrooms may remain empty.

TFA Sarah has the line down pretty well:
If teaching is to be a respected profession, as so many educators implore it to be, then why shouldn’t teachers be held to similarly high standards as every other profession? In the real world outside of the gripping union contracts, if a person is not adequately performing their job function, she is removed from that position. Why should it be any different for teachers? Who made teaching the one profession where it’s virtually impossible to get fired? And who thought that was a good idea for the students? At least in corporate America, someone sucking at their job isn’t usually affecting dozens of children’s lives.

Anti-progressive teachers: if you want your work to be respected and valued, be willing to hold yourself to high professional standards - and that means showing quantitatively AND qualitatively that your students are learning! If you can’t or won’t do that, then find another job. Our kids don’t need warm bodies collecting a paycheck at the front of their classroom.

Deborah responds:
This is exactly the kind of clueless rhetoric I expected to hear. How miserably disappointing. If you think for one splint second that lousy employees and cronyism doesn’t occur in the private sector, that you truly have lots to learn.

Head over and chime in with a few comments of your own.

Phase Two...GHI/HIP

During the next 4-6 weeks, CAP will ask that every politician in NYC go on record regarding this issue (especially politicians involved in primaries).

If Randi and Mike are reading this, remember it was ICE that took a stand and not the very leaders who are supposed to protect us.

BTW: The AFT has endorsed HR 676........Hmmmm...the AFT endorses HR 676 and our union leaders are lining up for a piece of the pie of the conversion money from the possible privatization of GHI and HIP. Now that's unionism!!!!

Click this link...

http://www.tomduane.com/news_2008/letters_2008/Emblem%20Health%20Letter.html

State Senator onboard...

John Powers

Planning to Change the World

From NY Collective of Radical Educators (NYCoRE)

Planning to Change the World, the social justice teacher’s plan book published by the network and NYCoRE, is an enormous success. In the first six days of sales, we have sold more than 550 planners. We are well on our way to making this book an underground hit!

I have attached a flier that you can copy and put in teachers’ mailboxes or pass out at relevant events.
We also have a new Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=681828705360.

You can help spread the word by checking out the page and becoming a friend. If your organization or school would like to place a bulk order, please contact bree@nyu.edu or tara@edliberation.org

Remember, all proceeds from sales of this planner support the work of the network and NYCoRE, so we very much appreciate your participation in this exciting project.

Thanks.
Bree and Tara

Planning to Change the World: A Plan Book for Social Justice Teachers
Order your copy today at www.justiceplanbook.com.

NEA & AFT Compared

Ed Week blogger Vaishali Honawar had some comments on the differences between the NEA and AFT at her blog.

Compared with the NEA, the AFT's convention looks decidedly less education-focused...

A good number of the [AFT] delegates were from professions outside teaching...

Contrast that with the NEA, whose delegates, after protracted debate at this past convention, refused to admit private K-12 workers into their membership ranks, claiming it would cause the union to lose focus of its mission to improve public schools.

Here in NYC in the UFT, with the recent addition of home care workers and over 50,000 retirees, the percentage of working teachers is now in the minority.

The AFT/UFT is much more about things other than education. Which maybe explains the disaster that has hit NYC teachers.

A. Russo Asks the Question We Have Been Waiting For

How Long 'Til Mayoral Control Falls Out Of Favor?

Not As Long As You Think.

how long... until a mayor (or candidate) in one of those places suggests that things would be better the other way around -- without mayoral control. Chicago might be first. Thirteen years in, much has changed, but the overall situation.

On the day Randi Weingarten came out in favor of it (May 2001), I raised the issue of mayoral control in Chicago at a UFT Exec. Bd meeting (by handing out a leaflet since I couldn't speak.) Chicago had already gone through 6 years and the attacks on teachers were so vicious, they led to an overturning of the structure in the union with Debbie Lynch getting elected. We can echo Russo in NYC after 6 years: much has changed, but the overall situation.

Warnings to AFT'ers on Weingarten

AFT members around the nation who might have been impressed with the militancy of Randi Weingarten's words, should examine the impact of her decade of leadership of the UFT which has resulted in a union at its weakest point in well over 3 decades.

A Voice in the Wilderness at CNC in "Dear UFT Leaders" writes

I am a career teacher who has always shown commitment and support to our union. From the time I was a fledgling teacher, I have attended executive board meetings and rallies, organized and assisted with voting, created and distributed fliers, and generally supported our union in any way possible. I will always support the right of the American worker to unionize.

However, with all due respect, I must ask you a question:

What the hell are you doing?

While Under Assault asks if Randi as a teacher union pres. is a fish out of water.

I see a self-serving union president who loves playing in the political pool but who wasn't born a fish. Without the instinct for the job we do, she can't really defend us. Heck, she can't even recognize what's killing us.

See all the Under Assault fish swim.

Ed Note:
Why is Weingarten a fish out of water when her bio says she taught for 6 years at a Brooklyn high school? Context. She taught only 6 months full-time. The rest was part-time. It is important to note that her so-called teaching career was fabricated to give her credentials as the successor to Sandra Feldman.

Weingarten was the perfect Teach for America candidate - but even more short term
Many of us knew as far back as the early 90's - before she ever set foot in a school - that she was the next UFT president when some Unity Caucus members were upset at a lawyer jumping over so many teachers. (I got to know her when I became Chapter leader in 1994 and certainly approached her as the next UFT president.)

Insiders were scratching their heads as to why a lawyer and not a teacher was being tapped to run the United Federation of Teachers. How is someone tapped outside a democratic process? In a monarchy like the UFT and AFT, that is the way it is done.

She was assigned a full-time UFT staffer as a coach to get her through the teaching license procedure and began teaching at Clara Barton HS in Prospect Heights where Leo Casey was the chapter leader. This was a hand-picked "safe" school a few minutes from her home in Park Slope. The much more dangerous Prospect Heights HS, next door to Clara Barton, was not an option.

Friends as Clara Barton told me the entire staff knew Weingarten as a celebrity amongst them. "Wow," said one, "she even did lunch duty one semester." She was given the debate team to coach as comp time and a few classes to teach. The rest of the day was spent as a UFT official at UFT HQ and around the city. She even negotiated the disastrous 1995 contract that was turned down by the membership while supposedly teaching full-time.

With it being clear that Feldman would be moving up, Weingarten put in a 6 month term of full-time teaching to create the sense she was a teacher, not a lawyer.

You have just a slightly different "teaching" exerience when you are a "celebrity teacher." You sort of miss 99% of the stuff that gives you insight as to what teaching career means.

NYC teachers who have been paying attention are painfully aware of the difference and that sentiment is what A Voice and Under Assault have expressed as Weingarten doesn't have the instinctive outrage that teachers feel about what is going on.

All too often I have watched her tepid defense and waffling "yes, we are not afraid of accountability" or "we too want to get rid of bad teachers" without placing all of it in proper context. Real teachers feel the pain of the destructive acts of the phony ed reform movement and know full well Weingarten uses PR to muddle things to give the impression she is somewhere in the middle - supportive of teachers but also supportive of reform.

The result is a misdirection of any teacher militancy that would resist the trend. Even people outraged by what is going on still succumb to the appeal to them as professionals who want to purify their profession. Only the very few like Susan Ohanian and the other test resisters are willing to say the witch hunts to root out so-called bad teachers is just a front for an attack on teacher unions, an attack that Weingarten and her supporters are all too willing to allow to occur.

Jonathan Alter on KIPP: Distortions, Misprepresentations and Outright Lies

This was sent out by Leonie Haimson to the NYC Education Listserve:

Jonathan Alter blusters in a column in Newsweek about what Obama should do to reform our schools:

Here is the response of Caroline Grannam, a SF parent and blogger who is one of the few people to independently assess KIPP’s claims:

In the current Newsweek, columnist Jonathan Alter earnestly claims that 12,800 alumni of KIPP schools have gone on to college. Here's what Alter wrote: At the 60 KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) schools, more than 80 percent of 16,000 randomly selected low-income students go to college, four times the national average for poor kids. The actual number, according to KIPP itself, is 447.

It turns out that that 80% figure was derived from calculating the matriculation rates at only two KIPP schools.

Alter also omits to mention the self-selection process involved in applying to KIPP, well as the rigorous interview process the school uses that discourages less motivated students from enrolling, including making them promise to attend school six days a week and most of the working day. Nor the high attrition rates, with some schools losing 50 percent of their students over three years.

Yet Alter continues to spin wildly:

[Obama] …hasn't been direct enough about reforming NCLB so that it revolves around clear measurements of classroom-teacher effectiveness. Research shows that this is the only variable (not class size or school size) that can close the achievement gap. Give poor kids from broken homes the best teachers, and most learn. Period.

Where is the research base for this? Don’t bother to ask, as there is none.

We don’t even know how to identify potentially effective teachers, not to mention how to make them more effective once they’ve been hired. Aside from treating them like professionals, giving them a smaller class and persuading them to stick around in the profession longer.

More from Alter:

To get there, Obama should hold a summit of all 50 governors and move them toward national standards and better recruitment, training and evaluation of teachers. He should advocate using Title I federal funding as a lever to encourage "thin contracts" free of the insane work rules and bias toward seniority, as offered by the brilliant new superintendent in Washington, D.C., Michelle Rhee. He should offer federal money for salary increases, but make them conditional on differential pay (paying teachers based on performance and willingness to work in underserved schools, which surveys show many teachers favor) and on support for the elimination of tenure.

What? Surveys, including this one from Education Sector, which generally favors such proposals, show that teachers overwhelmingly oppose basing salaries on performance (read test scores.): “…one in three teachers (34 percent) favors giving financial incentives to teachers whose kids routinely score higher than similar students on standardized tests. Most teachers today (64 percent) oppose the idea, up 8 percentage points from the 56 percent who opposed it in 2003.”

Nevertheless, Alter continues in this vein:

And the next time he addresses them, he should tell the unions they must change their focus from job security and the protection of ineffective teachers to higher pay and true accountability for performance—or face extinction.

Good luck with that one. I’m sure the NEA and the AFT are quaking in their boots.

As Grannam points out about Alter’s error in reporting the number of KIPP students that have gone to college that could also be applied to his false claims about teacher surveys and class size:

It's ironic that Alter made that rather significant error in a column mostly devoted to blasting and blaming teachers for troubled schools and calling for getting rid of problem teachers, along with eliminating tenure and increasing "accountability" for teachers. I wonder how he feels about more accountability for journalists.

In case you’re interested, Alter lives in Montclair NJ, where no doubt the class sizes are small, and teacher tenure reigns supreme, along with high salaries, and performance pay is nowhere in sight.

But in a school district like NYC, with lots of immigrant and poor students, it doesn’t matter what overcrowding exists or what class sizes they are crammed into. All will be well and teachers will magically be able to reach all thirty plus kids per class, as long as the people in charge crack the whip loud and hard enough and can threaten them with losing their jobs if they don’t deliver.

A sure fire formula for success if ever I’ve heard it.

Comments? Write to webeditors@newsweek.com; copy to jalter@newsweek.com

Leonie Haimson
Executive Director
Class Size Matters
classsizematters@gmail.com
www.classsizematters.org
http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/

And leave it to Leo

to hand his lede on the Chicago AFT convention at Edwize over to Hillary. The AFT may have finally endorsed Obama, but to Leo what’s most important is that Hillary spoke to them.

Comments on UFT VP Leo Casey, Obama and the AFT.
Fred Klonsky at PREA Prez.

Klein and Weingarten On the Road

Elizabeth Green has another interesting piece in the NY Sun:
Schools Chancellor Reaches Into Presidential Contest

"In a speech to the National Council of La Raza's convention in California yesterday, Mr. McCain said he supports charter schools, efforts to "weed out" incompetent teachers, and plans to "hold schools accountable" for their results. He also called improving schools attended by poor students "the civil rights challenge of our time" — the same phrasing Mr. Klein often uses."

It looks like McCain will endorse their campaign.

Klein and Sharpton met with Obama yesterday.

Obama will be a little more careful but will sign on to a lot of this plan since most politicians love to talk about accountability and quality teachers. And the tough liberals like Kahlenberg (include the AFT/UFT/Clinton wing) bring up student/parent accountability to justify their support for a phony system of school and teacher accountability.

Green also reports on Weingarten's plan to call for revisions in NCLB.

Speaking at the union's national convention in Chicago, Ms. Weingarten yesterday laid out a vision for a revamped federal education law that would promote "community schools."

She said such schools would serve needy children by incorporating many government services into one building, services that do not just include schooling but medical care, child care, and homework assistance.

Funny how Weingarten did not propose these ideas all these years in NYC where the union could have used its muscle with the state legislature to try it out in a few schools. Just one reason why I view the entire plan as a PR move to make it appear she is for the more comprehensive Richard Rothstein approach to educational reform, while in NYC she went along with much of Klein's plans.

I mean, if you never tried to get this done in NY where the UFT was one of the major lobbyists, why would you would people take it seriously when it is proposed on a national level?

I guess on the national level she can take stronger stands since she will never have to negotiate a contract. This will lead to favorable press similar to what BloomKlein have gotten - much of the praise has been due to their ability to get Weingarten to capitulate in exchange for money.


Ed Week's blogger reports on the convention (live feeds on the sidebar) also talked about how Randi attacked NCLB in her speech.

She called the federal law a four-letter word, and vowed to work to overhaul it. NCLB, she said, is not about teaching, but about testing.


The Ed Week blogger even used the word, "Ouch!"

I would use multiple 4 letter words to describe just how much bullshit this is.

Watch what Randi Weingarten does, not what she says when it comes to testing and NCLB. Note she says she will work to "overhaul" not abolish NCLB. She and her predecessor Sandy Feldman were supporters of the original NCLB and Sandy sat on the commission to draft it. Has Randi ever said it was wrong to play this role?

She talks about the evils of testing in NYC but then signed on to an agreement that will give teachers bonuses for raising test scores that have proven to be bogus.

When mayor Bloomberg and Joel Klein bragged about their high test scores, who was standing on the podium with them?

When Eli Broad gave Bloomberg and Klein the Broad prize for raising test scores and phone grad rates, who was there in Washington with them to accept congratulations? Guess?

TRIPLE OUCH!

La Rhee en Rose

I have to do some more parsing of Wash DC Supt Michelle Rhee's appearance on Charlie Rose Monday night but check it out and won't you just love that little anecdote of the TFA 2nd year teacher who sat in the burger joint buying kids burgers and helping them with their calculus while his colleagues were more interested in their pay checks and chided him for making them look bad by working so hard. Will he stay she asked him? He's not sure. Is that because of the 14 hour days and spending part of a meager pay check on burgers? Nahh! It's because of his colleagues' attitudes. Let's change that good ole school culture. But wait a minute! How did these dregs manage to get the Washington DC scores up so much? I mean, Rhee hasn't even gotten to fire them yet or get her end of tenure contract in place. Imagine how those scores will soar then: End of achievement gap in DC on the way.

In the meantime, check out The Daily Howler's 4 part series on Wendy Kopp's appearance on Rose which reports:

Kopp herself received a salary of $250,736 in 2005, the last year for which such data are available—though this fact is almost never mentioned in profiles or interviews (including Dillon’s.) Six other TFA executives received salaries ranging from $125,000 to $202,000 in 2006.

Whatever! For that $120 million annual outlay, Kopp and her staff of more than 800 recruited roughly 3700 teachers this past year—teachers whose salaries are paid by the school systems which employ them. In short, Teach for America spends roughly $32,000 per teacher just to send its young hires to their schools. That strikes us as an astounding amount, though we’re willing to see our reaction challenged. And of course, you might not mind burning through that kind of money—if the program in question really worked.

Wow! You really can get rich in education. What a country.
I think I actually saw some real teachers en Rose last week. Not exactly your average middle of the bell curve types - more like all teachers of the year, a very special kind of cat. You know the drill - we want a teacher of the year in every classroom in America - and then we'll talk about reducing class size. But then again why would we have to with a quality teacher in every class we can pump em up to 50. Even pay them for every extra kid they take over 40.

Kahlenberg on Shanker: He's Baaack

Vera Pavone and I reviewed Kahlenberg's "Tough Liberal" for New Politics and you can download a pdf or click on the link at the top of the sidebar on the right. We focused on the education reform aspect of Shanker's policies and how it has been destructive of teacher unionism. We reminded people that his book was funded by the likes of Eli Broad, who has been in the forefront of blaming teacher unions for education failure.

That the AFT and UFT has widely promoted Kahlenberg should be a clue as to where they are ideologically.

In How the Left Can Avoid a New Education War, Kahlenberg continues his theme by offering a middle ground between what could be termed the Richard Rothstein and Klein/Sharpton view of education:

....a major new fight has broken out between competing factions in the liberal education-policy community. One group argues that poverty should not be used as an excuse for failure and sees teacher unions as a major obstacle to promoting equity through education reform. The other group says education reform by itself cannot close the achievement gap between rich and poor and black and white without addressing larger economic inequalities in society. The battle, which can broadly be characterized as one between portions of the civil-rights community and teacher unions, is a movie we've seen before -- most explosively in the New York City teacher strikes of the 1960s -- and it doesn't end well. Sen. Barack Obama should follow the lead of legendary teacher-union leader Albert Shanker and recognize that both sides in the debate need to bend.


Kahlenberg raises the old "we should hold students accountable" argument. You know - hold them back. Maybe water boarding. Or shoot them.

But what about holding government and the business community accountable?

When he says Shanker never said unions should be blamed, he leaves out the fact that by going along with the accountability movement without ever talking about conditions - like the words "class size" have been banished from just about anything Kahlenberg writes - just as they were from much of Shanker's later writings - the AFT and UFT have abandoned the fight for the funding needed to truly have an impact. Read "Tough Liberal" and you will see that Shanker had no such compunctions about unlimited funding for defense budgets and wars.

He says Shanker wanted the unions to fight for better health care. But Shanker put real energy into fighting for merit pay and a standards and accountability movement that without other aspects in place, distract us from a progressive ed reform movement.

I'll leave it to Susan Ohanian's comments below to nail where this gang is coming from. But beware the empty words emanating from the final day of the AFT convention in Chicago and follow the Broad, Rotherham, Haycock, Romer, Klein, Clinton, Sharpton, Weingarten alliance. (Wars of words between Klein and Weingarten are just that - words.)

How the Left Can Avoid a New Education War
Richard D. Kahlenberg
American Prospect 2008-07-09
http://susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.php?id=8106

Ohanian Comment:
When people are in the pockets of corporate raiders, it doesn't matter whether they call themselves liberals or conservatives in matters of education policy. As I have pointed out before, with great foreboding, these so-called liberals/progressives at The Center for American Progress wrote Barack Obama's education policy a few years back. Here's more, if you can stand it. And more. Take a look at whom Kahlenberg calls "sensible education reformers": Andrew Rothertham, Kati Haycock, and Roy Romer. And then there's the oddity of labeling teacher unions as "left" and "liberal." The whole emphasis on "bad teachers" is a red herring. Yes, there are some inadequate and even "bad" teachers, but what is rarely acknowledged these days is that they are so far outnumbered by the good ones. . . or at least there were until teachers started following the scripts shipped in from Reading First.

Russo also had a comment on the Kahlenberg piece at TWIE:
http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/2720236/31045894

NEA too big for its britches?

Here's an attack by Richard Whitmire on the NEA for "dissing" the mis-using of phony "accountability" to privatize the schools. Watch how the AFT under Weingarten will be distinguished from the NEA as being more reasonable and reform-minded as Randi reprises the Al Shanker role of the 80's and 90's. The NEA at the time,which had been holding fast for proper funding, blinked under the joint assault of business, politicians and the AFT. Let's hope for a firmer stand today- but don' t get your hopes up too far.

I understand the Broader, Bolder argument that schools can’t do it all. But some things, especially semifixable things, can’t be put off until poverty is “solved.” And as Core Knowledge, KIPP, Uncommon Schools, Green Dot and other schools have demonstrated, it is possible to make a difference by changing what can be changed.

By dissing successful charters and tough school accountability, the NEA has drifted so far leftward that even the Rev. Al Sharpton has drawn a line in the sand. Teaming up with reform school leaders such as New York’s Joel Klein, Sharpton’s Education Equality Project is calling out the teachers unions on issues such as protecting incompetent teachers and tolerating the widespread school failures among African-American boys.

The full piece is at:
http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=093201A0-3048-5C12-006CF8EA735A1A70

NEA too big for its britches
By: Richard Whitmire
July 9, 2008

Does Teach for America Have a Future - In Handcuffs?

Must see video over at Chancellor's New Clothes from CBS asking the magical question, "Where did the money go" and will the upcoming $12 million in fed funding to TFA be monitored a tad bit more closely?

She's Not There

I had planned to go to Chicago for the AFT convention but when friends bought tickets to see the Zombies this past Friday night, I knew I had my priorities straight. The four of us went to London in March to see their 40th anniversary concert.

I mean, why go see 800 plus Unity/UFT zombies - they do all vote as one - yucking it up at our expense in Chicago? Has anyone calculated what this junket costs? Figure at least $2000 a person times 800+ – I bet it's closer to 1000- the reason so many people join Unity.

Unity Caucus/UFT AFT delegates in Chicago celebrating Weingarten's election

Yikes! Is that like $2 million? (Someone do the math.) No wonder UFT dues are always going up. And they went up at the AFT too.

By the way, many AFT locals cannot afford to send their full complement of delegates so they send a portion equipped to cast more than one vote each. The UFT could do the same - like send one delegate to cast 800 votes, since they will all be the same anyway - at least for those Unity Caucus delegates who are not shopping.


My favorite bitter sweet Zombies song was "She's Not There" which always reminds me that at the time it came out around 1965 I messed up with the girl I liked, leading to her no longer being there. The song still reminds me of her.

On the other hand, in today's world of UFT politics, the song could also be about Randi Weingarten who will no longer be there - meaning here in NYC all that often as she races around the country as AFT president (her acceptance speech is Monday.) Here are some lyrics and you can watch a Zombies performance of the song from the 60's here and from the March '08 London reunion here.



Well, no one told me about her
The way she lied [about the 2005 contract]
Well, no one told me about her
How many people [ATRs and in the rubber room] cried
Well, it’s too late to say you’re sorry [for agreeing to merit pay]
How would I know, why should I care [hell, I'm retired]
Please don’t bother trying to find her
She’s not there....


I was not necessarily a wild fan of the Zombies but once seeing them in person they are hard not to like. (Our friend is close to being a Blunstone groupie - she cornered him on Friday to autograph a picture.) Awesome enthusiasm and tremendous skill. Maybe because Blunstone and Argent were apart for 40 years- the group had already broken up when the Odessey and Oracle album was released.

Ron Argent on the organ and Colin Blunstone on vocals are the only originals from the touring group, which has the bass player from The Kinks with his son on drums. All the surviving members were at the London concert, where they played the entire Odessey and Oracle album. Here is some video filmed by, Mark, my partner in NorMark productions in March. He is putting more up from Friday and I'll add the links to this post.

Which Comes First- Class Size Reduction or Teacher Quality?

There has been no more persistent theme of Ed Notes throughout our 12 years that teacher quality or effectiveness or whatever they are calling it today is affected by the number of children in a class. Of course to the "outcome" oriented gang, the sole judge is the test score, ignoring about 75% of what teachers do, from nurturing the whole child to scrubbing dirty desks.

Here's a nice video at AfterEd TV with Leonie Haimson, the NY Sun's Elizabeth Green, Columbia's Doug Ready (make sure to check out Leonie's comment if you hit the link.)

They talk about the study in California that showed that despite having to hire 3 times as many teachers due to class size reduction, the "quality" of all these teachers hired was about the same. But what do they mean by quality? Again it comes down to scores and I don't believe that is the relevant factor. Maybe we should use "number of kids that contact the teacher over a 5 year period after they graduate." It's as good a judge as any other factor. Lots more with Ready making some great points. I was at his presentation at Columbia a few months ago and his research is dynamite -it blows up the regressive ed reformers who push gimmicks like merit pay and ignore the class size issue.

Seymour Papert

Today's Boston Globe has an article on Seymour Papert's attempt to recover from a severe brain injury. Papert has been one of the major figures in educational circles since the early 60's.

Photo from the Boston Globe of Papert at his home in Maine.

In December 2006 Ed Notes reported on the accident Papert suffered in Hanoi that put him in a coma. Since then we received reports on his recovery from Laura Allen from Vision Education who is a very close friend of the South African born educator who pioneered the use of computers in education with his invention of the Logo programming language (using the famous turtle.)

When computers hit the schools in the early 80's they arrived with one basic piece of software: Logo. I used it to teach kids from the 2nd grade through the 6th to program in Logo. What empowerment they felt when they could make the turtle move just by typing Forward [whatever number of steps] and then change direction by turning it by typing LEFT or RIGHT with a number from 0 to 360 degrees. There were so many teaching opportunities - ie. figure out how to make a square or a circle.

Logo also contained lots of language arts possibilities. We designed a program to act out nursery rhymes - Humpty Dumpty was the most fun. All the king's horses and all the king's men came marching in after Humpty fell off the wall. However, we were able to put Humpty back together again by running the program backwards.

I got my first start in robotics when LEGO and Logo teamed up, to no small extent due to Papert, when they created LEGO/Logo which gave us a language that could turn on motors and read sensors. That was the beginning of robotics in the schools - at least at the lower levels. LEGO/Logo evolved - some say devolved - when programs came out that did not require kids to do any coding - drag and drop motors. They still require a basic understanding of programming and they are easy to use but not as rigorous.

There used to be a Logo users group in NYC where teachers from all over the city met every few months, mostly at one of the private schools in Manhattan. At one meeting at the Spence School Papert thrilled us with a surprise visit. I remember that day around 17 years ago because I met a computer teacher from the Brearley school and she offered me about 30 Apple IIGS computers they were about to replace with Macs. I went up there twice and loaded my station wagon and that is how we got our first rudimentary computer lab.

I was as turned on by that first computer in my classroom (the first I ever saw) in 1984 as the kids – to the extent that very soon after I began to take computer science classes at Brooklyn College which ultimately lead to a Masters and a few years of adjunct teaching of programming languages.

But teaching kids to learn some programming (I can go on for hours on how valuable this is) faded very quickly in the schools. Too many teachers and administrators didn't see it as valuable. (See Wired Science- Forward 40: What Became of the LOGO Programming Language?) There are probably few if any public schools in NYC doing much today, but many private schools still use a souped up programming environment which incorporates Logo, now called Microworlds. There are also many other varieties of Logo around.

Seymour Papert's contributions to theories of learning that engage kids has been invaluable. Unfortunately in today's climate of test, test, test, the benefits of his views are being denied to children in urban areas who might be most in need while they are being implemented in the most elite private schools.

Philadelphia Story

A Washington Post article on June 26 talked about the failure of privatization efforts in Philly.
Another failed school system that Paul Vallas ran into the ground (see Chicago, New Orleans.) yet nothing sticks to Teflon Paul who is contemplating getting out of New Orleans before the shit hits the fan, as it usually does when he is involved and running for political office in Illinois.

Is Edison dead-ism?

Is the article below a sign Philly Supt. Arlene Ackerman is a closet leftist status quoer who believes in throwing money at the problem with lower class sizes and other things that might make a real difference? Note that the program expires after 3 years, just little enough time to claim failure:
See, throwing money at the problem does no good. Let's continue to close schools, open up charters, have a revolving door for teachers and all the other regressive ed reforms.
Leonie Haimson wrote:

Arlene Ackerman, new superintendent of Philly school district trying novel experiment – to put smaller classes and more support and guidance into "persistently violent schools" rather than more police and scanners. Seven Philadelphia schools received grant money out of the US Labor Dept.; NYC did not receive any and doubtful if it even applied for any.

Ackerman is also pulling back from privatization like the Edison schools, giving more scrutiny to charters, and just gave the heave-ho to the "interim chief academic officer, chief accountability officer and deputy chief academic officer. On top of that, the district eliminated more than 200 academic-coach jobs."

Let's hope that this reflects a new educational trend that may come our way someday soon – reversing the build-up of the bureaucracy and police at the expense of the classroom.

Read about it here or here.

In a sidelight, Diane Ravitch wrote to the NYC Education listserve:

Interesting that Philadelphia, known as a district with lots of problems, has a graduation rate no lower than NYC's.

NYC DOE Monitors Blogs in Search for 'Truth'

Before we start, note that the UFT also has a similar "unofficial" squad - oppressive agencies with things to hide do this sort of thing.

"We try to keep track of what people are saying about us, and we respond periodically," a deputy schools chancellor, Christopher Cerf, who came up with the Truth Squad concept, said. "Because we believe in the truth."

Cerf must think he's going to replace George Carlin with this line.

The first time I met DEO press chief David Cantor occurred when I attended a Klein press conference at Tweed. Before being admitted, he took me aside and said, "What exactly is the story? I hear you have a blog." Meaning: how can you be an objective reporter?

What? People at this level are aware of a fairly minor blog like mine? I could see the Unity/UFT yokels being interested since the main object of ed notes is to reach rank & file teachers. But the DOE?

I responded that for the Wave I was both a reporter and a columnist and I was there in that capacity. And so what if I have a blog? I was admitted and since then Cantor has never been less than accomodating.

Leonie Haimson and the NYC Public School Parent listserve and blog appear to be a major target because of her dead-on analysis (did they follow her to Monday's Ed Notes gathering in Rockaway?) Ed Notes is probably not high enough on the list of the elite 24 blogs and listserves being monitored by the DOE press office but they do have one person monitoring Alexander Russo's This Week in Education which often links to Ed Notes. Russo has a fun post on the story today. As does Eduwonette.

Is this what Joel Klein meant when he said his people work 14 hour days?

Elizabeth Green in today's NY Sun:

Employees at the city Department of Education's press office have a new assignment: They are to scour a group of 24 education Web logs, e-mail Listservs, and Web sites in a hunt for factual errors and misinformation. Department officials are calling the unit the Truth Squad.

The squad's latest triumph should appear today on a Listserv operated by the parent organizer Leonie Haimson — in the form of an e-mail message arguing that Ms. Haimson's characterization of summer school programs as underfunded was incorrect.

Press officers have also posted responses in the form of comments to the blogs they read.

Link to the Sun article.

Joel Klein devises a plan in which he can stay in power....forever!

Get the dope at the NYC Public School Parent blog.

Also check out Leonie Haimson on the

Absurd, Ham-Handed Bloomberg Third Term PR Wave Hits Times

Is the NYC Parks Department Racist?

One would certainly think so given the fact that small, insular, wealthy communities (full disclosure - I live in one of them) get lifeguards - lots of them while the poorer east end Rockaway communities get zilch.

More evidence that Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has compared himself to Martin Luther King as a civil rights activist, supports closet racist policies that have lead to more segregated schools, the disappearing black teacher, and entire beach communities of people of color who do not have lifeguards and are threatened with summonses and arrest by Parks Dept. police if they should venture to put a toe in the water.

Message from NYC Parks Dept. head Adrienne Benepe:
Hey people of color: OK to sit on a crowded beach, but don't go in the water.

Here is an excerpt from a letter to Parks Dept. head Adrienne Benepe by Jeanne Dupont, who leads the Rockaway Waterfront Alliance:

The population in these areas are polar opposites; Neponsit has a population of .02% minorities, where Far Rockaway has a 98% minority population. This cannot continue, as this is racial discrimination and could put the Parks Department in serious danger of legal action if it were investigated further.

Here's Jeanne's entire letter:

Please register your complaint that Far Rockaway needs its lifeguards every day, not just on the weekends. Visit 106 Headquarters for Lifeguards at Beach 106th Street on the boardwalk, call (718) 318-4000 extension 0, or call 311.

From Beach 75th Street on up, there are lifeguards every 100 yards. The outright neglect of our neighborhood is abominable, so please make yourself heard.

You may also want to write to Adrian Benepe, the NYC Parks Commissioner. Attached (and below) is a letter that Jeanne DuPont of Rockaway Waterfront Alliance sent today.

Thank you.

July 8, 2008

Mr. Adrian Benepe

Commissioner

NYC Department of Parks & Recreation

The Arsenal

16 West 61^st Street

New York, NY 10023

Dear Commissioner Benepe,

As you know, Rockaway Waterfront Alliance has been working to encourage the public to use their waterfront through programs and activities that are so desperately needed in the Rockaway community. But it is difficult to watch as much of our work is undone by PEP patrol officers who chase the public off their beaches in search of an ‘open’ beach with lifeguards.

Last year in our local paper, you ‘Pledged a Commitment’ to the Rockaway community. But since that time little has changed and we still have no “Learn to Swim” or local “Lifeguard Training” programs anywhere in the Rockaways and the lifeguard recruiting process does not seem to be getting the numbers of lifeguards required to keep our beaches safe.

As it stands now, certain beaches are extremely well staffed for the privileged few, while other beaches in Rockaway are extremely underserved; putting the public at risk and overextending the lifeguards themselves.

For the past two weekends the beachfront at Beach 25^th Street in the Rockaways has had well over 500 people each day, and no lifeguard at all during the week. This beach is adjacent to one of the largest populations of people on the peninsula, exceeding 25,000 residents and yet there is only 1 lifeguard stand for miles of public waterfront all the way to Beach 74^th Street.

This seems extremely unjust given the fact that areas on the far western end of the Peninsula like Neponsit, have more than 21 lifeguards; 7 stands, 100 yards apart for less than 2,000 residents in an area with no public boardwalk, parking by permit only, and no access to public transit. This would seem to be a “private beach” paid for with public resources that are required to serve seven miles of public waterfront.

There is a drastic contrast in services provided between City Council District 31 and 32; two districts that lie adjacent to one another along the same waterfront. City Council District 31 presently has only 4 lifeguard stands from Beach 9^th Street to Beach 54^th Street, while City Council District 32 has over 72 lifeguard stands from Beach 74^th Street to Beach 149^th Street, every 100 yards apart.

It is also important to note that the population in these areas are polar opposites; Neponsit has a population of .02% minorities, where Far Rockaway has a 98% minority population. This cannot continue, as this is racial discrimination and could put the Parks Department in serious danger of legal action if it were investigated further.

To address the present shortage on the Eastern end, I would ask that the Parks Department in the very least, have lifeguards all week long at the 1 stand at Beach 25^th Street and consider designating more stands along the beaches from Beach 25^th Street to Beach 38^th Street, to ensure the publics safety and emergency back up for the lifeguards that are stationed there.

Additionally, NYC legislation should to be revised, as it is in all other US coastal states to have a “swim at you own risk” policy. By doing this the city would reduce their risk of lawsuits and could use the funds, presently used for PEP officers to hire certified lifeguards, so we can have more ‘open’ swimmable beaches and less harassment to the public who deserve the right to use their waterfront.

I would be interested in speaking with you further about these issues. If you would like to meet to discuss how some of these things might be resolved, I can be reached 917 975-5623.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Jeanne DuPont

Director

Rockaway Waterfront Alliance

cc:

Councilman Joseph Addabbo

Steve Cooper, Frank Ave Civic of Edgemere

Richard George, Beachside Bungalow Preservation Assoc.

Phil Karmel/ Bryan Cave LLC

Congressman Gregory Meeks

Les Paultre. Rockaway Beachside Neighborhood Assoc.

Assemblywoman Audrey Pheffer

Stephanie Samoy

Councilman James Sanders

State Senator Malcolm Smith

Barbara Smith, Deerfield Civic Assoc.

Assemblywoman Michele Titus

Joel and Michelle Have Fun in the Sun (Valley)

http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/2008/07/joel-and-michelle-have-fun-in-sun.html

Wendy Kopp Blows Up the Bridge on the River KIPP

"What Have I Done?" - Colonel Nickolson (Alec Guiness), says in Bridge on the River Kwai.

You know the story. Brit Nickolson drives the building of an important bridge for the Japanese war effort in a test of wills with the Japanese commandant of the prison camp. When the British send a team to blow it up, Nicholson realizes what he's done as he falls on the dynamite fuse that blows up his loving creation.

So, one day when Nirvana has been reached and every school in America is a KIPP school and every 2 years a corps of millions of Teach for America teachers storm into urban schools as replacement troops for the old guard, some of whom have reached the mandatory 25 year old age limit for teachers, it will dawn on Wendy Kopp that the achievement gap is no closer to being closed.

And she will shout, "What have I done," as she falls on the plunger that will blow up every KIPP school.

And some chronicler will end this updated version of the movie, tentatively titled, "Bridge on the River KIPP," with the comment, "Madness! Madness ... madness!"

Hot Items Worth Checking Out

UPDATE:

Flattening the Great Education Myth
Over at Susan Ohanian's place, David Sirota goes after Tom Friedman's happy talk about a flat earth - or is it a flat economy - or is it a flat tire?
Sirota points out that there will be no jobs even if the the achievement gap is closed. And Friedman and the ed reform gang know that. Which leads us to KIPP and training kids to snap to when Walmart comes a-call'n.

Russo's TWIE has a piece on TFA. All is not glitter in the land of gold.

Titans Seek New York Mayor in Bloomberg's Mold
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/07/nyregion/07mayor.html?ref=nyregion&pagewanted=all

Leonie Haimson comments:

The business community is apparently looking for another corporate type to succeed Bloomberg – while claiming that the administration has been nonpolitical, which is entirely mistaken. His regime has politicized education like never before – spending a huge amount on PR, for example, while running it like a fiefdom.

The Bloomberg administration is considered an ally to many corporations, especially developers. Rezoning projects under his watch have opened large swaths of the city to new construction. And Mr. Bloomberg, especially, travels in the same orbit as many of the city's elite; he goes to their functions and they to his; he gives to their causes and they reciprocate.

Clearly, they want someone who will run the city according to their interests – and since they don't send their kids to NYC public schools, they have no interest in promoting the candidacy who will work to actually improve classroom conditions.

Followed by Diane Ravitch:

Leonie,

You don't understand. If the mayor acts on behalf of developers and major corporations, that is "non-political." If he acts on behalf of unions or ordinary parents, that's political.

Education Summit in Rockaway

Back in April, a supposed education bloggers summit was held in Washington – on a school day when most teachers couldn't attend.

The idea of having a NYC Ed bloggers summit of people who actually teach was hatched. When is the best time? Why during the summer when teachers are most available.

An influential community of educational activists and powerful voices from the blogosphere has grown in the NYC area. This has been an exciting development. But some of these pockets of activity are isolated from others. And those that are in touch all too often people see each other at meetings but have little opportunity to socialize.

I thought it would be a good opportunity to get together in a relaxing environment for an afternoon and evening of socializing (and socialization).

If BloomKlein had dropped a net from a helicopter and lifted off, they would have removed a major source of criticism
So, yesterday, I invited around 60 education activists (and some friends) out to Rockaway to chat, chew and hang out. I could have asked a hundred but my deck would have sunk into the sea. (Sorry, I know I missed some people.)

Forty five showed up and the day turned from cloudy and muggy into the spectacular afternoons and evenings we have out here so often. Many took the 3 block stroll to the beach. On the way back they could see the Manhattan skyline lurking in the background at the end of my block.

Truly multi-generational
People with a 40 year age gap from NYCORE, Teachers Unite, ICE, ICOPE, parent advocates from the NYC Education listserve, assorted independents and UFT activists. And a bunch of bloggers, many anonymous (they were invited to wear Joel Klein, Randi Weingarten or Eduwonkette masks.) Some who were online friends, met for the first time.

People asked if Eduwonkette, the subject of Elizabeth Green's piece in yesterays' NY Sun, was around. Maybe she was. How would we know? She's anonymous.

"Why didn't you invite Randi Weingarten," some joked.

Sorry, we only asked activists.

Filmmaker Elizabeth Rodd joined us to do some interviews for her film on NYC education.
What did they talk about? How do I know. I was busy grilling, moving trash, and generally making sure the person known as NLSW (Norm's Long Suffering Wife) wasn't going to make me sleep under the deck.

Dave B. put up a panorama shot here.

Elizabeth Green on Eduwonkette's Impact

Green does it again with today's article on Eduwonkette, proving Green is the only ed reporter in NYC, and maybe the nation, with her finger on all the buttons.

Note Rotherham's usual attack about allowing an anonymous blogger. "I don't think this is going to be remembered as Ed Week's finest hour."

Andy, this isn't going to be remembered as your finest decade.

Interesting that Eduwonkette blogged for over 3 months and was already having a major impact before Ed Week came calling - exactly why they did. And on her first day of blogging, Rotherham promoted her blog - I guess it was seeing his head on that chorus line gal's body. Maybe he still holds a grudge.

But ed notes had the scoop as we were the first to promote the blog on the first day it appeared. The Wonkette talked about my favorite topic that entire first week - teacher quality. In addition to all her other skills, she's quite a photoshopper.

Rotherham talks about Eduwonkette as "having skin in the game." Do you know one of his major points of proof? She once used me as a stringer to cover a panel that Rotherham was on.

Green writes:

"Call me old fashioned and curmudgeonly, but I can't stand it when the wonks break out in a 'research shows' chorus with no references," Eduwonkette wrote in one post. "If research so valiantly and definitively shows it, you should be able to tell us whose research shows it." Then she quoted a top city administrator, Garth Harries, as speaking at an event about research showing that teacher quality has a greater effect on student learning than class-size reduction and yet, upon questioning, not being able to cite any studies to demonstrate it.

I was the one who challenged Garth Harries at the event mentioned in the article when he put out the usual "research shows" story on teacher quality since no one has figured out exactly how to make that judgement. Klein (and Weingarten, unfortunately) often say the same thing.

But, holy cow, when it comes to Eduwonkette, both Randi and I agree. But wait till the day comes when Wonkette takes as close a look at the UFT as she does the DOE. Where is the research on union ineffectiveness? Oh, I forgot. The 2005 contract and its aftermath.

Here is the link to the NY Sun article.

Teach for America: The One That Got Away

I've been attending a July 4th party out here in Rockaway for about 30 years. I've seen my friends' kids and all their friends grow up - from 10 years old to 40 today - yikes. Their son has kept in touch with many classmates as far back as kindergarten.

Some of the best conversations I've had over the past 15 years has been with Eric, who has taught at an elite Manhattan private school for the past 12 years.

"The year I graduated was the first year for Teach for America and I went to one of their presentations. I saw immediately the idea was not for me. Six weeks to become a teacher? Of the most needed kids? No way!"

Eric fit the TFA profile. Ivy League, accepted at medical school, but wanting to try his hand at teaching even though he had taken no ed prep in college. Coming from a family with 3rd world roots, he would have been an asset to TFA to pump up their poor statistics in recruiting people of color.

Eric chose another route: two years as an assistant teacher in early childhood classes in another city. The obligatory MA from Teachers College and a full-time teaching job in kindergarten at an elite Manhattan private school, which he has been at for 12 years. Even ended up marrying the woman who was his assistant teacher and she is teaching there too.

Top private schools insist that teachers do a year or two of apprenticeship before turning their kids over to them. Anything hinting at a TFA model would be laughed at.

"But you're comparing apples and oranges," you might say.

The point is that all the very people claiming that closing the achievement gap is a civil rights issue, promote a program that provides a very different educational experience to the kids most in need. We hear the term "quality teacher" bandied about all the time. Yet none of these people advocate a plan that would train teachers to the point where they would actually be ready to go in and teach effectively. They use the TQ issue to engage in witch hunts for supposed "bad" teachers - which in their parlance means failure to demonstrate high test scores – rather than try to come up with a permanent solution that might cost, say, a fraction of the money used for wars or corporate bailouts.

But that wouldn't fit the very different models the corporate supporters of TFA and other schemes have.

The wealthy and suburban kids get skilled teachers and a broad based curriculum that prepares them to take a leadership role in the workplace.

The urban poor kids of color, except for the top performers who are skimmed off, are handed over to people trained for 6 weeks. Teachers are deskilled and expected to teach a narrow, test-driven curriculum which will prepare those kids who manage to get through high school for a job in data entry - basically handling the cash register at the local drug store.

See Under Assault's excellent analysis of Wendy Kopp's "selling" of TFA.