Schmidt on Charters and Chicago

Are parents of charter school children across the city being organized into shock troops for Mayor Bloomberg's continued control of the public school system?

March 21, 2009

Norm and friends:

The answer is "Yes." They do the same thing in Chicago, only putting more dollars behind it.

After each conversion, a group of parents if formed to go around praising the charter (and damning the "bad" public school that the children had been forced to endure before they reached the promised land of charters). If you listen carefully (and you should really tape these scripted things), they will all repeated the same teacher bashing bullshit.

-- The teachers rush out of the building at the public school at the end of the day

-- The teachers in the public school did not believe "all children can learn" (a veritable mantra, since the days of "Stand and Deliver" -- which they still are required to memorize, I'm sure)

-- The "bad teachers" in the old public school simply sat at their desks and handed out worksheets, etc., etc., etc.

-- The public school teachers allowed violence and bullying to prevail, but finally our children are "safe" ete.

If you collate all of this garbage, you can actually hear the echnoes of their scripts.

What's interesting is that the two groups of people who repeat these scripts (the charter school TFA type teachers; the charter "parents") usually can't answer the simple question: What public school was that, where all those terrible things happened to you and your children?

They are usually repeating articles of faith, like scripture. Since the right wing talking points are never challenged, they get away with it. (Especially if, in the case of the parents, they introduce themselves as being poor and minority -- which usually they are not, since hustles like this don't go to the poor).

Here in Chicago, the breeding ground for these parents is a thing called the "Renaissance Schools Fund", which currently has more than $50 million to spend on privatization and its necessary "choice" propaganda.

The Renaissance Schools Fund sponsored an annual "choice" fair at Soldier Field (where the Bears play football; honest) in January. It could have been called "Charter Schools and Privatization Expo". Also, union busting Expo.

Their funding comes from the largest corporations in the USA, which is one of the reasons, as a side line, that CORE Chicago organized a boycott of Walgreens (basically, it's the Business Roundtable, which in Chicago is called the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club and includes all the CEOs of the biggest corporations and is straight out of Ayn Rand in its ideology).

They also sponsor several black women who are called "Parents for School Choice" who are always on call to speak at public meetings and denounce anyone who wants to reform the existing public schools and oppose charters. "Parents for School Choice" jobs will doubtless proliferate as these things do.

If some of the parts of these scripts haven't reached you yet in New York, they will.

One of the most fun things is to ask these people where they get their information and who is paying them. The answer to (a) is usually "everybody knows that" (for example, that union teachers trample the children rushing to the parking lot at the end of the day, while the noble charter school teachers work form pre-dawn until post-sunset for the sake of "the children") and (b) "Why are you asking that question? How is that relevant to what's best for my child's future? HOW DARE YOU !!!!"

Etc.

Enjoy.

Let's continue to share these experiences.

George N. Schmidt
Editor, Substance

www.substancenews.net

Seattle Teachers Suspended for Refusal to Give Useless Test

Two special education teachers in Seattle were suspended without pay this month. The teachers refused to give their students a federally mandated test. It's called the WAAS Portfolio. It's an alternative to the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, or WASL. It's for students with the most severe cognitive disabilities. Washington State has struggled to come up with the best way to test these kids. Some parents and teachers have decided the whole thing is a waste of time.

Read the story and listen to the broadcast at KUOW.

Out of the Office...

....at the Labor Notes Troublemakers conference of members of many unions. See sidebar our for details and come on by if you are in Manhatten today. It is time to organize and get organized.

Will ATRs Be Equated to AIG Exec Bonus Babies?

Chaz School Daze reports principals are still not hiring ATRs for the classroom despite the UFT/DOE agreement. "Today's New York Daily News reported that only 16 ATRs have been hired to fill a classroom vacancy since the November 2008 agreement while 295 "newbie" teachers have filled the rest."

Coming soon from the BloomKlein/corporate/New Teacher Project/charter school conglomerate:
Calls for termination of ATRs because they have proven to be "unemployable." Just watch the witch hunt with the economic crisis as a backdrop. Soon they will have the public out with pitchforks like they are currently after AIG exec bonus babies. By the time they get through, AIG will smell like a rose compared to ATRs.

The UFT will claim of course it could have been worse. They successfully lobbied to get the tips of the pitchfork spines blunted.

Charter School Parents Used As Shock Troops

The Daily News' Juan Gonzalez asks:

Are parents of charter school children across the city being organized into shock troops for Mayor Bloomberg's continued control of the public school system? The state law that authorized mayoral control expires on June 30, and the debate over whether the Legislature should extend it has turned increasingly bitter in many city neighborhoods.

If you check out the last two Ed Notes posts (here and here) dealing with the rally by Brownsville parents opposing charter schools and the bund-like rally held by Eva Moskowitz with Bloomberg at the keynote speaker, you get a picture of what is going on as the pseudo ed reformers, or distorters, use their money and power to push public education off the cliff. The resistance movement grows, but is far outnumbered by the resources of the corporate world which has teamed up with most of the politicians. With the surrender of the teacher unions, the battle will be long and hard and indeed we may have to wait out a generation to see how the test driven/market based/charter school movement with a revolving peace corps-like teacher corps will lead to scandal and even collapse of entire school systems.

What will happen is a growing resistance from parents shut out and teachers overworked. Such coalitions are forming in Chicago and LA and we are in the early stages in NYC.

The ICE/NYCORE conference (endorsed by groups within and outside the union) to STOP CLOSING SCHOOLS on March 28 at John Jay College from 12-3PM is one of the building blocks of the resistance and if you are a resister, you should be there. We have to rebuild the union as a force to defend public education, build alliances with parent, community and student groups.

Gonzalez goes on:

Supporters of Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, including principals from many newly formed public charter schools, have launched a well-financed and sophisticated effort to lobby for more charters and for mayoral control.

In recent weeks, those principals have mobilized parents from their schools for "School Choice" community rallies to demand extra space for new charters in existing public schools, and to pack a series of state Assembly hearings on school governance, the last of which will be held in Brooklyn today.

"You see the organizers and the parents brought in on buses, and the sandwiches distributed, and you can tell it's a highly organized effort," said one official who has attended several of the hearings.

Some disgruntled charter school parents have claimed their principals require them to attend such rallies.

A Harlem principal who shares space with one of the new public charter schools is furious at the "obvious double standard."

"If I tried to use my budget and resources to mobilize parents that way, my job would be in jeopardy," said the principal, who requested anonymity. "But the charters have all this extra money to do whatever they want, all with the blessing of Klein."

If you are involved in education in any way, be scared, very scared, as communities are intentionally turned against each other, as are teachers.

The biggest uproar has been sparked by DOE's aggressive policy of putting new charters in existing public schools without seeking parent approval.

"It's the same in every neighborhood," said Monica Major, president of the Community Education Council in District 11 in the Bronx. "The DOE just tells you they're putting a new charter in your building and you have to force them to even have a conversation about it."

Such directives have turned parents in some neighborhoods into warring factions. Those who favor charters claim others are denying their children the chance for a better education.

Remember: March 28, John Jay College (59th st and 10th Ave) as teachers from some closing schools and some community and even student groups will develop strategies for building the resistance.

Related:
Why Obama is wrong about our schools
Randy Childs, a public school teacher and member of United Teachers Los Angeles, debunks Barack Obama's arguments for charter schools, standardized testing and merit pay for teachers.
http://socialistworker.org/print/2009/03/19/wrong-about-our-schools

You Can't Work in a charter school if you're older or have a family....

....a group of Harlem Success Teachers after the March 18 rally for charter schools, mayoral control, and the demolishment of the public school system.

Poor gals, they clearly were at the event of their free will- and I mean free. But when I asked these mostly first and 2nd year Teach for America teachers how things were going, they said, "Fine, but you can't work in a charter school if you are not young or have a family." I asked what would happen with the bad economy shutting off the exit strategy so many TFA's have employed? They shrugged, wearily.

There were many suits there and many people from LearnNY or whatever it's called. Buttons, baloons, free bags and everyone urged to send a post card to the governor and fill out a "we support mayoral control" petition. And lots of hip hop and preaching from the stage. How many people really came for the free stuff?

These pictures were taken by Angel Gonzalez of ICE and are posted at Facebook.

Angel and I spent a surreal afternoon/evening going from the Brownsville "Save Our Public Schools from the Evil Charter Schools" to a massive and enormously expensive rally at the 141st Armory in Harlem, with Bloomberg as the keynote spender - er - speaker. Uncle Joel was there of course too. We were looking to meet up with some pro public school Harlem teacher and parent gate crashers whose schools are being squeezed by the charters but if anyone had protested it would have been Gitmo/AbuGrav and Devil's Island for them.

The event sort of reminded me of rallies held in a certain European country in the 1930's.



Why wouldn't you be smiling at $370, 000 a year. Join the AIG execs and give back that bonus Eva!

And make sure to use kids for political reasons.























Better get the message out on both sides and in 2 languages. What happened to Creole version? Are you listening Martine Guerrier?








Jeez, he is short.
















Joel, I have a list of 1o more schools I demand you give me!













Oh, those shark's choppers!

We Survived Jim Crow, We'll Survive Bloomberg/Klein

PS 150 rallies to save a neighborhood school from the invasion of the school snatcher charters.

Photos by Angel Gonzalez posted on Facebook.

The Perimeter Exposes the Grand Takeover in Oakland...

...and coming to a poor urban school district near you

Stopping by The Perimeter Primate, Oakland mom and Ed activist supreme, is like sitting down for a 10 course banquet with one delicious nugget after another. Add a fine wine and it is quite a dining experience. Here are a few chewy morsels.

--------
I haven’t yet researched who exactly those “private philanthropic funders” might be, but looking at the NLNS Board of Director members list reveals the usual edu-philanthro-manipulate-preneur billionaires and company:

Read it all: The National Scene on a Local Scale
-------------------

I had known that, since the state takeover, the school district had been run by Broad-trained people, but the Trib's description wouldn't fit them. It instantly irked me that a group of people – who the editorial would not even name – seemed to be having considerable influence on the direction of Oakland’s public schools. I posted my concern on a local community listserv.

Later that day I received a private response, and two follow-ups, from an Oakland resident who was very involved with the city at the time.

There is a group of Oakland business people led by [A, a wealthy local businessman] who are strong Eli Broad supporters, and charter school supporters and think that the downfall of the school system is the teachers and the unions.... The whole time Randy was talking about his plan to close and reopen all the schools so that teachers have to re-apply for their jobs at lower salaries.

Read it all: Is it Fiction, or Not? Not.

----------------

Dear Perimeter Primate,
What I don't understand about the hatred leveled toward Michelle Rhee, TFA, Broad, the Gates Foundation, etc. is that I really don't think they would be working this hard to destroy schools. Everyone I know who does this work in low-income public schools works like a dog because they want to help kids achieve. The people I know are light years away from "caring less about" public education. They are simply trying to think hard and work hard to fix the system and improve the lives of children."

The PP responds:
"Has anyone else noticed that our nation's schools are only "failing" in districts which the middle class abandoned long ago? Has anyone else noticed that a small set of extraordinarily powerful people, namely the billionaires Gates, Bloomberg, Broad and the Walton family, and a few assorted millionaires, have now gained control of school districts primarily filled with poor kids?"

Read her response in full at Wishing I Was a Fly

KIPP, Kopp and Klein join the Advisory Board of the Broad Center

... along w/ former Bushite Margaret Spellings and Michelle Rhee.

Working diligently to achieve their hostile takeover of public education.

Thanks to Leonie Haimson

A Parent Vents At Teach for America

Hi D,
I have a friend whose kid just signed up for Teach for America. Wasn't that the program that gave [your daughter S] so much trouble? Care to elaborate? I'm sure they'd be interested in more info. Maybe [S] can write directly to her son. Thanks.
L

Hi L,
Teach for America only has one program, which is for recent college graduates from prestigious universities with no or little educational experience and training. TFA gives them about one month's worth of training, mostly in record keeping, along with room and board, but nothing else. TFA then puts them in an inner city classroom (for which they get an undisclosed fee of about $1,500 to 5,000 from a school district), based on the totally erroneous assumption that high achievers can get by with determination, some mentoring (which in S's case was denied by the elementary school in Brooklyn she was assigned to two days before school began), and taking a few mediocre education courses.

S initiated all types of interventions at the school directly, through Teach for America, through her union, and through an attorney we hired to get Teach for America to intervene at the school to get the mentoring she was entitled to, but TFA told her she was not working hard enough at being a leader. S also attempted to get a transfer to a school which wanted an untrained, uncertified teacher, and TFA flatly refused the request. TFA also refused to provide us a copy of the contract between TFA and their teachers, as well as between TFA and the NYC Department of Education.

TFA also flat out lied to us when they said S would be flown to NYC for placement interviews before her "training" began. They also mislead us to believe that the placements took place during training. Finally, we were upset to find out that there was no compensation to get her to NYC, while she lived in their dorm, and while she was on her own for one month between the end of training. She only got her first pay check in October, which meant she was dependent on us for about a half-year after our first parent's briefing from Teach for America..

We also discovered that because of its foundation supporters and general philosophical outlook, that TFA is fanatically anti-union. They never tell their trainees that they will be in a unionized work force, and their staff even told us in writing that if they were to attend a meeting at S's school with a union rep present, that TFA would fire them from their staff positions!

Later we discovered the work of the foremost scholar on teacher education, Linda Darling Hammond of Stanford (who was Obama's chief education adviser during the transition period). She totally slams Teach for America and told us S's experience was not that unusual. She also is an advocate for serious teacher training, which means getting an MA after graduation instead of five weeks of summer school training.

Bottom line, it was a horrible experience in a horrible program. Your friend's son should turn to a serious program in teacher training.

A few of the articles we got, largely from Prof. Darling-Hammond, are attached. I will also copy an education blogger in NYC, Norm Scott, who published something we wrote about her experience in TFA. He may have more material. Also an old friend, who is now the president of the state Federation of Teachers, may have more thoughts, especially about TFA's strong anti-union outlook.
D

Darling-Hammond article is posted at http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dcj5ndsz_28cdp2gbhd
There is also a pdf of a Slate article but only available as a pdf from email.

The Washington Teacher comments

on Rotherham on Weingarten: Two Peas in a Pod

This Washington Teacher comment is worth a blog of its own:

Actually AFT co-authored the WTU counter proposal (no secret btw).Of course AFT took the lead in my opinion. The problem is that DC teachers and WTU executive board members and AFT staff participated on various WTU/AFT committees to offer recommendations for what needed to be addressed in our counter proposal.

Our WTU executive board did ask for assistance from AFT especially after contract talks stalled with Chancellor Rhee and WTU Chief Negotiator/Union President George Parker. AFT became more actively involved near to the end of last year.

At the unveiling of the WTU/AFT counter proposal- we were given copies of a very large document that we could not read in its entirety before our meeting ended. Due to confidentiality we were asked to return all copies of the proposal. My concern is that even members of our WTU negotiating team stated that they did not get to preview the proposal in its entirety despite working on certain sections when they met with AFT on a number of occassions. That for me was problematic but unfortunately negotiating team members did not share this with members of our executive board.

One thing I noticed in our contract proposal was mutual consent. Of course not being able to read the proposal in its entirety - I am not certain how this will impact DC teachers.

I am worried particularly as I have educated myself by reading many NY educators blogs. Your blogs have been informative. My worst fear is that this mutual consent could propel us into a similar situation like ATR in New York.

I am impressed by all of the many NY education bloggers. You all are the best !


My response:
Not allowing people to read the contract is an old tactic used by Weingarten and Unity caucus here in NYC to hide the fine print. They don't change their stripes. I can tell you before you even take another look: GET PEOPLE TO VOTE NO! Keep us posted.

Deadline for Parents to Run for Education Councils is Tomorrow

Nothing like disenpowering parents to stimulate a lack of interest and we won't get into the shameful performance of BloomKlein (see the NYC Parent blog for more) in the fiasco of removing just about any input from parents, but some people are still trying.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 18, 2009

Media Contact: Morgan Pehme

Tel. (646) 861-5048

press@powertotheparents.org


Deadline for Parents to Run for Education Councils is Tomorrow

Only 24 Hours Left for Public School Parents to Register to Represent Their Kids, Community

Midnight, March 19th, is the deadline for public school parents to register to represent their children and local school district on NYC’s Community and Citywide Education Councils (CECs). Although many parents have applied to run for a CEC seat, there are still District schools that have yet to put forward candidates.

CECs were formed in 2003 to replace the City’s school boards. CEC members advise the Department of Education on issues impacting parents and schools like instructional programs and zoning.

“You can register online to be a CEC candidate for your District in a matter of minutes at www.powertotheparents.org,” explained Jeff S. Merritt, Founder and President of Grassroots Initiative, the New York City-based nonprofit organization partnering with the Department of Education to recruit and assist CEC candidates.

Parents who have any questions about applying to run for a CEC seat are encouraged to call the election’s toll-free help line immediately: 1-877-NYC-VOTE and to look at the www.powertotheparents.org website to get answers to frequently-asked questions.

For a quick explanation of how to run for the CEC, parents should watch the Public Service Announcement at www.powertotheparents.org/info.html. Media and community activists can also embed the PSA on their website using the code below.



For more information about the elections or how to run for the CEC, log on to powertotheparents.org or call 1-877-NYC-VOTE.
###

Rotherham on Weingarten: Two Peas in a Pod

[I]n the coded language of labor negotiations it's actually a signal from Weingarten that she's open to negotiating and moving in Rhee's direction if Rhee can give her the necessary political cover.

This is the key quote as Ed Sector's Andrew Rotherham looks at Weingarten as a "reformer" in the wrong mode where reform means giving up teachers to mauling. Ed Notes has been saying all along that Weingarten desperately wants to make a deal with Rhee and probably even sent over some PR people to show Rhee how to cool it a bit to give Weingarten cover to sell out the DC teachers as she did in NYC.

He mistakenly gives Weingarten too much credit for interfering with the pace of "reform" in NY State. The good thing about this piece is how he traces it all back to Al Shanker, so we see the continuum of over 25 years of UFT/AFT policy and he gets the role Weingarten has played, not as an advocate for teachers, but as a intermediary between the rank and file and the market based/business/Broad crowd looking to undermine public education. He paints her in a corner. He claims she can lose it all to charters if she doesn't make a deal, and he does get that the important thing to Weingarten is membership - and dues - so she and her crowd can maintain power. We are part of a building coalition to make it just a little harder for her to accomplish her and Rotherham's aims.

Just a few delicious quotes which should resonate with every NYC classroom teacher.

Can AFT president Randi Weingarten satisfy teachers and reformers at the same time?

Randi Weingarten, the notoriously feisty president of the second-largest national teachers' union, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), received a hero's welcome at the National Press Club last November. In her speech, she vowed to give ear to almost any tough-minded school reform, and, in a line that thrilled many reformers, promised that the AFT will not protect incompetent teachers: "Teachers are the first to say, 'Let's get incompetent teachers out of the classroom.'"

Caught up in a contentious situation with the Washington, D.C. school system that has challenged her reformist credentials, Weingarten's attempt to satisfy both sides of the debate is being put to the test.
---------
When exactly Weingarten got directly involved in the Washington negotiations remains a matter of some debate, but there is no doubt that she has been deeply involved and that a counter-offer submitted to Rhee in late January by the WTU comes with her approval. As her Press Club speech would suggest, Weingarten is open to firing bad teachers. But the counter-offer, which hasn't been made public, would complicate rather than streamline that process in D.C. Among those who have seen the details, there are two views about what it means for the negotiations. Some say it is what it appears to be--at odds with the spirit of what Weingarten promised in her Press Club speech, wrapping teachers even more tightly in tenure protections and extending the termination process. Others say that in the coded language of labor negotiations it's actually a signal from Weingarten that she's open to negotiating and moving in Rhee's direction if Rhee can give her the necessary political cover. If adopted as currently proposed, however, Rhee's hurry-up reforms would be throttled back to a glacial pace and students would suffer.

-------------
It's hard to find an elected official or policy analyst in Washington who won't privately acknowledge that the NEA is bereft of real ideas about how to improve schools, whereas Weingarten is at least full of ideology-bucking plans.

Jeez. Ideology bucking. What a crock.

Read the entire piece at Norm's Notes.
Can AFT president Randi Weingarten satisfy teachers and reformers at the same time?

A Clueless David Brooks

I actually like some of the things moderate conservative David Brooks says – at times. But when he can be so clueless about education, can you believe in anything he writes? In his March 13 column, "No Picnic for Me Either," Brooks' confusion is evident in his opening words:

In his education speech this week, Barack Obama retold a by-now familiar story. When he was a boy, his mother would wake him up at 4:30 to tutor him for a few hours before he went off to school. When young Barry complained about getting up so early, his mother responded: “This is no picnic for me either, Buster.”

That experience was the perfect preparation for reforming American education because it underlines the two traits necessary for academic success: relationships and rigor. The young Obama had a loving relationship with an adult passionate about his future. He also had at least one teacher, his mom, disinclined to put up with any crap.

Wait a minute. His mother was also his teacher? Brooks confuses the elemental point right here. It was his parent, not his teachers who made the difference. The so-called ed reformers talk about great teachers out of one side of their mouths while disrespecting the mass of teachers out of the other side. People who talk about total solutions to the problems in education and say they must include attacking the social problems in the lives of kids (which include parental and home life issues) are always accused of making excuses. Sadly, Obama has joined the chorus.

The phony ed reformers are finding that as they take over more of the public school system, they discover it will take more than merit pay or charter schools. They themselves start making excuses. (Just wait 'till KIPP takes over entire swaths of schools and can't hide the warts.) Like, why does Joel Klein have to close so many schools that have been under his control for 7 years? He and Arne Duncan talk about the need for charters to promote innovation. Klein and Duncan have run entire school systems for 7 years. What stopped them from innovating in the public schools?

Brooks' next paragraph takes us from confusion to total bewilderment.

We’ve spent years working on ways to restructure schools, but what matters most is the relationship between one student and one teacher. You ask a kid who has graduated from high school to list the teachers who mattered in his life, and he will reel off names. You ask a kid who dropped out, and he will not even understand the question. Relationships like that are beyond his experience.

Okay, so let's get this straight. The most important factor in graduating from high school depends on a relationship with a teacher? Did Brooks actually read Obama's book? Can he cite even one teacher Obama credits with having a transforming influence on him?

I went to school in East NY section of Brooklyn where many of our parents didn't graduate from high school - my mom didn't even go to elementary school and could barely read or write and most of us couldn't name a teacher who made such a great difference. In fact, we had quite a few lousy teachers - more than great teachers. Yet my mom nudged me as much a Obama's mom.

But let's look at Brooks' other clueless point – that kids who drop out had no relationships with teachers. He should check the letters and phone calls I received over the years from my former dropouts, some from state penitentiaries. My fault, I guess. Or maybe Brooks should have joined me at some of the funerals I attended for former students who were slaughtered in drug wars.

In fact, I found the future dropouts in my 4-6 grade classes were the most needy of a parent surrogate, and they were the ones I often grew closest too.

The kids with stable families looked at their teachers as, well, teachers. Some were inspired. One teacher in my school took a few favorite 3rd graders to Alvin Ailey and one of the kids swore that day she would become an Alvin Ailey dancer - and she did. I had that same child in the 6th grade and believe me, she would have been successful no matter what. Her mom was a nurse, one of the few students in my schools whose parents had middle class jobs.

Related:
Brooks entire column is here.

This week from the Daily Howler: David Brooks doesn’t know several things. He does say some things which are useful. http://www.dailyhowler.com/

FAIR dissects David Brooks

http://susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.php?id=8459

David Brooks Loves Data--When It Gives the Right Results

This comes from FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting). Showing the failure of our media to do its job, they deserve our support.

by Jim Naureckas

In a typically half-empty David Brooks piece (3/13/09), the columnist praises Barack Obama for embracing "rigor" in education policy, for endorsing "testing and accountability," for "mak[ing] sure results have consequences." He complains about the "education establishment’s ability to evade the consequences of data" and that watered-down proficiency standards mean that "parents think their own schools are much better than they are." He commends Obama's commitment to "use data to make decisions," and Education Secretary opposition to "ignoring failure."

But Brooks says many doubt whether Obama "has the courage to follow through" on these principles, and point to "the way the president has already caved in on the D.C. vouchers case":

Democrats in Congress just killed an experiment that gives 1,700 poor Washington kids school vouchers. They even refused to grandfather in the kids already in the program, so those children will be ripped away from their mentors and friends. The idea was to cause maximum suffering, and 58 Senators voted for it.

Obama has, in fact, been shamefully quiet about this. But in the next weeks he’ll at least try to protect the kids now in the program.

The odd thing is that the D.C. voucher program is a very poor poster child for the importance of rigorous, data-driven education policy that rewards success and punishes failure. The students participating in the voucher program have been watched closely, and according to two Department of Education studies they aren't doing significantly better in reading or math than the peers they left behind in public school. The one bright spot that the studies found is that parents of kids in voucher schools report being more satisfied--in other words, "parents think their own schools are much better than they are."

"Rigorous" is not a word one would apply to Brooks' argument here.

FAIR blog
2009-03-13

KIPPer Karping: Fresno Scandal/Pro-Union Kipper Says "Nevermind"

Laying KIPP open to criticism

Jim Horn at Schools Matter reports

The KIPP Fresno Horror Story That the National Media Won't Tell: Part I

The KIPP Fresno story has disappeared from media coverage, except for McEwen's continued editorializing the news section of the Fresno Bee, where he has repeatedly painted this horror as a minor incident resulting from disgruntled parents or former employees. The facts, some of which are presented below in this Part I, demonstrate that this is not the case.

KIPP Fresno Part 2: Questionable Leadership AbilityKIPP Fresno

Mr. Tschang's and others' actions exceeded the bounds of the law. --Notice to Cure and Correct, p. 8

I received an email this morning from a source who suggested that the atrocities at KIPP Fresno represent the "tip of an iceberg" in terms of crimes against children in the KIPP brainwashing camps. The source wishes to remain anonymous out of fear of ending up on a "KIPP hit list."

Part 3: State Mandated Testing Violations by CEO and Staff

Two areas that KIPP supporters like to talk about are the test scores and the college attendance rates of graduates.

If we take KIPP's own numbers of 80% of those who complete 8th grade at KIPP go on to college, what does that really say? If, as the research shows, 40-60 percent of students who begin KIPP in 5th grade do not finish 8th grade, we have a much less impressive number. If my math is working, and we use an average of 50% as average dropout and kickout rate between grades 5 and 8, then we have 4/5 x 1/2=4/10, or 40% of those who began KIPP in 5th grade going to college.

Unionization efforts at KIPP derailed?

In the meantime, Russo reports at TWIE that UFT unionization efforts at KIPP in Brooklyn are endangered after a pro-union teacher says "nevermind."

KIPP strikes back?

Last week, Kashi Nelson realized that she’d made a mistake supporting unionization for herself and the other teachers at KIPP AMP.

On Thursday, she formally notified the union that she was withdrawing her support.

Over the past few weeks, administrators cracked down on teachers for not arriving at school on time.

In response, teachers insisted on having an official clock installed at the school.

Things were getting more formalized, Nelson saw.

The weekly school newsletter stopped including praise for teachers’ efforts.

Nelson frequently received texts and emails from upset colleagues.

The rumor mill said that another teacher – a part-time musician – was being fired.

“It got ugly,” she said. “It was really bad.”

CORE: Chicago Teacher Caucus Makes Waves

I spoke to Substance's George Schmidt briefly today and he tells me CORE (The Caucus of Rank and File Educators), a caucus in the Chicago Teachers Union, has had a galvanizing impact on the progressive educators in Chicago by leading the charge against the corporate, mayoral control-driven agenda. Their actions have even forced the regressive Marilyn Stewart Unity Caucus like CTU to join the parade. The mostly youthful CORE and the more senior Substance have established a close relationship, with some CORE members writing for Substance.

In NYC, the UFT holds a rally with supposedly 75,000 people and says - "Thank you, now go home and write letters to politicians." It's basically a one shot deal instead of building militancy and an activist network for further actions. The UFT leadership is afraid of activism because then questions might be raised as to how undemocratically the organization is run. Ed Notes and ICE believes in many of the positions of CORE in the CTU. Read these excerpts from the CORE newsletter in Chicago or click link below. See Ed Notes' previous post on LA Teacher Union action (Periodic Assessment Boycott by LA Teacher Union).

The parallel here in NYC (though we are years behind and have to deal with the monster Unity Caucus machine that is capable of cooptation and destroying of militancy) has been the recent activity on the part of ICE and NYCoRE (NY Collective of Radical Educators.)


The CORE Mission:

A group of dedicated teachers, Retirees, PSRPs and other champions of public education. We hope to democratize the Chicago Teacher's Union and turn it into an organization that fights on behalf of its members and the students we teach.

Angel Gonzalez sent this to ICE-Mail.

Let's build our NYC militant grassroots organization so that we can unite with Chicago, LA, Puerto Rico, and other regions to fight the privatization of schooling with the onslaught of School Closings, Charter Schools, High Stakes Testing, Deskilling of Students & Teachers, Lowering of worker wages & benefits, teacher firings & harassments, loss of union rights, etc. etc. etc. Let's organize the local struggles so that we can mobilize for the global fight for public education.
- Angel Gonzalez, ASC-ICE, JNJT-NYCoRE

(excerpts below)

Protest February 25th at the Board of Education

As opposition grows city-wide against Mayor Daley's undemocratic “school reform”, the Chicago
Teachers Union, CORE, and the GEM coalition will show its growing strength at the next meeting of the Chicago Board of Education. The last hearing saw over 500 protesters fill the streets around 125 South Clark Street and this month we hope for more.

Teachers should take a personal business day, if possible, and attend the Board meeting. Contact the Union to arrange buses from your school for the protest, which will begin at 3:30pm. Go to
COREteachers.org and join our e-mail list for updates on the opposition to Renaissance 2010!

Get Involved with CORE!
Visit COREteachers.org to read about the hearings on closing schools and upcoming actions, to join our mailing list, and to become a supporting member. The fight for quality public education needs CORE and CORE needs you!

GEM Coalition Unites Teachers, Parents, Community Groups
Dubbing themselves the Grassroots Education Movement (GEM) six parent, community, and education activist groups joined ranks with CORE and the Chicago Teachers Union to form a new coalition opposing Mayor Daley's attacks on quality public education. The groups first began organizing together in the run-up to CORE's January 10th community hearing at Malcolm X College.

Friendly relations turned to energetic collaboration in preparation for the January 28th demonstration outside the Chicago Board of Education meeting that drew over 500 protesters.

GEM's web site strongpublicschools.org has fact sheets, alert bulletins, and links to coalition groups: Blocks Together, CTU, CORE, Chicago Youth Initiating Change (CYIC), Designs for Change, Kenwood Oakland Community Organization (KOCO), Pilsen Alliance, Parents United for Responsible Education (PURE), South Side United, Local School Council Federation, South
West Youth Collaborative, Substance News and Teachers for Social Justice.

http://coreteachers.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/2009-02-21-newsletter-core.pdf

Periodic Assessment Boycott by LA Teacher Union

I don't have to tell you boys and girls teaching in NYC, how things might be if we didn't have a collaborationist union in the UFT. Read below abot the LA Teachers union and weep.

Click http://www.utla.net/pab for more info on this struggle being waged by LA teachers.

Periodic Assessment Boycott

STARTING JANUARY 27th!

Don't turn in the tests!

Assessment should be between you and your students, not you and the bureaucracy!

*************************************

On January 27, we launched a boycott of periodic assessments.

UTLA is calling for a complete boycott of all periodic assessments, Open Court Assessments, and any other district mandated tests that are NOT required by State or Federal law, or that aren't needed to determine appropriate placement for a student, such as CELDT tests. We are boycotting the submission of the test data to the District.

LET US KNOW
If you, or somebody you know at your school, is written up, let us know. Fill out the "Written-Up" form, or call 213-637-5147.

BOYCOTT IDEAS
If you have some successful organizing ideas, send us your boycott organizing ideas and we'll soon post them on the UTLA site for other members to see.

Actions to Take

Additional Information

LET US KNOW If you, or somebody you know at your school, is written up, let us know. Fill out the "Written-Up" form, or call 213-637-5147. BOYCOTT IDEAS If you have some successful organizing ideas, send us your boycott organizing ideas and we'll soon post them on the UTLA site for other members to see.

Assessment Research United Teacher articles by Julie Washington and Janet Davis (page 13) Bargaining Flash: "Why I'm joining the protests" "Strength in Numbers" letter to members (2 pages) Explanatory letter from members to parents Explanatory letter from members to parents (in Spanish) Response letter from members to administrators (2 pages) California Education Code 60602 & flyer (2 pages) UTLA legal letter to LAUSD (2 pages) UTLA response to Superintendent Cortines' letter Q&A about Periodic Assessment Boycott (2 pages) Q&A about "Letters of Reprisals" Initial flyer Press Conference Media Coverage

We are taking this action for many reasons

1) We cannot waste money in a time of budget crisis
• The District is spending millions on periodic assessments while at the same time threatening to lay off teachers, increase class sizes, and cut important programs.
• LAUSD is facing a severe budget crisis. We can no longer afford to let LAUSD spend valuable resources on extra tests that don't help our students learn.
• The cost for the tests could be as high as $150 million a year when packaging, distribution, and personnel time are factored in, not to mention the loss of weeks of valuable instructional time spent prepping students for the tests instead of teaching. That's money that could go to other things, such as stopping teacher layoffs, that have a much bigger impact on student achievement.

2) These tests aren't useful and they waste valuable instructional time
• GIVE CONCRETE EXAMPLES: "Right now, middle school students are losing two weeks of English instruction to testing."
• Teachers teach, not tests. We don't need superfluous District-mandated tests to know whether the students we work with every day are learning
• Most teachers feel that the periodic assessments-which are mostly composed of multiple choice questions-produce useless "junk data" while taking away valuable time from teaching and learning.

3) Students will benefit from the extra instructional time
• The boycotts will not hurt student learning. Teachers will still be giving out multiple tests, class assignments, and homework, along with regular report cards.
• These tests are NOT required by state law. State law requires that District ensure that diagnostic assessment takes place, and the normal work of teachers in evaluating their student's progress meets the law's requirements.
• Every teacher has access to Teacher Guides that provide assessments at no cost.
• The state and federal governments have rigorous standards and testing requirements in place for our students. The tests we are boycotting are not part of these state or federal requirements.

4) How can I participate in this action?
UTLA recognizes and respects that some teachers may find some parts of the periodic assessments useful in helping them understand what their students are learning. It is up to teachers and individual departments to decide upon whether to administer the tests. If you choose to administer all or part of the tests, you can still participate in the boycott by refusing to turn that data in to the District.. Our battle is with the bureaucracy, not with each other. Don't feed the bureaucracy by turning in your results!

Send the Bureaucrats a Message:
Excessive Testing Hurts Our Kids and Our Classrooms!

Related: LA teachers sit in over layoffs

UPDATE: Highlights of the protest at Fordham HS for the Arts on March 13th

....after a hard day’s work for most of us who labor in NYC schools

SEE THE VIDEO



by Woodlass (http://underassault.blogspot.com/), guest contributor
March 14, 2009

The rally was introduced by Lynne Winderbaum (district rep, Bx HSS), who was flanked by the likes of Michael Mulgrew (Chief Operating Officer of the union), LeRoy Barr (Director of Staff), Jose Vargas (Bx Borough rep), and Rodney Grubiak (Bronx special rep).

Something’s got the UFT’s attention for a change.

Winderbaum slammed into Iris Blige and her wayward approach to educators, kids, and schools and said the union is “fed up” with the DoE’s support of principals like this one, who ¨ruin lives and ruin careers.” There are many of these in the city, but few of them get publicized for their aberrational behavior (see JD2718 here, and his July 08 ¨Do Not Apply” list as well).

Blige and her triumvirate (as someone called the staff of three she empowered to help her run the school) have set up a culture of terror. She disciplines teachers in front of kids, comes out of what someone called her “bat cave” to yell at students without knowing their names, and sends chapter leaders and other staff to the rubber room on false charges and on no charges. Some languish there for up to two years until their cases are dismissed.

¨It was hard to come to work in the morning,” said Peter Healy, a teacher who had decided Fordham Arts was no place for him and has found a position elsewhere.

Yesterday’s rally was organized in support of teacher Raqnel James, who has recently become a victim of Blige’s miserable judgment and management skills. It was reported at a recent union meeting that Blige arranged for eleven cops to come and arrest her at school, claiming she had written a letter that had included threats. Lacking evidence (the letter was faked), the police refused to charge her. Blige remains unscathed, protected by a chancellor who seemingly condones, and maybe even asks for administrator misconduct that borders on or exceeds legal limits (who knows).

Another gruesome story came from Fannie Davis, a veteran teacher of 32 years who had been a popular dean of students when Blige decided to excess her. She grieved, and after what looked like a successful hearing, Davis returned to the school to face a pissed off Blige. With the help of one of her APs (who later rescinded his statement and apologized to Davis personally for his action), Blige trumped up a cause for Davis's removal. Into the rubber room went she the very next day, where she remained sans allegation, sans charges, sans meetings, sans everything.

One full school year later, out of the blue, came a simple letter telling Davis to go back to work, which she did, but only to serve in a series of activities hardly matching her 34 years of teaching expertise: cafeteria and bleachers supervision, and copy machine duties (they told her to watch TV while she was down there doing that).

After some months of this, and fearful that a U-rating would be doled out come June no matter what, calls were made, emails were sent, lawyers were convened, and solution was found. She's now teaching her own subject at two different sites, free of Blige and enjoying her profession once again.

Blige, by the way, is footing the bill for this. Sweet!

Joel Klein is burnishing his legacy.

Michael Mulgrew picked up where Winderbaum left off. He told the crowd that the whole community is saying they want their school back and enjoined everyone present to make sure to keep the fight going.

[Editorial comment: With the UFT's stunning inability to keep any fight going, or even to recognize where the battles are, I’m not sure Mulgrew was in any position to request this of the teachers who came out for this rally in the cold.]

A pumped up LeRoy Barr said Blige has been sending a strong message: ¨We are clear we will not allow [teachers] to be respected in this building," which he says qualifies her for the PINI program Principals in Need of Improvement. (I'm yawning.)

Jose Vargas added that if anyone is punished for participating or supporting this rally in any way, he wants to know about it.

{Ed Note: YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING! HEY JOSE, CAN YOU SEE? HOW MANY YEARS OF HARASSMENT DID THESE PEOPLE UNDERGO? REMIND US EXACTLY WHAT YOU DID ABOUT IT.}

As the crowd chanted ¨RELEASE MS. JAMES, REMOVE BLIGE!" and "HEY, HO, IRIS BLIGE HAS GOT TO GO!", people were seen peeking out upper floor windows. Rumor has it that Blige was out of the building taking a group of intimidated first-year teachers to dinner.

Whew! With all that activism, one could get the impression our union has taken a stand against Klein.

Don’t count on it. We may respect some of our district reps for their commitment and efforts on our behalf, but the higher-ups are not dealing with the virus that has infected NYC education.

The Obamagogues' Liars and Our Future

Susan Ohanian puts out a daily digest of dynamic articles. This one by Rich Gibson ties many points together from Geithner to Duncan to Obama. All these years we are told there is no money to reduce class size but magically trillions appear to bail out banks and for wars. Their solution is to look for quality, heroic teachers who will work 12 hour days till they burn out, who just happen to be brand new at half the salary. Why do we accept this? Gibson's call to action may be starting to resonate but there is a lot of work to be done. The communities under attack and socially conscious teacher must organize together so if it ever comes to having to shut down schools to fight back, there will be less chance of dividing people. There are two ways to shut down schools to stop the madness: a strike or a parent/student boycott. Imagine both.

Just a taste before reading the entire article. Gibson says:

"No money for schools - print it"

"This is a full scale class war, with the rich assaulting poor and working people everywhere. This is going on in schools, in warfare, in the financial crisis, in the health care system, in the foreclosures: everywhere."

"the union bosses are on the side of the banksters and their bought and paid for hucksters who serve in the executive committee of the rich, the government. The union bosses deny that this real class war is going on, and lure people into support for the emergence of what has all the markings of fascism, as with the eradication of any semblance of academic freedom in schools."

And my favorite:

"No money? Go print it. You did for the banksters, now go get ours. You admit that reason had nothing to do with the bailouts. That was about power. If you do the printing, we will not accept the money as
a bribe to go back in and continue the racist child abuse that is whatever you plan to call NCLB. We will treat the money, and our new colleagues, as victories, and we will press on for more still."

The Obamagogues' Liars and Our Future

http://susanohanian.org/show_commentary.php?id=649
Publication Date: 2009-03-12
By Rich Gibson

It is not our education system. It is Theirs. It is not our economy. It is Theirs.


For those who had the time to stay up and watch Charlie Rose on PBS the last two nights, we were treated to Timothy Geithner, the new Treasury boss, and Arne Duncan, in that order.

What was striking to me was that, in contrast to The Obamagogue, they're both lousy liars.

Geithner looks like he is in a card game and knows that everyone at the table can see he is cheating, but he is smug enough to keep dealing off the bottom anyway. Geithner repeatedly said that those who led the world into this great financial crisis are bad people, but they must be saved as "we are all in this together and must save our economy." He went on to insist that, really, we are all at fault.

Arne Duncan, Education boss, enjoyed Rose's typically softball style (they ended with a near hug). Duncan, following on The Obmagogue's education speech at the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, insisted that schools are really the central organizing point of much of US life
(true) and that he intends to expand that, with schools fully open to the community, as much as possible.

Of course, they must be very good schools, in order to serve our nation, where we are all in international competition with other countries whose education systems are better.

With what I saw as a smirk, that others may see as a cute grin, throughout the interview, Duncan was not so good at dodging the fact that he has never been an educator, nor did Rose do much to press him on the issue. Duncan just harkened back to his days at his lovely mother's knees when she was tutoring poor kids. Mom the Missionary. Son the Bishop.

Rose took for granted that Chicago schools are the better for Duncan's presence, though in a quick comment they agreed that he had closed some of those schools---and Substance News has covered which ones. Guess whose?

Duncan even did a poor job trying to convince us that the President's (and Duncan's) project is "non-ideological, just what is good for kids."

Duncan spoke up, over and over, for merit pay, for charters, for more regimented national curricula, more sophisticated testing, though he made no mention of the militarization of schooling--and Rose never asked. This is the crux of a non-ideology.

Remarkably, Duncan claimed that he spoke to both the president of the NEA and the AFT. Each fully backed The Obamagogue's education speech.

Duncan underlined that the bureaucrats who run both school unions support national standards, as they do. And he reminded us that Al Shanker, the worst union boss in the history of the US, was a progenitor of charter schools, as he was. Duncan told the truth about that, just as The One told us the truth before the election: more wars and more attacks on freedom in schools. That so few actually grasped this is troubling--a very disturbing analytical miscue.

The problem with NCLB, was two fold, per Duncan. It was under-funded. It did not set a high bar for all states. To him, "NCLB needs to be rebranded."

Notably, the Duncan segment of the Charlie Rose Show was sponsored by the Eli Broad Foundation.

The key lie that is shared by Geithner, Duncan, and The Obamagogue, is that we are all in this together. We are not.

This is a full scale class war, with the rich assaulting poor and working people everywhere. This is going on in schools, in warfare, in the financial crisis, in the health care system, in the foreclosures: everywhere.

The education agenda, the finance agenda, all of these are war agendas.

It should be easy to see who is one the side of who. The union bosses are on the side of the banksters and their bought and paid for hucksters who serve in the executive committee of the rich, the government. The union bosses deny that this real class war is going on, and lure people into support for the emergence of what has all the markings of fascism, as with the eradication of any semblance of academic freedom in schools.

Right now, thousands of layoff notices are going out to California teachers who, predictably, will be told that sacrifices must be made in order to save jobs and "our" education system.

It is not our education system. It is Theirs. It is not our economy. It is Theirs.

The core issue of our time is booming color-coded inequality potentially challenged by mass class conscious resistance with a real purpose, a north star: overcoming the system of capital with considerable sacrifice in order to live in a world where people can live more or less equitably by sharing--each contributing to the freedom of the others.

Concessions do not save jobs. Like feeding blood to sharks, concessions make bosses want more. Look at the demise of the United Auto Workers Union, now near dead, after decades of one concession after the next, pensions and health care about to be wiped out (note Delphi).

When they say cut back, we must say Fight Back.

We want, not the status quo, but more school workers hired. No more racist high stakes exams. Recruiters off the campuses.

No money? Go print it. You did for the banksters, now go get ours. You admit that reason had nothing to do with the bailouts. That was about power. If you do the printing, we will not accept the money as a bribe to go back in and continue the racist child abuse that is whatever you plan to call NCLB. We will treat the money, and our new colleagues, as victories, and we will press on for more still.

We have some power too. We can shut down your schools, open freedom school in the midst of growing civil strife, and teach kids the fact that, among other things, all of history really is the history of class struggle.

If we do not resist, we can look quickly into the future and see what is in store for us. Here is The Duncan/Obamagogue model, Michelle Rhee:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/0/11/AR2009031103742.html