MUST READ: What 'The Harlem Miracle' Really Teaches

by Diane Ravitch

Dear Deborah,

The columnists at The New York Times are deeply engaged in school reform these days. First Nicholas Kristof discovered that the key to high achievement is measuring student test score gains, then paying more to the teachers whose students gained the most. Then Thomas Friedman discovered that Teach for America was the key to national educational greatness, despite its small numbers.

Now David Brooks has discovered "The Harlem Miracle," which is a charter school called Harlem Promise Academy, run by the Harlem Children's Zone. Brooks says that this school has closed the achievement gap. If anyone missed the point, he writes bluntly, "Let me repeat that. It eliminated the black-white achievement gap." Brooks asks which city will now take up the challenge to do what this school has done.

This is quite an interesting column, and I highly recommend it. There are lessons for American education, but not necessarily the ones that Brooks points to.

MORE at http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/Bridging-Differences/2009/05/what_the_harlem_miracle_really.html

Defend Chapter Leaders Sent to Rubber Rooms

With the triennial chapter leader election season taking place, the attacks on chapter leaders as a way to undermine the union, particularly by Leadership Academy principals, has become an issue prospective CL's have to consider. This leaflet is to be handed out at today's Delegate Assembly and raised in the new motion period - if Weingarten ever stops filibustering. So don't count on it.
Full text published at the ICE blog. Click to enlarge.

Updated: Charters, Bloomberg, the UFT and Randi Succession Obsession

Interesting article in the Voice by Wayne Barrett, who has always been anti-UFT.*

He makes lots of assumptions in this piece. Barrett obviously favors charters. But he misses on the growing opposition to charters from various forces in the schools and communities.

What this shows about Randi is that when you try to play the middle against both ends you get hammered from both ends. Barrett thinks she is opposing charters (while many of us think she supports them more than oppose them) to squeeze a raise by making a deal with Bloomberg even if such a deal totally subverts public education. But we have learned to never think she is above doing that.

Of interest to many of us is this passage:

The UFT will soon celebrate its 50th anniversary. Other than a couple of years of temporary and muddled leadership at its start in 1960, it has been governed by only three presidents, and each of its long-lasting potentates—Albert Shanker, Sandra Feldman, and now Weingarten—has handed it off to a designated successor. Weingarten, who was Feldman's lawyer for years before she became a part-time teacher to position herself for the presidency, is about to do the same. Former carpenter Michael Mulgrew, the vice president for vocational and technical schools, is expected to take over, possibly as soon as this summer.

Like Shanker and Feldman, Weingarten is giving up her city post after using it for 11 years as a stepping stone to the presidency of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), and will leave town only when she is sure she can install a disciple here that she can influence from Washington (no rule bars her from holding both titles).

What's baffling is why Weingarten has embroiled herself in a Harlem street fight below her $350,000-a-year pay grade.

Weingarten's actions are baffling if she indeed intends to give up the UFT position to Mulgrew, who many feel is not ready for prime time. UFT elections are in March 2010 and it is theoretically smart to put Mulgrew into office so he can function as President and run as an incumbent. But both Feldman and Shanker replaced themselves soon after getting elected, thus giving their successors a few years grace. Weingarten's inability to let go is giving Mulgrew a small window. It would have made sense to have given him the position last January, over a year before the election.

Can she influence him from Washington? Sure. Shanker influenced Feldman. But Feldman had a harder time controlling Weingarten, who started purging her people fairly quickly. If Mulgrew screws up - something he is totally capable of doing (witness the City Council cue card fiasco) – and the Unity Caucus absolute control of the UFT, which is the heart of controlling the AFT, slips even a little, the shock waves will be felt all the way to the Beltway.

But maybe that's the plan all along– give Mulgrew as small a window as possible to screw things up before running for president. Now, don't get me wrong, the Unity machine has so manipulated the election rules that there is absolutely no chance of losing at the top level. But the real battle for control of the UFT ultimately lies in the schools with hand to hand combat. Sort of like the battle of Normandy. Maybe that's why the UFT has put up little resistance to the breakup of large high schools which used to be bastions of old-line UFT power. Make it hard for the opposition to get control of these places. Fragmentation of the school system can benefit both the UFT and Tweed. True partners in crime.

Oh, what to do? Mulgrew as a puppet with Weingarten pulling the strings from DC? What if Mike has that lean and hungry look for real power and starts purging Randi's people? Once the cat is out of the box there is little Randi could do since the real source of power lies in the UFT, the tail that wags the AFT dog. It wouldn't be that hard for a smart political operative to reverse the balance of power on Randi. She may not be worried about that occurring with Mulgrew in charge. Maybe that is why she chose him in the first place.


Barrett's piece evoked this comment on ICE mail:
What a tired old wind bag Barret has become. Doesn't even do his research anymore. Murdoch doesn't seem to mind though, imagine having one of those pesky investigative, trust busting crusaders on the payroll. Quite a coup for the consciousness industry fatcats, but another low point for the craft of journalism.


*Barrett was once a teacher who opposed the '68 strike and supported community control. I spent part of a day working with him and his wife campaigning against the UFT school board slate on the lower east side in the early 70's during the Luis Fuentes/UFT wars. The next time I saw him was at my childhood friend Marty Needelman's wedding a few years later when Barrett had left teaching and was a journalist. Marty, by the way, was working as a Vista lawyer doing community organizing in the late 60's in Williamsburg not far from where I was teaching and it was through him I became active in school politics.

Vinvent Wojsnis, Chapter Leader MS 399,

...Makes the Case Against BloomKlein and Mayoral Control

Excerpts:

In June, the New York State Legislature will vote on whether or not to extend the law granting total mayoral control over the New York City public schools. Parents beware. Mayoral control is out of control.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has created a regime over the Department of Education characterized by an insane obsession with high-stakes testing, the systematic closings of local schools, in many cases replaced by privately-run charter schools, and a bloated bureaucracy accountable to no overseeing authority.

Under mayoral control, students have been subjected to a series of citywide exams in addition to all-ready scheduled state mandated exams from grades 3 to 12. The DOE is now planning to expand testing from kindergarten to grade 2.


Accountability works both ways. It’s time that the mayor and the chancellor were made accountable to someone other than themselves. It’s time they were made accountable to us.

Read in full

Angel Gonzalez, talks about May 14 Rally on WBAI

A Grassroots Education Movement, GEM spokesperson, Angel Gonzalez, talks about our May 14 Rally and our campaign to stop school closings (phase out) and imposition of charter school privatization.

http://dbellel.blogspot.com/2009/05/blog-post.html

How Does NY Times Ed Reporter Javier Hernandez Define the Word "Many?"

Today's article, For Many Teachers, a Famously Fertile Market Dries Up Overnight has this statement:

But this year, the department anticipates fewer openings and will not hire externally except in certain high-needs areas like speech therapy and bilingual special education. Instead, principals can fill spots only with internal candidates, including teachers from a reserve pool made up of those whose jobs have been eliminated and many who have earned unsatisfactory ratings.

We responded to Hernandez' last article slandering ATRs. (See Ed Notes Klein Gives Up the ATR Ghost.)

So if we take the number of ATRs to be around 1100 according to recent reports, then almost 900 never received a U-rating. And only 14 received 2 U-ratings. Let's leave it to Eduwonkette, posted at Gotham Schools:

A point of clarification on this point from the New Teacher Project’s report that you cited, i.e. “By September 2007, unselected excessed teachers from 2006 were six times as likely to have received a prior “Unsatisfactory” rating as other New York City teachers.”

If you read the footnotes in their report, 81 percent of teachers in the ATR have never received an Unsatisfactory rating. Only 6 percent of all teachers in the ATR - about 14 teachers - have received an unsatisfactory rating more than once in their careers.

Beyond these facts, I have no idea to what extent this pool represents great or terrible teachers, and the important point to remember is that no one really knows. It’s not reasonable or fair to indict the entire group based on the very misleading “six times” TNTP sound bite. If someone else applied this kind of statistical discrimination to other groups - for example, by establishing the probability of an outcome like incarceration or welfare receipt by gender, class, or race and characterizing the entire group - we would all be up in arms.

Class Size Skinny Awards Attracts Rock Stars of Education

I'm much more of an ed/pol junkie than a music fan. So, was I more impressed with last Sunday's A Night With Pete Seeger or Leonie Haimson's Class Size Matters fundraiser Honoring Ravitch, Jennings (Eduwonkette), Babad this past Thursday night at Jerry's Cafe on Chambers Street?

Leonie sure knows how to put on a party. Imagine: Diane Ravitch and Deborah Meier (one of my ed idols since the early 70's) bridging their differences in person with Eduwonkette Jennifer Jennings. And her mentor and co-blogger Aaron Pallas, alias Skoolboy, also present. With superb satirist Gary Babad (who read us an "email" from Klein). And Patrick Sullivan. And of course, that force of nature, as Diane put it, Leonie Haimson.

Did Ravitch/Meier/Haimson/Jennings trump Springsteen/Baiz/Emmylou/Melankamp? Close. I'm an edugeek supreme.

Many parent leaders were there and some UFT officials showed up. There were even surprise guests, including some from the DOE and a Gotham journalist named Green, reiterating she is not biased. Okay, okay, already. Whatever she says. (She is irresistible and as much a force of nature as Leonie.)

I finally realized that Leonie had dubbed the award "The Skinny" as a take on the Broad (rhymes with toad) award. Duhhhh!

Leonie introduced each honoree with a gracious speech. I'll admit that as part of the anti-high stakes testing crowd, there was a lot of resistance to Diane Ravitch over the years. But even if she had not modified some of her positions ("I don't know if it's because of Deborah or Leonie," she said) her charm and wit can win anyone over. Once, at a Manhattan Inst. luncheon for Chester Finn, which she moderated, and I was the lone critic in the room, she whispered in my ear something like, "Good to see a voice of disent. I agree with you." That sure firmed up my spine
in hostile territory when I got up to ask my question.

Diane pointed out that she had resigned from the Hoover and Thomas B. Fordham Foundations and was more proud of being of the Class Size Matters board. She talked about what Leonie does on a slightly skinny budget. I expected her to pull out a shoestring.

Leonie introduced Gary by reading some of his satire, which in the bizarre world of Tweed, is often taken seriously. She said she started the NYC Public School Parent blog partly so people could read his funny stuff.

Jennifer, whose Eduwonkette blog in its short time of existence (less than a year) created a national sensation, made waves last week with her report on the school force-outs. (April 30 press conference on rising discharge rates). It caused some serious consternation at Tweed as they scrambled to respond.

In her speech, Jennifer was kind enough to give me credit for suggesting she start the blog. Frankly, I didn't remember. But I do remember her sending me some of her amazing research and I kept asking her to figure a way to share it with more people and offered to let her use Ed Notes if she wanted. We did have lunch (on the day BloomKlein received the Broad award) in Sept. 2007 and she asked me questions about blogging and we discussed how to protect her identity. Three days later she had the prototype up and the 'kette was off to the races.

Leonie, who has a good relationship with Randi Weingarten, also was kind enough to say some nice things about me despite the fact there were UFT reps in the room. She also gave me credit for urging her to blog and I do remember that. I actually started the Norms Notes blog solely to find a way to save Leonie's amazing comments and analysis on the web. Finally, after the Feb. 28, 2007 famous rally that brought so many people opposed to BloomKlein (I met Patrick and Diane for the first time that night) together, Leonie informed me she and Patrick were starting the NYC Parent blog. It's been a wonderful addition to truth, justice and the American way of democratic criticism.

It was good to see good buddy David Bellel get recognized by Leonie for his amazing dedication and work for the cause. I did recruit him to do some video for us at the GEM rally on Thurs May 14 starting at Battery Park and marching up to Tweed, after passing by 52 Broadway to call on our buddies at the UFT to join us. (I will be stationed there from 3:30 until they pick me up.) If you can't get there in time to join the march, go directly to Tweed and wait for us.

You didn't think I would let you get away without a plug, did you?

Eviscerating ARIS

Under Assault eviscerates ARIS.

The Washington Teacher Appears On This Week's News Hour With Jim Lehrer

The Washington Teacher Appears On This Week's News Hour With Jim Lehrer

In a series titled Well-Known Nationally, Struggling at Home, The Washington Teacher appears on the News Hour With Jim Lehrer this week. Some have asked me to post this link here on my blog.

Finally, after covering DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee for an entire school year, Jim Lehrer and his team from Learning Matters responded to requests to tell more than just Rhee's version of the story. Even though this segment was a much longer interview, I am happy that at least viewers will get to hear another perspective than just Chancellor Rhee. Here's the link:

http://learningmatters.tv/blog/current/michelle-rhee-in-dc-episode-9-well-known-nationally-struggling-at-home/1525

The Washington Teacher

Interviews with Candi Peterson, George Parker and others.

Warning: John Merrow is funded by Gates, etc and has openly taken anti-teacher positions.
(Search the Ed Notes blog for Merrow to read more.)

David Brooks is More Clueless Than Ever

You just have to read David Brooks' "Harlem Miracle" piece in yesterday's NY Times where he says "We may have found a remedy for the achievement gap." The best is this quote from ed deformer shill Roland Fryer, "What Geoffrey Canada, Harlem Children’s Zone’s founder and president, has done is “the equivalent of curing cancer for these kids.""

You know the ed deformer mantra about "no excuses" or that "throwing money at the problem doesn't solve it."

Well. check out a few facts about Harlem Children's Zone sent by Leonie:

According to 60 minutes, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/05/11/60minutes/main1611936.shtml

“Harlem Children’s Zone raises $36 million in private funds per year. Classes have a ratio of one adult for every six kids as well as state-of-the-art science labs, a first-class gym, and a cafeteria that looks more like a restaurant.”

According to the school’s data on the 2007-8 school report card,
https://www.nystart.gov/publicweb-rc/2008/1a/AOR-2008-310500860864.pdf

Class sizes are 18 in K-6th grade, and in 8th grade they range from 12 to 20 kids per class, depending on the subject.

According to the same school report card, the school enrolls 1% ELL students.

According to other state sources, it has 0 % special ed students.

Now, of course, if we had a union that was not collaborating with the ed deformers, they would be using their vast resources based on our dues to do the work of exposing these shams instead of leaving it to Leonie, running on a shoe-string budget, to do.


I didn't even get to the arrogance about middle class and poor people values. I found the values of many poor people I worked with more generous and less mean spirited than so-called middle class values. Give me these kids to work with over the middle class kids any day.

Another comment on the NYC Education News listserve did deal with it.

Yes, but aside from all the benefits offered in these schools, look at what else they offer--what Brooks calls "no excuse schools":

"... an emerging model for low-income students....The basic theory is that middle-class kids enter adolescence with certain working models in their heads: what I can achieve; how to control impulses; how to work hard. Many kids from poorer, disorganized homes don’t have these internalized models. The schools create a disciplined, orderly and demanding counterculture to inculcate middle-class values....

Basically, the no excuses schools pay meticulous attention to behavior and attitudes. They teach students how to look at the person who is talking, how to shake h ands. These schools are academically rigorous and college-focused. Promise Academy students who are performing below grade level spent twice as much time in school as other students in New York City . ... Nearly half of the teachers did not return for the 2005-2006 school year. A third didn’t return for the 2006-2007 year. Assessments are rigorous. Standardized tests are woven into the fabric of school life.

... Ever since welfare reform, we have had success with intrusive government programs that combine paternalistic leadership, sufficient funding and a ferocious commitment to traditional, middle-class values. We may have found a remedy for the achievement gap."

I'm sure this has long been discussed and debated, but is this "paternalistic, intrusive" program the best way of closing the achivement gap?"

Related:
Ed Notes has commented on previous columns by Brooks on education.
A Clueless David Brooks
Pathetic Letter to Times From Weingarten

Harlem Public Schools Outscore KAPPA, Schools Threatened With Closure Make Top 10 List

Just like we don't like to blame schools as failures when test scores are dismal, we don't accept great scores as signs of success. But since they Ed Deformers are setting the agenda, when a windfall of data comes our way, we use it. Note in particular Harlem's PS 241. (Some teachers from there are GEMers.) Here are some delicious morsels from Leonie.

See below article in Daily News – reporting that PS 150 in Brownsville, which the DOE tried to close this year to make way for a charter school over the objections of the community, made the fourth greatest gains of any school in the city on its 4th grade reading scores.

There is a chart in the print Daily News – not online that I can find -- of the top ten schools – and PS 241 was the only school in Manhattan to make the list.

This was the second school that DOE tried to close to make way for the expansion of Eva Moskowitz’ charter chain. Two out of the top ten schools.

The only thing stopping him was the lawsuit filed on behalf of parents in these communities, which saved Joel Klein from the embarrassment of having closed two of the top ten most improved schools.

Of course, he already sent letters to the parents in each these schools asking them to withdraw their kids, so who knows whether the schools will survive.

Meanwhile, look at these KAPPA Ii test scores in D5:

MANHATTAN DISTRICT 5 Knowledge And Power Preparatory Academy Ii 50 48.2 42.4 ( percent of 6th-8th graders at grade level)

Compared to District 5 as a whole: 71.3 64.9 45.6

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2009_school_score/manhattan/index.html#ixzz0Ey9lhNdH&B

NYC Parents Protest School Overcrowding at City Hall, May 6

Including comments from parent activists Leonie Haimson, Patrick Sullivan and ICE/GEM's Michael Fiorillo and Angel Gonzalez.





David Bellel has a clip from ABC
http://dbellel.blogspot.com/2009/05/angry-parents-with-bone-to-pick.html

Running for Chapter Leader? (Updated)

*Navigating the Minefield of Internal School Politics*

Keeping chapter leaders in line is the key to control of the UFT. It makes sense since through the CL the leadership can reach out to every member. They use the District reps as the key overseers to make the CL dependent on the union and also to keep them isolated.

Chapter leader and school delegate elections take place every three years and we are now in the midst of the election season.

Many people think the important elections are the election for president and officers (coming next year). But Unity has so manipulated the process that there is no chance of overturning the power structure no matter what the opposition does. Thus, Unity is guaranteed control of the AdCom (officers) and Executive Board in perpetuity (I'll go into the details another time) – at least until there is enough pressure from the bottom to force changes.

Thus, the school elections are ultimately more important in terms of the ability to reach the membership. If the opposition had hundreds of chapter leaders, we would begin to see changes in the union.

Unity Caucus is not stupid and pays strict attention since the constitution of the delegate assembly for the next 3 years will be determined in the next few weeks. Most Unity Caucus members are expected to run for chapter leader or delegate. The rank and file in many schools doesn't even know their CL is in Unity and more beholden to the leadership than to the membership.

Aside from the many Unity candidates, they also coopt new chapter leaders through the union's training program, which often function as Unity recruiting operations. In the last cycle (2006) Unity added over 700 new members drawn from the pool of new chapter leaders and delegate, thus insuring absolute control over the delegate assembly.

Many novice (and even experienced) chapter leaders are concerned with the level of support they will receive from the UFT, especially if they voice criticism of the leadership. This fear is a powerful tool in the hands of Unity. Some join Unity out of this fear, but in most cases, new chapter leaders have no idea what Unity is and figure, "Why not?" Then there are the perks - the after school jobs (why work in the school with kids if you don't have to), the all expense paid trips to conventions, the double pensions. And the big enchilada - a full-time union job if you play ball.

People I talk to thinking of running who have expressed criticisms of the UFT leadership, are not aware of the extent to which Unity will go to keep them from winning. And they play dirty.

With a large turnover in chapter leaders expected this spring, I've been working with Sally Lee of Teachers Unite to set up a session for prospective chapter leaders (and delegates) to help them lay the groundwork for a run for chapter leader and a follow-up support group to help them strategize methods of dealing with the school admins and the central and district union structure. ICE and TJC members are involved.

We are holding a meeting on Monday, May 18 at 5 pm to cover a bunch of issues. We have invited Michael Fiorillo of ICE and Megan Behrent of TJC to join us. And maybe some other experienced union people to provide advice and encouragement. Can't make this meeting? We can also take the show on the road. Just let us know.

Teachers Unite has put out the following announcement:

-Should you run for UFT CL or Delegate?
-Are there risks to your career?
-How can you be part of building a more democratic UFT?
-What can you accomplish as a rank-and-file leader?
-What does any of this have to do with social justice activism?


If you're considering becoming a UFT representative at your school, join Teachers Unite, veteran and new teachers, and members of opposition caucuses in the UFT to discuss the process and significance of becoming a union leader. If elections already happened in your school, but you're interested in these questions, please feel free to join us.

Snacks provided

Please RSVP

Monday, May 18, 2009
Time: 5:00pm - 7:00pm
Location: Brecht Forum
Street: 451 West St. New York, NY
Phone: 2126754790
Email: info@teachersunite.net
Description: A Teachers Unite program:

Directions:
A,C,E, or L to 14th St & 8th Ave., walk down 8th Ave to Bethune, turn right, walk west to
the River, turn left

1,2,3 or 9 to 14th St. & 7th Ave. Get off at south end of station, walk west on 12th St.
to 8th Ave. left to Bethune, turn right, walk west to the River, turn left.

Related:
Today, ICE meeting at Murray Bergtraum HS at 4:30
Pearl St right behind police plaza.

HONOR RAVITCH, EDUWONKETTE, BABAD

(I'll have a report of this fabulous event later.)

ED Notes Exclusive: Special appearance by BloomKlein popping out of a cake.

***Special Event: May 7

Announcing the first annual

Skinny Awards

When: Thursday May 7, at 6 PM

Where: Jerry's Café, 90 Chambers St (between Church and Broadway)

Please join us for a very special evening

Presenting awards to the three best education bloggers, who provide us with the real "skinny" on NYC schools:

Diane Ravitch, Lifetime Achievement Award

Jennifer Jennings (AKA Eduwonkette), the Shooting Star Award

Gary Babad, Humorist Supreme

Klein Gives Up the ATR Ghost

The bad economy has accomplished what rallies and UFT ineptness has not. The NY Times is reporting Joel Klein has ordered principals to hire ATRs before any new teachers. Thanks for listening Joel to the demands of the Grassroots Education Movement a week before our rally. Now it's time to restore teacher seniority rights. We'll send you a list of our other demands. Or just look outside your office next Thursday.

The rub in the Times report is this statement:

Anticipating significant budget cuts to New York City schools in the coming year, Chancellor Joel I. Klein ordered principals on Wednesday to stop hiring teachers from outside the system, a move that will force them to look internally at a pool that, according to an independent report, includes many subpar teachers.

The report, released last year by the New Teacher Project, which recruits and trains educators for school systems, estimated that the pool cost the city $81 million over two years.

Independent? The New Teacher Project is independent? What are people at the NY Times drinking? Have they looked at the funding sources of the New Teacher Project, founded incidentally by anti-union attack dog Michelle Rhee? Did the Times think to report on the amount of contracts the NTP gets from Klein to train new teachers, funding they may now lose if there are no new teachers to be hired? Is there just a tad of a conflict of interest with this "independent" report?

Timothy Daly, who runs the New Teacher Project, said he was worried that principals would no longer be able to find the best fits for their schools. “Schools are going to have great teachers who they would like to hire, who they won’t be able to hire,” Mr. Daly said. “It can’t be best for kids.”

Sniff, sniff. I'm weeping. Sure Tim. It's all about what's best for the kids.

Shame on reporter Javier Hernandez and the editors at the Times and for tainting 1100 ATRs. But we always knew they had a dog in this race.

Maybe GEM should march on to the NY Times after finishing up at Tweed on May 14.

UPDATE from Eduwonkette posted at Gotham Schools:

A point of clarification on this point from the New Teacher Project’s report that you cited, i.e. “By September 2007, unselected excessed teachers from 2006 were six times as likely to have received a prior “Unsatisfactory” rating as other New York City teachers.”

If you read the footnotes in their report, 81 percent of teachers in the ATR have never received an Unsatisfactory rating. Only 6 percent of all teachers in the ATR - about 14 teachers - have received an unsatisfactory rating more than once in their careers.

Beyond these facts, I have no idea to what extent this pool represents great or terrible teachers, and the important point to remember is that no one really knows. It’s not reasonable or fair to indict the entire group based on the very misleading “six times” TNTP sound bite. If someone else applied this kind of statistical discrimination to other groups - for example, by establishing the probability of an outcome like incarceration or welfare receipt by gender, class, or race and characterizing the entire group - we would all be up in arms.

Effective Outreach and Organizing

Session 3:

Saturday, May 9, 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Description of Session 3:

Do you find that sending mass emails and putting flyers in teacher mailboxes isn?t really yielding the turnout you want? Whether it's organizing your colleagues around a school problem or a community concern, participants in this session will learn strategies and techniques for framing an issue, engaging others, and building support. If you have an idea for a particular issue you want to organize around, there will be opportunities to develop your organizing plan of action.

Saturday, May 9, 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.
Location: Brecht Forum, 451 West St. (betw. Bank and Bethune Streets)

I was there last Saturday and it was great. Going back again this week. The often young, new teacher participants belie the line that these teachers are anti-union or automatically aligned with the ed deformers. -Norm Scott

"The Teacher Activist Course sessions are powerful!
Very useful for organizing and strategizing."
-12th grade teacher, course participant


Session 4:
Who controls the public school system in New York City?: A brief history of the city's schools
Saturday, May 30th, 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Breakfast and lunch is included in all sessions.

For full course descriptions and more information, go to:
http://www.teachersunite.net/register

Sliding scale registration fee per session for non-members: $25 - $75

To register, go to: http://www.teachersunite.net/register

Teachers Unite is a membership organization supporting the leadership of NYC public school teachers committed to social justice and activism. By leadership we mean: 1) a deep understanding of the problems faced by educators, students and public school communities,
2) skills to organize a community to build power and make change, and
3) a willingness to take action.

Coming Soon: national school-turnaround partnership between Green Dot and the AFT

UPDATED

This month, Barr expects to meet again with Weingarten and her staff and outline plans for Green Dot America, a national school-turnaround partnership between Green Dot and the AFT. Their first city would most likely be Washington, D. C. "If we're successful there, we'll get the attention of a lot of lawmakers," Barr said.

Get all the gory details over at Susan Ohanian.
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=545


Perimeter Primate has a little more information to add.
http://perimeterprimate.blogspot.com/2009/05/linda-darling-hammond-didnt-play.html

NY Times interest in Credit Recovery story

Javier Hernandez, of the NY Times, is looking to speak with teachers or individuals who have first hand knowledge about their school's Credit Recovery program. Your name will remain anonymous if you choose.

His number is 212 556-1599. Please call him if you have useful information that can expose abuses that are taking place.

A Night With Pete Seeger and 40 Friends and a Sense of Activism

The theme I got out of Pete Seeger's 90th birthday celebration last Sunday was that activism is not dead. There is so much to write about, especially Springsteen's amazing speech capturing the essence of Seeger, that I can't really write about any of it. Suffice to say 4 hours with Arlo Guthrie, John Mellencamp, Joan Baez, Ani DiFranco, Roger McGuinn, Emmylou Harris and Bruce Springsteen and so many others, makes for an amazing evening. I'm not much of a music person and my one regret was that we weren't sitting with our friends who have an in depth knowledge of music and could have guided us through the massive list of performers. It was only after the concert on the way home that we got so many interesting insights. Well, maybe for Pete's 100th.

The NY Times review is here. Naturally it deals only with the music, ignoring the political content. The review makes it seem it was about Obama, but a renewed spirit of activism is fueled as much by the reaction to George Bush as by Obama.

The Garden was filled with a sense of activism. The Seeger concert was the middle event in 3 days of activism, all of which I'll go into further details at other times.

On Saturday, I joined a dozen people at the 2nd session of Teachers Unite teacher activism course. Many of them were young teachers who are anxious to go beyond the classroom in helping create social change. It is good to see they understand the need to focus on making the 800 ground gorilla, the UFT, into a progressive force for change. They are seeing through Weingarten's phony rhetoric that she is a reformer because she supports charter schools and the modification of teacher rights. Some of them are considering running for chapter leader and we are holding an information session for them on May 18.

On Monday, the charter school conference at PACE sponsored by the newly formed Grassroots Education Movement (GEM) of which ICE and Ed Notes are part of, was a resounding success as a mix of experienced and newer teachers turned out to hear a panel discuss the issue of what is really driving the charter school movement. I took video, so more on this event in a few days.

Today Gem meets to take things to the next step- our march up lower Manhattan to Tweed on May 14. We are not concerned about numbers as we are building the movement and expect more events to take place. But if you are a teacher or parent in NYC, you should consider joining us. This is not the UFT type top-down rally, but truly from the grass roots. So 50 or a 100 or 300 people organizing and taking part has more long term consequences. If you can't join us on the march, go directly to Tweed where we expect to meet up at around 5-5:30. More details to come.

Pete Seeger is a model for all of us. The events I took part in Saturday, Sunday, Monday and today, all relate to Pete's spirit. There can be no change if you stay on the sideline.

Is Hebrew Charter School in Brooklyn A Scam Religious School?

Remember the outcry about the Arab language and culture school in Brooklyn with charges it was a future terrorist mudrassa?

When another millionaire wanted to start a charter school focused on Hebrew language and culture, there was little outcry. What would be the reaction if someone charged it was a school designed to train future invaders of Iran? Probably cheer.

Of course they said would site the school in a building they would find. Now they are shoving it into a public school.

A parent in District 22 commented on the NYC Education News Listserve:

Is anyone aware that when this Charter School was suggested the DOE promised that there would be public advertising about the open lottery to go to this school. Well the school is becoming a reality and according to the parents in D-22 who have PReK and Kgn children no announcement was made about this lottery. Not in the local papers, not in the kings courier, not in postings around the neighborhood.

This is supposedly not a religious school trying to cater to one element of the population and in fact at the CDEC meeting re this school back in June 2008 I personally asked the DOE representative if it would be open to the students in our only failing school which was PS 269 and he said absolutely. what was their target population. In fact the lottery was held in the YMHA in Sheepshead Bay and even people who worked there were not aware of it. This must have been a very quiet, private solicitation, for a so called open charter school. So where was this advertised....

We also asked about them taking space in the public schools and were told that they would be finding their own private space and would not be going into any of our schools. The charter is now trying to push their way into a local junior high school with over 1100 students currently attending and 900 applicants for next year. Again more lies....