So, You Get a Phone Call, Revised

Revised Nov. 11, 2009

Last week I received a phone call from J, a former student who was in my 6th grade class in 1973-74. He had just been released from a NY State prison after serving 27 years for murder and was in a shelter (not a good thing) until he finds a place to live. We stayed in touch all these years. I visited him twice in various prisons (he seemed to be in just about every state prison possible). He has been denied parole at least 6 times and he was somewhat shocked when it was granted so suddenly on the 7th try. He was released with just about nothing and with little time to notify people (though it turns out that the weird phone numbers popping up on out caller id were from the prison).

His family was even more shocked. Why was he is in a shelter? At first I thought the family forgot he existed. But it turns out that is a requirement of his release for a few weeks.

I knew lots of people in his family. I taught his brother and his nephew and knew his older sister, who was a political activist associated with a socialist party. In the 1975 teachers strike, she came with a bullhorn to rally community support for us.

A political note: These type of family associations are only possible when a teacher spends many years in one school, something that seems to be out of style with the ed deformers.

J had taken up a hobby in prison of building a miniature farm out of popsicle sticks. He sent me the entire farm, which I still have in my basement. Beautiful work.

He was one of the more difficult kids to deal with and had disrupted many classrooms in the past years (that was before special ed). That class was very difficult, with more than a few kids ending up dead or in prison. I took his behavior issue off the table by buying lizards and some math manipulatives and freeing him from his seat or having to do any formal work in class, though he was free to join us when he wished. He had already been held back twice I think – the maximum possible - see BloomKlein, we didn't have automatic social promotion - but it was enough. You couldn't do it a third time and have a 13-year-old sitting in 6th grade forever.

He dropped out at 14. He studied acting and used to come to my classes in later years and do acting exercises. At times he went on trips with us. Then came drugs. And murder. One time he called me on Thanksgiving from jail and said there were 9 guys from the projects in the same cellblock. He put some of them who knew me on the phone. (One of them is featured in the Yankee parade story below.)

His scores on the test the year I had him were probably not great, as expected (though I maintain that if I tried to force him into a traditional setting he might have done even worse). Obviously, my fault. No merit bonus for me. And maybe even a firing for being such a bad teacher as to not get good results, other than to get a child who had disrupted every class to function effectively in a social setting. How do you measure that?

I can't tell you what he learned in class that year academically (though free to roam, his curiosity took him into many areas of interest). Maybe to trust a teacher enough to stay in touch for 35 years. Obviously, the long-term results were not good. But I can only look at that year and I rate that pretty high. What would I have done if I had been offered more money for getting his score up? Or if threatened with being fired for not?

We've been in touch over the past week. I'm dropping off his "farm" at his sister's place. He has a daughter and once he gets out of the shelter, he has a place to stay. I try to imagine the impact on someone who goes to prison in 1982 at the age of 21 and gets out at 48. How does he see the world today? Cell phones, computers, a world really changed in almost 30 years. "What is the biggest change you see," I asked? "The number of women with big butts," he answered.

Hey friends-- get the rubber rooms ready: "They Call Me Mr. Fry", Teacher Show, Opens Friday

I met Jack Freiberger when he did his show at the Fringe Festival in NYC in 2008. Jack taught in LA and developed his show from his experiences. A bunch of us are going opening night this Friday, Nov. 6, 8PM. The Comic Strip Live at 1568 2nd Ave (bwtn 81st & 82nd)

Join us. You can get tickets at the door (teachers, $20) or email me and I'll reserve a bunch.

Jack will be joining us at Woody McHales tonight at the ICE fundraiser (starting at 4pm and on into the evening) to talk about the show.

Hey friends-- get the rubber rooms ready.

Mr. Fry is back with his hit show They Call Me Mister Fry, the story about a 1st-year teacher teaching 5th grade in South Central Los Angeles - the trials, tribulations, and triumphs of a teacher.

"Jack Freiberger is the Patch Adams of Education... highest quality of off-broadway theater”

LA Examiner

“This production has enough heart, audacity, and originality

to stand out from the crowd mainly because of the artistry of Jack Fry.”

dctheatrescene.com

“What Freiberger dramatizes most masterfully and intimately is...

the triumphant tragedy of the self recognition.”

The Washington City Paper

(see Reviews)

Recently selected by top DC theater websites as one of the "Best of the Fest" (dctheaterscene.com) and "Best Male Monologue" (allartsreview4u.com) at the 2009 Washington Capital Fringe Festival, They Call Me Mister Fry has been playing in Los Angeles before sold out crowds and standing ovations for two years.

It is to be performed for a "Command Performance" this fall in Washington, DC at the Department of Education before 2 at-capacity shows, and it will have an 8-week off-broadway run at the Comic Strip Live Theater (read more) (see video promoting the event)

You can now see it in NEW YORK!!!! Opens Friday November 6th 8 pm!!!

Comic Strip Live Theater

1568 2nd Ave (bwtn 81st & 82nd)

New York, New York 10028

Map it!

FRIDAYS, SATURDAYS, SUNDAYS 2pm & 5pm

WEDNESDAYS, THURSDAYS 6PM

Friday Nov 6th-Dec 31st

Tickets: $25

Teachers: $20

Children under 16: $12

212-861-9386

BUY TICKETS

THEY CALL ME MISTER FRY

in New York City Nov 6th - Dec 31st

THE FUNNY, POIGNANT, YET TRUE STORY OF A 1ST - YEAR

TEACHER TEACHING 5TH GRADE IN SOUTH CENTRAL

Important websites

misterfry.com

Comic Strip Live Theater

Reviews

Video

Off-broadway

BUY TICKETS

Goldstein and Eterno: ICE Chapter Leaders in the NY Post

The new ICE election 2010 blog has this item:

ICEr CLs in Queens schools quoted in the NY Post

One of the things to be proud of: the amazing work people associated with the Independent Community of Educators do. Queens chapter leaders, the vet James Eterno (Jamaica HS) and the newly elected CL Arthur Goldstein (Francis Lewis) are featured in this excellent piece in the NY Post by Angela Montefenise. Goldstein makes the point that the solution to the overcrowding at Francis Lewis HS is to improve the other large high schools in the area.

“I absolutely believe that they can make the other schools in the area better,” said Goldstein. “It’s their job to make the other schools better. Better options would spread students out, and everyone would be better off.”

A perfect example is Jamaica High School, a large school located less than three miles south of Francis Lewis. It received a C on its progress report, has attendance rates in the low 70 percentile and a grad rate of only 47%, stats show.

Francis Lewis received almost 13,000 applications — the most in the city — from students eager to go there. Jamaica received 1,580 applications, eight times fewer.

Meanwhile, with 1,416 kids, Jamaica is 700 students under capacity.

“I understand the DOE wants to give parents and students what they want,” said Goldstein. “But they should be focused on getting kids interested in Jamaica so they want to go there. That should be the goal.”

Eterno, the ICE/TJC candidate for UFT President against Unity Caucus' Michael Mulgrew, is known as one of the top chapter leaders in the city. He talks about Jamaica HS:

Jamaica social studies teacher and UFT rep James Eterno said his school “has the dedicated staff and programs” to be successful, but needs a helping hand to become more attractive to students.

“We have the space right now to lower class sizes,” he said. “If we could offer really low class sizes, personal attention, parents would send their kids here. That’s something Francis Lewis can’t offer.”

The DOE response:

DOE spokesman Will Havemann said class size is not just tied to space, but also to the number of teachers at the school. “Principals are free to hire new teachers to reduce their class sizes, but given the city’s financial circumstances, significantly reducing class sized may be prohibitively expensive,” he said.

Eterno has repeatedly reported on the ICE blog how the DOE has put Jamaica in a situation that steered kids away. We know their policy is not to build up a school like Jamaica to make it more attractive but to openly and surrepticiously undermine it so the fabulous building will become available for Gates, New Visions, or any charter school looking for free space.

James Eterno is running for UFT President and Arthur Goldstein will be running for a UFT Executive Board position on the ICE/TJC slate in the upcoming UFT elections.


Support the election effort by joining the ICE fundraiser Monday night. Make it a virtual party if you can't make it by sending a check made out to Independent Community of Educators (not ICE) and sending it to:
Box 1143
Jamaica, NY 11421

Rank and File Opposition (CORE) Sweeps Chicago Teacher Pension Elections

"In what can only be described as a stunning upset, two Chicago public schools teachers, Lois Ashford (O'Keefe Elementary School) and Jay Rehak (Whitney Young High School) decisively defeated two incumbents to win seats on the Board of Trustees of the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund (CTPF) in an election held in all Chicago public schools and most of the city's charter schools on October 30, 2009." George Schmidt for Substance

George Schmidt called with the news yesterday and Substance is running a major article on its web site. There are lots of lessons for us in trying to build a movement within the union here in NYC.

Deteriorating conditions for public ed in Chicago, after 15 years of mayoral control are way ahead of NYC so a CORE type group emerging may have been inevitable. We should see the same type of development here within the next few years as the privatization movement accelerates. But the CTU has a much weaker leadership in terms of control than the uft. Core has a chance to actually win in the union election in May.

George's full article is at http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=966&section=Article

Here's another report from a CORE member:

Rank and File Opposition Sweeps Chicago Teacher Pension Elections

by Jesse Sharkey, Caucus Of Rank and File Educators (CORE)

Rank and File activists swept the election for the Chicago Teacher Pension Fund trustees (two were up for election) Friday night.

Jay Rehak, a teacher at Chicago's Whitney Young High School, and Lois Ashford, a teacher at O'Keefe Elementary were elected pension trustees to oversee the Pension Fund's $8 billion assets.

The election was significant because pension trustees will have to play an increasingly active role in defending the. The fund has been specifically targeted by, the new CEO of Chicago Public Schools, and many teachers fear their retirement is under threat. Huberman slashed the Chicago Transit Authority pension when he ran that agency in 2007, raising retirement age by ten years.

The election is also significant as an indicator of the popularity of the four main groups vying for control of the union.

Vote totals below indicate that CORE's candidates (Rehak and Ashford) beat out the current leadership's United Progressive Caucus candidates, Williams and Otero, while Finnegan--running with former president Debbie Lynch's Pro Active Chicago Teachers caucus, and Demeros (unaffiliated) brought up the rear.

The unexpected result signals that CORE may be the favorite to win the race for leadership of the CTU, coming up in May.

TEACHER TRUSTEE
Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund 2009 Teacher Election
Final Vote Summary - October 30, 2009

* Jay Rehak 6,551 23.72%
* Lois Ashford 4,842 17.53%
Nancy Williams 4,799 17.38%
Reina Otero 4,115 14.90%
Rose Mary Finnegan 3,037 11.00%
Aspasia Demeros 2,137 7.74%
Unexercised Vote 1,711 6.19%
Multiple Mark 428 1.55%
27,620

RELATED: HELP BUILD AN ALTERNATIVE TO UNITY CAUCUS IN NYC

October 31, 2009 - Lehman Story Gets Legs, DOE Investigations of Teacher Whistle Blowers Gets Trashed by Sullivan as DOE Throws Child Under Bus

If you've been following the Lehman HS scandal exposed at Gotham Schools here and here and our follow-ups at Ed Notes, Lehman HS, School for Scandal, What Did Klein Know About Lehman and When Did He Know It? the story is gaining legs. CBS picked it up, closing with this:

Investigators are also looking into whether teachers who blew the whistle on the scandal improperly shared student records.

The back story is that teachers notified Joel Klein last March and he supposedly ordered an investigation - a very s----l----o----w investigation. When the school year began and they hadn't heard from investigators (I say investigate the investigators), teachers felt they were facing the same crap this year and went to the press with the phonied up student records. Now the DOE is investigating them for releasing student records (though phony, were they really student records?) I bet the teacher investigation takes priority over the cheating scandal.

Manhattan member of the Panel for Education Policy Patrick Sullivan pointed to the hypocrisy by comparing it to the case of the release of the test results of a 4th grader:

The Bloomberg administration has a double standard on student privacy.

On Wednesday, the Daily News covered the story of a 4th grader who was told she couldn't be in her school's dance program because she instead needed to attend test prep sessions.

DOE spokesman Will Havemann, in a feeble defense of the decision, proceeded to broadcast to the News readership that the girl scored "a low level 3" on her ELA.

By their twisted internal logic, releasing student data to smear a nine year old in defense of the Bloomberg administration is acceptable, yet furnishing transcripts with redacted personal information requires an investigation. This from the people who tell is their mission is to "put the needs of the children before the needs of the adults".

If anyone is interested, I plan to raise these issues with Chancellor Klein on the record at the Nov 12th PEP meeting.

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2009/10/28/2009-10-28_student_forced_to_study_not_dance.html

Leonie Haimson followed with:

Why is this acceptable behavior David [Cantor]?

To reveal confidential test score information on a little girl, while investigating teachers who exposed major corruption? Not to mention the absurdity of barring a girl from taking dance classes because she tested at a “low level 3” – which by the way, means she is on grade level.

Over and over again, the administration has claimed that the emphasis on testing has not led to a decrease in arts education, yet we know this has happened. This case is a perfect example of the insanity that has taken over our schools.

In the response put out by the Bloomberg campaign to the candidate survey put out by the Center for Arts Education, asking about his elimination of the dedicated funding called Project Arts, they wrote: “rather than tying the hands of school leaders by dictating their budgets for them, we need to give principals control over their resources and hold them accountable for learning outcomes.

”http://www.scribd.com/doc/21817208/Bloomberg-CAE-Mayoral-Candidate-Questionnaire-FINAL.

In other words, as long as those test scores go up, arts education be damned.

Learnin’ New Tricks

School Scope column for The Wave (www.rockawave. com)
October 30, 2009

By Norman Scott

I’ve always tried to take the “old dog, new tricks” cliché to new heights. One of the fascinating things about teaching was how much I learned from the students, probably more than they learned from me. I certainly learned a lot about the human condition. Most of the things I learned from kids occurred during the 17 years I taught self-contained classes in grades four through six. Spending almost entire school days with a bunch of kids for an entire year certainly gives you lots of insights. Twice I moved up with my classes. Spend two years with the same kids and you’ve moved into their heads. And they’ve moved into yours. But you have to pay attention and do a lot of observing.

In today’s world of test prep all the time teachers don’t seem to have the luxury of just watching their kids. Watching them do what? Fill in test bubbles? I used to enjoy watching them just be themselves and observe how they related to each other. We had enough space in the day for me to give them some breaks to relax and talk to each other. A very important aspect of education that is too often ignored is how much they learn from each other. And the numerous class trips, for many the only times they left the neighborhood (Williamsburg), were like little psychological laboratories. How much fun was it to see kids who were sniping at each other in class walking arm in arm and sharing a sandwich?


Acting 1.1
In the seven years I’ve been retired this old dog has discovered new tricks in unusual places. I recently began my third round of acting classes at the Rockaway Theatre Company with the amazing Frank Caiati. The members of the class range in age from late teen to ancient (me). Now Frank is about 23 years old and I probably could have taught his parents, but I’m learning a hell of a lot from him, not just about acting, but the human condition.

Frank is not only a great actor but also an insightful director. Teaching acting is not about showing how it’s done but helping the actor discover the character. What would a person given these characteristics do in a given situation? Having such understandings are important skills in the real world. (My ability to predict the behavior of the kids in my class once I got to know their characters made a big difference in the way I dealt with issues that arose.)

So when you get up to do your lines he wants you to know as much as possible about the relationships the character has, the background, what took place before your lines get read and what happens after you finish your lines. He gives us short two person scripts of about ten lines totally out of context with no plot or background. We have to make up the context and fill in the details. The script for each twosome is the same, but the lines come out meaning different things to each pair of actors.
Wow! What insights. And then Frank starts pushing. If you say you broke something right before the scene started he wants to know exactly what you broke. He wants to know what took place years before between the characters. “What does your character want and how will he/she get it?” That is his constant refrain. And he often sets up a situation where the two characters want very different things. That's when things really got going.

No one ever considers me shy. But getting up on a stage in front of an audience to perform is a frightening thing. As the videographer for the RTC, I watch every play they do through the lens and marvel at the talent and abilities of the people involved. So the idea of me ever having the nerve to go on stage seemed totally out of the question. Until I started working with Frank I used to think that acting involved getting it right the first time. But Frank teaches there is no right or wrong. Try stuff and don’t be afraid to fail. Work with the director and your fellow acting students to uncover the character and the relationship to other characters. I gained enough confidence in last year's class with Frank after doing a short scene with Joe Lopez, a young up and coming RTC actor, that when I was recently offered an opportunity to play one of the card players in an upcoming production of “The Odd Couple” being produced by the Bayswater Players in Far Rockaway, I was ready to take my shot, whereas BF (Before Frank) I would have run away screaming. My time constraints made me take a pass. If you’re thinking, “what time constraints, you’re retired,” don’t ask. But maybe next time.



I learned a few more tricks recently. Like when someone calls you with an offer with two free tickets to last Sunday’s Yankee with a few hours notice, drop all plans and say, “YES!” Which is what I did when a Met fan and Yankee hater chose to watch the Jets game. So I called up a former pre-k teacher from my school, a rabid Yankee fan. She didn’t hesitate. She is almost 80 years old now, but all the young female teachers in my school used to idolize her as the kind of independent woman they wanted to be, a woman who never stopped learning new tricks.

Unfortunately, I had to miss an event I was looking forward to. I help out on a Manhattan Neighborhood Network TV show called “Active Aging” which is run by a group of mostly former professionals in the industry, a fascinating group of people, mostly in their 70’s and 80’s who have taught me many new tricks. Sunday evening there was a birthday celebration for a 91-year-old tango dancer named Alex Turly at Sessions ’73, a restaurant and club that holds Tango dances every Sunday night. My partner, Mark Rosenhaft, and I were supposed to go up and tape it. My wife and Mark’s wife were kind enough to take my place and do the sound and lighting. The footage of Alex dancing with one woman after another, all dressed in Halloween costumes and learning new Tango tricks from an old dog, is priceless.


We took our twenty something cousins to Peter Lugers on Monday to celebrate one of their birthdays. The boys had just returned from a weekend in Michigan where they went to see the Penn State/Michigan game. They returned Sunday and the birthday boy had tickets to both the football Giants game and the Yankee game. What choices. (He chose the Yankees and we met up before the game.)

At dinner Monday night, the older brother was saying how proud he was when his younger brother “manned up” over the weekend. Now this is an expression I’ve been hearing more and more often and seems to be a code for what is considered proper manly behavior in these times. But I’m not always sure of the exact details of what it entails to “man up.” This old dog still has a lot of new tricks to learn and gaining a better understanding of “manning up” is one of them. I just hope my wife won’t be too mad when I do.

ATRs, Chicago, New Haven, and NY State Plan for Massive School Closings

That headline certainly is a mouthful. But there's a lot on the table in this post, so hang in.

Let's try to connect all the dots. (I put the entire series of links to articles mentioned here up on Norms Notes. Read them and weep.)

Let me start with this great quote from Leonie Haimson:

Why should any teacher be summarily be fired unless the decision is based on some objective criteria? Again, the stigma of being associated with a failing school is enough for the editors, which will provide a powerful disincentive for any experienced teacher to choose to move to a low-performing school. This is akin to blaming the workers at a GM factory for the conditions that led to the firm’s bankruptcy. Should they be barred from every being employed in the industry again if Toyota set up shop in the factory?


Think: close massive numbers of schools and create non-unionized charters.

Problem: that pesky UFT contract that guarantees ATRs created by closing schools and excessing will continue to be paid.

Solution: follow the Chicago and Washington DC model of giving ATRs one year to find a job or they're out. With the UFT contract expiring on Halloween, there is speculation the UFT will pull a sellout and give them what they want. (See Jennifer Medina's article - for which she interviewed me but I didn't make the cut- in today's Times).

Problem #2: This is the point I made to Jenny Medina. With an internal election coming this Jan/March, can the Unity/Mulgrew operation afford to give up the ATRs before then? Not that they expect to lose, but with almost every teacher in the system facing ATRdom, the fright factor might drive votes to the ICE/TJC slate and provide a sense of a growing and credible opposition.

Historically, the UFT/Unity machine comes in with a contract timed to the internal election, usually between November and January. So, there should be a contract signed soon after the mayoral election without any open attacks on ATRs, other than some definitive buyout offers, which is actually part of the 2005 contract. Now, there might be some hidden stuff in there. Like a "guarantee" for protection of ATRs that in reality will turn out to have no teeth.

Marjorie Stamberg comments on the Times article urging people to be vigilant:

Last year's demonstration at Tweed is a key reason why the DOE was forced to step back on its constant teacher-bashing and vilification of ATRs. Action by the ranks was important in getting UFT officialdom to try to deal with the problem they helped created in the first place by giving up seniority transfers and agreeing to principal control of hiring and the phony "open market" -- key elements of the corporate agenda for "education reform."

Make sure to watch the video I made of that crazy day - The Video the UFT Doesn't Want You To See: The ATR Rally


A Village Voice hit job on ATRs?

Gotham School gals Anna Philips and Phylissa Cramer wrote a disappointing piece on ATRs for the Village Voice (The City's Bid to Save Cash Leaves New Teachers Out in the Cold), that some teachers are viewing as part of the hit job on ATRs. The piece is all sympathetic for those poor new teachers (and most likely much more wonderful than any ATR) whose hopes about getting a job were dashed by the existence of those foul ATRs. There's not one quote from an ATR who's been screwed, but Ariel Sack's attack on the ATRs in her school is referenced. TILT!!

Here is one interesting point in the Philips/Cramer piece:

Much could depend on the outcome of the UFT's latest contract negotiations, which began last month. Teachers, city officials, and labor experts are speculating that the city will try to negotiate a time limit for how long teachers can remain in the ATR pool. The city says the reserve teachers—who are guaranteed a full salary—are costing the system millions of dollars that otherwise could be used to bring in new teachers who principals want to hire. Already, the DOE is pressuring ATRs harder than ever to find jobs, for the first time requiring them to interview at schools with openings in their field and to attend job fairs. Those who don't are subject to the department's disciplinary process. Chancellor Klein has said repeatedly that he would like to see a time limit placed on the hiring process, giving ATRs nine months to a year to find a new position before being terminated.

"The entire ATR situation is the result of a failed management strategy," says Dick Riley, a UFT spokesman. He insists the union is no happier about the ATR situation than the city is: "The DOE was aware that as it closed schools and cut back programs, veteran teachers would become available for new assignments, yet it continued to recruit new teachers. The result has been that some newcomers did not get the jobs they had been led to expect, and many veteran teachers are now working as substitutes."

NY State plans massive school closings

Then comes this NY Post reporter Yoav Gonen article (State charting new course for old HS's) that expands the idiocy, as the state wants to close a number of large high schools and create, not only thousands of ATRs, but thousands of high school kids floating around looking for new schools.


Here are a few choice tidbits from Yoav's piece:

State officials are seeking to dismantle as many as a dozen large city high schools and turn many of the newly created smaller schools that will occupy their buildings into charters, The Post has learned. Officials said they're also looking to partner with outside managers, such as CUNY and New Visions for Public Schools, to help run some of the newly formed schools. The controversial plan will be included in New York's application for a share of $4.3 billion in federal education aid, known as Race to the Top, which requires states to detail how they'll turn around their lowest-performing schools.

....this marks the first time that charter-school managers, who operate less than a handful of high schools in the city, have been asked to get involved in such restructuring.

sources said schools that are likely to make the list include Columbus and Gompers high schools in The Bronx, and Sheepshead Bay HS in Brooklyn -- although the principal at Sheepshead Bay denied her school would be on the list.

Schools on the state's annual list of failing schools -- including Boys and Girls HS in Brooklyn and even a number of middle schools -- are also likely contenders.

"There is not going to be a person in New York state who will be able to defend any of the schools that end up on our replacement list," state Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch said at a recent conference. "It's not going to be a controversial list."

Chicago/Duncan model of school of school closings shows fault lines of policy

Merryl Tisch ought to read the report about the failure of Duncan's school closing policies in Chicago Report Questions Duncan’s Policy of Closing Failing Schools. With the emphasis on charters, they need to get that charter cap lifted and the pressure to do so to get that stimulus Race to the top money will be intense. But be assured, after they close almost every large high school and the city is awash in ATRs and a floating band of kids with no schools to go to, we will be reading a similar report in a few years. Unless they cover it up.

This story about the failures of the Ed Deform policy in the urban area with the longest history of mayoral control and ed deform was almost buried in the NY Times yesterday exposing so much of the ed deform program of closing schools. I included the Ed Week article and some comments by Leonie Haimson in my post of the reports at Norms Notes.

But here are some excerpts:

“If the findings are correct­—for Chicago, at least—we have to question the value of closing schools and creating the dislocations that would attend those school closings for little or no constructive result,” said Daniel L. Duke, a professor of educational leadership at the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville.


Julie Woestehoff, the executive director of Parents United for Responsible Education, a Chicago advocacy group often critical of Mr. Duncan’s initiatives as district chief, said the study’s findings are more evidence that the district’s reform strategies are not working. The group has called for the end of Renaissance 2010, a district program that closes low-performing schools and replaces them with charter and charterlike schools run by private groups.

“When Arne Duncan announced this program, he said it was going to lead to dramatically better education for the children. We were hoping that would be true,” Ms. Woestehoff said. “There hasn’t really been any payoff from all the money that has been spent and all the disruption that has been caused to communities and especially to students.”

Chicago’s school closings returned to the spotlight this fall after a high school student was brutally beaten and killed in a fight near a South Side high school. Local activists have contended that the school closings created a dangerous mixture of students from rival neighborhoods. Mr. Duncan said earlier this month that blaming school closings for the uptick in violence was “absolutely ridiculous.” ("Outcry Against Violence," Oct. 14, 2009.)

New Haven teacher contract
The lunacy continues with Thursday's editorial in the Times on the New Haven schools contract, where our old friend and Klein Klone Garth Harries, who was hired on the recommendation of Ed Notes (Garth Harries Leaves DOE as Ed Notes Helps Pass Klein Lemons) is doing his magic. As I reported based on my conversation with a New Haven official, Harries was hired specifically because his ties to the BloomKlein administration were thought to give the city a leg up on getting stimulus money. Note the praise for Randi's AFT/UFT:

Education Secretary Arne Duncan is right to push the nation’s schools to develop teacher evaluation systems that take student achievement into account. The teachers’ unions, which have long opposed the idea, are beginning to realize that they can either stand on the sidelines or help develop these systems. We hope they will get involved and play a constructive role.

The politically savvy American Federation of Teachers has decided that it is better to get in the game. In New Haven, the union has agreed in its new contract to develop an evaluation system in collaboration with the city. Secretary Duncan praised the agreement lavishly. But the accolades seem premature given that crucial details have yet to be worked out.

Leonie Haimson connects the dots between the school closings, New Haven, and Chicago stories

As ususal, Leonie Haimson puts it all together with these comments, which offer more of a defense of teachers rights than we ever hear coming from the UFT:

Today’s Times editorial delivers faint praise for the New Haven teacher union deal –because “administrators will be able to remove the entire staff at a failing school and require teachers to reapply for their jobs. This should allow the new principals to build stronger teams.”

(Teachers who are not rehired at these so-called turnaround schools will have the right to be placed elsewhere, at least until they are evaluated, which means that New Haven could still end up passing around teachers who should be ushered out of the system.)

Why should any teacher be summarily be fired unless the decision is based on some objective criteria? Again, the stigma of being associated with a failing school is enough for the editors, which will provide a powerful disincentive for any experienced teacher to choose to move to a low-performing school. This is akin to blaming the workers at a GM factory for the conditions that led to the firm’s bankruptcy. Should they be barred from every being employed in the industry again if Toyota set up shop in the factory?


The Times editors also criticize the deal for requiring that evaluations be made on multiple factors – with the factors weighted by a committee including teachers and administrators.

To be taken seriously, the evaluation system must be based on a clear formula in which the student achievement component carries the preponderance of the weight. It must also include a fine-grained analysis that tells teachers where they stand.

The Times, like Michelle Rhee, now implicitly equates “student achievement” with standardized test scores – without openly admitting that these words are being used as an euphemism because of the widespread unpopularity (and unreliability) of using test scores alone.

Indeed, there is no system that can reliably tie teacher performance overall to student test scores; there are too many uncontrolled variables and hidden factors. .

Meanwhile, Sam Dillon covers the report we posted yesterday, showing that most of the students who were transferred out of closing schools in Chicago did no better elsewhere, and the disruption in their lives caused their test scores to dip in the months following their transfer

Report Questions Duncan's Policy of Closing Failing Schools

… the report’s findings are likely to provoke new debate about Mr. Duncan’s efforts to encourage the use of Chicago’s turnaround strategy nationwide. He has set the goal of closing and overhauling 1,000 failing schools a year nationwide, for five years, and Congress appropriated $3 billion in the stimulus law to finance the effort.

Too bad the Times editors didn’t read this article first.

Now, it’s scary that, according to the NY Post, the model of closing schools and giving them over to charter schools and other management companies like New Visions is coming to NYC – as part of the state’s “Race to the top” application. No mention of the fact that the small schools that already exist and the charters enroll fewer low-performing students in order to get better results.

The difference between the school closure model and the “turn around” model is more semantics than anything else. In both cases, the strategy seems like a blunt instrument: focused on replacing teachers and students with a new crew, rather than actually improving conditions on the ground to allow them to become more successful. I predict that neither New Visions nor the charter schools will be willing to take the bait unless they are given substantial financial subsidies, and/or allowed to pick and choose the students they want, while discharging most of those already in the building to parts unknown.


For more, see State charting new course for old HS's at http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/state_charting_new_course_for_old_MC67S9He0EtCWO0GKj56JP

This is the kind of stuff that should be in the NY Teacher. If I weren't supporting James Eterno, I would shout from the rooftops "Leonie for UFT president."

What Did Klein Know About Lehman and When DId He Know It?

Gotham Schools is reporting that the whistle blowing teachers at Lehman HS will be investigated over the fact they allegedly sent student records as proof of the cheating, apparently a violation of some law that does more to protect cheating admins that students.

City officials will investigate whistleblowing Lehman HS teachers

The teachers approached Gotham Schools with students’ transcripts after some of them had submitted the same transcripts to the Office of Special Investigations, but had not heard back for months and assumed the investigation was dead. Former Lehman teachers stood by their decision to share the documents. The principal “has a three-year contract and it takes the DOE an average of two years to complete any investigation,” one teacher said. “So she gets her bonus for increasing graduation rates and we’re supposed to keep quiet?”

The DOE sees fit to allow all sort of info to be released to charter school operators. And can phony grades manipulated by the principal be considered real grades being released?

I sent this to the NYC Education News listserve re: the Lehman HS cheating scandal, which I wrote about yesterday: Lehman HS, School for Scandal

What needs to be pointed out is that Klein was told Lehman and did nothing. He is as complicit as can be and the investigators should include him. What did Joel know and when did he know it?

My old buddy David Cantor, Tweed press chief, responded:

From: david cantor
To: nyceducationnews@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thu, Oct 29, 2009 9:18 pm
Subject: Re: [nyceducationnews] Now playing at ed notes: Lehman HS, School for Scandal

Norm, I don't know why you say the chancellor "did nothing" after learning of the allegations at Lehman. He was contacted by a teacher at Lehman in late March and asked general counsel Mike Best to follow up. Within a few days, I believe--I can get you the dates--Best met with teachers from the school, after which he referred their allegations to the Special Commissioner of Investigation (who in turn referred them to the Office of Special Investigation). The investigation began in April and has continued since. I'm not aware of any lack of timeliness around the DOE's response to the charges.

David Cantor

My response:

David, The smoking gun.

Let's see now. It seems to be almost November. Let me count the months. Hmmm, 7. I didn't get to the point where I had to take my shoes off to count past 10, but if the story didn't come out at Gotham I believe I would have had to take off both shoes before we knew anything.

If Klein knew about Lehman in late March and many of the issues reported were going on in relation to graduating students, then nothing was done to interfere in a process that just happened to lead to "improved" grad rates that June. Boy, these investigations seem to take so long. Maybe it will be completed by the end of Bloomberg's 4th term.

By the way, even little ole me knew about it months before that and was linking to the barely disguised 19 credits blog. I see the teachers will be investigated and I would bet much more effort will go into that aspect and they will suffer much more than the cheating administrators, just as happened at JFK HS a few years ago when the whistle blowing teacher was sent to the rubber room and the admins got off scot free. We know you have your priorities.

And if the principal tampered with student grades, can they really be considered true student grades and therefore did teachers violate any law in releasing phony grades? Should make an interesting court case.

Oh, yeah, what about all that student info charter school operators are allowed to access in recruiting kids?

Best Norm


Related:
As this story goes citywide and beyond, we want to point out that Ed Notes, due to our impeccable sources, had the story for months and worked with the teachers to get the story out to the press. Why didn't we break the story last spring? Because the teachers were feeling their way as to the best route to take and we were there to help in any way possible. I was asked my opinion and I and the teachers thought Gotham Schools was the way to go. And of course we love Gotham's Anna Philips over here at Ed Notes. And not only because she treated us to dinner, but listened to the entire history of Ed Notes and ICE for two hours without falling asleep into her dinner plate (though I thought I saw a few yawns being stifled).

UFT Charter School Teaches Practice of Democracy - in Theory Only

The UFT Charter School 300 Wyona Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11207 5 year renewal hearing was held on Oct. 22.

"Currently serving Kindergarten through 9 grades, the UFT Charter School is committed to closing the achievement gap and creating a school built on democratic principles of respect, tolerance, and liberty so that students will alsobecome practitioners of democracy and civic responsibility. This school is authorized by the State University of New York – Charter School Institute. More information about the school can be found on the school’s website at http://www.uftcharterschool.net"

Students will attend UFT Delegate Assemblies and Executive Board meetings to see democracy in practice.

More on Moo-Moo Here

Thanks to Susan Ohanian for mentioning our spoof of the NY Times article about a class trip taken by Harlem Success as a way to do test prep. She sent me a nice note that she was rolling with laughter. Unfortunately, an hour later she sent a note that Gerald Bracey had died and she didn't post her daily list that evening. So, I just came across the full range of her wonderful comments on the article in the Times titled, A Moo-Moo Here, and Better Test Scores Later, which she includes on her web site at the end of her comments.


Ohanian Comment: I made a 'regular' comment on this nutty news item [see below] but now the penultimate comment has just appeared over at Ed Notes. I wish I'd thought of this, I wish I'd thought of this, I wish I'd thought of this. Test Questions on Outer Space Lead Eva Moskowitz to Book Space Shuttle for Harlem Success Field Study.

Eons ago, I was a teacher in a special federal program, given the mandate of helping urban kids do better in school. In those days, if a school got a federal grant, teachers made the decisions on implementation. I know, I know: Some people are smarter than others. But I didn't hear of any systematic abuse of children, which is so pervasive in schools now that I can't keep up with it.

One thing we did was take a busload of kids from upstate New York to the Barnum & Bailey Circus in New York City. It wasn't a matter of thinking "clowns: or "elephants" might appear on the standardized test kids took in the Spring. It was a matter of expanding children's horizons, helping them see beyond their insolated and isolated neighborhoods.

Hell, when I taught in Queens, New York City, I used Federal dollars to take two busloads of students to the Cloisters, also in New York City: expanding children's horizons, helping them see beyond their insolated and isolated neighborhoods.

Back with the circus trip: I've never forgotten one 5th grader asking, "Do they have different money in New York City?"

Unlike the five-year-old in the story below who thought he was visiting the farm so he could "get smarter on tests," our students looked forward to a good time for the sake of a good time. Only we teachers looked to the possibility of some deeper, longterm benefit. Unlike the folk at the Harlem Success Academy, we didn't have "a relentless emphasis on data," but we did believe that children should have many opportunities to explore the world--in books and in field trips."

Imagine reading stories of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table so children will "glide through questions" on this topic.

For Eva S. Moskowitz, even a visit to a farm has to be "rigorous." And when children are required to come up with an "I didn't know" statement, they'll tell you they didn't know chickens made eggs. . . right on schedule.

In my analysis of the NAEP items for fourth grade I found that topics include an American female astronaut on Mir, crab hunting, wombats, and life in the American Colonies. Two items, a West African tale and a pourquoi story from William Bennett's edited collection The Moral Compassare in the folklore genre. There are two stories about rural children and their dogs. Field "study: possibilities are staggering.

Take a look at the spot-on comments of a teacher who quotes a great observation a New York City principal left in the "comments" section of the article.

Lehman HS, School for Scandal

We've been hearing stories since last year out of the Lehman HS in the Bronx, one of the few large schools remaining, about how the new principal, Janet Saraceno, who replaced the legendary ogre principal, Robert Leder, was considered even worse.

I was tipped to the 19credits blog when it first began last February and put a link on Ed Notes. It started out as somewhat cryptic with a fictional motif, calling Lehman "Herman High". I spoke to one of the authors, who is known as moral obligation, last March. We discussed giving the blog more of a direct link to Lehman to get more traction. This year they did so. And it is paying off.

I was slipped a letter of resignation from a fed up Lehman teacher in late June which I passed on to Anna Philips, Phylissa Cramer and Elizabeth Green at Gotham at the time. With summer coming on, nothing was done. But today, the stuff should start flying out of the fan.

Gotham just published an explosive report on the Lehman situation written by Anna Philips. Congrats to Anna and the crew for sticking with the story and putting together this excellent in-depth report.

Our sources report that Joel Klein has been directly informed about the situation at Lehman for quite some time, making this quote from David Cantor a total joke: “The Office of Special Investigations is investigating allegations of grading improprieties at Lehman,” said a spokesman for the Department of Education, David Cantor. “We’ll comment once we have findings.”

Sure David. You should have asked Joel about Lehman, since he's known about it for a long time. Send the investigator over there and ask why Klein sat on the information he received.

Excerpts from Anna Philips' report:

As part of a Department of Education program to lure principals to the city’s most challenging schools, she was given a bonus and the title “executive principal.” At the time, this perplexed more than a few parents and teachers, who told the city’s daily newspapers that they couldn’t understand why a school with a “B” on its latest report card needed to offer its new principal an extra $25,000 a year.

According to current and former teachers, Saraceno methodically set about increasing the school’s 47 percent graduation rate by changing students’ grades from failing to passing over the objections of their teachers and, in some instances, in violation of state regulations.

“Leder was not a perfect human. We had hoped that anybody would have been better,” said a current teacher. “It turned out his replacement was much much worse. She has changed Lehman into a diploma mill.”

Grade changing is not an entirely foreign phenomenon at Lehman. Teachers who worked under Leder said he sometimes asked them to change student athletes’ grades if their grade point average slipped below the minimum required for them to play, or if a student was mere points away from passing a class. But that process involved conversations with teachers in which Leder persuaded them to sign the paperwork, they said. Today, failing grades disappear from transcripts without warning, teachers said.

“Leder’s corruption was at least confined to a cohort of 50 kids,” said a former teacher who was one of eight math teachers to leave Lehman last year. Former and current math teachers said their department has borne the brunt of the grade changes, as it has the lowest pass rate within the school.

“Saraceno is actually worse. It’s sickening that I would take him over her,” said the teacher, who now works at a charter school.

Our sources at Lehman, who while admitting that Leder was a tyrant, felt he was the tyrant you knew. "He had an educator's mentality and if he believed you were serious he left you alone," said a teacher. "If he said he was going to consult with teachers and let them run the ship he meant it. There was no bull." Saraceno, on the other hand was described as duplicitous, going through phony charades to make it look like she was consulting with teachers, but still pushing her own program in a dictatorial way that at times made Leder look mild mannered. Well, maybe not exactly but maybe it was the devil you know factor operating. Her move to break Lehman into Small Learning Communities (SLC's) was fraught with manipulations and fear mongering against recalcitrant teachers. The SLC situation caused as much consternation as the credit recovery game.

Make sure to check out the 19credits blog to get the full background scoop.

There is a pro-admin blog, 19stepsahead, that has 2 posts so far. If you have nothing good to report, say nothing but make sure to put down the critical blog that says it all. This sounds familiar when shills come out:

For months conversation about Lehman High School, the new direction of the administration, and its development into SLC's has been dominated by what it would appear are a minority of loud complaining people... with lots of time on their hands to write "creative" stories, but with little real steps being offered to make effective change.

Hmmm. Joel Klein could be writing this.

ATR Zombies Invade

When Ariel Sacks' piece, ATRs in the Teachers Lounge, opened with "Strange happenings … There are ATRs in the teacher’s lounge of my school" it got me to thinking there was a touch of, "My God, we've got ATRs. Get the poison spray." A short note to David Bellel, and a short time later, Voila!

Slugging It out over ATRs (and seniority transfers) Part 2

Arthur Goldstein, chapter leader at Francis Lewis HS, has written one of the best pieces on ATRs and in defense of the old seniority transfer system over at Gotham Schools.

In ATR — A Simple Twist of Fate, Arthur tells how he himself benefited from the system.

For a while, there was also a UFT transfer plan. If you worked in a building for a number of years, you could consult a list of openings in your subject area. You could then select from those openings and move to another school. Judging from tabloid editorials, the UFT transfer plan was evil. From what I’ve read, it was used exclusively by lazy incompetent teachers who moved around to inflict more misery in new and different places. This notwithstanding, I used the plan...

I can't imagine a school that would not want Arthur as a teacher. Well, maybe in today's world the all empowered principals would not want Arthur. He makes too much money. And he is willing to point out the idiocies perpetrated by so many administrators. How come we hear about how important it is to get rid of bad teachers, while the much higher rate of awful admins goes unnoticed?)

I know many superb teachers who used the seniority transfer plan. Most of them went from, let's call them "challenging" schools to places where teaching wasn't a wrestling match. They were often greeted with suspicion by administrators an fellow teachers. "Look where they are coming from. Failed schools. They must be awful teachers." Sort of the attitude we see today about ATRs, which I addressed in part 1: Slugging it Out Over ATRs at Gotham, Part 1

But in reality, those wrestling matches had prepared them very well to teach just about anywhere. At a Manhattan Institute luncheon honoring Christopher Cerf, in trying to prove his point that quality of teaching was the most important factor and that student success on tests was the key factor, he claimed that if we switched the entire teaching staffs (including supervisors) of a "successful" school with the staff at a "failing" school we would see the latter rise up into the stratosphere. I challenged him to try it. "Find a grant and test your hypothesis," I said. "I would bet my pension that the opposite will occur. That the teachers from the "successful" school going to the "failing" school would go through hell while the "failed" teachers would flourish."

All my friends who made such a switch did flourish. They were surprised at how easy things seemed at their new schools. No wonder the teachers never wanted to leave (often dieing at their desks), which was what made it so hard to get the UFT transfers in the first place.

Thinking back to my days in elementary school, I remember my teachers (who I mostly liked and thought were pretty good, though one did practically die at her desk) often gave us "work." Like, read for the next hour and answer these questions while they marked papers. In my 18 years in self-contained classes, the idea of giving "work" was a joke. I could see a 15 minute break here or there, but the day was spent teaching - or wrestling.

Arthur, an ESL teacher, decided to look for a transfer after an AP assigned him to teach Spanish

...I was appointed to teach ESL, and there was that bothersome UFT contract. She couldn’t force me. I’d already told her I’d been offered a 3:30 class at Queens College and she said it was no problem-so I’d accepted. She decided to make me an offer I couldn’t refuse.

She said, “Mr. Goldstein, I’m going to assign you to teach five Spanish 1 classes in September. If you don’t agree to do it, I’m going to give you a late class and you’ll have to forget about Queens College.”

This was a tough decision for me. What to do?.... I was just married, had just bought a house, and I really needed that second job. But I loved teaching ESL.

Thank goodness for Arthur there was a UFT transfer plan and he got into Francis Lewis HS, where his ESL AP took a different tack:

My new AP at Francis Lewis was wonderful. To this day, I’ve never seen anyone who could handle people quite like she could. One semester, she asked me if I’d mind teaching a Spanish 1 class. I told her sure. I’d have done anything she wished. I’d have put her statue on the dashboard of my car. She’s gone now, and so is the UFT transfer plan that sent me here. I miss them both.

Ahh, such a simple rule for so many idiot supervisors. Just ask and say "pretty please" and respect the UFT contract without rancor.

Arthur has a deep understanding of the situation ATRs find themselves, a point Ariel Sacks missed in her piece at Gotham that was critical of the ATRs in her school. Here is one of the paragraphs that has caused more than a few comments:

they do not want to be at my school, and they know they are not wanted either. In the classroom, they behave like incompetent substitutes. No order, no real planning, no real teaching. Some have been rude to students on occasion. Students get rude right back to them (and you know how middle schoolers can be when they feel disrespected). It’s not good.

Arthur's points responds to some of what she said:

I love to teach. It’s exciting to meet new kids and get to know them. It’s even more exciting if you’re an ESL teacher and they come from every corner of the world. I’m very proud I can play some small part in helping them along.

If you take that away from me, I’ll be lost, and that’s precisely the sense I get from ATR teachers I know. I read one writer speculate about how wonderful it would be to not have the day-to-day responsibilities of lesson planning and follow-up, but I’ve yet to meet the real-live ATR teacher who was happy about it.

I can imagine most teachers who had learned their craft in their particular niche and finding themselves totally out of their context being more than a bit flummoxed. If one day I was teaching in an elementary school where I knew all the kids and the next was sent to sub at a middle school I might just be a bit perturbed. And probably look like an incompetent sub. I spent my first year and a half in teaching as an incompetent sub, one of the hardest teaching gigs I had. And I was in the same school and actually termed an ATR - and that was in 1967. But while I learned how to handle basic discipline, it was much easier to do when I had my own kids. Thrown back into subdom in another school and possibly with a group of kids of an age I wasn't used to....

The first comment on Arthur's piece out of the box came from the UFT's defender to all things UFT, Peter Goodman. Goodman, who writes the Ed in the Apple blog, was a district rep in Brooklyn for many years, as was his wife in the Bronx, two district reps with double pensions. And when the UFT was looking for a principal for one of its charter schools, after a long an expensive search, their son Drew Goodman was chosen. He didn't last too long after numerous teacher complaints. Goodman also served in paid positions on panels that lead to the closing of schools, which is a major cause of the growth in the number of ATRs.

This statement by Goodman was astounding:

"By the time the UFT and the DOE agreed to end seniority transfer more than half of all city schools had opted for the SBO Staffing Plan, that exempts them form seniority transfers … each year more schools were opting to participate in the SBO plan and it was clear that the SBO plan would replace seniority transfers."

So we ended up with a system, in a world of total principal power, where most teachers play no role in most schools.

If half the schools didn't have SBO plans, mostly because the principal didn't want to give teachers any role at all, then half the schools were still available for UFT transferees. However, we know that schools that are troubled, and there are an awful lot of them, were not targets for UFT transferees. As I said, generally, the UFT transfer plan allowed a teacher who had put in years of work in a tough place to try to find some place that might be a bit less stressful to teach in and closer to home. Of course under BloomKlein, they have tried to make every place enormously stressful. And of course, there are the cases where awful administrators were on your back. Or just take Arthur's own personal story as to why he transferred.

The UFT transfer, had flaws in it, but still gave about 5-600 teachers a year an option. But it became a whipping boy for political reasons and instead of defending a plan that worked in its own narrow sphere, the UFT went along with the attacks. That Arthur would not have these options today is a sign of what has been lost.

The flaws as I remember: The current principal had to sign off I believe and that was unfair. I heard of people who got good jobs but the principal stopped them from leaving. My memory could be hazy.

Teachers put down a few choices and were sent to one of them. Some often didn't get the school they wanted and passed and could not reapply for 2 years I think.

Principals often tried to intimidate some of the tranferees into not accepting the position, as they often had someone in mind.

They also found numerous ways to cover up positions. For years people who lived in Staten Island or New Jersey and wanted to transfer to SI, mostly for travel reasons - kept getting rejected while noticing a number of young teachers who were somehow working in the positions they had hoped to get.

So Goodman's follow-up comment in responding to Arthur's question about going back to the old system "as far as returning to seniority transfer … is there a consensus among members. I doubt it. Teachers want to control who teachers in their schools," must bring laughter to the overwhelming majority of teachers who have less than zero power. That argument is pure sophistry, but totally logical, given Goodman's slavish allegiance to UFT policy.

He has the nerve to say "I don’t speak for the union," which sparks much mirth in those of us who have been involved in UFT activities for many years. Of course Goodman speaks for the union position. There is not one thing he has written or said publicly that contradicts any union position on any issue and he would find a way to justify just about anything the union decides to do. So, here's another question for Goodman not to respond to:

As a member of Unity Caucus isn't he bound to support every position taken by the Caucus which runs the union or face expulsion (and the loss of those trips to conventions, jobs for friends and family, etc.) ?

Slugging it Out Over ATRs at Gotham, Part 1

Ariel Sacks, a 4th year middle school teacher in Brooklyn, has written a piece on ATRs at Gotham that has ignited a fire storm. See ATRs in the Teachers Lounge.

There are 60 c0mments and counting, with all sides chipping in. The Fiorillo comments are always worth tracking, as are Mr. Talk and Michael M. Of course, I agree with their sentiments. Sacks is undergoing quite a thrashing, while being defended by the usual anti-teacher crowd. She seems to really resent having people around her school who she feels don't work as hard as her but get paid more. It seems logical to some people that she is right. Naturally, I don't agree.

More interesting is the hysteria over the possibility that there are some potentially bad teachers out there. HELLO!

Believe me, I had my share of bad teachers as a kid and saw a few as a teacher. But the overwhelming majority of teachers were competent, though I think the number of great/bad teachers would come out to about the same numbers. In fact, most teachers are pretty good but few are great. Yet the ed deformers predicate their program on having all teachers be great. That's like saying you cannot have a good baseball game unless all players are a the level of Willie Mays.

No matter how hard people huff and puff to get rid of bad teachers - for instance, measure them by test scores and I bet you lose as many good ones as bad ones. In fact I surmise more honest teachers who understand and try to teach realistically will go down the drain, while the free loaders will figure out the easy ways to get better scores and never worry about really trying to teach in the best manner that meets the needs of the kids.

Look at the numbers of teachers and how many leave the job in droves within 5 years - both good and bad. The replacement factor automatically brings in a new crop of bad (and good) teachers with every round. These people get to experiment on the kids for a few years until they are denied tenure. Think of the effort - and hot air - spewing forth about removing teachers. I would rather have a 10 year bad teacher than a 2 year bad teacher. Either way, you're going to get them anyway.

My answer it to figure out a way to make the best use of whatever talents they have. There is really a lot of useful work to do in a school and some would rather do any work other than teach.

Not to say that there are impossible cases that bug their colleagues even more than the outside "experts" like Kristof and Brooks. I always believed if teachers ran the schools - even hiring the principal (along with parents) - their fellow teachers who were goof-offs would shape up or ship out. And there are certainly a bunch of people who are actually competent but don't want to work very hard or don't think much of the kids.

By the way, there are teachers who don't like kids all that much but actually teach pretty well and there are teachers who love the kids but can't teach their way out of a paper bag. There are teachers who put in a tremendous amount of time and those who don't, but don't judge them by that factor. I had to put in time because I was not organized. We should factor in the organized factor in talking about good teachers. I could get in front of a class on a dime and teach my ass off with almost no prep. Creativity sometimes seemed to flow out of me. Other times not. Getting the stuff ready drove me crazy, as did marking papers. So if you saw me in my various roles I played as a teacher, you could find many levels of competency from bad to sometimes great. (I do think today I would be a very different teacher than I was. But certainly not in the world of BloomKlein.)

Want to think about bad and good teachers? Think back to the ones you had as a kid and rate them on a 1-5 scale. Now if your kids had to rate you as a teacher, how do you think you would do? What about parents rating you? What about the principal? And your colleagues like Ariel Sacks? Better not go there. I bet the numbers might vary considerably depending on the audience rating you. Then factor in the scores your kids get on tests as your rating. How would that change the way you teach? Not for the better, I bet, though the lower level, non creative types would do better.

And by creative, I do not mean drawing pretty pictures, but creativity in reaching deep into the minds of kids and coming up with ways to hold their interest and stimulate them, a skill great teachers have, but a skill not values in the world of ed deform.


Part 2 will address the hysteria over bad teachers compared to other professions that can harm kids much worse than a bad teacher: police harassing black kids, lower quality doctors and other health professionals in the poorer neighborhoods, less competent military leaders when poor kids get to Afghanistan? Lousy court appointed lawyers to defend the overwhelmingly high numbers of Black kids than white kids - no one want to talk about that gap. Oh yeah, and when they have passed through the school to prison pipeline, they meet a few prison guards that just may be more harmful than the bad teachers.