Follow-Up by John Powers, UFT Chapter Leader

John Powers joined Unity Caucus in August 2009 and left in June 2010. John is a high school chapter leader in Coney Island.

Norm, Thanks. I'd like to add some thoughts about the DA and "demo" in the last post.

(The UFT Non-demo at Tweed, Ad Hoc Committee to Fight School Closings to Hold First Meeting Dec. 21)

1. Unity put out an article about our pensions that Mulgrew published in Crain’s magazine. Summary: It’s Wall Street’s fault and they should pay. Fair enough. How do we do it?????????????????????

2. Marjorie Stamberg made an amendment that called for a mass rally/protest/walk across the Brooklyn Bridge as a lead up to the Feb. PEP rally. It was a one-line amendment that in light of the assault on education and teachers here in NYC, was actually rather "conservative" and should have been approved by the Unity body. The amendment was full of merit because it would’ve raised the profile on “school closings” and helped build for a better turnout in Feb. It was immediately shot down when one Unity delegate rose and actually said the following: "I do not support the amendment because the original resolution is just fine." No argument. No reasons. Pure conformity. Pure party line with no substance or call for debate.

Mulgrew spoke about the amendment from the podium, which is something I believe is against "Robert's Rules." He needed to vacate the chair and come to the floor but didn’t. He said that the amendment would not preclude the UFT from holding such a walk across the bridge. YEAH RIGHT.

The other thing he did which he learned from Randi was to repeat back the words/language for amendments with a certain emphasis or lack of emphasis which is Unity code for “Don’t vote for this.” For example, a tape recording playback would reveal how his voice changed in tenor when he repeated back the phrase Marjorie used in her amendment: “escalating action” (That’s code for: “Look out, this is a crazy radical idea”)

2. The Disco Party Rally a “football field” away from Tweed: 12-14-10 @ 5:15
When the DA adjourned, I grabbed a UFT cap but declined the “glow sticks” that were given out. How much did these glow sticks that are handed out at kids’ parties cost? My sons love them. Not me. Not for a union demonstration. I was one of the first to arrive at the police pen set up for us a half a block away from Tweed.

Once again, I was assaulted by Disco Music (Gloria Gaynor’s I will Survive). I watched union brothers and sisters walk into the pen bopping and dancing. PARTY. OH YEAH. DJ spin those records. Let’s get this party started.

AM I the only one who thinks this is weird. I admit I am biased. I love rock and jazz and play the drums but I just find this so offensive. How about some heavy “symphonic” masterpieces? Or some other form of “informational entertainment” while the crowd gathers.

We are in a crisis!!! Mulgrew gave a short and powerful speech but he had to bend his arm all the way back to point to Tweed when he railed against those inside. But powerful words alone will not save the day.

I can’t help thinking how Unity continues to rewrite history and pins all of this on Bloomberg and Klein.

Isn’t it time to take ownership over the destruction of our high schools? The regimentation of teaching and learning? The lack of a clear message about what K-12 education should do and include in order to teach the whole child? No sense in going on and on.

This is why listening to Leo Casey’s tremendous speech earlier at the DoE about school closings ultimately falls flat. The DoE was helped by Unity.

3. Everyone should recall last year's PEP rally and the DA that preceded it. Mulgrew played the tough, labor union leader while Barr played the cautious negotiator. It went like this: Mulgrew: I want a circus of chaos at the Brooklyn Tech PEP rally. A circus of chaos. I want to surround the building. Barr: (15 minutes later) We want to do this right. We need to be cautious. We can't walk into any traps. (Translation: Don't listen to Mulgrew. We have to be careful about how the media perceives us. We don't want it to appear that the PEP rally at Tech was heavily influenced by the UFT. Holy Crud.)

You can expect the same thing for the next big PEP rally. Instead of educating all teachers at all levels about the closings and mobilizing them, Unity still wants to play "patty-cake" with the DoE.

Until next time,
John

The UFT Non-demo at Tweed, Ad Hoc Committee to Fight School Closings to Hold First Meeting Dec. 21

UPDATE: SEE JOHN POWERS' ADDENDUM TO THIS POST
 
Friday, Dec. 17, 2010

I'm sorry if the Lehman teachers were looking for magic bullets to keep them open but we must link the fightbacks to the political intention of school closings, something the UFT refuses to do as they too fall into the data trap of defending the schools' numbers which are so manipulated based on the kinds of kids the school is sent and the number or lack of resources. - see my comment below

Did you know the UFT actually held something or other at Tweed on Wednesday? At least there was a rumor that they would end the Delegate Assembly early on Wednesday and march over to Tweed. I couldn't be there, thank goodness (Promises, Promises).

Were they worried that a resolution on closing schools was going to be sponsored by a variety of groups? Probably not but more a sign that they are feeling some heat from the members. Thus a pipsqueak show of force. Apparently they are saving their big one-shot show of force for the Feb. PEP meeting where closing schools will have their fate sealed.

Chapter leader John Powers, who has been sending emails daily to the UFT leadership sent this to ICE-mail:

SSSSShhhhhhhhhhh. Did you hear? There is a UFT protest outside of Tweed tonight. CL's received the news. How about the rest of our membership who toils every day under the dictates of a billionaire mayor and his puppet and soon to be puppet: Klein and Black? Did they receive the news?

SSSShhhhhhhhh. There is a protest tonight. SSSSShhhhhhhh. Don't bring anyone. It might get crowded.

BLUNT.

BLUNT.

BLUNT.

No action alert on UFT homepage. No e-alert to all members.

Big Mike wants it to be a quiet affair.

SSShhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Apparently John shamed them into actually posting something on the web. And there's a rumor they actually held some kind of rally. They even have a video. From the UFT web site:

Hundreds of UFT members gathered in the bitter cold on Dec. 15 outside DOE headquarters at the Tweed Courthouse to rally against the city's plans to close 25 struggling district schools.

Hundreds? You mean they actually got hundreds out? We got 500 last year at the rally at Bloomberg's house. How pathetic - there are over 3000 delegates and .....jeez, I won't go on.

There were some interesting posts on ICE mail regarding the UFT and how they are reacting to closing schools and I highlight two of them from Marjorie Stamberg and Ellen Fox at Norms Notes.
Here are a few excerpts but head over and read all of it.

Unity caucus is trying to pick up the opposition verbiage; their motion talks of "building a grassroots movement" to stop the closings and a lot of militant talk, for them.  I also think the word got out that many of us were organizing to bring signs and present a motion at the D.A. for a UFT citywide rally, to bring together the local school-based protests against the school closings. The bureaucracy wanted to get in front of the train, before it left the station without them.- Marjorie

The original resolution calls for the DA to vote on the following final RESOLVED: THAT     in recognition of the outrage this Delegate Assembly, representing the educators of all NYC public schools, feels about the proposal to close 25 schools, we hereby adjourn this meeting and reassemble for a mass protest [emphasis mine] at City Hall and the central offices of the NYC Department of Education. 

It's fascinating to see that, at least originally, our leaders were thinking of the number of Delegates and Chapter Leaders who manage to show up on Wednesday to constitute a mass protest.  I forget what the quorum number is, but the actual number of people in attendance rarely, if ever, exceeds 1,000.  Some mass protest!  I see London, I see France!

The words of the resolution sound militant, until you realize that, once again, the UFT "leadership" is putting the onus on individual schools, rather than formulating some sort of unified response that would apply to, and draw a connection between, all of the affected schools; and would also draw all UFT members into support of the threatened schools -- not just at the February "doomsday" PEP meeting, but in some sort of sustained way.  They've had the gall to suggest, at a variety of meetings, how they're going to "offer help" to the newly attacked schools just as they "helped" the threatened schools last year.- Ellen

Read both of their full posts at Norms Notes where they also discuss the attack on large schools as part of the weakening of the union by breaking down big chapters, though Ellen points out that while the union at the school level is weakened the top leadership actually benefits from small schools because the opposition has to work harder to do outreach.

I'm fairly sure that the closing of these schools would bring Unity leadership a bit of secret joy along with just the tiniest bit of angst about losing overall union strength.  On the whole, small schools are much easier to control, and keep within the Unity fold.- Ellen

I gave a presentation at the Lehman high school's UFT meeting a week ago in which I pointed to the failed policy of the union regarding the ed deform mania for closing schools, the main purpose of which is ideological, political, economic, even a real estate grab, with Children First being Last.

No matter what is said, the very idea of charging a school with being a failure comes down to blaming the teachers and then tossing them into an ATR pool where they will be vilified (the UFT honcho in the room made sure to say at least they still have a job and that we could have had a contract if the UFT were willing to give up the ATRs.) I pointed out that it is often a job in hell and these jobs only exist because of the 2005 contract.

I pointed to the UFT "victory" in the law suit last year that kept 19 school open temporarily (15 are on the new list) because the DOE had been sloppy in following procedure. In other words, the UFT was not opposing the concept of closing schools, which they have supported since the idea gained hold almost 2 decades ago, but making sure procedures are followed.

When the Far Rockaway HS closing was announced, I got a call from a disgruntled teacher who was upset that the UFT District HS Queens rep Rona Freiser (now Queens boro rep) had come down not to help them fight the closing but to inform them of their rights (which weren't all that much). Of course Howard Schwach, my editor at The Wave and I immediately began to predict that Beach Channel HS, the other large HS in Rockaway would be next because the small schools opening at Far Rock would not take the most difficult kids. And so that has come to pass. The UFT PR machine could have made a big deal about this intentional domino effect but didn't.

I told the teachers at Lehman that if they followed the pattern of Bronx school closings the arrow would lead right to them and that the UFT should have been exposing this and using its resources to forestall the inevitable instead of rushing in with too little too late. I didn't have time to mention that the DOE intentionally sends in principals as "closers", some sharp and ambitious who know exactly what they are there for and others clueless but clearly lacking people skills that would turn so many people off the school community would have little fight left to battle. I pointed this out in my blog the other day about Murray Begtraum and Lafayette HS. (Is Murray Bergtraum Principal a "Closer?")

I'm sorry if the Lehman teachers were looking for magic bullets to keep them open but we must link the fightbacks to the political intention of school closings, something the UFT refuses to do as they too fall into the data trap of defending the schools' numbers which are so manipulated based on the kinds of kids the school is sent and the number or lack of resources. To the DOE, resources means coordinators, watchers, trainers.

What can we do?
I have no easy answers other than to get out the word and try to organize and activate people as a force within the UFT that can become strong enough to either force the leadership to do the right thing (which you know I doubt since I consider them Vichy) or even stronger to threaten their control. I will post separately on how my point of view differs from other activists opposing Unity.

An ad hoc committee to fight school closings is in the process of forming. It is holding its first meeting on Tuesday. Come on down.

Fight School Closings

NO School Closings!

NO Charter Invasions!

All are welcome to join an

Ad Hoc Organizing Meeting

to fight back against:

-school closings

-charter invasions and privatization

-school transformations/restructuring 

Tuesday, December 21st

4:30 pm

CUNY Graduate Center

(34^th St and 5^th Ave)

Room 5409

You are invited to help build this major campaign. 

Bring your ideas to this planning meeting.  

We will plan mobilizations to the Mayor's PEP meetings, to DOE hearings to close schools and to invade with charters, and to pressure City Hall and the Mayor.

The campaign will involve letter writing, petitions, media blitzes, talks, workshops, forums,videos, cultural presentations, fight-back Fridays, and much much more. 

With your involvement we can build this campaign and movement to promote quality education and stop the drive to privatize.

Promises, Promises

Thursday, Dec. 16, 10AM
Promises, Promises could be the title of a video I've been working on with clips culled from the PEP meeting the other night regarding the PS 20/Arts and Letters District 13 school controversy over co-location and space.  As I said in my goodbye video to Joel Klein - school wars will be his lasting legacy.
I heard the word "choice" mentioned every 10 seconds and also heard promises, promises from PEP people and DOE officials about how much they want to help PS 20. I'll leave the rest of the commentary to the video when it is done - hopefully today - even though I am having a tough time doing much of anything once the daylight disappears. Last night after coming home from a matinee and dinner and with so much to do I watched Rohmer's "Claire's Knee" as part of my attempt to complete his entire series of "Moral Tales." A nice followup to the immoral tales at PEP meetings.

I was pretty tired  yesterday (Weds) - no, not from attending another bullshit UFT demo at Tweed (more on that later) which I mercifully missed due to family commitments.

Now, there is another moral tale. Here's the skinny:

Wife's brother and his wife are stuck with ferry tickets from Jersey - they bought a batch to go to Yankee games but one game was postponed - and they have until Jan. 1 to use it. Total would be $80, so they don't want to eat the tickets and suggest we meet them in the city for a matinee and dinner.

Tuesday
So Tuesday I drive my wife to downtown Brooklyn to the half price line on Jay Street and wait in the car. Now this is a major pain in the ass (Hamilton Ave bridge is up and it takes almost an hour) as I have to take her home and get back to downtown Broolyn for the PEP meeting later and in addition someone wants me to meet him at 4:30 to interview me for a documentary he is doing on closing schools. There is no line and she comes back with tics for "Midnight Quartet"- $70 a ticket - HALF PRICE? - and I get on the BQE while she calls to tell them. I'm in traffic around Atlantic Ave when the phone rings. They don't like Elvis or Johnny Cash. "Can we go back," from my wife. Jeez. I also think $70 bucks to see what is basically a review and not a real play is too much. They don't take back tickets but I practically make a U-turn on the BQE while briefing my wife on how to be nice - "BEG!" I tell her. And she does a great job - unheard of- they allow her to exchange the tickets for ------

PROMISES, PROMISES???????

You mean I have to submit to more Neil Simon after having lived with him for months for my role in "The Odd Couple" (WARNING - 3 more performances left to see me in both my simultaneous acting debut and end of career). Double Jeez. "Sean Hayes from 'Will and Grace' and Kristen Chenoweth" says my wife. "Who?" I never watched "Will and Grace" once. And while I liked Kristen in a few plays, no big deal. And my in-laws will probably hate it even more than than Elvis.

But I get a great excuse to miss the UFT DA and bullshit walk to Tweed and it will only cost me ---I can't even do the math but it will be worth whatever it costs.

So we get home around 1:30 and I head out to the PEP/meet with filmmaker at 3:30. PEP, blah, blah, blah. I get home around 10 and watch the first part of Claire's Knee).

Wednesday
Off to the city at 12:15. Train stuck in tunnel and get to theater at 1:45. In-laws freezing. Seats good - Orch row T on side- but cramped - bro-in-law is 6'3".

SHOW IS BEYOND GREAT. SEAN HAYES IS AWESOME. WORTH EVERY PENNY- GO BEFORE IT CLOSES ON JAN. 2.

Freezing walk to dinner at New Orleans style Delta Grill on 48th and 9th. Delicious gumbo and po' boys. Cost: around $70 a couple. Do the math. Cost in-laws over $200 because they didn't want to eat $80 worth of ferry tickets. But am I glad they decided to do this? I'd pay double to miss more UFT phony events.

Emergency Rally Against Community Roots Charter School Tonight

SPREAD THE WORD!

Dear Parent Leaders and Community Advocates:

District 13 is under attack by Community Roots Charter School and DOE.

We need every available body tonight at our P.S. 67 located at St. Edwards between Park Ave and Myrtle. 5:30

CRCS would like to have a middle school and have taken rooms from PS 67. PS 67 has a class in a closet. While CRCS has the famous class size of 25 and two teachers they also received an F on their last progress report.

We have had enough of the DOE and their Charter Schools.

Khem Irby
See below

Dear Office of Public Affairs:

Tonight I was made aware of a hearing for Community Roots Charter School via conversation.

They would like to add a middle school in District 13.
As a member of the CEC we were not given proper notice to participate in the hearing. Was this supposed to be a joint hearing with District 13?

Also, what are they legally supposed to do in regard to the new law?

Should the creation of a new middle school option for district 13 families?

Where do they plan to expand this school?

How many rooms were allocated to them when they entered PS 67? They are using the library exclusively and have locked out the D75 and PS 67 schools.

I am requesting that you cancel this hearing in respect of the law and the district 13 community that will be impacted.

Sincerely,

Khem Irby
CEC13

I Came to Praise Joel, Not to Bury Him

 I was signing in when I heard my name.
It was Uncle Joel stopping by to say hello. "Norm, don't feel you have to praise me tonight."
"I wouldn't miss the opportunity," I said. We chatted and I reiterated that anything I say is due to political issues not personal. He seemed to appreciate it.

Here is what I said at the meeting. I included a piece by parent Richard Barr.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Njdi8XunEpQ


PEP Dec 14 Norm Scott and Richard Barr

Candi is Still Dandi

As new VP of the Washington Teachers Union, Candi Peterson has a whole lot on her plate and blogging may take a back seat for a while. We wish her well. How nice to see her still standing and Rhee off to sell herself to the highest bidders.

New Beginnings

From the desk of Candi Peterson:

December 1 marked a new beginning for me as the WTU General Vice President. During the past two years as the writer of this blog, I have enjoyed confronting stormy subjects on public education with readers by my side on a weekly basis. Topics here ranged from former DC Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, to performance based excessing, unprincipled principals, inside teacher stories, and "holdover" union officials. I have frequently said this blog was never intended to be a permanent dwelling place and first started out with me trying to dispel myths about the red and green teachers contract proposal and later morphed into an online voice for teachers. 

 

I believe you can’t stand still in one place forever or it becomes a comfort zone. Don’t get me wrong, I'm not through with blogging at least not yet but in my new role- more of my time will be spent seeking resolutions to teachers complaints.

Klein's Final PEP Tonight: Thanks Uncle Joel for Helping Organize The Resistance - Can I Give You Another Hug?

I was watching the videos of the press conference last week on the Norman Siegel lawsuit filed by 13 parents, two of whom are from PS 15 in Red Hook and one educator, also from PS 15, a school that Joel Klein allowed to be invaded by PAVE, an intrusive charter school with backing from a billionaire supporter of Mayor Bloomberg - the ultimate use of political muscle by people who are always charging their opponents with playing politics with kids lives.
None of these three people were activists in The Resistance before. It was the actions of Joel Klein and his minions that created this incredible hot bed of activism that gave rise to CAPE (Concerned Activists for Public Education). When they found GEM, many of whom were also activated by the actions of the Klein ed deformers, on the web a year and a half ago and we all linked up - it was kismet.

So, yes, thank you Joel for your unintended consequences.

I'd give him another hug tonight but I'm saving it for day Cathie Black is on the way out. I have a feeling that she may do in three years what it took Joel eight to do.

UPDATE:

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

I Came to Praise Joel, Not to Bury Him

 I was signing in when I heard my name.
It was Uncle Joel stopping by to say hello. "Norm, don't feel  don't have to praise me tonight."
"I wouldn't miss the opportunity," I said. We chatted and I reiterated that anything I say is due to political issues not personal. He seemed to appreciate it.

Here is what I said at the meeting. I included a piece by parent Richard Barr.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Njdi8XunEpQ

If Shael Was a Real Teacher He Must Have Been Invaded by Data Munching Body Snatchers

Mr. Polakow-Suransky acknowledges that the tests are imperfect, but says they are a necessary measurement tool. “To put it very simply,” he said, “how do you know that the kids are learning?”  

Tell me that a real teacher would say "How do you know that the kids are learning?" without standardized tests. Every single teacher I know has given tests that tell them if kids are learning. Or they know from how they respond in class. This is such an anti-teacher statement. Note how Shael makes it seem that the choice is between standardized tests and not tests - totally negating what most teachers have always used in class.

Shael didn't escape

Now the contradictions in today's NY Times profile on Shael Polakow-Suransky (I've got a bias against hypehated names, especially long ones) who will be 2nd in command to Cathie Back are very revealing. He went to a progressive high school and studied with progressive educator Ted Sizer at Brown University (how interesting that I meet so many Brown grads counter to Shael who are active resisters to the ed deformers). Then he worked for Eric Nadelstern who once was a real reformer people tell me.

A Tweed insider told me the two of them always talked a good game but once inside the walls of Tweed they shifted to the party data line - the judgement: ambition and self-interest.

Now Shael will offer a menu of more tests:

He has been working with officials from New York and other states to create a new kind of testing that would include essays, classroom projects and multiple-choice exams, and that would be administered in stages, perhaps at four times during the year. 

Afterburn
See the web of corruption tying the Merryl Tisch family to the testing industry at Perdido St. School - comments section.

Hillcrest HS Has 11 Assistant Principals

Cathie Black visited the Queens school, which is heavily involved with the Gates Foundation. Their idea of support never involves reducing class size or putting a lot of resources like guidance counsellors and social workers as that would contradict the ideology they push that teachers are the issue.

So "support" means more people watching and training teachers or coordinating something or other. The Master teacher who makes 30% more is a big item - the union pushes this one too. Or eleven APs, including one for data analysis. Give me a break. Analyze this!!

Here are some comments Leonie put up:

Video of Cathie Black arriving at Hillcrest at NY1; w/ lots of big smiles and glad-handing from Bob Hughes of New Visions. 

Hillcrest is the one large HS that DOE continually rolls out that is supposedly a symbol of their success in “turning around” large schools, w/ the help of New Visions of course.

http://print.nycenet.edu/ChoicesEnrollment/High/Directory/school/?sid=3298

OVERVIEW
Hillcrest is a school composed of seven small learning communities with fewer than 500 students each and two one-year immersion programs. We are a New Visions School working collaboratively with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

They have 11 APs (count em!)

http://www.hillcrestweb.com/administration.htm

Here’s a quote from their AP for data analysis: Amar Nepal, A.P. Data Analyst
ANepal@schools.nyc.gov

Hillcrest High School is committed to data driven instruction.  It is through the effective use of data that our school community can make the decisions to promote teaching and learning.  "The goal is to transform data into information, and information into insight." - Carly Fiorina

http://www.ny1.com/content/news_beats/education/130521/incoming-schools-chancellor-tours-queens-high-school/

--------------
Worth checking out: Steven Lazar's column at Gotham Schools:  Disconnections

Tweed and the UFT headquarters feel a world, and a mindset, apart from my daily education reality.
At my school, I am the most experienced social studies teacher; at the UFT last Wednesday, I was the youngest in the room. There are important things that go on at the UFT, and I support most of the union’s efforts, but there seems to be a large distance between what the UFT does and what I do. Likewise, I am sure some things that happen at Tweed have a directly positive or adverse effect on my school’s dally existence. But when someone said at the UFT High School Committee meeting last week that the UFT is now in a state of war with Tweed over school closures, if felt to me like a war between the Olympian gods where little thought or consideration is given to its effects, if there even are any, on the daily lived existence of most teachers and students in this city.

Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/

Is Murray Bergtraum Principal a "Closer?"

Most of you have heard about the so-called student riot at Murray Bergtraum last week when the principal ordered the bathrooms shut. A contact there told me the day the new principal, Andrea Lewis, arrived last summer, she was a "closer" – a principal intentionally sent into a school (to supposedly save it) but with so little skill at relating to people in the school community that they would become so alienated they would amenable to the inevitable announcement that the school would be closed.

The poster principal for this strategy was Jolanta Rohloff who was sent to the troubled Lafayette HS as the ultimate closer. I knew someone at the Leadership Academy, that failed Eli Broad supported principal training center that requires candidates to kill a pet dog before being allowed to run a school, who was with Rohloff and when her appointment came they howled with laughter because she had proven to be so inept. (A friend who got a transfer there went in to meet Rohloff the first day and Rohloff attacked her for getting a UFT transfer without every seeing her teach and then proceded to start U-rating her the second week of September, eventually driving her out of the school and almost ruining her career.)

I heard from a former teacher at Lehman HS a year and a half ago that the new 25,000 dollar bonus baby principal was also sent in to be a closer - and last week Lehman appeared on an endangered school list, in addition to all the cheating scandals.

See: 3rd negative study on NYC Leadership academy

So when Bergtraum students organized a protest - we are not calling this a riot but organized chaos- attention was focused on a principal who did not seem to have a clue on how to run a large high school.

In a post on the NYC Parent blog The underlying causes of rioting at Bergtraum HS,
Leonie Haimson wrote

On Thursday, December 9, students rioted in the halls of Murry Bergtraum High School in lower Manhattan. The latest straw that broke the camel’s back was the announcement of the new “executive” principal, Andrea Lewis, who received a $25,000 bonus to run the school, that none of the students could use the bathrooms for an entire day – a punishment for a fight that had broken out between a couple of students the day before.

Her announcement led to rioting in the halls. More on this at GothamSchools, which broke the story, here and here; and NY 1 has video.

But as John Elfrank-Dana, the UFT chapter leader points out below, in a missive to fellow faculty members, the anger that erupted last week was also the result of deeper issues -- the awareness on the part of students that they are receiving a “junk education.” Indeed, Bergtraum is another NYC high school in which rampant overcrowding, large class sizes, fraudulent credit recovery, and other learning conditions have worsened considerably as a result of the wrongheaded policies and educational and neglect of this administration.

John sent both Leonie and I this email. It is so powerful that it bears being sent around the ed world, as much for the way that John is standing up for both students and teachers as for what he has to say. What is clear to me - if the teachers could join the students in their activities after being treated the way Andrea Lewis, the closer - maybe Bloomberg should make her Chancellor since he is looking for a closer - they would.

Subject: So Much Junk... So Many Suits - A debrief of Last Two Days...

Many of our students chose to vent their outrage on Thursday in the form of running wild through the halls. A very dangerous situation. Hundreds participated. The principal's announcement of curtailment of bathroom access no doubt precipitated this action. Try and spin it how you like; that's the overwhelming consensus.

However, it seems to me that was just the last straw, i.e. that the revolt wouldn't have happed if it were not for a deep seated resentment brewing in the students. That resentment stems from the fact that they know they are getting junk education. They understand that they aren't getting their needs met by this system. That they need smaller class sizes, more family and guidance support, a genuine curriculum and not some cookie cutter/corporate template imposed upon them like Kaplan. They know that elsewhere in this city and country there are schools with class sizes of 12 or so, with students using the latest in computer technology to engage in enrichment activities not meaningless drill exercises and credit recovery fraud. Where teachers, who are not over-stressed and threatened by U ratings on a daily basis, are patiently providing needed individual attention to their needs. You won't find Class.com in the affluent suburbs; those parents would be outraged. They know all this, but they don't know they know it. As Palo Freire, the education theoretician, said that education is making the subjective objective. Not quite objective yet, the junk education is what the students would understand is the source of their rage.

The principal's curtailment of bathroom privileges was perceived by them as a slap in the face, adding insult to injury. It was, I believe, perceived by the students as punitive in nature and not to protect them. It was also ill conceived to create a demand overload situation for the nurse's office; which has many other vital services to provide students. While the principal does damage control with focus groups of students there's also the concern expressed by some of you that maybe she's on a fishing expedition to find evidence for blaming the teachers for the incident. If you hear of any such notion from students that this is the agenda of these meetings, do not discuss it with them or probe. Just let me know what you heard. As in my class yesterday we had a special lesson on student rights and responsibilities as well as creative and constructive ways to redress grievances. This should be the focus of moving ahead with our students.

Yesterday morning we saw a major operation of support by the UFT. Some of you met Michael Mulgrew and myself in the hallway. He brought with him a delegation of union personnel who are committed to providing the necessary means for protecting the students and staff. He sat at one end of the table, flanked by me and UFT reps, while at the other was the head of security for the entire DoE system. Present also was Glen Rasmussen, our main security liaison with the DoE and about 5 other suits from the DoE and our Network Support Group, and, of course, the principal. The discussion centered on the plans for the day and the short-term road ahead. It was understood that other volatile eruptions were likely if we didn't take appropriate action. We will meet throughout the week, myself, the administration, special reps from the UFT and DoE security to monitor and put together a more concrete plan to secure the school. Any suggestions and/or information you can share would be greatly appreciated.

At the morning meeting the head of DoE security commented that there was significant improvement in the school's security numbers (incident reports) compared to last year. Whoa! I thought, would my members really think that things have dramatically improved?! Therefore, at the end of the afternoon meeting I had to call out the "elephant in the room" that no one is talking about. I said that "morale in this school is at an all time low!" That we won't get as full support from the staff if they continue to feel harassed and intimidated by the spike in U-ratings. That many teachers fear that there will be retaliation for reporting disciplinary problems. It's because they feel the administration is out to get them. Against this backdrop the security situation in the building cannot improve.

I referred to the beginning of the school year that when, after he called for support for a classroom situation, the same teacher was told (within ear shot of his students at least) by the principal who came that he's getting a U for not having a lesson plan (forget the fact that he did, in the form of the NY lab book, but was too frazzled to point that out). That got around to the faculty the message: You ask for help with discipline and it will be held against you.

Second, that just yesterday during a class a girl's cell phone was stolen, the likely perp was asking to go to the bathroom, and the teacher, thinking on her feet, denied him. An SSA and Dean were called. The dean was reluctant to have the boy in question's bag searched by the SSA but chose instead to chastise the girl for bringing her phone to school and was going to leave it at that. Fortunately, the victim herself then went into the boy's bag and produced her phone. When the teacher went up to the dean's office to report it, another dean told her there was no need to as it was resolved. Mr. Rasmussen stated that's a Level IV infraction and should have produced an occurrence report. I will follow up. But, I am afraid this kind of thing goes on in the school on a daily basis. While I am confident MOST of our deans don't sweep things under the rug, I have to assess if we benefit at all from those who assist in keeping the school's crime numbers down.

No doubt you will hear the response: "They're gonna close the school! So, see no evil, hear no evil, say no evil!" However, they will close the school whenever they want for whatever reason they want. We could improve the stats (either by intimidation to pass 80 percent or more and/or scrubbing Regents exams scores and bogus credit recovery) or in a real way.

The DoE has closed improving school for real estate to open charter schools. All we can do is do the right thing by the school community; stand up for what is right and decent for our students and staff and be public about it. Our staff must be treated like professionals with fairness and respect, parents need to be parents and provided school support. Last and not least, the students must be given what they deserve; a quality education. Without this, we will measure success though quietly putting out fires and suppressing reports of incidents in the school while cooking the books on student achievement. Such a fraud produces a house of cards. And when that house of junk blows over, all suits in the DoE's army may not be able to erect it again.

In solidarity, John

--
John Elfrank-Dana
UFT Chapter Leader
Murry Bergtraum High School
www.Elfrank.com/UFT

I sent Leonie's and John's comments out to listserves and here are some responses which you can read below the fold. But first I wanted to mention some...

Personals
How amazing to read this link I picked up at Gotham  - An assistant principal at Grover Cleveland HS in Queens is bringing geocaching to his students. (Times) -  just a day after being introduced to this very gentleman by a very good friend of mine when they both came to see my performance at this past Saturday's "Odd Couple."

And thanks to the well wishes for my dad after the bleeding/emergency room visit Friday night - and by the way - the people in the ER were great. (I Need a Vacation). Today's visit to the dentist went well and he has his uppers with the lowers coming in a few weeks. No Peter Luger steak for him 'till then.

And finally, kudos to the principal who reads this blog and gave such a great welcome to the young lady friend of my cousin who I recommended for a job- and actually found a way to offer her some hope in a very tough market.

These Truths Are Self-Evident

There was an interesting discussion on Brian Lehrer on NPR the other day with Eric Snyder, the parent who filed the first lawsuit on the Cathie Black nomination. Snyder was challenged by Lehrer that Snyder  was interested in his own children who have a parent for a lawyer. What about the poor children of color who perhaps don't have the advantages and need the structure and standardized tests?

Snyder was eloquent in his reply. It wasn't about his kids, who would thrive under any system. Poor kids would suffer more from being branded by a test score and the kind of narrow education it takes to get there. Right on Eric. I hope to thank him for that personally if I go to Albany on Dec. 23 when the court case is heard.

People ask me how I know market based ed deforms won't work - even though it will take a generation of ruined children - and ruined teachers I might add - for us to find out - and when we do, that information will be suppressed by Gates and his clones.

I don't need no stinkin research to tell me. My instincts as a teacher who worked closely with children and as a human being tell me. I think of the way my principal tried to stop the teachers from taking trips until all the tests were completed - I continued to defy her for 5 years until she made teaching a self-contained class so distasteful I became a cluster. About 4 years ago a former student from the late 70's got in touch. She told me she used to take her own kids to the very same Central Park playgrounds I took her class to. When they asked why they didn't just go to Brooklyn playgrounds she told them, "You don't know how much those trips meant to me." Years later they told her how tired they were of hearing about "Mr. Scott's trips."

I thought about how kids from wealthy private schools - and I got to know lots of teachers from these schools from various computer user groups - has such a totally different education than the kids in the poorest areas. How the NYC museums were often filled with them while poor kids remained trapped in their neighborhoods.

I heard the same comments almost word for word from my principal in the early 80's and Joel Klein over the last 8 years: Kids need skills before they can absorb content. Of course I take the view that content will drive skills. I think of the time my kids found a book on a trip with sexual content - it was a much higher level than they were reading at. Somehow they got the comprehension. I would use anything that interested them if I could get away with it to get them to see reading as useful.


An excellent piece by Steve Nelson, head of the private Manhattan Calhoun School, has been floating around. I remember we used to meet at that school with the LOGO users group in the late 80's. One time the host teacher had to leave and she was the last one in the building other than us and a bunch of kids working on a project. She told us just to leave when we were done and they would lock up. I was astounded.

Excerpts from Steve Nelson's The Disservice of a 'Rigorous' Education

Tests, standards, accountability, economic competitiveness, managers, vouchers, data, metrics... does anyone actually care about children?

While multi-billionaires like Michael Bloomberg, Bill Gates and Eli Broad talk about tough management and data-driven reform, real children languish in abject poverty. That's unfair enough, but then we also rob them of their childhoods. Everything is about money, even their small lives. Social scientists talk about poor kids' education as an "investment" and act as though the worth of children is in their development as resources for the competitive marketplace.

Jean De La Bruyère, a 17th century French moralist and philosopher, once wrote: "Children have neither a past nor a future. Thus they enjoy the present -- which seldom happens to us." In the South Bronx or in Grosse Pointe, children are too often deprived of the present. At each end of the economic spectrum, we are pressing children harder and harder in the service of a "rigorous" education. It is not mere semantic coincidence that the word "rigor" is most often paired with the word "mortis."

As De La Bruyère wrote, the present seldom happens to us. But the present is all that children have.

It's heartbreaking to hear administrators and politicians talk about children as raw material to be crafted into productive cogs in the global economy.

Read it all: http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_atrocities.php?id=4072
Yes, I am a proud teacher who worried about the present my students, many of whom did not have the best lives, had to deal with. I know I would be vilified today but I tried my best to make the year they spent with me the happiest year in school they could have. Naturally part of their present was getting them promoted (yes, Bloomberg. we did NOT have social promotion) so I did what I felt I had to do to get them test-ready - within reason. Funny, but when test time came and we did do some prep for a few weeks, it was the most miserable time of the school year.

Susan Ohanian commented:

I don't know anything about the Calhoun School of which Steve Nelson is the head. But I like their mission and philosophy, which you can read at the bottom of this piece. It's nice to know that there are some rich people who want their children to have a progressive, non-competitive education.

Steve Nelson for Chancellor: Hear, Hear!

Updated: Exclusive video: Lawsuit to Deny Black as Chancellor - in 5 parts

Updated: Sun. Dec. 12, 12PM.

This is well worth watching as parents slam the Black appointment - see espcially John Battis' comment about Bloomberg's "Cathie Black is the closer" statement and how Mariano Rivera would be a better choice.

Deny Waiver Law Suit Press Conference: Dec. 9, 2010
(Suit will be heard in Albany on Dec. 23)

Part 1: Mona Davids, Norman Siegel and Herb Teitelbaum
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_PrJBagCWc

Part 2:  Hakim Jeffries, Lydia Bellahcene, John Battis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6Tjt8a8kBU

Part 3: Shino Tanikawa, Chris Owens

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfMX1zAJcKI

Part 4: Noah Gotbaum, Patricia Connelly, Norman Siegel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UhfRNmlNoY

Part 5: Wrapup
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dF4TQIZHBjY

Attorney: Cathie Black will never get to serve as NYC education chief

Renowned civil liberties attorney Norman Siegel tells examiner.com that Chancellor-designee Cathleen P. Blackshould savor her time visiting New York City public schools, because she’ll never get to run them.

Siegel filed a legal challenge in State Supreme Court yesterday afternoon, arguing that Education Commissioner David M. Steiner’s waiver to allow Black, who prior to her appointment had never set foot in a school was “arbitrary and capricious.”  Siegel said that the judge scheduled a hearing for December 23rd –

Full story at:

http://www.examiner.com/government-in-new-york/attorney-cathie-black-will-never-get-to-serve-as-nyc-education-chief
 

Another story here.

I Need a Vacation

I wanted to share my schedule last week. I have to check my Blackberry as memory is fading fast.

Sunday, Dec. 5
10AM-11:30PM: Acting class at the Rockaway Theatre Company
Race home for a bite and head back at 12:45 to prep for my third Odd Couple performance at 2pm.
Show ends at 4:30. They tell us it was the best one so far and also my best. Survived another one.
Watch zombie stuff on AMC all evening, followed by Rohmer's "My Night at Maud's."

Monday, Dec. 6
Hot yoga, 9-10:30AM.
Spend rest of day and eve recovering.
Eat and drink while wife heads to city for lit course at NYU.
Evening - watch Jets get killed. Impact more intensive than hot yoga.

Tuesday, Dec. 7
AM:  go to gym, walk on treadmill for an hour
GEM meeting at 5. Get in early at 4. leave at 7:15
Forget to wish one of my best friends a Happy Birthday.

Weds, Dec. 8
2:30 Meeting with former 6th grade student from class of '74 who is out of prison for a year - after 27 years for murder. Says he is clean and out of trouble. Keep fingers crossed. He's 50 years old. Oy!
3:30 Meet up with someone connected with the Joel Klein admin - social meeting but we chat about lots of great stuff. We probably agree on 80%.
5PM Attend Teachers Unite event on UFT. Lots to talk about here but in a follow-up post.
7:30- Brushup rehearsal for Odd Couple. Enticement: Director Mike Wotypra brings sandwiches and cheese fries from Roll and Rooster.

Thurs, Dec. 9
10:30 AM - Tape Press conf on Black lawsuit in State Senate Conf room at 250 Broadway (Hope to get to J&R after but it goes on too long.) Took subway.
1:30 - get home and start processing tape, eat lunch and leave at 2:20
3:30 - 5 - Attend chapter meeting at Lehman HS with other GEMers. Fairly new CL has invited us and officials from UFT. School is on danger list. Great discussion and though I am critical of UFT we all leave as friends.
6PM - conf call for robotics - ooops. missed it.
7pm - drink so much wine, fall asleep till 12am.
12-3am- work on announcement for GEM to attend PEP. Don't finish. People will be mad.

Friday, Dec. 10
9am Pick up almost 93 year old dad to take to dentist - today is the day to pull most of his teeth for dentures. I'm worried about complications - I have a performance of Odd Couple in eve and if something goes wrong ....and so it does.

11:45 - still waiting over an hour late. Finally- meet oral surgeon. 11 upper teeth have to come out. At first not sure if he will take all - but then dad won't get a denture. Decides to go for it.
2PM. Dad still bleeding They put on denture and tell him not to take it off for 24 hours - pressure will stop bleeding.
3PM - still bleeding. I go back to dentist to ask what to do - they give me gauze - take out denture and tell him to press down hard.
Woman from next door stays with him and I go home.
5PM - still bleeding. Call emergency dentist number. Head honcho calls back from Puerto Rico - great.
Worst case - take him to Maimonides. I have to leave for theater and wife is out playing marjong. Finally reach her - she comes home and will monitor.
(Finally remember to call and leave my friend a HappyB message)
7-10:30 - act in play without trying to be distracted. Text wife between acts. She doesn't know how to text - calls - she is in emergency room with dad- they are having trouble stopping bleeding.
11:30PM - still bleeding. Wife has gone beyond call of duty. I head over to take her place.
1:30am - they send him home - 95% of bleeding is stopped.
He has no problems with any of this. Can I get a "calm" transplant?
Home by 2:30am

Sat. Dec. 11
7-8AM _ get ready to leave for film shoot.
Dentist calls again from Puerto Rico - Check in with dad -  all seems well. He can't wait for his new teeth so I can take him to Peter Luger for a celebratory steak. I think it will be a few months.
9AM - 2:30PM Meet Julie C, Brian Jones and Darren in Williamsburg for Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman film shoot. Fabulous day at various locations - then back to Darren's place to download video to his computer - we head out to eat pizza.
3:30 - home, nap, ready for bunch of company going to see Odd Couple tonight, process more Press conf video.
5:30-6 - head over to theater with my friend Mark and my cousin Danny to set up camera for Mark to tape tonight's show. Cousin Shari and Mark's wife Peggy are also coming. They all go off to dinner while I eat a crummy sandwich as I prepare for the show. This acting business is hard work.
7:45 - sold out house - 250 seats.
Meet Mark to review film procedures and head backstage to keep practicing lines - which I flub in line reads with other actors.
8:15-11 - Survive another show. Only flubbed once (or twice - who's counting?)
Pack up camera. Find out the Dec. 7 Birthday gal, one of my oldest friends who I met as a new teacher at my school in 1979 when she was 24, came to the show with her boyfriend who is an Assist principal at one of the DOE target schools - first time I met him as her BF (though we once were at a meeting together re: robotics.) Pleasant surprise to see her.

Sunday, Dec. 12
8AM Keep processing press conf video, work on PEP announcement leaflet for GEM - they are going to kill me.
10AM - Skip acting class. Maybe make it to gym.
11:45PM - oh well, skip gym. Wife calling me for breakfast. I owe her BIG for Friday.
Twenty four year old cousin Rachel is bringing her new boyfriend to the show this afternoon, then out to dinner with them. And the Priscos are coming too see the show too.
Better start practicing lines.

12PM - ell wife to book trip to Florida.

Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/

Black and Bloom: Norm in The Wave, Dec. 10, 2010

by Norm Scott

I can fill an entire edition of The Wave with new chancellor Cathie Black related stories and in fact my blog has been overflowing, along with the blogs of NYC teachers. So the process of choosing what to share for my twice monthly column is almost painful. I've been attending rallies and meetings of parent and teacher groups. A Brooklyn parent has filed a lawsuit over State Ed commissioner David Steinberg's granting her a waiver ­– no one in the know is buying "Black's deputy is an educator line." As we hit deadline we have an exclusive report that activist lawyer Norman Siegel will file another lawsuit. I will be covering the press conference for The Wave and should have a report next week.

Cathie Black's placement on the board of Harlem Village Academy as a way to get her ed creds- despite the fact that she didn't attend any meetings, has focused attention on this scandalous school and its relation to the BloomKlein corrupt running of the NYCDOE. This school has been lauded nationally. So naturally school founder Deborah Kenney takes home $450,000 for managing 450 students. HVA loses 32% of their students between 6th and 8th grades and there is vast teacher turnover. Bloomberg has called the school a national "poster child" for school reform. Conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch gave $5 million. The charter school scam in full flower.

The average class size at Kent boarding school, the school Black sent her own kids to is 12. It is ironic that Bill Gates and other ed deformers attack teacher longevity and credentials and among Black's first statements in public she complains about LIFO - Last in first out for teachers who might be laid off. Yet Kent advertizes: "Many of our faculty have advanced degrees and our average tenure is more than a dozen years."

My pal NYC Educator manages to say in a few words what takes me a book:

Well, Cathie Black's been let out of her cage after a good two weeks of Sarah Palinizing and what insights has she gleaned in the hour or two she spent in public schools?  Looks like she's fixing to fire teachers.  There's no better way, apparently, to help city children than by firing their teachers.  Arne Duncan and Bill Gates have determined larger class sizes are the way to go, and Cathie is gonna help them get their wish....she wants to get rid of last in first out. Since she's already determined to fire people, why not go after the older and higher-paid teachers? That would put a bigger dent in the bottom line. And then she wouldn't have to bother with any of that nasty due process in that inconvenient tenure law. Oh, she wants to get rid of that, too. Perish forbid any American worker should have job security. Cathie Black agrees with everything Joel Klein did.  That's fine with me.  Let her go after teachers for nonsense. There's a reason teachers need tenure, and that's to protect us from demagogues like Cathie Black, who get into education for two weeks and have the audacity to behave as though they're experts. I wouldn't want her teaching my kid.  Fortunately, she isn't licensed to teach, and they aren't yet handing out waivers for that.

I'll leave the Black story for this edition of School Scope but I hope you get a chance to read my "exclusive" interview with Black in the Nov. 19th edition of my blog.

Beach Channel and other schools are on the closing block again

Howie Schwach has been on this story so all I'll add is this Dec. 6 report from parent activist and class size reduction activist Leonie Haimson:

Today, in justifying the eleven school closings, with more to come, Deputy Chancellor Marc Sternberg made the following statement: “Year after year, even as we provided extra help and support, these schools simply have not gotten the job done for children." Did they ever try systematically reducing class size? No. Most of these students at these schools continue to suffer from overly large classes that far exceed the state average of twenty students per class, as well as the goals in the city’s mandated class size reduction plan. In fact, class sizes have risen sharply in most of the schools slated for closure. For example, check out the increases in class size [INCLUDE GRAPH] at Beach Channel High school, one of the schools on today’s list of closures, which have occurred despite a promise from the DOE to make specific reductions at this school in return for hundreds of millions of dollars in Contract For Excellence funds. As Sternberg said, “…we cannot afford to let schools continue to fail students when we know we can do better.” Most parents and teachers would agree. The Department of Education’s stubborn refusal to follow the law and to allow the students at these schools to have their best chance to succeed is unconscionable, and set up these schools for failure.

Let's remind everyone that the UFT helped sell Beach Channel down the river through its deal with Klein to allow a new school to open and help drain the freshman class.

Survival, Rockaway Style: Debuting in The Odd Couple

I've got an idea for a new reality TV show. Throw 8 people onto an island- or a peninsula  - and they must survive by putting on a performance of Neal Simon's "The Odd Couple." Even better, toss in one 65 year old guy who has never performed before amidst a sea of veteran actors and see how long he can go before you have to call 911. Well, I did survive my acting debut playing Vinnie the card player, the whining, hen-pecked husband – true typecasting other than the part that Vinnie always wins at poker – last Friday night at the Rockaway Theatre Company production of "The Odd Couple". Lucky for me that in this version of Survival an actor doesn't get voted off the island after each performance. "You mean I have to come back tomorrow and do it again," I asked? Well, three performances down and six to go. Would I do it again? Ask me after the closing performance on Dec. 19.

I could do an entire column - and may just do so when the run of the play is over - on this experience, one of the most challenging I have undertaken. "Norm, you were a teacher/performer for so many years and you have spoken in public so often," people tell me. "So what's the big deal?" Appearing on stage and being responsible to the other actors to know your lines and respond on cue is one awesome responsibility. The fact that I have watched in wonder while video taping every show at the RTC over the last 4 years and have seen production after production worthy of Broadway was more than intimidating. I have watched my fellow actors on stage in various roles over the years and despite being a newbie they made me feel right at home. The directors Michael Wotypra (who I've known for years as a fellow teacher activist) and Peggy Page have been fabulous to work with, as have all the other behind the scenes people like the wonderful stage manager Nora Coughlin and her assistant Jodee Timpone ((both NYC teachers in real life). Wasn't it just a few months ago that I saw Jodee do an amazing job as the lead actress in "Cactus Flower?" Now she is serving me coffee back stage. The theater world can certainly turn reality upside down.

When Norm is not being Odd, he blogs at http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com

Unity Caucus Insights/How Unity Caucus Prepares for Delegate Assemblies

Updated: Sat, Dec. 11, 8AM
Here are some interesting insights by 2 former Unity Caucus members. Signs of cracks in the machine? I'm not betting on that yet.

The Unity Leadership put out a message regarding school closings that says we are watching closely. We will go to court. We will help schools that want help. Holy Crud. Of course that is all you can do . You don't have a clear and concise blueprint of how our schools should operate. You supported and helped shape Mayoral Control and now are invested in making sure the law is followed. They can close down every school, pump up the ATR pool until it reaches heaven and create an untenable situation down the road where you will have to sell out the ATRS, and you sit with your hands tied because you are following the very law you helped to create. Great job. 
 --- Posted on ICE mail by John Powers, a former Unity Caucus member

Hi,
Just catching up on my email and I read the piece about the two Michael's*.  Do you know about the Speaker's Bureau?  They hold a meeting usually the day before the DA to go over questions for the President and any resolutions.  The president has a map of where people will sit to call on.  They do it for everything.  They used to meet at a junior high on 21st or the china chalet but last year they were starting to have conference calls. - Another former Unity Caucus member

*A Tale of Two Michaels: UFT and Mayor Bloomberg - Who is more undemocratic?

was written by Seung Ok - We are waging a two front battle against major powers - the millions of our own union leadership and the billionaire mayor.  


_____________

Below is the full piece by Brooklyn Chapter Leader John Powers, a former member of Unity Caucus. Powers joined Unity in the summer of 2009 with the intention of trying to create debate on crucial issues within the caucus but when the union supported teacher evaluation measures he withdrew as a delegate to the AFT convention in Seattle (I'm sorry he did as we could have used some more people on the inside - who secretly were slipping me info) in June 2010, effectively ending his association with Unity.

The number one concern that the Unity leadership has is not Cathie Black (and the ATR, seniority situation), but Andrew Cuomo and his desire to hold a NY State Constitutional Convention. The language in our NYS Constitution protects city/state pensions from being changed or "diminished" in any way.

This is the great sleeping giant that will activate workers across the state. What is Unity's plan? Labor's plan? Will they lack the courage and leadership to mount a fight against this great austerity measure? Do they have the imagination, creativity and talent to create a united front that puts forth a clear and concise message that will resonate with citizens across the state? Will they engage in the necessary planning and training of its members to mobilize in ways that might "paralyze" the state? Or will they rely strictly on massaging politicians who may ultimately turn their backs on us. Abandon us? 

I am so worried about how Labor will respond, especially Unity. Our leadership has failed over the last fifteen years I have been teaching to put forth a serious educational worker campaign with a clear message that states what we stand for and what we believe K-12 education should encompass in all of its complexities. The Unity leadership is all over the place constantly defending itself from attacks, making compromises and appeasing individuals, agencies and organizations who hold our work in little regard and seek to pulverize us. 

Remember that absurd cartoon commercial last year about high stakes tests and ed jargon. Wow. That really hit it out of the park. One million bucks on a cartoon that apparently "tested well" with some audiences. What about us? The DOE runs multi-colored propaganda ads on subway cars and shoots "missiles" at us daily via corporate controlled newspapers and magazines. And what does the Unity leadership do: creates a "fluffy" one million dollar cartoon. Who signed off on that one? 

We are such a talented, dynamic force of 80,000 teachers. So many untapped resources and the Unity leadership still operates under a perverted form of "democratic centralism" that insulates them from engaging in dialogs and debates with their own party members as well as the masses of rank and filers who could help them. Their hubris and lack of imagination and openness is a threat to the long-term viability of the UFT as a union.

One way the leadership seeks to divide and conquer their party members and other rank and filers is through "red fear." They paint dissenters or critics as being extreme leftists whose ideas will destroy the union. Here is where it gets tricky. Even if one were to agree that some dissenters / critics appear to hold more "extreme" views than others (funny aren't the ed deformers the real extremists?), this practice makes Unity members docile and hostile to even entertaining relatively traditional modes of unionism that includes various types of mobilizations. 

For instance, we have principals and schools that operate under a climate of fear and intimidation. Why doesn't the Unity leadership help these schools hold small demos that focus on embarrassing the principal and educating the parents of school children who attend? You don't need lawyers and courts for this type of action. You don't even need large numbers of people. Hell, bring in the retirees. Have them stand hand in hand with teachers at affected schools, especially the younger teachers (BTW: Wait until the retirees figure out what's going on with Cuomo and our pensions. The pension "language" I referred to before would not only affect present employees but all retirees too. Are there any retirees out there who are reading this? Create a flier regarding our pensions and Cuomo and pay a visit to the next UFT Retiree Chapter meeting. I'd go but I believe they are held during work hours. Now there is a target group. Boy oh boy, our retirees are an untapped resource. Who is reaching out to them? Who is asking them to come speak at meetings, especially meetings with young teachers. Any CLs out there? Bring a retiree in to talk to young teachers about the importance of unionism, benefits, pensions, seniority, and providing for your family. Ask retirees to canvas schools who need our support. Have them distribute literature that explains the state of our union. Our pensions. ATR's. Seniority. Collect signatures. Put email addresses of names collected on ice-mail and other list serves (with their permission).

Heck, hit the colleges too. Hit all the CUNY ed departments. Private universities. We need the newbies and the newbies need us.   

There is so much to be upset about regarding the "deformers" and the Unity leadership, but I'm hopeful that we are reaching a point where we will have to be heard.

And Unity Leadership: Stop Trying to Dumb Us Down. Stop Trying to Divide and Conquer UFTers. Get a Plan. Create a Strong Positive Message and Get It Out There.

Little Surprise: The Unity Leadership today put out a message regarding school closings that says we are watching closely. We will go to court. We will help schools that want help. Holy Crud. Of course that is all you can do . You don't have a clear and concise blueprint of how our schools should operate. You supported and helped shape Mayoral Control and now are invested in making sure the law is followed. They can close down every school, pump up the ATR pool until it reaches heaven and create an untenable situation down the road where you will have to sell out the ATRS, and you sit with your hands tied because you are following the very law you helped to create. Great job. 

That's one heck of a job. 

In Solidarity,

John Powers

P.S. Has anyone seen the potential new NYS performance standards for students? After reading them, you will probably need a toilet quickly. If I can get an electronic copy I will send it out. It represents the final nail in the coffin of absolute and total regimentation of teaching and learning. It is spreadsheet fascism at its worst. But more importantly, look for the Unity leadership to highlight these performance standards and talk about how disgusting they are while focusing almost exclusively on how our work day does not permit time to do the activities indicated in the performance standards. Although this is true, it is also true that this will leave the door open for a compromise/appeasement agreement where the Unity leadership will approve some or all of the inanities as long as we are compensated for it and given time to do it. What they should do is???????? You guessed it, advocate for what real teaching and learning encompasses. Wait until you read this draft of performance standards.

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Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/
Here is an article related to the NEA and AFT cooperation in the onslaught on teachers:

Report: Many officials willing to replace half of staff to turn around schools

Calls from Parent Activists to Shut Down Ross Global Charter School - Sign the Petition

CEC One Parent Leader Lisa Donlan:

It is sad to hear all these Ross Global Charter School parents say they love their school and want to keep it open, even though the school has off the charts leadership (7 principals in 5 years) and teacher instability, student attrition (over 20%/year self reported) and was ranked 1,140 out 1,140 NYC public schools per the progress reports.

The entire premise of charter school is they have 5 years to get it right or they must be closed down.

RGA has NOT outperformed schools in their peer group/with similar demographics, and in 5 years has not been able to overcome systemic management and pedagogical issues.

How ironic would it be if a lousy charter school were to have its charter renewed while the DoE is trying to close down 25 of its own schools- several of which are new small schools?

And for the record-

District One offers all students/parents plenty of educational choices.
Our district is all choice- no zoned schools.
District One has two elementary schools ( one a K -8th ) that offer Mandarin.
District One has always offered small class size- even though it is getting harder and harder to maintain them, with the budget cuts these days.
District One schools offer the type of enrichment and support families are looking for.
District One is full of small collaborative learning communities.

And District One schools will open their doors to these kids and families, welcoming them into our school community.

NY Charter Parent Association Leader Mona Davids:

RGA is outraged that DoE had them participate in the hearing when they'd already decided to shut it down.  Amazing how they forgot Courtney Ross' robo-call where DoE and Courtney were colluding on not allowing the public to speak.

What a joke of a charter school.  NYCPA says SHUT IT DOWN!!   SHUT IT DOWN!!   SHUT IT DOWN!!

Please sign NYCPA's petition demanding this failing, bad, charter school be shut down at:  http://www.change.org/nycharterparents/petitions/view/do_not_renew_ross_global_academys_charter_-_it_is_a_failing_bad_charter_school

Here's the latest RGA lying email to their parents [Ed Note - I will spare you the pain].  If they cared about parents and students, they wouldn't have had the extremely high student attrition rates and teacher turnover.  AND, Courtney Ross wouldn't have told parents if you don't like how we run RGA, get out.

DOE is not taking away their right to choose a "Ross Education".  DOE is finally cleaning up it's act and doing it's job as an authorizer.

 MORE BACKGROUND ON ROSS GLOBAL

Ross Global Charter to be Closed Along with 11 Public Schools

ATRs and Seniority: An Historical Perspective

I was asked to give a presentation at yesterday's GEM (Grassroots Education Movement) meeting yesterday on ATRs and Seniority: Historical Perspective

Too bad I didn't see Jamaica HS teacher Marc Epsteins must read piece at Huffington:
Cathie Black's Tenure Trap

I just could have read it out loud.

I used the very excellent ATR Q&A put together by Julie W. that she posted on the ICE blog as a reference. No one knows more about this issue than Julie.

Here are some of my notes - which I will expand into prose later if I have time.

ATRs and class size- a direct relationship - why not just give them regular jobs - but we know ATRs have a political purpose - a wedge against teacher seniority and LIFO.

Seniority pre BloomKlein

Excessing and layoffs by license - could bump others but generally with scarcity of teachers not an issue.

Early 70's signs of tightening up - surplus social St teachers in HS
1975 crunch - only mass layoff in history - 13-15,000 - order of seniority and massive excessing and bumping of teachers - my school a little more senior than neighbors - 13 people.
Next 10 years - not many hired other than special ed which went from 0 to 60.

Seniority transfers allowed- 5-700 a year took advantage
Public - big advantage for teacher but reality - 5 choices - given one, principals covered up, if refused couldn't reapply for 2 yrs. Most took to be closer to home - also to move from very difficult schools to middle class schools where despite princ opposition - exp in tougher schools often gave them advantage in discipline
Needed princ to sign off if want to leave - most did - if not like - good ridance. If like

Klein- 2002, Aug
Dual attack on Sen Trans from almost first days:
Loss of senior teachers from poor schools drained them of exp, good tchrs
Senior trnsf forced principals to accept bad senior tchrs.

Klein made these contradictory points all over - city council
Randi followed - no defense - UFT not only didn't call them on this but agreed there needed to be changes.

It was clear there needed to be some reforms and here is a major one:
SBO - School Based Options: 400 schools out of 1200: Teachers/union and princ outside contract - interv transfers and didn't have to take them.This gave teachers in schools where the principal didn't totally control things to have a say in which teacher transferees were coming into the school.

UFT Agreed to cut number of seniority trans - 2003 contract (I believe)

LIMITS ON SCHOOL CLOSINGS DUE TO THESE RULES - HAD TO PLACE EVERYONE BY SEN RULES

2005 Contract: End seniority, create ATR
Open market - princ couldn't stop you from leaving but also didn't have to accept you - if excessed or school closed - had to get job on own. No more placement

Had to get own school

2005 Accel school closings because it allowed Klein to not worry about having to place the teachers in a way that can cause bumping.

Life as an ATR
Not equal rights for after school jobs, and other rights.
sub out of lo

Fair School Funding
Charged school for cost of teachers - incentive to get rid of higher priced teachers
Debate often framed as newbie vs senior but more insideous:
COST EFFECTIVENESS - 10 yr/22 yr diff in salary vs. experience benefit.

Have to pay ATRs - Investment by Bloomberg - view to ultim not have to pay -
Part of Cathie Black Mission. Use budget crisis and public pressure.

Nov. 2008: ATR Rally at Tweed
UFT side agreement day before, wine and cheese party
Tale of 2 rallies
Central will pick up salary if ATR hired -
ATR vilified and tainted.
Agree expired Dec. 1 2010.

Current attack:
No LIFO for layoffs, no tenure
Open season on ATR agreement.

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Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/

Michelle Rhee Forms Student First Organization

Ding dong the wicked witch ain't dead

Why Michelle Rhee Isn't Done With School Reform - Newsweek

Click for Background article on ed notes:


Two things appall me about Rhee's speech. One - that she admits to putting masking tape on the kids' mouths to prevent them from speaking. Teachers are being brought up on charges these days when they do that.- Under Assault