The Next Big Thing: School Scandals - Tapco and PS 114 Lead the Way - For Now

The scandals are coming. School by school. So that one day the entire fallacy that BloomKlein stopped social promotion or raised the grad rate or are closing schools for educational reasons and not for the real estate will come apart at the seams. PS 114 in Canarsie is one story - see Linsey Christ's great work on NY1 in reporting on this scandal.

Tapco Redux
On Nov. 30, 2010 I posted a piece titled Another DOE Scam - TAPCO - Theatre Arts Production...":
Therse's been whole lot of traffic with lots of comments, particularly in the last few weeks, about grade scams and teacher harassment.  I guess finishing as the top ranked school gets some scrutiny. Check them out. Leonie Haimson left a request that people contact her. I did no censoring of the comments unless there was something real stupid though someone thought this was Leonie's blog based on her request.

Today there were stories in the press.

When report card grades were released in the fall for the city’s 455 high schools, the highest score went to a small school in a down-and-out section of the Bronx called Theater Arts Production Company School.

A stunning 94 percent of its seniors graduated, more than 30 points above the citywide average. The school, which has about 500 students from grades 6 through 12, achieved a nearly perfect score in the category of “student progress,” based partly on course credits earned by students.

“When I interviewed for the school,” said Sam Buchbinder, a history teacher, “it was made very clear: this is a school that doesn’t believe in anyone failing.”

That statement was not just an exhortation to excellence. It was school policy.- NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/20/education/20grades.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&pagewanted=print

The city's highest-rated school is being investigated for its "nonfailing policy" that makes it so easy for students to pass a class that kids say even a caveman could do it, The Post has learned.
The Department of Education is probing to see if the Theatre Arts Production Company HS in The Bronx attained its starred-ranking by fudging student grades.
"This week, my average is a 30; in three days I can bring it up to a 95," boasted one senior who didn't want his name published.
"The teachers will give you sheets that are already filled out, and you can just copy them. It's for the school so it doesn't look bad with failing grades."NY Post

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/bronx/grade_fraud_sEpJqX8d5dg5l88B9S7RZJ#ixzz1BcYJiPYz

An Invitation to Cathleen Black: Make the City-wide Rally on January 27th a Stop on Your “Listening Tour”

Press Advisory                                   

Date:  Friday, January 21, 2011     

Contact:

Sam Coleman, Teacher PS 24, NYCORE/GEM:  646-354-9362

Lisa Donlan, President CEC1:  917-848-5873

Julie Cavanagh, Teacher PS 15, GEM/CAPE: 917-836-6465

An Invitation to Cathleen Black:  Make the City-wide Rally on January 27^th a Stop on Your “Listening Tour”

School Communities Across the City Launch Fight Backs to Defend Against Public Education Attacks

Who:  Parents, Educators and Students city-wide including members of various schools facing closure and co-locations.  Participating school Communities in January 21^st Fight Back Friday include:  PS 24K, PS 15K, Jamaica High School, Dewey High School, Lehman High School, PS 165, Murry Bergtraum, James Baldwin, Humanities Prep, Paul Robeson, The Academy for Environmental Leadership, among others. Endorsers include: Grassroots Education Movement (GEM), CEC1, Concerned Advocates for Public Education (CAPE), Coalition for Public Education (CPE), Youth on the Move (a program of Mothers on the Move), Center for Immigrant Families, and New York Collective of Radical Educators (NYCORE).

When:  Friday, January 21^st; culminating press conference on the steps of Tweed, 52 Chambers Street, at 4:30 P.M. to cap off the actions by individual school communities throughout the day including “Wearing Black to Take OUR Schools Back.”

What:  On Friday, January 21^st, parents, students, and teachers across the city will be taking different actions protesting Mayor Bloomberg’s destructive education policies.  Individual schools will be picketing, signing petitions and letters, and disseminating flyers to spread awareness about school closures, charter takeovers, impending budget cuts, and the damaging effects of mayoral control. The day will culminate with a press conference on the steps of Tweed at 4:30, where Fight Back Friday participants and stakeholders from schools facing closure and co-location will share their concerns.  A public school student will deliver an invitation for the City-Wide Rally to Stop School Closings and Charter Takeovers scheduled for January 27^th to Cathleen Black. 

Additional Contacts:

James Eterno, Teacher Jamaica High School: jameseterno@hotmail.com

Stefanie Siegel, Teacher Paul Robeson High School: 347-721-2152

John Yanno, Teacher John Jay Campus:  646-546-6642

Michael Solo, Teacher Dewey High School: 917-750-7510

Jeronimo Maradiaga, Alumni JFK High School: 917-817-9547

Noah Gotbaum, Parent CEC3: 917-658-3213

Muba YaroFulan, Parent CPE: 347-785-3418/347-442-5134

Brenda Walker, Parent CPE:  347-583- 5925

Khem Irby, Parent CEC13: 347-475-7715

GEM and Real Reformers Rock the House at the PEP

Organized by the Grassroots Education Movement (GEM), which is working as part of the Ad Hoc Committee to Stop School Closings - see GEM blog for all groups involved - http://grassrootseducationmovement.blogspot.com/- working with the Real Reformers.

NYC parent activists Lisa Donlan and Khem Irby lead Real Reformers in song at the monthly Panel for Educational Policy meeting, new Chancellor Cathie Black's first taste of what is to come.
Khem has such a great voice - I told her I want her to sing at my Bar Mitzvah.

The UFT sent a crew of staffers with their own song. All groups - GEM and the UFT - joined in with each other to sing along on both songs - though I can't resist one little snark - a UFT staffer said "Well, it sounded good at the staff meeting." But with a little more work they may nail it.

I attempted to capture the new Olympic sport, condom tossing.

See my Wave column for Friday: Condomnation

Maybe people were in a good mood since the UFT passed our resolution on closing schools and is supporting out Jan. 27 demo.

UFT Delegate Assembly Resolution: Support School Closing Demonstration on January 27, 2011

UFT Secretary Michael Mendel said he wants to speak. He made a rousing speech at the PEP and I will put it up with Julie Cavanagh's fabulous comments later tonight.

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

Black Boo-Boo at PEP: Counts One Million, One Hundred Thousand ATRs

So she confused  the number of kids in the school system with the number of ATRs. Picky, picky, picky. Did everyone in the press miss this? She was actually reading from a script and got this totally wrong.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vd2dgr-6t5k



Radio Rahim taped my comments and posted them at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaFqKY3y31E
 
Heading over to Jamaica HS hearing. Check back later for vids of Real Reformers and GEM rocking the PEP house and more links.

Here is a report worth checking out from NY Mag Daily intel:

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2011/01/new_schools_chancellor_cathie.html

New schools chancellor and former Hearst executive Cathie Black had to expect a tough crowd at her first Panel for Educational Policy meeting in Fort Greene last night. Brooklyn blogs have been roiling over plans to address funding issues at Park Slope's John Jay High School, which is attended mostly by minority students from outside the neighborhood, by cramming an "elite" school, modeled after Manhattan's prestigious, largely white Millennium High School, into the building. The proposal lead more than one resident to wonder if John Jay was about to go apartheid with funding going to a separate school that catered to white students rather than being invested in John Jay's existing mold-, asbestos-, and minority-filled classrooms. Despite pleas for civility (wait, are we still trying to do that?), the crowd jeered and booed Black as she tried to get through her four-minute prepared speech (Mayor Bloomberg's name elicited a few more). But it only got worse from there.

Before the panel even issued its vote — the measure to bring Millennium to John Jay passed with ten votes in favor and none opposed — parents waved condoms in the air to reference her ill-advised quip that birth control might be a handy overcrowding solution for Manhattan's schools. But the protests didn't just come from the parents.

In a rare example of a principal speaking out publicly against department policy, Jill Bloomberg, of Secondary School for Research, said that the placement of Millennium Brooklyn was an example of putting the interests of upper income white families above those of low-income families of color.

When she went a few seconds over her allotted time, the panel turned off the sound on Bloomberg's microphone. She finished her speech by shouting and led the crowd in a chant, "Integration, yes; segregation, no."

Even children were swept up in the furor. Addressing the notion that Millennium will help Park Slope parents whose kids are edged out of competitive Manhattan public schools at the expense of existing minority students, Kwaesi Laguer, an 11th grader on campus said, "You are saying that our school isn't good enough for Park Slope residents. Why don't you use the money to help make our schools better?"

Black began her speech with rare praise for the panel, which GothamSchools says "has been belittled as a rubber stamp to the mayor by some and as an opportunity for political theater by others." Impromptu theater, public chanting, comedy routines — no one can say she's not trying to keep things entertaining.

Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on right for news bits.

Black takes direct aim at LIFO, ATRs and Pensions

Yes she did in her very first public statement at the PEP she said there must be a compromise on the unassigned ATRs.

Lots of booing.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Condomnation

by Norm Scott
To be published in The Wave (www.rockawave. com), Jan. 21, 2011. Submitted Jan. 19.

There's an old story floating around that years before he became Mayor when a female employee of Bloomberg informed him of her need to go on maternity leave, he urged her to have an abortion and reputedly said, "Kill it." Apparently she wasn't the only one he told that to and there was some kind of lawsuit by a group of female employees. People were connecting some dots when his handpicked Chancellor Cathie Black just a few days after taking over for Joel Klein made her now famous "can't we have some birth control" comment to a mostly white parent group in Tribeca when they raised the issue of severe school overcrowding. I can imagine in the social circles Black and Bloom run in there must often be conversations going on about how the lower classes breed like bunnies and deserve class sizes over 30 while Black and Bloom sent their own kids to schools with no more than 15 (or less) in a class. Oh, the riff raff.


Would Black have dared made a "control your breeding" comment in certain communities outside Tribeca where she might have been outside her comfort zone? She is so arrogant and clueless in taking a job she is so eminently unsuited for I wouldn't be surprised.


Bloomberg, who is never sorry for anything, must be regretting his decision to choose Black. Is there no educator more competent than Black in an entire school system of people who manage all kinds of things way more complicated than anything Cathie Black has managed? Just think of what it takes for a principal to manage a high school with 300 teachers and 4000 students, while the most people Black has managed is about 2000. Even a teacher managing a classroom is a skilled manager.


Bloomberg actually had to apologize, pointing out that Black's booboo was due to the fact that she is used to the private sector (duh) where you can easily make racist tinged jokes and get away with it. Bloomberg didn't address Black's holocaust gaffe which she made at the very same meeting just a few seconds after the birth control comment when a parent asked about the policy of favoring charter schools over public schools. As reported by the Tribeca Tribune (which also has video up of Black's remarks):


Following the 35-minute listening session, Black’s one-minute response was tempered with warnings of “tough sledding ahead” in anticipation of an austere state budget due Feb. 1 and a reminder that she has had similar “conversations” with parents all around the city. But it also contained another line seized upon by the press and the chancellor's critics. “I don’t mean this in any flip way. It is many Sophie’s choices,” she said, in a reference to the book and film in which a mother in Auschwitz must decide which of her two children will die.


There was even greater outrage in some circles over even referencing the decisions she faces as in any way comparing to Sophie's choice. Wow! All this in only one minute. Boy do Bloomberg's PR people have their work cut out for them. The easiest thing would be to throw a blanket over Black.


With Black facing her first Panel for Educational Policy meeting on Jan. 19 some activists planned to toss condoms at her – condemnation by condom (condomnation) – but cancelled when a parent tested the physics and found "regrettably-- the little buggers don't have enough weight to propel far enough in order to span the distance between our audience seats and the stage." Oh, well. I'm glad things won't be thrown as I will be covering the meeting for The Wave. Besides, two PEP members, Manhattan's Patrick Sullivan and the Bronx' Monica Major are on our side. (Unfortunately, our own Queens rep is mostly missing in action.)


There have been lots of comments over what is now being termed "Cathie's choice," where she will favor charters over public schools, cut budgets to the bone and accelerate the attacks on teachers and the union with a particular focus on ending "last in first out" - LIFO - when layoffs come. If Black and Bloom get their way, with the help by the way of Governor Cuomo, that will effectively end tenure protections. Layoffs will hit the highest paid teachers even though the end of LIFO is being advertised as keeping better younger teachers, who may cheer this policy but if they stay in the system will one day find themselves in the same position, as one public school after another is closed down and replaced by non-union charters.


I missed last week's closing school hearing at Beach Channel HS because I was in Florida but reports came in that it was pretty depressing as people have pretty much given up. The Grassroots Education Movement (GEM), the group I helped found, sent a rep to the meeting. That she is a 3rd year teacher under 25 and was willing to schlep out to Rockaway is quite impressive and a sign that something is brewing amongst some younger teachers who I've been meeting. GEM is part of the "Ad Hoc Committee to Stop Closing Schools" and she was there to promote two activities: The January 21 Fight Back Friday where schools around the city were urged to "Wear Black and Take OUR Schools Back!" to be followed by a press conference at Tweed where an invitation will be delivered to Cathie Black to attend a rally outside City Hall on January 27 to hear the concerns of parents, teachers and students (there will be no condoms attached).


The sham of the school closing mania has been revealed time and again - that this is about real estate, market based ideology, and the hounding out of the system of the highest paid teachers who are left scrambling for jobs after their schools close. Unfortunately, most of these teachers instead of joining with others to fight back for their dignity and for public education, all too often develop a hangdog victim mentality. With the UFT unable (and at times unwilling) to stop the assault, people are left defenseless. Thus the rationale for the Grassroots Education Movement (gemnyc@gmail.com.)


When Norm is not pitching foil-wrapped objects at chancellors he blogs at http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com. His email is normsco@gmail.com.

Video of Black's comments:

http://tribecatrib.com/news/2011/january/864_cathie-black-hears-pleas-for-downtown-classrooms-to-stem-school-crowding.html

AFTERBURN BELOW THE FOLD: waylaid plans for greeting Black at the PEP

UFT Delegate Assembly Resolution: Support School Closing Demonstration on January 27, 2011

I'm heading off to hand this out at the Delegate Assembly and then off to the PEP meeting to greet Cathie Black, who when told there was a PEP tonight and never having attended one in all these years and probably being totally unaware of what the PEP was, must be all excited at what she thinks will be a pep rally. "Will there be cheerleaders," she probably asked? Look for the entire press corps to be out in force tonight.

Look for updates through the evening sent from my Blackberry.

In this reso we throw the UFT's own words from their own reso back at them.

WHEREAS the NYC DOE policy of mass school closings has had a massively negative impact on the entire educational community that goes far beyond a particular closing school, affecting entire boroughs and beyond; and

WHEREAS  only by building a grassroots movement “together with local communities, students, parents, educational advocates and others" to oppose school closings can we gain a reversal in this disastrous policy; and

WHEREAS fighting school closings will require organizing the threatened schools into a unified and potent force through mass demonstrations and other measures;

WHEREAS the UFT Resolution on the Proposed school closings passed at the December 15 Delegate Assembly condemned the NYC DOE policy of mass school closings "as a policy that is not educational in design or implementation, but a reckless and destructive means of pursuing a political and ideological agenda for remaking NYC public education. Rather than providing the needed supports and resources it had promised the 19 schools slated for closure last year, the NYC DOE has systematically undermined these schools, deliberately under-enrolling them, slashing their budgets, excessing large numbers of their best staff and flooding them with over-the-counter students"; and

WHEREAS the Dec.15 UFT resolution RESOLVED "that together with local communities, students, parents, educational advocates and others, the UFT will build a grass roots movement of opposition to mass school closures, giving voice to the outrage that all of these civic organizations and citizens feel over this reckless and destructive policy of the NYC DOE;" and

WHEREAS in the said resolution the UFT vowed to fight school closings with demonstrations and other measures; and

WHEREAS The Grassroots Education Movement (GEM-NYC), the Green Party, New York Collective of Radical Educators (NYCORE), Concerned Advocates for Public Education (CAPE), Class Size Matters, Teachers for a Just Contract (TJC), and the Independent Community of Educators (ICE) are calling for a citywide rally on January 27, 2010 at the Tweed Courthouse; be it therefore

RESOLVED that the UFT endorse the January 27th citywide rally against school closings and encourage and mobilize its members to participate.

Contact gemnyc@gmail.com

Labor donated

Chicago School Reform: Myths, Realities, and New Visions

In case you didn't notice, the model of school deform has been tried out in Chicago for over 15 years. This article exposes the myths and realities and points out just how damaging ed deform has been. I find this especially interesting in that starting in 2001 Ed Notes published information on this issue within the UFT at Executive Board and delegate assembly meetings and in the schools when we went to a tabloid mass distribution in 2002.

I claim the UFT/AFT knew exactly what was going on yet signed onto the program anyway - my big split with Randi came when she supported mayoral control while I was pointing to the Chicago disaster. Can anyone say "Manchurian Candidate?" 

What you have to do is share some of this information with your colleagues and other educators you are in contact with. That is the only way to  break the UFT news blackout and propaganda mill. 

Here is an intro from Fair Test's Monty Neil with a link to the Substance article, followed by the entire report which I'll leave up for the next day or two before I compress it for space:

A strong, interesting manifesto from a new Chicago group, CReATE (Chicagoland Researchers and Advocates for Transformative Education), covers many key areas of schooling (leadership; curriculum and assessment; public vs private control of schools; etc.). It exposes myths propagated by school deformers, offers real evidence, and issues calls for Chicago mayoral candidates and others to promise specific steps. It is aimed at Chicago, but a good deal of the material and references are relevant nationally and in other states and localities.

http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=1929&section=Article

Monty --

Monty Neill, Ed.D.; Interim Executive Director, FairTest; P.O. Box 300204, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130; 617-477-9792; http://www.fairtest.org; Donate to FairTest: https://secure.entango.com/donate/MnrXjT8MQqk

Download this statement as a PDF here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2561000/CReATEjan2011.pdf

CReATE issues Chicago manifesto With National Implications
Chicago School Reform: Myths, Realities, and New Visions

CReATE - January 17, 2011

[Editor's Note. A new Chicago group called CReATE (Chicagoland Researchers and Advocates for Transformative Education) issued a major report on Friday, January 24, 2011, called Chicago School Reform: Myths, Realities, and New Visions. Prepared by CReATE (Chicagoland Researchers and Advocates for Transformative Education) January 2011- see attached PDF].

Public education in a democratic society is based on the principle that every child is of equal and incalculable value. This guiding principle requires the fullest development of every member of our nation. Effective public schools are necessary to enable every member of our nation to reach his or her fullest potential. Schools in a democracy aim to prepare the next generation to be knowledgeable and informed citizens and residents; to be critical thinkers and creative problem solvers; to be prepared to contribute positively to communities, workplaces, and societies that are characterized by diversity and inequities; and to be healthy, happy, and prepared to support the well-being of others with compassion and courage. The children and youth of Chicago deserve no less … but how do we do this?

Intel Science Competition Drastic Drop in NYC a Legacy of BloomKlein

If you want the see all the numbers and the full story with a deeper analysis than a newspaper can reasonably provide, please check out my blog post, NYC HS Success in Intel STS Continues Its Post-2002 'De-Klein'," on the NYC Public School Parents blog.  http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2011/01/nyc-hs-success-in-intel-sts-continues.html

Steve Koss reports:

Kudos to Yoav Gonen and his Intel STS story in today's NY Post (see below). He gets the facts right and provides some insightful commentary from local schools, but the overall thrust is also regrettably softened a bit in two ways that are worth noting.

First is the choice of base year, 1998, for comparing the number of Semifinalists to today. Yes, the number of participants and Semifinalists is down dramatically since 1998, but they could just have easily used 2002 as the base year, in which case the drop in semifinalists would still have been 70.2% and the drop in participation 35.8%. Those results would have told essentially the same story, but then the lead (the story's first line) would have read "since 2002," not "since 1998." That difference would have made it much more obvious that the real nosedive in these results all took place since 2003, when NYers handed the schools over to Mayor Bloomberg. At that point, the Intel STS crash started in earnest, and the pull has been relentlessly downward ever since. In fact, the last four years have been absolutely dreadful on both these measures, and it's only in the last four years that we're really seeing the bad fruits of eight years of Joel Klein's miseducation program. By using 1998 as the base year in some parts of the story and 1998-2003 versus 2004-2011 in other parts, the story may also be somewhat confusing to readers not well versed in these numbers (which will be the vast majority of NYers).

The second issue is the lack of mention of the past four years as a group. This year's all-time lows are not one-time occurrences; they are not sudden, inexplicable anomalies. They are part of a steady downward trend, a trend in which the last four years have been absolutely horrendous in terms of NYC Intel STS results and participation. By not mentioning the last four years as a "data group," or providing a chart of the data, the story does not give readers a sense of what has been happening and just how clearly this decline has coincided with, and accelerated under, the Bloomberg/Klein regime. The last four years, as even a simple bar chart would show, have been a total disaster -- yet they represent the reaping of what Bloomberg/Klein has sown for the past eight-plus years.

The Post's story helps inform, and for that I am indeed very grateful. Yoav Gonen deserves recognition for being the first media person in the NYC area to publish on this issue, something we've been urging now for the past three years. I would perhaps have presented some of the results differently, but Yoav has done a great job in getting the story out and also putting some commentary behind it from science teachers in NYC area schools. Even in a softened form, Yoav's story stands as just one more indictment of the educational disaster that has been mayoral control and the schools chancellorship under Joel Klein. When even our city's "best and brightest" are falling off in performance and achievement, and that in a competition which not so many years ago was flat-out "owned" by NYC public schools, it's well past time for politicians and the public to be asking a lot more, and a lot deeper, questions,

Thanks, Yoav, for being first in getting this important story out to the NYC public.

Steve Koss

Schools down shocking 75% in sci competition

By YOAV GONEN, Education Reporter

Last Updated: 3:18 AM, January 18, 2011

Posted: 1:05 AM, January 18, 2011

Only 14 city public high-school seniors were named semifinalists in the prestigious Intel Science Talent Search this year -- a dizzying plunge of 75 percent since 1998.

The all-time low is part of a troubling trend over the last seven years, when the average number of city public-school kids named to the semifinals of the so-called "Junior Nobel Prize" fell to 20.4 -- out of 300 named nationally.

By comparison, the public schools here yielded an average of 46.3 semifinalists between 1998 and 2004. 

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/schools_big_drop_in_intel_obmo65bpROay0gkq0TCVFP#ixzz1BOMS8579

Wear Black and Take OUR Schools Back on Friday! Is Your School Taking Part?

See the big picture. Forming alliances with other schools is the long-term solution - by building a movement that grows with time we can force both the DOE and the UFT to move. Otherwise they will pick off one school after another. And there will be so many ATRs they will drum up a public vendetta by not putting them in the classroom on purpose so as to create an overcrowded situation.

Friday, January 21st - Join Public Schools Across the City to Advocate for Real Reforms that Will Transform our Public Schools.

 
-Please Share With Those Who Care-

To Particpate/Endorse (groups, schools, PTAs, CECs, chapters, individuals): email capeducation@gmail.com

Wear Black and Take OUR Schools Back!

Fight Back Friday

Stand Up For Public Education!

         School Based Actions to Fight the Attacks on Public Education                                               

Friday, January 21^st Join Public Schools Across the City to Advocate for Real Reforms that Will Transform our Public Schools.

Press Conference @ 4:30 on the Steps of Tweed

Wear Black and Take OUR Schools Back!

Stop the Attacks on Public Education:

·         Stop Closing Schools, Fix Them.

·         Stop Charter School Co-Locations.

·         Stop School-Based Budget Cuts.

·         Stop Increases in Class Sizes.

·         Stop the Overemphasis on Standardized Assessment:  More Teaching, Less Testing.

·         Stop Teacher Data Reports Based on Narrow Tests and Faulty Data.

·         Stop Ignoring the Voices of Parents, Educators, and Students:  More Parent, Educator and Student Empowerment, Not Less.

·         Stop the Dictatorial Governance of Our School System:  Mayoral Control is Out of Control!

·         No Layoffs of Teachers or School Personnel:  Reduce the Bureaucracy and Fire the Middle Managers Instead!

Choose one or more issues that are important to your school community and take action:

·         Wear black and/or black arm bands

·         Hold a rally before or after school

·         Craft a form letter or petition on an issue important to your school

·         Pass out literature and education material before and after school

___________________________________________________________________

If you, your school, or your school community plan to participate in Fight Back Friday, let us know @ capeducation@gmail.com so that we can include you on our list of participants/endorsers and interactive map as well as provide you with a Fight Back Friday Toolkit!  The Toolkit will include literature and educational material, media information, stickers, and sample materials to assist in your school organizing efforts. Visit our Blog @www.fightbackfridays.blogspot.com, visit and post to our Facebook page @ fightbackfridays, and post and send in your school’s perspectives, testimonials, videos and pictures of Fight Back Actions. 

****Fight Back Friday will culminate with a press conference on the steps of Tweed @ 4:30.  If your group or a member of your school community (especially if you are a school facing closing or co-location) would like to speak, contact us and we will do our best to accommodate you.  Let’s stand up for public education together, and make our voices heard!****

Sponsored by:  Grassroots Education Movement:  www.grassrootseducationmovement.blogspot.com, gemnyc@gmail.com 

UPCOMING ACTIONS

January 21st: Fight Back Friday- Stand Up for Public Education, Wear Black and Take Our Schools Back! (email capeducation@gmail.com for more information or to endorse). Press Conference on the steps of Tweed @ 4:30.

Endorsers and Participants

Sponsored by GEM

www.grassrootseducationmovement.blogspot.com

CEC1-unanimously endorsed

CIF- Center for Immigrant Families

Chris Owens- Democratic District Leader/ 52nd Assembly

NYCORE -New York Collective of Radical Educators

CAPE -Concerned Advocates for Public Education

Mulgrew to Speak to Restricted E4E Event

I posted this at Ed Notes this morning:

The Dudes Are Out at Educators 4 Excellence: Funded by Gates, A Fact Ignored by Gotham Schools

Now we get their invite to meet Mulgrew. But you have to sign the pledge and enter a lottery. Can you imagine - a lottery to go hear Mulgrew? This pledge commits you to support core E4E principles. Or you can't attend. But then again if you start scratching how the UFT has functioned you may end up there anyway. Maybe Mulgrew might even sign. Oh, yes, E4E is funded in part by Gates and other secret donors. Hmmm, Mulgrew should be right at home. Here's the pledge: As educators, we demand a system that:

1. Recruits, retains, and supports the highest quality teachers by offering
   • A higher starting salary
   • Encouragement and opportunity for continued intellectual development
   • High level professional development and support
   • An evenhanded merit-based pay structure to reward excellent teachers
2. Restores professionalism to education by
   
   • Evaluating teachers through a holistic and equitable system that incorporates value-added student achievement data as one component of effectiveness
   • Reestablishing tenure as a significant professional milestone through use of a comprehensive teacher evaluation system 
   • Eliminating the practice of "Last In, First Out" for teacher layoffs
3. Places student achievement first by
   • Giving students and parents more opportunity to choose great schools
   • Displaying more transparency in both fiscal choices and decision-making processes
   • Implementing an effective system of evaluating administrators
   • Adopting higher standards for students and teachers
   • Opening the education reform conversation to the voices of teachers and parents

Some fluff here to cover up the real intention - read the code - end LIFO which really ends tenure.

You and the UFT: A Conversation with UFT President Michael Mulgrew We hope you can join us for this E4E Special Q&A Event! This is an extraordinary opportunity for teachers to meet, ask questions of, and hear from President Mulgrew of the United Federation of Teachers. This continues E4E's series of Q&A events with important policymakers. This speaker series is designed to give teachers direct access to the individuals who make decisions that impact our profession and our classrooms. We hope you can join us to share your voice! WHEN: Tuesday, January 25th (6:00 - 7:30PM) WHERE: Location TBA RSVP REQUIRED: Please RSVP by clicking here.   *Due to limited space and the importance of maintaining a conversational atmosphere, we will be using a lottery system to select attendees for this event. Please RSVP as soon as possible to enter your name into this lottery. If selected, you will be notified by e-mail with further event details no later than January 21st. Thank you for your understanding.*

Who We Are | Sign Our Declaration | Tell a Colleague

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The Dudes Are Out at Educators 4 Excellence: Funded by Gates, A Fact Ignored by Gotham Schools

UPDATED: Jan. 31, 2011

How much fun that Jeff Kaufman crashed the E4E party for his school the other day. Jeff refused to sign the pledge that you support everything E4E believes in before they allow you in for a drink. But they allowed Jeff in anyway - and he didn't even have to bring his gun (Jeff is an ex cop). E4E got an extraordinary amount of coverage when 2 third year teachers started organizing to end "Last in First Out" for layoffs, promote merit pay and the use of data to judge and pay teachers.

Jeff wrote all about his adventure on the ICE blog. 

When I was first asked by my colleague to attend an "Educators for Excellence" (they use a number 4 for their middle name which rubs this educator the wrong way) happy hour at a Prospect Heights bar I was very apprehensive. The RSVP required that I ascribe to their "core principals" which include much of the "ed deformers'" agenda; teacher layoffs by ability not seniority, "earned tenure" which require certain student test milestones, and teacher evaluation systems based on student data which are also tied to merit-pay schemes.

You can read the entire piece at  Up Close and Personal With An Opposition

Jeff makes mention of a story on E4E at Gotham Schools.

Attending happy hour sponsored by this group reminded me to dig a little deeper into this group. When the Gotham Schools article was posted Stone and Morris were reported to be full-time teachers in the Bronx and the organization was not funded. Well, things have changed as they are now funded by the Gates Foundation and certain anonymous donors and have 3 full time employees.

I went back to the Gotham story and found this comment from 
Teacher April 11th, 2010 9:46 am
I predict that this group will soon get funding from the Gates, Walton and Broad Foundations.

There were also many comments speculating as to whether the founders of E4E would be leaving teaching. Jeff reports:

"Educators for Excellence," it appears, is run by a couple of new teachers who now teach 1 day per week at P.S. 86 in the Bronx. There are some interesting blog entries about them and their organization and if you are really interested you can go here and here.

Strictly, not new teachers as they did teach for 3 years. Teach for America I believe. 

Editorial interjection:
You know I have to say right here that I was offered many opportunities to leave the self-contained classroom - even being told to become an administrator (so I could really make a difference) or a guidance counselor - anything but teach in the trenches - and I wanted to be with the kids, not deal with adults. It took almost 20 years before I was lured out. So when I see that people leave teaching to engage almost full time in some kind of political activity - even if it was a good political activity they were doing - I have to ask about the kind of commitment they have to children.

By the way - the same with frequent commenter Kitchen Sink - who taught in public schools for 4 years before running off to start and run a charter - this is the guy who always talks about how it should be about the kids and not the adults.

Anyway, back to the program.

Is Gotham Schools a nest for E4E?
The info on E4E led some people to wonder about the space Gotham gave them but never followed up with the new info. 

NOTE FROM ANNA PHILIPS:

I wrote a post in June saying that they were getting funding from Education Reform now. http://gothamschools.org/2010/06/03/klein-celebrates-no-layoffs-hits-the-bar-with-young-teachers/

Then comes the news that Gotham Community blogger Ruben Brosbe is also an E4E. South Bronx School is driven to mirth and merriment over Brosbe's ramblings:

The Mishegas Mind Of Ruben Brosbe Of PS 310 Bronx

But of course it takes NYC Educator to nail Brosbe, as he does in today's post:

So anyhoo, like, when I wanted to support the release of value-added grades, and everyone was all like, "Dude, they're inaccurate and invalid," and everything? Like, Gotham Schools let me write about how even though I was writing that stuff, I was, like, still cool and everything? And, like, Gotham Schools is SO KEWL, because, like, they don't even make me write in my bio that I'm a member of Educators4Excellence. So I'm, like, in a group funded by Bill Gates and stuff, and they don't even tell anybody! And I'm also in a video with Michelle Rhee, and like, at Gotham, I don't even have to say why! They just say, I'm just, like, a teacher and stuff! So, I don't look, like, uncool!

Read it all at Puke-O-Rama, Dude!

So Gotham seems to be taking a few hits lately. And not just publicly. Behind the scenes a number of activists - parents and teachers - have been whispering that charter school and ed deform money - which you can tell from E4E - is flowing into Gotham and has affected coverage. Why not? Broad, Gates, Walton, et al. and the hedge hogs will fund anything that they think can control the message of ed deform. I mean, they even fund E4E so they can throw school parties and allow the founders to have to teach only one day a week - someone tell me how to get that gig.

I don't pay that close attention and can't say I see bias at Gotham - yet - but when people can give examples I will point it out. I will say that at the Gotham holiday party in December, I felt outnumbered significantly by the ed deform crowd. Tilt!

Below the fold I extracted a few of the 150 comments on the original Gotham post last April, with some significant points made by Michael Fiorillo and a blogger - jodama - regarding charges that in the corporate world people who screw up would be gone.

Fergusan's 'Inside Job' Has More to Say About Education Than Guggenheim's 'Waiting for Superman' on school reform

As I watched Charles Ferguson's amazing movie "Inside Job" about the financial meltdown and how market based concepts were responsible, I thought he is the guy who could make a fabulous movie about the public education meltdown as a result of the ed deform movement which is based on the very same concepts that brought down the economy. I know. A lot of people have been hankering for Michael Moore (who ironically, the Real Reformers ran into Moore - scroll down for the RR video - on the way to rally at the opening of WfS). But Ferguson really nails it. Alas, without Ferguson or Moore we have to make our own film, The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman, which we hope to release in a month or so.

Well, here is the article by Kevin Welner I've been hoping to write for the past few months or so about "Inside Job." It's great to be scooped. Saves so much time. Valerie Strauss introduces it at the Answer Sheet.

Why 'Inside Job' bests 'Waiting for Superman' on school reform

By Valerie Strauss

One can only assume that the critics in the Broadcast Film Critics Association who bestowed their 2011 Best Documentary award to Davis Guggenheim's Waiting for Superman did not know how tendentious the film is, or else they might have honored a film that was more straightforward, in the tradition of classic documentaries. Superman is up for a Golden Globe Award, too, and is on the shortlist for Academy Awards in the feature documentary category.

Here a comparison between Waiting for Superman and a competitor, called Inside Job. Though the latter film isn’t about education reform, Kevin G. Welner, the author of the following piece (which appeared on Huffington Post), writes about why Inside Job better explains it than does Superman. Welner is a professor of education policy and program evaluation in the School of Education at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and director of the National Education Policy Center.

By Kevin G. Welner
Over the past couple months, I’ve been asked to participate in a few panel discussions about Waiting for Superman. The film presents a stark, moving portrayal of the denial of educational opportunities in low-income communities of color. But while the movie includes statements such as "we know what’s wrong" and "we know how to fix it," viewers of the movie are hard-pressed to identify those causes and solutions -- other than to boo and hiss at teachers’ unions and to cheer at the heroic charter school educators.

So in the panel discussions we try to make sense of that simplistic black-hat/white-hat story. We argue about whether the movie offers a fair and complete picture (it doesn’t even come close, unfortunately). But we never get to deeper issues about what’s wrong and how to fix it.

I thought about that when leaving a showing of the other prominent documentary currently showing, called Inside Job. It offers an explanation of how the current economic crisis came about, describing the securitization of mortgages; the extraordinary leveraging of assets; the regulatory capture by Wall Street leading to minimal enforcement of federal regulations -- a deregulation intended to spur innovation; and the fraud, greed, hubris and general belief among hedge fund titans and others in the financial services world that they are infallible.

The film also points out the growing and now extreme inequality of wealth distribution in the United States. "The top 1 percent of American earners took in 23.5 percent of the nation’s pretax income in 2007 -- up from less than 9 percent in 1976."

Consider those final three items: (1) the advocacy of deregulation in order to free up innovation, (2) hubris and general belief among hedge fund titans that they are infallible, and (3) increased wealth inequality.

If Superman had explored these issues instead of bashing unions and promoting charters, moviegoers might have walked away understanding a great deal about why the families it profiled and so many similar families across America face a bleak educational future.

The movie certainly showed scenes of poverty, but its implications and the structural inequalities underlying that poverty were largely ignored. Devastating urban poverty was just there -- as if that were somehow the natural order of things but if we could only ’fix’ schools it would disappear.

Rick Hanushek is put forth, saying that if we fire the bottom 5 to 10 percent of the lowest-performing teachers every year, our national test scores would soon approach Finland at the top of international rankings in mathematics and science. But no mention is made of the telling fact that Finland had, in 2005, a child poverty rate of 2.8 percent while the United States had a rate of 21.9 percent. That gap has likely gotten even bigger over the intervening five years.

Rather than addressing these poverty issues, Superman serves up innovation through privatization and deregulation. We’re shown charter schools that give hope to these families. But what we’re not told is that the extra resources and opportunities found in these charters are funded in large part with donations from Wall Street hedge fund millionaires and billionaires.

Problems of structural inequality and inter-generational poverty are pushed aside in favor of a ’solution’ grounded in the belief that deregulation will prompt innovation, all the while guided by the infallible judgment of Wall Street tycoons. It’s no wonder that Inside Job better explained the school crisis than did Waiting for Superman.

Follow my blog every day by bookmarking washingtonpost.com/answersheet.

 UPDATED: Jan. 17: Note comment below from "In the trenches" and link to site, which I added to the blogroll.

Chatty Cathie: NYC"s Wind-Up School Chancellor Doll

BLACK IS BLOOMBERG'S FAILURE AND WILL COME BACK TO HAUNT HIM MORE THAN THE SNOWSTORM!

I had a link up a few weeks ago from an ed deformer (Mike Petrilli I think) predicting that Cathie Black would be out of there by April. Accountable Talk figures April Fool.

How about this Wednesday (Jan. 19) at her first PEP meeting? Come on guys, get on down and join the Real Reformers as they try to give Cathie a great welcome - it is after the UFT Delegate Assembly - or concurrently - I am going there first to hand out some leaflets and then on to Brooklyn Tech by 5:30.

We just can't keep up with all the comments on newly Chattie Cathie (remember when we called her Unchattie Cathie when she wouldn't talk to the press - maybe she was right) after her birth control and Sophie's Choice comments. We can only pray she says some more wonderful things at her first PEP on Weds. Jan. 19 but I wouldn't be surprised to see her show up with a muzzle.

David Bellel came up with this graphic at his blog inspired by a post from Perdido Street

Cathie's Choice: New Yorkers Comment On Cathie

Some very interesting comments on the latest Cathie Black gaffe in which she suggested birth control as a solution for school overcrowding and compared "tough decisions" she has to make on school funding and placement to sending children to a Nazi death camp:
A word of advice, Cath. You need to build up a modicum of credibility before you start with the wisecracks. Despite what you may believe, you have none when it comes to the educational system.
Well, what do you expect from a Waspish Park Ave matron? It's just a matter of time before her views on eugenics become public.
Come on, you guys. She was absolutely right. A little birth control would have been a great thing. Pity her own parents didn't use it...........

Here are more posts from RBE at Perdido:

Cathie's Choice: The ATR Solution

Cathie's Choice: To Open A Charter Or Take A Trip To Auschwitz

Cathie's Choice: Even The NY Post Hammers Cathie Black For "Nazi Death Camp" Reference

Wow - you know Cathie Black is hitting bottom when even the NY Post editorial writers are hammering her:

Cathie's Choice: Clueless Cathie Black Puts Her Foot In Her Mouth Again

Cathie Black might possibly be one of the most clueless people in the education reform world today - and given who inhabits this world, that's really saying something:

And of course NYC Educator: Dear Cathie Black, and South Bronx School: Cathie Black's Choice Of Birth Control.