Thursday, February 23, 2012

Parent Objects to Walcott Being Honored by 100 Black Men

7 p.m. – Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott is honored at One Hundred Black Men’s 32nd Annual Benefit Gala, New York Hilton, Mercury Ballroom,1335 Avenue of the Americas.

Karen Sprowal whose child was tossed out of Eve Moskowitz's Harlem Success Academy responds:
This a joke right?
As an African American public school parent I can say honestly, Walcott is a disgrace to the race! We should be protesting his appointment as chancellor not honoring him for anything! 
Shame on 100 Black Men org. there are many black men working within public schools and the community they could honor, all they had to do was ask.

Testing Expert Fred Smith Calls for Boycott of Flawed Tests

Leonie posted this post with fabulous links and I'm cross-posting due to the importance of Fred Smith's work.

The GEM high stakes testing committee, which Fred has worked with, has been working on supporting parents who are willing to do a test case in NY State, one of the only states without a policy) by opting out of the test (do their kids get left back?). Even within the anti-hst community there is some controversy as to whether pushing a program of opting out is worthwhile at this point (if high scoring kids opt out the school rating goes down) but there will be a push forward.


From Leonie Haimson: Feb 22, 2012
http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2012/02/testing-expert-points-out-severe-flaws.html

Testing expert points out severe flaws in NYS exams and urges parents to boycott them this spring!

Many recent columns have pointed out the fundamental flaws in the new NY teacher evaluation system  in the last few days: by Aaron Pallas of Columbia University; Carol Burris, Long Island principal, education historian Diane Ravitch, (who has written not one but two excellent critiques) and Juan Gonzalez, investigative reporter for the Daily News.  All point out that despite the claim that the new evaluation system is supposed to be based only 20-40%  on state exams, test scores in fact will trump all, since any teacher rated "ineffective" on their students' standardized exams will be rated "ineffective" overall.

To add insult to injury, the NYC Department of Education is expected to release the teacher data reports to the media tomorrow -- with the names of individual teachers attached.  These reports are based SOLELY on the change in student test scores of individual teachers, filtered through a complicated formula that is supposed to control for factors out of their control, which is essentially impossible to do. Moreover, there are huge margins of error that mean a teacher with a high rating one year is often rated extremely low the next. Sign our petition now, if you haven't yet, urging the papers not to publish these reports; and read the outraged comments of parents, teachers, principals and researchers, pointing out how unreliable these reports are as an indication of teacher quality.   

Though most of the critiques so far focus on the inherently volatile nature and large margins of error in any such calculation, here in NY State we have a special problem: the state tests themselves have been fatally flawed for many years.  There has been rampant test score inflation over the past decade; many of the test questions themselves are amazingly dumb and ambiguous; and there are other severe problems with the scaling and the design of these exams that only testing experts fully understand.  Though the State Education Department claims to have now solved these problems, few actually believe this to be the case.

As further evidence, see Fred Smith's analysis below.  Fred is a  retired assessment expert for the NYC Board of Education, who has written widely on the fundamental flaws in the state tests.  Here, he shows how deep problems remain in their design and execution -- making their results, and the new teacher evaluation system and  teacher data reports based upon them, essentially worthless.  He goes on to urge parents to boycott the state exams this spring.  Please leave a comment about whether you would consider keeping your child out of school for this purpose!


Fred Smith:
New York State’s Testing Program (NYSTP) has relied on a series of deeply flawed exams given to 1.2 million students a year.  This conclusion is supported by comparing English Language Arts (ELA) and Math data from 2006 to 2011 with National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data, but not in the usual way.


Rather than ponder discrepancies in performance and growth on the national versus state exams, I analyzed the items—the building blocks of the NAEP and NYSTP that underlie their reported results.
 
NAEP samples fourth and eighth grade students in reading and math every two years.  Achievement and improvement trends are studied nationwide and broken down state-by-state.  The results spur biennial debate over two questions:
Why are results obtained on state-imposed exams far higher than proficiency as measured by NAEP?  Why do scores from state tests increase so much, while NAEP shows meager changes over time?  
 
By concentrating on results—counting how many students have passed state standards; or trying to gauge the achievement gap; or devising complicated value-added teacher evaluation models, school grading systems and other multi-variate formulas—attention has been diverted from the instruments themselves.
In 2009, the year statewide scores peaked, Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch discredited NYSTP’s implausibly high achievement levels and low standards.  She pledged reform—“more rigorous testing” became the catch phrase.  She knew that New York’s yearly pursuit and celebratory announcements of escalating numbers belied a state of educational decline.
 
It was an admission of how insidious the results had been, not to mention the precarious judgments that rested on them. Unsustainable outcomes became a crisis.  But Albany refuses to address the core problem. 
 
The NAEP and NYSTP exams contain multiple-choice and open-ended items.  The latter tap a higher order of knowledge.  They ask students to interpret reading material and provide a written response or to work out math problems and show how they solved them, not just select or guess a right answer.
 
Ergo, on well-developed tests students will likely get a higher percentage of correct answers on machine-scored multiple-choice questions.  In addition, the same students should do well, average or poorly on both types of items.   
 
NAEP meets the dual expectations of order and correlation between its two sets of items; the NYSTP exams, which are given in grades three through eight, do not.  Here are the contrasting pictures for the fourth grade math test.  
 
NAEP’s multiple-choice items yield averages that are substantially higher than its open-ended ones.  The distance between them is consistent over time—another way of saying that the averages run along parallel lines.  There is an obvious smoothness to the data.

Items on the NYSTP exams defy such rhyme and reason.  The percent correct on each set of items goes up one year and down the next in a choppy manner.  In 2008, performance on the teacher-scored open-ended items exceeded the level reached on the multiple-choice items. In 2011, when the tests were supposed to have gained rigor, the open-ended math questions were 26.2% easier than the NAEP’s.
                       
The reversals reveal exams made of items working at cross purposes, generating data that go north and south at the same time.  That’s the kind of compass the test publisher, CTB/McGraw-Hill, has sold to the State since 2006 to the tune of $48 million.
 
I found incongruities in all grades measured by NYSTP.  On the ELA, divergent outcomes on the two types of items are noteworthy for grades 5, 6 and 7 in 2010 and 2011.  The fifth grade items provide a jarring illustration, because they continue to function incoherently in the years of promised reform. Averages on the open-ended items increase (by 10.7%), as sharply as the multiple-choice averages fall (10.3%)—crossing over them last year.
It all goes unnoticed.  Press releases are written in terms of overall results without acknowledging or treating NYSTP’s separate parts.  This is odd since so much time and money go into administering and scoring the more challenging, higher-level open-ended items.
 
So, we’ve had a program that has made a mockery out of accountability, with the head of the Regents running interference for it.  Parents watch helplessly as their children’s schools become testing centers. And the quality of teachers is weighed on scales that are out of balance, as Governor Cuomo takes a bow for leveraging an evaluation system that depends on state test results to determine if a teacher is effective.  
 
If the test numbers aren’t good enough, there’s no way teachers can compensate by demonstrating other strengths needed to foster learning and growth.  Within days it is likely that newspapers will publish the names of teachers and the grades they’ve received based on their students’ test scores going back three years.  As shown, however, these results are derived from tests that fail to make sense.
 
The graphs are prima facie evidence that the vendor and Albany have delivered a defective product. High-stakes decisions about students, teachers and schools have depended on it. An independent investigation of NYSTP is imperative to determine what happened and, if warranted, to seek recovery of damages.  
 
It is also time for the victims—parents in defense of their children, and teachers in support of students, parents and their own self-interest—to band together and just say “No!” to this April’s six days of testing.
---Fred Smith, a retired Board of Education senior analyst, worked for the city public school system in test research and development.

Jumping on Leo Casey Defense of Ed Eval Deal From Critics Ravich and Rest of World

I hear Leo Casey over at Edwise is defending the ed eval deal after the assault by:

One has to find it pretty interesting that long-time UFT/AFT ally Ravitch has pretty much gone ballistic on them. (Don't look for an invite to speak at the AFT convention this summer).

UFT to auction off spots for inclusion in 13%
I just don't have the patience to dig into the particulars -- I take the position with so many others that high stakes tests (as opposed to tests useful for diagnosis and correction) are a waste of time and money and have been saying to -- even proposing resolutions at Delegate Assemblies as far back as the late 90's. So I'll just leave it to others to address Casey's defense. [WARNING: CASEY IS DOING A PART 2].

This insightful parsing of Casey came in anonymously. Darn, wish I could take credit
Casey: “With evaluations based on multiple measures, evaluations will be more comprehensive, more accurate and fairer, and in sharp contrast to other states such as Florida and Tennessee, the role of standardized testing in the evaluation will be minimized.”

This is hard to see from reading the SED summary that says “Teachers rated ineffective on student performance based on objective assessments must be rated ineffective overall.”   In this context, multiple measures would seem to mean one thing: multiple ways to fail.

Casey bases his argument on the fact that the 20% left up to local bargaining will not be standardized tests: but “an authentic assessment of student learning” based on some other not yet agreed-upon process.  He adds:  “I know of no significant New York district where the local union has agreed to the use of standardized state exams as the basis for the local measures of student learning.””  (Today King restored the SIG grants to Rochester and four other cities because they had submitted evaluation plans acceptable to him; no news yet as to what they involve. ) 
Casey goes on: When the UFT was working on developing performance assessments as the local assessments for the 33 Transformation and Restart schools, one of our agreements with the NYC DoE was the development of a system of weighting that would account for the academic challenges of a teacher’s students.

So what happened? Not clear if DOE really agreed to non-standardized tests as their local assessment component, especially as the DOE issued an RFP over the summer for 408 new citywide standardized tests – some of which were conveniently called performance assessments.  Indeed, “performance assessments” is another phrase like “multiple measures” which seem to have multiple meanings depending on the eye of the beholder.

It is also true that many districts are cash-poor and may adopt the state tests simply because they don’t have the funds to develop and score their own assessments.

Casey doesn’t mention that Commissioner King has the authority under this agreement also to reject any local assessment that is not “rigorous” or “objective” enough; in general, King doesn’t sound particularly open to portfolios etc:

All evaluation plans are subject to review and approval by the Commissioner to ensure rigor, quality and consistency with standards;
·  The Commissioner has the authority to require corrective action, including the use of independent evaluators, when districts evaluate their teachers positively regardless of students’ academic progress.

In a footnote, Casey mentions something even more startling:  thatThe law envisions that once the State Education Department has developed a valid value-added model for measuring growth in student learning, which it has yet to do, the state component can grow to 25%, while the local component would shrink to 15%.” 

I wonder who gets to determine whether the state’s value-added model is “valid” or not.  The Regents?  So far the majority of members have rubber-stamped anything that King or Tisch want them to do.

Casey concludes by echoing the words of the corporate reformers:  “While a change of the complexity required by the new teacher evaluation system is daunting, it should not lead us to romanticize a failed evaluation status quo.”
-----------
Next up is a long piece by blogger Assailed Teacher: Leo Casey “Sets the Record Straight” on the New Teacher Evaluations who closes with
As much as I would like to believe Leo Casey’s characterization of the foremost historian on American education’s concerns as “alarmist”, I do not see anywhere in his post today where he silences those alarms. All I see is a dark time ahead for the children and teachers of New York City.
This does not even touch on how the new evaluation regime destroys tenure for teachers. According to Leo Casey, his next installment will address this concern. I can only say I hope it goes over better than his latest defense of this horrid new system.
HS Chap Ldr John Elfrank-Dana comments at his blog Labor's Lessons:

---------
And then there's Eric Przykuta, president of the upstate NY Lancaster Central Teachers Association with a scathing assault on NYSUT for making the deal, calling NYSUT dues a "horrible waste of hard-earned dollars." He closes with:
I find you and your organization wholly ineffectual and ineffective. Teachers can not sit idly by facing financial ruin while you enjoy your wine and chocolates. You offer no clout in Albany and services that can be duplicated less expensively. NYSUT dues are a horrible waste of hard-earned dollars that members of this Association can put to better use and receive a better value in so doing. You will be notified in writing regarding our future association with your organization.
Here are some links he includes:

Letter to Iannuzzi in response to February 16, 2012 Agreement
Letter to Iannuzzi in response to NYSUT RTTT 2010 Agreement
Links Relating to Teacher Evaluations

And a link to a news report.
Naturally, as expected, Mike Antonucci over at Educational Intelligence Agency has some fun with the view from the right. I'm including this because I know how much Leo looks forward to my citing EIA and since he pretty much reads this blog full time (check this video for proof) I'm sure he'll enjoy the reference.

Eric Przykuta is upset about what he sees as a NYSUT sell-out on the issue of teacher evaluations. He sent a rather pointed letter about it to NYSUT president Richard Iannuzzi.
“Your pandering is shameful,” Przykuta wrote. “You have done nothing to protect teachers or advance our agenda as professionals to be respected. NYSUT caved under pressure and ran from the good fight.”
But it’s the final paragraph that drops the big hammer:

Przykuta wants to hold a summit of local union presidents in Western New York that, according to one published report, would discuss “severing ties” with NYSUT.
I doubt this will amount to much, especially since natural ally Phil Rumore (see item #2 here) thinks the letter was “a little over the top.” Still, if a bunch of mid-sized locals break off and form their own organization, I have the perfect name for it: NEA New York!
It might cost a few bucks to buy the old domain name back from the odd dudes who own it now, but there’s probably a stack of old stationery and envelopes lying around that will help keep costs down.
Well, there it is. We can look forward to Casey's Part 2 where he will tell you that tenure is totally unaffected, followed by a fund-raiser auctioning off slots for those who want to be included in the magic 13%.


Wednesday, February 22, 2012

On Chicago and New York Teacher Unions

Info Overload
There's so much incoming from so many sources --- too many listserves, too many blogs to follow, too much facebook and twitter is a killer. And all that great video to process. So many issues -- teacher eval, charter invasions, Chicago news, general UFT crap --- I can't decide what to write about. As usual in my case, when presented with too many options I do nothing. Of course I hope you are checking my blogroll which takes me hours to get through before I get to post anything here.

One of the more interesting blogger/NYC teachers I've come across recently is Assailed Teacher, who I was tipped off to by a Diane Ravitch tweet. Some really thoughtful stuff there with some depth. Today's post -- It’s Up To You…. Chicago?
digs into a comparison of the actions of the UFT and the CTU.

Michael Dunn over at Modern School nicely outlines the coming contract battle between the Chicago Teachers’ Union and its employer, Chicago Public Schools. Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants to expand the school day by 90 minutes. The union wants a 30% raise, lower class sizes and greater enrichment opportunities for students. They have put money aside for a public relations campaign and are already making arrangements for a strike should contract negotiations break down. I agree with Michael Dunn in that teachers, even workers in general, across the country should keep their eyes on Chicago.

For teachers in New York City, seeing a union actually standing up for its members and students is strange indeed. It seems like it was just this past Thursday that our union sold us out by agreeing to a bonehead evaluation system based entirely on student test scores. In return, the union got absolutely nothing for its members, not even the due process for teachers rated “ineffective” for which they had been holding out. Our fearless leader Michael Mulgrew can be seen hobnobbing with the people responsible for the chartering in this, the country’s largest school district. If New York City schools serve as a model for the rest of the country, then there is plenty for the country to fear.
Read the entire piece (It’s Up To You…. Chicago?).

I wouldn't paint everything that's going on in the Chicago TU as slam dunk perfect even though I am pretty prejudiced because I know many of the leaders. Sure there have been some mistakes (no time to find links now) but I remind people that all these guys and gals were in the classroom teaching until July 2010, not part of a Unity Caucus like machine that has been running the UFT for 50 years. (And how many mistakes have they made?)

CORE -- the Caucus of Rank and File Educators --- started out as a small group to study Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine" in 2008 and captured the union in the 2010 elections. I have some tape from an appearance in NY in late 2010 at Teachers Unite by CORE leaders talking about their short history (if I have some time I will post on vimeo). One important point is that (at least at that time) CORE was run by people still in the classroom, not by people working for the CTU.

In fact, when people felt that Karen (who says she reads Ed Notes so I hope I get this right) screwed up she had to face some music from within the caucus, something that can never happen in Unity.

This is an important point --- creating the most democratic body that will function that way under all circumstances. CORE must maintain some level of independence in its relationship to the CTU leadership even if coming from the same group.

I believe in caucuses as a way to function within a union. The problem with the UFT is that there is no balance of power. New Action owes its existence to Unity benevolence. ICE and TJC have had gained traction, and they know it unlike NAC. Other groups like NYCORE, Teachers Unite and GEM have not directly related to the union -- until recently.

Assailed Teacher closes with:
Teachers in NYC have to take a page from CTU’s playbook now. When their union proved to be shills for the forces of ed reform, they turned the leadership out of office. When their Machiavellian mayor proposed a longer school day, their new union immediately responded with a deluge of common sense demands that school districts around the country have long neglected. Contrast that with a union that rolls over and dies in every negotiation and smiles in the face of their members like they did them a favor. It is time for New Yorkers to swallow their pride and give Chicago their due respect for having a teachers’ union ahead of the curve.
He is right about doing it now. And that is why people from all the groups (including people from TJC and ICE) have been meeting around the concept of State of the Union in an attempt to create a CORE-like caucus. Will such a caucus be able to capture power in terms of a union election in the near future? Anyone who came to my UFT 101 workshop at the Feb. 4 SOTU came away pretty depressed over the almost impossible task given how Unity has basically rigged things (there is a video of my workshop I will release soon), especially given the new constitutional amendments diluting the voice of the classroom teacher.

But I point to Egypt where the government fell without an election but because of a people's movement. I view the over 1500 schools in the same way --- the true battleground for the union.

CORE didn't even win power through taking the schools but due to a very incompetent version of Unity that split into 2 plus other caucuses running and winning a runoff, which we don't have here in NYC. In reality, CORE captured 1/3 of the vote the first time and all the other groups endorsed them in the run-off. Thus CORE has had to do school by school organizing AFTER they won and the old guard still has support. If CORE doesn't accomplish this in time for the 2013 election they might very well lose.

In the case of NYC, they are sort of starting from scratch and if a new caucus emerges that focuses on Delegate Assemblies, Exec Bds and talking to the union leadership instead doing the school to school organizing, it will not go very far. Doing this school to school work is not easy, especially given that Unity uses the District reps to monitor and disrupt every sign of opposition coming from schools. (The other day I heard an example of one of the nastiest pieces of work a DR could do in an attempt to undermine a perceived threat --- I am efforting to get permission to print).

The only advantage a true opposition caucus would have is numbers or organizers. Not enormous numbers but enough to counter the Unity machine and get people at the school level to work with the caucus. Given the apathy, that is not an easy task. But I am guessing of such a group can develop strong people in 300-500 schools it becomes a real threat, especially if they can capture delegates and chapter leader positions.

Elections for CL and Del are coming this spring. If you have had enough of Unity, consider running for at least the delegate position and joining with the State of the Union crew (next meeting is March 10).

If things continue the way they are expect more and more sell-outs.

-----
Aftterburn
The move to a new caucus have caused ICE, TJC and even GEM to examine what role they have to play in the battle against ed deform --- which after all is the main war --- but you can't have a hope to win that with a union leadership on the city, state and national level that plays footsie with the deformers instead of organizing to fight them. We'll be reporting on whatever we are allowed to on these internal debates.


Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Another Bill of Goods the UFT/AFT is Trying to Sell: Common Core Standards

Remember, the first action of Occupy DOE was to shut down the Walcott/David Coleman "information" session on Common Core in October.
(Video at: http://youtu.be/YbmjMickJMA).

When our union and WalBloom and Gates are all on the same page, it's time to run the other way. Susan Ohanian has been outing the common core crap (CCC) for years. When the UFT starts pushing this like dope, time for you to stand up and fight.

THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS & LITERACY IN HISTORY/SOCIAL STUDIES, SCIENCE, & TECHNICAL SUBJECTS


Ohanian comment: This incredibly Incredibly pompous, ignorant document is part of Coming Together to Raise Achievement prepared Center for K--12 Assessment & Performance Management at ETS.

Don't you love this?
The CCSS outline what students will know and be able to do. By grade 6, students will trace and evaluate an argument and determine the specific claims supported by evidence and those that are not. By grades 9 and 10, students will have read U.S. documents of historical and literary significance and will learn to delineate and
evaluate the reasoning in these texts.
How many 6th graders do you think this claimant has taught? She has been Director of Curriculum and Instruction for Rochester, MA school district and Director of English, MassInsight Education, a corporate-based organization, infamous for pushing the MCAS.
Student writers will think expansively. [emphasis added]
In the 1970s, the era of behavioral objectives,I refused to write required "The student WILL. . ." in lesson plans. My god, I taught 7th grade. On a good day, student "might"... And there were plenty of days that weren't-so-good.

Apostles and assorted groupies writing about the Common Core admit to no such students, no such days.

Writers of documents like this never admit to the reality of students or the variety they bring to the classroom. I once wrote a little document for the New York State Teachers Union "What is a 7th Grader?" In it I pointed out that I never knew which Sherrie would walk in the door--the one sucking her thumb and wanting to read fairy tales or the one parading the role of nymphet. Some days she would indeed think expansively. Other days, she was much more intent on the drama of being a 7th grader confused and challenged by her own sexuality, family problems, insecurities. Whichever Jenny appeared on a given day, I had to be ready to adapt to her needs of the moment. Certainly, I did not pull out any "The student WILL" document. Or call on Aristotle to show me how to teach. I do remember how much Sherrie--and her peers--enjoyed our read-aloud of Ron Jones' Acorn People. My team teaching partner and I felt it was critical for our students, known as the worst readers in the school--and not so good in other subjects either--learn to empathize with people with worse problems than their own. I am happy to see this book is still in print. It's values will far outlast any picayune dictates coming out of the corporate-educational complex.

Okay, I admit it: Jenny and her classmates also liked Flat Stanley--almost as much as I did. I've recounted all this in a book about our middle school years, Caught in the Middle: Nonstandard Kids and a Killing Curriculum.

I would just add that years ago my article in The Atlantic featuring what the basal committees had done to make Flat Stanley "acceptable" provoked more mail than I've received on anything--including a correspondence with Jeff Brown and Sid Fleischman.

Oh, sorry. I wasn't teaching "Twenty-first Century students. I'm still mired in that old Twentieth Century paradigm.

Sorry. Sorry. Sorry.
[T]he CCSS compel collaboration; students will know how to be smart, sound smart, and affirm the intelligent contributions of the people with whom they work or learn.
Damn. Damn. Damn. I just keep forgetting. I don't work in the century of such claims. In our time, we did our best, but we just lacked the standards to guarantee that students would be smart, etc. etc.

But hey, you teachers in the Twenty-First Century, if you made a list of "What has to be taught", what would be on it? Think hard. Picture your students. . . individual students. Think hard. What must be taught. Here's what this ETS writer, delineating the Common Core dictates: key Aristotelian claims of ethos, logos, and pathos will have to be taught.

This writer offers David Coleman lite. Not that I subscribe in any way to true blue David Coleman, but. . . I'm somewhat bemused that ETS would offer such a weak argument.

And Gentle Reader, if you don't recognize the name David Coleman, I advise you to put the name into a 'search' on this site. Do it immediately. Your very survival as a teacher who responds to the needs of the children in your care depends on it.

You must prepare yourself to fight. YOU...with colleagues. NCTE won't help you. The unions won't help you. You have to gather with other teachers and parents and FIGHT THIS.
 See below the fold for the original article:

NYC Teacher Performs One Woman Show at Cherry Lane

Support a fellow teacher.
NYC teacher Elizabeth Rose opens her one woman show tomorrow night at the Cherry Lane. There are even some ed references in it. It will run through March 3. Tickets are $18.


RELATIVE PITCH


Written and performed by Elizabeth Rose
Mentored and directed by Gretchen Cryer
The Cherry Lane Theater's Mentor Project
    Angelina Fiordelissi, Artistic Director
February 21 – March 3, 2012   PURCHASE TICKETS

Elizabeth Rose's RELATIVE PITCH is a one-woman musical comedy about the hilarious roller-coaster ride of a performing songwriter.  Written and performed by Rose, the musical's score features 19 original songs (from opera to rap) to depict her story of a childhood in a noisy musical family through the Vietnam and Woodstock eras to an inner-city classroom where hip hop trumps the blues. 
As a performer Elizabeth Rose's wide-ranging credits include having sung the National Anthem at Shea Stadium, composing music for Discovery Channel and PBS as well as for the film "Sex and the Other Man" starring Stanley Tucci.  She created the music video "Leave Me Alone" featuring a cast of nonagenarians, wrote the hit single "I'm Too Beau'ful for You," and recorded an original CD "Sleep Naked."  As an educator, she has raised over $300,000 for several NYC public schools.



and...

The Cherry Lane Theatre's Mentor: Project:http://www.cherrylanetheatre.org/programs/mentor_project/

Website:  www.elizabethrosemusic.com

Teaching Addict

...the contribution I want to make now I want to make in the classroom. The difference between teaching and play-writing is not incomprehensible to me, they're not so different. They both create a public event that leads to understanding..... Teaching -- for Ms. Edson at least -- is a full-time occupation. She needs the summers, she said, to do nothing, because that makes you a more interesting person in the classroom...   Margaret Edson, Pulitzer Prize winner and classroom teacher.
I love reading about teachers who love the process of classroom teaching. I never heard of Margaret Edson until today's Susan Ohanian update. I watched the video of her Smith commencement speech from 2008 and I think I'm in love.
Susan Notes:

Margaret Edson astounded the media when, as a kindergarten teacher, she won the Pulitzer for drama. And she gets more than ten minutes of fame. More than ten years later, the media stays fascinated. The media is amazed that a teacher is an intelligent person.

Margaret Edson now teaches sixth grade. She remains passionate about her calling. Her teacher calling. And we can all be grateful that the media is still interested enough to talk to her about her teaching.

Here is the transcript of Margaret Edson's 1999 appearance on the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. Here is video of her commencement address at Smith College, delivered without a written text.
Read a fascinating interview with Margaret Edson.  Changing Gears but Retaining Dramatic Effect

---------------------
Debbie Meier often says that teaching kindergarten was one of the most intellectual challenges she faced. I loved the mechanisms of organizing a class of 4th, 5th or 6th graders and found intellectual challenges in figuring out a good seating chart or how to get coats hung in the wardrobe without them falling to the floor. Or how to get the idea of circumference across.

I was a classroom teaching addict for most of my first 20 years in the system and developed a superiority complex that I was doing the most important job in the school system. I was in the infantry and though I would never leave till they hauled me out. I certainly felt superior to people who did leave, even clusters or pull-out people. Unless they were older and had put in their time.

Then one day, I was older, with a principal who began to limit the control the teachers had over their classes through the institution of a high stakes testing program. I started thinking about leaving teaching altogether and even went back to school for a degree in computer science which led to part 2 of my career which I spent as a computer cluster and training teachers. I really can't say I was addicted to teaching once I left the elementary school classroom – once I was out of a classroom with a group of kids I would spend the day and the year with, I lost some of that passion. So reading about Edson was inspiring. Of course she didn't start teaching until she was in her late 30's and is in the early part of her 2nd decade. I hit that wall in the latter part of my 2nd decade. Here's hoping she never meets that wall.

Monday, February 20, 2012

Video: Williamsburg Parents Rise Up Against Success Charter Invasion at Hearing

So much material, so little time. Here is the 2nd video from that Feb. 16 hearing. More to come later as I'm trying not to put up entire speeches but extract bits and pieces in order to keep the videos under 10 minutes.

http://youtu.be/02JYkc_ZaVc



In the meantime, Leonie Haimson has posted links to numerous videos with descriptions of each on her blog while pointing out how the NY Times totally misreported the story. Truly read their account and look at the videos. Her comments are so important I'm co-posting below.

http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2012/02/battle-for-soul-of-community-thursday.html

The battle for the soul of a community: scenes from contentious charter school hearing in S. Williamsburg -- and the memory of another controversial co-location 25 years ago

Please check out the videos of Thursday night’s contentious hearing on the proposed co-location of yet another branch of the Success Academy charter school, this one in IS 50 in South Williamsburg, a proposal that the entire community has risen up in opposition to,  because of the discriminatory recruitment and enrollment policies of the hedge-fund backed Success Academy charters, their policy of pushing out high needs students, and the fact that there are four under-enrolled public elementary schools in this mostly Latino neighborhood within three blocks of the proposed charter. 

Nearly 500 parents, teachers, students, and community leaders filled the large auditorium, with more than 80 of them speaking out against this co-location proposal, and fewer than five parents from Brooklyn spoke out in support.  The rest of the audience consisted of parents bused in from the various Success charter schools in Harlem.  

And yet NYTimes/Schoolbook story ran a highly inaccurate and biased account, showing a large photo of the Success Academy parents, captioned with " parents turned out to support the co-location of a Success Academy charter school at J.H.S. 50 John D. Wells in Williamsburg, Brooklyn", without explaining that they were bused in by the charter operator from Harlem. The article went on to give most of its space to comments from the handful of supporters of the charter school, including the chain’s founder, Eva Moskowitz, with almost no mention of the huge outcry from the hundreds of community leaders, elected officials, and local parents who came out to oppose it. (Read what Williamsburg & Greenpoint Parents for Our Public Schools says about the piece, and read the irate comments from parents and community members at the Schoolbook website.) 
 
Instead, see the video of the nearly 500 parents, students, teachers and community members leading off the hearing,  chanting, “Whose schools? OUR schoolsand Ms. Denise Jamison Principal of IS 50, where the DOE plans to put the charter, saying how grateful she is for the support of the community.
 
Here's the video of Council Member Diana Reyna, pointing out that the District 14 Community Education Council that is supposed to preside over the hearing is not present because the members are boycotting it in protest; she says that we need the record to reflect that this proposal is not supported by this community.  She recounts how in Sept. 1986, more than 700 parents at S. Williamsburg's PS 16 kept their children home from school-- a 90% absence rate -- in protest of a plan to create segregated classrooms in the school.
 
(This 1986 protest occurred in reaction to a Board of Education plan to construct barriers inside PS 16, and to hire Jewish teachers to provide remedial education to Hasidic girls enrolled in a nearby yeshiva, in classes held in separate classrooms from PS 16’s mostly Latino students. The parents of PS 16 protested that this segregation was not only discriminatory but would also cause more overcrowded classes for their own children.  The plan also required the displacement of 69 students with disabilities to other public schools -- to make way for the Hasidic classes. The parents of PS 16 sued, asking the court to block this plan, and subsequently won on appeal.  Here is an excerpt of the decision from the US Court of Appeals:

....each day, the public school students would observe some 390 Beth Rachel students arrive at P.S. 16. The Beth Rachel students would be taught in classrooms only they may use; no public school students would be taught either in those classes or in those rooms. Yiddish would be spoken in the Beth Rachel classes. Only Hasidic girls would be taught; those girls would be allowed no contact with boys. Only female teachers would teach the Hasidic girls. And where once there was an open corridor allowing freedom to traverse the entire hall, there are now a wall and doors partitioning the Beth Rachel girls from the public school students....

The lengths to which the City has gone to cater to these religious views, which are inherently divisive, are plainly likely to be perceived, by the Hasidim and others, as governmental support for the separatist tenets of the Hasidic faith. Worse still, to impressionable young minds, the City's Plan may appear to endorse not only separatism, but the derogatory rationale for separatism expressed by some of the Hasidim.)
  
Here's another video clip, where  CM Reyna says that DOE has abandoned our public schools; despite the fact that our students have a basic unmet human right for quality education.   Evelyn Cruz, representing Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, ironically “thanks” DOE for once again dividing parents, children and neighborhoods, and disenfranchising them throughout the city. 
 
Rob Solano, head of Churches United for Fair Housing and former IS 50 student, then speaks out in support of the public shool and against the charter co-location: “this is where I learned how to be a boy and then a man and learned about the world,” Ruben Flores, lead organizer for Churches United For Fair Housing also speaks out against the proposal.
More video as Khem Irby, CEC member from District 13, says that Brooklyn does not need any more charter schools, which are here for only one purpose: the money, and not about education. As a former charter parent, she understands the abuse that happens to children in charter schools and that they do not need this in any of their communities, and parents are forming a united front in Districts 13, 14 and 15 against any more charters in their neighborhoods.

I berate the two DOE officials presiding over the hearings, Gregg Betheil and Paymon Rouhanifard.  I say they should be ashamed of themselves and ask if they went into education to provoke the kind of division, anger and resentment seen tonight; I urge them to tell whoever who is making this decision to say no to this charter school; as there has to be someone in the city with the balls or guts to say no to Eva.  I add that if there was one thing good that came out of this evening, it is that it is clear that NYC parents love their public schools and want them protected and supported, no matter how hard the DOE has tried to destroy them  through budget cuts, test prep and rising class sizes.  Lastly, I recount how at the recent City Council hearings on college readiness, the only thing the Council and the DOE agreed upon was that El Puente is a great school and should be replicated; with DOE officials repeating this several times.  So why don’t they replicate El Puente here and create a great 6-12 school, instead of bringing in a charter school that no one in the community wants or needs? 
 
The videos end with Luis Garden Acosta founder and President of El Puente, thanking Ellen McHugh of the Citywide Council for Special Education, for taking a strong stand in favor of the community and against the charter school co-location.  He concludes by saying, tonight the DOE has heard from white, Latino and black parents, all opposed to this proposal; from students, teachers, and community leaders; from our City Councilmember, our State Senator, and our member of Congress; in fact, they've heard from the entire Southside community in opposition, what else does it take?  He then leads us in a chant, “the People united will never be defeated,” first in English then in Spanish, and we walk out together, leaving the auditorium empty except for the DOE and their clients, the charter school operators and the parents they bused in from Harlem.

Honk if You're Proud of the UFT

Chicago teacher
I am SO proud of the CTU! "Chicago & NYC school reform: Creating possibilities versus surrendering without a struggle" http://newpol.org/node/599
 So, are any of you feeling proud of the UFT/Unity Caucus machine? I know of at least one Unity Caucus chapter leader at a school threatened with closing who was handing out donuts to "celebrate" the union's "victory" in the recent agreement in ed evals. And if you checked out my last blog on the Moskowitz invasion in Williamsburg, the UFT has zero presence leaving the community to fight the massive machine on its own --- UFT leaders are fraidy cats when it comes to Eva. Or just about everything. Just check some Unity comments on this blog --- something like if you're not part of the conversation -- blah, blah, blah. Occupy a few schools threatened with being closed and you'll be part of the conversation soon enough.

Here is the Lois Weiner piece Katie was referring to.

Chicago and NYC school reform: Creating possibilities versus surrendering without a struggle

Lois WeinerFebruary 19, 2012
As I write, the  Brian Piccolo Specialty School in Humboldt Park, Chicago is occupied by parents, teachers, and students, with Occupy Chicago and others camped outside the schol in solidarity.  The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) is building this movement, with a  wonderful wholeheartedness and passion. Bravo! The union is showing both brawn and brains.  In another sign of its commitment to fight hard for the education low-income kids deserve, the CTU  has released an excellent report on what we should demand of politicians who say they want to improve the schools. Another part of the Chicago strategy is using the courts. Parents are the backbone here but as a long-time community organizer in Chicago wrote me, "Honestly, we could not have done this without a progressive union leadership."
In contrast, the New York State teachers union (NYSUT) has signed an agreement that is an abject surrender of teachers' professional dignity and tightens the stranglehold of standardized tests.  Let us hope  - and mobilize - so that this Faustian agreement does not become the "national model" that  NYSUT (and NYC) teachers union leaders would like it to be.  Consider that  NYSUT applauded this agreement that allows up to 40% of teachers' evaluations  to be based on their  students' progress on standardized tests. Yet, according to NYSUT's own poll conducted in January,  two-thirds of parents "believe there is too much emphasis on state testing in public schools."  Public  opposition to testing has been organized by parent and teacher groups independent of the national unions, which are fearful of angering the corporate media and its political friends. Is there a  principle for which the NYC and NY state teachers unions will really fight? Hmmm... maybe the right to collect dues?
We have a tale of school systems in two cities being demolished with the same policies of privatization, school closure, and deprofessionalization of teaching. In Chicago, the teachers union has mobilized with parents and activists to turn the tide. In New York, the teachers union signs and applauds a deal that endangers the job security of teachers who want to use their creativity, skill, and knowledge to teach in ways that are meaningful to kids. Chicago shows us resistance can be mobilized, if a union leadership has the heart and vision, knows how to empower its members, and can work respectfully with parents.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, blogger Under Assault makes a rare appearance since retirement with some comments on the teacher eval system, which she terms (d)evaluation. Nice.

"An almost total capitulation by the union"

 You can read Jeff's whole analysis of the new (d)evaluation system on the ICE blog, which he ends with a very dark prediction:
If today's agreement becomes our actual teacher evaluation system, then there will more than likely be massive teacher firings beginning in 2014.

Some of the comments are worth a chuckle. There's a lass called Sandra who thinks getting tenure in the old days was a "gift":
I don't feel one bit of pity to those teachers who were gifted tenure back in those days of desperation and think that that should save them from a true evaluation of their effectiveness ...
I'll be damned if I know what she means by "those days of desperation." I'm assuming Sandra was a youngster when the rest of us were chewing our fingernails over the Board of Ed's certification tests. The music exam was distinctly uncomfortable, even with a Masters and heading into a doctorate. You couldn't just swim in on Music Appreciation and your instrument. There were also tests on piano performance and sight-reading, and the whole thing only came around every few years. Tough titties if you failed it, because no one was going to give you NYC certification or tenure without it.

Ah, those were the days, when deep knowledge of a subject was actually valued. Now your career's a coin coss: heads if your administrator recognizes and respects variations in style, personality and methodology and makes use of your talents, tails if your evaluation is scripted by an inexperienced Tweedle or a politically appointed senior administrator.

I have to credit Wiki for using the Michelangelo painting as an antecedent of our "Perp walk."

Neat.

Williamsburg Responds to Success Charter Invasion


There is so much to this story I don't know where to start.  I'll have to do a bunch of stories.

A 2nd hearing for Eva's co-loco at MS 50 in Williamsburg was held on Feb. 16.
The legal hearing was originally held on Jan. 17, 2012 where there was only 1 person who spoke in favor of Success while hundreds of community people were opposed. So the NYCDOE invented an excuse to have a repeat hearing to give Success Academy an opportunity to create a semblance of support. Not being able to recruit more than 3 local supporters, the charter chain had to bring in 4 busloads of people from Harlem to create the illusion of support

There's lots of irony here in that most of the people Eva brought into a mostly Latino community were Black --- other than the almost all white Success handlers (plantation politics). It was pointed out time and again that Success put their ads not near the MS 50 building but in white areas where they spent a fortune in advertising (and they still couldn't find more than 3 people to support them). Talk about people being used. They came on as if they were out to save the poor kids of Williamsburg without questioning why Eva is no longer trying to help all those children in Harlem who are still "stuck" in public schools there but didn't make the lottery. You see, Success has done all the creaming it in Harlem could and doesn't want the rest of the Harlem kids. Do they know Eva is now trolling for wealthy white people for schools these very people she brought from Harlem whose kids would not be welcome in the Brooklyn gentrified Success schools?

GEM had 3 cameras in the room and outside. I'm working on a few videos. More later.

Here is the first one where I start out questioning the HSA people -- check the arrogance of some -- and an amazing parent with 3 kids at PS 84 interjects.


http://youtu.be/S8i1wHhCR5I




Wllmsbg/Grnpt parents respond to distorted NY Times School Book report of the meeting:
We wrote a response to the crummy reporting at School Book (http://
www.nytimes.com/schoolbook/2012/02/17/huge-turnout-over-new-williamsburg-charter-school/) on the co-location hearing Thursday night. It's posted on our website
with pictures of the busses that have HSA signs on them:

http://www.williamsburggreenpointschools.org/news
Pat D from GEM/ICE did these videos of the press conference in front of MS 50 before the meeting. (view them from bottom up).



[20120216051927 Press Conf. ] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jisWuHn-GUg
[20120216051754 Press Conf.] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXf1yafTBGw
[20120216051339 press Conf.] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2awSbF0ofHI
[20120216051207 Press Conf.] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpkeDv3tV4
[20120216050916 Press Conf.] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VomJSAW3Su
20120216050509 Press Conf.] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1wnJdAufYs
[20120216050245 Press Conf.] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qgRDZniStY
[20120216045955 Press Conf.] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5M_ARPtCP0
[20120216045241 Press Conf.] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z0XF8CS1i4

Saturday, February 18, 2012

PEP Popping: The Play’s the Thing Plus Jones/Casey Pre-PEP Debate and Mulgrew on Mic Check

Casey claims Ed Notes criticisms of the UFT leadership is reason for UFT refusal to go along with the coalition.
Below is my column in the Feb. 17, 2012 edition of The Wave: www.rockawave.com (modified from the original) along with a short video demonstrating the UFT double or triple switch before and during the PEP.  It begins with me following Leo Casey handing out leaflets to Occupy DOE activists urging them not to go in to the PEP but to join the UFT in a march to an alternate location and a debate between Brian Jones and Casey about what seemed to be a change in the UFT position that they would go in initially to support the People's mic and then walk out and march to the other school. Instead there were rumors the UFT was using scare tactics to tell people that there might be violence and arrests which Brian alludes to but Casey denies. Also that buses were being diverted away from Tech. It ends with Mulgrew using the People's mic and the buses coming back an hour into the meeting. Honestly, people truly cheered the UFT on its turnaround at the end of the day, me included. I'm a wus.





http://youtu.be/sYiDN1tpP3U 
 

Gotham Schools' Goeff Decker also shot some of the same footage from a different angle and put up about a minute of it http://youtu.be/LCaLougjqLs.

I'm working on a more extensive video that shows how I confronted UFT officials and how they reacted plus the ODOE folks directly challenging the UFT with union songs. And a video that captures the intensity of that evening inside the PEP. You also should check out the video Darren made of politicians trashing Bloomberg at the UFT press conference across the street. Check the post below this or http://youtu.be/LCaLougjqLs.

Don't get me wrong. In fact ODOE in the end did decide to walk out and so in some ways the UFT and ODOE came together. 

I need to do an analysis of exactly what went on that day but the fact that Casey attempted to blame me was a blatant attempt to get my fellow activists to use a decision by the UFT for a number of reasons (like they wanted to separate themselves from ODOE as a way of showing Bloomberg they were "reasonable") that have nothing to do with me to pressure me to tone down my critiques of Unity. Actually, he has tried this with a bunch of people I know (sort of how can you hang with that lunatic type of stuff) and in fact I have tried to bend over a bit in their direction when I'm told I am going too far. 

All day on Feb. 9 as I heard that they were going to work with ODOE I was giving them creds --- until they changed position in a memo from Leroy Barr at 2:45. You should read that post if you haven't to get the feeling on the ground at 3:30PM: Occupy and Stay! Don't Walk Away as UFT Changes Plan...


Ok, enough of that --- here's the column.

PEP Popping: The Play’s the Thing
By Norm Scott

Setting:  Thursday, February 9, 2012, 5-11PM
Brooklyn Technical HS, housed in an 8 story fortress like building in Fort Greene on Dekalb Avenue. A very tall antenna sits on the roof – a landmark you can spot from far away. There's a double level balcony in the auditorium, one of the largest in the city schools. The Panel for Educational Policy will be meeting to vote to phase out 23 schools. Over 2000 people will fill the space to say “no” to school closings.

The Players
Tweedie-Dees and Tweedie-Dums:  Anyone connected with the NYCDOE.
Panel for Educational Policy (PEP):  Bloomberg puppet dominated board of education with 8 mayoral appointees and 5 borough president appointees. 
Occupy DOE (ODOE):  a coalition of forces and offshoot of OWS aiming to take over the meeting by holding its own meeting using the people’s mic to give people from closing schools a chance to speak on their terms by drowning out the audio from the amplified sound. The ultimate goal is to force the Panel to hold the vote in such chaos they violate the open meetings law, provoking a possible court case to invalidate the vote.
Coalition for Educational Justice (CEJ): an Annenberg Institute backed coalition of community organizations, organizing parents and students at a number of closing schools. They will march to Brooklyn Tech and join ODOE in the use of the people’s mic with students from closing schools playing a major role.
UFT (playing the role of Hamlet):  To go or not to go into the PEP or march instead  to an alternate site, that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of those ODOE and CEJ people who enter the PEP to challenge the forces of the vassals of King Bloomberg or to take arms against a sea of closing schools and by opposing end them. Unlike Hamlet, the UFT takes a halfway position. At first they say they will go in with ODOE and CEJ and then walk out en masse with the hope everyone else goes with them four blocks away to an alternate site where they have 600 seats reserved. ODOE, CEJ, the NAACP and other groups allied with the UFT are balking, saying they don’t intend to leave. The UFT will flip-flop – more than once as the evening goes on.
Dmytro Fedkowskyj: Queens borough rep appointed by Borough President Helen Marshall who has was often silent on the ed deforms under Bloomberg but has been increasingly vocal.



The Action
5PM: The UFT, which originally was supposed to enter the PEP and join ODOE in making  noise and using the People’s Mic, changes policy.  Rumors circulate that they are diverting the buses from the closing schools away from Brooklyn Tech and sending them directly to PS 20 four blocks away where they would get to make statements about their schools to politicians. The UFT holds a rally across Dekalb Ave. from Tech in front of Fort Greene Park. Many schools on the school closing list  are there and some have mixed feelings between following the UFT lead in not going in or joining ODOE inside the PEP and using the People’s mic to have their say.
Occupy DOE sets up with their signs directly across Dekalb and starts serenading the people at the UFT rally with union songs. Some cross the street to lobby people to join them inside to help disrupt the meeting. ODOE distributes palm cards saying, “Occupy and Stay, Don’t Walk Away.” There is a mixed reaction as some say they would go in if the UFT said it is OK. At this point the UFT sticks to its guns and officials, including HSVP Leo Casey start passing out leaflets urging people affiliated with ODOE to not go in but go to PS 20 instead.  [See video of GEM/ODOE Brian Jones having a conversation with Casey about the actions of the UFT.
5:30: CEJ marching from Flatbush Ave along Dekalb arrives with masses of cheering students and everyone starts entering the auditorium past a massive police presence. The UFT is supposed to send in HSVP Leo Casey with 10 reps from closing schools in each borough to get to a mic and urge people to leave. It doesn’t happen.
6-8PM: The orchestra fills up and people are making lots of noise. “Whose schools? Our schools.” “What does democracy look like? This is what democracy looks like.” As the meeting starts, ODOE people and the students start shouting “mic check” and begin the people’s mic where one person makes a short statement and everyone repeats it. The space is so big much of what is said gets lost. Lots of people are not really clear on how to use this technique. Politicians get to speak first and when they use the amplified mic they are shouted down with chants of “use the people’s mic.” Some work their way through the crowd and join in with ODOE. 
Once it is clear that no one is leaving, the UFT reverses direction again and decide to stay. UFT sends emissaries to ODOE to say UFT President Mulgrew wants to use the people’s mic. They welcome him with cheers. The UFT sends the people back from PS 20 to Tech. Many in the upstart ODOE group feel they have won a pissing contest with the UFT Goliath.
Things get increasingly chaotic. The DOE cranks up the decibel level of the amplified sound which begins to drown out the people’s mic. People begin to speak at the regular mic. ODOE is in some retreat. Students decide to walk out and meet in the lobby where a student led people’s mic takes place with passionate statements defending their schools. They decide to go back in and continue the battle. Police block the doors. There is much pushing and shoving with charges that a lockout constitutes a violation of the open meeting law. Police stand aside. Students flood into the left aisle. 
Some in ODOE are getting worried the extremely volatile situation might lead to police overreaction and a decision is made to have one speaker use the amplified mic with a speech urging people to leave, an ironic twist given ODOE had been urging people to stay ‘till the bitter end.” But staying and listening passively to each 2 minute plea to save a school, only to know that the PEP will vote to close them anyway is just not in the DNA of many ODOE people. Most people leave with just a few hundred left to harass the PEP as they vote to close the schools. The meeting drones on for hours with speakers pouring their hearts out in 2-minute segments about why their schools should not be phased out.

The finale
Before the meeting ends at 11PM, the panel members from the boroughs force Dennis Walcott and other DOE officials to justify the closing of schools. It is here that Queens rep Dmytro Fedkowskyj comes up big, real big. Fedkowskyj questions DOE officials Dennis Walcott, Marc Sternberg and Shael Polokow-Suransky with an intensity and seething anger not seen before, forcing them to defend the concept that closing schools is a solution. Fedkowskyj makes a passionate statement (nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2012/02/dmytro-fedkowskyj-on-why-he-voted-no-on.html) , joining the Bronx, Brooklyn  and Manhattan reps who also stand firm in defense of the schools in their boroughs.  In the end all four vote against the closing of every school. Only the Staten Island rep stands with the eight Bloomberg panel members. The remnants of ODOE heckle and boo as the vote is taken.
As the audience files out, James Eterno, union rep from Jamaica HS, who sat through the same kind of vote to close his school a year ago, says, “No matter how many times I come here and see the PEP vote to shut down schools, it never stops the hurt. It’s like watching a death in the family.”

Postscript: Monday, February 13
Queens Borough President Helen Marshall (who has often supported Bloomberg or been mostly silent on education issues) and Fedkowskyj host a hearing at borough hall for the eight so-called “turn-around” schools in the borough faced with closing in the next round where at least 50% of the teachers will be replaced, vowing to push back against the DOE, which has been accused of holding these schools hostage to force the union into agreeing to a plan to evaluate teachers based 40% on one test score a year. Gotham Schools reports, “Marshall often clapped and cheered as she listened to dozens of teachers and families defend their schools. Occasionally she even interjected to describe how her respect for teachers developed over years of working as an early childhood educator.” Is it possible the message is seeping through? That handing total power over the school system to one person is a very dangerous thing?