GEM Film Inspires Man To Lunacy

What a disgusting bunch you are! Your group and efforts to undermine people that actually care about children has mobilized me into action!  --- Jeff Thompson, from outer space

Yes, we get letters at GEM. Thompson was so inspired he left a 12:30 AM rant on the cell phone of a woman with a week old baby. Yes, Jeff, we see how you care about children.



Here is the email.

From: Jeff Thompson <lawoflift1@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Jul 13, 2012 at 12:46 AM
Subject: The Inconvenient Truth behind Waiting for Superman
To: gemnyc@gmail.com

What a disgusting bunch you are!

When I went to school, we were taught HOW to think, not WHAT to think.  In debate, discussion was stopped when one side tried to denigrate the other instead of showing the merits of their own argument.

Your union leaders and those that willingly follow them should be ashamed of themselves.  Thank GOD Walker won in Wisconsin and you will soon lose OH, IN and MI as INDEPENDENT THOUGHT and SENSE make their way through the crap you spew into responsible people's minds.

People are done with the mediocrity you have been dishing out through your union minions.

Your effort to achieve a socialist rainbow and unicorn utopia where the "evil rich" pay for your lazy, union-protected rear ends as you push children over the brink of failure by the millions will be coming to an end!

Thank you for your blatent lack of anything substantive.  Your group and efforts to undermine people that actually care about children has mobilized me into action!

--
Thank you,

Jeff Thompson

THANK YOU, JEFF for the great yuks. You are some great writer of parody, but shame in you for making fun of those right wing tea bagger nuts. 


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The opinions expressed on EdNotesOnline are solely those of Norm Scott and are not to be taken as official positions (though Unity Caucus/New Action slugs will try to paint them that way) of any of the groups or organizations Norm works with: ICE, GEM, MORE, Change the Stakes, NYCORE, FIRST Lego League NYC, Rockaway Theatre Co., Active Aging, The Wave, Aliens on Earth, etc.

EXCELLENT COMIC BOOK ON THE SABOTAGE OF PUBLIC ED

Yes, the tide is turning against Ed Deform when comics are making fun of them. In case you missed my post the other day also check out these videos from Harvard Grad School of Ed: Parody of Ed Deform: Race to the Top Cake






READ ENTIRE COMIC AT

http://www.archcomix.com/Education.html

Video: MORE UFT History Event Attracts SRO Crowd

It's great to see so many activists from TJC, ICE., GEM, NYCORE, Occupy and others come together under MORE and all the new comers who felt empowered yesterday to finally have a forum for their voice.  ------Attendee at MORE Event

Last night's opening of the Movement of Rank and File Educators' Summer 2012 series of events focusing on a history of teacher unionism in NYC and the history of the UFT from the perspective of the opposition caucuses drew a much larger crowd than expected. I made about 20 copies of handouts expecting to take some home. I could have almost tripled the number. I made a very rough count of 50 from where I was sitting but it was so crowded some people just hung out at the bar, for sure a better experience than listening to me yap, though I won't say the same for Michael Fiorillo, who always manages to captivate an audience.

I won't make any judgements on what it means for 50+ people to come to a talk on the history of teacher unions on a hot summer night. How many are ready to become active in a group like MORE? Given the amount of work that needs to be done to build an alternative to Unity Caucus, they sure are needed.

What was interesting was that it wasn't just the usual suspects but lots of people we did not know. I was pleased when one of them stopped by on the way out to introduce himself as a regular reader of Ed Notes. Here are the 2 videos of Michael and I. I'm going to work on the Q and A section which lasted about an hour and was very interesting and stimulating. People clearly want to talk about this stuff, which for a wonk like me is heaven. Really, I spoke for about 17 minutes and could have gone on for an hour. Michael too.

By the way, MORE doesn't have video accounts yet so I'm using the GEM vimeo sites to post.
---------------


MORE Summer 2012 Series: UFT History Through 1968 With Michael Fiorillo from Grassroots Education Movement on Vimeo.
https://vimeo.com/45698849

--------------


MORE Summer 2012 UFT Caucus History Since 1968 - Norm Scott from Grassroots Education Movement on Vimeo.

https://vimeo.com/45705700

Comment from an attendee:

the presentations were wonderful, they were engaging, and really relevant to our movement. I can say i learned a lot and will buy the book Mike suggested. To some of us new to inner union politics it was really an education. Norm and Mike were so spirited an knowledgeable it was really fun to listen to and I took notes. Best line of the night by Mike" Unity is anti-communist and how ironic that they now act like a one party communist state" really funny stuff...

================

The opinions expressed on EdNotesOnline are solely those of Norm Scott and are not to be taken as official positions (though Unity Caucus/New Action slugs will try to paint them that way) of any of the groups or organizations Norm works with: ICE, GEM, MORE, Change the Stakes, NYCORE, FIRST Lego League NYC, Rockaway Theatre Co., Active Aging, The Wave, Aliens on Earth, etc.

Thoughts on Teacher Unions and the Roots of Activism

So today Michael Fiorillo and me are doing a short history of teacher unions in NYC. I have been putting together some notes on pre and post 1968 events. The outlines total 6 pages. I was going to publish them here today but I thought it best to get some feedback tonight and modify them before publishing. Here is a draft of a diagram I made -- and I'm sure groups are being left out and we will update it.

I based a lot of the post-68 stuff on my own memory so some of it is iffy -- and admittedly prejudiced by my views --- history is what I say it is does not work for me so I hope to do lots of follow-up, including some video interview with key people. (I'm so sorry I didn't get to Paul Baizerman who died last December.)

Peter Pamphere sent some suggestions from Viet Nam where he is spending 3 months.

To help folks prepare for the discussion this coming Thursday on the UFT Past and Present, I wanted to encourage people to read the pamphlet Teacher Power, by Steve Zeluck.  I found it really useful when preparing for the workshop on UFT history for the State of the Union conference (thanks Norm for posting the video!), and we did some very productive study groups around in GEM.  It was written in the '70s, but some of the critique of the union leadership reads like it could have been written yesterday, and provides what I think is a very useful analysis of why our union is the way it is.

You can download it from the link below...

http://www.mediafire.com/?qpwf4v7tmy9dakf

Videos are here: presented by Michael Fiorillo and Peter Lamphere at the State of the Union conference (Feb. 4. 2012).

Michael: Teacher unions up to 1968 (22 minutes): https://vimeo.com/45094559

Peter: Post 1968 (15 minutes):  https://vimeo.com/45094560

Both videos plus the Q&A (1 hour):  https://vimeo.com/45094713

I moved the blurb below to the top of the sidebar:

History of the UFT Pre-Weingarten Years

This award-winning series of articles by Jack Schierenbeck originally appeared in the New York Teacher in 1996 and 1997 - naturally, from a certain point of view. But, despite certain biases, Schierenbeck, a great guy, was one of the best NY Teacher reporters so this is worth reading. Jack suffered a debilitating stroke many years ago (I used to get secret donations to ed notes from him through a 3rd source.)

This chapter looks interesting:

Class struggles: The UFT story, part 3

“The schism in the union over radical politics [is] a major reason for stalling the growth of a teacher union for decades.” Revolutionary politics and ideology take center stage, as the original Teachers Union becomes a battlefield, pitting leftist against leftist and splitting the union.

Clarence Taylor's "Reds at the Blackboard" focused on the old Teachers Union which disbanded in 1964 after suffering from anti-left attacks.

Of course for another view, check out the review of the Kahlenberg Bio on Shanker by Vera Pavone and me.

You can't talk about union history without discussing the role the left played and will continue to play. I will touch on this aspect tonight -- from the perspective of a non-activist, non-left 4th year teacher in 1970 who became an activist due to the influence of left wing activists.

I also want to post some thoughts on the current state of teacher unions from the assailed teacher who said he would come tonight and I'm sure will add interesting analysis.

In his piece here is a missing component that I hope the presentation tonight will touch on: the ideology driving our union leaders since the founding of the UFT and before. A key event took place on the mid-late 1930s when the forefathers of the UFT walked out of the Teachers Union as they were about to lose power to the left and formed the Teachers Guild which became a competing force and eventually organized the UFT over 20 years later. Why did they leave and why have they done everything possible to steer the union in a certain direction? Now not everyone agrees with the assessment that the Teachers Union was progressive and the Teachers Guild was not, given the substantial achievement of organizing the UFT into a potent force. Sometimes in the strife of the internal battles we forget that.

Here are a few excerpts from The Death and Birth of Teacher Unions

The destruction of teacher unions has been a major goal of education reform. It now seems that goal is coming true.

The most perplexing question I have about this situation was prompted by the statement Randi Weingarten made recently about instituting a sort of bar exam for teachers. At every turn, Randi has shown herself to be utterly beholden to the education reformers, the people whose goal is the destruction of the union she represents. The same thing goes for UFT president Michael Mulgrew, who sits on the board of New Visions, an organization that seeks to destroy public schools and build charters upon their carcasses.

Why are our union leaders collaborating with the people who are out to destroy our union?

It is an old question for sure. The strategy of our union leaders has been to collaborate on many points of education reform in order to prevent the image of a stodgy, mossback outfit with no interest in educational innovation from sticking. Yet, despite these efforts (their efforts at collaboration, that is), the image still sticks.

In 2005, when Randi was still the president of the UFT, she agreed to a contract with Pharaoh Bloomberg that gave most of our rights away. Her defenders said that this was the best deal that could have been worked out at the time. The winds were blowing in the direction of ed reform and Randi was shrewd to co-opt some of that wind in order to get something for the teachers she represented. After all, it was better to sway with the wind than to stand against it and get blown over.

And yes, even I subscribed to this notion when that contract was first negotiated.

Seven years later and the statistics have made it apparent: teachers unions are literally dying.
Why did the unions do all of this collaborating if, in the end, they were going to die anyway? The whole point of swaying with the wind was to prevent getting blown over by those winds. Yet, we swayed and got blown over anyway.

It does not make any sense to me.

Despite her efforts, she is still perceived as a shrill union hack. The fact that the union she represents is dying (and I am assuming that the statistics about the NEA’s dwindling membership is analogous to what is happening to the AFT) certainly does not recommend her in any way as a competent public administrator. All of this collaboration just so her union and her career can die in the end anyway.

It is maddening. And the question in my mind still stands as to why.

The next teacher union will be equal parts teacher and union. In that, it will be the next great movement.

Tonight we hope to explore the WHY.

Read in full: The Death and Birth of Teacher Unions

==========

The opinions expressed on EdNotesOnline are solely those of Norm Scott and are not to be taken as official positions (though Unity Caucus/New Action slugs will try to paint them that way) of any of the groups or organizations Norm works with: ICE, GEM, MORE, Change the Stakes, NYCORE, FIRST Lego League NYC, Rockaway Theatre Co., Active Aging, The Wave, Aliens on Earth, etc.

In Ed Deform, Consultants Get The First Cut

Gotham Schools' piece on the ruling the other day on the turnaround schools, Judge rules that city must reinstate staff at turnaround schools,

contained some interesting tidbits about the "consultants" and "partners" and I'm disappointed that Gotham or the rest of the press never delves into this issue by asking the most basic question: WHY DO WE NEED THEM AND HOW MUCH DOES THIS ALL COST?

Here is an excerpt:

Along with New Visions for Public Schools, which is working with the former John Adams and Automotive high schools in Queens, educational partners include Diplomas Now, which is working with Sheepshead Bay and Newtown high schools this fall, and Institute for Student Achievement, which is working with the Dewey campus.
Vincent Brevetti, Institute for Student Achievement’s senior director for program management, said it was difficult planning a summer training program not knowing who would work at the school this fall.
“We proceeded on the basis of the principal bringing whatever staff was available to come to the institute, regardless of whether or not they were rehired because we didn’t know what was happening,” he said. “So our stance is that we’re working with whatever we’re handed.”
If the city loses its appeal, teachers who weren’t chosen by personnel committees would be allowed to return to the buildings, creating potential friction with their supervisors. It’s not clear if any principals who left during the 2011-12 school year could come back if the arbitrator’s ruling holds up.
Mr. Hughes, of New Visions for Public Schools, said the entire episode revealed two big weaknesses.
“The long-term problem is how do we deal with the fact that we have no clear strategic plan to turn around some of the city’s lowest performing schools,” he said. “And in the short term, we have the challenge of opening in the fall after an extraordinarily frustrating process that remains unresolved.”

Guys like Robert Hughes and Vincent Brevetti are amongst the blood suckers feeding at the public ed trough. Ed deform which is based on the idea that public school systems have no ability to manage themselves (unless they are in white suburbs) --- and how ironic that Bloomberg/Walcott/Klein/Duncan - who are/were charged with managing public schools sign on to the idea that they are not capable of managing the schools they run.

So New Visions and Institute for Student Achievement join how many other such agencies that have become part of the education money tree? These guys and their orgs must be making some bucks that are taken out of the hide of our classrooms and children. We all know that at least 30% of the money goes to these consultants and the rest for stuff like staff development that so many teachers find problematical.

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The opinions expressed on EdNotesOnline are solely those of Norm Scott and are not to be taken as official positions (though Unity Caucus/New Action slugs will try to paint them that way) of any of the groups or organizations Norm works with: ICE, GEM, MORE, Change the Stakes, NYCORE, FIRST Lego League NYC, Rockaway Theatre Co., Active Aging, The Wave, Aliens on Earth, etc.

Susan Ohanian Goodies and Monty Neill Testing Fact Sheet

I can't resist posting these. So much good stuff I don't have time to read them all but they are all enticing. I need to extract the Rich Gibson NEA report and post separately given I posted EIA's very different angle a few days ago ( and got a nice note from Mike Antonucci).

Give the often hopelessness of The Situation, it is mighty tempting to join Susan in raising yaks. Or camels. All one has to do is ask, "One hump or two?"

UPDATE: I wanted to include something Monty Neill sent out:

FairTest has revised and updated two of its most popular fact sheets (all FT fact sheets are at http://fairtest.org/fact%20sheets).

How Standardized Testing Damages Education - at http://fairtest.org/how-standardized-testing-damages-education-pdf

What's Wrong with Standardized Tests? - http://fairtest.org/facts/whatwron.htm

We hope you find these and our other fact sheets of use in your advocacy and education week. They may be freely circulated, printed, etc., so long as proper credit is given and the use is not for profit.

Monty

Susan Ohanian writes

Compiling and writing the items in this post drives  me a whole lot closer to leaving the computer and taking up gardening or raising yaks. This is Vermont. There's a yurt a mile from my house. Also two wineries within three miles. Somebody has a camel 6 miles from here. I don't know why. I just mention these in realization that life COULD have possibilities other than obsession with Common Core resistance.

Not wanting to sound overly dramatic, I have to say these items have just drained my soul.

Cartoons: go to
http://susanohanian.org/cartoons.php
and you can see three on the screen. One is good news from Georgia.

You probably need to read the posts below on Georgia activities--two cartoons and two articles-- to understand why I posted the New Yorker cartoon.

More Cartoons: Georgia Data Source for Evaluating Teachers
http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_cartoons.php?id=796

NEA Rep Assembly Delegates Given SHARK Bags
http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_cartoons.php?id=795

Toddler Test Prep
http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_cartoons.php?id=792

Common Core Enforcement Tool Coming to a School Near You
http://susanohanian.org/cartoon_fetch.php?id=668

Kudos to the Georgia professors. Kudos to the Georgia parents.

And there is a Good News item that will warm your heart. Kudos to 9-year-olds.

Susan

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New York State Reading  Association Celebrates Common Core
Susan Ohanian
notes on conference program
2012-07-12
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=298

The Common Core State (sic) Standards dominate the NY State Reading Association conference. This mirrors what's happening across the country. Speakers lead audience in drinking Kool-Aid.

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Straight Talk about Common Core
Victor Rivero and Chet Linton, with Susan Ohanian
Tech Digest
2012-07-10
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=297

Let the reader beware. . .

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NEA's Representative Assembly Part Four Mopping Up... The Budget; The Left at and After the RA. Coming: Why are Things as They Are?
Rich Gibson

2012-07-11
http://susanohanian.org/show_commentary.php?id=1033

Part 4 of Rich Gibson's analysis of the NEA Rep Assembly.

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School as Wonder, or Way Out
Ta-Nehisi Coates

2012-07-11
http://susanohanian.org/show_commentary.php?id=1032

The author, a senior editor at The Atlantic, talks about what happens when a kid internalizes failure. He speaks from first-hand knowledge.

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NEA Convention Report, Day Three... The NEA Representative Assembly Part Three 'We Mis-Educate Our Members and the Nation! No Bullying! Obama! Money=Values!'
Rich Gibson

2012-07-09
http://susanohanian.org/show_commentary.php?id=0

This is the kind of reporting we need: On-the-spot, knowledgeable,and very very skeptical.

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NEA Convention Report. Part Two, more of the same, and worse... If 'Wisconsin' was a victory, how does the NEA spell D E F E A T?... The NEA Representative Assembly Days Two and Three, 2012 Grueling T
Rich Gibson

2012-07-08
http://susanohanian.org/show_commentary.php?id=0

NEA wouldn't even back the student strikes in Canada. Does their refusal to back SOS mean Lily won't be there?

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NEA Convention Report. Part One... The National Education Association Representative Assembly 2012... 'Patriotism! Democracy! It’s About Us! We Teach America! '
Rich Gibson

2012-07-08
http://susanohanian.org/show_commentary.php?id=0

Here is part one of Rich Gibson's report from the NEA Representative Assembly.

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To the editor
Joanne Yatvin
The Oregonian
2012-07-10
http://susanohanian.org/show_letter.php?id=1457

Joanne Yatvin answers David Brooks.

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Georgia Department of Education Says Evaluation Plan Won’t Work But Will Implement it Anyway?
Jack Hassard
blog
2012-07-08
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1366

Georgia's requested modification of the RTTT required teacher evaluation system points to the absurdity of the whole system.

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Got Bullied? Get Disneyland!
Jo Scott-Coe
The Nervous Breakdown
2012-07-09
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1365

In this powerful essay Jo Scott-Coe asks us to look beyond the public outpouring of funds to the the 68-year old bus monitor who was treated so badly by 7th grade boys.

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On Special Education, Spurned Teacher Is Vindicated
Michael Powell
New York Times
2012-07-07
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1364

A teacher told his principal the school was violating state special ed requirements and she booted him. Now state vindicates him.

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9-Year-Old Who Changed School Lunches Silenced By Politicians
Maryn McKenna
Wired
0000-00-00
http://susanohanian.org/show_yahoo.php?id=773

Read the wonderful story of a 8-year-old girl and the charitable work she inspired.

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Georgia Professors Speak Up--Loudly and Clearly
letter from Georgia academics
GREATER
2012-06-25
http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_atrocities.php?id=4249

Georgia professors speak out from their 'ethical, moral, and professional obligation.' This makes academics from 3 states. Will the other 47 remain silent?
------------------------------

----------------------
Order the CD of the resistance:
"No Child Left Behind? Bring Back the Joy."
To order online (and hear samples from the songs)
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/dhbdrake4
Other orders: Send $15 to
Susan Ohanian
P. O. Box 26
Charlotte, VT 05445
--------------------------------------------

Some Network UFT People to Join ATR Pool

While moving from office to office in my virtual rubber room, I encountered many network UFT employees who said their grants are not being renewed and they too will be joining the ATR pool. I hear this is all across the city. ---  Francesco Portelos

What about the higher ups in the networks? I bet that is why so many of them were being put in as principals. Typical. Union people go to ATR pool (maybe a lesson for people who jump at network jobs).

UPDATE:
I had to add some of the comments into this post in response to a network person who says network people are hired because they are exemplary educators. Sounds like E4E speak.

Michael FiorilloJuly 11, 2012 9:58:00 PM EDT

"... most of us were promoted for being exemplary educators."

Look, I know everybody's gotta eat, but your "promotions" were to fundamentally parasitic entities that are complicit in Bloomberg's assault on the schools and your fellow colleagues. And you're OK with that?

NYCDOEnuts has left a new comment on your post "Some Network UFT People to Join ATR Pool":

Michael Fiorillo for President!

Look, when my principal was removed two years ago, it wasn't the Sup that pulled the plug: it was the network. When my school was accused of suspending too many kids, it wasn't the Sup that said knock it off, it was the network. Don't tell me your group does't have a supervisory role. The only problem I see with Tweeheads is that they (read YOU) think that everyone else is dumb. If that "group-think character flaw" is taken away, you guys might actually be able to do some great work down there.

And to the other commenter, you must understand that there is no reliable way of ascertaining that you were ever a great educator. All we know is that you received an S. Why don't you come back after the APPR kicks in? We can put your talents to great show as a 'Master Teacher' in one of the 24?

We also know that GREAT educators stay in the classroom (oh and we know that you did not). It sounds more reasonable to conclude that you're well liked and that you interviewed well. And while these are traits I don't hold against people, it should be noted that when those same traits transfer to classroom teacher, Tweedheads run for the hills screaming 'halo effect!' 'halo effect!'.

One last thing to the network folks: There is absolutely no systematic accountability built into your jobs, is there? I mean if your schools do poorly, then you don't lose your job (the way almost 3,500 of MY colleagues did last month for 'doing poorly'), do you?

I mean, honestly, isn't that why this piece got you defensive enough to post a comment? 

fportelos (http://protectportelos.wordpress.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Some Network UFT People to Join ATR Pool":

OK, here is what I know about networks:
-They are a support group to a school in EVERY aspect. I mean from budget, to safety, to writing CEP that is supposed to be written by School Leadership Teams, to PD's to payroll etc.
-The principal in my school is horrible in that she mismanages money, doesn't discipline and just doesn't run the school properly...who supports all that???.....The CFN.
-The DOE/HR Director Andrew Gordon/My Principal/Network 211 made a lot of mistakes when it came to coming after and reassigning me. The biggest might have been moving me from Staten Island to 8201 Rockaway Blvd where I met and spoke to my principal's "support" group. That is like sending Jason Bourne to Langley!!

Read this post here and you will see what I am taking about. I emailed my principal from the Rubber Room basement only to hear Laura Kaiser, CFN 211 Director of Operations, yell on the phone [to my principal] "No..He (me) is not on the SLT...this is Harassment. Contact Legal! It's up to legal"

Then I asked the Payroll person about my FOIL findings where it shows my principal was double dipping and writing her own per session times in and I was told "You do not govern her! She governs you!" Actually the words used might have been "supervise". Principal Linda Hill used the same exact words as the network "It's in legal's hands." and "I govern you...you don't govern me."

Network Mentioned: http://protectportelos.wordpress.com/2012/05/08/national-teacher-appreciation-day-and-stuff/

Really, where is the press on these network scam(mers)?
How do you have a network office in Ozone Park "supporting" a school in Staten Island? Geography in NYC DOES matter. What fantasy world are these people living in? I guess Bloomberg figures everyone can helicopter over the traffic.


IN CASE YOU MISSED THESE RECENT POST ON ED NOTES (LATEST ON TOP).

• The Dilemma: How to be Critical of Our Union Leade...
• Where We Stood - and Still Stand
• Reports from the NEA by EIA
• Parody of Ed Deform: Race to the Top Cake
• We Apologize
• No Worries, the End is Coming

The Dilemma: How to be Critical of Our Union Leaders Without Being Viewed as Attacking the Union?

I am even more at odds with those who use every disagreement to launch broadsides against the union.... Before you go using my tweet to go off batshit crazy on the AFT, please get your facts straight.--- Mike Klonsky comment on Ed Notes Post: UFT/AFT Sells Out on Common Core":

To Ed Shultz: why are you rolling out someone who'd switched sides more times than General Dostum and calling her a union activist?   - Sean Crowley, teacher in Buffalo, on Randi

I take Mike Klonsky's point seriously though the graphic indicated my thinking when it concerns expressing sympathy for Randi. The problem is Randi has made herself the AFT just as the made herself the UFT.

First let me clarify about my using Mike's tweet to go after the AFT on common core. I had the impression that the resolution was being sponsored by the AFT but Mike points out it wasn't -- not yet at least. But the UFT and AFT have pushed common core so I'm expecting if not this reso maybe something similar.

Here was Mike's tweet:

 "I can't get behind AFT's resolution on Common Core Standards. To me it contradicts their resolution on testing. http://lockerz.com/s/223095221 --"

You can read Mike's full comment below.

But the more important issue is something Mike has been raising regarding the level of criticism of what he terns the "union" and what I term the "misleading, undemocratic, bloodsucking, sellout oligarchy running the union."

A big difference but as my pals tell me involves some level of being tactical and subtle (NOT ME) and making sure to distinguish between the leadership and the union. Now here in NYC we have a situation where the 50 year leadership that controls the union has made itself into one and the same by controlling every single aspect of the union operation. Call it "embedded on steroids." And don't forget that Unity Caucus is the key to controlling the state - NYSUT - and the national - AFT due to NYC being by far the largest local in the nation.

When the massively funded ed deformers engage in attacks on teacher unions -- no matter how hard Randi tries to suck up she can't do enough of it to get most of them off her back -- it creates sympathy for the devil and people like me begin to look like aiders and abetters of the attackers. I have no easy way out of this as my goal is to do what I can to create an organization within the UFT that can challenge Unity and that takes people. Lots of people. I can play a neutral position -- like praise them when the do the right thing and hammer them when they screw up or just go at them all the time. The latter is my nature.

Mike expressed some of his own frustration with Randi without going batshit in this post: 

There's no fix without fight in Cleveland

Here the union was under severe attack and made a deal that looks bad. But he points out that "some of the most draconian parts of the original plan were beaten back." OK. That is what we hear from the UFT all the time (they wanted to execute 2 teachers but we got it cut to 1 -- and maybe the point is that better to save one at least.

 Then Mike points out a crucial point in comparing Cleveland to Chicago:

plans like Cleveland's are favored by both parties -- especially by Obama/Duncan. The plan fits perfectly with Duncan's Race To The Top. To really stand up to it, the Cleveland Teachers Union would have to be ready to take on the weight of the entire system and buck Democratic Party and AFT leaders as the CTU is trying to do in Chicago.  AFT Pres. Randi Weingarten has been pushing hard on local unions to accept these type of deals. She and local union prez,  David Quolke hailed a similar plan in New Haven as "a model" for the rest of the county.

Kasich's attempt last year to totally crush the state's unions was defeated when the entire labor movement and national allies rallied and voters beat back his SB5 bill. This time around, he and the  corporate reformers were able to push through a plan, with help from Democrats and union leaders, that applied only to Cleveland and not the whole state. The tactic worked and is now being used in other states, especially in cities like Chicago where there's mayoral control of the schools.

The new plan shifts even more resources away from city schools, closes more of them and turns them and over to privately-managed charters. It makes it easier to fire veteran teachers without due process. Teacher pay and evaluation linked to student test scores is now embedded in the law. Union leaders, including Weingarten from the AFT signed off on this without any real Chicago-style mobilization of city teachers and community supporters. No line in the sand has been drawn -- yet.

The latter point is so important we can't let it go. The difference is Chicago where the union leadership IS NOT ALLOWING RANDI-STYE UNIONISM TO SELL THEM OUT WITHOUT A FIGHT. BUT SHE WILL TRY.

That message must be hammered home to our friends in Chicago who at times actually seem to think they are winning Randi over to their side. She is just playing them. That is as much her nature as my going after her all the time is mine.

Mike concludes with:

Will public education and the union live to fight another day as a result of this agreement and the concessions made? Anti-union conservatives like Stanford's Terry Moe are worried about that. He predicted that, as details of the plan get negotiated, union leaders will “do whatever they can to water them down and make them as non-threatening as possible.”

Maybe. We shall see. But what's repulsive is the sight of union leaders hailing these plans as a national models of collaboration. It's one thing to lose a fight to a more powerful (at least for now) foe. It's quite another to call that defeat a victory.... Does the union have the heart for such a struggle? Are current leaders up for it? If not, there's really bad times ahead for Cleveland schools.

I really do want to be like Mike in being so tactical but find it so hard.

Well, we've been seeing the UFT calling every defeat a victory for years so get used to it. With the attitude that you can't fight them we have no chance. My bet is that unless Cleveland elects a Chicago-style CORE caucus there is no heart for such a struggle. And that same lesson hold here in NYC. The problem on our end is to actually create an organization that is capable of leading these struggles and we have a long way to go with MORE in such a nascent stage.

Suggestion: read Assailed Teacher on The Death and Birth of Teacher Unions
---------
Let's shuffle off to Buffalo: I got this from Sean Crowley, a teacher in Buffalo and not a Randi fan:

ed schultz

Hello norm, I was wishing you could have been patched through to Randi Weingarten yesterday as she pontificated to clueless Eddie about the plight of pedagogues. As if she knows. That big dope is just as outta touch as all of the cracks he makes about Mittens Romney just in a down home just folksier -- lookit the bass I caught -- kinda fashion. If there is any way you can break through and do the interview none of these Obama friendly shills and hacks will do because it trumps all of their happy b.s. about their deep concern for teachers. Wait a minute Ed why are you rolling out someone who'd switched sides more times than General Dostum and calling her a union activist? Thanks for your time.

Sean Crowley

Sean followed up with: "you are revered and admired by many of my BTF brothers and sisters here in Buffalo." I may just shuffle off to bask in the glory.
Sean's blog is: B-loedscene.blogspot.com

Here is Mike Klonsky full comment on the post "UFT/AFT Sells Out on Common Core":

Norm,

Before you go using my tweet to go off batshit crazy on the AFT, please get your facts straight. First of all, this is just a resolution being proposed by a local in Oklahoma of non-instructional staff, asking the AFT for support and training around Common Core, same as instructional staff gets. The AFT exec board hasn't endorsed it and the AFT convention hasn't even been held yet.

Yes, I have been openly critical of Common Core Standards and find CCS at odds with the AFT's anti-testing resolution. But I am even more at odds with those who use every disagreement to launch broadsides against the union.

The picture you posted with the title cut off is misleading and the conclusions you draw are way out of proportion to the issue you are referring to here. You need to make some correction.

Mike says I cut off the picture but I just took the pic from his link: http://lockerz.com/s/223095221 --

At any rate, I'm glad he raised the issue because it is an important one. ICE was attacked for attacking the union leadership vociferously. New Action took the other tack -- the union is under attack, we have to form a united front.

---------
We will delve into some of these issues at the opening of the MORE summer series tomorrow. I've been wracking my poor brain to put together a history and will publish it on Ed Notes tomorrow before the event.

SAVE THE DATE: JULY 12, 5PM

Come see Michael Fiorillo and me do a history of teacher unions in NYC and UFT Caucuses since the late 60's. Find out the roots of New Action, ICE, TJC, GEM and the evolution into the current MORE.

Come to our Thursday Night Summer Series at:

LOLITA Bar - located at 266 Broome Street (Between Grand & Delancey Streets) NYC, take the F to Delancey St. or the J, M, Z to Essex St.

MORE in the SUMMER

5pm-8pm

Each “listen & learn” discussion will be preceded by a brief membership meeting at which all are welcome, and followed by happy hour socializing & schmoozing

July 12 –

The Roots of MORE: The UFT, Then and Now – Historical perspective of caucuses in the UFT over the past half century. {With Michael Fiorillo and Norm Scott]

Where We Stood - and Still Stand

Teachers’ working conditions are students’ learning conditions. ----ICE Platform, 2009/10

I'm glad MORE has adopted this slogan. I'm not claiming ICE came up with this but it may have. Can't really remember. I was reviewing some docs from the past for the MORE crew and thought this piece ICE produced as part of a 28 page platform -- or rather concept on how the union should work during the summer of 2009 in prep for running in the 2010 elections --- made some great points. All parts are in the sidebar at http://uftelections2010.blogspot.com.

How to boil this narrative down to a piece of a manageable platform.

ICE platform, Part V

V. Working conditions, professional autonomy, seniority, salary and benefits

“Teachers’ working conditions are students’ learning conditions.”

The union contract, and only the union contract, allows people to make teaching a career. Many educators often spend their entire professional lives serving the children of a particular community. This is an inestimable social benefit that is often overlooked.

The union must be willing to:

Fight against the de-skilling of educators, marginalization, intimidation, and unionbusting.

“School reform” is premised on top-down management of instruction. Decisions made prescriptively through packaged programs place enormous restrictions on a teacher’s ability to service the needs of individual students. Union officials choose to take a weak stand again violations to Articles 8 and 24 of the contract, which call in different ways for an enormous amount of teacher input and participation and offer ways to resolve differences.

New and less experienced teachers are prevented from becoming good teachers when they are denied opportunities to try strategies and take risks. Ill-prepared and poorly trained administrators (many with little classroom experience) and regional personnel (some still politically connected), have reduced professional support to a checklist. In many cases they instill fear, and in fact, programs like PIP+ have been specifically designed to remove teachers from the system rather than improve instruction. The UFT has allowed these methods to distort teacher training and leave teachers open to attack.

Teachers with long service in their schools can be a valuable resource in reaching out to the community and formulating models for success. Neither the DoE nor our present union officials appreciate how spending years or even decades working in the same neighborhood might yield valuable knowledge for enhancing learning.

There are times, however, when teachers wish to change schools, and the seniority transfer system the union gave up in the last contract, based on non-discriminatory criteria, afforded them somewhat of a chance to do so. In its place, we now have the "open market," which permits a greater ability to transfer for some teachers, the newer ones in particular, but allows much discrimination against senior and disliked teachers, chapter leaders, or anyone else. In the face of school closings and reorganizations and principals finding it easy to hide vacancies and hire at will, a disproportionate number of senior teachers are unable to find new positions through the open market. They become “teachers without positions,” or ATRs (Absent Teacher Reserves), sometimes for the rest of their careers. Changes in the way salaries are funded have also made newer teachers more attractive prospects than the higher paid vets.

Apart from obvious salary discrimination (and possibly age and race discrimination as well), members are being removed from positions on improper 3020a procedures and false or perfunctory charges. In many instances these people are whistle-blowers, union activists, and educators who stand up to principals, and they face serious fines or losing their licenses. Union officials have shown a disappointing acceptance of the DoE’s maneuvers and rationale, almost to the point of collaboration. They also ignore the early retirement of so many teachers who have been frustrated with the current working conditions or who have been treated unfairly.

One of the most troublesome aspects of the 2007 contract was the gutting of the grievance procedure. Having negotiated a new set of procedures that puts no check on principals who misuse their authority, and having afforded principals access to teams of lawyers, the DoE has been able to deny all Step I and II grievances across the board. Since the union can only take a limited number of cases to Step III arbitration, educators are left feeling intimidated and maligned, with no contractual means to address the widespread abuse. It is not only the teachers who suffer in this kind of environment, but the students as well.

The ever-increasing demands on the time of educators seriously impairs their ability to work with children. For teachers, the extra 37 minutes for small-group work has morphed into a range of activities that include teaching an extra period per day. New calls for more paperwork and computer entry have also cut into what teachers can accomplish during their time at school, especially in the single prep period they are allowed each day, which should by contract be self-directed. Social workers, guidance counselors and school psychologists struggle with case overloads, and secretaries seem to be increasingly overburdened.

ICE believes that:

— A teacher’s ability is highly dependent on training, experience, talent, and style. Teachers must accordingly have a say in how instruction should be delivered in their classrooms, and planning for instruction and curriculum must be collaborative and respectful. Violations to Articles 8 and 24 cannot be tolerated.

— The union must oppose one-size-fits-all methodologies at all levels (regional to school-based directives), as these do not take into account the talents and skills of individual teachers or their students.

— The teacher’s right to design the structure of his or her lessons and the written plans that accompany them must be protected, as long as such lessons adhere to the characteristics of good teaching outlined in Teaching for the 21st Century

— The union must defend against the DoE’s notion that teachers are replaceable parts.

— New language needs to added to the contract that separates salary levels from hiring decisions.

— An iron-clad no-layoff clause (as in Article 17F of the last contract) must be restored.

— There can be no new hiring until ATRs seeking positions have secured them.

— The union must renegotiate a grievance procedure with teeth.

— Principals who make frivolous charges or exhibit a pattern of acting with malice against members of their staff must be censured, fined, and/or prohibited from receiving bonuses.

— The Teacher Reassignment Centers must be closed. Members should not be spending days, months or years in holding pens. They should be reassigned to another school, not punished, while waiting for their cases to be heard.

—The caseloads of guidance counselors, social workers and school psychologists must be reduced, and reasonable limits be placed on what secretaries are required to achieve in a normal work day. These issues should be enforceable through arbitration.

Demand fairness in the licensing and evaluation of educators.

Whereas the UFT has temporarily fended off the use of tests to evaluate teachers, it has allowed contractual language that opens the door for such practices. It must lobby for the end of any exams that do not give a fair measurement of who is or can become a good teacher. Thousands of teachers who had earned satisfactory evaluations for many years were dismissed several years ago because of their failure to pass specific exams. The misuse of testing can be as unjust and harmful for teachers as it is for students.

ICE believes that:

— Certification measures should be simplified and based on meaningful written and oral tests as well as performance in the classroom.

— The UFT should seek the establishment of an apprenticeship system for new teachers.

— Learning communities are diverse, and student tests do not generally reflect the skills of individual teachers. These tests must not be allowed to influence the granting of tenure or annual ratings.

Maintain competitive salaries and job security

The median salary for a NYC teacher in 2009 is essentially unchanged from what it was fifty years ago when adjusted for inflation and the longer working day and year. Senior teachers today are less secure in their jobs. New teachers today pay a far higher percentage of their incomes for student loans and housing. The turnover rate is higher and the rate of retention is lower than it was fifty years ago.

Reports from the NEA by EIA

...the President [in his phone call to the NEA delegates] gave a hint as to how he will handle education issues in the campaign and deal with lingering dissatisfaction from a significant portion of the union.
The President emphasized the funding for teachers’ jobs in the stimulus bill, and the additional funding in the follow-on “edujobs” bill. He didn’t mention Race to the Top, Arne Duncan, charter schools, performance pay, or really any policy issue. And he took a swipe at Mitt Romney, saying, “My opponent mocks the idea that we need more teachers.”
As NEA campaigns for Obama, it will stick to the same emphasis: funding and the vulnerabilities of Romney. Addressing the other issues will wait until after the election… probably to no effect, but what else can NEA do?
The President signed off with “I’m looking forward to seeing you guys on the campaign trail.” To which NEA president Dennis Van Roekel responded, “We’re behind you all the way.” I think part of the frustration is that the union has been behind him, instead of in front of his face. ------Educational Intelligence Agency at the NEA.

Somehow I missed getting Mike Antonucci's reports from the NEA last week. Mike certainly nailed the Obama approach to teachers this year. Mike comes from the right with an anti-union bias but he does some excellent coverage. If you heard about the drastic drop in members of the NEA last week for the first time you would have known that a long time ago from reading EIA. I don't find many offensive items here but some people on the left get incensed when I post his stuff. I've been doing that even in the old pre-2006 print editions of Ed Notes and will continue to do so.

Mike focuses more on the NEA than the AFT. I sat with him in the press section at the 2004 AFT convention and we had some great conversations. (It was funny to see AFT officials sucking up to him.) That was the only time I met him. Here are the links to his reports.

Direct Links to All NEA Convention Blog Posts. In case you didn't follow along all last week with EIA's gavel-to-gavel coverage of the 2012 National Education Association Representative Assembly from Washington DC, here are the direct links to each post, in chronological order. Enjoy!

 

*  NEA Convention 2012: "We Have to Change." Seventy staffers cut and down $65 million, the delegates seem most worried about a virtual meeting for the resolutions committee.

*  NEA: "No Evidence" Teach for America Busts Unions. Judging by reader response, this was my biggest scoop of the week.

*  NEA Convention 2012: The Missing. Worst snub of the convention wasn't by President Obama.

*  NEA Convention 2012: Outside the Lines. Where once again I shirk my journalistic responsibility.

*  Biden: Romney Bad, Teachers Good. What else is there to say?

*  NEA Convention 2012: America's Greatest Education Governor Not So Great at Math. Minnesota governor's "real" numbers are imaginary.

*  Obama to Phone It In on Thursday. You know, they did have an Obama impersonator on hand. Hmmm...

*  More on Gov. Dayton's Math. Check your numbers... at the door.

*  NEA Convention 2012: Delegates to Take Up the Hot Issue of Hotel Cable Channel Selection, At least until peer pressure led to its withdrawal.

*  NEA Convention 2012: Social Justice Patriots. Demagoguing the 4th from the Left is no better than doing it from the Right.

*  NEA Convention 2012: NBI Smackdown. Delegates learn what life is like for California taxpayers.

*  NEA Convention 2012: Obama Coming In Garbled. Thank God for closed captioning.

*  A Financial Note for RA Delegates. Where those spending estimates come from.

# # #

The Education Intelligence Agency conducts public education research, analysis and investigations. E-Mail: mike@eiaonline.com

Parody of Ed Deform: Race to the Top Cake

A short time ago these Harvard students would have been jumping on the ed deform bandwagon. Now they are making fun of deformers. Are real reformers beginning to turn the tide with our little potshots against billionaires with atomic weapons? 

A blog by Harvard education school graduate students pokes fun at the reform moment. (HugsyFunnies). I picked up this great link at Gotham. 

Watch what happens when four HGSE students get down and dirty in the kitchen with School Reform. Props to Sam, Rachel, Hannah, and Jill (all IEP) for creating this masterpiece! “It’s a battle for who will win the Race to the Top Cake”

Here is part 1.



See the other parts at:

Top Ref

==========

Afterburn: Another signpost of the decline of ed deform

http://myednext.org/profiles/blogs/in-a-stunning-victory-for-america-s-public-schools-and-students

"The billionaire backed Students First shows horrendous data. See this link and refer to the 120 people talking about it and the slope downward of new likes. nearly to the base.https://www.facebook.com/StudentsFirstHQ/likes
  Hmmmm...consider the money, the PR, the political influence, and what do you have? Failure of epic proportions? A realization that Students First has much more to do with mining the public schools for profit and shortchanging the public school student while busting unions than the misleading title of the group? http://www.idahostatesman.com/2011/02/20/1535065/a-reform-plan-a-lo...
 An amazing example of the minority overtaking the majority as  $$$First policies become law with so little support from the families of the 51million public school students?? An incident where taking a mouth taper and calling her Superman via Hollywood doesn't work? 

We Apologize

Easy to apologize now that they helped Jeffries win three to one.  Old riddle: How do Democrats organize a firing squad?   In a circle, of course ------JMB

  

Dear MoveOn member,

 

Last month, you received an email from MoveOn about Councilman Charles Barron, a candidate for Congress in your district. It was offensive and inflammatory—and we shouldn't have sent it.

 

On behalf of the MoveOn staff, I apologize to you and to the Brooklyn community.

The email was all too reminiscent of the kind of attacks that have been used by our opponents to divide progressives over and over again—white folks from African Americans, Jews from non-Jews, recent immigrants from descendants of immigrants, etc.

MoveOn is a community of 7 million of us from every corner of our country. There are MoveOn members of every race, religion, and color. We aspire to bring folks together to fight for racial and economic justice and democracy—with respect for everyone. This email did the opposite.

After the email was sent, we couldn't undo the harm it had done. But we wanted to do our best to avoid doing any more damage. So we didn't say anything further about Councilman Barron for the duration of the race, limiting our involvement to communicating the positive reasons that MoveOn members in the district chose to endorse Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries back in April.

We can't take back our actions. But we can do better going forward to make sure that we are uniting, not dividing, our shared communities.

 

Again, our sincerest apologies. And if you have any thoughts you'd like to share with us about the email or about how MoveOn can be a constructive force in local races and issues in the future, please don't hesitate to email me at justin_ruben@moveon.org.

Thank you for all you do.

Justin Ruben

Executive Director

MoveOn.org Political Action

 

No Worries, the End is Coming

I wake up thinking, "Good news, the world didn't end during the night. Let's see what happens tomorrow night."

How will Bloomberg fudge the grad rates? Credit recovery

Maybe that's why I often wear ear phones and listen to sports radio to put me to sleep -- so I won't be woken up by the end of the world. But really, why worry when we know that the end is coming eventually - either in billions of years when the sun blows up or tomorrow when some fool gets a hold of a nuclear weapon?

So I don't worry about it but do track how close to the end we may be getting. I want to make sure to wear clean underwear.

How about that global warming which I've been tracking since I moved near the ocean 33 years ago? I actually expected to be under water by now. I was beginning to think even if I live as long as my dad's 94 or Ernie Borgnine's 95, being 3 blocks from the ocean and half a block from the bay (which has a sea wall), I might just have a shot at staying dry (though I won't vouch for my basement). But then at a July 4 party someone told me that the rate of acceleration of Global Warming is much greater than expected. I started thinking about the melting of glaciers and polar ice caps.  I just might end up with beachfront property yet.

I love Armageddon movies and books. In most scenarios the earth survives some catastrophe --- take your pick: nuclear war (The Road) or even more phantasmagorical - an earthquake off Japan sets of 4 nuclear reactors due to human error and they end up polluting and destroying most life on earth, but it takes 10 years for it all to happen.Then a small band of people fight off other people - or even zombies - to find a new civilization on a small patch of land -- and it's always such a good looking couple that survive. Truly the 1%.

A favorite book as a teen was the 1933 sci-fi book "When Worlds Collide" followed by the sequel "After Worlds Collide." (by Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer -- see, I still remember). I found it in Miss Gouldsmith's library at Gershwin JHS (not to be closed).

Earth gets wiped out by another planet but that planet had a twin and some people were able to escape in a rocket and land there to continue civilization. Continue? We have civilization? If the world ends how will be be able to follow the Kardashians?

I wonder how Wylie and Balmer would have played out the story just a few years later with Hitler stalking the earth? Guess who would escape to start the new civilization? Imagine, Hitler and entourage land on new planet and find synagogues on every block. The ultimate Twilight Zone story.

In the book there is a first pass by the big planet and 8 months later it comes back and wipes out the earth and the smaller planet replaces it in orbit.

Tidal waves reach heights of hundreds of meters, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes take their deadly toll, and the weather runs wild for more than two days. As a token of things to come, Bronson Alpha's first pass takes out the Moon.

Oh, the casualties. Remember the George Carlin routine where waiting for disaster numbers to come in becomes a rooting game to beat the record? This was a wowser.

On the Twilight Zone July 4th marathon one story had the earth moving either closer to the sun or further away -- either way, bad news. And there was a recent story in the New Yorker where the earth rotation slows down and people go crazy over 48 hour days. Rahm Emmauel can expand the school day to 24 hours while offering teachers a dime. Maybe that's the next gambit of ed deformers. I laid out what Eva would do a few weeks ago as the world is crumbling around her ears. (Eva Moskowitz Deals With Armageddon).

Then there are the massive sunspot type stories that consume the earth. This concept looks like it could happen one day. I read an sci-fi novel not long ago where they had 2 years to prepare - how would that affect people waging war all over the place - bet it wouldn't  stop soem of them -- can't the see the Pentagon asking for another 10 billion dollar plane that will take 30 years to develop - just in case.

I won't go into the alien invasion scenarios because those type of stories don't interest me.

OK, so we are doomed. And there are movies around that deal with this. One just out is about a couple who meet cute - 3 weeks before the end. No worries about birth control there.

I was dying to see Lars Van Trier's "Melancholia" about a rogue planet wiping out the earth. And last night there is was on Netflix. Within the first 20 minutes of this 2 hour film I was rooting for the rogue planet to speed it up. But then again there was Kirsten Dunst, who I never much noticed before not only looking good but acting up a storm. Sometimes you just have to sacrifice. I tried vainly to hold on but fell asleep before the world ended. 

UFT/AFT Sells Out on Common Core

collaborate: to cooperate, usually willingly, with an enemy nation, especially with an enemy occupying one's country--Dictionary.com 

I can't get behind AFT's resolution on Common Core Standards. To me it contradicts their resolution on testing. http://lockerz.com/s/223095221 --

Mike Klonsky ‏@mikeklonsky

Mike Klonsky's tweet hit the nail on the head on the tactics being used by Randi Weingarten on the national level at the AFT and her henchman Michael Mulgrew and the rest of Unity Caucus on the local level to divide and conquer opponents of their policy, a policy decided in the halls of power where the classroom teacher has no say.

Hold out the carrot of what appears to be on the surface, a strong resolution on testing while at the same time offering up slavish support for the Bill Gates/corporate deform common core, disguised as a sheep but really a testing wolf, with lots of money to be made by the testing/publishing (often one and the same) companies.

Given that Bloomberg/Walcott/Tweed back the Common Core 1000% as does the UFT, doesn't that give you some pause? I mean this is not about agreeing on some program to feed starving children -- unless we are talking about children starving from lack of testing.

A pic of the AFT CCS reso from Klonsky

Susan Ohanian Reports

Here is another great compilation from Susan. So many links, so little time.
--------------------------

The Good News item is so good that I can't even describe it.

And Outrages pile up.

Having just suffered WORD's obstructive mechanism to prepare citations for a long paper and being married to someone who just survived citations for a book, this old New Yorker piece hits home.  I put this observation about WORD up in notable quotes on my site: 'When, in the old days, you hit the wrong key on your typewriter, you got one wrong character. Strike the wrong keys in Word and you are suddenly writing in Norwegian Bokmal (Bokmal?). And you have no idea how you got there; you can spend the rest of the night trying to get out.'

For more, read Louis Menand's hilarious 'The End Matter: The nightmare of citation' at http://nyr.kr/McQrGm

Once you've had a laugh, then you can visit the outrages below.

Susan

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
Please Allow Me to Introduce Myself
Francine Prose
New York Times Book Review
2012-07-07
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=296

The loony Common Core prejudice against fiction pops up in a book review by Fancine Prose. She wonderfully refutes any claims that fiction isn't critical to our lives.