UFT Election Starts Today - MORE Election Leaflet - Download and Print

MORE will send them to your school if you want. Or pick some up at the Delegate Assembly today or the MORE meeting on Saturday.

Don't let any Unity hack tell you you do not have the right to distribute lit. (Contact Kit Wainer if there is a problem.)

See below for a note from Kit Wainer on procedures for distribution of lit during the elections when you can go to other schools to stuff mailboxes. (You can put MORE lit in boxes of your own school all the time.) We will post copies of the memorandum allowing you to do so.

[Excuse the jumbled type on the names -- it will print fine -- just an anomaly of this blog.]

VOTE MORE by morecaucusnyc

To: MORE leafleters
From: Kit Wainer
Re: Leafleting in the school mailboxes

Thank you for helping MORE get the word out about our 2013 election campaign!
As you place our election leaflets in the mailboxes within schools there are a few things you should know.
1. You have the right to place union literature in the mailboxes within your school or within any other school, as long as you don’t do it while you are on duty. You can do it before or after school, or during your lunch period.
2. When going to other schools make sure to sign in with security (bring photo ID), go to the office where the mailboxes are, and introduce yourself to the secretary. Show the secretary, or any administrator who asks, the Department of Education memorandum which allows you to place election literature in the mailboxes.
3. Do not agree to leave the stack with the secretary, the UFT chapter leader, or anyone else. You have a right to put them directly in the mailboxes.
4. Do not get into fights or arguments! Speak confidently but not aggressively. Getting into a battle will do you no good. If after you have shown everyone the Department of Education memorandum they still won’t let you leaflet, contact Kit Wainer (KitWainer@yahoo.com). Kit will contact the UFT and the UFT will get the Department of Education to tell the principal to let you in. You will then be allowed to return on another day.

Thanks,

Kit

How UFT District Reps Undermine Democracy. VOTE MORE

The District Rep was pushing the Unity ballet too telling people how can they just vote for the entire unity party by checking the box. -- report from a teacher

Yes, the Unity/UFT hacks are out pushing their drugs on union time and on our dues. Here was a District Rep while on the UFT dole (at well over a 100 grand a year) pushing Unity Caucus during an ostensible meeting on the wonders of the evaluation system. My feeling is they must be getting a bit nervous when they are willing to so openly violate labor law, which can lead to a charge in front of PERB for misuse of union dues for open politicking.


As I've been saying, unless there is someone in the school actively pushing back, they can get away with this crap. But the teacher/reporter, while possibly not confronting the DR, was not buying any of it, a sign they will be having some problems selling whatever they agree to.

The UFT person from my district came to my school and wanted to talk to us about the new evaluation system... saying how great it was because Mulgrew fought so hard for it... and it really pissed me off because doesn't the union care what the members think? Why is the district rep personally visiting buildings to hype up a crappy eval system when we dont even have a contract? She was saying oh and the test scores are only 20% and Mulgrew worked so hard to do this... and then she is doing backflips over Danielson and how great it is, when it is being misused.

This report is representative of why there are no elections for District Reps, the main agents --- the middle men and women between the top-level union and the chapter leaders.

Want to do something about this? Hand out the first MORE election leaflet in your school which will be available for downloading later in the day from the MORE web site. Or you can email me for a copy. Or you can have us send or deliver a batch if you don't print them yourselves.

Ballots go our early April so there will be a school by school battle with a focus on the eval system and MORE is outgunned and outspent and also has to battle on a 2 front war with every New Action vote going to Mulgrew. What do you think Mulgrew will do with a big "mandate?"

 

MORE Candidate Francesco Portelos on NYC Firefighter Evaluations

Just a little analogy I thought of as I sat in exile for blowing the whistle on corruption. Ridiculous? Exactly!

I have nothing but the utmost respect for NY’s Bravest.
-Francesco Portelos
Parent, Educator UFT Chapter Leader
Candidate for UFT Middle School Executive Board Seat

New NYC Firefighter Evaluations

As the mayor of NYC and governor of NYS try to come up with a better way to support teachers, by evaluating them, the public asks….”Why only evaluate and support teachers?”

“The public is absolutely right. Don’t other civil servants need support as well? Let’s change the evaluation system for everyone!” replied the  mayor, during a press conference yesterday.

Starting next month, every FDNY employee will undergo a strict new evaluation. 20% of the evaluation will be  based on something called Value Retained Model or VRM. The way VRM works is that an accountability expert will make sure to arrive to the scene of a fire first. They will take pictures and videos of the building from the point they arrive to the time the firefighters have finished.
 Full story at:

http://protectportelos.org/new-nyc-firefighter-evaluations/

Parents, Advocates to Protest Michelle Rhee’s Right-Wing Agenda At Book Signing Event TONIGHT

Did you see the disappointing Jon Steward interview with Rhee last night where he had the chance to make her sweat? Here is some retribution. Actually, would have been fun to picket at the Stewart show -- might have spurred him on a bit.

Media Contacts:

Julian Vinocur. 203-313-2479. julianvinocur@gmail.com

Dan Morris. 917.952.8920.dlmcommunications@gmail.com

***Media Advisory for February 5, 2013***

Parents, Advocates to Protest Michelle Rhee’s Right-Wing Agenda At Book Signing Event

TONIGHT, 6:30pm, February 5th, 2013, Cornell Club

6 East 44th St. between 5^th & Madison Ave.

WHO: Outraged parents and education advocates affiliated with New Yorkers for Great Public Schools.

WHAT: Parents and education advocates will speak out against Michelle Rhee, CEO of StudentsFirst, in front of an event for her new book, Radical: Fighting to Put Students First. They will highlight her support for a dangerous right-wing agenda that has harmed public schools in New York City and across the country.

WHERE: Cornell Club, 6 East 44th st. between 5^th & Madison ave.

WHEN: 6:30pm, February 5th, 2013

Feb. 4, 2013 Blogging Team Goes Head to Head With Unity Caucus

UFT Elections: MORE vs Unity/New Action

The UFT election goes into full swing starting this Weds. Tonight's Ex Bd meeting (where I may get a bite to eat) will ratify the procedures. Petitions will be available on Weds. Feb. 6 before the Delegate Assembly, after which Unity Caucus is holding a 6:30 meeting at Fashion Industries HS so they all can get their petitions signed. MORE is working on its own plans -- and you are invited to help.

Well, with the election season, comes the Unity defense.

Have you checked out the MORE blog recently (Morecaucusnyc)?

Some of our city's top bloggers have volunteered their time to work with MORE and the writing has been fantabulous. I am supposed to be part of this crew but I have a very tough time trying to write in the voice of an organization instead of my own voice.

I know that MORE positions don't perfectly align with Ed Notes so changing tone is a chore I have not mastered. Yes, I am an attack dog and Unity slugs and hacks try to paint MORE as a subsidiary of Ed Notes. Unity people can't conceive that everyone in a group does not speak with one voice.

When our crew write official MORE pieces they go through a process where the Steering Committee (totally open to anyone in MORE) gets 24 hours to edit and approve before publishing. I bet my stuff will never pass muster since after 42 years of seeing Unity inaction it is hard to modify my venom. Really, I have a hard time giving them credit for anything. But I am on the extreme end, along with some of my colleagues in ICE who are also on the older end of the spectrum and know how Unity operates. I haven't yet convinced many of my colleagues in MORE that Unity is Vichy. Many in ICE are also with MORE but maintains an independent voice on the ICE blog. The more MORE younger gen of activists see Unity in operation close up and personal the MORE they will see the frustration of trusting them in any way. The reaction by some young uns to the early Unity attempts to suppress our lit is a sign.

Anyway, I now have the attention span of a flea. Given that all these bloggers are actually working while I laze away the days makes them even MORE awesome.

Check out the MORE blog you will see Unity flacks appearing to argue their case. Some of it is really funny in their convoluted arguments.

Bloggers have been out there analyzing the Unity position.

Assailed Teacher takes their arguments apart:

SEVEN WAYS TO DEFEND UFT LEADERSHIP

NYCDOENuts hits Unity from another angle:

Wow, Is It UFT Election Season or What? Unity Attacks

And NYC Educator uses his deft scalpel:
It's Election Season

Then there is Leo Casey who can't stay away despite supposedly moving to Washington to work for Randi at the AFT. There is no point in my going into all the details of the back and forth -- just follow the links.

Reality-Based Educator takes on the task:

Leo Casey Explains Collective Bargaining To Us

As I said, the bloggers at MORE have done some great work. Here is an awesome piece of work from one of the 4 Horsemen (3 if you subtract me) who took on the task of writing this in a MORE media/blogging committee conference call at noon on Saturday and sent back this piece in almost polished form a few hours later. We were all blown away by the work put into this.

Morecaucusnyc

DOES MICHAEL MULGREW BELIEVE THAT OUR TEACHERS’ WORKING CONDITIONS ARE OUR STUDENTS’ LEARNING CONDITIONS?

Teachers’ working conditions are students’ learning conditions. This has been MORE’s stance since our inception. We understand that there is a relationship between the erosion of our rights as workers and the erosion of quality education in our city over the past 10 years.

A few days ago, on the UFT website, Michael Mulgrew used our slogan in a piece defending his actions in the ongoing battle over teacher evaluations in New York State. Unfortunately, using our slogan is not the same as believing it. His actions surrounding the evaluation controversy cast serious doubt on whether he considers the learning conditions of our students at all, let alone the working conditions of the teachers he is paid to represent.
By examining the origins of this evaluation fiasco we can see just how much Mulgrew, along with the rest of our union’s leadership, take into consideration our students’ learning conditions. What we consider a fundamental belief is clearly nothing more than an empty slogan to the ruling Unity caucus.

 Read MORE...

And one more from NYC Educator

UFT--Champion of Junk Science

Arne Duncan Gets Push-Back on Closing Schools

JAISAL NOOR: PUBLIC SCHOOL PARENTS AND STUDENTS FROM 18 CITIES ACROSS THE COUNTRY GATHERED IN WASHINGTON, DC THIS WEEK TO DEMAND A NATIONWIDE MORATORIUM ON SCHOOL CLOSINGS.

FEDERAL PROGRAMS LIKE RACE TO THE TOP OFFERED FINANCIAL INCENTIVES TO CITIES AND STATES FOR RADICALLY CHANGING THEIR SCHOOLS, INCLUDING FIRING STAFF AND SHUTTING SCHOOLS DOWN. WHILE THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TOUTED THE COMPETITIVE MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR PROGRAM AS A WAY TO IMPROVE EDUCATION AND BETTER PREPARE STUDENTS FOR COLLEGE AND THE WORKFORCE, MANY PARENTS, STUDENTS AND TEACHERS SAY THE CHANGES ARE DISPROPORTIONATELY AFFECTING LOW-INCOME COMMUNITIES OF COLOR.

The counter revolution is getting up steam. MORE is also gearing up to push the UFT into more action at the closing schools hearings coming up this month. We ought to have a leaflet unveiled in the next day or two.

Here are some reports, video and print.

Jaisal Noor video report (See below the break for text of his report).

Parents and Students Demand Nationwide Moratorium on Schools Closings

//"Journey for Justice" activists rally in DC to DOE investigate alleged Civil Rights violations in school closings

 link: http://youtu.be/pCGrkb1qc7o

Chicago Parent and Activist Jitu Brown at "Journey for Justice" Hearing in DC 

//Part 2 of TRN's coverage of the "Journey for Justice" DOE Hearing on School Closings

link: http://youtu.be/1PX7y9-GWzI

 

New Orleans Parent and Activist Karran Harper Royal at "Journey for Justice" Hearing in DC 

//Part 3 of TRN's coverage of the "Journey for Justice" DOE Hearing on School Closings

link: http://youtu.be/c00PWQl8wLk

James Ceronsky in The American Prospect:

Pushing Arne Duncan to Fast-Forward

At a March 15, 2011, sit-down at the Children’s Defense Fund, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan sent an unequivocal message to black community and faith leaders. “What we’re desperately missing in this country is parents who will demand better for their children,” he said. “I wish to God I had parents knocking on my door every single day saying, go faster, you’re not moving fast enough.”

On Tuesday, community activists from across the country did exactly that. Some 400 students and parents from as far as California descended on Department of Education headquarters to testify on the racialized impact of school closings, turnarounds, and other measures stipulated by federal education funding mandates. Statistically, actions like these tend to affect students of color more than their white counterparts in the same districts. Students displaced by school turnover are forced to cross myriad social boundaries, including gang lines, with little to no precedent of greater academic success in their new environments.

All told, 18 cities—from the East Coast to the West—were represented at the hearing. Activists from roughly 15 of these cities have filed, or are in the process of filing, Title VI civil-rights complaints with the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights. These groups are part of the Journey for Justice, a national movement to retake community control of schools.

“This is our Occupy, this is our DREAMers, our LGBT equality, this is all of this wrapped into one,” says Zakiyah Ansari, the advocacy director for New York’s Alliance for Quality Education. “We want this conversation about closures and communities of color to be raised up.”

MORE:
http://prospect.org/article/pushing-arne-duncan-fast-forward

 Bruce Dixon reports on school closings at the Black Agenda Report:

A nationwide epidemic of school closings and teacher firings has been underway for some time. It's concentrated chiefly in poor and minority communities, and the teachers let go are often experienced and committed classroom instructors, and likely to live in and near the communities they serve, and disproportionately black.

It's not an accident, or a reflection of changing demographics, or more educational choices suddenly becoming available to families in those areas. It's not due to greedy unionized teachers or the invisible hand of the marketplace or well-intentioned educational policies somehow gone awry.

The current wave of school closings is latest result of bipartisan educational policies which began with No Child Left Behind in 2001, and have kicked into overdrive under the Obama administration's Race To The Top. In Chicago, the home town of the president and his Secretary of Education, the percentage of black teachers has dropped from 45% in 1995 to 19% today. After winning a couple skirmishes in federal court over discriminatory firings in a few schools, teachers have now filed a citywide class action lawsuit alleging that the city's policy of school “turnarounds” and “transformations” is racially discriminatory because it's carried out mainly in black neighborhoods and the fired teachers are disproportionately black.

How did this happen? Where did those policies come from, and exactly what are they?

More at
http://blackagendareport.com/content/obamas-race-top-drives-nationwide-wave-school-closings-teacher-firings

Note: Compare Bruce's piece with MSNBC"s coverage on Sunday, where they looked at school closings but  didn't mention "Democratic party" or
Barack Obama or Arne Duncan. Besides Zakiyah, none of the guests
demonstrated any knowledgeable of the topic
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46979745/#50606348. And they call that
"mainstream". ---- Jaisal Noor

Hearing at the U.S. Dept of Education for the Journey for Justice civil rights complaint about school closings.  Apparently the testimony from the parents was very powerful.  Eventually the entire hearing will be posted on the internet.  A lot of it is available at the Save Our Schools you tube site: http://www.youtube.com/user/MarchToSaveSchools. --- Rosalie Friend


Jaisal Noor text below

MORE Educator Book Club! Starts With Ravitch Book Feb 12th, Join us!

MOREs are certainly busy bees and not just interested in union politics. Diane Ravitch's book is first up in the MORE book club and rumors are she will be (unconfirmed) at Julie's place for the discussion. Her place is not that big so RSVP if interested. I have a course that night so can't make it and besides don't want to take up someone else's spot.

MORE is proud to sponsor this opportunity to read and learn with other
educators. Please see the flier above and let us know if you are
interested. Diane Ravitch's amazing book will be first, so if you are
joining us, please come with at least the first chapter read. Space is
limited so please RSVP ASAP.

Sign the Petition: UFT and NYC DOE: Share the Details of the Teacher Evaluation Agreement

A new teacher evaluation needs to be fair and be a source of support to the classroom. Share the MOU.

Share the details of the Teacher Evaluation Agreement being proposed


On January 17, 2013 United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew stated "last night our negotiators had reached an agreement — but Mayor Bloomberg blew the deal up in the early hours today." What were the details of that agreement that was supposedly reached?

Mayor Bloomberg responded there “were unreasonable demands being made by the United Federation of Teachers. Among the contentious issues was the union’s demands that the evaluation deal sunset in June of 2015."   

What were the other demands and issues?

Leo Casey, negotiating for the UFT, wrote on edwize.org “During the last week, as the UFT and the DOE met long into the night in an effort to reach agreement on the terms of the MOU, we asked, again and again, more insistently at each turn, to see the DOE’s draft of their application. It was not until late into Wednesday evening, barely 24 hours before the deadline, that the DOE finally gave us their draft of the application. When we read the draft, it quickly became apparent why they had resisted sharing it with us. Included in the draft were  numerous scoring tables and conversion charts which the UFT was now seeing for the very first time. These tables and charts were very important: embedded in them were fundamental decisions about the shape of the evaluation system.“

What are the details of the scoring tables and conversion charts?

Why won't the DOE and UFT share the details of what each side is proposing? The teachers, students and parents deserve better than to be kept in the dark.

Show us what's on the table. Show us the MOU. Share the details.

Sign the petition:

https://www.change.org/petitions/uft-doe-share-the-details-of-the-teacher-evaluation-agreement-proposed 

Unity Hacks Deny Rights, Leading to Questions for MORE on Distribution

I was just told by my Unity chapter leader I cannot put "political propaganda" in teachers mailboxes because it violates chancellors regs. Said the District rep told her.  Can you please clarify when and where we can distribute flyers? ---MORE member

This is at least the 3rd case so far where a MORE member was told they cannot put materials in the mail boxes by a Unity person and the elections haven't even begun. Now, many of our MORE people are not experienced in these matters and we are either dealing with ignorance or an underhanded behind the scenes campaign by Unity. UFT leaders will publicly say that we have the right but maybe they are winking at their hacks to do their thing.

One thing we know absolutely: UFT District Reps will put Unity election materials in every box of schools where there are MORE chapter leaders, a misuse of union employees and union dues.

An experienced MORE person replied

Your DR is wrong or lying. All members have equal access to the mailboxes during non-election times. A Principal cannot have one policy toward one caucus and another policy toward another. That was the essence of the Baizerman arbitration ruling. During election periods -- the 2013 period begins next Wednesday -- ChancellorsRegs explicitly permit all UFT members to give out election lit in ANY school. Neither your CL nor your DR have any say over what can go into the mailboxes. They do not set or enforce DoE policies. You don't need to ask their permission.

We've been getting questions about the right to hand out MORE literature in teacher mail boxes both during election periods (Feb. 6- April 24) and non-election times. So let's try and clarify.

During election periods, the Baizerman decision allows any UFT member to go into ANY school -- even not  their own -- and place materials in the mail boxes. Now this is not always a slam dunk as most principals, secretaries, etc. are not made aware. So if there is a problem a phone call has to be made to someone at the UFT (I hear Amy Arundel is in charge of getting these calls) who then calls the DOE and the school gets a message. Since that can take time it is best to do leave and go on to another place and come back another time. Sometimes I call the school first to let them know I am coming.

During election and non-election periods a teacher has the right to put union-related materials in the boxes at all times. Not to say that if you have a Unity slug of a chapter leader they won't try to interfere by claiming only chapter leaders have the right. Sometimes even non-Unity CLs are resentful of someone infringing on their "turf" so that is something to watch out for.

You also may meet resistance from certain types of principals. Sometimes they demand the right to approve materials. They don't have that right. I don't recommend getting into a big fight with a principal on this issue without thinking it through and going back channels or even just saying you are willing to show it to them in advance as a "courtesy." A lot depends on relationships here, especially with secretaries.

Here was an email with some specific questions which I tried to answer.

Been following you as well as other bloggers for a long time. I teach at ---- High School where I would say the overwhelming majority of teachers have very little knowledge to what is happening with the new evaluation or any other aspect of ed deform. I would be interested in distributing any literature about MORE personally to as many teachers as possible in my school.

1. How can I obtain the literature to hand out?  Will it be sent to my school and placed in my mailbox or can it be sent to my home address?

We will send by mail or drop off a package for you. Or send to home address. Whatever you prefer.

2.  Will this cause a conflict with my CL or do I even need to inform him that I am doing this?

If your chapter leader is heavy duty Unity it may cause conflict. But that depends on what kind of person he is and your relationship. You don't have to inform him but it makes sense to do so.

3.  Can MORE literature be placed in teacher mailboxes?

So any teacher in a school can place materials in mailboxes -- we take the position that it can be done all the time -- but during the election period definitely not only in your own school but  MORE people are allowed to go into any school before and after. Only do it before or after school, not during working hours.

4.  I have not signed on to MORE - can I still distribute literature on their behalf?

No need to sign on to MORE. Even if you decided not to vote for MORE you would at the very least be giving people both sides. Unity will bombard the mailboxes with slick materials.
What we would also love you to do is advocated for MORE to people --and you can even invite some of us into speak -- Brian Jones and I are available during the day.

And when the ballots are sent out at the beginning of April and are send to their homes to remind them to look for them and to make sure people in your school mail them in -- preferably by checking the MORE box on the top sheet of the ballot.

Gary Rubinstein, in NY Times Blog Today, Joins MORE Campaign

Another MORE candidate in the news. Gary Rubinstein is running on the MORE slate for AFT/NYSUT delegate. The work he has been doing has been outstanding and we are proud to have him join the MORE campaign.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/31/teachers-and-policy-makers-troubling-disconnect/?hp

Schooling January 31, 2013, 9:08 pm22 Comments

Teachers and Policy Makers: Troubling Disconnect

By SARA MOSLE

Can the school reform movement accept constructive criticism? Gary Rubinstein hopes so. Mr. Rubinstein joined Teach for America in 1991, the program’s second year, and has now been teaching math for 15 years, five of them in some of the nation’s neediest public schools and 10 more at the prestigious Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan. He has a bachelor’s degree in math and a master’s in computer science, has written two books on classroom practice and at one point helped train new corps members for Teach for America. For years, he was a proponent of the program, albeit one with the occasional quibble.

Then, in 2010, Mr. Rubinstein underwent a sea change. As he grew suspicious of some of the data used to promote charter schools, be became critical of Teach for America and the broader reform movement. (The education scholar Diane Ravitch famously made a similar shift around this time.)

Mr. Rubinstein, who knows how to crunch numbers, noticed that, at many charter schools student test scores and graduation rates didn’t always add up to what the schools claimed. He was also alarmed by what he viewed as misguided reforms like an overreliance on crude standardized tests that measure students’ yearly academic “growth” and teacher performance. Mr. Rubinstein, who favors improving schools and evaluating teachers, says using standardized test scores might seem “like a good idea in theory.” But he also thinks the teacher ratings based on the scores are too imprecise and subject to random variation to be a reliable basis for high-stakes hiring and firing decisions.

Given his long alliance with Teach for America, Mr. Rubinstein knows many of the program’s alumni who have become marquee players in school reform. In Houston, he became friends with his fellow T.F.A. teachers Dave Levin and Michael Feinberg, who went on to start KIPP, the nationwide chain of charter schools. Mr. Rubinstein worked briefly under Michelle A. Rhee before she became the chancellor of the District of Columbia’s public schools. At another point, he met Michael Johnston, the former charter-school principal who is now the Colorado state senator who helped push through one of the nation’s most aggressive testing schemes for teacher evaluations. Along the way, Mr. Rubinstein got to know Wendy Kopp, Teach for America’s founder.

He’s now written a series of “Open Letters to Reformers I Know” on his blog, hosted by teachforus.org, in which he shares his unease about the direction of current school reforms. The letters are unusual, partly for their personal tone and evident admiration of some of the recipients, and partly because attempts at dialogue like this are increasingly rare as bitter debate rages among educators who support charters and testing and those who don’t.

Michael Petrilli, a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and a pro-charter education analyst with the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, worries about this lack of exchange. He recently conducted an analysis of Twitter and the tens of thousands of followers of Ms. Rhee, who is pro-charter, and Ms. Ravitch, who is anti-charter, and discovered that only 10 percent overlapped. Just as conservatives gravitate to Fox News and liberals to MSNBC to hear their preconceived notions and biases confirmed, Mr. Petrilli speculates that those in education are now preaching solely to the converted, a phenomenon known in the media world as “narrowcasting.”

Worse, in Mr. Petrilli’s view, those who follow Ms. Rhee tend to describe themselves in their Twitter profiles as policy makers or otherwise removed from the immediate realities of the classroom, while Ms. Ravitch’s devotees are typically self-identified practitioners: principals and teachers on education’s front lines. Surely these folks should be talking to one another, but in Mr. Petrilli’s experience, they often aren’t.

“A lot of people in the reform community say, ‘We know what we need to do; we just need the political will to do it,’ and I think that’s wrong,” he says. “We need to be much more humble. We’re now in a position where a lot of reforms are being enacted; they’re playing out in the real world, and it’s crazy not to listen to teachers, to the problems that might need to be addressed.”

Mr. Petrilli’s wisdom derives from hard experience: “I went through this with No Child Left Behind,” he says. “We put so much effort into cheerleading and making the case for it, we didn’t address the inevitable problems.” Mr. Petrilli now recognizes that the law might have been stronger and worked better had its supporters been more open to input and constructive criticism from the start.

Perhaps proving Mr. Petrilli’s point, only two of the eight recipients of Mr. Rubinstein’s “Open Letters” — Mr. Johnston and Ms. Kopp — have replied so far (although a third, Jon Schnur, a former presidential education policy adviser and the executive chairman of America Achieves, had already promised to do so before being contacted for this article and says he still will). However, Mr. Johnston chose not to publicly answer some of Mr. Rubinstein’s more pointed criticisms. For example, Mr. Johnston has stated that the alternative school he helped establish and where he was a principal “made Colorado history by becoming the first public high school in which 100 percent of seniors were admitted to four-year colleges.”

As Mr. Rubinstein notes, the claim is technically accurate but misleading because the school also had very high attrition rates before its students graduated. This is the kind of data distortion Mr. Rubinstein disparages: “There were actually 73 10th graders,” Mr. Rubinstein writes, “who had dwindled to 44 seniors — a pretty relevant detail.” The school apparently couldn’t meet the needs of a good proportion of its original students. Many of those who left presumably ended up back in traditional public schools, which often become the dumping grounds for students whom charters can’t, or won’t, teach and then are solely blamed for these students’ failure.

Still, Mr. Rubinstein concedes that even 44 graduates out of 73, in many low-income communities, amounts to “a story about kids beating the odds.” But why the need to exaggerate the sales pitch instead of acknowledging the more complex, challenging picture?

At the heart of all Mr. Rubinstein’s “Open Letters” is a plea to his old friends and colleagues, many of whom long ago left the classroom, to remember just how hard teaching is and to remain honest and transparent about what they have and haven’t accomplished, not only to keep faith with those teachers and principals entrusted with the tough job of implementing reforms but also so we can know what truly works and doesn’t and why, in order to build on real, not imagined, gains.

For those who wish to be part of the solution, Mr. Petrilli advises more genuine dialogue: listening to those whose views one opposes and “staying open to the possibility,” he writes, “that they might, nevertheless, have a few smart things to say.”

 One interesting point Gary concedes below that I disagree with is that 44 out of 73 is not spectacular. Even in the school I taught at we had a decent percentage of graduates --- most of my top classes graduated from high school and many went on to college. It was the ones that are similar to the group pushed out or left  - the 29 out of 73 that are similar to our struggling students -- and in fact this school probably had a higher level of motivated students to start with.

Aaron Pallas at the Earth School Feb. 7: What's in a Grade?

Jia Lee, MORE candidate for Exec. Bd, elementary school, is one of the organizers of this event at the school where she is chapter leader. Having the decade long teacher, parent and activist working with MORE is a real feather in our cap and Jia is one of the new generation of union activists. I am constantly impressed with the people running with MORE (including the great Gary Rubinstein who will be working on VAM stuff for MORE) and Jia, who is also fierce critic of high stakes testing and brought an entire crew from the Earth School to the MORE rally at the Jan. DA, will increasingly be heard from.

In case you are not familiar with the always fascinating Aaron Pallas, he used to be the notorious Schoolboy who at times blogged with the famed Eduwonkette - Jennifer Jennings. Aaron was Jennifer's prof and mentor. Aaron who comes across like a professor on the surface, happens to be one of the funniest people if you subscribe to his facebook page. I'm hoping I can get to this event to tape it.

(How much do we miss the work of Eduwonkette, one of the first academics (along with Aaron) out of the box tearing down the fabric of ed deform? That was in pre-Diane Ravitch days so Jennifer was a major voice. I don't even think we can find the remnants of her blog anymore, a real shame.)

Jia informs us they will be showing this film posted on you tube where she documented "the work we do as educators (descriptive reviews of practice and of children, curriculum development, the real role of administrators, work with students with special needs, etc.) to present to parents, general public,  that is being denied in the name of high stakes testing and compliance based reform."

What’s in a grade? 

How is our school’s grade determined? What do they measure?

What is the impact on our children? 

Guest Speaker: Aaron Pallas Professor of Sociology and Education at Teacher’s College

Don’t miss this opportunity to learn, discuss and ask questions regarding school progress reports. 

When: Thursday, February 7, 2013 @ 6:00 p.m.

Where: Neighborhood School Auditorium (lower level)

121 East 3rd Street, NYC 10009 **Childcare and Refreshments Provided 

Aaron Pallas is Professor of Sociology and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. He has also taught at Johns Hopkins University, Michigan State University, and Northwestern University, and served as a statistician at the National Center for Education Statistics in the U.S. Department of Education. Professor Pallas has devoted the bulk of his career to the study of how schools sort students, especially the relationship between school organization and sorting processes and the linkages among schooling, learning and the human life course. He is a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association and an elected member of the Sociological Research Association. His most recent projects are explicitly designed to inform policymakers and other stakeholders about conditions in New York City public schools. 

Inquiries: @The Earth School: Jia- jlee7603@gmail.com;
@TNS: Carol-- 1carolaxel@gmail.com, Rachel rachelb@me.com 

David Bellel Book Signing

David was out photoshop king for many years. Here's wishing him luck on the book.

Lower East Side Then & Now: Book Signing Thursday Night

The LES History Project’s Eric Ferrara and David Bellel are out with a new book.  They’ll be signing copies of “Lower East Side Then & Now” and making a presentation tomorrow night at the Italian American Museum, 155 Mulberry Street, at 6:30 p.m.  The book uses side by side images to compare the dramatic changes that have taken place in the neighborhood in the past century.

The new project also includes a forward by Joyce Mendelsohn, author of “The Lower East Side Remembered and Revisited.”   There are dozens of rare photographs that have not been published before.  Here’s a YouTube preview.  Yes you can buy the book online, but better yet, patronize local businesses! The LES The & Now is available in the Tenement Museum Bookstore, 103 Orchard Street, and E. Rossi, 193 Grand Street.

Get a Life: Norm's Social Notes

Ahhh, just back from hot yoga: an hour and a half of hot hell followed by 48 hours of cool, relaxed bliss.

Every so often I feel I have to counter the impression some people seem to have that I don't have a life other than being involved in the ed wars. Like tonight I'm giving up a MORE conference call with chapter leaders and delegates to go see Downton Abbey's Matthew (who cares what his real name is) in The Heiress on Broadway. Now all the ladies, including my own Lady Mary, are crazy for Matthew, who I think of as sort of a whimp. I'm way more interested in seeing his co-star tonight, Jessica Chastain who is one of the hottest (I mean popular - I be no sexist) actresses around.

Now just to show you how things change as you get older, my MORE pal Mike Schirtzer is also missing the conference call to go to a Ranger game where not long ago I would have been. But wife [many add: long-suffering] wants to go to a Broadway show, here I go. (I am a bigger whimp that Matthew). Yesterday she even got me to agree to go see Cinderella the day before Valentines Day. Do I still have to get her flowers that the cats will eat?

Bernie gets friendly. Penny still under bed

Speaking of cats, Penny got spayed on Monday. A formerly feral cat, she is too wild to coral in the Pet Taxi so we spent a week feeding her in there. Since she was a runt and is always hungry, she would walk through fire for food. Pretty shrewd animal, but not that shrewd. Bernie however is not all that swift. Penny was away for about 7 hours but Bernie has been acting like we got a new cat -- growling and hissing like she did when we first got Penny, who is needless to say more than a bit confused. Bernie was so upset he actually sat on my wife's lap for the first time in the 15 months since we found her. (Though if you followed the foundling story you know that for 8 months we thought she was a he --- let's blame identity confusion for her behavior.)
Howard Beach Vet with the great Dr. Weinstein reopened fort the first time Monday morning and it was packed already. The doc was in that day luckily and he was so happy to see everyone coming back. He thought he had lost his entire business and seemed so affected he ended up in a weakened state and with pneumonia. That seems to be going around as Barry, my alarm guy also has it.

Yesterday was a big day. I finally managed to finish wiring 2 new basement lights to add to the 2 the electricians had left me. I spent a month planning the op, replacing lost tools one at a time until I got the final piece -- a tool to cut BX cable -- the biggest pain in the ass -- in the old days I used to use a hack saw -- which a nice Home Depot guy found for me on the top shelf of the storage area. I had been going from Loews to HD to another HD to look for this tool, which had been flying off every shelf due to all the Sandy  work being done. Of course I couldn't figure out exactly how it worked unitl I found a you tube video.

Let there be light

Well this project took over a week to put all the pieces in place. I ran this like a military op worthy of the Bin Laden assault -- Katherine Bigelow has been in touch for the film rights  -- figuring out a strategy that wouldn't get me fried. So I ran the cables from light to light and then to the box with the switch. I had to turn off lots of circuit breakers -- all brand spanking new. But I had to drill through all kinds of beams, including a triple one, which delayed me a week while I had to buy different drill bits until finally buying one of those foot long ones. What a thrill to see the wood fly away. (I also spent 2 months deciding on what Makita drill/driver set to buy).

Tuesday night I went to the 2nd session of a new venture -- a storytelling group where we all, well, tell stories. Not all that simple in that you have to think about it and structure it like something you would write, but instead perform. This is a 3 hour class over 5 weeks followed by a performance at a club in front of a (gulp) audience on Feb. 21. I did stories on my First Kiss and Sandy -- both disaster movies. The other people in my class are fascinating -- 7 of us all together -- and I have already learned so much. One of them is a Chinese immigrant/artist who is riveting and another young lady is an improv performer. I really have to do more of this "get a life" stuff.

Last night I attended the regular meeting of the 6 year old writing group (mostly fiction) I helped found. Only 2 of the originals are left and with a few others leaving we are down to 4 people so we are going to recruit some more -- 7 or 8 is optimal. There have been a few novels written and a collection of short stories published by a former teaching colleague who I recruited to the group. Though another schlep into the city, it is worth it. My problem is that I haven't touched the novel I started a few years ago. It is/was Rockaway based with The Wave playing an important role. I was always planning to use their 125 years of archives but all are gone in the storm (though I recently met someone who has a friend who lives near The Wave and found some in the street.)

And of course, there was last Friday's massive celebration of my wife's birthday where we were supposed to go to one of the most expensive restaurants in New York just days after taking our great friends who were so kind to us during Sandy to another expensive restaurant. Luckily, my wife changed her mind and we did a movie (quartet) followed by tea at the Palm Room at the Plaza Hotel -- yeah, 50 bucks for tea and some snacks but way cheaper than Del Posto.

My biggest regret that day? We never got over to the MTA office where my wife could get her half-price transit card --- paying that extra dollar 20 on the way home when we didn't have to is so irksome.

Today we make up for it when we head into the city before the play this afternoon to get the most important thing you can get at a certain age --- the pleasure of a half fare card. Plus of course my wife now being eligible for medicare --- eat shit Paul Ryan. Of course it took mucho phone calls to GHI and an endless and fruitless wait for the UFT people to get it done.

My new fave tool - I love to cut BX in the morning

Where I could have gotten electrocuted- bzzzzz

Success Academy Charter Schools Parent/Guardian Contract

Cultural infractions at Success Academy

We will be instituting a new way of following up on culture infractions for 2013 using water boarding.

Coming Soon: I will attend all bogus political events Eva maneuvers me into.

Not adhering to these rules will get their ass tossed right back to the local loser public school you trash came from.

Hello Success Academy Families,

Happy 2013!  Attached please find a copy of the Parent Contract that you signed at the beginning of the year for your reference. You do NOT need to submit the contract again; this is simply for your reference.

SCHOOL CULTURE REMINDER
As we enter the new year we would like to reiterate the expectations around school culture.  Attached you will find a copy of the Success Academy School Contract that you signed at the beginning of this school year. Please review your contract.  We will be instituting a new way of following up on culture infractions for 2013.

Success Academy Charter Schools Parent/Guardian Contract
As a Success Academy Parent, I pledge to take ACTION to succeed in the following ways:

• I will teach, model, and live by the Success Academy values every day. I will inspire my child to love learning and strive to be exemplary.

• I understand that every minute of instructional time counts. I will ensure that my child attends school every day.

• I will notify the school of an excused absence no later than 8:15am on the day of the absence and send my child with a note when he/she returns to school.

• I will ensure that my child arrives at Success Academy every day by 7:45am.

• I will pick up my child on time.

• I will read and check carefully all papers and flyers that my child brings home.

• I will ensure that my child completes and turns in all homework assignments on time.

• I will read to my kindergarten, first, and second grade children every night and complete all reading logs by the due date.

• I will ensure that my third, fourth, fifth, and sixth grade children read every night and complete all reading logs by the due date.

• I will be an active member of my school community. I will interact with Success Academy staff frequently and call my child’s teacher before problems arise.

• I will respond to school communications within 24 hours.

• I will treat all members of the Success Academy team with respect.

• I will ensure that my child observes the guidelines for expected behavior at Success Academy.

• I will make sure my child comes to school in his/her complete uniform ready to learn every day.

• I will attend all family meetings and academic events

• I pledge to follow these steps to ensure success. I understand that these school policies are essential to the success of my child. I will succeed.
  Child’s Name: _____________________________________________________ Date:__________________ Parent/Guardian Signature: ________________________________________
  Parent/Guardian Name Printed _____________________________________

Success Academy Picket Plans Against Mayoral Candidates Opposing Co-Location Plus Village Voice on Invasion of Charters

Invasion Of The Charter Schools: Former City Councilmember Eva Moskowitz, with Bloomberg's union-busting blessing, is pushing her Success Academy edu-franchise into Brooklyn. The natives aren't buying. --- Village Voice

Before you get to this naked misuse of public money as a political organizing mechanism, see the article above, one of the first signs the mass media is increasingly scrutinizing Eva and the other charter crooks' schemes.


Here is a follow-up to the letter Suckcess sent out to manipulate parents (Eva Violation: Using Parents of Success Cheater Schools).

And see Brooklyn Parents in Williamsburg/Greenpoint File Suit

Parents will be picketing in front of the following mayoral candidate offices tomorrow, from 8:45am-9:15am.  You are welcome to attend at any location:

(1) Bill Thompson for Mayor, 349 5th Avenue (on 34th at the corner)

(2) New Yorkers for de Blasio, 30 Broad Street (near City Hall)

(3) Office of the NYC Comptroller John Liu, Municipal Building, One Centre Street (near City Hall)

Please be sure to let me know if you have any questions, and thanks again for your interest.

Thanks again!

Norah

Norah Cooney – Associate Director of Advocacy

Norah.Cooney@successacademies.org

P: 646-380-2588| 

C: 646-290-4900| F: 646-961-4739

Success Academy Charter Schools

310 Lenox Avenue, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10027

www.successacademies.org

If you are in the neighborhood, drop in and let them know what you think. How nice that they can hire Norah as ASSOCIATE Director of Advocacy which means there is more than one. Money that might have gone to reduce class size.

Here is the Voice article featuring the always amazing Brooke Parker.

When the hipsters of Williamsburg, Greenpoint, and Bushwick are ready to add a little hipster to the family, we inevitably join the Brooklyn Baby Hui. The hui (it's a Maori term for "community," natch) has all the information anxious new parents need on making their own organic beet purees, which Mayan-style woven baby carrier and wool diaper covers to pick out at Caribou Baby boutique, and how to co-sleep on your vacation to Istanbul. I've lost a big chunk of my life to the hui since I had my baby in the winter of 2011.

But starting that spring, the list exploded into flame wars, deleted posts, trigger warnings, and bans on longtime members. The source of the friction was the entry of two charter elementary schools into the local District 14. First came Success Academy, a controversial and aggressively expanding chain founded and run by former City Councilmember Eva Moskowitz. Then, in April, Moskowitz's husband, Eric Grannis, an attorney who runs a separate charter-promoting organization called the Tapestry Project, e-mailed the hui to gin up support for Citizens of the World, the first planned East Coast outpost of a Los Angeles–based chain that arrives trailing its own cloud of protest and scandal.

Success Academy Williamsburg opened this past fall. Citizens of the World was approved in December to open in the fall of 2013—unless a lawsuit by local parents, who have taken their campaign from the hui to City Hall, manages to stop it. In other words, a full-on cage match is brewing near the shops and bars of Bedford Avenue. But it's more than just #firstworldproblems—it's a struggle over the urban soul and a microcosm of the national education debate. Each side claims to be concerned only with what's best for all children, implying that others are acting out of spite, greed, or bad faith. But the basic principle in play here is simple: Who should decide the educational needs of a neighborhood?

"Choice is not a problem. Quality is not a problem. Parents in this district don't have complaints about our teachers. City planning says these new charters are a bad idea."

Brooke Parker answers the door of her rented Greenpoint townhouse in her sweatpants, two days after Christmas. Her kindergartner is racing around with a playdate. Parker has lived in the neighborhood for 20 years and has two daughters and a stepdaughter. She used to work in film; her husband, Erik Parker, is a well-regarded contemporary artist. She is funny, profane, intimidatingly well informed, and talks almost nonstop for more than an hour. The co-founder and representative of Williamsburg and Greenpoint Parents: Our Public Schools (WAGPOPS), the parent group spearheading the opposition to Success Academy and Citizens of the World in District 14, she has a bracing message for outsiders like Grannis and Moskowitz coming into the neighborhood: "What the fuck? Who the hell are you? How do you get to decide we need a new school?"

This isn't some Waiting for "Superman" scenario wherein charters swoop in to save a broken, overcrowded public school system. Quite the opposite. As a rule, Williamsburg's schools are neither overcrowded nor broken. With Hispanic and Italian families priced out and white families moving in, the number of children in District 14 is actually dropping (when you don't count the Satmar Hasidim living south of Broadway, who propagate enthusiastically but tend to shun the public schools). So there is plenty of room in the local schools, and parents aren't obliged to send their kids to the one they're zoned for—they essentially have their pick of the neighborhood. And plenty of the existing choices are quite good. "Several district schools in the neighborhood received an 'A' or a 'B' on the 2012 Progress Report," notes Devon Puglia, a Department of Education spokesperson.

The flip side of under-enrollment, however, is that it opens up a vacuum in the district school buildings. Charter elementary schools like those in Moskowitz's chain, Success, save money by "co-locating" in existing school buildings; they see the depopulated hallways in a place like Williamsburg as an empty niche waiting to be exploited. Already, the 28 elementary schools in the neighborhood include five charters. If Citizens of the World goes forward with the sixth, Williamsburg will rival only Harlem in its charter school concentration. There are 136 charter schools in the city today, enrolling 5.4 percent of the city's schoolchildren—more than twice the percentage nationwide. Fifteen more charters were authorized to open this fall across the city. The wave seems to be building.

The New York State Charter Schools Act of 1998 authorized the establishment of charter schools in New York State in an effort to promote choice and innovation: "Charter Schools offer an important opportunity to promote educational innovation and excellence," as schools.nyc.gov insists. "Charter schools bring new leaders, resources, and ideas into public education." Here, as elsewhere, charters have been seen either as a life rope from the skies or a Trojan horse designed to turn public education into a voucher-based commercial enterprise.

Charters operate independently and autonomously, free from union work rules that prescribe everything from the length of the school day and school year to pension packages. Teachers' unions have seen them as a threat from the jump and have been tirelessly opposed: Not only are these non-union shops a threat to teachers' collective bargaining power, but charters also compete with district schools for tax money and other resources.

What about "innovation and excellence"? Well, your mileage may vary. According to a 2009 study published by Stanford, only 17 percent of charter schools nationally outperformed nearby public schools, and 46 percent did about the same. In New York State, charters tend to do much better, with more than half beating their district equivalents in math.

But the issue at stake in Williamsburg is not the virtues or the evils of charter schools. This is about the basic American democratic principle of local control, the notion that families should have meaningful input in determining their own educational needs and that a few entrepreneurial carpetbaggers pulling down six-figure salaries—with the backing of an unabashedly free-marketeering, union-hating mayor—shouldn't be allowed to trample parents' rights in order to advance their own philosophies and agendas.

Whether they are not-for-profit or for-profit, and they can be either, charter chains are businesslike—and they compete aggressively for students. Success Academy spent a reported $900,000 on marketing last year, including $250,000 to the lobbying, PR, and crisis-management firm SKD Knickerbocker. The chain also bought space for a set of large ads in the Bedford Avenue L subway stop.

Both Success and Citizens of the World are zeroing in on Baby Hui habitués like Miwako Dai, a lawyer who has lived in Williamsburg since 2006. "After our first child was born, I started worrying that there were no good public school options in this neighborhood," she says. "We looked at schools and properties in Williamsburg and other parts of Brooklyn with the hope of relocating to a good public school zone but didn't find anything that was convincing enough to make us move." She says she was "skeptical" of Success at first, but "my son is challenged at Success and comes home with a curious mind every day."

According to Parker, the charters are picking off newer residents in the neighborhood who also happen to be new parents. "This all started on the Brooklyn Baby Hui, which, as my stepdaughter calls it, is 'white people's problems,'" says Parker. "What stroller [to buy], blah, blah, blah. Very few people on the hui have kids who are already in school. And that's how the charter schools do their marketing. They go right to people who don't have kids in schools, and they feed directly into any fears you may have about urban education, and then say they have the solution for them."

Many parents have the same shimmering vision of the perfect public school: one that's progressive, with art and gardens and recess, but also with strong academics and good test scores without getting too obsessive over test prep. It's cozy and friendly with a strong community but not too many fundraisers or committee meetings. It's not crazy competitive to get into; it's integrated and diverse, but not depressing or scary or over-strict.

In short, it sounds a lot like P.S. 84 Jose de Diego, on Grand Street and Berry.

P.S. 84's success is the product of years of hard work. In the mid 2000s, police officers were regularly attending PTA meetings there to try to keep peace between the Hispanic parents in the upper grades and white parents putting their kids into the kindergarten. The school went through several principals before finding peace in 2009 with the hiring of Sereida Rodriguez-Guerra, who grew up in the neighborhood and has two children at the school. P.S. 84 hosts fundraisers by the likes of TV on the Radio's Tunde Adebimpe and bake sales to benefit Occupy Sandy. In the past two years, a giant, colorful mural has appeared on the building with the help of local community organization El Puente.

"P.S. 84 is a progressive, balanced-literacy, project-based school," says Stephanie Anderson, whose daughter is in the dual-language second grade. "We're building a 1,500-square-foot rooftop greenhouse; we've got a working hydroponic classroom, relationships with local community organizations, performance arts, dance, music." Anderson got involved in WAGPOPS, she says, because she loves her school so much. Parker and Anderson and their fellow parents argue that P.S. 84 and similar neighborhood public schools are achieving a delicate balance on the knife's edge of gentrification—a balance that is threatened by the entry of outside charters.

"Nothing that they offer is unique or needed," says Anderson. "Our neighborhood schools are being overrun in a way that defies any logic."

For Mayor Bloomberg, as well as his former schools chancellor, Joel Klein (now an executive at Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., where he oversees Amplify, the company's "education unit"), and his current one, Dennis Walcott, the logic is business logic. The three men are some of the most prominent boosters of charter schools nationwide, and when they talk about education, they speak the language of choice, investment, and free markets. "We're committed to developing a portfolio of schools for families to choose from," says Puglia, the Department of Education spokesperson. "While there are excess seats available [in District 14], communities have asked for more parent choice and additional high-quality options."

Who exactly the "community" is and what they've asked for is just the question at stake in District 14. "There are schools in the area with real needs," says Tesa Wilson, a mother and longtime neighborhood resident who has served eight years on the local parents' school advisory board, known as the Community Education Council, or CEC. When charter schools co-locate, they compete with the "host" school, which may well have lost resources as it lost head count. The CEC in District 14, for example, has asked for the past seven years to have enrichment programs reinstated, libraries reopened, and new high-quality middle and high schools established to relieve the pressure on the district magnet schools, says Wilson. Instead, they got new kindergarten classes run, outfitted, and freshly equipped by Success Academy.

It is the commercialism, expansionism, and self-interest that gets Moskowitz's opponents riled. In 2010, Moskowitz's private not-for-profit took in $12 million in funding, $3 million of it from the state and the rest from private donations. It paid Moskowitz, the CEO, $336,402 in salary that year, according to Success's tax returns. Moskowitz has said that she wants eventually to open 40 schools across New York City; six more Success Academies are already planned for the fall of 2013, three in Manhattan and three in Brooklyn.

"We've had a good relationship with long-established charter schools like Children's Charter 1 and 2," says Wilson. "Our first real fight was with Success." Wilson says the CEC tried for months to get someone from Success to come to one of its meetings; they finally sent a communications director, which "left a bad taste in our mouth." This year, District 14 lost an A-rated high school, so they asked the city to replace it. Instead, "we were told we'd get Citizens of the World. We were like, you've got to be kidding me."

So the neighborhood groups got organized and lawyered up. Advocates for Justice, a local public-interest law firm, filed petitions last year to stop the opening of Success Academies both in Williamsburg and Cobble Hill, but they were dismissed due to statutes of limitations. The parents' groups argue that they didn't hear about the schools in time to register objections, due to the same meager public outreach they were complaining about in the first place.

"I don't think people are against charter schools in general—our office has actually fought to keep some open," says Advocates for Justice attorney Arthur Schwartz. "It's that they should not be developed by people who don't care about the communities. In Williamsburg in particular, parents have worked really hard to have these integrated, well-balanced schools that a lot of people really want to go to, both yuppie parents and Hispanic parents. And plopped in the middle are these schools that change the balance. The concern is that they start pulling children out of schools that are actually functioning really well."

In January 2013, Advocates for Justice filed a new suit against SUNY's board of trustees, the organization that authorizes new charter schools in New York City, to stop Citizens of the World's entry into District 14. A long list of local officials—including Borough President Marty Markowitz; councilmembers Stephen Levin, Lisa Bloodgood, and Diana Reyna; State Senator Martin Dilan; Assemblyman Joe Lentol; and Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez—has spoken out in favor of both suits, each of which argues that the charter organizations failed to comply with state regulations requiring broad community outreach to secure feedback and support for the proposed schools. For example, Citizens of the World claimed in their applications that they held information sessions at mixed- and low-income housing units. As their sign-in sheets showed, however, the sessions were actually held in Schaefer Landing and Northside Piers, high-end glass towers on the waterfront whose city-mandated affordable units are located elsewhere. (Citizens of the World says it also did outreach at six local Head Starts.)

Whatever outreach they did do doesn't seem to be working: At the public hearing for Success Academy Williamsburg on January 17, 2012, there was one couple in favor of Success and approximately 400 parents against. At a second hearing, in February, there were three local parents in favor, plus dozens of Harlem supporters bused in for the occasion.

The irony of all this skirmishing is that both sides claim to have the same goal: a high-quality school with a balance of kids of different colors, incomes, and abilities, something rare in a country where schools are more segregated than they have been since 1968.

"My parents grew up in Jim Crow in the South before the civil rights movement," says Tesa Wilson. "They were sent to a school that was subpar in every way. I have a real problem when children in this day and age don't get equality of treatment."

The fear underlying the hot rhetoric from opponents of chains like Success and Citizens is that for these charter schools, "diversity" really means picking off white and high-income families, the organized and affluent ones with the social capital and the time to agitate to make public schools better—the ones who would otherwise stay in and strengthen local public schools.

Currently, New York City charter school applicants are far more likely to be African-American than the average public school student, a pattern that's true nationwide. According to a study, "Choice Without Equity," by the Civil Rights Project at UCLA, 70 percent of black charter school students nationally attend highly racially isolated schools that are 90–100 percent black.

Moskowitz, who attended the prestigious (and public) Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan before moving on to the University of Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins, says she's trying to reverse that trend. Hence Success Academy's expansion into neighborhoods like the Upper West Side and Cobble Hill, where the chances of attracting diversity—i.e., white children—are better than in Harlem or the South Bronx. "It's Martin Luther King–ish and old-fashioned, I know," says Moskowitz, in a rather unlikely comparison. "But people going to school with people that are different than themselves is a very positive, healthy experience."

That seems like both a truly laudable goal and, given the unfortunate brand message the above race statistics transmit, a smart business decision as well.

Citizens of the World shares Success Academy's target demographic. Citizens' initial proposal to SUNY set a goal of 55 percent white enrollment in Williamsburg—a far higher percentage than you'd find at any local public school there. In a tour de force of PR spin, Citizens' community engagement director, Tara Phillips, says, "We wanted to create a school much more reflective of the diversity of the community relative to other public schools." In English, that means recruiting more white, affluent families to the school.

But diversity is a multi-dimensional metric. So while New York City charters have more minorities, they also have far fewer English-language learners than local schools (6 percent versus 14 percent) and fewer high-need special education students (2.1 percent versus 7.7 percent). The Success Academy I visited in Williamsburg had almost no special-ed kids. Critics like education historian and analyst Diane Ravitch say this is the result of charters' creaming off the students who don't need as many resources. The phenomenon of charters starting to pursue more white kids could add a whole other meaning to the term "creaming."

The mission statement of Citizens of the World focuses on community, peacemaking, and global citizenship. Phillips mentions "diversity" and "community" five times each in a 25-minute interview. Yet their community-relations problems didn't start in Brooklyn. Citizens' founder, Kristean Dragon, faced allegations of financial and ethical mismanagement and cronyism in relation to her previous organization, Wonder of Reading, which got millions of dollars to renovate Los Angeles school libraries before it folded. And Dragon met stiff opposition when opening in Silver Lake, a Los Angeles neighborhood that is a gentrified blend similar to Williamsburg. Stephanie Anderson, the WAGPOPS mom, connected with Silver Lake parents on Facebook and actually flew out to meet with them. "They did a lot of race-baiting in those neighborhoods," she recalls. "Saying, 'you don't want your kids to go to school with low-income Hispanics, do you?' It was the same playbook they're trying in Brooklyn."

Despite these long-standing issues, "the opposition has taken us by surprise," says Phillips, who can't keep a petulant note out of her voice when she talks about WAGPOPS. "The false accusation that we were targeting only white families just wasn't true. . . . It's been a very frustrating process to have the opposition throw lies at us to defeat our cause when there's so much work to be done."

"What's wrong with offering more choice to kids?" asks Abby Johnson, the principal of Success Academy Williamsburg. The upstairs hallway of classrooms within a middle school on South 3rd and Roebling is cheerful and orderly on a sunny Tuesday morning in January. In one room, kindergartners are playing with blocks; in the science lab, they are conducting experiments in growing bread mold; and in art class, they are painting pictures of cake à la Wayne Thiebaud.

The school appeared both progressive and regimented. I saw students, clad in uniforms, being repeatedly reminded to sit up straight and make eye contact with the teacher. Class sizes are at the high end (to make room in the budget for specialized teachers and a school psychologist), and the extended school day goes from 7:45 a.m. to 4 p.m. Starting in kindergarten, there is a relentless focus on college graduation, with each classroom named and decorated after the teacher's alma mater.

"That military, rigid discipline, that 'look me in the eye,' 'no excuses' stuff—I get that Eva Moskowitz is sociopathic enough to put her own kids in this school to prove a point," says Parker. (Two of Moskowitz's three children attend Success Academy Harlem.) "But the president wouldn't put his kids in a school like this. No person of means would. They think somehow this is OK for poor kids, but you don't see the suburban schools operating that way."

"Our pedagogy is incredibly progressive," counters Moskowitz. "Discovery-oriented science, constructivist math, THINK literacy. Our commitment to recess and blocks is deep and wide. We have yoga!" (She clearly sees yoga, offered only at the Williamsburg branch of Success, as some kind of dog whistle to parents of my breed.) "I think you'd be hard-pressed to come to the conclusion that it is 'no excuses,' " she continues, referring to a tagline associated with the more militaristic KIPP charter chain.

She might consider herself progressive, but Moskowitz's communication style hasn't made her hearts-and-minds campaign any easier. "Eva Moskowitz has quite a reputation," says Wilson, laughing. A 2009 post on gothamschools.org asked, "What is it about Eva Moskowitz that attracts so many enemies?" (Conclusion: It's mostly a matter of personality, combined with that salary.) Neither she nor her husband will speak on the record about their separate-but-equal working relationship or about the somehow unseemly fact that they are pushing dueling charter chains on the same neighborhood.

Grannis says the help he offered Citizens of the World was limited to a single e-mail sent to the hui to arrange a meeting for local parents interested in charters: "My role has been greatly exaggerated by people who find my connection to Eva useful in pitching the vast-right-wing-conspiracy angle." Moskowitz prefers to believe in a vast left-wing conspiracy, writing off most of her opposition—including the multiple lawsuits and public hearings with hundreds of parents turning out against her schools—as the product of the unions and their "surrogates." "Randi [Weingarten, head of the United Federation of Teachers] made it very clear that it was part of her mission to stop Success Academy," she says.

WAGPOPS and the CEC, for their part, say their opposition has nothing to do with the unions. It's "pure grassroots," says Parker, adding that her group hasn't shared resources with, or even consulted with, union leaders. "The UFT does not employ me, nor do they give me a check," agrees Tesa Wilson. "What we do is volunteer work. We don't even get a plastic chicken dinner or a certificate from the DOE or the teachers' union, either."

Citizens of the World is likely to go forward as planned, but Schwartz, Wilson, and the WAGPOPS crew hope that their protests and suits will move the city to amend the planning process for new charter schools to include more meaningful community input. They'd also like to see it conduct a review of the effect on communities when charters target the exact same families as existing high-quality public schools.

The moment is right for that conversation: As Mayor Bloomberg ticks down the last months of his term, the public has lost its enthusiasm for mayoral control of schools, which he acquired in 2002, and for the businesslike agenda of charter schools, high-stakes testing, and all that goes with it. A January 2013 poll from Quinnipiac found that 63 percent of city voters want shared control of the schools, a steep drop from 2009, when a majority favored mayoral control. And by a 53 percent to 35 percent margin, we now trust the teachers' unions more than the mayor to protect the interests of schoolchildren. Maybe it's time for the grownups to be grownups here, and make the children the one priority we can agree on.

Photograph by Kelly Schott
P.S. 84 Jose de Diego in Williamsburg. After years of work by local parents, the school is “balanced,” but on a knife’s edge.

edworkforce.house.gov
Success Academy CEO Eva Moskowitz pulls down more than $300K per year.

grannislaw.com
Eva Moskowitz's husband, Eric Grannis, also pushes the charter school concept.

C.S. Muncy
Stephanie Anderson, whose daughter attends P.S. 84, says the influx of charters “defies logic.”

C.S. Muncy
Abby Johnson, 30, is principal of Success Academy Williamsburg, which focuses relentlessly on college graduation. “What’s wrong with offering more choice to kids?” she asks.
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Williamsburg (Brooklyn)City Councilmember Eva MoskowitzBrooklyn (New York City)Education IssuesCharter Schools