Teachers College Protest Stories and Pics - Updated With Press Release

NYS BOARD OF REGENTS CHANCELLOR TISCH  ENCOUNTERS PROTEST AT TEACHERS COLLEGE CONVOCATION

WIDE SUPPORT FROM NY PARENTS AND EDUCATORS AROUND THE NATION

Contact:

Daiyu Suzuki (TC Doctoral Student in Curriculum & Teaching)  (646) 546-2513 or daiyu.suzuki@gmail.com 

On May 21, NYS Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch encountered a peaceful protest by the students and faculty of Teachers College during its graduation ceremony where she was the keynote speaker and was awarded a medal of honor for “Distinguished Service.” The fact that the decision was made by Teachers College President Susan Fuhrman without any internal selection committee manifested the erosion of shared governance that has been taking place under President Fuhrman’s leadership. In addition, many faculty members and students were enraged because this opportunity to speak at such a special moment revealed both the College’s implicit endorsement of the test-driven corporate reforms that Chancellor Tisch symbolizes as well as an assault on academic freedom and integrity that is taking place under the leadership of President Fuhrman, who sits on the Board of Directors of a multinational education giant, Pearson PLC. A group of graduating students, with the support of other students, created a flyer (attached) which had facts about Chancellor Tisch’s destructive education policies on one side and showed on the back a large sign that said “NOT A TEST SCORE,” a message against the testing regime she constructed in the state of NY.

With the help of some faculty members and few parent activists from Change the Stakes and Time Out From Testing, the students distributed the flyer widely to the faculty, graduates, and their guests as they entered the venue. During Chancellor Tisch’s speech, hundreds of students and over a half of the faculty held up the sign to express their disapprovals. One student later described, “It was a very profound experience to witness the sea of protest signs.”

-        A graduate said, “it was a significant moment to remember. Seeing students and faculty holding proudly the signs while Tisch was looking confused and distressed was very powerful.” She said, “I was siting in the back, so from my view I saw the majority of the Faculty holding the signs and a third of students facing Tisch with sign at high. She seemed emotionally affected. I would say she almost cried at the beginning.” She also described how brave professors who held up the signs behind the podium were loudly cheered by the graduates.

-        Another graduate reflects, “It was a great celebration of our beliefs.”

-        An MA graduate (Curriculum & Teaching) Robyn Fialkow reflects, “To see signs from across departments, from faculty members on stage, from guests in the audience; to hear people's words of support as we marched proudly out of the Cathedral; to sit in strong silence and in clear resolve among friends and colleagues united in a noble cause -- this is what I will remember of my graduation day.” 

-        The students, faculty, staff, and alumni of Teachers College are calling for a reexamination of the state of the College (http://education4.org/ under “Re-imagining TC”) in this 125^thanniversary of the institution. They intend to build on today’s successful protest against Chancellor Tisch and President Fuhrman’s unilateral decision to honor her.

-       In a statement released today, parents across New York State have come together to support the protest arising within the Teachers College community, joining a large group of TC faculty, staff, students and alumni objecting to TC President Susan Fuhrman’s decision to honor NY State Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch at the TC graduation ceremony on May 21. The parents announced their support for the TC protesters, saying that Tisch’s policies hurt children and damage all public schools, with ill effects falling most drastically on schools that serve middle-class and poor families.

-       As parents see their children experience the devastating effects of Tisch’s agenda, they are dismayed to find TC’s president praising Tisch’s policies. Fred Smith states at www.schoolbook.org, “Tisch has supported New York’s testing program as it became the black hole of education from the inception of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002. Children have been reduced to data points.”

-       It has been revealed that Fuhrman has strong ties to one of the largest corporations benefiting from Tisch’s policies, Pearson, as Fuhrman sits on the board of Pearson and through her Pearson stock holdings benefits personally from the Tisch policies. Jeanette Brunelle Deutermann spoke out against honoring Tisch. The protests “will send a strong message to all universities that whom they honor DOES matter.”

-       A large portion of TC’s community has courageously protested the honoring of Tisch, with statements signed by many TC alumni (petition organized by Carol Burris, ’03, Ed.D; Bill Ayers ’87, Ed.D; Sean Feeney, ’05, Ed.D) and public school teachers (Brian Jones, MORE, NYC; Karen Lewis, President of Chicago Teachers Union; Jesse Hagopian, Seattle Garfield High School). They are now joined by parent groups. Edith Baltazar supports the TC protests: “I am outraged. Why should Merryl Tisch receive an award for approving the high-stakes testing that creates a climate of fear in our schools and disrupts the real teaching of our children?”

-       Jeff Nichols states that “as parents, we call on the administration of Teachers College in general, and President Fuhrman in particular, to sever all ties with private corporations that have influence over education policy decisions. The administration of the College should take a leading role in rejecting discredited practices like high-stakes testing and untried, undemocratically instituted curricula like the Common Core. Teachers College should disassociate itself from figures like Chancellor Tisch who have participated in undermining the authority of teachers and parents over crucial educational decisions such as student assessment and design of curriculum.”

-       Parents applaud the TC community’s courage in protesting, pointing out that Fuhrman’s plan would make TC complicit with Tisch’s pro-corporate agenda and would constitute a violation of TC’s long tradition of supporting public schools as a force for equality and opportunity for all members of society.

-       Parents stand by the Teachers College protesters in saying NO to Tisch’s agenda and NO to TC honoring her at their graduation ceremony!

For more info, please visit our Facebook page

 Steven Dubin, Ed.D (Professor of Arts Administration) is also available for your questions. (917) 565-0757 or sd2188@tc.columbia.edu

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MORE Below the break

VAM This: Is This a New Definition of an Effective Teacher - Throwing your body over kids during a tornado or in front of a bullet?

One can never say what you would do in situations like these and I cannot say for sure what I would do. I had a few minor incidents over my years of teaching where I hope I did the right thing. I think most teachers generally act in the interests of the safety of the kids in extreme conditions. It is an almost automatic act to put the kids in your charge ahead of yourself. But here is a scary thought: you take your kids on a trip and either due to your not being careful enough or due to one of your kids going off kilter (and maybe if a kid who was capable of going off should not have been on the trip) a kid falls on the tracks and a train is coming. What do you do? I'm really picturing this scene and right now I'm still standing on the edge of the platform reaching down and urging the child to grab my hands. But I haven't jumped on the tracks yet. The clock is ticking. How effective will I be deemed under the new definition of VAM?


Special to Ed Notes from Jim Callaghan 
 
Great to hear from Jim today, chief defender of teacher rights at the NY Teacher before Mulgrew fired him in the summer of 2010. Jim watching the actions of the teachers in Oklahoma expresses some outrage though he is a day behind on the NY Times editorials.

Once again, in Oklahoma, we see teachers putting the lives of their students first.

When will Mulgrew demand that his "close" friend Bermuda Mike apologize for calling teachers "radicals' last week? Maybe he could bring it up during the next plane ride to Bermuda.

When will Mulgrew manage a word of complaint when the N.Y. Times editorial writers- hiding behind the cloak of anonymity- calls on mayoral candidates to "get tough" on teachers?

When will Weingarten and Mulgrew beg forgiveness from the members for their Vichy collaboration with the likes of Tisch, Green Dot, Bill Gates, Klein, Walcott, Duncan, Bloomberg and dozens of others who seek to single out teachers for the ills of our society?

When will Mulgrew, a moral coward, do the right thing and resign his office and let someone who cares about the members take over?

What is your kid's life worth?

Noon Today: TEACHERS COLLEGE STUDENTS AND FACULTY TO PROTEST AWARD TO MERRYL TISCH, NYS BOARD OF REGENTS CHANCELLOR

We've been reporting on this for a week as various parents, faculty and student groups have petitions going. But today is the live protest by students, faculty and alumni of TC. The protest is as much against the actions of TC President Susan Fuhrman who is on the board of the Pearson test giant as it is against Tisch. TC students go there because many are progressive educators opposed to the high stakes testing regime while TC itself has blood on its hands in many ways. The alumni I know are outraged.

A group based at TC, Edu4, has a web site Edu4.

Check out this powerhouse School Book piece by Change the Stakes member Fred Smith on the exploding student, parent, alumni protest of the selection of Regent Merryl Tisch to be honored at tomorrow’s graduation. 





MEDIA ALERT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                  MAY 20, 2013

Press Contacts:
Daiyu Suzuki: (646) 546-2513, daiyu.suzuki@gmail.com
Sulafa Khalid-Musa: (917) 600-7607, smk2194@tc.columbia.edu

 TEACHERS COLLEGE STUDENTS AND FACULTY TO PROTEST

AWARD TO MERRYL TISCH,
NYS BOARD OF REGENTS CHANCELLOR

WHEN:             TUESDAY, MAY 21
TIME:               12:00 NOON
WHAT:              TEACHERS COLLEGE CONVOCATION
WHERE:           IN FRONT of CATHEDRAL OF ST. JOHN THE DIVINE
                        112th ST. AND AMSTERDAM AVENUE, NYC



WHY: 

At tomorrow’s graduation ceremony Merryl Tisch, Chancellor of New York State Board of Regents, is to be a speaker and receive an award from Teachers College. Tisch is a driving force behind the state’s policies of high-stakes testing in the public schools and the promotion of charter schools. Critics of these policies include TC graduates and other students as well as members of TC faculty, staff, and alumni.

Many TC students and faculty members state that Chancellor Tisch’s policies hurt children and damage all public schools, and most drastically damage schools that serve middle-class and poor families. In contrast, there are no high-stakes tests in elite private schools, where Chancellor Tisch’s children studied and where she taught. TC community members also object to TC President Susan Fuhrman’s unilateral decision to honor Chancellor Tisch with an award at their graduation.

Students, including graduates coming out of the convocation, and a number of faculty members are prepared to be interviewed by the press. They will share their photos of the protest as well.

Change the Stakes High States Testing Updates - Field Tests, Merryl Tisch Outrage, and More!

Message from the most dynamic group in the battle against Ed Deform in NYC.

Thanks so much for continuing to share and support the petition to Give New York State Parents the Right to Opt Their Children Out of High Stakes Testing.  A few important updates:

1.      Say No to Field Testing – Check out the Change the Stakes fact sheet, listing of NYC field test schools and sample opt out letters.  Statewide resources also available on the NYStopTesting site. 

2.      Problems Opting Out in April? – If you opted your NYC child out of State testing in April and feel you experienced some form of punishment please email changethestakes@gmail.com.  We are collecting stories for a legal support group that may be interested in taking action.  (NYC only for this item, please). 

3.      Controversy Brews at Teachers College – Please check out this powerhouse School Book piece by Change the Stakes member Fred Smith on the exploding student, parent, alumni protest of the selection of Regent Merryl Tisch to be honored at tomorrow’s graduation.  More information (and details on tomorrow’s protest) available on the Edu4 website.

4.      The Fight for Student Data Privacy – Please stay plugged into NYCPublicSchoolParents to find out how you can join the fight against inBloom and protect students data. 

5.      Join Us in NYC on Friday May 31st – The next meeting of Change the Stake will be held at 5:30 PM in midtown Manhattan.  Details on changethestakes.org. 

Thanks for all of your efforts and please share this update with others.

Join us on Facebook and Twitter

Astounding NY Times Editorial Spells Doom for Ed Deform: Was Brent Staples Absent Today?

UPDATED WITH LEONIE's VIEWS:

...while charter schools can be a path to excellence, they can also cause problems. Shoehorning them into existing school buildings over local objections can alienate parents and reinforce among students a harmful sense of being separate and unequal. 

Mr. Bloomberg’s schools chancellor, Dennis Walcott, called the criticism an “unconscionable” assault on the Education Department... after 12 years, this mayor’s ideas are due for a counterargument. The critiques the candidates are offering hardly shock the conscience, and their complaints about the Bloomberg administration can be heard from teachers and parents in any school in the city. ... NY Times editorial

After 12 years of outright support of Bloomberg ed policies and for ed deform in general, along with some of the worst coverage of local and national education issues (other than when Anna Phillips was reporting for a year), this editorial is a sign that the increasing messages of outrage emerging from every area of the city are reaching their mark. Staples has been the most adamant supporter of deform and a union basher to boot. I hope he brings an absence note.

 The school system has indeed gone overboard in relying on standardized testing. Tests need to be a means to the end of better instruction, not the pedagogical obsession they have become. Yes, Mr. Bloomberg has shown disdain for consultation, as in his rush to close underperforming schools without the full and meaningful involvement of affected communities. The system needs to strengthen neighborhoods’ connection to schools and reconnect with parents who feel shut out. And while charter schools can be a path to excellence, they can also cause problems. Shoehorning them into existing school buildings over local objections can alienate parents and reinforce among students a harmful sense of being separate and unequal.

Wow! What a blow to the charter shills. Actually talking about strengthening the neighborhood schools and how charters helicoptored in help destroy that concept. Yes, choice = divisive = destructive.

It is important to note that when teachers or their union complains everyone shrugs. But when it is clear that the message is not coming from the union or their flunkies it begins to hit home. And for the social justice bashers, there is a lesson -- a union that only worries about bread and butter is going down the tubes.

Make sure to read the series of article at Perdido Street School on the end of ed deform. Here is a link to one:  Ed Deform House Of Cards Falling - Ed Deformers Whining About It

 and another… Quinn Vows To End City's Participation In Field Tests

Witness Chicago where the union is leading the national counterattack by making made social justice reachouts (without the rhetoric) a prime component (along with bread and butter.) Make no mistake -- it was the work of the CTU which is the only organization with the power and outreach to make these connections, this helped create a movement.

there can be truth in applause lines. Comptroller John Liu spoke for many at the forum when he told of his frustrating inability, as a parent, to give input to school officials. And William Thompson Jr., a former city comptroller, answered Mr. Walcott in a statement on Saturday by noting the incompleteness of educational gains: “For 12 years, the mayor has vilified teachers, shut out parents, turned classrooms into test prep centers and closed community schools. We have tried those policies, and our kids are still not receiving the education they deserve.” 

Liu I believe. Thompson whose main campaign supporter is Bloomberg neighbor Merry Tisch, queen of ed deform, I do not.

The Times still has to take a shot at local control.

When Mr. Bloomberg won direct control of public education in 2002, it was a historic and necessary victory, ending a system of local districts that was grossly dysfunctional and unaccountable. The candidates should not be allowed to downplay or deny how bad things were when nobody was in charge. 

In fact there were people in charge and every ill of that system has been exaggerated (and believe me I can list every single flaw -- but flaws that could have been fixed without mayoral dictatorship). This is another propaganda war that has to be fought.

The fact that not one mayoral candidate has the nerve to talk about taking a look at a more democratic system of running schools is problematic. Until we end mayoral control -- and the UFT takes a firm stand in calling for its end -- the downward spiral will continue.

Leonie commented at the listserve:

Everyone should read the lead editorial in today’s NY Times; I will post it below for those w/out access but please also click on this link, leave a comment, and send it to everyone you know via the NYT gadget so that it becomes the most emailed and read thing in today’s newspaper:

Education and New York City’s Mayoral Race - NYTimes.com http://shar.es/ZYwVf

This editorial represents a total sea change for the NYT whose editors (and publisher/owner, whose best friend is Bloomberg’s personal investment adviser) have defended the mayor’s education policies for the last 12 years.  This is also after a week where Walcott was allowed to vent, almost uncontested, in three articles on the NYT news pages against the Democratic candidates, who want to take schools in a different direction –with Walcott claiming that they were simply in the thrall of the UFT.

Here is the key sentence in the editorial today: “The critiques the candidates are offering hardly shock the conscience, and their complaints about the Bloomberg administration can be heard from teachers and parents in any school in the city.”

Wow.  Did someone on the editorial board actually talk to a public school parent for the first time?   Or does someone on the editorial board actually send his or her kid to a NYC public school?

Astounding change!    Before this, Brent Staples who usually writes their editorials on schools, either ignored what was happening in our schools, or supported the mayor’s policies, and followed the usual narrative that the only debate that existed was between  Bloomberg vs. the UFT, who were looking out for their interests.  Parents did not exist in this world view.

Today marks the day we finally live in a city where not all three daily’s editorial boards automatically defends Bloomberg on schools.  This is a MAJOR major blow to his legacy.

Here is the editorial in full below; the only major problem in it is that it takes the usual (false) position that pre-mayoral control the districts were hotbeds of dysfunction and corruption.

For good or for ill, the Community School Boards lost much of their power in 1996, six years before mayoral control was instituted.  Due to a major change in the governance law, they lost the ability to appoint a superintendent and hire teachers and other staff.  The legislation also gave the chancellor the ability to intervene when districts failed to meet performance goals, when school board members acted inappropriately and also required greater financial disclosure by community school board members.

Otherwise this editorial is stunning and could have written by people who were actually paying attention to the reality of our schools the past twelve years.  Only question I have is where were they before?

Meet The New York Times’s Editorial Board »

Whining Walcott in Blatant Misuse of Position Subjects 2000 Administrators to Political Harangue

Mr. Walcott’s speech seemed intended to be a rallying cry before a  friendly crowd, but the response was muted. While his calls for  preserving the authority of principals and eradicating nepotism were met  with applause, some principals seemed uninterested in his message... 
NY Times on Walcott speech at May 18 principal conference 

Many principals despise the Tweedies with a passion and are not unhappy to see them go. Do you think principals of NYC public schools are actually happy to see their space given away to charters which get favored treatment? Every principal I know speaks of Tweed with disdain so I am not surprised Walcott didn't receive a rousing response even from these hostages for the day. Word is that Bloomberg relaxed city gun laws to get them there.

Mr. DeVale, an opponent of mayoral control, said he thought Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Walcott were too authoritarian in their approach. “I sat and listened to a political lecture from an administration I have no interest in,” Mr. DeVale, who is a union representative, said after the speech. ...
NY Times on Walcott speech at May 18 principal conference 

Renel Piton, the principal of Brooklyn Lab School, said he shared Mr. Walcott’s concern about the candidates for mayor and did not want them to “gut reform for the sake of gutting.” Still, he said he was surprised the chancellor chose to use a speech at an academic conference to weigh in on a political battle. “We need to focus on what’s going on in schools,” Mr. Piton said. “I don’t come on a Saturday to listen to their views on the candidates.” ...... NY Times on Walcott speech at May 18 principal conference 

What a load of BS ... the entire day had become a political indoctrination exercise not an educational nor learning event and I was there to learn.....an attendee

Whining Walcott used what was billed as an educational event to hector administrators of NYC schools, many of whom were forced to attend while others were offered a  summer compensation day in exchange for attendance, a blatant and possible illegal misuse of educational funds. (Imagine if a teacher called in parents and then used the occasion to proselytize for personal politics. Oh, they already do that at the Eva Moskowitz schools.)

The political agenda was primary as Walcott hosted what some say was an anti-UFT union bashing-Fest disguised as principal conference. There's some irony in that while most principals, especially Leadership Academy types, agree with the anti-union agenda, many principals also despise the Tweedies with a passion and are not unhappy to see them go. Do you think principals of NYC public schools are actually happy to see their space given away to charters which get favored treatment?

One attendee said:

The chancellor made a big political speech about why the next mayor can not be allowed to do anything against the reform agenda and how the UFT can not rule education and teachers should not be protected. Some of the newbie knuckleheads laughed, not realizing the very same system will be used to fire them.

The Times article reported:

Even the Department of Education’s chief academic officer, Shael Polakow-Suransky, waded into the political fray, urging principals to support efforts to overhaul the school system. Mr. Polakow-Suransky said he was so distraught by the attacks on the campaign trail that he called the chancellor of the Washington school system, Kaya Henderson, for advice.

The despicable Shael was so upset at attacks on Tweed policies by mayoral candidates that he asked for advice from DC Chancellor Kaya Henderson who was Michelle Rhee's assistant eraserhead and is now covering up the cheating scandal?  Kaya Henderson will send Shael an emergency supply of erasers. Or maybe a shredder to erase all the malfeasance and misfeasance that the new occupants at Tweed might discover.

Apparently Walcott brought in Mike Johnston, Colorado State Senator,  "another dirtbag to bring up Memphis spirituality and quotes the bible in rationalizing education reform," said one attendee. "He wrapped these policies around Martin Luther King and the bible story of the good Samaritan," outraging one principal who challenged Johnston by saying King was in Memphis to support union workers for a contract not education reform and Jesus was a carpenter so would be a union man.

Johnston also talked about firing the weakest teachers using basketball as an analogy.  One questioner reminded him that we can accurately assess how mny baskets players score while tests are always full of errors so we don't this need junk science..

A veteran principal said he has "fired teachers and doesn't need 10000 rubrics and data to get rid of bad teachers."

While Walcott tries to stave off total irrelevancy, what is going on is the fast and furious fall of ed deform. Think of the Mad Men opening of the guy falling out of a building. Ed deform is being dashed on the rocks below and they are getting very nervous.

So of course this is not just about NYC but team it with the Chicago union election where 80% of the teachers in an election where 60% voted for a militant anti ed deform leadership the signs are there. Front groups like e4e  and their supporters try to claim that teachers really support ed deform but are held back by their union. Chicago with a lot of younger teachers proves that wrong.

Leonie Haimson had some choice comments on Whining Walcott's speech:

So among the absurdities of Walcott’s speech is that schools will get their budgets on Friday Before the city budget is passed?

He claims that the candidates’ positions are geared towards “appeasing” the union, endless proposals that would benefit the teachers’ union, but not our students and these candidates would have us consign the students who attend them to an awful status quo, and send their students into the world without the benefit of a good education.

Right. No mention of how unpopular Bloomberg’s policies among voters, with only 22% trusting him more than the union to do right for the kids, compared to 69% trusting the union more.  Boy, that must gall him!  But he and Bloomberg deserve every ounce of disrespect and distrust they now receive, considering their lies, their distoritions, and the way they have run roughshod over parents and communities for the past 11 years.

“We cannot return to the days before college and career readiness was part of every lesson plan, every coaching session and every parent’s demand for their son or daughter. This is something no administration before us ever took on, and it’s a cornerstone of our reform policy.”
What? No previous administration ever cared about making kids prepared for college?  What incredible nerve.

Try telling the parent coordinators hired by you— with about $75 - $80 million in central funding—that we’re not serious about parent involvement.“ Sure, ask the parent coordinators or anyone who works in our schools and they will agree that the DOE isn’t serious about parent involvement!

Can’t wait for the NYT coverage of this, their article today (as well as a few days ago) transcribed  Walcott’s absurd claims without analyzing them was just retweeted by none other than Michelle Rhee.

80Michelle Rhee ‏@MichelleRhee 52m

W/ @MikeBloomberg, NYC has been a leader on #edreform. To turn back those reforms would be a mistake that hurts kids http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/18/nyregion/schools-chancellor-to-strike-back-at-candidates-critical-of-mayors-policies.html?ref=nyregion …

Well below the fold is the entire NY Times report WITHOUT much analysis. It's good that Hernandez spoke to some principals who are willing to speak out but there is much to dig out here given the fact the CSA has lined up with the UFT on many issues.

TIME CHANGE TO NOON Tuesday: Join us in support of Teachers College graduates who are protesting inside their graduation ceremony

Everyone is encouraged to come out to support this action, and if you live close to 112th and Amsterdam, please consider attending this rally.  If you cannot attend, please sign and share these petitions.

PARENTS/CITIZENS LETTER:

http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/ny-state-parents-support-3

http://education4.org/re-imagining-tc/ny-state-parents-support-tc-protest/

TEACHER LETTER:  http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/teachers-college-take?source=c.fwd&r_by=7801280

REMINDER

PUBLIC SCHOOL PARENTS AND CONCERNED RESIDENTS--ACTION ALERT

Join us in support of Teachers College graduates who are protesting inside their graduation ceremony. 

Tisch, Chancellor of Board of Regents, who is the driving force behind high stakes tests in NY state, 

is scheduled to be a speaker and to receive a medal for distinguished service. She should not receive these honors.

Bring a sign expressing your complaint with Merryl Tisch--

Teachers College Convocation

Tuesday, May 21

St. John the Divine, 112th and Amsterdam

Manhattan, NYC

1 train to 110th St.

be there 12 noon

Stand with us! It will take an hour of your time.

• We are against Tisch's policy of high-stakes testing statewide

• They are demoralizing to public school students and teachers

• They are not imposed on private schools, which her children attended and where she taught

•  Tisch promotes the proliferation of charter schools instead of quality public schools

Press coverage ends, and ceremony begins, at 9:30. 

UFT Tilts to Thompson: Tisch, D'Amato, New Action Overjoyed, de Blasio branded as"Left" While SEIU Endorses him

 3-card monte scam

This [1199/SEIU de Blasio] endorsement is a direct slap to Thompson. The African American candidate getting all those rich white people to support him politically and financially doesn't get 1199's endorsement because those members know who Thompson will represent if he is elected mayor.   ... Reality Based Educator

Better dead than red .... UFT policy since inception, c. 1960

Until the past week I was betting on the UFT backing de Blasio given some reports from the inside. But recent days have seen a decided shift to Thompson so I'm willing to bet the farm based on certain smoke signals. Unless the SEIU endorsement makes the UFT hierarchy take a pause.

But if a UFT Thompson comes about look for an interesting battle between UFT and SEIU. (And where will DC37 come down?)

Peter Goodman's Ed in the Apple blog is a good bell-weather of where the UFT is heading, though you have to read between the lines.

De Blasio, also a public school parent, continued to attack Quinn, over her support for a third term, and called her the “Bloomberg Lite” candidate....

Yes. we all hate Quinn. And I know the UFT people like de Blasio. But here's the clincher.

Is DiBlasio too far to the left? Will he “turn off” the middle of the road voters? Will he mobilize the business community to make an all-out effort for Lhota? (Lhota is about at the same level as Bloomberg was at this time in 2001)

Left? The usual Unity hack scare tactic. ("Progressive" would not do, I guess.)

Is Goodman trying to frighten the members who might support de Blasio (remember the lack of support for Mark Green in 2001 that gave us 12 years of Bloomberg). As if the business community is not already supporting Lhota.

Don't forget that de Blasio is the only candidate to take on Moskowitz and the charter network head to head. The UFT is often too scaredy cat to go there. (They argue that criticizing charters will hurt their attempts to organize charter teachers -- interesting in that Karen Lewis slams charters and still organizes teachers with success and 80% of the teachers in an election where retirees don't vote chose Karen yesterday.)

Reality-Based Educator reporting at Perdido Street School:

De Blasio Gets 1199 SEIU Endorsement

Local 1199 SEIU, which represents 200,000 healthcare workers, will make the announcement official on Monday.

The decision -- which could provide de Blasio a surge of grassroots support -- is the most significant union endorsement yet in the race.

Officials at the union said that its 150-member executive board voted unanimously to support de Blasio -- the first time that has happened in any citywide race in more than 20 years. They also said they made their choice a month earlier than expected, with hopes it would prompt other unions to follow suit. This endorsement is a direct slap to Thompson. The African American candidate getting all those rich white people to support him politically and financially doesn't get 1199's endorsement because those members know who Thompson will represent if he is elected mayor. 

Back to Goodman, who has an entire paragraph with a brief bio of Thompson, including this attempt to sugarcoat a guy who ran one of the worst campaigns in history against Bloomberg in 2009.

 Time and time again he rapped the Bloomberg administration and in the strongest terms said he would hire an experienced educator as chancellor. The audience applauded as he criticized Tweed, policies made by a staff without much school experience, and, “not a lot of diversity.”

You mean rapping Bloomberg's policies is what got Bloomberg's next door neighbor and ed deformer supreme, Merryl Tisch, to be Thompson's campaign chairperson and D'Amato and his pals to support him with big money while Merryl's husband is backing Lhota?

Oh, give us a break. They're playing 3-card monte with us.

What about Thompson's time as President of the Board of Education before the fall? He was backed by Giuliani for President and during his tenure we saw the first case of a non educator getting a waiver to be Chancellor (Harold Levy), thus setting a precedent for the past 4 chancellors. NOW he wants an educator for Chancellor?

With many UFT members supporting de Blasio for what they see as a more progressive program (progressive = left in the old war hawk UFT), Goodman's comments opens up the whispering campaign UFT staffers and Unity hacks will be using to try to tame the members who support de Blasio, most of whom will ignore them anyway. Teachers who are clued in despise Tisch and her flunky John King. So go sell Thompson to them.

Only a big backlash internally -- watch the UFT Delegate Assembly this Wednesday for clear signs -- which Unity hacks get up to speak and whether they make the very same comments Goodman is making. Unity Caucus DA Speakers Bureau will be meeting a day or two before the DA to plot strategy. Message to Stuart Kaplan --- we'll be watching you.

I see the entire Thompson campaign with support from Merryl Tisch whose husband is supporting Lhota as a bogus campaign to put forth the weakest candidate so Lhota has a shot. Come on, D'Amato, even with his anti-Lhota comments?

Even anti-political people like me who believe every politician will sell us out may just vote de Blasio for spite. 

What a trio of support: the UFT, Tisch and D'Amato. Hello Mayor Lohta.

Here are some more signs of UFT for Thompson:

• RBE reports: Merryl Tisch Hosts "Women For Thompson" Fundraiser On June 12 - Weingarten To Attend

Tells you everything you need to know about what kind of mayor Bill Thompson will be.

• Thompson is the only one written about in the update the UFT sends out:

http://www.uft.org/press-releases/mayoral-candidate-bill-thompson-outlin...

Mayoral candidate Bill Thompson gave a speech today outlining his vision for the city’s public schools and slamming Mayor Bloomberg’s education policies. Among the goals cited by Thompson, a former head of the Board of Education, were expanding the city’s prekindergarten programs and the number of Community Learning Schools, an initiative that was launched by the UFT.

See the movie opening next fall: Mark Green, Part 2.

And one more thing from Goodman's alternate reality:

I think the final endorsement will be driven by the “straw votes” at the borough meetings and the attitude of the delegates at the May 22nd meeting.

Sure, Peter, the vote of the people who attended the borough meetings, which probably look like a Unity Caucus Delegate Assembly, will decide.

Oh, and watch the walking dead in New Action, which actually crowed about how they endorsed Bill Thompson last time and attacked MORE for not doing so despite the fact that MORE didn't even exist, brag that it is their influence over Mulgrew due to their support that got the endorsement for Thompson.

New Action campaigning for Thompson

Astoria Queens District 30: SUNY CHARTER SCHOOLS INSTITUTE SHOULD REJECT SUCCESS ACADEMY PROPOSAL TO OPEN SCHOOLS IN DISTRICT

WHEREAS, Success Academy’s average rate of annual student suspensions for the schools for which data is publicly available is well over three times higher than the rate of annual student suspensions in all of District 30,  
WHEREAS, Success Academy’s average rate of teacher turnover for the schools for which such data is publicly available is well over twice the rate of teacher turnover in District 30, and such teacher turnover robs students of a stable instruction population and systematically prevents the creation of a stable school community ---- CEC, District 30

Resistance to Eva grows and even if battles are lost, the ability of Success to wage long term war will be affected. Resos like this, while not binding (unless mayoral control is tweaked enough), they count as public anti-Eva comments and eventually wend their way into public consciousness while they also force the Eva publicity machine to put out fires in many locations.

But we are aware of DOE and external forces coming attempts to control the powerless CECs (except for their ability to gain some press) and in fact to start placing charter school adherents onto these boards - as has happened with the ed deform slug Brian Davis in Dist. 6.

At the May 16, 2013 Calendar Meeting, CDEC30 unanimously approved the following resolution:

 

RESOLUTION #96

CALLING ON THE SUNY CHARTER SCHOOLS INSTITUTE TO REJECT SUCCESS ACADEMY’S PRELIMINARY PROPOSAL TO OPEN SCHOOLS IN DISTRICT 30

AND CALLING UPON NEW YORK CITY TO REJECT ANY REQUEST BY

SUCCESS ACADEMY FOR PUBLIC SCHOOL SPACE IN DISTRICT 30

WHEREAS, District 30 is proud to be host to many excellent and successful public schools, including several well-considered charter schools; and

WHEREAS, on March 21, 2013, Community District Education Council 30 passed a resolution calling for a moratorium on all school closures, phase outs, and charter school co-locations; and

WHEREAS Community District Education Council 30 continues to be opposed to co-locations of charter schools in district schools without the approval of the district; and

WHEREAS, along with adjoining District 24, District 30 is one of the most overcrowded districts in New York City, such that at the request of City Council member Julissa Ferreras the DOE convened a task force to collaborate with the community to establish long-term solutions to address overcrowding, which task force held its first meeting on April 25; and

WHEREAS, District 30 is currently operating with an average building utilization rate of 104 percent; and

WHEREAS, New York City Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott has conceded that “Overcrowding is an issue we take seriously,” and

WHEREAS, the overwhelming majority of charter school seats in District 30 are in private buildings which serve to provide additional seats for students in this overcrowded district; and

WHEREAS, Success Academy has stated in its application to the SUNY Charter Institute that it only intends to open a school in District 30 if it can co-locate in a district school, with no acknowledgement that District 30 is already overcrowded and lacking in space for the schools already in the District; and

WHEREAS, serious concerns have been raised concerning student and teacher safety at schools co-located with Success Academy schools as a result of Success Academy’s performance of construction work without DOE approval; and

WHEREAS, District 30 has 13 elementary schools rated an “A” in their most recent New York City Department of Education Progress Report, which is over half of the elementary schools in District 30, and eight schools for which Progress Reports have shown improvement over the past two years; and

WHEREAS, District 30 offers numerous options for parental choice including, but not limited to, no less than five dual language programs, with a sixth opening next year, three district-wide gifted and talented programs, a citywide gifted and talented program, a sought-after NEST program,  several magnet schools, and five other charters schools each with its own theme; and

WHEREAS, District 30, along with District 24, has one of the fastest growing populations of immigrant students in the city, with dozens of languages being the native tongues of students and their parents including but not limited to Bengali, Arabic, Chinese, Urdu, Punjabi, Greek, Tivetan, Nepali, Albanian, Philipino/Tagalog, Portuguese, Hindi, Polish, Korean, Serbo-Croatian, Russian, Turkish, Japanese, French, Romanian, Haitian Creole, Thai, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, Gujarati, Indonesian/Bahasa, Pashto, Italian, Burmese, Farsi, German, Bosnian, Tamil, Armenian, Slovak, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Czech, Yonba, Belorussian, Telugu, Macedonian, Hebrew, Swedish, Tigre, Dutch, Georgian, Malayalam, Dzonghka, Bihari, Malay, Slovenian, Guarani, Hausa, Lithuanian, Marathi, Uzbek, Visayak, Bambara, Cham, Fulani, Ibo, Malagasy, Mongolian, Niger-Congo, Sindhi, Turkman, Twi, Afrikaans, Azerbaijani, Baluchi, Estonian, Khoisan, Loma, Maltese, Mandinka, Nahuatl, Native American Languages, Norweigan, Romansch, Shluh, Sundanese, Swahili, Tamazight, and Yoruba; and

WHEREAS, Success Academy has not made its petitions, enrollment materials, parent contracts, or other documents available in any languages other than English and Spanish; and

WHEREAS, Success Academy’s average rate of annual student suspensions for the schools for which data is publicly available is well over three times higher than the rate of annual student suspensions in all of District 30, despite the fact that such figures reflect only suspensions of students in grades K-6, whereas District 30’s suspension rate includes students in grades K-12; and

WHEREAS, Success Academy’s average rate of teacher turnover for the schools for which such data is publicly available is well over twice the rate of teacher turnover in District 30, and such teacher turnover robs students of a stable instruction population and systematically prevents the creation of a stable school community; and

WHEREAS, Success Academy has not shown that there has been any significant number of applicants from District 30 to any of its schools.

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that Community District Education Council 30 hereby calls upon the SUNY Charter Institute and the New York State Board of Regents to REJECT Success Academy’s preliminary proposal, and any subsequent proposal made by Success Academy to open a school in District 30; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that Community District Education Council 30 hereby calls upon the New York City Department of Education, the Panel on Education Policy, and the Chancellor of the New York City Schools to REJECT any request by Success Academy to be co-located in any public school building in District 30.

VOTED AND UNANIMOUSLY APPROVED: May 16, 2013

                       

Regards,

Gail Cohen

Administrative Assistant

Community District Education Council 30

28-11 Queens Plaza North, Room 520

Long Island City, NY 11101

718-391-8380

718-391-8500 (fax)

Visit CDEC30 on Facebook! Just copy and paste the link below.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Long-Island-City-NY/CDEC30/228546964309

 

Hypocrisy and Protest Over Merryl Tisch Teachers College Award

There are activists in the educational community and TC alumni who are debating whether to call for a protest of the Merryl Tisch award at your graduation [May 21]. While there are different opinions on this topic, they are all asking if there will be a protest from the graduating students. They realize that you are entering teaching at a very difficult time and they admire your courage. They are hoping that as beginning teachers you can find small ways to protect both the children and our profession by protesting the horrible anti-child and anti-teacher policies pushed through with Race to the Top funding.  ... Professor Celia Oyler, Teachers College

This story has been brewing for weeks and I've been waiting for it all to flow before compiling links and comments. What to do at graduation? Disrupt? Silent protest? Some of our contacts in the grad school and TC alum have been debating the issue internally and so far no firm decision has been made.

Some TC grad students also took part in the AERA Arne Duncan demo in San Francisco recently. I know that some might be concerned about showing civility no matter what the outrage (When Davids Boo Goliaths Do They Lack Civility?) and I'm guessing from internal list serve comments that at most we may see a turning of backs as the award is being presented while an outside protest is still being discussed.

Change the Stakes posted:  NYS PARENTS SUPPORT TEACHERS COLLEGE  PROTEST AGAINST PRESIDENT SUSAN FUHRMAN AND CHANCELLOR MERRYL TISCH

There is a direct conflict of interest: as president of Teachers College, Susan Fuhrman also serves on the board of directors of Pearson PLC; she is paid a substantial sum of money each year and, through stock ownership, directly benefits from Pearson contracts.  One such contract is Pearson’s $32 million contract with the New York State Education Department as the vendor for grades 3-8 ELA and math tests. Surely Fuhrman’s tie to Pearson is an act of gross impropriety if not an illegal conflict of interest.... It was President Fuhrman’s decision to honor former TC alumna Merryl Tisch.

Teachers College is supposedly a progressive education institution, but is apparently run as a dictatorship by Susan Fuhrman. (There's lots of stuff floating around about her style coming out of the TC student and faculty ranks so any protest is not just about the Tisch award.)

Susan Ohanian points to the incestuous relationship between Pearson and NY State Ed, linking to comments from Fred Smith:

Here's another signal of how the public is being taken out of public education--which has become a field of schemes for private profiteers like Pearson. 

New York State Education  Department & Pearson Hold Hands to Call the Shots: Fred Smith - http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1608

Diane Ravitch headlined: Teachers College to Honor Doyenne of High-Stakes Testing

It's not only about Tisch and high-stakes testing, it is also about her being one of the leading ed deformers running the State Board of Regents as a dictatorship. She decided on State Ed Commissioner David Steiner, who went down in infamy for granting Cathie Black her waiver and the current ed deform slug John King.

There are so many great commentaries emerging on this issue I can't keep up with all of them. Diane posted this powerful piece from a TC Prof: Professor Oyler: An Open Letter to My Students.

[Tisch's] actions while Chair of the New York State Board of Regents have wrought incredible damage upon our noble profession. Merryl Tisch has ushered through the Board of Regents many policies with which I vehemently disagree; these include: decoupling teacher certification and master’s degrees from university-based teacher education (approving Relay Graduate School of Education); allowing InBloom to collect and sell private data on each K-12 student in New York State schools; and requiring all school districts to tie teacher evaluation to Value Added Measures based on student test scores.... If I were at the graduation convocation, I would wear a sign on the back of my robe. It would probably say, “USING STUDENT TEST SCORES TO RATE TEACHERS DISHONORS US.... I couldn’t be silent. I would feel complicit; my silence would be condoning the award.... I cannot sit silently while teachers across this country are being viciously attacked and demeaned by the junk science of VAM..

How interesting that college professors like Dr. Oyler brand VAM junk science while our own union defends it.

Our pal Fred Smith and Change the Stakes colleague has a piece up at Schoolbook:

It is a dark day when Teachers College, a venerable institution of learning, engages in actions that are contrary to the values it has upheld and nurtured for more than a century but that day has arrived....
Its founding vision was to train teachers to work effectively with the children of New York City’s poor by understanding and furthering the many ways that children are capable of learning. Individual differences were respected, cherished. The words progressive and humanitarian were embraced by Teachers College.
Unfortunately, the unilateral decision by T.C. President Susan Fuhrman to honor New York Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch next week at the school’s convocation defies this tradition. 

Fred goes on to eviscerate not only Tisch but Fuhrman:

Fuhrman has reportedly received almost $1 million in the form of stocks and fees (as “non-executive independent director) from Pearson, the state’s current test publisher. And closing the circle, Pearson not only has a five-year $32 million contract with the state to test 1.2 million students in grade 3 to 8 each year in reading and math. It has taken over gatekeeping programs that assess who is qualified to be a teacher and whether their performance as teachers is satisfactory. So T.C. trains the teachers, the state hires and evaluates them and Pearson thrives — monopoly style — on this neat arrangement.

Here's the link for the national teacher petition calling on TC to rescind the award for Merryl Tisch: http://petitions.moveon.org/s...

And the link from TC alum Carol Burris:
The letter of concern of alumni can be found here:
http://education4.org/re-imag...

While most people are not willing to go this far on the Tisch story I have no qualms and I have had many occasions to use the photo below. RBE did touch on this in Tisch And Teachers College

I wanted her to run for mayor because I wanted to find out more about her family's connections to K-12 Inc. and the for-profit education industry as well as the family history in the cigarette business.

Tisch Family Connections to K12 Board and Charter School

Closing Schools: 3 Day March in Chicago Plus Lee Sustar Analysis

Above, left to right, Al Ramirez, CORE co-chairman, Kristine Mayle, CTU Financial Secretary, Karen Lewis, CTU Preisdent, Michael Brunson, CTU Recording Secretary, Jesse Sharkey, CTU Vice President, and Nate Goldbaum, CORE co-chair. Substance photo by Howard Heath.

Three years ago at this time all these guys were teaching. I really think it takes being in the classroom during the ed deform movement to get people to a stage where they refuse to accept the tenets of ed deform, as our leaders at the AFT and the UFT have done so readily. I know Al and Kristine from hanging out with them in LA in 2009 and have gotten to know the others over the years.

I'm doing a lot on the Chicago story because it has so much relevance for all teachers. Their union election is tomorrow in the schools (so unlike here - some people think it is a reason they have a higher turnout but also an opportunity for a party like Unity to cheat --- but then again how much more can they win by?) Also retirees don't vote.

The action against the closing of 54 schools begins the next day with a 3-day march. While it is clear Emanuel was going to close many schools no matter what, some of our Unity Caucus slug-like comments tried to paint the closings in this light: see what you get for being militant rather than "cooperative" like we are?

They filed suit over the closing schools. Here are reports from anti-CTU press (Times, Sun-Times).

Well the Unity-like opposition to CORE ran the union into the ground as was pointed out by Jim Vail in our posts last night. (Critic Endorses CORE and Lewis in CTU Elections While Trashing AFT and Randi-like Opposition).

I assume CORE is expecting to win. Hopefully BIG. The opposition is such a joke let's hope the CTU members get it. Imagine here in NYC that MORE were to win and Unity comes back in the next election running on a campaign of opposing many of the things they did that caused them to lose in the first place. Like can't you see Unity attack that we didn't eliminate ATRs?

• Eterno at ICE blog endorses Lewis: CHICAGO TEACHERS NEED TO REELECT KAREN LEWIS TOMORROW

George Schmidt, who will be in NYC for the weekend and we are hanging out Sunday morning for the inside scoop, posted Lee Sustar's analysis from the Socialist Worker on Substance.

CTU election on May 17, 2013 pits CORE against the 'Coalition to Save Our Union'... The issue is who has held the line for Chicago teachers during a year when American Federation of Teachers locals have been in retreat across the USA

I love it when people make the analogy to the failing AFT/UFT strategies. (Just check the outcomes in Washington, Newark, Detroit, NYC, Baltimore, Hartford and pre-CORE Chicago).

Sustar (who I sit with in the press section at AFT conventions and is a delight to chat with as he is so knowledgeable) opens with:

The challengers in the Chicago Teachers Union's (CTU) May 17 elections accuse union President Karen Lewis and the Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators (CORE) leadership of "squandering" last September's strike and giving ground on pay, health care, pensions and seniority.
Lewis and other CTU officials never shied away from addressing the problems in the agreement that ended the nine-day strike. As Lewis often puts it, "It was the contract we could get." But the truth is the Chicago teachers' strike successfully resisted the corporate education reform juggernaut on all the key issues--and strengthened the contract in other areas. 

HERE'S A look at the key issues: Pay
, Job security, Pensions, Health care, Union power in the schools, 

Get the details at Substance.

 

	Stand Strong for Our Schools
The Three-Day March for Educational Justice in Chicago ctunet.com/ourvoice Saturday, May 18 Sunday,    May 19 Monday,   May 20 The mayor and Board of Education want to destroy 54 school communities. This will be the largest destruction of schools in U.S. history. We need our neighborhood schools and we should all fight together to save them. Join parents, teachers, students, public school workers, clergy, activists and others in the threeday citywide march across the city. They want to divide us. But this is our city, our schools, and together, we’ll use our voice to tell the mayor and the world that we intend to fight back. Learn more and sign up at: CTUNET.COM/OURVOICE

Critic Endorses CORE and Lewis in CTU Elections While Trashing AFT and Randi-like Opposition

It's called the inside game - the American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten has worked it well while signing away teachers rights and jobs throughout the recent years of massive education privatization.... CORE came to power doing the exact opposite - to fight the business - political establishment to stop school closings and its massive attack on teachers' union rights.    

The current AFT and old UPC deals were only a slow, painful downward slide for unions.. Jim Vail, Second City Teacher

The caucus running against CORE is frighteningly Unity Caucus like. Read
Jim Vail who has been an internal critic inside CORE and in fact is not running with them in this election. So his endorsement and comments, both admiring and critical, are worth considering, especially in relation to the Randi Weingarten-like crew running against Karen Lewis. Vail picks them apart with a scalpel.

If you read some of the Unity Caucus trolls' comments on the MORE, ICE and Ed Notes blogs you will see how much they follow the line of CORE's opponents.

Below are some select quotes from Vail's last 3 posts which you can read in full at these links (really well worth reading - he also lobs some criticisms at CORE which you can read if you click the links.)

• Second City Teachers Endorses CORE By Jim Vail Sec...
• CTU VP Candidates Debate a Repeat By Jim Vail Seco...
• CTU Candidates Debate Over Before it Began By Jim ...

CORE has shown it is willing to fight the privatization of public education - namely charter schools.  Vice presidential candidate Mark Ochoa, who served as financial secretary of the old United Progressive Caucus, said it loud and clear in the debate last week - it seems CORE is against charter schools. Really Mark?  Are we supposed to follow the American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten and continue to support charter schools because that is what the ruling class wants?  That is what the machine democrats want? Does it matter that charter schools are merely privatized services to oust unionized teachers so they can pay teachers less, and give banks and others more public monies? That is the whole reason behind the so-called "under-utilization" lie. Bill Gates and others are giving Chicago and other cities lots of money to open charter schools and destroy the teachers union.

Now, here is what the opposition caucus tried to get across in their message. We are going to make deals at the top and save jobs.  We have proven that getting along with the mayor will translate into a world of far less pain than what is in store for you with another three years of CORE.

Presidential candidate Tanya Saunders Wolffe did say she can negotiate better in the "suits" than the streets. But it was fighting in the streets that gave us unions and worker protections in the first place. The current AFT and old UPC deals were only a slow, painful downward slide for unions.


 ----
Wolffe (Lewis' opponent) said the solution is to work more closely with politicians (former CTU president Marilyn Stewart once boasted she consulted Mayor Richard Daley before agreeing on the contract), and work more closely with the Chicago Public Schools to develop programs like fresh start with a CTU - CPS turnaround that prevents firing the entire staff (an initiative started by former CTU president Debbie Lynch).

It's called the inside game - the American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten has worked it well while signing away teachers rights and jobs throughout the recent years of massive education privatization.  

(Weingarten doesn't even see a problem with working hand in hand with the enemy, inviting Bill Gates to be a keynote speaker at the AFT convention in Seattle.  Gates is currently putting up millions of dollars for more charter schools to destroy union jobs and is actively promoting the end of teachers pension system!)

CORE came to power doing the exact opposite - to fight the business - political establishment to stop school closings and its massive attack on teachers' union rights.  

Here is an interesting section on standardized testing regarding teachers refusing to give the tests from the report on the Vice-Presidential debate between CORE's Jesse Sharkey and opponent and former union official in the old guard UPC, which given their history of sell-outs, makes Ochoa an example of the height of chutzpah.

The first question for the VP candidates was should the teachers boycott the standardized tests? Ochoa was cautious in his response, stressing any resistance should be decided by the union as a group and first negotiated at the table. Sharkey, on the other hand, said unequivocally that the union should organize a boycott of the high stakes testing (Sharkey once noted his kindergarten son had to take over a dozen standardized tests). While Sharkey won points with the crowd with his clear and forceful answer, the current CTU leadership has actually taken the route Ochoa preferred. Rather than organize a testing boycott, Sharkey and the CTU have been gathering information in the testing committee.

Given the realities of having to run for re-election, I would think trying to get teachers to organize a boycott of the tests would need to wait to see the level of support Lewis has. A resounding victory would be a sign that Chicago teachers are ready for more action.

The CTU has jumped in with full support for the teachers in Seattle boycotting the test, so look for something to start brewing on that end. There is a fine line between political realities and purism and walking that line is not easy. But as Vail points out repeatedly, there are enough victories to provide hope in fighting for public ed that doesn't exist elsewhere. People like Jim Vail won't get everything they want but maybe just enough.