More on de Blasio Chicago-based Consulting

A follow-up to our piece yesterday: DeBlasio Shadow Transition Includes Advice from Rahm Emanuel

RBE at Perdido:

De Blasio Uses Ed Deformer-Tied Consulting Group For Transition Team

That story that Dana Rubenstein broke at Capital NY about Mayor-Elect Bill de Blasio using a Bloomberg-funded consultant group suggested by Rahm Emanuel to run his transition team in secret just gets worse and worse:

Read the comments.
And also Julie Fain from Chicago:

I'm sure it's redundant for me to chime in that these folks are bad news. But given the hell we went through in Chicago with the 50-school-closing binge this year taken word-for-word out of a Broad handbook, these are hired guns who have plenty of experience being on the wrong side of ed reform. 

Julie Fain (from Chicago)

Consultant Avani Patel, left, talks with mayoral adviser Desiree Tate after a school utilization meeting. (Armando L. Sanchez, Chicago Tribune)

The panel appointed to give the public a voice on Chicago school closings is being advised by experts with political and financial ties to City Hall, fueling questions about its independence from Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration.

The head of the school commission, former ComEd CEO Frank Clark, has promised his panel will make its own decisions without regard to the wishes of the mayor. At the same time, Clark has sought help from a platoon of public relations and education consultants with a stake in the school debate.

The commission's hearings are being organized by public relations executive Desiree Tate, a member of Emanuel's "kitchen Cabinet" of African-American advisers who received more than half a million dollars in contracts from Chicago Public Schools before he became mayor. Tate said she is working for free for the commission.

The commission also is being advised by the Civic Consulting Alliance, which has provided free advice to Emanuel since the start of his administration and has links to an organization pushing to replace the traditional neighborhood schools with privately run charters.

Their involvement follows a pattern in which business professionals with ties to the mayor have often worked behind the scenes to shape the public conversation on controversial plans he is pushing, from schools to his speed-camera program.

The Chicago Teachers Union has criticized the involvement of the consulting alliance, arguing that it is supporting Emanuel's charter school agenda that will close more schools where union teachers work. Union members walked the picket lines in September in part because of fear that Emanuel would radically increase the number of charter schools here.

Last week, CPS chief Barbara Byrd-Bennett faced renewed skepticism after the Tribune reported that a Sept. 10 internal CPS document showed the administration already had discussed how many schools to shutter and in what areas of the city — including a scenario for closing 95 schools and installing charter schools in some CPS buildings.

"Until the engagement process is completed, until the commission finalizes its work by gathering information and recommendations from the community, there will be no list" of schools targeted for closing, Byrd-Bennett said in response to the report.

Clark has likewise declared that there is no predetermined number of schools to be closed, but he refused to answer the Tribune's questions about the role of the consultants vis-a-vis his panel, the Commission on School Utilization.

The consulting alliance is a pro bono government consulting arm of the Commercial Club of Chicago that has worked with the mayor's office and school officials since the days of Emanuel predecessor Richard M. Daley. But the Commercial Club also founded an organization called New Schools for Chicago, which has the expansion of charter schools as its goal.

New Schools President Phyllis Lockett is a former leader of the consulting alliance who still sits on its board; she is credited by New Schools with helping triple the number of charters in Chicago in recent years. The consulting alliance shares a downtown office suite with New Schools.

"New Schools for Chicago and the Civic Consulting Alliance are two distinct and separate organizations, each with their own priorities and governed by their own boards," Lockett said. "New Schools for Chicago is not involved in any way with the Utilization Commission or school actions."

The CEO of the consulting alliance, Brian Fabes, dismissed any suggestion that his group favors charter schools and said New Schools is not a client. "CTU can make whatever connections they decide they want to make," he said.

Fabes characterized his group's assistance as largely logistical — including making photocopies for meetings — although a Tribune reporter recently observed him going over notes from one meeting with Clark before the chairman addressed the media. Fabes said he did not recall that conversation.

"We don't take positions, we don't advocate, we support them in what they want to do," Fabes said of the commission.

Fabes said he has not spoken with the mayor about school closings, despite his group's regular access to the mayor's office.

The alliance was a key player in Emanuel's 2011 transition to office. As part of its role, the group brought in Accenture, one of the world's largest financial consulting firms, to provide free advice to the new administration. The company subsequently received a no-bid contract from the Emanuel administration that pays it a percentage of every dollar saved on other City Hall contracts.

The alliance also has previously helped CPS leaders analyze the teachers union contract and helped recruit another outside consultant to become the CPS chief transformation officer, a position that now oversees the school-closings strategy.

Tate, who has often been at Clark's shoulder during the commission's public hearings, also has a long history with the school district. She has brought in more than $600,000 in school contracts since 2005, much of it through her previous firm, Tate & Associates, according to city records.
She said Clark, a fellow participant in "kitchen Cabinet" meetings with Emanuel, asked her to help out and she agreed to do so for free.

"We're overseeing the messaging," Tate said of her current firm, D&T Communications.
She said she has not spoken with Emanuel about her role and believes her work for the district to hold training sessions for parents on school involvement is what led Clark to bring her into the process. She said that has gone on for 15 years and she expects it to continue.
"He knows I have an independent nature," she said of Clark. "All that work I have done has been to advocate for the parents."
It is not the first time that Emanuel allies have taken an important role in steering the public debate over school controversy.
As tension between the mayor and teachers was building earlier this year, radio ads criticizing the union were produced by John Kupper of AKPD Message and Media, a firm that has been on retainer for Emanuel's campaign committee. Kupper, a key political strategist for Emanuel, declined to discuss his talks with the mayor, and Emanuel said he had no knowledge of the ads before they aired.
In February, when his administration was first pushing for a longer school day and closing some schools, the Tribune identified another Emanuel political ally working quietly in the background. Greg Goldner, who ran Emanuel's successful 2002 bid for Congress, dedicated the skills of his Resolute Consulting firm to write news releases for pastors, produce a video presentation and help plan community events supporting the mayor's agenda.
The Tribune later revealed that Goldner had taken up another controversial cause Emanuel was pushing — automated speed cameras near schools and parks. Goldner was the brains behind a grass-roots coalition that supported cameras, a group that was funded by Chicago's red light camera vendor, Redflex Traffic Systems Inc.
Redflex eventually was disqualified from the speed camera bidding after the Tribune disclosed that the company had failed to report internal corruption allegations stemming from the city's red light program.

DeBlasio Shadow Transition Includes Advice from Rahm Emanuel

I never drank the BDB Kool-Aid and fear that the people of New York, in their determination to kick Bloomberg's ass right out of town, bought themselves a blanker slate than Barack Obama, which I thought physically and politically impossible. .... Comment on MORE listserve on Capital NY article on under the covers DeB consultants

The same consulting group that helped Rahm Emanuel screw the teachers in Chicago is in NYC advising de Blasio.

Civic Consulting USA was suggested to de Blasio's aides during a November meeting between de Blasio and Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel. Emanuel's staff suggested that de Blasio's transition team enlist the help of the group, whose mission is to pair government clients with partners in the private and nonprofit sector.

Everyone assumes it will be better under de Blasio than under Bloomberg -- how can it be worse? And when it inevitably goes bad as the Capital NY article below points to, watch the UFT leadership turn tail and say, "We told you so, Thompson would have been better."

The consultant arrangement may come as a surprise to some supporters of de Blasio, who regularly, proudly champions the virtues of public-sector experience. ("I think people who understand government run government best," he told the Times recently.) But the apparent embrace of private-sector expertise is nothing new in New York City. Outgoing mayor Michael Bloomberg has routinely talked of the benefits that non-bureaucrats can bring to city governance, and in fact Civic Consulting USA lists Bloomberg Philanthropies as one of its funders.

In the meantime we got some indications (vague, I admit) that the UFT and its fellow-travelers in the astro-turf community tried to drum up a last-ditch Kathy Cashin lobby campaign to forestall what a week ago was a sure-bet Farina appointment as chancellor. From what I can tell, the UFT has a long-term relationship with Cashin from her days as a District 22 (Midwood, Sheepshead Bay) principal, and her days as Dist. 23 (Brownsville) and Region 5 (Dist, 23, 19, 27 - Rockaway, Howard Beach, Woodhaven, etc). Not so much with Farina - Dist. 15 and Region 8.

I'm also betting that the charter school lobby would prefer Cashin over Farina for reasons I am not going to go into now. But given my reservations over both of them -- for very different reasons - which I hope to go into after a choice is made -- don't count on a lot of big changes on issues of big concern to teachers.

De Blasio’s shadow transition

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/city-hall/2013/12/8537450/de-blasios-shadow-transition

Bill de Blasio has two transition teams.

There's the public one, announced in late November. It's a diverse, 60-person assortment of nonprofit leaders, political types, educators, rabbis, Cynthia Nixon. More than half of its members are de Blasio donors.

Back to the Bataan Death March

Well, it's time to get back to the fray. I take a week off and head to Delray Florida for some serious tanning and eating and fraternizing and shit happened while I was gone. Well, I hope you've all been reading the fabulous bloggers on my blog roll to keep up. I am way behind. (I find it real hard to do much blogging while at the beach.) And it was only decent beach weather for the first few days even though it hit in the 80s almost every day. Walking off the plane into 26 degrees? Not fair. The main benefit of the trip was missing the Tisch/King dog and pony show for which Assholes First and Ech4Ech brought out some of their crews.

There were some excellent discussions on many of the listserves about the race card being pulled but also about how many parents of color have legitimate gripes with the public school system.

I would collate some of them and include them here but hell, I'm going to sleep. Gotta get up early tomorrow morning for a dental appointment. And there's nothing like a lazy blogger who leaves all the heavy lifting to the gang on the ednotes blog roll.

Ed Notes Reprint, Nov. 2007: Welch, Tweed, Farina, and Creative Destruction

Thanks to Tim-Parent's comment at Gotham for digging up this ednotes piece from November 14, 2007, with discussion over a 2003 Carmen Farina quote in Businessweek that seemed to support the Jack Welch philosophy. But in 2007 Farina clarifies what she said with this:

Farina's comment posted on the listserve Sunday, Nov. 11, 2007:

"Complacency is not the same as complicity in how to evaluate schools. The problem with the report cards is that they leave out the human touch from evaluation and evaluating the caliber of teaching. I am not for any report that focuses only on grades since most of us know a complete education for our children includes critical thinking, problem solving, humane education and writing skills. None of these are possible with this evaluation. Hopefully parents can see beyond the reports and evaluate for themselves how their own schools are serving their children. The people who are giving greatest credence to these reports are those who do not have children in our schools. My favorite choice for Charlie [grandchild] right now is not an A school but one that strikes the balance of all important issues and respect the development stage of his growth. It is also does not stress test prep. Don't know who is quoting me out of context but feel free to put this quote on blog."

My comment at the time: Now she tells us. Farina was part of the enabling structure that gave Klein cover. In the words of Ricky Ricardo, Farina has a lot of splaining to do.

The entire thread was started by my old pal Julie Woodward (Woodlass) who did the heavy lifting along with the work of Leonie Haimson who makes some great points. Again, a reminder that this is 6 years ago and I'm including the comments.

Welch, Tweed, Farina, and Creative Destruction

A great discussion (started by Woodlass) broke out on the NYC Public School Parent listserve that led to the ideology of "creative destruction" behind much of what Tweed is doing today. A lot of it is laid to former GE chairman, Neutron Jack Welch, who was instrumental in setting the ideoligcal framework of the Principal Academy.

Carmen Farina's name came up because she was quoted in a Business Week article from June 2003. Farina replaced Diana Lam as chief ed mucky muck at Tweed and gave Klein educational cover for creative destruction of the system, but was declared obsolute after her usefullness was over, supposedly being told she didn't have the skill set for the job – which means she spent some time in the classroom. Note how she spoke out [below] about 10 minutes after hearing her name was being bandied about.

Farina's original BW quote from June, 2003:

John Elfrank-Dana Teaches a Lesson About the Life and Death of His School

John does a great job here. I'm looking forward to a Part 2 where he tells us exactly what the UFT did over this time. I'm cross-posting here but if you want to leave a comment go directly to the link at Labors Lessons.

http://laborslessons.blogspot.com/2013/12/murry-bergtraum-high-school-case-study.html

Murry Bergtraum High School - A Case Study for the Mayor Elect

Foreword: What started off as a reply to a member regarding the missing teacher comments from the report cards and their distribution in the middle of the school day- creating much tension and animosity, as expected towards the faculty by several students grew into a blog post. In other words, just another administrative debacle in what is amounting to the most chaotic year in Bergtraum's 30+ year history, and right after its first "F" on the school report card. Or, is it deliberate? 

...I wonder if Principal Almonte did this deliberately (report card debacle)? I can't believe it. I find her actions more and more inexplicable. We were warned in the blogosphere the summer of 2012 that she was coming in as a closer. Notice how she is silent regarding the collocation of a Moskowitz kindergarten coming in Bergtraum, while several other principals speak out against collocations. Were the warnings true? Is she here to put us down?

The solution to collocate the old Bergtraum out of existence, ironically, acknowledges what I have been saying all along - that no school that was sent high academic and social needs kids in large number from half way across town will be successful. So, a breakup/shrink out of Bergtraum can be ONE response to that. Except, in the DoE's plan the teachers play the roll of the fall guy, not its own misguided policies and, perhaps, incompetent/sabotaging school administration (expect a lot of Ineffective ratings this year). 

51 from the faculty and administration, out of about 150, left last year. Most fled by getting jobs elsewhere, hastened retirements... The large number of teachers excessed by the principal in June was never approved by the network, and therefore, never official. No attempt was made by the administration to update these teachers- hence many were surprised when they learned in August they were never in excess. Is the principal's goal another 50 to leave this year?  

Look at the action steps from the Manhattan Superintendent's Early Engagement meetings with some staff last month- Inquiry Teams! I could have told her- "Been there done that- the last 7 years." Perhaps it was deduced from the advise of teachers new to the school this year- several attended these sessions. Or, is it that she knows the plan is to phase the school out? My reference to the issue of trust in principal's competence and veracity (painfully revealed in the LE Survey of last year and our own in-house survey this year ) and how no reforms are going to work unless that issue is resolved apparently fell on deaf ears with the superintendent. We got an "F" for security as well. There too, the Department of Education sees no need for change... Stay the course! Sorry to sound so conspiratorial. However, when information is not shared with us, when there's no other explanation than this is deliberate mismanagement that connects all the dots- where does that leave you? Remember, the backdrop is the mayor's statement that he'd fire half of the teaching force if he had his druthers. Add to that the great union busting effect of shrinking large schools - many new small schools have no UFT chapter, and it makes sense for the agenda of the Moskowitz' and other privatizers.

Meanwhile a program that was working - Freshman Academy, and a highly functional department, social studies, were decimated this year. The leaders of the academy and department fled the school- chased out by the principal. Why would what works (at least works better than anything comparable in the school) be deliberately undermined by the school administration? 

The high need students should have good community high schools close enough to home so that social workers and attendance teachers could make visits to several students' homes a day (see details in SchoolBook article). Also, that parents can easily come to parent association meetings and  to the parent/teacher conferences. The school has been a ghost town on these occasions. If a student is strong enough socially and academically, let them commute to school. Bergtraum could be a good neighborhood school serving Smith and Rutgers houses as well as the Lower East Side and Tribeca area.  You'd have a diverse student population with plenty of 3s and 4s (higher level students) to balance out the others, as well as no one racial group dominating the population. 

Where were the Bergtraums during the 10 year dismantling/sabotaging of their school? Silent and even rubber stamping the closure of schools and collocation of Moskowitz here on the Panel for Educational Policy. Murry Bergtraum was a union man from what we were always told. Now, Judy Bergtraum, a Bloomberg appointee to the PEP has voted for the collocation of the union-busting Eva Moskowitz in the school that bears her father's name. 

The onslaught on the UFT members of the school continues unabated. If Principal Almonte believes that an F school cannot have Effective teachers, you will see an inordinate number of Ineffective ratings of teachers under a tunnel vision application of the Danielson rubric. Combine it with the programming chaos this year and its discontinuity for student and teacher programs. The result is guaranteeing failing grades on tests used as part of the teacher evaluation when compared to more functional peer schools. Furthermore, it assumes the faulty premise that teachers have the lion's share of responsibility for student success ignore much research that the home accounts for four times or more impact on student success than teacher quality. But, studies be damned- we are told time and again "instruction is the problem here". Of course, it can and always should be improved. But, we will not be scapegoated for failed DoE policies that account for the systemic setup for failure at the school.

The lessons for a mayor elect intent of changing the course of educational reform are the following: 

Community Schools: The needier the student population, the closer physically families need to be to the school.  

Genuine Collaboration: Trust is a prerequisite for collaboration between the school's leadership and staff and is essential for the implementation of reform. Give School Leadership Teams real power over school budgets. C-30 hiring committees made up of school stakeholders that select administrators the final word instead of just a recommendation. 

School Democracy: Only transparency and shared decision making can produce such trust. The finger of accountability runs up the chain of command, not down. Dictator principals, a hallmark of Bloomberg/Klein ed policy, need to be sent packing. 

Leadership Responsibility: School leaders need to adopt the Harry Truman model- "The buck stops here." Our principal confuses passing the buck for "empowerment" of her staff. She took no responsibility for the school's programming debacle.

Leadership that Walks the Walk: We call repeatedly for our principal and assistant principals to teach a class of their own so they can lead by example; show us what Effective teaching looks like. No dice in the new technocratic Danielson rubric interpretation system. The principal explained all the administrators' time is now spent becoming experts as evaluators. I call them Compliance Clerks, not educators. 

If Bergtraum High School is to die Mr. Mayor Elect, don't let it die in vain. Instead, understand what really happened here. If Bergtraum will be resurrected in a new way while embodying the spirit of excellence it once had, come talk to us, the students, parents and teachers about how that can happen. All we ask is that you give us a real chance at success. 

Change the Stakes end of year meeting - Tuesday 12/17, 5:30

Join what promises to be a lively discussion about the issues and how we – as parents, teachers and students – can respond individually and collectively.....Change the Stakes

Press Conference re: City Council Resolution on High-Stakes Testing - On December 9th, Change the Stakes participated in a press conference held on the steps of City Hall in support of Resolution 1394, which calls for high-st...

And people are going out to eat Korean food after the meeting. A chat 'n chew evening. This is my favorite group because it is real grassroots organizing - parents who came out to get involved due to the impact of high stakes testing on their kids and their kids' schools.

Please join us this coming Tuesday as we discuss the abundance of recent events and plan for the remainder of this school year and beyond. All are welcome. Please consider sharing with those who would benefit from this event and posting the attached flier.

Tuesday, December 17th @ 5:30 PM
CUNY Graduate Center, 5th Ave between 34th and 35th streets, Room 5414

*Please bring photo ID to enter building


What is happening here?

Chancellor Tisch and Commissioner King are not listening to parents and teachers who see through the smoke and mirrors of their state education policies. During their visits to NYC and elsewhere, they have made it abundantly clear that despite widespread criticism, they have no plans of reducing the stakes their agenda imposes on students, teachers and schools. In Chancellor Tisch’s words, they are considering only “tweaks” to their agenda, despite the fact that it subjects public school children to unprecedented experimentation. They clearly plan to continue to bulldoze ahead with high-stakes testing and privacy-violating data collection, despite a very loud outcry from public school parents across NYS.

What can we do?

Change the Stakes will host a discussion about how these policies are playing out in your particular school with your children and teachers. Following this discussion, we will develop a wide-ranging action plan with the goal of empowering all stakeholders who have been affected by current education “reforms,” as we continue to build the movement to end high-stakes testing and support ALL public education students. Because every school is different and every child is unique, we encourage you to come and share your stories!

Join what promises to be a lively discussion about the issues and how we – as parents, teachers and students – can respond individually and collectively.

Susan's Saturday Morning Special

The weekly weekend reading list from Susan Ohanian.

We have a few new cartoons:

Classic New Yorker Cover Using Apple Maps app
http://susanohanian.org/cartoon_fetch.php?id=861

http://susanohanian.org/cartoon_fetch.php?id=860
Buy! Buy! Buy! Reading Comprehension Activity for ESL Students

One of the Great Openings in Literature
http://susanohanian.org/cartoon_fetch.php?id=859

Future Worker in the Global Economy
http://susanohanian.org/cartoon_fetch.php?id=858

Listen to Children
http://susanohanian.org/cartoon_fetch.php?id=857

Preparing tomorrow's critical thinkers for corporate America
http://susanohanian.org/cartoon_fetch.php?id=856

Greedy
http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_cartoons.php?id=988

Note to Control Freaks
http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_cartoons.php?id=986

 I've tried to choose news items and commentaries that matter today and will still matter a year from now.

Susan

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Little learners need better curriculum
Michael Petrilli with Ohanian Comment
New York Daily News
2013-12-12
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=639

Petrilli delivers the joke of the week: the state of New York, under Commissioner John King, has developed a wonderful content-rich curriculum, aligned with the new Common Core standards

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Data Flood Outpaces Ethics
Paul Basken
Chronicle of Higher Education
2013-12-12
http://susanohanian.org/data.php?id=530

It's good to see comment and concern about the ethics associated with the flood of medical-research data. Schools need to start connecting these two words: ethics and data.

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A critique of Common Core math standards
Valerie Strauss and Michael Goldenberg
Washington Post Answer Sheet
2013-12-12
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=638

Michael Goldenberg speaks to the importance of mathematics education that is not geared to those who will take advanced math in college.

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The Exaggeration of Exceptional Children
Nathan Heller with Ohanian comments

2013-12-09
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=637

This book is about having exceptional children. As the author points out, having exceptional children exaggerates parental tendencies; those who would be bad parents become awful parents, but those who would be good parents often become extraordinary. I suspect that what's true for parents is also true for teachers.

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Children Giving Clues
Susan Ohanian

2013-12-07
http://susanohanian.org/show_commentary.php?id=1142

The issue is not how to parse out fiction and
nonfiction. The issue is in a democracy is Who
decides?


'Refuse all cooperation with the heart's death.'

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Give Teachers Some Time
 Susan McWethy

2013-12-04
http://susanohanian.org/show_commentary.php?id=1141

A Georgia librarian speaks out.

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Holiday by the Numbers--Reading Comprehension Quiz
Susan Ohanian
blog
2013-12-13
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1748

I'm just steamed by a wretched reading comprehension activity based on holiday spending.

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Educational Publisher’s Charity, Accused of Seeking Profits, Will Pay Millions
Javier C. Hernandez
New York Times
2013-12-13
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1747

The Pearson Foundation, so-called charitable arm  of the corporation, gets fined for 'assisting in for-profit ventures.'

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More parents want their children to skip CT standardized tests
Jacqueline Rabe Thomas
CT Mirror: Political Mirror
2013-12-11
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1746

I don't believe Connecticut parents will allow themselves to be bullied by the State.

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‘Revolving Door’ Between SD Unified, Contractors Still Open Despite Warnings
Will Carless
Voice of San Diego
2013-12-11
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1745

The Common Core requires truckloads of expenditures to get schools online with technological capability. Truckloads of money involved

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Invisible Child: Girl in the Shadows: Disani's Homeless Life
Andrea Elliott with Ohanian Comment
New York Times
2013-12-08
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1744

One in five American children is now living in poverty, giving the United States the highest child poverty rate of any developed nation except for Romania, and here is close-up portrait of one, a remarkable child named Disani.

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Paul Krugman column 'Obama Gets Real,' misses boat by ignoring failed ed deform factor
Paul Krugman with Norm Scott commentary
 Ed Notes Online & New York Times
2013-12-06
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1743

A longtime New York teacher explains why President Obama--and Paul Krugman--are wrong.

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'PISA Day'--An Ideological and Hyperventilated Exercise
Richard Rothstein and Martin Carnoy
Economic Policy Institute blog
2013-12-01
http://susanohanian.org/show_research.php?id=540

The US Department of Education gives an advance look at the PISA scores to outfits like the Business Roundtable--but not to EPI.  Our tax dollars at work.


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Streets For America
Dave Eggers
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
0000-00-00
http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_news.php?id=904

Here's a program. based on a senior thesis at Harvard,  designed to reinvigorate America's police force.
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Order the CD of the resistance:
"No Child Left Behind? Bring Back the Joy."
To order online (and hear samples from the songs)
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/dhbdrake4
Other orders: Send $15 to
Susan Ohanian
P. O. Box 26
Charlotte, VT 05445

Norm in The Wave: On Poverty, Education, Labor: Is Obama Really a Liberal?

A total (much-needed) rewrite of a blog post I did on a Paul Krugman column with some expanded political points.

Published Friday, December 13, 2013 in The Wave and at www.rockawave.com

On Poverty, Education, Labor: Is Obama Really a Liberal?
By Norm Scott

As a lefty/progressive (don’t dare call me a liberal), family events like Thanksgiving with a mostly conservative/tea party family can be either enervating or energizing, depending on who ends up with a bowl of cranberry sauce on his head. Obama is a major bone of contention with most of the family viewing him as a wild-eyed radical looking to take away their hard-earned money and hand it out on street corners in the poorest neighborhoods. Being an Obama critic from the left, I see him as a promoter of crony capitalism (socialism for the 1%) looking to give away our hard-earned income to his corporate and wealthy supporters.

One of my favorite NY Times columnists, Paul Krugman, touched on this issue in his December 6th column, "Obama Gets Real."

Krugman has criticized Obama from the left for going along with the Republican “deficit scolds” by agreeing that the major problem facing this nation was the deficit, not the high unemployment rate, with Obama mainly differing from Republicans over how much to cut, not how much we needed to spend to create jobs.

Krugman now claims Obama’s recent speech on inequality is a sign he is back to his progressive roots.

“Now… we have the president of the United States breaking ranks, finally sounding like the progressive many of his supporters thought they were backing in 2008. This is going to change the discourse — and, eventually… actual policy.”

Krugman ignores the gap between Obama’s rhetoric and action. Take education and labor policy. Obama and his Education Czar, Arne Duncan, and the rest of the pack of education deformers, have spent five years pushing the idea that the key too reducing poverty is education – keyed on getting higher quality teachers and removing weaker teachers, with judgments based on standardized tests – a ludicrous idea that somehow has been accepted by both political parties, most journalists, and most of the public.

“Mr. Obama laid out a disturbing — and, unfortunately, all too accurate — vision of an America losing touch with its own ideals, an erstwhile land of opportunity becoming a class-ridden society. Not only do we have an ever-growing gap between a wealthy minority and the rest of the nation; we also, he declared, have declining mobility, as it becomes harder and harder for the poor and even the middle class to move up the economic ladder…

One of my relatives said on Thanksgiving, “if you take away the safety net they (the lazy, shiftless 47% of the nation who are moochers) will find jobs.”

I must send him this video from Real News: “1 out of 3 Bank Tellers in NY on Public Assistance” (tinyurl.com/muy2wbz). You see, actual working people can’t make it without help.

“[T]he president was willing to assign much of the blame for rising inequality to bad policy....,” Krugman writes.

Whose bad policy? Did Race To The Top came from Republicans? Billions of dollars down the tubes for testing, merit pay, evaluation of teachers, consultants, etc. instead of real education reforms and fighting to reduce poverty so kids will have the kind of home environment that will support them in school.

The “new and exciting” idea? Raise the minimum wage and restore labor’s bargaining power. I’m all for it. The shock is that Obama actually mentioned labor after 5 years of turning his back on unions and engaging in drone attacks on teachers and blaming union rules for the problems in education.

Krugman doesn’t address the gap between Obama rhetoric and action, especially when it comes to educational policy. Obama/Duncan and the rest of the pack of ed deformers have pushed the neo-liberal market-based model. Sure, you can solve the poverty/inequality issue merely by getting better teachers.

Let's see Obama offer to bail out Detroit where public employee pension theft is taking place which will result in growing poverty and the inequality gap. Has Obama condemned the assault on the Chicago school system by his pal, Rahm Emanuel? When he does, Krugman can start talking about Obama returning to his progressive roots.

The Clinton/Obama rightward wing of the Democratic Party, “Third Way Democrats,” are facing an energized left led by Elizabeth Warren and given hope by the De Blasio victory (don’t count the chickens just yet).

The NYT reported, “In a sign of the left’s new aggressiveness, a coalition of liberals is trying to marginalize a centrist Democratic policy group that was responsible for a Wall Street Journal op-ed article this week that said economic populism was ‘disastrous’ for the party.” 

Is a tea party brewing on the left?

Was Obama’s ‘inequality” speech a rhetorical response to protect Hillary Clinton’s flank?

Oh, what fun when politics becomes more of a contact sport than the NFL. Just watch out for those head injuries.

Norm blogs way too often at ednotesonline.org

NYC Principal Brian De Vale: I am Daniel-San

I would like to thank John King for forcing this system upon me. My job has never been easier. In fact a high functioning ape could now probably do my job.... Brian De Vale, NYC Principal

It doesn't get any better.

From: De Vale Brian
Sent: Wednesday, December 11, 2013 7:24 PM
To: Logan Ernest (SCA); mmulgrew@uft.org; Suransky Shael

Subject: I am Daniel -San

I think the entire New Teacher Evaluation System is a disgrace. It strips principals of our ability to write proper, professional observations and I believe it was more about the money paid to the people who made the software and system than it ever was about education.

Nobody involved in the development of this system commands an iota of respect from veteran classroom and school based educators.

That said, as the positive upbeat and God fearing Christian man that I am, I would like to thank John King for forcing this system upon me.

My job has never been easier. In fact a high functioning ape could now probably do my job. I perform several daily observations performed via the "short frequent cycles of observation" technique.... I take "low inference notes" and then align what is there with the rubric in the Danielson book.

No high order thinking required.  This system is a disgrace and has nothing to do with anything I learned in my studies nor decades of superior service. (Please note that this is not MY ego run amok but rather the 7 Straight A's that We received on Their soon to be done away with report cads that none of us believe in).  

I have  done my observations so efficiently that I can quote certain Danielson realms and domains by heart, without believing a word...so I am now " reflecting" to let you know I have played the game. 

I have become Daniel-San (wax on wax off).

MY OBSERVATION ARE COMPLETE!!!!! 

I looked upon my Advance reports and old Johnny Cash would have been proud as all I saw was Forty Shades of Green.  Yes that is right, every teacher has been observed 3 informal  and one formal, Pre and post evaluation conferences completed, IPC and artifacts submitted. Screen turns green with  each completed observation and now we are done....And everyone was rated the equivalent of SATISFACTORY under the old system.. I'm done!!! 

Mambo  anyone?????

And guess where the beauty lies?  None of this  was ever necessary. However, now that my official ratings are in, I can focus on the fun stuff that makes a school special. 

Earlier today I watched our fifth grade ballroom Dance Celebration. Tomorrow I will talk about Mandela again with another class. Next week I will attend our Christmas Show, an annual tradition before our Classroom Christmas parties and then visit classrooms playing carols as part of our parrandas!!!  

"It's a Wonderful Life"!!!!

These political hacks fail to realize that while they seek to lower the taxes  of billionaires that is is school leaders like me who  have fired veteran teachers who were no good or just burned out, have counseled out newcomers who just didn't have what it  takes because TEACHING is simply the hardest profession in the world and THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THIS WHOLE SYSTEM. 

We have unfortunately seen a decade of folks who ran from the classroom after a year in many cases, take charge and make ridiculous  demands of school based educators, and the results have  been a disaster.

Anyway, I have played their game, and my staff and students have won. Now we can all focus on real teaching ad learning.

As Sam Wainright said:

Merry Christmas and Hee Haw!!!!!!

22,091 homeless children, how many are at a Moskowitz Success Academy Charter School?

Their numbers have risen above anything in the city’s modern history, to a staggering 22,091 this month. If all of the city’s homeless children were to file into Madison Square Garden for a hockey game, more than 4,800 would not have a seat... Andrea Elliot, NY Times

And how many would find a seat at an Eva Moskowitz Success Academy Charter School? Or in fact, how many of these 22,000 children are in any charter school?
I taught many children like the wonderful Dasani and remember what the end results were for all too many of them. I hope so much there is something better for her. But think of where most of these children go to school and get a deeper understanding of what the charter movement is all about -- allowing the higher end of the poorer communities a choice -- a choice to get their kids away from the Dasanis. A form of educational apartheid. The alternate option for policy makers -- those ed deformers -- would have been to provide a level of support for the neighborhood public school that would really help Dasani and leave enough resources in the public school to support the parents who are deserting them for charters.
Today's 4th installment by the wondrous Andrea (just hand me my Pultizer and every other journalism award) Elliot.

Finding Safety and Strength in the Bonds of Her Siblings

Rosalie Friend Reports on Ravitch and Farina at PS 15

Excellent report from Rosalie as a follow-up to the report I received yesterday (Carmen Farina Introduces Diane Ravitch at PS 15K Community Library Opening).
And by the way, for those who don't get what school-based organizing is all about, check out an expert like Julie Cavanagh.
From Rosalie Friend to Change the Stakes Listserve:

At the presentation at PS 15, Carmen Farina seemed to back Diane's assertion that we need to return to a district system in which district supervisors are responsible for neighborhood schools. Carmen spoke of the importance of providing a GOOD school for every child in every neighborhood.
Diane spoke about the influence of private money in politics and school decisions. She cited an upcoming conference on how to make money in public education. She mentioned the methods the corporate "reformers" are using to minimize the cost of teachers' salaries. She also said that as she travels to schools around the country she finds a lot of fraudulent financial dealings among the charters.
I asked about whether we should be tackling Common Core when we have such a big challenge in getting rid of high stakes tests and getting small classes, support services like social workers, psychologists, and nurses, and effective programs like reading recovery. She responded that common core was going to drain resources from everything else, because of the need to buy huge amounts of computer equipment and services. The tests for the Common Core are going to be administered on computers. She also criticized the idea of having computers grade essay questions (one of my pet peeves).
Diane said she is hoping that Bill de Blasio will be the leader who will challenge the free market approach and the corporate "reformers." Jim Devor, who knows de Blasio from the District 15 school board, was much much less hopeful, though he did not give any specifics.
The audience was a mix of teachers, parents, and community members. Many were local, but there were several from Manhattan and one lady from the Bronx who had traveled to see Diane Ravitch. We heard from one distressed parent whose daughter is struggling with deadening lessons and poor test scores despite good classwork. There was a full range of age among attendees. I gave out 80-90 Change the Stakes fliers, so maybe we will get some new members.
Three cheers for Julie, her PS 15 colleagues, and the student "ambassadors" who guided us through the school to the library.

Carmen Farina Introduces Diane Ravitch at PS 15K Community Library Opening

Yesterday was a big day for the PS 15K community in Redhook with two red hot ed superstars, Diane Ravitch and rumored next chancellor Carmen Farina, in attendance. Actually in my book, 3 superstars if you count Julie Cavanagh, PS 15 chapter leader and one of the event organizers.

Carmen Farina has been the chair of the "Friends of PS 15 Committee" for 3 years and helped get the school a new library out of the ashes of co-loco battle with PAVE charter.

Today being the first book talk to introduce the new library as a community space, the Committee thought it fitting to  invite Diane Ravitch, who graciously accepted.

Farina in introducing Ravitch, talked a lot about PS 15 and connected the struggles there to Diane's book. Carmen complimented Diane's work, pointing to her travels around the nation as she visits schools and programs and listens to what people have to say.

She made the point that there is plenty of room for agreement and disagreement but informed discussion should be at the center and Diane's work is an important part of that.

Diane said during her talk "Every community needs a great neighborhood public school like PS 15.... We need to be citizens, not consumers, when it comes to public education."

Carmen closed by saying we need to stop focusing on what "they" – the corporate reformers – are doing and focus on what we are doing, echoing Diane. We need great public schools in every neighborhood.

Afterburn
I'm not sure exactly what Farina was trying to say here but I agree with this point: That we are beyond focusing on the outrages and should work on organizing. How to do that effectively is another story.

Substance: Chitown CEO Nixed in NYC!... Byrd Bennett strikes out in New York City as her slavish adherence to Rahm's school closing quota catches up with her

Chicago schools Chief Executive Officer Barbara Byrd Bennett completed her main assignment from Mayor Rahm Emanuel at the Board of Education's May 22, 2013 meeting when she recommended the gutting of the city's real public school system with the unprecedented closing of 49 of Chicago's real public schools. The recommendation, which was passed unanimously by the seven member school board of the nation's third largest school system, followed six months of maneuvering and lies which saw "hearings" during which 30,000 people virtually unanimously opposed Byrd Bennett's proposal to close those schools.... Substance

Photo by George Schmidt

These ed deformer hired hands jump around like bed bugs. George Schmidt has the goods on this former NYC slug who was hoping to make another jump (remember, she pushed out another former NYC deformer, Jean-Claude Brizard who jumped from NYC to Rochester to Chicago to oblivion).

George N. Schmidt - December 10, 2013

Despite her attempt to escape Chicago, schools chief Barbara Byrd Bennett will not find a new home running the nation's largest school system after a little more than a year running the nation's third largest school system. In a confirmation that Chicago Schools "Chief Executive Officer" Barbara Byrd Bennett was shopping around to get back to New York City, this time as chancellor of the largest school system in the USA, the New York Daily News reports on December 10, 2013 that she is being nixed in New York.

Why? Because she had been such a slave to the whims of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Specifically, according to the New York sources, her closing of 50 of Chicago's real public schools in May 2013 was the deal breaker. Despite Rahm Emanuel's posings as a major force in politics across the USA, it may be that there is a Curse of Rahm and Byrd Bennett's failure to reach the finalists for the NYC job is just the beginning.

Newly elected New York City Mayor Bill diBlasio was elected on a promise to change things from the dictatorial regime of billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and one of the most important changes will come if deBlasio decided to take on corporate school reform and begin to roll back the expansion of charter schools and the closing of the city's real public schools. Clearly, as The Daily News notes, the person who did the dirty work of corporate reform in Chicago is unlikely to be the choice to undo such corporate dirty work in New York.

But the deal isn't done until New York selects a schools chancellor, so Byrd Bennett is still officially in the running. And one question for Chicago is how long she has to remain here, now that she has made it clear that she wants out. She won't be the first to leave abruptly after proclaiming her love for Chicago, its schools, and the children -- repeating regularly the talking points of those who script corporate school reform locally and across the USA.

http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=4667&section=Article

Farina and Cashin, Part 2: MOREistas Chime in With Praise for Both

There were mostly positive reactions to both candidates from MORE members on our post, Farina vs. Cashin: Battle of Philosophies, Part 1.

Given that my progressive education preferences lead me to favor Farina, I may be unfair to Cashin who 20 years ago I had a personal problem with due to her harassment of a teacher friend when she was principal at PS 193K.

So this came in from a respected colleague in ICE and MORE.

With all her faults, class sizes at PS xxx, in Brownsville, were always kept low during the Cashin years. I can presume that the same was true for other schools in the neighborhood. Cashin understood the inter-relation of class size, teachability and management. Like it or not, she also understood the relation of Brownsville education to gentrification and test scores. District and later Region stability depended on a tight community school district and network relation to yearly improving test scores, which kept Bloomberg from justifying a Chicago destruction operation and complete charterization there. Cashin retired when she saw that her network could no longer maintain this autonomy.

The DOE Teachers College ELA curriculum was minimized in content, while the process was tokenized as much as needed to front the mandate.

Farina's TC approach does not work well with high needs children: children of poverty, of crime, of ELLs and kids with special ed issues. It is too student-directed for kids whose lives are socially and emotionally topsy turvy and need so much emotional and social support. These kids can give you a look, but their learning requires a lot of structured, scaffolded, and developmentally appropriate repetition and review, especially in the early years.

By the way Cashin also introduced E.D. Hirsh's Core Knowledge social studies curriculum in her network (but not the reading program). She saw it in action in one R. 5, D. 27 school in Black middle class Queens. She was right! Kids of color loved it in every school in district 23 I visited. Most kids loved learning about different world cultures and their histories, but especially children of color. This legitimates and also includes their own diversity and cultures. This curriculum also helped cool the pits of the DOE, which also liked it.

Klein ran a pilot in Staten Island. Unfortunately, the teachers in the upper grades never got the PD to continue it. The program died with Cashin's retirement when the DOE and Tweed superintendents and principals came in for the first time. Cashin never allowed Tweed to invade her schools. Yeah, top-down can have its very positive as well as disgustingly negative aspects. None of us is perfect.

If you can take the time, watch the videos with Prof. James Cummins, a Toronto ed research analyst. He points out correctly, I feel, that the public ed system never failed the middle class since the 30's, only communities of poverty, immigrant, ELL and special ed. He avoids pointing out that this is after our eastern and southern European immigrant forebears had been allowed work their way into whiteness. He also avoids pointing out that high needs kids today are almost always children of color. He leaves the social and economic analysis to others. Nevertheless, these children never have gotten a fully fair shake. No matter what reforms came down the pike, these students were economically and pedagogically marginalized. However, there is also another big omission here: the successful education of the fortunate Black and Latino middle class that benefited from the culturally relevant pedagogy of the civil rights-inspired Pre-K through college education of the 70's and 80's. Nevertheless, the numerous public school reforms have been so short lived and scripted that teachers, including teachers of color have never been allowed to adapt them to fit the paticular needs of most of their high needs students. The same will be true of the common core standards if the current kind of implementation continues.

As a Canadian white man, he is big proponent of the African-American school of cultural relevant pedegogy and understands exactly what it is. It worked to create the middle class of color today, and it can work again if we allow it to. Unfortunately, this has been unjustly prevented by the educrats for too large a portion of our population since the 1930's. The economic "advantage" should be obvious in the current observer!

Farina faves:

She is a very knowledgeable educator who believes the best way to improve schools, and the best kind of ps, is collaboration between admins, teachers, community. She has said there is no better way for eds to get support than for them to support each other, nothing they can learn that can't be learned from each other. That foundational vision distinguishes her from Cashin and any other candidate out there. She is a very thoughtful educator. She is practical and no nonsense. But compassionate and has the absolute best of intentions.

--------

No Chancellor is going to be perfect, all will have their flaws, and certainly BDB isn't going to choose a "radical" (whatever that means).

Carmen is foremost an educator, a thoughtful, knowledgeable educator with experience at every level. Her foundation is solid.

Having her at the helm will not create magical changes (and let us not forget the state and national control factors that cannot be changed and politically, for those in positions such as this one, have to be appeased)... But there would be significant changes that are teacher friendly and most importantly deeply rooted in what benefits children and builds strong schools.

She understands something that I think drives a positive vision for schools, which is that they are collaborative, humane places, where principal and teacher support and opportunities to grow and learn from each other are the best way to improve, innovate, and evaluate.

We'll see what happens, but on a personal leveI, I would be very happy with her appointment.

-------

From a retired MOREista:

Great Carmen Farina Experience:

About 9 years ago, in December, principal announced that he was going to interclass the majority of my kindergarten students. The plan was to replace those children with double service ESL students. I have an ESL license, and he wanted to use that to his advantage.

Meeting was held with parents. Mothers cried in the hallway, to no avail. The principal was adament.

A mother from Holland (unusual in Elmhurst, Queens) emailed Carmen Farina. Within 30 minutes of the mother's email, the plan was off. Carmen Farina reached out to the principal and told him that he could forget his interclassing,

Don't know what else he was told, but I am left with respect for Carmen Farina. Her actions speak very loudly for integrity, and caring.

One Farina knock:

I worked with Carmen when at Teachers Network. She's a little woman with a strong ego. We used to have our teacher fair at her school PS6 on the Tony upper east side of Manhattan when she was principal. I would coordinate the event and introduce her to everyone.

I don't recall a collaborative style, but an intimidated staff. When I first booked the teacher fair she told me over the phone no more sessions on “how to break a principal”! I was astonished. We never had such a session (although I was intrigued). I may be mistaken, but I think she’s the brainchild of learning boards, print rich, workshop model for all lessons (the bane of our existence in high schools). If that’s her hallmark, deBlasio is proving a disappointment already.

And a response:

I think your experience w Carmen reflects her VERY direct, short method of communication. She is "no-nonsense" but she does listen and, she does know what the hell she is talking about, unlike anyone we have worked under in the last 12 years.

Maybe more later.

Farina vs. Cashin: Battle of Philosophies, Part 1

Rachel Monahan is reporting that the job of chancellor is all hers if Carmen Farina wants it. Farina only has emerged as a serious candidate over the past few days given her stated desire to spend time with her grandkid(s). I hear from some people this is close to a done deal. And given the options it is one I support despite some feelings that Farina doesn't always live in the real world -- I'll expound on that in a follow-up.

The candidacy of Kathy Cashin, who has been lobbying for the job for many years, is left hanging by a thread.

Cashin and Farina represent 2 very different education philosophies that have run through the NYC school system over the past 50 years. Farina comes from District 15 (Park Slope dominated) of fairly wealthy families compared to the rest of the city -- though it does have poverty areas like Sunset Park. She was also a principal at PS 6 on the upper east side. Call her a "constructivist", Teachers College idealogue -- which by the way, no matter how bad it was implemented by Joel Klein/Diana Lam, is a concept I support.

Cashin comes from the opposite extreme -- core E.D Hirsh Core Knowledge which Sol Stern raves about. (Sol Stern explains the personal reasons for joining one side of the curriculum wars. (City Journal)

These are 2 very different visions and both Farina as Region 8 head (Dist 14, 15, 13) and Cashin as Region 5 head dealt with.

Though they will never say it out loud, Cashin is the UFT candidate and has been for a long time due to the strong connections they have with her. As Region 5 Supt. Cashin gave the UFT space in 2 schools in East NY (Dist. 19) for their charters. Region 5 was made up of 2 Bklyn districts -- Cashin's old D. 23 in Ocean-Hill Brownsville -- scene of the '68 strike -- plus D. 27 in Queens -- Ozone Park and Rockaway -- a massive 60 school district.

Peter Goodman's Ed in the Apple blog is always a good weather vane as to UFT thinking. Watch how he presents Cashin and Farina and Starr, trying to sell Cashin:

Candidates, at least candidates in the press (see Gotham Schools here and the NY Daily News here) that espouse de Blasio’s policies are Josh Starr, superintendent in Montgomery County and Kathleen Cashin, a member of the Board of Regents with a long resume within New York City. Starr, in a high wealth district has been an aggressive opponent of testing, and had a lackluster six years as superintendent in Stamford, Cashin, in her role as a regent, voted against the Principal/Teacher Evaluation Plan and aggressively supports parents and classroom teacher, she was a beloved and highly effective superintendent in the poorest districts in New York City. Carmen Farina, who has been “out of the loop” for years, is a close advisor to de Blasio.

Cashin was not much loved due to a high-handed style - except by the UFT (who at one point made fun of her people for high levels of micro-managment.) And note how Goodman praises Cashin for voting against the plan she knew would fail as a way to gain supporters.

More later

Eva Moskowitz' Success Academy Gets Preferential DOE Treatment, Emails Show- DUHHH!

NEW YORK CITY — When Eva Moskowitz starts a new charter school, top officials at the city’s Department of Education move heaven and earth to meet her demands.

During the past two years, the DOE gave Moskowitz’s controversial chain, Success Academy, rent-free space in city school buildings to open 14 new co-location sites. In each handover, Moskowitz demanded the DOE deliver the space clear of furniture and broom-swept by 5 p.m. on the last day of the school year, according to sources and emails obtained by DNAinfo New York.

But since students used the space until the second-to-last day of the school year, the DOE was left with less than 36 hours to clear the area — costing the department tens of thousands of dollars in overtime from contracted workers scrambling to meet the onerous deadline.

“The cost was astronomical,” a DOE insider told DNAinfo New York. “We don’t have to do it the very last day of school. There’s absolutely no need for this.”

We saw this in person shortly after GEM got rolling in 2009 when they wiped out PS 123's teacher's stuff and tossed them in the bin. We went down for an early morning rally on the day after school ended - Tony Avella showed p and even Scott Stringer. (I have some video up somewhere on you tube but no time to link to it now. I challenged Stringer to reappoint Patrick Sullivan to the PEP.)

MORE at:

http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20131210/new-york-city/eva-moskowitz-success-academy-gets-preferential-doe-treatment-emails-show

39% of frontline bank employees must rely need public assistance because of insufficient wages - The Real News

Use this info at your next family gathering where your tea party relatives rail against the 47% of the nation who are "moochers" living off the hard-earned "winnings" of the 1%.

1 out of 3 Bank Tellers in NY on Public Assistance

New report finds bank executives receive big bonuses, while 39% of frontline bank employees must rely on welfare because of insufficient wage. See video at:

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=11156

How much more are we to take on from the banksters, the Waltons, McDonalds. the oil companies, the backers of ALEC and all of the rest of the fraudulent and amoral 1% who are taking the future away from our children economically and in terms of the environment?

Dora Taylor [recently elected to Seattle school board against massive ed deform money pouring in against her]

E4E Member Resigns in Protest Over Their Support for King/Tisch

Here is something you will never see mentioned at Gotham Schools.

Consider this my resignation of membership for E4E and the corporate driven ideology which binds this organization as a supporter of the Common Core and it’s test driven oppression of learning.... A NYC Teacher and FORMER member of E4E

So, E4E is trying to organize a force to support John King and Meryl Tisch and is urging its "people" to turn out in support to counter what is sure to be a vocal opposition. This teacher has had enough. I always say, the harder these characters push their ed deform crap the more they shoot themselves in the foot. The reality for those E4E people who actually are teaching and facing the Danielson rubric and common core in action is that it basically sucks. Good luck to E4E - maybe try starting a chapter in Detroit.

Dear Jonathan [Schleifer],

I am writing in regard to the E4E letter to Commissioner King stating “We are writing to thank you again for your leadership over the last two years in making New York’s teacher evaluation law benefit teachers and students across the state—and to urge you to make good on that commitment again as you develop a teacher evaluation system for New York City.”

I think the recent video and protests against the Common Core, and the state being forced to apply for waivers to allow developmentally disabled students with an IQ of 60, exempt from state tests. The issue of Danielson, with an untested rubric, and one which does not suit teachers or students of disabilities is central in the error of congratulating Commissioner King. Where was the foresight? Did anyone at E4E ever project the negative consequences of evaluating impoverished students (solely to determine “teacher effectiveness”) and essentially sanctioning teachers who serve them? I think not. Did anyone at E4E ever reflect to see how the Danielson Rubric may sanction educators? I think not.

Consider this my resignation of membership from E4E and the corporate driven ideology which binds this organization as a supporter of the Common Core and it’s test driven oppression of learning.

Regards,

Here is the E4E call to action:

On Mon, Dec 9, 2013 at 2:26 PM, Jonathan Schleifer  info@educators4excellence.org wrote:

Trouble viewing this email? You can View this Message Online

Educators 4 Excellence: An Independent Voice for Teachers

Dear xxxxxx, Over the next two days, State Education Commissioner John King will be hosting several town halls on the Common Core across the city. Teachers, students and parents will have the opportunity to weigh in on the new standards and their implementation. December 10 Brooklyn: Medgar Evers College, 6:30-8:30 PM Bronx: Evander Childs Campus, 6:00-8:00 PM December 11 Manhattan: Spruce Street School, 6:00-8:00 PM RSVP here to join E4E at one or more of the town halls. If you can’t attend the town halls, you can engage in the conversation on Twitter by following @Ed4Excellence. We’ll have teachers live tweeting each event. By replying to them or mentioning them in a tweet of your own, you the too can join the conversation and have a voice at the discussions. Looking forward to hearing from you -  Jonathan Jonathan Schleifer Executive Director, E4E-New York