Written and edited by Norm Scott:
EDUCATE! ORGANIZE!! MOBILIZE!!!
Three pillars of The Resistance – providing information on current ed issues, organizing activities around fighting for public education in NYC and beyond and exposing the motives behind the education deformers. We link up with bands of resisters. Nothing will change unless WE ALL GET INVOLVED IN THE STRUGGLE!
A couple of MORE chapter leaders put this flyer together and some people in the UFT sent it out to the schools. Now that's working together. Download it if you want to share with people in your school.
NOTE A CORRECTION: Developing is listed as causing a salary freeze but people have said that is not so. I have an updated pdf with that point deleted for those interested in sharing with colleagues. Email me.
But this came in this morning from a David Weiner 2013 memo:
Disciplinary Action/Termination: Rather than simply moving forward with disciplinary action based on a teacher’s “Ineffective” rating, the DOE will only pursue disciplinary action (3020-a) for teachers rated poorly if principals agree. It is also important to note that principals can use their autonomy to go in another direction and recommend teachers rated “Developing” for 3020-a.
Brian Williams - King of Education Ed Deform Nation.
Why we mistrust pretty much anything coming out of the mainstream press. We know that from ed coverage -
Sept. 24, 2002 - After Al Gore made an anti-war speech and was being accused of being un-American - with Brian Williams using his friend Rush Limbaugh as cover.
SANDERS: I really am concerned about some of the language you used leading up to this discussion, the suggestion that it is un-American to criticize the president and we're supposed to be fighting for freedom.
This is not Iraq. It's not China, and I think the American people want a serious debate on this issue.
[...]
I think the position that Jim [McDermott] and I are advocating is what the vast majority of the people want. They want us to work with the United Nations. They are concerned about the impact of a unilateral effort on the war on terrorism, as Al Gore just said...
WILLIAMS: Congressman, Congressman Sanders, just to be fair, I was quoting, when I used the term “un-American,” a caller to Mr. Limbaugh's radio show accusing—
SANDERS: But who cares what—but who cares what Rush Limbaugh says?
WILLIAMS: Well, let's not attribute it to the broadcast. Let's attribute correctly.
Let's attribute correctly! Suddenly, Brian was very concerned about fundamental fairness! He was willing to float “un-American” rather widely with respect to Gore. But he sought fairness for Rush!
Later, the handsome chaser of multiple millions thoughtfully told viewers this:
WILLIAMS: For the record, we tried to get Rush Limbaugh on tonight. He had another engagement, sent his regrets. But I confirm that was the sound of a trash can hitting the wall during his broadcast today, a rough day for Rush.
Poor Rush! He had really had “a rough day,” all thanks to that speech by Vile Gore! ---- The Daily Howler
This is the most devastating take-down yet as DH goes deep into Williams' history way back to when he shilled for the Iraq war. And then Congressman Bernie Sanders is in the script too.
I was going to use excerpts but you need to read every word to get the full flavor.
Sources say the unions during the meeting may
have agreed to temporarily pull their attack ads...
This goes into the category of Mulgrew "threatening" to go to court to enforce the CFE lawsuit over state funding that was "won" 10 years ago. Threatening. Why not wait another 10 years to go to court?
Cuomo puts outrageous demands on the table and the unions put nothing on the table. So they negotiate from where Cuomo started and even if they split the baby -- 4 year tenure instead of 5? 35% based on eval instead of 50%? It is - as Fearless Forecaster often says -- a LOSS.
This is in the Daily News:
Shortly after unveiling ads last week attacking Gov. Cuomo's
education plans, the heads of the city and state teacher unions met with
aides to the governor, the Daily News has learned.
City
teachers union President Michael Mulgrew and New York State United
Teachers President Karen Magee attended the meeting on Friday at the
state Capitol.
Sources say the unions during the meeting may
have agreed to temporarily pull their attack ads, leaving some insiders
to question whether the sides are trying to hammer out some type of
agreement on how to move forward.
Reps for both unions wouldn't
discuss the specifics of the meeting, though a NYSUT spokesman said that
its "broad-based media campaign is moving forward, with more to come."
“We talk to elected officials all the time," said Mulgrew spokeswoman
Alison Gendar. "We use strategically-placed ads to move the education
discussion in the right direction. At this moment, the UFT and NYSUT,
our parent organization, are engaged in the largest grass-roots campaign
in recent memory to empower teachers and to protect our students.”
In a separate statement, NYSUT spokesman Carl Korn said that "we
advocate for students and public education in many ways, including
talking to elected officials."
"We have a strategy to use
rotating television ads, billboards, print ads, social media and public
forums to educate New Yorkers about the importance of protecting public
education," he added. "Our grassroots campaign is accelerating. More
forums are taking place next week. NYSUT's broad-based media campaign is
moving forward, with more to come."
Neither Gendar nor Korn returned calls over the weekend for clarification on their statements.
Cuomo aides also wouldn't comment.
Cuomo has been warring with the unions, who did not back his reelection effort last year.
Vowing to break what he calls "one of the only remaining public monopolies," the governor this year proposed an education-reform package that
would revamp the teacher tenure and evaluation programs, make it easier
to fire bad and lecherous instructors, give the state more power to
oversee the overhaul of failing schools and expand charter schools.
He also has accused the unions of being more interested in protecting their members than improving the situation for students.
The unions have accused him of trying to demonize teachers.
Wait, isn't "progressive" Carmen Farina the Chancellor instead of Joel Klein, Cathie Black or Dennis Walcott?
Norm, our first graders spent September, October, November testing, all for teacher MOSLs. We lost the opportunity to attend to the needs of our first graders at the very beginning of the school year when they need us most. Teachers were unable to delve into high interest units as we usually do, like Apples, Pumpkins, holidays, etc. It was such a waste of time & we were all so very upset at what we weren't able to teach during that time. The worst part about it is that parents were completely unaware that testing was going for all that time. Can you imagine putting out a school letter that says, "Dear Parents, We'd like to advise you that all first grade students will be tested for the first 3 months of the school year." Ha ha. We had about 5 different tests to administer, one with several components, and ALL were to be administered individually. Now you figure out how much learning when on during those months.
Then there is this from CapitalNY. It's like an internal tug of war where schools waste countless hours testing kids to death while people at the top are oblivious.
CITY WILL INVEST $5 M. IN LITERACY, LANGUAGE PROGRAMS—Capital’s Eliza Shapiro: “Bill
de Blasio's preliminary budget will include more than $5 million for
literacy intervention teams and access to language services for parents,
according to the mayor's office. The Fiscal Year 2016 preliminary
budget, scheduled for release today, includes $2.4 million to create a
separate intervention team within the Department of Education's special
education office to support literacy in students with dyslexia. —The intervention would further Carmen Fariña's goal of getting every child in New York up to reading level by second grade,
something de Blasio reiterated last month during his announcement to
expand the Young Men's Initiative. The funding would also be used for
staff training to create more expertise around dyslexia interventions
and more literacy support across the general education population. In
addition to her second grade reading goal, Fariña has said she wants to
see the quality and quantity of writing vastly improved in all city
schools over the next year.
Sure. Teachers have time for labor intensive dyslexia interventions when they are assaulted from every direction, including the massive paperwork.
My school is administering mid-year benchmark assessments this
month. First graders will be tested for a minimum of 180 minutes over
the course of four consecutive days. On days one and two - for 45
minutes each day - ReadyGEN curriculum assessments will be used to test
six and seven-year-olds in English-language arts (ELA). On the other two
days - again, 45 minutes each day - first graders will take Go Math
assessments.
These tests are being given in addition to:
1. Beginning of the year NYC Baseline Performance Tasks in ELA and math (MOSLs used for teacher evaluation purposes only)
2. Running records - 4 per year
3. Monthly writing assessments aligned to the Common Core standards
4. 12 Go Math unit assessments
5. End of the year NYC Performance Tasks in ELA and math (MOSLs used for teacher evaluation purposes only)
We want our leaders to get up in front of the Cuomo equivalent powerful German army members intimidating everyone as they are singing German fight songs in Rick's cafe and lead everyone in the "Marseillaise".
But no guts, no glory. And so it goes.
Will the UFT/Unity Caucus leadership stop throwing millions of our bucks away on tepid commercials and useless politicians who stab us in the back and funnel some of that money back into the schools to use in establishing local campaigns? After all, there are enough public schools to be able to blanket the entire city with a grassroots campaign.
The thing to understand about the UFT is that it is a totally top-down controlled organization and doesn't have the DNA to allow the schools leeway to truly activate themselves without trying to control their message. Like how about having schools at the district level team up to go to community newspapers with ads? Or hold local community meetings? Instead of district reps holding brainstorming meetings they are there just to give schools marching orders from the top.
Michael Fiorillo pretty much has their number:
All just empty, going-through-the-motions-to make-it-look-like-we're on-top-of-this misdirection. They've already decided on what they'll settle for (on our backs, needless to say) and still think they can pull off something behind the scenes. If Shelley was still in place as Speaker, that might have "worked," somewhat, but now? With things so unsettled? They're taking a very big risk with our future...
We want our leaders to get up in front of the Cuomo equivalent powerful German army members intimidating everyone as they are singing German fight songs in Rick's cafe and lead everyone in the "Marseillaise".
Based on this email exchange on the MORE listserve I would be they will not let go of the purse strings other than in a nominal way.
At last DA Kelly asked if we would get additional money for our school based organizing against Cuomo and I believe that Mulgrew said something like yes. Anyone remember exactly what he did say? I asked my DR and she said NO.
Followed by this:
At the "emergency" chapter leader meeting this Wednesday that all DRs were told to have with their CLs there was few concrete unified actions organized by UFT. DR gave lots of paper info and said we should organize our members. They didn't even have the petition nor did they have the postcards to get signed. I made concrete suggestions and after meeting, some of the other CLs came up to me for ideas. I also asked about getting extra money for the school campaign as per what Mulgrew said at DA but DR said no extra money. Honestly it was not hard to get my members activated and we have a bunch of actions planned. Imagine if our leadership was coordinating unified actions. No, just a petition campaign.
Below is what the District Reps are sending to teachers with talking points and a breakdown of the Cuomo threat, which as NYC Educator pointed out in his fabulous piece - Entropy -
yesterday, was ignored for so long for that mythical seat at the table. Entropy - lack of order or predictability; gradual decline into disorder. -- maybe not the exact definition I would use since the UFT/AFT/NYSUT leadership is all about predictability as evidenced by this point NYC Educator made:
Now they want me to tweet what they tell me. Use this hashtag, or that, they say, and everything will be better. Once Cuomo sees our tweets he'll run like a doormouse. Mulgrew doesn't tweet because, like the pigs in Animal Farm, he's off doing brainwork, filling ledgers that must be meticulously filled then burned in the furnace. That's what I pay a thousand dollars a year for, while they go to conventions and fail to support people who might actually wish to help me.
I love that Animal Farm reference. We are all so Orwellian as we pointed out at the AFT Bill Gates Seattle convention in 2010 with this video.
Well, here is the message District Reps are sending to schools with the message they want out there -- all very predictable -- send some names go to Albany in March 4 when Eva will close her schools -- not call for NYC schools to hold field trips to Albany for a counter rally instead of the same old same old lobbying trips we've all been taking for 40 years -- and look where we are as a result.
Thank you to everyone who was able to attend the chapter-leader meeting. I’m following up on what we discussed during the meeting. What makes our campaign urgent is the fact that if the state budget is not passed on time (April 1), with changes made to the education policies of the governor, then Mr. Cuomo can use a political maneuver called an “executive order” to pass his own budget. The governor’s budget would include all the educational policies he introduced at the 2015 State of the State Address: https://www.ny.gov/2015-opportunity-agenda/education-escalator#teacher-evaluations Essentially, Mr. Cuomo is trying to accomplish in one year (really 3 months), what Mayor Bloomberg tried to accomplish in twelve years. An important part of our campaign to fight Cuomo’s education agenda is to inform our political representatives, the parents of our students and the general public on how bad these policies are for public education and our students. Our representatives must hear our chorus and our message and stand up to the governor and fight these policies. The main points of the Cuomo education agenda are as follows: INDIVIDUAL MERIT PAY – He wants to give teachers that get a highly effective final rating an additional $20,000. This may sound good for those that recently got this rating but wait until you see how he wants to change the teacher evaluation system. Merit pay is a divisive idea that has failed everywhere it has been tried. Who is going to want to teach the neediest students with this policy? TEACHER EVALUATION - Cuomo wants to get rid of the 20% local tests and increase the state test to be 50% of the teacher evaluation. The other 50% for measures of teacher practice would be 15% from your principal and 35% from an outside agent. How many teachers are going to come into teaching, or remain, if they are evaluated like this? And, how many teachers are going to remain in schools that have a large number of students with disabilities or other life challenges? NEW TEACHERS BEWARE! – Mr. Cuomo wants to extend the probationary period from 3 to 5 years! That might be okay if he were proposing more support for new teachers but he’s not. What he wants in an army of “at will” employees who will have no due process rights. This policy ignores the real issue - the lack of support that drives 40% of new teachers to quit by their 5th year. DUE PROCESS – The governor wants to take away the use of an independent arbitrator and wants the employer to decide on terminations. We say the process needs to be fair, quick and impartial. He believes it should be fast and unfair. CHARTER SCHOOLS – The governor wants to increase the charter cap even though he knows that most charters are breaking the law by “creaming”, or unfairly selecting, the students they teach. Rather than holding charters accountable for this he wants to reward their misconduct along with the billionaires that are backing the charter movement. RECEIVERSHIP – The governor wants to have all of the struggling schools to be run by private companies and to abolish all collective bargaining agreements. This plan punishes the neediest children and the educators who serve them. SCHOOL FUNDING – The governor is holding this year’s inadequate school funding increase hostage to his political agenda. Since he has been in office, the governor has not met his constitutional obligation to properly fund our schools and now he is blaming us. Our schools are already owed billions of dollars from the Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE) litigation. What we need to do: 1. Every chapter should conduct an emergency chapter meeting. Invite everyone, even your supervisors. We’re all on the same side in this fight. Let me know when you will be doing this. 2. A committee of members should meet with the parents at each school to inform them of these disastrous policies. Recruit parents in this fight. 3. Each school community should organize a group to attend one of three regional forums that are being held next week on the 12th. 4. Each chapter and school community should plan and execute local actions. This could be letter writing, phone calls, sending post cards, informational picketing. 5. Join the social media campaigns. Join the UFT Facebook campaign and the twitter campaign. 6. Send me the names and contact information of the people you want to send to Albany on March 4th. I will need their email address. 7. There will be other large events, including rallies, in the near future . Each school community should join in these mass actions. 8. Document, photograph and record your individual actions so we can pass the word to other school communities. We can either sit idly by and watch these things happen to us, or we can join together and fight back. Thank you all in advance for your continued hard work, and for your assistance on this campaign!
Just watched Casablanca for the umpteenth time and was reminded of the contrast between the Vichy "seat at the table" mentality of the Claude Rains Col. Renault character and the Paul Henreid Victor Laszlo resistance fighter. And then there's Bogart, Rick - clearly a former resistance fighter - almost definitely a commie at one time (who else fought in the Spanish civil war?), now turned selfish cynic. Laszlo inspires them both to join the resistance -- he welcomes Rick back to the fight - "this time I know we will win."
Before getting into the war with ed deform and how the UFT plays the Vichy role -- Mulgrew/Randi as Louie Renault? -- they're shocked, just shocked that Cuomo is anti-teacher/union/public education -- take a look at the final scene.
Arthur Goldstein at NYC Educator captured the mood in his post on Saturday:
Mulgrew stands before the DA and bloviates for an hour. His talk is disorganized, frenetic. He comes back to things he hasn't finished. He sneers. He raises eyebrows. He speaks of how it's time to fight, how that's what he was taught when he grew up. He radiates the machismo that failed to surface anywhere during the six years we went without a contract, the machismo that evinced itself nowhere as the union said we'd happily wait another seven years for the raises everyone else got years ago. We all voted for it because it was better than nothing, because they said they weren't gonna do better and we believed them. Mulgrew shouts the determination to stop Cuomo that was nowhere to be found when Zephyr Teachout rose like a David but failed to garner sufficient force, that time, to slay the Goliath propped up by the dollars of our enemies. We know who the enemy is. Why didn't we know last summer, when we could have maybe done something about it?.... NYC Educator: Entropy
Basically, all you have to do is watch Casablanca and read Arthur's piece to get which way the wind is blowing.
While we are surprised that Rick comes back to the fight and Louie abandons Vichy and joins him in the resistance, we would be shocked, just shocked, to see the leaders of the UFT/NYSUT/AFT do the same.
======
Next: The UFT calls on school chapters to take action, but will it part with COPE and other money to help them?
I have heard of many tragic cases of walking, talking normal children who wound up with profound mental disorders after vaccines excessive standardized testing. I'm not arguing vaccines tests are bad idea. I think they are a good thing, but I think the parent should have some input. The state doesn't own your children. Parents own the children. And it is an issue of freedom and public health education... Rand Paul, slightly revised.
Those of us who are MFT members had no say in the creation of the Guild even though we actually are the union, and now we continue to subsidize our own demise...
An excellent blog post at PEJAM echoing the policies of our union's inability to fight off the charter assault because they have jumped into the charter business themselves. When I brought this up to a UFT employee a few weeks ago she responded, "Oh, that is Randi's fault." Duhhhhh!
Conflict of Interest? According to Dylan Thomas, "Mill City [charter school] joins the small but growing portfolio of the Minnesota Guild, a non-profit charter school authorizer sponsored by the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers. When it launched in 2011, the Guild was the first union-backed charter school authorizer in the country." The Guild's first charter school opened this past year in Isanti, Minnesota, and the MN Department of Education has authorized Mill City and three other charter schools to open in Minneapolis this fall, under the sponsorship of the union created Minnesota Guild. The current president and lobbyist (also a former president) of MFT not only created the Guild, but continue to serve on its board of directors. Every charter school they sponsor pulls more students from Minneapolis Public Schools (or other public schools) which eliminates unionized teaching positions. How can the president of the teachers union defend the rights of the union members who elected her, and at the same time create schools that threaten those same members' job security? Brad Blue and the Guild operate out of an office in the MFT-owned building and pay no rent. MFT's brothers and sisters working as janitors and engineers in Minneapolis Public Schools have their SEIU local office in the same MFT building, and they pay rent. Those of us who are MFT members had no say in the creation of the Guild even though we actually are the union, and now we continue to subsidize our own demise. Union Leaders Have Joined the Privatizers Two years ago I wrote about the Minnesota Guild of Public Charter Schools, an organization created four years ago to sponsor charter schools. The Guild was created by Lynn Nordgren, the current president of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT), and Louis Sundin, a former president of MFT and its current lobbyist. The funding for this enterprise came from the American Federation of Teachers' (AFT) Innovation Fund, which itself received money from the Gates Foundation. All of this was done without a discussion or vote by the rank-and-file members of MFT.
I would say the “trouble-makers” I have known, those who would give
discomfort to the comfortable, have strong faith in labor and unionism
and are deeply troubled by the state of the UFT. ... Fred Smith
Fred Smith reacted to a story on the Diane Ravitch blog.
Terrible. How is this episode any different or more outrageous than
when UFT Pres. Mulgrew and his henchman shout down, bully or use faux
procedural tactics to silence dues paying members in NYC who disagree
with them at meetings or do not accept their party line?
Were the proposals/candidates rejected in NYC, more likely to secure stronger tenure protections, fewer high stakes tests etc. than the UFT strategies/leaders?
It’s a tangential issue but, I’m curious about your opinion.
I’m not sure I’m addressing your concerns about politicians I think. Here’s where I was going.
As I understand it second hand, meetings held at UFT headquarters, involved union delegates and/or chapter leaders. Among them were individuals who felt the union, which has been run forever by a self-perpetuating leadership (i.e., the Unity slate) elected under procedures that make it virtually impossible to unseat the top echelon, did not think the UFT was doing enough for the rank and file members.
These “dissidents” wanted the chance to address bread and butter issues, including the teacher’s contract and protection of members from arbitrary mistreatment; and the leadership’s heretofore ineffectiveness in fighting back against charter schools that have been taking away space and resources at the expense of traditional public schools; and perceived sell-out tendencies that sacrifice principles for “a place at the table;” and the mealy mouthed positions taken by said leadership against the misuses of student test data tied into the indefensible inclusion of test scores in convoluted, ever-changing teacher evaluation formulas. Then too, there were the overriding questions–based on past history–of union governance and the undemocratic way Unity controlled the floor at these meetings–arbitrarily denying speakers a voice, not even a discouraging word to be heard.
So, I would say the “trouble-makers” I have known, those who would give discomfort to the comfortable, have strong faith in labor and unionism and are deeply troubled by the state of the UFT. Yes, there is a certain amount of understandable self-interest in their beliefs, but I feel they are sincere when they say, “Our working conditions are our children’s learning conditions.”–which they strive to better. And I hope they grow in number and strength because one-party rule and monopolistic arrangements work against the vast majority of people kept on the outside. (The 99%?)
I hate to see the way teachers have been portrayed as bad guys. They’re not. They shouldn't be victimized by politicians who can be bought cheaply–nor by those who claim to represent them.
Silver is alleged to have benefited personally from
Litwin’s spending -- and there is no dispute that Cuomo has benefited
politically from that same largesse.
Cuomo Officials Directed State Loan To Cuomo Donor At Center of Corruption Probe
The
tones of surprise and outrage emanating from Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s lips
in the wake of the stunning criminal complaint against New York Assembly
Speaker Sheldon Silver might give the impression that the governor
hovers above the fray of Albany’s transactional politics.
“I’ll tell you the truth: I was totally shocked on a number of levels,” Governor Cuomo said
of the allegations that Silver used his office to help politically
connected real estate developers in their state business. Cuomo has
positioned himself as a champion of ethics reform, declaring that “these acts of corruption are so damning.”
But a careful review of state documents reveals that Cuomo
and Silver are connected by a key figure in the scandal. Both lawmakers
have a financial relationship with the same New York real estate mogul,
Leonard Litwin, who has in turn relied upon them for preferential tax
treatment and other government benefits.
Silver is alleged to have benefited personally from
Litwin’s spending -- and there is no dispute that Cuomo has benefited
politically from that same largesse.
Litwin contributed $1 million to Cuomo’s reelection campaign and another $500,000 to the New York Democratic Party, making him the largest political donor in the state. His money flowed through 27 subsidiaries of his firm, Glenwood Management. Those subsidiaries were also clients of the real estate law firm that paid referral fees to Silver. U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara has alleged
that Silver "induce[d] real estate developers with business before the
state" to employ the law firm, which in turn made payments to Silver.
Neither Cuomo's office nor Glenwood Management responded to
International Business Times' request for comment about the governor's
relationship with Litwin. But documents reviewed by IBTimes illustrate
Cuomo’s role in the developer's state business.
The Cuomo-run New York State Housing Finance Agency, for instance, approved a $260 million state-supported low-interest loan in 2014 to finance Glenwood’s new luxury apartment building in midtown Manhattan. At the time the loan to Glenwood was approved, the NYHFA was headed by Cuomo appointee Bill Mulrow, an executive and registered lobbyist at Blackstone, a private equity and real estate firm. Mulrow was just appointed to be the governor’s chief of staff. According to NYHFA documents, Glenwood also has had otherbusiness with the agency.
Similarly, Cuomo in 2011 signed Silver-backed legislation reauthorizing a then-expired property tax abatement for real estate developers called the 421a program. Cuomo also signed an extension of that program in 2013. Litwin’s firm used the 421a program for its Midtown Manhattan project, according to the New York Times. Glenwood has also used the 421a tax break for some of its other properties in the city.
In 2014,
Cuomo shut down the Moreland Commission, an anti-corruption panel that
was examining the relationship between lawmakers and the real estate
industry. The governor’s top aide at time, Larry Schwartz, called
commission members to stop them from subpoenaing the Real Estate Board of New York, of which Litwin is the lifetime “honorary chairman.”
The 421a abatement, which costs
taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenues, is set to
expire in 2015. The question of its renewal -- and Cuomo's support for
its renewal -- is a flashpoint in this year’s legislative session in Albany. Already, some New York City lawmakers are calling for its repeal.
... do they think it important for kids of color to have some portion of
their teachers actually look like them vs the young, white TFA types
that fill up so many positions, especially in charters?
You can't have a serious level of experienced teachers if you undermine basic teacher security. Thus, this statement by the Urban League caught my eye. But we know all about the Urban League -- the NY chapter was headed by
Dennis Walcott before he descended into hell in the Bloomberg
administration.
Students of color and low-income students are twice as likely to have inexperienced teachers, as compared to their white and affluent peers. ESEA reauthorization must bring greater transparency and focused action to increase equity in the availability of critical educational inputs, including but not limited to funding, equal access to advanced coursework, and equal access to effective and experienced teachers.” ... National Urban League following the road to ed deform in statement " NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE JOINS COALITION OF CIVIL RIGHTS AND EDUCATION ADVOCACY ORGANIZATIONS IN RESPONDING TO SENATE ESEA DISCUSSION DRAFT"
Therein lies the rub - the contradiction between using the words "effective" and "experienced."This was Joel Klein's ploy -- in the early days he went after seniority transfers - with Randi's support - because they supposedly shortchanged students as experienced teachers drained out of badly run schools -- and that was vastly over-rated -- but let's point out that teachers didn't run away from schools that were well-managed in even the poorest neighborhoods -- the problem was that so many of them were poorly managed and under-resourced.
Once Klein got what he wanted -- seniority transfers broken, he went after senior teachers.
You can't play the teacher "quality" game when it's based mostly in test scores --- attacks on tenure undermine the stability of the teaching profession ---- other than the temp TFA types -- people who enter teaching for a career are attracted by such ugly words as "pension" and "tenure" protections. You can't have a serious level of experienced teachers if you undermine basic teacher security.
Deformers have been playing the game of speaking out of both sides of their mouths -- calling for experienced teachers for kids fo color while doing everything they could to undermine experienced teachers -- just look at the outcomes in the heart of ed deform -- much younger, inexperienced teachers. And by the way -- they have also managed to chop up experienced teachers of color, a fact ignored --- do they think it important for kids of color to have some portion of their teachers actually look like them vs the young, white TFA types that fill up so many positions, especially in charters?
Jia,
We have never met but I have seen you mentioned by my friend Norm Scott on his EdNotes blog.
I just watched the video (https://vimeo.com/117989096) of your testimony in DC to the. Senate... Powerful, elegant, sincere and beautiful! I was encouraged by the Senator from Rhode Island who summed up RTTT perfectly, none of the money came to the schools.
And now Cuomo wants to duplicate it here in NY tying any funding increase to similar reforms .
Anyway, I was proud of you as both a veteran NYC educator and union man. You are an amazing young woman.
We could use more like you! Sadly, too many folks take their rights
benefits and profession for granted, as we watch reformers chip away at it all.
Thank you for speaking up and representing us so well,
Brian De Vale
Principal
P.S. 257 /
Chairman
Council of Supervisors and Administrators
Community School. District # 14
And here is a message from Brian to all of us:
We call these LI republican state senators and Assemblymen whose
constituents have signed the petitions and tell them:
"you guys want to
expand charters because you assume that it will only impact NYC. Well
we work in NYC but live in your district. As charters explode because
they offer extended day (day care) until 6pm many
parents go and we lose money in our budgets. Our principals let people
go, us, and we can't afford to live out here".
Thousands of teachers in
live in. Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester counties. They need to
mobilize. We have shard this message with Sen. Martins, Flanagan,
Boyle and others.
My school has collected over 1000 signatures please email the petition
around and ask folks to fax or deliver them to their local state
Assemblymen/Senators:
-->
STOP CUOMO AND HIS WAR
ON PUBLIC SCHOOLS!
We are against the Governor’s immoral attack
on public school students and teachers.SAY:
1.NOincrease in
Charter schools.There are already
too many Charter Schools in New York City and there are 100 available spots for
charters in the rest of the state.Nobody is applying because they are not wanted.Charters were meant to be a few lab sites
around the state to establish best practices, NOT an alternative system of
hundreds of schools.Cuomo’s goal is to
privatize the New York City public schools in order to break their unions.
2.NOnew Teacher
Evaluation System.New York State
just passed a new evaluation system last year.Students and teachers deserve stability.Cuomo has become a tool of the billionaires and hedge funds who
wantto lower their taxes through
“education reform” policies.
3.NOchange to
tenure.Police officers and fire
fighters remain on probation for 18 months.Teachers are already on probation for 3 years.Cuomo’s move is designed to cheat young
people out of a pension and career by kicking them out before they can become
permanent.
As Bill Gates sees many of his health and education initiatives go up in smoke -- oh, if only those billions had gone into reducing class size -- Daniel Katz joins other bloggers in ripping apart the basic premises under which Gates operates. (And let's never forget his best friend Randi.)
For instance, Melinda Gates makes this asinine statement:
It may surprise you–it was certainly surprising to us–but the field of education doesn’t know very much at all about effective teaching. We have all known terrific teachers. You watch them at work for 10 minutes and you can tell how thoroughly they’ve mastered the craft. But nobody has been able to identify what, precisely, makes them so outstanding.
Katz answers by pointing to just how much the field of education knows about effective teaching -- but those darn pesky kids and lousy school administration plus any number of factors get in the way.
What does Mrs. Gates risk missing in her ten minute assessment?
The lesson that worked very well in the first period but worked far less well in the third period.
The day when the lesson plan was simply off base.
The work that teacher did outside of the classroom determining what students knew, selecting teaching and learning strategies that would help them build upon that, figuring out what would help the teacher know the students had learned.
ANY of the uncertainty in the previously described process and the necessity to pivot if that uncertainty disrupts the plan.
How the teacher self assesses and with what information.
The week when that teacher has sick children at home, cannot get enough sleep, and has little time to plan.
The week disrupted by excessive standardized testing or mandatory field tests of examinations.
ANYTHING, really, beyond being impressed by Razzle Dazzle without thinking about substance.
These points by Katz really resonate with me --- at times I thought I had the best of times as a teacher -- and a few hours later -- or even the next period - I was the worst. No one can tell me that I would not be a better teacher in a class of 22 than in a class of 30 - or that I was often a better teacher in the morning than in the late afternoon. That was why I tried to get schedules that piled up morning teaching. When we had late lunch at 12:30 if I had an afternoon prep I would go straight on from 8:40. After lunch I had to work so much harder to focus the kids --- the breaks broke the magic.
Towards the end of last year, the Seattle Times provided coverage of the Gates Foundation’s report on the tenth anniversary of its global health initiative. After a decade of effort and a billion dollars invested, Bill Gates admitted that despite the investment he had been “pretty naive” about how long it would take to significantly improve public health outcomes in the developing world. Most notable was Gates’ admission that the problems in his approach were not merely ones about overcoming scientific hurdles, but rather they seriously underestimated the challenges of implementing highly technological “solutions” in countries where the majority of the population lack secure access to routine infrastructure which, in the words of Dr. David McCoy of Queen Mary University in London, are “the barriers to existing solutions.” Both Peter Greene of the Curmudgucation blog and Anthony Cody of Living in Dialogue have written excellent pieces on this somewhat quiet but very important admission by Bill Gates. Greene astutely notes that Gates’ realization of his limitations does not actually lead him to understand why his approach is flawed:
Gates wants to use systems to change society, but his understanding of how humans and culture and society and communities change is faulty. It’s not surprising that Gates is naive– it’s surprising that he is always naive in the same way. It always boils down to “I really thought people would behave differently.” And although I’ve rarely seen him acknowledge it print, it also boils down to, “There were plenty of people who could have told me better, but I didn’t listen to them.” The non-success of Grand Challenges is just like the failure of the Gates Common Core initiative. Gates did not take the time to do his homework about the pre-existing structures and systems. He did not value the expertise of people already working in the field, and so he did not consult it or listen to it. He put an unwarranted faith in his created systems, and imagined that they would prevail because everyone on the ground would be easily assimilated into the new imposed-from-outside system. He became frustrated by peoples’ insistence on seeing things through their own point-of-view rather than his. And he spent a huge amount of money attempting to impose his vision on everybody else.
This is an important observation because it shows that there is a flawed perspective rooted at the heart of the Gates Foundation, and while the man and the institution may be able to recognize failures, they are not inclined to understand why they have failed. Anthony Cody also recognizes this observation as he lines up quotes from the central figures at the Gates Foundation that demonstrate little regard for the knowledge about teaching held by teachers and wonders if the “humility” earned in Grand Challenges project will translate to humility about the foundation’s approach to education reform.
