PS 20 and Arts and Letters (Fort Greene) Pics and Press Release on today's rallyPS 20

PS 20K and Arts and Letters

 
This is the first of a batch of incoming reports from some of the schools. Chalkbeat undercounts these protests by saying hundreds instead of thousands that would easily match and surpass the charter shills. Just look at the numbers from one building. But more on that issue later.

Hi, I thought you might like to see photos, speaker list, and the press release from this morning's action involving hundreds of families stretching around our schools today by two co-located schools Arts & Letters and PS 20 in Ft. Greene today among the 60+ schools that are participating in this action today: #protectourschools.

Please see below for link to professional photos you have permission to use to document today's Hands Around Our Schools event available with attribution to photographer Julie Hassett Sutton ( Julie at juliehassettsutton.com ): 

http://goo.gl/yK8iss

Speakers from PS 20 & Arts and Letters co-located public schools human chain & rally today:

PS 20 PTA President Vascilla Caldeira

Arts & Letters PTA co-President Ayanna Behin

Arts & Letters Teacher John Allgood

Letitia James, Public Advocate NYC

Joseph Yanis, legislative director Assembly Member Walter T Mosley

Ptahra Jeppe, chief of staff Assembly Member Jo Anne Simon

Jim Vogel, representative Senator Montgomery

Press Statement:

Contacts: Marnie Brady 202-492-4719 cell  // Vascilla Caldeira: 347-706-5621 cell

Hundreds of Parents and Teachers from Co-located Schools Unite in Citywide Action to Stop Cuomo’s Education Proposals:

Hands-Around Our Schools to Protect Public Education

#protectourschools

On the morning of Thursday, March 12^th the communities of two co-located public schools, P.S. 20 and Arts & Letters (A&L) in Ft. Greene, Brooklyn, along with Public Advocate of the City of New York Letitia James and representatives from offices of Assembly Member Walter T. Mosley, Assembly Member Jo Anne Simon and New York State SEnator Montgomery, created a human chain hundreds of people and families long around their school building with a united message to stop Gov. Cuomo’s education plans. Parents said the governor’s proposals will harm their children’s education, and cause unilateral damage to the public schools families have worked so hard to support.

Parents and teachers oppose what they call the governor’s “hostage tactics,” holding back $2.2 billion in court-mandated funds owed to NYS public schools while imposing detrimental policy changes into the April 1 budget. These changes include basing 50% of teacher evaluations on state test results, and the diversion of public education resources into private hands. Parents are taking action with social media, and emergency meetings with state representatives.

One A&L parent, Kimberly Bliss, who is took off work on March 11^th to join other public school parents in Albany, explains: “Our governor is bullying our teachers and our schools with high stakes tests that have been proven to be ineffective. So we are giving a lesson to our children in how to stop a bully: we are joining hands to protect our beloved schools from Cuomo's dangerous "reforms". We stand united with our teachers to protect quality education based on inquiry, innovation, problem-solving, collaboration and community. We demand our state assembly members fully commit to voting no on Cuomo’s proposals.”

P.S. 20 PTA President Vascilla Caldeira states: “We stand hand in hand as schools because we are determined to be the change we want to see. Parents & teachers demand fiscal equity for the common core to be implemented successfully. We're standing for the kinds of authentic evaluations that will uplift the teachers who commit their skills and time to make our children life-ready. Testing makes our kids into clones instead of the creative people they are meant to be."

Opal Morrison, a P.S. 20 teacher, opposes Cuomo’s evaluation plans to replace much of the observations carried out by principals with outside evaluators: “Outside consultants coming in who have no idea who our students are is not helpful or fair. As a special education teacher, I spend my before school, lunch, & after school time supporting my students. Test scores & outside evaluators can’t capture my students’ struggles and achievements. It’s just disrespectful, not only to us teachers but to our children.”

Arts & Letters teacher John Allgood is also concerned about the increasing focus on state tests: “High stakes standardized tests necessarily narrow the curriculum so that children learn less. These tests do not give teachers any substantive information about what students know and need to learn.”

Parents throughout NYS are considering refusing state standardized tests scheduled for April. Last year, 3^rd grade parents at Arts & Letters prevented the use of the state test results for teacher evaluation purposes through a mass opt-out. For more information about additional citywide actions, contact Maria Bautista at the Alliance for Quality Education:212-328-9217  ##

Brooklyn District 15 Teachers and Parents Rally at Cuomo's Manhattan Office

I stopped by and was pleasantly surprised to see hundreds of people organized by one district yesterday afternoon (Weds March 11). I'm proud to say that a number of MORE chapter leaders and supporters played a major role in this but also that the UFT did their part in a good spirit of working together on this project.

Video to follow later tonight. District 15, the home of the NYC opt-out movement (along with District 6 in upper Manhattan) had a different focus than the standard UFT line, with testing and common core having equal weight to the Cuomo budget, which is the UFT line. But there was room for all positions at this rally -- and that is important - the UFT did not/could not take sole control of the message.

Today of course there are rallies at many schools in the city - an idea hatched by Leonie Haimson and picked up by the UFT. In some principals are cooperating. In others principals are giving teachers problems. And this is the point in District 15 -- many principals support these rallies and that does make a difference. A teacher doesn't have to think they are putting their job on the line.

In my previous post on City-as school rally, the principal is helping lead it.

MORE's Lauren Cohen, Co-chapter leader, PS 321K

PS 24 was in the house

Massive contingent from PS 261K, MORE's Melissa Torres, CL

Today: City-As-School Teachers, Students march from school to Washington Sq. park

From MORE's John Antush:
March and Rally with us against Cuomo.
Speak out in Wash Square Park.
Even one person from a school is significant.
We have a permit for the park until 5pm and a Sound permit.
We can use this rally to build solidarity in our schools. 

Yesterday District 15 teachers had a large turnout at Cuomo's Manhattan office - amazing from one district in Brooklyn.

Today this promises to be a biggie. MORE activists have been playing a big role in organizing these events. I attribute this to the empowerment people get from being part of an activist oriented group like MORE. They don't just talk about it or observe --- and

For Immediate Release

             Contact: Maria Krajewski

          Cell: 917-763-8837

      Email: maria.krajewski@gmail.com

      Social Media: #wearecityas #protectourschools #allkidsneed

MARCH 12, 2015

PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL PROTEST AND

MARCH TO WASHINGTON SQUARE PARK.

TEACHERS  SPEAK OUT AGAINST HIGH STAKES TESTING &  CUOMO’S DISASTROUS EDUCATION AGENDA

Press Conference:  

3:40 pm – City-As-School

16 Clarkson St. New York, N.Y. Front Steps

4:00 pm – March to Washington Square Park

4:15 pm – Speak out and rally with schools from across the city

                        at Garibaldi Plaza in Washington Square Park

School community members from City-As-School will speak out against high stakes testing and Cuomo’s disastrous education agenda. City-As is an alternative public high school in the West Village in New York City that promotes hands-on learning experiences through their widely-acclaimed program, where students spend part of the week in internships and part of the week in classes. They complete a portfolio of papers and projects instead of taking tests.

Educators, alumni, and members of the school community will hold a press conference at City-As-School to show solidarity in their fight against Governor Cuomo’s proposed education agenda that extorts funding, undermines teaching, harms students and destroys school communities.

        

The effort is one of many across the city and the state as part of the Protect Our Schools Day of Action. People from school communities from around Manhattan will converge on Washington Square Park for this rally to fight for their right to be treated, not as statistics, but as human beings.

              “Governor Cuomo’s agenda will do irreparable harm to the teacher student relationship, the development of authentic pedagogy that promotes innovation and critical thinking, and promoting a democratic and transparent process for constructing education policy.”   - Marcus McArthur, a Special Education and Social Studies teacher at City-As

“City-As gave me a unique opportunity to learn in an engaging way. This will be lost if we overemphasize testing.”   Sarah Quinter, an alumni and artist and educator.

Manhattan Institute Shill Creates Myth on Charter school push-outs

When I saw this on Chalk Beat I laughed out loud

CHARTER SCHOOL MYTH

Low-performing students are just as likely to leave a charter school as a traditional district school, according to Marcus Winters, the author of a new Manhattan Institute report exploring charter school attrition rates.

• NY Daily News

You mean THE UNBIASED Manhattan Institute? With this DN headline?

The charter school attrition myth: Low-performing students leave charter schools and traditional district schools at equal rates

Here is the question Winters (and Chalkbeat) don't seem to want to touch. If low-performing students leave charters and public schools at equal rates where do both these groups of students end up?

Public schools of course. So the sum total is a rise in public schools of low-performing students pushed out of charters.

I would like to see Chalkbeat stop tossing up every single piece of propaganda without pointing out such obvious facts.

PS 20K - Hands-Around Our Schools to Protect Public Education, March 12

Hi, I thought you would be interested in this event Thursday morning at 8:20am. Co-located schools in Brooklyn are joining together against Cuomo's ed. proposals. Public Advocate Tish James will be at this event along with several state Assembly Member representatives.

Contacts:

Marnie Brady 202-492-4719 cell 

Vascilla Caldeira: 347-706-5621 cell

Co-located Schools Unite in Citywide Action to Stop Cuomo’s Education Proposals:

Hands-Around Our Schools to Protect Public Education

Who:                 Parents, teachers, Assembly Members

What:                Human Chain to Oppose Cuomo’s Education Policies

Where:              P.S. 20 and Arts & Letters NYC public schools

225 Adelphi Street, Brooklyn NY 11205 (Ft. Greene)

When:                Thursday, March 12, 2015 / 8:20am

On the morning of Thursday, March 12^th the communities of two co-located schools, P.S. 20 and Arts & Letters in Ft. Greene, Brooklyn, along with invited elected officials, will create a human chain around their school building with a united message to stop Gov. Cuomo’s education plans. Parents say the governor’s proposals will harm their children’s education, and cause unilateral damage to the public schools families have worked so hard to support.

Parents and teachers oppose what they call the governor’s “hostage tactics,” holding back $2.2 billion in court-mandated funds owed to NYS public schools while imposing detrimental policy changes into the April 1 budget. These changes include basing 50% of teacher evaluations on state test results, and the diversion of public education resources into private hands. Parents are taking action with social media, and emergency meetings with state representatives.

One A&L parent, Kimberly Bliss, who is taking off work on March 11^th to join other public school parents in Albany, explains: “Our governor is bullying our teachers and our schools with high stakes tests that have been proven to be ineffective. So we are giving a lesson to our children in how to stop a bully: we are joining hands to protect our beloved schools from Cuomo's dangerous "reforms". We stand united with our teachers to protect quality education based on inquiry, innovation, problem-solving, collaboration and community. We demand our state assembly members, including Walter T. Mosley, stop Cuomo’s proposals.”

P.S. 20 PTA President Vascilla Caldeira states: “We stand hand in hand as schools because we are determined to be the change we want to see. Parents & teachers demand fiscal equity for the common core to be implemented successfully. We're standing for the kinds of authentic evaluations that will uplift the teachers who commit their skills and time to make our children life-ready. Testing makes our kids into clones instead of the creative people they are meant to be."

Opal Morrison, a P.S. 20 teacher, opposes Cuomo’s evaluation plans: “Outside consultants coming in who have no idea who our students are is not helpful or fair. As a special education teacher, I spend my before school, lunch, & after school time supporting my students. Test scores & outside evaluators can’t capture my students’ struggles and achievements. It’s just disrespectful, not only to us teachers but to our children.”

Arts & Letters teacher John Allgood is also concerned about the increasing focus on state tests: “High stakes standardized tests necessarily narrow the curriculum so that children learn less. These tests do not give teachers any substantive information about what students know and need to learn.”

Parents throughout NYS are considering refusing state standardized tests scheduled for April. Last year, 3^rd grade parents at Arts & Letters prevented the use of the state test results for teacher evaluation purposes through a mass opt-out. For more information about additional citywide actions, contact Maria Bautista at the Alliance for Quality Education: 212-328-9217  ##

Susan O Comes Packing

A midweek treasure trove from Susan, an original refusenik.

My hope is that one day soon, this will be the mantra of teachers as well as students:
http://susanohanian.org/cartoon_fetch.php?id=1000

Refuse
http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_cartoons.php?id=1077

Another cartoon:
http://susanohanian.org/cartoon_fetch.php?id=999

I'm so ticked that I didn't get a copy of the book for which I wrote a chapter that I'm posting the chapter here. In it I take on academics, the press in general and the NY Times in particular. As you will see if you read it, people who write chapters to accommodate the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation receive $30,000 and up. Yes, for one chapter.

http://susanohanian.org/show_commentary.php?id=1207

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Why some students are refusing to take the Common Core test
John Merrow with Ohanian comment
PBS NewsHour
2015-03-11
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=790

This NewsHour segment moderated by John Merrow featuring New Jersey OptOuts is worth watching. I provide transcript here.

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5 Crappy things about the PARCC
Julie Vassilatos
ChicagoNow
2015-03-06
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=787

Read this and ask yourself why any parent--or teacher--would inflict Common Core testing on children they care about.



And for whose well-being they accept responsibility.

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Digital Learning Companies Falling Short of Student Privacy Pledge
Natasha Singer with Ohanian comment
New York Times
2015-03-06
http://susanohanian.org/data.php?id=582

Cambium's data security called into question. If a child I cared about came home with an assignment to do anything associated with Cambium products, I'd worry a whole lot in addition to data security.
 
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When a Public Intellectual Speaks Out But No One Hears Her, Does She Exist?
Susan Ohanian

2015-03-08
http://susanohanian.org/show_commentary.php?id=1207

This is a book chapter in which I take on the press and assorted academics.

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To the editor
Bruce Chadwick
New York Times
0000-00-00
http://susanohanian.org/show_letter.php?id=1751

The New York Times publishes some criticism of standardized testing.

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Hedge fund executives give 'til it hurts to politicians, especially Cuomo, to get more charter schools
Juan Gonzalez
New York Daily News
2015-03-11
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1933

Here's documentation of Andrew Cuomo's big bucks ties to charter school lobbyists.

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Stop Spying on Wikipedia Users
Jimmy Wales and Lila Tretikov
New York Times
2015-03-10
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1932

Wikipedia is filing a lawsuit against the National Security Agency to protect the rights of the 500 million people who use Wikipedia every month.
______________________________

_________________
Announce mailing list
Announce@susanohanian.org
http://susanohanian.org/mailman/listinfo/announce

 

Edushyster: Let Them Eat Charters - or - Will Massachusetts reduce its public school system to crumbs?

I love eating crumbs from the wisdom of the Shyster. Top Mass. law firms are suddenly concerned over civil rights and are suing to lift the Mass. charter cap -- THE civil rights issue of our time. Edushyster dives into the case. A few delicious and crumby excerpts:

Old bucks 4 new schools No doubt you have many questions about the pro bono-ists’ civil-rights-based challenge to the state’s cap on the number of charter schools. Such as *from whence does the expression white shoe law firm come?* As always, I am happy to shed light. You see the phrase derives from *white bucks,* laced suede or buckskin shoes with a red sole, long popular in the sorts of Ivy League colleges that our pro bono-ists no doubt attended. What? You want to know how it is that civil rights can be used to argue for more charter schools, when, according to a growing body of case law, students in charter schools don’t actually have civil rights? Or how, in the course of four decades, *civil rights* could go from a fierce battle over desegregating schools and diversifying the teaching force to the fresh new right of students to attend more segregated schools and be taught by young, mostly white teachers? Or why our pro bono-ists seem so charmingly ill-informed, not just about the state’s charter schools, but about all of the schools that are publicly attended? All mere trifles, reader.

...droves of students from across the city testify about the appalling conditions of their schools. Like expired milk in the cafeteria, four students sharing a single text book, bathrooms that don’t work, computer labs that still run Windows 98, and 400 students sharing a single guidance councilor. The most powerful testimony came from students who talked about the *plague of failing* in the Boston schools, and described the deterioriation of their own schools after being relocated into *failing* spaces. *Why are schools in Newton so much nicer than our schools?* asked a parent who testified, quoting a question put to them by her own child. 

Good question, Boston Public Schools student. 

In fact, if I’m not mistaken, you have just asked what we might call a *civil rights* question. 

Anyone know where these kids can find a lawyer—or three?

A Civil Rights Issue of Our Time: Newark Principal Sam Garrison Threats and Intimidation Force Basketball Players to Take PARCC Test

Bob Braun's Ledger

IS THIS BULLYING? The boys' basketball team at the Camden Street School apologized to the principal, Sam Garrison, for refusing to take the PARCC test. The children agreed to take the test. They said they apologized so they could continue to play their first game on Saturday, so Garrison would stop questioning their friends, and so the team would get funding next year. The crisis teacher is still asking students where they got their opt-out letters and the students have been asked to write letters.
Does anyone out there care about what is going on? Don't forget--this is state run district so it is the state's agents who are doing this. Save Our Schools? Where are you? ACLU-where are you? Mayor Ras Baraka--you said you would support those who opted out--and so where are you?

Do Ed Deformers Disparage Black Kids' Achievement by Suppressing News of Rise in Scores?

Only The Howler knows: THE CALIBER OF OUR OWN PROFESSORS: Pampered, privileged, overpaid, poor?

Black and Hispanic students are scoring much higher on the NAEP, the widely-praised, constantly-cited “gold standard” of domestic testing! But very few people have ever heard these important, encouraging facts.

In a nation scripted by corporate elites, it seems to be against the law to let the public hear this.

For whatever reason, our upper-end journalists seem committed to keeping these score gains under wraps. In a truly appalling display, our pampered, privileged, overpaid professors play along with this practice. We’ve discussed this topic many times at this site. To state the obvious, we liberals simply don’t seem to care about this important topic.

We don’t seem to like or admire our nation’s superlative black kids. We’re happy to keep running our black kids down—except when one of these kids gets shot, in which case we start stampeding around and inventing facts, our way of pretending to care.

 Read full piece.

District 15 (Brooklyn) teachers rally at Cuomo's Manhattan office Wed, March 11 at 4:30

Come on down and scream bloody murder at this crook.

This Wednesday, 4:30pm, 3rd ave. between 40th and 41st. It was organized by chapter leaders from several D15 schools, with the approval of UFT leadership. Please feel free to share!

I'm going in to get some footage. This will not be large but great for venting.

Principal Sam Garrison threatens Newark Opt-Out students with cancelled basketball season

Bob Braun's Ledger

BREAKING--In Newark, Camden Street School students whose parents signed PARCC opt out forms have been called in by the principal Sam Garrison and asked who gave them the forms. The students were told the school's 8th grade basketball season might be canceled. Teachers, apparently, were blamed, but the forms were readily available on the office counter.

Farina Declares War on Teachers, While Protecting Psycho Principals, While the UFT Diddles

Farina new program to wipe out teachers

Updated:  Funny how Capital's so-called education reporters don't think to ask Farina about the scores of awful principals and wasn't she giving them license to kill the teachers in those schools?
I'm pushing for MORE to provide some workshops to assist people in dealing with this paper trail. I will also use Ed Notes to post info. What a shame that the tiny group of people in MORE feel they have to pick up the ball dropped by the union on so many issues.

THE FARINA METHOD FOR PURGING THE D.O.E. OF BAD TEACHERS—Capital’s Eliza Shapiro: “Carmen Fariña has been talking a lot about bad teachers recently. The chancellor, who defined her first year on the job as a mission to restore ‘joy’ and ‘respect’ to the classroom, has, of late, been encouraging hundreds of city principals to identify and get rid of their weakest teachers. In an interview with Capital last week, Fariña said asking principals to weed out their weakest teachers has been her “first statement when I get into any school visit...I repeat it over and over again." Removing ineffective teachers has been one of the Department of Education’s most intractable problems, and decades of mayors and chancellors have advanced their own reforms on how to get it done with the looming presence of the United Federation of Teachers.
“In a series of interviews and principals’ conferences over the last few weeks, Fariña has been promoting her own tried and true method for getting rid of bad teachers: relentless monitoring of problem teachers, rounds of conversations convincing teachers that they are in the wrong profession. The desired result: settling either on inventive alternatives for teachers willing to be cajoled, or forcing out the ones who aren't. ‘There is an opportunity to leave gracefully or not so gracefully,’ Fariña said. According to Fariña, and to well-documented Upper East folklore, that method was effective at P.S. 6, the Manhattan school Fariña ran in the 1990s, which has long been considered one of the city’s best public schools. Now, she’s telling principals it can work for the city’s roughly 1,799 other public schools, too.” http://bit.ly/1E6YaAQ

There you have it. Inviting the significant core of psycho, racist, vindictive principals to go after any teacher who makes too much noise or don't line up like a lemming loyalist.

Fariña has appointed a D.O.E. official whose primary role is instructing principals on how to properly write letters about certain teachers to keep in their files.

Some principals spend more time talking to DOE legal than running their schools.

Ed Notes readers have seen our exposures of lunatic and biased principals over the years. Believe me, we haven't even scratched the surface. Funny how Capital's so-called education reporters don't think to ask Farina about the scores of awful principals and wasn't she giving them license to kill.

I attended a 3020a hearing of a social worker last week. I hadn't met the respondent before but was quite impressed with her. She is African-American. The Principal is Dominican, as is most of his little crew of loyalists. She says race enters into this. For a decade her work was fine. She is senior and makes big bucks and once fair funding hit the school, she became a target. I watched an hour of testimony from this principal and almost broke out laughing out loud a few times.

From the Peter (South Bronx School blog) Zucker hearings I learned all about how they have to create a paper trail, which his biased principal did very well - but we hope she overplayed her hand.

Related:
Farina brags about getting teachers suspended. 
In a recent ed notes post (They can't take your pension, but they can take your health care plan) we learned that suspended teachers lost their health care. Farina is heartless.

A commenter asked about these 3 items related to the paper trail. Thanks to Michael Fiorillo and Jeff Kaufman for responding.

Progressive Discipline: is the process by which management builds its case against a teacher. It would likely start with a letter to the file, and culminate in a 3020A hearing. Not a political term. Means discipline should follow a path in which the consequences get more severe. So first offenses should be treated more lightly than 3rd offenses.

A Counseling Memo: is an explicitly (ha!) non-disciplinary memorandum given to a teaching, in order to point out areas of improvement the teacher should pursue. A contractual way to write a letter to the file which is used for notice purposes and is removed at the end of the rating year if no further disciplinary action is taken.
NOTE from Bill Linville: I'm pretty sure counseling memos can't be removed for three years, as I've dealt with a couple of those in my school.

A Letter to the File: is (presumably, although it can be laudatory) is a disciplinary letter, and constitutes the first step of Progressive Discipline, and the start of the "paper trail" to establish just cause for dismissal. A first line disciplinary consequence after finding that a teacher has acted inappropriately. Not grievable but can be removed, if requested, 3 years after the incident. Otherwise can be part of further disciplinary action including termination.

Oh, and where is the UFT in all this? Such bad reporting misses the real story - that the union does as little as possible to defend schools from lousy principals - or raise that issue as a counter to the assault on teachers. Some say why? I say -- too cozy with the enemy - the CSA.

Take Linda Hill for instance. We know from just about everyone - people in the school, UFT people, her supervisors even who talked behind the scenes, that she is not competent. And she also scammed the DOE at least twice. But there she still sits. She can negatively affect hundreds of staffers, students and parents.

I'm pushing for MORE to provide some workshops to assist people in
dealing with this paper trail. I will also use Ed Notes to post info. What a shame that the tiny group of people in MORE feel they have to pick up the ball dropped by the union on so many issues.

Today: Defend PS 157K Against Charter Co-loco at Public Hearing

No co-loco at PS 157 - I'm heading over now

Oh, the evil complications in this story. Beginnings With Children almost closed down recently because the Board said it couldn't stay open because they were saddled with a union contract. Now they want to co-locate at PS 157, where a MORE, Pat Dobosz, teaches.

BWC is one of about 20 -- sorry - 19 - UFT contract based charters. BWC used to be a public school and so the UFT was grandfathered in -- so don't count this as a school they actually organized. But special rep Jackie Bennett is on their board and they are being advised behind the scenes on how to "win" over the public for the co-loco. The union is in a quandary -- the yin-yang of trying to
support PS 157 and BWC -- reminds me of the conversation this guy keep having with himself in Lord of The Rings.

I'm heading over there with camera in hand later this afternoon/evening -- the school is in Williamsburg.

PS157
850 Kent Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11205



https://www.facebook.com/events/662632673862863
 
Here is Pat's email urging people to come out and support PS 157.

The Proposed Re-siting and Co-location of Beginning with Children Charter School (84K703) Grades K-5 with P.S./I.S. 157 The Benjamin Franklin Health and Science Academy (14K157) in Building K157 Beginning in the 2015-2016 School Year

Attention NYC teachers. PS 157 needs your help.

We are wondering why this co-location is even being considered when the recommendations to the Blue Book have not been addressed by the DOE as yet.

PS 157 had a co-location many years ago which caused problems and we didn't have our JHS at that time. We have a large number of special needs children in the school from Pre-K to 8th grade. We also have a high English Language Learner population. Our small classes help us educate our students with the special attention they need to learn. With this co-location we will not be able to grow as a school community. Our JHS student population was limited because of the adult ed program. Now that they will be leaving, we have the opportunity to bring in more students who have requested our school. This won't happen with a co-location.

Please come to this hearing to show your support and to give your testimony. PS 157 is located at 850 Kent Avenue in Brooklyn.

New Voices Principal Frank Giordano Confuses Parents on opt-out

Giordano in drag

Frank Giordano, Principal of New Voices, sent out an email to parents basically informing them they could not opt out. He has scheduled a parent meeting for March 25th and has stated that no parents are to attempt to opt out until after this meeting. I think Change the Stakes should be present to ensure that parent's rights are protected.... a parent

Check out Change The Stakes resources on opting out. Based on the letter from Frank Giordano below, I think we may have a Pinocchio situation on our hands.

Dear Parents, 
I hope this email finds you well. I would like to take this opportunity to address a hot button issue. I had been holding off sending this email until we were closer to the State Exams, however, in light of the fact that I have already received several emails regarding opting out, I felt the need to send this email now. There is no opting out of any State Exams. These exams are required to be administered by the State Department of Education. While some schools in the city have allowed this to occur, opting out of these exams has not been sanctioned by the NYC DOE nor the Chancellor. I will be holding an evening meeting Wednesday March 25th at 6pm to discuss this topic. I will answer all questions posed and will explain how this was addressed here at New Voices in the past and how we will continue to address this issue. Although I am sympathetic to individual concerns, I am required to operate under the rules and guidelines established by the NYS DOE and NYC DOE. Please understand that I will not accept any requests for opting out of State exams prior to the meeting on March 25, 2015. ... Frank Giordano

Spread the Word: GET YOUR NYC OPT OUT T SHIRTS

Wear these to work and watch the fur fly.

GET YOUR NYC OPT OUT T SHIRTS HERE!

The time is now and this beautiful t-shirt will come in time to promote opt out in NYC.

Go to the link below to order.  Spread the word!

Hello All. I wanted to share with you that you can now buy NYC Opt Out tees. Just use this link 

​​

https://www.booster.com/nycoptout and you can purchase a tee for $15 plus $5 shipping directly to you. This campaign runs for a week only so please spread the word. FYI - once the campaign closes it takes 2 weeks to ship which is why the campaign so short. Buttons have been ordered too and should be here in a week or so.

​Join NYC Opt Out on Facebook and get connected!​

Chapter Elections Workshop - Saturday, March 14, 2015

I hear a lot of bullshit about what MORE is or isn't. This is the real  scut work of organizing. This doesn't mean that people we work with don't join Unity - it happened 3 years ago with some people we worked with. Unity has a lot more to put on the table than MORE does -- but MORE is there to help.

Unfortunately, I have to attend a big weekend robotics tournament at the Javits Center -- and if you aren't going to the MORE event come on down Saturday, especially from around 11AM on to see the events. I'll be in the pit area of the FIRST LEGO League. Last year I ran into Mulgrew in the larger high school pit area - and we talked carpentry. Really, if I had to do it over again, I would be Mulgrew - pre-teaching.

Chapter Elections Workshop

by morecaucusnyc
 

UFT Chapter elections are coming up this spring: Step up and be a leader in your building! Join MORE in making the UFT work for NYC's educators and communities.

If you're interested in running for Chapter Leader or Delegate in your school, or, if you just want to help your union chapter do a better job protecting members’ rights, join us at a Chapter Building Workshop on Saturday, March 14th! YOU DON'T NEED TO HAVE ATTENDED PART I OF THE SERIES

We'll help you make plans to build a stronger, more organized, and more involved UFT chapter in your school.

Spread the word and invite all your teacher friends!

MORE Chapter Building Workshop
Saturday, March 14th, 12:00-3:00pm
CUNY Graduate Center
365 5th Ave at 34th st. NYC room 5409

Free childcare is available, but e-mail more@morecaucusnyc.org to reserve it.

If you are unable to make it, e-mail us (more@morecaucusnyc.org)! We have a team ready to help any one who wants to revitalize our union chapters at the school level.

AGENDA:

12-12:30
Introduction

12:30-1:30
Brainstorming: how to protect our public schools
(facilitated by Change the Stakes)

Organizing against Cuomo in our Chapters
-How to Talk to Parents
-Collaboration and Coordination between schools and the community

1:30-2:30 (choose one)
UFT Chapter Leader Elections
-Nuts & Bolts Follow-Up: Running in Elections
-Campaigning
-Mapping Your School
-Getting Out the Vote

OR

Organizing Without Being a Chapter Leader- mobilizing your chapter to become more active

OR

Teachers Under Attack Breakout- fighting back against the culture of fear

We will be serving pizza and soft drinks during our post workshop meet and mingle from 2:30-3:00pm.

Facebook link here

Cuomo Budget: PS 29k's Week of Action in Brooklyn

Hi Norm,
New York City parents and teachers will be out in full force this week to protest Gov. Cuomo's budget/education reforms. Not sure if this on your radar, but I figured you might be interested...
PS 29 in Brooklyn, which is my son's school, has something in the works every day, including a demonstration outside our Cobble Hill location on Thursday morning where kids and parents will be linking arms around the school building.
You can find the press release and contact info below along with the flyer being sent to parents (attached).

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me as well.


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Rhonda Keyser, PS 29 PTA Vice President, Communications
CALL; 646-644-0828 or email rhondakeyser@gmail.com

PS 29 Parents and Students PROTECT OUR SCHOOLS Demonstration Opposing Governor Cuomo's Proposed Education Reform
Thursday, March 12th 8:00 am

Brooklyn, NY, March 9, 2015 – Hundreds of parents and students from top-performing public elementary school PS 29, in Cobble Hill, will launch a week of action culminating in a schoolwide demonstration at 8:00 a.m. on Thursday, March 12, outside the school building at 425 Henry Street, imploring law-makers to make every effort to strip Governor Cuomo's proposed education reforms out of the state budget.

This action is part of a broad state-wide campaign opposing Governor Cuomo's proposed education reforms, which would increase the reliance of state English Language Arts and Math tests in teacher evaluation to 50 percent of their total evaluation, among other changes. Parents are alarmed that curriculum will inevitably be narrowed to a tight focus on rote testing and test prep, if the proposal become law.

To bring attention to the enrichments that could be lost, students from numerous extracurricular clubs will visually highlight the band, chorus, dance, drama, and other opportunities they would be missing if Governor Cuomo's plans are successful. The capstone of the event will come at 8:20 a.m. when students, parents and teachers join hands to encircle the entire school, symbolically protecting PS 29 from the dangers the education reforms could bring. This action will be staged concurrently at dozens of other schools around New York City.

Other actions include a District 15 Rally to Protect Public Education, outside Cuomo’s NYC office (633 3rd Avenue) from 4:30 to 6 p.m.on March 11 and a burgeoning #EvaluateThat social media campaign, featuring children talking across social media platforms on what they love about their school.

Organizers are asking constituents to contact their elected state senators and assemblymen and demand the proposed education reforms be removed from the budget.

For information and the full line up of activities, visit http://www.ps29brooklyn.org/cuomo-snapshot-data-action.

Best regards,
Lauren Young
Twitter: @LaurenYoung
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/lauren-young/1/136/5b2

They can't take your pension, but they can take your health care plan

TWO entities can touch your pension: The IRS for taxes owed and a Family Court for child support. That’s it! I doubt an arbitrator can touch you pension. They are wages you earned already... Why the UFT doesn't make is more public. It is a Leadership Academy lie to bully and intimidate.
.....From MORE Chapter Leader listserve

This was in response to a question about a member being threatened with loss of pension. Here was the question:

A friend called me to say that a teacher had been removed from the school for some kind of charges related to sending a child to another class and not making sure the child make it to the other class. The principal said the teacher could lose her pension.

Astounding what slug principals will tell teachers. Yes, do fault the UFT from the top down to the district level, where the monthly meetings should be dealing with questions like this instead of being used to push the UFT political agenda.

But then there is this as a followup from a MORE CL:

Here’s something most don’t know and I just found out because it happened to a member in our school. A members was caught snoozing in class. A student took a picture. The member never told me and went on her own thinking if she confessed and promised they would be lenient. Wrong! She got a TWO week suspension without pay. But, get a load of this. She went to the doctor with her husband and were told their benefits were suspended.

I have alerted the UFT to NO response about this. One can just imagine a catastrophic scenario where emergency medical care can lead to financial ruin for this member.

Besides the lesson of not going alone; I would have demanded progressive discipline and gotten her a counseling memo or, worst case, letter to file, beware of the suspension of benefits.

As Simple as ABC: As Attacks on Hillary Escalate, Cuomo as Alternate?

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Norm in The Wave: Oh, Sweet Suspensions, Wherefore Art Thou?

This School Scope column appeared in the Feb. 27 edition, www.rockawave.com. I ran into a lady at the Rockaway Theatre Company Friday night who said she finally understood something I wrote. A guy in the gym tells me every time I see him how he doesn't understand anything I write, so I'm getting somewhere.

Oh, Sweet Suspensions, Wherefore Art Thou?

By Norm Scott

“City planning significant changes to school discipline rules to cut down on suspending students,” proclaimed a headline in the Feb. 16 edition of The Daily News, resulting in yet another hail of attacks on the liberal policies of Mayor de Blasio and schools chancellor Carmen Farina for hastening the end of western civilization. The critics just love those charter schools in the city which suspended students at almost three times the rate of the public schools during the 2011-12 school year, the last year for which public data is available. 11 charter schools suspended more than 30 percent of their students according to Chalkbeat, the education blog. Given all that has been going on about race recently, it should be no surprise that discipline and suspension rates have also become hot racially tinged topics. The News reported, “Stats for the 2013-2014 school year show roughly 90% of 53,000 suspensions in city schools involved black or Hispanic kids.” On the other side, people raise the issue of whether these numbers represent racial bias.

Now, as a teacher, I was opposed to suspensions and harsh discipline, feeling that having to resort to them was an admission of failure on my part. Or an admission of failure to the administration. As an outspoken teacher, I never wanted to give my supervisors and edge on me by asking them for assistance. And if one of my kids got suspended, what do I do when he (most suspensions are boys) returned from a number of days out of school or my classroom? I preferred to deal with things in on my own.

Things can get pretty ridiculous in this debate. An editorial slamming the policy stated, “Principals will now have to get written approval from Department of Education headquarters before suspending a kindergarten-to-third-grade student, or a student in any grade who commits one of the most common infractions: insubordination.” I taught in elementary schools for 30 years and yes there was some bad behavior by kids in k-3 grades but suspend kids that age? A school can’t manage to figure out some alternative? If a child has serious emotional issues then they need help, not suspension. I never taught high school where some students may be more threatening if they engage in serious misbehavior and containing them in the school might be a problem. But there are answers for schools willing to explore alternatives to suspension. Restorative justice (RJ) programs where students must face and take responsibilities for their actions in front of a peer pressure group have been having enormous positive impacts on schools where discipline was an issue and have resulted in some remarkable transformations. Wary educators without direct knowledge of these programs fear they may be just a cover up for another failed onslaught in the blame the teacher game over the past 15 years.

My friend who teaches at a high school in Brooklyn was one such skeptic. Now he has the entire school involved in restorative justice programs. He reports, “I visited a few schools, one a 300 student school that had 150 suspensions (some students suspended multiple times). They dropped to 63 suspensions after they initiated a new disciplinary program in 2012/13. Now in the second year of implementation they have had only 2 principal's suspensions.” These are hard facts pointing to the success of RJ programs. He told me about mediation programs where “two students, who engaged in a verbal or physical fight, meet in a room, sit across from each other, and each one has a student representative  trained in meditation. Both students tell their side of the stories, the objective being to get both sides to understand the other, discuss calmly how they could have handled the situation differently and come to a compromise agreement on what will happen now. Most mediations end in the two students hugging and becoming friends.” If a school with a rational administration – not always easy to find – wants a shot at solving the suspension issue, then giving restorative justice a shot is the way to go.

Norm restores himself daily at his blog, ednotesonline.org.

Howie Schwach Remembers Beverly Hall, Former CSD 27 (including Rockaway) Superintendent

People forget that cheating scandal plagued Atlanta Supt. Beverly Hall, who just passed away, was a local Supt and DOE official here in NYC and was District Supt of District 27 (Ozone Park, Howard Beach and Rockaway).

I moved to Rockaway in 1979 but never paid much attention to the local school stuff in District 27 other than to read The Wave's Howie Schwach's reports in his School Scope columns (I took over the column when Howie became Wave editor over a decade ago.)
Howie left the paper after Hurricane Sandy and how has an online presence reporting on Rockaway events.

Here is Howie reporting on Hall's death and recalling events around her superintendency almost 25 years ago. Scandals in District 27 and other districts helped bring the death-knell of community control and the rise of the even more disastrous Bloomberg mayoral control. In fact, controls were being put in place to control these scandals when community control was killed. I would go back to that a modified version of that system in an instant.

http://www.onrockaway.com/page-16.html

Dr. Beverly Hall, former CSD 27, dies of cancer

Posted at 4:45 p.m. on March 6
    Dr. Beverly Hall, the woman who sparked a contentious battle for the superintendence of Rockaway’s School District 27 in the early 1990’s and later led the Atlanta (Georgia) schools when it was hit by a massive test cheating scandal died of cancer on March 2 at the age of 68.
     She will be memorialized at a service to be held on March 28 at 10 a.m. at Trinity St. John’s Church, 1142 Broadway in Hewlett.
     Many who worked in Rockaway schools at that time will remember Hall as a tough boss who brought the Carnegie Middle School Reorganization Program to the district.
     The battle between Hall and several other candidates for the position of School District 27 Superintendent quickly became racially-tinged and contentious with now- State Senator James Sanders, who was then the president of the school board, tainted by a vote-swapping plan to give Hall the job.
     Hall, then the principal of a Brooklyn public school had been nominated by Sanders, as the new superintendent of schools for the district. There were a number of other candidates, both black and white, and the district, in the wake of a contentious school board scandal in which three members were indicted for crimes that danced around racism and cronyism, was sensitive to the issues.
     Hall is black and many black parents demanded a minority superintendent for the district’s schools, which included Rockaway, Broad Channel and a large chunk of the mainland as well.
     Hall won a contentious election when one board member was removed for trading votes and others were charged with unethical acts. The entire scenario was one that forced to city to do away with school boards and go to the community education council model that still exists today.
     In 1994, Hall left to lead the city’s special programs. Then, she went to the Newark Public Schools as superintendent. From there, in 1999, she went to Atlanta, Georgia and made history be being indicted in a cheating scandal. She resigned from the Atlanta schools in disgrace in 2010, after being named National Superintendent of the Year” the prior year. Hall was charged, along with dozens of teachers and administrators.
     Hall pled not guilty to a racketeering charge and other lesser counts. Because she was battling cancer, however, she was deemed unfit to stand trial, and her case was continued even as the others went on trial last year.

 Dr. Beverly Hall, who sparked a contentious local school election and then was the center of a massive state cheating scandal in Georgia. 

End the weekend with some humor, thanks to Harry

Thanks to Mindy - I forget her full name

Harris Lirtzman compiled these and posted them on facebook. It was stuff like this published in the original ed notes hard copy that got people to read it.

For Lexophiles Everywhere:
1. A bicycle can't stand alone; it is two tired.
2. A will is a dead giveaway.
3. Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.
4. A backward poet writes inverse.
5. In a democracy it's your vote that counts; in feudalism, it's your Count that votes.
6. A chicken crossing the road: poultry in motion.
7. If you don't pay your exorcist you can get repossessed.
8. With her marriage she got a new name and a dress.
9. Show me a piano falling down a mine shaft and I'll show you A-flat miner.
10. When a clock is hungry it goes back four seconds.
11. The guy who fell onto an upholstery machine was fully recovered.
12. A grenade fell onto a kitchen floor in France resulted in Linoleum Blownapart.
13. You are stuck with your debt if you can't budge it.
14. Local Area Network in Australia : The LAN down under.
15. He broke into song because he couldn't find the key.
16. A calendar's days are numbered.
17. A lot of money is tainted: 'Taint yours, and 'taint mine.
18. A boiled egg is hard to beat.
19. He had a photographic memory which was never developed.
20. A plateau is a high form of flattery.
21. The short fortuneteller who escaped from prison: a small medium at large.
22. Those who get too big for their britches will be exposed in the end.
23. When you've seen one shopping center you've seen a mall.
24. If you jump off a Paris bridge, you are in Seine.
25. When she saw her first strands of gray hair, she thought she'd dye.
26. Bakers trade bread recipes on a knead to know basis.
27. Santa's helpers are subordinate clauses.
28. Acupuncture: a jab well done.
29. Marathon runners with bad shoes suffer the agony of de feet.
30. The roundest knight at king Arthur's round table was Sir Cumference. He acquired his size from too much pi.
31. I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian.
32. She was only a whisky maker, but he loved her still.
33. A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class because it was a weapon of math disruption.
34. The butcher backed into the meat grinder and got a little behind in his work.
35. No matter how much you push the envelope, it'll still be stationery.
36. A dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was cited for littering.
37. Two silk worms had a race. They ended up in a tie.
38. A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking into it.
39. Atheism is a non-prophet organization.
40. Two hats were hanging on a hat rack in the hallway. One hat said to the other, 'You stay here, I'll go on a head.'
41. I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.
42. A sign on the lawn at a drug rehab center said: 'Keep off the Grass.'
43. A small boy swallowed some coins and was taken to a hospital. When his grandmother telephoned to ask how he was, a nurse said, 'No change yet.'
44. The soldier who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a seasoned veteran.
45. When cannibals ate a missionary, they got a taste of religion.
46. Don't join dangerous cults: Practice safe sects.