Ken Derstine on Randi after Watching AEI Video: This is a company union -

...some amazing statements from Weingarten (while speaking to the enemy) about what you should say privately and publicly about the war on public education. She is quite blunt about how it is normal to be a two-faced lier and says this to an audience that is indifferent to the survival of public education. ... Ken Derstine

I fell into a twitter exchange over Randi's support for VAM, which she now disavows. Randi claims: I look at evidence Norman- been critical of Vam awhile-

This was funny since Ken Derstine had just sent me video counter evidence in a blog titled "Randi Weingarten: Sleight of Hand Artist". 
Check it out.

Ken had also sent me some video of Randi last week which I had in  draft form but hadn't published where Ken terms the AFT - and its assorted puppets:

Ken:  This is a company union
I like that better than my use of the Vichy reference.

I'm posting Ken below.

But first some of the tweets:

Randi Weingarten ‏@rweingarten 4h4 hours ago
@getwhatugive @TeacherArthurG @audhilly @lacetothetop @UFT - I don't support VAM to evaluate teachers-
1 retweet 0 favorites

2. Norm Scott ‏@NormScott1 4h4 hours ago

   .@rweingarten @getwhatugive @TeacherArthurG @audhilly @lacetothetop @UFT U changed your mind after VAM proven as failure.

   2 retweets 1 favorite
   
4. Randi Weingarten ‏@rweingarten 3h3 hours ago

   @NormScott1 @getwhatugive @TeacherArthurG @audhilly @lacetothetop @UFT -its true I look at evidence Norman- been critical of Vam awhile-

Norm Scott ‏@NormScott1

.@rweingarten @getwhatugive @TeacherArthurG @audhilly @lacetothetop @UFT u followed after evidence was in - but u were out front in favor

Norm Scott ‏@NormScott1

.@rweingarten @getwhatugive @TeacherArthurG @audhilly @lacetothetop @UFTunion leader must be held accountable for bad decisions- 2many2count

Norm Scott ‏@NormScott1

.@rweingarten @getwhatugive @TeacherArthurG @audhilly @lacetothetop @UFT Evidence:she signaled willingness to negotiate pay for performance

• Favorite 1

8:26 PM - 19 Apr 2015

Tweet text

Reply to @rweingarten @getwhatugive @TeacherArthurG @audhilly @lacetothetop @UFT 

1. Norm Scott ‏@NormScott1 3h3 hours ago

   .@rweingarten @getwhatugive @TeacherArthurG @audhilly @lacetothetop @UFT RW-sleight of hand artist - Video evidence http://www.defendpubliceducation.net/randi-weingarten-sleight-of-ha/ …

   2 retweets 2 favorites
   

 And here is Ken's parsing of Randi on video:

In the Ed Notes Online article Wednesday Norm Scott said a video from the American Enterprise Institute, which is a conversation with Randi Weingarten, had been deleted from the AEI website. I found it on YouTube. If you can stand it, it is 1 hour and 14 minutes. It is an amazing mush of platitudes. 

This was done June 18, 2014.

If you can’t watch the whole thing, start at 42:00 for some amazing statements from Weingarten (while speaking to the enemy) about what you should say privately and publicly about the war on public education. She is quite blunt about how it is normal to be a two-faced lier and says this to an audience that is indifferent to the survival of public education. I wonder if she would dare to say this to a union meeting. There is a real cynicism about teachers when you take her remarks as a whole.

See what she says about Common Core at 48:00 through 57:00. 

In the Q & A look at what she says beginning at 01:04 until the end.

Unions in public education: Problem or solution? A conversation with AFT President Randi Weingarten.

This is the biography of the moderator Fredrick Hess.

At the conclusion of my article about the AEI conference I said:

Panel moderator Frederick Hess at the end of panel one makes an off the cuff comment (at 51:00) which summed up the bottom line for these people.:

They (venture philanthropist) may not be as powerful as they think they are in terms of shaping what happens in the nation’s schools and classrooms, but they’re very powerful in terms of us being able to feed our families and being able to do the research and analysis we like to do.

In other words, there is no real passion, no real belief in what they are doing; they looking at spreadsheets and each others position papers….and they are just in it for the big bucks.

This is a company union!

Sunday With Susan O

Our usual Saturday with Susan has morphed into Sunday.

The good news from New York State opt outs blanketed the Internet and I didn't try to keep up with it--other than to sit here grinning.
Kudos. Kudos. The next mass movement must be to refuse to administer the test.
You will find some ugly revelations from the test: http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=813
For three good cartoons, go to: http://susanohanian.org/cartoons.php
Just scroll down the page.
And then there's No Word Left Uncovered http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_cartoons.php?id=1090
Needed: One More Stupid Analogy: http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_cartoons.php?id=1089
What If? http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_cartoons.php?id=1088
I'm taking tomorrow off from ed outrage and making lunch for 70. We're serving: apple/walnut salad, vegetable soup, corn bread, and pumpkin bundt cake with ice cream. I figure that the ice cream will make up for the fact that I never frost anything. Two of us are going in early--just to be sure everything gets done in time.
Susan
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NY State Common Core ELA Exam Spring 2015--An Inside View
compiled by bdub42
the 999ers
2015-04-16 http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=813
Read this!
Then do something. I suggest an easy thing you can do.
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Surge of the opt-out movement against English Language Arts exam is act of mass civil disobedience
Juan Gonzalez
New York Daily News
2015-04-17 http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=812
Gonzalez makes important points that other reporters ignore.
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Here's Why Opting Out Doesn't Solve the Real Problem
George Schmidt
letter
2015-04-16 http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=811
Study of 'Romeo and Juliet' cancelled because students have to spend the rest of their month on test prep and testing,
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To the editor
multiple authors
New York times
2015-04-19 http://susanohanian.org/show_letter.php?id=1767
Note: All of the letters are by public school teachers, surely a unique occurrence in the New York Times.
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To the editor
Pete Farruggio
New York Daily News
2015-04-15 http://susanohanian.org/show_letter.php?id=1766
A letter clarifies the testing issue. An alternative to training for obedience is to teach kids to question authority and fight corruption.
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To the editor
Joseph Mugivan, retired teacher
New York Times
2015-04-15 http://susanohanian.org/show_letter.php?id=1765
Joseph Mugivan makes an important point about the strong lesson students will take from this historic opting out.
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BBB IS OUT! Barbara Byrd Bennett goes on 'leave' after desperate try to fend off corruption charges or get public legal support... Jesse Ruiz to head CPS during interim
George Schmidt
Substance News & chicago Tribune
2015-04-17 http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1962
Barbara Byrd-Bennett looks to be in serious trouble.
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The Must-Attend Event for Education Technology Investors
Natasha Singer with Ohanian Comment
New York Times
2015-04-09 http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1961
What's in a name? Nobody cares. Money's the thing.
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L.A. Schools to Drop Pearson Products Under Ambitious Technology Plan
Caroline Porter
Wall Street Journal
2015-04-16 http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1959
Los Angeles asks Pearson for meeting to discuss refund for some products that were deemed unusable. In essence, it's a complaint about the color of the deck chairs on the Titanic.
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The fabulous Freeman Grant of 2001
Robert J. Renik
Burlington Free Press
0000-00-00 http://susanohanian.org/show_yahoo.php?id=881
Always nice to have good news about libraries.
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 What's J.K. Rowling Doing to Help Vulnerable Kids Avoid Institutional Care?
 Kiersten Marek
Inside Philanthropy
2015-04-16 http://susanohanian.org/show_yahoo.php?id=880
It's good to know that an author who has gained enormous wealth from her books for children is doing such significant work for children.
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The Mismeasure of Education: A Review
Mark Garrison
Education Review
0000-00-00 http://susanohanian.org/show_research.php?id=575
A fine review for a fine book. You should read both.

Jia Lee Conversation With Mulgrew After Delegate Assembly + UFTers Follow Tisch Line

Arthur Goldstein had the most comprehensive report of the April 15 DA Report--Mulgrew Warns Against Opt-Out followed up by

• A Tough Sell for Punchy Mike
• Absurd Assertions from UFT-Unity Apologist (Peter Goodman).

MORE's Jia Lee went up to speak to Mulgrew after the DA and filed this report:

At the Delegate Assembly, a few of us MORE folks went prepared to speak. Here's a summary from Arthur's blog on the April 16 Delegate Assembly: http://nyceducator.com/2015/04/da-report-mulgrew-warns-against-opt-out.html so you can see what when down, and here's my take... 

Long story short, Mulgrew appears to be very nervous about appearances- that is, while he claims to understand that high stakes testing is wrong, yada yada yada, we still need to administer the tests and parents want to know how their kids are doing. Civil rights groups want annual testing, and we don't want to upset them! Did you catch the huge contradiction? High stakes standardized testing is what perpetuates disparity and inequality! He also stated that some teachers, (ex he gave were 19 teachers in one Brooklyn school) under the teacher evaluation matrix, who were rated ineffective by their principals were saved by having high VAM scores. If he's so worried about appearances, he would understand that we cannot use unreliable and invalid metrics only when it serves us. In fact, it highlights for me a more concerning issue that our leadership is failing to support those teachers who are obviously working in a highly oppressive environment. 

(MORE member) Francesca (Gomes)  spoke against the soft resolution on testing- she spoke directly to the fact that we shouldn't be messing around with small changes to an evaluation system we know is a sham. It's heading us to imminent doom, and she called on our leadership to organize the power of the teachers. I saw several folks nod in agreement, and I noticed that while the resolution was voted in, many people did not vote, and a few voted against, all looking our way. 

 My head hurts from today's experience, but I wanted to tell you one thing before I fall asleep. I went up to Mulgrew afterwards to give him some information about what's happening on the ground and his missed opportunity by spending so much time trying to negotiate with politicians. You know what he told me about the 95% and loss of funding from ESEA? 

He said that Title 1 funding would be lost if there was participation below 95%. I told him to give me his source; he said it was Arne Duncan. I almost starting LOL. He also told me that the Civil Rights leaders are mad at us, the teachers union and the board of education, for years of what they call lies- for not providing equitable education promised 50 years ago.

All the more reason why we need to stand firm against the use of HST which has and will continue to widen the divide! He couldn't discuss it any further, but the last thing I said was that we are the educators and we should be doing the work of communicating what they need to know.

And here is a follow-up from a Change the Stakes parent activist:

I got in an argument recently with [someone who works in community outreach for the UFT] -- and she told me the same lines about falling below 95% causing a loss of funding. They must have a book they all study from.
I told her she was wrong about the 95% rule and loss of federal funding--
and then she said to me, "No we would lose a lot of money, millions--or is it billions, I forget."

I asked her where she got her information about this question and she said, "We have lawyers!" 

I said to her, "So does NYSAPE." 

I think she simply didn't know what to make of someone contradicting her.
In what may be the most useless time I ever hit ENTER, I sent her a copy of NYSAPE's explanation about the 95% rule and asked her to show it to the UFT lawyers.

And another report from a CTS person:

When Jo Ann Simon stood up to address the crowd at the forum, she said two things that stuck way out for all of us. And mind you, I feel for her, only in the Senate for 3 months, and she explained the package they were handed as bad and worse....

Anyway, she explained why her YES vote and then addressed opt outs with the "unintended consequences" that would effect the most vulnerable schools/students. She said though she believes it is the parent's right, she feels it will hurt the kids who need the funding the most. That did not go over well.

After a kick-ass panel of activists spoke, she was asked point blank to defend her position on this. She just heard from a parent on the panel how after doing all these other things (letters, calls, protests, etc, etc) opt out was the only thing left. But her response to what can we do was, write letters to your elected officials. We all looked at each other like holy shit, what planet??

In a small group afterward, it came up again. Parent said she is doing us a disservice announcing that threat an challenged it's validity. She said it could happen, we just don't know. I reminded her there was a time slavery was sanctioned by the feds and it was time to rise up and overturn such a system. She looked at me with a blank face. It's good to hear Civil Right's groups are angry. She suggested they supported this crap. Whatever the case, parents are going to call out Mulgrew. ...along with everyone else.

Q came up about teacher's union and why aren't teachers speaking up. Spec Ed teacher had a hard time finding words. Said it was not ok for her to say tests are bad, opt out. You'll watch the videos [NOT YET AVAILABLE BUT WILL UPDATE WHEN IT IS].  Spec Ed teacher (can't remember her name), Jody and Ann Cook were mind blowing. Actually, Ann Cook said charter school/privatization agenda AND racism out loud. I heard the angels sing! We need to use that footage in big ways!

Here is a NYSUT fact sheet with contradictory evidence on school defunding over opt out.

http://www.nysut.org/~/media/files/nysut/resources/2015/january/factsheet_150127_optout.pdf?la=en

NY Post: Principals can violate any rules when they attack teachers illegally

Union or no Union, when is the UFT going call out these principals and demand something of Fariña? There are too many of them around. Not all of these principals make the news, but many staff members have been and are being harassed. ... Pat D on MORE listserve.

Shades of the Katherin Elvin John Dewey HS case.

As long as principals like this are allowed to engage in political agendas they will never be able to truly address the question of which teachers are not capable.

Principal gets off easy after ‘revenge’ review on teacher

By Susan Edelman

April 19, 2015 | 11:12am

Greta HawkinsPhoto:

Greta Hawkins of PS 90 flunked teacher Vicky ­Gi asemis last school year because the principal “bore significant animus” toward the veteran instructor, an arbitrator ruled — ordering her to submit a new evaluation.

Hawkins had it in for Giasemis, a chapter leader for the teachers union who had filed a successful grievance for 13 teachers charging Hawkins with harassment in 2013. Hawkins saved a union newspaper calling her a bully as “a daily reminder of who she held responsible,” arbitrator Marlene Gold found.

Giasemis earned “effective” ratings based on how her third-graders performed on state and city tests, but Hawkins rated her “ineffective” while not performing extensive classroom observations, Gold said.

Hawkins, who had previously banned kids from singing “God Bless the U.S.A.” at graduation, will not be disciplined, a DOE spokesperson said.

http://nypost.com/2015/04/19/principal-gets-off-easy-after-revenge-review-on-teacher/

 

SRO at overcrowded MORE meeting - dozen people waiting to get in

What an excellent, well-run meeting, organized by MORE steering committee. Well, I was sort of shocked. On a beautiful Saturday afternoon, so many people tried to get into the MORE meeting, the guards had to stop people from going in -- only when someone left would someone be allowed up. A bunch of the usual participants didn't even come. MORE will have to consider a bigger space.

Who knew? And a bunch of new people too. The Cuomo ed deform program and the tepid UFT response has apparently spurred people to take some action. I never get too excited because we have been down this road before. There was so much on the agenda, the meeting went longer than expected -- but we still made it to the happy hour afterwards.

The key is will people not only come back but also become active participants on growing the movement. Parents connected to Change the Stakes attended as did some high school students and their recently rubber-roomed teachers from NYCLetEmPlay. I visited David Garcia-Rosen in the rubber room the other day and this is some story, which I will going into

David Garcia-Rosen

detail - teachers pulled from their schools because they took a personal day to take their kids on a trip - a trip they had approval for months ago but was cancelled on the orders of Farina because it is a political hot potato. David turned down a Farina job offer (bribe) at Tweed last year.

Can Farina actually turn out to be worse than Joel Klein? Wait till I report in more depth on this story. David and his crew brought the issue to MORE at the meeting and this one will have legs. If the DOE goes to a 3020a hearing it will be open and a circus.

The skinny: David, teaching in a small high school, saw that the breakup of large high schools in poor areas left the kids without decent sports programs as PSAL money kept flowing to the large high schools left intact (in more affluent areas) while small schools were starved. He started his own alternate sports league for small schools in the Bronx. And therein lies a tale. Here are some quick hits from a search to get those interested up to speed. 

Ø David Garcia-Rosen sent the first of a series of FOIL requests to the DOE this morning. Ø He will continue to do this until the Mayor appoints an independent ...
A teacher's crusade to bring competitive sports to small ...
ny.chalkbeat.org/.../a-teachers-crusade-to-bring-competitive-sports-to-sm...
May 9, 2013 - What David Garcia-Rosen started as a single-column spreadsheet has turned into a 17-page report and a mission to provide more team sports ...
Ed Notes Online: NYC Teacher David Garcia-Rosen Battles ...
ednotesonline.blogspot.com/.../nyc-teacher-david-garcia-rosen-battles.ht...
May 28, 2014 - I ran into David Garcia-Rosen, who I met years ago at Teachers Unite meetings, at a UFT event at the Hilton recently where he was promoting ...
In Schools Where Sports May Be Most Vital, New York City ...
www.nytimes.com/.../in-schools-where-sports-may-be...

The New York Times
May 27, 2014 - In 2011, David Garcia-Rosen, a history teacher and dean at International, formed the small schools league, and International got its first ...

Jeff Nichols Does Uncommon Math on opt out: No wonder there's panic in the streets -- of Albany

Jeff is one of the stalwart Change the Stakes parent activists. Jeff, a music
professor at CUNY, was up late last night working some numbers:

I didn't have the benefit of Common Core math growing up, but it seems to me the opt out phenomenon is roughly proceeding by the equation 4x = y, where x is last year's total and y is this year, for any given year. That means we're 2 years away at most from the moment when they give a test and nobody comes. No wonder there's panic in the streets -- of Albany.

Jeff followed up a bit later:

Now I'm seeing a figure of 8,000 for 2013.
2013 8,000
2014 60,000
2015 250,000

Well, looks like an order of magnitude every year. They're done next year.

Well, I'm not so sure, given the ability of the evil empire to strike back. Note how the traitorous, often bought off (by Bill Gates etal) quasi, self-proclaimed civil rights leaders are jumping on the testing bandwagon.
I just saw another pro-common core ad funded by the millions from the deformers. More ominous will be attempts from Cuomo (and the Obama administration) to punish people for opting out. The cow may be out of the barn but as the entire fabric of ed deform unravels, desperate measures will be called for.

I'm heading into the city today for the Kids Pac press conference with a report card for de Blasio. I may get to say a few words representing Change the Stake - my orders are to say: THERE'S STILL TIME TO OPT OUT FOR THE MATH TESTS.

Sunday: Parents Grade De Blasio on education: promises made, promises kept

I'm going to try to make this event with my video camera. These parents deserve our support.

Dear friend of NYC KidsPAC:
This Sunday, April 19 at noon in front of Tweed, 52 Chambers St., we will be releasing a report that grades Mayor de Blasio after one year of office on whether he’s made progress towards fulfilling his campaign promises in education.

We will be grading him in many critical areas, including parent engagement, governance, transparency and accountability, class size, special education, overcrowding, school closings, co-locations and many others.
Please join us! We will also have copies of the scorecard and report to give out at the press conference.

Shino
President, NYC KidsPAC

Here are details from Leonie:

Media advisory:

Where:  Sunday, April 19 at noon

Where: In front of the Department of Education headquarters at Tweed, 52 Chambers St., NYC

 

What: Parents, community members, and advocates will release the NYC KidsPAC education report card for Mayor de Blasio, based on how many of his campaign promises he has fulfilled after more than a year in office.

Visuals: Parents and kids to display large blown up report card. 

Report card and accompanying analysis will include grades on issues ranging from cell phones, governance, and parent engagement, to special education, class size, school overcrowding, testing and diversity, to be provided to state legislators to give input on whether Mayoral control should be renewed.

For more information, please contact: Shino Tanikawa, 

estuaryqueen@gmail.com

Leonie Haimson, leonie@classsizematters.org

Chicago School "CEO" Byrd Bennett Under Federal Investigation - Takes Leave of Absence - Why Is Joel Klein Not in Cuffs?

UPDATE (Sunday, Apr. 19, 7AM):

CORRUPTION CPS: Why is CPS's cloying 'Mister Cover Up,' Jesse Ruiz, now 'Interim CEO'?... A look behind the eternal smiles of the Board's Vice President... and a closer look at how CPS voted, legally, to keep the public record secret despite Freedom of Information and Open Meetings laws...

By George N. Schmidt - April 19th, 2015 | 0 comments

"You lie!" The words, which broke out during a meeting of the Chicago Board of Education, were clear enough: "Jesse Ruiz! You lie!" They were spoken by a mother of four who came from the . . .


George Schmidt and Substance are on the case. He warned about Bennett from day 1 when she was brought in as a consultant under the previous disaster of a CEO brought in by Rahm, Jean Claude-Brizzard, who used to ruin schools here in Brooklyn and received a 95% vote of no confidence by Rochester teachers when he was their Supt -- and "lured" away by Rahm.

Of course the feds waited until AFTER Rahm got re-elected before exposing this scandal -- but we always know there are scandals lurking under every ed deform school administration. I just copied and pasted these headlines over the past few days from Substance. Enjoy reading. I'm heading over to the MORE Meeting - I may blog from there later.

Babrara Byrd Bennett's 2012 resume was filled with 'red flags'... Should CPS have hired Byrd Bennett with all these conflicts of interest? Didn't the Board of Education ask her to get out of these conflicts?

Chicago's public schools "Chief Executive Offier" Barbara Byrd-Bennett is now under federal investigation for improprieties because of her recommendation of a no bid $20 Million dollar contract with SUPES Training Academy. The no-bid contract was . . .

BBB IS OUT! Barbara Byrd Bennett goes on 'leave' after desperate try to fend off corruption charges or get public legal support... Jesse Ruiz to head CPS during interim...

 

The 'Chief Executive Officer' of the nation's third largest school system, Chicago's Barbara Byrd Bennett, has taken a leave of absence from the Chicago Public Schools, according to informed sources. Board of Eduction Vice President . . .

CORRUPTION CPS: Barbara Byrd Bennett gathered buddies from other states, many (but not all) vetted by the Broad Foundation, for executive jobs at CPS, with the approval of the 'Chicago' Board of Education... Most had no Illinois credentials, but the Board members did not care or bother to check...

This part of Substance's current series of stories on CORRUPTION CPS will feature the cronyism that brought dozens of "educators" to Chicago from out of state during the years since Rahm Emanuel appointed his Board . . .

Better late than never?... Federal 'investigation' of Chicago schools 'Chief Executive Officer' Barbara Byrd Bennett revealed... Years of conflicts of interest, cronyism and corruption by the CEO have been ignored by Chicago's corporate media while regularly reported in Substance...

By John Kugler - April 17th, 2015 | 

 

Feds reportedly investigating Barbara Byrd Bennett over controversial no-bid 'SUPES' contract to train principals....

By George N. Schmidt - April 15th, 2015 | 0 comments

It was only a week after Rahm Emanuel won re-election and suddenly Chicago's news media were filling up with stories that the federal government is investigating Chicago Public Schools Chief Executive Officer Barbara Byrd Bennett, . . .

 

MORE's Julie Cavanagh Featured in CBS TV Report on common core and special ed students

...special education teacher Julie Cavanagh doesn't think that's enough with regard to the Common Core. She firmly believes that the new standards have made learning more difficult across the board, especially for special educations students... Cavanagh, who teaches third and fifth grade at PS 15 Patrick F. Daly in Red Hook, Brooklyn, said the new standards represent a "developmentally inappropriate curriculum" for special education students and has had the additional effect of "taking away from schools' and educators' ability to really focus on differentiated and individualized sort of goals for those students."... CBS TV Report, Common Core: What's right for special education students?

One of the things I love about being involved in MORE -- the people who get it - that the small stuff will never be addressed without also addressing the big stuff.

Years ago at an ICE meeting Jan. 2009 - we were talking about setting up a committee to fight for ATRs and closing schools. John Lawhead said we should add high stakes testing as the big enchilada since that was the instrument being used to close schools and create ATRs.

Some of  us in ICE had been involved with a NYCORE testing committee and we invited them to work with us -- and thus was born Grassroots Education Movement - GEM - a bigger idea than just a caucus focusing on narrow issues - which enabled us to attract such high quality people like Julie after we added fighting charter schools. The alliances built in MORE led to our movie, which I still consider the single most effective piece to fight ed deform I have yet seen as we took up every single issue related to deform -- we had stuff in there on charters not back filling as a way to keep scores high - we even had graphs showing how the drop in students in each successive grade related to higher scores. I think we were the first to point that out in such a public manner. Now that is a hot issue.

And GEM led to MORE and Change the Stakes, where the MORE people can focus on union related issues and the CTS people - parents mostly - but also progressive principals like Carol Burris - aim at testing.

Being involved in groups like this is enabling for both teachers and parents, who are equipped to go forth into battle with the deformers and the UFT semi-deformers. (There is a MORE general meeting tomorrow at noon.)

A recent powerful addition to MORE is special ed teacher Mindy Rosier, who made this comment on the assault on spec ed students:

I am not going to be quiet on this. Why have we NOT heard about any differentiation for our special education teachers and students? Our kids are the most neediest. Why isn't there more attention to this? Why are we continually ignored? Let's also not forget about ESL teachers and students, thanks to Arthur Goldstein's article in the NY Daily News. If the powers who be won't scream from the mountain tops, if the mass media won't cover this, then WE need to. If something is not done about this, ultimately our kids will suffer and our livelihoods are at stake. I will NOT go down without a fight!

Now, back to the CBS piece with the comments Julie makes. I am not including the charter take on special ed - go to the link - if you can stomach it. Julie commented on the piece on facebook:

Lots to say about this piece. So much important conversation was cut out, but even given the charter slant, I think it sends a clear message.

http://www.cbsnews.com/…/common-core-whats-right-for-speci…/

Special education students in the United States have what is called an Individualized Education Program (IEP). It provides support and services for each student depending on their learning needs. Some of that support comes in the form of accommodations during test-taking like getting extra time, having some questions read out loud (depending on the test), and being in a different testing location. 

However, even with these accommodations, special education teacher Julie Cavanagh doesn't think that's enough with regard to the Common Core. She firmly believes that the new standards have made learning more difficult across the board, especially for special educations students.

Julie Cavanagh (Left)

CBS News

Cavanagh, who teaches third and fifth grade at PS 15 Patrick F. Daly in Red Hook, Brooklyn, said the new standards represent a "developmentally inappropriate curriculum" for special education students and has had the additional effect of "taking away from schools' and educators' ability to really focus on differentiated and individualized sort of goals for those students."

Cavanagh specifically teaches students who take alternate assessments, which means they don't take the same standardized tests as everyone else. These special education students also have IEPs but might receive more accommodations and modifications than other special education students because their learning disabilities are more significant. 

Alternate assessment allows Cavanagh to write her own version of the end-of-the year state tests - still based on the Common Core, but modified for her students.
However, some special education teachers think the basic accommodations for their students - the IEPs - are enough to help them succeed within the Common Core framework.
"I believe that given the opportunity, special education or not, the standards should be set high because once we're out of school, the standard is set high. So there is no real benefit for the child to set the standard low in their early life so that when they get out of school they are now not functioning as well as they could have," said Dan Blackburn, who teaches special education for kindergarten through fifth grade at Amber Charter School in Manhattan.

----Even Cavanagh agrees there shouldn't be a two-tiered system where children who have IEP's are working toward one set of standards and children who don't have IEP's are working toward another, but feels the Common Core's "over-emphasis" on testing "really undermines the work of that individualized, differentiated experience" that has become the hallmark of special education. 

Cavanagh also says the focus on teacher accountability can be counterproductive. In New York, 20 percent of an educator's evaluation is based on students' standardized test scores. Cavanagh said this puts an immense amount of pressure on the teachers as well as the students.
"I think where we run into a problem is expecting that children with or without an IEP are going to be able to demonstrate proficiency on those skills at the exact moment that the state or some [policymaker] has decided that they should be doing that."

Norm in The Wave: Opt Out (of tests) Movement Causing Panic in the Streets - and Halls of Power

Published April 17, 2015

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Opt Out (of tests) Movement Causing Panic in the Streets - and Halls of Power

By Norm Scott

I was gratified to get a message from Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder that he had voted NO on the Cuomo budget with its destructive impact on public education. It passed anyway and “Hall of shame” lists of state legislators who voted for it have gone viral nationally. It was good to not see Phil’s name on that list. Phil and I have a lot we disagree on when it comes to education. He supports choice, charters and the income tax credit that would allow people to get a tax break for private schooling.  I won’t get into the weeds on why I disagree with him at this point. As I write this on the morning NY State testing begins, there are other fish to fry.

I’ve been working with groups critical of high stake testing for many years. One of the groups here in NYC that I helped found is Change the Stakes, a mostly NYC parent group that has led the way in urging parents to opt out  of the tests.  (8 Reasons to Opt Out and How to Do It: tinyurl.com/la9t5s8). Slogans like “My child is not a test score,” have been sweeping the nation as part of a “deny them the data” movement: data this is not being used to assist teachers and students (scores don’t come back until after the school year ends) but to punish them.

Two years ago we had a handful of people in NYC opt out. Last year it began to catch on. This year there has been a storm of requests for information. In Long Island and the rest of the state there has been a storm totally the tens of thousands.

I represented CTS at a PTA meeting in Brooklyn recently where parents wanted to know more about opting out. Most won’t because of fear – and threats floating out there that the school will lose funding if too many parents opt out – a lie being floated by the people in power whose entire fabric of phony education reform (deform) that will to their main goal of privatization is threatened by the growing parent rebellion against the oppressive tests and the negative impact on so many children, teachers, and entire school systems.

Schools must make provision for the children who are opting out by finding a space for them – though some districts have what is called a “sit and stare” policy, which forces opt outers to sit with the class and stare at the walls. These policies are being fought.

Entire swaths of Long Island and upstate are having thousands of parent opt out while I expect the movement to grow more slowly here in the city  - CTS is trying to tally the numbers.

I know some non-educators who grew up taking tests, are scratching their heads. The public is still unaware of the insanity going on in NYC schools since Bloomberg took over in 2002. But this is a national problem due to federal intervention by both Bush and Obama. That has caused a right wing/tea  party counter reaction against the testing and the common core – partially a states rights movement. On the left, there has also been a reaction from the progressive parent movement.

The general public is often not aware that test results don’t come back until the summer when kids have already left the class, so the teacher gets no useful information. People say that kids have to get used to tests and show they are college ready. I get that for high school kids. But nine year olds in the 3^rd grade?

I have often advocated that tests be given in September. But then ed deformers like Cuomo would lose their main motivation for the tests – using them to rate 50% of a teacher’s work based on these tests – and issue that has outraged parents and teachers. Parents get it that when a teacher’s job is on the line, the focus will be on test performance – and tests by the way that have been disparaged as being faulty. In addition, the system used to rate teachers, known as VAM, has been proven to be completely inaccurate. Cuomo better be ready for more than a few law suits from tenured teachers who are terminated based on faulty tests and faulty measures.

And speaking of tenure, the Cuomo bill extends tenure from 3 to 4 years. Not a big deal some of you are saying, but principals have the right to extend non-tenure year after year, forcing some teachers to wait 6 or 7 years with the sword hanging over them. Why is tenure so important? It is not a lifetime guarantee but offers protection from arbitrary termination because a principal doesn’t like the color of your tie. We have reports of numerous non-tenured teachers being discontinued by psycho principals, who keep getting support from the DOE.

The parent opt out movement has been causing panic amongst the deformers who are (falsely) blaming the unions, which in reality have played a minimal role. The NY State union (NYSUT) did issue a call to opt out but the UFT here in NYC has been a supporter of testing, common core and rating teachers based on test scores.

Get more information from my daily blog: ednotesonline.com

Rally at Cipriani's as Eva fundraises: Monday, April 20th 6pm

MORE and Change the Stakes were talking about doing this and now AQE is calling for a demo which we will join. So let's parteeeeeee.

MORE and CTS at April 7 Cuomo fundraiser

(Sad to say, Gloria and her mink won't be there.)

Here is the announcement from AQE -- and of course, due to the closeness to the UFT, expect to hear the scummy press screaming bloody murder at the outrage. The UFT is so nervous about bad press they are keeping their fingerprints off this - at least on the surface. Imagine if they called on pissed off teachers to join in?

As some of you already know Eva Moskowitz is hosting one of her many fundraiser's at Cipriani's this coming Monday, April 20th. Hedgeclippers, AQE, VOCAL are having a rally outside of the restaurant at 6 pm. Will you join us?

Let's greet the billionaires who fund privatization and don't have to pay their fair share.

Please respond if you are able to make it.

Zakiyah

Zakiyah Ansari

Advocacy Director

Alliance for Quality Education

233 Broadway, suite 720

212 328 9266

@zansari8

Video: MORE, Change the Stakes protest at Park Ave Cuomo Fundraiser, Follow up at Cipriani on Monday?

It was a cold, rainy Tuesday evening, but we had a blast. Reminds me of the old GEM days of street theater. The takeaway: teachers make too much money if they can afford to wear fancy mink.




https://youtu.be/y4YBnEyGwtA

Before you look at some stills from Pat Dobosz, consider this from Perdido Street School blog:

In case you haven't gotten your tickets already:

Monday, April 20, 2015 Success Academy Charter Schools
Third Annual Spring Benefit.   6:30 pm.   Cocktails and dinner.   Business attire.   Honoring Eli Broad.   Chaired by Campbell Brown, Joel Greenblatt, Daniel S. Loeb, John Scully, Regina Scully.   Tickets from $1,250.00.   Tables from $15,000.00.   Cipriani 42nd Street.   New York.   Contact: Julianna Harder.   (212) 245-6570.   Event address: 110 East 42nd Street, New York.   Event web address: www.successacademies.org.  

More incentive to attend:

CUOMO TO HEADLINE SUCCESS ACADEMY BENEFIT—Capital’s Eliza Shapiro: Governor Andrew Cuomo will be the keynote speaker at Success Academy's annual spring benefit this April, according to an invite sent to Success employees this weekend. Cuomo and Success C.E.O. Eva Moskowitz officially became allies last winter, when Cuomo stepped into a battle between Moskowitz and Mayor Bill de Blasio, declaring he would ‘save charter schools’ at a massive Albany rally partially organized by Success. The event will be held April 20 at Cipriani 42nd Street in Manhattan, and will be co-chaired by Success board members Campbell Brown, Daniel Loeb, Joel Greenblatt, and Regina and John Scully. http://bit.ly/1tT6Edx

NY Teacher has a suggestion:

Don't forget, Cuomo was scheduled to speak at the Success Academy Charter Schools Spring Benefit on April 20th; 6:30 pm at Cipriani (42nd St). If he does attend it would be a great place to demo/rally/press.

 

Pat's photos.

Fitting for Cuffs: Chicago Schools "CEO" Barbara Byrd-Bennett Under Fed Probe - and they didn't even get to the cheating

Quite courteous of the prosecutor's to wait until Rahm's re-election to announce this... or is it going to follow the Nixon/watergate scenario, where re-election is followed by a steady flood of allegations? One can only hope...Michael Fiorillo

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20150415/BLOGS02/150419890/feds-probe-cps-chief-barbara-byrd-bennett-source

Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett is the subject of a federal criminal probe into possible contract irregularities, sources close to CPS and City Hall are reporting.
CPS so far is declining to comment on the involvement of Ms. Byrd-Bennett, who would supervise contract awarding in her capacity as the system's chief executive. But earlier in the day Board of Education President David Vitale released a statement saying CPS was "cooperating" with federal agents in their investigation of possible "misconduct" within the system.
Earlier: What are the feds probing at CPS?
One top CPS source says Byrd-Bennett has said she has done nothing wrong, but the investigation is continuing.
News of the probe comes at a time when CPS faces a hole of more than $1 billion in its budget for the 2015-16 school year. It also comes just a week after Mayor Rahm Emanuel was re-elected to a new term.
4:45 P.M. UPDATE:
Catalyst Chicago also is reporting that Byrd-Bennett is under investigation and has some details on what the probe is about.
Citing “sources,” the education journal says the feds are reviewing a $20 million no-bid contract Byrd-Bennett awarded under controversial circumstances to a principal-training academy for which she once worked.
The report also says CPS Inspector General Nick Schuler has been reviewing the matter for some time. IGs and federal prosecutors often end up working together on corruption cases.

Pete Farruggio comments on Juan Gonzalez Column, Fed-up parents revolt against state's standardized tests

this was not provoked by any politician or the teachers unions, as some want you to believe. Tens of thousands of parents got tired of being ignored by the people in Albany. So one fine day in April, they simply said, “no more.”.... Juan Gonzalez, New York Daily News, April 15,  Fed-up parents revolt against state's standardized tests

Yes, the big lie of the deformers and much of the press -- that teacher unions are behind the opt out movement because they don't want teachers to be accountable. See NYC Educator DA Report--Mulgrew Warns Against Opt-Out - to see how Mulgrew uses Tisch-like threats to try and kill the opt out movement.

Here in the city, a Department of Education spokeswoman claimed the number of opt-outs won’t be known for weeks. But there’s little doubt the boycott totals in city schools will dwarf last year’s numbers, when fewer than 2,000 pupils abstained.

Gonzalez:

At Central Park East 1, a K-to-5 school in East Harlem, 59 of 76 children refused the test, according to Toni Smith-Thompson, co-president of the Parents Association and a leader of the boycott.

Think the UFT had anything to do with that?

I've been involved in the NYC opt out movement from Day 1. You know what funding Change the Stakes has gotten? From the Ed Notes checking account using the surplus money from our film, The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman.

In Westchester, former Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino refused to allow two of his children to take the test....Conservatives like Astorino have formed an unusual alliance with liberal education advocates who claim the test, developed by Pearson PLC, does nothing to help assess students. “They’re secret, you can’t even discuss the contents of the test with anyone,” said William Cala, superintendent of Fairport Central School District outside Rochester, where 67% of students boycotted the test Tuesday. “Any good assessment is one where you get immediate feedback, but we don’t even get the results for months after they take the test,” Cala said, and even then, teachers and students are never told what questions the students got wrong.

The latest ed deform argument is that we don't need no stinkin' results or diagnosis. This is not about children but we adults who need the tests to tell us if our tax money is being spend wisely. But only for teachers. Police, fire, politicians, construction companies on the city dole, corporations on the govt dole -- we don't need no stinkin' accountability.

I was speaking to a delegate yesterday at the DA. She is from Long Island and her husband works in a school district that had massive opt outs. She told me she has a big opt out sign on her lawn.

Pete Farruggio, an old colleague at PS 16 - in 1969-70 - and a member of Another View in District 14 for a while, sent me this comment he was trying to leave on the Gonzalez column, where the anti-union folks are out in force.

It’s scary how many well intentioned folks in the US consider themselves experts on educational policy because they once went to school. As in this comments space, many weigh in effortlessly with criticism of educational professionals, mainly teachers, while they wouldn’t dream of similarly criticizing professionals in other fields, such as medicine or engineering.

Equally troubling is the tendency by some to criticize parents who have opted their children out of these flawed standardized tests in order to protect them from the continued emotional and cognitive harm they have witnessed that is caused by the yearly “test and punish’ regime. Subject my kids to testing-induced tough love in 3^rd grade so they can prepare for life in a cruel cold world? How about let’s show them how to fight back against the heartless plutocrats and their puppet politicians as a way to CHANGE this cruel, cold world?

And to get the revenue to pay for a better society, let’s lighten up on the underpaid teachers and public service workers, and instead demand a fair tax rate from the gluttonous billionaires and their polluting corporations.

As for the myth of the poor performance of US schools compared to other countries, don’t believe the hype in the corporate media. Poor kids everywhere score poorly on these biased standardized tests; but few countries test their poor kids, while the US does it bigtime. Middle class US schoolchildren consistently score near the top in all international comparisons (see below).

If you worry about poor kids, as we should do, then attack poverty, not teachers.

BRAVO to the opt-out parents!

http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/04/stephen_krashen_pulls_the_rug.html

http://dianeravitch.net/2012/12/09/stephen-krashen-our-pisa-scores-are-just-right/

Pete Farruggio, PhD

Associate Professor, Bilingual Education

University of Texas Pan American

Here is the Diane Ravitch piece on the Gonzalez column:

Juan Gonzalez has a front-page article in the New York Daily News about the historic opt out that swept across New York State.

He writes:

The entire structure of high-stakes testing in New York crumbled Tuesday, as tens of thousands of fed-up public school parents rebelled against Albany’s fixation with standardized tests and refused to allow their children to take the annual English Language Arts state exam.

This “opt-out” revolt has been quietly building for years, but it reached historic levels this time. More than half the pupils at several Long Island and upstate school districts joined in — at some schools in New York City boycott percentages neared 40%.

At the Patchogue-Medford School District in Suffolk County, 65% of 3,400 students in grades three to eight abstained from the test, District Superintendent Michael Hynes told the Daily News.

“There was a very strong parent contingent that spoke loudly today,” Hynes said.

At West Seneca District near Buffalo, nearly 70% of some 2,976 students refused testing. Likewise, at tiny Southold School District on Long Island’s North Fork, 60% of the 400 students opted out; so did 60% of Rockville Centre’s 1,600 pupils. And in the Westchester town of Ossining, nearly 20% of 2,100 students boycotted.

“It’s clear that parents and staff are concerned about the number of standard assessments and how they’re used,” Ossining school chief Ray Sanchez said.

The final numbers are not in, and may not be in for a few days, but it is already clear that the number of opt outs will far surpass last year’s 50,000.

Contrary to the official line that this is “a labor dispute between the Governor and the unions,” the opt out movement is parent led. Parents don’t work for the union, and parents aren’t dumb. Parents protect their children from tests that have no valid purpose. Parents protect their children from tests that were designed to fail them. Parents protect their children from tests that force schools to cut back on the arts, on recess, on anything that is not tested.

Bravo, New York state parents!

Bravo especially to the New York State Allies for Public Education, a coalition of 50 organizations of parents and teachers who have testified in Albany, held community forums, informed PTAs, met with their legislators, and raised funds to pay for billboards and roving trucks with banners, plastered towns with car magnets, opt-out stickers, and lawn signs, and been truly herculean in their dedication to bringing down the state’s mean-spirited and pointless testing regime. Go to their website to learn how they mobilized the Empire State to say no to the Governor and his misbegotten plan to bring down public schools and teachers.

This is grassroots democracy at work. The hedge fund managers have millions to buy allies, but they can’t buy millions of parents, whose first and only concern is for their children. As a parent said earlier today in the Long Island Press, “The most dangerous place on Earth is between a mother and her child. Cuomo has crossed the line.”

Make no mistake. This is parent resistance to high-stakes testing and to Andrew Cuomo’s plan to make the stakes even higher than they were. He was able to push his plan through the legislature, but parents have just thrown a huge monkey wrench into his ability to make it work. It won’t and it can’t. That is how democracy works. Only with the consent of the governed.