Written and edited by Norm Scott:
EDUCATE! ORGANIZE!! MOBILIZE!!!
Three pillars of The Resistance – providing information on current ed issues, organizing activities around fighting for public education in NYC and beyond and exposing the motives behind the education deformers. We link up with bands of resisters. Nothing will change unless WE ALL GET INVOLVED IN THE STRUGGLE!
I was in a school last week on the final day of testing and the principal, proud that there were an unexpected 13 opt outs, told me the untimed test was even more child abuse.
Yes to my Unity hack friend. I blame the UFT. For not speaking out and
standing up to these outrages being perpetrated on teachers, students
and parents. You and your fellow Unity hacks are politically and morally
bankrupt. Go off to the AFT convention with your 800 philistines this summer and sell out once again.
Here is just one of many powerful comments being posted on Change the Stakes.
So, one school had an opt out rate of 13% on day one of math . . . but another 100 students were absent from school. Students who did not officially refuse the test opted out by staying home, bringing the refusal rate closer to 25%. Of course, when they return on Monday they'll be brought down to the auditorium for make up testing. Students who came to school and quit twenty minutes into the test, or didn't bother with it at all, were confined in testing rooms with nothing to do, except read if they wanted, for three hours a day for three days. Some students will have lost TWELVE days of instruction due to testing--three days of ELA testing, or staying home, if they refused by absenting themselves from school. Then three days of make up ELA testing. Then three days of math testing, or absences, if they refused by staying home, then three more days of lost instruction due to make up testing. Overall the school's attendance rate plummeted to about 85% over testing. Teachers opted out too--over a dozen called in sick on day three of testing, and many more who came to school in the AM on the last day took the afternoon off . . . leaving their students behind in a building that has insufficient subs so TAs, administrators etc were doing everything they could to cover classes. For the most part no instruction took place during first period at all. Then there was three hours for "testing," then in the afternoon both kids AND TEACHERS were so burned out, so fatigued, and simultaneously so wired, little to no meaningful instruction took place in the afternoon either. Student discipline incidents exploded--pushing, shoving, fighting. One boy had an episode, nearly psychotic, in which he kicked a locker so hard he broke his own foot. This is a Receivership school. AYP, student attendance, student discipline, teacher attendance and performance on the tests are improvement indicators. The pressure to test is huge. Robo calls to parents, letters to parents, when parents sent refusal letters in, phone calls placed back to them, meetings to persuade them to opt in, etc. Threats made by administrators to students--if you don't show us what you know by taking the test, you'll be placed in remedial classes next year. It's awful, just awful.
I don't want to get tracked into extensive reporting on the conference - it seems too much like work. I'm basically here to touch base with people from around the nation to see where people are coming from and also to hang out with old contacts and make some new ones.
Naturally there is some controversy over the decision to go on with the conference in NC. Some people are trying to call us out for not cancelling. My reaction was why didn't these same people call for boycotts in NC over the massive assault over the last few years on teachers and public schools? I am not generally in favor of boycotting. Springsteen by coming here would have been more effective in fighting the law by using his platform to talk to the people who live here.
I
only wish that all these folks would gather up the same righteous indignation
for what this same state administration has done to destroy the public schools
of North Carolina. The NPE is meeting in Raleigh because we seek to fly into
the eye of the storm. And the storm clouds have been gathering over North
Carolina’s schools for years.... The governor and the legislature of North Carolina have made it clear to
teachers: we don't want you here. Some North Carolina educators have
already taken the hint and are searching for jobs elesewhere. Many more
will likely follow them. In fact, The Charlotte Observer reports that schools in Texas are actively recruiting North Carolina teachers and are offering them hefty salary increases. So we gather in Raleigh, North Carolina this weekend to make
sure these destroyers know that we will not be silent in the face of this
unconscionable destruction.
The anti-discrimination laws are being discussed and there are probably few groups of people who are more attuned to that issue than the people who are here. Diane Ravitch addressed the issue: North Carolina: We Are Exactly Where We Should Be
You don’t beat bullies by running away. We are all wearing “Repeal
HB2” stickers. We have cards to hand out wherever we go, telling
merchants that we oppose HB2 and won’t return until it is repealed. We are not running away. We are here to stand by the good people of
North Carolina and pray for the day when they are able to vote these
hate mongers out of office. We are here because injustice is here. We are exactly where we should be. You don’t beat bullies by running away. We are all wearing “Repeal
HB2” stickers. We have cards to hand out wherever we go, telling
merchants that we oppose HB2 and won’t return until it is repealed. We are not running away. We are here to stand by the good people of
North Carolina and pray for the day when they are able to vote these
hate mongers out of office. We are here because injustice is here. We are exactly where we should be.
I had an interesting day I got in Friday morning at about 10 AM after staying the night in Rocky Mount, about an hour away. The 500 mile drive down was easier than I thought it would be and I enjoyed the solitude of the
road. I left home on Thursday at 8:30 and arrived at 5. I left Rocky Mount at 9 and was in my hotel room in Raleigh by 10:30, went out exploring, got hungry (natch), found a popular chicken place called Beasley's Chicken and Honey, headed over to the natural history museum
which I enjoyed and picked up this tee -
Registration was going on in the hotel lobby at 5:30 and I ran into Beth Domino and Terry Kalb and we connected with a Chicago activist parent and her equally activist daughter who is a high school senior, some Ohio and Virginia BATS and we all headed out to find a place to eat at a Mexican restaurant which turned out to be an interesting place given the climate in the state. We are all carrying notes to leave at places we eat and shop at. Look at the menu and the posters in the window of the restaurant.
There was a film night last night starting at 7 but we didn't get out until almost 8:30 but I made it in time to see our own Michael Elliot show some of the work he has done and is doing.
Then it was back to the hotel lobby which was jumping. Leonie Haimson came in last night and we got to see our parent activist Khem Irby who moved down here with her husband. So it was like old home week as we hung out in the bar talking about old and new times.
BATS from various states are a major presence and they have been effective. At dinner with some Ohio BATS I was impressed with their statewide network. One 17 year teacher echoed what I am hearing. She felt so isolated she was ready to leave teaching but the BATS saved her. We hear that coming from people in MORE too. I was surprised that people from other states are ed notes readers and also knew of the GEM film. Everyone seems to have heard of it.
I am telling people from other states about UCORE which is meeting down here in August. Forming these networks both local, regional and nationally is important work and the NPE conference this weekend is one more step in moving toward informing and activating educators and supporters.
I'm writing on Saturday at 10:30 at the keynote with Diane after the first morning session I attended which I will report on later or tomorrow.
Massive screw up by DOE leading to judge to dismiss the case
against Dewey HS principal Elvin -- who engaged in massive credit
recovery schemes, according to voluminous evidence, to boost HS
graduation rates. This story was well-documented and reported on for months by the NYP, the Daily News, and Marcia Kramer of CBS News. Since
DOE refused to invalidate the credits nor to provide any back up
evidence of the charges, the judge threw the case out before it even
came to trial. More evidence of incompetence on the part
of OSI, which dragged its feet for months, DOE's internal audit Dept
(which apparently failed to find fault with the credits of the fake
courses) and the legal department at DOE. ... Leonie Haimson, NYCEdNews listserve
I know a lot about the Elvin/Dewey story (do a search for Elvin on Ed Notes and you will see pages of posts) since I had sources in the school and was updated regularly on the back story.
Elvin was a monster of a manipulator and brutalized teachers, especially young ones, including a vicious discontinue of a single mom army vet who had complained about some ridiculous school policy.
Elvin demanded that teachers grade and enter the grades of Do Nows every day - an insane amount of wasted work. When grievances were filed she back off tenured teachers but forced the nontenured to do them. She walked into one classroom and in front of the class demanded the teacher show her his Do Nows. Already having graded them and entered the grades he had tossed them in the trash. He nervously pointed to the trash can and Elvin, in front of the kids went rummaging through the trash to find them and slammed them on the desk. Surely a performance worthy of Captain Queeg and his missing strawberries.
According to the NY Times account of Elvin's exoneration, CSA head Ernie Logan, a UFT ally, who apparently sanctions this way of treating teachers
suggested that the original complaints were ginned up because
Ms. Elvin was “a very proactive supervisor” who was trying to turn the
school around. “We’ve found that, as a principal starts to push hard,
sometimes the staff is not happy,” he said.
We know that the way so many teachers are treated poorly by so many of Logan's members is of no concern of his but we do give him more credit than the UFT in defending his members over anything they might do no matter how outrageous. Logan did charge the DOE with using tainted OSI investigators - we know many of these people are criminals themselves so on that we are not surprised.
What an outrage to blame teacher gripers who were reacting to the crimes being perpetrated by Elvin who was prevented from closing down Dewey and getting rid of the teachers she didn't like by the UFT lawsuit. So she found other ways.
Elvin created shadow classes that didn't really exist. The DOE knew all about this for a long time but chose to do nothing about it - until articles began appearing in the press and on blogs. People at Dewey were telling me that the posts on Ed Notes were having an impact and a source told me that Elvin was reading the comments that kept coming up and reacting. One retired Dewey teacher recently credited Ed Notes with playing a big role in Elvin's temporary downfall.
You can inform the DOE that a principal is cutting kids hands off but unless the mainstream press picks up a story they will do nothing.
students had received credit in the 2013-14 school year for courses in
which they simply completed packets of work but received no
instruction, in violation of department policy.
However,
an audit of the courses, conducted in October by the new
administration at Dewey and Education Department officials,
contradicted the investigation’s findings, the arbitrator wrote in his
ruling. It concluded that the courses had, in fact, met department
guidelines and that the students had been properly credited.
Yes the DOE knew and in essence sanctioned what was going on and they are now hoisted on their own petard. If Elvin goes back to Dewey, I can't imagine the mayhem and the DOE will do whatever it can to avoid that outcome.
As to the role the UFT played at Dewey in retarding the kind of actions that could have buried Elvin, I will have a lot more to say in a follow-up.
Here is the Times article.
Brooklyn Principal Removed From Post Is Cleared of Charges
In a rebuke to the New York City Education Department and its investigative unit, an arbitrator has dismissed all charges against a high school principal who was removed from her post last July, after being accused of inflating the school’s graduation rate by giving makeup classes without content.
The arbitrator ruled that Kathleen Elvin, the former principal of John Dewey High School, in Brooklyn, should be immediately reinstated and that the department should pay her the wages and benefits that she lost as a result of her suspension.
An inquiry conducted last year by the department’s Office of Special Investigations found that students had received credit in the 2013-14 school year for courses in which they simply completed packets of work but received no instruction, in violation of department policy. Ms. Elvin was removed, and the department in September brought charges of misconduct and neglect of duty against her, in an attempt to fire her.
However, an audit of the courses, conducted in October by the new administration at Dewey and Education Department officials, contradicted the investigation’s findings, the arbitrator wrote in his ruling. It concluded that the courses had, in fact, met department guidelines and that the students had been properly credited.
In a decision released on Tuesday, the arbitrator, Jay Nadelbach, wrote that “the D.O.E. cannot effectively maintain both of two incompatible positions.”
He concluded that the department’s decision to certify the credits that the students earned validated “the sufficiency of the classroom instruction given.”
Devora Kaye, a spokeswoman for the Education Department, said, “We are disappointed with this decision, and we are continuing to review our options.”
At a news conference on Wednesday, the president of the principals’ union, Ernest Logan, celebrated the dismissal of the charges while accusing the department of “a pattern of reckless bullying” of administrators.
In 2012, during Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s administration, Ms. Elvin was brought into the school, which was struggling with rising violence and declining graduation rates. Her efforts produced an increase in the four-year graduation rate, to 79 percent in 2013-14 from 72 percent in 2011-12.
In 2014, six anonymous complaints about Ms. Elvin and other Dewey administrators were made to the Special Commissioner of Investigation for the school district. A social studies teacher at the school, Alan Lerner, also made a complaint. Her accusers said, among other things, that Ms. Elvin was improperly allowing students to make up courses.
The Special Commissioner of Investigation referred the complaints to the department’s internal Office of Special Investigations.
Ms. Elvin, for her part, said she was “living evidence of what character assassination is.” As for whether she wanted to return to Dewey, she said that while she had never wanted to leave, she did not know if, given the turmoil, it would be possible to go back now.
Mr. Logan suggested that the original complaints were ginned up because Ms. Elvin was “a very proactive supervisor” who was trying to turn the school around. “We’ve found that, as a principal starts to push hard, sometimes the staff is not happy,” he said.
Mike Schirtzer does an excellent job of finding resources distinguishing between activism and organizing and activists and organizers, for they are often 2 separate things and some people can do one or the other well but not both. It can be easy to be an activist. Go to rallies and events. And go home feeling good. The hard work is getting names and emails and doing followup and building an organization capable of reaching a size where it can be influential enough to make a difference.
He begins with a quote from Teachers Unite handbook.
"Organizing means people are building organizational power to fight powerful institutions that directly impact them. Organizing is long-term relationship building, wherein a group of people see themselves as an interconnected collective – a family of sorts. Organizers do this by connecting events and people who share the same values and language. In addition, organizing is based on structures and systems that include roles for different people. These structures, systems, and roles work together to ensure that we are fighting institutions. Organizers think about the long term and the root causes of an issue"..... From Teachers Unite Handbook
MORE is running in the UFT election as part of a long term strategy. The goals have been clear from the start a. Win high school executive board seats in order to give voice to rank and file educators and expose the failed leadership within the UFT b. Increase the voter turnout in our own chapters and beyond c. Build MORE by organizing members in our chapters and a stronger caucus after the election d. Develop a larger, better distribution network so we can oppose unity's propaganda and share the voice of rank and file members in many chapters throughout the boroughs e. Strengthen and transform our union- More votes, more organizers, more engaged members, more active-organized schools, even without holding leadership, wecan change our union. Make no mistake- the work we have done over the last few years has forced Unity leadership to take positions they would have not otherwise taken. The UFT/NYSUT/AFT apparatus still holds sway in politics and beyond. The financial means and political influence. When we organize and mobilize the grassroots we force their hands. They have moved on common core, testing, charters, fighting incompetent administrators because of us. We can't forget the important role we have in helping to build the statewide movement with ST caucus, national movement with UCORE, and solidarity with our friends in Puerto Rico. This work began a month after the last election, when me, Peter Lamphere, Kit Wainer, Norm Scott, Harry Lirtzman, Julie Cavanagh, Gloria Brandam and Megan Behrent sat at a table offering analysis the 2013 campaign and developing a strategy to do MORE in the 2016 election. It has taken countless meetings, debates, growing pains, and strategy sessions to be where we are at. This is not by accident, rather by design. We wanted a democratic organization and that is messy. But this has been the nitty gritty of organizing. It is far different than activism or a one-shot protest. We need to develop strategies that are collective, built on long term organizing and making allies. The success of the Opt-out has had is the direct result of long time organizing. GEM morphed into MORE and Change the Stakes. Jia and Lauren who have proudly spoken for all of us,have come out of those groups. It has been a series of educational organizing: going to city and community meetings on educational policies, speaking with parents and teachers,PA meetings, SLTs, media, and social media strategies, reaching out to people one to one, as well as forming alliances. This has been hard work that did not achieve instant results, but it has stopped common core, test based teacher evals, and lowered stakes on testing. It has been collective. It has been organizing, not just activism. As Matthew Smucker, from Occupy Wall Street, argues in a forthcoming book:
"Activism risk emphasizing the self over the collective. By contrast, organizing is cooperative by definition: it aims to bring others into the fold, to build and exercise shared power. Today, anyone can be an activist, even someone who operates alone, accountable to no one—for example, relentlessly trying to raise awareness about an important issue. Raising awareness—one of contemporary activism’s preferred aims—can be extremely valuable , but it is not organizing. Organizing is long-term and often tedious work that entails creating infrastructure and institutions, finding points of vulnerability and leverage in the situation you want to transform, and convincing atomized individuals to recognize that they are on the same team (and to behave like it). Successful organizers are difficult to shrug off, because they have built a base that acts strategically. The goal of any would-be world-changer should be to be part of something so organized, so formidable, and so shrewd that the powerful don’t scoff: they quake. Thousands of people are flocking to auditoriums across America to hear Bernie Sanders condemn the “billionaire class.” With polls showing that a growing number of young people and the majority of Democratic primary voters have a positive view of socialism, we need good, smart organizing to back up this astonishing uptick in leftist sentiment and to productively channel people’s enthusiasm and energy beyond the limited frame of the presidential race and electoral politics. "
This is the written goal MORE set out for in summer 2015: "...to have a mobilized, active union that can effectively fight for our rights by giving all members a voice in the UFT... challenging the UFT leadership and transforming the union into one that can lead the fight in advocating for a fair and equitable education for all our children while ending the profit-driven testing policies that harms teachers, students, and schools. Public schools are under attack, that is why we need a new union leadership that will lead the fight back.
Each educator experiences the attacks on our profession differently: for some, the testing frenzy has dramatically changed their work lives for the worse. For others, the new evaluation process and life under a weak contract are the main concerns. Many of our members work under horrific and abusive administrators and that reality overshadows everything else. A strong, member-driven union that stands together with our communities is the only way to have the public schools we all deserve." This goal is what we need to stick to and if we change directions we should do so collectively while developing a corresponding strategy. Our organization is small and the challenges posed by a complicit union leadership is extremely difficult. We are also tasked with taking on multi-million dollar groups that seek to bust unions and privatize education. Organizing to have a strong, engaged, rank and file led union continues to be why we campaign for UFT elections.
Smucker talks about thousands of people flocking to Bernie rallies. That is activism while the people organizing the rallies and working in the Bernie campaign are doing organizing. People like MORE's Mindy Rosier who has been putting a great deal of time into both activism and organizing. MORE is proud to have given Mindy one of her first tastes of both and she has branched out while still trying to find time to work within MORE. The people at the UFT in Unity have noticed Mindy's effectiveness and I wouldn't be shocked to see them doing a full court press to get her to shift loyalties to them as they have managed to do with others. I don't expect that to happen as long as MORE is a viable organization.
And it will remain so as long as there are enough people do to the hard work of organizing.
....the petition has been signed by more than 58% of current families. More
than 1,700 supporters have also signed, including educational experts,
NY Senator Bill Perkins, former New York City Councilman and Education
Committee Chair Robert Jackson, former NYC Councilman and Education
Committee Chair Robert Jackson, education professor and activist Dr.
William Ayers, and large numbers of former teachers, family members and
students.... Parents of CPE1.
I am at a Comfort Inn in Rocky Mount NC, an hour out of Raleigh. I didn't think I could do all the driving in one day so I cancelled my reservation at the Marriott for tonight but in actuality found the drive pretty easy - just me alone blasting the music and singing along - if my wife were with me we would have seen road rage. But I wanted to get readers caught up on the fast moving CPE 1 story which I posted this morning: #savecpe1 - Support Legendary Debbie Meier Founded Central Park East 1 in Battle to Remove Monika Garg, Abusive Principal
Things are heating up as the story is getting out. I have a lot more to write about this especially on how Garg pulled the race card as a way to divide parents, which unfortunately a few parents fell for. Attacking the school's diversity and claiming progressive education is not beneficial to children of color is just part of the attack - she should be fired for that alone as it is racist to say children of color are somehow not able to deal with a progressive education that the rich kids in private schools get.
Parents
at Central Park East 1 Launch a Website and Petition Drive to Defend
Their School’s Progressive Practices and Remove Principal
The website and information about the petition can be found at www.savecpe1.org
East
Harlem, NY. April 13, 2016---On April 8, a group of parents at Central
Park East 1, a 41-year old elementary school that is the oldest
progressive school in Harlem and the first formed by legendary educator,
Deborah Meier, launched a website: SaveCPE1.org. The website — savecpe1.org
— which has received nearly 8,800 page views since launch-- is part of
an effort to defend the school’s core progressive practices and asks
parents and supporters to sign a petition calling for the removal of the
current principal, Monika Garg. Within four days,
the petition has been signed by more than 58% of current families. More
than 1,700 supporters have also signed, including educational experts,
NY Senator Bill Perkins, former New York City Councilman and Education
Committee Chair Robert Jackson, former NYC Councilman and Education
Committee Chair Robert Jackson, education professor and activist Dr.
William Ayers, and large numbers of former teachers, family members and
students.
Parents cite several reasons that they believe Principal Garg is not a suitable leader at Central Park East 1:
In
March, Monika Garg, principal for nine months, interviewed several very
young children as part of investigations of veteran teachers and staff.
The parents of these children were not notified before or after these
interviews. One parent discovered interviews had taken place when her
child was found crying at night without explanation and subsequently
revealed it. It is only through parents coming forward that other
parents were able to know to ask and appropriately support their
children. The school counselor was unaware of the interviews and thus
unable to provide support. Principal Garg has failed to respond to
several parents who have asked who was present during the interviews or
for transcripts. Some of these investigations are based on charges that
are two years old and involved interviewing 7-year old children about
events that took place two years earlier. While parents understand that
investigations are an unfortunate part of school life on occasion, they
believe that the way these interviews were conducted and the subsequent
lack of respect for parent concerns showed extremely poor judgment.
Principal
Garg has no experience in progressive education, no experience in early
childhood education and minimal experience in elementary education.
Central Park East 1 has a rich and well-documented history of
progressive education and an approach based on individualized
instruction and assessment. Principal Garg has consistently implied that
the schools style of education is not suitable for “black children and
poor children” as it is practiced at CPE1. This is contradicted by
several quantitative and qualitative measures that have been
well-documented and highlights of which are available on the website.
Veteran
teachers have described their working conditions as intolerable.
Several have considered leaving. Since many members of the staff issued
an open letter to the community detailing their concerns with the
principal’s leadership, multiple investigations have been initiated
against veteran teachers and several have had other disciplinary
measures taken against them.
These
are just some of the reasons that a majority of parents feel that the
current principal must be removed in order for the school to move
forward. This decision was not taken lightly and follows months of
attempts to get answers from the Principal and District Superintendent
Alexandra Estrella. Their has been a consistent pattern of lack of
communication and disrespect for both parents and staff. Parents do not
feel that the district has been responsive to their concerns and that is
why their petition is addressed to the mayor and school chancellor.
The website, savecpe1.org,
offers an extensive timeline detailing the pattern of administrative
mistreatment over time. It also provides just a few samples of more than
20 testimonials from families about what a Central Park East 1
education has meant for them and their children. It explains Central
Park East 1’s unique curriculum and pedagogy as well as its success - as
measured by the Department of Education’s own metrics.
Only a few weeks until ballots go out on May 5. Get the latest leaflet from MORE hot off the press. This is a 4 page booklet produced by MORE and New Action.
MORE and New Action have printed
60,000 copies of a beautiful foldover campaign leaflet (read
it here!) - and we need your help
to get it to rank and file teachers across the city. Please reply to
this email now and let us know your boro and school and how many
copies you need.
You can pick up leaflets at any of
our 3 Friday Happy Hours around NYC. Come meet MORE
candidates, discuss the election and getting out the vote, and how we
can build teacher power at our workplaces. The first round
is on us! Click below to RSVP
PS. You can also pick up leaflets at
the April DA next week 4pm-6pm @ 52 Broadway, or at our exciting
actions against school takeover under state receivership laws at the
PEP right nearby at 6p at MS131 @ 100 Hester St.
I'm leaving soon to drive down to Raleigh, NC for the NPE conference over the weekend. But I wanted to get this out before I leave. I'm hoping to run into Debbie Meier at the conference since CPE was her brainchild so many years ago. I heard about that school when it opened and even thought about trying to teach there because the educational concepts fit my ideas and I was often like a fish out of water at my school.
I heard the entire story about the crap this principal, Monika Garg, has pulled and will report more details in a follow-up. Needless to say she is following the standard Principal Academy and DOE legal blueprint on how to undermine a school with veteran teachers.
The problem is that our union has no blueprint for teachers on how to respond and the teachers were overwhelmed by the constant assaults for half a year before they began to look at ways to fight back. MORE was contacted for advice and we met with some of them.
Why would so-called progressive educator Carmen Farina sanction an assault on Central Park East 1 (there is also a CPE2 under separate management) through the installation of abusive principal Monika Garg last July who immediately set about undermining 40 years of progressive education at the school? Naturally the long-time teachers there were the first to come under attack, including bogus investigations. The UFT, district borough and central have been of little help.
Which is why some of us in MORE met with a batch of people from the school and have been offering some organizing advice over the past few weeks. We are helping publicize what they are doing. The important thing in situations like this is to assess the abilities of the people on the ground to build support from parents and community when calling for such a drastic action as the removal of Principal Monika Garg who was an AP at a high school with no experience in a progressive school like CPE1 or even in an elementary school.
As the links to the article in DNAinfo and the web site below indicate they have done quite a job in organizing. I'm not sure of exactly how much I can say at this point as to the plans but I will update as they unfold.
New Principal Ruining Legendary Progressive Public School, Parents Say
For 40 years, CPE1 has been a leader in progressive education. It was the first of the original progressive public elementary schools started in East Harlem by Debbie Meier. It has been studied and celebrated internationally and replicated across the country, but the current administration is undermining CPE1’s philosophy and purpose. CPE1 must be protected.
What will we lose if the current principal remains?
Our experienced teachers - the heart of our school
Inquiry-based, child-centered education is being replaced with prepackaged curriculum
Collaborative approach and cooperative projects
Individualized learning accounting for each child’s personal goals
The understanding that art, movement and music are integral to children’s education
Valuable learning time lost to increased focus on “teaching to the test”
Democratic decision-making
Small class sizes and small school community
The newly hired principal has no previous experience in progressive education. None.
Why would a superintendent choose a principal with no progressive background and with limited elementary experience to lead NYC’s oldest progressive public school?
Our veteran teachers have said that their working conditions are unbearable. Many are considering leaving.
Our long-time teachers are crucial to preserving CPE1.
Administrators are interviewing our children without parents' knowledge or consent.
7-year-olds being asked to recall information on incidents occurring two years prior. This was not the usual "calling a child into the principal's office;" interviewers included a deputy superintendent and an outside investigator. Children were told to keep their interviews secret.
Administrators have launched investigations against our veteran teachers.
After senior teachers sent an open letter to the community expressing concerns about the principal’s actions, they have all been subjected to investigations. Some are complaints re-opened from several years prior.
Administrators routinely fail to answer parents' and teachers' questions.
Parents asked the superintendent to a town hall in November to express their concerns. She said no. The principal remains silent about direct questions concerning her decisions.
An unprecedented number of leaders in progressive education stand ready with our community to recommend qualified individuals to the DOE and to support the success of a new principal.
Please join us in saving our school and preserving progressive education at CPE1.
Ms. Lee told NBC, “Parents should definitely opt out. Refuse.
Boycott these tests because change will not happen with compliance.”
She went on to call herself a “conscientious objector.” She is also a true professional, guarding the well being of the children entrusted to her... Daniel Katz, Can Teachers Talk About Opt Out?
I
saw MOREs Jia and Kristin Taylor on the Today show yesterday which
featured Long Island parent leader Jeannette Deuterman as the opt-out
story moves into the mainstream. Daniel Katz has a good blog on the
rights of teachers to speak out politically not only on general issues
but in defense of the children they teach. Katz opens with:
New York City teachers Jia Lee, Lauren Cohen, and Kristin Taylor risked disciplinary action recently to speak with NBC news about their opposition to the state testing system and their support of the Opt Out movement. This was no small act on their part because the NYC DOE has sent multiple signals that
it does not tolerate classroom teachers speaking against the tests
which have been occupying schools’ time and attention this month.
He talks about the moral imperative:
...perhaps this should not merely be a matter of whether or not teachers
disciplined for speaking against testing could win a civil rights suit.
Perhaps this needs to be framed as a matter of professionalism and
professional judgement because while teachers have responsibilities and
rights in the performance of their work, they also have professional
obligations and norms that define what it means to be a teacher. Among
those is the need to speak up when children are being ill served or
harmed by what is going on within school. John Goodlad referred to
practicing “good moral stewardship of schools”
and this principle is as important to teaching as “do no harm” is for
medicine or being a zealous advocate is for law. Teachers are given an
awesome and sacred trust – the intellectual, social, and emotional well
being and growth of other people’s children. Speaking out when that
trust is in jeopardy is not simply a question of Constitutional rights.
It is a moral obligation.
I get it - livelihood perhaps over rides moral imperative. I faced a similar dilemma and luckily found a group like MORE early in my career. That emboldened me to be free to speak out throughout my time in the system, not only on local and citywide educational policy but in battles with my principal when I felt she was doing stuff that was unfair to my kids. I was a fierce defender of the kids in my class and am proud to say I never asked to have a child suspended. When there where hints of retaliation I struck back. I taught with a pretty clear conscience -- except for those times when I myself realized I was not treating certain kids fairly.
We are seeing teachers come to MORE after years and even a decade or more of teaching who seem to have had enough and are ready to take more risks because teaching for them in this environment has put them at moral risk and they find it increasingly hard to live with themselves. At least if they speak out or get involved with a group like MORE which empowers them to speak out - doing so in a climate of others doing the same - they can feel they are at least doing something even if nothing outwardly changes.
But inwardly there is change and just that act can save their career.
And then there is the moral bankruptcy of the people in Unity Caucus who by the very nature of their being in the caucus and supporting running roughshod over opposition and defending the outrages being perpetrated on children and teachers explains why they have to cover their mirrors so they don't have to look themselves in their eyes.
Afterburn
Katz also features MORE's Katie Lapham:
Do teachers have good reason for concern about how these tests impact their stewardship? New York City teacher Katie Lapham certainly makes a compelling case:
The reading passages were excerpts and articles from
authentic texts (magazines and books). Pearson, the NYSED or Questar
did a poor job of selecting and contextualizing the excerpts in the
student test booklets. How many students actually read the one-to-two
sentence summaries that appeared at the beginning of the stories? One
excerpt in particular contained numerous characters and settings and no
clear story focus. The vocabulary in the non-fiction passages was very
technical and specific to topics largely unfamiliar to the average third
grader. In other words, the passages were not meaningful. Many
students could not connect the text-to-self nor could they tap into
prior knowledge to facilitate comprehension. The questions were confusing. They were so
sophisticated that it appeared incongruous to me to watch a third grader
wiggle her tooth while simultaneously struggle to answer high
school-level questions. How does one paragraph relate to another?,
for example. Unfortunately, I can’t disclose more. The multiple-choice
answer choices were tricky, too. Students had to figure out the best
answer among four answer choices, one of which was perfectly reasonable
but not the best answer.
There are MORE events in 3 boroughs this Friday (see below) none of which I can attend since I will be driving down to the NPE conference in Raleigh NC on Thursday. I know, I am nuts to be taking this 10 hour drive all by myself but I am not into flying right now and a road trip gets me out of doing any work for the 25 people coming for Passover next week. And my wife is happy to be rid of me for a few days.
I made a rare visit to the Bronx today to stuff mail boxes at a few schools that weren't being covered. One building had 5 high schools - the old large high school is still in there but hanging by a thread - and the other was pretty much old school large high school with one small school.
It certainly is an interesting experience as I get a little bit of a feel for the different schools. And when I get to speak to people it is eyeopening. I met a teacher retiring in June. I asked her about her former principal who was known as an ogre and dumped by the BloomKlein DOE - after which the school really sunk - and she said there was good and bad but that most people were supported all the way - not all - if he turned on you you were dead. But she said people were willing to give up some rights for this support - especially when it came to discipline - none of the kid is always right stuff. Now she said they would stab you in the back in a second. I get it. I had a principal like that. Maybe I should have appreciated her more.
As I wrote the other day, #MORE2016: UFT Elections and Leaflet Distribution, the ultimate goal is to never have to have an outsider stuff mail boxes but to have someone inside the school doing it while also advocating for MORE.
We have come to feel that the majority of votes come from schools where we have people and where those people actively try to get out the vote. Unity with many more people in schools does the same thing and given their numbers I an surprised at how few relative votes even they get.
Which means the real growth I would look for in an election is how many people are actively doing organizing work in their schools and the outcome should reflect that work. Now my sense is that there are more people I don't know sending requests for literature and getting it out in their schools but since I don't know them I have no idea if they are willing to do more than that - like talk to people and get them to vote.
I've been asked to go out to a school to speak next week during their lunch hours in an area where we do not have much organizing going on but do have one contact at the school who made the arrangement.
Today someone from the Bronx called the MORE phone number - which I answer - and wanted to know more about the Bronx Happy hour this Friday - whether it was open to people from other districts or just district 10. (It is open to all). Hopefully she will go and become a MORE contact and distributor for her school. The funny thing is that she said she voted for MORE last time because her cousin was in MORE. I sadly had to inform her that her cousin has joined the enemy, Unity Caucus, which absolutely astounded her. I pointed out that Unity has things to offer MORE doesn't - conventions, jobs and a way out of teaching even at the cost of one's integrity. She told me her former chapter leader had gone the same route. She seemed enthusiastic about MORE. Well, at least may now have one family member on our side.
Michael's post on FB
I will be singing and playing guitar at this MORE Happy Hour event co-hosted with Nate Schiavo. Informing UFT members about the upcoming elections, and toasting another week of dedicated teaching. All are welcome. (ballots mailed May 5th.
$4.00 - Draft Beers, Mixed House Cocktail Drinks, Glass of Red or White House Wine + Full Menu
The UFT Elections are coming with ballots mailed out to your home on May 5th.
You'll have a chance to vote for new leadership of our union. Come meet the candidates, ask questions, share your concerns, and help us build a better union!
-------------- Manhattan East Side Jia Lee will be attending the one hosted by Brian Jones.
If you or someone you know lives or works in Manhattan, please let them know about this upcoming Happy Hour on the Upper East Side THIS FRIDAY!
(details below)
Jia Lee will be in the house!
Here’s a link to download the flyer:https://www.dropbox.com/s/v97munc8yagrk10/EB_HappyHour.pdf?dl=0
Best,
Brian
Oh, poor boobies. They pretty much had us by the flotsam and jetson as they and their allies - and yes Virginia, the UFT/AFT/NYSUT complex is an ally of high stakes data-driven testing - piled on. And then came opt-out to deny them the data.
A quick Monday Morning update before we continue: Press lackey Chalkdust features the Post and Daily News daily diatribes against opt-out while ignoring the massive anti-opt commentary below - but the have abandoned blog coverage to focus on the ed deform mainstream press.
'why not opt out of midterms too?'
Editorial: Continued support for the opt-out movement is baffling, since the stakes are now so low. New York Daily News
Columnist Naomi Schaefer Riley: Helicopter parents worried about
over-testing are simply worried their kids might fail, after years of
trying to do everything to ensure they succeed. New York Post
To continue:
The great blogging crew is out there creating balanced coverage. Culled from our sidebar links, including 3 MOREs - Patrick Walsh, Katie Lapham and James Eterno.
I know it’s the Post and, as such, a low bar but still I believe such a public display of outright incoherence is a small but good sign that we are winning.... Patrick Walsh, Raging Horse,
James Kirylo: Why My Son Will Opt Out– Again - The following is a guest post by Dr. James Kirylo, professor of teaching and learning at Southeastern Louisiana University. Kirylo’s research interests inc...
NYC Hasn’t Gotten the Opt Out Memo - Let’s begin with one simple premise: nobody at the New York State Education Department wants to see Opt Out continue to be a significant factor in the Empi...
The latter post from James Eterno nails the union leadership not backing the opt-out movement. When someone mentioned they were afraid for MORE's Lauren Cohen, Jia Lee and Kristen Taylor for standing up to Farina's gag order since the UFT will not stand with them. But the parents will - and thus we have the situation where the union would basically abandon them but their major job protection would come from parents and community forces.
But that is an essence of social justice/movement unionism -- fundamental job protection through alliances built.
