Saturday, June 14, 2014

How To Volunteer To Get Zephyr Teachout On The Ballot By July 7 So She Can Primary Andrew Cuomo

I lifted this from Perdido Street blog. I hadn't realized deadline was July 7. For those who support the Green Party candidates in the general election, forcing Cuomo into a primary against Teachout can only help Howie Hawkins and Brian Jones as the primary will flush out Cuomo haters who will hang in for the general election and hopefully vote Green Party.

Fact is - she has very little time to put this together - just this past Monday at the Skinny Awards dinner, things were still being put into place. So the entire effort is iffy -- unless hordes of volunteers emerge to help her get on the ballot.

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How To Volunteer To Get Zephyr Teachout On The Ballot By July 7 So She Can Primary Andrew Cuomo

You can get in touch with Zephyr Teachout's campaign here.

Petitions can be downloaded here - these directions go with the download:

Help get Zephyr on the ballot!

To make sure Zephyr's name appears on the November ballot we need 15,000 signatures of registered Democrats turned in to the NY Board of Elections (in person or by mail) before July 7th. 

Just download the PDF below, fill out the information at the bottom of the sheet and leave the page number blank. Please send all completed sheets to our campaign headquarters.

Finally, you can donate to Zephyr Teachout here.

UFT Contract Toxic PD Spillover: Parents Unhappy - at DOE and UFT

The calls have been coming in from parents and their reps who are beginning to realize how the new contract will change their lives as the school day gets readjusted in many schools. "WTF," is the basic message.

Can Mulgrew clean up the toxic spillover?
They tell me there is growing outrage as word spreads. And since parents are being told that teachers are supposed to vote on SBOs in the schools, some parents are placing the blame squarely on the teachers and the UFT - even more so than on the DOE and the principals, who often just plain lie to the parents, saying that teachers voted that way.

In one case, the UFT district rep told parents the entire district was using the default model of 8AM start time and 2:20 end time so the teachers can get their PD in by 4PM. WTF. Do parents give a shit about PD? Do teachers?


Let me say this as I have been and will continue to do: When the UFT goes along with the Farina (and most ed deformer) mantra that the key to improving education is Professional Development, they accept the "teacher blame" argument. Of course everyone can improve -- and the best PD is watching others teach -- but blanket PD is like expecting a gourmet meal at a UFT retiree function at The Hilton.

Then there are stories where the chapter leader didn't even offer teachers the option of an SBO and just did what the principal wanted. So the teachers feel screwed too -- but it is really their fault -- maybe a lesson for those who have their heads in the sand.

At the June 11, 2014 Delegate Assembly, Mulgrew spoke about the Vergara decision. How important it was to work with parents and how proud he was of the work the UFT was doing with parents. If the Unity/UFT leadership didn't have a tin ear they would have figured out a way to get some parent leaders, at the very least, involved in proposed negotiations. But they didn't even get regular teachers involved, so this is the spillover of closed door contract negotiations.

OK. Maybe it is a relatively small group of parents who feel they have been totally shut out of the process. I wonder where they'll stand when we see Vergara, coming soon, to New York?


Friday, June 13, 2014

Teachers Unite: Countdown to Summer

Our pals at TU are not resting this summer.

John Thompson at The Chalkface Expores the Subtleties of the Tenure Battle

Something tells me...that getting rid of our due process rights won’t be a promising tactic for recruiting and retaining new teacher talent..... Without seniority, this school closure mania gives districts a Get Out of Jail Free Card – they can commit age discrimination at will.....Obamacare might now be the best education reform of his administration. .. John Thompson
Some more great points from John Thompson:
If reformers spent more time in schools, I bet they would recognize the pattern that has been obvious throughout my career. In many or most classrooms with an incompetent teacher in my inner city school, the current bad teacher replaced the previous bad teacher, who replaced a previous bad teacher. Why? Qualified teachers won’t volunteer for those jobs. And, that is why so many principals grant tenure to teachers who aren’t capable of teaching in tough classes. If they fire that teacher, what is the chance of finding a better applicant next year?
An important point here that John might emphasize: There are excellent teachers who just aren't as capable of teaching in tough classes as they might be in classes of eager, on-grade level learner. In fact many teachers who are "capable" use survival rather than the best pedagogical techniques. I know I had to use different tactics with the tougher classes -- I had to work very hard on building community before the academics. Nothing like a fight breaking out to ruin a lesson. Other than one particular class out of the 17 self-contained classes I taught, I rarely had fights due to this effort. And even in that class I managed to get that under control within a few months. But did academics suffer? Hell yes. Those trials I held to adjudicate the tensions between some of the kids took time.
Reformers, including those who might have fought against civil service laws in the age of Progressivism, say that tenure was designed to protect teachers against political pressure. What do they think we’re facing today? Don’t they understand the political pressure we are under to practice educational malpractice in an age of test and punish, and rushing through a skin-deep test prep guide? Even with due process, it’s not easy to advocate for high-quality instructional practices... 
My friend - an ed notes reader who will recognize his words -- used to refer to teachers as "New York's Meekest." I would claim that with the Bloomberg Leadership Academy "gotcha" squad of principals, even teachers with tenure were fearful of being sent to the rubber room gulag for minor transgressions.

Here is a superb point.
In my experience, when bad teachers aren’t removed, the collective bargaining agreement usually has little to do with the outcome. In my experience, health issues and disability law are a much, much bigger factor than tenure. Perhaps the ineffective teacher tries to hold on for too long because he can’t lose his health insurance, and the administrator is loath to put him on the streets without medical benefits. As my former union local president used to say, nothing would help us improve teacher quality as much as universal health insurance. Had reformers been willing to address the real problems in schools, and not scapegoat teachers, Obamacare might now be the best education reform of his administration
John points to why many experienced teachers run from tough schools if they can.
Without seniority, this school closure mania gives districts a Get Out of Jail Free Card – they can commit age discrimination at will.
If conservative or liberal reformers doubt that that is a key reason why the modal years of experience of teachers has dropped to one year, they might want to stroll through a few turnaround or transformation schools. Plenty of great veteran teachers would love to cap their careers by helping to turn a school around. We have 1.6 million teachers approaching retirement, and our knowledge could be invaluable. How many are welcomed in SIG schools with their focus on test scores? Where are the teachers with institutional memories and where are they not? The next time a reformer is taken out on a SIG dog and pony show, they might want to count the number of twenty-somethings in the building and ask why.
Read John's entire piece, Why Tenure is Essential
at http://atthechalkface.com/2014/06/13/why-tenure-is-essential/

Why MORE? Vergara Tenure Decision, Eva Charter Expansion, UFT/AFT Tepid Responses

It will take an army to defeat ed deform. The UFT actually has a potential army through its large (but shrinking, and due to shrink more) membership (108,000 contract vote ballots were sent out to working UFT members) but wants to keep it defanged because an army with teeth may turn on the leadership.

There is much hang-wringing over the California tenure decision, though it may well be overturned. People are bitching, weeping, complaining, whining, mourning... not only over the decision, but the ineffective manner the teacher unions have been responding to ed deform over the past 15 years. See comments on Ravitch blog in response to Randi's "I'm shocked, just shocked" response to Arne Duncan cheers for Vergara decision:  Randi Blasts Duncan for Betraying Teachers in Vergara Case. 

I left my 2 cents. Some of the comments criticizing Randi are just plain naive- along the lines of "why don't teachers wake up?" Like they don't get that even a weak union has a certain organizational structure - with its own internal political machine that has the ability to control the communication network that feed whatever info teachers get. If your union machine (see Unity Caucus) pounds you with one message, what does it take to create an alternative? As one who has tried at various times over the past 44 years, let me tell you: a hell of a lot of effort - all of which depends on the use of volunteer labor.

And blogging or other individual activities on the part of even the most aware teachers, is not organizing, which involves face to face.

Individual bloggers and activists will never have the impact needed to counter attack against this onslaught. I don't pretend for a minute that ed notes has much of an impact, other than providing some info for people. My goal is to use ed notes as tool to spur activism within the UFT, which is the only real body where an impact can be made. Forget influencing the general public, which all too many bloggers consider their main goal. If you can't convince your fellow UFT members, forget about the public. Get that 70,000 army going and THEN go for the public. (See one Chicago Teachers Union.)

But you can't do this as an individual blogger. Only by building an organization as a true alternative to Unity Caucus that can match the numbers Unity has will we see change.

Thus, the attempt to build a group like MORE that can attract people who will function as organizers. As one teacher said at a recent MORE happy hour, "I can no longer sit by and watch our profession be destroyed." I do not take that to mean that she will take up blogging and think she is no longer sitting by. What she means is that she will consider running for chapter leader and organizing in her school and in her local school community by reaching out to other schools and joining the MORE network. For only by building a political machine with deep roots into the schools to challenge the Unity machine will we see changes.

I'll delve further into what this means in future blogs.

=====
There are millions of dollars arrayed against teachers. Blogs, comments on blogs, making the case for teachers and tenure by preaching to the choir will not turn the tide. The unions spout words of militancy on a regular basis but keep compromising with the deformers.

The AFT supports the deform gov of Connecticut over real reformer Jonathan Pelto. And we just heard that the Louisiana Education Association praised Gov Bobby Jindal for tweaking the state eval law -- Has hell frozen over? Teachers union applauds Jindal (because it was chaotic).

I watched how passionless and ineffective the head of the California AFT leader was on TV when facing one of the people behind the lawsuit who brought up none of the points made by people like Diane Ravitch.

Here her on Brian Lehrer on WNYC: http://www.wnyc.org/story/overturning-teacher-tenure/

And read her blog:
Not only did none of them have a “grossly ineffective” teacher, but some of the plaintiffs attended schools where there are no tenured teachers. Two of the plaintiffs attend charter schools, where there is no tenure or seniority, and as you will read below, “Beatriz and Elizabeth Vergara both attend a “Pilot School” in LAUSD that is free to let teachers go at the end of the school year for any reason, including ineffectiveness. 
The Vergara Trial Teachers Were Not “Grossly Ineffective”

Also:
David B. Cohen: A Thoughtful Analysis of Vergara Decision

Vergara Tenure Commentary: High Crime Areas Due to Ineffective Police?

Police and firemen could be next. Let's say the same parents in the Vergara case claimed that crime was higher in their neighborhoods BECAUSE the police in their communities were all off probation. We could avoid blaming centuries of racism, discrimination, poverty exploitation of immigrants etc... blame crime on the police.
And their unions / civil service job protections.... Their goal is to make all civil servants at will employees. We need to wake up..... A NYC Principal
Residents of high crime areas often claim that they get the most inexperienced police who are low in seniority. I don't know how true that is but I bet there are seniority perks. Seniority placement is also used in the fire department, I believe. The reality is that the hedge hogs would never touch the police and fire people. Teachers are the easy target -

Our principal pal shows how tenure is not a job for life:
I myself have fired teachers for cause and won each and every time.  Two of these folks were veterans( over 30 years) who had done some great work but one was found to have verbally abused children on a regular basis and the other could no longer handle a large class when her smaller pull out program was eliminated due to a budget cut.
There's commentary all over the place -- many popped up on my blog roll. Raging Horse did part 2: Vergara Part Two : How the 1% Have Learned to Use the Noblest Causes for the Most Venal Ends

NYC Educator blog calls for all of us to get reparations for our own bad teachers: Will the Vergara Case Make Us Rich? By Special Guest Blogger Rolf M. Reformeo. I could get a few bucks myself. Most of my teachers are very good -- though when my East NY neighborhood changed drastically in a very short time they must have turned bad when kids began to do poorly.)

Our pal Brian Jones, running for Lt. Gov on the Green Party line has an op ed on the case at the NY Times blog.
If you have a moment, please read and share my commentary in the New York Times "Room for Debate" blog about the teacher tenure ruling in California:
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2014/06/11/does-tenure-protect-bad-teachers-or-good-schools/protections-of-teacher-tenure-do-not-hurt-students
Brian Jones is also part of the NY Times debate which includes Diane Ravitch and 2 deformers -  Debating the Vergara Decision in the New York Times.

And by the way --- tenure protections were put in place for the purpose of civil rights issues -- check the current ATR pool and count how many teachers of color are in that pool.
Do you think there are no homophobe principals around?

Diane also talks about that issue:
In response to the debate in the New York Times “Room for Debate” about the Vergara decision, teacher H.A. Hurley commented on the historical perspective I offered, showing that tenure was part of women teachers’ struggle against the pervasive gender discrimination of superintendents and school boards. 
Teacher: Tell the Stories About Tenure and Gender Discrimination.


Thursday, June 12, 2014

Anti-Tenure People Try to Have it Both Ways

...flaws in reasoning... were in full bloom from the minute Judge Treu announced that court was in session. How else to explain the paradox by which teacher tenure laws apply to the state’s wealthiest school districts and its poorest, but only violate the civil rights of students in the latter? Or how about the related and even paradoxier claim beloved by Students Matter fans, including Arne Duncan, that while experience doesn’t Matter, the inequitable distribution of experience (which doesn’t Matter) is the civil rights issue of our time?..... EduShyster
The anti-tenure slugs make contradictory points. They claim that the worst teachers end up in the highest poverty schools. They claim the best teachers gravitate to the higher income areas.

Examine the experience and salary and tenure level of teachers in these high income areas and compare it to the low, high-turnover poverty schools. You will find younger, less experienced and more untenured teachers in the latter schools.

EduShyster continues:
who are the great teachers that Save Great Teachers seeks to save? Hint: while *fresh,* *young* and free from the burden (and price tag) of *experience.* these great teachers are not the same as the inexperienced teachers who overwhelmingly teach poor minority students in this country.
Joel Klein played this 2-sided game from the very beginning. In the early years he went after seniority transfers, saying the experienced teachers transfer out of the higher poverty schools, claiming these schools needed experienced teachers. Then he turned his attack dog Leadership Academy principals on the senior teachers, setting them up with the fair-funding formula that penalized schools with higher salaried - meaning, experienced - teachers.

California supposedly has 18-months to tenure rules. I agree that is too short a time. Here in NYC, we have a 3-year MINIMUM tenure but in reality, unlimited time to tenure, given that principals can extend tenure for years, and often do so.

I found that teachers whose tenure was extended into their 5th year often try to get out of their school and into one where they have a better shot at getting tenure, hoping their new principal would not hate them because they didn't like the color of their tie -- or their skin, which increases school turnover.

When you have a tenured teacher who is not very good, the reason that that teacher doesn't get dismissed is not tenure but a lazy principal. In fact, some of the worst teachers who couldn't care less about kids or teaching often become lousy principals - who even without tenure, are never fired unless they are caught red-handed eating a child for lunch.


Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Daily Howler, a former inner city teacher in Baltimore, gets to the heart of what's wrong with the common core

Given our large achievement gaps, how can any set of “standards” make sense for all kids in a single grade? The gaps are very large in our schools. How can any set of “standards” be appropriate for all students?

This is the world’s most obvious question. Through twenty years of the “standards movement,” we’ve never seen it asked.According to the Common Core, everyone should be taught the same math—we just need to make the math harder! We don’t know how that’s supposed to work for the many (superlative) kids on the short end of those very large gaps. We’ve followed these topics for more than forty years. We never cease to be amazed by the ease with which people disregard the size of the gaps, and the role they play in our classrooms... Daily Howler

It takes a former teacher - a real teacher, not the phony "few years in and become an expert" type. The Howler is spending the month on covering these gaps and their implications. Check them out here: http://dailyhowler.blogspot.com

Here are the last 2 posts:

Call for Ban on high-stakes field testing, 11 AM Rally/Press Conference Today at Tweed



 
PUBLIC ADVOCATE FOR THE CITY OF NEW YORK
Letitia James
For Immediate Release: June 10, 2014                                                Media Advisory
Contact: Aja Worthy-Davis, (212) 669-4813, adavis@pubadvocate.nyc.gov

Public Advocate James, Education Advocates to Call for End To Stand-Alone Field Testing
High-Stakes Field Testing Is Largely Believed To Produce Unreliable Results
(New York, NY)— Today, Public Advocate Letitia James will be joined by education advocates and elected officials in a rally for a ban on stand-alone field testing, which is not required by New York State law and is believed to produce unreliable results.
Recently, the NYS Education Department (SED) targeted 1,125 New York City schools with an estimated 150,000 of our students slated to take the stand-alone field tests.  This is the third straight June that SED and test publisher Pearson are taking a test development approach that is unworkable. Equally concerning, most parents remain unaware of the tests and the fact that the SED is giving the student data to Pearson— a commercial interest that holds a 5-year, $32 million contract with SED.

WHO:        Education Advocates and Elected Officials
WHAT:      Rally for a ban on high-stakes field testing, non-mandated tests which drain an already over-tested student body
WHEN:      Wednesday, June 11, 2014
                   11:00AM

WHERE:   Steps of Tweed Courthouse, 52 Chambers Street
New York, NY 10007

###
--
Aja Worthy-Davis
Press Secretary
NYC Public Advocate  Hon. Letitia "Tish" James
1 Centre Street- 15th Floor
New York, NY

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Eva Moskowitz Applies for 14 More Charters, CEC 21 Resolution: Opposing Free Space for Charters

If anyone doesn't think this won't add to a large pool of ATRs as she drains kids from the public schools and teaches are excessed, they are ignoring reality. Check your district in the Success announcement below to see if you're district is on the list. Every description by Success is an assault on the local public schools and the teachers working in them.

This is part of the Moskowitz political machine expansion to make her or designated chosen the next Mayor.

Noah Gotbaum comments:
Here comes Eva with another dozen+ schools including her 7th colocated charter in District 3. And apropos of Leonie's comments on the de Blasio Salon interview, the Mayor, City Council, CEC's and community are completely powerless to stop any of these - we know SUNY certainly won't.  Only question is whether Eva will take over still more scarce public school space or force our public school kids to pay through the nose for private space for her.  

Thanks to Governor Cuomo and Senator Klein, et al for this. 
Noah forgot to "thank" the UFT for sitting on the sidelines. But I get why.

Before the Success details, CEC 21 (south Bklyn) takes a stand - where are the others?
 
For Immediate Release
6/10/2014
Contact: Kerri Lyon, 917-348-2191
 
 
 
RESPONDING TO STRONG COMMUNITY DEMAND, SUCCESS ACADEMY TO APPLY FOR 14 ADDITIONAL CHARTERS  
 
June 10, 2014 (New York, NY)Success Academy Charter Schools announced today that it is submitting applications to SUNY Charter Schools Institute to establish 14 new public charter schools in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx, and Queens. Community demand for these high-performing schools reached an all time high this year, with more than 14,400 families applying for fewer than 3,000 open seats. An outgrowth of the charter-friendly legislation championed by Governor Cuomo and other state leaders this spring, the planned schools will provide educational equity to thousands of families in communities currently without viable school options for their children.
 
Chancellor Fariña recently noted that it is important to listen to the community. That is what we are doing in applying for these charters because the community is demanding more high quality charter schools,” said CEO Eva Moskowitz. “These families — representing more than a dozen neighborhoods — are desperate for great schools. Even with 14 more schools, we will not make a dent in the demand we are seeing.”

Ranked in the top 1% of all New York State schools in math, and the top 7% in English Language Arts on last year’s state exams, Success Academy has reversed the achievement gap for African American and Hispanic students, which are about 86% of its enrollment. On the 2013 state exams, 80% of Success Academy’s African American students and 88% of its Hispanic students were math proficient, compared with 50% and 47% for the city’s white students.

Applications for the 14 new schools are based on community demand from parents residing in these districts, as well as the districts’ scarcity of high quality schools. Even in so-called good school districts, the best schools are over-crowded and enroll primarily white children. In those same districts, minority children are often segregated in schools where achievement is low. If approved, four of the new schools would open in 2015 and ten in 2016.

Success Academy opens new schools with a kindergarten and first grade class, typically enrolling between 150-200 children in the first year, and expanding the school in subsequent years with new kindergarten classes. With few exceptions, there are district school buildings where existing vacancies would make co-location a cost-effective option for siting the new schools.

Applications for four schools to open in August 2015 are in the following Community School Districts:
 
CSD 9  
  There is significant interest from families in CSD 9 seeking high-quality school options for their children. Last year, not one of the 50 district schools in CSD 9 had both math and ELA proficiency ratings above 50%.
  At 29 schools (more than half of all schools), fewer than 10% of kids passed ELA. 
  Community demand is very strong: Success Academy received 1,232 unique applications from families living in CSD 9 last year.
 
CSD 27
  Out of 46 district schools in CSD 27, only 4 had a math proficiency rating of more than 50%.  Only 1 had an ELA proficiency rating above 50%. 
  There is an enormous racial achievement gap in CSD 27: In 2013, 20% of African American students and 15% of Hispanic students were proficient in English, compared to 57% of white students and 42% of Asian students.  Similarly, white and Asian students met state math standards at a rate more than three times that of African American and Hispanic students.
  Success Academy received 586 unique applications from the CSD 27 community last year.

CSD 3  
  At 20 out of 30 elementary/middle schools in the district, less than half of all students passed the 2013 ELA exam. 
  The same is true at 21 out of 30 schools for math. At 9 of the 30 schools — nearly 1 in 3 — fewer than 10% of students achieved math proficiency.
  There is an enormous racial achievement gap in CSD 3: In 2013, 18% of African American students and 21% of Hispanic students were proficient in English, compared to 74% of white students and 76% of Asian students.  Similarly, white and Asian students met state math standards at a rate more than three times that of African American and Hispanic students.
  Success Academy received 815 unique applications from the CSD 3 community last year.
 
CSD 2  
  At more than 1 out of 3 schools (grades K-8) in the district, less than half of all students passed the 2013 ELA exam.
  There is an enormous racial achievement gap in CSD 2: In 2013, only 27% of African American students and 30% of Hispanic students were proficient in math, compared to 75% of white students and 80% of Asian students.  Similarly, white and Asian students met state English standards at a rate more than double that of African American and Hispanic students.
  Success Academy received 682 unique applications from families living in CSD 2 last year.
 
Applications for ten schools to open in August 2016 are in the following Community School Districts:
 
CSD 17  
  Out of 43 schools in CSD 17, only 1 had an ELA pass rate over 50% and only 2 had a math pass rate above 50%. 
  Community support is very strong in CSD 17: Success Academy received 917 unique applications from this community last year.
 
CSD 18  
  In both ELA and math, 19 out of 20 schools had a proficiency rating of below 50%.
  Success Academy received 532 unique applications from families living in CSD 18 last year.
 
CSD 13
  Only 2 out of 31 schools in CSD 13 had a pass rate higher than 50% in math or ELA. 
  8 out of 31 schools had a math pass rate of less than 10% 
  Success Academy received 472 unique applications from families living in CSD 13 last year.
 
CSD 22 
  27 out of the 31 district schools in CSD 22 had an ELA proficiency rating of less than 50%. 
  There is an enormous racial achievement gap in CSD 22: In 2013, 20% of African American students and 24% of Hispanic students were proficient in math, compared to 52% of white students and 57% of Asian students.  Similarly, white and Asian students met state English standards at double the rate of African American and Hispanic students.
  Success Academy received 741 unique applications from families living in CSD 22 last year.

CSD 23  
  CSD 23 has a high concentration of low-performing schools: Only 1 out of 27 schools had a proficiency rating above 50% in either math or ELA last year. 
  13 schools had a math proficiency rating of less than 10% 
  15 schools had an ELA proficiency rating of less than 10% 
  Success Academy received 319 unique applications from families living in CSD 23 last year.
CSD 14  
     There is strong need for high-quality schools in CSD 14: 27 of 28 schools had an ELA pass rate below 50%. 
     There is an enormous racial achievement gap in CSD 14: In 2013, 13% of African American students and 18% of Hispanic students were proficient in math, compared to 50% of white students and 66% of Asian students.  Similarly, white and Asian students met state English standards at more than double the rate of African American and triple the rate of Hispanic students.
  Success Academy received 412 unique applications from families living in CSD 14 last year.
 
CSD 15  
  Even in CSD 15, which includes Park Slope and Cobble Hill, one-fourth of all schools had a math proficiency rate of less than 10%. 
  There is an enormous racial achievement gap in CSD 15: In 2013, 25% of African American students and 22% of Hispanic students were proficient in math, compared to 65% of white students and 57% of Asian students.  Similarly, white and Asian students met state English standards at double the rate of African American and triple the rate of Hispanic students.
  Success Academy received 300 unique applications from families living in CSD 15 last year.
 
CSD 24  
  31 out of 34 schools in CSD 24 had a math proficiency rate of below 50%.
  There is an enormous racial achievement gap in CSD 24: In 2013, 19% of African American students and 23% of Hispanic students were proficient in math, compared to 46% of white students and 61% of Asian students.  Similarly, white and Asian students met state English standards at double the rate of African American and triple the rate of Hispanic students.
  Success Academy received 152 unique applications from families living in CSD 24 last year.
 
CSD 28
  31 of 36 district schools in CSD 28 had an ELA proficiency rate below 50%. 
  There is an enormous racial achievement gap in CSD 28: In 2013, 16% of African American students and 24% of Hispanic students were proficient in math, compared to 46% of white students and 52% of Asian students.  Similarly, white and Asian students met state English standards at double the rate of African American and triple the rate of Hispanic students.
  Success Academy received 444 unique applications from families living in CSD 28 last year.
 
CSD 30  
  30 out of 33 schools in CSD 30 had a math proficiency rate below 50%. 
  There is an enormous racial achievement gap in CSD 30: In 2013, 15% of African American students and 25% of Hispanic students were proficient in math, compared to 49% of white students and 58% of Asian students.  Similarly, white and Asian students met state English standards at more than double the rate of African American and triple the rate of Hispanic students.
  Success Academy received 49 unique applications from families living in CSD 30 last year, without a school.
 

Today: A Rally to End the Fourth Term of Michael R. Bloomberg 4:30 at Tweed -

I'm getting ready to head over to Tweed soon for the rally, which I wrote about the other day (PEP Report: Teachers, Parents Make Demands on Farina; ATRs, Etc To Hold Rally at Tweed, Tues., June 10, 4:30PM).


SOUTH BRONX SCHOOL posted this poster at this link:
 Spring Cleaning at the NYCDOE 

Our pal at  Raginghorseblog did a great job in framing this.
A Rally to End the Fourth Term of Michael R. Bloomberg  4:30 at Tweed -
Five months have passed since Carmen Farina assumed the job of Chancellor of the NYC Department of Education following 12 years of the sadistic reign of Michael R. Bloomberg. And while, unlike her three predecessors, Farina is indeed an educator, little at Tweed, other than the tone and rhetoric, has really changed. The institutions and the policies remain eerily similar to that of Walcott and Klein.
To wit: Tweed remains bulging with lawyers charged with advising principals how best to fire tenured teachers. The loathed and exorbitantly expensive networks are still running around pretending that they are actually working and actually know what they’re doing. Sociopathic principals are still ruining the careers of new teachers without a second thought, while the cases of hundreds of unfairly U rated or discontinued teachers remain wholly unexamined. The Leadership Academy continues to churn out new business model principals by the sackful.
And the newly ratified UFT contract goes near none of this.
In many ways, teachers are struggling through what can rightfully be called Bloomberg’s fourth term.
The first real volley to demand an end to the Reign of Bloomberg will be a rally to take place tomorrow on the steps of Tweed from 4:30 -5:00, organized by the newly created Don’t Tread on Educators. (http://dtoe.org/)
All those who can attend should attend. Nothing will change until we make it change and we have no one to depend on but ourselves.

Friday, June 6, 2014

Fred Smith Calls Farina on Field Test Waste of Learning Time

From Schoolbook. Go Fred. No time now but I will add to this later about the Bronx teacher who was fired years ago because 4 of his 8th grade classes refused to take the field tests. Search ed notes for Doug Avella if interested. I've been too busy with the contract stuff so have neglected the great work Fred and CTS people have been doing around this absolute waste of time where kids and teachers in essence work for Pearson.

Loretta Prisco


With a heart broken open with love, I let my community know that my mother, Loretta Elinor Prisco, transitioned to spirit side last evening. She was full of grace, light, intelligence, and a deep sense of justice. She taught me to see situations from multiple angles, and to consider others' points of view. She courageously chose life, while simultaneously grieving and facing a painful and difficult illness. She was taking photos of the flowers outside even at the end of her life.
For those who are able to attend, her wake will be Friday June 6, from 2 to 4pm and 7 to 9pm at Harmon Funeral Home on Staten Island, with a mass on Saturday June 7 at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church is at 10AM Austin Place on Staten Island, burial to follow at Moravian Cemetery.

I think her and Gene are on a wonderful Celestial Cruise Ship, and I wish them the smoothest of seas and the happiest of voyages.

Thank you for your love and support during this long and difficult season. I would not be functioning without it.

With love,
Gabrielle Prisco, June 4, 2014
I've avoided posting this for the past 2 days. There are so many people out there who have been affected by Loretta and Gene, who died in November. She was the kindest and most caring person I knew. She always put children first and never failed to remind me when I drifted.

The good thing, if there is such a thing, was that to the very end she was as sharp and engaged in the issues of the day, wanting to be kept informed of everything going on in the education debates and in the union. In going through my post-Sandy cleanup I found an article she wrote exposing the evils of the use of standardized testing - in 1977.

Carol and I visited with Loretta for 3 hours last Thursday and, though bed-ridden, was engaged in the conversation every minute, wanting to know the updates on all that was going on.

Thursday, June 5, 2014

UFT Contract: Why Union Officials Owe Ellen Fox, Me and MORE

View from my deck
Oh, what I gave up to spend 2 days observing the vote count as a MORE rep. (I'm still redoing my ravaged garden from Sandy.) 
The UFT owes Ellen and me bigtime. Here's why.

A call came in last night (I'm paraphrasing): "Norm, if not for your ed notes piece on the count being honest the people in my school - almost 100% NO - would be ready to storm UFT HQ over what looks like a shady vote count."


So I assured him from what I saw there was no way. "What about Unity chapter leaders doing something funny (there is such trust in the Unity machine out there)?" We went over possible scenarios and nothing really made sense - that a vast conspiracy would have been needed and someone at some time would talk.

Exposing the Charter School BS About Demographics

I saw this a few weeks ago and it reinforces the case that hook or crook, charters skim the cream despite claims all the kids in public and charters come from the same demographic and socio-economic status. Any teacher who works(ed) in public schools in certain neighborhoods, like I did in East Williamsburg (old-style) for 35 years saw how different kids from the same projects could be. Since classes were set up based on reading scores, the top class had more kids with two parents, a parent that worked (parents with school lunchroom jobs were like aristocracy), parents who came up open school night, kids that didn't move, etc. I was lucky to have two of these out of the 17 self-contained classes I taught and the difference between top and bottom - and even middle - was astounding. The kids in both classes had mostly been together since Pre-K (another thing we saw -- parents who put kids in pre-k made a difference).

Some teachers would kill for those classes and the principal faves were able to manipulate their way into getting them year after year despite the contract's call for rotation.

What happened under BloomKleinCott was that the classes were mixed and those protected kids were thrown into the general pool with all kinds of kids -- violent, unstable, etc. Charters here we come. Yes, those policies drove the top kids out of the public schools into the arms of charters.

The article below by Andrea Gabor confirms what we've known from the beginning.

But first see this charter scandals from Chicago:
Phillip Cantor posted this message on Basecamp.

More Charter Corruption in Chicago

Just for those keeping score concerning Charter Chain Corruption in Chicago... Uno was charged by the SEC with defrauding investors. http://politics.suntimes.com/article/chicago/sec-charges-uno-defrauding-investors/mon-06022014-1106am

Fred Klonsky's post about it calling it the Enron-ing of education and wondering what Rahm, Governor Quinn and gubernatorial candidate Rauner have to do with it. http://preaprez.wordpress.com/2014/06/02/uno-charter-schools-charged-with-securities-fraud-all-of-chicago-is-not-surprised/

Why do schools have investors?

A Demographic Divide In Harlem: The Neediest Kids Go to Public Schools, Not Charters


Wednesday, June 4, 2014

UFT Contract Vote Lessons: Number 1- Unity DID NOT STEAL THE VOTE

You know why Unity didn't steal the vote? 
BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T HAVE TO. 
(The first in a series of LESSONS - directed at the oppositionists to Unity - based on what I learned this time in the context of what I've known for the past 44 years.)
14 color cards for 9 bargaining units - why? beats me.

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

SUPPORT LEONIE HAIMSON CLASS SIZE MATTERS BY ATTENDING SKINNY AWARDS DINNER

Time out from contract vote reporting for a word for a worthy cause.

OK. It's time to ante up for Leonie and the great work she does in all our interests. And to support the awardees - the great Patrick Sullivan who  single-handedly fought the evil forces in all his years on the PEP. And to honor great principals everyone wishes they could work for - Carol Burris and Liz Phillips.

If you are going stop by and say hello - I'll be sitting with Change the Stakers and any MOREistas who show.

Six days from now, on Monday, June 9 we will be holding our annual “Skinnyaward dinner, to honor three extraordinary individuals who have given us the real “skinny” about our public schools. 


Our honorees this year are Liz Phillips, principal of PS 321 in Brooklyn, Carol Burris, principal of South Side HS on Long Island, and Patrick Sullivan, former Manhattan representative to the Panel for Education Policy. 

Liz and Carol are leaders in one of the most exciting developments of this or any year  --principals who are speaking out against the high-stakes and low quality of the NY State exams.

Patri
ck stood up for NYC parents and consistently challenged the DOE to justify their damaging policies during the Bloomberg years.   Diane Ravitch will be there as well, our Superwoman, fighting to protect and strengthen public education and against the forces of corporate reform. 


Please buy your tickets now, to reserve your seat for a four course dinner with wine at Bocca Di Bacco at 191 7th Ave (at 21st St).


If you cannot attend, please donate to our organization if you would like to support our work on student privacy, parent rights, and class size, or simply to honor these three heroes who have courageously spoken out,  when others remained silent.

Our annual dinner is always one of the most enjoyable evenings of the year, and one that you will not want to miss. And this year,  with the demise of inBloom, we have something special to celebrate.

Thanks,
  Leonie Haimson
Executive Director
Class Size Matters
124 Waverly Pl.
New York, NY 10011
212-674-7320

 

UFT Contract: Vote Predictions - Will the NO Voters Spark an Anti-Unity Movement?

Anyone for 80-20? 70-30? 60-40? How about 75-25?

(I scheduled this to be posted at 3PM, the rough time the vote count is expected to be announced. I will be there.)

Many of the bloggers have been out there predicting.

Mr. Talk Predicts: 2014 Contract Passes in a Landslide

UFT Contract Vote: Predictions And The Roadmap For The Future -

 Urban Ed is relatively optimistic:

My Contract Vote Prediction: 55% 45% (Sunday Morning Banter)

I view things from an organizational point of view - what does this vote mean, no matter what the count, for building an alternative to Unity? I know building MORE is an answer but I also don't want people who are not "joiners" to think they can't do anything -- but I'll explore that idea in a future post.

I remember the 2005 contract struggle where people came out of the woodwork - only to disappear once the rancor died down. The opposition - TJC and ICE were attracting people - but never managed to hold on to them. New Action had already sold out but did a faux "we oppose the contract".

So, Yes, I am wary this time about a post-vote movement.
Megan Behrent has a piece on the MORE blog.

What next after the UFT contract ratification vote? -
Megan did a great job on this analysis.

RBE at Perdido has a piece today with extensive quotes from Megan's piece: UFT Contract Vote: Predictions And The Roadmap For The Future -  

I tend to be pessimistic - my sense is 75-80 Yes because I feel the Unity machine reaches deep into so many schools the voice of opposition never gets close to. Only by facing this machine for 44 years do I know how they work. My younger colleagues tend to live in somewhat of a bubble. 

But this is a new world compared to 2005 - social media, MORE being a united opposition and so far the most effective group of people I've worked with - so there is hope.

Imagine a 20% NO vote and compare it with the vote for MORE in last year's election -- let's call it for sake of argument also 20%.

But comparing the two is apples and organges.

Our vote last year was 20% of the roughly 20% who voted in the schools. My math leads me to 5% of the total membership - say around 4000 votes - I'm too lazy to look it up. Unity's 80% in the elections was roughly around 15,000 votes - I may even be high.

Contract NO vote is a different thing altogether than union elections.

Let's look at how 20% NO votes translated if 80,000 teacher vote. I get 16,000 NO votes in what some people claim is a worst case scenario. If 70-30 that is 24,000 votes. And if the contract begins to fall apart in some areas - like an ATR slaughter fest, teachers from schools being excessed into the ATR pool, health care payments, etc. Those votes translate into opposition to Unity Caucus.

But a caveat -- they only translate into MORE's ability to coordinate this -- to become an effective alternative to Unity with wide outreach into the schools never touched and only subject to Unity propaganda. People do not realize how many chapter leaders are Unity - the key to their control. We will know more in next year's CL elections if there is a shift. If not don't expect widely different numbers in the 2016 elections. In other words if Unity controls 80% of the schools they will get 80% of the vote.

Unity machine exposed in contract struggle

A lot of people had their consciousness raised - it may be temporary  - but at some level the way Unity operates has been more widely exposed and infiltrated a certain portion of the rank and file who never really were aware.

Will they pay more attention one contract issue goes away?

The key to me is the work MORE is doing and can do.
It takes people power to challenge Unity - which in case you haven't noticed has lots of people power. The battles are won not on social media or at Delegate Assemblies but in the schools - in the trenches. If you think that battle is worth winning sitting on the sidelines is not an option

If you want to know MORE come to our meeting this Saturday form 12-3.

https://facebook.com/events/650100971732766


MORE General Meeting

June 7, 2014 at 12:00 pm – 3:00 pm

224 W. 29th St., 14th Fl. (Between 7th & 8th Aves) NYC

All are welcome! 

After the contract vote what are our next steps to build a better UFT? Come join us in evaluating the contract campaign and deciding on next steps.

How can we help organize the people who were opposed to this contract into a force that can defend UFT members from a bad contract?

Future steps: Organizing in our Schools, UFT Chapter elections, May/June 2015, UFT Elections, Jan-March 2016

Local/Regional groups: Meet with others who work in your neighboring schools or regions.

Reports from MORE action committees 

We hope to see you there!

Join us for post meeting happy hour at Pioneers Bar, 38 W 29th st (b/t 6th and 7th) NYC (http://pioneersbar.com/)

UFT Contract: Will OT/PT Chapter Turn it Down?

UFT  leaders seem worried this will happen. What are the implications if the UFT has to go back to the bargaining table?

I scheduled this to go up around 10AM when I will be on the subway.

I mentioned this in this morning's first post (UFT Contract: A Day At the Count - What I Learned - Updated) but didn't  want to see this get lost in that sea of words: That it is likely that the Occupational/Physical Therapists would vote NO. (They are paid at a much lower salary step and they are PISSED). The nurses are voting with them in that unit and will probably vote YES but they are a minority.

Repeating what I wrote earlier:
I learned that there are a number of color coded ballots - I think they said 16 or 17, each voted on by its own group - like Secretaries, paras, etch. What if one of them turned the contract down? The UFT would have to go back to the bargaining table and the leadership seems to have some concern they will turn this down.

There are 17 different ballots and the only one they are concerned about is the OT/PT/Nurses. OT/PT have around 1200 and nurses (who are expected to vote YES) around 500 -  so they seem worried that the vote won't go their way and they will have to go back to the table on that one.
Which makes for an interesting angle for future ref -- in 2035 when the next contract is negotiated -- what position to take if one goes down? Here is a perfect example - possibly - of them going back to the table - will they be put at the back of all the other unions to make an example of them?
 

UFT Contract: A Day At the Count - What I Learned - Updated

Before heading over for today's vote count, which I hear will be released at around 3PM, let me give a report of what happened at yesterday's count.

(I will be sending updates based on rough batch counts to the MORE and ICE listserves but probably won't be able to post on ed notes unless I find wi-fi access.)

Yesterday, Ellen Fox and I spent a few hours at the AAA a few blocks north of UFT HQ in a chilly below ground room "observing" the vote count for MORE -  through a glass window. I observed people opening envelopes and putting ballots in piles. (See photo for my view).
Our view of the vote count -

As of Monday morning, 72,000 ballots had been received with more school packages coming in all day - Tuesday morning would be the last pickup -- ballots had to be postmarked as of 4PM last Friday. 106,000 ballots had been sent out, representing the total number of UFT members employed in the public schools.

Leroy Barr (who left at noon to go to the UFT retiree dinner at the NY Hilton to eat the rubber chicken) and Chief Financial Officer David Hickey were also present - not as observers for Unity Caucus but as UFT officials. I know, they are basically one and the same thing. AAA is hired by the UFT and are issued instructions by the UFT. You'll see why I make this distinction.

We had some fruitful conversations out of the line of caucus politics --

Here is the way the process works. Sunday and Monday the envelopes from the schools were opened. The names on the ballots inside were matched to the names on the enclosed printout that teachers signed when they voted in the schools. The instruction sheet to CLs noted: The printout is essential for the American Arbitration Association to verify the ballots. Note this was in bold.

An AAA official came into the room and asked Leroy what to do about the packages that did not include the printout. Up to that point, the process was like watching paint dry. Hearing this news, my ears perked up. I asked "How many schools, which ones are they, how can those votes be valid if not verified through this process?"

I asked for the list of those schools. Leroy said "No." He mentioned the blogs (UFT Leaders seem obsessed with the blogs as NYC Educator has been pointing out -

Dear Mr. Mulgrew--If I Traffic in Myth, Please Tell Me Why). 
I said I was not there as a blogger but CLs who didn't follow directions -- even if in MORE -- should be held accountable. I also said that those votes should be embargoed.

The official said up to that point it was about 30 schools without printouts but since some large schools had sent in more than one package the printout could be in one of the other packages. Plus the UFT had provided duplicate (unsigned) printouts for them to check. "Not good enough," I said. "What if a CL didn't hold a vote at all and just filled out all the ballots on their own?" Shouldn't the ballots be put aside while an effort was made to contact the CL and try to get those printouts?

"Too late," the AAA official said. "We didn't get any instructions from the UFT to do that." Meaning: those ballots had already been dumped into the general tool.

Monday, June 2, 2014

UFT Contract - Dissecting MORE Contract Discussion Happy Hours: Should Unity be Worried?

I spoke and asked if there were any next steps since after Tuesday, when the contract will most likely pass, it will all be over. She turned to me with a defiant stare, shook her head and said, "No! It isn't."
One of the "benefits" of the recent contract struggles is how the consciousness of so many rank and file teachers has been raised. Not only about the contract itself, but about how the UFT/Unity Caucus leadership and their core of full-time employees and chapter leaders are willing to mislead the people who elected them for the interests of their masters at 52 Broadway. Here is one such story.

I attended MORE happy hour contract discussions each of the last 3 Fridays. Each one was very different in character and attendees. The Bay Ridge and Park Slope events attracted over 40 people in the back room of bars. Some people who showed up had never heard of MORE. Some were leaning toward voting YES but felt they were not getting the full story from the UFT/Unity leadership - the visits to the schools were often a turn-off. Some had Unity chapter leaders pushing the contract with vehemence, while shrugging off legitimate questions.

MORE people familiar with the details and the various "gaps" in the UFT's "What Me Worry?" approach shared their knowledge and answered questions. Afterwards people gathered engaged in the happy hour portion with small group conversation. While exciting to see so many people turn out, there were too many people to drill deep.

This past Friday, the lower east side event on Ludlow Street was very different. A small group of people, with 7 newcomers joining 4 MOREistas in a wide-ranging discussion of issues - so much more intimate than the large groups. How important is it for the activists to listen to these new voices?

Jia Lee, our super dynamo who helped organize the event,
Jia and teachers at her school support Intl HS Teachers Who Opted Out
pointed to the fact that 2 years ago she was new to this kind of activism - after about 12 years teaching. And that struck me -- you can't build an alternative to Unity Caucus with the usual suspects - like me and others who have been doing this for a long time.

A 2-year ATR (whose school closed) - a science teacher - who found out about the event on Ed Notes - and bought me a beer for doing this work) was quite impressive, making so many interesting points. She felt the experience has not been all negative - by being in so many schools she actually felt she learned lots of things on many levels -- and feels more equipped to teach than ever. I hope her salary is not too high for her to get hired. She also pointed out how in her travels she absolutely saw instances of administrators  just making stuff up against teachers to get rid of them.

Three teachers came from an elementary school with a Unity Chapter Leader who had been force feeding the pro-contract point of view --until they just plain got fed up and began to search the web for alternatives - which is how they found MORE - and also Jia Lee, who they contacted.

One of them made one of the most impressive statements I've heard - I only wish I had recorded it. I took a few notes. "We were sacrificed so the UFT could get along with the DOE. I feel so disempowered. I don't want to sit by helplessly and watch my profession being destroyed. It is time for a change." I don't think she meant only a change in the UFT leadership, but a change in her own behavior.

That gave me a chill - because she was so impressive. I was reminded of the first time I met Julie Cavanagh only 5 years ago.  I almost feel sorry for Unity. Think of her joining with the growing core of the newly active "not the usual suspects."

I spoke and asked if there were any next steps since after Tuesday, when the contract will most likely pass, it will all be over. She turned to me with a defiant stare, shook her head and said, "No! It isn't."