For those looking to see an activist union leader in action, there is this piece taken from the latest NYSUT Leader Briefing where Beth Chetney confronts the Lieutenant Governor:
Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul sat at a picnic table with Beth Chetney, president of the Baldwinsville TA. Surrounded by protesters and media representatives, Chetney aired concerns about student testing, teacher evaluations, a growing lack of control that educators feel inside their own classrooms, and Cuomo himself. Hochul tried to assure the activists that Cuomo is listening -- and cares about teachers and the pressures they face. "The issues you raise are legitimate," Hochul said. "I assure you they are being talked about at high levels. And you're going to see some changes."
There is a full report from Perdido Street School here based on coverage from Syracuse.com.
It needs to be emphasized that Beth Chetney is a leader of the statewide opposition to Michael Mulgrew's Unity Caucus called ST Caucus. MORE is affiliated with ST Caucus which stands for Stronger Together. ICE is a big supporter of ST Caucus.
I have no confidence that we will see much positive change coming from the dysfunctional, corrupt government in Albany but having union leaders like Beth Chetney, not to be confused with another Stronger Together leader Beth Dimino, gives us all hope.
Sunday, August 30, 2015
Saturday, August 29, 2015
ICE BLOG FORECAST: UFT WILL SEE SCHOOLS THROUGH ROSE COLORED GLASSES THIS YEAR
For those expecting some push back from our union on the deplorable teaching and learning conditions in our schools (high class sizes, unsafe schools, pressure on teachers to pass undeserving kids, high stakes testing, etc...), don't hold your breath. The UFT leadership has said very little about the many scandals being uncovered in the schools and the ICEUFT blog predicts this year's spin from the top will include non-stop happy talk in order to protect their favored mayor and chancellor. Only criticism of Albany will emanate from Unity Caucus, the Michael Mulgrew led, invitation only group that runs the union. Expect the city to again be praised by union leadership.
One can usually take the pulse of where our union is at by reading material from a couple of retired Unity members. One of them is Gene Mann. Gene is a decent guy who retired as a teacher-chapter leader a few years back and took a position with the union organizing schools in Queens. Gene publishes a weekly online newsletter called The Organizer that often provides useful information.
In this week's edition, Gene writes a piece entitled "Budgets, Good; Excessing, Minimal" in which he cites evidence from several Queens High Schools, some of which are renewal schools, to make the point that school budgets have actually increased in six of seven selected schools. However, he continues by noting that four of the seven schools have either lost positions or had positions frozen which pretty much negates his argument about a budget increase. Who cares if there are more dollars listed on a school budget if those dollars don't pay for more positions?
We stand by our July 31 piece in which we reported on the city officially ending the last fiscal year with a $5.9 billion surplus while freezing school budgets. We quoted directly from the DOE school budget pages:
"The transition from the 2014-2015 school year to the 2015-2016 school year ensures that schools are allocated the same base-lined funds they received in the prior year with adjustments only for changes in the number and needs of students, and for changes to the citywide average salary."
We then explained in simple language the meaning:
Translation: School budgets are frozen and, as I read this, budgets might even be cut if the average salary goes up because schools will have a higher cost per employee but the finding is the same as last year.
How is this possible when the city is swimming in black ink and the state is supposed to be providing an increase in school aid?
A little more money for changes in the number of students enrolled in a school and maybe a few bucks thrown in for good measure and a member of our union's ruling Unity Caucus is calling the school budgets "good".
The ICEUFT blog respectfully disagrees with Gene Mann and says that the city is cheating the schools as usual. There is a nearly $6 billion city surplus and an increase in state aid to the schools which should lead to a significant boost to school budgets with many new positions for teachers, counselors, etc... The UFT should be crying foul.
Instead, what we learn from Gene is to expect the major premise for the school year from the UFT leadership to be that it's great to be working in a New York City public school.
One can usually take the pulse of where our union is at by reading material from a couple of retired Unity members. One of them is Gene Mann. Gene is a decent guy who retired as a teacher-chapter leader a few years back and took a position with the union organizing schools in Queens. Gene publishes a weekly online newsletter called The Organizer that often provides useful information.
In this week's edition, Gene writes a piece entitled "Budgets, Good; Excessing, Minimal" in which he cites evidence from several Queens High Schools, some of which are renewal schools, to make the point that school budgets have actually increased in six of seven selected schools. However, he continues by noting that four of the seven schools have either lost positions or had positions frozen which pretty much negates his argument about a budget increase. Who cares if there are more dollars listed on a school budget if those dollars don't pay for more positions?
We stand by our July 31 piece in which we reported on the city officially ending the last fiscal year with a $5.9 billion surplus while freezing school budgets. We quoted directly from the DOE school budget pages:
"The transition from the 2014-2015 school year to the 2015-2016 school year ensures that schools are allocated the same base-lined funds they received in the prior year with adjustments only for changes in the number and needs of students, and for changes to the citywide average salary."
We then explained in simple language the meaning:
Translation: School budgets are frozen and, as I read this, budgets might even be cut if the average salary goes up because schools will have a higher cost per employee but the finding is the same as last year.
How is this possible when the city is swimming in black ink and the state is supposed to be providing an increase in school aid?
A little more money for changes in the number of students enrolled in a school and maybe a few bucks thrown in for good measure and a member of our union's ruling Unity Caucus is calling the school budgets "good".
The ICEUFT blog respectfully disagrees with Gene Mann and says that the city is cheating the schools as usual. There is a nearly $6 billion city surplus and an increase in state aid to the schools which should lead to a significant boost to school budgets with many new positions for teachers, counselors, etc... The UFT should be crying foul.
Instead, what we learn from Gene is to expect the major premise for the school year from the UFT leadership to be that it's great to be working in a New York City public school.
Monday, August 24, 2015
JAMAICA HIGH SCHOOL FROM THE GREAT BEYOND FEATURED IN THE NEW YORKER
Jelani Cobb, Jamaica High School Class of 1987, just published an essay centered around Jamaica High School in the New Yorker.
The spirit of Jamaica High School is alive.
Please read the entire piece for a little bit of the history of Queens, public education, New York City, school reform and of course Jamaica High School.
The final three paragraphs are what struck me:
The spirit of Jamaica High School is alive.
Please read the entire piece for a little bit of the history of Queens, public education, New York City, school reform and of course Jamaica High School.
The final three paragraphs are what struck me:
Ninety years ago, the City of New York broke ground on a huge, beautiful building as a symbol of its commitment to public education. Last year, it closed the school that the building housed, purportedly for the same reasons. The people who gathered angrily outside Jamaica High School weren’t really protesting its closing; they were protesting the complex of history, policy, poverty, and race that had brought it about.
When I visited the old building on Gothic Drive, a few months ago, it was undergoing renovation and was obscured by scaffolding and tarps. It looked as if it were draped in a shroud. Then I drove a mile southeast to my old apartment building in Bricktown. The area had never been beautiful, but now it sagged in a way that it hadn’t done in the early eighties, when I lived there. Rows of boarded-up properties lined the street. Our building was now windowless and abandoned. For the first time in many years, I understood myself to be from Bricktown, even as the glare from a man across the street, as subtle as an eviction notice, told me that I no longer belonged there.
Education was central to the gamble at the heart of my parents’ migration north. My mother began her adulthood cleaning houses for whites in Alabama; she ended it as a holder of two degrees from New York University—a trajectory that said as much about the possibilities she found in Queens as it did about her own determination. Bricktown’s declining fortunes said everything about what is at stake in public education—about what happens when a place like Jamaica ceases to be great and then ceases to be at all. It was obvious that a good portion of the homes in Bricktown had been foreclosed. What was less apparent was that so had a key route—the one I took thirty years ago—to get out of there. ♦
I guess my colleagues and I helped many Jamaica High School students over the years find that key route to a better life.
Sunday, August 23, 2015
FARINA APPEALS JUDGE'S ORDER ON SLT MEETINGS BEING OPEN
The school system continues to become more secretive under Mayor Bill de Blasio and Chancellor Carmen Farina.
The latest example is the DOE appealing a ruling from a judge that says that School Leadership Team meetings must be open to the public to comply with state Open Meetings laws. The Post reported on this case today.
No surprise that Farina closed SLT meetings when she was a principal in the nineties but what does the DOE possibly have to gain by fighting this case?
According to the Post:
In the latest court papers, the city claims the SLT meetings “have never before been open to members of the press and general public,” and that complying with the state Open Meetings Law would be a “sea change in the status quo.”the SLT meetings were never open to the press or public and it would be a sea change.
Under Chancellor Dennis Walcott, meetings were open as the Post reported and they cited a document to show this.
Using the word never is normally not a good idea. Jamaica High School had an SLT meeting in 2012 where representatives from two local politicians were there.
Leave it as usual to Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters to do what the UFT should be doing and criticizing de Blasio. Leonie was quoted in the article:
"We’re going backwards. There’s less transparency than under Bloomberg,” said Leonie Haimson, executive director of Class Size Matters, which joined a lawsuit to keep the meetings open. Public Advocate Letitia James also joined the suit.
Oh where oh where is the UFT?
The latest example is the DOE appealing a ruling from a judge that says that School Leadership Team meetings must be open to the public to comply with state Open Meetings laws. The Post reported on this case today.
No surprise that Farina closed SLT meetings when she was a principal in the nineties but what does the DOE possibly have to gain by fighting this case?
According to the Post:
In the latest court papers, the city claims the SLT meetings “have never before been open to members of the press and general public,” and that complying with the state Open Meetings Law would be a “sea change in the status quo.”the SLT meetings were never open to the press or public and it would be a sea change.
Under Chancellor Dennis Walcott, meetings were open as the Post reported and they cited a document to show this.
Using the word never is normally not a good idea. Jamaica High School had an SLT meeting in 2012 where representatives from two local politicians were there.
Leave it as usual to Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters to do what the UFT should be doing and criticizing de Blasio. Leonie was quoted in the article:
"We’re going backwards. There’s less transparency than under Bloomberg,” said Leonie Haimson, executive director of Class Size Matters, which joined a lawsuit to keep the meetings open. Public Advocate Letitia James also joined the suit.
Oh where oh where is the UFT?
Thursday, August 20, 2015
LOOKING AT SOME OF THE NY TEACHER EDUCATION BLOGS WHILE RESTING
I have taken a few days off from posting but still looked at some education blogs to keep updated. Here is a little rundown.
I read the piece over at Perdidio Street School on teachers "walking a tightrope without a safety net" these days because of the crazy evaluation system where our ratings are based in part on student test scores of our students. Some of those pupils have much in common with the young man in the cartoon above while others are not prepared for tests because of learning disabilities, poverty or not knowing English. I agree with Perdido that a teacher is taking a big chance with his/her career by working in a struggling or renewal school or with an administrator who is not benevolent.
The NYC Public School Parents Blog, EdNotes and Chaz have each written pieces saying that Mayor Bill de Blasio now owns the mess called the NYC public schools even if he inherited the problem from former Mayor Bloomberg. The parents and EdNotes have strong reactions to the scandal at OSI because of the wrongful suspension of Debra Fisher for what was not a conflict of interest. All three blogs blame Carmen Farina for not cleaning house when she took over as Chancellor.
Unfortunately, the mayor does not be looking to do anything substantial to fix the education system. De Blasio and the UFT leadership seem to think the stories coming out about grade and transcript fixing and corruption/incompetence in the bureaucracy are like a bad cold that will just go away if ignored.
One can always tell the tone of the UFT leadership by how they report what are usually chaotic openings in schools. If the UFT is in the loop with the mayor and chancellor, they will say the schools are opening smoothly. If they are on the outs with the mayor and chancellor, they will call out all the problems.
Today's prediction is to expect major happy talk out of the union in September concerning Farina-de Blasio but their anger will be saved for Governor Andrew Cuomo. This is a mistake as the problems in education exist at the city, state and federal level and require a real union response.
I don't expect to see any of that but we can count on NYC Educator to defend teachers' lounges (real and virtual) while taking another swipe at our union leadership's Unity Loyalty Oath.
Monday, August 17, 2015
EXPERTS BASH DOE AND NYPD NUMBERS OBSESSION
Today is a good day to turn the blog over to experts in education and criminal justice to see some real similarities in the two fields.
Leonie Haimson, leader of Class Size Matters, has a hard hitting piece in Gotham Gazette that blames both former Mayor Michael Bloomberg as well as the current Mayor Bill de Blasio for playing games with numbers to make the schools look good. Leonie is quite clear in spreading criticism:
But even if this credit recovery and other artificial methods of juking the stats took hold during the Bloomberg years, the de Blasio administration cannot be let off the hook for allowing them to continue.
Leonie then offers a solution. She points out how the so called Renewal Schools don't need to get rid of their teachers or replace the administrators. She explains what students in these schools need:
What the students in these schools desperately need is intensive tutoring and small classes to make significant improvements, not a new cadre of inexperienced teachers or administrators breathing down their necks. And yet more than 60 percent of the Renewal schools still have many classes with 30 students or more, according to DOE data.
Jamaica High School was in the process of phasing out and we still were going to oversize class grievance hearings a few years back so I know that the Department of Education never really cared about lowering class sizes and still does not.
Leonie then tells us exactly what the true failure is:
The real scandal is that hundreds of thousands of New York City high school students, including those at schools that have allegedly engaged in credit manipulation, like Richmond Hill, Flushing, and Automotive, continue to struggle in large classes of 34 or more.
Her conclusion:
If we are talking about accountability for schools and teachers, we must also address the accountability of those in charge of running our schools, and here the mayor and the chancellor have unaccountably failed.
She's is 100% right!
My brother John Eterno, a professor of Criminal Justice at Molloy College, and retired John Jay Professor Eli Silverman have been showing how crime statistics have been played with, particularly in New York City, for years. Their book, The Crime Numbers Game, is a must read for anyone interested in the truth on how crime statistics are played with for political purposes.
Recently, Eterno, Silverman along with Arvind Verma have had their most recent scholarly study published in the prestigious journal, Justice Quarterly, that further makes the case that we can't trust statistics coming from the New York City Police Department.
From the Abstract of the study:
Results indicate that the misuse of the performance management system and pressures on officers from management are key explanations for manipulating crime reports.
Not much different from what we are seeing in the schools. Police and educators must make the numbers look right or we are held accountable.
You need an account to access the full piece but my brother's blog called Unveiling Compstat gives a taste:
Leonie Haimson, leader of Class Size Matters, has a hard hitting piece in Gotham Gazette that blames both former Mayor Michael Bloomberg as well as the current Mayor Bill de Blasio for playing games with numbers to make the schools look good. Leonie is quite clear in spreading criticism:
There’s been lots of news and commentary lately about fraudulent credit recovery schemes and grade fixing practices at city schools. The editors of the New York Post predictably want to pin the blame on Mayor de Blasio – with op-eds written by critics such as Senate Majority Leader Flanagan, who claim that these scandals are a good reason to question the extension of mayoral control of city schools.
Truth is that these schemes spread like a virus first under Mayor Bloomberg – the result of pressure on schools to improve quickly or be closed, combined with a troubling lack of oversight to see that improvements were based on real learning and not gimmicks. Credit recovery was widespread, along with instructions from principals that teachers should pass 60 percent of their students “or else.”
I have heard reports that the passing quota was supposed to be much higher than 60% but I think we get the point.
Leonie continues:
Leonie then offers a solution. She points out how the so called Renewal Schools don't need to get rid of their teachers or replace the administrators. She explains what students in these schools need:
What the students in these schools desperately need is intensive tutoring and small classes to make significant improvements, not a new cadre of inexperienced teachers or administrators breathing down their necks. And yet more than 60 percent of the Renewal schools still have many classes with 30 students or more, according to DOE data.
Jamaica High School was in the process of phasing out and we still were going to oversize class grievance hearings a few years back so I know that the Department of Education never really cared about lowering class sizes and still does not.
Leonie then tells us exactly what the true failure is:
The real scandal is that hundreds of thousands of New York City high school students, including those at schools that have allegedly engaged in credit manipulation, like Richmond Hill, Flushing, and Automotive, continue to struggle in large classes of 34 or more.
Her conclusion:
If we are talking about accountability for schools and teachers, we must also address the accountability of those in charge of running our schools, and here the mayor and the chancellor have unaccountably failed.
She's is 100% right!
My brother John Eterno, a professor of Criminal Justice at Molloy College, and retired John Jay Professor Eli Silverman have been showing how crime statistics have been played with, particularly in New York City, for years. Their book, The Crime Numbers Game, is a must read for anyone interested in the truth on how crime statistics are played with for political purposes.
Recently, Eterno, Silverman along with Arvind Verma have had their most recent scholarly study published in the prestigious journal, Justice Quarterly, that further makes the case that we can't trust statistics coming from the New York City Police Department.
From the Abstract of the study:
Results indicate that the misuse of the performance management system and pressures on officers from management are key explanations for manipulating crime reports.
Not much different from what we are seeing in the schools. Police and educators must make the numbers look right or we are held accountable.
You need an account to access the full piece but my brother's blog called Unveiling Compstat gives a taste:
- Heard Deputy Commissioner XXXXX say in a pre Compstat meeting that a CO should just consolidate burglaries that occurred in an apartment building and count as one. Also not to count leap year stats. Make reporting a crime difficult to discourage the victims from following through such as asking for receipts and making the person appear in person at the SH [station house]. Discouraging Schools from reporting thefts or if they did consolidate thefts into one felony report or separate into multiple misd [misdemeanor] reports. Shred reports for those with no insurance etc. Inventory shrinkage from retail stores would be classified at the wholesale value of item rather than retail value to downgrade to misd [misdemeanor]. Reckless Endangerment used instead of attempted assault especially in shoot and miss situations.
Saturday, August 15, 2015
NYSUT PRESIDENT MAGEE SAYS STATE TEST RESULTS TELL US VIRTUALLY NOTHING WHILE MULGREW PRAISES SCORES
New York State United Teachers President Karen Magee reacted to the release of Common Core ELA and math test results by writing that the scores "tell us virtually nothing meaningful about students and their teachers." Her words comes from the "Karen's Notes" section of the weekly NYSUT Leader Briefing (see below).
Meanwhile, here in New York City, UFT President Michael Mulgrew, in an opinion piece in City and State, goes out of his way to laud the Common Core ELA and math test results and he does not even mention the 225,000 students who opted out of taking the tests statewide. Mulgrew calls the incremental gains in New York City's state test scores "good news for our schools and children."
Magee, however, in her statement says, "Student test scores based on poorly written, developmentally inappropriate Pearson tests aren't worth the paper they are printed on." Magee then salutes parents who opted out. She also criticizes the Pearson tests and says NYSUT will try to "continue to help lead the state toward a constructive assessment policy that works for students and for educators."*
NYSUT Leader Briefing has another article that calls the state tests "meaningless as measures of teacher effectiveness." In addition, for the first time that I can remember, NYSUT actually writes about the Sheri Lederman case. Lederman is a Long Island teacher who is challenging the student test score portion of her rating based on the Value Added Model in court. Her husband Bruce is her attorney. Oral arguments were heard Wednesday in Albany.
Mulgrew, on the other hand, shows his support for high stakes testing by providing a comprehensive positive spin of the Common Core exam results that sounds as though it is coming directly from Mayor Bill de Blasio or Chancellor Carmen Farina, rather than from the leader of a union whose members I talk to hate these Common Core tests and the high stakes that are attached to our jobs because of them. Only in the final paragraph does he admit that "a concentration on test scores obscures some important questions about the usefulness of standardized tests as a measure of educational quality." In the end, however, he concludes by saying test results are "more likely to reflect real progress..."
It probably does not mean much but at least NYSUT is taking a somewhat critical stance, including criticism of so called receivership schools as a failure of policymakers. By contrast, our UFT President looks like he remains fully on board with the testing policies that are weakening, if not destroying, our union as he brags about test results on exams that NYSUT's President says "aren't worth the paper they are printed on."
NYSUT Leader Briefing--Karen Magee Notes and Article 1.
In the midst of the release of the statewide exam results, affected districts are planning for implementation of new receivership provisions. Regarding that, I want to share with you this newspaper article in which I make the point that receivership is the state's way of shifting blame from its own failure to adequately support struggling schools, most of which are in impoverished districts.
As we enter the new school year, we must all take active leadership roles in building the union again, emphasizing its value to new members and re-energizing the commitment to union action with existing members. From new member greetings and orientation to back-to-school nights and Making Strides, the next two months are always full of opportunities to organize. Plan ahead and make the most of them.
NYSUT Vice President Catalina Fortino said NYSUT will be vigilant in ensuring that the eventual move to Questar Inc., with the full involvement of teachers in the test-development process, will result in better, more accurate and reliable student assessments in ELA and math.
Fortino said NYSUT is gearing up to work with Education Commissioner Mary Ellen Elia, the Regents and Legislature toward a new teacher-principal evaluation system that is fair and meaningful, and designed to foster professional growth so educators can better serve their students. She also pointed out SED is embarking on a review -- with teachers and other educators -- of the Common Core standards.
"We need to recapture the joy of teaching and learning -- for students and teachers," Fortino said.
"That's going to take recognition that the misuse of student test scores in teacher evaluations was a mistake. We know now from research that student test scores are not a valid way to measure how a teacher is doing in the classroom, just as the state's growth model has proven to be inaccurate, unstable and unreliable," Fortino said. "We are committed to a fair evaluation system, which uses multiple measures and which helps New York's already strong teaching force grow even stronger. NYSUT is looking forward to working collaboratively toward that goal."
During the Bloomberg years, state and city test scores exploded, to the point that in 2009 nearly 70 percent of city elementary and middle school students were supposedly proficient in reading, and more than 80 percent were proficient in math – results that Bloomberg and his allies in the “school reform” gang could not stop boasting about.
The UFT and experts warned that these results were smoke and mirrors, and by 2013 those numbers had fallen dramatically – to 26 percent proficiency in reading and 30 percent proficiency in math, thanks to new tests based on the Common Core learning standards, and to the state’s overtly political decision to set the new passing mark very high.
It generally takes students and teachers some time to adapt to new curricula and test approaches, and it has been a slow road back. The 26 percent in reading proficiency in 2013 grew to 28 percent last year and to more than 30 percent in the most recent results. Math proficiency is now up to more than 35 percent.
An indication of real progress is the fact that the rate of increase for city reading scores this year (1.9 percentage points) was more than twice that of the state’s (0.7 percentage points). Overall, city reading scores are now close to the same level as the state’s, which has traditionally outscored the city by significant amounts in this area.
Schools set aside for special interventions also appear to show real progress. More than half the schools that have been in the UFT’s Community Schools program for more than two years showed increases in reading scores, several of them well above the average citywide increase.
On average, schools in the PROSE program, which provides schools with wide flexibility to change their instruction based on input from teachers, showed significant reading gains – up 4.8 percentage points (versus 1.9 percentage points citywide).
Despite all the clamor from “reformers” about charter schools, charter reading gains in 2015 (1.3 percentage points) were under the average gain for public schools, and, as usual, overall city charter reading scores remain below the average for public schools (with public schools’ reading proficiency average at 30.4 percent versus the charter school average of 29.3 percent).
The racial achievement gap – the difference in performance between whites/Asian students and black/Hispanic students – is a stubborn and troubling phenomenon, and a feature of local, state and national standardized tests.
The new scores did not show any major improvement in this category, though “reformers” – who were largely silent when Bloomberg and then-Schools Chancellor Joel Klein were making transparently fictitious claims about progress in this area – seem to have adopted it as a key concern since Bloomberg’s departure.
Unfortunately, a concentration on test scores obscures some important questions about the usefulness of standardized tests as a measure of educational quality. But, to the extent they do reflect reality, their incremental increases are more likely to reflect real progress based on the hard work of teachers and their students.
Michael Mulgrew is president of the United Federation of Teachers
Meanwhile, here in New York City, UFT President Michael Mulgrew, in an opinion piece in City and State, goes out of his way to laud the Common Core ELA and math test results and he does not even mention the 225,000 students who opted out of taking the tests statewide. Mulgrew calls the incremental gains in New York City's state test scores "good news for our schools and children."
Magee, however, in her statement says, "Student test scores based on poorly written, developmentally inappropriate Pearson tests aren't worth the paper they are printed on." Magee then salutes parents who opted out. She also criticizes the Pearson tests and says NYSUT will try to "continue to help lead the state toward a constructive assessment policy that works for students and for educators."*
NYSUT Leader Briefing has another article that calls the state tests "meaningless as measures of teacher effectiveness." In addition, for the first time that I can remember, NYSUT actually writes about the Sheri Lederman case. Lederman is a Long Island teacher who is challenging the student test score portion of her rating based on the Value Added Model in court. Her husband Bruce is her attorney. Oral arguments were heard Wednesday in Albany.
Mulgrew, on the other hand, shows his support for high stakes testing by providing a comprehensive positive spin of the Common Core exam results that sounds as though it is coming directly from Mayor Bill de Blasio or Chancellor Carmen Farina, rather than from the leader of a union whose members I talk to hate these Common Core tests and the high stakes that are attached to our jobs because of them. Only in the final paragraph does he admit that "a concentration on test scores obscures some important questions about the usefulness of standardized tests as a measure of educational quality." In the end, however, he concludes by saying test results are "more likely to reflect real progress..."
It probably does not mean much but at least NYSUT is taking a somewhat critical stance, including criticism of so called receivership schools as a failure of policymakers. By contrast, our UFT President looks like he remains fully on board with the testing policies that are weakening, if not destroying, our union as he brags about test results on exams that NYSUT's President says "aren't worth the paper they are printed on."
NYSUT Leader Briefing--Karen Magee Notes and Article 1.
Karen's notes: A hollow ring
The big news this week had a hollow ring to it when SED released the state test results from last spring. Every educator knows it would be a huge mistake to read anything into these results. Whether they're up or down, they tell us virtually nothing meaningful about students or their teachers. Student test scores based on poorly written, developmentally inappropriate Pearson tests aren't worth the paper they are printed on. We know it and so do parents who repudiated these tests by "opting out" their children in record numbers. A year ago, we stood on the steps of the Education Building in Albany and ceremonially shredded the state's testing contract with Pearson. Now Pearson is gone. We will continue to help lead the state toward a constructive assessment policy that works for students and for educators.In the midst of the release of the statewide exam results, affected districts are planning for implementation of new receivership provisions. Regarding that, I want to share with you this newspaper article in which I make the point that receivership is the state's way of shifting blame from its own failure to adequately support struggling schools, most of which are in impoverished districts.
As we enter the new school year, we must all take active leadership roles in building the union again, emphasizing its value to new members and re-energizing the commitment to union action with existing members. From new member greetings and orientation to back-to-school nights and Making Strides, the next two months are always full of opportunities to organize. Plan ahead and make the most of them.
1. State test scores tell parents, policymakers almost nothing
Test scores in English language arts and math released this week tell parents, educators and policymakers almost nothing about students' progress toward meeting state standards, and are meaningless as measures of teacher effectiveness.NYSUT Vice President Catalina Fortino said NYSUT will be vigilant in ensuring that the eventual move to Questar Inc., with the full involvement of teachers in the test-development process, will result in better, more accurate and reliable student assessments in ELA and math.
Fortino said NYSUT is gearing up to work with Education Commissioner Mary Ellen Elia, the Regents and Legislature toward a new teacher-principal evaluation system that is fair and meaningful, and designed to foster professional growth so educators can better serve their students. She also pointed out SED is embarking on a review -- with teachers and other educators -- of the Common Core standards.
"We need to recapture the joy of teaching and learning -- for students and teachers," Fortino said.
"That's going to take recognition that the misuse of student test scores in teacher evaluations was a mistake. We know now from research that student test scores are not a valid way to measure how a teacher is doing in the classroom, just as the state's growth model has proven to be inaccurate, unstable and unreliable," Fortino said. "We are committed to a fair evaluation system, which uses multiple measures and which helps New York's already strong teaching force grow even stronger. NYSUT is looking forward to working collaboratively toward that goal."
- Lederman case goes to court: In a related court case, Long Island teacher Sheri Lederman had her day in court Wednesday to challenge the validity of her rating based on invalid test scores. A fourth-grade teacher in Great Neck, Lederman said the state's evaluation system is based on a "statistical black box" and should be thrown out. Under Gov. Cuomo's APPR plan, her 2013-14 rating moved from "highly effective" to "effective" based on standardized test scores.
Her attorney Bruce Lederman, also her husband, said, "It may be the governor wants to jar teachers and shake up the union, but the law that was passed does not allow that."
* It should be noted that Pearson will write the tests next year and the new company Questar Inc might not be any better but at as we said, at least Karen Magee is saying something negative on testing.
Opinion: Incremental test score gains are more likely to be real
During the Bloomberg years, state and city test scores exploded, to the point that in 2009 nearly 70 percent of city elementary and middle school students were supposedly proficient in reading, and more than 80 percent were proficient in math – results that Bloomberg and his allies in the “school reform” gang could not stop boasting about.
The UFT and experts warned that these results were smoke and mirrors, and by 2013 those numbers had fallen dramatically – to 26 percent proficiency in reading and 30 percent proficiency in math, thanks to new tests based on the Common Core learning standards, and to the state’s overtly political decision to set the new passing mark very high.
It generally takes students and teachers some time to adapt to new curricula and test approaches, and it has been a slow road back. The 26 percent in reading proficiency in 2013 grew to 28 percent last year and to more than 30 percent in the most recent results. Math proficiency is now up to more than 35 percent.
An indication of real progress is the fact that the rate of increase for city reading scores this year (1.9 percentage points) was more than twice that of the state’s (0.7 percentage points). Overall, city reading scores are now close to the same level as the state’s, which has traditionally outscored the city by significant amounts in this area.
Schools set aside for special interventions also appear to show real progress. More than half the schools that have been in the UFT’s Community Schools program for more than two years showed increases in reading scores, several of them well above the average citywide increase.
On average, schools in the PROSE program, which provides schools with wide flexibility to change their instruction based on input from teachers, showed significant reading gains – up 4.8 percentage points (versus 1.9 percentage points citywide).
Despite all the clamor from “reformers” about charter schools, charter reading gains in 2015 (1.3 percentage points) were under the average gain for public schools, and, as usual, overall city charter reading scores remain below the average for public schools (with public schools’ reading proficiency average at 30.4 percent versus the charter school average of 29.3 percent).
The racial achievement gap – the difference in performance between whites/Asian students and black/Hispanic students – is a stubborn and troubling phenomenon, and a feature of local, state and national standardized tests.
The new scores did not show any major improvement in this category, though “reformers” – who were largely silent when Bloomberg and then-Schools Chancellor Joel Klein were making transparently fictitious claims about progress in this area – seem to have adopted it as a key concern since Bloomberg’s departure.
Unfortunately, a concentration on test scores obscures some important questions about the usefulness of standardized tests as a measure of educational quality. But, to the extent they do reflect reality, their incremental increases are more likely to reflect real progress based on the hard work of teachers and their students.
Michael Mulgrew is president of the United Federation of Teachers
Friday, August 14, 2015
STATE COMMISSIONER ELIA NOT WINNING OVER PUBLIC EDUCATION ACTIVISTS
A statement was put out by the Movement of Rank and File Educators, Change the Stakes, and NYC Opt Out criticizing State Education Commissioner Mary Ellen Elia for her threat to withhold funds from school districts who have high rates of students who opt-out of taking state exams (see below for full text).
We also learned yesterday that Mayor Michael Bloomberg's final Chancellor Dennis Walcott was just hired by Elia to monitor the East Ramapo School District so it really is looking like we are in for some difficult times ahead at the state level.
This is a good time to emphasize that MORE introduced a resolution at the UFT Delegate Assembly to vote no confidence in Elia, based on her prior record, right after she was hired last Spring. The Unity majority (Michael Mulgrew's faction of the UFT) turned it down.
To be fair, Elia did meet on August 4 with real fighters for public schools including Diane Ravitch, Carol Burris, Leonie Haimson (director of Class Size Matters as well as a Steering Committee member of NYS Allies for Public Education), and others. The NYSAPE recap of this meeting stated: "Our meeting confirmed what many have already surmised, Commissioner Elia is deeply committed to the Common Core standards and the test based accountability system that has led to the widespread opt out movement."
Leonie brought up other topics and said that time will tell concerning the new Commissioner.
Here is Leonie's full report on that meeting:
On August 4, we met with the new State Education Commissioner Mary Ellen Elia, along with other members of the steering committee of New York State Allies for Public Education. Though most of the discussion revolved around the defective state exams and Common Core standards and their damaging impact on our schools, I briefed her on three areas in which the state has failed to comply with the law: Ensuring that charter schools enroll and retain equal numbers of high-needs students, as required by the 2010 amendments to the charter law; that student data is protected, according to the 2014 student privacy law; and that NYC is lowering class size according to the 2007 Contracts for Excellence law. The Commissioner seemed interested and took notes; only time will tell if she improves the poor record of our previous Commissioner in fulfilling the state’s legal obligations to our children.
Speaking of class size, please sign our petition, urging the NYC Chancellor to comply with the C4E law and reduce class size. The legal deadline for submitting our comments is Saturday, August 15, which is the day after tomorrow – so this is your last chance!
The Press Release from MORE, Change the Stakes and NYCOPTOUT:
media@morecaucusnyc.org
MORE-UFT
We also learned yesterday that Mayor Michael Bloomberg's final Chancellor Dennis Walcott was just hired by Elia to monitor the East Ramapo School District so it really is looking like we are in for some difficult times ahead at the state level.
This is a good time to emphasize that MORE introduced a resolution at the UFT Delegate Assembly to vote no confidence in Elia, based on her prior record, right after she was hired last Spring. The Unity majority (Michael Mulgrew's faction of the UFT) turned it down.
To be fair, Elia did meet on August 4 with real fighters for public schools including Diane Ravitch, Carol Burris, Leonie Haimson (director of Class Size Matters as well as a Steering Committee member of NYS Allies for Public Education), and others. The NYSAPE recap of this meeting stated: "Our meeting confirmed what many have already surmised, Commissioner Elia is deeply committed to the Common Core standards and the test based accountability system that has led to the widespread opt out movement."
Leonie brought up other topics and said that time will tell concerning the new Commissioner.
Here is Leonie's full report on that meeting:
On August 4, we met with the new State Education Commissioner Mary Ellen Elia, along with other members of the steering committee of New York State Allies for Public Education. Though most of the discussion revolved around the defective state exams and Common Core standards and their damaging impact on our schools, I briefed her on three areas in which the state has failed to comply with the law: Ensuring that charter schools enroll and retain equal numbers of high-needs students, as required by the 2010 amendments to the charter law; that student data is protected, according to the 2014 student privacy law; and that NYC is lowering class size according to the 2007 Contracts for Excellence law. The Commissioner seemed interested and took notes; only time will tell if she improves the poor record of our previous Commissioner in fulfilling the state’s legal obligations to our children.
Speaking of class size, please sign our petition, urging the NYC Chancellor to comply with the C4E law and reduce class size. The legal deadline for submitting our comments is Saturday, August 15, which is the day after tomorrow – so this is your last chance!
The Press Release from MORE, Change the Stakes and NYCOPTOUT:
For Immediate Release
August 14, 2015
August 14, 2015
MORE-UFT, a rank-and-file caucus within the NYC teachers union, stands with parents of Change the Stakes, NYCOPTOUT and NYCpublic in response to New York State Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia’s statement indicating that schools may be subject to sanction and have federal Title I funding withheld for having high percentage of opt outs. These funds are intended to support the neediest students in the state. The tests have sparked controversy, both in regards to the content, which many parents and educators consider poorly designed and developmentally inappropriate, and to the high stakes attached to them, in particular, their unreliable use in the teacher evaluation system, a practice that is widely criticized and currently under review in an Albany court.
Charmaine Brown, parent of a soon to be fourth grader at P.S. 203 in District 22, Brooklyn, states, “We opt out for justice. High stakes testing has only had horrible consequences for schools with disproportionate number of Black and Latino students. Show us one instance in which a school was asked what they needed. Being aware of this, I'm horrified at her (Elia’s) response to punish our schools and our students.”
"These tests are used to rate my teachers. But the tests don't nearly begin to reflect what I learned from them. I think this is totally unfair. That's why I opted out in 8th grade," says Evan Cauthen-Brown, a new Brooklyn Tech student that graduated in June from PS/IS 187 in Washington Heights.
“It is vital that someone speak up in defense of the brave parents and students who are standing up for their rights, their educators and schools, and public education at large by refusing to participate in a testing regime they deem harmful for their children, since our union leadership has so stubbornly refused to do so,” said Dan Lupkin, a UFT Chapter Leader and Brooklyn elementary school teacher.
Jia Lee is a public school parent, teacher and UFT Chapter Leader at the Earth School in Manhattan where more than 100 students boycotted the exams. She states that the expanding opt out movement is a, “growing ground-up awareness by parents, teachers and students who don’t want to be evaluated based on an invalid metric.” Ms. Lee testified to a U.S. Senate committee on the negative consequences of the high stakes attached to flawed standardized tests.
The UFT leadership has shown hesitancy in supporting the opt out movement, refusing to endorse the I Refuse resolution introduced by MORE-UFT that is supported by nearly every local across New York State. MORE also called for a resolution of “No Confidence” in Elia at the UFT delegate assembly, only to be told by the union leadership that Elia was “a friend to teachers unions and someone we can work with.”
MORE-UFT is the Social Justice Caucus of the United Federation of Teachers. We are rank-and-file educators challenging the current leadership of the UFT in the 2016 union elections in order to fight for the public schools our children deserve.
Media Contact
Charmaine Brown/ NYCOPTOUT/ Parent at P.S. 203, District 22
Nancy Cauthen/ Change the Stakes/ Parent of Brooklyn Technical H.S. Student
Dan Lupkin/ MORE/ Elementary School Teacher
Jia Lee/ MORE/ Special Education Teacher
MORE-UFT
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
OPT OUT RATE INCREASES DRAMATICALLY IN NYS
The New York State Education Department released the test scores for the grades 3-8 Common Core English Language Arts and Math exams today. The big news is not the results, which mean next to nothing, but that the number of students opting out was way up across the state compared to last year. The opt-out rate even rose in NYC.
From NY State of Politics:
...the opt-out movement did show a spike in the number of students not taking the test. In 2014, only about 5 percent did not take the test. This year the percentage grew to 20 percent, with some districts reporting opt-out rates as high as 89 percent.
I am not a math expert but that looks like the opt-out rate quadrupled. 20% means 225,000 opt-outs.
As for NYC, we are way behind much of the state in terms of students opting out but even here, without UFT backing, the opt out rate tripled.
For those interested in the scores, again we go to NY State of Politics:
The results, released earlier this morning, showed 31.3 percent of students had "proficient" scores on the ELA examinations, while 38.1 percent had proficient results on the math tests.
Those numbers are up slightly from last year's results.
Expect some ridiculous spin from Mayor Bill de Blasio and the Chancellor Carmen Farina when we hear their reactions.
Something like this is possible: "We beat Buffalo and other upstate cities again and we are closing the achievement gap."
Do you think de Blasio and Farina will boast that 4.4% of English Language Learners were proficient this year compared to only 3.6% a year ago on the reading tests? This clearly shows our ELL scores are growing.
This blog would like to congratulate the people from Change the Stakes and all of the other parent, student groups, administrators and unions who stood behind opt-out. You did a great job and it looks like 2016 is going to be just as difficult with Governor Andrew Cuomo, Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch and Elia pushing their test and punish snake oil harder than ever.
Here is an interesting comment on opt-out from the State Education Department press release:
Department data show that students who did not take the 2015 Grades 3-8 ELA and Math Tests and did not have a recognized, valid reason for not doing so were more likely to be White, more likely to be from a low or average need district, and slightly more likely to have scored at Levels 1 or 2 in 2014. Students who did not take the test in 2015 and did not have a recognized, valid reason for doing so were less likely to be economically disadvantaged and less likely to be an ELL
Is the State Education Department going after the suburbanites who oppose Common Core? It is interesting that they put this paragraph in their press release. Remember, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan stated that opponents of Common Core tended to be "white suburban moms who - all of a sudden - their child isn't as brilliant as they thought they were, and their school isn't quite as good as they they thought they were."
UPDATE--From Politico NY: "Individual schools could lose funding if large numbers of students opt out of state standardized tests in April, state education commissioner Mary Ellen Elia said on Wednesday."
Answer from Port Jefferson Station Teachers Association Vice President Brian St Pierre via Twitter from Perdido Street School: @MaryEllenElia should know that ramifications 4 civil disobedience will only be met with greater acts of civil disobedience.
Fasten those seat-belts. This could be a very bumpy road ahead.
From NY State of Politics:
...the opt-out movement did show a spike in the number of students not taking the test. In 2014, only about 5 percent did not take the test. This year the percentage grew to 20 percent, with some districts reporting opt-out rates as high as 89 percent.
I am not a math expert but that looks like the opt-out rate quadrupled. 20% means 225,000 opt-outs.
As for NYC, we are way behind much of the state in terms of students opting out but even here, without UFT backing, the opt out rate tripled.
For those interested in the scores, again we go to NY State of Politics:
The results, released earlier this morning, showed 31.3 percent of students had "proficient" scores on the ELA examinations, while 38.1 percent had proficient results on the math tests.
Those numbers are up slightly from last year's results.
Expect some ridiculous spin from Mayor Bill de Blasio and the Chancellor Carmen Farina when we hear their reactions.
Something like this is possible: "We beat Buffalo and other upstate cities again and we are closing the achievement gap."
Do you think de Blasio and Farina will boast that 4.4% of English Language Learners were proficient this year compared to only 3.6% a year ago on the reading tests? This clearly shows our ELL scores are growing.
This blog would like to congratulate the people from Change the Stakes and all of the other parent, student groups, administrators and unions who stood behind opt-out. You did a great job and it looks like 2016 is going to be just as difficult with Governor Andrew Cuomo, Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch and Elia pushing their test and punish snake oil harder than ever.
Here is an interesting comment on opt-out from the State Education Department press release:
Department data show that students who did not take the 2015 Grades 3-8 ELA and Math Tests and did not have a recognized, valid reason for not doing so were more likely to be White, more likely to be from a low or average need district, and slightly more likely to have scored at Levels 1 or 2 in 2014. Students who did not take the test in 2015 and did not have a recognized, valid reason for doing so were less likely to be economically disadvantaged and less likely to be an ELL
Is the State Education Department going after the suburbanites who oppose Common Core? It is interesting that they put this paragraph in their press release. Remember, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan stated that opponents of Common Core tended to be "white suburban moms who - all of a sudden - their child isn't as brilliant as they thought they were, and their school isn't quite as good as they they thought they were."
UPDATE--From Politico NY: "Individual schools could lose funding if large numbers of students opt out of state standardized tests in April, state education commissioner Mary Ellen Elia said on Wednesday."
Answer from Port Jefferson Station Teachers Association Vice President Brian St Pierre via Twitter from Perdido Street School: @MaryEllenElia should know that ramifications 4 civil disobedience will only be met with greater acts of civil disobedience.
Fasten those seat-belts. This could be a very bumpy road ahead.
Tuesday, August 11, 2015
WE NEED TO USE BACK TO SCHOOL TIME TO HELP POSTAL UNION ONGOING BOYCOTT OF STAPLES
A message from the NYC boycott Staples organizers :
Teachers! We need your help and we need it now! As you may know, the US Postal Service—very like public education itself--is being attacked on many fronts, by privatizers, union-busters, those who would dismantle an essential public service out of greed, ideology and contempt for the everyday people our work serves.
Right now, the biggest assault is the attempted hijacking of the Postal Service by the Staples office supply megachain, with the complicity of top USPS management. Every Staples outlet in the country is opening a little fake post office, staffed not by postal workers but Staples employees: minimum wage, hours held under 25 week to avoid paying benefits, no training and massive turnover, no record check. The result will be shorter hours at real POs, more mishandled mail, fewer postal workers and eventual post office closings.
In response the American Postal Workers Union, strongly backed by the US labor movement, including both the AFT and NEA, has called for a boycott of Staples. Here’s what we are asking you to do:
First and foremost, don’t shop at Staples (or their online subsidiary Quill.com) and tell co-workers, students, parents to boycott them as well. We know this can be an inconvenience; Staples’ ruthless tactics have driven national competitors and local stationary stores alike out of business. But this month is crucial! What Christmas is for most merchants, August back-to-school business is for Staples. Every sale lost, every blow delivered now stings their management twice as hard, and makes them rethink their role in this program.
Second, let them know about it. Write Staples CEO Ronald L. Sargent at 500 Staples Drive, Framingham, MA 01720 and let him know that you aren’t buying at Staples and won’t until they get their greedy hands off the USPS. You can also send them an email from this url: www. staples.com/sbd/content/help-center/contact-us.html. (And let us know what you did, too. Forward a copy of your note or email to Staples to one of the Facebook Stop Staples groups like STOP STAPLES! Organizers.)
Go to Stop Staples.com for more information.
For those on Facebook, here is a link to Stop Staples NYC.
Monday, August 10, 2015
WHERE WAS THE NY POST WHEN TEACHERS WROTE ABOUT CREDIT RECOVERY AND OTHER SHORTCUTS TO HS DIPLOMAS IN 2009?
The NY Post is trying to discredit Mayor Bill de Blasio by creating a questionable narrative that standards for graduation have declined in New York City high schools since the current Mayor Bill de Blasio and Chancellor Carmen Farina took over running the schools. The Post's entire series of stories on high school graduation scams, while accurate in some ways, is suspicious.
The Post is finally acknowledging that some of the game playing may have gone on during Michael Bloomberg's time as mayor. While barely mentioning the name Bloomberg in an opinion column yesterday, Sol Stern's Post piece blames progressive educational philosophy, endorsed by Farina, for our troubled schools. That is kind of ridiculous even by the Post's standards. Do they really expect us to believe that if we only taught phonics, none of the cheating in schools would have happened? I don't hear anyone complaining about progressive education philosophy when it is used at elite private schools.
Manipulating data in public schools is mainly a result of school reform's focus on improving graduation statistics where it is next to impossible to do so legitimately because of factors such as poverty or students who are new to the English language that are way beyond the control of educators.
Susan Edelman, who has some real reporter credentials, wrote a piece in the Post Sunday on teachers in NYC high schools being pressured to have high student passing percentage rates. At least she mentions Bloomberg's mayoralty but she then states that "under de Blasio and School's Chancellor Carmen Farina, cheating and gimmicks such as quickie online courses have continued--and possibly worsened, experts say."
In reality, teachers were complaining about falling standards and meaningless high school diplomas for years but especially when Bloomberg was Mayor and reform icon Joel Klein was his Chancellor.
Where was the Post's outrage when Bloomberg was Mayor?
Please read our blog post from May 2009 that was based upon my colleague Marc Epstein's revealing op-ed piece that the Daily News published which exposed a number of shortcuts to diplomas.
Here is what Marc said about credit recovery back then:
And here's the biggest problem of all. In recent years, again driven by pressure to improve graduation rates, schools began relying more on a program known as "credit recovery." Through credit recovery, a student can get credit for a failed course after attending at least nine hours of class and completing a total of 25 hours of work.The credit-recovery classes are held during school vacations or in after-school programs. They're sometimes referred to as "boot camp," and state and city directives call for "rigorous" standards.
But one doesn't need to be an education policy expert to judge that nine hours in class is a paltry substitute for 16 weeks of class work, or even the 36 hours of summer school in the old system. What amount to extra-credit assignments cannot substitute for course proficiency. Besides, no statewide mechanism for auditing these programs really exists, so it's left up to the full faith and credit of each school. Stories about schools "stuffing" credit-recovery programs to boost graduation figures are legion.
Marc described other shortcuts to graduation in his piece such as annualized courses, easier summer school and watered down evening school programs.
Please also recall that back in 2009, in order to boost those graduation and promotion numbers, Klein magically removed the 90% minimum student attendance requirement for promotion and graduation that was part of Chancellors Regulation A-501. The Department of Education revised the attendance regulation so it was no longer a necessity for students to attend school to graduate. A student just had to "maintain a goal of at least 90% attendance." I have a goal of a million hits for this blog piece and 200,000 votes for MORE in the next UFT election. By Joel Klein's standards, we have hit the target and should be winning viral prizes and running the UFT:
I ask again:
Who was the mayor in 2009? I believe his name was Michael Bloomberg.
Who was the chancellor in 2009? That would be Post publisher Rupert Murdoch's buddy Joel Klein.
Did the NY Post call for Klein's head after some of this "creative education policy" was exposed? No they hired him to run Murdoch's education business.
Only the names and some of the hustles have changed in our schools but the game goes on. We all know that Bloomberg's diploma factories, otherwise known as many NYC high schools, are operating at full capacity under Farina. The goal of the system for years has been to graduate the students, not to educate them, in too many schools.
De Blasio and Farina have made a huge mistake, in my opinion, by continuing most of Bloomberg's education policies that emphasize pupil statistics in a field where overall student performance is often not reflective of how professionals are performing their jobs.
Nothing is new. What is different now is that the Post is making it a major political issue to bring down the mayor and the public schools.
What really needs to change is the schools "test the kids and punish the schools" culture which is why this blog is arguing for a Truth Commission so educators can expose all of the graduation/promotion shortcuts without fear of reprisal. Blame can then be placed where it belongs which is mostly on Joel Klein, Michael Bloomberg, the federal No Child Left Behind law that created the test the kids and punish the schools policy and its offspring called Race to the Top under Barack Obama which exacerbated the problem.
The NY Post has no interest in fixing any of this. They are looking to call the public schools a failure and privatize them. Such a result would not improve education but people like Murdoch and Klein would make a great deal of money selling more education snake oil to schools.
The Post is finally acknowledging that some of the game playing may have gone on during Michael Bloomberg's time as mayor. While barely mentioning the name Bloomberg in an opinion column yesterday, Sol Stern's Post piece blames progressive educational philosophy, endorsed by Farina, for our troubled schools. That is kind of ridiculous even by the Post's standards. Do they really expect us to believe that if we only taught phonics, none of the cheating in schools would have happened? I don't hear anyone complaining about progressive education philosophy when it is used at elite private schools.
Manipulating data in public schools is mainly a result of school reform's focus on improving graduation statistics where it is next to impossible to do so legitimately because of factors such as poverty or students who are new to the English language that are way beyond the control of educators.
Susan Edelman, who has some real reporter credentials, wrote a piece in the Post Sunday on teachers in NYC high schools being pressured to have high student passing percentage rates. At least she mentions Bloomberg's mayoralty but she then states that "under de Blasio and School's Chancellor Carmen Farina, cheating and gimmicks such as quickie online courses have continued--and possibly worsened, experts say."
In reality, teachers were complaining about falling standards and meaningless high school diplomas for years but especially when Bloomberg was Mayor and reform icon Joel Klein was his Chancellor.
Where was the Post's outrage when Bloomberg was Mayor?
Please read our blog post from May 2009 that was based upon my colleague Marc Epstein's revealing op-ed piece that the Daily News published which exposed a number of shortcuts to diplomas.
Here is what Marc said about credit recovery back then:
And here's the biggest problem of all. In recent years, again driven by pressure to improve graduation rates, schools began relying more on a program known as "credit recovery." Through credit recovery, a student can get credit for a failed course after attending at least nine hours of class and completing a total of 25 hours of work.The credit-recovery classes are held during school vacations or in after-school programs. They're sometimes referred to as "boot camp," and state and city directives call for "rigorous" standards.
But one doesn't need to be an education policy expert to judge that nine hours in class is a paltry substitute for 16 weeks of class work, or even the 36 hours of summer school in the old system. What amount to extra-credit assignments cannot substitute for course proficiency. Besides, no statewide mechanism for auditing these programs really exists, so it's left up to the full faith and credit of each school. Stories about schools "stuffing" credit-recovery programs to boost graduation figures are legion.
Marc described other shortcuts to graduation in his piece such as annualized courses, easier summer school and watered down evening school programs.
Please also recall that back in 2009, in order to boost those graduation and promotion numbers, Klein magically removed the 90% minimum student attendance requirement for promotion and graduation that was part of Chancellors Regulation A-501. The Department of Education revised the attendance regulation so it was no longer a necessity for students to attend school to graduate. A student just had to "maintain a goal of at least 90% attendance." I have a goal of a million hits for this blog piece and 200,000 votes for MORE in the next UFT election. By Joel Klein's standards, we have hit the target and should be winning viral prizes and running the UFT:
I ask again:
Who was the mayor in 2009? I believe his name was Michael Bloomberg.
Who was the chancellor in 2009? That would be Post publisher Rupert Murdoch's buddy Joel Klein.
Did the NY Post call for Klein's head after some of this "creative education policy" was exposed? No they hired him to run Murdoch's education business.
Only the names and some of the hustles have changed in our schools but the game goes on. We all know that Bloomberg's diploma factories, otherwise known as many NYC high schools, are operating at full capacity under Farina. The goal of the system for years has been to graduate the students, not to educate them, in too many schools.
De Blasio and Farina have made a huge mistake, in my opinion, by continuing most of Bloomberg's education policies that emphasize pupil statistics in a field where overall student performance is often not reflective of how professionals are performing their jobs.
Nothing is new. What is different now is that the Post is making it a major political issue to bring down the mayor and the public schools.
What really needs to change is the schools "test the kids and punish the schools" culture which is why this blog is arguing for a Truth Commission so educators can expose all of the graduation/promotion shortcuts without fear of reprisal. Blame can then be placed where it belongs which is mostly on Joel Klein, Michael Bloomberg, the federal No Child Left Behind law that created the test the kids and punish the schools policy and its offspring called Race to the Top under Barack Obama which exacerbated the problem.
The NY Post has no interest in fixing any of this. They are looking to call the public schools a failure and privatize them. Such a result would not improve education but people like Murdoch and Klein would make a great deal of money selling more education snake oil to schools.
Sunday, August 09, 2015
FIREFIGHTERS VS UFT RAISES COMPARED
FIREFIGHTERS (UFA) RAISES V UFT RAISES
2008-2010 - 4% +4% paid then* 2009-2011 - 4% +4% paid from 2015-2020*
Aug 1, 2010 - 1% increase Nov 1, 2011 - 0% increase
Sept 1, 2011 - 1% increase Nov 1, 2012 - April 2013 - 0% increase
Oct 1, 2012 - 1% increase May 1, 2013 - 1% increase
Nov 1, 2013 - 1% increase May 1, 2014 - 1% increase
Dec 1, 2014 - 1.5% increase May 1, 2015 - 1% increase
Dec 1, 2015 - 2.5% increase May 1, 2016 - 1.5% increase
Dec 1, 2016 - 3% increase May 1, 2017 - 2.5% increase
June 16, 2018 - 3% increase
Some of the non wage agreement and costs are listed toward the bottom of the city's press release. Judge for yourself how well the UFA did as newer workers will have an additional 3% pension contribution to win back greater disability pensions.
The big difference is no 18 months of zeros for the firefighters that the teachers were stuck with and the money they worked for from 2008-2010 was paid back in those years while UFT members have to wait until 2020 to be paid in full. UFA retroactive since 2010 will be paid up front; they won't have to wait from 2015 through 2020 for arrears as teachers are now waiting.
It will take twelve years for teachers to completely catch up with what UFA members and most other city workers made in the last round of bargaining. In reality, we will never fully recover as inflation means a 2020 dollar will not be worth as much as a 2008 dollar and the city isn't giving us any interest.
It will take twelve years for teachers to completely catch up with what UFA members and most other city workers made in the last round of bargaining. In reality, we will never fully recover as inflation means a 2020 dollar will not be worth as much as a 2008 dollar and the city isn't giving us any interest.
*From the last round of collective bargaining with the city and municipal unions.
Friday, August 07, 2015
UNIFORM FIREFIGHTERS PACT ADHERES TO UNIFORM PATTERN, BEATS MULGREW'S PATTERN*
The Uniform Firefighters Association (UFA) has agreed to a tentative contract with the city. Firefighters will receive an 11% wage increase over 7 years. That is 1% higher than the UFT civilian pattern setting contract negotiated by Michael Mulgrew and in line with the pattern set for uniform city workers. Health cost savings are part of the deal too. In addition, firefighters and the city agreed to go to the Legislature in Albany to seek higher disability pensions for those hurt in the line of duty.
For those who need a refresher, pattern bargaining means one union settles with the city on a contract for a given raise, then there is a pattern that the city adheres to when they negotiate agreements with other city workers. Breaking the pattern is virtually impossible. The civilian pattern set by the UFT was a 10% salary increase over 7 years. The pattern for uniform employees is a little higher. Pattern bargaining has been upheld many times by arbitration panels who settle or recommend contracts.
The UFA agreement leaves the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association and the Corrections Officers as the only two major city unions who have not settled contracts with Mayor Bill de Blasio. The PBA is in binding arbitration. If they win and beat the pattern to actually win a decent deal, it will be one of the greatest upsets in the history of municipal labor settlements. My understanding, however, is arbitrators can only award a settlement for two years and the first two years of the uniform pattern are something like 1% and 1%. The PBA contract would be expired the day the arbitration panel awards it.
Maybe the PBA is hoping to break the pattern by getting increases higher than 1% and 1% for those two years the arbitrators will decide and then defeating this mayor to work on a better deal with a successor. Their tough talking, controversial President Patrick Lynch easily won reelection in June with 70% of the vote. Whether one likes Lynch, the police and the PBA or not, he has demonstrated that a union leader will be backed by the membership if he/she defends the rank and file with everything he/she has.
It may have been a better strategy for the UFT to let arbitrators recommend our last contract where pattern bargaining pretty much assured us 4% + 4% over two years as DC 37 agreed to a pattern setting 4%+4% contract without givebacks back in 2008. The UFT was in non-binding fact finding arbitration when Mulgrew settled for our nine year contract in 2014.
We could have taken the two year settlement and then held out for a better pattern for the current round. Had we done that, we would have had that retroactive money already and our salaries would be higher than they are today since the money from that last DC 37 settlement is being added to our salaries in stages through 2018 and the arrears won't be paid in full until 2020. If an arbitration panel would have recommended an arrangement where we had to defer back pay, the UFT could have said no and upped the negotiation ante.
The city may have struck a deal with another union to set the same weak pattern anyway but our back pay case would have been robust and we could blame the poor pattern as another justification for why we need the back pay up front. As an alternative, the Municipal Labor Committee could have let the PBA go first because they have the best case to make that police officers make much less than their counterparts in the surrounding areas. Besides the pattern, arbitrators also look closely at what other similar employees earn as well as the city's ability to pay.
Had we just stood tall, the economic reality is the city certainly would have had the ability to pay more than we are getting. If we wanted to help the city financially, we could have improved our working conditions as an alternative. We did not (school based committees on paperwork and PROSE schools are not gains in working conditions nor is interminable professional development on Mondays).
In the end, we didn't wait so the city pocketed the savings. De Blasio ended the recent fiscal year with a $5.9 billion surplus, thanks in large part to the miserly municipal labor contracts, and conditions in the schools have not improved. As I have been saying since May 2, 2014, the day Mulgrew set the substandard pattern that all city employees are stuck with, our contract was a missed opportunity.
*The title was changed in response to a comment and some offline stuff.
For those who need a refresher, pattern bargaining means one union settles with the city on a contract for a given raise, then there is a pattern that the city adheres to when they negotiate agreements with other city workers. Breaking the pattern is virtually impossible. The civilian pattern set by the UFT was a 10% salary increase over 7 years. The pattern for uniform employees is a little higher. Pattern bargaining has been upheld many times by arbitration panels who settle or recommend contracts.
The UFA agreement leaves the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association and the Corrections Officers as the only two major city unions who have not settled contracts with Mayor Bill de Blasio. The PBA is in binding arbitration. If they win and beat the pattern to actually win a decent deal, it will be one of the greatest upsets in the history of municipal labor settlements. My understanding, however, is arbitrators can only award a settlement for two years and the first two years of the uniform pattern are something like 1% and 1%. The PBA contract would be expired the day the arbitration panel awards it.
Maybe the PBA is hoping to break the pattern by getting increases higher than 1% and 1% for those two years the arbitrators will decide and then defeating this mayor to work on a better deal with a successor. Their tough talking, controversial President Patrick Lynch easily won reelection in June with 70% of the vote. Whether one likes Lynch, the police and the PBA or not, he has demonstrated that a union leader will be backed by the membership if he/she defends the rank and file with everything he/she has.
It may have been a better strategy for the UFT to let arbitrators recommend our last contract where pattern bargaining pretty much assured us 4% + 4% over two years as DC 37 agreed to a pattern setting 4%+4% contract without givebacks back in 2008. The UFT was in non-binding fact finding arbitration when Mulgrew settled for our nine year contract in 2014.
We could have taken the two year settlement and then held out for a better pattern for the current round. Had we done that, we would have had that retroactive money already and our salaries would be higher than they are today since the money from that last DC 37 settlement is being added to our salaries in stages through 2018 and the arrears won't be paid in full until 2020. If an arbitration panel would have recommended an arrangement where we had to defer back pay, the UFT could have said no and upped the negotiation ante.
The city may have struck a deal with another union to set the same weak pattern anyway but our back pay case would have been robust and we could blame the poor pattern as another justification for why we need the back pay up front. As an alternative, the Municipal Labor Committee could have let the PBA go first because they have the best case to make that police officers make much less than their counterparts in the surrounding areas. Besides the pattern, arbitrators also look closely at what other similar employees earn as well as the city's ability to pay.
Had we just stood tall, the economic reality is the city certainly would have had the ability to pay more than we are getting. If we wanted to help the city financially, we could have improved our working conditions as an alternative. We did not (school based committees on paperwork and PROSE schools are not gains in working conditions nor is interminable professional development on Mondays).
In the end, we didn't wait so the city pocketed the savings. De Blasio ended the recent fiscal year with a $5.9 billion surplus, thanks in large part to the miserly municipal labor contracts, and conditions in the schools have not improved. As I have been saying since May 2, 2014, the day Mulgrew set the substandard pattern that all city employees are stuck with, our contract was a missed opportunity.
*The title was changed in response to a comment and some offline stuff.
Thursday, August 06, 2015
REMEMBER THOSE HEALTH COST SAVINGS FROM THE CONTRACT
A somewhat forgotten aspect of the current municipal union seven year contracts is $3.4 billion of health cost savings the unions agreed to. Politico New York (formerly Capital NY) reported that the city has achieved its savings goals for the first two years but we still really don't know about the future.
In the current round of collective bargaining, the UFT set an abysmally low municipal union pattern for salary increases by agreeing to 10% over 7 years plus a month and we also agreed to let the city add the 4% + 4% that other municipal union workers received from 2008-2010 in stages so we won't have the money fully added to our salaries until 2018. In addition, the money we already worked for from 2009-2011 that the city owes us won't be paid to us fully until 2020 and without interest.
Throw into this mix weaker and even non existent tenure protections for Absent Teacher Reserves and we have one ungenerous contract. (ATRs automatically resign if we miss two mandatory interviews which because of communication mix ups happened last year on too many occasions.) One result of our substandard settlement is we helped produce a gargantuan $5.9 billion city surplus. Meanwhile, Bloomberg style management continues in the schools so it should be easily understood why teachers might not have the highest morale these days. This is not the end of the story. We still haven't come up with the bulk of the health cost savings we owe the city.
Those $3.4 billion in health cost savings are being used to fund some of our minimal salary increases. The big bill for these savings is coming soon. The Politico NY story said the healthcare savings targets for the first two years of the contracts of $400 million and $700 million were met or will be achieved. Politico calls those savings "low hanging fruit." Meeting these targets where nobody really noticed is positive news. However, the health cost savings figure jumps higher in the next two years.
One solution being offered is to attempt to get more city workers to opt out of their health benefits by offering them higher cash payments in exchange. We could live with that too.
However, buried deep in the Politico story comes this bit in the last paragraph:
The administration is looking at several other ways to reduce health spending, including increasing copays for emergency room visits, which, in theory, would encourage employees to avoid expensive visits unless they are true emergencies.
I wonder what other ways to reduce health spending means in addition to higher ER visit costs. It looks as though we might be able to weather this storm without having healthcare premiums taken from our paychecks but I am not as optimistic that there will not be changes that will have the effect of reducing our benefits. Yes, municipal worker benefits are pretty good compared to what others receive but the municipal labor force is a huge pool of workers which should spread the risk and we are supposed to have powerful unions supporting us.
10% salary increases over 7 years + a month, retroactive money not paid fully until 2020, weaker due process for ATRs, no real working condition improvements and healthcare savings thrown in for good measure. This is with our so called progressive Mayor Bill de Blasio. The press should be crowing about how de Blasio tamed the UFT and other unions by negotiating a pattern setting contract that is more fiscally advantageous to the city than anti-union Republican mayors could achieve.
I'm not surprised by de Blasio's sinking poll numbers. His enemies are going to hate him no matter what he does and when a politician shortchanges his friends, they remember too. Union leaders might love our mayor but the rank and file I have spoken with are not enamored with him. It would be wise for the mayor not to cut any health benefits between now and Election Day 2017.
In the current round of collective bargaining, the UFT set an abysmally low municipal union pattern for salary increases by agreeing to 10% over 7 years plus a month and we also agreed to let the city add the 4% + 4% that other municipal union workers received from 2008-2010 in stages so we won't have the money fully added to our salaries until 2018. In addition, the money we already worked for from 2009-2011 that the city owes us won't be paid to us fully until 2020 and without interest.
Throw into this mix weaker and even non existent tenure protections for Absent Teacher Reserves and we have one ungenerous contract. (ATRs automatically resign if we miss two mandatory interviews which because of communication mix ups happened last year on too many occasions.) One result of our substandard settlement is we helped produce a gargantuan $5.9 billion city surplus. Meanwhile, Bloomberg style management continues in the schools so it should be easily understood why teachers might not have the highest morale these days. This is not the end of the story. We still haven't come up with the bulk of the health cost savings we owe the city.
Those $3.4 billion in health cost savings are being used to fund some of our minimal salary increases. The big bill for these savings is coming soon. The Politico NY story said the healthcare savings targets for the first two years of the contracts of $400 million and $700 million were met or will be achieved. Politico calls those savings "low hanging fruit." Meeting these targets where nobody really noticed is positive news. However, the health cost savings figure jumps higher in the next two years.
One solution being offered is to attempt to get more city workers to opt out of their health benefits by offering them higher cash payments in exchange. We could live with that too.
However, buried deep in the Politico story comes this bit in the last paragraph:
The administration is looking at several other ways to reduce health spending, including increasing copays for emergency room visits, which, in theory, would encourage employees to avoid expensive visits unless they are true emergencies.
I wonder what other ways to reduce health spending means in addition to higher ER visit costs. It looks as though we might be able to weather this storm without having healthcare premiums taken from our paychecks but I am not as optimistic that there will not be changes that will have the effect of reducing our benefits. Yes, municipal worker benefits are pretty good compared to what others receive but the municipal labor force is a huge pool of workers which should spread the risk and we are supposed to have powerful unions supporting us.
10% salary increases over 7 years + a month, retroactive money not paid fully until 2020, weaker due process for ATRs, no real working condition improvements and healthcare savings thrown in for good measure. This is with our so called progressive Mayor Bill de Blasio. The press should be crowing about how de Blasio tamed the UFT and other unions by negotiating a pattern setting contract that is more fiscally advantageous to the city than anti-union Republican mayors could achieve.
I'm not surprised by de Blasio's sinking poll numbers. His enemies are going to hate him no matter what he does and when a politician shortchanges his friends, they remember too. Union leaders might love our mayor but the rank and file I have spoken with are not enamored with him. It would be wise for the mayor not to cut any health benefits between now and Election Day 2017.
Wednesday, August 05, 2015
TEACHER'S CHOICE THIS YEAR IS $122; WE MUST SPEND BY JANUARY 8, 2016
We received our Teacher's Choice email from UFT Staff Directors Ellie Engler and Leroy Barr on Monday. Here is what teachers and other school based UFT members need to know:
1-The allocation has increased to $122 for Teachers. Counselors, Social Workers and Psychologists are allocated $55. Lab Specialists get $40 to spend and Secretaries receive $28. The money will be added to late November pay.
2-The DOE says funds must be spent by January 8, 2016, which is a couple of months earlier than usual. August 1, 2015 was the start date. Save those receipts. January 15, 2016 is the due date to submit the receipts. Here is a link to the accountability form that must be turned in with the receipts.
3-For those who do not wish to participate, there is a a DOE opt out letter that can be filled out and submitted by October 23, 2015. ICEblog does not recommend opting out.
The entire email from the UFT is copied below.
Dear James,
We hope you are enjoying your summer.
Every year, you and other New York City educators spend money out of your own pockets on materials you need to do your job in the coming school year.
We’re pleased to tell you that thanks to your advocacy efforts we have won a 62 percent overall increase in the Teacher's Choice funding to $9.65 million to help cover these expenses in the 2015–16 school year. Through social media and member lobbying, you helped to show the City Council the direct impact of Teacher's Choice on student learning.
The amount for teachers has increased to $122 for the coming school year. We know that many of you spend several times this amount every year on materials. The increase this year will help to offset some of your expenses.
As in previous years, to participate in Teacher’s Choice, you will need to submit receipts as proof of purchase. These receipts must accompany a Statement of Purpose/Accountability form, which you will find under key documents on the DOE’s Teacher’s Choice website. Purchases must be made between Aug.1, 2015 and Jan. 8, 2016 to qualify for Teacher's Choice.
For more information, please see the Teacher’s Choice section of the UFT website.
Sincerely,
LeRoy Barr and Ellie Engler
Staff Directors
1-The allocation has increased to $122 for Teachers. Counselors, Social Workers and Psychologists are allocated $55. Lab Specialists get $40 to spend and Secretaries receive $28. The money will be added to late November pay.
2-The DOE says funds must be spent by January 8, 2016, which is a couple of months earlier than usual. August 1, 2015 was the start date. Save those receipts. January 15, 2016 is the due date to submit the receipts. Here is a link to the accountability form that must be turned in with the receipts.
3-For those who do not wish to participate, there is a a DOE opt out letter that can be filled out and submitted by October 23, 2015. ICEblog does not recommend opting out.
The entire email from the UFT is copied below.
Dear James,
We hope you are enjoying your summer.
Every year, you and other New York City educators spend money out of your own pockets on materials you need to do your job in the coming school year.
We’re pleased to tell you that thanks to your advocacy efforts we have won a 62 percent overall increase in the Teacher's Choice funding to $9.65 million to help cover these expenses in the 2015–16 school year. Through social media and member lobbying, you helped to show the City Council the direct impact of Teacher's Choice on student learning.
The amount for teachers has increased to $122 for the coming school year. We know that many of you spend several times this amount every year on materials. The increase this year will help to offset some of your expenses.
As in previous years, to participate in Teacher’s Choice, you will need to submit receipts as proof of purchase. These receipts must accompany a Statement of Purpose/Accountability form, which you will find under key documents on the DOE’s Teacher’s Choice website. Purchases must be made between Aug.1, 2015 and Jan. 8, 2016 to qualify for Teacher's Choice.
For more information, please see the Teacher’s Choice section of the UFT website.
Sincerely,
LeRoy Barr and Ellie Engler
Staff Directors
Tuesday, August 04, 2015
UNIONS SHOULD FINALLY PLAY SOME HARD BALL CHALLENGING STATISTICS
I don't want to rewrite what I wrote last week about how the statistics in New York City high schools are basically as phony as a three dollar bill in many schools and have been for a long time. We called for a truth commission to expose what has gone on since school reform began under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
More evidence came out in four related NY Post articles the last few days. In one, the Post found a student to admit that she did not deserve to have passed a class that she needed for high school graduation. They called this a student's stunning plea. As I was walking through the city Monday, I came upon a newsstand and saw the Post's front page headline on schools. In the story, a teacher said giving kids passing grades is just about making the school look good and we teachers are pressured to pass em all. Last night the Post continued the onslaught, as if they had discovered gold, as they interviewed other teachers about undeserving pupils who pass. I'd like to send a memo to the NY Post: this is old news. It's been going on for years. The Post even covered transcript fixing in the past.
There is nothing surprising about this pupil or the school where it happened, Bryant High School, As long as there are high stakes for principals and teachers attached to student graduation and passing rates, games are going to be played in multiple schools to get the students to graduate. Some are legal and some are not. The goal of education today is to graduate the students, not to educate them in too many instances. The kids do receive an education about how they don't have to meet much of any standards to graduate and thus some pupils don't do much. Can you blame them?
The Post just discovered this! I have news for their editorial board that wants to fire Chancellor Carmen Fariña: pressure to pass students at all costs went on during Mayor Michael Bloomberg's years just as much if not more than under the current regime of Mayor Bill de Blasio and Fariña. It is just a continuation of bad policy. I found something from blogger Chaz dating back to 2006 complaining about social promotion of eighth graders. The Post editorial board is very late to this dance.
By threatening schools with receivership (where principals and teachers can be replaced) or renewal and labeling them struggling, persistently struggling or God only knows what else, the problem of administrators trying to manipulate data is going to continue as adults do what they have to in order to protect their livelihoods. The elite of this city can bring in as many investigators, prosecutors and reporters as they want but someone is still going to find a way to play the game to make themselves look good and most will find ways to do it legally.
We all know that student test results are well beyond teacher control for the most part but this doesn't matter to the power elite in this country that has for the most part given up on public schools and quite probably would be elated to see our schools fail.
Manipulating numbers is the inevitable result of tying teacher and principal ratings to student performance. Many students are not interested in school and when they find out educators will take the blame if they fail, they play the game to their advantage.
The best way to stop the statistical hocus-pocus would be for the UFT and CSA (principal and assistant principal union) to tell the Mayor we are no longer going to play the numbers game. Instead, we would encourage members to expose everything that is occurring and has occurred in numerous schools throughout the system since school reform took hold when Joel Klein was Chancellor.
I'm glad to see that Perdido Street School on Sunday linked to my brother Professor John Eterno's work showing that crime numbers were not on the level for a long time just like school statistics. Perdido is correct that de Blasio is being judged totally differently than Bloomberg on crime. De Blasio now has a real opportunity to work with the unions to expose the numbers game. He has only been in office for a year and a half so he can still plausibly claim he inherited this problem and he is going to solve it. This would give him a built in reason to explain why the statistics aren't so good that will work for a while. Make the story the integrity of the numbers and not improvement of statistics. He can actually then be the champion of unions that he is accused of being, but in reality he has not been, since taking office.
De Blasio attempting to do Bloomberg lite on data more than likely will not succeed. The most probable response to the Bryant kid who didn't attend class much but still passed will be to say it is an isolated incident and then condemn one or two people who will take the fall. The Post will then go scouting for the next school where unhappy employees will blow the whistle and it will go on and on. Better to get out in front of this and put the blame where it belongs on school reform and the whole test the kids and punish the educators evaluation system now in place. If de Blasio doesn't change course, we can pretty much be certain the press will not relent because some of the media seem to have an agenda to bring him down.
When Police Commissioner Bill Bratton says overall crime is down, it is the second part of the story now. The first part is murders are increasing. The media is going to jump on every report they can find where grades have been played with and every shooting is going to be a front page headline to make de Blasio look bad.
In the schools, silence from our union because they love the mayor and chancellor is just going to encourage teachers to go rogue and report incidents anyway. The UFT and CSA leadership would probably wish for everything to be swept under the rug. I've got news for the mayor, chancellor and union leadership: you are not going to convince many teachers to play nice when too many principals are hammering teachers over the head every day. It's easier to enforce silence in a para-military agency like the Police Department.
The 2016 presidential election will probably dominate the political news in New York for the next year and change. However, after November 2016, all political eyes in NYC will turn to the 2017 mayoral race. Does anyone believe de Blasio's budget surpluses are going to garner huge headlines? No, it will be the negative news.
To further emphasize how accentuating de Blasio's negatives has already begun, AM New York has an editorial that is justifiably critical of de Blasio for breaking his promise on lowering class size. Has lower class size traditionally been a big media editorial issue? In 2017 schools will be a big reelection issue and the press will use de Blasio's broken promise on lower class size, the failure of Renewal Schools, or if they succeed, cheating in Renewal Schools, or maybe a combination of failure and cheating, to clobber him.
The UFT's strategy will probably be to tell teachers to look the other way as the numbers game is played in the schools. This might not work as planned as the press along with frustrated teachers may blow the whistle all over the place. This could be one factor leading to a right wing Democrat or a Republican being elected to City Hall.
I would rather see a union course correction now which is why this blog called for a truth commission that goes back to the Bloomberg years. We could call for it throughout the city agencies.
Note one more time how the Post didn't call it a scandal and demand Chancellor Joel Klein's resignation when it was revealed how transcripts were blatantly changed to give kids credit at Jamaica High School in 2010 when Bloomberg was mayor, nor did they scream and yell for heads to roll after other incidents from the Bloomberg era. The current mayor is scored very differently. Why not call them on it using union power?
I realize a push to end the game and challenge the very tenets of school reform is a very risky proposition for a politician or unions to take but this is a real chance to shine the light on what is really happening inside many schools under so called education reform.
You got a better idea, I'm so all ears. (I stole that line from a Mitch Easter song so credit where it is due.)
More evidence came out in four related NY Post articles the last few days. In one, the Post found a student to admit that she did not deserve to have passed a class that she needed for high school graduation. They called this a student's stunning plea. As I was walking through the city Monday, I came upon a newsstand and saw the Post's front page headline on schools. In the story, a teacher said giving kids passing grades is just about making the school look good and we teachers are pressured to pass em all. Last night the Post continued the onslaught, as if they had discovered gold, as they interviewed other teachers about undeserving pupils who pass. I'd like to send a memo to the NY Post: this is old news. It's been going on for years. The Post even covered transcript fixing in the past.
There is nothing surprising about this pupil or the school where it happened, Bryant High School, As long as there are high stakes for principals and teachers attached to student graduation and passing rates, games are going to be played in multiple schools to get the students to graduate. Some are legal and some are not. The goal of education today is to graduate the students, not to educate them in too many instances. The kids do receive an education about how they don't have to meet much of any standards to graduate and thus some pupils don't do much. Can you blame them?
The Post just discovered this! I have news for their editorial board that wants to fire Chancellor Carmen Fariña: pressure to pass students at all costs went on during Mayor Michael Bloomberg's years just as much if not more than under the current regime of Mayor Bill de Blasio and Fariña. It is just a continuation of bad policy. I found something from blogger Chaz dating back to 2006 complaining about social promotion of eighth graders. The Post editorial board is very late to this dance.
By threatening schools with receivership (where principals and teachers can be replaced) or renewal and labeling them struggling, persistently struggling or God only knows what else, the problem of administrators trying to manipulate data is going to continue as adults do what they have to in order to protect their livelihoods. The elite of this city can bring in as many investigators, prosecutors and reporters as they want but someone is still going to find a way to play the game to make themselves look good and most will find ways to do it legally.
We all know that student test results are well beyond teacher control for the most part but this doesn't matter to the power elite in this country that has for the most part given up on public schools and quite probably would be elated to see our schools fail.
Manipulating numbers is the inevitable result of tying teacher and principal ratings to student performance. Many students are not interested in school and when they find out educators will take the blame if they fail, they play the game to their advantage.
The best way to stop the statistical hocus-pocus would be for the UFT and CSA (principal and assistant principal union) to tell the Mayor we are no longer going to play the numbers game. Instead, we would encourage members to expose everything that is occurring and has occurred in numerous schools throughout the system since school reform took hold when Joel Klein was Chancellor.
I'm glad to see that Perdido Street School on Sunday linked to my brother Professor John Eterno's work showing that crime numbers were not on the level for a long time just like school statistics. Perdido is correct that de Blasio is being judged totally differently than Bloomberg on crime. De Blasio now has a real opportunity to work with the unions to expose the numbers game. He has only been in office for a year and a half so he can still plausibly claim he inherited this problem and he is going to solve it. This would give him a built in reason to explain why the statistics aren't so good that will work for a while. Make the story the integrity of the numbers and not improvement of statistics. He can actually then be the champion of unions that he is accused of being, but in reality he has not been, since taking office.
De Blasio attempting to do Bloomberg lite on data more than likely will not succeed. The most probable response to the Bryant kid who didn't attend class much but still passed will be to say it is an isolated incident and then condemn one or two people who will take the fall. The Post will then go scouting for the next school where unhappy employees will blow the whistle and it will go on and on. Better to get out in front of this and put the blame where it belongs on school reform and the whole test the kids and punish the educators evaluation system now in place. If de Blasio doesn't change course, we can pretty much be certain the press will not relent because some of the media seem to have an agenda to bring him down.
When Police Commissioner Bill Bratton says overall crime is down, it is the second part of the story now. The first part is murders are increasing. The media is going to jump on every report they can find where grades have been played with and every shooting is going to be a front page headline to make de Blasio look bad.
In the schools, silence from our union because they love the mayor and chancellor is just going to encourage teachers to go rogue and report incidents anyway. The UFT and CSA leadership would probably wish for everything to be swept under the rug. I've got news for the mayor, chancellor and union leadership: you are not going to convince many teachers to play nice when too many principals are hammering teachers over the head every day. It's easier to enforce silence in a para-military agency like the Police Department.
The 2016 presidential election will probably dominate the political news in New York for the next year and change. However, after November 2016, all political eyes in NYC will turn to the 2017 mayoral race. Does anyone believe de Blasio's budget surpluses are going to garner huge headlines? No, it will be the negative news.
To further emphasize how accentuating de Blasio's negatives has already begun, AM New York has an editorial that is justifiably critical of de Blasio for breaking his promise on lowering class size. Has lower class size traditionally been a big media editorial issue? In 2017 schools will be a big reelection issue and the press will use de Blasio's broken promise on lower class size, the failure of Renewal Schools, or if they succeed, cheating in Renewal Schools, or maybe a combination of failure and cheating, to clobber him.
The UFT's strategy will probably be to tell teachers to look the other way as the numbers game is played in the schools. This might not work as planned as the press along with frustrated teachers may blow the whistle all over the place. This could be one factor leading to a right wing Democrat or a Republican being elected to City Hall.
I would rather see a union course correction now which is why this blog called for a truth commission that goes back to the Bloomberg years. We could call for it throughout the city agencies.
Note one more time how the Post didn't call it a scandal and demand Chancellor Joel Klein's resignation when it was revealed how transcripts were blatantly changed to give kids credit at Jamaica High School in 2010 when Bloomberg was mayor, nor did they scream and yell for heads to roll after other incidents from the Bloomberg era. The current mayor is scored very differently. Why not call them on it using union power?
I realize a push to end the game and challenge the very tenets of school reform is a very risky proposition for a politician or unions to take but this is a real chance to shine the light on what is really happening inside many schools under so called education reform.
You got a better idea, I'm so all ears. (I stole that line from a Mitch Easter song so credit where it is due.)
Monday, August 03, 2015
HARRIS LIRTZMAN TELLS TEACHERS POLITICAL PROCESS IS DEAD END FOR THE MOST PART
Over at Perdido Street School, guest blogger Harris Lirtzman has a fascinating piece on teachers and the American political system that is required reading. Basically, teachers have been left without a home as both major parties have pretty much abandoned the public schools and the teachers. For example, New Jersey Governor and Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie wants to punch us in the face while almost all of the Senate Democrats, including the sainted Bernie Sanders, voted for the Murphy Amendment which Diane Ravitch said would intensify the federal test the kids and then punish the teachers accountability system in our schools.
Harris makes the case that we need to vote Democratic to preserve what little we have but focus our energies on rebuilding our unions in order to activate our members so that the politicians will have to pay real attention to us at some point. Here is the final part of his informative essay.
Education progressives who have an understanding of practical politics in this country will recognize what most progressives learned in 2000. Any education progressive who says now that there is no difference between the Democratic and Republican Parties has not been watching what's been happening in this country since 2000 very closely.
The Republican Party, with whom teachers have aligned themselves on education policy issues, caught rabies in 2004. The Republican Party, wherever it has been able to, pursues an agenda that means death for every other thing that educational progressives support. Any educational progressive who is not a “single issue” radical will support the Democratic Party whoever its nominee is and abandon the insanity of the Republican alliance that will have returned education policy to the states, where progressive education policy goes to die its own death, in return for momentary relief from federal testing and accountability mandates.
Unfortunately, the story does not end will for educational progressives. Except in small parts of the country where individual Democrats care enough about educational progressivism to make it an issue, educational reformers will be able to pursue the same goals they have for the last two decades.
If the cost of political engagement for educational progressives is that we are forced in the end to make a “Sophie’s Choice” between our own progressivism and the fuller range of progressivisms that we support then I say let us leave politics behind.
Let us reform our unions, if we can. Let us fight to protect teachers who are able to survive the education reform movement in their workplaces. Let us preserve collective bargaining and dues check-off. Let us develop a robust range of mutual support capabilities to preserve teaching as a proud profession. Let us think about new strategies that the weakness of our political position demands—particularly building strong and vital alliances with other parts of the progressive movement, especially with people of color—and let us focus on the long, hard, unglamorous work that might turn the vast majority of apolitical teachers into education progressives.
Let us think about almost anything except how "educational progressives" can find a home in or be saved by the American political process.
Because we can’t and because we won’t.
It is not a pretty picture that Harris paints but can anyone argue with the conclusion?
Harris makes the case that we need to vote Democratic to preserve what little we have but focus our energies on rebuilding our unions in order to activate our members so that the politicians will have to pay real attention to us at some point. Here is the final part of his informative essay.
Education progressives who have an understanding of practical politics in this country will recognize what most progressives learned in 2000. Any education progressive who says now that there is no difference between the Democratic and Republican Parties has not been watching what's been happening in this country since 2000 very closely.
The Republican Party, with whom teachers have aligned themselves on education policy issues, caught rabies in 2004. The Republican Party, wherever it has been able to, pursues an agenda that means death for every other thing that educational progressives support. Any educational progressive who is not a “single issue” radical will support the Democratic Party whoever its nominee is and abandon the insanity of the Republican alliance that will have returned education policy to the states, where progressive education policy goes to die its own death, in return for momentary relief from federal testing and accountability mandates.
Unfortunately, the story does not end will for educational progressives. Except in small parts of the country where individual Democrats care enough about educational progressivism to make it an issue, educational reformers will be able to pursue the same goals they have for the last two decades.
If the cost of political engagement for educational progressives is that we are forced in the end to make a “Sophie’s Choice” between our own progressivism and the fuller range of progressivisms that we support then I say let us leave politics behind.
Let us reform our unions, if we can. Let us fight to protect teachers who are able to survive the education reform movement in their workplaces. Let us preserve collective bargaining and dues check-off. Let us develop a robust range of mutual support capabilities to preserve teaching as a proud profession. Let us think about new strategies that the weakness of our political position demands—particularly building strong and vital alliances with other parts of the progressive movement, especially with people of color—and let us focus on the long, hard, unglamorous work that might turn the vast majority of apolitical teachers into education progressives.
Let us think about almost anything except how "educational progressives" can find a home in or be saved by the American political process.
Because we can’t and because we won’t.
It is not a pretty picture that Harris paints but can anyone argue with the conclusion?
Saturday, August 01, 2015
AFT MEMBERS SUPPORT HILLARY VIDEO (PLEASE READ THE COMMENTS ON YOU TUBE)
The comments on the AFT supports Hillary video are more entertaining than the video.
As a non-Hillary, non-Sanders supporter, I will leave the editorializing to you.
As a non-Hillary, non-Sanders supporter, I will leave the editorializing to you.
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