Friday, January 24, 2020

CARRANZA RESIGNATION WOULD NOT SOLVE SCHOOL SYSTEM'S MAIN PROBLEMS

I read the letter that the Queens Chronicle editors imagine Richard Carranza writing in which he tenders his resignation (see below).

Note to the Chronicle: Changing chancellors will not matter very much. The primary problem is a mayoral dictatorship over our NYC schools. As long as one unitary executive has complete power over our education system in this city, the schools will continue to be a no accountability zone. The main job of the school system will not be to educate kids but to make numbers look good for the mayor, even if it means fraud.

Bill de Blasio is a lame duck mayor. What does he care if the graduation rate the schools are producing is bogus and everyone knows it? The low stakes National Assessment of Education Progress scores are essentially flat. Young people are not suddenly getting smarter. They are just being pushed through to make the last two mayors look good. De Blasio will just keep repeating that NYC has the highest graduation rate ever and saying that we are investigating and dealing with a small number of cheaters.

In reality, the data driven obsession that started with Michael Bloomberg has just continued under de Blasio and his two chancellors who have kept the Bloomberg-Joel Klein bureaucratic, anti-teacher culture intact. The UFT has mostly been silent (forget the part of the editorial where they say the UFT is not happy). The Union is mainly quiet in my opinion because de Blasio answers Michael Mulgrew's phone calls and yes this mayor has been better on charter schools so Mulgrew talks about NYC as a model system. That is a big mistake but Mulgrew has even less accountability than the chancellor. Just read the comments here and you can see what a nightmare teaching has become for many teachers in NYC. Carranza is a symptom. The disease will continue to spread until there are some real checks and balances in the schools. The UFT used to be a powerful check. It no longer is. (The UFT won't be more effective if it is weakened by mass defections unless the dissidents start a new union so please spare me the comments on not paying dues.) 

It's up to us to scream and yell and do whatever we have to in order to make the UFT again a check by calling out what is going on instead of leaving it to Sue Edelman or Salim Algar at the NY Post or the Safety Agents' Union or the Council of Supervisors and Administrators.

The Chronicle editorial:

Rather than continuing to sow racial divisions, to walk out on aggrieved parents, to wink and nod at grade-fixing, to alienate elected officials and to allow little girls to get pummeled in the middle school cafeteria, New York City Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza should resign. He’s welcome to do so by copying and pasting the following onto his letterhead and having it delivered.
Dear Mayor de Blasio (Bill),

It is with heavy heart that I write, but I have no choice.

As you know, when confronted by parents in Bayside, Queens, whose children had been assaulted by other students — one of them sexually, along with months of harassment — I turned tail and ran. I had to. Sure, this was at a meeting of the District 26 Community Education Council and there were cops in the room, but it was scary. I don’t know what these outerborough parents are capable of, and I’m the chancellor — I can’t let them touch a perfect hair on my head.

You saw the video of that girl getting a beatdown at MS 158. Man, she got pounded. That one teacher made a half-hearted attempt to grab her, but then he let her go and she just kept on going. That’s when she jumped onto and off the table to carry on the assault like some pro wrestler. It would have been nice if the teachers actually stopped her before she got back on the table to do that victory dance, but can you blame them? They’d get sued, and we’d just have to settle. Plus, we’re all about restorative justice, not stopping kids from doing what they please through physical measures.

So now we’ve got the teachers union saying the lack of discipline is lowering morale and making it harder to manage classes. The CEC put out an announcement that mocked me between the lines. Seven elected officials, from City Hall to Capitol Hill, issued a letter demanding answers.

I’ve got none, your honor. I’m an ideologue and I’m afraid.

Everything else is a mess, too. In nearby District 28, we’re trying to get Jamaica parents to let their kids be bused to Forest Hills and vice versa because we have to force desegregation. These people just keep moving into neighborhoods with other people who look like them! And when we come in and tell them there’s a better way, just put your 12-year-old on that city bus for a couple hours a day, they get all upset. We have to make a show of getting “community input,” but man, imposing change from above is stressful.

You saw how we failed to do that with the Specialized High School Admissions Test. Of course fewer Asian kids will get into the SHSAT schools if we make it so more black and Hispanic students do; we all know that. But those darn parents fought us and they won! Now if we want a more balanced enrollment, like it was years ago, we’ll have to do it the old-fashioned way, and improve the elementary and middle schools black and Hispanic kids attend. That’s hard!

And you know I have it on impeccable sources that when a Queens Chronicle editor asked Rep. Grace Meng if she thought I was dealing with the SHSAT from a position of good faith, there were about five seconds of silence before she said I had a lot of ground to make up for but she’s willing to work with me. The air was heavy in those moments!

We both know kids aren’t learning better than when I arrived. Graduation rates are up, but that’s because standards are down. If that wasn’t the reason, the kids would be doing better on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, and they’re not. Think Maspeth High School is the only one where the staff helps kids cheat? Think again.

I couldn’t take the heat in Bayside, my friend, and I gotta head out. This whole town should be called Hell’s Kitchen!

Richard A. Carranza

Chancellor, New York City Department of Education

15 comments:

  1. If Carranza looked differently than he does and said and done what he has, he wouldn't only be fired but the woke media establishment and social(ist) media would have prosecuted him for hate crimes.

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  2. There must be a concerted effort from all constituencies to stop mayoral control of schools - once and for all time. If teachers and the UFT don’t get on board next time, they’ll be exiting the station and handing their keys to Eva.

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  3. The chancellor is just a reflection of the mayor who appoints him or her. Deblasio is a weasel and so is Carranza.

    Other than attend meetings, write memos, and provide jobs for friends, what does the chancellor do?

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  4. At this point we should only take a chancellor who has been a teacher fpr 15 plus years in DOE. I wouldnt' care if a 20 year school safety 'guard who school chacncellor. Anyone like that would be better than the last two combined.

    One thing for sure we need do not need anymore pussy dems like dibloasio, cuomo, bitch face carrananza. LAW AND ORDER!!!

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  5. What do you mean by instead leaving it to Sue Edelman? UFT and CSA will keep abusing us unless the public finds out about what is really going on. Ending mayoral control of schools is political – NYC parents needs to read and learn about the fraud that is being perpetuated by admins and what is being covered up in our schools.

    Don't expect reporters like New York Times's Eliza Shapiro to do the investigative work and write about the grade-fixing or the safety issues, other than Renewal she's practically a mouthpiece for the de Blasio administration. Who else is reporting about what is really going on in schools other than the Post? Chalkbeat?

    It is just a matter of time before a teacher is killed by a student inside a school. The fear of getting a 3020-a from breaking up fights is too great so most teachers won’t dare.

    Our best bet is documenting and reporting the fraud and retaliation from admins to NYC council member Robert Holden at District30@council.nyc.gov because they certainly wouldn’t hesitate to throw us teachers under the bus if shit hits the fan. Shit WILL hit the fan.

    If the public finally finds out the true extent of immense fraud and corruption from the doe-uft partnership under mayoral control they'll finally realize the disaster its been and stop blaming the teachers.

    At that point there would be a backlash like we never seen before and the mayor, chancellor, Mulgrew, UFT, CSA and pretty much every politician who voted for mayoral control will be yelling and pointing fingers at each other. Admins will go after teachers - no admin is going to be afraid of teachers because Sanders says he will empower them. No they’ll be afraid only when the public finds out about their corruption and crimes they have committed and face justice.

    A new mayor won’t help as much as people think as long as mayoral control is around - lets not forget Bloomberg who wanted to fire wholesale veteran teachers and hire non-educational administrators to run schools. You think that can’t happen again with the next mayor?

    I’m telling every young person I know that teaching for the NYCDOE just isn’t worth the stress and abuse on their psyche.

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  6. Shit has already hit the fan.

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  7. My biggest question is why do people keep voting for Mulgrew every time he's up for reelection. Also, why do we keep voting yes for the contracts and then we complain that nothing is changing?

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  8. “Together We Create Success!”

    www.ms158q.com

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  9. Some interesting documents...


    Principal’s Guide to the Quality Review 2019-2020:

    https://infohub.nyced.org/docs/default-source/default-document-library/quality-review-principals-guide_19-20.pdf


    Last two Quality Review Reports for MS 158 Q:

    www.nycenet.edu/OA/SchoolReports/2015-16/Quality_Review_2016_Q158.pdf

    www.nycenet.edu/OA/SchoolReports/2018-19/Quality_Review_2019_Q158.pdf


    Last four Comprehensive Educational Plans for MS 158 Q (The one for the current school year doesn’t seem to be online yet.):

    www.nycenet.edu/Documents/oaosi/cep/2015-16/CEP_Q158.pdf

    www.nycenet.edu/Documents/oaosi/cep/2016-17/CEP_Q158.pdf

    www.nycenet.edu/Documents/oaosi/cep/2017-18/CEP_Q158.pdf

    www.nycenet.edu/Documents/oaosi/cep/2018-19/CEP_Q158.pdf

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  10. 1106, I voted against mulgrew, against the contract and opted out. Should I be brought up on charges, I will defend myself. What more can I do?

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  11. Haha, check the Post, FBI probing widespread academic fraud. I warned all of you.

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  12. Who's going to squeal first? The teachers or the admins?

    January 25, 2020 New York Post

    FBI probes allegations of ‘deep-rooted’ academic fraud in NYC schools

    The feds have started looking into allegations of widespread academic fraud in New York City schools, a Queens lawmaker says.

    City Councilman Robert Holden met this month with officials in the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York after his call for a federal probe of “deep-rooted fraud” in the city Department of Education.

    “I’m encouraged by my meeting with the US Attorney. His team is taking this seriously,” Holden told The Post.

    FBI agents have already contacted several whistle-blowing teachers whose names he provided, Holden added.

    A spokesman for US Attorney Richard Donoghue declined comment.

    Holden sent a letter in November to Donoghue in Brooklyn and US Attorney Geoffrey Berman in Manhattan, saying “an apparent pattern of conspiracy to cover up” grade-fixing, cheating and other wrongdoing might warrant an investigation under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), which covers criminal enterprises.

    In Atlanta, eight educators were convicted under a RICO statute of manipulating student test scores and sentenced to prison in 2015.

    Holden turned over records compiled by former and current faculty members at Maspeth High School in Queens, where teachers say administrators encouraged cheating on exams, enforced a “no-fail policy,” and retaliated against staffers who didn’t play ball.
    Enlarge Image
    Special Commissioner of Investigation Anastasia ColemanSpecial Commissioner of Investigation Anastasia Coleman

    Meanwhile, Holden and The Post received additional whistle blower-letters from anonymous “investigative staff” with the Special Commissioner of Investigation for city schools.

    “While SCI is doing more work, the quality of the cases being pursued is zero-to-none, and cases that are systematic in nature or that do show major fraud can’t be worked on because of a lack of resources or time,” the letter says.

    It also complains that SCI lawyers “have taken up to 300 days or more” to review and close cases — leaving DOE employees in limbo even if accusations are unsubstantiated.

    What’s more, SCI has started closing cases “in-house” rather than sending reports to the DOE, the Conflicts of Interest Board or other agencies, to cover up the delays — and avoid making them subject to public disclosure under the Freedom of Information Law.

    Councilmen Mark Treyger, education committee chairman, and Ritchie Torres, investigations and oversight chairman, have said they plan to hold a hearing on SCI’s performance and effectiveness next month.

    “It’s increasingly apparent that we need an investigation to investigate the investigators,” Holden said.

    Coleman did not respond to the allegations. “SCI will not comment on pending matters or internal deliberations and office management,” the agency said in a statement.
    A similar letter sent last summer said SCI was sitting on cases alleging waste or misconduct by Mayor de Blasio, First Lady Chirlane McCray, Chancellor Richard Carranza and other “high-level executives,” to protect them. Special Commissioner Anastasia Coleman denied the accusation.

    The new letter blasts Coleman for a “numbers game” — boosting stats with minor cases rather than focusing on more serious misconduct and systemic corruption, in an effort to make herself look good.

    For instance, the letter says, SCI in 2019 launched a probe of a DOE employee “seen urinating in public a few blocks from a school.”

    The case was assigned to “Team 1,” an elite unit that is supposed to probe sexual contact between staff and students.

    The team was also burdened with cases in which administrators “merely forgot to check a box” in submitting a complaint.

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  13. So long as Carranza remains racist against Asians, it is about him. Mayoral control is a factor, yes, but let's not pretend Carranza's racism hasn't played a role in the current environment.

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