Ed Notes Online
Debate: When Common Core is Attacked from the right, does the left form coalitions?
To me this, this about coalition building around individual issues as opposed to finding completely like-minded folks. I have experienced a couple of folks who to me, are extreme in our "camp." I have also worked with folks whose understanding of the world is quite different than mine. Through dialogue, we find areas of agreement and areas where we can mutually support each other. We
The Hero Superintendent Debunked
Supt Miles, the dancing queenMiles’ first year in Dallas was a nasty one. One-quarter of the district’s principals were gone after that year, including some favorites in South Dallas and Oak Cliff, where schools earned high marks from the state. Their departures sparked a fight with black community leaders like Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price, who circulated a letter to pastors accusin
JAN 02
Jerry Godfeder: Two Powerful Weapons in De Blasio’s Arsenal to Take On Albany
A revised constitution could upend the city’s subordinate relationship to Albany, ensuring greater self-governance. ... Jerry GoldfederFrom an old pal, Jerry Goldfeder, one of the leading experts on election law. Jerry lined up with the Quinn campaign - shhhh!He was once a teacher in the late 60s and part of our early activists group in the early 70s. He and his wife Alice are still part of the e
Katie Lapham's Speech at John King's Common Core Brooklyn Forum
Katie was first on line ahead of the Student First/E4E astroturf crew that dominated the meeting after her, praising the CCSS to the sky. You know I find it funny. From the day I began to teach in 1967 the NY State standards seemed fine. In fact, the problem we had in high poverty area schools was getting anywhere near these standards. NY State had some of the highest standards in the world pre-CC
First PUBLIC SCHEDULE FOR CHANCELLOR CARMEN FARIÑA
A new day dawns - for better or for worse. MEDIA ADVISORYFor Planning Purposes OnlyJanuary 1, 2013PUBLIC SCHEDULE FOR CHANCELLOR CARMEN FARIÑAThursday, January 2, 20148:00 A.M. Arrives at Department of Education Headquarters Tweed Courthouse 52 Chambers StreetMANHATTAN*Photo opportunity only*1:30 P.M.Visits M.S. 223 The Laboratory School of Finance and Technology M.S. 223 The Laboratory School o
MORE Zooms in on CCSS - and the Union Connection Plus Mercedes Schneider 10 Myths
I find it remarkable the degree to which AFT and Randi Weingarten will go in order to protect and promote CCSS. One of the more telling pieces is a post Weingarten wrote for Huffington Post entitled, Will States Fail the Common Core?– As though CCSS is a personality, complete with feelings that will be hurt by states’ betrayal. ... Mercedes Schneiderit has been the teacher unions -- from the Shank
Gene Prisco Memorial, Sunday, January 5, 2014, 2-4PM
I still can't come to grips with Gene being gone. We spent New Years Eve at Loretta's house in Staten Island with some of the crew who have been together socially and politically since the early 70s, the crew that founded the Coalitions of NYC School Workers in the 70s and ICE a decade ago. Paul Baizerman, another core member, died 2 years ago.Sunday will be quite an event -- if you knew Gene or k
JAN 01
Video - Union leadership connections: To the Words of "Backstabbers"
Let's get the New Year off to a rousing start. his has been floating around since May - but I don't think I shared it yet.The video was produced by a parent activist opposed to high stakes testing named Sara Wottawa who had a piece published on Diane Ravitch's blog.Published on May 19, 2013 This Video has been made to bring awareness to teachers that their union has sold them out. Many parents i
DEC 31 2013
Message to Farina and de Blasio: Undo the Damage
"The schools of Baghdad and Kabul will recover sooner than the NYC school system under your management." ... Norm Scott to Joel Klein --- quoting my self from a c.2004-6 PEP meeting.Eterno and Epstein: Revoke Jamaica High School's Death Sentence... NEW YEAR APPEAL TO INCOMING MAYOR AND CHANCELLOR: SAVE THE COMPREHENSIVE HIGH SCHOOLS, ICE Blog.I love to quote myself. Carmen Farina was sit
Newark: Cami Anderson Uses Network Model to Kill Neighborhood Schools
UPDATED: If Carmen Farina wants to make a quick mark she should begin dismantling the Networks - ASAP. They are a mechanism purposely designed to destabilize the links between a school and the neighborhood. As our pal from Newark points out here, they are a national tool of ed deform to make it easier to soften up neighborhoods for charter school invasions.Reports from a Newark teacher:Cami Anders
Summer School for Teachers Report from an Undisclosed Urban Location
Dropped from a drone, found on a Rockaway beach. I won't say which city but it is not NYC.I had the privilege of attending ten days of training in a Summer Institute. The primary advantage of attending the institute is I lost the last two weeks of my treasured summer vacation.My district has adopted Responsive Classroom, which I have nicknamed snapping and clapping. When the teacher is pleased wit
DEC 30 2013
Farina With Support of Real Reformers Has Chance to End 12 Years of Toxicity
The appointment of Carmen is the best news that has come out in education in 2013. I am eternal optimist and believe that maybe, just maybe things will turn around. After going to some training that Carmen gave way back when, I completely changed the way I taught. Those were the best years of my very long career.... Loretta Prisco, ICEMay amateur hour be finally and mercifully over.... Raging Hors
Farina the Choice
Bloomfield also predicted that Farina and her staff would implement a longer-term cultural change at Tweed. “There will be a new system-wide respect for educational experience,” he said, “there are a lot of people fresh out of college who either as a matter of data expertise or particular program expertise tell principals what’s needed. There will probably be an early but not immediate conversatio
Who's to Blame? Round up on Lawrence Scott and Natalya Sokolson Gordon
Let's see now. An investigator for OSI so abuses his position by trying to extort sexual favors from a teacher under the threat of a losing her job and the most that happens to him is that he is forced to resign? Shouldn't he be doing a perp walk?I posted the story this morning - NY Post Points to Corruption in OSI, DOE Investigations Unit? and others have too. Chaz reminded me that he did an expo
Patrick Sullivan resigns from NYC Board of Education (formerly the PEP)
This is a sad day for the children, teachers and parents of the city. I've watched Patrick Sullivan often be the lone voice of sanity in the midst of the sickness of ed deform.We hope that one of Bill de Blasio's first steps is to appoint Patrick back to the newly constituted Board of Education (which we no longer expect to be called the PEP since by law -- which Bloomberg violated for 12 years --
DEC 29 2013
Skynet is Coming: On the movie "Her", artificial intelligence, neural networks and The Terminator
In coming years, the approach will make possible a new generation of artificial intelligence systems that will perform some functions that humans do with ease: see, speak, listen, navigate, manipulate and control. NY Times The scary thing is that I actually understood today's NY Times front-page story "Brainlike Computers, Learning From Experience." In the late 80s I really did study th
NY Post Points to Corruption in OSI, DOE Investigations Unit?
In a meeting at his office on Nov. 14, 2012, Gordon said, Scott boasted that he could get teachers fired — or off the hook. “I have the power to get rid of you just like that,” she said he told her, snapping his fingers, “or I can make everything go away.” The scandal undermines the integrity of the DOE’s Office of Special Investigations, where Scott worked for three years... NY PostUPDATE FROM PO