With A Brooklyn Accent:
With A Brooklyn Accent Go BATs All Week
When I Talk About Prison and Prison Education: It's Personal
Some of you may be wondering why I am defending a Prison Education initiative offered by a Governor whose other Education policies I despise. I can give you a detailed political explanation for my position, and ask you to read Michelle Alexander's "The New Jim Crow" but in truth, the reasons why this issue is so important to me are as much personal as political, rooted in a few powerful
What Testing is Doing to Special Needs Students: An NYC Teacher's Lament
I teach high school economics. Due to our absurd scheduling policy anyone can end up in this class, anyone from freshmen to seniors. Before I begin to tell the plight of my students it would be pertinent to mention that I am dual certified in social studies and special education, and I'm finally teaching what I am certified to teach. Out of all my IEPs a whopping 60% are out of compliance, and th
FEB 20
A History Lesson from the Civil Rights Movement for Anti-Testing Activists
The non violent Civil Rights movement of the 1950's and 1960's did not hold most of their meetings in public. If they did, those meetings would have been broken up and those organizing and attending them would have faced severe retaliation. Organizers persuaded frightened people to get up the courage to register to vote or protest a segregated facility at tens of thousands of small meeting in home
FEB 18
Why I Will Never Raise My Voice Against Funding Prisoner Education
If any of you wonder why I will never raise my voice against funding Prisoner Education, even if the politician supporting it is someone I despise, here's one good reason:I teach on the Bronx campus of Fordham University. In side the campus, there are as many people selling and using drugs as there are outside the campus gates Yet in the 40 plus years I have been teaching there, I have never heard
FEB 14
The Romance Is Gone From Predatory School Reform
Driving home from work today, I had an epiphany I wanted to share with you. And it is this. Even though terrible things are happening to teachers and students and families all over the nation, the Romance is gone from Predatory School Reform. It has been reduced to naked power, greed, and opportunism. And while this may bring little immediate relief to teachers having their pensions hijacked and t
FEB 13
Why NY Principals Founder Carol Burris sees the Ball/Zeldin Bill in the NY State Legislature as a Step Forward:
It is the closest thing to a true moratorium that I have seen and it will strike a huge blow against standardized testing and evaluating teachers by test scores. Here is why.It BANS the use of state tests for retention, placement, gifted programs...everything but AIS. That means that it will make it much easier for opt out and it will protect students.The tests have to be made public, which will d
FEB 09
Democracy at Risk in the Nation's Schools
Because current Education Policies were made without the consent or input of those who experience them on the ground- teachers, students, and parents- they only way they can be implemented is through an ugly dose on of fear and intimidation, first on the teachers required to teach according to their precepts, then on the students and families who have to adapt to them. Anyone who protests the poli
FEB 08
A Gates Foundation Dictatorships - A Response to My Video on "Common Core Stealth Standards"
"Letter I just got in response to what I said about Bill Gates in my "Common Core Stealth Standards" Speech ( now on youtube)Dear Mr. Naison,I apologize for contacting you at your Fordham email, but I just watched a youtube video of your talk about the Common Core Stealth Standards, and had something to share. I am hoping you won’t mind. In your talk, I felt the last year and a half