Ed Notes Online
Say Wha?Rhee Hubby Kevin Johnson Leads NBA Union Search
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/18/sports/basketball/nba-players-reset-union-search-with-kevin-johnson-as-point-man.html?hpw&rref=sports&_r=0N.B.A. Players Reset Union Search With Kevin Johnson as Point ManHis tenure has not been free of controversy; in 2012, he was fined $37,000 by the Fair Political Practices Commission for failing to report $3.5 million in donations he solicited for char
APR 17
Norm in The Wave: High Stakes Testing Opt-Out Movement Takes Off
Published Friday, April 18, 2014 www.rockawave.comHigh Stakes Testing Opt-Out Movement Takes Off By Norm ScottStories of numerous parents in the city and around the state who have begun a revolt against high stakes testing by having their children refuse to take the tests have recently broken into the mainstream media. Even school principals in Brooklyn and Manhattan have led post-ELA test rallies
Wall Street Journal on ATRs: Deconstructing the Inherent Bias
The ATR Issue Heats Up as astro-turf Ed Deformer groups (E4E, Students First, TNTP) Attack on all fronts. Educators 4 Excellence-New York, an advocacy group of more than 8,000 teachers... Leslie Brody, WSJWTF-- E4E is a group that has practically zero representation in NYC schools despite massive amounts of funding and full-time organizers, yet is given credence in this article. I bet MORE, a true
Teachers Unite Membership Drive
I was one of the first members of Teachers Unite and continue to support the work of the organization. Jose Alfaro was an early distributor of Ed Notes when I took it citywide in 2002 at Fannie Lou Hamer HS (it was only a publication for the Delegate Assembly for the previous 5 years). Teachers Unite provides the space for people like Jose to continue doing the work he did before he retired.What's
APR 16
Change The Stakes Responds To New Doe Promotion Policy
http://changethestakes.wordpress.com/2014/04/16/3186/ Change the Stakes Responds to New DOE Promotion Policy April 16, 2014 · by Change the Stakes · Bookmark the permalink. · FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Jane Maisel or Nancy Cauthen, changethestakespress@gmail.com By announcing that state test scores will no longer be the primary factor in promotion decisions, the NYC
Ed Deformer Hedge Funders Looting Public Employee Pensions
So when you invest your pension money in hedge funds, you might be paying a hundred times the cost or more, you might be underperforming the market, you may be supporting political movements against you, and you often have to pay what effectively is a bribe just for the privilege of hiring your crappy overpaid money manager in the first place. What's not to like about that? Who could complain?...
NYSUT in Sea of Red Ink
On paper, the union reported a $30 million deficit on its most recent 990 IRS form. Union officials say that cash shortfall was really less than $8 million. Either way, it’s a flow of red ink that union officials acknowledge continues today.... Capitol ConfidentialIn Chicago when CORE took over - after running on a promise to reduce salaries of union officials - they found the union $4 million in
Jean Anyon "Radical Possibilities" Updated
Read about the late Jean Anyon's enormous impact at Kiersten Greene's Mediated blog: How Do I Even Express…Just got this from the publisher. I ordered a review copy which I will share with anyone who will write a review.If nothing changes, urban school reform is doomed to failRoutledge publishes a thoroughly revised and updated new edition of Jean Anyon’s classic Radical Possibilities that addres
APR 15
Parents Who Fought Off School Resistance to Opt-Out Led to Modifed Policy
The students were told by one teacher if they opted out, they would not be part of the "culture" of the school. They would be different and not be able to be part of the after-test celebrations. We wanted to meet with the principal but at this point we were simply getting the party-line and things were moving too slowly (the ELA test was in just three weeks). Two parents from the school
How Bloomberg/Klein Undermined a Voluntary Integration Program on the Lower East Side
Lisa Donlan has been telling the story for many years. Now this recent report condemning the NYC school system as one of the most segregated in the nation validates what Lisa has been reporting. This is from Community Education Council 1 on the LES.Below are captions from NYS segregation report talking specifically about District One:http://civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/research/k-12-education/integ
APR 13
Indypendent Comprehensive Coverage of the Common Core/Opt-Out Movement
Common Core resistance reflects an awareness of the metastasis of standards-based reforms into broader swaths of the American school system. “The changes in public education beginning to touch suburban communities, white or black” says Royal, “have touched us already in urban communities.” Opt-out parents like Brooklyn New School parent Elsass, who is white, acknowledges this dynamic. “We’re somew
Newark Teacher Responds to an Ed Deformer
"When trust is low-as it is presently in Newark, there are not enough data decks, community presentations, evidence, research, or Power Point presentations, to keep good people from reading bad things into evolving plans developed by outsiders, who are perceived as less interested in helping children than in building their resumes for personal gain. In a bifurcated, oppositional, often conten
DOE Use Arrest Tactic to Stop Teachers Stop Teachers Wh Fight Back Publicly
The nest of vipers that is DOE legal has grown like a cancer and infested the NYPD where cops arrest fellow unionists for protesting abusive administrator tactics. We've been waiting for the Lydia Howrilka case to go public since the Portelos arrest a few weeks ago for his satiric blog post. In many ways this is even more egregious -- a principal who ends a first year teacher's career with a Disco
UFT Astroturf AQE Wants "Credit" for Horrendous Cuomo Ed Budget with Charter Giveaway
At certain critical moments in labor struggles, things really do evolve to the point of it all being about Them and Us.Them: so-called reformers, made up of edu-preneurs, privateers, malanthropists, PR flacks and advocates, opportunists, naifs, parasites and political enablers: the entire reform-industrial complex. Them.Us: classroom teachers, students, parents and supporters of public education a
APR 12
LA Teacher Gains Public Support for Standing Up to Student Disruptor
Groundswell of support for teacher who wrestled disruptive student to the floor shows the public is fed up with the disciplinary problems and bureaucracies that impede education....When the cellphone video made the evening news, the student's family was offered support by the district's superintendent — who publicly chastised Black and placed the teacher on leave.... For many of us, this goes beyo
Coney Island Prep Charter Schools Publicly Shame Students
“It is in their handbook that they subject their students to wear an orange tee-shirt over their uniform when they are Out of the PRIDE, when they’re not given enough money in their paycheck,” asserted CEC 21 Treasurer and local parent Randi Garay at a Parent Education Program (PEP) meeting with the Department of Education (DOE) last October. “When they’re Out of the PRIDE, they miss out on enrich
Reaching Kids with Street Law 101: Jeff Kaufman Featured in Article in School Stories
A fascinating piece on Jeff and his teaching career. Where did they get that MORE is left wing? They must not know about Mike Schirtzer.http://school-stories.org/2014/03/street-law-101/Reaching Kids with Street Law 101by Annum Khan Posted on 28 March 2014. It was sixth period in Jeff Kaufman’s Street Law class in Aspirations Diploma Plus High School in Brooklyn. Homicide was the subject of the da
Test, Charter Parent/Teacher Protest Roundup
Blown away! Boycotting Teachers from Chicago sent these flowers of solidarity to Colin, Emmy and myself!.. Jia LeeTwo of my students from last year just emailed me a video of themselves tearing up their ELA prep books... Lauren Cohen feeling proud Lots of coverage on the tests but not very much on Thursday's anti-charter Cuomo giveaway. Testing opponents reaching critical mass. Charter issue still