Ed Notes Online
Ravitch and Weingarten Misdiagnose Pearson Issue by A Newark Teacher
By shrouding the test in secrecy, Pearson denies information to teachers to help diagnose student needs. The tests become useless by having no diagnostic value. ...teachers will be fired and students will be failed and schools will be closed without seeing the validity of the instruments of punishment. This is wrong.Diane Ravitch These gag orders and the lack of transparency are fueling the growi
Parent Activists Expose Chalkbeat Bias in Letter to Editor
We are concerned that your inadequate and one-sided coverage of the forced privatization of our schools has been unduly influenced by the same forces that have biased the Governor – the huge pocketbooks of the organizations and financiers that back them. ...Is Chalkbeat a wholly owned subsidiary of Walmart?Chalkbeat’s failure to assign a reporter to the event glaringly contrasts with your close
Rosie Rocks: Explaining Teacher Opposition to High Stakes Testing
I'm so glad I leaned in and taped this fantastic interview MORE/NYCORE member Rosie Frascella did with a PIX reporter -- you won't see this on the air. As Rosie spoke I kept saying (to myself) - "wow, wow, wow" as she heated up and her passion about teaching came through so clear. Rosie's interview is the best commercial teachers could have - and if the UFT had any brains they would turn
APR 24
Teachers Unite Meeting Saturday, noon at Ya-Ya
I can't make the TU meeting due to the MORE meeting (morecaucusnyc General Meeting Sat. 4/26) I am an original TU member. I just don't have the time to get involved deeply in the work they do ... I am more focused right now on the work MORE is doing in the union and the work Change the Stakes is doing on testing. But the work Teachers Unite does is very important. This Saturday they are focusing i
Where is the Right Wing on the Charter Takeover of Local Education?
How interesting that the right opposes common core because they see it as mandates from the federal government but ignores parent trigger laws and the charter school movement, which are more invasive takeovers of local education control - by both government fiat (see NYState Cuomo backed charter give-away law removing mayoral authority to charge rent or deny space in public schools.)On the surface
Eva Moskowitz/Success Academy Once Again Prove It's About Real Estate, not Children
Today's reports at Chalkbeat point to the phony show Eva put on yesterday about gaining space for her 3 poor little denied charters. Even the usually fawning press looked through the cracks to see that there were actually negotiations going on while Eva openly lied to say they were not.What the press is not getting is that what Eva is really complaining about is that she is not getting the 3 hand-
APR 23
Join CTS in Test Protest on the Steppes of Tweed Thursday, April 24th, 4PM
Bodies do count -- real bodies, not phony ones Eva closes her schools for. So if people help pack the steps of Tweed into overflow, it does make a difference. So, yes, I shall leave the comfort of my backyard and shlep into the city for the event - camera in holster. Hope to see you there.Please join us for rally and press conference to demand Not One More Year Lost – Our Children are More than a
Shades of the NYSUT Split: Cuomo Aims to Avert 3rd Party Challenge by Undermining Working Family Party
...the fact that the party’s activists and unions are not currently on the same page means, at the very least, a challenge from the left could get as messy for them as it is for Cuomo ... Does the party exist primarily for the purposes of contracts and pensions, or for the broader ideals of economic and social justice? If solely for contracts and pensions, is labor’s recent success at the bargain
APR 22
A Harlem Public School With Long Waiting List Struggles Against Eva/Succes Expansion
I always questioned those phantom charter waiting list - used politically to claim demand. The press always mentions the point favorable to charters but never talks about demand for the public schools. Here is a great example where a Harlem public school sharing space with the avaricious Eva that had 10 applications for every open position - yet is being forced to give up even more space to one of
Fred Smith: Leonie brings Gloom and Doom to InBloom, Dragon Slayer Kills the Demon Seed
The accolades are rolling in for Leonie Haimson on the inBloom closing announcement. Leonie's campaign should written up in textbooks. She won a major war against the leading ed deformers.Just look at this list from Diane Ravitch:The company was started with a grant of $100 million from the Gates Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation, to gather confidential student data and store it on an electr
APR 20
Join Change the Stakes Thursday, 4PM at Tweed - OK, Folks - It's Time to Take a Stand Against Testing
Please join us in NYC for a Rally to demand an end to high stakes testing.Not One More Year Lost - Our Children Are More Than a Test Score!We demand accountability at the top, not on the backs of our children!Thursday, April 24th @ 4 PM (press conference to precede rally) New York City Department of Education, 52 Chambers Street in NYCShare the flier and accept and share the event Facebook invitat
Teachers Unite: What's Your Story? Features Old Pal Matthew Guldin
We were at Sally Lee and Josh Heisler's wedding when right there in front of my eyes was Matthew Guldin who I hadn't seen for a while. We began jumping around like teenagers. He and I were in the same political group in the 70s/80s - The Coalition of NYC School Workers and hadn't seen each other in a while. Turns out that Josh and Matthew had worked together. Then he retired and has been working w
Newark Teacher on Christie, Cami... Sirota Hints at
... I don't care about community criticism. We run the school district in Newark, not them....Governor Chris Christie Ras Baraka, a mayoral candidate who is also Central High School’s principal, said Christie "told the truth at least." "He does run the school district, not us. That’s why we need to get rid of him," Baraka said Wednesday. "To say that he doesn’t care about
Susan's Sunday Special
Some good reading for a Sunday morning from Susan Ohanian.The fact that the announcement I sent out yesterday never arrived is a sign of the site's current troubles. Sometimes it works fine; other times it is very slow loading. Thanks to Eric's hard work, we are moving to a new server. But this takes time and money so please be patient.I know I could go with one of those free blogs but I cling to
APR 18
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