Perdido Street School:
Why Wasn't Michelle Rhee Investigated For Taping Children's Mouths?
Perdido Street School Week
Why Wasn't Michelle Rhee Investigated For Taping Children's Mouths?
From the Daily News:A New Jersey substitute teacher is in a sticky situation after she allegedly slapped tape across loud-mouthed third-graders as part of something she called the “quiet game,” school officials said.The teacher has been removed from a list of possible substitutes used at Winfield Scott School No. 2 in Elizabeth after the May 29 incident, when five children told their parents, who
Zephyr Teachout Wants To Make Testing/Teacher Evaluation Protest A Centerpiece Of An Anti-Cuomo Campaign
Jummy Vielkind at Capital NY:ALBANY—Zephyr Teachout says it will be at least another week before she decides whether to mount a left-flank challenge to Governor Andrew Cuomo. “My decision is based on whether I can put together the resources to mount a credible challenge and to get on the ballot,” Teachout, a Fordham law professor, said Friday during a trip to Albany. Teachout said she is not ready
YESTERDAY
Rahm Emanuel's Vulnerability
Kaen Lewis says Rahm Emanuel isn't the "bad-ass" he pretends to be:When Emanuel exited the Beltway in late 2010 to run for Chicago mayor, he had the tacit backing of a current president and the overt support of a former one. He won the race to succeed Richard M. Daley, and expectations ran high that Washington’s supreme enforcer was just the person to tame the Wild Midwest.Now, just nine
Politics and Corruption
The Daily News on Mayor de Blasio's wealth: Mayor de Blasio has few liquid assets and a rather meager retirement account, according to his financial disclosure report, which was released Thursday. The limited holdings are in contrast to the fortune of his predecessor, Michael Bloomberg, one of the world’s richest men. While Bloomberg needed more than 100 pages to list his vast holdings, including
How's That Deal With Cuomo Working Out?
It took all of a few days before Andrew Cuomo made it quite clear that he does not intend to live up to his end of the bargain he made with Working Families Party for their endorsement: ALBANY -- Republicans Thursday mocked Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo for vowing to help Democrats take over the State Senate, and then, days later, touting his ties with GOP legislators. Republicans called it a "180-deg
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka Pushed For Endorsement Of Cuomo
Those of you paying close attention to the machinations of the union leadership around the Cuomo re-election campaign will not be surprised by this news:Before a deal was made to ensure New York’s leading progressive party endorsed Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s reelection bid, negotiators were in touch with one of the top labor leaders in the country.AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said Thursday in an inte
Why is Cuomo Hiding?
For a guy who's running for re-election, we see an awful lot of this on his schedule:Gov. Andrew Cuomo is in New York City with no public schedule. It's a little more than 5 months to election day and he is the incumbent with a large campaign war chest and a wide lead in the polls now that the Working Families Party has endorsed him and pledged not to run a candidate against him.So it's not like h
Three States Have Dropped Common Core, More To Follow
Common Core supporters say this is no big deal - but of course it is:Oklahoma has officially dropped the polarizing Common Core academic standards — marking a major shift by former supporter Gov. Mary Fallin.In a much-anticipated decision Thursday, Fallin, a Republican, signed legislation repealing the standards Thursday afternoon. She said Oklahoma has the ability to develop superior standards an
JUN 05
Nothing More Edifying Than Brooklyn-Queens Day
Did everybody enjoy their PD today?Did anybody find any of it worthwhile?If so would love to hear what it is was.
The Information The Education Department Wants Collected On Students
Stephanie Simon at Politico:The Education Department’s list of recommended data points, developed with state officials, is exhaustive. It includes what type of dental insurance a student carries, whether she’s allergic to dog dander and whether she belongs to a sorority in college. Each disciplinary incident is broken down into more than a dozen data points, including the type of firearm involved,
Juan Gonzalez: Ending Failed Education Policy Means Cleaning House At Tweed
In Juan Gonzalez's column on the Pearson field test protests arising around the state this week is this: Students and teachers at 1,100 city schools — plus an additional 3,000 statewide — are confronting more state-mandated tests this week. For the third straight year, the state and its testing company, Pearson, are conducting stand-alone field testing for several hundred thousand pupils — tests t
JUN 04
NYSUT Dog And Pony Show Over Cuomo Endorsement Begins
From Jessica Bakeman:ALBANY—New York's largest teachers' union announced early endorsements in the races for state attorney general and comptroller, but Governor Andrew Cuomo will have to wait until August to see if educators will back him in November.Karen Magee, president of New York State United Teachers, told Capital on Monday that “nothing has changed” since she was elected in early April, an
They're Discussing Having Discussions About The Coming Discussion On Teacher Evaluation Discussions
The latest drivel from Karen Magee at NYSUT:ALBANY—New York State United Teachers president Karen Magee said she has been in talks with the governor's office and both houses of the Legislature about a “moratorium” on using Common Core test scores to evaluate teachers. “We're still in conversations as the session is winding down on potential modifications we might be able to make,” Magee told Capit
UFT Members Spoke: The UFT Leadership Couldn't Do Any Better Than This
Accountable Talk yesterday:Technically, the contract passed with 77% of the vote of UFT members. I predicted 75%, which was the exact percentage of teachers who voted yes. School secretaries, paras, and social workers, who are not subject to many of the provisions that regular teachers are, voted almost 85% in favor of the contract, thus skewing my numbers. Well, no one is perfect.... The questio
JUN 03
UFT Contract Vote: Post-Mortem
I went to Ian Hunter's 75th Birthday Celebration this evening at City Winery.I found out the UFT contract had passed with 77% of the vote just as I got there.Haven't had a ton of time to think through the post-mortem, but my sense is this: I think there was a lot of anger and frustration out there over the contract, but clearly not enough to make the vote as close as the 63%-37% from the odious '0
UFT Contract Vote: Predictions And The Roadmap For The Future
Expected to be announced today: The teachers union’s new $9 billion contract with the city is expected to be ratified Tuesday. The secret ballots of more than 100,000 eligible members of the United Federation of Teachers will be scanned by the American Arbitration Association in lower Manhattan. Union officials hope to announce the results by mid-afternoon.Urban Ed thinks the contract passes with
JUN 02
NYSUT Issues Some Endorsements
From the Legislative Gazette: New York State United Teachers' Board of Directors is backing the statewide re-election bids of state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.The NYSUT board also issued early endorsements for state Sens. Tim Kennedy, D-Buffalo, and Toby Stavisky, D-Queens, along with Assemblyman Kevin Cahill, D-Kingston, and Jason Zove, a 26-year-old Commac
Education Reformers Should Be Brought Up On Child Abuse Charges
Nothing infuriates me more than seeing how the corporate education reform agenda has changed pre-k and kindergarten for children.Gone are the days when children were given the opportunity to learn through play, and experimentation - all of that has been replaced with hours and hours of "academic" skills and drills work and Common Core learning.I've covered this issue before in a piece e
JUN 01
Cuomo Already Begins To Renege On Working Families Party Deal
Well, that didn't take long - not even 24 hours before Cuomo started walking back the promises he made in the deal with the Working Families Party: A day after securing the nomination of the Working Families Party, Gov. Cuomo said his support for their liberal agenda only goes so far. ... Cuomo, who endorsed a higher minimum wage with an option for localities to hike it further based on cost of li
Working Families Party Rank-And-File Call "Bullshit!" On Governor Cuomo
As in literally:For four hours on Saturday, the W.F.P.’s convention was a collective group therapy session, where dozens of members of the left-wing of New York’s Democratic party aired their long-building displeasure with Cuomo....It was a bizarro version of the Democratic convention earlier in May, where Cuomo was the unquestioned star and lawmakers carefully avoided criticizing him. At the Desm
Cuomo Gets 58% Of The Vote At Working Families Convention, But Booed And Jeered At Every Turn
First, there should be no surprise that the Working Families Party endorsed the "Charter School Lobbyist," one Andrew M. Cuomo, for governor.WFP receives an awful lot of funding from the unions and the union heads had made it perfectly clear in the past few weeks that Andrew M. Cuomo was going to get the WFP ballot line or they were going to stop giving money to the Working Families Part
MAY 31
Cuomo Will Win Working Families Party Ballot Line
WFP/Cuomo summary: Cuomo gets line, will do a video rather than show up, de Blasio coming to speak soon, Teachout won't rule out Dem primary— Blake Zeff (@blakezeff) June 1, 2014Heard earlier from Kos that Cuomo having to kiss Bill de Blasio's butt in public, along that of the WFP. That base humiliation alone might be worth the price of admission.Not much base humiliation in recording a video in
Say No To Cuomoccio
This sign held by somebody at the Working Families Party convention in Albany says it all:Indeed, no one believes Cuomo intends to live up to whatever deal he is supposed to be making in order to get the Working Families Party line:What does it mean that press corps instant consensus is Cuomo has no intention of genuinely trying to fulfill the emerging WFP deal?— Nick Confessore (@nickconfessore)
Consensus Is, Cuomo Has No Intention Of Fulfilling Any Deal With Working Families Party
From Times reporter Nick Confessore:What does it mean that press corps instant consensus is Cuomo has no intention of genuinely trying to fulfill the emerging WFP deal?— Nick Confessore (@nickconfessore) May 31, 2014What it says is that the WFP officials, politicians and union leaders pushing this deal are corrupt and/or short-sighted, the WFP rank-and-file who accept it are naive, and Andrew Cuom
Markos Moulitsas Says Working Families Party Could Win A "Stunning" Victory With Cuomo Endorsement Deal
Kos writes how much he likes the "deal" that is said to be in the offing for the Working Families Party endorsement of Andrew Cuomo:This is all "insider" sources and all, so take with appropriate grain of salt. But the report says that the deal would include:- Cuomo having to kiss Bill de Blasio's butt in public, along that of the WFP. That base humiliation alone might be worth
Charter School Proponent Carl Icahn Probed For Insider Trading
No, this is not about Whitney Tilson and that funky little Barnes and Noble thing from 2012. This is about Carl Icahn, some sports and gambling pals and Clorox:The feds are investigating whether golf legend Phil Mickelson, billionaire investor Carl Icahn and Vegas gambling kingpin William “Billy” Walters took part in an insider-trading scheme, federal law-enforcement sources told The Post Friday.
The UFT Sold You Out To Cuomo
The next time you hear any jive out of the UFT or AFT leadership about holding Andrew Cuomo accountable for his policies, remember that the union leaderships helped to engineer the Working Families Party endorsement of Andrew Cuomo by threatening the party with financial "collapse" if Cuomo wasn't given the nod.The UFT wasn't the only union to pull the strings for Cuomo - other unions th