Tuesday, June 17, 2014

I … challenge the wisdom of giving public sanction and approval to the spending of a huge fortune ….My object here is to state as clearly and as briefly as possible why the huge philanthropic trusts, known as foundations, appear to be a menace to the welfare of society.

Frank Walsh, Chairman of the U.S. Commission on Industrial Relations, 1915

Yes, a century ago, Walsh pilloried the richest man in the world who had established a foundation in his name, John D.Rockefeller, in advancing his corporate interests–then in oil, coal, and scores of other enterprises–through his namesake foundation for being a “moulder of public thought.”

A century later, critics are making similar charges that donors to school reform (see here and here) shape the policy agenda of districts, states, and the federal government when it comes to improving the nation’s schools.

If you think I am suggesting that donors and criticism of their charity comes around again and again, you are on the money (see here and here). The cyclical nature of philanthropic grant-making by by both progressive-leaning and conservative-leaning foundations to advance different versions of urban reform–do any readers remember the Ford Foundation in the late-1960s funding decentralization in school reform and the harsh criticism the Foundation encountered including federal legislation in 1969?– is evident to me. As William Faulkner said: The past is not dead. In fact, it’s not even past.

How come?

There is a theory that when new organizations are born, they imprint the organizational goals, norms, and rules that last for decades as they mature and thrive even when the environment changes on them. Just like when naturalist Konrad Lorenz showed how new-born goslings saw him first and attached to him–following him everywhere for as long as they lived.

Those years in the early 20th century, then, of wealthy businessmen forming foundations to give away their fortunes to help others and getting criticized for pursuing their corporate interests of the day is where the Walsh committee’s censure of John D. Rockefeller enter the picture. Imprinted on these Philanthropic Advocacy for School Reforms | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Shanker Blog » The Souls Of Black Teachers: Reading José Luis Vilson With W.E.B. Du Bois

Shanker Blog » The Souls Of Black Teachers: Reading José Luis Vilson With W.E.B. Du Bois:

The Souls Of Black Teachers: Reading José Luis Vilson With W.E.B. Du Bois

Posted by Leo Casey on June 17, 2014

This article was originally published in Dissent

The heart of education lies in the relationship between teacher and student. The quality of that relationship—its capacity to nurture, to inspire, to awaken the imagination and to cultivate the intellect—is crucial to student learning. This is an ancient truth, equally central to the pedagogy of Socrates in the West, Confucius in the East, and many others in between. But it bears repeating in an age when many self-styled “education reformers” seek to reduce the value of teaching to standardized test scores and statistical algorithms.

José Luis Vilson’s This Is Not A Test (Haymarket Books, 2014) bears witness to the enduring vitality of that relationship. Vilson teaches math to poor black and brown students in New York City middle schools, and his writing is rooted in his classroom experiences. His voice is an authentic teacher’s voice, with the resonance of a teacher’s calling and the timbre of a teacher’s passion for the welfare of his students. Teachers will recognize themselves in Vilson, from his fatherly affection for his students and disarmingly open accounts of classroom triumphs and defeats to his sorrow at a former student’s senseless death and anger over the poverty that throws up so many obstacles to student learning.

Teachers will also experience painful recognition upon reading Vilson’s tale of the arrogant, shallow supervisor who threatened him with an unsatisfactory evaluation not because of his teaching, but because she disliked the aesthetics of his classroom bulletin board. Such was the lived reality of “education reform” as practiced under former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, who formed a regime so contemptuous of teachers that it appointed supervisors bereft of teaching expertise. Unable to carry on any meaningful discussion of teaching and learning with those they supervised, these administrators would focus on ephemera such as bulletin boards.

The teacher-student relationship is central to Vilson’s understanding of his vocation. He offers evocative descriptions of his students’ personalities and captivating accounts of their behavior—from Vilson’s clever retort to a smart-ass boy to the empathy that he shows to a rebellious girl. “I had put so much effort into maintaining my professional Shanker Blog » The Souls Of Black Teachers: Reading José Luis Vilson With W.E.B. Du Bois:

Knowledge Ventriloquism | EduShyster

Knowledge Ventriloquism | EduShyster:

Knowledge Ventriloquism

Ken Zeichner takes us inside the teacher prep war echo chamber

EduShyster: You introduced me to one of my favorite new concepts—*knowledge ventriloquism.* The release of the National Council on Teacher Quality *review* of the nation’s teacher prep programs seems like an appropriate time to share this concept with the world. So what is *knowledge ventriloquism*? Break it down for us.

Ken Zeichner: It’s a particularly useful concept these days. Basically what you have is an echo chamber effect where think tanks and other advocacy groups just keep repeating each other’s claims until they become true. There’s a research component too, except that the research isn’t independent. In fact, you can usually predict what the findings are going to be be based on who is doing the research. Cherry picking is another essential component of *knowledge ventriloquism.* Advocates of a particular position or program will selectively choose certain findings and ignore others. The problem is that by the time any of this reaches the mainstream media and the headlines, any nuance or complexity is lost.

EduShyster: Let’s take, for example, the case of the Relay Graduate School of Education, which you just wrote about here. Now I happen to know that Relay leads the pack when it comes to raising test scores, because Arne Duncan gave them a shout out in a press release. In other words, case closed, right?

Zeichner: That’s actually a great example of Knowledge Ventriloquism | EduShyster:

NYC Educator: UFT Unity's Solidarity v. Real Solidarity

NYC Educator: UFT Unity's Solidarity v. Real Solidarity:

UFT Unity's Solidarity v. Real Solidarity

I read in NY Teacher that our contract places parents and "educators back in the driver's seat in our city's public schools." I find the claim humorous. I doubt UFT Unity asked many parents what they wanted and I know they certainly didn't ask me. The lack of democracy in my Union is for me, perhaps, the single most depressing aspect of this whole educational war over "reform." The people who are supposed to be protecting me forge ahead, caring little to listen to my concerns or those of the rank and file.

When UFT Unity says "Solidarity," what exactly do they mean?

1. Does solidarity mean signing a loyalty oath to uphold Unity policies come hell, high water, your conscience or the differing views of your constituency?

If that's solidarity, I am sorry for democracy.

2. Does solidarity mean voting for a contract for which you have never seen the M.o.A. (the 300-member Contract Committee and the Executive Board) or for which the M.o.A. was only released on the eve of the vote (Delegate Assembly), allowing little time for any delegate or his or her constituency to digest it? If solidarity means having so little faith in your own ability to analyze things or so much faith in Unity's ability to spoon feed grown adults, I cannot stomach that flavor of solidarity.

3. Does solidarity mean looking the other way when the contract enshrines principles like selling out your workforce with a second-tier, due-NYC Educator: UFT Unity's Solidarity v. Real Solidarity:

The High-Stakes Testing Culture: How We Got Here, How We Get Out | NEA Today

The High-Stakes Testing Culture: How We Got Here, How We Get Out | NEA Today:

The High-Stakes Testing Culture: How We Got Here, How We Get Out

June 17, 2014 by twalker
Filed under Featured News, Top Stories

Monday, June 16, 2014

6-14-14 Jersey Jazzman The @starledger's Reformy Fantasyland

Jersey Jazzman:

The @starledger's Reformy Fantasyland

I really can't tell you how grateful I am to have Bob Braun blogging; for a while there, it felt like I was the only one who cared to point out that the Star-Ledger, Bob's former paper, was writing education editorials that were both massively ignorant and callously dismissive of the needs of children in New Jersey's cities.Bob's skewering of the Star-Ledger Editorial Board (SLEB) includes a histo

24 by Duke / 1h

6-14-14 Jersey Jazzman NJ Ed News Round-up Jammin' All Week

Jersey Jazzman:Jersey Jazzman Jammin' All WeekMore Reformy Billionaires Wasting Money: Jersey City EditionLast week, I told the story of how New Jersey's reformiest billionaires, David Tepper and Alan Fournier, are planning on wasting at least $3 million on a "principals training" program in Jersey City run by SUPES, an unaccredited, for-profit group with a tainted past and questionable

by mike simpson / 13h

AFT’s Randi Weingarten, Jonathan Pelto, Dan Malloy, Connecticut and the Fate of Public Education | Reclaim Reform

AFT’s Randi Weingarten, Jonathan Pelto, Dan Malloy, Connecticut and the Fate of Public Education | Reclaim Reform:

AFT’s Randi Weingarten, Jonathan Pelto, Dan Malloy, Connecticut and the Fate of Public Education

Posted on June 16, 2014

by Ken Previti

What happens to public education, real education minus the corporate reform movement which drains hundreds of millions of dollars from public education funds to pay private multinational corporations for insane levels of high stakes testing along with all the requisite expensive paraphernalia while leaving schools in need of basic necessities, when the majority Democratic Party legislators and governor promote draconian Tea Party cuts and the feeding of corporate bottom lines?

Well, first, all political opposition needs to be stonewalled. Silenced. Then the dismantling of decent public education can proceed undiminished.

Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy (D) in conjunction with buddies in the AFL-CIO won’t even permit opposition candidate Jonathan Pelto to speak to delegates at the annual endorsing convention.

“The Connecticut AFL-CIO will be holding their 10th Biennial Political Convention starting today at the Omni Hotel in New Haven. Although Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Foley and Lieutenant Governor candidate, Penny Bacchiochi will be addressing delegates at 11:00 am today and Governor Dannel P. Malloy and his Democratic running mate, Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman, will speak to delegates this afternoon, repeated requests by third party gubernatorial candidate Jonathan Pelto to speak to the delegates have gone unanswered and it appears that Pelto will not be allowed to address the union delegates who will be endorsing a gubernatorial candidate during the second day of the AFL-CIO convention tomorrow.”Pelto must be very strongly supported to be feared to the point of not allowing him to speak publicly at the convention.
Read the entire Wait… What? article HERE.

How much of a sell-out ,right-wing, corporate toadie has Malloy become? Read about his condemnation of public education as he seeks financial backing from the rightest of right-wing extremist wealth groups, the American Heritage Foundation.

“In his re-election campaign, Governor Malloy can count on the financial support of AFT’s Randi Weingarten, Jonathan Pelto, Dan Malloy, Connecticut and the Fate of Public Education | Reclaim Reform:

Those Nonsense Annual NCTQ Ratings Are Coming on June 17 | deutsch29

Those Nonsense Annual NCTQ Ratings Are Coming on June 17 | deutsch29:

Those Nonsense Annual NCTQ Ratings Are Coming on June 17

June 16, 2014

On June 17, 2014, the so-called National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) will unleash upon the world its ratings of teacher training programs.

Here is part of an announcement sent on June 9, 2014, to members of the press:

Washington, DC – On Tuesday, June 17, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) will release the highly anticipated 2014 Teacher Prep Review – an annual evaluation of the nation’s teacher preparation programs. This year’s Review will include an expanded and more comprehensive evaluation of teacher preparation programs, which, for the first time, are ranked numerically. [Emphasis added.]

Grade ‘em and rank ‘em, because we can.

NCTQ is well funded. Of course Gates money is in there, as is Broad Foundation money (big supporters of Teach for America and promoters of its own brand of nonaccredited superintendent via its superintendents academy) and Arnold Foundation money (also huge supporters of TFA).

Surely NCTQ is not biased by its funders (tongue in cheek).

In yet another advertisement, this one dated June 10, 2014, NCTQ states,

This year’s edition repeats our analysis of elementary, secondary, special ed undergrad and grad programs but includes 38% more institutions with full ratings on 836. [Emphasis added.]

For NCTQ, getting “full ratings” is tough since they are a non-accredited, self-appointed, antagonistic rater of traditional teacher training programs.

NCTQ “rates” teacher training programs based upon artifacts. An NCTQ rating does not require a site visit.

NCTQ even hires students and others to gather the superficial information upon which it bases its ratings.

Shallow as it is, NCTQ feels the need to branch out, as noted in that June 10th advertisement:

In addition to analyzing colleges and universities providing traditional teacher preparation, NCTQ rated–for the first time–secondary alternative certification providers.

Now this is going to be interesting since for years the NCTQ advisory board has Those Nonsense Annual NCTQ Ratings Are Coming on June 17 | deutsch29:

Adam Bessie: Retiring the "Bad Teacher" Boogeyman - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

Adam Bessie: Retiring the "Bad Teacher" Boogeyman - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher:

Adam Bessie: Retiring the "Bad Teacher" Boogeyman

By Anthony Cody on June 16, 2014 7:40 PM

Guest post by Adam Bessie.

"I support our teachers, but my daughter was traumatized by an unfirable 1st grade teacher," so read a tweet I received after expressing concern that Vergara v. California decision - which declared K-12 teacher tenure unconstitutional for violating the civil rights of students - had nothing to do with civil rights, little to do with students, and everything to do with the continued efforts to privatize public education. If you publically critiqued the Vergara verdict, you no doubt received a similar reply, which I've described by the following equation, dubbed VAM [Vergara Attack Method]:

Compliment of teachers in general ["I love teachers"]

- [BUT] there are "bad teachers"

+ vague and/or extreme personal anecdote about "bad teacher"

= you must be a "bad teacher" and hate children if you support tenure or any other rights for teachers. Also, you are against civil rights, likely a socialist, and most definitely are destroying the economy.

Rhetorically, it's almost impossible to respond to VAM - Who can disagree that there are "bad teachers?" Who wants a child to be subjected to such a horrible person? Who wants a child to be traumatized?

VAM works especially well when coupled with civil rights rhetoric, as I wrote about in my last essay "A Tale of Two Vergaras: Of Stardom and Civil Rights". Who could be against civil rights? And so, in a masterful rhetorical twist, if you're for tenure, you're also against helping impoverished minority children - you're standing in the way of equality. In more advanced versions of VAM, civil rights rhetoric is seamlessly connected with fixing the sagging economy as we see in an op-ed in USA Today claiming "There is no war on teachers." The author assures us that there is "no such war," and that if anything, the focus is on firing just a "very small minority of teachers" who are not just harming children, but according to his calculations, would actually fix our current financial crisis:

The gains according to historical economic patterns would be measured in trillions of dollars and would be sufficient to solve our national fiscal problems as well as the vexing income Adam Bessie: Retiring the "Bad Teacher" Boogeyman - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher:

Architecture 101 Summer Workshops for Kids | Seattle Education

Architecture 101 Summer Workshops for Kids | Seattle Education:

Architecture 101 Summer Workshops for Kids

Indoor playground in Tokyo.

Twice each year I yield to commercialism and post information about classes that I offer to kids and teens. It’s an introductory class to architecture. I provide a studio environment and interesting design challenges for the students. It’s a hands-on workshop where the students enjoy themselves, pick up new information on varied subjects, reinforce what they have learned in school and just generally have a good time.

There is space available in three of the workshops.

I also teach the subject of architecture through enrichment programs in elementary and middle schools and work with high school teachers who are focusing on subjects such as Geometry and History. I started teaching these classes when my daughter was in third grade and it was my turn to join her class and share with the students what an architect does. It was so much fun for me and the students that I was asked to continue teaching on a part time basis.

My educational background is a Bachelors of Science in Psychology and a Masters in Architecture. I have been practicing as an Architect for over 20 years and teaching for 12 years.

If you have a student who likes to draw and build things out of whatever they can get their hands on, this class is for them. If you have a student who is curious about the field of architecture and wants to know more, this is the opportunity for them to learn what Architecture 101 Summer Workshops for Kids | Seattle Education:

Make No Mistake About It: When You Attack Public Workers Unions, You Attack New York’s Black Middle Class By: Dr Mark Naison

Badass Teachers Association:

Make No Mistake About It: When You Attack Public Workers Unions, You Attack New York’s Black Middle Class
By: Dr Mark Naison

During my forty plus years as a scholar, teacher, coach and community organizer, I have had the opportunity to spend a great deal of time in the outer boroughs, not only in neighborhoods adjoining Manhattan, but in places where the Manhattan skyline sometimes looks like a distant universe. Whether it was through conducting oral histories, coaching basketball and baseball games, doing workshops in schools or advising community organizations on how to better reach neighborhood youth, I can say, with confidence that I am spent time in every single neighborhood in Brooklyn and the Bronx, and in large portions of Queens and Staten Island

When I visit these neighborhoods, I can’t help but take note of the age and quality of the housing stock, the variety of stores in local business district, the atmosphere in the streets, and the demographic distribution of the population, not only in terms of race, but occupation.

I have learned many things from these visits, but one of the things that leaps at me is the size of the City’s Black middle class and the its almost complete physical separation from the majority white upper class that sets the tone, and has the power in Michael Bloomberg’s New York.

There are three large cooperative housing developments in New York City that I visit regularly that are majority Black and majority middle class—Rochdale Village in Queens, Starrett City in Brooklyn, and Co-Op City in the Bronx. Located at the very outskirts of each borough, more than ten miles from Manhattan- they are self contained communities with their own shopping centers, schools and ball fields. While they are not without problems, and have only a small number of white families left, for the most part they are safe, well kept communities which are good places to raise families and which, though they are far from Manhattan have excellent shopping, decent public services, and vibrant churches and community organizations.

There is one other thing about these communities, other than their racial composition that distinguishes them from most Manhattan neighborhoods and that is where the people who live in them work. Overwhelmingly, the people in these communities are civil servants or people who work in health care. They are teachers, transit workers, police officers, prison guards, nurses and nurses aids, bus drivers, and clerks and administrators in city agencies. Literally, they are the people who make New York City run.

And almost all of them are members of unions- the UFT, the PBA, the Transport Workers Union, DC 37, Local 1199. The people here – the older generation- are the ones who unionizedBadass Teachers Association:

Why Does it Seem Like It’s the Same Few Parents Fighting for Philly’s Schools? | Philly in Focus

Why Does it Seem Like It’s the Same Few Parents Fighting for Philly’s Schools? | Philly in Focus:

Why Does it Seem Like It’s the Same Few Parents Fighting for Philly’s Schools?

PHILLYACTIVE™ (NEWS THAT GETS PHILLY ACTIVE) Active parent Felicia Roche, distressed by Philly’s education crisis, urges her peers to get involved in the fight for fairness.

By Felicia Roche

(Video features activist Helen Gym)

6.16.14: Philadelphia – (Education): I had the unfortunate opportunity recently to “vent” to one of my child’s teachers and other staff members. My daughter attends one of the top middle schools in the Philadelphia School District, and after an entire school year of built up frustration and trying my best to politely voice my concerns, I finally did what most would refer to as “telling them off.”

This is something I try to avoid doing because I never want to look like the “angry black woman” to a staff of mostly white teachers. Throughout the year I was consistently challenged by circumstances in which I knew had I not advocated for my child, she would have suffered academic injustices. Other situations involved me speaking up for all the students when they were being mistreated. I struggled with what, when and how I should say something to the staff; should I communicate my concerns through email, phone, or a face-to-face meetings?

Although I never let it silence me, I’ve always feared being viewed as the nagging, crazy or over involved parent. We’ve all seen them: the parent that comes up to the school yelling, cursing and ready to fight. These parents come to the school often infuriated and ready for war. Many think the parent’s complaints are ridiculous.

In most cases it’s the same parents every time! Are these parents irrational? Surely, they must be, since they are the ONLY ones that always have something to complain about. I wondered this about myself recently: am I being crazy? Am I asking for too much? Why are only a few of us making complaints or questioning staff?

CLICK HERE to read “Meet the Grandma Who Geared Up to Fight for Philly’s Schools.”

When the same three or four parents are consistently making complaints or questioning things that are happening at their child school, staff and administration tend to look at them as just that: the complainers. But I have found that if those parents express their concerns to their peers more often than not they’re able to agree on the concerns they have about their kid’s education. I myself have had parents come to me and say they feel the same way I do about Why Does it Seem Like It’s the Same Few Parents Fighting for Philly’s Schools? | Philly in Focus:

Gülen Gang Schools in Mosul evacuated 3 days before ISIL invasion,

Madness and masochism of the Turkish regime: Gülen Gang Schools in Mosul evacuated 3 days before ISIL invasion, while Iraqi politicians Usama al-Nujayfi and Tariq al-Hashimi (USA and AKP government ally) called a ‘Revolution’ the foreign terroristic operations | the real SyrianFreePress network:

Madness and masochism of the Turkish regime: Gülen Gang Schools in Mosul evacuated 3 days before ISIL invasion, while Iraqi politicians Usama al-Nujayfi and Tariq al-Hashimi (USA and AKP government ally) called a ‘Revolution’ the foreign terroristic operations

Gülen Gang Schools Evacuate Mosul Three Days Before Invasion

Gülen Gang Schools have reportedly abandoned Mosul three days before the ISIS invasion.

Turkish Kanal TV Executive Editor Süleyman Sarılar tweeted that the schools belonging to Gülen Gang in Mosul, Iraq were evacuated 3 days before the attacks by the ISIS.

Here are his tweets regarding the issue:

“We should have known that Mosul’s invasion was coming. Fethullah Gülen’s schools were evacuated 3 days before. But, it is like Turkish Embassy was waiting for the invasion.”
“Even Gülen Gang foresees what will happen. The embassy cannot. Is there no intelligence at all?”

AKP’s Ally al-Hashimi Called Mosul’s Invasion a Revolution

The al-Nujayfi family, reportedly linked to the AKP government, has justified the invasion of Mosul by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

Iraqi politicians Usama al-Nujayfi and Tariq al-Hashimi, also known for being close to the USA and AKP government, have allegedly opened the Mosul border gate to the militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

The governor of Ninewa state where Mosul province located, Atheel al-Nujayfi, is the brother of Usama al-Nujayfi who had a meeting with the Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu.

The al-Nujayfi family, being close to the AKP government, has condoned the invasion of Mosul by ISIS, while Tariq al-Hashami, Iraq’s fugitive vice-president currently living in a villa provided by the AKP in Turkey, commented on the Mosul invasion by Islamist fundamentalists as a revolution.

Governor Atheel al-Nujayfi sent a memorandum to all state departments on the 6 June ordering the destruction of all the documents bearing his signature, telling them to also not resist ISIS militants, and prohibiting mobile phones in offices.

The editor-in-chief of the Turkish branch of the Moroccan Biladi TV, Cevat Gök, claimed that ISIS was not alone in the gradual invasion of Iraq.

“Major Sunni tribes, in particular Naksibendi, support ISIS. They paved the way for ISIS so that they can invade Mosul easily. ISIS is just the tip of the iceberg.” stated Gök.

Gök also pointed out the claim that the main goal of the ISIS is to conquer Baghdad as the army withdraws.

He went on to say: “ISIS is the new neighbour now that it seized a big portion of oil fields, including the ones from which Turkey imports oil.”

Meanwhile, the Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu had a meeting with Madness and masochism of the Turkish regime: Gülen Gang Schools in Mosul evacuated 3 days before ISIL invasion, while Iraqi politicians Usama al-Nujayfi and Tariq al-Hashimi (USA and AKP government ally) called a ‘Revolution’ the foreign terroristic operations | the real SyrianFreePress network:

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