Mike Klonsky's Blog: CTU leaders take the wrong side in sexual harassment scandal

Mike Klonsky's Blog: CTU leaders take the wrong side in sexual harassment scandal

CTU leaders take the wrong side in sexual harassment scandal

Chicago unions have no choice to work with House Speaker Michael Madigan if they want to get anything done in Springfield. But working with Madigan is one thing. Embedding within what's left of Madigan's political machine and colluding with him to blackball his victims of sexual harassment is something else. And that appears to be exactly what CTU leaders have done.

Machine boss Mike Madigan & whistle-blower Alaina Hampton

Case in point -- CTU's collusion with Madigan's gaggle of sexual harassers in the Alaina Hampton case. First, after offering to hire Alaina as a political consultant, CTU withdrew its offer, apparently under pressure from Madigan. Then they foolishly held back documents implicating themselves, from investigators until they were forced to make them available.

After Alaina sued and won a settlement in the case, which cost Madigan's political committee about $900,000 (Alaina received $75K with the rest going to the lawyers), the teachers union picked up a large chunk of the tab.

As for Madigan, the powerful Southwest Side Democrat likely won’t be holding CONTINUE READING: 

At U.S. House Education Committee Hearing, DeVos Defends Cheating Some Defrauded Students by Only Partially Forgiving Loans | janresseger

At U.S. House Education Committee Hearing, DeVos Defends Cheating Some Defrauded Students by Only Partially Forgiving Loans | janresseger

At U.S. House Education Committee Hearing, DeVos Defends Cheating Some Defrauded Students by Only Partially Forgiving Loans

There was a lot going on last week—Judiciary Committee hearings on articles of impeachment, for example. Did you miss learning about Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s miserable performance before the U.S. House Education Committee?  As she defended her new “borrower defense to repayment” plan, DeVos didn’t seem to worry very much about the hundreds of thousands of students who have been defrauded by for-profit colleges, but she did seem to want to protect the reputation of the for-profit college sector.

DeVos was called before the committee to explain her department’s inexplicable failure to provide loan forgiveness for what DeVos herself said are “nearly 300,000 claims” by students who said they had been defrauded by their for-profit colleges. Many of the claims demanding loan forgiveness under what is called the “borrower defense to repayment” rule were filed by students at the now shut-down Corinthian Colleges and ITT Technical Institute.  Both were shut down because they had lured students to enroll (and take on enormous debt) with fraudulent promises about what would turn out to be shoddy career prep programs.

The Associated Press‘s Colin Binkley explains: “The program, known as borrower defense to repayment, is meant to forgive federal loans for students whose colleges misrepresent the quality of their education or otherwise commit fraud. It was expanded under the Obama administration to help clear loans for thousands of students who attended Corinthian CONTINUE READING: At U.S. House Education Committee Hearing, DeVos Defends Cheating Some Defrauded Students by Only Partially Forgiving Loans | janresseger

NYC Educator: Boost Panorama Survey Results, or Teach Children?

NYC Educator: Boost Panorama Survey Results, or Teach Children?

Boost Panorama Survey Results, or Teach Children?

That's a choice we're facing, and I'll tell you why.

Yesterday I parodied the Panorama Survey, as I've been doing every time they put out a new one. I understand that it's important we treat students with respect, but I'm not at all sure that's what this survey measures. There are a whole lot of questions about whether the teacher is doing an adequate job, and there are a whole lot of reasons why the responses may not be accurate.

Here's one. I taught summers and evenings at the English Language Institute at Queens College for about 20 years. I came to college teaching from high school teaching, and thus my methods were a little different than those of colleagues with different experiences. I'd often hear laments from them about poor behavior in classes.

I never had any such complaints. Once, we had a very young student who was immature and problematic. I called his parents and had no more issues. My colleagues were shocked. The general behavior of my college students was such that I could accomplish much more. I could go over material in half the time I was used to. If there were behavioral problems, I stopped them instantly. I was used to far worse.

We were rated by the students, and that was quite a big deal for the program. After all, they wanted to increase business, being a non-credit, optional program. One semester I got a bad rating. This was a big issue. I determined to never have that happen again, and the secret sauce for that was not at all difficult to uncover. I stopped bugging students to do the homework. I stopped bothering people over poor test scores. Sure, I got less homework, and lower test scores, and sure some students CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: Boost Panorama Survey Results, or Teach Children?

Manufactured Education Crisis Engenders Violence | tultican

Manufactured Education Crisis Engenders Violence | tultican

Manufactured Education Crisis Engenders Violence

By Thomas Ultican 12/17/2019

On October 23, the regularly scheduled Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) board meeting descended into chaos accompanied by violent reaction from school police. One parent received a broken rib; two elementary school teachers reported severe bruising and a small mother suffered two torn ligaments and a meniscus tear. They were protesting the closing of Kaiser elementary school which is the result of a manufactured crisis beyond the control of the local school board. Billionaire “philanthropists” and the state of California created and exacerbated Oakland’s chronic budget issues.

Today’s budget problems stem back to the state assuming control of OUSD in 2003. Ken Epstein of Oakland Crossings described the situation when the state installed an administrator. “At the time, State Schools’ Supt. O’Connell [Democrat] and influential State Senator Don Perata [Democrat] were instrumental in putting together a deal requiring the district to accept a $100 million loan, even though it was only $37 million in debt.”

The Alameda County Office of Education and the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team (FCMAT), a state-funded nonprofit that advises districts on financial matters, both played a large role in pushing OUSD into receivership (2003-2009) and forcing the district to take a $100 million state loan. OUSD did not ask for the loan. They had enough money in construction funds to cover the shortfall if the state would approve borrowing from that fund. The state had given other districts this kind of permission but refused it to Oakland.

Kathy Murphy reported in the 2009 East Bay Times, “Six years after the largest CONTINUE READING: Manufactured Education Crisis Engenders Violence | tultican

NYC Public School Parents: What lessons should the Council learn from two of their failed Task forces?

NYC Public School Parents: What lessons should the Council learn from two of their failed Task forces?

What lessons should the Council learn from two of their failed Task forces?

The City Council likes to create task forces to investigate important policy issues and propose changes, but then leaves them unattended and under the entire control of the Mayor, whose office screws them up.  

One recent example is Automated Decision System Task force, created by Council  Local Law 49 ,  that was supposed to investigate city agencies’ use of automated decision-making and deliver a report with recommendations.

The law was widely celebrated and promoted by the Mayor’s office as the first attempt by any municipality to embark on a systematic analysis of the controversial trend of using non-transparent algorithms to make crucial governmental decisions in criminal justice, education and elsewhere. 

In NYC, algorithms have been used by many cities agencies, and are used by the DOE for school enrollment and admission decisions, as well as well as teacher evaluation  and even flagging certain students as potential risk for dropping out through "early warning systems". The use of such algorithms have been criticized as both "black boxes" that are difficult to understand and may further reify various kinds of bias and injustice in a way that is difficult to discern and counteract. According to a hearing transcript, Jimmy Vacca, the bill's prime sponsor, said:

"I strongly believe the public has a right to know when decisions are made using algorithms, and they have a right to know how these decisions are made.When the Department of Education uses an algorithm to assign children to different high schools, and a child is assigned to their sixth choice, they and their family have a right to know how that algorithm determined that their child would get their sixth choice. They should not merely be told that they were assigned to a school because an algorithm made the most efficient allocation of school seats. What is considered to be most efficient? Who decided this? A mathematician, a computer programmer? "

Later, in written response to questions from Education Week, Vacca said he hoped his legislation would also bring transparency and improvements to the district's "inaccurate or erratic teacher evaluations," which he said "can occasionally spit out pretty different scores for the same teachers from year to year, or low scores for good teachers."

The AI institute provided a list of algorithms used in NYC agencies and elsewhere, some of which had egregiously failed. See Gary Rubinstein and Cathy O'Neil, for example, of the travesty that resulted in NYC's  absurd teacher evaluation system – and yet the resulting teacher ratings were printed in all the daily papers at Joel Klein’s encouragement.

Although many of the members appointed to this  Task force were independent experts in the field, (though none with a special interest in education) , the Mayor's office kept a tight hold on the proceedings, which by and large were not open to the public, and no minutes were kept. The co-chair, Jeff Thamkittikasem, director of the Mayor’s Office of CONTINUE READING: NYC Public School Parents: What lessons should the Council learn from two of their failed Task forces?

In other news. The IFT is given an automatic seat on the TRS board. – Fred Klonsky

In other news. The IFT is given an automatic seat on the TRS board. – Fred Klonsky

IN OTHER NEWS. THE IFT IS GIVEN AN AUTOMATIC SEAT ON THE TRS BOARD

The Illinois Teacher Retirement System is governed by a 13-member Board of Trustees.

Trustees include the state superintendent of education, six trustees appointed by the governor, four trustees elected by active teacher or contributing members, and two trustees elected by TRS retirees.

The president of the Board of Trustees, by law, is the Illinois superintendent of education who is appointed by the governor.

The executive director is responsible for daily operations at TRS.

Because there are more Illinois Education Association members in Illinois than members of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, IEA members have always been elected to represent active teachers.

Chicago teachers are represented by the CTU, an affiliate of the IFT,  and have their own pension system with its own trustees.

A bill ready for Governor Pritzker’s signature will change the makeup of the TRS board CONTINUE READING: In other news. The IFT is given an automatic seat on the TRS board. – Fred Klonsky

The Company Behind America's Scariest School Shooter Drills | HuffPost

The Company Behind America's Scariest School Shooter Drills | HuffPost

The Company Behind America’s Scariest School Shooter Drills
The ALICE Training Institute wants teachers and students to confront gunmen. There’s little evidence its approach works.

This story was produced in partnership with The Trace, a nonprofit newsroom covering guns in America.

In January, a group of teachers knelt against a wall at Meadowlawn Elementary School in Indiana while police posing as armed gunmen shot plastic pellets into their backs, causing angry, red welts. Waiting outside, the teachers’ colleagues could hear screaming, the Indiana State Teachers’ Association said, before they were “brought into the room four at a time and the shooting process was repeated.” 
After the incident, a group of the teachers considered a lawsuit. The sheriff whose team led the exercise told media his officers had stopped using airsoft guns in trainings after one of the participants complained.

“Active shooter” training like this has become more popular over the last decade — as the number of school shootings has increased, so too has the desire to prepare teachers and students to face intruders with lethal intentions.
Behind many of the drills is the ALICE Training Institute, the largest for-profit private provider of active-shooting training in the United States. ALICE operates through a “train the trainer” model — anyone can get ALICE certification after two days of in-person training and online testing. That means its precise influence over a specific drill can be difficult to determine. (ALICE also routinely trains police, like those involved in the Meadowlawn drill, who then go into schools to oversee drills.) The company claims to have trained staff at more than 5,500 school districts and at 900 institutions of higher education, with more clients signing up each day. ALICE — an acronym for alert, CONTINUE READING: The Company Behind America's Scariest School Shooter Drills | HuffPost

“We did not have to stress about our grade but instead we were able to just work”: Student Evaluations of Learning | radical eyes for equity

“We did not have to stress about our grade but instead we were able to just work”: Student Evaluations of Learning | radical eyes for equity

“We did not have to stress about our grade but instead we were able to just work”: Student Evaluations of Learning

The evidence on student evaluations of teaching (SET) suggests that this sort of feedback is deeply biased in the U.S. against women educators, Black educators, and international educators; in other words, using SETs for evaluation in higher education is a misguided tradition that cannot be justified by the sort of scientific inquiry and research that the academy claims to embrace.

In both my levels of teaching—about two decades each as a high school teacher and now in higher education—I have always sought student voices and feedback. Those reflections, however, prompt students’ perceptions of their learning. And the validity and reliability of that feedback, of course, is best determined by me through the lens of what learning goals we were pursuing in any course.

Each fall, I teach two sections of my first-year writing seminar, Reconsidering James Baldwin in the Era of #BlackLivesMatter, which culminates in a portfolio assessment for their final exam grounded in minimum requirements for receiving a grade in the course:

Exam/ Final Writing Portfolio

Resubmit all REFLECTIONS (1-15) on exam date noted above. You may include any other artifacts of work throughout the semester to support the grade you deserve in the course.

Submit the following through email attachments:

• Final drafts of E.1, E.2, E.3, and E.4 as email attachments; be sure to CONTINUE READING: “We did not have to stress about our grade but instead we were able to just work”: Student Evaluations of Learning | radical eyes for equity

2020 is almost here… and so is the election of a lifetime. - Lily's Blackboard

2020 is almost here… and so is the election of a lifetime. - Lily's Blackboard

2020 is almost here… and so is the election of a lifetime.

The end of the year can be a bittersweet time to reflect and celebrate. But I’m feeling a surge of adrenaline, because I cannot wait for 2020 to arrive.

Why? Because in 2020 we have a chance to elect a president who’s with us—one who believes in the transformative power of public schools, who will support the real needs of our students, and who honors educators as professionals.

I spent all day Saturday at a convention center in Pittsburgh with more than 1,000 other educators, parents, students, and grassroots activists listening to eight top presidential candidates answer our questions about their plans for education.

It was exhilarating to spend a day examining big ideas and looking forward.

NEA worked with MSNBC and 10 other education and social justice groups to bring together the “Public Education Forum 2020: Equity and Opportunity for All.” Sen. Michael Bennet, Vice Pres. Joe Biden, Sen. Cory Booker, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Tom Steyer, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren each had equal time to present their ideas on what our public school system should be and how best to get there. Then they answered our questions, many of which focused on the persistent—in some cases, intentional—gaps in education equity found nationwide.

You can hear everything they had to say by streaming the entire event or catch a few of the highlights on EdVotes.

Educators are making it clear we want a president who’s ready to take on the tough questions: Why don’t all of our public schools look like our best public schools? Why does so much in our students’ lives—including the resources invested in their neighborhood school—still depend on what zip code they live in?

We’re looking for a leader who will listen to educators, understand our vision for schools, and work with us to advance CONTINUE READING: 2020 is almost here… and so is the election of a lifetime. - Lily's Blackboard

The Paper Rocket: Thoughts on Improving ‘Hands-On’ Learning (Doug Lemov) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

The Paper Rocket: Thoughts on Improving ‘Hands-On’ Learning (Doug Lemov) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

The Paper Rocket: Thoughts on Improving ‘Hands-On’ Learning (Doug Lemov)

This piece comes from “Doug Lemov’s Field Notes,” a blog that he writes about current issues and practices in schools. Author of Teach Like a Champion, he is a managing director of Uncommon Schools, a network of over 50 charter schools serving 20,000 students in various cities on the East coast. This post appeared November 13, 2019.

A couple of weeks ago, I asked my littlest what was going on in Science. It’s her favorite class so it doesn’t take much to get some chatter going. She announced with no small amount of excitement that they were going to be building and flying rockets later that week. “Oh, cool,” I said, “Are you studying air resistance? Or aerodynamics?” That sounded super-geeky, so I re-phrased: “You know, what sorts of things might make a rocket fly better.”

“I’m not really sure,” she said, “We haven’t yet,” which was interesting because the rocket flying was just three or fours days away. If it was to demonstrate some ideas they had learned it was getting late to learn them.

If there’s one thing that most parents seem to want for their kids in school it’s hands-on learning. If there’s one thing many teachers believe will make them be the right sort of teacher it’s hands-on learning. At meet-the-teachers night, if a teacher says, “We’ll be doing lots of hands-on projects in my class this year,” everyone is happy. Parents imagine their kids up to their elbows in learning. Teachers imagine them building rockets and suspension bridges in the future, CONTINUE READING: The Paper Rocket: Thoughts on Improving ‘Hands-On’ Learning (Doug Lemov) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

NYC Educator: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly in Pittsburgh

NYC Educator: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly in Pittsburgh

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly in Pittsburgh

Let's get this out of the way first--it's remarkable that a bunch of presidential candidates came to talk education. It's extraordinary that they came to see us this year. There was no doubt that they all though our votes worth pursuing, and came out in hopes of showing us how much they love and respect teachers. Most of them spoke of having teachers in their families. This, they suppose, will make us love them. Yet if they almost all have teachers in their families, they need to differentiate on that theme.

This is a huge improvement over the last few campaigns, where we endorsed without getting anything in return. I don't know what Hillary would've done about education, but I will never forget being in Minnesota and having her tell us we can "learn from public charter schools." Once you call them that, you've drunk the Kool-Aid, Furthermore, I've seen no evidence they do anything better than we do, beyond picking and choosing kids and dumping those they don't like. Neither of those things impress me.

My grandfather was an electrician. He was very clever. He could work out things for people that they were happy with. However, you wouldn't want me to poking around wires in your home any time soon. Now I loved my grandfather, but I inherited absolutely none of his electrical skills. I'm not at all sure having a teacher in your family makes you palatable to teachers. It certainly doesn't mean you understand the job.

It's not a bad thing that they want our votes. What are they willing to give for them, though? Even though a few dozen pro-charter folks stood outside and protested, none of the candidates spoke substantively against charters. I believe Warren said they ought to be subject to the same regulations public schools are, and I know that's not bringing holiday cheer to the Moskowitz family. Last I looked, Bernie's not a fan at all. Too bad for them.

My biggest surprise was Amy Klobuchar. Though she isn't a top-tier candidate, and thus gets little media coverage, she was surprisingly persuasive. She doesn't seem to share my desire for a national health program, or for free community colleges, but she seems quite sincere. She was the only candidate who spoke of having a teacher in her family who also made it seem like it was of genuine importance to her.

It was pretty disgusting that Michael Bennet could get up in front of all those people and say that he didn't support privatization. Most people, when they use that word, are CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly in Pittsburgh

SHOCKER: Indiana Refuses to Give Three Indianapolis Schools to For-Profit Charter Chain | Diane Ravitch's blog

SHOCKER: Indiana Refuses to Give Three Indianapolis Schools to For-Profit Charter Chain | Diane Ravitch's blog

SHOCKER: Indiana Refuses to Give Three Indianapolis Schools to For-Profit Charter Chain

Indiana is a swamp of school choice corruption.

If you read this post, your hair might catch on fire if  you are sensitive to things like ethics, honesty, and responsible stewardship of public money.

Seven years ago, the state superintendent of Indiana was a school choice firebrand named Tony Bennett. There was nothing he wouldn’t do to transfer public money from public schools to charter operators or religious schools. He was briefly riding high–the Thomas B. Fordham Institute named him the “reformiest of all reformers.” But then he came a cropper. An AP reporter unearthed the fact that he raised the grade of a charter school owned by one of his campaign donors. That was too much, even for the corrupt swamp overseen by Indiana Republicans. Bennett was defeated when he ran for re-election.  Bennett promptly became State Commissioner of Florida. That gig lasted only weeks, and he had to resign because of the ethics problem he left behind in Indiana.

One of his decisions during his tenure in Indiana was to hand over three low-performing schools in Indianapolis to the for-profit chain called Charter Schools USA, which is CONTINUE READING: SHOCKER: Indiana Refuses to Give Three Indianapolis Schools to For-Profit Charter Chain | Diane Ravitch's blog

NYC Educator: Panorama Survey 2019

NYC Educator: Panorama Survey 2019

Panorama Survey 2019

1. How depressed are you about going to this teacher's class?

a. very   b. extremely  c. very extremely  d. 100%  e. This will be another ER visit for sure.

2. How often does this teacher ignore your needs?

a. usually   b. frequently   c. constantly   d. always  e. both in and out of the classroom 24/7

3. In this class, how stifled does the teacher make you feel?

a. very   b. extremely  c. very extremely  d. 100%  e. I don't remember what it is to feel

4. How threatening does the teacher make this classroom?

a. very   b. extremely  c. very extremely  d. 100%  e. NOOO! I WON'T GO BACK THERE!!!!

5. How often does this teacher waste your time making you explain stuff?

a. always  b. siempre  c. sempre  d. constantly  e. constantamente

6. How unfair are this teacher's stupid rules?

a. very   b. extremely  c. very extremely  d. 100%  e. the worst in the frigging universe

7. How much does this teacher humiliate you in front of all your friends? CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: Panorama Survey 2019

NYC Public School Parents: Mayoral control hearings - and the consensus that the current system doesn't work

NYC Public School Parents: Mayoral control hearings - and the consensus that the current system doesn't work

Mayoral control hearings - and the consensus that the current system doesn't work

The NY Assembly Education chair Michael Benedetto and other members of the Education committee held hearings today on Mayoral control which the Legislature renewed with minor changes last spring until June 2022.

Benedetto announced this was to be only the first of many hearings and roundtables they plan to hold to engage other advocates, academics, educators, etc.  Assemblymembers Mike Reilly of Staten Island and Alicia Hyndman of Queens, both former CEC Presidents, along with AMs Joanne Simon of Brooklyn and Harvey Epstein of Manhattan were there and asked lots of good questions.

Many CEC members and others spoke decried the lack of transparency, accountability, checks and balances, and real parent and community input into DOE decision-making.  No one testified strongly in favor of the current system except for Chancellor Carranza, who insisted it was the best system he had ever worked under because it allowed him to coordinate with other city agencies and make fast policy changes with little interference.

Council Member Mark Treyger testified that the Council should have a stronger role in making policy, perhaps by putting an appointed member on the Panel for Educational CONTINUE READING: NYC Public School Parents: Mayoral control hearings - and the consensus that the current system doesn't work

Special Education Program at Fairfax High School Is Safe For Now

Special Education Program at Fairfax High School Is Safe For Now

Special Education Program at Fairfax High School Is Safe For Now

I don’t want him to stay in the house,I want him to be happy and independent.”– Mother of CTC Student facing displacement

When the stakeholders at CTC West were first told about Nick Melvoin’s plan to displace their special education school so that an elite middle school could be co-located on the campus of Fairfax High School, it was less than three weeks before the LAUSD school board was set to vote on the project. That period included the Thanksgiving holiday, further decreasing the likelihood that the stakeholders would be able to save their school. However, with the support of their allies on the Fairfax campus, they were able to draw enough attention to their plight, forcing Melvoin to pull the item from the agenda of the December 3rd board meeting. The Fairfax High community was told about the delay in the vote on December 3rd and the stakeholders of the CTC were not directly told until a robocall on December 9th. Once again, Melvoin CONTINUE READING: Special Education Program at Fairfax High School Is Safe For Now

Whatever happened to edTPA? It’s still here and still messed up. – Fred Klonsky

Whatever happened to edTPA? It’s still here and still messed up. – Fred Klonsky

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO EDTPA? IT’S STILL HERE AND STILL MESSED UP

A few years ago I posted tons of stuff on the pre-teaching certification program called edTPA.

Here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and you can you can use my blog search feature to find more.

edTPA is back, still messed up and in the news.

Sort of.

From a new article on edTPA in Education Week’s Teacher:

The test results are not always reliable or precise, and in fact, can be “misleading.”

And the researchers argue that until these issues are further analyzed and resolved, there should be a moratorium on using edTPA scores for high-stakes decisions for individual teachers. 

The assessment, which teacher-preparation programs must use in 18 states, requires teacher-candidates to submit a CONTINUE READING: Whatever happened to edTPA? It’s still here and still messed up. – Fred Klonsky