WeAreTeachers — 12 Things You Should Never, Ever Say to Teachers

WeAreTeachers — 12 Things You Should Never, Ever Say to Teachers:

WeAreTeachers — 12 Things You Should Never, Ever Say to Teachers

http://weareteachers.tumblr.com/post/74492609694/12-things-you-should-never-ever-say-to-teachers

2015 National Conference – Chicago

The Countdown to Chicago Has Begun!

The Network For Public Education | 2015 National Conference – Chicago 

http://bit.ly/1FQFcQM

The Big Money Guys Out to Defeat Chuy Garcia ‪#‎Chuy2015‬ ‪#‎imwithchuy‬

The Network For Public Education | The Big Money Guys Out to Defeat Chuy Garcia:

The Big Money Guys Out to Defeat Chuy Garcia

 The mayoral election in Chicago has become a national story. Jesus Chuy Garcia, who has beenendorsed by the Network for Public Education, forced a run off election with incumbent Mayor Rahm Emanuel when Emanuel failed to garner the required 50% of the vote in the mayoral primary.

It has been widely reported that Emanuel wildly outspent his opponents in the primary election, with some reports putting the margin as wide as 12-1.

That trend has continued, with the hedge fund and Hollywood elite continuing to pour money not only into Emanuel’s campaign, but into Chicago Forward PAC, which has been created to support Emanuel. Chicago Forward is spending millions on TV ads, not only to praise Emanuel, but to slam Garcia. The ads portraying Emanuel as a guy who cares about the people behind his gruff exterior, have dramatically increased the lead he holds over Garcia.

BIG Money Donors Impact Elections in the East, West and in Chicago

Here at NPE, we are keenly aware that hedge fund executives and billionaire philanthropists donating to politicians and PACs are often the same people donating to anti-public education efforts.

We’ve seen the same pattern on both the east and west coast. In the last year, two NPE endorsed candidates have won high-profile elections where they were up against well-financed education reform candidates.

In the California State Superintendent’s race, Tom Torlakson defeated his charter executive, Broad graduate, challenger Marshall Tuck. In Newark, New Jersey Ras Baraka defeated a well-orchestrated, multi-million dollar attempt by Democrats for Education Reform to install a charter friendly candidate to carry out the privatization efforts initiated by Newark Mayor Cory Booker, who has since become a United States Senator.

Baraka has endorsed Garcia, stating:

Chicago, Newark, and so many cities around this country face a common struggle against corporate interests that want to undermine public education and silence dissenting voices in the community. Organized people can always beat organized money, and I give him my full support as he fights for a brighter future for Chicago’s parents, students, and working families.

Both Baraka and Torlakson were able to defeat the corporate interests that donated large sums to defeat them. There is no doubt that Garcia has the ability to do the same in Chicago.

Corporate Reform Money in Chicago

Some of the same reform heavyweights that donated to defeat Torlakson in California have donated to defeat Garcia in Chicago as well. John Arnold, a KIPP and TFA supporter from Houston, TX gave more than $300,000 to defeat Torlakson. He has also given $200,000 to Emanuel, and $100,000 to Chicago Forward. Eli Broad, a native Californian, gave $1,000,000 to Tuck, and more than $500,000 to various PACs that donated to him. He has also thrown his money behind Emanuel, with a $100,000 contribution directly to his campaign.

DFER is not playing a financial role in the Chicago mayoral election, likely because there is a strong anti-union privatization group that has already made significant political inroads in Illinois.

Stand for Children IL

Stand for Children IL, the Chicago office of Jonah Edelman’s Stand for Children, has spent almost $70,000 on in kind contributions and has officially endorsed Emanuel’s campaign. In 2011, Edelman took the city by storm when his education reform behemoth decided to take root in Chicago with an eye “toward influencing elections.”

Chicago’s power elite was all too happy to help finance Edelman’s new endeavor.

The people who quickly poured big bucks into Stand for Children’s campaign kitty include a Chicago-centric crew of philanthropists whose interests in improving education coincide with a willingness to write big checks.

Several of them served on the board of the Chicago Public Education Fund, which backs charter schools and higher standards for teachers and principals.

…..

In fewer than 100 days, Stand for Children raked in about $3.5 million.

Watch this video of Edelman describing how the $3 million raised was used to “shift the balance of power” in Illinois from the unions to Stand for Children. He glibly recounts how the money enabled them to push for collective bargaining reform and “jam it down their throats.”

Here’s a look at the list of the biggest contributors to Stand for Children IL, the Chicago Forward PAC and Emanuel.

Click to enlarge

Notable Chicago billionaire families the Pritzkers and the Crowns have donated sizable sums and neither family is a stranger to creating education policy for other people’s children.

The Pritzker’s, of Hyatt Hotel fame, are the 8th wealthiest family in the USwith a net worth of $29 billion. There is a Noble Charter School named after the family, and Penny Pritzker was nominated to the Chicago School Board by Emanuel and then abruptly resigned when she was tapped by President Obama to become Secretary of Commerce. The Pritzkers have given $200,000 to Stand for Children and $250,000 to Emanuel.

The Crowns are the 35th wealthiest family with a net worth of $7.3 billion. The Crown Family Philanthropies is a supporter of Learn Charter School andNew Leaders for New Schools in Chicago, which claims to develop “transformational school leaders” and design “effective leadership policies and practices for school systems across the country.” New Leaders is also funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Walton Foundation, the Broad Foundation and the Robertson Foundation. Last year New Leaders CEO Jean Desravines was paid an astounding $425,000, which is dramatically higher than any “transformational school leader,” even in the nation’s largest cities.

Crown family members have donated a combined $834,400 to Stand for Children IL, $50,000 to Chicago Forward, and $150,000 to Emanuel.

Republican Donors Love Emanuel!

The biggest donor overall is Kenneth Griffin. Griffin is the founder and CEO of Citadel. He donated $500,000 to Stand for Children IL and a combined total of $1,175,000 for Emanuel – $325,000 directly to Emanuel and a whopping $850,000 to Chicago Forward.

While it’s notable that Griffin is strongly aligned with Stand for Children, what’s perhaps even more notable is that Griffin is also strongly aligned with the GOP. It was recently reported that Wisconsin’s union busting governor and presidential hopeful, Scott Walker, has been courting big GOP donors, including Griffin. He recently gave a “low six figure” contribution to Walker’s fledgling campaign.

And Griffin isn’t the only Emanuel backer who also finances Republican candidates that are hostile to working people and public education.

Two of Emanuel’s biggest Republican backers are investor Muneer Satter and Craig Duchossois of the investment and holding company Duchossois Group. Satter and his wife have donated $210,600 to Emanuel’s campaign and $100,000 to Chicago Forward, according to Illinois campaign records, and Duchossois has given $100,000 to the campaign and $10,000 to the super PAC. They are also both early backers of former Republican Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s presidential campaign.

Such is the current state of politics in Rahm Emanuel’s Chicago. President Obama’s friend and former chief of staff kept in power by the same donors behind Republican presidential hopefuls Scott Walker and Jeb Bush. The people of Chicago, and the students of Chicago, deserve better.

Chuy: Champion for Equitable Public Education

Chicago teacher’s union President Karen Lewis told NPE that, “Chuy is a champion for equitable public education. He understands working people, poor people and has compassion for them.”

In her endorsement of Chuy Garcia NPE President Diane Ravitch said, “It is time to stop closing schools. It is time to give the public school children of Chicago the resources they need to have a good education, a great education, one that prepares them to be independent and responsible citizens and lifelong learners.”

Chuy Garcia will give Chicago back to the people. Please visit his website to learn more about his plan to support neighborhood schools and an elected school board. The Network for Public Education is proud to endorse Chuy’s campaign, and asks our allies to donate or volunteer for Chuy.

As Garcia says:

Big money guys already have a Mayor who listens to them. I will be a mayor that listens to you.

---

Will You Be There When History is Made in Chicago This Month? - Living in Dialogue

Will You Be There When History is Made in Chicago This Month? - Living in Dialogue:

Will You Be There When History is Made in Chicago This Month?

 By Anthony Cody.

This Tuesday voters in Chicago will choose between incumbent mayor Rahm Emanuel and challenger Chuy Garcia. Garcia shared his views on education here a few weeks ago, and has earned the support of most teachers and the Chicago Teachers Union. The Network for Public Education also has endorsed him. But this is just one way history is being made in the nation’s second largest city. At the end of the month, April 25 to 26, the NPE conference in Chicago will be a historic event from start to finish.

The NPE conference will be opened by community activist Jitu Brown, who will share the mic with Tanaisa Brown, a student activist from Newark, New Jersey. That afternoon we will hear from Yong Zhao, who has showed us what is lost when test scores become our focus. Sunday morning Diane Ravitch will engage Lily Eskelsen Garcia and Randi Weingarten in conversation, discussing how teacher unions can play a stronger role in supporting teachers and students who are pushing back against the tide of testing and privatization. And Karen Lewis will wrap the whole event up, as only she can.

But in between these “big names,” the real work will happen. We will meet people who have only been Twitter handles and authors of insightful blogs. We will meet people who have marched in the streets to protest school closings, who have been arrested — even had bones broken as they fought to defend schools and libraries. In more than forty sessions, activists will meet to share their stories, to understand how to organize, how to build coalitions, how to elevate student voices, how to write effectively, how to research. These are the people making history, and it is an honor to be with them and learn from them.

There are very few opportunities for us to gather together like this. Sometimes this work can be isolated and discouraging. Unlike those working to support corporate reform, we have few tangible rewards. For me, the chance to meet and connect with fellow activists gives me a boost that carries me onwards, and strengthens my determination. Our first conference in Austin last year gave me such a boost, and I am ready for another in Chicago. I hope I see many of you there, as we make history once again.

The full list of panels and speaks is here at this link. You can still register for the conference here. It is possible that registrations will be sold out before the date of the event, so even if you live in the Chicago area, it is a good idea to sign up now.

Will you be there? What are you looking forward to? What do events like this mean for you and your work?

2015 National Conference – Chicago

The Countdown to Chicago Has Begun!

The Network For Public Education | 2015 National Conference – Chicago 

http://bit.ly/1FQFcQM

Click Here to go to the Network for Public Education Website

School Agenda Bedevils Chicago Mayor in Race - NYTimes.com #‎Chuy2015‬ ‪#‎imwithchuy‬

School Agenda Bedevils Chicago Mayor in Race - NYTimes.com:

School Agenda Bedevils Chicago Mayor in Race

CHICAGO — The sky-blue paint has begun to peel on the three-story building that was once Anthony Overton Elementary. Window air-conditioners are speckled with rust. Doors where children used to rush in and out are sealed with plywood.

The empty shell of this school on Chicago’s largely black South Side stands as a reminder of one of Rahm Emanuel’s defining acts as mayor: overseeing the closing of nearly 50 public schools deemed underperforming, underutilized or both. It was the largest closing of schools in memory, with many of them in black or Latino neighborhoods.

For the mayor, this was one step toward bringing better education to students trapped in failing schools amid a fiscal crisis. Overton, after all, was nothing to brag about. Its test scores put it in the lowest tier of the nation’s third-largest school district, and it had been placed on probation by school officials for three years. The population in Chicago had shrunk over time, some students had chosen alternatives like charter schools, and Overton was only half full.

 But for families who saw Overton as an institution that gave the neighborhood stability, the decision was a blow. “It hurts,” said Earvin Wade, 55, who lives across the street. “You used to have a lot of kids there, families around. It was at the heart of our neighborhood. Now it’s nothing but an eyesore.”

As Mr. Emanuel faces an unexpected runoff election for mayor, questions are percolating through the race about his brusque style, his handling of gang violence and whether he has favored wealthy downtown interests over ordinary neighborhoods. But in the end, it may be the education agenda that he proudly, defiantly and swiftly carried out that threatens his political future.

Like many mayors of big cities, Mr. Emanuel, a Democrat, came into office four years ago bluntly pledging to turn around a troubled school system and improve graduation rates, which hovered around 58 percent. He was withering in his critique, asserting at one point that students were getting “the shaft.”

Mr. Emanuel sought to reduce dropout rates and extend the availability of preschool and full-day kindergarten. He pushed to toughen teacher evaluations and oversaw an expansion of charters schools, which are privately run and publicly funded. He demanded an increase in the length of the school day — which compared unfavorably with that of other major cities — helping set off the first teachers’ strike in a quarter-century.

Teachers, who said they felt attacked by Mr. Emanuel and carried pointed signs with messages like “What’s Rahm With You?” during the strike in 2012, are now leading the charge against him.

Chicago Teachers Union leaders urged Jesús G. Garcia, a county commissioner known as Chuy, to enter a wide field of candidates in the first balloting last week against Mr. Emanuel. And they said they would be pressing efforts on behalf of Mr. Garcia, who finished second to Mr. Emanuel, forcing him into the runoff election on April 7.

Teachers’ groups, including national unions like the American Federation of Teachers, have donated at least $500,000 to elect Mr. Garcia, though Mr. Emanuel has raised far more. In one sign of the environment Mr. Emanuel faces, advisory measures calling for the school board to be elected instead of appointed by the mayor won overwhelming support from Chicagoans on ballots last week.

“That’s a pretty strong message to Rahm about what people thought about his education agenda,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. “His education agenda is based on sanctions and punishing and tests in lieu of the professional judgment of educators.”

Despite the opposition from teachers, Mr. Emanuel boasts of his record on education, ticking off school statistics he likens to the report cards he says his parents used to post on the family refrigerator for all to see.

“We had to make changes in the structure of the system that was holding our kids and our teachers back from doing what they do best,” Mr. Emanuel said in an interview. “Now, we’re not done. It’s not over. There are things that have to get done. But they’re finally pointing in the right direction and repeatedly doing better and better each year.”

During his first term, graduation rates rose to just under 70 percent, a high for the Chicago system, according to school officials. The number of African-American students in Advanced Placement classes grew by 40 percent. Suspensions and expulsions dropped.

In the wake of the strike, school days grew to seven hours for public elementary school students, up from less than six, school officials said, and students now attend class 178 days a year, not 170. Mr. Emanuel has pressed for a new program that provides free tuition to the City Colleges — the local community college system — for public school students who graduate with a B average or better.

“This is someone with a vision,” said Juan Jose Gonzalez, the Chicago director of Stand for Children Illinois, an education group that has endorsed Mr. Emanuel.

Yet on the South and West Sides, people seem to remember Mr. Emanuel most for the decision his appointed school board made to close nearly 50 public schools from among the district’s more than 700.

Of the closings, Mr. Emanuel said the choice had been vexing but School Agenda Bedevils Chicago Mayor in Race - NYTimes.com:

Click here to go to Jesus "Chuy" Garcia for Mayor of Chicago Website

‪#‎Chuy2015‬ ‪#‎imwithchuy‬

If you cheat to escape a corrupt accountability system, who is really to blame? - The Washington Post

If you cheat to escape a corrupt accountability system, who is really to blame? - The Washington Post:

If you cheat to escape a corrupt accountability system, who is really to blame?

An Atlanta jury last week convicted 11 teachers of racketeering in a standardized test-cheating scandal. Yes, prosecutors used a law previously employed against mobsters against the educators, who were part of a group of 35 indicted in 2013 in the scheme. That included the now-deceased Atlanta schools superintendent, Beverly Hall. You can read here about how and why the cheating scheme occurred in Atlanta. The following post looks at something broader: how the scandal fits into a story about the consequences of bad policy-making. When people cheat to escape a corrupt accountability system, who is to blame?

This was written by scholar Richard Rothstein, a research associate at theEconomic Policy Institute, a non-profit created in 1986 to broaden the discussion about economic policy to include the interests of low- and middle-income workers. He is also senior fellow of the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Law and Social Policy at the University of California (Berkeley) School of Law, and he is the author of books including  “Grading Education: Getting Accountability Right,  and “Class and Schools: Using Social, Economic and Educational Reform to Close the Black-White Achievement Gap.” He was a national education writer for The New York Times as well. This appeared on the EPI website and I am republishing it with permission. 

 By Richard Rothstein

Eleven Atlanta educators, convicted and imprisoned, have taken the fall for systematic cheating on standardized tests in American education. Such cheating is widespread, as is similar corruption in any institution—whether health care, criminal justice, the Veterans Administration, or others—where top policymakers try to manage their institutions with simple quantitative measures that distort the institution’s goals. This corruption is especially inevitable when out-of-touch policymakers set impossible-to-achieve goals and expect that success will nonetheless follow if only underlings are held accountable for measurable results.

There was little doubt, even before the jury’s decision, that Atlanta teachers and administrators had changed answers on student test booklets to increase scores. There was also little doubt that Atlanta’s late superintendent, Beverly Hall, was partly responsible because she had, as a state investigation revealed, “created a culture of fear, intimidation and retaliation” that had permitted “cheating—at all levels—to go unchecked for years.”

What the trial did not explore was whether Dr. Hall herself was reacting to a culture of fear, intimidation, and retaliation that her board, state education officials, and the Bush and Obama administrations had created. Just as her principals’ jobs were in jeopardy if test scores didn’t rise, her tenure, too, was dependent on ever rising test scores.

Holding educators accountable for student test results makes sense if the tests are reasonable reflections of teacher performance. But if they are not, and if educators are being held accountable for meeting standards that are If you cheat to escape a corrupt accountability system, who is really to blame? - The Washington Post:

Cuomo to our schools: "Drop dead" | SocialistWorker.org

Cuomo to our schools: "Drop dead" | SocialistWorker.org:

Cuomo to our schools: "Drop dead"

Marilena Marchetti reports on the fight to defend public education in New York, and the challenges it faces now that the governor's reactionary proposals have passed.

New York teachers rally to protect public schools (Marilena Marchetti | SW)

IT'S SAFE to say the tiny minority of 1 Percenters who will be enjoying theYacht Tax Credit established in this year's New York state budget didn't have to organize a single picket, orchestrate a Twitter storm or launch a statewide call-in campaign to lawmakers.

But tens of thousands of working class parents, teachers and students who went to rallies and called the state capital to try to defend their public schools have been ignored by their "representatives" in Albany.

On March 29, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and leaders of the Republican-led state Senate and Democratic-led State Assembly agreed on a budget bill that includes multiple poison pills for public education. The new law will accelerate the process of taking children's education away from teachers and giving it to testing and curriculum corporations--unless New Yorkers can take the movement they've been building to even greater heights.

Cuomo declared war on public education during his run for re-election late last year when he promised to "break what is, in essence, one of the only remaining public monopolies--and that's what this is, it's a public monopoly."

Making good on that promise in January, Cuomo unveiled a plan that read like worst-of-the-worst list of education "reforms": increasing the weight of standardized test scores in evaluating teachers, expanding the cap on charter schools, making tenure more difficult to attain, a punitive approach to struggling schools that would override labor agreements, more red tape around teacher training programs, and an emphasis on bureaucratic control of school boards.

Nowhere to be found in Cuomo's proposals were evidence-based measures that are known to improve education outcomes like smaller class sizes, a fully funded, rich and well-rounded curriculum and access to quality wraparound services.

Writing for the Nation, George Joseph exposed how Cuomo's plan reflected his deep and long-term commitment to fulfilling the wishes of nine hedge-fund billionaires who want a piece of the public education pie. Inevitably, such flagrant neglect of what education justice advocates, parents and teachers want created a backlash.

On March 12, over 300 New York City schools responded to a call by an education justice parent-led coalition to stand up against Cuomo. As Socialist Worker reported, "The 'Protect Our Schools' action is the most expansive school organizing effort in recent memory in New York, and demonstrated the widespread anger at Cuomo's endless efforts to weaken public schools."

School communities built enough momentum through their organizing efforts to compel the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) to endorse the day of action and push it to mobilize for a citywide action for March 28 outside of Cuomo's Manhattan offices.

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THE THOUSANDS-strong rally on March 28 brought together parents and teachers, along with community members from every borough, Long Island and upstate.

Amy Weintraub from PS 107 in Brooklyn, along with dozens of other parents, wore a bright green t-shirt with the simple phrase "Public School Parent" blazoned across it. "We don't want Cuomo to think this is merely a union issue or a teacher issue," she explained. "This is also an educational issue that effects our children and that's why parents are upset."

Alexandra Alves, a teacher and member of the Movement of Rank and File Educators(MORE), the opposition caucus in the UFT, talked about how after the March 12 day of Cuomo to our schools: "Drop dead" | SocialistWorker.org: