May 16, 2998
Goin’ Abroad, Goin’ Local
by Norman Scott
Tokyo Notes
The conga line snakes around the arena. 450 kids from 24 countries on five continents. We are in Tokyo. The children are between nine and 17 years old and we are at the end of three days of competition at the Asian Open FIRST LEGO League tournament.
The kids are from Peru and Brazil; a bunch from the US, Canada and Mexico; five from China; teams from Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Korea; many from Western Europe – France, Spain, Germany, Holland, all the Scandinavian countries; and Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia. We were disappointed to hear the two teams from Israel had to cancel at the last minute - we could have solved the Middle East in those three days.
I was asked to be one of four referees – the other three were Japanese college students, only one of whom spoke English. Yikes! I’ve never been a referee and didn’t really know the game well enough, especially in such an intense competitive environment – sort of like being asked to umpire your first game in the World Series. But they needed an English speaker. I spent part of the 14 hour plane ride studying and then raced around on the practice day getting all the rules straight, relying a lot on
Tomo, the English speaking student, who ended up being my ref partner throughout the tournament – thank goodness – after I made sure to recruit some of the Europeans to join us. It turned out many of them were in my boat – helping organize and run tournaments but never having time to learn the intricacies of the game.
This year’s theme was energy – the Power Puzzle – and teams also have to do research on solving the energy crisis and do a presentation in front of a panel of judges. So, things were a bit chaotic and on the first day we didn’t get out until 8 PM. Later that night a group of us gathered in the lobby going over the rules until 11 PM. I marveled at the fact that here are adults spending hours working on this stuff and taking it so very seriously to make sure it goes ok for the kids. But that is what working with FIRST robotics is all about.
The refereeing went pretty well, though there were kids from two Chinese teams pretty mad at Tomo and me for some of our rulings. One of the kids spent a half hour arguing with me and I told him he should be a lawyer. The next day all the kids came over to take pictures. Having this kind of contact with kids after so long an absence was the great benefit of the trip. It is the major thing I miss about teaching.
We had two contrasting NYC middle schools - one public school (Herman Ritter) from the South Bronx and the other a private school (Little Red School House) from Manhattan where the kids raised $1200 in bake sales to assist the Ritter kids in getting to Japan. Ritter returned the favor by taking Little Red to dinner in Tokyo, the idea of Bronx FLL organizer Gary Israel (my roomie) who has been instrumental in promoting the Ritter kids.
This trip turned into a unique opportunity to interact with a great variety of adults and children from all over the world. I was fortunate in having Marcio Noguchi as a traveling companion. Marcio, of Japanese descent but born and raised in Brazil, lived in Japan for nine years. He now works for Credit Suisse in New York, so he brings a perspective of three continents to the table. We spent a lot of time together walking miles around Tokyo, so I got some great insights, illuminated after a sampling of sake at one restaurant. Afterwards, we went staggering – er - looking for ice cream and not finding a place, ended up at an all night McDonalds for shakes. It is a five story vertical place with stools at counters where some people spend many hours studying. Marcio left his motorcycle in my driveway and some of my neighbors were concerned that I was going through some kind of phase.
Back to Earth Day in Rockaway
The remarkable Jeanne Dupont, who heads the Rockaway Waterfront Alliance and organized the 2nd annual Earth Day on May 3 (two days after I returned) asked me to set up a display of the Power Puzzle for the event. (Native Rockawayite Bob Woods from LEGO Education also had a display on building solar cars.) Despite somewhat iffy weather conditions, we were visited by some of the local schools that expressed an interest in FLL robotics for next year and I hope to be able to assist them. Registration for Climate Connections, this year’s theme, is already open. FLL is not just for schools, but also for clubs and neighborhood teams. We even had a NYC Parks Dept. Team from Staten Island this year. Contact me if interested.
Goin’ more local
I retired six years ago because I wanted to have the time to do other things. I had been in a pretty cushy job for the previous four years in computer support and didn’t feel the need to go, other than time was a-wasting.
FIRST robotics was the first thing I did and have been handling registration and team recruitment ever since. I also have been deeply involved in educational and union issues and other activities, mostly Manhattan based.
In the past year or two I have been getting more involved in local activities in Rockaway. I’ve been doing a lot of video work along with my friend Mark Rosenhaft (NorMark Film.) Last night I attended my first local Planning Commission meeting videotaping with filmmaker Jennifer Callahan for the upcoming “Bungalows of Rockaway.” The major issue was the sometimes controversial re-zoning plan. In a very crowded meeting, there were lots of illuminating things going on, with some East/West Rockaway fault lines showing their cracks.
It would be beneficial for more people to find ways to work together. A group of Manhattanites have become part of the east end community as bungalow owners and that adds an interesting dynamic that bears watching.
Mark and I spent a year as co-producers, editors and cinematographers on “Dispatch,” a film that will be shown at the upcoming Rockaway Literary Arts and Film Festival. That experience made me more aware of local events that are worth getting involved in.
We recently interviewed The Wave’s Howard Schwach for a segment on Manhattan Neighborhood Network. When I showed it to the group I am working with, one of the people said, “I did the interview with him for Channel 4 when the plane crashed in Rockaway.” She is Rita Satz, who worked as a producer on the Today Show and is now retired. She has roots in Rockaway and is interested in producing the segment on Schwach.
RTC
Through the “Dispatch” film, I met Rockaway Theater Company’s John Gilleece who played a role in the film. John said RTC was looking for a videographer to tape the shows. I taped every show last year, sometimes twice. And I saw them gain when I worked on making the DVD’s. I could have watched them ten times. Seeing the shows from the booth and through a lens provides a unique perspective. Not a bad moment in any of them. Great acting, sets, spirit. There’s nothing not to like.
Having taught, my favorites are the shows with kids. Last year’s “Oliver” blew me away, not only for the quality of the show but for the way the kids were treated and how they responded. In addition to everything else, RTC does some remarkable teaching.
I’ve been around the “Annie” production from the first auditions back in January and never fail to be amazed at the kids and the adults working with them, especially co-directors Kathy Valentine and Frank Caiati. I need another column to describe the work Kathy and Frank do. (They also help paint the props.) They help create some of the remarkable spirit and energy that infuses the Rockaway Theater Company, where everyone – kids, parents, adult actors, etc. pitch in, from cleaning the theater to selling snacks during intermission. How such a small geographical area can nurture so much talent is astounding.
I can testify that Frank is a remarkable teacher, having recently completed an acting class with him. And he is also a great actor. The kids are lucky to have him around, at least until he makes it big on Broadway or in film.
I saw “Annie” with a large group of friends last Saturday, some first-time RTC-goers. They will be back. I went back on Sunday to tape it and am going back this weekend to tape it again. I won’t be bored for an instant.
Showing posts with label Wave. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wave. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Welcome Baaaack! - Norm Scott in The Wave
The School Scope column
Sept. 7
www.rockawave.com
(The Wave has been Rockaway's community newspaper since 1893. Norm took over the column from current editor Howard Schwach in Sept. 2003.)
Even though I wrote a column for the Wave’s special education edition two weeks ago, this feels like the first column of the new school year – the year of Power to the Principal – with the BloomKlein theme of “If it goes wrong, we know whom to blame.” One would think education issues would be dormant with schools closed. Not so. With an endless summer of retirement, I was still very busy writing for the Education Notes Online blog that I run. I need a vacation.
Well, here are some of the things I covered in the past week or so.
What's the Real Difference Marcia Lyles?
Marcia Lyles, Joel Klein's deputy chancellor for teaching and learning, following on the heels of Diana Lam, Carmen Farina (Lyles took over for Farina when she left Region 8) and Andres Alonso (now chief of the Baltimore school system,) gave a revealing interview to Jennifer Medina in the NY Times.
One of the 4 superintendents chosen in the latest reorganization, about 12% of the schools signed up with Lyles before her promotion. How do you think they feel now that she’s gone? Quick, maybe Kathy Cashin can grab them for her Knowledge Network (described by one blogger on the first day this way: “We stuck with Cashin and everything is "Core Knowledge this, Core Knowledge That, best thing since sliced bread, Yada, yada, yada.")
Lyles’ story is that she spent her entire career as a teacher and supervisor in the NYC schools. Long-time observers of the ed/political scene see her (and her predecessors) as figureheads for the MBA types looking for bottom-line narrow test results who are really driving teaching and learning. Lyles almost admits as much when she says:
"When the music changes, so does the dance.”
“I learned all the new steps,” she said. “I just moved with the changes, that’s what you have to do.”
Medina writes:
“While some teachers and principals say the Klein administration desperately needs an educator’s voice in a headquarters packed with lawyers and consultants who have little patience for the city’s education establishment, they question whether Ms. Lyles is aggressive enough to be heard.”
But the most revealing part of the interview was Lyles’ own childhood experiences. As a high school student at the dreadful Benjamin Franklin HS in East Harlem, she cut school regularly – until an aunt found out. Medina writes:
“Convinced that the school was too easy, her aunt, who was raising her, forced her to transfer from Benjamin Franklin High School to Jamaica High School, making an hour long trip to and from Queens near the end of her sophomore year. There, Ms. Lyles was shocked to learn that after being in the top of her class at Franklin, which was largely black and Hispanic, and finding school so easy that she could skip out, she was struggling to keep up at what was then a largely white Jamaica High.
“It was her first lesson in the problem that still preoccupies the nation’s largest school system — the racial achievement gap.”
Joel Klein (and Bloomberg) have seized on this issue, trying to play the race card by turning it into a civil rights struggle and calling the inability to close this gap "the shame of this nation." Bunk. Want to know about shame? Try their refusal to do the things that might work – like lower class size or give schools resources they need instead of throwing so much money away on useless staff development and high priced reorganization schemes.
Ironically, Jamaica HS was recently placed in the list of most dangerous schools and will probably suffer the same fate Benjamin Franklin did. What has changed at Jamaica from Lyles' student days? Analyzing how that school is turning into what Benjamin Franklin was would provide some interesting data for the MBA's at Tweed to crunch.
Lyles said, “I just thought, wow, what’s the difference?” she recalled of Jamaica High. “What’s going on, now I have to play catch up? That’s when I saw about inequity, that’s when I saw about low expectations.”
There it is. She was just a victim of the low expectations by the teachers at Franklin while she somehow escaped the low expectations of teachers at Jamaica. In other words, racism.
Next, she'll parrot the Klein line by telling us that if the teachers at Benjamin Franklin had gotten merit pay things would have been different. Or maybe they should have paid the kids to study like Bloomberg wants to do. Life is so simple when you know all the answers.
What was the impact of the role Lyles' aunt played? The chorus of teacher blamers seems to ignore the little bitty factor of family support.
Did the fact that Lyles was now in a better learning environment without being surrounded by other students who were struggling make a bit of a difference? Did the fact that the students at Benjamin Franklin clearly needed so many more resources than the white students at Jamaica - more guidance counselors, lower class sizes, etc. to make up the gap mean anything at all?
If Lyles publicly recognized these issues, that would be an admission that no matter how many times BloomKlein reorganize, or manipulate test scores, things will not change until there is a willingness to spend the money needed to make a real difference rather than rely on gimmicks. The refusal of BloomKlein to take any of these factors into account and just close down schools while blaming the teachers is the true shame of the nation – and their administration.
Marcia Lyles won't go there. She has learned to dance to whatever tune is playing.
How Weingarten Helped Undermine Almontaser
“I agree wholeheartedly with your editorial,” – Randi Weingarten in a letter to the NY Post
"...The campaign against Almontaser was a “high-tech lynching.” – Rabbi Michael Paley, scholar-in-residence at United Jewish Appeal-Federation of New York
"If it was a lynching, my union did not string up the rope, but it was the UFT that kicked away the stool." - Steve Quester, UFT chapter leader
The Indypendent (weekly newspaper) has printed an updated version "Teachers’ Union Undermines Arab School" of Steve Quester's piece published on my blog. Steve, a UFT chapter leader in Brooklyn, goes into more detail on the role Randi Weingarten played. I received lots of response on this issue with people arguing back and forth as to whether a school such as the Khalil Gibran school should even exist, from rational points of view like those of Diane Ravitch (it is a huge mistake--contrary to the philosophy of American public education--to establish schools that have an ethnic or religious focus. The purpose of public education is to prepare young people to participate fully in American society), to the right wing calling the school a training ground for Bin Laden and a madrassa. The usual suspects showed up on the blog – anonymous personal attacks on Quester.
People have assumed that because I published Quester's piece, I support the concept of the school. But I have mixed feelings. A this point my interest lies in the way Bloomberg and Klein and Weingarten, the holy trio, known on my blog as BloomWeinKlein, functioned in this situation. While all three express support for the school, the results of their actions have undermined the school – sort of like the “wide stance” argument made by that Republican Senator from Idaho.
Two weeks ago I wrote that whatever Tweed touches turns to doo-doo. And so it has. And by the reaction of a vocal minority of teachers, many of them Jewish, Weingarten has the same magic touch.
NY Times does another puff piece on Klein
Joel Klein has been doing a media blitz, even saying he wants to remain beyond Bloomberg’s term in office to finish the job of driving the entire NYC school system into oblivion so it could be “rescued” by privateers. (Thousands of teachers had to be talked down from their roofs upon hearing this news.) The make-nice to BloomKlein NY Times did its usual thing, prompting this response on my blog piece from Vera Pavone, a former NYC teacher and school secretary:
“My blood started to boil when I read the article, especially because it shows the Times and their lackey reporters continuing to give credibility to the big lies:
1. "He [Klein] has sought to break what he regarded as a vise grip by the teachers' union on work rules”;
“Can't experienced reporters Herszenhorn and Medina find anyone (union leaders, teachers, other people in the educational community) who can explain how work rules actually benefit students and the educational environment?
2. "To divide large failing schools into small schools" and "to put traditional public schools into competition with charter schools"
“Couldn't H & M read their own publication to find out all the questions that have been raised about small schools and charter schools actually being more successful: getting a higher achieving pool of students and eliminating students with special needs; getting a disproportionate share of resources; forcing the larger, traditional schools to be even more overcrowded and receiving those students who have the least chance of succeeding.
3. "To end what he viewed as a monopoly by the mostly white, middle and upper middle class on good public education services"
“Do H & M really believe that Klein and Bloomberg are the champions of the non-white, non-middle class children just as the Bush administration and NCLB really want to equalize educational opportunity nationwide? Has their investigative reporting shown that quality educational services exist only in white, middle and upper middle class public schools? Do they believe that test scores tell the whole story? Even if it's true that on average teachers in higher achieving schools have more "credentials", this doesn't explain why so many highly skilled, educated, talented, and hardworking teachers don't produce higher test scores in failing schools. Both H & M have been writing about education for some time now and should be able to recognize that "good public education services" have to be suited to the needs of the students, something that is very rare now for any of our students, rich or poor, white or non-white.
“And did I miss it, or did they forget to mention class size?”
Sept. 7
www.rockawave.com
(The Wave has been Rockaway's community newspaper since 1893. Norm took over the column from current editor Howard Schwach in Sept. 2003.)
Even though I wrote a column for the Wave’s special education edition two weeks ago, this feels like the first column of the new school year – the year of Power to the Principal – with the BloomKlein theme of “If it goes wrong, we know whom to blame.” One would think education issues would be dormant with schools closed. Not so. With an endless summer of retirement, I was still very busy writing for the Education Notes Online blog that I run. I need a vacation.
Well, here are some of the things I covered in the past week or so.
What's the Real Difference Marcia Lyles?
Marcia Lyles, Joel Klein's deputy chancellor for teaching and learning, following on the heels of Diana Lam, Carmen Farina (Lyles took over for Farina when she left Region 8) and Andres Alonso (now chief of the Baltimore school system,) gave a revealing interview to Jennifer Medina in the NY Times.
One of the 4 superintendents chosen in the latest reorganization, about 12% of the schools signed up with Lyles before her promotion. How do you think they feel now that she’s gone? Quick, maybe Kathy Cashin can grab them for her Knowledge Network (described by one blogger on the first day this way: “We stuck with Cashin and everything is "Core Knowledge this, Core Knowledge That, best thing since sliced bread, Yada, yada, yada.")
Lyles’ story is that she spent her entire career as a teacher and supervisor in the NYC schools. Long-time observers of the ed/political scene see her (and her predecessors) as figureheads for the MBA types looking for bottom-line narrow test results who are really driving teaching and learning. Lyles almost admits as much when she says:
"When the music changes, so does the dance.”
“I learned all the new steps,” she said. “I just moved with the changes, that’s what you have to do.”
Medina writes:
“While some teachers and principals say the Klein administration desperately needs an educator’s voice in a headquarters packed with lawyers and consultants who have little patience for the city’s education establishment, they question whether Ms. Lyles is aggressive enough to be heard.”
But the most revealing part of the interview was Lyles’ own childhood experiences. As a high school student at the dreadful Benjamin Franklin HS in East Harlem, she cut school regularly – until an aunt found out. Medina writes:
“Convinced that the school was too easy, her aunt, who was raising her, forced her to transfer from Benjamin Franklin High School to Jamaica High School, making an hour long trip to and from Queens near the end of her sophomore year. There, Ms. Lyles was shocked to learn that after being in the top of her class at Franklin, which was largely black and Hispanic, and finding school so easy that she could skip out, she was struggling to keep up at what was then a largely white Jamaica High.
“It was her first lesson in the problem that still preoccupies the nation’s largest school system — the racial achievement gap.”
Joel Klein (and Bloomberg) have seized on this issue, trying to play the race card by turning it into a civil rights struggle and calling the inability to close this gap "the shame of this nation." Bunk. Want to know about shame? Try their refusal to do the things that might work – like lower class size or give schools resources they need instead of throwing so much money away on useless staff development and high priced reorganization schemes.
Ironically, Jamaica HS was recently placed in the list of most dangerous schools and will probably suffer the same fate Benjamin Franklin did. What has changed at Jamaica from Lyles' student days? Analyzing how that school is turning into what Benjamin Franklin was would provide some interesting data for the MBA's at Tweed to crunch.
Lyles said, “I just thought, wow, what’s the difference?” she recalled of Jamaica High. “What’s going on, now I have to play catch up? That’s when I saw about inequity, that’s when I saw about low expectations.”
There it is. She was just a victim of the low expectations by the teachers at Franklin while she somehow escaped the low expectations of teachers at Jamaica. In other words, racism.
Next, she'll parrot the Klein line by telling us that if the teachers at Benjamin Franklin had gotten merit pay things would have been different. Or maybe they should have paid the kids to study like Bloomberg wants to do. Life is so simple when you know all the answers.
What was the impact of the role Lyles' aunt played? The chorus of teacher blamers seems to ignore the little bitty factor of family support.
Did the fact that Lyles was now in a better learning environment without being surrounded by other students who were struggling make a bit of a difference? Did the fact that the students at Benjamin Franklin clearly needed so many more resources than the white students at Jamaica - more guidance counselors, lower class sizes, etc. to make up the gap mean anything at all?
If Lyles publicly recognized these issues, that would be an admission that no matter how many times BloomKlein reorganize, or manipulate test scores, things will not change until there is a willingness to spend the money needed to make a real difference rather than rely on gimmicks. The refusal of BloomKlein to take any of these factors into account and just close down schools while blaming the teachers is the true shame of the nation – and their administration.
Marcia Lyles won't go there. She has learned to dance to whatever tune is playing.
How Weingarten Helped Undermine Almontaser
“I agree wholeheartedly with your editorial,” – Randi Weingarten in a letter to the NY Post
"...The campaign against Almontaser was a “high-tech lynching.” – Rabbi Michael Paley, scholar-in-residence at United Jewish Appeal-Federation of New York
"If it was a lynching, my union did not string up the rope, but it was the UFT that kicked away the stool." - Steve Quester, UFT chapter leader
The Indypendent (weekly newspaper) has printed an updated version "Teachers’ Union Undermines Arab School" of Steve Quester's piece published on my blog. Steve, a UFT chapter leader in Brooklyn, goes into more detail on the role Randi Weingarten played. I received lots of response on this issue with people arguing back and forth as to whether a school such as the Khalil Gibran school should even exist, from rational points of view like those of Diane Ravitch (it is a huge mistake--contrary to the philosophy of American public education--to establish schools that have an ethnic or religious focus. The purpose of public education is to prepare young people to participate fully in American society), to the right wing calling the school a training ground for Bin Laden and a madrassa. The usual suspects showed up on the blog – anonymous personal attacks on Quester.
People have assumed that because I published Quester's piece, I support the concept of the school. But I have mixed feelings. A this point my interest lies in the way Bloomberg and Klein and Weingarten, the holy trio, known on my blog as BloomWeinKlein, functioned in this situation. While all three express support for the school, the results of their actions have undermined the school – sort of like the “wide stance” argument made by that Republican Senator from Idaho.
Two weeks ago I wrote that whatever Tweed touches turns to doo-doo. And so it has. And by the reaction of a vocal minority of teachers, many of them Jewish, Weingarten has the same magic touch.
NY Times does another puff piece on Klein
Joel Klein has been doing a media blitz, even saying he wants to remain beyond Bloomberg’s term in office to finish the job of driving the entire NYC school system into oblivion so it could be “rescued” by privateers. (Thousands of teachers had to be talked down from their roofs upon hearing this news.) The make-nice to BloomKlein NY Times did its usual thing, prompting this response on my blog piece from Vera Pavone, a former NYC teacher and school secretary:
“My blood started to boil when I read the article, especially because it shows the Times and their lackey reporters continuing to give credibility to the big lies:
1. "He [Klein] has sought to break what he regarded as a vise grip by the teachers' union on work rules”;
“Can't experienced reporters Herszenhorn and Medina find anyone (union leaders, teachers, other people in the educational community) who can explain how work rules actually benefit students and the educational environment?
2. "To divide large failing schools into small schools" and "to put traditional public schools into competition with charter schools"
“Couldn't H & M read their own publication to find out all the questions that have been raised about small schools and charter schools actually being more successful: getting a higher achieving pool of students and eliminating students with special needs; getting a disproportionate share of resources; forcing the larger, traditional schools to be even more overcrowded and receiving those students who have the least chance of succeeding.
3. "To end what he viewed as a monopoly by the mostly white, middle and upper middle class on good public education services"
“Do H & M really believe that Klein and Bloomberg are the champions of the non-white, non-middle class children just as the Bush administration and NCLB really want to equalize educational opportunity nationwide? Has their investigative reporting shown that quality educational services exist only in white, middle and upper middle class public schools? Do they believe that test scores tell the whole story? Even if it's true that on average teachers in higher achieving schools have more "credentials", this doesn't explain why so many highly skilled, educated, talented, and hardworking teachers don't produce higher test scores in failing schools. Both H & M have been writing about education for some time now and should be able to recognize that "good public education services" have to be suited to the needs of the students, something that is very rare now for any of our students, rich or poor, white or non-white.
“And did I miss it, or did they forget to mention class size?”
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Norm Scott in The Wave - March 9, 2007
by Norman Scott
The Wave
March 9, 2007
What Was the Question?
This was the response to the last School Scope column “Travels to a Distant Word” on my visit to the University Club to cover Christopher Cerf, the Department of Education Deputy Chancellor for Something or Other at the Manhattan Institute luncheon where I got to ask Cerf the final question. My response is a long one and there are lots more fish to fry this week, so I’ll keep people in suspense a little longer. It is suffice to say that Cerf is now being investigated as to whether he funneled business to companies he held stock in while a DOE consultant. I wrote in this space years ago that one day Joel Klein would be taken from office with his coat over his head. Can that day come soon enough?
Is Washington in Randi Weingarten’s future?
UFT President Randi Weingarten will never have to leave office with her coat over her head, but she seems to have found a better way. With elections for the American Federation of Teachers Presidency taking place in the summer of 2008 (in Chicago) and with the UFT controlling an enormous block of delegates (the 800 Unity delegates who are expected to be elected in the current UFT elections will be going along for the ride at UFT members’ expense), that job is hers for the taking whenever she wishes.
Weingarten is quoted in an article in The Chief as saying, “I have a big agenda here. I’m not crossing any other bridges at this time. Ed [McElroy] is the president [of the AFT] and he’s doing a great job. I hope he serves a long time and I look forward to working with him for years to come.” Perfect lawyer language. Interpretation? Ed better not sign a long-term lease on an apartment in Washington.
My guess is that she will not give up the UFT job when she goes to Washington but will leave the UFT in caretaker’s hands the way her predecessors Al Shanker and Sandy Feldman did. At least until some sort of successor can be found. Former Rockaway resident Michelle Bodden is considered a front-runner, with up and coming VP for Vocational schools Mike Mulgrew being tapped as the enforcer to ride herd on the Unity Caucus faithful, though as one teacher at Mulgrew’s former school recently told me, “Bodden better watch her back.” Ah, the palace intrigues at 52 Broadway. In the meantime, the affable Michael Mendel will continue to run things in Weingarten’s absence.
UFT Elections
Speaking of The Chief, reporter Meredith Kolodner wrote a front page article on the UFT elections currently in progress - “UFT Election: High School War Looms.” To prove her power to teachers nationally, Weingarten wants a very large vote (she has told people anything less than 90% will be viewed as a lack of success) as proof she can shove bad contracts down people’s throats and still manage and manipulate the membership into supporting her.
Before I continue, I should make the disclaimer that I am a candidate running with the Independent Community of Educators (ICE), a group running in the elections in a coalition with Teachers for a Just Contract (TJC) against Weingarten’s Unity Caucus, which is allied with the former opposition New Action. Got it? If not, read Kolodner’s piece.
So, why does a high school war loom? You had to ask. ICE-TJC took these 6 seats in the 2004 elections away from New Action (Weingarten did not run candidates, trying to reward new Action for their loyalty.) Now mind you, this gave the opposition only 6 out of 89 seats. But even those 6 opposition voices are too much criticism for Weingarten. Weingarten needs some kind of “opposition” to claim the UFT is democratic and not a banana republic. What better “opposition” than one you control? Enter, New Action.
Seeing that in this election New Action could not win these seats back, and doubting the ability of her own party to win by themselves after the disastrous 2005 contract, Weingarten is running the 6 New Action and Unity candidates jointly. And New Action is running Weingarten at the top of their ticket. Nice backroom dealing. Oh! And New Action members also got union jobs. Can you run as an “opposition” to the very people that employ you? A question for the ages. Ballots go out March 9 and must be returned by March 28th. They will be counted on March 29th. If you teach in the public schools, you know my recommendation is to vote the ICE-TJC slate.
NOTE: Many ballots are being returned to sender by the post office due to an error by the AAA. New envelopes will be sent out. The extent of the dislocation must be determined as to what the impact might be.
Teacher Arrested
In one of the more outrageous acts by a Leadership Academy principal who wanted to get a teacher who has been a critic of her policies out of her hair, a parent ally of the principal claimed the teacher abused her child when the teacher escorted the child to her seat after she had run out of the room twice. Five cops came to the school (the principal was seen grinning ear to ear), arrested the teacher and held her until 7pm, when after they did their own investigation, they decided she did nothing wrong and released her saying “it was all nonsense.” The “arrest” was rescinded.
I spoke to one of the arresting officers and he said the principal could easily have prevented the arrest with just a few words, but “she clearly has an agenda.” If you can’t beat them using the contract, just manipulate a parent into doing it for you. The story is emerging that the parent herself is being investigated and it was all just a cover-up.
The teacher will now sit in the rubber room (Teacher Reassignment Center) most likely for the rest of the school year and probably beyond.
What had been the response of the UFT? I took the teacher to a UFT Exec. Bd. meeting to state her case. It is clear that the UFT does only what it has to do and nothing more. “We’ll get you a lawyer for arraignment, but since you weren’t arraigned…”
The teacher is helpless and the help from the union is minimal. It's almost 3 weeks and the District Rep has not even returned her call. The UFT sent in Victim Support for the teacher and she said that is not what she needs. What she needs is for the principal’s actions to be exposed so this will not happen to other teachers. Of course, the union doesn’t do that. She also needs an advocate to try to get any paperwork that exists at the DOE and the police department, which is not all that willing to cooperate since it has to answer as to how a teacher can be so humiliated after 22 years without a mark against her record in front of parents, students and colleagues. The UFT takes the position that all that is up to the teacher, responding with “What if they’re guilty?” Duh! Let the DOE and police worry about the guilty. The UFT is there to protect the innocent. And, yes, to protect the rights of the guilty too.
The DOE will spend months investigating with a bias favoring the principal, who will have months to work over the story with the children. Where is someone to investigate for the teacher? The union just shrugs. When ICE’s Jeff Kaufman tried last June to get the union to hire people to jump in and investigate on behalf of the teacher so both sides get told, the UFT Exec. Bd. led by Randi Weingarten said “NO” and accused Jeff of playing politics. The teacher in the rubber room waiting for the ax to fall doesn’t see that as politics. Just one more reason why I am running with and supporting the ICE-TJC slate in the UFT elections. More on this case that puts a chill up the spine of every teacher in future columns. Or you can check my blog (see below) for updates.
BloomKlein appoints Martine Guerrier as Chief Family Engagement Officer
I got to know Martine a bit from attending the Mayor’s Panel for Educational Policy (PEP) monthly meetings and grew to like and respect her enormously. I found her to the one person on the PEP who questioned Klein (gently, but firmly). BloomKlein have trumpeted this appointment (at $150,000 a year) as a sign they listen to their critics. She voted against the 3rd grade retention policy at the Monday Night massacre (March 14, 2004) when Bloomberg fired the panelist he controlled who were opposed. Martine, being appointed by Brooklyn borough head Marty Markowitz was immune to firing. That act made Marine a hero to many of us.
But since that time, in step with Markowitz’ total support for Bloomberg, Martine’s votes on the PEP increasingly veered toward BloomKlein. When it came to the 5th grade retention policy vote, she abstained. I noticed on other issues (which my dying brain cells refuse to pull up) a disturbing trend. That the press (The NY Times is the worst) allowed the BloomKlein PR machine to get away with declaring Martine “a persistent critic” is s sign of their cheerleading.
There was so much to cover this week, all the pieces were shortened. You can read extended versions on my blog at http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/. Check it for daily updates.
The Wave
March 9, 2007
What Was the Question?
This was the response to the last School Scope column “Travels to a Distant Word” on my visit to the University Club to cover Christopher Cerf, the Department of Education Deputy Chancellor for Something or Other at the Manhattan Institute luncheon where I got to ask Cerf the final question. My response is a long one and there are lots more fish to fry this week, so I’ll keep people in suspense a little longer. It is suffice to say that Cerf is now being investigated as to whether he funneled business to companies he held stock in while a DOE consultant. I wrote in this space years ago that one day Joel Klein would be taken from office with his coat over his head. Can that day come soon enough?
Is Washington in Randi Weingarten’s future?
UFT President Randi Weingarten will never have to leave office with her coat over her head, but she seems to have found a better way. With elections for the American Federation of Teachers Presidency taking place in the summer of 2008 (in Chicago) and with the UFT controlling an enormous block of delegates (the 800 Unity delegates who are expected to be elected in the current UFT elections will be going along for the ride at UFT members’ expense), that job is hers for the taking whenever she wishes.
Weingarten is quoted in an article in The Chief as saying, “I have a big agenda here. I’m not crossing any other bridges at this time. Ed [McElroy] is the president [of the AFT] and he’s doing a great job. I hope he serves a long time and I look forward to working with him for years to come.” Perfect lawyer language. Interpretation? Ed better not sign a long-term lease on an apartment in Washington.
My guess is that she will not give up the UFT job when she goes to Washington but will leave the UFT in caretaker’s hands the way her predecessors Al Shanker and Sandy Feldman did. At least until some sort of successor can be found. Former Rockaway resident Michelle Bodden is considered a front-runner, with up and coming VP for Vocational schools Mike Mulgrew being tapped as the enforcer to ride herd on the Unity Caucus faithful, though as one teacher at Mulgrew’s former school recently told me, “Bodden better watch her back.” Ah, the palace intrigues at 52 Broadway. In the meantime, the affable Michael Mendel will continue to run things in Weingarten’s absence.
UFT Elections
Speaking of The Chief, reporter Meredith Kolodner wrote a front page article on the UFT elections currently in progress - “UFT Election: High School War Looms.” To prove her power to teachers nationally, Weingarten wants a very large vote (she has told people anything less than 90% will be viewed as a lack of success) as proof she can shove bad contracts down people’s throats and still manage and manipulate the membership into supporting her.
Before I continue, I should make the disclaimer that I am a candidate running with the Independent Community of Educators (ICE), a group running in the elections in a coalition with Teachers for a Just Contract (TJC) against Weingarten’s Unity Caucus, which is allied with the former opposition New Action. Got it? If not, read Kolodner’s piece.
So, why does a high school war loom? You had to ask. ICE-TJC took these 6 seats in the 2004 elections away from New Action (Weingarten did not run candidates, trying to reward new Action for their loyalty.) Now mind you, this gave the opposition only 6 out of 89 seats. But even those 6 opposition voices are too much criticism for Weingarten. Weingarten needs some kind of “opposition” to claim the UFT is democratic and not a banana republic. What better “opposition” than one you control? Enter, New Action.
Seeing that in this election New Action could not win these seats back, and doubting the ability of her own party to win by themselves after the disastrous 2005 contract, Weingarten is running the 6 New Action and Unity candidates jointly. And New Action is running Weingarten at the top of their ticket. Nice backroom dealing. Oh! And New Action members also got union jobs. Can you run as an “opposition” to the very people that employ you? A question for the ages. Ballots go out March 9 and must be returned by March 28th. They will be counted on March 29th. If you teach in the public schools, you know my recommendation is to vote the ICE-TJC slate.
NOTE: Many ballots are being returned to sender by the post office due to an error by the AAA. New envelopes will be sent out. The extent of the dislocation must be determined as to what the impact might be.
Teacher Arrested
In one of the more outrageous acts by a Leadership Academy principal who wanted to get a teacher who has been a critic of her policies out of her hair, a parent ally of the principal claimed the teacher abused her child when the teacher escorted the child to her seat after she had run out of the room twice. Five cops came to the school (the principal was seen grinning ear to ear), arrested the teacher and held her until 7pm, when after they did their own investigation, they decided she did nothing wrong and released her saying “it was all nonsense.” The “arrest” was rescinded.
I spoke to one of the arresting officers and he said the principal could easily have prevented the arrest with just a few words, but “she clearly has an agenda.” If you can’t beat them using the contract, just manipulate a parent into doing it for you. The story is emerging that the parent herself is being investigated and it was all just a cover-up.
The teacher will now sit in the rubber room (Teacher Reassignment Center) most likely for the rest of the school year and probably beyond.
What had been the response of the UFT? I took the teacher to a UFT Exec. Bd. meeting to state her case. It is clear that the UFT does only what it has to do and nothing more. “We’ll get you a lawyer for arraignment, but since you weren’t arraigned…”
The teacher is helpless and the help from the union is minimal. It's almost 3 weeks and the District Rep has not even returned her call. The UFT sent in Victim Support for the teacher and she said that is not what she needs. What she needs is for the principal’s actions to be exposed so this will not happen to other teachers. Of course, the union doesn’t do that. She also needs an advocate to try to get any paperwork that exists at the DOE and the police department, which is not all that willing to cooperate since it has to answer as to how a teacher can be so humiliated after 22 years without a mark against her record in front of parents, students and colleagues. The UFT takes the position that all that is up to the teacher, responding with “What if they’re guilty?” Duh! Let the DOE and police worry about the guilty. The UFT is there to protect the innocent. And, yes, to protect the rights of the guilty too.
The DOE will spend months investigating with a bias favoring the principal, who will have months to work over the story with the children. Where is someone to investigate for the teacher? The union just shrugs. When ICE’s Jeff Kaufman tried last June to get the union to hire people to jump in and investigate on behalf of the teacher so both sides get told, the UFT Exec. Bd. led by Randi Weingarten said “NO” and accused Jeff of playing politics. The teacher in the rubber room waiting for the ax to fall doesn’t see that as politics. Just one more reason why I am running with and supporting the ICE-TJC slate in the UFT elections. More on this case that puts a chill up the spine of every teacher in future columns. Or you can check my blog (see below) for updates.
BloomKlein appoints Martine Guerrier as Chief Family Engagement Officer
I got to know Martine a bit from attending the Mayor’s Panel for Educational Policy (PEP) monthly meetings and grew to like and respect her enormously. I found her to the one person on the PEP who questioned Klein (gently, but firmly). BloomKlein have trumpeted this appointment (at $150,000 a year) as a sign they listen to their critics. She voted against the 3rd grade retention policy at the Monday Night massacre (March 14, 2004) when Bloomberg fired the panelist he controlled who were opposed. Martine, being appointed by Brooklyn borough head Marty Markowitz was immune to firing. That act made Marine a hero to many of us.
But since that time, in step with Markowitz’ total support for Bloomberg, Martine’s votes on the PEP increasingly veered toward BloomKlein. When it came to the 5th grade retention policy vote, she abstained. I noticed on other issues (which my dying brain cells refuse to pull up) a disturbing trend. That the press (The NY Times is the worst) allowed the BloomKlein PR machine to get away with declaring Martine “a persistent critic” is s sign of their cheerleading.
There was so much to cover this week, all the pieces were shortened. You can read extended versions on my blog at http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/. Check it for daily updates.
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