English Learners Left Behind

Gotham Gazette
- http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/immigrants/20080818/11/2614

English Learners Left Behind
by Larry Tung
18 Aug 2008

Photo (c) Pictures by Ann

In a city where more than 170 languages are spoken and over a third of residents are foreign-born, scores of New York public school students struggle to learn English.=2 0They are known as English-language learners (ELLs), students who speak a language other than English at home and score below a state-designated level of proficiency in English upon entering the New York City schools.

These students are far less likely to complete high school than English speaking students. At a press conference in early August, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced in a celebratory tone that the city's four-year high school graduation has risen to 55.8 percent, while the dropout rate has decreased to 14.7 percent (This was the first time the numbers included students who graduated after summer school).

But the number for the ELLs did not even come close to that. The graduation rate for ELLs is 23.5 percent, rising by 3.1 points from 2006. It is much lower than the rate for two other underperforming groups: Hispanics have a graduation rate of 43 percent, while blacks have a rate of 47.2 percent.

By failing to help so many students graduate, the city, say critics, is "betraying a whole generation of immigrant kids who are struggling to succeed."

"The ELL graduation rates announced today are absolutely deplorable," said Chung-Wha Hong, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition. "With less than a quarter of ELLs graduati ng after four years, it is clear that Chancellor Joel Klein and the Department of Education must work much, much harder if they are serious about ending the ELL drop-out crisis. At this point, the city needs to act by initiating large scale interventions across the system to help ELL children succeed."

ELL Programs

According to the 2006-2007 statistics from the Department of Education, 139,842 children are designated as ELLs -- about 13.4 percent of the entire public school population. Once a student is determined to be an English-language learner, the city offers the following options supervised by the Department of Education's Office of English Language Learners:

• Transitional Bilingual Education programs include language arts and subject matter instruction in students' native languages and English as well as intensive instruction in English as a second language. As a student develops English proficiency, instruction in English increases and native language instruction decreases.
• Dual Language programs provide half of the instruction in English and half in another language, often the native language of the majority of ELLs.
• Freestanding English as a Second Language programs provide classes in English.

Challenges Facing Students

Among the ELLs in New York City, nearly one in five is Asian. According to a recent report by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, these students are often forced into certificate or GED programs, allowed to drop out with little or no intervention, or expelled. The report offers a number of possible explanations for the low graduation rate.

It criticizes the Bush administration's No Child Left Behind Act, which focuses on performance and pressures schools to strive for high test scores. "Since the No Child Left Behind law was enacted, we have not seen significant improvements in the quality of public education," said Margaret Fung, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund's executive director, in a press release. "Instead, Asian Americans — especially immigrant, poor and non-English speaking students—have been left behind to fend for themselves in securing basic educational services."

Teaching Shortages

Another problem is the lack of qualified teachers. According to the report, New York had one certified English as a second language teacher for every 116 ELL students. That lags behind other areas, such as Washington state and Massachusetts, where there is one certified ESL teacher for every 76 and 66 English learner respectively.

Asian Pacific American staff, faculty and administrators in New York City public schools are underrepresented in New York City schools, Zeyen Wu, education policy co ordinator of the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families, said in testimony to the New York City Council Education Committee. This deprives students of teachers who could "serve as role models in schools and are familiar with the problems facing" Asian youth," Wu added. "They may be able to better identify potential problems before they escalate into larger issues."

Wu also called for the expansion of the Bilingual Pupil Services, a program that prepares paraprofessionals to become certified teachers in bilingual education, bilingual special education and English as a second language. The program pays for nine credits per semester at any of the participating senior colleges for an accredited program leading to a bachelor's degree and New York State certification, and is open to English speakers who are also fluent in Spanish, Chinese and Haitian-Creole.

In New York City, 66 dual language schools teach curriculum in both English and another language for the benefit of both ELLs and non-ELLs. However, there are only three Chinese language schools and one Korean language school although Chinese and Korean speaking students make up more than 12 percent of the city's English language learners.

Meanwh ile, out of the 363 Transitional Bilingual Education programs, which aim to help ELLs quickly transition into English-only classrooms by teaching them subjects such as math and science in their native languages, only 34 are taught in Chinese, and two are taught in Korean. There are no other Asian-language Transitional Bilingual Education Programs.

In its effort to improve secondary education in the city, the Bloomberg administration has shut down many large high schools and opened a number of small high schools. When these schools first opened, some were allowed to exclude English language learners, as well as special education students. Recent figures show students learning English now account for about 12 percent of students at the small schools.

Additional Help

Things might be getting a little better. Mayor Michael Bloomberg and New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn recently announced a $7 million fund that will be available to schools with a large number of high-need ELL students. Elementary, middle and high schools will all have an opportunity to apply for the funding, but will be required to provide a two-to-one match for their chosen programs.

In addition, a number of programs exist to help ELL students who find traditional high school setting too intimidating get a GED. These options are open to non-ELL students as well.

• Young Adult Borough Centers have evening academic programs designed to meet the needs of high school students who might be considering dropping out because they are behind academically or because they have adult responsibilities that make attending school in the daytime difficult. The average graduation rate is 44 percent.
• Learning to Work makes school more relevant for struggling students by supplementing academic instruction with paid internship and career counseling. In 2007, 9,809 students participated in the program citywide.
• Transfer schools are small, academically rigorous, diploma-granting high schools designed to reengage students who have dropped out or fallen behind.

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Gotham Gazette - http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/immigrants

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Taps for the Abraham Lincoln Brigade

Weekend Edition
August 16 / 17, 2008

"You Fought in Spain"

Taps for the Abraham Lincoln Brigade

By DON SANTINA

"You fought in Spain.”

When the underground leader, Victor Lazlo, spoke this immortal line to Rick Blaine in the 1942 film classic “Casablanca,” he was acknowledging that the cynical nightclub owner played by Humphrey Bogart had already stood up to the Nazis and could be counted on to stand up again. Rick was one of the good guys.

On March 21, we squeezed into in the packed Friday night emergency room of Oakland Kaiser Hospital with Ted Veltfort, another one of the good guys. He had fallen earlier in the day and was having trouble breathing. In panic, his wife Leonore had run out into the street and flagged down a taxi to take him to the hospital instead of calling 911 for an ambulance. Ironically, Ted had driven an ambulance for the Spanish Republic during the civil war. His father never forgave him for following his political beliefs to Spain in 1937.

After almost two hours, the ER doctor told us that Ted had pneumonia and they were keeping him at least overnight. Before we left, I told the doctor to take special care of him because he was one of the last veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade who had fought in Spain before World War II. She looked at me blankly.

“You have to get well for the monument,” I said to Ted before we left. “It’s a week from Sunday.” He nodded.

The battle for the Spanish Republic from 1936 to 1939 is regarded by many historians as the first battle of World War II. Five months after free elections, the fledgling democratic government of Spain was attacked by a clique of army officers who had support of troops from Fascist Italy and airpower from Nazi Germany. When the democracies of Europe and the United States declared a policy of nonintervention, the desperate Spanish government put out a call for international volunteers. Young men and woman from all over the world poured into Spain to defend the republic.

Approximately 2,800 of these volunteers came from the United States to form the Abraham Lincoln Battalion, later known as the Lincoln Brigade. They came from all walks of life: seamen, students, dock workers , ranch hands, carpenters, nurses, teachers. They were multi-racial: the Brigade was the first integrated American military unit and the first to have an African-American commander, Oliver Law. They fought major battles with the Fascists in the Jarama Valley, at Brunete, Aragon, Teruel, and the Ebro River, often against overwhelming odds and with heavy casualties. Those odds worsened daily as the Nazi air force and Fascist artillery pounded the blockaded and beleaguered republic. After three years of bloody battles, the republic was defeated and the international volunteers were withdrawn.

Eight hundred volunteers of the Lincoln Brigade did not return home.

“No man ever entered the earth more honorably than those who died in Spain,” Ernest Hemingway proclaimed, but as the war correspondent Martha Gellhorn noted just as accurately, “there were no rewards in Spain. They were fighting for us all, against the combined forces of European fascism. They deserved our thanks and respect, and20they got neither.”

Back home the Lincolns were subjected to years of harassment from their own government. But while they were being blacklisted and hounded out of their jobs during the epoch when Joe McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover were riding roughshod over the Bill of Rights, the veterans stood firm on their political convictions and remained active participants in the battles for peace and justice—demonstrating that same idealist spirit that drew them to the cause of Spain.

Richard Bermack, photographer and author of The Frontlines of Social Change: Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, noted that while doing the book “I realized that you can keep your own ideals, though it’s not an easy thing to do at all. The point of the book is to show that none of them left the struggle.”

There were about a hundred veterans left in August, 2000 when the late San Francisco supervisor, Sue Bierman, introduced a resolution to the Board to honor the Abraham Lincoln Brigade with a monument on the waterfront. The waterfront was chosen because it was the site of the historic 1934 Strike which changed labor relations on the West Coast forever. A number of participants in the strike became volunteers in Spain and returned to the City not only to work on the docks but also to become actively involved in civil right and antiwar activities, including shutting down the shipment of goods to apartheid South Africa. The monument resolution passed the Board of Supervisors unanimously.

Eight years later, on Sunday, March 30, 2008, the first American government-sanctioned monument to the Abraham Lincoln Brigade was dedicated with much fanfare on San Francisco’s embarcadero. The monument, designed by Ann Chamberlain and Walter Hood, sits on a grassy area not far from the historic Ferry Building and Harry Bridges Plaza. The dockworkers are gone now, along with the cargo hooks, conveyors, and the low rumble of idling engines of cross country trucks waiting to be loaded. Stevedores, seamen and strike breakers have been replaced by joggers, bicyclists and tourists.

“Our monument is to remember a group of people who stood up to take a stand,” Peter Carroll, the historian, stated to the hundreds of people who gathered for the event. < /span>Carroll is the author of The Odyssey of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade: Americans in the Spanish Civil War.

Eleven veterans were there for the ceremonies. Among them were Abe Osheroff, whose car was firebombed while he was helping rebuild churches in Mississippi during the Klan’s reign of terror in the 1960’s; Dave Smith, who survived the Jarama Valley bloodbath, but lost a piece of his shoulder in a later battle--he could not return to his job as a machinist so he became a high school teacher and union activist; Nate Thornton, an out of work carpenter who joined the Brigade with his father, and Hilda Roberts, a combat nurse who also served in the Pacific during WWII and ultimately--as a silent antiwar witness with Women in Black.

At the dedication, Abe Osheroff stated that “the stuff we’re made of never goes away, with or without a monument because the bastards will never cease their evil, and the decent human beings will never stop their struggle.”

Abe died a week later. Ted Veltfort never made it out of the hospital; he died there on April 7; Dave Smith within a few months. Milt Wolff, the last commander of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in Spain, died in January. There are only about twenty five Lincolns left now, and soon they too will pass into history.

Dolores Ibarruri, the fiery spokesperson of the Republic also know as “La Pasionaria,” spoke these words of farewell as the Lincoln Battalion and the International Brigades left Spain in 1938:

“You can go with pride. You are history. You are legend. You are the heroic example of the solidarity and the universality of democracy…We will not forget you; and when the olive tree of peace puts forth its leaves, entwined in the with the laurels of the Spanish Republic’s victory, come back!”

Salud, brigadistas.

Don Santina is a cultural historian. He wrote the monument resolution that Sue Bierman introduced to the SF Board of Supervisors. He can be reached at lindey89@aol.com

Hillary’s in it to win it- from the pro-Hillary, anti-Obama blog

Maybe I was wrong. It is not campaign '12 but still campaign '08.

I am on the mailing list for some reason of a North Carolina Democratic party organization in which the entire newsletter focuses on atacking Obama and pushing Clinton with the hope that they canget enough delegates to switch votes in Denver.

Here is one blog - with comments to give you a flavor.
Norm


http://alegrescorner.soapblox.net/

http://alegrescorner.soapblox.net/showDiary.do;jsessionid=A1D22554F6C1A7B454320FB473F3FCF6?diaryId=526

ALEGRE'S CORNER
We're not finished folks - not by a long shot!
Bill To Speak at Convention
by: Alegre
Thu Aug 07, 2008 at 22:22:18 PM EDT

Ok I briefly had to give Camp BHO credit for getting out ahead of something I'd planned on teasing them for. In tonight's report on the campaign and convention, Andrea Mitchell ran through today's latest developments re that video SimoFish took at that fundraiser last week - where Hillary told the gathering that she wanted to see her name put into nomination so people could unite behind BHO etc. (BTW - nice to see the MSM are only taking a WEEK to catch up to the rest of us on this story - used to be they ignored this sort of thing altogether!).

No comment on that bit where BHO craps all over the notion of a catharsis for Hillary's delegates at our party's convention. We all know which end of his anatomy he's talking out of when he says stuff like that.

Mitchell closed the report by noting that BHO had yet to offer Bill a chance to speak at our convention. I sent a quick note to a couple friends saying that yeah... the only two-term Democratic President to come along in generations and BHO hadn't yet shown a bit of class and asked him to address the delegates? How messed up is that?

Make the jump, there's more...
Alegre :: Bill To Speak at Convention
So I thought for a split second this evening, well fair play to them - they got out ahead of this one for once. MSNBC just fired up a report noting Andrea's update - that camp BHO have announced that Bill would be speaking the night after Hillary gives the key note speech.

...the Obama campaign, in an effort to quiet talk of the Obama-Clinton drama, has offered Bill Clinton a speaking role on Wednesday night at the Democratic convention -- before the vice presidential running mate speaks.

Thing is, the night before the nominee's acceptance speech is typically the night they run through the roll call vote, as Jonathan Alter notes here...

The sticking point is almost certainly about timing. Hillary is scheduled to speak Tuesday, Aug. 26. But the balloting for the nomination normally takes place Wednesday night. The Obama people are reconciled to Tuesday being Clinton Night ... but they don't want the pro-Hillary floor demonstrations to mar the Obama message on Wednesday.

Ok hang on... re that credit thing? I take it back. Sounds like by giving Bill a chance to speak on Wednesday, he's trying to short-circuit any sort of meaningful roll call vote.

Ya know we can get around all of these head-games if the Superdelegates would just back the grown-up in this race and send up Hillary to go against McCain in the general election.
Tags: Obama, roll call vote, convention, Democrats, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, (All Tags)
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Bill To Speak at Convention | 26 comments
by: you @ soon

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clueless, clueless, clueless. (4.00 / 7)
i think obama's notion of a catharsis is "oh no, the women are going to get emotional!"

he's deficient in empathy, and doesn't understand the need to validate the achievements of hillary's campaign. the way he sees it, there were no achievements. get over it.

obama's cluelessness was illustrated in the video of him talking to reporters about angry hillary supporters. his answer was, "we're talking to hillary - we aren't talking to THOSE PEOPLE."

he's used to his own campaign structure, where people support him because... well, because he's obama. with hillary's supporters, it's different. people were drawn to her because of the issues. i don't agree with her on some things - the AUMF, for instance - but overall, she has the best policy positions. obama thinks talking to hillary will ensure that we will all "get over it".

the problem is, hillary isn't responsible for our actions, and obama can't deal with - or even communicate with - people who disagree with him, so he's writing us off. that's how he's planning on wasting our quadrennial opportunity to gain control of the presidency. it will go down the toilet because of the weaknesses of this man.
by: campskunk @ Thu Aug 07, 2008 at 21:37:47 PM CDT
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Because he dragged it out, the conflict will overshadow his message (4.00 / 7)
Mr. Conflict-Avoidant inflamed a conflict by trying to avoid it.

Tee hee.
by: catfish @ Thu Aug 07, 2008 at 21:41:45 PM CDT
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O is passive/aggressive (4.00 / 3)
Don't you think?
by: Politica @ Fri Aug 08, 2008 at 00:35:12 AM CDT
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Oh yeah. Nothing makes me more hostile than the phrase (4.00 / 2)
"above the fray." Grrr!
by: catfish @ Fri Aug 08, 2008 at 01:12:47 AM CDT
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Of Course He Doesn't Need Catharsis (4.00 / 7)
He's sitting pretty thanks to the Toxic Trio (Dean Pelosi and Brazile). They allowed this inexperienced arrogant jerk (hi Cheetos!) with a paper-thin resume to declare Mission Accomplished and take control of our party.

He don't need no steenkin' catharsis.

But ya know what? Hillary's 18 million supporters and our delegates DO need this and we're not going to shut up and go away until they do right by us by putting OUR CANDIDATE on the ballot in Denver.

Superdelegates - CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?
by: Alegre @ Thu Aug 07, 2008 at 21:44:53 PM CDT
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I've got to be honest (4.00 / 6)

I'm ambivalent about pressing for a vote. I know that a vote is the right thing to do. Its sets a terrible precedent to forgo a vote in such a close election.

But I don't think a vote is going to change much. In the first place, everything that has been said over the past couple of weeks makes it clear that the vote will only occur if Obama sanctions one and he's only going to sanction a vote if he is absolutely certain that he will win. Where's the democracy in that? That's an election only Robert Mugabe can love.

Second, its not going to make me shut up and go away. Last June all I wanted was an acknowledgment of the sexism. Now I'm radicalized and entrenched in my refusnik posture.
by: dbrown04 @ Thu Aug 07, 2008 at 22:15:05 PM CDT
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hillary knows that, of course. (4.00 / 5)
a vote would embarrass obama more than being forced to avoid a vote would, apparently ;-)

obama has the choice- but he doesn't have any GOOD choices. that's the price he has to pay for stealing the nomination.
by: campskunk @ Thu Aug 07, 2008 at 22:19:29 PM CDT
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I've had this thought myself. (4.00 / 2)

Since we're spending this much time on something that should be a given, it makes you wonder if we're being side-tracked by a red herring. And if there's no roll call, it won't be a convention in the real sense. BHO will look really bad. Oppression in the name of fake unity. Why is it up to him to decide this anyway? Isn't it the Democratic voters convention, where they're represented by their elected delegates?

And it's taking attention away from the fact that with ALL the votes counted, including Florida and Michigan, Hillary wins the popular vote by 285,000.
by: Sharyn @ Fri Aug 08, 2008 at 17:02:38 PM CDT
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Just watched a film of Bill talking to the press about Obama. (4.00 / 9)
He said some things about how the press treated Hillary, and alluded to the idea that BO started the negativity, but the press made it look like Hillary did. He said that in January when this is all over, he would like to sit down and talk to them more in depth. He had some fire in his eyes, and some anger, and we all have no doubt about what he is thinking of saying in January. Too bad he can't just say what he really wants to say during his speech at the convention. Now that would make history! And maybe that is what they are all worried about. If Obama and his followers had just behaved themselves instead of being so dirty and sexist during the campaign, then Obama wouldn't have to spend all his big happy, look at me-I'm the one, moment worried ,looking over his shoulder, and not sleeping at night. That's Karma, Baby.
by: Hopscotch @ Thu Aug 07, 2008 at 21:38:34 PM CDT
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I Can't Wait Until Bill's Free to Really Let Loose (4.00 / 8)
on that @sshole. Seriously.

But then if we somehow manage to convince those supers to back Hillary (HI SUPERS!) and she goes on to kick McCain's sorry backsidei n the general (which you all know she will!) he may need to hold his tongue a while longer.

He'll be first Laddie after all - right? :o)

Superdelegates - CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?
by: Alegre @ Thu Aug 07, 2008 at 21:47:00 PM CDT
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I'd like to hear (4.00 / 1)
the first Laddie rip into them.

But, yes, if they are under investigation and prosecution, I guess he'd better wait.
by: Gary McGowan @ Fri Aug 08, 2008 at 17:39:43 PM CDT
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Obama scared of vote (4.00 / 6)
Obama must be really really scared of a real vote because he's really scared of Bill Clinton. Krugman calls Obama's Bill aversion bizarre. Here's Krugman on the topic:

Obama's big economy speech, last week:

Back in the 1990s, your incomes grew by $6,000, and over the last several years, they've actually fallen by nearly $1,000.

"Back in the 90s?" Why not, "When a Democrat was president?" "Over the last several years?" Why not, "under Bush?"

A prominent Democratic Hillary supporter once told me that Obama gives him "post-partisan depression." Indeed - his apparent unwillingness to take such clear shots is starting to seem bizarre.

Source: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/
by: dbrown04 @ Thu Aug 07, 2008 at 22:06:52 PM CDT
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Obama trashed (4.00 / 6)
the 90's, Bill's presidency, Hillary, and the Clintons relentlessly during the primaries. Now he celebrates it, talks of it as the good 'ol days, like he was some how connected with it and had always been a fan. It is unforgivable, which is why many loyal Clinton supporters would rather chew glass than support Obama.

Recall the Obama product.
by: grlpatriot @ Thu Aug 07, 2008 at 22:22:06 PM CDT
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And he praised St. Ronnie (4.00 / 5)
was that a capper for the books or what. Glass chewing right now.
by: catfish @ Thu Aug 07, 2008 at 22:28:53 PM CDT
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Don't remind me (4.00 / 4)
I had almost forgotten that the pandering suck-up praised Ronnie. (Crunch, crunch, crunch)

Recall the Obama product.
by: grlpatriot @ Thu Aug 07, 2008 at 22:51:57 PM CDT
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Funny that (4.00 / 5)
the press is starting to play nice with Bill and Hillary now that they realize that the Precious has no chance in hell without the Clintons. It's pathetic really. You just can't talk shit about the Clintons, lie and smear them, then act like none of it every happened and expect them to prop up their Precious.

Recall the Obama product.
by: grlpatriot @ Thu Aug 07, 2008 at 22:16:00 PM CDT
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Or maybe they're bored. Their readers are (4.00 / 4)
that poll came out voters have heard enough already! About Obama. LOL.

My Repub boss, who is a really awesome boss, said after Hillary suspended her campaign "well it looks like the Clintons are finally done for good, they'll never get near the White House again." Immediately sounded like he was tempting fate.
by: catfish @ Thu Aug 07, 2008 at 22:26:14 PM CDT
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Heh, He Clearly Didn't Know About Her Secret Weapon (4.00 / 6)
That'd be US in case anyone's wondering (waves - hi cheetos!).

Superdelegates - CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?
by: Alegre @ Thu Aug 07, 2008 at 22:33:08 PM CDT
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It's more exciting now (4.00 / 4)
that both Hillary and Bill are back in the news. Everyone is excited again. Obama fatigue has set in. He's a dullard. The Clintons are smart, witty, gracious, and wickedly brilliant and they don't need a teleprompter to prop them up either.

Recall the Obama product.
by: grlpatriot @ Thu Aug 07, 2008 at 22:58:37 PM CDT
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There is always something new (4.00 / 3)
with them. Always a story. I almost hear banjos playing in my head when they creep back into the news, they liven up the place fo sho ;)
by: catfish @ Thu Aug 07, 2008 at 23:06:35 PM CDT
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Too funny: Top of Google News tonight is All Clinton/Obama (4.00 / 6)
Thought he could just ignore the Clintons and they would go away, he picked the wrong time to go on vacation. (My top story on Google News looked like this Thurs evening):

Democrats Release Platform
Clinton Repays Debt to Schools
Clinton may seek roll-call vote at Dems' convention
A Catharsis in Denver?
Deconstructing Hillary
Clinton convention roll still not fixed
What Does Hillary Want?
Clinton supporters to march at Democratic Convention
Clintons creating new headaches for Obama (did he bring this on himself?)
Clinton to supporters: 'Yell and Scream,' then back Obama (love that one)
Report: Bill Clinton to speak in Denver
...
'I am not a racist,' ex-president Bill Clinton asserts (,_ might be my favorite)

by: catfish @ Thu Aug 07, 2008 at 22:22:30 PM CDT
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Wowzer (4.00 / 5)
Guess BHO was right when he was whining about not having enough time to take on McCain in the GE so they had (JUST HAD) to short-circuit the primary process so he could get to work.

THen he takes a vay-cay-shun and look what happens.

DOH!

Superdelegates - CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?
by: Alegre @ Thu Aug 07, 2008 at 22:31:20 PM CDT
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Those Clintons have stamina! (4.00 / 5)
The youngest candidate in this race seems to need the most rest. Take that, ageist millenials!
by: catfish @ Thu Aug 07, 2008 at 23:04:06 PM CDT
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BTW... LOVE IT! n/t (4.00 / 3)


Superdelegates - CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?
by: Alegre @ Thu Aug 07, 2008 at 22:31:45 PM CDT
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Best news all Summer (4.00 / 1)
I don't understand how Bill speaking on WEDS, can hurt anything,

CS--can you explain that to me,

It makes me very happy they're both there.

Also, This VP talking, I don't understand that either,

WHO iS THAT??
by: sammorg @ Fri Aug 08, 2008 at 08:29:43 AM CDT
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WE ARE FIGHTING A WAR HERE, PEOPLE (0.00 / 0)
Lets' look at Hill's words (and not the lying NYT version)...

Hillary Clinton [speaking on camera with gun pointed at her head]: "I happen to believe that we will come out stronger if people feel that their voices were heard and their views were respected. I think that is a very big part of how we actually come out unified. Because I know from just what I'm hearing, that there's incredible pent-up desire [to stop the horrible wars and to free the United States of America from the slime mold that is eating the economic lower 80% of our population alive]. And I think that people want to feel like, `O.K., it's a catharsis, we're here, we did it, and then everybody get behind Sen. Obama.'[There is not even an ice cube's chance in hell that his nomination could mean anything but DISASTER for our country and we damn well know it.] That is what [we want to convince the DNC] most people believe is the best way to go. No decisions have been made. [We have a window of opportunity here.] And so we are trying to work all this through with the [corrupt and dangerous] DNC and with the [corrupt and dangerous] Obama campaign."

We are fighting a war and Hillary knows it and is very limited right now as to what she can say or do. She is being held prisoner by the DNC, the cartel media, and by a big ugly tragic mass of can't-think-outside-the-box popular opinion. She is a prisoner. And yet she is STILL A LEADER, leading even as she has a gun to her head as she speaks (figuratively speaking; a misspeak and her candidacy is dead.) It's there for the few who can see it.

She is molding the situation; she is shaping it. But it is WE who must act to free her.

She said: "Delegates can decide this on their own. They don't need permission. They can decide under the rules of the DNC....

"What we want to have happen is for Sen. Obama to be nominated [she has a gun to her head] by a unified convention of Democrats. [Yes, right... Hillary really believes her soldiers who have sacrificed so much for the differences they know exist between her moral character and Obama's--who have sacrificed so much for a capable leader to be nominated--she believes they will drop all that and unite behind Senator Zero. My ass they will.] And as I have said, the best way I think--and I could be wrong [she reminds us that she has a gun to her head]--but the best way I think to do that is to have a strategy so that my delegates feel like they have a role, and that their legitimacy has been validated. It's as old as, you know, as Greek drama. [Where the actors performed behind masks and played more than a single role, and where the audience saw not actors upon a stage, but IDEAS in their own minds motivated by a PASSION FOR MORAL TRUTH unlike today's celebrities and their "Look at me! Look at me!" "Admire me."] You know, there is a catharsis. [Yes, right... she wants the convention to be transformed into a wake for the death of her as a candidate. My ass she does.] I mean, everybody comes and, you know, they want to yell and scream and have their opportunity, and I think that's all to the good. [Obama loves his mobs. Hill is motivated by progress, not screaming. We know that.] Because then, you, everybody can go, `OK, great, now let's go out and win'" And that's what we want people to feel. We do not want any Democrat either in the hall or in the stadium or at home walking away saying, `Well, you know, I'm just not satisfied, I'm not happy.' Because, I mean, that's what I'm trying to avoid."

That's what I'm trying to avoid too, Madame President. I hear you.

NY Sun Criticizes NY Times

'Speechless'

http://www.nysun.com/editorials/speechless/83870/
Editorial of The New York Sun | August 14, 2008

Forgive us, but what was the New York Times thinking when they wrote that editorial this week about No Child Left Behind? They wrote about every way states are making a mockery of the law's high standards — from watering down tests to quietly lowering the pass-rate — without once mentioning their home state of New York, which just happens to be Exhibit A in this entire debate.

It was New York that gave special accommodations to more fourth-graders taking the National Assessment of Educational Progress than any other state in the union — so many that some experts told our Elizabeth Green the state's results should be thrown out entirely. It was New York where a top adviser to the state Education Department argued the state should scour its test results for evidence of what the psychometricians call "score inflation," in which test scores rise regardless of whether true learning has occurred.

On top of that, it was New York where officials this year lowered the passing score on an Algebra exam required for graduation to just 30 points on an 87-point score. And it was also New York that high schools looking to varnish their statistical profiles were found to be quietly bidding farewell to teenagers who appeared likely to fail, without reporting their departures to the state. One potential outcome is that graduation rates could skyrocket and the dropout rate could disappear.

How these local developments could have escaped the attention of the Times is beyond us, especially considering that the newspaper from which we drew our final example in was theirs. Perhaps in their coverage of the No Child Left Behind law the mandarins of Eighth Avenue have fallen victim to the law of Not In My Backyard. They'd certainly be in good company. Announcing the latest graduation rate results, Mayor Bloomberg could not for his life fathom why our reporter Elizabeth Green might inquire as to his opinion on the charge that graduation rates are inflated by schools trying to put on a good face.

"I'm sort of speechless," the mayor said. "Is there anything good enough to just write the story?" Well, it's the mayor who has traveled the country decrying lower academic standards for poor and minority children as a shameful practice we should immediately end. So the point is not to embarrass him or his chancellor or the Times. But the mayoral control of the schools is up for renewal in Albany, and one would think that both the mayor and the Times would want to be seizing the lead on the standards issue by setting an example here at home.

Highly Organized Puerto Rican Teachers Face Repression

http://uprisingradio.org/home/?p=2928

Highly Organized Puerto Rican Teachers Face Repression

Published on 24 Jul 2008 at 9:50 am. No Comments.
Filed under Selected Transcripts, Feature Stories.

Listen to this segment | the entire program

The highly organized teachers of Puerto Rico have faced violent repression in their fight for labor rights and quality education. The Federacion de Maestros de Puerto Rico or FMPR, represents over 40,000 teachers and is the largest independent union in Puerto Rico. In February 2008 teachers voted to strike after working without a contract for 30 months. Their historic 10 day strike was met with police action and over a dozen arrests. The FMPR’s main opposition is Governor Anibal Acevedo Vila, whose government decertified the union in retaliation. Now, leaders of the FMPR are on a national tour of the United States and they’re coming through Los Angeles. Their aim is to “build solidarity with teachers and communities… about what it will take to win quality education for all students as well as build a truly progressive labor movement.”

GUESTS: Raphael Feliciano-Hernandez, FMPR President, Luis Santiago, executive board member of FMPR, and Ana Serano, Vice President of the Aguadilla local of the FMPR. For more information, visit www.fmprlucha.org.

There will a fundraiser for the Puerto Rican Teachers’ Union on Thursday July 24, 2008 7pm, at UTLA, 3303 Wilshire Blvd., Room 815. For more information call 213-309-2713.

Rough Transcript

Sonali Kolhatkar: First, let’s talk about the 10-day strike that took place in February. Why was it historic and what was the result of the strike, what was the outcome, Raphael?

Raphael Feliciano-Hernandez: We developed a 10-day strike in last February. It is very important historical process, because between 23,000 and 26,000 teachers go to the strike. Most of them were women, were teachers of the elementary level and I think that is a very important process for us in Puerto Rico. You know that we are a colony of U.S. and No Child Left Behind is also in Puerto Rico, making a big damage to our educational system. The community, the teachers, make a joint effort against the government and the intention of the government to privatize schools using charter schools and cosa como esa. We thought that we make an agreement to stop charter schools in Puerto Rico. In Puerto Rico they cannot develop charter schools actually. And also we gain the respect of the community and of the people of Puerto Rico for we fight not only for our teachers’ issues, also we fight for a good education for all our people in Puerto Rico, because we have very bad conditions in our schools.

Sonali Kolhatkar: Let’s talk first about the conditions of the teachers in terms of salary, for example. What were teachers earning before the strike? How severe were your working conditions and did things improve after the strike, Ana?

Ana Serano: During the past 12 years, there hadn’t been an increase to the basic salary of teachers in Puerto Rico. Before the strike, we were earning $1,500. With the treat of the strike alone, just the threat, there was a $100 increase granted to the base salary pay. And as part of the negotiations to end the strike, there was an additional $150. So right now in Puerto Rico, teachers are earning at the beginning level $1,750 a month. That’s a monthly salary. Teachers that, for instance, have longer time in the system, perhaps like ten, fifteen years, are up to about $2,400 per month. And in terms of working conditions in Puerto Rico, one of the problems that we have had is that the Department of Education has deviated funds from the school to utilize for technological, what they call technological advances. Money that was destined for books, for teaching materials, for, you know, the chalk board, the dry-erase, paper, toilet paper, you name it. That money was deferred for the use of other systems. For instance we have a punch system, a biometric time-measurement system in Puerto Rico which we are also fighting. So, you know, money has been taken from the schools and it has been placed in systems that have nothing to do with the educational process and in fact detract from the educational process like that biometric system.

Sonali Kolhatkar: Meaning that people have to do what?

Ana Serano: We have to put our fingerprints to punch in and out. It’s a time-device system that we are fighting in the courts and we also have a group of teachers that have been resisting using this system and we are having a battle right now. Teachers are not being paid in Puerto Rico. And in terms of the class-size conditions, this was one of the reasons that we went on strike and that there was so much support.

Sonali Kolhatkar: What is the class size?

Ana Serano: There are groups that have up to 40, 42, 43, 44. My sister taught a school, a tenth-grade class with 47 students. It’s impossible to educate with so many students and that’s one of the principal reasons that we went on strike and were supported by so many members of the community.

Sonali Kolhatkar: Now the government decertified your union in retaliation for voting to strike. Was that legal? How has it affected your ability to carry out your tasks, Luis?

Luis Santiago: Under Law 45 – that is the labor law in Puerto Rico - the government can say that it’s correct. No? But nothing can stop the teachers. The union does not come from a law; the union does not come from a paper. The union comes from the will of the people.

Sonali Kolhatkar: So the Governor can just, as a single person, decertify an entire labor organization?

Luis Santiago: Ok, the law is so bad that in our case, before we went to the strike, just voting for the strike, they could decertify you. No? That’s what the government could do. But nothing stopped us. The penalties did not stop us; the decertification did not stop us [inaudible]. We went on to strike, because the will of the teachers, the will of the workers cannot be stopped by a law.

Sonali Kolhatkar: How has that affected your ability to carry out your union tasks, Raphael?

Raphael Feliciano-Hernandez: Well, first of all, for us, the right to strike is a workers’ right. The law can say that we don’t have that right, but we have that right, because we aren’t slaves. We have the right to stop to work when we understand that we have it. The government made the decertification, because they want to shut down our dues and that was very difficult, because the union works for many months without any dues. The leadership don’t have salary and most of the work of the union was on voluntary basis. That is very difficult, but it is very important, and that is one of the things that we will share tonight, is that money is not the principal factor to develop a strike. It’s the will of the people; the compromise of the people and the community to fight for better labor conditions, but also for a better educational condition for our students.

Sonali Kolhatkar: Let’s talk a little bit about some of the other factors that play in the union or around the union in Puerto Rico, which is that I understand that the Service Employees International Union, or SEIU, has aligned with the Governor of Puerto Rico, the person who decertified your union, and is planning on working to replace the FMPR with another union. Is this true and if so why would the SEIU do this?

Raphael Feliciano-Hernandez: Yes, well, when we were in the strike, we were making negotiation for the new contract.

Sonali Kolhatkar: And this is after working without a contract for 30 months?

Raphael Feliciano-Hernandez: Exactly. In that moment, SEIU intervention was very bad, because SEIU supports the Governor of Puerto Rico, Aníbal Acevedo Vilá, and they develop fund raisers for the relation campaign of the Governor. In that moment, Dennis Rivera flew from New York to Puerto Rico and met with the Governor and said that he cannot make a new contract with Federación, because they want to make a union [inaudible] against Federación. And if he makes a new contract, he will not give the money for the relation campaign, he have a compromise of four million dollars for that campaign. That was terrible, but I want to say little detail. We have to make a distinction between the leadership of SEIU and the members of SEIU. For example, in the convention…

Sonali Kolhatkar: …which was held in Puerto Rico, the SEIU convention…

Raphael Feliciano-Hernandez: …we went to the convention center and we have to fight with the police and with the strike teams of the police in Puerto Rico to be in the front of the building of the convention to give fliers to the stewards of the SEIU. The Governor made that order and we have, some of the teachers were beaten by the police and the special forces of the police. In the convention, most of the stewards of SEIU support Federación and they say that it’s a shame what is doing the national leadership with the teachers in Puerto Rico. I think that we have to develop and to support the movement inside SEIU for more democracy and for the empowerment of the workers of their own union. But in our strike, the intervention of the SEIU was terrible.

Sonali Kolhatkar: So FMPR is working with sort of a dissident movement within SEIU to try and reform the union, make it more democratic etc. You are working with that movement?

Raphael Feliciano-Hernandez: Well, we have a communication with some of the leadership and what we do is to support the movement for a real democracy and for the real empowerment for any union. But in this case for the SEIU movement for that is fighting back to change the form of what the leadership is managing…

Sonali Kolhatkar: And is this because essentially FMPR is an independent union?

Ana Serano: Well, I think part of the reason why we are doing this is because our union has a very long tradition of participatory democracy where union with rank and file makes the decisions and the leadership basically is the vehicle which carries out the will of the teachers. And all of the leadership is elected, our leadership comes from the classroom, we have within our constitution limitation of terms, so all of our leaders have to constantly go back to work in the classrooms and we don’t have people that are encrusted in leadership.

Sonali Kolhatkar: Sort of career unionists.

Raphael Feliciano-Hernandez: And my salary is the same salary that I have in the classroom, $2,600.

Sonali Kolhatkar: Well, you are not paid huge amounts…

Ana Serano: No, all of our leadership maintains the salary of teachers. That’s part of the commitment of the union to maintain rank and file as leaders, because we don’t have a different class of leadership. Our leaders come from us. We are teachers, social workers, librarians that come into leadership of the union and we go back to our posts within the schools and develop new leadership. And that kind of tradition is what has allowed our union leadership to maintain such a bond, because we are teachers and we are leaders, but we are the union.

Sonali Kolhatkar: Why are you touring the U.S. mainland and what sort of solidarity do you see from teachers here, you know, across the country, Luis?

Luis Santiago: The situation of the Puerto Rican teachers is similar to the situation of the teachers here in the United States. For example, Raphael mentioned a little while ago No Child Left Behind. No Child Left Behind is used to privatize the education here and in Puerto Rico. And it’s important that we have a communication that are experienced. No? Can communicate to the teachers in the United States, but it is also important that we hear from them and see what is their experience. And it is important that they know what is the SEIU doing in Puerto Rico that supports a bust union that is the Asociación de Maestros, the one that want to challenge the Federación de Maestros. And also, it is important that if they can also help us to fortify our union and let’s be real honest, we are also in fund raising. No? Because the fund raising is necessary in this moment that the government uses everything against us.

Sonali Kolhatkar: So you are really hurting for dues and, as you said, salaries even, for your leadership?

Raphael Feliciano-Hernandez: Remember, we developed a very hard strike and we need a time for recovery. And the government is making an alliance with some leaders of SEIU to make a joint effort against Federación and against the teachers. That is very, it’s a shame for the labor movement.

Sonali Kolhatkar: Are you hearing from rank and file SEIU members?

Raphael Feliciano-Hernandez: Yes, we have contact with some leaders of the opposition sectors and also we have good relation with rank and file members of SEIU in Puerto Rico, because many times, Federación support SEIU in Puerto Rico and we march with SEIU. For us was a very bad surprise to see how Dennis Rivera make an intervention directly against the teachers that we were on strike. But I think that in this moment, what needs the Federación? First of all, we need to share the information, to break the isolation between the fights of the teachers in many places in the U.S. and it is very important to share the information what happens in Puerto Rico. We will develop part of this tonight, but also, we need some economical support, because we, in this moment, we are in the process of the recovery and we need to develop a campaign to affiliate new members to recover the dues that we have before the strike.

Sonali Kolhatkar: Listeners can certainly come to tonight’s event in terms of that financial solidarity as well, but is there a website or any other way that listeners can express solidarity?

Raphael Feliciano-Hernandez: Yes, we have a website: www.fmprlucha.org.

Sonali Kolhatkar: FMPR stands for Federación de Maestros de Puerto Rico, the teachers federation in Puerto Rico, and my guests have been Raphael Feliciano-Hernandez, the President of the union; Luis Santiago, executive board member of the union; and Ana Serano, Vice President of the Aguadilla local at FMPR. I want to thank the three of you very much for joining us today.

Ana Serano: Thank you for having us.

Raphael Feliciano-Hernandez: It’s an honor to be here.

Sonali Kolhatkar: Absolutely for me to have you as well. Good luck to you and your struggle.

Special Thanks to Claudia Greyeyes for transcribing this interview

Calling All Votes

By MICHELLE COTTLE

Washington

NEARLY everyone in the Democratic Party seems to think that officially entering Hillary Clinton’s name into a roll-call vote for the presidential nomination at the Democratic National Convention would be a dangerous show of disunity. It’s true that having America watch as some portion of Mrs. Clinton’s 1,640 pledged delegates thumb their noses at Barack Obama would disrupt the party’s vision of a carefully scripted Denver love-in. But finding a constructive way for Mrs. Clinton’s seriously aggrieved loyalists to channel their anger and disappointment could wind up being the path of less destruction for Mr. Obama’s campaign. Plus, it’s the right thing to do.

You don’t have to be a die-hard Clintonite, or even much of a feminist, to be moved by the significance of her presidential campaign. In 1972, the Democratic presidential candidate Shirley Chisholm made history by having her 151.95 delegates entered into the convention record. Mrs. Clinton amassed more than 10 times that number. Her achievement deserves an official salute.

Symbolic gestures and signs of respect always hold a larger meaning for the campaign that came in second. More than a few of Mrs. Clinton’s devotees, including plenty headed to Denver this month, are in need of catharsis and a bit of closure. They remain convinced that their gal got a raw deal, that she was treated unfairly by the news media, that she was cheated out of her Florida and Michigan delegates by hostile power brokers like Howard Dean and Nancy Pelosi, that she was a victim of sexism, that the historic nature of her candidacy was callously dismissed in all the hullabaloo over the historic nature of Mr. Obama’s, and on and on and on.

Some of these allegations ring truer than others. But many of Mrs. Clinton’s supporters believe them intensely enough to want to make trouble for Mr. Obama. Discouraging Mrs. Clinton’s name from being entered into a roll-call vote would give her legions yet one more opportunity to feel that their candidate had been snubbed.

Giving them the chance to see their beloved candidate honored in a highly public forum could, just maybe, help release a little steam from the pressure cooker. Beyond that, there could be other, more direct benefits for Mr. Obama’s candidacy.

A roll-call vote for Mrs. Clinton could help Mr. Obama look magnanimous instead of messianic. Fair or not, the man has earned himself a reputation as arrogant. These days, John McCain’s campaign spends much of its time watching for the tiniest show of self-importance by Mr. Obama to exploit. By making a grand gesture, inviting (even publicly urging) Mrs. Clinton to sign the (already circulating) petition to have her name submitted for nomination would help Mr. Obama look like a swell guy.

Yes, we would all be reminded of how close the Democratic race for president was when, on the convention floor, delegation after delegation rose to cast its votes. (A few die-hards for Mrs. Clinton might even get mouthy.) But in the end, the tally would indicate that Mr. Obama won. He beat Mrs. Clinton, the inevitable nominee who drove far-more-experienced politicians than Mr. Obama from the race before it even began, and who beat every other guy in the race.

He did it. And he could demonstrate that he is now so comfortable with his victory that he is willing to let Mrs. Clinton tout her achievement as well. (Better still, the delegate total for Mr. Obama would almost certainly be higher than it stood at the end of the primaries, because many of Mrs. Clinton’s superdelegates — and probably even a few of her pledged delegates — would decide to cast ballots for Mr. Obama.) Sure, some portion of Mrs. Clinton’s delegates will never be satisfied with any gesture. They are determined to sink Mr. Obama in the hopes that their candidate can come back and win this thing in 2012.

But the kamikaze cohort is just one, admittedly very noisy, subset of a larger pool of wounded supporters. The trick is to find a big, public way to separate the zealots from those who just want a concerted effort by the party and its candidate to show a scrupulous commitment to respecting every vote cast.

Is this desire reasonable? Sensible? Logical? Maybe not. But in presidential campaigns, reason and logic rarely carry the day.

Michelle Cottle is a senior editor at The New Republic.

NY Times Aug. 10

BLOWBACK

Green Dot’s empty promise

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oew-shaffer7-2008aug07,0,3963286.story

Despite its claims, the organization’s plans to run Locke High School won’t empower students or offer more local control.

By Ralph E. Shaffer

» Discuss Article (11 Comments)

In a matter of weeks, the Los Angeles Unified School District embarks on an unpredictable but carefully manipulated course as the charter school movement's golden boy, Steve Barr, and his handpicked, self-appointed Green Dot clique try to operate Locke High School during the regular school year. That idyllic summer school environment Steve Lopez described in his July 23 column won't be there come September.

Despite the wishful thinking of Lopez and The Times editorial board, turning a large and tumultuous school over to educational upstarts who shill for powerful forces hostile to public education is not the solution to the academic disaster that was Locke. Times editorials are awash with glowing confidence about Locke under Green Dot and Barr. They are almost euphoric about Ramon Cortines, senior deputy superintendent, who, according to the editorial board, "sees charters ... as a template for improving schools districtwide." The columnist goes on to say, "As long as leaders like Barr and Cortines engage in clear, honest talk instead of excuses and obfuscation, there's hope ... ."

But improvement won't materialize when the project is as full of holes as the Locke charter petition. Consider the "clear, honest talk" from Green Dot's leader as found in the charter that the LAUSD board approved last September.

Lopez parrots the charter myth: "Teachers will have more say on curriculum and teaching methods, and the Green Dot model is thin on administration." That decentralization fantasy is repeated throughout Green Dot's charter, along with the buzz word "empowerment." Teachers, students, parents -- Green Dot "empowers" them all.

But real control at Locke is held by Green Dot's board of directors -- a self-perpetuating, non-elected board. Teachers and parents will be "consulted," but there is very little teacher or parent empowerment. Although Locke may have an advisory board and teachers/parents may serve on it, Green Dot's board is the ultimate governing body for Locke, not the faculty, not the parents.

No Locke teacher or Locke parent served on the Green Dot board at the time the charter was approved, yet the whole point of charters when they were created in this state in 1992 was that teachers and parents, working together, could create a charter. Instead, outsiders have muscled their way in, drawn by a pot of gold in the form of billions of taxpayer dollars set aside for K-12 education and a golden opportunity to advance their own social and economic agenda.

Lopez says Green Dot is "thin on administration." He apparently hasn't read the charter petition. Green Dot abounds in bureaucrats. There's the "Green Dot Home Office," the "Green Dot Management Team," "Green Dot Corporate," the "Charter School Management Corporation" and the Green Dot board of directors. The "Green Dot Home Office" is responsible for the majority of policy decisions at each school and for the school budget. Purchases not originally budgeted can't be made without "Green Dot Corporate" approval. "Corporate" also does all purchasing, perhaps from some charter supply company.

Payroll? There won't be any payroll snafu at Locke because that will be handled by the "Charter School Management Corporation." Green Dot may be a "nonprofit" but the profiteers have found a way to make a buck. I'll bet you're wondering if there is a connection between Green Dot's board of directors and the management corporation? Some enterprising Times reporter ought to track that one down.

Curriculum? In a charter petition that ran more than 150 pages, Locke's gifted kids got one paragraph! Special ed students? In an exceedingly long section, Green Dot discusses problems that might arise for special ed students at a charter school. The suggestion is that special ed kids should probably go elsewhere. Could that be why some charter school Academic Performance Index scores seem higher than traditional schools?

For those of you who criticized our public schools for teaching recent immigrants in their native languages, note this. Locke will use "sheltered techniques" -- a euphemism for instruction in native languages -- for basic subjects. There are also separate Spanish-language courses for "native speakers."

But the major fallacy in the Green Dot curriculum program is the requirement that every Locke student be on a college prep track for the University of California or California State University. Tucked away in a footnote is the escape clause: that such a curriculum "may not be realistic" for all students. You bet it isn't. Vocational education, which is what many of these kids would like, was barely mentioned in the petition.

Cultural courses? Many courses in the arts will not be immediately offered. Anyone reading the document immediately notes the lack of music at Locke. In the past, the school was noted for its music program.

Although anti-public-education ranters were quick to attack brainwashing by liberal teachers in traditional schools and colleges, they remained silent when Barr announced his own form of brainwashing. In Locke's social studies and history courses, "students will demonstrate an understanding of .... and a belief in the values of ... capitalism." Now we know why the Gates, Broad, Annenberg and Walton families have poured so much money into the charter school movement. Since when do we require our students to demonstrate on a test that they not only understand but believe in capitalism? That ought to go over big among the economically depressed living in the Locke attendance area.

What about the kids? How will Barr and Green Dot "empower" them? The application cited two examples. They get to choose the school mascot (perhaps a clown as symbolic of this whole experiment) and get to decide what clubs and teams Locke will have. What will happen when a group of young Latinos try to form the Hugo Chavez Socialist Club? Or when other kids want to invite the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. to speak?

And finally we come to discipline. Gifted kids got one paragraph. Disciplinary problems get several pages. That's a lot of space devoted to discipline in a charter organization that prides itself on not having such problems.

Lopez saw a school with 700 orderly kids who voluntarily chose to attend a summer session. What will he see in September when upward of 2,300 more involuntarily converge on the same campus? Barr talks about a group of small dispersed schools in his charter petition, but if Lopez is right, all those dispersed schools and kids will be located on the main Locke campus.

Perhaps Barr has a way of pruning the enrollment down to a manageable number. Lopez says the average class size will fall from 40 to 28 students. How can that be when the school will have precisely the same number of teachers in September as last year? One way is to have fewer students on the campus.

Kids won't be expelled or suspended for failure because Barr offers "creative credit" for those who fail. Just how "creative credit" meets the UC requirements isn't explained. But for those who are "subversive" to administration or faculty, it's detention! For defiance, disrespect or abuse of school authority, suspension.

Appeals are made to the Green Dot board of directors. What happened to "local control"? And those expelled can't go to another Green Dot campus. That apparently means they go back to LAUSD.

That foreshadows how Barr intends to solve the discipline problem. There won't be 3,000 students at Locke. Many kids will opt out, choosing to avoid those uniforms and the repressive tactics of the administration that Lopez trumpeted. Others will not be allowed entry into Locke, for one reason or another. If their parents won't volunteer for 30 hours a school year, Locke won't have to accept the kids. The LAUSD's traditional schools will. And for those kids who do show up on campus, there will be an Iraq-type "surge" of security officers to maintain the peace.

Lopez and The Times editorial board have an obligation to bird-dog Green Dot during the coming year and to ask the right questions instead of playing cheerleader. Members of the LAUSD board have an obligation to go beyond the glowing reports that come from Barr and Green Dot and to have a contingency plan when they finally realize that Green Dot and Barr have failed.

The rest of us have an obligation to make sure both The Times and the school board do their jobs.

Ralph E. Shaffer is professor emeritus of history at Cal Poly Pomona.

Principals Struggling To Pare Parking Perks for Employees

By ELIZABETH GREEN, Staff Reporter of the Sun | August 7, 2008
http://www.nysun.com/new-york/principals-struggling-to-pare-parking-perks/83364/

Public school principals across the city are returning from summer vacation to learn that they have been enlisted among the ranks of city officials being asked to curb their car use in order to help the environment — and many are not pleased.

In the past, every staff member at a school was eligible for a free parking permit that gave its user free rein to park in a school's lot or on a nearby street. Now, schools are being given just a set number of permits, and every principal is left with the task of divvying them out.

The news is worrying principals, who sent frantic e-mail messages yesterday trying to figure out how they could make such decisions when many teachers and administrators remain on vacation.

Principals were told how many permits they have been allocated on July 31, and the deadline for making decisions is today, according to e-mail messages obtained by The New York Sun.

"We understand the need for the city to reduce traffic and limit the number of parking permits for schools," the principals' union president, Ernest Logan, said. "However, we do not understand the urgency in which principals are being asked to provide this information. Principals need to consult and collaborate with staff that will be directly affected by this new policy."

A Department of Education spokeswoman, Marge Feinberg, said the department will be flexible in enforcing deadlines. "We are making accommodations for those principals who are away," she said. "They can let us know when school opens next month."

The Department of Education is the last of the city agencies to be included in Mayor Bloomberg's effort to cut down on permits issued to city employees. The project is supposed to reduce the city's carbon footprint, encourage people to use public transportation, and cut down on misuse of the permits.

The police department has already cut 33% of its placards, and the fire department has cut 27%, a City Hall spokesman, Jason Post, said.

Mr. Post said the city will not know how many permits the Department of Education is cutting until the start of the academic year.

'Achievement Gap' in City Schools Is Scrutinized

http://www.nysun.com/new-york/achievement-gap-in-city-schools-is-scrutinized/83215/

'Achievement Gap' in City Schools Is Scrutinized

Slight Gains in English Are Reported

ELIZABETH GREENPRINT
Scores of both black and Hispanic students on some state and national tests have gone up since Mayor Bloomberg took over the Department of Education in 2002, and by some measures the "proficiency gap" between black and Hispanic students and white and Asian ones has begun to close.

But by one other measure — not the test scores of black and Hispanic students alone or the percentage of them that met the bar called "proficiency," but a more subtle and relative measure known as the "achievement gap" — progress has been more elusive.

RELATED: Aaron Pallas's Achievement Gap Analysis | Department of Education Achievement Gap Analysis.

Three researchers studied that measure at the request of The New York Sun by analyzing detailed data the city Department of Education previously had not released. They found that the actual gap between different racial groups' test scores has not budged by most measures, and in some cases it has widened.

In the most encouraging case — the difference between black and white students' scores on an eighth-grade English test -- the gap has narrowed slightly. Yet it remains wide. In 2008, 74% of black eighth-graders in the city scored below the average white eighth-grader on the state English test, compared to 79% in 2002.

How much this achievement gap matters depends upon whom you talk to.

In an interview at Tweed Courthouse, the schools chancellor, Joel Klein, said the achievement gap is "an issue," but he said it should not obscure the significant gains black and Hispanic students have made under his watch.

Though in some cases the achievement gap is steady because no students have made gains on standardized tests, in other cases it is staying constant because scores have risen for all students — white, black, Hispanic, and Asian.

"If the way to close the achievement gap is to pull whites down, that's not a strategy that any intelligent person or any responsible school district would ever follow," Mr. Klein said.

Others say the relative differences between races the achievement gap exposes are important.

"In the real world, no one looks at proficiency scores to determine the likelihood of someone getting ahead," one of the researchers that analyzed the data for the Sun, Aaron Pallas, a professor of education and sociology at Columbia University's Teachers College, said. "What really matters is how people do in relation to one another. And so if you have groups remaining the same distance apart, then the group ahead is still going to remain ahead when you look at selection into colleges and the labor market."

Messrs. Bloomberg and Klein have previously said that New York City's achievement gap is narrowing.

"Over the past six years, we've done everything possible to narrow the achievement gap — and we have," Mr. Bloomberg said in testimony to Congress this summer. "In some cases, we've reduced it by half."

Their statements draw on two measures of progress. The first is actual improvements made by black and Hispanic students on standardized tests.

At some grade levels, more black and Hispanic students are passing both federal and state tests than ever before.

The percentage of black fourth-graders scoring above the "basic" level on a federal math test soared to 72% in 2007 from 58% in 2003.

In other grade levels -- notably the eighth grade -- there has been little if any change in the number of black and Hispanic students attaining proficiency on both state and federal tests, and in some cases the number of black and Hispanic students passing tests has declined.

The second measure is the percentage of students in different racial groups that meet the bar known as "proficiency." The gap between the percentage of, say, black students and white students who pass that bar is what Messrs. Bloomberg and Klein have been referring to as the achievement gap.

That measure has indeed been sliced in half in some cases. For instance, in 2002 the black-white gap on a state fourth-grade math test was 35 percentage points, with 76% of white students scoring "proficient" compared to 41% of black fourth-graders. By 2008, the gap had narrowed to 18 points: 91% of white students now score proficient compared to 73% of black students.

The proficiency gap is closing even as the achievement gap stays essentially the same because each gap represents a different kind of improvement. Proficiency rates detect movements across the proficiency bar, rising when students who had been below it learn enough knowledge and skills to reach the standard, but registering no change if students who were already meeting the standard surge even further above it. The achievement gap, on the other hand, is sensitive to changes both above and below the proficiency bar.

Black and Hispanic students are more likely to start out with scores below the "proficient" mark. That means that the proficiency gap can close even though all groups of students might be rising by equal amounts.

One of the three researchers who analyzed the achievement gap data for the Sun, Howard Everson, said that he puts more stock in proficiency scores, which are also the measure the federal government's No Child Left Behind law uses to judge schools and school districts.

Mr. Everson, a psychometrician at Fordham University, is the lead testing adviser to the New York State Education Department and an adviser to the federal government on its testing regime.

He said the proficiency figures are important because they contain not only information about test scores but also a professional judgment on whether a student has adequate skills and knowledge. Expert math and English teachers set "proficiency" bars, and Mr. Everson said he takes their judgments seriously.

On those grounds he said, "I think overall it looks to be pretty good news."

The third researcher who analyzed the data for the Sun, Robert Tobias, a New York University professor who was the city's testing director for 13 years, said he puts more stock in the achievement gap than in the proficiency gap because it reflects changes in students across the spectrum -- not just those who moved above or below the proficiency bar.

Mr. Tobias said the achievement gap's changes contradict claims the Bloomberg administration has made of impressive progress, which he said he has read in press releases and newspaper articles. "When one looks at this presentation, the picture is a lot more modest," he said.

The three researchers found that the gap between black and white students' average scores on an English test has closed slightly, as has the gap on that test between Hispanics and whites, and that no gap has closed on a mathematics test. It also found that the gap between Asian students and their black and Hispanic peers has widened slightly since 2002.

In some cases the gap remains wide because black and Hispanic students are making no progress and neither are white and Asian students. In other cases, black and Hispanic students are gaining some ground -- but white and Asian students' scores are improving at roughly the same pace.

The Department of Education also conducted an analysis of the achievement gap, reproducing the same process the outside researchers conducted. Pointing to small changes in figures, the department's analysis concluded that the gap has closed across the board even by this measure. "We are closing the achievement gap," the analysis said.

The researchers challenged that conclusion.

"This is not strong evidence that the gap is closing," Mr. Everson said. "The only thing you can say is that they're relatively flat, that the gap is relatively stable."

The achievement gap can also be examined by looking at New York City students' scores on a federal test, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which is known as the nation's report card.

An analysis by the National Center for Education Statistics, the research arm of the federal Education Department, concludes that no achievement gaps have narrowed at all in New York City between 2003 and 2007. The only gap that moved in any significant direction is the one between poor students and the rest of the population, which widened slightly, that analysis said.

The National Center for Education Statistics also concludes that upward trends in the reading scores of black and Hispanic fourth-graders lauded by Mr. Klein are not statistically significant.

Mr. Klein criticized the National Center on Education Statistics analysis.

"Those are just confidence levels. Nobody is saying this is a science," Mr. Klein said. He added: "If three points is flat, and four points is statistically significant, then what you're doing is, you're playing something of a game."

Mr. Klein said he stands by his positive stance on New York City's success at closing the achievement gap.

"My view is that our black kids in the fourth grade are outperforming all black kids in America," Mr. Klein said. "Our kids are ripping the leather off the ball of the other kids around the country."

Others drew a more discouraging conclusion.

Mr. Pallas said the results should lead people around the country to question whether they should reproduce the policies being enacted in New York City.

"We need to be aware that what we're doing right now to close the achievement gap may not be working," Mr. Pallas said. "If what we're doing isn't working, we need to be aware of that and perhaps think about doing something else."

Lawrence Feinberg, the assistant director for reporting and analysis at the National Assessment Governing Board, the group that oversees the federal test, wrote in a memo last year that Mr. Klein's conclusions about progress by black students are "incomplete." The conclusions "may be questioned by his critics" because they depend on trends in test scores and do not take into account whether increases are statistically significant, the memo said.

The interim executive director of NAGB, Mary Crovo, to whom the memo was addressed, said in a telephone call to the Sun that the memo was an internal staff memo that was not meant to reflect the official position of the governing board. Asked whether she supported the memo's argument, she said, "I think the data in the memo are accurate, and that's as much as we can say."

A spokesman for the city's education department, David Cantor, called the memo "a politicized gloss" and said the outgoing executive director of NAGB, Charles Smith, had called Mr. Klein to apologize.