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Although I have always thought that the DOE and the people who work for the Mayor in all school initiatives “feigned” ignorance about the true impact and cost of their so called educational improvement. Their exterior/visible irritation that the NAACP joining suit along with the lazy UFT clearly has fluttered their wings.

Their message to the public that the Union and those lazy, ignorant teachers who are incompetent and obstructionist to the Mayor’s urban education renewal drive, are isolated anymore. Now that the NAACP is involved, it is a question of Civil Rights. It gets as ugly as it can be.

and to Deputy Mayor Walcott’s question:

“Either you’re for fixing schools that have failed poor and overwhelmingly minority students for far too long, or you’re not. I know what side we’re on,”

I wonder who allowed some of these schools fester with questionable leadership and without support that was given to small schools for “far too long.” Hypocrites.

Prior to today, did the UFT and/or NAACP file suit(s) against the DOE for these schools’ failure to educate their students?

Do these people really think they can stop Bloomberg. The man got the rule change and then used his substantial wealth to buy the election. Getting a favorable decision in this suit is just a matter of buying the right person. You just cant fight City Hall, certainly not Michael Bloomberg’s City Hall.

Finally, a true battle…hopefully.  Always remember…anyone pushing the “schools are failing” agenda are really saying Bloomberg and Klein are failing.  The problem is, he had the money to smokescreen the media, voters, and the general public.  Eight years and all he and Klein could come with was closing schools…Brilliant!  Money may buy you elections, but it doesn’t buy you intelligent and creative problem-solving skills.

KS, I think people are trying to keep these “failing schools” open because they are fighting the concept of what failure means. I have seen many of these once glorious schools being thrown the burden of more and more challenging students, while remaining with questionable leadership and being told my those above that, the school is responsible of dealing with them, while they kept the flood gates open.

If there was impartiality in the reasoning why certain schools went down so low in their achievement rates, perhaps many would have understood and had been less vitriolic in their protest. Nevertheless, for many people in the battle fields, they clearly saw their commander simply doing the party talk, without providing the tools necessary to conduct operations.

The commanders who have had good times behind the trenches, faraway from the frontlines, be promoted while they have failed to conduct a proper campaign, and have distributed nothing of use to the campaign?

Let me point at the type of “help” that the DOE provides schools that are facing with a massive influx of students from other closing schools. They are given shallow, “workshops” and I have seen many workshops that are just that, talk, no substance, something really simply slapped together. And when it came to taming a massive crime wave/incidents that occur at a site due to an influx of student provoked by the DOE, they punish the schools that are honest by labeling them persistently dangerous and thus discourage/encourage principals to unde report incidents, this at the expense of the security of students and staff.

After this charade has been on going for years, they change their metrics and what little function is left in the building they unceremoniously declare, “phase out.”

This would be equal to sacrificing what is left of a platoon after years of neglect and starvation and they being put in a propaganda poster for done such a “terrible job” after showing the skeptical public at large how the platoon needs to be taken out of its misery for its prolonged failure at dealing with the enemy, showing hollow evidence of “how much” was done for them. Sure, “much was done for them and to them.”

I think this is the last fighting chance that comes out from these people who have been abused for such a long time, and I mean these people being the students and the staff at these schools. It is much like the last strength that comes out when you know they are trying to eliminate you.

Perhaps you should consider whether what the DOE has been pandering in the media for more than 8 years is for real.

Sure, high graduation rates, just to have the same students spend years of their lives in remedial classes in a City College? Is that the success that the DOE is claiming for their new schools and using to phase out “failing schools”?

Seems yet again Mulgrew being reactive not proactive.

http://southbronxschool.blogspot.com/2010/02/mulgrew-grew-set.html

the story mentions plaintiffs that are not on the legal papers — ie Markowitz for example. Was he a plaintiff or not?

Just heard from the Brooklyn BP office that the BP Markowitz did indeed join as a plaintiff to the lawsuit.

Here is the central deceit which must be brought out in every argument with the “free-market reformers”, as the New Yorker recently called the privatizers.

“Either you’re for fixing schools that have failed poor and overwhelmingly minority students for far too long, or you’re not. I know what side we’re on,” said Deputy Mayor for Education Dennis Walcott in a statement. The side they are on is dedicated to the bizarre project of wrecking the public school of the nation, and subcontracting it to private contractors. No nation on earth has ever committed such an atrocity against its own children. These free marketers are the exact same arrogant persons who just wrecked our economy by capturing the regulatory processes and government agencies, and bribing or threatening cowardly politicians and editors.

KS,

Klein and Bloomberg have had total control of the school system for the better part of a decade: why no mention of their responsibility in the “failings” of these schools? Or is accountability only for teachers and low-level administrators?

Despite their rhetoric of reform and of being the “outsiders”, they in fact are the incumbents and stewards of the crises in the schools. In fact, many of the crises – school closings, multiple reorganizations, funding changes – have been consciously instigated by them as a tactic in their smash-and-grab assault.

In the self-congratulatory terminology of neo-liberal economics, it’s “creative destruction.” Those having to withstand it in the schools see it for what it is: greed and social vandalism.

Also, you speak of the “regular people…who see the merit of closing these schools down.” Who are these “regular” people? At the PEP school closing meeting – a sham of democratic procedure, but probably the most representative in terms of public attendance – there was virtually no public support for them. Apart from the editorial boards, loyal conduits for ed deform propaganda that they are, and with charter operators and their proxies in the DOE no doubt operating in the wings, who has been insisting that these schools be closed?

I worked at a failing school and I can testify that the leadership at these school’s sucks. I feel sorry for these kids (victims). I mean not being conscienciable about creating a “culture” of dropouts and creating prolonged highschool graduation structure is evil. Any one who supports this structure needs to seriously examine themselves. These leaders like any other businesses only care about their paychecks and their safety, not your kids saftey. They don’t know how to apply or fail to apply rules that were put in effect to ensure successes of a school. They only check and give DOE officials checks on graduation rates on those students that have graduated. They don’t show or do not show about kids who are at the mark or who are on the mark and will be graduating accordingly because they do not know how to apply this business math. This should show how much they care and look after your children. How many times have you seen “absenteeism” as an excuse! This should not be tolerable.

Mindy – I have worked in one of these schools since 2002. The leadership at my school works with the faculty to help students with major educational needs to graduate from high school and to be prepared for post-secondary education. We work with every one of our students, whether they just arrived from Yemen as an 11th grade student with no English, or arrive from the 8th grade with 2nd or 3rd grade math and English skills and issues around learning that designate about 25% of our students as requiring special education services – the majority being ‘high-need’. For the class of 2009, only 12 of the 454 students arrived on grade level in English and math. Add to this that we took in 359 students during the school year.

We’ve put structures in place to try to make sure that all children receive attention and care – teams of teachers who look at their academic challenges and social ones, working together to find ways to help them succeed.

In addition to educational challenges our students frequently face daunting social situations from poverty and homelessness, related health issues, frequently moving and the foster care system. We have never, to my memory, used absenteeism as an excuse. We do believe that the challenges our students face and the way that they arrive should be considered with our graduation rate. Since only 2.6% of the class arrived on grade level in reading and math, we think that this should be considered when our school is evaluated.

Success in such a school does require a strong understanding of data and systemic practices – but these cannot succeed without a lot of heart, passion and understanding. These are qualities that so many faculty members in these schools possess – a commitment to those students who face the greatest challenges. This is why so many of us have struggled so hard to keep our schools open – its the knowledge that our schools go to great lengths to serve the very high percentages of students most schools would be afraid to take for fear of not meeting their educational targets.

There is currently no accountability system in place that fairly addresses the profound challenges we face. We believe that the DoE has no plan for future students such as ours – no school is waiting with open arms. We should be supported in providing even better services than we do at present since this is a population to which we have committed ourselves. I hope that the law suit succeeds in stopping the process and in forcing a genuine examination and dialogue around our outcomes in terms of the students we work with and the systemic practices that have lead to such a high degrees of need existing in our school and other schools in the same predicament.

So what becomes of failing schools? Well, LIC HS was put on that list (the one issued a few weeks back from NYSED) and here’s the result (click link):
https://hostedjobs.openhire.com/epostings/submit.cfm?fuseaction=app.welcome&category_id=101305&company_id=15651&version=4&startflag=3&parent=School%2DBased%20Leadership%20%28Assistant%20Principals%29%3B%3B%3BAssistant%20Principal%20Positions%3B%3B%3BDistrict%2030&levelid3=101305

Why does everything have to be about race with the NAACP and the community. I wonder if it was a school in the white community which I have seen closed before for failing marks if they would get involved, I can tell you that they would not. They have a United Black College fund
set up, yet if there was a United White College fund they would yell discrimination. I had a white friend that tried to get funding to go to college from the black college fund only to be told that she was not the right color. I am sick to death of all the racism that goes on in this country. If there is a black college fund or a black entertainment network or a magazine or whatever the case for black people then white people should be able to enjoy the same things.

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