Governor David Paterson says we’ll have a budget Monday no matter what. (State of Politics)
But he may be headed for a big showdown with Speaker Sheldon Silver first. (Daily Politics)
Next year’s school battles are likely to be even more dramatic than this year’s. (City Room)
An experiment: Does competition boost performance or encourage cheating? (Core Knowledge)
“Extremism in school reform is not a virtue,” says an ed professor. (Answer Sheet)
Curious internet outages have disrupted schools during the last few days of the year. (City Room)
Going deep into how accountability worked — or didn’t — at Kennedy HS. (NYC Parent Blog)
Kennedy’s former chapter leader describes how four city investigations floundered. (JD2718)
Remember NCLB? A look at how we entered a new era of ed reform. (Kevin Carey)
And here’s some great audio of Brooklyn first-graders reading their original poetry. (The Local)
Pogue
23 more schools to close?! Jeez, I wonder if this was discussed between Bloomberg and Mulgrew on their private jet trips to Albany and D.C. The UFT leadership must be “shocked, shocked” to hear about this. There better be outrage and there better be planned massive teacher/parent/student/decent politician demonstrations for the coming year’s battles.
Just SomeTeacher
1 word – SICKOUTS!!!!!!!!
Why? Exempt from Taylor Law penalties
but not just a giant sick out of all 5 boroughs on one day – no we need to plan this strategically keeping in mind that there will be teachers who will not follow the union rank and file and probably leak information to administration who are in line with the Klein way of doing things.
You arrange the sickouts on by borough – arranged by the UFT borough leaders
You arrange sickouts by file number – every teacher in the city with a file number that ends in 2 call out on this day (just an example)
You arrange the sickouts in a way that hinders the system, inconveniences the administration, but not at the expense of ALL the students of NYC at the same time. Not 1 sickout, but MANY MANY MANY SICKOUTS, just not the same teachers at the same time. That would be much more a show of force than a silly rally, that does not really have any more significant effect on change then a a tickertate parade.
Akademos
Well, I don’t think old-school union tactics are the way to go, and this probably is not the place to make suggestions like that.
The public needs to know what a lousy job the federal, state and city governments are doing regarding education. They are making changes too hastily and without real understanding. It’s not good enough at this point for people to be satisfied or put up with their own rationalizations like “at least they’re finally doing something” or “reform is needed, any reform”.
The public as a whole, unfortunately, has fallen down on their supervision and analysis of the situation. So have many academics in education and most of the press. Too bad. The entertainment industry has also missed so many opportunities for documentaries, mock-umentaries and parodies. The antics and stilted words of Rhee, Klein, Bloomberg and Duncan in the context of the true realities of which they speak are certainly worthy of countless Saturday Night Live skits. Yet people know, deep down, I think, that the situation is too sad and dire for laughter.
Just SomeTeacher
If not this forum, what forum??? The main UFT websites would be too public to devise any truly meaningful demonstration that is UNEXPECTED. That is the key, we are getting vilified in the press as is, and truly without just cause. Since we are getting the negative press, no matter what, lets use it to our advantage – show the public of NYC that teachers are more than just babysitters and we are a body of professionals that have a substantial impact on this city. That substantial impact is not felt by planned rallies anymore. We need to be more aggresive in our tactics, without breaking the law, and without disrupting the student’s lives more then they have to be.
Hence I repeat
SICKOUTS!
jodama
Sickouts are what did it in Florida.
Akademos
I thought it was sanity.
Peter
Hate to disabuse u but sickouts” fall under the Taylor Law, 2 for 1 penalties plus fines imposed by the courts.
The feds require that all states intervene in the 5% of “persistently lowest achieving schools” utilizing the four fed choices, three of which require removing staff. The only answer is to change the law, it looks like the unions will prevent the reauthorization of ESEA with the limitation of the four choices, maybe another local option, still to be decided … same closing, etc., r happening in every urban center, in many cases with substantial layoffs.
Just SomeTeacher
You are quite right as state by this website http://www.perb.state.ny.us/faq.asp – so the trick is to organize these absentee instances in a way that don’t show directly point to organization the United Federation of Teachers – underground movement run by NYC teachers, that show an effect but not an easily visible causality factor as to who is calling sick on which day. The UFT can claim plausable deniability, ergo no strike action for the PERB board to point to, just a LOT of inconvenience. I state here and now, I do not have the strategic mind nor the resources to organize such a covert operation but I am sure there are those within the union who do.
bronx mom
I can’t believe this. They are trying to deprive our hispanic and african american children in nyc of their education!! Openly plotting on how to get around the law, they only care about flexing their muscles.
Listen up teachers, strikes are illegal. Sickouts are illegal. Depriving our children of the right to learn is illegal and immoral and you should know better!! You get the best pensions we the people of nyc’s money can buy and still you want to play games.
Our babies deserve better, you are being led by fools and you have forgotten why you became teachers in the first place. I hope none of you are foolish enough to try this.
Peter
Sorry my friend, forty years of PERB case law, a “concerted action” is measured by the impact, whether a union vote or social networking or Twitter, the violation is measured by whether teachers took a concerted action. If normally 5% of teachers are absent on one day and on a partiicular day 40% are absent both PERB and the courts would consider as a Taylor Law violation.
Whether withhold services would convince management to change direction or simply piss off allies is another debate.
The same school closing, attacks on tenure (where it exists) is happening in every urban center across the nation … Chicago, Detroit, DC, LA and on and on …
Akademos
Everybody Must Check This Out!
It’s from Leonie Haimson’s NYCPublicSchoolParents blog!
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Negative learning from high “value-added” teaching?
A new study on teacher “quality” shows that post-secondary teachers who did best in terms of their students’ value-added test scores did worst in terms of their students being able to succeed in more advanced course work.
They hypothesize that this is the result of “teaching to the test” which hurts the ability of students to engage in “deep learning.”
This is one more piece of evidence revealing how the incredibly simple-minded approach of Bloomberg/Klein/Duncan/Gates and the rest of the Billionaire’s Boys Club to teacher evaluation may have destructive long term impacts.
Their excessively narrow view of learning attempts to impose a narrow and damaging model on teaching.
Posted by Leonie Haimson at 6/27/2010 12:16:00 PM
Michael Fiorillo
It is grossly premature to be speaking about any kind of concerted action by teachers. Take a look around: we have been isolated and made into patsies, first for the problems in the schools and now for the financial problems facing localities. Public employees and their pensions are being scapegoated by the Austerity Party, diverting attention away from Wall Street, the real source of the crisis.
Teachers would have to be educated and mentally prepared for the potential risks and sacrifices involved in any kind of action, and ample groundwork would have to be done to organize community and parent allies (many of whom are upset with the union for Randi Weingarten’s betraying them on mayoral control last year). And before any of that could happen, teachers would have to be organized in the schools, chapter by chapter. Do you see the UFT doing that?
As a union guy, it pains me to say that the likelihood of any positive change – or even holding the line on what we have – coming from the UFT right now is slim; they are too complicit in the status quo. It’s going to have to come from a combination of the kids, parents and independent groups finally bursting through the PR mask and exposing the lies, dysfunction and inequity of the system.
Akademos
The truth has a way of arriving at the worst moments for some, as it’s always here.
An Effective Teacher Says…
I am a teacher in one of the schools on the 5% list. This is a horrible, despicable way to handle schools that may need extra help in turning around. The Bronx Mom complaining about the teacher sickout proposed by a single person and then about teacher’s pensions – please inform yourself about the city you actually live in.
One – I’m not going on a sickout – it only hurt our students. Two – what planet are you living on where closing a public school is beneficial to your “babies”? How does firing 50% of the entire school staff serve your children? How is the creation of exclusive charter schools helping all the public students who can’t get into them? Your “babies” are now left to be horded into even fewer schools with larger class sizes and less supplies.
Listen up Moms and taxpayers: educate yourself just where the excess is – and where your tax dollars are truly being wasted. It’s not on teachers’ salaries or pensions. The meager pay we receive barely compensates for all the real work most of us good dedicated teachers do. How much does an administrator get paid? And how many APs are there in your school?
If you want good teachers, then guess what you have to pay for them. If you want to pay minimum wage, expect to get what you deserve. Only a competitive wage will attract professionals into this career.
Do some research… Why are there no-bids for supplies and services? How many new hires did Klein put on our budget during a time when he was proposing layoffs of teachers? How much are they being paid out of your precious tax dollars?
Get a clue. The teachers are the only ones who actually care about your “babies”. Not Klein. Not Bloomberg. All you are to them is $.
Jeff S
Doesn’t it become more obvious what’s going on every day? First of all the ridiculous statement by the incompetent, unqualified, uncertified lawyer masquerading as an educator that more students are graduating high school. First of all, Joel, when I was in High School and had to learn proper English, you can’t graduate a high school. You graduate students from high school; just another indication of how out of place this lawyer madquerading as an eductor is.
But, let’s see you close say South Shore or Tilden High School, the new schools certainly do not take in the low performing students so when they claim graduation rates are up, well it’s like comparing apples to oranges. You just don’t have the same student body in the new schools than the old schools enrolled. Period. Of course, let’s not mention the lack of extra curricular activities we have cited before in these new schools. But don’t you see what’s happening, the trouble makers are sent to Sheepshead Bay, FDR, Dewey and now they’re being closed….they wouldn’t dare send these students to Midwood or Madison or Murrow…can’t allow these “jewels” to fail. At some point, people will realize what a fraud this whole thing is but by then, it will be too late. Thanks Joel for destroying the school system…you’ve done a great job at it.
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