Randi’s favorite body part? Her legs, “because I have to walk a tight rope most of the time.” (Politico)
One budget-cut casualty is full-day kindergarten programming. (Hechinger Report)
Math and ELA scores are out on Wednesday, but parents can’t see them for a month. (InsideSchools)
A teacher says DonorsChoose is hurting teachers by supporting a pro-charter movie. (Accountable Talk)
Teach your students problem-solving skills and this will never happen to them. (Education on the Plate)
And a comic shows the theory v. reality of media and education. (Toothpaste For Dinner)
Basil Smikle, the reform-friendly state Senate candidate, travels by motorcycle. (New York Mag)
The NAACP and other civil rights groups are attacking Arne Duncan’s agenda. (Answer Sheet)
Aaron Pallas is worried about Michelle Rhee’s firings’ reliance on value-added. (Hechinger Report)
Arne Duncan’s speech tomorrow will be themed “the quiet revolution.” (ed.gov)
Pogue
Dear Randi,
Get off your tight rope and start supporting and fighting for your teachers. That is your job. You work for the American Federation of Teachers, not the American Federation of Oligarchs and other Rich Guys Who Don’t Know a Damn Thing About Education. Do your job for your constituents of this nation. Stop playing both sides of the fence. It is destructive and bad for teachers and their students.
http://nyceducator.com NYC Educator
With all that money, you’d think they’d have a more workable acronym.
philip nobile
AMAZING BUT TRUE FICTION OUTTAKES FROM RANDI’S INTERVIEW
Q. In 2006, you praised Philip Nobile, a teacher and Chapter Leader at Brooklyn’s Cobble Hill Schoool of American Studies, as a “brave” whistleblower. You used his David v. Goliath story when you lobbied the City Council to extend protection against retaliation to teachers who report corruption. But now Nobile says that you betrayed him. What happened?
Randi: Nobile’s case was not my finest hour as UFT President. In 2008, I promised Nobile that I’d give a press conference on the steps of City Hall vouching for his credibility versus that of Special Commissioner of Investigation Richard Condon. In 2007, Condon had smeared Nobile as a false and vengeful accuser and, in effect, overtuned OSI’s previous substantiation of his allegations of Regents cheating and cover-up at Cobble Hill.
Q. Why did you agree to support Nobile?
Randi: I really didn’t want to, at first. But he kept spritzing me at Executive Board meetings and pressing me to read his 140-page “refutation” of Condon’s report on Cobble Hill. I promised I’d read it but eventually I set up a committee to vet him. Michael Mendel, NYSUT lawyer Chris Callagy, and reporter Jim Callaghan from THE NEW YORK TEACHER read his detailed rip of Condon and approved it. That’s when I proposed City Hall.
Q. Why did you hesitate to help Nobile? Hadn’t you used him a poster boy for the new whistelblower law?
RANDI: Condon did me a big favor, simple as that. As I told Mendel, Callagy, Callahan, and Nobile, I went to Condon and his boss, Department of Investigation head, Rose Gill Hearn, to stop Klein’s swiftboat campaign against me. Klein had an assistant who sole job was to dig up dirt on me and leak it. Consequently, my DOE personnel file was slipped to Wayne Barrett of the Village. Voice. Barrett’s story was not flattering. So I warned Condon and Hearn, if they did not squelch Klein, I would go public and blame Bloomberg, their boss. They hated Klein and wanted to protect the Mayor. They took care of me. Klein’s campaign ceased. I owed Condon.
Q. What tipped you to break with Condon and prompted your grandiose pledge to Nobile? RANDI: A phone call. Nobile arranged for someone deep inside the city’s education constabulary, someone who worked for SCI, to give me the lowdown on Condon. He said that Condon was a scoundel several times over and that Nobile was right about everything. I trusted my source.
Q. But in the end you reneged, skipped to Washington, and ever since stonewalled Nobile without any explanation.
RANDI: Last July, days before leaving for D.C., I met with Nobile, Mendel, and Callaghan. Too late for a City Hall extravanganza, we agreed that a column announcing my stand for Nobile and against Condon would do the trick. I decided that Juan Gonzalez would be the best choice and asked Nobile to write the pitch letter, which he did.
Q. But you never followed through with Gonzalez. Nobile said on the blogs that Mendel refused to speak to him if Callahan and Callagy were in the room. Forgive my bluntness, but can a union leader sink any lower than to abandon a brother on the field of battle and then go radio silent?
RANDI: (If you’re reading this comment, apology and explaination welcome.)
Pogue
Wow, that Indieschools’ “Math and ELA scores are out Wednesday…” is a trip. So…
A. Parents can’t see them until they are on the “money-pit” ARIS system a month from now?
B. Scores have been re-formulated so parents nor their children know if they needed summer school or not?
C. Students who are currently attending summer school who may have actually passed those tests may opt out of summer school?
D. Students who are currently NOT attending summer school who may have actually failed those tests may opt in at this late date?
The disrespect to parents, students, teachers, and a well thought-out public education system is palpable.
This is a fiasco. This is the DOE.
Sean Doyle
Arne Duncan is holding a press conference at 12.30 Eastern time today. The theme is “the quiet revolution” in education. Want to bet he mentions the efficacy of Rhee’s firings, and the new relationship between the AFT and corporate America.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
