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Where is the accountability we have been promised under mayoral control?

 Bloomberg, Klein, the OPP and Accountability bureaucrats, the Regents, heck the huge PR staff in both DoE/City hall, the architects of this house of cards must be held accountable.

He who lives by the accountability sword should die by it.
 Many rats are leaving this sinking ship (or have been nudged overboard), but many many more remain, especially at the top.
Throw the bums out, we say!

Overcrowded classrooms, teaching to the test instead of critical thinking skills, inexperienced principals pushing for their “numbers”, progress reports that look mainly at wall decorations, “differentiated learning” in overcrowded rooms, unproven ELA and Math programs, and lots of Acuity and Scantron testing throughout the year, all hurt the students.

Teachers know what to do to help the students, but…

When an inexperienced administration orders one to “follow the program”, and a weak union chooses not to protect its members, “within your own rooms” becomes a very touchy and dangerous phrase. 

Obama, Duncan, Bloomberg, Klein, Rhee, Gates, Broad, Mulgrew, and Weingarten ask for no educator input on what the students should learn and how they should learn it.

We have non-educators in charge of students’ education, they don’t know what they’re doing and they refuse to ask educators for help.

Raise the standards all you want.  The crowd above will somehow game the system to show progress when there really isn’t any.  Leave real educators out and that’s what you’ll get…

Again.  

Bronx/Harlem Teacher,

It seems that it wasn’t just that the tests were too easy. I believe they were inappropriate beyond the low cut-offs as well.

Your logic holds to some degree, but undue promotion of students, like social promotion, takes its toll and snowballs through the grades; an extreme multiply high-stakes (for students, teachers, administrators, and schools!) focus on deeply flawed tests also takes a heavy toll. It becomes very difficult to work in environments, for both children and adults, that appear to be profoundly fraudulent and unfair. Buy-in and motivation becomes problematic, especially when you throw in overcrowding and the toxicity, stupid decisions and compound fraud that often come with high pressure. Of course, I’m sure some, maybe many, schools and teachers have managed to rise above it all, but this should never have been made so difficult.

Akademos,

Thanks for the polite response!

I agree that it’s all more difficult than necessary. What I see on these boards, however, is a degree of animosity that is never going to result in anything good for the students–our clients.

Instead of all the hatred that’s been spewing out (and I know that I’m in for it, now that I’ve identified myself as a charter school teacher ), where is the collaboration? Where are the useful suggestions for how we move forward?

Why not a summit of teachers/educators from across the City, with an agreement to meet to actively discuss and plan without rancor? Imagine how our students and parents–again, our clients–would feel in the classroom if they knew this was happening?

B/H T

You are so right- we are all accountable! 

Too bad most of us are kept out of the shared decision making that would empower us to do the kind of work you describe.

For tha,t you can thank the governance structure of Mayoral Control-that charter proponents lobbied hard for.
The effect on our community district schools has been total fettering under a top-down autocratic Kafkaesque machination of absurdity.

Lucky for the “good”charters that they do not suffer under such constraints.

Your school sounds like the schools that thrived in my neighborhood prior to MC- collaborative, small schools serving neighborhood children in creative and innovative ways, with oodles of support from all- community, parents, teachers, staff, administrators…
We used school based decision making to decide on educational priorities and goals; to learn about, explore and forge collaborative partnerships around curriculum, standards, pedagogy; we developed our own budgets; decided on hiring practices; did lots of fund raising;  even  maintained and improved the building/facilities through community effort.

All made next to impossible the last 8 years under the never ending rotations of rules, regs and re-orgs ( the NEW 3R’s!)

But tell us, B/H T-
Are you REALLY a teacher?
Something in your vantage point sounds almost like a CS leader to me.
It must be your impressively wide lens and synthesized knowledge of the issues.

If indeed you are a teacher- how did your students perform this year?

what standards/measures do you use to evaluate your work/outcomes?

It sounds like we could all learn  a lot from your experience and analysis.

I agree with Donlan’s first comment here, so long as she adds that all borough president appointees to the CECs are thrown out with them.

It is up to principals to decide if teachers are up to snuff.  The problem with that, of course, is the DOE’s endorsement of the Leadership Academy, where young principals, who’ve never taught, make teacher quality decisions.  Thus, dump the program, principals need 10 years of teaching before they can be considered for principalship.  Then, those principals will decide who gets tenure, who is not pulling their weight, etc.

Again, B/H the main problem is that this system is currently being run by business people and not education people. They prefer hiring and firing with the snap of a finger.  As has been said many times, helping children of all skills should not be a business.

We are arguing about educational issues that these “leaders” know nothing about.

Hi Parent- I mean Gary S?

You are too funny.

I feel like stalked  a rock star – first you spam local parents pretending to be the CEC 1, promoting the Learn NY pro mayoral control website, then you take to sending nasty emails about me and now you seek me out on blog comment postings to attack me?

Flattering.
Do you have indexed me in googlenews or something?

Of course, if you are not G S, then please accept my apologies- just let me know who you are on/off line!

And why throw off the BP appointees?
I don’t follow the connection.

B/H T
Of course I understand the need for anonymity- just look above to see how I get attacked by some serial poster with a personal grudge!

In CSD One we try very hard to be that forum- as you suggest.
We encourage debate and controversy- we are very democratic and transparent.
Our mission statement (just revised for 2009-10, but not approved by the magic vote of 6, and only slightly modified/updated is:
 
CEC 1 MISSION STATEMENT
The District One Community Education Council’s mission is to help District One families and educators to exercise self-determination and local control over education policy and practices and to participate in decision-making at the level of family, school and community.  To further this goal, we organize public meetings and hearings, provide a forum for parents to bring their concerns, and produce analyses and policy proposals which collectively serve to bridge the gap between the DOE, state and federal “rhetoric” and the reality in our district schools.   
Our key areas of focus for the 2008-2009 school year are to: • advocate for an equitable admissions policy for our schools that reflects the diversity within our district, • address space and building issues, including prioritizing the district’s needs for the Capital Plan, • champion small class sizes throughout the system,• ensure parental involvement in school governance by supporting and strengthening meaningful participation in the district’s SLT’s, P(T)As, DLT, President’s Council and CEC by all families of elementary, middle, and high schools, including new schools and Charter Schools in the district, and• educate families on the ramifications of mayoral control in preparation for 2009 
We believe that a democratically-elected body of parents and community members can best represent the interests of the families in our district, and all of our activities support this fundamental belief. 

It is difficult though, since under MC, communities have been eviscerated and the”districts’ over which we have oversight do not exist in any real way.

Our rights and responsibilities have been usurped and co-opted, leaving us only the tools of advocacy and organizing to try to affect change.
We need to change the balance of power if we want to  truly be accountable as you suggest!

The Leadership Academy is one of the key issues; but it represents what is Mr. Klein’s big problem, he is not an educator and doesn’t understand or think like an educator and while you may think that’s good, it has worked very much to the detriment of the children of this city. A Principal is not a CEO, he or she is a CIO. His or her most important role is to work with teachers to improve instruction within his or her school. Period. There should be a separate title for business administrator of a school (or a group of schools). The problem is they have brought in so many inexperienced Principals who know next to nothing about edfucation, who are incapable of observing a lesson and knowing whether what they are watching is good or not. In some of the high schools (the small schools I refer to), they don’t have subject area specialist. So a totally inexperienced Principal can observe say, a math lesson, and have no idea whether the mathematics being taught is correct.

I will state in without fear of being contradicted. Nobody is qualified to be a Principal before having at the very least 7 or 8 years of classroom experience followed by at least 3 or 5 years of experience as an Assistant Principal, and these are minimums. Of course what has happened over the past 8 years during the Klein Reign of Ignorance, is that many really good people who were trying to follow a traditional career ladder were passed over for these Johnny come lately Principals. And it often manifested itself with some of the ATR’s. I have spoken to some ATR’s who tell me of how it is very hard to be interviewed by a Principals who knows next to nothing about education and tell them things like, “Mathematics must never be taught in a traditional manner.” So what happens? You don’t have a match. And in many cases, these instant Principals are afraid to hire experienced teachers knowing full well they will see right through the empty suits so many of them represent.

But I can take it a step further. Nobody should be a School District Administrator (and that includes Chancellors) who has not spent at the very least 5 years as a Principal and 5 years as a Deputy Superintendent (this would disqualify incompetents such as Klein and Rhee). Until that happens, are schools are head straight for the dumpsters.

“So it’s great that you think you have and your charter school have all the answers, but…. no, let me stop there. Great that you think you have all the answers! Go save the world!”

Teacher: I don’t think I do have “all the answers;” I just think I have something to add to the conversation.

B/H T
I think that  we tried to cover that w/:

The District One Community Education Council’s mission is to help

 District One families and educators

 to exercise self-determination and local control over education policy and practices and
 to participate in decision-making at the level of family, school and community.

 To further this goal,

 we organize public meetings and hearings, provide a forum for parents to bring their concerns,

 and produce analyses and policy proposals which collectively serve to bridge the gap between the DOE, state and federal “rhetoric” and the reality in our district schools.   

Do you- or anyone- have suggestions on how we may need to strengthen the statement to be more inclusive or effective?

Addicted to these conversations- exactly what ( you point out) is missing- the chance to learn from each other, find common ground and real solutions we can all agree on!

Ms. Donlan, what about saying:

“To further this goal, we organize public meetings and hearings, provide a forum for parents to bring their concerns, and produce analyses and policy proposals which collectively serve to bridge the gap between the DOE, state and federal “rhetoric” and the reality in all of our district’s schools, whether public, private, or charter.”

Could you also put in a line that makes it inviting to educators from all those sectors? Something like, “We invite input from the community, parents, and public/private/charter school educators?”

With absolutely no progress in closing the achievement gap or any other gap in eight years, is it not time for Commissioner Steiner to revoke the waiver that has allowed non-educator Joel Klein to visit endless Jack Welchianisms and McKinseyanisms on the city’s schools, but nothing of educational merit.  Perhaps he could be made Lord Chancellor of Charter Schools.

T-OT

Right you are, Klein needs to GO
as for your sugestion as a next career move- hey, it worked for Michael Duffy!

B/H T- I will bring your suggestions to our next Council discussion !
I agree the way you phrase it is more inclusive, and I believe in keeping with the spirit/intention w/ which we wrote it.

I meant “strengthens” or “adds strength,” and should have added, “or weakens.”

Bronx/Harlem

“I need to make what might be an unpopular observation: if teachers were denied tenure based on the faulty scores of years past, it was because their students didn’t even meet the standards that we know now were much, much too low. That tells me that those same teachers’ students would have failed at an even higher rate this time around.”

I believe 1800 students were told that they did NOT have to attend the last weeks of summer school because they were told they “failed” when they actually passed. If their teachers were denied tenure due to test scores, then theoretically they may have deserved tenure.

It’s very convenient that you omitted the fact that millions of dollars in performance bonuses were awarded to teachers, and principals based on the improving scores. Was it an honest lapse of memory, or the realization that “merit pay and bonuses” are part of the “reform” agenda? The policy was only foisted on NYC teachers by DOE pressure, along with Randi Weingarten’s collaboration.

The revelation of the inflated test scores is a COMPLETE LOSER for the “reform” agenda!
It’s proven that the exams were inaccurate assessments for measuring student performance, and teachers’ effectiveness. It doesn’t matter that they were inaccurate to the upside. What matters is that standardized exams administered by one of the largest states in the nation, were INACCURATE! They were inaccurate for a number of years.

Education “reformers” insist that student performance on exams be used to evaluate teachers. Whose to say that in the future standardized assessments could be inaccurate to the downside? Teachers would lose their livelihoods because their evaluations were based on negative, and inaccurate exam results. That’s outrageous!

“The only thing that has changed under Bloomberg and Klein is some parts of the old system functioned well; now nothing works.”

THAT is hitting the nail on the head, Jodama.  Beautiful.

That kind of implies an angry galoot. Me, I’d characterize Pogue as passionate, analytical, and quick-witted. Personally, I love seeing that in teachers–and students too.

I for one LOVE Pogue!

 Don’t change a thing!

KS- how has your school been affected by the new scores?
Do you look at testing, or evaluating teachers, or your students learning, any differently?

A ( new,  Leadership Academy) principal I met just after the scores came out was feeling like she did not know her kids anymore, so shaken was the staff by the new  lens that described a very different picture of success/failure than they had believed they were creating in the school.

That 30- 40% drop and corresponding shift in the Bell curve must be mind boggling if you believe the tests gauge learning, and teaching with accuracy and reliability.

.

I took a look at the scores at one of Bill Gate’s “smaller, more lovey-dovey, packed with TFAers, ‘progressive’, big on credit recovery, not so big on enforcing silly things like standards and attendance, fly by the seat of your pants schools” that a friend of mine used to work in. They are now a fully grown 6th through 12 school and the new passing percentages for the 6th through 8th graders on the ELA test are a whopping 19%. It’s innovation like this that we all need to get behind because these billionaires surely know everything there is to know about educating our children.

P.S. I love Pogue!

Do any teachers really believe this will lead to positive change? The billion dollar spin machine has already fired it up against us “oppos” (Klein’s email to a charter schooler). The union has not been complicit: THE UNITY CAUCUS HAS BEEN COMPLICIT! UFT elections are such that most dont even know there is an alternative. The rank and file have been left out to dry. And, forgive me, many current “teachers” really dont care because they arent in it for the long haul. I am not a leader. But is there someone out there who can rally the UFT membership, parents, and the public at large enough to save NYC public education. If the latest news does change things, which I fear it wont, then the end of teaching as a profession/career is very near.

Why all the surprise over the city’s recent poor NYS results? The reality is that school test results haven’t changed significantly in the last decade and won’t change much in the coming decade either. DOE and NYC number spinners utilize a variety of measures and base periods to produce their “positive” results. The bottom line is that NYC’s ethnic breakdown, percentage of single parents households, special needs student, etc., have not greatly changed over the years and thus (honest) scores will not change much either. sadly, the current parent population of NYC’s public school children is awfully uninformed and horribly apathetic.

The teachers here spend much of their time kvetching about management and management initiatives, and very little putting forth new ideas on how to fix things. If you subtracted all of the comments which essentially say “If only an educator was in charge things would be better” many of you wouldn’t have much to say. My impression, and I’m only a parent of two PS kids, and tax payer and not an “educator,” is that the UFT spends most of it’s time trying to stop innovation instead of proposing it’s own, better ideas. And better ideas have to include ways for the parents, public and elected government to objectively measure progress — that inevitably means some form of standardized tests. (And no, I don’t think individuall teachers can reliably assess how their kids, and they themselves, are doing compared to their peers across the city and state. ) How about the UFT and NYSUT come up with a better test/measurement? It’s really tiresome to hear how the ELA etc are terrible and then get no better alternative from the largest union in the state and country.