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“I’m happy to report that the lineup now includes a working teacher, Stephen Lazar”. How hard was/is it to find a “working teacher” in NYC? (Please note that I am not dissing Stephen as he is a good teacher and a decent man)  Last time I checked there were around 80,000 teachers in NYC. However, it does not look like there are enough heavy hitters who are very pro teacher on this panel. Actually, from the looks of it, if you open this up for anyone to attend, ya’ better set it up European soccer style with fences separating the opposing supporters! 

How is it that E$E’s Sydney Morris makes it as an “education heavyweight” exactly?

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/sarameads_policy_notebook/2011/05/evan_stone_and_sydney_morris_co-founders_educators_for_excellence.htmlAs young teachers in the New York City Public Schools, Evan Stone and Sydney Morris struggled with a feeling that the policies and practices that affected them and their students were being developed with little teacher input or voice. So they decided to work to change that, by created Educators for Excellence to organize teachers and provide an independent voice for them in public and policy debates over education.Today, Educators for Excellence has 2,500 members, a staff of 6 former teachers, and is already putting its imprint on legislation and policy in New York State…Educators for Excellence reflects two emerging trends in education reform today. An avid runner and soccer fan, Stone, 26 was raised in Los Angeles and earned his bachelor’s degree from Yale. Morris, 25, was raised in New York and holds a bachelor’s degree from Tulane and a master’s from Pace University. Both came into the classroom through Teach for America and currently live in Manhattan.

Snore.  This is more of the same old same old here at GS. Why isn’t Leonie Hamison on this panel?  She certainly has more insight to share than Evan Stone.  Where is Julie Cavanaugh – founder of GEM.  If you guys want to get together and listen to each other talk – have fun.   Don’t expect, however, to be taken seriously by parents and teachers.

Even with Lazar, this panel seems stacked against teachers. Morris, Moskowitz, DOE’s #2, and Tisch are all pro-Bloomberg, pro-charter, and pro-business model. Even Thompson has recently advocated for charter schools. I don’t know anything about Viteritti, but it doesn’t seem like teachers have much of a fair chance here.

Please consider explaining why Diane Ravitch decided to remove herself from the panel.  Please consider explaining why no parents were considered for the panel
Please do not tell us the construct of the panel was not yours but Manhattan Media’s

That’s the list you came up with for your education panel?

Seriously?

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha…

This panel is so shilled out and weighted toward pro-charter, pro-testing, pro-corporate reform people, it just can’t be taken seriously.

Just another example of the corporate ed deform site Gotham Schools pushing the corporate ed deform agenda of its pro-charter, pro-testing, pro-corporate reform overlords.

I can hear the Gates Foundation money, the Walmart money and the Broad money rolling in already.

Cha-chinnnnggggggg!!!!!!

Is this a Roast for public education?  Where’s Foster Brooks, Don Rickles, and Ruth Buzzy?

Phillissa ask Sydney if the extension or discontinuance of probation of her fellow E$E colleagues upholds their education policy and belief of eliminating the tenure law.

Philissa you don’t state why those candidates were chosen to be on the panel.  BTW, Tisch is Bloomberg’s friend and neighbor.  Thompson’s ex-wife had some money issue and rumor has it that Bloomberg was very helpful.  Eva was Klein’s email side-kick and e-friend.  Since Klein did everything for Bloomberg, by association Bloomberg was also Eva’s friend.  Shael will praise Boomberg’s self-promoting accomplishments.  It would seem like Bloomberg is on the panel and any honest dialogue and education discussion will be as biased as a two-headed nickel.

My main curiosity is this: for the people who have most at-stake in public education (parents and students especially, but teachers as well), why isn’t there more of a representation of those groups on the panel? 

As costumers of this product being public education, for this panel, shouldn’t they have more of a say about policies that will directly affect their lives and speak to some of the main players of the policy game with questions and comments? It just doesn’t make much sense to me.

Was there a casting call for this theater of the absurd?

PEP meeting minus parents = no voice, deja vu?

Ellen, my point exactly.  This is a group of people getting together to hear each other talk. They’re not interested in what the public has to say or think.  They have an agenda and they will not be deterred; so why even bother?  

Rome:  you need to know your enemy in order to plan counter their actions

Let’s take a look at my quick research&breakdown of folks on the panel who are or have been actual teachers in a public school:
Stephen Lazar-Is a teacher with a number of years experience
Leo Casey-Yes, he is a veteran educator.
Sydney Morris-Teacher of less than 3 years
Eva Moskowitz-Never was a teacher
Shael Polakow-Suransky-Has taught, not known how long
Bill Thompson-Never was a teacher
Merryl Tisch-Unknown if she ever was a teacher
Josephy Viteritti-Never was a teacher in a public school
(This research was just what I could find with a quick search. Sorry If I left any info out)

*BOTTOM LINE: If this panel is supposed to be about education, it would seem that it would help if there were more actual “educators” present. (Even if the educators are retired educators) Just imagine a panel on modern firefighting that consisted mostly of “experts” who have never held a fire hose or turned on a hydrant in their lives. This panel seems like a sham to give more power to the ed deform movement and their agenda of the privatization of public schooling.

and ps
ask them why Diane Ravicth stepped down……

Yes!!

Very true, Ellen.

Please ask Sydney Morris if 2 years of teaching makes her an expert on education or how much money the Gates foundation gave her.  Also ask her if TFA is a 2 year teacher mill. Maybe ask her what she plans on doing after they change teacher assessment as is happening anyway. 

Dear Ms. Cramer,

Please ask Ms. Moskowitz why she changed the name of her new Bronx Success Academy 3 (D7), before it even opened, to the Brooklyn Success Academy 1 and relocated it to District 14.  Even with the last-minute name change, BKSA1 is chartered to open this coming school year just as planned for BXSA3.

Did Brooklyn gets its first Success (ha!) without a public hearing?  The charter revision was approved by the SUNY Trustees in March before the Success admissions lottery, so I assume they have students.  It seems confusing and sneaky to me.

All of the principals went to college, actually. All the staff has college degrees. Make intelligent factual statements instead of rumor mill assumptions. You know what happens when you assume…

I
think it’s ludicrous to claim that 92% of parents are satisfied with their
children’s school when less than 50% of 3rd -8th graders
are reading on grade level and the 4-year graduation rate from high school
hovers around 50%.  To then back it up this point by insulting parent
advocates seems right in line with the systemic vilification of parents and
teachers under the current regime. 

I
think Shael’s statement points to this obsession with quantifiable measures
that when used as evidence of fact, ring hollow and defy logic in what
reasonable people know to be true.  Similar to Success Charter Inc.’s
touting their test scores without offering insight to their practice of
skimming and counseling low performing students out of their schools.

I’ll give Shael the benefit of the doubt that he misspoke or stated what he did
inelegantly however it seems par for the course with today’s DOE that he said
exactly what he meant.

The
highlight of the day was a really bizarre moment. Stephan Lazar seemed to be
lamenting that he couldn’t cheat while grading the Regents exam while sitting
next to Merryl Tisch. 

I
think his point was valid in that teachers should have discretion to review
their grading and make changes to their grading if needed – which the state has
stopped with an its updated and newly implemented regents test grading security
policy, but his example of passing a student so they could graduate as a reason
to inflate the grade might speak to why the new strict test grading security
policy was put in place, it’s pretty brazen to just come out and say (I’m
paraphrasing), ‘It’s unfair of the state to have these test security policies
so teachers can’t inflate grades when all I want to do is inflate grades.’