Demeaning Democracy: We Tossed the Brits, It’s Time to Toss the Plutocrats

During the confirmation hearing for Attorney General designee, William Saxby was asked whether he thought that President Nixon knew about the Watergate “doings.” He responded, “Does the piano player in the brothel know what’s going on upstairs?”

I wonder whether Bloomberg is the piano player across the street from Tweed?

Klein is desperately seeking a philosophical underpinning for the morass he calls Children First, a constantly shifting set of policies and initiatives. His intellectual hero is Sir Michael Barber, formerly Tony Blair’s Minister of Education and now a high priced McKinsey Associates consultant. Barber’s views are expressed in a recent article , flaked by Joel.

Barber has been whispering in Joel’s ear for the last few years … and he rolled him out to “explain” the Brave New World of Empowerment at the Time Warner Center a year ago. The Barber Consultancy Model has been raking in dollars for McKinsey across the country.

The Model has three fatal flaws:

1. The quagmire in Iraq is a product of consultants. According to Bush, and the consultants, the Iraq Consultancy Model, if committed to, and given sufficient time will be a success. Consultancy models, hedge fund-like mathematical models, ignore the widgets, the real live people who are the subject, or, might I say the victims, of the model.

2. Highly effective school systems, i.e., South Korea, Finland, the Netherlands, etc., are antithetical to the Barber model, yet ignored in the Barber/Klein equation.

3. Barber/Klein assume an all-powerful government (i.e., Tony Blair, Mike Bloomberg), weak or absent teacher unions and school boards, and, of course ignores stakeholders.

The Brits have never gotten over our little disagreement with George III, and Joel enamored with the “Sir” that precedes Barbers name. Our forebearers gave a great deal of thought to the question of creating a system of government. Madison avers, Ambition must be made to counteract ambition … If men were angels, no government would be necessary … And, believe me, Mike and Joel are no angels.

We live in a city that is riding the top of a wave: rolling in cash, endlessly declining crime rates, and a weak City Council has produced a popular Mayor who shrugs over debacle after debacle. Somehow or other declining SAT scores don’t make the DOE website.

The opposition to the war in Iraq was slow to build, now two/thirds of American oppose the war. Slowly, the opposition to the Klein/Barber plutocratic view of public sector management is growing. Parents, advocacy organizations, the teacher union and, the elected officials in the State that have the responsibility to make laws are looking askance at the school mess.

We tossed the Brits and their loyalist friends two hundred or so years ago and it’s about time we did it again.

The Educational Petri Dish: Why Students, Parents and Teachers Are Fighting Back.

Once upon a time we thought that bringing about change was a bottom up, grassroots activity, guided by the philosophy of Saul Alinsky. Mass demonstrations, protests, petitions, civil disobedience: actions that engaged stakeholders in a mass movement …

Somewhere along the line too many of us became too self-satisfied, we decided that “building from the bottom up” was too hard, or, too slow, or, too complex.

Self selected change agents now sit in gilded “think tanks,” funded by the left or the right, spinning away, with “ideas” and “policies” that are misguided, or, just plain wrong.

Michelle Rhee, recently selected Superintendent in Washington, DC, and, formerly director of the New Teacher Project, espoused the elimination of teacher seniority transfer rights. Her Report  was “hot,” she testified against the union in New York City at a contract fact-finding, and, seniority transfer rights were replaced by an Open Market system … anyone can transfer anywhere. The result: teachers fleeing from low achieving to higher achieving schools … the rich get richer … to the detriment of the neediest kids.

Weighted School Funding, called Fair Student Funding  by it’s advocates called for dollars to follow kids and for school budgets to be based on actual teacher salaries. The implementation of the plan was sidetracked by teacher union and community protests. The plan would have driven funds from “richer” schools to “poorer” schools … a Robin Hood approach to school funding. The theory: “richer” schools would be unable to hire senior teachers who would be driven, by the marketplace, to “poorer” schools.

Midwood High School, one of the highest achieving schools in the City would have lost twelve teaching positions! Creating higher class size, elimination of electives: a plan that would have sharply eroded the education of one class of students, supposedly, to the benefit of others: educational triage.

Schools have become the petri dish for social scientists … a laboratory to play with the lives of the children of families of color. There are no experiments in highly funded suburban schools, the bastions of the wealthier and the more powerful.

There are signs of change.

The Coalition for Educational Justice  is one of a number of organizations formed in the spirit of Saul Alinsky. Parents and teachers using the grassroots tools of community organization,  ”taking on” the establishment.

With the help of other advocacy organizations  a bottom up change is beginning to percolate …

Rather than the rich and influential funding “mad scientist” experiments on the powerless, perhaps they will begin to drive their resources to the folks who have a real stake in schools systems: parents and teachers.

Advise to the Teaching Class of 07: Yes … the Future of the Nation Does Rest on Your Shoulders!

On Wednesday, August 22nd, 3000 or so new teachers will crowd into the Jacob Javits Center and hear pearls of wisdom from Joel Klein, and some other DOE types … I keep waiting for my invite to speak … must be caught up in that pre-Xmas mail rush … but … I’m ready!

My advise to the class of 2007:

1. Jog! Ride your bike! Go to the Gym! Meditate! Yoga!

Do something to relieve the mental and physical wear and tear. The first days/weeks/months will be a roller coaster: exhalation, despair, frustration, hope, and, maybe all in the same day. New teachers “wear down,” get sick, drag themselves to work … a formula for disaster. Take care of yourself!

2. Find Some Friends!

Locked away with kids all day, day after day is isolating … you begin to feel lonely, misunderstood, with no one to bitch with and complain to … lunch with your “posse,” exchange ideas, successes, failures, and, yes, find a local “watering place” to drown those sorrows on Fridays.

3. Experienced Teachers Can Be Helpful …

Colleagues can helpful, or incredibly cruel, especially when they shout, ”you’ll never make it,” after your first week! On the other hand there are kind and generous colleagues who will share ideas, materials, lesson plans, and, provide a shoulder to cry on.

4. The Kids Don’t Only Hate You, Just Everyone Over the Age of Twelve!

To Sunni, Shiite, Taliban add early adolescence to the list of sects and tribes. You are not their friend or their parent … be strict, consistent and fair … you don’t negotiate with eleven year olds! They don’t have to like you, they have to respect you.

5. How Much Do You Know About the Hip-Hop Star of the Moment? Learn!

The Tribe called adolescents has it’s own vocabulary, heroes, dress code, code of conduct and “street cred.” The more you understand the more you’ll find those “teachable moments.”

6. I’m the Principal, I’m Here to Help you … (and all that jive ..)

Your Principal has an enormously complx and difficult job … listen to him/her, accept ideas that you find helpful, don’t tell him/her how they should do their job … some Principals are wonderful leaders and guides, others crass and spiteful … and most fall somewhere in the middle … check out the “grapevine” on the UFT.Org website to see colleague comments.

7. Become An Active Union Member!

Who is your building union rep? Ask them: can I go with you to the Delegate Assembly? Volunteer for union committees, attend School Leadership Team meetings, the union is your organization … become part of a the union movement … read the union blogsite … Edwize.org … comment … get involved!

8. Have Patience … It Will Get Better (or, should get better)!

After a few weeks, months, a year, two or three it should begin to get better … you’ll never get rich, no stock options, but, meeting someone a few years later who bubbles, points to you, and shrieks, “Miss Smith changed my life …” There’s nothing better!

Idle Hands: When Billionaires Play With Schools Kids and Teachers Suffer

“It’s amazing,” says a NYSun columnist, “how people who brilliantly operate their businesses can turn into buffoons as soon as they purchase a pro basketball team,” or, I would add, become self-appointed experts on education.

Every summer the Aspen Institute sponsors the Aspen Ideas Festival , a gathering, by invitation only, of “movers and shakers,” (think Karl Rove, Colin Powell, Madeline Albright, Bill Clinton, Justice Stephen Breyer, and on and on …) from the business community, scholars, high ranking government types and “think tankers.” There are a range of panels and interactions among the participants in many fields, including education .

One of the panels was a number of Fortune 100 CEOs discussing a range of topics – including the US education system, and, they all had “ideas.”

Across the board they praised KIPP Charter Schools, Teach for America, merit pay for teachers, they bemoaned the lack of students majoring in science and technology and sharply criticized the quality of American schools, and wondered why parents supported local schools. On one hand there is no question that concern and involvement of the corporate sector  is important, on the other hand ignoring data and jumping at “the politically acceptable” idea of the moment is unfortunate.

Responding to an audience question: all educated their children in private schools or elite suburban public schools. One panel member recounted that he started his children in a NYC public school but moved them to a private school after a few weeks … I wonder: was it the high class size, the complexion of the student body …?  These corporate leaders paid for schools with extraordinarily low class sizes and resources for their children, yet for public schools they seek “cheaper,” unproven approaches …

KIPP, and other charter schools, are successful because they attract highly motivated parents. Regardless of the economic level of the community there are parents who will seek out what they consider “the best” schools. Charter school staffs tell me that students applying to charter schools have higher standardized test scores that the students in surrounding schools.

Teach for America attracts teachers from the most elite colleges in the country – they spend two years in an inner city school and move on to graduate school … Do they impact positively on the schools in which they serve? Not according to a recent study (work ). The impact is on the TFA teacher … a cohort of whom move on to “educational policy,” i.e., Michelle Rhee, the newly appointed Washington, DC Superintendent and a TFA alumna.

There is absolutely no evidence that teacher merit pay will increase achievement, in fact, among the keys to high achievement is collaboration: teachers working closely with colleagues. Will competition for merit pay increase or decrease collaboration?

In NYC the brazen manipulation of student achievement data, the self-aggrandizement, the denigration of teachers, their union, parents,  elected officials, and, in fact anyone who criticizes is abhorrent.

Are there workable models? Norm Fruchter, a thoughtful scholar collects a range of research and points to a number of highly successful models around the country . Unfortunately Fruchter doesn’t support the quick fix, the “flash” solution.

I guess when you have a billion or so you can play with sports franchises and the schools when life gets too boring …

Half of All New Teachers Leave and Tweed Doesn’t Care: Why Tweed Supports A “Sweat Shop” Model: Use Them Up, Threw Them Away and Pick New Ones.

Next week 3000 teachers new to the New York City School System will gather at the Javits Center and listen to Joel Klein’s welcoming speech.

What he should tell them is, within five years half of you will have abandoned your jobs. That’s right, each and every year half of all new teachers are fated not to survive.

Exit interviews  and a Village Voice article point to “lack of supervisory support,” “poor discipline,” “a feeling of hopelessness,” … basically new teachers are “thrown to the wolves.” I used to think that new teachers were “treading water,” now I feel they are “ten feet under water watching their bubbles float to the surface.”

New York State Education Department requires that each new teacher receive a mentor. For the past few years the Department has assigned a full time mentor to seventeen teachers,  … mentoring in the run. This year the Department has returned to a school-based mentoring system, however, aside from an article in the Principal’s Weekly there has been no guidance and no funding! Principals are required to assign each new teacher a mentor and Tweed has not provided any additional funding … Principals were told they have sufficient funding in their budgets!

Why are the gnomes at Tweed ignoring the absence of an effective new teacher induction program?

The total focus of Tweed is on “value-added,” measuring pupil progress per teacher. Developing a system whereby student standardized test scores can be tracked by teacher. The goal: to evaluate and rate teachers by “value-added” metrics, and, of course, pay for performance.

Joel’s newest buddy, Chris Cerf, the Deputy Superintendent for Human Resources brags about the Department position (“Why Merit Pay Matters”)  in a widely read blog . We can’t forget that Chris’ last gig was the CEO of the Edison Schools – a “for profit” Educational Management Organization with a poor track record.

Imagine a school in which the staff was paid solely according to standardized test results … all test prep and screw the guy or gal in the classroom next door! Cerf references an article (work ) that claims to show that after three years of experience a teacher’s ability to approve student performance levels off … so why should we care when newer teachers leave!!

The Joel Klein/Sir Michael Barber/Chris Cerf view of schools is basically a union free business environment that treat the workers, i.e., teacher and principals, as interchangeable parts. Through a combination of the “carrot and the stick,” (merit pay and no job protection) squeeze out every last drop of blood and cast them aside. There’s always a group of eager new teachers …

So Pinocchio will look out at the thousands of eager faces at the Javits Center … massage their egos … and send them off to be chewed up by an unfeeling system.

The clock is ticking … mayoral control will sunset and parents, advocates, legislators, teachers and a host of other caring New Yorkers are looking beyond Joel to a school system that honors teacher expertise and serves the needs of children and their families.

Why Do Teachers Sour? Instant Principals Beget Instant Failure, Will Tweed Ever Learn to Respect Teacher Expertise and Build True Learning Organizations?

Educational policy is the “hot topic” for those smart kids who really, really want to change the world. The path is a top quality college, an MBA or a Masters in Public Policy from Stamford or NYU and off to work at a foundation and on to a policy role in an urban school system.

Policy is intellectually interesting, and drives initiatives from above, but, does it impact the teacher in the classroom? the fulcrum of teaching and learning. Teaching is an incredibly difficult job, and we know that half of all teachers across the nation leave within five years. This is not only a problem in the good old USA but across the world. There is a worldwide shortage of teachers .

We are ignoring a more significant teacher issue.

I listened to a panel of successful principals. One of the principals recalled that a few years after he became a principal a large number of teachers reached retirement age and, in fact, retired. Many of them had become negative, uninvolved and sour. He referred to them as “curdled.” He raised the issue: how do we assure that as teachers work through their careers they don’t curdle? What policies can principals inculcate into the culture of their schools so that experienced teachers thrive and can spread their expertise to younger teachers?

The panel agreed and explained how they involve, respect and listen to their staffs.

* teachers run the hiring committee with the principal interviewing as the last step.

* core school policies: discipline, grading, course creation, etc., are teacher driven.

* the principal facilitates the ability of teachers to observe colleagues.

* as teachers gain experience they are given greater responsibility – an informal lead teacher system emerges.

* principals match teacher assignments to the skills of the teacher and the needs of the kids.

They all were creating a culture whereby teachers do not view themselves as widgets but as important cogs in a learning organization.

These principals had one thing in common. They had all been in the school system for many years, as teachers and assistant principal before they became principals.

The Klein Leadership Academy chose another path, select “outsiders” or young classroom teachers and skip them into principalships. These “instant principals” have been the subject of sharp criticism.

Another initiative of a Baruch College/New Visions for Public Schools project, the Scaffolded Apprenticeship Model, that is a school-based principal building model.

Will these models support, empower, and take advantage of the expertise of the maturing teacher? or, will they create another generation of ill prepared principals who drive away younger teachers and discourage and “curdle” senior teachers?

A few days ago I met a graduate of the Leadership Academy who was awaiting her assignment: a middle school principalship. She had been a manager for many years in a large corporation and had never been a teacher.

Unfortunately I think she is carrion and I pity the poor kids in her school – there is no easy answer and there is no away around teachers: the fulcrum of teaching and learning.