Kleinworld: Throwing Ideas Against a Wall … Chaos Is Not an Educational Philosophy.

 Did you receive Joel’s letter? Are you among his 100,00 “closest and dearest” friends? The letter reminds me of when some meet others who speak absolutely no English they simply speak slower and louder. No matter how much slower and louder Joel speaks he’s not going to change the facts.

Lackluster NAEP scores and questionable testing practices, an $80 million data warehouse that tells teachers what they already know, fatally flawed School Report Cards  … yet Joel, the optimist,  keeps digging through the pile of “new things”  … reminds me of the pony joke.

Don’t get me wrong, I want Joel to succeed, as the school system stumbles it is our children who are the victims. Some seem to “enjoy” Joel’s failures … I’m increasingly concerned.

The enemies of public education and teacher unions glory in the ineptitude of Tweed.

Their future: a privatized school system, schools run by Educational Management Organizations (EMOs), without union involvement, competing with each other. The marketplace decides “success” or “failure,” some EMOs will prosper, other will fall by the wayside.

Of course, no public school advocacy and much lower school budgets that translate in lower taxes: the Milton Freedman model.

What is particularly distressing is we have a Mayor who understands that teachers are the core of any school system and you cannot attract teachers without competitive salaries. Bloomberg has negotiated 46% increases for teachers since his election in 2001. For the first time in memory there are many more applicants, and more qualified applicants, than there are teaching jobs. 

At a time when the Department, the unions and public school advocates should be working with the Mayor to create a synergy, a collaboration that will work for kids the Department is chasing away new, better qualified teachers.

Joel should take his head out of the pile (see pony joke above), and reach out to the core of the school system: teachers and their union.

The vultures are circling and Joel’s failures could lead to a “privatized” school system. Some, of course, aver,  that is Joel’s goal …

It’s Been a Bad Week for Isaiah and Joel: The Knicks and Tweed Stumble … Who Will Fire Their Coach First?

 It’s hard to tell who had a worse week, Isaiah Thomas or Joel Klein.

Isaiah leads a basketball team reeling from a sexual harassment lawsuit, is on a six game losing streak, dissension on the team and no light at the end of the tunnel.

Joel moved from the highly heralded release of the School Report Card, and watched the Report Card trashed by Diane Ravitch, Carmen Farina, his former deputy and the educational community. Next: the NAEP scores, the “gold standard” to evaluate and compare student performance is released, and, guess what, NYC is slipping badly  … To move the press off the NAEP score story Tweed “leaks” to the NY Times a story about a “team” to fire tenured teachers… only to see the union president “blow” the Tweed cover. Finally: teachers are bleeding out of the system at ever increasing rates.

Aside from the loss of teachers the Department pays a substantial amount of money for each teacher in the Teaching Fellows program. The Department contracts to public and private universities and picks up the tab for a Master’s program, provides mentors and supports, and, unfortunately, watches as too many new teachers throw in the towel. While the Department, no surprise, has not released any data on the cost of a teaching fellow, fifteen thousand dollars is a conservative number. Tens of millions a year in wasted dollars and the need to impose wave after wave of inexperienced teachers into the lowest achieving schools.

The Dolan’s: the owners of the Knicks, can fire Isaiah, hunker down and ignore the wraith of the fans … or, trade someone for someone else and create a distraction.

Bloomberg has the same choices: he can “fire” the coach, hope the Teflon continues to fend off the critics of a failing school governance system, or, create some sort of a distraction.

The Knick situation is more depressing, there is no sunset provision.

The current statute establishes a sunset of the current governance structure: June 30, 2009.

Unfortunately the failed Tweed governance system is looking more and more like Bush’s Iraq policy. Overwhelmingly the American public opposes Bush’s Iraq policies and Bush blithely ignores public opinion and the majority of legislators … Bloomberg/Klein are tying themselves to a sinking ship … a failed policy … and ignoring public opinion and the vast majority of elected officials at the NYC and State level.

For the sake of the million children, hopefully, Gracie Mansion and Tweed have more sense than 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

The Bully in the Playground: When All Else Fails – Blame Teachers!!

 Yesterday’s big education news story: the lackluster NAEP scores in New York City … right?

Not according to the Tweed folk … who mumbled tried to spin the story .

Klein’s reaction: On the eve of the NAEP scores story release, with great fanfare, he announces their new initiative to fire tenured teachers! The Teacher Union is vigorously protesting.

In the letter, he (Klein) urged principals to help teachers improve but added, “When action must be taken, the disciplinary system for tenured teachers is so time-consuming and burdensome that what is already a stressful task becomes so onerous that relatively few principals are willing to tackle it. As a result, in a typical year only about one-hundredth of 1 percent of tenured teachers are removed for ineffective performance.

Hundreds of teachers are sitting in rubber rooms around the City, awaiting the dismissal process to begin, or be returned to school. Why?

Because over thirty years case law has established clear standards in teacher dismissal cases and the many teachers in the rubber rooms have not committed dismissible offenses. In too many cases the removal is simply vindictive on the part of the Principal.

Leadership by threat and intimidation.

The State Education Law and the Teacher Collective Bargaining Agreement have streamlined the teacher dismissal process – a process that Tweed negotiated, and, ignores.

The Law, which applies to all tenured teacher in New York State  sets forth specific rules and timelines. The New York City Bargaining Agreement also contains provisions to further speed up the process.

In addition the Department and the Union jointly established a Peer Intervention Program that assists tenured teachers who have received an unsatisfactory rating.

Klein avers the tenured teacher dismissal system is “time consuming and burdensome:” should it quick and easy!!!

A Superintendent once yelled at me, “How can you defend this teacher!”

I responded, “You hired him, you rated him satisfactory for years …”

We are talking about tenured teachers, teachers who have at least three years of satisfactory evaluations. If the teacher is truly inadequate shouldn’t the Department move to dismiss the Principal who rated the teacher satisfactory?

If the teacher was satisfactory, and is now unsatisfactory: why?

In my experience, frequently, the teacher is in the midst of a personal crisis: relationship issues, financial, substance abuse, problem with their children, psychological crises: issues that should be addressed by the employer through a employee assistance program … which does not exist in the Department.

The dismissal of a tenured teacher due to unsatisfactory performance should the end result of a program to assist and support the teacher.

Shouldn’t a principal be engaged in instructional issues each and every day.  Teaching demonstration lessons themselves, arranging for teachers to observe each other, meeting with colleagues, establishing a climate of self criticism and self improvement?

In one of the highest achieving schools in the system, the International High School at La Guardia Community College, teachers “select, support and evaluate” colleagues.

Some principals either can’t, or won’t do their jobs!

If  principals do their jobs, and unfortunately a teacher, at the end of a process, is still failing the dismissal procedures should flow from the process – all the instructional interventions that occurred over the months or years that preceded the final decision.

A serious problem in our schools is “bullying,” unfortunately in New York City the bully is the Chancellor.

Parsing Delusions of Progress: School Progress Reports Are A Sham

Life on earth is tricky;

Wits are never quick enough.

Can’t ever be too picky

Fighting lies and bluff.

Song of Why Human Effort Is Always Futile from The Threepenny Opera

 

Sources tell me that the rats that infest City Hall Park are on lunch break from Tweed.

As Children First inches toward sunset we are beginning to evaluate the enormous disaster that has been thrust upon our children. Rather than a public debate Tweed has chosen to attack and demean it’s critics – secret files, tape recording public speeches, writing an op ed piece attacking Diane Ravitch, using a “beard” and placing it in a leading newspaper:  tactics that emanate from the Stalinist Kremlin. As Joel Klein praises himself as a civil rights leader Martin is rolling over in his grave … Bull Conner yes, not Dr. King.

The next step in “serial initiatives” is the School Progress Report, aka, report card. The report cards have no credibility:

* is an alternative high school, Manhattan Bridges the best school in the City?

* is the American Sign Language school the worst school?

* Should Bard High School, which grant graduates a high school diploma and a college Associate Degree, where students complete all Regents by their sophomore year, belong in the lowest third of schools?

* does PS 35 in Staten Island, were most kids are at Level 3/4 deserve an “F”?

* should schools which the State says are Schools In Need of Improvement (SINI), failing schools, receive a grade of “B” from the City?

* Are 2/3 of all schools in the City “A” or “B”?

As Andrew Wolf points out in the NY Sun, schools should be evaluated not by zip code, but by the progress the school is achieving. The DOE report cards purport to do this – however – as Wolf so clearly proffers the report card is a sham.

Fourteen hundred and fifty schools are adrift. Empowerment, School Support Organizations and Partnership Organizations are all offering support, underline offering. Superintendents are rating officers but their job: driving Inquiry Teams.

Is anyone monitoring anything?

The most fragile kids, Special Education kids, have been abandoned … compliance with a “wink and a nod.” State High School diploma requirements have become a charade. Principals, under the gun to produce graduates, do whatever they have to do … 

An example: To earn a credit students require ”at least 180 minutes of instruction per week,” however, the NYC interpretation: if a kid fails a course it is assumed he/she has met the “seat time” requirement of 180 minutes per week, even if they failed all tests and did no homework, a kid can complete a “project,” approved by the principal, and earn a credit. Is there a State ruling, a DOE circular, no! It is part of the urban myth that morphs into “practice.”

Parents, teachers, elected officials, advocates, those who are directly involved with children have been subjected to an oppressive administration – the supporters of Tweed are the foundations, the conservative bloggers, the corporate side that has benefited so richly from Tweed policies.

The disaster that is Children First has nineteen months until mayoral control sunsets. The City Council, the Public Advocate, the Teachers’ Union and a range of other organizations have committees reviewing the law and working towards a new system of governance. Ultimately the State legislature and the Governor may pass new legislation, or, simply allow the system to revert to a Central Board and Schools Boards. 

Teachers and kids are amazingly resilient … the battle against Tweed has created a parent/teacher alliance … in a pervase way true advocates of  public schools may emerge from the Klein years stronger than they entered it, and may be able to create a truly child-friendly school system. 

Society is quick to throw

People out with the trash-

If you’re hungry, shut you’re trap;

Otherwise they’ll beat you up,

And enjoy it too.

 

If you dare to argue,

They will kick you out-

For you, poor guy, have been sacked

By the higher ups.

 

Welfare Song by Hans Eisler

Will Shame and Guilt Improve Schools? The School Progress Report As Klein’s “Branding Iron”

 The rumor that the Department was going to paint the school’s Progress Report grade in twelve foot day-glo letters on the sidewalk in front of the school is probably not true. The Supervisor’s Union (CSA) has opposed the branding of the progress grade on principals’ foreheads (does any school still read the Scarlet Letter?)

After two years of buildup the crescendo has arrived … today,  Monday, with great fanfare the letter grades will be released.

I have attended innumerable workshops/meeting on the construction and analysis of the School Progress Report metric. The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) rubrics are all about moving kids from Level Two to Level Three – a system embedded in zip codes. The Progress Report is an improvement – in addition to test scores student progress, attendance, parent and teacher surveys are part of the calculation – but – a foundation issue – so what?

We are pointing to schools and identifying “winners” and “losers,” instead of providing targeted assistance to individual schools.

I was talking with a Principal:

“How are things going?”

“Not to well – I’ve been arguing with Tweed about my proposed Progress grade – without much success” 

“What’s the problem?”

“Our entering classes are almost all below standard in ELA and Math with a host of other issues – gang members, language deficits, poverty, the typical inner city issues … the school a few blocks away is a ‘limited, unscreened’ school – they pick their kids … almost all entering students are above standard  … and Joel lauds them with accolades and I’m told I might be removed …”

“Do your kids make progress?”

“Absolutely, but not enough … I think I’ll spring for breakfast for the staff on Monday … they’re going to be really depressed.”

This situation is occuring again and again in school after school around the city (see NYTimes)

There is no question that some schools have succeeded spectacularly in spite of all the odds. A highly supportive school district administration, the school leader, the teachers, a high level of collaboration among staff members, a climate of self-criticism, and, of course, adequate resources are the essential qualities (see Norm Fruchter, Urban Schools, Public Will  for examples in the real world).

Unfortunately too many schools are overwhelmed by the issues that confront families and spill over onto schools.

Progress Report grades, bonus pay for teachers, or for kids, are not answers.

In fact Tweed is perpetrating a cruel hoax. The hodgepodge that is Children First is a trompe d’ oil, an illusion.

An avalanche of data will not improve schools – it is simple educational three card monte.

“Have You No Sense of Decency,” Klein Picks a Role Model

 You’ve done enough, have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?

 Joseph Welch, Army-McCarthy Hearing, 1954

 

As the Klein regency inches toward sunset if must be wondering how it will be remembered. An idealist education reformer who changed the face of urban education? A tough and brave school leader who took on the unions and won? or, a modern day Joe McCarthy?

The Department secretly tape records opposing voices! keeps “secret” files on critics! leaks negatives to the media! uses surrogates to attack and demean!

Tweed is setting its own legacy by it’s disgraceful acts.

Diane Ravitch, a respected historian and author, an insider in government, college professor, and lately a blogger at Education Week and a frequent commenter on the New York and national education scene. An initial support of Bloomberg, Klein and mayoral control she has increasing become a critic.

The Klein approach: use a high profile surrogate to trash Ravitch in a NY Post op ed piece . The response has been fast and vigorous, from the UFT Edwize blog, to the Manhattan Instituter Sol Stern to Ravitch’s own response.

The reauthorization of No Child Left Behind has been the subject of vigorous debate from across the range of opinions: unions, think tanks, superintendents, researchers, everyone has an opinion. An example of vigorous, ofttimes passionate public debate … the essence of a healthy democracy.

Organizations across the city are beginning to discuss mayoral control. The teacher’s union and the City Council have established Task Forces. Public hearing are in the offing. Many State legislators have rethought their initial support …

Rather than join the debate Klein has chosen to emulate the late Senator from Wisconsin and wave his fictional “list” of “communists.”