It seems the "shit has hit the fan" as the New York Post has focused in on the fraudulent graduation rate, with a four day expose of the lengths some schools will take to graduate academically unprepared students, just to improve their graduation rate. The recipient of this media attack is Mayor Bill de Blasio and his disappointing Chancellor, Carmen Farina and deservingly so. However, what the Post deliberately failed to mention is that the bogus graduation rate was based upon the Bloomberg era policies that Chancellor Joel Klein implemented. It was Mayor Bloomberg and his Chancellors that allowed schools to "game the system" by giving "credit recovery" courses that violated State law and in far too many cases graduated academically unprepared students for the adult world. Here are just some of these examples. Here, Here, and Here. Back in June of 2009 Marc Epstein wrote an article in the City Journal that exposed the Bloomberg/Klein agenda to graduate academically unprepared students titled "Not Worth The Paper...". All of these outrageous actions occurred under Mayor Bloomberg and that was just the tip of the iceberg on the bogus means the DOE allowed just to improve the graduation rates. Yet the news media has conveniently ignored all this and blames Mayor de Blasio and Chancellor Carmen Farina for this.
I also blame the Mayor and Chancellor for the academic fraud and the bogus graduation rate. However, I blame them for their failure to eliminate the Bloomberg era policies that have resulted in the continuation of the academic fraud throughout the New York City public schools. In particular the Chancellor has retained many of the Bloomberg policymakers in Tweed and her only major changes she has made were he elimination of the useless and money sucking "Children First Networks" (CFN) and requiring new Leadership Academy Principals to have a minimum of 5 years of classroom experience, both the creation of her nemesis, Eric Nadelstern. Interestingly, many of the CFN staff found positions at the Borough Support Centers or the newly empowered Superintendent office. Therefore, the very people who "aided and abetted" the schools in their academic fraud, will be in similar positions in directing school administrators on how to continue to "beat the system" at the expense of a student's education.
Should Carmen Farina be fired as Chancellor of the New York City schools as the NY Post has demanded? The answer is yes because of her failure to eliminate the Bloomberg policies and managers that allowed the academic fraud to make many high school diplomas a worthless piece of paper.
6 comments:
It's too bad, too. deBlasio was elected on the understanding that the public wanted to get away from many things Bloomberg. They've changed very little about the school system. And, sorry UFT leadership, a nicer "tone" is not enough.
Wanna hear a funny one? I am an ATR. I applied for many jobs, as I do every year. I never even get an interview, and I have never gotten a bad rating, teaching almost 2 decades. A principal actually told me the DOE gave her a list to choose an applicant from, of course ATRs werent on that list.
Fire Farina? If de Blasio had vetted her, la abuela would have stayed retired.
During her honeymoon stage as the new Chancellor the New York Times referred to "her hands-on and blunt management style, one that propelled her rise in the Education Department." ("New York Schools Chancellor Honed Blunt Style Over 40 Years," January 14, 2014)
Apparently, neither the Times nor de Blasio was aware of OSI's damaging 2005 report on her alleged cover-up of Regents cheating at the Cobble Hill School of American Studies when she was Region 8 Superintendent.
In brief, Farina's Local Instructional Superintendent, an old pal named Kathy Pelles, told OSI that she never informed Farina of the Cobble Hill scandal.
Naturally, OSI inquired how this "hands-on" Super disciplined her rogue LIS for senselessly keeping her in the dark. Read this OSI excerpt and you will understand why Farina cannot be trusted to clean up the DOE:
"This investigator asked Ms. Farina if she spoke to Ms. Pelles after she realized that Ms. Pelles had failed to inform her about the cheating at Cobble Hill while she was Regional Superintendent. Ms. Farina was also asked if she spoke to Ms. Pelles about her failure to follow standard operating procedure, which Ms. Farina said, required reporting tampering allegations to O.S.C.I. and the state. Ms. Farina said that she did not call Ms. Pelles for an explanation. She said, 'I was at Tweed. I was not her superior.'”
That the media has exposed the malfeasance and failed to place the blame on the architect of the policies that created the fraud is unfortunate. Of course those in the public schools know all too well that Bloomberg and his confederates initiated the bogus policies and were left untouched by the scandals. Bloomberg's financial reach kept honest reporting far away from exposing the corruption now being brought to the public eye. However you are quite correct in blaming DeBlasio and Farina for their failure to address and expose such policies. Their silence and comments trying to avert responsibility offers no excuse they are complicit and Farina should be fired. As for the mayor his reelection will be determined by his policies a major policy decision to salvage the so called renewal schools has little to no chance of success is the same tires retreads are placed in charge of educational policy.
Deblasio talked a big game when he was elected with changes that were going to happen. But, behind the scenes, it is Bloomberg and the rich ed reformers that still is a powerful influence over the policy/decision making of the DOE-and the the NYSED-and thus very little has changed.
Billy D has been a big disappointment, in terms of his handling of Mayoral control of the schools. As another poster commented, he promised big changes, but nothing has changed. Many of the Bloomberg policies are still in place, carried out by La Senora, Carmen Farina.
Sad to say, I voted for Billy D, based on what he said he would do. Won't make the same mistake next time.
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