The Inconvenient Truth About Charter Schools That The Education Deformers Don't Want The Public To Know

After watching Oprah Winfry fawning over "Waiting for Superman" and how the show blames the teacher unions for why schools don't work. They had a panel of ed deformers like Bill Gates, Michelle Rhee, and the maker of "Waiting for Superman" that was simply a teacher bashing session and a Charter school lovefest. Randi Weingraten was seen on a videotape and gave her usual wishy-washy defense of the system and was a weak counterbalance to the education deformers. While these education deformers were quick to blame teacher tenure they failed to explain that it is the Principal that grants tenure. If the teacher is that bad then why did the Principal grant that teacher tenure? It is time to expose these education deformers for what they really are, elitists that want to pick and choose students while demanding money from the public trough. Let's look at the issues the education deformers don't want the public to know.

Class Size Matters

Too many educators the most important criteria for improving academic achievement is class size. However, the education deformers ignore class size because they know that Charter schools usually have much lower class sizes than the public schools. In New York City class sizes are the largest in the State and rising, thanks to an underhanded secret deal between Chancellor Joel Klein and New York State Education Commissioner Stiener to allow for an increase in New York City Public School class size despite money that was to be used to lower class sizes under the C4E lawsuit in 2007. An article by the Daily News Juan Gonzalez tell how the City used the money to reduce class size into a Tweed slush fund is a must read.

Great Teachers

The education deformers are always preaching how the children need "great teachers". However, the latest studies show that it takes eight years for a teacher to reach their peak and at least three to five years for a teacher to master the classroom. However, many of the Charter schools are populated by the "two year wonders" Teach For America non-certified novices. They never stay long enough to be a "great teacher" . The high teacher turnover rate at Charter schools is another dirty little secret that the education deformers want to hide from the public.

Great Parents

Great parents are the most important criteria for academic success for students. Is it any surprise that solidly middle class areas, where the parents expect there children to do well academically, no Charter schools exist? To ignore the parent factor is downright disingenuous and just plain wrong. Here Charter schools do have an advantage since parents who don't monitor their child's academic progress are unlikely to apply to a Charter school or spend the hours required to volunteer their services. Only those parents who want to take the extra effort to ensure academic success for their child are part of the Charter School.

Student Selection Process

Remember, to get into a Charter School the parent or guardian actually has to file an application and in many Charter schools the parent and child must go through an interview process before being accepted. Furthermore, the Charter schools are reluctant to take "English Language Learners" and Special Education students. The few that are accepted in the Charter Schools usually have a very mild case of either language or disability and can be placed in a regular classroom setting with littleor no additional services. In communities where Charter schools are located the neighborhood Public School have a much greater percentage of "English Language Learners" and Special Education students.

Student Attendance & Discipline

Many students who have either attendance or discipline problems are consoled out of the Charter school if they slipped through the interview process. The Charter school will encourage the parent to remove the student and enroll him into the Public School claiming they have the resources to handle the problem. Moreover, if the child starts to fall behind academically, the Charter school will push that student out of the school before the critical testing period. Consequently, the Charter school's test scores and graduation rates are highly suspect.

Segregation

The majority of Charter schools have a homogeneous population and would appear to violate the 1954 Supreme Court ruling of Brown vs. The Board of Education. However, education deformers seem oblivious to this segregation based on race, gender, and culture. How they get away from this is that the Charter schools have big money supporting them (Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, hedge funds, Barack Obama, etc) and ignore the apparent violation of the 1954 Supreme Court ruling.

When these education deformers tell you how great the Charter schools are. Please bring up this article and show them how not only is it not true but that every public dollar that is given to the elitists who run the Charter schools take away needed funding to the Public School system.

DOE Incompetence Rules As Few Reassigned Teachers Are Placed In Schools And Most Have No Work To Do

It has happened again. Tweed has reneged on the latest "rubber room agreement" and refused to send reassigned teachers to schools. Instead, Tweed has dumped reassigned teachers randomly in DOE offices throughout the City. While it seemed that most of the teachers charged with incompetence were sent to their local CFN offices, the rest seemed to have been sent by the first letter of their last name. For example If the reassigned teacher had a last name starting with G,H,I, or J, they were sent to one place. While the reassigned teachers that has a last name starting with C were sent to a different DOE office. Unbelievable!

In some cases teachers from the Bronx and Staten Island were assigned to a place in Long Island City while Queens teachers were sent to downtown Brooklyn. Furthermore, the apparent haphazard nature of who goes where suggests that the DOE waited to the last minute to assign these teachers and little though was given to geographic considerations. For example two teachers from the same school who were accused of misconduct were sent to two different locations. One lives close to Long Island City and is only a 10 minute train ride to the DOE office while the other lives in Bayside and is only a ten minute drive to the DOE offices in Flushing. Instead the idiots at Tweed put the person near Long Island City to Flushing and it takes her over an hour to take two trains and a bus to arrive at the Flushing site. While the person at Bayside takes 75 minutes to arrive at her DOE office in Long Island City. You might think that the DOE did this purposely. No, they are not intelligent enough for that. It is simply DOE incompetence that has caused this mess.

While a few reassigned teachers have some limited work to do, the majority were told to stay in their work area and don't cause trouble since the hasty reassignment process did not account for these teachers actually doing any work. In one location teachers are sitting at a conference table with nothing to do Many others are at desks and given no or "make work assignments" and this is probably the rule. Why many of these teachers were not sent to schools is beyond me and why has the union not protested this apparent violation of the April agreement? Closing the "rubber rooms" was a good idea but making mini "rubber rooms" and scattering teachers to the far ends of the City without defined assignments was not the intention of this agreement. To my union, why was the needs of the reassigned teacher not taken in account and what are you doing about it?

The Story Of Ebony & Ivory - In The Bizarro World Of The DOE, Settlements Are Made With "Bad Teachers" Who Are Threats To The Students And Staff

Some teachers may object to this post because it seems to give credence to the DOE perverted philosophy that teachers who are reassigned, ATRs, and advocates are "bad teachers". However, the truth be told there are some "bad teachers" out there. This article is about two of these "bad teachers" who were not only kicked out of their schools but caused trouble at the reassignment center. These two teachers, despite their terrible behavior, were incredibly given very lenient settlement terms by the DOE legal services and were sent to unsuspecting schools where they will be doing more damage to both the students and staff by their behaviors. By contrast some of the "great teachers" who were sent to the reassignment center on frivolous and embellished charges were either offered harsh settlement terms or have elected to go through their 3020-a hearings.

To understand the sense of injustice and hypocrisy by the bizarre DOE legal services you need to understand the behaviors of these two individuals. Let's call them Ebony and Ivory.

Ebony was a very disrupted influence at the reassignment center. She, time and again got into arguments with both other teachers and the site supervisor. It was a monthly occurrence for her to call the police on the most frivolous of incidents. She was always insubordinate to the site supervisor and refused to follow the rules that other reassigned teachers followed. Ebony had previously finished a 3020-a and for some reason was not placed in a school' However, she caused so much trouble at the reassignment center that the DOE filed new 3020-a charges based upon her behavior at the reassignment center and yes she received two consecutive unsatisfactory ratings while at the reassignment center. This person's dangerous behavior would make you believe that this is the type of teacher who the DOE would never settle with. Guess again, the DOE settled with Ebony for a small fine and a course thereby exposing the poor students of the unsuspecting school she is assigned to.

Ivory was a troublemaker from day one. She has a bad habit of disappearing for long periods of time and was known to show up to punch in and come back at checkout time. She accused many of the males of making inappropriate advances and sexual remarks, including the union representative and the site supervisor. She also called the police on occasion for imaginary actions directed against her and was herself arrested for threatening another teacher with a sharp object. A month did not go by without Ivory getting a disciplinary hearing on her time and attendance issues or her behavior. As you can guess she also received two consecutive "unsatisfactory ratings while reassigned. Ivory is a threat to everybody that are exposed to her and yes, just like Ebony, Ivory settled with the DOE for a small fine and a class. Just unbelievable!

How bizarre, the DOE tries to terminate "great teachers" while settling with "bad teachers" who are threats to the students, staff, administrators, and themselves. Go figure.

Why Bloomberg Will Eventually Give The Teachers The "City Pattern".

As many of you know the City has imposed a pay freeze on teachers and Bloomberg has insisted that the pay freeze was necessary so as to not to lay off the untenured, "newbie teachers". The pride and joy of Chancellor Joel Klein and his non-educators. However, the problem Bloomberg will have in keeping the pay freeze in place is that the City will find itself in a weak position when it goes to the PERB arbitrators sometime before the end of the year. Let's look why the City is going to have a tough time convincing PERB that the teachers should not get two 4% raises for this year and next.

The "City Pattern"

Since the 1970's both sides had to follow the "City Pattern" and any variation of it must be agreed to by both sides. Time and again the unions tried to break the "City Pattern" only to be told by the City that the "City Pattern" is the basis for all contracts and this has been upheld time and again by PERB. Now the Bloomberg Administration wants to break the "City Pattern" by claiming it has a budget crises. This will hold little water with the majority of the three person PERB arbitrators who will question the City on why as the recession deepened they gave Local 237 a contract based upon the "City Pattern" in August of 2009 and many more unions followed. It is safe to say the City's reasons for not giving the teachers the "City Pattern" is suspect and at best very weak.

The PBA:

The police have time and again tried to get PERB to break the "City Pattern" only to be told by PERB that they must abide by the "City Pattern" as long as the City uses it as the basis for all negotiated contracts. Just think if Bloomberg rejects the PERB arbitrators decision to follow the "City Pattern" what the police will do on their next contract? They can show PERB that the City rejected the "City Pattern" and can demand that the City lost their right to hide behind the "City Pattern" in the contract demands. If PERB agrees, the police can expect a significant pay raise since they are extremely underpaid con pared to the Metropolitan Area. Therefore, it would be very dangerous and foolhardy for Bloomberg to reject the PERB recommendation.

Additional Education Funds:

The City is expecting a windfall of 446 million dollars from the federal government that was not accounted for in the budget. Certainly the 206 million dollars from the edujobs bill can be used to hire teachers and pay teacher salaries. While the 226 million dollars from the RTTT can be used for classroom resources, teacher training, and additional programs for the schools. I guarantee you that PERB will take this into account in their decision making process.

Economic Recovery:

The worst of the recession ended in March of 2009 and the economic fallout ended in April of 2010. While the economic recovery has been somewhat anemic, it is still improving and Wall Street has resumed hiring. Therefore, the City can expect an improvement in the tax base and increased funding for the next budget. However, if you listen to Bloomberg, more budget cuts and layoffs may be necessary. Bloomberg always low balls the budget and this is not surprising and the union will let PERB know that.

Conclusion: Look for PERB to recommend the "City Pattern" with adjustments. While the PERB recommendation is non-binding, it provides political cover for both sides and is the basis for a final contract. Look for the teachers to get a contract by the end of the school year

The DOE Imposes A "Divide & Conquer" Policy For Reassigned Teachers As They Violate The "Rubber Room Agreement" And Make Mini "Rubber Rooms" .

Well our wonderful union leaders have done it again. They negotiate an agreement with Tweed only to find that the DOE violates the agreement. Is it any surprise that the DOE has failed to live up to their responsibilities in the "rubber room agreement". The agreement was to close down the "rubber rooms" and to clean out the 650 reassigned teachers. Many of these teachers would be sent to schools to do circular 6 duties. Well, well, it turns out that no reassigned teachers are to be sent to the schools. Instead the reassigned teachers will be sent to the different DOE offices which appears to have been designated based upon the accusations charged against the teacher. For example all incompetence charged teachers go to one site while all teachers who had SCI investigations that were subject to "probable cause" go to another site and so on and so on. In other words the DOE has taken a page out of history were narrow-minded and bigited authorities would mark people with a scarlet letter such as adulterer or in Nazi regimes a Star of David It does not matter whether the charges are true or not, to the DOE it is all about the charges against the teachers that determine where they will be assigned.

The question is did the union know that the DOE changed the rules? I suspect they did know, dispute their protests to the contrary. How could the union not know that the DOE had no intention of sending reassigned teachers to schools? What was even worse was the chaos at Long Island City where not only did the 650 reassigned teachers report to to get their DOE office locations but also showing up were teachers who either had their cases settled or went through their 3020-a hearings but were not cleared by the inept DOE staff to be ATRs. What did these people at 65 Court Street do all summer? The DOE personnel who were at Long Island City seemed to be at a loss to answer questions and were scrambling to tell these teachers which Children First Networks they needed to go to. As for the UFT representatives on hand, they were more interested in handing out union leaflets then advocating for the teachers in the chaotic conditions at Long Island City.

The result is that the DOE appears to have succeeded in their "divide and conquer" effort by eliminating the hotbed of information and advocacy that was used to better prepare reassigned teachers on what's ahead for them in the reassignment process. The result is that these teachers will be at the mercy of the UFT special representative who serves the interests of the union and not the reassigned teacher.

Whatever the union was a willing partner in what the DOE has done by making mini "rubber rooms" and keeping the reassigned teachers in the dark about their placement until the last minute, thereby resulting in the chaos at Long Island City is anybody's guess. It remains to be seen if the union will ever stand up for their reassigned members or is this just another example of the DOE fooling the UFT yet again.

What Are Mayor Bloomberg's Real Reasons Not To Use The Federal Money In This School Year.

Now that Mayor Bloomberg has stated that he does not intend to use the federal money until the 2011 - 2012 school year. The question is why? Shouldn't he be using the money to replace the 2,000 teachers who have left the system as was intended? Instead he is allowing class sizes to increase. In addition, an additional 18,000 students are expected into the school system meaning even higher class sizes and more overcrowding. The Mayor claimed in a Town Hall meeting in Forest Hills that he does not want to release the funds to the schools because he might have to layoff the teachers next years if the City's economic recovery does not materialize. What hypocrisy! You take the 206 million dollars from the federal government and hire the 2,000 teachers needed to replace the teachers that left the system as well as additional teachers to adequately service the influx of students coming into the NYC Public Schools. That is why Congress passed the edujobs bill. Instead he refuses to use the Federal money as intended, why? Well here are some possible answers.

City Budget Shenanigans:
First, Michael Bloomberg's actions appear reminiscent to what our previous Mayor , Rudolph Gulliani did. He would wait to see how much State & Federal fund increases he would get for the New York City Schools and reduce the City school budget by a corresponding amount. Since the City already has completed their budget for the 2010-2011 school year. The use of the increased federal money would give the New York City Schools a windfall (as intended) since the City could not reduce the already approved school budget. By delaying the use of the Federal funds to the 2011-2012 school year he can adjust next year's porpoised budget by reducing the City's contribution for the New York City Schools.

Teacher Hiring & Salaries:
Second, the Federal funds can be used both to hire teachers and to pay for salary increases. This could be a major reason for Mayor Bloomberg not allocating the money this year. Since the Teachers contract negotiations are now frozen and being overseen by a PERB mediator, the influx of Federal money would weaken the City's case of salary freezes for the teachers. Furthermore, by freezing hiring of teachers, the City can show that the financial situation in the City is bleak and they cannot afford raises to existing teachers. Therefore, the 2,000 teachers lost to attrition will not be replaced even when this will cause an increase in already large class sizes.

Politics:
Third, there is little doubt that New York City politics plays a major role here. It is very obvious that both the Mayor and Chancellor wants to see more Charter Schools (preferably non-union), little outside input, and top down unaccountable management Furthermore, they want unquestioned control of the Federal funds without any oversight. Therefore, the attack om teacher seniority and tenure and their continued ignoring of parent concerns.

What does Mayor Bloomberg want? Total control of the New York City Schools and if that means hurting the children, so be it. It is "children last" for Mayor Bloomberg's and Chancellor Klein's priorities when it comes to education. Please read Leonie Hamison's article to see the hypocrites from a parent's perspective.

Where's The Money The City Received From The Feds For Reducing Class Sizes, Hiring More Teachers, And Reinstating Our Pay Raise?

In August, New York State received two windfalls. First, was the Congress approved the edujobs bill that gave the State 622 million dollars, with the City receiving 204 million, based upon previous allocation scenarios. The second, New York State is receiving 696 million dollars from RTTT, with the City getting 240 million dollars. All the money is restricted to the classrooms and schools and can be used to lower class size, rehire (or in this case replace the 2,000 teachers who left the system in June) and for teacher salaries, including raises. However, on September 1st, the City has shown no inclination of doing any of the three appropriate uses for the approximately $446 million dollar windfall. The question becomes where will the money go to?

If history is any indication, look for Tweed to use the money on questionable uses that will benefit the central bureaucracy over the schools and students they claim to care about. Remember this? The lack of transparency at the DOE will have to be eliminated to ensure that Tweed uses the money for the schools as intended

What is most disturbing is that the union has not put the Administration's feet to the fire by demanding that the money be spent on the classroom and now. However, from our union there is just deafening silence about replacing the 2,000 teachers, lower class size, and the teacher pay raises. Why? Is our union making more secret deals with the Bloomberg/Klein Administration to screw the members? Will the union abandon the ATRs? Will the union allow all reassigned teachers to be suspended without pay? Maybe they will allow principals to ignore tenure and seniority in hiring and excessing decisions? While I highly doubt it, it is very disappointing that the union has not demanded that the money be used for their intended uses.

I hope I'm wrong but something smells here and it smell real bad.

Chancellor Joel Klein Refuses To Face The Truth. All His Efforts To Narrow The Racial & Income Achievement Gap Has Failed.

Chancellor Joel Klein is simply amazing. Despite what the facts are he manages to spin them to show how well he and the mayorlife, Michael Bloomberg have improved education in the New York City Public Schools. What a joke and a lie to boot. Now despite all the data coming out of the 2010 tests the Chancellor falsely claims that that he has made progress. Progress? according to the Daily News the income achievement gap actually widened! Who is lying to who? Maybe we should be calling Joel Klein the lying Chancellor.

Even after the State data showed that New York City failed in closing the academic achievement gap and the DOE claims being universally panned by education critics and supporters alike, the lying Chancellor wrote an article for the New York Post that was addressed to parents about how they have raised the academic standards and closed the achievement gap. Unbelievable! Of course he really cannot use the New York State or Federal data to show proof of his claims but he does not care. As Joseph Goebbels stated "If you tell a big lie often enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually believe it". When the data does not support your case either ignore it or blame it on others. Remember, it was back in March of 2009 when the lying Chancellor said this:

he New York City schools chancellor, Joel I. Klein who introduced the findings at the National Press Club in Washington, said the study vindicated the idea that the root cause of test-score disparities was not poverty or family circumstances, but subpar teachers and principals.

Yes, he blamed it on the teachers and principals not on his failed education policy. The New York Times included the Chancellor's statement in their write up of the McKinsey & Company report. I previously wrote about this before here. Well, as far as I am concerned, the Bloomberg/Klein education policy is a failure and no matter how much spinning of statistics and lying comes out of the two non-educators, the bottom line is the lying Chancellor deserves a failing grade on his report card. Furthermore, evidence in his failure to close the achievement gap is shown in the latest composite ACT data, published by Anna Phillips of Gotham News which show that the increase in ACT scores came primarily from White and Asian students while Black and Hispanic students showed little change since 2005. In fact, Black and Hispanic students failed the college-readiness benchmarks in all four academic areas that serve to determine whether a student needs remedial college courses. This is the same as in 2005 and shows no progress at all. In all fairness I must add that my fellow blogger JD2718 rightly questioned the student sample of the composite ACT test and the conclusions based on that sample for New York City students and is a must read here. However, this article is about the achievement gap and not about testing protocols. Therefore, the composite ACT test still is valid for this purpose and shows the large achievement gap and even demostrates a widening of it in the last five years.

Since the New York State RTTT requires evaluations based upon student testing, then based upon the terrible 2010 results, the Chancellor's report card is a "F" and he should be rated "ineffective".

Why Is Al Sharpton Quiet About Klein & Bloomberg's Documented Failure To Close The Racial Achievement Gap Despite Their Bogus Claims To Have Done So?

I am very interested to hear from Al Sharpton on the failure of Chancellor Joel Klein & Mayor Michael Bloomberg's claim to have narrowed the racial achievement gap since they took over the running of the NYC Public Schools in 2002. Presently, the usually outspoken Al Sharpton has been strangely quiet about the disastrous conclusions coming out of the New York State tests for 2010 and the NAEP results. Could it be about the apparently close interaction between Al Sharpton and the DOE as identified in the New York City Public School Parents blog? It was back in the Spring of 2009 that the same blog question the motives of the man when Al Sharpton joined forces with Joel Klein to form the Education Equity Project. This project was to further narrow the achievement gap, instead the latest numbers have found that the narrowing of the achievement gap is simply "smoke and mirrors". If anything the racial achievement gap has widened! Al Sharpton should be outraged, instead there is just deafening silence from him, why?

Black Males Graduation Rates and 8th Grade Reading Levels:

First, let's look at what has happened to black males, an alleged top priority for Al Sharpton in the New York City Public Schools. According to the Schott Foundation Of Public Education report, the graduation rate for Black males was a dismal 28% (Whites had a 50% graduation rate). This put New York City near the bottom of the lowest preforming large metropolitan areas for black male graduation rates. The black male graduation rate for New York City was the same as the troubled public school systems as Philadelphia, and New Orleans. While only 9% of the black males read at grade level which is actually less than a 10% rate back in 2003. The article about the report was summarized by the New York daily News and can be found here.

Racial Achievement Gap Fails To Narrow:

The latest information shows that under Bloomberg & Klein the racial achievement gap has failed to narrow since they took over. The composite reading scores of third to eighth grades, Blacks were 30% below their White counterparts and in Math 35% below. The New York Times reported these terrible results here. According to NY1, the racial achievement gap is as wide as back in 2002, when Bloomberg & Klein took control of the New York City schools. In fact The Daily News claimed the achievement gap actually widened between the rich and poor students.

New York State Test Scores Showed The Greatest Declines Among Minority Students & Schools:

Gotham Schools printed the top and bottom 15 middle schools, based upon the New York State tests and one thing was very obvious. The top schools had a substantial population of White and Asian students while the bottom 15 was made up of Black and Hispanic students. Furthermore, the minority based schools like PS 85 in the Bronx saw one of the more dramatic reversals seeing their third grade passing rate going from 81% passing in Math to 18% passing.

Klein Starves The Schools Of Funds While Increasing The Headcount At Tweed:

Finally, Al Sharpton has not commented on how the schools have been starved for funds (a 12% cutback in the last two years) while Tweed just increases their headcount of non-educators. Furthermore, where is Al Sharpton's outrage when Joe Klein tried an ill-advised and immoral procedure to get rid of an Autistic program to help one of Bloomberg's hedge fund founders to expand the exclusive Charter School that shares the building.


Then again Al Sharpton is really a politician and wants what is best for him and not what is best for the community he is supposed to represent.

Will The Closing Of Neighborhood High Schools In New York City Result In Increasing Violence To Students Like In Chicago?

I was watching NBC's Dateline on the violence perpetrated on teenagers, especially high school students. Shockingly, one of the primary reasons for the increased violence was the closing of many of the neighborhood high schools in Chicago, requiring students to travel long distances to other schools that may be in the territory of a rival gang. The result has been increased violence against these students and even homicide. In Chicago there were 280 major attacks on students and 32 homicides. The Chicago police believe that the violence wold be less if the students stayed in their own neighborhood but with so many high schools closed, more students are required to travel further away from the safety of their neighborhood to attend school. While the Superintendent of Schools claims that this is not true, the police, and parents of attacked students feel differently.

Now travel to New York City where the DOE wants to follow the example of Chicago in a mass closing of neighborhood high schools (19 were slated for closing until the courts stopped the DOE). Just like in Chicago, the replacement schools will limit the amount of "at risk" students to the schools and usually has a total school population of less than half of the closed school. This requires many students to travel long distances to get to the few schools who accept them. Since this means traveling into other neighborhoods and yes, different gangs in that neighborhood, what do you think will happen? Yes more violence.

For example, one of the high schools slated to close is in a "Crips neighborhood". One of the few schools who will take the "at risk" students from the closing school is located in a "Bloods neighborhood". I'm sure you can figure out what will happen in and out of the school as the students travel long distances into enemy territory. However, just like Chicago, the DOE has seemed to ignore that inconvenient problem and are closing their collective minds to the potential upsurge in student violence due to the closing of the neighborhood schools. Will it take a Dateline story to release that closing the neighborhood high schools just puts those students at greater risk to gang violence but then again it is not about the students but just part of Tweed's "children last" policy.

Are Principals Hiding Vacancies? It Certainly Appears So.

I have spoken to many ATRs and have myself gone on the Open Market Transfer System (OMTS) and was appalled by the lack of positions, especially in shortage areas. What made me suspicious was that I have a friend who is a Chapter Leader and the Principal came to him about a hard-to-fill vacancy. I looked on the OMTS and it was not listed! Now I read where Principal Ramon Gonzales of MS 223 in the South Bronx has hired four "newbie teachers", once the hiring freeze was lifted, claiming that the 40 ATRs (yes, 40) he interviewed did not meet his exacting standards (young, cheap, and untenured). How many other principals are doing the same? Now I hear many Brooklyn principals have quietly started to offer positions that appeared to be hidden during the OMTS. If true? Why didn't the union or Tweed put a stop to it?

It is just a matter of time before the citywide hiring freeze will be lifted and I will not be surprised to see many new vacancies appearing that were not available during the OMTS period and are only for "newbie teachers". Somebody (our union?) should be doing an in depth investigation on how the teacher vacancies were advertised and who filled them. I am sure the investigation will find a pattern on who was hired if they look hard enough.

The post by my fellow blogger "Accountable Talk" is a must read and further explains what may happen to the ATRs in the future. While I am more optimistic then Mr. Talk, I can't say his scenario is not possible, if unlikely. Just the fact it could happen is more about our lack of union leadership and activism and less about Tweed when it comes to the ATRs. We all know what Tweed wants but do we know what our union leadership really wants when it comes to the members?

Chancellor Joel Klein Should Be Sent To Jail For His Actions Against The Most Vulnerable Of Children In His "Children Last" Policy.

The actions of that bully, Chancellor Joel Klein, just gets worse when it comes to the New York City Public Schools. Now the Chancellor has sided with an exclusive Charter School, founded by wealthy hedge fund managers, and giving them more school space at the expense of the autistic program, the most vulnerable of the children in the school system.

The Chancellor has invoked his emergency powers to overrule the State Department of Education decision not to expanded the Charter School, Girls Preparatory Charter School at PS 94. He falsely stated that he used his "emergency powers" to protect the health, welfare, and general safety of the Charter School students (how is this true?) while ignoring the more needy and vulnerable autistic students at PS 94.The Chancellor's rationale for invoking his "emergency powers" is just a blatant example of his abusing his powers to protect the billionaire hedge fund managers that support the Charter School at the expense of the special education program at PS 94. The NYC Public School Parents Blog wrote an excellent article on the interconnecting of all the big players in the NYC Charter School support group that led to the Chancellor's decision to use (abuse) his "emergency powers" in this case. The New York Times also had a good article on the wealthy founders of the Charter School.

The Chancellor's continued contempt of parental input is obvious here as the parents of the autistic students could not get an audience with him about the elimination of the program. Interestingly, only the DOE media mouthpiece, the New York Daily News editorial staff (Pravda) supported the Chancellor's abuse of power.

While the Chancellor really cannot be put in jail for abusing the use of his "emergency powers" his judgement against the autistic students is morally wrong and the State should have a hearing on the Chancellor's decision. Furthermore, the parents should file civil charges against the Chancellor for his picking on the school system's most vulnerable students, the autistic children.

The Chancellor's actions only show that it is the "privileged children first" and the rest of the public school students last. For the public school students it is always "children last" when it comes to the Chancellor and his non-educator cronies.

New York City To Get $200 Million To Hire Teachers. Will They? Not If Tweed Is Given Total Control Of the Money.

The United States Senate has passed a bill that will add 600 million dollars to New York State to rehire or save 7,100 teaching jobs. New York City should receive about 200 million of the funds, much of it earmarked for teacher hiring, and this should allow the City to replace the over 2,000 teachers who have let the school system due to attrition. Further, it puts to rest Mayor Bloomberg's faulty connection of freezing teacher raises to avoid layoffs. In addition, the added money will allow the City to reduce class sizes and add school programs slated for elimination. However, this is the Department Of Education (DOE) where their priorities are not what is best for the schools or students but what is best for Tweed. Furthermore, who will oversee the funding to ensure the money will be spent properly?

During Chancellor Joel Klein's Administration there has been a lack of transparency and accountability in giving out taxpayer money. For example, the New York State Comptroller wrote a scathing report that showed that during the three year period ending on June 30, 2008 the DOE issued an astounding 291 no-bid contracts worth 342.5 million dollars in apparent violation of the City contracting requirements. Furthermore, can we really forget about Tweed hiring a $374,000 thousand dollar hypnotherapist last year? Now the City will be getting a $200 million dollar shot in the arm for hiring teachers. However, given the history of Tweed, how can we be sure the money will go for it's intended use? To allow Tweed to determine the use of the money, without oversight, is like allowing the fox into the chicken coop!

To me, the money the City receives for education should be tracked by an independent agency to ensure all the money is being used for the intended purpose, that is to hire teachers. To allow the Bloomberg Administration to give Tweed total control of the funds will probably result in the funds not being used to add teachers to the school system but to add to the headcount at Tweed, or fund more unnecessary high priced consultants, and useless programs. Based on Tweed's past actions it is a very bad idea for the Klein Administration to handle the funds without stringent oversight.

It Is Time To "Drain The Swamp" Of Non-Educators And Unecessary Programs At Tweed.

As a very interested observer and victim of the bizarre priorities of those non-educators that inhabit the leadership positions at Tweed as they practice their ongoing "children last" program. It is time that the real educators take back the Department of Education (DOE) and let teachers teach that is best for their students. While the BloomKlein media mouthpieces, the New York Daily News and The New York Post, see no wrong with their destructive education policies, educators know better. Let's look at how Tweed has mismanaged the New York City public schools.

School budget cuts of 12% in the last two years while the headcount of the central bureaucracy actually sAW a 70% increase. Unbelievable! Many of the increases at Tweed were for high priced lawyers and managers at the expense of lower paid school aides and clerical staff at school support offices. In addition, there seems to be no end to the hiring of highly priced consultant services, using a no-bid contract program with little or no impact on the classroom. An example of this is the hiring of a new-age hypnotherapist for$374,000 dollars. South Bronx School also wrote about others, Here. Moreover, the increase in the vast amount of unnecessary paperwork that now forces teachers to spent most of their free time doing .

A taxpayer funded "Principal Leadership Academy" that produce inept and incompetent principals who have little or no classroom experience and in many cases never received tenure as a teacher in New York City!. An example of this is Principal Madonado-Rivera of Columbia Prep Secondary School who SCI identified as being responsible for the death of Nicole Suriel. Over this year alone, these "Leadership Academy principals" lack common sense Here, Here, and Here.

A "fair student funding" formula that only hurts the schools as it limits the hiring of experienced teachers and result in lower academic achievement. Furthermore, it forces principals to hire newbie teachers at the expense of classroom management and student discipline. Any Principal who hires an experienced teacher will have to reduce the school's budget in other areas.

Eliminate the Mayor controlled PEP and bring back an independent Board Of Education. Currently, whatever the Mayor and Chancellor want the PEP does and they are simply a rubber stamp for both of them. This travesty must end.

We really do need to "drain the swamp" by bringing the DOE back to the educators, parents, and students if we are to see real academic achievement.

The New York Daily News Editorial Board Is Simply A Propagana Outlet For The Bloomberg Administration When It Comes To Education

It is becoming increasingly obvious, even to education deformers, that the miracle of academic improvement in the Bloomberg years was really a mirage. Based on the national NAEP results, the gold standard for testing, there has been only a slight improvement in the 4th grade and little change for the 8th grade for reading (in fact NYC was dead last in 8th grade reading changes between 2003 to 2009 of all major cities) and the same goes for Math (However, there was no significant improvements since 2007 in either the Math or reading test results) Even our not-so-wonderful Mayor used doublespeak to explain his spin of continued academic improvement. Steve Koss had a insightful article in the New York City School Parents blog on the Mayor's s bumbling speech and it can be found at Gotham News. However, not all the media mouthpieces saw that the phony academic gains were really "smoke and mirrors" .

The New York Daily News Editorial Board ignored the New York State testing results and still claimed that the Bloomberg/Klein Administration has made great strides in the education of the city students and blaimed education critics like Dianie Ravitch for the problems in education. This is the second Daily News Editorial that has ignored the lies of the Bloomberg/Klein Administration and blamed others. In fact, the Daily News editorial actually blamed the education unions. They said the following:

"The kids didn't fail. They were failed by a hidebound, union-driven education establishment that tends to adults before children - and is only now starting to be called on its distorted priorities."

Nowhere in the editorial did it blame the Bloomberg Administration for the increased class sizes, starving of school budgets, lack of parent input, and expensive no-bid contracts or treating the children as widgets rather than individuals. Instead the blame is falsely laid on the Principal and Teacher unions, no one else.

The New York daily News Editorial Board's articles on education would be more appropriate during the time of the Soviet Union and their mouthpiece "Pravda", not in this country. Such narrow minded thinking of a newspaper thathides the truth is not what is needed in a democratic society and should be ignored simply as the propaganda tool for the Bloomberg Administration it is.

Mayor Bloomberg's & Chancellor Klein's "Big Lie" Of Academic Progress Is Exposed By The New York State Test Results.

The results of the 2010 New York State reading and math tests are in and the numbers are bad, really bad. The composite math passing rate declined to 54% passing from a 2009 figure of 82%. That is a whopping decline of 34%! Worse, was the composite reading passing grade declined to 42% from a 2009 rate of 69%, an unbelievable decline of 39%! Moreover, the Mayor and Chancellor's pride and joy, the Charter schools, had even worse results, with corresponding declines of 39% and 42% in math and reading respectively. These dismal academic numbers are a result of a more comprehensive testing protocol by the State and is in line with core academic skills recommended by Harvard Professor Daniel Koretz whose team found that the New York State tests were too easy and not comprehensive enough as a reliable indicator for academic proficiency.

Even the usually reliable Bloomberg & Klein media mouthpieces couldn't sugarcoat the terrible results. Here, Here, Here, and Here. However, the New York Post editorial did try to blame the State for the dismal test scores but also rightly questioned the academic gains the City claimed for the past four years. While the New York Daily News editorial gave the Administration a pass by falsely claiming that there was academic advancement. Where did they get that from? The NAEP which they have ignored for years and then cherry-picked the reading statistics. As well as the Math statistics. The question I have is now that the New York State test results show that the academic gains were an illusion, do all those "Leadership Academy Principals" get the real school grade they richly deserve? the answer is of course not. Already the DOE has said that the school grades will be marked on a curve. However, what is exposed is the Mayor's and Chancellor's "children last" policy which includes starving the schools of funds, increased class sizes, "education on the cheap" programs, an unfair strident funding formula, and misspent funds on non-classroom items. A must read is the article by Leonie Harrison "A Teachable Moment" that exposes Bloomberg and Klein for what they really are. Liars, and cheats when it comes to manipulating data to suit their propaganda. How about the City's claim of narrowing the achievement gap between white and black students? You guessed it. It is an illusion. The achievement gap actually widened from 17% last year to 34% this year, (41.3% between Asian and black students this year compared to 20% in 2009) which is the same as 2005. In fact, according to NY1, the racial academic achievement gap is as wide as it was before Mayor Bloomberg took over in 2002. More phony gains exposed as being an illusion. However, in a press conference with Chancellor Joel Klein, Mayor Bloomberg still claimed academic progress despite the numbers. Incredible, I guess Joseph Goebbels would be proud of how the Mayor and Chancellor continues to sell the "big lie" of academic progress hoping the public actually believes it. Now that the "big lie" of academic progress is now exposed, just ignore the data and continue claiming academic progress. Or maybe the Mayor and Chancellor were simply being Abbott and Costello when it comes to Math, considering how they manipulate statistics. To say the least, both the Mayor and Chancellor has a credibility problem and should be held accountable for their lies.

It is about time that the Administration's "children last" policy is exposed and shows that there has been no real academic improvement in the New York City Schools. It is time that educators regain control of the New York City schools if there are to be real academic progress for our children.

Update: Please read Juan Gonzalez's article about how the "kids are the big losers in the Mayor Bloomberg, Joel Klein School Test Scores Game". A must read.

Michelle Rhee Fires 241 Teachers Under The Randi Weingarten Negotiated Contract For The Washington D.C. Teachers.

Randi Weingarten has done it again. Another case of Randi Weingarten negotiating teacher tenure and due process out of the Washington D.C. teachers contract. The Washington Post reported that Chancellor Michelle Rhee has used the newly implemented contract negotiated by Randi Weingarten to fire 241 teachers or approximately 6% of the entire teaching force. In addition another 737 teachers were told they were "minimally effective" (sound familiar? Look here) and could be fired next year. That means an additional 15% of the teaching staff are in danger of being terminated. In the New York Times, their article further reported that Randi Weingarten was quoted as saying the following.

Randi called the chancellor’s “destructive cycle of hire, fire, repeat.”

“Evaluations should include a component of student learning, of course, but there also has to be teacher development and support,” Ms. Weingarten said. “It can’t just be a ‘gotcha’ system, like the one in D.C.”

I admit Randi talks a good game but it is the results that count. Just remember what Randi Weingarten did to us in the infamous 2005 contract and every time she negotiated with Joel Klein, the teachers suffered. How about the following? The "fair student funding" fiasco, recruitment over retention, the ATR and "rubber room" agreements, PIP+? Do I need to say more?

Randi is gone but not forgotten as her legacy that makes the NYC classroom an increasingly hostile environment and the teaching profession under continuous attack as creativity is no longer encouraged and a "one program fits all" is followed at the expense of the students.

In The New York City 3020-a Process The DOE Has The Home Field Advantage.

I have always maintained that the only time the teacher's side of a story in a disciplinary hearing will be heard in front of an independent hearing officer is at his or her 30o20-a hearing. The Arbitrator, paid by New York State, is appointed by both the DOE and the UFT for a one year period. Therefore, the Arbitrator is mindful that either side can remove the Arbitrator at the end of the one year contract. While the Arbitrator is usually well qualified and independent there is pressure for the Arbitrator to satisfy the two sides and "split the baby" when determining the "award" against the teacher. I have previously written about the 3020-a procedure Here, Here, Here, and Here. However, one item I or others have never brought out is unlike the New York State 3020-a process, the DOE enjoys a "home field advantage' since the New York City 3020-a hearings are held at the DOE's Office Of Legal Services building. This means that the DOE lawyers can call for a recess and make quick calls or get papers from their office while the teacher's attorney cannot do that. Furthermore, the Arbitrators are at the mercy of the DOE lawyers when it comes to access of materials that are only readily available to the DOE lawyers.

Yes, the Arbitrators will try to come up with a "fair" decision but it is like the Kansas City Royals playing all their games against the New York Yankees at "Yankee Stadium". How many of those games do you think Kansas City will win at Yankee Stadium? Not too many. Consequently, the DOE has a "home field advantage" against the teacher since the 3020-a hearings are being held at their own building.