I wouldn't want to hazard a guess as to what Joe Williams (of the horribly misnamed Democrats for Education Reform) set as his New Year's resolution, but he starts off the year with a post accusing New York City Councilman Robert Jackson of "pimping himself" (Jackson is also Chair of the City Council's Education Committee). Here's what Jackson said, that Joe Williams disagreed with.
[I hope this post proves interesting. It was written by Edwize blogger Jackie Bennett, and crossposted from Edwize.]
What is going to happen in our New York City high schools now that Joel Klein has based 55% of the high school progress reports on the number of courses students take and pass. Consider this: if students don't pass, the school's grade will suffer, and punishment may follow. Klein will fire principals and close the schools.
And to make things worse, Klein has also sent out signals that it's a good thing when schools find creative ways to give a student credit. For example, Klein instituted a policy of seat-time credit (credit recovery, as it's euphemistically called) wherein students who fail a class because they didn't do much work can hand in a project of some kind to a different teacher after the course is over, and have that grade reversed.
[I hope this post proves interesting. It was written by Edwize blogger Leo Casey, and previously posted on Edwize.]
On the Disney Company's corporate website, the reader will find a honor roll of teachers from across the United States who have been recognized by the American Teacher Awards, starting with the first class of 1990 and concluding with the last class of 2006. A close examination will reveal that there is no teacher listed as the 1992 honoree in the category of Social Studies. Two of the three Social Studies finalists are listed, but the teacher who was actually named Social Studies Teacher of the Year is missing.*
I am that missing teacher. My name disappeared some time after I organized a public letter, signed by twenty-five American Teacher Award honorees, protesting Disney's sponsorship of John Stossel's Stupid in America, an ideological broadside against public education and the teachers who labor in our public schools.
[I hope this post about education funding proves interesting. It was originally posted on Edwize and written by Edwize blogger Maisie.]
It took 13 years, but the Campaign for Fiscal Equity forced the state to start spending on poor children. After dickering while a whole generation of children passed through the school system, the state finally relented and allocated $7 billion in new education spending over the next four years. Real money. The possibility of real change.
So why does it feel as if nothing's changed--or it's changing in tiny increments? Where are the small class sizes? What's up with universal pre-K? Why aren't our middle schools restructured? What happened to serious mentoring of new teachers? And where are all the new school facilities?
[I hope this post proves interesting. It was written by Edwize blogger Leo Casey. This crosspost rearranges the original post for space considerations.]
The New York City Department of Education web site has had a dramatic facelift, with almost every new whistle and bell you could want.
Acting on behalf of its more than 1.4 million members, the AFT executive council on Wednesday endorsed Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination for president, citing her proven ability to advance our nation's key priorities, and her bold plans for a stronger America.
"Our members have told us that they want a leader they can trust to strengthen public education, increase access to health care, promote commonsense economic priorities and secure America's place in the world," said AFT president Edward J. McElroy. "Hillary Clinton is that leader."
Chris Bowers at Open Left calls it, "the biggest endorsement of the campaign for me so far."
I know AFT people, both the teachers and the organizers. They are friends, family and colleagues. They are smart, extremely hard working, and also very progressive. I trust the decisions they make. If they decide to endorse Hillary Clinton, that means a lot to me . . . The AFT endorsement of Hillary Clinton improves my image of Hillary Clinton.
[I hope this post about the changes to No Child Left Behind proposed by Congress proves interesting. It was originally posted on Edwize and written by Edwize blogger Maisie.]
Lest you think that the debate over reauthorizing No Child Left Behind is hard-to-follow/wonkish/a tempest-in-a-teapot or anything like that, note that Jonathan Kozol today entered his 76th day of a partial hunger strike over NCLB.
In protest over that law, Kozol, the widely-published, passionate advocate of educational equality, has taken himself into the realm of serious danger.
He's sick of NCLB. Mandating math and reading tests and punishing schools and students who do not meet their targets is "turning thousands of inner-city schools into Dickensian test-preparation factories," Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page quoted Kozol as saying. It has "dumbed down" school for poor, urban kids and created "a parallel curriculum that would be rejected out-of-hand" in the suburbs.
[I hope this post about the changes to No Child Left Behind proposed by Congress proves interesting. It was originally posted on Edwize and written by Edwize blogger Jackie Bennett in response to a New York Times editorial.]
Every corner of the educational community has protested the consequences of No Child Left Behind, including that the law has narrowed the curriculum and unfairly penalized schools already making progress.
In spite of that, an editorial in the NY Times defends the status quo. Referring to proposed NCLB revisions, the Times complains that the changes will "allow schools to mask failure in teaching crucial subjects like reading and math by giving them credit for student performance in other subjects."
Yet, just one paragraph earlier the Times has this to say: "Faced with poorly educated workers at home - especially in science - American companies are increasingly looking abroad."
[I hope this post on the recently-released Learning Environment Survey proves interesting. It was originally posted on Edwize and written by Edwize blogger CitySue.]
. . . those who attempt to explain them often do. The so-called Learning Environment Survey released by the city of New York is a case in point.
For teachers the results were gratifying. Nobody -- not even Mike the Master of Spin -- could do anything to diminish a statistically astounding 90 percent approval rate!
Curiously, although the DOE apparently wanted to know what parents thought about "the quality" of their child's teacher, it didn't ask parents what they thought of the school principal. Though maybe it's not so surprising considering the fact that Klein is betting the farm on them to bail him out of the first and second reorganizations.
In the radio interview Linda Gibbs, NYC Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services notes how difficult living in poverty is for families and suggests the money is helpful to poor parents and their children. She says, "It can be really tough to do the right thing when you're living in a poor household in a poor community and every day a choice of one right thing compromises another right thing. And the family members that I talk to, I think, actually felt more respected and acknowledged for the difficulty of their situation rather than insulted."
Gibbs point hits home to low-income and poor women and families and yet her words seem at odds with policy.
Here at Hunter College it is back to school for everyone. Parents who are raising young children and going to school at the same time started the crushing schedule of getting their children to school and themselves to class and work prepared and on time. Most of the women I work with are receiving welfare and going to college. They talk about getting up at 5 am to get themselves dressed before waking their children and supervising their dressing, breakfast and trip to school. It is extraordinary effort that allows them to accomplish their tasks and without any cash to spare. The welfare cash benefit for a family of 3 is $291 a month. All transportation, clothes and school supplies come from that cash allotment. It is shamefully inadequate.
Today, Roxanna Henry Welfare Rights Initiative's (WRI) Legal Advocacy Organizer is testifying at a public hearing on the adequacy of the public assistance grant in New York State conducted by the Assembly Committee on Social Services.
WRI and other organizations of the Empire State Economic Security Campaign are calling for the state to raise the welfare grant. Mayor Bloomberg's private funds can be helpful to a small group of families but policy changes on the state and city level can have a whopping positive affect on all poor families.
What Bloomberg is doing is charity that has the ability to help empower by making choices easier but lasting empowerment comes from policies that aid people receiving welfare to get family sustaining jobs. However, just increasing the grants alone is not adequate and the Bloomberg administration needs to stop harassing people in welfare out of going to class. Mayor Bloomberg's current welfare policy insists that people need to take dead-end workfare jobs instead of getting training and education. Preventing access to the skills that get good jobs is disempowering and bad policy.
Charity vs. Empowerment is a false choice. We need and have both and government needs to pick up its end.
NYC would do well to get out in front of the welfare grant increase and speak to the Governor and get it done.
In addition, Gibbs' acknowledgment about poor families with children being strained to accomplish everything they need to accomplish speaks right to the heart of government lagging in policy. As Deputy Mayor, Gibbs can work to direct HRA to adhere to the federal welfare guidelines which require 20 hours of workfare for families with children under the age of six whereas in NYC families with young children must perform 35 . 20 is the federal law and in NYC it should be our law.
The poverty discussion and projects coming from Mayor Bloomberg's office are encouraging and we look forward to his team hitting the solution mark closer and closer to the problem.
Mark your calendars: tonight at 7pm is the next step toward bringing New York City's home child care providers into the same union as New York City's public school teachers.
For many New York City families, their child's first teacher is one of the 28,000 home child care providers caring for kids today. Home child care providers take care of kids from low-income families in pre-school and after-school settings, helping them with reading and learning colors and numbers.
But home child care providers aren't protected by a union. Their average salary is $19,000 a year in New York City with no pension, no health insurance and no paid sick days. That makes home child care providers among the lowest-paid workers in the region. Something needs to be done to make sure they get the respect and wages they deserve.
It was a good day for getting the goods on the state budget. While the Manhattan Institute had produced a "pork portrait" spreadsheet a while back by winnowing through the thousands of pages of budget bills, it lacked some basic info-- like, who sponsored the member item, and the address of the member item recipient. And, it looked like a bunch of Assembly member items were missing, maybe...
Today, the Assembly released a text version of their member items, with more detail. Liam Arbetman of Common Cause (yes, the same hero who will email you the details when you sign up to take the bus to Albany next Monday!) quickly converted it to spreadsheet format, and made it available here.
Then, to make it just a really-great day for the number-crunching fools among us, Fiscal Policy Institute shared an excellent spreadsheet on Education Aid-- better by far than the previously -available one. The spreadsheet filename-- "Mauro1"-- says it all: Frank, you are still #1. You can get it here.
Isn't it nice when geeks share the goods so that we can understand our state government?
Governor Spitzer has declared that the old and complicated "shares" formula that governed the apportionment of state aid between the school districts in the state is over, and a new, needs-based approach, introduced in his executive budget, has replaced it. That would be appropriate, as the courts, responding to a case brought forward on behalf of NYC's schoolchildren by the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, has declared the previously-used formula to have left city schools with inadequate funding to guarantee a sound, basic education. That would be appropriate... but, is it true? While the Governor's proposed budget used a needs-based approach, one or both of the other "men in the room" made some tweaks that left school aid looking a bit different in the final budget approved.
Is it fair? Is it at least fairer than it was last year? Or, has the overall amount of aid just been increased, so that a bigger pie could get everyone a bigger piece even if the proportions are not more closely tied to district needs? What about accountability for results for additional aid offered?
(From DMI Fellow Maureen Lane.)
Looking at the facts, it's a bit difficult to understand why New York Welfare Department Spokesman Michael Hayes said what he said in Albany this week.
Mr. Hayes notes that the state "has focused its efforts on getting people into jobs and off of public assistance." Community Voices Heard (CVH) has documented that the employment services program of New York City HRA (Human Resources Administration) which works with the majority of people receiving welfare in the state, has placed less than 8% of participants in long term employment. In addition, HANNYS reports that not one county in New York is providing people leaving welfare with extended training and skills building as the state said they would. Also, we know, and I mean all of us by now, that education is a route out of poverty. People receiving welfare are not given access to education and training they need and want. Federal law allows 30% of the population receiving welfare to be in vocational education programs. Yet, New York is not even close to meeting that percentage. Moreover, NY requires 35 hours of work participation for people receiving welfare when the federal law requires 20 hours for most households and maximum 30 for all others. The fifteen hours difference can make or break a mother staying in school, the state meeting participation rates and families thriving. Clearly, NY's focus can broaden to see the reality of people's lives and what government can do better.
(Photo: John Marshall Mantel for The New York Times)
Yesterday was a gloves off day for Gov. Roller. He took on some of the most powerful players in New York politics, Kenneth E. Raske, President of the New York Hospital Association, Dennis Rivera of 1199 S.E.I.U. United Healthcare Workers fame and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, popular mayor of, well, you know.
Let's begin with the early morning round one. This from the Times.
The governor was addressing a Manhattan power breakfast, giving a PowerPoint presentation to an audience that included business executives, civic leaders and former mayors,...
--snip--
Suddenly a new slide popped up on the giant screen behind Mr. Spitzer on the stage of the Hilton New York ballroom. It said, in huge letters, "Guardians of the Status Quo," and it bore the logos of the two groups, the Greater New York Hospital Association and the union, 1199 S.E.I.U. United Healthcare Workers East, which have joined forces to become one of the most powerful lobbies in Albany.
"Now, my good friends at 1199 and Greater New York, I want to put your logos up here just so everybody will know who you are," Mr. Spitzer began,...
I good way to start the day. Going a few warmup rounds face to face with a couple of guys who weren't prepared for the opening jabs.
The health care officials seemed stunned afterward. Kenneth E. Raske, the president of the hospital association, said, "I have never in my professional life seen anything like that."
It begs the question if he's seen anything like it in his private life...
Chancellor Klein reacted to the rally by performing an ostrich-like maneuver, planting his head firmly in the sand:
"I don't accept your numbers," said Klein. "There were about a thousand people but there weren't many parents there. And I've met more parents in these last months to talk about these issues."
I worry that I may be a werewolf. Or something similar. There's no fur, there aren't any extra fangs or even howling, but listening to state legislators argue that New York State government - or at least their house of it - runs just perfectly well punches my adrenaline to new highs and makes it hard not to sputter. I may be a pacifist, but that doesn't mean I'm always nice.
So, okay, here are the highlights of Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton's presentation this afternoon at the Cortlandville Fire Hall:
The new budget offers both more funding for schools and more accountability for education results, including accountability for state agencies.
It's time for the public's voice to be heard again in our public schools. The Working Families Party is among the groups organizing a rally tonight at 6:30pm, at St. Vartan's Cathedral on 2nd Ave, where parents, teachers and students will tell Chancellor Klein to stop the proposed school reorganization and listen to the community.
At issue is the latest New York City Department of Education proposal to reorganize our schools, which was put out without consulting the public or accepting public input. That's three major reorganizations in five years, and the public has NEVER been consulted about ANY of these reorganizations, even though each reorganization is chaotic and destabilizing for parents and teachers and for our kids. This from a Chancellor who repeatedly claims to want to bring stability to the system.
The coming week will be quite the week for New York State politics...and, I must say, the future of our state government.
Let's look at the line up.
First up on Monday will be Governor Spitzer's unveiling of much of his education agenda in a speech at the State Education Department in Albany. According to sources, the address will offer:
- A sustantial uncrease in education funding to districts around the state, but with performace caveats to insure progress
- Increased Money to Charter Schools, especially in Albany and Buffalo (local criticism offset with increased aid to area public schools)
- Increased STAR rebate program money targeted to low and middle class families and upstate school districts
Yesterday was a gloves off day for Gov. Roller. He took on some of the most powerful players in New York politics, Kenneth E. Raske, President of the New York Hospital Association, Dennis Rivera of 1199 S.E.I.U. United Healthcare Workers fame and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, popular mayor of, well, you know.
