Change the Stakes General Meeting, Friday, October 25

PLEASE JOIN US AT OUR MONTHLY OPEN MEETING 

Change the Stakes General Meeting
Friday, October 25

5:30 - 7.30 pm

When:  Fri, October 25, 5:30pm – 7:30pm

Where:  CUNY Graduate Center located on 365 5th Avenue Room 5489. Bring Photo ID for building entry

 

Agenda for Oct 25:

1. Introductions
2. Discussion:  How are students experiencing assessment this year? Begin with a

report from Dao from Castle Bridge, K-2 testing boycott,

 

                       

after which

,

 teachers will discuss the teacher evaluation and

present relevant literature. 

3. Report back:

• Governance,  Promotions, CEC initiative: Discuss talking points and do role play for crafting effective communications.

• Open up to group for additional issues that others feel are relevant at this time.

4. Committee working: 

• Review committee descriptions and invite members to join committees.

• Committee report backs on current and upcoming initiatives.  
• Committee break out groups.

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Readings: Plutocrats, Toddler Testing, Looting Pension Funds

I had these lurking on my browser for sharing. A short selection followed by the link. I haven't read all of them but worth checking out if you have time. I'm back from the Dewey co-loco hearing (Some video tomorrow). Giving up on the World Series and going to bed while listening to Bill Mazur tributes on WFAN (I listened to him every eve at 6 in the 60s  - what a mensch).

Looting the Pension Funds

http://m.rollingstone.com/politics/news/looting-the-pension-funds-20130926

What few people knew at the time was that Raimondo's "tool kit" wasn't just meant for local consumption. The dynamic young Rhodes scholar was allowing her state to be used as a test case for the rest of the country, at the behest of powerful out-of-state financiers with dreams of pushing pension reform down the throats of taxpayers and public workers from coast to coast. One of her key supporters was billionaire former Enron executive John Arnold – a dickishly ubiquitous young right-wing kingmaker with clear designs on becoming the next generation's Koch brothers, and who for years had been funding a nationwide campaign to slash benefits for public workers.
Nor did anyone know that part of Raimondo's strategy for saving money involved handing more than $1 billion – 14 percent of the state fund – to hedge funds, including a trio of well-known New York-based funds: Dan Loeb's Third Point Capital was given $66 million, Ken Garschina's Mason Capital got $64 million and $70 million went to Paul Singer's Elliott Management. The funds now stood collectively to be paid tens of millions in fees every single year by the already overburdened taxpayers of her ostensibly flat-broke state. Felicitously, Loeb, Garschina and Singer serve on the board of the Manhattan Institute, a prominent conservative think tank with a history of supporting benefit-slashing reforms. The institute named Raimondo its 2011 "Urban Innovator" of the year.
The state's workers, in other words, were being forced to subsidize their own political disenfranchisement, coughing up at least $200 million to members of a group that had supported anti-labor laws.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/looting-the-pension-funds-20130926#ixzz2iS966ncv
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook

Plutocrats at Work: How Big Philanthropy Undermines Democracy

The Case of Public Education
For a dozen years, big philanthropy has been funding a massive crusade to remake public education for low-income and minority children in the image of the private sector. If schools were run like businesses competing in the market—so the argument goes—the achievement gap that separates poor and minority students from middle-class and affluent students would disappear. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, and the Walton Family Foundation have taken the lead, but other mega-foundations have joined in to underwrite the self-proclaimed “education reform movement.” Some of them are the Laura and John Arnold, Anschutz, Annie E. Casey, Michael and Susan Dell, William and Flora Hewlett, and Joyce foundations.
Each year big philanthropy channels about $1 billion to “ed reform.” This might look like a drop in the bucket compared to the $525 billion or so that taxpayers spend on K–12 education annually. But discretionary spending—spending beyond what covers ordinary running costs—is where policy is shaped and changed. The mega-foundations use their grants as leverage: they give money to grantees who agree to adopt the foundations’ pet policies. Resource-starved states and school districts feel compelled to say yes to millions of dollars even when many strings are attached or they consider the policies unwise. They are often in desperate straits.
Most critiques of big philanthropy’s current role in public education focus on the poor quality of the reforms and their negative effects on schooling—on who controls schools, how classroom time is spent, how learning is measured, and how teachers and principals are evaluated. The harsh criticism is justified. But to examine the effect of big philanthropy’s ed-reform work on democracy and civil society requires a different focus. Have the voices of “stakeholders”—students, their parents and families, educators, and citizens who support public education—been strengthened or weakened? Has their involvement in public decision-making increased or decreased? Has their grassroots activity been encouraged or stifled? Are politicians more or less responsive to them? Is the press more or less free to inform them? According to these measures, big philanthropy’s involvement has undoubtedly undermined democracy and civil society.
The best way to show this is to describe how mega-foundations actually operate on the ground and how the public has responded. What follows are reports on a surreptitious campaign to generate support for a foundation’s teaching reforms, a project to create bogus grassroots activity to increase the number of privately managed charter schools, the effort to exert influence by making grant money contingent on a specific person remaining in a specific public office, and the practice of paying the salaries of public officials hired to implement ed reforms.
[more topics]
You Can’t Fool All of the People All of the Time
The Parent Trigger Trap
Dissent
http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/plutocrats-at-work-how-big-philanthropy-undermines-democracy

 

OK - this is satire tho in today's world anything is possible.

Russ on Reading

http://russonreading.blogspot.com/2013/09/are-americas-toddlers-college-and.html

Are America's Toddlers College and Career Ready?

In a move that surprises very few in the education field, the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Career (PARCC) has decided to develop a college and career readiness test for toddlers. To be called the Toddler Intelligence Test(TIT), the development of the TIT is being overseen by a division of PARCC, the Toddler Assessment Team (TAT). A group of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, hedge fund managers and former tennis stars has been assembled to develop TIT for TAT.

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12 Years a Slave - Under Bloomberg

A new movie tells the story of a formerly free school system with public input and oversight that is lured into a seamy arrangement by an ego-driven, manipulative billionaire who then enslaves over one million children, over a hundred thousand school employees and a disenfranchised public. His overseers, Merryl Tisch and Eva Moskowitz make the lives of the slaves miserable.

After 12 years of servitude, the school system sees the light of freedom at the end of the tunnel by the emergence of a tall savior and even though the tall savior holds on to the reigns of control but promises to be a benevolent dictator.

There will be a sequel in 2018 titled "Let Freedom Ring."

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The Madness Continues: Another Co-Loco Hearing Oct. 23 - JOHN DEWEY HS !!!!!!

I was looking forward to an evening at home Weds night. Guess not. Those good ole boys and girls at Tweedle Dee keep 'em comin' like the Top 40 hits. But hey, no worries. Big Bill will just reverse the PEP rubber stamp on Oct. 30 -- the day before Halloween -- and please join everyone at the PEP - wearing your costume.

PLEASE POST AND DISTRIBUTE !

ACT NOW

STOP THE Co-locations IN DISTRICT 21

A PROPOSAL IS NOW UNDER CONSIDERATION TO ALLOW

Opening and Co-location of a New District High School with John Dewey High School  

THIS WILL IMPACT OUR CHILDREN, OUR SCHOOLS, and OUR COMMUNITY.

        SPEAK OUT AGAINST THIS PROPOSAL!

RALLY WITH US AT 5:30PM

At John Dewey High School

Come to the Joint Public Hearing

At John Dewey High School (50 Avenue X)

On October 23^rd at 6:00 pm

       

HERE’S HOW YOU CAN MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD:

COMMENT ON THESE PROPOSALS!

Come to the hearing on October 23^rd and sign up to speak

By Email: D21Proposals@schools.nyc.gov; DMWalcott@schools.nyc.gov; Panel@schools.nyc.gov

By Phone: 212-374-0208

Attend the Panel for Educational Policy Meetings (PEP) taking place @ Prospect Heights Campus, 883 Classon Avenue, Brooklyn, NY on October 30^th, 6 PM  

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Change the Stakes: New York City Public School Parents Deserve to be Heard by Education Commissioner John King

NYC’s one million public school students account for a third of the state’s total public school enrollment. Yet not a single forum will be held in New York City.  Change the Stakes calls on state legislators who represent NYC students, their parents and their teachers to demand that the Board of Regents schedule a public forum in each of the five boroughs. .... CTS

Another shot at King from our great parent activists at CTS:

Unacceptable!  Commissioner King opting out of any NYC forums; Our Parents Deserve to be Heard http://wp.me/p1Tx83-vG

STATEMENT: NYC Parents Deserve to be Heard

October 22, 2013 · by Grassroots Education Movement · Bookmark the permalink. ·

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                           Contact: changethestakes@gmail.com

New York City Public School Parents Deserve to be Heard by Education Commissioner John King

New York City – It is unacceptable that State Education Commissioner John B. King, Jr. and the State Board of Regents are planning to hold a series of 12 forums across the state to meet with parents and educators to discuss the Common Core Standards and other education reforms, yet not a single forum will be held in New York City. NYC’s one million public school students account for a third of the state’s total public school enrollment. Change the Stakes calls on state legislators who represent NYC students, their parents and their teachers to demand that the Board of Regents schedule a public forum in each of the five boroughs. These forums must offer meaningful public discussion in which education officials acknowledge and respond to questions and concerns rather than dismissing them or explaining them away.

The Regents scheduled the forums, along with four additional events to be broadcast on public television, after Commissioner King abruptly cancelled four  state-sponsored PTA town hall meetings after parents responded angrily at being given little time to speak at an event in Poughkeepsie. King later alleged that the meeting was “co-opted by special interests whose stated goal is to ‘dominate’ the questions and manipulate the forum.” The newly scheduled forums will undoubtedly be much more tightly controlled than the original large, town hall meetings.

King’s outrageous statement about “special interests” and the shutting down of public debate are indicative of a much larger problem: New York State education officials, from the governor on down, have completely disregarded the genuine, sincere and deeply-felt concerns of parents about what is in the best interests of our children. It is demeaning, demoralizing and downright undemocratic to attempt to silence parents, teachers, principals and others who, day in and day out, witness the harmful effects on children of poorly formulated and rashly implemented state education policies.

Commissioner King: The public school parents and educators of NYC deserve to be heard.

According to an October 18th press release from the State Education Department:

The first forum will be held in the Albany City School District on October 24. Other locations for the forums are Rochester, Westchester, Suffolk County (2), Nassau County (2), Schroon Lake, Binghamton, Amherst, Syracuse, and Jamestown. 

 The four PBS televised forums will be in Syracuse -WCNY (November 7), Plattsburgh-WCFE (November 20), Binghamton- WSKG (date tba) and Rochester- WXXI (December 3). King said more PBS forums will be scheduled.

 ###

 Change the Stakes (changethestakes.org) is a group of parents and educators working to reduce the harm caused by high stakes-testing, which we believe must be replaced by valid forms of student, teacher, and school assessment.

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Video, PS 196 Colocation Hearing: Brian De Vale Castigates DOE Office of Portfolio Planning

Are you proud of yourselves? Is this what you went into education for? To take things away from children? ... I guess if you are black or brown you don't need science labs ...  Brian De Vale comments on Office of Portfolio declaring school science labs in poor communities "a luxury."

An enormous turnout with standing room only last night. Lots of video to come. Again an anti-coloco rally and hearing uncovered by the ed press. These are taking place all over the city.

What a speech, ranking with Tish James at last week's PEP (PEP Notes - Tish James Rocks the House). (I hope Brian comes to the Oct. 30 PEP). He called Bloomberg a "petty little tyrant." And called for a return to communities running their schools.

Brian De Vale is one of the few NYC principals with cajones. He heads the CSA in District 14. He spoke last night at the hearing to co-locate a 3rd school in the building and even more astounding, a 2nd middle school to compete with the one currently in the building, which years ago they pushed into the building instead of allowing PS 196 to become a K-8 school. Just idiocy.

In this case, the CEC of District 14 had been asking for another middle school for a long time. So the slime at Tweed, knowing there has been some resistance over the years to their policies, decide to get even by pushing it into a place where it is not needed. As Brian points out there is an almost empty building in the district --- but, oh, I think Eva may be in there and we don't want to upset the Queen's plans to expand eventually into a middle school.

And too bad the mic is blocking the face of the Tweed portfolio sluggette running the meeting. I was shooting from the side so could not see the faces of the other Portfolio scum's faces.

http://youtu.be/4i9bU1ferzY

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Parents Lead Massive Opt-Out of Kindergarten Tests in Washington Hts (District 6)

“My feeling about testing kids as young as 4 is it’s inhumane,” said PTA co-chairwoman Dao Tran, mother of first-grader Quyen Lamphere, 5. “I can only see it causing stress.”... Rachel Monahan, Daily News

The revolt is growing and this story is HUGE, as Diane Ravitch points out below (and a good story from the ed press - though we would love to see a piece analyzing the growth of the opt out movement). Remember - this K test was going to be used as a baseline to measure teachers and this kills the baseline.

DENY THEM THE DATA. If we had a union with balls they would be using their muscle to promote the opt-out movement like Karen Lewis is doing in Chicago. But they so fear attacks on them for not going along with the executions of teachers.

Recognize  the name of one of the children featured in the story: Lamphere. Yes, the daughter of MORE stalwart Peter. Nothing happens in a vacuum. No spontaneous combustion but educating, organizing and mobilizing. A parent commented:

all the credit should go to the parents and educators who established the school last year based on a model of education that teaches to the whole child and immediately mobilized to challenge the abusive farce that is K-2 testing as soon as they learned what the state had planned for them. In other words, many new parent and educator leaders joining this struggle! Good luck with your articles!!

 Let's be clear. This revolt is not taking place in schools loaded with poor struggling parents but in a clearly middle class school. And in schools with friendly principals. The big battle for opt-outers is to reach into areas like East New York and even poorer areas of Washington Hts and that is still a questionable proposition. And expect attacks to come on them by the ed deform press when the opt-out movement grows this spring.

One of the awesome parent activists in Change the Stakes sent this comment:

As a member of Change the Stakes and a new parent at this thriving school I can tell you the parent activists at Castle Bridge are already thinking about next steps in this challenge to the ridiculous K-2 testing, in conjunction with NYC-based groups like Time Out From Testing and Change the Stakes (and in solidarity with groups elsewhere). Please stay tuned!

We haven't seen nothing yet. Wait 'till the spring tests. District 6 in Wash Hts in northern Manhattan is the base of many of the parents involved in Change the Stakes (one of the two offshoots of Grassroots Education Movement - GEM - the other being MORE)  - as are MORE members with kids who are taking on the dual role of parent and teacher.

Kudos came in from people on the Change the Stakes listserve:

Laura
Bravo, again, to the parents and Leadership of their Principal, without a question we could use more Principals with ethics.

Janine
This is so thrilling! They will become the model for other K-2 schools and beyond. Hooray for the parents who have kept their sense and stepped up to protect their children! Great work Andrea and others who helped make this happen. This is going to be a wonderful year!

Here is some important info re the K-2 tests from the teachers on the CTS listserve:

Can anyone explain how K-2 testing in "early childhood schools" (K-2) compares with testing at K-5 or K-8 but in K-2?  Thanks!

 Leonie:

Suransky said that K-2 schools have to do testing in these grades but K-5 schools don’t, because they have other schoolwide measures to use.

Jia:

In the K-2 schools where they do not have the grades 3-5 test scores as options, they were told that they HAD to administer the locally approved assessments. There are around 32 such schools (they were start up schools, all adding a grade each year.)
The difference is that at some of the K-5 schools, the lower grades agreed to go with the default for the 20% local measure, which is the state standardized assessments. It's viewed as an act of solidarity since the local measures in K-5 schools are designed to cause divisiveness between teachers and grades. However, some K-5 schools did choose different local measures and must submit baselines by Oct 31. I've heard horror stories: cancelled field trips, students in auditoriums watching a movie during the school day so that teachers could get mass preps to input the "data".

The Ravitch piece and the DN article below the break.

THIS IS HUGE!!! No Testing at This School! Parents Say NO! by dianerav

Almost everyone agrees that high-stakes testing for little children is a huge mistake. The parents not only wrote their elected officials, they took direct action.

More than 80% of the parents of the children at the Castle Bridge Elementary School in New York City refused to allow their children to be tested.

They opted out.

The tests were canceled.

NO TESTS. NONE!

The parents knew that the only purpose of the tests was to evaluate the teachers, not the children.

Most Castle Bridge School parents — representing 83 of the 97 students — refused to permit their children to be tested.

“My feeling about testing kids as young as 4 is it’s inhumane,” said PTA co-chairwoman Dao Tran, mother of first-grader Quyen Lamphere, 5. “I can only see it causing stress.”

The state now requires schools to factor test scores — in one form or another — into their teacher evaluations, which are new this year in the city.

The parents thought the testing was absurd.

As the Daily News reported earlier this month, such exams, given to kids as young as 4, require students to fill in bubbles to show their answers.

It’s like the SAT for kids barely older than toddlers. And parents resent it.

“Our principal does a good job,” said PTA co-chairwoman Elexis Pujolos, mother of kindergartner Daeja, 4, and first-grader AJ, 6. “A test could not possibly measure what she is able to.”

Principal Julie Zuckerman canceled the required tests because the scores wouldn’t provide statistically meaningful data once so many parents opted out.

She also hates judging teachers even partly on the basis of a test.

“It can’t be used as evaluation tool of teachers even if it were a valid test — which it’s not,” she said.

If all parents did this, they could stop the testing madness that is ruining education and children's love of learning.

If it can happen at Castle Bridge, it can happen anywhere!

Without data, the giant testing machine can't function. The children can learn stress-free. Education becomes possible.

Message: OPT OUT.

Read the DN article here or below the break.

Forget teaching to the test — at this Washington Heights elementary school, parents canceled it! 

More than 80% of parents voted to skip an exam that the state says helps evaluate teachers. Move is believed to be unprecedented.

By Rachel Monahan / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Monday, October 21, 2013, 5:20 PM

Enid Alvarez/New York Daily News

(From left) Andres Pujols, 6, Elexis Pujols, 37, Daeja Pujols, 4, Quyen Lamphere 5, Dalyair Mackey 5, Dao Tran, 40, Yvene Mackey 7, Vera Moore, 43, oppose testing.

A Washington Heights elementary school has canceled the new standardized multiple-choice tests for the youngest public school students — after more than 80% of parents opted to have their kids sit out the exam.
In an apparently unprecedented move, Castle Bridge School parents — representing 83 of the 97 students — rejected the new city requirement that affects 36 schools that serve only K through second grade.
“My feeling about testing kids as young as 4 is it’s inhumane,” said PTA co-chairwoman Dao Tran, mother of first-grader Quyen Lamphere, 5. “I can only see it causing stress.”
The state now requires schools to factor test scores — in one form or another — into their teacher evaluations, which are new this year in the city.
RELATED: KINDERGARTEN GETS AS TOUGH WITH MULTIPLE CHOICE TESTS
Students at the 36 “early education” schools are too young to take the regular state reading and math exams, so the littlest kids are sitting down for different tests.
As the Daily News reported earlier this month, such exams, given to kids as young as 4, require students to fill in bubbles to show their answers.
It’s like the SAT for kids barely older than toddlers. And parents resent it.
“Our principal does a good job,” said PTA co-chairwoman Elexis Pujolos, mother of kindergartner Daeja, 4, and first-grader AJ, 6. “A test could not possibly measure what she is able to.”

Enid Alvarez/New York Daily News

A vast majority of parents at Castle Bridge School in Washington Heights opted to have their kids skip a city-mandated test.

Principal Julie Zuckerman canceled the required tests because the scores wouldn’t provide statistically meaningful data once so many parents opted out.
She also hates judging teachers even party on the basis of a test.
“It can’t be used as evaluation tool of teachers even if it were a valid test — which it’s not,” she said.
It wasn’t clear exactly how the teachers at the school would be evaluated under the state’s requirements, given the widespread decision to opt out the tests.
RELATED: EXPERTS IN EDUCATION FIELD OFFER ADVICE FOR THE CITY'S NEXT MAYOR
“We will work with the school and the state to determine the appropriate measure of student learning for this school,” said Education Department spokeswoman Erin Hughes.
Castle Bridge, which reserves up to 10% of its spots for kids with a parent in jail, has some touchy-feel practices.
Kids get a quiet time nearly most days, where they can snuggle up with a teddy bear for nap or read a book quietly. Teachers write multiple-page narratives instead of giving report cards.
But parents said they chose the school because the project-based, more creative forms of learning develop critical thinking skills better than the required tests, which parents were shocked to learn about.
“I was irate. I was very angry,” said Vera Moore, mother of second-grader Yvene Mackey, 7, and kindergartner Zalyair Mackey, 5. “This school teaches to the child not to the test.”

rmonahan@nydailynews.com

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/uptown/parents-opt-city-test-article-1.1492127#ixzz2iOhMVv90

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