Ravitch in Park Slope Tues Night, Draws Crowds Nationwide - and Matt Damon

There's been lots of commentary about the tide turning against ed deform (A Comment from Western New York: Yes, the Tide Is Turning) and (Common Core Tests in NY Spur Opt Out Movement) -- but the large crowds showing up on the Diane Ravitch "Reign of Error" book tour must be making ed deformers shudder. Find details of the tour on the Ravitch blog:  My Trip to the West Coast…and Back.

Note her appearance  tonight - Tuesday (Oct. 8),. (I'm hoping to be there to tape.)

 

Join Diane Ravitch, NYU professor and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education, for a hard-hitting look at the perilous state of America's public school system in her newest book, Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools. Called a "whistleblower extraordinaire" by the Wall Street Journal, Ravitch's many books include The Death and Life of the Great American School System. In conversation with New Yorker writer David Denby. 

 --------
And here are some notes from the tour.

“I’m very honored to have the opportunity to introduce Diane tonight, She’s somebody that I have admired for a very long time. She’s an amazing person. She’s America’s foremost historian in the areas of education policy, she’s a champion of public education, she’s a courageous speaker and she’s a truth-teller.”  Matt Damon 10/2/13

http://sundial.csun.edu/2013/10/matt-damon-visits-csun-to-introduce-nyu-professor-diane-ravitch-a-representative-of-the-education-on-the-edge-speakers-series/

http://laschoolreport.com/matt-damon-takes-the-stage-but-ravitch-wins-the-applause/

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@Ravitch Webinar

I had the opportunity last night to be in the room with Diane Ravitch while she interacted with bloggers on the web using an interesting technology from Shindig. For over an hour I stood behind her taping her off the screen. Now I could have taped her off the screen I guess at home but I have an idea for a possible small documentary by gathering footage from her book tours - I wish I were going with her but alas, we hope people all over the nation -- like in Pittsburgh the other night where a thousand people showed up (I hear they have a tape) - will take footage capturing the excitement and upload it to a site I set up (contact me if you have footage even if on a phone.).

I'll put up the video in a few days. Diane was on NPR and will be on Brian Lehrer on Monday morning.

Gotham School linked to the blog list or reviews I've been keeping with this note: Dozens of bloggers and educators have published their sunny takes on Ravitch’s book. (Ed Notes)

I consider the use of "sunny takes" an editorial comment by Gotham and objected in a comment.

Isn't it nice to have the "sunny side" of Ravitch's book being presented by so many real teachers from the grassroots where no one is paid or looking for advancement? Can someone point me to a similar group putting out the "sunny side" of Michelle Rhee's or Joel Klein's or Wendy Kopp's writings? And by the way - if you are classifying these reviews as the "sunny side" how about pointing to legit crit (not personal invective) showing where Ravitch is mistaken? Call it the cloudy side. To me painting these reviews as one-sided when some are very thoughtful examinations with some balance -- ie. Debbie Meier makes some critical points. I too while agreeing with most of it also feel that the role of the unions in ed deform need to be addressed and Ravitch didn't -- yet. I hope she does.

Listen to her Onpoint appearance on NPR.

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Diane Ravitch Launched in Pittsburgh, Yinzer-Style in Front of A Thousand People

How awesome is this? Ed Deformers must be quaking.

Friends,

We here in Pittsburgh were honored to launch Diane's national book tour Monday night with a crowd of 1,000 people. We actually had a sneak preview, since as you know, the book did not officially get released until yesterday. Rather than a formal review, I've written the following piece describing the event, which was also a giant education justice rally, and how our local movement reflects Diane's message. I thought you might especially enjoy seeing the photos.

"Diane Ravitch Launched, Yinzer-Style"

I look forward to learning how things went in Philly last night … and am sending Diane lots of positive energy to keep her going on this national tour, which is bound to be absolutely exhausting. Kudos to all of you for propping her up with your words and these important reviews. She told me Monday that we bloggers are critical engines in this national public education movement of ours is … that's powerful. And what responsibility!

Thank you for everything you do,

Jessie

Yinzer Nation + Education = Yinzercation

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Reign of Error: What’s Wrong With Preaching to the Choir?

This is my column for publication in The Wave this Friday. But since today is publication date of Diane Ravitch's new book I'm posting it to join with bloggers all over the nation who are part of the Ravitch support network. This is not a complete review. There are so many great bloggers out there who will do a better job than I can. (See Afterburn for links to some of the reviews out today.)

The book will go way beyond the choir. What is happening is that people who were ed deform supporters are becoming aware of the implications and the Ravitch book will nudge them over to the real reform camp. There are still gaps in her narrative which I will cover in follow-up posts.

Diane's book needs more than a review but a chapter by chapter analysis (which Gary Rubinstein touches on). So I intend to do a series of posts on the book -- and the thoughts it has provoked. I have notes. Lots and lots of notes. I only hope I can manage to read my own handwriting.

Reign of Error: What’s Wrong With Preaching to the Choir?

By Norm Scott

When it comes to the education wars I’m often accused of preaching to the choir – that my rhetoric will convince no one who doesn’t already agree with me. I’m fine with that. No matter what I say I won’t convince the other side and people in the middle will come to their own conclusions when the flames of education deform touch them personally. Many teachers in NYC have not been touched yet but are about to with a new teacher evaluation system hitting schools this year. So I expect the choir to grow. My goal is to activate the choir and share information they can find useful.

I’ve been reading the just released book, “Reign of Error: TheHoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools”by educational historian Diane Ravitch who has also been accused of preaching to the choir. Ravitch covers a lot of ground, using lots of charts and graphs to show how the claims by education deformers (Ravitch refers to them as “corporate reformers”) that our nation’s schools are in crisis and are failing and declining compared to other nations is not only not true but part of a design by people tied into the educational-industrial complex to get their mitts on a large chunk of the billions spent on education in this country.

At the heart of the education wars between deformers and real reformers is the role poverty plays in the education equation. Deformers claim we can fix poverty by changing the schools. Real reformers claim we must do both: attack poverty and fix schools that are deemed not to be working, not by merely closing them, which is the key mantra of deformers. Ravitch shows the debilitating effects of poverty on children and how the education deform agenda of closing schools, blaming teachers, pushing a narrow test-driven curriculum down their throats, opening charters as competition – I can go on but will spare you – actually undermines one of the few areas of stability so many of these kids have – local neighborhood school, often packed with teachers who spend many years there. I know all about that, having spent 27 years teaching on one school in a high poverty area of Brooklyn. We may not have been the best school all the time for every child but my colleagues and I were there year after year, often teaching the children of our students (and I once taught the grandchild – scary “getting old feeling” indeed.)

After spending over 200 pages savaging the deformers, she goes on to offer ideas for real reforms, most of which are not cheap, including investing in early childhood education and reducing class size. Maybe some of the money saved from not bombing Syria can go into implementing some of these real reforms. I’ll be doing a series of follow-up posts on the Ravitch book on my blog. See her Sept. 11 appearance at Judson Memorial Church:  https://vimeo.com/74638155.

Diane Ravitch endorsed Bill di Blasio due to his having the most real reform-like program of all the mayoral candidates. I had lots of angst over whether to vote for Big Bill – I don’t really trust him to be as progressive as he is claiming to be. As I walked to the polling booth I got a text message from The Wave: vote for Sal Albanese. My nascent Rockaway chauvinism, very heightened since Sandy, took over and I did it – with pride. The Wave made a strong case for casting a vote for someone who couldn’t win but to send a message. I don’t think that worked this time. I would hate to see The Wave sit this one out because di Blasio didn’t come to Rockaway – but I bet he will now.

Little Bill (Thompson) pulled out before all the votes were counted. The vaunted support of the UFT, which spent almost $3 million supporting Thompson – over $15 a vote – did not work out. Michael Mulgrew is being mocked for saying, “We’re not about picking a mayor. We’re about making a mayor, making the winner. And that’s what we’re gonna to do.” Oy! Cringe time. Even as a critic of the UFT leadership and the manner in which it went about its endorsement (lacking, as usual, the democratic process), I still give the UFT credit for dragging Thompson, a notoriously poor campaigner, into second place over Christine Quinn. I have no doubt Quinn would have finished second if not for the UFT support for Thompson.  But in the long run it all means nothing as Big Bill seems to have pulled off the impossible by getting 40% and avoiding a run-off in the midst of a very crowded field.

Now it’s on to the race with Lhota, a throwback to the Rudolph Giuliani era who has to convince  the public he is and is not a Bloomberg/Giuliani clone. He totally support Bloomberg’s educational deform policies which have so divided the city. And he is calling di Blasio divisive for his “tale of two cities” theme. I personally don’t mind seeing the 99% divided from the 1% – a fitting note on the 2^nd anniversary of the Occupy movement.

Norm blogs at ednotesonline.com

AFTERBURN

• 
  Diane Ravitch's blog

  Mother Crusader Reviews “Reign of Error” - Darcie Cimarusti, aka Mother Crusader, reviewed “Reign of Error” for public radio WHYY. She explains how she got involved in the battle to save her communi...

   
• 
  Accountable Talk

  Reign of Error: A Short Review - Diane Ravitch was kind enough to send me and a number of my fellow education bloggers an advance copy of her outstanding new book, "Reign of Error: The Hoa... 

   

  Gary Rubinstein's Blog

  Let It Reign! - The reformers can wait for Superman all they want. We’ve got Wonder Woman. ‘Reign Of Error: the Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to Amer... 
  

 And of course RBE's killer review from Saturday:

NY Post Launches Attack Against Diane Ravitch In Review Of Her New Book

There have been attacks against Diane Ravitch in the past, but the one by Kyle Smith in the Post is particularly vicious.

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Tuesday: Ravitch Book Publication Date and Video of Ravitch at Judson Church

I am rushing to finish the book for my review. It is so packed with info I have to keep going back to reread in order for my weak brain cells to absorb it all.

I know there are so many talented bloggers out there I can't imagine being able to say much more than they will. Bloggers with advanced copies will start reviewing tomorrow when the book is officially published.

Here is video I shot of Diane at Judson Memorial Church on Sept. 11, 2013. The speaker system echo doesn't make it easy to hear everything.

Salon has published a major expert of Reign of Error.

Diane Ravitch: School privatization is a hoax, “reformers” aim to destroy public schools

http://www.salon.com/2013/09/15/diane_ravitch_school_privatization_is_a_hoax_reformers_aim_to_destroy_public_schools/

The New York Post wrote one of their typical hatchet jobs against Diane and the book  -  http://nypost.com/2013/09/14/author-shows-how-ridiculous-arguments-are-against-school-reform/ and Perdido Street School blog quickly responded with a great post which can be found here:  http://perdidostreetschool.blogspot.com/2013/09/ny-post-launches-attack-against-diane.html

Note this funny contradiction in Kyle Smith's hack work. After attacking the shit out of teacher unions Smith says:

Here’s a reform agenda: Stanford economist Eric Hanushek has calculated that if we could raise our overall education standard to that of Canada (a pretty high bar — Canada ranks just below Massachusetts, which is the No. 1 US state in education performance), that one factor would increase the pay of US workers by 20 percent (in inflation-adjusted dollars) over the next 80 years.

But he forgets to mention that Canada and Massachusetts are amongst the most highly unionized education systems. DUHHHHH!

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Ravitch and New Book Today at Judson Church

I'll be there taping and interviewing and some MOREistas will be there to distribute the hot off the press new newsletter, MORE Stuff in Your Mailbox. If there is one thing to fault Diane on in her book (and I haven't finished all of it) is her allowing the unions off the hook for their complicity in ed deform. I do get there are long-time relationships she has. But there were also long-time relationships with ed deformers that have been broken. There are ways to tweak them and I believe Ravitch has at times begun to put her toe in that water though I can't be specific. I hope someone asks her about the UFT and Thompson at this point in the mayoral race.

Oh, you have to have a ticket.

 Diane Ravitch to Present New Book on Education, Following Voters’ Rejection of Bloomberg’s Policies in Democratic Primary

*First Major Discussion of Education Following Blowout Victory for Democrats Seeking a Break from Bloomberg*

**TODAY, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 6PM at Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square South, Manhattan, NY** 

 

WHO: Diane Ravitch, education leader and expert; Parents, Advocates from Alliance for Quality Education, Class Size Matters and New Yorkers for Great Public Schools *400 attendees expected*

WHAT: Noted education leader and expert Diane Ravitch will deliver the first major remarks on education and the mayoral race following voters’ massive rejection of Bloomberg’s policies in the Democratic primary; she will discuss her new book “Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools.”


Ravitch has endorsed Bill de Blasio for mayor, and will lay out solutions for a successful school system that can work for every student under the next mayoral administration. A question and answer session will follow.

WHEN: TODAY, Wednesday, Sept. 11^th 6PM-7:30PM

WHERE: 55 Washington Square South, Manhattan, NY

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E4E Slammed in Minnesota by PEJAM

The new strategy is to convince the public that teachers really do want the corporate reforms, but that it is actually their own unions that are keeping them silent.  It is a devious approach that can pit new teachers against veteran teachers.  These newer groups receiving money from Gates, the Waltons, and other corporate foundations are started and led, by mostly TFA alumni, and recruit heavily among TFA corp members and other younger teachers.... (PEJAM)

DFER tried this tactic trying to claim E4E had the voice of NYC teachers ( Joe Williams' DFER Propaganda Laugh Riot ...) while pointing out that few voted in the election and one fifth of those who did vote did not do so for Unity, trying to give the impression they were E4E types while neglecting to mention it was MORE, as anti-E4E as you can get, that garnered those votes.

Yes, E4E facing increasing failure in every venue has to keep jumping to other states like bedbugs to try to remain viable. They have to find ways to spend those bucks ($3 million recently from Bill Gates, who might as well dig a trench and throw his money into it.)

I spoke to some people from LA in Chicago this past weekend and they are also dealing with E4E and have opened up a dialogue with them, viewing most of the teachers involved as naive and misguided and hoping to bring some enlightment to them. Good luck. The leadership will never let anyone get near their rank and file -- one reason they no longer seem to be holding open -- or any - meetings here in NYC -- we often stood outside and handed out leaflets as to what they were all about.

PEJAM points to "reporter" Beth Hawkins hawking E4E -- playing the role Gotham plays here I guess.

Here is the full post from PEJAM:

Public Education Justice Alliance of Minnesota(PEJAM) pejamn.blogspot.com

E4E: The Sheep Clothing for Corporate...

The neoliberals, corporate foundations, billionaires, and others looking to privatize our public schools work hard to sell their actions as that of local grassroots organizations whose only concerns are for the children, especially poor, urban, and minority children.  These astroturf groups have worked their way into every state, including Minnesota.  We have the well-financed MinnCAN and Students First among others, but in their efforts the corporate reformers keep running into the public school teachers and their unions who actually do care about ALL children.

These corporate "reformers" have long realized that if they are going to privatize the public schools, they must eliminate the the voice of the teachers, and the unions that protect their right to speak in defense of their students.  The "reformers" have had a great deal of success, convincing both Republican and Democratic politicians to pass legislation that weakens teacher unions and public education.  The push-back, however, has been growing steadily.  Led by rank-and-file members who have demanded more action from their own union leadership or have taken over the leadership as C.O.R.E. did in Chicago, teachers are calling out the corporate reformers for what they are - privatizers and union-busters.

The corporate reformers are feeling the heat, but they will not go away quietly.  A new strategy has evolved in recent years with the help of the "happy-face" of the corporate reformers - Teach for America (TFA).

The new strategy is to convince the public that teachers really do want the corporate reforms, but that it is actually their own unions that are keeping them silent.  It is a devious approach that can pit new teachers against veteran teachers.  These newer groups receiving money from Gates, the Waltons, and other corporate foundations are started and led, by mostly TFA alumni, and recruit heavily among TFA corp members and other younger teachers.

In many cities, it is Teach Plus that has taken on this role.  It's stated goal is "to engage early career teachers in rebuilding their profession to better meet the needs of students and the incoming generation of teachers."  Here in Minnesota, Educators for Excellence (E4E) is the group leading the effort to hide the union-busting/privatization agenda behind "real teachers."  This past week, E4E officially launched in Minnesota, following a typical corporate product launch strategy.

MythPost
Beth Hawkins, the "education reporter" for MinnPost and one of the Twin Cities biggest cheerleaders for the corporate take-over of public education, is now trumpeting Educators 4 Excellence (E4E) and their claim to offer teachers "a bigger voice in education policy."  Hawkins presents E4E and its members empathetically, as idealistic teachers who have been marginalized in education policy decisions and ignored by unresponsive teachers unions.

Hawkins and MinnPost are helping Madeline Edison, now the full-time Executive Director of Minnesota's E4E, with the corporate style rollout of the "new" reform group.  They are selling a movement that is not only not needed, but in fact is detrimental to public education.  MinnPost published three "news" stories about E4E in four days (See here, here, and here).  MinnPost is an on-line "newspaper" run by Joel Kramer, father of Minnesota's first family of corporate education reform and the former owner of the daily newspaper, the Minneapolis Star Tribune.  The Star Tribune probably would have covered the E4E "news" itself, had it not been so busy shilling for E4E's older sibling of corporate education reform - Teach for America (TFA) - (see here, here, and here).

Launch of a Corporate Product
Launching a new product, or in this case an organization, is not done with a single press release, or event.  "Reform" groups like E4E use the same marketing strategies of their financiers.  David Lavenda, a product strategy and marketing executive offers some advice for a successful product launch on FastCompany.com, including the following:

Start early. Don’t expect reporters to write about you when you want. Get a head start and begin preparing long before you plan to launch. A rolling launch is a great way to keep the conversation going.

Get partners involved. Channel and marketing partners who have a financial stake in the success of the launch are natural allies. The more people that are talking about the release, the better chances it will get pickup.  

E4E-Minnesota has been rolling out its launch for well over a year.  It had its origins in a group with another combination of letters and numbers - E3MN, which stood for Empowering Educators for Equity MN.  E3MN began in early 2012, and its first Facebook Event was a meeting with the co-founders of Educators 4 Excellence.

The groups E3MN identity appears to have been a place-holder as the group built it's E4E brand.  They focused on connecting with "marketing partners" by building alliances with other corporate reformers.  The second Facebook Event they hosted in June of 2012 was a happy hour meet-and-greet with MinnCAN.

In addition to building a core group with mostly TFA teachers and partnering with other corporate reformers, the group needed to build a local financial base and Minnesota has its share of corporate philanthropists.  In September of 2012, The Robins, Kaplan, Miller, and Ciresi Foundation for Children awarded E3MN a grant of $17,500.  The foundation's website explains that the grant was to 

"support the expansion of Empowering Educators for Equity (E3MN) to impact student success through teacher organizing and leadership for systemic legislative and contractual changes."

Michael Ciresi, is a famous local lawyer who ran twice for the DFL nomination for U.S. Senate, but lost.  The Foundation that bears his name, and he leads, has become the major supporter of local corporate education reforms.  E4E received the grant from his foundation because they promote an agenda that helps to dismantle teachers' unions, thereby opening the door to the free market...and closing the door on public schools.

"Liberal" Slight of Hand
Ciresi is similar to many Democratic (DFL in Minnesota) politicians and party activists, in that he claims to favor a liberal or progressive political agenda, but more often follows a corporate agenda.  E4E leaders, and presumably many of its members follow this same approach, at least in regard to education.  E4E, like the "reformers" who claim the Civil Rights mantle, does not just focus on dismantling teachers' unions, but also claims to promote a "progressive" agenda.  This is "reformer" slight of hand, a distraction from the real work of E4E.

In Beth Hawkins propaganda piece published last Tuesday, she helps E4E's new Executive Director, Madaline Edison, sell the idea that focusing on "hot button" contractual/union issues "misses the point."  Sydney Morris, the national co-founder and co-CEO of E4E, claims the aim of the organization is "to give teachers a greater voice in making policy on many issues."

Following another element of launching a new product E4E and MinnPost "put the focus on the people not the product."  Hawkins introduces us to a number of E4E teachers who want to speak up for their students on issues beyond the classroom.  They mistakenly believe, however, that E4E will empower them to do that.  Members quoted in the article speak about the fight for immigrations issues and need for early childhood education.  Edison, who has never been a member of the teachers' union, suggested that the unions weren't dealing with these issues and that's why they needed to create E3MN (E4E).

With this claim, E4E accepts and perpetuates the neoliberal myth of unions as greedy and self-interested.  Social justice has long been a part of union work.  Teachers' unions have certainly made mistakes and at times have been on the wrong side of social justice issues, but unions have actively worked for social and racial justice through most of there history.

Another E4E member in Hawkins article talks about her strong family union background and how she wanted to "wear red" in solidarity when union teachers in Chicago went on strike.  Despite her union upbringing, she describes the union contact as "that’s where all the power just goes away."  Beth Hawkins supports this twisted statement by describing the Minneapolis teachers' union contract as "notoriously complicated."

The third E4E story in MinnPost last week was written by James Kindle.   He was a part of the first group of TFA corp members in Minnesota in 2009.  To his credit, he has remained in the classroom.  However, he also portrays the teachers' contract as a barrier to his "autonomy" as a teacher and his ability to speak out for social justice.

Kindle lets us know that he is the son and grandson of teachers, and like his mother, he wants to be able to look back on his teaching career and say, "Oh, yeah. I enjoyed every day."  Unfortunately, if Kindle and E4E (and TFA) are successful in their corporate reform efforts, most teachers will not have much of a career on which to reflect.  Without committed teachers organized in strong unions, the profession will be filled with under-trained temporary workers.

This is how the conservatives have taken the upper hand with regard to education policy.  Many self-proclaimed liberals/progressives, who were once the ardent defenders of a strong, democratic system of public schools, have accepted the argument that the "free market" actually serves the public good and does so in an equitable way.  Making matters even worse, these so called liberals have accepted the idea that unions and collective bargaining protections are relics of the past. 

The Corporate Reformers and their Agenda
Focusing on "hot-button" issues such as tenure, seniority rights, and teacher evaluations, "misses the mark" according to Madaline Edison.  E4E wants teachers and the public to see these issues as part of a larger "progressive" agenda.  Edison, Kindle, and the other E4E leaders fail to see, or refuse to admit that this is a front for the neoliberal agenda.  Their work will weaken the unions they claim to value and strip teachers of their voices they claim to be empowering.  They are helping to privatize our public schools.

To become a member of E4E, teachers must sign the organization's "Declaration of Teacher's Principles and Beliefs."  A third of this declaration is dedicated to "Restore[ing] Professionalism to Education."  According to the document this is done through teacher evaluations that include "value-added student achievement data" (value-added measure - VAM), weakening tenure, and eliminating "last-in-first-out" (seniority rights).  The document also contends that we can recruit, retain, and support "the highest quality teachers" by implementing "performance-based pay" (merit pay).

These are the positions of the corporate reformers.  To argue these "reforms" will empower teachers, "give them a voice," and/or "autonomy" is naive at best.  Merit pay is not a new idea as educational historian, Diane Ravitch, has pointed out.  It is professionally insulting, divisive, and it does not work, especially in a profession that thrives on collaboration.  Not only has merit pay not worked, Daniel Pink demonstrates that merit pay, in fact, produces worse results!

Value-added is another failed experiment.  Despite repeated research demonstrating the inability of VAM to measure a teacher's performance, corporate reformers continue to argue it will separate bad teachers from good, and good teachers from great.  What VAM actually does is promote more teaching to tests, and penalizes teachers who are willing to take risks.

Attacks on tenure and seniority are at the heart of the "reformer's" efforts and central to organizations like E4E.  Tenure is depicted as "lifetime job security," something that makes it "impossible" to fire under-performing teachers.  Tenure does not guarantee a job.  It guarantees due process, if you are threatened with disciplinary action, including termination.  It requires that administrators demonstrate "just cause" for disciplinary action or termination, and in Minnesota, state statue identifies five areas that can lead to termination at the end of a contract year (see Subdivision 9).  Minnesota state statute also lays out reasons for immediate termination of a teacher (see Subdivision 13)

Tenure in Minnesota is only achieved after a three-year probationary period.  During this time, the district can terminate a teacher contract without cause.  What tenure grants is relatively small, but important power.  It enables teachers to disagree with administration and express that disagreement with less fear of repercussions.  This is one of the few things that does in fact "give teachers voice," and this is what E4E wants to weaken or eliminate.

Seniority works in concert with tenure to protect teachers from arbitrary loss of employment.  In addition to termination due to reasons listed in statute, a teacher can also find themselves unemployed if the school district needs to layoff teachers due to declining enrollment and/or a decline in funds.  Requiring layoffs be done in reverse seniority order or "last-in-first-out" (LIFO), prevents administrators from discriminating with regard to layoffs.  In other words, they cannot layoff a teacher as a way around the due process guaranteed with tenure.  Again, E4E want to eliminate seniority (some argue for making it "one of a number of factors" in determining layoffs), but any weakening of seniority creates a way around the due process guaranteed with tenure.

Losing tenure and/or seniority protections would silence teachers.  This is the exact opposite of what E4E claims as its main goal.  All of these attacks on teachers and our unions are empowered by a misguided faith in meritocracy.  Young teachers are told they are being hurt by more senior teachers being "protected" even when they are "less competent."  They are led to believe that administrators, with standardized test scores, can objectively distinguish between teachers who are competent and teachers who excel.

Those who are truly concerned with ensuring that teachers have a voice and are able to speak up for their students, should stand with the teachers' unions.  Work to get rid of testing and "accountability" regimes that are really about dismantling public education, and defend tenure and seniority.  Then we can work together on behalf of all students, for racial and social justice.

Teachers and the public need to understand the real agenda of Educators 4 Excellence (E4E) and expose this group for what they really are - the sheep's clothing for the corporate education reform wolves.


Posted by: Rob Panning-Miller

Additional information on the origins of E4E's national organization can be found here:

http://raginghorse.wordpress.com/2011/01/29/educators4excellencebrought-to-you-by-the-insidious-arm-of-the-disgustingly-rich/

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Ravitch Friends Randi, Fiorillo and Many Others Object

Randi is just the mirror image of Michelle Rhee.  ... Mike from Texas, comment on Ravitch blog, My Friend, Randi Weingarten

Randi Weingarten is no friend of teachers, and has been at the center of virtually every catastrophe that has befallen us and public education in the past fifteen-plus years. ...She is part of the problem, and there will be no effective opposition to the hostile takeover of the public schools until she and her disastrous policies are repudiated by working teachers. ,,,, Michael Fiorillo, comment on Ravitch blog, My Friend, Randi Weingarten.

This comment is interesting in what it doesn't say: "who would folks prefer has Randi Weingarten’s ear: Diane Ravitch or ArneRhee&Co?" Randi as head of the AFT  should be leading the fight. Why should Diane have to compete for Randi's ear over ArneRhee? The very nature of the question is a condemning one. I too trust Diane who along with people like Leonie Haimson, a parent not a teacher, have led the fight that our supposed union leaders have abdicated. ... Ed Notes, comment on Ravitch blog.

Yes I do trust Diane and I have no problem with her being friends with Randi. Even now if I see Randi I am friendly. This is not personal as I always used to tell Randi but political.

Diane's post has gotten loads of comments, almost all unfavorable to Randi, from all over the nation. And for those who mistakenly think that her chosen successor Mike Mulgrew is trying to distance himself from Randi, those are just words, not action, designed to give a false impression.

Randi is triangulating, straddling the fence between ed deform and union leader, unwilling to fight them on every front. Witness the difference from the Chicago teachers.

Here is Michael's full comment - check all of them out and leave your own.

Michael Fiorillo
July 10, 2013 at 9:20 am
With all due respect, Diane, as a NYC public school teacher who has had to live under the consequences of her leadership, local and national, I must disagree with you about Randi Weingarten.

In 2002, the UFT under Randi’s leadership agreed to mayoral control of the schools, a policy it maintains to this day. Mayoral control has been the primary vehicle for destabilizing, taking over and privatizing public education in NYC, and has provided a national media stage for the untruths and deceptions based upon it. Towards that end, Weingarten frequently appeared at dog and pony shows where Bloomberg/Klein’s spurious test scores were touted to the public.

In 2005, Weingarten negotiated a contract that eliminated seniority transfers, whereby excessed teachers or teachers at closing/reorganizing schools were guaranteed positions at other schools based on seniority. It was that contract – which also eliminated teacher’s right to grieve letters to their personnel files – that led directly to the epidemic of school closings in recent years, since Bloomberg and his DOE apparatchiks could now close a school and compel teachers to re-apply for their jobs, and which has led to an army of senior teachers, many of them racial and ethnic minorities, being professionally destroyed.

The destruction of the neighborhood public school, one of the primary objectives of so-called education reform, was enabled and accelerated by this.

In 2009, Weingarten said and did nothing while Bloomberg used his fortune to overturn a term limits law that had twice been approved by NYC voters.

Later that year, she convened a union governance committee, on which I served, to develop alternatives to mayoral dictatorship of the schools, which was scheduled to either sunset or be re-authorized that year. While I and others developed a minority plan that involved much greater community involvement in the running of the schools, the leadership-approved plan would have been a marked improvement over what we have now.

But it was not to be, because Randi Weingarten, without consulting what is nominally the Union’s highest body, its Delegate Assembly, casually threw out that plan and unilaterally endorsed the re-authorization of mayoral dictaorship of the schools virtually unchanged. She actually had the nerve to publicly state at the time that mayoral control had brought stability to the schools.

Shortly after, she and her protege Michael Mulgrew sat on their hands and made no endorsement in the mayoral election, allowing Bloomberg to be re-elected when he was vulnerable to defeat. I assume they thought that by shutting up, they’d get a contract for us. But Bloomberg correctly read their weakness, and four years later we still have no contract, despite her protege’s having enshrined VAM, Common Corporate Standards and evaluation checklists in state law. Her protege and vizier in NYC, despite his faux tough guy persona, got nothing for those concessions.

Dozens and dozens of schools have been closed since then, affecting thousands of children and teachers.

I could go on and on: her coziness with Eli Broad, AFT-sponsored seminars on for-profit opportunities in education at the Aspen Institute, helicoptering in to cities and negotiating contracts, as in Newark, that use the pseudo science of VAM in teacher evaluations, doing nothing while politically-connected charter operators cannibalize public school facilities, egging on her own apparatchiks to boo teachers who opposed having Bill Gates as the keynote speaker at the 2010 AFT convention, while Gates returned the favor the following week by attacking our pensions.

Sure, Randi will write a letter, or get special treatment when arrested at a ritualistic, photo op demonstration protesting policies that she has enabled. Alll of that is misdirection and political triangulation, permitting her to point to a few chosen sound bites when overwhelmed teachers look to her for support.

It’s obviously not my place to question your personal friendships, Diane, but Randi Weingarten is no friend of teachers, and has been at the center of virtually every catastrophe that has befallen us and public education in the past fifteen-plus years.

She is part of the problem, and there will be no effective opposition to the hostile takeover of the public schools until she and her disastrous policies are repudiated by working teachers.

Lisa North adds:

That is she has done nothing to mobilize parents, students, teachers, and community members to organize the fight back it will take to push the privatizers out of public education and really create a strong well functioning school system. The AFT and NEA do have some of the resources to help make that happen. Missing in action.

Michael Pat D:

I would choose Ravitch also and basically trust her leadership and reproach of the ed deformers. BUT we are not out from under Randi. She is as powerful as ever. She has helped to procure some very bad contracts around the country as the President of the AFT as well as the disastrous ones here in NY. She has a strong finger, still, in NYC’s pie and she makes sure she keep Mulgrew in line. She is not our friend. Friends strengthen each other. They don't stab you in the back looking for their moment in the lime light. as Randi does by courting some of the major ed deformers. A friend fights alongside you for what is right. She is not “in our court.” Damage is still being done and Weingarten, unfortunately, is a major player in the cause.

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