A Question To The NYC Department of Education: Who Are You Kidding When You Deny Knowing How Many Students Are Attending School?

 NYC Mayor wins a "Who Are You Kidding Award" for 2021. Bill DeBlasio, as Mayor of the City of New York,  has control over the New York City Department of Education which is out of control. Ergo, Chancellors Richard Carranza and Meisha Porter win the Award along with Mayor De Blasio. 

I gave the Award to Eric Adams in 2022:

The "Who Are You Kidding Award" Goes To Mayor Eric Adams

UPDATE: We should include NYC Chancellor David Banks. We now give the Who Are You Kidding Award to him, Mayor Eric Adams - and everyone in the offices of power in NYC 2024.

Congratulations to all!

Betsy Combier, Editor of NYC Rubber Room Reporter and Founder of The Who Are You Kidding Award.

You can reach Betsy at: betsy@advocatz.com

Mayor Bill de Blasio gives a news conference outside Phyl's Academy, Wednesday, March 24, in the Brooklyn borough
of New York. (Mark Lennihan/AP)

The NYC DOE is not kidding. They REALLY mean that they do not want any bad data to be made public. This might make the NYC Department of Education look bad. I mean, look worse.

Here is what I think, courtesy of Rick Kick, Editor (you should buy this book!):

I have given the "Who Are You Kidding Award" to several Chancellors:

The "Who Are You Kidding??" Award Goes To: Joel Klein, New York City Board of Education Pretender

NYC Department of Education Wins the "Who Are You Kidding Award" After Losing Gifted and Talented Entry Exams

The 2016 "Who Are You Kidding Award" Goes to Carmen Farina (for the second time) and Mayor Bill de Blasio

The Second "Who Are You Kidding Award" Goes To Dennis Walcott

Betsy Combier

President and Founder, ADVOCATZ
betsy.combier@gmail.com
Editor, NYC Rubber Room Reporter
Editor, Parentadvocates.org
Editor, New York Court Corruption
Editor, National Public Voice
Editor, NYC Public Voice
Editor, Inside 3020-a Teacher Trials

Are you kidding? The NYC DOE’s embarrassing negligence on basic student attendance and enrollment data

By DAILY NEWS EDITORIAL BOARD

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS |

OCT 09, 2021 AT 4:10 AM

The new academic year’s fourth week has just ended, yet America’s largest public school system still refuses to report the number of students in attendance. Preliminary numbers are promised at the end of the month, supposedly earlier than ever before, and that the public should be grateful for getting that much data that quickly.

Really?

Every weekday, the Department of Education delivers, and Mayor de Blasio boasts about the attendance rate — 87% on Thursday — without any numerator or denominator. Is that 87% of 1.1 million students, the pre-COVID tally? Is it 87% of last year’s 960,000, which included more than 600,000 fully remote learners? Or 87% of a much smaller number? The first week of school, the DOE told us it was too early because too many families were still settling in. While there may be some volatility, it’s been a month.

Meanwhile, only Wednesday did educrats reveal the number of kids whose parents have let them get COVID tests — a critical data piece of information, since a random 10% is swabbed weekly, with results triggering partial and full classroom closures. Of roughly a half-million elementary-age students, just 192,705 have signed forms — meaning we’re getting a very incomplete picture of COVID inside schools.

While we’re on the subject, last week came news that only about 300 medically vulnerable kiddos are getting at-home learning (there’s no remote option anymore, just limited at-home instruction for at-risk kids who qualify). That’s a tiny fraction of the 3,000-5,000 Schools Chancellor Meisha Porter expected. Why have these 300 been getting just an hour a day of instruction, far less than what remote learning provided last year? The DOE says it’s rolling out longer-day, small-group instruction for some of these youngsters. Why only now, and why can’t kids get one-on-one for more than an hour a day?

The City Council is mulling bills by Mark Treyger demanding the DOE publish basic indicators. If the mayor signs it, it won’t take effect for another 30 days. New Yorkers deserve the truth now. It’s embarrassing we even have to say this.

NYC Department of Education Wins the "Who Are You Kidding Award" After Losing Gifted and Talented Entry Exams

In 2005 we started giving out the "Who Are You Kidding" Award to people or agencies that commit fraud, or assist in creating or promoting fake news.

The 2016 "Who Are You Kidding Award" Goes to Carmen Farina (for the Second time) and Mayor Bill de Blasio

Carmen Farina Wins the 2015 WHO ARE YOU KIDDING? Award as the "Best Talent" the World Has, To Run the NYC DOE  

The Second "Who Are You Kidding Award" Goes To Dennis Walcott

The "Who Are You Kidding??" Award Goes To: Joel Klein, New York City Board of Education Pretender 

The NY POST's article (below) tells us that the New York City Department of Education has lost the entry tests of 61 kids who applied to Gifted and Talented Programs in NYC.

Oh, how convenient is this? The NYC DOE hates G&T Programs, and believes that 'all children can learn' and G&T programs are discriminatory and divisive. Every child should get the same curriculum, and can succeed at the nice average middle (not incapable of doing the work, but not too bright so that there are boredom pranks).

Mr. Carranza: is anyone looking for the missing documents?

Betsy Combier
Editor, ADVOCATZ.com
Editor, ADVOCATZ blog
Editor, Parentadvocates.org
Editor, New York Court Corruption
Editor, NYC Rubber Room Reporter
Editor, NYC Public Voice
Editor, National Public Voice
Editor, Inside 3020-a Teacher Trials 


NYC parents frantic after DOE loses Gifted and Talented program entry exams

City parents are livid after the Department of Education lost the entry tests of 61 kids applying to advanced academic programs and schools.

A total of 12,834 4 and 5-year-olds kids took the Gifted and Talented exam in January to vie for admission to coveted district and citywide programs.

But dozens of applicants who took the exam at PS 89 Liberty School in Tribeca didn’t get their scores last month when the DOE released results.

After weeks of evasion, the DOE finally admitted that they had lost the crucial tests in a May 15 email to parents.

Officials said UPS lost the exams while transporting them to a testing vendor for scoring.

With Gifted and Talented placements scheduled for release next month, impacted parents said their children will be unfairly cut out of the competition.

“The degree of incompetence and lack of transparency are really disconcerting,” a Chelsea parent said.

Sharon DeWitt of Tribeca ripped the DOE’s handling of the bungle.

“They went weeks before finally admitting they lost the test,” she said. “Finally, on May 15, boom, ‘we lost your score,’ that’s it, with no gameplan. Many families plan their family life around this test.”

A DOE spokesperson said it will attempt to offer make up exams but acknowledged that the coronavirus is complicating that effort.

“We immediately informed families when we found out UPS lost these tests and will offer retests as soon as it is safe to do so,” said Katie O’Hanlon. “Placement results will still be released in June but these families will still have the option to enroll in a G&T program if they qualify.”

But parents wondered how their kids would qualify without having  a chance to take the test in time.

“In the 15 years I’ve been doing this, I’ve never heard of scores being physically lost — with no trace,” said city education consultant Alina Adams. “This is new and exciting for a DOE screw up.”

Parents often expend time, money and energy preparing their kids for the exams.

“They’re grief-stricken and they don’t know what to do.” Adams said.

Roughly one in four test takers score high enough to qualify for a spot. But due to demand, only a fraction of them eventually secure seats via lottery.

Detractors of the Gifted and Talented system argue that young children should not be taking standardized tests to determine their educational future.

Backers assert that advanced children should be placed in appropriately rigorous academic environments.

Prohibit The Department of Education Lawyers From Using The Danielson Rubric For Observation Reports and 3020-a Arbitration

ok, enough is enough. We have to get our New York State legislature to put a stop to the use of the Danielson rubric to charge teachers with criminal conduct if, during a 15-minute observation, there isn't a perfect teaching performance and if all the little - or big - student angels are not sitting in their seats glued to the lesson materials, learning everything.

Anyone who has ever read my blog, this one, or posts to my website Parentadvocates.org, know that I firmly believe there is something very wrong with the way teachers are observed, rated, and charged with 3020-a for incompetency (as well as misconduct, but that is another article).

Using the 15-minute informal observation to create a paper trail of incompetent teaching which are solely hearsay and/or opinions, is, in my opinion criminal and opens the DOE to lawsuits. The 15-minute observation is, as a helpful tool, ok, but DONT ALLOW A RATING!!!!!

The strange phenomenon I have followed all these years is the creation of so-called 'factual evidence' from an observation report written by a principal with malice towards the teacher (who is simply too pretty, too good at what they do, too outspoken, knows too much, too expensive, etc. to keep on the school budget) and "sees" incompetency in the 15-minute observation allowed in the Danielson Rubric. I've heard that even Charlotte Danielson herself is pretty upset with the use of the rubric in the manner that the DOE is using it:

Danielson Framework criticized by Charlotte Danielson

Tedmorrissey.blog

Charlotte Danielson

The Department policy is, a teacher must show the gamut of each section perfectly, 100% of the time, no exceptions, in 15 minutes. Absurd.

Who are they kidding?

The 2016 "Who Are You Kidding Award" Goes to Carmen Farina (for the Second time) and Mayor Bill de Blasio

The "Who Are You Kidding?" Award Goes To: Joel Klein, New York City Board of Education Pretender

Carmen Farina Wins the 2015 WHO ARE YOU KIDDING? Award as the "Best Talent" the World Has, To Run the NYC DOE

The Second "Who Are You Kidding Award" Goes To Dennis Walcott 

We need to stop the rating of teachers after a 15-minute flyby. A teacher should be observed, and evaluated. But must be done according to fair rules and honorable intentions. I suggested in 2010 that the UFT set up a process of using video twice a year, in September/October and May/June to see exactly what a teacher's skill set is, in order to set up a tailored plan to improve the areas least efficient. We really do not need to criminalize a spanish teacher who does write lesson plans but cannot write in English when given a full year as a science teacher. Do we?

Principals say that if they saw it, it is a fact. And, as I've said and written here before, see below, when an Arbitrator believes that what the principal saw is the fact of the case, that's the problem with these hearings.

Kings County Supreme Court and the Second Department Appellate Division say, an observation has no facts and is simply an opinion. My very good friend Harvey Elentuck's case still controls this "fact": observations are opinions and have no data or statistics:

See Elentuck v Green, Supreme Court, Second Appellate Division, 202 A.D.2d 425; 608 N.Y.S.2d 701; 1994 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 1956 (1994))

Thus no one may obtain observation reports under the Freedom of information Act (FOIA) nor are observations business records. So, DOE Attorneys, stop submitting these reports at 3020-a as facts, or as business records when you dont bring in the person who wrote it and want someone else to testify about the content. Yucky, very yucky.

Why Observation Reports Should Not Be Used To Terminate a Tenured Employee by Betsy Combier

The NYC Department of Education Teacher Observation Scam 

Observations are Now Punitive, Replacing Rational Conclusions of Fact

The Issue Of Observation Reports And Using These To Punish and Terminate Teachers

A NYC teacher's observations on how the Danielson rubrics are being (mis)used

What About Observers Having No Teaching Experience?

The Peer Validator Scam

The New Evaluation Process Fails UFT Members; The Case of Mike Mullen

USEFUL RESOURCES FOR OBSERVATIONS AND EVALUATIONS

Know Your Rights: Observations and Evaluations

Teaching for the 21st Century

Chief Executive Memorandum #80

Rating Pedagogical Staff Members

Definitions of formal and informal observations

 New York Teacher news story on new evaluation and improvement plan for teachers

UFT President’s Perspective on the new evaluation and improvement plan

New York Teacher Q & A on New Teacher Evaluation Plan

Betsy Combier
 betsy.combier@gmail.com
Editor, NYC Rubber Room Reporter
Editor, Parentadvocates.org
Editor, New York Court Corruption
Editor, National Public Voice
Editor, NYC Public Voice
Editor, Inside 3020-a Teacher Trials

The 2016 "Who Are You Kidding Award" Goes to Carmen Farina (for the Second time) and Mayor Bill de Blasio

Is anything the Department of Education Chancellor Carmen Farina says or writes, true?
Michael Goodwin, NY POST, February 12, 2017:

A scandal Blas can’t dig out of

The rule of holes applies to Mayor de Blasio: When you’re in one, drop the shovel.

Not Mayor Putz. He keeps digging.

Up to his eyeballs in criminal investigations over slush funds and favors to big donors, de Blasio is planning to raise even more money to pay his defense lawyers.

Get this — his law firm is also a lobbyist that reportedly represents dozens of real-estate developers with business before City Hall.

The mayor says the firm, Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel, has been racking up costs for months but has not been paid a cent. That means he is deep in debt to a law-firm lobbyist.

There are other potential conflicts, too. Is the mayor getting a favorable fee rate? Why would anyone not a personal friend pay his legal bills?

Remember, too, that some fund-raising at the heart of the criminal probes allegedly took place in Kramer Levin’s office.

The mayor keeps digging just as he is about to meet with federal prosecutors. He calls the meeting “voluntary,” but that’s probably only technically true.

The meeting could be a last chance to stave off criminal charges. Which is why it makes zero sense for him to add to the smell of corruption with his sketchy legal-bill scheme.
Then again, he is who he is.

De Blasio touts record-high public school graduation rate

The Latest Scandal For Chancellor Carmen Farina: Renewal High School Plans Fail

David Suker Wins His Job Back and an Award of More Than $250,000 Back Pay For The Mistakes of the NYC Department of Education and the Gotcha Squad

Attorney Michael Francis: Suborning Perjury at 3020-a

The Arbitrary Use of Power Can Be Seen in Who the DOE Decides Must Be Terminated, Without Consideration of the Facts

We don't think so. Either the DOE sends out fake reports on re-assigned teachers, the number of ATRs, the so-called "success" of Renewal Schools, the giving of services to special education providers, etc., etc., or the say "no comment" and give nothing (Freedom of Information data, personnel records, disciplinary reports of SCI, and any other statistic or memo which might make them look bad).

Therefore, I, as President of the E-Accountability Foundation, give the 2016 "Who Are You Kidding Award" to Carmen Farina and her close ally Mayor Bill de Blasio, for spreading fake news about everything that the Department does, and permitting her employees to lie cheat and steal from the public both our money and our trust.

They are not getting away with it.

Previous Winners:
The "Who Are You Kidding?" Award Goes To: Joel Klein, New York City Board of Education Pretender

Carmen Farina Wins the 2015 WHO ARE YOU KIDDING? Award as the "Best Talent" the World Has, To Run the NYC DOE

The Second "Who Are You Kidding Award" Goes To Dennis Walcott 

Congratulations Carmen and Bill!!

Betsy Combier
betsy.combier@gmail.com
Editor, NYC Rubber Room Reporter
Editor, Parentadvocates.org
Editor, New York Court Corruption
Editor, National Public Voice
Editor, NYC Public Voice
Editor, Inside 3020-a Teacher Trials

The building that houses FDNY HS, which has a college readiness rate of just 1.9% last year, despite graduating 83% of its students.

High graduation rates no guarantee kids are ready for college

By Melissa Klein and Susan Edelman

Despite a rising citywide graduation rate, the number of students with the skills to succeed in college is alarmingly low — even at some schools that hand out the most diplomas, a Post analysis found.

College readiness sunk to 1.9 percent last year at the FDNY HS for Fire and Life Safety in Brooklyn, which had an 83 percent graduation rate in 2016, city reports show.

The school, which has about 335 students, topped the list of high schools run by the Department of Education with the widest gap between graduation and college readiness rates, The Post found.

UFT President Mike Mulgrew, NYC Chancellor Carmen Farina, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio

Mayor de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña cite the city wide 72 percent graduation rate as evidence that schools are improving. Rarely noted — only an average 37 percent of students graduate ready for college.

That wide gap suggests some NYC high schools hand out sheepskins too freely to inflate their success.

“These disparities raise questions that need clear explanations,” said David Bloomfield, a Brooklyn College and CUNY Grad School education professor.

He said the system has long been plagued by ways to “game the graduation rates” such as quickie make-up work for students who fail courses.

But he added, “Looking at whether students enter and stay in college also needs to be examined to gauge whether the readiness rate is accurate.”

College readiness is determined when students earn minimum scores on standardized tests such as a 75 on the English Regents exam and 70 on the Common Core Math Regents exam or a minimum 530 on the math SAT or pass certain math courses. Students who meet these thresholds are expected not to need remedial help at CUNY.

City Comptroller Scott Stringer highlighted the issue in a report last September showing that college readiness rates fell at 16 percent of city schools between 2011 and 2015, with the lowest levels in the Bronx and Brooklyn.

Nearly 80 percent of New York City high school grads who enrolled as freshmen at a CUNY community college in the fall of 2015 needed remedial help in math, reading and writing, the report found.

The Post reported last month that Bronxdale HS in Allerton had a 76 percent graduation rate in 2016, but a 4 percent college readiness rate.

But the stats are even worse at other schools such as Urban Assembly HS of Music and Art in Brooklyn, which boasted a 82.5 percent graduation rate but only 3.8 percent of the senior class was college ready.

FDNY HS aims to prepare students for college and careers in EMS or firefighting.

Hollis Moore, 16, an FDNY junior from Queens, said he felt the instruction was good, but that not all of his peers were studious.

“I’m serious about it,” said Moore. “Most of them just play around.”

Another junior, Gregory McMullen, 16, of Queens said the “teachers are great,” but “some kids actually want to do good and some kids don’t.”

The school, one of four housed in the former Thomas Jefferson HS in East New York, admits the shortcomings in its educational plan.

“Despite our successes with graduating students, we still struggle with the amount of students showing significant scoring increases on the Math and English Regents exams,” the plan says. “The area of focus for this issue is going to be rigorous instruction.”

The DOE said the school this year started offering three Advanced Placement classes to better prepare kids for college.

Officials insisted that measures of college readiness, including college enrollment rates, are at record highs. “And we are making unprecedented investments to keep increasing them,” said DOE spokeswoman Devora Kaye.

The DOE lists college readiness rates on annual school “quality snapshot” reports posted on its web site.

Many charter highs also fared poorly, but cited glitches in the data. The New Visions Charter HS for the Humanities in the Bronx had an 86 percent graduation rate with a college readiness rate of 1.2 percent.

A New Visions spokesman said the DOE did not count students who had certain math credits, and its readiness rate is higher than reported — although still far below the city average. The charter network did not notice the lapse until contacted by The Post.

Data analysis by Joshua Tanzer