Mark Naison On The Money Paying For Union Demonization

From Mark Naison:

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25, 2014

The Staggering Amounts of Money Spent to Show Teachers and Teachers Unions are to Blame for Inequality

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As the wave of anti-tenure lawsuits are about to move from California to NY and other states where teachers unions are strong, it would be instructive to think about the staggering amounts of money very wealthy people have spent to demonize teachers unions, teachers and public schools. In addition to the tens of millions poured into campaigns for local school boards, and into mayoralty races to make sure the "reform" strategies of charter school favoritism and test based school and teacher evaluations are to prevail, millions have also been poured into a documentary "Waiting for Superman" and a full length Hollywood Film "Won't Back Down."  And that was followed by a multi-million dollar billboard campaign against teachers unions featuring a twenty foot high picture of AFT President Randi Weingarten mounted in Times Square!

If anyone bothered to compute the amount of funding that has gone into these campaigns and these films, I am sure the amounts would go into the hundreds of millions of dollar, perhaps into the billions.  Which begs the questions Wouldn't this money have been better spent on funding arts programs  and after school centers in schools in  high poverty areas?  Or reducing class size? Or increasing the number of librarians and school counselors? But no, it has all gone into what is basically a giant propaganda campaign against teachers unions

Now with these lawsuits, millions more are going to be spend on this campaign, even if some of the legal expertise is going to be donated pro bono. Doesn't anyone here have a sense of proportion? A sense of irony?

This is a huge, even criminal waste of money at a time when so many public school budgets are being reduced, and when class size is rising, and vital services are being cut.

Something to think about as the witch hunt against teachers unions moves into a new phase

AFT is Considering Withdrawing Support For Common Core

Randi Weingarten

Randi is a media bug. When public opinion goes in a certain direction for more than a week or two, she goes along. I'm of the opinion that this is better than totally not listening, right?

I just have one question. Randi - what's that furry thing in front of you???

Betsy Combier

Teachers union takes on Common Core

LINK

Some analysts view such militant rhetoric as a cynical move, designed to rally support for dismantling the testing and accountability frameworks — such as A-F letter grades for public schools — that have been put in place over the past decade by a bipartisan group of education reformers. They argue that unions see tough accountability standards as a threat to members’ jobs and are fanning public outrage to build support for an abrupt change in national policy.

 

“The unions try to create dissatisfaction through their public relations campaign, by arguing that these things are extreme and excessive,” said Terry Moe, a political scientist who studies education politics at Stanford. “They are pretty successful at creating trouble for reformers.”

When it comes to Common Core, both the NEA and the AFT have long — and avidly — backed the standards, which are designed to guide instruction in math and language arts from kindergarten through 12th grade. Both have taken money from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to promote the standards.

The NEA declined to revisit the issue at its convention in Denver earlier this month.

 

But the AFT, which is meeting in Los Angeles, has set aside an hour on Sunday for a no-holds-barred floor debate. That could yield a momentous vote to denounce the standards altogether, said Karen Lewis, president of the Chicago Teachers Union, which is already on record opposing the standards.

 

Even if the union continues to endorse the Common Core, the plan to give teachers grants to rewrite or critique the standards sends a clear message, activists said.

 

“This is a huge step because this time last year, they were gung-ho for Common Core,” said Mark Naison, a history professor at Fordham University who helped launch the Badass Teachers Association, which represents thousands of NEA and AFT members eager for their unions to take a more militant stance against the standards and the education reform movement. “The AFT realizes which way the wind is blowing.”

 

The grant program does not need a vote from the membership to take effect. Union officials say they expect to begin distributing grants worth about $20,000 to $30,000 this fall. Local and state affiliates are eligible for the grants; AFT officials are encouraging applicants to build coalitions with parents and civic leaders, though teachers are supposed to lead the work.

 

In an ironic twist, the grant money will come from the AFT’s Innovation Fund, which until recently was supported by the Gates Foundation. Weingarten bowed to members’ anger at Bill Gates earlier this year and stopped accepting his foundation’s money for the Innovation Fund. The fund is now replenished with member dues and grants from the Ford Foundation and Atlantic Philanthropies, AFT officials said.

 

The Council of Chief State School Officers, which helped write the standards, declined to comment on the AFT’s moves to undercut the Common Core.

 

Michael Brickman, national policy director for the Fordham Institute, which backs the standards, said he hoped the AFT leaders would minimize damage to the Common Core movement by tempering their rhetoric. The draft resolution put forward by the executive committee does list some benefits of the standards, which aim to push students to think more analytically and read texts more critically.

 

“If they continue to speak positively for standards, that’s a positive,” Brickman said.

Brickman said he understood the anger surging through the AFT and NEA. “The unions in general,” he said, “have not had the best 2014 so far.”

 

Indeed, it’s been a tumultuous year for the teachers unions, which represent a combined 3.8 million workers and retirees. (Most are in the education field, but the AFT, which has sought to grow through diversification, also represents nurses, maintenance workers, public defenders, lifeguards and others.)

 

The judge’s ruling striking down tenure and other job protections in California was a major blow. The unions will appeal the ruling. But in the meantime, activists are laying plans for copycat lawsuits in other states.

 

A national public relations campaign against tenure is in the works, too — and is being led by a firm founded by two former Obama spokesmen. That development has left many teachers feeling betrayed by their longtime allies in the Democratic Party.

 

To bolster the union’s coffers for the legal and political battles to come, the AFT leadership is asking members to support a two-stage dues hike that would add $5.40 a year to their bills this year and another $6.60 in 2015.

 

Most of the increase would go toward the “militancy/defense fund” and state and national “solidarity funds,” which support litigation, political activism and lobbying.

 

“Unionized teachers are feeling very vulnerable,” Menefee-Libey said.

 

In both conventions, Darling-Hammond said she sees a plea for respect and engagement from an administration that has brushed aside some union priorities and belittled some union positions. Both conventions are sending the same message, she said: “We have serious concerns. Take our concerns seriously.”

Michael Rebell: The Anti-Tenure Lawsuit In NYC Will Fail, and Why

Why the anti-tenure lawsuit will fail 

For one, New York laws are much different than California's

BY MICHAEL REBELL 

 

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

 

Monday, July 7, 2014, 4:30 AM

LINK

Campbell Brown

A few weeks ago, a judge in California struck down the state’s teacher tenure and seniority-order layoff laws. Even though the ruling has not yet been reviewed by the California Supreme Court — which may well reverse it — there already is a strong copycat effect, as groups in a number of states, including New York, have announced plans to file similar lawsuits in the near future.

 

I doubt that a New York version of the California suit will succeed. And though some liken it to an earlier lawsuit I filed, which secured the promise of more equitable funding for city schools, the parallel is misguided.

 

I was the attorney for the plaintiffs in Campaign for Fiscal Equity vs. New York, the landmark case in which, in 2006, the state’s highest court ordered the governor and the state Legislature to increase funding for the public schools by billions of dollars to ensure all students their right to a decent education.

 

Since that decision was issued, I have been repeatedly tagged as an advocate of “judicial activism” by conservatives, who have expressed outrage at the courts’ ordering the state to spend more money on the schools. They argue that such judicial orders usurp executive and legislative authority and violate the constitutional separation of powers.

 

Now, these very same conservatives are rushing to ask the courts to wade into the weeds of legislative policy decisions to an extent that would dwarf anything that the courts have done in the school-funding arena.

Move past the hypocrisy to the merits, and those filing this New York case stand on even shakier ground.

 

First of all, the tenure laws in California are markedly different from those in New York and most other states. The tenure statute at issue in California essentially require the school authorities to make a decision on a candidate’s permanent right to employment after a novice teacher has been on the job for only 18 months - and before a mandatory evaluation process has been completed.

 

The law in New York, as well as in the vast majority of other states, requires at least a three-year probationary period. The New York Legislature also recently enacted a major new personnel evaluation system for the purpose of improving the quality of the teaching corps and identifying poorly performing teachers more effectively than the procedures that were used in the past. The long-term results of that reform are as yet unknown.

 

Second, the New York Court of Appeals has repeatedly emphasized its respect for the separation of powers and the importance of courts avoiding “intrusion on the primary domain of another branch of government.” It made an exception to this pattern of deference in regard to education funding because of language in the Constitution that guarantees all students the opportunity for a sound basic education.

 

In a companion case involving claims of racial segregation in the schools that the court decided on the same day as CFE, judges made clear that they were not willing to extend the protections of the concept of “sound basic education” to other types of alleged discrimination.

 

Third, there is no clear evidence that eliminating tenure and seniority layoffs will result in a more effective teaching corps or more equal access to quality teaching. Certainly, there are ineffective teachers in our schools, and they tend to work in the schools attended by low-income and minority students.

 

But tenure arguably promotes stability in the teaching force, values experience and may well be an incentive for recruiting capable individuals for what is still a relatively low-paid profession. Tenure may also shield skilled teachers from politically or ideologically motivated retribution in an education system that has become increasingly politicized.

 

The California judge did not consider all these factors in making his decision. I believe the New York courts will.

 

Rebell is a professor of law and educational practice at Teachers College, Columbia University.

NYC DOE and UFT Pick The Pro Se Schools For 2014-2015...All the Others, Fugetaboutit

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 7, 2014

N-01, 2014-15

CITY SCHOOLS AND UFT ANNOUNCE 2014-2015 PRO SE SCHOOLS	 UFT Mike Mulgrew, NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio, Chancellor Carmen Farina

 

62 Schools Selected as Part of the New Progressive Redesign Opportunity Schools for Excellence Program (PROSE)

link

NEW YORK – Chancellor Carmen Fariña and UFT President Michael Mulgrew today announced the schools selected to participate in the Progressive Redesign Opportunity Schools for Excellence (PROSE) program for the 2014 – 15 school year. The PROSE program was established as part of the new contract between the UFT and the DOE to allow schools to implement innovative plans that fall outside of the Chancellor’s Regulations or UFT contract. All 62 schools voted to implement innovative plans as part of the PROSE program for the 2014 – 2015 school year.

 

Staff members of these schools created a range of plans, including staggering the school day to meet student needs, changing contractually required student-to-teacher ratios to allow for a combination of small group learning and larger lecture-style classes, and using portfolios of instructional strategies to help rate teachers. In close collaboration with their teachers, school leaders in PROSE schools will drive continuous innovation as they look to change some of the basic rules and regulations under which they have historically operated.

 

"Real change happens when educators are empowered to develop the best, tailored strategies to help their students succeed," said Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina. "At dozens of schools across the city, these educators have come forward with new, innovative practices that can serve as a guide for all of our school communities and brighten the classroom experience for every child."

           

“I’m proud of the New York City public school system and all the schools that took part in the PROSE program,” said United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew. “Innovations like this will move education forward not just in New York, but around the country. Teachers, principals, parents, and the entire school community working together will truly advance education.”

 

“We are opening up dozens of schools to innovation. We want to empower school communities to work together and come up with new ways to reach students,” said First Deputy Mayor Anthony Shorris. “The teachers’ contract we secured this spring wasn’t just about respecting our educators, it was about transforming education in this city.”

 

Chancellor Fariña, UFT President Mulgrew and First Deputy Mayor Shorris launched PROSE by inviting all public schools to submit a letter of intent indicating their interest in applying.  Following the May 1 contract deal, 107 schools submitted proposals to be part of the program. All proposals were reviewed by a joint panel comprised of representatives from the DOE and UFT. Proposals were voted on by UFT staff in those schools, and proposals receiving 65% or more votes were approved. Ultimately, 62 were approved.

 

The Department’s academic support teams will continue to work with these schools closely in the coming weeks to ensure that the proposals can be implemented successfully in a short time frame. Ensuring high quality learning environments is always the priority, and the Department will support these schools to make sure that any changes benefit teachers and students, and comply with all relevant State regulations.

 

Among the approved plans:

 

Community Health Academy of the Heights

Community Health Academy of the Heights serves grades 6-12 and provides a wide range of social services for their students and families and voted to create a schedule to match the developmental and practical needs of individual students. The staff also voted to explore innovative food sourcing options for their students, including purchasing from local and sustainable vendors.

 

“Community Health Academy of the Heights is excited to be a part of the PROSE initiative as it creates space for us to think outside of the box, try something new, something innovative, and ideas we have read about from colleagues throughout the US or internationally. The PROSE model gives us a chance, in a thoughtful way, to experiment with alternatives.  We are excited to see the result of our new initiatives,” said Principal of Community Health Academy of the Heights, Mark House.

 

School of Integrated Learning

This middle school serving high-need students in Brooklyn voted to provide more individualized attention, particularly for its at-risk students, by changing student-to-teacher ratios to create a balance of small group instruction with large lecture classes.

 

“We are excited about this opportunity to create a learning environment which is flexible and which considers the best for our students and teachers. We anticipate a powerfully productive PROSE experience,” said Principal of the School of Integrated Learning, Monique Campbell.

 

The Brooklyn International High School

At this school for recently arrived immigrant students who are first-time learners of English, the staff is aspiring to make adjustments to the teacher evaluation system by developing a teacher portfolio that includes peer visits, formal observations, and professional development experiences—in essence a performance-based assessment system for teachers that mirrors the school’s innovative performance-based assessments for students.

 

“We are happy to be a member of the PROSE program and believe that it will allow us to support our teachers in their efforts to innovate and hone their craft, thus providing additional opportunities and benefits to our students,” said Pamela Taranto, Principal of Brooklyn International High School.

 

Complete List of Schools Selected

 

Brooklyn

Brooklyn Democracy Academy

Brooklyn International High School

Brooklyn New School

Brooklyn School for Collaborative Studies                             

East Brooklyn Community High School

Expeditionary Learning School for Community Leaders         

Gotham Professional Arts Academy

Kurt Hahn Expeditionary Learning School

Lyons Community School

Mark Twain Intermediate                                                        

Olympus Academy High School

P.S. 188 - The Michael E. Berdy School

The International HS at Prospect Heights                                                                              

The School of Integrated Learning

 

Bronx

Bronx Arena High School                                                       

Bronx Collaborative High School                                            

Bronx Community High School                                              

Bronx High School for Law and Community Service              

Bronx Lab School

Bronx Park Middle School                                                      

Bronx Writing Academy

  Community School for Social Justice

Comprehensive Model School Project

East Bronx Academy for the Future                                        

English Language Learners and International Support Preparatory Academy            

Fannie Lou Hamer Freedom High School                                

KAPPA International High School                                           

Pan American International High School at Monroe                

The Bronx Compass High School                                            

The Highbridge Green School                                                 

 

Manhattan

Academy for Software Engineering                                         

Beacon School

Castle Bridge School                                                               

Central Park East II                                                                  

City as School High School

Community Health Academy of the Heights (CHAH)                                   

East Side Community School

Essex Street Academy

Frank McCourt High School                                                  

Harvest Collegiate                                                                                         

Humanities Preparatory Academy                                           

Innovation Diploma Plus HS

Institute for Collaborative Education

Manhattan International High School                                      

NYC iSchool                                                                           

PS 353 The Neighborhood School

Satellite Academy High School

The Earth School                                                                                                       

The Ella Baker School

The Facing History School

The James Baldwin School                                                      

Urban Academy Laboratory High School                                

Vanguard High School

West Side Collaborative Middle School                                            

 

Queens

Academy for Careers in Television and Film                          

International High School                                                        

Middle College High School at LaGuardia Community College        

North Queens Community High School

PS71 Forest Elementary                                                                     

The Flushing International High School                                   

The International High School for Health Sciences

Voyages Preparatory South Queens                                         

 Contact:  Chancellor’s Press Office (212) 374-5141

 

Deputy mayor, Anthony Shorris, announces 62 schools to participate in a program called PROSE.

62 schools approved for innovation program

BY LINDA OCASIO | PUBLISHED JULY 8, 2014

LINK

More than 60 schools have gotten the green light to innovate on such things as school schedules, student-teacher ratios or teacher evaluations under a new initiative established by the UFT contract.

The 62 schools are the first selected for the new Progressive Redesign Opportunity Schools for Excellence or PROSE program, which gives teachers a real voice in decision-making to try strategies that vary from certain contract rules and Chancellor’s Regulations.

“This is something I would have loved when I was a teacher,” UFT President Michael Mulgrew said at a press conference Monday with Chancellor Carmen Fariña and Deputy Mayor Anthony Shorris to announce the selected PROSE schools. “Innovations like this will move education forward not just in New York, but around the country.”

After the UFT’s June 3rd contract ratification, 107 schools met tight deadlines to submit PROSE proposals put together by teachers, principals, parents and community leaders. A joint panel of UFT and DOE representatives reviewed all of the submissions and selected proposals based on the quality of the plans and whether they were the product of collaboration at the school levels.

Proposals were then voted on by UFT staff in the schools, with only those approved by at least 65 percent winning selection to the program. At a third of the schools voting, the decision was unanimous in favor of the PROSE proposal. At half, 95 percent or more of staff approved the innovations. The vast majority had votes of 80 percent or more in favor.

Among the selected schools, the plans include: changing student-teacher ratios to allow for a combination of small group instruction and lecture-style classes; setting a later starting time for high school students; and using teachers’ portfolios of instructional strategies in teacher evaluation.

Mulgrew and Fariña praised the enthusiasm of teachers in the winning schools, noting that many spent their Saturdays working on the proposals. 

Information about the schools’ progress with their innovations will be shared widely. “We want to communicate with other schools about how it works.”

Fariña said, “Real change happens when educators are empowered to develop the best, tailored strategies to help their students succeed.”

Shorris agreed. “The idea was to break the rules. We can create change that is meaningful to kids.”

Rob Karp, chapter leader at the Community Health Academy of the Heights where the press conference was held, said his school’s PROSE plan is to set up three lunch periods instead of two to better accommodate the school’s 600 students in grades 6 through 12.  Starting times will also change — to 8:45 a.m. for the school’s high school students and 8 a.m. for the middle school students.  Students will have the same dismissal time marked by one bell, not many.

“There will be no more distractions in the hallways with people leaving at different times,” Karp said. “It’s about providing stability and routine.”

In addition to the new schedule, Principal Mark House hopes to use the PROSE plan to encourage dietary changes for students. The school will explore new sources of nutritious food for the cafeteria, he said. “We should be able to go into our own kitchens to cook healthy food.”

PROSE schools

Brooklyn

Brooklyn Democracy Academy
Brooklyn International High School
Brooklyn New School
Brooklyn School for Collaborative Studies                          
East Brooklyn Community High School
Expeditionary Learning School for Community Leaders      
Gotham Professional Arts Academy
Kurt Hahn Expeditionary Learning School
Lyons Community School
Mark Twain Intermediate                                                      
Olympus Academy High School
P.S. 188 - The Michael E. Berdy School
The International HS at Prospect Heights                                                                    
The School of Integrated Learning

Bronx 

Bronx Arena High School                                                    
Bronx Collaborative High School                                          
Bronx Community High School                                            
Bronx High School for Law and Community Service            
Bronx Lab School
Bronx Park Middle School                                                    
Bronx Writing Academy
Community School for Social Justice
Comprehensive Model School Project
East Bronx Academy for the Future                                      
English Language Learners and International Support Preparatory Academy          
Fannie Lou Hamer Freedom High School                              
KAPPA International High School                                        
Pan American International High School at Monroe              
The Bronx Compass High School                                          
The Highbridge Green School                                                  

Manhattan

Academy for Software Engineering                                      
Beacon School
Castle Bridge School                                                            
Central Park East II                                                                
City as School High School
Community Health Academy of the Heights (CHAH)                                
East Side Community School
Essex Street Academy
Frank McCourt High School                                                
Harvest Collegiate                                                                                      
Humanities Preparatory Academy                                        
Innovation Diploma Plus HS
Institute for Collaborative Education
Manhattan International High School                                    
NYC iSchool                                                                        
PS 353 The Neighborhood School
Satellite Academy High School
The Earth School                                                                                                    
The Ella Baker School
The Facing History School
The James Baldwin School                                                    
Urban Academy Laboratory High School                              
Vanguard High School
West Side Collaborative Middle School                                             

Queens

Academy for Careers in Television and Film                        
International High School                                                      
Middle College High School at LaGuardia Community College      
North Queens Community High School
PS 71 Forest Elementary                                                                  
The Flushing International High School                                
The International High School for Health Sciences
Voyages Preparatory South Queens