CT News Junkie | OP-ED | Once You Get Past the Tweets, School ‘Turnaround’ Shortcomings Abound

Sarah Darer Littman talks about Vallas' "success" as a reformer.  In case after case, Vallas rides in, enacts a series of reforms and then rides away with hundreds of thousands of dollars and does not have to live with the consequences of his decisions.  In each case, the long term success of the school districts Vallas has "reformed" is non-existant.

CT News Junkie | OP-ED | Once You Get Past the Tweets, School ‘Turnaround’ Shortcomings Abound:

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New teacher evaluations linked to student outcomes approved | The Connecticut Mirror

Note: Allan Taylor is on the advisory board of ConnCAN.  He is also the chair of the SBE.

New teacher evaluations linked to student outcomes approved | The Connecticut Mirror: "The State Board of Education Wednesday approved teacher evaluation requirements that pave the way for up to a third of a teacher's grade to be linked to how his or her students perform on standardized tests.

The state's 50,000 teachers will also be evaluated on the results of announced and unannounced classroom observations and anonymous parent or student surveys, if their local school board decides to use surveys to fulfill the feedback requirement.

"This is probably one of the most important things we are going to be doing this year," Allan B. Taylor, the chairman of the state board, said before the unanimous vote."

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Teachers need support, not suspicion - Connecticut Post

Teachers need support, not suspicion - Connecticut Post: "Urban city teachers like me need to be supported, encouraged and empowered. Teachers like me have no malicious intent in our career choice; we have not arrived in this city seeking high salaries, vacations or the perks of the latest technology. We are here for the students, and the vilification of teachers is sorely misguided and truly trying my patience. Faced with the prospect of co-directing the Writing Project this summer, my damaged ego questioned the validity and competency of my qualifications. I needed to remind myself of my talent and commitment, of my sincere belief that the best teaching practices won't be squelched by the narrow view that test scores reveal all about a teacher's efficacy and passion. Here's to me then, and to all the hardworking teachers I know, and to a summer of writing to learn."

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A Chicago teacher's message | SocialistWorker.org

Recently, members of the Chicago Teachers Union voted to give the union the right to call a strike on their behalf.  Of those voting, 98% voted for a possible strike.  This article is one teacher's explanation why.

A Chicago teacher's message | SocialistWorker.org:

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Teachers Union Will Run New "Turnaround" | New Haven Independent

Teachers Union Will Run New "Turnaround" | New Haven Independent:

The HSC announcement also represents a return to roots of sorts for the national union. The late longtime AFT President Albert Shanker and his union were the original proponents of charter schools as a method of allowing experimentation in public education. But then unions largely became critics of charters when they concluded that corporate interests were using the idea to eliminate teachers’ rights and input into how schools are run.

....

“This is an exciting opportunity to have the school run by those who know how to do it best, the teachers,” stated AFT Connecticut President Sharon Palmer.

Teachers have had a lot of say in how HSC runs since its founding more than four decades ago as an experimental school. (The word back then was “alternative.”) It has always been teacher-run, at least day to day, in some fashion. At times teachers have rotated as HSC’s “facilitator,” rather than principal. The early versions of the school became the subject of a book by a former HSC teacher-turned academic named Edison J. Trickett.

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New Haven school to be union managed | AFT Connecticut

I'm curious to see how this works out.  Why shouldn't the union be more active in running schools?

New Haven school to be union managed | AFT Connecticut: ""Unlike charter school turnarounds which hand pick their students, HSC will keep its current students," said Cicarella. "We are returning to the roots of charter schools. Charter schools were made to be an incubator of change—not a separate system that creams kids from the traditional district."

"There are about eight or nine union-run schools nationwide, including in Denver and New York City." Cicarella added."

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Petition: Stop funding ALEC! | Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC)

Among other things, ALEC is instrumental in the current tred to privatize education.  They operate by giving money & "training" to legislators as well as writing legislation for them.  ALEC gets its money from major corporations.  The more who pull their money out of ALEC, the better for democracy.

Petition: Stop funding ALEC! | Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC): "BREAKING: Walmart, Amazon and now Johnson & Johnson have dropped ALEC over ALEC's union-busting, voter-suppression agenda. That makes 23 corporations and foundations -- plus 45 elected Democrats -- that have dumped ALEC.

Sign on the right to keep the momentum going!!

PETITION: "Stop supporting the American Legislative Exchange Council -- which spearheads state voter-disenfranchisement laws, union-busting laws, and the 'Shoot First' law that let Trayvon Martin's killer go free.""

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Hugh Bailey: Revolutionary reforms usually aren't - Connecticut Post

Hugh Bailey: Revolutionary reforms usually aren't - Connecticut Post: " the Board of Education's self-destruction and state takeover a year ago was ruled illegal by the state Supreme Court. The current board, whatever positive attributes its members might offer, is illegitimate, and should not be making decisions that will tie the hands of future boards.

But that's exactly what it's doing, rushing to put in place reforms that will be nearly impossible to undo without jeopardizing millions of dollars in funding. This is no conspiracy theory; it's Vallas' stated goal to lock his reforms in place before he jets off.

If charter revision passes and the mayor gets to pick his own school board, that will be what the voters decided. But we're not there yet."

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Charter Schools Discriminate Against Students with Disabilities - Yahoo! News

Charter Schools Discriminate Against Students with Disabilities - Yahoo! News: "With state exemptions, a charter school holds more financial and curricular freedom than traditional public schools. According to Huff Post Education, students are selected for admission to best fit the charter's philosophy, and it turns out that the charters are leaving one group out: students with disabilities.
The Government Accountability Office Report states that in 2009-2010, students with disabilities accounted for 11 percent of public school students, compared to only 8 percent of charter schools. This doesn't seem equitable. Do charter schools discriminate against students that aren't part of the mainstream population?"

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Make your voice heard. Public Education for all.

Tomorrow night, interim Bpt. Superintendent Vallas will be speaking at the Bridgeport Aquaculture Center.

Vallas represents the worst of the heavy-handed, anti-democratic, corporatist, trend to privatize public education.  His previous assignments as superintendent has left a wake of dismantled school systems in New Orleans and Philadelphia.  New Orleans school system has been handed over almost completely to charter schools and Philadelphia is in the process of closing 40 schools with another 6 to close each year until 2017.  These schools would be sold off to privately run, for profit charter companies which studies show are no more or less effective than similar traditional public schools over 80% of the time.

He represents the efforts of Malloy, Pryor, and groups like ConnCAN to privatize education here in Connecticut.  He has been very successful in other parts of the country.  Come out tomorrow night to show your support for public education.

http://jonathanpelto.com/2012/06/24/its-called-abuse-power/

The Bridgeport Takeover: The Level of Deceit is Shocking…

Wait, What? - Working to educate, persuade and mobilize through "perceptive and acerbic" observations about Connecticut Government and Politics:

Furthermore, the CT Post has now discovered that this unprecedented effort to block the will of Bridgeport’s voters has been in the works for months.

Going all the way back to October, 2011, the Malloy and Finch administrations were in discussions aimed at giving the state the power to appoint Bridgeport’s superintendent, in return for a short-term loan.  At one point the proposed loan was only $1.5 million.  As we now know, the loan amount ended up at the $3.4 million level.

The key player for the state has been Ben Barnes, Malloy’s Secretary of the Office of Policy and Management.  Barnes had previously worked for Malloy in Stamford and then took the post of finance director for the Bridgeport School District.  As finance director, Barnes was responsible for Bridgeport’s school budget.  As a result of inadequate funding and poor management, Barnes left a huge budget deficit in place when he moved on to become Malloy’s budget director.

Now, as Malloy’s OPM secretary, Barnes has positioned himself in such a way as to continue to play a major role in Bridgeport’s finances.

The public documents that the CT Post acquired show that the people involved in the wheeling and dealing included Barnes, Commissioner Pryor, Pryor’s chief of staff, Adam Goldfarb; former Bridgeport School Superintendent John Ramos, Mayor Bill Finch and some of Finch’s top aides.

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Wendy Lecker: Testing the learning right out of schools - StamfordAdvocate

Wendy Lecker: Testing the learning right out of schools - StamfordAdvocate: "Parents in Snohomish, Wash., kept 550 students out of recent state testing. Last week, hundreds of New York City parents and students protested outside the offices of Pearson, the testing company embroiled in scandals about faulty test questions.

More than 1,500 New York state principals signed a petition opposing the overemphasis on standardized tests and basing teacher evaluations on these tests.

The National School Boards Association's president wrote a letter to President Obama stating that the overreliance on high-stakes testing has put public education on the wrong track.

United Opt Out, a movement to opt out of high-stakes tests, is gaining traction.

On Monday in Westport, 100 Staples High School students protested basing teacher evaluations on test scores. Some wore labels bearing scores and percentages instead of their names."

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EMERGENCY NEWS FLASH: Legislature Voting on $3.5 Million Loan to Bridgeport/Collateral is Ed. Comm. picks superintendent. - Wait, What?

EMERGENCY NEWS FLASH: Legislature Voting on $3.5 Million Loan to Bridgeport/Collateral is Ed. Comm. picks superintendent. - Wait, What?: "The Connecticut Legislature is voting to give Bridgeport a $3.5 million loan but the “collateral” is Commissioner Pryor gets to pick their superintendents.

At this moment, the Connecticut House of Representatives is debating H.B. 6001, AN ACT IMPLEMENTING PROVISIONS OF THE STATE BUDGET FOR THE FISCAL YEAR BEGINNING JULY 1, 2012.

Hidden at the very end of the bill is one of most incredible provisions I’ve ever seen.

Section 292 of the 297 section bill “loans” the City of Bridgeport $3,500,000 to cover their budget deficit this year and takes the money from funds that had been set aside to fund schools in other parts of Connecticut.  The only requirement is that the Governor Malloy’s Education Commissioner, Stefan Pryor, gets to choose Bridgeport’s superintendent."

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Here is the text of a letter I sent.  Feel free to copy & paste:

I have become aware of a section of HB 6001 which will give the SDE Commissioner the right to unilaterally select the superintendent of schools of Bridgeport in exchange for a $3.5 million loan to bridge a budget gap. I'm writing to encourage you to remove this language from any bill as the language is tantamount to blackmail which lends credibility to an illegally appointed board of education and gives increased power to one who is ethically challenged.

One of the reasons why Bridgeport would have a budget shortfall is because the state has failed in its duty to fully fund an adequate public education system in Bridgeport and other urban areas. The ECS fund which is to assure parity in education has been underfunded for years, placing an undue burden on already financially stressed communities. To now blackmail them into accepting these terms in order to gain access to the funds which they should already have access to is criminal.

In addition, placing that much unilateral and unaccountable power in the hands of Pryor is reckless given his recent demonstration of ethics. Pryor has spent his short tenure at the head of the SDE using funds allotted to SERC, the non-profit arm of the SDE, to feed funds to his previous connections while circumventing Connecticut's laws. His end-run around statutes created to eliminate the graft of previous administrations should be investigated and he should be removed from office, not granted additional powers.

Eliminate this language from the bill or vote the bill down.

NYC Parents Boycott Standardized Tests | TeachHUB

NYC Parents Boycott Standardized Tests | TeachHUB: "Teachers aren't the only ones speaking out against the negative impact of test-driven education. This spring, New York City parents organized a boycott among parents who don't approve of the focus on state tests.

Involved families provided faculty and administrators with notes explaining that their children would sit out the exams. While the movement may be NYC-specific, the impact has reached well beyond the city and state borders. Educators and parents are coming together to make their voices heard in education policy.

Two parents involved in the movement, Jeff Nichols and Anne Stone, shared this letter on the NYC Public School Parents blog. The letter provides a general overview of the testing boycott and the reasons why parents oppose the standardized testing "obsession.""

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What Progressives Can Do To Stop the War on Public Education

Diane Ravitch and other supporters of public education speak about what we can do to stop the march to privatization.

Watch live streaming video from fstvnewswire at livestream.com

Timothy D. Slekar: Advice for Teachers' Unions

Timothy D. Slekar: Advice for Teachers' Unions: "So what should a supporter of unions do when the unions fail to communicate effectively with local communities and endorse corporate driven reforms that will simply devastate public schools? It is going to take individual stands from union rank and file members -- openly challenging union positions that do not support children, teachers, and communities.

Rank and file members must first help their neighbors understand that collective bargaining benefits the children and the community school. When children and schools benefit, the entire community thrives. Union members must insist that union leadership take a strong stand against the Common Core curriculum and the use of VAMs. These corporate reforms will not only hurt the profession, they will hurt children and community public schools. Union members must then insist that the unions protect members that take these individual stands."

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The Obama Campaign Wants to Know « Diane Ravitch's blog

The Obama Campaign Wants to Know « Diane Ravitch's blog: "A reader told me that she received an email from the Obama campaign asking her how the administration’s education policies have affected her.

I received the same email, as have, I assume, thousands or millions of others.

So, yes, please tell the campaign how Race to the Top has affected you.

"

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The Message From Wisconsin - NYTimes.com

The Message From Wisconsin - NYTimes.com: "When Gov. Scott Walker moved to strip Wisconsin public employees of their collective-bargaining rights last year, a few weeks after taking office, it was clear that he wasn’t doing it to save the state money. If that had been the case, he would have accepted the unions’ agreement to pay far more in health care and pension costs. His real goal was political: to break the unions by demonizing their “bosses,” ending their ability even to collect dues and removing them as a source of money and energy for Democrats."

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Walker Survives Wisconsin Recall Effort - NYTimes.com

Walker Survives Wisconsin Recall Effort - NYTimes.com: "The result raised broader questions about the strength of labor groups, who had called hundreds of thousands of voters and knocked on thousands of doors. The outcome also seemed likely to embolden leaders in other states who have considered limits to unions as a way to solve budget problems, but had watched the backlash against Mr. Walker with worry.

 Some Republicans said they considered Mr. Walker’s victory one indication that Wisconsin, which President Obama won easily in 2008 and which Democrats have carried in every presidential election since 1988, may be worth battling for this time."

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TEACH: Teachers Are Talking, Is the Nation Listening

TEACH: Teachers Are Talking, Is the Nation Listening

Date: 

Sun, 06/10/2012 - 5:00pm - 8:00pm

Please join us for the Connecticut premier of "TEACH: Teachers Are Talking, Is the Nation Listening."

Teachers Robert and Yvonne Lamothe, co-producers/directors, utilized the voices of teachers to express the ills that  are affecting our educational system throughout our country. Robert and Yvonne will be on site to field a discussion and Q&A session at the end of the screening.

TEACH was unanimously voted into the Boston International Film Festival as a "fearless" documentary and received the Indie Spec Best Cinematography Award. Please visit the Teach documentary website for details. http://www.teachdocumentary.com

This film is about those who don't usually get heard. Many educational movies that distort the truth and promote a business view of education have millions of dollars to promote their misinformation about education. This self funded documentary features conversations about the art of teaching and learning. 

TEACH  brings an important perspective to the national educational debate that is currently being dominated by a corporate led agenda to privatize and profitize education and blame teachers for everything that is wrong with education in this country. This movie takes on many questions about No Child Left Behind, high stakes testing, unequal distribution of education resources, and schools dominated by data driven curriculum instead of providing an education that is dynamic, creative, exciting, and joyful.

Pizza and other refreshments will be served. Donations will be gratefully accepted and DVDs will be on sale for your distribution and independent showings.

Unitarian Meetinghouse

50 Bloomfield Avenue

Hartford, CT

John Thompson: Secretary Duncan Owes an Apology to Teachers

John Thompson: Secretary Duncan Owes an Apology to Teachers: "Duncan should also apologize for his heavy-handed micromanaging of local policy. He created incentives for spending much (or most?) SIG and RttT money on computer systems, tests, and consultants. He has said nice things about full-service community schools and even provided a few meager grants that would fund the socio-emotional interventions and the early education that are required to overcome intense concentrations of poverty. At a time when those researched-based best practices are being cut, however, Duncan is lavishing funds on performance pay and the test-driven infrastructure that it requires. He again revealed where his heart is when a New Haven teacher said, "No one becomes a teacher to get rich." Duncan replied, "we're working on that.""

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ConnCan Cluelessness « School Finance 101

ConnCan Cluelessness « School Finance 101: "In their response to my Think Tank Review of Spend Smart: Fix Our Broken School Funding System,  ConnCan asserts that I claim that Connecticut’s school finance formula is not broken.  (see: http://ht.ly/4BknI)
As I state in my report, it’s not that the formula is not problematic, but that ConnCan fails to make any reasonable case that it is – even though it is. Their analysis is simply too shoddy, weak, incompetent to validate that it is broken, or how it is broken. "

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Wendy Lecker: ConnCAN: big influence, bad scholarship - StamfordAdvocate

Wendy Lecker: ConnCAN: big influence, bad scholarship - StamfordAdvocate:

Why does ConnCAN advocate this weighting system?

To benefit charter schools, of course. The majority of Connecticut's charter schools serve very few students with disabilities, very few ELL children and serve more children who qualify for reduced-price lunch versus those qualifying for free lunch. If a system ignores these factors, then charters will receive money that public schools with lower-income children and more ELL children and children with disabilities deserve under a model that accounts for these need factors.

These are only some of the distortions ConnCAN employs in order to push a funding scheme that benefits only charter schools.

Why should we care about the fake reports published by ConnCAN? Because ConnCAN wields an unhealthy amount of power in Connecticut.

School funding reform was last addressed during the 2011 legislative session. ConnCAN unsuccessfully pushed its funding reform in the state Board of Education, then wrote a bill advocating the same scheme that was introduced, and defeated, in the Appropriations Committee. In his testimony opposing the bill, the governor's OPM secretary, Ben Barnes, noted that only one organization had input in the bill: ConnCAN.

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For the sake of public education, Walker has to go - JSOnline

For the sake of public education, Walker has to go - JSOnline: "In the world according to Walker, the best way to reform public education is to demoralize its teachers, attack the teachers' union and hand over more taxpayer dollars to privately managed charters and voucher schools.

He is wrong on every count. In his role as governor, he has a constitutional duty to preserve, protect and strengthen the state's democratic institutions. He has violated that trust by his ongoing efforts to undermine public education, which is a cornerstone of our democracy.

As a conservative, he should have done his best to strengthen the public schools, not tear them down. Conservatives don't blow up traditional institutions. His approach is radical, not conservative.

As the state's leader, he should have set a good example and thanked the teachers who do the public's work every day. Regardless of what the contract says, the typical teacher works 11-12 hours every day, preparing the next generation to take their place as citizens and workers. But instead of acting as a leader, Walker spent the past two years as the state's bully-in-chief, showering the state's teachers with disrespect and blaming them for the ills of an unequal and unjust society."

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