Daniel Katz prepares secondary school teachers at Seton Hall University. He knows the importance of having highly qualified professionals in every classroom, especially in urban districts where many students need extra support and individual attention.
In this post, he expresses his bafflement that the SUNY Charter School Committee is considering a plan to permit charter schools to “certify” their own teachers and bypass the rigorous standards now expected of public school teachers.
Katz describes in detail what a farce this proposal is. Even SUNY faculty are incensed that their knowledge is belittled by a governing committee–the charter committee–that consists of three lawyers and a CEO, all appointed by Governor Cuomo.
This proposal is not only an insult to the teaching profession, it insults the African-American and Hispanic families who have a right to expect that their children will be taught by professionals, not inexperienced amateurs.
The New York Board of Regents must stop this travesty. Now.
All children in the state deserve a qualified teacher.
If you are outraged, send an email to the SUNY Committee.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Ed reformers finally realize their “movement” is ridiculously skewed towards charter schools:
“LA school board prez: Charters don’t have the “secret sauce” on quality & “we have to stop pretending that they do”
It’s really glaring to anyone outside this exclusive club. They are relentlessly and wholly negative towards public schools and they cheerlead charters.
Someone should notify the US Department of Education. They spend all day promoting charter and private schools and bashing public schools too.
They aren’t “agnostic”- they’re anti public school and pro charter and all one has to do is read anything they write or listen to anything they say.
Maybe the tide is turning and they’ll tone down the pro-charter marketing effort. It’s deceptive and it’s unfair to children who attend public schools.
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Here’s a typical gushing piece in charter schools from the ed reform “movement”:
“Denver’s DSST charter schools are one of the nation’s premiere secondary school networks. Led by longtime CEO Bill Kurtz, DSST has expanded steadily in Denver and was recently approved to open a new campus in neighboring Aurora, Colorado. He talked with us about DSST’s success and took a broader look at the nation’s charter and choice landscape.”
Try to find anything on any of their sites that is even remotely positive about a public school.
You won’t find it.
You know, I don’t mind when lobbyists push an agenda- that’s their job. The US Department of Education shouldn’t be engaging in pro charter propaganda like this, however, and they are.
They are relentlessly negative to public schools – EVERY public school- and they promote charters daily.
I don’t want to pay 2400 federal employees for a marketing campaign, pushing their preferred “sectors”. I’m sick of it. Whoever told federal employees that their job was to bash public schools and promote charter schools was wrong. That is NOT their job.
http://educationpost.org/coffee-break-denver-charter-school-leader-bill-kurtz-on-finding-the-right-brew-of-quality-access-and-integration/
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“No teacher cert for charters?”
No requirement?
No surprise
Cuomo hire meant
No surmise
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The proposal says an uncertified teacher can certify another teacher. It says UNCERTIFIED teachers can certify other teachers!
Now, I realize hostile takeover forces think they are trying to change out the engines of the plane while at 30,000 feet, but they should at least have a certified pilot who was trained by a certified pilot, not by an Uber driver. I sure wouldn’t want to fly with a New York charter. Not friendly skies!
This is one result of thinking test scores are accurate without large enough sample sizes. The blind leading the blind.
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“Certifying the uncertified”
Our program should be certified
It really is insane
The public should be mortified
We really have no brain
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Daniel Katz,
Teachers don’t need to have credentials or formal certification any more than airline pilots, plumbers, and neurosurgeons. What’s the big deal?
Stop whining . . . . This is America. Get with the program.
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SUNY Charter Institute has been co-opted ever since Pedro Noguera resigned in 2012.
To remind everyone — state law mandated that charters serve at-risk students.
But Eva Moskowitz was very anxious to expand into affluent neighborhoods — most likely because people were starting to notice that her schools in poor neighborhoods serving at-risk kids had high attrition and suspension rates. When the SUNY Charter Institute allowed her to change a charter from a very poor district to a very affluent one, AND immediately drop priority for at-risk kids, Noguera recognized that the SUNY Charter Institute had morphed from trying to serve at-risk kids to trying to enable charters to do anything they wanted to get good results and expand with no oversight as long as the test scores with the remaining students were high.
Since Noguera’s resignation, the SUNY Charter Institute has gone hog wild enabling Eva Moskowitz to do anything she wanted with no oversight. Want a 3rd school in wealthy District 2? Of course! Want to cancel that 3rd school in wealthy District 2 because some public school parents got the press to notice? No problem! (Well, it turned out to be a problem because SUNY got caught breaking its own rules but that’s another story).
Want to have high suspension rates for at-risk Kindergarten and first grade children and go on national tv to justify the many suspensions by implying so many non-white 5 year olds are extremely violent in your charters? No problem! Want to illegally release a child’s private school records to show he is a violent 6 year old instead of a child acting out because your inexperienced teachers were well-trained in how to humiliate children and knew nothing about addressing their needs? No problem!
Want to have a got to go list? No problem! Want to cover up high attrition rates and make sure SUNY never demands data on how many original lottery winners go missing by 3rd grade (some replaced by older lottery winners who are pre-tested and told they can’t join their grade unless they score high)? No problem. Want to flunk a child over and over again and “suggest” the parent find another school for him? No problem!
Want your 10 schools’ charters renewed a year or 3 years early by SUNY? No problem.
Want to use more uncertified teachers who won’t rock the boat when Charlotte Dial shows them the MODEL teacher skills in how to rid yourself of “unworthy” children who Success Academy doesn’t really want to teach? No problem.
I am surprised that Daniel Katz expresses ANY bafflement about the SUNY Charter Institute’s actions. They have been complicit for years.
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“I used to be disgusted — Now I’m just amused”
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danielkatz2014,
I really appreciate the research you do. I wish you could get a journalist to look closely at the SUNY Charter Institute’s actions over the last 5 years. There used to be video of the October 2014 meeting where they embarrassed themselves in their attempt to do the bidding of Eva Moskowitz. Joseph Belluck, especially, and the Executive Director Susan Barker (??) were appalling. They pretended that the reason there were empty seats was a “glitch”! Because the school got a location “late” (despite at the same time claiming that Success had “thousands” of students on wait lists all over the city as if those parents had disdained attending a school in a very rich neighborhood with affluent children.) It was poppycock as was their slight nod to looking into whether huge charter chains are serving their share of high needs students. I guess 3 years later they are still “thinking about” looking into it.
In April they were caught trying to renew 10 Success Academy charters much earlier than was proper and claimed the they “did it all the time”. One wonders how much time they spend doing oversight since all they care about is the % of students who make it to 3rd grade who pass tests. Attrition, suspension of kindergarten children, got to go lists, “model” teachers who punish 6 year olds who don’t know the right answer is something that SUNY refuses to be concerned with as long as the kids who DO make it to 3rd grade have high scores.
I guess it takes a bunch of lawyers and a corporate man to think that is the result that tells you whether a charter is doing a good job. I suspect that the members of the committee would never allow their own child to take a medication to cure their serious illness knowing that the manufacturers did a test of it on 100 kids and the 50 who got even sicker and dropped out were left out of the results. I’m sure if their kid DID take that medicine because they believed in the same 100% success that SUNY accepts when it comes to charters but was one of the 50% who got even sicker, the SUNY committee would be quite angry at the corrupt oversight that told them this drug was a miracle cure without mentioning how many kids failed to do better and dropped out of the study.
It is appalling that SUNY promotes Success Academy’s methods without doing their legal oversight to make sure the “success” is not as manufactured as the rest of us know it is. See no evil. Just like the Republicans in Congress when it comes to Trump. They have a lot in common.
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But the charter model of “hire em, burn em out and discard em” won’t work in VAST swathes of the country.
Moskowitz requires an endless supply of college educated applicants. Most places just don’t have that to draw on.
New teachers are DISFAVORED by parents where I live- the parents complain if they are assigned a new teacher. They believe the teacher is inexperienced and therefore worse than a teacher with experience. The “newer is better” idea is maybe limited to charter parents?
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Yes, yes, yes: Success Academy. Granted, their enrollment represents just over one-fifth of the total enrollment of SUNY-approved charters. And fortunately for us, Moskowitz is a big-mouth poser, so the pro’s & con’s of her schools can be debated publicly.
But what about the other four-fifths SUNY-approved charters? Who are they and where are they in NYS? And how does this outrageous SUNY proposal to dumb down their teachers affect them?
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Most charters in NY State are in NYC. There are relatively few anywhere else and the biggest supporters of them in Albany live in parts of the states with few charters. It’s all about telling NYC what to do, which is absurd on the face of it.
SUNY does what the powerful charters want, just like Cuomo does. The other ones may object, but they will almost never speak out against the charter leaders with power who want something.
I doubt we will hear if any don’t think this is a great idea. I’m sure they rationalize that they can choose to use certified teachers themselves so why worry about what other charters do. That’s the position that charters take when it comes to whether charters should be allowed to suspend as many kindergarten children as they want. They don’t suspend 5 year olds themselves so why worry about enabling other charters to do so — it’s not their concern and they can always claim that SUNY is trustworthy as their excuse for their complicity in allowing this to happen.
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I can’t find any discussion of the cuts to public schools in the Trump budget compared to the House budget.
I know public schools are a dead-last priority in DC and they’re all busy promoting private school vouchers but since 90% of US kids attend public schools one would think someone in the federal government could let us know if they’re cutting federal money to public schools again.
Was there a single advocate for US public school kids at any of these high-level meetings? Seems like 90% of kids should have at least one adult advocate in DC.
Freaking ridiculous. They spend 90% of their time on 10% of “choice” students.
I want an advocate FOR public schools. Public school children deserve one, and they should have one. They are poorly represented.
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Accoeding to this article in WaPo yesterday, GOP House proposes to cut funds to public ed by less than 1/3 the cuts proposed by Trump: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/gop-house-members-seek-to-cut-education–but-not-nearly-as-deeply-as-trump-proposed/2017/07/12/dae740c0-6723-11e7-9928-22d00a47778f_story.html?utm_term=.5ed56805ca56
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“The Charter Attitude”
Qualifications?
Certifications?
Regulations?
Zero patience
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Accepting Relay’s training in order to teach in a charter school in New York is another step towards deprofessionalizing teaching. As Jersey Jazzman has stated, these teachers are limited to charters….for the moment. It is a process of normalization that we have experienced with charters. First, we had to accept “non-profit” charters, then for profit charters, and now we are being told to accept vouchers in their various duplicitous forms. If the charter lobby pays the right people, it is possible these fake credentials will be accepted in public schools in the future, particularly if the state adopts depersonalized learning on a large scale. Authentic teachers will not be needed; tech clerks from Relay will be ready, willing and able to take over the disposable low paying jobs.
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But as Jersey Jazzman states, a teacher accepting certification by the charter [under the SUNY-proposed plan] is shooting him/herself in the foot:
“It seems to me that the charters are sabotaging themselves in the long run to solve a short-term problem. If a prospective teacher knows that a “no excuses” charter is the cul-de-sac of her career, she may decide her future prospects are too bleak to ever consider working in one, for even a few years. How is that charter then going to attract the workforce it needs? Yes, it might be more likely the charter can retain a teacher once they hire her under SUNY’s scheme. But will they be able to hire enough teachers in the first place?
“I came to the conclusion a while ago that the charter sector, as it is currently configured, is not going to be able to sustain itself for much longer if it continues on its current growth trajectory. But a plan like this may well hasten the halting of the sector’s expansion. Without more teachers willing to work longer hours for less pay and less control over their classrooms, the charters can’t offer longer days and years, and smaller class sizes, for their students. The advantage disappears; the model falls apart.”
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I guess the BS the DeVos is giving about choice and better education is total BS if they’re allowing not certificated teachers in the classrooms. I do know that DeVos is certifiably bat $hit crazy.
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Actually, BDeVos gave a clear signal on this issue during her confirmation hearing. She was pressed on whether voucher schools [i.e. privately run schools paid in full or part by public taxes] would be held to the same accountability stds as pubschs– she demurred.
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Low socio-economic kids “need a different type of teacher”… i.e. a graduate of the Relay G.S.E. (Graduate School of Education)… according to one of Relay’s proponents.
Sometimes it is within an article’s COMMENTS section that corporate ed. reformers reveal themselves “not wisely but too well,” to quote The Bard.
(In one COMMENTS section, Dmitry Melhorn owned up to the fact that, yeah, we ARE, IN FACT, out to wipe out all traditional public schools .. something denied repeatedly by corporate reformers such as Secretary Devos, who instead lie their heads off and claim that they seek an idyllic “family of schools” — private, traditional public, public charter — all co-existing in peace and harmony. Yeah, right. You mean like they have in New Orleans?)
For example, a Relay G.S.E. supporter got into it with Denver’s Jeanne Kaplan — and one other person calling himself “CONCERNED EDUCATOR” — in the COMMENTS section of an article covering Relay’s expansion into Denver. Alas, this Relay person deleted all of his/her COMMENTS before I arrived at the article and its COMMENTS section.
This article included quotes from both Relay G.S.E. supporters and opponents:
http://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/co/2016/09/13/new-teacher-training-favored-by-charters-comes-to-denver-as-critics-sound-off/
First of all, in the COMMENTS section, this “Relay Proponent” kind of let some cats out of the bag with what he/she posted, then deleted everything that he or she posted (with quote remnants present in the Comments responding to him or her. I’m calling this poster “Relay Proponent” as her or she deleted her on-line handle along with his/her posts.)
Check out this doozy (an actual quote) that includes Relay Proponent’s claim that Relay pedagogy should only be used in poor communities, not in wealthy communities:
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RELAY PROPONENT:
“Kids from less affluent areas are typically raised in a much different household than those in affluent households. Moreover, those kids raised in affluent households in most cases need less teaching and structure and more flexibility.
“If they’re in an affluent family, they likely have educated parents, and are being afforded opportunities in their family life to learn.
“Kids from impoverished areas? Not so much. They need structure in their classroom. They need to be reminded to track and listen to the teacher most likely.
“They need a different type of teacher.”
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Oh boy, this got Relay critic CONCERNED EDUCATOR riled up:
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CONCERNED EDUCATOR:
“I want to just point out that, by placing students of low socio-economic status in this light, you have highlighted a very important gap that we are perpetuating by allowing the language of Relay (G.S.E) to continue.
“Yes, students who grow in homes with severe trauma need specific psychological structures and interventions in place, because their brains function differently, and have been altered by the toxic stress.
“However, NOT ALL STUDENTS IN POVERTY HAVE GROWN UP IN TOXIC STRESS ENVIRONMENTS. Making this assumption lowers our expectations, and devalues those students. You are making assumptions that devalue children, and Relay perpetuates that.
“We can value the culture of our students without assuming that culture is negative.
“In addition, assuming that our impoverished children ‘need’ a negative, controlling structure creates prison-like environments, where we do not teach critical thinking skills or self-awareness, but lock children into negative patterns of thought and behavior.
“We also perpetuate the opportunity gap, because we are denying students the opportunity to have the education that wealthy white students have, simply by making the assumption that ‘those students need structure.’
“ALL CHILDREN NEED STRUCTURE. ALL children also deserve the opportunity to have an education that prepares them to excel to their greatest potential, which does not mean treating them like prisoners.
“Relay perpetuates this cycle of creating sub-par education for students, based on the excuse of ‘those kids’ (always meaning children in poverty and non-white children) needing more ‘structure’. SOME students with trauma need more specific interventions, but ALL children deserve the chance to be a child.”
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RELAY PROPONENT, in another deleted COMMENT of his/hers, then incorrectly claims that Relay students attend Relay G.S.E. “to earn their Master’s Degrees.”
Jeanne Kaplan’s replies that Relay G.S.E. most certainly does NOT award accredited “Master’s Degrees.”
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JEANNE KAPLAN:
” ‘To earn their master’s degrees…’
“Teachers (attending Relay G.S.E) cannot acquire a Master’s Degree because the ‘Relay Graduate School of Education’ is not a certified Graduate Program.
“The (Relay G.S.E.) ‘degree’ is bogus.
“Students are being taught by unlicensed people.”
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In another deleted comment (which I’m reconstructing, using inferences drawn from Jeanne Kaplan’s reply to her … sorry no exact quotes this time) RELAY PROPONENT replies to Kaplan’s accurate statement — Relay G.S.E. is not accredited, and thus can issue not legitimate “degreets” — by saying that traditional teaching programs are all failures according to the data, and that research proves that Relay alone works with low income children. RELAY PROPONENT claimed that Kaplan has “no research” proving the efficacy of traditional teaching programs, and that any data that Kaplan could offer to the contrary comes from “biased resources”, again, according to RELAY PROPONENT.
Again, from Kaplan’s response, it can be inferred that, in making his/her point, “RELAY PROPONENT also called Kaplan names, and insulted Kaplan (again, no quotes, just reasonable inferences from what Kaplan replied … I’d love to know exactly what “names” that RELAY PROPONENT called Kaplan… if you’re reading this, Jeanne, please chime in.)
At this point, Jeanne Kaplan simply ain’t havin’ it.
Kaplan also wants to know if Relay is paying rent at the Denver public school building where it holds it courses:
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JEANNE KAPLAN: (to RELAY PROPONENT)
“Who are you?
“Identify yourself, at least. I could say the same about you. I could also call you names. That is the MO of most ‘debates’ in America today.
” ‘Biased resources.’ Only you ignore data that shows repeated failure.
“As for no research — I beg to differ. I have actually talked to people who have undergone the Relay (G.S.E.) indoctrination. Some have quit. Many have ended up
in great debt.
“I ask again : is Relay paying rent?
“And please don’t take the chicken way out and not identify yourself. Transparency is another trait lost in ‘education reform.’ ”
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Relay Proponent didn’t just “take the chicken way out” and not identify himself/herself. He/she deleted everything which he/she had earlier posted.
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Sending Relay grads to work in charter schools filled with minority children sends the wrong message. It is a step in the creation of separate and unequal school systems, and I thought the United States was against promoting this type of inequality. It sends the wrong message to black and brown students. It tells them they are unworthy to have an authentic more costly teacher like white students. It says, “We are not willing to invest in your future.” Of course, it helps the bottom line of charter chains that are looking to reduce costs to increase profits. No wonder the NAACP called for a moratorium on charter expansion! The NAACP should protest SUNY’s “sell out.”
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Thanks for that input. Pretty outrageous. So how does a Relay diploma relate to a ‘real diploma’? Is it supposed to be equivalent to a BA or MA, & is it accredited? [& if so, by whom?]. & who are these ‘Relay graduates’ ‘certified’ to teach? Could they get a job in a pubsch?
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Success Academy leader Eva Moskowitz and her fellow Success Academy brass such as Paul Fucularo do not even believe in the existence of Special Ed. disabilities. Success Academy administrator Paul Fucaloro is a man whom Eva publicly touted as her primary role model as both an educator and administrator. Fucaloro claims that any alleged disability ascribed to a child was or is just the result of bad parenting. He also claims that a primary goal of Success Academy is to turn children into “little test-taking machines.”
For the money quote from Fucaloro, a quote that shows how Success Academy leaders view and treat special ed. children, go to this otherwise celebratory article: (7th paragraph on the page)
http://nymag.com/news/features/65614/index4.html
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“At Harlem Success, ‘disability’ is a dirty word.
“ ‘I’m not a big believer in special ed,’ Fucaloro says. For many children who arrive with individualized education programs, or IEPs, he goes on, the real issues are ‘maturity and undoing what the parents allow the kids to do in the house—usually mama—and I reverse that right away.’
“When remediation falls short, according to sources in and around the network, families are counseled out. ‘Eva told us that the school is not a social-service agency,’ says the Harlem Success teacher. ‘That was an actual quote.’ ”
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However, Eva must put SOME credence in a special ed. disability diagnoses. Indeed, whenever any parent of a diagnosed special ed. child (i.e. one who has an I.E.P.) shows up at her door — after winning the Success Academy lottery — Eva or one of her underlings turns away both the parent and child.
“We can’t accommodate your child.” or in other words, “Get lost!”
For example, this video from a parent describing such an experience is telling:
JAYBEE SMALLEY: “My name is Jaybee Smalley. I’m a parent, yes. I have two children with special needs. I have one child who I applied to the Harlem Success Academy through the lottery process to see if she could be… would be accepted.
“When she WAS accepted through the lottery, I reached out to them (Harlem Success Academy) before I attended any sort of a orientation to see if they would be able to accommodate her I.E.P. She has a 12-to-1-to-1 I.E.P. for a year-round program, with four different related services.
“They didn’t respond to me through email at all.. and finally, after the second meeting had come, I called them —- I had a very difficult time getting through to them —- Before I could get the words ’12-to-1-to-1′ out of my mouth, they immediately told me that they would absolutely not be able to accommodate that sort of child in their school.”
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I’ve been posting a riveting video repeatedly, one showing pro-public-school parents confronting a shill — proselytizing for Eva Moskowitz’ SUCCESS ACADEMY — who accosts parents and children as the enter and leave their public school, P.S. 261. I even discovered the on-line job listing for the job that this “Shill-Meister” is doing. Please indulge as a I post some of this here:
==============
Eva from Success Academy has the audacity to send her winged monkey recruiters to lurk outside traditional public schools — some of them upscale, well-regarded schools with top-notch faculty — and accost parents bringing their kids to school. They then tell them every lie, scare tactic, and phony promise they can, to get contact info, so they can poach these students.
There’s a great video of public school parents and students at a more upscale part of New York City confronting one of Eva’s Shill-meisters. The recruiter appears to be losing an argument to what looks like a 4th or 5th grader (which I guess is a credit to the school that it produces such brilliant students who can debate off-the-cuff with adults like that.) A renown teacher, Jamie Fidler, is in this debate as well.
I finally got around to making a transcript of this… riveting stuff:
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( 00:29 – 1:22 )
( 00:29 – 1:22 )
PUBLIC SCHOOL CHILD: ‘So you don’t have to prove it when you say that it (Success Academy) is ‘the best elementary school in New York State’ ?”
EVA’S SHILL-MEISTER: “No, I don’t have to prove it. I have- ”
PUBLIC SCHOOL CHILD: “So how can you just rely on somebody’s word?”
EVA’S SHILL-MEISTER: “Someone else rated it. I can’t … I can’t re-run every experiment that’s done. I can’t re-run every rating system.“
TEACHER/PARENT JAMIE FIDLER: “No, but- “
EVA’S SHILL-MEISTER: “I have to accept- ”
PUBLIC SCHOOL CHILD: “Can you each time just research people who says who your quoting pro-noy(?) ?”
EVA’S SHILL-MEISTER: “Boy, everything I say -?”
TEACHER/PARENT JAMIE FIDLER: (to the CHILD) “Yeah… That is SUCH a GOOD point.”
EVA’S SHILL-MEISTER: “So everything I run into. .. I can’t… I have to … I can’t just accept an outside expert’s … conclusion?”
TEACHER/PARENT JAMIE FIDLER: “Well, if you make a statement like it (Success Academy) is ‘the best school in the state’, you kinda need to be able to back it up with SOMETHING.”
EVA’S SHILL-MEISTER: “I’m repeating… Yes, and they-“
PUBLIC SCHOOL CHILD: “You can’t even tell us WHO is saying this (i.e. Success Academy is “the best school in New York State.) You can’t even tell us WHERE YOU GOT THAT, or where it can be found?!”
EVA’S SHILL-MEISTER: “I assume if you went to the web, and googled what I just said, you can come up with the report, which you could criticize yourself.”
PUBLIC SCHOOL CHILD: “But you DON’T EVEN KNOW WHO DID that report.“
EVA’S SHILL-MEISTER: “I have NOT read that report.”
TEACHER/PARENT JAMIE FIDLER: “I mean I could say that Rick Santorum is best candidate for president, but that doesn’t mean it’s true. Right? So, you know -”
EVA’S SHILL-MEISTER: “But, but you’re saying that an opinion -“
TEACHER/PARENT JAMIE FIDLER: “ “If you’re making an assertion, you need to have SOMETHING – You need to be able just- “
VIDEO CUTS OUT
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Here’s an earlier post about this:
This is how you handle those SUCCESS ACADEMY (or other charter school) recruiters.
A couple years back, Eva’s winged monkey recruiters had been lurking outside traditional public schools in a more upscale New York City neighborhood where Eva was about to open a school, accosting parents with a sales pitch to ditch their public school for one of Eva’s test prep factories.
Unlike the uninformed lower income immigrant community folks and were duped, these folks knew what these recruiters were all about.
The parents and teachers then got in the face of one of them, with the confrontation captured on video: (is he wearing one of Success Academy’s L.L. Bean’s backpacks?)
I’m urging parent leaders Karen Wolfe and other acttivists, and teacher union leaders to like UTLA President Alex C-P to play this video to every parent and teacher, respectively
that each of them can get to watch it.
In Los Angeles, the Broad Plan, presumbably with the backing of the new pro-charter board, will unleash hundreds of these paid recruiters to accost parent and student at our traditional public schools., in an effort to poach the students attending public schools.
Get lost, you money-motivated charter shills!!!!
One of the teachers / parents here was Jamie Fidler, a nationally renown teacher who came into prominence in the documentary AMERICAN TEACHER (a mixed bag of a film, but that’s another story).
They kept protesting, and Eva’s winged monkeys were never seen again.
HAPPY ENDING
Oh and again, here’s Jamie Fidler — a career teacher, like her father, who’s in it for decades— refuting the propaganda vilifying career unionized teachers:
Oh, and don’t forget the end of the “mic check” that sent Eva’s Shill-meister running for the warm comforting bosom of Lady Eva:
(I just figured out what they’re calling him … “the SUCCESS ACADEMY Flier-Man” ? The mic check reference him as a ”charter school Flier Man”)
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( 2:11 – 2:46 )
( 2:11 – 2:46 )
Mic Check Leader: “.. told this charter school flier-man.* .. ”
CROWD: ” … *TOLD THIS CHARTER SCHOOL FLIER-MAN … ”
..
Mic Check Leader: “.. that he should NOT be soliciting … ”
CROWD: “THAT HE SHOULD NOT BE SOLICITING … ”
Mic Check Leader: ” … in front of OUR public school.’
CROWD: ” … IN FRONT OF OUR PUBLIC SCHOOL!”
Mic Check Leader: “Our students … ”
CROWD: “OUR STUDENTS … ”
Mic Check Leader: ” … have told you that also!”
CROWD: ” … HAVE TOLD YOU THAT ALSO!”
Mic Check Leader: ” … and now these cameras.. ”
CROWD: ” AND NOW THESE CAMERAS … ”
Mic Check Leader: ” … are here to help us tell our story.”
CROWD: ” … ARE HERE TO HELP US TELL OUR STORY.”
Mic Check Leader: “.. mic check!”
CROWD: ” MIC CHECK!”
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EVA’S SHILL-MEISTER: “What’s wrong with solicitation?”
ANOTHER PARENT: “Children are NOT commodities!”
— public school PARENT telling off one of Eva Moskowitz’ shills who stands outsidide accosting parents as they pick up and/or drop off their students ad P.S. 261
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That two-line exchange JUST ABOVE sums up what’s at the bottom of market-based school reform.
Here’s PART 2 of the parents, teachers, and kids confronting Eva’s Shill-Meister.
First, here’s the title card, which I have transcribed here:
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( 2:46 – 2:57 )
( 2:46 – 2:57 )
TITLE CRAWL:
“Teachers at P.S. 261 said that they first tried asking the man handing out fliers to leave, but to no effect. Then on Thursday, parents, teachers, and students gathered in front of the school to confront him and ask why the Success Acadeny school was superior to their own.
“The conversation did not go well — he was hired to hand out fliers, not to defend the school’s existence — but it energized the parents and teachers.
” ‘We can still fight in our little ways.,’ Ms. Fidler said.”
( 2:58 – 3:51 )
( 2:58 – 3:51 )
EVA’S SHILL-MEISTER: “I didn’t make the rating (that he claims says that Success Academy is ‘the best elementary school in the state.’) Someone ELSE did.”
ASIAN PARENT: “You don’t even know his name (the name of the guy who made the rating).”
TEACHER/PARENT JAMIE FIDLER: Look, the point is .. is that we have no reason to believe you.”
OTHER PARENT: ‘You’re passing out fliers for something you don’t know about. That’s kind of embarrassing.”
EVA’S SHILL-MEISTER: “Well then it would be my expert (?).”
OTHER PARENT: ‘Would I ever stand out on a corner and hand out fliers with something that I know NOTHING about? ‘That’s kind of like despic- That’s like DECEIVING to the people to whom you’re handing out literature.””
EVA’S SHILL-MEISTER: “I don’t know NOTHING about it. I know that the students do well in (Success Academy) schools.”
ASIAN PARENT: “I’m sorry, but the students to well in OUR school as well. “
EVA’S SHILL-MEISTER: (sarcastic) “That’s terrific.”
ASIAN PARENT: “So there is NO REASON why you should be POACHING OUR STUDENTS! ”
EVA’S SHILL-MEISTER: (sarcastic) “I’m, I’m… totally in favor of GOOD SCHOOLS.”
ASIAN PARENT: “This is solicitation! It’s like anybody who’s trying to SELL A CAR!”
EVA’S SHILL-MEISTER: “What’s wrong with solicitation?”
ASIAN PARENT: “This is solicitation.”
OTHER PARENT: “”Children are NOT commodities!”
ASIAN PARENT: “This is solicitation!”
— (mimicking EVA’S SHILL-MEISTER)
” ‘Would you like to apply to our school?’ as you have a flier in your hand.
It’s a solicitation!”
OFF-CAMERA PARENT: “When we can’t even afford copy paper!”
EVA’S SHILL-MEISTER: “I don’t see anything wrong with solicitation.”
PARENT: “Exactly!”
EVA’S SHILL-MEISTER: “What’s wrong with solicitation?”
ANOTHER PARENT: “Children are NOT commodities!”
ASIAN PARENT: “This is solicitation.”
EVA’S SHILL-MEISTER: (to ASIAN PARENT) “I don’t see anything wrong with solicitation.”
TEACHER: “We don’t have any of that paper (for solicitation fliers) in our school, and you want to know WHY? Because we don’t have the budget for it. But if we had a multi-million-dollar (advertising) budget that was funded by Wall Street and hedgefunds as they (Success Academy) are, then maybe we can have them (public school’s version shill-meisters) out there (at charter schools.) You’re talking about here’s like competition, like your best choice in a playing field that is not really even.”
VIDEO CUTS OFF
I think every voter in the U.S. needs to see this video.
Do the parents in U.S. public schools REALLY want creeps like Shill-meister descending on the traditional public schools, lurking and annoying the sh#% out of parents and students?
EVA’S SHILL-MEISTER: (to ASIAN PARENT) “I don’t see anything wrong with solicitation.”
Puh-lease.
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I really find this video …
… so disturbing on so many levels.
I know Eva’s shills have a Constitutional right to be there and talk to people… you know… the whole concept of freedom of speech in a public space, and all o’ that, but shouldn’t the space outside a school — where parents escort their children on the way to and from school — be off-limits to this bullsh#%?
As they walk to and fro their school houldn’t parents and students be free from this type of high-pressure sales and marketing? Has Eva no freakin’ shame?
It should be like the area where people traverse to and from a church, synagogue, mosque, or whatever place of worship. For example, do Christians — the ones who aren’t psycho, that is — hang outside a synagogue or mosque, and harass people as they enter or exit,:
“Your place of worship sucks. Yer all goin’ to Hell. Your religion is all a total lie. Come on over to our place of worship, and find out all about Jesus, and how he died for your sins”?
Or perhaps religious competition within Christianity — of within the same denomination of Christianity — would be a better comparison. Would Baptists hang out and bother Catholics as they enter or leave a Catholic church, in an attempt to lure them away from their current place of worship?
Or do Catholics representing one parish annoy those entering the church of a neighboring parish.
“Hey, our church Blessed Sacrament Church is so much better, or more true to Catholicism than your lousy, mediocre church, St. John’s. Our priests are so much holier, and that leads to our parishioners lead more Godly and holy lives. Here, take this flier, then come on over and hear what we have to offer.”
The other thing that hit me:
Could you imagine of parents or representatives of P.S. 261 fought fire with fire, and then showed up outside Success Academy Cobble Hill (or whatever Success Academy hired Eva’s Shill-meister to bother parents outside P.S. 261), and then engaged in the same high-pressure proselytizing?”
Imagine them passing out fliers and saying stuff like:
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“Almost all of your kids’ teachers at Success Academy are totally unlicensed and uncredentialed. Come over to P.S. 261, and your children will not only be taught by fully credentialed teachers, but many of those teachers are National Board Certified, and are highly acclaimed.”
OR
“Don’t let those claims of high test scores mislead you.
“Your students are being turned into ‘little test-taking machines’, as one Success Academy executive bragged to NEW YORK MAGAZINE, because Eva and her untrained staff are giving children the educational equivalent of steroids, in the form of massive, toxic test prep — hours each day as the days for testing approaches — which, in turn, results in a narrowed curriculum devoid of anything creative — the arts, P.E., music, dance, critical thinking, creative thinking … again, all to achieve these worthless high test scores, scores that in the long run don’t mean a damn thing in terms of a child’s long-term success in school, or in life.”
OR
“Check out this video … (projecting the Charlotte Dial “rip-and-redo” video on a portable laptop, then showing it to the parents)
“This callous b-word of a teacher, Charlotte Dial — and almost all Success Academy teachers — have never been licensed or credentialed in any state. She’s following Eva’s bogus, untested, and abusive teaching techniques that involve abuse and humiliation of children as young as four… as, incredibly, this is what Eva & Co. believe is the proper way to educate children, the same stuff that educational experts have studied and universally condemned.
“Come over to our school P.S. 281, and spare your child from such despicable educational malpractice!?
OR
“Also, come over to P.S. 261, and your children won’t have to wear those godawful orange and navy blue Success Academy uniforms, those ugly duds that Eva makes you pay L.L. Bean through the nose for, and which Eva gets a taste of the sales. Your kids can wear whatever he or she wants, expressing their individuality through their wardrobe — among other avenues of self-expression — … just like Success Academy Board of Director Campbell Brown’s kids get to do at the rich kids’ private school, Heschel, that her own kids attend. This school’s run by hypocrites. Leave it, and come over to P.S. 261”
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First of all, unlike Eva and her minions, the folks at P.S. 261 — BOTH the parents or those who work there — have too much class and too much concern for the harmful impact such outrageous shilling would have on the SUCCESS ACADEMY children to ever go and lower themselves into the same goopy, gunky slime that Eva and her Shill-Meisters inhabit, and thus engage in this type of activity, with a total disregard for the well-being of the children involved.
But just for sake of argument, what if this did happen?
Eva would use her pull in NYC city government, and those parents or school representatives would end up in handcuffs, with Eva and her connections within government and the police working out beforehand some underhanded way to trump up some bogus charges for which to arrest them.
Yet, Eva sees no problem with Success Academy folks doing the same thing at traditional public schools.
My mother, now retired, was a 50-year career teacher — 35 years full-time, then another 15 subbing until she couldn’t do it anymore.
I told her about this situation captured in the video — high-pressure salesmen accosting parents, attempting to get them to switch to a privately managed school — and she absolutely cannot believe what I’m saying.
Now, in her 80’s, she started teaching when Harry Truman was still President — Fall 1952 — and she can’t believe that what Eva’s Shill-meister is doing in the above video is permitted, or that Eva and this slob doing it believe that they are “the good guys” in this situation. My mother thinks the whole competition between schools over children — like Burger King sending shills over to try and to steal away McDonald’s customers — is crazy as a soup sandwich, and will lead to a disaster of epic proportions.
“What’s wrong with solicitation?” Shill-meister asks.
Sweet Jesus!
I’ll end with a comment from Michael Fiorillo.
———————————–
Michael Fiorillo
September 23, 2016 at 3:03 pm
Parents and teachers at these schools should surround these shills and harangue them until they leave; make it impossible for them to do their job, and show Evil Moskowitz there is aggressive pushback from the public school community to roll back her deceptive schemes.
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As promised, here’s the title of/ link to the actual Success Academy job — and the actual on-line job posting — that “Shill-Meister” (in the video above) was carrying out at Success Academy:
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“Community Organizer”
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… which, after the poor slobs start working for Eva, quickly morphs into…
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“Parent / Child Annoyer”
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(as seen in this video)
And he/she will be doing all this annoying upon orders from Eva, of course.
Here’s the actual job posting:
https://www.themuse.com/jobs/successacademycharterschools/community-organizer-e3cff4?utm_source=Indeed&utm_medium=cpc&utm_content=Job%20Individual&utm_campaign=NYC%20Jobs
It’s says that Eva’s looking for for someone who …
— has experience with “2+ years canvassing”, which is sort of what Shill-Meister was doing with his clipboard outside P.S. 261 in the video;
— reports “directly to the (S.A.) Associate Director of Enrollment” … enrollment, of course, meaning of course, the process of poaching students to “enroll” in one of Eva’s schools;
— can “develop comprehensive outreach plans that carefully consider the needs of each community and fits into a larger Enrollment strategy” … which, translated, means come up with whatever sleazy tactic and slick pitch which or whatever that will enable the poaching by luring students into enrolling in S.A. … again, accomplishing this by any means necessary;
— “enjoys collaboration and will work with Parent Engagement Managers to schedule, host and facilitate events and identify further opportunities to reach (i.e. poach) prospective families”;
— “has a positive, ‘can do’ attitude and will identify opportunities to gain deeper insight into creating more efficient and streamlined processes” … whatever that last part means … faster, cheaper ways to poach and lure in suckers, I guess.
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Here’s full text:
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“Community Organizer — Success Academy
“We are seeking a motivated, goal-oriented Community Organizer to create and maintain positive working relationships with community leaders and organizations on behalf of Success Academies. S/he is a self-starter committed to educational choice, education reform and the development of exemplary schools.
“Reporting directly to the Associate Director of Enrollment, our Community Organizer should be someone who…
” – Has 2+ years canvassing and organizing experience in political or issue campaigns;
“- Can develop comprehensive outreach plans that carefully consider the needs of each community and fits into a larger Enrollment strategy;
” – Is a skilled relationship builder that can identify community organizations and leaders to establish and nurture relationships to help build awareness of and partnerships with Success Academy;
” – Enjoys collaboration and will work with Parent Engagement Managers to schedule, host and facilitate events and identify further opportunities to reach prospective families;
” – Has a positive, ‘can do’ attitude and will identify opportunities to gain deeper insight into creating more efficient and streamlined processes; and
” – Is fluent in English and Spanish.
“*To join our team, please upload a cover letter and resume that outlines your candidacy. Your cover letter should explain in detail your qualifications for the position. Resumes without cover letters will not be reviewed.”
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Keep in mind these are your and my tax dollars paying for all this, money coming from the majority of parents and citizens which all polling says support the survival of public education and support teachers as professionals and support for teachers having the right to unionize, but in this instance, those same citizen-taxpayers have no say in the way Eva is using this tax money — to pay her salary, to fulfill her goals and to serve her motives which again, are anathema to what the public actually wants regarding education.
Those same parents and citizens may be firmly opposed to the poaching of students from pre-existing public schools, and to the privatization of public education via the expansion of Eva’s (and others’) privately-managed “public charter schools,” and who are also opposed to the de-professional-ization of teaching that goes hand-in-hand with this privatization of schools …
… as the less professional, less trained, and less qualified that *“the help” is required to be …
… the less you have to pay them … and …
… the more the bosses can pay themselves, and also …
… the more money they have on hand to these expand more and more privately-managed charter schools.
That’s why I’m only semi-sympathetic to Shill-meister.
BOTTOM LINE: he’s just a hired shill, or a carnival barker trying to get suckers or marks to come in the tent where the more qualified and seasoned hucksters (Eva’s “Parent Engagement Managers”) then take over and try to close the sale…
… or perhaps he’s a hunter of humans; if you will, who will, per Eva’s orders, will bring in his catch of the day … in the form of signatures and contact information from strangers whom he Eva ordered and orders him to accost and annoy outside schools, or on playgrounds, or wherever parents will likely be hanging out.
At the end of the day, Shill-meister’s one and only commitment is merely to get paid — first, last and always — while, as to the negative long-term effect that the way he earns his living has on the future survival of democratically-governed and truly public education,
… OR …
… as to that harmful impact that his efforts have on the profession of teaching — turning teaching from a respected, decently-compensated profession such as doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc. … and then degrading it to that of a low-level, poorly-compensated, dubiously-trained service job like fast food, office temping, retails sales, etc…..
… well, he couldn’t give two sh#%’s about ANY of THAT.
All he cares about is whether, after he does what he was hired for, Eva’s paychecks will clear.
Near the end of the video, he cluelessly opines:
( 3:24 – )
( 3:24 – )
EVA’S SHILL-MEISTER: “I don’t see any problem with solicitation… what’s wrong with solicitation?”
A lot, you money-motivated douchebag!
You know, as I re-wartch the video …
… it’s interesting to see how civil, calm and polite the parents are towards Eva’s Shill-Meister — way more than I would have been in that situation. The only one who shows a little anger is ASIAN PARENT at the very end, and, again she’s just demonstrating her understandable frustration at Shill-meiester’s inability to grasp why they object to what he’s doing.
“This is a solicitation! This is like someone SELLING A CAR!”
The off-camera ANOTHER PARENT put it best:
“Children are NOT commodities!”
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If they plop the scholars in front of a computer all day for their personalized learning, does the computer need to be certified?
For those scholars fortunate enough to have a real live living person in front of them, does it matter if they are certified if they are just reading from a script or have someone telling them how to “teach” through a headset?
Snark off.
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It is time to abolish Charter Schools and build better public school system for sll of the children of ll our people
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K-12, Inc. is at it again–a little puff piece (“white paper”) on Chicago Virtual Charter School (“tuition free!”) “success”–“Chicago School Proves the Effectiveness of Blended Learning in an Urban Environment.”
businesswire.com.http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170711006167/en/
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