How creative. How innovative.
Eva Moskowitz’s son is teaching AP Economics at her high school because the teacher hired to teach the class quit before school started. Her son Culver Grannis Moskowitz does not have a college degree. (Grannis is Eva Moskowitz’s husband’s name).
Some of the students think it is odd to have a teacher only a year or two older than themselves. Others like it.
Maybe he is just filling in until she can find a real teacher.
He is uncertified, of course. Was this the reason Eva wanted the power to certify her own teachers?
Culver may be a fine young man but he is not certified to tesch in New York State.
The moral of the story is that when you are CEO, you can do whatever you want.
Or, when your school is not a public school, you don’t have to hire certified teachers. You can even hire your son.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Flash-note to Eva: It’s called Nepotism. N-E-P-O-T-I-S-M. Nepotism.
Maybe your fine son would like to look it up and do a section on “The History of Nepotism.” CBK
I thought nepotism was a felony in this country.
Nepotism is ok in charter and voucher schools
And in public school. Principals hire and protect family members all the time. Ive seen parent child teams in the same classroom. Or hiring a current teachers child. If they are qualified does this matter?
Lori Bird Does nepotism matter? You bet it does. Consider yourself if you were refereeing a soccer game, and your own child was on one of the teams. It puts you in a bad place as an objective, unbiased referee, even IF you were trying to be as fair as possible. It also puts your child in a bad place; what if he/she makes an error and you don’t see it or call it? And BY DEFINITION (family membership) it puts the whole idea of fair play at risk.
It’s the same with a third-party “blind” review by those who don’t know writers, etc. It’s not always perfect, by any means; however, nepotism is bad from the get-go. It is known to work in small businesses to a point for obvious reasons; and for similarly-obvious reasons, the bigger a business gets, the more the influences of nepotism become negative, even if they were positive in the beginning.
Principles that govern family are commonly in direct opposition to those that drive excellence-only in most if not all endeavors. CBK
Apparently, there are no laws governing charter and voucher scams — I mean charter and voucher schemes — ok, charter and voucher schools. Who needs rule of law when ya got self-declared genius billionaires who can tell everybody what to do!
Lori Bird: Try to keep in mind, public dollars are what keeps SA afloat, so public norms [e.g., nepotism is unethical] pertain. That Eva’s non-BA son was considered “qualified” — even if by some dumbed-down std applying only by virtue of special waiver from Bd of Regents– does not exempt him from competition w/other, potentially better-qualified contenders for the suddenly-opened position. Do YOU think he was measured against contenders? I don’t. I think he was just tapped to fill in cuz he was handy – & that’s OK w/Bd of Regents cuz Eva has been given free rein to “certify” her own teachers however she sees fit.
None of this would matter if SA weren’t a “public” [= subsidized by taxpayers] school.
I think you are thinking of napotism — napping on the job.
Nepotism is fine. In fact it’s actually preferred because teachers can talk about how their lessons went around the dinner table each night. No school meetings required.
Nepotism on steroids and as the CEO, will Evil Eva pay her son more than she pays all of her often abused wage slaves victims, sorry … should have written: “employees” (but I could not spread fake news) for her.
He is paid minimum wage, like other SA teaching assistants
But how fast will he move up Eva’s corporate ladder to become a principal paid a six-figure income at one of her schools?
Today he is an unqualified teacher, but tomorrow he will be called an expert on education following the same path Arne Duncan and Michelle Rhee did.
I would not be surprised if Eva’s plans for her son extend to replacing Besty DeVos once she is out of the DOE.
But if he’s teaching AP Econ, then isn’t that a teaching position?
She has no sense of the ugliness of so much of what she does. Arrogance and prejudice. She is a force of corruption.
Eva is another malignant narcissist and psycho. I’ve read that even though the majority of psychos are men, there are also women counted in this 1 percent segment of the total population.
“Most of all, narcissists (as defined by and meeting the criteria in Dangerous Personalities, Rodale 2014) cannot bring themselves to see anyone else as their equal. So they put others down (co-workers, subordinates, family members), crush their aspirations, criticize them, or treat them with indifference, disdain, or contempt.”
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/spycatcher/201712/narcissist-or-psychopath-how-can-you-tell
“The DSM-IV-TR proceeds to tell us that most narcissists (50-75% of all patients) are men. … However, as the narcissist grows old and suffers the inevitable attendant physical, mental, and occupational restrictions, Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) is exacerbated. …
“Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) is often diagnosed with other mental health disorders (“co-morbidity”), such as mood disorders, eating disorders, and substance-related disorders. Patients with Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) are frequently abusive and prone to impulsive and reckless behaviours (“dual diagnosis”).”
https://www.healthyplace.com/personality-disorders/malignant-self-love/narcissistic-personality-disorder-prevalence-and-comorbidity
Don’t know enough about Eva, but of course that’s Trump up and down, and beyond. I mean, a gold sharpie . . . and yet still colors a stripe of Old Glory blue.
Makes me wonder about all of the public deformers.
“Eva Moskowitz Advises on “Building a Joyful Academic Culture.” Wait, What?”
https://deutsch29.wordpress.com/2017/12/21/eva-moskowitz-advises-on-building-a-joyful-academic-culture-wait-what/
“Why my Eva Moskowitz story is the scariest one I’ve ever written”
https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/us/2017/12/06/why-my-eva-moskowitz-story-is-the-scariest-one-ive-ever-written/
All About Eva
Reforming our educational system requires more than just opportunity.
“Sadly, Moskowitz’s reflections on Success Academy’s draconian behavior policies are limited to an ad hominem attack on New York Times reporter Kate Taylor. Instead of engaging with the critical ethical questions raised by Taylor’s reporting—which suggests that there’s a network-wide pattern of shaming and punishing children for underachieving—Moskowitz depicts the Times reporter as a clueless private-school-educated suburbanite who just doesn’t get how urgently poor kids need a world-class education. It’s not that students are systematically being singled out, Moskowitz writes; it’s that “Success isn’t ideal for every child. If we think a child would do better in a different school, whether it’s a specialized program or just a school with a different approach, we’ll tell a parent that, as we should.”
https://www.thenation.com/article/the-miseducation-of-eva-moskowitz/
Lloyd,
All you have to do is watch John Merrow’s PBS interview with Eva Moskowitz – which probably is the ONLY time that any reporter on camera actually followed up with a question once Moskowitz made her outrageously ridiculous claims — to see what happens when she is challenged on her over the top exaggerated boasting.
She sputters and stammers and is outraged that anyone dares to challenge her self-serving boasts. She is the best and may never be challenged — it’s “fake news” to point out that in some of her schools with virtually white students, she suspends 18% of the 5 and 6 year olds — some of them multiple times. The young children always deserve it, Moskowitz says. And she welcomes every child and all the parents who say their child was drummed out are big liars. Every single one.
She is very much like Trump in personality. Remember when she punished the child who dared to challenge her by releasing her own inexperienced staff’s nasty comments in which every normal reaction of an anxious 6 year old being targeted for punishment for his failings is turned into a pathology that then justifies their harsh treatment of him? She will always use whatever method necessary to promote herself and those that challenge her are all purveyors of “fake news” no matter how many times she is caught.
And the SUNY Charter Institute is the Republican Congress cheering her on, with Joseph Belluck in the role of Mitch McConnell.
I just wish that the Chalkbeat reporters would start to do some stories on the SUNY Charter Institute. It would be easy. Ask to see a single report done on any investigation SUNY did in response to the myriad of complaints by parents that have been going on for years. And when none are produced, follow up with getting their board on record as to why the fact that the “best performing” charter in the state would have one of the very highest attrition rates of any charter network never made them wonder whether the African-American parents whose complaints they refused to ignore were telling the truth.
^^typo: “In some of her schools with virtually NO white students….
I think these pictures of Eva with her family demonstrate what a despicable person she truly is, here:
https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20161123/east-harlem/eva-moskowitz-protest-trump-visit and here:
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/eva-moskowitz-photo-angers-protesters-home-article-1.2885685#
After all it’s not that hard a job. Just give each kid a Chromebook and have them fire up Kahn Academy AP Review. Volia! “Personalized Learning!” (Sarcasm).
Exactly what is happening in our K-12 district. More than $1 million to buy Chromebooks, but no money for teachers. A yuuuge push for “Learn Anytime, Anywhere!” (Isn’t this the same formula used by failing virtual charter schools?)
And mandatory PD with an invite to “join” a Khan Academy Google classroom for all teachers, where we had to complete an “Exit Ticket” telling admin how we were going to incorporate Khan Academy in our classrooms.
All screens, all test prep, all the time. Real teachers and real teaching be damned.
Well, at least he’s teaching economics and not math, English, history, foreign language, art, science or some other subject where it’s important to know what you are talking about.
Does he know the subject matter? Can he manage a classroom? If information is given to parents are they complaining or leaving? AP would imply these are already high performing students so are they really at risk? Is this a tempest in a teakettle?
To answer your questions in order:
We can’t tell from the article. My speculation would be no, he doesn’t know it as a true teacher needs to know the subject matter. Why do I say that? Because I substitute taught English 4 in Peru when I was 18-a couple of the students were older than I was and I didn’t “know” the subject matter, but at least it was my native language. And that was only a two month sub position for which I eventually was brought before a magistrate who questioned my working visa (didn’t have) and to explain that I didn’t know that I needed any. Hell, I was 18 and it was 1973 in a private Catholic school. Things are just a little different here and now, eh.
We don’t know.
We don’t know.
No, AP does not imply “high performing students”. That’s a marketing lie by the College Board. And we don’t know if “they are really at risk.”
No! Considering EM receives public school tax monies, it is a big deal not hiring qualified, certified teachers.
Lori Bird: My first teaching job out of college was French I thro V [AP] at a private academy. Obviously I didn’t know s*** about managing a classroom. I had an authentic accent & serious interest/ viewpoint in curriculum, & lots of background for FrIV-V, plus an Ivy BA. But I was going to be only 3 yrs older than the PG’s [football types needing a for-lang credit] & only 5-7 yrs older than the rest. So I was a risk as a hire. But (a)small classes, (b)intense mentorship by dept head and (c)LOW PAY – UNSUBSIDIZED BY PUBLIC TAXES.
This kid is getting a free ride as (a)the director’s son and (b)salary pd by NY school taxes.
P.S., your suggestion that AP students are high-performing so what’s their risk w/an unqualified teacher? Maybe they should just take the course online? – or skip it altogether??
Babysitting at its finest
Hey, Calvin, oops I mean Culver-was thinking of Calvin of Calvin/Hobbes fame, has to learn the family business sometime. It pays well eventually for family, eh!
He gets minimum wage but prolly gets a big year end bonus.
These nonprofits always have a way of making sure all the money is spent by the end of the year. Can’t have any profit showing on the books.
Quote: “A share of each charter school’s teachers can be uncertified.”
Indiana is doing the same thing. There is a severe teacher shortage. The Indiana Statehouse’s response to the shortage of teacher’s onset from low pay is to allow schools to hire unlicensed teachers to make up at most 10% of their staff.
Indiana is doing marginally better than the other rust-belt states [& exceeding national GDP-growth & lower unempl rate]. I keep an eye on it because a nephew and niece have moved there from upstate-NY & are doing pretty well job-wise. But they are going to be making a trade-off as their kids approach school-age, confronted w/the school-choice arena Pence set in motion. Indiana has used tax-cuts to attract business, while slashing pubsch budgets to the bone, offering instead low-qual mostly religious-school alternatives
Bill Gates never finished college either, but, for a decade, he has had the ear of those at the highest levels effectively telling millions of teachers how to do their jobs. And they have had no choice but to listen to him.
Having a college degree is so overrated and so yesterday.
If I may make a minor correction:
“And they have had no choice but to listen to HIS MONEY TALK.”
I wonder what Eva’s son teaches about in his econ class.
Welfare for the rich?
Welfare Queens like his mother?
When you grow up, work long hours and accept peanuts for pay. No pensions.
Yield your data willingly.
Worship billionaires blindly.
Believe in test scores as the measure of your worth.
Help make teaching a temp gig instead of a profession.
Allow yourself sixteen hours of screen time a day. Earn some online badges. Badges, you say? You need some stinkin’ badges!
Culver. Really!?!?!? What kind of name is that? Wouldn’t it have been better, if his last name was Grannis? How unfair to burden the kid with her last name!
I knew that Eva had kids from the infamous incident of when the whole family taunted protestors.
Apparently, parents and children of special ed. kids who’d been unfairly kicked out or pressured into leaving Success Academy were protesting, so the the whole Moskowitz clan picked up one of the posters and started mocking them, cackling maniacally like The Joker or The Riddler. Photos were taken such as this: (the tallest one with the black hair and navy blue hoodie appears to be the wunderkind educator Culver)
Here’s my comment about this photo:
“A picture is worth a thousand years.”
What’s indescribably creepy is the picture accompanying Leonie’s article. Apparently, there were protests outside Eva house, protests about the very things that the judge just found both Eva and her organization likely guilty of, or likely enough to be guilty of that he rejected Eva lawyers’ calls for a dismissal, and instead called for a trial.
Look at this photo, I’m utterly gobsmaked, and wondering:
Look at it again with this Joker laughs montage as the soundtrack:
What sick, demented thought process led $800,000/year-salaried Eva, her husband Eric, and their three spoiled brat kids to run outside, grab away a poster from a protestor, and make a laughing, mocking pose with that poster for news photographers?
“Eric! Kids! Wanna go have some fun?! Let’s go outside and mentally torment and abuse the protestors!”
”Sounds great, Honey!” replies Eric Grannis (Eva’s hubby.)
“Yeah, Mom, we’re all down for it! Maybe if we’re cruel enough, we can even make of few of them actually cry!”
Eva chimes in, “Great idea!”
“Yeah,” chimes in hubby Eric, “I JUST LOVE making special ed kids and their parents cry.”
Eva concurs, “Me too! Well, we’re never gonna know if we CAN actually make that bunch o wussies cry if we don’t try. Put on your coats and let’s get to it!”
Then they all run outside:
Look at the picture, and the words on it: (from this article)
https://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2018/08/federal-court-rules-lawsuit-vs-success.html
POSTER CAPTION:
”Success Academy (led by Eva) threatens to call 9-1-1 on first graders (i.e. 6-7 year olds).
Check out the looks of pure evil and utter sadism on the faces of Eva and her family members. The son (or daughter) on the left with the red knitcap giving the thumbs-up really stands out in this regard.
Real funny, you family of creeps!
As one commenter elsewhere put it, the Moskowitz clan come off like the soldier torturers of Abu Ghraib. Here’s a couple photos to remind you of that sh%#-show:
It’s similar in the sense that in both instances, the perpetrators think that they did nothing wrong, and, even if they did, feel beyond the reach of punishment by any ruling authority.
It’s almost as if, by holding the poster up, then acting this way for photographers, Eva & family are saying back:
“Yeah, we DO abuse and kick out special ed. kids. We admit to all of it, and so what if we do? We don’t give a sh#% about the damage that doing all this — and the other things — inflicts on the children and parents upon whom we inflict it. We’re gonna keep it up, and there’s not a damn thing any of you can do about it. We got SUNY’s Joe Belluck, Bloomberg, Klein, countless hedgefund billionaires, and tens of millions of dollars of lawyers protecting us. Ha! Ha! Ha!”
Well guess again, Moskowitz family.
There actually IS something that your victims can do to challenge your evil. They can file a lawsuit, and take you all out to the metaphorical woodshed for a good ol’ fashioned metaphorical horse-whipping, and do it publicly (the woodshed part doesn’t really work with the public part, but who cares?)
If I were the plaintiffs who are suing Eva & Co., I would blow up that photo to the size of a garage door, glue onto a similarly-sized piece of plywood,. and enter it as an exhibit for the judge and jury to view, leaving it up for the jury to peruse for as long as possible.
Or perhaps, while Eva’s on the stand, bring back the garage-door-size blow up and have the plaintiffs’ lawyers pummel her with questions, asking her to defend what she’s doing in that picture:
Here’s the original article:
https://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2018/08/federal-court-rules-lawsuit-vs-success.html
Sounds somewhat like a so-called sitcom (wasn’t at all funny & should have been cancelled, but was RENEWED!!) “AP Bio”: description: “a former philosophy professor who takes a job teaching AP Biology uses his students to get back at the people in his life who have wronged him.” Yet another insult to teachers, & an idiotic series (saw the first just to prove it was senseless & insulting–yet again–the teaching profession; NBC had many looong ads between other shows, so one could see how stupid it was.
Anyway, perhaps something happened to Evita & she is now “using students to get back at people”…orrrr,,,,is using people (like her son who, like this tv teacher, is totally unqualified {& don’t say “at least he was a philosophy professor,” or I’ll make you watch the show next season!}) to get back at students.
In any case, life imitates art.
And it’s not funny….just….sad.
Frank: Would you care to explain what an intern is in teaching?
I am a retired teacher. During my studies at college I did student teaching to get my Bachelors degree in Music Education. There is no such job as intern. He did not have a college degree and didn’t do student teaching. It is a made up title for someone who isn’t certified as a teacher and has no business being in the classroom.
I like to see teachers standing up for what is right. I support them and hope teachers in Indiana get the strength to strike. It is illegal in Indiana for teachers to strike.
……………………………
“Seattle teachers and staff vote to authorize a strike — unless a deal is reached by Sept. 5”
It’s official: Teachers and school staff in Seattle voted to authorize a strike Tuesday evening. The strike could take effect if negotiations with Seattle Public Schools don’t result in a tentative contract by the first day of school, Sept. 5.
The vote followed perhaps the state’s first official strikes that disrupted the first day of school in two southwest Washington districts Tuesday; teachers in four additional Clark County districts will join the picket lines Wednesday. This year’s hectic negotiation season comes at the hands of a major shift in the state’s model of paying for public education.
In downtown Seattle, about 2,000 educators piled into Benaroya Hall for the vote, which took place during a general membership meeting of the Seattle Education Association (SEA), the union that represents roughly 6,000 Seattle school employees.
Negotiations over teacher pay, health benefits for some workers and efforts to increase racial equity in classrooms appeared to gain momentum earlier in August, but the union proposed the strike authorization vote after a deal was not reached by Aug. 25, SEA’s deadline for a tentative contract…
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/education/seattle-teachers-and-staff-vote-to-authorize-a-strike-unless-a-deal-is-reached-by-sept-5/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=article_left_1.1
I still don’t get it. Per NY ed code (2854; 3-a1):
“… charter school may employ as teachers (i) uncertified teachers with at least three years of elementary, middle or secondary classroom teaching experience; (ii) tenured or tenure track college faculty; (iii) individuals with two years of satisfactory experience through the Teach for America program; and (iv) individuals who possess exceptional business, professional, artistic, athletic, or military experience, provided, however, that such teachers described in clauses (i), (ii), (iii), and (iv) of this paragraph shall not in total comprise more than the sum of: (A) thirty per centum of the teaching staff of a charter school, or five teachers, whichever is less; plus (B) five teachers of mathematics, science, computer science, technology, or career and technical education; plus (C) five additional teachers…”
Any such charter teachers would have to have “exceptional business, professional, artistic, athletic, or military experience.”
Are they getting around this by having her son teach content material to students while in the presence of another, credentialed teacher? He’s a teaching assistant who is actually providing the class instruction?
We have over a trillion to give to the wealthy but nothing to keep schools in good condition. Would this be happening in a white school district? Doubt it.
……………………………………
Detroit To Shut Off Drinking Water At All Public Schools Because Of Contamination
Reuters)
Detroit authorities on Wednesday ordered drinking water shut off at all city public schools after elevated levels of lead and copper were found in water at more than a dozen buildings with antiquated plumbing systems.
Over the weekend, supplies were cut at 16 schools and bottled water was provided until water coolers arrive, Detroit Public Schools Community District Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said…
Article: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/detroit-water-public-schools_us_5b878032e4b0162f471f7d8d
carolmalaysia I doubt the wealthy see tax cuts and “trickle-up economics” as anyone “giving to them.” Rather, my guess is they see it as keeping what’s theirs in the first place.
Hmmmm . . . . maybe they forget this bittersweet point: that everything they have depends on the dynamism of the political superstructure that has been in place for several centuries; AND it depends on the infrastructure that itself rests on a kind of cultural standard model where everyone is a part of it: for, of, by, the people–it doesn’t say “just the wealthy people.” (What a concept.)
If “they” want a kleptocracy/oligarchy, or even don’t understand that their attitude and actions imply one, they just may get one anyway. And what does that mean. Well, . . . let’s have brief look at one. Oh yes, there’s Russia, where people who speak up against the “great leader” quickly get “disappeared.” CBK
A new poll of about 1,000 people released by PDK International shows that a growing number of people would not support their children becoming teachers. This year, more than half of survey respondents shared that response. That’s an 11 percentage-point increase from when the organization posed the same question in 2014. On the bright side: More people also said they had trust and confidence in public-school teachers.
carolmalaysia . . . like the horses in Orwell’s “Animal Farm.” CBK