Archives for category: New York
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New Paltz, New York: School Board Member Defends Rights of Students to Join Protests Against Gun Violence

By dianeravitch
February 26, 2018 //
13

 

The New York State School Boards Association sent out a warning to local boards across the state about the risks of letting students join protest actions in support of the gun control movement. It is ironic to see the sudden outbreak of pearl-clutching when charter advocates have repeatedly closed their schools and bused their students, parents, and staff to Albany to lobby for more money for their charter organizations, with nary a peep from the NYSSBA.

Incidentally, many colleges and universities have declared that they will ignore any sanctions imposed on students because of their participation in walkouts related to gun violence.

A school board member in New Paltz responded:

“In a recent Legal Alert email from the New York State School Boards Association (NYSSBA) to its members, advice was offered to school boards considering whether to support students participating in a planned national walkout in protest of gun violence in schools, or to exempt participating students from disciplinary action resulting from a violation of school policy. NYSSBA offered very cautious, sensible advice from a purely legal perspective. In short: policy should always be upheld in order to preserve order and prevent the danger of setting a precedent which might, in the future, be used by students to evade repercussions for other policy violations; and that school boards should not support such activities, because school districts have “no express authority to engage in political activities,” but rather should always assume a position of neutrality. In addressing the issue of students’ First Amendment rights, NYSSBA cited the U.S. Supreme Court case of Tinker v. Des Moines, which states that schools can curb students’ free speech rights when they cause a significant disruption to the learning environment.

“As a school board member, I could hardly disagree more with everything I read in this email. Public education has become a highly politicized environment. Governor Cuomo, the New York State Education Department, Commissioner Elia, the Board of Regents, corporate reformers and charter school advocates have turned our public education system into a political football that gets trotted out and kicked around the field during every election cycle. To say that school boards should remain neutral, even apolitical, is ridiculous. We are elected officials, and though our elections are nominally nonpartisan, we are individuals with viewpoints, we represent our voters’ viewpoints, and have obligations to them and to students. The very notion of free public education for all was once considered a radical idea, and still faces attack today from various opponents.

“As school officials, one of our first and most important duties is to ensure that our students, teachers, administrators and staff have a safe and welcoming place to learn, teach, and work, free from fear. We are facing an ongoing crisis in our schools, a repeating cycle of violence, followed by fear, then inaction, and finally complacency. Over the past 20 years, we have seen tragedy after tragedy unfold, from Columbine, to Newtown, and now to Parkland, each with its horrific, bloody, senseless deaths, each ultimately marked by the failure of leaders to take action. As the alleged adults in the federal government prepare to once again sadly shake their collective heads and tell us they wish there was something that could be done, young people across America are preparing to come together in solidarity with one another, and to demand that leaders take action to protect them.

“Our kids and our teachers are being shot down in the hallways and classrooms of the one place they should feel safe from harm. This is not a time for cautious sensibility on the part of school officials. It’s a time for outrage, a time for anger, a time for grief, and a time for change. It’s a time for school board members to stand up on behalf of our students and staff, not to hide behind the board table. Some of our students will choose to walk out and demand that change. Some will not. Either is a brave choice, and should be supported, not punished.

“Brian Cournoyer
“Member of the New Paltz Central School District Board of Education”

 

Categories Accountability, New York, Resistance, Students

New York Celebrates Half Point Rise in Graduation Rate: Is It Real?

By dianeravitch
February 7, 2018 //
45

 

New York State released the latest graduation rate data. The grad rate went up by half a percentage point, from 79.7% to 80.2%.

http://www.nysed.gov/news/2018/state-education-department-releases-2013-cohort-high-school-graduation-rates

It is good to see more students finishing high school, and their teachers and principals and the students themselves deserve congratulations.

But.

Given the spread of online “credit recovery,” which allows students to make up for a failed course by taking an online course for a few days or a couple of weeks, is the grad rate real or is it margarine?

The recent graduation rate scandal in D.C. should raise red flags everywhere.

Future releases should report on the use of credit recovery courses. The NCAA became so concerned about credit recovery that it disqualified high schools that were allowing students to graduate with fake degrees, in some cases received after answering simple true-false questions. In some cases, with multiple chances to take the multiple-choice exam.

Campbell’s Law is immutable.

Categories Campbell's Law, District of Columbia, Graduation rates, New York

Eva Opening a Charter in Hudson Valley

By dianeravitch
January 18, 2018 //
14

 

Warning to parents in the Hudson Valley, New York.

Eva Moskowitz is opening a no-excuses Charter School in your neighborhood.

https://thehudsonvalleysuccessacademy.com/

Protect your children against harsh discipline.

Defend your public schools against raids on their funding.

 

 

Categories Discipline and Suspensions, Education Industry, Harlem Success Academy, New York, Privatization

Richard Brodsky: Trump’s Tax Plan Will Blow Up School Funding in New York

By dianeravitch
January 6, 2018 //
21

 

 

Richard Brodsky, a former Democratic legislator in New York, warns that Trump Tax Plan will be a disaster for New York. 

Of course, Republicans have boasted about the devastation that their tax law will cause to New York, New Jersey, and California, the big blue states. It is a partisan hit job, unlike the 1986 tax reform, where the parties worked together.

He writes:

 

“That loud rumbling sound New Yorkers are hearing is the ground shifting beneath their feet.

“The recently enacted federal package of tax cuts and increases does much more than increase the state’s outsized contribution to the federal treasury. It will fundamentally transform New York’s government and politics by undermining support for current school funding arrangements.

“To provide a quality education to a population with many high-needs students, New York spends more per pupil than any other state – an average of more than $22,000 a year. This figure varies throughout the state and there is a lot of attention paid to disparities in school spending. Many school districts don’t have sufficient local resources and need state funds to pay for teachers, physical space and supplies.

“Most education money comes from two separate taxes. The local share is usually paid mostly by property taxes, a particularly regressive tax that does not consider the taxpayers’ income or ability to pay. In most of the state outside New York City – which has low property taxes and an income tax – school property taxes are an enormous social and political problem.

“The state steps in with its own funding on top of the local share, getting its money from the income tax, and distributing it through a formula that sends most of the money to poorer districts. A wealthier suburban district can get as little as 5-7 percent of its budget from the state. Poorer districts, most of them upstate, get 70-75 percent of their budgets from the state. New York City gets 40-50 percent of its budget from the state, largely because it is a wealthy district when compared to the statewide average.

“It’s not as complicated as it seems. The state redistributes income tax revenue to make up for disparities in wealth. Schools across the state function under the system. Taxpayers everywhere complain, but it has been a stable system. The regional impacts are clear. Generally speaking, New York City gets back in state dollars a little less than it sends to Albany in tax payments. Upstate gets an enormous subsidy provided by suburban taxpayers.

“President Donald Trump has blown up that delicate balance. Measured across all state programs – not just education – New York City and the suburbs send billions of dollars to upstate communities. That system has been tolerated partially because it’s fair: State dollars are directed at communities that need the money for basic services, including schools, and partially because political leaders bargained their way into a sustainable compromise.

“Enter Donald Trump. His tax reform legislation unravels a central economic premise of New York’s school funding system. Suburban taxpayers pay both high property taxes and high state income taxes, but they could deduct from their federal income taxes what they paid in state and local taxes. That deduction is now capped at $10,000, far less than the state and local taxes paid by many middle-class and affluent homeowners in New York City and its suburbs. So now many of those New Yorkers will see their total tax liability increase by thousands of dollars a year. New York, already the largest net donor among the states, will be sending an additional $14 billion per year to Washington.

“This will undo the political bargain that has kept the current system afloat. Suburban taxpayers might be willing to absorb an additional burden if those dollars flowed to their home districts. Instead, slowly but surely, they will learn that their money is heading out of town and they won’t like it. That will inevitably erode public support for regional subsidies. A taxpayer revolt is coming.”

Read on. It is ironic that the president from New York is wreaking maximum damage on his home state.

Categories Funding, New York

New York: How Charter Schools Won the Right to Hire Unqualified Teachers

By dianeravitch
January 6, 2018 //
13

 

Jake Jacobs reports the complicated political story behind the decision by the State University of New York’s charter committee to allow its nearly 200 charter schools to hire unqualified teachers. New York State has high standards for new teachers. SUNY has some of the best education programs in the state.

Yet a SUNY  committee selected by Governor Cuomo decided that charter schools it approves need no qualifications at all, not even a college degree, not even a high school degree.

Behind this tangled tale is Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy Charter Chain, which has such a high teacher turnover rate (as much as 60% annually in some schools) that she is faced with a perennial teacher shortage.

Read on to learn why SUNY would undermine teacher professionalism.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, New York, Teachers, Testing

New York: Parents Appaud Regents’ Decision to Create Multiple Pathways to Graduation

By dianeravitch
December 15, 2017 //
5

This comes from NYSAPE (New York State Allies for Public Education):

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 15, 2017

More information contact:

Lisa Rudley (917) 414-9190; nys.allies@gmail.com

Bonnie Buckley (631) 513-8976 bonnief.buckley@gmail.com

NYS Allies for Public Education (NYSAPE)

Multiple Pathways to a Diploma for All (MPDA)

Parents Around the State Applaud the Board of Regents’ Precedent-Setting Diploma Expansion

On Monday, the NYS Board of Regents voted to create an additional alternate pathway to graduation for students who receive special education services. In doing so, the Board of Regents broke through the decades-old policy that tied all New York State high school diplomas to high-stakes exit exams. If the measure is formally adopted, these students who struggle with academic exams will be able to earn a diploma as long as they have completed the required amount of Regents-level coursework and earned the Career Development and Occupational Studies (CDOS) Commencement credential. Furthermore, students who should have graduated in 2015, 2016, or 2017 and have already exited high school will now have the option to re-enroll to meet the new requirements and earn a local diploma.

“As a New York State resident and parent, I am confident that these students will now be recognized as having ‘earned’ their high school diploma and be viewed as the assets to our State that they are,” commented Betty Pilnik, Long Island public school parent and co-founder of Multiple Pathways to a Diploma for All. “These students have worked twice as hard as some of their peers and now will be able to join the workforce or the military or to further their education–options that were unavailable to them before the Board of Regents and NYSED acknowledged that these students deserve the opportunity to be contributing, productive members of society.”

Suzanne Coyle, Rockland County public school parent and an employment specialist concurred, “This is a significant and validating decision by the Board of Regents. Students who have exited high school with a CDOS, but no diploma, have faced a world of challenges and severe limitations with regard to their employment opportunities, higher education, entrance into any branch of the US military, and funding for further vocational training. They’ve been denied, but this will be transformative.”

Between 2015 and 2017, approximately 45,000 students with disabilities did not graduate despite multiple attempts to pass multiple Regents exams. The Board of Regents had implemented various waivers and safety nets, including 2016’s “Superintendent’s Determination,” to aid some of those students, but according to Christine Zirkelbach, Founder of NY Stop Grad High Stakes Testing, “Only 417 students of those 45,000 students were able to graduate with a Superintendent’s Determination as it was originally established. With this revision, NYSED has held to students taking and passing Regents-level curriculum, a full 22 credits, and has added the vigorous work required to earn a CDOS as a pathway to a meaningful diploma for students with an IEP. This is not lowering standards; this is substituting a hands-on practical assessment for a written exam.”

New York is one of only a few states that still requires high school exit exams, even when students have passed all their courses. While parents see the Board of Regents vote as a major step forward, we and our organizations will continue to advocate for the complete elimination of exit exams.

“It is a tragedy that so many students with disabilities have spent their entire high school career focused on passing these exams, many to no avail,” remarked Bianca Tanis, Ulster County public school parent, educator and founding member of NYSAPE. This change is an important first step in recognizing that high-stakes exit exams have never been shown to improve postsecondary outcomes for ANY students and that to the contrary, these costly exams exacerbate inequalities and diminish opportunity.”

“The opt out movement has never just been about grades 3-8 high-stakes testing. It is about empowering parents to advocate on behalf of their children. This change reflects that advocacy effort and a research-based, common sense response by our Board of Regents. Child-first policy shifts like these will continue to move New York in the right direction,” echoed Jeanette Deutermann, NYSAPE co-founder and Long Island Opt Out founder.

Lisa Rudley, Westchester County public school parent and another co-founder of NYSAPE, also applauded the vote, but added a note of caution, “We thank the Board of Regents for removing some of the barriers for students who deserve to have a meaningful diploma. This is an important step forward, however the fact that the granting of the diploma ultimately rests with the superintendent means that parents need to be diligent advocates for their children. District-level waivers tend to favor students in districts whose parents are most active; as such it’s important to keep in mind that they can be inequitably applied.”

The public will have 45 days (December 27 through February 12) to comment on the proposed regulations and the state education department can make revisions as necessary after the public comment period has ended.

Bonnie Buckley, Long Island public school parent and co-founder of Multiple Pathways to a Diploma for All, knows the value of that civic engagement. “Two and a half years ago this inequity came to my attention when I learned my daughter wouldn’t be able to graduate without Regents exams. With several other parents, we started a grassroots movement and the Facebook page, Multiple Pathways to a Diploma for All, to address this inequity. I am profoundly grateful to Chancellor Rosa, the Board of Regents and NYSED for making it possible for children all around the state to move on with their lives. This is a door opening, and we are pleased with this change and are hopeful it is an indication of other changes.”

We will continue to advocate for the removal of high-stakes standardized tests as requirements for earning a New York State high school diploma.

NYSAPE is a grassroots coalition of over 50 parent and educator groups across the state.

Multiple Pathways to a Diploma for All is a grassroots parent organization with nearly 6,000 members.

Link: http://www.nysape.org/nysape-mpda-pr-diploma-expansion.html

Categories High School Graduation, New York, Special Education

Rochester, New York: Developer of Gulen School Pockets $300,00 Profit in Sweet Deal

By dianeravitch
December 11, 2017 //
10

One of the biggest scandals associated with charter school finances has to do with “related parties.” That means that the school engages in financial transactions with a “related party” and money changes hands and ends up in the pockets of friends.

The Gulen schools are one of the nations’ largest charter chains. They are somehow associated or owned by the imam Fethullah Gulen, who lives in seclusion in the Poconos of Pennsylvania. General Michael Flynn apparently offered to extradite Gulen because the Turkish Government blames Gulen for a failed coup. Gulen schools have been accused of hiring Turkish contractors who were not the low bidders on contracts. You can tell a Gulen Charter by the large number of Turks on the board of directors and Turkish teachers.

In Rochester, New York, the local newspaper has uncovered a shady deal between related parties involving a Gulen charter school.

The story reads in part:

“A real estate holding company based in Syracuse cleared more than $300,000 in profit at the expense of a charter school in Greece earlier this year, according to real estate and financial records obtained by the Democrat and Chronicle.

“Both the company, Terra Science and Education Inc., and Rochester Academy Charter School, which opened in 2008 as the first local charter high school, have evident connections with each other, and broadly with the nebulous network of Fethullah Gulen, the reclusive and controversial Turkish cleric living in exile in rural Pennsylvania.

“Both the school and Terra deny there is a connection, but the D&C investigation has found numerous examples of overlapped personnel, lax invoicing, a lack of auditing and shared community affiliations.

“Many Gulen-suspected schools across the country have entered into questionable real estate transactions with related parties, something critics label an attempt to siphon off the public money charter schools receive for their pupils. The importance for Monroe County residents, though, is the disbursal of hundreds of thousands of public dollars to a connected organization.

“Such transactions, while not illegal, point to an oversight weakness in charter schools, which rely more heavily on contracted space and services than traditional public schools.

“The Democrat and Chronicle has rebuilt the timeline of the deal that generated the substantial return for Terra.

*May 2016: Terra Science and Education Inc. buys a shuttered school building on Latta Road from Our Mother of Sorrows Church for $700,000.

*August 2016 to June 2017: Terra spends between $1.2 million and $1.5 million in renovations. Rochester Academy Charter School (RACS) leases the building from Terra in the meantime for $30,000 a month, paying a total of $300,000.

*June 2017: RACS purchases the newly renovated building for $2.5 million — at least $300,000 more than Terra’s costs for purchase and renovation, not including the lease payments.

“The fat profit margin for Terra comes from public funding intended for the hundreds of students attending the school — about $5 million in 2016-17, and growing as the school adds grade levels each year.

“Under normal circumstances, if a developer turned a $300,000 profit after owning a property less than one year and selling it to a public school, it would be evidence of ruthless commercial skill for the one party and hapless poor luck for the other.

“When there is evidence the two parties are connected, it is a different story.”

Bottom line: Taxpayers were ripped off.

Categories Gulen Charter Schools, New York, Scandals

Campbell Brown’s Group Pursuing Lawsuit Against Teacher Tenure in New York

By dianeravitch
December 1, 2017 //
25

“The 74,” a website founded by former television anchor Campbell Brown, reports that the Partnership for Educational Justice (an anti-Union, anti-tenure, anti-seniority advocacy group founded by Campbell Brown) had their day in court in New York yesterday, and possibly for additional days.

PEJ is seeking to eliminate teacher tenure on grounds that it discriminates against black and brown children and deprives them of their rights. The presumption is that if their teachers did not have tenure, the students would get higher test scores. The lawsuit was filed in 2014. Brown’s organization is bankrolling it (Betsy DeVos was a member of the PEJ board before she became Secretary of Education).

“The lawsuit takes aim at teacher seniority and tenure protections, charging that “last in, first out” rules governing layoffs and other aspects of tenure impinge on students’ constitutional right to a “sound basic education” by keeping “chronically ineffective teachers” in classrooms.

“Among the parent plaintiffs is Tauana Goins, whose daughter’s teacher at P.S. 106 allegedly bullied the girl and called her “a loser.” Goins told The 74 she believes tenure should be based on performance rather than seniority.

“On its website, PEJ contends that New York’s tenure laws amount to lifetime job protections that are so extensive, “schools have to navigate a nearly endless bureaucratic maze to replace even the worst-performing teachers.””

PEJ has pursued the same claim in Minnesota and New Jersey, thus far without success.

“In the New Jersey lawsuit, HG v. Harrington, six plaintiff parents argue that “last in, first out” rules prevent children in low-income school districts from receiving a “thorough and efficient education.” In May, New Jersey Superior Court Judge Mary Jacobson threw out the case, contending the plaintiffs had failed to show how their children were harmed by the rules.

“I don’t see any link other than speculation and conjecture between the LIFO statute and the denial of a thorough and efficient education to these 12 children,” Jacobson said at the time.
The parents have since appealed that decision.”

PEJ is appealing.

Here is a curious twist in the story.

Campbell Brown originally became involved in the fight against unions and teacher tenure because she was convinced that they protected sexual predators in the classrooms of New York City. In 2012 and 2014, she wrote articles in Rupert Murdoch’s anti-public school Wall Street Journal about sexual predators in public schools.

The celebrated attorney David Boies agreed to lead the fight on behalf of PEJ because he agreed that tenure was harming the civil rights of minority children. Leave aside the fact that somewhere between 40-50% of beginning teachers don’t remain in teaching because of the demands of the job. The turnover is highest in poorest communities, where children need a stable and experienced corps of committed teachers. Removing tenure would likely increase teacher turnover, especially where the needs are greatest.

But here is the irony, given Campbell’s concern about sexual predators. In addition to representing PEJ, Boies also represented the celebrated sexual predator Harvey Weinstein.

According to reporting in the New York Times and The New Yorker, Boies hired a private investigator to protect Weinstein.

An article in the Times by Deborah Rhodes on November 9 said that Boies’ role in protecting Weinstein was “egregious.”

“The stories of sexual abuse swirling around the movie producer Harvey Weinstein offer so much not to like that it is hard to imagine much more to say about men behaving badly. But it turns out there is more. One of the nation’s most respected lawyers, David Boies, is among those whose work helped Mr. Weinstein try to conceal his abusive behavior.

“Mr. Boies personally signed a contract with a private investigation organization, Black Cube, to unearth, as the contract specified, “intelligence which will help the client’s efforts to completely stop the publication of a new negative article in a leading NY Newspaper.” The client was Mr. Weinstein. The contract also authorized investigators to look for material to discredit “harmful negative information” about Mr. Weinstein in a forthcoming book. Having Mr. Boies rather than Mr. Weinstein sign the contract had the advantage of protecting the resulting information under the attorney-client privilege, which would shield it from disclosure in subsequent disputes.

“What makes the involvement of Mr. Boies so egregious is not only that it helped Mr. Weinstein conceal his abuse and undermined the First Amendment interests of the press and the public. It is also that Mr. Boies’s representation posed a conflict of interest, because his firm, Boies Schiller Flexner, was representing The New York Times, the “leading NY Newspaper,” in libel litigation at the same time.”

(I can’t supply a link to the article because The NY Times website is not allowing me to copy the link. Google it. And google the New Yorker articles by Ronan Farrow about Boies and Weinstein.)

I guess people have different thresholds of tolerance when it comes to allegations about “sexual predators.” My understanding is that the United federation of Teachers has a zero tolerance policy for teachers who are sexual predators. But some process of review is necessary so that teachers’ careers are not destroyed by false accusations.

Categories Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Teacher Tenure

The Disgrace of East Ramapo, New York

By dianeravitch
November 30, 2017 //
40

The New York Civil Liberties Union recently filed a suit against East Ramapo, New York. The town school board has been almost completely captured by members of the Orthodox Jewish Community, whose children attend private religious schools. The school board uses its power to strip the budget for the students who attend public schools, who are overwhelmingly black and Hispanic.

Teacher Bianca Tanis, a member of the board of directors of New York State Allies for Public Education, here describes this shameful situation and calls on the Nee York State United Teachers to take action to protect the children of the East Ramapo District.

She writes:

“96% of public school students in the East Ramapo Central School District are Black and Latino while 98% of the students attending private schools are white with most attending private religious schools. Only one of the nine Board of Education seats is held by a public school parent. Needless to say, the Board of Education has NOT acted in the best interest of East Ramapo’s 8,500 public school students.

“The New York Civil Liberties union found that between 2009 and 2014 the East Ramapo Board of Education slashed funding to public schools and eliminated 200 teaching positions in addition to cutting numerous social workers and other key personnel.

“According the the NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman, “The East Ramapo school district has effectively disenfranchised the Black and Latino community and allowed white residents to hijack the school board in service of the lily-white private schools. The East Ramapo school board has brazenly diverted taxpayer funds to bankroll white private schools and destabilize public schools. Their policies have compromised the education and well-being of thousands of Black and Latino children. The disenfranchisement and degradation must end.”

“What is happening in East Ramapo is tragic. I have seen it with my own eyes…

“The NYCLU lawsuit demands that the board stop holding elections until a “ward” system is adopted. This would introduce voting on the basis of geographic districts; there would be nine individual districts, with one member elected to the board from each district.”

This situation did not develop overnight. The Regents and the legislature have allowed it to fester, while the children of East Ramapo are cheated.

Categories Budget Cuts, Civil Rights, New York

Arthur Goldstein: It Is Not Fair to Gut ESL instruction

By dianeravitch
November 20, 2017 //
10

Arthur Goldstein is a veteran high school teacher of English and English as a Second Language.

He warns here that New York State is harming students whose native language is not English by reducing the time allotted to teaching them English. He calls on the State Board of Regents to reverse this policy.

“High school can be rough. Our children and students are frequently insecure, uncertain, and grasping to find their way in a new and unfamiliar environment. Some students have to deal with not only that, but also the fact that they don’t speak English.

“For most English Language Learners (ELLs), one safe haven has been their English classroom, where a teacher understood their special needs and made sure no one made fun of their inevitable errors and struggles with a new language. But the most recent revision of Commissioner’s Regulation Part 154, which governs how English as a second language (ESL) instruction is distributed, has largely withdrawn that support system. For example, beginning ELLs who formerly took three classes daily in direct English instruction may now have as few as one.

“Instead of ESL classes, New York State purports to blend English instruction into other courses. For example, in the daily 40 minutes that an United States-born student has to study, say, the Civil War, ELLs are expected to study both the Civil War and English. So not only do they get less English instruction, but they also get less instruction in history than native speakers. Principals may see it as a win-win. They can dump ESL classes, add nothing, save money, and hope for the best.

“I don’t know about you, but if I went to China tomorrow, I’d want intense instruction in Mandarin or Cantonese before I ever attempted opening a history book. I want the best for my students, and that includes as much English instruction as possible. Expecting children to master history before being able to order a pizza or even introduce themselves is remarkably short-sighted, reflecting total ignorance of language acquisition.”

Categories English Language Learners, New York
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