Archives for category: New York

Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters wrote the following call to action. In New York State, the legislature is providing generous subsidies to charter schools in New York City, which enroll 6% of students, at the expense of the 94% whose schools will lose funding to subsidize the rent of the charters. The charter cause is backed by billionaire hedge fund managers who spent $5 million on attack ads against Mayor de Blasio. They gave Governor Cuomo $800,000 to protect “their” schools. They care not a whit for the educational opportunities of the 94%. This is wrong. Raise your voice to help the kids who have no lobbyists, no billionaires, no hedge fund managers to protect them and their schools.

Leonie writes:

Dear folks:

PLEASE call your legislators in Albany today and urge them to vote NO on the state budget bill! On Monday, they will be voting on a budget that favors charter schools over public schools, provides them considerably more funds per student , bans charging charters rent or facility fees, and will provide any new or expanding charter free space in NYC public school buildings – or the city has to build or rent them facilities, out of taxpayer funds. NYC will be the ONLY place in the country where the district will be obligated to provide free space for ANY new or expanded charter in the future. The bill also contains very weak provisions on protecting student privacy.

1. On charters: this bill will encourage the forced corporate takeover of NYC public schools, where we already have the most overcrowded schools in the state. It will cause even more overcrowding in our already crammed schools, and make the city pay millions to house all new and expanded charters in the future. Our elementary and high schools are already 95% utilized – according to the DOE’s own figures, which even the Chancellor has admitted underestimates the actual level of overcrowding. More than half of our students are already in severely overcrowded buildings. Enrollment projections call for an increase of 70,000 more students over the next decade — and the only ones who will be guaranteed space going forward, to allow for smaller classes or to regain their art, music or science rooms, will be students enrolled in charters. This is the MOST onerous charter law in the nation and a huge unfunded mandate for NYC. For more on this see Diane Ravitch’s blog and the NYC public school parents blog.

2. On privacy: the bill is not much better. It appears to ban the state providing data to inBloom for the purposes of creating data dashboards, but not for any other purpose. And it has no mention of parental consent or opt out – except for requiring consent before vendors can give the information to other vendors, which they will still be allowed to do without consent via a huge loophole, if they call them their “authorized representatives.” It calls for a privacy officer, who will write a “parent bill of rights” under the direction of the Commissioner, who as far as we can tell, doesn’t believe that parents have any rights when it comes to protecting the privacy of their children. For a more detailed analysis, see our blog here.

The legislators are in Albany today, discussing this bill. Please call your Assemblymember (contact info here: http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/?sh=search) and your Senator (http://www.nysenate.gov/) today in Albany, and urge them to tell their leadership NOT to allow this bill to go forward. If it does come to the floor, they should vote NO.

Thanks for your support for the rights of NY public schoolchildren,

Leonie Haimson
Executive Director
Class Size Matters
124 Waverly Pl.
New York, NY 10011
212-674-7320

The New York Daily News reports that  the revolt among the state tests is growing among parents. State officials are doing whatever they can to tamp down the parent rebellion against the state’s obsession with testing. No one at the State Education Department ever speaks of the “joy of learning,” as New York City Chancellor Carmen Farina did when her appointment was announced. The state department seems to be filled with statisticians, bean counters, technocrats, and bureaucrats who never read for fun, never enjoyed learning, don’t like learning. They love data. Data fill them with joy.

 

“…The revolt against the education overlords in Albany was gathering steam Thursday as parent organizers at Public School 368 in Harlem said they will not subject their kids to the annual English Language Arts (ELA) and math exams that begin next week.

Kimberly Casteline, whose 8-year-old son attends the school, said the tests are unfair.

“A child can have a bad day, a child can be a bad test taker,” said the Fordham University professor. “Test taking does not equate to learning and that’s where we’re getting these two concepts conflated.”

Casteline and the other refuseniks believe the emphasis on standardized exams takes the joy out of learning and forces teachers to teach to the tests.

“I decided to opt my son out of the test after realizing that he was going to spend six valuable days of the school year taking the test, and even more days preparing for the test,” Casteline said.

Jasmine Batista, who has two sons the school, said the test needlessly stressed out her 10-year-old.

“He was concerned that he would not go on to the next grade,” she said. “He was crying, he had no appetite, he couldn’t sleep. He was so happy when that test was done.”

Now her 8-year-old is feeling the angst.

“My third-grader is now also stressed out because of what he saw his older brother go through,” she said.

Donnie Rotkin, a former public school teacher who is now an academic coach at two elementary schools in northern Manhattan, echoed the worried moms.

“Too many schools spend weeks, months, narrowly focused on preparing kids for these tests,” said Rotkin.

While surveys show that many public school parents share those sentiments, so far very few have yanked their kids out of the classroom on testing days.

Last year, 5,100 of the 1.2 million students who were supposed to take the tests statewide didn’t do so, officials said.

He was crying, he had no appetite, he couldn’t sleep. He was so happy when that test was done. State Education Department spokesman Dennis Tompkins defended the testing as “one of many tools that should be used to measure student growth and help inform instruction.”

“The year, the parents of more than a million students across the state will ‘opt-in’ to the state assessments,” he said…..

But the rebellions in schools like P.S. 368 are spreading across the city and gaining in strength, the anti-testing advocacy group Change the Stakes claims.

Administered for roughly one hour per day over six days, spread out over five weeks, the results are used in decisions to promote students, evaluate school performance and educators, and figure into bonuses for school staffers whose students do well on the tests.

There are no official consequences for the kids who opt out of the tests. Instead of being judged on how well they did on the standardized exams, they will be evaluated on their school work.

Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters describes the deal to benefit the billionaire-funded charter schools  that is being negotiated right now by the New York legislature and will be voted on next week.

It is not too late to make your voice heard!

Governor Cuomo, who received $800,000 for  his re-election campaign from charter school advocates, is making good on his promise to take care of charters. These privately operated schools, supported by billionaires like Paul Tudor Jone, Rupert Murdoch, Michael Bloomberg, and a long list of hedge fund managers, will never have to pay rent for their use of public facilities; they will get additional public fund; and a guarantee that they can never be moved out of their public space. The billionaires proved in the past month that they are willing to spend $5 million or so on attack ads, but they will not pay rent to the city for their use of public space. The Robin Hood Foundation, founded by billionaire Paul Tudor Jones, is able to raise $80 million in a single night. But the charters can’t pay the city rent for use of public space. According to Forbes, Paul Tudor Jones manages $13 billion in assets, and he has decided to “save” public education. He and his fellow hedge fund managers have determined to privatize public education. With the help of New York’s feckless legislature and cold-hearted Governor, they are on their way.

 

Leonie Haimson writes:

 

According to today’s NY Post, the legislature is about to make the worst possible deal imaginable: considerably more per pupil funding for charters, including more than $1100 per student over three years, and free space or rent paid for by NYC for any new or expanding NYC charter going forward – just in NYC, by the way, where we have the most overcrowded schools in the state, with more than half our students sitting in extremely overcrowded schools by the DOE’s own metrics, which we know are an underestimate.

Thousands of kids on waiting lists for Kindergarten each spring, thousands more sitting in trailers, and the capital plan provides less than one third of the seats needed to eliminate current overcrowding and address future enrollment growth. But charters will be guaranteed the space to expand – paid for by city taxpayers, while our public school students are crushed into larger and larger classes with less space to learn.

Call the Speaker’s office now: tell him to say NO to the deal forcing the city to pay for facilities forever for new or expanded charters, while public school students will sit in increasingly overcrowded buildings.

Speaker Silver: (518) 455-3791

Then call your Assemblymember and urge them to say NO to this deal as well; find their contact info here:

If this deal goes forward, this will truly create a two tier system in which the charter schools will be the only ones in uncrowded facilities, with the rent paid for by NYC taxpayers, and all parents will be forced to apply to charter schools whether they want to or not, just to guarantee a seat for their child in a school that is not hugely overcrowded.

Please call the Speaker’s office and your Assemblymember now.

Thanks,

Leonie Haimson
Executive Director
Class Size Matters
124 Waverly Pl.
New York, NY 10011
212-674-7320

Late-breaking news from Albany: according to this story in the Buffalo News, tax breaks for private and religious schools will not be in the state budget.

“A plan promoted by the Catholic Church to give lucrative state tax breaks to donors to private schools has died in last-minute budget talks, lawmakers said Thursday night, as has a push by charter schools to get the state to reimburse them for school building infrastructure improvements……The large tax break program for donors who give to nonprofit groups that, in turn, give to private schools was a top priority for the Catholic Church. The church’s leaders have said the plan would have helped reduce the need to close as many schools as dioceses around the state have in recent years.

“Instead, lawmakers, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the final budget deal will increase an existing funding pot that goes to Catholic schools for state-mandated services for which they get reimbursed, such as student attendance services and scoring of state tests administered by the private schools. But sources say the state is behind by at least $200 million in those mandated services costs over the past 10 years and the amount being discussed for new aid this year will not come close to making up those past owed payments….

“The overall state aid to education will grow by $1.1 billion, up from the $800 million Cuomo proposed to a total of $22 billion…..

“Charter schools also are in line for more state funding. In return, they must agree to give state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli authority to audit their finances.”

Emergency meeting on Thursday on behalf of the 97% of New York State students who are not in charter schools:

Anyone who can make it tomorrow should do so. The state budget is hitting crunch time, with the Charter lobby spending millions on behalf of privatization and the 3% in charters, while firmly controlling both the Governor and the State Senate. Support must be given to Speaker Silver and the Assembly Dems to hold fast for the 97% of our kids in public schools and for public education, and to allow Mayor de Blasio to determine his own education policies.

The Senate/Cuomo proposal would force the DOE (and all local public school boards throughout the state) to provide public space for EVERY charter authorized at the state level, or else pay the charter’s rent in private space; a colocation policy that would be worse than anything Bloomberg ever sought. Additionally, the charter lobby boondoggle bill would give Charters more upfront money (aka tuition), and give Albany control of our NYC public school buildings and budget, while sending 25 cents of every new state education dollar to the 3 out of 100 kids in charters. Meanwhile, the City and State public schools are looking at 2009 funding levels which the courts said were $2 billion short – back then. Outrageous.

Please join New York Communities for Change, Public School Parents, Elected Officials, Educators, Community Members.

Thursday, March 27
12 noon
Tweed Courthouse – 52 Chambers

Noah

noah eliot gotbaum
community education council district 3 (cec3)
noah@gotbaum.com
twitter: @noahegotbaum

Several superintendents in Long Island, Néw York, hope to find a path out of the morass created by Néw York State’s authoritarian Board of Regents, which loves high-stakes testing.

Here is a comment by one of those superintendents:

Opening the Door: An Alternate Way for Public Education

Our public education system is truly at a crossroads. The question is, do we just passively sit and watch big business tycoons, lawmakers and our elected educational leaders at the state and national level to continue the perpetuation of unproven lies? The over standardization of curriculum and testing as well as their stripping teachers of their professionalism and dignity is not what’s best for kids. There is another way…

Three Long Island superintendents, Mr. David Gamberg, Dr. Steven Cohen and I co-organized an Education Forum that focused on solutions to the broken New York State Regents Reform Agenda. School district administrators, teachers and parents gathered on Thursday, March 13th at Stony Brook University for a panel discussion about “Professional Capital: Transforming Teaching in Every School.” Book co-authors and education advocates Dr. Michael Fullan and Dr. Andy Hargreaves joined the panel along with school superintendent Dr. Steven Cohen of Shoreham-Wading River, renowned Finnish education expert Dr. Pasi Sahlberg, South Side High School principal Dr. Carol Burris, and Plainview-Old Bethpage assistant superintendent Dr. Tim Eagen. Southold superintendent David Gamberg moderated and I represented the Shelter Island School District as a panelist.

“The worst teachers teach alone” and don’t collaborate with others. “How hypocritical to put them in competition?” Dr. Hargreaves said, in reference to proposed teacher incentive programs tied to student test scores. Dr. Hargreaves and Dr. Fullan explained that the “professional capital” approach toward education is about creating a comfortable atmosphere for teachers to encourage curiosity and creativity in students. They also described the U.S.’s current direction with education as “business capital” since the focus of measuring academic success has shifted toward the reliance of test scores and unproven methods to evaluate teachers and principals.

From a practical sense, teachers need time to collaborate. Most respected professions do this. School leaders must break the industrial revolution public school model of how schools operate and find ways to alter the internal structure (schedule) of their school day to promote “social capital”. Our east end Long Island school districts are partnering together to begin a district collaboration process to promote our human and social capital capabilities. Dr. Cohen, Mr. Gamberg and I are committed to walk the walk of this alternate and research-based path for public education.

In an effort to change the state’s current path toward their misguided view, we are forming a new lobbying effort called “Summer 2014 Education Action Institute.” It is currently in the conceptual stages. Its purpose is to rally parents and community members to encourage elected officials to participate in future workshops and events.There will be more to come regarding our Summer Institute.

Public Education is at a crossroads but it is not broken. Many will lead you to believe it is. Private sector business tycoons do not have the answer nor do our elected Regents in New York State. The answer is not through testing, standardizing and evaluating every single little thing within our public schools. It’s about trusting and building the capacity of our teachers. The door is open to a better way of educating our children. The question is… will you enter and join us?

Dr. Michael J Hynes is the Superintendent of Schools for the Shelter Island School District.

Twitter:
@MikeHynes5

A reader submits a model opt out letter for parents in New York:

“If anyone is interested in refusing the state assessments or know someone who is:

REFUSAL LETTER:

Dear Board of Education, Superintendent, Principals, and Teachers of ________________ school district,

We are writing today to formally inform the __________ school district of our decision to refuse to allow our child _____________ to participate in any local assessments tied to APPR for the 2013-2014 school year. My child will be scored as a “refusal”, with a final score of “999” and a standard achieved code of 96, on all State testing including ELA, Math and Science as described in the NYS Student Information Repository System (SIRS) Manual on page 63.

Our refusal should in no way reflect on the teachers, administration, or school board. This was not an easy decision for us, but we feel that we have no other choice. We simply see these tests as harmful, expensive, unfair, and a waste of time and valuable resources.

This year we will show effort to eliminate unnecessary and harmful assessments in our public schools. Our child will not participate in any assessments other than those solely for the use of the individual classroom teacher.

We refuse to allow any data to be used for purposes other than the individual teacher’s own formative or cumulative assessment. Any assessment whose data is used to determine school ranking, teacher effectiveness, state or federal longitudinal studies or any other purpose other than for the individual classroom teacher’s own use to improve his or her instruction will not be presented to our child.

To be clear, our children will not participate in the following:

➢ Any so-called “benchmark” exams whether they are teacher-designed or not, since these exams are imposed by entities other than the individual teacher.
➢ Pre–assessments connected to “Student Learning Objectives”.
➢ Any progress-monitoring or RTI assessments such as AIMSweb, MAP, or STAR
➢ Any exam used to formulate an evaluation or score for our children’s teachers or their school.

We believe in and trust our highly qualified and dedicated teachers and administrators. We believe in the high quality of teaching and learning that occurs at _____________ School. We hope our efforts will be understood in the context in which they are intended: to support the quality of instruction promoted by the school, and to advocate for what is best for all children. Our school will not suffer when these tests are finally gone, they will flourish as they have in the years previous. ________ school should have a unified policy in place to address children who are refusing these assessments.

We do apologize in advance for the inconvenience this decision may cause the administration, the school, and staff.

Sincerely,”

This spring, the five-year terms of four members of the New York Board of Regents expired. Many parent groups mounted a campaign to persuade the State Assembly to replace all four of them, since they refused to listen to parent complaints about the Common Core and the fiasco associated with the Common Core implementation and testing.

The Assembly responded by selecting someone with no experience in education and apparently no knowledge of the Common Core or the controversies surrounding it. Presumably, Commissioner John King–a target of parent anger–will bring the new Regent up to date.

Here is a description of the process by Tim Farley, an elementary-middle school principal in the Hudson Valley of New York:

Something is seriously awry in the state of New York. This year, four Regents positions were open. All four incumbents were seeking re-appointment. The appointment of Regents has historically been an Assembly-Democrat controlled process, and most years the Republican legislators don’t even bother showing up for the vote because they feel they really don’t have much of a say in the process (and they don’t). However, this year has been unique on many levels.

Since the Regents oversee Commissioner John King, the selection of Regents cannot be more critical than they are at this juncture. Much attention was focused on the interviews of the 20-plus candidates (including the incumbents). Regents candidates were required to apply by January 31, 2014. Applicants were informed that they would be interviewed in February. The four successful applicants would have their nominations voted on by a joint session on March 11. On Friday, March 7, several Assembly members were notified that a new set of interviews would occur on Monday, March 10. The newest candidate was Josephine Finn, a lawyer from Monticello, Sullivan County, NY. Regent Jackson is the incumbent Regent for this District (III) and he abruptly resigned with no public comments made to date.

According to a Times Union article (http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/207983/regents-candidate-has-an-entrepreneurialspiritual-side/ ), Finn “admitted to legislators that she wasn’t steeped in details of the Common Core controversy but said she was a quick study”. Ms. Finn also has some unique websites. For example, her website: “Josephinefinn.com” was quoted in the article as being dedicated to “applying spiritual principle to business practices as well as to everyday life.” Another one of Finn’s sites, “Mommashands.com” is dedicated to “spiritual growth.”

Finn, who was called in at the 11th hour, was interviewed and quickly nominated and won a seat on the Board of Regents, starting ironically enough on April 1. The Legislature rushed the nomination and appointment of a non-educator who has not “steeped” herself “in the details of the Common Core controversy”. It begs the question: Why was Finn allowed to even apply to be a Regent when she didn’t meet any of the deadlines to be a candidate? Why couldn’t the Assembly members nominate someone from the 20-plus candidates that they had already interviewed and several with substantially more educational experience than Finn? This is clearly a demonstration of the Legislature’s abdication of their duties. Their role in appointing Regents who oversee our children’s educational programming could not be more critical, and this is the person they appointed. Here is a link to her entire March 10 Regent interview (http://youtu.be/AWj4SshfaEU ).

Ms. Finn may be an excellent lawyer. She may be a really nice person. But what qualifies her for a Regent position more so than several other candidates with excellent credentials? Perhaps it is her past affiliation with the Casino Advisory Board (http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/9510051112/naacp-lawyer-joins-oneida-indian-casino-gambling-advisory-board ). According to this recent report (http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Cuomo-names-gaming-commission-chairman-for-casino-5126092.php ), it appears that Cuomo is on a fast track to establish Casinos in New York, and in particular, Sullivan County. Perhaps it is just a coincidence. Perhaps there was some “horse trading” going on. If I were a betting man, I would bet on a trifecta – Silver/Casinos/Cuomo. They seem like a sure bet to me.

Addendum: Valerie Strauss wrote about the newest member of the New York Board of Regents here.

The Rochester Teachers Association is suing the state over its teacher evaluation system, alleging that it does not take into account the impact of poverty on classroom performance.

RTA says the evaluations are “junk science.”

“ALBANY, N.Y. March 10, 2014 – The Rochester Teachers Association today filed a lawsuit alleging that the Regents and State Education Department failed to adequately account for the effects of severe poverty and, as a result, unfairly penalized Rochester teachers on their APPR (Annual Professional Performance Review) evaluations.

“The suit, filed in state Supreme Court in Albany by New York State United Teachers on behalf of the RTA and more than 100 Rochester teachers, argues the State Education Department did not adequately account for student poverty in setting student growth scores on state tests in grades 4-8 math and English language arts. In addition, SED imposed rules for Student Learning Objectives and implemented evaluations in a way that made it more difficult for teachers of economically disadvantaged students to achieve a score of “effective” or better. As a result, the lawsuit alleges the Regents and SED violated teachers’ rights to fair evaluations and equal protection under the law.

“SED computes a growth score based on student performance on state standardized tests, which is then used in teacher evaluations.

“Nearly 90 percent of Rochester students live in poverty. The lawsuit says SED’s failure to appropriately compensate for student poverty when calculating student growth scores resulted in about one-third of Rochester’s teachers receiving overall ratings of “developing” or “ineffective” in 2012-13, even though 98 percent were rated “highly effective” or “effective” by their principals on the 60 points tied to their instructional classroom practices. Statewide, just 5 percent of teachers received “developing” or “ineffective” ratings.

“The State Education Department’s failure to properly factor in the devastating impact of Rochester’s poverty in setting growth scores and providing guidance for developing SLOs resulted in city teachers being unfairly rated in their evaluations,” Iannuzzi said. “Rochester teachers work with some of the most disadvantaged students in the state. They should not face stigmatizing labels based on discredited tests and the state’s inability to adequately account for the impact of extreme poverty when measuring growth.”

“RTA President Adam Urbanski said an analysis of Rochester teachers’ evaluations for 2012-13 demonstrated clearly the effects of poverty and student attendance, for example, were not properly factored in for teachers’ evaluations. As a result, “dedicated and effective teachers received unfair ratings based on student outcomes that were beyond their control. The way the State Education Department implemented the state testing portion of APPR adds up to nothing more than junk science.”

A reader writes:

“How do you like this for accountability???
Lack of regulations, accountability and transparency invites charter school fraud

“Pet care, alcohol, vacations and other personal purchases were charged to taxpayers via Cincinnati College Preparatory Academy charter school, according to a 2013 state audit. The school misspent $520,000 in public money. Two former officials from the Cincinnati College Preparatory Academy are awaiting trial in Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas for theft in office and tampering with public records. Based on the states past record of recovering misspent funds by charter schools, the school districts from which these funds were extracted will not receive reimbursement

“In the now-closed Lion of Judah charter school fiasco, $1.2 million in public funds were lost but the court agreed to a settlement of $195,000 in restitution from the charter school operator. It is interesting that the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas judge approved a payback of less than 20% of the funds misspent and indicated that a prison sentence was not proper because the state didn’t properly anticipate the mistakes that could be made when citizens tried to run charter schools. It appears that the charter school operator received a lenient sentence for the fraud committed due to the judge’s view that the charter school law in Ohio is defective.

“On February 25, the State Auditor issued a finding for recovery in the amount of $507,206 against a Cleveland businessman who had unlawful interests in public contracts awarded to the now-closed Greater Heights Academy. Other persons involved in this charter school operation have been charged with a conspiracy to defraud the charter school of over $400,000.

“In a news release regarding the Greater Heights Academy charter school case, the State Auditor said, “…I’ll never understand what motivates people to steal from children.” An equally puzzling incomprehension is what motivates state officials to enact and continue to support charter school laws that provide for a license to steal.

“When will lawmakers regulate charter schools in ways to stop the fraud on the public and the low quality education provided to charter school students? Not until the public becomes outraged and demands that state officials refuse campaign contributions from charter school operators and advocates and begin to regulate charter schools.

“But hey, you know they are all in it for the kids. Aren’t you just wowed by the “innovation”? I’m sure people in NYC would love to know what is happening in the charters that they pay for.”

And what happens when the State Comptroller is legally barred from auditing charter schools, as in Néw York, because charter schools are not “a unit of government.” That means they get public money but they are not public schools and may not be audited by public authorities.