How will the UFT advise Steiner?
Secretly, or not at all (as of today).
At last Wednesday’s Delegate Assembly the question on many delegates minds was: “will the UFT advise Steiner to reject Cathie Black’s waiver?”
That question was not answered by the delegates. In fact, it never really came up.
Instead, a resolution from the Exec Board laid out the case for opposing Black, and drew the wrong conclusion: that we trust Steiner’s panel and process
RESOLVED that the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) support the process established by State Education Commissioner David Steiner as a credible and fair procedure for deciding on the request for a waiver from the qualifications for chancellor of New York City public schools promulgated in state education law.
(this was before the membership of the panel was announced). The Exec Board had adopted the resolution the previous day, by e-mail ballot. I voted no:
I vote no on the attached resolution. This is a solid resolution, down to the resolved. There is a missing “Resolved… ” statement. We should be calling on Steiner to reject the waiver for Black, and we should be calling on our members to add their voices to the thousands who have already called, written, e-mailed and signed.
At the DA, the leadership called for an amendment from the floor – they added a resolved, not against Black, but for amending the law. Amending the law to do away with waivers? That would have been good. While Weingarten was still here, when it was clear we were going to support an extension of mayoral control, New Action had tried to get us behind “no waiver.” But no, this amendment was for the search for chancellor to be an open process (fine, but beside the point).
The motivator insulted the intelligence of the assembly by implying that if Black didn’t get approved we could get Rhee instead. Way to appeal to fear and not the merits. Mulgrew had earlier spoken to his positive opinion of Steiner.
And the discussion? One delegate from Andrew Jackson, no Beach Channel, no, nowhere, tried to connect our position on Black to some guarantees on school closings. He offered a second amendment. A Unity Exec Board member spoke against that amendment. A Unity Chapter Leader said almost the exact same thing. And Steve Q. called the question. That was it. No debate on the UFT attitude towards the selection of schools chancellor.
The leadership was clever to frame the resolution away from the question: “will the UFT advise Steiner to reject Cathie Black’s waiver?” The discussion was cut dramatically short, before the issue could come from the floor.
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Once Steiner announced the panel on Friday there was additional recoil. Everyone immediately noted that Alonso, Brizard and Cahill had worked under Klein. The papers are picking up possible conflicts for Mirrer and even Fuhrman. Looks to all the world like the fix is in.
At last night’s Exec Board a New Action supporter asked if we would reconsider our stance, based on this “odd” panel. The question was answered gently, but no.
I found the exceptional qualification
Being nominated by Michael Bloomberg is an exceptional qualification, right?
Cathie Black: How can this be what we need? Part 3 – excluding parents and teachers
[Lynne Winderbaum, retired ESL teacher from JFK, longtime Chapter Leader, and through most of the Bloomberg years, our Bronx UFT HS District Representative, responds to the announcement that Joel Klein is leaving and that Mayor Bloomberg is trying to appoint Cathie Black to replace him. This is the conclusion, part 32 of 3. Click for Part 1. Click for Part 2.]
Klein and Black also share a belief that students will be helped by an increase in charter schools. In a system that is struggling with budget cuts, these alternatives to traditional public schools have not earned that level of trust. Fewer than 20% of them do as well as the traditional public schools and some of those spend twice the amount per student that traditional schools do. Therefore, without that level of funding, even the few successful ones cannot have their programs replicated for the vast majority of public school students.
To improve the schools Black would be advised to turn the page on Klein’s penchant for denigrating the 80,000 teachers who work hard for New York’s children. We are the people who are actually in the classrooms face to face with the students.. Klein’s passive-aggressive comments communicated constant disrespect. He left the podium yesterday saying how important teachers are. This cannot erase the memory of his telling principals that they are not firing enough teachers, that one-third of the teaching force was not up to par, and that our union is an obstruction to good education.
Before Klein and Bloomberg, back in the 1990’s when reform was taking hold, teachers were the ones asked to design the small schools that would replace the large ones. For several years I was part of a joint committee with Board of Education members that heard and evaluated the proposals for small school funding. The presentations were done by teams of teachers, administrators, parents, and students, working collaboratively. Some of the most successful small schools came out of that process. Since Klein took over, new small schools are not designed or evaluated prior to their implementation. When space opens up, they just start a new school from whole cloth. I have also served on many hiring committees for newly formed schools and they are starting from scratch with a principal who has a vision but needs to hire an entirely new staff to get the school off the ground. Teachers have lost their original role in providing expertise in organizing an innovative way to deliver instruction.
It would be helpful if Black hears the voice of parents who were ignored by Klein as well. Nobody is more concerned about the welfare of their children and neighborhoods than they. She must look at them, listen to them, and not dismiss them by staring into her Blackberry as they pour their hearts out to her at public meetings.
So as we start a new era, Cathie Black would be wise to include the experience and skills of her workforce and parents in her plans for public education in New York City. We know and live what she has never experienced. The UFT has years of expertise and partnership in reform, teacher training, curriculum development, and working with parents and community groups. Michael Mulgrew has indicated a willingness to collaborate and work together. But if she continues to worship on the altar of data, eliminate the education community from a role in our schools, and tear down what was working as Klein and Bloomberg have over the past eight years, her choice as chancellor will be so wrong.
Lynne WInderbaum
November 10, 2010
[This is the conclusion of a 3-part post. The first part was posted November 11, 2010. The second part was posted November 12, 2010, and this conclusion ran November 14, 2010.]
No Waiver for Bloomberg/Black – Sign 2 Petitions
Any check on the mayor’s authority is positive. And so the horrendous mayoral control law says that to appoint a commissioner without a supe’s license Bloomberg needs to get a waiver from the State, and that waiver should be for exceptional qualifications. And Black doesn’t have them. And so the waiver should be denied. Will we get someone better? I doubt it. We could end up with the “shame of PS8” – although Bloomberg mangled his name at the press conference, makes it seem he’s nowhere in contention. But the check on the mayor, it is worth exercising.
Sign both big petitions:
- This one is public, and is near 5500 signatures. Very easy to sign. I figure 10,000 early next week.
- This one generates e-mails to Steiner and New York State officials, including your state senator and assemblyperson. It’s pushing 2000 and growing more slowly, but because it contacts State officials for you, it may be more important to sign. You can hide your signature.
Cathie Black: How can this be what we need? Part 2 – Data vs Kids
[Lynne Winderbaum, retired ESL teacher from JFK, longtime Chapter Leader, and through most of the Bloomberg years, our Bronx UFT HS District Representative, responds to the announcement that Joel Klein is leaving and that Mayor Bloomberg is trying to appoint Cathie Black to replace him. This is part 2 of 3. Click for Part 1. The series will conclude on Sunday.]
The city really does not need another so-called innovator changing for change sake and improving nothing in the end. With the adjusted test scores released in July, our students are at the level of 2002 and the racial achievement gap is as wide as ever. What Klein did not do in eight years, she surely will not do in three. And the risk of continuing his policies will be costly. Cathie Black’s appointment is the illogical extension of the belief that schools are best served by leaders who have never worked with children.
The data that has been the yardstick of measuring the quality of performance in the private sector has not been successfully adapted to the school system and has caused a great deal of collateral damage. Bloomberg, Klein, and Black all understand the beautiful simplicity of comparing this year’s statistics to last year’s. If “New York Magazine” and “Seventeen” had circulation growth and increased advertising revenue this year, they’re doing well!
What has happened when we try to apply this to evaluating schools and personnel? A well-rounded but unquantifiable education is supplanted by a concentration on measurable literacy and math scores. The curriculum is narrowed to show success in these two measurements at the expense of untested subjects, and valuable instruction time is wasted on constant test preparation. A mayor who decried social promotion to the point of firing the board of education and replacing them with a Panel for Educational Policy which he controls, now accepts a system where principals tell teachers that they must pass 80% of their students or the school may close. That is, pass 80% whether they have mastered the content or not. Reliance on data for evaluation has also led to the inflation of graduation rates by dubious “credit recovery” schemes, many lacking in rigor, and some granting credit for failed classes within a few hours of additional class time (or time sitting in front of a computer screen). Students have accumulated their credits and been handed diplomas, but they have been cheated out of mastery of content in order to improve graduation data. Irregularities on Regents grading have been reported. Grades are changed, students who fail pre-tests are illegally excluded from taking the Regents exams, teachers are allowed to mark their own students’ exams, and teachers are told by supervisors to pass students. Some reports are investigated, some are ignored. Frequently, the investigations are cursory and left “open” for years coming to no conclusion. (see LW on the JFK investigations – June 2010)
Reliance on data has not only impacted students in their studies but has led to teaching changes as well. It is obvious that if there is pressure on principals to produce annual yearly progress (AYP) and rising scores, so teachers must devote their class time to preparing for the tests. No matter how interesting class discussions are or how they might grow the intellect of the students, they are not “accountable talk” unless they directly translate into higher test scores. After all, a “good teacher” under Bloomberg and Klein, and in most political circles today, is one who gets good test scores out of the students and a “bad” teacher is one who does not. The ones who create a life-long love of learning and develop higher order thinking skills through the content of their classes may be termed “ineffective” when judged solely on one year’s test scores and publicly humiliated by name in the newpapers. What teacher in the climate these men have created would dare to not pass 80% of the students, teach only for the test, and spend hours of instructional time on practice questions? Their entire livelihood and reputation is at stake.
The reliance on data also makes teachers reluctant to report safety and security incidents. They are told that this would reflect poorly on the school and could cause closure. They also fear reporting special education violations and English language learner compliance.
Mayor Bloomberg explains his choice with the conviction that she will focus on “Jobs, jobs, jobs” in preparing our students. But under Bloomberg and Klein, preparation for employment has been gutted. The vocational high schools, now known as Career and Technical Education schools, have been battered in the last few years by their leadership. Students at these schools must pass the same five mandated Regents exams as students in the comprehensive high schools. But in addition, the must pass certification tests in their area of vocational preparation. For years, this certification was a path to post-high school employment. Under Bloomberg and Klein OSEPO, the high school placement service, has put many students into these programs who read at the lowest level. Although principals at these schools have told me that they don’t mind the challenge of preparing students who enter high school at this level, they do mind the fact that many children being placed in these schools have indicated no interest in vocational education. Students who sought training in areas such as auto or aircraft mechanics, culinary arts, optometry, cosmetology, or nursing, used to comprise the entering class. They were welcomed regardless of their academic needs. Now the combination of high needs and low interest has taken these schools that were successfully preparing our students for the world of work and threatened them with closure.
In addition, before Bloomberg and Klein, the comprehensive high schools used to offer preparation for the workplace. My school, John F. Kennedy in the Bronx, had an office of the New York State Employment service to place students in jobs. We had “co-op” programs that allowed students to earn high school credit in the workplace. We had a Virtual Enterprise program in which several classes of students actually set up their own businesses and created and sold merchandise or services. We had a pre-law program with a moot court and the Kennedy Café which sold and served food prepared by our students in our own kitchens. We had an actual DNA lab. We had a functioning auto shop that did not teach students to be mechanics but rather technicians who used computers to diagnose car problems and make repairs. These programs were not unusual. In fact, many of these same programs existed at all high schools but were closed by the very same mayor who now feels that jobs are so important to our students’ futures. They were sacrificed to squeeze small schools in buildings with existing schools.
Besides preparation for the workforce, Cathie Black will need to prepare students for college. Under Bloomberg and Klein’s constant focus on test scores and data, the less measurable skills that would foster success in college have been woefully neglected. While they tout the rise in graduation rates, the number of city high school graduates who are prepared for college work is low, their need for remedial classes in college is high, and the rate of those who complete college is tiny. By focusing on test scores, narrowing the curriculum, and making the tests easier to pass over the years, the “education mayor” has shown wonderful data but left our graduates unprepared for the world they face. The timing of Joel Klein’s decision to resign, percolating for a few months according to news accounts, coincides with the release of the Koretz Report showing that the test scores on which he staked his reputation were bogus. So if Black is another “data above all” leader, she will create the same illusory results.
November 10, 2010
[To be continued. The first part was posted November 11, 2010. This second part was posted November 12, 2010, and the conclusion will run November 14, 2010.]
Cathie Black: How can this be what we need? Part I – No Gaps
[Lynne Winderbaum, retired ESL teacher from JFK, longtime Chapter Leader, and through most of the Bloomberg years, our Bronx UFT HS District Representative, responds to the announcement that Joel Klein is leaving and that Mayor Bloomberg is trying to appoint Cathie Black to replace him. This is part 1 of 3. The second part will appear Friday, and the series will conclude on Sunday.]
I hope there are some people waking up this morning feeling optimistic about the future of New York City school children now that there is a “superstar manager who has succeeded in the private sector” entrusted with our students’ fate and future. But I woke up this morning feeling less hope than yesterday. It is as if all of the failures of the past eight years are considered worthy of replication. Cathie Black’s appointment is a confirmation of blind faith in the direction and policies that clearly have not improved the education of New York City children, created too many ill-conceived organizational changes and uncertainty in our schools, encouraged dishonesty to show pleasing data, and demoralized a teaching force that will need to be counted on as the only constant in an ever changing system.
By reaching into his circle of friends to find a leader for New York City schools, Mayor Bloomberg has communicated his intent to encourage the policies that defined the tenure of Joel Klein. First, that it is totally unnecessary to ever have experienced teaching city students in order to know what will be successful. Second, that the very data that informs business decisions can be transferred to evaluate the success of teachers and schools. Third, that insisting on improved data would result in principals and teachers providing better instruction. Fourth, the competition created by siphoning off public funds to create ever increasing numbers of charter schools will improve all schools. Fifth, that a business leader will know what skills schoolchildren need to learn and that will translate into better preparation for their futures.
I can excuse the introduction of Joel Klein as chancellor eight years ago on the grounds that there were many failing city schools. The mayor believed that a model which was successful in business would bring similar success to the education system. But this time there is no excuse to continue in that direction as a business model continues to create more problems than it solves. First Klein’s business acumen had him replace district administration with ten regions. While saying he wanted to incur cost savings by this consolidation, he actually added an additional layer of management called Local Instructional Superintendents (LIS) between principals and superintendents. Two years later, he abolished the LIS position and reorganized the regional offices into Regional Operation Centers (ROC), shuffling the financial and organizational functions. The following year he reorganized the ROC into the Integrated Service Centers (ISC) shuffling functions again. In place of the LIS, all schools were forced to spend from $26,500 to $60,000 out of their budgets to hire a support network (SSO). Network leaders as well as superintendents directed principals. Principals with little or no teaching experience were phased in as vacancies opened and many needed the expertise of these outside supervisors to help them run their schools. Experienced principals understood budgets, programming, school organization, compliance rules for special education and English language learners, and strategies for school safety. The belief that school leaders could execute these responsibilities with a background unrelated to education proved to be unrealistic. Worse still, leaders who had such knowledge and experience were disparaged.
Despite his business background, Klein has squandered money intended to decrease class size. He has spent money hiring thousands of consultants making as much as $1000 a day and increased the number of staff at Tweed. He has closed schools that could have been redesigned and helped and replaced them with small schools of varying quality and duplication of costs. The resulting displacement of students caused a higher concentration of need in surrounding schools, threatening their survival too. The extracurricular fun of sports teams, music programs, and clubs have been severely curtailed if not eliminated.
Cathie Black says that there will be deputies who can fill in her “gaps” in knowledge. But she has no gaps. The word “gaps” implies that there are areas of understanding. Let’s say Ramon Cortines had “gaps” in his knowledge when he moved to the Los Angeles school system. He had run a large city school system before. He was an educator. He had worked with unions. But I’m certain there were new issues in a new city. Those constituted “gaps”. But give us a woman who has admittedly never been in a traditional New York City school, never attended a New York City school, never sent her children to public school let alone a New York City school, never stood on the other side of the teacher’s desk, never collaborated with unions, and has come from a career as a magazine editor, and I would not characterize her lack of knowledge as mere “gaps”.
The mayor says that because she comes from the business world, Black knows what skills are needed to ensure a successful future for city kids. It sounds plausible. But even if she could translate marketable or college preparation skills into a curriculum, what does she know about how to motivate students to come to class, how to prevent cutting, how to ensure safety and security, how to help students with personal problems, or how to face any of the issues that may prevent students from succeeding in classes that offer this material?
The city really does not need another so-called innovator changing for change sake and improving nothing in the end. With the adjusted test scores released in July, our students are at the level of 2002 and the racial achievement gap is as wide as ever. What Klein did not do in eight years, she surely will not do in three. And the risk of continuing his policies will be costly. Cathie Black’s appointment is the illogical extension of the belief that schools are best served by leaders who have never worked with children.
November 10, 2010
[To be continued. This first part was posted November 11, 2010. Part 2 will be posted November 12, 2010, and the conclusion will run November 14, 2010.]
I voted against Cuomo
Protest or not, I am not voting for someone who is openly against unions and who is promoting a constitutional convention to raid our retirement.
Did she return to teach or to test prep?
Nancy, author of Se Hace Camino Al Andar, taught high school English for a few (4? 6?) years in the Bronx. She worked in a project with other teachers from other schools, and with some non-teaching staff development types, and in that capacity was the first to (accidentally) tell people from my school that I blogged. And where I blogged. No harm, no foul. But I do remember that.
Not necessarily in this order, Nancy got married, had a kid, quit teaching, bought an apartment in a neighborhood that sometimes conveniently forgets it’s in the Bronx, moved to Northampton, Massachusetts, had another kid, went back to teaching.
And here I am, kept her blog in my reader even when it was just adorable kid shots, but now we are back in school. And Nancy’s stuff from years ago, her blog posts, I thought they were a little dry, professionally-focused, not so political, and not so slice-of-life. Or maybe my memory’s playing tricks. In any event, she’s in a strange place, not a new teacher, but not a veteran, fresh eyes and dry behind the ears. Earlier this week she was professional, but in a personal way, and today she went a little ed politics:
I know the idea. And it is right. Just seemed more powerful coming from Nancy.
The one best system…
was the title of a book about American urban public education. It sits on my shelf, partially read.
My education “shelf” is actually quite short – a quarter of a shelf out of 30 something. There’s Small Schools by Mike and Susan Klonsky (read and reviewed), So Much Reform, So Little Change by Charles Payne, untouched, I really should read it. Pillars of the Republic by Carl Kaestle, great book about the early history of public education in America (I think Eric Foner was his advisor). Teacher Man, McCourt, unread. Accountability Frankenstein, Sherman Dorn, barely started (I’m going slow because I think he is pro-reform, and I’d rather not learn that that’s true). Playing for Keeps, Deb Meier et al, skimmed through. The Death and Life of the Great American School System, carried on many a trip, cover still not cracked. Diane Ravitch. An Incar pamphlet in defense of public education in Connecticut that I must have picked up 30 or so years ago. The Pressures of Teaching, a highly readable anthology of short essays by real teachers, edited by Maureen Picard Robins (so ok, I’ve only read a couple of the essays). It’s Not All Flowers and Sausages, by Miss Mimi, adorable, and between the blog and the book I’ve read most of it.
And that’s it. I’m not counting guides to the standards (THE standards? Ha!) Or Ed Psych books, or any of that sort of thing. And I’m counting no math books, no math teaching books. There’s a bunch more of those.
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But this wasn’t supposed to be a post about my bookshelves (as proud of them as I may be). My point is, we don’t have one best system. We have different systems of education for different kids. And even in the big cities, we have multiple forms of education.
Let’s start by stripping away the Catholic schools. Their curriculum, how close is it to ours? The religion classes, the uniforms… Different culture, different education. And the other parochial schools, that probably fall all over the place.
Then the upscale private schools. Different class. Different books. Different expectations. Different culture.
And once we are left with just public schools, we have at least two, maybe three systems. I only have a rough idea of the similarities and differences – but I am confident that the substance and style, the curricular content and social values, are distinct enough to support, at least roughly, these classifications:
At the fringes of Queens and on Staten Island, much of what happens as far as curriculum and culture looks, rumor has it, a bit suburban. Ethnically/racially these schools are less Black and Hispanic. At the high school level, this is the land of large schools with pep rallies and football. There is probably a range of achievement levels (mislabeled? ability levels), with honors classes in each grade. There may be functioning PTAs, perhaps in some cases with serious dough. This is not a world touched by school closings or the “turnaround” model. I hesitate to say more. I don’t teach there. They are saddled with the same nasty central administration that we have. But I suspect a different world overall.
In chichi parts of especially Manhattan there are schools that look more like the low end (socially) upscale private schools. They are probably more integrated than the schools on the fringe, but work with a clear upper middle class sense of place and status. In many the curriculum leans progressive (D2). Some support more of an honors model, some a more mixed academic model (heterogeneous grouping they call it, but given who goes to those schools in the first place…). Put Stuyvesant and Anderson at the non-heterogeneous extreme. The high schools in this group, with a few notable exceptions, are smaller, by choice. In any event these schools are distinguished by what they teach, and what they don’t teach. Tons of higher order thinking. Enriched content, whether project-y or hard. And less test prep. Extra curriculars. And in some cases some serious PTA involvement, including some serious cash. I’m sensing this is a land where school choice is popular.
In the Bronx and most of Brooklyn, in large parts of Queens, and in most of Manhattan above a distressingly mobile line, education looks different. The world looks different. There’s a lot more poverty. Streets, infrastructure more dilapidated. More crime. Different mix of stores selling a different mix of products. To poorer people. Overwhelmingly Black and Hispanic. The schools physically may not look that different from the other groups (though they may be less likely to have functioning playgrounds). But the curriculum is not even close to the same. Test prep ranges from moderate to mind-numbing. Extra curriculars are more limited. The culture has two extremes – out of control, or uniformed, disciplined, “yes sir, no sir.” These are the places where art and music, foreign language, even social studies gets cut out of the curriculum. These are the places where charter schools, the ultimate in New York for “yes, sir” and uniforms and long days and consequences and test prep til they puke, where charter schools are considered a good choice. The comprehensive, larger elementary and middle schools get dumped on.
In high school effective “school choice,” after the massive mini-school-ization, is between the Academy for Medicine, Animation and Pataphysical Science on the one hand and the High School of the Shiny Object on the other, and it turns out that they both teach the exact same test prep and give away diplomas with the exact same credit recovery.
Personnel are different, too. New York City Teaching Fellows get jobs in the third group of schools. Most wash out. Those who stay, some try to move to the other parts of the system, some stick. Teach for America temporary teachers only teach in the third group, and usually for just two years. They are totally absent from the other parts of the system.
And of course NY-style Charters are only established in the neighborhoods with the third group of schools.
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Now, it’s the one best system. Is it? Could it be? Is one part worth copying?
Ok, maybe. But let’s be careful with what we copy. School Choice in Manhattan produced so many nice options. School choice in the Bronx has been an excuse not to fix anything.
So forget the form. If we start thinking about what parts of the curriculum (not standards) can be exported from Staten Island or Manhattan, what parts of the socialization can be made common, then we might be back on track.
Praise for a good lie
I caught some compliments over at Research in Practice. Seems the owner, Ben, can’t lie to students the way I can… And neither can commenter Sue (from Math Mama Writes).
I lie to help kids learn.
I teach kids to trust the math, and to trust my math…. but… Along the way I make things up. Always correct them before they leave. But in the moment, they need to evaluate what I am saying, not just trust it. Trust the math.
A few examples:
Even numbers such as 10 have an even number of factors (1, 2, 5, 10), and odd numbers like 9 have an odd number of factors (1, 3, 9). In my universe, students think, and argue. If they don’t, then I direct them to the point where they want to challenge this false statement.
Did you know that numbers greater than one are perfect squares or perfect cubes, or neither, but never both? (Of course you didn’t – it’s not true.) But it makes good play for exponents, and a beautifully simple example of why a ton of specific cases don’t prove a rule, but how a single counterexample can destroy one.
The alternating harmonic sequence converges to 7/10, right?
A kid who’s fought this, even if he only played the lead role once, has some appreciation beyond what his peers would have.
Yesterday, with this draft playing in my head, I wheeled a blackboard over to my elective students. Earlier this week they engaged briefly with the question: “How many factors does 360,000 have?” (I’ve blogged that question before, here and here). So I had given them time to look round the edges, but not dive in, and now I was taking over.
“How many factors does 10 have?” – 4 “and 21?” – 4 “and 6?” – 4 “and 22?” – 4 – and so we continued for 2 or 3 minutes and a bunch more numbers.
“Somewhat surprisingly, all numbers have four factors, and the question I gave you the other day, about something million, turns out to be uninteresting”
Can you imagine what happened next?
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UFT seeks temporary restraining order against release of Teacher Data Reports
A bunch of media, papers and at least one TV station, sued to get individual Teacher Data Reports released, and the DoE is planning to hand the stuff over. The UFT will be in court today looking for a temporary restraining order.
At last night’s Delegate Assembly this was the biggest order of business, getting delegates to support a resolution that says we will support members, we’ll try to keep the reports from coming out, etc, etc. It was a fine resolution, which I supported. There was an irrelevant amendment, which was defeated with maybe less than a dozen votes. And now we want to block the release, and we want to find mistakes in the reports that will support our claim that they are inaccurate. We are doing, at the moment, absolutely what we must.
There were two major problems: one omitted, the other willfully ignored:
We have a letter from two years ago, signed by Chris Cerf (then of the DoE), promising not to release the Reports. On the basis of that promise Randi Weingarten and her lieutenants sent DRs and Chapter Leaders into schools, and guaranteed that the data would remain anonymous. None of our leaders should be telling members that we believe that the DoE acts in good faith. We now have DRs and CLs who will need to speak to members who they lied to. They didn’t know they were lying. They trusted in Randi, who trusted in the DoE. Putting our field level reps in a position where they might betray (albeit unknowingly) members’ trust is unconscionable. Breaking that trust does damage to our union that will not easily be repaired. We can’t fix that this happened – but we can be clear going forward that this will not happen again.
Or we could have been. The point was glossed over in Mulgrew’s 80 minute report. It is not good enough to say that the DoE reneged on its deal with us. Or that they betrayed us. We should expect that. We should have expected that. But our leadership didn’t, or didn’t prepare our members for that likelihood. Have we drawn the lesson? I hope that we don’t put our DRs and CLs in the position of telling members to trust the DoE again.
The second point was not glossed over. Mulgrew hammered at the tests being inaccurate, and the value added formula being lousy. He trotted out a chart with the DoE’s current value-added formula on it.
Just a side note, making fun of math is cheap anti-intellectualism. The formula IS lousy, but not because it is complicated, certainly not because it had a Greek letter in it (that sideways M? It’s a sigma. It means that a bunch of things, probably including “student effects” need to get added together). The value added experts that we have? They write formulas with sigmas, too. No one should laugh when a person says “I can’t read big words” – and no one should laugh or be encouraged to laugh at harder-looking math.
So Mulgrew took pains to say that the current tests are no good, and the current formula is no good. But why did we jump into a project when we knew the tests were no good? I don’t think we need to ask. Mulgrew’s letter to members says:
“The Teacher Data Reports are significantly flawed in their current form due to the problems with state tests and inaccuracies within the data that the reports are based on…
What’s more, education experts agree that existing value-added systems such as TDRs are not yet reliable or valid, and they also agree that test scores by themselves can only represent a small segment of the complex work that you do…” [emphasis added – jd]
Wrong. There is no evidence that these reports can ever be made good. There is no evidence that there is a future report that will work. There is no evidence that these reports can become reliable or valuable. And there is no evidence that these reports represent any segment of what we do.
There’s a whole lot of evidence that this value-added crap has been generated by the anti-education reformers, by the hedge-fund billionaires, Gates, the charter crowd, the people who want high teacher turnover, TfA, the New Teacher Project, and a host of others who want urban poor children to get test-prep instead of education.
It is time to junk the effort. Our “partners” at the DoE are liars. They are untrustworthy. The project was never a good project, but now is nakedly just another piece of anti-teacher reform. Enough.
Notes from Baltimore: Don’t leave before the last out…
I made my first trip to Camden Yards a few weeks ago. Sunday day game, Pettite’s return. Yankees up 3-1, but the Orioles chip back with one in the bottom of the 8th and there are playoff implications and one of the guys I’m with is itchy to go back to New York. What? Man, was I annoyed, and you forgive it eventually, but… I mean I’m glad I saw the park, and it was as good as everyone had told me, best in baseball I’d warrant, but these are the Yankees and I hate leaving early, even when the game is out of reach. We were in the car when the Orioles tied it against Mariano in the bottom of the 9th. We were halfway to Jersey when the Orioles opened the 11th with a single and a double and the win…
Don’t leave before the last out.
We, teachers and students, have been taking a beating against the reform movement. On the defensive all over the place. Race to the Top. Computerized teaching. Deëmphasizing untested subjects (like social studies and phys ed and art and foreign language). Holding back pay increases (merit pay, right? the raise we all would have negotiated for in the 80s or 90s gets held back from the majority and only goes to the few). Temporary teachers. Arbitrary dismissal. Increased workloads. Less recess. Charter schools. Longer hours… We know the idea.
But in the last weeks and months there’s been some signs of a shift. Not that we are winning. But pushing back is better than rolling over. And the AFT, which organizes a far greater proportion of urban teachers than the NEA, has been coördinating one local after another to roll over.
Let’s get back to Baltimore. AFT local negotiates a contract with a few major concessions. Not groundbreaking, just more of the same (shocking and headline grabbing concessions). Click for fair summary. 1) raises based on evaluations (system-wide merit pay). Evaluations based on test scores. 2) Complete rewriting of evaluation system. 3) Allow individual schools to extend the school day or school year. Openly praised by AFT national leadership. No surprise there.
I told Steve Lazar, more reputable blogger than me, a few weeks back, that I would write a bit against the Baltimore proposed contract. But I wasn’t writing, and the time passed. The short version is that 1. I oppose merit pay. I oppose different pay scales for different teachers – that breaks our solidarity. And I have opposed that even when I was likely to be on the high end, with the stupid +pay for math teacher proposals that float around every few years. 2. I don’t think evaluation systems need to be redone. They should weed out anyone who can’t do the job. Improvement is a separate issue from evaluation. 3. Decentralizing the school day and year chips away at our contracts, negotiated out of necessity centrally (strength in numbers), and leaves teachers open to pressure from their direct supervisors and open to significant change in working conditions without protection (right, your school votes to extend your day past when you need to pick up a kid from daycare. Screwed?)
But wait. The teachers voted. Voted no.
Another small shift in the fight against this filthy reform movement. But small.
The vote was about 1540 – 1107. Out of 6,500 members. That’s about 24 – 17, with 59% not voting. Look, that’s not shocking. I’m sure that this turnout is in line with how things have been down there.
But the biggest complaints seem to have centered around the evaluation system not having been agreed to. What will it look like? “We don’t know” is not much of an answer. 125 teachers or 1/12 of the no vote signed on to a facebook page with exactly that complaint. Here’s a non-surprise: art teachers and special ed teachers are especially curious how they will be evaluated. In New York City, when Unity shepherded teacher evaluation based on test scores (advocacy position for state policy) through the DA last Spring, same thing happened. Opposition from opposition caucuses. But a whole lot of confused questions from regular, unaffiliated teachers, about how the thing would affect them (art, phys ed, foreign language, etc etc). Difference was, Baltimore was a contract vote, not an open DA vote, and those who were unsure organized to delay.
So they are back negotiating, with all sorts of encouragement from the media, and the talking heads (and probably more quietly from the oligarchs) and from their supporters on our side to just repackage the same deal. They may seek to define the evaluation process, though I suspect that the lack of definition was intentional, and that they may not want to show their hand. In that respect, the teachers stuck it to them. Even if Baltimore eventually goes for the deal, they’ll have shown us that reform can be slowed, if not stopped, and perhaps that the admonition to “trust us, we’ll work it out in good time” can be entirely rejected. And even those would represent a partial shift. Beyond that? I don’t know. But don’t leave before the last out.
Another small sign of a shift
In the war against public education, some hesitation.
Arlene Ackerman, Superintendent of Philadelphia schools, removed her name from the Klein/Rhee anti-education manifesto. See here and here.
UPDATE: Here is Ackerman’s own response to the manifesto.
We are still on the defensive, no doubt about it. But between the primary election defeats of charter champions in New York, the voters tossing out Rhee in DC, the testing fiasco in New York State, the pounding on “not the change we voted for” and the voices joining Ravitch on questioning the whole thing, there’s a little counter-momentum, enough to make at least one superintendent hedge her bets.
The manifesto, published in the Washington Post on October 7, was initially signed by 16 (now down to 15), including Klein and Rhee from NYC and formerly from DC, as well as Paul Vallas, Ron Huberman, and superintendents from Houston, Baltimore, Indianapolis, Boston, Kansas City, Rochester and five other districts. The manifesto calls for a more testing and emphasis on test scores and less actual learning for urban youth, partially through deprofessionalizing urban teaching staffs. It also calls for less job security and more temporary teachers, both through weakening work rules and through setting up more non-union charter schools.
Union takes progressive stand on class size, testing, and education in general
Strong resolution. By? UFT? No. AFT? No. NEA? No. The United Electrical Workers. Go figure. But it’s worth the read. Hat tip to Monty Neil of Fair Test, via Leonie Heimson of NYC Public School Parents.
http://www.ueunion.org/policy_se.html
UE Convention Resolutions Public Education: Stop the Attacks and Fund Quality Education for All
One of the first demands of early labor organizations was universal quality
education. At a time when only the rich could attend decent schools, labor
leaders saw that access to publicly-funded schools was the only way that the
working class and the poor could achieve basic literacy skills. Labor
leaders knew that education was tied to the ability to organize and exercise
political power.
We find ourselves in an ongoing battle to prevent not just the erosion, but
the outright destruction of public education. That many public schools are
inadequately funded means poor equipment, crumbling buildings, and larger
numbers of students in each classroom. Rather than fund public education
adequately, conservatives push for privatization and subcontracting,
practices which reduce jobs, and turns janitors, cooks, maintenance workers,
educators, and many others into low-wage contract workers who receive few or
low benefits.
The Obama administration has announced its intent to reform the No Child
Left Behind Act (NCLB), the current incarnation of the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act put into effect during Lyndon Johnson’s
administration. While the stated goals of NCLB are laudable, namely
improving student achievement and closing skills gaps between students of
different backgrounds, the Act is flawed. Schools that already face
challenges because of poor funding or the demographics of the area they are
in are forced to conform to a “one-size-fits-all” standard based on
high-stakes testing, and then punished by having funding withdrawn. Vouchers
redirect taxpayer money away from public schools to private institutions,
which are not accountable to the public or to elected officials. The Obama
administration has requested a $1 billion increase in funding, yet no
details of Obama’s intended reforms have been given.
Barack Obama has also expressed support for merit-based teacher salaries.
Excellent teachers deserve to be rewarded, and the potential for higher
earnings as a result of hard work would help to recruit and retain talented
individuals who would otherwise choose a career in the private sector.
However, a system of merit pay is not the answer to poor teacher salaries
and poor student performance. Administration of a merit-based teacher pay
system would be a bureaucratic nightmare, prone to corruption and
dishonesty, and would undermine cooperation and collaboration between
teachers. The No Child Left Behind Act has already shown that universal
standards don’t work when applied to real-world education, in which students
come from different economic, cultural and linguistic backgrounds. The way
to attract superior teachers is to pay teachers what they are worth.
Private commerce has no place in public education. Schools that are starved
for funding turn to corporate sponsors for help or contract services out to
private companies. Corporate sponsors flood the schools with commercial
messages, and undermine teachers’ attempts to have students to think
critically. Private companies are not responsible to the public for the
quality of service they provide. This same commercialism is rampant in
public colleges and universities, leaving many vulnerable to intellectual
and moral corruption. At the same time, the cost of public education at the
undergraduate and graduate levels is becoming more and more prohibitive,
putting working and middle class families deeper into debt for services tax
dollars are supposed to provide.
Higher education workers are also facing a crisis as their employers replace
full-time positions with “contingent” faculty. Adjunct instructors are paid
a fraction of the wage a full-time professor would receive, and these
contracts have no benefits. Job security is nonexistent for these workers.
Along with vouchers and standardized tests, growing dependence on part-time
workers is a further indication of corporate and profit-driven motives in
education. This trend inevitably leads to a decrease in the quality of
public education.
Public schools, funded adequately and fairly, with certified teachers and
full-time faculty, who have long-range educational plans that teach basic
skills and critical thinking to all students is the only way to resolve this
problem. We support public education because it promotes the best interests
of everyone when all members of our society are well educated and able to
think independently.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT THIS 71st UE CONVENTION:
1. Calls upon all levels of the union to demand and promote:
1. Federal funding that achieves an excellent public education at all
levels, including early childhood and adult learning programs;
2. Restructuring of federal, state, and local taxation and funding
systems so that all public schools are funded fairly, without regard to
income levels of local school district residents;
3. A reduction of class sizes to a manageable student-to-teacher ratio
at the primary, secondary, and college/university levels;
4. An increase in the salaries of all public elementary and secondary
education teachers which reflects the value of their role in educating
future members of society;
5. Barring the use of taxpayer-funded voucher programs that siphon off
much-needed funds from public schools and route them to private schools;
6. Elimination of high-stakes testing, which pressures teachers and
administrators to “teach to the test” or risk financial ruin, and therefore
puts tremendous emotional and psychological pressure on children who are
forced to endure such high-stakes tests;
7. Removal of commercial/corporate sponsorship that tends to interfere
with the academic freedom of students and teachers and the
decision-making freedom of elected school boards and other publicly-employed
professionals;
8. Preservation and enhancement of the arts, foreign language and
multilingual education programs, whose elimination most often
hurts poor and working-class children’s education;
9. Preservation and enhancement of vocational education programs for
adolescents and adults;
10. Full and appropriate services and accommodations for students with
disabilities;
11. Full funding of Head Start;
12. Passage of conflict-of-interest legislation that prevents
individuals with ties to for-profit schools and to for-profit corporations
with school contracts from serving on school boards or boards of regents;
13. Elimination of privatization and contracting out of school
services;
14. The teaching of labor history and other aspects of history which
present a full view of the economic, social, and political history of the
U.S. in public schools, colleges and universities; and support of local
labor education centers;
2. Calls on the union to work with other unions and push for a change in
the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) in order to ensure
that all employees have the right to unionization;
3. Supports all campaigns which advocate universal access to free public
higher education.
In which I rant about an illiterate from Daily Kos
So I notice a handful of people came to this blog from the Daily Kos, which doesn’t happen, ever. So I go look. And I’m there.
In a discussion about education, a commenter named “Punditician” decides to give an example of a math teacher who went to education school and doesn’t know math. And he uses? me? What?
This week I blogged:
I know how to multiply matrices. I can teach kids how to multiply matrices.
Punditician cites it as some sort of proof about dumb math teachers. Girlfriend’s a moron.
- She’s badly off topic. Trolling doesn’t require a whole lot of intelligence, just patience to keep stoking the flames. Read the essay, if you really want to. The comment, even if it were accurate, doesn’t follow.
- She’s badly mistaken. I’m not an education major.
- She didn’t read. It takes about 5 minutes of poking around this blog to figure out both who I am and what I’m doing here.
- She’s wrong about the math. It is not particularly complicated (I’ll return to that), but basic? Absolutely not.
And she’s wrong about my math. I am not the best, far from it, and I have gaps (including linear). But I consider myself fairly solid.
So why don’t I have a good grasp of matrix multiplication?
First, I can multiply. It is the “why” question that I asked. And frankly, I don’t multiply matrices. Not daily, or weekly, or once a year. It’s not something I need to do.
My first linear course was in 1984, and my last was in 1986. The first was one of my least favorite math classes. Can’t say I gave it reasonable attention. And the second was just meh. That part of my education was at an engineering school. Not an excuse. But an explanation, at least a little bit. Our math courses, some of them, were weird. One day I still need to take a normal pde. That was the weirdest. (Ask me why?)
I’ve encountered matrix multiplication, occasionally, since, but have not given it much thought. Perform the operation, move on.
A lot of what I do well, I have reconsidered as I begin to teach a topic for the first time. My arithmetic is better than when I started teaching. As is my algebra. Trig. Geometry. Let’s not start on counting. And logic.
This year I am teaching precalc. Two of us redesigned the course, and we decided to expand a unit on systems of equations, early. It helps for the kids to see something new that turns out to look wildly different, but is accessible. And we packed the end of the course (Spring) with things they will need for calc (series, sequences, limits, a second, harder look at trig, etc). In any event, I am actually teaching matrix multiplication for the first time.
So why left to right? Why row by column? Why non-commutative? And what is a model that is accessible to kids? The transformations will follow, not precede, teaching the operation. (if you are not sure why, try writing a set of lessons that develop the topic from scratch. You’ll see.)
Why didn’t I just check wikipedia, or my old notes (which I might have?) or an old text (there’s one on my shelf) or the kids’ text book? First, kids’ text book for resource? Never. And as for the others, I could have. But I appreciate the richness of the discussion that often happens here. Finally, I like to tell the kids that I ask for help. They sometimes see me as the authority in the room, rather than the math. It’s good to remind them.
Not everyone can get away with that. The kids need to think I know my stuff before I can admit to gaps. But they do. Parents do. As I was checking my anger at Punditician’s ignorant comments, I remembered how many parents have tried to get their kids into my classes. I thought about how many scientists, engineers, and even mathematicians have wanted their kids to learn from me.
And then I went back to her comments. Just more lousy teacher bashing. And off-topic at that. I shouldn’t have taken so personally.
Help me make sense of matrix multiplication
I know how to multiply matrices. I can teach kids how to multiply matrices.
I would like help, both for myself, and for my students, understanding WHY we multiply them as we do.
Anyone out there?
Math Teachers at Play 30
Welcome to the September 17, 2010 edition of math teachers at play. This is MTaP #30.
This MTaP may look a little different. There is no theme weaving its way through and unifying the sections. We are not opening with a discussion of the number 30 (no matter how many cool things we could have come up with), and the sections are, um, different.
It has occurred to some of us that the experience a student has in mathematics may differ greatly from place to place, type of school (or homeschool, or unschool), and most of all, from age to age, grade level to grade level, and content area to content area. The sections in this carnival correspond to none of those (with one exception). Instead, posts are joined by the mode of playing/learning that is taking place.
Comments on this organization would be greatly appreciated. In any event, one day late, and slightly disorganized? reorganized? “other-organized”? – however you end up seeing it – here it is:
Song
Tom DeRosa shares The Domain and Range Song World Premiere! at I Want to Teach Forever.
Umm Ahmad at Home Schooling Resources For Muslim Parents has a bunch of preschool activities at Little Rainbow including, prominently, some counting songs.
Songs? We learn through songs. The rhythms and melodies hold our memories. The rhyme reinforces. I learned from a senior teacher to deliver some carefully scanned (for meter) instructions in a slight syncopation – worked like a charm. Eg. “Bring the SMALLer to the LARGer by ADDing the OPPosite”
Picture
Scott Witkowsky plays Wordle with high school students at 71 Slide Rules: Smart at Math is the Turtle, For Each One will Love Figuring out a Wordle.
Clemencia Rosado has kids develop sense of patterning using valentines. Valentines math (patterning) posted at Storytime and more.
Guillermo Bautista (founder of the Math and Multimedia Carnival) uses pictures to go about Demystifying Triangle Inequality. At Mathematics and Multimedia.
Rebecca Zook reorganizes and renotates logarithms, creating a new graphic-mnemonic device: An Easy Way to Remember How Logarithmic Notation Works posted at Triangle Suitcase. Rebecca says “This is an easy way to remember how logarithmic notation works that I’d like to share with the world. I’ve noticed that one of the challenges of mastering and remembering how logarithms work is just knowing what goes where. My students helped me develop this mnemonic device and it has really helped!”
Tracy advocates that you Incorporate a Daily Graph into the Morning Routine: 5th in Our Math Teaching Tips Series. Posted at Math Learning, Fun & Education Blog : Dreambox Learning.
Sue Van Hattum (of math mama writes) shares a resourceful, resource-free graphing lesson: Today In Class: A Good Day to Do Without the Textbook
Ryan O’Grady shows his students videos, then asks provocative questions (in the style of Meyer’s What Can We Do With This) He offered two posts: The Lego House and Longest Shot both posted at Maths at SBHS.
Are these all about pictures? Certainly Scott and Clemencia, for very different audiences, are incorporating the picture as the primary part of the learning, and both do include having the child create the picture. But aren’t Guillermo and Rebecca really doing something similar? Their pictures are incorporated into the lessons – but they are more catalyst than product. I’m arguing that Tracy and Sue are using a specific sort of abstract picture: a graph. And finally, I sense that Ryan’s videos inspired the respective lessons, and not the other way round. That’s different, look at the moving images and decide to do other math, but it is related – the visual is central. Visuals, in a variety of ways, can bridge the gap from concrete to abstract. Can a visual, a representation, be used to add the beginning of abstraction to something concrete? Or, conversely, can an abstract topic open with a visual, to connect back with more concrete work from earlier, perhaps years earlier?
Hands On
Clemencia Rosado uses pennies (and other objects) to play games at M for Math Games and Storytime and more: Measuring The Mitten, both at Storytime and more.
dana maize has a host of activities (for the preschoolers she babysits): Our school week, having fun with math posted at crazy maize world. She used to homeschool her kids, and seems to be stuck on teaching even with them at school.
Cynthia creates activity cards. This one is a hands-on estimation task (comparing sizes, and measuring): Math Workbox: Estimation posted at love2learn2day, saying, “This is the first in a series of posts with free, 3×5″ cards to download with activities to go with math-related children’s books. Ideal for workboxes or centers.”
Michelle Martin at Life Among the Elms gets some Minnesota 4th and 5th graders to expand their sense of scale by using base 10 blocks to model a close election: Life Among the Elms: Every Vote Counts. “I teach at a progressive school where we make every attempt to find “real world” ways to make math make sense. The recent Minnesota senate race gave us a great opportunity to look at “big numbers.””
Caroline Mukisa at Maths Insider offers 24 Short and Sweet Preschool Maths Activities.
David Wetzel finds 12 Free Mobile Math Apps for the iPod Touch that kids might use in class, at Teach Science and Math.
Is hands-on the realm of preschoolers? Up to 3rd grade? 6th? I think, as we move to more abstract work, we are far too blithe about leaving the blocks and pennies other toys behind. We should encourage kids to work with them, and when it becomes appropriate, without them. But no need to banish them.
Fractions
Desert before dinner? Rebecca Zook makes the case for using brownies, not pizza to represent fractions: Confused about fractions? Visualize brownies, not pizzas. “Pizzas. They’re the best way to represent fractions, right? Well, that’s what I thought until I tried using pizzas to teach equivalent fractions. Instead, I now use the brownie. Showed Math U See fraction overlays, which make it much easier for students to understand how equivalent fractions work.”
Pat Ballew has another method: Division of Fractions by the Alien Method (and followup) posted at Pat’sBlog. “A Christmas Classroom story with Aliens, Robots and Division of Fractions.” It’s worth plugging Pat’s blog – I have fun reading the stuff – it challenges me constantly, but rarely does the topic become wildly advanced.
Fractions in its own section? My call. I think they are special. They are perhaps the most common topic encountered and not mastered. Hmm. In any subject.
Puzzles and Problems
PedagoNet presents Are You A Math Genius posted at Brain Teasers, saying, “Advanced Math Brain Teasers”
Denise is Planning a New Math Club (posted at Let’s Play Math!) and is facing challenges and has some ideas. “I’m starting up the school year with a couple of new math clubs, which created a lot of interest among local homeschoolers.”
Method and mode left up to the solver…
On Teaching and Learning Math
John Golden (the Math Hombre) wrote a cute little essay/list Is Math Creative?. By the way, not only do I own that t-shirt, I wore it to school yesterday – jd2718.
beatrice ekwa ekoko an unschooler at radio free school shares an essay: Mindful Mathematics . Mathematics can be a positive, fascinating experience (she prefers divorced from school, I think) despite the bad reputation it often gets.
Jonathan/jd2718/me. I have a short essay, too. It probably needs updating. It certainly needs reformatting. But I’ll stand by it in its current form: Outlook on Teaching Math.
These kinds of discussions are always useful. Even the name of this carnival itself, Math Teachers at Play provokes. My thought: those who engage in the activity, teaching/playing, often have far more to say than we listen to. And those divorced from teaching/playing often get listened to far more than we do, but with much less of use to say. Let teachers talk about teaching and playing. It leads to discussions worth following and participating in.
Afterwords
That concludes this edition.
Submit your blog article to the next edition of math teachers at play using our Carnival submission form. Next month will be at Homeschool Bytes.
Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page. Past editions can also be found at Guillermo’s list.
If you really miss the “Discuss the number” feature, go visit the previous edition, MTaP #29, where Jason shared a 29/30 puzzle right up top.
The previous Carnival of Mathematics was right here at jd2718. The next will be at General Musings.
Technorati tags:
math teachers at play, blog carnival.
“A thick, dank, fetid cloud…”
Yesterday, September 16, 2010, almost 100 teachers from throughout the Bronx rallied in front of the Theodore Roosevelt building on Fordham Road to protest a sexually-harassing principal and his protection by Joel Klein. Richard Bost, the principal of Fordham Leadership Academy for Business and Technology was found to have sexually harassed a secretary in his school, has faced numerous other allegations. He was fired, and immediately reinstated by Tweed.
Eighteen months ago, March 13, 2009, 400 teachers from throughout the Bronx protested Iris Blige, another abusive principal in the same building, at Fordham HS of the Arts, for her outrageous actions against her employees. That time, students exiting the building watched the demonstration (some may have participated). This time, Bost called an unscheduled early dismissal of the whole building to prevent students from watching? joining? speaking? – we don’t know which he fears most.
Jose Vargas, UFT Bronx Borough Representative spoke, as did District Rep Annette Carlucci, Chapter Leader Novelette Foote, and Guidance Counselor Dianne Gallagher. Lynne Winderbaum, former UFT Bronx HS District Rep (now retired) dealt with these abusive principals almost every day. She spoke passionately back in ’09 at the Arts rally. And she spoke again yesterday:
Fordham Leadership Academy for Business and Technology was a well-respected school when Leonard Wolff turned over the reins to Richard Bost. But a cloud has hung over the Fordham Leadership Academy since Richard Bost took over. It is a low, thick, dank, fetid cloud that reeks of allegations and findings of sexual misconduct, favoritism, intimidation, and misappropriation of school funds.
It is a cloud that envelops not only the hard-working staff of this school, but the students as well. They are not only aware of the publicity surrounding the misconduct of this individual who should be their role model, but they have also articulated the discomfort they feel in his presence. The fact that anyone at all from the staff of this school has had the courage and fortitude to stand up for relief today is a miracle in the face of Mr. Bost’s carrot and stick approach to discourage speaking out. Richard Bost has repeatedly been investigated for misconduct and repeatedly been reported for sexual harassment.
As far back as October of 2008, I had lunch with Elena Papaliberios, the superintendent, at Patricia’s on Tremont Avenue and among the many issues we discussed, I warned her that I had been receiving complaints of inappropriate sexual misconduct against Richard Bost. I told her that no one wants to go on record because they are afraid for their careers but informally, I warned her to intercede and make him desist before the matter became an embarrassment. But it continued. In April of 2009, while we were at the NYSUT convention in Buffalo, I called Marge Struk, the network leader of Bost’s school. I told her the behavior was continuing and it must stop. Last spring I had a conversation with Jerry Garfin. When he told me he was working with Bost, I asked him confidentially to tell him to keep his hands off the teachers. Garfin said it was only one. I told him that there was only one brave enough to file a complaint, but there were many more reports. Bost was found guilty of sexual misconduct in that sole investigation. He was not removed. He was returned to supervise the very same secretary who lodged the complaint!! Finally, it was his accuser who had to leave!!
Money
Bost was also investigated by SCI for misappropriation of funds. A $7000 contribution from Con Edison which was supposed to be spent on materials for the school robotics team, instead was authorized by Bost to be paid to Francine Mullins and was deposited in her personal bank account. Mullins never spent a penny on robotics material. This was a violation of Chancellor’s regulations and when the investigation was initiated by Con Edison, Mullins hastily wrote two checks four months later from her personal bank account back to the school totaling $7000. The interest-free loan and violation of DOE policy was reported to the Special Commissioner of Investigations. The investigation resulted in a slap on Bost’s wrist–a simple file letter. We don’t need to imagine the fate of a teacher charged with similarly writing checks from a school account to a personal account with no receipts.
Students
Students were also on the receiving end of inappropriate behavior. I received a report that Bost told a student who used foul language that if he ever heard such language again, “he would shove a baseball bat up his a–.” The Chancellor’s regulations forbid, “language that tends to threaten physical harm”. I immediately called Marc Pascente, the building manager at the time, to make sure there was an OSI report on a verbal abuse violation. He sent me an email attesting to the fact that the matter had indeed been reported to Michelle Johnson, the legal counsel of the district and to the Office of Special Investigations. I do not know of any disciplinary action that resulted from that investigation. But the insistence to this day by Papaliberios and others that there was no hard evidence, flies in the face of DOE practice and policy that removes employees from a building on the mere allegation of verbal abuse, pending an investigation, whether it was ultimately true or not. It did however succeed in sending a message to students and staff that nothing would happen to this principal, regardless of what he did or how he behaved.
One might say that the Department of Education would tolerate this type of if he were a great leader of an outstanding school. But Bost’s tenure has been defined by the decline of Fordham Leadership Academy and its placement on the Race to the Top list of persistently failing schools. Besides its academic decline, it has been characterized by poor attendance and disruptive atmosphere.
And then there is that fetid cloud that permeates everything and has impeded this school from being all that it was or could be.
We call for the immediate removal of this principal and ask that the chancellor impose appropriate consequences.
I support you and wish you good luck in your fight to restore your school and your dignity!
Protest at Fordham Leadership Academy
It’s time to say something. The problem has been there for years. Just last June, the Daily News reported, but nothing’s been done.
Fordham Leadership Academy has a problem – Principal, Richard Bost
Fordham Leadership Academy has another problem – Tweed protects Bost
Informational Picket /Thursday, September 16 / 3:45 – 4:45 / Fordham Leadership Academy for Business and Technology / 500 E Fordham Road / the Bronx (former Theodore Roosevelt building)
- Principal Richard Bost has created an unpleasant work environment
- Accused of mishandling funds, but rumored to have received just a letter to file (a mere slap on the wrist)
- Multiple accusations of sexual harassment, unwanted touching, and worse- extending over several years, and continuing to today
- Accusations that staff who refused his advances have faced retaliation – undesirable assignments, lost programs, disciplinary action, and derogatory ratings
- The Office of Equal Opportunity found that he had engaged in sexual harassment.
- After the OEO finding, Bost was removed, BUT TWEED PUT HIM BACK
Support Fordham Leadership Academy Staff!
Hands off our staff and teachers!
Remove Bost from supervising anyone!
Informational Picket
Thursday, September 163:45 – 4:45
In front of Fordham Leadership Academy for Business and Technology
500 E Fordham Road, the Bronx (former Theodore Roosevelt building)
Stop by, even for ten minutes
show Klein we are watching — show staff that we support them
I didn’t blog this summer…
A little bit was just difficulty writing. But mostly there were reasons. I’ll explain a little.
In July I went to the AFT Convention in Seattle as a delegate for the Professional Staff Congress. I wrote a little about it here and here and here. But it was very busy there, so I fell behind. And when I finally caught my breath, I wondered whether my role there, PSC delegate, and here, UFT blogger, might not need to be a little bit separate. So I decided not to write more.
After the convention I stuck around Seattle for a couple of days with two other UFT Chapter Leaders. One day we took a bus tour of Mount Rainier – spectacular. And the next two of us went for a good walk to Fremont, and then around to Gasworks Park, and then back downtown. Dinner, then we parted. A spent a long windy, sunsetty ferry ride thinking about whatever entered my head – Istanbul, new friends from the PSC, the rest of the summer, the next day.
The next day was an early morning train to Vancouver, and a few days there. First time for me. I loved it. A cousin I hadn’t seen in years showed me the town and some of the territory to the north. I walked and walked and walked. I made my way around the Stanley Park seawall, but not inside. I want to go back.
After a week at home, I was back off – ten days in Utah, of which seven mattered most: a dozen of us were going rafting and camping down the Green River, through Desolation Canyon. And when I got off the river, I was not inclined to write. The views, wildlife, river, all amazing. Rocks, petroglyphs, crystal clear daytime skies, storm skies bearing down on us, night skies with moon so bright it cast full shadows, before it rose the Milky Way glimmered. But this trip was too hard for me. The camping, the work, the carrying… The river beat me. I was humbled and humiliated. And worse, my own pride had sent me on the trip, overestimating my own abilities, and burdening my companions. Later, I will share one story, and perhaps a photo or two. Later.
Another week at home, and then another trip. Destination: San Antonio, Texas. This was my third summer volunteering for an AFT local in the south. Eight of us, all New Yorkers, helped the San Antonio Alliance, a merged AFT/NEA local. Parts were fun. San Antonio was interesting. I liked that we met far more active teachers than the previous two years in New Orleans and East Texas. One Sunday a bunch of us went to Corpus Christi and Port Aransas. I went twice to New Braunfels, and met the math blogger from “Math Tales from the Spring” and her family and friends. I’ll write more about that. And maybe a little bit about San Antonio and what we did.
And then I came home. A day on the beach in Connecticut. Finished programming (one monster week, including 9 consecutive days through the Labor Day weekend), and school started. I have a little balancing of classes left, but here I am, new year started, summer passed by.
Math Teachers at Play coming Friday…
The 30th edition of Math Teachers at Play will be published, right here, in 6 days. There is still time to submit an article.
MTaP focuses on teaching mathematics…
- numbers, arithmetic, fractions, algebra, geometry, more advanced
- the math itself, teaching the content, running the math classroom, puzzles, games, projects…
- and there is latitude for quite a bit more. Look at the previous edition, #29.
Want to submit something?
How do you submit an article? E-mail me at this blog name (it is a gmail account), or use the handy carnival tool. Deadline for this carnival: first thing Thursday morning.
Also, if you like that sort of stuff, the Carnival of Mathematics #69 was hosted here a week ago, and #70 will appear at Daniel Colquitt’s General Musings.
Another year…
Ready or not, New York teachers, here it comes. Just a few hours for now… (I better grab a little sleep, first)
Hope you get off to a great start!
Links under repair
Due to the (badly needed and overdue) UFT website overhaul, many of the links at jd2718 now go to dead UFT pages. It will take some time to fix them. In the meantime, here is an update to the most frequently sought link: teacher pay scale.
UFT website redesign
It is in beta today, goes live tomorrow.
At first blush? This is far far better than the old site. Nicer color. Easier to find things. Better organized.
There’s still a clutter factor – probably dictated from the top (a longish list, I am guessing, of “make sure to include _______”)
You should go, look. UFT.org, real simple. If you are a Chapter Leader, sign in for access to our page (with forms and stuff).
Even the clutter is arranged well on the page and is not overwhelming. It certainly passes the xkcd Venn Diagram test: (the overlap is huge. Though the left circle may be overloaded, the right circle should have very little not in the overlap)
Carnival of Mathematics 69
carnival of mathematics 69 – September 3, 2010
Normally a Carnival of Mathematics opens with a discourse on its ordinal. But 69?
It is 1000101 in binary, 1011 base 4, 105 base 8, 45 in hex…If we used 32 as a base? 25. And that would be 15 in base 64.
69 is odd. But there are as many odd numbers as there are ________. I still love that! It is one of a bunch of surprises that Dave Richeson lists at Division by Zero. (Mathematical surprises is the post)
69 is semiprime, but there are lots of those. (the product of two primes). And since both primes are congruent to 3 mod 4, 69 is a Blum integer.
69 is 3 times 23, and there were 23 submissions to this carnival (not counting spam). What’s the chance of that happening?
69! is the largest factorial not to cause overflow on most scientific calculators. ( 
And finally (you were waiting for this?), 69 looks just like 69 when it is rotated 180°. Leading to a much “earthier” transferred meaning, which we won’t delve into here. With just one exception: this “not safe for work” xkcd extension. (click at your own risk.) And for those of you who clicked even though you didn’t want to, any further discussion of sex in this carnival will be cartoon-free. Promise.
For my convenience (and I hope, yours) the 69th carnival is presented in a few chunks:
- popular
- investigations/computation
- probability/stats/data
- P vs NP (math headline of the year)
- history/biography
Popular
Colin Beveridge continues our “earthiness” with The Dating ‘Rule’ posted at The Joy of Sec(x). Colin is concerned with the question of when you are too young to date. If you like that topic, you might also want to see this post by Tanya Khovanova about externally imposed social differences between male and female mathematicians and this post about the unfairness of the sexual division of labor. And returning to the half+7 rule, this cartoon from…. wait for it…. xkcd. (this is safe, boys and girls)
Peter Rowlett presents Prime birthdays via Wolfram|Alpha posted at Travels in a Mathematical World, saying “some friends on Twitter were discussing ‘prime birthdays’, which are days when the number of days since you were born is prime. Here I use Wolfram|Alpha to find your upcoming prime birthdays.”
Caroline Mukisa provokes with Finger counting: The Debate Continues! at Maths Insider.
Yan Kow Cheong presents The Abacus as a Divination Tool posted at Singapore Math.
And Patrick Vennebush posted What’s in a Name? « Math Jokes 4 Mathy Folks at Math Jokes 4 Mathy Folks. It’s a game. Or a puzzle. Super-cool, recreational. Go, play.
Investigations/Computation
Carol Cronin presents Nine Cool Points on the Complex Plane posted at Wolfram Blog.
Vicky Neale writes about theorems. Here she discusses Theorem 33: the size of Gauss sums posted at Theorem of the week. Robin Whitty (who does the same thing, but 7 times as often) submitted the post, saying, “No connection to my website – this is a lovely blog by Vicky Neale whom I don’t know but is a student of Ben Green at Cambridge”
Alasdair McAndrew presents The NSH method for matrix inversion posted at Alasdair’s musings. And, drumroll please, he cites a professor (computational theorist, I believe) who I have met IRL. Who actually observed me teaching.
Matthew Kähle writes God’s number is 20 at mathematical musings. “Every Rubik’s Cube, no matter how mixed up, can be solved in 20 moves or less.” Submitted by Fëanor.
Ben Blum-Smith (no relation, to my knowledge, to the Blum Integers, see above) presents Partial Illumination for the Chords-of-an-Ellipse Problem posted at Research in Practice, saying, “Investigation into the ellipse extension of Sam Shah’s points-on-a-circle problem”
Probability/Stats/Data
Bob O’Hara posted The Palin Effect at This Scientific Life, analyzing “the statistics behind Palin’s effect on the 2008 election.”
And another Bob O’Hara, this time posted at Deep Thoughts and Silliness, about Semiotics and Statistics. Submitted by GrrlScientist.
P. Surya Prakash presents Concept of Geometric Probability posted at Clear Your Doubts in Maths and Statistics.
Glowing Face Man presents The Hope Function posted at Xamuel.com, saying, “Suppose a desk with eight drawers has an 80% chance of containing a letter. As you search drawers fruitlessly one by one, how does that 80% probability change in time? What about the probability the letter will be in the very next drawer?”
Simon Rogers presents Florence Nightingale, datajournalist: information has always been beautiful | News | guardian.co.uk posted at Guardian, saying, “On Florence Nightingale’s innovations in the visualisation of statistics.” Excellent graphic representation of data. Submitted by Fëanor.
P vs NP
Mike Croucher presents Proofs, Proofs, Who Needs Proofs? posted at Gödel’s Lost Letter and P=NP, saying, “I like this one. Good fit for the carnival do you think?” Mike is always the Carnival King. He’s who you contact if you want to host.
Brent Yorgey presents P vs NP: What’s the problem? posted at The Math Less Traveled, saying, “See also http://www.mathlesstraveled.com/?p=744 for more context.”
And Mark CC at Goodmath/Badmath (note the new URL) weighs in with Holy freaking cow! P != NP??. (submitted by GrrlScientist who turns out to be a superhero ornithologist with a secret identity. Go Birds!)
History/Biography
We have two tidbits, one old, one new
Denise presents Math History Tidbits: The Battling Bernoullis posted at Let’s Play Math!, saying, “Find out why William Dunham called the Bernoulli brothers “the kind of people who give arrogance a bad name.””
Fëanor presents a translation from the Russian of a three-part interview with two Field Medalists of 2002: Vladimir Voevodsky and Laurent Lafforgue: Olga Orlova and the Fields Medallists – Part I posted at JOST A MON.
End
That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of carnival of mathematics using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.
The next edition of Math Teachers at Play (MTaP) will be hosted right here, in two weeks. (See the current edition at The Number Warrior). You may submit directly to me, or through the handy carnival tool.
JD2718 