How much fun that Jeff Kaufman crashed the E4E party for his school the other day. Jeff refused to sign the pledge that you support everything E4E believes in before they allow you in for a drink. But they allowed Jeff in anyway - and he didn't even have to bring his gun (Jeff is an ex cop). E4E got an extraordinary amount of coverage when 2 third year teachers started organizing to end "Last in First Out" for layoffs, promote merit pay and the use of data to judge and pay teachers.
Jeff wrote all about his adventure on the ICE blog.
When I was first asked by my colleague to attend an "Educators for Excellence" (they use a number 4 for their middle name which rubs this educator the wrong way) happy hour at a Prospect Heights bar I was very apprehensive. The RSVP required that I ascribe to their "core principals" which include much of the "ed deformers'" agenda; teacher layoffs by ability not seniority, "earned tenure" which require certain student test milestones, and teacher evaluation systems based on student data which are also tied to merit-pay schemes.You can read the entire piece at Up Close and Personal With An Opposition
Jeff makes mention of a story on E4E at Gotham Schools.
Attending happy hour sponsored by this group reminded me to dig a little deeper into this group. When the Gotham Schools article was posted Stone and Morris were reported to be full-time teachers in the Bronx and the organization was not funded. Well, things have changed as they are now funded by the Gates Foundation and certain anonymous donors and have 3 full time employees.I went back to the Gotham story and found this comment from
Teacher April 11th, 2010 9:46 am
I predict that this group will soon get funding from the Gates, Walton and Broad Foundations.
There were also many comments speculating as to whether the founders of E4E would be leaving teaching. Jeff reports:
"Educators for Excellence," it appears, is run by a couple of new teachers who now teach 1 day per week at P.S. 86 in the Bronx. There are some interesting blog entries about them and their organization and if you are really interested you can go here and here.Strictly, not new teachers as they did teach for 3 years. Teach for America I believe.
Editorial interjection:
You know I have to say right here that I was offered many opportunities to leave the self-contained classroom - even being told to become an administrator (so I could really make a difference) or a guidance counselor - anything but teach in the trenches - and I wanted to be with the kids, not deal with adults. It took almost 20 years before I was lured out. So when I see that people leave teaching to engage almost full time in some kind of political activity - even if it was a good political activity they were doing - I have to ask about the kind of commitment they have to children.
By the way - the same with frequent commenter Kitchen Sink - who taught in public schools for 4 years before running off to start and run a charter - this is the guy who always talks about how it should be about the kids and not the adults.
Anyway, back to the program.
Is Gotham Schools a nest for E4E?
The info on E4E led some people to wonder about the space Gotham gave them but never followed up with the new info.
NOTE FROM ANNA PHILIPS:
I wrote a post in June saying that they were getting funding from Education Reform now. http://gothamschools.org/
Then comes the news that Gotham Community blogger Ruben Brosbe is also an E4E. South Bronx School is driven to mirth and merriment over Brosbe's ramblings:
But of course it takes NYC Educator to nail Brosbe, as he does in today's post:
I don't pay that close attention and can't say I see bias at Gotham - yet - but when people can give examples I will point it out. I will say that at the Gotham holiday party in December, I felt outnumbered significantly by the ed deform crowd. Tilt!
Below the fold I extracted a few of the 150 comments on the original Gotham post last April, with some significant points made by Michael Fiorillo and a blogger - jodama - regarding charges that in the corporate world people who screw up would be gone.
jodama April 9th, 2010 8:16 pm
Umm kids, are we kidding here. Someone actually wrote, “In what other job do you get to keep your position when you stop performing?” Like every other profession. You folks make it sound like in every other profession people are performing at peak levels all the time or else they are fired. That is not the real world. Come on! There are crappy doctors, nurses, lawyers. There are burned-out bankers. I worked on Wall Street for 20 years before I became a teacher - do we really want to talk about a profession where people make gobs of money for a couple of meagre hours a day. Let’s see when I worked in corporate I came in, went to my desk, drank coffee, read the papers, ate a bagel, and about 10 got to work. As a teacher, I work so much harder than I ever worked as a analyst. Please. This idea that everyone in the business world is fired immediately should they stop being productive is a load of bull. Leave us teachers alone. We work hard. Nobody wanted this job and now all of a sudden everyone wants to act like we have this nice, cushy job that we do very little work for. Let me tell you - children are the toughest taskmasters - they will surely let you know if you are not doing right by them. Oh and BTW when I work late, I don’t have a town car waiting anymore to whisk me home.
Michael Fiorillo April 9th, 2010 9:14 pm
jodama is correct.
The fact is that virtually all jobs, trades and professions are performed along a spectrum that ranges from grossly incompetent to highly superior, with the majority falling somewhere in between. How is that those who are driving this discussion, most of whom have never taught and would sooner die than send their children to an urban public school (to start, see Klein, Joel and Bloomberg, Michael) have been allowed to decree that it must be different among teachers?
How many doctors and lawyers lose their license to practice due to incompetence each year? A few years ago, a doctor in Queens was discovered reusing syringes on his patients: he kept his license. How many police officers, who carry weapons and are given license to use them, are fired for incompetence each year?
How many bankers lost their jobs for the gross incompetence - to say nothing of the outright looting - that led to the financial crisis? The very same financial crisis, by the way, that now threatens new teachers with layoffs?
Maybe these two young dupes, which is the most charitable thing to call them, should direct their anger and frustration there, rather than at the organization that defends their wages, hours and working conditions. Oh, but I forget, these are the same people who are so eager to be observed more often by supervisors who, if they are themselves TFAers or Leadership Academy grads, probably have even less classroom experience than they do. Some of these new administrators are barely out of diapers, yet presume to tell seasoned educators with many years of experience how to teach. Through the irrational alchemy of the media echo chamber, inexperience is transmuted into authority and superior ability. It ain’t necessarily so.
As a NYC public school alumnus who had his share of terrible teachers, and as the father of a current NYC public high school student who’s had likewise, I see this constant braying about the threat posed by incompetent teachers as a red herring, and as nothing more than a front in the campaign to undermine teachers, their unions, and impose a hostile takeover of the public schools.
Of course every child deserves to have an effective teacher in every class. They and their parents also deserve many other things, most of which are beyond the pale of polite political discussion. That’s the real scandal.
Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on right for news bits.
So anyhoo, like, when I wanted to support the release of value-added grades, and everyone was all like, "Dude, they're inaccurate and invalid," and everything? Like, Gotham Schools let me write about how even though I was writing that stuff, I was, like, still cool and everything? And, like, Gotham Schools is SO KEWL, because, like, they don't even make me write in my bio that I'm a member of Educators4Excellence. So I'm, like, in a group funded by Bill Gates and stuff, and they don't even tell anybody! And I'm also in a video with Michelle Rhee, and like, at Gotham, I don't even have to say why! They just say, I'm just, like, a teacher and stuff! So, I don't look, like, uncool!
Read it all at Puke-O-Rama, Dude!
So Gotham seems to be taking a few hits lately. And not just publicly. Behind the scenes a number of activists - parents and teachers - have been whispering that charter school and ed deform money - which you can tell from E4E - is flowing into Gotham and has affected coverage. Why not? Broad, Gates, Walton, et al. and the hedge hogs will fund anything that they think can control the message of ed deform. I mean, they even fund E4E so they can throw school parties and allow the founders to have to teach only one day a week - someone tell me how to get that gig.I don't pay that close attention and can't say I see bias at Gotham - yet - but when people can give examples I will point it out. I will say that at the Gotham holiday party in December, I felt outnumbered significantly by the ed deform crowd. Tilt!
Below the fold I extracted a few of the 150 comments on the original Gotham post last April, with some significant points made by Michael Fiorillo and a blogger - jodama - regarding charges that in the corporate world people who screw up would be gone.
jodama April 9th, 2010 8:16 pm
Umm kids, are we kidding here. Someone actually wrote, “In what other job do you get to keep your position when you stop performing?” Like every other profession. You folks make it sound like in every other profession people are performing at peak levels all the time or else they are fired. That is not the real world. Come on! There are crappy doctors, nurses, lawyers. There are burned-out bankers. I worked on Wall Street for 20 years before I became a teacher - do we really want to talk about a profession where people make gobs of money for a couple of meagre hours a day. Let’s see when I worked in corporate I came in, went to my desk, drank coffee, read the papers, ate a bagel, and about 10 got to work. As a teacher, I work so much harder than I ever worked as a analyst. Please. This idea that everyone in the business world is fired immediately should they stop being productive is a load of bull. Leave us teachers alone. We work hard. Nobody wanted this job and now all of a sudden everyone wants to act like we have this nice, cushy job that we do very little work for. Let me tell you - children are the toughest taskmasters - they will surely let you know if you are not doing right by them. Oh and BTW when I work late, I don’t have a town car waiting anymore to whisk me home.
Michael Fiorillo April 9th, 2010 9:14 pm
jodama is correct.
The fact is that virtually all jobs, trades and professions are performed along a spectrum that ranges from grossly incompetent to highly superior, with the majority falling somewhere in between. How is that those who are driving this discussion, most of whom have never taught and would sooner die than send their children to an urban public school (to start, see Klein, Joel and Bloomberg, Michael) have been allowed to decree that it must be different among teachers?
How many doctors and lawyers lose their license to practice due to incompetence each year? A few years ago, a doctor in Queens was discovered reusing syringes on his patients: he kept his license. How many police officers, who carry weapons and are given license to use them, are fired for incompetence each year?
How many bankers lost their jobs for the gross incompetence - to say nothing of the outright looting - that led to the financial crisis? The very same financial crisis, by the way, that now threatens new teachers with layoffs?
Maybe these two young dupes, which is the most charitable thing to call them, should direct their anger and frustration there, rather than at the organization that defends their wages, hours and working conditions. Oh, but I forget, these are the same people who are so eager to be observed more often by supervisors who, if they are themselves TFAers or Leadership Academy grads, probably have even less classroom experience than they do. Some of these new administrators are barely out of diapers, yet presume to tell seasoned educators with many years of experience how to teach. Through the irrational alchemy of the media echo chamber, inexperience is transmuted into authority and superior ability. It ain’t necessarily so.
As a NYC public school alumnus who had his share of terrible teachers, and as the father of a current NYC public high school student who’s had likewise, I see this constant braying about the threat posed by incompetent teachers as a red herring, and as nothing more than a front in the campaign to undermine teachers, their unions, and impose a hostile takeover of the public schools.
Of course every child deserves to have an effective teacher in every class. They and their parents also deserve many other things, most of which are beyond the pale of polite political discussion. That’s the real scandal.
Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on right for news bits.
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