Wednesday, June 29, 2011

HERE WE GO

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/28/education/28evals.html?ref=education

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

POWER GRAB

http://www.buffalonews.com/city/schools/article469822.ece

Monday, June 27, 2011

Sunday, June 26, 2011

TRIGGER HAPPY

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jan/17/local/la-me-parent-law-20110117

Saturday, June 25, 2011

WHO"S PULLING THE TRIGGER AGAIN?

http://www.buffalonews.com/city/communities/buffalo/article466526.ece

Friday, June 24, 2011

OUTSOURCED AGAIN

http://mets2006.wordpress.com/2006/12/18/outsourcing-the-school-system-the-emo-chimera/

Thursday, June 23, 2011

MISFIRE

http://toped.svefoundation.org/2011/03/17/parent-trigger-misfires-by-disrupting-and-dismantling-local-schools/

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

BROAD SCHOLAR

http://perimeterprimate.blogspot.com/2010/03/broad-effect.html

Sunday, June 19, 2011

NEXT:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/calif-based-broad-superintendents-academy-criticized-as-destructive-force-in-districts/2011/06/14/AGNHZgUH_story.html

TOP 10 LIST

BEST WAYS TO SAVE MONEY IN THE DISTRICT:

1. Don't pay teachers.
2. Don't pay teachers
3. Don't pay teachers.
4. Don't pay teachers.
5. Don't pay teachers.
6. Don't pay teachers.
7. Don't pay teachers.
8. Don't pay teachers.
9. Don't pay teachers.
10. Don't pay overages.

YOU"RE FIRED!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/14/parent-trigger-law_n_876863.html

Thursday, June 16, 2011

THE BUCKS FLY HERE

Paying Oldele for the full year is mysteriously stupid. There has to be a reason why they would vote to pay her off, of sorts. At the same time, there's not much being said as to why or how she would be earning it or has earned it. Once again, the schools become politicized and people get paid for failure. If teachers got bonuses for failure and free "lame duck" years, we would be millionaires. Oh, wait, Oldele and Williams are...my bad. Amazingly this is the system and what behavior it fosters. When are we ever going to stand united and say enough really is enough, for real?
The rules are different at the top. Obviously it is sickeningly sweet to be in the inner circle of unaccountability. Demeaning and demanding to the point of post it notes and the creation of bogus data has been borderline abusive in the workplace. Now the Queen of "Or Else", has ducked for cover out the back door, running once again from her life's work, or else? Simply amazing. What is more amazing is that we sit by and let it happen. Great job Licata. 5-3.

HERE COMES THE RAIN AGAIN

http://www.buffalonews.com/city/communities/buffalo/article456597.ece

TOP 10 LIST

TOP 10 LIST TEN: WORST WAYS TO WASTE TAXPAYER DOLLARS:

1. Buy dinner everyday for James Williams for 5 years.
2. Never interview Oladele
3. Pay 28 Assistants, Associate or Lead Superintendents and Administrative Staff without credentials
4. Give James Williams a driver
5. Free lunch at Emerson for staff and Williams & Co for over 5 years
6. Fire the Superintendent and then pay him an extra year for fun
7. Give $7 million to some guys in Maryland and sell out the alternative school program
8. Never be held accountable
9. Blow off the State
10. Say things like "I have a good evaluation" on TV.


DAYTON, OOPS, BUFFALO DAILY NEWS

http://www.daytondailynews.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/education/entries/2006/05/16/james_williams.html

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

A BLAST FROM THE PAST OR A PLAN COME TO FRUITION?

http://www.thinkfy.com/content/gop-set-unveil-new-contract-how-about-dismantling-ed

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

THE WEATHERMAN WAS WRONG

If Weathermen were evaluated on how correct they are, we'd have no permanent Weathermen. They are always wrong. Yet we are going to do the same nonsensical notion with teachers? We cannot control the weather, nor can we control society and its lies to its children.How would you evaluate a Weatherman's job performance if it depended on accuracy. Who would even take that job? Welcome to public school. We need to survive first before we can evaluate based on test scores.

WHOA NELLY

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2077564,00.html?xid=tweetshare

Monday, June 13, 2011

DON'T DRINK THE KOOL AID

http://www.buffaloreformed.org/index.php?src=news&submenu=Mission&srctype=detail&category=Main%20News&refno=92

Sunday, June 12, 2011

PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOR SALE

The "closed door" meeting, absent John King with the list of players in the Buffalo Public Schools heist was not interesting. More smoke and mirrors. Behind those closed doors, Hoyt's vision of a hundred charter schools & ReformEd comes to life. I wonder why Sam Hoyt was not at that special, private meeting since he has the largest voice for privatization? He was sounding the siren and pushing state takeover, even though he couldn't answer any questions about what that means, exactly. He was yelling from the rooftops about chaos and disorder, and how we needed to act now. More Shock Doctrine at work. Hoyt's once "when rich people donate money to public schools, it is good" line is remedial and dismissive. At least he was as far as any real discussion on the matter... I'm hoping he was referring to the New Market Tax Credit, like good for them, new snake oil salesmen, not for kids. It is good for the wealthy. A 39% return on your money is great in this economy. Seems as if he and the Mayor could finally agree on something and take Buffalo to the cleaners one more time, hand in hand.
Talking about public things behind closed doors always makes me a little nervous. After realizing the new State Education Commissioner said goodbye to his partner who has been hand picked to run ReformEd I have become especially suspicious. Both King & Hoyt, Inc were suspiciously absent. I guess Mayor Brown making the meeting on that particular day was no mistake after all. It would have smelled funny to have our Commissioner present at a closed door meeting where they are deciding to pay his old pals millions of dollars to "turnaround" (takeover) schools. Failure trains stop at Recuse Station and keep going. Instead of pushing to make his friends more wealthy, Hoyt may want to look at some new legislation preventing the State Commissioner from profiteering on the failure of our public schools. ReformEd is starting to look like a pass-through agency for Uncommon Schools, where John King was Executive Director. This is starting to sound a little like the Haliburton stories from Iraq. Cheney went from $1M to net worth of $70 M in one year. Let's watch King closely here...Watch for what contracts are awarded and to whom, then the "why" will be answered once dots are connected like decimal points on a bank statement. Time for teachers to have their own closed door meetings. Mr. Rumore?

SOMETHING OLD NOTHING NEW

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1613206

MERIT: (verb)To be worthy or deserving.

Saturday, June 11, 2011

TO KILL A HIGH SCHOOL

Mayor Brown's Summit on education is more like a cast of characters from a bad off broadway play. Bennett, the face of yesteryear has done absolutely nothing in Williams' tenure to prevent or pre-empt the so called failure of the BPS. Especially in these 9, 7 or other 29 schools that are slated for failure (or so rumor has it). Except of course, City Honors. Why there is only one school for gifted children just remains so offensive, and a bit like educational apartheid if one really thinks it through. Kozol is right. It is The Shame of The Nation, and there is no more amazing grace, although there seems to be an awful lot of praying going on. Just a guess this is how it goes....

What's happened here in Buffalo was planned since Williams hit town. This is how you kill a district, never mind a high school:
1. Close any alternative school opportunities and keep the troublesome one percent monopolizing an entire school.
2. Place failed leaders in new leadership roles instead of firing them.
3. Play politics with poor kids.
4. Force scripted curriculum down teachers, children, parents' and principals' throats.
5. Play hot potato with troubled kids.
6. Pump up the Special Education population in the "failing" schools, even though teachers & admin still perform miracles.
7. Test. Test more. Force kids with Low IQs to take tests to make them feel inept then pour money into Bullying workshops.
8. Blame teachers. More money spent on Bullying.
9. Arbitrarily raise Regents scores by 10 points with no explanation.
10. "Fire" the bad guy, the fall guy, the genius, Williams. Extend a boatload of cash his way so it eases his conscience.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY

The resignations letters are flying like confetti downtown. Anyone paying attention could have predicted this, up until this very moment. We have watched for years the tell-tale signs of "the going through of motions". No one seems too clear of this thing called education. The district appears always reactive, rushed, unprepared and in the dark. Yet, any educated brain knows this simply cannot be true, they in fact are organized, plotting and planning 7 years ahead of time (just a wild guess). Has to be. Doesn't make any sense for the system to operate so backwards...
Making money makes a lot of sense however. Profiteering from various phases of failure has become protocol, or so it seems. Someone makes $50k here, another makes some more money over there, or someone gets hired at a nice fat salary double a teacher's. That's the way it goes, right? Something's not right with that practice. Could it be possible it is an accident? Could those at the top be that inept? One group not profiteering is teachers. We are too busy ducking and weaving to avoid bombs of blame lobbed at us. This is just Buffalo, there is nothing special about it. It's in the Playbook. The only thing special here is that we allowed the heist to go on and on. What is special is why a contract extension was granted only a short year ago, and suddenly the system is failing so bad the state may takeover! Chaos has been created to distract and open back doors to change governance while no one's looking. This change in governance is so obtrusive it's not democratic or public by nature, therefore quite frightening. What is happening on the Greatest Country on Earth? What about all those children left behind? Another layer of bureaucracy? Really? That's our answer? Best we got?
All the rhetoric is so old, it can't even be repeated. We know the answers. Where is the Teacher's Voice in reform? Why aren't we demanding the correct things be done, as a group with solidarity? Where is a voice about the conditions we work under? Silence is deafening in the national "debate" if you want to call it that...it's more like a national shame.
The schools fail for reasons. Distinct, planned and managed reasons. It's an old, old playbook. It's a worn gypsy train moving on to the next frightened, broken town in system failure. Our schools were not great before Williams or Oladele, but their arrogance squared makes it difficult to recall anything prior to their regime until now. This is the last stop. Remember, down South, they always look for the person with the white washed paint and the dead white grass in front of their barn that was white yesterday after the gypsies moved on. The sucker who fell for the sell. Who fell for it here? Who knew and feigns surprise now at system failure and our collapse of leadership? Let's look for the whitewash and some dead grass around some of these resignations. Does a resignation with pay count for or against your evaluation? If we are paying failure for another year and benefits for life, then what's the beef with teachers? Sounds like some priorities about accountability are a bit askew.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

FAST TIMES AT WALCOTT HIGH

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/04/24/nyregion/20110424_WALCOTT.html?ref=education

Not a word about Uncommon Schools ED, weird.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

A LITTLE HISTORY REPEATED.

http://server1.altpressonline.com:88/content/view/382/1/

CHOO CHOO BOO HOO

Ding dong the King is dead. Should we celebrating? Going into this very situation that brought us to this very moment. Schools are failing. EMO's are taking over (EPOs are EMOs essentially) Everyone knew 5 years ago. The Board, Teachers, Parents, Cops, Neighborhoods and who? Who did not know? Everyone also knew we should not have extended his contract, why we didn't was never made quite clear. These problems didn't materialize, they were developed. Williams couldn't break the Union through the front, so he went in the back door. Successfully. Thus, the shock and awe cockiness. Some say he was just flat out rude. Others love him and say he's a bee charmer. Never meeting the man, we as the rest of the normal peasants, all share the same image of the monster who perpetrated hated and division, divided teachers, pushed failure initiatives and stuffed many an old friend's pockets. One can say he was brought here to do exactly what he was hired to do. Is he a monster? A heartless corporate animal? Or are Superintendents vulnerable too as changes in governance have changed right under out noses? It's obvious he is frustrated, but when in doubt one can lead by example. We're stuck with a lazy, expensive "Leader", is that the word? The Board will never admit complicity therefore they shame him with a low score on a bogus, meaningless evaluation, except for one strong voice in Licata, the other BOE Freshmen are silent ghosts. Not reassuring.

Williams never quite gave up, but then again, he never really tried all that hard either. Just seems criminal to get paid so much money for doing minimal subpar work. He would be fired if his evaluation counted toward his job security. So again, I'm still unclear where accountability begins and ends. Is there a pamphlet? There should be. It's not "unfortunate" we are "stuck" with Williams. Unfortunately someone like Bob Wilmers has that much power is the truer statement. It's unfortunate kids' lives were tossed under a bus so the failure train could come to town. The train chugs along moving to Surety Station, it's next stop on the Federal Failure Express. Coming to a poor district near you, soon. Look for the new signage.



RECUSE EXCUSE

http://www.uncommonschools.org/usi/newsAndEvents/

Sunday, June 5, 2011

MAINSTREAM DOWNSTREAM

http://www.scpr.org/programs/patt-morrison/2010/10/21/teacher-evaluations-go-mainstream-new-york-city-re/

Friday, June 3, 2011

Thursday, June 2, 2011

UNCOMMON BOND

http://www.uncommonschools.org/usi/home/index.html