Showing posts with label "Education". Show all posts
Showing posts with label "Education". Show all posts
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Dr. Mark Naison on Education: Hypocrisy Not Democracy
I think the following short e-mail from Dr. Mark Naison says more in a paragraph than all the words written by Duncan, Klein and Walcott combined on education in America. I guess Frank Zappa was right (see previous post). I guess “their” children will concentrate on higher order thinking skills while everyone else’s kids are subject to environments that promote rote memorization.
Please do see the link to "Occupy the DOE" below.
Gregory
**********
Hypocrisy Not Democracy
How does it feel to live in a country where the people making education policy, the Barack Obamas, Arne Duncans, Bill Gates, and Michael Bloombergs, send their children to private schools where classes are capped at 15, where there are no standardized tests, where teachers's creativity is honored and there is plenty of art, music, science and sports, but want YOUR children to sit at a desk all day preparing for standardized tests, taught by teachers who work in terror of losing their jobs, in schools where art music and sports are cut to make room for testing? If you think this unfair, if you think it is wrong, if you think it is hypocritical, then join parents, teachers, students and concerned citizens at "Occupy the DOE" in Washington DC March 30-April 2! It's time to stand up for democratic education and fight off the bogus "education reform movement" which wants to create a two tier education system that reserves creative thinking for the children of the wealthy while condemning the vast majority of American children to a regime of rote learning.
unitedoptout.com/event/we-
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Comptroller Lui Releases Report on the Expected Impact of Obama Jobs Bill Act on NYC
Gregory
*******
LIU: UPDATED IMPACT
OF OBAMA JOBS BILL ON NYC
Analysis of New Data Finds $9 Billion Boost to City
******************************************
NEW YORK, NY – The White House recently released additional information on the American Jobs Act, which was proposed by President Obama on September 8, 2011. The Office of New York City Comptroller John C. Liu has taken into account this new information and updated its September 9th preliminary analysis of the President’s plan and the resulting benefits to New York City.
While the information provided by the White House is aggregated at the state level, the Comptroller’s Office conservatively estimated that New York City will receive approximately 40 percent of New York State’s total allocation.[1]
The updated analysis finds that the Act could add more than $9 billion to New York City’s economy and create or maintain over 50,000 jobs. Also noteworthy is the fact, that most of the Act’s benefits are designed to be realized immediately in 2012.
New Financial Impacts of Jobs Bill on NYC
§ Mortgage Refinancing (NYC Impact: $1.3 billion + 6,700 jobs)
The program to remove barriers for home owners to refinance their mortgages at today’s historically low interest rates could provide $1.3 billion to New York City homeowners, resulting in an average annual savings of more than $6,000 or average monthly savings of $500 per borrower. These savings would not only help reduce the risk of foreclosure but also help stimulate the local economy by creating or preserving up to 6,700 jobs during 2012.
§ Infrastructure Investments (NYC Impact: $2.3 billion + 17,000 jobs)
Over time, the plans to improve our country’s infrastructure could provide $2.3 billion in funds to help modernize the City’s transportation, school, and housing infrastructure, thus supporting over 17,000 jobs.[2]
§ Local Educational & First-Responder Aid (NYC Impact: $700 million)
The aid to prevent the layoffs of teachers and additional support for police officers and firefighters could provide over $700 million in funding to the City to help restore 3,700 teaching positions and maintain or increase uniformed Police and Fire headcounts.
Existing Impacts on NYC Outlined in September 9th Advisory
§ Employee Payroll Tax Cut (NYC Impact: $4.8 billion + 25,000 jobs)
The payroll tax cut could provide a total benefit of $4.8 billion to New York City workers and create or preserve 25,000 jobs during 2012. Benefits will vary depending on individual salaries. For example, a worker earning $25,000 would receive an annual tax cut of just $775, while a worker earning $100,000 would receive an annual tax cut of $3,100.
§ Extension of Emergency Unemployment Benefits
Extension of the emergency unemployment benefits would help a portion of the 190,000 City residents who have been unemployed for more than 26 weeks.
Other provisions are more difficult to precisely estimate and include:
§ Employer Payroll Tax Cut
The employer payroll tax cut will reduce the employer’s payroll tax on the first $5 million in payroll from 6.2 percent to 3.1 percent.
§ Payroll Tax Holiday for Added Workers or Increased Wages
The payroll tax holiday will eliminate the employer payroll tax on increased payroll from either additional hiring or wage increases.
Comptroller Liu’s preliminary analysis clearly indicates that the Act will significantly benefit the City's employees, businesses, and government. However, what is much less clear are which specific revenue strategies will be used to finance the tax cuts and spending measures.
As discussions continue in Washington and more details emerge, Comptroller Liu will update New Yorkers accordingly.
The full analysis can be found at:
http://comptroller.nyc.gov/press/2011_releases/pdf/PR11-09-074a.pdf
Monday, April 4, 2011
BoogieDowner Tales from the Classroom: District 75 Home Visits
I was a NYC special education teacher. I lasted three years. Here is my first original story about my teaching experience. I think it's enjoyable as well as informative. Please do let me know what you think. To my spell checker out there, get to work!
Gregory
**********
District 75 Home Visits
My first job assignment in the NYC Public School system was as a Special Education Teacher in District 75. Some people call it the “Chancellors District”. The district is not defined by the specific location or territory it serves, as most school districts are, but the special needs of its students. These are the Chancellor’s kids and they come from all five boroughs. There are many of these schools placed throughout NYC. They are often small and discreet but they exist. The students in this district are further divided into two main groups. The first group consisted of the physically handicapped, which I had little contact with. The second group consisted of the learning disabled (LD) and the emotionally disabled (ED). My charge was the LD and ED middle school population. I accepted the challenge and went off to, if not save the world, at least save the “at risk” students in the Bronx. My job was to not to wonder why, but to do or die, and I gladly accepted the challenge.
Although the events in this “story” are my true life experiences I did alter the names of the students and faculty. This story is meant to be informative not vindictive. As an educator I do have a fiduciary responsibility to my former students. In addition, as always there are two sides to every story. Here is my side of the story.
It was my first week as a NYC Special Education teacher in South Bronx. I was young, optimistic and I was going to change the world. Looking back at the experience I can easily compare myself to a modern day Don Quixote. All I needed was my own Sancho Panza. My classroom consisted of about eight students and at least one para-professional. A para-professional might be more commonly understood if I use the title teacher’s assistant. Each District 75 classroom had at least one teacher’s assistant to help educate and control the classroom if/when needed. If a child was diagnosed as needing his own private Para, I could have additional para-professionals in the classroom. In my case, most of the time I had one. His name was Mr. Rodriguez. Little did he know I had a master plan? I wondered if I had found my Sancho Panza?
As is customary in any first week of school I laid down the law. There was a new sheriff in town. I posted my rules in BOLD CAPITAL LETTER on a large chart in the front of the classroom and defined my incentive program. I then unveiled my master plan by boldly announced; “If these rules are broken or if a certain percentage of class work and or homework is not completed timely, I will take time out of my life and personally visit your homes and inform your parents that you are not taking advantage of the free education the city is providing. Yes, you will see me having tea or coffee with your parents in your living room. Please feel free to test me”. I looked at my para Mr. Rodriguez and knew right away that he was with me. It was clear; he was indeed my Sancho Panza. It was decided we would show we cared by actually making home visits and personally informing parents if their children were not doing there work or acting up in class. I wanted my classroom to modeled society. There would be consequences to every action. My class was small enough where this was possible and I thought that extra mile of work on my time, with no expectation of monetary compensation, would show that I cared and intern promote order and learning in my classroom.
Needless to say, week one had gone by. On our hit list were Porsche and Tyrone. They had tested Mr. T, and Mr. Rodriguez and they were going down.
First on the list was Porsche. If there was on Olympic event for pulling teachers ties, spitting on teachers or kicking teachers in the shin when upset, she would have won the gold medal. Her mother was “away” so she was raised by her grandmother. Looking back it must have been an odd sight to see two grown men, one “white” about 5’10” weighing in at about 220 and one dark skinned Dominican about 6’4” weighing in about 260. I am sure at times people who saw us together wondered who was getting evicted or cuffed, due to the neighborhoods we were in. In hindsight, the scenario reminds me of the stories told by old school landlords during the “Wild West”, “Fort Apache” days in the South Bronx before tenant’s rights and tenant advocacy groups; when landlords would sometimes be robbed unless escorted or landlords would do things like take the hinges off a tenant’s front door for not paying their rent. How is that for an eviction notice? Looking back we saw none of this. We were just trying to make a difference. We were on a mission.
The moment of truth had arrived. Mr. Rodrigues and I were following through on our word. It was a neat well maintained one or two family brick semi-attached house with a driveway and backyard, in a lower middle class Bronx neighborhood. I took a deep breath and rang the bell. It was on. Porsche quickly opened the front door. She was amazed. It was as if she just witnessed a ten ton pink elephant or unicorn landing on the pathway to her front door. Her grandmother quickly came down the stairway as well. Mr. Rodriguez and I introduce ourselves. She was a concerned responsible grandmother who worked as a nurse. The house was neat and clean with middle class amenities. They took their shoes off and had slippers before walked up the carpeted stairway and entering the main living space of the house. I sternly ask Porsche; “do you know why we are here?” She replied that she did and told me she would be right back.” She went to her room and returned with a bag of items she had taken from my class room. There was a stapler, some pens, a box of crayons and a ruler. I had noticed that some of the items were missing but had no clue as to where they disappeared to. Without letting her know I had no clue about the items taken, we informed her mother why we had come. Porsche promised to do her homework and her grandmother thanked us for taking the time to come visit her. We walked away believing our first mission was completed and that we had won the battle. As we "high-five" each other I said; “One for Mr. T., zero for students who don’t do their work.”
We went onto our next pray. Tyrone lived in Highbridge. Highbridge is one of the poorest neighborhoods in the Bronx, if not the country, right above Yankee Stadium. There is a stone “high bridge” aqueduct connecting it to upper Manhattan that was completed back in 1848 as part of our extensive water system. It’s modeled after Roman aqueducts of antiquity. Eventually the walk path will be restored and you will be able to walk from Highbridge to Washington Heights, or visa versa. Most people wiz right by the tall stone arches when driving on the Major Deegan Expressway without much thought about the bridge or neighborhood. Lot’s of Puerto Rican flags everywhere and if you’ve seen “New Jack City” you saw the neighborhood in the opening scene. The housing stock is a mixture of mid-rise brick buildings, one major high-rise and many “Great Gatsby” Victorian style wood frame homes on 25 or even 50 by 100 lots. Much of the housing stock was built before the great depression. Our visit to Tyrone’s home was before the New Yankee Stadium or New Yankee Stadium Metro-North station was public information. Tyrone lived in some type of temporary housing situation in a 5 or 6 story brick building.
This time I rang the bell with greater confidence. Tyrone’s mother, like Tyrone was pleasant. Unlike Porsches home, this home had a transient feel to it. One could easily see them packing all of their belongings within a fifteen minute period and moving on if needed. The wood planks of the floor were bare. The windows had no blinders or drapes. Tryone was there with his two brothers. The youngest paid us no mind while he played some type of video game. The oldest looked right through us and quickly lost interest as if we were just another rerun he had no interest in watching. Tyrone was pleased to see us even though we were there to rat on him to his mother.
Tyrone’s mother had taken us to the kitchen and attempted to make us feel welcomed. If she had anything worthwhile to offer she would have offered it. I began telling her about Tyrone missing his homework assignments. He was not keeping up with reading or writing assignments. I told her she should sit down with her son and make sure he read each night and wrote in his journal. It was then that she began to tear and told me she could not help her son do his homework because she could not read or write. It was then that I realized I was not just dealing with one child missing a few homework assignments but intergenerational illiteracy. I had signed up for more than I understood. Even though I was born and raised in the same borough, educated in the same school system, walked the same streets and took the same subway, I was from an entirely different world. I had gone to teach but instead learned the very valuable lesson to assume less.
From then on Tyrone behavior and work ethic in class greatly improved. I even heard that when the other students were making fun of me during lunch he quickly straightened them out. After a few weeks of good attendance and academic progress he missed a few days of class. When I inquired I was told he had been transferred to a shelter upstate. I never got to give him an official goodbye, but I do sometimes think of him and hope he is safe and in good hands.
In time I informed my principal about my adventure. If Porsche had looked at me as if she had seen a ten ton pink elephant or unicorn, my Principals look was as if she had seen an entire army of both being ridden by winged monkeys. From that point on I had huge “L” on my for forehead with school administration. It stood for both “looser” and “liability”. What if something had gone wrong? I was a threat to every administrator’s job and pension. Where would the finger point? It was the beginning of the end and I had to be chopped down slowly. Later on I heard a NYC teacher had gotten shot doing the exact same thing. I blame my actions on youthful exuberance and naivety. If in the same situation, I would not do it again, but I would not change my past actions in any way. I sometimes wonder; was I a modern Day Don Quixote delusional in my attempt to educate modern day “at risk” students, much like Don Quixote delusional attempts when attacking windmills to restore chivalry in the society he lived in?
Thursday, March 3, 2011
The Bronx International Film Festival Hosts One Night Only Screening of "Race to Nowhere"
RACE TO NOWHERE
Hard-Hitting Education Documentary Exposes the Silent Epidemic in our Schools
ONE NIGHT ONLY: Thursday, March 10 at 8pm
Lovinger Theatre/Lehman College
250 Bedford Park West , Bronx, NY
Bronx Stage & Film and Lehman Stages will screen “Race to Nowhere” for one night only Thursday, March 10 at 8 pm in the Lovinger Theatre. All tickets are $5 and can be purchased through http://bronxstage.com
A concerned mother turned filmmaker aims her camera at the high-stakes, high-pressure culture that has invaded our schools and our children’s lives, creating unhealthy, disengaged, unprepared and stressed-out youth. Featuring the heartbreaking stories of young people in all types of communities who have been pushed to the brink, educators who are burned out and worried that students aren’t developing the skills they need, and parents who are trying to do what’s best for their kids, Race to Nowhere points to the silent epidemic in our schools: cheating has become commonplace; students are disengaged; stress-related illness and depression are rampant; and many young people arrive at college and the workplace unprepared and uninspired.
In a grassroots sensation already feeding a groundswell for change, hundreds of theaters, schools and organizations nationwide are hosting community screenings during a six month campaign to screen the film nationwide. Tens of thousands of people are coming together, using the film as the centerpiece for raising awareness, radically changing the national dialogue on education and galvanizing change.
The Washington Post recently covered a screening of Race to Nowhere: “Riveted to this disturbing tableau were more than 300 parents and educators, including Elise Browne Hughes, 46, who wiped away tears one recent evening in Bethesda while watching the documentary "Race to Nowhere," which is becoming a growing grass-roots phenomenon in the achievement-minded Washington area and beyond. "It's in the culture, and it kind of feeds on itself," said Hughes, a mother of two sons who paid $10 for a ticket and braved the heavy rain to watch the film at Walt Whitman High School. For her and thousands of others nationwide, the film has raised difficult questions about how to raise well-adjusted children at a time when schools seem test-obsessed, advanced classes are the norm and parents worry that their children will not go as far in life as they have.” (Washington Post, 10/7/2010)
Race to Nowhere is also being embraced by educators. “An education film that gets it (No, not ʻSupermanʼ)” was the title of a Washington Post blog by Mark Phillips, professor emeritus of secondary education at San Francisco State University.
Vicki Abeles, first-time filmmaker, was inspired to make Race to Nowhere out of concern for her children. A mother of three and former Wall Street attorney, Abeles awakened to this crisis as her 12-year old daughter was being treated for stress-related illness. She saw personally how the pressures were overwhelming not only to her own kids, but to students everywhere – in every kind of school environment and community.
“As a mother, I experienced the stress firsthand and realized that no one was talking about it,” says Vicki Abeles. “I saw kids who were anxious, depressed, physically ill, checking out, abusing drugs and, worst case, attempting suicide. I felt compelled to speak out about this crisis by making a film and giving voice to the students, teachers, and parents. I wanted to expose a deeper truth about our education system. We are graduating a generation of robo-students, unable to think and work independently, creatively and collaboratively.”
School reform has become an urgent national issue and 2010 is the year of the education film. Race to Nowhere is the only film that shows what is actually happening to our kids as a result of current policies and practices obsessed with testing, performance and competition rather than meaningful teaching and learning. Race to Nowhere finally gives voice to those on the front lines who are most affected by education policies - the students and teachers themselves. Race to Nowhere is the only film to spotlight the intersection of health and education. The film empowers everyone to get involved and take ownership of what’s happening in our schools and communities.
Race to Nowhere is a call to action to challenge current assumptions on how to best prepare the youth of America to become healthy, bright, contributing and leading citizens. After seeing the film, your views on education and childhood will forever be changed
“Every once in a while, a film comes along that has the potential to change the culture,” said New York Times bestselling author Rachel Simmons (Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls). “Race to Nowhere shines a light on the crisis of learning and meaning facing American education. The film is both a call to arms and a beacon of hope, a source of relief and outrage and a way forward for all of us."
Race to Nowhere Theatrical Trailer url
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uem73imvn9Y
Race to Nowhere Theatrical Trailer
embed code
How Public School Budget Cuts Herald the End of Equality in the United States- Even As an Ideal
Gregory
******
Fordham University
Throughout the United States, the nation’s public school system is being savaged by budget cuts that will make a mockery of federal legislation designed to reduce the achievement gap between children in low income and high income districts.
In Detroit Michigan, the school district has been told by the state to close half of its schools to close a 347 million dollar deficit, leading to high school classes that could contain as many as 60 students. Providence Rhode Island just handed out pink slips to its nearly 2,000 teachers to reduce its deficit; and Austin Texas may do the same in a response to a ten percent reduction in state funding. And in thousands of school districts throughout the country, teachers are being fired, sports and arts programs are being shut down, AP classes are being cancelled, and class size is going through the roof while state and local governments radically cut education funding to balance their budgets.
Make no mistake about it, these budget cuts will have a disproportionate effect in the poorest school districts, where parents depend on schools to impart skills, which because of educational background or language issues, they often lack. You cut arts and science programs in a upper middle class school district, parents will compensate by finding private tutors or funding additional classes through the PTA. In poor neighborhoods, once such programs are gone, they are gone for good. You can squeeze the teachers in poor districts all you want to produce magical results on test days; a opportunities to give students individual attention disappear, the test score gap will grow wider, the dropout rate will increase, and college admission from such districts will plummet.
What makes this a bitter pill to swallow that the Dream these budget cuts will destroy was one nurtured by a Republican President, George W Bush. Never mind that the dream was based on false data the Houston school district, never mind that it was used, by politicians, business leaders and the media, to divert attention from confronting sources of inequality outside the school system; it still held as a goal the fact that every child in America had the right to a great education and an opportunity to attend college if they took advantage of that opportunity.
Now that very Dream is in Tatters, not just because of the decision they made to cut public school budgets- but because of the decision they didn’t make, to TAX THE RICH. Make no mistake about it, in every state where these budget cuts are being made, the vast majority of these cuts could have been avoided if taxes were raised on the wealthiest five percent of the population, who control nearly 40 percent of national income! Yet in state after state throughout this country, as well as in the Congress of the United States, such taxes were declared “off limits” by politicians of both parties.
Let us be very blunt about the consequences of this choice. In the midst of the worst economic crisis in modern US history, our political leadership has decided to exempt the very wealthy from sacrifice while tragically weakening the one avenue our society had identified for reducing inequality in the nation-our public schools.
Not only is it profoundly immoral to impose hardship on the weakest and most vulnerable members of our society, targeting schools for such huge cuts does violence to the very ideal of Equality of Opportunity which once used to unite Liberals and Conservatives.
If the only schools that can function well are in communities where parents have the resources to compensate for the budget cuts, then we are basically creating a social order where children will remain in the social position of their parents into the next generation, and where poor and working class children are doomed, by inferior training, to be a servant class for the rich, if they are lucky enough to find jobs at all.
I don’t know about you, but this sounds more like the Ancien Order in France or Pre-Revolutionary Russia than the a country which Abraham Lincoln once praised “for lifting artificial burdens off the shoulders of men.”
The American Dream is dying before our eyes.
Will we have the courage to rescue it?
Dr. Mark Naison
March 3, 2011
Friday, February 18, 2011
Message from NYS Governor Cuomo
Gregory
***
My Fellow New Yorkers,
You elected me to be your voice in Albany and to make tough decisions. Few issues are as critical to the future of our state as reforming our education system.
Right now, we rank number one in the nation in spending per student, and number 34 in student achievement. Worse still, these poor results are coming after a decade of record spending increases in education funding.
Throwing money at the problem is not the answer. We need to cut the bureaucratic fat and champion reforms that will help our students achieve their true potential.
We need to spend smarter. To this end I have proposed a $250 million fund for competitive awards to school districts that have the greatest improvement in student performance. A similar fund of $250 million will reward school districts that produce the most innovative means to cut waste from the system.
In the debate over the state budget, it is important to focus on the facts instead of overheated rhetoric. While I have asked state agencies to cut their budgets by 10%, I have only sought an average 2.9% reduction in overall school spending. And I have suggested many ways in which school districts can absorb these reductions without laying off teachers, cutting programs or harming students.
School districts have $1.5 billion in reserves and unspent federal funds that will allow many to absorb the proposed $1.5 billion cuts without service reduction.
Freezing wages, as I have proposed to do for state workers, would save school districts $1.1 billion.
Having school district employees make the same health care contributions that state employees make would result in $500-$600 million in savings.
Cutting the salaries of the more than 2,000 high priced school administrators who receive more than $150,000 in salaries and benefits would result in substantial savings.
At a time when New Yorkers are watching every penny, we can no longer afford to throw money at a system bloated with waste and inefficiency. By coming together and acknowledging that fixing our schools means placing the interests of our students ahead of special interests, we can make New York’s schools the envy of the rest of the nation.
Sincerely,
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo
PS: To learn more about the budget, please visit www.governor.ny.gov/budget.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)