Karen Sprowal on how large classes caused her son to melt down

See the video of Karen Sprowal testifying at the City Council hearings on class size on Feb. 28.  Karen described how large classes in her son's public school starting in the 4th grade caused him to melt down. Now he is doing well in a private school with small classes, with tuition paid for by the city at $93,000 per year. She explains how lowering class size would not just benefit so many NYC children, but would also lead to cost savings in special education costs that are too rarely discussed or analyzed.

The expense to the city of private school placements for special needs kids is growing fast -- this year at more than  $325 million,  a direct result of the large classes in the city's schools that parents are so desperate to get their children out of.

As Karen put it, "Even as class size reduction may be costly, I would like the DOE and our elected officials to think about the costs of NOT lowering class size."

Her written testimony is below the video.

Testimonies of three mothers, speaking about how their children have been affected by the unacceptably large classes in city schools

The testimonies of parents, educators and advocates at the class size hearings at City Hall on Friday were so powerful that I am going to post many of them on this blog.  Here is video of the proceedings -- nearly six hours.  The hearings would have lasted even longer if many of the parents who wanted to testify hadn't been shut out because the room was too crowded. Here's an article about the hearings from Chalkbeat.

Below are the heartbreaking statements of three mothers, Alexa Aviles, Emily Hellstrom, and Naila Rosario. None of these their children were served adequately because of the unacceptably large classes in the city's public schools.

The plight of English language learners is also mentioned in Alexa Aviles' testimony, who asked, can you imagine such a child in a class of 32? It would be like trying to learn in Times Square on New Year's Eve.

The growing storm around Success Academy

On Friday morning, the NY Times ran a story and posted the video above, a minute and 16 seconds of a teacher berating a first grade child at the Cobble Hill Success charter school in Brooklyn, ripping up her page of math work, and sending her to sit on the “calm down” chair.  This video has gone viral, with an apparently greater impact than all the news articles, complaints, and lawsuits filed against Success charters in the past few years.  

There have been so many documented instances of students unfairly treated and pushed out of Success charter schools that it is difficult to know where to start.   One of the first parents to tell her story of how her special needs son was pushed out of a Success charter school in Kindergarten within a few weeks of the beginning of the school year was Karen Sprowal, in a Michael Winerip column in  the NY Times in July 2011 – nearly five years ago.  We followed up with Karen’s own account on our blog here.

Over the years, Juan Gonzalez of the Daily News has repeatedly chronicled the many documented instances of young children repeatedly suspended and ejected from Success Charters.  For the first time, the NY Times started critically covering the school last spring, describing their high-pressured test prep tactics and severe disciplinary practices for the purpose of achieving high scores on the state exams.

This fall, PBS ran a segment about the suspensions of young children at the Success Academy Charter Schools. You can see the segment here.  Fatima Geidi spoke about the way the school had repeatedly suspended her first grade son for minor infractions, and refused to provide him with the special education services he was entitled to.  While the reporter, John Merrow, attested to the fact that many other parents and teachers confirmed these system-wide practices, they told him they were afraid to appear on camera. 

Eva Moskowitz subsequently retaliated against Fatima and her son, by posting a falsified record of his disciplinary infractions, and sharing it with the media.  Fatima filed a FERPA complaint to the federal government, pointing out how this violated his federal privacy rights.  Months later, this falsified list of infractions was taken down from the Success website. 

Shortly after the PBS program ran, the NY Times published  an October 29 article on the “Got to Go list,” composed by the principal at the Fort Greene Success charter school targeting certain students, and explaining that their parents had to be persuaded to take them out of the school.

After that, a petition to the US Department of Education was posted online by Alliance for Quality Education and Color of Change, asking for a federal investigation and that the US Department of Education withhold any more federal funds from the school until the investigation was complete.  The petition pointed out that the US Department of Education had given Success Academy charters more than $37 million dollars since 2010, and nearly three million dollars in 2015 alone.  The petition received over 35,000 signatures.

On December 10, 2015, four parents whose children were on the “Got to Go list” at the Fort Greene Success Academy filed a 27-page lawsuit in federal court, seeking $2 million in damages. On January 4, the NY Times reported that the principal of that school had taken a “personal leave of absence” (though it was later revealed that he is now teaching at another Success charter school in Harlem.)

On January 18, the NY Post wrote that SUNY Charter Institute, the main authorizer of Success charters, was finally launching its own investigation into the practices of these schools.  In a longer story published January 20, Schoolbook revealed that the SUNY Charter Institute had sent a letter five days before to the board chairman of Success Academy, noting “allegations of improper use of student discipline practices to encourage students to dis-enroll, especially at the Fort Greene school.”

On the same date, January 20, a class action complaint to the Office of Civil Rights of the US Department of Education was brought by thirteen parents on behalf of their children with disabilities at eight different Success Academy charter schools in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Bronx.  The complaint highlighted “systemic policies” that violated these students’ federal rights, including harassing and publicly shaming them, refusing to provide them with appropriate services, calling 911 to take them to the hospital when they allegedly misbehaved, and repeatedly suspending them without reporting these actions as suspensions, and without providing them with due process or alternative instruction as required by law.

This class action complaint was joined by City Council Education Danny Dromm and Letitia James, the New York City Public Advocate. You can read the full complaint here.  More recently, another lawsuit was filed by NY Lawyers for Public Interest on behalf of a parent of a former Kindergarten student with disabilities at Fort Greene Success Academy charter school, who was successfully pushed out of the school.  

Yet none of these documented news accounts or lawsuits has had the same impact on the public consciousness as this minute and sixteen second video.  Is it the power of video in the digital age?  The ability to see with your own eyes and viscerally experience the abusive treatment that these young children were forced to suffer through, week after week, year after year?  Whatever the reason, let’s hope that this brings a wider public awareness not only about the practices of this particular chain of charters, but about all the “no excuses” charters that may produce better test scores, but at a very large human cost.

Karen Sprowal on the negative impact of excessive class sizes on students with disabilities

Yesterday there were hearings of the NYC Council Education Committee on the myriad problems with special education in NYC schools; with thousands of children denied their mandated services, and pushed into classes that were too large to meet their needs.  Here is an article from CapitalNY,  that mentions the testimony of a parent whose son died while waiting for a private school placement.  Below is the testimony that Karen Sprowal gave on behalf of Class Size Matters.

October 28, 2014

Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today.  My name is Karen Sprowal, I am a public school parent of a sixth grader with special needs. I am here speaking to you today on behalf of Class Size Matters a citywide advocacy group devoted to providing information on the benefits of smaller classes to parents and others nationwide.

A few weeks ago, 73 professors of education and psychology sent a letter to Chancellor Farina, pointing out that the sharp increase in class sizes over the last few years was not only undermining the quality of education in our schools, but also working against the potential benefits of the administration’s special education initiatives:  

“We believe that the benefits of many of the other positive reforms that the city is pursuing, such as increasing access to Universal prekindergarten, establishing community schools, and inclusion for students with disabilities, will be undermined unless the trend of growing class sizes is reversed in the city’s public schools. In particular, placing students with special needs into classes of 25, 30 or more will not work to serve their individual needs, or the needs of the other students in the class.”[1]

I attach the letter to my testimony.   As research shows reducing class sizes to increase student achievement is a proven approach whose value has been shown over and over again. Lowering class sizes will lead to a host of health and economic benefits, as well as substantial savings in avoiding the costs of private school placements and most importantly, enhance the chance of successful academic outcomes for thousands of NYC students with disabilities. 

Recently Chalkbeat reported that special education complaints from teachers rose 60 percent between 2012 and 2013, citing issues including too-large class sizes and a lack of services.[2] Our analysis of DOE statistics show that last year, 3805 special needs children in grades K-8 were in self-contained classes that violated the class limits; 10 percent of those assigned to 12/1 classes; 11 percent of those in 12/1/1 classes; 18 percent of those in 6/1/1 classes, and 9 percent of those in 8/1/1 classes.[3]

What is just as problematic is that in the effort to provide inclusion, the DOE is pushing special needs students into general education and inclusion classes that are much too large to meet their needs -- as these class sizes are increasing every year, and now at their largest in early grades in 15 years.  Don’t get me wrong, inclusion is a great model if class sizes can be kept low enough; but we all know this is not what is happening in NYC schools. 

As a parent of a sixth grader who attended P.S.276 in Brooklyn with a learning disability recently explained,  her son could concentrate better and he received more attention during small-group sessions with other special-education students than in his integrated class. The child himself said, “When I’m in my regular class, sometimes they don’t notice me.”[4] 

In 2012 a memo in which DOE instructed principals made it clear in a very threatening tone, that they could not deny a zoned student a seat in an inclusion class – until class sizes had reached maximum levels of 25 in Kindergarten, and 32 in grades 1^st- 5^th, and 30-34 in middle and upper grades:  

The need to cap a grade arises when a zoned school is physically unable to accommodate all of its zoned students. In order for a cap request to be approved, all of the following conditions must be met:

·         All GE/ICT in a given grade have reached the contractual maximum (K = 25; Grades 1-5 = 32; Grades 6-8 Title I = 30/ Non-Title I = 33); and

·         There is no mechanism to collapse sections, more efficiently program, or repurpose rooms; and

·         There is no other space to open an additional section.

“For recommendations that are not in the best interest of students, regular progressive disciplinary measures for school leaders and IEP teams will apply.”[5](emphasis added)

The result has been failure: failure for the inclusion initiative, and failure for too many of our children. I’m not just talking about academic failure. This initiative has also led to a rise in the share of suspensions experienced by students with disabilities as well – as noted in DOE data. [6]

The blog Motherlode in the NY Times recently published the poignant account of a mother whose son repeatedly acted out and was suspended as a direct result of being placed in a large inclusion class.  It was only when he switched schools and was assigned to a smaller class that his behavior improved and he was able to learn:

 “Last year, I saw my son, now age 9, at the lowest of lows in his classroom. He was hitting other children, spitting on them, stealing, leaving the classroom and even kicking a teacher. He barely got any schoolwork done. Things got so bad that he got two in-school suspensions.

All this time, Xavier, who is in special education, was in an “integrated co-teaching class” with a full classroom of other children. ….. Xavier’s school seemed happier to punish him than to help him. For three years it pushed him to the side because it didn’t know how to deal with him. I often wondered to myself whether this was happening in every public school, to all special education children or just to my son. 

Six months ago, I was able to get my son transferred to another public school. I’ve been able to see how a child can thrive with the right support. This new school is awesome. It immediately placed my son in the right setting — there are only 11 students in his class. Xavier is doing great. No outbursts, no being sent to the principal’s office. Instead, Xavier is going in early for math tutoring. He is passing spelling tests. He is rushing in the house after school to do homework because now he understands it.[7]

When my own child entered school, back in 2008, he was fortunate enough to be in a classroom with only twenty students.  His class sizes remained between eighteen and twenty-three from kindergarten through third grade. Despite the difficult learning challenges he faced daily, he flourished during those years in both general and inclusion class settings. At one point when he was well above grade level his teachers suggested that we consider the gifted program for him.

However, when he entered fourth grade his class size increased to twenty-nine students and it was apparent that more than any other factor, class size mattered for my son. As many student with ADHD he was unable to focus or be productive in a classroom with so many students. I watched in horror as my son unraveled, here was my once inquisitive, bright, eager to learn and happy child who essentially stop learning and became emotionally unhinged whenever he was in school.

His fourth grade teacher wrote on his report card, he only participated in class instruction when the class worked in smaller groups. By the middle of the school year in order to keep in school, he required an arsenal of IEP support services, including a crisis Paraprofessional. These services were badly managed with very little oversight, collaborations or accountability. He began having frequent meltdowns in class, his attendance suffered; he was subjected to suspensions and for the first time ever hospitalized just weeks before that school year ended.

Tragically this became a huge problem for not only my son, but for many other students with special needs who suffered academically as well the same fate behaviorally as a direct result of excessive class sizes.

During the mayoral campaign when asked directly by parents, Bill De Blasio promised he would reduce class size in all grades, to the levels the city agreed to in their original Contract for Excellence plan.[8]  Mayor De Blasio has yet to show any sign that he intends to follow through on his promises, and we expect class sizes to increase yet again this year in schools throughout the city. The city's lack of commitment to reduce class size and its failure to implement its own Contracts for Excellence plan has been devastating for my son and so many others like him as well. 

Despite class size reduction being the number one concern for public school parents on the DOE survey for eight years, in numerous town hall meetings this fall the Chancellor has brushed off parents who expressed the need for smaller classes.

The special education inclusion program will not work to help special needs children learn, until and unless class sizes are reduced and their basic constitutional rights to a smaller class are met.      

Thank you for your time.  

---

[1] http://www.classsizematters.org/73-education-professors-urge-the-chancellor-and-the-mayor-to-reduce-class-size/

[2] http://ny.chalkbeat.org/2014/10/15/teachers-complaints-reveal-tensions-sparked-by-special-ed-overhaul/#.VExAEcm2Wk0

[3] http://schools.nyc.gov/AboutUs/schools/data/classsize/classsize.htm

 

[4] http://ny.chalkbeat.org/2014/08/11/special-education-overhaul-leaves-students-less-isolated-but-schools-struggle-to-keep-up/#.VE-w2Mm2Wk0

[5] http://schools.nyc.gov/NR/rdonlyres/4C52B390-1162-4D9F-8ED0-0D96E21E4B55/0/SpecialEducationReformReferenceGuide060512.pdf

[6] http://ny.chalkbeat.org/2013/10/31/suspensions-fall-but-disparities-for-some-students-remain/#.VE1bysm2Wk2

[7] http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/parenting/2014/10/07/with-black-students-some-schools-are-more-ready-to-punish-than-help/

[8] http://nyckidspac.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/NYC-Kids-PAC-Questionnaire-Bill-de-Blasio.pdf

NYC Kids PAC endorsements

-->

For immediate release

Sept. 4, 2014

For more information contact: Shino Tanikawa, info@nyckidspac.org , 917-770-8438

NYC KidsPAC endorses Teachout for Governor, Jackson, Liu, Koppell for State Senate;

Fedkowskyj and Simon for Assembly

Today, NYC KidsPAC, a political action committee composed of parent leaders devoted to strengthening our public schools, announced its endorsements in the Democratic primary due to take place next Tuesday, Sept. 9.  KidsPAC endorsed Zephyr Teachout and Tim Wu for Governor and Lieutenant Governor, over the incumbent Andrew Cuomo and his running mate, Kathy Hochul.

KidsPAC’s other endorsements in contested races include: Robert Jackson for State Senate District 31 in Manhattan, John Liu for the 11^th Senate District seat in Queens, Dmytro Fedkowskyj for Assembly Seat District 30 in Queens, Oliver Koppell for Senate District 34 Seat in the Bronx, and Jo Anne Simon, campaigning to replace retiring Joan Millman in the 52nd Assembly District in Brooklyn.

Said Shino Tanikawa, parent leader and President of KidsPAC, “NYC KidsPAC wholeheartedly endorses Zephyr Teachout for Governor for her commitment to fight against privatization of our public education.  We need a governor who believes in small class sizes, provides adequate resources for our most vulnerable students, respects the profession of teaching, opposes education driven by standardized tests and will fight for a high quality schools for all students throughout the State.  We believe Zephyr is the right candidate who will move us in the right direction.”  

Shino added: “Governor Cuomo, on the other hand, has massively cut education aid to our schools, opposes fully funding CFE – despite a court order – and owes NYC more than $2000 per student.  He also supports raising the cap on charters, and has pushed through preferential access for charters to expand in space paid for by the city, while hundreds of thousands of our public school students sit in overcrowded schools, in trailers or on waiting lists for their zoned neighborhood school.”

“Though Robert Jackson and the incumbent Adriano Espaillat both completed surveys emphasizing their support for public schools, Jackson has a long history of leadership on education issues.  He was the original plaintiff in the CFE case, walked to Albany for the final deliberations in court, and was a terrific advocate as Chair of the Education Committee on the NYC Council.  Wherever and whenever we have needed him, Robert Jackson has stood for us and with us, fighting for the rights of our kids.  Now parents must be there for him,” said Karen Sprowal, a board member of NYC KidsPAC and a long time Harlem resident.

 “John Liu and Tony Avella have strong education records, but Liu was an exemplary City Councilmember and Comptroller – always pushing to keep the Department of Education honest in its reporting.  Moreover, we cannot forget how Avella deserted the Democratic Party to join forces with the GOP, which has consistently opposed full funding for NYC schools and supports privatization, vouchers and charter expansion,” said Isaac Carmignani, long-time parent leader in Queens.

“KidsPAC is endorsing Oliver Koppell for State Senate against Jeff Klein, as Klein led the defection from the Democratic majority to prop up the GOP, which has hurt our schools badly.  Klein also supported the egregious provisions in this year’s budget, providing preferential treatment and public space at city expense for charter schools – despite the fact that the public schools in his district are hugely overcrowded and badly need expansion,” said Gloria Corsino, a Bronx parent leader.

Isaac Carmignani explained, “We enthusiastically support Dmytro Fedkowskyj, running against the incumbent Margaret Markey in Queens.  Dmytro was a strong advocate for NYC parents and kids when he was the Queens member on the Panel for Educational Policy.  As his candidate survey shows, he will continue to be a strong advocate as Assemblymember.  He opposes test-driven education, is strongly against raising the cap on charters and supports full funding for our public schools.”

Finally, NYC KidsPAC is endorsing Jo Anne Simon vs.  Pete Sikora in the Assembly.  Tesa Wilson, a Brooklyn parent and KidsPAC board member said, “Though both Simon and Sikora responded with positive answers to our candidate survey, Simon has been a long-time advocate for the rights of special needs students, and for full funding and smaller classes in our public schools.  In our survey, she came out strongly against raising the cap on charters.  While Sikora said he was supportive of keeping the cap this year, he was in favor of re-evaluating the cap in future years.”

The links to our endorsements, completed candidate surveys and the NYSAPE Governor’s scorecard can be found on our website at www.nyckidspac.org .

###

Watch this: Fighting the Cloud...and inBloom

Thanks to Nathan Place for making this powerful video, and to Karen Sprowal and Matthew for their courage and persistence...

Fighting the Cloud, Final Cut 3 from Video Documentary on Vimeo.

inBloom to testify on Friday & state plans to upload your child's private data in July

      Last week, the Commissioner King revealed that, despite the calls for an indefinite delay by legislators of both parties, he intends to start uploading student data to inBloom in July, with the full launch of the data dashboards in September.  We are the only state in the country in which the State Commissioner has been impervious to the objections of parents, educators, school board members and administrators, and  has refused to pull out of this egregious project.

Not to mention inBloom and the data dashboards will start charging for their "services" in January, and all districts will be able to cancel the inBloom-linked data dashboards at that time.   Many will likely do so.  So why does inBloom need to have all this student data for three or four months of data dashboards?

On Friday  the NYS Assembly will be resuming its hearings on privacy, and reps from inBloom are expected to testify.  Their refusal to show up last time really backfired and angered the legislators.  

The hearings will take place Friday, Feb. 28 at 10:30 AM at 250 Broadway in Lower Manhattan; livestream here.  More info and a form you can fill out if you want  to testify is here.  See also the RT video interview from NYC parent activist Karen Sprowal on why she opposes inBloom and feels it will put at risk her child’s privacy and security on our blog below; please also sign the MoveOn petition to stop inBloom in New York state here. 

See the video below and also the discussion/debate on NPR today between Aimee Guidera of the Gates-funded Data Quality Campaign and Superintendent Mary-Fox Alter of Pleasantville NY.

2.     

Senator Flanagan's Privacy Bill unacceptable to parents; omits any mention of parental consent or opt out

For immediate release: Thursday, December 12, 2013

For more information contact: Leonie Haimson, leonie@classsizematters.org; 917-435-9329

SEN. FLANAGAN’S PRIVACY BILL UNACCEPTABLE TO PARENTS;

OMITS ANY MENTION OF PARENTAL CONSENT OR OPT OUT

Today, after holding public hearings throughout the state, Senator John Flanagan, the chair of Senate Education Department released a report with recommendations on the State’s current education policies and a bill on student privacy, S. 6007-2013.  Unfortunately, the report’s recommendations as written are ambiguous, and his bill is an inadequate response to the furor aroused by the state’s plan to share public schoolchildren’s personal and highly sensitive student data with the corporation called inBloom Inc.

Leonie Haimson, Executive Director of Class Size Matters said, “In his report, Senator Flanagan calls for an immediate one year ‘delay in launching the full operation of the Education Data Portal,’ though there is no mention of this in his bill. We enthusiastically endorse this proposal if it means a halt to the state uploading any more personal information to the inBloom cloud. Yet the state could interpret this instead as a delay in the full implementation of the data dashboards, which would not prevent the possibility of breaches or the misuse of this highly sensitive information.” 

SED officials have admitted they have already uploaded much personal information to inBloom for the purposes of the “data portal roadshows” and have said they will not delay beyond January 15 the disclosure of student names, along with their grades, test scores, racial and economic status, disabilities, disciplinary records and much else, though there is a lawsuit pending in Albany County Supreme Court where on January 3, parents will ask the court to issue an permanent injunction to stop this from happening.

Haimson pointed out, “The Flanagan bill, S. 6007, is weak and contains fewer restrictions on the disclosure of student information than the Personal Protection Law passed by the New York State legislature in 1984, which remains on the books and is the basis for our lawsuit.  This new bill would omit any requirement for parental consent or opt out before children’s most sensitive data could be disclosed or re-disclosed to third parties, or shared with for-profit vendors.”

While the bill does allow districts, as opposed to parents, to opt out of having student data uploaded to the NYSED “Educational data portal,” it does not specify whether this means uploaded to the inBloom cloud or to the data dashboard vendors.

Haimson added: “The bill also calls for a privacy officer to be appointed by the State Commissioner, who would develop a “Parent Bill of Rights.”  Yet there is little reason to believe that any such document would contain requirements for parental consent, given the current Commissioner’s disdain for parents and his insistence that he alone should be able to control who receives children’s most personal data.”

Karen Sprowal, a NYC parent of a special needs child and a plaintiff on the lawsuit, says:  “Eight out of the nine inBloom states have now listened to parents and severed all ties with inBloom or put their data sharing plans on hold. In contrast, Commissioner King insists on going ahead in the face of huge opposition from parents, school board members, Superintendents, and elected officials from both parties. All these people recognize the need to protect our children from the devastating harm that would come to them if this personal information leaked out.  In contrast to the two bills already filed in the NY Senate, S5930 by Senator Martins and S5932  by Senator Robach, which both passed by the Assembly last session with bipartisan support, this new bill would not stop the state sharing information with inBloom and would provide penalties only after breaches did occur.  The damage would already be done to my son and other children. It is imperative that parental consent should be included in this bill.  Without this fundamental right, the bill has no teeth and will not save our children from our worst fears.”

Mona Davids, President of NYC Parents Union and a parent plaintiff in the lawsuit said:  “Yesterday, the NY State School Board Associations released a survey showing that 75% of school board members say that districts should have the right to opt out of inBloom, and an even large number, 78% say that parents should have that right. If you polled parents throughout the state who are outraged at this plan, I’m sure you could get even higher numbers.  It is every parent’s ethical duty and inherent right to be able to decide who sees their children’s most sensitive data – which if breached or misused could severely damage their futures for the rest of their lives.  That Senator Flanagan refuses to acknowledge that right in his bill is an insult to all parents, and suggests that he has not taken our concerns seriously.”

###