Update on FOILed backup for DOE claims as regards teacher data reports

Yesterday in court, the United Federation of Teachers argued that the DOE should not release the teacher data reports to the public, despite FOIL requests from media outlets, because the value-added methodology on which they are based are statistically unreliable, among other reasons, a point also made by many researchers, including Sean Corcoran of NYU. (See articles about the court case in today's Gotham Schools, NY1, Daily News, NY Times, and Post)

In February 2009, almost two years ago, I submitted a FOIL request to DOE for a number of items related to these reports, including the supposed "panel of technical experts" who had approved the DOE's methodology, according to the statement in the 2008 document, “Teacher Data Initiative: Support for Schools; Frequently Asked Questions":

“A panel of technical experts has approved the DOE’s value-added methodology. The DOE’s model has met recognized standards for demonstrating validity and reliability.”

When the FOIL was partially responded to fifteen months later, DOE admitted that this expert panel had not actually approved its methodology, and sent me a report in which the panel expressed grave doubts about its reliability.

Juan Gonzalez of the Daily News wrote about this here; I wrote about it and provided back up documentation here.

In its 2008 FAQ, DOE had also claimed that there was a research study that confirmed their approach:

“Teachers’ Value-Added scores from the model are positively correlated with both School Progress Report scores and principals’ perceptions of teachers’ effectiveness, as measured by a research study conducted during the pilot of this initiative.”

In February 2009, I also asked for a copy this "research study." Coincidentally,I just received yet another email from DOE today, informing me that this study is still not complete, more than two years after the above claim was made, and nearly two years since I filed my original FOIL. (see letter above).

"Data is fabulous!"

Second graders in San Lorenzo, California classroom learning about Value-added test scores. Watch it and weep.

Sexy time?

Amazing how sexy the education privateers find each other. In the NY Times , a few weeks ago, Joe Williams of the charter lobby group Democrats for Education Reform said that Joel Klein had made education "sexy" again.

In today’s Times, Joe compares Rhee to a “rock star” and Joel Klein says that “education has become sexy in America, partly because of Michelle.”

What a ménage a trois! ....next thing you know, they’ll be claiming Bill Gates is sexy too.

Funny, I don’t find them sexy at all, though I can see Michelle Rhee as an effective dominatrix.

I guess it takes all kinds….

The DOE set the closing schools up for failure

Today, in justifying the eleven school closings, with more to come, Deputy Chancellor Marc Sternberg made the following statement: “Year after year, even as we provided extra help and support, these schools simply have not gotten the job done for children."

As the NY Post points out, the vast majority of these schools have poverty rates over the city average. And many of them were flooded with high-needs special education and ELL students in recent years, as nearby large high schools closed, and were provided with no extra help to deal with this problem.

Finally, what strategies if any did the city use to try to turn around these schools? Did they ever try systematically reducing class size? No.

Most of these students at these schools continue to suffer from overly large classes that far exceed the state average of twenty students per class, as well as the goals in the city’s mandated class size reduction plan. In fact, class sizes have risen sharply in most of the schools slated for closure.

For example, check out the increases in class size at Beach Channel High school, one of the schools on today’s list of closures, which have occurred despite a promise from the DOE to make specific reductions at this school in return for hundreds of millions of dollars in Contract For Excellence funds.

As Sternberg said, “…we cannot afford to let schools continue to fail students when we know we can do better.”

Most parents and teachers would agree. The Department of Education’s stubborn refusal to follow the law and to allow the students at these schools to have their best chance to succeed is unconscionable, and set up these schools for failure.

Yong Zhao on the Detrimental Effects of Exam-Driven Education in China

In the past dozen years, undergraduate college enrollment in China increased some 800% to over six million students. What might on its face seem like a triumph of educational progress has turned into a national nightmare, with countless thousands of those freshly minted college graduates now either going unemployed or having to settle for demeaning blue-collar positions.

In their online “Room for Debate” feature, the New York Times invited four experts to address the question, “What Is a College Degree Worth in China?” Qiang Zha, from York University in Toronto, argues rather unconvincingly that it is a supply side problem, that too many of those new graduates are majoring in unemployable “soft” disciplines instead of science, engineering, or technology. Yasheng Huang, on the other hand, sees the issue as a demand side problem in which too many Chinese companies are simply order-taking manufacturers who do not want or need knowledge workers. Gordon Chang, who ten years ago published his specious, still-unfulfilled doomsday predictions under the attention-grabbing, book-selling title, The Coming Collapse of China, says little but continues his persistently negative take on all things China.

Of the three, Huang comes closest to recognizing that China’s inability to absorb its growing college-educated population is, paradoxically, a byproduct of that same primary-through-post-secondary education system, since it does not produce graduates with the creative vision or risk-taking orientation to generate the kinds of industrial and service companies that need and employ large numbers of knowledge workers.

The fourth and most intriguing piece for its relevance to the American education reform movement comes from Michigan State professor Yong Zhao. He argues both convincingly and correctly that the root cause of China’s advanced education problem is that the entire system is examination-driven. Zhao describes the gaokao, China’s college entrance exam, as “the ‘baton’ that conducts the whole education orchestra,” whose impact is that “from a very young age, children are relieved of any other burden or deprived of opportunity to do anything else so they can focus on getting good scores.” The result? According to Zhao, “Chinese college graduates often have high scores but low ability.”

I can confidently second these observations from my own experiences teaching in China at the high school and college levels. Even stronger substantiation came from conversations I had there with Western factory executives. They consistently described Chinese graduates as “book smart” but incapable of recognizing problems or knowing how to take the initiative to solve them. They told me about reading hundreds of resumes and interviewing dozens of applicants just to get one or two candidates they considered even marginal, then having to handhold them for months on end to educate them in their own fields of study about the world beyond their textbooks. As one factory manager told me about his white collar staff, “They are good, hard, committed workers once you show them what you expect them to do, but they stay within the lines you draw for them. I really don’t expect much in the way of initiative or originality.”

All this is relevant to the United States because the current NCLB-driven movement toward standardized exam scores as the end of, rather than the means toward, education is pushing America in the direction of China’s centuries-old, rote-memorization-and-regurgitation system. As Yong Zhao has so effectively pointed out in his book, Catching Up or Leading the Way: American Education in the Age of Globalization, China is now seeking to move away from the very system that America is rushing heedlessly toward under the guise of education reform.

Zhao’s and Huang’s contributions to the Times’ “Room for Debate” posting are well worth reading; Zha’s and Chang’s much less so. An even more valuable – make that essential -- read is Professor Zhao’s book.

Even Crains Blasts Bloomberg Over Black Debacle

In a stunning burst of friendly fire, the normally fawning paper, Crains New York Business, took the mayor to task for his handling of the Cathie Black spectacle:

The selection of Cathleen Black as schools chancellor—and the way she was chosen—has reinforced the impression that Mr. Bloomberg is an imperial billionaire isolated in the world of the rich and famous.

The mayor's dismissive declaration that a traditional search would have scared away quality candidates is absurd. The chancellorship is one of the top education jobs in the world. Yet there's no indication that anyone besides Ms. Black knew it was available.

The Post is reporting administration sources are saying the mayor has admitted mistakes although his spokesman issues a complete denial. See 'We Screwed Up' for the full story.

City Hall magazine blames senior Bloomberg advisor Howard Wolfson for the handling of the botched appointment. See Losers of the Week.

Finally, the mayor's predicament only seems to get worse. The Brooklyn public school parent who filed suit against State Ed Commissioner Steiner and the Regents appears to have a good case. He simply points out that under a close reading of state education law, the requirement of a masters degree is not subject to a waiver. The Times has the legal documents here. (pdf) NY1 coverage here.

Mona Davids of the NY Charter Parents Association at the Deny Waiver rally

Julie Cavanagh, Brooklyn teacher and member of Grassroots Education Movement at Deny Waiver rally

Now that Bill Gates has bought the education reform movement, can he buy them an Oscar to go with it?

Last Sunday night, the Gotham Independent Film Awards kicked off the 2010 film awards season with a much-deserved Best Feature prize to “Winter’s Bone” and a Best Documentary prize to “The Oath,” which focuses on two men associated with Osama bin Laden who were also prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. Remarkably, four of the five films (including the winner, "The Oath") in the Gotham/IFP documentary category were not even among the fifteen already short-listed for the Oscars; only "Inside Job" among the five Gotham festival nominees made the cut for the Hollywood-driven Oscars.

The festival's documentary category outcome meant a surprise early season loss for the darling of the education reform movement, the heavily advertised and supported, Bill Gates backed “Waiting for Superman,” colloquially W4S. It's worth noting, by the way, that while the Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP) shut out W4S and another pro-charter school film, "The Lottery," the more money-influenced Oscars included both in their 2011 documentary short list.

As a consolation prize, however, W4S did garner a first-year Gotham prize called, fittingly enough, the Festival Genius Audience Award. Drawing from the twenty-six audience award winners at the top fifty movie festivals in the US and Canada, an Internet vote reduced that number to five finalists who were then voted upon once again via the Internet. Given the enormous sums already poured into advertising and distribution for W4S around the country, it is no more surprising that the hedge funders’ favorite somehow managed to capture the most Internet votes than was Bristol Palin’s continued retention via audience voting on “Dancing with the Stars,” courtesy of the near-lunatic fanaticism of Sarah Palin/Tea Party supporters.

W4S’s loss to “The Oath” in a competition where early Oscar-buzz favorites like (among others) “Inside Job,” “Restrepo,” and “Gasland” were not even in the race may not bode well for Davis Guggenheim’s film. But now that Bill Gates has bought the education reform movement, will he buy them an Oscar to go with it?

Judging by the amount of money that has poured into a national advertising and PR campaign that seems unprecedented for a documentary film not made by Michael Moore, somebody surely is trying hard to buy this year's documentary Oscar for W4S. It may not be Mr. Bill, but it isn't difficult to guess who's probably behind the big push: the same folks who are pouring millions into charter schools to privatize American public education.

Anything for the children. Isn't that right, Bill?

Khem Irby, Brooklyn parent leader, at the Deny Waiver rally

I stand here today in the spirit of my female ancestors, such as Harriet Tubman, the mother of the Underground Railroad, Sojourner Truth, the mother of women’s rights, and Phoebe Hearst, the mother of the National Congress of Mothers, representing the Mothers’ Agenda of NY.

Most mothers are their child’s first instructor. We are very careful about who has our children’s ear. We are very careful about who is influencing our children and the direction that they are going. The Chancellor must be an accomplished and the lead instructor for New York City. The waiver as given was an abuse of power.

Unfortunately, the focus has only been around the $23 billion dollar budget that is attached to our children. Ms. Black can only be accountable for the money and not the children.

As a parent, I am requesting that Ms. Black, show the taxpayers the $23 billion. Show the parents of New York City how it will be redirected into their child’s classroom. Show us how you’re going to make the state and city comply with the Campaign for Fiscal Equity court victory, to give our children their fair share to reduce class size.

Show the parents how you will bring equity to each and every school in the city, not just charter schools. Show us how you’re going to support our teachers and our administrators. Show us how you’re going to encourage the hedge funders to reinvest in our neighborhood schools. Show us how you’re going to eliminate no-bid contracts and put a cap on vendor services. Show the parents and teachers of New York City the money. Is she willing to work with the City Comptroller’s office?

The appointment of Cathie Black by Commissioner Steiner poses the question, who will be accountable and is it okay to break the law? In the case of the future of 1.1 million children, there is no more time to guess and experiment. The needs of the many children outweigh the qualifications of Cathie Black.

I say, Commissioner Steiner, you are now accountable. The Mothers’ Agenda of NY will be looking to you, as you have given the children of NYC to Cathie Black. Will this mean a boarding school type education reform will come to our schools? Will this mean two teachers in every classroom? What kind of professional support will Commissioner Steiner offer Ms. Black as well?

Lastly, I call upon the state legislators to seriously participate in restoring community control and supporting true democracy. They have allowed the Mayor too much power.

Patrick Sullivan on the core principle of the Bloomberg administration

"I represent the borough of Manhattan on what the mayor calls the Panel for Educational Policy but what is in the law the Board of Education of the City of New York. I see here today parents and their elected leaders and I see teachers from every borough. I see them from every race and I see them from every income level and from every political party. Why is that?

Because I've learned from talking to people is that every parent wants to the same thing for their kids: they want a rich curriculum, they want an experienced teacher, they want small classes, and they want room for their kids in their schools.

But what have I learned from sitting on the Board of Educaiton for three years? I've learned that instead of schools, we're going to build a billion dollar police academy. Instead of a rich curriculum, we get test prep and drilling in math and ELA. Instead of small classes, we get our kids packed 28, 30, 35, 40 in a class and that's wrong.

"But the worst of all this is the people who control our schools, the people who run our schools, the Mayor, the Chancellor, the Regents, they don't send their own kids to these schools. They have one idea of education for our kids and and an entirely different one for their own.

Beyond autonomy, beyond accountability, beyond privatization, the core principle of the Bloomberg administration when it comes to education is condescension: the idea that there's one idea of education for their children and a totally different idea of education for everybody else's, and that's what has to stop."

NY1 on the Deny the Waiver coalition rally

Check out the great statement by Patrick Sullivan, Manhattan member from the Panel for Educational Policy. Other newsclips at Gotham Schools, DNA Info, and Gotham Gazette. See photos here.

Where in the World is Chancellor Black?

The news blackout on our new chancellor continues into its third week. Education beat reporters are starting to get testy as they chased rumors of Cathie Black appearances around town. Here's Beth Fertig's non-coverage from WNYC:

Outgoing Schools Chancellor Joel Klein allowed reporters to follow him on visits to schools when he first took office in 2002. His schedule was also routinely released by the Department of Education.

But the department has been unusually secretive about Black's schedule. She has not granted any interviews to the media since Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced her appointment on November 9th. She answered a few questions at a press conference that day and then made a brief comment to New York Post columnist Cindy Adams about how her appointment came out of left field.

NY1 reporter Lindsey Christ reported on press attempts to force Chancellor Black's activities into the open:

On Wednesday, education reporters at several city news organizations, including NY1, asked Black to make her schedule public in a letter which reads:

"Our position is that Ms. Black's school visits are a matter of public record. We believe that having honest conversations with parents and teachers, and publicly sharing where the new chancellor is visiting or who she is speaking with before those conversations take place, are not mutually exclusive."

Even the Times piled on, with a mock contest to guess Black's location. They also ran this ridiculous explanation from the DOE press office:

“Part of being chancellor is visiting schools and talking with principals, teachers and parents openly and candidly about what is happening in their school community,” Ms. Ravitz said. “Having TV cameras and reporters over your shoulder is often not conducive to such an open exchange.”

Sure, as if an open conversation with a Deputy Mayor and half the press office listening in was even remotely possible.

(Chancellor Carmen Sandiego photo montage by David Bellel)

Too Good to Be True? WWCBD*?

“If it looks to good to be true, it’s probably not.”

It’s an adage as old as the hills, but it’s also an excellent reminder to stay skeptical (think Bernie Madoff, for one), and a signal that questions should perhaps be asked or audits conducted.

Which brings us to the latest “too good to be true story” story in NYC public schools and the system’s deeply flawed Progress Report system: the Theater Arts Production Company school in the Bronx. A combined middle school and high school, TAPCo as it is known was this year’s big winner in the high school report card category with an A grade and the city’s highest ranking score of 106.3 points. Last year, TAPCo received an A as well, but its 85.8-point score put it in the 89th percentile of NYC public high schools, or somewhere around 50th – 60th place in the rankings. Its one-year leapfrogging to #1 in the DOE’s measurement of “progress,” is noteworthy, although a bit short of miraculous. Nevertheless, the result was sufficiently notable to merit a "Cinderella story" on Huffington Post.

A look at the school’s NYS 2008/09 report cards is interesting: 64% and 61% pass rates in Math A and Integrated Algebra, respectively, but 2% and 0% above an 85. The school had 97 Math A test takers in 2006/07, but only 32 Math B takers last year, with a 19% pass rate and 0% scoring over 85. Pretty much average pass rates in Global and U.S. History (61% and 79%); same for Earth Science and Living Environment (54% and 64%, respectively); one student taking a Physics exam (only the third in school history) and only one a Chemistry exam (apparently the first ever in school history). Attendance rate at a respectable but hardly stellar 90%, and a latest teacher turnover rate (from 2007/08 into last year) of 44%.

So why take note of TAPCo, aside from its semi-meteoric rise to #1 DOE Progress Report school in NYC? Because of a remarkable, seemingly insider’s comment posted by “Bronx Teacher” on the JD2718 education blog last Saturday (11/27/10) that reads as follows:

I find it interesting that TAPCo was discussed on this forum. Somehow, the Theatre Arts Production Co. School was rated the number 1 school in the NYC-DOE report cards this past month. When the principal announced it, students fell over laughing. The reality is that Principal Passarella knows how to cook the books and play the system. I’m sure she’s not the only one doing it, she’s just the best at it. The report card grades various stages of academic progress … such as the number of credits each grade student has obtained.

This is interesting because TAPCo has an almost 100% graduation rate … funny, cause students who dropped out even graduated. Let’s see how this works:

- teachers are not allowed to fail students. No F’s or 55's on report cards. Any 55 is changed to an NC (No Credit). Teachers are to give students EVERY opportunity to remove the NC … such as copying work from friends, cheating, lying, etc.
- teachers who do not comply and continue to fail students are terminated and removed from the school … even if it’s mid semester. Administration will just change the failing grades to passing ones.
- therefore, TAPCO does not have any failing students and thus, every student is on track for graduation.
- students are also given bogus credits for classes they never took … such as Phys Ed and Foreign Language.
- most TAPCo students “earn” up to 14-16 credits a year, far above the 11 required for graduation. They are given full credit for taking an Arts class once a week, a Theatre class once a week, Phys Ed classes which don’t exist, Foreign Language class once a week with a “phantom” teacher who is out on disability.
- Regents passing grades are a joke as well … especially in ELA and US/World History. The rubrics are vague, and the grading teachers give out 4's and 5's like candy. A cursory review of the essays indicate that most of these students can barely string together a legitimate sentence. Meanwhile, teachers are giving them 5's.
- the latest insult to teachers is the development of the Inquiry Team … or more-so, the Inquisition Team. This is a group of the principal’s favorites who use their position on the team to intimidate other teachers. They are led by an angry, bitter little woman named Mrs. Acosta. Acosta does not teach any classes, but goes around criticizing people’s classrooms. Her fake smile is very transparent. She has used her “power” against teachers who have spoken up against her or disagree with her. Her role is to report back to the principal any dissension among the teachers.
- it’s interesting how the number 1 school in the City has a teacher turnover rate of about 45%. Don’t be surprised if that number is exceeded next year. But it’s ok … Principal Passarella knows there are plenty of teachers out there who will do anything and everything for a job.

It’s tempting to say “Wow!,” but this only seems to confirm what the many critics of Joel Klein’s data-driven educational administration have beens saying all along. Not surprising that the school boasts a 93.5% graduation rate on their 2010 Progress Report; it’s only surprising that it’s not 100%, or perhaps 108%!

Ms. Black, you are inheriting a deeply flawed accountability system whose #1 proponent is your #2 man. What are you going to do with regard to this type of alleged data falsification? Will you investigate? If these allegations are true, what will you do to give these students an honest education, not one so cruelly inflated and meaningless? And what will you do to redirect your organization’s attention to real public education instead of meaningless measurements from systems so easily and so often gamed, systems that benefit only adults while leaving a ragged trail of undereducated teenagers in their wake?

NOTE: I picked up this thread from Norm Scott’s Education Notes online, who had reposted the JD2718 comment from Bronx Teacher. Many thanks to Norm for helping bring this to light.

* WWCBD = What Would Cathie Black Do?

....Deny Waiver coalition announces Thursday as day of outrage

Cathie Black meets a real life public school parent and gets an earful....

Educators go and apply for Cathie Black's old job

Cathie Goes to School

November 30, 2010 (GBN News): NY City Chancellor-designate Cathie Black experienced her first ever visit to a public school today. Breaking a weeks-long silence, she pronounced the visit to PS109 in the Bronx “exciting” as she entered the building. “I’ve passed by public schools so often,” she told reporters. “I can’t believe I’m actually going inside one.”

Upon emerging from the school ten minutes later, Ms. Black immediately demonstrated the acute business acumen for which Mayor Michael Bloomberg appointed her. “What an inefficient use of space!” she exclaimed. “Why, you can squeeze a awful lot more kids in there and make teaching them much more cost effective.”

The Chancellor-to-be belied her detractors’ concerns that she would be insensitive to the needs of parents. “The parents I met all told me they want smaller class size,” she said. “Well, I saw a lot of places in there that are much smaller than the classes they’re using; closets, boiler rooms, even bathrooms. I guess it takes a business person to figure out that we can give their parents what they want by putting the kids in those rooms, while saving the big classrooms for Eva, like Mike said for me to do to.”

Ms. Black even garnered some teaching experience during her short visit. After she successfully read “My Pet Goat” to a first grade class, Mayor Bloomberg declared that her newfound classroom experience now “totally qualifies” her for the Chancellorship, even without the waiver granted earlier by the State Education Commissioner.

A tale of two cities; Cathie Black, are you ready for some real live public school parents?

"I feel fantastic," said Black in the Upper East Side. "I just went to a couple of parties and people said, "How wonderful. Thank you for doing this for the city.' And I feel great."


Wonder how many of these partygoers in her social set send their own kids to NYC public schools?

Meanwhile, public school parents throughout the city continue to be outraged. See today's Times blog, where parent Nicole Bush asks her about privatization and overcrowding at this morning's photo op in the Bronx. Of course, Black has no response. This is what's called learning on the job.

Join us on Thursday to protest the waiver!

Yesterday, Commissioner Steiner approved a waiver for Cathie Black, a magazine executive, to become our next Chancellor, despite a total lack of educational qualifications.

For more on the approval, including the fact that the mayor has consistently overstepped the law when it comes to our schools, see today’s Times. What can we do?

• Join the new Deny Waiver Facebook page, and keep up with the latest news and developments.
  

• Join with parents across the city in the Deny Waiver Coalition on the steps of Tweed this Thursday, December 2, at 4 PM, and wear red to show your outrage. Here's a flyer. Post this event on your Facebook page and invite your friends and colleagues.

We’ve had eight long years with our schools run by a non-educator. Class sizes have risen sharply, our children have lost art, music and science, test prep has replaced learning, and the results? Black and Hispanic students have fallen even further behind their peers in other large cities, and we are the only city in the country where non-poor students actually score worse on the national tests than in 2003.

It’s time to start fighting back. Join on Thursday, and spread the word! Above is a flyer you can post and hand out at your schools.

By Trashing NYS Law, Steiner Plan Will Open the Floodgates for “Management Executive” School Superintendents

State Education Commissioner David Steiner’s plan to grant an education qualifications waiver to Cathleen Black as NYC Schools Chancellor will, if effectuated, render moot the current NYS law mandating those requirements. The precedent he will be setting and the message he will be sending to school districts throughout NYS and across the country would be both revolutionary and crystal clear: the door is open for school districts and school boards to follow the corporate executive management model and hire anyone they wish to run their schools.

NYS Education Law Title 4, Article 61, Section 3003, Subdivision 1, could not clearer on the required qualifications for a school superintendent in any district with population greater than 4,500 residents:

Qualifications of superintendents. 1. No person except one in possession of a valid superintendent's certificate prior to July first, nineteen hundred seventy-one shall hereafter be eligible to the position of superintendent of schools, deputy superintendent of schools, associate superintendent of schools, assistant superintendent of schools or other superintendent of schools or member of a board of examiners in a city school district or as a superintendent of schools in a union free or central school district having a population of more than forty-five hundred, or eligible to appointment to the office of district superintendent of schools in this state, who is not eligible for a superintendent's certificate issued by the commissioner in accordance with the following requirements:

a. He shall be a graduate of a college or university approved by the commissioner and in addition shall have completed sixty semester hours in graduate courses approved by the commissioner; and

b. At the time of his appointment each shall have completed three years of teaching experience satisfactory to the commissioner in public or non-public schools.

Mr. Steiner is now proposing to circumvent this law and grant a waiver (NYS Education Law 3003, Subdivision 3) to Cathie Black on the grounds that she will be given a strong number two person with education background and experience. In this instance, the #2 would be Shael Polakow-Suransky, already a deputy chancellor in the NYCDOE and already on the DOE management team, already available as an adviser to the under-qualified new chancellor. Mr. Polakow-Suransky’s appointment as an assistant chancellor is being mocked as a “fig leaf” by NYC public school parents, a transparent effort to shore up Mayor Bloomberg’s weak waiver request, assuage his hurt feelings, and avoid the possibility of his wreaking wrath-filled revenge on Albany. Even Merryl Tisch, chancellor of the NYS Board of Regents could not seem to avoid inadvertently speaking the real truth at the heart of the matter, saying that, “The issue for us is, ‘Can we create credibility around this position?’” In other words, can we sell it.

Tamping down a mayoral hissy-fit may have seemed wise from Commissioner Steiner’s perspective, but in doing so he may well be inflicting untold damage on education nationwide. His plan will render the current law on school superintendent qualifications meaningless. Any school district in NYS could follow suit, choosing a “corporate management, non-educator executive” of their liking and seconding that individual with an educator along the lines of Mr. Polakow-Suransky. Once the waiver has been granted on those grounds to Ms. Black, how can the State Commissioner refuse to grant a similar, future waiver to any other district in NYS? The precedent has been established, and there would be no grounds for refusal as long as the two individuals combined to form a comparable “partnership candidacy” to Ms. Black’s and Mr. Polakow-Suransky’s.

It is hard not to take note of the fact that, at the height of the Cathie Black controversy, Mayor Bloomberg remarked that the state law on qualifications for school superintendents should be abolished. This was typical of the Mayor, who invariably lashes out with imperious and dismissive comments whenever he fails to get his way. Sadly, Mr. Steiner’s plan not only concedes on the Cathie Black waiver, it effectively gives the Mayor the very abolition of the law he so belittled.

Repeatedly (and foolishly) hailed as a national model of education reform by an easily duped media, NYC’s public school system will now serve as both precedent and model for leadership of the nation’s urban school districts. Commissioner Steiner’s decision will have single-handedly opened the floodgates for the au courant “business model” of schools management, to be led not be educators but by “management executives.”

Commissioner Steiner’s refusal to stand up to a billionaire mayor serves as a powerful object lesson for NYC’s children about money and power in our modern democracy; actions always speak louder than words. Even worse, in what can only be seen as a tragic irony, Mr. Steiner’s “compromise” will have reversed fifty or more years of educational practice and returned education to the long-discredited factory model, in which the nation’s children are seen as little more than look-alike widgets.

Parents are not giving up: no to the waiver!

For more on today's press conference, see NY1, NY1 noticias, the Brooklyn Eagle, photos on Flickr, and the website, denywaiver.com

The Not-Quite-Good-Enough-Chancellor and her Sidekick?

Bowing to the painfully obvious, even the stacked panel assembled by Commissioner Steiner voted to deny Cathie Black the waiver she needs to overcome her utter lack of qualifications to be NYC's schools chancellor. But our very clever Commissioner had something up his sleeve: he gave the panel a third choice besides "yes" or "no": a co-chancellorship of sorts with someone who actually knows something about education. Bloomberg promptly submitted a revised waiver application, adding man with education credentials Shael Polakow-Suransky to help out the corporate exec formerly billed as the only person who could do the tough job of NYC schools chancellor.

What good can come of this scenario?

Looking through the very long list of things Suransky will be responsible for, one can’t help but ask: will there be anything left for Cathie Black to do besides wielding the budget ax? That certainly entails “difficult decisions” (as Bloomberg never tires of reminding us), but it’s hardly worth the highest salary in the city. Ms. Black should have the decency to cut her salary to $1/year, which she can certainly afford and will go a ways towards plugging that gaping “public interest” hole in her résumé (at the press conference announcing her appointment, Bloomberg actually talked about her husband’s public service, LOL).

And why is this new position--formally, Senior Deputy and Chief Academic Officer-- necessary? At the press conference, Bloomberg dismissed all questions about Black’s lack of credentials or prior interest in education by claiming she would rely on the formidable cadre of education experts put together by Klein, especially the deputy chancellors. Suransky is already a Deputy Chancellor and Chief Accountability Officer--why does he need a different title if Black was going to rely on him and the rest of her team (including presumably former Klein heir-apparent Eric Nadelstern) for all things education anyway? It's also worth noting that the very qualities that make a good CEO don’t make a good team player (that’s quite different from getting subordinates to work as a team); many companies have tried the dual-CEO route, often after a merger--–it doesn’t work. The Economist recently summed it up this way ("The Trouble with Tandems"):

Almost all these relationships have ultimately come unstuck. That should hardly come as a surprise because joint stewardships are all too often a recipe for chaos. Rather than allowing companies to get the best from both bosses, they trigger damaging internal power struggles as each jockeys for the upper hand. Having two people in charge can also make it tougher for boards to hold either to account. At the very least, firms end up footing the bill for two chief-executive-sized pay packets.

Why should we believe DOE is any different? Especially since the very logic of naming Cathie Black to lead it is that education should be run like a business?

The Powers That Be: A Lesson for the Children of NYC

I drafted this a week ago and had hoped I'd never have to post it; unfortunately, reality got the better of hope and David Steiner caved cravenly to a billionaire and his power. A nice set-up, though for my little fable, as follows:

The Powers That Be decided they wanted more terms in office despite the people's previous votes in favor of term limits, and they took what they wanted and laughed and said, "So what are you going to do about it?"

The Powers That Be created a separate oversight board to give an appearance of independent oversight and review and then filled almost entirely with their own never-dissenting members, and they laughed and said, “So what are you going to do about it?”

The Powers That Be said education wasn’t real unless it could be tested and measured, and they laughed and said, “So what are you going to do about it?”

The Powers That Be decided that teachers were the problem with education and that the answer was privatization and union-busting, and they laughed and said, “So what are you going to do about it?”

The Powers That Be organized and reorganized and re-reorganized the school system into total chaos, all the while distancing themselves further and further from the unwanted voices of public school parents, and they laughed and said, “So what are you going to do about it?”

The Powers That Be closed schools and moved children around like warehoused inventory and pitted parents and neighbors against one another, all on behalf of charter schools, and they laughed and said, “So what are you going to do about it?”

The Powers That Be created a data collection system that they only controlled and added to it a massive public relations staff so that all education data could be manipulated and selectively reported and spun to hide their lack of positive educational results, and they laughed and said, “So what are you going to do about it?”

The Powers That Be decided they could still tap the “education marketplace” for more money and formed an alliance with the most hateful publisher/broadcaster in America, and they laughed and said, “So what are you going to do about it?”

The Powers That Be went behind closed doors and selected one of the least qualified members of their club to run the school system, and they laughed and said, “So what are you going to do about it?”

The Powers That Be saw that a few individuals wanted to open the selection process for public input and comment and they got their batteries of lawyers to validate each other’s actions and quickly squashed that effort, and they laughed and said, “So what are you going to do about it?”

The Powers That Be saw that a tiny sliver of the public was roused from its sleep, so they circled their wagons in support of their chosen candidate and went on television and got their celebrities to be quoted in the newspapers and said you don’t really need to know anything about education to run a school system, and they laughed and said, “So what are you going to do about it?”

The Powers That Be formed a commission among their past membership to create the appearance of an independent decision about the future of over a million children and then went behind closed doors to find a compromise that would mollify the public outcry without otherwise changing a thing, and they laughed and said, “So what are you going to do about it?”

And the people of New York stirred briefly on their couches, tossed down a couple more potato chips, and thumbed their channel changers so they could watch “The Biggest Loser” without the slightest sense of irony, and they laughed and said, “What time does ‘Dancing with the Stars’ start?”

The Powers That Be got their wish, since they had controlled all the strings that mattered all along, and they knew that no matter how outrageously they abused their power, all would still be well with their world, and they laughed and said, “So what’s next? Not that the people will be able to do a damned thing about it.”