Comments on: Grasping the Edu-Obvious: The Meaning of the Moskowitz Defeat – Updated http://www.edwize.org/grasping-the-edu-obvious-the-meaning-of-the-moskowitz-defeat Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:46:25 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= By: Edwize » EDUWONK: “Don’t Mess With My Mythsâ€? http://www.edwize.org/grasping-the-edu-obvious-the-meaning-of-the-moskowitz-defeat/comment-page-1#comment-496 Edwize » EDUWONK: “Don’t Mess With My Mythsâ€? Fri, 16 Sep 2005 22:12:29 +0000 http://edwize.org/?p=76#comment-496 [...] Filed under: General — Leo Casey @ 6:12 pm Stung by our criticism of Eva Moskowitz and of his earlier post on the subject of her defeat in the race for Manhattan Borough President, Eduwonk has begun a small campaign here and here for her canonization as a political saint. Martyred for her noble work in education reform by the New York electorate and the UFT, Eduwonk’s Moskowitz engaged in untold numbers of self-sacrificing acts on behalf of schools, teachers and students. And if you doubt it, there are references, by various unnamed and unidentified sources, on the pureness of her heart and the miraculous effects of her works.   We don’t begrudge anyone his political myths, not even someone from Washington’s inside-the-beltway pundit crowd like Eduwonk. And we do understand that Eduwonk has invested much time and effort in developing this particular myth, as these old songs of praise demonstrate [see here and here], so we feel his pain. But as New Yorkers who have dealt with the day-to-day reality of Moskowitz’s political grandstanding and non-stop photo opportunity the last eight years, you will have to excuse us if we don’t join in an amen chorus to Eduwonk’s campaign.   Like most myth-makers, Eduwonk is long on glittering generalities and short on nitty-gritty specifics and details. He likes to talk about how courageous Moskowitz was in exposing the problems in the contract, but avoids discussion of the particulars of her hearings and her materials on the contract, because that would mean confronting the basic errors and egregious misrepresentations in them. Anxious to make the headlines with images of lazy, feather-bedding teachers, Moskowitz announced that the contract had New York City public school teachers working only 3.75 hours a day – a claim which completely ignored the school day of the majority of NYC teachers, who are in the elementary grades, and which counted as work-time for secondary school teachers only the precise number of minutes they were engaged in direct, whole class instruction. It was as if one measured the work week of a minister by the hour long services over which he presides every Sunday, or the work of a newscaster by the twenty something minutes he reads the news on the set each night. Given the exhausting and grueling days that New York City teachers work, the essential work of teaching that goes on outside of the classroom, and the extraordinary amount of that work teachers take home to do in the evenings and over the weekend, there could not have been a more insulting and more telling moment in that entire sorry episode. And yes, my friend Eduwonk, that is “teacher bashing.”   Or take what is Eduwonk’s favorite Moskowitz soundbite – the claim that it is the ‘seniority transfer’ clause in the UFT contract which lies behind the shortage of experienced, properly licensed teachers in low-performing, high poverty schools. Eduwonk repeats it at regular intervals without the slightest elaboration or the most minimal attempt to engage the evidence on the subject, until the reader begins to feel like he is watching Allen Ginsburg chant ‘ohm, ohm, ohm…’ at a 1960s’ love-in. No matter that half of the schools in New York City are not even participants in the ‘seniority transfer’ plan, but use a different school-based system; no matter that a grand total of 47 teachers in a system with over 70,000 [approximately .06% of the total teaching force] went from a low-performing to a high-performing school last year; no matter that the critical situation in the low-performing schools and in New York City involves the turnover of new teachers [with 1 in every 2 leaving the DOE by the fifth year, and much higher numbers in low-performing schools], and not transfers: the problem is ‘seniority.’ Nor does it apparently mean anything that the UFT has been attempting to engage the DOE in meaningful negotiations on how to create a system of incentives which would attract significant numbers of experienced and accomplished teachers to low-performing schools, without the slightest response. Don’t look for Eduwonk to engage this analysis; that might disrupt the soundbite. It is must be the UFT contract that is to blame.   So there you have it: Levi-Strauss meets Eduwonk. But raw or cooked, Eduwonk, we’re not buying any of it. We were there, and we know the ‘real deal.’   [...] [...] Filed under: General — Leo Casey @ 6:12 pm Stung by our criticism of Eva Moskowitz and of his earlier post on the subject of her defeat in the race for Manhattan Borough President, Eduwonk has begun a small campaign here and here for her canonization as a political saint. Martyred for her noble work in education reform by the New York electorate and the UFT, Eduwonk’s Moskowitz engaged in untold numbers of self-sacrificing acts on behalf of schools, teachers and students. And if you doubt it, there are references, by various unnamed and unidentified sources, on the pureness of her heart and the miraculous effects of her works.   We don’t begrudge anyone his political myths, not even someone from Washington’s inside-the-beltway pundit crowd like Eduwonk. And we do understand that Eduwonk has invested much time and effort in developing this particular myth, as these old songs of praise demonstrate [see here and here], so we feel his pain. But as New Yorkers who have dealt with the day-to-day reality of Moskowitz’s political grandstanding and non-stop photo opportunity the last eight years, you will have to excuse us if we don’t join in an amen chorus to Eduwonk’s campaign.   Like most myth-makers, Eduwonk is long on glittering generalities and short on nitty-gritty specifics and details. He likes to talk about how courageous Moskowitz was in exposing the problems in the contract, but avoids discussion of the particulars of her hearings and her materials on the contract, because that would mean confronting the basic errors and egregious misrepresentations in them. Anxious to make the headlines with images of lazy, feather-bedding teachers, Moskowitz announced that the contract had New York City public school teachers working only 3.75 hours a day – a claim which completely ignored the school day of the majority of NYC teachers, who are in the elementary grades, and which counted as work-time for secondary school teachers only the precise number of minutes they were engaged in direct, whole class instruction. It was as if one measured the work week of a minister by the hour long services over which he presides every Sunday, or the work of a newscaster by the twenty something minutes he reads the news on the set each night. Given the exhausting and grueling days that New York City teachers work, the essential work of teaching that goes on outside of the classroom, and the extraordinary amount of that work teachers take home to do in the evenings and over the weekend, there could not have been a more insulting and more telling moment in that entire sorry episode. And yes, my friend Eduwonk, that is “teacher bashing.”   Or take what is Eduwonk’s favorite Moskowitz soundbite – the claim that it is the ‘seniority transfer’ clause in the UFT contract which lies behind the shortage of experienced, properly licensed teachers in low-performing, high poverty schools. Eduwonk repeats it at regular intervals without the slightest elaboration or the most minimal attempt to engage the evidence on the subject, until the reader begins to feel like he is watching Allen Ginsburg chant ‘ohm, ohm, ohm…’ at a 1960s’ love-in. No matter that half of the schools in New York City are not even participants in the ‘seniority transfer’ plan, but use a different school-based system; no matter that a grand total of 47 teachers in a system with over 70,000 [approximately .06% of the total teaching force] went from a low-performing to a high-performing school last year; no matter that the critical situation in the low-performing schools and in New York City involves the turnover of new teachers [with 1 in every 2 leaving the DOE by the fifth year, and much higher numbers in low-performing schools], and not transfers: the problem is ‘seniority.’ Nor does it apparently mean anything that the UFT has been attempting to engage the DOE in meaningful negotiations on how to create a system of incentives which would attract significant numbers of experienced and accomplished teachers to low-performing schools, without the slightest response. Don’t look for Eduwonk to engage this analysis; that might disrupt the soundbite. It is must be the UFT contract that is to blame.   So there you have it: Levi-Strauss meets Eduwonk. But raw or cooked, Eduwonk, we’re not buying any of it. We were there, and we know the ‘real deal.’   [...]

]]> By: Gotham Gazette - The Wonkster » Blog Archive » Teaching Moskowitz http://www.edwize.org/grasping-the-edu-obvious-the-meaning-of-the-moskowitz-defeat/comment-page-1#comment-468 Gotham Gazette - The Wonkster » Blog Archive » Teaching Moskowitz Fri, 16 Sep 2005 12:29:11 +0000 http://edwize.org/?p=76#comment-468 [...] Eva Moskowitz’s — and Scott Stringer’s victory — in the race for Manhattan borough president should be a lesson for New York politicians, writes Leo Casey in edwize, a teachers union blog. Casey reminds readers that teachers and other unions backed Stringer, while Moskowitz “decided that the way to advance her political fortunes was to engage in demagogic attacks on public school teachers.” She should have known better, he says: “New York voters do not reward politicians who think that there is pay dirt in launching broadsides against teachers and unions.” [...] [...] Eva Moskowitz’s — and Scott Stringer’s victory — in the race for Manhattan borough president should be a lesson for New York politicians, writes Leo Casey in edwize, a teachers union blog. Casey reminds readers that teachers and other unions backed Stringer, while Moskowitz “decided that the way to advance her political fortunes was to engage in demagogic attacks on public school teachers.” She should have known better, he says: “New York voters do not reward politicians who think that there is pay dirt in launching broadsides against teachers and unions.” [...]

]]> By: NYC Educator http://www.edwize.org/grasping-the-edu-obvious-the-meaning-of-the-moskowitz-defeat/comment-page-1#comment-426 NYC Educator Thu, 15 Sep 2005 20:23:30 +0000 http://edwize.org/?p=76#comment-426 I stand corrected. It's 2.5% more time. I still hate it, though. I stand corrected. It’s 2.5% more time.

I still hate it, though.

]]> By: NYC Educator http://www.edwize.org/grasping-the-edu-obvious-the-meaning-of-the-moskowitz-defeat/comment-page-1#comment-412 NYC Educator Thu, 15 Sep 2005 02:24:39 +0000 http://edwize.org/?p=76#comment-412 It is not an 11% raise. It's a 5% raise, accompanied by 6% more time, less whatever givebacks Bloomberg weasels out of us. If you go from working 10 to 11 hours a week at Burger King, you get a 10% increase. Time for money is not a raise. A raise in when you give people more money to cover the increased cost of living, like gasoline for example. A raise is what Bloomberg gave NY landlords recently, all of whom are apparently more direly in need than NYC teachers. It is not an 11% raise. It’s a 5% raise, accompanied by 6% more time, less whatever givebacks Bloomberg weasels out of us. If you go from working 10 to 11 hours a week at Burger King, you get a 10% increase.

Time for money is not a raise. A raise in when you give people more money to cover the increased cost of living, like gasoline for example.

A raise is what Bloomberg gave NY landlords recently, all of whom are apparently more direly in need than NYC teachers.

]]> By: Edwize Admin http://www.edwize.org/grasping-the-edu-obvious-the-meaning-of-the-moskowitz-defeat/comment-page-1#comment-404 Edwize Admin Thu, 15 Sep 2005 00:06:28 +0000 http://edwize.org/?p=76#comment-404 The fact finding report is <a href="http://www.uft.org/member/rights/fact_finding/" rel="nofollow">fully published on the UFT website</a>, and there is a link from the blog to the full report as well as a description of the report. The fact finding report is fully published on the UFT website, and there is a link from the blog to the full report as well as a description of the report.

]]> By: get_me_a_contract http://www.edwize.org/grasping-the-edu-obvious-the-meaning-of-the-moskowitz-defeat/comment-page-1#comment-401 get_me_a_contract Wed, 14 Sep 2005 23:48:39 +0000 http://edwize.org/?p=76#comment-401 Leo-- No, it's not...this is what is posted on the UFT website: (and might I add that I am noticing a disconnect between Randi and company with those of us in the classroom). How do I post to this blog? Is it only for UFT elites? I mean we can leave comments, but how does one go about posting? Also, I think that this is the proper forum for discussing and dissecting the fact finding report (or at least a link to it)....much more so than discussing Walmart. Anyway, this is what is on the UFT website: Sep 14, 2005 2:05 PM The report of the Independent Fact-Finding Panel was released yesterday and in her response to inquiries from the daily press, UFT President Randi Weingarten said: “The recommendations from the independent fact-finding panel have the potential to form a basis for a negotiated contract settlement. It is a document that has its pluses and minuses; it provides the reforms the chancellor wanted while giving educators, who have been without a contract for nearly 2½ years, an 11.4% raise over three years. “At the same time, the findings maintain the contract’s core values, including preservation of due process rights and a recognition that, if done properly, small group instruction and professional development would benefit students. “We will be reviewing this report with our delegates and chapter leaders over the next few days, and we would hope the mayor and chancellor will give it the same serious consideration.â€? The full Fact-Finding Report and a summary fact sheet will be posted here later today after the citywide chapter leader meeting this afternoo Leo–
No, it’s not…this is what is posted on the UFT website: (and might I add that I am noticing a disconnect between Randi and company with those of us in the classroom). How do I post to this blog? Is it only for UFT elites? I mean we can leave comments, but how does one go about posting? Also, I think that this is the proper forum for discussing and dissecting the fact finding report (or at least a link to it)….much more so than discussing Walmart. Anyway, this is what is on the UFT website:

Sep 14, 2005 2:05 PM

The report of the Independent Fact-Finding Panel was released yesterday and in her response to inquiries from the daily press, UFT President Randi Weingarten said:

“The recommendations from the independent fact-finding panel have the potential to form a basis for a negotiated contract settlement. It is a document that has its pluses and minuses; it provides the reforms the chancellor wanted while giving educators, who have been without a contract for nearly 2½ years, an 11.4% raise over three years.

“At the same time, the findings maintain the contract’s core values, including preservation of due process rights and a recognition that, if done properly, small group instruction and professional development would benefit students.

“We will be reviewing this report with our delegates and chapter leaders over the next few days, and we would hope the mayor and chancellor will give it the same serious consideration.�

The full Fact-Finding Report and a summary fact sheet will be posted here later today after the citywide chapter leader meeting this afternoo

]]> By: Leo Casey http://www.edwize.org/grasping-the-edu-obvious-the-meaning-of-the-moskowitz-defeat/comment-page-1#comment-396 Leo Casey Wed, 14 Sep 2005 21:22:53 +0000 http://edwize.org/?p=76#comment-396 The fact finding report is available through the UFT web site, www.uft.org, not the blog. The fact finding report is available through the UFT web site, http://www.uft.org, not the blog.

]]> By: institutional memory http://www.edwize.org/grasping-the-edu-obvious-the-meaning-of-the-moskowitz-defeat/comment-page-1#comment-395 institutional memory Wed, 14 Sep 2005 21:07:08 +0000 http://edwize.org/?p=76#comment-395 In my comment (above), I invented a new word ... "retify." The more clever among us knew that I meant to type "ratify." Unless you prefer "retify." What-AAA-ver. Maybe the man behind the curtain can type better than I can. In my comment (above), I invented a new word … “retify.” The more clever among us knew that I meant to type “ratify.” Unless you prefer “retify.” What-AAA-ver. Maybe the man behind the curtain can type better than I can.

]]> By: get_me_a_contract http://www.edwize.org/grasping-the-edu-obvious-the-meaning-of-the-moskowitz-defeat/comment-page-1#comment-394 get_me_a_contract Wed, 14 Sep 2005 20:35:36 +0000 http://edwize.org/?p=76#comment-394 I am starting to think that this blog is bogus. I am glad that Eva Moskowitz lost, but I would think that the top item in this blog would be about the PERB recommendations...and not just some passing reference. I am also annoyed that you link to dailykos.com That is a very left-wing blog and many members don't agree with what is said there. I think that the UFT blog should stick to matters at hand--education, our contract and our union and other issues... Global issues (and even Walmart) belong somewhere else. It's like the UFT wants to sidetrack what is really going on in the schools and what the teachers really feel.... I mean at least in my region, everything is about these dumb bulletin boards....everyone (including myself) wants to quit....morale is lower than I have ever seen it. I don't personaly wish harm to Eva Moskowitz....I just want to get a good contract and to have more say in the school I work in and have less micromanagement. I am starting to think that this blog is bogus. I am glad that Eva Moskowitz lost, but I would think that the top item in this blog would be about the PERB recommendations…and not just some passing reference.

I am also annoyed that you link to dailykos.com

That is a very left-wing blog and many members don’t agree with what is said there. I think that the UFT blog should stick to matters at hand–education, our contract and our union and other issues…

Global issues (and even Walmart) belong somewhere else.

It’s like the UFT wants to sidetrack what is really going on in the schools and what the teachers really feel….

I mean at least in my region, everything is about these dumb bulletin boards….everyone (including myself) wants to quit….morale is lower than I have ever seen it.

I don’t personaly wish harm to Eva Moskowitz….I just want to get a good contract and to have more say in the school I work in and have less micromanagement.

]]> By: NYC Educator http://www.edwize.org/grasping-the-edu-obvious-the-meaning-of-the-moskowitz-defeat/comment-page-1#comment-393 NYC Educator Wed, 14 Sep 2005 20:21:45 +0000 http://edwize.org/?p=76#comment-393 Oops..pardon me for my PERB question. I hadn't read the article to the end. Oops..pardon me for my PERB question. I hadn’t read the article to the end.

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