Comments on: The Closing of New York City Public Schools: A Case of “Persistently Failing DoE Management” http://www.edwize.org/the-closing-of-new-york-city-public-schools-a-case-of-persistently-failing-doe-management Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:46:25 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= By: Robin http://www.edwize.org/the-closing-of-new-york-city-public-schools-a-case-of-persistently-failing-doe-management/comment-page-1#comment-66732 Robin Tue, 15 Dec 2009 04:08:35 +0000 http://www.edwize.org/?p=5657#comment-66732 Thank you for writing this. It's amazing how this part of "our" story is not told. Thank you for writing this. It’s amazing how this part of “our” story is not told.

]]> By: Jack Israel http://www.edwize.org/the-closing-of-new-york-city-public-schools-a-case-of-persistently-failing-doe-management/comment-page-1#comment-66731 Jack Israel Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:04:18 +0000 http://www.edwize.org/?p=5657#comment-66731 Thank you Leo, well said and well researched! I will forward this to as many teachers as I can. Between what Christine R., Jon H., and Lynne W., and yourself have posted in the last couple of days, the fraud being perpetrated by the DoE is starting to circulate in earnest! Additionally, people fail to mention how traumatic it is for the students in "phase out" schools, never mind the teachers. Sadly I have first hand experience having lived through the slow death of Walton HS. It is all so appalling. It seem that the reward for teaching in a so called "hard to staff" school has been a yearly death watch as of late. Great post Leo! The statistics do not lie! Let's stop these guys NOW!!!! We (UFT) can’t stand by and allow these non-educators like Klein and his cabal to continue to mistreat teachers and students in this grisly manner! It would be criminal. Jack Israel AFT/UFT Delegate DWC H.S. Thank you Leo, well said and well researched! I will forward this to as many teachers as I can. Between what Christine R., Jon H., and Lynne W., and yourself have posted in the last couple of days, the fraud being perpetrated by the DoE is starting to circulate in earnest! Additionally, people fail to mention how traumatic it is for the students in “phase out” schools, never mind the teachers. Sadly I have first hand experience having lived through the slow death of Walton HS. It is all so appalling.

It seem that the reward for teaching in a so called “hard to staff” school has been a yearly death watch as of late. Great post Leo! The statistics do not lie! Let’s stop these guys NOW!!!! We (UFT) can’t stand by and allow these non-educators like Klein and his cabal to continue to mistreat teachers and students in this grisly manner! It would be criminal.

Jack Israel
AFT/UFT Delegate
DWC H.S.

]]> By: HM http://www.edwize.org/the-closing-of-new-york-city-public-schools-a-case-of-persistently-failing-doe-management/comment-page-1#comment-66730 HM Mon, 14 Dec 2009 21:54:42 +0000 http://www.edwize.org/?p=5657#comment-66730 What will we do about these issues?? Does the UFT have a role? Do we need journalists to expose the truth? What will we do about these issues?? Does the UFT have a role? Do we need journalists to expose the truth?

]]> By: Sandy Bear http://www.edwize.org/the-closing-of-new-york-city-public-schools-a-case-of-persistently-failing-doe-management/comment-page-1#comment-66729 Sandy Bear Mon, 14 Dec 2009 18:37:14 +0000 http://www.edwize.org/?p=5657#comment-66729 Where is the large media? The DOE has gerrymandered students into schools, and then judged the schools by the achievements of those students for a long time. DeWitt Clinton dumped hundreds of its more needy students into Taft and claimed success well over a decade ago. That's been going on in every boro. Set up the school for failure and then announce the failure as if it were a surprize and break it up. In a city of such proportions, why does each school have to be a cookie cutter? Why do little schools have to be to "answer"? For that matter, why do "big" schools? How about biting the bullet and telling parents that if their kids do well, they get to go to a big school with many choices of educational path and if they don't they get a more restrictive educational path-chosen by the professionals. How much is the DOE spending on administrators for all these little schools and what is the average experience of staff and administrators therein? Lets see the SAT scores, instead of watered down Regents (remember that NYS has AYP problems as well). OBTW Alfred Smith VTHS, despite a racially chosen and incompetant principal, had an award winning auto program which took kids from difficult surroundings and 4 years later placed them in prestigious manufacturer-sponsored dealer repair facilities. The principal is killing that program. The DOE knows and does nothing, except for throwing out the babies with the bath water. This is about union killing, NOT good education for needy kids. It's long overdue for the UFT to get going. Now lets see if the staff (none of whom have been on a strike because the last strike was in 1975) can protect itself, and the UFT can find the gumption to lead them on a action that will be very costly to all but will stop this educational insanity and protect students educational opportunity and staff jobs. Where is the large media?

The DOE has gerrymandered students into schools, and then judged the schools by the achievements of those students for a long time.

DeWitt Clinton dumped hundreds of its more needy students into Taft and claimed success well over a decade ago. That’s been going on in every boro. Set up the school for failure and then announce the failure as if it were a surprize and break it up.

In a city of such proportions, why does each school have to be a cookie cutter? Why do little schools have to be to “answer”? For that matter, why do “big” schools? How about biting the bullet and telling parents that if their kids do well, they get to go to a big school with many choices of educational path and if they don’t they get a more restrictive educational path-chosen by the professionals.

How much is the DOE spending on administrators for all these little schools and what is the average experience of staff and administrators therein?

Lets see the SAT scores, instead of watered down Regents (remember that NYS has AYP problems as well).

OBTW Alfred Smith VTHS, despite a racially chosen and incompetant principal, had an award winning auto program which took kids from difficult surroundings and 4 years later placed them in prestigious manufacturer-sponsored dealer repair facilities. The principal is killing that program. The DOE knows and does nothing, except for throwing out the babies with the bath water.

This is about union killing, NOT good education for needy kids. It’s long overdue for the UFT to get going. Now lets see if the staff (none of whom have been on a strike because the last strike was in 1975) can protect itself, and the UFT can find the gumption to lead them on a action that will be very costly to all but will stop this educational insanity and protect students educational opportunity and staff jobs.

]]> By: Philip Romero http://www.edwize.org/the-closing-of-new-york-city-public-schools-a-case-of-persistently-failing-doe-management/comment-page-1#comment-66727 Philip Romero Mon, 14 Dec 2009 05:19:30 +0000 http://www.edwize.org/?p=5657#comment-66727 Thank you Leo. As a teacher at Christopher Columbus, I really appreciate your sticking up for us. We will not go down without a fight! Thank you Leo. As a teacher at Christopher Columbus, I really appreciate your sticking up for us. We will not go down without a fight!

]]> By: Karen Sherwood http://www.edwize.org/the-closing-of-new-york-city-public-schools-a-case-of-persistently-failing-doe-management/comment-page-1#comment-66726 Karen Sherwood Mon, 14 Dec 2009 05:08:25 +0000 http://www.edwize.org/?p=5657#comment-66726 I have been teaching for over 31 years ( the last 16 in Columbus H.S.) and I've seen many educational fads come and go. Some were helpful, some were counterproductive, and others were useless and silly. Consider how, for several years, the DOE sent around directives telling teachers how to seat students. We were given diagrams of circles, U-shapes, even a collection of little "cocktail tables" seating two to four students and were told that students should not be sitting in straight rows facing the front. While we were trying to rearrange 34 seats each time we went into a classroom (much like the deckchairs on the Titanic), we also had to incorporate a new DOE instructional format: the "Point of Entry" model. The philosophy was that teachers should no longer be the experts and leaders in their classes. Don't be the "sage on the stage" we were told; be the "guide on the side." So, teachers were being forced to limit direct instruction to 10-minute "mini-lessons" and to then have the students teach each other difficult concepts in literary analysis, algebra, and American history. When teachers found that this format was ineffective and that few of our students were learning the information that they needed, we were told that we had to continue; it was DOE policy. It seemed to us that the form of the class had become more important than the actual content of the lessons, but we were only teachers; "experts" and researchers had shown that students learn best from each other, so that's what we had to do. The DOE has led us on a merry chase; rearrange your seats; rearrange your lessons; modify the requirements and your instruction to meet each student's (150 of them) individual needs; give students alternate projects to raise their grades; accept late work (even a month after it is due), maintain high expectations and high standards...but remember, if students fail to meet those standards, then you will be a failing school and the DOE will close you down. None of it makes sense to me, and it will not make any sense to the students who will be displaced and abandoned if Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein go through with their plan to close down Christopher Columbus H.S. I have been teaching for over 31 years ( the last 16 in Columbus H.S.) and I’ve seen many educational fads come and go. Some were helpful, some were counterproductive, and others were useless and silly. Consider how, for several years, the DOE sent around directives telling teachers how to seat students. We were given diagrams of circles, U-shapes, even a collection of little “cocktail tables” seating two to four students and were told that students should not be sitting in straight rows facing the front. While we were trying to rearrange 34 seats each time we went into a classroom (much like the deckchairs on the Titanic), we also had to incorporate a new DOE instructional format: the “Point of Entry” model. The philosophy was that teachers should no longer be the experts and leaders in their classes. Don’t be the “sage on the stage” we were told; be the “guide on the side.” So, teachers were being forced to limit direct instruction to 10-minute “mini-lessons” and to then have the students teach each other difficult concepts in literary analysis, algebra, and American history. When teachers found that this format was ineffective and that few of our students were learning the information that they needed, we were told that we had to continue; it was DOE policy. It seemed to us that the form of the class had become more important than the actual content of the lessons, but we were only teachers; “experts” and researchers had shown that students learn best from each other, so that’s what we had to do. The DOE has led us on a merry chase; rearrange your seats; rearrange your lessons; modify the requirements and your instruction to meet each student’s (150 of them) individual needs; give students alternate projects to raise their grades; accept late work (even a month after it is due), maintain high expectations and high standards…but remember, if students fail to meet those standards, then you will be a failing school and the DOE will close you down. None of it makes sense to me, and it will not make any sense to the students who will be displaced and abandoned if Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein go through with their plan to close down Christopher Columbus H.S.

]]> By: Christine Rowland http://www.edwize.org/the-closing-of-new-york-city-public-schools-a-case-of-persistently-failing-doe-management/comment-page-1#comment-66723 Christine Rowland Mon, 14 Dec 2009 01:01:01 +0000 http://www.edwize.org/?p=5657#comment-66723 Thanks for this astute analysis Leo. They are planning to put in place of Columbus a 'high performing' school from District 10 that needs more space. It takes a profoundly dissimilar population and even more ironically they are coming from a different geographic area when one of the criticisms they've leveled at us is that not enough of our students are zoned for Columbus. The students who would have come to Columbus will have to travel farther to the nearest large high school. But only if we lose our fight to stay open - which we have no intention of doing! Thanks for this astute analysis Leo. They are planning to put in place of Columbus a ‘high performing’ school from District 10 that needs more space. It takes a profoundly dissimilar population and even more ironically they are coming from a different geographic area when one of the criticisms they’ve leveled at us is that not enough of our students are zoned for Columbus. The students who would have come to Columbus will have to travel farther to the nearest large high school. But only if we lose our fight to stay open – which we have no intention of doing!

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