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Why the Budget Agreement Doesn't Suck Hi folks, it's me, your old pal "Punchy" Mike Mulgrew! Don't try and take my Common Core from me! I'll punch out your stinking face and push it in the dirt! But seriously, folks, let's talk turkey. First of all, don't believe anything you read on those blogs. I'll be nice, which is hard for me because I'm an ex-carpenter, a regular blue collar guy who can't help but walk around spouting obscenities for no reason. So I'll just say they're purveyors of myth, rather than call them a bunch of despicable liars.

Anyhoo, the new agreement does not suck. Cuomo wanted probation to take five years, and now it only takes four. And all due process rights remain in place, as long as you don't get rated ineffective twice in a row and need more than 90 days to prove your case, as long as you don't get rated ineffective three years in a row and need more than 30 days to prove your case, and as long as you aren't an ATR who needs more than one day. Sure tenure used to take three years, but you gotta admit four years sucks a full year less than five years. Score another victory for us!

Governor Cuomo demanded more charter schools, and whoopee! He didn't get them as part of the budget agreement! How much does that not suck? Instead, he'll negotiate it later! It would suck if they had done it now. Now, we will talk about it later and no one can say just how much it does or does not suck until then. So, in review, doesn't suck now. Another victory! Plus we've always supported charters, and we've even opened and co-located one, and the part of it that didn't suck is still open. Another feather in our cap.

As for placing schools into receivership, the Governor won't do that. Instead, local chancellors will choose receivers. How bad could it be if the city took over closing schools, or had someone take them over? That's much better than Cuomo doing it, and it sucks way less. Of course it's never happened and we have no idea what it will be like when it does, but it is our considered opinion that it will suck less. After all, what's a few thousand ATRs between friends, and who even knows if that will happen? Clearly the amount of suck cannot be quantified here, so, no suck, no foul.

As for merit pay, Cuomo wanted 20K in merit pay. But that won't happen. In NYC, we have master and model teachers, and the rat squad which goes out and determines whether the burden of proof to fire you is on the DOE or you, but that's not merit pay, just like our last failed schoolwide program wasn't merit pay either. And since merit pay sucks, that isn't merit pay, and Cuomo didn't give us merit pay, this also doesn't suck.

As for funding, Cuomo wanted to give 1.1 billion in increases if we sucked up his sucky programs, which would suck. We went out and demanded that Cuomo pay us the 5.6 billion he owed us from the CFE lawsuit, and even paid valuable lip service to the notion of taking him to court over it. But we got 1.6 billion in aid, which sucks a lot less than 1.1 billion and a bunch of sucky programs. Sure the bloggers will ask why we didn't go for the 5.6 billion, but screw them because they're a bunch of lying bastards and we will never, ever allow them to influence us in our mission to accomplish things that don't suck as much as they could otherwise.

As for evaluation, we have of late been suggesting that the 1-100 measure, the one we had Leo Casey defend passionately on Edwize, sucks, and that we're looking for something new. Of course we don't want 50% of your rating to be based on test scores, because that would suck. Instead we will have multiple measures, which we already have, which suck way less than the 50% Governor Cuomo wants. What will they be? Who knows? And sure you might get observed by strangers from the state, but who can judge your skills better than someone who doesn't know you from a hole in the wall? That doesn't suck, does it?

Like Governor Cuomo, we loved the current law when it came out, but when people started to suggest that it sucked, we listened, and dumped NYSUT President Richard Iannuzzi, contending that he sucked for passing the law in the first place. And believe you me, if there are any further problems, we will step up and declare Karen Magee sucks and dump her too. We are not afraid to dispense blame for things that suck. Just bear in mind that nothing is ever our fault, and that every change is a victory in that it could have sucked even more without our valuable input.

So thank you for everything you've done. In retrospect, it sucked that we scheduled the rally for March 28th coinciding with the budget agreement. Perhaps it would have been smarter to do it a week earlier when we might have gotten massive press coverage and actually influenced someone. Believe me, I will blame someone for that, maybe the bloggers, maybe Karen Magee, but someone will pay. And maybe we should have actually endorsed someone against Cuomo when he was running for governor, rather than sitting on our hands and letting Zephyr Teachout lose twice. However, we have already decided to blame NYSUT for not making that decision, so again, it's not our fault and it doesn't suck. And those bastard bloggers won't mention this, but under my leadership we haven't had a catastrophic natural disaster in over two years.

So, in conclusion, things suck much less than they could suck, we've reduced suckiness to a bare minimum, anything that does suck is not our fault, a thousand points of light, and God bless the United Federation of Teachers. Labels: Andrew Cuomo, APPR, ATR, ATRs, CFE, charter schools, Karen Magee, merit pay, Micheal Mulgrew, NYSUT, Revive NYSUT, Richard Iannuzzi, tenure, UFT democracy, UFT leadership, Zephyr Teachout


When You are Forbidden from Knowing the Full Extent of the Charges Against You There is a strange paradox to high-stakes standardized testing.  Proctors of the exam are under a gag order (legally challenged) not to discuss the contents.  The social media of students is monitored to make sure they do not divulge any questions.

Fifty-percent of the exams are released, but the other fifty percent remains top secret.  One would like to know "how the other half lives"!  Some questions are invalidated under the cover of darkness.  Then, students, teachers and schools are evaluated high-stakes style based upon these sometimes flawed exams, the contents of which must supposedly remain largely shrouded in secrecy.  Oh, the bitter irony of it all!

I have never met a standardized test for which students could not successfully prep  or be prepped based on prior questions.  Here, I could quote a long list of exams I have passed along  the road of life:  NYS Regents tests, SATs, GREs, AP tests and even the written portion of the NYS driver's test.  On top of being forbidden from knowing the complete contents of the Common-Core tests, NYS passed a law limiting test prep in district schools, but not in charters.  If it wasn't true, it would be too funny!

It is ironic that administrators, teachers and students are forbidden to know the full contents of exams that largely determine their fates in life.  It is as if one is forbidden in a court of law from knowing the charges against one.  If one cannot know the test questions, "justice," indeed, will be blind, but only in the worst way! 
DA Takeaway I don’t suppose it was any kind of surprise that the MORE-sponsored anti-testing resolution died on the floor of the DA last Wednesday. I really admire their tenacity for placing this before the DA after the “I refuse” resolution was killed on technical grounds. I’m not sure whether or not it’s a good use of their time.

For one thing, once Leroy Barr, or pretty much anyone in leadership gets up and speaks against it, everyone in UFT Unity Caucus knows how their votes are supposed to go. After all, once you take an oath to support Unity Caucus in public, that’s pretty much what you have to do. This is a time-honored tradition, and it dates back to the days when Al Shanker bounced Unity members for opposing the Vietnam War. Everyone in Unity Caucus understands bloc voting, and within the DA, everyone outside of Unity Caucus understands there’s absolutely nothing that happens without leadership’s OK. I'd argue most teachers have not a clue or care what goes on, and that this is a fundamental flaw of our union.

Still, it’s good to see someone as intelligent and thoughtful as Lauren Cohen speaking truth to the Flock. At least this time they didn’t boo her en masse, as they did when she dared mention the loyalty oath. It was inspiring to hear common sense, pro-teacher rhetoric in between all the talk about how we could become administrators without becoming administrators, and about how we couldn’t possibly endorse something strongly endorsing a growing New York movement.

I’m becoming increasingly skeptical of Mulgrew’s folksy talk about how he was a carpenter, and about how he can’t use good language to talk about certain people. Where was all this good old blue collar hostility when Andrew Cuomo was running for governor? Didn’t the mighty UFT cede its authority to Revive NYSUT, which displayed its wrath against Cuomo by doing nothing whatsoever?

There were several other low points for me, though I honestly could not have anticipated them. After all, failing to substantively oppose nonsensical testing that will hurt public school children, parents and teachers is fundamentally problematic. In my opinion, it shows the very same lack of foresight leadership displayed when they failed to oppose Cuomo term two, and Bloomberg terms two and three.

Beyond that, as UFT Chapter Leader Mary Ahern pointed out in the comments. UFT failed to bring up its own watered-down testing resolution. It won’t get another chance to do even that until April, by which time who knows what nonsense the legislature will have enabled?

Finally, I was more or less startled by an exchange following leadership’s rather innocuous attempt to celebrate the union’s birthday. A delegate got up and started talking about racism, communism, and UFT history. I didn’t completely follow what he was talking about. Then Leroy Barr got up and started shouting about how he was delighted to oppose the delegate, and how dare the delegate denigrate the founders who fought for the right for him to speak there?

It was kind of amazing, and completely uncalled for. Here we are, under attack from Cuomo, under attack in the press, many of us working under less than optimal conditions, and if we dare speak our minds at the delegate assembly, we are attacked by our own leadership. Actually, it’s the job of leadership to represent us. I often get the impression they think it ought to be the other way around.

I was very pleased when Yelena Siwinski got up and said it was inappropriate and disrespectful to insult someone for introducing an amendment. It certainly is. But when you’ve got 800 acolytes who will vote a ham sandwich for President if you ask them to, that’s what you get. Labels: UFT, UFT Delegate Assembly, UFT democracy, UFT leadership, UFT Unity, UFT Unity loyalty oath


UFT Unity Kills Clear, Strong Anti-Testing Resolution Mulgrew thanks DA for what we’ve accomplished. Says we’ve killed Cuomo’s rating in 2 months, while it took us two years to hit Bloomberg.

Video about teacher leader positions comes on. Plays “Feels so Good,” by Chuck Mangione in background. Narrator speaks very fast. Tough to focus on what he’s selling. Various teachers explain why they’ve taken these jobs. Chuck Mangione plays again as teachers explain how wonderful this program is. One teacher speaks of walls between classrooms falling down, and it’s hard for me to imagine it isn’t literal. Narrator blabbers again as Mangione music rises to crescendo and video mercifully ends.

Mulgrew speaks of a college he visited, which he won’t name, ridicules professors for saying Obama plans failed, that poverty affects education, that teachers should be involved, and says he told them we didn’t want their help and could do things ourselves. Apparently the solution is improving things involves keeping higher ed. teachers away from us.

Amy Arundell introduces chapter leaders and model and master teachers. Mulgrew tells them they are master and model teachers and should talk about what they do.  Master and model teachers oblige. Students of one master teacher, who appears to have a sense of humor, refer to themselves as “master students.”  Chapter leader says she shifted the negative mindset of teachers by calling model teachers “public learners” so as to avoid stigma.

Mulgrew says it’s important that we’re figuring things out with model and master teachers, says we can figure things out while people outside cannot.

Mulgrew praises city’s recognition of Muslim holidays. Says first day meeting will mostly be used to set up classroom.

Mulgrew says Eva taking Lobby Day for Eva day was a mistake. Says difference between her and us is we would never drag students on buses mid-winter to make political point. Says he got best reports ever from legislators this year, and that they know the fight is in Albany this year rather than in NYC. Says he lobbied with teachers from PROSE schools. Says we will move our school system and demanded that if legislators wouldn’t help they should get out of the way.

Mulgrew, who is on neither Facebook nor Twitter, speaks of the millions of hits UFT has received on Facebook recently. Mulgrew says we like to work in difficult situations. Says message we get from Albany is that we should avoid teaching needy kids, that we will fight it. Thanks those who went to Lobby Day. Says he said many bad words about Cuomo and doesn’t know how to use good words. Blames it on years of being a carpenter.

Says legislators all wonder why Cuomo won’t pay the 2.5 billion he owes us. Praises us for being on social media.

Says in first such 13% case, arbitrator ruled for chapter leader who got bad rating for doing her job. Crowd applauds.  Says nothing of 87% who don't get benefit of arbitrators. Mulgrew says that principal needs to go.

Mulgrew says kids can still be suspended. Says only real change is schools should first and foremost focus on culture that says school is managed well. Says Bloomberg overdid it and would place 4 lawyers in a room with a kid who cursed at someone.

Says networks will be gone June 30th, to applause. Says this is last big piece of reorganization, but chancellor has been reorganizing throughout.

Mulgrew praises Chuy Garcia in Chicago, who Rahm outspent 12 to 1. Says UFT raised money for fundraiser last Monday. Praises retirees who have helped in Chicago.

Mulgrew describes week of March 12th, shows video he says has gone viral, discussing things that happened one day in classrooms. Video describes human contact that cannot be measured by test scores. Says children will suffer from reformy nonsense, and that education is not a business.

Mulgrew says we are fighting Cuomo, that he hits us and we hit back. Says Cuomo is having a bad week and book is coming out about him. Says governor came out saying he wouldn’t compromise but it hasn’t worked out for him as he is fought across state. Approval rating on ed. gone from 60s to 23%. Calls Cuomo a liar.

Mulgrew speaks of Saturday rally. Says NYSUT will bus people from Buffalo. Says we did it on a Saturday in NYC on purpose, that it doesn’t matter whether or not budget is done because fight won’t end this year. Praises Heastie. Says GOP leader will not vote on budget that ties funding to APPR, that we must make our voices heard and be out in force on Saturday. Says governor is dug in on his positions, but that parents do not want increased use of tests.

Mulgrew wants Saturday to be celebration of all the work we’ve done with all of our partners. Says there will be bands playing, media coverage, but we will send message we will not allow our schools to be destroyed. Asks us all to come. Ends report.

Leroy Barr says 1,000 people came to para luncheon. Speaks of high school awards, 5K run. Says March 16th was UFT’s birthday. Ends report.

Mulgrew, discussing consultation committee decorum in response to a question, speaks of how collaboration is defined by action, not words. Piques my interest.

Mulgrew says there must be more flexibility in parent engagement. Says time is very valuable and we don’t want to waste it. Asks if anyone wants to go back to 37.5 minutes and crowd says no. Says teachers tell him PD is OK but they really like Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

Question—what is matrix model for evaluation? Mulgrew says it’s a box graph. Says UFT opposed 100 point system. Says “we” introduced box graph now known as the matrix. Says it will solve anomalies in 100 point system. Issue is what goes into score in terms of student achievement. Mulgrew says we use a growth model, that we’re comfortable with it, but that state wants a value-added model. Criticizes system he helped pass and heralded as wonderful a few years ago, says we prefer box graph, which is much simpler. Says school districts where all teachers were rated with very good or very bad ratings are result of 100 point system.

Motion—for this months agenda—Lauren Cohen, wearing MORE shirt, springs from her seat and proposes resolution for this month opposing standardized testing, prominently labeled from MORE caucus of UFT.  Mulgrew says she can present, and it will take 2/3 motion to place on agenda.

Editorial comment—I love it.  This is a really strong resolution supporting opt-out and opposing high-stakes testing, Common Core based testing until it has been tested. Sparse applause.

Lauren reads resolution.

James Vasquez questions whether resolution is appropriate, as there is similar one on agenda. Mulgrew says it can be voted on.

Mulgrew says motion fails. I am not persuaded. Motion that people stand for and against resolution and UFT Unity kills it conclusively

Jonathan Halabi calls for support of fast food worker strike. Mulgrew says he can’t speak to it. Motion is placed on this month’s agenda.

Motion for next month’s agenda—that UFT endorse Progressive labor party’s Mayday march. Leroy Barr opposes. Says we support worker and immigrant rights, but suggests we cannot combine different issues.  Resolution voted down.

Fast food reso moved up. Halabi speaks of fast food worker campaign. Resolution carries.

Resolution to honor 55th anniversary of union, one week after anniversary. Member proposes amendments. Leroy Barr speaks against. Passionately speaks of founders who gave him benefits, right to speak out. We are keepers of the flame, and apparently pride entails criticizing the very voice he claims our founders enabled.

Yelena Siwinski raises point of order, states it is inappropriate and disrespectful to insult the speaker who offered an amendment. Mulgrew says it isn't a point of order.

Motion to celebrate anniversary passes.

Motion to extend 15 minutes so we can discuss testing. Motion fails. Mulgrew leads singing of happy birthday to UFT. Posted by NYC Educator at 8:30 PM View Comments 
UFT Chapter Leader, Yours Truly

My message to Cuomo is shaped by what a colleague, who wishes to remain anonymous, casually said to me one day. "Is Cuomo the biggest deadbeat dad in the state?" It made a lot of sense to me. I wrote a piece about it and tried to place it beyond this blog, but a lot of potential publishers were offended by it. Personally, I'm offended this man, who blocks aid for our kids in favor of sending it to his contributors, musters the audacity to label himself a student lobbyist. 
How Soon Will It Be Before CCSS Branding Becomes Obsolete? Do you use any of the new CCSS textbooks?  We had a sample copy in our workroom.  Due to factors of cost, most of our texts appear to be created ten-years ago.

The CCSS texts don't seem significantly different from the older texts.  History hasn't changed much.  Both books have questions for critical thinking at the end of each section.  It doesn't seem to me that there is any great difference in the level of the questions.  Perhaps, it's just me.

I don't have the official formula to measure the lexile level (and if I did, I wouldn't use it), but compare two pages with similar content, a discussion of cuneiform.  Although the books may differ slightly in the information provided to the reader, I do not recognize one as superior to the other.  Both texts even discuss Gilgamesh.

In my classroom, at some point, we look at cuneiform symbols.  We compare them to the symbols of other early writing systems.  We read a primary source on a child's day at school in Sumer and a  summarized version of Gilgamesh.  It may seem like I have always been Common-Core aligned.  No, it's just good teaching.  No branding necessary.  Keep your Pearson tests with cut scores set just so.

Where the two books seem the most different is in their branding.  Notice so many of the pages of the new text contain the CCSS emblem, the educational equivalent of  FDA- or Gates-approved. My hope is the Core can be killed before the City has to purchase loads of these bogus texts, touting college and career readiness above and beyond the days of old.  It is so unpopular in my circles, the sooner CCSS becomes obsolete, the better.  Perhaps, in the case of the textbooks, given the influence of business upon education, it is just another case of planned obsolescence. 
Why NYSED Doesn't Trust Us to Grade Our Students' Tests Looks like the geniuses at NYSED have done it again. Even after they field test the questions, they still don't work, so they get to erase them. These, of course, are the tests written by Pearson, which are much better than tests you or I could write. After all, the folks at Pearson have never met any of your students, don't know them from a hole in the wall, and are therefore the only people on earth who are qualified to judge them, or you, or whether your schools stay open.

One of the coolest things about the state tests is that they set the cut scores after they grade them. So if John King says 70% of our kids are gonna fail, well, that's just the way it is. If they say you need to answer 50 questions to pass, and too many kids do it, they can say they need 55. Or if not enough kids pass, they can say they need 45, and so on. Nice work if you can get it, and when you can toss out any questions that skew your results the wrong way, your success is fairly assured.

Here's the thing--that's exactly why head ed. Merryl Tisch decided we couldn't grade our students' Regents exams. Some teachers, horror of horrors, were finding kids who scored 64, and finding ways to bump the scores up to 65. What an awful thing to do, when the kid who scored 64 could simply spend another year studying whatever it was he or she missed by one point. Spending an entire year agonizing over one stinking point builds grit, or rigor, or whatever the hell it is that we're supposed to want for our kids.

Now NY State doesn't go scrimping around for one stinking point. NY State determines what results it wants, and manipulates the scores so they prove whatever. Want all the kids to pass so you look like geniuses? Want all the kids to fail so you can give more schools to Moskowitz? Want to have a sudden improvement? Want a crisis? You can get anything you want in Merryl Tisch's restaurant.

Now, since NYSED blatantly twists the scores to do whatever, they kind of assume we will too. I mean, have you known people who lie and cheat and say any damn thing to suit their purposes? In my experience, people like that tend to suspect the worst of others. They're very free with accusations, usually angry ones, that other people behave as they do. So don't take it personally if NYSED doesn't trust you.

They don't trust anyone, since they can't trust themselves. Because they are a bunch of lying manipulative weasels, they assume we are too. The only bad thing is how many people believe it.

We're gonna have to do something about that. Labels: Andrew Cuomo, Eva Moskowitz, high-states testing, Merryl Tisch, NY Regents exams, NYSED, school closings, testing


Out of the Mouths of Babes…Come Words Telling Us Things Have Got to Change