Teacher Rhee taped children's mouths; bleeding resulted / Statistics that puncture the myth Rhee created about her own teaching record in Baltimore

Seems Michelle Rhee, the high priestess of proper teaching in her stint as Washington, D.C. schools chancellor had failures of her own during her first year of teaching in Baltimore, Maryland.

Her second grade students were verbally unruly on their way to lunch one day. How did Ms. Rhee handle the situation? She taped the children's mouths shut. How horrible! This is something that teachers might joke about, but in reality they would never do this. The way this story developed is disturbing news and a warning to those that might do this.
At the end of Rhee's lesson on behavior she took the tape from the kids' mouths. Their lips were bleeding, in Rhee's own words, in an interview excerpted in "The Washington Post" this summer.
Need more proof? Here's an audio clip of Rhee glibly recalling the story as a funny party anecdote.

In New York City this would be cited as 420-A corporal punishment. No rubber room for Ms. Rhee. She squeaked past this one and became head of the school system in the big city to Baltimore's southwest.

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POSTSCRIPT:
Any career repercussions for Rhee? Hardly. The corporate media still love her and this episode never arises in their bios of her. Neither is there careful attention to the mythic self-representation she has created about her own teaching record in Baltimore (with the exception of the Washington Post, the Baltimore Sun or PBS). Less recognized is how her actual performance in Baltimore fails to hold up on closer examination.

Read at the GFBrandenburg blog by a retired Washington, D.C. math teacher: "The Rhee Miracle Examined Again – By Cohort." He took her test score data for her three years of teaching, 1992-1995, in Baltimore under her Teach for America contract, and showed that she has exaggerated her performance in two years of teaching.

As he noted, had the IMPACT program she instituted in Washington, D.C. had been used in her own school, she would have been fired in the first year.

Here I will attempt to follow four different cohorts of students through Harlem Park Elementary, one of the Baltimore City public schools that was taken over by Tesseract/Edison company for several years in the early-to-mid-1990s and failed. Using publicly available data, I graphed the average percentile ranks of groups of students as they went through Harlem Park in first grade, then second grade, then third grade, and so on. If there’s a blank in my graphs, it’s because the data isn’t there.

I highlighted the classes where Michelle Rhee was teaching. In her last year, the scores did rise some, but nowhere near what she claimed. In her first year, they dropped almost as low as they can go. If Tesseract/Edison had been using the IMPACT evaluation system she foisted on DCPS teachers, she would have probably been fired after the first year!

As the Baltimore Sun reported, her claim, "Over a two-year period, moved students scoring on average at the 13th percentile on national standardized tests to 90 percent of students scoring at the 90th percentile or higher," was actually dubious. And Rhee, after being challenged on this, said that she would use the phrase "significant gains" instead of the 90th percentile term. Brandenburg noted, the study (researchers with the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and Towson University, is stored in an online federal archive) presents "clear evidence of actual, knowing falsehood" by Rhee.

See also the June 30, 2007 Washington Post article, "Council to Challenge Rhee's Résumé." When someone did uncover her files, they indicated that her students' scores increase during the 2nd and 3rd years, but the gains were less than half what Rhee had claimed. (See February 8, 2011 Washington Post article, "Michelle Rhee's early test scores challenged.")

So much for honesty and empathy on Rhee's part.

Inept Principal Buck is quintessence of Leadership Academy fake educator

Excellent comments at the New York Daily News' comments page, on how the ascent of inept Brooklyn Middle School for Art and Philosophy Principal Andrew Buck represents the terribly hasty fast-tracking of inept teachers under Michael Bloomberg / Joel Klein's Leadership Academy.

Click this link for original Daily News article from October 22, 2010.

And click this link for the latest word on him, how he publicly stands by his idiotic missive on textbooks and education. Speaking to an eighth grade English class, he stood by his no-textbooks policy.

Harlem charter school spent $1.3 million to advertise itself to the community

Great expose by Juan Gonzalez!

See the New York Daily News link for the full article.

Local charter schools like Harlem Success are big business as millions are poured into marketing

The image of hundreds of black and Latino parents packed in an auditorium desperately hoping their child would "win" the lottery and get into a local charter school has assumed mythic status in media reports on education reform.

Two new two documentaries, "The Lottery" and "Waiting for Superman," made such events the emotional climax of their narratives. The former centered on Harlem Success, the charter network Schools Chancellor Joel Klein hails when he points to the demand for more charter schools.

But a Daily News review of Harlem Success financial reports suggests the network's huge backlog of applicants is the result of a carefully crafted Madison Ave.-style promotional campaign. In the two-year period between July 2007 and June 2009, Harlem Success spent $1.3 million to market itself to the Harlem community, the group's most recent financial filings show.

Click here to see the full article at the New York Daily News.

Vote today to support music for NYC youth

Yes, this program appears to be targeted to Harlem youth (what about Brownsville or the Bronx's Morrisania, for example?),
and yes, this program has got a corporate tie-in,
and yes, music programs ought to be reinstated across the board, in every neighborhood, from elementary to high schools, and the busted up schools should be merged in a return of the large comprehensive high school, which can accommodate school bands or orchestras.
However, this is a decent program that we should all support. So, vote today to support this cause:
Keep the Beat! Empower kids through music.
See Arturo O'Farrill and others pitch for this program at the 92nd Street Y in their 1:50 video.

The overview from the Support this Cause page for this project:

The NYC Department of Education reports that only 974 full-time music teachers serve over 1.1 million students. 92Y brings in-class instruction by Teaching Artists and concerts by world renowned performers to 3,200 at-risk students at in 25 NYC public schools. 85% of 92Y students are African-American or Hispanic; 75% qualify for free lunch. The program's mission is to introduce young children to the music of many cultures in concert and in the classroom, in order to nurture each child’s own ability to be an active listener and express themselves through music. The program includes:

Meet the Press today highlighting the voices of education deform

NBC's Sunday morning news show, "Meet the Press," is running along the trajectory of "Waiting for Superman." It is having as lead guests Education Secretary Arne Duncan, possibly out-going Washington, DC schools chancellor Michelle Rhee and American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten.

The first two are the lead proponents of only holding teachers accountable for educational performance. They singularly focus on testing. They do not consider the importance or impact of administrators, parents or students. How can teachers be held to have the exclusive determining factor as to whether students? When students are oppositional, distracted or disruptive, what do the local education leaders (principals, assistant principals) do? Nothing. They cite the teacher as causing the disruption, because the lesson did not "engage" [entertain] the students.

We'll here none of this perspective today; Weingarten doesn't raise this.

UPDATE: Suprise! Robert Bobb, cial Manager, Detroit Public Schools, another guest on the show, actually recognized that principals have some responsibility (not just teachers).

By now: Chicago primary schools occupied for a week

The specific details of the circumstance vary:
There is a class between a private school and a public school, and the city takes the private school side. This happened during the conflict over access to ball fields and elite schools in New York City. And this has happened several times in the same city between charter schools and regular public schools.

In Chicago, the community supporters have take more assertive direct action: they occupied their school to defend it.
The city's charge that the school building was dilapidated rings reminiscent of local governments and "slum removal" with the 1950s, 1960s demolition of neighborhoods for housing projects.

The one of the latest dispatches from "The Chicago Sun-Times:"

The six-day standoff between Chicago Public Schools officials and protesters demanding a library for a Pilsen elementary school showed no signs of ending Monday, with both sides indicating they were ready for a drawn-out fight.

Parents, children and activists have occupied a field house at Whittier Elementary School around the clock since Wednesday. CPS says the building is unsafe and must be demolished because there is no money for renovations, but protesters insist it could be converted into a library for less than the cost of demolition.

The two sides have not spoken since Friday, when more than 100 parents, students and teachers prevented CPS officials and police from carrying out their threats to remove the protesters and arrest them.

"We're going to stay here as long as it takes," said parent Araceli Gonzalez, whose daughter, Daniela, 10, is a Whittier student. "We've got inflatable mattresses, bathrooms, food and support from the community -- everything we need. Our children deserve a library."

A potential breakthrough came Monday when Ald. Danny Solis (25th) said CPS CEO Ron Huberman had promised not to demolish the school before meeting with protesters. But protesters say they won't end their occupation first, a condition CPS spokeswoman Monique Bond says must be met for the meeting to go ahead.

"Despite our warnings, they are assuming the safety and security risk for the children and adults staying there," Bond said. "There's no rush to demolish."

But protesters say union workers have volunteered to work for free to help transform the building into a library, and that their engineers believe CPS' safety concerns are overstated.

"We've got Huberman paying attention, now," activist Gema Gaete said. "They have to listen to us."

Great show evoking 60s, 70s rock scene in New York City

The Steven Gallery is showing an exhibition of photos over the venerable 1960s, 1970s rock club, Max's Kansas City. The show is running from September 15 to October 9, 2010.

Go to 521 W 23rd Street, a few paces west of 10th Avenue (near the newly opened High Line, a former freight rail line, reopened as public park space).

The hours there are Tuesday to Saturday, 11 AM to 6 PM.
Call Steven Kasher Gallery for more info: 212 966 3978.

See this introduction to the gallery at this Leonard Lopate page at www.wnyc.org.

On the same longitude, up three blocks is Loretta Howard Gallery, which is also running a show on Max's Kansas City's performers.

Here's the long introduction that "The New York Times" published on the two shows.

Does Gray win in DC signify a "C" or "D" for Fenty/Rhee?

District of Columbia City Council head Vincent Gray soundly defeated Washington, DC mayor Adrian Fenty in September 14, 2010's primary.

To our headline's question, "Atlantic Monthly's" Natalie Hopkinson (a former Washington, DC "PTA mom") would answer, "YES!"

Hopkinson noted that Rhee politicized her fate earlier this year:

Rhee brazenly politicized her job as Schools Chancellor in a way that may be unprecedented for education bureaucrats. Back in the spring, the charitable arm of Wal-Mart and other corporate foundations threatened to yank millions they had donated to break the teacher's union if Rhee was not retained. Then Rhee not so subtly hinted to a reporter that she would not work for Gray. Finally, the weekend before the election, Rhee hit the campaign trail along with Fenty to round up votes in the wealthiest ward in Washington.

Voters' reactions? Hopkinson would say that Rhee was definitely a negative factor in their voting choice in the primary election:

A majority of black voters cited Rhee as a reason to fire her boss, while a majority of white voters cited Rhee as a reason to vote for Fenty. But the stink swirling around education reform in D.C. goes beyond race. The hundreds of millions of corporate dollars used to break the D.C. teachers' union have dangerous strings attached.

**The News Details**
Early news reports indicated Fenty's loss as stemming from voter anger with combative schools chancellor Michelle Rhee and a perception that Fenty cared more about the white, upscale Northwest Washington, D.C. neighborhoods than about the less advantaged parts of the city. The last paragraph of "The Wall Street Journal" analyzed preliminary reports of voting patters and has interpreted Gray as getting stronger support in the lower income, mostly African-American areas and Fenty as getting stronger support in Georgetown and Northwestern city neighborhoods.

It remains to be seen what this will all mean for chancellor Rhee. The media have reported that Gray will not announce the fate of Rhee's job until after the general election.

There has been the assertion by one commenter that Gray supports charter schools. But most of the news headlines don't seem to give that indication.

Hopkinson's description of Rhee's effect on students in Washington sounds a lot like the haphazard experimentation and constantly shifting policy in New York City under Joel Klein:

D.C.'s high-profile status as nation's capital means that for decades, our kids have been the subjects of virtually every passing education fad and experiment--like lab rats. But usually the meddling comes from Congress. D.C. is the only city where Congress pays private school tuition. About 40 percent of public school kids go to charter schools, also thanks to Congress. All of this "experimentation" and "competition" has destabilized the system so badly that the most competent D.C. school administrators rarely know how many kids are enrolled in public or charter schools on a given day.

Hopkinson said it best toward the end of her article, "How 'public' is it when Wal-Mart can blackmail D.C. voters?"

Why Michelle Rhee's Education 'Brand' Failed in D.C. - Natalie Hopkinson - Politics - The Atlantic

Why Michelle Rhee's Education 'Brand' Failed in D.C. - Natalie Hopkinson - Politics - The Atlantic

Hard hitting piece on DC voters' feelings for Mayor Adrian Fenty and Schools Chancellor Rhee in "The Atlantic Monthly."

Update on New York Republican Party primary results

UPDATES on the New York Republican side of the primaries, September 14, 2010:

In the competition for the GOP nomination to oppose incumbent Democrat Charles Schumer in this November's election, Jay Townsend beat Gary Berntsen, not only for the Republican but also for the Conservative Party nomination.
Opposing Kirsten Gillibrand in this November's special election is Joseph DioGuardi, having won both the Republican and Conservative primary contests. Both the Townsend and DioGuardi candidacies put the lie to the claim that the Conservative Party needs to have voters chose the Conservative Party in the gubernatorial contest, in order to retain its ballot access status. Voters will be able to support the Conservative Party but voting for Townsend of DiotGuardi.

Paladino created the Taxpayers Party of New York, which endorsed him of course, and for Schumer's contest: the party nominated Gary Berntsen, and Gillibrand's seat: David Malpass.
Thus, there is a divided right field for the Senate seats, and a divided right field for the Governor's seat (Rick Lazio retains Conservative line). The Taxpayers Party is the apparent party manifestation of the Tea Party. Malpass is the favorite of the local far-right Tea-Party-associated media personalities (e.g., Sean Hannity).

Randy Altschuler (electronics recycling millionaire) won First congressional district (eastern Suffolk County on Long Island) to challenge incumbent Tim Bishop.
This is a great article on Altschuler personally and on his defeating Tea-Party-endorsed Cox on both the RP and Conservative lines.
Altschuler had a 45% victory, resounding defeat of George Demos, 31 and Christopher Cox, 24.

Tea Partier Paladino defeats GOP stalwart Lazio

In the biggest contest it appears that Carl Paladino (Tea Party-affiliated) gubernatorial candidate appears heading to defeat establishment Republican Party candidate Rick Lazio. As of 10:41 PM, Paladino was leading over Lazio, 68% to 31%. (Source: WABC-TV)

We are still waiting to see which candidate comes out ahead in the Suffolk County Republican primary for the congressional district race. Different candidates are attempting to receive the Tea Party nomination. Candidates for the Republican nomination are Randy Altschuler, Chris Cox and George Cox.

**Senatorial nomination going to mainstream Townsend**
There have been two Republicans vying for the nomination of challenge U.S. Senator Charles Schumer (Democrat), Townsend and Berntsen. In contrast to the Paladino-Lazio race, Townsend has remained ahead of Tea Party-affiliated Berntsen.

Racist, psycho PINI goes off on Haitian family --will he go into rubber room-like status?

The New York Post and company will malign an entire profession, projecting onto all teachers the misdeeds of a few, abandoning due process, casting as guilty when an allegation is issued.

Interesting that this treatment is reserved for teachers alone. Apparently there is an unquestioning judgment in this hierarchy, forever granting legitimacy and propriety to the reputations of supervisors.

So, it is interesting to hear of two Queens supervisors at a Queens Village elementary school, a principal and an assistant principal, as they engaged in racial harassment of two disgruntled Haitian parents with questions about their children's report cards.

Click here for the story, as it was reported in NY1.
Here is how the Gothamist reported the story.

We wonder if the administrators accused of racist verbal abuse will be taken out of daily service at PS 135. My bet is probably not.