Bloomberg Contempt for Special Education; State Legislators Oppose Mayoral Control, Without UFT Push

Anyone seriously noticing New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's policies toward special education students gets the idea that he views them as a problem that won't go away. Just read United Federation of Teachers Vice President for Special Education Carmen Alvarez's letter on the mayor's practices.

The Department of Education is rolling out its special education reform to all 1,700 city schools next year. The expectation is that nearly all incoming elementary, middle school and high school students with disabilities will attend the same school they would attend if they didn’t have Individualized Education Programs.
The stated goals of the reform for students with disabilities are to: 1. close the achievement gap; 2. increase access to and participation in the general education curriculum; and 3. build school-based support through greater curricular, instructional and scheduling flexibility. This week the DOE began to put meat on the bones of these lofty statements. It wasn’t pretty.
The real agenda is laid bare in the 50-page “Flexible Programming Guide” [UFT link to DOE document] developed for principals. We’ve been hearing about flexible programming for a couple of years now. The way that it has been explained by the DOE actually made some sense: It called on schools to mix and match special education services based on student needs in various content areas. But my antennae always go up when I hear the word “flexible” as it almost never means anything good. I am sorry to say that my instincts were right.
Reading between the lines, this is the message that the DOE is sending to principals through the examples in the guide:
· Unless the recommendation is for service provided in the general education class, assume the IEP team did not understand the child’s true needs in recommending services.
· Less service is better than more service and push-in service is better than pull-out.
· Schools shouldn’t open self-contained classes even if they have enough students with IEP recommendations to fill them.
· Students with significant behavioral challenges recommended for full-time self-contained classes can be adequately supported in general education classes with counseling during lunch or in class a couple of days a week.
· It is never appropriate to recommend that a student attend another school that can actually provide the services on the student’s IEP.
· Paraprofessional services should be used infrequently and when used, they should be part-time, provided in a group and time-limited.
Let me tell you what is wrong with this picture. Placement decisions, including decisions regarding location of services and intensity of services, are made by the child’s IEP team.
Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, it is impermissible to recommend services based on the availability of the program or personnel, space, budget or administrative convenience.
Yes, IEP teams must consider the least restrictive environment in which the child’s needs can be met and, where possible, students should be served in the schools and classrooms they would attend if they did not have a disability. But if the child’s needs require that the child attend a school other than the school he would attend if not disabled, or that the child receive related services in a therapy room, that is the least restrictive environment for that child.
We have combed the research study that the DOE cites in all of its public presentations and we cannot find support for the DOE’s sweeping conclusions about the academic benefit of serving students with disabilities in general education settings. The research tells us that students who perform several years below grade level require intensive and explicit instruction with ongoing progress monitoring, not a few periods of team teaching or Special Education Teacher Support Services.
Where did this come from? Deputy Chancellor Laura Rodriguez and Special Education Director Lauren Katzman have publicly stated that the purpose of this reform is to increase options for students with disabilities, not to dismantle programs and services recommended by IEP teams or to eliminate special education classes.
Where is the data from Phase I of this reform that shows that the IEP changes outlined in the guide improve student achievement and reduce challenging behavior?
The DOE previewed its plans at the Citywide Council on Special Education meeting in March. Nothing in that presentation suggested that the DOE would be asking schools to make changes in student IEPs of this magnitude.
Is this why they are hiding the guide in a link only available to principals? Why are they saying one thing and doing another? Where is the transparency and accountability?
We can hear their excuses now: “It wasn’t us, we just make policy. It was poorly implemented by the networks.”
Read the UFT's online guide, Special Education Reform. Let us know how this is playing out at your school. File a special education complaint immediately if your principal says self-contained classes have been eliminated, directs you to change IEPs to recommend a particular service, or tells you that you can recommend only services that are available in your building.
If you receive written directives, email them to me at calvarez@uft.org or fax them to my office at 1-212-254-5579. In the meantime, I will work with our partners in the parent and advocacy community as well as our elected officials to stop the doublespeak from the DOE and bring true research-based reform to special education in New York City.

To boot, one should also notice that special education students get last priority in charter school seats.

Is it any wonder that parents are pushing to end mayoral control?
Sen. Velmanette Montgomery (Brooklyn) when speaking yesterday on WWRL AM radio cited parents, not the union (UFT), as the factor that has pushed her to introduce a bill in the New York State legislature to eliminate mayoral control.
Carl Campanile's story in the New York Post, excerpted:

Sen. Velmanette Montgomery (D-Brooklyn) and Assemblyman Keith Wright (D-Harlem) claim that the 10-year experiment giving City Hall sole power over educational matters has been a failure.
And Montgomery has won the support of the ranking Democrat on the Senate Education Committee, Suzi Oppenheimer (D-Westchester), who has signed on as co-sponsor to the measure.

'There’s a lot of support for reversing mayoral control. This bill does that.’ — State Sen. Velmanette Montgomery, whose push to repeal mayoral oversight of city schools has the approval of prominent Democratic state Sen. Suzi Oppenheimer (above), a co-sponsor of the measure

The mayoral control law is not up renewal until June 30, 2015. But under their bills, the two legislators call for overhauling the law this year.
“There’s a lot of support for reversing mayoral control and creating a more independent board in terms of setting educational policy and hiring the chancellor. This bill does that,” Montgomery said.
. . .
But it’s precisely these changes that the lawmakers cite in fueling their bid to roll back mayoral control. Both Montgomery and Wright have opposed school closings and co-locating charter schools in facilities with traditional public schools.
“It’s been a very unpopular process having this top-down decision-making with no one able to weigh in. Having a singular authority with total power on all the decisions has not worked out for all of the children,” Montgomery said.
Montgomery’s bill would strip the mayor’s control over school policy by cutting his appointments to the 13-member citywide school board in half, from eight to four members. The City Council would appoint four members and the borough presidents one apiece.
And the board, rather than the mayor, would select the chancellor.

Read more at the Post.

UFT Gives In: Schedules Mass ATR Meetings; Scheduling SNAFUs

The United Federation of Teachers (UFT) has conceded to demands for Absent Teacher Reserve (ATR) teachers to have more voice.
However, some developments suggest that the UFT is dampening potential groundswell factors.
First, the meeting was to be a single one (see this flyer at Ed Notes), at the Brooklyn Marriott building offices of the Brooklyn UFT. But a single site could see too much agitation for Unity to manage. (Classroom management anyone?)
The UFT split the meetings into successive nights: October 3 in the Bronx, October 4 in Brooklyn, October 5 in Staten Island, October 6 in Queens and October 11 in Manhattan.
(See the poster at the UFT website.)
Should the UFT reconsider siting important meetings at its Bronx offices? That site is close to major highways, but otherwise it is difficult to access: it is only near the 6 train and the buses that go to Westchester Square, Bx 4, 4A, 8, 21, 31, 40, 42.
And most important of all, when were the meeting schedulers last teachers themselves? Have they forgotten that the first Mondays of the month are routinely the days of faculty conferences? ATRs leaving after the school bell on Monday, October 3 could get written up for missing the faculty conference. Besides, won't teachers already tired from the faculty conference be a little too burned out to attend another meeting?

Does Thompson Think that the UFT is the Wimpiest Municipal Union of Them All?

A very interesting nugget appeared on the inner page continuation of an article in the September 2, 2011 edition of the Chief-Leader."

Former New York City Comptroller and 2009 sacrificial lamb Democratic Party nominee against Mayor Michael Bloomberg, William Thompson appeared at a public panel on the state of New York City public education, along with a variety of figures in New York City education. Representing the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) was Vice-President Leo Casey.

On the topic of a new contract between the UFT and the New York City Department of Education, Thompson was more pessimistic about the prospects of a contract under Bloomberg than was Casey.
Casey:

Let's sit down, let's work out issues before us . . . there's no reason why we can't [talk in the course of negotiating a contract].

Thompson:

There is not going to be a contract under the Bloomberg administration.

He added:

The attitudes of other municipal unions are, we'll wait for the next [Mayor].

From this exchange, one can easily suspect that the other municipal unions are reading the city's behavior viz. a viz. municipal unions. And they are being savvy and refraining from negotiations that would include colossal givebacks, let alone making conciliatory comments toward the mayor. (And wasn't it a mistake for the UFT to avoid endorsing Thompson inn 2009?)

UFT and parents walk-out of sham PEP meeting

THE UFT SHOWS SOME SPINE

After calling the city's bluff (???) and assuming that this will get the city to play nice,
the United Federation of Teachers tonight at 7:15 PM walked out of the Panel for Education Policy meeting for voting on the proposed closure of some two dozen schools in the auditorium of Brooklyn Technical High School, one of the city's top selective public high schools.

At 7:00 PM UFT President Michael Mulgrew called the panel for what it is: a sham of a democracy. He noted that the city Department of Education sets up schools for failure. He made reference to a recently publicized internal DOE report (ironically, in "The New York Post") that the DOE starves schools for resources and sets them up for failure (clusters them with weaker students).
His speech was followed up by a parent that echoed his comments. Then, at 7:15 PM, parents in the front of the hall entered the aisles to leave, and union leaders, seated in the back of the hall, joined the crowd.

GOTHAM SCHOOLS GETS IT WRONG; ATTEMPTS TO RE-WRITE CURRENT HISTORY-MAKING
The Gotham Schools blog inaccurately reported that one-quarter of the crowd in the Brooklyn Tech auditorium left. The proportion was more like at least one-half. The reporting blogger cynically referred to the crowd walking out as "the Gompers crowd." In truth, parents and students were heavily represented in the crowd walking out of the meeting.

Parents and elected representatives, such as City Councilor Charles Barron, in a stirring speech, earlier in the night noted that the schools targeted for closure are saddled with special education and English Language Learner (English as a Second Language) students. The union has had to pursue a public campaign in recent years to get the city to properly staff schools with special education and resource room teachers, so as to meet the Individual Education Program needs of special education students.

CLOSINGS A CRUCIAL ISSUE FOR ALL TEACHERS
The closings and co-locating of competing schools in buildings with existing schools will lead to the displacement of veteran teachers. Every experienced teacher is in great danger of becoming next year's ATR (absent teacher reserve) teacher. This suits the perennially budget minded mayor exquisitely. Expensive veteran teachers will be replaced by cheaper, novice, untenured and timid teachers.

BLACK'S JEERING TO PARENTS, "OHHHHH"
Others chided embattled schools chancellor Cathie Black's contempuous talking back to parents, Tuesday, February 1, 2011, evening.
(She said, "I can't speak if you're shouting." Members of the crowd said, "Ohhhh." Black mocked back, "Ohhhh." Click to this NY1 clip, "Chancellor Black Criticized For Talking Back To Crowd During PEP meeting."
(NY1 was the only commercial outlet with cameras rolling during Black's jeering retort to upset parents.)

This walk-out, we hope, will foreshadow, a new, stronger turn for the teachers' union and parents, in a bid to challenge the fait accompli plan of closure that the city has for a quota of the lowest performing schools. As Mulgrew and others speak said Tuesday and Thursday, the panel is mostly hand-picked by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and is seen as a rubber stamp for the mayor's wishes.
Parents, students, teachers and elected officials walked out because speakers can speak, but the decision is always pre-determined. Whatever the people say, the panel members will only vote according to the pre-ordained program for X number of schools each year.

As speakers cited the stirrings for democracy in Egypt, we hope that this evening's stirrings and walkout will lead to the replacement of the autocratic rubber stamp PEP with a democratic board of education.

LIVE BLOGGING UPDATE
NY1 stuck around after the walkout. The reporter, Lindsey Christ, reporting live at 9:00 PM, said that only 200 to 300 audience members remained and that they were mainly charter school supporters. In contrast to Gotham Schools, Christ said that the majority of the attendees walked out.

Meet at Norman Thomas HS! (Jan. 11) Converge on Tweed Courthourse (Jan. 13)

Mobilize to defend public education in New York City!

Mobilize to defend teaching as a career!

If we do not defend schools under threat of DoE closure, hundreds more teachers will become ATRs (absent teacher reserve) this year!

Do Not forget the World War II German pastor's (Martin Niemöller) warning about ignoring the plight of oppressed groups,
before you become the next victim of the New York City Department of Education.

Attend Monday (Jan. 11, 2010) night's public meeting at Norman Thomas High School; see details in box in right panel, "Activism Calendar."

The following is a UFT memo, calling for a concentration of union reps upon DoE headquarters at Tweed Courthouse (south side of Chambers Street, between Broadway and Centre Street), on Wednesday night, January 13 (CTE pertains to Career and Technical Education):

As you are aware, the struggle over the DoE's plans to close twenty schools – including fifteen high schools – is growing. Last Thursday evening, there were turnouts of over 1000 people in opposition at two meetings – Columbus in the Bronx and Jamaica in Queens. A real grass roots movement against these closures has begun to emerge.


Reflecting the high priority of this struggle, we are once again holding a joint High School Committee-CTE Committee meeting this month. The High School Committee was originally scheduled for this coming Wednesday in Queens, but we are switching it back to the UFT's Headquarters in lower Manhattan. The DoE's Citywide Council on High Schools meets Wednesday at 6 PM at Tweed, and we would like to adjourn our assembly at 5:30 and head en masse to that meeting, which will be addressing the school closures. It would be ideal to have a powerful turnout from all high schools – not just those slated for closure – at the meeting.


UFT HIGH SCHOOL COMMITTEE – CTE COMMITTEE MEETING



WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13, 2010



4:15 p.m.



UFT CENTRAL OFFICES

52 BROADWAY



DIRECTIONS:

WALL STREET STOPS ON THE ‘2,’ ‘3,’ ‘4' AND ‘5' SUBWAY LINES

BROAD STREET STOP ON THE ‘J,’ ‘M’ AND ‘Z’ SUBWAY LINES

RECTOR STREET STOP ON THE ‘R’ AND ‘W’ SUBWAY LINES


Refreshments will be served.

To NYS: Education should be last on public chopping block

Campaign to protect classrooms

Call or fax Albany to protect classrooms!
Budget talks in Albany are coming down to the wire.
Governor Paterson reconvened the State Legislature this week for a special session to close a midyear deficit of over $3 billion, and under consideration is a $223 million cut to New York City schools. Legislators will make a decision on a deficit reduction plan in a matter of days.
The UFT is prepared to work with lawmakers to meet the challenge. We have proposed alternative budget cuts that will help us get us through the immediate crisis. But we say
NO to cuts to the classroom and direct services to the classroom.
We need you to once again call or fax your local senator and assembly member and tell them: Protect the classroom!
Call the state Assembly at 518-455-4100, between 8 a.m. and midnight, Monday through Friday, and ask to speak to your local assembly member.
Don’t know who your assembly member is? Look it up here.
Call the state Senate at 518-455-2800, between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m., Monday through Friday, and ask to speak to your local senator.
Don’t know who your state senator is? Look it up here.
Send another fax to your state representatives to drive home the message that classrooms must be shielded. Go here to send a fax to Albany. (UFT site)
Urge your state legislators to protect classrooms from midyear cuts!
Sincerely,

Michael Mulgrew
UFT President

Musings at the ATR fair / DunKleiRheeism warning

Was at ATR job fair on Monday, at Prospect Hall, Brooklyn.

I had these musings:
On the ATR job fairs, there was no identified UFT representative on site, contrary to rumor. We had many questions that we want answered.
Teachers should have gotten releases from their assignments earlier. I got to the site at 15 min of the announced deadline to appear. In five minutes, I turned my back and the line went to the end of the block.
Of course, age was a present factor: hardly anyone was under 35. And the DoE sent very few of its 27 years-old/fresh out of the leadership academy principals or APs. Many people looked very sullen, with an almost vacant expression. These people didn't respond to attempts at conversation.
As to principals and an adequate number of candidates, there were many job-seekers in line for single positions. Given that the number of positions offered at schools was generally one or two and there were about 45 to 50 administrators on site, occasionally two for one school, the couple hundred ATRs obviously were in excess of the number of positions.
The lines were more dense in front of recruiters from middle schools and high schools.
From the folks that I talked with I heard these tidbits: teachers knew of more ATRs, but those teachers were too skeptical of the sincerity of the job fair or the realistic practicality of expecting a position from the fair.

To the apathetic UFT members (and staffers, leaders) that take the "it's not happening to me" approach (apathy) to the ATR crisis:
We should remember Pastor Martin Nimoeller's (albeit, a conflicted character) prophetic poem about going after easy targets. Any teacher over five years in the system "could be next."

"First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak out for me."

The Mis-rule of Joel Klein that NY Times has ignored

On the New York City Department of Education Chancellor Joel Klein, there are major problems in news media reportage, except for WNYC and a couple of reporters for the tabloids, the city's media (notably, the New York Times) are merely repeating the press releases of the city Department of Education.

This is a terrible civic example to the children and the public. In history classes there are warnings against the concentration of power in one person. It is called autocracy, the word is treated as a dirty word. Yet, there is no critical discussion of the ills of this kind of leadership.
As to specifics of his mis-leadership,
1) Klein has misallocated resources into no-bid contracts for consultants. Millions have been spent on these consultants, while schools have scrimped on teaching staff and resources.
2) On January 21, 2003, Klein adopted the misguided "Everyday Math" program. This poorly conceived constructivist approach to teaching math was twice (several years prior) rejected in California after careful studies of the program. (See the New York Sun and the City Journal on this issue; and this assessment by David Klein, a California professor of mathematics.)
3) He has exerted a social class bias in closing down schools. The closed schools has happened extensively in schools with high minority and low income student populations in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Manhattan. It has not happened in southern Brooklyn, eastern Queens or Staten Island. In the wide-spread closure of large schools he has foreclosed the opportunity for students to have options in their English classes, their foreign language choices or chances to study in Advanced Placement classes. Now, there is no possibility of taking AP classes, there is only one choice (within one grade within a school) of English class topic or foreign language. No more French, German or Italian, just Spanish.
4) The city has neglected to provide special education resources (special education-certified teachers and classes) in schools. Now, special education students are injected into regular education classes. As students and teachers will tell you, this move often leads to greater disruption in the class. This neglect of special education has forced the United Federation of Teachers to launch a campaign for monitoring the denial of special education resources.
Why the neglect of special education resources? For one matter, the appearance of large percentages of special education students in schools is seen as a negative indicator. The solution? Just erase the special education students.
5) The graduation rates are a distortion. As WNYC reported in May, a Columbia School of Journalism PhD candidate (Jennifer Jennings) showed that the number of high school graduates does not match the number of in-coming ninth graders. Before Klein, students had the opportunity re-take classes. True, it was common for students to take six years to graduate. At least this was better than being pressured to leave the school for commercial trade schools or GED programs. A real Regents high school diploma is better than a GED certificate.
6) The value of a New York City public education remains troubled. The CUNY schools are having to put the vast majority of NYC school graduates through remedial education in English and mathematics.

These comments address just the beginning of the ways that Klein has mis-served the city. These examples of wrong-headed policies would have been addressed *publicly* had they been subject to open discussion by an independent body. The Senate is to be praised for not renewing mayoral control. After seven years, it is a demonstrated failure. Bravo to Brooklyn's Senator John Sampson for aiming to have greater variety of voices on the new Board. Let's hope that the new Board will have some real independence and power.

Closed NYC schools for flu reaches 17; UFT establishes school flu hotline

THE NUMBER OF CLOSED CITY SCHOOLS REACHES 17
The number of closed New York City schools reaches 17, in order to prevent the spread of the H1N1, swine flu virus. The number of boroughs touched by the closings has grown from one (Queens) to two (plus Brooklyn) to three (plus Manhattan).

THE TEACHERS' UNION, THE UNITED FEDERATION OF TEACHERS, SETS UP 11 HOTLINES TO HELP MONITOR FLU
The United Federation of Teachers has set up 11 hotlines to help track and prevent the spread of H1N1 flu or swine flu virus.

The number of schools with unusually high numbers of students and staff with flu-like symptoms continues to grow, and the UFT is working with the DOE and the city to respond and take every precaution possible to stem the spread and protect the health of our school communities.

Accurate and current information is crucial to this effort and so the union has set up hotlines to both gather and disseminate the latest information. The union is asking its chapter leaders, the frontline eyes and ears of the union in the schools, to report the latest data and help minimize the spread of disease.

The union has set up a hotline for every district in Queens, which has been hit the hardest, four additional hotlines for each of the other boroughs and citywide hotlines for Districts 75 and 79. The following are the hotline numbers:
Queens District 24 212-701-9604
Queens District 25 212-701-9605
Queens District 26 212-701-9606
Queens District 27 212-701-9607
Queens District 28 212-701-9608
Queens District 29 212-701-9609
Queens District 30 212-701-9610
Queens high schools 212-701-9611
Manhattan 212-701-9600
Bronx 212-701-9601
Brooklyn 212-701-9602
Staten Island 212-701-9603
District 75 citywide 212-701-9612
District 79 citywide 212-701-9613

We are asking every chapter leader to report daily the following information:

* the number of students in their school
* the number of students absent today
* the number of students sent home today
* the total number of staff in their school
* the number of staff absent today
* the number of staff sent home today
* a brief description of the activity in the nurse’s office today.

The UFT is asking chapter leaders to report to the hotline on the situation in their schools daily until further notice.

The hotlines will also be updated several times a day to reflect the most recent information on school closings.

UFT's FAQ website on WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE SWINE FLU VIRUS


WIENER'S PASSING, IN CONTEXT OF NATIONAL SWINE FLU MORTALITY TRENDS.
Wikipedia's article on swine flu deaths makes apparent that AP Mitch Wiener's death was the first in the United States, east of the Mississippi River. Swine flu deaths appear to be limited internationally to the North American Continent: Canada, United States, Mexico, Panama.

WIENER FUNERAL SET FOR WEDNESDAY
From the Gothamist

Mitchell Wiener, A.P. and flu victim, will be buried Wednesday
by Elizabeth Green

The city principals’ union just passed along these details for the funeral of Mitchell Wiener, the late assistant principal at I.S. 238, who died yesterday from complications of the H1N1 or swine flu.

Wednesday, May 20th at 2 p.m.

Sinai Chapels
162-05 Horace Harding Expressway
Fresh Meadows, NY 11365
Phone: 1-800-446-0406 • 718-445-0300
Fax: 718-321-0896
MAP & DIRECTIONS