Wow. The Illinois Education Association is trying to organize a charter school in Pingree Grove, IL .  The management response included a staple of union busting: the mandatory meeting to harangue the staff.  This is usually accompanied by mandatory one on one meetings in which workers are interrogated in an effort to identify "ring leaders" (i.e. people interested in excercising their rights under the law) etc. This stuff is usually illegal, always immoral and all too common.  But you don't usually see something quite this ham handed.

According to an IEA staffer who has gone on the record, the mandatory meeting smacked of loyalty oaths and seems better suited to low rent apparatchiks of the Brezhnev era than anything else.  The story states that employees were each given a form they were expected to fill out and sign. The form gives employees three options wherein they would:

• Assert that they did not act "against the interests of Northern Kane Educational Corp." and in the wake of the Daily Herald published report they "demand a public apology from those who sullied my reputation."

• Admit they did act against the interests of their employer "without regret or remorse" and "intend to assert my personal interest" above those of their employer.

• Admit they did act against the interests of their employer, but "regret and repudiate" their actions and will publicly apologize. They also will "withdraw any expression of interest given to a UniServ representative."

No word on whether employees were asked to declare their allegiance to the central party of the charter school.  Also no word on whether there was a check box giving people the choice between declaring whether they like the executive director, love the executive director, or think of the executive director as Godlike in his educational awesomeness. 

Yes it's oafish and easy to mock, but make no mistake about the stakes. As we ramp up our own organizing, we're seeing more of this. It's real and it's wrong. Teachers refused to go on the record with reporters on this story, telling the paper they feared losing their jobs. Teachers are smart. Hopefully these teachers are smart enough to stick together and stand up. Its the best thing to do when faced with a bully.

 I'm wondering if PREA Prez will have any further insights.

Update: He does and correctly points out that we need to update the blogroll.  See also Kevin Carey.

(Also - apologies for the totally light blogging. I've been preoccupied keeping up with Spring Training other work).

Posted by Ed at AFT at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We  haven't been linking enough to the people who are actually doing the work out there.  This post is a slight attempt to make amends mostly by writing briefly about how I relate to their posts:

• Mr AB remains the teacher blogger whose writing most reminds me of my own struggles in the classroom -- although I suspect he's a lot more effective than I was.  He gets at how you can make your mark, but the kids themselves dictate a lot of what's going to happen in the classroom, for good and for ill.

• Julie at School of Blog is having trouble with military recruiting at her school. Twenty years ago this was something that concerned me about the trade school I taught in. We were, after all, graduating airplane mechanics, so the recruiters were there.  I grew to have a lot of respect for some of them and for a number of the shop teachers -- including a diminutive former Navy chief -- who worked with them.  But I had a faith in our democracy on issues of war and peace that, hopefully just for the moment, I've lost. And I wonder if the recruiters are following the standards and norms now that they did then.

• Ms Cornelius, as always, has a lot of good stuff. I wouldn't call this situation good under any circumstance, but I appreciate the way Ms. C has channelled her anger at it into the written word. Are there states that keep those convicted of crimes from voting but let them bear arms? Just wondering.

• Ms Frizzle is thinking of applying for a job at a charter school.  It pays $125k, and does so by totally altering the staffing model.  I'm betting that over time the school will end up with a somewhat larger administrative profile than the one they predict now.  But this is a truly innovative charter proposal. Good for the people who came up with it.

• Polski 3 discusses cheating and wants to know how other teachers cope with it. Startling confession: I, in fact, copied other people's homework and - when I did it - lent others my own to copy in high school. So I had a lot more tolerance than P-3 does on this. When I taught I tried to get those who cheated out of laziness/misplaced priorities to see what I eventually saw about the value of applying yourself.

Posted by Ed at AFT at 12:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Susan Ohanian didn't like my blog post stating that an anti-NCLB video was neither funny nor effective.  So, she responds with a multiple choice question. 

 2. The AFT NCLB blog criticizes

a) Margaret Spellings' statement that NCLB "is like Ivory soap: It's 99.9 percent pure. . . . There's not much needed in the way of change."

b) Senator Edward Kennedy's declaration that NCLB "is a defining issue about the future of our nation and about the future of democracy, the future of liberty, and the future of the United States in leading the free world."

c) Hillary Clinton, for voting for NCLB.

d) Bill Gates for calling for more rigorous curriculum

e) A a tongue-in-cheek video supporting The Educator Roundtable petition calling for the scrapping of NCLB.

Uh, Ms. Ohanian, I didn't know you were a fan of multiple choice tests.  Also, this test question doesn't seem to be well designed.  It has two right answers.  E is one, of course.  See here as evidence that A also is a correct answer.

(Photo by Flickr user COCOEN daily photos used under a Creative Commons license.) 

Posted by John at 02:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

From time to time, we've made a little bit of fun of Alexander's foibles (who can forget this, this and this. We miss Michele).  But  I totally dig the ethos of a blogger who actually thinks it's better to be able to hang out with "real folks" from teachers unions and school districts. Alexander Russo: Blogger most likely to want to have a beer with you.

Most importantly I laughed out loud at his take on Diane Ravitch and Ed Next.  Go read it, it's more than funny, is authentic Russo, and it actually hits two birds with one stone. Given that Andy calls it "pathetic bitching," perhaps it hits three.

Posted by Ed at AFT at 06:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

One of the reasons I was glad to start blogging was because I’d concluded that peer review and the other conventions of social research that make it into real science were not up to the task of contributing effectively to the policy debates in the halls of government.  I made this conclusion after watching the media reaction to various Jay Greene and Paul Peterson non peer reviewed studies of vouchers. The voucher boys themselves, in a response to my critique of their scienciness, basically asserted that it was a marketplace of ideas, science was in the eye of the beholder and that the world is flat or something or other.  Underneath this was the contention that traditional social science conventions weren’t something that we needed to follow to the letter in this day and age. The rules had changed.

I still don’t think this is a good thing, but I think it’s become true. And as result, I’ve been looking for different ways to bring my skills to bear in education policy debates. Which is why rather than darken the door of the Journal of Education Finance, I'm here blogging with you.

Jeff Henig has a new book out about just these issues.  He’s got a guest post about this up at Eduwonkette’s place. Jeff is one of the more thoughtful people I've met when it comes to this stuff, so I'm betting it is worthy of your attention.  Which doesn't mean I'm going to agree with it when I do read it. For example, in the post Jeff notes the potential for the blogosphere as a medium for proper analysis of research issues. I've found the it to be an imperfect platform in this regard.  It’s much easier to marginalize people than it is to bring light or find common ground.  There's potential, but, with the possible exception of Sherman Dorn,  I don’t think we’ve gotten it right.  So I want to see how Jeff handles this issue in depth.

AFT Related Note:  Jeff refers to a charter school achievement study by some of my colleagues. I'll point out it had much the same results as the US Department of Ed study that it preceded and anticipated.  And I found it hilarious that years after our dustup, the voucher boys were among the pious souls putting their names on the ad defending the concept of peer review that Jeff refers to in his post. There’s at least one word to describe that type of behavior.

Update: Jeff Henig responds in comments. And his book is called Spin Cycle: How Research is Used in Policy Debates. The Case of Charter Schools.

Posted by Ed at AFT at 10:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

AFT President Edward J. McElroy announced he will retire, effective in July. AFT Secretary-Treasurer Nat LaCour also announced he will be stepping down in July.

Update: Below After the jump is the full text of the press statement announcing the retirements.

Continue reading "AFT President Announces Retirement" »

Posted by John at 01:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As the father of two boys, I was fascinated -- and intimidated -- when I read this interview.  USA Today's Greg Toppo talks with children's author Jon Scieszka.

One bone to pick:  From personal experience -- my 4-year-old son talked about nothing but underwear for weeks -- Captain Underpants isn't, as Scieszka says, "borderline." It's way, way over the line.

Posted by John at 12:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

A couple of days ago Kevin Carey compared Bill James’ work in baseball statistics to value-added assessment while taking on Steve Koss.  Kevin writes:

“Moreover, Koss doesn't know what he's talking about. The NYC value-added measures are not "derived from a single variable," they're exactly the kind of complicated multi-variate measure he describes.”

He then goes on to describe the complexity of the New York value added model.

“The NYC model uses something like 12 discrete variables, and the HLM version of value-added pioneered by Bill Sanders is so complicated that you need a PhD in statistics and a special computer at SAS headquarters to run it. It's more complicated that anything Bill James does, as it should be.”

In both baseball and education the goal is to try to use statistical evidence to gain insight about the performance of someone like Mets centerfielder Carlos Beltran, or my 10th grade world history teacher Ms. Grist, (both perennial all stars).  For Beltran, we can look at how his actions directly affect the game, and to do that we can then control for how the environment affects that performance. How does he do with runners on? How does he do on the road? Vs righty or lefty pitching? In different counts (i.e. one  strike, two strikes) Etc etc.   Ditto Ms. Grist, using all the variables Kevin describes in his post.  So far, Kevin’s logic holds.

Posted by Ed at AFT at 10:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

...but you sure see a lot more news stories like this one since NCLB was passed.  (H/T This Week in Education.)

Posted by John at 02:05 PM | Permalink

At the end of last week I got the help of a masked education policy analyst to back me up in a blog back and forth with the folks from Ed Sector. We were talking about changing the nature of teacher pay. I asked readers if they could identify the author.  The big clue was that it was somebody Andy Rotherham wouldn't be snarky about even if they were saying the exact same things that I was. A number of blogs were kind enough to link to the post, and some of the email was funny. But no one guessed it.  I suspect that's because not many of you read the report I was quoting.

So I'll reveal now that the culprit was Ed Sector honcho Tom Toch (and Robert Rothman), perhaps in the home office and perhaps with the word processor.  Toch, of course, is in the club. Also note that the report I quoted from is an overview of the subject of teacher evaluation that leaves you with a lot to think about beyond its utility for bashing Joel Klein. You should read it.

The best line on this comes from Joan Snowden in the comments: "I retired from the AFT and all of a sudden my old critics are congratulating me for 'finding my voice.' I'm not saying anything that I hadn't said before, but without my Union label, somehow it is easier to hear."

(Photo by Flickr user macwagen used under a Creative Commons license.)

Posted by Ed at AFT at 12:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A couple years ago, I called out Nicholas Kristof for beginning an op-ed with: "Suppose Colin Powell tires of giving $100,000-a-pop speeches and wants to teach high school social studies."  You know, fake premise = unconvincing argument.

So I think it's only fair to point out the silliness of this video from Educator Roundtable (via, of course, Susan Ohanian).

There are plenty of real problems with the No Child Left Behind Act and test-driven accountability.  It seems silly to create a fake video to make the point.

(In-joke alert: Unless it's an animated video, of course.)

Posted by John at 11:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I don't want to spend a lot of time on Jonathan Leaf's drive-by on Jonathan Kozol in the Weekly Standard, but this part made me laugh out loud.

Kozol claims that a teacher in the South Bronx can't find seats for her students as she has 40 kids in her class. But New York City schools are not allowed to have more than 34 students in a high school class and 27 in a grade school class unless the subject is a special one like physical education or music. Even if a teacher wants to keep extra students in a class, a union rep will file a grievance and force a change.

I once tried to cram 127 kids into one of my classes, because I was totally en fuego that day and all the kids should have been able to benefit from my righteous instruction. Darned union reps.  Also, while I don't agree with some things Kozol has said over the years, I'm not sure what a novel he wrote forty years ago has to do with anything, except to make a case that Kozol is a certain type of person.  I appreciate that Leaf has volunteered in NY Public Schools. Perhaps that's where he learned the dozens. (Hat tip to M.)

Posted by Ed at AFT at 02:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Below is the statement by AFT President Edward J. McElroy:

Note: President Bush released his FY 2009 budget proposal today. It eliminates or cuts many key education programs and slashes Medicare and Medicaid by almost $200 billion. The budget provides inadequate increases to Title I and special education, yet diverts $300 million to a new, unproven national voucher program and adds more than $100 million to a flawed teacher pay plan (the Teacher Incentive Fund). Overall, the budget essentially freezes domestic discretionary funding at current levels, which will result in cuts to most services after taking inflation and population growth into account. The budget now goes to Congress for its consideration and modification.

WASHINGTON, D.C.— The best news about President Bush’s budget is that it’s his last. Seven years of irresponsible tax cuts, bad economic policies and soaring military spending have landed the nation in a deep fiscal hole. The president’s FY 2009 budget proposal digs that hole deeper, increasing the deficit to $400 billion while saddling children, seniors and other vulnerable populations with the brunt of cuts
to vital public services. We urge Congress to reject this budget and put forth a plan that better reflects the nation’s values and priorities.

The silver lining is that once President Bush leaves office, we finally will have the opportunity to address the mess he has left behind—$9 trillion in debt, chronic revenue shortfalls, and shameful underinvestment in our nation’s schools, universities, infrastructure and healthcare services.

Recovering from this president’s mistakes will require bold, new leadership in 2009. The scope of the challenges ahead underscores the importance of electing candidates in 2008 who have the experience, know-how and commitment to tackle big problems and restore the American dream for millions of working families.

Posted by John at 03:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)